For our twentieth wedding anniversary, my wife and I went on a seven-day Alaskan cruise aboard the Carnival Spirit.

We made our own airline reservations, but we went through Carnival Cruise Lines to arrange for transportation from Anchorage to Seward and from Vancouver to Seattle. Registration for the cruise began Wednesday morning at the Convention Center in Anchorage from 8:00 to 12:00. We arrived at 9:00 and the lines were not that long. In less than twenty minutes we completed the registration process and received boarding passes for the 12:30 shuttle to Seward, Alaska. The first shuttle left at 12:00 and shuttles ran the rest of the afternoon. Our bus left Anchorage on schedule and the ride to Seward was nice and the box lunch was not bad either. Our bus driver, Brian, a senior in College, was an excellent tour guide. While en route to Seward he stopped at a small glacier outside of Anchorage so that we could stretch our legs. We arrived at the pier at 3:45 PM.

Embarkation went smoothly, the whole process took about 10 minutes. We went through the security check point (x-ray machines and portal metal detectors similar to those used at the International airports), received our Carnival “Sail & Sign” cards (which are also your room keys), and had our picture taken for their access control system. When you embark and debark the ship, you are required to swipe your “Sail & Sign” card in a card reader and as long as the data on the card matches the data and picture displayed on the security guard’s access control display, you are allowed to pass.

Our cabin was a category 6 stateroom. It was on the port side of the Riviera Deck and the view from our window was fantastic. Our steward Rafael was very pleasant and efficient. As others have mentioned in their reviews, the animals that the stewards make out of the towels were lots of fun!

We had requested the early seating for dinner, but when we received our “Sign & Sail” card with our assigned dinner table number, we learned that we had the late seating. However, I spoke with the staff and the next day (Thursday), our time was changed to the early seating. The meals were great, we ate breakfast and lunch at the La Playa Grille and we ate dinner in the Empire Restaurant. However, on Saturday night we ate in the Nouveau Supper Club/Steakhouse. It was nice, but we are not sure the additional $25.00 per person was worth it. The dinners served in the Empire Restaurant were just as nice.

The evening shows were as good or better than Las Vegas, and we had a lot of fun attending other activities on the Ship such as the “Battle of the Sexes” and “Newly Weds and not so Newly Weds” games for adults. The weather was cold and rainy until the last day of our cruise. Once we entered International waters the sky cleared and on Tuesday, August 13, 2002, it the high was 64 and everyone was enjoying the sun deck!

We went on three shore excursions; the Mendenhall glacier and wildlife quest (whale watching) tour ($125.00 per person) in Juneau, the Klondike Gold Dredge (panned for gold) tour ($34.00 per person) in Skagway, and the Totem Bight and City Tour ($35.00 per person) in Ketchikan. The whale watching trip was our favorite and it was worth the price because we were able to see four humpback whales, many harbor seals, and an eagle.

We had such a wonderful time on this cruise that we plan to go on other cruises on a regular basis.