An Alaska cruise sounded like the kind of vacation I always wanted to take, because I wanted to take my first trip to Alaska and easily get between many different ports.
My family took a cruise to Alaska on Royal Caribbean's Ovation of the Seas, which took us to Sitka, Skagway, Juneau and a glacier viewing.
I had taken Caribbean cruises before, but I heard so many good things about an Alaska cruise that I wanted to try it myself. Frankly, I wasn't sure what to expect and how different it would be from a warm weather cruise.
It was sunny all day and night
I knew Alaska is the land of the midnight sun, but I don't think any blog article or video can prepare you for the reality of summer in Alaska.
The sun would rise around 3am or so and set by about 11pm. It was weird seeing the sun out at dinner, and even as late as 9pm.
One advantage to this was you never had to worry about it getting too dark for an early morning to see glaciers, or if you wanted to swim at night.
However, I think trying to go to sleep at my normal time was more difficult because my body thought it was still afternoon.
It was warmer than I expected
I knew it wouldn't be snowing or anything terribly cold given our cruise was in summer, but I was surprised by how warm it would get each day.
If the sun was out, it regularly got into the 70's and I regretted not packing shorts. It was warm during the day, and less frigid than I expected.
The mornings were chilly, but in port I found myself almost always in a t-shirt.
When the ship was at sea, it would feel colder because of the wind, especially when we sailed the Inside Passage.
Getting onboard was very easy
Royal Caribbean's embarkation process was super easy because so much of it is digital.
We checked in at the cruise terminal in Seattle and were able to get on the ship immediately. Once onboard, we could go anywhere we wanted and since we had an afternoon check-in time, our cabins were ready.
I booked "The Key" and that included an embarkation day lunch just for us.
Overall, it was by far the smoothest embarkation process I've experienced.
An eye mask was very important to sleep
Since the sun wouldn't set until the late evening, I found an eye mask was super helpful.
I packed an eye mask for my flight to Seattle, but I was glad to have it on the cruise too because the natural sunlight made falling asleep difficult.
Anyone that is a light sleeper should bring an eye mask.
I used my phone more than I expected
At the end of the cruise, I realized how important my phone was to the cruise experience.
Royal Caribbean's app is a focal point for what's happening onboard, from booking dining reservations, checking the daily schedule, or seeing what the plan was for the next day.
The chat feature in the app was free, so it made texting my family onboard even easier.
Besides using my phone onboard, I was glad to have my phone in the ports we visited.
There was cell phone coverage in each of the towns we visited in Alaska, and it made navigating so much easier.
Not having pool deck fun limited our options on sea days
Even on the warmest days, the wind on the pool deck made it too cold to really enjoy being there.
I was so used to sea days spent near the pool, so it was a surprise to me how not spending a lot of time at the pool changed my sea day routine.
I wouldn't say I was bored, but I found more downtime than I expected on sea days without more to do near the pool.
It helped on our last day, which was a sea day, because I just wanted to nap after many days of exploring Alaska on land.
Shore excursions are expensive
I couldn't believe some of the prices for tours in Alaska.
It was difficult to find shore excursions that didn't start at $100 per person, and I think that's because this is the United States and everything is more expensive in Alaska than in the lower 48 states.
I was able to afford our tours, but I noticed the overall cost of an Alaska cruise was much higher than Caribbean cruises because of how pricey these tours were (plus the airfare to get to Alaska).
Dinner wasn't as formal in Alaska
Maybe it was everyone wearing jackets, but I thought more people were casually dressed in the main dining room.
It seemed less passengers were following the dress code for dinner, but the crew didn't seem to care either.
There were still some passengers that wore dresses or suits, but it seemed like less than normal for a 7-night cruise.
