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Spirit - Alaska


cruisinlawn

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I've read the ship reviews, and I have dabbled around the Alaska forum. Just wanted to see what I might stir here. How does the Spirit (Carnival) do with Alaska?? Looking at next Summer and need to get moving. Weighing options of Seattle rndtrip on Princess or one way on Carnival or Princ. Any input??

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We loved the Carnival Spirit in Alaska. We did the round trip from Vancouver. We have also done HAL to Alaska - round trip from Seattle. Going out of Vancouver is much better. Out of Vancouver you are in the inside passage and you have beautiful scenery the entire trip. Going out of Seattle you are on open sea the first day and your only scenery is the water. And, as luck would have it, on our trip the water was extremely rough - the worst we have encountered on 11 cruises - so that didn't help at all. This sea view is fine but I can see that in the Caribbean and I came to Alaska for scenery!

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We did the NB from Vancouver last summer and LOVED it. The water was smooth as glass, scenery beautiful - could see lots of wildlife from the ship, the weather was incredible, our kids (16 and 13 at the time) found loads to do to keep them occupied, food and service were good.....it was just a great cruise. We stayed 5 or 6 extra days and went to Denali and the Kenai Penninsula - highly recommend doing that. Hope you enjoy it, whatever you decide!

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We thought Carnival Spirit was a great way to Cruise Alaska...We travelled Southbound in 2006 and are going Northbound in 2008. (July 2nd...why don't you join us???) Carnival has an onboard naturalist who we really enjoyed. Long port days....leaves on a Wednesday instead of the weekend....Good food....great crew....The major drawback is that the Spirit only goes into Glacier Bay on select sailings early and late in the season...But we saw many other Glaciers and we love Carnival.

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We did the Southbound in July 2005 on the Spirit and loved it.

 

We flew into Anchorage a week before the cruise, rented a car and did the interior on our own. Anchorage to Denali to Fairbanks to GlenAllen and back to Anchorage. One big loop. We spent a couple of days in Anchorage before grabbing a Carnival transfer to Whittier.

 

I can't wait to go again!!!!

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Beautiful ship, beautiful scenery. We did SB Whittier-Vancouver in August 2006. No Glacier Bay on that itinerary but College Fjord the first morning out of Whittier was gorgeous - a number of glaciers on the way in and back out and the spectacular Harvard Glacier at the head of the Fjord. We got in very close and saw a number of calving events, plenty of ice in the water with seals aboard, otters swimming on their backs (need telephoto lens for that, you're too high otherwise). The naturalist onboard was very very good. Its a good port-intensive itinerary, and the Wednesday-Wednesday sailing means you don't have as many other ships with you in most of the ports.

 

We went a week before and went to Anchorage, Denali National Park, Fairbanks, and Barrow before making our way back down to Anchorage and the Carnival transfer to Whittier. If you can make the time I would especially recommend the trip to Denali. We're glad we did everything else on the pre-cruise portion of our trip, but the only thing I feel like I MUST do again on any future Alaska trip is Denali.

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DH and I sailed on the Spirit in May of this year. We sailed from Vancouver to Juneau, Glacier Bay, Skagway and Ketchikan. The food and service were excellent. The ship was very clean and well-maintained. The scenery was beyond words. The ship does a couple of 180 degree turns in Glacier Bay so that you can stand in one spot and not miss a thing. We saw whales, eagles, a bear, seals and mountain goats on our various excursions. The weather was beautiful, only one cold rainy day in Skagway. We stayed a couple of days in Vancouver, a lovely city.:)

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My DH and I sailed the Spirit this last July..Shes a beautiful ship and her itinerary was just what we were looking for..4 ports of call and one glacier sailing...We were in Juneau for 12 hours which left us alot of time to cruise to Tracy Arm...I have a link to my review in my signature if want to read more...

 

One more thing..we got a corner aft catagory 11 suite for what most other lines charge for a reg balcony..

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