ALASKA landtour 13A/Radiance cruise July 5, 2013 review with pics

This review will highlight my multigenerational family's experiences in Alaska onboard RCI land and cruise tour 13A.

My family consists of me, the planner, 48, husband 48, daughter 17, mother and the grandmother 76, brother 43, sister in law 38, and niece and nephew both 11years old. We always take one yearly vacation together. I had been thinking about Alaska for vacation for about 3 years but had a job that did not allow me to take off 2 weeks straight. I finally had a job change that allowed me to take off 2 weeks at one time. All our previous yearly vacations have either been in Disney World or cruises sailing out of Florida.

I booked this vacation in March 2012 as soon as Royal Caribbean released dates and itineraries. I did research Alaska on Cruise Critic and Trip Advisor and signed up for emails and vacation guides from Alaska. I booked the major excursions starting in August 2012. These included reserving Harv and Marvs 12 passenger boat for whale watching in Juneau, reserving salmon fishing trip with Ken of Northern Lights in Ketchikan, Chilkoot tour of van ride to Frazier, BC and train ride down on The White Pass & Yukon Railroad in Skagway, and finally a Helicopter flightseeing with landing on glacier and dog sledding with RCI when this bookings came available.

I booked airfare about 10 months out on Delta to get same connecting flights from Minn/St. Paul to Fairbanks for all 8 of us. 4 flew out of Nashville and 4 out of Atlanta. Our family time started in Minn. Saturday afternoon, June 29. This made the 5 hour flight much more enjoyable.

The dates Jun 29 to July 12 and intinerary: Saturday Fairbanks, Sunday Denali, Monday Talkeetna, Tuesday Anchorage, Wednesday Alyeska, Thursday Seward, Friday board cruise ship Radiance of the Seas, Saturday cruise to Hubbard Glacier, Sunday Juneau, Monday Skagway, Tuesday Icy Strait Point, Wednesday Ketchikan, Thursday cruise inside passage, and Friday disembark ship in Vancouver, BC.

We arrived in Fairbanks at 8:07PM Alaska time, 11:07PM our time(central) and 12:07AM(eastern) for my brother's family. We took Royal’s transfer bus to Pikes Waterfront Lodge. It was clean, had a nice lobby and restaurant but the mattresses were very hard and uncomfortable. The weather was good but air a little smoky from nearby wildfires fueled by record high temps and lack of rainfall. We meet our fantastic tour guide Jennifer in the lobby who gave us itinerary, then we took short walk across parking lot to Pike’s Landing for drinks and late diner. It was after 10PM and daylight. This was very cool to experience. It never really got dark in Fairbanks. The next morning was early wake up to get luggage in hallway by 6:00AM.

Front of Pikes Waterfront Lodge

Back of the Lodge, close to Chena River

Pikes Landing Resturant, a walk across gravel parking lot from hotel

Putput golf

I did not know what to expect with the land portion of this tour. No additional excursions through RCI were available to book prior to our dates of arrival. I was so grateful that acelzoe2 (Cindy) did such a thorough review on cruise tour 13A in early June. She provided me with the info I needed.

One question asked that I did not know prior to arriving to the land hotels: did the type of hotel accomodations have anything to do with type of cabin booked on Radiance. We booked 2 cabins: grand suite 1556 for me, husband, and daughter and 2 bedroom suite 7672 for the other 5. I did not notice any difference in location of hotel rooms except for Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge where we had 3 rooms with views of Denali(Mt. McKinley). Some folks in our tour group asked Jennifer about room assignments and she reported it was all up to the hotel staff. My mom and brother's family got 2 rooms because of the 2 bedrooms in the suite on the ship.

Jennifer is in the yellow jacket. She did an outstanding job keeping everyone informed, getting hotel restaurants to stay open past closing hours to serve us when we got in late, narrating along the way, made restaurant ressies, and just made the trip fun and interesting.

More odds and ends before starting Day 2. There were 3 total tour buses for this tour. I have no idea how they choose which guests went to each director and bus driver. I asked Jennifer and she didn't know either; I guess luck of the draw and we were the lucky ones. Everyone got along and no one was annoying. We spoke often to a family from Maryland, who was celebrating a high school graduation. A grandmother, grandfather, mom, dad, a grandson who will be a sophomore in college and the "celebratee", a 17 year old grandson. I won't get into detail because my daughter likes her privacy but a summer vacation romance sparked between my 17 year old daughter and this nice young man. Our bus had 4 children: 14, 12, and 2- 11 year olds. They all were well behaved and respectful. At the end of the line in Seward, the bus driver, Steve, commented to the entire group how good the kids were and thanked the parents.

Steve and my niece and nephew

The only dilemma I had during the land portion was deciding to upgrade from the 4 hour Denali Natural History Tour to the 8 hour Tundra Wilderness tour. I knew all the adults would love the trip for the scenery even if we saw no wildlife, but I was not sure if the twins could hold out for almost 8 hours on a converted school bus. I made an executive decision, I upgraded.

Day 2

We left the hotel at 7:30AM and Steve drove us to the Fairbanks train depot. The Wilderness Express Cars (2 of them) are awesome.

The family had a lot of favorites but they said riding in the Wilderness Express train car was the experience that made the land portion special. Our bus had the first car to our selves. The train car was almost half full. The other 2 buses were in the second car.

The train tour guide was Brady. He was so informative and never at a loss for words.

This is his story. This is his first summer in Alaska as a tour guide for Premier Vacations(the company that is running land tours for RCI). He comes from Colorado where he quit a good paying advertising job. He now lives in Anchorage in a Hostel, sleeps in a room with 8 bunks, with guys who snore way too loud, makes very little money, and is loving life. He was a favorite of everyone.

We ate breakfast in the first level dining area. It was romantic having a meal on the train while watching all the beautiful scenery go by.

Some highlights from Fairbanks to Denali

Town of Denali

Before our adventure into Denali Nat. park, Jennifer made sure we had all the info we needed for getting on the right bus and arrangements to Grande Denali Lodge that night. We knew we were getting a boxed lunch on the bus but we stopped at the park's restaurant primarily for the kids. My husband and I split halibut fish and chips. It became our new favorite fish on this trip and we took advantage of ordering it where ever it was on the menu. We had time to explore the vistor's center. The park has a nice waiting area for all the park buses. 12 people for Jennifer's tour upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness tour. The rest of the bus was filled with guests from the other 2 tour buses.

The twins tolerated the long day very well. They both had binoculars and did a fine job of spotting animals and making up their own creatures. They had plenty to snack on. The boxed lunches contained: reindeer sausage, cheese, large sub roll, carrot sticks, potato chips, and trail mix. We also had bottled water.

The bus driver/tour guide, Cindy is a park treasure. She has a passion for this park and shows this through her colorful stories of the trees, animals and history. She works hard to keep the park clean during her travels there and her moto is "what you pack in, you pack out". The one thing that struck me about Denali more so than the bears was the vastness with no human intervention to be seen. It is amazing, just amazing.

Cindy told us we were fortunate to see the animals out because it had been so hot the week before they had been having fewer sightings. We saw a male and female bear scuffling. Our bus had stopped on the side of the road to view this along with 2 other buses. The male bear then crossed the road at the end of our bus and we got a great view of him.

A few miles down the road, we spied a mother bear and her 2 cubs.

Enjoyed your story and the photos.:)

After a long and rewarding 9 hour bus ride seeing Dall sheep, moose, caribou, and bear, Cindy drove us to Grande Denali Lodge. It was after 10PM, Jennifer was waiting for us at the lodge, gave us our room keys, and told us she asked the restaurant to stay open for us. The lodge has great views.

I initially thought I would need to add more excursions to the land portion, like river rafting and gold panning. I am glad I didn't. We needed the down time to rest. It was a little difficult to stay in 6 hotels in 6 nights. We had a hard time finding which luggage we packed clothes in until we got on the Radiance. I feel I picked diverse activities hitting the highlights that are Alaska.

I didn't add any additional excursions in Talkeetna and Alyeska.

Day 3 Monday We spent early afternoon on the train to Talkeetna. The seats were full this day. Another tour was added to one of the cars. Our train guide wasn't as interesting as Brady but he was a nice fellow. We had a delicious lunch in the dining car.

We arrived at Talkeetna train depot and Steve was waiting for us to take us to Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge. This is a very nice hotel and the beds very comfortable. The hotel is beautiful with out of the way relaxing nooks. We had a room with a view towards Denali. In the evening we could see the base, clouds around the middle and the peak showing through. The Lodge has a service you can request: a Denali sighting alert call. We requested it but did not get a call. You can see the view of that morning or the lack of.

Great pictures. I am really enjoying your review. Hope someday to make it up to Alaska to see it for myself but until then keep the pictures coming.

Talkeetna continued: Steve, our bus driver always had our luggage in the rooms when we got there. The lodge has a complimentary shuttle to a parking lot at the edge of the town. It leaves every 30 minutes from the front of the lodge but stops running early at 8PM. The distance to walk from the edge of town to the hotel is exactly 2 miles on a paved walking path. Cost of a taxi from Fairview Inn, a bar with karaoke, was $3 per person. We had dinner in the Twisted Creek restaurant next to Denali Brewing Company. The beer was good and atmosphere loud.

Tuesday, Day 4

We had until 4PM in Talkeetna. This morning gave us a chance to sleep in. We had a late breakfast at The Roadhouse. Great food and plenty of it.

I am enjoying your review. I wondered about the pancakes your niece and nephew have. They did not get a plate?

They look like the are the size of Alaska.:)

Next we strolled through Talkeetna browsing through the shops. Top priority for today was to visit the Ranger station. The kids really enjoyed this center. Rangers are available to answer any questions. They have nice restrooms and have a large inviting room with comfy chairs to relax and the kids can look at displays of hiking boots, animal skulls and claws, and the history of Denali. We watched a film about the dangers of climbing Denali(Mt. Mckinnley). I recommend visiting the Ranger station and it is free. Next we walked to the river.

This is an awesome review and photos! We loved our Alaska landtour and cruise and would love to do it again someday (too many places on the east coast to still see). Especially now that we have better cameras!

Looking forward to more!

Great pictures. I am really enjoying your review. Hope someday to make it up to Alaska to see it for myself but until then keep the pictures coming.

The pictures bring back great memories, glad you enjoy.

I am enjoying your review. I wondered about the pancakes your niece and nephew have. They did not get a plate?

 

They look like the are the size of Alaska.:)

We had to eat some of the pancake to find the plate.:D The wild berry pancake was delicious.

This is an awesome review and photos! We loved our Alaska landtour and cruise and would love to do it again someday (too many places on the east coast to still see). Especially now that we have better cameras!

 

Looking forward to more!

On my bucket list includes east coast cruise and Panama canal cruise. My husband and I also have said once are list is done, we will start again and first is Alaska

Tuesday late afternoon, we boarded the Wilderness Express one last time and enjoyed mountain views while eating dinner down stairs. Brady was our train guide again. Talkeetna to Anchorage is his usual tour. If you are on the Wilderness Express, I hope you are lucky enough to have him. We is a wealth of information.

The train makes a stop in Wasilla. We got to stop longer than is usual. An issue with baggage car behind the second engine caused about an hour stop. No complaints here, great views, great new friends, family, and an excellent bartender.

We arrived in Anchorage 45 minutes late. Steve was patiently waiting to take us to Anchorage Downtown Marriott. This is a very nice hotel with the most comfortable beds so far this trip. One down side, no free wifi. I had made ressie's for Glacier House Brewery for 8:30PM. Once I knew we were going to be late on the train, we called and they moved the time to 9:30. We walked to the restaurant and saw the live art exhibit of the pacman and ghost on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.

The restaurant was full with people waiting but the hostess had our table waiting for us. I had made ressie through open table. The service was great. We were still full from diner so we ordered drinks and dessert. They had the best peanut butter pie. We went to bed early because we had to be up early for quick breakfast and the Anchorage Museum and Planetarium movie about the Northern Lights/aurora borealis.

Day 5 Wednesday

The Museum is a quick easy walk from the hotel. We stopped on the way at Dark horse coffee. They have pastries, bagels, and breakfast sandwiches and oatmeal. This seems to be the spot for locals to get coffee, chat and read the paper before heading to work. The museum opened at 9AM. The one morning we don't take our rain coats because I trusted the weather forecast, it rains, not heavy but rain. The museum has interesting. I liked the exhibits on Alaskan tribal clothing and their accessories(as my daughter puts it). The twins liked the kids interactive science center.

The inside of the pipeline. My husband and I learned a lot about Alaska in 90 minutes.

At 10:30AM, we had tickets for the planetarium show, Experience the Aurora. This was a 25 minute film about the Northern Lights as captured through time lapse photography. I thought this would be a good way to see something of Alaska that we could only see in winter. My brother fell asleep. He said it was so dark with the stars out that it was the darkest it had been all week. After that show, we exited the museum, grabbed some reindeer sausage subs at a place next to Dark horse coffee and took them back to eat in my brother's hotel room. We boarded the bus to Alyeska at 11:45AM.