Alaska/Carnival Legend Cruise Review w/ Pictures July 2015

[marshhawk]

navy-you need to get back to this review!

[navybaby1113]

navy-you need to get back to this review!

 

Doing some traveling this weekend. Will get back and do some more tomorrow. :-)

[keen580]

Looking forward to more! Yours is one of the best reviews I've read. I know it takes a lot of time, and I appreciate it! I can't wait for our cruise to Alaska next summer!

[lp3556]

Looking forward to more! Yours is one of the best reviews I've read. I know it takes a lot of time, and I appreciate it! I can't wait for our cruise to Alaska next summer!

 

I'm leaving for Seattle in 5 days (Fri., 8/28) and sailing on Tues., 9/1. Ours goes to Glacier Bay, but all the other stops are the same as Navy's. Looking forward to more of the review when Navy has a chance to add more entries. Understand that life does happily get in the way. :)

 

Thanks Navy for the great review and the wonderful pictures. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to be bringing for the days on shore!

[jigger]

Great Alaska review !!

[navybaby1113]

We were back onboard at 2pm. There was another small boat tour going out while the cruise ship was going back out of the fjord.

 

We were hungry, so we went up to lido for lunch, but sadly everything was already closed. It would be nice if they left it open a little later for those coming off the small boat tour. Thankfully the grill was still open, so we ended up getting burgers and fries.

 

 

 

We tried to get some hot cocoa to take back to our balcony with us, but every dispenser was either out or not working. This seemed to be a problem throughout the cruise.

 

We came back to the room to nap for a while until dinner.

[navybaby1113]

We went to dinner around 6pm and had a wait again. Finally got a table for 2 near the window.

 

I ordered a shrimp cocktail and ceasar salad to start. DH ordered a chicken quesadilla.

 

 

 

For our entrees, I ordered mac n cheese from the children's menu and DH ordered the jerked pork.

 

 

 

For dessert I ordered the fig and date cake, which has an amazing rum ice cream that goes with it. So delicious! DH ordered the strawberry cheesecake.

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Tonight we went to the late showing of the Motown Show. They didn't end up opening the doors until 10 minutes before the show, which was really weird. The show was quite good.

 

Came back to the room to go to sleep because we had an early excursion the next morning. We were greeted by another towel friend.

 

[navybaby1113]

Day 7: Skagway

{Friday, July 17}

 

We woke up around 7am and went to grab breakfast at the lido buffet.

 

 

We packed our bag and got off the ship around 8:15am. We made sure to take our passports because our tour would be taking us up into Canada.

 

The ship docks right near town. It’s a flat 10-15 minute walk.

 

As you walk into Skagway, take a look at the rocks. Each time a new ship comes into port, they paint a sign or symbol on the rocks. It’s pretty cool to see all the ships that have made it into Skagway throughout the years.

 

 

 

 

You definitely can’t miss the fact that this is a railroad town. The White Pass Railway is a popular excursion in Skagway. It takes you up to the White Pass Summit and then back down.

 

[navybaby1113]

Our tour guide met us about a 5 minute walk from the ship in a little parking/drop-off area.

 

While doing my research before our cruise, I came across a private tour that was raved about on a couple of reviews I read. We booked the Yukon Discovery tour with Frontier Excursions. It was $99 per person and scheduled for 6 hours. The tour takes you up the Klondike Highway from Skagway to Carcross and Emerald Lake. Lunch is also included. You have to take your passport because you do cross into Canada during the tour.

 

 

I read on another review that you should sit on the right side of the bus going up the mountain, so we got our seats and go ready for our trip.

 

In no time, we left Skagway behind and were heading up the Klondike Highway towards the Yukon.

 

The road the bus takes follows the same path as the White Pass Railway excursion. The entire trip up and down the mountains, our guide told us wonderful stories about her time living in Alaska and running Iditarod.

 

Our first stop was at a gorgeous waterfall. Our guide was so sweet and always insisted on taking pictures so that everyone in the family was together.

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Next we stopped at some gorgeous lake. The pink flowers in the pictures are called Fireweed and actually edible and pretty tasty.

 

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Our next stop was at the Yukon Territory sign.

 

 

 

 

[marshhawk]

hurry back, we are still with you!

[navybaby1113]

Lunch was included with our excursion, so we stopped in Caribou Crossing to eat. They had a full BBQ lunch prepared for us, which included barbeque chicken, baked potato, coleslaw, bread, and donuts. You got your choice of water, tea, or coffee.

 

The food was okay. Nothing special. The chicken was your standard BBQ chicken and the baked potato was weird. The rolls were quite good though. There were also donuts for dessert, which were delicious. I had a few too many. :-)

 

 

We had about an hour at Caribou Crossing to eat lunch and wander around the area. You get admission to a museum with taxidermy animals, an area with farm animals, and an area with sled dogs.

 

After we finished lunch, we headed over to visit the animals. Both myself and my husband love dogs, so we wanted to make sure we visited the puppies first so we didn’t run out of time.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

There were also plenty of goats, including a little one who essentially ran the place.

 

 

 

They had a ton of other animals as well.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

After lunch then we went up to Emerald Lake, which was magnificent.

 

 

 

On our way back down, we made a quick stop at another lake.

 

 

[navybaby1113]

As our guide was driving, she noticed the steam train was stopped where we could see it from the side of the road. She said the steam train only comes around once a week and it’s unpredictable, so we were lucky to get to see it.

 

 

Even luckier, the other railroad came by at the same time, so we got to see both trains.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

We stopped at another really cool location. I don’t remember the name of it though. It was really interesting landscape.

 

 

 

 

Quick stop at the welcome to Alaska sign.

 

 

As we were driving, we saw a waterfall that runs right down the fault line. We couldn’t stop, but our guide slowed down a ton so that we could get pictures.

 

[navybaby1113]

Once we got back in Skagway, we did a little shopping.

 

 

 

The walk back to the ship wasn't bad.

 

 

We re-boarded the ship around 4:30pm. Since we still had plenty of time in Skagway, we gave our parents a quick call from our balcony.

[navybaby1113]

We headed down to dinner around 5:30pm. There was a long line, but thankfully we were able to get a table.

 

Tonight I ordered the ceviche and a ceasar salad. DH ordered the peach soup.

 

 

 

For an entree, I got the lamb shank, which I didn’t really enjoy at all. It was way too fatty. DH ordered the farfalle.

 

 

 

For dessert, we both ordered bitter & blanc and tiramisu. We received the bitter & blanc and were waiting on the tiramisu, but it never came. DH was pretty sad about this because it’s his favorite dessert.

 

 

We went to the Hasbro Game Show, which is always a lot of fun.

 

 

We were required to turn in our Canandian declaration forms tonight in anticipation of our stop in Victoria.

[marshhawk]

ok, what I am reading into your review is that Alaska was wonderful, but the service was not so great in the MDR.

 

The food looks good, but besides room service, the buffet was not open when you got back from your shore excursion. What about the deli? the pizza place? what were their hours?

 

I am going to reread your review in it's entirety, I think you may have answered those questions.

[marshhawk]

the picture of the rocky landscape and low floating clouds is just wonderful-awe inspiring, and haunting at the same time. wow.

[navybaby1113]

ok, what I am reading into your review is that Alaska was wonderful, but the service was not so great in the MDR.

 

The food looks good, but besides room service, the buffet was not open when you got back from your shore excursion. What about the deli? the pizza place? what were their hours?

 

I am going to reread your review in it's entirety, I think you may have answered those questions.

 

Yes, Alaska was absolutely amazing, but the cruise experience itself was not one of our best.

 

The pizza place and grill were open when we got back from our excursion. Not sure of the deli. I never ate there. Pizza is open 24 hours. Not sure the hours of the grill.

[navybaby1113]

Day 8: Juneau

{Saturday, July 18}

 

We woke up around 7am and were already docked in Juneau.

 

Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, is a small town nested at the foot of Mt. Juneau, which rises above the city more than 3,500 feet.

 

Before getting off the ship, we went up to the lido deck to grab some breakfast.

 

The cruise ship docks right near the town of Juneau. You can easily walk into town and visit the shops and restaurants.

 

The one thing I absolutely wanted to do while in Alaska was go whale watching. The Carnival excursion was a little too pricey and didn’t get the best reviews. A bunch of people on Cruise Critic recommended Harv and Marv, so I contacted them and got booked on one of their excursions. It was $150 per person. We were scheduled to depart at 9:30am.

 

When we got off the ship, it was raining. We were a little confused where we were supposed to meet our tour operator because we didn’t see them in the parking area right when they got off the ship, so we ended up walking down to the other dock and we found them there. This caused a little confusion since they knew they were supposed to pick us up at the Carnival Legend, but it got worked out in the end.

 

It’s about a 30 minute drive to Auke Bay boat harbor. When we got there, a family of 6 was boarded onto their boat first. This left 3 couples on the bus, so we knew we would be together (they only put 6 people on their small boats). Well, when we got off the bus, they mentioned that a captain had called out sick today and they had an additional couple. So, they asked if the 8 of us minded going out on a larger boat together with a naturalist. Of course we all said yes!

 

Our captain for the day was Lewis. We also had Steve, the naturalist. They were a very good team and found us a bunch of whales to watch.

 

 

The larger boat worked out really well because it was extremely roomy so we never felt cramped and like we were climbing on top of everyone. The inside has huge windows and they opened so you could stay in there and take pictures if you liked. The back area of the boat was always open and then they opened the front when we weren’t moving. They had snacks and drinks on the boat as well as binoculars for us.

 

First up, we saw some seals and sea lions.

 

 

 

 

[navybaby1113]

Next up, some whales! The other Harv and Marv boat got extremely lucky because the whales started swimming right next to their boat.