TRAVEL DIARY: CRUISING AROUND ALASKA // LETIFFANYSHOW✨

Welcome back to my blog ♥

I spent two weeks cruising around Alaska and saw some of the prettiest things nature has to offer. This 14 day cruise set sail from Long Beach, California and it was the first time this ship went to Alaska and back in one piece. All aboard the Carnival Miracle, we’re going on a journey!

We stopped at 6 ports: Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point/ Hoona, Juneau, cruised around Glacier Bay, Skagway, and Sitka. We also made a stop in Vancouver, B.C.! WOO CANADA! 🇨🇦

Take a look at my trip through my camera lens and I’ll meet you on the other side!

3-2-1 GO!

Alaska is such a beautiful place and it never fails to amaze me. I was surprised by how small these cities were. Like the population of Ketchikan is 8208 people and Hoonah has a population of 745 people! In comparison, Los Angeles has a population of 4 million people! That size difference though..

There are a LOT of fine jewelry stores in Alaska. I’d say 60% of the stores there sold fine jewelry. If that’s your thing, I heard there’s pretty good deals on fine jewelry in Alaska. Since I went in September, it was the end of tourist season and the shops were about to close down until next year. That means…huge clearance sales!! The Alaskan T-shirt company was having a 50% off everything sale so I went a bit crazy there. Don’t let the name fool you, they sell way more than just t-shirts!

TIFF TIP: Look for coupon books. They’re free! These coupon books have hella deals on souvenirs! These books are usually located at the welcome centers and sometimes in front of a souvenir store. The coupon book we found had coupons for Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway, which are the bigger cities.

Carnival offered many shore excursions but I don’t think you have to do shore excursions in order to have fun. The prices range from $ to $$$$ but we stuck with the ones that were more affordable. The more expensive ones were usually whale watching or helicopter rides, which weren’t really appealing to us. We bought shore excursion tickets for 4 of the 6 port of calls.  We mainly did the ones that gave you an overall tour of the city to learn more about the cities in Alaska. On the days we didn’t do shore excursions, we just walked around and explored the city on our own.

The ship also made a stop at Vancouver, B.C. It was almost like I never left the States because it looked like the U.S. I got to try Tim Hortons, which is a Canadian fast food chain known for it’s coffee and donuts. I got a ice vanilla latte and a chocolate chip muffin. I thought the coffee was pretty good and the muffin I got was delicious! Vancouver kind reminds me of downtown LA where the driving is crazy and there’s cars everywhere. We had a limited amount of time in this big city so I’d love to go back one day and fully explore what it has to offer.

The ship itself was really fun. Carnival cruise lines calls themselves the fun ship! There were so many activities planned that we were pretty much occupied throughout the days at sea. I went to my first art auction and learned so much about the art world. There was an opportunity to guess how many N’s were hidden in the painting and I won! The prize was an art piece. How cool is that?! I also attended many lectures that varied from fitness and how to live an healthier lifestyle to just a lecture about food. There were also cooking demonstrations by the onboard executive chef and I won a raffle to taste the food he cooked. IT WAS DELICIOUS!! …and awkward because literally everyone is watching you eat. There are so many things to do on the ship that you’ll definitely never be bored.

If anything, go up to the Lido deck buffet and pig out 🐷😂. You can find me where the food is!

Thinking of going on a cruise? Here are my tips!

1. Bring a highlighter! Sounds weird right? But they deliver a schedule of events every night to your room so that you can plan out what events you want to go to. A highlighter would have been nice to make the events I like pop out.
2. Pack some shower flip flops! I don’t know if it’s weird but I wore flip flops in the shower and around my room. I mean you don’t know who’s nasty lil feet have been around that room and even though they clean it, yikes. Better safe than sorry!!
3. Bring some workout clothes! My ship had a nice gym on board and it was nice to work off some of the free ice cream I was eating like everyday. OH and the french fries.. I love french fries ❤
4. Coupon books! Like I mentioned before, definitely lookout for these coupon books. They’ll save you some money which can add up especially when you’re shopping for a lot of people.
5. Take advantage of the free classes! My cruise ship always offered ballroom dance classes but I was too much of a chicken to try it. But I think ballroom dancing would be useful one day or something to know. There were also seminars that range from topics like increasing your metabolism to intro to photography.
6. Raffles! Keep your eye out for raffles! They’re always giving away free stuff. All you have to do is show up, put your entry in, and hope they pick yours! I won a couple raffles. Even though its just little things, it’s still exciting to see who wins.
7. Be fearless! You’ll never see these people ever again so why not try everything? I lowkey wish I auditioned for lip sync battle or did those ballroom dances. Maybe next time…

I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse of Alaska. I prefer going on cruises than Chinese tours because you don’t really have a specified wake up call. Plus, you don’t have to pack up your belongings every night and drag your luggage to the tour bus. It’s nice to just chill out by the pool and look at the ocean. The ocean made me feel like there’s so much out there and it gave me hope that whatever I’m going through will resolve in time and everything will be okay.

As always, thank you so so much for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey through Alaska. I could go on and on about it but this post would go on forever. If you have any questions about anything, leave a comment below and I’ll try my best to answer it… 🙂

Don’t forget to like, comment and follow my blog to be notified when I post! Have a beautiful day and don’t forget to shine bright, you’re beautiful ❤

 

Shine bright, peace out.✌

 

❤ , TIFF

 

psst… check out my last post here!

psst… Can you believe it’s already Fall? Only 3-ish months left of 2017. Geez time sure flies by…

 

 

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