cainlr

following along

Following. Planning on booking this cruise in Oct 2018.

The Dream Inn has great reviews and I am considering booking it for our pre-cruise hotel. Tell me what you think and should I get the breakfast voucher?

continued

Our flight home was late the next day, we checked out of our rental and returned to Seattle. With several hours before our flight, we stopped in at the Japanese Tea Garden and walked around enjoying our last day of vacation.

Final thoughts:

Ship: We have only sailed on the older, smaller ships therefore we have never experienced the 2.0 upgrades. It is a case of what you never had you do not miss. During our trip there were no problems. We always book an inside room to save money for excursions and I sleep better in a completely dark room. Our room was on deck seven, mid ship. The most important thing to me is all the plumbing worked and the bed was comfortable.

Food: We ate at the buffet and the main dining room. The food was just fine for us. We had your time dining which we really enjoyed being able to eat when we wanted to. The longest wait we experienced was approximately 10 minutes. The first night we had a waiter that was rude to my husband so we made sure not to sit in his section again.

Room Steward: We chose to have our rooms serviced in the evening. There were only couple of mornings we arrived in port early and we wanted the option to sleep in. We did not see our room steward until the second night when she knocked on our door to introduce herself. We never saw her again during the cruise, although our room was always clean and towels were replaced.

Tips for traveling with a group: All of us decided before departure that if we could not connect with each other during the day, we would meet for dinner each night. Sometimes this worked and sometime not. We decided we should all have a good time doing the things we enjoyed whether together or going our own way.

Next Cruise: Southern Caribbean on the Carnival Fascination out of San Juan Puerto Rico in November. We are traveling with Sandra and Danny again. I am the planner and reading cruise critic everyday to get ideas for excursions. For me part of the fun is the planning. Happy sailing everyone.

Debarkation:

We were not catching a flight home for a couple of days so we were one of the last ones to exit the ship. No problem getting our luggage out of the masses lined up in the terminal. It was all lined up nice and neat and ready to pick up. We exited the terminal door and headed to out the door to get our rental car. Alamo has a kiosk at the cruise terminal and a shuttle takes you to their downtown location to pick up your rental.

Once we picked up the rental car, we headed to the Pike's Place fish market. It was interesting but we did not get to see the fishmongers slinging the fish. There are many vendors and plenty of souvenirs to buy if you still need gifts.

Busy Seattle traffic

View from Pike Market roof top

After the visit to the fish market, we headed out of town to our VRBO rental located in Tacoma. We had lunch at Over the Moon Café and bought few groceries for that night. The next day we drove to Mt Rainer then back to our rental for the night.

Mt Rainer Park

Victoria continued.....

Time to go

The newly weds. It must be love!

Victoria

We got up late, spent the day just being lazy as we were really tired after all our adventures. We walked the around the ship to get some exercise and just enjoyed being with together. We spent time talking to some of the other people on board and looking out the windows in the pool area. There were several whale sightings and we were all trying to catch a glimpse one.

In the afternoon, we caught up with the newlyweds and discussed booking another cruise to the Caribbean. With the destination decided, Sandra and I were first in line to book our next cruise. While discussing dates and with the agent, someone spotted a pod of whales. Everything stopped! as we all were mesmerized by the sight. The agent told us "it never gets old" even to the crew that have seen them many times

Upon docking in Victoria, we took a cab into town from the port. After walking around the city a bit, we came upon the Irish Times Pub. We went inside and ordered Irish coffees and listed to music. Instead of taking a taxi back to the ship we decided to walk. The walk back took a little longer than we expected but we still had time to explore the shops next to the port. Once back on the ship, it was time to pack and put our cases outside our door.

We are doing this trip next month so your review is very interesting, to me! Thank you!

 

Can you post the info you got from the vendor in Juneau? Thanks so much!

The vendor was Juneau Tours and are every port. One family on the tour booked when they were in Skagway for Juneau. You can check out the company on Trip Advisor. I am glad my review is helping you plan your trip.

The park is also a wild life sanctuary.

Ketchikan

All six of us had booked the Totem Bright Park but by this time Dana and Frank were really sick and confined to their room for the rest of the trip. The newlyweds showed up late and almost missed the bus. I read many reviews of this tour and most people said it was not worth the money but all of us enjoyed the park and the guide that led the tour was very informative.

Small group tour

I don't know what we were looking at but it must have been interesting.

The totems

Juneau continued...Mendenhall Glacier

Next we boarded a bus for Mendenhall Glacier Park. The bus dropped us off and told us the times and stop to catch the bus back to Juneau. We walked many of the trails and watched the salmon swimming up-stream. Although some of the trails were closed because of the bears feeding on the salmon.

The Glacier

Salmon

Saw this waterfall as we were leaving the park.

After returning to town, we shopped a little and boarded the ship. We were really hungry and went to the Lido deck for lunch and saw Dana and Frank. We had a nice lunch with them then I went to the Serenity deck for sail away and Jerry went to our room to nap for a bit.

We celebrated our 45th anniversary at a table for 2 in the main dining room and the waiters sang to us. All little embarrassing but fun.

We tried connecting to the newlyweds via text messages but message replies would come in several hours apart.

Juneau

We did not have any plans for this day. We got up early and ate breakfast on the Lido deck again with Frank. Dana was still feeling bad and is definitely not a morning person. Now Frank is not feeling well either. This was their first cruise and both were getting sick-what a bummer. It was a good thing they had a balcony room so they could see some of the glorious scenery without having to leave their room. By 8:00 am there was no sighting of the newlyweds so Jerry and I got off the ship and walked the pier. I walked over a vendor that is located on the pier to get a map and ended up with a Whale Watching tour with Mendenhall Glacier Park thrown in for free. On the drive to the whale watching boat, we saw so many eagles that you could not count them all.

This was an extremely fast moving boat and we zipped along the coastline seeing some of the most beautiful county. The humpback whales were migrating during this time and we saw quite a few. We also saw some sea lions. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat.

Let's go find some whales

This is the area we saw the whales but they were too fast to capture on film.

Looking forward to your review. DH and I are sailing the Fascination out of San Juan on 5 Nov. I read Mitsugirly's and stinger's reviews. I always like to get different view points.

Enjoying your review and you have some spectacular photos. Thanks for posting.

Thanks, glad you are enjoying my review. I always read the boards but have never written a review before. My husband took most of the pictures.

For us it is all about the ports. Carnival woks for us because the price is right and we are not real picky eaters. The main dining room and lido deck buffet are fine for us. My advice is to pick the cruise line that meets your needs. If you have any question. I will try and answer.

Yesterday while driving to a meeting, a random thought popped in my head that I spelled border incorrectly. For all of you that caught it, I apologize.

I am truly enjoying your travels. Especially the newlyweds part. That is a trip to remember. I love cruising and sometimes I invite family members to come, some appreciate it, but others don't. So hopefully they also brought great memories back. Thanks for the great pictures.

 

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Thanks adiee49 we did make some great memories and all had a trip of a life time.

Skagway continued

After our visit to Liarsville, we board a bus for our trip back to town and a visit to the Red Onion Saloon and Brothel. The brothel is located on the second floor which we toured first. There we had some Alaskan beer then got to see where the girls "worked". After the tour upstairs we headed down stairs to the saloon. When what to our wondering eyes should appear: our friends having lunch. The place was extremely crowded and we had just eaten so we all agreed to meet outside one of the shops when they were finished their lunch. Skagway is a very picturesque town with lots of shopping. We all walked around for a while then decided to head back to the ship as it was getting late and starting to get cold. Dana has some health issues and is not able to walk very far so we decided to take a shuttle back to the ship. The town was very crowded since there were several ships in town. Therefore, the shuttles were slow and full when they got to our stop. As I said it was starting to get cold and windy out and two full shuttles had already passed us. Now for this South Texas gal, anything below 70 is cold so Jerry and I decided to walk back to the ship while the others waited for the bus. On our walk back, between the train station the port we discovered a nice park with a stream running through it. We stopped and watched some fish and generally took in magnificent the view. When we got back to the port gate, there is a long line to board and our friends are about 50 people in front of us. After boarding, we headed up to the Lido deck and had salad for dinner. Later we took in a show, listened to some music at the Atrium bar and went to bed.

Walk back to port

Back at the ship

Once we got back to town, we again boarded a bus for a short trip to Liarsville and Gold Rush Camp. This was my favorite part of the trip. We had a great lunch of salmon, chicken with all the trimmings and blueberry cobbler for dessert. After a great lunch we enjoyed story tellers, folk music and panning for gold. Jerry and I were not into sticking our hands into cold water panning for gold so we walked around the camp, went into the General Store, and took a few pictures.

Salmon bake and folk singer

They don't grow mushrooms like these in Texas. When were walking around the camp, we discovered these growing behind a building.

Skagway

We were up early again and met Frank for breakfast. Dana was still not feeling well and was in bed. They were going to go with us on the train ride to Canada but canceled because she did not feel well. Sandra and Danny were going to go but because of his passport issue, they canceled and rebook the glacier helicopter ride.

So off Jerry and I went on the trip to Canada. There were several components to this excursion. First you board a motor coach and drive to the Canadian board. The country side is beautiful but if you go on this trip make sure you sit on the opposite side of the driver. Your passports are checked at the border. The bus drive has you hold your pass port next to your face and the agent walks down the aisle and checks it. During the drive the bus driver gives you some interesting facts about the Yukon Pass and the gold rush. At the border you, board the train for the ride back down to Skagway. When taking the train back to Skagway make sure and sit on the left hand side (as you are looking into the rail car). There is some beautiful scenery that you cannot see from the road during you coach ride to the boarder. We did see one black bear sitting on a rock watching us pass. My husband really enjoyed this part of the tour, as for me, I was a little board at times.

Canada boarder check

Train back to Skagway

Sorry for the sun spot from the window

Continued.....

Small boat tour

Day 3

Endicott Arm

Such was a cold, wet morning but it got warmer as the day progressed. We spent the afternoon on the Serenity Deck enjoying the view

Jerry and me early morning--it was cold

Another ship following us

DAY 2

Fun Day at Sea

We got up late and went to the Lido deck to have breakfast where we met Frank. Poor Dana had caught a cold and was self-medicating in their room. We enjoyed ourselves breakfasting with him and then he departed to go take care of Dana. Jerry and I sent some time exploring the ship and taking in some of the entertainment.

It was a foggy day

At lunch, we saw Sandra, Danny, Dana and Frank and agreed to meet for dinner at 5:45 pm. I had the lobster and warm chocolate melting cake. We had a great dinner with everyone then all went our own way for the evening.

All aboard-Embarkation Day

We get inside the cruise terminal and whoa, the check in lines were sooo long and slow. When we finally got to the desk and we learned why. Their computer system went down for a while and when they came back up they were running slow. Also due to the computer glitch, some of the passenger information was lost and the customer service rep had to reenter it. Yikes, I felt so sorry for them but everyone was in a good mood and just happy to be on vacation.

After getting on board, we headed to the Lido deck for some of that fine buffet food. My stop was at the Asian buffet and Jerry had Italian. We both enjoyed our lunch. I have to admit here, I am a sugar addict so on to the dessert. For dessert I tried the cake-pop, my impression: yuck. I was glad I had a napkin handy because I could not eat that thing. Then I tried the low calorie lemon dessert thingy and it was awesome.

After eating some lunch it was back to our rooms to unpack and get ready for the muster drill. This was Sandra and Danny first cruise so we explained the muster dill and told them you usually have to put on your life jackets. While Jerry and I were unpacking we turned on the TV and heard the drill instructions. You no longer have to wear life jackets. Well guess who shows up in the hallway with their life jackets on. If you guessed Sandra and Danny, you are right. I don't know what they were doing in their room, but it wasn't watching muster instructions on TV. Dana and Frank had a balcony room down the hall from us and they managed to show up without their life jackets on.

Nothing else had changed about the muster drill since our last cruise. You still have to lineup in rows, rows and rows of people that packed so tightly you can hardly breathe.

After the muster we headed up to the Lido deck again for our sail away drinks and party. We stayed there talking, listening to music and drinking for quite a while. Jerry and I decided to head to our rooms to see if our last bag had arrived, it had so we finished unpacking and got ready for dinner. Before we left our friends on the Lido deck we all agreed to meet at the dining room at 7 pm (we all had your time dining). Jerry and I made it there on time and waited for the others for 15 minutes. When our friends did not show up, we went to dinner. The first night in the main dining room seemed somewhat unorganized. I ordered some sort of chicken and pasta dish that I did not like and the warm chocolate melting cake-yum. After walking around the ship and checking out the shops, Jerry and I headed to our room and bed.

We were really tired after the all of the traveling and early mornings. I had just fallen asleep when there was a loud noise in the next room then all quiet. I was almost asleep again then another louder noise then another louder noise. Did I mention the newlyweds were in the room next to us? The next morning at breakfast, I mention the loud noise to Sandra and she just laughed. Later on, when Danny was off smoking, she said that Danny had had too many of the fun ship's drinks and kept falling on the floor. The last really loud noise I heard was him hitting the floor really hard and spending the nigh there. Turns out the others in our party drank their dinner.

there isn't any boat tour in Glacier Bay,from a cruise ship. only Tracy Arm

Oops, I stand corrected. I just kinda put the small boat tour next to the Carnival ship itinerary as an after thought. I'll be more concise in the future. ;p