Jenbo57

I'm enjoying your review and pics and reliving the cruise. Thanks!

You're welcome! Glad you made it home safely.

We sure had a great time... :D

Just a few miles further and I reached Emerald Lake. I thought about driving all the way up to Whitehorse, but I'd seen pretty much everything I wanted to see, so this was my turnaround point.

The lake on May 3, 2013

The lake in early June, 2011

Quite a difference, but beautiful, either way!!!

Montana Mountain

On the way back, I pulled into the boat launch on Tutshi Lake. I really wanted to get to the water's edge to see how thick the ice was, but I couldn't tell where the snow left off and the lake began. No one knew I was there and I had no cell phone coverage; if I'd gone in, they wouldn't find me 'til the thaw!

Taken from the overlook on the road to Dyea. I wish I'd gone all the way into Dyea; it's largely abandoned now, but would probably be an interesting place to look around. Next time!

I gassed the car up ($4.30/gallon) and returned it to Avis at around 1:00 p.m. I wanted to get back on the ship for lunch and to find Joe, to see what his plans were for the rest of the day.

Next up: The Days of '98 Show

Carcross is one of those blink and you might miss it places, but it's worth a look. There's the wreck of an old stern wheeler, the S.S. Tutshi, a nice visitor's center, a general store, and it's just kind of fun to poke around. As I said, it was pretty much boarded up, so I just kind of drove through and headed back out onto the highway. (It's worth noting that a woman I stopped to talk to said that the snow should have been gone by now, but that April had been pretty brutal. She thought the visitor's center would be opening in another week.)

Just up the road is the Carcross Desert. Not really a desert; it's the remains of an ancient lake. Worth stopping for...

Beautiful Tutshi Lake, which goes on for miles

I don't know why, but I think it's cool to be able to tell people you've been to the Yukon!

Bove Island, on Tagish Lake

I was really looking forward to Skagway, because once again I was renting a car (through Avis) and driving the Klondike Highway up the Yukon. I had driven up there before -- also with my brother -- in June of 2011, and couldn't wait to see all that beautiful scenery again!

The weather looked a little dreary as we pulled in, but at least it wasn't raining. It cleared up as the day went on, but wow...talk about wind! It was really howling up Lynn Canal, so much so that when we departed that night, they shut down the upper decks and wouldn't let us out there to take pictures.

I got to Avis a little after 8:00, and was the second person in there. I got helped right away, and was out the door by about 8:20. I headed out the Klondike Highway and almost immediately was surrounded by the most dense fog I had ever seen! I wish I'd been able to take a picture -- white everywhere! Between the fog and the fact that, as I got higher up the pass, everything around me was covered in snow, it was like the twilight zone! I was a little bit disappointed that because of all the snow (and the fact I could barely see) I couldn't pull off to take pictures at some of the places I had in 2011, but it was still an incredible drive, both up and back. The fog cleared out a couple of miles beyond the summit, and the sun was out! I stopped in Carcross (still boarded up for the winter) and the Carcross Desert, then turned around at Emerald Lake to return to Skagway. The lake was frozen, which I'm sure was a disappointment for those on tours who'd heard about how beautiful it is, but I loved seeing it that way.

Not looking too good upon our arrival...

If you book the White Pass & Yukon Railroad tour through the cruise line, you board the train just off the ship, on the pier!

On my way to Avis

Very nice review Jen. This makes me homesick for Alaska again. We cruised about 4 years ago and loved it.

 

So, tell me about the train ride. You flew into Seattle then took the train to your embarkation port?

We live across Puget Sound from Seattle, so we drove to the Amtrak station (I had my son ride along and then take my car home), which took about an hour, and got on the train there. We could have taken the ferry across, and cabbed to the train station, but it would have meant getting up even earlier than we already had to! :D

Living locally, it's a lot easier for these to do these Alaska cruises than it is for most. I'm thinking about looking for a deal at the end of the season this year and going back up again; if not, I'll go back next year or the year after...

We just got off the Miracle on the 29th from the Hawaii cruise and were in #5235....right next door. Was Sunny your cabin steward ? She is indeed absolutely fabulous....such a sweetheart too ! Liliana in the casino was another that I loved talking with....hated to have to leave the ship as I knew that we would miss both of these lovely people !

Sunny was our steward -- we loved her! Our sailing was her last after 12 years with Carnival; she flew home to Bulgaria the day we arrived in Seattle. She came up to our cabin on the last night and we had a drink with her and toasted to her future success! Such a sweetheart!

Do you remember what time the main dining room is open for breakfast?

AND

I'm wondereing about the temperature inside. I realize in mid-June that the outside temps will be cooler than in Missouri, but am guessing that packing for evenings indoors will be the same as any other cruise. Right?

The MDR opened at 6:30 a.m. on port days, 7:30 a.m. the day we were in Glacier Bay, and 9:30 a.m. on sea days, for the Punchliner Comedy Brunch.

I didn't notice that the indoor temps were cooler than usual, and I didn't hear anyone comment on being cold.

By the time 8:00 rolled around, we'd found out that a lot of folks who had planned on meeting up at the Red Dog had gone in there earlier in the day and didn't want to go back out. Five of us ended up meeting up for a drink or two, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. If you've never been, make a point to stop in and at least look around. Typical bar food, and a great atmosphere. It was nice that we were the only ship in port; the place was not crowded at all (I've been in Juneau where the place was so packed they couldn't let anyone else inside).

If you're going up later this season on the Miracle, see if you can find this and add your sailing date/names below it! (Writing on the walls is encouraged; bring Sharpies!)

Leaving Juneau behind

Tomorrow: Skagway!

After whale watching I went back to the ship to eat some lunch and dry off before heading out again for some shopping. I had planned on visiting the Alaska State Museum (neat little place), but when I had only been back out for a little while it really started pouring, so I hit the glacier silt soap shop and a couple of other places, visited Patsy Ann, and returned to the Miracle. We had planned a CC get-together at the Red Dog Saloon at 8:00 p.m., so I wanted to be rested/warm/dry for that!

Downtown Juneau from the bow of the ship

Douglas Island, from our balcony

Downtown Juneau

Everyone's always on the lookout for eagles, but I love the ravens!

A visit to Juneau is not complete until you've stopped by to see Patsy Ann! http://www.patsyann.com/story/index.htm

While I was watching the whales, Joe went out to Mendenhall Glacier and then took the tram to the top of Mt. Roberts. So much snow at both places!

Here are some of his pictures from Mendenhall

The Mt. Roberts Tram

The ship from the tram

Obviously the trails were all covered with snow, but you could still go to the Nature Center and the restaurant/shops

The weather we had on Wednesday followed us up to Juneau: grey skies and rain for most of the day. We hadn't booked anything ahead of time, because I wanted to wait and see what the weather was like, so we walked off the ship at about 9:30 to see what we could find. Joe wanted to go out to Mendenhall Glacier; I was interested in either whale watching or a glacier viewing float plane trip. I knew the plane ride was probably out of the question. I didn't take any pictures of them (I could probably go and find some from previous trips), but there are tour kiosks set up all over the pier. I always tell people it is NOT necessary to book ahead; you will find pretty much anything you want to do being sold right there on the docks!

We ended up at Juneau Tours; I booked the 10:00 whale watching trip ($115), and Joe bought tickets with them to go out to Mendenhall for $16 RT (this is what everyone charges). I will say that Juneau Tours has better buses than almost everyone I see going out to the glacier; previously we've gone out there on MGT and their buses are old and kind of scary!

I LOVED my whale watching trip! I've seen the humpbacks in Mexico and Hawaii, so it was only natural that I'd want to see them in Alaska. We boarded a bus for the 15 or 20 minute ride out to Auke Bay, and then boarded the Rochelle B. The Rochelle B is a brand new boat, and this was their first tour of the season. I was one of four who got to sit up in the pilot house, which was great! Warm and cozy, and with great views. I picked up a pair of binoculars and became a whale spotter for the captain. We were out on the water for almost two hours, and during that time saw numerous orcas, and about four or five humpbacks. Federal regulations say that you have to stay 300 yards from the whales, so when you see them you get as close as the law permits, and then hope they come to you. Several orcas got close to the boat, but we had to enjoy the humpbacks from a distance. I didn't bring the better of my two cameras with me, so I didn't even attempt to take any pictures of any of them.

Boarding the Rochelle B

It was great to sit up here!

Heading out into Auke Bay

When we were sitting still in the water, folks could go out on the bow of the vessel.

NOT my photo, but once or twice, this is what we saw. The rest of the time we saw humps, but no flukes!

Once back at the dock, an eagle stands watch...

I know that there was a group of 12 from our CC roll call that were booked on an 8:30 whale watching tour with Harv & Marv that got canceled due to high wind warnings. Harv & Marv have much smaller boats than what I was on (but come highly recommended). I was glad to have waited to see what was available once I got to Juneau; it would have been really disappointing to have booked/paid for a tour that then got canceled.

Next: more Juneau!

While Tuesday had been a fantastic day at sea, Wednesday, well, wasn't... Zero visibility and rough seas for most of the day. I know I'm of the minority, but I love rough water, so it didn't bother me. I did hear, however, that there were people who got sick.

Skipped trivia to go see the on-board naturalist's presentation on glaciers and wildlife in Alaska; it was very interesting. Read, lost some more $$$ in the casino, and went to the VIFP past guest party. I feel kind of "if you've been to one, you've been to them all" about these events, but I always enjoy seeing if there's anyone on board who's done over a hundred cruises on Carnival. On my Liberty cruise in November, there was a guy who was on number 130. Crazy! The party had to deviate from the norm, because the video they always show wouldn't work, but it was a pleasant way to spent 30 minutes! Later in the evening we went to the Blues Brothers show, which was very entertaining (and which featured the cruise director, Chris Roberts, and the assistant cruise director, as the Blues Brothers). Went to bed early, because tomorrow: Juneau!

Quite different from Tuesday!

You know when the barf bags are taped up at all of the elevators, they figure people will be needing them!

We woke up to gorgeous blue skies and calm seas Tuesday morning. This was Joe's second cruise on Carnival, and he and his wife had won a SOAS on the first, so today we wanted to participate in as many trivia contests as we could, to try and win him #2! We arrived late to the first one, but sat anyway and listened to the questions. After that we went to the Trivial Pursuit Quiz, where we didn't fare all that well. The next game was Name That Kiss, where they showed famous love scenes on the screen and you had you had to list the movie they came from. We did well, but still not enough to win the coveted SOAS. Figuring we had many more chances to try, we weren't worried yet!

At 10:00 we wandered off to our CC/FB meet and greet, held in Frankenstein's Lab (a nightclub on deck 2). It was well attended, and it was great to meet so many of the people we'd been chatting with for the month before the cruise. One person had made us all door signs, another buttons to wear. It was fun wearing the buttons around the ship; many times people would stop us to ask where we'd gotten them! (Thanks Marie and Coral!)

The rest of the day was spent losing $$$ in the casino, admiring the scenery, and finding corners of the ship to hang out and read. This was the first Cruise Elegant night, so since neither of us had brought dressy clothes (not my thing on a cruise, especially on this itinerary), we ate dinner in the buffet. Actually, we ended up never setting foot in the MDR; Joe didn't want to, and, although I would have gone by myself without any problem, the buffet or grill were just fine. Let's just say we never went hungry!

Our door sign! (The buttons were similar.)

Beneath that splash is a humpback whale! (There were several of them out there; just couldn't get a picture of them, darn it!)

Later in the day, as we approached Grenville Channel, the scenery got more spectacular!

Lots of crew on the bow and on deck 9, forward, taking pictures. Many of them had never seen anything like this before.

Looking back towards the stern of the ship as we cruised Grenville Channel.

Here is where I have to voice my biggest complaint about doing this cruise on Carnival. On Celebrity, HAL, and NCL, the ships all had forward facing lounges with wrap around windows. If you didn't want to be outside (which, later on during this week, was certainly the case), but still wanted to watch the scenery as it came towards you, you could sit in the Navigator Lounge (Celebrity), Crow's Nest (HAL), or Spinnaker Lounge (NCL). Carnival has nothing similar on any of their ships. When I go back up to Alaska for the fifth time, next year or the year after, I'll go with one of those lines again, for that reason.

I'm just now realizing how tired I am, so I'll pick up tomorrow with sea day #1 (fantastic!), and sea day #2 (not fantastic!).

Stay tuned...

Love the pics of Vancouver ... you did us proud. Of course having the sun shine helps as well!!!!!!We are on the Miracle in September to Hawaii and I am looking forward to your views of the ship ...

I love Vancouver...so much so that I'll be back up there on Saturday for a one night cruise from Vancouver to Seattle on the Golden Princess! ;)

If I didn't live in the Seattle area, I'd have done all four of my Alaska cruises out of your beautiful city!

This was my second time on the Miracle; love this class of ship! I'll post ship pictures later on in my review!

Oh no. That last comment scares me a bit. We booked a 7A (5152) cabin due to the amazing price. I look forward to hearing about what you thought.

Hopefully the pictures will reassure you! ;)

How cool is that island? I want to live there!

The sun sets on day one...

We were scheduled to depart at 4:00 p.m., but in actuality it was 6:30 before we left. I heard varying stories of why that was: the ship had been late in arriving, it had been a 15-day sailing and took longer to offload whatever they offload (garbage, etc.?), they waited for people who were late in arriving, etc. Whatever it was, it really wasn't a big deal. I was hungry, but I wanted to stay outside to watch us go underneath the Lions Gate Bridge, so that's what I did!

Here we go...

Approaching Lions Gate Bridge...

And we're under!

Ok, so obviously these photos were not taken while we were still docked in Vancouver. I chose these because you really see what kind of views you're getting when you book one of these cabins. Did I LOVE it? No. Was I happy that at least I had a balcony? You betcha!

Sitting on my bed (closest to the balcony door), looking outside.

On the balcony, looking left.

On the balcony, looking straight ahead.

And looking down...

On the balcony, looking to the right.

Now that we've got that covered, let's do sailaway, shall we?!?

Cabin 5233; standard issue Carnival balcony cabin! Starboard side, very close to the stairs/elevators. Loved the location. (I also have bathroom pictures, but figured no one really wants to see them...)

The first thing Joe noticed was that we had one bed, instead of two. I told him not to worry...that our cabin steward would handle that (which she did). More on our cabin steward later; she was fabulous!

Next...the "dreaded" 7A balcony!

Up on deck we enjoyed the sunshine and the beautiful views of Vancouver while we waited for sailaway...

The train arrived in Vancouver right on schedule, our luggage was already waiting for us as we got off the train, and there were cabs waiting right outside the station. Sweet! The ride took less than 10 minutes, cost $10.50 (plus tip), and we were at Canada Place and inside the terminal (after handing our bags off to the porters) by about 12:15. Made it through security fairly quickly, and then got to immigration. We were directed to agent #7, where we stood and watched him spend at least 2 or 3 minutes cleaning up a minor coffee spill in his work area – with no acknowledgement whatsoever of us standing there! It was comical. He would wipe the same spot over, and over, and over, with Joe and I just standing there watching him. He knew we were there; just took his own sweet time about helping us. Not a big deal, just funny. I’ve never experienced anything like that before! Anyway…once his work area was again pristine, he checked our passports and we were on our way in less than a minute. On to the Carnival agent, where we once again experienced a minor blip when his computer did not want to cooperate. We chatted with him while we waited for the system to decide to work for us, and once that happened we had our S&S cards in no time, and the waiting began…

One thing to note is that we’d all received an e-mail from Carnival warning us not to arrive at the pier ‘til between 1:30 – 3:00. Not uncommon, but this one was a little bit different. Because this was an open loop cruise, they said that immigration was going to take a little bit longer than usual. They also didn’t want people getting there too early because the waiting area at Canada Place is not very big. It was pretty apparent that a lot folks had ignored the e-mail, because the waiting area was packed and the ship had not started loading yet. We were directed to our dedicated waiting area where we sat knees to knees with the people in the row of chairs facing us. Thankfully everyone was in good spirits, just eager to board the ship! They started boarding just before 1:00; we got on somewhere between 1:30 & 1:45 (I know…I should have been taking better notes)!

We went to our cabin, dropped off our carry-ons, and headed up to the lido deck for some lunch. When we finished and went back to our cabin, our luggage had arrived. Yay!

Our cab driver kindly stopped long enough for me to get a quick picture of the Miracle as we drove into the drop off area at the cruise terminal...

Hey...I can see my 7A balcony cabin!

Up the gangway and ready to cruise! :)

Wouldn't you love to have his job?!?

Next up...gorgeous Vancouver and sailaway!

North to Alaska on the Carnival Miracle – April 29, 2013

I always tell myself that I’m going to do a review after each of my cruises, but somehow never get around to doing it. This time, I took notes, and I’m starting the day I returned, so I might actually get something written. I love reading reviews, and especially looking at everyone’s photos, so if you enjoy that too, please stick around…I’ll try to make it worth your while!

First, a little history (boring, I know, but we need to set the tone here). This was my 7th cruise on Carnival (12th overall), and fourth time to Alaska. I cruised with my brother, Joe. It was his 6th time up there, so he’s the Alaska pro in the family! I had seen unbelievable pricing on this one in early April, and told Joe. Thankfully, we both have amazing spouses who either don’t quite share our enthusiasm for Alaska (mine) or couldn’t go due to work (his), and they both told us to go! Joe’s a licensed union plumber who is currently between jobs, and I haven’t worked in about a year due to some family obligations, so the timing was perfect! Joe doesn’t care what cabin he’s in, as long as he’s on a cruise; I, however, am a balcony snob. We booked the only balcony category that was left: 7A, obstructed view. Ok, enough with the intro…

Since this was a Vancouver/Alaska/Seattle itinerary, the first thing to take care of was lining up transportation to Vancouver. We’re across Puget Sound from Seattle, so this was simple. The options were: Amtrak, Bolt Bus, or Quick Coach. (I’ve done Quick Coach before and can recommend them.) Amtrak left Seattle an hour later than both buses, so we chose the train. (I didn’t really want to have to get up at 0-dark-thirty to get to Seattle for a 6:20 a.m. bus; it was bad enough having to be at Amtrak by 7:00!)

Embarkation Day - Seattle to Vancouver

We got to the train station at about 6:30 (I drove my car over with my son tagging along; he took my car home on the ferry and went back to bed!). We checked our luggage in were told that the conductor would begin assigning seats at around 7:00. I wandered around a bit and found some of the folks from our Cruise Critic/FB roll call and introduced myself. At 7:00 the seats were assigned and we boarded the train shortly thereafter. (Note: Ask for seats on the left side of the train if you want the scenic views.)

The train left promptly at 7:40 and we settled in for our four hour ride.

I didn't take a lot of pictures from the train, but here are a few...

You can see why you want to be on the left side of the train! During some parts of the trip you swear that you are actually IN the water! ;)

Ok, I've only been home three hours, so I've got to go start some more laundry, but I'll come back in a bit with embarkation!

Stay tuned...

Hopefully this photo will help. Notice the brown squares marked "Cabanas"; there are 20 of them, 15 representing cabanas and 5 representing villas. Starting at the bottom, the first seven squares are cabanas 1 - 7. The pirate bar is next (not shown on the map), and then the water sports center. The next three squares are three villas, followed by cabana 8, a villa, cabanas 9 - 12, another villa, and cabanas 13 - 15. I hope it makes sense.

We were there in November, when the villas were still under construction. Loved our cabana (#13); not impressed by the villas. If/when we go back, we'll aim for cabana 15, or better yet, just drag a couple of loungers further down the beach...

Here are a couple I took from the ship that give you an idea of the placement of the villas in relation to everything else.