7 Mistakes We Made on Our DCL Alaska Cruise
We just returned from our Disney Cruise Line Alaska sailing and had an incredible experience…for the most part. Not everything went quite according to plan or expectation, and we felt it might be worth touching upon some of the mistakes we made on our Alaska cruise.
This may seem like a ‘downer’ way to start coverage of our ultimate Disney Cruise Line bucket list itinerary, but we think it makes sense to begin here. Alaska cruise season just started, and we’ve already heard from several people via social media and the comments section here who are planning on doing the DCL Alaska itinerary this year. From a planning resource perspective, covering our gaffes first so others can learn from our missteps seems appropriate.
With that said, we had an incredible time on the cruise, and want to underscore that before boarding the complaint train. Also, for those who have asked, we do plan on doing a trip report for this cruise. However, our Norway Fjords Disney Cruise Line Report ended up being nearly 20,000 words with potentially useful information buried in odd spots, and I’m trying to avoid a repeat of that.
I’m well aware that not everyone is interested in reading our rambling anecdotes for those buried nuggets of useful info, so my goal is to write several stand-alone blog posts to supplement the DCL Alaska cruise report, which should also help keep it more concise and to the point. Hopefully.
Anyway, here are the 7 biggest blunders we made on our Alaska Disney Cruise Line adventure…
7. Too Small of a Budget
This might seem like an obvious one, as ostensibly, a larger budget is always a good thing. Many travelers think throwing more money at a trip is the easiest way to improve it, which is sometimes true. Generally speaking, we take the possibly contrarian stance that a tighter budget allows forces us to explore places, experience their true character, and see less-touristy things in the process.
That’s largely not the case in the ports on Disney Cruise Line’s Alaska itinerary. While these are charming and beautiful places with some incredible things to do, many of the highlights do not come cheaply. This was compounded by our experience that the walkable “downtown” areas of each port are incredibly touristy, and lacking in compelling cultural offerings. We did two pricey Port Adventures, but in hindsight, I wished we would’ve pulled the trigger on two more really expensive ones.
6. Not Getting a Verandah
In the past, I’ve been very adamant about verandahs being an unnecessary expense for us since we spend so much time outside the room. When it came to Alaska, I received plenty of pushback from commenters here and friends who had taken the cruise, many of whom highly recommended booking a verandah. We didn’t have a verandah on our Norwegian Fjords cruise and felt like we didn’t miss anything, so I ignored this advice.
We realized this was a mistake from pretty much the first night. With 2 days at sea plus 1 day going through an iceberg-filled fjord, we would’ve gotten plenty of use out of the verandah. Even on port days, it would’ve been great for whale watching. Instead, we ended up spending a lot of time up on the outdoor public decks. Much of that time it was windy, raining, or cold, and I would’ve rather been back in the room sitting down with a cup of coffee (this is the first of many remarks in this post that make me sound old). We stayed outside even in nasty weather because we felt a sense of obligation to be outside of the room since we spent so much money on the cruise.
5. Not Enough Nice Attire
We used to be stylish. We really did. Our fashion sensibilities have “evolved” from trim oxfords and slacks for me and colorful dresses for Sarah to a surplus of athleisure wear. The percentage of spandex in my clothing has increased by an alarming rate, and my level of excitement over “discovering” elastic-waist khaki shorts last year is probably cause for concern.
Along these lines, there were a few too many casual evenings aboard this cruise and innumerable occasions when we didn’t want any photos of us because of this. Now, I’m not suggesting that we should’ve donned runway couture or turned every evening into formal night, but some classier outfits would’ve been a good idea in hindsight. Plus, what better occasion to bust out my formidable collection of dope dad sweaters?! (I may not be stylish, but my Fair Isle game is pretty strong, if I do say so myself.)
4. Too Much Hiking
Over the course of our 3 days in port, we did 4 hikes. We love to hike so this was one of the reasons we wanted to go to Alaska in the first place, and we enjoyed each of these hikes. They were all unique from one another and very memorable hikes, but there were still a couple of big downsides.
First, these hikes came at the expense of other Port Adventures that we had to forgo (read: that we were too cheap to pay for) that I think would’ve been truly awesome–and better than hiking. Second, so much hiking left us exhausted. I think I stayed up past 10 p.m. only a few times over the course of the entire cruise. (In my defense, I was up by 6 a.m. every morning, but still.)
3. Not Renting a Wildlife Lens or Binoculars
I’ve gone hiking in the mountains of California, Montana, and Canada in wildlife-dense areas and have seen and photographed a ton of animals in the past. Because of that, it seemed like an unnecessary expense and extra weight to pack a wildlife lens. I figured I couldn’t do better than past bear and mountain goat photos I’ve captured and I figured the odds were stacked against good whale photos.
What I didn’t expect was so many seals on icebergs and bald eagles. Seriously, it’s like bald eagles are the pigeons of Alaska. They were everywhere. On the way to one Port Adventure, we saw two fields with–literally–hundreds of bald eagles just chilling on the ground. (It was a surreal sight and it almost looked like they were building an army to rise up against the humans.)
2. Insufficient Time in Vancouver
Far and away, Vancouver was the best port city of the cruise, but we only had 2 full days there. It’s rugged yet cosmopolitan, and has a surplus of excellent food, great culture, exceptional public spaces, and picturesque natural scenery. It’s also compact and walkable, with efficient public transportation to the extent that it isn’t walkable.
Even after our brief time in Vancouver, it jumps to the top of my list of the best Pacific Northwest cities, above Seattle, Portland, and Victoria. Two days was not nearly enough, and I’ve already made an Airfarewatchdog alert for cheap flights to do another long weekend in Vancouver.
1. Not Enough Ice Cream
Truly a perpetual mistake, as no matter how much ice cream you have, it is never enough. However, on this cruise, I did an especially pathetic job, only having three soft serve cones over the course of the entire cruise. How do I go on calling myself an ice cream aficionado after such a sad showing?!
It seemed like whenever I passed Eye Scream Treats, it was closed. Morning or night, it didn’t matter. I think it was just poor timing on my part, but perhaps, unbeknownst to me, there’s a soft serve shortage that is wreaking havoc upon the Pacific Northwest.
Okay, so that last one is a bit of a stretch, but I wanted to get this list to 7 and I couldn’t think of much else. We arguably went too early in the season, but no matter when you cruise to Alaska, there are compromises. On balance, I’m pretty happy with what we experienced versus what we missed (and also visiting during the relative ‘off-season’), so it’s tough to call that a mistake. In any case, I think for the next post, we’ll shift to highlights of our Alaska cruise, as that seems like the most natural counterpart to this, even if it does act as a “spoiler” to the trip report. Look for that post over the weekend!
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Your Thoughts
What’s your take on our mistakes? If you’ve cruised to or visited Alaska, what mistakes do you feel you made? Any questions for those taking or considering an Alaska cruise? Any future topics you’d like us to tackle? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Planning for 2021, interested in missed excursions, that you wished u had done?
Love your advice 🙂
This makes me think we should postpone our Alaska trip to 2020 when we have a much bigger budget to blow. We have a trip booked for this August and few others so we told ourselves we will only do one or two expensive excursions in Alaska. I’m rethinking that…
I love your passion for ice cream. I actually blog about ice cream travel, which gives me an incredible excuse to find and eat good ice cream regularly!
Great advice that I wish I had, had before we did the Disney Alaska cruise last August. COuld not agree more about the excursions. Like you, I am frugal, but I regret beyond words not doing some of the glacier excursions. But, as they say, hindsight is 20/20 and we are planning on returning in 2020 (lol), just waiting for those dates to come out.
And what you said about the ice cream I also agree with – one of my favorite pictures is one where one on my sons is eating ice cream with a glacier int he background. Fully intend to get all three of my guys in on that picture in 2020 – perfect Christmas card shot!
Good points, all!
“Not enough ice cream” will probably be a life regret.
Tom, I loved your post on the Alaska cruise. We did one in August a few years back.
Our biggest mistakes, spending too much time in Anchorage at the beginning. We found things to do but were generally bored. (1 day would have been enough) Like you we did not have enough time in Vancouver at the end and want to go back.
The other disappointment was the drive to and from Denali. Denali itself was worth the trip but the pine trees were so tall on either side of the road to/from Denali that there was almost no view for most of the trip. We wondered if the train would have been better.
However, the drive from Anchorage to Seward was beautiful and we were able to do a great hike to a glacier on the way.
Like you we didn’t book even a window and we didn’t miss it. We were out on the deck lots and it was amazing to us how little people were out there. Yes it got cold but we got amazing views.
We also did not take many excursions. We did do a whale watching trip but did not have lots of luck. We saw plenty of seals but the whales always seemed to be in the distance but that is luck or no luck. We couldn’t bring ourselves to spend that much on the excursions.
I agree some towns were just nothing but tourist shops but we rented a car at one spot for the day and took the bus to another great glacier hike and bear watching at another.
We did bring some “fancy clothes” for one or two nights and that was fun.
Tom, thanks for making us feel better about splurging on a balcony for our DCL Alaska cruise next May! We’ve also booked independent whale watching and float plane excursions, and I hope to book a heli to a glacier but it is very expensive. But I don’t know when we’ll be back to Alaska so I want to go for it. Did you feel like going in May was a mistake? I’m hoping less crowded ports make up for cooler weather and less salmon/bear action. Were there any hikes you felt were definitely worth doing? We’ve got two littles so I wasn’t going to get more ambitious than the little trail to the waterfall near Mendenhall, but I’m curious about the trails in Skagway and Ketchikan too. I told my spouse what you said about attire but he’s not convinced, he favors comfort over all and would do the whole cruise in surf shorts if he could. I’ve got a year to work on that I guess…
My husband and I are taking the cruise in late August. We haven’t booked any excursions yet. Which ones would you suggest? My husband is mobility challenged so hiking is not happening. This is kind of a bucket list thing for my husband and I and we want to get the most bang for our buck even if we bend the budget a bit.
I’d also appreciate hearing about some easier hikes. My husband is a stroke survivor and can’t manage too long or too steep a trek, much as he used to love such things.
Want to know so badly which port adventures you wish you’d splurged on? We’ve booked our first Disney Alaska cruise for next May (it will be our 3rd Disney cruise). Want to make sure we do the best adventures we can!
I LOVE your blog! It is so helpful, honest, and the BEST!
And hi to Sarah! I think she and I would be friends if we knew each other haha!:)
Great post! I’m curious which port excursions you wish you had sprung for instead of the hikes?
I have been on 3 Disney Cruises and my mom on two. It was a first cruise for both of us. We are going with my twin sister in Sept. for a Twinnie’s 50th birthday trip. It’s her first cruise, ever.
We all want to do Alaska cruise next (assuming Christy enjoys the 3 night one) and so I’m super interested in anything you have to say on the subject. Our fiances refused to do the Caribbean because they think they’d be bored on a Disney ship. But they are thinking Alaska might be ok. So your posts would help us plan so that all the peeps can have a good time!
Your posts are always so well written and balanced. On other sites, you get perfect or I hated it- but not much in between. And too many I didn’t get enough ice cubes in my drink, so the trip was ruined for me posts! That’s no help for me at all!! You have been spot on for everything so far. And your pics are great! I would like to see more Sarah written posts, though I know you always represent her thoughts. As a fellow girly girl ( even if old enough to be her mama), I would enjoy her take!
It makes me sad to think of you kids in Alaska without binoculars. But…Alaska gets under your skin and I’m confident you’ll be there again someday. It’s a very special place.
Makes me sad to think of you kids in Alaska without binoculars. But…you’ll be back some day. It’s so special, nobody ever goes there only once.
I don’t know what we were thinking with that; I guess that my 200mm lens would be sufficient? And it was at times, but we still should’ve taken binoculars, too.
To your other point, we’ll absolutely be back. One of my life goals is to visit every National Park, and I’ve yet to cross any of the Alaska ones off my list. Hopefully a month and an RV can make that happen someday!
I rented a 150-600 lens for our cruise in 2017. Despite being huge and forcing me to leave behind a couple of other lenses, it was totally worth it. I came away with many eagle, seal, otter, whale. and bear photos (plus a few puffins) that I would have missed.
For what it’s worth, I’ve since acquired a 100-400mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter that I plan to use for this purpose in the future. It maxes out at 560mm, but the increased sharpness and smaller size should offset having the extra 40mm that came with the 150-600.
Love your blog, So which hikes do you recommend? And which excursion should are you sad you missed?
So. Spending more money you can’t afford is a good thing?
We never said we couldn’t afford the cruise. Being frugal is very different than being broke.
” The percentage of spandex in my clothing has increased by an alarming rate, and my level of excitement over “discovering” elastic-waist khaki shorts last year is probably cause for concern.”
I quite literally laughed-out-loud. Tom, you crack me up. Also I love this idea for a post – it’s not a downer – it just shows missed opportunities, and I think anyone can relate to that when it comes to vacations.
(I got the response in my email but because the comments are wonky I can’t find the actual comment to respond to.)
RE: Booking with the ship as “travel insurance”
Yes, it is true that if you book with the ship, they will never leave you behind. But I’ve been on over 30 cruises and I only booked with the ship in truly unique circumstances, and I have never had a problem. You do your due diligence on cruise critic and find out the operators to trust. These private operators depend on good reviews, and a bad trip advisor/yelp/cruise critic review is going to sink them. I’ve chatted with many cruise directors (on DCL, RCCL, Celebrity, and Princess), and they say that the ones that are most likely to miss the ship aren’t people on legitimate private excursions, but folks who go off exploring on their own (be it hiking or a beach or hitting up a bar or getting a car for hire who doesn’t care about the all aboard time) and lose track of time, miss a train connection, or get lost. I realize there is comfort in booking with the cruise line, but I would have missed out on some truly amazing life experiences had I done that. But to each their own.
You have provided some very good comments. We usually always book excursions outside of a cruise line. It will be much cheaper and those companies aren’t going to let you miss your ship. Their entire company can be ruined if something like that were to happen. I have sailed on about 15 cruises over the years and have always found it safe and affordable to book excursions with private companies outside of the cruise line.
I do however have one exception about booking with the cruise line and that is when purchasing air fare. You have the option to essentially “insure” your trip by purchasing air fare through the cruise line. I use to not do this until once I was burned and found made a point to always book my flight with the cruise. For starters, the airlines are very unpredictable. I travel a good bit and found that about 1/4 of the time I travel commercial something negative happens. Either a flight is canceled, luggage is lost, flights delayed causing me to miss a connection. If you are booking your air travel with the Cruise there is some protection. A few years ago I had a situation where NCL (Norwegian Cruise line) actually cancelled a cruise six months prior to the cruise date. While NCL was very accommodating with finding a new cruise or reimbursing my cost, I found that working with the airlines were not so friendly. I ended up losing a significant amount of money changing and cancelling air plans that I wouldn’t have encountered had I booked those flights through NCL.
Tom, if you guys ever get to Portland, I’ll buy you a microbrew or craft cocktail from one of our many fabulous locations. I think you’d love the view from the Portland City Grill during Happy Hour.
I’ve been to Portland before, but have no plans to go back anytime soon (unfortunately). Your city is lovely–thanks for the offer! 🙂
You show a commendable devotion to ice cream, so I have to ask if you know about Scooper Bowl New York, the all-you-can-eat annual ice cream festival in Bryant Park. It seems relevant to your interests… 🙂
“…all-you-can-eat annual ice cream festival…”
WHAT?! No, I did not know about this, but now I have a new bucket list item!
It’s going on right now! START THE CAR!!!