Tips for cruising.

CRody44

Next week, The Bride and I are going on a 7 day cruise from Vancouver, Canada to Whittier, Alaska on the Island Princess, then up to Denali for 4 days. Questions to anyone that has taken this cruise, is there ample time, daily, to walk the decks or hit the treadmill for a half hour in the mornings, or is the gym or your activities book pretty solid? We have chosen the ‘free range” meal plan rather than being stuck at a table, so is their adequate choices of healthy food? My only cruising experience was a few years with Uncle Sam’s Canoe Club in the 60’s, but I’m sure this will be different.

JFamilo

I haven't done an Alaska cruise but I've done a Caribbean in the past and have another scheduled for October. Cruises are vacations so the only way you'll be over-scheduled is if you allow yourself to be. How many sea days do you have? Those days you'll have plenty of time to get a workout in. On port days, you'll probably have no problem getting in a workout before getting off the ship. On my last cruise we enjoyed some free yoga classes onboard too.

The food is difficult on a cruise. It's usually really good and there's a lot of it. Most cruise lines offer a different menu every night in the main dining room but there's usually some stand-bys like a salad or grilled chicken that you can order any time. The desserts can get insane but you can usually get fresh berries or sugar free desserts. If you stay active (which usually you can do a lot of walking) and try to keep your eating in check I think you'll be fine.

Enjoy! It sounds like a great trip!

giggle1

We've done many cruises and the one thing that has truly helped is to avoid the elevators but take the stairs wherever you go, for the entire cruise. That, on top of hitting the gym a few times should help Have fun and Congratulations!

mcdebbie

The gym and thermal suite (not sure if Princess has that) get pretty crowded on the Alaska cruises. Sea days you will have plenty of time to walk the decks and see the glaciers go by, on port days it will depend on what excursions you have booked, etc. We stayed in an aft/stern balcony cabin at the very end so we always had a pretty good hike when we went any where. Ate like pigs and still did not gain any weight. :happy: Have a great time.

vallejos6

Not sure about the cruise, but you'll have plenty of walking when you get to Denali! When we cruised, we just made a pact not to ever use the elevator and ran up and down stairs all day, ate everything we wanted and didn't gain anything. I don't know if you've been watching the weather reports, but it's been a very wet year in interior Alaska (we live close to Fairbanks) so make sure to have your rain gear so you can still get out and enjoy it!

~~Veronica

ps: edited to add, the picture in my ticker was taken at the Savage River checkpoint on the road into Denali Park

CRody44

Thank you all for your help and suggestions.