I'm Gary Bembridge of Tips For Travellers. I'm going to tell you eight things the
brochures don't tell you about going on an Alaska cruise that I think you really
need to know. The first thing you need to know is about the weather - it's likely to
rain. The Alaska cruise season runs from May to September, and the real peak of
the rain is right in the busiest time. So assume if you go to Alaska that is going
to rain. Places like Ketchikan, for example, have over 300 days a year
of rain. But don't let that put you off. They're used to running tours and they're
used to dealing with travelers arriving when it is raining, and they can
run the tours in the rain - but just make sure that you are prepared with what you
pack, what you bring and what you wear to go on excursions. Do not let
that put you off, it is still absolutely magnificent and doesn't necessarily rain
all day every day. The second thing you need to know is you will be spending a
lot of time on the ship. So if you go on, for example, an Inside Passage cruise
there are two sea days andthere's also going to be at least one full day of
cruising through something like Glacier Bay in that seven days. So there's quite
a lot of time spent on the ship. Now of course the cruise lines know this and plan
lots of activities. The great news is the scenery, pretty much at all times of
cruising, is phenomenal so you do have lots to look at. The other thing you need
to know when going to Alaska is that it's incredibly busy. There are at least 29
ships in a season cruising Alaska and over 1.3 million people will cruise to Alaska
in that period from May to September. So which ever port you go to you likely to
have four or five ships there's. So there is going to be anything between 10,000 and 15,000
passengers. Bear in mind if you take a place like Skagway, which is one of the
most popular places to stop, they only have a summertime population of about
1,200 people. The ports, they're used to this and actually it doesn't feel that
crowded once you're there because once the ships arrive people are off on
excursions - and a lot of the excursions are heading off on float plans, they're
heading off on boats to go whale watching, so that they disperse quite
quickly. Don't let that put you off because what you see is phenomenal and
once you head off on your excursion you're going to feel much less crowded and
much less busy - because there are huge amounts of excursions. The fourth thing
you need to know is if you really want to go out and see things in Alaska,
excursions can be pretty expensive - because they are do involve relatively
expensive activities. Whether it's ships and boats going out to go whale watching or
whether it's helicopters taking you hiking on glaciers. Let me give you some
examples: a phenomenal dog sledding excursion by helicopter can cost as much
as $640. Whale watching over $150.
If you want to go on the Magnificent White Pass and Yukon railway,
which most people do, in the standard class that's gonna cost you about
$130 and if you go in the luxury it's gonna cost you over
$300. So you've got you fare of getting you to Alaska and then it is
going to cost you a lot if you really want to experience Alaska. The fifth thing is
about visiting Glacier Bay. Now Glacier Bay is a magnificent five-mile Inlet. It
has some of the most important and beautiful glaciers, however only two cruise
ships are allowed in per day. So a lot of the cruise lines do not head into Glacier
Bay because they just can't get in. Take a look for a cruise lines and itineraries
that are going to take you to Glacier Bay. So, for example, I went with Holland
America which has been traveling in Alaska for over 70 years and they take
you into Glacier Bay. The cruise lines and itineraries that don't go to Glacier
Bay are not going to tell you that you will be missing something magical. The next
thing I think to watch out for is souvenirs. Overall personally I was quite
disappointed with the souvenirs as I felt they were not that inspired and
they weren't as authentic as I'd like them to be. There are two things that
you need to look for if you're buying souvenirs, one at which is the bear logo
this means that it's made in Alaska or there's a hand logo which means that
it's authentic handcraft by the indigenous population. Do you look for
those two logos because it does mean that it's likely to be more authentic
and not made in China or whatever. The seventh thing to know about is Wi-Fi and
connectivity. It is not that great on cruise ships as Wi-Fi can be relatively expensive
but certainly once you get to the various ports you will not find lots of
free Wi-Fi places everywhere. There are little pockets of it and so if you
get to Skagway it is almost non-existent - even the one free Wi-Fi at the library
is awful. Your phone connection may be a little
bit erratic because of all the mountains. Bear in mind then for that week on
your Alaska cruise you are going to be relatively disconnected. The eighth thing that
I want to talk about, which they don't really warn you about, is if you're going
on Alaska cruise out of Vancouver you then of course are heading from
Canada into the United States - and passing through the whole
immigration process is quite a long and laborious process and quite slow. Because
on any one day in Vancouver you probably got two or three ships boarding, so I
what I recommend you do is actually try and check in
a little bit later towards the end of the day, obviously making sure you
do it in time before your cruise closes -then hopefully some of the lines
have gone down. Those are the eight things that I think that the brochures
don't tell you about Alaska that you do need to know. Going to Alaska is
absolutely magnificent and at least by knowing these eight things you can plan,
be prepared and make much more of your Alaska experience. If you enjoyed this
video what I'd like you to do is to watch many more of my Tips For Travellers
videos. I have lots of videos about Alaska and other travel topics and
you'll get much more travel inspiration, advice and tips.