glennzippy

We are scheduled out of Boston for Oct 9 on the Serenade of the Seas. I'm starting to wonder where they would possibly re-route us based on what the itinerary was. Not a whole lot of places in the NE that are going to be out of the path of this thing that I can see!

You sometimes have to be creative. Much of it will depend on where you are wanting to cruise to.

My wife and I had a day in Juneau where we only spent about $14 between the two of us:

- At breakfast we took a plate of food back to our cabin and packed up lunch. Bringing zip-lock bags helps with this.

- We took the bus ($2 each) to Mendenhal Glacier and had a nice walk (the bus stop is about half a mile from the visitor's center). We saw the film and spent a little time at the glacier. ($3 each)

- On the walk back, we saw three black bears (free!)

- We took another bus ($2 each) to the Alaskan brewery and did their tour (Free but with free bee samples, and they were generous with the samples)

- We met a couple and struck up a conversation with them and discovered that they were from Colorado as well. They offered to take us back to the pier and along the way we stopped off to see the salmon spawning.

At dinner, we told our table mates about our day and they were all stunned at how much we had squeezed in and for so little. On another day, we decided to rent a car, and we had a blast exploring on our own.

Think outside the box. There's no reason you HAVE to do the excursions the ship offers.