Alaska Cruise-Tour Luggage

[WVBill]

Did a 7 day R/T Alaska cruise several years ago. We've now booked a 13 day Alaska CruiseTour for next September. Tour first (Fairbanks, Denali, Mt Mckinley) then Cruise.

After reading CariBill's excellent review of this CruiseTour as well as other posts I understand that after night 1 in Fairbanks you designate one suitcase "with your cruise clothes" to "meet me at the ship" and one to go with you on the land tour.

It's the "with your cruise clothes" description that raises my question. I know for our R/T 7 day cruise we just "dressed in layers". Is there something about the land tour that would dictate a different clothes strategy? (e.g. is it so cold you need heavy coats and gloves and boots??). I can understand not needing your coat and tie you would wear for formal night on the cruise but is there something I'm missing? For a 14 day cruise we typically plan on doing laundry half way through anyway so we don't usually take two weeks worth of clean clothes.

I see there are laundry facilities at the Mt Mckinley lodge and, of course there are on the ship - has anyone experienced doing laundry on either the last day of the land tour or the first day of the cruise? Are the laundry rooms very busy on those days?

Thanks

[Thrak]

Did a 7 day R/T Alaska cruise several years ago. We've now booked a 13 day Alaska CruiseTour for next September. Tour first (Fairbanks, Denali, Mt Mckinley) then Cruise.

After reading CariBill's excellent review of this CruiseTour as well as other posts I understand that after night 1 in Fairbanks you designate one suitcase "with your cruise clothes" to "meet me at the ship" and one to go with you on the land tour.

It's the "with your cruise clothes" description that raises my question. I know for our R/T 7 day cruise we just "dressed in layers". Is there something about the land tour that would dictate a different clothes strategy? (e.g. is it so cold you need heavy coats and gloves and boots??). I can understand not needing your coat and tie you would wear for formal night on the cruise but is there something I'm missing? For a 14 day cruise we typically plan on doing laundry half way through anyway so we don't usually take two weeks worth of clean clothes.

I see there are laundry facilities at the Mt Mckinley lodge and, of course there are on the ship - has anyone experienced doing laundry on either the last day of the land tour or the first day of the cruise? Are the laundry rooms very busy on those days?

Thanks

 

The land tour is less formal. On the ship you have "smart casual" in the evenings. That really isn't necessary on the land portion. We didn't take most of our "after 6" clothing on the land tour portion. (We did take some as we had the connoisseur tour and were eating in the nice restaurants at the lodges.) All of that, as well as formal wear, went to the ship. Tee shirts, jeans, and shorts were more common on the land portion. We were very lucky on our land tour as we never had to wear a coat or even an over shirt. The weather was fantastic. Your mileage may vary...

 

Don't expect to actually get to see Denali. The best shot for viewing the mountain is at the McKinley lodge. We had people in our group who were there for the fifth time and had never yet actually seen Denali as it is almost always hidden by clouds. Our last day there the clouds went away and the mountain came out. It's amazing.

 

[nukesubsailor]

Did a 7 day R/T Alaska cruise several years ago. We've now booked a 13 day Alaska CruiseTour for next September. Tour first (Fairbanks, Denali, Mt Mckinley) then Cruise.

After reading CariBill's excellent review of this CruiseTour as well as other posts I understand that after night 1 in Fairbanks you designate one suitcase "with your cruise clothes" to "meet me at the ship" and one to go with you on the land tour.

It's the "with your cruise clothes" description that raises my question. I know for our R/T 7 day cruise we just "dressed in layers". Is there something about the land tour that would dictate a different clothes strategy? (e.g. is it so cold you need heavy coats and gloves and boots??). I can understand not needing your coat and tie you would wear for formal night on the cruise but is there something I'm missing? For a 14 day cruise we typically plan on doing laundry half way through anyway so we don't usually take two weeks worth of clean clothes.

I see there are laundry facilities at the Mt Mckinley lodge and, of course there are on the ship - has anyone experienced doing laundry on either the last day of the land tour or the first day of the cruise? Are the laundry rooms very busy on those days?

Thanks

 

If your land tour ends at the Kenai Princess lodge there is a laundry there that guests can use. We did our tour in the 3rd week of July and we needed rain gear and warm shirts or light jackets at times.

[zonap]

Hey WVBill - we just got back from a cruisetour so I can tell you that they offer the option to leave some luggage to meet you on the ship but you are not obligated to do so. We chose to take it all with us as we (3 of us) needed more clothes for the 1 week than we could fit in 1 suitcase (we brought a total of 2 pieces of luggage). There were plenty of other people that did the same.

 

That said, definitely do the layering thing that everyone talks about. While in Alaska in the 2nd half of last month (August), it was around 60-70 degrees most days and anywhere from about 38-45 in the early parts of many mornings (7-8AM when you're getting ready for an excursion or the bus). We generally wore long pants (jeans) with long sleeve shirts, a pullover (a fleece or sweatshirt), and a jacket (waterproof/raincoat as it rained nearly everyday for at least part of the day). With that, we were generally a-ok. In the mornings, a pair of light gloves were sometimes helpful.

[cruisejunkie]

I did laundry on the first day of cruise with no wait for machines. Very easy to do using cruise card to obtain coins.