Northbound Spirit 7/28/04 A Review

[tjustice]

My girlfriend and I just completed the northbound Spirit cruise with an added three day land package with the Alaskan RR. This is a review of the cruise, our excursions, and the land tour.

We flew into Vancouver on the 27th so we could tour the city before boarding the ship. On the evening of the 27th we shopped Robson Street and just explored the area near our hotel (Hampton Inn at the end of Robson Street near the stadium). The next morning we booked a sightseeing tour with a local company (the hotel recommended this company and booked it for us). We had an enjoyable time and saw many fantastic sights. Before the tour began the driver loaded our luggage on his bus and then once the tour ended dropped us off around 2:15 at the terminal. The tour lasted about 3 1/2 hours.

Once we arrived at the terminal the lines were long. However, we only had to wait about 15 minutes before we were checked in. That was the easy part, next came U.S. Customs. We heard one of the Carnival employees make an announcement that some people had been waiting approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours for this process. Our wait wasn't nearly that long, maybe 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Once on board we found the Spirit to be a beautiful ship. We sailed two years ago on her sister ship, the Pride. We like the layout and size of the Spirit class ships and even though a sign was posted that the cruise was sold-out, we never felt crowed among 2100 + people.

The food: Lunch was probably our favorite meal of the day. We enjoyed the grill (chicken sandwiches, hamburgers, hotdogs, steak sandwiches) and the NY Deli. I didn't care too much for the breakfast foods, but my girlfriend liked the omlettes. Although the dinners were OK to us, they were not great. We decided that since this was my 4th Carnival cruise and her 5th, that the menu has always seemed to be the same. We enjoyed the company of the other guests at dinner, but the food was nothing to brag about.

The excursions: These were the highlight of our trip. In Ketchikan we booked a flightseeing tour with Carlin Air. Jeff Carlin and his assistant Lorraine did an outstanding job. My girlfriend and I were the only two people on his 2 pm flight. He flew us back into Misty Fjords and landed on Walker Lake. We were the only ones there. The scenery was just breathtaking. If you do only one tour during your cruise do this one. Before the flight, Lorraine took us on a quick tour of the town and gave us some historical background. I can't say enoough nice things about these people. By the way, I found Carlin Air through this BB, so thanks to those people who post here for providing the info needed for us to book this excursion.

During the morning at Ketchikan, we walked through town and did a little shopping. We walked over to Ship Creek and watched the Salmon struggle to get upstream. That was a very impressive sight, but the fish were hard to catch on film!

The ship was 3 hours late getting into Juneau so thankfully we hadn't booked a tour before leaving home. However, we did the research on this BB and Orca Enterprises and Coastal Helicpoters were recommended for whale watching and dog mushing. We took the short walk from the pier to Orca's office and they had a whale watching tour leaving in just a few short minutes. We asked them to try to book us a dog mushing tour while we were out whale watching with Captain Larry. Much to our surprise, by the time we got to Captain Larry's boat (about a 15 minute drive) they already had it booked for us. The whale watching excursion was outstanding! We saw Orcas, humpbacks, and sea lions. It's an unforgettable sight to watch humpacks bubble-net feed. After about 3 hours of whale watching the Orca Enterprise driver dropped us off to a Coastal Helicopter van. We took a short drive to the airport to board the helicopter to go dog-mushing.

This experience too is unforgettable! It was our first time in a helicopter and we enjoyed the 15-20 minute ride to the dog mushing camp on the galcier. Once we received our orientation, we began our experience surrounded by nothing but the white brightness of the galcier and tall majestic mountains. We spent approximately 30-40 minutes on the sled and then had time to pet the dogs and talk to our tour guide before the helicopter picked us up. This tour lasted about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. That was our day in Juneau, but what a day!

In Skagway, we got off the ship and walked a short distance to a small building where we booked an independent tour. After some discussion, we decided on the White Pass/Yukon Railroad. We road in a chartered bus for about 45 minutes to get to the train station. (We did in reverse what the tour from the ship did. That tour leaves from Skayway and travels up the Pass, we took the bus up the highway and rode the train down the hill). This was a good way to spend part of the day in this port. Once we got back into Skayway we shopped before returning to the ship. We liked this little town with its wooden sidewalks and friendly atmosphere.

Our last port of call was Sitka. This is a very small town but probably the prettiest (we thought) of the three that we were in. We just walked the town and shopped.

Disembarking: Carnival did a great job with this. You think once you receive the infromation on board that this is going to be a big mess. We got up early, ate breakfast, and returned to our room to wait for our tag color to be called. We were off the ship by 8:15 and on our way to Anchorage.

We booked a three day post cruise land package directly through the Alaskan RR. We waited at the Egan Center in Anchorage for over 2 hours on our luggage, but once we got it we proceeded to the Comfort Inn near the train station for our overnight stay. Anchorage is a beautiful city and is easy to walk through and enjoy the sights. We shopped (I should say that she shopped and I tagged along), had lunch, and walked to Resolution Point to enjoy the scenery.

Our train left for Denali around 8:30 the next morning. It took about eight hours for this portion of the trip. The train ride was enjoyable and we saw 2 or 3 bald eagles along the way and near Denali we spotted a bear. There are places along the way where the train will slow down so that passangers can get a view of Mt. McKinley.

At Denali, we stayed at the McKinley Chalet Resort. We bought tickets for the dinner theater called Cabin Night. This was enjoyable because the guests get involved in singing and participating with the actors.

The next morning we took an early (6 am) Tundra Wildreness Tour that lasted eight hours. But getting up at 5 am was worth it since we saw 10 grizzley bears, a golden eagle, moose, caribou, and Dall sheep. BTW, there wasn't a cloud in the sky whenever we got to the turn around point for our tour. McKinley was beautiful and we got to see the entire mountain. If you go to Denali don't miss this tour. We booked it through the resort.

We boarded the train to Fairbanks around 3:45 and arrived around 8:15. Fairbanks was my least favorite part of the trip. We stayed at Pikes Resort near the airport. We had to call Pikes to send a van to pick us up. All the other resorts/hotels had vans waiting at the depot for their guests. Downtown Fairbanks has just a few shops to browse. We took the Riverboat tour on Saturday before leaving. That tour was the highlight of Fairbanks. We visited the Santa House in nearby North Pole and then took a short ride to see the pipeline.

We had a good time on this trip. Overall, the excursions were the best part of this cruise. We enjoyed Michelle, the naturalist on board the Spirit. If you go on this cruise listen to her because she is a gold mine of information. Keep your eyes open on board the crusie since you never know when you are going to see wildlife. Michelle estimated that on our cruise we saw 200 whales while sailing to Juneau. We also enjoyed sailing College Fjord. Our time at Harvard Glacier was awesome. The Captain of the Spirit put her within about 1000 feet of that magnificent glacier. We witnessed two or three different times part of the galcier breaking apart. You have to be there to experience it. I don't think I have the words to describe the experience.

We got lucky with the weather too. It sprinkled a little in Skayway, but that was the only day we experienced any rain. During our land tour the weather was HOT. Temperatures were in the 80 degree range.

If you have any questions, we'll do our best to answer them.

[kwokpot]

Thanks, Tjustice, for writing a great review! We sailed on the Spirit on 3/04, and enjoyed the ship so much that we're sailing her again in Sept. to Hawaii!

 

Our Hawaii cruise leaves from Vancouver too, and I've always thought the city to be a beatuiful and clean place.

 

I have also booked the Hampton Inn for 2 nts pre-cruise;I am using Hilton Honors Frequent Guset Points for a free stay! Can you tell me about your stay in the hotel, and what you thought of the rooms and the free breakfast? Did you find the location convienent? Thanks for any insight you can share, and it's great to hear you enjoyed your Alaskan trip. That is one cruise trip where the destinations / ports and NOT the SHIP are the highlights of the trip!

[tjustice]

The hotel was nice. The room had enough space for the two of us and was well kept. The breakfast was adequate. They served cereal, toast, juices, milk, and sweet rolls. If I remember corectly, we had the choice of ordering eggs, bacon, etc. for an additional charge. This hotel was close to all of the stores on Robson Street. We might have walked between two to four block to reach the shopping district. Hope this helps.

[OhioJeff]

tjustice

 

Wonderful review! Thanks for posting this, its makes the wait almost bearable :)

How was the entertainment onboard?

[CruiseFever]

Thanks for the information. We've been trying really hard to break into the Alaska cruise game, your review helps with our decision

 

Score one more for Alaska

[SoccerMom#3]

Thanks for th e review. I would love to go to Alaska but I really want to do a round trip due to the airfare. Decisions, decisions

[luv2cruise450]

Thanks Tjustice for posting your review...I keep checking the CCL boards hoping to get more info on the Spirit's Alaskan sailing and yours came just in time since we will be sailing with her in reverse. We will fly into Anchorage a few days before boarding the Spirit in Whittier on Sept 1 and then cruise southbound to Vancouver, Glad you had such a great time!

I keep telling people that if they possibly can...to tack on a land package either before or after their cruise. That as spectacular as Alaska is as seen while cruising...the interior is equally stunning. When we did our land tour last time...I found the Yukon-St Elias-Wrangell area absolutely breathtaking!

Thanks and happy cruising!