Carnival Spirit review to Alaska with kids

[lisaland15]

(I also posted this in the Carnival and Alaska sections)

 

We just got off Carnival Spirit to Alaska. A little background: We had family reunion (about 50 people) celebrating my in-laws 40th wedding anniversary. My hubby and I are a couple in our late thirties with 11-year old son and a 2-year old daughter (almost 3). This was the 8th cruise for the 3 of us and the 4th cruise for my little one.

 

We flew into Seattle from Houston and drove to Vancouver. It was about $200 pp cheaper to do so. The one-way car rental was about $170. We spent a few hours in Seattle visiting some of my hubby's college friends who ended up there. Traffic was heavy leaving out of Seattle, even around 3:00pm. Going over the boarder was easy and relatively quick.

 

Once in Vancouver, we stayed at the Westin Bayshore. We got a great Priceline deal of $70/night. We rented our car from Hertz and drop-off was at the hotel--very convenient. We had a room in the tower section that looked over the water. The room was very big.

 

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We took a taxi to the ship at 12:00pm. It took us about an hour to get on the ship. We dropped our carry-ons in the cabin, then went to explore and eat. We had cabin #5131 with an extended balcony. Cabin #5131 is the first one at the end of the forward section that juts out, so we did have total privacy on one side. The balcony had slanted glass versus straight. So, you weren't able to look straight down into the water. I prefer that with a little one.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2614390020061183369rZTHRj

 

Our first stop was Ketchikan. We went to the Lumberjack show and then took a Ketchikan city tour with a trip to Saxman Village through Rainbird tours. The Lumberjack show was fun and pretty crowded. This was the only tour booked through Carnival. We were the only people on the Ketchikan tour. It was very good. I really felt I learned about Ketchikan.

 

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Next was Juneau. We took a helicopter tour through Coastal Helicopter. All I can say is beautiful.

 

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We also took the tram ride up to Mt. Roberts. You can ride it as many times as you want in a day. We first took the kids with us, then went back later, just hubby and I.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2984345180061183369ApvcKJ

 

In Skagway, we took a 6 hour Yukon tour through Frontier Excursions. It paralleled the White Pass Railroad. We went as far as Emerald Lake in Canada. We made several stops. We had lunch at a place called Frontier Land which also had dog sledding, gold panning, and a museum. Long, but very interesting.

 

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Our final cruise stop was Sitka. We took a tour on Capt. Davey's Esther G. We saw eagles, whales, starfish, puffins, sea urchins, jellyfish, sea otters, and seals. Wonderful.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2947543920061183369uljZqt

 

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The ship went to through the College Fjord and stopped at the Harvard Glacier. The captain parked the ship for about 30 mins. on the starboard side and then turned the ship 180 degrees and parked it on the port side. We were able to hear the glacier cracking and see it calving.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2453390140061183369NOHwiO

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2212219770061183369bIKYIJ

 

The ship docked in Whitter and we took the Comedy Shuttle tour through Alaskan Leopard to Anchorage. It was fine, and had a few stop such as a wildlife preserve where we saw bears, owls, deer, etc.

 

Once in Anchorage, we spent a night at the Sheraton Anchorage. The room was a typical hotel room (at $125).

 

Our flight didn't leave until 8:50pm. We went wandering around downtown and decided to take a bike tour of the coastline. Each one of us had our own bike with my hubby pulling the 2-year old in a trailer. It was a pretty easy bike with an easy trail. We went as far as Earthquake Park. As we were heading back into town, we saw a big, baby moose that came very close to us.

 

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Some other notes:

 

We took the kids on all of the tours. I made sure they were well fed and had snacks, just in case. I also bought little travel pillows in case a nap was needed. Both kids also participated in Camp Carnival. My son had been in it several times already (5th Carnival cruise), but this was the first for my daughter. She's a quiet, somewhat shy child who's used to being around me most of the time. With the cruise being to Alaska, there weren't a lot of kids, but just the right amount for my daughter. My daughter asked often to go to the "Klids Klub" (Kid's Club). My son ended up palling around with these two brothers and two girls when not hanging out with family members.

 

One general comment about the food--I'm a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom, so, as long a I don't have to cook and clean-up or eat McDonald's, I'm happy. :-) None of us are very picky eaters. My son usually ate off the adult menu and ate beef dishes I don't cook--fillet mignon, prime rib, chateaubriand, and my daughter was a mix. With our large group at early seating, we had 3 tables of 10 and 2 tables of six--all in the same area, all by windows. The only real food issue I saw was how they cooked the fillet mignon--a lot of them were not cooked to order and were sent back.

 

While on the ship, we had a private party for the anniversary couple. It was held in the Shanghai Bar. We had a PowerPoint present showing the life of the couple. The ship provided the slide projector and microphone. The layout of the bar wasn't very conducive for viewing the presentation, but we made due. The chocolate cake we had was delicious.

 

Both our waiters and cabin steward were great--friendly and very attentive.

 

My hubby went to some of the shows. He liked the Hypnotist show the best especially when several family members were entranced. I prefer just hanging out on the balcony with a good book.

 

We spent some time in the casino and ended up $11.50 ahead. :-)

 

The Captain's Party and Past Guest Party were crowded, but food and drinks were plentiful.

 

We had several pictures taken and bought about ten. I scrapbook, so I use the embarkation photo to start, and a port picture to start each new place. Our group had a picture taken of all of us on the stairway in the Atrium. We also brought a formal night picture, our annual one of the kids, an extra one with a polar bear, and one from the Past Guest Party.

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2303191440061183369WIslRq

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/552048765/2373541550061183369IydiNX

 

The cabin had fairly heavy curtains, so we were able to keep most of the daylight out. It was weird having daylight at 10:30 at night. I found it difficult to get to sleep and ended up waking up early, too (due to the early sunrise).

 

We were gone for a total of nine days. I decided to bring less clothes and do laundry on the ship. We were on deck 5 forward. I ended up doing it on deck 7 midship (others were full). It ended up taking about two hours for two loads. I'm not sure if I'd do it again. With kids, their clothes get dirty quick and sometimes I'm the unlucky recipient of their messes. :-( We did take advantage of the $15 wash and fold Carnival bag offered on day 5.

 

Overall, it was a wonderful, expensive cruise. Many great, beautiful memories. Would we do it again? Probably not again for a long time. There's a lot of other new places we need to cruise to first! :-)

 

 

[jamandamn14]

thank you