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Alrighty guys, welcome back to the channel. Samuel and Audrey here and today we thought we would sit down and do a chatty video talking about things that surprised us during our first cruise. We had never been cruising before going to Alaska. Exactly. And there was quite a bit that surprised us, both positive and in some cases negative. So we're Yeah. So we're excited to share those with you today. And that's exactly what this video is going to be about. So basically, if you're thinking about doing a cruise, you're unsure, is it for you, is it not,
this video is definitely going to be very helpful. And our first point that we want to make is that we actually enjoy cruising. Surprise, surprise. Like I've said in the past, like I was definitely a former backpacker and my identity as a traveler for a very long time was as a backpacker. I mean, this was before pre- cell phones, pre all of the modern technology that most people have. I valued pounding the pavement, arriving at a place, searching on the ground, looking for accommodations, trying to get off the beaten path, all that kind of stuff. So, I thought, you
know what, cruising is the opposite of that. And I thought, I'm not going to like it because of that. Yes. I also avoided it for a very long time because in my mind I just thought it's going to be crowded. Too many people. It's not my vibe. I'm just not going to do it. But surprise, we just went on our first cruise. Had a super positive experience. In fact, there's already another cruise in the works. Yeah. So, that just shows that we really had a fun time. I guess we're at the stage in our lives and careers where it's nice to have some things that are kind of
served on a platter for you. Made it a little bit easy. It was nice to be having really good meals, to be sleeping well, to not have to worry about like where do I find a place to eat? Where's going to be my next place to stay? Everything's taken care of. So, you can kind of just arrive at port, enjoy the day, get back on the ship, eat well, sleep well, and do it again. Okay, so the next thing that surprised us is the fact that cruising is really good for family travel. And what I mean by that is both multigenerational travel because this was a three generation trip that we did with
my parents, ourselves, and our daughter. And it's also really good for new parents traveling with babies. If you're still trying to figure it out and you're not feeling super adventurous, you don't want to go backpacker style like you used to with Yeah, maybe backpacking with the baby maybe not as, you know, a good a good of idea. This was perfect because the cruise ship was well set up for the baby. I mean, staff were so accommodating. They were bringing her applesauce. They were bringing her yogurt. Also, there was designated play areas. We found our room comfortable enough
to sleep with her and uh it was also accessible in terms of being like stroller friendly. You could easily get around taking the elevators. So accessible and also I think the variety and the fact that the baby was kind of going off the ship for a bit and then coming back on. I think that was a very stimulating experience. We also found like staff was really friendly. Having a baby on a cruise ship is almost like taking a cute dog on a walk. people just come up to you and talk, you know, and that's what happened. Both staff and other passengers. Yes. Lots of conversations. I
like that comparison. Good. So, next surprise was the size of the ship. And let me preface this by saying that I booked one of the smallest ships out there. Okay. For this cruise to Alaska, I booked a small vessel because I wanted it to feel more intimate and not be overwhelming. I think it was around 2,000 passengers that this ship could hold. Yeah, but even so, it's overwhelming at first. It is huge. A cruise ship feels like a city, I would say. Yeah, it's like a floating city. It's not like a floating Some people say it's like a floating hotel. I sort of disagree.
It is like a floating city. It's that big. And when you first get on and you're overwhelmed and maybe you're tired from the boarding procedure going through immigration and all of that stuff, it does feel overwhelming. You're like, "Oh my gosh, okay, where's my room?" Finally, you find it. And then you're like, "Okay, now where do I go for all these different things?" But, you know, every single day it does get a little bit better. Yes. So, like the first few days, expect to be lost. Expect to have to look for maps and be like, "Okay, how do I get from this
deck to the next one?" Because some don't connect naturally. Like sometimes you need to go to the opposite end of the ship and there's an elevator there. So, just be patient. Be willing to look at maps and you'll familiarize yourself eventually. Indeed. Another shock, shall we say, is how easy it is to spend a day at sea. I was worried about this before. Yeah. Because you would think maybe it's going to be extremely boring, like 24 hours. You're not docking anywhere. What are you going to do? You have a baby to entertain. You have all these things to consider, but actually it
ended up going really fast. I mean, when you think about some of the different dining experiences, like when you book a dining experience in one of the nicer restaurants, that eats up a decent amount of time. It does. Yeah. And then you also have the baby's needs like you can take it out to play. Then you can go for a walk around the deck on the deck. Yeah. The outer deck. Just do loops there. Exactly. And then just exploring the ship. Um finding different theme rooms, finding different entertainment options, and then just the fact that it's a multigenerational trip.
So, you know, during part of the day, maybe half the group may want to do one thing, the other half wants to do another. Then you like factor in a siesta for the b the baby needs a nap and sometimes we do too and grandparents as well. So actually the days flew by when we were out at sea and that was definitely a shock and a surprise. I will say a sea day can be as relaxing or as active as you want it to be. If you want to relax, you've got the pool, you've got the spa, you can just, you know, go to the library. They have so many books there. Or you can go play
board games, that sort of thing. And if you want something a bit more active, you've got the gym, you've got the deck where you can walk. There are shows, live music, bingo, presentations. Also, for solo travelers or couples without kids, there's tons of entertainment options, shows, um, comedy specials, live performances, music, all that kind of stuff, so you can totally indulge in that. We didn't have as much time to do that, but we still found ourselves busy enough. Next point, food everywhere all day long. Tell us about it. Oh man. Well, that's actually a pleasant surprise.
You know how much the two of us love to eat. So, yeah, food is accessible 24/7. So, if you wake up at a weird time, you can go usually to the buffet area and there's like coffee and some snacks and stuff like that. But then during the more regular hours of the day, there's way more options. You can not just go to the buffet, but that's when other restaurants start to open. That's when more food is being served. So, you kind of have to, you know, have a little bit of self-control. And I would say that wasn't my strongest uh suit on this particular cruise. I would just like But
fortunately, I did do a lot of walking. Yeah. I would say by day three, we realized, okay, we need to pace ourselves. If we're going to be getting off the ship the following morning and we want to feel energetic, we cannot go so hard on the meals and have like a three course meal with wine. It's too much. it. But it is tempting though. Like you the menus are excellent and the quality of the food was so good that we're just like, "Oh, that dessert sounds so good." And uh yeah, so if you struggle a little bit with self-control, uh you definitely need to re it in a bit. So yeah. So
another pleasant surprise was just how friendly the crew are on these cruises. Mr. Washiwashi. Mr. Tell us about Mr. Washiwashi. Okay. There was one man who was particularly friendly and just flamboyant and fabulous and we loved seeing him every day. It was a Filipino staff member and basically when you walk into the restaurant they offer you the hand sanitizer. So he was there like washy let me spray your hands. We will wash you. Yeah. He was awesome. Basically, this man, he took every pop song imaginable and changed the lyrics so that it was about washing
your hands. Everything from like Lady Gaga to Madonna, all about washing your hands. He was so good at his job that you asked him if he was part of the entertainment crew at night. I did. I did. And he said, "Not yet, but that is the dream." And he will be amazing at it. That guy is on the fast track to being uh probably the not just the entertainment crew, but maybe the coordinator someday. Yeah. so many friendly staff members who like made the effort to remember our family, remember our baby's name, remember our likes and dislikes, like they knew what to bring
you for breakfast. So, yeah, they work really hard. Yeah, I found overall the staff was very professional. And I would also say that I could just tell that a lot of them really love their job and they just felt passionate about what they were doing, like they were slotted into the right assignment. And uh that makes a difference. It makes a huge difference. So yeah, that was a very very nice surprise. Okay, this was a big surprise at least for me. But the first day that we docked, it was in Ketchacan. I was expecting a mad dash off the cruise ship and that didn't happen. No,
it didn't. And one of the things that really shocked and surprised us was that everyone is sort of on their own schedule on the cruise ship. We thought, "Oh, we're arriving. Everyone's gonna have already had breakfast, already showered. Everyone's gonna be like, you know, like a swarm pushing and shoving like, I need to get off." Like a swarm of ants exiting the antill all at once. But no, it wasn't like that at all. In fact, we found that I mean, there are people doing there were people going on the cruise for all kinds of reasons, and some of it is not for
sightseeing. Yeah. So, that brings us to our next point, and it's the fact that on the cruise ship, you're going to encounter all sorts of travelers. And as Sam was saying, some of them aren't really interested in the sightseeing. They're more there for the experience of the whining, the dining, the casino, the party. Wow. The casino, the entertainment. Yeah. Wow. The casino. Yeah. There are people there, you know, all kinds of different life situations. Maybe there are people that have really stressful jobs. They're getting a short time off. They're just there to live it up,
you know, have fun on the cruise, eat, drink, and experience the what's on board to the max, and maybe do a little bit of sightseeing here and there. Yeah. You've got a funny story of the man who was up at a strange hour looking for Oh gosh. Yeah. He was like, "Where's the champagne? Where's my orange juice?" And like this guy totally forgot what time it was. It was like 5 or 6 in the morning. So, one of the really kind staff was actually trying to accommodate him and like that is not drinking hour, but I mean, yeah, there are people there that are definitely there for to
booze it up, to party, to have a good time, but um yeah, not everyone there is spending the entire day sightseeing out at the port. Let me tell you that much. So, I will say for the Alaska cruise, it was primarily seniors. Yes. Then you also had couples like I would say middle-aged couples. Yeah. Uh families with young children. Very few. I think maybe we saw four babies the whole time we were on the cruise ship. Yeah. Especially with small children. It was few and far in between because we were kind of an anomaly. People came up and talked to us, I think, a little bit more. And
yeah, it was just a bit of a different demographic for sure. All righty. Another surprise. I would say this was more of a negative surprise. It would be the markup of the excursions if you book through the cruise line. Yeah. Wow. Like for some of the excursions because I did a lot of research, a lot of my own research and they were charging an extra $100 per person just for the ease of, you know, providing you the experience. And also generally when you book your shore excursions through the cruise line they say if you miss the ship like they are responsible for
that. Right. Oh that's interesting. That's one of the reasons. I didn't know why people book through them. I didn't know that. So you get a it's almost like having a little bit of extra insurance. They make sure you get back on the boat. Yes. So yeah the analogy I would like to use is like 7-Eleven versus Costco. Like basically your convenience store versus your regular grocery store. So the convenience of booking through the ship where you can just do it right on the spot and all the guarantees that you get definitely means you pay a premium on the excursion. Whereas if you
arrange this in advance, do some price comparison and book maybe several weeks to months in advance, you will get better deals. But you do have to put in the leg work. You have to put in the time, the research, the comparison, all that stuff. And you've got to research the schedules, you know, like if you're going to a show or an excursion, when does it start? When does it end? When is all aboard time on your cruise ship? You need to account for transportation getting back to the ship. So, just plan carefully. You can save money, but plan wisely. Exactly. Great point. This
next point, I actually want to do a whole video dedicated to this topic because there were lots of surprises, but I would say one negative one is all the additional costs that come with cruising that you don't immediately think of when you get excited and decide to book your cruise to Alaska. Yeah, it's like what a great deal I Yeah, I've paid for everything up front. No, you haven't. No, you have not. Uh there are lots of added costs. things like Wi-Fi, that could be $40 to $50 per person. Then you've got to consider your transportation. How are you
getting to the port city? Do you need a hotel? Service charges. Oh, yes. Gratuitities. There's there's a lot to it. So, and plus the upsells once you're on the cruise for like alcohol packages, fancy meals. Exactly. So you can definitely you could end up splurging to the point where you spend more money on this plus excursions than your actual package if you went nuts basically. Yeah, but we'll do a deep dive another time. I have lots of thoughts on this. Another thing that surprised me was the variety of ports. Different sizes, different vibes, just different things to do in
each place. And you can make your experience as touristy as you want or go a bit off the beaten path. And I will say every port that you visit has one or two main attractions that everybody's going to rush to. For example, Juno. Everybody wanted to see the Mendenhal Glacier and it was crowded there. Also hanging out around the where all the ships were docked as well in Juno. That's where all the restaurants, the bars and the tourist shops were. But one of my favorite experiences, to your point, was that I just walked up the hill, I put in the effort, the leg work,
and suddenly no tourists. I was encountering more locals and because it's not that big of a place, there weren't that many people that I was seeing at all. So, I really felt like I was getting to see the side of Juno that most tourists don't even make the effort to go out and check out. So, yeah, I've said this many times, it's never crowded along the extra mile. So, if you want to escape the crowds, just do a little bit of extra walking and you will. Next and final surprise. Would you cruise again? Yes. And we are. Are we going to talk about
where we're going or Oh, shall we? Shall we say? We are going in a cruise in less than a month. So, you're going to be getting more cruise content on the channel soon. We'll keep it a surprise. Keep it a surprise. But, okay, we'll say this. It's going to be the complete opposite of our cruise to Alaska. So, we'll let you guess in the comments where we think we're going. Yeah, that's where we'll leave it at that. Yeah, but I would say that was the biggest surprise because we went into this like willing to try it. We'll do it once. If it's not for us, we won't do it ever again. Um, but it
turned out to be a very positive experience. The one thing I want to say is baby liked it, we liked it, and also your parents liked it. They are also looking at going on another cruise. Yeah, we've been brainstorming all sorts of cruises that we want to do and uh yeah, you might be seeing more cruise content on our channel. For sure. For sure you will. All righty. So, basically that is the end of the video. Thank you if you have made it this far. If you enjoyed this video, feel free to give it a like, subscribe, join us for more videos,
and also chime in the comments below. Let us know if you've been cruising before. What were your first impressions? What surprised you? What did you like? What did you dislike? Exactly. We want to hear about your shocks because you know what? Everyone's different and you may have had a completely different experience than us. But anyways, yeah, definitely let us know in the comments below. And thanks so much for watching. We'll have more content coming soon on our channel. And again, more cruising content in the future. See you soon. Tata.
