Alaska Ferry Question

[LUVTOTRKCP]

Good Day
We are planning on going to Alaska and the northwest for about six months next year. The first leg of the trip is the ferry from Bellingham, WA to Ketchikan, AK. What should we do with our cold and frozen food in the refrigerator? It will be off for about 38 hours, unless we let it suck our batteries dry. We have a six cuft 3 way model. We thought we might eat it down and buy more when we arrive, but we were told it might be ok if the door stays shut. What is the best way to handle this situation.
Any feed back would be appreciated.
Thanks
Bernie

[wjkdan]

Why take a ferry when you have so much time to really enjoy a drive to alaska? as pigman1 mention icefields, jasper and that area is beautiful
then drive alaska highway. when leaving alaska take the top of world highway so as not to go on same highway twice. then can come out at whitehorse and down to skagway. you have the prefect setup to take road trip. so much to see which you want see if take ferry. we made trip in 2007 and took three weeks after we went into canada from washington then came out at Montana at glacier np.
regardless of what you decide enjoy.

[Scottiemom]

Last summer we did the ferry coming south. The one leg was about 24 hours. We had a lot of fish, etc. We bought a couple of the ice chests from the fish packing places (the ones they ship fish to the lower 48 with) along with some gel packs. When the time came, we packed the freezer contents in those boxes and threw a sleeping bag over them. They were just as frozen 24 hours later. Other stuff we packed with ice in one of those coolers (milk, eggs, etc.) A lot of condiment stuff we just left in the refrigerator and it was fine. On shorter ferry rides, we just turned off the fridge and it stayed cool enough.

Dale

[joe_b_]

We have done both the Skagway to Bellingham run and the Prince Rupert to Skagway route. Both are very nice trips. The southern end of the route to Bellingham, near the Dixon Entrance, can be a bit rough at times and it gets too far from shore to see much, but once it gets close to Cambell River and runs inside along the islands, the scenery is great. This was on the southern end of the Bellingham run. The closest we got to any of the light houses.


I wouldn't do the long run every time, as we love the drive over to Prince Rupert. Last trip there, we only spent 2 or 3 nights in PR and could easily have stayed a week or more. I never realized it was such a major shipping port for coal and grain to Asia, from Canada. Lots of beautiful buildings, float planes to watch, ocean going ships anchored out, waiting their turns to load, some great museums, a very diverse multicultural population, excellent places to eat and we found the one commercial campground, in town, to be a comfortable place to stay.

[skipbee]

This is what we did. There is an ice house in Bellingham that provided us with enough dry ice to keep our frozen stuff solid for the whole trip north. I got two folding wheeled coolers from Walmart and took these to our room. There were ice machines scattered around the cabin decks. We kept the refrigerated stuff that way, adding ice as needed. It was easy and successful. There are plenty of grocery stores in AK, don't take too much with you.

[William_B]

We just did that trip in June. We ate the food down a bit, then froze several gallon jugs of water. Put a couple in the frig and 4 or so in the freezer, and it all worked out, the frig remained cool and the freezer frozen. We have done both the Prince Rupert and the Bellingham trip, both are great, depends whether you want to drive a lot or not. We are driving back down the Cassier this time, and did the Alcan last time, didn't want to take any chances with our freezer full of fish:-)

[accsys]

pigman1 wrote:
The ferry is a great ride but that first leg is long and not terribly interesting. Just a lot of riding. Since you're going to be gone that long, have you considered driving to Prince Rupert and boarding there? We did it that way a few years ago and it enabled us to see Banff, Lake Louise, Icefields Parkway, and Jasper in the Canadian Rockies. We then had very short legs to Ketchikan, Wrangell, Petersburg, Juneau, and Haines and then drove in to Alaska from Haines. We spent 2-3 days at each stop and loved it. Each is very different with new things to see and do. We boondocked or camped free at all Marine Highway stops except two and just had a ball. Something to consider.

+1 on catching the ferry in Prince Rupert. Cut your cost almost in half and some great scenery on the way to Prince Rupert. The only reason I can think of not to do this is if you plan on taking your guns and need to go from US to US but you will have to go all the way to Whittier on the ferry to avoid Canada.

[Community Alumni]

2gypsies wrote:
Don't fill your freezer full and pre-freeze 3 water jugs. Put 2 in the refrigerator at the start of the trip and leave one in the freezer. Group all your foods tight together with the water jugs and try to cover the grouping with something - towels, etc.

This is much like the old ice-box days when I was a kid, from what I can remember, a block of ice kept things safely cold for several days. :C

[2gypsies1]

Don't fill your freezer full and pre-freeze 3 water jugs. Put 2 in the refrigerator at the start of the trip and leave one in the freezer. Group all your foods tight together with the water jugs and try to cover the grouping with something - towels, etc.

[tonymull]

One of those Igloo or Coleman 7 day coolers and a block of ice will keep anything cold you want. Actually a product that does what it says...even in 80 degree weather the ice won't be completely melted...just make sure to use block instead of cube.

[Reddog1]

Moved to the RVing in Canada and Alaska Forum.

Wayne
Moderator

[Bob__B]

Sounds like there is a lot of Alaska experience on this forum.

I am retiring soon and am seriously considering a long trip up there next summer......just starting to research.
I was thinking about doing the opposite....Drive up and ferry back. Hadn't thought it thru enough yet to think about the freezer issues.

[Trackrig]

Down in the hold where the vehicles are stored, it's usually on the cool side which will help if you leave food in it. If you do, I'd leave it as full as possible and on the coldest setting for several days before.

Between now and then, I'd experiment with the freezer. Buy a remote thermometer so that you don't have to open the freezer to check the temp. Fill the freezer, maybe with ice if you don't want to use food. Park the TC so the refer is in the shade, and see what happens for 36 hours. Use frozen milk jugs with water and you won't even have any water to clean up. This will give you a good idea of what will happen.

Bill

[gpascazio]

We did five months on our trip to Alaska. We did the Alaska hwy from one end tp the other. Then jumped on the ferry Haines, Juneau, Gustavus, Juneau and finally Skagway. As a rule we ate down the frig for the trip.

[kerry4951]

We did the 36 hr ride when we were there back in 2010. We turned the frig off as required since it a two way unit (AC/propane). After 36 hrs the food was still OK. It was amazing how well the Norcold held in the cold. The frozen stuff was not rock solid but it was still OK.