Carnival Spirit - Seattle to Alaska June 6

[Mklbee]

Just some observations of our latest trip on the Carnival Spirit to Alaska (also stopping at Victoria B.C. in Canada.

 

  - The port of Seattle is a mess in my opinion. No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that its the right one.

  - The help at the port tries their best, but there is very little to make me feel comfortable leaving my bag.

  -During the NBA Championship game, Carnival put the game on the cabin TVs. I've never seen that before.

  -The food was surprisingly good everywhere.

  -The food for the brunch was a bit slow...at least an hour and 30 minutes

  -The "seaday" was the actual 2nd day we had and the day we stopped at Victoria was also counted as a seaday. The day at Tracy Arm Fjord was not.

  -The sights to see are very nice. You can sit out on your balcony or Lido and sight see all trip.

  -There is a Nature expert on board that tells you when they see Whales, Orcas, Bears or seals.

  -If you are familiar with Soul Play, you will need to register as soon as possible to get in. When you get the Hub running, sign in!

     (Soul Play is a painting / arts and crafts class that is pretty fun. If you like painting. It is also free.)

  -The shows where good. Epic Rock, my wife adored. The other shows my wife thought were good as well.

  - Double check your account during your stay. The restaurant made a mistake and charged me twice for a drink. They were told about it, said they would fix it, and didn't get too it. They were very busy. Had to go to Guest Services to get it looked at again. Still not fixed. I'm calling Carnival in the morning to follow up.

  - The cabin stewards really are busy. The days are gone where they know your name before you get on the ship.  - Used Port Valet on this trip. I was told that it was Carnivals 2nd week using it in years. I received the Valet paperwork day 4, and on the 6th morning I had the airline tickets and luggage bag tags on my mailbox. 

  - My wife and I spent time at Seattle's Fish Market and Aquarium before taking the light rail to the airport. That train ride was about 35 minutes. The train is not fast at all.

  - We waited in the security line at the airport for nearly 2 hours on a Tuesday morning. Long line. Glad we went to the airport early.

[csm5986142]

Thank you for the good and bad news.  We are on the Spirit out of Seattle in a few months (Panama Canal itenerary) and I'm dreading the Seattle port experience.  I think we will arrive later in the day to hopefully avoid the crowd/chaos (it's the one port we can drive to).  

I agree that it is a good idea to check your account frequently (on all of the ships).  We were on the Dream recently and were charged nearly $100 at Bonsai Sushi (and we never went there).  Initially guest services kind of gave us a hard time asking if we could have bought drinks/food anywhere near the restaurant (kept questioning us if it could possibly be our charges and we weren't remembering).  Finally, I asked what time the charges were made - the representative looked it up and realized it had only happened 20 minutes prior.  Then as we were standing there, more charges appeared.  She then contacted Bonsai Sushi and asked them to figure out what was going on.  I've never eaten there, but apparently people can write their folio number on a slip of paper and that is the account that gets charged?  That is how they explained it anyway.  It took about 45 minutes but the charges did get removed.

 

[Buffalobills]

Thank you for posting about the Port Valet! I was worried what to do with my luggage after the cruise with a late flight. I’m wondering if this is something I need to do ahead of time like the other cruise lines or just wait 

I’m also glad there is a naturalist on board too. 
Did you have to tender the Skagway port? If you don’t mind which excursions did you take? This will be my first time to Alaska and I leave June 26 so thanks again for sharing ..

 

[Mklbee]

14 minutes ago, Buffalobills said:

Thank you for posting about the Port Valet! I was worried what to do with my luggage after the cruise with a late flight. I’m wondering if this is something I need to do ahead of time like the other cruise lines or just wait 

I’m also glad there is a naturalist on board too. 
Did you have to tender the Skagway port? If you don’t mind which excursions did you take? This will be my first time to Alaska and I leave June 26 so thanks again for sharing ..

 

We did not need to tender anywhere on this cruise. I did hear about a port that had so many ships that one ship had to tender the passengers in. We didn't have that experience.

[Mklbee]

1 hour ago, csm5986142 said:

Thank you for the good and bad news.  We are on the Spirit out of Seattle in a few months (Panama Canal itenerary) and I'm dreading the Seattle port experience.  I think we will arrive later in the day to hopefully avoid the crowd/chaos (it's the one port we can drive to).  

I agree that it is a good idea to check your account frequently (on all of the ships).  We were on the Dream recently and were charged nearly $100 at Bonsai Sushi (and we never went there).  Initially guest services kind of gave us a hard time asking if we could have bought drinks/food anywhere near the restaurant (kept questioning us if it could possibly be our charges and we weren't remembering).  Finally, I asked what time the charges were made - the representative looked it up and realized it had only happened 20 minutes prior.  Then as we were standing there, more charges appeared.  She then contacted Bonsai Sushi and asked them to figure out what was going on.  I've never eaten there, but apparently people can write their folio number on a slip of paper and that is the account that gets charged?  That is how they explained it anyway.  It took about 45 minutes but the charges did get removed.

 

Yeah, I don't think that they make purchase mistakes intentionally, but we all want it correct. I really do believe that Carnival wants it done correctly regardless if the amount is is $20 in my favor or $5 in theirs.

 

Our waiter said that his terminal / register wasn't working, so someone else rung it up on on their register. We wound up getting charged twice. Quickly admitted the mistake once it was brought to their attention, but was not corrected. In their defense, they were extremely busy.

[audcc77]

19 hours ago, Mklbee said:

No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that its the right one.

Yikes!   This is the second time I’ve heard this.  The first time was a YouTube video regarding the inaugural sailing on Carnival Luminosa.  
I am sailing on the ship in about 30 days.

 

There is no way in  Sam Hill that I can haul all my luggage up the ramp.  I’m not even sure I could lift it into this bin they’re talking about.  
 

Therefore, I contacted Carnival and asked to be put in the special assistance boarding.  The guy said no.  He said all you do is put your baggage in the bin. I am not the first person to ask him this question he said.  When I pointed out who is going to watch over my bag until it gets on the ship, he did not know, as that is not Carnival’s problem.  Nice. 
 

He then said I need to call Port of Seattle.  I did.  After being transferred to the cruise terminal, I spoke with a nice lady, who insisted that there should be some longshoreman there accepting  baggage and putting it in the bins for you.  I told her about the YouTube video and the multiple accounts here on cruise critic about nobody to help you put your bag on the ship.  She found this very interesting, and she was going to check it out.  She wants me to call her back after my cruise to see if there was someone there.  😂

[Ferry_Watcher]

23 hours ago, Mklbee said:

- The port of Seattle is a mess in my opinion. No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that its the right one.

  - The help at the port tries their best, but there is very little to make me feel comfortable leaving my bag.

 

The Carnival Spirit is the only ship at Pier 91 on Tuesdays.  All the bags collected go to the Spirit.

You can wait for a porter, or what most passengers do is walk their luggage to the central luggage collection spot near the front of the terminal building, drop it off and then walk inside to start their check-in.

Carnival only pays the longshore porters until 2 PM when they go home.  Sadly, if you arrive after 2 PM you will be carrying your own bags on board.

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by Ferry_Watcher

[Frank12]

It's not just the port...the entire city is a mess!

[Cruising_Addict]

On 6/14/2023 at 7:49 PM, Mklbee said:

  - The port of Seattle is a mess in my opinion. No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that it’s the right one.

  - The help at the port tries their best, but there is very little to make me feel comfortable leaving my bag.

We had the exact opposite experience last year. Seattle port was the easiest embarkation we ever experienced. There were plenty of porters, and the staff there was great. 

[FastShip24]

12 minutes ago, Cruising_Addict said:

We had the exact opposite experience last year. Seattle port was the easiest embarkation we ever experienced. There were plenty of porters, and the staff there was great. 

I had zero problems in Seattle.  

[gabriellyn]

On 6/14/2023 at 6:49 PM, Mklbee said:

Just some observations of our latest trip on the Carnival Spirit to Alaska (also stopping at Victoria B.C. in Canada.

 

  - The port of Seattle is a mess in my opinion. No porters to take your bags. You need to find a porter and hope that its the right one.

  - The help at the port tries their best, but there is very little to make me feel comfortable leaving my bag.

  -During the NBA Championship game, Carnival put the game on the cabin TVs. I've never seen that before.

  -The food was surprisingly good everywhere.

  -The food for the brunch was a bit slow...at least an hour and 30 minutes

  -The "seaday" was the actual 2nd day we had and the day we stopped at Victoria was also counted as a seaday. The day at Tracy Arm Fjord was not.

  -The sights to see are very nice. You can sit out on your balcony or Lido and sight see all trip.

  -There is a Nature expert on board that tells you when they see Whales, Orcas, Bears or seals.

  -If you are familiar with Soul Play, you will need to register as soon as possible to get in. When you get the Hub running, sign in!

     (Soul Play is a painting / arts and crafts class that is pretty fun. If you like painting. It is also free.)

  -The shows where good. Epic Rock, my wife adored. The other shows my wife thought were good as well.

  - Double check your account during your stay. The restaurant made a mistake and charged me twice for a drink. They were told about it, said they would fix it, and didn't get too it. They were very busy. Had to go to Guest Services to get it looked at again. Still not fixed. I'm calling Carnival in the morning to follow up.

  - The cabin stewards really are busy. The days are gone where they know your name before you get on the ship.  - Used Port Valet on this trip. I was told that it was Carnivals 2nd week using it in years. I received the Valet paperwork day 4, and on the 6th morning I had the airline tickets and luggage bag tags on my mailbox. 

  - My wife and I spent time at Seattle's Fish Market and Aquarium before taking the light rail to the airport. That train ride was about 35 minutes. The train is not fast at all.

  - We waited in the security line at the airport for nearly 2 hours on a Tuesday morning. Long line. Glad we went to the airport early.

Interesting - we had an early boarding time and had zero issues finding a porter to take our bags on the exact same cruise.  We found embarkation and debarkation to be the easiest we have ever experienced.  

 

Absolutely agree about Sea-Tac.  The WORST airport lines we have ever seen!  We have TSA Pre-check but our adult children do not and it took them well over an hour to get through security.  

 

Our experience aboard mostly mirrors yours, minus the billing issues.  We ate a couple of times in the MDR for breakfast/brunch and it really was very slow.  In general however, everything was wonderful and it was a fantastic cruise!

[dbrucern]

We have been on this cruise 3 times, the first two there were porters to take your bags but last June there were no porters only 2 gentleman and a fenced off area with a sign that said luggage. We rolled our luggage to them and then on to check-in not the most comforting feeling that our luggage would make it but they did.