I Wish I.....

[marshmellow8619]

I thought I would start a thread for Alaskan cruisers where they could share little tidbits of knowledge from their sea or land cruise through Alaska, what they wished they did or didn't do, a helpful tip, to help future cruisers in general (like me, leaving next month!).

 

Example:

 

I wish I packed less.

 

I enjoyed the whale watching.

[nukesubsailor]

I thought I would start a thread for Alaskan cruisers where they could share little tidbits of knowledge from their sea or land cruise through Alaska, what they wished they did or didn't do, a helpful tip, to help future cruisers in general (like me, leaving next month!).

 

Example:

 

I wish I packed less.

 

I enjoyed the whale watching.

 

Take a plastic rain poncho that you can fold up into a pocket sized package. Carry it with you always when on land.

Take binoculars with a variable power feature.

Have a drink and check out the photos in the bar at the head of the pier in Ketchikan.

[LINZ1029]

I wish I spent less time trying to get the perfect picture and more time taking everything in!

 

 

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[Lisichka]

TIP: don't worry what to wear and what to bring. Everything is available cheaply on board and in the ports. Raincoats, sweaters, socks, ponchos, etc etc. Way more fun to buy there, and way cheaper too (plus they will have your port embroidered on it, or your cruise ship). Rain jackets are $19 everywhere and available in sizes xs all the way up to 3X in both men's and women's sizes. Same with sweaters, hoodies, etc etc.

[QQQ1]

Brilliant idea for this thread marshmellow8619!

[Ginger Pepper]

Great idea - keep the comments coming!

[Keith1010]

Layer your clothing because you never know what the weather will be like,

 

Keith

[northernphoenix]

I wished I had added a landtour....guess what, am leaving on August10th, to do just that

Marilyn

 

 

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[joyfulone]

It's a great thread, I will be coming back to see what people have added.

 

 

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[sherryf]

I wish I spent less time trying to get the perfect picture and more time taking everything in!

 

 

YES!

 

We went whale watching last year with Orca Enterprises, and we were very lucky to see bubble net feeding. I was so occupied with trying to get a photo, that I wasn't enjoying the experience. I finally put away my camera and just watched. We are going back this year, and I plan to spend less time with my camera and more time just soaking it all in!

 

The great thing about going to Alaska every summer is being able to mark more things off my "wish" list... but I also seem to keep adding new things to the list. Last year I finally took my mom. This year I will make it to Totem Bight. Next year I'm hoping to get to Sitka. And my list of "to do" excursions is long, but I can usually only afford one "big one" each year.

 

"I wish" I had the time and money to do it all!

[vbmom87]

OP: This is a great idea for a thread!!!

 

 

One tip is:

 

Don't choose your activities solely based on what others liked. Take the time to think about yourself and what you normally enjoy. Then make your decision based on YOU! Not everyone will be thrilled by the same things. What excites me, may very well bore someone else.

 

If this is once in a lifetime trip, don't be afraid to splurge on excursions that sounds awesome to you. Plus, we don't know what life will throw out to us. We may never get back, even if we are planning on it. Enjoy the trip to the best of your ability.

 

Here are some of my comments after my first AK cruise (Please note we were in Alaska in 2008 when they experienced record cold temps):

 

Glad I had: Waterproof jacket and shoes, wind pants, fleece pants, silk long underwear, earmuffs, convertible mittens, merino wool socks, wipes, homemade ziploc cover for camera, nightlight, travel alarm clock, power strip, Alaska Cruise Handbook and Map, Milepost, Northern Lights Coupon Book, lanyard, Shout Wipes, backpack, extra rechargeable camera batteries, postage stamps, ginger root capsules, important Alaska phone numbers programmed into my cell phone.

 

Didn’t need: Hand and foot warmers, clothes pins, ear plugs, eye covers, laundry soap (provided on HAL), sunscreen ;)

 

Wish I had: Insulated Mug

Edited July 10, 2014 by vbmom87

[sprint180]

Wish I: could just spend time enjoying, but I can't. I have this need to take pics. So this year when I go I will make a conscious choice to take less pictures and just enjoy.

 

I took two pair of shoes and took up valuable suitcase space, won't do that this year.

 

Would explore the whole ship. I seem to just visit parts and don.t see all that is available.

[olemissreb]

I wish I had gotten out on deck more. I caught a cold so I spent most of my time in the room. I really didn't want to give my cold to someone else!

 

I'm glad I talked my DH into 2 consecutive weeks of vacation so we could do our own land tour. We didn't do as much as we could have, but we did enough that we kept busy but not exhausted busy.

 

I wish my youngest son hadn't broken his foot a week and a half before our trip! It actually didn't keep him from doing anything we did except the glacier trek, but he and DH went and took a dog sled ride while the oldest son and I did the glacier trek.

 

Biggest tip - make sure you charge your phones/cameras every night. I forgot one of our cameras for our glacier trek and while oldest son and I both had our phones, we had forgotten to charge them so we weren't able to take as many pictures as we would have liked.

 

Biggest "I Wish" - I could go back!

[Cookiecookie]

Great thread I will keep coming back. 37 sleeps till cruise tour

[SparkleBee]

I didn't go on my AK trip yet but I did a Baltic recently...

 

Glad I brought: a highlighter, plastic baggies, earplugs (roommate snoring)

Often recommended but didn't bring or need: clothespin, magnets, duct tape, power strip, alarm clock (you have a smart phone?)

Recommended by others so I brought but didn't need: post-it-notes

[NoobCruise]

I wish I'd taken a couple more shorts. I took 1 or 2 exercise shorts, but I didn't want to stroll around the ship or in port in them. I didn't expect such warm days and Victoria and Seattle were hot and I was sweating in jeans :p So take a little of everything for every type of weather.

 

Be flexible and have a backup plan. understand that sometimes some excursions get cancelled due to weather or ice flows. If you accept this before you set sail, and have a backup plan for every port and every excursion, you'll be less disappointed if your plans get cancelled. We had booked the Tracy Arm tour and when we went to meet up with the tour, we were told it was cancelled, so we immediately switched to the Whale Watching and Mendenhall Glacier, and 5 minutes later we were on the bus. We had a great day even though the one excursion I had really been looking forward to was cancelled.

 

I wish I had known that the visitor center at Mendenhall Glacier would call a taxi to pick us up a few hours after they closed. You can still hike around the glacier after the visitor center closes. I would have loved to walk out to Nugget Falls, but I'm slow and there wasn't enough time for me on our tour.

 

I wish we had taken the 3 hour Misty Fjord Flight seeing instead of the 20 minute Mountain top flight seeing to the crab feed. The crab feed was similar to Red Lobster, which I can get any time. I don't get to flight see in Alaska when ever I want.

Edited July 10, 2014 by NoobCruise

[AryMay]

I wish I had not overpacked. My luggage was a monster to haul around plus I had no room for souvenirs. :(

 

Trying to get everything back in my suitcase on the last day of the cruise was a nightmare and kept me from enjoying the day.

[fishin' musician]

I wish I'd had a better/stronger zoom on my camera (will be remedied next time).

[marshmellow8619]

Yay it's working out! Great comments and as a photographer myself, I'll need to remind myself to take my finger off of that shutter button and take it all in too!

[NoobCruise]

Yay it's working out! Great comments and as a photographer myself, I'll need to remind myself to take my finger off of that shutter button and take it all in too!

 

I agree with that tip. I found myself missing the action with both glacier calving and whale watching as I messed with my camera. I did figure that out before I missed it all and put my camera down.

[Cheryl H]

I wish we had flown to Anchorage first (to get the long flight out of the way first) and floated southbound instead of northbound.....or better yet....book a back-to-back cruise and cruise back down.

 

I wish we'd packed an alarm clock instead of using smart phone.....stupid alarm went off at 2:30 and we got ready in the middle of the night.

 

I wish we would have packed fewer jeans and sent a couple jeans down to the ship's laundry instead. In fact, we could have left half of what we packed at home.

 

I'm glad we left our warm layer at home and so we purchased Alaska fleece jackets for under our rain coats.

 

I'm glad we had nice waterproof rain coats, but we did not end up needing the windpants or the waterproof sneakers.

 

I wish I had not bothered to pack 3 pairs of binoculars....we forgot to use them because of constantly taking pictures.

 

I'm glad we booked F.I.S.H.E.S. whale watch at Icy Strait. Best tour all week.

[JimAOk1945]

marshmellow8619,

 

This thread is a wonderful idea!!!! I'll keep coming back.

 

Thanks!

[amarvel]

I'm the opposite of some others.I spent too much time taking it in and came home last year with fewer photos then I wanted. next year I plan to do more photography not just in Alaska but on the ship as well. but then again its my fifth time to Alaska and with my husband not wanting to get off in Ports I'll have more time to focus on the photos.

 

One thing I did that was great was I planned every single day of the trips outfits for the four of us. I'm a little anal when it comes to photos so this way we looked all coordinated and cute (not matching) for each location including layers but it also helped me only pack what we needed.

 

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Edited July 11, 2014 by amarvel

[threetimesalady]

First of all, thanks to everyone for sharing information so that others benefit from their experiences! Can some of you cruisers that have visited Alaska tell what bit of advice or which tip you are really glad you received before your first Alaskan cruise? I know everyone is thinking "layers", but what else helped?

[hollon]

Bring Binoculars, and not just one set, and stay out on deck and look for whales, dolphins, otters, etc. Book your excursion ahead of time