SF to Alaska - Carnival Miracle 7/25/22 to 8/4/22

[jsparents]

 

 

 

 

 

[Tnlynch81]

1 hour ago, cruisingguy007 said:

We are on this ship in a few weeks to Ensenada and were wondering about unlisted food options. I saw some pictures of a small seafood shack type place and another eatery near lido marketplace. Are there some additional eateries, besides the lido buffet, that are not listed on the Carnival main page? Thanks. 

The "seafood shack" was only open for dinner until 10pm I believe. During lunch they usually had Chinese food, and breakfast it was just another station.

[cruisingguy007]

3 minutes ago, Tnlynch81 said:

The "seafood shack" was only open for dinner until 10pm I believe. During lunch they usually had Chinese food, and breakfast it was just another station.

 

Thank you, did you happen to see any other items besides crab legs, shrimp and clam chowder? The Chinese food for lunch is also a nice surprise. Good info! 

Edited August 11, 2022 by cruisingguy007

[jsparents]

We started back towards the ship as the excursion was ending.  As we turned to go back to the ship, it was coming around a bend.  The Captain was shocked that the ship had come up that far in the fjord. Because it was so much closer than he expected, he turned back around and gave us an additional 20 minutes at the glacier.  This photo is taken looking back from where our boat was next to the glacier.  This was as far up as the ship came so you can see you would have a view of the glacier, but not like you have on the excursion.

 

 

This is what the weather looked like 20 minutes later as we returned to the ship.  

 

 

And finally what it looked like 20 minutes after we returned to the ship before the next tour boarded.  Also, you can see the your view towards the glacier from the ship.

 

 

After the excursion boat boarded the second tour, the ship turned around and started sailing out of the fjord.  I would think that people had about 30 minutes where they could have seen the glacier at the most before the ship turned around.

 

Again, I would say the excursion is worth the money.  There were two excursion boats with probably 100 people on each boat.  We had plenty of room to take photos and see everything. 

 

[jsparents]

5 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Thank you, did you happen to see any other items besides crab legs, shrimp and clam chowder? The Chinese food for lunch is also a nice surprise. Good info! 

I can still see somethings on the Hub app.  It says "fresh and delicious seafood offerings including shrimp and clam buckets, classic fish and chips and more".  I think they had lobster also.  

[Tnlynch81]

6 minutes ago, cruisingguy007 said:

 

Thank you, did you happen to see any other items besides crab legs, shrimp and clam chowder? The Chinese food for lunch is also a nice surprise. Good info! 

It seemed to have  all the  same items the permanent Seafood Shacks have on the other ships. I don't remember for sure if they had oysters but there was fresh fish as well as all the fried options.

[cruisingguy007]

Great info! Much appreciated! 

[jsparents]

The rest of the day was pretty much like a Sea Day.  We had a true Sea Day following Tracy Arm and the seas were much calmer and we actually saw the sun.  I would say the weather was in the high 60's at this point and it was really nice to sit outside in the sun.

 

VICTORIA:

 

We were scheduled to stop in Victoria from 8am -1pm.  I had previously been to Victoria and new there wasn't much to do.  In 2005, we took the bus downtown and saw a couple things and that was it.  I was not really interested in doing it again, but one of my kids really wanted to get off and "see" Canada. The other kid could care less and really just wanted to sleep in.

 

We decided it was time for family time since we hadn't had enough the previous 8 days.  We decided to walk into town giving my kid the map to get us there.  I was surprised at how easy and enjoyable the walk was.  The bus shuttle was $13 roundtrip so we saved a little $. 

 

We just walked around and ended up "downtown".  We found a coffee shop (not that Starbucks place) and enjoyed a really good cup of coffee and some pastries.  The place is called Murchie's and when we walked by the line was out the door.  When we walked back by, the line was only 10 people deep.  We decided to grab a cup and once we saw the pastries I was upset that I had ate breakfast.  We asked a lady in front of us if she was local and she said yes.  We asked her what was good and she said everything.  We were able to fit in a small pastry that was delicious.  They make all their pastries/food from scratch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jsparents]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If having your order for "there", they serve your order on a silver plater.  Line was out the door when we left. 

[jsparents]

We found a bookstore down the street and the kids got something to read.  A nice leisurely walk back to the ship and we were back on board about 11:30am.   I think our roundtrip was about 4 miles which surprised me.  It was an easy walk that I think most people could do. 

 

 

 

TIME TO GO HOME 😞

 

We were in no hurry to get off the ship so we picked early disembarkation.  We were told it would be about 8:30 to 9:00am when we would be called to get off.  We waited on the Lido deck where there was plenty of seating.  We were off the ship by about 8:40am.  A short walk to the car and we were home by 11:00am.  I have to say that not having to wait at the airport and spend the day traveling was nice.  

 

SUMMARY:

 

A great trip with great friends and great scenery.  No real complaints about Carnival as usual.  Only little things that happen no matter what and as long as you go with the flow you will enjoy yourself.  The Miracle was the 2nd smallest ship we have been on which had its pros and cons.  I would have liked to have more dining options (I miss Cucina), but the food and service in the dining room were good.  I think we ate at the buffet two times for dinner because we didn't really like the dinner menu or we got back on the ship late.  

 

Now having sailed to Alaska in late July and mid- September, my next journey to Alaska will hopefully be in mid May.  I would be interested to see how different it looks.

 

Hope you enjoyed and possible learned something while reading along.

 

Thanks.