KingsQueen13

On 6/29/2022 at 9:19 PM, TxTeach79 said:

Morning from the City by the Bay….. home of the… Millennium Falcon?

 

 

OMG! You have no idea how excited this picture made me. I am sailing on Miracle Sept 5, 10 days out of SF and I had the best time reading your review. But this right here had me almost in tears! I cruised Princess back in 2006 from SF to Alaska... and guess what? The Millenium Falcon was there for us too! Here is my almost 16 year old picture! Taken on my bday 9/13/2006. 

Thank you for sharing all your wonderful pictures and experiences. We have a Skagway and Icy Strait Point instead of Sitka and Ketchikan but I thoroughly enjoyed all 25 pages of this post! Thank you again!!!!

So, I saw a post on a FB group that guests on Carnival Spirit were invited to do a Polar Bear Plunge while in ISP. Is this common on Carnival cruises? We’re on Miracle starting Sept 5th and my hubby is desperate to do this. 

So my hubby and I will be in Juneau Sept 8th and have the Juneau Gold Mine tour booked. Our port time is 2-11pm. We are supposed to be done with the gold mine tour around 4:45ish. I would love to do the walk to the waterfalls near Mendenhall but I saw 5:30 listed as closing time. Is that only for the visitor center? Would we still be able to walk the trail? Is there transportation that would still pick us up after that time? Thanks for any and all help. 

I went on a Princess Cruise 15 years ago in September. We saw whales from the ship twice during our 10 days. I did go whale watching as well in Juneau (it was part of the photo safari). We also took a glacier plane over Mendenhall but didn’t land on it. In Ketchikan, we went snorkeling. Yes, it was freezing but it was an awesome experience! 
 

I will be cruising with Carnival in September this year. We booked the Tracy Arm Fjord Explorer and have the Helicopter Glacier Explorer out of Skagway. I would still love to be able to do a whale watching excursion again. What time is your fishing excursion in Skagway? Does it leave any time afterwards? I know each trip is different as far as timing but our Skagway day is 7am-9pm so we’re trying to plan one after our helicopter ride. Our Juneau day is shorter, 2-11pm and my husband chose the Gold Mine Tour, after that we hope to have time to get up to Nugget Falls at Mendenhall but it’ll be tight on time.
 

It just really depends on the amount of time you have in the ports and what you can move around to make the most it. 

Question for those who have done this type of excursion. Cruising Carnival Miracle this September. I'm debating between Juneau and Skagway for this one. The Juneau one is $320 with 20 minutes of glacier time with an 'easy activity level' listed. Skagway is $30 more but double the glacier time and a 'moderate activity level'. Both are run by the same company and have plenty of positive reviews. My husband and I have some knee/ankle issues and I'm just wondering how strenuous they consider 'moderate'. I'm wondering if the time on glacier is part of the difference, as well as the fact that the Skagway option has several options to choose from as far as which glacier they will take you to, as opposed to Juneau where it's just Mendenhall. Obviously, this is pretty much the one thing I must do on my trip. Any insight is appreciated!

When will you be going? I went to Alaska in mid-September about 15 years ago (and will be again this year) We packed a few sets of just lounge pants with a lightweight zip up hoodie for our 'at sea' days,  just different shirts for under the hoodie. I am totally a capri/flip flops kind of girl myself, jeans and sneakers are perfectly fine for the trip and were basically what we wore whenever we got off the boat. Alaska is about layers when it comes to weather vs clothing. We did a decent amount of excursions so good walking shoes were necessary for those adventures. Bring a decent sweater and a rainproof jacket just to be safe. When I was there last, we had amazing weather. It only rained 1 day, and it was around 50 degrees the entire trip. Just be sure to bring options because things can change quickly.  

Cruising Carnival Miracle this September, 10 days to Alaska. I know we have 2 “fancy nights” as far as dinner is concerned. Is there a typical schedule for how they decide which nights those are? Like 2nd night and last night? I’m trying to decide on booking Nick & Nora’s steakhouse but I don’t want to book on an elegant night and miss out on the MDR that night. Thanks for any info! 

We’re cruising on Miracle in September and I was hoping to visit Butchart Gardens in Victoria. Our day is super short, 8a-1p. There’s no excursion listed for the gardens. I am looking at how far it is, how to get there etc, and it seems like it’s a 40ish minute drive. If I got off the boat right at 8, got a car to the gardens before they open at 9, would 2 hours be enough to enjoy the gardens properly? I don’t want to be panicked about getting back to the boat on time so I would leave by 11:30 at the latest. I just don’t know if it’ll be too crazy to try to do it with the limited amount of time. Thanks for any and all help. 

So, my initial cruise to Alaska was scheduled over my 40th birthday this September. It was canceled in January. I rebooked for next September, upgraded my room choice, and decided I’m not turning 40 til next year while on my cruise. Now that things have changed and they are allowing Alaskan cruises this September I am really sad that I’m not going this year as initially planned. What do you think the chances are that I can book the closest thing to my original cruise back using the funds I’ve already sunk into next year’s? Do I just suck it up and wait til next September? 

Apologies, we’re sailing on Carnival. When I spoke with the customer service member, she said on-board credit could only be used while ‘on-board’. Quite a few excursions are listed for the cruise already and some of the higher end excursions (most involving helicopters) are already listed as sold out. I was just curious if people have had any luck getting the excursions they want after they’ve already boarded their ship. 

My trip is in Sept 2022. I am trying to plan everything out now as to how we spend our days in port, with excursions and such. My question is: How often do excursions sell out?

We’re looking at the Mendenhall Glacier and Gardens tour in Juneau. Photography in Focus, White Pass and Bordello tours in Skagway, and whales/wildlife/bears search in Icy Strait Point. I would imagine some will have even more limitations as far as capacity due to COVID. My dilemma is I have a substantial amount of on-board credit that I’d like to use towards excursions but obviously that means I have to wait til I’m on the ship to do so. I’m just concerned that they’ll sell out. Does anyone have any tips or words of advice on how to decide which ones I’d be able to wait to book? Thanks for any help!

Thanks for all the comments! 
 

He literally just wants to jump in, not gonna be in there more than 2 minutes, so I’m not too worried about the survivability. Looks like we’ll shoot for Icy Straight Point or Victoria, since we don’t have any excursions planned for Victoria as of yet. Hubby classifies himself as Polar Bear who lives for cold water. 

We’ve often joked about hip-checking one another off the side of a cruise ship. That’s not how I want this to happen though 😂  

He just wants to be able to say he went in the ocean while we were in Alaska. He has a habit of running into water fully clothed because he thinks it’s funny and he truly enjoys the cold. 

So my husband and I booked an Alaskan Cruise for Sept 2022. As we were going through our excursion options today he asked me where he could jump in the ocean. I told him I had no freaking clue where he’d be able to do that. Yes, my husband is crazy. I told him about how I went snorkeling in Ketchikan last time I was there. He wanted to go but our cruise doesn’t take us to Ketchikan this time around. So anyway, does anyone have any suggestions or tips of getting him in the water without getting arrested? Our ports of call will be Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point and Victoria. Thanks for any and all help :)