Carnival Spirit June 28th Alaska Review: Tons of Photos and Oodles of Food Porn!

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I was beginning to think I was going to be the only one with no catch, when it was my turn again. I set the hook and started reeling…DD made sure to get a shot of my catch before it was on board. She said she was just documenting the “whole experience” but I’m sure she was concerned old Mom wouldn’t be successful. LOL.

 

 

But, no worries! I successfully landed a beautiful Silver:

 

 

And, unlike my daughter, I have no qualms about touching my fish! LOL. All in all, it was a good day, and the four of us caught six nice sized salmon. Here’s Mark bringing them to the dock while we waited for the rep from the processing plant to come and take our order.

 

 

 

I’d been giving my girl a hard time about refusing to touch the fish, so she showed me:

 

 

What a whimp! LOL.

 

She went over and looked at the three other salmon caught on our boat, and whispered to me that ours were definitely bigger. She’s as competitive as I am! We ordered all three to be smoked (if I’d landed that King, I would have had fillets cut from that one) and it will be arriving on our doorstep on Tuesday—can’t wait!

 

As we were walking back to the bus (after a quick stop to get a Knudson Cove t-shirt) we saw a small boy, about 7 or 8 years old, who had landed a King that was practically as big as he was! He was beaming! Back on the bus, we learned most people had done about as we had, so people were pleased. But, there was one family of six who hadn’t caught anything. I felt so bad for them!

 

We went straight back to the ship—no time for shopping or anything else. I’d love to have a longer call in Ketcikan so we could do some exploring. It’s one of my favorite ports of any cruise. But, I’m happy to be out on the water fishing and will likely to that every time I’m there.

 

We headed for the Lido and grabbed some lunch. We sat by the windows to watch sail away and then back to our cabin for showers and time on the balcony. :D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

And, now, dinner…

 

DD started with a Caesar salad and I had one of my favorites, Chilled Cream of Bing Cherry Soup:

 

 

 

 

 

For dinner, she had the pasta dish (I don’t recall what it was, and by this time I’d stopped taking notes on things. LOL).

 

 

And, I had grilled chicken:

 

 

For dessert, we both had the spa dessert of cheesecake. It was good, but the artificial sweetener left quite the aftertaste. The strawberry sauce was yummy.

 

[LambKnuckles]

Thank you, Lambie! I'm loving writing it. :D I love that you have a travel critter, too. :D In the photos you've seen thus far, Joey is wearing his Justin Beiber sweatshirt, but we were able to find him a Canada sweatshirt in Victoria and were so excited. We also found a pink camo backpack for him in Juneau, so he has some mementos from the trip as well! LOL.

 

The MDR crab was good, but if you really want a feast, be sure to visit Tracy's in Juneau!

 

:D

 

I will definitely remember this place!!! Your meal looked YUMMMMMMMMMY!!!!

 

I've saved a copy of your photo to remember!!! Hope you don't mind!!! :o

[LambKnuckles]

If DH was still alive, he'd be fishing for sure... But... I'm with your DD... I think I'll leave the fishing and touching to someone else!!! ;)

 

Thank you for your photo info, too!!! I love to take photos and am still learning the digital world and photoshop. I 've had a studio and done my own film and weddings, etc... but this was way pre-digital!!! I sometimes feel like a dinosaur! And as my DD says... I'm a senior everything. And the only time she likes it is when I get my AARP discounts... Heck... She's only 22, but I also have a 40 y/o son!!! :o I'm really not that old... am I????

[Ms. Fun Bunch]

Thank you so much for such a fantastic review! It brought back wonderful memories of my Alaska cruise a few years ago.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

If DH was still alive, he'd be fishing for sure... But... I'm with your DD... I think I'll leave the fishing and touching to someone else!!! ;)

 

Thank you for your photo info, too!!! I love to take photos and am still learning the digital world and photoshop. I 've had a studio and done my own film and weddings, etc... but this was way pre-digital!!! I sometimes feel like a dinosaur! And as my DD says... I'm a senior everything. And the only time she likes it is when I get my AARP discounts... Heck... She's only 22, but I also have a 40 y/o son!!! :o I'm really not that old... am I????

 

Darn kids--don't they make us feel old! My older kids are in their mid to late 20s and they make me feel like a dinosaur sometimes, too!

 

Thank you so much for such a fantastic review! It brought back wonderful memories of my Alaska cruise a few years ago.

 

 

Thank you for your kind words, and I'm very happy that my review prompted happy memories for you!

 

:D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Exhausted from our fun day, we returned to our stateroom and were greeted by a menagerie!

 

 

And overseeing it all was the night’s towel animal:

 

 

The next day would be our final day of the cruise before debarkation on Tuesday morning. Though it was the Fourth of July and we were sad to be missing our annual celebration and fireworks at home, I was looking forward to Victoria. Victoria is a very short port of call. We were scheduled to be there from 7:30 p.m. until 11:59 p.m. When I was younger, I used to go to Victoria often with my friends and my ex and I spent our honeymoon there 18 years ago, so it’s a city I’m familiar with. I’ll likely take DD there sometime over the next several months since she’d never been there until this cruise.

 

We spent the day packing and relaxing. DD used up the last of our internet minutes and I spent some time on the balcony. It was getting warmer and brighter the farther south we traveled. At one point, I came in to find that DD had savagely decapitated the bear! LOL.

 

 

We wanted to get to dinner early to make sure we were able to spend as much time in Victoria as possible. When we got to the Empire Dining Room at about 4:55, there were already about 20 people in line awaiting the 5:15 start time for Your Time Dining. Obviously, we weren’t the only people with the idea of getting there early. By the time they opened the doors, I could no longer see the end of the line.

 

We were taken to our usual table (#399). Here are the last of the food pics.

 

I previously referred to a soup I’d had as the mango cream soup, but that was actually peaches. Here’s the mango.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DD started dinner with the crab cake appetizer, which I tasted and it was quite good.

 

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I had the prawns for dinner. They were a little heavy on the oil, but I like the crunch of the breading.

 

 

DD had chicken with barbeque sauce, which she said was really good.

 

 

The desserts were great! DD had cappuccino pie, which she said was great and I had the diet apple pie, which was surprisingly good for a diet dessert!

 

 

 

As we were finishing dessert, we heard the microphone being tested and decided to stay since it was our last evening and see what Fernando (maître d) had to say. It was the usual “Of all the passengers who’ve ever sailed on the Spirit…you’re the most recent.” LOL. When the waiters lined up to sing, I thought it would be “all you bags are packed…” but they placed their hands over their hearts and sang “God Bless America.” All over the dining room people stood and joined in the singing. I’ve never teared up so much on a cruise before! It was very touching and emotional.

 

When we were leaving the ship later that evening, we saw a large U.S. flag hanging in the atrium and the railings of were decked out in red, white, and blue. Nice touch.

 

 

And, our final towel animal:

 

[Quilting_Cruiser]

After dinner, it wasn’t long until we were scheduled to be in Victoria. We went out on our balcony to see if we could see the port yet, and we couldn’t. We ended up being more than an hour late.

 

The pilot boat was ready and waiting bring us in.

 

 

Sailing into port is really pretty and it had been about 80 degrees that day so it was still relatively warm.

 

 

 

Michelle (the on-board naturalist) made a few announcements asking people to not feed the gulls and explaining the reasons for that, one of which was that the dock workers appreciate it when gulls aren’t flying over their heads.

 

 

We enjoyed watching the dock workers—we docked with the starboard side to the dock, and that’s the side we were on, so we had a show.

 

 

We were due in at 7:30, but it was almost 9:00 p.m. by the time we got there. That didn’t leave us much time to explore, but I decided we should go ahead to go into town so DD could at least get a flavor for the city and see what she thought. It was still light out, but I knew the Parliament building would be lit up by the time we were returning and that’s always nice to see. It took a while to get off the ship since pretty much everyone wanted to get off as soon as possible, but it was very organized and went pretty smoothly and as fast as could be expected.

 

DD and I decided we needed to ham it up for our Victoria pic, and it’s the only one we purchased other than the welcome aboard photo.

 

 

We took a shuttle bus ($7.50 pp, round trip) into town and they dropped us near the Empress Hotel. The bus driver was an entertainer and we learned a lot about Victoria and enjoyed his humor. He let us know that most places were closed but that we would likely find some shopping on Government street. DD and I had planned to head straight for Miniature World, but they had closed at 9:00 and by the time we got into town, it was already 9:30. We did find a gift store a couple blocks from where the bus dropped us off and stopped in to get a couple shirts and gifts for a couple more friends. We walked around for a short time and then decided to catch the bus back to the ship.

 

It was an uneventful evening. We finished packing, attached our Group 15 tags to the bags and put them out in the hall. It’s always amazing to me how much luggage they handle in such a short amount of time!

[luv2cruisefan]

I have family leaving on July 12th for this cruise. How was your weather? Do they need to pack hat, scarves & mittens?

[Quilting_Cruiser]

And, now, the final installment. Thanks for sticking with me!

 

We awoke in the morning to find ourselves back in Seattle. Though we were sad the cruise was over, we were looking forward to being home. We went down to get our Victoria photo and happily ran into tulsacruiser and her son while we were there. I felt like I had a new friend, and I’m sure we’ll stay in touch! Yay! We said our goodbyes and I’m hopeful we’ll see them again.

 

We knew it would be a while before #15 was called, so we went up to the Lido for some breakfast and waited for our turn. I was surprised how easily we found a table and we settled in. It was only about 20 or 30 minutes and we were on our way. The elevators were crowded but not too bad and we just breezed through Customs with no problem at all. The porters weren’t pushy at all but were available to assist. We were at our car within about 20 minutes of getting off the ship. Not bad.

 

The one thing we hadn’t had time to do pre-cruise was visit the Fremont Troll, also known as the Troll Under the Bridge. He’s a giant troll with a hubcap for an eye and a VW Bug in his hand. He was easy to find and no one else was there, so we both got to pose with him. LOL.

 

 

 

 

With that, we headed south on I-5. There was more traffic than I anticipated for a Tuesday morning and we also contended with two bridge lifts on the way home, but we rolled into the driveway about 1:30 in the afternoon. DD was off to see her friends and I went grocery shopping. :D

 

So, in summary, this was our best cruise yet! I can’t imagine I’ll ever tire of cruising and I can’t wait to book the next one. I’m pretty sure we’ll be going to Alaska again next year, but I bought two FCCs, so I’m looking at other itineraries as well. I highly recommend the Tracy Arm excursion and that and salmon fishing were huge highlights for us. Since this was our fourth time on the Spirit (she has one more Alaska season and then will move to Australia; who knows, we may have to follow her there!) she was very familiar to us and continues to be our favorite ship. Carnival offers a great value for the cost and we’ll continue to sail the line though I’m certainly open—more open than DD, I might add—to sailing other lines, and would love to sail Princess again.

 

Thanks for following along as I relived my vacation. Back to work tomorrow. I love my job, but it seems so mundane after an Alaska cruise! LOL. But, I must keep working so I can afford another one…

[Quilting_Cruiser]

I have family leaving on July 12th for this cruise. How was your weather? Do they need to pack hat, scarves & mittens?

 

We had pretty good weather. A little bit of rain in Ketchikan and Juneau. But, keep in mind that Alaska weather is very unpredictable--it can make some pretty dramatic swings and while it may be warm and sunny one week it could be cold and rainy the next. Be prepared! :D

 

We definitely wore hats and gloves when out on the water, including Tracy Arm, whale watch in Juneau, and salmon fishing in Ketchikan. We spend a lot of time on our balcony, and in the evenings we bundled up to be out there as well.

 

Have a wonderful time!!

[tmt218]

I think your DD is a great age for an Alaska cruise! Mine was six the first time and 12 the second. She's game for just about anything as long as it doesn't have much to do with heights.

 

Our first cruise was pre-digital, and I just about went bankrupt getting the film developed, especially since my then DH and DD were leaving for Arizona the next afternoon to see my in-laws and I had to one-hour processing on them all! I love digital! I to about 3,000 pics on this vacation and am sorting through them, choosing which ones to print for scrapbooking. DD also has a DSLR and I haven't looked at all her pics yet, but she has a great eye so I'm sure I'll be printing a lot of hers, too. :o

 

I prefer a one-way to be able to spend some land time. Southbound is my preference so we get the long flight out of the way first. Carnival has changed to a round trip itinerary for the majority of the Alaska season, and I'm disappointed by that. But, we love the Spirit and there's a lot to be said for living close enough to drive to port! I'm jealous of you for that one!

 

:D

 

 

We are hoping to cruise with Princess but not sure how they are with kids. I know they don't offer much of a discount on the 3rd and 4th passenger. We book Carnival for our cruises with her. We are also looking into renting an RV and doing the land part on our own. Still trying to decide everything out.

 

The Crab shack looks awesome. I know my DD would be in heaven. She hates having to crack the crab. Where exactly is that located?

We did some of the same excursions. Looking at the pictures brings me back. We saw tons of whales and stopped at the roadside to see Mendenhall Glacier. I just love the lush green with the blue in the background. That picture and the Emerald lake area are my favorite.

[luvscruising2007]

Great review. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

[cruzinlisa]

WOW. I can honestly say before I saw this review and your pictures, I never had any desire to go on an Alaska cruise. I am more of a caribbean type of gal. But it looked so gorgeous with the glaciers and everything that I am thinking about doing it some day. DD is only 6 months so it will have to be a few years down the road at least. But really wow, that looks like an amazing trip.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

We are hoping to cruise with Princess but not sure how they are with kids. I know they don't offer much of a discount on the 3rd and 4th passenger. We book Carnival for our cruises with her. We are also looking into renting an RV and doing the land part on our own. Still trying to decide everything out.

 

The Crab shack looks awesome. I know my DD would be in heaven. She hates having to crack the crab. Where exactly is that located?

We did some of the same excursions. Looking at the pictures brings me back. We saw tons of whales and stopped at the roadside to see Mendenhall Glacier. I just love the lush green with the blue in the background. That picture and the Emerald lake area are my favorite.

 

We cruised on the Caribbean Princess when DD was 11. She didn't like the kids program as much as she liked Carnival's, but I've heard others say it' very good. I would love to spend more time inland--we did on our 2007 Alaska cruise and it was a fantastic experience. I'm hoping to do it again someday.

 

Great review. Thanks for sharing your adventure with us.

 

My pleasure. Thanks!

 

WOW. I can honestly say before I saw this review and your pictures, I never had any desire to go on an Alaska cruise. I am more of a caribbean type of gal. But it looked so gorgeous with the glaciers and everything that I am thinking about doing it some day. DD is only 6 months so it will have to be a few years down the road at least. But really wow, that looks like an amazing trip.

 

That's awesome! I hope if you do one that you have a wonderful time. I think most people think of tropical when they think of cruising, but for us Alaska is the #1 destination. That said, I've only done two Caribbean and would love to do that again, too. :D

 

:D

[tulsacruiser]

We went down to get our Victoria photo and happily ran into tulsacruiser and her son while we were there. I felt like I had a new friend, and I’m sure we’ll stay in touch! Yay! We said our goodbyes and I’m hopeful we’ll see them again.

 

I’m pretty sure we’ll be going to Alaska again next year, but I bought two FCCs, so I’m looking at other itineraries as well. Since this was our fourth time on the Spirit (she has one more Alaska season and then will move to Australia; who knows, we may have to follow her there!) she was very familiar to us and continues to be our favorite ship.

 

 

Awww, we feel the same way, you and Beck are awesome, we love you guys!

We may have to follow you two to Alaska again, in a totally non-stalkerish kind of way of course.;)

 

Ooh, Australia on the Spirit, now that sounds like an adventure!:D

 

Great job on the review Jayne, I enjoyed every moment!!!

 

 

~Pam

[jctutt]

Thank you so much for this wonderful review! We leave a week from tomorrow, and this has gotten me so excited!

 

We have a car reserved in Skagway to travel to the Yukon. Caribou Crossing is on my list of "wants," but DH is not very excited about that. The kids and I volunteer at the local humane society, so DH says we can see plenty of dogs there. :p Anyway, is the rest of it worth seeing or are the dogs pretty much the highlight? I would kind of like to have the kids pan for gold.

 

We also have Chef's Table reserved. We are foodies as well, and DH watches pretty much everything on Food Network. I'm wondering now if we should just save some money and do the steakhouse instead--or spend the same amount and do the steakhouse twice!

 

Thanks again for the wonderful review!

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Awww, we feel the same way, you and Beck are awesome, we love you guys!

We may have to follow you two to Alaska again, in a totally non-stalkerish kind of way of course.;)

 

Ooh, Australia on the Spirit, now that sounds like an adventure!:D

 

Great job on the review Jayne, I enjoyed every moment!!!

 

 

~Pam

 

 

Stalk away! ;) We'd love to cruise with you two again! I'll send you an e-mail when we figure out if we're definitely going next year and when. :D

 

I'm glad you enjoyed the review...where's yours?? :D

 

Jayne

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Thank you so much for this wonderful review! We leave a week from tomorrow, and this has gotten me so excited!

 

We have a car reserved in Skagway to travel to the Yukon. Caribou Crossing is on my list of "wants," but DH is not very excited about that. The kids and I volunteer at the local humane society, so DH says we can see plenty of dogs there. :p Anyway, is the rest of it worth seeing or are the dogs pretty much the highlight? I would kind of like to have the kids pan for gold.

 

We also have Chef's Table reserved. We are foodies as well, and DH watches pretty much everything on Food Network. I'm wondering now if we should just save some money and do the steakhouse instead--or spend the same amount and do the steakhouse twice!

 

Thanks again for the wonderful review!

 

 

I'm so excited for you! Wish I were going again!

 

Maybe tulsacruiser would be better to answer your question--they spent more time at Caribou Crossing than we did. We only went to see the dogs and the goats were on the way. I'll bet you and your kids would love the dogs and puppies. They have dog cart rides there, too, but I don't know how much they were.

 

You should be able to find gold panning pretty easily. I don't know if they have it at Caribou Crossing, but we did it at Liarsville the first time we were in Skagway. DD was six years old and she loved it (of course they'd seeded her pan with more gold than ours :p).

 

I don't want my review to be the reason you don't do Chef's Table. It could have just been an off night the night we went. I've read tons of reviews of it where people absolutely rave about it.

[sharecruises]

Loved your review! You go girls....enjoy that salmon you caught!

That however looks TOO cold for me LOL. I am certain my blood has thinned from years of living in Florida

 

Thanks for your answers to my (many) questions.

 

Now for some more....did they have any special "Alaska foods" on the menu??

 

I am certain I saw "salmon pizza" on one of Zydecocruiser's albums from a few years ago. I have also read about (other?) cruiselines having a salmon grill buffet on deck and/or other "alaska" foods?? (Maybe Princess?)

Some cruises have Alaska food (seafood) on the dinner menu...does Carnival?? I know from your review they do have the crab legs one time. Does the steakhouse have anything different??

 

JMO >>> It would be really cool to offer an "Alaska Table" experience on board...now that I would pay for. Have the Chef Table but with regional dishes.

 

They could feasibly do that out of New York.....California (California cuisine paired with wines maybe??).....New Orleans....and so on. Baltimore too

 

I think it would be a lot more interesting. Not sure if it would work for the many sailings out of Florida ...but then the Red Frog Pub would cover the caribbean fun foods so that maybe the Chef table could be just "continental"

 

Or they could offer the "regional" menu/table as another experience all together

 

I am very interested in trying some delicious Alaska seafood and goodies.

Crab legs look awesome at Traceys. I also want to get some Alaskan berry jam or jelly or ??? Any ideas?? thanks

[KandCsailing]

Great review Jayne. I'm finally sorting my photos, so maybe I'll do one also soon. I also embassed Cam with all my food photos, then I made it twice as bad because my SIL thought she should take pictures of it also.

also want to get some Alaskan berry jam or jelly or ??? Any ideas?? thanks

I saw a store on Creek Street in Ketchikan that sold just salmon products and jams, but I didn't buy any to recall a name.

[JaniceB]

Really enjoyed reading your review. My excitement level is up for my cruise to Alaska next year after seeing your pictures.

 

I need to decide which excursion to do in Skagway. At first I was excited about doing the train, but now I am leaning towards renting a car. Since you have done both, which would you recommend to a first time vistor?

 

Thanks for sharin your cruise with us.

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Loved your review! You go girls....enjoy that salmon you caught!

That however looks TOO cold for me LOL. I am certain my blood has thinned from years of living in Florida

 

Thanks for your answers to my (many) questions.

 

Now for some more....did they have any special "Alaska foods" on the menu??

 

I am certain I saw "salmon pizza" on one of Zydecocruiser's albums from a few years ago. I have also read about (other?) cruiselines having a salmon grill buffet on deck and/or other "alaska" foods?? (Maybe Princess?)

Some cruises have Alaska food (seafood) on the dinner menu...does Carnival?? I know from your review they do have the crab legs one time. Does the steakhouse have anything different??

 

JMO >>> It would be really cool to offer an "Alaska Table" experience on board...now that I would pay for. Have the Chef Table but with regional dishes.

 

They could feasibly do that out of New York.....California (California cuisine paired with wines maybe??).....New Orleans....and so on. Baltimore too

 

I think it would be a lot more interesting. Not sure if it would work for the many sailings out of Florida ...but then the Red Frog Pub would cover the caribbean fun foods so that maybe the Chef table could be just "continental"

 

Or they could offer the "regional" menu/table as another experience all together

 

I am very interested in trying some delicious Alaska seafood and goodies.

Crab legs look awesome at Traceys. I also want to get some Alaskan berry jam or jelly or ??? Any ideas?? thanks

 

Like you, I would love to see a regional Chef's Table! That would be fantastic. :D

 

I didn't see any salmon pizza and it wasn't on the posted menu at the 24-hour pizzeria (But the calzones were yummy). If it's on the MDR menu, it must have been one of the evenings we went to the steakhouse or Chef's Table. The steakhouse had the same menu I've always seen though they may have had Alaskan halibut. I always have steak, so honestly didn't pay attention to the fish choices (even though I love fish).

 

I think your best bet for Alaskan dishes is going to be off the ship.

 

:D

[Quilting_Cruiser]

Great review Jayne. I'm finally sorting my photos, so maybe I'll do one also soon. I also embassed Cam with all my food photos, then I made it twice as bad because my SIL thought she should take pictures of it also.

I saw a store on Creek Street in Ketchikan that sold just salmon products and jams, but I didn't buy any to recall a name.

 

Hi,Kerri:

 

I love that you embarrassed Cam double! LOL. I hope you'll do a review. Would love to see the same sailing through someone else's eyes!

 

Jayne

 

Really enjoyed reading your review. My excitement level is up for my cruise to Alaska next year after seeing your pictures.

 

I need to decide which excursion to do in Skagway. At first I was excited about doing the train, but now I am leaning towards renting a car. Since you have done both, which would you recommend to a first time vistor?

 

Thanks for sharin your cruise with us.

 

I'm thrilled to have added to your excitement over your cruise next year!

 

When we did the train, DD was six years old and it was too slow-paced for her. The scenery was amazing, but the commentary was very corny (that, of course could have changed in the last 10 years). Many people say the train is a "must-do" excursions, but I don't really feel that way. It seemed pretty touristy to me. I absolutely loved having a car and the freedom that comes with it, but I'm a pretty independent sort. :p