Carnival Cruise to Alaska

[LadyMac72]

1 hour ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

 

Just as a reminder, that US passengers on a cruise that ends in a foreign port, in this case Vancouver, BC, you will need a US Passport to fly home.  You may have been able to board your cruise in Seattle with just a birth certificate and gov't issued photo ID, but that is not enough to get you onto an international flight home to the US.

 

I work at Pier 91in Seattle, and in 2019 the final Carnival Legend cruise to Alaska did end in Vancouver, BC.  We had to ask each passenger traveling with a birth certificate how they were planning to return to the US.  If they said 'flying home from Vancouver' we had to tell them that they would not be able to get onto the plane without a passport.  We told them to begin to make alternative travel plans now while they were still 7/8 days from the return date.  This included ground transportation (bus/train) to a US city (mostly back to Seattle), and changing their return flight back from Vancouver to a US city so that their gov't issued photo ID was all that was needed to get on a US domestic flight. 

Not surprisingly, there were folks that were traveling on this cruise with just their birth certificate and photo ID that didn't realize that they needed a passport to fly from Canada back to the US.  While is was not a fun way to begin their cruise, they were appreciative to have this information early on.

I have my passport and it's all ready to be used again....  Gotta get one for BF but we will do that after I give him the cruise (it's his birthday gift).

[Ferry_Watcher]

47 minutes ago, LadyMac72 said:

I have my passport and it's all ready to be used again....  Gotta get one for BF but we will do that after I give him the cruise (it's his birthday gift).

 

LadyMac72, thanks for your reply.  While I didn't specifically state it, my reply was directed towards the general reading audience, and not anyone in particular.  I just happened to use your post for context.   If I can help even just one person avoid the inconvenience of having to change their return home travel arrangements, then I will be  happy!

[airlink diva]

On 12/31/2019 at 1:23 PM, pinto18 said:

We are doing our first Alaskan cruise in August, Carnival Miracle 10 days out of San Francisco. We chose this mostly because it sails out of home port, we are platinum on Carnival and this sailing was like half the price of similar itinerary from Princess!

I'm looking at booking this mainly because solo rates are alot better than the other lines, longer cruise, and I always wanted to sail out of San Francisco 

[Mutumbojimbo]

Glacier Bay was our favorite part of our Alaska cruise, so, while we have cruised the most with Carnival, I was glad that we went with HAL. The weekend vs. mid-week departure was a factor for us too. Maybe it was because it was a week-long cruise and to Alaska, but we really didn't see a huge difference in the clientele.  On Embarkation Day there was a family in the Observation lounge that was fussing because they couldn't get the brand of Soda they wanted LOL. They would have fit right in with the Coke v. Pepsi debates on the Carnival board.

 

[cdm289]

I love Carnival but when we sailed to Alaska the dates on Carnival did not work for us because the cruise started on a Tuesday.  We chose HAL and it was wonderful!  Would I sail Carnival to Alaska if I were to go back?  Yes!  HAL went to Sitka which was different.  Sitka was one of my favourite ports.  I think any line that you chose to Alaska would be wonderful however I do recommend HAL because of my experience.  

[Trueblueky]

If this is your "once-in-a-lifetime" trip to Alaska, get a cruisetour with HAL or Princess.  They have the land portions cold.  We took one from HAL.  Fairbanks - Denali - Anchorage - Seward - ship.  Luggage is taken care of each step.  Some prepaid land meals are possible.  Land excursions preplanned and paid.  Seeing the midnight sun, the whales in Kenai (out of Seward) and  Denali for a couple of days were highlights. Ended in Vancouver for flight home.

 

We live in Florida and take Carnival every year in the Caribbean.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Trueblueky
Added

[MT_Sea_Cruisers]

We've been to Alaska three times.  Alaska is by far, our favorite cruising itinerary.  So much majestic beauty that I don't  think you could go wrong with what ever cruise line you select. 

 

From personal experience,  we have sailed twice on NCL and once on Carnival.  And, I just booked another Alaska cruise on Carnival for September 2021!  We really enjoyed the itinerary on Carnival.  Tracy Arm Fjord was AMAZING!  We saw many waterfalls and we also saw a lot more wildlife than we saw on our previous two cruises on NCL where Glacier Bay took the place of the Tracy Arm Fjord day on our itinerary.  Also, the ice bergs were so blue they looked fake (lol) and so, so many seals and there pups on them (we saw hundreds of them!). 

 

Aside from the itinerary, I'd say the most noticeable difference, for us, between the two cruise lines is that the age demographic on NCL was much older.  And evening activities on NCL were much more toned down.  On Carnival, there seemed to be an even balance of older (60 and over) and "not so old" ( 30 - 50-ish) cruisers.  Also to note is that there were very few children to be seen on both cruise lines for Alaska.

 

 

[bahacca]

We did Alaska on Princess. The downers: food was overall not as good as on Carnival. Entertainment and things to do in board were not nearly as fun as on Carnival. 2 examples: one game I played, I had to "walk around" another guest. For me, why walk when you can do a silly dance? The host told me flat out "I told you to WALK." Another game was led by 3 crew. All of the " fun" was had by then participating, and the audience merely watched vs Carnival including guests and making them the entertainment. 

I wanted Princess for the itinerary. Glacier Bay in particular. 

The one thing Princess did do that was excellent was have a naturalist come on board and had a presentation that was amazing. They had one for the kids too. (If your kid's know a lot about animals or are over age 9, do them a favor and take them to the adult presentation!) They also had a presentation by the first female winner of the Iditerod! 

I'm not sure if Carnival does this type of presenting or not.

[ABQrobin]

4 hours ago, bahacca said:

We did Alaska on Princess. The downers: food was overall not as good as on Carnival. Entertainment and things to do in board were not nearly as fun as on Carnival. 2 examples: one game I played, I had to "walk around" another guest. For me, why walk when you can do a silly dance? The host told me flat out "I told you to WALK." Another game was led by 3 crew. All of the " fun" was had by then participating, and the audience merely watched vs Carnival including guests and making them the entertainment. 

I wanted Princess for the itinerary. Glacier Bay in particular. 

The one thing Princess did do that was excellent was have a naturalist come on board and had a presentation that was amazing. They had one for the kids too. (If your kid's know a lot about animals or are over age 9, do them a favor and take them to the adult presentation!) They also had a presentation by the first female winner of the Iditerod! 

I'm not sure if Carnival does this type of presenting or not.

 

Yes, Carnival has a Naturalist onboard the ship for the whole week, with daily presentations, which are excellent.  She also watched from the bridge for whales and would come over intercom every times she saw something and tell us where to look, all about that particular type of whale, etc.  It was funny to see passengers and crew all run to the railing to look overboard every time!  

 

We did Carnival Legend Alaska June 2016... loved it so much we decided we had to do it again.  We are booked for Carnival Spirit July 2020.  Can't wait.

 

Yes, Carnival leaves Seattle on a Tuesday, but we like that so we can fly in on Saturday, and have 2 days doing stuff in the area.  This time we are renting a car and doing Mt Ranier one day, and Olympic National Park one day.  Perfect plan for us.

 

 

[cathyz]

On 12/31/2019 at 9:39 PM, Banditswife said:

Carnival is doing a 10 day route on the Miracle out of San Francisco  this year.  Miracle is going into dy dock for refurbishments before the Alaska season begins.  We are booked for May.  We did Alaska many yrs ago on Royal & I am interested to see the difference.  I did check Princess for price & schedule, they are much higher priced than Carnival, but from what I have read a better experience.  So if money were not an issue, I'd choose Princess.  We've sailed HAL once & didn't think it was worth the extra cost.  Hal caters to an older crowd.

We're doing an 11 day cruise on the Miracle in August, from San Francisco also.   Looking forward to it, our first Alaskan cruise.

[nybumpkin]

3 hours ago, ABQrobin said:

 

Yes, Carnival leaves Seattle on a Tuesday, but we like that so we can fly in on Saturday, and have 2 days doing stuff in the area.  This time we are renting a car and doing Mt Ranier one day, and Olympic National Park one day.  Perfect plan for us.

 

 

We didn't mind cruising on Tuesday since we planned time in Seattle before the cruise. We spent time downtown and at the Space Needle, visited with a friend from DH's early engineering days, took the ferry to Bremerton, and spent a day at Mount Rainier (gorgeous). Great trip.

[jsglow]

Look at my signature.  We LOVE Carnival in the Caribbean,  We'd also prefer them for a cruise to Hawaii at a comparable price.  For Alaska, Princess is superior.  Access to Glacier Bay NP tips the scale by a very significant margin.  Sail on.