Cruise to Alaska on Carnival Spirit

In celebration of our 20th wedding anniversary, my husband and I went on a cruise to Alaska this May. We were on the Carnival Spirit for a 7-night cruise.  We departed out of Seattle, which is only an hour and forty-minute flight from Sacramento. One of the questions we frequently get about our cruise is did we book through a travel site or directly through Carnival. We booked directly through Carnival, we found a great deal over a year ago. You can find great deals for cruises if you can book way in advance OR if you can take a last-minute cruise. 

We are big cruise fans, I would go on a cruise every year if I could. Cruising is a great way to vacation in my opinion, because it really is a relaxing way to take it all in. If you have been on vacation you know there is a lot of planning and preparation involved. On a regular vacation, you have to book hotels or a house rental, you have to book a car rental or be near public transportation, and you have to research how to get around town. You have to plan what entertainment you'll go to, plays, concerts, activities, there are tickets and reservations to be made, whatever that may be. You have to plan where and what you are going to eat. Finding restaurants or grocery shopping and cooking. With cruising almost of that is taken care of, you can of course add on more, but you really don't need to. On a cruise ship, all of your meals and entertainment are taken care of. Many cruise ships have mini golf and rock climbing and some even have roller coasters onboard. You literally relax, eat, and are entertained the entire time, it is the best. 

What cruising offers when visiting places like Alaska or Hawaii is giving you a taste of what these beautiful places have to offer. Allowing you to then plan a vacation to return to your favorite locations you stopped in along the way. 

Alaska has been on our list of travel destinations that we wanted to visit for a while and I am so grateful we did it. Alaska has so many breathtaking scenic views. I do recommend visiting in May when there is still plenty of snow, I am sure the views are still beautiful whenever you visit, but I loved seeing the views with snow, really spectacular. You can check out videos we shared of our trip on our TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram. 

One of the most popular questions we get is "How cold was it?" During our visit in May, we went the second week in May, it was between 45 to 60 degrees. It was mostly cold in the early morning hours and evening hours. Some mornings it would be sprinkling but then the sun would come out. I don't like being cold and so I took two big winter coats, while I did wear them, I also ended up taking them off. Especially after walking around town, and going on hikes, you warm up. Next time I would have just taken one coat, I did not need two. I brought two in case one got wet one of the days. 

Here are the ports we stopped at on our 7-night Alaskan cruise. I will say if you plan on going on an Alaskan cruise, budget extra for excursions. I was a little surprised at the prices of the excursions, especially since the last handful of cruises we have been on were to Mexico, where the excursions and everything there is extremely affordable. 

After departing Seattle, we had one day at sea before we stopped at the Tracy Arm Fjord, this wasn't an actual port. The Tracy Arm Fjord extends over 30 miles alongside the wilderness of Tongass National Forest. You travel through this narrow passage surrounded by gorgeous views. There is an excursion available where you can get off the ship on a smaller boat and get closer to a glacier. We did not book this excursion, a couple we sat at dinner with did and they told us, there was too much ice in the water that the smaller boat was not able to get much closer to the glacier than our cruise ship, they only when a little further around the bend, so they were refunded 50% back of the excursion. They did say they saw a bear and some wildlife which was neat. They got closer views of the waterfalls we saw from the ship. This excursion was around $210 per person.

Our next port was Skagway, Alaska. A great thing about this Alaskan cruise is all the ports were very close to shopping and tours. Every port was just steps away from places to visit, literally, five-minute walks to town. Skagway was on the smaller side of the ports, but had my favorite excursion. The Whitepass Railway excursion is a MUST do. You'll board this train steps away from the cruise ship, the train ride is about two and a half hours roundtrip. This train takes you up a Mountain, it climbs over 2,800 feet in elevation. Inside the vintage railcars, the seats are comfy, it's heated, there are restrooms and they give you water bottles. The train ride is narrated live while you take in stunning views.  You can even go out on the train platforms, which I highly recommend. It was so cold, but the views out there are so worth it. This excursion was $150 per person.

While in Skagway we toured their Visitor Center which I also highly recommend, they have interactive displays, tons of historical facts, and a small theater where you can watch a short film about Skagway. I also recommend you visit the Klondike Doughboy for Alaskan Fry bread. Not only was the bread freshly made, warm, and covered in cinnamon sugar, but the workers were so friendly and informative. There are cute souvenir shops and I think every port had a Christmas shop. 

Our next port was Juneau, the capital of Alaska. Along the port area, there were a dozen of informational signs that highlighted the fishing and boating industry in Alaska, we also saw several of totem poles here. We docked in Juneau really early around 7 AM, when we got off the ship, the Downtown area was so empty, which was nice for our Tram ride because there was no line or waiting. I've heard from others that they had to wait a while to get up the mountain and come back down. Here we purchased tickets for the Goldbelt Tram, which took us up a Mountain, at the top there was a restaurant, gift shop, and a theater that showed a short film on the history of Juneau. The Tram was $50 per person and it is an all-day pass. We heard a lot about Tracy's King Crab Shack, they have the largest crab legs the length of your arm. One thing about being on a cruise is you eat so much, we hardly ate off the ship, not because we didn't want to try something, but simply because we weren't hungry. We saw a long line for Tracy's Crab Shack on our way down from the Tram, and they weren't even open yet. 

After the Goldbelt Tram we purchased tickets for a bus to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier. These tickets were also $50 per person. It was about a twenty-minute bus ride to the Tongass National Forest Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. The tour buses leave every half hour so you can stay out on the trails for as long or as short as you want. We spent about three hours out there. After we took in the views of the Mendenhall Glacier we took a trail out to Nugget Falls. This waterfall is so beautiful and it is an easy trail to walk. You can get so close to the waterfall. It was about a one-and-a-half-mile walk. We saw some mountain goats and a ton of majestic bald eagles. Others on our tour bus said they saw a bear, we saw a bear on the drive back to the cruise ship while onboard our bus. We walked a ton in Juneau, we did over 17,000 steps. 

Our next port was Ketchikan, Alaska, which is a super cute port. Here there is quite a bit of history you will discover on a walking tour you can do on your own. Near the waterfront, there are some buildings that you can look in and see what it would have looked like in the early 1900s. They also have an area called Creek Street, so much history to read about here. There was a beautiful church St. Johns, which I read is sometimes open and you can go inside, it was not open during our visit. 

We booked The Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show excursion, which is just a short walk from the cruise ship and this is such a fun family-friendly show. The lumberjacks compete in twelve athletic events to showcase various lumberjack skills. They use axes, razor-sharp saws, and souped-up chainsaws, they show how they would climb trees, and they show both the speed and strength it takes to be a lumberjack. They mix in comedy and interact with the crowd. The crowd is split into teams, and you cheer on your team, we were Team USA vs Team Canada. They get the crowd going and really into it. They ask you not to take video of the show but say you can take as many photos as you'd like. This excursion was $55 per person.

After Ketchikan, we had a day at sea. I love these days because we usually slept in a little later and explored the ship more since we were not getting off the ship. These are the days to enjoy mini-golf, bingo, swimming, and enjoy soaking up the sun on the top deck. 

Our last port was Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. This was an interesting stop because we docked at 7:30 PM, we weren't even sure we were going to get off the ship because we knew we were stopping here at night. This was the only port that did not have anything in nearby walking distance. You have to get on a bus or take a taxi to town. I am glad we went into town because Downtown was really beautiful. We bought tickets for a double-decker bus which was $15 per person, not bad at all to take you into town. The Downtown area had shops and restaurants. The Visitor Center was closed, we saw the famous Empress Hotel and the Government House, which sits on 36 acres. I would have loved to explore more, they have beautiful parks and gardens. We only had a little over an hour of daylight and a lot of shops were already closed. I am definitely curious about the timing of this port. I would have loved to do more here, but we walked the downtown area and then headed back because we knew we still had to pack and get ready to disembark the next morning. In one of the souvenir shops we went into, the shop owner said she specifically stayed open later because she knew our cruise ship was coming and knew that so many stores would be closed. 

We absolutely loved Alaska and recommend you visit any way you can, even if not on a cruise ship. I enjoyed visiting for our first time on a cruise, it felt as though we barely scratching the surface of this beautiful and enormous state. Seeing just how vast this state is and the amazing views we saw along the coast, I would love to visit and explore more inland. 

I will do another blog post specifically on the Carnival Spirit ship itself, so stay tuned. I will share more details about the meals and entertainment. I will also go into more detail of what we think are essentials to take with you on an Alaskan cruise.