Jump to content

Radiance Southbound Pre-Cruise Tour Review - June 2017


Recommended Posts

We just got home from our long awaited 20th anniversary bucket list Alaska cruise tour on

Radiance of the Seas. As a pre-tour was something we had never done we researched

everything we could. Getting specifics from our TA or RCI of exactly what to expect was

practically a waste of time. Thankfully those before us have shared some excellent information

so we want to pay it forward. To introduce us, I will let you know it was hubby and myself

traveling and as you can see, not only have we cruised a couple times, but we have already

done one closed loop Alaska cruise. And still there was lots to research.

 

 

We booked in March 2016 and the long wait began. When time came and we could finally

book our flights, we did it in two parts. This was for two reasons. One was we were using miles

(yippee, first class) and two it was hard to get flights so we booked outbound when it became

available and two weeks later we booked the return flights. We booked through American

Airlines, but with connecting flights on Alaska Air. Long story short, we had a LONG outbound

trip as we couldn't get the direct flight from Seattle to Fairbanks. Because of this, we actually

came in a day early (well.... we actually landed about midnight that night). One thing I suggest is

to monitor your reservations from time of booking to flight. Our flights kept changing.

Sometimes by minutes, other times by hours. And thankfully we stumbled on the last one a

month or before our trip as that gave us a 15-minute layover so we had to call and change our

first flight to a much earlier one. Another thing to share was when we checked in online,

American didn't (couldn't?) issue our boarding passes for the Alaska Air flight so we had to get

those printed when we got to Seattle. (And for the return we couldn't even check in online with

either airline so I had to call Alaska because they had a different reservation number for us.

 

As I know the Alaska cruise season is short, I wanted to start on my review as quickly as possible. We have LOTS and LOTS of photos to go through, I hope to add some as I move forward with this review. Unfortunately we didn't win PowerBall while we were away so we have to get up early for work tomorrow. I'll continue posting tomorrow.

 

In the mean time, if anyone has any questions, please feel free to post and I'll be happy to answer if I can.

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, I'm at work now and had almost 300 emails waiting for me. As I take breathers going through these, I'll try to continue posting.

 

Saturday, June 3rd - We woke up to a phone call from American to find our flight was delayed to 7:50. Got to airport by 5:30 and check luggage easily. Head to security and give TSA agent our printed pass. He tells me it's not valid. I said what? and he said I printed it at home. I said yes. He said those aren't valid. Have used boarding passed printed at home before with no problem. Back to the agent at desk. He reprints the boarding passes and I have hubby go through first.

No problem. We were through in minutes and headed to have breakfast. Which turned out they don't open till 6. We wait. While we're having breakfast hubby gets another call that flight delayed till 8:15. Turns our flight was coming from San Diego and was 90 minutes late. We finally got a plane, boarded and took off at 8:30. The pilot said we would arrive at 11:30. We were pleasantly surprised when he announced at 10:15 we were preparing to descend and land. Nice

flight and the flight attendant Kerry was super nice.

 

 

I have some cousins who live in Seattle so they picked us up and we had a nice leisurely lunch. It was a wonderful visit. When we got back to the airport we went quickly through security and headed to Alaska Air club. We decided with a now 5-hour layover and then another in Anchorage, it would be worth the $45pp for a day pass. We went to check in at the C

concourse club and they asked if we were first class ticket holders (why, yes, we were) so it was free. Kewl. Once we settled in we checked our gate info. Turns out it changed from C11 to N11 which is a different building. I went to ask at the club desk. She confirmed but said it was easy, within security and they had a quick tram to get there. And they also have a club in that building so we could go there and use that one. As I sat and typed this, hubby checked the flight info and they changed the gate again.... now to D2. Sooo we figured we would just sit there and wait till the plane is scheduled to arrive at 5:30 and see where it ended up. Lol. It eventually was back at N11. We took off on time and had a great flight.

 

Once in Anchorage, we went to the club there and checked in. In chatting with the club representative it turns out

she used to do tours so she gave us some misc. advice. One of which was if our Denali tour was a 4 hour one, see if we can upgrade to the 6 hour one as we would see a lot more. Shortly before our flight, we headed to our gate for a quick ride to Fairbanks.

 

Once we arrived in Fairbanks, we went to claim our luggage which was very quick and easy. There were representatives at a counter near luggage claim so I did check in with them. I asked a few miscellaneous questions and headed out with hubby to catch a cab. I must say though how bizarre it is to walk out of an airport at midnight and find a bright sky above. We called the Eagle Cab Company as there weren't any at curbside available at the moment. About 3 minutes later, up pulled the cab. A few minutes later we arrived at Best Western Plus Pioneer Park hotel and they paid for the cab fair. Deal. When we checked in, we asked what time checkout was and they said 11am. We asked if that was the latest we could check out and they said noon would be ok (no extra charge). A few minutes later we were in our room. When we got up in the morning we went and had their complimentary breakfast which was fresh and tasty. We then did a quick load of laundry and packed. The hotel and employees were excellent. Upon check out we asked for another cab to take us to Sophie Station.

 

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sunday June 4 - We arrived at Sophie's about noon. Reggie was working the desk and efficiently got us checked in within minutes. We walked into our room. VERY nice. The hotel was once a pipeline apartment building. We had a full kitchen with dishes and such, living room with a flat panel TV, bedroom with another flat panel TV, large closet with safe and a nice

bathroom.

 

Sophie's offers a free shuttle that goes around Fairbanks. We went to Pioneer Park. I'll just say, meh. Then we caught the next shuttle and went to the antique auto museum. If it had to sum it up. One word, I would have to say WOW! I'm not even that into cars and I was amazed. Hubby loves cars and was so impressed. We then caught the shuttle back and got off at the Fred Meyer store. For those not familiar, it's like a super Walmart, but more Kohls like quality. It turns out it's a Kroger family store. We bought some water, soda and some misc stuff then walked back to the hotel. It is a short 5-minute leisurely walk. We then met with our tour directors. There were two, Kait and Carole. We had Carole. Kait had the other half of the guests and they had their bus and we had ours. When we met with Carole, she gave us the

basic itinerary and a list of options that we could add on. The only one we took was the dog sled in Seward (as she said we wouldn't get to the other dog sled options in time). She also gave us all our luggage tags. We 'could' have all our luggage each night, but since we already our stuff divided up. We opted to have 2 pieces 'stored' for the week which we thought wouldn't see it till we arrived in our cabin on the ship. As it turns out we got it back the night in Seward.

For dinner we walked back up and ate at the Carl's Jr. as the hotel was very pricey. The next morning, we did Carl's again for breakfast. Both times the employees we friendly and efficient. The food was fresh and the orders accurate.

 

 

Monday June 5 - After breakfast we boarded the bus and went to do the riverboat tour. When we got there we had a few minutes to shop the gift store. They also had a 40 below room you could go I. For free. Let's just say it was very refreshing. They can take your pic and email it to you for $7.50. So back in I went. Lol. Then we got on the boat. They had free fresh coffee and fresh blueberry donuts available. First thing as we started down the river, they had a float pilot take off from the river and fly by us and then land a couple times. Very nice. The narrator shared all sorts of interesting info. We got off and toured a native village like display where some of the tour guides who were natives shared history. We also got to learn about Susan Butcher and see some of her dogs. All in all, a much more enjoyable time then I expected.

 

 

After this they drove us out to 'Santa’s house' in the town of North Pole so we could watch them feed reindeer from a distance or you could pay to feed them. As it started to drizzle I didn't stay to watch. I walked through the large Christmas gift shop. Personally I could have done without this detour. After that we went to see the pipeline. Just a quick stop where it comes above ground. The had a cross section and a couple of "dumb pigs" that are used to clean and inspect the pipe interior.

 

 

When we were done, we went back to the hotel. Some folks went to the salmon bake. We just chilled. Actually, since Sophie's had a couple laundry rooms, we did another round of laundry. This helped save us from sending much to the ship’s laundry.

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tuesday, June 6 - we got up early so our luggage would be out before the 6am luggage pull. We had a quick snack as we figured we would eat on the train. 7:30 we were on the bus heading to the train station. We boarded the dome top train and it was very comfortable. Shortly after leaving the depot they started calling people down to dine. We ate with another couple.

The blueberry pancakes were excellent and the birch syrup was different. Not cheap but we liked it. The rest of the train ride we mostly rode upstairs while occasionally going outside on the platform for some air and pictures. We had completed a form the first night to purchase a boxed lunch for the Denali trip. It was $15pp and consisted of a wrap sandwich, chips,

 

brownie, orange and a bottle of water. This was paid for on the train along with anything else we bought while onboard. And it's a cashless system so credit or debit cards only. Once we got off the train we had about an hour to visit the visitors center and eat lunch. As it turned out, there was a restaurant there too.

 

When we got on our bus for the tour into Denali., there were green boxes in all the seats which I thought were boxes of tissues (couldn't figure why, lol). Turned out it was another snack box. Had we known, we wouldn't have bought the box lunch. The snack box had a variety of goodies. The bus driver also had a case of water. When we booked, it was supposed to be the 4-hour tour. We were delighted since then they upgraded to the 7-hour tour. First animal we saw was a lynx crossing the road with a snowshoe hare in its mouth. The guide said he had only seen one other in the last 7 years. Very rare to see.

 

We made it all the way to the final overlook to see the mountain. And by going that far in we got to see wildlife. We got to see the grand slam. That being Dall sheep, moose, caribou and grizzlies. We also saw marmots. snowshoe hares, ground squirrels, ravens with their nest of chicks.. There were a couple rest stops at 'nice' permanent ports potties. As we were almost out of the park, we saw a mother moose and her 2 calves.

 

After the tour, they brought us to our hotel, Denali village. Our luggage was waiting in our room for us. The room was adequate but nothing as nice as Sophie's. It was on the basic rustic concept. Kind of old. We had no A/C in our room but there was a desk fan. Turns out friends on the other bus were in the new building and they had A/C.

Again, the food is not cheap. $21pp for the breakfast buffet. The snack bar had 20oz Pepsi bottle for $3.25

 

FYi - We're in the process of culling through over 3000 pictures so hopefully I'll have some for you in the next day or 2.

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you Erika for the detailed trip report. Martha and I are looking forward to cruising with you and Mark in a few months!
You are more than welcome. You will LOVE Alaska. I think the hardest parts were A- Waiting so long after booking and B- packing.

 

Review continues....

Wednesday, June 7 - Luggage was pulled at 10am and we were on the bus at 11:30 to head to Anchorage. We made 2 stops on the way. First was at Mary Cary's. She was one of the first woman pioneers. They had restrooms, a gift shop and snack bar. Their peanut butter pie was the best I've ever had. (I suggested they sell the recipe). As they weren't serving lunch options we stopped at a grocery store a bit down the road. As Alaska food costs are so high we were surprised at some prices. They had ribeye for $5.99lb!

 

 

When we got to Anchorage, our tour guide hopped off and got us our room keys. As we were getting off the bus they started unloading the luggage at which point we saw the bell hops writing room numbers on the tags. We couldn't have been in our room 5 minutes when our luggage was delivered. We then went out for dinner. We went to Glacier Brewhouse which was very good. Hubby had Copper River Salmon and crab cakes. It was a tad pricey, but by now, we decided what isn't? After dinner we walked around and did some touristy shopping.

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally getting my hands on some pictures. Hopefully I can successfully post a few. These first 2 are the doucment we received when we checked in with Carole. It contains the schedule for the week. We requested an extra copy for our file since I figured our version would get wrinkled and damaged. One thing we both did was take pictures of it with our phone so we could easily pull it up if we needed to know something.

 

I'll start with these 2 and if it works, then I'll start adjusting and posting more pictures.

 

Erika

TourDoc1s.jpg.fd2f2e47b9d48e5515967ab9458ed4b0.jpg

TourDoc2s.jpg.aa54775b66a9f1d8a1caa7eed48c723f.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that didn't work as I had hoped. I inserted pictures hoping they would be able to be seen inline, not something to click. The only other option I see is to 'insert image'. But it appears the only way I can do that is if I have it already posted on the web somewhere. Any suggestions on how everyone seems to post pics directly? I would really like to include pictures as I write.

 

Thanx,

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well, that didn't work as I had hoped. I inserted pictures hoping they would be able to be seen inline, not something to click. The only other option I see is to 'insert image'. But it appears the only way I can do that is if I have it already posted on the web somewhere. Any suggestions on how everyone seems to post pics directly? I would really like to include pictures as I write.

 

Thanx,

Erika

That's how large photos are added to posts - they are uploaded to another site and linked to posts here on CC.

 

If you use a smartphone app, this uploading and linking is done automatically.

 

If you are using a web browser, you must do this manually. People use sites such as FlickR and Photobucket.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's how large photos are added to posts - they are uploaded to another site and linked to posts here on CC.

 

If you use a smartphone app, this uploading and linking is done automatically.

 

If you are using a web browser, you must do this manually. People use sites such as FlickR and Photobucket.

Thanx. Let's see if this works.

Okay, that didn't work from Flickr. Hmmm

 

Still trying

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanx. Let's see if this works.

Okay, that didn't work from Flickr. Hmmm

 

Still trying

Erika

Copy the link from FlickR. Then use the Insert Image (insertimage.gif) button here, and paste the link into the Insert Image field.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Copy the link from FlickR. Then use the Insert Image (insertimage.gif) button here, and paste the link into the Insert Image field.

That's the interesting part. I did that. When I was in Flickr, I clicked 'share' and it gave me a 'url' address. When I clicked on the button in CC, I pasted. Then I saw a 'box' like image in the post. But when I posted, it didn't show it. What's really frustrating is I am not tech ignorant (heck, I'm a frkn programmer/analyst, granted, I don't 'do' windows, lol), and yet, I still can't get the darn photos to post. Argh...

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's the interesting part. I did that. When I was in Flickr, I clicked 'share' and it gave me a 'url' address. When I clicked on the button in CC, I pasted. Then I saw a 'box' like image in the post. But when I posted, it didn't show it. What's really frustrating is I am not tech ignorant (heck, I'm a frkn programmer/analyst, granted, I don't 'do' windows, lol), and yet, I still can't get the darn photos to post. Argh...

 

Erika

To work with the "insert image" button, the link you get from FlickR has to have a photo type extension, like JPG or PNG, not an HTM(L) extension.

 

Post the link here, and I'll see if I can get the actual JPG URL.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally getting my hands on some pictures. Hopefully I can successfully post a few. These first 2 are the doucment we received when we checked in with Carole. It contains the schedule for the week. We requested an extra copy for our file since I figured our version would get wrinkled and damaged. One thing we both did was take pictures of it with our phone so we could easily pull it up if we needed to know something.

 

I'll start with these 2 and if it works, then I'll start adjusting and posting more pictures.

 

Erika

 

This is great information but not legible (on my devices). Is it possible for you to scan them and then repost?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To work with the "insert image" button, the link you get from FlickR has to have a photo type extension, like JPG or PNG, not an HTM(L) extension.

 

Post the link here, and I'll see if I can get the actual JPG URL.

Okay, thanx, as always for helping. I so want to pay it forward and share my info.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/53408578@N08/shares/wn3o81

 

Do I just add '.jpg' at the end?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for sharing and for posting. Perhaps I missed it in your description, but which cruise tour was this?

 

Also, i look forward to reading the documents that Carole gave you upon check-in. I see that you've posted them successfully - YAY! Any way to make them larger?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for sharing and for posting. Perhaps I missed it in your description, but which cruise tour was this?

 

Also, i look forward to reading the documents that Carole gave you upon check-in. I see that you've posted them successfully - YAY! Any way to make them larger?

Sorry about that. Somewhere in my head I thought I said it. We were on the the 6B tour. Now that I have a clue how to do pictures, I hope to move forward with more posting and updating of pictures. Unfortunately, I still have some work to do (or fortunately, so I can pay off this cruise and the upcoming ones :D ).

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks so much for sharing and for posting. Perhaps I missed it in your description, but which cruise tour was this?

 

Also, i look forward to reading the documents that Carole gave you upon check-in. I see that you've posted them successfully - YAY! Any way to make them larger?

 

Yes please, larger. I know we are a little picky. Thanks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes please, larger. I know we are a little picky. Thanks.

You know, that's an excellent question. I 'thought' I posted just like Bob did, but obviously I missed something. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make the pics larger, please feel free to share.

 

 

Erika

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please birdylady continue with your review even if getting pictures into it is too difficult. Many of us just want to know what your cruise was like! We are doing the same in 2018.

 

Kay

 

 

 

Agree!! So excited to read your review!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...