Onboard Legend to Alaska June 2016

[1char]

This trip turned out to be completely different than when we booked it. We were lucky and got a casino bounce-back offer on our last cruise, over New Years. This was the last date available for that offer, so we jumped on it, and upgraded to a balcony. A week after we booked, I got diagnosed with Breast Cancer and have since undergone surgery and chemo. I'm just a week out of my last chemo, so we are staying away from crowds, and not doing any of the active things we would normally do. However, this trip was a great shining star for me to look forward to during treatments. We're so thankful to be here and seeing these wonderful sights.

 

Thank you for posting your review. Glad to hear you had such a great time. You sound like a wonderful, caring person to think of others so shortly after everything you have been through.

 

Our cruise is on July 19th and you have answered some questions we had.

 

Thanks, Charliebeth

[Longs]

We have cruised to Alaska twice now and can confirm AT&T should work in Seattle and all ports. My husband has Straight Talk and did not have service. We were planning to move to Juneau last September and were told AT&T is generally the only service provider in the area.

 

Thanks for the information - I have AT&T on my cell through work and my wife has Verizon, so we'll see how it works. If we don't do anything through Carnival it sounds like the only days we'd be completely out of touch would be Wednesday and Thursday when the ship isn't at any port, and maybe Monday going to Victoria.

 

We've had some "Murphy's Law" type of luck when we've left in the past with our older kids at home, hopefully not this time!

[Buffettfan 225]

On our trip, we entered the area in the morning, and picked up the two pilots about 9am. We saw lots of humpback whales going into the Tracy Arm Wilderness area. More were seen on the port side as were were going through the different channels, but we’ll see if they are seen more on the starboard side when we come out. During our morning transit, the Naturalist, Michelle would broadcast from the bridge out on the decks, and in the cabins on the same channel as the forward camera. She would report when whale spouts were spotted, and draw your attention where to look. She mentioned that when we actually entered the Endicott Arm Fjord that she would no longer broadcast on the open decks, but would be available on the TV channel. This is done to not disturb the other boats, campers, hikers, and wildlife. We ended up staying on our balcony the entire 3 hours of the transit through Endicott Arm. Michelle did come on and tell us the morning excursion pilots radioed back that there was a brown bear (grizzly) at the waters edge. She was able to determine the location and tell everyone where to look. It was magnificent - hope the pictures DH took with his camera turn out.

 

Finally, we arrived at the Dawes Glacier. Michelle announced that the Capitan had to stop prob about 1.5 miles from the glacier, because of the amount of icebergs in the water. He was going to make a slow turn to port, and line the ship up with the starboard side facing the glacier for about an hour, and then we would leave. We then left our cabin and went up on deck to see the Dawes Glacier and take pictures. During this time, the morning excursion boats would return to the ship, dump their passengers, and load the afternoon passengers. Once that switch happened, we turned the ship further to port and slowly made our way back. The afternoon excursion passengers would get close the glacier for a while, then meet up with us back at the entrance to Endicott Arm around 6pm.

 

We got some misty sprinkles on the way back out of Endicott Arm, and beautiful scenery again. It is quite breathtaking. DH relaxed on the balcony in our hammock.

Our son & new daughter in law gave us a two person nylon camping hammock for our anniversary last month. They are encouraging us to take it. Should we? If yes, ours has rope ties, but son has one with straps. What type did you have and how tie it up- on an angle? We would never leave it out, only when using it with great caution.

What time were excursions- we have 11:00am so not sure if it first or second one.