ArcticKitty Tackles Alaska - Carnival Splendor 02-10 May 2022- Trip Planning, Trip Report, & Mehhhhbe Some LIVE

[arctickitty]

Tiiiiiiiiime for a little topical interlude to discuss what I thought of Cruise Director Andy Mercer aka Andy Entertainment as he mentioned the last day.

 

He was scheduled to do his own comedy show one time in the Spectacular Spectacular main theater, at 9:30 pm on the Hoonah day and just before Ketchikan would be 7am-1pm.  With a short port time in Ketchikan we prioritized going to sleep early, but we did discuss at the end of the cruise that we probably would have enjoyed Andy’s comedy show better than the solo comedians, but one has to make choices in life.

 

Our basis was that we did often laugh at Andy’s jokes when he was MCing other events.  Our favorite was when he was introducing the comedic magician and he commented that some people were sitting so far up in the balconies that they thought they were on the Spirit and then under his breath he said trust me you should be glad you’re not on the Spirit right now and then he said ohhhh I’m going to get it for that one tomorrow.

 

My first Princess cruise I was unaware what a cruise director was or what they did.  Didn’t notice.  On my Norwegian cruise it seemed like a cruise director was an annoying announcer who read from a script very poorly.  My second Princess cruise I met the cruise director at the beginning because someone from here on Cruise Critic roped me into volunteering to lead the Passover Seder and I had to meet the CD just prior to the service/meal.  But I didn’t really interact with him after that.  My third Princess cruise I don’t remember anything about the CD.  Andy Mercer, despite his gaffs and mispronunciations and overall youth, is the first CD I felt like I connected to just person to person.  And I suppose that’s part of a CD’s job, beyond announcing things and introducing acts, a CD is more than an MC, their job is to connect with the passengers on a human level.  Maybe Andy bypassed hundreds of other passengers in his quest to make that connection with me, but I’m mostly an introvert and a bit of an oddball so I’m not the sort who just waltzes around life making friends with everyone.  So I give him a lot of credit for that.  

[KmomChicago]

19 minutes ago, arctickitty said:

Tiiiiiiiiime for a little topical interlude to discuss what I thought of Cruise Director Andy Mercer aka Andy Entertainment as he mentioned the last day.

 

He was scheduled to do his own comedy show one time in the Spectacular Spectacular main theater, at 9:30 pm on the Hoonah day and just before Ketchikan would be 7am-1pm.  With a short port time in Ketchikan we prioritized going to sleep early, but we did discuss at the end of the cruise that we probably would have enjoyed Andy’s comedy show better than the solo comedians, but one has to make choices in life.

 

Our basis was that we did often laugh at Andy’s jokes when he was MCing other events.  Our favorite was when he was introducing the comedic magician and he commented that some people were sitting so far up in the balconies that they thought they were on the Spirit and then under his breath he said trust me you should be glad you’re not on the Spirit right now and then he said ohhhh I’m going to get it for that one tomorrow.

 

My first Princess cruise I was unaware what a cruise director was or what they did.  Didn’t notice.  On my Norwegian cruise it seemed like a cruise director was an annoying announcer who read from a script very poorly.  My second Princess cruise I met the cruise director at the beginning because someone from here on Cruise Critic roped me into volunteering to lead the Passover Seder and I had to meet the CD just prior to the service/meal.  But I didn’t really interact with him after that.  My third Princess cruise I don’t remember anything about the CD.  Andy Mercer, despite his gaffs and mispronunciations and overall youth, is the first CD I felt like I connected to just person to person.  And I suppose that’s part of a CD’s job, beyond announcing things and introducing acts, a CD is more than an MC, their job is to connect with the passengers on a human level.  Maybe Andy bypassed hundreds of other passengers in his quest to make that connection with me, but I’m mostly an introvert and a bit of an oddball so I’m not the sort who just waltzes around life making friends with everyone.  So I give him a lot of credit for that.  

Yep. Same, though he was not CD yet on Mardi Gras. 
 

And it’s a Carnival thing. No other cruise line has this vibe with the CD’s but to some degree I felt that connection with all but one CD on my  5 Carnival cruises, and the one was still much more personable and fun than any on other cruise lines.

[KmomChicago]

26 minutes ago, ashkir said:

Hey thank you! Last time I went in was a May and it was an excellent experience. I have a severed vagus nerve so temperature doesn't bother me as much! I plan on packing ready for the warm weather getting cooler, and I know the weather changes wildly up there! Didn't think of a sleeping bag! I might do that or bring a really warm throw blanket! 

 

This will be my first cruise I'm gold level on! 

 

September 5th - Leave San Francisco

September 6th - Sea Day

September 7th - Sea Day 

September 8th - Arrive at Juneau at 2pm stay until 11pm. 

September 9th - Arrive at Skagway at 7am stay until 9pm.

September 10th - Arrive at Icy Strait Point at 7am stay until 9pm.

September 11th - Cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord

September 12th - Sea Day

September 13th - Arrive at Victoria at 8am depart at 1pm. 

September 14th - Sea day

September 15th - Arrive back in San Francisco at 8AM. 

 

I had a heart transplant recently so I don't want something that is too extreme, but, enough to get my muscles pumping! I'm only 32 years old. 

 

This is what I'm thinking of:

Juneau - Just explore the city. It is the capital city of Alaska and I'm sure we can find plenty to do by walking around and exploring on our own.

Skagway - I wanted to do a rail, but, the recent reviews have been very subpar. We're thinking of Glacier Point Wilderness Safari or the Grizzly Falls Ziplining, or one of the helicopter adventures. I'm hoping the railway ones get better! We're thinking of possibly skipping this and just explore on our own a little, and use the helicopter / railway money on doing a Grand Canyon tour in Las Vegas on our next trip there for the same price. I've been here before and we took the Jeep excursions and it was a lot of fun! There's a lot of potential here and I need to explore more for Skagway. The rail one we're thinking of the most is White Pass Summit. 

Icy Strait Point - This one had nothing that really stood out to us, so local exploration really.

Tracy Arm Fjord - We kind of want to do the Tracy Arm Fjord Glacier Explorer trip. 

Victoria - Short stop not really interested in seeing this city. Had a very bad experience in Victoria last time I was there. 

 

I'm low key thinking of taking my nephew (who's 11) to come with us, if my boyfriend is good with it. My nephew's parents are both in prison and he always talks about how he wants to go see "wildlife". My mom has full custody of him so I can get a notarized letter to let him come on this trip. On the Sea Day we'll probably go to the Dorothy events to meet other LGBT. 

Oh you gotta bring the nephew and the BF better be okay with it or else he is not a cool guy. You never know if you’ll get another chance to do something like this with him.

[arctickitty]

1 hour ago, ashkir said:

Hey thank you! Last time I went in was a May and it was an excellent experience. I have a severed vagus nerve so temperature doesn't bother me as much! I plan on packing ready for the warm weather getting cooler, and I know the weather changes wildly up there! Didn't think of a sleeping bag! I might do that or bring a really warm throw blanket! 

 

This will be my first cruise I'm gold level on! 

 

September 5th - Leave San Francisco

September 6th - Sea Day

September 7th - Sea Day 

September 8th - Arrive at Juneau at 2pm stay until 11pm. 

September 9th - Arrive at Skagway at 7am stay until 9pm.

September 10th - Arrive at Icy Strait Point at 7am stay until 9pm.

September 11th - Cruise through Tracy Arm Fjord

September 12th - Sea Day

September 13th - Arrive at Victoria at 8am depart at 1pm. 

September 14th - Sea day

September 15th - Arrive back in San Francisco at 8AM. 

 

I had a heart transplant recently so I don't want something that is too extreme, but, enough to get my muscles pumping! I'm only 32 years old. 

 

This is what I'm thinking of:

Juneau - Just explore the city. It is the capital city of Alaska and I'm sure we can find plenty to do by walking around and exploring on our own.

Skagway - I wanted to do a rail, but, the recent reviews have been very subpar. We're thinking of Glacier Point Wilderness Safari or the Grizzly Falls Ziplining, or one of the helicopter adventures. I'm hoping the railway ones get better! We're thinking of possibly skipping this and just explore on our own a little, and use the helicopter / railway money on doing a Grand Canyon tour in Las Vegas on our next trip there for the same price. I've been here before and we took the Jeep excursions and it was a lot of fun! There's a lot of potential here and I need to explore more for Skagway. The rail one we're thinking of the most is White Pass Summit. 

Icy Strait Point - This one had nothing that really stood out to us, so local exploration really.

Tracy Arm Fjord - We kind of want to do the Tracy Arm Fjord Glacier Explorer trip. 

Victoria - Short stop not really interested in seeing this city. Had a very bad experience in Victoria last time I was there. 

 

I'm low key thinking of taking my nephew (who's 11) to come with us, if my boyfriend is good with it. My nephew's parents are both in prison and he always talks about how he wants to go see "wildlife". My mom has full custody of him so I can get a notarized letter to let him come on this trip. On the Sea Day we'll probably go to the Dorothy events to meet other LGBT. 

Beyond the sleeping bag I half joked half serious wished I had Special Someone’s snowsuit.  It’s a horrendous yellow color but is super lightweight and was a very expensive impulse purchase.  I don’t think he’s ever used it (yet) but I’ve slept in it for winter camping as I don’t love being super constrained in a really heavy bag.  It’s really cozy!  But once you get in the circle bed, the wind actually gets blocked pretty well.

 

Weather-wise what surprised us was how cold we Alaskans were.  This is because of the moisture in the air.  You feel the cold much more than the dry air where we live.  
 

I’ve thought of doing a gear report when I finish the trip report to show what I took and what worked (most everything) for the environment.

 

I am also a medical fighter like you, only a 2-time cancer survivor and I’m 38.  Being able to advance into my current fitness level has been a project.

 

The advantage of your late-season cruise is that you get to see current reviews from this exact season when so many things are different from previous years.

 

I feel like my 8 day itinerary with 5 ports really hit the port lottery (but raised the port fees cost) but you have a lot more sea days to explore and enjoy your ship, so that’s nice, too! 
 

Juneau definitely has tons to do just by walking around; it has the most food and beverage options and much of the best quality.  I would definitely take advantage of your afternoon/evening port time.  When multiple ships are in these ports, the downtowns get crowded, so it’s nice to have time before or after the others leave.  There’s also plenty to do in downtown Juneau at night.

 

Skagway has a lot of other hikes, most much easier than what I did this trip.  I did several shorter ones my previous visit.  
 

https://www.nps.gov/klgo/planyourvisit/shorterdayhikes.htm

 

That’s a really long Icy Strait Point stop!  If you don’t book anything, you could literally walk everywhere.  There are quite a few options you can book on the spot as well.  People on my cruise seemed happier with whale watching in Hoonah than in Juneau FWIW.

 

Bringing a loaner kid would make it a completely different trip!

 

We saw lots of LGBTQ meetups happening on board.  If your sailing is at all similar, there should be plenty of socials.  

[mallomar0724]

Thank you for this very useful report.

[arctickitty]

2 minutes ago, mallomar0724 said:

Thank you for this very useful report.

Mallonar0724 welcome aboard and you’re welcome!  I see details where others see nothing and don’t notice things that are super important to others so 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve not been very sure how much sense any of my blatherings make to anyone else…

 

Cruise critic folks y’all welcome to bug me about scanning in the Fun Times and all the paper I collected.  Life’s tough now that I actually have to go in to work in order to get paid.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

Now, where were we?

 

 

That’s right.

 

Rainbird Trail in Ketchikan.

 

 

I’m mostly going to let the rainforest do all the talking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

Continuing on the Rainbird trail in Ketchikan.

 

 

 

 

300 steps if you use this trailhead.

 

 

We’ve reached the middle trailhead.

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

On the Rainbird trail in Ketchikan we again wished we had a naturalist with us to explain many curiosities we discovered in the rainforest.

 

 

New growth from the old.

 

 

 
 

A deer!

 

 

Hello friend!

 

 

 

 

[crucero]

Thank you so much for your fabulous review! I love all of the detail! We were to have gone to Alaska this summer but an unfortunate job situation had us change from Alaska this summer to Mardi Gras Spring Break next year. The excursions are way more expensive than I anticipated, so we will save Alaska for later when our funds are more flush.

 

I am so glad that your job situation has been settled! Congratulations. 

I also want to say that I hate that the woman in the hot tub made you feel bad about your body. It's terrible the body image issues that are foisted upon us women. You look fantastic in all your headless shots, and I am amazed at all your physical activities. You inspire me to do more! 

 

They had escargot plates as of 2016 but not on the Panorama for our new year's eve cruise 2019/2020. That was our last cruise and last vacation since Covid! I went back to check my video and the escargo is just in a little bowl in 2020.

 

Your photos are beautiful and I love the detail of your review. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it! If you ever come to visit Arkansas, I am happy to help with trail suggestions. AR gets mislabeled as AK often but they are worlds apart. :)

 

 

[travlndiva]

Thank you so much for this review!  I very much appreciate the menus, especially.  I was trying to decide which night to book our specialty dining an we chose the 5th night, knowing we would. not care for that menu. Awesome photos, too.  Looking forward to the remainder!

[luvcruzing]

They sure grow them big in Alaska. That’s the biggest slug I’ve ever seen.

[arctickitty]

10 hours ago, crucero said:

Thank you so much for your fabulous review! I love all of the detail! We were to have gone to Alaska this summer but an unfortunate job situation had us change from Alaska this summer to Mardi Gras Spring Break next year. The excursions are way more expensive than I anticipated, so we will save Alaska for later when our funds are more flush.

 

I am so glad that your job situation has been settled! Congratulations. 

I also want to say that I hate that the woman in the hot tub made you feel bad about your body. It's terrible the body image issues that are foisted upon us women. You look fantastic in all your headless shots, and I am amazed at all your physical activities. You inspire me to do more! 

 

They had escargot plates as of 2016 but not on the Panorama for our new year's eve cruise 2019/2020. That was our last cruise and last vacation since Covid! I went back to check my video and the escargo is just in a little bowl in 2020.

 

Your photos are beautiful and I love the detail of your review. Thank you so much for taking the time to do it! If you ever come to visit Arkansas, I am happy to help with trail suggestions. AR gets mislabeled as AK often but they are worlds apart. 🙂

 

 

Hi Crucero,

 

Thanks for your kind words and welcome aboard!  Reading other Live Froms and trip reports helped me get through some tough moments during my job uncertainty.

 

In Alaska we are very attuned to the AR and AK abbreviation issued as a lot of people think AK is Arkansas.  I had a job in which my boss made very clear that whenever we had to call someone out of state we were always to say we were calling from _____ ______ ALASKA and to always say the whole word “Alaska.”  
 

My Grandma lived near Clarendon, AR when I was little and I loved to visit her down there.

 

Alaska excursions, especially if purchased through the cruise line are definitely a lot more expensive than Caribbean, but it depends on what you want to do.  For the future!

[arctickitty]

8 hours ago, travlndiva said:

Thank you so much for this review!  I very much appreciate the menus, especially.  I was trying to decide which night to book our specialty dining an we chose the 5th night, knowing we would. not care for that menu. Awesome photos, too.  Looking forward to the remainder!

Welcome aboard travlndiva and thanks for the encouragement!  I had taken notes before the cruise on the menus posted on cruiseprof and I think my itinerary had them mostly in the same order but not exactly, so maybe you will have the same order, maybe not?  My itinerary was a little different than some as it was 8 days long with 5 ports.

[arctickitty]

3 hours ago, luvcruzing said:

They sure grow them big in Alaska. That’s the biggest slug I’ve ever seen.

More like a Pacific Northwest thing maybe…bananaslugs in Washington can be bigger.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

Back on the Rainbird Trail in Ketchikan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan

 

 

Walking to the end of the Rainbird Trail in Ketchikan is sad to me because it means the cruise will be ending soon, too.

 

 

 

Along the trail we met a handful of locals walking the same direction as we did.  We also met cruisers walking the opposite direction.

 

 

Just outside the trailhead we met some Celebrity cruisers looking for it.  They were pretty irritated with their long walk through town (midtown?) to get to the distant trailhead.  While it’s usually common sense to go to the farthest point and walk closer and closer to the dock, for this trail I’d recommend starting at the library like we did and walking away from downtown.  You can choose to leave the trail at the middle trailhead.  You can do a round trip of the whole trail or half of it.  You can walk out to the distant trailhead like we did and walk back through town.  

 

 

Despite going very slowly so we could enjoy nature and take lots of pictures, we finished earlier in the day than we thought we would.  Special Someone looked up Uber prices to Totem Bight State Park and we quickly decided we didn’t have enough time to do much more than a hit and run visit so it wasn’t worth it to us (sorry I don’t remember the prices).  We decided to just see whatever would fall in our paths on the way back to the dock.  
 

But first, we needed facilities.  We did not see any pubic bathrooms or businesses in this area and in looking at maps on our phones, didn’t see any, either.  I then noticed the Harbor Master’s office on the lap and navigated us there because in many other small coastal communities in Alaska there have been public bathrooms near the harbor master’s office.  No one wants fisherman peeing on their sidewalk.  At first we did not think my hunch was correct, but I was getting desperate, so I kept looking and discovered them in the harbor master building, not a separate bathroom.  We went in and found showers in both.  And those showers were both occupied.  End of story, y’all Alaska neophytes can carry this lesson with you that when you see a harbormaster office, public bathrooms are almost always near.  Never know when that might save you.

 

PS: a gear tip for those without exterior plumbing.  I always carry an orange automotive funnel with me when I’m hiking.  These are the long skinny ones you use for harder to reach fluids, not the rounder wider kind you use for oil.  This facilitates a tidier and easier process of elimination when in nature.  Hiking stores carry expensive devices and prosthetics, but my funnels all cost 99 cents or less and they work so well I’ve never wanted anything fancier.  That said, the trails in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Hoonah depicted in this trip report are too heavily trafficked for too many (or too long) au natural stops, and Skagway was more appropriate for it but had a few outhouses.  That said, I did use it a few times because I drink about 3 times more water than Special Someone (related to my medical stuff) and it all has to go somewhere, sometime.  So if bathrooms have been a barrier to hiking for you, the pee funnel can be awesome and liberating.  When nature calls and there do happen to be humans around, you can even pee like a man on the side of the trail or the road and not even expose yourself.  That said folks, of course, pack it out!  I usually stuff my TP firmly into the funnel till it dries out or I put it in a little ziplock.  However I tote it, it absolutely must get taken to proper trash facilities back in civilization.  

Edited May 20, 2022 by arctickitty

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

Guaranteed

 

 

Eagle

 

 

Sightings.  

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

We explored the small boat harbor…well because I just never get tired of it. I think this was the advantage of doing the hike first…we knew how much time we had left and could allocate poking around time appropriately.

 

 

I walked down a set of steps to this area and we were very curious what it was used for.

 

 

We eventually figured out it appeared to be a spot to park and offload waste oil.

 

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

A view of the downtown cruise ship docks from the small boat harbor.

 

 

And some small boats in the small boat harbor.  I found a boat with the same name as a friend’s daughter.

 

 

And not far away I found the friend’s name!

 

 

We just felt like Fran has seen better days…

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

This post is for Special Someone.

 

 

He noticed this length of blue paint on the dock railing.

 

 

Accessible boat parking???

 

 

You can see it’s just the one section that’s painted blue.

 

Oh, the mysteries of life…

[ashkir]

On 5/18/2022 at 8:55 PM, KmomChicago said:

Oh you gotta bring the nephew and the BF better be okay with it or else he is not a cool guy. You never know if you’ll get another chance to do something like this with him.

I called my mom and told him I need her to go get him the passport and I'll pay for it. I told her to get her passport too so she can go with him. I talked to my PVP and can get them an interior room for a great price. My mom's never been there either. 

[KmomChicago]

27 minutes ago, ashkir said:

I called my mom and told him I need her to go get him the passport and I'll pay for it. I told her to get her passport too so she can go with him. I talked to my PVP and can get them an interior room for a great price. My mom's never been there either. 

Heckz to the yeah with your bad Uncle Man self! That's what I am talking about! That's our boy! YESSSS

 

You all are going to have the time of your life together. You made my day! Please come and review it!

[arctickitty]

4 hours ago, ashkir said:

I called my mom and told him I need her to go get him the passport and I'll pay for it. I told her to get her passport too so she can go with him. I talked to my PVP and can get them an interior room for a great price. My mom's never been there either. 

Ashkir I think that’s awesome.  I think cruising in a group of 4 is tons of fun.  You can split up and come back together.

[arctickitty]

Carnival Splendor Alaska Cruise

 

Trip Day 9 / Cruise Day 7

 

Fourth Port Day / Ketchikan
 

 

I loved these posters because they show so many of the creepy crawly looking types of fish like my bosses used to catch out on the island when they were trying to catch halibut.

 

 

We were impressed with the line at this drive-thru coffee stand.  We almost wanted to just go get in it to see if the line was worth it.

 

 

Kitty the Riveter!  And a write-in candidate no less.  Wonder how it turned out?  Back in 2021…