Radiance July 3rd – 10th: Summary

A bit about us: I am in my mid 40’s and have sailed on a majority of the other cruise lines over the last 10 years. I was traveling with my son who is 22 who has sailed a few times as well. We make the most of our vacations and don’t mind paying more to make the cruise fabulous – after all it is a vacation.

Arrival - VANCOUVER:

We flew in the day of departure (around 11:00 am) - Immigration was very smooth and quick. We decided to catch a cab to the cruise pier. We went outside the airport after picking up our luggage and there were CABS – TOWN CARS – LIMOS and VANS all waiting passengers (EXTREMELY ORGANIZED) – we took a limo and asked the driver if he could give us a quick tour of Vancouver and take us to a few shops so that we could purchase some souvenirs before boarding the ship. He gladly took us around town and to some shops downtown for some quick shopping. I was amazed that he only charged us $55 for all of this. I would recommend taking a limo or town car to the pier as it was only $15 dollars more than a cab but the limo had some added perks (we did not have to wait in the extremely long line to enter the pier with all of the cabs) we bypassed this long line and were dropped right off at the front. Our driver was amazing and so willing to take us where we wanted that we tipped him $25 – so for a total of $80 we had our own private limo – some sightseeing and some shopping and still plenty of time left to board the ship prior to departure. Let me also say that we had TONS of luggage (4 bags) and 2 carryon’s. Again, I highly recommend if you are flying in the day of departure to use the town car or limo service as they really expedited everything.

SHIP:

The Radiance was a beautiful ship. Very well maintained. There were a couple of drawbacks – elevators are hard to come by. They are in the centrum and there are 6 located in the centrum on each floor. You had to really cram in them to get where you wanted to go because they were few are far between. We learned to walk the stairs as much as possible. That made for a lot of walking considering we were in an AFT cabin. The dining room was amazing – as well as the Solarium – Windjammer – etc….. Really this ship is absolutely beautiful.

CABIN:

We were in an AFT cabin on deck 8. I am a bit torn about this cabin. It was an AFT which is usually wonderful because you can have loungers on your patio and spend a good amount of time on your own private balcony. On this cruise we were told we are not allowed to have loungers on our balcony so – the balcony was really oversized for 2 people. The stateroom was much smaller than I am used to. We have sailed on 5 other cruise lines and this was by far the smallest actual cabin portion – balcony was great but actual stateroom was small. I will add that it was smaller than anything we have stayed in but had far more cabinet-drawer space. Royal Caribbean does a very nice job of using every square inch of space for storage – that was SUPER!!!!

FOOD:

Main Dining Room: The food was okay. Nothing fabulous - nothing horrible. The one thing that I noticed more than anything was the lack of variety. If you wanted chicken you only had 1 choice of chicken and the same with steak – there was really only 1 choice, sometimes 2 – they always had the same side items. Again, not complaining because it was far better than anything I can cook but I wish they had more of a variety.

Pasta – chicken – steak. If you like fish – you will love the menu as they had TONS of fish items everyday.

Windjammer: Excellent variety – Hamburgers – hot dogs – pasta – Indian food – salads – pizza. With this said, I wish they changed what items were in each area everyday as it did get old with the same items on each station daily.

DAILY ACTIVITIES ONBOARD:

This area could use the most improvement – there was not much to do onboard ever. I wish they offered some daily activities for someone in their mid 40’s

SERVICE:

Service on this ship was good. Not the best I have had but not the worst either. I was really expecting exceptional service – food – entertainment while onboard since we paid more to sail on Royal Caribbean than other cruise lines in Alaska. This cruise just seemed to lack the WOW factor that I am accustomed to on a cruise.

PORTS:

WEATHER WAS HOT – 85 degrees the entire time except for Hubbard Glacier

Ketchikan – we did a float plane – AMAZING!!!!!!!

Juneau – Zipline – Fun

Skagway – Just walked around town and shopped and had some wonderful food

Icy Staight Pointe – again – just walked around and shopped and watched for whales all day (never saw any)

Hubbard Glacier – we were able to get 300 yards from glacier – it was AMAZING

Seward – Kenai Fjords tour – lunch – airport transfer – this was a great tour and a great way to travel to Anchorage to catch our flight home.

If anyone has questions please feel free to ask and I will answer what I can.

Kristin - Thank you for the post/review. Radiance reviews are hard to come by. Just curious how your ds enjoyed it. My son will be 22 also, but he is bringing his girlfriend. I am still concerned that they are going to be bored while we are on the ship (nights etc). Port days, I'm sure, will be fine. One more thing, do you know why you were not allowed lounge chairs? We are supposed to have loungers too. Thanks again. Good objective review.

Just thought of one more thing. Your day in Seward, was that a ship sponsored thing? Thanks again.

Glad to hear you had a nice time. Can you fill us in on what happened to your BIL?

Thanks for a great review! Hard to imagine that the weather was 85 degrees.

Kristin - Thank you for the post/review. Radiance reviews are hard to come by. Just curious how your ds enjoyed it. My son will be 22 also' date=' but he is bringing his girlfriend. I am still concerned that they are going to be bored while we are on the ship (nights etc). Port days, I'm sure, will be fine. One more thing, do you know why you were not allowed lounge chairs? We are supposed to have loungers too. Thanks again. Good objective review.

 

Just thought of one more thing. Your day in Seward, was that a ship sponsored thing? Thanks again.[/quote']

 

My son was actually completely bored on this trip. There was absolutely no entertainment for someone of his age whatsoever. It might help that your son is bringing his girlfriend so that he has someone to spend time with that is his own age. We were told that they would not allow loungers on the balcony due to the wind - all I have to say about that is: WHAT WIND - it was 85 degrees and absolutely beautiful out. The day in Seward was a ship sponsored tour "Kenja Fjords Tour w/ lunch and transportation to Anchorage" - this was a great tour and a perfect way to spend the day sightseeing and the luxury bus taking us to the airport in Anchorage was perfect - very comfortable ride and a bathroom on board.

 

Have a great time. We also did MTD and loved it. Make sure and go on day 1 and let them know if you want to eat by yourselves every evening or else you will be put with tablemates. We had tablemates the first 2 nights and then said we wanted a table for 2.

Glad to hear you had a nice time. Can you fill us in on what happened to your BIL?

Well, this trip turned out to be a disaster in the making. Long story short - my MIL's parents (who are in their 90's) were involved in a bad car accident and it was touch and go for a few days so we decided as a group to tell my inlaws about the surprise cruise and we all decided that now was not the time to be going on a cruise considering the my MIL's parents were needing to be moved from the hospital to a nursing home to recover. We decided as a group to move the anniversary cruise to February. This is where RCCL customer service shinned. They were extremely accomodating in letting us move our cruise to February (Caribbean) - we did have insurance so maybe that is why we did not receive any pushback. My husband and I decided to go ahead and go on the Alaskan cruise because we had already scheduled the time off and we needed a break from work. 7 days before departure my husband found out he was not able to take time off from work on July 3rd so we scrammbled and invited my 22 yr old son to join me. He was a complete trooper being the only person on board his age. I was certainly glad he went along - we made the most of the cruise and I actually felt pretty young for the first time in a long time :D.

I can tell you that I do not think that my BIL would have been allowed in Vancouver - they swiped our passports and clearly waited for something to pop up on their screen before stamping us through. I am certain that this is where his DWI would have popped up. I do believe that the NCIC database is tied to the passport scans. I would not suggest anyone try to sneak through immigration with a record because I think you will be stopped.

OP, there are elevators in the forward part of the ship as well.

We have found elevators are busy during busy times on the ships.

We tend to use the stairs as much as possible.

We loved our cruise to Alaska and enjoyed the down time. I am sorry your

son was bored. It does sound like you had a good time though which is

a good thing.:)

My son was actually completely bored on this trip. There was absolutely no entertainment for someone of his age whatsoever. It might help that your son is bringing his girlfriend so that he has someone to spend time with that is his own age. We were told that they would not allow loungers on the balcony due to the wind - all I have to say about that is: WHAT WIND - it was 85 degrees and absolutely beautiful out. The day in Seward was a ship sponsored tour "Kenja Fjords Tour w/ lunch and transportation to Anchorage" - this was a great tour and a perfect way to spend the day sightseeing and the luxury bus taking us to the airport in Anchorage was perfect - very comfortable ride and a bathroom on board.

 

Have a great time. We also did MTD and loved it. Make sure and go on day 1 and let them know if you want to eat by yourselves every evening or else you will be put with tablemates. We had tablemates the first 2 nights and then said we wanted a table for 2.

Thank you, I was afraid of that, which was also part of the reason we decided to let the gf go along. I am hoping that because our tours are so early and our days are so filled, that everyone will want to retire early and won't care that there is nothing going on. When we did the Panama Canal cruise it was the same thing. The sidewalks rolled up at night (so to speak)lol.

That is really strange about the lounge chairs :confused: . We do not have an aft cabin, we have the one next to the elevator. It has a really large balcony with 2 loungers and 2 reg chairs. I wonder if we will get them or not?

We are also doing MTD but there are 6 of us all together. I told my ds that he and gf are free to do whatever they want for dinner. I am afraid if we all spend too much time together it is going to get old.

Thanks again for your help.

I traveled in May with my 25 year old DD who was just fine and not bored. However, neither of us is much of a partyer. We had fun spotting whales at 10:00 p.m. (They were everywhere on our cruise so we were watching all the time.) Alaskan cruises (to me) have a different vibe than Caribbean cruises. It does sound, however, with 85 degree weather, you could have had a great time by the pool on the OP's one too.

We did have a lounger and a chair on our hump cabin. Sometimes, things just don't make sense. Like an excursion we had scheduled for San Juan that was cancelled the day before we got there because of bad weather. Of course, there wasn't a cloud in the sky when we arrived.

Speaking of whales, here's a funny one. While I was on the Grandeur on the way to Bermuda, one of the pool waiters was going around saying "free drink for the person who spots the first whale." I'd gotten so used to looking out to sea for them while I was on the Radiance that I'd actually had a momentary time lapse and was doing just that - watching for whales. Boy, did he ever bring me back to the present. (Of course, being on a ship on the way to Bermuda is a wonderful "present" to be in.)

You will all have a wonderful time on this cruise. After all, it is a cruise - how bad of a time can someone have :p. I think it was a great idea letting your DS's girlfriend go along. If there had been someone else that my son could have spent some time with that was remotely his age that would have made things much better.

Have a fabulous time and please feel free to ask me any questions you might have about the excurions, etc.... we talked to a lot of people onboard and excursions was a heavy topic. I can tell you what people raved about and what people said was not worth the money.

Thanks again Kristin & Vicki - Yes they like to have a good time, but I do know they realize that this doesn't have that caribbean "vibe" to it. In spite of that I still don't think they understand completely. They were warned that it is more of a "seasoned travelers" cruise. i definitely agree about the gf. It would not have been a good thing with him just by himself.

We are doing the Berring Sea Crab Tour in Ketchikan, renting a car in Juneau, doing a train/tour combo with Dyea Dave (this one has me concerned) and whale watching with FLOYDS in Icy Strait. We are also doing the Kenai Fjords tour in Seward and then go on to Homer from there. Most people have raved about Dave, but apparently there are some issues with him too.

Which Kenai tour did you do? We are signed up for the 8am one and I still am a bit concerned about getting off the ship in time.

We are doing the Berring Sea Crab Tour in Ketchikan' date=' and whale watching with FLOYDS in Icy Strait. [/quote']

We did both of these in May and LOVED both of them. I'm sure you will too. Have fun!

Skagway– Just walked around town and shopped and had some wonderful food

Thanks for the great review!

Question - where in Skagway did you have that wonderful food? I'm planning on doing the same thing you did there (been there before, have done the tours I want to already). I'd love to know a great place to eat.

My husband and I are going on a cruise to Alaska on Serenade (in 10! days). I am 27 and my husband is 29 and we do enjoy a good time in the evening so hopefully there will be some nightlife.

We plan to do Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau, Dyea Dave tour in Skagway and kayaking in Icy Strait Point. Really excited at this point. :)

Thanks for the great review!

 

Question - where in Skagway did you have that wonderful food? I'm planning on doing the same thing you did there (been there before, have done the tours I want to already). I'd love to know a great place to eat.

When you get off the ship in Skagway you have to walk a ways to get to town (about 3/4 mile) - we caught a bike chauffer that took us to the end of town (about 1.5 miles) down the road from the beginning of town. For the life of me I cannot remember the restaurant/bar name but it is at the end of town and is on the right hand side of the street. The had THE BEST fish and chips and fish taco's. We of course had a few beers and then walked back to the ship as we want to stop at some shops. If you like icecream they had a wonderful ice cream shop about 10 doors down (same side of the street) as the restaurant. They made the ice cream and waffle cones there. The waffle cone was luke warm which was fabulous and they really piled on the ice cream. Definately a wonderful treat. If you dont want to walk all the way back to the ship you can flag down one of the bike chauffers to take you back. They work meerly on tips and were very friendly.

Have a great time!!!

Thanks again Kristin & Vicki - Yes they like to have a good time' date=' but I do know they realize that this doesn't have that caribbean "vibe" to it. In spite of that I still don't think they understand completely. They were warned that it is more of a "seasoned travelers" cruise. i definitely agree about the gf. It would not have been a good thing with him just by himself.

 

We are doing the Berring Sea Crab Tour in Ketchikan, renting a car in Juneau, doing a train/tour combo with Dyea Dave (this one has me concerned) and whale watching with FLOYDS in Icy Strait. We are also doing the Kenai Fjords tour in Seward and then go on to Homer from there. Most people have raved about Dave, but apparently there are some issues with him too.

 

Which Kenai tour did you do? We are signed up for the 8am one and I still am a bit concerned about getting off the ship in time.[/quote']

 

I think my son did not fully understand the what I was telling him about the vibe not being that of a caribbean cruise. All he heard was FREE CRUISE - he really did say he had a good time with me and that he thought it was pretty cool being just he and I.

 

You will have a great time on your tours. We did the same Kenai Fjord tour as you if you booked it through the ship. You actually meet on the ship at 8:00 and it is almost 9:00 before you board the shuttle bus after collecting your luggage. You then are taken to downtown for some shopping - very small town we stopped in the coffee shop and surfed the internet for about 30 minutes then stopped and grabed a small drink and snack while waiting to be picked back up to be taken to the boat. Our flight left Anchorage at 10:50 and we had plenty of time.

 

Have a great time on your cruise.

We did the Kenai tour through the ship and can report the same scenario as Kristin and Lance. We got some breakfast at a coffee shop and just walked the streets. We enjoyed a little shop called "Once in a Blue Moose".

Thanks for the great review!

 

Question - where in Skagway did you have that wonderful food? I'm planning on doing the same thing you did there (been there before, have done the tours I want to already). I'd love to know a great place to eat.

I just looked at my receipts from the vacation and the name of the restaurant/bar that we went to in Skagway that had some great food was: Skagway Brewing Co.

Thought I would attach a few pictures from our cruise.

Hubbard Glacier

AFT balcony

Island Wings Float Plane where we landed and spent some time

Float Plane pictures from plane

Kenai Fjord tour of whales and eagles.

Sunsets

Remaining picture attachements.

I just looked at my receipts from the vacation and the name of the restaurant/bar that we went to in Skagway that had some great food was: Skagway Brewing Co.

Thanks! I've written it in my notebook.