June 2nd 2017 - Radiance 7 night Northbound Alaska Cruise Review!

Rewind- if you dont mind me asking- how did you get a room at Comfort Inn Ships Creek for $144. Everytime i check pricing it is like $219 per night. Did you go through a special booking site?

I booked on Jan 18th for our June 9th stay. I used a name your own PRICE site that has pre-arranged deals. I think I looked for a 2-star with parking, breakfast, internet, pets, airport shuttle. You do need to watch it a bit as prices will fluctuate. When I was booking, it would tell me what the original price was and it was close to what was listed on the full price side of their site. Now it looks like it tells you what percentage you will save so some extra math will be required to verify what hotel it could be.

I booked on Jan 18th for our June 9th stay. I used a name your own PRICE site that has pre-arranged deals. I think I looked for a 2-star with parking, breakfast, internet, pets, airport shuttle. You do need to watch it a bit as prices will fluctuate. When I was booking, it would tell me what the original price was and it was close to what was listed on the full price side of their site. Now it looks like it tells you what percentage you will save so some extra math will be required to verify what hotel it could be.

Thanks so much!

Feel free to ask away - as I said, I love to talk about my vacations. :D

 

I guess the only thing that would differ is flying into Vancouver directly, but they do have a Metro system that connects the airport to the downtown area so that should be fairly similar. Vancouver seemed like a really cool place and we wish we had more time there, but that two hour delay we had from Amtrak deflated our plans more than we thought it would. It was nice to walk around at our own pace and relax though.

First question: Will you be my travel agent? LOL Just kidding. Although, you seem to have been much more thorough than our TA. Second question for now, what type of clothes did you pack? I have heard all sorts of advice with a huge range. What did you need (or wish you had brought along) at this particular time of year? We want to be prepared, but this is a long trip and we only want to bring a reasonable amount of clothing/whatnot so as not to overburden our sherpas. ;) My wife and I are traveling with our two teenage boys.

This is one fabulous review like! From the details, to the glaciers to the bad eagle and the Wales...I enjoyed reading and viewing this review! Thank you for sharing

Loved the review! Can't wait for my cruise next year :)

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First question: Will you be my travel agent? LOL Just kidding. Although, you seem to have been much more thorough than our TA. Second question for now, what type of clothes did you pack? I have heard all sorts of advice with a huge range. What did you need (or wish you had brought along) at this particular time of year? We want to be prepared, but this is a long trip and we only want to bring a reasonable amount of clothing/whatnot so as not to overburden our sherpas. ;) My wife and I are traveling with our two teenage boys.

I've been pondering becoming a TA when I retire in 20 years - I think the industry will change by then.

I took one swimsuit which I used once, a couple pairs of convertible pants which I used only once as shorts on one day in Seattle, and then a few pairs of thin travel pants which I wore for the rest of the 13 days. When we stopped by REI in Seattle, my wife convinced me to buy a pair of Prana Brion pants (they were on clearance). I also have a few pair from Eddie Bauer that are similar. Basically I took pants that would pack down into very little space and not wrinkle and are a bit on the lightweight side.

Also along the pants line, before we left I got a lightweight base layer pants and a pair of rain pants. As my normal pants are a bit thin, the base layer was great on cold days. The rain pants helped both in Ketchikan when the rain was coming down pretty well and when we were whale watching and it was drizzling. The rain pants pack down into their own pocket, and the base layer is pretty small when folded. I would say both of these were great investments.

I was going to take a couple polo shirts until I remembered it was going to be colder than cruises I was used to. Instead I took a couple of non-wrinkling button down shirts but I did not take a tie. Both the wife and I decided that we didn't want to fuss with formal wear. We were on par with the majority of people in the dining room.

As you are also a Columbus resident, check out the Eddie Bauer Warehouse store on the West side. My one great cheap purchase there was a packable down jacket (I think I got mine for around $60 with one of their great sale days). I also had a packable rain jacket and a full zip light fleece sweatshirt.

Layering is the key. I would wear a tshirt, fleece if it was really cold, down jacket, and then the rain coat. When we checked out the glacier in Seward, I stripped down to my tshirt as I was sweating during the hike. As we got near the glacier not even 10 minutes later, I was layering back up.

One thing I need to upgrade is my day-pack backpack. I have one of the Eddie Bauer packable (I know, big surprise it's packable) backpacks but it it not water proof and I doubt by now it is not even water resistant. They way I got around that is that I would wear it over my down jacket but under my rain coat. I made it work but it was a bit tight. But I am now looking for a small sized waterproof backpack.

We both took a pair of mid-height waterproof hiking boots. They might be a bit overkill but they kept our feet dry and warm even when we were splashing in puddles / streams or on the rainiest of days. We both wore our boots on the plane to reduce weight / space inside our luggage.

Camera's are a personal choice but I'm really glad I got something small with a 30x zoom. It was easy to carry in a pocket and got shots that my wife had no chance of getting with her cell phone.

Don't forget a hat and gloves. They don't have to be super huge, just something to keep the wind out would probably work well enough.

Here is one hat I picked up on clearance. It looks a bit silly with the ear flaps, but it has a perfectly short brim that kept the hood from my rain coat falling into my eyes all the time and kept my ears warm.

Thanks for the great review! While we will be on a different cruise line, I think this was all very helpful! My questions are on customs. How does it work when you take the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver? How were the lines at the port?

On Amtrak, they check to make sure you have your passport before you board in Seattle as well as make announcements on the train. There are a few quick stops on the way up - they slow down, stop for about 10 seconds to board a couple people, and they are off again. Before they pull into the last U.S. stop, they make a final announcement that you must have your passport. After the last stop, the conductor comes around and does an inspection, hands out Canadian Customs' forms, and then it is mostly non-stop until Vancouver.

Once arriving at Vancouver's Amtrak station, it's almost like a cruise ship. Luggage that was checked is set out for you to self-claim and then you walk up and into the building through Customs. We got asked a couple standard questions, stamped our passports, and we were on our way. The line wasn't too bad, took us about 15-20 minutes to get through.

At Canada Place in Vancouver, the first few sets of lines were not too bad. Let me detail what we did:

As you are arriving to the main Canada Place building, on the outside head to the right of the building. Right next to the building and between the entrance ramp for cars, there is a slightly narrow ramp and stairs that lead down (once past a pillar, the path widens). Head down and slightly to the left, and then around to the right (going around the bus loading area). It was really clean and well lit when we were there.

About halfway down the bus unloading area's sidewalk is the entrance we took. We walked in, were asked if we were checking luggage, and then directed back out through a different set of doors. It was basically a continuation of the path if we would have just stayed outside the entrance. We walked to the far side of the loading area and there are the porters to take your checked bags. We dropped off our backpacks and one small duffel and headed back into where we just came out of. The nice lady then directed us upstairs to check in.

We took an escalator up, walked a short bit (saw people coming the other way which confused us, but we were directed onward). We entered a convention hall space with all the standard line stanchions that we are accustomed to. We entered Royal Caribbean's Platinum line which did get us through quite a bit quicker, checked in, were given green laminated "Customs" cards, and then were directed out and around behind some curtains where they had a seating area.

1. The Customs cards are to indicate to the helpers who are guiding people where to go what stage of the check-in process you are in. People with Customs cards go one direction, people without go the other. This is what was confusing us just a bit earlier but it all made sense now and we would be the ones confusing the other people in just a bit.

2. The seating area after check-in is used so that the Customs area downstairs doesn't get overwhelmed. We sat for maybe 10 minutes and then were told we could move on.

We left the convention hall, walked back the way we came, confused others as they were heading into the hall, took an escalator downstairs, and were now walking past the "do you have luggage to check in" lady for the third time as we headed towards the metal detectors. The lines here were not too bad, probably about standard for any airport or cruise port. Through the metal detectors we were now officially in the area dedicated to US Customs. The line did weave around a bit and this was probably the longest wait of the process. Your boarding status doesn't matter here, everyone is equal so be prepared for a bit of a wait.

To help "speed up the process", they have 20+ self serve machines where you walk up, scan each member of your party's passports, get your photo taken, and then take the printout paper with your passport. Some people who are not good with technology were a bit confused and might have slowed things a bit, but not overly so. You then walk up to the next available agent, hand them your passport and printout, and you are on your way.

You walk out, up another escalator, and board the ship. When we did this process, we were the only ship in port. If you are boarding when a second ship is there, I would try to arrive early as the Customs portion is what takes the longest and everyone on every ship has to go through Customs.

But with our single ship of around 2500 passengers (or so we heard), it only took us an hour from when we first arrived at Canada Place until we were sitting on the ship inside the buffet with our food in front of us (I saw the clock as we arrived and I didn't check my watch again until right when we sat down to eat). At the time you are in line, it seems like things are taking forever, but really it was a fairly painless boarding process.

... and then headed out to pick up the dog from his hotel stay.

Here's a pretty specific question... where did your doggy stay. We're not too satisfied with our current kennel, and there doesn't seem to be many options around here.

Here's a pretty specific question... where did your doggy stay. We're not too satisfied with our current kennel, and there doesn't seem to be many options around here.

I was just about to look for your posts (see below)... but first to your question.

I use PetsHotel at PetSmart at Easton. I used to work at a different PetSmart (Hilliard) so I got used to the store and their people. They take good care and even when my dog is being a butt to others, they separate him, let him cool down, and then let him come back. They always have a person in the room when the dogs are playing together and he always comes back happy and worn out.

And on another note, Eddie Bauer has some nice clearance going on right now on their website. While the color selection is a bit slim, I think the "MicroTherm StormDown Jacket" is what I had that worked well. Use code SUNDOWN to get it to about $66. I just picked up a "IgniteLite Hybrid Jacket" which is like a down vest with some lightweight sleeves for $36 after coupon - I think this would be great for layering.

I use PetsHotel at PetSmart at Easton.

We just went to their open house a couple of weekends ago. My dog had a bad nail-trim experience there once, though, and remembers it. She wouldn't even eat the free ice cream. (Although my kids liked it.) Seemed nice, but I think I would traumatize her. She's a German Shepherd with "lap-dog complex," and is a BIG baby.

Looks like a great deal on the jacket, though. I'll have to sit down with the family and check out the website while the sale is on. Thanks. The wife works at Kohl's, too and gets some awesome discounts. Looking forward to fall when I imagine we can pick up lots of appropriate clothing. With her discount, their coupons, and clearance sales, they just about end up giving US money to shop there! ;p

Thanks for a lovely review. Ready for our September cruise. Very informative

Rewind, what a great review, I have actually been in that cabin 7600 on the Radiance it is a terrific location, I am booked in 9584 for next summer to Alaska. I do have a question we are also booked at the Denali Dome home for next summer, did you enjoy your stay with them, we are booked for room 1?

Sorry for the delay, I'm only checking in this thread randomly.

The Dome Home was great. I didn't book it until late (what I thought was still early) and we had two different rooms for our two night stay. We were in room 3 which is just off of the living room / entrance way and then moved to room 5 which is downstairs. The beds were comfy and each had a private bathroom, and breakfast was very good. It was nice chatting with people each morning to see what they did or what they are planning to do. But beyond breakfast and sleeping, we didn't really hang out at the Dome Home at all. We were pretty much in Denali or out eating in the Glitter Gulch area and by the time we got back to the Dome Home, we would hop in bed and pass out.

I do think the Dome Home is a better value, better food, and better accommodations than the hotels in the Glitter Gulch area.

Thank you for your fabulous review and pictures! We're looking to do an Alaska cruise and land tour in a few years and your review helps with decision making.

On the back of your review we have also booked Done Home [emoji536] for our trip next year.

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Rewind, thanks for the information, we are there 2 nights and will probably be the same just sleep, eat and go to Denali for the shuttle. any recommendations on places to eat in the area that you liked. And did you purchase sandwiches somewhere to take into the park.

We ate at Prospector's Pizza our first night and it was amazing. As I'm thinking back I want to say the kitchen might have been a bit slow, but it could have been that we were famished and it just seemed longer to us. We had a great pizza and then walked through the shops around there afterwards.

Our second night, after a full shuttle ride to Wonder Lake and back, we ate at 49th State Brewing (if memory serves). It's on the right side of the road and is closer to the Dome Home than Denali. While the bar is featured, they have a lot of tables and the food was great. I think we split a pretzel as an appetizer as we again felt like we were starving, and then each got an order of Mac N Cheese which ended up being way too much food but extremely tasty.

Heading into a full day at Denali, one recommendation is to stop at the Subway and grab sandwiches there, but almost everyone has that idea. We stopped at the gas station that has made daily sandwiches... if I had to do it again, I think I might go the Subway route. The sandwiches we got were fine, but they were expensive for the size. Think Subway prices for a two slice of bread sandwich. If you do go for Subway, just factor in that you will be competing with everyone else who has the same idea.

Make sure you give yourself lots of time to grab food in the morning. I'd estimate at least 30 minutes from Dome Home to Denali (it's only about 10 driving minutes) in case you encounter moose on the road (we did) and have time to park. And lookout for moose in the parking lot! Add to that any time you need to grab food.

And along the food lines, grab enough for the way in and the way out. We got one sandwitch each for the two of us and we each ate half in the morning and the other half in the afternoon (plus we had some cheese & peanut butter crackers). We would have liked to have more food with us which is another reason a footlong from Subway now appeals to me.

Thank you Rewind I appreciate all your input. :)

Rewind, thanks for a great review. I don't go out for another year, but took some notes that I will definitely look at when it's time to book the extra stuff. Pictures were terrific!!

Thanks Mermaid,

I randomly still check in here. Let me know if you have questions and while I might be a bit slow, I'd be happy to answer them.