Alaskan Cruise Inside Passage

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This being my first cruise, I decided to start a blog about my travels. I cruised with Carnival Cruise Lines, aboard the Carnival Miracle. We had ports in Tracy Arm Fjord, Skagway, Juneau, Ketchican, and Victoria, British Columbia. I was traveling with my sons, aged 14 and 17.



The boarding process was fairly easy, with Andrew being temporarily in a wheelchair we sailed to the front of the line. We have discovered that his wheelchair gets us around most lines, and are really going to miss it when he heals! My first impression of the ship was how BIG it was! It really is like a city on water. We boarded around 11:30, and they told us that our rooms would not be available until around 1pm, so we decided to wander around and see what there was to see. Of course, the boys immediately found the buffet and piled their plates high with all kinds of food. After eating, we passed by the ice-cream dispenser where we found that there was both soft-serve ice-cream and frozen yogurt available to us 24-7! So we each made ourselves a cone (I'm partial to the vanilla/chocolate combo), and headed out again. They had a mini-golf course, but we only played 2 holes because it was starting to rain. Jeremy was not that impressed with their jogging track, so we quickly found their gym and he declared it good enough to work out in! I liked that they had a sauna, Jacuzzi, and steam room.... Next we found the pools and whirl pools, the giant sized chess game, ping pong tables, and water slide. We could tell it would be an action packed cruise, but for now it was raining so we headed back indoors. We participated in a trivia game and then headed back to the ice-cream dispenser (I decided I needed to be careful or I was quickly going to gain back all of the weight I lost! Around 1:30 they had opened up the rooms, so we went to check it out. The luggage still wasn't delivered but we got to check out our amazing balcony looking out over the back of the ship. The room was small, but it still had 3 separate twin sized beds so that nobody had to complain about sharing. We spent the next hour or so wandering around the ship to see what was there. We found the 2 teen rooms, the dining room, the art auctions, tasting bar, comedy shows, theater stage, shopping strip, dance club, and much much more.... At sail away, the boys went to eat again and I went to locate my new friends from the FaceBook group at our meet and greet. Beautiful sail away, and got to meet nearly everyone whom I'd been talking with for months. Afterwards, went to the pre-dinner show which was a fun presentation by our Cruise Director about everything we could expect on the ship, including short performances by the comedians, musicians, and dancers. Dinner was amazing. There is no other way to describe the meal/experience in the formal dining room. Our wait staff was friendly and seemed to be Jamaican. I should have asked.... After dinner the kids went to Club O2 teen room and I went to the comedy show with some of my new friends. I don't believe I've laughed that hard in a long time! The comedian was hilarious! When I got back to the room, it was clean and the beds had all been turned down. On one of the beds was tomorrows schedule, 3 chocolates, and an animal folded from a towel. This was an awesome day, and we hadn't even gotten anywhere yet! Kids showed up around 12:30, and we all went to bed. It had been a long but thrilling day, and tomorrow promised more....

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