Your First 24 Hours on an Alaska Cruise

The first afternoon on a cruise ship is when the week is won or lost, because everything with limited capacity, dining, North Star, spa slots, gets booked in those hours. Here is the order to do things in.

The first afternoon aboard sets up the whole week, because everything with limited capacity gets claimed in those hours. Here is the sequence that works.

Hour one: the essentials

1. Complete the muster requirement. On most lines this now means watching a safety video in the app and checking in briefly at your assigned station. Doing it immediately means nobody chases you later, and it is required before sailing.

2. Book specialty dining. The evening to book is the scenic cruising day, Glacier Bay, Hubbard or the fjords, because the ship is quiet, nobody is rushing back from shore, and in June the light through the windows lasts past 10 pm. These slots go first.

3. Book the capacity limited activities. On Royal Caribbean Quantum class, North Star slots for the glacier day are typically gone within hours of boarding. On Norwegian, if you have a dining package, book every night now.

4. Register children for the youth club. Registration queues on day two are long, and some age bands cap enrolment.

Hour two: orientation

Find four places while the ship is still quiet:

• The forward observation lounge, which is where you will spend the glacier day
• Your muster station, so it is familiar
• The buffet's early morning section, for port day breakfasts
• The launderette, if your line has one

Check the daily programme for tomorrow: the naturalist talk schedule, all aboard times if it is a port day, and the scenic cruising timings.

The bag question

Checked bags handed to porters typically arrive between two and five hours after boarding. Until then you have what you carried.

Carry aboard: medication, travel documents, valuables, a layer for the deck, and anything you need before evening. On an Alaska sailing specifically, carry the binoculars, because the Inside Passage scenery starts immediately.

Sailaway

Be on deck for it. Leaving Seattle past the Olympic Peninsula, or Vancouver under the Lions Gate Bridge and past Stanley Park, is the first real event of the cruise, and the light in the evening is usually good.

From San Francisco, the ship passes under the Golden Gate Bridge roughly forty five minutes after departure, which is the best sailaway in Alaska cruising.

The first evening

• Eat easily. The buffet or a casual venue. The main dining room on night one is the busiest service of the week.
• Check your onboard account in the app and start the daily habit.
• Set the cabin up. Unpack fully, it is a week, and find the extra blanket.
• Sleep mask and alarm. In June it is light until 10 pm and light again at 4 am.

The first morning

Usually a sea day heading north. This is the day to:

• Attend the first naturalist talk, which sets up everything you will see
• Spend time in the observation lounge with binoculars as the Inside Passage narrows
• Book anything you forgot yesterday
• Walk the open decks and find the sheltered spots you will want at the glacier

The most common first day error is treating the sea day as empty time before the real trip starts. In Alaska, the scenery starts at the dock. See what to do on an Alaska sea day.