Radiance Alaska Review (WITH LOTS OF PHOTOS)

[DT1304]

Daniel, so glad you had a great trip!

 

Cheers

Di

 

Hi Di,

 

Great to hear from you. Loved your email describing your cruise to Hawaii. ANZAC day ship announcements and your beach experiences sounded interesting. :eek:

 

This Alaska cruise was great, and radiance was fantastic again. Now I need to start planning the next one. Would love to do the reverse of the trans pacific that you did.

[reigle4]

Thank you

[Peeker28]

subscribing

[cruzinlady1947]

Really enjoyed the review and pictures on the first page of this thread. But, from page 2 on, I can no longer see your pictures. I don't think anyone else is having problems. Does anyone know what the problem could be?

 

 

This is what I get instead of the pictures. Don't know why I got them on page 1, but not the other pages.

 

Thanks,

Gwen :)

[Clarea]

Really enjoyed the review and pictures on the first page of this thread. But, from page 2 on, I can no longer see your pictures. I don't think anyone else is having problems. Does anyone know what the problem could be?

 

 

This is what I get instead of the pictures. Don't know why I got them on page 1, but not the other pages.

 

Thanks,

Gwen :)

I'm seeing this on all pages now. Could be that this review is so popular that the Photobucket bandwidth was exceeded.

[cruzinlady1947]

I'm seeing this on all pages now. Could be that this review is so popular that the Photobucket bandwidth was exceeded.

Thanks. Never had this happen before.

 

Gwen :)

[DT1304]

That's strange.

I just received an email that I have reached my bandwidth limit on photobucket but I have not added any extra photos.

 

I will try sort it out later this morning.

 

Glad you all enjoying it.

[DT1304]

That's strange.

I just received an email that I have reached my bandwidth limit on photobucket but I have not added any extra photos.

 

I will try sort it out later this morning.

 

Glad you all enjoying it.

 

Okay, I have sorted it out.

 

I have never used photobucket before this review, and was not aware that when my uploaded photos are viewed it also counts towards my bandwidth. I thought it was only the storage of photos that counted.

 

I am flattered that so many of you have looked at my photos.

 

I have purchased more bandwidth so it should all be sorted out now. Let me know if you all still having trouble viewing the photos.

[emeraldcity]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. I'm truly enjoying it. Alaska is the only state I haven't visited and I'm itching to do a cruise there, but have never been quite able to make it work. I had it booked about 5 years ago and had to cancel due to a commitment that arose later.

[DT1304]

Okay,no guarantees about how much of Juneau I will get done today, but lets see what I can get to.....

 

 

We had a full day in Juneau. We docked long before I woke up, and were only scheduled to leave at 8:30pm. It was a bit cold and rainy this day. This was the weather I was expecting for the entire cruise so had packed for it. In fact I had done the usual, and overpacked to such a degree that not only did we go to Wallmart and buy another bag to bring home all the things we bought, but in each hotel we stayed at, and on the ship, I landed up leaving some of my clothes behind to make room and weight restrictions for the new purchases.

 

Don't ever say I did not do everything I could to contribute to the US economy!!!

 

I only had one excursion booked for this day, which I booked through the ship, and planned to spend the rest of the day doing my own thing.

 

I had booked the Liarsville gold panning and salmon bake for Skagway, but after reading reviews on here and on tripadvisor, I switched it up, and booked the Gold creek salmon bake and gold panning adventure in Juneau instead. I was told that it is more "real" in Juneau, while the Liarsville salmon bake and gold panning is recreated for the tourists.

 

We got picked up at about 8:30am, and took a short drive through Juneau while en route to the gold panning. Our tour guide was great, keeping us entertained all along the way. And the scenery was superb.

 

We had everything explained to us about the history of the gold rush, and how to pan for gold, and then we all got our pans and got to work...

 

 

 

This started off as alot of fun. The the pain set in.... I do not recall the last time my hands were ever that cold. By the time the numbness overrode the pain, we started having fun again. Heck I could not feel anything at this stage anyway, so we just kept at it.

 

 

Of course every pan had been prefilled with sand, so everyone found some gold, some more than others. We did pretty well, and my kids loved the fact that they got to take home what they found in a small vial. My son was already calculating what he could get for it if he sold it, and what he was going to spend his fortune on. (They were selling larger vials with much more gold in them at the gift shop at the salmon bake for a couple of dollars, but I made sure my son did not see that. I figured I would let him think he struck it rich!)

 

After the gold panning, we got back into the bus, and made our way to the Gold Creek Salmon bake.

 

Now just to recap, I do not eat seafood. My wife and daughter love seafood, and salmon in particular, so this was for them. Ever since seeing the Gold Creek Salmon bake on "Top Chef" my wife insisted that we go to a salmon bake when in Alaska.

 

We got off the bus at the salmon bake and were told that we would not get on the same bus back with the guide, but where we would catch the free shuttle back to town.

 

The Salmon bake caters to folks like me, who dont eat seafood, by offering chicken. There are of course all the salads and deserts too.

 

The setting where the salmon bake is is truly magnificent. You could not ask for a better spot. It was really beautiful...

 

 

How magnificent is this for a setting for lunch....

 

 

After getting off the bus, we decided that we would not go straight to eat, but got a small cup of chowder, which even I really enjoyed, and then took a walk round the back, about a few hundred meters to a beautiful waterfall.

 

I am a sucker for natural beauty, and it got to a stage by the end of the cruise, where my elder daughter had a great time mocking me every time we saw any waterfalls. I think I have photos of every waterfall in Alaska!!!

 

It was a really nice, easy, short walk, and then we made our way back for lunch.

 

As for the salmon bake itself, I started with the chicken and salad, but then also went back for a piece of salmon. I could not be there and not try it. I must say that some of the salads were okay, and the beer was great! The chicken and salmon, not so much. Even my wife and daughter who are salmon lovers, did not enjoy it.

 

I had been pre warned that if we wanted good quality food we should rather go to a restaurant but we wanted to experience a salmon bake. Would I do it again? Absolutely not. I would rather just book the gold panning adventure portion of this tour on its own, and then go somewhere else for lunch.

 

We had a chat with our cabin neighbours, who had done their own tour but happened to arrive at the Salmon bake just as we were finishing, and then went to catch the bus back to the ship.

 

Next post will have some more Salmon bake pics...

[stewartmamone1]

So loving this review!!!! We will also be doing the Vancouver Northbound Itinerary next June and this is awesome to see and get photo ideas!!! Great review on all your stops and really enjoy your sense of humor and adventure, definitely staying tuned for more.

 

Thanks for the wonderful pictures and comments!!

 

I agree this has been the best review that I have seen on here. You were extremly detail and your pictures are excellent. Thanks for keeping us informed.

 

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Forums mobile app

[avalon007]

Great review.

 

If you didn't have kids do you think you would still do the gold panning?

 

As a fellow Aussie, how did you find the tipping in Alaska & Canada, did you carry lots of small notes, who did you tip etc?

 

This is always a real worry for me, as we Australians are used to things just costing what they cost, having to try & be constantly aware of this tipping concept is draining!

 

But at the same time I don't want to offend anyone or create hardship for them by not tipping, it's not their fault their wages are lower & the system requires tips to bring it up to our wage standards.:)

[DT1304]

The waterfall at the salmon bake....

 

 

 

After we got back to the cruise ship, I wanted to go to Mendenhall Glacier. I did not want a full tour, so just used the advice I got on these forums, and booked my own shuttle. $8 per person each way.

 

Many of the reviews I read said that it is better to book a one way ticket, because then you can just hop on any shuttle to come back and pay the driver at the time for the return trip. If you book a return ticket, you have to wait for the correct shuttle to come by.

 

I looked at all the tourist booths along the pier, and there were lots of them, and decided to go with the one that was the least pushy. They were all the same price. She tried to sell me a return ticket and said that her shuttles are there every 15 minutes so there would not be a long wait, but I decided on just getting the one way.

 

It just so happens that her shuttles were there every 15 minutes, and we landed up returning with one of her shuttles anyway.

 

The drive out to Mendenhall Glacier was good fun because we had a driver that was INSANE!!!! We could not stop laughing at all his stories and comments along the way. In fact the lady that brought us back even commented that the other driver is crazy, with all his stories.

 

We drove out to mendenhall Glacier, got out the shuttle, and my jaw almost hit the floor. The sight of that Glacier was amazing. The blue colour was amazing. I was in total awe. It was cold and raining, but that did not dampen the mood, no pun intended.

 

These next 2 photos were taken from the visitors centre, where the shuttle dropped us off. Unfortunately they do not do the sight justice, and with the rainy conditions the light was not superb for good photos...

 

 

 

Here is a close up of the wall of the glacier...

 

 

I had planned to take the walk down the trail to Nugget Falls, and we could see the falls in the distance, but I was pretty sure my family would not want to do it in the rain. To my surpise they did want to do it, and we set off down the train.

 

My daugher was totally freaked out the entire walk because she was afraid we would come across a bear. The trail is a well maintained path right to the falls, and there were so many people walking along the path in both directions, that I figured the chances of seeing a bear were pretty small. And I was right. No bears anywhere to be see. My son was not happy!!!

 

We got to the stunning waterfalls after a short easy walk, and were amazed by the sheer force of the water. It was a great sight to see, with the magnificent backdrop of the glacier and small icebergs in the water around us.

 

We spent a little time there before making the walk back to get the shuttle back to the ship.

 

I must admit, that the weather played a role in our decision for the first time on the trip. If it was not for the cold, driving rain, we would have stayed there much longer.

 

I can only post 6 photos on each post, and have some photos from Mendenhall Glacier that I would really love to share, so the next post will only contain photos...

Edited June 25, 2013 by DT1304

[DT1304]

 

 

 

 

 

Looking back at the Nugget Falls while walking back to get the shuttle...

 

[DT1304]

 

 

 

We got back and had a 5 minute wait for the next shuttle to come by and pick us up.

 

We happened to go on the "white bus" but there have been lots of references on cruise critic to the "blue bus". As mentioned before, they are all the same price so just make a decision when you book your shuttle tickets. Here is a pic of the white bus that we just got off, back in town, with the blue bus just ahead of it...

 

 

We did a little bit of walking around, and just did some shopping. Everywhere I looked I saw people walking around with "Alaska Shirt Co." bags, so we went in there and made sure we contributed by filling up our own bags with more shopping.

 

Another photo while just walking around Juneau...

 

 

Before the cruise I had decided I wanted to go to the Red Dog Salloon. I contacted them to make a reservation for lunch, but they emailed me back to say that they do not take reservations, but that I should not worry, a 4 or 5 ship day is not busy, and I may have to wait 15 minutes at the most.

 

It just so happens that with us booking the salmon bake, we did not need to go there for lunch, but I still wanted to stop by at least for a quick beer. Just so I could say I had a beer at the Red Dog Saloon!

 

[Tkaklita]

Fascinating, Riveted and Beautiful your photos are. My camera and I are itching to get there ;)

 

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Forums mobile app

[DT1304]

Red Dog Saloon was great fun. They had a really good live country singer playing and the waitresses were singing along as they worked.

 

We waited 5 minutes for a table and went in for a beer and hot chocolate for the kids. I looked at the menu and must say that I am sorry that we went to the salmon bake rather than eating lunch at the Red Dod. It looked delicious.

 

 

The sign above our table...

 

 

By now it was starting to get a little closer to boarding time, so we started heading back to the ship. It was a very short 3 minute walk from Red Dog Saloon.

 

My son could not believe that he still not spotted a bear yet, but he came close.....

 

 

When we first looked at options for excursions in juneau, one of the excursions we looked at was the Mt Roberts Tramway. Thanks to this site I saw that you do not need to worry about getting tickets, and you can easily get them on the day you are there.

 

This saved us some dollars, because we decided it was not worth going up the mountain in the rainy weather because we would not get much of a good view. The Mt Roberts Tramway station was right outside my cabin balcony....

 

 

We got on board by 8pm, one of the last to board, and figured I would watch us sail away and go a few minutes late to dinner in the MDR. Fortunately it was casual night (a well thought out plan with us leaving so late) so I could sit and watch us sail away without having to go get all dressed up for dinner.

 

Unfortunately there was a small technical problem with the ships thrusters, so we were delayed in getting away, so I never got to watch it. I was already in the MDR when we eventually set sail.

 

Juneau was great. I loved the trip to Mendenhall Glacier, and could only imagine what was in store for us at Hubbard Glacier (or Exit Glacier which I knew we would walk right up to) if I loved this one so much.

 

Tomorrow we would be in Skagway, where my two elder kids and I had an early start because we had a zipline and tree tops adventure booked early in the morning.

 

I end off this post, and Juneau, with some more food porn. Some deserts...

 

 

[Dreamer115]

Thank you so much for doing this, I can't wait until we can go to Alaska. We are heading to Hawaii on the Radiance this September, but I am pretty sure we will be going to Alaska in 2014 or the latest 2015.

 

Thanks again, waiting (patiently??) for more.:D

[DT1304]

I agree this has been the best review that I have seen on here. You were extremly detail and your pictures are excellent. Thanks for keeping us informed.

 

Sent from my SCH-I605 using Forums mobile app

 

It is my pleasure. Thank you so much for the compliment.

 

I wish I had kept things like the cruise compasses etc and I have also thrown out all my receipts etc so I am giving as much detail as I can remember.

[DT1304]

Great review.

 

If you didn't have kids do you think you would still do the gold panning?

 

As a fellow Aussie, how did you find the tipping in Alaska & Canada, did you carry lots of small notes, who did you tip etc?

 

This is always a real worry for me, as we Australians are used to things just costing what they cost, having to try & be constantly aware of this tipping concept is draining!

 

But at the same time I don't want to offend anyone or create hardship for them by not tipping, it's not their fault their wages are lower & the system requires tips to bring it up to our wage standards.:)

 

Those are some great questions.

 

With regards to the gold panning, I do not think i would do it without kids. There were heaps of people on the tours that were doing their gold panning and having lots of fun, and they never had kids with them, but from my perspective, there are so many other things to see and do that I could not do here, that I would rather do those things.

 

If (or when) I go back to Alaska, it would probably be without kids, and then I would do more excursions that involved flightseeing or helicopter rodes to glaciers etc.

 

The tipping issue is very interesting. I tried to get informatio n about what the tipping culture is in canada, but could not get any responses in time, so treated Canada the same way as I did USA in terms of tipping.

 

It is a strange concept to get your head arround when you come from a place where there is no tipping culture.

 

On the ship, the 15% gratuity is automatically added to all charges (for drinks etc) and then I just rounded that up, the amount dependent on the quality of service received. So they always got between 17 and 22% gratuity.

 

For excursions the tips varied. I did not tip a % based on the price of the excursion. The whale watching excursion for 5 of us was over $800. I could not imagine then paying a 15% gratuity over and above that.

 

On the gold panning tour I think I gave about $10 tip. On the zip line tour I also gave about $10 I think.

 

In Seward, the tour guide was really good and I gave him $20. I really dont know if I under tipped or over tipped, but all the responses I got were very grateful.

 

I prepaid all my tips on the ship for cabin attendants, waiters etc. I was really so impressed with the waiter and his assistant, and I gave them an extra $40 each. That seemed like a great tip for me. Whether that is considered too much or too little I really don't know.

 

Also on prices, something that was really weird for me, is that nothing costs what it is marked because of tax. I am used to paying what I see on the tag, where tax is included.

[cruzinlady1947]

Okay, I have sorted it out.

 

I have never used photobucket before this review, and was not aware that when my uploaded photos are viewed it also counts towards my bandwidth. I thought it was only the storage of photos that counted.

 

I am flattered that so many of you have looked at my photos.

 

I have purchased more bandwidth so it should all be sorted out now. Let me know if you all still having trouble viewing the photos.

Thank you....this review is so much better when you can see the pictures.;) But, your style of writing is great. Really enjoying this review. I will probably never get to cruise Alaska, but seeing it through your review, seems like "almost" being there. I said "almost". I still want to see it in person someday. It is on my bucket list. Loved the story of your daughter with the lumberjacks. Wish it would have been me....:p

 

Thanks again

Gwen :)

[molsonschooner]

really enjoying this review. We are on this ship in 31 days. Hope we have as good a time as you did.

[avalon007]

Those are some great questions.

 

With regards to the gold panning, I do not think i would do it without kids. There were heaps of people on the tours that were doing their gold panning and having lots of fun, and they never had kids with them, but from my perspective, there are so many other things to see and do that I could not do here, that I would rather do those things.

 

If (or when) I go back to Alaska, it would probably be without kids, and then I would do more excursions that involved flightseeing or helicopter rodes to glaciers etc.

 

The tipping issue is very interesting. I tried to get informatio n about what the tipping culture is in canada, but could not get any responses in time, so treated Canada the same way as I did USA in terms of tipping.

 

It is a strange concept to get your head arround when you come from a place where there is no tipping culture.

 

On the ship, the 15% gratuity is automatically added to all charges (for drinks etc) and then I just rounded that up, the amount dependent on the quality of service received. So they always got between 17 and 22% gratuity.

 

For excursions the tips varied. I did not tip a % based on the price of the excursion. The whale watching excursion for 5 of us was over $800. I could not imagine then paying a 15% gratuity over and above that.

 

On the gold panning tour I think I gave about $10 tip. On the zip line tour I also gave about $10 I think.

 

In Seward, the tour guide was really good and I gave him $20. I really dont know if I under tipped or over tipped, but all the responses I got were very grateful.

 

I prepaid all my tips on the ship for cabin attendants, waiters etc. I was really so impressed with the waiter and his assistant, and I gave them an extra $40 each. That seemed like a great tip for me. Whether that is considered too much or too little I really don't know.

 

Also on prices, something that was really weird for me, is that nothing costs what it is marked because of tax. I am used to paying what I see on the tag, where tax is included.

 

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

I know what you mean about the tax added at the checkout, many years ago in the US I recall this happening, you feel rather ripped off, but I didn't have to deal with tipping that trip as we stayed with friends mostly.

 

I'm good with the ships tipping & we usually give them a little additional as well as the prepaid gratuities if service was good.

 

It's on land that I will encounter problems as I'm used to just paying what something costs & walking away with a smile & a thanks, it's so easy to forget they are wanting you to add a few dollars to that!

 

Plus, how do you keep enough small notes to tip, I could see you ending up having to tip $20 when you only wanted to tip $10 for example. I don't think asking for change would be the done thing! :D

 

People say how cheap things are in America, but when you add on taxes or tipping etc it isn't the deal you thought it was sometimes. Why can't they just say this tour is $140 instead of $120 plus tax plus tips etc.

 

Oh well, I will try my best but I'm sure someone, somewhere on this trip is going to think I'm a cheapskate because I simply forgot to tip! :eek:

[DT1304]

Thanks again to all of you for your kind comments.

 

I will keep moving along and see how far i manage to get to today....

 

We were heading into our last port for the cruise (not including Seward where we get off the ship), Skagway, but unfortunately we had an early departure, at about 4:30pm.

 

You will recall that I had 2 cabins for this cruise, but due to availablility (and cost) I booked my balcony cabin and an interior cabin near by.

 

We had an early start upon arrival at Skagway, with a zipline tour booked for my two older kids and myself. My youngest daughter did not meet the minimum weight requirement, so she stayed with my wife for the morning.

 

Because of the early start, I spent the night in the interior cabin with the 2 kids and arranged for an early wake up call, while I left my wife and daughter to sleep in a little in the other cabin.

 

We went for a quick breakfast and then made our way to the end of the pier where all the various excursions were being picked up.

 

There were 2 NCL ships and a Princess ship in port that day, so there was no shortage of people!

 

I had booked this zipline tour through the ship excursions.

 

We got picked up and taken through Skagway, and up the highway towards the zipline course. The guides were all young mountaineers mostly from the East Coast, that were in Alaska for the Summer, working as guides for the ziplining etc.

 

They did not offer the same "polished" tour guide explanation of things as we drove around and I believe that is because being young guys just there for Summer work, I dont think they knew enough or had enough experience in that regard.

 

I have no complaints about the tour itself, I just wanted to point out their lack of experience when it comes to narrating a tour.

 

Having said that, their attention to detail, safety requirements, knowledge of the tree tops course and the entire zip line process was great. We enjoyed the tour, and would book it again if we returned.

 

The tour is done in small groups, so there were about 12 of us. This ensured that there were no long waits at each zip line platform for your turn to "fly" to the next platform.

 

The views through the tree tops, and of the mountains in the distance were superb.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While we were on this excursion, my wife and youngest daughter did their own self guided walking tour around Skagway.

 

I had planned to meet them back at the windjammer for lunch at 12:30pm as we had another excursion booked from 1:30pm.

 

Skagway is a beautiful little town and I would have loved the opportunity to walk around and explore more, but as we were leaving at 4:30pm I would not have time. I had to experience Skagway from the window of the bus taking us to the zip line course and then from the bus on the next excursion.

 

I am glad my wife had the opportunity to look around, because she then knew where to go when the other excursion dropped us back in town, to show me things that she knew I would be interested in. (as we would only have a half hour os so before we had to get back to the ship)

 

For some strange reason this is one of the places she thought I would like.....

 

[avalon007]

.......I am glad my wife had the opportunity to look around, because she then knew where to go when the other excursion dropped us back in town, to show me things that she knew I would be interested in. (as we would only have a half hour os so before we had to get back to the ship)

 

For some strange reason this is one of the places she thought I would like.....

 

 

 

We have only just met you & know for sure it would be on your 'like' list! :D