Our Alaskan Adventure - Review of our June 22 2018 Radiance Southbound Cruise

I was planning to write this report when I got home to West Palm Beach, but our flight from LAX has been delayed almost 2 hours, so I have some time on my hands. On a side note, LAX has got to be the worst airport I have ever - what a dump!

So, to start my review I need to go back a ways. We moved to FL in 2016 from VA, and one day my wife found this flyer in the mail - it was for a travel show. She suggested that I go, and I did. At the time, we were really looking at a 10-day partial PC Christmas cruise on NCL Jade for 2018. We already had our Navigator Christmas Cruise for 2017 booked, and were already looking for the following year. Well the TA hosting the show and the RCI rep at the show made a strong case for looking at Alaska as our next adventure. So my wife and I talked it over, and we decided to go to Alaska for summer 2018.

We knew that if we traveled completely across the country that we had to include a land tour too. After looking at all the options, we selected the Family Tundra Express 9B because it sounded to most kid-friendly as we would be bringing our 8 y/o son. Now, I know that many like to DIY their land portion, and I appreciate the reasons for choosing this option - but I am lazy and too busy to do the research necessary to plan out a DIY trip [emoji6]. Booking with RCI was just too easy, and in terms of cost, the land tour and cruise was under the magic budget number I set, so I was fine with costs. TIP: Book early. I booked our cruise the day they opened the bookings, and I never saw a lower price for our cabin category (GS) or the land tour/cruise price.

Note: One additional thing I learned, because we booked our land tour through RCI, we got cruise credits for each night of our land tour, and because we were in a suite, we got 6 C&A points for the land portion.

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Day 1: Traveling to Alaska

First, I need to say that getting to Alaska is a challenge, and pricey! I shopped around for several days checking prices and times for flights from MIA, FLL, PBI, and MCO. Initial estimates were coming in at almost one-third our entire cruise fare (ouch!). But I finally found a flight on Delta from Orlando to Anchorage via Seattle that was somewhat affordable and had the fewest and best connections (well, I thought so until I got stuck in LAX for 2 hours).

Second, in order to get a great price and decent flight, we needed to leave MCO on Tuesday June 19th at 7am, so we drove up the night before and stayed at the Hyatt Regency at the airport. What a great hotel! Dinner was great, and you could not beat the commute in the morning! TIP: MCO is very busy in the morning, so plan accordingly to get through security.

Third, getting the Alaska is a chore. We had a 6 hour flight to Seattle, a 1.5 hour layover, and another 4 hour flight to Anchorage. It was a long, list no day. We needed to check into Marriott hotel between 3pm and midnight for our tour. We arrived by 4pm. TIP: You get free airport transfer from airport to hotel, but you need to call RCI and give them your flight details.

Fourth, if you think your journey is over once you arrive, you are wrong - you check in the RCI rep, who gives you your room key and you pick a time to meet with your tour guide, who will brief you on the land tour. This is when you also can book your optional excursions. Then you need to eat supper, and then finally you can go to bed...lol

I will stop here for now because I want to post the tour details and need to scan them when I get home.

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Following! Hoping to do Alaska Land and Sea 2020!

Pre-Cruise Itinerary:

Tue 19 June - Check in to Anchorage Marriott

Wed 20 June - Coach Transfer, Anchorage to Denali

Wed 20 June - Denali Park Village**

Thu 21 June - Denali Park Tour & Visitor's Center

Thu 21 June - Sightseeing Train, Denali to Talkeetna

Thu 21 June - Talkeetna Alaska Sealife Center

Fri 22 June - Coach Transfer, Talkeetna to Anchorage

Fri 22 June - Anchorage Museum

Fri 22 June - Coach Transfer, Anchorage to Seward

Fri 22 June - Alaska Sealife Center

Fri 22 June - Coach Transfer to Ship

Cruise Itinerary

Fri 22 June - Seward, Alaska (8pm departure)

Sat 23 June - Hubbard Glacier (3-5pm cruising)

Sun 24 June - Juneau, Alaska (9am - 9pm)

Mon 25 June - Skagway, Alaska (7am - 8:30pm)

Tue 26 June - Icy Strait Point, Alaska (6:30am - 3pm)

Wed 27 June - Ketchikan, Alaska (9am - 6pm)

Thu 28 June - Inside Passage (cruising)

Fri 29 June - Vancouver, British Columbia (7am disembark)

Also, I have attached a more detailed list of the land tour portion of our trip.

Alaska Land Tour 9B.pdf

Day 1 - Meeting our tour guide

After arriving in Anchorage, we met with our tour guide Julie. She provided details about the next three days of our land tour. I am attaching a brochure with these details, including the colored and white tags. Any suitcases you will need during the land tour are given colored tags (we had pink ones), and any suitcases that you will not need during the tour are given white tags. These suitcases are loaded onto bus and locked there - you do not see them again until the last night in Talkeetna. TIP: If you have some clothes that are just for the ship, and some that are just for the land tour, put them in different suitcases. You will be pretty much living out of your suitcases the next three days, so having to manage fewer is much, much easier.

NOTE: Please note the early start times for the land tour - we arrived at 4pm in the afternoon in Anchorage, after traveling for nearly 12 hours. Getting up early the next few mornings was tough. If we had to do it again, we would fly in another day sooner to give us some time to relex and recover for the long flights.

Alaska Land Tour - Details 1.pdf

Alaska Land Tour - Details 2.pdf

Alaska Land Tour - Details 3.pdf

Thank you so much for sharing this detailed trip report. We are doing the Northbound on Celebrity Millennium this August/September, but I am interested in doing a full cruisetour in the next couple of years.

Day 2 - Traveling to Denali

On the second day, we boarded the coach (bus) to Denali. On the schedule, you will notice that "bag pull" was at 8am, and "depart for Denali" was at 9am. Bag pull is essentially what happens on the last night of the cruise - you pack up your suitcases and put them outside your hotel room door by a specific time, and elves magically pick them up and load them onto the coach.

The trip to Denali is long - almost 5 hours, but our tour guide broke up the trip with three primary things:

1. Commentary. Julie was very knowledgeable about Alaska, and gave us short lectures throughout the journey. This is what, I think, really made the trip amazing - she provided the absolute perfect balance between giving interesting local history and facts, and moments of silence so we could absorb the sheer beauty of the land around us.
   
2. Snack Break. About an hour or so into the trip, we stopped at Fred Meyer - a northern version of a Super Target/Walmart on steroids. TIP: Definitely get some snacks for the trip. There are long stretches where there are no places to eat, and snacks are really helpful. We saw some people with fruit afterwards, and this is also a great idea. We bought mostly food that would travel well.
   
3. Veteran's Memorial. About 2 or so hours in, we also stopped at the Veteran's Memorial to take pictures and stretch our feet. TIP: There are bathrooms at both Fred Meyer and the memorial, so try to plan for these stops to do your business ;););)
   

When we arrived in Denali, our rooms were not ready so we were dropped off in Glitter Gulch for lunch. We ate at the Denali Park Salmon Bake. The food and atmosphere were fantastic! Definitely lived up to the hype.

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Our first surprise of the tour was our lodging - you will notice in a previous post that we were scheduled for Denali Park Village with two asterisks. Our tour guide (Julie) learned that this hotel had been overbooked, so we were moved to the Grande Denali Lodge.

The view from this hotel is truly breathtaking! Oh, and they gave us free breakfast too! Overall, we had no complaints about the mistake - many were very happy with the new digs!

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The drive up to the hotel was filled with humorous street signs. I took a picture of this one as it addressed the rumor about the size of Alaskan mosquitoes...

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That evening we ate early at the lodge (which was delicious) because we had arranged for one of the optional excursions. They offered two different sled dog tours: Husky Homestead and DogGoneIt. Julie highly recommended the DogGoneIt tour, so we took that one. Here is a link to their web site:

http://www.doggoneittours.com/

We could not have been happier with this excursion, and would highly, highly recommend it. Mike, his wife Caitlin, and their son Max are an amazing family. You will not only learn about sled dogs and the Iditarod, but also life in Alaska.

Oh yeah, and let’s not forget about the best part of the tour - the puppies...

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Following! Hoping to do Alaska Land and Sea 2020!

You may see us! We would love to go back again!

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Thank you so much for sharing! I'm looking forward to following along! Our entire family is planning on doing a SB land tour in 2020 to celebrate DH graduating from Doctoral school. Living vicariously through your trip until then!

Thanks so much for sharing and writing this!!! When taking some of the optional land excursions, at what point do you have to pick or decide on which ones you are going to do?

Thanks so much for sharing and writing this!!! When taking some of the optional land excursions, at what point do you have to pick or decide on which ones you are going to do?

On Day 1, when we met with Julie, she handed out the list of optional tours and you mark down which ones you want to do. There were maybe 8-10 or so for Day 2 in Denali, but you only have time to do one. As you are driving up to Denali, the tour guide books and confirms your excursion. There were also 2 or so optional ones in Talkeetna, and I think you can request these while in Denali.

Here is a link that provides a wealth of information about the land tours and I thought they also have listings for the optional excursions:

http://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/resources/

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RS, safe travels and thanks for doing this review. You are correct LAX sucks. It could be so much more. However, puppy’s rock. I can’t wait till we get there in a few weeks to get my hands on some. Thanks for the points info, I didn’t know about that and we too are in a suite. Sounds like we get 6 additional points as well for our cruise tour. Also thank you for providing further info on the pre-tours. I know ours is different but Royal hasn’t provided a great deal of information about the daily organization of it.

Two weeks Monday we fly and this is getting me more excited.

Andrew

On Day 1, when we met with Julie, she handed out the list of optional tours and you mark down which ones you want to do. There were maybe 8-10 or so for Day 2 in Denali, but you only have time to do one. As you are driving up to Denali, the tour guide books and confirms your excursion. There were also 2 or so optional ones in Talkeetna, and I think you can request these while in Denali.

 

Here is a link that provides a wealth of information about the land tours and I thought they also have listings for the optional excursions:

 

http://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/resources/

 

 

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That is good to know. Thanks for the link.....very helpful!!

RS, safe travels and thanks for doing this review. You are correct LAX sucks. It could be so much more. However, puppy’s rock. I can’t wait till we get there in a few weeks to get my hands on some. Thanks for the points info, I didn’t know about that and we too are in a suite. Sounds like we get 6 additional points as well for our cruise tour. Also thank you for providing further info on the pre-tours. I know ours is different but Royal hasn’t provided a great deal of information about the daily organization of it.

 

Two weeks Monday we fly and this is getting me more excited.

Andrew

Andrew

Thanks. We arrived home safely, but it was a long day. You will have an amazing trip! My wife is already looking at different cruise tours, as she wants to plan a return trip in a 2-3 years.

I am not sure why RCI makes the land tour such a mystery. Maybe it’s because I think it’s mostly outsourced, but then again, they often seem not to know what there is on their own ships...lol

I will say this - you are really living out of a suitcase each day, you start early, and the days tend to be long. We were lucky as our son can (and does) sleep anywhere, so he took naps often. My wife has a pic of him sleeping in the helicopter on our way back from the glacier. [emoji41]

Rob

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That is good to know. Thanks for the link.....very helpful!!

I did not check to see if all of the excursions listed were offered, but I do know that our DogGoneIt excursion is not listed in the brochure but was offered to us - so there may be some new ones.

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I did not check to see if all of the excursions listed were offered, but I do know that our DogGoneIt excursion is not listed in the brochure but was offered to us - so there may be some new ones.

 

 

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Yeah, I also noticed that. So, hopefully in will be offered when we go in August, especially since you liked it so much.

Great review so far. Thanks for the details about the tours.

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Day 3 - Denali

In the morning early - very early (6:30am), we boarded a bus and headed into Denali National Park.

During the trip, we saw the Arctic Ground Squirrel.

And Caribou.

And snowshoe hare and moose (no pics - sorry). I also spotted a Golden Eagle through my binoculars. It was cool - you could see it flying over the distant hills.

Note: I forgot the name of our tour guide, but she was excellent! Maybe someone else on our tour will remember and post it.

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We also got a brief look at the mountain when they clouds parted and there it was - well, some it it. The peak was still shrouded in clouds, but what we could see was impressive.

Around noon or so, we headed to visitors center where the Wilderness Express arrives.

Here we boarded and went upstairs in the glass-domed cars for a 4 hour trip from Denali to Talkeetna. As a train-lover, I have to say that this was one of the highlights of the trip! This train is beautiful, and the scenery is quite good too!

Beautiful vistas...

Valleys with rivers...

Bigger rivers with mountains...

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A little more scenery...

One more?

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