Radiance of the Sea Northbound Review

Just got back from our 7 day cruise yesterday! Overall the trip was amazing and it was the trip of a life time. We booked our cruise about 10 months out and I have been counting down ever since. Over the course of 9 days I took over 1800 photos so the review will be photo heavy (which are always my favorite part) and I'll have to do in parts due to time. My husband and I are from Central Florida so our flight left 0700 on Thursday June 2nd flying into Vancouver, BC. We had a lay over in LA. The LA airport was very stress causing since we had an hour and half layover and the way the airport is built we had to leave one terminal, run across the parking lot to go through another one which included security again. We landed in Vancouver, BC around 1400 their time (3 hour time difference from East Coast). The airport was rather large but very quite and relaxing., it was also quite beautiful. The flights cost roughly $1200 dollars for two and I booked them through Royal Caribbean's Air to Sea program. At the time of booking the flights I also opted to do the train ride that would get us from Seward to Anchorage at the end of the trip.

We used the Sky Train system to get to our hotel. There was a stop right in front of the airport and another stop that took us a five minute walk from our hotel. The cost of the Sky Train was $18.00 dollars for two people which included two zones and as many stops within a 90 minute time frame.

(Each post is only allowed to have 6 images so it will be more broken up than I thought)

We stayed at the Moda Hotel which is located downtown off of Seymour street. It was located by tons of restaurants but further from things to do. The cost for the hotel for one night was around $170.

The morning on the cruise (Friday June 3rd) we got up early and walked down to the water front and just enjoyed the beautiful weather.

We ended up leaving our hotel around 0930 because known of the shops opened till 1000 which is when we had planned to leave for the port. We took a taxi which arrived rather quickly. It was a 20 minute drive and cost around $7.00 for the ride. Once we got to the port the cruise terminal was kind of confusing. The cruise terminal is actually a convention center that has a dual purpose so the signs and directions weren't always clear. There was a guy running the binoculars booth who helped us. We had to drop our bags off down stairs, walk upstairs to check in, and than walk back down to wait for boarding.

We were able to check in around 1000 and boarded the boat around 1050. This was our first time doing a Royal Caribbean cruise and we thought the ship was awesome. The port was also gorgeous.

Building you can see from port.

The cruise terminal/convention building.

A little sea otter we saw while in port.

The bridge the ship has to go under.

Thanks for the review! We leave in less than 2 weeks, looking forward to reading yours as my anticipation builds!

Here are a few photos of the cruise ship itself and one of our stateroom. We had an ocean view and our stateroom was 3576. Our cruise for the two of us cost roughly $2300 dollars. When we booked we got a deal with Royal Caribbean where the first person was full price and the second person was 1/2 off. We were able to use rewards from our Discover card and saved $120 dollars. We had to use an agency for the booking due to the rebate.

Solarium on board. It's suppose to be adults only but that wasn't the case.

Atrium of the cruise ship.

Casino Royale

Hi, good review & photos!! I'm also going to Alaska, but only this time its on the Nieuw Amsterdam, went last Sept on Jewel Ots an had a great time. The Jewel & the Silver Seas ship were the only ones in Skagway then, an since it was one of the last cruises there, I had never seen Skagway so deserted of people before.:( Gee can't wait til I get to cruise again.

We were on this same cruise!! Weather was fantastic!! Looking forward to your reading more of your review!!! Ship was beautiful but showing her age. Staff we encountered were awesome!! Slight issues in our room but not enough to ruin our trip!!!

Our fridge didn't work which was an issue since I use insulin. Our stateroom guy was awesome and made sure to bring ice for the ice bucket twice daily to keep my insulin cold. We didn't care for the activities offered on board and we had issues with the whole my time dinning thing, but other than that things were good.

Our first stop was Ketchikan, AK. We decided to rent a car in this port and explore on our own. We rented the car from Alaska Car Rental and ended up paying $90, including taxes and we added insurance. Since we were there on a Sunday the rental place was open 0900-1500. This gave us time to walk around closer to the port while we waited for them to open. We went and visited Creek Street and hiked up Married Men's Trail. I learned that the reason it is named this is that during the Red Light District days it was a way husbands could visit and be more discrete. They offered a courtesy pickup and take you to and from the rental place. I had used forums on this website to see where we should go and the guy who picked us up from the rental place recommended the same places. Due to time constraints we ended up not doing all I planned, but made it to Settler's Cove, Bright Totem Park, and Ward Lake. All of these were free to the public. We decided to do the furthest first and make our way back. We started with Settler's Cove and decided to do the sort 1/4 hike up to the "waterfall". We had a certain picture in our head of what a water fall looked like so we ended up walking straight past it. My step counter estimated we did a five mile walk. A lot longer than we expected but the whole trail was gorgeous. Warning don't step off the boards at certain points because its a light layer of moss with water a few inches of water underneath it, my husband found out the hard way. We only saw two pairs of locals while on the trail so it was very quiet and peaceful.

Pulling into the port

Creek Street

Married Men's Trail

Our fridge didn't work which was an issue since I use insulin. Our stateroom guy was awesome and made sure to bring ice for the ice bucket twice daily to keep my insulin cold. We didn't care for the activities offered on board and we had issues with the whole my time dinning thing, but other than that things were good.

We complained and found out that it's a "chiller not a refrigerator." Items were always room temperature at best!!

Married Men't Trail

Settler's Cove

Enjoying your posts and pictures very much. We sail from Vancouver August 24th, can't wait. Thank you for posting look forward to next instalments. Jean.

This is great! We leave out on the 15th of July! Can't wait! Great pics!

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Lunch Falls at Settler's Cove

The Rental Car

Totem Bright State Park. We ended up missing the turn for this one but just drove down a slight distance and turned around.

Lovely photos and review

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Ward Lake

Other shots

All the places we went were off the Tongass highway which ended right around Settler's Cove. While driving on the highway I saw multiple sightings of deer but was also to slow to get a picture of them. Ward Lake you did have take a side road called Revella I believe it was called and than there were signs to get you to Ward Lake. I had read that Ketchikan was one of the cheapest ports to grab souvenirs in and it proved to be true. We bought my mother in law a night gown for $19.99 and saw the same exact one in other ports for $29.99. All the days leading up to getting to the port the weather forecast called for rain, but we lucked out and it was just overcast. This was a common theme throughout the cruise but in ever port we had amazing weather. This also the first place we got to notice the difference between low and high tide. When we first docked our window was under the pier, when we returned to the ship our window was now above the pier. Hiking wise both Bright Totem State Park and Ward Lake was pretty level/easy hiking while Settler's cove did have multiple steep stairs making it more difficult than the other two.

Thanks! Your review makes me feel like I'm on the trip , myself.

Loving the review and pictures. Booked for the same week next year.

Pulling out of Ketchikan was gorgeous and we also saw the damage caused by the Celebrity ship that happened a few days before we docked. It's estimated 2-3 million dollars in damages but more importantly no one was hurt. I watched a video taken by a boat that was docked and the whole ordeal was nerve wracking.

The next port we docked in was Icy Strait/Hoonah. This port we did not book an excursion and decided to explore the place by foot. From the port to Hoonah its a 1.5 mile walk and there is a side walk the whole way. If you can't walk they have shuttle that goes back and forth every so often and costs $3.00 per person each way. The most exciting part of this port was the the animal life. There were eagles seen throughout our whole walk and I believe people in the shuttle could not get a good view of them. Even with the long lens on my camera it was hard to get close focused shots of them.

Once we got to Hoonah our first stop was the brewery. They have very strict laws for brewery establishments in Alaska like them having to close at 2000, no stools at the bar, if they change a price on a beer it has to stay that price for two weeks before another change, and they are not allowed to provide entertainment.

We walked around town for a bit looking at the gorgeous flowers they seemed to have everywhere. My husband got some up close shots of bumble bees because I was to scared. You get to a point in walking downtown that you start to just hit residential neighbors hoods so we turned back.

This little guy was just outside on his porch snoozing.

While in Hoonah we stopped at the local bar (the only bar) and got some beer and I had fresh fried halibut. I thought it was super delicious while my husband thought it needed more flavor. At the bar they were charging $15 dollars for the fish and chips, another place in town was selling in for $18.

Right when getting off the gangway and going through the visitor's center you will see a natural trail off two the right. Its an easy trail that loops back onto the beach right in front of the cruise ship. We hit it on the way back to the ship.

Once back on bored we were on deck 11 eating when I looked down and saw a sea lion! We kept seeing the little guy but I could never get a picture of him. We ended up going down to deck 5 to continue looking for him when we saw bursts of water from blow holes towards the front of the boat. We ran down to the helipad where there was only one other couple (it was freezing due to the very strong wind). There were multiple humpback whales!

I tripped over my untied shoelace and my husband informed me I had missed a really great shot of them being more out of the water. On the back of the boat you were able to see eagles up in the trees.

Looking forward to the rest of the review and more wonderful pictures.

Love your pictures and your review!! Can't wait for the rest. :) Does the Radiance have an alarm clock or Iphone dock?

My state room did not have either. They had a phone would you do a wake call on. Our stateroom only had two plugs to which becomes tricky when all your devices need to be charged.