2012 July 6-20 Alaska Land and Cruise Adventure Review with LOTS of photos!

hey there Hard-habit-to-break ~

here is another review you should check out and possibly get some more info about traveling from 'down under' to the lovely 'great white north.' Twinkd may have some insights for you, i believe they have done two Alaska trips from New Zealand. am guessing if you post on it she will give ya a hello. ps, i am totally jealous of your planned trip, it sounds fabulous!!! you will do a review i hope :D jealous of your ability to get more than 2 weeks in a row off, so many employers here will not allow it

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1708676

September 19th, 2012, 12:35 AM

Twinkd

Cool Cruiser

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: Whakatane, New Zealand

Posts: 317

Review of Cruise and Independent Land Tour with photos

sorry for the interruption L.J., did not mean to hijack your review or anything. please continue with your great review!!! just trying to help a fellow cruise critic traveler out ;)

 

sorry for the interruption L.J., did not mean to hijack your review or anything. please continue with your great review!!! just trying to help a fellow cruise critic traveler out ;)

knu,

No worries at all - this is here for people to learn and connect and share - carry on!

L.J.

Awesome. Thanks for this. Have been reading a fair bit lately, but getting into trouble off my husband who said I should be working on our plans for our cruise at Easter this year!! That's fine, that will be sorted this weekend and then I can get back to Alaska.

I have a colleague who has just taken 12 months off to go back to Canada (he is Canadian, has worked in Australia for quite a few years). He has taken a mixture of paid and unpaid leave, his job will still be here when he gets back.

We get brilliant leave arrangements. My husband and I normally take 3-4 weeks off in a row, makes planning trips alot easier.

hey there Hard-habit-to-break ~

 

here is another review you should check out and possibly get some more info about traveling from 'down under' to the lovely 'great white north.' Twinkd may have some insights for you, i believe they have done two Alaska trips from New Zealand. am guessing if you post on it she will give ya a hello. ps, i am totally jealous of your planned trip, it sounds fabulous!!! you will do a review i hope :D jealous of your ability to get more than 2 weeks in a row off, so many employers here will not allow it

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1708676

 

September 19th, 2012, 12:35 AM

Twinkd

Cool Cruiser

Join Date: Jan 2009

Location: Whakatane, New Zealand

Posts: 317

 

 

Review of Cruise and Independent Land Tour with photos

 

sorry for the interruption L.J., did not mean to hijack your review or anything. please continue with your great review!!! just trying to help a fellow cruise critic traveler out ;)

I have a colleague who has just taken 12 months off to go back to Canada (he is Canadian, has worked in Australia for quite a few years). He has taken a mixture of paid and unpaid leave, his job will still be here when he gets back.

 

We get brilliant leave arrangements. My husband and I normally take 3-4 weeks off in a row, makes planning trips alot easier.

That settles it - we're moving to Australia:D!

L.J.

Hey Dave,

 

Sorry - ISP is short for Icy Straight Point. It's located on the north edge of Chichagof Island about halfway along the NE edge of the island directly on Icy Straight. It's about 40 air miles form Juneau. We saw tons of whlaes this past July on our two trips out of Juneau. Maybe 6-10 different whales, but some of them we saw many times.

 

Things like the whales are one of the reasons why I like and carry my big DSLRs. While many point & shoot digital cameras take excellent photos of still objects/landscapes, they lag behind the DSLRs in terms of response and focus time for things like whales and eagles. The thing that can really help is pre focusing ahead of the whales. Once they surface, they'll usually follow the same path & directions for several cycles until they sound and come up somewhere else. If you pick the right spot, then all you have to do shoot when the whales come up. Easier said than done, especially if the waters aren't calm:D, but with a little time and practice, it works more often than not.

 

Our travels have been limited to the Caribbean and Alaska so far, but Europe and the Med, and Africa and Zew Zealand & Australia are all on the to do list!

 

 

L.J.

I just bought a used Sony camcorder for this trip. I hope to be able to get better movies of the wildlife and sealife. I had trouble focusing on moving objects on our last Alaska outing so I should be able to film the area and edit out the footage the is extraneous. We are going to try flightseeing this time and the camera should be wonderful for the tour.

Dave

I just bought a used Sony camcorder for this trip. I hope to be able to get better movies of the wildlife and sealife. I had trouble focusing on moving objects on our last Alaska outing so I should be able to film the area and edit out the footage the is extraneous. We are going to try flightseeing this time and the camera should be wonderful for the tour.

Dave

Thank goodness for me Bev loves to shoot video on our trips, so I don't have to choose between photos and videos - I just have to figure out what to do with it all wehn we get back!

L.J.

While Bev & Mom checked out the souvenir sales, I headed out to the creek side boardwalk/deck that runs along parts of the buildings overlooking the creek. It was a nice warm day, and there were lots of people everywhere. One of the neat things I saw was that a group on a kayak excursion had paddled up the creek and we plum in the middle of all the buildings:

This is definitely one of the things we'd like to try on a return to Ketchikan, assuming we aren't off looking for bears! However, anywhere you go in Alaska you can happen on the unexpected (I guess that true anywhere, but in Alaska it's a bit of a different take!). Below is another identical shot of the kayakers...or is it? Can tell me what's different?

I'll wait and see who figures it out first!!!

Their tour of Creek Street via the Creek done, the kayakers headed back downstream towards the bridge that marks the end of the Creek Street loop, and takes you back out into the main small boat harbor for Ketchikan (which we'll see from above a bit later...).

The last time we were here, we didn't really pay as much attention to the signs and historical markers. So it was nice this time to stop and check out a few of them, and grab some snapshots for reference later on. I can't imagine how long it's going to take me to put the book of our travels together after this review! Here's some more info on one of the oldest buildings (and only "official" brothel) in Ketchikan, and one of the in/famous "sporting" ladies of Creek Street...

We continued to wander the loop around, stopping for Mom to check out a few of the stores that carried jewelry in particular. While you can still find imported pieces all over town, even here, don't forget to look for the certified Made in Alaska and/or Authentic Native Handcraft logos if you want to pick some genuine Alaska artwork, crafts or jewelry.

A look back at my "Creek Stand" boardwalk/deck where I took the photos of the kayakers from. For reference, I was in the corner of the deck in the lower right-hand corner shooting towards where I took this photo from.

L.J.

Not telling the DH about the kayak trip since he has agreed to walk, shop, and stop for an occasional "adult beverage" ;) at that port. As always love the pictures. There is something lurking in the water aside from the kayakers??

Not telling the DH about the kayak trip since he has agreed to walk, shop, and stop for an occasional "adult beverage" ;) at that port. As always love the pictures. There is something lurking in the water aside from the kayakers??

LOL! Good place for all three! You're on the right track Linda. If you look litle right and below the bottom right kayakers you'll see the head of a Harbor Seal checking out their fellwo floaters. There's also another one to the left of the whole group near the buildings on the left diving...

L.J.

LOL! Good place for all three! You're on the right track Linda. If you look litle right and below the bottom right kayakers you'll see the head of a Harbor Seal checking out their fellwo floaters. There's also another one to the left of the whole group near the buildings on the left diving...

 

L.J.

A much as I would like to float and paddle with Otters I think I will stick with my original plan..LOL

Love how the otters are there right with the kayakers LJ, what else do you have up your sleeve? :D

Love how the otters are there right with the kayakers LJ, what else do you have up your sleeve? :D

LOL - well, I think that's it...I think;). That's it for wildlife I'm pretty sure. Still some more of Ketchikan to see, especailly some neat shots of departure. I took a number of shots of spots around Radiance the next day as we traversed the Inside Passage, so for those wanting to see a bit more of the ship, I'll have those coming up soon. Today was a long work day, so I'm going to crash and try and get back at it tomorrow of Wednesdayt. As always, thanks to all my faithful followers!

L.J.

for taking the time to write this review.

We are starting to think of Alaska for 2015 (I know a bit early however I always need to be planning something) for several milestone bdays (me 40 aunt 65 aunt 60). I really need to show your photos to them.

Thanks again

Dawn

PS. GO SMOKE!!!

WOO HOO no raw for me LJ I like to just shoot away and than i can use light room to touch up if needed... I am trying to figure out of my batteries can do a full day or do i need to bring two sets.. Hmmm the little things

We were on the same cruise as you were, LJ and some of your pictures are bringing back great memories. I took over 1500 pictures but I don't think that comes close to your amount.

It's too bad we didn't get to meet at the CC "meet and mingle"

It's sure great to keep reliving the memories. Alaska was one of the places on my bucket list N we hope to return some day.

WOO HOO no raw for me LJ I like to just shoot away and than i can use light room to touch up if needed... I am trying to figure out of my batteries can do a full day or do i need to bring two sets.. Hmmm the little things

LOL - I love me some Lightroom! Made ALL the difference in post vacation processing!

I have external battery grips for all my cameras, so I have double the battery life. On average, I get between 1600-1900 shots per pair of batteries...

L.J.

We were on the same cruise as you were, LJ and some of your pictures are bringing back great memories. I took over 1500 pictures but I don't think that comes close to your amount.

It's too bad we didn't get to meet at the CC "meet and mingle"

 

It's sure great to keep reliving the memories. Alaska was one of the places on my bucket list N we hope to return some day.

I think that's why I've been drawing this review out - it keeps the memories fresh, and shortens the time until the next trip to Alaska! I have NO idea what happened about the Meet & Mingle. We've always gotten an invitation in the room annoucing when and where. It wasn't until the last day I realized it must have already happened. I HATED that because some many of us had talked so much here on the boards pre trip - I was really looking forward to meeting everyone.

As for the bucket list - Alaska remains there - along with Africa, New Zealand/Australia, Fiji, and Venice...:D

L.J.

Thank you so much for this! Now we're even more excited! We're going on the Radiance northbound and then doing the land portion on our own. We're doing a lot of the same activities that you did.

One of the interesting signs we saw in the window of one of the shops mid Creek was this one showing the lyrics to the "Alaska Flag" song. The song, by a woman named Elinor Dusenbury, was inspired by the territorial flag designed by Benny Benson, which inspired by a poem about the flag by Territorial Assistant Commissioner of Education Marie Drake, which led Dusenbury's song in 1938. In 1955 is was adopted as the official song of the territory, and became the state song when Alaska became a state in 1959. I somehow hadn't seen it before in our travels, but thought it was a nice tribute to Alaska and wanted to be able to read it again later...

Another bit of lyrical Alaskan poetry...

Dolly's House is one of the big attractions on Creek Street, complete with a red light, "Dolly" and some other "sporting ladies" from the era, that will give you a tour of the house - for a fee of course!

Dolly's House pretty much marks the end of our Creek Street tour (or the beginning if you choose to start here). You could spend a few hours here if you really shopped hard and checked everything out, but in general we spend about an hour and a half or some working our way around the shops and sights from one entrance to the other. Speaking of which, if you started at this end, here are the views looking up the Creek if you were to start from this end (paddle not included!).

L.J.

Thank you so much for this! Now we're even more excited! We're going on the Radiance northbound and then doing the land portion on our own. We're doing a lot of the same activities that you did.

Allisons,

Have you been on Radiance before? If you haven't, I'll be closing out the review with a photo tour (surprise!) of several more parts of the ship. In any case, you should have a fantastic time. Just remember the old axiom when bear viewing - don't run - vut if you do, just don't be the slowest (or 2nd slowest)!!!

L.J.

Allisons,

Have you been on Radiance before? If you haven't, I'll be closing out the review with a photo tour (surprise!) of several more parts of the ship. In any case, you should have a fantastic time. Just remember the old axiom when bear viewing - don't run - vut if you do, just don't be the slowest (or 2nd slowest)!!!

L.J.

We haven't been on the Radiance. But we have been on the Serenade. They are sister ships. They are almost identical.

L.J. OUTSTANDING is all I can come up with at this point for your review and pictures. If I were a writer I may come up with something better LOL but we did Alaska last summer and whale watching with HM and loved every minute of it and are going again in Aug this year. Reading your review and seeing the pictures makes our weather here at -4 with a wind chill of -30 tolerable as I am sitting here reading it and forgetting all the weather. THANK YOU and look forward to more of your reviews!!!!! :D

We haven't been on the Radiance. But we have been on the Serenade. They are sister ships. They are almost identical.

We've been on Serenade twice, and we're going on Jewel in October. We keep cutting aginst the cruise grain - we started off on bigger ships, and keep getting smaller - but we love the Radiance class ships!

L.J.

L.J. OUTSTANDING is all I can come up with at this point for your review and pictures. If I were a writer I may come up with something better LOL but we did Alaska last summer and whale watching with HM and loved every minute of it and are going again in Aug this year. Reading your review and seeing the pictures makes our weather here at -4 with a wind chill of -30 tolerable as I am sitting here reading it and forgetting all the weather. THANK YOU and look forward to more of your reviews!!!!! :D

Thanks kamac56!!! As long as it's been, I feel like there's so much more I could be writing about and in more detail, and better - but then I'd NEVER get done!!!:D. I have decided to go retro and do a review of our 2009 cruise, since we left out of Seattle, took the train to Vancouver, kayaked Kenaji Fjords, took the ARR to Anchorage, and went to Talkeetna and Denali - so we hit some different places and excursions than we did on this trip - and I pretty much took as many photos on that trip too - so I'll have a few to post;)! I may even start reviewing our Caribbean adventures...

L.J.

We've been on Serenade twice, and we're going on Jewel in October. We keep cutting aginst the cruise grain - we started off on bigger ships, and keep getting smaller - but we love the Radiance class ships!

L.J.

We loved the Serenade! It was probably our favorite RCI ship ever! We didn't love the bigger ships! We're really looking forward to going back on another Radiance class ship!