Brandis

We had to ask for our first one as well. I have to say I like the laser-etched 3D models better that the (newer?) photo blocks.The color ones to me look like fridge magnets glued behind a glass brick.

1B, one night. Last time, I think we were picked up at 5AM. 
 

1B includes the shorter tour at Denali which turns where the paved road ends, but we plan on upgrading to the longer tour which goes up to where the landslide happened, as it‘s only a couple bucks more and hopefully increases the chance to see wildlife.

We're doing a pre-cruise tour with RCL and one of the hotels is the Denali Park Village for our stay the night before the visit to Denali. I've visited the resort twice before, the first time, we stayed in a cabin, which I didn't much care for, they were pretty old and run down, the second time we stayed at the lodge, that one I loved. To be fair, looking at the pictures on the website, it seems that the cabins have been renovated or rebuilt, as they now look much nicer.

Where do RCL guests stay nowadays? Is it the lodge only or could it be either?

What time do the RCL-organized transfers to Denali usualy start in the m

We are renting a car for the day. How full does the parking lot get on cruise days? Is it better to go first thing in the morning or rather later in the day?

As we live outside the US, they don't mail the crystal. We asked for it onboard and they gave it to us. We're at 205 points now, so will pass 210 during our next cruise. Will we be able to ask for on day 5 or 6 of that cruise or will we have to wait for another cruise?

41 minutes ago, gometros said:

 

Which sailing are you on? We're on the Radiance of the Seas July 12th and wondering if we will be impacted.

We're on the June 21 SB sailing.

I chose 12:30, but I guess it doesn't really matter when you do a pre-cruise tour and arrive with their transfer.

I booked the river excursion for us and Denali flights for our friends at 6:30 (latest available times) in Talkeetna, so I really hope we get there on time.

I also posted it in this weeks roll call, but since that cruise has started, I‘m not sure if anyone is still reading there.

Our cruise is still over a month away, but I was wondering if anyone has done the 1B Cruisetour with stops in Denali and Talkeetna this season already?

What time did you arrive at the hotels in Denali and Talkeetna, respectively? And when did you get to board Radiance on the last day of the pre-cruise tour?

Answers from previous years are appreciated as well!

Thanks, could already do it. One step closer to our vacation. 🙂

What time does Online Check-In usually open on Day 45?

Thanks, would be a shame to miss Skagway. According to the port schedule, Radiance is supposed to dock at Railroad Dock aft on our sailing.

Strangely, Radiance was supposed to dock at the Broadway dock on the current cruise, not sure why they still switched the itinerary for Haines.

Radiance of the Seas changed her current itinerary on the NB cruise from Vancouver to visit Haines instead of Skagway because the construction at a pier is still going on. I know there was a rockslide in Skagway 2 years ago, was the pier damaged then? I also found a report from last year saying that the new floating pier was damaged during transportation to Skagway. But nothing current. Is there any information about the new opening date for the pier?

She‘s near Prince Rupert right now and sailing at a decent speed of 20 knots. So it seems that the Azipods are fine now. At the current speed, they arrive in Juneau approximately 45 min. late, but they still have 12 hours to catch up and maybe they crank up the speed a bit later.

I wonder if we have to give our flight information in the online check-in, as we booked our own flights or if they just have a rep at the airport all day. I did pre-cruises before, but one time was with HAL and I can‘t remember how we got to the hotel then and the other time we also arrived a few days before and I think we then went to the hotel on our own by taxi. Anyways, we just might take the public bus, it‘s just $2 and might be faster than to wait for them to have the RCL bus full.

1 hour ago, ngrund said:

The cruise tour includes airport transfer to the Marriott.

1B.pdf 795.96 kB · 2 downloads

Thanks!

Documents are only mailed after online check-in. I guess we see then.

I first visited about 30 years ago, arriving on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry, staying overnight and taking the train and coach to Whitehorse the next morning.

Of course, back then there were a lot less and much smaller cruise ships visiting and once they left, we had the town almost to ourselves. Must be quite a different experience today. 🙂

47 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Skagway has dock availability issues right now. That's why it was canceled.

Hopefully it's a one-off, would hate to miss Skagway, it's one of the more scenic ports.

We did Spectrum in 2019 on the first "longer" (7 nights) cruise to Japan. We got huge Junior suites in the aft, called Silver Suites.

The main dining room food was pretty boring and had not much variety. We got a laminated piece of paper as menu, with pictures of the menu items. Service was really rushed, I guess the Chinese don't like to linger at dinner. We were done in less than an hour. 

Luckily, we were able to use the Silver Dining Room (Solarium Bistro on Non-China cruises), there the food was really good.The food in the Windjammer was also pretty good.

I really liked the Tea House, they had some pretty unique things.

After dinner, the ship felt pretty empty, mostly only Westeners around. Before the cruise I read that the Chinese are big on gambling and that the casino was extended because of this and even a separate highroller casino, but the casions were pretty dead all cruise long.

1 hour ago, Biker19 said:

"

Instead of calling on Skagway, Alaska, the originally planned port for May 8, the Radiance-class vessel will visit Haines, Alaska.

So is Haines not on the regular NB itinerary? On our SB in June, we are supposed to go to Skagway from 7AM to 5PM and then stop in Haines from 7PM to 11PM.

The hotel is part of the Pre-Cruise Tour. Didn't let us book transfers separately.

But I saw that there is a direct bus from the airport with a bus stop very close to the hotel. Just $2 and bus runs every 15 mins., so I guess we will do that.

Is the Tango Buenos Aires production show still on Radiance?

We were on Spectrum's first 7 day cruise out of Shanghai. All announcements were made in English, though I can't remember if they did Chinese first. Not that it matters though.

Expect some things to be a bit different than on other RCL cruises. On our cruise, there were lots of Chinese family groups. I'd say probably 90 percent Chinese guests, rest mostly US and some Europeans.

MDR menu was mostly geared to Chinese tastes, the english menu strangely was only a laminated paper with minimal text, mostly pictures. The food there wasn't very good in my opinion and the meal very rushed, it seems that the Chinese passengers didn't want to linger at dinner. Everything was brought out very quickly and we were done in less than an hour.

Windjammer was good though and thankfully, staying in Silver Suites, we had access to the Silver Dining room, which is the Solarium Grill on Non-Asia cruises. While they had a fixed menu all week, with the buffet there was lots of differnt things to try.

Also, after dinner, the ship felt really empty, it seems the Chinese guests went to sleep early.

Lots of smokers and the pool deck smelled of smoke most of the time. As the Solarium pool was reserved for Silver and Gold suite guests, we could take refuge there 🙂

I once shared a cabin with someone who complained that the ships food was bad and that he couldn't get any fried food 🙂

I have to admit, the only bad MDR food experience I ever had on RCL was Spectrum sailing from Shanghai. Apparently, they catered mostly on Chinese tastes. The menu was only a laminated piece of paper with pictures of the available food items. Also, it seems that the Chinese prefered to be done with eating very quickly and everything was brought out very fast. We were in and out of the dining room in less than 1 hour. Thankfully, we had Silver Suites booked and had access to the Silver dining room (aka Solarium Grill on non-China cruises) where the food and service were excellent. There, the menu stayed the same all week but they rotated items on the buffet, so still could try different things every night.