kctwinmommy

What clothing do you recommend for tour - thinkng hiking boots,jeans,a layered t-shirt,Northface fleece & raincoat, gloves,hat. Maybe a hooded sweatshirt too?

Were you cold at all?

Yes, this was definitely a windy and cold tour! LOL! I thought I had packed enough, but I actually bought a jacket on the ship, as did many, many people!! It's a really nice jacket though, fleece on the inside, I'll definitely wear it again, and it was on sale!

I wore jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, and the jacket I bought. Oh yes, and hiking boots (on all our tours actually). The jacket also had a hood. And I had gloves, the ones that have the flip-top cover on them, so they look like mittens when that part is on, if that makes sense. We had a sunny day though, so it did help a little bit. The great part is you spend a long time there and the inside of the boat was totally fine, so you can warm up in there easily. The wind was really harsh at times for sure!

LOL We were on the other boat w Ben. We were the family of four that moved to the other boat to even it up.

 

There weren't any obnoxious kids!! LOL They were all very good. :)

 

Matt was our canoe guide.

 

I thought those boys were amazing!! OMG to be in my 20's again! LOL :)

Haha! I remember you guys then! LOL! And yes, the kids were all great! As well as those guides. So much fun!

And it looks like you were on the opposite boat for the Endicott Arm too! You posted the picture of our boat, with the girl getting the ice from the glacier. I have pictures of your boat with the 2 people leaning over. I know our girl actually went ON the ice! LOL!

I did do my pre-cruise report for our 4 days in Seattle though!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2381435

Looking forward to reading your review. We are only 18 days away from our Alaskan cruise on the Legend.

I'm trying to get it done in the next few days, but I'm a bit wordy, so it's going to be lengthy! LOL! I'm not sure if I should just break it down a little at a time, or all at once!?

We got to Seattle on the Friday before our cruise, around 1 p.m. We used a car service, Already There, for a ride from Sea-Tac to our hotel. Our driver, Adam, was great. He gave us the nickel tour on the way, just giving us some suggestions and ideas. We stayed at the Four Points Sheraton near Seattle Center. The hotel was clean, but the rooms were pretty small for 3 of us to be in there with all our luggage. I had read things and the hotel is geared more toward business travelers it seems, but we were pretty much only sleeping there.

Our first night we walked over to Seattle Center and grabbed a late, quick lunch at the Armory (it has some shops, fast food, and the children’s museum inside). We walked around a little bit, listened to a great Ecuadorian band there, Quichua Mashis (they were there all weekend), and then hopped on the monorail. Since we had a military discount and 1 child, it was only $3 to go one-way. The monorail gets you down into the city, it’s only like 3-4 minutes, but saves you walking time. We walked around for a while, went to Pike Place Market, saw the fish guys, then headed down to the waterfront. There is a lot of construction going on around there so we just walked around for a while and then finally grabbed some dinner at a restaurant, Elephant & Castle near 5th & Pike. Finally took the monorail back to Seattle Center to get to our hotel for the night.

On Saturday we went over to Seattle Center in the morning. We went to the Chihuly Glass museum and it was great! Loved all the different pieces and lots of information about the artist. They also have photographers around the museum that will take your picture. Then they give you a little credit card thing and you scan them at the various kiosks and it gives you the picture in digital form, so you can email it to yourself or others. It’s all for free! So definitely do all of them. After that we went to the EMP museum. We didn’t pay extra for the Star Trek exhibit, just the regular part. There were some neat things, the World of Wearable Art exhibit was neat! If you’re a big music fan, you’ll most likely enjoy it. Large exhibit on Nirvana, as well as a section about Jimi Hendrix and a guitar gallery. We grabbed some lunch at Big Mario’s pizza place on 5th, near our hotel. Decent thin crust pizza, and cheap! Cheese slices were on sale for $1 that day! That evening we met up with some friends who were in town as well. We walked around again by the market area, looking for someplace to eat. Myself and the other wife are a bit of picky eaters, so it took us some time. We eventually settled on Kells Irish Pub. Our friends had some pasties, which they said were good. I had roasted chicken which was excellent. Our son had Shepard’s Pie for the first time and loved it.

Sunday we started with the Underground Seattle tour – totally recommend it! Great history of the city and such a unique tour. It’s walking around a few blocks, but also going up and down some staircases, so be ready for that. After that we walked over the pier and took a ferry over to Bremerton. We had planned on just taking it right back since we had plans that evening, but we ended up staying there and visiting the Puget Sound Naval museum, which is free. Came back to the city around 5:30 and met our friends for an evening event from their company.

On Monday we rented a car from Enterprise and headed out to Snoqualmie Falls. We had planned on going to Mt. Rainier, but realized we didn’t give ourselves enough time. So we went to the falls instead. Make sure you go visit the area at the lower falls too. It’s fun to walk out on the rocks a bit and climb around. Then we drove around Tiger Mountain and did a short hike on a trail. We weren’t really dressed for a long one, so we just went about a mile up and back down. Late in the afternoon we went to Sky View Center. It’s much cheaper than the Space Needle. Plus, once you buy your ticket they stamp your hand so you can come back again. We spent a little time there, maybe only 20 other people were there, our son got a drink at the Starbucks there (it’s the highest one in the world apparently!) and then went back to our hotel for some dinner and to rest. We went back to Sky View around 9:30 for an amazing nighttime view of the city.

The next morning, we took the car back to Enterprise and they had a shuttle that took us to the pier for free. That worked out the best for us. The shuttle was there within about 10 minutes of us returning the car. Nice driver too.

Thought I was just looking and saw your mini post and it looks like we both did the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari....what time did you go? We were booked on the 7:30 am. We LOVED that one! :)

We did the same one! We had Elyse for the boat ride and we were with Wiley for our tour guide in the canoe. Our son was the obnoxious one! LOL!

I agree with most of what you've said so far! I wish we had been able to meet up with M&G, but that never happened. I wasn't sure if your kids would be in the Circle C, because our son did do it. You also seemed to be close to our hotel! LOL! We were at the Four Points Sheraton on Mercer St. I'm working on my report too, just did the Seattle part first. I'm a bit wordy! LOL! ;)

OK, what happened to our Meet & Mingle? Just got off the Carnival Legend yesterday, and although we had over 25 people signed up, never saw a Meet & Greet listed in the Fun Times all week. I thought perhaps I missed it, but I searched carefully every day. Others on our roll call also watching for it say nothing ever appeared.

I was coming to post the same thing. Disappointing that it went that way...

Found it thanks to your email used some of your wording in my email search- it was hidden three layers down in an email. We are also booked on 11:00am.

Tap me if you see me & say hey- Suzy. I am guess based on cool weather will have raincoat on outer layer- either eggplant color or bright purple!

Glad you found it! We just went last week!! It was really neat. We got to see the glacier calving a bunch of times. Mostly small pieces, but a few big ones. Including one that caused some real waves!

I don't think that is true. I know small boats and smaller ships go to Endicott Arm as a planned trip.

I should have added that from what we were told, cruise ships don't normally go there. So yes, there are probably smaller ships, but not the big cruise ships.

I requested the Tracy Fjord tour right away, and received an email describing meeting in a lounge, etc. it never really stated tour time. (Unless I misplaced that email). Does your email confirmation state a time?

I requested a time when I sent the email for the 11:00 a.m. excursion. This was what our email said...

We are happy to confirm your reservation for the Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer excursion at 11:00am on 07/14/2016 for your upcoming Alaska cruise for

- 2 adults (aged 13 and above);

- 1 children (aged 5 - 12).

The minimum age of this excursions is 5 years old.

At this current time we are unable to charge online ahead of time however we will reserve tickets for you. Your tickets will be charged to your onboard Sail & Sign Account on the day of embarkation and will be printed and delivered to your stateroom on the first sea day of the cruise.

Please have this email printed as a confirmation page.

Wishing you a very pleasant voyage on the Carnival Legend.

I don't think that is true. I know small boats and smaller ships go to Endicott Arm as a planned trip.

OK, not what we were told...

I don't know of restrictions into Endicott Arm. Are there any? It is not like Glacier Bay that requires a permit. Most ships seem to go as an alternate when Tracy Arm is not available.

Yes, that is the only time they're allowed in Endicott, so there are restrictions.

We were on the Legend on 7/12 sailing and also went to Endicott. I wouldn't expect any ships to make it into Tracy Arm this summer. The naturalist said this was an unprecedented event, nothing like it in the past 40 years. But Dawes Glacier is amazing! And keep in mind, most ships aren't allowed in there, so it's a bit unique. We saw seals and bears!

We just came back from our cruise, with 4 days pre-cruise in Seattle. We stayed in a hotel near Seattle Center, which has the Space Needle. We also took the monorail everyday to go down into the city, so passed by S.N. every day at various times. And I will say every time, there were long lines. Or at least, longer than I would want to stand in. We did the Sky View instead, for some of the same reasons others mentioned. It was way cheaper, plus you can go twice in the same day. We went around 5 p.m. and then again at 10 p.m. No lines, maybe 20 people, it was wonderful!

We just got back from our cruise and spent 4 days in Seattle before our trip. Like others said, it's very hilly and can definitely be difficult to walk around if you have mobility issues. We stayed near the Space Needle and for us, we had a 15 minute walk every day to get to the monorail and took that into the city every day. For us, it was $3 each time, but so worth it!

For us, we decided to skip the Space Needle and went to the Sky View Center instead. It was cheaper than the Space Needle and NO lines! in fact, when we went up, there were maybe 20 people. Plus, if you want to go during the day, you buy a ticket and then they stamp your hand so you can come back again at night to see the lights/sunset. We went around 5:00 when it was still daylight obviously and then again around 10 p.m.! Plus, you get to see the Space Needle then too.

http://www.skyviewobservatory.com/

But, if you take the monorail up to Seattle Center, there is the Chihuly Glass museum which is amazing! It's not big, so it's easy to navigate at your own pace. Just check times/hours, since they do close for special events on occasion.

From the comments on Healds pages, I feel like they do not support the Meet and Mingles. The only well attended ones that I have attended on Carnival were completely organized by roll call members. RCCL does theirs most efficiently but I was floored at how nice the one on NCL Getaway was. It had tons of food and all the ships officers there. It was very well done.

That's too bad! This was the first cruise we did with just us. We have always cruised with friends or other family members. So it would have been nice to start off meeting a few other people. Yes, we did meet people along the way. But still, the gathering would have been nice too. It doesn't have to be that fancy, I'm sure we could all handle hanging out and talking, just getting to meet each other. I saw they have other Meet and Mingles every day though (the Bill W one, which I understand why, and there was a LGBT one every day as well). It's too bad that they won't help facilitate this one meetup.

Yes, we had enough people signed up. I know I checked it before we left. As did others in our roll call. I personally don't understand why this is such a difficult thing. I also don't understand if this is a CC issue or Carnival? But why should either side agree to do something and then not follow through. I won't even bother signing up next time. Don't need to waste my time looking for it in the Fun Times every day.

Glad you had a great time, we were just there in June.

 

FYI - Endicott arm fjord is within the Tracy Arm Ford Wilderness. It has two fjords - Tracy Arm (which elbows to the north, and Endicott that goes towards the east, starting at the same entry point). They are two different fjords within the same wilderness area - but they are not the same fjord. They have different glaciers, also.

When we were there, our ship was also diverted to Endicott arm as Tracy Arm was clogged with ice bergs. Large ships are normally not allowed into Endicott, they have to get special permission - like when Tracy Arm is fogged or ice bergs clog the entry/exit area. I am sure that is what happened on your cruise also. It seems no ships have been getting into Tracy arm fjord itself this year.

Yes, I knew that already... That's why I was saying that I suspect the ships will be doing it all summer. Our naturalist said it was an unprecedented thing, in the past 40 years it hasn't been like this. But Sawyer Glacier (in Tracy Arm) is just breaking up so much. So yes, we went to Dawes Glacier in Endicott Fjord. I'm sure the ships will continue to do that. But it's still beautiful!

I plan on doing a further in depth review in a few days, need to get back to reality first! LOL! We had a great time, spent 4 days in Seattle before we went too. We stayed on the more north side, about 10 minute walk from the Seattle Center (Space Needle) and took the monorail everyday to get into the city. We also rented a car for 1 day to go further out (Snoqualmie Falls).

The cruise was nice, we had great weather - no rain!! We did the Tracy Arm Fjord, which is really Endicott Fjord. I suspect it will be that way all summer. It was still amazing! We also did the Glacier Point Wilderness Safari and we really enjoyed that too. Very neat trip, great people running it all. And in Juneau we did a helicopter trip up to Mendenhall Glacier with a walking around part. It wasn't listed as Mendenhall glacier trip in the tour book, so I believe there's a chance they may stop somewhere else. But, we had an amazing day up there! The sky down by the ship was all cloudy, but on the glacier it was bright blue, sunny skies and incredible!!

We only had a couple small issues, but nothing serious. We had your time dinning, our son spent a lot of time in Circle C, we went to the comedy shows several times and 2 of the main stage shows. I took a lot of notes along the way so I'll be sure to give details in my review. I just wanted to post this for anyone heading out next week in case they had quick questions.

Oh - the biggest thing I can say is that I totally overpacked! LOL! I could have left several of the lighter weight things home, never wore them for dinner, or any other time. I wore all my jeans, sweatshirts, long sleeve tees, etc... I thought I might be OK wearing a few lighter weight things, but nope! LOL!

Edited to add - we did have Faster to the Fun and we used it! Worth it for us. And in each port we were able to use our cell phones with T-mobile. Oh, and we never saw the Meet & Mingle in the Fun Times. Someone else in our roll call said they looked too and never saw it.

No need to bring a hole punch. At some ports, the cards already have a hole punched. If your card doesn't have a hole, either go to Guest Services upon boarding or wait for the casino open to get your card punched and get a free lanyard.

Perfect! Thank you!

Just curious if they still do this on Carnival ships? I have a small hole punch to bring, if needed, but if I didn't have to, that would be nice too!

So we got there around 10:45 last November and it took us about an hour to get through and onto the ship. But our friends got there earlier and apparently got on much quicker. There are several workers in the area too, in case you need some help getting through there. I know there were a few people in line who had a hard time standing, and they were sitting on some benches for a bit. Just ask someone around there if it gets difficult, and if you're traveling with others, they should be able to stand in line and you can rest somewhere until you get closer.

THANK YOU for the live trip report!! Love it! We leave on the 12th.

 

I can't believe how bright it is at 9:15 pm!!!

 

Can't wait to hear more! :)

I know! Can't wait!! And we actually bought a portable hammock at Sports Authority tonight, after I told my husband about this! LOL! With their going out of business sale, it was like $40! And it comes in a little pouch, easy to store!

June 14-21st on the Carnival Legend...

 

we did Endicott instead, it was fabulous! We arrived there in a complete fog... we were so disappointed, then all of a sudden the fog lifted and the ship went in. We took the small boat excursion and it was FANTASTIC. Highly recommend it.

That is great!! Thanks so much for sharing it. Gives us an idea on what we'll need for clothing too! ;) Getting excited now!!