Alaskan Cruise: Tips on things to Tag Along

Alaskan Cruise: What to Bring with you

Many of these tag a longs apply to travel in general and certainly most cruising situations.

Electrical Bar and an Extension Cord

Many cabins have just one electrical plug. Having an electric bar that allows you to plug multiple plugs into electric plug. An extension cord is needed as the plug may be way across the cabin. An extension cord will allow you to bring the power to where you need it. We allows need this as the power chair needs a place to be charged. If you have multiple electronics you will also need this handy convenience.

Sometimes the only  power outlet is in the bathroom only. We have forgotten this once and had to "borrow one" from the front desk for a 14 dollar deposit.

Night light 

If you have an interior room, it gets really dark in a cabin. A night light may save your toes or your head.

Laundry Pods and Quarters

Laundry soap comes in small plastic pills. These are great for cruise travel. A small baggie of these come in handy when laundry needs to be done. This stuff is highly priced when you get on the ship. Quarters are handy to run the machines. I have heard that some of the machines are now taking cruise cards... but again a baggie of quarters is pretty good insurance.

Your Own Soda

My wife is sensitive to sugar and caffeine. We always pack a cube of diet caffeine free  cube in our check in bags (using the platform collapsible roll on). Sometimes this will result in you appearing on the bad boy list and having to explain yourself but liquid is critical on the ship. When ever you go onshore I have never been turned back bringing on additional soda to replenish the supply.

Drug Store supplies

While the ship store has a ton of things to buy, it is pretty thin on items that you would normally buy in a drug store, particularly personal care items. They only care one kind of deodorant, and just one kind of toothpaste. A quick stop to Target or Walgreens will add comfort to your trip.

Cash

Cash is handy for buying items on shore and will work really nicely in the casino slots or tables. Ship casinos will also use your cruise card. When using your cruise card for casinos, a numeric password for that use is generated. Any winnings go on your cruise card or may be cashed at the cage the day before you leave the ship. The debarkation morning has no staff working the casino and no way to trade in your winnings for cash in your pocket.

Don't for get the tips for the various people that help you on the ship.  All drinks come with an automatic 15 percent tip included. 

Paperback books

Even though many people will love their kindles or their kindle apps on ship, a paperback book or two is pretty nice to have in your hand when you have time to sit and watch the water go by. Bring some new ones and pass them on to others in the library trade section. 

Sunglasses and Skin Care

Sunglasses are must up on the glaciers. Don't forget some lip balm and some sunblock. While most of days in Alaska are filled with rain in the summer, when the sun comes out it will burn everything in sight. If you are off hiking, mosquito protection is also comforting.

Snacks

It might seem odd, but we always bring along a box of crackers and cheese comb kits. They are the ones with the little plastic stick in them. They always come in handy when you just don't want to get up and face the crowd or for whatever.  They also go great with the fruit you will order for your room. Don't forget to order a pear, an apple and a kiwi if you like them delivered free to your room every day.  That is one cool thing about Princess Cruises. Don't forget to have high tea at least once on every cruise... its special and included in your cruise package. 

Water Bottle

Off the ship it is great to bring ship's water with you. If your have your own water bottle, you can save yourself some grief worrying about the safety of the water you drink.

Misc

I am sure I have forgotten one thing or another... you will too.  The list above I hope will not be in that category.

The Dreaded Last Night and Debarcation

Getting it all back in the suitcases

The last night of the cruise can be pretty hectic. Your bags except what you will wear the next day are expected to be in the hall before you head off to dinner that night.

Prior to this night you will find in the the Princess Patter or the other newspaper that the cruise line publishes, a list of colors of baggage tags. This is used to store your bags in a particular spot prior to you leaving. You will be issued a series of tags that bear this color in your communication slot outside your room. If you need more of your color they may be obtained at the pursers desk. The pursers desk is also the place that if your feel that you have been categorized with a time that will not allow you to meet your connections, you can plead your case. We are nearly always the last to leave the ship since we go out and get in our car to drive home.

Bags are tagged and but out at dinner the night before so that the crew members can hustle them down to the cargo hold and get them to a particular area so that you can find them the next day. An airline may have as many as 200 passengers, a cruise line will have over 3000. This is the way you can get to your bags without looking through 10,000 bags. Because of this huge effort, elevator use is somewhat slow during this time.

The Last Night in the Ship

The coast of Northern California is nothing to sneeze about regarding its intensity. The last night of the cruise will probably be the roughest. When the ship finally makes it around the bend in the predawn morning it all calms down. The sight of the Golden Gate Bridge in the premorning fog is pretty cool. Bring a coat and enjoy the lights of the city.

On some cruises depending on the nationalities of the crew and the passengers, an immigration check is made the minute the ship reaches dock. If this occurs, a member of each cabin must cue and carry the passports of all that are in the cabin. This can be pretty crazy especially since no one can get off the ship until the sweep is made. This can occur between 6 and 7:30 am. Those that are not complying are targeted with an all call. Luckily this has not happened in the last several cruises we have made.

Tips for the Disembark

Many people run for the buffet the morning of the disembarkation. As there as so many people that need to get off the ship not everyone should be running to the exits all at once. Having a nice made to order breakfast will help your transition to the real world. A cautionary note: The bar tags are all completed so if you plan to buy a drink before you leave, it will not happen. This is even true in regard to a soda. Coffee is provided at some of the waiting stations and water and some juice. But my first suggestion is to bring your walk off bags and go for a nice breakfast. It could be along time before you see your lunch. I really don't plan on being on solid ground until 11:00.

Be sure to pack your cellphone with your in your carryout bags. You will be close enough to call your land world on your trusty plan. You will be able to upload the photos you took for free as you wait for you color to be call of finish that book you started. There may be up to three hours to wait before you can get off the ship. Some folks find a spot to sleep a little longer. 

You will be out of your cabin by 9 am. Those without immediate colors will be relaxing in one of the assigned public areas. This is a good time to fill out your comment cards. Give some kudos to the people who have been working for you. The biggest comment card will occur when you get home and are asked to take a survey of your opinion of the various aspects of the cruise. On the day of your departure, you will not see your room steward or your table waiters. If you plan to tip the room steward in person, or the table steward, it is best to do it on the afternoon before your last night. A tip is included in your daily cruise card tab. It will be forwarded to you the night before you leave. Be sure to look it over a day or two before it gets published to your room. This will allow you to clear up any discrepancies. The pursers desk will print you an itemized total at anytime during the cruise. Your cruise card tag will be charged to your credit card on midnight of the night before leaving. Your liability for the card you posted will be checked several times on cruise to make sure that your card has room to cover your charges.

The people that come it to clean the rooms are from shore and they power through each room and collect all the junk that will left behind in big paper trash bags.  You must to a very careful job of getting your stuff out of your room in the morning. There is no recovery of found items like you would have in a normal hotel room. The classic thing left behind is electronic chargers. By the way, charge your electronic devices that night before.  Make sure everything is out of your mini safe.

When your luggage tag color is called you will head to the 4th deck with your cruise card and all of your walk out bags. We usually have a backpack for this stuff. Your curisecard will be checked and you will head down the gangplank to the dock. Sometimes you might be on the 5th deck instead of the 4th because of tides.

There is often a line along the gangplank as the customs and the immigrations people and the department of agriculture give you and your bags a look over.  If you ordered extra booze from the duty free stores you it will be delivered to your cabin the day before. You will have to hustle it out with you as you depart. On some cruises people are required to pay some duty on the booze they bought.  If you plan to do this you may consider packing you your bag a collapsible dolly. It is not recommended you pack your duty free booze in your big bags.

Retrieving your Bags

It is critical to know how many bags you set out the night before. To retrieve the bags you will go to that color of your disembarkation and search for your bags laid out on the ground. Once your have gathered your bags, I always get a porter to take the bags to the curb. Be sure to have a 20 dollar tip ready for this people. They will pick up your bags including your carry off bags and select a spot that your can have your driver partner (if you are working that way) pick you up. It is pretty much chaos on the streets so having a good spot is important. It is also nice to have them in one place and everything lifted and put on a cart. People without bags are usually able to walk right off the ship without having to go through this step. Unless you are really light dressers and strong muscled people, this is not a good objective for a 10 day Alaskan cruise.

Best Advice

I think that the best advice of all is to have fun and let the little things go. Princess is great at knowing that you are on vacation and are adept at getting the most of the little things done. Don't be the old lady that returns her banana 5 times because it is not ripe enough or that it has too many spots on it. Go with the flow and smile often.

Alaskan Cruise: Idle Time

Ship Life

Some passengers get perplexed by the relaxing nature of the cruise. There is time to devote to nothing to do at all. To those that are working so hard to make a living this seems like nirvana. To others agony. It can me both or none of that depending upon your emotional make up or your planning.

Day to Day:

Some people think that they will stay in bed all day and get nothing but sleep in. This can be done but daily cabin service would love to make sure that you are up and out sometime in the morning hours. They need to get in and change your bed and clean your bathroom and straighten up your cabin for you. They often leave a towel animal to let you know they care. There is also a turn down service in the the evening when you go to dinner where they make sure everything is ok in your room and make you sure it is neat for you you to get into at night. They leave a couple of chocolates. If there is a change in the routine or if your would like to order free fruit for your room you need to contact your room stewart and let them know the changes. They will be in the hall and soon in the 10 cruise you will know their name. It is often posted on a little card in your room when you first arrive.

Personal Activities

My wife and I participate in some activities together and some in a group. A deck of cards is always welcome in playing a game of rummy or gin rummy among ourselves. My wife loves to do word search puzzles... so there is a stockpile that we bring along to do some of that. A list of fairly current movies is broadcasted on your TV. Some of these are cruise centric, such as the old move North to Alaska and Disney sleddog movies and others are just current HBO types. On recent cruises there has been a movie night or two where a big blockbuster movie is shown in the theatre or the secondary night club spot. The movies or sports events of the day are also shown on the big screen outdoors. Seating in the outdoor movie theater can be somewhat limited for big sporting events and pretty darn cold on the Alaskan curise. Woolen blankets are supplied but often people opt for warmer venues. There are always kids that want to hot tub and head for the wool blankets.

Triva is a team event that happens throughout the day on ship. It becomes a mixer as the 6 member groups often require members from other groups than your own group to participate. Some cutesy prizes are awarded to the winning teams. These triva contests are run by the ship's social crew.

The library is open at certain hours of the day. Books may be checked out and returned. Many ships have very nice literature collections. Some have reference books that you peruse while you are there. I love some of the big art books that are contained in the library. The library is not open all the time as it requires staff to staff it. When it is not open, all the shelves are locked up. There are areas in the library which house books that they have brought on ship and have read and don't mind passing them on to others. These are free and you are welcome to take one and leave one too. Some people bring pretty current paperback books to this area. A cruise is a perfect place to bring a Ipad or a kindle full of books that you want to read. Download them before your get on the ship.

Lectures of all sorts

Various experts or speakers offer free lectures on various historical or scientific topics that are fun to hear.  Princess calls this the scholarship at sea program. Every day at sea a naturalist will give a lecture with slides in one of the big venues. There are also chances to learn how to line dance or zumba. On some cruises there are craft people that will use one of the nightclub venues to teach and have you participate in a free craft activity that takes about an hour or an hour and a half.  All the materials are supplied and it is kind of fun. Most of these are free. The Hawaiian cruise has a lei making seminar with all the materials. It was so popular that they offered it 4 days in a row and even then, some people not in line to get a reservations were not included. We signed up for that after missing out this activity the first Hawaiian cruise.

Contests and cruiser supported Activites

Bingo, even knowing the odds against winning is very popular among a certain demographic. Cards are bought and numbers are drawn with the usual patter. Some people love to participate.

A battle of sexes contest is often held on board. A cocktail contest with the professional bartenders overseeing is a fun spectator event. There is sometimes a group float em contest where bits of this and that become fodder for a raft contest across the swimming pool.

If you like wine at all, the wine tasting on the ship are a must. The usual wine tasting event costs about 10-15 dollars and you will hear about and taste around 6 different wines.  For the wine expert aficionado the premium wine tasting at 25-30 per person is also highly recommended. The wine expert on the ship walks you through each of the ones tasted and will talk about the way to appreciate wines. The tickets for these events are available through your table steward.  Again, provide you ship card and you are signed up. Appropriate appetizers are provided to go with the various wines. It might be a good idea to bring a little notebook to jot down the wines you really like and some notes. Wine that you taste might work out well when you get home and would like to get another bottle at a substantial savings in the grocery store or Costco. These wine tasting only occur a couple of times on the ship and usually during at at sea day.

A field trip through the backstage of the theater used to be a common activity. It was cool to see that costume vaults of the broadway shows presented. A cast member or two from the Princess show would escort a small group of people for the backstage tour.  These cast members coincidentally are also the people behind the library openings, triva management and some of the craft stations.

A tour of the cooking area used to be a free event. In recent cruises, it cost extra to do this. It is an amazing chance to see where all of the food is made. A free on stage demonstration of the chefs best quick dish is always a fun event. The head chef in all his tall white hat area chefs demonstrate on the big stage something that they are proud to show off.

There are ice craving demos by the pool on every cruise. In 25 minutes seahorses or dolphins apear from a solid block of ice. 

Music to Listen to and to Watch

Every night on the big stage a quality act or broadway/Las Vegas show event is provided after your dinner. This means that there are shows pretty late as the late dinners start dinner at 8 o'clock.  The singers and dancers perform on stage to a medley of popular broadway songs about half of the nights. There other half are comedians and or small groups of musical performers. All through the ship there is karoke and nightclub acts going on too.  A popular piano bar plays sing a longs and people are drawn to this venue to do a Mitch Miller kind of thing.

Commercial Part Lecture

 Day before reaching a port, a member of the ships crew provides a lecture in the main theater to talk about buying possibilies a the port that your are approaching. A map is handed out that gives the shopper the layout for the cruise supported businesses. The map is great, the cruise supported businesses that is another thing. Diamonds International is a common cruise supported business. Look with a jaundice eye at the "fee" things offered by the supported businesses. 

The Princess Patter

With all of these things going on throughout the ship, how to you keep track? The ship will put in your communication slot right beside your room door a printed daily newspaper for the next day. It is usually in that spot before you go to dinner. In it will be a captain's blurb and a couple of advertising pieces too. Most of it is a blow by blow of what is going to happen the next day. It is vital to hang on to this as you plan your day. Additional copies of this may be obtained at the purser's desk.

Camera delights on the Alaskan Cruise

Coming from a family where my sisters joke that photography is a contact sport, it is always a concern regarding which cameras to bring on a trip. An Alaskan cruise is no exception.

Cell phones and the Cruise

Our new new obsession with smartphones comes with a serious unrealistic cost when used on or near the ship. While there is connection to your cell phone connections in Juneau, one should consider the cost of the roaming charges as they often do not relate to the same world of cell phones that we use in the lower 48 states to send to facebook of all of our finest selfies. My suggestion is that you disconnect the phone and put it in the cruise room safe while you are on the ship. Break it out to shoot a photo in Juneau make a call or two to find out about how things are at home and put it back again. Use your point and shoot USB oriented camera to take great photos of your adventure. When you return home to your familiar connections may be used upload those gems you would like to share from your computer's hard drive directly to your facebook account or sent to your friends. The savings here could be as much as 75 dollars.  If you plan to use your cellphone in Victoria plan on spending extra money on "foreign travel" connections. The Canadians have a different viewpoint regarding mobile (cellular) phones and it is considerably more expensive to jump into the middle of their system with your plan.. or the agreement of your plan with their plan for you.  If you plan to use your smart phone when you get off the ship, don't forget to bring its charger so that it will be in shape as you arrive back home. It is not a great way to stay in touch with your friends on the ship when you go ashore. It does come in handy as an entertainment source at the end of the cruise.  There is often a long wait to get off the ship (your color has to be called) and it is really nice to have a smart phone to call or to engage in the internet while you wait for the call after you have vacated your room. Being that you are back in the world of your cellphone contract it is great to connect with your "smartphone world."

Fancy Cameras

If you are a user of a great camera, such as a DSLR with fancy lenses, there is no reason not to take such a device. Weight is not an issue unless you are flying. The ship will allow you to bring as much wieght along as you want. The only restrictions are what you might want to carry comfortably on your excursions. This may also apply to the use of computers on the ship. Consider your computer laptop without the use of the internet. It can me used to write a blog or a diary or to process photos that you have taken. It can be used to play the music you want to hear or watch that movie that you have been wanting to watch but have not found the time to see. Use of your laptop in the ship's wifi connections will not save you money.

There will be some places that you will want to take great photos. The Alaskan trip has some unbeatable photographic opportunities. The movies can be priceless and some of the dramatic views including the inside passage and whales and sea otters and bald eagles and bears are subjects that you just do not want to pass up. Don't forget to turn on the anti vibration features.

Internet use on Ship

Hooking a computer up to the internet in a ship that is constantly moving its position is problematic and the cost of the service through the ship's IT is problematic too. There is a very effective computer lab that you can rent time to send emails and collect emails and even catch up on your favorite sites on the ship's computers. Sadly, effectiveness of this resource is at best is pretty slow. There are certain times were every computer in the library is used. The night before landing, people head for the computer to make changes in airline connections and flights. Our last cruise had a 2 dollar a minute charge for internet use. When considering the old AOL charge of 49 cents a minute as excessive it will give you pause.  Granted there are some packages that you can get a better deal in connection minutes especially on the first day on the cruise. Cruisers can buy a package that will allow you to use the computer and the internet or  use your laptop's wifi for 2, or 5 hours or 10 hours. Again everything is charged to your account and your room card so no money will change here until the ship lands and you "settle up" your charges the night before or agree to have the ship charge your account the amount they believe you have spent. Some people compose their emails by hand before they log on and send using the ship's internet connection. When you sign off the computer, the program will tell you how many minutes you have spent on the internet. In most cases the cost will also be revealed if you do not have a purchased plan. So get the plan the first day the price goes up on the 2nd day of the cruise. 

Skagway...The origin of the Skag?

The inside passage gets really wide, I am talking miles wide as it reaches the end of the Lynn
Canal in the northern areas of South East Alaska. The little town of Haines, made famous by the Porcupine gold mines and the Discovery Channel's weekly adventures in Gold Rush. Here the high school kid made the choice to become a gold rush mine owner over going to college. Haines is was  and the northern outpost of the army in World War II it is complete with the officers homes all looking the same and standing straight and tall in front of the parade grounds. But wait, this blog entry is about Skagway, the old time mining town across the miles of the Lynn Canal and just a little north.

Both Skagway and Haines are on the mainland of Alaska. They are the only cities in South Eastern Alaska that are connected by roads to the Alaskan Highway and the only ones that are not on islands.

Skagway and the White Pass and its Chilkoot trail is the place that Jack London uses as the setting for the novel White Fang. It is the landing spot that most of the Alaskan miners used to get to the Klondike mines. From Skagway, the miners had to haul their belongings up this steep narrow pathway to the Lake and proceed 430 miles by boat and other means to the Klondike gold mines.

The first 15 miles of trail up to the 2885 foot summit are paralleled by the White Pass train. A common excursion is a trip on this train. The venture takes the visitor up the pass along with about 12 to 14 other sightseeing railroad cars at one time. A commentary is provided over the PA as tales of Soapy Smith, the ultimate swindler are noted and his grave site is passed. The emergence of the trail is clearly identified as the train route constructed after the gold rush makes its way to the top. Passengers jam for the ends of the train to take photos and to minimize the distortion that the big glass windows produce on photography. It is an old time recreation and well worth the 90plus dollars apiece that this adventure costs. As the train crosses over into Canadian Territory, no stopping and getting off the train is permitted. Bathroom facilities are provided on the train. The train has some ventures with steam but most are diesel powered trains. Coming down is pretty exciting so I will leave that adventure to those that want to experience it themselves.

The White Pass pickup for the train is right at the dock whereas the town itself is about a half a mile away from the dock. Getting to the town itself may be done in the greatest of luxury with female buggy drivers in 1898 clothing ready to provide taxi service my horse.

The ship slides into a dock right up against the rocky cliff. The final cruise of many captains is documented by appropriate graffiti the celebrate the cruise ship captains last trip up there and the year that was completed. 

The town has 970 residents except during tourist season. 400 cruise lines visit this little town each summer. A free 45 minute walking tour of the historic district is provided by the National Park Service 5 times each day. The town is full of brothel museums and saloons that are waiting for the tourist dollar. I found a Time magazine that was pretty current at the newspaper/bookstore. As it is connected to the Alaskan Highway, 96 miles away, it becomes a small RV niche for those with RVs and a connection for them to get out of the center of British Columbia and get to the connection to the Pacific Ocean without using a ferry.As far as I could see, there didn't seem to be any whale watching marine oriented fishing trips or any thing along those lines offered. Some friends of mine rented a car and independently drove the route that the train took. There might be some savings there if you have to get up the canyon and don't want to use the train. My advice, save some money so that you can do the train. There are some amazing views along the way. We even saw some white Alaskan goats on a far away hill as we traveled up one time.

Haines is the step sister of the Skagway pair. By fast water boat it is 45 minutes each way. That is very doable. There is infact a boat rail package that you can buy for 175 that would include a trip on the fast boat over to haines an a trip on the train to the top of the White Pass.  Haines is a more realistic city. It has a bakery and grocery store and a number of "wilderness" excursions. Its biggest claim to fame is the bald eagle sanctuary. There are a few doo doo traps like the hammer museum. The sheldon museum in town is pretty cool. The docents there are primarily school teachers. The first year we went to Haines we could see the mechanics of a working salmon cannery. They were canning dog biscuits because it wasn't certified for salmon people consume. The last time were were there the cannery was not available for tour. There are some really cool atrists that work in Haines. The officers quarters are cool to see. They remind me of the houses at the Presido of San Francisco. Helicopter and seaplane adventures may be engaged here too.

You will like Haines or Skagway or both. Be adventuresome.. get off the ship!