Alaskan Cruise

[krakenmaniac]

I am going on a seven day cruise to the Alaskan Inside Passage on the Norwegian Jewel. I have a mini suite on deck eleven in the front of the ship. for excursions I am whale watching/Mendenhall Glacier tour in Juneau, in Skagway i am doing a dogsled tour, and in Ketchikan we haven't decided if we want to do a sea plane over the Misty Fjord or salmon fishing, and in Victoria we don't know what to do.

 

Any tips, comments or reviews of Alaska, the Jewel, or any excursions would be great!

Thank you

[shivtim]

I did a 4-day one-way cruise on Holland America. Started in Seward, with stops in Glacier Bay, Haines, Juneau, Ketchikan, and ending in Vancouver BC.

 

I'm sure you'll have an awesome time! A few tips:

-The water can be rough on Alaskan cruises. Even if you've done a Carribean cruise with no problem, you might want to pack some motion sickness medicine just in case.

-The Alaska Sealife Center in Seward is nice and worth going to if you like aquariums. The Seward Ale House is a little dive bar that's a good place to grab a beer. Both are walking distance from the cruise port and the train station.

-Ketchikan is a neat little town. Make sure to walk down the boardwalk on Creek Street. Very quaint. The Potlatch Bar is a hole in the wall local bar - great place to talk to people who live there instead of just wandering from one tourist shop to the next.

-If you stop in Haines, check out the Haines Brewing Company. It's a bit of a walk from the main part of town (maybe 20 minutes), but they have great beer and it's located on the remains of the set from the movie White Fang.

-Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau is great. Maybe not as picturesque as some of the glaciers you'll see from the cruise ship, but you can get much closer to it (and even walk on it). Alaskan Brewing Co in Juneau is really good, but you'll have to take a bus or taxi to get there. We took the bus and it was actually pretty easy.

-If you want to get good pictures, I recommend taking a camera with a good zoom. You'll see lots of marine life (whales, seals, etc) but they often won't be super close to the boat.

 

Are you going to have any time in Alaska outside of the cruise? I highly recommend getting a rental car and heading up to Denali National Park and/or checking out more of the Kenai Penninsula. Even the Dalton Highway if you have the time and guts.

 

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions. Have fun!

[jray21]

Never been on an Alaskan cruise but everyone seems to love them. Make sure you do a trip report, i'm interested in seeing how you like it.