Spirit to Alaska Review With Pics

[HarperSays]

I was SO hoping you would give us a review of your Alaska cruise, so thank you! Loving it as I did your Victory review~great info and pics!

[marshhawk]

Marshhawk ,

I am not Tiggerman but I can answer your questions. The Mendenhall Glacier was named after my husbands relative. I know Tiggerman did not go into the Visitors center but it is nice in there and you can see how glaciers form and knick knacks for sale in there. $3 ( unless it has gone up) is the entry fee. The Glacier is not accessable from any of the trails. We landed on the Glacier with a helicopter ride. ( Best $ we ever spent!) If you walk to Mendenhall Lake ( the bay you are refering to) the glacier is on the side of the lake. But you can't get to the face of the glacier...it is too far away from the lake..even though it looks to be right there! We were there in May 2006 and there were children swiming in Mendenhall Lake...the lake was FREEZING to hubby and I! When hubby and I went to Alaska, there were hiking excursions to the face of the Glacier. We did not do those as we had our Helicopter ride to the top of the Glacier. It was so neat...if you get a chance Do the helicopter ride.

Julie

Julie, thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. This review has really "pumped" us up for the 2012 trip. $$ will be very tight by the time this cruise comes up, but my hubby really wants to go on that helicopter ride. I guess I can make it an early birthday gift to him that year. Thanks again, marshhawk aka Ann

[lisa e]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this review..We have friends that live in Alaska so we have done land vacations there but never a cruise..your pictures are beautiful! lisa

[silverfoxcruiser]

Thank you for the excellent review. We cruised the Inside Passage from Vancouver in '97 on HAL, and you're reviving some wonderful memories! Silver

[zertywert]

Your review is so wonderful! We had such a great time. I had to laugh when you described Ketchikan as dreary. When I was looking at forecasts one of the sites described the day as dreary. It became a running joke because we had never seen a forecast say "dreary". I do understand it now because that was a perfect description. I loved Ketchikan though.:)

 

I am ready to go back! My husband, the kids, and I are just going to fly in to Juneau though. I am in love with that place!

[BayStateguppy]

Great review!

Great Pics!

 

Thanks!

 

:)

[royd1968]

I just got my confirmation for the tracy arm excursion...sweet!!!!

[crewsweeper]

Hey David...enjoyed reading your great review, at the expensive of finishing my own. Glad you and Wade had a good time. I love Seattle and all the markets and shops. Noticed you guys were standing near my favorite bar, Wings, in Juneau (the only 2 beers I had there, lol). And the views from Mt Roberts were awesome. Sidenote: I made your BIL work up a sweat sailing in the America's Cup Yacht Racing excursion. But your sister's family had a great cruise.

 

Crew

[Jasind]

Hi David:

 

I am very new to this forum. Thanks a great lot for sharing your trip with us. The pictures are beautiful. We are leaving for Alaska the end of August. ( Our 2 cruise) I did book the Tracy Arm excursion and was confirmed the same day. I will be staying with family in Bellevue for 2 days. My son and DH wants to go to the Boeing Museum in Everett. We will do Pike Street and the Space Needle as well. Just though I'd share my itneray with all. I did my planning since Jan 2009.(I booked my cruise the beginning of Jan 2009. Obst. Bal)

 

Already Booked:Tracy Arm excursion.....Skagway with M&M White Pass & Yukon Route - Train/Bus Combination tours....Juneau....self tour. We will do the bus to the M.G. the tram and hiking.....

Ketchikan We are booked for the Misty Fjord float plane tour with Family Air Tours....... For Victoria not sure what to do.

 

Except for the Tracy A. tour I have booked via private and not Carnival as I think their rates as too expensive. I have done a D&B on M&M and they have good ratings.

 

Again, thanks for such a detail review. I felt like I was right there.

 

Jas :)

[Jasind]

Hi all:

 

Not sure where I can get this info. I am quoting some thing I found on another thread and was wondering why Carnival is charging $149 and Regent is charging $99.00.......See below someone wrote.

 

"When I called Regent they said that they are the only ship that has rights to do this excursion.. but I saw this from Carnival on the ports forum.

 

Also, Carnival is charging $149 for adults $99 for kids.

Regent is charging $99 for this FREE excursion. That seems a bit unreasonable. Is this the same excursion on Regent as Carnival? "

 

If anyone has the answer, please reply. Thanks a lot

 

Jas

[flyawayca]

Thanks for the great review! I am going on this cruise in May 2011. I have been showing pictures and information from your review to my sister-in-law hoping that she and her husband decide to join us.

[jtagphillycruiser]

I want to thank you again for the wonderful review and pictures. What great beauty in Alaska. Thank you for your descriptions with the beautiful pictures. Take care.

[tiggerman101]

Hey David...enjoyed reading your great review, at the expensive of finishing my own. Glad you and Wade had a good time. I love Seattle and all the markets and shops. Noticed you guys were standing near my favorite bar, Wings, in Juneau (the only 2 beers I had there, lol). And the views from Mt Roberts were awesome. Sidenote: I made your BIL work up a sweat sailing in the America's Cup Yacht Racing excursion. But your sister's family had a great cruise.

 

Crew

 

Thanks, I still haven't talked to my sister as I was busy at work all weekend. I will try and call her tomorrow. I am curious to see what her impressions of the Dream were, I am glad you guys had fun at the Yacht Racing.

[tiggerman101]

To everyone else. I just have a little left on the review. Unfortunately, I am passed the best parts so I feel a bit guilty for leaving this hanging on what will surly be anti-climatic. I have been really busy, but will try to finish the review in the next day or two. Thanks again for reading.

[JeffB13]

Thanks for the review. We are taking the same cruise on July 27th and getting really excited.

[khut]

Thanks so very much Tiggerman for the FANTASTIC review!!

We leave for Seattle in 10 days and you have certainly upped the

excitement factor around here with your beautiful photos and

writings about the entire cruise experience!!

[tiggerman101]

In Ketchikan we got back to the ship about half an hour before the "Last Call". It had started to mist pretty bad and the area around the port was pretty crowded with three ships right there. Of course, being that it was noon we decided (with the rest of the ship) to go grab some lunch at the buffet. I told Wade it was probably going to be crowded and boy was it. Now the buffet itself got jammed sometimes during the breakfast rush, but it was a bit manageable. Here it was just wall to wall people. You could barely even move up there and the lines were crazy long. I think of myself as a pretty easy going guy so I wasn't upset, but it was a bit much. They should really think about opening the dining room for lunch on this day.

 

After lunch we watched the sail away from Ketchikan. The other two ports were at the end of an inlet so the ship turns around and heads out. At Ketchikan it just keeps going the way it was faced. It is so lush and green in these areas due to all the rain and the scenery can be beautiful. Unfortunately it was still a bit misty so the pictures didn't come out too well:

 

 

Wade and I decided what the heck and changed into swim suits and made a dash for the outdoor hot tub in the center of the ship. It wasn't too hot so we only lasted about 10 minutes before we ran to the indoor pool. This pool was heated and covered so I swam a bit before we climbed into the hot tub there.

 

 

After awhile we headed back to the cabin and changed before heading out again. We ended up in the Aft Pool area and I am glad we did. They had a gentleman back there playing acoustic guitar and various wind instruments. He was very good and the music fit perfectly for the sail from Ketchikan. I wished I had found him sooner:

 

 

Pretty soon it was time for the "Polar Bear Plunge" that Stu the CD was holding at the Aft Pool. I thought it would be people jumping into the cold pool until I realized the Aft Pool is heated as well. Stu did grab a bucket of ice to throw in there, but I doubt it did much. More guys (and one little girl) showed up for it then I thought. I thought it would be funny if they jumped one by one into the cold water, but it turns out they all just kind of jumped unceremoniously into the heated pool. It looked like they were having fun in there at least:

 

 

Pretty soon it was time for the Alaskan Pilot to leave the ship. Turns out we had three different pilots while we were in Alaska. We watched the boat pull up to the side of the ship:

 

[pcrum]

Wow, that's really interesting that you had 3 different pilots on the ship. I wonder if this is typical for Carnival? We did the NCL Star to Alaska last July and had one pilot the entire time as far as I know.

 

Loving the review and photos. It brings back lots of wonderful memories. We loved Alaska and can't wait to go back.

[tiggerman101]

Tonight was the Supper Club and we had 6 O'clock reservations. I really wanted my parents to enjoy this meal. This was also the second Cruise Elegant night so we planned on hitting the production show after dinner. So after getting showered and changed we made our way up to the top of the Atrium. My Dad took the elevator while my mom, Wade and I climbed the glass stairs. My father's reaction to the stairs was basically "Not a chance..." Well, he said it in another way, but you get the point....

 

The Supper Club on this ship is quite beautiful under the glass section of the funnel. I also like the way it is two floors:

 

 

The design flaw of the noise from the bottom of the Atrium had been discussed quite a bit on these boards, but it is a valid point. It was one of the first things my father noticed when we sat down. The music does indeed travel all the way up and can be a bit jarring to the atmosphere depending on what they play.

 

I will take this moment to say that I am a BIG proponent of the Supper Club. I work in a nice restaurant and have been in the business most of my life. The Carnival Supper Clubs are a great deal if this is your kind of thing. You are not going to get service and a dinner like this for $30 anywhere on land. It just isn't going to happen. If you like to dress up and eat out sometimes then , to me, the Supper Club is a no brainer. We usually go twice on a cruise but only made it once due to my parents being with us. We always go on the second Formal night since we are going to get dressed up anyway if we went to the dining room.

 

Once again the steaks were fantastic:

 

 

Now if we did go more then once I will usually get a seafood entree the first time around. I loved the Dover Sole on the Freedom. Of course there is the Chocolate Sampler (as it is now named). This is hands down the best dessert that Carnival offers. I would go to the Supper Club just for this. My mom was in heaven:

 

 

As always the service was wonderful, we didn't hang around much because we wanted to grab seats for the early show. The second production show on the Spirit is "The Big Easy" which we recently saw on the Freedom but is good enough to see again. Plus my mom loves New Orleans so I figured she would like it. It was a good performance and afterwards we made it back to the cabin to relax before bed. Yes, we sound boring, but after 4 days of getting up really early we were more then ready to sleep in for once.

[marshhawk]

tiggerman-let me tell you what your review did, it made us change the cruise we had in 2011 to a shorter cruise, so that we could put our down payment on the Spirit for 2012(hope she is still up there then, since Carnival doesn't post so quickly in advance) Your pictures are so great, and the adventures so beautiful, that Catmando and I are ready to go. He just really needed to see some of that amazing photography to get in the mind set...like what, where's the beach? is no longer the question, but where's the coffee, lets look at ice. I know he and I are really waiting anxiously for the end of your Spirit journey.:)

[natezdad]

To everyone else. I just have a little left on the review. Unfortunately, I am passed the best parts so I feel a bit guilty for leaving this hanging on what will surly be anti-climatic. I have been really busy, but will try to finish the review in the next day or two. Thanks again for reading.

Thanks for a great review. Your pictures were stunning! I have never thought I would want to go on an Alaskan cruise. We like the sun and the beach, but your review has me seriously considering it! Thanks again for taking the time.

[emeraldlover1]

We sail next week on the Spirit. Your review has made DH and I very excited to go.

 

Because of your last post, I just made reservations for the steakhouse for the night we sail from Ketchikan. I hope that that is the other cruise elegant night because it will be nice to dress up for this special dinner.

 

Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us.

[ForKids]

I don't usually ask or post question to the forum but I wanted to say 'THANK YOU' for this wonderful review as we are heading out the end of June. Your review help a lot of doing packing and planning with my 2 kids.

I do have 2 questions for you

1. When is the formal night for this cruise?

2. I am hesitate to book the Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer tour as to the price of 4. I am already spending a fortune to the cruise and already book excursions in 3 different ports. Is it something you do not see from the Spirit compare to the Explorer tour ?? Is it only the distance of the Glacier you will see from the explorer is closer than from the Spirit ?? Of the Spririt will not event get to the point where the Explorer will go?

 

Thanks again for the great review and can't wait to see the rest ....:)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

To everyone else. I just have a little left on the review. Unfortunately, I am passed the best parts so I feel a bit guilty for leaving this hanging on what will surly be anti-climatic. I have been really busy, but will try to finish the review in the next day or two. Thanks again for reading.

I know you have passed the highlights of the cruise, but I am still anxiously awaiting to hear the rest. We have read so much on the main ports but you really put them into perspective for this ship and this itinerary. However, the big question marks in my mind are all about the last day - the scenery (Will we see much from our starboard balcony????) and Victoria (What in the heck will we do there in that short time in the evening????). I am anxious to hear what you have to say about that day.:) Thank you once again.

[jrmende63]

Thanks for the info. I really would have loved to go into the center, but I was watching the time. I will say that the port times in Juneau and Ketchikan were a negative for this cruise. I understand given the route, but it was tight at times.

 

Julie, thanks so much for taking the time to answer these questions. This review has really "pumped" us up for the 2012 trip. $$ will be very tight by the time this cruise comes up, but my hubby really wants to go on that helicopter ride. I guess I can make it an early birthday gift to him that year. Thanks again, marshhawk aka Ann

Tiggerman..I understand the time constraints. We had 10 hours in Juneau on our Alaskan Cruise. I loved Juneau and cant wait to go back.

 

Ann....You are very welcome. The Helicopter ride is cheaper if booked on your own ...not through Carnival. But the same company. We abosolutely recommend going. Your hubby wil love it. We drank some of the glacial water...amazing! We were talking of going in 2012 but not sure just yet.

Julie