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Trip Report: Radiance July 2016 A Whale of A Time!

cruisingwithcarrie

By cruisingwithcarrie,
in Alaska

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cruisingwithcarrie

cruisingwithcarrie

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Day 3:

 

Our morning began with either a heavy mist. I’ve been to Ketchikan twice before, so I expected it to rain pretty much non-stop while we were there. But, just like the rest of our cruise, the sky turned out beautiful that day!

 

Rather reluctantly, I was signed up for a Wildlife Tour and Crabfeast excursion, booked through RCCL. I say reluctantly because I HATE crowds. I avoid them as much as I can, particularly on small boats. More on that excursion later.

 

Anyway, we had breakfast in the Windjammer. It was good. They had pretty much the same thing daily, with a few things that changed each morning (like the vegetarian options). Finding a table is tough when everyone is up there, particularly when there’s a need for a 5-top table. I was really frustrated with the parties of 2 who would sit at a 6-top table, just so they could sit near the window. Towards the middle of the cruise, we figured out that when you walk in, head left towards the windows and then make another left near the windows, that there’s another room back there complete with its own coffee bar. We always seemed to find a table there big enough for all of us. We didn’t care about a window seat. We just wanted a seat.

 

We ran to the room to grab our bags and off we went. We walked up the ramp and to the right of the ramp folks with signs directed us to numbered busses. We boarded our bus and we were off. We were treated to a guided tour as we headed to the lodge and dock.

 

When we arrived, we found that there was a VERY steep stairwell with something like 70 steps down to the dock. We traveled with my mom who has mobility issues. Her knees just don’t work. So, they had a van that took her down to the dock, which was great, however and we waited for her (plus we were the last off the bus), so we were among the last to board the boat that held about 30 people. Our party was separated for the tour. This is one reason I don’t like small boats with a lot of people onboard (relative to the size of the boat). My mom, daughter, and I sat in the last row on the starboard side. My sister and her husband had to sit two rows in front of us. I know this is a gripe, but hopefully others who take this tour will have a heads up and they will know to try to get down to the dock early to secure seats if you want your party to be together. My other gripe was that we were directly under a speaker and they had it turned up way too loud. I sat with my fingers in my ears for a long time. It seems they turned it down about half way through the tour. I wonder if someone said something.

 

So, this tour consisted of a ride out to crabbing pots that they had placed previously. On the way, they stopped to call down 2 eagles by throwing fish in the water (I was sad to see that. I believe wild animals should just be left alone, not treated like a trained dog). There were two boats that went out and the eagles never came near us – they stayed near the other boat, which was also run by this company (I think). It looked like a smaller, chartered boat. Afterwards we spent time at the crabbing pots.

 

This is a very child-friendly excursion. Be warned that if you sit in the third to the last row, as my sister and her husband did, you will be in the way and/or you’ll have a 1st-row view of the presentation. My sister and her husband got up for photos at one point and others scooted into their seats, leaving them to stand in the back for a while. Again – a lot of people in a small space and everyone was just trying to see/take photos of their kids. Also, a heads up about sitting in the back: folks in the front opened windows, making it extremely cold and windy in the back. But, sitting in the back had its perks: we were the first ones outside and had better viewing spots than those who sat towards the front.

 

Once at the crab pots, they allowed folks to hold the crabs, they were very informative and talked a lot about the animals. They allowed one person to help haul up the pot (which was a lot of work and she got fairly wet!), and then the kids (adults were offered but everyone allowed the kids to do it) tossed the female crabs and the smaller crabs back into the water as they weren’t fit to eat. The poor male crabs made their way back to the lodge to become someone’s lunch. We then traveled back to the lodge.

 

Back at the lodge, we walked up the ramp and went inside. The lodge had been moved from another place and they told of a story where the man’s kids had to jump out on shore with flashlights to light the beach/property where the lodge would be moved to.

 

We walked into the lodge and they asked us how many people in our party, which was much nicer than the way we boarded the boat, so we were able to sit together. We were given hot apple cider and the tables were set with salads. We were told that the table who had the highest tower of crab shells would win something (noting that the top-most item had to be a part of the crab) and then the all-you-could-eat crab feast began. The crab was incredible! I live near San Francisco and we get Dungeness crab a lot. I know good crab. And this was excellent Dungeness crab! And it just kept coming. It was hot and fresh and just amazing. They also came around with drawn butter if you wanted more, and drinks, including beer, were included with your meal. The crab shell towers were quite tall, filled with cups on end, straws, and tiny bits of shell on the very top. I won’t spoil the reward, but I will say I was glad we didn’t win! LOL

 

The van took my mom back up to the bus-pick up and everyone else walked up the stairs. We headed back to town, where my mom, daughter, and I got off near the lumberjack show. We walked over to Creek Street. My sister and her husband went back to the ship and shopped out there. At Creek Street, there were men in two small boats who were pulling along a giant yellow bumper type thing. It had something to do with the annual Ketchikan rubber duck race the next day. We took our photos and walked towards the pier. It was getting fairly late, but we boarded a free public bus, which took us back to the ship. Along the way, it stopped at the Totem State Park for five minutes, so we could get out and take a photo.

 

Back at the ship, we just happened to walk right into my sister and her husband who were in line to get back on the ship. We rested the afternoon away, did a little shopping, and got ready for dinner. My daughter enjoyed time in the kids’ club. I should mention that the Adventure Ocean kids’ club was closed and all the kids (not teens) were shuffled into one area as they were working on Adventure Ocean. This lasted our entire cruise. She had a ball, anyway.

 

That evening, we had specialty dining arrangements at the Samba Grill. My daughter and I arrived on time, but the rest of our party was about 15 minutes late. It was pretty empty, though, so it wasn’t a problem. It was VERY windy outside, though, and the walk to the front door of the Samba Grill was cold and left us a bit disheveled. We started with salad from the salad bar (the brie was yummy) and then the parade of meats began. A side of vegetables was served, along with rolls we were told were gluten free. I found the meat to be extremely salty and to be honest, I would have been perfectly happy to have gone to the main dining room for dinner. The desserts were good. During the meal, we saw a whale from the window, so I ran out to take a photo. The service was great and afterwards, they led us to the service elevator that took us to the back of the Windjammer, so we wouldn’t have to walk outside in the wind. The sunset was absolutely spectacular, so I took a few photos and then called it a night.

 

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cruisingwithcarrie

cruisingwithcarrie

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Day 4:

 

Our fourth day also happened to be the 4th of July and my daughter’s birthday. I have to say, this was my most favorite day of the cruise. Actually, I think it was my most favorite cruise day ever.

 

The same day I booked our cruise, I booked a whale watching tour with F.I.S.H.E.S. out of Hoonah. Best decision I ever made! We woke up early, had our usual Windjammer breakfast, and got in line to get off of the ship.

 

Here, however, is my biggest gripe of our entire cruise. They had one golf cart taking those with mobility issues up the new ramp – which is considerably long (and steep at the time of our arrival). If you are not a part of an organized ship-purchased excursion, do NOT plan on getting on that golf cart. After waiting for quite some time, my mom finally walked all the way into town. Imagine, my mom with 2 very bad knees who struggles to walk across a room, much less up a ramp and all the way into the main part of Icy Strait, was flat out denied the right to ride the golf cart. The reason: they said she wasn’t old enough!! She is a senior citizen who has a legitimate handicap placard.

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to print the confirmation email from F.I.S.H.E.S. so I wasn’t sure where to meet them (totally my bad). After a little running around, I found Marjorie and she very patiently waited for me to bring my family to her, where she had a minivan waiting to take us to the docks in Hoonah. She was very personable and very sweetly gave my daughter a gift for her birthday.

 

We walked down the ramp (a bit steep, but not as bad on our return) to the boat and our Captain: Capt. Floyd. We said our goodbyes to Marjorie and we were on our way. The inside cabin had a dinette and a separate seat opposite the captain. We sat in there on the way out, but opted to stay outside in the benched seats (2) for our return trip. It took probably a good 20 minutes to get to the whales. Capt. Floyd kept in contact with other boat captains and he took us straight to the orca whales. My mom had mentioned how she had hoped to see orca and that was my dream too, and they certainly did NOT disappoint! We even saw an orca jump out of the water, twice. I got a photo of the second time, but it’s quite a distance away. We spent probably 1.5, maybe 2 hours watching the orca and then we headed towards the humpbacks, where again we were given quite the show with breeches. He also gave us a few tail flukes, and some rolling action in the kelp. We probably watched him for an hour or more.

 

Capt. Floyd then took us to a buoy full of sea lions, who reminded me a lot of the ones in Finding Dory! They were very comical! After the sea lions, we headed towards the sea otters. There were hundreds of them! In the distance, I saw another humpback. We then headed back to Hoonah, well past the 3-hour tour time. He did not rush, allowing us the most optimal viewing. Just phenomenal. I honestly can’t wait to go back and I will purposely choose an itinerary with Icy Strait specifically to book with F.I.S.H.E.S. again.

 

We had hoped to eat at the Cookhouse on the way back to the ship, but they had a long wait and we had early dinner reservations, so we skipped it and went back to the ship. On the way, we made our wishes as we threw wood chips into the fire pit. Since it was my daughter’s birthday, we let her play at the way-overpriced arcade for a bit. Afterwards, my daughter tried the rock wall for the first time ever and she made it to the top!

 

For her birthday dinner, we booked Giovanni’s. I was not at all hungry by dinner time, but we went anyway. My mom and I ordered the shrimp entrée and my sister and her husband ordered the steak. They made the better choice, by far. They said it was melt-in-your-mouth amazing. The shrimp were ok. Dinner was fine. I may have liked it better if I’d been hungry. The desserts were ok, too. My mom loved the tiramisu but I thought it tasted like cake batter. LOL Maybe it was just me.

 

We came back to the room to 2 towel animals – a regular one and a cake, decorated with stars that I’d hung in the room that morning. It was very cute! Afterwards, we headed to the centrum, where they had a 4th of July dance party. It was lively and good fun and my daughter had a ball in the center of if all (I know it’s blurry, but that would be one of the staff who jumped into the crowd!). At the very end, they dropped a ton of balloons from the ceiling, since no fireworks are allowed over the water in Alaska (so we were told). Eventually I’ll have video of that up. That was the end to our unbelievably great day!

 

I have over 100 photos on my blog from just this day alone. Here are a few. Check out my blog for more whale photos (it took me several hours just to upload these to photo bucket, so I'm only posting a few here).

 

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

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Once again thanks so much, Carrie, for your great review and fantastic pictures!

 

Wow, that picture you took of the breaching Humpback whale was perfect! National

Geographic wow type! :D

 

I have just over two weeks to go to be back on Radiance. :)

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cruisingwithcarrie

cruisingwithcarrie

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Once again thanks so much, Carrie, for your great review and fantastic pictures!

 

Wow, that picture you took of the breaching Humpback whale was perfect! National

Geographic wow type! :D

 

I have just over two weeks to go to be back on Radiance. :)

 

Thank you! LOL I'm just upset I didn't use my good camera on that shot - then it would have been tack sharp.

 

I wish I had just 2 weeks till I was back onboard. It'll be more like 2 years for me.

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

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Thank you! LOL I'm just upset I didn't use my good camera on that shot - then it would have been tack sharp.

 

I wish I had just 2 weeks till I was back onboard. It'll be more like 2 years for me.

 

Gosh no, I still think that picture was perfect! Thanks for sharing! :)

 

Yeah, was four years for me until we could go back. Feels like it has been so

much longer than that!

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island lady "Live from...." Rare

island lady

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It was 2 for us, but 9 years before that. I know we go in another 2 years, but I'm scheming on a way to go next summer. My family wants to do the Caribbean next summer and I'm planning on going back to Alaska the summer of 2018.

 

Happy cruising, no matter where your ship leads you!! :)

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PCWalton1

PCWalton1

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I don't think the clip works. If you put in my name at you tube, I only have the one video posted. It's also on my blog at the bottom of day 4.

 

Did you use just the video file name when you created the posting here on CC?

HcOeuYoM_1w

 

If you use the YouTube feature and use the whole link it will not work.

 

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cruisingwithcarrie

cruisingwithcarrie

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Day 5:

 

I woke early, so I went outside and managed to get video of 2 eagles fishing in the water just outside of our ship. My sister, her husband, my daughter, and I went to the shops directly opposite our ship later in the morning, close to lunch time. My mom opted to stay on the ship and she would meet us later on. We did not have an excursion booked for Juneau. In the past, we’ve done the helicopter tour up to the Mendenhall Glacier and we’ve gone whale watching on both the ship-tour and with Harv and Marv (who were excellent). This trip, we decided to purchase bus passes to Mendenhall and tickets on Mt. Roberts Tramway. We went with the white bus.

 

After shopping a bit, my mom joined us and we purchased our tickets for both the glacier and the tramway at one booth for one set price. As we were paying, we watched a nearly empty bus leave just seconds before our transaction was finished. So, we waited where we were told to wait for 30 minutes for the next bus, at which point we learned we were not in the right place, so we had to stand at the back of a long line. Just as we approached the bus, a bunch of young kids cut the line, leaving us and the family in front of us to have to wait again for the next bus.

 

The line was so long, it wrapped back towards the tramway, so we decided to take the tramway first. It was a short line and we got onto the second tram and away we went. For those who need to sit – there is a bench that folds down. It was a quick ride to the top, where we were treated to incredible views! It was mostly clear, so took advantage and shot some photos.

 

We walked around the shop, but had just missed the last show of the day. We bought some wild blueberry preserves, and gummies. We also bought whale-tail earrings and my daughter got a necklace. We paid considerably less for the earrings and necklace in this shop than the exact same ones that were for sale on the ship. I also bought 2 more whale tale necklaces in Skagway and they, too, were quite a bit less than what they had them for on the ship (by almost half). We took a look at the eagle who had been shot and was now permanently in rescue and the view from the outlook on top before making our way back down the tramway. The line for the bus was so long, we decided to eat lunch at the nearby Twisted Fish Company restaurant.

 

My sister and I had halibut fish and chips (dry – looked amazing, though), my brother-in-law had king crab legs, my daughter had a cheeseburger, and my mom had a halibut and berry burger. My daughter loved hers, my mom hated hers, and my brother-in-law enjoyed it, but didn’t think it was anything special. They overcooked all of our fish. Service was almost non-existent. The girls sitting next to us left without leaving a tip as no server ever returned to help them after they got their meal. I had asked for a side of something and more water and never got it. Maria T. – your surly attitude was most definitely not appreciated.

 

Once again, we got into a crazy long line for the glacier (around 3pm, now) and decided to just wait it out (we also noted that the blue bus never had a line). 2 busses later and we were on our way. At the glacier, we (being everyone except my mom) walked around the raised platform viewing area to the left of the parking area. We made our way towards the front and took photos of the glacier, before meeting up with my mom near the visitor center. She waited for us while we ran down to the water to take a few photos. It was getting late, so we got back on the bus and much to our surprise, we saw a black bear just as we were leaving the glacier! He was on the side of the road and jumped into the bushes.

 

We rested a bit before dinner and then our main dining room waiters treated my daughter to a day-late birthday dinner (since we went to Giovanni’s the night prior). They insisted on feeding her, as did the head waiter. We were so tired that we just went back to the room and called it a night.

 

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Edited by cruisingwithcarrie
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