Category: CRUISE TIPS

Our Ultimate Family Guide To Your Best Alaska Cruise

Posted onAuthorFamily Cruise Companion2 CommentsCategoriesAlaska, CRUISE PLANNING, CRUISE TIPS, Multigenerational, PORTS & EXCURSIONS

Sail Your Best Alaska Cruise

You can quickly get overwhelmed researching how to plan the best Alaska cruise for your family. This guide will help you weed through volumes of information and focus on what’s really important to you.

So Why Cruise Alaska?

The massive glaciers and stunning marine wildlife provide a unique backdrop for a family cruise. The natural wildlife both in sea and on land is its own attraction – humpback whales, Orcas, sea otters, seals, sea lions, wild salmon, moose, grizzly, and polar bears. And, Alaska also has the largest population of bald eagles in the country. In addition to numerous wildlife viewing opportunities, you’ll find many outdoor adventures. Stunning mountain hikes, dog sledding, fishing, kayaking, and various helicopter excursions only scratch the surface of what’s available.

Very few cruise experiences can compare to the fun and excitement of an Alaskan cruise.  More than one million cruisers make that trip every year. And, more than half of the visitors to Alaska arrive by cruise ship. Not surprisingly, it is also a top destination choice for multigenerational family travel. 

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Alaska is one of the most exotic cruises you can take while still being in the United States (right up there with Hawaii). But, unlike Hawaii, Alaska’s vastness and unique topography make it quite challenging to master for the typical family traveler. It is literally frontier country. Millions of acres of untamed wilderness and only a smattering of cities/towns. And, some towns can only be reached by air or water.

So, a cruise may be the only viable option for most people for seeing Alaska. It is almost certainly the most affordable option. 

 

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Our Top Cruise Tips For Families: On Staterooms

Posted onAuthorFamily Cruise CompanionLeave a commentCategoriesCruise Ship Rooms

Cruise ship staterooms become home base for families during a cruise vacation. So make your stateroom the best it can be for your family. Get our best tips on cruise cabin selection, maximizing space in staterooms, improving child safety and more. Read on to learn all of our best tips relevant to your family’s cruise stateroom.

Our Top Cruise Tips About Staterooms

 

Tips on Selecting Staterooms

Our Family Guide To Choosing A Cruise Cabin With Ease

Don’t be overwhelmed by the multitude of stateroom options.  Arm yourself with information to make a wise choice. The type of cabin you choose will have the biggest impact on your family vacation budget. If you are trying to get the most value for your dollar when booking a cruise for your family vacation, there is no reason to buy more stateroom than you need. So how do you tell the difference between cruise cabins, and decide what’s best for your family? Follow this guide for quick tips. And, discover the four questions you should answer to pick the best cruise cabin for your family.

Tips on Organizing Staterooms

9 Remarkably Easy Tips To Make Family Cruise Ship Rooms Cozy

Concerned about trying to squeeze your family of four (or more) into a cruise ship room really designed for two?It’s no secret that cruise ship rooms are substantially smaller than a typical room at a hotel or resort.  But that’s no reason for your family to feel overly cramped or confined! With these handy travel tips and hacks to help organize your cabin, no worries are necessary. These simple tips will help you make the best use of all the space available to you. 

 

Tips on Stateroom Safety

 

Tips on Family Staterooms - Safer CabinsHow To Improve Cabin Safety On Family Cruise With A Baby

If you are planning to take a family cruise with a baby or toddler, you will likely be interested in some basic childproofing for your stateroom. Start preparing your cruise cabin for your baby or toddler before you leave for vacation. With these simple steps and childproofing hacks for your stateroom, you can avoid common safety hazards with ease. And, most of these tips and ideas don’t require packing anything extra.

A Downloadable Checklist for Staterooms

Free Printable of the Cozy Cabin ChecklistWe have summarized the key points from our post on cozy cabins into a handy printable checklist that you can download and take with you on your next cruise.  Go ahead and get your free copy today!

 

 

 

 

 

 

18 Simple Tips For A More Peaceful Embarkation Day

Posted onAuthorFamily Cruise CompanionLeave a commentCategoriesCRUISE TIPS, Embarkation

No matter how long your cruise will be, you want to make sure that you start having fun from day one. These 18 embarkation tips will help you get off to the right start! Read on and see which of these embarkation tips can apply to you. Starting with your first day boarding your cruise, make sure that you set your family up to have the most fun vacation possible.

Try These Simple Embarkation Tips For A Fun Family Cruise

1. Pack A Small Embarkation Bag

You should implement this first embarkation tip before you ever set foot on the ship. Either while you are packing at home, or the night before at your hotel. Basically, you want to create a small embarkation bag. Pack a small day bag with some key items that will tide you over as you’re waiting for your luggage to arrive to your cabin. You may be lucky, and your luggage arrives shortly after you do. But the more likely scenario will be that you have to wait several hours before seeing your bags again.

Some ideas for your embarkation bag? Definitely pack any necessary medications. If you will be traveling all day or from a location with a different climate, then you should pack a comfortable change of clothes. That way you’re not strolling around the hot sunny decks in you turtleneck sweater, for instance.

You can also pack some gear for swimming and/or laying out by the pool. That’s a great way to kill time while you are waiting for your bags. Or, alternatively, you could hustle family members off to the pool so that you can unpack more efficiently.

And, since it will be unclear when you will have access to your room, you should also slip your power bank and/or a charger into the embarkation bag as well. Also, toss in a few small snacks so that you can avoid crowds at the buffet and excess charges from the minibar snacks.

For more ideas on what to pack, go check out our recommendations for the best cruise accessories.

2. Arrive During Best Time Window

Over the past couple of years, many cruise lines have been actively implementing programs to speed up the process of checking in for your cruise. Depending on the cruise line, you will likely be assigned an arrival window, or at least and arrival window will be strongly suggested to you.  In the absence of contrary information or other circumstances, go ahead and try to arrive during the recommended window.

Opinions vary as to whether it’s better to be on the early side or the later side of your window. To the extent that you can arrive on the earlier side of the permissible window, then you will be able to access the ship earlier. But you may find that you cannot have access to your cabin yet, and that the buffet or other dining venues are crowded. (See number 1 above. Pool is usually a good place to hang out. Even if your cabin isn’t ready, folks can change in the public bathrooms.)

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