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

[RSLeesburg]

We arrived in Talkeetna around 5pm or so, and were met by our tour bus and headed over to the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge.

 

 

Which also had beautiful views...

 

And...

 

You know the saying, no bad seat in the house - I think Alaska is no bad view in the state. You are literally surrounded by Kodak moments every few minutes...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

In Talkeetna, there were a couple of optional excursions but we did not pick any. We ate dinner in the restaurant (which was very good), and then walking back to room we hit our first rain in Alaska. It was just a few drops but a few minutes after we got in our room, it started to pour.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

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

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Forums mobile app

 

 

 

You are welcome - thanks for reading.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

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

 

 

I think it is not offered every day, which could be one reason why it’s not in the brochure. The tour is at their home, so they do not offer it every night.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

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!

 

 

Oh how exciting! And what a great reward to celebrate his accomplishment!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

At Talkeetna, they return all your suitcases so you can put on your cruise luggage tags, as you will be boarding the ship on the next day :D

 

At this point, our guide reminded everyone to ensure that they did not pack away their set sail pass and their passports, as she would be checking each of us for our passports before we set off the following morning. Why you may ask? Well, while we would be enjoying the tour the next day, at one point our bags would be loaded onto another vehicle and driven down to the ship, and we would not see them again until after we checked in and boarded the ship - so, by ensuring you had your passport would also ensure that it (the passport) did not board the ship without us.

[RSLeesburg]

Day 4 - Traveling back to Anchorage / Seward / Board the Ship :D

 

On the fourth day of our adventure, we packed up, boarded the bus, and left Talkeetna for Anchorage. The first part of our journey was about 2 hours and our destination was the Anchorage Museum. We hit some construction, which delayed us a bit - but we eventually arrived at the museum around 11am or so. The museum is very nice; however, we were not good planners - remember the stop at Fred Meyers for snacks? Well, we ran out before this last coach trip, so we headed right over to the museum restaurant for lunch. By time we finished, we only had time to see a fraction of the museum. TIP: For those that enjoy museums, I would recommend seeing this before your tour begins - when you first arrive in Anchorage.

 

Around 12:30pm we boarded the bus to head to Seward. NOTE: I have noticed people taking the train from Anchorage to Seward. I asked our tour guide about this, and she told me that normally we would take it, but with the exceptionally warm weather, they had some much snow melting that the tracks were flooded so the train was not running. I am not sure if this is true or not - would be curious to know if anyone on our cruise were able to take the train or not.

 

PS: The restaurant at the museum has exceptional food.

[RSLeesburg]

Our first stop in Seward was at the Alaska SeaLife Center - an aquarium and rehabilitation center. They had a lot to see, including harbor seals.

 

And sea lions...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

And lots of birds, including King Eider

 

 

And Tufted Puffin

 

And I think this one is a Northern Pintail

 

And last, but not least, the Common Murre

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

The SeaLife Center also had a touch tank, which my son loved. And they had a cute baby otter out in one of the back pools - you could see him from inside but he was swimming to fast for me to get a pic...lol

 

PS: After seeing the Golden Eagle, I bought a small book on Alaskan birds - which is how I tried to identify the birds in previous post. I am not an bird expert [emoji6]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[AZbobkats]

Enjoying your report! We are starting in Fairbanks on the Cruisetour next month.

[RSLeesburg]

Am jealous - would have loved to seen Fairbanks. I may try to squeeze it in to our next trip to Alaska. I hope you have a wonderful trip.

[RSLeesburg]

Day 4 of our trip, but Day 1 of the Cruise Portion - Embarkation Day :cool:

 

After the Alaska SeaLife Center, we boarded the bus to head over to the terminal, which is only about 10 minutes away. The bus pulled right up front, we got off, and walked in. We arrived later in the day - around 5pm. There was a bit of a line, but luckily we were in a suite, so someone was waiting for us when we got off the bus and pointed us to the Suite line (which was empty). Although the normal line did not look that bad at all. The nice thing about checking in later - our rooms were ready when we got onboard. Also, our luggage had already been delivered to the terminal - it was not waiting for us in the room, but we did not have to deal with it after we put it outside our door in Talkeetna - very nice.

 

I am attaching the Cruise Compass for Day 1.

Alaska CC - Day 1.pdf

[RSLeesburg]

And for those with kids, here are the Adventure Ocean overview, the Royal Tots & Babies overview, and the Teen program overview.

Alaska AO - Overview.pdf

Alaska - Royal Tots.pdf

Alaska - AO Teens.pdf

[RSLeesburg]

After checking in, we boarded the ship and picked up my son’s evacuation bracelet and then headed up to our room. We were staying in this GS cabin.

 

And a few pics before we messed it up with an explosion of clothes [emoji6]

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived, two of our bags had arrived already, and the remaining ones came just after muster. Muster was at 6pm, and then we set sail at 8pm.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[JBSteelerfan]

At Talkeetna, they return all your suitcases so you can put on your cruise luggage tags, as you will be boarding the ship on the next day :D

 

 

Thanks for mentioning this! I was wondering if we had to attach ship luggage tags ahead of time for bags we weren't needing on land portion. Answer found!:D

[A&L_Ont]

RS, we have a few questions for you. We were doing a bit different pre tour than you but all the tours are basically the same idea. Our questions relate to transportation, meal times and snacks.

 

We are trying to figure out meal times in relation to our 11 year old son. We are going to bring snacks for him, and some juice boxes. First question, was bottled water available for purchase at hotels or on the bus? Second question, were meal times around noon and six? Our 11 year old boy seems to be hungry all the and we are trying to figure out my snacks.

[AshleyDillo]

RS, we have a few questions for you. We were doing a bit different pre tour than you but all the tours are basically the same idea. Our questions relate to transportation, meal times and snacks.

 

We are trying to figure out meal times in relation to our 11 year old son. We are going to bring snacks for him, and some juice boxes. First question, was bottled water available for purchase at hotels or on the bus? Second question, were meal times around noon and six? Our 11 year old boy seems to be hungry all the and we are trying to figure out my snacks.

 

My family did the cruisetour that began in Fairbanks and if I remember correctly most of the places that were stops as part of the tour, you were on your own with access to optional excusions and they usually had some access to food whether it be a restaurant, store or a cafe.

 

The hotel that we were put in at Fairbanks also walking distance to a Fred Meyer and a Safeway and we walked there and got snacks to shove in our carry-ons. This hotel had a kitchenette and we were there for two nights, so we picked up some food and had access to a fridge.

 

If you're doing the cruisetour that includes train trip where you spend several day parts on the train, they will offer you the chance to sign up to eat breakfast, lunch or dinner on the train. The Denali school bus tour gave everyone a boxed lunch.

 

There wasn't a time where I felt like I was stuck because there wasn't access to at least a gift shop to purchase water or snacks. Even the riverboat cruise in Fairbanks had a snack bar on the boat.

[RSLeesburg]

Andrew,

 

I agree with the previous poster - most of the stops had snacks available. For our tour, we had a 5 hour bus trip from Anchorage to Denali, and the guide suggested we get some snacks in case we get hungry along the way. Our son is not always hungry, but he seems to "get" hungry when there is not place to eat...LOL At breakfast, if he is not hungry, he will not eat. Then two hours later when we are on the bus with no access to a restaurant, he is suddenly starving. :rolleyes: So, when we stopped at Fred Meyers, we grabbed some snacks (our son mostly like pop tarts, which are perfect as they are all nicely packaged). We grabbed some of these, and tried to keep one package in our backpacks at all times - just in case. But we (I say we so as not to cast blame on any one member of our family) packed these in our luggage, so the next time our son wanted one, the box was on its way to the ship :') Similarly, water was available for purchase most places, and we tried to keep two bottles in our backpacks at all times (my son does not like to share his water bottle with mom and dad, as we may have germs...:eek:).

[A&L_Ont]

RS and Ashley, thanks for the information. It helps us out a great deal.

 

We will bring packaged snacks from home for the day of travel, even though they feed us on the flights. I have found a Fred Meyer a few minutes from our hotel. We land just after 3pm and should be checked into our hotel and settled by around 4:30. We have dinner reservations for the Glacier Brewhouse at 6. That should allow us enough time to Uber, which seems to be active in Anchorage, to the grocery store to pick up some other items like apples and water to which we can’t travel with from Canada.

Edited July 2, 2018 by A&L_Ont

[RSLeesburg]

One of the amazing things we have loved about cruising is the wonderful people you meet - both fellow passengers and crew members. Well, after muster drill we headed back to room to unpack, and then headed up to register our son at the kid’s club. We walk in and there was our son’s favorite councilor from our Christmas Cruise on Navigator - Skittles (all the councilors have nicknamed). My wife, son, and I all recognized her at the same time, and our son yelled out, “it’s Skittles!” She remembered our son, and then I told her that I had a picture of her and our son on my phone (it is not weird, I promise) - this one.

 

 

Our son was king of the night on the last night on Navigator, and that is Skittles on the right and Donut on the left. Then we learned that two other councilors from our Navigator Cruise were also on Radiance. Well, my son could not have been happier - when we were not on excursions, he lived in the kids club. Of course, later that night we learned that Cuddy was on board and he was also CD on our Navigator Christmas Cruise.

 

It may sound weird, but when this happens - running into familiar crew members, it kind of feels like you have come home - like coming home from college and seeing old friends who have not seen or talked with for months. I like that! It is one reason why we like sailing on one cruise line. We had the same thing happen on Harmony - seeing some of the same councilors from our previous Freedom Cruise.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

Day 5 of trip / Day 2 of Cruise - Cruising Hubbard Glacier.

 

Ah, finally a day to sleep in - no alarms, and blackout curtains to keep the cabin dark. So of course, I woke up by 8am [emoji41].

 

My son slept to 10am - we had to wake him up in order to get ready for the suite and pinnacle brunch at Chops. Very nice spread - something for everyone, and almost the same as we had on Navigator. But after brunch we needed to take our son to WJ as he did not like most of the food at the brunch...lol... then we explored the ship, and stopped by cabin to get binoculars - then up on deck to view the glacier. Well first to drop off our son to kids club because apparently Gaga ball is way more cool than looking at ice that took hundreds of years to reach the sea [emoji848]

 

We found a place up on deck 12, and here is what we saw...

 

And a close up...

 

I was a little surprised at how far away we stopped. I thought we would get much, much closer - maybe not close enough that I could chip some ice into my drink, but...

 

One additional sighting - there was a piece of ice floating, and with my binoculars I could see a baby sea lion lying on it. So cute!

 

We stayed at Hubbard Glacier for a while and then backed out and to head towards Juneau.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[RSLeesburg]

We wrapped up this evening with dinner at Giovanni's (my favorite) and caught the City of Dreams show in the Aurora Theater. Dinner was fantastic as always - never had a bad meal at Giovanni's, and I quite liked the show. For the late night folks, they also had a comedian at 11pm after the two showings of the production show. We missed this show as we picked up our son around 10pm from the kids club.

 

PS: Our server at Giovanni's was Olstine - he was one of the best we have ever had!

[RSLeesburg]

Oh, I almost forgot - we also met with Next Cruise manager - Analiza in the Concierge Lounge to book another cruise - we booked the 10 night Southern on Serenade over Christmas 2019. :D

 

Now, I am not one to comment on price very often, but we did price out several cruises over Christmas that year. My son wanted to go on Symphony, so we looked at it - and, here is what we discovered. We could book a B2B on Serenade - the 10 day we booked plus the 11 day over New Years, so 21 days for the same cost - the SAME COST - as the 7 night Christmas Cruise on Symphony (booking a suite). If I had more vacation time, I would have booked this B2B without hesitation - but, I don't have vacation days to swing this cruise. But, I know there are folks out there who can cruise longer, so look into it :D

[RSLeesburg]

Day 6 of our trip / Day 3 of the Cruise - Juneau

 

 

For Juneau, we booked a private helicopter excursion with dogsledding on glacier and extra landing. We booked this through Juneau Shore Tours. The helicopter portion was run by Coastal Helicopters. We met them on the pier around 10am and they drove us out to the airfield.

 

 

It was a short flight out to the Herbert Glacier, where we landed on the snow.

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums