August-September Alaska Cruise

By DebbieandJerry

• September 12, 2014

If you had Very Good to Excellent then that would have been our overall rating.

We loved being on a ship and cruising the SE inland portion of Alaska. We saw whales everyday. The weather truly cooperated and fog in the am turned to beautiful days by noon.

The Carnival menu was the standard fare and that is why our rating was not excellent down the line. They pushed the specialty restaurant all the time - on the t.v., in the daily printed materials, at the lido deck, etc., etc. Lots of time, attention and details geared to pay more to eat.

There were 2 nights where we did not eat in the dining room. The menu offered nothing appealing and Jerry and I were not going to eat salmon or chicken again. He ended up eating pizza from the lido deck and I had salad.

Even though I met with the hostess prior to our first meal and outlined my food allergies, the wait staff had a difficult time bringing me the menu for the next night. One night I got deli turkey. Honestly, that is not cruise food! I also don't understand the plethoria of fried food and beef. I would have liked to have seen many more cooked vegetables and fish options. I get it. A standard menu is much cheaper to navigate, but one would think that a cruise to Alaska would offer more Alaska type cuisine.

The ship excursions were extremely expensive. Yes, cruising in Alaska is a short window of tourism. I guess I need to really save my money for the next time we visit.

Getting on/off the ship were a breeze. I'm sure that has a lot to do with being a Platinum member. But I don't recall hearing any squabbles from any of the passengers so I guess their embarkation also went well.

I liked that they offered movies in the main theater. We saw Gravity during the day and that was a real treat. Captain Phillips was playing one night - starting at 9:30pm. Too late for us to sit in a dark theater after having eaten!!!

Our room steward was stellar. He certainly was patient with our schedule and got the fact that we like staying in the room and sitting on the balcony. He was very respectful of us and took really good care of us.

We would like to return to Alaska and see much more of the state. Other than sea otters and whales, our wildlife viewing was limited to the animals in the museum. Alaska is very beautiful.