Alaskan Cruise Post 2: The Carnival Spirit

This is my third Carnival cruise.  This is my favorite of the ships.  It's the nicest.  It's longer and narrower than previous boats (because of the need to weave through narrow glacier carved mountains), but more elegant than some of my prior boats, though they were all nice.  I've never taken any other cruises, and I know there are some definite differences, but I think the thing about a cruise....you really can't go wrong.  They are all nice.  This isn't the difference between Motel 6 and the Ritz.  It's a cruise, it's nice pretty much no matter what liner.  Carnival is great.  Big rooms, great shows, funny comics, and fantastic amenities from golf courses, slides, (heated) pools, spas and gyms with an ocean view. 

Casinos, more food than the state of Rhode Island consumes in a month, coffee bars, free room service, 24 hour pizza and ice cream, and views...views....views.

The rooms host a channel that tracks the boat's progress.  I like to keep track of everyone.

 We had a balcony room on the back of the boat on this journey.  I usually don't bother with the extra expense because we spent most of the time in ports, and the rest of the time in open ocean on previous cruises.  With this trip up Alaska's inside passage, we only spent pieces of two days without a view of the land (and a little bit of a rocky boat), the rest of the time there was land, ice bergs, glaciers, bald eagles...

 ...sunsets, well, as much as the sun ever sets in Alaska in the summer.

 And whales. 

 Humpback whales, and killer whales, and a naturalist on board to point out the animals (we figured out you can hear the deck announcements on a TV channel, and she announces animals and land formations as we pass them). 

 We spent most of one day on the back of our balcony (the thing about the aft of the ship if you can see both sides, the balcony is extended, but it is noisy).  I ordered room service, sat, took pictures of seals, and slothed my way through Alaska's fjords, more on this in a future post...well, more on Alaska and the seals, that's probably all I'll say about my laziness. 

Except this...room service....free chocolate cake while you float through ice, yes please.  They clean your room twice a day, turn down your sheets at night, leave mints, and towel animals.  Towel animals are pretty much my favorite thing.  All included in the original price of the cruise, unless you are a drinker, then you've got another bill coming, fortunately, my Mama raised me Baptist for moments, and trips just like this....no drink bills, except for my bottomless bubbles card-diet coke....

Every night includes formal dining (if you forgo the buffets) of steaks and fish, crabs, and lobsters, but really, I go for the molten lava cake. 

The first cruise I went on a didn't know what to do with myself.  I'm sort of a go go go kind of gal, and then I was trapped in a moving vessel for days on end, and relax just isn't a vocabulary word I dust off and use very often.  I've learned to love cruises because they take you multiple places it would be a headache to get to otherwise.  The Spirit took us on a week long journey from Seattle to Tracy Arm up to the Sawyer Glacier, on down the innar passage of Alaska to Skagway, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Victoria, Canada.  I've been fortunate (and determined) to see a lot of the world.  I LOVE Alaska.  I was ready to send for my puppies and stay in Skagway.  Tomorrow begins my post-a-palooza on all the great stops.  In the meantime, I'm planning my next trip move to Alaska.