Carnival Spirit 6/18/08 VERY long

[sarbah77]

Hi everyone!

 

I emailed my trip diary to everyone who asked but I'm posting it here, as well. It's long. I'll break it up, as I C&P it from my blog. I wrote it as the trip went on so it's how I was feeling AT THAT MOMENT. The last part, my reflections on the whole thing, are still at home, because I haven't put it on my blog yet - people would de-friend me in a heartbeat if I'd done that!!

 

So, onward!

 

Day 1: Getting to Seattle

 

As any modern traveler knows, the excitement of traveling comes in getting to your final destination. Especially when air travel is involved. So the Custom Transit dude was 5 minutes early. And there was no traffic on the roads. Plus, if you use a Skycap, the only thing it costs you is a tip… and when your other options are a Very Long Line or a Family of Non-English Speakers Checking More Luggage Than People… the tip sounds like a really great deal. For your sanity, of course.

 

Security was also ultra-fast. At one point, they were screening people faster than we could strip off shoes, jewelry, laptops, and so on. Excellent.

 

You know what this means, though. Yup. We were about an hour late getting off the ground. And, in what can ONLY be a cost-cutting measure, there was NO AIR movement on the plane when we boarded. We’re on a 757. It is not a small plane. It was very hot. The pilot had the good grace to apologize, prior to take-off.

 

Here I am, though, on the flight. It’s 10:30/7:30. Should have been 3 of the hours there, but we’re not. Perhaps though with the “ha ha just kidding, it’s only 4hr20m!!” information we got, we’ll make up a portion of the lost time. That would be swell.

 

It is kind of fun, chasing the setting sun, though, and it makes for absolutely beautiful skies. And Northwest has some really fun food-for-purchase options these days. Not just your Pringles and trail mix… but Twizzlers, M&M’s, fruit or veggie platters, and (for our return flight) a fancy-pants sandwich and salad. For a fairly reasonable fee. No worse than other airport costs.

 

Also, they’re actively going greener. They actively recycle everything, sorting bottles and cans from printed matter and trash. I bet they earn something for recycling, but it really is always nice to see a company make the effort.

 

I wish I had a tissue.

 

Day 1, cont.

 

Well, in the end, our flight took way longer than the quoted 4 hours and 20 minutes. Probably as a result of some killer turbulence we had that had everyone, INCLUDING flight attendants seated for nearly an hour. Good time to nap, I figured.

 

Off the plane, we didn’t have to wait terribly long for our luggage to turn up, which was pretty nice. However, we did end up waiting QUITE awhile for our damned shuttle to turn up. Then we got the old rattletrap van with a driver who never hit the speed limit and talked the whole damned way. Whole ******g way. Luckily, he didn’t really want a reply… but since it was 11:20 before we got to our hotel, I just wanted him to shut up and hurry up.

 

Check in to the Silver Cloud Inn Stadium was quite painless. Very posh looking hotel, though we knew that when we’d booked. We picked it for it’s location. I mean, it was just the type of hotel that when we got on the elevator, and some of the maintenance staff did, as well, they made sure to hold the elevator doors for us when we got off on our floor. Then we turned right, and walked to the end of the hall. Turned right again. Walked to the end of the hall AGAIN… and I was pretty much grumbling that I just wanted easy at this point.

 

I opened the door and said “oooooooooh.” We walked into a room that had a wet bar, a microwave, and fridge. There were three more doors in front of us. “Sweetheart,” I said, over my shoulder, “I think we got upgraded.”

 

Sure enough, we had a three room suite which was, well, sweet. And since it was a corner room, we looked at both Qwest AND Safeco fields. Awesome. Really really awesome. The bathroom, however, was a little goofy. Sure, it had a separate area for the toilet. And it had a nice bath/shower combo… then it had a big shower stall. It just felt posh, all the reddish dark colored woods. The living room had a desk with the Ethernet cable (though wireless was free and a good connection), a comfy sofa and a couple very comfortable armless chairs and a huge flat panel TV. Oh, the fates mocked us with this one, since we were there ONLY to sleep. The bedroom had a very comfortable king bed with lots and lots of pillows.

 

We made it to bed around midnight (3am) with a 5:30 (8:30) wake-up.[/font][/color]

[sarbah77]

Day 2

 

I, of course, woke up around 4:50. Of course. Because everyone needs less than 5 hours sleep the first night of their vacation. Upon check-out (done by the same guy who had checked us in – he laughed!), we discovered that the hotel had oversold our room type, so we’d been upgraded. Hey, cool. Call it an advantage of getting in really really late.

 

We were a very short walk to the Amtrak station. Jeremy sat down and I got in the long-ish, slow moving line to pick up our tickets. When I was next in line, I read my confirmation email that said I could have used one of the kiosks. Well, oh well. Then I waited in another line to check-in and get our seat assignments. Then we waited in line to board.

 

Now we just wait to move. Every time a freight train passes, we get to wait for it. Super-fabulous. We are somewhere between Everett and the Canadian border as of this typing. Woot.

 

Day 2, cont.

 

We arrived in Vancouver about half an hour late. For Amtrak, this is no big deal and no one seemed particularly stressed about the situation. We did need to sit tight until all the luggage was unloaded, but that took about five minutes. The train itself was three cars long and one of the cars was a food service car. There were NOT a lot of people on board, to my surprise and delight.

 

I watched our luggage come off the train and so we were able to bolt, grab it, and get towards the front of the customs line. I got thoroughly sniffed by a border patrol/customs dog but he was otherwise uninterested. A black lab, though, which is a complete nonthreatening dog. Oh, how funny.

 

Three minutes later, we were through and out the door to find the SkyTrain to Canada Place. It was less than half a block away BUT it was 35 steps up with no visible elevator. That … sucked but we survived. We bought our fare, not that anyone looked, and immediately boarded (another) train. Three stops later, Canada Place!! Almost there!!

 

Despite the title of “SkyTrain,” we ended up underground and when we surfaced, we saw Canada Place first and the Carnival Spirit second. We followed the signs towards boarding… and I must say, there were a LOT of VERY helpful people making sure we got where we needed to go. We hadn’t initially seen where to check our luggage (again) and someone all but held our hands towards where we needed to go.

 

But from there, we couldn’t get any of the porters to take our luggage. Were we too young? Not gullible enough? I finally resorted to saying “Take our luggage! Please!” and a friendly-ish porter then did so. We handed him a (Canadian) $5 bill and either he’s super nice or it was a big surprise. He chatted us up for a few minutes and then sent us on our way.

 

First line was through security, where someone made sure we had boarding passes.

 

Second line was through (U.S.) Customs which was lengthy but very VERY quick (it almost looked like a yes/no situation – yes, you were clear to go or no, go over there).

 

Third line was actually checking IN (finally!). Of course we got the super-chattiest guy who walked us through what to do and so on and so forth. Everyone else we were in line with was on the ship long LONG before we were but what the heck. We had a reservation – who cared so long as we got there!

 

Sign & Sail cards in hand, we were off to a fourth line, where we had our picture taken in hopes we’d buy it (and, er, let’s just say it looked like I was jogging… bra-less… in our photo. We recycled that!!).

 

Fifth was to have our picture added to our s&s card (so the ship would know if it was us getting on or off) and then FINALLY WE WALKED ON BOARD.

 

It was just a hair after 1 at this point. Excellent. So, at Amtrak at 6:25. Checked in by 6:35. Seat assignment by 7:10. Boarded at 7:30. Train left at 7:40. Vancouver by noon. I was so thrilled. We made it. We really REALLY made it. I was so convinced that the fates hated me and we weren’t actually going to get here. I just knew it!

 

Awesome to be wrong.

 

We joined the masses (dear god) on the Lido deck, at the LaPlaya Grill, where we snagged enough food that resembled lunch and found a seat on the aft portion of the deck. Once through, we just went and took a LOT of pictures of Vancouver from the ship. We agreed then that we were definitely going to come back to Vancouver, perhaps in 2011, when the Olympics construction is complete and the city is still nearly in prime form.

 

We started to do a tour of the decks but it was after 1:30 and my bag was damned heavy so we went and found our room. Of course, we started near the bow and had to walk almost complete towards the rear. I must say that I do love the location of our cabin. We’re very near stairs and the elevator, which I like since I don’t have to walk down long narrow hallways with nothing but cabin doors (that was nearly claustrophobic for me – really got the feeling we were on a ship at that point).

 

Took yet more photos from our cabin and then we did just a little bit more exploring. Not much, though, because the muster drill was scheduled to start after 4 and I wanted to start from our room.

 

That was a painless procedure, though the staff might have looked more bored than your airline crew when going through the safety procedure. I was amused by whatever muckity-muck we had monitoring our drill… as she was in a suit with a short tight skirt, dark stockings, heels, and her orange life jacket. Hee. Hee.

 

We had the late dinner, which was 8:15. I was initially concerned about this because, dear god, it’s 11:15 body time and I usually don’t adjust well to PST. However, staying up until midnight PST on my first night there certainly ensured that I did adjust quickly.

 

Another line to enter the dining room and we were eventually escorted to our table, which was a booth for four. Uh-oh. Who were we going to get seated with? How’s it going to work out? Well, our tablemates are a newlywed couple, about our age, named Jonathon and Sarah. We had enough in common to make it work – sports, chocolate, our names, and Sarah and I have similar professions.

 

Our assistant waiter, a lady from Thailand, is a bit brusque, but very efficient. Our waiter, a gentleman from Indonesia, has a wicked sense of humor and so that was really fun.

 

So Sarah ordered the Spa (aka “lite”) version of their Gazpacho soup. He said “Your gazpacho” then presented her with a plate that had… a peeled cherry tomato with some scallion shavings around it, then he walked off. We all couldn’t help it; we laughed. It was a cherry tomato. That was it.

 

A minute or say later, he walked up and said, “I believe you are looking for this?” and poured in the soup. When our entrees came out, Jonathon’s came without the mac & cheese and by this point we KNEW he was playing with us. So, since I’d ordered the same thing, I handed Jonathon my mac & cheese and we ate like nothing had happened. We succeeded in confusing our waiter, who laughed. For those who care, I got the cocktail shrimp for my appetizer and the New York Strip for dinner. Jeremy thought the steak was bland but I thought it was fairly tasty. The mac & cheese was creamy and really really good. For dessert, I got the Black Forest Gateau, which was surprisingly light.

 

Once dinner was done, Jeremy all but carried me back to our room, where we crawled into bed and fell asleep.[/font][/color]

[sarbah77]

Day 3

 

Woke up at 6:15am and… rejoiced. It was 6:15am! I slept for EIGHT SOLID HOURS WAHOO!!!

 

We made it to the sit-down breakfast, right after 8am. I think next time? I’m asking for a table for two. We were seated with two other couples, but much older than us. The couple across from us were fairly nice, but she talked NON-stop. Jeremy described her as “salt of the earth” type of person. Hard worker, firmly middle class, and a slight chip on her shoulder… from mis-behaved children to the accented staff which, she said “don’t speak so good English.” Right on, lady, and they’re not the only ones!! The other couple was kind of neat. She was from the Phillipines and he was a native Texan, yet they (like the first couple) were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary. He answered his cell phone THREE times at breakfast. For petessake!!!

 

Anyway, we did eventually escape and we wandered through the ship again, this time looking through the open gift shops. We were successful on our single mission, however, and that was finding someone who would help Jeremy tie his tie. Actually, we’d gone for instructions. Instead, he found someone who would do it, who refused the tip, and sent him on his merry way. Cool.

 

I, of course, napped (tough life, huh?) for about an hour to an hour and a half… and then it was time for lunch (on a cruise ship OR WHAT?). We went back to the Lido deck, as there was nothing that would motivate us to do a more traditional sit-down meal at that time. Once again, oh man, the crowds. But it was better organized, people knew what they were doing, and it felt less hectic. In the grand tradition of buffet foods, we started in the Asian line (got some sort of rice noodles, something that was totally tasteless, and shrimp filled egg rolls) and then found the Grill (where I eventually got myself a tasty hot dog but first grabbed some yummy McD style fries without the McD level grease), and eventually, a few desserts (the cheesecake was HORRID).

 

We’d gone to lunch prepared – coats and camera – so we went for another walk around the ship, eventually ending up at the bow for almost an hour. It was windy and chilly but the scenery was certainly worth the time we spent.

 

The day started off pretty calm (like, when we woke up at 6:15am). Then, as we got to more open seas, it got much rougher, eventually calming down once we were protected on both sides by land. Not a warm day in the slightest, as I think we got the low 50s with occasionally light rain.

 

Once bored and chilled, we headed inside, got some drinks, and then settled in some comfy chairs in front of the windows and debated what to do next. We debated until it was time for ice cream sundaes. Oh, okay, sure.

 

One thing I’ve noticed thus far is that people tend to treat the staff like they don’t exist or the people have manners. Now, it’s a bit of a two way street. The bartender we had today? Couldn’t have cared less if we stopped breathing on the spot. The guy who gave me my strawberry sauce for my sundae? Big happy smile when I called him “sir” and then thanked him for the sauce. Duh.

 

After a little more wandering, it was back to our room where, you got it, we took another nap. Of course, we missed the opportunity to see two humpback whales. The ship has a naturalist, which is handy, so she came on the intercom system and said “whales!” and a few minutes later “okay, they went back into hiding, sorry guys.” We set the TV to the station where she’d broadcast and fell right asleep. I woke up once when she said we were getting to the pretty area sooner then expected and then we both woke up for good when she made another announcement.

 

Since that announcement, we’ve seen two bald eagles, thanks to her, and a gorgeous waterfall. I’m loving our balcony, which is where I’m typing now. I’ve taken well over 400 pictures so far and as soon as I hit save, I’m going to download those photos!

 

Day 3 cont.

 

Well, Jeremy took advantage of our late dinner and went to go for a run on the treadmill while I sat and typed and watched the world go by. Tonight was the first of the two cruise “elegant” nights. Whatever. I hate getting all dressed up since dresses so rarely fit me properly. I mean, the one I had fit BUT it was uncomfortable.

 

Tonight was also “lobster” night where, you got it, we were served lobster tails. I think our waiter was disappointed that none of us got more than one but none of us had the appetite. He also told corny jokes. “I didn’t get a good night’s sleep,” he said. “There were two cats below me. All I hear was ‘noooooooow’ ‘not noooooooooow’.” Har har har.

 

Then… we went to bed. It’s a tough life.

[Seawishes]

I'm enjoying this...even though I'll be going the opposite way in a few weeks. Thanks for posting for everyone to see.

[Krazy Kruizers]

Wonderful so far!!

[sarbah77]

Thanks for the kind words!!

 

Day 4

I woke up at 4:26, side muscles all cramped up and I’ve spent the day fighting to get them to loosen up. I think around 5:30 am we both gave up and got up, and watched the ship pull into Ketchikan. Jeremy went for a run, this time on the jogging track, at 6am and we left our room for breakfast and touring around 7:30.

This time, since we were in a bit more of a rush, we got a table for two and we were in and out fairly rapidly.

Our first stop?! The Visitor’s Center, where we snagged the Walking Tour Map. This brought us around some salmon runs (too early), by Creek Street, and various totem poles and other scenic things.

And… an IGA. ALRIGHT! CAFFEINE! We paid the extortion in order to get a 12 pack of soda ($6.99! yeehaw!) and then carried it with us for the rest of our walk. Which included a detour to take a picture of a large brown bird. Lucky for us, the natives confirmed that it was an immature (under 5yr old) bald eagle. Jeremy got fairly close and we should have some decent pictures.

Pleased with our discovery (and the fact that we’d had the city to ourselves first thing), we returned to our room, dropped off our soda, and headed out again, but to shop. I could not convince myself to pay $93 for ¾ of an ounce of Qivuit yarn. It’s the hardest to find of all yarns out there… but even I have my limits. I did pick up some lace weight yarn, hand-dyed in Anchorage. At the jade store, I also got a necklace and a pin for my mom. We also got some post cards that we’ll mail out form Juneau (better than nothing).

We went up to the Lido deck at 11, only to encounter long lines at the deli and the pizza place. Turns out that lunch doesn’t start till noon – how, er, charming? We got pizza and apples and we survived. Yet we still managed to be some of the last people on the boat for our excursion, which was the Misty Fjords Wilderness Explorer by Allen Marine, which we bought through the ship. Once the boat pushed off, one of the staff members removed the “handicap only” signs from the seats and I bolted there so we would have a great view… for a while.

Once we got to Misty Fjords, which is where we were headed, we gave up our seats and went to the upper deck and I proceeded to take a billion and a half photos of the fjords, of waterfalls, of orcas (!!!), of harbor seals, and yet more bald eagles.

(whoops – break for a humpback whale and a bald eagle escorting us out of Ketchikan!)

It was a great tour with lots of fabulous scenery. I have a ton of pictures to sort through.

We went straight from the tour boat back to the ship to the ice cream machine. Ha. We then went to our balcony to see if we’d get to watch anyone run for the boat but by 10 of 5, everyone was on and the gangplanks were removed. Rats!

Day 4 cont.

Dinner was a sedate affair, as our tablemates didn’t turn up. It went remarkably speedily, instead. However, with dessert, Archie presented Jeremy a side of ice cream… and I couldn’t tell if it was two scoops or three. (The first night, Jeremy had one. The next, he’d requested two)

Once we walked out of the dinning room, we saw everyone standing outside… there was a beautiful orange sunset. We went racing up to our room in order to grab our own photos. I hope some come out.

++++

For the dedicated, I have all my pictures SO FAR up at:

Later, on flickr, I'll have a "highlights" folder of the best pictures. Right now, these are all the ones I liked!

[Podie]

GREAT photos! Thanks! I have about 325 days to go until my northbound Spirit cruise!

[sarbah77]

THANKS! :)

 

Day 5

 

Today was hiking on a glacier day! We were excited by the weather forecast, which said partly cloudy and 79 degrees. Realizing, of course, that this is a temperate rainforest, we packed the recommended clothing and set off for the meeting place. And, of course, it was NOT 79 AND it was raining. Bummer. Such was the day – rainy and a bit chilly, but we survived.

 

This excursion was with Above & Beyond Alaska and our tour guide was Dave. We got relatively few photos because it was raining that hard (and I’m a dumbass who managed to soak her little pouch for the extra lens). It was a HARD walk. Nothing in the literature indicated it would have been that hard and, to be honest, if I’d known, I may not have chosen this excursion. There was a LOT of scrambling over (rain-coated) rocks, that had been carved via glacier movement. This was both up AND down, much of which required finding foot and hand holds and then pulling or lowering myself to the appropriate location.

 

Once we got to the Mendenhall Glacier, we were outfitted with helmets (we already had rain ponchos), harnesses, ice axes, and crampons… and then we were off. Then the rain started in earnest. So, yeah, standing on a glacier, with a breeze, in the pouring rain. I was very wet and very cold but OH MAN. It was just amazing. And blue. And wow. It was – is, really – nearly completely indescribable. We spent well over an hour on the glacier before we headed back.

 

Of course, both of us each took a good fall. I landed on my right hand, which is better now, but still sore. It immediately stiffened up and hurt so badly I needed Jeremy to take off my hiking boots for me.

 

Back on the ship, we showered and turned back around. I promptly sent texts to everyone I knew, forgetting TOTALLY about the four hour time difference. I’m a dumbass. I did manage to get a few replies but I think I owe everyone apologies tomorrow.

 

Oh, and of course, the sun came out on our way back.

 

We decided to spend the $25 a person and go to the top of Mt. Roberts via the tram. It was time very well spent with pretty views of both the surrounding mountains, the city below, and the Carnival Spirit.

 

Once we were done with that, we wandered towards the “locals” part of town (you know, past all the ship-owned shops) to see if there was anything worth buying. Not so much, but that was fine by us, and we went back to the ship.

 

Tonight’s dinner was… highlighted by Jeremy’s dessert. See, we’d also noticed this older couple in our section who sat mostly in silence; the husband always looking bored. So, Jeremy’s dessert arrived… with FOUR scoops of ice cream. The three of us were laughing SO hard that it attracted the attention of bored old man who pulled Archie aside to ask him about the fuss and… all the ice cream. Once he was clued in, he spent a lot of time laughing, as well.

 

Archie is, indeed, sneaky-sneaky!

 

Bed time and the end of day 4. Day 5 is another early day… I hope I can move.

 

 

 

Post-note: I thought the tram was worth it, I'm not sure my husband did. For me it was nice and calm and peaceful, like much of our day had been (you know, just us and a few other people). Since it was completely clear when we made it up there, it was nice to just relax and look around. Probably more worth it if it's nice all day and you have the time to ride up more than once!

[sarbah77]

Day 6

Day 6 in Skagway dawned painfully early. Emphasis on the painful part. Yep, sore sore sore as the result of Juneau’s hike. Kind of the same effect that marathoners end up with, post marathon. I spent the day walking down the stairs backwards.

After a quick (and late! But they included the milk that we’d forgotten to request) breakfast from room service, we left our cabin in search of our tour – the Eagle Preserve Wilderness Adventure. And per the usual, we were the last to turn up, but it’s not exactly like we were late, so hey.

We were then loaded into a not-so-plush catamaran (alas, not like the one we rode in during the Ketchikan trip) and shipped off to Haines. From there, we were loaded into a bus to someone’s house (basically) and then bundled up and put in a jet boat.

Honest. Once off the bus, we were given jackets, headbands, gloves, and blankets. Jeremy and I were put in the back row of the boat (with a woman who was fretting that adventure meant we were likely to get wet – or something) and I really really appreciated all of it. We were in a jet boat for the trip, which was quite cool but quite enjoyable. The sun did come out and we ended up slightly pinker than we started. In theory, we were also supposed to hope to see a lot of wildlife but we only saw eagles, swans, and a mallard… but we did see a lot of very pretty scenery.

Per the usual, we were fed (and I find this super weird, really, that everything we do said “…and a snack” but we’re cruisers with 24/7 access to food so OMG NO FOOD?! And we’re not allowed to take food OFF the ship – especially opened non-pre-packaged foods into the fragile eco-system in Alaska). We got to “cook” our own hot dogs, they had nice clean bathrooms, and then we reversed the route (bus, ferry) and we were back in Skagway.

Jeremy and I limped (okay, I limped) into the “city” to look at it. Skagway, the parts we saw, was a combination of rustic and hippie. We walked into a café to get water and might as well have been at home in Ann Arbor. Then there were the buildings that looked like the old west style set up… and the cruise ship owned stores.

After an hour or so, we slowly made our way back to the ship where we passed a quiet evening.

 

Day 7

We had an early wake-up call this day, around 4am, as the ship started rocking and rolling. It appears that once we hit the open sea, well, the motion of the ocean got to us all. I’d just rolled on to my side so at first, I’d wondered if it was me. It wasn’t.

This was our day in Sitka, our only tender port on the cruise. While most of the ports we visited are islands, Sitka is the only one that has refused to build piers. (It was explained to us that the only place to do so would be 7 miles from town and the people feared that no one would ever come to town)

We’d signed up for the Bike & Hike, early in the morning, to get us to the island. I was a bit worried about the biking because I don’t do a lot of it but I ended up in better shape than I expected. It was a short bike ride – 3 miles round trip – and a short little walk.

From there, we were brought back downtown, where we walked around a bit, had a tasty lunch, and then limped (yup, still limping) out to Totem Park to look at the totem poles. I confess to being pretty whiny and Jeremy was very patient. We’d originally considered the raptor center but we’d seen a TON of bald eagles on the trip already, so it seemed anticlimactic.

The tender back to the ship was quite a wild ride. It was slightly stormy and the tide was rolling in, so we bounced our way back.

I think Sitka was Jeremy’s favorite port. For me, it was a close second to Juneau. I’d love to have the chance to revisit both of them.

It was also our LAST port – huzzah. We were pretty worn out from keeping active on all our excursions. One more day at seat (aka cruising the College Fjords) and our ship portion of the trip will be over!

 

+++

 

Another post-note: Sitka was my DH's favorite port. Our bike & hike was our least favorite excursion. We both wished (and, oddly, so did many people at breakfast) that we'd seen the town on our own without excursions. The downtown was a short walk from the tender and the totem park wasn't a super long walk from downtown. It also had DH's favorite shopping (all the Russian items!) and was just a very neat place to be.

[cruisernh]

Just read your whole review from my email. Thanks for that. I really enjoyed it thanks for sharing

[kellywhitehills]

I have enjoyed reading your review..Sitka was also a favorite port of ours..We were told the reason the cruise ships all tender is because the harbor is to shallow..

 

Kelly

[sarbah77]

I have enjoyed reading your review..Sitka was also a favorite port of ours..We were told the reason the cruise ships all tender is because the harbor is to shallow..

 

Kelly

 

The kids on the excursion told us the only place to build a pier would be 7 miles from town... and the town didn't want people being that far away. I can see that, especially with the HUGE amount of cruise ship owned stores right against the ships at the other ports!

[sarbah77]

Day 8

 

Today was our last day on the ship and our last “fun day at sea.” Ha. On the first day, Chris the cruise director said that we were going to have “fun fun fun!” but I think he forgot we were going to Alaska, it was a significantly older AND more family oriented crowd… so it wasn’t a typical fun day at sea. It was, however, warm (relatively) and sunny. Around 4pm, we got near entering the College Fjords, so Jeremy and I bundled up and went to the front of the ship on the Lido deck..

 

I ended up in the center of the area with an AMAZING view as we sailed then floated down into College Fjord. We got about 3 miles from the Harvard Glacier before the icebergs stopped us from getting any closer. All this with bright sun. Even the naturalist could only marvel at our amazing weather. It was still cold and windy but it was sunny and not a drop of rain. It was just amazing; like it was the pay off on the cruise. You’ll just have to admire our pictures to know how fabulous it really was.

 

We went back to our room to thaw out for a bit and watched as the ship turned so each side could see the glaciers and then watched as we sailed out. We then had one last dinner with our tablemates, said farewell, and then wandered on our way to pack and sleep.

 

Day 9

 

Disembarkation day. A very VERY long day. Very long. Started shortly after midnight with heartburn (so I thought) and eventually progressed into what we figure was food poisoning. For better or worse, I was done being ill by 6:30am. Better because we had to be out of our room by 7 and worse because I got about 3 hours of sleep. Not recommended.

 

As if that wasn’t bad enough (with the associated stomach cramping when I tried to drink water), Carnival totally messed up the whole disembarkation thing. Now, when we got on board in Vancouver, we cleared US Customs. Thus, when getting off the ship in Whittier, there were no customs to clear. Yet, they halted disembarkation for nearly 40 minutes, blaming it on the rain.

 

The rain? In Alaska? Oh, no! What do we do?

 

Very strange. In the end, the purser’s office told us just to cut and force our way off the ship in time to catch our taxi. What disorganized madness, really. It makes not a single bit of sense.

 

All of us – there were 18! – ended up running to catch our shuttle, the Alaskan Leopard Comedy Tour… who was running late. Go figure. I might have enjoyed this taxi more if I hadn’t been so ill. It involved tons of corny humor and a stop at Portage Glacier and a Wildlife Refuge.

 

Unfortunately, the Portage Glacier trip was marred by strong winds and a driving rain. It was pretty miserable so we didn’t really look at it. And in typical cruise ship passenger fashion, we were given “free” snacks… and everyone went running for them, except Jeremy and myself.

 

The Wildlife Sanctuary was pretty interesting but I stayed on the bus while most other people toured around. The driver was, unfortunately, feeling chatty and he talked non-stop. So much for napping!

 

Finally, we made it to Anchorage and we dropped off a number of people at the airport. Then, we argued with the driver and convinced him to drop us off at the Enterprise where we’d rented the car. I hate Enterprise but they were cheap. Next time, I will continue to avoid them. I put in a rental for something small like, hmm, probably not much bigger than my Pontiac Vibe. Their one car was getting an oil change, so they gave us a Chevy Silverado. A full size truck. What? No. We took it anyway and no, we weren’t charged an upgrade fee, but in these gas price days, it wasn’t exactly what we’d hoped for (and gas in Healy is as high as $5.28/gallon).

 

That said, it’s an incredibly comfortable ride. It has an extended cab, so we were able to put our luggage in the backseat with a ton of leftover room. Jeremy drove, I dozed and it was really really nice. It’s still a totally ridiculous car.

 

It took us a bit over 4 (or maybe 5, we lost track) hours to get from Anchorage to our bed and breakfast in Healy, which is 12 miles north of Denali National Park. We stopped at Best Buy to get an aux cable to listen to our iPods. We then stopped at Fred Meyer for groceries and supplies. Then we stopped at Denali View South where we sort of saw Mt. McKinley… then we made it to the B&B (Aspen Haus - highly recommended). I walked up to the front door with my bible – aka my shiny blue Michigan folder – only to discover the co-owner is a U of Iowa grad. Ha.

 

Our room is this cute little room – well, compared to our cabin on the ship, it is palatial. It’s got four beds; a queen and two twins. It’s got a little eating area, a kitchen sink, stovetop, microwave, and a mini fridge and freezer… with a shower in the bathroom. We look right at the Alaskan mountain range.

 

It’s also high summer in Alaska – and we are way far north. It was bright at 2:30am, relatively speaking. Jeremy said it was very bright at 11pm, too. When I woke up, confused as to what time it was, it wasn’t sunny day bright but there was no way it was 2am dark. We’d kind of hoped to have the chance to look for the Northern Lights but I don’t think it actually gets dark enough for us to do so.

[sarbah77]

Just read your whole review from my email. Thanks for that. I really enjoyed it thanks for sharing

 

I'm glad you enjoyed it!! Sorry I'm not brief! :)

[Tinker326]

I just wanted to say that I looked at your pictures as we are doing this exact cruise next year & you take breathtaking photos- I hope mine turn out half as good as yours.

 

I have a Canon Rebel Xti- but still learning how to use it!

 

Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos!

[sarbah77]

I just wanted to say that I looked at your pictures as we are doing this exact cruise next year & you take breathtaking photos- I hope mine turn out half as good as yours.

 

I have a Canon Rebel Xti- but still learning how to use it!

 

Thanks for sharing those beautiful photos!

 

Wow, thanks! I used a Nikon D40 with a telephoto lens, so they're pretty similar cameras.

 

Day 10

 

Today was Denali National Park Day. We had reservations on the 7am shuttle to the Eielson Visitor Center and it was touch and go, as to whether or not I would make it… I knew I’d be on a school bus for eight hours and if my stomach still hurt? Well, that didn’t sound like fun.

 

I crashed just before 9 last night and woke up when the alarm went off at 5:40 and then dawdled for a bit. Until I noticed that it was a stunningly clear sunny day outside… and that my chances were very good of seeing Mt. McKinley. I shoo’d Jeremy out the door and we made it in time.

 

It was almost a 9 hour bus ride, but that includes rest stops and viewing stops. We saw moose, caribou, Dall Sheep, wolves, fox, and, oh yeah, grizzly bear. Plus… Mt. McKinley! Clear and bright all day long with not a cloud blocking her view (okay, so there were some clouds but nothing blocking the view). It was a good day.

 

Not much else to say about it, really. It was a school bus, but with individual seats, rather than bench seats. We got lucky and had a driver who narrated, which they aren’t expected to do. The weather was great. Our bus companions were congenial. It was very dusty. The road isn’t paved after the first 17 miles so of course it’ll be dusty on a dry sunny day. I was pretty filthy (my hair felt matted!!) when we were done.

 

My stomach is still a little urpy and I can’t pin down what for. I ate a pb&j sandwich with some Baked Lays chips for lunch and I was pretty okay. I was not okay with some regular Lays chips later. The homemade cranberry bread, provided by the bed & breakfast was not a problem. Perhaps it was the amount of dairy in the chips. Perhaps I needed more water. Perhaps my stomach just hurt.

 

Day 11

 

Today was our “free” day. We had no plans that were carved in stone, but we had a few ideas of what we wanted to do, based on weather conditions. If we’d had a day like yesterday, then we were going to haul down to Talkeetna and take a flight seeing tour, with a Ruth Glacier landing. If it was overcast, we’d go for a walk/hike in Denali. If it was rainy, well, how much rain? Lots? Perhaps a day of cribbage. Scattered rain? Fairbanks!

 

Right. Well, we considered Denali, but I hadn’t yet eaten a real meal and that much activity sounded pretty unwise. And it was entirely overcast, so there was no need to go back to Talkeetna. But Fairbanks is nearly at the 65th parallel and we may never be that far north again… so off to Fairbanks we went, merely to say we were far north.

 

Jeremy did some internet/web searching for what to do in the area and we had our trusty Milepost book with us, so we agreed that our first stop was going to be Pioneer Park. It was nearly 2 hours north, with a lot of winding hills, but we made it. Pioneer Park has all the tacky ambience of a town fair but without the silly prices. It’s a town park, so it cost nothing to go in and it had the Furthest North Mini-Golf Course in the U.S. Sign ME up! And at $6.50 for 36 holes, it wasn’t going to be that high quality a course. It wasn’t but we had fun, goofing around. We had a family of six start behind us and in a rare turn of events, we let them play through. There was no rush and they were being kids and running from hole to hole, so it made sense to let them go ahead of us and run around, rather than have to wait for us.

 

After that, we wandered around the park, got some lunch, walked around once more and then got into the car and headed to the (town of) North Pole, Alaska. And promptly mailed postcards to a number of people. Took a few pictures, turned around and went back to Fairbanks, stopping by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum (commonly known as “the museum” like McKinley is “the mountain”). It was a brief history on the culture of each area of Alaska with other random things thrown in. we spent just over an hour and a half, which I think was the perfect time spent. This museum is known for having the 36,000 year old mummy of a musk ox, called Blue Babe. How cool is that?

 

We went back to our bed and breakfast and FINALLY paid up. Ha. We arrived on Wednesday and we were shoo’d to our suite. On Thursday, we were gone all day and when we got back, they were heading out for an anniversary dinner. So, yeah, finally paid up, told them about our stay, and how we ended up with a full size truck instead of a intermediate sedan. She laughed and agreed that for $84, she’d have the car back at noon, too!

 

Jeremy and I agreed, as we packed up, that we didn’t really feel like maximizing our time in Anchorage and knew we were going to end up sitting in the airport all afternoon, but that was fine by us. As we packed, the rain came pouring down, and it was a nice quiet evening to end our trip.

[Podie]

I really enjoyed your review! I'm counting the days to my first cruise next May. By the way, my mother was from Ann Arbor. Do you know anyone named Drysdale?

[sarbah77]

I really enjoyed your review! I'm counting the days to my first cruise next May. By the way, my mother was from Ann Arbor. Do you know anyone named Drysdale?

 

Thanks!

 

I do not know anyone named Drysdale. I'm not a native so I don't know a lot of people here in town.

 

And finally, the last bit!:

 

Day 12

 

Today is the last day of the trip, technically. We weren’t sure how long it would take us to get back to Anchorage, as we hadn’t paid a lot of attention on how long it had taken us to get to Denali. We left at 6:10am and we made it to the Enterprise at about 10:45. Enterprise’s motto is “we’ll pick you up” but this one has the unwritten tagline of “unless of course you’re going to the airport, sorry” but I knew that when I made the reservation. So our counter agent picked up the phone and called for a cab, which arrived about 5 minutes after we finished the check-in process.

 

It was a surprisingly CHEAP taxi ride - $12.50 to the airport and we were here by 11:15am. For a 7:05pm flight. Northwest allowed us to check our luggage. We waited MAYBE 10 minutes to get through security and then we found the observation deck to look around. Which had seats. And power outlets. Did I mention that Anchorage airport offers free wireless internet? No kidding. Watching planes land and depart (especially the massive Asian cargo planes!) was a nice way to pass the time, with a laptop in my lap, and mp3s playing through Jeremy’s computer.

 

As of this typing, our plane has arrived and the arriving passengers are getting off. We’ve moved down to our gate and we’re just watching the crowds move through. Another hour, knock wood, till we board. A six hour flight, a four hour time difference, and then we’re back in Detroit. Hopefully with our luggage!

 

Day 15/Day 16

 

Well, we’re home and with our luggage. Other than a screaming small child for the first hour of the flight, it wasn’t bad. I firmly believe that a mobile child really needs his or her own seat. Forcing that kid to sit in your lap for six hours is a recipe for a disaster, especially on a red eye. Not only was the poor child cramped, s/he was out of his normal routine with nowhere to stretch out and nap. Mom would say “shh” and Dad would read a book. That was fun… and right across the aisle from me.

 

In the end, some other thoughts:

 

The cruise was fun. Am I hooked on cruising? Probably not. Would I be a balcony snob, if we cruised again? Probably. Having our balcony was lovely to just go, be alone, but not be hiding in our room. And the chance to admire the Alaskan scenery was entirely worth it.

 

Carnival can have a party reputation but not in Alaska. I knew this going in. I’d rather it had been more of a party atmosphere. Our tablemates, who had cruised Carnival before, said the Caribbean cruise was more fun with more pleasant people, probably drunker people. Our ship was full of mostly rude and definitely older people – not that the older people were the rude ones (probably the twenty-somethings were the meanest to the ship's crew).

 

Also, I have learned that you should never get between a cruiser and his food. They’re scary rude and nasty. For this reason, we generally avoided the buffet and the Lido deck. People would see nothing wrong with not stepping aside or sharing a walkway with you and then blaming you when they walked in to you with their food.

 

There was definitely quite a bit of the cruise ships owned stores in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. We used the “shopping guides” that were handed out as a “where not to shop.” We’re not big souvenir shoppers anyway but that did make it much easier to know who to avoid.

 

I didn’t mind the ship excursions. We deliberately picked half day ones so we could go off on our own. This allowed us to take walking tours of each town that the visitor’s center set up for you. This was a great combination for us. We got to see some of the stuff that cost money and we got the chance to see the town. Also, I noticed that all of the Carnival excursions THAT WE TOOK were staffed by resident Alaskans. Not that they all grew up in Alaska, but they’re all residents. No summer help from out of state on any of the trips we made.

 

I don’t know if I ever mentioned it but after we left Juneau, we didn’t really see a proper sunset and sunrise until last night/this morning. We watched the sun go down behind the clouds and flew home in darkness. We watched the sun rise as we were ferried home. It was that light, especially when we were north of Denali National Park. It didn’t terribly mess with our sleep schedule, which was pretty cool.

 

Alaskans might be the nicest Americans I’ve ever met. It was strange, sort of. I guess I expected more resentment in the ports, for the cruise ship passengers, or something, but it wasn’t really there. This might be because we skipped the cruise ship stores (generally) and shopped in the more local stores. But if we were near a crosswalk, cars would stop and wave us across (and we weren’t even playing chicken with the cars). When we were in our rental, people would simply wave as we drove by. Everyone was polite and had a hello for us. Teenagers – the girls of the age to be snotty – were always way friendly and chatty, even when one set was being ignored by the salesclerk. They just chatted with us until the clerk remembered their sodas.

Our next trip is more likely to be a land-based trip, if possible. We'd love to fly into Fairbanks, spend more time around Denali National Park, and explore more of the roads around the area. We'd like to see some of Anchorage and then we'd both like to see more of Sitka and Juneau. But for now, for us, and our vacation time and dollars (and hopeful move out of state) will have us exploring new to us places!

[sarbah77]

Hi everyone,

 

Finally got the "highlights" of my trip up on flickr - here's the link:

 

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy!

[Minoushka]

I'm so glad I found this post .Great pictures and it tells me since I chose similar things to do that I picked right

Alaska reminds me of our Laurentians and Scandinavia .I love that kind of scenery

Fabulous pictures

Congrats

Hopefully we will be there this July .I hope I can get similar pictures .Real happy you got to see Orcas because we will not go see them in Victoria

Thanks again for posting