Alaska on the Pearl with 3 Little Kids.

[ThreeLittleBirds]

I just booked a cruise to Alaska on the Pearl. We have three children (7,5,14 months). We go on a Disney Cruise to the Caribbean every winter.

This summer, we decided to switch things up and try NCL to take us to Alaska.

We got two connecting staterooms and I've booked excursions that we are all excited about.

Does anyone have any tips for traveling to Alaska with the kids? Anything specific to NCL?

Thanks!

[CruzLover80]

Patience lots and lots of patience, LOL. Bless you for taking your 3 kids, I struggle taking my teenager half the time, LOL. :D

[zqvol]

I just booked a cruise to Alaska on the Pearl. We have three children (7,5,14 months). We go on a Disney Cruise to the Caribbean every winter.

This summer, we decided to switch things up and try NCL to take us to Alaska.

We got two connecting staterooms and I've booked excursions that we are all excited about.

Does anyone have any tips for traveling to Alaska with the kids? Anything specific to NCL?

Thanks!

 

You are not going to like this, but I really think that you should reconsider Alaska. Alaska is all about the ports and things off the ships. You pretty much get off when you dock and don't get back on until the last minute. It is go, go , go and that is hard to do with ones as small as yours.

 

You are going to have to do excursions, either through the ship or on your own, but either way they can get very expensive very quickly. Sure you can go and just wander around the towns but you really want to get out and see things.

[ThreeLittleBirds]

You are not going to like this, but I really think that you should reconsider Alaska. Alaska is all about the ports and things off the ships. You pretty much get off when you dock and don't get back on until the last minute. It is go, go , go and that is hard to do with ones as small as yours.

 

You are going to have to do excursions, either through the ship or on your own, but either way they can get very expensive very quickly. Sure you can go and just wander around the towns but you really want to get out and see things.

 

Thanks for your perspective. I've already booked excursions for all the ports. We travel quite a bit so my kids are used to the go-go-go aspect of vacation. The older two understand that the adventures we share are directly related to how well they behave. The baby, thankfully, is pretty easy going. If he's fed and cuddled, he is happy.

The reason we booked NCL instead of Disney was that it was so much less expensive so we could do interesting excursions and not really feel the pinch.

[amarvel]

The above person is not totally incorrect. Although I've never not taken my kids somewhere based on how old they are. We travel regardless. Although when we go to Alaska in May we don't really plan to take the kids off the ship much. ( we know will do Alaska several more times) Because many of the really cool tours they just wouldn't be able to either appreciate or fully do. And I just know my youngest child even at 6 years old would not be able to handle a long tour. But there's still plenty of beautiful scenery and I think the towns are really cute. Just make sure you read through the tour descriptions really carefully. Some tours expecially in Alaska wants you to walk or hike and that might be more difficult for younger children. Or you might not be allowed to bring a stroller. In which case you may want to bring a backpack carrier for your youngest child.

 

In 2013 we did the learning about the dog sledding when you get to meet and hold the puppies and that was really exciting for my kids. It also had some gold panning and was the perfect type of tour for them to learn about Alaska without being on a boring tour.

 

There is a playground in Skagway. If you go to the Alaska board search skagway and the directions to that would pop up.

 

Don't forget to pack their gloves and hats and even maybe rain boots.

 

Honestly I think no matter where you travel you just have to go at the kids pace. So just think about and prioritize what you really want to do in Alaska because three full port days might wear the kids out.

 

In Juneau we got a private tour at the ship doc and the guy drove us around for 3 hours and it was awesome because we were not confined to an actual tour that my kids were going to disrupt anyone else, and we could go at our own pace and mix it up between scenic stuff and fun exciting stuff. It was perfect, the guy drove us to the river we saw the salmon, we went to Mendenhall Glacier anf where they do gold panning, we saw a lot of the sights of Juneanu and it was our best day with our kids.

Edited March 10, 2015 by amarvel

[rjm11]

We did Alaska with a 3 and 4 year old on the Pearl and had a fabulous time. One thing to consider- you mention that you have two adjoining rooms- check to see what the cost would be for one suite instead.... having the added bonus of the butler who can bring room service from any dining room or restaurant was really a nice perk when the kids were little. The port times on that cruise are a little "funky" and we actually arranged to have dinner waiting in the suite a few times when we returned (by ordering it before we left) and that was REALLY helpful. We could eat and get kids to bed all at the same time.

 

As for the Pearl- there was a very small, but very functional kids pool off to the side of the main pool deck. It's sheltered from the wind by three walls and has a wading pool with a small slide and some "ride on" animals and see-saws and such. The kids liked it. There's also a small kid sized buffet as a section of the main buffet- always stocked with kid-food like chicken fingers, fresh fruit, hamburgers/hotdogs, carrots and celery, jello, etc. And pitchers of milk and juice.

 

You mention you have excursions booked- if you have any questions just ask- we rented a car in Skagway and drove to Emerald Lake (kids and dad took the whitepass rail to Fraser, I met them with the car and we continued on together), in Juneau we did a private whalewatch with Harv and Marv, in Ketchikan we did the nature sanctuary/hike thing thru the cruiseline, and in Victoria we just hired a bike cart tour thing at the port.