cmmaxwell03

Holy moly...it HAS to be my lunch time for sure. I was like "Ooohhh waffles" oh boy!

Thank you @Arkiepig Work is a little boring today and your planning has brightened my day. We will be in Anchorage in less than 2 weeks. I am happy to provide feedback on the 3 places we hope to eat: Glacier Brewhouse (dinner), Snow City Cafe (breakfast), and Crow's Nest (fancy anniversary dinner). I need to find a way to work in the International Hot Dog place...it sounds awesome! In Seward, we are doing a wildlife cruise in Resurrection Bay through the cruise line. I will see if I can find out what company they use. I was curious about something...is your cruise in both Kenai and Res Bay? I have not researched it (shocker, I know...lol) but I thought they were 2 different places. I saw you mention a dog sledding tour. We found one in Anchorage that includes a helicopter ride up to a glacier. It's through Alaska Helicopter Tours (super original name, haha).

I realized I'm WAY too excited when I see a new post to this thread 💕

Did they offer any wine or spirits tasting events?

I have always heard, that if there are not pictures, it did not happen 😂

My DH and I will stand out since we think we will be some of the young'uns onboard, so maybe we should also be the "robe" people. Haha. Is that taking one for the team? Will it make me CC famous? Is that a thing, haha. (btw, I am totally kidding. We are rule followers to a fault.)

Seems as though we are all ready to move on from the dress code topic 🤣 @dd57 and @Murt22 Are you excited for your scenic sailing at Hubbard Glacier today?

You have a great memory 😀 We are taking the train in from Anchorage. We arrive around 11:15am. It will be awesome to have time to discover the layout and get our bearings while there are minimal people onboard. Thanks again for all the info 🙂 I am hoping to do a "live" report but it sounds like the internet is crapola, haha.

I appreciate the reposting of the rules. However, I would like someone who has been on an AK cruise this year to weigh in on the topic. I have read many times that AK cruises are much more casual so I believe the OP has a valid question.

That's awesome that they charter the whole boat! I did not realize the excursion included a bus ride and I'm relieved to hear it's a short one. I promised my DH we would not be on any lengthy bus rides LOL. Thank you again for the information 🙂

Thanks for the info. We are also signed up for the Resurrection Bay Cruise. What is the size of the group on the excursion?

Thanks for the update! I have been keeping an eye on the ship's camera and the weather has looked great! We are 17 days out 😉

....Except herpies....that stuff will come back with you (from the movie The Hangover in reference to Las Vegas)

Most days there will be a line out the door and a wait. However you might find it is worthwhile. Keep in mind that most if not all crab will be previously frozen. Tracy's has a 2nd location that is a little further in town but it is a food stand with outdoor seating as opposed to the restaurant. There are multiple places for crab in Juneau. While I was researching I used a combo of Google maps (looked up Juneau cruise port) and then checked the restaurants I found on Yelp or TripAdvisor after checking their menu.

I'm groaning as I hope it wasn't a password accidentally placed in the wrong spot

We arrive in Anchorage on the afternoon of the 5th. Seattle isn't too bad. We live about an hour south of there 🙂

Looks like the Orion is having a beautiful day at Hubbard Glacier today (based on the boat cam) https://viking.panomax.com/orion#

This will crack y'all up! 10 days ago we could start our 'Comfort Check In' online for our cruise. I have been putting it off because they want us to upload pictures of each of to use on our cruise cards....It's been warm lately and I have had my hair up in a ponytail, braid, etc for the last 15 days. So...in all my urgency to plan and have everything be a "perfect" as possible...I have not completed this step because I have not fixed my hair HA! I was in a rush to purchase flights and make other reservations but apparently THIS can wait. LOL

You have come to the right place on the AK forum 😄

We booked the Marriott on our own. All extensions were sold out but that’s okay. Gives us a chance to do what we want.

@Murt22 I saw on your Roll Call that you were delayed. Did you make it into Anchorage at a decent time? Excited for your trip!

I think I saw some videos on Youtube about this when I was trying to find information on Taku Lodge.

I think it will depend on what you are doing while on your cruise. We opted for some waterproof Keens. Our excursions include the following: Helicopter ride and Dog Sledding (in snow) Wildlife cruise Seaplane & Taku Lodge Zodiak ride & Fin Island Lodge Bering Sea Fisherman tour and walking around/time on our own in Valdez and Haines For us, it made sense to invest in the shoes because we know we will use them again in our regular home life. We both have Keens from 5-7 years ago that have been well used. Due to purchasing the shoes, we decided to use backpacks that we already owned to be our packs on port days. They are water resistant but not fully waterproof. We plan on using Camp Dry spray to add another layer of protection.

Hi @limu1 Happy to see another planner getting started. I have been part of another planning thread on the Alaska forum and it could be helpful. It covers a few different cruise lines but the planning discussions are pretty good. Our cruise leaves out of Seward next month. We chose a southbound cruise leaving from Seward for a few reasons: Boarding is Seward is easy peasy. It is much less crowded than boarding in Seattle or Vancouver. Southbound sailings will normally go through the Inside Passage during daylight hours as opposed to those that head northbound and usually go through the Passage overnight. We prioritized itineraries with Glacier Bay and the Inside Passage. Seeing Glacier Bay is obviously going to be an experience. And since it was included, we plan on skipping Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau to do something else we are interested in. Our reason for choosing to go through the Passage was for 2 reasons...It's beautiful and the waters are more calm. I spent a LOT of time reading through random posts here on CC and found that most people that did not sail through the Passage reported rougher seas between Seattle and their first port in AK. In regards to your pre cruisetour....any chance you like planning enough to skip what's offered by the cruise line? I know you mentioned you might not want to do the planning but it could be worthwhile to review feedback on those cruisetours here on the forums and then decide if you want to plan it on your own. I do not know the prices offered but I enjoyed planning our pre cruise portion and including on the items that I thought we would enjoy to experience. We were not interested in going to Denali after I had read so many others talk about the experience being hit or miss. We are heading to Anchorage a few days before and then heading to Seward via the Alaskan Railroad. We opted for the Gold Star class so that we could have the train car with the glass dome. I also splurged and we are doing a helicopter flight/dog sled excursion out of Anchorage with a company called Alaska Helicopter Tours. I thought it might be worth it to have a 'flight' excursion that was in a little different climate as opposed to those that are offered along the coastline. Not sure if Youtube is your thing, but I have found a wealth of knowledge regarding Alaska, cruises, pre cruisetours, and excursions. I liked watching videos of the excursions to see what to expect. NCL has their own channel that discusses excursions so that could be helpful...but possibly biased. Sorry for the long ramble...I LOVE to plan trips. Probably missed my calling as a pro travel planner but then I would not get to experience the results of my planning 🙂 The forums are a great source of information and so many experienced travels are eager to help you plan and share their experiences. I recommend making a list of topics to search for in the Alaska forum and the NCL specific forum.

Oh, if you need more planning you could always research what other cruise lines will be in port at the same time as yours. I was curious to know how many passengers would be swarming the towns at the same time we were in port. In the picture below, I used my cruise line website and the 2 others listed to find out everything in the chart. It's totally overkill but scratched the "planning" itch 🙂