Suitable Alaska excursions with a baby

[TheChanClan]

Hi everyone,
I'm new here, but have lurked around for a while. My husband and I have cruised before, on both DCL and non-DCL. We are booked on the Wonder's Alaskan Cruise in early September this year. We'll be bringing our 14month old daughter with us (her first time cruising).

I'm just wondering if anyone who's familiar with the Alaskan Disney excursions if they could suggest some that would be suitable to bring our daughter along with us. There are so many different excursions to choose from at each port of call that I need some guidance! I would assume she would be walking by then, but I would either wear her or use a stroller while we're off the ship. I just would hate to commit to something and realize too late that it would be inappropriate for a young child.

I would love to do some sort of whale watching, and/or hiking activities. Thanks for any suggestions you might have!

happy cruising!
-Lindsay

PS. I did try to use the search function to see if there was a similar thread, but I didn't exactly find what I was looking for.

 

[lilpooh108]

Hi there,

I have a 2YO and a 5YO. We did the DCL Alaskan when my DD1 was 3. Here were our excursions:

Juneau -- we got dropped by DCL at the tramway stop and took one of the many glacier buses to Mendenhall Glacier ($8/pp each way). My suggestion is to NOT buy the return ticket from the same company. The buses all drop at the same place, so if your baby gets fussy or you want to leave you can just pay cash for the bus that's waiting there instead of having to wait for the bus company for which you paid. HOpe that makes sense.

The Mendenhall glacier visitor center has really clean bathrooms for diaper changing and Purell stations everywhere. Leave the stroller at home. You should probably wear your baby here.

We then walked to Tracy's Crab shack and had some great king crab legs. Yelp them if you haven't heard of them yet

Skagway -- our 3YO was not going to sit tight on an 8 hour excursion in the train though this is what most people do. We did a non-DCL excursion through a separate company for a City Tour and mini-bus ride up pass the Canada border. It follows the same scenery as the train does and includes a few photo stops. My 3YO (who was still in diapers) appreciated the stops since she got to run around and I could change her diaper during the breaks.

Ketchikan -- we walked to Creek Street to watch the Salmon, then took a cable car thing up to a lodge to look at some totem poles. There isn't much to do in town (we aren't log show kind of people) so we just shopped around and got back on. There are quite a few tours that operate here for bear watching, etc. We didn't do that. We also used the stroller it was easy to use in Ketchikan.

I would bring some benadryl or whatever your pediatrician approves for motion sickness if you want to do whale watching on a smaller boat. We did Positano last year with our then 1 year-old and she got quite motion-sick from the drive. I didn't realize babies could get that motion-sick, so it's better to be prepared than to have your kid puke during whale watching. Small boats bother me quite a bit so YMMV.

Have fun!

 

[TheChanClan]

Thank you! That's helpful!

Anyone do things differently?

 

[ready2 cruise]

We have a 3 and 6 by the time we sail this summer.
We are doing in Juneau doing to the glacier maybe on our own on the bus a and doing the summer dog excursion,in Skagway doing the Liarsville with characters and Ketchekan the duck bus/boat tour.
None of these I would choose if my kids were older or I were going without kids. I would love to do the train in Skagway but there is no way my kids will sit and enjoy a long train ride. Same with whale watching, after about an hour , maybe 2, they will start going crazy on the boat. Would love to do the helicopter tours but We don't want to pay the full price for he kids, as they are pretty expensive and don't think our 3 and 6 year old will fully appreciate it. Next time when they are older.

 

[TheChanClan]

I too would love to do the train ride in Skagway, but I'm sure my daughter wouldn't be up for it. I can just picture her wanting to run up and down the aisles, annoying everyone..

It's just so hard to predict what she'll be like. She's not even walking yet, but will be by the time we cruise. who knows what she'll be okay with or not okay with.

Any previous Alaskan cruisers take their young children along? What did they enjoy?

 

[buck4568]

Look into the Jeep Excursion! We did it in Skagway, nice experience with drive inland, saw lots of bear!

 

[Freesia123]

I was booked on the character experience but it returns to the ship at 11:30. I'm not super interested in a 10 am salmon bake...

 

[TheChanClan]

Look into the Jeep Excursion! We did it in Skagway, nice experience with drive inland, saw lots of bear!

I agree with you, the Jeep Excursion would be amazing!! But we're not planning on bringing a car seat with us, so that's out.

I was booked on the character experience but it returns to the ship at 11:30. I'm not super interested in a 10 am salmon bake...

Are you referring to Liarsville? I looked into that as a possibility. My daughter is still too young to really watch/pay attention to anything let alone a disney movie, so she won't know who/what the disney characters are. Actually, I think she'd be more freaked out by it than anything. I also wasn't too interested in a 10am salmon bake, hah.


One excursion we've pretty much agreed on is the Skagway Sled Dog and Musher's camp. DD likes dogs, and it sounds like it would be entertaining for all of us.

 

[misseulalie]

Or... you can do what we are doing next week and leave the baby in the nursery while you go on an excursion. Our some will be 2 and I'm sure he will have a better time in the nursery than being dragged around town.

(As our 4 and 6 year old did on the Med. they didn't want to leave the clubs when we returned)

 

[TheChanClan]

Or... you can do what we are doing next week and leave the baby in the nursery while you go on an excursion. Our some will be 2 and I'm sure he will have a better time in the nursery than being dragged around town.

(As our 4 and 6 year old did on the Med. they didn't want to leave the clubs when we returned)

While it's nice to know that we have that option, I would prefer to have her with us for the excursions. I know that limits what we can do, but I would be constantly thinking about her at the nursery and wouldn't fully enjoy myself. However, my mother is joining us on this trip, and so we might have her watch her for a bit while DH and I go do a helicoptor ride or something I know my mom wouldn't be down to do.

All this talk and thinking about the excursions has us so excited!!

 

[edith76]

We just returned from the 9 day Alaska cruise. 3 of the 4 excursions we did had a family with an under 2 yr old. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone. The White Pass Railway was especially bad because between the train and bus ride you are in an enclosed space with a screaming child. We also did the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watch, and Rainforest and Raptor Center. On these, the crying seemed to affect the bus ride to and from rather than the actual tour and only because on these everyone was able to put some space between themselves and the unhappy toddlers. Something to think about.

 

[misseulalie]

We just returned from the 9 day Alaska cruise. 3 of the 4 excursions we did had a family with an under 2 yr old. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone. The White Pass Railway was especially bad because between the train and bus ride you are in an enclosed space with a screaming child. We also did the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watch, and Rainforest and Raptor Center. On these, the crying seemed to affect the bus ride to and from rather than the actual tour and only because on these everyone was able to put some space between themselves and the unhappy toddlers. Something to think about.

I agree. I promise you, your child will have more fun in the nursery than on any of the excursions. It is very safe and all the staff are experienced and well trained. Maybe try one excursion with your child, keep your daughter with grandma one day, and put her in the nursery the other day?

 

[TheChanClan]

We just returned from the 9 day Alaska cruise. 3 of the 4 excursions we did had a family with an under 2 yr old. It was not a pleasant experience for anyone. The White Pass Railway was especially bad because between the train and bus ride you are in an enclosed space with a screaming child. We also did the Mendenhall Glacier and Whale Watch, and Rainforest and Raptor Center. On these, the crying seemed to affect the bus ride to and from rather than the actual tour and only because on these everyone was able to put some space between themselves and the unhappy toddlers. Something to think about.

Thank you for posting your experience. I certainly don't want to prevent others from having a good time on the excursions. Clearly I'm putting in a lot of thought as to what we do. I don't want to go into anything blindly and have it turn into a disaster for not only ourselves, but for the other families with us.

I agree. I promise you, your child will have more fun in the nursery than on any of the excursions. It is very safe and all the staff are experienced and well trained. Maybe try one excursion with your child, keep your daughter with grandma one day, and put her in the nursery the other day?

That sounds like a good idea

 

[pouncingpluto]

We cruised Alaska when DD was 15 weeks. We only took her on one excursion with us--the one where we took a train up through mountains to Canada and then took a bus back down and made a few stops (sorry, it had been three years, and I don't remember which port was which). We left DD in the nursery when we did a floatplane and when we went to Mendenhall glacier/whale watching.

The nursery staff was wonderful. We did use DCL excursions when we left her there, because we wanted to be as reachable as possible for nursery staff.