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

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...

Looking forward to your review. Doing Alaska on Miracle May 28th and we are also booked in a 7A.

Thanks for doing this, can't wait to hear about it, we'll be getting on the Miracle a week from today :D

How was the weather? ;)

Thanks for starting this tread with a fresh review hot off the boat

Looking forward to your review, we're on the Miracle to Alaska August 20, 2013. Really looking forward to this cruise, first time to Alaska. I hope you got some picture of the ship. We'll be on the Empress deck midship with a balcony - my first requirement to go on a cruise.:p

Great start! I hope to take an Alaskan cruise next year. Looking forward to more! :)

Curious to hear if you made it very far into Tracy Arm Fjord and/or Glacier Bay.

Can't wait to read rest of your review. We are sailing Miracle on May 21, 2013. This is our first cruise to Alaska and first balcony (7256) and very excited.

Thanks for sharing!!!!

I was hoping someone from the first Miracle cruise to Alaska would start a review. We sail 5 weeks from today.

Looking forward to the rest of your review...

Will you please post afterwards about which nights are 'cruise elegant'? Since this cruise - I'm sailing 7/23/13 - has its 4 port days at the end of the cruise, with the final night a 7pm-11pm in Victoria, BC., I would find it odd to have the 2nd formal night then. Have a fabulous cruise!!

Can't wait for more. Been looking forward to Alaska reviews!

Looking forward to your review. Can't wait for more pics.

You are right, the prices for this cruise were unbelievable. I wish we could have taken advantage of them. Work restrictions wouldn't allow April.

:):)

Mel

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!

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

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!

Loving the review and seeing all the pictures. Keep it coming, I have 6 weeks to wait and this will help it move along. Thanks

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.

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?!?

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!

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

The sun sets on day one...

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 was literally just looking at this cruise for the end of next April to book. Just waiting on the go ahead from my hubs and I flipped over to cruise critic to check out the carnival threads and here is this fantastic review!! I can't wait!

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! ;)

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!