kcmo74

Final Thoughts Weather couldn't have been better for an Alaskan cruise. We didn't encounter a single drop of rain until the day we returned to Vancouver. Most days we ate outside at the WJ, and at least half the days of the trip required no more than a t-shirt or long sleeved t-shirt. Brilliance is in pretty good shape for her age, most signs of wear are on the exterior of the ship with rust and paint issues. Our room was nice but could have been cooler. The couch in our room and carpet scrunching in one spot were the only major signs of wear in our cabin. They tore up and replaced all of the carpet in the shops area onboard when we were in port one day. MDR was probably our worst MDR experience on any ship, but it still wasn't bad enough to make us say we won't be back. The food was it's usual good, it was the service that didn't seem to be at the same level as past sailings. I also think that we are done with my time and will stick with a standard seating going forward. Windjammer was consistent and always found enough to keep me full. I don't think the diversity was as good as other ship buffets we have dined at, they could have varied the dishes on the two sides and given more options. I also didn't love that they fully close and lockdown the WJ when it's outside of dining hours. The only soft serve onboard was in the WJ so it was only available at lunch and dinner, and there is no pizza available all day like on other ships. The WJ on celebrity is also left open outside of dining times to allow people to utilize the seating in there. If the WJ stayed open for seating, ice cream, and pizza all day I think it would improve it's standing considerably. The pizza on brilliance was better than that on the Voyager in December. Big issue has become our missed Tracy Arm Fjord/Dawes Glacier morning because of the medical emergency. We never received a letter in our staterooms as the captain said we would, and no compensation of any sort was ever offered. People on that other site are reporting that the "emergency" was a passenger giving birth to a full term baby while onboard. People have reported that the baby and mom were healthy and there was no rush to get them checked out once we were in Juneau because it wasn't really an "emergency". While I don't care about the specifics, if the reason we missed the glacier was a birth onboard and the person who gave birth didn't answer the health screening questions honestly then I feel we are owed something, but I'm not holding my breath. (For example, in Sitka I heard someone waiting in line for the shuttle back to the cruise terminal say "Don't worry the ships not going to leave without us" and in my head I was like yeah right you're delusional, they will leave you behind no problem. People don't understand that the cruise lines have their own self interests to look out for.) Loved the size of the Radiance class ships and the lower pax count, but the centrum could be loud with events going on and not spreading it over a promenade or other area like on other ships. The elevators were also an issue at times with them all being on one side of the ship together and people not respecting those who had been there waiting longer. We did love the elevators that look out to the water though. As I mentioned before Schooner Bar wasn't the best setup for all the trivia either with it's size, location, and lack of technical amenities. For our next comped cruise we're looking at Navigator in February on a western Mexico route out of LA, because we'd like to pair it with a Disneyland trip. Would be interested to compare an amped Navigator to the Voyager. However, our next sailing adventure will be our first time on DCL on the Fantasy in October for Halloween on the Seas, we are also hitting Disney's new private island Lighthouse Point on that sailing. Thanks for following along and let me know if you have any questions.

Day 7 - Sea Day This was a pretty ho hum sea day. We did WJ for all meals as we were just done with the MDR experience on this sailing and didn't want to bother waiting in line or dressing up a bit. My wife received her instant cruise certificate from Club Royale and we went to the Next Cruise desk to put the deposit down on our next comped cruise. I did a couple of trivia sessions and we did the dreaded packing for the next days disembarking. Last Day We chose to self assist disembark and were up and around by 7:30ish. We were given the all clear to leave around 7:50 and were street side headed for the SkyRail by 8:00. We rode the train back to Marine drive station and took the short bus ride back to the same Best Western Plus hotel we stayed at the night before the cruise. Being it was early morning they didn't have a room available yet but were able to store our bags for free, so we were back on the bus and back to the SyRail and headed to Yaletown by 10am. Vancouver was drizzly most of the day with periods of heavier rain occasionally, Yaletown wasn't very active this early on a Sunday and we discussed OEB for brunch but decided we weren't really hungry yet so we took the Aquabus to Granville Island. We shopped in the market for a couple of hours and then had a delicious lunch of halibut and chips, and fried butterfly prawns at Tony's. Tony's is a small space and by the time we were done every seat in the restaurant was taken. Did a little more shopping and then decided to head back and see if we had a room ready. We did, and we spent the rest of the evening in our room relaxing, by this point we were pretty worn out and dreading the long travel day the next day. Travel Day We had the unfortunate pleasure of flying past our final destination all the way to Atlanta from Vancouver before flying back to Kansas. The process at YVR went smoothly and while the US customs line was long it was constantly moving and took no longer than 20-30 min to get through. The 5 hr flight to Atlanta on WestJet was smooth but uncomfortable as most airline flight is now days, and the flight back to Wichita on Delta was uneventful and we were back home finally hugging our little girl by 10:30pm CST. We drove back to Kansas City on Tuesday and I decided to extend my vacay at work for one more day because I had tweaked my back a bit on the trip and picked up some congestion. The congestion may or may not be Covid, as many people on that other site have reported testing positive once getting home, I don't care whether it is or not so I'm not testing, it's mild chest congestion that is already a lot better after 2 days.

Day 6 - Ketchikan Slept in a little this day as we weren't arriving in Ketchikan until 11, we got in on the end of breakfast in the WJ and watched as we sailed into port. Another beautiful day with mostly clear skies and sunshine, long sleeves eventually were too warm and tons of people were out in just t-**** this day. We got off the ship and took the free shuttle to Creek St. where we did some shopping and sight seeing. Then we walked back towards the port and went to the Alaska Fish House for lunch. We got the sampler fish and chips which included cod, salmon, and halibut and a 1/2 pound of Dungeness crab. All of it was delicious and after trying 3 kinds of crab this trip our ranking is King, Dungeness, and then Snow. We did some more shopping and got some local ice cream then took the free shuttle back to our berth. We had a couple hours to relax and get ready for our 15th anniversary dinner at Chops that evening. This was our first specialty dining experience on a Royal ship, first off the service was great and the waiter was very attentive and personable. We ordered the bacon and crab cake as our starters, the crab cake was a bit too spicy for my DW so he brought her a bacon as well, which she loved. I had the lobster bisque and my DW had the wild mushroom soup which were both good, we just weren't in a hot soup mood with the weather being so warm. We both ordered the ribeye, most people on here order the filet but we are quantity over quality people and enjoy a little fat on our steaks, the steaks were both delicious. We ordered the gruyere tots, mashed potatoes, and mac n cheese for our sides, we enjoyed them all but couldn't finish the mac n cheese with so much food. My DW ordered the red velvet cake and loved it, and I had the warm chocolate cake which was outstanding as well. My DW spent the evening at the casino and had gambled enough in this sailing to become Prime by night 6.

Back to work today so I finally have time to sit down and finish up this review. Day 5 - Icy Straight Point We awoke and were in the process of docking at ISP, I don't remember the exact time we were given the all clear, but with 2 other ships in port we were the chosen ones to tender. The tender process went quite smoothly and within an hour tendering was open to anyone who hadn't waited in line for a ticket. Once on land we took the free transporter gondola and proceeded to the cannery area. We browsed and did a little shopping, grabbed some breakfast at the restaurant there which was good, unfortunately the mini doughnut stand was not open yet when we were there. Even though the NCL and Disney ships were docked before us they had a later release time, because as we were leaving the cannery to head back to the gondola area Disney passengers were beginning to make there way to the cannery, and once we got back to the other end of the transporter line there were streams of people coming down the dock from the NCL ship as well. Knowing now that we were first on shore I realized it was a huge blessing, because our early morning was smooth with minimal foot traffic and virtually no lines. Once the other ships pax were on shore the lines grew extremely long and it was an absolute zoo. We payed the $50pp to ride the gondola up the mountain and the views were extraordinary. Once again we had great weather here and barely even needed long sleeves, sunny and clear in the high 50's or low 60's. We made some smores at the camp fire up top and wandered around for a bit then rode back down. By this time the transporter lines were extremely long, we caught a tender back to the ship and enjoyed the rest of the day with a quiet ship reading and relaxing. We went to the MDR for lobster night and the lobster was good even if on the small side. We had our third new table and new waitstaff and they were probably the best of the bunch, we were out in about an hour.

Day 4 - Juneau Plot twist! We awoke at 6am expecting to be in Tracy Arm, but I looked out the window and thought that water isn’t green enough. We headed up to breakfast at the WJ and watched the beautiful scenery roll by. We went up to the helipad for a bit then moved back inside to find a seat by a window. About 15min later the captain came on with an announcement that due to a medical emergency for a passenger onboard we were heading straight to Juneau and had to skip Tracy Arm and the glacier completely. Obviously everyone onboard understood but were incredibly disappointed. We were originally supposed to get to Juneau at 1:30, but instead we docked around 8am, and all aboard time is 9:30 tonight. We ended up getting off around 10:45 and headed straight to Tracy’s at 11 when there was no line yet to order. We ordered the combo that included crab bisque, crab cakes, rolls, and your choice of crab at different price points, we chose Red King Crab. We also ordered a pound of Snow Crab. The bisque was ok, the crab cakes were delicious, the king crab was delicious, and the snow crab was good. We definitely like the king crab better, the snow crab was more work and the meat was stringer with not quite as good of taste. Overall very pleased with our meal and it ran us right around $150. We then walked downtown and did some shopping making sure to get shirts, truffles, all things huckleberry, and my wife was thrilled to find a sprayed edge book she hadn’t seen in the lower 48. We were back on by 1 and took advantage of some alone solarium pool time while the boat was mostly empty. Then we moved to the hot tubs outside, nothing better than an outdoor hot tub in Alaska with a snowy mountain view. Weather in Juneau has been perfect, intermittent clouds with lots of sun and low 60’s. Lots of shedding layers today, and could easily get away with just a t shirt for large parts of the day. Now DW is off reading somewhere and I’m just lounging until Caribbean night in the MDR. Captain said there would be letters in our rooms this evening addressing the skipping of Tracy Arm, so we’ll see if any OBC or something else is offered.

Day 3 - Sitka We did the usual Windjammer, trivia, casino, etc. in the morning before arriving at Sitka right on time at 12:30. We left in the initial group getting off, no crazy lines and they have plenty of buses running nonstop to take you downtown. Weather was good, overcast and high 50’s with no rain, sun peeking out occasionally. The bus driver said it had rained hard that morning. Ovation was the only ship there with us and they arrived before us and left before us. We just walked the streets downtown doing some shopping for a couple hours then got an order of fish and chips from Ashmo’s food truck. It was Alaskan Rock Fish and it was delicious. Then we headed back to the ship and shopped a little at the cruise terminal before getting back on board. All aboard was 6:30 so the lines for the MDR were still decently long so we opted for the Windjammer. It was Italian night which is one of the lesser menus in our opinion, and things like lasagna and chicken parm taste pretty much the same at the WJ. My wife decided none of the shows on this sailing sounded interesting so we aren’t attending any. If they were broadway shows or ice skating we would definitely be there. She gambled and I took in some karaoke. We were in bed by 10 because the next day was early rising for Tracy Arm and Dawes Glacier.

Ours is a round trip back to Vancouver.

Day 2 - Sea Day Both breakfast and lunch were had at Windjammer, and all the food was good as usual. Don’t love that the soft serve is only open when the Windjammer is open, but lines haven’t been crazy busy so far. We love the outdoor and semi-outdoor seating around the Windjammer on this ship. The Windjammer has been really full so far and it has been hard to find a seat a couple of times. We explored the ship, played cards, went to trivia, and I took in the Veterans celebration in the Centrum which was very nice. Dinner was in the MDR again, we were moved and while the new table was cooler and the assistant waiter was present, service still took almost 2 hrs. This has definitely been our most subpar experience in an MDR so far, service is just average and the food has been pretty average too. The boat was rocking pretty good as we headed toward Sitka.

In Juneau this morning so I finally have a strong cell signal. Night 1 dinner was in the MDR, lines were fairly long but the line for people with reservations moved fairly quickly and we were seated in less than 10 minutes. Unfortunately, we were seated on the small tier at the back of the dining room which was very cramped and hot. Also, we never saw our assistant waiter and our main waiter seemed stretched thin meaning a less personable and a bit long of an experience. Food was good, not great, everything was the temperature it should be. After the experience I went the next day and asked to be moved for night 2, mainly because of the hot spot but also because of the disappointing service. Our room is not as cool as we would like either, we have it turned all the way down but because it’s a cold weather sailing the hallways are very warm and it just can’t keep up. The room is not warm enough to be uncomfortable but we would sleep a lot better if it was cooler. My DW has found the bed quite hard so we had our attendant add a mattress topper to the bed. My wife has frequented the casino, which is larger and less cramped than Voyager, and I have attended a lot of trivia and game shows. The entertainment staff running these has been great, but the Schooner Bar setup on this ship for those games isn’t the best.

Cabins were ready right at 1pm. We have OV cabin 3608. Cabin feels much larger than our Interior on Voyager did. Electric kettle was already in our room for this Alaska sailing. Outlet setup shown below. The ship shows signs of wear and is a little different layout for us to get used to, but seems largely in very good shape. Just hanging out now until we head up to explore some more and take in sail away in a few hours.

Embarkation Day This morning we got around and left our hotel around 9:15am. We were scheduled to board at 11 and on advice of these boards decided to show up even earlier to get things rolling. We crossed the street from our hotel and got on the TransLink bus to go the mile or so down to the Marine Drive Station of the SkyTrain. Tapping on and off with our credit cards was easy and painless. We boarded the SkyTrain and a bit over 20 minutes later we were off at the Waterfront station. Sidebar: Here our one negative experience occurred. When leaving the train a man tailgated after my wife through the turnstiles, ok no biggy, but within about 10ft I noticed he was still following close behind her. I motioned for her to move to the side and we did kind of a circle and pause, and he followed us in lockstep. I proceeded to tell him to Stop following us, he said he wasn’t and started talking all kinds of nonsense. He followed us up the escalator and once at street level we went over by a group of other people and he eventually wondered off in a different direction. We ran into him once more on the walk to Canada Place and crossed the street to avoid him. He seemed more like the mentally disturbed type, rather than the mastermind pickpocket type, but still wasn’t enjoyable. The walk from the Waterfront station to Canada Place was very easy, once there we followed directions around to the north side where you eventually enter to began the boarding process. They do have porters collecting bags in the Convention Center so you don’t have to drop bags in the parking garage or anywhere else beforehand. We breezed through checkin and security screening, then encountered the bottleneck and lines at US customs. The Noordam and Solstice are both in port today as well so quite busy there today. We entered Canada Place a little after 10 and were onboard just after 11. 45-50 min of that time was spent in the customs waiting line, and the line only grew while we were in there with them eventually holding up passengers at security to wait for space. After customs there was no waiting in the waiting area, just straight onto the ship. We completed our muster and checked on our Chops and MDR reservations, then headed to the Windjammer for lunch. We normally do no specialty dining and only do included venues because we find the food to be quite good (I mean I’m not having to cook it and a lot of things are things we don’t have often back home) and can’t really justify spending on specialty when we’re happy with the MDR. We have when dinner scheduled in Chops this sailing for our anniversary. So if you’re looking for MDR food reviews you’ve come to the right place. Windjammer was its usual average to good for lunch. Some things better than others, my usual complaint that they could really find better buns for the hotdogs, ones that are about half the size to actually fit the dogs and ones that don’t break into 2 pieces as soon as you spread them open. Mac n cheese was the best we’ve had in a cruise ship buffet, creamy and cheesy. While we sat eating I snapped some pics of the other 2 ships and the line outside Canada Place in between checking and going down the escalator to security and customs. There was no line here when we checked in this morning.

Embarkation Day -1 We are based in Kansas City, MO but are originally from Wichita, KS, so we headed down to Wichita Friday evening to drop off our daughter with my parents for the week. My DW is a big time believer in bringing our DD with us on every adventure, but with the comped cruise and our 15th anniversary this month I talked her into trying a vacay with just the two of us. We were able to book all airfare and hotels for the trip with points making it as “free” of a cruise as possible. We left Wichita on United at 9:30am yesterday for the short 1 hr flight to Denver, where we had a 9 hr layover until our 7pm flight to YVR. This layover was made better by Denver having one of 3 dedicated Capital One lounges in the US. Normally you must have a boarding pass within the next 3 hrs to enter the lounge, but we were able to check with the hostess when we landed and she told us to come back around 2pm, so we bummed around a bit until then and came back at 2 and got right in, giving us a much more comfortable spot to wait out the next 4 hrs. The lounge has a bunch of different seating areas, work rooms, individual lavatories, shower suites, nap rooms, and the best part complimentary food, beverages, and alcoholic beverages. Pretty much everything we ate there was delicious, and it made the long layover better. We boarded our 7pm Air Canada flight to YVR and landed in Canada just after 9pm local time. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Airport which offered a free shuttle to the hotel. The airport was a perfectly adequate place to rest your head for a night, room was clean and comfortable and everything worked, but it is not a 5 star hotel.

Hello all, I’m writing this from the Windjammer aboard Brilliance as we await our departure from Vancouver this evening at 5pm. I can’t promise how live or even semi-live this will be as we only have Voom for 1 device and it’s going to mainly be my DW’s phone to keep in contact with our daughter back home. I’ll post how travel went yesterday and how the boarding process at Canada Place went today, and if I’m not able to post much during the trip I’ll definitely be back after the trip is over to Dillon how everything went and answer questions. For background this is my 4th cruise, and DW’s 3rd, and our 2nd on RCCL. We were on the Voyager in December to the Western Caribbean, and my DW lost enough at the casino on that ship to earn an in stateroom offer of a comped future cruise. After the deposit and looking over the list of sailings we booked this 7 night Inside Passage sailing to Alaska out of Vancouver. All in with port fees, taxes, and gratuities this sailing cost around $750 for the 2 of us. This will be our 2nd time to Alaska, we sailed on the Celebrity Solstice out of Seattle back in June of 2021. Our ports are Juneau, Ketchikan, Sitka, and Icy Straight Point with scenic cruising down Tracy Arm, so there may be no glacier this trip with it being earlier in the season. We couldn’t ask for better embarkation weather as it is sunny in the 60’s with a slight breeze. More to come soon…

There is no rhyme or reason anymore, we went on our first Royal cruise ever in December and my wife put somewhere between $1k-2k through slot machines, so being generous and taking the top end of $2k that would put her at 400 points after that cruise. We will be leaving this Sunday on a comped cruise resulting from that casino play, and receive offers almost weekly in our mailbox now.

Apparently it's up to the whims of Royal these days. We are on Brilliance next week and the first sign of any events on the planner appeared last week 20 days out. All of the evening shows for the trip have still yet to show up and we are now 10 days out. The dining menus have been screwed up since the cruise appeared on the app and several nights don't even show menus, I've gone to other BOTS bookings on the app and it appears that way on all of them. I've even deleted the app and re-downloaded, no change. Luckily I was able to make reservations for the first 2 nights and in the past we've found they usually tell us to just come at the same time the rest of the trip if we're happy with that time, so hoping for that same experience again this time.

We are tired of sandy beaches, and have come to the realization that we are cold climate cruisers (a rarity it appears). We're following you to Alaska next week on Brilliance, so I'm interested to see how you enjoy it and what the weather and such is like. Trying to decide if I'll do a live for ours or just an after action report like I've done in the past, the wife will have Voom but none for me. Have fun!

My wife receives offers in the mail weekly and she's not even Prime, she gambled on our first ever RCI cruise in December and has been getting them ever since. We're booked on a free Alaskan cruise next week off of the instant cert we got on that cruise. It's crazy that people at higher levels, and who have been on many cruises get nothing while a 1st timer gets seemingly unlimited offers. Club Royale needs to get their crap together.

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) is what federally protects disabled persons accessibility rights as part of their civil rights. DEI does not, and should not, factor in this conversation; it is not a law, right, or federally protected in any way.

Slaps, Char Bar, and Joe's are my top 3, Meat Mitch is also close to is so we end up there a lot. Jack Stack is good, they come to the café at my work every Thursday so I have it fairly often. We are heading to Alaska for our 2nd time in 2 weeks but on Royal out of Vancouver, leaving out of Wichita (where we are originally from) after dropping our 6 year old with Gma and Gpa for the week. Excited to see how your trip goes.

If it is opening night, you might actually be in luck because that is the one Thursday game that is on NBC instead of Amazon. If it's in November against the Bungles then it is on Amazon.

Opening night against my Kansas City Chiefs?

Thursday night football you are probably out of luck, unless you stream it yourself on a device, since it is on Amazon prime. Monday night could be on in cabin if it has ESPN, and some chance that a bar or 2 onboard are playing it, they had Sunday/Monday night football on the big screen by the pools on Voyager in December. I'll be on Brilliance next month and should be able to get some idea of the sports setup with whether they have the Stanley Cup playoffs on anywhere.

Yes, these were the hours when we were on Voyager in December. If the kids want to quickly eat before going to kid's club then the Windjammer is the only real option. There was one night that we tried taking them later after eating in the MDR and they were full and couldn't accept any more kids, so I always recommend dropping off when the window opens if the child is really wanting to go.

Awesome, thanks for the insight. My wife is diabetic as well, but probably cheats far more than she should. I remembered the other thing I wanted to ask earlier but forgot, do you have a favorite poutine in the city? I saw Rodney’s has a Lobster one that sounds delicious, but didn’t know if there was a unique one somewhere, or someone that just does it better than everybody else. Thanks!

Thank you for the great response and multiple recommendations. One other question, if you don't mind. I have noticed a plethora of bakeries in both the GI/Yaletown area and near Canada Place when scouting Google maps. I am a passionate baker and used to travel the US training new bakery managers for a specialty grocery chain. If you are a baked good fan are there any of the bakeries in this area that I just can't miss or are heads above their peers?