Alaska Carnival Miracle May 7-14th

Ok, so this will be my first review so please don't be too critical.

First of all, let me give you a little background on us. It was my DH

Johnny, age 57 and Myself, Lisa age 48. DH has cruised, counting this

cruise 18 times & 16 times for me, all with Carnival. This is our first

Alaska Cruise.

May 5th, 2013...We left Nashville with temperatures in the 40's and rain

& arrive in Seattle to Sunny & 85 degrees!! Got an AMAZING look at

Mt. Rainier from our airplane window.

We stayed at Homewood Suites, Western Avenue for 2 nights before we

sailed. Nice Hotel. We got a great room on the 6th floor with a Bay View

which we thoroughly enjoyed. They had really good breakfast each morning

and Monday thru Thursday they have dinner, which turned to be quite

tasty. Our only problem with the hotel was our room was not ready at the

promised 3:00pm.

We had a 2 room Suite.

We spent Sunday afternoon & Monday exploring Seattle. Beautiful City!!

Everyone kept commenting about the weather, saying "This not typical weather

for us". We enjoyed it & took advantage of it!!

Sunday afternoon, while waiting for our room to get ready, we went to visit the

Space Needle and The Chihuly Blown Glass Exhibit. If you have time, don't miss either

of these!! Especially the blown glass exhibit!

Seattle from the Space Needle

Chihuly Blown Glass

More Chihuly Blown Glass (Can you tell I LOVED This stuff!!)

Space Needle

Sunset Over Olympic Mountains from our hotel room

Looking forward to your review. We were getting off the Miracle on the 7th as you were getting on.

Have to agree about the weather. The day we got off, it was warmer in Seattle than back in SC. It was a beautiful day to explore a great city.

Monday, May 6th. We took the Monorail downtown & walked down to Pike Place Market.

Took a ferry over to Bainbridge Island, just to ride the ferry.

This is where they throw the fish.

The Gum wall alley

The Waterfront Ferris Wheel

Tuesday, May 7th.

We headed to the port about 10:30am. Don't expect a lot when you get to the Port. We are used to sailing from Florida, mostly Miami, and this port has nothing on Miami.

If you are Platinum or Diamond, don't expect a lot of special treatment. We had to wait in line to give them our luggage then wait in another line until they allowed us upstairs to check in. The desk dedicate to Platinum/Diamond check in is at the other end of the building and there is no lounge. You just sit with general boarding then wait in another to get on board.

Sorry, I know that sounds a little whiny but I just wanted to describe our experience. We were allowed to board around 11:30-12:00. We went directly to our room, even though the doors were closed and left our carry on luggage then went to lido for lunch.

Our Aft Balcony-5268

Our Neighbors Aft Wrap Balcony...SO MUCH BIGGER!! NICE!!

Miracle Lobby

After Muster drill, we set sail on our Alaska Adventure!! The weather had been cool earlier in the day. In the 50's. Typical Seattle weather. But had warmed up enough that we changed into our shorts & went to the front of the ship on Lido deck & watched Sail away.

Another gripe that I had was our checked luggage didn't get to our room until almost 6:00pm. So much for Platinum getting their luggage early!!

We had Your Time Dining, so we went to dinner in what we wore onto the ship.

Food was typical Carnival food. Nothing new but usually good. We had very few complaints with the food throughout the cruise.

This is a lighthouse we saw as we sailed.

Our first Sunset of the Cruise

And the first night, a couple of hours after we had set sail, this boat came along side & a couple got off due to an emergency at home. We thought this was pretty cool to see!!

I'm going to close tonight with a glimpse of the Beautiful Mountains we got to see on our journey. They are AMAZING & the pictures DO NOT do them justice, at all!!

Yay another alaskan adventure. We were getting off when you were boarding. I remember looking at the weather and seeing that the following week was to have gorgeous weather.... of course :rolleyes:

Can't wait to see the rest

Thank you so much for this review. We are going next year, same time. Your pictures are really beautiful!

May 8th, Wednesday. This was our day at sea. I'm always an early riser, so I dress for the day (Hoodie, thermal undershirt & Jeans with wool socks & Tennis Shoes since we will be on the ship all day), grab my kindle & go for breakfast. Again, typical Carnival menu's. Found a seat by the windows for watching the scenery go by, eat & read. People had the chairs from the

tables pulled up to the windows & were just sitting there sightseeing.

I usually eat out on the Lido deck by the pool & to my surprise, they had one side of the Lido covered with the retractable roof & warm & Toasty throughout the Cruise!!

Not many people stayed out there though. There were not a lot of people out on the Open Decks at all during this cruise, we noticed. Even though it wasn't that cold the first few days, most people were found

sitting inside, in front of the windows.

Sea Day was trying to find something to keep you occupied. A lot of Trivia going on and the regular stuff like Hairy Chest & Master Mixologist. We just ended up back in our cabin, DH taking a nap & myself reading out on the Balcony, enjoying the sun. We went to Dinner around 6:30, went to the comedy shows (Carl Falkenberry & Stanley Uhlman). Both were funny!! Then went to the cabin & found our Platinum gifts on the bed. Yay!! We got our Tervis Tumblers!!

sounds fun....keep the review and pictures coming!

War Eagle!! Enjoying your review, will be on the Miracle on 6/18. We are staying at the same hotel in Seattle, thanks for posting the pics. Can't wait to read more!

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We were on the same cruise...looking forward to your review!

Oh, it is my DREAM to go to AK, but I doubt it will ever happen. And I LOVE the Miracle. We were on her 4x, once right before she left for the west coast. Thank you for sharing this trip with us. Pictures are beautiful already! :)

We were on the same cruise...looking forward to your review!

Hey!! Feel free to add your thoughts! I know I'm not thinking of all the details.

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone!!

May 9th, Thursday. Tracy Arm Fjord/Endicott Arm Fjord. Due to too much ice pack remaining in Tracy Arm Fjord, we were diverted to Endicott Arm Fjord. We had pre-booked the Small boat tour through Carnival.

There were waterfalls all over Endicott Arm from the snow melt off the Mountains.

And some interesting icebergs!! :)

We were so glad we did the Small boat because the ship was only able to get within about 4-5 miles of Dawes Glacier. We were able to get within about 150-200 yards. This was our favorite tour of the entire cruise!! It is so worth the $184 cost!! The Glacier Ice is so blue!! Unlike anything we have ever seen before.

We were so glad we did the Small boat because the ship was only able to get within about 4-5 miles of Dawes Glacier. We were able to get within about 150-200 yards. This was our favorite tour of the entire cruise!! It is so worth the $184 cost!! The Glacier Ice is so blue!! Unlike anything we have ever seen before.

 

 

 

 

Beautiful pcitures!! We loved this tour as well. We were on the Spirit last August and had such a good time we rebooked for August 2014. I am planning on booking this tour again!!

We both said we could have stayed there in front of the glacier for hours. It was so peaceful. You can hear the ice cracking & when the glacier "calves" it is like thunder. AMAZING!!!

The Ship from the small boat in front of the glacier.

The Small Boat going back to the Glacier after we got back on the ship. Kind of gives you a size/distance perspective.

Here are a couple of shots of the Carnival Miracle in Endicott Arm Fjord. LOVED these!!

And the Beautiful View!!

Here is another interesting iceberg.

And here is a bunch of Harbor Seals chillaxin' on a piece of ice!! :D

May 10th...Skagway

We docked in Skagway a little before 7:00am Alaska time. We had to set our clocks back an extra hour after we left Seattle. So we are now 3 hours behind the Central time one that I am used to!!:eek:

This is the View from our Balcony!!

The ship docked in Skagway

We booked our tour here with Chilkoot Charters & Tours. We did the Yukon Rail & Bus Excursion that lasted 7.5 hours from 7:30am til 5:00pm. They meet you just outside the port area and drive you the short distance to the rail yard. It included a train ride from Skagway to Fraser, BC where you leave the train & drive through the Yukon Territory. Traveling to Emerald Lake, Caribou Crossing, Carcross and Lake Bennett. Also, stopping at Caribou Crossing Trading Post for a BBQ lunch as well as visiting the Yukon Wildlife Museum and an authentic dog musher camp and pet the husky puppies!

We really enjoyed this tour, especially the train! Here is our train car. There were only about 10 of us on this car & we had the last car on the train so we had a nice, comfortable trip. We were also able to go out n the porch on the front & Back of the train car for amazing views & photo ops!!

View toward the ship from the train

Train Cars at the train yard with Beautiful mountains in the background

Train Ride

Bridal Veil Falls

Going into the tunnel

The farther we went, the more snow we saw

Views from the back porch of the train