Linsuesue

I have sailed on NCL and Carnival ships and prefer Carnival myself. If you really enjoy these cruises coming up and will be booking more, check out the 4K cabins on the Spirit class ships—Spirit, Miracle, Pride, and Legend. They are very cost effective spacious cabins and a very unique type of cabin. They are called an Inside Obstructed view, have floor to ceiling windows(that don’t open), and have the lifeboats directly outside of them. They are on deck 4 which we find a very convenient location. The price is just barely more than a typical inside cabin down on decks 1 and 2 yet is the size of a balcony cabin and has windows. There are a few of the 4K’s that have a bit of a better view than the side of a lifeboat. Check out 4K cabin 4122 on Youtube for an idea of the view. Happy sailing!

But doesn’t the Carnival fare include port charges and the NCL fare doesn’t? That would close the gap between the two cruislines.

Many years ago we stayed at the Mayflower Park Hotel in Seattle. It seems like there was a pass through from the hotel lobby to the Westlake Center. We will be staying there in July and will be taking the Link Light Rail from the airport to the Westlake Center. Do you have to go outside of the Westlake Center to enter the Mayflower Hotel?

Did you also bring 2 bottles of wine per person too?

Seattle Express is very convenient and dependable. They also offer 2 and 3 hour tours of the city that you could take before they drop you off at the airport.

I hate to say it, but I so hope you are wrong!😃 I will be tracking the first ships to go out to Alaska like a hawk. Plan B is always to schlep our bags off on our own, but I hope we won’t have to do that. I appreciate your input, especially since you work at the port. Thank you! If you hear of any concrete decision about it-yay or nay-I would appreciate it if you would post back here.

I have known of a couple of posters who have said that they used Seattle port valet in 2023. I just phoned the port in Seattle and was directed to the baggage command center. They just told me that they absolutely participate with Carnival and port valet service is available for my July cruise! They said that you can sign up in advance online, or just as easily sign up onboard ship. As long as your airline qualifies, your flight is the same day that the cruise returns, and your flight is after 12:00.

Pre covid, we used Port Valet and absolutely loved it! After covid, we were the 2nd Carnival ship to go to Alaska, and there was no port valet. After that, I noticed port valet started up again, but depending on the cruise line, you could book it in advance online. For some reason that didn’t include Carnival, as I recall. You just had to sign up onboard like we did in the past. Now it looks like all cruise lines can book it in advance or you can sign up for it onboard. I will be traveling with a group of 26 this July. Having port valet would be a great benefit to us all. Has anybody used the Seattle port valet service for Carnival more recently, and did you need to sign up in advance?

How do you sign up for the Soul Play crafts classes? Do you have to sign up for the whole week as soon as you board the ship? Do they get booked up immediately?

I thought all of the ships were switching to Starlink. Are the Spirit class ships the last ones, or is it taking a really long time to roll that out?

We will be doing the reverse of your cruise in October of 2025. I hope you post some tips and thoughts of your cruise on the Spirit!

Spirit class is our favorite and we will be on that cruise with you and doing a b2b to the Panama Canal. The Spirit is a beautiful ship. and I look forward to every post on this thread.

I pulled it up for our date next January and it said sold out. I am wondering if there is a convention or something in town or they just have a limited number of rooms available to the hotel site I was searching on. I will try calling them directly next. Thanks for the info!

In January of 2023 on our way to Hawaii there was a medical emergency onboard. The ship had to turn back and get close enough to the California coast so that a helicopter could fly out to meet us. We missed a day in Hawaii due to how long it took us to backtrack. The patient made it to the hospital and got the heart operation he needed!

I would love to hear more about the hotel! I will be traveling with a group of 16 next January. We are looking for free shuttle from airport, restaurants nearby as we are all arriving in the late afternoon or early evening. I am hoping for free breakfasts and some way to get a shuttle or cabs lined up to get us to the port the next morning. The Hampton Blue Lagoon gets many favorable reviews on this board.

Hands down get a deck 4 Vista View! Bigger overhang, multiple rooms, more usable balcony , because the rail isn’t so slanted as the upper decks, and walk down 1 flight of stairs and you are at the dining room. We have sailed in deck 4 Vista Views multiple times and will be again this July. Best cabins in the fleet!,🛳️❤️

What ship is this from and are those recent prices?

I don’t see Fosters on that list, and I am pretty sure years ago we got some Fosters onboard. People in our group were saying it was the best buy because it had more ounces than the other beers. Did I dream that?

So the Panama Canal has First to the Fun also! 😂

That is an astounding amount of money either way! If it is for the canal’s convenience to move you to the new lock, do they charge the ship the extra fee? I am thrilled to pass through the old locks anyway, so all of this is good news for me.

I just searched for some schedules and found a few. None of the ones I found specified which locks the ship would enter.

Thank you for the quick response! I figured lock fees were based more off the size of the ship and didn’t realize that it costs much much more for the new locks. That makes sense though, they need to pay them off. There are sites for port schedules that I have checked out before. Is there a site for Panama Canal scheduled transits? I will have to look.

I will be doing a Panama Canal cruise on the Spirit in 2025. Since the Spirit is a smaller ship, does that automatically mean we will go through the old locks? I prefer them to the newer locks, but it doesn’t specify on the itinerary.

Thank you so much for this information! I am traveling with a group, and I know these craft classes will appeal to some in our group.