If binocs don't come with your cabin, bring your own! We saw SO MUCH wildlife. Sadly, very few other people availed themselves of their balconies - we saw bears swimming and were talking about it at dinner -the naturalists were the only others who we talked to the rest of that cruise who saw the same thing. We firmly believe there's no bad weather, just bad clothing, so we're prepared. We've lucked out - our trips have been Sept and the weather has been fabulous. We haven't done the train/land trips from Princess or HAL but had family living in Delta Junction at one point, so we rented a car and stayed with them, then drove to Whittier to get on the cruise....Saw moose, lynx on that drive ;-) My in-laws rented an RV and traveled all around Alaska at one point - my MIL kept telling us we would love it. I finally said - your son and I hate to drive on vacation and neither of us like camping at this age either. Exactly what about rving would we "love"? Driving around is freaking amazing, so she got us there.