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

[RSLeesburg]

The lumberjack show is located a short walk from the pier - maybe 10-15 minutes, and features its own stage.

 

On this stage, two teams of lumberjacks compete is a series of contests.

 

One team represents the US and one represents Canada.

 

And the Canadian team during our show, after a successful log rolling contest.

 

It might be a little kitschy, but it was fun!

 

 

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[RSLeesburg]

After the lumberjack show, we boarded a trolley and got a brief tour of Ketchikan before stopping at Saxman Native Village to see some totem poles. Our guide started to tell a long story about this pole...

 

But it started to sound like a Lifetime movie so I wandered off to listen to some of the other guides. I loved the story about this guy.

 

This is a shame pole. It is customary that if you are invited to a party and share in the food and drink that within a year, you will host a party and invite the hosts of the party you attended. If you don’t, the put up a shame pole and it will stay up until you have your party. And if you look at his hat, you will see 4 rings - this means he attended 4 parties without reciprocating. What a mooch!

 

As you know, each totem pole tells a story - and normally when the totem pole falls, this is considered a sign that they no longer need to tell that story, and the pole is not put back up. Not so with the shaming pole. That baby stays up and will get repaired and stood back up if it falls over. The only way to get it to come down is for the person (or their family) to resolve the issue that caused them to be shamed. Harsh!

 

 

 

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[RSLeesburg]

I just realized that I have not been posting the Cruise Compasses - here are the ones for Days 2, 3, and 4.

Alaska CC - Day 2.pdf

Alaska CC - Day 3.pdf

Alaska CC - Day 4.pdf

[RSLeesburg]

and here are Days 5, 6 and 7.

Alaska CC - Day 5.pdf

Alaska CC - Day 6.pdf

Alaska CC - Day 7.pdf

[RSLeesburg]

After the tour, we hit a few shops and bought some shirts and souvenirs, then got back on the ship. We ate dinner at WJ this evening, and skipped the headliner show (Piano Man). Instead, fueled by our trivia win, we did the pub quiz in Quill, hit the casino for our three spin-to-wins, and then went to look at photos. It was a lazy night.

[RSLeesburg]

After picking up our son at the kid's club, we headed back to the room only to find that dreaded package - the departure instructions, the customs form, and the luggage tags :loudcry: Here is the departure form that lists locations and numbers. I will talk more about the option we chose when we get to that point in our journey.

Alaska - Departure Schedule.pdf

[RSLeesburg]

Day 10 of our trip / Day 7 of the Cruise - Cruising Inside Passage

So, today is our last full day on the ship. We slept in as we had no excursions planned. The concierge (JD, who was great) had arranged a bridge tour at 10:40am, so that was our first event of the day. There was a pub quiz or trivia at 9am, but we could not get up to make it. When our son woke up, he announced that he would rather go to kid's club as he had already seen the bridge on another ship (and guessed that it would not be much different - kids ;) ). So, we dropped him off and went on the tour.

I cannot remember when we last took the bridge tour - it was on either Grandeur or Freedom, and I can remember wondering if they had a couch up there. I am not sure why I thought about that, but when we took the tour, the one thing we noticed was how barren the bridge is - I mean, there is a huge amount of empty space (probably could fit a dozen or so cabins in there - although, maybe I should not tell the bean-counters. They might try to squeeze a few in...LOL). Anyway, we went onto the bridge on Radiance and there was a couch. :') Weird, huh?

After the bridge tour, we walked around a bit until it was noon and time to pick up our son. We decided to eat lunch at Giovanni's, so we headed down that way. Lunch was fantastic and relatively uncrowded - there were maybe 4 or 5 tables of guests. After lunch, we went shopping because apparently, we did not buy enough crap, I mean souvenirs, in the ports we visited. :D

Our son headed back to kid's camp at 2pm, and my wife and I headed to Schooner Bar for minute mysteries, which sounded easy but was incredibly hard. After getting embarrassed there, we headed over to Colony Club for the Win a Cruise Bingo - our first time playing on any ship. I will not hold you in suspense, we did not win anything except the free shirt my wife got for buying the largest bingo package. ;)

After bingo, we headed back up to the kids club to get our son - and, then we participated in the Family Gagaball Tournament. Now, we have heard our son talk endlessly about gagaball, but honestly, we had no idea how it was played - despite his various attempts to explain it to us and the various variations of it. So, we figured that it would be a short game for us - but, surprisingly, our son got knocked out first, then me, and my wife ended up finishing in second place! :confused:

After gagaball, we headed back to room to rest and start packing - did you ever notice that he seems like everything fit fine when you packed to go on your cruise, but as you are packing to go home, your suitcases fill up much quicker and you are scrambling to find places to put everything. I am sure it has nothing to do with all the crap (souvenirs) we bought. I have a theory that as we get bigger do to overeating, our suitcases get smaller due to traveling without any clothes in them.

Around 7pm we took our son to WJ for a light dinner and then back to - you guessed it - kids club. Honestly, I think ports and excursions are an annoyance to him - they just interfere with his kids club time. My wife and I went up for our last free coffee in the concierge lounge, and then headed over to the Farewell Show, which features Cuddy, a comedian (Zoltan - he was pretty good), and the singers/dancers, and ships officers. It was a nice show. Then to kids club to get our son, back to room to put out the bags, and then listen to my family complain that I did not book a longer trip - you think I am joking. My son actually asked me, "Dad, why didn't you book us a back-to-back?"

He is eight! How that phrase is even in his vocabulary is beyond me! I blame some of the nicer pinnacles we have met over the years, who may have let it slip during casual conversation. ;)

[RSLeesburg]

Day 11 of our trip / Day 8 of the Cruise - Disembarkation & Traveling back to South Florida

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

On Friday morning we got up early to pack the few remaining things and rouse/pull our son from his bed. We headed down to Giovanni's for breakfast around 7am, and then headed over to Colony Club around 8am. We had arranged a Vancouver Tour with Airport Dropoff as we needed to kill some time before our flights. We took the one that specifies international departures after 3pm.

Getting off the ship, through customs, and onto the bus was relatively quick and painless (maybe 20-30 minutes tops from when we left the Colony Club). The tour was really great - we had a tour guide named Keifer (hmm, I wonder who his mom liked as an actor growing up). We drove around Vancouver a bit and stopped twice within Stanley Park. We arrived at the outskirts of the airport around 11am, which seemed very early, but we did not actually pull up to terminal until noon. We were a bit too early to check in for our flight, so we needed to wait 30 minutes.

After checking in, we went through security and US border patrol fairly quickly (maybe 30-45 minutes). I was impressed with the Vancouver airport - it does not have the same look/feel as many US airports. I liked it. The first flight in our long trip home was scheduled to leave at 4:15pm, but it was delayed until 5pm. We flew to LAX, which is where I started this report if you remember. Our LAX flight was scheduled to take off at 10pm, but before we even boarded in Vancouver, it was delayed until 11:15pm. We did not actually board until midnight (so, that was almost 18 hours awake for us - well, my wife and I - our son cat napped on the bus and on the flight to LAX). We arrived in Orlando around 8am (5 hour flight, so 23 hours awake - I can usually sleep on flights, but could not this time. My wife slept). And so now we were home? Nope. Now, I had to retrieve the car from valet at Hyatt Regency and drive back to West Palm Beach. We got home at 11:30am (26.5 hours to get from cabin to home). As I said, a very long day. :')

[OCSC Mike]

I can definitely relate to that trip back to FL. I’ll elaborate when I get to my review but after 8 hours in the Vancouver airport waiting for our red eye & 3 hours early the next morning in O’Hare, we got into Orlando a little before noon & were home by 1:00. My wife didn’t sleep at all & I only slept a little on the 2nd flight.

 

So after waking up at 5am to grab my last few DL cappuccinos & watch the ship pass under the bridge from deck 12, we had been up for about 29 hours when we walked in our front door.

 

We loved Alaska & I’m sure we’ll return... but highly unlikely the trip back will involve a red eye next time.

[RSLeesburg]

We loved Alaska & I’m sure we’ll return... but highly unlikely the trip back will involve a red eye next time.

 

 

Yes. My wife is already asking if I think we could swing a return trip in 2020...lol. It was an amazing trip - and I am looking forward to your trip report. You spent a lot more time on land tour than we did.

 

 

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[RSLeesburg]

In Summary...

 

This was an amazing trip. Easily our best cruise ever, and we just said the same thing a few months ago when we completed our Southern Caribbean Cruise on Navigator over Christmas. Although I am not sure it is fair to compare an Alaskan cruise to a Caribbean one.

 

Suggestions/recommendations:

* Do try to do some land portion if possible. From the ship and ports, you will see but a small fraction of Alaska. And if you cannot afford the land portion, try to do some of the excursions that take you deeper into the state.

* Buy some nice binoculars. I bought mine for about $100 on Amazon, and I loved having them.

* Bring a nice camera, or make room on your cell phone. I took all of my pics with my iPhone, which is why I could not get close up photos of some of the animals and scenery that we saw. And, we cleared off lots of older photos off my wife's and my phones, so we had plenty of room to take pics.

* Pack in layers. We hit highs in the 70's and low's in the 40's. We hit sunny days and rainy days. We did not hit lots of mosquitoes, but carried bug spray with us everywhere.

* If you take land tours, take snacks and water with you - it can be long distances between places.

* Prepare for sticker shock. You would think eating seafood in Alaska is cheaper as its right there - guess again. Alaska has a very short tourist season, and many of these people have to make their money during this season, so prices tend to be much higher.

* Rest! Alaska is a very port-intensive and excursion-intensive trip. In order to see as much as you can, it will be exhausting. It is not a trip to relax and sleep. It is about rising early and getting out there to see nature.

 

In terms of other aspects, we loved the land tour that we booked through RCI, and we would definitely book another one through them again. Radiance is a beautiful ship. In terms of cruising, we are relative newbies with only 6 cruises under our belts, but I can see why some many love this class of ship. We did miss Royal Promenade and ice shows, but not enough to make much of a difference. We were really so busy with excursions that we did not have lot of time to do things on the ship. My only regret was that I did not get a chance to use the cinema.

 

Well, I am ending this review here, and hope that those that are reading enjoy it and find something useful in it too. Please feel free to ask any questions. If not, I wish everyone a great next cruise! Ours will be on Serenade over Christmas 2019. Hope to see some of you there.

[OCSC Mike]

I agree with almost all of your closing thoughts.

 

Above all, I could not agree more about doing as much of a land portion as you can and/or going deeper into port towns. This is why my wife planned such a long land portion & it actually caused us to skip some stuff in port but we had to draw the line somewhere in terms of cost. That said, had I known how much I was going to love Alaska, I might have said screw it & done eveything we could but hindsight is 20/20 & we’ll be back at some point.

 

Also strongly agree with your comments about Alaska not being a place to relax & sleep. Being morning people & early risers in our everyday lives definitely helped.

 

Once again, nice review. Always nice to read reviews from others on the same cruise to compare & contrast.

[RSLeesburg]

We are also early risers, but the time change combined with early mornings and long days wiped us out. And when we cruise here, we do it to rest...lol.

 

 

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[OCSC Mike]

We adjusted to the time change surprisingly quickly... which was a good thing since we got into Fairbanks around 8:30pm AK time and had to get up at like 5am the next day for a trip across the arctic circle.

 

Adjusting to the time change after we got home following the aforementioned travel day was a whole other story. :eek:

[JBSteelerfan]

Thanks for your great review, and sharing all of your helpful information!

[A&L_Ont]

Rob, thanks for sharing your family adventure with us. In just over two weeks we fly to Alasak and it can’t wait to return. If you need your cruise fix I will do doing a live review, so tag along.

[RSLeesburg]

Rob, thanks for sharing your family adventure with us. In just over two weeks we fly to Alasak and it can’t wait to return. If you need your cruise fix I will do doing a live review, so tag along.

 

 

Andrew - I will do that.

 

 

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[vicforray]

Do all cruises have a 70's night?

I just realized that I have not been posting the Cruise Compasses - here are the ones for Days 2, 3, and 4.

[RSLeesburg]

Do all cruises have a 70's night?

 

 

Ours did. Cannot day if all cruises do...

 

 

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[Clarea]

Do all cruises have a 70's night?

Those with Graham Seymour as CD usually have a British Invasion night instead of 70's night.

[Italy52]

Thanks for posting your review, I appreciate it. Could you please tell me how you felt about the food in the Windjammer? My husband and I are light eaters and prefer to eat at the buffet. We have sailed on the Radiance to Alaska a few times in the past but recent comments about the food would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your reply.

[RSLeesburg]

Thanks for posting your review, I appreciate it. Could you please tell me how you felt about the food in the Windjammer? My husband and I are light eaters and prefer to eat at the buffet. We have sailed on the Radiance to Alaska a few times in the past but recent comments about the food would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your reply.

 

 

Hi. I know food is subjective, but we enjoyed the food we got in the WJ. Our son is primarily a hamburger or hot dog meal, but my wife and I tried many different things and most were good the excellent.

 

 

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[Italy52]

Hi. I know food is subjective, but we enjoyed the food we got in the WJ. Our son is primarily a hamburger or hot dog meal, but my wife and I tried many different things and most were good the excellent.

 

 

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Many thanks for the reply.

[Nilbog]

Thanks for the review, RSLeesburg. We're doing the reverse of your cruise on the same sailing that Mountaineer0313 is on. We're even in the same cabin, 1034, so I hope you took good care of it. We're doing the land part after the cruise instead of before. We're taking the train all the way to Fairbanks to visit our daughter for a week before flying back to Florida.

[RSLeesburg]

Thanks for the review, RSLeesburg. We're doing the reverse of your cruise on the same sailing that Mountaineer0313 is on. We're even in the same cabin, 1034, so I hope you took good care of it. We're doing the land part after the cruise instead of before. We're taking the train all the way to Fairbanks to visit our daughter for a week before flying back to Florida.

 

 

Very nice. Two things - the shower is very touchy. You need to get it just right because a millimeter in one direction is too cold, two millimeters the other direction it too hot. You need to find that sweet spot! But once you do, it is fine. The other is there was no PS3 in the room, but there was an HDMI cable that was exposed, so if you have something to plug in, it was there. One other thing - this room had two glass sliding doors. Never had a GS with that configuration before, maybe it is unique to Radiance class - but we had both doors wide open in some ports and it felt like all that beautiful scenery was right in our room!

 

Enjoy your cruise!

 

 

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