jsparents

What we have learned is that if flying Air France, only 1 person in your party should be at the counter checking a bag. The other should be hiding with the carryon.

Thank goodness you don't have a carry on. Those bins are full......

The transportation thing to and from the ship will not be an issue. Just remember the airport is 20-30 min (depending on traffic) from the attractions of SF depending what you are looking to do. This might alter where you stay.

Not sure what you mean, but most people just put a credit card on file and it gets billed at the end of the cruise with the balance owed. You can also apply a gift card to your account if you have them.

Just got off the Radiance and they were doing the tour before we left port.

On our last trip on the Horizon, our friends pre-booked an Uber because they feared it would be hard to get one due to an event in town. The price was double what I had paid a previous year so I did not pre-book. I had no issue getting an uber and paid a lot less than my friends that prebooked. I have never had an issue getting an uber/Lyft. Might have to wait a few minutes, but there are plenty. Plus if you are off by 8-8:30 you have plenty of time.

Matt Mitcham on the Breeze. Hanging out with his wife and kid in the Red Frog. Just a normal guy with a great sense of humor.

Not an apples to apples comparison, but on the return from a 4 day to Mexico on the Radiance we were docked by 7am. We just got in line when they called numbers and were off the ship by 8:15am of course carrying our own luggage. The line for those that had passports was non existent compared to the long line of birth certificates and we were through customs and outside the terminal in minutes. Total time was probably less than 10 minutes from getting in line to outside the terminal.

Not sure what offer I booked, but for a 3 day cruise to Mexico I booked a fare that gave me a $500 OBC and got my $50 shareholder OBC approved. I sent it via email for the first time (usually send via fax as they request) and it was approved and posted in less than 24 hours. Won't send via fax again.

If common sense was common, then everybody would have it.

I got a spiked coffee on debarkation day without an issue.

Extra security is never a bad thing. If you have nothing to worry about than who cares. Search all you want.

We were on the Miracle in July, 2022 for a 10 day cruise out of SF. My kids were in both pools during the trip and the covered pool remained covered during the whole cruise. The covered pool was in use by people everyday so I would assume it was warm enough. I did not get in or feel the water to say for sure. I will tell you that it was warm inside the covered area later in the day so I assume that shows it is warm.

We found a bookstore down the street and the kids got something to read. A nice leisurely walk back to the ship and we were back on board about 11:30am. I think our roundtrip was about 4 miles which surprised me. It was an easy walk that I think most people could do. TIME TO GO HOME 😞 We were in no hurry to get off the ship so we picked early disembarkation. We were told it would be about 8:30 to 9:00am when we would be called to get off. We waited on the Lido deck where there was plenty of seating. We were off the ship by about 8:40am. A short walk to the car and we were home by 11:00am. I have to say that not having to wait at the airport and spend the day traveling was nice. SUMMARY: A great trip with great friends and great scenery. No real complaints about Carnival as usual. Only little things that happen no matter what and as long as you go with the flow you will enjoy yourself. The Miracle was the 2nd smallest ship we have been on which had its pros and cons. I would have liked to have more dining options (I miss Cucina), but the food and service in the dining room were good. I think we ate at the buffet two times for dinner because we didn't really like the dinner menu or we got back on the ship late. Now having sailed to Alaska in late July and mid- September, my next journey to Alaska will hopefully be in mid May. I would be interested to see how different it looks. Hope you enjoyed and possible learned something while reading along. Thanks.

If having your order for "there", they serve your order on a silver plater. Line was out the door when we left.

The rest of the day was pretty much like a Sea Day. We had a true Sea Day following Tracy Arm and the seas were much calmer and we actually saw the sun. I would say the weather was in the high 60's at this point and it was really nice to sit outside in the sun. VICTORIA: We were scheduled to stop in Victoria from 8am -1pm. I had previously been to Victoria and new there wasn't much to do. In 2005, we took the bus downtown and saw a couple things and that was it. I was not really interested in doing it again, but one of my kids really wanted to get off and "see" Canada. The other kid could care less and really just wanted to sleep in. We decided it was time for family time since we hadn't had enough the previous 8 days. We decided to walk into town giving my kid the map to get us there. I was surprised at how easy and enjoyable the walk was. The bus shuttle was $13 roundtrip so we saved a little $. We just walked around and ended up "downtown". We found a coffee shop (not that Starbucks place) and enjoyed a really good cup of coffee and some pastries. The place is called Murchie's and when we walked by the line was out the door. When we walked back by, the line was only 10 people deep. We decided to grab a cup and once we saw the pastries I was upset that I had ate breakfast. We asked a lady in front of us if she was local and she said yes. We asked her what was good and she said everything. We were able to fit in a small pastry that was delicious. They make all their pastries/food from scratch.

I can still see somethings on the Hub app. It says "fresh and delicious seafood offerings including shrimp and clam buckets, classic fish and chips and more". I think they had lobster also.

We started back towards the ship as the excursion was ending. As we turned to go back to the ship, it was coming around a bend. The Captain was shocked that the ship had come up that far in the fjord. Because it was so much closer than he expected, he turned back around and gave us an additional 20 minutes at the glacier. This photo is taken looking back from where our boat was next to the glacier. This was as far up as the ship came so you can see you would have a view of the glacier, but not like you have on the excursion. This is what the weather looked like 20 minutes later as we returned to the ship. And finally what it looked like 20 minutes after we returned to the ship before the next tour boarded. Also, you can see the your view towards the glacier from the ship. After the excursion boat boarded the second tour, the ship turned around and started sailing out of the fjord. I would think that people had about 30 minutes where they could have seen the glacier at the most before the ship turned around. Again, I would say the excursion is worth the money. There were two excursion boats with probably 100 people on each boat. We had plenty of room to take photos and see everything.

First Glance 2nd Boat went to the north glacier first. We moved to the north glacier. With the boat in the photo, you get an idea of the size of it.

TRACY ARM: We had booked the Tracy Arm Glacier Explorer excursion through Carnival to get off the ship to get closer to the glacier. If you are not familiar with this, the excursion can be found under the embarkation port excursion options, https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/san-francisco/tracy-arm-fjord--glacier-explorer-117021. Ours was located under the excursions for San Francisco (1st day). If sailing out of Seattle, it's the same way - https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions?q=:featured:port:Seattle%2C+WA&sort=featured&page=0. I knew this excursion usually sold out so we booked this excursion the same day I booked the cruise. If you are considering this excursion, don't considerate it. Just book it, as you will not be disappointed. Here is why: 1. This is the only excursion offered in Tracy Arm 2. The boat gets WAY closer than the ship will 3. As stated in 2, there is still no guarantee the cruise ship will sail into the fjord 4. You get a real sense of just how big the glacier is The Captain of our excursion boat said he was surprised at how far up the fjord the ship came, but said it was still approximately 1 mile away. He even said there was talk of the ship not coming into the fjord due to the weather. We were also told by the Naturalist on board the ship, that even though our itinerary was for Tracy Arm, there was a possibility that we would sail into Endicott instead if the ice was bad. We were fortunate enough that we sailed into Tracy Arm. There are two sailings, one at 7:30 and one at 10:30 (times might be a little off). We had the earlier excursion. Not sure which is better. The weather was foggy and then cleared up and then was foggy again. Not sure what the weather was like for the second tour. I will say, there is a huge temperature difference from the ship deck to the excursion ship deck. As you get closer to the glacier, you can feel it. Plus it was raining for us which was not the best, but added to the nature. We sailed into the south glacier first and then the north. It was about a 30 minute ride to get to the glacier. There is a huge, visible difference in size between the two. We saw calving at both. You are so close that you can hear the ice cracking.

To both your questions. Red Frog discount given and they had Happy Hour everyday from 12-2. Unfortunately, we did not go back after the first day. On the Lido is Bonsai Sushi and a Seafood place. Both are upgrades. My friend got sushi and said it was good. I don't eat sushi so I can't comment. The Seafood place had crab and shrimp along with Clam Chowder Bread Bowls.

Lenny recommended eating lunch at Skagway Brewing Co and said the onion rings were the best he ever had. We had a variety at lunch from a reindeer dog, hamburger, and fish and chips. All were excellent and the onion rings were some of the best if not the best I have ever had. We wondered around town after eating and then walked back to the ship. The walk was 10 min or so on a level ground. We got to the dock as the train was letting people off. We got on a tender at just the right time.

SKAGWAY: As I said earlier, this cruise had previously been booked in 2020 and we rebooked all the same tours. I paid a deposit for a 7 hour tour in Skagway that would have crossed into Canada and was ready to make my final payment the first week of June. I sent an email asking how to make the final payment with no response. I called/texted the owner with no response. I attempted contact via Facebook and finally got a response two weeks later. I was told they were not doing any tours in 2022 and they were sorry that they forgot to inform me. I was not happy, but got my money refunded. I rushed to find another tour and found a sightseeing tour that went into Canada through https://www.skagwayprivatetours.com/. I saw that they had a limo van and contacted the company. I was told they were booked, but had another tour guide that had a van that held six. We booked it, even though it was only a four hour tour. Our tour was supposed to be from 7:30 to 11:30am. We found out that we would dock, but have to tender to shore due to the rock slide. The rock slide occurred in June and I was not happy that Carnival waited to inform us of this the day before. The first tender for non-Carnival excursions would be at 8:00am. I reached out to the tour company and they said it was no big deal, what a relief. We pulled into Skagway and guess what, fog. We were on the first tender after the Carnival excursions. We were on shore at about 8:10am. We found out tour guide Lenny and we were off. We had a short tour of town and they headed for the Yukon with several stops along the way for photos. The tour was four hours and just the right amount of time. As we entered the Yukon, two things changed: the weather and time zone And once we returned to Alaska the weather welcomed us.

The weather cleared up a little bit in the afternoon. I could see planes and some helicopters flying, but there was still a low ceiling. I think it was about 5:00pm when the below photo was taken. It was nice that the rain or low clouds had stopped. We sat on our balcony and enjoyed the scenery and wildlife. We heard from several people that had gone whale watching in Juneau and they said it was awesome. I was told they saw lots of whales to include Orca. I obtained a video for a full breach by a whale. I am not sure if the video was from Juneau or Icy Point Straight. If I can figure out how to upload a video, I will post it.