Carnival Spirit SB - June 7...long...

[Canoe]

Before I start the review, I would like to thank EVERYONE on this board for the invaluable information I've gathered over the last 10 months. I don't think our trip would have been as 'smooth-sailing' (pardon the pun) and as enjoyable without your help.

 

My DH, DS (20) and DS’s friend (21) had 2 inside cabins on Riviera deck, mid-ship. It was just a few steps to the stairs and elevators and proved to be a very convenient location. We didn’t hear the elevators at all, and the cabins were surprisingly quiet.

 

We arrived in Anchorage in the early afternoon of June 6 and stayed at the Sheraton downtown (booked with points). We were very tired from our long flights from the east coast and, unfortunately, we had little energy to explore Anchorage - we’ll have to save that for a future trip. We did take the free shuttle to the Sourdough Mining Co. for an early dinner and walked across the street to the Wildberry Chocolate store. My husband had the salmon at Sourdough and was very disappointed (the fish was over-cooked, although the portion was very large). The rest of us had the ribs and thought they were very good - the corn fritters are excellent!

 

In the morning, we tooked the Alaska RR, booked independently, to Whittier. Once we dropped our luggage at the train station, we didn’t see it again until it was delivered to our cabin during dinner. Along the way, the train was stopped so that we could observe a moose and her 2 calves. The conductor mentioned that the mother had been trying to run off her yearling, born last year, and it seems that she had been successful since it wasn’t in view. Then, about 5 minutes later, the train was slowed considerably and we could see the yearling running parallel to the train. It appeared distressed by the train and seemed to be trying to outrun the train, but this did provide a great opportunity for picture-taking. After several minutes, the conductor announced that he wouldn’t be able to pause for any further wildlife or we would miss our scheduled tunnel time in Whittier.

 

We arrived right beside the ship at about 12:30 and check-in was very quick since we arrived just ahead of several busloads. Our cabins were almost ready, and we were able to leave our carryon bags in the closet and make our way to Lido deck for a quick lunch. We were not overly impressed with the buffet food, but realize that it’s difficult to maintain a high quality since the food needs to be kept warm for long periods.

 

After lunch, we walked the length of the ship on each deck to familiarize ourselves and, since it had stopped raining, we decided to try the Portage Pass trail ( http://www.akhs.atfreeweb.com/Hikes/PortPass.htm ). The beginning of the trail is approximately 1 mile from the ship, but there is a sign pointing to the trail so it’s not hard to find. We managed to get about ½ of the way up the trail before the drizzle started - my DH and DS pressed on while my DS’s friend and I decided to take a rest (the trail does get steep). They still had about a 100 feet of elevation to go when the drizzle turned to rain so they decided to turn back. We did have great views of the ship, and I would recommend even part of the trail, just to get those views.

 

Even though we were assigned late seating for dinner, which we requested, we were handed a voucher for early seating on the first night during our check-in process. It was open seating, and we were seated on the main level. We all thought that the food in the dining room was excellent and looked forward to dinner every night. My DH, and the boys had 2 desserts on a couple of nights and the only item my DH did not like was the green peppercorn ice cream - this became a running joke with our head waiter, Geza (Romania), for the rest of the week. We can’t say enough about the great service we received from Geza and his assistant for the first 2 nights, Prannee (Thailand). For the rest of the week, our assistant waiter was Sasha, who was also very good, although a little quieter.

 

Our first day was a sea day in College Fjord. Although cool and overcast, we were up early and on deck to view Harvard Glacier. There was some calving at the glacier and the captain turned the ship so that both sides had at least ½ an hour to face the glacier. Michelle, the ship’s naturalist, provided information on the glacier which was helpful. The one thing that I wished Carnival would provide on deck was chairs. All of the lounge chairs were stacked and tied down, and there was no seating available, except under the canopy at the aft pool. Harvard Glacier was amazing, as was College Fjord, and we spent the majority of the day on deck. Although it was cool, we did not need the hat or gloves we have brought, but I would still recommend taking these, just in case.

 

This was the first of 2 formal nights (the 2nd was on Sunday, after our Skagway port day).

 

Our first port was Sitka, and we needed to tender. Since it was very foggy, we were a little late arriving. We had booked the Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest through Carnival for the afternoon so we needed to line up for a tender ticket. We were told to meet at the stage on Lido deck 30 minutes before our scheduled arrival and it was a bit of a crush with everyone crowding the stage to receive a tender ticket from the 1 staff member. Once tendering started, they were calling 2-3 sticker numbers at a time and the line moved fairly quickly. We spent our morning walking around town, and visiting the cathedral, Raptor Centre and a little shopping.

 

The Sea Otter and Wildlife Quest was wonderful - the weather couldn’t have been better and the water was fairly calm so that we were able to go further than usual. We saw humpback whales, sea otters, sea lions and gorgeous scenery. I would highly recommend this trip.

 

Our next day was Juneau - another day of great weather (mid 70’s and sunny). My DS and friend had booked the Glacier View Kayaking excursion through Carnival. Although they enjoyed the excursion, they said that they probably would have preferred to do something else. My DH and I decided to take the Mt. Roberts Tram since the weather was perfectly clear. We started out on the loop trail and then branched off to Father Brown’s grave. We took a side trail heading to the summit and while I decided to wait on a convenient rock, my DH continued on. He hiked for another 20 minutes and hadn’t quite reached the top, but he was able to get a great panoramic shot before starting the trek down. If you can handle the climb, the views are spectacular.

 

We met up with the boys, had a quick lunch and then explored the town until it was time to meet at Orca Enterprises for our whale watching trip with Captain Larry. We really enjoyed the excursion (wow, is his boat fast), but we were a little disappointed at the small number of whales we saw. We knew that observing wildlife is hit or miss, but we thought that the experience wasn’t a lot better than the whales we had observed on our Sitka excursion. I would still recommend this excursion, however.

 

The next day was Skagway, and I had booked Chilkoot Charter’s White Pass Summit Bus and Rail excursion. We were met just outside the security gate at the end of the dock by our guide, who drove us to the rail station, gave us our tickets and made sure we were directed to the correct rail car. It turns out that we were the only people on this excursion (7:30am) so we had the large van to ourselves. Our guide met us when we got off the train in Fraser and we started the drive back to Skagway. We stopped 6-7 times at various photostops, and our guide was very knowledgeable about the area and it’s history. She was able to answer all of our questions, and we appreciated the opportunity to see the view from both rail and road. I would recommend this tour (we chose to take the train up and the van down to get the commentary on the train, since I had read here that there was less commentary on the way down). After the tour, we had the choice of being dropped off at the pier or downtown.

 

We spent the rest of our time exploring town and the museum - the first granite building in Alaska ($2.00 admission) - it had comfortable rocking chairs where we could watch good videos on the gold rush days and Skagway during the war.

 

The next day was Ketchikan - another beautiful day (low 80’s and sunny). Since there were 3 ships in port ahead of us, we had to tender to shore, and the ship was pulled to the dock in mid-afternoon. We decided that morning to go to the Lumberjack show, but the ship only had 2 tickets left, and we needed 4. As soon as we were off the ship (tender #6), we went straight to the show and were able to purchase 4 tickets for the 1:15 show. We walked the town and enjoyed Creek Street. We did the tour of Dolly’s house, took the funicular up and then walked down Married Man’s Trail and made it back just in time for the Lumberjack show. It was a little corny, but very enjoyable, with the audience getting into the cheering and booing.

 

We had just enough time to grab a quick lunch on Lido deck, drop off our purchases and get to the rain guage at the Visitor’s Centre to meet the representative from Island Wings for our Misty Fjords flightseeing excursion. There were the 4 of us and another couple. Since it was such a clear day, Michelle was able to fly above the mountains rather than being restricted to flying along the fjords. We landed on a mountain lake and Michelle pulled the plane to the shore of an island and we were able to get off and explore and chat for about 20 minutes before our return flight. It was so quiet. I think that this was the best excursion of the whole trip and would HIGHLY recommend it. We lucked out with great weather, but I think that even with a less than perfect day, the views would be amazing.

 

Our last day was a sea day on the Inside Passage to Vancouver. Our weather luck had run out and most of the day was cool and very overcast, although the clouds started to clear around dinner. We attended the Galley tour at 3:30, which started with a talk in the Dining Room, and then we all filed out the main door and down the stairs to the Galley. It was huge.....and empty! There was one person carving a watermelon, one person making gum-paste roses, and one person carving an ice sculpture, and that’s it. Considering that we went through at 4:00 and there was still a line of people waiting to file into the galley when we left, it’s amazing that they can prepare dinner for the 5:45 seating in such a short time.

 

We found that the shows in the evening were generally not very full and seating was not a problem. The ship itself was wonderful, and we didn’t find the decor as wild as we had heard. We did ask for and receive free postcards of the ship and playing cards at the Pursor’s desk.

 

The slide was not open, as others have mentioned previously, but the aft pool and hot tub and the dome pool and hot tub were open, and heated, although we never saw more than 4-5 people in the pool at any one time.

Disembarkation went quickly and smoothly at Canada Place. We had time for breakfast in the dining room before our colour was called - about the 3rd grouping. It was a short line through Canada Customs and our luggage was within 15 feet - sorted by colour. There were only about 40 pieces/colour so finding our luggage was not a problem.

 

My DH and I had booked Carnival transfers to the airport and since the bus was ¾ full when we got on, there was no wait - we left before all seats were full, and it was about a 30-40 minute ride to the airport. My DS and friend stayed in Vancouver for an additional 3 days, and stayed at the Victorian Hotel on Homer Street (http://www.victorian-hotel.com/), which they said was very nice, with free internet and breakfast included.

 

People often ask whether duct tape is necessary, and my DH laughed when I rolled some onto a flattened toilet paper roll, but it turns out that we did use it. The zipper on my suitcase separated from the body of the bag at one corner and I was able to wrap duct tape around the bag to secure it (and kept fingers crossed that airport security wouldn’t have to open the bag).

 

Please let me know if you have any questions....I know this was long.

[NancyIL]

Thanks for your great review, and I'm glad you had a wonderful cruise! I am happy to see a review of the Chilcoot Charter White Pass rail and bus tour. I don't see any prices on their web site, so do you remember the cost? In hindsight, are you glad you chose the shorter tour rather than the 7-hour one that goes into the Yukon? Our ship won't arrive in Skagway until 8 a.m., so we'll probably do the 3.5 hour tour that begins at noon, in order to ride the train first.

[Canoe]

Hi, Nancy

The cost for the combined rail/bus tour that we took with Chilkoot Charters was $103 + 4% tax. We looked at the 7-hour tour but wanted to have some time to explore Skagway so we opted for the shorter tour. I think that we would take the longer tour if we'd had longer port time, or if we're able to take another cruise to Alaska in the future.

[tapia]

It sounds like a great time! Do you have any pictures from the train/bus excursion?

 

What did you see on the bus different from the train?

[Canoe]

We have LOTS of pictures, but haven't uploaded them yet - I'll post a link once they're uploaded.

 

By taking the road down, you get the perspective from the other side of valley, and we could see the route we had taken on the train. We stopped at the Bridle Veil Falls for pictures, at the border between U.S. and Canada where you can see where the watershed splits - half of the water flows to U.S. and half to Canada (the U.S. Customs and Canadian Customs are actually several miles apart, with the border somewhere in the middle). We stopped to see the remains of the original gold rush trail (just a very small portion marked by a white sign), the fault line that's spanned by a suspension bridge which is anchored only on one side in order to allow some movement during an earthquake or shift.

 

We also stopped at the 'Welcome to Alaska' sign for a photo-op.

[NancyIL]

Thank you for the information about the rail/bus tour. It's a long way until June 2007, but that's what I think I'd like to do in Skagway.