An Alaska Cruise with a Toddler

Alaska with a toddler is harder than Alaska with a nine year old and easier than most people fear. The constraints are specific, long port days, cold weather, limited childcare on most lines and a schedule built around scenery rather than naps.

Alaska with a toddler is entirely possible and rarely the optimal choice. If the trip is flexible, waiting until six or older transforms what the child gets from it. If it is not flexible, here is how to make it work.

The childcare constraint

This is the decision that shapes everything.

Most youth clubs require children to be toilet trained, which rules out a large proportion of two and three year olds.

Disney is the practical choice for under threes, and it is also the line whose cabins are actually designed for families, with split bathrooms and proper four person sleeping arrangements.

The port day problem

Alaska port days run seven to eleven hours, involve early starts and cold outdoor time, and are built around excursions that a toddler cannot do.

Practical approaches:

• Split the day. One parent takes an excursion in the morning, the other in the afternoon, using the ship as base.
• Choose short excursions. Under three hours. The Mendenhall shuttle at two to three hours works; a six hour whale and glacier combination does not.
• Stay aboard in one port. The ship is quiet and the pools are empty when everyone is ashore.
• Use the town. Ketchikan and Skagway are compact and walkable, so a couple of hours ashore with a pushchair is entirely manageable.

The cabin

A balcony genuinely earns its cost with a toddler, not for the view but for the space. It gives you somewhere to sit while a child naps in a darkened cabin, which on a seven night cruise is worth a great deal.

Connecting cabins are better still if the budget allows.

Practical points:

• Request a cot at booking. Availability is limited.
• Balcony door locks: check them on arrival and use them.
• Request the mini fridge emptied if you need it for milk or food.
• Most standard cabins are shower only. Ask if a bath matters to you.

What to bring

• Full waterproofs and a warm hat. Young children get cold and wet far faster than adults
• Waterproof footwear
• A carrier as well as a pushchair. Gangways, tenders and boardwalks are difficult with wheels
• A blackout solution. In June it barely gets dark and cabin curtains are rarely perfect
• Familiar food. Ship food is good but a toddler may disagree
• Any medication, in original packaging, in hand luggage

Tendering

Sitka is often a tender port, which means stepping from a moving platform into a moving boat. With a toddler that is genuinely awkward, and crew will help but cannot carry the child for you.

If your itinerary tenders and you have a very young child, consider staying aboard that day.

What a toddler will actually enjoy

• The ship itself. Lifts, windows, corridors and the pool
• Animals. Sea lions and eagles register even at two
• The Alaska Raptor Center and Fortress of the Bear in Sitka, both close range and reliable
• The White Pass railway, which is a train, warm and dry
• Deck time with something to look at

What they will not

• Glacier viewing, which is an hour of standing still in the cold
• Scenic cruising generally
• Long excursions of any kind
• Formal dining

The honest recommendation

If the trip can wait, wait. Children aged six to thirteen get enormously more from Alaska. See best Alaska cruise for families.

If it cannot wait, book Disney, take a balcony, plan around naps, and treat the ship rather than the ports as the centre of the holiday. It will work, and nobody will remember it except you.