First Time Cruise - Alaska Northbound

[Newbietoo]

Heading out on our first cruise, one to Alaska Northbound.  Looking back at your first cruise, Alaska or otherwise, what are the things you wish you knew about before you went on the cruise?  What things would you wish to do over, or should have done?

[klfrodo]

Just by reading these boards, my wife had us well prepared.

I guess maybe pre-paying gratuities has helped remove a large portion of the on board account.

A beverage package helps reduce on board expenses. I do enjoy an adult beverage from time to time, but not enough for a full drink package.

I use to go with cruise line excursions, but now I do private excursions.

[SuiteTraveler]

Definitely take some Bonine (Meclazine - over the counter) AND

Have your doctor prescribe some Trans Derm Scops as the ride up to Alaska (or down from Alaska) in open ocean can be a wild ride and if you have these patches, you will be fine, otherwise you may be barfing.  Once you are cruising the Alaska coastline, things will be better.  But you should probably take Bonine for whale watching and other on-water activities.

When you board the ship, ask any ship personnel you encounter on boarding day if they hit rough waters coming back from Alaska on the previous cruise.  If yes, you are probably going to need the Scop so go ahead and  put it on instead of using Bonine.  If no, chances are 50-50 as to if you will need the Scop or not so take the Bonine and if the next day, the seas are rough, skip the Bonine and put on the patch.  Believe me, you will know if you need it!

If you fail to get anti-seasickness medicine, go to the ship's doctor.  Seasickness is one illness they know very well how to treat.  

 

 

 

 

 

[originolsin]

Alaska was our first cruise.  I would say, read a lot on here.  There use to be an on going thread on things to bring, I dont bother with half the stuff people found useful any more.  I dont drag along duct tape, flash light, power strip, over the door shoe holder....I just found it more cumbersome and annoying.  It is fine to be prepared for every single thing, but just enjoy your vacation.  Seasickness isnt something that you know you get until you get it.  If you feel queezy, dont fight it, go lay down in your cabin for a bit and it will help.  Ship tours are more expensive and packed with people.  You spend more time loading and unloading people on the bus then seeing what you want to see.

Have fun, dont worry a whole lot, learn by others experiences on here(take the people who complain or have horror stories with a grain of salt on here) and the next cruise you will know what to expect a lot more from your first hand experience on this one.

[Newbietoo]

@ orginolsin, Lol, hadn't considered all the other matters, though I do think we will bring Binoculars rather than rely on the ones in the room.  As an FYI, we are going with Ship excursions rather than arrange our own. We will have preferred disembarkation, so that should help us with the queues.  Certainly, we are looking to learn, without overthinking, all the options, nuances for our first cruise.

[Sauer-kraut]

Just got back from a Southbound cruise, first time in Alaska and it was fantastic.  I would consider doing it again!

We did independent tours -- our whale watching was in Icy Strait Point on a small boat with only 6 passengers.  OH! The breaching whale and the Stellar Sealions were great and we didnt' have to fight to get a good vantage point for taking pictures.

 

 

 

No need for any seasick medications on our cruise.  We did the Inside Passage and water wasn't rough at all, even going into the glacier fields we were very smooth.  I would consider bringing a sleep mask UNLESS you are in an inside cabin, the sunset wasn't until after 10 pm and the sunrise was about 5 am the farther north we were.  If you are a light sleeper you might need the darkness. 

 

Window seating at dinner was in high demand, if you don't have assigned dining sharing a table might be the way to snag one, we shared for 3 of the 7 nights on our cruise. 

Waterproof stuff..... I was wearing sandals if the weather was good, glad I had a rain jacket that was very light -- stopping the wind was mostly what I used it for, although we did have rain all day in Seward before we boarded the ship.  I took a very lightweight down jacket that I could stuff into a 2 gallon bag, I only wore it once.  I would have rather not taken it and saved the room in my suitcase for the souvenirs instead.  The rain jacket, cardigan and long sleeved t-shirt would have done the same job as the down jacket.

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2019 by Sauer-kraut

[crystalspin]

On 6/3/2019 at 8:40 AM, Newbietoo said:

Heading out on our first cruise, one to Alaska Northbound.  Looking back at your first cruise, Alaska or otherwise, what are the things you wish you knew about before you went on the cruise?  What things would you wish to do over, or should have done?

Northbound AK was the first cruise that *I* chose and I still feel it is the best direction to "do" southeast Alaska. Each stop is wilder and "more Alaskan" as you go. With two more AK cruises under my belt, I still go for totems in Ketchikan (Totem Bight or Saxman Village), whale-watching in Juneau, and railroad in Skagway. On our first trip we did all ship's excursions, now that I think about it, also on the second trip (when there were EIGHT of us!). 

 

I see you have ship's excursions, too, and sail the day after tomorrow! So just consider this encouragement that you made the right choices! (1) if you get back to town early enough, eat at the Alaska Fish House in Ketchikan, and (2) the whales, wherever you see them, will be much more active with breaching in June than, say, August. They are so excited to be home from Hawaii!

[rmurray847]

On 6/3/2019 at 9:40 AM, Newbietoo said:

Heading out on our first cruise, one to Alaska Northbound.  Looking back at your first cruise, Alaska or otherwise, what are the things you wish you knew about before you went on the cruise?  What things would you wish to do over, or should have done?

Just got back from Alaska.  It was our 9th cruise and first time to Alaska.  It was great.  Things I wish I had done on this specific cruise?  Brought more powerful binoculars.  The things you can see from the ship are stunning.  We had little binoculars with us, and they were helpful.  But more would have been better!  

 

For overall "first cruise", much of the advice below is great.  I only disagree with the idea of NOT bring a power strip.  You cabin will have two outlets, by the Desk/dresser in the main room.  (No outlets in the bathroom.)  From this, you must run everything.  I have a powerstrip which also has some USB slots built in.  That's where we charge our multiple devices.  Because my wife's phone is our primary camera, we always throw it on the charger when we're in the cabin, even for a few minutes.  You just never know.  And we plug in our e-readers in the morning, so that evening for bed, they're good to go.  My wife travels with her own hair dryer because the one the ship provides is VERY underpowered.  If you're not worried about that, you might be okay not having a power strip.

[Sauer-kraut]

27 minutes ago, rmurray847 said:

You cabin will have two outlets, by the Desk/dresser in the main room.  (No outlets in the bathroom.)  From this, you must run everything.  I have a powerstrip which also has some USB slots built in.  That's where we charge our multiple devices.

 

This all depends on the ship.  I was on the Norwegian Jewel and there were USB ports on the bedside lamps as well as on the secondary desk under the television.  I had also brought a European adapter to utilize the other outlet on the desk and didn't need it at all.  We had our cell phones charging while sleeping and both our camera's batteries charged as well and we took well over 1000 photos between us and never had an issue charging our electronics without a power strip.

[crystalspin]

Many older ships do NOT have integral USB ports and will have one US, one Euro outlet. The latter can be used for things that can take dual 110/220 voltage, with a simple adapter two-round-Male-to-two-flat-Female.

 

If you bring a power strip, make sure it is not surge-protected, as that is a fire hazard on ship. Amazon lists several splitters or "taps" that provides ~3 outlets and a couple USBs, specifically non-surge protected. Search "cruise ship electrical strip" (search the web if you don't shop AMZ). There are reports of plain, not surge-protected extension cords being confiscated on boarding, but have not had it happen myself. 

[rmurray847]

19 hours ago, Sauer-kraut said:

 

This all depends on the ship.  I was on the Norwegian Jewel and there were USB ports on the bedside lamps as well as on the secondary desk under the television.  I had also brought a European adapter to utilize the other outlet on the desk and didn't need it at all.  We had our cell phones charging while sleeping and both our camera's batteries charged as well and we took well over 1000 photos between us and never had an issue charging our electronics without a power strip.

True, but there will likely still only be two power outlets.  In fact, on our recent Bliss cruise, we had the bedside USBs, as you indicate.  One didn't work well (if the cable moved even slightly, it lost its connection).  For me, bringing a power strip is essential.  They're pretty small now, so it's worth the backpack space for me.  

[cb at sea]

I would say that you should research your port stops....the more you know about where you'll go, the better time you will have!

[martincath]

Hmmm - northbound means you're leaving from Vancouver, so in case you're not just new to cruising but also not familiar with Canada in general/Vancouver specifically, typical mistakes n00bs make locally are:

a) not spending enough time here (we have more people and stuff to see and do than every AK port put together, and it's mostly discounted heavily compared to AK prices);

b) buying cruise transfers (which are criminally overpriced as per person they usually charge the same as your own taxi or about double that of local shuttles - a group of 3+ people SAVE money by taking a frickin' limo!);

c) renting a car - while useful for out-of-town trips, generally more of a hindrance than a help in Vancouver proper as we have no highways, limited and expensive parking, endemic theft of and especially from vehicles, and many downtown hotels don't even have car parks;

d) throwing around USD cash without knowing the actual exchange rate (lots of places happily take it - but give you a very padded exchange rate that makes credit card Foreign Transaction Fees look positively fair);

e) rarer now, but some folks are still stuck with credit cards lacking a chip - and even Chip & Sign cards are much less useful than true Chip & PIN, as the latter are often the only cards taken by machines (no human operator means nobody to be able to override the system default and let you sign instead of inputting a PIN);

f) forgetting to tell your CC provider that you're traveling abroad (also becoming less troublesome as the US banking system grudgingly enters the 21st century);

g) probably the least common but by far the most disruptive - not having your ducks in a row in terms of documentation/different definitions of Criminal offences to enter Canada (the classic being 'DUI = often merely a Misdemeanor in the US but will now prevent you ever being allowed to enter Canada without filing paperwork for a pardon as they are Serious Crimes up here')

 

If you have fallen into any of these traps OP you have time to sort out everything before cruising except the last one - you're hooped on that unless your cruise is in 2020, so fingers crossed your whole party are very law-abiding!

[CoW mAn]

On my cruise to Alaska I was super grateful that I had my full zip fleece with me, would have been screwed without it
 

 

[squeaky_1974]

If you're leaving from Vancouver, you probably won't need to rent a vehicle. There's public transportation from the airport to the downtown/hotel areas, and when I went on a cruise out of Vancouver my hotel was within easy walking distance of the port.

[dkjretired]

Just be advised that shore excursions in Alaska are quite expensive.