How to choose the best Alaska cruise for your family with Valerie Stimac Bailey - Traveler Stories Series

Fellow long time Alaska travel expert Valerie joins Jennie to share about bringing her baby to Alaska for the first time and how she decided on her cruise. Though Valerie grew up in Alaska and is an Alaska travel expert, this was her first time bringing her little one.

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Transcript

Jennie Flaming: 0:05

Jennie, welcome to the Alaska uncovered podcast with me, your host, Jennie Thwing Flaming, my occasional co host and full time husband, Jay and I bring you accurate, helpful and entertaining information about Alaska, travel and life in Alaska, before we start the episode, we would like to thank our Patreon members for making this podcast possible. You can join them at the link in the show notes. We are so grateful for your support of independent podcasts. Enjoy the show you welcome everybody to the Alaska uncovered podcast. My guest today is Valerie Stimac Bailey, and Valerie has been on the pod before. In fact, Valerie was my very first guest ever, because she is a fellow Alaska travel expert, and today we're gonna talk about her trip this summer with her baby. But before we do that, Valerie, welcome back to Alaska, uncovered. Thank

Valerie: 1:26

you so much. Jennie, it is great to be back. It has been so much fun following your journey, documenting all the incredible stories in Alaska and Alaska travel.

Jennie Flaming: 1:34

Oh, thanks, yeah, and I love you know that the episode that you and I did, which, by the way, for everyone listening, is episode three. That is one of the most popular episodes of this podcast of all time. So it still is. So that is very exciting. So to be fair,

Valerie: 1:55

the Docu, the topic we were covering, is a great topic. It was Denali National Park, so it's, of course, it's totally worth visiting. And yeah, we could go on about it again if we want to.

Jennie Flaming: 2:04

Absolutely yes. So if you want to hear more thoughts on that, go back and listen to episode three. Awesome. Okay, so, Valerie, today we're going to talk about your trip this summer. Well, fall, I guess more in the summer. So first of all, can you tell everyone a little bit about your history in Alaska and a little bit about your business? Because for everyone listening, normally, these episodes are with people who are visiting Alaska for the first time. That, of course, is not the case with Valerie, but it was her first time with her baby. So we'll talk more about that in a minute. So tell us a little bit about your history. Yeah,

Valerie: 2:49

so I grew up in Alaska. I was not born in Alaska, but I grew up in Alaska. My family moved there when I was five years old, and I went to I graduated from high school in Alaska, so that's kind of the arc. And then I went to college out of state, so spent 15 winters in Alaska. And then after college, after grad school, I got into writing and travel writing, and ended up starting a website that has since become a very good resource, I can no longer say a top resource. Jennie can explain someday. If you want to know, send her a note asking why none of us say we're the top travel bloggers about Alaska anymore. Hey, a very good blog about Alaska.

Jennie Flaming: 3:32

Yes, it is still the best resource, maybe not ranking as high as it was thanks to nonsense outside of our control, but it is a fantastic resource.

Valerie: 3:46

Thank you. Yeah. So I run a website. It's called Valerie and valise, and it covers Alaska and the American West, and more than half of the website is now Alaska content. So it's a very good resource if you want to visit Alaska. And as part of running that website, I have been back to Alaska 12 times since my family moved away, and most of that has actually been after the pandemic. So I visited a handful of times, maybe three or four before the pandemic, and then eight times since 2021 so pretty much twice a year, every year. And looking at 2025 I'm already working on my trips, so I'm really excited, because it's going to be a very exciting new year anyway. Yeah. So I have lived in Alaska, and I have traveled to Alaska, and I also used to work in travel in Alaska. So my origin story is a lot like I believe one of your other guests, Rob, and you can tell everyone which episode number that is. But I also worked in the cruise tourism industry. I worked for Holland America for several summers, which is a really common job for Alaskan teenagers. There's lots of jobs, summer jobs. So that was the role that I did, and that was sort of the bridge when I started travel writing about Alaska, saying, Look, I used to work in the industry. I can read through the marketing speak. I can help you understand how to actually choose a good cruise excursion. And that has since become like I cover as much of the state as I've ever been. To so it's it was very natural that when I found out I was pregnant, one, I visited Alaska while I was pregnant, and two, that as soon as my husband and I felt confident to visit, we were going to be taking our little one with us. And so that's what happened in September of 2024 is we finally all packed up and did our first

Jennie Flaming: 5:18

trip. Yay. So for those of you listening, you can probably see how Valerie and I became friends, because we have many things in common. And the episode you were talking about with our other friend, Rob, was two months ago at the beginning of October. He also talked about bringing his family for the first time. Okay, so you decided. You and your husband decided to go with your daughter to Alaska in September. So tell us a little bit about kind of why you decided to do it at this time, and how you made your decision about what kind of trip it would be. Yes,

Valerie: 5:57

so I have, I used to say that I'm not a cruiser, and then I realized I've been on seven cruises around the world, four of which were in Alaska, including the one we just went on. So I feel like I can't say that I'm not a cruiser, but I agree.

Jennie Flaming: 6:12

I think that makes you a cruiser, yeah,

Valerie: 6:15

not just a cruiser, that's what we'll say now. But I was fairly confident that a cruise was going to be the right kind of trip for us with such a small child, because of a couple reasons. One, babies really need routine and stability just for their own like, like their own sanity. They need, like, a common space they come back to. And these are also things we learned on the trip. So my instinct was right. Also, we didn't want to be packing and unpacking baby stuff plus our stuff every one to two nights, like we would typically do on a land trip. No, and yeah. And you cannot take an infant younger than six months on a cruise, a domestic cruise, this is actually I had to learn so much about cruising and the regulations you cannot take an infant younger than a year on an international cruise, and you can't take an infant younger than six months on a domestic cruise, and Canada doesn't count if you're doing an Alaska Canada cruise for that rule. So just to clarify, if you're if you have a young one and you're trying to figure that out. So all this to say we could not go before the middle of August, because that's when she turned six months. Yep, and I knew for many trips that one, September is a beautiful time to visit, and two, it tends to be a little bit less crowded, less costly, which was all part of the consideration when we were trying to pick dates. And I knew, you know, you have a very narrow window in September where that's going to work. So that's how we settled on September and how we settled on a cruise.

Jennie Flaming: 7:39

Awesome. Love it. Okay, so tell us a little bit about the basics of what you did on your trip. How long was it? Where did you fly to and out of, what ports did you go to on the ship, that kind of thing.

Valerie: 7:53

Yeah. So we did a very standard Alaska cruise trip. Normally, when I do a cruise, even in Alaska, I add on a bunch of stuff. I mean, having a child, anyone who's listening, you know, your whole world changes. It's the understatement of a lifetime, but that includes your travel style. So I have very much slowed down. I don't pack as much in. I don't extend trips the way I normally did. So I had a very conventional cruise trip, which is that we flew from our home in Cleveland to Anchorage by way of Seattle. We were very conscious in our flights about, you know, having a little one on planes also. So it was like one layover only. How do we, you know, not ever have any red eyes. All of that was part of our planning as well. So we flew to Anchorage, a very, very long travel day that included, you know, fly to Anchorage, then take the park connection bus down to Seward, where we stayed the night before boarding our ship. And I did that on purpose, because I wanted to get us as close to the ship as possible that first day, even though it was a really long day with the time change and we all went to sleep at 8pm Alaska time, which was midnight for us at home,

Jennie Flaming: 8:54

I I'm impressed that you made it till 8pm

Valerie: 8:57

Well, there were meltdowns. No meltdowns from the adults, but definitely our little one had a meltdown, but she did her very best. She's a great traveler. That was the other thing we really learned, is she's a really good traveler. But, you know, at about five o'clock Alaska time, 9pm our home time, she was hungry again, and we were still on this darn bus. We were about 15 minutes outside of Seward, and she just lost her mind. So that was, you know, got to Seward. Yeah, started in Seward for the cruise. And it was a seven day cruise, or seven or seven night. I can never remember how they figure out the math, but I think it was a week. It was a week long cruise. Got on board and Seward disembarked in Vancouver and flew, flew Vancouver, Seattle, home. So that's kind of the bookends. Then in terms of the ports. We had day at sea in Hubbard Glacier, which I'd never been to before, was really cool. Juneau, Skagway, icy straight point and Ketchikan, and then another day at sea in the Canadian Inside Passage near Vancouver Island. And it was also a really nice balance of a week where three of the days more or less were on the. Boat, and four of the days were in port, so we didn't, we weren't kind of, like running every single day, like we kind of had a nice balance in that way too.

Jennie Flaming: 10:07

Yeah, that's wonderful. Okay, so how, like, I know, because we talked about this before that you did a lot of thinking about what kind of itinerary you wanted on the ship. Would you be comfortable talking about that a little bit and why you chose the one you did?

Valerie: 10:26

Absolutely. Yeah. So I had a couple considerations. One I wanted. I was originally thinking about a round trip cruise, just like starting in Seattle and ending in Seattle, or starting in Vancouver and ending in Vancouver. Those are very common kind of like round trip, Inside Passage cruises, or there's the quote, cross golf, where you either start or end in like Whittier as Seward, and that's because you have to go across the Gulf of Alaska to either start or end your cruise. I was less concerned about which of those options I ended up with, whether it was Inside Passage only or cross golf, because I was more concerned with price. Frankly, cruising has gotten ridiculously expensive, and I just needed to be aware of that as part of the math. So I was looking at everything. But more importantly, I was paying attention to which ports we were going to visit, because as part of my job, I wanted to visit icy straight point, yep. And I also wanted my husband to, for the first, for his first time, go to Skagway. Obviously, my daughter's first time too. He never been a Skagway. Yeah. So we had been on a cruise in 2022 that made port in Haynes. He did not go to Skagway with me that day. He stayed in Haines, which was really cool, this kind of divide and conquer. But he I really wanted him to see Skagway, because it's one of those places you need to see at least once in your at least once in your life. Everything's been at least once in Alaska. So yeah. And when I put those constraints on, when I said Skagway plus icy straight point, really, it narrowed it down very quickly. So if you are listening and you're trying to decide on a cruise itinerary, figure out which ports you want to visit, one or two, and you're going to see it starts to narrow down really fast what your options are in your price point. And so yeah, it was actually like more driven by practical considerations of price and my own business needs, because having never been to icy straight point, that was the only major port I had never been to, yeah, and I really wanted to experience it firsthand and be able to write about that for people who asked me, because I had kind of been like gray area research based answering, rather than experiential based answering, yep,

Jennie Flaming: 12:17

yep. And you know, I'm really glad that you mentioned those practical considerations, because, you know, you and I both talked to so many people who are who got really overwhelmed, which is understandable. If you go onto a cruise lines website, you know it's gonna look like there are, like 60 options for Alaska cruises, and that's just one cruise line. But you are so right. If you think about, okay, these are the things that are really important to me that's going to eliminate, you know, 90, probably percent of your options. And, man, I just think that's a really good way for anyone to do it, even if they didn't have a business consideration in the way that you did.

Valerie: 13:00

Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, my business consideration was, I want to go to icy straight point and experience it, which is the same thing. You know, I am then going to come home and write about it. But it's the same thing as a visitor who goes and takes pictures and talk their friends and family about it afterwards. Exactly that

Jennie Flaming: 13:13

same thing. Yeah, absolutely. Valerie, you talked a little bit about the itinerary and that all that. What cruise line did you go with, and why did you choose it?

Valerie: 13:23

Yeah, if you can't tell from listening, I have a very deep consideration of all questions. There's a deep, detailed answer. So I had done a ton of research into which cruises would be Baby Friendly, not just family friendly, but baby friendly. And each cruise line has a different setup for kids, for teens, for babies, and you need to understand what those are. But my most important consideration, which we didn't actually end up ever needing, was which cruise companies have changing stations in any of the public bathrooms on the ship? Yeah, because that is a direct signal to the passengers, and implicitly, me like reading through like we are welcoming of babies and we are not welcoming of babies, not to say they wouldn't call they wouldn't allow you to book, but like you're going to be, you know, for example, if you go with Holland America, I know they do not have changing stations on any of their ships in any of the public areas, right? So that's sort of a signal, like, that's a cruise line, and cruise passengers who are generally not going to have babies, and maybe don't want a baby on the ship. You know, like the passengers have chosen that line because they're not looking for Family Travel. In the end, I went with celebrity which I had never considered cruising with. Had never cruised with before, but I did determine that they have changing stations in the back the public restrooms, and I knew that they kind of did a nice bridge between the more family oriented cruising and the little bit higher scale, like upscale cruising experience, my husband likes to have, like, a more luxury experience. So I was kind of trying to find the middle ground, and that's, yeah, celebrities where I ended up, and it was a generally a good choice. I would say their ships are and their itineraries are very standard. But I don't mean that in any sort of. Diminutive way, like it's, it's, they do Alaska, well, they their ships are they have everything you need on board. They have a variety of cabin options. And actually wanted to mention this that we did not this is the first time I ever cruised and didn't have a balcony because I was price conscious. So I actually can't remember the name of the site, but I used a website to find cheap cruises, and that's how I ended up settling on Celebrity was because they had some of the best pricing, and we ended up going with an ocean view room, so we had a big window, and that I was really concerned. I think we would have loved having a balcony, because we did spend a lot of time in the cabin with when our daughter was napping, and we could have been out on the balcony enjoying the view, instead of just sitting in a dark cabin, but not having the balcony, and saving that money and being able to spend that money on another part of our cruise, I ended up, I think, in the end, that was really worth it. And now I feel I can actually speak to balcony versus not balcony. What's worth it and answer that question for people too. Yep,

Jennie Flaming: 15:55

yep, that that makes a lot of sense. And by the way, since you're talking about bargain shopping for cruises and we're recording Valerie and I are recording this episode shortly before the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, and it's going to go live sort of right after that early December. So if you're listening in real time, yeah, I just really want to encourage you to not wait to book a cruise in Alaska. I mean, it just is, really there's not a ton of bargains available, like except for extreme shoulder season. Valerie, do you have anything you want to add about that, just with timing and price, since that was such a big consideration for you planning this trip, kind of what did you learn about that that you'd want to pass on to other people?

Valerie: 16:51

Yeah, actually, before I forget, if you are considering a cruise with your kids, read the fine print about what kids cruise free and what ages they have to be. Yes, this irks the bananas out of me that my my seven month old had to be, I had to pay for her to be on the cruise, even though she didn't consume any resources on the cruise and didn't need any extra space. And then there were lots of kids cruise free options like deals, and they were only from ages five to 18, so young children, you still have to pay for it just doesn't make any sense to me. But anyway, with regards to bargain hunting, here's what I can tell you. I've been watching prices for a couple years, and a couple years now, if you are listening to this this time next year and being like, should I wait for Black Friday? The cruise companies jack up their prices right before Black Friday so they can discount to the price that they pay that you would pay any other time of the year. They play with their pricing like Amazon, basically. So like, there is no there's no incentive to wait. If you see a deal that looks good, it's good whenever you find it. If that's what works for your price and your budget and the itinerary you've chosen, book it because you're not you're not likely to find anything so dramatically better at another time of year. Completely

Jennie Flaming: 17:57

agree with that. I mean, maybe the one time that's really bad to book a cruise is, like, right before Black Friday.

Unknown: 18:05

Yes, you know, three weeks before that,

Jennie Flaming: 18:08

maybe. But like, yeah, like, you, you know, I've looked at these prices and they, they don't change that much. Unlike, you know, what's even, if you can book a whole year ahead of time, that's usually even better. But that can be really difficult for people to do from like, just for logistical reasons. So yeah, yeah, completely agree with that. Okay, so before we take a break, Valerie, tell us a little bit about, like, a favorite moment that you had on this cruise with your family.

Valerie: 18:38

Yeah, so I actually have two, and it's wonderful because I have pictures of both of them, and it's where the ocean view cabin really shot shine. Shown, yes, the first one is at the day at Hubbard Glacier. We had been out on the deck watching the glacier. It was a beautiful day. I mean, everyone on the ship was said. We really were spoiled, we went back to our cabin, and my daughter is in her bunting, her hot pink bunting, and she's laying on the bed looking out the window. Now she's a baby. I don't know what she's looking at, but she's, quote, looking out the window and the glacier in the background. And it's this beautiful picture of her just like, kind of laying on the pillows looking out the window, because the window is right behind the bed, right where your headboard would be. And then the other picture, that's like a bookend for the trip, is on the last night of the ship, on the ship, or the second to last night. I can't remember second to last night leaving Ketchikan, we got to see the aurora borealis. And that's one of those little the chance to see when you cruise in September. And so I have a picture of my husband, not in the same position, because obviously he's a grown human, and our daughter is not, but laying in bed looking out the window with the Aurora out the window. And so those two are absolutely my favorites, and they're very special moments, because to me, it's really, you know, whatever, if my daughter could remember this again, this crazy, big blue thing she got to see, and then my husband getting to see the aurora, which. He's seen it before, but he always enjoys it. We all do, yeah, documented.

Jennie Flaming: 20:05

You ever get tired of ever?

Valerie: 20:07

Well, I will say, when you grow up in Alaska and you're a bratty little kid, you don't take proper appreciation of it, but when you're

Jennie Flaming: 20:14

a little kid, yeah, yeah, oh, that's awesome, all right. Well, thank you for sharing those those moments, we're going to take a short break, and when we come back, we will hear more from Valerie about her trip. Hi everyone. I hope you're enjoying the show. So far, it's December and it's the holiday season, and we just got our brand new 2025 stickers stocked in the shop. These stickers are designed by Jay. They are completely unique. They are beautiful, so go check them out if you're looking for a stocking stuffer or just something fun to look forward to your trip in 2025 also a reminder while you're in the shop, it has all of the pre made itineraries that I have designed for you, along with my planner, my planner for going to Alaska in general, but also my cruise planner and my driving planner that'll walk you through everything you need to plan your 2025 trip or Beyond. So head over there and pick those up today. The link is in the show notes, along with links to get my help with planning your trip, which is super fun, so I hope to see you out there and happy holidays. Now back to the show and we are back. So once again, I'm here with Valerie st MC Bailey, and she is a fellow travel expert, and took her daughter recently, along with her husband, to Alaska for the first time. And her husband has been there before, but not, of course, her baby. So before we talk more about that, I want to just mention, for those of you listening that in episode 80, which was in August, that was also about cruising with kids that was kind of a bigger arc of like babies to young adults with my friend Jenelle, who has done lots of cruises to Alaska and elsewhere with her kids, who are now young adults. So if you are planning on cruising with a baby, you probably want to listen to that episode also. So Valerie, I'd love to know now that you've done this trip, how did you feel about the choices you made, like tell us a little bit about what it was like to cruise with a baby. How did you feel about that as a way to see Alaska, kind of in retrospect, and is there anything that you would do differently if you had over? Yeah,

Valerie: 22:59

great question. I will say, I and probably you do as well. Jennie, get questions from people about traveling with babies. Is Alaska a good destination for a baby? And it's really hard to answer, because, as with all kids, it depends on your kid, but there are ways of traveling in Alaska that are more and less conducive to especially these kind of like younger than two year old children. Yes, I will even say not, even younger than two years old, pre mobile, when they are entirely reliant on youth, a very different travel experience than when you have a toddler or a, you know, a three major or a school aged child. I am glad we chose a cruise. I do think that my instincts were correct that getting into our cabin and just having that home base was really essential. So what we learned about our daughter, and I'm thinking, is probably similar for lots of kids, is the first night in a new place, especially when they're pre verbal and you and they really don't understand you, and you don't understand them, they cannot articulate that. They are really uncertain where they are. They don't know where they are. You've taken them somewhere that doesn't smell right, it doesn't look right. Mommy and daddy aren't in the same place that they would normally be in the case of our family structure, so getting into a place where you can then establish that home base for them is very helpful for helping them feel comfortable, even though they can't verbalize it other than crying. And I kind of figured that out the first night by chance, when she completely melted down, I had to go take her and ride the elevator for 20 minutes, and when we came back to the cabin and she was calming down and said, down, and said to my husband, Jacob, I said, take off your shirt and put it on the little bed that we had set up so that when she laid down, she at least had a familiar smell. Yeah, and that really did the trick. So thinking of those kinds of things, especially with your pre verbal, pre mobile kids, is, you know, what can you do to make them feel comfortable? And setting a home base is one of those things. So cruises are great in that way, we'd be moving hotel to hotel every couple nights, like we were talking about earlier. That would not have worked for her. She would have just slept poorly the entire time, and we would have been miserable, parents, everyone would have been unhappy. I also now that I'm admitting I am a cruiser, but not just a cruiser, and I can really see the appeal of. Cruising when you have a lot of people in your party that have different needs and desires for their trip. Now it might sound strange to say that about a baby, because she doesn't articulate any of that to us, but she does have different needs and preferences when we're traveling that we need to take into consideration. Yeah, cruises are great for that. So like, for example, one morning, we kind of got her on a nice nap routine. And I knew when we made it to Skagway, I had time to go off the boat during her morning nap, go for go all the way out to the Gold Rush cemetery, do the hike at lower Reed falls and walk back to the ship to meet my husband and daughter to then do the things we had planned for the rest of the day. So I actually got a break to go, like, push myself a little bit harder, get a little hike in. And you know, my husband got a quiet morning without, you know his wife next to him to himself, and you know, our daughter still got her nap, and everybody got what they needed. Cruises are actually wonderful for that. They're a very different way of traveling than I think most of us typically prefer to do. But I say most of us, I mean, like you and me, Jennie, like a lot of people who travel, really like cruising for those same reasons, and the more I cruise, the less judgment I have of that, because I can understand the appeal of it. Yeah, the only thing I think I would change, I kind of alluded to it earlier, is if I if I'd had the financial resources, I would have booked this a balcony. Because every day, for about two to three hours, my husband and I were just sitting in our dark cabin with the white noise machine while our daughter took a nap. We would occasionally give one or the other that that time off to, like, go find a place in the ship. But we could have sat out on the balcony for that time. We would have happily just both gotten a cup of coffee and sat out there all day, Bought the Alaskan scenery go by. So, yeah, that would probably be the only difference that I would I would try and convince myself it was, it was okay to spend that money.

Jennie Flaming: 26:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that that makes, that makes a lot of sense. I'm also thinking as you're talking about an episode from about a year ago of the podcast with Aaron Kirkland, who's in Alaska travel with kids expert. She's written a couple of books about that. And so that was November 2023 and one of the things that she recommended for young children, just like you said, Valerie, is like not moving around a ton, like getting a home base in a neighborhood in Anchorage or Fairbanks or Juno, and just doing things that families do with their kids and for All those reasons that you mentioned. So I think that also applies to like, land trips as well. Yeah, that's really cool. Okay, is there any advice that you'd have for other parents who are considering a cruise with a baby? Anything that we haven't talked about yet?

Valerie: 27:39

I don't think so. I would just, you know, call out again what we were just talking about of bring the the things from home that can make the new environment feel home like to your child. So of course, you're going to bring their pajamas, their favorite blankie, their favorite stuffed animal, maybe their pillow, depending on their age. But you know, we brought our white noise machine that we use every night also works as a night light, so that then we had a nice night light in our cabin. You know, my husband with his shirt she slept on that the entire rest of the trip. It down and let her and let her sleep right on it, because it just smelled like dad. And that was, that was something that she needed. Yeah, I think that's probably it for making kids easier to travel with. The other thing you can consider, if you have a child in diapers, gosh, diapers take up a lot of space when you're traveling. Thing you don't think about like a whole suitcase. Basically, if you're going for a week to 10 days. And two hacks that I have for that one, I have to give a shout out to my friend, our friend, Marissa, from postcards to Seattle. Yeah, she's got two little guys that she's traveled with pretty much since day one. And one of her tips is that you bring a really lightweight duffel bag and you put all your diapers in that, and you check it, and then as you move through it, by the end of the trip, your duffle might be empty, and you can just fold it up and put it in one of your other suitcases. Oh, very cool trick. Very there is that, yeah, the other is that basically every Alaska port has a grocery store. Now, they may not carry the diapers you need, but the cool thing about Alaska, broadly speaking, is that you could call the grocery store, call them on the phone, don't email them whatever. Call them and ask if you can place a special order for what you need, because usually, with a month or two notice, they could order you the diapers that you want. And yes, you're going to pay a premium, but it's not as much as the ship's going to charge you if you run out of diapers. Yeah, yeah. So that's another one. So that's actually what we did. We brought half the diapers I thought we needed. Now our my daughter is very she's a very light diaper user, user, compared to many babies. She doesn't she doesn't mind being a wet diaper, so we don't change her at the minute. She gets wet, like some babies are really uncomfortable in their wet diaper. She's not like that. So we actually didn't end up needing to buy any extra diapers, but I was prepared to call ahead from from Juno to the to catch can thing, hey, can you guys give me some? Do you have these diapers? Can I pay you over the phone now for you to hold them for me, or, like, can you get some diapers if you don't have them? Yes. Yes.

Jennie Flaming: 29:59

A little. I love that. And, you know, I can imagine that must have been extra tricky, because when you were planning this, you had, like, a three month old, and when you took your trip, you know, like, you didn't know how she was gonna be when you got

Valerie: 30:14

to the trip in every way. Yeah, I think I booked our cruise in March when she was a month old, and my husband's like, did you make it refundable? So the way it ended up working, I took advantage of the pay in two installments, where I paid a small portion up front, and then I paid a big portion after we took our first trip with her when she was four months old, and when she did pretty well on that trip, I felt confident that I would be able to manage her on the cruise. And so, yeah, that was another sort of insurance policy, you know, some unofficial insurance policy that I came up with to help make sure that it was going to go smoothly, or, if not, to not go on a

Jennie Flaming: 30:53

trip, right? And then you would only have lost your deposit, not exactly everything, yeah, yeah, for sure. Cool. Okay, um, well, I'd love to spend a couple minutes Valerie, just stepping away from this particular experience and and wearing our like helping people make decisions about their trips at, um, you know, as you know, and as our if, if you're listening and you think you're the only one who's struggling with this cruise versus land decision, just know that you're not alone. Many people are struggling with that for different reasons, and so I'm just wondering, Valerie, putting your travel planning hat on and setting the mom wife hat down for a moment. How, how? What is your best advice about helping people navigate that decision? Yeah,

Valerie: 31:53

so I will say that stepping aside from mom, broadly speaking, you need to consider everyone you're traveling with, and if you're a parent, obviously that means your children as well, and what their needs are and what they you know, do you need to have a home base for them? Personally, I always advocate a very mobile land trip where you're moving every one to two nights to a different part of the state and really enjoy all that Alaska has to offer. So if that type of itinerary does not suit anyone in your group, a cruise might be a better choice, yeah, for everybody, even though it's going to be maybe some people really want to go do Denali, or they want to see Fairbanks or go to home or whatever. You know, unless you want to go spend 10 days in Homer, which is a long time at home or as a visitor, you might want to look at a cruise this first, this first trip, right? Because a lot of times people are asking that question, and it's the first trip, and they think it's an only an only trip. And that's the other piece of advice I give you, is say it doesn't have to be your only trip. Now, if it, if it really, truly is going to be your only trip, you just need to be a little more conscientious to make the right choice. And maybe you do, instead of every one to two nights, you're moving every two to three nights, or some sort of accommodation for whoever isn't suited to moving as frequently. Um, yeah, that's kind of the big one, because the itineraries are just really different in that sort of logistics and accommodation way. Other than that, it's really a matter of what you want to do and see in Alaska. Do you want to see southeast and what it has to offer, or do you want to see South Central, coastal, South Central, or interior Alaska and what that has to offer? And that's how you would make the decision. Yeah,

Jennie Flaming: 33:23

I agree with that. And you know, one thing that is fun about this conversation, and every conversation I have with you, is like, we have so much in common, but we're also different. Like, I think I'm less of a reluctant cruiser than you, and I'm also more of a stage place, a little longer kind of, but that's because that's what I like, right? So one of the things about what you and I both do is like and we both have a background working in other industries, you know, where we got the chance to learn. Okay, here's what I like to do, but that might not be right for this client that I'm working with, or my reader or my listener, and I totally agree with that, like, the the more you want to move around, if that, if you want to see a lot, and you're that's not going to work for your travel group or for you A cruise really is like a great way to go to see a lot without having to unpack

Valerie: 34:25

over Yeah, and I think that there's a conception of what cruising is like as an industry, and how you like place this dignified like amusement park experience on Alaska. And surely that ruins it. And the reality is there's two dozen different cruise companies operating in Alaska any given summer. Yeah, with boats that range from 30 people to 7000 so yes, and itineraries as varied as all of those combinations. So like you can certainly find a cruise that fits your style if you end up needing to cruise. Also, I've done enough different size crew. Is to discover they all basically count, or they all basically cost the same thing in the end. Like, yeah, people don't realize how expensive the mega ship cruising is when you pay for every single excursion, yeah, compared to a small ship where every excursion is already included. So, yeah, it's real. Like, I've done it all at this point. I've done all the different sizes, and all the different itineraries. And I could tell you, like, find the crew. If you go cruising and you want to have a home base, or someone you need your travel with needs a home base, you can find a cruise that will fit everyone. Yeah, it's totally possible.

Jennie Flaming: 35:32

I completely agree with you about that, and I think I would like encourage people to really think about what's going to be best for them and and run with that, rather than being like, Oh, I don't, I don't like being in the car. I don't want to do a road trip, or I don't like crazy, you know, like, like, give think about what you want from your trip, and then really give that a chance. So to work for you. Um, I mean, this is a whole other thing, but I've had people be kind of freaked out about renting an RV, and then it'll be hard to drive that's like, no, if that feels right, you can totally do it. People

Valerie: 36:09

do it every summer. That's the other like you said, we know people are you if you're feeling alone that you can't decide in the very first question, which is, like, land versus cruise? Yeah, I get that question multiple times a week. In my Facebook group, we have it so frequently that we generally don't allow people to ask the question. We say, if you look at recent threads, you will see that we have been discussing this in the last two weeks repeatedly. Yes, it's that common of a question, and that also means, you know, not to say, like, it's not a relevant question. It's obviously highly important. But there are lots of people who've already discussed, debated, gotten mad in the comment section or whatever about this question. And you can read a lot of opinions and come up with your own answer,

Jennie Flaming: 36:51

yeah, yep. And I also, I also just want to say, if you are planning a trip, I would really encourage you to join Valerie's Facebook group. It's a great place to get lots of advice from travel experts in Alaska, but also from other travelers who maybe they're not an expert in Alaska, but that's also helpful, right? As like experts are helpful, but also just people who are like, I did this and I loved it, or I did this and it wasn't my favorite. It's a great resource. And if you do go to the show notes and follow the link to Valerie's Facebook group, please make sure that you answer the questions to join, because it is one of the things that makes it great is how well moderated it is. I'm in there too, and however, you have to answer the questions, or we don't let you in. You don't have

Valerie: 37:48

to. You don't have to. You do not this is, well, if you're listening, here's a perfect you do not have to answer the question too, but you do have to give me something to get in. So what that means is you either need to try and post. You need to try and comment. You need to give me your email or give me your Instagram handle, because that's how I make sure we don't get any of the like, Dubai based AI spam bots. Yes. We gotta give you something to work with. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 38:13

yes. I

Valerie: 38:14

guess that's what I Yeah, yeah. Some people think they have to answer the questions, and it's like, no. If you just like, try and post a legitimate question, I can tell you a real human that needs help, and I will let you in.

Jennie Flaming: 38:25

Yes. Show Valerie, you're a real person. That's all she needs from you. Yep. And that's one of the things that makes it a great resource, is it's, it's real humans who are kind to each other only. And if they're not, they leave, they go,

Valerie: 38:41

they don't leave. We leave them. We leave them on other parts of Facebook. I mean, we've even had real humans try and use chat GPT to answer questions for people. And when we catch that, we warn them and we remove them like we want real people. It does not you don't have to be an Alaskan. You don't have to have been 15 times or whatever. Yeah, you don't have to be if you just have gone once and have your experience, and as long as you are helpful and constructive, we know that that's actually really valuable for other people. You don't just need me, you don't just need my perspective. You need lots of perspectives. That's why you're looking for help in a Facebook group. We get that and we try and encourage that. Yes,

Jennie Flaming: 39:13

yay, yeah, Facebook, yay, happy, positive Facebook group.

Unknown: 39:18

We try, yes, you

Jennie Flaming: 39:19

do an amazing job of it. It's amazing. Okay, before we wrap up, Valerie, I want to know about the best meal that you had on this trip. Yeah, you

Valerie: 39:30

sent me this question in advance, and I'm really glad because it I definitely had to think about it, not because there were no good meals, but because there were some different experiences on this trip. So yes, again, going back to what I kind of mentioned, since I am a quote, professional traveler, I don't think of myself that way, but, you know, I do this as my job. Yeah, often my trips are research based, where I'm filling in gaps. I'm going places I've never been before. And sometimes that hits the market, sometimes it doesn't. And so, you know, I want to, I kind of had to think through every meal I had. And what I will say is. One of the things I strongly encourage if you're cruising is please, please, please, at least eat off the ship once in every port, if you're not paying for an excursion, if you're doing your own thing, or if you're paying for an excursion through the ship and you're eating only on the ship, all that money is just staying in the cruise ship ecosystem, and it's really not trickling back into the local economy. Whereas you if you go into a local restaurant and sit down. I can't think of a single port where the restaurants are owned by the cruise companies. They are locally owned. That money is going right back into the local economy. So absolutely, all my meals that I could have off ship, I had off ship. So the ones I want to highlight in Juneau with on the recommendation of a fellow blogger, Elizabeth, she runs a blog called a suitcase full of books. Focuses on literary travel. She lives in Juneau, and we usually meet up every time that I'm in Juneau, but she was traveling when we were there, so I was like, Where should we go? And so she recommended a really funky spot called bullwinkles pizza. Oh, which is, yeah, it does from the outside, and even from the inside, it is, does not like, seem my kid's gonna be that great, and the Copyright infringement is blatant, of course. It's called bullwinkles, like the cartoon character, yes, but their pizza is incredible, and so it's one of those fantastic, like, it's literally down a side street. Does not look great from the outside. When we went in, was like, completely empty. There was nobody in. There was just the three of us. And it was like, Is this, is this? Is this actually going to be good? And it was amazing. So don't judge a restaurant by its street or its exterior. Yes, yeah. I'm

Jennie Flaming: 41:36

going to just say there. This is something that Jay, who's often the co host on the podcast, and I have talked about over and over is like in Alaska, what something looks like has nothing to do with how good it's going to be at all. Like, yeah, focus is on the inside, not the outside. Yeah. And I love that you mentioned that too

Valerie: 42:00

often. I found that the places that look the nicest are more institution type restaurants, and that means that they can sometimes get away with not being as good. They don't have the hustle. I don't know how to describe it, yeah, I can think of several restaurants where I'm like, Yeah, that's a great location. It's a great view, it's a great like, interior, whatever. And it's like, the food is is good. But I can tell you six other great places that you would never notice if nobody pointed them out to you. The other place I wanted to highlight was a recommendation I got from within my community, because thankfully, having access to an incredible reader base and this Facebook group, I get to ask questions when I'm going somewhere new in Alaska, and someone had recommended the fisherman's daughter in Huna now, without getting too deep in the weeds, icy straight point is the name of the cruise port, yes, and it is about a mile and a half from the community that supports that cruise port, called Huna. And Huna is a primarily Native Alaskan community, and so what we did that day is we didn't do any of the like zip lining, high adrenaline stuff. I mean, we had a baby. We're not doing that. So we walked to Huna and had lunch, and then walked back and we went to the fisherman's daughter. That was the recommendation we got. And it was lovely. It was a really beautiful day, and the food was fantastic. And it was just felt very, I mean, it was a whole bunch of tables of fellow visitors, because that's really all you get in icy straight point Nuna, yeah. But it felt very local, yeah, simulated. You know, there weren't any locals in the tables, but they did a nice job of having an environment that felt that way. Yeah, I have one more shout out. It's not food. Can I get one more? Yes. Okay, so in Ketchikan, my one of my favorite places in the entire Inside Passage. And this is really tricky, because I like, I mean, I like to drink. I like to try new spirits and new careers and things. So I go to places when I'm traveling Uncharted Alaska, distillery in Ketchikan, another on a side street, easy to miss, often empty, even on cruise days, which is such a shame, because these places are really doing cool stuff. Yeah, and most cruise passengers are just going doing their experiment, getting right back on the ship. Yeah, they do a lot of their own distilling, and they make really cool, interesting craft cocktails. So if you are looking for a happy they don't have happy hour specials, but like a happy hour time drink before getting back on the ship. Go have a good lunch. Go do some activities. Go to Uncharted Alaska. Get back on the ship. You'll be in a great mood, because they do really good, strong cocktails. I

Jennie Flaming: 44:20

love it. Oh, well, Valerie, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing about this trip with your family. I really appreciate it. It

Valerie: 44:30

was my pleasure. Thank you so much for having me back. You