Southbound 8/16-23 - Carnival Spirit

Counting the days. Am interested in anyone who has cruised on

Spirit - cleanliness, food, aminities in room, size of room and storage, etc.

Also have only booked excursion in Skageway, Whitepass %26amp; Yukon Railroad and Glacier Lake Kayak. Have read so much info that it is getting confusing. Husband wants to go fishing.

HELP!!

Southbound 8/16-23 - Carnival Spirit

Please let me know how your trip was. Tel me about the Spirit. Thanks.

Southbound 8/16-23 - Carnival Spirit

Janepigg - Where do I begin - I could go on forever. Everything was fabulous.

I will try to keep it brief and answer any ?you may have.

Day 1 - 9 hour flight to Anchorage. Wasn%26#39;t as bad as we thought. Once in Anchorage took 90 min bus ride to ship. Pretty uneventful. Had to go thru 1 lane tunnel and had 20 minute wait so bus driver stopped at our first glacier viewing and we go out and took pictures.

Embarkment went smooth and quick. Went to our cabin to unload our carry ons and met up with friends (there were 86 in our group mostly coworkers and friends). Finally made ourselves go to bed after being up 24 hours.

Day 2 - Sailing - Woke up in front of the Harvard Glacier (6AM) What a beautiful sight. The captain turned the ship so both sides had about 1/2 hour viewing. The calving was great. Spent the rest of the day sailing and got familiar with ship and participated in some of the activities.

Day 3 - Sitka - Woke up to rain. The forecast called for rain most of the day and it rained off and on. Tendered to shore for 1 PM excursion (Bike %26amp; Hike). It was fun. We were more out of shape than we knew. Hiked thru rainforest. Spent the balance of day touring Sitka - took a couple of hours.

Day 4 - Juneau - Long day in port 7AM - 11PM. Did not book excursion thru ship. Slept in. Went whale watching with Captain Larry (Orca Enterprises). Saw lots of humpback whales - bubble feeding. It was great. Then took taxi to M endenhall Glacier and got map and did self guided hikes. Stayed at Mendenhall about 2 1/2 hours and could have stayed longer but had other things to do. Went back to town and to Mt. Roberts Tram. Hiked some trails on top of mountain. It was beautiful. You can see a lot of Juneau from there. Then finished the day at Red Dog Saloon.

Day 5 - Skagway - Booked Kayak and White Pass Railroad. It was a cold misty morning and there were some snow flurries. But we bundled up and had a blast. The scenery on the railroad is beautiful. Went back to Skagway and had lunch, shopped and went to Moe%26#39;s Bar - oldest bar in Alaska - for Bloody Marys.

Day 5 - Ketchikan - Husband and friends went fishing. Didn%26#39;t even get a nibble - but that%26#39;s how fishing goes. The ladies did most of our shopping there. When the guys got back we did self guided tour thru totem pole area. Quite interesting.

Day 6 - Sailing and packing.

Day 7 - Debarkment - Went smoothly. The ship offers a service for $15pp. They get your luggage the night before and you don%26#39;t see it again until you get to your destination. They also have your boarding passes prepared. Not all airlines offer this thru the ship. We flew Continental and they did not but some of our friends flew other airlines and took advantage of this. We had to claim our luggage at Vancouver and take it thru customs ourselves which was not a big deal after all.

The Spirit. The ship is beautiful. The rooms are spacious with lots of storage. The food is very good. The showroom entertainment leavs a lot to be desired. We like to dance but found the lounges to be extremely warm. Actually I am one of those people who always has a jacket and found the inside of the ship to be quite comfortable and did not need a jacket. My husband wore shorts on the ship. There are lots of common areas to gather and visit with friends or sit and read a good book. The pool is covered so you can swim. The staff was very friendly and helpful. Our waiter was the greatest. The dining room is 2 levels. We were seated on the first level at the rear so we could see the wake of the ship which was fun.

Also we had been watching the weather forcast and they predicted 60% rain and 50-s every day. We only had rain one day and the rest of the trip the weather was great.

When are you cruising? Is this your first? Will be happy to help the best I can. There is soo much to see and do - we are planning another Alaska cruise in 2010 - our group already has the next 3 years planned. It is so much fun to travel with a group.

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