Carnival Spirit
by Sharon Cruz
Alaska
September 1, 2004
I know its late in the season but maybe this report of our trip will be of some value to people who are heading to Alaska next year. Three of us went on our trip - me, my husband and my sister-in-law. All in our mid 50's. We all had a wonderful time. Although some reports say that Carnival ships including the Spirit are over done, it is done on such a grand scale that it is impressive. Lots of bronzes and rich reds. Plenty of lounges to sit and people watch. The casino was large and my husband did well there. Although the ship carries about 2200 passengers it never felt crowed except when you were trying to disembark in port. If you timed your departure a little later there was no problem. The dining room is well appointed and the service was friendly and effecient. Our waiter Marion from Roumania and his assistant Katalin from Hungary were wonderful. He was the clown and she was his straight man. They made our meals very enjoyable.
The ship was easy to get around after the first day or so as long as you remembered which way was forward and which way was aft. The entertainment was varied and mostly good. It was geared to an older crowd. I would say that the vast majority of people on the ship were in their 70s and 80s. The next lagest group were in their 50s and 60s. The rest of the people were in their 40s with a few 20s and 30s. Camp Carnival must have done a wonderful job because there were 60 children onboard whom you never saw. Towel animals were funny and I enjoyed seeing the different ones each night. More announcements than on Celebrity ships but not so many that they were annoying. Food generally good with some dishes really good. Desserts were tasty. Lobster was awful. If you are a big eater you probably would not have been happy with the portion sizes which were small. However, you could always ask for more including more desserts.
8/28 Flew from Fort Lauderdale to Anchorage on Delta through Atlanta. Flight was long but uneventful. Just before we arrived in Anchorage we flew over quite a few glaciers which were visible on the right side of plane. It was an amazing first sight of Alaska. Got into Anchorage quite late, picked up our rental car from Avis and went to the hotel. I booked the Sheraton through Price Line and got rooms for $129.00 per night. Rooms were comfortable and clean.
8/29 Drove to Denali which took us a little more than 5 hours to get there. That included a stop for lunch just before the pull out to get your first glimpse of McKinley. However, there was no McKinley. Too much smoke in the air from the fires north of Fairbanks. We stayed at the Denali River Cabins right on the Nenana River. What a wonderful way to sleep with the sound of rushing water. Booked them ahead of time - $139.00 per night. Went into Denali Park in the late afternoon and visited the kennels and watched a dog sled demonstration. Fun to see the dogs and the puppies.
8/30 Woke up real early to be at the Park by 7:30 to start our trek on the shuttle into the park. Thanks to the advice of people who had taken the trip before we took the shuttle to Eilson Visitors Center and saw a lot of wildlife but no McKinley - still obscured by smoke. Grizzly bears (at least 8 or 9), Dall sheep, eagles, 1 lone wolf by the river (pretty far away) and a herd of caribu - no moose. Our bus driver Cissy was wonderful she really told us alot about the Park and the animals. It was really really really cold when we started out in the early morning, especially if you are from South Florida. We had to scrape ice off our windshield in the mornings.
8/31 Got up early again and started back to Anchorage. Stopped in Talkeetna on the way back so my sister-in-law could take a plane ride to try to see Mt. McKinley. She was successful. The pilot was able to get above the clouds and they had a clear view of the summit. Stopped in Palmer to see the Alaska State Fair which was fun. Had really good fried halibut at the Fair. Saw the huge vegetables which won the prizes. Went on to Anchorage and stayed overnight again at the Sheraton.
So far the weather had been fairly nice. No rain and some sun. But the weather got nasty once we got to Whittier to get on the ship.
9/1 Left Anchorage and drove to Whittier. Started to rain on the way and was raining fairly hard by the time we got to the ship. We dropped off the bags and my husband turned the car in at Avis. I think Avis is the only car rental agency which has a drop off in Whittier. It was a $100.00 drop off charge but with 3 people it was cheaper and more convenient than trying to get transportation from Anchorage with the cruise ship. The most important benefit is if you arrive between trains or buses there is no one there and check in is a snap. Check in was painless since there were only about 6 people ahead of us. The agents were efficient and friendly. Again no line at security. Got our picture taken and got on the ship. Only complaint was you had to go out in the rain to get on the ship. Small complaint. Got on the ship around 1:30 and had lunch on the Lido deck. Started raining even harder so we couldn't go on deck when the ship was leaving port. Explored the ship, had dinner (lobster which wasn't any good - only bad meal we had) at the open seating and went to bed since the we would be at College Fjord early the next morning.
9/2 Woke up at six am to make sure we didn't miss the glaciers. We stopped in front of Harvard glacier for way over an hour. Saw the glacier calve - amazing sight. The cruise through the Sound was smooth but things really started rocking when we got to the Gulf of Alaska. Don't know if it was true but the crew said the waves were 12 feet with 40 MPH winds. Really rough. Dinner was sparsely attended since the majority of the passengers were sea sick. It was our first formal night. Made it kind of hard to walk all dressed up. The entertainment was cancelled because the weather was too rough. It was rescheduled for later in the cruise.
9/3 Arrived at our first port - Sitka. Still raining. My husband went on the fishing shore excursion though the ship and caught a decent size salmon which will be shipped home. Probably the most expensive salmon we will ever eat. My sister-in-law and I went on the Captain's Choice Beach Walk (in the rain of course). Saw whales, eagles, sea otters (a mama with her baby on her chest)and a sea lion when we returned to the dock. We tendered in which is a lengthy process. Most of the time you sit and wait for your number to be called. Sitka was the only port whre we had to tender. That night we ate in the Supper Club. The food and the service was first rate. The $25.00 premium was well worth the extra money.
9/4 Next port - Juneau - We were there until 11:00pm. We had booked a whale watch with Orca Enterprises with Cap'n Larry. Great time. Small boat - only 20+ people. Saw humpback whales and an island with hundreds of sea lions. And of course we saw eagles. Walked around town and then went back to the ship when it started to rain again. When we got back to the ship there was an eagle in a tree right outside our balcony.
9/5 Skagway - early morning ship excursion hike in a forest and a float trip down the river. It was booked as moderate activity, however, there was a lot of climbing up and a lot of climbing down over slippery rocks, tree roots and mud. I think it was more intense than moderate. But it was fun. I came back to the ship muddy and cold. Went back into town and it started to rain hard. People who took the White Pass train in the afternoon didn't see much since it was snowing at the pass.
9/6 Ketchikan - sun glorious sun. The port that was supposed to have the most rain was the only place we had any sun. Fun town to walk around. Don't miss Creek Street. Salmon were running when we were there. I had booked a tour with Island Wings to go bear watching. It was incredible. Although we only saw one bear, he/she was there for quite a while. The bear was running up and down the stream catching salmon, biting off their heads and going after another one. Finally the bear came up onto the road less than 20 yards from where we (4 of us) were standing on the logging road bridge, looked us over and ambled off. Walked back to the sea plane dock (about 2 miles) and waited for Michele to pick us up. On the way back we flew through some of the fjords and saw about 50 mountain goats on a ridge. Got back to the ship with about 15 minutes to spare.
9/7 Cruising through the inside passage on our way to Vancouver. Passed by a pod of Killer Whales and saw several dolphin. Of course it was raining again.
9/8 Arrived in Vancouver. Since we were making our own way to our hotel we were one of the last people to leave the ship. The line for taxis was extremely long so we took a limo to the hotel instead. We stayed at the Sheraton Wall Center (4 star hotel)which I got through Hotline for $49.00 per night. Walked downtown and then it started raining again.
9/9 Took a day trip to Victoria whale watching. Finally we saw sun. Expensive and not worth it. Saw more whales on the ferry over than on the whale watch. We had been to Victoria over 10 years ago and it was more fun then. Fewer boats and more whales. Wouldn't recommend the day trip to Victoria.
9/10 Got to the airport with no problem, no lines at Delta or at security. Flight home uneventful.
