Alaska Cruise Budget Guide: Where to Spend, Save, and Upgrade

Before we get to a single port, you need to understand what you're walking into.

Because Alaska cruising has grown crazy dramatically over the past few years, while the ports themselves, of course, they can't really change that much.

They've stayed pretty small.

Ketchikan has only about 8,000 residents.

Skagway has roughly 1,100.

So you park two or three cruise ships beside a little town that size on the same morning, and the cruisers can sometimes outnumber the locals several times over juno the capital has gotten so crowded that unfortunately it now limits how many cruise passengers it allows ashore on a given day now that doesn't mean you should avoid these ports it just means timing is everything get up and get off the ship early which i know can be brutal with those time changes and those differences but do that and get in your self-guided walking part before any big excursion groups come back or go out and eat lunch a little before or after the rush then a town that feels packed at noon can feel like a completely different place at 8 30 in the morning weather is the next thing that people sometimes get wrong when it comes to alaskan cruising they always assume it's going to be this arctic tundra but southeast alaska and cruise season is usually cool damp and unpredictable but it's usually not a deep freeze summer afternoons can sit in the low to middle 60s rain can roll in even when the morning started out clear and you do have to prepare for precipitation because Because again, a day can look great and clear and then some drizzle will roll in later.

So it's really, really important when you take an Alaskan cruise to pack in layers.

And one of those layers needs to include a legit waterproof shell that's going to serve you far better than one big, giant, fluffy, heavy winter coat.

my very first alaskan cruise was in mid-september and that tends to be the tail end of the season so i braced myself for colder temperatures than i would encounter if i went in june or july but i packed with me a hooded rainproof puffer coat a pair of light gloves and some lighter jackets to wear underneath And that was more than sufficient for what I needed.

And on my most recent visit, it was actually a record heat wave.

I visited in June, Skagway climbed into the mid 80s, and I actually realized I needed to pack sunglasses and sunscreen.

So that's the Alaskan packing rule.

for basically several seasons in the same day.

The daylight will really mess with you too.

Around the start of summer, Juneau gets more than 18 hours of daylight and the sky can look like the late afternoon when your body is begging for sleep.

And there's also all types of time changes, especially if you're like me, you're in the Midwest or on the East Coast and you're already adjusting to West Coast time differences because you sailed out of Seattle, for example, and there's time changes along the way back and forth.

And here's something you absolutely want to make sure you have on your packing list that you might not think about.

If you have a cabin room or an ocean view room because of this daylight issue, bring an eye mask because even with those curtains closed, there's always gaps around the edges.

And for me, I like it dark when I sleep.

So I struggle with that.

So my eye mask came in clutch on my Alaskan cruises.