laniriveira

Very nice review and stunning pictures! Your kids are adorable. I wanted to do an Alaskan cruise this year, but it was not to be, so hopefully next year. Looking at the mobs of people on the lido deck, I think this would be a good cruise to splurge on my first balcony. Thanks for posting! :)

Thanks for your sweet words!!

If you do an Alaskan cruise I would def recommend a balcony. It's nice to wake up in the morning and have a cup of coffee out there as you sail by the breathtaking scenery.

Love reading your review it has helped alot!

 

We have been on multiple Caribbean cruises but this is our first Alaska cruise (May 29) and we are taking my parents for their 50th Anniversary. They are bombarding me with questions and I don't really have the answers so anyone please help!

 

• What do most people wear to dinner on non-formal nights? Particularly the women. Men, I assume khaki or jeans with button-up shirt?
  
• We have a day at sea and a day through Tracy Arm...just casual lounging around the ship clothes?
  
• Does anyone know what night is formal nights? We are taking short cocktail dresses and/or long black flowy pants. Men suits, do most guys wear jacket on formal night or any with just shirt & tie?
  

Thanks in advance!

I'm glad you enjoyed my review.

Women, like my mom wore capri pants and a nice blouse to dinner in the mdr on non-formal nights. DH and Dad wore shorts and t-shirt or khaki shorts and a collared tee (Dad did his golf shirt).

On your sea day wear whatever you all are most comfortable in. Some are in jeans while I seen a few in active pants and sweatshirts. On the tracy arm sea day you'll probably be out side snapping pics and staring at the glacier so you'll need to bundle up!

Our formal night on this sailing was night two (wednesday) and night 6 (sunday). DH wore slacks and sport coat dad wore a suit. A lot of men had jackets, suits and shirt and tie only.

My only advice would be to tell your parents to layer!

Thanks...can you please send to estymeetup@aol.com

 

thanks:)

I tried sending you the fun times at the above email and all emails were sent back to me stating failure to send. Something to the effect that your side was rejecting it. I'll try again! Just wanted to let you know.

Nice review! My wife and I went last June and I have never seen land so beautiful and tranquil. The highlight of our trip was indeed going through Tracy Arm Fjord. Everywhere you look there are waterfalls coming down the mountains and the color of the water was a beautiful blue/green.

 

Do a quick google image search of it and even though the pictures do not do it full justice, it is still beautiful to see in pics.

 

In June the temps are much different than May so I would believe "most" of the snow will be replaced by beautiful flowers on the train ride at Skagway.

 

The last highlight that sticks out was seeing numerous bald eagles and whales out their in their own element.

 

And of course we went dogsledding in Juneau which was great to do as the dogs were training for the Iditarod.

 

I wish I could do an entire review of last years trip

The next time we go on a cruise to Alaska we want to try another month, most likely June or July. This time I wanted to experience the cold of Alaska (not winter cold lol). Plus now that I've been to Glacier Bay my next in line will be Tracy Arm.

Reviews are wonderful to read and keep people who are over 300 days out till their next cruise entertained!

Thanks for the review! We just booked Spirit to Alaska in August and I'm reading every word I can find! You are certainly a wonderful photographer...and with subjects as adorable as your kids it makes the pics even better!

 

Wanna post a few more hundred!?!?!?! Thanks~

Thank you Patti!! Kids are so much fun to photograph thanks to all the express they give. Have a fabulous time in Alaska and aboard the Spirit!!!!

Great review. I was on the cruise with you. I remember seeing your son with his Capt. hat. You kids are very cute.

 

I didn't know what to expect in Glacier Bay either. I went to the park website and there is a video that explains what will happen and what you will see. We also got a different map in our stateroom. I went up to the lido and got a current map. The ranger said because the Spirit only goes there twice a year we had an outdated map.

 

Did you wait in line long in Vancouver? We got in line around the same time you did. I thought the wait was long but because we had VIP boarding we didn't wait once we were past customs.

 

I wanted to do the B2B too and found out on cruise critic that it was a violation of the Jones Act. Sounds like it was a good thing since the ship went through some very rough seas.

 

We also enjoyed the train ride. I am glad we waited until the afternoon.

Thank you for your sweet comments! We had to wait a little while in that first line to go thru security. Then got pulled into another line for the Customs and it took less than 5 minutes for us. We had VIP boarding also which was a definite plus.

There was a man on the last night walking by a table I was on and told the dealer good bye. The dealer was telling us that the man and his wife were on the ship for the 15 day Hawaii, 3 Day San Diego to Vancouver than our 7 Day Alaska!!! So who knows about that Jones Act. Or maybe he was not a US citizen, but sure did look and sound like one!

Apparently they have a professional photographer on board who takes absolutely stunning photos from what was displayed.

They also have photos on sale on deck 3 near the photo stands.

And for all the smokers out there he is what brand of cigarette are sold on the Carnival Spirit. I looked everywhere as Dad and Mom are smokers :mad:

The casino host sent this to DH he had almost 3000 points!!

That night was the last of the formal nights. We all went to the mdr for dinner and went to the Comedy Show. Pretty funny ...

That night was the worst of the whole cruise. The water was rough and a lot of people were getting sick. They had taped barf bags at all the elevators. Kids and I called it an early night as DD got sick at dinner.

Day 6 - Last Sea Day

The whole day was spent relaxing and packing to get off the ship the next day. Kids went to Camp for a while and I walked around the ship taking last minute pictures. I did run into the Cruise Director Stu in the elevator. He introduced himself and I said, “Oh! I read a lot of good things about you on cruise critic”. He asked me why and I told him little things like your very funny, accomidating and just all around a nice down to earth guy. He made like I wonder why they would say such nice things about me and I said may be it was the dimples. He laughed and said they call me DIMPLES!

He was very sweet!!

Overall my whole family had a wonderful time cruising on the Carnival Spirit. The layout was a little hard to get used to as we have only cruise on Fantasy class ships. We picked it up around day 3. The staff in all departments that I encountered were pleasantly helpful and very sweet. Our waitstaff was excellent and our room steward was amazing! We had a memorable time onboard and wish everyone who has an upcoming spirit cruise the best of time!!!!

I’ll leave you with some pictures I didn’t know where to put on my review.

We were out about a good 2 hours but the wind and rain was horrible. Once back on the ship we went back to the room. I caught a couple of pictures of the Alleutian Ballad. They have the Bering Sea Crab Fishermans Tour.

Also here is a couple of the houses that were right in front of our balcony.

Glacier Bay continued...

After what feeled like taking a zillion pictures of the glaciers we rested a bit then went to dinner in the MDR. Didn’t take any pictures of what we ate (sorry foodies) then headed to Pharoahs Palace for the $800 jackpot bingo.

Bingo is always $20 for a card which is actually one paper that has 3 cards on it. They say it gives you 3 chances to win. I play bingo here in SoCal quite often with my DH, Mom, Grandma and Aunties and where I go it is $1 a sheet which has 4 bingo cards on 1 sheet and the payout is $500!! So the bingo on the ship is waaay different than what I’m used to but its does keep one busy for 20 minutes or so.

Well this $800 jackpot bingo had 7 games that payed $100 and the 8th game paid $250. I had horrible cards and got down to 2 numbers on one game other than that I sat there and watched as all the people started to stand around me (which meant they were down to 1 number).

Day 6 - Ketchikan

As we sailed away from Glacier Bay and toward Ketchikan the night before the seas were a little rougher than the days before. We docked in Ketchikan a little late and by the time we got off it was 8:30 a.m.

Dad really wanted to go Salmon fishing and I found a wonderful price for 4 people on a 4 hour fishing trip, whole boat to ourselves for $140 a person plus $20 for king salmon stamp and $10 for fishing license. As we got off the boat Josh from Salty Sea Charters was waiting for us right outside the ship. He told us the awful news, that our excursion along with a lot of others were being cancelled due to the weather. The float planes, fishing trips and most every other water excursion was cancelled!! We were all sad as we were really looking forward to eating Salmon for months.

I was refunded and the money was back in my account 2 days later. Next time I go to Alaska I will def book with Salty Sea Charters!!

So, off we went to do some shopping. When we first boarded the ship on Tuesday in Vancouver we received these booklets with all sorts of info, advertising and coupons. Well we never used any in the other ports but def used them in Ketchikan.

I went to the Tongass Trading Co and used a handful of coupons. Bought a nice hooded Alaska sweatshirt for $14.99, DH bought an Alaska jacket for $14.99, socks, stuffed animal for DD and DS, and much more.

Also walked inside the Outlet Store which has almost the same things being sold as Tongass plus other things also. This is where the candy store is. Went up stairs to use the restroom and there was other stores.

We walked all along the board walk area. They had a ton of jewelry stores!!!!

Candy store, Christmas in Alaska store and kettle korn was being sold in a little tent.

I can't see the pictures either...after ready that these were taken by a professional, I really, really wanted to!

 

I hope it can be fixed!

Lol I wouldn't say I'm a professional:p Not all the images I posted were edit, that would take too long. I do hope you enjoy the pictures and review!!

laniriveira I would really like to get a copy of your "funtimes" also if you can fine the time. Please sent do my email ernie_lyon@yahoo.com, thanks in advance...

You got it! Scanning them as I type this I will shoot you an email later today.

Back up and running!!

"DH trying to feed the bird licorice. The ranger announced many times not to but almost every one on the balconys were trying. A couple of people a deck above us fed the birds fries. DH wasn’t chosen, they must not have had a sweet tooth that day lol."

 

I'm one of those silly people who follows instructions given by park rangers when it comes to the wildlife. I know...I'm such a loser. Wish I could be such a free spirit. Sigh...maybe one of these days.

AWESOME pictures, btw, of the glaciers.

You are not a loser! DH just wanted the birds to fly close enough since DD loves to feed them at local parks here at home.

We met some people on the three-day who were also booked on the Alaska. Two guys from St. Louis, Tony & I can't remember the other guy's name. I didn't mention the Jones Act to them but worried about whether they'd have any trouble.

Really!!?? We had it booked then posted somewhere on CC about it and a response came in about the Jones Act and how its illegal. When I called my TA he knew nothing about it. After being transferred to all sorts of managers and them calling Carnival and Carnival not knowing for sure we decided to cancel ... we just didn't want to take a chance of spending all that money and getting to Vancouver and being told we can't sail the 2nd leg and being fined (i think its $300 per person)!!

Once we went as far as the captain would take us we turned around and headed out of John Hopkins inlet. On the way out there was another glacier, Lamplugh Glacier ...

I'll leave you with my absolute favorite picture of Margerie Glacier!!!!

Be back tomorrow to finish this review off ... fingers crossed.

Lots more snow on the ground this year than for the first cruise of last year. I do have some of the exact same pics. We loved the train too. Since we were two adults with no little ones to worry about we took the trip all the way up to Carcross and it was magnificent.

I bet the longer train ride was beautiful. We thought about changing to it from the 3 hour but the kids would have died to be stuck on it that long!

Oh my your pictures are stunning...fantastic

 

I won't be at Glacier Bay but since I have never seen a glacier I am excited

 

I have not even seen snow in so long I forget what it looks like

(or feels like..brrr LOL)

 

did you use the indoor pool or hot tubs at all? Hot tub in gym??

did anyone??

 

thanks

Thank you! You guys are cruise Tracy Arm Fjord right? I want to see it the next time we cruise Alaska. We were thinking of doing the excursion to Tracy Arm but the price was a little higher than I wanted to spend.

We used the hot tub once. There was a lady and her son swimming in the dome pool once other than that hardly anyone was in the pools. The hot tubs had a good amount of people in them every now and than. I never went to serenity so I couldn't say if the hot tubs there were crowded.

But I shouldn’t complain because I got some amazing pictures I just wish I could have stayed longer! We did luck out because the ranger came on the intercom and announced that we would be cruise into John Hopkins inlet and that wasn’t on our itinerary (or maybe they do it but just don’t announce it depending on weather). Well we cruised inside and got to have a nice view of the John Hopkins glacier. The park ranger did announce that that particular day was one of the best she had seen in her career. It was nice and clear with no clouds and we got an amazing view of the glacier.

Photos of us sailing into John Hopkins inlet and photos of JH glacier.

Margerie Glacier

Day 5 - Glacier Bay

We woke up around 9ish and had no idea what time we would be in glacier bay today or when we would be by the glaciers. The fun times doesn’t give you a time like it does when your in port. So we got up and had breakfast. Once we got back to the room a park ranger for Glacier Bay came on the intercom and announced that we had officially entered into Glacier Bay. Now I’ll tell you the truth. This being my first cruise to Alaska I was under the impression that Glacier Bay only had 1 glacier. I was wrong! The first glacier we went to was Margerie Glacier which is the most frequent glacier you see when you google Glacier Bay images. It was absolutely stunning! Dad, Mom, DH, Me and kiddos were all on our balcony snapping pictures of the glacier, little ice chunks floating in the waters, scenery, and birds.

My only irritation was that we did not stay near Margerie Glacier or any glacier long enough. I knew going into this cruise that the ship would make a 360 when near the glacier and thats the reason we really wanted a balcony because we didn’t want to fight for a spot for the little ones to get a glimpse. Well the ship does a 360 but its so fast that you don’t really get to enjoy it as much as you want, or I wanted!! The longest part of seeing the glacier is while the ship is approaching it. The actual 360 in front of the glacier is approximately 30 minutes.

Sailing up to Margerie Glacier inside Glacier Bay National Park

DH trying to feed the bird licorice. The ranger announced many times not to but almost every one on the balconys were trying. A couple of people a deck above us fed the birds fries. DH wasn’t chosen, they must not have had a sweet tooth that day lol.