My wife and I are taking our 18month old daughter on an alaska cruise on the Norweigean Sky in may. I've read all the articles on here and other sites, and understand she is too young for the youth program, but i was wondering how strict they are about this? My wife and I were hoping to go on one shore excursion together (kayaking in kethikan for 3 hours), is this a pipe dream? Just curious if there are any experiences of individual youth counselors "compromising" the rules a bit? And if so any advice on how to succesfully make such a request?
also any recommendations on toddler freindly/favorite shore excusions in southeast alaska (we have a baby backpack stroller so we anticipate some hiking, but are a bit confused as to which trails are better), or specific tips for traveling with a toddler in alaska?
Hi Sean:
I'm the family cruise editor here. Yes, unfortunately it is a pipe dream that you'll be able to leave your 18 month old with the youth program. They are very strict with the cut off dates and they have the manifest of passengers which shows everyone's age. Too bad. My husband and I over the years played tag team whereby one hangs out with one of our little ones while the other goes on a shore excursion. I wouldn't suggest that in every port but maybe you each want to choose a favorite shore excursion to go on alone.
As for what to do, there is a great walking/hiking book about Alaskan ports ("Inside Passge Walking TOurs") you can get from Amazon.com but I'm not sure you have time for that if you are cruising in May (soon)! If not, here are some suggestions/personal favorites of mine for kids:
* Juneau: Buy your own tram tkts pierside from Mt. Roberts. Nice easy hiking paths up top with FABULOUS views. Bring the camera and the backpack!
* Skagway: We hiked Lower Dewey Lake path which was a bit harder since it had a lot of uphill parts. It was easy to get to the trail head right in town. Go to the Klondike Gold Rush Nat'l Park Visitor Center in town and they have trail maps for you. Check out the interesting gold rush memorabilia there too.
* Ketchikan: You can walk through town to the Deer Mtn. Hatchery (salmon) and Eagle Center where you can see the animals/fish up close. Right by it is the Totem Heritage Center with people creating totem poles. Or, we have twice hiked Deer Mtn. hiking trail. While this is mostly uphill with many steps at parts, it has great rainforest type vegetation along the path (huge ferns, oversized tree logs, etc.). I suggest getting a cab from town to the trail head at Deermont and Fair Streets. After the hike, walk downhill through town for about 15 minutes back to town and the pier.
Have a wonderful cruise. Let me know how it went upon your return.
Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor
thanks a bunch for the information, it was very helpful!!! i'll look for that book but we are leaving saturday so i wont hold my breath. but i will definately look out for your suggestions. Thanks again
Sean
TO Tweety and Sean:
Sean, actually NCL does not have private babysitters as Lisa K suggested. They used to but not any more unfortunately. Hope you have a great cruise!
Tweety: Since you are in Alaska, there is a chance of running into bears. We've hiked many times in AK and never have run into any of them. However, I suggest making noise, singing or whistling as you hike -- the bears will not come near you if they hear you making noise.
Hope this helps!
Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor
just wanted to follow up here. Cruise (our first) was fantastic! All three of us really enjoyed it. As expected they were very strict about their kids program, our 18 month old wasn't allowed to participate at all , however the kids crew staff was very nice and had no problem with us using the room or allowing our daughter to watch movies with the older kids.
We ended up meeting another couple who was in the same situation we were (i.e. child too young for the kids program) so after talking for a while we agreed to trade babysitting for a night, so my wife and I got to have a nice dinner by ourselves as did the other couple. So while either couple was at dinner the other would be watching the kids in the kids crew room. We were really appreciative of our one night out. The rest of the time on ship my wife and i took turns watching our daughter if the other ever wanted to do something special. Also i bought a backpack stroller by instep and this worked great while in port. We could roll her around on city streets or backpack her when hiking or on trails. I highly recomend this product, its cheap (70 bucks) small (didn't take much room in our cabin), and very handy.
Other then that i must say i was very pleased with our cruise. My daughter became a celebrity. We would be in port and someone would say "hey its alex!" and it would be someone we had never even spoken to! And everywhere we went the crew treated her great, i was worried that some people (staff and passengers) might be annoyed with us chasing her all over the resturant but everywhere we went it was a very positive experience (our room stewards were always quick to offer her a few extra mints). so again i would definately recomend this cruise for famalies.
Hi Sean:
So glad to hear that your cruise went really well. What a good idea to swap toddlers with the other couple! I'll keep your email and publish your idea, if you don't mind, when I do a FAQ piece / best of the family message board article.
By the way, I have a daughter named Alex too. And yes, when she was little, she was also a celebrity with the crew on the ships too. It's one of the nice things about cruising -- the crew generally seemed happy to see little ones on board.
Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor
Family Cruise Editor
May alaska cruise
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