ALASKA on the Legend 7/5/16 - 7-12-16

My wife and I have been on several cruises, but we finally get to cross something off our bucket list. We have booked ALASKA. Don't know what to expect, and we are looking for ideas on excursions etc... Really, I just want to fish one day, then I am open after that. I hear they have fake crab fishing and gold mining stuff available, but that is not what I am looking for. Just want to do something different.

We live in Florida, so we are wondering what type of clothing do we bring? Is it going to be chilly even in July?

I am sure I will have more questions, but I would appreciate some help with my opening few.

Look on the Alaska board for packing lists and excursion advice. The best clothing advice is to be an onion--dress in layers.

Check out the roll call.

We live in Florida, so we are wondering what type of clothing do we bring? Is it going to be chilly even in July?

By Florida standards, I would say yes. Daytime temps average low to mid 60's, but it can get warmer than that sometimes.

we cruised a few years ago in middle June and were in coats and sweaters the whole cruise. Pack in layers.

We had friends who went fishing in Juneau. Check out the Alaska board lots of suggestions.

You'll love this cruise

My DH went fishing in Ketchikan in Sept 2011. He will be doing that again in Sept 2016, for sure. That was the highlight of his Alaska cruise..

In September we used our all weather coat, sweaters and fleece jackets. Layers is the best idea!

We cruised Alaska via the Spirit a few summers ago in July also.

It snizzled/drizzled pretty much the entire cruise (unlucky us).

It was still beautiful and magical! We wonder how great it must be in the sun!

A rain jacket with a hood, baseball hat with waterproofed bill and waterproof comfortable shoes made our cruise an easy one.

Layers under that.

We also waterproofed a couple of heavy duty string packs for our day bags and they worked out perfectly.

There are many fantastic excursions in Alaska & you are sure to find many you would enjoy.

As an idea, here's what we did:

We did take the Carnival Excursion to leave ship on a tour boat and view the glaciers & wildlife up close....this is expensive, but worth it!

In Juneau we did a whale watching tour via a non-ship local vendor (smaller boat with like 10 people) and it was fantastic.

For Skagway, we to the ferry to Haines and took a local gold mine tour and had them drop us off the local airport to meet pilot Fly Drake, who took us on the best excursion of our lives, flying over the glaciers, in the mountains, saw mountain goats, etc...

All 4 in our party agree that it was absolutely the most beautiful scenery of our lives.

Afterwards it let us off at the Skagway airport & we rented a Jeep and drove to the Canadian border, etc.... Best day ever!

In Ketchikan we rented a Harley and a guide ($20 extra) and rode around seeing different sights. We really enjoyed the Potlach Totem Pole place which is very cool & educational too. Amazing that it takes years to make them & they are worth a lot of money. Beautiful port.

In Victoria, we had one of the Carriage Companies meet us at port and took a 2 hr Carriage ride. We loved it and Victoria & plan to return via land for a better look as this beautiful city.

As others have stated, there is an overwhelming amount of information to be had in the Alaska boards & many very helpful knowledgable cruisers to answer your questions.

Enjoy your Alaska cruise---the most beautiful awe inspiring cruise on earth.

WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

I did Alaska last year in late June and am also from Florida. The weather was chilly, but I was fine in shorts and a t-shirt a lot of the time. I just always had my sweatshirt or insulated rain jacket with me. I did 3 days in Seattle to explore and the weather there was perfect.

For excursions we booked the Tracy Arm Fjord Explorer which was incredible. In Skagway we did an 8 hour tour going on a scenic train in B.C. and then on a bus into the Yukon, this day was fantastic as well and was probably the coldest(at certain parts like welcome to Alaska sign due to how high up it is). We did this with Chilkoot Charters. I would definitely use them again.

Juneau was fun and we did a city tour, Mendenhall Glacier and whale sightseeing tour with Juneau Tours. This was a good day. It felt a bit rushed but we were only in port until like 2 or 3 pm.

Ketchikan you have so many options. We just decided to walk around and explore the town. There are signs everywhere pointing you in the direction of where points of interest are.

Victoria not so many options and short port time but definitely get off the ship. There is a shuttle ran by the port (I believe) that drives you to downtown Victoria for like $10 round trip. This is what we did. It was actually kind of Warm this evening, maybe because were south of Alaska now. This area was amazing. It has a very European feel to it. I'm very happy to have gotten off the ship here. We just walked around a few hours and went back to the ship to get ready to go home the next morning.

This was an excellent cruise. Very quiet too which I loved. Some people used the pool some never wanted to go outside.

For clothes I'd pack a few pairs of jeans, some shorts, long and short sleeve shirts, a sweatshirt and insulated rain jacket. Some people recommend waterproofed shoes but I saw no need for that, based off of the excursions I did.

Overall this was a fantastic trip and would do it again should the opportunity present itself at the right time.