Tips for travel on the Alaska Marine Highway

Now that we have taken the Alaska Marine Highway through the Southeast going both north and south, in both summer and winter, all within an 8-month time period, we have accumulated quite a few tips and tricks. Since I am finding myself sharing them many times with others who will be making the same journey, I thought it best to round them all up here. Have more to add? Please comment below!

Booking your travel:

• Book as far in advance as possible. Summer trips fill up very early, and so does space in staterooms and the car deck.
• If your travel will be longer than 12 hours (or an overnight trip), book a stateroom! This is especially important if you are traveling with children. There are not enough bunks for every passenger on board, and you will find people camping in tents on the outside deck (yes, really!) and sleeping in reclining chairs in the lounges. If you are on military orders, your stateroom cost will be covered by the military. 
• About staterooms: "with facilities" means that the cabin has a restroom with toilet, sink, and shower. "Without facilities" means that you will share community restrooms and showers onboard. A stateroom with a "sitting room" is fabulous if you can get one. There are only a handful on each ship. They include bunks, restroom, and an extra area with a table and chairs to give you room to spread out. Your military orders will cover any type of cabin you reserve.

Before you board:

• Stock up on microwaveable, non-perishable meals. There is a community microwave onboard, located in the cafeteria. Also bring bread, PB&J, and plenty of snacks. We even brought hot dogs. If you have a cooler, you can purchase ice onboard for a quarter. Meals purchased from the cafeteria or dining room can get pricey, depending on your family size and length of travel. We learned on our summer trip south that it is unrealistic to try to eat a can of soup for every meal. On our trip back north, we found a nice balance: bagels, instant oatmeal, toast, and cereal for breakfast, microwave something or make a sandwich for lunch, and purchase dinner onboard. If the kids didn't like what was served, they had a sandwich and a huge $4 fresh fruit bowl from the cafeteria. Some people will even bring a slow cooker and make their dinners that way. I am not one of those people. 
• Bring your favorite instant coffee, tea, cocoa, etc.  The cafeteria isn't always open when you want something warm to drink, but you can access hot water or the microwave all the time. 
• You can also bring alcoholic beverages, if you consume them in yr stateroom. Don't forget a wine bottle opener and something to close an unfinished bottle with! 
• Keep in mind that everything you haul onboard, you must also haul back off.  If you are bringing your vehicle, unpacking stuff, bringing it up at least one deck and to your stateroom, and then doing the reverse when your journey is done, it can be quite cumbersome if you try to bring too much. 

Traveling with a vehicle

• When you check in at the ferry terminal, you will be given a lane number based on your destination. You are asked to get into your lane 2 or 3 hours in advance of departure time, but it can take an hour or two of waiting in your vehicle before you are directed to drive onto the ship. If you have bored kids, one parent can walk onboard with them and get settled in, but you need to ask to do so when you check in. Your tickets will need to be printed separately so that the driver also has a ticket. 
• The car deck can be a crazy place! Follow directions exactly, as it is very close quarters. Don't forget to set your parking break. 
• Pay attention to announcements onboard when arriving into every port. Sometimes vehicle owners are asked to rearrange their vehicles. 

Traveling with pets

• Make sure you make a reservation for your pets. Dogs are $25 each, and military orders do not pay this fee. 
• Arrive with a valid health certificate. This is especially important when traveling to Alaska, as you will be asked for the certificate before you are allowed to board. 
• Pets remain in vehicles, on the car deck. Yes, they have to do their business on the deck. And you have to clean it up. The ferry only provides paper towels for cleaning, so bring your own plastic bags. Some pets just won't go on the ferry. They will be okay! There is only one stretch, between Bellingham and Ketchikan, that is extra long. It takes over a day. 
• There will be car deck calls 3-4 times per day when you can go down to feed and walk your pet. You will be surprised at how many dogs are onboard the ferry! 
• When you pull into a port, you can get off  and walk your dog. Get off every chance you get! 
• If your pet may wander around or destroy the inside of your vehicle, put it in a kennel.  On our last trip, a couple of dogs climbed into the driver's seat of a vehicle and turned on the flashers. Four times. In the middle of the night. Don't be that guy!

While onboard

• After settling in, explore the ship.  Each vessel is different.  Learn where the purser is located, find the movie theater, the cafeteria (and dining room if there is one), and the kids play area.
• Don't spend all of your time in your room!  The forward observation lounge is a great place to spend time.  Bring the kids, books, board games, electronic gadgets (with headphones), and binoculars.  People spend thousands of dollars to cruise these waterways on vacation, with good reason!  
• There are power outlets onboard.  There is no wifi.  Bring a laptop or DVD player and some new movies.
• Turn off your cell phone until you are in Alaskan ports or Bellingham to avoid connecting to Canadian towers.  That can be costly.
• If you have forgotten something, the only port with businesses nearby the ferry terminal is Ketchikan.  There is a grocery store, hotel with restaurant, and coffee stand right across the street.  Ketchikan is typically a long port call, so you have time to walk a bit.
• DO NOT miss seeing the passage through the Wrangell Narrows.  It's a narrow waterway between Petersburg and Wrangell.  Even if it's the middle of the night, get up! We missed it over the summer since it was 3am and we were tired.  This last time, I stayed up late to watch, and I got a whole new appreciation for buoys and channel markers.  In the dark, it's like Christmas with endless flashing red and green lights.  When we were going through, it was dark, snowing, and windy.  Two crew members were on the bow, making sure we didn't hit anything.  Every so often, a spotlight shone down from the bridge onto a channel marker.  We came so close that I felt like I could reach out and touch the markers at times.
• In our opinion, the passage from Juneau to Sitka is the most beautiful.  It includes Chatham Strait and Peril Strait.  
• Talk to fellow passengers!  On the ferry, people are likely to be Alaskans or military members.  Everyone loves to give tips on favorite spots to eat, fish, shop, drive, etc.  Chances are, at least one other person is going the same place as you.
• The day before you are set to arrive at your destination, start taking extras from your stateroom back to your vehicle during car deck calls or port calls.  When you finally arrive and take your vehicle off the ferry, you don't have much time at all to load up and go.  You don't want to hold up everyone behind you waiting to get off.

I'm sure there is more.  I'll add as I think of things!

CA to AK: The Ferry Journey, part 1

After nearly 48 hours, we are halfway through our ferry journey to Sitka. We have survived the long stretch from Bellingham to Ketchikan, which is 36 hours straight at sea. 

We really lucked out with our stateroom on board the m/v Malaspina. We reserved a 4-berth room with sitting area, but they don't assign a specific room until checking in on the ship. There are only a handful of rooms with sitting areas. The rest have only bunks and a restroom, or maybe only bunks. The purser saw our  party of people and stuff and changed our assignment to the best room in the house, with two big windows and a double-size sitting area. Score! Having the extra space to be able to sit at the window while the kids are spread out watching movies has saved our sanity. If you're ever traveling on the Malaspina, request room 106 if you can. 

As we are traveling up the Pacific coast in winter, we expected a bit of a bumpy ride. We had two open ocean stretches during the day on Saturday with the waves rolling in on the port side, big enough to send our collection of water and wine bottles rolling around. At about 2am, we awoke to the bow of the ship (where our stateroom is located) rising and crashing on what had to be some pretty large waves. It continued on and off for two hours while the kids pretty muh slept through it. Ava woke once to laugh at the creaking sounds the walls of our cabin were making. We were very happy that our car full of dogs was tucked safely in the stern of the ship where it would take less of a beating. 

This morning we pulled into Ketchikan and got to go ashore several times over the course of the 7 hours we were there. There was an inch or three of fresh snow on the ground, and the kids were extatic to dig out their snow boots and kick it around. We walked the dogs three times, bought a few groceries, and ran off some energy. I even got to sneak away on my own to appreciate being back on Alaskan soil and find a good latte. 

Now that the long stretch is over, the rest of our voyage will go by much more quickly. We will be stopping in Wrangell (where this is probably posting from via my phone) and Petersburg tonight, and Juneau in the morning. The dogs will get to take their walks on land rather than the car deck. We are going through the Wrangell Narrows late this evening. Even though it will be dark, we are hoping to see some of the passage. It is said to be so narrow that you can toss a coin from the ship onto the shore. Hopefully we will sleep better tonight--we are finished with the open ocean crossings and will be in the Inside Passage for the rest of the trip. We are also in some snowy, windy weather...winter in Alaska!

The sitting area of our stateroom

Lighthouse in Bella Bella, Canada

Inspecting the shoreline 

Somewhere in Canada

Ketchikan

Another Florida native loving his first time in the snow!

AK to CA Trip: The Ferry Adventure

Haines, AK to Bellingham, WA...nearly 1000 miles over 3.5 days

The only other time that we have traveled on the Alaska Marine Highway System was between Homer and Kodiak, so we were really looking forward to seeing Southeast Alaska while not having to do any driving.  We were also happy to be avoiding Canada as much as possible.  I just checked my credit card statement from the one gas stop we had in Haines Junction, and it was almost $100 for about 12 gallons of gas!

We boarded the ferry Monday evening and left after midnight. The ship pulled into Juneau around 5am, and our very good friends (the same friends who we visited for Thanksgiving) delivered breakfast to us.  It was so great to see them, and we love having friends all over thanks to the Coast Guard.

Leaving Auke Bay (Juneau)

After about 4 hours sleep, we all took a nice afternoon nap in our stateroom before the ship pulled into Sitka.  We had nearly three hours to explore, but the town is not near the ferry terminal (this seems to be the theme of AK ferry port calls).  So instead, we got the dog out of the car- where he has to remain the entire time the ship is underway- and headed to the Starrigavan trail system right up the road and went for a hike.  The forest was beautiful, and the trail was very well maintained.

On the above section of boardwalk, the surrounding terrain was very muddy.  We had our bear spray and kept up our noise level, but we were still a bit uneasy after seeing this.

 Back on the ship, we settled in for the night.  The next stop was Petersburg, but it was at 3:30 am.  Knowing that the kids would still be getting up before 7, no matter how tired they seemed, the adults decided that we'll just see Petersburg the next time around.  In the morning, it was back down to the car deck for the pup when we pulled into Wrangell.

Dining among the vehicles...the ferry was not full at this point, but it was by the end of the journey!

Not the best pic, but it was beautiful.  I used my iPhone camera quite a bit.  Oops

Later that afternoon, we pulled into our last port, Ketchikan.  I don't know what I was expecting, but what I saw wasn't it!  Ketchikan is the definition of "bustling."  The float planes buzz overhead and land right in the channel with the ships, and the jets land on an airport on an island in the middle, reachable only by ferry.  There was more traffic than I've seen in any other small Alaskan town.

From the ferry deck

 We had plenty of time, but with only a city bus to rely on us to get to downtown and back before the ship sailed again, we opted to visit the grocery store for snacks and reading material (we majorly misjudged how much downtime we would have on the ferry, especially with the US Forest Service rangers no longer onboard due to sequestration and budget cuts).  We also spent time at the restaurant in the Best Western across the street from the ferry terminal before settling back in for the longest leg of the journey.

From Ketchikan to Bellingham, it's a 36-hour ride.  We passed the time with movies for the kids, books for the adults, and watching out the windows and playing Bananagrams for everyone.  Most of the ride was smooth sailing, except for a few open-water crossings with the waves at our beam.  I even had to leave the warm confines of our room for a bit of fresh air when crossing the Dixon Entrance.  But I found an awesome view.

On our last evening, we entered a narrow channel called Ripple Point.  The fog and stillness gave a very eerie feeling.  It was amazing that large ships pass through here regularly.  In fact, two huge cruise ships were leading the way.

Although we enjoyed our adventure at sea, we were very excited to hear the purser announce, "30 minutes to Bellingham" this morning.  Little Man even declared, "Yes.  Get me off of this ship."  Scenery isn't very exciting when you're 5.  And eating microwavable meals to avoid the expense of the ferry dining room gets old after 3 days.  On to the final leg of the adventure!