After about a month back from Alaska cruise, only now i have time to capture down our first ever crusing experience. If you asked me if i want to cruise again, the answer is a definite YES! YES! YES! (Of course, depending on the destination as well. ;P ). Simply because i found that cruising is a most relax, hassle-free option especially travel with little ones.
Hubby & I have been thinking 'bout a family vacation to New York, Hawaii, Florida or crusing and i'm glad that we finally choosen a cruise to Alaska. It's definitely a right choice that not only we have fun exploring a breathtaking place (well, what an experience to visit the last frontier..), but also time to relax and re-charge battery. It's a good break and a good escape for me from daily housework. ;P
Now, back to our experience with Carnival on our cruise to Alaska from Seattle:
Booking Process
Am not sure if all Carnival customer agent upkeep the same service level, but John (the agent that worked with us) had rendered us a very good customer service, so much so that it given us a very good impression on Carnival during the booking process and we were already looking forward to cruise imagine the same standard of service that we would received on the ship. John has been very helpful and informative which was indeed very crusial to us - the first time cruiser.
Embarkation
The boarding time stated was from noon-2pm and we were a bit puzzled as the ship will depart only at 4pm. We plan to arrive Seattle earlier to take lunch prior to check-in as we're not sure when will meals be served on the ship. However , we arrived Seattle only at about 1pm. We headed straight to the pier, then only to find out that there's no stalls or shops. Fortunately, Carnival started to serve food immediately we board the ship instead of waited till 4pm.
The check in process was fast and smooth which took less than an hour. There were porters to help on luggge transfer with minimum cost, since we only have 3 luggage, we self carried all. There were Carnival personnel at the pier to guide the guests on the entire check-in process.
The Ship
As first-time cruiser, i can only said it is great (since there's none for us to compare with). :P
It is clean and well maintaine. Don't think that i've visited all section of the ship, and i didn't manage to use all of the facilities as well. However, as far as the area that we stepped on, it was well-kept and satisfactory.
The Stateroom
We wish to get a balcony stateroom but non was available when we placed our booking as we booked at quite last minutes. Hence, we settled with an obstructed view balcony stateroom instead.
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| The stateroom with obstructed view balcony |
Our room was at deck 5 and on mid ship. The only negative side was that the lifeboat that obstruct our view was higher as compared to others. Nevetherless, we were still able to enjoy the magnificient view especially during the TracyArm Fjord cruising on Day 3. The room size was ok except the entrance door and the walkway were a bit narrow.
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| The Entrance Door |
BTW, only body wash and shampoo were provided, hence pls remember to bring along your own toiletry.
All in all, i would recommend to get a balcony stateroom if crusing Alaska and you would be able to enjoy the nice view on Day 3 TracyArm crusing in the comfort of your stateroom with 24hrs room service.
The Staff
The staff were friendly. Our stateroom steward, Jonathan is a very nice and polite person who made up our room daily for our comfort stay. Our dining room staff team were from Asian (Thailand & Indonesia) who were with us 7 days for a great dining experience.
The Food
You will be fed with variety of food and free flow of water, lemonade, coffee and tea daily. We didn't buy the soft drink card since the 24 hour water and lemonade supply were good for us. There was orange juice during the breakfast time too.
I'm glad to find out there's Asian food available at the daily buffet counter which solve my concern on food for the girls. The 24 hrs pizza were so so only but we love the ice-cream (yogurt ice-cream too! Less guilt for my girls to have ice-cream. ;P).
Read the review that the steakhouse offered good menu with some additional cost, since i don't take steak, we didn't try that. The food served at the restaurant were good and tasty enough for us already. ;)
I personally love the desserts...so much different yummy cakes. I think i developed a sweet-tooth after back home, almost at the end of each meal, i started to miss and look for the dessert. ;P
We were given late dining option as all the other options were not available. It worked fine for us since we woke up pretty late and we need to prepare the girls as well. We normally took our breakast & lunch quite late and we didn't feel hungry that early for dinner. The cons was we need to catch a later show which started only at 10pm and the girls were tired then. On Day 7 port of calls at Victoria, we have less time at Victoria since we opted to take the fine dining dinner before we left the ship to Victoria downtown.
The Entertainment
I found that the shows were just ok, not something that you would keep on talking 'bout. Some shows, we just watch half way since the girls were tired and bored. One thing we found that the sounds system was too loud which might not be a good idea to bring along little kids. My 5yrs old kept complaining too noisy. ;O
The Camp Carnival
Since i have kids along and my 5yrs old spent quite a lot of time in the Camp Carnival, i thought i would like to write something 'bout the Camp.
My 5yrs old love to go there, i suppose it was fun then. My 2yrs old was too attached to me and refused to go after first tried and cried looking for me. There's different activities scheduled for each day and for different age group. Parents will be given a cellphone for ease of contact if kids were sent there. I sent my 5yrs old there only to join some fun activities.
The only drawback to me is that the camp house is at the forward of the ship, not sure if the kids will feel seasick esp when the ship met with big wave, probably most kids won't feel it and that's why the Camp house was plan there?
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| A section of the Camp house |
The Itinerary/Schedule
Everyday, there'll be a schedule left in our stateroom for tomorrow's itinerary/activities which i found it useful. We can have a glance ahead on the plan for next day. Some useful information were included like time change, the highlight for next day etc which was a plus.
The Shore Excursion
While you may spent less by planning your own shore excursion activity or get local tours etc, our experience told us that it's worth to spend a little extra to join the Carnival shore excursion for hassle-free vacation especially we were with kids. We do not have to worry 'bout to catch up with time, find our own ways etc.
- Skayway: we purchased shore excursion (Scenic Yukon Drive) online with Carnival prior to our cruise and that was best. We were told by our tourguide that this excursion enjoyed the same scenic view as the much more expensive steam train or historic train route.
- Juneau: we bought the local shuttle ticket to Mendenhall Glacier from net prior to our cruise which save us a little but we ended up wasting more time waited for the shuttle which was not ontime. We then have not much time spent in town and have to rush through which we regretted.
- Ketchikan: with the experience at Juneau, we decided to purchase the Ketchikan shore excursion (Ketchikan Highlights Express) with Carnival at last minutes on the ship. I think we made it right this time as we have shortest stop time at Ketchikan among all of the ports of call. We wish not to waste anytime so that we can also cover some shopping and visit at town especially the Creek Street.
- Victoria: Since we visited Canada before and had been to Butchart Garden, Parliament Building, Empress Hotel etc, we didn't purchase any shore excursion for this port of call. Just took a taxi for a free & easy walk at downtown. There were shuttle available at port of call where one can purchase the ticket to go to downtown as well. But we felt it was much convenient to take taxi and the cost didn't different much if you have 4-5 pax in a car.
(P/S: For more information on our shore excursion experience, pls refer to the respective destination link below).
Debarkation
The debarkation process was smooth and easy. Carnival provided a service that we can choose to leave our luggage outside of our stateroom a night before debarkation day and they will help to transfer our luggage to the port, we then can collect them at the port with the reference slip provided. We opted that option and it was convenience for us. On debarkation day, they announced the sequence by calling the numbers and we were at our breakfast table when our number were call. Just walk to the debarkation deck and proceed to the port. That ended our fun cruise.
Good bye, Carnival Spirit! Thanks for the fun cruise and sweet memories. We will miss you. :)
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