Cruise Ship

I recently returned from an Alaskan cruise and managed to play pickup basketball in four different places - a cruise ship, Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan. 

This is Part 1 of 4.

For those curious about my cruise experience without the basketball obsession, scroll down to the bottom! 

I’ve played basketball on land, under both a solar and lunar eclipse, and even ChatGPT thought I played basketball in the sky, but never had I played in the waters, at least not until this trip. 

Out of all the Alaskan cruise options to choose from such as cities, times, and excursions, the most important factor was of course whether or not there was a basketball court on the boat.

Fortunately for me, every Alaskan cruise I looked at had a basketball court, so it came down to just committing and putting down some $$$. I ended up choosing Holland America Koningsdam for a 7 day tour departing from Vancouver and stopping in Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan. I could probably write an entire 86 page blog about the cruise itself, from the food, shows, and free jewelry to the excursions and everything in between, but I will just drop my thoughts at the bottom of this post.

Scroll down for a TLDR of the cruise itself

To speed things up, I traveled to Vancouver where the cruise was departing from and boarded the ship with just a single backpack, ready for a 7 day adventure at sea. First things first was to scope out the ship and figure out where everything was so I could quickly play at a drop’s notice. I found the workout gym, shuffleboard, ping pong tables, corn hole, and of course the coveted basketball courts.

To no one’s surprise, and I really should have expected it, the basketball court was also being used as a pickleball court. As I have mentioned before in my Seattle, Honolulu, Chicago, and other blog posts, it is not just the tennis courts that are being taken over by the pickleball boom, the basketball courts are also at risk.

How is one supposed to play basketball when there’s 1000x people trying to play pickleball here.

I did discover that if you went outside at 2am every night to look for the Aurora Borealis Northern Lights (which I never actually saw), there would be no one on the courts. Lights were on but I figured I should try to find some time during the day.

After days of waiting patiently for the pickleball players to clear out, I finally found time to shoot around, but of course it was the one day when no one could play anything. High winds prevented me from making any baskets that day. 

Editors note: This is an excuse. He would not have made a single basket anyways. True ballers would be able to adapt and persevere regardless of weather.

I made it my mission to head up to the basketball courts every day whenever I had free time, just to see if anyone was playing, but I was always met with what felt like a gazillion people playing pickleball.

But perseverance pays off. The next time I found an opening was while everyone else was distracted by the natural beauty of Alaska, as we cruised through some gorgeous mountains and spotted wildlife. I mean, one is supposed to go on an Alaskan cruise only to play basketball right?

I am not sure how much basketball was actually played by others on this cruise, but on the last day, when everyone was tired of sightseeing and pickleballing, I finally found some people shooting around and playing a small pickup games. I joined in since they needed an extra for a quick 3x3, and I finally found myself playing pickup basketball on this cruise!

Conclusion 

Basketball on a cruise ship may be hard to come by as picklemania has taken over not only on land, but also on cruise ships. While there are times to shoot around, I think it may be a bit harder to find a good pickup run to play on. As for the 7 day cruise itself, we had 4 days on the boat and 3 days on land. There was definitely better opportunities once we made some stops at the ports to find places to play there. Follow my next couple of blogs as I experience playing pickup basketball in Juneau, Skagway and Ketchikan!

Holland America Koningsdam Alaskan Cruise 7 day Roundtrip from Vancouver in August 

As some of you know, I am somewhat becoming a pretty big deal in the travel blogger world (editors note - false), and a few people have started asking me how they can prepare for a cruise. So here is my cruise experience along with some random observations. Please note that I am a simple and somewhat frugal person, so my experience may not be ideal for someone who prefers to spend a bit more $$$. I only brought one backpack for this 7 day cruise since my airline basic ticket allowed just one carry on item.

What to bring (1 backpack) 

• Clothes

  • 7 underwear

  • 7 socks

  • 4 t-shirts (1 button t-shirt) 

  • 3 long sleeve shirts  

  • 2 pants (1 jogger and 1 ‘nicer’ pants)

  • 2 light jackets

  • 2 normal everyday walking shorts

  • 2 shoes (1 walking and 1 sandals) 

  • 1 swim suit

  • 1 basketball athletic shorts

  • 1 hat

• Toiletries and medications

  • Toothbrush, toothpaste and floss

  • Moisturizer and sun screen 

  • Shaver

  • Upset stomach chewable tablets

  • Motion sickness pills and patch

• Accessories

  • 2 Water bottles (1-liter and 500 ml)

  • 1 iPhone, 1 batter pack and 1 charger cord

  • 1 Binoculars 

  • 1 Basketball and 1 pump

The Room

I, of course, paid for the cheapest room possible, an inside room with no view of the ocean. The room comes with a bed, bathroom, and shower, which is pretty much all you need for this cruise. The only time I spent in the room was to sleep at night. I took plenty of naps throughout the cruise out in fresh air. 

I loved our room's location. It was in a quiet area with no through traffic. I felt bad for the people whose rooms were near elevators or doors with high foot traffic, because you could hear people opening and closing doors. Our room was one floor below the gym and buffet dining hall, so there was no need to take the elevator when going between food, the pool, outdoors, and working out. We got lucky, but in case anyone wants to book the same area, we stayed on the 8th floor of the Koningsdam ship closer to the front.  

Food and drinks

There were two dining areas with unlimited food options. One was an all you can eat buffet, and the other was a sit down dining room where they served you. Both were completely free and included with your cruise ticket. You could eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and anything in between at any time during the cruise. Even late night options allowed you to order room service food for free.

There were other paid dining options throughout the cruise, and it blew my mind how many people paid for a coffee or a dessert when there was already a plentiful amount of everything at the free dining areas. There will be so much food that you will be sick of eating by the end of this cruise. I also weighed myself before and after this cruise, and depending on whether or not my bowels were full, I gained anywhere from 2-4% of my body weight.

I did not purchase any drinks or drink packages because the free options included tea, coffee, milk, juices, and of course water.

There was plenty of seating and turnover since people ate at all different times, so I never had trouble finding a seat in the dining areas. If you come during the busiest times, you might need to make a couple of circles around the area, but you will eventually find a spot fairly quickly.

As for saving seats, whether in the dining areas, observation decks, pools, or any other area, it really is not necessary. On the first day, I focused too much on saving seats because I was afraid there would not be any, but I quickly realized that people move around enough that there is always enough turnover to find a seat at any time. Please do not save seats. Just go with the flow and live in the moment

Activities and wildlife view

There were plenty of activities onboard, with something happening every hour of the day. From watercoloring, board games, health seminars, jazz, shows, performances, yoga, and way too many things to list here. I do not have much to say about this part except to find the activities you want to do and just do them. 

My favorite sessions were the nature viewing times when they pinpoint specific times or locations to look for wildlife. The big ticket animals to see during this cruise were humpback whales, orcas, goats or sheep, otters, bears, bald eagles, and plenty of small birds and fish. 

There are certain times when you just look out into the open waters and are pretty much guaranteed to see humpback whales. The same goes for otters, they were everywhere. Orcas may be harder to come by, but we did find a small pod one day. We also saw some small white dots that could have been either goats or sheep but we weren't sure as they were too far to identify. I only saw one bald eagle. Unfortunately, I did not see any bears during this trip

Excursions

• Juneau - We planned our own trip here.  Check out my Juneau blog for how you can plan your own trip that does the exact same thing as an excursion while saving some major $$$. 

• Skagway - We paid for the White Pass Rail & Yukon Expedition. Check out my Skagway blog for more info

• Ketchikan - We paid for the Wilderness Exploration Cruise & Crab Feast. Check out my Ketchikan blog for more info. 

Jewelry 

There were an absurd number of jewelry stores both onboard and on shore. The main tip I can give here is that they give away plenty of free jewelry to draw people into the stores. You will receive way too many brochures or in-cabin coupons for free jewelry. While you might think they are a scam, you can absolutely just walk into any of these stores with your coupon and walk out with your free jewelry. I am not talking about anything super fancy, but by the end of the trip we had a collection of 20+ small necklaces, bracelets, charms, and other shiny objects. Jewelers hate us.

Internet 

We did not pay for any internet, so there were days where we went 48 hours without any connection to the outside world (first world problems). You do get data on shore when the cruise stops in the cities, but I was not about paying $30 or more for internet on the boat. Plus, there are so many things to do on the cruise that you will always be occupied. 

The cruise did offer an app that everyone should download. This app contains the activity schedule and other important notifications such as time changes, event times, cruise tickets, and chat functionality. Even if you do not pay for internet, you can use the app by connecting to the ship’s network to send messages to other cruise members (there is no group messaging - sad)

Exercise and athletics 

There is a super nice gym with plenty of workout machines, as well as options for free weights. The only thing you will not see are the free weight plates. I went to the gym three times during the seven days and never saw it packed, though there were enough people that you might have to wait to use a strength machine. There will always be a treadmill or elliptical available. There was also a room for stretching and yoga. There were paid classes, but I never joined, so I do not have much information about them. 

As for athletics, there were shuffleboards, ping pong tables, corn hole, and a basketball court that could be converted into a soccer or pickleball court. 90%  of the time, pickleball was in use. The other 10% was basketball. I never saw anyone use the soccer net.

Final thoughts

I am not sure I could have stayed on this cruise any longer than 7 days. The days on land were great, but the onboard activities did start to feel repetitive near the end. I would have definitely gotten the internet if I stayed on this ship any longer. Throughout the cruise, they do try to upsell you on a lot of things, but if you stay focused, you can easily get your trip without paying anything extra. That said, I did notice a brochure for a cruise to Antarctica, which got me thinking about my next adventure…