Alaska Packing Mistakes People Regret

Alaska packing failures are remarkably consistent. The same six or seven mistakes appear in trip reports year after year, and every one of them is cheap to fix before departure and impossible to fix at sea.

The same packing mistakes appear in Alaska trip reports year after year. Every one is cheap to fix at home and expensive or impossible to fix at sea.

1. The water resistant jacket

The most consequential error. Water resistant means light rain slides off for twenty minutes. Waterproof means taped seams and a membrane that keeps you dry through an afternoon of Ketchikan rain.

The test: stand in a shower wearing it for two minutes. If water beads and runs off, it works. If it soaks in and darkens, it will fail you, and a reproofing wash costs very little.

2. No binoculars

The most regretted omission. Alaska wildlife is at 100 to 500 metres, whales from the deck, goats on cliffs, seals on ice. Without binoculars, all of it is specks.

An 8x42 pair, one per person. See choosing binoculars.

3. One heavy coat

A parka handles one condition, cold and dry, which Alaska summer rarely is. It is too warm for a 65 degree Skagway afternoon, useless in rain unless it is also waterproof, and enormous in the case.

Three thin layers, base, fleece, light down, under a shell, handle everything and pack smaller. See the layering system.

4. Canvas shoes

Trainers and canvas shoes soak through in the first wet hour and stay wet for days in Alaska humidity. Wet feet end port days.

Waterproof walking shoes, broken in before you travel, plus spare wool or synthetic socks.

5. No sleep mask

In late June, Juneau has about eighteen hours of daylight and never gets properly dark. Cabin blackout curtains are rarely perfect, and balcony cabin curtains leak light at the edges.

A sleep mask weighs nothing and is the highest value item per gram on the whole list.

6. Too much formal wear

Most lines have one or two smarter evenings, loosely enforced, and many passengers skip them entirely. Norwegian has none at all. Only Cunard genuinely requires formal dress.

One jacket or one dress covers almost every line. The garment bag of options goes unworn.

7. The umbrella

Alaska rain comes with wind, and umbrellas invert. A hood works. Several ships also lend umbrellas at the gangway. Leave it.

8. Cotton everything

Cotton absorbs moisture, stops insulating when damp, and takes days to dry at sea. A cotton t shirt under a jacket on a wet day actively makes you colder.

Merino or synthetic base layers, which also resist odour and can be worn several times. See the packing list.

9. Forgetting the dry bag

One boat trip with spray, one downpour at Mendenhall, and an unprotected phone or camera has a problem. A cheap roll top dry bag or even a zip lock solves it.

10. No spare camera battery

Cold halves battery life, and an hour on a glacier deck in katabatic wind will drain a full charge faster than you expect. A spare kept warm in an inside pocket, and cold batteries recover when warmed.

The fallback

If you arrive under equipped, Juneau, Ketchikan and Skagway all have outdoor gear shops near the berths. Expect to pay 20 to 40 percent over home prices for waterproofs, hats and gloves. Binoculars are harder to find at reasonable prices, which is another reason to bring them.

The full list with quantities is in the Alaska cruise packing list.