Seeking Alaska/Carnival Spirit Reviews

[MistyRo76]

Hi all! I tried to use the search function, but I'm either terrible at it or it's just not a user-friendly search engine (it's probably me, TBH! 😆). But I am looking for any detailed trip reviews w/ photos on Carnival Alaska cruises (bonus points if it's also on the Spirit!). In major info gathering mode for our first Alaskan cruise! I know we likely want to do a whale watching tour and my daughter really wants to interact with some sled dogs (don't need to pay the $$$$ for the glacier sledding tour - and that probably won't be happening based on our cruise date anyway). But still very open to things to do on our port stops - Juneau/Skagway/Ketchikan/Victoria. 

Thanks! 

[dbrucern]

9 minutes ago, MistyRo76 said:

Hi all! I tried to use the search function, but I'm either terrible at it or it's just not a user-friendly search engine (it's probably me, TBH! 😆). But I am looking for any detailed trip reviews w/ photos on Carnival Alaska cruises (bonus points if it's also on the Spirit!). In major info gathering mode for our first Alaskan cruise! I know we likely want to do a whale watching tour and my daughter really wants to interact with some sled dogs (don't need to pay the $$$$ for the glacier sledding tour - and that probably won't be happening based on our cruise date anyway). But still very open to things to do on our port stops - Juneau/Skagway/Ketchikan/Victoria. 

Thanks! 

This will be our 4th trip to Alaska but always on another Carnival ship however I was curious too because Spirit will be new to us and found excellent information on Youtube

Edited March 14 by dbrucern

[MistyRo76]

Just now, dbrucern said:

This will be our 4th trip to Alaska but always on another Carnival ship however I was curious too and found excellent information on Youtube

Yes! YouTube is my next stop! 🙂

[dbrucern]

2 minutes ago, MistyRo76 said:

Yes! YouTube is my next stop! 🙂

Look at Parodeejay on Youtube they will make recommendations for tours and companies and discounts that you can get

[MistyRo76]

Just now, dbrucern said:

Look at Parodeejay on Youtube they will make recommendations for tours and companies and discounts that you can get

Thanks! I think I did come across some of their video's from looking at cabin videos posted on cruiseshipdeckplans website. Then I went somewhat down their rabbit hole! LOL But I'll need to circle back and check them out again! Thank you! 

[Saint Greg]

My Alaska page includes everything Alaska from my NCL Jewel and Carnival Splendor cruises.

 

I did the sled dog musher camp which had a lot of interaction with the dogs and puppies. I did Whale Watching in Icy Strait Point. Doesn't look like you're going there. A lot of people do that in Juneau. The white pass train is usually the thing to do in Skagway. They do have some free museums and things in town if you just want an easy inexpensive day. I would say the best tour I've done in Alaska from a cruise ship is Neets Bay Bear Encounter in Ketchikan.

 

Edited March 14 by Saint Greg

[MistyRo76]

8 minutes ago, Saint Greg said:

My Alaska page includes everything Alaska from my NCL Jewel and Carnival Splendor cruises.

 

I did the sled dog musher camp which had a lot of interaction with the dogs and puppies. I did Whale Watching in Icy Strait Point. Doesn't look like you're going there. A lot of people do that in Juneau. The white pass train is usually the thing to do in Skagway. They do have some free museums and things in town if you just want an easy inexpensive day. I would say the best tour I've done in Alaska from a cruise ship is Neets Bay Bear Encounter in Ketchikan.

 

I'm already about 1/2 way through your Alaska posts! And I showed my kiddo your pics and videos of the bears. She was in love! Thank you for sharing your travels! 

[BlerkOne]

I'll be in those ports and more later this year! Stay tuned...

[MistyRo76]

2 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

I'll be in those ports and more later this year! Stay tuned...

Can't wait! 

[chocolate melting cake]

We've done Alaska several times---most recently on the Miracle (sister ship to Spirit). Here is a "slideshow" of that cruise---just click on a picture to make it larger.

 

2022 Alaskan Cruise

[cruisewithwife]

We want to do the Alaskan one still. We did do a cruise on the Spirit and loved that ship if you want to take a look at our video reviews on that.

 

 

[BlerkOne]

14 minutes ago, MistyRo76 said:

Can't wait! 

Looks like I never finished the story from last year on Miracle... Might have to work on that...

 

 

 

[TinkLoverSam]

We didn't cruise on Carnival to Alaska, we have only cruised Disney but we have done this tour for whale watching in Juneau with and without kids and it was amazing each time:https://www.stepintoalaska.com/excursions/alaskas-whales-glaciers-rainforest-trails/

Edited March 14 by TinkLoverSam

[UGACamper]

Just got off Spirit but wasn’t to Alaska this time of year 🤪.  She’s worn in areas but pretty well taken care of. Liked the layout. Extended balconies not anything special in my opinion. Happy to try to answer any specifics. 

[SDPadreFan]

Don't plan on doing anything in Victoria. Look at the time you will be there. Mostly, that stop is just to satisfy the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.

 

Most people glance at their itinerary and think yay, I'll get to see a little Canada. And then they look at the actual time they will be there and it's no longer "yay"

 

Don't know your sailing date, but saw some, where Spirit was just there from 8pm to midnight.

[Elaine5715]

Do the Summer Camp Dog Sled excursion.  It's a lot of fun.  Plenty of puppy time.  The sled ride in the woods is fun and you aren't freezing

[Essiesmom]

Go to the top of the threads page, upper left.  Right beneath where it says Find your roll call, in smaller print is See posts about: and to the right of that ‘select ship.  Click on that and you will get a dropdown menu of Carnival ships.  Click on Spirit and you will get pages of threads about the Spirit.

 

[MistyRo76]

15 hours ago, SDPadreFan said:

Don't plan on doing anything in Victoria. Look at the time you will be there. Mostly, that stop is just to satisfy the Passenger Vessel Services Act of 1886.

 

Most people glance at their itinerary and think yay, I'll get to see a little Canada. And then they look at the actual time they will be there and it's no longer "yay"

 

Don't know your sailing date, but saw some, where Spirit was just there from 8pm to midnight.

Yes - it's just the 8-midnight stop to satisfy the international requirements. But I've read it's still nice to get off and take the shuttle into the city and walk around. The pics I've seen show that Victoria is really beautiful at night all lit up! We have 8:15 assigned dinner, but I'm thinking we may do the Steakhouse this night earlier and get off and walk around for an hour or two. But we'll see! We may be wiped out by then and want to just chill! 

[MistyRo76]

15 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Do the Summer Camp Dog Sled excursion.  It's a lot of fun.  Plenty of puppy time.  The sled ride in the woods is fun and you aren't freezing

Who did you book this through? And was this in Skagway? 

 

[MistyRo76]

13 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

Go to the top of the threads page, upper left.  Right beneath where it says Find your roll call, in smaller print is See posts about: and to the right of that ‘select ship.  Click on that and you will get a dropdown menu of Carnival ships.  Click on Spirit and you will get pages of threads about the Spirit.

 

Nice! Never knew to do that! Thank you! 

[SDPadreFan]

We were on Miracle when she did a 10 day Alaska Cruise out of San Francisco in June of 2022. Probably our favorite excursion by far was the small boat Glacier excursion when the ship cruised Tracy Arm. The ship stops in Tracy Arm and you board a smaller boat to cruise further up the fjord to the twin Sawyer Glaciers. The small boat can get SO MUCH CLOSER to the actual glacier and we saw multiple calving's and my wife even got to see an iceberg FLIP. An extremely rare occurrence, given the short time we were there. The crew was so excited to be able to see it, even the boat captain (but I missed it). This is a pretty expensive excursion but absolutely worth it in our case. I will post a couple of pictures of the excursion, but understand - these were not taken by a cell phone but a Nikon DSLR with a fairly long lens 70-300mm. I'm not a pro by any stretch, but sometimes, just extremely lucky. I'm guessing these shots were probably taken at about 150mm-200mm because at 300mm I would have been just to close to catch the full scene.

 

The excursion may be hard to find on Carnival's web site because it leaves from the water and not a port. On our sailing, it was actually listed under San Francisco (our departure port) for a long time. We signed up for it early and had no problem, but as soon as Carnival moved the listing to one of our ports (I think Juneau), it sold out immediately because it is that popular.

 

For this first calving, I was zoomed in a little to close.

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by SDPadreFan

[SDPadreFan]

This one was a little better

 

 

This was the iceberg after it flipped (that I missed).

 

 

[Elaine5715]

1 hour ago, MistyRo76 said:

Who did you book this through? And was this in Skagway? 

 

Through Carnival in Juneau,,,Dog Sled Discovery and Musher Camp. 

[SDPadreFan]

And a few other shots that I never would have gotten from the cruise ship.

 

Harbor seals and their pups.

 

 

The perfect shot.

 

Baby catching some rays.

 

I call this my "cruise ship iceberg"

 

And finally, some waterfalls.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 15 by SDPadreFan

[Linsuesue]

I am traveling with a group of 28 this July on the Spirit. I have checked the port schedules for how many ships will be at each place we stop. The ports are very full each day so I am telling my group that if they see an excursion they really want to try-they should book it. There is an extent to how many can fit on each whale watching boat, or kayak group, or helicopter and seaplane excursion. I would say book excursions that you really want to do as soon as you can. I love the Spirit and all of the Spirit class ships; you will have a wonderful cruise!