Carnival Spirit Review 06/28/06

(I also posted this in the Carnival and Family sections)

We just got off Carnival Spirit to Alaska. A little background: We had family reunion (about 50 people) celebrating my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. My hubby and I are a couple in our late thirties with 11-year old son and a 2-year old daughter (almost 3). This was the 8th cruise for the 3 of us and the 4th cruise for my little one.

We flew into Seattle from Houston and drove to Vancouver. It was about $200 pp cheaper to do so. The one-way car rental was about $170. We spent a few hours in Seattle visiting some of my hubby's college friends who ended up there. Traffic was heavy leaving out of Seattle, even around 3:00pm. Going over the boarder was easy and relatively quick.

Once in Vancouver, we stayed at the Westin Bayshore. We got a great Priceline deal of $70/night. We rented our car from Hertz and drop-off was at the hotel--very convenient. We had a room in the tower section that looked over the water. The room was very big.

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We took a taxi to the ship at 12:00pm. It took us about an hour to get on the ship. We dropped our carry-ons in the cabin, then went to explore and eat. We had cabin #5131 with an extended balcony. Cabin #5131 is the first one at the end of the forward section that juts out, so we did have total privacy on one side. The balcony had slanted glass versus straight. So, you weren't able to look straight down into the water. I prefer that with a little one.

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Our first stop was Ketchikan. We went to the Lumberjack show and then took a Ketchikan city tour with a trip to Saxman Village through Rainbird tours. The Lumberjack show was fun and pretty crowded. This was the only tour booked through Carnival. We were the only people on the Ketchikan tour. It was very good. I really felt I learned about Ketchikan.

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Next was Juneau. We took a helicopter tour through Coastal Helicopter. All I can say is beautiful.

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We also took the tram ride up to Mt. Roberts. You can ride it as many times as you want in a day. We first took the kids with us, then went back later, just hubby and I.

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In Skagway, we took a 6 hour Yukon tour through Frontier Excursions. It paralleled the White Pass Railroad. We went as far as Emerald Lake in Canada. We made several stops. We had lunch at a place called Frontier Land which also had dog sledding, gold panning, and a museum. Long, but very interesting.

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Our final cruise stop was Sitka. We took a tour on Capt. Davey's Esther G. We saw eagles, whales, starfish, puffins, sea urchins, jellyfish, sea otters, and seals. Wonderful.

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The ship went to through the College Fjord and stopped at the Harvard Glacier. The captain parked the ship for about 30 mins. on the starboard side and then turned the ship 180 degrees and parked it on the port side. We were able to hear the glacier cracking and see it calving.

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The ship docked in Whitter and we took the Comedy Shuttle tour through Alaskan Leopard to Anchorage. It was fine, and had a few stop such as a wildlife preserve where we saw bears, owls, deer, etc.

Once in Anchorage, we spent a night at the Sheraton Anchorage. The room was a typical hotel room (at $125).

Our flight didn't leave until 8:50pm. We went wandering around downtown and decided to take a bike tour of the coastline. Each one of us had our own bike with my hubby pulling the 2-year old in a trailer. It was a pretty easy bike with an easy trail. We went as far as Earthquake Park. As we were heading back into town, we saw a big, baby moose that came very close to us.

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Some other notes:

We took the kids on all of the tours. I made sure they were well fed and had snacks, just in case. I also bought little travel pillows in case a nap was needed. Both kids also participated in Camp Carnival. My son had been in it several times already (5th Carnival cruise), but this was the first for my daughter. She's a quiet, somewhat shy child who's used to being around me most of the time. With the cruise being to Alaska, there weren't a lot of kids, but just the right amount for my daughter. My daughter asked often to go to the "Klids Klub" (Kid's Club). My son ended up palling around with these two brothers and two girls when not hanging out with family members.

One general comment about the food--I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, so, as long a I don't have to cook and clean-up or eat McDonald's, I'm happy. :-) None of us are very picky eaters. My son usually ate off the adult menu and ate beef dishes I don't cook--fillet mignon, prime rib, chateaubriand, and my daughter was a mix. With our large group at early seating, we had 3 tables of 10 and 2 tables of six--all in the same area, all by windows. The only real food issue I saw was how they cooked the fillet mignon--a lot of them were not cooked to order and were sent back.

While on the ship, we had a private party for the anniversary couple. It was held in the Shanghai Bar. We had a PowerPoint present showing the life of the couple. The ship provided the slide projector and microphone. The layout of the bar wasn't very conducive for viewing the presentation, but we made due. The chocolate cake we had was delicious.

Both our waiters and cabin steward were great--friendly and very attentive.

My hubby went to some of the shows. He liked the Hypnotist show the best especially when several family members were entranced. I prefer just hanging out on the balcony with a good book.

We spent some time in the casino and ended up $11.50 ahead. :-)

The Captain's Party and Past Guest Party were crowded, but food and drinks were plentiful.

We had several pictures taken and bought about ten. I scrapbook, so I use the embarkation photo to start, and a port picture to start each new place. Our group had a picture taken of all of us on the stairway in the Atrium. We also brought a formal night picture, our annual one of the kids, an extra one with a polar bear, and one from the Past Guest Party.

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The cabin had fairly heavy curtains, so we were able to keep most of the daylight out. It was weird having daylight at 10:30 at night. I found it difficult to get to sleep and ended up waking up early, too (due to the early sunrise).

We were gone for a total of nine days. I decided to bring less clothes and do laundry on the ship. We were on deck 5 forward. I ended up doing it on deck 7 midship (others were full). It ended up taking about two hours for two loads. I'm not sure if I'd do it again. With kids, their clothes get dirty quick and sometimes I'm the unlucky recipient of their messes. :-( We did take advantage of the $15 wash and fold Carnival bag offered on day 5.

Overall, it was a wonderful, expensive cruise. Many great, beautiful memories. Would we do it again? Probably not again for a long time. There's a lot of other new places we need to cruise to first! :-)

Very nice review, thank you!

Hi Lisa,

Thanks for the great review! We will be on the Spirit, August 9th and we are so excited! I really loved your pictures and the ones of the lake should be blown up! Thanks, Mary

Thanks! I ended up taking close to 500 pictures!

A couple others things I thought of:

We had beautiful weather every day--not one drop of rain. I kept reading the forecast up until the cruise which said rain almost every day. It was cloudy in the mornings until about 1:00pm, though. The helicopter tour guide said, "if it's sunny, it's more comfortable on the glacier, but the glacier's colors look grey versus a cloudy day where the blues come out in the glaciers."

I had Sprint cell phone service in every port--all roamimg, though. I called up Sprint and added roamimg for the month for $5.

Also, besides the usual free drinks, hot chocolate was also free. I read somewhere that on the Alaskan cruises it wasn't.

For those who scrapbook:

I just started working mine. At a souvenir shop in Juneau, I was able to purchase a scrap kit for each one of the 4 port stops, plus a couple of general Alaska ones. The port kits are nice. It's been a lot easier/quicker making the pages.

I looked in the Spirit gift shop for the much-talked-about Carnival scrapbook kit, but no such luck.

Wow Lisaland. We were with you on the Comedy Tour. How amazing is that and I didn't even know it was you I'd been talking to on here. We were with our two twent + year olds on the tour and went to the Anchorage Sheraton with you. Funny. We just returned tonight, Just too tired to write a review though. Will post tomorrow.

Lisaland15 - do you remember the name of the shop in Juneau where you picked up the scrapbooking stuff?

Great review and the pictures are just wonderful. Thank you for sharing your adventure.

Lisaland15 - do you remember the name of the shop in Juneau where you picked up the scrapbooking stuff?

I have the receipt:

Juno-To Go #1

152 S. Franklin St.

Juneau

907-463-5575

I had Sprint cell phone service in every port--all roaming, though. I called up Sprint and added roaming for the month for $5.

Loved your review and pictures, thanks for sharing

e will be in the same ports in September but on the Diamond Princess

Lisa

What did you do for your return back to Seattle?

JR

He fellow pin collector, ou going to Alaska???

Renee

Lisa

What did you do for your return back to Seattle?

 

JR

Hi JR,

Our cruise was one-way, northbound. So, we flew into Seattle, WA, drove and embarked in Vancouver, B.C., disembarked in Whitter, AK, shuttled to and flew out of Anchorage to home.

Alaska was very beautiful, but we were glad to get home.:)

Thanks for posting your review. I am toying around with taking an Alaskan cruise in the future and was wondering how it went with younger children. I have an infant and a 3 yo. We wouldn't be going for a couple of years.

My husband and I love nature, but with young children we can't do hiking and camping to the extent we used to so I thought an Alaskan cruise might be enough nature to appease him. (I'm fine with it!!!)

Looks like I'd need to save for a while though!

Thanks for posting your review. I am toying around with taking an Alaskan cruise in the future and was wondering how it went with younger children. I have an infant and a 3 yo. We wouldn't be going for a couple of years.

 

My husband and I love nature, but with young children we can't do hiking and camping to the extent we used to so I thought an Alaskan cruise might be enough nature to appease him. (I'm fine with it!!!)

 

Looks like I'd need to save for a while though!

Hi Melanie,

My now 3 yr. old daughter is a very calm child (unlike the 11 yr. old was at that age). I think some of the tours we took would have been challenging if she wasn't like that. Like the helicopter/glacier landing, I would have been worried about the older one running, and sliding down crevasse in the ice, but our daughter wanted someone holding her hand every step. In Skagway, we took a 6 hr. Yukon tour. There were enough stops for her to move out and about, and I brought a travel pillow and she napped on the way back. My older one at that age probably would have been bouncing off the shuttle's walls within an hour.

We did do the bike trail along the Anchorage coast which worked out great--son on his own bike and daughter in trailer on hubby's bike.

For that age, there's only so much wildlife they care about seeing, and soon, it's loses its appeal. So, whatever activities you choose, keep the kids' temperments in mind.

Even with my older one on this cruise--the ship stopped at Harvard Glacier. He went out and looked with us, got a few pictures taken, and was ready to go back to the kid's club within 5-10 mins.

Good luck!

Hi!

Thanks for the reply!

Just curious... do you think the difference between children is because one is a boy, one is a girl? I now have 2 boys. The second one so far is easier than the first... but is only 3 mos. old. The first is a very active child and is not afraid of anything. Maybe I should rethink taking him on an Alaskan cruise...

Dad (and mom too) is really into nature and is a photographer... so I think the kids will have to get used to those type of trips!

Hi!

Thanks for the reply!

 

Just curious... do you think the difference between children is because one is a boy, one is a girl? I now have 2 boys. The second one so far is easier than the first... but is only 3 mos. old. The first is a very active child and is not afraid of anything. Maybe I should rethink taking him on an Alaskan cruise...

 

Dad (and mom too) is really into nature and is a photographer... so I think the kids will have to get used to those type of trips!

I've seen some pretty wild little girls and some clingy, shy boys. So, I just think its how they're wired. (She was even calm in the womb!)

I think if you do your research, be very flexible, and adjust your expectations accordingly, you should be fine. For example, doing a five mile hike may not as realistic as visiting the Raptor Center and taking the tram ride in Juneau.

Alaska crusing was beautiful, but while traveling with our young children, Caribbean cruises are a better fit for us for the time being.

double post

Hello again Lisa,

I forgot to ask if you self disembarked or made special arrangements to get off the ship early.

Thanks again,

Gale

Hello again Lisa,

I forgot to ask if you self disembarked or made special arrangements to get off the ship early.

Thanks again,

Gale

No, we didn't. Because our shuttle bus wasn't allowed in until after the Carnival buses were gone, we probably could have been the last off the ship and still had a 30+ min. wait!