Let me start by giving you a little background. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary on the Carnival Spirit, roundtrip Vancouver. This is our 7th cruise and 2nd on Carnival. We are in our 40's (ahem) and left our 2 teenagers at home this time. I planned this cruise for over a year by utilizing this site and a big thanks to all who contributed! Also - we had a meet and greet onboard the 2nd day of the cruise and quite a few attended: Shout out to Sandy, Jackie, Phyllis, Denise, Rhonda, Perry and all your significant others! Hope you had as much fun as we did and it was a pleasure meeting all of you!

OK here goes:

TRAVEL TO GET TO VANCOUVER: Let me just say that trying to save money is not always the best way to go. We flew into Seattle, spent the night at Hotel Monaco, took the Amtrak to Vancouver next day and arrived at the port about 1:30. The Amtrak was really nice except for the 55 minute delay on the track. And after all this, I found out that I could have flown directly into Vancouver for about the same airfare if I had just waited a little longer to book it...(hint to you all) But we did enjoy a great Thai dinner in Seattle and the room at Hotel Monaco was really great with a HUGE jacuzzi!!! Read more