Thanks for the direction in the train. That’s part of the package, but I was a little ambivalent. Nice to know it’s worth it.
Alaska Cruise
- Thread starter Lexclone
- Start date
Hadn’t thought about seafood availability. Another thing to look forward and take advantage of!
Thanks for all of the advice. For the drink package, I also need to factor in that I will be traveling with mostly my in-laws…
If you like salmon Ketchikan is the salmon capital of the world. We were there in late August during the spawning season and thousands were swimming through the stream that runs through town. You might catch the beginning of the season in late June.
If they have a float plane excursion, I would recommend that. We did one where we took off on water and landed in a fjord where they fed us all-you-can-eat fresh crab and then bused us back to the boat. Highly recommend
Skagway-Glacier Hike was really cool
Juneau- Tracy's crab shack. Get some crab and some of the soup. It's amazing
Ketchikan- Dog sledding
Many of the people on our cruise did the helicopter tour at either Skagway or Ketchikan, I wouldn't cause it would scare the crap out of me, but they loved it.
Vancouver-China town and Gastown were really cool. It's a weird city
The drink package is only appealing if you drink a lot every day. And of course when you are off the ship it is worthless so take into account how many days you will be off the ship and how many hours each stop. They limit the drinks to something like $11 drinks or cheaper only and 15 drinks a day. At the end of a day, if you still have drinks left, you can just get cans of soda and take to your cabin. We usually only get the package if it is on sale. But then we aren't used to drinking every day.
I've done two Alaskan cruises, one on Holland America back in 2007 and one on Carnival in 2019.
In 2007, we did a boat tour of the Misty Fjords in Ketchikan, took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier from Juneau, and did a whale watching tour and otter watching tour in our other two stops (which I don't recall).
In 2019, in Juneau we did a canoe trip on Mendenhall Lake out to the glacier, we took a van tour from Skagway to the Yukon border which included a stop at a sled dog camp to play with puppies. We also did a whale watching tour in Victoria.
Of those two trips, the Misty Fjords were really cool. The canoe trip on Mendenhall Lake was more fun then just taking a bus to the visitor center, though it did involve more work. In Skagway, they have a train ride that you can also take up, but we lucked out and had our van tour to ourselves, which was really cool because we did lots of stops along the way to see scenery and wildlife.
Both of ours also spend a day taking the cruise ship into Glacier Bay National Park, which was really awesome. On that day, I'd recommend finding a good spot on the deck for the views, unless you have a balcony in your room.
We've been on six cruises and the Alaska ones were always our favorite. So you should have fun.
In 2007, we did a boat tour of the Misty Fjords in Ketchikan, took a bus to Mendenhall Glacier from Juneau, and did a whale watching tour and otter watching tour in our other two stops (which I don't recall).
In 2019, in Juneau we did a canoe trip on Mendenhall Lake out to the glacier, we took a van tour from Skagway to the Yukon border which included a stop at a sled dog camp to play with puppies. We also did a whale watching tour in Victoria.
Of those two trips, the Misty Fjords were really cool. The canoe trip on Mendenhall Lake was more fun then just taking a bus to the visitor center, though it did involve more work. In Skagway, they have a train ride that you can also take up, but we lucked out and had our van tour to ourselves, which was really cool because we did lots of stops along the way to see scenery and wildlife.
Both of ours also spend a day taking the cruise ship into Glacier Bay National Park, which was really awesome. On that day, I'd recommend finding a good spot on the deck for the views, unless you have a balcony in your room.
We've been on six cruises and the Alaska ones were always our favorite. So you should have fun.
The age of the passengers totally depends on the cruise line, length of the cruise and time of year. Shorter cruises, 4-5 days are more of a booze cruise, tends to have a younger crowd, spring break time does also. Longer cruises 8-10 days or more, will have older crowds.
Alaska tend to have older crowds, longer cruise, more expensive, no beach time for the kids.
My family did a land and sea tour with Princess last year in Alaska. The land portion did Fairbanks to Denali to Whittier. For the sea, we did Whittier, to Glacier Bay, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchekan, then Vancouver.
For the record, I do not recommend Princess. There were things poorly run and had lousy internet. Otherwise Alaska was good.
For the cruise, Glacier Bay was great. Even though we had a balcony room, spent some time on the top deck for the views. Saw whales go by the ship.
In Skagway, we did the Grizzly Falls zip-lining tour, which was pretty fun and a lot of zip lines. We later had another tour to a husky farm, which was a good time despite the rain. The pups were friendly. You’ll want to get some trips in here, as Skagway is a dinky town.
In Juneau we did a whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier. I highly recommend this tour. We saw a lot of whales and the glacier was the largest we saw on the trip. Juneau also had shopping, bars, and restaurants near the port.
Ketchikan was a good small town and unlike Skagway, had more things to do there with the stores/food/bar. We did the Lumberjack show there and was a fun time.
If your cruise has lousy internet, please turn your phone on in the ports for better connections.
Best to look into the apps/registering for arrival into Canada. They had us upload our passports, Covid tests, flight info, etc. Internet connection was slow, so if you can do most of the downloading/uploading here, would save you headaches.
For the record, I do not recommend Princess. There were things poorly run and had lousy internet. Otherwise Alaska was good.
For the cruise, Glacier Bay was great. Even though we had a balcony room, spent some time on the top deck for the views. Saw whales go by the ship.
In Skagway, we did the Grizzly Falls zip-lining tour, which was pretty fun and a lot of zip lines. We later had another tour to a husky farm, which was a good time despite the rain. The pups were friendly. You’ll want to get some trips in here, as Skagway is a dinky town.
In Juneau we did a whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier. I highly recommend this tour. We saw a lot of whales and the glacier was the largest we saw on the trip. Juneau also had shopping, bars, and restaurants near the port.
Ketchikan was a good small town and unlike Skagway, had more things to do there with the stores/food/bar. We did the Lumberjack show there and was a fun time.
If your cruise has lousy internet, please turn your phone on in the ports for better connections.
Best to look into the apps/registering for arrival into Canada. They had us upload our passports, Covid tests, flight info, etc. Internet connection was slow, so if you can do most of the downloading/uploading here, would save you headaches.
To each their own but unless you’re 60-65+, I would suggest flying into anchorage, renting a car and driving around to see the different national parks and attractions within in Alaska rather than just hitting ports on a cruise. You can fly and do a day trip to Juneau if you would like to see an ocean city/port. The ports will get old and be very similar after your 2nd or 3rd one.
If you’re doing a cruise in the summer (not sure if they even do cruises in winter), do not book a whale watching trip. Save your money. You will see more than enough whales from the ship.
FYI, if you go more toward spring/fall (not in the middle of summer), you can see northern lights. If you go in the middle of summer, the nearly all day sunlight will drown out the northern lights.
If you’re doing a cruise in the summer (not sure if they even do cruises in winter), do not book a whale watching trip. Save your money. You will see more than enough whales from the ship.
FYI, if you go more toward spring/fall (not in the middle of summer), you can see northern lights. If you go in the middle of summer, the nearly all day sunlight will drown out the northern lights.
Ziplining was amazing! I'm not good with heights, but the way that they you up it doesn't take long to feel safe. Try it!
We also did the float plane up to a lake and lodge where we had a fire roasted salmon dinner. Couldn't wander around too much because the bears had been active in the area.
So I thought I'd report back to this since I just got home from my trip to Alaska. We cruised with Royal Caribbean, I've only been on their ships so I can't say how it compares to another cruise line. The second thing to keep in mind is the weekend we spent in Seattle was the same weekend Taylor Swift was finishing up her tour so the town was packed with Swifties.
Days 1 & 2 we stayed in Seattle and did the Seattle tourist things. Day 1 was around the Space Needle and Seattle Center. We got to the hotel around noon which was about 2 blocks from that stuff but by the time we finished up with that we were done for the day. Day 2 we did the Pikes Place Market which was packed, got to see the place throwing the fish so that was fun. Then we walked to the pier area for a while, there's an aquarium that looked fun but we didn't have time to go. Finished the day at a Mariners game. Seattle was great, and hopefully I'll have an opportunity to spend some more time there someday.
On to the cruise:
Day 1 we boarded the ship, took advantage of the booze package but that's about all there was to report. There was some excitement but not in a good way. There was a passenger that had some internal bleeding in the middle of the night (surgery complication) and needed a blood transfusion at like 2AM and got air lifted off the ship to Victoria BC. Fortunately she survived and made it back home.
Day 2 was a sea day traveling to our first stop in Alaska. More booze was had, the weather was kind of terrible so we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors on the ship and we couldn't really see very far off.
Day 3 saw us stopping in Sitka. We didn't have any excursions booked, just got off the ship, walked around the port area for a bit and took a free shuttle into town. Walked around there for a little bit but our youngest wasn't feeling great so we went back to the ship.
Day 4 we stopped at a place called Icy Straight Point which is a tourist trap near a little fishing town called Hoonah. Fleecing tourists is apparently more profitable than fishing these days. There were options to go whale watching and fishing along with the highest zipline I've ever seen in my life. We paid to take the gondola to the top of the mountain where the zipline started and I noped right the **** out on that deal. Took a nice hike around the top of the mountain where on a clear day like we had you could see close to 30 miles. Went back down smashed some Dungeness and went back to the ship.
Day 5 we started out visiting the Dawes Glacier. They sailed the ship damn near on top of it. After that we stopped in Juneau. Lots to do there, we ended up doing a self guided tour in a Jeep and hiked about 6 miles around the Mendenhall Glacier. Then finished the day on the pier at Tracy's Crab shack for dinner.
Day 6 was a sea day, weather was crap again but we did see a few humpback whales off the ship and like always hit the bar.
Day 7 was half sea day and half a stop in Victoria BC. In the morning we had a visit by some Dalls Porpoises that looked like miniature orcas. Then at the stop we did some whale watching ourselves and got to take a look at a couple different pods of orcas.
Day 8 we got off the ship and since we had an evening flight did a guided tour of Seattle that dropped us off at the airport around lunch time. This tour being good or not is entirely dependent on the tour guide. I did this tour in LA and it was amazing, our guide claimed to know Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz from high school. The guide in Seattle was kind of terrible and didn't really tell us much about the city at all.
Overall we had a great time. I get a little peopled out on the sea days so I don't really leave my room since I usually get a balcony unless it's for food or whiskey. Other than the 2 sea days we had amazing weather, high temps were between 65-75 every day and the sun was shining every day we were in a port.
Days 1 & 2 we stayed in Seattle and did the Seattle tourist things. Day 1 was around the Space Needle and Seattle Center. We got to the hotel around noon which was about 2 blocks from that stuff but by the time we finished up with that we were done for the day. Day 2 we did the Pikes Place Market which was packed, got to see the place throwing the fish so that was fun. Then we walked to the pier area for a while, there's an aquarium that looked fun but we didn't have time to go. Finished the day at a Mariners game. Seattle was great, and hopefully I'll have an opportunity to spend some more time there someday.
On to the cruise:
Day 1 we boarded the ship, took advantage of the booze package but that's about all there was to report. There was some excitement but not in a good way. There was a passenger that had some internal bleeding in the middle of the night (surgery complication) and needed a blood transfusion at like 2AM and got air lifted off the ship to Victoria BC. Fortunately she survived and made it back home.
Day 2 was a sea day traveling to our first stop in Alaska. More booze was had, the weather was kind of terrible so we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors on the ship and we couldn't really see very far off.
Day 3 saw us stopping in Sitka. We didn't have any excursions booked, just got off the ship, walked around the port area for a bit and took a free shuttle into town. Walked around there for a little bit but our youngest wasn't feeling great so we went back to the ship.
Day 4 we stopped at a place called Icy Straight Point which is a tourist trap near a little fishing town called Hoonah. Fleecing tourists is apparently more profitable than fishing these days. There were options to go whale watching and fishing along with the highest zipline I've ever seen in my life. We paid to take the gondola to the top of the mountain where the zipline started and I noped right the **** out on that deal. Took a nice hike around the top of the mountain where on a clear day like we had you could see close to 30 miles. Went back down smashed some Dungeness and went back to the ship.
Day 5 we started out visiting the Dawes Glacier. They sailed the ship damn near on top of it. After that we stopped in Juneau. Lots to do there, we ended up doing a self guided tour in a Jeep and hiked about 6 miles around the Mendenhall Glacier. Then finished the day on the pier at Tracy's Crab shack for dinner.
Day 6 was a sea day, weather was crap again but we did see a few humpback whales off the ship and like always hit the bar.
Day 7 was half sea day and half a stop in Victoria BC. In the morning we had a visit by some Dalls Porpoises that looked like miniature orcas. Then at the stop we did some whale watching ourselves and got to take a look at a couple different pods of orcas.
Day 8 we got off the ship and since we had an evening flight did a guided tour of Seattle that dropped us off at the airport around lunch time. This tour being good or not is entirely dependent on the tour guide. I did this tour in LA and it was amazing, our guide claimed to know Snoop Dogg and Cameron Diaz from high school. The guide in Seattle was kind of terrible and didn't really tell us much about the city at all.
Overall we had a great time. I get a little peopled out on the sea days so I don't really leave my room since I usually get a balcony unless it's for food or whiskey. Other than the 2 sea days we had amazing weather, high temps were between 65-75 every day and the sun was shining every day we were in a port.
I just got done with Grand Princess doing the exact opposite of that itinerary. Absolutely amazing....can't wait to cruise again. We also hit amazing weather with only rain for one day and even then it was just the morning.
Of the three port days, my favorite town was Ketchikan.
We got back from our 10 day Alaskan cruise out of San Franciso an hour ago. We were gone a total of two weeks, went out 3 days early to explore SF and stayed yesterday to take in a ballgame.
We were on Carnival, overall, the weather was great, cool in the mornings but 65 to 70 in the afternoon. The original itinerary changed so we went to Sitka and Prince Edmund Island instead of Ketchikan and Victoria.
In Sitka we just walked around the town, not much to do.
Juneau we took a bus tour and then whale watching, I would say we saw over 30 whales, even the crew of the small ship were talking how great it was. Then also finished up at Tracy's Crab Shack, the bill for my wife and I was $250 dollars for a bucket of crabs, and a drink a piece, but it was worth it.
Skagway, we took the train that took us into Canada, the train covered the route of the 1897 gold rush, then bused back to Skagway taking a lunch stop at Liersville, where they served us lunch and then toured a 1897 house of ill repute gold rush days.
Sailed up to Tracy Arm Fjorg to view a glacier, which was cool, and then stopped at Prince Edmund Island, which I think we got off the boat for maybe 90 minutes, it was horrible, nothing to do. So we sat on the deck and watched them unload a couple of crab boats.
Overall, the 6 of us, loved our time in SF, great city to visit and I would like to go back. I am glad I saw Alaska as it was a bucket trip event for our retirement, but I doubt I ever cruise there again. We were on the Miracle, an older ship in the Carnival line, and while it has been refitted, it was showing its age. We did get invited by one of the other couples we cruise with to attend the Diamond and Platinum thank you. I figured free drinks, why not. We showed up they had drinks on a table, you grabbed one, get inside, and they have people bringing around drinks, all you wanted. I think I had 5 beers in 30 minutes, and then they brought out cans of beer and were giving them away.
We had a great time, got to the SF airport 8:45 this morning and rolled back into Bloomfield around 11:00 tonight. Long day at the airport.
Looking forward to our next cruise in February on the Jubilee, which will launch in November out of Gallison.
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Best part of our trip was glacier landing on Denali in knockdown gorgeous weather.
edit. I see someone posted a helicopter trip. here was ours. 10 seater.
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I don’t believe anyone here recommended helicopter ride to glacier yet. A friend went, very memorable. Highly recommendEd by her. She rode sitting next to the pilot, heck of a view. Walking on glacier should be on bucket list.
The worst for me was long, long flight home. Minor turbulence, felt safe, but seat belt light on too long. Passengers, me included, needed restroom break and just unbuckled and went, en mass.
Deciding side of ship to cabin on, seemed unneccesssary as ship circled around so both sides could see “calving“ of glacier. We didn’t see much action, but you could hear the sounds.
Went several years ago, brought rain gear top and bottom, never wore. Took winter coat and light jacket. It was hot when we went, rarely needed jacket.
The worst for me was long, long flight home. Minor turbulence, felt safe, but seat belt light on too long. Passengers, me included, needed restroom break and just unbuckled and went, en mass.
Deciding side of ship to cabin on, seemed unneccesssary as ship circled around so both sides could see “calving“ of glacier. We didn’t see much action, but you could hear the sounds.
Went several years ago, brought rain gear top and bottom, never wore. Took winter coat and light jacket. It was hot when we went, rarely needed jacket.
