There were 9 in our group for the Sep. 13, 2006 Glacier Bay Carnival Spirit cruise. In January 2006 we book our room by phoning Carnival. I booked two 4a-gty rooms with Hubby, 2 kids and me in one room and Grandpa and our other 2 kids in the other room. My sister booked her 4a-gty room 2 days later by phoning Carnival and had her reservation linked to mine so we could be seated together for supper. Our air line tickets we bought online right through WestJet's website. All 3 cabins were upgraded to 6a (1105, 1109 and 1121 they were quite rooms and we did not hear any noises from outside the rooms). My sister booked her Vancouver hotel room for her, her daughter and our dad through hotels.ca. They stayed at The Days Inn Vancouver Airport. Which had a complimentary continental breakfast, and shuttle service from the airport. I had a harder time finding a hotel for the 6 of us but after searches on hotels.ca, travelocity.ca and expedia.ca I finally found a hotel at a good rate for 6 through expedia.ca. It was Rosedale on Robson Suite Hotel for $149 plus tax Canadian.
Sep. 12: Parked our cars at Park and Fly who shuttled us to the airport. At 4pm we flew from Edmonton to Vancouver. My sister and her bunch went to their shuttle to go to their hotel. The 6 for us had to take a Limousine, as Vancouver does not have taxis big enough for 6 passengers. Limojet is the Official Limousine Company of the Vancouver International Airport and is also the cheapest company. So we hopped into the Limousine and had them take us to our hotel, which is about 11 blocks from Canada Place. This is a $39 + tax Canadian ride much cheaper than two taxis at $25 each Canadian. We had supper in the restaurant that is in the hotel. The restaurant is about average price. There was a McDonald's across the street but we did not see that until the next day.
Sep. 13: We had muffins and coffee free at the hotel then at 10:30am walked the 11 blocks to Canada Place. This was an easy walk mostly down hill. We checked our bags onto the cruise ship and waited for the other 3 to get there. At about 11am they showed up checked their bags and then all of us were off to security and customs. Customs was a breeze then from there we had to sit and wait to be boarded onto the ship. They said they were behind schedule and they don't normal have people sit for this but I much preferred to sit until it was time to go through boarding in stead of standing. Our line was called and the 6 of us and my dad went to one person to get our room keys. Here my dad put his S&S on his credit card and everyone else was put onto mine. That went very easily. Then it was through the picture taking, onto the ship and eating by 1pm. Our muster station was on deck 3 so it was only 2 flights of stairs and straight to you right. We did not get to see the spirit leave Vancouver as our suppertime was at 5:45pm and this is when the ship leaves port. (If you want to see the ship leave the port take the late night seating on this cruise.) . I did not care for the Las Vegas shows that the cruise put on but the comedian Mrs. Hugges was great! I prefer the Broadway shows that Disney Wonder had. This was also my dad's 73 birthday and Bill and my 20th anniversary. Our waiting team Nadia and Attila sang for us. My dad was the model for the spa's Shave and my husband was the model for the Teeth Whitening lucky them. So they got these treatments for free. I book my 2 girls to get their hair done for formal night. My 4 kids ages 17, 15, 13 and 12 checked out the kids programs but being there were not many kids on the cruise the programs were not set up for this. The teens 12-14 (4 kids in this group and 2 were mine) and the co2 club 15-18 (5 in this group and 2 were mine) should have been put together (to make a group of about 9 in total) since there were every few kids on this cruise. Carnival should rethink their kids programs for Alaska cruises and set them up according. Since the programs were not set up for such small groups all the kids just went on their own around the ship. Most of the kids did not hook up until about the 4th or 5th day. They would have been a lot happier if Carnival would have went out of their way and invited them to a special get together being there were so few of them. When my kids went to the kids programs there were no other kids there so they left after about 15 to 20 minutes. When I spoke to some of the parents days into the cruise they said their kids went to the programs and no other kids were there so they left too. When Carnival see that there are so few kids booked on board they should make special invites to the kids to make sure they all get to the programs at the same time. Maybe have the invites in the rooms the night before for the next day. Then put the 2 older groups together and invite them to come to the CO2 club between 11:00am and 11:30am. That way they are not missing each other.