The Last Frontier- Anthem of the Seas to Alaska 2025 May 30 to June 6, 2025 Seattle, WA
We love ALASKA!
It's hard to believe this was my TWENTY-FIFTH cruise but here I am... Killing it on the HIGH SEAS! While 25 cruises may seem a little extreme, this is our favorite way to travel and the easiest for our family. As we have taken many more land vacations recently to complete my MLB Chase for 30, we have also found this to be the overall most economic way to travel for our family.
Chris and I have sailed to Alaska before for our 10 Year Anniversary Cruise aboard the Carnival Legend but the kids have never been to Alaska. They each have milestone birthdays this year and when asked what they want, they decided an expensive Alaska cruise was their top choice so Chris and I obliged. I am a HUGE fan of experiences over presents, especially in the teenager years, so this worked out perfectly.
We have cruised 13 previous times withCarnival, 8 times withRoyal Caribbean, 2 times withNorwegian and 1 time withPrincess.
This blog will contain entries of our day-to-day life aboard the Anthem of the Seasas well as a shore excursion details, port tips and tricks and so much more. We will also highlight our Pre-Cruise vacation to Seattle, WA as well.
Throughout the blog posts, we will also share the lots of tips, tricks and insiders knowledge about cruising out of Seattle, WA, information about cruising to Alaska and Alaskan ports as well as great information about Anthem of the Seas.
I am so glad we got to celebrate the kids milestone birthdays with a cruise and trip such as this! This is a trip they will surely never forget. We love you Natalie and Luke... I hope you enjoyed Alaska!
Up Next... Back to Back cruises on the Jewel of the Seas (no kids) Summer 2025!
Oh Canada! June 5, 2025 Sea Day & Victoria, BC Canada
I personally LOVE Canada and the kids loved it too!
Morning Natalie and I woke up around 6:30AM but it was actually 7:30AM ship time as we lost an hour during the night due to time change. The boys must have been REALLY tired as they were not awake yet and when I called their room I woke them. We all went to the MDR for breakfast hoping the service would be faster than the first day and it was. The food options were great and we were in and out of the MDR in 50 minutes. Once again, our growing boy had 2 breakfast entrees and 2 orders of pancakes- and ate it all.
The last day of the cruise always makes me sad!
Deck 5 near the Middle Elevators. The messages changed daily!
The MDR Breakfast menu!
The Breakfast Burrito-4.0 This is really good and has lots of meat and eggs.
Buttermilk Pancakes- 4.0 Traditional but yummy!
On the floor in the American Icon grill- I loved this!
We then went to the Royal Esplanade on deck 4 for our morning Starbucks before going to the Schooner Bar for morning puzzle and morning trivia. We did not win the general knowledge trivia but we stayed for the "Who Am I?" trivia and Chris actually won this trivia by a landslide. Natalie and I left a little early to go the Dunder Mifflin (The Office) trivia in the Music Hall and Chris joined shortly after. All 3 of us combined did very well and got 13/15 and took 2nd place. I was kinda bummed as I have won this trivia before but this guy chose practically every question from season 7 (the one where Michael leaves) and I am not as fresh on that one!
The pastry offerings at the Café Promenade on Deck 4.
Morning Trivia in Schooner Bar.
It is getting warmer... Yay!
Afternoon We decided to try and make lunch "quick" by all going to the Windjammer. The kids LOVE this for lunch but I just don't enjoy scrambling for a table with 5K other people. But the food was not "terrible" so there's that! After lunch we went to walk around and ensure we have seen (and done) everything on the Anthem.
I love the celebrations Royal Caribbean does with things like this!
The Windjammer offered mussels and Luke took advantage. He had 4 plates!
Lunch views from the aft of the Windjammer seating!
We all went to the Star Wars trivia in the Music Hall around 2PM. Chris did very well and only missed one question but tied for the win. However, the OKLAHOMA Cruise Activity worker gave Chris a prize (Royal Caribbean keychain) anyway! #BoomerSooner Vincent!
My heart is happy... This is my favorite place to be!
This was the indoor pool at 4:30PM.
For the rest of the afternoon we lounged around the indoor pool decks and tried to soak in the very last bit of the rest and relaxation before tomorrow was disembarkation day. The kids swam for nearly 2 hours while I tried to pack our suitcases to be put out in the hallway before 10PM. TIP- Royal Caribbean offers 2 styles of disembarking: Self Assist or Luggage Assist. Self Assist means you wheel your own luggage off the ship and it is called by decks. This is the FASTEST and EARLIEST way to get off a ship. If you have somewhere to be or a flight to catch, this is a must! Luggage Assist means you place your luggage out in the hall the night before and Royal will take it off the ship for you and you will retrieve it once back on land at the terminal. This allows a more relaxed disembark experience and our most recent 10-12 cruises we have opted for this service. But it really boils down to what you and your family need!
Evening The Anthem of the Seas was set to port in Victoria, BC from 6 to 10PM and arrived just after 5PM. It seemed as if everyone wanted to get off the ship in Canada and with a very short port window, the crowds came out. In fact, this is the ONLY time we felt crowds and all the people. However, the Anthem staff handled this incredible well and we were off the ship and on Canadian land by 6:15PM.
We did not purchase a Royal Caribbean excursion in Victoria as there is not much to do and the offers were VERY over priced for what you get. We opted to pay for the "Shuttle" into downtown Victoria where all of the shops and restaurants for $15/ per person (USD). This was CRAZY high and in hindsight we should have walked the 2.5 mile roundtrip into town but Luke was anxious about missing the ship and it just seemed more convenient. As my grandpa would say "that's how they get ya" and he would be right. $60 for a family of four to get to downtown is just too much but we paid it... They got me!
Once in downtown Victoria we walked to the Victoria legislative building and the surrounding area before hitting up the souvenir shops for any and everything Canada! The kids LOVED being in Canada and we all wish this stop would have been longer than 4 hours. Before getting back on the shuttle we grabbed some rolled ice cream and it was delicious. This Ice Cream excursion cost $56 for all four of us and it was just "regular" ice cream. Canada is EXPENSIVE!
Hello from the Canadian Legislative Building!
They loved getting to see all the architecture.
You could go in if you want but we opted to not since we were on a tight schedule!
The Davis Family loves Canada.
We loved Victoria!
Walking to the Legislative Building is this "Welcome to Victoria" greenery.
The Empress Hotel just north of the Legislative Building.
Welcome to Victoria.
This Orca greenery has been here since our previous trip in 2016.
Time for some ice cream... Expensive Ice Cream but it was yummy!
Greetings from Canada!
I really love this port and REALLY wish it was a longer port call! The Anthem of the Seas was only in port for 4 hours.
The shuttle got us back to the Anthem of the Seas around 7:45PM just in time to play the American Anthem Trivia at the Schooner Bar. There were hardly any people there and I actually WON that trivia on my own while the kids played cards. That would be our THIRD win of the day and FOURTH of the cruise- our highest EVER!
The kids loved playing cards while we WON trivia!
We then went to our last dinner in the Chic Dining Room. The Main Dining Room looked like a forgotten place on this night as many were still in port. The service was once again EXCEPTIONAL and with so few people in the MDR, we were in and out within 45 minutes. We LOVED our waiter Remer and Shane- They were an excellent pair!
The Royal Caribbean Bon Voyage Menu.
Classic Shrimp Cocktail-4.0 This is always a winner and we all loved it!
The Greek Tapas Plate- 4.0 We LOVED the Greek Salad.
Seafood Cake-4.5 I REALLY liked this appetizer.
Flat Iron Steak- 2.5 I don't know why I was expecting a Chops steak and this was anything but.
Salmon Teriyaki- 4.5 This was cooked perfectly and very flavorful!
Apple Crumb Cake- 3.5 This was rich!
After dinner we went back to the room to place all of our suitcases in the hallway for disembarkation the next morning. Natalie and Luke went to play Ping-Pong while Chris and I went back to Vintages for an 11th hour cheers. We sat in Vintages too long but it felt GREAT. We called it a night shortly after midnight as we need rest for our terrible travel day to follow.
We loved this last day onboard the Anthem of the Seas and we all LOVED Victoria- in fact, it is Natalie's favorite port of this trip!
10 Year Anniversary Cruise 2016 Carnival Legend It was Legend... wait for it- dary!
Disclaimer In June 2016 Chris and I took a Alaskan Cruise aboard theCarnival Legendsailing out of Seattle, WA for our 10th Wedding Anniversary. This beautiful floating resort took us to the following destinations:
Dawes Glacier, Endicott Arm Fjord, Alaska
Skagway, Alasaka
Juneau, Alaska
Ketchikan, Alasaka
Victoria, B.C., Canada
The Carnival Legend... Our home away from home for the next 7 days!
Chris and I have been on 7 other cruises prior to this one; 4 with Carnival, 2 with Royal Caribbean and 1 withPrincess. This cruise was all about the destination as neither of us had been to Alaska. This will be a multiple entry blog about not only our 7 days at sea but a food blog, an updated Shore Excursion rating blog, a pictorial review of The Carnival Legend and a few more. Thank you SO MUCH to all my followers... without you the blog would not be as popular as it is today! Click on a link below to see day by day posts of our amazing Alaskan adventure!
Once again, we owe all of these blessings to our Lord and Savior! He has truly blessed Chris and I, as well as our family! We currently have 4 more cruises booked and a few more after that on the horizon for the next 2+ years, with and without kids, and we are very excited to set sail once again.
Carnival Liberty-Christmas with the Kids- December 2016
Carnival Breeze-Summer with the kids- Summer 2017 Carnival Liberty- MY 35th Bday Celebration/ Girls Cruise-September 2017 NCL Pearl-12th Anniversary and a new cruise line- March 2018
Thank you so much for following along and until we meet again...
Keep Calm and CRUISE ON!
God is good... ALL the time! Click on a link to see our past cruising adventures: Caribbean Princess- 2016
Welcome to Canada... for the 3rd time this trip! As the Alaskan portion of our cruise was coming to an end, we still had a major port we had to stop at and that was Victoria, B.C., Canada. This was yet another unique day where the morning and afternoon were treated like a SeaDay and the evening was a port day. The Carnival Legend was in port at Victoria, BC from 7:30PM to 11:59PM. We loved this day and Victoria but were so sad to see our cruise come to a close. Morning I woke up around 7:30AM to the sound of the closet doors vibrating and shaking. The entire cruise the seas had been smooth and clear as glass so I looked outside but I saw much of the same. We had wondered if cruising in the aft (back) of the ship meant lots of swaying and vibrations and neither of those had proved true until this day. We were in the open pacific ocean coming around the west side of Vancouver island and the seas were still calm but the vibrations were just too much for me.
My view this morning... always is my favorite sight! No matter the cruise itinerary, no matter the location!
The Ruby Princess leaving Seattle and sailing towards Alaska!
I got ready for the day and went outside to have my quiet time and take in as much of this as I could. Chris must have been real tired because he did not even flinch and kept sleeping until well after 8:30AM. He then got up and jogged while I walked around the very empty ship. I love it when the ship is empty as it allows for wonderful pictures.
The "STAGE" on Lido deck. This was mid-ship near Off the Grill and we loved the live music.
Mid-Ship Lido deck... Competely covered (ALL THE TIME) with glass paneling.
The pool and hot tub area on mid-Ship Lido (covered)
The forward pool on Lido.
The walking area on Deck 10. This goes all the way from the front to the back of the ship and 4 laps equal 1 mile.
Chess area near the foward pool.
The Forward pool area... It is NOT covered but notice the ample amount of deck chairs!
Along deck 10 in the aft were these clamshells. I would guess 20-30 on EACH side of the ship. These filled up fast (especially on the glacier day) but confirms my theory of seeing Alaska via an inside cabin... IT CAN BE DONE!
The WaterPark/ Splashpad area... I completely forgot to do this! Bummer!
The Serenity area of the ship! This was the nicest and best well-kept Serenity I have seen.
We met up at the whale talk by the ship naturalist, Michelle. Once again, she was monotone and boring but the topic was so fascinating. We learned so much about whales and their habits. If this would have been given EARLY in the cruise I would not have cancelled our whale watching tour, no matter what. I think Carnival should re-think having this talk/ event to the beginning of the cruise as I think it would help answer lots of questions from the passengers. Since we were docking at Victoria at 7:30PM we knew we wanted to eat dinner early so we decided to forgo breakfast and eat a large brunch style of meal. This meant going back to the very slow service in the MDR for the SeaDay brunch. We arrived at 10:30AM and there was a very long line. We ended up waiting about 10 minutes just to get a table and eventually got put at a booth table. As soon as I sat down I noticed that the napkins on the inside had been used and it turns out that the place settings had not been changed and everything was just placed on top of the old stuff. I was completely grossed out and asked for a new table but there was not one without another wait and since we wanted to spend as much time on the balcony as possible we just had them change it all. Brunch went downhill from there. Our waiter was hardly noticeable and our food took nearly 30 minutes to arrive. That brunch took nearly 2 hours overall and so long we asked for our dessert to go. This is a situation I would be mentioning in the final survey email. Afternoon We took our desserts to our balcony and sat watching the ocean sail by for over an hour before getting chilly and coming inside to go the 80s party and trivia. This turned out to be a GREAT trivia and one of our favorites of any cruise (except Corey Rogers on the Conquest 2013 of course...as he truly is the BEST). We did not win the 24K piece of SHIP on a stick but did pretty well. Afterwards we did some final cruise ship souvenir shopping and then went to our 1st TeaTime of the cruise. This has been one of our favorite things on ANY cruise line but this cruise we were not able to go due to so many port days. Carnival's new system of Lipton tea was AWFUL and what used to be the best desserts on board were TERRIBLE. (worse than the Lido desserts) This could have been a bad day or just the way it is now that Carnival has cut corners in this area too. We were very disappointed.
My last afternoon aft time!
After TeaTime we went back to our room for the worst thing on any cruise... packing! Oddly enough, we had an entire large suitcase full of clothes we never wore (we packed for 40-50* and it turned out to be 65-75*) so I had to really cram everything into our bags. Luckily we planned for lots of souvenirs and brought an extra duffel bag. If you plan on buying a lot on this, or ANY, cruise be sure to pack a small duffel style bag in your luggage to put your purchases in.
ALL of these clothes were not worn or used... Wow, we are TERRIBLE at packing!
Evening Since we were porting so late the MDR was open from 5PM to 8:30PM and we knew we wanted to be there early, so at 4:45PM we made our way down to deck 3 and found at least 200 people already in line. Despite the long line to get in, this was the best dinner and the best service we had the whole cruise. The servers knew that 2,600 passengers would need to get in and out within a few hours and really rushed the orders. This was PERFECT for us and as Chris said "Where have you been my whole life cruise?" We enjoyed our free drink coupons (for being gold members on Carnival) and then made our way to our room to continue watching the approach to Victoria from our balcony. We learned years ago at a Q&A session that all cruises who leave from a US port MUST stop at an international port or the entire crew must ALL be American. The only ship to have 100% Americans is the Pride of America who sails round-trip from Honolulu to the various Hawaiian islands without stopping at an international port. So in other words, the ship MUST stop at Victoria just to have the international port, which would explain the crazy port hours. It is a complete waste if you ask me and as much as I liked Victoria, next time we sail to Alaska we will sail from Vancouver to avoid this wasted day and shortened Alaskan port times. Nonetheless we wanted to get off the ship just to say we got off so we decided to make our way to the lobby around 7PM and so did the rest of the ship. It was a MADHOUSE. We waited not knowing where the line was forming until 20 minutes later. We waited in line about 200 people deep until 8PM when they opened the lines for us to get off the ship in Victoria. We got off the ship and made our way to the shuttle bus that took you to downtown Victoria. This bus was at the end of the pier and cost $10 (USD) per person for round-trip. This also was frustrating as downtown Victoria is too far to walk with this shortened port time. Once we arrived in downtown the shuttle dropped us off and we began exploring this beautiful city.
The 1st look at Victoria from our balcony!
Eh!
Oh Canada!
We were able to see the Provincial Parliament building, the Empress hotel and much more. After exploring this city we made our way to an Irish Pub, had some drinks and relaxed as we knew tomorrow meant it was all over. After some great drinks and Irish music we made our way back to the shuttle bus pick-up location and back to the ship. We were back on board around 10:45PM and the Carnival worker I asked said more than 50% of the people were already back on board so most people had our mindset of "get off just to get off". Keep this in mind as you port in Victoria.We liked Victoria and really wish we would have had more time in this city as it reminded us of London where we honeymooned 10 years ago. We were back in our cabin, all packed up and asleep before midnight as we knew tomorrow would be a long day for us.
I love this and reminded me of SeaWorld.
The Empress hotel in downtown Victoria!
We loved this city!
Parliament building... it was gorgeous! This picture does not do it justice.
The beautiful flowers around the Parliament building!
The bay area near downtown.
Victoria already made us think of London but this was deja vu!
I loved these classic Canadian shirts and their sense of humor!
Irish Coffee for Chris!
We enjoyed the live Irish band!
Our home for one more night!
My 8th (or 9th?) time to Canada!
The Carnival Legend in Victoria, B.C., Canada!
She was a beauty!
This day was a treat for us as it acted like a SeaDay with a port day bonus at the end. We loved Victoria and hope to come back one day! The next day we would be disembarking the ship and spending the rest of the day enjoying Safeco Field and baseball as we crossed off yet another MLB stadium off my Bucket-list. We feel so lucky to have been able to see Alaska this way and cannot thank God enough for this tremendous blessing! Next Up- Disembarkation and Summary God is good... ALL the time!
