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Tracy Arm Fjord Portion of Alaska Cruise Question

Elaine5715

By Elaine5715,
in Carnival Cruise Lines

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nocl

nocl

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There are two possible arms to the Tracy Arm Fjord (Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm).  The better one is Tracy Arm, but due to ice conditions most cruises end up going up the Endicott Arm. The Tracy Arm is narrower and ends at the Sawyer Glacier, the Endicott Arm ends at the Dawes Glacier.

 

Both are go up the arm as far as ice conditions permit, look at the glacier and return to the entrance.

 

Have been on 4 cruise that include Tracy Arm Fjord, but none have actually made it up the Tracy Arm, only the Endicott.  The only time that I actually made it up the Tracy are was on a smaller tour boat, the large cruise ship did not attempt it, though we did meet a Princess ship coming back down the arm from the Glacier.

Edited by nocl
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DenaInWyo

DenaInWyo

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I'll be on the Miracle 8/31, first time to Alaska.  I think I'm looking forward to this day of the cruise more than any of the others.  It sounds super cool.  I watched a youtube vid and they were watching the glacier they were near "calve" and you could hear the boom and crack of the ice splitting off.  

 

I'm sure excited for this trip!  When are you going?

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mondello

mondello

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@nocl, thank you for the explanation. We were on Legend in early July 2016 and did the Endicott approach.

The small boat excursion was awesome. They pick you up from alongside the ship and are able to go so much closer to the glacier. The wind is wicked when it picks up.

side note, one of the small boats was inoperable and the day of the ride a group of 40-50 that booked last got the bad news they had been cancelled. Bummer because many only make it to Alaska once.

This excursion and the White Pass railroad to the Yukon were 2 must do for Alaska. The one time I splurged, had a balcony, first class flights and great excursions.

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Elaine5715

Elaine5715

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7 hours ago, DenaInWyo said:

I'll be on the Miracle 8/31, first time to Alaska.  I think I'm looking forward to this day of the cruise more than any of the others.  It sounds super cool.  I watched a youtube vid and they were watching the glacier they were near "calve" and you could hear the boom and crack of the ice splitting off.  

 

I'm sure excited for this trip!  When are you going?

I am on the 8/10 sailing

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Elaine5715

Elaine5715

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3 hours ago, mondello said:

@nocl, thank you for the explanation. We were on Legend in early July 2016 and did the Endicott approach.

The small boat excursion was awesome. They pick you up from alongside the ship and are able to go so much closer to the glacier. The wind is wicked when it picks up.

side note, one of the small boats was inoperable and the day of the ride a group of 40-50 that booked last got the bad news they had been cancelled. Bummer because many only make it to Alaska once.

This excursion and the White Pass railroad to the Yukon were 2 must do for Alaska. The one time I splurged, had a balcony, first class flights and great excursions.

Can you tell me more about this small boat excursion?  I don't see anything listed under Carnival excursions and a a newbie family coming with me mentioned something about this.  Found it under "Seattle"

Edited by Elaine5715
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LHARTWICK

LHARTWICK

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5 hours ago, mondello said:

The small boat excursion was awesome. They pick you up from alongside the ship and are able to go so much closer to the glacier.

Is CCL offering the small boat excursion now? Prior to CV shutdown, I think only PCL offered it.  It was awesome!  I would put it in our top 3 excursions out of all of our cruises.  But then, our top 3 are all AK excursions:  Flight-seeing, train and Tracy Arm Fjord small boat excursion.

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BenjiRodney

BenjiRodney

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2 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Can you tell me more about this small boat excursion?  I don't see anything listed under Carnival excursions and a a newbie family coming with me mentioned something about this.  Found it under "Seattle"

Last time we did it, I emailed in Jan of that year to be put on the list for the excursion.  Best one that we did that trip.  They took us to both glaciers in Tracy Arm.  We rejoined the ship later for the journey back out the fjord.

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LadyMac72

LadyMac72

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I am on the Carnival Miracle September 14 sailing.

 

I had reserved the Tracy Arm Fjord excursion back when the ship was supposed to be the Freedom.  With the restart and the change over, of ships everyone in my book of Faces cruise group got cancelled for this excursion.  Lots of us kept looking for it under shore excursions for Seattle but it never appeared. We were very disappointed as this is one thing we REALLY wanted to do.  

 

Then just yesterday someone emailed the shore excursion desk and lo and behold they told her that they could reserve that excursion via the email system and pick up their tickets at the shore excursion desk when they got on the ship.  As luck would have it, I saw her post about 5 minutes after she posted the email exchange and I immediately sent an email and was positively howling with delight when they told me the same thing.  So it is apparently back on and just not offered on the website (why, I have no idea.)

 

So if you're interested in it, take a chance and email the shore excursion desk.  Maybe you will get lucky like I did.  Good luck!!

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Elaine5715

Elaine5715

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1 hour ago, LadyMac72 said:

I am on the Carnival Miracle September 14 sailing.

 

I had reserved the Tracy Arm Fjord excursion back when the ship was supposed to be the Freedom.  With the restart and the change over, of ships everyone in my book of Faces cruise group got cancelled for this excursion.  Lots of us kept looking for it under shore excursions for Seattle but it never appeared. We were very disappointed as this is one thing we REALLY wanted to do.  

 

Then just yesterday someone emailed the shore excursion desk and lo and behold they told her that they could reserve that excursion via the email system and pick up their tickets at the shore excursion desk when they got on the ship.  As luck would have it, I saw her post about 5 minutes after she posted the email exchange and I immediately sent an email and was positively howling with delight when they told me the same thing.  So it is apparently back on and just not offered on the website (why, I have no idea.)

 

So if you're interested in it, take a chance and email the shore excursion desk.  Maybe you will get lucky like I did.  Good luck!!

It was listed under "Seattle" for the Aug 10 sailing

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mondello

mondello

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7 hours ago, Elaine5715 said:

Can you tell me more about this small boat excursion?  I don't see anything listed under Carnival excursions and a a newbie family coming with me mentioned something about this.  Found it under "Seattle"

We went in 2016. All I can say is keep checking your excursion list. I see Allen Marine is still in business so you should be able to book this through Carnival.

Definitely dress in layers with a good raincoat or windbreaker, the wind will remind you that you are in Alaska. July and out came hats, gloves and scarves. They gave samples of smoked salmon and cream cheese on crackers that was so good we bought some immediately. Found out it was available almost everywhere. Great to bring home a few boxes.

Add: now I see others have posted about emailing to book it, news to me. The small boats, there were maybe 2-3, hold 40-50?, and I think there was more than 1 trip per boat. They get so much closer than the ship, it is awesome. The ride through the fjord is really nice, too. Saw a distant bear on a super steep hillside and seals/otters(?).

Edited by mondello
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Banditswife Great Review Rare

Banditswife

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8 hours ago, LHARTWICK said:

Is CCL offering the small boat excursion now? Prior to CV shutdown, I think only PCL offered it.  It was awesome!  I would put it in our top 3 excursions out of all of our cruises.  But then, our top 3 are all AK excursions:  Flight-seeing, train and Tracy Arm Fjord small boat excursion.

We were supposed to be on the Miracle to AK in 2020, you know how that turned out.  But they were offering the small boat excursion at that time.  Expensive, but I imagine very worth it

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Love being Mimi

Love being Mimi

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On 7/16/2021 at 11:16 AM, LadyMac72 said:

I am on the Carnival Miracle September 14 sailing.

 

I had reserved the Tracy Arm Fjord excursion back when the ship was supposed to be the Freedom.  With the restart and the change over, of ships everyone in my book of Faces cruise group got cancelled for this excursion.  Lots of us kept looking for it under shore excursions for Seattle but it never appeared. We were very disappointed as this is one thing we REALLY wanted to do.  

 

Then just yesterday someone emailed the shore excursion desk and lo and behold they told her that they could reserve that excursion via the email system and pick up their tickets at the shore excursion desk when they got on the ship.  As luck would have it, I saw her post about 5 minutes after she posted the email exchange and I immediately sent an email and was positively howling with delight when they told me the same thing.  So it is apparently back on and just not offered on the website (why, I have no idea.)

 

So if you're interested in it, take a chance and email the shore excursion desk.  Maybe you will get lucky like I did.  Good luck!!

I'm on sept 14th and would like to do this.  What is the email address?  Thank you

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DREAM SEEKER

DREAM SEEKER

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On 7/15/2021 at 7:58 PM, Elaine5715 said:

What happens?  Does the ship stop?  Does it just float through? 

We went on an excursion costly but amazing. They sold drinks made from the glacier ice. We passed a small iceberg then when we came back it had flipped over and was huge. We watched and heard the ice calving. Very cold need heavy jackets,gloves etc

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