judynorth

One way to get a little Canadian currency is to buy something small with US money and get change in Canadian money. Since we charge everything that we can, that worked well for us. But then we aren't big spenders. :)

Any idea how much cash a person should bring. I'm traveling to Seattle and Vancouver prior to sailing Northbound.

 

Cash needed for airport baggage tips, snacks, housekeeping, public bus and taxi.

 

Am I missing anything which might be best to pay for in cash.

 

Thanks

We've found that you can pay for almost everything even a taxi with a credit card. However, you should have a supply of $5 and $1 for tipping and such. Public transportation will require cash and in Canada you will need Canadian money for busses and such. for almost anything else you can use US money.

The first time that I ordered grits on HAL the waiter brought a huge bowl full of grits with brown sugar and raisins on the side. Definitely not the southern way to eat grits. They were good with plenty of butter though. :) I am a Florida girl relocated to Virginia.

I loved this itinerary when we took it in 2012. Thanks so much for your live report.

There is a Russian store in Sitka that has a lot of Christmas themed items. It is on the main road near St. Michael's.

We have cruised AK on the Coral and loved it. We have also been on the Diamond and HAL's Veendam and Amsterdam. Princess and HAL both do AK well. Of the 3 ships that you mention I would go with the Coral. There are both covered, open, and partially covered balconies on the Coral. Most Aloha and Baja balconies are fully covered; some Aloha balconies have a large overhang; Caribe balconies are larger and partially covered; Dolphin balconies are uncovered and can be seen from other decks.

We have cruised AK in May and early June. There is still lots of snow on the mountains which is beautiful. The trade-off is that wildlife is less plentiful. You will see whales but not as many and you won't see salmon at all. Wildlife is more plentiful later in the season.

I have a little backpack, if you can call it that, that packs in its own pouch. It is very lightweight but holds a lot. I would recommend something lightweight that you carry on your back so that your hands are free. For one of our first AK cruises we bought a real backpack and it was just too heavy and bulky and we never used it again.

Be sure to buy a bag of oh-so-southern "Benne Wafers" in Charleston ... they're heavenly thin, crispy, little sesame seed cookies. The Pralines found in Charleston are to die for as well.

 

Both can be found anywhere tourists are found.:D

Yes, try River Street Sweets for pralines. Yummy! And benne wafers are addictive.

The glaciers will be on the port (left) side going in and the starboard (right) side going out. On deck is the best place to view the glaciers. You might want to go to your balcony as you leave the bay and spend some time there. I wouldn't recommend spending your time there going in.

Great blog, AryMay. You certainly had a great day for Glacier Bay. We sailed on the Coral for our second visit to Alaska. We love the ship and remember this as the perfect cruise. We were sailing with our best friends, it was my birthday, and we had a great and very active CC group.

We did this itinerary on the Maasdam in 2012. It was a great cruise except for the fact that I was sick for a good bit of the time. It wasn't NORO although it was making its rounds on the ship. It wound up being a drug reaction which went away when I stopped the medication. The cruise visits several ports that other C/NE cruises don't. I look forward to reading your posts so that I can relive this great itinerary through your eyes and experiences.

Just like the rest of Alaska, Glacier Bay is something that you have to "experience". Words, pictures, and videos cannot do it justice. Once you see it for yourself you will understand what I mean.

I case you can't tell by my post, I love Alaska and will be going back for my 6th cruise there in July.

We will be on this cruise also. It is our second time on this itinerary and love it. We decided that it was the perfect trip to take to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. I look forward to seeing you on the roll call.

It's too bad your trip is the week after ours, if there was more time I could give feedback on our Icy Strait Point whale tour before you have to book. We went with this company and they have great reviews, and the email back and forth with them has been really prompt. Fingers crossed we picked the right spot to hopefully see some humpbacks :)

I checked the company website and it looked good. We have been whale watching on a similar boat and it was great for the task. All those windows open and give an almost unobstructed view. The number of pax is also limited to 22 which is great. (We were on a photo tour and the boat was configured differently and held only 14 people.) Thanks for the link.

On our first AK cruise with Princess we did the rain forest hike and were very disappointed. It was a short walk (not a hike IMHO) through a forest and not much else. It seemed really expensive for what we got. If you like adventure this is not for you. On our second visit we did the duck tour because we were traveling with a 92 year old. On our next 2 visits to Ketchikan we didn't book an excursion.

Is the shuttle ship-specific or is there a single shuttle used by all the ships in port that day?

My DH always wears his boots on the plane when we go to Alaska rather then trying to pack them. Personally, I don't think he ever needed them but they are comfortable and keep his feet dry in any weather. I bought waterproof shoes for one cruise and never wore them. If we had had heavy rain I probably would have appreciated having them.

When we took the rainforest excursion they provided rain gear but we didn't need it. The walk is flat and easy, no boots needed. We also hiked around Mendenhall and to Nugget Falls and didn't need boots at all. We had no rain on either excursion.

We have rented a car twice in Anchorage and will probably do it again this summer. The drive down to Portage Glacier is a really nice drive if the weather is decent. Doing that you will see Turnagain Arm at both high and low tides. The views are quite different. There are many places to stop along the way. I don't think it would seem like a repeat of the transfer from Whittier.

To us, Anchorage just seemed like a big town/small city and had little character. When we rented a car the first time we drove through town but didn't really do anything there. We went to the Ulu Factory and to lunch at the Arctic Roadrunner and The Moose's Tooth for dinner. We also went to a city park where you could watch the seaplanes take off and land. They all required a car.

Another option with a car would be to drive north and go inland for a while. That is what we are considering doing this time.

This is a link to pictures that we took on our day in Anchorage and the drive south:

https://plus.google.com/photos/102720032296955701968/albums/5613712280481942449?banner=pwa

If you'd like to see what to expect, here is a link to photos from our visit to Ketchikan and Totem Bight in early June 2011:

https://plus.google.com/photos/102720032296955701968/albums/5612980292911745521?banner=pwa

I would think that your wife could check in before you and you and the children could check in later. She couldn't check you in though since you need to be there to have your picture taken.

Granville Island is fun to visit. We took the water taxi across the river and spent several hours there. There are all sorts of interesting food vendors there and the views are beautiful. Stanley Park is another place where you could spend all day and not see it all. We took the Hop on hop off Trolley and stopped at Stanley Park for several hours then boarded the trolley again to finish the tour. We also got off in Gastown and had lunch there at a little Italian restaurant (Al Porto, I think). It was cool and dark, which you might appreciate in August, and the food was very good.

My gift to myself on every HAL cruise is the unlimited laundry package. We have never had a problem. I only send those things that I machine wash and dry at home. Everything always comes back pressed and either folded or hanging. The fun part is finding the little laundry sticker on an item weeks or months later. That always brings a flood of good memories. :)

We will be on the Statendam 14nights cruise through Alaska at the 18th of may.

Second time to Alaska and we are really looking forward to it :)

We are on the same itinerary on July 27th. It is our second time on this itinerary. I'll be interested to know how the cruise went and what you did in each port.

I think your kids will probably be the ones who have a difficult time adjusting to the difference in time. Remember, Alaska time is 4 hours different from Eastern time. They will probably wake early since it will be light very early and they will probably run out of steam earlier than usual by clock time. Anytime dining might work well for you particularly if you plan to have a table for 4. The biggest drawback to anytime dining for me is that you don't have the same waiters and dinner companions each night and to me that is part of the cruise experience.

Congratulations to y'all! We celebrated 40 years this past Dec., so we're calling this - May 13th - our anniversary cruise. It will be our first trip to Alaska...we're so excited!

 

Thank you to all on CC, the info is priceless.

Our anniversary is July 31 so we will be on our cruise for our celebration. I wonder if they do anything special on the ship for a 50th.

We took the ship's tour and felt that we didn't have enough time at the gardens. There is so much to see that it takes a while. If you take the private tour you could even eat lunch at the gardens.