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Alaska/Carnival Legend Cruise Review w/ Pictures July 2015


navybaby1113
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I've finally got all our pictures organized and I can’t wait to share our trip with you! During my review, I’ll do my best to divulge as many details as I can. I’m going to post about our pre-cruise trip to Seattle as well as details about the ship and the ports. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to ask!

 

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Background:

My name is Ashley and my husband are I are from Tallahassee, FL (Go Noles!). We’ve sailed 7 times before on Carnival, all to the Caribbean. This was our first time to Alaska (actually, it was our first time ever to the west coast). We decided to take this cruise to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary.

 

We did a lot of debating on which cruise line to use and also which itinerary (Glacier Bay or Tracy Arm Fjord). In the end, we decided to sail with Carnival to save money (it was about $1000 cheaper than the comparable Princess cruise). Since Carnival only sails to Glacier Bay twice a year, we ended up with an itinerary going to Tracy Arm Fjord.

 

We booked the cruise in September 2014 using Early Saver rate. Sadly we didn’t get any price drops at all leading up to the cruise. We are also huge fans of FTTF, so I booked that immediately after booking the cruise.

 

We started planning this cruise over a year ago, so I did a lot of research in preparation for this trip. I’ll try to include some notes throughout. I created a full planning binder for all of the information I needed for this trip. At the beginning of our planning, I went to the visitors website of every port we were visiting and requested an information booklet. These were really interesting to read and gave us some insight about the towns we were visiting. I also bought The Alaska Cruise Handbook off of Amazon, which was a great book to read before we left.

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Pre-Cruise - 2 1/2 Days in Seattle

During my research, I only found a couple reviews that touched on pre-cruise days in Seattle. So I’m going to do my best to give you as many details as possible about our pre-cruise days in case you’re planning on enjoying Seattle before or after your cruise as well. Our cruise was Tuesday to Tuesday, so we flew into Seattle on Saturday and then spent all day Sunday and Monday there.

 

Cruise Itinerary:

Day 1: Sail away from Seattle

Day 2: Sea Day

Day 3: Cruise Tracy Arm Fjord

Day 4: Skagway (7am-9pm)

Day 5: Juneau (7am-3pm)

Day 6: Ketchikan (7am-1pm)

Day 7: Victoria, BC (7pm-midnight)

Day 8: Return to Seattle

 

Post-Cruise - 1 Day in Seattle

Since we had a late flight leaving the day our cruise returned, we rented a car and spent the day touring some areas around Seattle. I’ll share all this with you as well.

 

Most picture are taken with a Canon T3, but there are also pictures taken with a Sony Powershot and my iPhone 5S. I took over 2000 photos throughout this trip, so fair warning, there will be a ton of pictures as well as plenty of food porn.

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I know some people don’t enjoy long reviews, so before I start, I’ll give you my general thoughts and cliff notes:

 

Embarkation/Disembarkation: Both were a breeze. We got through security and check-in within 10 minutes. Disembarkation was just as easy. Off the ship, grabbed our bags, and got through customs within 15 minutes.

 

FTTF: Wonderful as always. Embarkation and debarkation wouldn’t have been so easy without it. We were also allowed into our rooms immediately which is a nice perk. There was no tendering on this ship and we didn’t use the priority line at guest services. Still worth it to me without using those two perks.

 

Ship: This was our first time sailing a Spirit class ship, so it took some getting used to. We were still getting turned around on day 3. The decor on the ship was ugly, but that doesn’t really make or break my cruise. The ship has some upgrades like Red Frog Pub and the Sushi Bar, but doesn’t have Guy’s Burgers, Blue Iguana, or Alchemy Bar. Could really use the remainder of the upgrades and a new paint job (we saw excessive rust in a lot of places).

 

Room: We were in room 7255. This was our first time with a balcony since our honeymoon 5 years ago and we loved it. The room was a great location. We were just steps away from the midship elevators. Never heard any noise from the lobby even though we were right there. Would highly recommend this location.

 

Dining: Was pretty disappointed with the food on this cruise. The lido buffet doesn’t have as many options as other ships we have sailed on. I noticed myself getting a pizza a lot of times for lunch. During lunch we often had issues finding a table and would be stalking people waiting for them to get up and then bussing the table ourselves. The Legend is using the old menus, so no new excitement there. I don’t feel like they have enough tables for Anytime Dining on this ship as there was only one or two nights when we didn’t need to wait. We had good service in the dining rooms most nights and the food was tasty.

 

Entertainment & Activities: The shows they had for this cruise were good and they had 4 comedians throughout which created a good variety. The Hasbro Game Show is a nice addition. The naturalist onboard did a few lectures about Alaska, which was really interested to go to. I was disappointed with the rest of the activities onboard. They really only held trivia in the mornings while we were in port, so I think we only attended 2 or 3 trivia games, which is very unusual for us. In the afternoons there were a lot of times where we just sat on our balconies looking at the scenery (not that this was horrible by any means) because there was nothing else to do.

 

Tracy Arm Fjord: We booked the small boat excursion that picks you up at the ship and takes you closer to the glacier. I highly recommend this if you can afford it. We got so much closer to the shore than the ship did and the captain would stop the boat when we got near something interesting (wildlife or waterfall). We got to see both the Sawyer Glacier and South Sawyer Glacier when the ship only got to see South Sawyer. The small boat got so much closer to the glaciers as well. The ship couldn’t even see the entire glacier from where they were sitting.

 

Skagway: We booked a private excursion with Frontier Excursions that took us up to the Yukon and Emerald Lake. Another great excursion! Heidi, our guide, was absolutely fabulous. She had so many great stories of the area. We stopped at many different places, some of which were unscheduled, but Heidi thought we would be interested in seeing. The included lunch is nothing special, but the area where you stop as a lot of wildlife to play with. The bus we were on wasn't full (there were less than 20 of us) so we could move between sides if we wanted to.

 

Juneau: We booked a private excursion with Harv and Marv to go whale watching. We were scheduled to be on a 6 person boat with 2 other couples, but a captain called out sick, so they added another couple to our group and put us on their largest boat with a naturalist. It worked out really well because we had a ton of room to spread out and never felt crowded. They provided soda and snacks as well as binoculars. We saw multiple whales, seals, and sea lions and they also showed us a bald eagle nest.

 

Ketchikan: We booked the Carnival Excursion, Rainforest Wildlife Sanctuary, Eagles, and Totem Poles. I wasn’t terribly excited about this excursion, but it turned out to be better than expected. The rainforest area was really pretty. We saw a ton of eagles and a baby bear. The totem carving part was completely useless as we were only in there for like 5 minutes. They had food to feed the reindeer, but they really didn’t want anything to do with us. They had hot cocoa and some small snacks at the end of the tour. If you want something relatively inexpensive and not too strenuous, then this is a good tour to take.

 

Victoria, BC: We ended up not being able to dock in Victoria because of the weather. There were a lot of upset passengers on the ship. It worked out well for us because we weren’t planning on getting off anyways, so we came out $35 richer because of the returned port fees and taxes.

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Which side of the ship would you book a cabin the left or the right side for the best view?

 

I don't think it really matters. Both side has nice views of the scenery and both sides saw wildlife. Alaska is gorgeous no matter which side you're on.

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Day 1: Flying to Seattle, Washington & Touring Seattle

{Saturday, July 11}

 

Okay, enough of the Cliff Notes. Let’s get this review started!

 

Flights out of Tallahassee were way too expensive, so we decided to fly out of Orlando instead. We drove down last night and stayed the night at my mom’s house about an hour outside of the city. I get a great deal on rental cars through work, so it was cheaper to rent a car and return it at the Orlando airport than it was to park our car for the week.

 

Our flight was leaving at 7:00am, so we got up around 3am, packed up our stuff and headed towards Orlando. We arrived at the airport around 4:30am and returned our rental car. Security was obnoxious as always at MCO, but we got through in plenty of time. We boarded our plane around 6am for our 5 hour flight to LAX.

 

We had a short layout in Los Angeles, so we booked it to our gate. Turns out, our flight was late, so it didn’t matter anyways.

 

We arrived in Seattle around 1pm. Total hours of the flight including layover: 9 hours and 30 minutes.

 

I did a ton of research on Seattle hotels because we were trying to minimize costs as much as possible. I originally started looking in the Seattle Center/Downtown areas, but couldn’t find anything under $200 a night. Someone suggested I look near SeaTac and I was able to find a lot of hotels for around $130-$150 a night. I knew it would be a little out of the way, but I couldn’t justify the extra cost just to be right on top of the tourist attractions.

 

So, we ended up booking at the Hampton Inn & Suites Seattle Airport/28th Ave for $160 a night. It was a little more than I originally anticipated, but it was the nicer of the three hotels I was looking at (Sleep Inn, Hampton Inn, & Hampton Inn and Suites). Since we were staying for three nights instead of just one, we decided to pay a little extra to get something a little nicer. The hotel provides a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel, so we called them when we arrived. We waited about 20 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. The shuttle area is a little crazy, so you have to pay close attention so you can flag your driver down. Also, make sure not to flag down the shuttle for the other Hampton Inn or you’ll be blocks away from your actual hotel!

 

We arrived at the hotel around 1:30pm and got checked in.

 

When booking, we requested a King Bed, Non-Smoking. The room was very nice and spacious. The living space had a king size bed, flat screen TV, dresser, lounge chair, and a desk. Plenty of space for two people. The bathroom was also very generously sized with two sinks and a huge shower. Everything was extremely clean. We would absolutely stay at the hotel again.

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After we dropped off our bags, we grabbed the free shuttle to the light rail station to head to Seattle. The shuttle dropped us off in this little parking lot. You have to either take the elevator up or walk up 3 flights up stairs and then cross a bridge to get to the station. We purchased the $6 all day pass and went off to the train. The ride is about 40 minutes long with nothing terribly exciting to see on the way. It’s an inexpensive way to get from Seatac to Seattle though.

 

The light rail took us to the Westlake Center where we could catch the monorail. We then took the monorail over to the Seattle Center. Roundtrip tickets on the monorail were $4.50 and it’s cash only.

 

We decided to start our trip out with a visit to EMP.

 

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We had planned to purchase Seattle City Passes and we were able to do that at the ticket counter. The Seattle City Pass includes tickets to the most popular destinations around the city, with some of the passes offering you a choice of where you want to go.

 

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The EMP was included in the City Pass, so the cashier took those passes and gave us stickers as our entrance into the museum.

 

Right behind the ticket counter, they had a cool display about the Seattle Seahawks. You can easily walk right past this, so make sure to check it out if you visit EMP sometime soon.

 

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The rest of the museum was pretty interesting. They had exhibits on music, cartoons, gaming, etc. If you’re into pop culture, I definitely recommend checking this place out.

 

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After we were done at EMP, we decided to head over to the Armory for dinner. We found a place called Quincy that had a nice variety of burgers and other dishes. DH ordered a burger, which was surprisingly quite large and yummy. I ordered some fried clam strips which were also surprisingly tasty for a counter service restaurant.

 

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The City Pass comes with two tickets to go up the Space Needle within a 24 hour period. We decided to go ahead and use one of them now. Thankfully the line for the ticket counter wasn’t very long and we got a ticket to go up at 7:30pm. They told us to come back at 7pm, so we had about 30 minutes to kill.

 

While we were waiting for our time to go up to the Space Needle, we walked around the Seattle Center for a bit. We came across a cart for Seattle Fudge, so we decided to grab half a slice to share. We couldn’t decide on what flavor we wanted, so he gave us a couple to sample. We ended up getting the chocolate fudge with peanut butter. It was very rich, but delicious.

 

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After we were done with the fudge, it was almost 7, so we started walking back to the Space Needle. Of course that’s when it decided to start sprinkling with rain. So much for the gorgeous view of the city we were hoping for.

 

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The line to get into the elevators takes a while, which is why they ask you to get there 30 minutes before your assigned time. Before you get on the elevator, you get a free ride picture taken with a green screen. When you get up to the top, there are kiosks where you can pick your background and email the pictures to yourself. Sadly none of the pictures that we sent ever ended up making it to us. :-(

 

The elevator ride to the top was a bit scary because the elevator shakes. Not fun for someone with a fear of heights! Thankfully once we got to the top it wasn’t as scary anymore. They have a nice inside area where you can sit down and look out through the big glass windows. There’s also a cafe area so that you can get coffee, wine, or snacks. They also have a wrap around observation deck that you can also got out on. There’s complimentary telescopes to use out there.

 

Sadly because of the rain the pictures weren’t as great as I had hoped, but we still got some really nice views of the city. We also got to watch part of the Seattle Reign game from the top.

 

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The worst part about the Space Needle is the ridiculously line to get down. We ended up standing in another 30 minute line to get back on the elevator to go to the bottom.

 

Finally we got down and headed back to our hotel. Once we got off the light rail, we called our hotel and they came and picked us up from the same location they dropped us off. Such an easy system to use.

Edited by navybaby1113
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Have subscribed! Looking forward to more of the review, as we sail on Sept. 1. Quick question about the Legend - I was on it in 2010, and back then they still had the old-fashioned safes, which required the use of a magnetic-stripped card to lock/unlock. Legend went thru dry dock in 2014, and am wondering if it still has the same safe, or the newer type that require just punching in a code.

 

Thanks for your response.

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Day 2: Seattle

{Sunday, July 12}

 

We woke up around 7am and went down to the hotel lobby to grab our free breakfast. This may be the best hotel breakfast I have ever had. They had the typical waffle makers, but then they also had choices of hotel items (today was seasoned potatoes, scrambled eggs, and ham). They also had pastries and oatmeal with nuts, fruit, and other toppings. A very nice variety of food and it was really tasty.

 

We went back to the Seattle Center this morning to visit the Pacific Science Center.

 

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A lot of people said not to bother unless you had kids, but we really enjoyed it. They had a lot of fun, interactive exhibits to play with.

 

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They also had a butterfly house which was really awesome. The weather in there felt like home and there were a ton of butterflies flying around.

 

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I heard that Pike Place Market gets really busy around noon and it was getting close to that point, so instead of going up the Space Needle again, we decided to head back to the Westlake Center.

 

Sadly when we got there, the place was already packed! You could barely walk through the market at this point, so I don’t have too many pictures.

 

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First stop was the gum wall. So gross!

 

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Also had to get a picture of Rachel the Pig.

 

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I heard Beechers was absolutely amazing, so we decided to stop there for lunch. Thankfully the line to order food was pretty short. I got their Worlds Famous Mac n Cheese and Breadzel and DH ordered a turkey melt. Thankfully the turkey melt took a while to make because we had to stalk people to get a seat. There are maybe 12 milk cans lined up along a counter in the store. Finally a couple people got up, so we grabbed their seats as quickly as possible. The most uncomfortable “chairs” in the world, but better than sitting on the curb. You also get to watch them making cheese while you eat, which is pretty cool.

 

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Now on to the food. It was okay, but nothing special. I’ve definitely had better mac n cheese in my life. Glad we tried it, but don’t know if we would go again.

 

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After we were done with lunch, we got in the long line to get into the original Starbucks.

 

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Thankfully the line moved relatively quickly and we were inside the store in about 30 minutes. We had a nice chat with the gentleman in front of us while we waited as well. He recently moved to Portland with the military and his family came to visit so he brought them to Seattle.

 

They had some decor up in the store showing that it was the original Starbucks.

 

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My favorite decoration was Rachel the Pig made out of coffee beans.

 

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My goal from the store was to get a You Are Here mug because I try to collect them from wherever I go and this is the only place where you can get the Pike Place Market mug. They have all the mugs lined up on the wall so that you can look and touch them, but you just tell the cashier which one you want and they’ll give you an already packed up one. We also ordered some coffee while we were in the store. That was a mistake! It took another 30 minutes for our coffee to be ready.

 

But when in Rome…

 

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