First time cruiser looking for Alaska advice

[Lacrosse girl]

So we are in the same situation, 20+ no kids, we made the choice to go with un-cruise wilderness discoverer. They are a small cruise ship (think 60 people) with a kayak launch off the ship. Just my two cents

[SPacificbound]

Well, all of the cruises seem to go to pretty much the same places in a seven day cruise (Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway) with the big decision being whether to see Glacier Bay or Sawyer Glacier and whether you want to cruise one way or round trip.

 

It appears that one-way cruises are significantly less expensive and see more, but have higher airfares associated with them, and that cruises leaving from Vancouver travel the inside passage while ones from Seattle travel the open ocean.

 

We probably would not be doing a land tour (would we be missing out on a lot by passing on that?)

 

We are doing a DIY land tour. :D

 

We chose one way, Vancouver to Seward and Radiance of the Sea for all the glass. :)

 

Take a look at a map, one way will take you twice as far.

http://www.travelalaska.com/Destinations/Communities.aspx

Edited January 14, 2014 by SPacificbound

[SPacificbound]

Joe, thank you so much for all the great info, we are taking our first Alaskan cruise in August. :)

 

I really wanted to see your pictures but they would not come up for me, I guess because i am not on Facebook.

Edited January 14, 2014 by SPacificbound

[joecichlid]

Joe, thank you so much for all the great info, we are taking our first Alaskan cruise in August. :)

 

I really wanted to see your pictures but they would not come up for me, I guess because i am not on Facebook.

 

Hummmmm The photos should be set to public so everyone can see them. I will double check for you. It seems Facebook has changed my privacy settings yet again. I will have to go back through and re-share all the albums when I have a chance later today. Please check the albums later on. :)

 

Joe

Edited January 14, 2014 by joecichlid

[LMKohler]

We are also taking our first Alaska land tour and cruise in August on Celebrity from Seward to Vancouver. We start the land portion in Fairbanks, then Denali and on to Seward. I have read most of these posts and the comments are about weather in May.

 

Does anyone know if these suggestions for packing for weather in August would change? I am assuming still layers and rain gear. What about fleece and waterproof shells?

 

I also had a question about luggage -- it seems we can each take a carryon and personal items for the trains and busses with an additional suitcase each for the ship.

 

Any information would be very helpful.

 

Thank you,

Lucy

[MojitoMadness09]

It appears that one-way cruises are significantly less expensive and see more, but have higher airfares associated with them, and that cruises leaving from Vancouver travel the inside passage while ones from Seattle travel the open ocean.

 

We probably would not be doing a land tour (would we be missing out on a lot by passing on that?)

 

I've yet to go myself but I'm not sure why it's commonly said that RT out of Seattle doesn't go through the inside passage. My bf and I are booked for August on the Celebrity Solstice RT from Seattle and our itinerary specifically says we'll be cruising the inside passage the night of Skagway. We actually plan to order room service from the MDR that night and have it on our balcony. If I hadn't finally realized that what everyone is saying wasn't true, we may not have booked this cruise.

 

To let you in on our reasoning for choosing this one....after having multiple disappointing cruises with Carnival, we wanted a higher end line and Celebrity seemed to be the best option when factoring in cost as well. Food is very important to me and Celebrity also seemed to take the cake (pun intended) in this regard. The reason we choose RT out of Seattle was mainly because we really wanted to be on the Solstice. We aren't fans of traditional cruise ship outdated decor and love that the Solstice has a Cosmopolitan (our favorite Vegas hotel) vibe. So even if the crowd skews older, the ship itself will feel young and alive! Seattle also happened to be more budget friendly and go to ports we are excited to see.

[Northern Aurora]

We are also taking our first Alaska land tour and cruise in August on Celebrity from Seward to Vancouver. We start the land portion in Fairbanks, then Denali and on to Seward. I have read most of these posts and the comments are about weather in May.

 

Does anyone know if these suggestions for packing for weather in August would change? I am assuming still layers and rain gear. What about fleece and waterproof shells?

 

I also had a question about luggage -- it seems we can each take a carryon and personal items for the trains and busses with an additional suitcase each for the ship.

 

Any information would be very helpful.

 

Thank you,

Lucy

 

Lucy: In Fairbanks in August you could experience anything from sunny days with highs in the upper 80sF to rainy drizzly days with highs in the 50sF. Denali will be cooler than Fairbanks, and expect to wear fleece there. Southeast Alaska is located in a Pacific northwest rainforest, so always expect rain there, and if you have sunny weather then it is "icing on the cake."

[Mysteryship]

Although I can't say one time of the year is better over the other or one cruise line is better over another I will share what I have done.

My first trip to Alaska was a round trip out of Seattle and it was fun but felt way more rushed than I would have liked. After that, I looked into things a bit more and found out that doing back to back cruises out of Vancouver offered more time (twice as many days in each more, twice the chances of great weather and such) and that became my favorite.

If time and budget allows I would say look into doing two cruise back to back, one North bound out of Vancouver then turning around and taking the second cruise from Seward back to Vancouver. Sometimes, this option can be close to the same price as cruising North or South alone plus the added airfare to or from Alaska.

In my four trips to Alaska, I have done the back to back thing three times and it has always been great. Usually I go early in the season (mid-May to early June) which offers better chances to spot wild life, bears coming out of hibernation, longer days bring lots of food to the areas for the whales to feed on, birds migrating back to the areas as well. The last two trips we made, Icy Strait Point was THE spot for whale watching, the tenders had to wait for them to get out of the way before going from ship to shore at times. We saw whales feeding right off the side of the ship!

As for which line to go with, I will say Royal Caribbean tends to draw a good amount of younger travelers and offer activities for those groups. No matter what line you go with though, you will find a pretty broad range of ages aboard the ship. In all honesty, meeting new friends is fun and all but with my interests in photography I tend to do things that will have me off on my own as much as possible, going to places most might not dare for the chance at that once in a lifetime photo. :) Feel free to check out some of the photos linked in my signature to get an idea of some of what you may see on your trip.

Keep in mind wild life is, well, wild. You don't see a lot of bears wearing watches so wild life spotting can be a hit or miss thing. To give you an idea, my first trip to Alaska I saw 18 bears in three days, the next three trips I think I may have seen five between all the trips. lol The weather can be pretty iffy at times during the early part of the season but rain or shine I always have a blast. My last trip we had weather ranging from sunny and 70 to snow and sleet. And that was in just one port! Weather changes and in Alaska it changes fast so be ready for it.

Since this is your first trip I have several tips that I follow and gladly share with others going to Alaska:

Dress in layers, I usually will have a long sleeved t-shirt, short sleeved t-shirt over that, fleece vest and rain jacket over that *gortex lined highly suggested* As the day warms up you can take off what is needed.

Carry a back pack! You are going to need someplace to put those clothes as you peal them off. And trust me the temp change during the day is enough you will wind up shedding a layer or two.

Keep a small, travel sized umberella with you. The day may start out clear and sunny but the weather can change at the drop of a hat. It is better to have a small umberella and not need it than to not have it and get nailed in a quick downpour.

Camera, keep it very handy! This time of the year is perfect for wildlife watching with all of the animals coming out of hybernation and migrating back into the area. Not a lot of things more frustrating than seeing a sow and her cubs while you fumble through your pockets looking for your camera. Keep your camera in hand, keep it turned on, make sure you have extra batteries in your bag, make sure you have plenty of memory for the camera as well.

Ziplock bags. It may sound like a weird thing to have with you but if you get a rain storm roll through you will want some place safe and dry to keep your batteries, memory for your camera as well as cell phones and such. A few cents worth of plastic bags can save hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of electronics.

Water bottle. With all the walking that can be had in the area it is a good idea to have a supply of water close at hand. There aren't always places to buy a bottle of water on some of the tours so it is a good idea to have at least a small (20 oz.) bottle of water in your bag.

Small towel. I can't count the number of times I have needed one and not had it. Everything from getting rain drops off your camera *or you* to getting rid of some sweat. If you are out on a hike or even walking around town and the temp is in the 50s or 60s you can still break out in a sweat. It is best to dry off if possible because when you start to cool down, your sweat can cause you to start chilling and that is no fun at all.

Well broken in shoes. It doesn't matter if you are just walking around town visiting the shops or out on a 6 mile hike, if you are in new shoes you very well may wind up with blisters and sore feet. Leave the new shoes at home and take those old ones you have been wearing for months and save you and your feet the pain.

Wool socks. I always carry an extra pair of wool socks in my backpack. even when wet the wool will keep your feet warm but you can still get wicked blisters. A fresh pair of dry socks can save you a lot of pain later on in the trip. This is where one of those ziplock bags comes in handy.

This all may sound like a bit much but when it comes to Alaska it is better to be a little over prepaired than under prepaired. If packed right this will take up very little space in your back pack and can save you a lot of headaches.

Things to do:

Juneau, Mendenhall and Salmon Bake is a fun one. You get to visit the glacier and if you are up for a fast paced hike you can make it to the waterfall. I took the time for the hike and it was WELL worth it, not many make that treck for a wonderful view. As far as I know it will also go to Gold Creek Camp Salmon Bake, which is a blast and you can return to the ship when you want as they have several buses running back to the ships during the day. Great salmon, a nice little hike to a small waterfall and even firepits for roasting marshmallows.

Icy Strait Point: I did a whale watching tour the last time I was there and all I can say is take a look through the photos from my Alaskan trips in my signature on here. At times we had 15 to 20 whales around our boat. Breaching, feeding and playing. From all that I have read the Icy Strait Point whale tours are some of the very best with lots of whales in the area. The whales migrate up to the area for feeding during the summer and are coming into the area from May to June (when the food is most plentiful) then leaving in September to run back to their southern birthing grounds. Very cool indeed and I am going to do that tour again if I can.

Helo tours: I hear that the ones out of Skagway are pretty darned good. Keep in mind there is an amazing train ride out of Skagway as well. If you work it right you might be able to do both. If you do one of the train rides, be sure to do one that includes a ride up to or back from the Yukon on a bus then the second half of the trip is on the train. LOTS of stops for photos and the train ride is always great for the views too. If you do a helo tour I would love to hear your review on it.

Lunches: Well worth the time to get OUTSIDE the port areas. Get alway from the touristy stuff. There are a lot of really great local places if you search for them.

Seward: If you have the time by all means do the Kenai Fjords Cruise with Lunch & Sealife Center. I got to see orka as close as five feet from me as I stood on deck for the tour. Lunch wasn't the main reason for this one and it kind of showed. It was ok but I was there for 8 hours of wild life watching and was NOT let down. The tour took us all the way out into open water where we saw several humpbacks as well. We were also able to visit some groups of sealions and saw more wildlife than you can imagine.

I tried to include a lot of photos from the tours in my album linked in my signature and feel I pretty well captured the spirit of Alaska in the images. If you have questions about any of the tours I did feel free to ask and I will answer them as best I can.

 

Joe W.

 

This is exceptionally good advice. I wish I had known a place like Cruise Critic existed when we did our first cruises. Advice like this from one who has done it is so helpful, especially to a place like Alaska. This board would have saved me a lot of time.

 

Alaska was one of the most memorable cruises we have done. We went with Princess which was OK since we spent so little time on the ship. The real star was Alaska. The ship, and princess was the way we did it.

 

My best advice is to find a way to do a land tour. At first I thought it an unnecessary expense, but then I really knew so little about Alaska. It turned out to be a fantastic experience. Alaska is mind boggling and it's not just about the coastline although that's spectacular. To have seen Denali, the mountain, beautifully clear is a sight I won't forget. Do a land tour. You won't regret it. I will say that Princess excelled on the land tour. The ship was OK but not one I'd choose again.

 

Mysteryship

[vbmom87]

We are also taking our first Alaska land tour and cruise in August on Celebrity from Seward to Vancouver. We start the land portion in Fairbanks, then Denali and on to Seward. I have read most of these posts and the comments are about weather in May.

 

Does anyone know if these suggestions for packing for weather in August would change? I am assuming still layers and rain gear. What about fleece and waterproof shells?

 

I also had a question about luggage -- it seems we can each take a carryon and personal items for the trains and busses with an additional suitcase each for the ship.

 

Any information would be very helpful.

 

Thank you,

Lucy

 

Basically you do pack the same, as you never know what you will get. My August trip was nice weather than my June trip, but for many others it was the opposite. Just be prepared for anything that may come your way.

[DwayneG]

We're cruising Vancouver to Whittier in July. I'm a planning geek, and for us (coming from St. Louis) I found we could fly STL to SEA on Southwest, stay overnight, then Amtrak to Vancouver, stay another night, then to the cruise. I understand the scenery on Amtrak is beautiful. Best part, since baggage is free on Southwest the train and extra night hotel still cost less than flying into Vancouver, and we get a bonus night of vacation. Several downtown hotels can shuttle you to train station, or there are good public transportation options. If you want to skip the night in Seattle there's an afternoon train you could catch same day you arrive in SEA.

[LMKohler]

Northern Aurora - thank you! It does sound like we will bring the fleece jacket and a water proof shell to be safe, plus plenty of long tee's, etc.

 

I am sure I will have more questions and it is nice to hear from someone who lives there:)

 

Lucy

[jimsig]

It appears that one-way cruises are significantly less expensive and see more, but have higher airfares associated with them...

 

When we were trying to decide on a round trip cruise or a one way I was checking airfares and actually found them pretty comparable whether you were going too book two one ways in/out of different airports or a R/T from the same. We decided on a own way southbound on NCL's Sun and just got a one way airfare from BOS to ANC in June of this year for $200pp on JetBlue. Our one way back from SEA was about $187pp. Of course it depends on where you are flying from and when, but it pays to check different dates to get low fares

Edited January 18, 2014 by jimsig