The Carnival Spirit cruise, leaving Vancouver, BC on May 5th could not have been less spirited, if it had tried.

First let me say that we have cruised extensively all over the world and that this was also our fourth cruise to Alaska, so it's not as though we didn't know what to expect. And it's a good thing we didn't expect much, because we didn't get much either.

To begin, the boarding process in Vancouver went fairly well, although the US Customs clearance was a bit of a hang-up and could have been handled better. In any case, it went as well as can be expected in this day and age of security and inspections. Read more