Eurodam Alaskan 7 day cruise from Seattle

Leaving this week for 1 week port intensive cruise on Holland America Eurodam and would appreciate any suggestions regarding excursions. My wife has severe motion sickness so any small boat, airplane or helicopter tours are out. Also our 9 year old daughter will be traveling with us.

Our itinerary is as follows:

Monday 7/31

Juneau, Alaska, US

Arrive: 1:00 PM

Depart: 10:00 PM

Tuesday 8/1

Glacier Bay

Arrive: 7:00 AM*

Depart: 4:00 PM

Wednesday 8/2

Sitka, Alaska, US

Arrive: 7:00 AM*

Depart: 3:30 PM

Thursday 8/3

Ketchikan, Alaska, US

Arrive: 7:00 AM*

Depart: 1:00 PM

Friday 8/4

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Arrive: 6:00 PM*

Depart: 11:59 PM

Again any recommendations are highly appreciated.

Thanks

Welcome to Cruise Critic!

First, please know that the ship offers motion sickness medication for free. They call it Sea Calm which is really meclizine. I also recommend that your wife get Sea Bands which are placed around the wrist on both arms; it uses accupressure to keep the nausea down. Both have worked for me.

For excursions, in Juneau, the whale watching through HAL is on a larger catamaran. The boat stays mainly in a bay so it's not too rough. It's a great tour and you're pretty much guaranteed to see whales. I've done it a couple of times and have never gotten sick.

In Sitka, I recommend going to the Raptor Centre. I did this with a HAL tour but I believe it can be easily done on your own. Check out the Alaska forum for advice on how to do that.

In Ketchikan, I recommend the Bering Sea Crab Fisherman's tour. Again, it's on a boat - the Aleutian Ballard of Deadliest Catch fame. It's a great educational tour, although it is a little campy at times. The crab and other sea life you will see are pre-caught and kept in traps for the tours. I believe the boat will be big enough for your wife to handle; again, I had no issues but I did wear my sea bands.

In Victoria, you could walk around downtown or take a ships tour to Butchart Gardens. That won't really give you a lot of time to do the gardens justice (last time we were there it was for 5 hours (including tea, though) but if this is your only chance to see Butchart Gardens, take it.

Enjoy your cruise!

Welcome!!

I am extremely susceptible to motion sickness as well - Meclizine (trade names: Bonine and Less Drowsy Drammamine) work wonders for me. Ideally she would chew two tablets the night before any anticipated events she might need it. We will be on the same Eurodam itinerary in September and we've heard that the first sea day out of Seattle could be a little rougher as she sails a little out into the open ocean so just be prepared.

We have a combo whale watching/Mendenhall Glacier tour scheduled for Juneau with a possible tram ride up Mt Roberts

In Sitka, we plan on taking the Blue bus out to the Fortress of the Bear and then visiting Sitka National Historical Park, the Russian Bishop's House, St Michaels and St Peters as well as the Russian cemetery

In Ketchikan, we're thinking Dolly's museum and then just walking around town - want to see the salmon run through town.

In Victoria we're just going to walk the inner harbor and head into downtown to check things out.

Check out the Alaska part of the Port of Call section here in CC and have fun!

I second the Ketchikan excursion - Aleiutian Ballard - the amazing part is when they go to and feed the eagles in the Tlingit (spelling is probably wrong) native area. It was amazing!!

I would also go to the the Butchard gardens. Easy walking and excellent botanical gardens.

The Tklinget natives run tours in Sitka. Much less cost if you want to see Fortress of the Bear and the Raptor center. It's a close-in bus ride and they have multiple buses. Not need to fear not getting back to the ship.

Thanks for the feedback, any thoughts about booking ahead of time versus at the Port? Is a disadvantage or risk in waiting?

we did that cruise several years ago with our children and we all loved it. Our kids were 10 and 6 at the time and still talk about going back, which we'd love to do someday.

In Juneau we did a whale watching tour, which was great.

In Sitka we did the tour with the raptor center, fortress of the bears, which were really neat.

The best tour was in Ketchikan and was the Bearing fishing tour. The kids loved it and got to touch a lot of sea animals and see them feed the eagles.

We booked when we got on the ship and the only problem we had was that the Juneau tour had two times, and the early time was sold out.