Radiance of the Seas 5/17-5/26 review

Hi! My husband and I recently sailed on the Radiance of the Seas from 5/17-5/26 for our first Alaskan cruise and it did not disappoint!! I got so many tips from the forum here when planning that I wanted to give a quick review on the excursions and places we ate, etc. We were most excited about eating in the ports and we utilized Yelp to find restaurants. Also, for those on the Radiance, they no longer have "Rita's crab house", and the Rita's Cantina wasn't being utilized either.

We opted for an aft-facing balcony and I couldn't have been more happy about that. 180 degree views. If you can get one of those, I highly recommended. We didn't have to push around upstairs on the deck getting pictures because we were able to see both sides of the ship.

5/17 -- we departed from Vancouver and there were I think 3 other ships that were departing this day also. It was a NIGHTMARE in customs. My tip is to get there very early. We flew in the same day (living on the edge ;)) from Charlotte and arrived to Vancouver around 11:30 AM. There was a long line going through customs at the airport, which took almost an hour to get through. We got a cab and made it to the port at almost 2PM and did not get on the boat until 5PM. We waited 3 hours standing basically going through the cruise ship terminal. We are both young, 30, and this was tiring for us especially after traveling all day. I know for certain this was difficult on many other travelers that were a lot older than us, or needed assistive devices, etc. Looking back I would have flown in a day earlier and got to the pier ASAP in the AM.

5/18 -- this was a cruising day for us. In the AM we cruised through Misty Fjords and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Clear and sunny. It was beautiful. So many pictures. Seeing this was exactly what I envisioned an Alaska cruise to be.

5/19 -- We arrived to Ketchikan. Weather again was perfect and sunny. There were I think 3 or 4 other ships here, so it was a busy port. Such a cute town. We did the Lumberjack show with Saxman village tour from the ship. It was fun, but we were only in port 6 hours and that ate up so much of our time, I would have rather skipped a tour here and just walked around and enjoyed the town. The lumberjack show was OK. Definitely cheesy, but family friendly for those with little ones. You can actually just go straight to the show and book that once you are in port if you want and not have to through the ship to do that. Saxman totem village was smaller than I imagined, and while very cool to see these Totem poles, for us once we saw one we were good on Totems for the trip. The tour only spent about 30 min here, which was plenty enough time, as it is very small. For dinner we ate at this AMAZING seafood restaurant on the pier called Bar Harbor. We ate so many mussels. YUM. Definitely recommend.

5/20 -- Sitka. Weather was typical Alaska this day. It was cold and rainy. Early that AM the fog didn't set it yet and we were able to get good pictures of the mountains and scenery, but later in the day it was almost impossible as it was so foggy everywhere. We didn't have an excursion this day and walked around town. We ate at Bayview Pub and had the best Halibut fish and chips we had (all trip). Good beers on tap as well.

5/21 -- Haines. Again, weather was typical Alaska. Rainy with occasional breaks. Definitely foggy and didn't get much in terms of pictures this day. No excursion here. Haines was a small town. We went to the brewery, which was nice (cash only btw) and the distillery.

5/22 -- Skagway. This was one of my favorite places! Gold rush town with false building fronts. Weather was chilly, but clear and perfect. We did the White Pass Yukon train to the summit and with biking back down (booked through cruise). Unbelievable!! The train up was of course gorgeous, but nothing compared to biking down the summit and really seeing the sights. I would do this again x 100. If you are looking for an excursion, you will NOT regret this one. It was a 15 mile bike down, and mostly all downhill so no effort was needed really. It was about 20 degrees colder at the summit, so definitely dress warm. Pictures do not do justice on how beautiful this was. So many waterfalls everywhere due to the previous few days of rain. Just amazing. We ate at Red Onion Saloon for lunch before the excursion and what a cute place! Definitely check it out, it is set up to be reminiscent of a saloon/brothel from the gold rush days. For dinner we ate at Skagway Fish Co for dinner. It's right by the cruise terminal, so it gets busy, but the King Crab was delicious. We also checked out the skagway brewery for some beers after our excursion.

5/23 -- Juneau. Perfect weather again today! Chilly, but clear. We booked an excursion with Adventure Flow for a hike on the west glacier trail to see the Mendenhall glacier. I HIGHLY recommend these guys. They were recommended to us by friends that used them on their cruise last year. You end with a really intimate and small hike. It was actually just my husband & I on this hike with the guide so it was like our own personalized hike. The guide, Eric, was SO knowledgeable and was super easy to talk with for the whole hike, which was just under 6 miles round trip. Amazing views. This was one of the highlights of our trip. After the hike, they took use to the Alaskan Brewery where we had beers before being dropped back off at the dock. We ate king crab (Again!) at Tracy's King Crab shack by the ship. SOOO good.

5/24-- Icy Strait/Hoonah. Again, beautiful day. We booked a whale watching tour through Hoonah Travel Adventures, although the whales were all around the ship and we saw just as many from our balcony as we did on the excursion because the excursion took us right beside the ship to see the whales LOL. However, I am glad we did this because we were able to appreciate the size of the humpbacks being so close down to the water with them as opposed to our cruise balcony. We also saw sea lions. Humpbacks did breech two times during our tour, but it was so fast almost no one got a picture. They come out a lot to eat. We were here for a short time so we really only had time to do the excursion and grab one beer at the brewery there (which was not that great IMO).

5/25 -- cruising/hubbard glacier. This was AMAZING. We got as close as the captain could get us to the face of the glacier. Weather was nice and we got some great pictures. There was ice all around us! The glacier cruising was that AM with the rest of day left to a day at sea.

It was an amazing trip and we had a great time. I will say re: the ship itself it was an OK ship. As many had said before, you don't go to Alaska for the ship and you just have to remember that. Our room was fine and the balcony was huge. We've been on all Caribbean cruises in the past and the entertainment on this boat was far below what were used to expectation wise. The comedians were dry in our opinion and the entertainment was average. We don't really care too much about that, but for those that do enjoy great entertainment, I would lower your standards a bit for this particular boat. Have an AWESOME trip!!!

Glad you had an amazing cruise. Thanks for your detailed feedback.

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I'm glad to hear that you had a wonderful Alaska cruise. I'd never heard of a cruise ship that went to Misty Fjord. Was that on an excursion? Also, I was under the impression that the first sailing on Radiance wasn't until June 2nd. Did they change or add itineraries?

Misty Fjord was part of the itinerary and the Radiance I was on left on 5/17. I'm not sure if that was the first of the season for them or second.

I was also on this sailing and the Crew commented that this was their first trip of the season in Alaska. They left Australia and came through Hawaii before this first cruise to Alaska.

Thanks so much for the feedback - sounds like you had a wonderful time! We are sailing on Radiance late in the AK season this year.

What was going on in the Rita's Cantina space? Also, was there continuous and easy access to the aft/outdoor Windjammer seating?

Just extra seating for Windjammer in the Rita's Cantina space that I saw. You could access the open air space at the back as well.

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Thank you so much for posting your review! I will be on the first Radiance Alaska cruise this time next year and I can hardly wait! I am trying to get as much information as possible.

I'm curious if there will be the same amount of ships in Vancouver on our sail away day. From what I've read it is definitely a nightmare to deal with and I'm really dreading that! We will have to plan on going as early as possible that day!

I can't wait to read all of this years Alaska reviews!