Brandis

I first visited about 30 years ago, arriving on the Alaska Marine Highway Ferry, staying overnight and taking the train and coach to Whitehorse the next morning. Of course, back then there were a lot less and much smaller cruise ships visiting and once they left, we had the town almost to ourselves. Must be quite a different experience today. 🙂

Hopefully it's a one-off, would hate to miss Skagway, it's one of the more scenic ports.

We did Spectrum in 2019 on the first "longer" (7 nights) cruise to Japan. We got huge Junior suites in the aft, called Silver Suites. The main dining room food was pretty boring and had not much variety. We got a laminated piece of paper as menu, with pictures of the menu items. Service was really rushed, I guess the Chinese don't like to linger at dinner. We were done in less than an hour. Luckily, we were able to use the Silver Dining Room (Solarium Bistro on Non-China cruises), there the food was really good.The food in the Windjammer was also pretty good. I really liked the Tea House, they had some pretty unique things. After dinner, the ship felt pretty empty, mostly only Westeners around. Before the cruise I read that the Chinese are big on gambling and that the casino was extended because of this and even a separate highroller casino, but the casions were pretty dead all cruise long.

So is Haines not on the regular NB itinerary? On our SB in June, we are supposed to go to Skagway from 7AM to 5PM and then stop in Haines from 7PM to 11PM.

The hotel is part of the Pre-Cruise Tour. Didn't let us book transfers separately. But I saw that there is a direct bus from the airport with a bus stop very close to the hotel. Just $2 and bus runs every 15 mins., so I guess we will do that.

Is the Tango Buenos Aires production show still on Radiance?

We were on Spectrum's first 7 day cruise out of Shanghai. All announcements were made in English, though I can't remember if they did Chinese first. Not that it matters though. Expect some things to be a bit different than on other RCL cruises. On our cruise, there were lots of Chinese family groups. I'd say probably 90 percent Chinese guests, rest mostly US and some Europeans. MDR menu was mostly geared to Chinese tastes, the english menu strangely was only a laminated paper with minimal text, mostly pictures. The food there wasn't very good in my opinion and the meal very rushed, it seems that the Chinese passengers didn't want to linger at dinner. Everything was brought out very quickly and we were done in less than an hour. Windjammer was good though and thankfully, staying in Silver Suites, we had access to the Silver Dining room, which is the Solarium Grill on Non-Asia cruises. While they had a fixed menu all week, with the buffet there was lots of differnt things to try. Also, after dinner, the ship felt really empty, it seems the Chinese guests went to sleep early. Lots of smokers and the pool deck smelled of smoke most of the time. As the Solarium pool was reserved for Silver and Gold suite guests, we could take refuge there 🙂

I once shared a cabin with someone who complained that the ships food was bad and that he couldn't get any fried food 🙂 I have to admit, the only bad MDR food experience I ever had on RCL was Spectrum sailing from Shanghai. Apparently, they catered mostly on Chinese tastes. The menu was only a laminated piece of paper with pictures of the available food items. Also, it seems that the Chinese prefered to be done with eating very quickly and everything was brought out very fast. We were in and out of the dining room in less than 1 hour. Thankfully, we had Silver Suites booked and had access to the Silver dining room (aka Solarium Grill on non-China cruises) where the food and service were excellent. There, the menu stayed the same all week but they rotated items on the buffet, so still could try different things every night.

Just curious, which sailings had been cancelled because of this issue?

This morning on my way to work I thought I check on her on the shiptracker to see if she's already in Vancouver (didn't know exactly when she would start her Alaska season) and noticed the little loop she did earlier today, which looks like a test run. That's what then brought me here 🙂 Boarding her on June 21 in Seward. Hopefully, she is fine now for the remainder of the season!

We're doing a pre-cruise tour with Royal Caribbean starting in Anchorage. The first night is at the Marriott Downtown Anchorage. Does RCL provide transportation from the airport to the hotel? Or does the hotel have an airport shuttle?

I know it‘s touristy but it was fun last time and I enjoyed the food. I can go to a regular restaurant any day.

I really like RCL's Radiance Class, there are lots of indoor areas with huge windows and comfortable seating. Even the mid-ship elevators have a view and the Viking Crown Lounge offers almost 180 degrees view. I don't think heating lamps are prohibited on ships, as the Alaska Marine Highway ferries have a covered solarium like area for tents and they do have heating lamps there.

Last time, we even did a 3 part tour while in Juneau, first to Mendenhall Glacier, then the Whale watching and finished at Gold Creek. Really liked it. The salmon with the maple syrup glazing was delicious and the surroundings were nice. On our upcoming cruise, I decided to do all our tours on our own, so we rented a car in Juneau through Turo then will go to the Glacier first, visit a salmon hatchery and finish with the salmon bake, giving us some time to spare to walk around in Juneau. This time, we do the Whale Watching in Icy Strait Point. I contacted Gold Creek Salmon Bake about booking it on our own and was told that they accept Walk-Ins, they recommend to be there about 15 min. before the posted starting time to give a head start before the organized tours arrive and we could just pay at the bar.

Anyone has the Muster 2.0 version for Radiance? According to the app, were in B1. And I know that I will find out on the ship, but I'm at the point, where I'm done with most of my cruise planning and preparation and just try to keep me occupied 🙂 Can't just count down the days up to the cruise, can I?