What to wear!

[carlp]

Going on Alaska cruise in September 

1st time ever

no idea what to bring or wear

any suggestions would be appreciated 

 

[Northern Aurora]

In September be prepared for rain.  Dress in layers with a waterproof (not water resistant) outer layer.  Layers are also the key in Alaska.  
 

Folks on Alaska itineraries tend to dress more casually  than on a number of other itineraries.

[karatemom2]

Layers are key so you can adjust throughout the day if the weather changes. My go to outfit is a warm fitted turtleneck, jeans, and a fleece pullover or jacket. I love my Patagonias. I have a pair of sturdy, but lightweight walking boots that I wear with warm socks because we walk and hike a lot so happy feet are important to me! If it is cold or rainy I wear a hat or beanie and gloves. I always carry disposable plastic hooded rain ponchos in my backpack for occasional rain showers. My DH generally wears similar garb with long sleeve henley shirt, jeans, pullover, and tennis shoes or boots.

 

 

[2BACRUISER]

Lots of info on Cruise Fashion and beauty page Cruise Fashions & Beauty - Cruise Critic Community about Alaska wear. Most ships are fairly casual during the day and business casual at night baring Cunard who still have formal and smart attire nights. hth

[Crew News]

Agree with layers but bring a backpack to store each layer as you remove them during an excursion.  Keep a poncho in your backpack if you want to keep your camera dry between shots in the rain.

[lepidoptera]

I went in like the last week of September 2021. It was chilly and rainy everyday-except in Juneau where we started out the day snowing and then it turned to rain as it “warmed up” 

 

For tops I wore a Columbia rain jacket with a Columbia fleece and T shirt most often off the ship. In Glacier bay and when on my whale watching tours I wore a packable Columbia jacket with a hand knit wool sweater and a tee underneath. For bottoms I wore ripstop hiking pants to block wind and rain and if necessary I layered a pair of wool leggings underneath. 
 

On my kayaking trip in Ketchikan I dressed pretty lightly, since they had a suit to put on over everything to keep i

us dry and warm. 
 

On the ship during the day I wore mostly joggers and a t-shirt with a light weight zip up sweatshirt, unless I planned on spending a good amount of time outside. I was on a pretty casual line (NCL) but did all specialty dining so I wore a tunic, sweater or dress with leggings in the evening. Only time I was cold during dinner was the day we stopped in Glacier Bay. The specialty restaurant I had that night was on the deck that had the water front and the prow of the boat which they opened up for viewing. The deck was very cold still from Glacier Bay and dinner was unpleasant. 
 

I had a baseball cap that I wore a ton as well. It helped keep the rain off my glasses. If it was chilly I just wore my hood over the hat. 
 

For shoes I had a light weigh slip loafer things that I wore around the ship, a pair of sneakers and my hiking boot for off the ship. I would really scrutinise your excursions before packing hiking boots. I did mostly boat excursions and the hiking boots were overkill, but at least I already had them. 
 

I did not bring any jeans since they take a long time to dry. By having on the ship and off the ship outfits (that always got hung up when I got back on board) I always had dry clothes for my excursion the next day.
 

Since I layer a lot I really didn’t bring a lot of clothes (3 tees, 1 tunic, 1 sweater, 1 zip up sweatshirt, 1 fleece, 1 rain jacket, 1 pack able jacket, 3 pairs hiking pants, 2 pairs leggings, 1 jogger, 2 dress, 2 pair pj and under clothes socks).
 

Important if you are layering try on the layers you plan on wearing before you go and make sure they fit with each other and that your range of motion is not compromised.