Booked your cruise to Alaska, but don’t know what to do next? Here are 10 tips to make planning your Alaskan cruise a true success.

10 Tips for Planning your Alaskan Cruise

This is it! You finally planned to go on the vacation of your dreams. A vacation many only dream about, and you are getting to go. You hear nothing but good things by word of mouth, but they really never tell you what you should bring or what to expect. Trust me I was right there with you, and now I’m passing on my knowledge to you of things I’m glad I had and things I wish I brought. Think of this as an Alaska cruise review. Let’s get started.

Looking for ideas for Alaska excursions but don’t want to hurt your wallet? If you would like ideas for excursions on a budget, check out my ideas for excursions on a budget here.

Balcony:

If you can splurge on getting a balcony, I HIGHLY suggest it. An Alaskan cruise from Seattle is mostly about the sights and scenery along the way.  Our cruise included touring Glacier Bay, so over half our trip was out at sea. We had a naturalist on board, and every few minutes or so, she would tell us to look at the shoreline or out a window to see wildlife on shore and give us tons of information about the glaciers. The glacier bay portion was mainly the whole day hanging outside looking at the glaciers and taking tons of beautiful photos like you see below. I know many people with no balcony were freezing out on the deck with the wind whipping by or stuck behind a glass trying not to get their reflection.  It was quite nice to be able to duck out onto our own personal balcony (with chairs, hot chocolate robes) and see what she was talking about and then pop back into our room for warmth.  So it’s nice to be able to have the comforts of your room right behind you. (The pictures above and below are all from our balcony).

Camera:

As they say, pictures never do it justice, but a nice camera would have done well. An iPhones worked great for the trip but a nice camera would have been able to capture Alaska’s beauty better.

Passport:

Although most cruises accept just a birth certificate, it’s always safer to get a passport in case anything happens to where you don’t board the boat in time. Passports also give you excuses to go on more wild adventures. It’s your ticket to freedom to explore anywhere. Also, many of the cruises don’t embark and disembark at the same port, like our cruise embarked out of Seattle, Washington and then we disembarked in Vancouver, B.C. Ending in Canada meant we needed passports. Make sure you know where you embark and disembark, as sometimes they aren’t even the same place or even the same country like mine.

Raincoat: 

Alaska is one of the wettest states. In fact, Juneau gets rain 222 days out of the year and in Ketchikan, they get rain 300 out of 365  days of the year. Although it was mostly drizzles, We had rain and dreary weather in all 3 ports.

Book Excursions:

The excursions can be pricey, but the deals on shore are the same price. (Check out my tricks for finding the cheapest excursions!)  As Alaska is mainly funded through tourism, there isn’t much to do on shore besides stroll by some shops and eat. Almost all excursions will be amazing and breathtaking.

Charger with Extra Ports:

You will want to bring a charger with multiple ports to charge all your electronics. Between the camera, and phones, you’ll need extra ports to keep everything ready.

Watch:

Since the cruise is limited on service, and you are going through time zones, a watch became very helpful with keeping up with the time. Since you have to be on board at a certain time, you don’t want to be guessing if you have the right time.  🙂

Binoculars:

These are optional but nice to have. Many things the naturalist points out are hard to see without them. I wished we did have them to see bears and eagles that were on shore.

Courtesy of  Tracey’s King Crab Shack

Look up local eateries:

Looking up certain eateries would have been helpful for us as we weren’t sure which one would be best for us. To save money, we ate mostly on board the ship.

Portable Battery: 

This is also optional but comes in handy in case you forget to charge anything overnight. It makes sure you’re always ready to take pictures of whatever beautiful scenery comes your way. (which will be A LOT! )

There you have it! 10 tips for a successful Alaskan cruise!

Bonus:

As far as clothing, I would a lot of layers, but nothing too bulky. Alaska wasn’t as cold as I thought although it was pretty chilly some days.  To give you an idea, we went early September to Alaska, and our temperatures were mostly in the mid to low 50’s. It was mainly overcast and dreary. I wore jeans, a long sleeve shirt, a jacket and sometimes the raincoat on top. For our trip to Skagway, we went hiking and I eventually took off all the layers down to the long sleeve shirt. EXTRA sidenote: I’m from Southern Louisiana, and we do not do cold. 🙂

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