Carnival Spirit Happily ever "AFT"ter

[mumofsons]

Jetsfan

We are going with Harv and Marv and then we're going to go with Evergreen taxi for a ride around and up to the brewery. I know they make a stop at the Mendenhall glacier, was 20 minutes enough, or should we stay longer?

It's enough time to see the glacier but if you are interested in going to the visitor center or walking some of the trails it probably isn't enough time. We just walked down to this small viewing center. It was still pretty cold and drizzling so we we ready to go. I am not a hiker so I wasn't interested in going on the trails.

Were there any live bands on the ship? Was the ship dead at night or were there people hanging? I know the ports of call are early, but we like to stay out a bit. We have been on 14 cruises, all to the Carribean, this cruise probably has a different feel.

There were live music. Everynight in the lobby there was either a Phillipino couple - the girl had a great voice. The other was a guy with a guitar he wasn't bad but for some reason liked to add whistling to his singing - I thought it a bit strange.

There was a guy named Doug in the Casino he sang and had a guitar - after our dislike of the piano bar Keith we did sit here a few nights with a couple of drinks,

I think the Phillipino couple also did singing in the bar beneath the piano bar because the one night we went there we could hear them - and the crowd was very receptive.

I will add here an experience that we had - we left the casino bar and decided to sit in the lobby to listen to the guy there and we sat for almost thirty minutes and no one asked us if we even wanted a drink. There were two bartenders but no wait staff. I quess the bartenders aren't allowed to wait on people that aren't sitting at the bar. We could easily have gotten up to get our own drink at the bar but I found it interesting since our usual experience is that the wait staff are constantly around pushing drinks on you.

We have 4 kids ages 23,20,16,15, they are pals, did your soon hook up with kids his own age?

Our son did go to the club and played the video games with some other teens. He found that there wasn't as much to do as the caribbean cruises and the leader of the club was the same he had on the Liberty for Spring break last year. He would go after dinner to dance and socialize and usually came back to the room around 1am.

What kind of camera did you use?

I have an Olympus e500 which I bought around five years ago - it came with two lenses and I found a 150-300mm used on ebay

[K.T.B.]

I can honestly say that the Aft balconys never appealed to me but we loved it! I have always loved to sit on the balcony reading and often in the caribbean I don't get off the ship and just sit and read - I have already been pricing something for January or February and looking to book another aft. My DH spent a lot more time on the balcony than in past cruises. One of the best parts was cruising out of Tracy Arm.

I know you will enjoy your cruise. Thanks for reading my review.

 

That's the thing about Alaskan cruises, you will spend a lot of a time on your balcony, regardless of its location. You can just sit there and enjoy nature and take lots of pictures. :)

 

Great review, great pictures! And now I am hoping the next 2 weeks fly by for me! (I literally leave in 14 days! :eek: :D )

 

Thank you very much for sharing!

[mumofsons]

fryee39

Thanks for the awesome review! I have bookmarked Chillkoot tours and am asking for pricing on the same bus/train tour you took. Which airline did you take?

__________________

Thank you the Chilkoot tour we took was a total of $790 for the three of us. I thought it was a good value as it was an all day excursion.

We got our tickets on expedia for our flights we flew American Airlines on the way out and the service was terrible. We flew United on the way home and loved it - had great service plus the tv's in each seat was very helpful - DH and DS watched a movie and I watched TNT, We usually fly Delta but I tried to get the best price for the plane tickets as possible and bought them in January.

[mumofsons]

Kevin T Brown - yes I agree with the balcony statement. Love them!

Alaska was amazing and I hope you enjoy your cruise :)

[mumofsons]

Santanagirl

What type of camera are you using? Will you tell how you booked each of your excursions? I am researching those now. Looks like I will have to add the Duck tour to the list!

I used an Olympus e500 I love this camera but it is five years old and I think the newer ones probably have more buttons and functions (this one has too many already :)) It's a little heavy to carry around but I am used to it now.

I actually booked very early for Harv and marv and Chilikoot. The Tracy Arm I booked as soon as I paid off my balance in order to ensure a spot for the three of us.

I don't know if you want prices but I found it helpful - Harv and Marv was $149 per person plus they charged a surcharge and taxes. If you email Cassie at Harv and Marv you can put a deposit if you know when you are interested in and then pay off the balance I think thirty days before. I think the Carnival tour is the same price but you are on a large catamaran with at least 150 people and we were on a small boat with one other couple so well worth it! Harv and Marv book up early!

Chilikoot was around $220 a person and the same tour through Carnival was $270 just to give you a comparrison,

We booked the lumberjack show the night before the total was $108 for the three of us. They announced early in the afternoon before we went to Ketchican that there is some local law that the ships cannot sell excursions when in port so we went ahead and got them that afternoon.

Hope this is helpful.

[susan123]

I was on the same cruise as Mumofsons, and her trip report has been great. There was a great group, New Lux, or some similar name??, that played in Club Cool every evening, and they were excellent. They are Asian, maybe the couple Mumofsons, heard in the lobby, but there was a girl and 3 guys in the group in Club Cool. They played a variety of music, all great, and the lounge stayed full in the evenings when we were there. We didn't get to the piano bar since we enjoyed Club Cool so much, and it sounds like we didn't miss anything by not going. We did a lot of trivia, and it always was an enthusiastic and fun crowd.

We did the 3-hour train excursion at Skagway, which we enjoyed a lot, and everyone we talked to who had done the 9-hour one said it was too long even though it was a great excursion. We also did the Street Car excursion in Skagway, and it was a lot of fun with a costumed driver/guide who told us a lot of history and made several stops for photos. In Juneau we did the city tour that took us to Mendenhall Glacier for an hour. We enjoyed time in the visitor's center, were able to touch a chunk of ice that was 1200 years old or something like that, and listened to a presentation about the glacier. I bought a novel in the gift shop, Sometimes It Rains Murder in Juneau, by a local author and he signed it for me since he was there that day. DH started reading it on the flight home, and he said it has a lot of local color and is interesting.

We took a Duck tour in Ketchikan, and it wasn't one of the best. They gave very little history or local information, but told a lot of corny duck jokes that became boring after a few minutes. It was our least favorite excursion, but we did see a lot of Bald Eagles there.

We thought the food in the dining room was very good, and we enjoyed dinner every night with our table mates, Barbara and Larry, who were fun and interesting. We enjoy meeting new people at breakfast, and we ate with a couple from South Africa one morning and another from New Zealand another day. There was a more international group of passangers than we've found on Caribbean cruises except the ones leaving from San Juan. Lunch also was nice in the dining room, and we enjoyed the one tea we went to. Food on the Lido Deck was terrible, in our opinion. We try to avoid Lido food except for sandwiches and salads, but even the cheeseburgers and ruben sandwich had no taste. Coffee on Lido was very bad, and I usually can drink any coffee. We thought the iced tea was a little better than usual, but we drink it unsweetened at home and hate sweet southern tea loaded with sugar. We enjoyed room service every morning for juice, my coffee, and DH's hot tea, and the service was prompt.

It was a fantastic cruise, and we hope to return to Alasks in a few years. We also stayed in Seattle for an extra night after the cruise, and we used Let's Tour Seattle for a shuttle to our hotel near the airport and a 4-hour tour of the city. It was very good and included an hour stop for lunch at a good seafood restaurant at the Fishing Terminal before taking us to our hotel that afternoon. Even though we had spent 2 days in Seattle before the cruise, the post-cruise tour took us to different places and gave us a lot of information about the city. We drove through the market, which we had visited earlier, drove by the Space Needle, where we had lunch before the cruise, took us to a glass-making shop where we saw glass vases and things being made, stopped at a lovely waterfall that was built in the downtown area, showed us the houses of the rich and famous, stopped at Gas Works park, went to Pioneer Square, etc. We had used Ace Transportaion from the airport to our hotel when we got to Seattle, and we stayed 3 nights pre-cruise at the Holiday Inn Express, which was in walking distance to the Space Needle and Science Center, both of which we enjoyed a lot, and less than 2 blocks from the bus stop to go downtown. The buses were clean and safe and came by every 20 minutes. If you walked about 5 blocks, bus service was free to the downtown area. If you paid for the bus, you get a transfer for a free return trip after touring downtown. Our Holiday Inn Express on Aurora Ave. wasn't fancy, but it was very clean, the staff was helpful and friendly, and we had a wonderful view of the Space Needle from our room. It also is next door to a Holiday Inn, and we walked only a few steps to the restaurant there for dinner one evening when we were too tired to go out.

Sorry for jumpin in on your trip report, April, but I wanted to add some information from our experiences. Love your photos, too.

[mumofsons]

Jump away Susan - I am having a really hard time adjusting back to NC time - I don't think I even went to bed until after 3am this morning.

Seattle is a wonderful city!

I am a coffee snob and I started to drink Hot chocolate in the buffet because the coffee was not to my liking. Eric and I wandered to the coffee shop at least once a day for something. The day we played trivia in ketchican he bought me a couple of those strawberries and they were excellent!

I absolutely agreee about the deli - the sandwhiches just weren't as good as I remember and that was usually something I always got the first lunch. I think we went once.

The only dinner I didn't enjoy in the dining room was I couldn't decide on the main menu and just got the burger - the meat had a great taste but to me the bun was a little stale. I am not complaining since I never went hungry. lol

I was happy to have the creme brule and bitter and blanc and the grand marnier souffle. One night the whole table had banana splits since we didn't see anything we would like - I am not a fan of the warm melting chocolate cake.

[mumofsons]

Since it's now been a week or so that I posted this review - wondered if anyone else had any questions.

[dustyroad]

as you can see from how many times i have been on the spirit that i love this ship. it makes me feel so good too read so many great things about her and how wonderful the alaska cruises have been. thanks for the great memories.

[halos]

Since it's now been a week or so that I posted this review - wondered if anyone else had any questions.

No questions. Just wanted to thank you for taking the time to post...especially all the great pictures!! I know it's a hassle to download tons of them and then go through them to choose which ones to post and then possibly have to resize them too, so thank you!! They're awesome!

[mumofsons]

Thank you Dusty and Halos

I love reading people's takes on their cruises and I especially love to see pictures of the cruises, placed they go and pictures of the story-tellers so you can see the happy faces.

Thank you for reading my view and looking at my pictures. :)

[happylady]

Thanks for taking the time for your review....it brought back great memories from last year. :D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Mum, thank for posting this link on the other thread. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review. I can tell you had a fantastic time. Thanks for bringing back so many memories! :D Be sure to go to Tracy's next time--she'll set you back quite a bit, but it's best crab I've EVER had!

 

 

as you can see from how many times i have been on the spirit that i love this ship. it makes me feel so good too read so many great things about her and how wonderful the alaska cruises have been. thanks for the great memories.

 

 

We've also been on the Spirit four times--love that ship! :D

[mumofsons]

Thank you! we loved the spirit and loved loved loved Alaska:)

[PattiPB]

Thanks for the great review! I appreciate you taking the time.

 

We are on the Spirit next month and can't wait. The Tracy Arm Excursion was interesting to us, but with my family size, it was just too cost prohibitive. We are doing Harv & Marv and the WP&YR, so it was awesome to read about those.

 

Right after the cruise, we'll be flying to your part of the country to drop our oldest off for her freshman year at college! Good times~

[mumofsons]

Thank you PattiePB - it's an amazing cruise :) enjoy it!

[jigger]

Wonderful !!

[mumofsons]

Thank you Jigger - are you planning an Alaskian cruise? you will love it!

[travelgarn]

Is it required to have your cruise paid off before you get on the list for Tracy Arm? :confused: It will likely take me until final payment as we have booked a premium balcony for this cruise...I've already sent an email last week to try to get our spots on the Tracy Arm excursion. Hoping it doesn't fall through! :o

 

DJ

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Is it required to have your cruise paid off before you get on the list for Tracy Arm? :confused: It will likely take me until final payment as we have booked a premium balcony for this cruise...I've already sent an email last week to try to get our spots on the Tracy Arm excursion. Hoping it doesn't fall through! :o

 

DJ

 

 

I reserved Tracy Arm before I paid my fare in full. It's one of the best excursions we've ever done--I hope you enjoy it!! :D

[sjn911]

Thank you so very much...my folks took the Wonder the last few days of June and got back July 2..Your pictures were great and i could see more of their trip in a way...they took their youngest grand-daughter on her 12 year old trip or they maybe would have done differently...think dad would have preferred Spirit...anyways..your photos of Seattle and Alaska thrilled me..still want to cruise warmer now but so many places..and I know I would love it up there, thanks sooooo much for sharing...Sarah

[travelgarn]

I reserved Tracy Arm before I paid my fare in full. It's one of the best excursions we've ever done--I hope you enjoy it!! :D

 

Thank you!! Maybe I'll hear back from Carnival this week. I sent my email last week. :D

 

DJ