First Time to Alaska, What do I bring?

[Beachdude]

Binoculars. There is as much wildlife, if not more,  to see from the ship as there is from the excursions, so have the binoculars ready by the door for a quick and easy grab.

 

As for the layers, we purchased waterproof hiking jackets with removable liners. Less balk and the liners are stylish.

 

Beary

[MicCanberra]

Packs of tissues to keep your glasses clean.

[Dolphinseas143]

On 1/8/2019 at 4:06 PM, XBGuy said:

I think that the clothing list that zqvol outlined provides good guidance for you.

 

We have taken four AK cruises and love them.  AK cruise number five is booked for this April, and AK cruise number six is booked for this September.

 

Rain in AK is certainly not unusual.  However, the only time we have encountered a serious storm we were at sea in the Gulf of Alaska.  Typically, rains that we have encountered in ports have been more annoying than anything else.  Often, it might be described as a "heavy mist."  I know that you are trying to be compact in your packing, but we always throw in one of those low-dollar collapsible umbrellas for when we are walking around the ports.

 

We have visited Icy Strait Point only once.  I am a bit of an outlier, but I think it is one of the coolest AK port stops we've ever made.  We did a combination Whale Watching/Bear Search tour that was offered by the cruise line.  The morning whale watching portion was pretty cool--a very spectacularly breaching humpback was the highlight.  In the afternoon we boarded a bus and rode for about 30 minutes,  We left the bus and followed a very cool path into the forest. We walked to a river where there are some very neat lookouts over the river to try to spot feeding bears.  We had to get to the third of the three lookouts before we found one.  Very cool.  BTW, the walk is not difficult, at all.  It is definitely not a "hike."  I did it in sneakers.  On the bus ride back to town, as we were approaching an overpass over the very same river, there were several stopped cars and people were standing on the overpass.  Sure enough, there was another bear down in the river.  We were much closer to this one and he was darned big. 

 

You're going to have a great time.

This sounds amazing. I can not wait to go!!

[Dolphinseas143]

On 1/8/2019 at 6:49 PM, Heidi13 said:

Kids arriving into Canada by land & sea can travel with a birth certificate. If you fly into Seatac and then cross into Canada by land, you should not require passports. However, if flying directly into Vancouver, as it is an International flight, a passport is required for everyone.

 

Some refer to this area as the Pacific North West, we prefer to call it the Pacific North Wet. Having lived around Vancouver for 40 years and completed a couple of full seasons working on Alaska cruise ships, the weather is best described as unpredictable. Temperatures should be in the 60's and low 70's, although we have experienced mid 90's in Juneau and Skagway. 

Wind can be flat calm to decent storms, however in June, storms are rare. Being Vancouver based you use more of the Inside Passage, than Seattle ships.

Rain - rarely been to Alaska and not experienced rain at least 1 day.

 

As other suggest - layers and a rain jacket

Thank you! This is very helpful!

[Dolphinseas143]

On 1/9/2019 at 1:25 AM, martincath said:

Hmmm - looks like layers of clothes incl. a good waterproof shell and extremity coverings, passports (if flying to YVR), camera (extra batteries) have all been mentioned. I'll add sunglasses and sunblock - even if it's cloudy and cold you can easily get burned on the water as well as any shore excursions involving being on snow or ice - and extra memory cards for the cameras. Plus, if you're buying hiking boots or a new camera for the love of pete actually get out and about and use them! Break in boots LONG before you need them, and unless you know how your camera works and actually have it in hand you'll miss all sorts of reaction shots like surfacing whales, calving glaciers, family members making fools of themselves that you can blackmail later...

 

If you don't have any foreign travel scheduled or planned in the near future I'd be good with skipping passports for the kids this time around and flying RT Seattle - the risks of not being able to fly home immediately would be very remote, as your only time in Canada on a one-way cruise will be Vancouver on embarkation day and any other pre-cruise time spent here (well, if there was an onboard emergency during the first 24-36 hours you might be nearer a Canadian hospital too I suppose). This assumes that your cruise line is OK with it of course - but since the grownups have passports and kids <16 just need a birth certificate to cross back into the US by any method except flying, it should be OK (and the savings of not getting the passports plus likely a cheaper flight x4 to SEA could add up to a nice chunk of change, to be e.g. spent on extra hotel nights in Vancouver pre-cruise...)

 

Book the train from Seattle for the most relaxing way to get here, or rent a car one-way at Seatac for the most flexible routing (but NB: car seats for the kids are then required!)

 

As to what to do with small children in Alaska - you can almost certainly outrun your three year old, and if not you should be able to easily pick up and toss them behind you to distract any pursuing grizzlies;-)

Thank you this is very helpful! The grizzlies would have to work pretty hard to catch these two boys 😄 Great advice!!

[Dolphinseas143]

On 1/9/2019 at 11:42 AM, Cailey53 said:

One packing tip that we found handy when we went to Alaska this past July—I bought a box of  suitcase size Ziplock Space Bags at Wal Mart. They require no vacuum to remove the air—instead they have a one way valve and you get the air out by rolling them. They are affordable (11.00 for a box of 5), worked really well and saved a lot of suitcase room for our fleece, coats, vests etc. We could not wear all our outerwear on the plane as, like you we live in GA and June and July are pretty toasty.

 

Enjoy your Alaska cruise—we had a ball!

Cathy

That's a good idea. I would have never thought about that. Yes June and July are not cool at all. I am so looking forward to this cruise.

[K32682]

I did an Alaska cruise on Princess last summer and a light sweater and rainproof jacket were more than sufficient.  It's summer time and wasn't cold. It was wet a couple of days but they weren't drenching downpours just light drizzle and mist. 

 

We did a lot of walking on the excursions so my hiking boots were definitely appreciated.  If you go inland on an excursion mosquito repellent is a good idea just in case.  

 

Also, Alaska is more casual so formal nights were thankfully largely ignored by most of the passengers. 

[Dolphinseas143]

1 hour ago, K32682 said:

I did an Alaska cruise on Princess last summer and a light sweater and rainproof jacket were more than sufficient.  It's summer time and wasn't cold. It was wet a couple of days but they weren't drenching downpours just light drizzle and mist. 

 

We did a lot of walking on the excursions so my hiking boots were definitely appreciated.  If you go inland on an excursion mosquito repellent is a good idea just in case.  

 

Also, Alaska is more casual so formal nights were thankfully largely ignored by most of the passengers. 

Great! Thank you so much.

[K_e_short]

On 1/8/2019 at 2:44 PM, Schoifmom said:

Just to reiterate, all international air travel will require a passport.

Another thing to mention is that some of the excursions out of Skagway go into Canada so even if you go from one US airport to another you'd need a passport to do those trips. If you don't want to go into B.C./Yukon then you're fine.

[masterdrago]

If you are flying into or out of Canada you need the passport book. If not, the card will work fine. We decided it was a money saving move to get the bus or train from Vancouver instead of flying. Saves money on several fronts. I got this info from VisaCentral and NPIC, Passport directly. If crossing the border by car, train, or bus, the card is all that is needed.

[Cheryl H]

We've been twice with our son, when he was 6 and again when he was 10.  He loved it both times.  He did have a passport.  Our first trip I brought along a back pack for me....but it was too cumbersome and I felt like a pack mule.  The second trip was much better.  Each of us had a cinch bag that we could put a snack and roll up our jacket and put in there.  Our son brought his DS game to play when he got bored.  I picked tours that were all 3 hours or less.  We had a good quality waterproof jacket for him and either a fleece vest or a fleece jacket to put on underneath.  Then just jeans, t-shirts, and sneakers.  He had some slacks and shirts to wear to dinner, but once he found out about Adventure Dining on the Radiance, he wanted to sign up for that every night!  That was fine by us.  Also the Radiance had family swim time twice a day where you can bring your kiddos to the solarium pool which is usually adults only.  If they forget to post it in the Cruise Compass, ask up in Adventure Ocean.  We did that and we noticed that the next day they started printing the family time in the daily compass. 

 

Our first Alaska trip was also northbound.  When we got off the ship in Seward we had Salmonberry Tours pick us up.  We did an all day tour with them that ended at the airport.  They took us to the Alaska Wildlife Center in Girdwood.  Also for a tram ride up Alyeska Ski Resort.  The tour included lunch at a sandwich shop.  We actually had them drop us at Wild Berry Products in Anchorage and then we called a cab to go to the airport a bit later.  

 

One way we saved room in our suitcases was for my husband and I to leave our fleece jackets at home.  (we did take our waterproof raincoats though).  Then we purchased our fleece jackets on the ship.  But there were loads of fleece jackets in port too.  But we brought our son's jacket along because we weren't sure how plentiful kids fleece coats would be in the shops. 

 

One fun thing that we did that didn't cost much was in Ketchikan.  After our floatplane ride, we found the funicular and rode it up for a nominal fee.  Had lunch at the Cape Fox Lodge and then walked the married man trail down which is a series of stairs that our son enjoyed coming down.  Our second trip to Ketchikan, we did the Crab Boat Tour.  They demonstrated the different styles of fishing and we could each hold a crab if we wanted.  Our son enjoyed that tour also. 

 

Are you going to Icy Strait too?  There's a beach trail, and a nature walk through the woods there that was fun.  We stood back behind the Landing  Zone Restaurant to watch the zipliners come down.  We had some great halibut at The Cook House.  We took a whale watch in Icy Strait both times. 

 

In Juneau, we did the goldmine tour and also Mendenhall Glacier.  The 1 mile walk back to Nugget Falls was a hit.  We took a shuttle out there and back.  We had a great lunch at the Twisted Fish in the Taku building back at the pier. 

 

The only thing that was not good on our trip was the redeye flight from Anchorage back to Indianapolis.  We are not good sleepers on airplanes. 

 

For our overnight stay in Vancouver, we stayed at the Pan Pacific which is the cruise terminal (Canada Place).  We arrived a day early and stored our luggage at the Pan Pacific.  Next door the hotel is one of the Olympic Torches so we walked over to see that.  Just outside the hotel is a free shuttle to the Capilano  Suspension Bridge.  Our son loved that.  We arrived and had some great cheeseburgers and went across the bridge and enjoyed the treetop adventure and the cliff walk, and shopped in the gift shop before riding the shuttle back.  The shuttle picks up right in front of the Pan Pacific.  I think we purchased our Capilano tickets online before we left home.  Then the next morning, we had a nice buffet breakfast at the hotel.  I think they offered a breakfast package that we booked.  We did not book their cruise package, but our bellman still took our bags to the ship for us.  Then we were pointed in the direction of where to check in to the ship. 

 

Have fun on your trip!  Make lots of memories and enjoy the beautiful scenery.  We are booked for a third Alaska cruise with our son who will now be 14 when we go.  Our first cruise with a teenager. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Cheryl H
Fixed typo

[breezy_carol]

Cheryl H, thank you for all the great information.

[Cheryl H]

I might add.....our first trip, my husband and I packed too many pairs of jeans.....our luggage was heavy.  The second time, we wore one pair and packed 2 pairs each.  Then we sent jeans to the ship laundry.  A day or so later, we found them hanging all clean and pressed in our closet. 

[CoW mAn]

Full zip fleece!

Here's why...

 

[ErLee]

On 1/9/2019 at 11:42 AM, Cailey53 said:

One packing tip that we found handy when we went to Alaska this past July—I bought a box of  suitcase size Ziplock Space Bags at Wal Mart. They require no vacuum to remove the air—instead they have a one way valve and you get the air out by rolling them. They are affordable (11.00 for a box of 5), worked really well and saved a lot of suitcase room for our fleece, coats, vests etc. We could not wear all our outerwear on the plane as, like you we live in GA and June and July are pretty toasty.

 

Enjoy your Alaska cruise—we had a ball!

Cathy

This is exactly what we plan to do so I’m glad to hear the ziplock space bags worked for you. We are leaving from Georgia this year in June for a two week Alaska trip, and there’s no way we can wear our heaviest clothes on the plane.  Fleece in Georgia in June?? I think not!!l 😅