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I'm also interested in things to do in Anchorage since we will have 2 nights there with a whole day to explore. We will most likely rent a car.

I don't have a hotel yet either but I think we are going to try booking an airbnb and save some money! (this will be a new experience for us)

We will be flying into anchorage 2 days before the cruise, so we have a whole day to do something while we are there but don't have any land tours planned.

I have a Southbound cruise booked on Princess for July with stops in Skagway, Juneau, and Ketchican.

I wanted to do a dog sledding encounter but have a pretty tight budget, I thought I'd seen somewhere a dog sled encounter where you don't actually go sledding but just meet the dogs basically. I may have been looking through a different cruiseline at that time. So now I'm wondering if anyone knows of something similar to this that I could book on my own?

I've been trying to increase my fruit and veggies and get rid of some carbs in my diet. I've discovered a few replacements over the last couple weeks that I was shocked how much I love! I'd love to hear more suggestions! Here are some of my successes:

I've been throwing a 3lb bag of chicken in the crockpot at the beginning of every week with a little coconut oil and some italian seasoning, cook for 8 hours, shreds up easily and I weight it out into 100gm portions through salads throughout the week. (My new favorite salad is lettuce, tomatoes, crushed melba toast, 2tbsp of BBQ sauce, and chicken, mixed well, it has a little crunch and I LOVE BBQ:)

I cut radishes in half and threw them in my crockpot with a roast and carrots in place of potatoes and they were "amazing" per my husband, tasted almost just like potatoes! Each radish has like 1 calorie in it!

I've used cauliflower to make spicy chicken "rice": (I've tried the cauliflower mashed potatoes before and my children thought they were disgusting and I was unimpressed)

200 g shredded chicken breast

1 cup chicken broth

1 head cauliflower (chopped into tiny rice size pieces, possible in food processor or grated like cheese)

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp garlic powder

Mix it all together and cook until cauliflower is soft and most of water has been cooked out. There's approximately 200 calories in this whole recipe :)

Thanks everyone for the replies, it is so helpful! I'm sure we will be booking the lido inside room :)

I'd love to have a verandah room but due to budget it is not an option. I usually would have no issue with an interior room but for Alaska it's different, I'm sure you all understand! I know there's been a lot of discussion about verandah vs. interior and so on but verandah is out of the question unless I win the lottery before July, but since I never play I won't plan on it!

I was thinking if I got a Lido room we would at least be just a few feet away from deck space to easily enjoy the views. I am wondering if any one else has any experience with the lido rooms. Any pros or cons, are the decks usually crowded with other passengers trying to get a good view? Should I be concerned about noise level here? Any one having any experience with motion sickness problems on the lido deck?

We will probably be sailing on the Grand Princess.

I'd love to have a verandah room but due to budget it is not an option. I usually would have no issue with an interior room but for Alaska it's different, I'm sure you all understand! I know there's been a lot of discussion about verandah vs. interior and so on but verandah is out of the question unless I win the lottery before July, but since I never play I won't plan on it!

I was thinking if I got a Lido room we would at least be just a few feet away from deck space to easily enjoy the views. I am wondering if any one else has any experience with the lido rooms. Any pros or cons, are the decks usually crowded with other passengers trying to get a good view? Should I be concerned about noise level here? Any one having any experience with motion sickness problems on the lido deck?

We will probably be sailing on the Grand Princess.

I haven't actually tried this yet but I have pinned several "boot camp" style workouts on Pinterest b/c I can't afford to go to bootcamp. I think I may start doing them this week though!

Thanks for those links! I can't wait to snorkel in Alaska now either, DH looked at me like I was crazy when I mentioned it! LOL

DH and I plan to go to Alaska for our 10 year anniversary in July 2015. I was just wondering when those itineraries are usually released? We will probably be booking with carnival.

I want to get it booked as soon as we can to make sure we can be on the ship on our anniversary :) I also wanna be able to pay for it, don't want the money I've saved to burn a whole in my pocket... lol