Carnival Spirit June 8th Southbound Review (note: it grew into a novel!)

Well, here's my review, the good, the bad, some ugly!

Monday, June 6th - Departure Day

Left Tulsa 8:30am, had a bit of a scare Sunday with return flight itinerary changes. Friday everything had confirmed fine. Stress! but ended up with an extra day in Seattle. The flight to Anchorage from Salt Lake City was overbooked. Our family of 4 volunteered for the next flight and Delta offered us some great perks! More than made up for my 'day before departure' turmoil!!! We took the free Mormon Temple-Square tour while waiting. We're not Mormon, but loved the square. Car rental pick-up with Hertz (at the Anchorage airport) went well.

Tuesday, June 7th - Anchorage, Mt McKinley

Up early and drove to Talkeetna for Mt. McKinley viewing. Beautiful, clouds were lower than the peak...it was shining through! Great pictures! Loved the scenery around Wasilla, especially heading back to Anchorage. Shopped a little and shipped packages from Anchorage. The airport Post Office is open 24 hours a day! Had Ulu Factory knives shipped home. I'm stocked up on gifts for a while in that respect!

Wednesday, June 8th - Embarkation Day

Boarded the Alaska Railroad train around 10:00am for the 2 1/2 hour trip to Whittier. Fastest 2 1/2 hours of my life. LOVED this trip. So did my husband and teenage sons. Stopped or slowed for wildlife. Scenery? Simply breathtaking....

Arrived Whittier as scheduled, picketers were out, didn't bother us, and wasn't even sure of why they were there. Went directly from train to ship, security & check-in was simple. Totally awed by the ship. Spent the afternoon looking out the windows and roaming the ship. Luggage arrived promptly. Understandably late leaving Whittier as we saw rescue and ambulance removing a passenger right at departure time. Hope she's okay; we never heard. We headed to bed with our alarms set for early-thirty. Both the PA announcement and Carnival Capers encourged everyone to be up early for Prince William Sound and College Fjord glacier viewing. You could bet yer' britches we would be up!!! THIS is what we came to Alaska for!

Thursday, June 9th - Uhhh....

Woke very early. We'd been anticipating viewing the College Fjord glaciers for months. In fact, since booking way back last November. Opened our balcony curtains - what a shock! NOT what I expected... just saw a distant misty outline for the shoreline. Kept watching and waiting for the ship to get closer to shore. Well...we waited... and waited...and waited some more...... Did we miss it already?!? Surely not!!!... We were up and looking out well before the appointed viewing time. Hmmm... was this it? were we there? College Fjord? This was not College Fjord according to the brochure pictures I'd seen. Those glaciers weren't in the misty distance at all! In fact, they were quite close. And I'd read about them in the Carnival book, the glaciers were even pointed out as a highlight. I double checked my book...yep, there it was, "Among the many thrills...you'll see the 16 glaciers of College Fjord." The statement's right above that beautiful glossy picture of Prince William Sound. The picture itself is enough to make anyone drool. So then, where are they??? Glaciers can't be that hard to find, can they??? Hmm, quite puzzling.......Then adding more suspense to the mystery, my husband turned on the cruise map channel. We were way off where he thought we should be... What's up here???

Well, okay, we decided to leave the cabin, eat, and look out from the Lido deck. Like the view would change from there?!?

Ahhh...then came THE announcement... There would be no Prince William Sound viewing, no College Fjord viewing. And the cherry on this sundae, no Sitka, either. What?!?! None of this? Okay...I'll give up Sitka...but the glaciers??? NO!!! Two days of our itinerary... gone?!!! Deleted??? Just like that??? Yes, ma'am, you did hear right! We've got engine troubles. But wait... they're giving us $50 S&S credit, and if you've booked a Sitka excursion through Carnival, they're graciously refunding those charges. Just line your hiney up behind the 100 or so other people at the pursers desk.

Oh WOW... so we're on an expensive (family of four) trip, now captive on a ship that is heading straight to Juneau, skipping everything in between, and we're being reimbursed $50??? The $50 is Sitka port charges they're returning, I later find out. (I have also now been informed they didn't even have to do that.)

By now, I'm seasick. Choppy waters, vibrating ship, frowny faces everywhere. Quite a change from the smiley faces of the day before. I'm going back to bed! Lying down with the drapes open (College Fjord long past) watching what I imagine is the Alaska shoreline, Bonine kickin' in, and anti-nausea wrist-bands on. By afternoon I feel better. Went to the Versailles Lounge to watch the movie since only water is to be seen outside. Front of the ship is NOT the place to be in choppy waters with an unhappy tummy. Went back to bed, and called it a night(mare)!

Friday, June 10th - Cruisin' & Juneau

Woke up with the thought...Hey, it could've been worse, at least it's the Carnival ship that we're stuck on with the faulty engine (propulsion) system and NOT the Delta jet we flew in on!!! Prince William Sound is gone, College Fjord, cross it off. Sitka will just have to exist without us. It's a new day, get over it.

Ate in the dining room for breakfast. Good service. We sat with nice retired people from Ontario. Quite disappointed nice, retired people I might add, but I did give them my 'could be worse' theory. At least they humored me by laughing and agreed.

Spent the afternoon enjoying the scenery. Late afternoon we began closing in on Juneau. The mountains and shoreline views were spectacular!!! Went outside in front of the spa/gym area to see Juneau as we came to it. Beautiful, beautiful area. No words can describe!!! As we disembarked we were told by staff that we were so lucky to be able to overnight in Juneau... not many ships do that... Well, I guess not! But personally, I planned on sleeping through that bit of overnight luck! I'd have rather been lucky enough to see the 16 glaciers. Since we had an unexpected evening in Juneau with no prior plans, we just took the city bus and saw local life. Quite interesting to say the least.

Saturday, June 11th - Juneau (still) & the awesome Tracy Arm!

Today we embarked on our first scheduled excursion...and what an excursion it turned out to be! We had booked (independent of Carnival) the Adventure Bound trip to Tracy Arm & the Twin Sawyer Glaciers. No words can really describe what we saw or how we felt that day. The Alaskan wilderness is simply magnificent!!! Icebergs, glaciers calving, sea lions, eagles, whales, harbor seals... truly an experience of a lifetime! Our guide, Steve, owner of the tour company really gave us everything we expected, and more! Even a waterfall shower if we'd have wanted to get under it! We circled a couple of the large, beautiful blue icebergs. He got as close to the South Sawyer Glacier as he safely could, despite the iceberg jams. Was so strange to hear them chunk as we hit them. Only small ones!!! The seals and their pups floating on the ice were also facinating. We got a great view of the North Sawyer Glacier, and it was quite active at calving. We weren't hurried along, and Steve shut off the motor several times. The sounds of nature and the calving glaciers were amazing. We had some whale sightings on the way back, and took some great pictures. Memories forever!!! The Adventure Bound is quite comfortable, though far from luxurious. Restrooms are quite unique! It was a long day... but well worth it! Sandwiches offered were huge, made to order, and reasonably priced. Despite the nice tip we gave, we would've tipped both the guide and deck-hand double if we would've had the money with us. An absolutely magnificent and breathtaking day...one I hated to see come to an end.

Sunday, June 12th - Skagway & the Klondike Highway - Emerald Lake

Docked in Skagway on time. We'd reserved a car, but Avis doesn't open until 9:00am on weekends. Looked at the scenery around town, nosing around a store or two while waiting. Once we got going we followed the guide posted by Yukon (Murray) and found it invaluable for information on points of interest. I highly recommend keeping it handy if you take a car trip to Emerald Lake. The fault-line bridge was quite facinating. Coming from tornado alley rather than earthquake alley, to us that bridge was very unique! We found Tormented Valley to be aptly named... Reminded me somewhat of Stone Mtn. in Georgia. Emerald Lake was beautiful. We stopped at the Cinnamon Cache for sandwiches to take on the road. Kept on the lookout for bear, as sightings seemed abundant recently, but we didn't see any. That in no way detracted from the day. We enjoyed it immensely!!!

I took pictures at the U.S. Port of Entry upon return from Canada. Be forwarned... that is a huge, gigantic NO NO! I was informed I'd just committed a federal offense!!! Huh? Me? Luckily that's something that can be easily remedied with the delete button on a digital camera! I'm sure I wasn't the first, nor will be the last. I asked if it was posted not to take pictures of the US Port Of Entry, 'cause if it was I sure didn't see a sign, and the customs agent said no it wasn't. Well...it should be! In bold orange letters! Finished the day by driving up to the Skagway gold rush cemetery. I wonder how the people buried there would feel if they only knew they had become a tourist attraction! Ended the day happily exhausted.

Monday, June 13th - A glimpse of Ketchikan

Let's rewind this to say Friday the 13th! Just another Carnival day... Nice morning sailing toward Ketchikan. Announced that we were going to be there at 12:00pm rather than the itinerary's stated 11:00am. No big deal, shopping (thanks to recommendations from this board) and a walk along Creek Street were the events planned for my day. Plenty of time for both. As it turned out, tenders would begin around noon for those with booked excursions...the rest of us?...get in line for numbers to the later tenders. Ship would be positioned at dock for our return, no tendering back. Well, we got our tender number... no problem. Finally had our number called around 2:30pm, lined up, got to the front of the line...ANNOUNCEMENT TIME (by now I'd learned to dread announcements): NO more tenders...the ship is positioning into dock! Wait a minute!!! Our Ketchikan day is now slipping by while we spend our time just waiting to disembark! We were assured it would only be a 30 minute wait. Haha. An obviously unpleasant conversation was being held in a foreign language between a staff member and passenger. I have no idea what was said, but didn't need to know the words to figure they were 'having words'. By the time my feet hit the ground in Ketchikan it was 4:00pm. Did some very quick shopping in order to be back on board by the required 7:30pm deadline. Lines were long at cash registers in the 2 shops I did make purchases at. Never did make it to Creek Street...

Tuesday, June14th - Cruisin' bye Alaska, hello BC

Just a cruisin' day. Beautiful down the inside passage. Waters mostly calm and we couldn't have had a better day just to enjoy the scenery. Some mist, a little rain...but that's all just part of it. Not sure at what point we went from Alaska to British Columbia, but it didn't really matter. The area is so amazingly beautiful. Michelle, the naturalist, gave announcements over points of interest, and did an awesome job of pointing out whales. We saw several, some mothers with calves, and porpoises followed in our wake. We enjoyed sitting and visiting with other family members that had booked at the same time we did, just looking out to the coastline as we sailed by. Everything was so green and lush! I was particularly fond of looking at the lighthouses.

Wednesday, June 15th - Goodbye CARNIVAL!

The End! Of Carnival anyway! I had thought I would be rather depressed when the cruise came to an end. After our fiasco, I actually was elated it was over! Disembarkation went very well! We chose to carry all our luggage and were among the first off. We rented one-way (no added fee) SUV from Budget, Vancouver to Seattle, and added several days to see a bit of Washington state before flying out of SeaTac. I was very pleased with Budget, and they provided a shuttle bus from the cruise terminal to their lot. Our SUV had only 200km on it, brand-new! We drove around the beautiful Stanley Park in Vancouver then headed for Washington. Overnighted at Ferndale with Mt Baker in our view.

Thursday, June 16th to Sunday, June 19th - Washington

Saw Mt Ranier, at least the base and some clouds. I assume it has a peak! Drove up to Johnstons Ridge at Mt St Helens. Pretty cloudy, but what a sight, and to think of the volcanic devastation is just mind-blowing. Bought a couple of books - facinating! Crossed the bridge at Astoria, Oregon. Another beautiful area! Enjoyed walking the beach at Long Beach, Washington. Needed much more time here! Didn't much care for the Pikes Place Market in Seattle...probably because it was very crowded. Space Needle was nice, we enjoyed our time there. Had lunch at a restaurant at Fishermans Terminal, delicious fresh seafood! Really a beautiful state, a vacation unto itself!!! Uneventful flight home.

Some thoughts...

Others may not agree with me, but, my opinion, Carnival failed us. Each and every one of us on that cruise. I know all about the Carnival disclaimer on port/itinerary changes... however, of the 6 days/7 nights we were actually with Carnival, 3 of the days were a loss to us. I did not go for the 'cruise' just to be on ship. I did go for the Alaska experience, and that includes the main attraction...the glaciers. - One port missed, well, disappointing, but that happens. - One port missed, one port delayed several hours, that's kinda pushing it. - One port missed, one port delayed, PLUS completely skipping the glaciers, that's way, way too much off the itinerary for Carnival to just ignore. But they did. To some it may not matter, to others, like us, cruising isn't something we can do just anytime. It takes planning and budgeting, with long expensive flights, and most of us expect the itinerary to reasonably follow schedule. Three days out of six...well, the math is easy. That's 1/2 the cruise. At full price. For a company as large as the Carnival Cruiseline Corporation, they should plan for customer service when something so totally out of line happens. Worse yet is knowing it's highly probable that Carnival Reps. on board knew we had problems before we even left Whittier, since the damage seems to have been done on the previous northbound cruise. They didn't let us in on the news that we'd be missing several things until the next morning, when the ship was well underway. We had no alternative but to continue on. I'd venture to say, several of us would have taken ourselves off the ship and done an impromptu land tour, had we been informed of circumstance. I'm generally lighthearted, and find humor in the most bizarre of circumstance... however, this cruise really tested that part of my personality.

As for the ship...

We found the buffet food to be quite similar to buffet food on land. Some was good, some was not. Pizza was very good. Loved the Pina Colada dessert...would really like to know the recipe! Made to order sandwiches were great when grilled. Our dining room server was fantastic, his name was Armando, and his assistant, Anucha, was very efficient. Extra tips for them. We enjoyed the food, trying dishes that we'd never had before. All service staff on Lido was both efficient and friendly.

We requested our room stewardess, Alexandria (I think was her name) to not disturb our room. We had 4 people in our cabin, husband, 2 sons and myself, and hated for her to fall all over our stuff. We were all in and out so much at different times we just kept up the privacy sign. One bed change & some changes in towels/washclothes were all we asked of her. We did leave all tips due her as it was our choice for minimal service, not hers.

The decor was interesting. Quite a mix. The carpet pattern was a bit dizzying when you're seasick! Wasn't too wild about the pastel walls on Lido deck. Room size was quite decent, we slept well enough, so I guess the beds weren't too bad, and the bathroom was surprisingly nice sized. Balcony was great to have!

Not much for teen activities. Mine bought games at the first port we came to, then played them with their cousins while sitting by the windows. Some other teens from the ship joined for a few games. Our boys were the main reason we went with Carnival, in addition to College Fjord, and activities were somewhat disappointing for them after hearing so much about how Carnival caters to kids. They got over it and still enjoyed themselves.

The shows were pretty much as we expected, but we didn't go to many, only the comedies. Michael, the cruise director seemed fine to us.

We didn't choose Alaska based on any of the above onboard ship things (except hoping for more teen activities onboard), so I have no complaints when I really hadn't cared enough to set up expectations to begin with. We did enjoy the efforts of Michelle, the naturalist, as we passed points of interest, wildlife and sealife. She is a shining-star on the Spirit! (And if you have read all this, YOU deserve a gold-star!)

Regrets...?

Not about Alaska, but yes to my choice of cruiseline.

What we DID see and do in Alaska was AWESOME.

Others may not agree with me, but, my opinion, Carnival failed us.

I don't think anyone disagrees. I've taken the Spirit three times to Alaska, and loved it, especially the cheap balconies, but $50 for missing College Fjord and Sitka is just disgusting. Yes, they have no obligation in their contract, but if you look at how Celebrity handled their propulsion problems...

I've also sailed with Captain Pier Paolo Scala three times, and I can tell you, if he could have, he would have given you his paycheck. Sincerely sweet guy. I'm sure this came from the home office. :( Are you going to try writing them about this?

Your attitude was wonderful though! Glad you enjoyed what time you did have.

I'm so sorry that your cruise was less than what was promised to you. I know how much planning went into our cruise aboard the Norwegian Dream last week and how disappointed I would have been if even one hour would have been shaved off of our precious Alaska experience. I also agree that Carnival owes you a bit more than the $50 per person that you got. The ports/glacier viewing were not missed because of weather or an "act of God", they were missed because the ship had mechanical problems. I would write a letter to their customer service department.:(

I can understand how disappointed you are. An Alaska cruise is a huge expense. We are sailing on the Spirit 6/29 and can only pray that we fare better than you. You deserve an apology from Carnival and additional money refunded.

I can definitely understand your extreme disappointment in missing as much as you did, but I'm sure there were safety and time issues that were out of Carnival's hands. With that said, Carnival definitely dropped the ball in terms of reimbursement. $50 is a pittance. You do deserve more than an apology.....

I don't think anyone disagrees. I've taken the Spirit three times to Alaska, and loved it, especially the cheap balconies, but $50 for missing College Fjord and Sitka is just disgusting. Yes, they have no obligation in their contract, but if you look at how Celebrity handled their propulsion problems...

 

I've also sailed with Captain Pier Paolo Scala three times, and I can tell you, if he could have, he would have given you his paycheck. Sincerely sweet guy. I'm sure this came from the home office. :( Are you going to try writing them about this?

 

Your attitude was wonderful though! Glad you enjoyed what time you did have.

I completely agree with Denise..... :D

I hope you do write and call Carnival and hopefully you get more than $50.00 that is ridiculous. :mad:

I enjoyed your review and your attitude, and agree with all of the other posters here. Carnival needs to offer more. We had several problems on our first cruise (with Carnival) which involved getting stuck on a sandbar in the Mississippi River for several hours. Our only port, Cozumel, was cancelled due to lack of time and Key West was substituted. We then had a huge storm and stabilizer problems on on the way to Key West and arrived very late, giving us about 2-1/2 hrs on shore. We were given $150/pp shipboard credit, and 50% off of our next cruise.

WRITE CARNIVAL! I've also heard that correspondence by U.S. Mail gets a better response than e-mail, but I don't know if that's true.

I'm also sorry that your trip didn't turn out as you had planned/hoped, especially after all of the planning you undoubtedly put into it! I really did enjoy reading your review, and I think it's wonderful that you kept your sense of humor throughout the entire "adventure."

Wishing you only good memories on all future trips!

Laurie

Sym

We, My wife, Grandnd daughter and Grand son were on the cruise with you. Your review was right on the money! I think we should be reimbursed for College Fjiord just as if it was a port. Like you, we were looking forward to the glaciers as one of the highlights of the cruise. At least you all went to the Sawyer glacier and got up close. Have you contacted Carnival? We had another Carnival screw up. We qualified for the luggage forwarding program, but weren't included. Of course Carnival blamed Amrerican Airlines, but after not telling us that there was engine trouble until we had been up since 4:30, I don't believe them.

Thank you all for responding...after hitting the submit, I thought, "What have I done!!!" How whiney must I sound? After all, we did have an amazing trip.

Contacting Carnival by mail is a good idea; I've only relied on the minimal contact I had on board. Thanks for sharing your experience with Carnival. Perhaps our input would help how customer relations handles future problems of this nature, even if we never hear back personally. Not under the assumption that I can change the world!

Now to go find how Celebrity handled a similar situation...

Basser, oh my gosh...luggage troubles on top of everything else!?! I am so glad you agree with my review. That reinforces that this wasn't just all in my sometimes over-active imagination!!! I never used a comment card from the Lido deck tables, but they sure were disappearing fast. Did you notice that? Is that just normal for any cruise? I do wish you could've seen the Sawyer glaciers, too. They truly added to our glacier-deficient trip.

It's so hard to write in blue and white and know if your true perception is coming through. Yes, I am disappointed, but I'm happy you all caught the bit of humor in it all. What else can a person do??? Pick out the prunes, enjoy the plums!

Future Spiriters, Good Luck! May the force (of the propellers) be with you!

My husband and 2 DD's were on the same cruise. We agree with your review. We did have a fantastic trip and a good sense of humor as well. I didn't want to let the College Fjord or Sitka ruin the rest of our trip so we just went with the flow. I will however not cruise on Carnival again for quite sometime. I do not think that a $50 credit per person was enough; especially since they knew that the ship was broken when they arrived in Whittier. Why make all the announcements to get up early and see the College Fjord when you knew we weren't going to make it??

I too was on the June 8th cruise and missing Sitka was a dissapointment as well, since it was my second trip, and Sitka was the only town that I hadn't seen before. I just want to know, where were we when the seas were so rough?

I thought the seas were very rough the first couple of days. Once we were out of the Gulf of Alaska, everything was very smooth. We all took Bonine and we felt fine; in fact, I found it to be very soothing while we were sleeping with the balcony door open.

basser, lilherm & BelleReve, I just posted a new thread after calling Carnival Guest Relations (thanks to all who encouraged me to do that). It's under: PLEASE READ - All June 8th Carnival Spirit Cruisers!

They are keeping documentation on all calls regarding this cruise and must have received several. The representative I spoke with was extremely pleasant.

Please call them, and perhaps Carnival will pull through for us.

I sent a letter to Bob Dickinson this morning. Do you think I should call also? Is that too much gripeing? We did enjoy the parts of the cruise thatwe got to do and the service was great. I don't want to make it sound like the trip was a big disaster. We were still on a cruise and in Alaska. Our grandkids loved it.

Hi basser, I know what you mean about griping! After all, we did GO to Alaska. Even the port itinerary changes, I'm thinkin'... so okay, a couple of the ports didn't hold together for us, get over it... But you know, 1/2 of this cruise, including the main reason we chose Alaska, didn't hold together well.

Sometimes I wish there was a GRIPE BOARD on CruiseCritic! That way, those who are bored with this whole situation wouldn't be inundated with my posting!!! And when I'm in a fussy mood, I could just go there and post until this resolves itself. I don't want to bring anyone else down, but this is the only place I have to find others from our ship.

When planning, everytime I looked at a cruiselines itinerary, the first thing I noted was which glacial area is the HIGHLIGHT of the cruise. In fact, once booked (November 2004) I can't tell you the hours I spent RESEARCHING College Fjord, just so we would know what we were looking at. All for naught...

I plan to follow up my phone call with a letter after a couple of weeks, if silence ends up being Carnival's answer. So no, I don't think a phone call after the letter is overkill. I will make sure my letter isn't overkill (like my review:)was), either. I want it read!

Can't help but wonder how the 'Carnival Spirit Virtual Review' would've turned out had the reviewer been 2 weeks later and reviewed from our cruise.;) Our Day 2, Day 3, and Day 6 were SOOO different from hers!!!

Sym, quit worrying about griping. You're 100% entitled to be upset about this. It really isn't like a Caribbean cruise missing a port and Carnival should know that.

Basser, a phone call on top of a letter isn't overkill if they're tracking phone calls, go for it.

I'll give them some time to respond to the letter, then I'll call.

Basser and others on our cruise... wondering if you've received a response from Carnival yet? I'm beginning to check into an Alaskan cruise for next year, but am going to be quite wary of any CCL holdings. Guess we'll just have to see what works out and hope for the best. Was hoping maybe someone got a nicer letter than we did!!!

Sorry to hear about the problems with your cruise. I know how much I am looking forward to my Alaska cruise next summer, and how devastated I would be if the glacier viewing was cancelled...as well as a port! I thoroughly enjoyed your reveiw, though. Your good-hearted personality shone through. Thanks for sharing! (Hope you at least receive a reply to your letter from Carnival.)