13 Alaska Cruise Mistakes that Can RUIN Your Cruise

whether you're a first-time Cruiser or a seasoned Cruiser making some of these mistakes when planning your Alaskan cruise can lead you to blow your budget not have what you need and miss out on some of the best that Alaska has to offer [Music] hi there I'm Ilana from the website lifeltcruise.com welcome or welcome back to my channel now we just returned yesterday from our very first Alaskan cruise it was amazing however before I went on my cruise I really did a lot of research to try to make sure that I was doing things well as right as possible that I was as prepared as possible and of course that I would avoid any of those potential mistakes now I'm happy to say on the most part we did avoid a lot of those mistakes that some people might make on an Alaskan cruise however even with all my research there were still some things that I would do differently on a future Cruise now even if you've done a Caribbean cruise or a warm weather cruise before an Alaskan cruise is totally different in many ways and in this video I'm going to share with you the 13 mistakes that you absolutely want to avoid on an Alaskan cruise now before I get started I did want to mention that if you like this video if you find it helpful informative or enjoyable in any way then please do give this video a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already let's get started number one not doing at least one night as a pre-crew stay in either Seattle or Vancouver before your cruise now I say this for two reasons number one of course we never want to fly in on the same day as the cruise because we can actually potentially miss the cruise if there's a delay in our flight or anything really kind of goes wrong now for many of us there's going to be a time change so for instance I live in the Eastern time zone so when I did fly over to Vancouver there was a three hour time difference now we actually decided to fly in a couple of days before because we wanted to visit Vancouver we had an absolutely wonderful time however for the time change alone we wanted to be able to be adjusted for the time that we did go on our Cruise now once we went on our cruise there was an additional one hour time change so that means there were four hours difference if we didn't arrive at least a day or two before the cruise we would have been exhausted and it would have been really hard to get used to in the first couple of days of our cruise number two not budgeting for the cost of excursions in Alaska now an Alaskan cruise for many people is really a bucket list trip it is not a cruise that you're going to do every single year and you really do want to plan for some of those excursions and yes some of them are going to be a little bit pricey so for instance if you really want to go whale watching you want to make sure that you do plan for that and budget for it if you really want to go on the Mendenhall Glacier and you want to go up as an example by helicopter perhaps that's something to budget for even if you spend a little less in another Port now while there are many ports in Alaska that you can simply get off the cruise ship and walk around the town a lot of the beauty in Alaska really is that land escape and those activities to do so I do really suggest that you take a look at the excursions and you see what you are able to plan number three now speaking of excursions not booking your excursions early is a mistake that a lot of Cruisers make the fact is excursions in Alaska that will be very different from the Caribbean they really do tend to sell out early especially those real sort of bucket list excursions so take a look on the cruise lines website as soon as you book your cruise or at least as soon as they are available and If there is something that you really want to do I do suggest that you book that early now if you didn't book an Excursion through the cruise line and it is something that you really want to do what you can do is you can get yourself on a wait list for the cruise line and that does sometimes open up once you're on the cruise ship the other alternative is to book an Excursion when you do get off the cruise ship you'll see that there are some private vendors that are there but of course there is something that you do want to be careful of to make sure that you have enough time to get back to the cruise ship before it departs number four a big mistake Alaskan Cruisers make is not bringing rain gear now something that you should expect if you go on an Alaskan cruise is it could and will likely rain it may rain in Seattle it may rain in Vancouver it may rain while you're on the ship it may rain when you're on excursions you just never know and that actually did happen to us we were on an Excursion in Ketchikan when it did start to rain a little bit now lucky for us it wasn't a really heavy rain and our Excursion was able to go ahead even after we did get back at the cruise port we still were able to walk around with that rain but you do want to make sure that you have rain gear so you want to make sure you have a waterproof jacket with a hood and you want to make sure as well that you do have an umbrella now while you can definitely get away with a poncho or a raincoat if you do plan on taking some photos or taking some video having that umbrella is very handy trust me now another mistake that some people make when it comes to packing and planning for their Alaska cruise is not bringing any sunglasses now even though you're obviously not going to be going going to the beach when you're in Alaska the fact is it does really get very bright and there are so many hours of daylight and truthfully if it wasn't raining there was often a glare from the ocean it was really very bright and when we did sail through Glacier Bay it was practically glowing you definitely need to pack your sunglasses now by the way if you're planning an Alaskan cruise and trying to stay organized I do have the lifewell cruise ultimate Cruise planner now the Lipo Cruise ultimate Cruise planner is a downloadable printable Cruise planner that you can print out the pages that you need for as many cruises that you go on it will help you to stay organized with packing lists and more from the time that you book your cruise all the way through disembarkation now if you are interested in seeing what's included in the Lifeboat Cruise ultimate Cruise planner I will leave all of the information linked Down Below in the description of this video now when it comes to your day in Glacier Bay or Glacier viewing something that you want to make sure that you do is you get out onto the deck early now in particular you're going to have some Rangers that are going to come on the cruise ship they're going to tell you what you should be looking out for and they may even open up the bow for all of the passengers to be able to see the glaciers but there are so many people that are going to be out on deck and people really do get up early and they Scout those best locations so I do suggest that you go and you grab some coffee or some hot chocolate before you head out to the deck and while there's definitely a lot to see throughout the entire day something that we found is that the wildlife seems to be much more present in the morning now speaking of all there is to see on Alaska I hesitated to share this one because I do think that any type of cabin that you get for an Alaskan cruise is still going to give you an amazing experience however not booking a balcony on Alaskan cruise is a potential mistake now I say this simply because even for me I didn't realize how much there was to see in Alaska almost the entire time now every single day you have at least probably 16 18 even 20 hours of daylight light and that means there is just so much to see if you like to wake up early even at 5am or 6 a.m and you can watch the landscape go by even from your bed now something else that's pretty cool is you'll actually see marine life at any time during your cruise and as a matter of fact there was one time my husband was sitting on the chair at the desk and he actually saw three or four orcas that were swimming right close to the ship now if we didn't have a balcony we never would have seen that site now by the way if you're somebody who likes to sit out on the balcony if it's warm enough or even go out on the deck just a little tip is there will be marine life potentially at any point during your cruise if you'll just take your time and watch you're almost guaranteed to see seals sea lions whales and more now a common mistake when it comes to booking an Alaskan cruise is thinking that they're all alike and of course they aren't so not only are the cruise lines different and the cruise ships different but at the same time you have itineraries that can be very different you have Inside passage cruises leaving from Vancouver round trip Alaska cruises leaving from Seattle you have different ports of call you have southbound cruises and Northbound cruises where you might need to pick up a flight before or after your cruise so these are all things to be aware of now something that I didn't really notice before my cruise but I definitely did notice it when I was on my cruise is to pay attention to the actual length of time that your cruise ship is going to be in Port some cruise ships are going to leave a little bit earlier you may also want to pay attention to what port your cruise ship is at because in some of those Alaskan cruise ports you might have your cruise ship docked right in the downtown area whereas you might be on a cruise ship that's stocked 10 or 15 minutes out of that downtown area and you do want to take that into account because it might affect what you're planning to do for the day in that cruise port now before I went on my Alaskan cruise something I was very concerned about was making sure that I wouldn't be cold on my crew so I really did a lot of research on this because I had seen some people videos where they said they were cold and it was rainy and it was damp and they just weren't dressed appropriately so I really made sure that I was dressed warmly but also that I understood the concept of layering and I do think that we did this pretty well and of course I'm from Canada so something that you'll want to do is make sure in terms of layering that you bring either a t-shirt or a long sleeve shirt in like a t-shirt material on top of that ideally put like a zippy sweater and make sure it has a hood we found out that a hood really is important because sometimes it gets windy sometimes it drizzles for just a few minutes and a hood on that sweatshirt is just really handy on top of that have a thin puffer jacket that's perfect because it's comfortable enough to move around and those puffer jackets ideally you find one that's water repellent and that is going to be good for most of the days that you're on your Alaskan cruise now of course if you have beautiful warm weather you can wear just your T-shirt or just your T-shirt and sweatshirt and leave your jacket either on the ship or or in your backpack during your Excursion now speaking of clothing even if you're not a hot person it is a mistake to not bring a hat on your Alaskan cruise something that we found is the mornings are very very cool the evenings can be also and you really do want to spend a lot of time Outdoors having a hat can mean that you maybe only wear a sweatshirt and a hat it really does kind of keep you warm and something else that you want to bring are gloves but bring the kind that are those touch screen gloves I'm actually going to leave a link for some Alaska cruise Essentials I'll leave that down below in the description of this video but those were absolutely perfect for when we were taking photos and using our phone during our Alaskan cruise now another mistake that Cruisers make on Alaskan cruises is sometimes not eating in the cruise ports of call and let's face it the cruise food is plentiful and it's good so it does make a little bit of sense but it can be a lot of fun to eat some of the Local Foods now something that you can do is you can maybe go to a brew house have a local beer and have some local food you might want to try some of the crab legs in Juno and the local Spruce beer in Ketchikan which comes with a story now a mistake that can ruin any Cruise or at least a day on an Alaskan cruise is not being prepared for potential seasickness now even though we had really smooth Seas they were amazing most of the crews we had one day where there was so much motion now it was windy and the ship was moving a lot and there were some rough seas and really it was a few hours that many of the passengers on the cruise ship were really not feeling that well so it is important that you never know how the Seas might affect you and you always want to make sure that you have your seasickness medication just in case now by the way if you are concerned about seasickness I do have a video all about how to prevent and deal with sea sickness with a lot of really really good tips I'll leave that at the end of this video in case you do want to check that out now as I mentioned earlier I'll leave all of the information about the Lifeboat Cruise ultimate Cruise planner linked Down Below in the description of this video now I would love to hear from you please let me know if you're going to be going on an Alaskan cruise either this year or next year and if you've already done an Alaskan cruise please share any of your experiences your mistakes your tips down in the comments below this video I hope that you enjoyed the video if you did please do give it a big thumbs up I really do appreciate it and please subscribe to the channel if you haven't done so already bye for now and happy cruising

Channel: Life Well Cruised

Views: 332,941

Keywords: alaska cruise tips, alaska cruise, alaska cruise tips and tricks, cruise tips, alaska cruise mistakes, alaska cruise mistakes to avoid, alaska cruise excursions, cruise mistakes to avoid, alaska cruise from vancouver, alaska cruise vlog, life well cruised, cruise mistakes, first time cruise tips, cruise advice, cruise travel tips, alaska cruise packing tips, alaska cruise packing mistakes, cruise packing mistakes, cruise tips for travellers, alaska travel tips, cruise

Id: yWdMM-xgbQw

Length: 12min 16sec (736 seconds)

Published: Wed May 17 2023