Mom and Me Adventure – The Set-up

Because I love to torment you with my travel misadventures, I’m going to be recounting the trip my mom and I are currently on. So far, I have not ended up in jail or disowned; so it must be going better than I feared. As mentioned previously, my parents are/were not travelers (how exactly did I spring from those two again?) and I really haven’t spent more than a day with solely my mother’s company… ever.

But after my dad died last June, I wanted to provide something that both of us could look forward to and try to bring some joy into a month that I knew was going to be very hard for both of us. So I booked an Alaskan cruise for the month of June 2019. An Alaskan cruise was something my mom had mentioned when I was kid that she would love to do someday (and hilariously, now she does not remember ever saying that) but knew she could never afford. And Alaska was the last state I hadn’t visited yet.

So I began researching different cruise lines, itineraries, and ports. Keeping in mind my mom’s deteriorating knees and my dislike of most of humanity, I knew I wanted to be on a smaller ship. My mom is not a person who has experienced fine dining and does not enjoy wine at all (again, how is this person my real mother?), so one of those luxury small ship cruise lines wouldn’t have been an option – not that I wanted to spend that much anyway, because hello, I’d like to not have to turn to a life of bank robbing to pay for that.

After much deliberation, I finally made a decision on the cruise line, potential sailing date and ship, and then waited for the Labor Day sales. Pro tip – if you want to take an Alaskan cruise but want to feel like you get a good price: create a new email account; do a search “Alaska cruises” in google or search engine of choice; check random itineraries that you might be interested in to get a baseline for prices; sign up for the newsletters from every one of the companies listed on page one using your new email account; and then keep an eye on those newsletters for promotions or special sales announced. The company I booked with announced their Labor Day sales a week in advance, giving me plenty of time to really narrow down exactly what I was going to purchase. I was even able to specify the exact cabin I wanted so there would be no unpleasant surprises at check-in (like finding out the cabin assigned to me was directly underneath the buffet and/or swimming pool).

Or if you have a Costco membership, you can book directly through them. I love me some Costco Travel; but this time, the travel agency I booked through actually beat them on value because of that sale.

After I got the cruise portion booked, I researched the hell out of shore excursion options. I ended up booking independently from the options that the cruise line was offering. I’ll explain my rationale a bit more on why when I talk about those excursions later. But because a cruise only covers a small portion of Alaska, I wanted to see the interior as well.

The cruise companies all seem to offer a “land add-on” package and if you want to take the stress out of booking stuff on your own, that’s an easy way to let someone else figure out the logistics. But I love digging into that kind of stuff and at the time, my hubby was supposed to join us for the land portion anyway. I spent some time trying to craft a perfect “week after the cruise” itinerary. My advice if you’re booking independently: don’t do that until after you check out options in and around Denali and find out availability. I had to shift my perfectly crafted week around quite a bit to accommodate the only time slot where I could get ANY lodging booked up by Denali National Park. Apparently the cruise lines have massive blocks on most of the lodges and hotels up there. And if you’re not booking months in advance to stay during the height of summer tourist season, well, good luck and cross your fingers there’s cancellations. I booked in December of last year and didn’t get my preferred dates at any of the places I tried. So I shifted my dates until I got an opening and locked it as soon as I saw availability. And then built my land-itinerary around the Denali dates.

Although I’m still in the middle of the trip, so far I am pleased with how it turned out. But I’m also overwhelmed with how much there is to see and do in this part of the world. Two weeks is not enough time to even barely scratch the surface, let alone feel like I’ve covered this area of the world. I may have crossed off my 50th state on my life list; but I definitely can’t say I’ve “been there, done that” in regards to Alaska.

Stay tuned for more of my Mom and Me Adventure!