Carnival Spirit May 21st the May 28th

[AllenF]

Let me start off by saying I now understand why people love cruising to Alaska. We were very lucky and had clear blue skies for 6 out of 7 days with no rain.

My wife and I have done many cruises and this by far had the best scenery that includes Hawaii and the Greek Isles. We had a group of family and friends cruising with us 10 cabins total.

I surprised my wife by upgrading to a Cat. 11 wrap around balcony it was well worth it our whole group enjoyed the views from it cabin 4237.

Ok embarkation was pretty smooth. We were going to do US direct but they had my wife’s birth date wrong so we had to go thru customs. It was pretty painless except we must have shown our passports 3 more times after that at the cruise terminal. We are Platinum so we had VIP boarding and the whole process from the airport to the ship took a little over and hour. Staff was everywhere keeping thing moving. Carnival did a great job here. We had a lot of first time cruisers with us who all did not arrive together but all commented how easy the process was except for the entire passport showing LOL.

We have sailed the Spirit before to Hawaii while she is a great ship, she is show a little age.

For some reason the AC did not work to good in our cabin (did not think we would need it) but everybody else said there cabins were freezing so they had to switch to heat the first day.

We found the food in the dinning room to be very good as usual and even the food on the Lido was good the 2 nights we had dinner there. Our room steward was good but had a habit of not knocking and just walking in which bothered Shelly a little bit so I asked him to knock. Shelly has a habit of leaving dinner early sometimes and going back to cabin hence the walk in. Our dinning room staff was great very friendly and remembered everybody’s name. How they can do that amazes me.

We have seen so many shows we really do not go to many anymore but all the first timers went and enjoyed them very much. We did go see one can’t remember the guys name but he is the Ambassador of Swing and we enjoyed his singing very much. My friend Mark and I did very good in the trivia games won 3 ships on a stick.

Our 1st day at Sea we cruised the inside passage it was amazing we were so close to land on both sides you could almost reach out and touch it.

I always try do private excursions with local operators and I made a point to use the ones in Alaska who live there year round and not just for the season. Many of them I found here on cruise critic.

In Ketchikan I booked a private fishing charter with Joshua Rose of Salty Sea Charters

http://www.saltyseacharters.com/cruiseships.html

He is a 3rd generation fisherman and very nice and informative guide he is a young guy and his passion for fishing was enormous. We caught 2 very nice King Salmons and about 6 rock fish, which we feed to the eagles. My father did this tour with me along with my friend Tom and his wife Mary. I am not really that big of a fisherman but mainly wanted to spend the day with my father who loves to fish and is also 74 years old and in great health so I mostly did this for the great memories.. My wife walked around town and looked at art and did a little shopping. When I got back from fishing she showed my some of the art she liked.

For Juneau we did a Whale watch tour with Orca enterprises in the morning and caught the shuttled to Mendhall that afternoon. Let me say Orca was outstanding Captain Larry did a great job finding whales and the naturalist Tony was very good. The weather was great and there was plenty of room on the boat we had 6 in our group plus about 16 others for a total of 22 people. The boat was great it had a enclosed space for those who got cold easy or if it rained. The windows opened very easy for picture taking. But I spent most of the time up top on the observation deck.

http://www.orcaenterprises.com/

We got back to the ship around 1:30pm ate lunch and caught the 3:00pm shuttle to Mendenhall with did not have a ton of time but we had enough and caught the last shuttle at 5:00pm back to town. We stopped at the Red Dog Saloon and had a beer and then walked around a little before heading back to the Ship.

In Skagway we rented 2 cars with Avis and followed the world famous Murry Guide

http://www.explorenorth.com/murraysguide/index.html

All I can say is WOW what a drive, what scenery and Murry’s guide is awesome.

I had my mom and dad with me so we did not do any hiking but Tom and Mark did and had a blast. I must say Emerald Lake is beautiful and pictures dont do it justice. We stopped at Carcross and I got an ice cream at the general store. I dropped my mom and dad off at the ship around 1:30 turned the car in and Shelly and I walked around Skagway. We did the drive in under 5hours.

In Sitka we did a wildlife tour with Sitka Wildlife Tours who also live in Sitka year round. We had a van for 9 of us they were waiting for us. Being Platinum was a plus here as I was able to get everybody off since we had priority tendering. We saw tons of eagles and seals. We also went to a chocolate factory that was pretty darn tasty. They have wildlife rehabilitation center there that is just getting started for bears. The had 2 brown bear cubs there whose mother had become addicted to eating garbage and had to be shot when she broke into a lodge looking for food. She had never taught them how to be bears so this center was a real life saver for them as they can not live in the wild anymore. After the tour we walked around town and shopped.

http://sitkawildlifetours.com/

The next day we sailed into Prince William Sound and College Fjord. The scenery was awesome. That night around 7:00pm the Captain got us very close to the Hubbard Glacier.

Everybody came to our balcony to take pictures. This was also the night that it stayed the lightest

I went be around 1pm and it was still light not bright but still light.

The last day we did a ships tour since our plane did not leave till 8:30pm.

It was a great way to kill some time we stopped at a wildlife center and the Alaska Native Heritage Center before being dropped off at the Egan center where luggage was being held.

Everybody had a great time and the cruise was terrific I cant wait to cruise Alaska again.

I have some pictures posted in another thread.

[NMCRUISERS]

Allen....thank you for the great pictures and review! Sounds like you had an awesome time!

[janisutx]

Thanks for the good review. I'll let the Spirit 6/11 roll call know where to find your review. Your were lucky to have such wonderful weather. I hope our sailing is that lucky.

[gazingm42]

The next day we sailed into Prince William Sound and College Fjord. The scenery was awesome. That night around 7:00pm the Captain got us very close to the Hubbard Glacier.

 

Hubbard glacier....???

 

They always have gone into PWS and viewed Harvard glacier in Collage Fjord.

[AllenF]

Hubbard ......Harvard..........all I know is there was an H in it :D .

Looking at my picture I take of the capers you are correct it is Harvard

Before anybody ask no Ido not have the capers. I always take a picture of the front page before I take pictures for that day so I have an idea where the picture was taken LOL

[Cruizn Mama]

AllenF--

 

Could you please put the link on this thread or direct me to which thread? I'm leaving home 6-17 and sailing soon!

 

Thanks!

[AllenF]

Here is the link to the pictures I took. They are on the 1st and 2nd page I added a few more that are on page 2

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=784779

[RYPERO]

Hi Allen

 

Thanks for the review, It nice seeing a review from some one we have cruised with before since I know what great private tours you book. I hope you and Shelly are well and we are looking forward to cruising the Spirit in August. Thanks again.

 

Ryan and Erin from the Liberty Castaways

[gazingm42]

Hubbard ......Harvard..........all I know is there was an H in it :D .

Looking at my picture I take of the capers you are correct it is Harvard

Before anybody ask no Ido not have the capers. I always take a picture of the front page before I take pictures for that day so I have an idea where the picture was taken LOL

 

Thanks Allen, I thought there was a change I missed.

 

Pics and review are great. We getting excited about our Spirit trip again.

[SC-Cruiser]

Allen-

 

We also sailed that cruise and the weather was so nice. Everybody kept telling us how lucky we were. We stayed two more days in Anchorage after the cruise and the weather was nice for those days too.

 

Mike

[AllenF]

Hi Allen

 

Thanks for the review, It nice seeing a review from some one we have cruised with before since I know what great private tours you book. I hope you and Shelly are well and we are looking forward to cruising the Spirit in August. Thanks again.

 

Ryan and Erin from the Liberty Castaways

 

Hey Ryan,

 

When we were in Anchorage I was wondering where Erins parents lived :)

I hope we can all cruise again in the future.

[TeeBuccs]

Allen,

 

Wow, thanks for the review. It was very ironic that I found your post today. My husband and I were to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on your cruise - in fact in the cabin you upgraded to. A month or so out from the cruise we had to cancel due to a major medical issue with a family member. I had been so excited about having the wrap around aft balancony cabin - sort of broke my heart to have to cancel this trip. Am curious what you thought of the cabin, the views, the walk to and from ship ammenties, etc...so in case we re-book I will know if this is the right decision. Care to share?

 

Tee

[AllenF]

Allen,

 

Wow, thanks for the review. It was very ironic that I found your post today. My husband and I were to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary on your cruise - in fact in the cabin you upgraded to. A month or so out from the cruise we had to cancel due to a major medical issue with a family member. I had been so excited about having the wrap around aft balancony cabin - sort of broke my heart to have to cancel this trip. Am curious what you thought of the cabin, the views, the walk to and from ship ammenties, etc...so in case we re-book I will know if this is the right decision. Care to share?

 

Tee

 

I am sorry you had to cancel I orginally had cabin 4230 Aft balcony booked but upgraded when I saw this cabin open up. We love the Aft balcony cabins. What can I say about the wrap around what a GREAT cabin the only problem with it is.......now how can I go back to a regular balcony LOL. We dont mind the walk we have had an aft balcony on about half of our cruises. Since we are Platinum now we ge the VIP boarding already but that is included with this cabin nice perk. I would say without a doubt rebook this cabin it has the best views by far IMHO, it is 90% coverd, the wind is blocked 75% except for on the side. Very close to walk down to decks 2 and 3 where everything is. Also the back elevators are not that crowded and you can zip up to the Lido quickly. The cabin itself was very roomy it has 3 separate rooms 4 if you count the bathroom. Large bedroom, nice dressing area with walk in closet, plus a seating area (den) 2 TV's and lots of windows. We had all of are group there a few times and had plenty room for everybody.

[dennisl]

Allen,

 

Thanks for the great review and awesome pictures in the other thread. We're on the Spirit northbound in July and you've definitely whetted our appetite for the trip. Was not geeting too excited till now.

 

One question: what are the formal nights on the northbound trip?

 

Thanks .... Dennis

[AllenF]

I know the 2nd day Sea day(inside passage) is a formal nite and I think Sitka was the 2nd the 5th day

[RYPERO]

Hey Ryan,

 

When we were in Anchorage I was wondering where Erins parents lived :)

I hope we can all cruise again in the future.

 

Ironically we will be getting off the Splendour the day you guys are getting on.