This article was reposted from a reader’s WeChat public account, “Lazy 33’s Food, Drink, and Fun.” Original link. ymlulu has added a few notes.

About This Booking

I wrote about cruise booking tips in an earlier post, How to Plan a Cruise Trip, so I won’t go into detail here. We booked an 8-day, 7-night Alaska Cruise on the Carnival Splendor, in an Ocean Suite, which is actually a JR Suite. This was our first cruise in 5 and a half years, and also our kid’s very first cruise. Our kid absolutely loves boats, so when we told them before the trip that we’d be taking a very, very big ship, they were already excited for days.

Day 0 - COVID Test

Cruises are probably still the strictest type of travel when it comes to COVID requirements. Carnival required Fully Vaccinated + Booster + an antigen/PCR test before departure. For unvaccinated kids under 5, the requirement was PCR before departure + Antigen before boarding + Antigen before disembarkation, for a total of three tests.

The most troublesome part for us was the pre-departure PCR. The cruise line said we could not take the PCR test on the day of departure; it had to be 1-3 days before. But because we had just returned from Yellowstone the night before and were boarding the next day, there was absolutely no weekend testing site near Yellowstone. So we could only gamble that our return flight from Yellowstone wouldn’t be delayed, which would let us make it to GS Lab before closing for a Rapid PCR test. Of course, what we feared happened: the flight was delayed a bit, and after landing in Seattle we had to wait another half hour because there was no gate available. In the end, we rushed as fast as we could, even gate-checking the car seat to save time, and managed to reach the testing site more than 20 minutes before closing.

Day 1 - Boarding at Seattle Port 91

At last, we were finally able to board smoothly. Parking at the pier was expensive and uncovered, so we arranged transportation with our usual pickup driver, which was very convenient. Note that Seattle has several cruise terminals, so make sure you know which one your cruise line uses and don’t go to the wrong place.

Carnival customer service said there was a weight limit for luggage, but as soon as we got out of the car, pier staff took our bags on luggage carts and didn’t weigh them at all. My boarding time was the latest slot, 2:00-2:30, and by then there were hardly any people boarding anymore.

Our kid was so excited when they saw the ship that they shouted nonstop.

At the entrance, they checked our documents and tested the child for Antigen, then we waited on site for the result.

Boarding starts on Deck 3. After that, we first went to the Muster Station for the safety briefing. Our kid was given a wrist band that had to be worn the entire time, so if the child got separated from the parents, staff would know which station the child belonged to. It was the kind of wristband that could not be removed, which felt pretty unreasonable. Our kid complained several times that it was too tight and asked to take it off. I remember that safety drills used to involve the entire ship gathering together, but now things have been simplified a lot.

After that, we headed straight to the cabin to disinfect it. The key card was still in the document envelope at the door, and we had to check whether the envelope had already been opened before opening it.

Overall, the cabin felt like a balcony room, but with an extra dressing area and closet, and the bathroom was fairly large by cruise ship standards. There were a few small hardware issues in the room, such as one broken bedside lamp and a loose shower head. We only noticed them after disinfecting the room, and we didn’t bother changing cabins.

Cruise ship rooms have two twin beds, which can be arranged as a king bed in advance depending on guest preference. The room I booked had a sofa bed, and our kid slept on the sofa bed. Each stateroom has a dedicated attendant, and this time we had a bald older gentleman who looked Japanese. We just asked him to set up the sofa bed for us.

The balcony was also a normal size, with four lounge chairs.

The ship’s entertainment is concentrated on decks 3-5 and 9+. After disinfecting the room, we went to the indoor pool on Lido Deck on Deck 9, where the sail away party was about to start and the place was packed.

Looking out at Seattle from the floor-to-ceiling window restaurant.

There was a waterslide on the top deck, which I love, but it was just too cold to use.

We took the kid around the deck. The kid liked watching the waterslide, though they were too scared to try it.

Foggy Seattle.

There was also a Splash Playarea, but it never opened from start to finish. Not sure why.

This area was Adult Only, so it was basically off-limits to us this time.

Before boarding, we had already downloaded the Carnival Hub APP. Even without buying Wi-Fi, you can still see all the ship’s activities and facilities. As soon as we saw that Kids Club activities were starting, we rushed to register our kid. After registration, staff gave the parents a big handset, and if they needed to reach us, they would call that number. We had to return it before disembarkation. Parents could enter only for the first registration session; after that it was Drop Off Only. The Kids Club currently accepts children aged 2 and up, so it seems the pandemic impact still hasn’t fully returned to full service.

We let the kid play for a bit to get familiar with the place, and then it was almost time for dinner.

For dinner, we chose Early Dining, starting at 5:30 p.m. This time we were assigned to share a large round table with two other families, and each family had 3 people, including one child about 2-3 years old. I don’t know if that was arranged intentionally. Reserved Dining means a fixed time, fixed table, and fixed server; if you choose open dining, you have to line up.

The portions on this ship were astonishingly small. I’m not sure whether that was because of budget cuts during the pandemic. Even if you order the normal 3-course meal plus the kids’ menu, it’s still hard to get full.

Service also felt noticeably understaffed. Compared with how attentive Carnival was the last time we sailed, this time was only so-so.

On the first day, the two of us paid extra for the Sushi Boat. It was really just so-so, and after that we didn’t want to pay extra for any dishes anymore...

Every day, the kids were given crayons and coloring sheets, plus little games like mazes.

As someone prone to motion sickness, I got through Yellowstone without taking any medicine, and I wanted to tough it out on the cruise too. On the first day, I didn’t take any meds, and it was indeed okay, just a little dizzy. That night, the kid was sent to the kids club, my partner sat in the restaurant drinking and eating ice cream, and I went to get a manicure. Having a vacation without a noisy kid by my side was just amazing.

Maybe because of the motion sickness too, I always slept especially well on the cruise. Carnival’s blankets are also sandwich-style, but the middle layer is a blanket rather than a thin sheet, which was a big upgrade for me.

Day2 - Sea Day

Here came the Sea Day I hate the most. In the morning we went to Sea Day Brunch. After checking in on the app, we still waited about half an hour for a table. Choosing shared seating would be faster. The brunch was in the same “Gold Pearl” restaurant where we had dinner; the ship’s other complimentary main dining room is called “Black Pearl.” The brunch in the main dining room is more refined than the buffet, but the service is truly slow! And sometimes it feels like what dishes come out, or don’t come out, is completely up to the chef’s mood. That’s pretty strange too.

Ship menus are now all scanned by QR code, which is quite convenient. But I wonder whether older people can use it, since retirees are the main force on cruises.

We order this Signature Tower almost every time. The kid loves Bagel + Sour Cream, but every time it comes out differently, which is wild. The first time, it came out the most complete.

A super-sweet chocolate cake. The kid likes it.

A cookie for the kid.

The weather was still gray and hazy, and both my partner and I were a little dizzy, so we started taking motion-sickness meds.

Although cruise cabins are small, they have a lot of storage. As soon as we got on board, we took everything out of the suitcases and put it in the cabinets, then left the empty suitcases on the balcony. That way we didn’t have to keep dragging the suitcases out to look for things. After all, we were staying on the ship for 7 nights.

This is the vanity (and desk) + closet area.

The bathroom has a bathtub, which inside cabins usually don’t have.

A fairly large bathroom space with two sinks.

The Sea Day passed in a bit of a daze. I can’t even remember what I did. The kid went to Kids Club again. But my kid is the type who is very attached to his parents and doesn’t really like being away from mom and dad to survive on his own, so he couldn’t play in Kids Club for very long.

Every registered child gets a name tag, clipped to their collar before entering. The teachers require everyone to wash their hands first, which is also a pretty good rule.

After dropping the kid off, my partner and I just wandered around the ship. It was even colder that day, with cold winds blowing outside, so we really didn’t feel like going outdoors to play. We went back to the room to rest.

Wall art on the ship.

Picked up the kid and watched an ice carving show together.

They carved an Alaska tribal chief.

When we got back to the room, it had already been cleaned. The towel animal was the kid’s first time seeing one, and he was amazed. But after that, he wasn’t interested in the following days...

In the afternoon we signed up for a Build a Bear activity. You pick a stuffed animal, have it filled on site, choose accessories, and then someone helps sew it up. The kid picked a colorful tiger, but he said it was a kitty... The heart in the photo also gets stuffed inside.

Then it was dinner time again. This was Formal Night, and because Carnival is very casual, we didn’t bring anything too formal. We just wore clothes that met the dress code and went for lobster. The mushroom soup and fried oysters were pretty mediocre, but the lobster was delicious! We each ordered an extra serving.

I didn’t expect the lobster to be the best thing on the whole trip. The seasoning and cooking were both just right, and the risotto was also really good.

That day we ordered an alcoholic dessert, a chocolate martini. I thought it was really good — the sweetness of the chocolate balanced out the strong vodka nicely. My partner thought it tasted too alcoholic.

The creme brulee was pretty good too, and it reminded me of Paris.

After dinner, the same story repeated as yesterday — the kid went to Kids Club, my partner ate ice cream and had a little drink, and I went for a massage. The motion-sickness medicine was strong, so I slept through the entire massage. It was very comfortable.

When I came out afterward, I saw this activity and planned to try it the next day.

Day 3 - Glacier Viewing from the Ship

Although this wasn’t technically a Sea Day, the ship didn’t actually dock. There was only a glacier-viewing tour, where you could transfer from the big ship to a smaller boat to take part. But this tour required kids to be at least 4 or 5 years old, if I remember correctly, and my kid wasn’t old enough yet, so we couldn’t sign up. So it was another day of just hanging around on the ship. It was still cloudy that morning.

In the morning we still went to the main dining room for breakfast. This time we learned our lesson and checked in before leaving the room. But we still ended up waiting 30 to 40 minutes, and the kid kept saying he was hungry.

For lunch, we had made-to-order stir-fried noodles. You picked your own noodles, vegetables, meat/seafood, and sauce, and the chef stir-fried everything on the spot. It felt a bit like a casual open-air food stall. The spiciest Sichuan sauce was delicious and packed with flavor, but the line was insanely, insanely long—the line moved too slowly, and there was a huge queue every lunchtime. The second-spiciest Thai BBQ Sauce felt a little lacking in flavor.

After lunch, we dropped the kid off at the kids club again and went back to our room to watch the glacier from the balcony. By then, the first tour group had already boarded their little boat and set off. The weather had also started to clear up, which was so lucky.

Come to think of it, it does look somewhat similar to Grand Teton. On the map, we could see that we were here, and the ship kept sailing inward until it reached a place with a central island, where it turned back. But the excursion boats kept going farther in—that’s the real highlight of an excursion. Too bad our kid isn’t old enough yet, so we’ll have to save that for next time.

After a while, small patches of ice floes started to appear, very sparse at first.

My travel companion’s motion sickness meds kicked in, so they went inside for a nap. I stayed on the balcony, lying there and listening to music while watching the glacier—so relaxing~

Gradually, there were more and more ice floes.

This one should be the largest we saw along the way.

The other side looks even better.

This section was very close up, which is no easy feat for a giant cruise ship.

By the time we were nearing the end, there were more and more ice floes, but nothing in really large chunks.

There were lots of waterfalls along the way.

And that was the island in the middle of the lake—the cruise ship didn’t go any farther in once it reached here.

The excursion boats swapped out a new group of passengers, with one group going out and another group coming back.

On the way back, the ship’s shadow was on the side of our room.

But the lighting seemed a little better, and the mountains came out with much sharper edges.

We also brought binoculars this time, so I took some photos through them.

I was still enjoying myself when the Kids Club called. The teacher said the kid was tired and wanted to come back. Fine, fine—we were back to reality, back to life with a kid.

Memories on a ship are often fragmented. If you don’t take photos—and with the motion-sickness meds kicking in—most of the time you end up in a state of looking for something to do. The weather wasn’t warm, and outdoor activities were limited, so an Alaska cruise was really even more boring than I had imagined.

Before we knew it, it was dinner time again. After the lobster highlight from the night before, the quality of dinner gradually went downhill each day. Sometimes I really didn’t even want to lift my phone to take pictures, but in the spirit of being a responsible amateur blogger, I took a few anyway.

Today’s rare find was snails. They reminded me of Paris, but they were nowhere near as good as the ones I had there.

This fried veal cutlet was nowhere near as good as even my own cooking...

The kid’s noodles were unexpectedly the best dish of the day.

At dinner, the kid got a little too excited and ended up with a big bump on the forehead. After dinner we went to the medical center on Deck 0, only to find that it had already closed at 6 PM. We then ran to Guest Services on Deck 3. After they recorded it, they said a nurse would call our room, but when we got back and waited for a long time, no one ever called. Once again I had to sigh about how understaffed this ship was... Seeing that the kid was still running around happily, we went swimming again. The pool water was a bit cold, so we ended the day in the hot tub and wrapped up this fake port day / true sea day.

Day 4 - I’d call it a cruise-exclusive little fishing village

Finally we had our first real port day! And it was also the longest stop of the cruise. To save time and get off the ship quickly, we had breakfast at the buffet. According to my travel companion, the cheese in the buffet omelet was added at the very end and still hadn’t melted into the eggs. The onions also had some strange off taste. Whatever—just hurry up and eat so we can get off the ship.

This little place called Icy Strait Point felt like it had been developed specifically for cruise passengers. It has beautiful scenery, but there are plenty of things to complain about. As soon as we got off the ship, we were pretty confused—there weren’t clear instructions for the tours, so we could only guess and follow the flow of people.

We crossed the green bridge along the pier and reached something like a visitor center, full of all kinds of tours, but we still couldn’t find ours.

Only after we left this "Adventure Center" and read the sign did we realize we had to take a free gondola first to reach the meeting point for our tour.

This place is very close to the tiny county seat of Hoonah. Tours around here are basically centered on whale watching, with wildlife encounters as the secondary option. We’ve joined a few whale-watching tours in different places too, but ever since I saw a video in Tahiti of someone on the same ship swimming with whales, I no longer wanted to do this kind of whale-watching tour by boat—if you stay far away, you can’t see much clearly; if you get too close, the boat can be flipped in an instant, and motion-sickness sufferers really can’t take it.

I really couldn’t decide on a tour, so in the end I blindly booked a Gondola & Forest Tram Tour for this day. When I booked it, I thought the gondola was the Venice-canal kind, and the tram was the train-like kind.

When we got to the gondola station and saw GONDOLA in big letters on the car, I knew I’d have to break my promise to the kid—it turned out to be a gondola lift! Since there was a free one, why would I separately buy a paid gondola? Luckily the kid also likes gondola lifts, so I didn’t feel quite as crazy.

The first gondola ride was very short—it took just 4 minutes. The gondola was brand new, and there was even some kind of aerial ropes course along the way. After that, there was another gondola ride, a paid one, the red one.

There was also a cruise pier here, and another Carnival ship was docking at the same time.

We still had some time before the tour, so we wandered around the area a bit and then took the gondola to the next stop.

We arrived in an area that was still under development and felt very primitive. At that point I strongly suspected that the “train” I had promised the kid definitely wasn’t a train—it was probably some kind of primitive wagon.

Look at the sign—it seems this place had only been open for a little over a month.

The legendary "Forest Tram" really was a wagon — the seats were covered in dirt, and you got on in black clothes and off in gray ones. A guided tour like this, especially with motion sickness medicine in the mix, was incredibly sleep-inducing. I slept through the entire second half.

Saw a little deer.

After the tour ended, we wandered around this newly developed area a bit more. The elevation here was pretty high, and it made for some beautiful scenery shots.

We used binoculars to spot our ship.

At noon, we went back to the ship to rest for a bit, and my travel companion joined the queue for fried noodles again — so good, so good. In the afternoon, my travel companion stayed with the kid, and I got off the ship to wander around this little fishing village on my own.

Americans really can handle the cold — on such a chilly day, they still dove straight into the water.

There were several restaurants in the village, and two of them had long lines, all cruise passengers. There was also a large gift shop, and I spent quite a while browsing inside. There was also a shuttle to the county seat, round trip for 5 dollars. We didn’t really have much time, so I looked at the county-seat area map and it didn’t seem like there was much to do, so I gave up on that. Better to keep browsing the village gift shop.

This handmade tableware can actually go in the dishwasher and microwave — buy one, buy one.

A little after 5 p.m., I went back to the ship to get ready for dinner, and I seemed to see a jellyfish or something on the pier.

Dinner was still nothing special, so I just snapped a few photos.

About the Author

This article was reposted from the WeChat public account of a reader from the WeChat group, Lazy 33’s Food, Drinks, and Fun. They are all original good articles, so if you’re interested, feel free to follow along.