Cruise Log - Carnival Spirit Southbound

[lmentzer]

Our trip began with a flight out of Reagan National, Washington D.C. We booked into the Fairfield Inn Midtown in Anchorage which told us when we booked that they had a 24 hour shuttle to and from the airport. We called the afternoon of our flight and they said, “Oh no. We don’t run our shuttle from 1:00 am to 5:00 am”. We actually got into Anchorage early at 12:15 am and just made the shuttle. Amazingly, it was still light outside and we would see no darkness for the next week. I know you hear about summer sun in Alaska, but until you see full daylight at 11:00 pm you don’t really understand! Sunset was at 11:30 and sunrise was at 4:00, but the sun never dipped far enough below the horizon that there was any real darkness. Thank God for black out curtains! The next day we drove to Anchorage’s Earthquake Park. Not much to see there, but as we walked into the main part we were attacked by humming bird sized mosquitoes …decided we didn’t want to see it that bad. We then went to the Millennium hotel to sit in the bar and watch the seaplanes land and take off…the biggest seaplane port in the US…if not the world. Had burgers and beer there. We checked with the lady at the Fairfield Inn reception and our next issue popped up. The lady said they may not be able to store our extra bags while we went to Denali, as they had promised when we booked our hotel reservation. At this point the Fairfield Inn deserved a one star for a review. For the next three days we had a great road trip to Denali Park. Since this is Cruise Critic, I’ll save the details of that trip for another venue.

 

Once we got back to Anchorage and checked back into the hotel, dinner was suggested by Larry at the Sourdough Saloon or something like that…another dining mistake…a major tourist trap. The food was so so, and expensive, but then again, everything in Alaska was EXPENSIVE. Hotels ran about $200 a night, for a hotel that in the lower 48 would cost MAYBE $100 a night. Food was pricey, running for a fairly nice dinner about $25 and up.

 

The next day we were up fairly early and off we drove down the Turnagain Arm to Portage (about an hour’s drive). Portage was the town that was totally destroyed in the 1964 earthquake and tsunami. We caught the MV Ptarmagin, and took an hour ride out in Portage Lake to the face of Portage Glacier. The boat stood off about 200 yards from the face, and we got to see the glacier up very close. Quite a sight. Once back, we drove down the lake to the visitor’s center where we could see the ice bergs that had piled up from calving off the glacier. Unfortunately we didn’t get to see any calving off while we were there. Portage Lake was interesting because it wasn’t even there 100 years ago. The Glacier has receded about 3 or 4 miles in that time and created the lake.

 

Today, June 17th, we finally board the Carnival Spirit. The shuttle to the cruise ship met us right on time at 7:00am, and off we went to Whittier to catch the boat. We got there about 9:00 even though we couldn’t get on the boat til noon or so. Better early than late…well, maybe this time it was a bit too early since there was absolutely nothing to see or do in Whittier. We had breakfast at a little restaurant, and then just hung around the terminal until it was time to board. Boarding was quick and easy, and we were all on by 1:00.

 

The boat didn’t actually leave Whittier until about 7:00 pm, so we had some time to just chill out. Then probably the biggest issue on the cruise came up: When we got our boarding passes, they said we had the late sitting for dinner. We went to see the maitre’ D to get switched. He told us we were wait-listed and he’d “try” to get us in the early dining. We said we had gotten an email confirming our early sitting, and he said “do you have it”. We said we didn’t, so he basically said, rather rudely, “Too Bad!” This was unacceptable so, we went down to the Internet café on the ship, paid $10 (Carnival internet costs are very high), and printed the confirmation email. We sent it down to the Maitre D and sure enough we got our early seating. We never did get an apology from the Maitre D. We had rooms that were called partially obscured. Actually the life boats were right in front of us, but the tops were right at the level of the bottom of our deck, so the only thing obscured was looking straight down at the water. They proved to be no problem at all. The rooms were very nice…although we had been spoiled by our last cruise because we had suites, much larger, and with a fancy bathroom with bath tub. We did spend a lot of time on the balcony watching for whales and at the mountains, so there is no question that a balcony room is a must for an Alaskan Cruise. We were advised that the best side of the boat for seeing things on the southbound route was the port (left) side, and that proved to be true.

 

On the first actual day of the cruise we woke up early so we could see the Harvard Glacier in the College Fjord. Kind of bad timing, because we were there at 6:15 in the morning! No sleeping in if you wanted to see everything. Got up just in time to take a few pictures and the boat took off toward Sitka. This was a full day of cruising, and while there were beautiful sights to see along the way, it was also a day to roam the boat, play the slot machines, graze in the buffet, and explore the ship. Two of our group began to realize that it is “cold” in Alaska! They didn’t really warm up for the whole cruise. Actually the temperature never got much below 45 degrees, but it was a very moist 45 and on the boat there was always wind. Two of us thought it was fine, usually a long sleeve shirt and a vest did well and a jacket when it was colder in the evening.

 

We woke up the next morning motoring into Sitka Bay. It was gorgeous. Lots of mountains, a volcano and lots of islands. We had to tender into Sitka, so the ship anchored a mile or so off shore. They launched the cruise ship motor boats to tender us in. We didn’t actually get on land until about 9:30. We met a cousin there, so except for saying that Sitka was a quaint little village, I can’t really say much for the excursions available. Sitka was a great port of call for us. That evening as we sat on the balcony we were treated to sightings of a huge pod of humpback whales, orcas and a ton of porpoises, exactly what you would expect to see.

 

The next morning we docked in Juneau at 8:00 and our Whale Watching excursion didn’t leave until 1:00, so after a leisurely breakfast we all went for a walk into town. It was only about a five or ten minute walk. The typical diamond and jewelry shops were plentiful, along with all the typical souvenirs you’d expect. We did find a pretty nice tavern and stopped in for a beer…then we realized it was almost time for us to catch the tour, so we sucked the beer down and made it back to the ship in about 6 minutes. We by bus out to where we’d catch the boat, and along the way stopped to see the Mendenhall Glacier in the distance. Even though we were a few miles away we could see just how big it was. We caught the boat and were off to see the whales. We cruised out for 15 or 20 minutes, and we saw a plume of spray about a mile away. The humpbacks were fairly easy to spot because when they surfaced, they would shoot water up 15 or 20 feet. We cruised over to see a momma and calf. First they would just roll out of the water, or flip up enough to see their tails. Then they started to jump. It was called lunge feeding, and they would leap straight up out of the water exposing most of their body. Occasionally they would leap completely out of the water giving us all a great view. They told us that they don’t see this behavior often, so we were very lucky to be so close. Cameras were clicking nonstop. We did get a few really good shots. After spending the best part of a half hour watching these two we took off again to find others. We did see a few, but none quite as spectacular as those first two. It was a thrill. We did stop and see a couple of sea lions and seals at a buoy, and saw a number of bald eagles. Bald eagles were just about everywhere in Alaska, and all in all we probably saw a dozen of them during the trip. We cruised back to land, and had a short bus ride back to the cruise ship.

 

Another early morning when we arrived in Skagway. We start our train trip up to White Pass at 7:30 and had to remember our passports because we would be going into Frasier B.C. The train cars on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad are vintage, but our trip didn’t use the steam engine. Skagway is very very small…it has a population year round of about 800, which more than doubles in the spring and summer with all the tour seasonal workers. Five minutes and we’re out of town and into the trees…another ten minutes and we start up the same route taken by the gold seekers in the 1800’s. Train goes slow, and the views of the valleys and mountains are great. We make two stops along the way to drop off hikers. After the second stop, the lady narrating comes on and says, “Now that we’ve dropped off all the bear bait, we will head up to the pass”. We cross the valley on a relatively new bridge, passing the old wooden one that went almost back to the gold rush days. The pass offers spectacular views, even as far back as the cruise ship in one place. It’s breath taking. We finally top the pass and get into what the tour guide calls Tormented Valley. It’s desolate, with spindly trees, rocks and little ponds of water everywhere. It’s hard to imagine how the miners survived so many years ago. We chugged through this barren land to finally stop in Frasier British Columbia. We were checked by Canadian Customs, and we left the train and boarded our bus for the ride back down to Skagway. It took the best part of an hour for the train to make the climb, and the bus would have made it back down in a half hour if not for a number of photo stops along the way. It seemed like no time to get back to Skagway. We stopped as part of the tour at an old Yukon gold dredge. It had been hauled out of the Yukon just so tourists could see it. It was interesting. While most of those folks on our tour then went to try the tourist gold panning. We searched out the new brewery located there. The Gold Rush Brewery. It had only started operations a couple of months earlier, so things were still brand new. They didn’t even have a sign on the brewery…but WE found it. After a very good beer, we got back on the bus and drove into Skagway. We got out in town and walked back to the ship. Along the way we stopped into the Red Onion Saloon for a beer. A famous, so they say, saloon and brothel. Two of our group didn’t go on the train, but did spend a couple of hours at a sled dog camp. The camp they visited was the largest in Alaska with more than 300 dogs in summer residence. While there, they got to talk to some mushers that had competed in the Iditarod and Yukon Quest and see lots of dogs…and even some pups. They went on a 2 mile sled ride with 15 dogs pulling them that was pretty cool. The sled was on wheels, but it was amazing how quickly the dogs pulled its 2500 lbs.

 

The next morning we docked in Ketchikan. This was the port that four of the six of us had decided to forego an excursion and just do our own little walking tour. The two adventuresome of our group had decided that they would do a Zip Line here. Flying through the trees and repelling down from the tree tops was a little more than the rest of us wanted to try. When they got back they said they had a great time. In total they did more than 6000 feet of zipping and also went down a 200 foot mountain slide. The company was awesome, very safe and they would recommend it to anyone (www.alaskacanopy.com) . The rest of us made our short walking tour through town, saw Creek Street, and found a friendly bar to stop at for a beer. After meeting back up on the boat and telling all our tales of the day, we sat on our balcony, and drank wine and watched for wildlife, whales, and the mountains. Without doubt the Alaskan Range Mountains were the most striking views we had for almost the entire trip.

 

On our last day, we spent all day cruising the Inland Passage. As beautiful as the scenery was, it was not as awesome as the earlier mountains. British Columbia is so forested, green, and lush that it can’t be beat. We prowled the ship, ate when we wanted, and decided that we would do the supper club tonight. The supper club was super and well worth the $30 it costs us! There were special courses, fantastic service, beautiful presentation, prime beef and lobster and so much more

 

We pulled into Vancouver early, and the ship did an excellent job of getting everyone off quickly. Our limo met us at the dock and swept us off to the River Rock Casino, which would be our hotel for the last night of our trip. We had booked a limo to take us from the cruise port to the hotel because we had seen here on Cruise Critic that taxi’s were difficult to get at the port. This worked out for us very well, although probably at bit more expensive, for four of us, it was quick and easy, and took a lot of the hassle out of this last day. The River Rock Casino proved to be a great hotel to spend the last night of our vacation in.

 

To see all our pics of Alaska, check out winotrips.com and click on our Alaska link.

[vegs1]

Great review. Thanks for posting!