arctickitty

Satxdive & all thanks for the replies. My guess was that it was thrown away when not used so we will be careful with our ordering. Shogun thanks for the funny story. And also thanks for the suggestion about a paper bag--good idea.

A few years ago on a 7 day Princess Cruise I was eager to take advantage of every amenity. Shortly after boarding I filled out the card to have a fruit bowl delivered. However, the fruit was rock hard and only ripened shortly before the end of the cruise. My other half was "I-told-you-so" because we had a hard time eating the fruit all at once at the end of the cruise.

We are booked on a 2 week TransAtlantic on the Royal Princess in April. So this time we will have more time to eat our fruit bowl. We also know to go easy on the ordering.

But to settle our score...

does anyone know what happens to leftover fruit from the in-room fruit bowls? If fruit is left after passengers disembark, is it thrown away? Put back into circulation?

(We plan to eat whatever we order...we are just curious as to what happens to it).

And...for the record, part of the reason I'm looking forward to the fruit bowl is that we live in a remote area with extremely limited access to fresh fruit. Our local grocery store currently has potatoes. Last week they had onions. That's it. So a fruit bowl to me is a beautiful thing I can't have at home...we can look at it and its pretty. We can eat from it and its yummy. I can even pick up the fruit and just hold it. And put it back. And that's ok because it's not the buffet.

~Carrie/ArcticKitty

Hello, very much enjoying your posts from very far north in Alaska. My other half and I will be visiting several of your stops in Italy later this winter (non cruise) and I'm enjoying your photos and stories. Please do continue your story (as you have time, of course). I've cruised twice now, Mexico on Princess and Alaska on Norwegian and boy is there a big difference between the two lines. I did Alaska on Norwegian because they stopped in Hoonah (Icy Straight Point) and I could ride essentially free in my parents' cabin. But I definitely missed the classic touches and European influence of Princess.

Since you said not fancy, this is what I recommend, based on what I've personally enjoyed...

-Fat Ptagmigan is a new-ish wood-fired thin crust pizza place. They have some local-themed pizzas as well as more traditional fare. The menu is rounded out with salads, appetizers, and desserts. They have gluten free options. The duck pizza with an egg is pretty awesome. I went three times in one week, once on date night, next with a group of colleagues from a conference, and the third time taking a family friend who is over 70. Everyone loved it. The staff were great with our group of 6 that turned into a group of 9, found space for us, split the check 9 ways...the whole 9 yards.

-Snow City Cafe for breakfast/lunch classic local place with healthy/slightly hip takes on diner food

-MUSE inside the museum for some offbeat meals

-Whale's Tail (inside the Hotel Captain Cook) is a wine bar (I've enjoyed it and I don't drink wine!) with a menu of small plates. If you like cute/tiny/trendy food, this is the place. (eg mini fish or steak tacos, deep fried PB&J, Indian seafood nachos).

I liked most of the suggestions from the OP. On my first cruise I followed the advice to never take the elevator, and I think that helped a good bit. I never convinced myself to go to the gym that trip, but I found movement activities I enjoyed-- walking the decks, ping pong, walking in the ports. Another helpful thing was knowing that it was ok to stop eating something if I didn't love it.

In general, when thinking about these issues, something that gets lost is our original abilities for our bodies to have equilibrium. This is a natural state and skill set that we are born with (we just lose it if we are taught incorrect ways of eating...clear your plate, eat your veggies in order to have dessert, etc). Thinking through food choices can help us return to this state, but when one goes to far and set up rigid rituals and rules, one runs the risk of feeling too restricted and lashing out in the worst ways possible. We are meant to enjoy food; we are meant to trust our bodies.

Kudos to the OP for posting this and good luck to everyone on their journeys and their trips.

Check your cruise line regulations because some ships/itineraries don't allow you to bring food, even packaged food onboard. That said, I travel a lot and some of the shelf-stable travel foods that I use regularly that might fit your needs are: FishPeople fish soups/entrees, Tanka buffalo sticks/bites, Krave jerky, Trader joe's salmon/bufallo/turkey jerky, cheeses from World Market/Costplus, Moon Cheese, seaweed (so many brands nowadays, so many flavors), meals-in-a-can by St. Dalour. There are now squeeze packets of greek yogurt in the aisle with the squeeze packets of applesauces. Lots of different types of olives, kale chips, coconut chips. I sometimes do searches on amazon for "travel food" and "airplane food" and she what pops up.

Riding the bus in Juneau is a lot of fun... the slow bus even more so. You do really get to see a lot of sides of the town, and a lot of the different characters.

My first cruise was on Princess. Some ways that we saved on Princess included:

-Bringing a laundry bag and several 'pods' of powdered laundry detergent. Halfway through our trip we ordered every vegetarian item on room service and did laundry. We wanted to try out room service anyway, and we were tired, so it worked out fine.

-We somehow got some onboard spending credit. Instead of spending out credit, we followed a tip learned from this board that while Princess says you can't use onboard credit for the auto-gratuity, you absolutely can. We checked out account halfway through, and because we hadn't spent anything, the auto-gratuity was $50 less.

-We brought the allowed one bottle of wine per person and opened it in the room. No one seemed to mind if it wandered out of the room with us, evening to a restaurant.

-We brought a small case of little Perrier cans with us and put them in our fridge because we like sparkling water. We would skip this next time as the free water on the lido deck, free lemon slices, and free tea would have kept us happy enough.

-We never ate any meals in port. We did, however, try out just about every brand of sparkling water we found. (This was a cruise to Mexico, so it was hot and we were thirsty...on a short term trip we didn't want to take chances with tap water either). While not visiting port restaurants is not good for the local economy, we did support in other ways, including paying for museum admission, and visiting several grocery stores (something we love doing everywhere we travel...YES you can bring back packaged foods from other countries...just follow the rules for what's allowed). From Mexico we brought tea samplers, lots of different hot sauces, chunky peppy sauces, tamarind candy, and an assortment of cookies. You buy groceries when you're at home, so buying groceries abroad is a cheap past time.

-We walk, walk, walked every where. A great, cheap, healthy way to see a local place. This works better in some ports than others.

-We look for maps, guidebooks and information in used bookstores well in advance of a trip. We research on websites like this one and many others. Part of the value of enjoying a trip is extending the experience through enjoying the preparation before and the reflection afterwards. We have also learned not to be cheap about guidebooks, and if we can't find a good one used, we will go ahead and buy a new one. We have found research materials to be a good investment. Likewise we extend our enjoyment buy getting books, cookbooks, movies, music, etc from our local library in advance.

-Part of our research was in figuring out absolutely everything that was included in the cruise price. We learned many things by reading reviews and message boards, and kept notes. Once on board, we explored first, and made a list of everything there was to do (excepting things we really really had no interest in). We then tried to do everything on our list at least once. This caused us to search out corners of the ship (it took us 3 days to find the lawn games area) and led us to try new things. This also helped a lot with the dining. My other half had cruised with Princess before and never eaten anywhere except for the buffet. That's what he thought we should do the whole week. It took me 2 days to drag him down to the dining room, but once he got there, he was hooked. We then set out to try every free dining option...Afternoon tea, Pub lunch, fancy pizzeria, dining room breakfast, dining room lunch, etc. We also went to one art auction to get the free champagne, but didn't enjoy it enough to do it again. Also had seen a tip that sometimes they serve 'cold soups' that are really cocktails served in a bowl...so I snagged a soup that was more like a bellini one night. For someone not willing to pay bar prices, it was a good way to try it out.

My upcoming cruise is on Norwegian so many of the above apply, but some don't. I'm planning:

-Norwegian has no self-serve laundry. Hello, travel-friendly clothing! I will be traveling with at least some easy to handwash, quick dry clothes to wash out in the sink, just like I would in a hostel.

-I've located local bus service information and downloaded maps for several of the ports, especially when we have a long stay and have time to spare. Riding local is part of the experience being in a new place anyway.

-I'm a third person in my parents' cabin. I only had to pay taxes/port fees (no charge for 3rd/4th person). A good deal for me!

-I plan on scouring the ship again, making a list of things to do

-I've signed all three of us up for the meet & mingle...its a free thing to do on a sea day

-I have pledged to go to the gym this time. It's free!

I am in my early 30s and live in rural Alaska, so my ideas of what to do in Alaska are a little different. My retired parents are coming for a visit. After much hemming and hawwing, this is the itinerary that I put together that inspired them to start booking tickets:

Day 1 parents fly from Pittsburgh to Fairbanks, overnight at the Bridgewater

Day 2 fly on RavnAlaska from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay to Nuiqsut to Barrow where they will join me at home

Day 3 Barrow

Day 4 fly on RavnAlaska to Wainwright (daytrip)

Day 5-6-7 Barrow

Day 8 fly on RavnAlaska from Barrow to Nuiqsut to Prudhoe Bay to Fairbanks to Anchorage to Kodiak

Day 9 Kodiak (Alutiiq Museum, Baranof Museum, National Park visitor center, local aquaculture center)

Day 10 Kodiak (scenic driving, WWII site)

Day 11 fly on RavnAlaska from Kodiak to Anchorage, shuttle bus to Whittier

Day 12 Whittier (yes, two nights in Whittier...I love Whittier and am fascinated by the Begich Towers. When I lived closer to Whittier we always camped, so this will be my first time staying in the tower.)

Day 13 Embark on Norwegian Sun

Day 14 at sea

Day 15 Icy Strait Point (walk around the dock and then walk into the village of Hoonah)

Day 16 Juneau (rent a car to wander around town as we only have about 5 hours in port)

Day 17 Skagway (either train ride or rent a car and go into the Yukon)

Day 18 Ketchikan (boat trip to Metlakatla)

Day 19 at sea

Day 20 disembarkation in Vancouver, explore the city

Day 21 Vancouver

Day 22 ferry to Victoria

Day 23 Victoria (afternoon tea)

Day 24 I fly home on AlaskaAirlines Victoria to Seattle to Anchorage to Barrow (with enough time to get out in Anchorage and have a friend pick me up and take me grocery shopping)

Day ??? at some point my parents will return home