Just back from the first Spirit Alaska cruise of the season!!

[ruskatab]

I was also on this cruise. It was my first cruise so I didn't know the expectations. We had any time dining and would do it again. We only received a pager one night and by the time we went to the bar to get a drink, they paged us. We had great waiters and sat in the same area most nights. The bar person was Maryiott or something like that.. she called me by name the entire cruise even seeing me on port.

 

I was amazed. We also tipped our steward extra. "Conrado". He was great! Also had an aft wrap. We were on the 4th floor and was great with the extra overhang above. An aft wrap is the way to go on an Alaskan cruise.

 

We flew into Vancouver and stayed at the Pan Pacifica. 5 star hotel. They upgraded us and WOW! What a room and view. We ate at the Mill in Vancouver and wouldn't suggest it to others. The service was great.... just didn't care for the food.

 

I wouldn't change anything about the cruise. I agree with the OP... layers, gloves, and we took our coats and was glad we did. Of course, we were on the balcony most of the time. The one difference I saw was the cruiseline stated that we couldn't book excursions in Ketchikan on Sunday's. This wasn't true, once we got off the ship, we were able to book.

 

We ate in the MDR all nights. We dressed casual for most nights but on cruise elegance night, around us anyway, the people frowned if you weren't dressed in a tie at least. There were about 3 couples that seemed pretty snooty. DH was dressed up but no tie. They didn't frown at us (that I saw) but I did see them rolling eyes at others.

 

Hope this adds a little to the OPs....

 

I met a couple of the people from CC and they were really helpful before the cruise.... so listen to what the CC people say - it really helps!

 

Enjoy!

 

I wonder why they told everyone they couldnt book excursions once in ketchikan...hmmm! We had people approaching us left and right! We sure loved the aft wrap balcony, weve had it for the last 5 or 6 cruises!

[LaVagabonde]

Heading out on the Spirit at the end of next month (have one of the aft wraps on Deck 4... very excited!). Our Roll Call group is trying to work out times for a Meet & Greet, and one of the things we were trying to figure out is when the muster drill takes place. Do you recall when it started and how long it took?

[CupKayke]

Ruskatab ~ loving your review and thank you for the pictures. Do you mind answering...

 

What time did you arrive at the train station in Seattle? Our tickets say the train leaves at 7:40am but a poster on another board said we should be there no later than 6:15am! :eek: We have pre-purchased business class seats also, if that helps.

 

How long did it take you to actually get off the train once you arrived in Vancouver?

 

Thank you for answering and I look forward to reading the rest of your review. We are doing the repositioning on the Spirit in September but are also considering cruising Alaska (and several other places in the running) in 2013.

[SweetpeaOne]

Very nice review. Can't wait to read more. One question, was the train on time leaving Seattle?

[ruskatab]

Heading out on the Spirit at the end of next month (have one of the aft wraps on Deck 4... very excited!). Our Roll Call group is trying to work out times for a Meet & Greet, and one of the things we were trying to figure out is when the muster drill takes place. Do you recall when it started and how long it took?

 

The muster drill started at about 5:30 and took less than 15 minutes. You do not need to take your life jackets either. We were back in our room before we left the dock for sailaway.

[ruskatab]

Ruskatab ~ loving your review and thank you for the pictures. Do you mind answering...

 

What time did you arrive at the train station in Seattle? Our tickets say the train leaves at 7:40am but a poster on another board said we should be there no later than 6:15am! :eek: We have pre-purchased business class seats also, if that helps.

 

How long did it take you to actually get off the train once you arrived in Vancouver?

 

Thank you for answering and I look forward to reading the rest of your review. We are doing the repositioning on the Spirit in September but are also considering cruising Alaska (and several other places in the running) in 2013.

 

We got to the train station at about 6:45 and had more than enough time to get our tickets and check our baggage in. You have to have your baggage checked in 30 minutes before the train leaves. Our train left at 7:40 also. We had the business class tickets and got a coupon for 3 dollars off coffee or food. Once we got to Vancouver it took about 30 minutes to get off the train because they had to unload the luggage. You got off the train and picked up your luggage off the sidewalk before you walked through the exit. They have carts to use if you need one.

[MrsHeart]

We stayed at the Inn at the Market and it was so nice!!!

 

We're from the Houston area... and we're staying there in July before our cruise... cannot wait :D

[ruskatab]

Very nice review. Can't wait to read more. One question, was the train on time leaving Seattle?

 

Yes it left exactly at 7:40. Things were very organized there!

[ostategop]

Can't wait to hear more about everything. Leave on this cruise next Tuesday! Headed to Seattle on Saturday.

[bigboatrider]

Hey Becky (ruskatab), glad to see ya'll made it back ok. We got in a little after midnight last night.

I concur with several of your points....

1) the AmTrak folks had their act together

2) the boarding in Vancouver sucked!!! absolutely no organization, and no "VIP" treatment for sure.

3) the buffet seems to get worse each time out

I also found it odd to have the dining times changed at the last minute. We had the early seating, which was moved to 5:30 (sailaway, hello!!!) Ever who the Einstein was that come up with that one needs to be shot. 5:30 was much too inconvenient, and we wound up only going to the MDR 3 evenings. But such things are trivial in comparison to the whole experience. Overall, a marvelous adventure!!! Thanks to the spectacular landscape!

It was good meeting some of our CC friends, but folks whatever you do, don't schedule you Meet & Greet on the first day! I've been a part of several roll calls that have tried the "right after sail away" meet and greet, and never had more than handful of folks show up. Personally, I'll recommend to all of our future roll calls to do the meet and greet on the first sea day. Everyone should be settled in with a little more time on their hands. JMO. Also, there's many that have their "own thing" they want to do for sail away..i.e. pop a cork on an aft wrap balcony:D

[DisneyMemaw]

Enjoying your review and everyone else's comments. I too am on this cruise this coming Tuesday, out of Seattle so I subscribed to this thread as soon as I saw it yesterday. Thanks for including your pictures!

[Inklight]

I do not know how to post the pictures in a bigger view so if anyone can tell me I will do that from now on.

 

 

To post the photos bigger you would need to use an outside photo image host/share place such as photobucket (it's free). Once your images are downloaded there, simply copy & paste the IMG code right into the body of your post. Voila ... instant large images!

 

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences ... sounds like you all had a great time. :)

[Newtocruise2011]

Bigboatrider - we got there a little before noon. Since we had never done this before and also had VIP checkin since we had a suite, so I asked what the lines were for. She ushered me to a different line and I was checked in immediately. No one had started boarding yet so we sat in a different area and about 5 min later we were onboard. If we hadn't asked, it would have not been seen by us. We watched a few people check in and it seemed that after everyone waited in that ling line and finally got to the counter, then they started digging for paperwork. JMOP... However they were training a few new people. Not have ever cruising...vip checkin was totally the way to go!!

 

I also agree. We did not do the meet and greet for your reasons stated. Plus someone said we had to "commit' I couldn't commit. Good suggestions for first sea day! :-) I was able to meet a few people who were awesome! This board was very helpful to us NEWBIES!!

[Sailor_Sally]

I was also on that cruise and we really liked the Spirit except for the buffet . It was broken into so many small sections that it was hard to find where everything was . They really need to post a map of the buffet area.

[ruskatab]

Hey Becky (ruskatab), glad to see ya'll made it back ok. We got in a little after midnight last night.

I concur with several of your points....

1) the AmTrak folks had their act together

2) the boarding in Vancouver sucked!!! absolutely no organization, and no "VIP" treatment for sure.

3) the buffet seems to get worse each time out

I also found it odd to have the dining times changed at the last minute. We had the early seating, which was moved to 5:30 (sailaway, hello!!!) Ever who the Einstein was that come up with that one needs to be shot. 5:30 was much too inconvenient, and we wound up only going to the MDR 3 evenings. But such things are trivial in comparison to the whole experience. Overall, a marvelous adventure!!! Thanks to the spectacular landscape!

It was good meeting some of our CC friends, but folks whatever you do, don't schedule you Meet & Greet on the first day! I've been a part of several roll calls that have tried the "right after sail away" meet and greet, and never had more than handful of folks show up. Personally, I'll recommend to all of our future roll calls to do the meet and greet on the first sea day. Everyone should be settled in with a little more time on their hands. JMO. Also, there's many that have their "own thing" they want to do for sail away..i.e. pop a cork on an aft wrap balcony:D

 

VIP was the pitts for sure!!! We felt bad we didnt make the meet and greet but its tradition for us to open a bottle of champagne and drink it on sailaway! On other sailing weve done it on the first sea day.

[ruskatab]

The train ride was relaxing and beautiful scenery! Here are some pictures!

[jenigirl4]

Great start! Keep it comin!

[ruskatab]

We had the aft balcony so we had a crowd for sailaway!

[ruskatab]

Finally we were on our way and the cruise had officially begun. As someone mentioned before, the dinner times were changed to 45 minutes earlier for each seating. We sat on a balcony until it was time for dinner. Our tablemates were friends we had met on a Caribbean cruise and they booked this cruise also. Our waiters were Christopher and O'Dane. They were great! O'Dane was so funny! Here are more pictures of sailaway

[Gypsywych]

I'm so glad to be reading your review! Thank you! Can't wait for more!

[MrsHeart]

How rough were the seas? We're going in July and I get car sick something fierce...

 

Do you have a packing list that you could share?

[ruskatab]

After dinner we went to the Casino for awhile then headed to bed. We had been up at 4 am the last 2 mornings and the 2 hour time difference was catching up with us. It gets darker alot later the farther north you go. We wanted to get up early since we would be going through the inside passage. I woke up to daylight at 4:30 am! Thats was surprising and as the days went along we had to close the curtains and the bedroom door or we would be wide awake at 5 am! The Inside Passage was amazing. Everywhere you looked there were waterfalls and lots of wildlife. We saw otters, bald eagles, humpback and killerwhales. We could not get a pictures of the whales, they werent on the surface long enough. We did see a humback whale do a deep dive and could see the fluke in the air but didnt get the picture in time. Remember your Binoculars. It rained off and on the whole day and it was cold! A raincoat, hat, gloves and layers are a must! Here are a few pictures

[ruskatab]

How rough were the seas? We're going in July and I get car sick something fierce...

 

Do you have a packing list that you could share?

 

The first morning as we were getting into the Passage it was very rough and there alot of sick people. Our friends that came got sick and took some dramamine and were better later. When we would get close to where the open ocean met up with the Passage was where it got rough but as we got deeper into in it became smooth. I get very seasick and had a patch on and also took some dramamine that morning and I was fine. I do not have a packing list but here are some things I took:

 

Long sleeve shirts and layered with sweaters or hoodies and then my raincoat over it. Gloves, hat, umbrellas, warms socks and hiking shoes.

Warm slippers for in the morning while we drank coffee on the balcony. We also had a waterproof camera and that was great since it was rainy alot of the time.

[ruskatab]

For Breakfast we normally ordered coffee and a dansih from room service then later we ate in the MDR or hubby would go up and bring something back to the room. We entered the slot tournament and got in the final round but didnt win the jackpot. We got a nice Tshirt for being in the final. We lost our hineys in the casino! Didnt see any big winners the whole cruise. We went to look at our pictures and check out the shops but hurried back to the balcony to see more of Passage. The Naturalist would come when she saw something of interest and she was very formative and interesting. It was hard to hear her when we were on the balcony and would run when we heard the ship tones. We finally figured out if you put the tv on the channel with the ships camera you could hear her on the tv. We were opening our door to the hall before we figured this out...lol! We ordered room service for lunch alot, it was better than the buffet or we got a hot sandwich or pizza it it was a sea day. WE wanted to spoend as much time on the balcony as possible.

[ruskatab]

Our first port was Juneau, the capital of Alaska. We were on the balcony as we docked and had 2 bald eagles on a pole right in front of us! We didnt dock until 2 and we had a 3 o clock excursion so we got ready and got in line to get off the ship. There was a very long line but they got us off quickly. We booked the whale watching tour with Orca Interprises. We walked to their office to get our tickets and we had little extra time and walked around a bit. A shuttle picked us up and off we went to Auke Bay for whale watching. We saw 2 humpback whales, bald eagles, sea lions, a mink and porpoises. The tour guide was good. they served smoked salmon, crackers and assorted drinks. There were several other boats out with us. After the tour we walked around and shopped a little and went back to the ship.