Shopping in alaska

[SusieO]

While not light weight we buy many boxes of Alaska Fudge and bring it home to freeze it and enjoy until we return the next year. When you embark on the ship you will be given a big coupon book; take it and look through it as it has a lot of coupons that are quite valuable.

 

One coupon had you go to a few stores and you collected small cube shaped Christmas ornaments and they went in to a box. We put them on our tree this year and they were beautiful. In the past years we never did the "free" items from shop to shop and this past year we did the ornaments and were very happy we did.

[turbo46032]

Turbo - Are you looking for details of what we bought or where we bought them?

 

Both please - we're looking for something under $1k, good quality, maybe 3 ft give or take. I have found places that have smaller ones (the jewelry shop was one) but I was hoping for something larger...

 

Thank you!

[mr green]

Crazy question maybe but for our 13 cruises we have always been close enough to our port to drive. Going to Alaska and will be flying. We usually go overboard buying for ourselves and family. So what types of light/small items do you guys buy when flying. Gee tee shirts and Christmas ornaments is all I have on my list so far.

 

I forgot to mention, that at any port that I have sailed from to Alaska, 'Coupon Books' for the port stores have been available.

While of no great value, they at least help to tell you in advance what you might find.:)

 

john

[account4fun]

Both please - we're looking for something under $1k, good quality, maybe 3 ft give or take. I have found places that have smaller ones (the jewelry shop was one) but I was hoping for something larger...

 

Thank you!

 

I assume you are referring to a 3ft totem? I don't think I saw very many if at all that were that big, and if there are they will be $$$$! The totem we bought is beautiful (about 8"-10") and it's dominated by an eagle with it's wings spread clutching a fish. It's made in alaska and it cost about $160. We purchased it in Fairbanks but also saw similar ones later on in all the port towns (more expensive though). We also bought in Fairbanks a small ivory carving of a sled dog team and musher. It's very detailed and gorgeous. It ran about $200 and it was also made in Alaska. In Denali and Talkeetna we purchased a few other small ivory/tusk carvings of fish and native people. We mostly purchased all our "nice" souvenirs early since we didn't know what we would find later on and we assumed it would be cheaper. There is great shopping in Ketchikan along creek street where I believe you can find similar items!

[turbo46032]

That's what I figured but Mrs. Turbo had a bit of an, ehem, difficulty believing it... She has an exquisite collection of art from all over the world and obviously art costs different in different places, but we're trying to establish a baseline here. I would think an 18" should be fine.

 

Originally my daughters suggested a 6 ft. totem pole as a joke so we checked what one costs... $15k or so... I'll pass :-)

 

Thanks!

[FrisbeeLady]

We found Ketchican had good prices for coats and shirts. I also enjoyed buying magnetic book marks with pictures of Alaska for a couple bucks. My son is an artist and bought a hand painted shirt in Ketchican and had his picture taken with the Alaskan Native artist. That was special for him. I loved shopping in Ketchican best.