My wife and I took our honeymoon on a cruise to Alaska in mid-Sept about 2 years ago. It was our first cruise ever. Mid-Sept is a great time to go to Alaska because it's just prior to the great migration of many humans leaving Alaska for the winter. So there's a lot of 50% off sales at the touristy shops wherever you go, so you should expect to buy some souvenirs. If you buy any special Alaska knives, you'll probably have to have the store ship them back to your home since they won't be allowed on the ship.
Overall our cruise was fairly good, but next time that we want to go on a cruise, we'll try a different cruise line, such as Norwegian or Celebrity or some other one. We were on Princess. We learned why Princess has acquired the nickname of its passengers being either "newlywed or nearly dead". The average age was way up there and Princess knows this and caters the entertainment toward the older folks. We had heard to stay away from Carnival because so many people get roudy and drunk and noisy 24 hours a day.
Check your bill very carefully before you leave the ship. That last morning we spent a few hours VERY early in the morning convincing them that someone had charged several hundred dollars of jewelry to our room that we did not purchase. They looked in their file of receipts and saw that the signature did not match ours. It still took months and a few letters trying to get that charge off our bill.
We frequently wished that Princess would have had ice cream available on the ship. It was rarely available and only during certain afternoons for an additional charge. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> But I suppose most people think that's minor.
We spent 4 days on land at the end of the cruise. That was fantastic, particularly because Princess owns some very nice property and their own train to get between several locations on land. Be sure to bring good rain gear, as it will probably rain at least some. Have layers of lighter coats.
Bring backpacks! We noticed that the experienced cruisers had a few suitcases that fit inside each other or could otherwise fold up. You might bring back more stuff than you go with. Plus, for the on-land portion, you'll be away from your large suitcases for full days at a time. Or optionally if you plan ahead enough, you can fill one suitcase with stuff that you don't need for a few days at a time and have it meet up with you again only at the end of your few-day land excursion.
