Back from Radiance July 16

[colorado_cruiser]

The trip was just spectacular in spite of a few things that happened.

 

Here's our story:

 

Barely made it to our plane from Denver to Vancouver on July 16 (reasons behind this will be on another post). Checked in 40 minutes prior to plane departure. Arrived in Vancouver on time but with a missing luggage. Luckily the luggages we had were the ones that had most of my 12-month old's things. The missing luggage had all our clothes on it (dh's, mine, and baby's). United tracked it down to Denver. It will get on the first flight out of Denver the next morning. That flight arrived late and was told that they'll deliver the luggage to the ship.

 

No problem going through customs. Boarded the ship about 3:30PM. One luggage was at our door when we arrived on to our cabin; second luggage arrived roughly 2 hours later; missing luggage arrived close to 9PM.

 

First port of call was Juneau. Nice city. Looking forward to helicopter and dogsled excursion with Juneau Sportfishing only to find out once we got off the ship that they screwed our reservations (more on that on another post). We scrambled looking for another excursion. Ended up doing the city tour with MGT (decent tour, driver took us to a salmon spawning area, great customer service at the booth stand) followed by a spectacular whale-watching trip (also booked by Mighty Great Trips). We observed the rarely seen bubble feeding. There were at least 7 whales participating in the bubble feed.

 

Second port of call was Skagway. Rented a car from Avis and followed Murray's guide to Emerald Lake. Such amazing sceneries. The waterfall on the left side on the way to the Lake was just astounding. Definitely easy to miss if we didn't have the guide. Took lots of great pictures of the family there. The lake - wow! My in-laws kept asking why it's so green and how it got to be that green. I promised I'll try to find out for them. Anybody know?

After the drive, did some shopping in town. I didn't buy anything for myself but MIL did buy some great vases from Little Switzerland (offered MIL a deal: if she bought at least 2 vases, they'll ship them for free). She ended up buying three with free shipping and no tax with the possibility of buying a fourth one over the phone once she figures out where to put it.

 

Third port was Ketchikan. Oh my gosh!!! Used the Southeast Aviation coupon from Toursaver book. Pilot Robb was great. It was a smooth ride with even better landings. The views were just truly amazing. There was a bit of a hiccup prior to our Misty Fjords tour when I was informed that we'll have to go on a later in the afternoon tour. The battery on the plane died, they replaced it but it resulted in pushing back many of the customers. I would've been fine with it except we had the Crab Feed scheduled right after the Misty Fjords. After I explained the situation they were able to rearrange things so that my group (there were 5 of us) plus another customer were able to get on the 1:30PM tour. It ran a bit late due to the time taken in the beginning rearranging the schedule but the Crab Feed folks did wait for us. The driver took us on a 20-minute bus drive to the catamaran. Took the catamaran around the island; taught us how to differentiate between male and female crabs as well as their life cycle. Then on to the actual crab feed. It was supposed to be an all-you-can-eat crab feed but unluckily for us we were the last tour group so they ran out of crab before we had our fill.

 

The times on the ship were great. They did mess up on our dinner table seating arrangement by dividing up our family in to 4 different tables. But within 10-15 minutes they were able to correct the problem but it had us seated by the aisles close to the galley. It was a blast for my 12-month old since many of the servers fussed over him on their way in and out of the galley. The room attendants and pursers were always more than willing to help to the point where one of the pursers (Sebastian from Netherlands) offered to babysit my son on his afternoon off so we can go to the helicopter/dogsled tour that got cancelled. He ended up not babysitting, but we still appreciated his offer to help.

 

Saving the best for last...

My SIL's mom-in-law won the Royal Suite during the first raffle drawing on the first day of BINGO!!! We all ended up getting upgraded with our rooms. Originally SIL and her DH had an oceanview cabin, SIL's MIL had her own oceanview cabin; my DH and DS had an inside cabin directly across from SIL; and my own MIL, FIL, and BIL shared the inside cabin next to us.

 

After winning the Royal Suite, the winner brought her son and my SIL with her to the suite (and they ended up taking the bedroom while the winner slept on the sofa bed in the living room). My room got upgraded to the one my SIL occupied. My MIL's room got upgraded to the one that the winner occupied. My BIL ended up getting his own room. Clear as mud? ;)

 

That suite was just incredible. Great amenities, very luxurious, but I can't see myself ever paying for something like that even if I could afford it. We basically slept in our own cabins and relaxed in the suite. :)

 

We also definitely took advantage of the 2 balconies in the Royal Suite when we got to the Hubbard Glacier. Just spectacular views!!! We were told that our ship got closest to the Hubbard at 0.4 miles away. That's hearsay from the staff and it can all be part of the whole bragging rights thing, but I have to say that we were really close. :)

 

After the cruise (and fairly smooth disembarkation), we stayed an extra 2 days in Vancouver (Marriott Pinnacle via Priceline and rented a full-size car from Avis through Hotwire). Drove to Whistler and on a spur of the moment, spent the entire afternoon in Lost Lake. In Vancouver we ate at Hon's (Richmond, first night, cheap and good eats), Thai House (on Robson St, the BEST thai food DH and I ever had), and Komi Sushi (corner of 70th and can't remember the other street, fresh and great-quality sushi at a low price).

 

If anybody has any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer it. God knows many of you have definitely helped me out in planning my vacation by reading your own replies to other inquiries.