How to Pack for Alaska | Alaska Cruise Packing Tips, (PLUS our Packing List!)

let's pack for Alaska [Music] hey everyone Andy and Jenna here from a couple Travelers coming to you with another video about our Alaskan cruise from reward Ovation of the Seas yes today we're actually going to do a packing video because packing for a cruise is complicated complicated but packing for a laugh so we're gonna go category by category telling you what we packed if there's anything we'd recommend leaving at home if there's anything we wished we had that we didn't pack and we'll take it from there first it is vacation we're still drinking cheers foreign gotta make use of the deluxe beverage package am I right you're right so as I mentioned we're gonna go category by category to go through excuse all of my scribbled notes on this to go through what we packed for our cruise it's actually something I do as a travel agent to send this to my clients who are going on a cruise so they know exactly what to bring with them so I do if no matter where you're going I always include a suggested packing list I'm actually a travel agent that specializes in sandals and beaches vacations Walt Disney World Universal Royal Caribbean of course virgin voyages and many people don't know this but it's actually completely free to work with the travel agent we are compensated by the specific vendor so it doesn't cost you anything to work with us and then you have somebody who has great tips and knowledge to share with you and does things like including a suggested packing list so you don't leave anything at home so if you're interested in learning more or if you want to receive a free vacation quote my email address is listed in the video description below oh but enough about that let's jump into the actual packing for an Alaskan cruise so the first category we're going to go through is kind of Alaska specific Essentials that you'll need basically the key to Alaska is the weather range is very diverse it's typical for 40 degrees to 60 degrees and rain it rains like 300 days out of the year so the key to Alaska is layers and waterproof items so the very first thing that you're going to need for an Alaskan cruise is a waterproof coat and I went more with a raincoat rather than a thick winter coat because again the key is layers so I wanted something lighter that I can fit a lot of layers underneath and this one is from Northeast and Amazon specifically and I will put a link in the video description to our Amazon storefront or this and many of the items that we're sharing will be linked if you want to check those out next blah is waterproof shoes so these are actually Skechers so they're quite comfortable but they are just you know kind of like a Sperry type shoe completely waterproof decently comfortable to walk in and they're not very heavy I actually only ended up wearing these in Ketchikan because our trip which will be very different from your trip was 70 and sunny the entire time we were in Alaska which all of the locals were like this never happens this never happens this never happens um I actually went out in Seattle before the cruise to go buy more T-shirts because this is so outside the norm but waterproof shoes are a necessity but to Jenna's Point make sure you pack for a variety of scenarios which is why you need things like the waterproof jacket and like the rain boots the next thing is thermal underwear not everybody is going to need this I tend to run more cold so I just got I didn't do thermal pants underwear I just did one layer underneath so if it was ever really cold I could put this under a sweatshirt or sweater and just have that extra layer because it could be as cold as 40 degrees and when you're spending eight hours outside on an Excursion you want to make sure you have a lot of options and are warm also waterproof pants these were I think about 20 on Amazon and they're very thin and I bought these with the purpose of if we're out in an Excursion and it rains that I don't need to go change I can just put these over whatever I was wearing to keep my legs dry because once you were you know if you're wearing jeans and then you get wet and you're outside for another six hours in the coals you're gonna be pretty miserable so this was definitely recommended by a lot of people we didn't end up wearing it but again we had the exception not the role for Alaska weather so waterproof everything so this was my bag of like gloves hats scarves all of that kind of thing the gloves specifically that we got are waterproof and they have the special fingers so you can still use your iPhone or phone in general while you're outside because you don't want to be taking your glove off to use your phone to take a quick picture or whatever so these were great these are definitely linked on the Amazon storefront I brought a pack of hand warmers with us as well again 70 degrees for us but if it was 40 we would have needed these 100 I almost actually came back to the room to get them on the Endicott arm and dogs Glacier morning because you're up at 5am you're standing outside which was absolutely stunning that was the only day I was really cold and that was just for a few hours in the morning and then it was 70 by the time we got to Juno so this will be very handy for cold mornings like that and then three other things specifically for Alaska that I would recommend one is a poncho we love these reusable ponchos that we got at Stop and Shop if you have a local Stop and Shop grocery store by you we have these we use them in the theme parks all the time so it's just they're very light and easy to roll up and fit in a backpack I would say either a poncho or an umbrella whatever your preference is but we like to have options and then binoculars this was just a pair that we got on Amazon with a little strap they're pretty small and lightweight but it was great for we have a balcony so especially when we're going inside passage we're looking over to see if we could see any bears great for whale watching we use this quite often and I definitely recommend a pair Royal does sell them on the ship they always have like a a little shop in the Esplanade and over by the pool areas where they were selling like big nice binoculars so I would say either bring some or be prepared to pay Royal for some because you're going to want to see and be able to see far foreign up next we're going to talk about just clothing in general and again the key is layering so I'm just going to list off what we had under our clothing columns so things like bras underwear socks and then for top some sort of variety of tank tops t-shirts long sleeve shirts sweaters sweatshirts any variety of clothing that you like to wear for pants bringing I would suggest for an Alaskan cruise at least one pair of shorts the ship in and of itself tends to run on the warmer side there were times like even when we got on board in Seattle we were like it's really hot in here I think they try to compensate for the Cold Outside by making it warm inside so you might be warm just going around at night so having some shorts is really good but then capris jeans leggings sweatpants just a variety of different bottoms would be helpful Jenna tends to run cold I tend to run warm so I wore shorts most of the trip especially considering the weather brought a couple pairs of jeans and a pair of joggers use them pretty much the joggers only like this morning walking around the ship but pretty much the other time I was in shorts but was at least prepared for Colder Weather with jeans and the rain proof pants yeah and even though it was warm during the day first thing it's a little cooler especially like going out on a balcony so having the sweatpants would be very helpful Royal Caribbean has two nights where people are encouraged to dress up one night being formal night and the other night being dressed to success night I will say on an Alaskan cruise people tend to not dress up as much as they do on other like Caribbean cruises for example I think maybe what 10 to 20 percent were like going all out for what we usually see yeah not many and I think it's because you're packing so much for Alaska like you would need you know the clothes you're bringing take up more space because they're coats and they're scarves and just different than packing like shorts and bathing suits for a Caribbean cruise so I think that's why people tend to just say ah it's not for me you can pack formal items if you'd like to participate and dress up for those but Alaskan cruises in general tend to be a little bit more casual then of course you need pajamas you need bathing suits so the great thing about our ship specifically Ovation of the Seas is that it has the indoor Solarium with Pools and jacuzzis for adults and then they also have an outdoor pool and jacuzzi section and then another indoor pool and jacuzzi section for all ages even though you're going to Alaska where it's super cold there's lots of opportunities to be in a controlled climate in a heated pool so you're going to want to make sure to bring at least one bathing suit we packed three that was Overkill two would have been great so that you can kind of rotate every other day and then for shoes again gonna want to pack a variety so I have all the shoes that I brought with me I did not end up wearing these I brought these to wear with like a dress and a jean jacket at night never wore these but the rest of the shoes I wore so the waterproof shoes that I mentioned earlier I brought two pairs of sneakers two pairs of or I guess three pairs of flip-flops sandal variety and then a pair of slippers those are like super lightweight slippers were wonderful for the balcony especially in the morning where you don't want like your cold bare feet on the balcony floor so that was really like I was glad I packed those and then sunglasses I have under clothing which accessories accessories yes I brought three pairs I think you brought two pairs definitely need sunglasses because everything is extra bright yeah with all the waters and since you were packing at least for us we brought a lot more things than we would on a typical Caribbean cruise we invested in packing cubes these are great these are great these are also linked in the Amazon storefront but these are specifically compression packing cubes so I do have one open here so you can kind of check it out I just have some pants and socks in here but it is thick and it you put your items inside and you zip it up and then there's another zipper to compress this one is not full but just to give you an idea and it makes it smaller so the set we got specifically I have one in Andy as one it had two large one small and then it had this little one to put like accessories Chargers in and I had two extra small which was was great for like underwear and then the best part is it also came with a laundry bag which has been super helpful for like keeping like dirty underwear away so it's a decent sized bag and then it Clips to keep it closed so this has really helped us pack more and make it a little bit more condensed this whole packing Cube set is actually meant to fit in a carry-on luggage just on the topic of shoes I did bring just a pair of slip-on boat shoes two pairs of sneakers one over there one over here and then a pair of flip-flops which I am most often in flip-flops also in my check bag is a pair of waterproof rain boots that we didn't end up using but still pack them again just in case do not watch this video and think that you're gonna have this weather because again it was just so out of the norm so if you take nothing away from this video take away that you need rain proof waterproof everything just be prepared for a variety of weather scenarios exactly on your vacation so the next category is miscellaneous items that we'll go through first and foremost passports we needed to show them to get on the ship we needed them specifically in Skagway for our Excursion since it went into Canada and then we need them today which is our Victoria British Columbia stop since again we're going into Canada so we needed passports we needed our government issued IDs I always recommend you have insurance cards on you make sure you have all of your travel confirmations your booking confirmations for the trip and any excursions that you have we always pack face masks ever since 2020 and medication I would highly recommend that anything important like those items be in the bag that you physically use to walk onto the ship make sure you have headphones especially if you're flying um so you can watch movies on the plane camera GoPro anything like that your phone Alaska is beautiful this is the first cruise where we've just seen like everybody has a nice care that's the trip where people are taking you know Wildlife photos and using more than just their iPhone so if you have a nice camera definitely plan to bring it with you and then all the associated batteries and chargers and SD cards and things like that yeah that was next on the list us all of your chargers for those items and a portable charger make sure you have at least one because you're out on these excursions many of them are six or seven hours and you're using your phone a lot especially to take photos and videos so having a portable charger so you can charge when you're away from the ship is really important make sure you have a lot of cash we brought about three hundred dollars to tip all of our Excursion Representatives we went on four separate excursions and some of them had multiple sections where it's like we tip the whale watching people and then we went over to the Mendenhall Glacier and we tipped that driver and so just make sure you have a lot of cash on you and have your credit cards and don't forget if you need to call your credit card company let them know you're traveling do so before you travel as well bring a book brought two books I'm only on book number one still but it's just because there's been so much to see but now that like the last day or so has been like a c day so that's when I finally cracked open the book but it's it's really nice to sit on the balcony and read go to the solarium and read now in many Cruise rooms there's some American outlets and then there's some European Outlets so we knowing we have a lot of things to charge between our phones and our cameras and our GoPros and all of that we always bring a European adapter as well so we can get more plugs out of that you can definitely pick it up on Amazon and if you're worried because Cruises have rules about what can and cannot be brought on the ship if you go to Amazon you can get one that is cruise ship approved basically the rule of thumb is it cannot have a surge protector in it so this is the one of the ones that we have tessen makes a lot of really good ones we'll link these in the description but they have them for European they also we have a set of standard standard American adapters as well so without the European plug it'll just go into your additional uh to your traditional American outlet but with all these additional plugs yeah all those bees on it we also have just a pretty standard um electrical outlet to multiple USB plugs to charge our phones by the bedside table and then a couple of other things while we're over in this area and sorry if you can see the mess because we're packing since we get off the ship tomorrow you may not know this but Cruise walls are magnets made of metal so we bought these hooks on Amazon these are only really meant for lightweight items so we use it to hang our c-pass cards by the door so that we see them on the way out and take them with us but you can hang hats you know like that kind of thing they also sell ones that are more heavy duty if you want to hang clothing or if you want to hang like your toiletry organizer or whatnot but magnetic hooks are a great idea in addition lanyards so you need your CPAs card for everything to get on and off the ship it's our drink package so whenever we order a drink we give them our C pass card so we bought these on the ship but you can always buy them in advance before you get here and then the great thing is we didn't know this until we saw someone doing it but you wear the lanyard you order a drink you can just give them this instead of giving them the whole thing and then when you get it back you just one other miscellaneous Cruise item is Cruise luggage tag holders so you have them right here these are ones that fit Royal Caribbean's luggage tags specifically we got them on Amazon you need these to be able to board the ship you leave your luggage at the cruise port and this is how they find the way to your room well yeah at the curbside yeah exactly so normally the instructions say to print this out and to staple it but that very easily can get ripped off and then that's how it leads to lost luggage basically I believe they came in a six pack we used four of them for all of our big luggage that we had them bring on the ship but then I recommend having a backpack with anything important in it since you may not get your luggage until it's late as 8 PM we got ours around 4 30 so we're already starting to kind of get settled in the room and get ready for the night so anything that you would want if you want to go to the pool on the first day make sure you have your bathing suits make sure you have your passports all your IDs confirmations that you need any medicine that you need anything super important have on you as you board the ship last and final section is toiletries I like to have mine in a foldable thing that I can hang on the hook on the bathroom door to have everything there with me so a lot of this is basic stuff but toothbrush toothpaste floss deodorant shampoo conditioner body wash face wash razors shaving cream it's always good to travel with Advil Tylenol we tend to also pack just in case like a DayQuil NyQuil Band-Aids Etc everything you need for your hair hairbrush I bring a straightener and a curling iron eye care products feminine products I of course have a specific makeup bag also important for cruises in general is seasick medication so Dramamine Bonine I'd recommend having a non-drowsy version for daytime and a drowsy version for night time biodegradable sunscreen is next on this list and that was something on all of the excursions it was listed under the what to bring so besides bringing your passports or IDs your confirmation hat sunglasses it said biodegradable sunscreen specifically so we did buy a small tube of that and I brought face specific sunscreen as well normally I'd recommend aloe vera as well for a cruise don't think you need one for Alaska specifically and we bring a bottle of liquid hand soap as well because the soap that's provided in the bathroom is a bar and you wash your hands so many times on cruises especially so we just brought this we had it shipped to our Seattle Hotel so that we didn't have to fly with it and then packed it in our bag and brought it on board we get off the ship tomorrow and it is almost gone so a lot easier to have this than to use the bar soap that's provided then we have bug spray we did packed bug spray but I did not bring it on the Excursion which was the only time we felt we needed the bug spray so do yourself a favor pack a small thing of bug spray put it in your bag that you're taking on and off the ship for excursions especially if you're doing things out in the wilderness we both walked away with like five bug bites from our day in Skagway so don't forget that one then we have things like Q-tips hand sanitizer always have that on You perfume cologne Band-Aids heartburn medication and then wrinkle spray so you may not know this but there are no irons or anything provided in a cruise ship room because it's a fire hazard so it's not like a typical Hotel so if you are worried about your clothes being wrinkled they sell with a couple things this one's from Downey wrinkle release spray this is very helpful on cruises in general and that is it we're at the end of the list now in terms of anything that I wish I brought I'm happy to say there wasn't anything that I wish I had that I didn't think to pack and hopefully this video will help you know what to pack as well so that you don't feel like you were missing out or wish you brought something with you I think we had a good variety and a lot of just in case items which I feel like when we don't pack those things those are the trips that we need them so I'd rather be safe than sorry and have those things in terms of anything that I wish I left at home and didn't bother to pack I feel like a lot of the wintry things we didn't need but I feel like on any other Alaskan cruise you do need them so the group who sailed the week before us and we're getting off the ship as we're getting on they had cold wet weather the entire week and even just the day after we left Skagway which is 70 and sunny the next day was in the 50s and rainy so our cruise was just so lucky felt like we packed a lot of unnecessary things but any other Cruise you're gonna need those hopefully that's helpful in giving you a very bird's eye view of what we packed my last and final piece of advice is to leave room for souvenirs in your suitcase we did an initial pack and then realized my suitcase was pretty full to the brim so I went through everything again and got rid of some stuff to make sure there was room because the best part of going away is getting those awesome souvenirs that you want to take home with you to remember the trip so don't forget to leave room for souvenirs oh [Music] here's a little look of the view from our balcony since we are on our way to Victoria BC right now that's finally clearing up a little bit it's stunning like Jen said hopefully you found this video helpful if you are interested in more Royal Caribbean content we will link other videos down below from this Alaska cruise and we are also booked on the inaugural sailing for icon of the Seas this coming January 2024. it is a brand new class of ship for Royal Caribbean it will be the largest cruise ship in the world when it comes out so we are very excited for that so make sure you subscribe so you don't miss those videos and you want a first hand look at what this awesome cruise ship has in store for uh Cruise passengers around the world so that is it for today's video thank you for watching be sure to like this video subscribe to our Channel and follow us on social media at a couple Travelers and until next time

Channel: A Couple Travelers

Views: 27,482

Keywords: Alaska Cruise Packing, How to Pack for Alaska Cruise, Alaska Cruise Packing List, Alaska, Alaska Cruise, Cruise Essentials, Alaska Essentials, Ovation of the Seas, Alaska Cruise Tips, Alaska Cruise 2023, 2023 Alaska Cruise, Royal Caribbean, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Alaska Travel, Alaska Photography, Best Alaska Ports, Best Alaska Excursions 2023, Cruise Vlog, Alaska Cruise Vlog, Cruise Vloggers, A Couple Travels, Keep Traveling, Alaska Cruise Travel Agent

Id: xb_1FsFa02s

Length: 24min 39sec (1479 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 12 2023