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| Carnival Miracle was our home for 7 days |
I know for sure that many people consider cruising to be the
best way of having a holiday. During my latest cruise to Alaska , I met many
people who were repeat travelers on cruise ships. Matter of fact, even we were
repeat travelers on Carnival cruise line having previously done a 4 night
cruise to Bahamas a few years ago. My
Aunt’s friend Wendell Rodricks (the famous designer from Goa) and his partner
Jerome must be the most prolific cruisers and they seem to enjoy it very much
as was mentioned in Wendell’s book recently. They go for a cruise virtually each year. My aunt also joined them on one of
the luxury liners for a few days in Latin America. She marveled at their
ability to enjoy such a long cruise as she was there for just around 10 days
but the cruise was almost 6 weeks long !
At the Delhi Airport we had a big group boarding the same
flight as us but going to Barcelona for an eight day Mediterranean Cruise. Cruising seems to be catching up in India and
people are looking at better destinations to board the ship rather than Star
Cruise from Singapore.
Devicka felt that our 7 night cruise to Alaska just maybe
too long. I had heard a lot of good things about the cruise so was looking
forward to it. I booked much in advance as there was just one ship which suited
my dates. Vancouver (Canada) is a major hub for Alaska cruise and Seattle comes
next. Seattle suited us as we were visiting an aunt there and we were flying
out to India from there.
Cruise industry has been in a bit of bother these last
couple of years. The Costa Concordia disaster was the partial sinking of the Italian cruise ship when it ran aground at Isola del Giglio, Tuscany, on 13 January 2012 with the loss of 32 lives ; Reports of infections were
reported from several ships in USA causing sickness to many passengers; A few
ships stalled in high seas due to fires in engine rooms making life for the
passengers miserable as not only refrigerators conked off but the toilets
stopped working; There were many more such incidents and the Carnival group was
involved in a few of these incidents. Yet having travelled on a Carnival ship
before, I didn't think it was a bad idea to repeat the experience and hoped for
the best.
Before the Cruise
Certain things have
to be done before actually getting on to the ship. As I don’t rely on agents
and do most of research myself, it does become a time consuming exercise. But
at the end of it, it really is worth all the trouble. Things which needs to be done for a cruise
are :
1)
Selecting the cruise line and the date of
voyage. This also involved selecting :
a)
Port of Embarkation
b)
Date of Embarkation
c)
Studying the ports the cruise will stop on and
the passage it will take.
2)
Whether one should book directly with Carnival
or one of their agents ? As the price
difference was not much, I selected Carnival website. They were kind enough to
give me a credit of $ 350.00 which could be spent on the ship.
3)
What kind of stateroom should one book ? Inside
rooms were out of question as they are claustrophobic rooms without any
windows, so the choice was between ocean view (no balcony) ; balcony staterooms;
extended balcony; and suite. As we were
4 of us it was important to decide whether we should take 1 stateroom or 2.
a)
First of all we decided on one stateroom as
price of 2 was working out too much. Though this meant that 4 of us would be in
one small stateroom for 7 days, the price factor did not leave us with much
choice.
b)
The suite was too expensive so we chose an
extended balcony. Extended balcony meant that the size of balcony was larger
than their normal balconies. There was just a $100 price difference between
balcony and extended balcony.
4)
On what deck and what side we should choose the
stateroom. The rooms are generally from the 4th to 8th
Deck. We went in with 6th floor in the centre of ship on the
starboard (right) side. Some advise was taken from people who write reviews on
cruisecritic.com and other websites like tripadvisor.com. Example - Some felt that 8th deck
could be noisy as kitchens and open restaurants were on 9th Deck ;
some felt that if you are too forward then you have to walk a lot for
activities happening at the aft of the ship; some others felt that you should
not be close to nightclubs etc. All these tips helped.
5)
It is a requirement for Alaska cruise that all
foreigners must have visa for Canada. They do have a port stop at Victoria
(Canada) for a few hours but this requirement for visa has to be fulfilled even
though you may not be planning to disembark at Victoria. So, for this cruise
Canada visa is compulsory for Indians. We went ahead and got our visas done in Delhi. This is another additional expense which you have to keep in mind.
6)
All information regarding passengers and their
passports has to be filled up online. Based on that the Boarding Pass is issued
which you can print. You can also print a few baggage tags and put them on your
bags before boarding the ship. The bags are taken from you outside the terminal
and it gets to your stateroom by evening. We were lucky that we had a base at Seattle so
we could leave our entire surplus luggage there. We carried the bare minimum
required for one week on the ship.
7)
You have to book for the dinner time at the time
of finalizing the bookings. They have 2 slots for the dining hall : 5.30 PM and
7.45 PM. Both were too early for me but I went for 7.45 PM. I couldn’t have
imagined that people eat dinner at 5.30 PM ! You don’t actually have to eat in
dining room as the entire 9th deck has food and food till around
10PM. Pizzas are available 24 hours.
8)
We were informed that the cruise would have 2
elegant evenings where you had to look good by wearing decent clothes. Suits
and Jackets were the first preference. No jeans; no shorts; no track suits and
no sneakers or slippers. One needed to
carry a jacket at least.
9)
They listed out the shore excursions on the website and one could book the shore
excursions for each port much in advance by paying along with bookings.
Otherwise, they do have a shore excursion counter on the ship itself. We did
not book any shore excursion in advance though I did short list a few and read
reviews about them from several websites.
Liquor Policy of Cruise Ships
I decided to study their liquor policy in detail. For the
Bahamas cruise I had managed to smuggle in a bottle of Jamaican Rum and being a
VIP thereby staying in a suite one had managed this without being detected. But I did not want to take a chance here. The
cruise ships try to earn revenue through drinks . They have some beverages
packages as well which allow you to drink as much as liquor you want per day.
Similar plan is there for soft drinks as well. You get Ice-Cream, juices and
lemonade free of cost but not cokes and sprites.
The idea of going for the cruise was to enjoy the cruise and
the ports and the views. The idea of the cruise was not to be drunk all the
time and come back an alcoholic. So, the best action was to buy your drinks on
board and spend a little more. A couple of hundred dollars more would not be a
big deal. But some things did come to light when I read the policy and some
reviews :
1)
You could carry 1 bottle of wine per person on
carry on luggage. On the first night you could carry it to dining hall as well
and pay a nominal corkage on it.
2)
I discovered that Carnival has a system of
pre-ordering a few things including liquor by paying in advance. This is
through what they call fun shops. The liquor is expensive there but it is
delivered to your stateroom on the very 1st day and you don’t have
to keep going to the bars for a drink. This also works out much cheaper than
buying liquor on board.
I ordered a bottle of scotch online.
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| Another Cruise ship at the docks |
Boarding the Cruise Ship Carnival miracle
The sailing
was at 4 PM. We were required to board between 1 PM and 3 PM. It was a very fine
day and the week ahead looked good weather wise. We had packed the essentials :
1) Clothes for a week including some
formal stuff. Some warm clothes including caps.
2) Binoculars, cameras, mobiles, I pads,
Laptops, chargers etc etc.
3) Some Namkeen for my drinks
4) A bottle of wine, sodas and cokes.
5) My Uncle had given us a wireless
internet data device and wondered if it would work in Alaska at all. The
children could not bear to be away from internet for a period of 7 days. The
internet on board is pretty expensive if you take the wi fi plan from the ship.
6) Toiletries and essential Medicines.
We had carried these medicines from Delhi and they included anti-biotics as
well.
We had done well as we didn't have too much luggage. It was just one and
a half suitcase and 2 bag packs. In a small stateroom we didn't want suitcases
all around.
We reached the Seattle port at 2 PM and handed over the tagged luggage
outside the terminal to the porter. Inside the terminal we went for check in
after security. They seemed to have hired old ladies for the job of checking
in. The lady was a bit slow but she managed alright. We were checked in and our
passports were kept by the authorities for some reason and we were told we
would get them in Victoria. We had not been singled out but apparently this
must be the new rule. We didn’t care actually as at least we did not have headache
of looking after our passports.
Sail and Sign Card
It is the ‘sail and sign card’ handed over to each one of us that is the
most important document for the next 7 days. It is the key to the stateroom; you
operate your room safe with it; without it you cannot leave the ship nor can
come back on it ; for any activity like playing Bingo you have to pay through
this card ; you can use it in the bar for buying drinks ; you can borrow money
from the ship through this if you want to gamble in casinos; it is used for
booking shore excursions; for shopping in the cruise ship you have to pay
through sail and sign card. In short, you cannot do anything without this card on a cruise.At the end of the cruise all the money you have
spent on it gets debited to your registered credit card unless you pay at
customer service desk by cash. My instructions to children were very clear:
Please look after your card or else ……………
The Stateroom
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| The Stateroom was small but sweet |
A quick inspection of our stateroom and we were off to the 9th
Deck for Lunch. The stateroom was small but nice. It was located very centrally and wasn't too far from the lifts.It had bunk beds for kids. The
balcony was nice for 2 people to sit comfortably. There was a bit of impediment
on the left side of our balcony as the rooms on the left were a bit forward thus blocking a
bit of view on the left side but later that proved to be a boon as it was a
barrier to cold winds. The room had a small bathroom.
On the table a package with a card was prominently kept. The packet had a bottle of Johnny Walker Black. The card said :
Dear Rohin, Have a great Voyage and enjoy every moment. Cheers, Rohin!
The 9th deck was full and was full of action as everyone was
up to have their first meal on board. All food counters were open. We were told
to be on the 4th Deck by 3.15 PM for safety drill.
The safety drill was conducted and instructions given to everyone
regarding evacuations etc. It was sharp at 4 PM that the ship sailed. At that
time I was sitting on our balcony looking at the Seattle skyline. As the
Seattle skyline faded in distance, we were enveloped by beautiful blue sea and
green mountains. The coast guards patrolled around the ship for around half an
hour before zooming off.
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| The Seattle skyline from the ship |
It was a wonderful feeling to be heading towards the wonders of Alaska.
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| Advantages of a Balcony stateroom |
......................to be continued .....................
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