Alaska Questions

KatieKepic

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Oct 5, 2015
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164
We're planning on booking an Alaskan cruise when the next release comes out for summer 2027. It will be our family of 4 (teens wil be 17 & 19) and my sister and her family of 4 (kids will be 10 & 7).

We are trying to decide on the best time to go. We are stuck with school/college calendars so we're looking at mid-June through early August. We're mostly hoping for wildlife viewings (particularly whales & bears). From what I read, it looks like July might be our best bet?

For dining, is early or late better for Alaska? Looking at the port times for the 2026 sailings, I'm thinking late to maximize our time in the ports?

Also, room location. How hard are the aft verandahs to get, especially if we're needing 2?

And I know we have ample time to look at excursions but figure I'll ask now to start looking. Any excursions that you loved? Any you'd avoid or wouldn't do again? We prefer to book private and not PAs through DCL. The expception would be the Glacier Explorer. If you've done that one (DG01), what did you think? Worth it?

And anything you wish you knew before you did went? I'll take any advice :)
 
We did the first sailing in May and saw lots of whales. You didn't need to go on whale watching trip they were everywhere. We also saw a mama bear and her cubs and two other bear sightings on our whale watching trip. I think the bears make there way down to the water that time of year. We went in September and saw no wildlife at all. A lot of it's just luck.
I would go mid June to mid July because there is less rain and days are the longest.

I thought the glacier explorer was worth it. That's actually when we saw the Mama and her cubs. We did segways in Juneau and ATV's in Ketchikan, Whale watching in Icy straight. We booked everything except the explorer through Alaska shore excursions.

We had a forward sideways inside room it was fine. We always do late dining.
 
We did the first sailing in May and saw lots of whales. You didn't need to go on whale watching trip they were everywhere. We also saw a mama bear and her cubs and two other bear sightings on our whale watching trip. I think the bears make there way down to the water that time of year. We went in September and saw no wildlife at all. A lot of it's just luck.
I would go mid June to mid July because there is less rain and days are the longest.

I thought the glacier explorer was worth it. That's actually when we saw the Mama and her cubs. We did segways in Juneau and ATV's in Ketchikan, Whale watching in Icy straight. We booked everything except the explorer through Alaska shore excursions.

We had a forward sideways inside room it was fine. We always do late dining.
Very helpful, thank you! We were debating doing a whale excursion in Juneau so I'm glad to know we'll be able to see them without having to book an excursion. There's so many things we want to do/see, I'm having a hard time picking :)

We typically do late dining as well unless traveling with my sister, then we've done early. Since her kids will be older on this one, I'm thinking we may be able to make late work.
 
We went in mid June. Weather was fantastic but we didn't see any bears. We were told it was still a bit early as the salmon run hadn't started. We did see whales, other sea life, and bald eagles. Leaving Juneau, we had the best whale sightings from the boat.

We had early dining and still felt like we had more than enough time in port. I love the long port days in Alaska, we had a blast.

As far as excursions go, we loved the train in Skagway and also the rainforest guided nature hike in Ketchikan. We did a tour in Juneau that took us to the glacier, a salmon hatchery, and the Alaska state museum. We didn't feel like we had enough time in any place (except the hatchery, could've skipped that). I'd either pick a different tour next time or just ride share to the glacier and museum, both of which we thought were well worth the time. At each port we found local places to eat at with no trouble. I don't think I talked to a single person who thought their excursion was a waste. Even the one that we didn't love was still really good, it just fell to last place because the other two were so fantastic. We did not do the Glacier Explorer, but I did see that those folks were able to get much closer to it than the ship did.

It's not really an excursion for the cruise, but I highly recommend coming into Vancouver a few days early. It's such a friendly, fun city. We especially loved Capilano Suspension Bridge park.

On our cruise, the aft cabins were the last to book up. If you book early, you'll have no problem getting two together. We thought the verandah was totally worth it, especially on glacier day.

My best advice is to invest in really good waterproof shoes that you can walk in. We did a lot of walking/hiking and had amazing weather all but one day, but that one day we all had dry feet. Also, we preferred fleece under a waterproof jacket rather than our puffer coats. Easy to adjust to changing temps and plenty warm.
 

We went in mid June. Weather was fantastic but we didn't see any bears. We were told it was still a bit early as the salmon run hadn't started. We did see whales, other sea life, and bald eagles. Leaving Juneau, we had the best whale sightings from the boat.

We had early dining and still felt like we had more than enough time in port. I love the long port days in Alaska, we had a blast.

As far as excursions go, we loved the train in Skagway and also the rainforest guided nature hike in Ketchikan. We did a tour in Juneau that took us to the glacier, a salmon hatchery, and the Alaska state museum. We didn't feel like we had enough time in any place (except the hatchery, could've skipped that). I'd either pick a different tour next time or just ride share to the glacier and museum, both of which we thought were well worth the time. At each port we found local places to eat at with no trouble. I don't think I talked to a single person who thought their excursion was a waste. Even the one that we didn't love was still really good, it just fell to last place because the other two were so fantastic. We did not do the Glacier Explorer, but I did see that those folks were able to get much closer to it than the ship did.

It's not really an excursion for the cruise, but I highly recommend coming into Vancouver a few days early. It's such a friendly, fun city. We especially loved Capilano Suspension Bridge park.

On our cruise, the aft cabins were the last to book up. If you book early, you'll have no problem getting two together. We thought the verandah was totally worth it, especially on glacier day.

My best advice is to invest in really good waterproof shoes that you can walk in. We did a lot of walking/hiking and had amazing weather all but one day, but that one day we all had dry feet. Also, we preferred fleece under a waterproof jacket rather than our puffer coats. Easy to adjust to changing temps and plenty warm.
So helpful, thank you! I think we'll target July, I would like to have the best chance of bears and my son wants to see the salmon jump. I appreciate the excursion info. Which train did y'all do in Skagway? I was looking at the Yukon Rail one.

We're planning on flying into Seattle, spending a few days there, taking the train to Vancouver and staying 2-3 nights there. The suspension bridge is definitely on my list. If there's anything else y'all enjoyed-places, hotel, restaurants, etc, I'd love to hear.

I'm so glad to hear about the aft balconies.

Thank you for the packing advice. Very helpful.
 
Very helpful, thank you! We were debating doing a whale excursion in Juneau so I'm glad to know we'll be able to see them without having to book an excursion. There's so many things we want to do/see, I'm having a hard time picking :)

We typically do late dining as well unless traveling with my sister, then we've done early. Since her kids will be older on this one, I'm thinking we may be able to make late work.
I don't know if you'll be able to see them without booking a whale excursion or if you'll see bears even during prime season. It's really does come down to luck and being in the right place at the right time. I would look for a week with the best price, during the drier months. Nothing is guaranteed when it comes to wildlife.

We got really lucky seeing so many bears in May. I've seen plenty of bears up close when I lived in the mountains. It was nice to see them from a boat and not having to worry about getting attacked. We got a lot pictures and my heart was not racing in fight or flight mode.
 



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