Alaska end of August - Island- first cruise

[ladyscot1]

Hi my husband and I have booked our first every cruise and we are doing a cruisetour to Alaska. Will be sailing on the Island due to a confusion in the booking ended up with a upgrade to aloha deck. room is in the 500 section. Balcony. Seems to be below the golf area. Any pros or cons.

Also a silly question,

1. shoes, hiking boots, sandles, sneakers. sandles for evening. I dont want to carry lots of bulky shoes.

2. Also has anyone used the luggage valet. It seems expensive. or has anyone just used fed ex ect. to get their luggage home.

 

Im so excited, its January and Im not going to August, however want to get organized. Also do we need sweats or just sweaters.light shirts or summer clothes. I tend to feel the cold more since I got older.

Hope for some answers thanks Lindsey

[Embracedbylife]

During our cruise to Alaska we brought t-shirts, long sleeved shirts, light sweaters, and a couple heavier sweaters. The key is layering as it can be warm and cold all in one day! :) We brought snow boots and snow jackets as we went on the glacier helicopter tour - it was amazing! on the ship i wore mostly layers and a light sweater or long sleeved shirt. Didn't see a lot of sweat pants. Mostly jeans and kaki's. Then dressier pants, blouses and dresses at night.

[LisaH]

Hi my husband and I have booked our first every cruise and we are doing a cruisetour to Alaska. Will be sailing on the Island due to a confusion in the booking ended up with a upgrade to aloha deck. room is in the 500 section. Balcony. Seems to be below the golf area. Any pros or cons.

Also a silly question,

1. shoes, hiking boots, sandles, sneakers. sandles for evening. I dont want to carry lots of bulky shoes.

2. Also has anyone used the luggage valet. It seems expensive. or has anyone just used fed ex ect. to get their luggage home.

 

Im so excited, its January and Im not going to August, however want to get organized. Also do we need sweats or just sweaters.light shirts or summer clothes. I tend to feel the cold more since I got older.

Hope for some answers thanks Lindsey

 

I wore sandals every evening and they worked out great. I agree, much easier to pack. During the day I wore sneakers or flip flops on the ship. Did not take hiking boots. Layering is good, fleece is excellent as you can put a turtleneck under it and then unlayer if it gets too warm.

 

I wore jeans on the land tour and on the ship while cruising. In Anchorage we even had shorts on...but once on the ship we did not wear shorts.

[D&N LUV 2 TRAVEL]

As the others have mentioned, layering of clothes is so important because the weather can fluctuate so much. We went the last 2 weeks in August 2007 and had beautiful weather in the mid 60's to low 70's and only 1 afternoon of rain. Take a back pack with you and have the extra clothes along just in case. We found no need for hiking boots but that depends on what type of tours you may do. Sneakers or running shoes are great for the day tours and just a casual pair for night time. We found people dressed casually for the most part at the lodges. We never used the luggage valet. We did not find it much of a hassle with the 1 suitcase while on the land portion.

 

Hi my husband and I have booked our first every cruise and we are doing a cruisetour to Alaska. Will be sailing on the Island due to a confusion in the booking ended up with a upgrade to aloha deck. room is in the 500 section. Balcony. Seems to be below the golf area. Any pros or cons.

Also a silly question,

1. shoes, hiking boots, sandles, sneakers. sandles for evening. I dont want to carry lots of bulky shoes.

2. Also has anyone used the luggage valet. It seems expensive. or has anyone just used fed ex ect. to get their luggage home.

 

Im so excited, its January and Im not going to August, however want to get organized. Also do we need sweats or just sweaters.light shirts or summer clothes. I tend to feel the cold more since I got older.

Hope for some answers thanks Lindsey

[satxdiver]

If you stop in Ketchikan you will most likely need something for the rain. They get a lot of rain. It was cold when outside on the ship so I wore warm clothes. Layering is the key. I brought athletic shoes and hiking boots. I wore the hiking boots to dinner in the MDR every night. They are dark leather and fairly nice looking. I used them in AK hiking at Denali as well as many other areas. I took sweater, microfleece jacket, etc. I had gloves and a sock cap. I put it all in my two pieces of luggage one of which is a carryon on the airplane.

 

AK is beautiful and truly a natural wonderland. Enjoy your time in AK and get out and see the land away from the concrete and lights.

[flamomo]

We did an AK cruise this past September and had a wonderful time.

It was suggested on the AK Ports of Call board to take waterproof jackets, which we did. And were very glad we had them. We had drizzly rain more days than not.

Mine is about the weight of a lightly lined windbreaker, with a hood, and it was perfect. If it was cool, I added a fleece jacket under it.

Another helpful hint was to spray sneakers with "Camp Dry" water repellant spray (available from WalMart). We did, and our feet stayed dry despite walking through quite a few puddles.

Now that I have told you about these suggestions, and if you go prepared for wet weather, maybe you'll get lucky and have the warm dry kind. LOL

[katisdale]

We looked a little strange leaving Charlotte NC in 85 degree heat with our coats, hats and boots on but we made a decision to wear our heaviest clothes. We did a lot of layering but also wore jeans and long sleeved shirts frequently on our excursions. We went in September. Our favorite excursion on the ship was the "Evening Wildlife Excursion" in Skagway. We took a boat from Skagway to Haines and were in bear heaven. I hope you have a great time.

[Colo Cruiser]

Hi my husband and I have booked our first every cruise and we are doing a cruisetour to Alaska. Will be sailing on the Island due to a confusion in the booking ended up with a upgrade to aloha deck. room is in the 500 section. Balcony. Seems to be below the golf area. Any pros or cons.

Also a silly question,

1. shoes, hiking boots, sandles, sneakers. sandles for evening. I dont want to carry lots of bulky shoes.

2. Also has anyone used the luggage valet. It seems expensive. or has anyone just used fed ex ect. to get their luggage home.

 

Im so excited, its January and Im not going to August, however want to get organized. Also do we need sweats or just sweaters.light shirts or summer clothes. I tend to feel the cold more since I got older.

Hope for some answers thanks Lindsey

 

 

In case you have not seen this, its a great site on sister ships Island/Coral....

 

http://mysite.verizon.net/res76zxu/princessbalconies/index.html

[ladyscot1]

I just wanted to thank everyone who replied for their input. it has really helped. lindsey

[Cruiserkenn]

I have done six Alaska cruises, all on Princess.

 

I definitely agree with the others who have mentioned layers. For me, good layers include a wind breaker, a button up sweater, and a sweatshirt.

 

If you are an outdoors enthusiast (as perhaps suggested by your mention of hiking boots) you might want to have a winter type hat and cloth gloves for Glacier Bay and College Fjord. These prime cruising spots are best seen from the open decks, but of course it can be cold out there. A knit hat that comes down over the ears is great, as are cloth gloves (these won't take up much packing space).

 

I find that sturdy running shoes are good for hiking on most shore excursions, so you might not need the hiking boots. I did one hike in Skagway (the remote coastal nature walk) where hiking boots would have been great, due to the rough terrain, which included stumps and roots. This is the only time I have ever really missed the hiking boots, so it is a trade off. Packing sure is easier without taking the hiking boots. Out of six Alaska cruises, I have only missed them once.

 

Best wishes, and enjoy!

[CZEE]

I find that sturdy running shoes are good for hiking on most shore excursions' date=' so you might not need the hiking boots.[/quote']

 

I agree--unless you're going to do some really active hiking, you don't really need hiking boots, even in Denali. You won't have enough time to hike there anyway, if the cruisetour is anything like ours. We wore our hiking boots on the plane and carried our coats. But, we live in Colorado and that's kind of par for the course here--hiking boots and parka shells year round. We regretted bringing the hiking boots--waterproof sneakers would have been adequate, with good socks.

 

We dressed in layers. I had a couple of turtlenecks, a vest and a fleece jacket and my ski parka shell--gloves, fleece hat, and headband. We wore jeans off the ship and carried extra things in a backpack.

 

Interestingly enough, the only time we saw sun--and it was dazzling, was in Ketchikan.

 

Make sure whatever shoes you bring are waterproof. The soles on some of cheaper brands can be quite slick, so test them. There were a few falls.

 

Some people even sprayed their jeans with waterproofing spray at night. Others brought full foul weather gear. We traveled in September, so it was a little cooler than July and August. Fewer bugs, too--a real plus, as I understand from people who traveled in high summer. Even so, I was happy to have insect repellent.

 

This cruise was quite casual. You can safely dress down. We skipped the formal night.