barbevrn

We found a handout in our room before we went to dinner. We had booked a debarkation tour. Our plane did not leave Anchorage until 5:15 and we had a whole day to fill if we didn't want to sit at the airport. Anyway, we were supposed to get on a tour boat and go close to the face of Blackstone Glacier, but it was canceled due to bad weather.

Debarkation takes place at Whittier. This is a small town originally built as a military supply port. It is 60 miles from Anchorage and has a 2.5 mile tunnel that has an alternating one-way traffic schedule. I believe the traffic goes in for 30 minute, then out for 30 minutes. It totally closes for several hours overnight. Anyway, transportation OUT is a little trickier than in most port cities that have any number of transportation modes. I had done enough research here to know that we were pretty much at the mercy of the ships transfers. But, we preferred an excursion to fill part of our downtime.

It was difficult enjoying that last dinner. Not only was the cruise over, but we weren't sure how we were going to get to the airport. We excused ourselves before desert and went to the pursers desk. The line was huge. I'm afraid to say.....I used my VIP status :o There wasn't anyone in the concierge line so I walked right up. I KNOW I earned this by cruising with carnival 10+ times. But, I have to admit...I wasn't totally comfortable with it. We changed to another glacier viewing tour.

We tried our hand one last night at the casino. And gave back a little more of their money. Note to self...........when you win.....DON'T go back :mad: The casino closed extremely early .........11pm. They said we were close to docking in Whittier and they had to close by law.

EVERYONE has to put their luggage out by midnight. EVERYONE! There is no self debarkation. We were given zone tags to place on our luggage. Luggage express was available for $20 each. This is where they take your luggage that last night and you do not see it again until you reach your home port. In hindsight it would have been worth that. For folks that were catching a plane before 8pm.....we had to claim our luggage at the airport. Anyone with a plane after 8pm had to collect their luggage at a convention center in Anchorage.

For all extents and purposes our cruise was over when we left Harvard Glacier. The whole mood had changed from WOO HOO, I'm on a cruise to .......ok, the business at hand........what do we need to do to make it home.

Anyway, I didn't post my last towel animal in my conclusion of the cruise because it just somehow did not deserve to be included in the excitement of the glaciers..........

OMG! What is it?

HMMMMMMM do they somehow go together

GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!! HA!

I think this is a dinsaur

And this is a seal.........

That's what I think they are........What did YOU think they were???????

Thanks, Barb, it's been GREAT and I feel like I know you! Can I please ask a few food questions? I've heard the room service breakfast has very few items available. Do you remember what they offered? Coffee, juice, baskets of pastry, or more than that? Also, were there things like granola and yogurt on the breakfast buffet? And are you allowed to bring food back to your cabin?

 

THANKS! It's been great!:)

We never ordered room service anything. But, I did look at the breakfast menu and it was pretty limited. Pretty much continental......

The buffet breakfast has anything and everything a person could expect to eat for breakfast. I say yogurt, but didn't notice granola.....I can't imagine it not being there. I saw every hot and cold cereal you could ask for.

Yes, you can take your own food to your cabin. The only except would be from the main dining room. I would cover my food with something though. You could ask for a cover, but I usually just throw a couple of napkins over it.

Oh Barb, thank you so very much for all of this! In that video clip.. that's how I envisioned Alaska to be... COLD... was it?

 

Good luck on the first day back... I used to work in healthcare.. are you a nurse? lol

 

Am enjoying every bit of this.. haven't even noticed any "errors"..

 

Karen

The day time temps were mostly high 50s. I am sure that I would have been cold if I hadn't been dressed to suit the temperature. I always (well except that day on the balcony :D ) had shoes and socks......no sandals this trip. I always had long pants on. According to what we were doing, I would have one, two, or three layers. Most times only 1 or 2. The time we spent viewing the glaciers was not that bad. The wind and rain made it seem cold. If you wear something to block both, it is fine. Also, that video was taken just before sunset so it looks colder than it was.

Seriously, I detest cold. If I get cold, I am miserable. And, if mama get's miserable.......let's just say everyone else is miserable. :p I got cool a few times, but NEVER too cold.

I still have debarkation and a few more pictures. But, just as I though.......work is sorta getting in the way. If I don't get pulled into working overtime or at any of the shelters they plan on opening, I'll finish up tomorrow.

Honestly, the cruise was pretty much over after Harvard Glacier. The casino even closed at 11pm :eek: :eek: :eek: But, they said we were pulling into Whittier and they had to close it by law.

Well, all good things must come to an end. Just as my cruise had ended......so has my time off from work :( I have to return to work today. I still have debarkation and more pictures taken from around the ship to share.

Looking back I see a few typos and gramatical errors. Hopefully they will not distract too much from the read.....

Wish me luck as I try to muddle through my 1st 12 hour shift in almost 3 weeks!:eek:

Since I never figured out how to post video clips, here's a link. Again.........two separate videos of Harvard Glacier. Sorry about the movement......It really is hard to keep the camera stead on fool 18X zoom. I pretty sure when I started the second clip the glacier was already calving.........but it took a couple seconds to realize what I was seeing............ENJOY!

http://www.onetruemedia.com/shared?p=6ea4d628f0dd742f729a50&skin_id=601&utm_source=otm&utm_medium=text_url

Then we have the mother.........ehhhhhh, errrrrrrrrrr Father of all Glaciers.....

They turned the ship twice to allow each side to view the glacier for approx 20 minutes each.

It was cold and wet, but so worth it! I had on all my "layers" and gloves, so it was bearable

Turning to sail away from the Glacier

We had a long lingering view from our Aft balcony. If there were any doubts about our aft balcony.........we left them at Harvard Glacier.

You can see the College Fjiords glaciers along the way. We stood out on our balcony until Harvard Glacier was no longer visible. We got there at 7pm and sunset was at 8pm. I'm sure had it not gotten dark, we could have seen it much, much longer.

DH had to pull me away in order to make our last dinner in the dining room. We had to pack and have our luggage outside the door by midnight. So, I had to call a close to the perfect ending to our 7 day cruise in Alaska. It's like they saved the best for last. A perfectly orchestrated finale...................

We found a spot on the port side toward the back of the lido resturaunt located just inside the doors. I went in and out trying to keep my camera dry.

You can see icebergs off in the distance. See the deep blue one to the left

We learned that the Glaciers on the port side were named after female colleges and the ones on the right were named after male colleges

I should have written the names down, but I didn't. You can see where the glacer has eroded the land as it made it's way down the mountain

This is also a tide water glacer. There is actually ice under that dark brown at the bottom. At one point, this glacier moved so fast that it plowed up the earth in front of it. They call it "the dirty little girl" That isn't the official name though........LOL

Two glaciers merge and come together

This one takes all kinds of twists and turns

The ice bergs really don't look very big from the ship

We started seeing remnants of land a litte after 1pm. The water was a greyish color. They say that is caused by the glaciel "flour" or particles left behind when the glaciers melts.

Just before 3pm we heard announcements that a pilot would be boarding the ship and navigate the ship through College Fjord and to Hubbard Glacier. He would be in control of the ship until we came out of the Fjords. After the Valdez oil spill many laws were changed and all commercial as well as large ships MUST utilize a specially trained harbor pilot. They anticipated that we would reach College Fjord around 5pm and Harvard Glacier around 7pm.

There still wasn't much outside scenery, so we went back to enjoy the interior. It had been raining and misting much of the day. The water had calmed down tremedously so the masses were out. This was the only day that the lido deck was just entirely to congested to enjoy. It was congested enough that we had taken our food back to our cabin to enjoy.

This bank of video poker yeilded me my Royal Flush......they also proved to be Indian givers. LOL If youo look closely you can see the DH trying his hand.

I did a double take when I saw "Elvis" just inside the sports bar. I'm assuming he was going to be singing in the Legends show later that night

Around 4pm we started hearing regular announcements from Michelle, the ships naturalist so we made our way to the upper decks.

One of the stewards let me peek into a cabin with the beds separated into twins........I felt kinda awkward and stayed about 2 seconds.......lol

Pharoah's Palace entry

This is actually kinda like a waterfall. It flows down the sides and is several decks high. You can see decorative stairways on either side

Fruit display on lido.....The watermellon carvings were a work of art

The last sea day.................we actually slept in until almost 9 am.There is usally a sense of sadness that last day. The sense that the vacation that you have planned and dreamed of for so long is coming to an end. This day was no different.

I had looked out my balcony the night before and in the wee hours of the morning. There wasn't a speck of land to be seen. That was to remain so until mid afternoon. For the first time since we left Vancouver, we were out of sight of land for more than just a short period. Well, since there wasn't much to see outside, it was time to explore.........

The atrium on the Spirit is somewhat different than the other ships I have been on. The majority of the public areas are on the 2nd and 3rd decks. The Lobby is on deck two and the photo galary is on deck 3. These are the only two decks open to the atrium. There are walls with windows similar to those found in an ocean view that are set vertically instead of horizonally.

This is looking through one of the windows across the atrium. You can see peeps looking for photos in the photo gallary

standing closer to the window, you can see the glass elevator as well as the pursers desk on the left side.

here you can actually see the cabin doors across the atrium as well as the mural on the wall opposite the glass elevators

From the other side

I know that these are actually what many of you have been waiting for. There are more to come!

Barb, thank you so much for this review! We are going on the Spirit in November. We did the Alaska trip about 7 years ago and it is so amazing to read your review because I feel like I wasn't even paying attention to anything when we were in Alaska! LOL

 

Coming from British Columbia, the scenery is quite normal for us but it never gets boring and I still think it's so beautiful. Your pictures are amazing! You have a real talent.

 

I also loved your review of Vancouver. You make me want to go take a tour of my own town! Ha ha

 

Thanks again Barb! :D

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it. :D I don't gaurantee 100% accuracy so I take it that it is all good since I didn't get called on anything.

Once we got back to the ship, we hung out and dozed off. We had a couple of hours until time to leave Sitka. It was nice to have a little downtime for a change. The rainy weather was actually soothing.

The last tender back to the ship was 4:15 and we were due to leave at 5pm. It rained rairly heavy the later part of the day in port. We made our way topside just before 5pm

more "wildlife"

Locals making a living

We made our way back down to the room to freshen up for dinner. I stepped out to enjoy our balcony and was rewarded with a rainbow

It was the perfect reminder that at the end of the day, even though it was less than perfect, there are treasures to take from it.

That evening as we left Sitka sound.......the ship started rocking. We had taken more meclizine when we got back to the room, so all was good for us. Many weren't so lucky. Our waiter was not on his game, you could tell he did not feel well. We saw a female waiter or assistant sitting back by the kitchen and other staffers would pat her on the shoulders as they walked by. Many comented that it was extra rough even for them.

The ship was really quiet. I think the rain and rough water took it's toll. Four full days of intensive touring and sightseeing probably had it's part in it too. We had one last sea day and went to bed hoping that the the seas would be calmer. I fell asleep with a smile on my face. Thank God I wasn't sick anymore!

I wasn't too sick to capture this light house. I believe it is called the Rockwell Lighthouse.

I did get fussed at a little to sit down since we were going pretty fast and the seas were rough. We were dropped off at the dock in Sitka and you could either take a tender back to the ship or a free shuttle bus downtown. At this point, I did not feel I could handle the tender.

It was raining pretty hard now, but we walked around a bit and then found a resturaunt that was serving chowder. I drank a glass of tea and nursed the chowder until I started feeling better.

A tour of the St Michael's Russian Orthodox Church was included in the wildlife tour, so we stepped inside for just a minute.

There was quite a bit of memorabilia inside

We walked around for a bit and then I decided I felt good enough to go back to the ship. We caught one of the free shuttles back to the tender.

They packed the lifeboats FULL. They are totally enclosed and almost claustrophobic. I'm sure in the event of a real emergency they would be fun. But considering my previous seasickness.....I didn't care for the tender ride back to the boat.

We were able to get close to only one shoreline. Thats where we saw a few starfish. We saw pinks, purples, and orange.

A distant bear.

A sea otter checking us out

Another married couple

And more whate tails!

I had debated between Capt Davey and this one with the ship. I opted for this one for a couple of reasons. 1st there was a weight limit of 225#. DH is tall and just a little over that number. I don't consider him that big, but did not want to have any surprises. I also wasn't sure there was a bathroom on the smaller boat and you know how it is when you mix water and cold air. :eek: Capt. Davey only takes up to 6 people out at one time. If/when we do Alaska again.......I will look into that more closely. I think we would have slowed down a little and gotten closer to the shore. But, that's just my uneducated opinion.

All in all this tour was a huge success as far as wildlife goes. But, when they made us come sit down..............this cruise lovin' gal turned all shades of green. I'm sad to say........I'm ashamed.....someone who loves the water as much as I do should NEVER forget the meclizine. EVER! It did convince me that we made the right decision about not taking a float plane though.

We went and waited in the Pharaoh's Palace as instructed. We heard them say there were 88 people taking this tour. We waited just a little past the designated time for the last 4 passengers and when they did not show up we were walked down to the gangway. We boarded our tour boat straight off the ship. It was bi-level with the bottom level fully inclosed and the top level partially enclosed. We opted for the top floor. We were pretty much free to walk around. It was rough at times.

We made a huge mistake. We forgot to take our meclizine. Fortunately there was a lady there that let us have one. I should have taken two........

we started seeing eagles in the trees, but they were pretty far off.

It started raining on and off after about an hour. I stayed out on the observation deck as much as I could because I would get queasy when was sitting inside.

We saw several rafts of sea otters and learned that each raft was gender specific.

There are sea lions on the lower rocks and sea gulls on the tops. They are pretty hard to see

We observed an eagles nest. Eagles do not have white heads until they are mature. We saw both the mother and father fly into the next. It was an awesome sight, but the boat was moving too much for me to capture it.

I loved the contrasting yellows and greens

What a wonderful picture review!! We have been on the Spirit for an 8-night cruise to Mexico, and will be on her again for the Hawaii to San Diego cruise on 10/06/08. This will be our first cruise with an aft wrap-around balcony, and I can hardly wait!! We will be in Cabin 4237, so I understand the balcony will be covered. Did you enjoy the aft cabin? How loud was the sound of the water, and did you have any problems with soot from the funnel? We have also been to Alaska, and all your pictures bring back such wonderful memories. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

PeggyS

Yes, we enjoyed the aft cabin very much. I wish there was a way to get on on the bow........but, that would be difficult. LOL We did not notice any soot from the funnel at all. It did mist and rain a few times, so it could be that it rained. The sound of the water was pretty loud when you were standing back there. You could not hear the naturalist unless you were in a public area, on the bow of the ship, OR had your TV turned to channel 15. We tried turning the TV on and opening the door, but we had to turn it up so loud I was concerned it would disturb the neighbors.

I went back to meet up with DH for breakfast. I had an omlette this morning. YUMMMMMMMMM!

Doing the open......open......open sign. Yes, we all know the shops are closed in port.

The Atrium Bar. You can see the glass elevator going down. You can't reall see but the excursion desk is in the upper corner of this shot and the pursers desk would be positioned just around the corner (upper left of this picture) The photo galary is one deck up and you can get a visual even though they don't have any up for display.

Another picture of the Jungle. It really is a little dark in the Jungle, so I used a flash to get this photo. I never saw many people here,so if you just want a quiet place to read or enjoy a drink.....this would work.

They used the lifeboats as tenders

Thre is only seating on either side of the Jungle but not as you round the back. I hadn't noticed, but it does look like there is a security camera

Gotta run. Will try to finish Sitka tonight.

This is our one and only tender port. We arrived in port around 6:30. We booked the Wildlife and otter excursion through the ship for 9:30. We had fun intentions of sleeping in because we didn't want to fight any crowds for a tender. I left DH in the room and went up to the deck and around the ship for some pictures. It looked like our run of luck on the weather had ran out. You really can't complain about the weather when it is the norm for a location right?

Just a few from the upper deck.

Sitka from the Lido

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It is around 6:45 in the morning and you can see how wet the deck is

Lido Aft taken to show how we were dwarfed by the mountains. It is hard to see the bar underneath the canopy. There is a hot tub to my right.

Skagway from Lido forward

I love the suns rays shining through the clouds. Does anyone else hear the angels singing halleluja?

We went back to our room and got dressed for the past guest party and formal night. I did not dress nearly as formal on this cruise. I wanted to stay warm! Most of my really formal attire is more suited to the caribbean. We rarely sit through a whole past guest party, but

we stayed to watch as they did a presentation of all the ships from the very beginning. They also introduced the Splendor and talked about the Dream. Our dining room bar waiter was not there, so we didn't get the service we had recieved for the Captains party.

We killed a little time around the ship.........and yes gave a little MORE of their money back in the casino we went back to the room. We had late seating and had until 8:15

What is it?

Taken from our aft balcony as we cruised through the Lynn Canal. Sunset was 8:03 pm and I took this at 8:05pm. You can see an a glacier in the background.

Our one and only formal photo taken by our waiter. We stopped and let them take several pictures........it's just easier to do it and go on. But, we bought ZERO pictures from the ship. I refused to even look for them. We usually wind up spending way too much on them just to get home and not have anywhere to display them. They have got to where the only sell 8X10's and they don't fit well in an album.

We didn't stay up too much longer. Most of the lounges played clasical music (that we saw anyway), the casino closed early most nights( I won a litte bit of their money back though), and after 10 cruises..........we rarely go to the shows..

It was almost 4pm by the time we got back to the ship. We had to be on board by 4:30 so we opted to pass on seeing any more of Skagway. The past guest party was that night from 5pm to 6pm and it was also the second formal night.

I'm not sure which ship this is, but I loved the way the sun was shining through the clouds right down on her.

View of Skagway

We got back on the bus and headed back to Alaska and our home away from home. The scenery never failed to impress.

By now we had shed a few layers. We hit a small patch of clouds here.

Anyway, we did not have to clear US customs to get back into Alaska. At one point the tour guide told us there wouldn't be much to tell us or show us for a while. The lonnnggggggg day in Juneau previously, the early wake up, and riding along quietly proved to much. I fell asleep. I'm sure I missed something but that nap was very much needed.

Lunch was included so we stopped at Caribou Crossing Trading Post and Museum. We were served BBQ chicken, something like a twice baked potato, & cole slaw. It was actually a decent meal. Then we went about the grounds to explore. If you are looking for hustle and bustle, you won't find it here. If you are looking for cheap imported gifts, you won't find it here. This is pretty much a just a few buidlings together as a place where tourists and locals can get a bite to eat, shop for souvenirs, visit the museum, and see some sled dogs. I've read that some folks were dissapointed. But, it is what it is and if knowing all that.......we enjoyed it.

They had 3 puppies. They kept hiding under the dog sled. There was another one that I really wanted to hold. They had a dog sled ride here for an additional 20 to 25 dollars. I had mixed feelings about how I felt about dogs being hooked up to a sled to pull us humans around. But, hearing them bark and get excited and continue to bark as if to say "pick me, pick me until the sled took off really changed my mind. By the time I decided I would like to do it time was running out. My Grumpy Gus didn't want to. Harumph. This is probably one of my few regrets. I should have put on my big girl panties and done it by myself. LOL

They had some little goats there too. You could "donate" 25 cents or so and get treats for the goats as well as the dogs.

This was as close as I got to my dogsled ride LOL

The museum was included and consisted of every imaginable stuffed animal. Some of them were HUGE

DH really was a sport to play along with me as you can see in the dogsled photo. He also helped me TRY to set this one up to look like I was breaking the bear fight up. LOL

I had intentionally booked this particular tour because I did not see any of the ones offered on the ship that went to Emerald lake. Looking at pictures is great.........but, seeing it with your own eyes is like cementing it in your memory forever.

Bove Island

Emeral Lake looking left

Emerald Lake looking straight on

Emerald Lake looking right