1 & 2 years olds just back from Alaska-our trip

[EmmaJean]

These boards were a great help in preparing us for our first cruise. Thought I'd contribute by sharing about our first cruise.

 

We sailed Golden Princess June 2 to Alaska-ports Seattle, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Victoria. My boys are 22 months and 31 months, specifically. My dh and both sets of my children's grandparents were aboard. If you sailed the ship, we are the ones with the two little captains!

 

Had a great time overall! I didn't choose the cruise-just decided to go since both sets of grandparents happened to be going and it was on my dh's 30th birthday. If I had chosen, I probably would of picked a cruise line that allowed 2 year olds in the kids club and waited until both of my boys were 2 to go. Or, I would have picked one that gave a discount for little ones, Princess gives no discounts.

 

My boys really enjoyed themselves. I bought them new little sailor outfits, which they loved to wear. They received compliments everywhere we went, and at dinner, we were often seated by the door, so everyone who came and went could see us.

 

We ate in the dining room mostly-my one year old sat and ate happily even during the 2 1/2 hour long dinners. My 2 year old is much more energetic, so we took turns taking him on walks in between courses. I'm sure we disturbed someone's peaceful cruise a little but my boys were enjoyed by many. No one complained to us or seemed out of sorts, so that was nice. I think that dressing them up cute actually helped them a lot because they were oohed and aahed over and felt so special. We were never asked to share a table when we had the boys in tow-always had our own.

 

We enjoyed the cruise food. I see why we hear so much about it-we spent so much of the time eating! The boys thought the fruit bowls were tops. The boys loved the big bowl of ice cream that they got in the dining room-we wish Princess had it elsewhere for free on the ship. (One day my husband did find it in the buffet in the afternoon, but it wasn't there when we looked around the same time on another day.) The boys' ice cream was 3x bigger than what the adults were served-the little guys thought that was great. One night my 1 year old actually started to fall asleep eating his icecream-he just couldn't get enough! My husband liked the 24 hour buffet so he could get his middle-of-the-night snack. I thought it was fun to eat meals with different couples during breakfast when my guys were still in bed. Anytime dining for dinner was great because we ate in all different groups.

 

I think we barely were able to take advantage of what was offered on the ship to be able to comment much on amenities. My boys enjoyed the shows with music. They loved to go into the lounge and dance. We never took them in the pool, even though my 2 year old is potty trained and he could have went in. We brought them a blow-up pool but I think that is recommended more for warm climates, rather than Alaska. We didn't use it. My husband went to the hot tub one night after the boys and I fell asleep. We loved walking around on the desks and sitting on Grandpa and Grandma's balcony. Their grandpa liked to stay in the room watching the TV programming and scenery. We thought we would be able to leave the boys with him for naps but that didn't work out. Grandpa was too nervous that the boys would climb on the chairs and fall over. So, we had them with us almost all the time.

 

We decided before sailing that we would spend some money on portraits. They were $21 each for 8 x 10. That was fun for us. We went to all the different photographers since there were no sitting fees. We ended up spending about $160 on photos. (Photos, one shore excursion, & gratuities were the extras on our bill.) I was really pleased to have so many pictures to choose from that I had a hard time narrowing it down. At home, we often take our boys for portraits and the ones on the ship are among the best yet. I wish we had woken up earlier when in Skagway so we could have taken the photos at port there. They were cute-we were running late for our train so we had to hurry past.

 

The boys really enjoyed the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad. We booked directly through the railroad-which was great. Yes, we had to walk into town but it was just up the tracks of course. We pushed the boys in the double stroller. The good parts were: the boys (2 & under) were free when booking through them; also, we ended up having to share the traincar with only one other couple-otherwise we had it all to ourselves. That was lucky and great for the boys to have some space. We just went up and back without getting off the train. They narrated both up and back-a little here and there. I think it would have been fun to take the motorcoach one of the ways, but we decided to save the $ and do our own sightseeing at our own pace with an Avis rental car in the afternoon. That was nice because the boys were able to nap in the car and we took turns staying with them. We knew the places to stop because of a photographic log we found on these boards. At the pioneer graveyard, my dh & I liked the little hike/walk up to the Reid falls.

 

In Juneau we got a Rent-a-Wreck and drove to the Mendenhall Glacier. Grandpa & Grandma took the boys to the visitor's center while my dh and I took the hike to the waterfall. That was pleasant. We didn't have hiking shoes on so we didn't get all the way to the waterfall, we stopped at the huge mound of rocks. This group of Arizonans were in awe of the enormous glacier. We stopped in at the salmon hatchery which was free and the boys liked looking at the fish inside. Too early for the salmon to run. We were going to take the Mt. Roberts Tram if time permitted (the boys would have been free) but just decided not to. We shopped a bit instead. There is a cheap souvenir shop right by the boat where we bought stuff.

 

In Ketchikan we went to the Lumberjack show. This was the only thing that we booked directly through the ship-which was good because everyone was lined up ready to go in when we got there. All the snacks at the show were $1, we didn't get anything, but thought that was a decent price. It was fun. We also saw some of the totem on the main street. The boys (2 & under) were also FREE for this show. (you may be noticing a theme in our choice of excursions:)-FREE-we tried to save somehow since the boys are full price on the ship)

 

Our last night in Victoria, Canada was uneventful. In Victoria we decided to be spontaneous and just do whatever it is we felt like doing when we got there. So guess what we ended up doing?...Nothing. We were told to have all of our luggage packed and outside our door before dinner. I wasn't expecting that. (I had read that it was before bedtime in Princess's packets-which would have been easier because I could have had the boys asleep) We had a lot of stuff and the boys kept taking out what I put away, so that ate into our time. Finally, Grandma took the boys and we were able to get packed. Since we didn't know what to do in Victoria, it was getting late, and we couldn't see anything near the port, we just stayed on ship. Later, I heard someone say that the Gardens were beautiful, that would have been nice. I learned my lesson-if I don't plan anything, nothing with happen.

 

I did laundry on the ship. I had a roll of quarters and my own soap along, so I decided to do that once when my guys were all asleep. That made it easier to pack and be ready for the rest of our vacation.

 

In Seattle, we went to the Pike Place Market on Saturday-it was packed. The boys thought it was fun to see the men throwing fish. I thought the flowers were lovely. We went to the Space Needle and my boys liked the rides at the amusement park there. My one year old loved driving the little cars-his grandparents paid for him to do that 3 times! They also took the boys on the carousel, and my dh and I took them on the Puff & Dumbo ride.

The next day we went to the Point Defiance Aquarium. My boys really enjoyed all the marine life.

 

We had a fun time. As a stay-at-home Mom, I really enjoyed not having to cook, clean, or do dishes, and it was really nice to share in taking care of our little ones. I think I would have missed them too much not to have taken them. It was fun to be able to spend so much time together as a family.

 

If you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to try to answer them.

Emma