Alaska Cruise Tour with Feeding Tube Supplies

[Whimsy]

I have someone going on an Alaskan Cruise tour with Princess for 2 weeks. She is wondering how carrying her cans will work on the transport of bus to the lodges and Princess rail car. She is not comfortable with sending them ahead to ship and has to take quite a bit due to the length of time of the trip. Does anyone have any experience with this?

 

Thank you!

[dieselmama]

We don't have experience yet as our cruise is in August 2017, but will be interested to see what you find out. Are you doing the cruise first or the land tour first? We are doing a cruise, land, cruise combo also on Princess and my son is strictly tube fed. Our plans for now are to bring the first portion (cruise and land) with us and have the second cruise portion shipped to our hotel in Anchorage by our homecare pharmacy to arrive when we get back from Denali. We will be in Anchorage for a few nights before shipping out, which gives us a little time to deal with issues in case there has been a problem with shipping. 3 weeks of tube feeding supplies is a LOT to haul around, as is, in your case, 2 weeks!

 

Have you checked with the special needs coordinator at Princess? (can't remember the exact title, we are having our TA coordinate for us as she specializes in special needs travel and we still have considerable time before we set out on our grand adventure).

 

I would assume that her cans are delivered in smaller cases. Maybe they could each be tagged with a luggage tag with her name on them for delivery with the land part of the tour? My son uses 9 cans a day and with 24 per case that makes for a lot of cases to haul around. Or pack 2 or 3 cases in a larger box that is then tagged with a luggage tag. I would keep them in the smaller case before putting them in a larger box as it will keep them from being damaged in transport. See what the Special Needs coordinator recommends too... :)

[GeezerCouple]

Is it possible to get powdered or condensed/concentrated formula, such that you could add water (or purified/distilled water)? That would cut down on volume and weight.

 

Assuming that isn't possible, what about having the supplies shipped to the hotels BEFORE your departure.

Contact the hotel General Manager about this, to make sure they are watching for it, notify you when it arrives, and - especially - keep track of it for your arrival?

Then you'll *know* it is there, waiting.

(And keep in touch with that General Manager as well as whoever will be on duty the day you arrive.)

 

I'd arrange for backup supplies somehow (a drugstore in a town or two in Alaska) just in case of any sudden need... just to know where you could find some emergency supplies.

 

Always better safe than sorry for situations like this.

(I sometimes call it the "umbrella strategy"... if one is absolutely diligent about bringing an umbrella... that's when it doesn't rain :) Not an exact analogy, but I'm sure you get the point!)

 

Good luck.

[dieselmama]

I don't know about Whimsy, but i know my son's formula (and most non-infant formula's) don't come in powdered form. Sure would be nice though for travel!

 

Great idea to ship ahead to the hotels prior to the cruise, return receipt requested so you can be certain they arrive before you leave. I would also suggest (and plan to as well) see if they can send you a photo of the box when received to be sure it wasn't damaged in shipment as I have seen some pretty torn up cases come through from time to time if not well packaged (very sturdy boxes complete with bubble wrap in the empty spaces).

 

See if the homecare pharmacy that provides the formula has a "sister" location in Alaska that can potentially provide back up (for example some of them are connected to Walgreens and Anchorage has a few walgreens locations that might be able to help). Our homecare pharmacy said they would do the shipping for us so they can track and make sure that everything gets where it is supposed to get (and replaced should that not happen).

 

Hey, at least its formula and not TPN like we used to have to travel with (IV nutrition that had to be kept cold!). That was ALWAYS loads of fun! ;)

[montgomeryfamily]

We did a 14 day Princess cruise tour last year (cruise plus 7 days land tour). We have a lot of medical supplies, including some that are required daily. So we had a total of the following medical supplies: two large boxes (into which several smaller boxes containing medical supplies were placed), one duffel bag, a CPAP machine, and an oxygen concentrator. We also had our tour luggage consisting of a two pieces of luggage and two carryons (one which held only medication and additional medical supplies). We had one large piece of luggage which was to be sent to the ship. When we arrived, I discussed with the tour guide how the luggage was sent to the ship. I discovered that it stayed on our motorcoach, but just in a different area. So I designated one box of medical supplies and the large piece of luggage for the ship and the remainder we kept on the tour.

 

I carried on the CPAP, the oxygen concentrator, and our two carryon bags on the bus/train and the remainder of the tour designated luggage and medical supplies were delivered to our room each night. It meant quite a bit of luggage being delivered at each lodge and quite a bit of luggage the each morning we had a departure, but it was manageable. Because it involved so much medical equipment and supplies, I was never hassled about it being too much. On the train, the carryon bags went with us to our seats and the remainder of the medical supplies were placed on the lower level of the coach we were in, not in the luggage area on the train. This meant it had to be unloaded with us, but it was like the bus, staying with us.

 

I don't know if your tour will work this way in terms of having the luggage sent to the ship. My experience with Princess is they won't know whether or not the luggage stays on the bus you are on. And if your tour originates in Anchorage, it may not because Princess does have a luggage storage facility there. But if your tour originates in Fairbanks, then I am confident this is how it will work because Princess does not have a luggage storage facility there.

Edited April 8, 2016 by montgomeryfamily

[dieselmama]

great information! I am in process of looking for appropriate sized luggage for packing our supplies that it is isnt horrible to organize and pack. I think I may need to get some new suitcases, most of what we have is one HUGE suitcase and 3 carry on size plus a few duffle types. We normally travel by car so we carry our bags ourselves in and out of hotels... I am thinking a heavy duty wheeled box with a lid I can lock on might be worthwhile if I can find one for some of the supplies that get loaded on and off the bus/ship? (especially for the feeding cartons).

 

We are cruising from Vancouver TO Whittier/then land tour, a few extra days in Anchorage then cruising back from Whittier to Vancouver. I think to do it right we need to bring the first 2 weeks with us on the first cruise up, and ship the 3rd week to our hotel in Anchorage before we leave so we know it got there.

 

Thanks for the information!

[sail57]

My husband has been on 2 cruises using a feeding tube.

 

The first was a 2 week transatlantic ,we had the food(cans)sent to our hotel in Miami by UPS.I made copies of our cruise luggage tags and taped them to the boxes.The boxes were left at the dock with our luggage and delivered to the stateroom.

 

The second trip also from Miami ,we had the supplier send the food to the hotel,again arrived with no problems.

 

We do have TSA precheck for flights as sometimes carrying the liquid on board caused some delays with screening.My husband usually brings 6 cans on flights to make sure he would have food if there were delays.

 

We plan on flying to Europe soon so we will have to check the food so we hope that works out OK

 

We thought about powdered nutrition but that does not work with all tubes.

 

As mentioned in previous posts the best thing to do is to arrive at the port with enough time to make other arrangements for the food if there were shipping delays.

 

Good luck with your travels

[GeezerCouple]

My husband has been on 2 cruises using a feeding tube.

 

The first was a 2 week transatlantic ,we had the food(cans)sent to our hotel in Miami by UPS.I made copies of our cruise luggage tags and taped them to the boxes.The boxes were left at the dock with our luggage and delivered to the stateroom.

 

The second trip also from Miami ,we had the supplier send the food to the hotel,again arrived with no problems.

 

We do have TSA precheck for flights as sometimes carrying the liquid on board caused some delays with screening.My husband usually brings 6 cans on flights to make sure he would have food if there were delays.

 

We plan on flying to Europe soon so we will have to check the food so we hope that works out OK

 

We thought about powdered nutrition but that does not work with all tubes.

 

As mentioned in previous posts the best thing to do is to arrive at the port with enough time to make other arrangements for the food if there were shipping delays.

 

Good luck with your travels

 

I have a question, especially about a transatlantic or such: Is there any way to arrange that the medical supplies are delivered to you *before* sailaway, so you can be SURE they are all onboard?

[sail57]

I have a question, especially about a transatlantic or such: Is there any way to arrange that the medical supplies are delivered to you *before* sailaway, so you can be SURE they are all onboard?

 

Good question,we carry on all the extra tubes ,syringes etc.

On the transatlantic the cases of nutrition were delivered early, well before sail away,the ship was spending 2 days in Bermuda .So a back up plan would have been to buy something in Bermuda .

 

On the second cruise the boarding of the ship was delayed due to a special(noro)

cleaning,the food was delivered about 10:30 pm.Much anxiety so maybe in the future we would carry on board enough for a few days.