Boy am I glad I found this forum! I've been avidly reading the threads, but still have a few questions.

Hubby and I are planning our first cruise, and also our first trip to Alaska, to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. (Also our first trip to Vancouver.) Although I started working on this trip 8 months ago, the only way I could work out using UA FF miles for the flights and Marriott points for the 4 nights in Vancouver was to book the cruise (on NCL) at end of August/first week in September. After reading several of these threads it seems like that may have been a serious mistake on my part, but what's done is done, and we want to enjoy our trip to the max - without spending a bunch of extra money, if possible.

We are doing the Vancouver/Ketchikan/Juneau/Skagway route. There are a bunch of things I would like to ask, but for now I have 3 questions:

1) How cold is it likely to be? Do we need to pack mostly winter clothes, or a mix?

2) How rainy is it likely to be? We have lightweight gore-tex jackets. Do we need more substantial rain gear?

3) What are the chances of seeing the Northern Lights at that time of year?

Any other advice gratefully accepted re: what to see, what to do, and what to avoid.

Thanks much,

Karen