July 4, 2014 Radiance Southbound/DIY Land Tour Review

[mollanjake]

You guys are making me feel disorganized as haven't even started to go thru my pics yet, maybe this weekend. Laura, I see a bit of myself near the bow/background of one of your pics:). We really did luck out with very calm seas that day and wonderful visibility. I thought all the small boat operators that we went with really skillful and all very enjoyable tours.

 

And, while we didn't watch the production shows, we did go to all the guest entertainer shows. We thought they were all very good/high quality and really enjoyable shows. I give Royal Caribbean credit for bringing them all onboard. I also really liked the Aurora theater on the Radiance of the Seas as didn't think it had a bad seat, and felt close to the stage. Having this ongoing discussion with my family as they all liked the lay-out of Freedom class a bit better (our previous cruise) but I personally really liked the Radiance lay out as felt could always see the outside scenery, loved the more intimate feel of theater, and liked seeing The Quest game in a smaller venue.

 

ps. my daughter keeps telling me will you please stop telling people you saw a bear swimming :-) (but again, that was very cool)

 

 

 

I think we "missed the boat" on the shows. I guess we should have seen more that just the one.

 

You are definitely in the background of that picture. I think we may have been one of the first ones to notice it was open up there. Sarah loved it up there near the captains.

 

I really liked the Radiance too, I think more than the Independence. But I do like the center Promenade on the Freedom class, that was nice for evenings and sea days when were wondering around the ship. Of course we didn't do much wondering around the ship in Alaska.

 

Make sure you tell DH and DS they made it into my review!

Edited July 18, 2014 by mollanjake

[cgrist]

Hi Laura!

 

We were out there doing the kayaking trip with Karen's DH and DS. Honestly, even after getting back to the Holiday Inn at 11 pm, we didn't make the fireworks. We did Kenai Fjords before we got on the ship on the 4th. It was amazing, and admittedly, we did quite a bit of dozing ourselves. Cannot believe how fortunate we were weather-wise, the whole trip!

 

Keep going! You're doing great. I'm just getting over a strep infection, and just haven't gotten to the pictures yet. Thanks for posting!

 

Candy

[mapleleaves]

I'm afraid I'm a longwinded and posting too many pictures...

 

I really enjoy trip reports and photos so please continue!

And I'd say others feel the same, given that your thread has almost 2000 views!

[mollanjake]

Hi Laura!

 

We were out there doing the kayaking trip with Karen's DH and DS. Honestly, even after getting back to the Holiday Inn at 11 pm, we didn't make the fireworks. We did Kenai Fjords before we got on the ship on the 4th. It was amazing, and admittedly, we did quite a bit of dozing ourselves. Cannot believe how fortunate we were weather-wise, the whole trip!

 

Keep going! You're doing great. I'm just getting over a strep infection, and just haven't gotten to the pictures yet. Thanks for posting!

 

Candy

 

Sorry we did get a picture of you too!

[mollanjake]

I really enjoy trip reports and photos so please continue!

And I'd say others feel the same, given that your thread has almost 2000 views!

 

Thanks, means a lot coming from a regular and someone who has help many of us plan our trips!

[mollanjake]

Think we slept in until 7ish, late for this trip. We ate a little breakfast at the cabin as we had purchased some breakfast food and Walmart/Safeway. We packed up and headed into Seward.

 

July 4th in Seward is a big deal it's the Mt Marathon Race. There are 3 separate races kids, women and men in that order. When I booked our Octopus Encounter at the sea life Center I had been warned that parking can be extremely difficult, so come early. Several streets are blocked to cars, but we did not have any trouble getting to the sea life Center or to the port/rental car return. We arrived early enough to park in the Sealife Center parking lot. We walked to the Sea Bean for some breakfast sandwiches. Since our encounter was at 1pm we had plenty of time. there are booths with food and stuff set-up all over town. We found it to be mostly "carnival" type stuff rather than Alaska type stuff,( the event isn't really for tourists) We watched some of the finishers of the kids race. The winner was a young woman who had won the girls race for the past few years, but this year she was the first winner beating all the boys. I think she had a record breaking time! It was pretty amazing to watch. I think the race is just over 1 mile, but most of it is straight up and then straight down. A few kids didn't look much older than my DD.

 

We walked along the bay, something we hadn't had time to do before.

 

 

 

[JosieRhodes]

 

Make sure you tell DH and DS they made it into my review!

 

I will. That was pretty funny when I saw the pic pop up at the time as I was sitting there wondering how their kayaking was going. We had paid for a Holiday Inn Express Seward harbor balcony room with points so we actually were able to see the fireworks from the balcony and then go straight to bed. Thanks again for sending me those pics at the time.

 

I don't know that I would have paid $ for the room, but it was nice to sit out there and watch the fishing boats come in and see fish cut up into fillets, etc. I have pics of this somewhere.

Edited July 18, 2014 by JosieRhodes
spelling

[mollanjake]

I will. That was pretty funny when I saw the pic pop up at the time as I was sitting there wondering how their kayaking was going. We had paid for a Holiday Inn Express Seward harbor balcony room with points so we actually were able to see the fireworks from the balcony and then go straight to bed. Thanks again for sending me those pics at the time.

 

I don't know that I would have paid $ for the room, but it was nice to sit out there and watch the fishing boats come in and see fish cut up into fillets, etc. I have pics of this somewhere.

 

Funny thing about that picture, I posted it on FB thinking it would be the fastest was for you two see it and a bunch of my friends liked it! Not sure I would like a picture of people I had never seen before just b/c it was on a friends FB page!

[mollanjake]

You can see from the pics in my last post that it was warm enough to wear shorts!

 

We spent an hour or so touring the Sealife center. It is great place to visit esp with kids. We especially liked the touch tanks and the puffins. At sometime in the morning there were several buses at the Sea Life Center. They were RCI buses. My guess was the people had just gotten of the ship and this was part of a tour they booked, so it likely could be crowded in there.

 

The Sea Life Center is a great place to spend 1-2 hours on embark/debark day, unless of course you are trying to get a Fjords tour in.

 

 

 

 

http://i1039.photobucket.com/albums/a476/mollanjake/Alaska%2014/IMG_4750_zpse0aa1973.jpg' alt='IMG_4750_zpse0aa1973.jpg'>[/img]

 

 

[/img]

 

Edited July 18, 2014 by mollanjake

[JimAOk1945]

I enjoyed your review. It brought back a lot of memories of our cruise on the Radiance. Thanks!

[mollanjake]

The SeaLife Center offers 3 encounters: Puffins, Sea Mammals and octopus, as well as 3 behind the seen tours. All but the octopus Encounter have a minimum age of 12. The Octopus encounter has a minimum age of 6.

 

We booked the Octopus Encounter, it has a maximum of 6 guest, so it was us and another group of 3, all adults. We met at the assigned time and off we went to a lab space. The young lady who taught us about Octopus was either a volunteer or an intern, We were joined by a gentleman that was a boss in the department, but I don't believe he was a marine biologist, seemed more like a learn on the job, but he was VERY knowledge about Octopus. We spent about 30 minutes learning about the octopus and then off to behind the tank!

 

We were behind and at the top of the tank you look into while in the center. Not sure if we could be seen by the people looking at the Octopus, but I bet they wondered where the Octopus went when the intern/volunteer was able to coax the big guy over to us. We were all able to touch an arm and feel how strong his suction cups are. There were a total of 3 crabs to feed to the octopus...guess they usually have 3 groups of 2. My DD and a lady in the other group fed the octopus, after 2 crabs he really wasn't interested an swam away. All in all it was pretty cool, but I expected to see more than 1 octopus. I learned quite a bit about the octopus, I had no idea they were so intelligent.

 

 

Once our encounter was over it was time to head to the ship!

 

 

Don't think I mentioned this: There is a place to eat at the Sealife center, but we didn't not eat there. Since we had time btw our touring the center and the encounter we walked a few blocks and got a reindeer sausage from one of the vendors.

Edited July 19, 2014 by mollanjake

[mollanjake]

Seward is pretty small, so it was easy to find both the ship and the rental car office. We headed to the ship first, after a bit of confusion, we found the luggage drop off. It seemed to be in the middle of a parking lot. There were 3 or 4 guys in from of giant shipping containers, must be the easiest way to get stuff onto the ship. They reminded us to have all cruise docs and passports on our person and we were good to go.

 

My plan had been for DH to drop DD and I off at the ship and for him to return the car. he didn't like my plan, so we all returned the car and took the Hertz shuttle to the ship. The shuttle driver was nice and explained that there was a shuttle that ran btw the town and ship, if we were inclined to go into town.

 

Check is was a breeze! I followed the lines labeled for gold and I don't think we waited at all. A pleasant gentlemen checked- us in and sent us on our way. I thought it was funny, but the checkin/customs and X-ray were being used for 2 separate ships. Next stop was Customs and the X-ray machines.

 

Probably shouldn't mention this but... from our cabin stay we had 4 or 5 cans of beer and 2 cans of "rita's" My DH started to pack them in a checked bag and I said not to as we didn't want to end up in the naughty room, so he put them in a carry on. We figured if we got stopped we would just play dumb and hand them over. Well the bag went thru the X-ray machine and came out and nobody mentioned a thing. the lady behind us had wine in her bag and she was flagged. My DD started to say something, but I quickly shushed her and we got on the ship!

 

They take a security picture as you get on the ship that first time. They had to re-take my DD as the camera was too high the first time. We got the quick boarding picture and we were on our cruise! I know I already reviewed the ship, but when we boarded the Independence last year they took a family shot, a couple shot and a picture of just my DD. Those photogs were going for the big $.

 

We boarded sometime btw 3-4pm, so we went right to our cabin and dropped our carry-ons. Where would our first stop be??? Windjammer of course, we weren't hungry, but we did get a cold drink and a dessert. Since it was the 4th of July they were serving apple pie and had a flag cake complete with strawberries and blueberries.

 

we walked around a bit, but decided to check on our bags. as luck would have all, but one had arrived. I decided to unpack and get organized, we need to get laundry done. Out last bag showed up just before we went to dinner

 

Went to our 6:30pm dinner reservation, the muster drill and back to our cabin. There were 3 otters playing in the water near the ship so we watched them a bit and before we knew it the ship was pulling away!

 

I can't remember what else we did that day, so I don't think it was anything exciting!

 

[/img]

[mollanjake]

We had a good night's sleep, so we woke rested for our Hubbard Glacier viewing/sea day. We headed to the main dining room for breakfast. We asked for a table by a window and said sharing was fine. We had a nice breakfast with lots of chatting! I got my bircher muesli from the cereal bar as well as ordering some sort of quiche. I just love bircher muesli and only eat it on vacation.

 

I always find it funny on cruises that there are always a few people you see over and over. This breakfast was like that. At the table: a couple, 2 sisters traveling together, and a lady that was by herself(this was the second leg of her B2B and honestly don't know if she was traveling alone, she told us that the captain's warning about noro on previous cruises was the real deal not just a warning. they had been under high precautions for at least half of her first cruise) We saw the couple almost everyday and would always say hello and several times chatted, including in the Vancouver airport on our way home. They had also taken the Independence 8 day itinerary in march 2013, 50-50 shot we were on the same cruise. We saw the sisters all the time! We ended up viewing Hubbard together, my DD and one of them climbed the rock roll at the same time, we saw them shopping in Juneau, we even stole their idea to get sandwiches from the park cafe to take on our whale watch(don't tell).

 

After wandering some, we headed to our Meet and Mingle. Unfortunately it wasn't that well attended:( Some people didn't get invites and other were confused about the time.

 

My DD used the indoor pool and we had a less than stellar lunch in the WJ. All in all we had a nice half day just wandering around, but when the ship slowed and we started to see ice in the water we headed out and up.

[July4]

Great review Laura Thank you we are doing August 29th. Do you remember about what time the muster drill was and what time the ship departed. :)

[mollanjake]

Great review Laura Thank you we are doing August 29th. Do you remember about what time the muster drill was and what time the ship departed. :)

 

 

Thanks!

 

I'm gonna say the muster is at 7:45pm, but I'm not sure. The ship was scheduled to leave at 8pm and we left on time or darn close to it.

[mollanjake]

Our first glimpse of Hubbard Glacier

 

 

I'd like to mention as a help to anyone traveling with kids, my DD got bored of the glacier viewing quickly. I really wasn't surprised by this, but thought I would mention it. I know all kids are different. At one point my DH too my DD for ice cream, yes she went from complaining that it was cold to asking for ice cream. While my DD and DH were aaa, I chatted with one of the sisters from breakfast. We both wondered about the ship going by all the ice bergs in the water. we decided the sonar and ship speed would prevent us from a Titanic moment.

[/img]

 

 

There were guys walking around selling hot chocolate in insulated RCI mugs you could get it both plain and spiked. I had mine with! DH joked they that didn't tell you a price even on the receipt they filled out and gave him!

[mollanjake]

[/img]

 

While my DH and DD were away, the man next to me spotted this guy. I think he saw hime twice before I did.

 

[/img]

 

[/img]

[mollanjake]

[/img]

 

We definitely could hear cracking, but didn't see any big calving. For sure we saw stuff fall into the water just not anything really big. This was one really neat time went a giant blue cube fell into the water, but I didn't even come close to catch it on my camera.

 

I can't believe that the a ship so large can turn the way it does!

 

When we turned to yea away from the glacier, we convinced my DD it was time to give the kids club a try. She was there for about an hour. Enough time for MH and I to grab a cocktail and watch the ice flow by!

[mollanjake]

EEkkk, hate that I didn't prof those last 2 posts.

 

Hubbard was pretty remarkable. Not sure how to really explain it and as everyone says my pictures just don't do it justice.

 

Parents traveling with kids: if you think your kids will be bored with glacier viewing, they likely will. We have the problem that my DD doesn't like the kids club. On our last cruise she fell into the 5-8 age group and she didn't like being the oldest. On this cruise I think the group was 5-12, probably b/c there weren't tons of kids on board. Again she complained that most of the kids were younger than her. She went for 1 hour on this day and that was it. At least they did a science experiment during the hour she was there. That am we stopped in the kids club and asked if they had a schedule of activities, while they have a list of stuff they will do in a session, they don't have a set schedule. makes it hard if a child only wants to do 1 or 2 activities. This is not a complaint just a comment.

[mollanjake]

As normal, I was wake before everyone else. Eventually, I got dressed and headed up to the Park Cafe for a cup of coffee. I chatted with another woman, whose family was also sleeping.

 

After a while I got a few muffins and headed down to the cabin. my Dh was up and DD was starting to stir. I decided to enjoy my coffee on the balcony, I saw a few blows from a whale, but didn't actually see a whale, BUT I am pretty sure that counts! While I was sitting there, I was surprised by a visitor, so surprised that I yelled and my DH and DD ran out to check on me.

 

 

I had some trouble planning our day in Juneau. After lots of research I decided we would whale watch in Juneau,(lots recommend Whale watching in Icy Strait if you stop there) I just couldn't find anything else I really wanted to do in Juneau, lots of little things, nothing except Whale watching and Mendenhall Glacier. So after reading reviews of who to go with, I decided on Orca Enterprises. When I called to book with them I was told 12noon was available. Honestly I was a bit stunned, this was in the fall and I couldn't believe the early trip was already booked, but I took it. This bothered me for quite sometime especially after I searched for stuff do after a 12n whale watch and no tour seemed to leave that late. Eventually I called back and asked for the 'early tour" and was told the 12noon was the earliest tour that day as Radiance was the only ship that would be in port at 9am, 2 other large ships came in by 12n. the other difficult thing to decide was what to do about Mendenhall. Orca charges for a 1hour stop(that would return us to town by 5pm) But would that be enough time?? No hike to the water fall...we could take the shuttle back... I explained all this to my DH and he made the call...we will take the Orca transport both directions, we just can't do everything!

 

So our plan: check in for Whale watch at 11:30am and return to town at 5pm...what to go before and after...

[mollanjake]

We were off the ship by 9:30am. We easily located the Orca office, but we had some time before we needed to check in. It was a warm clear sunny day, so MY DH said lets do the Mt Roberts Tram NOW.

 

The office is right there and there was no line! Took a few minutes to pay as we were using a coupon from Northern Lights and the cashier didn't know how to do it. They stamp your hand as you can go up as many times as you wish.

 

The Tram is very smooth and we got to the top quickly. When we got up there this little guy had gotten himself stuck in the tram building. (he did eventually get out!)

 

[/img]

 

 

This was outside. I really messed up the picture b/c you can't see the nest. it is an example of a Bald Eagle nest. Bald Eagles mate for life and will use the same nest year after year, adding to it each year. They can end up weighing over a ton!

 

 

[/img]

[mollanjake]

We still had time before check in, so we decided to walk down the street a block or so because there were a couple of shops I wanted to check out:

 

House of Russia and Glacier Smoothies.

 

We found House of Russia first. My DD spent some time looking at the Matryoshka dolls. We had seen them in a few stores in both Anchorage and Seward, but I had suggested to my DD she wait. I also said we weren't buying one unless it had been made in Russia. She found one she liked and I found a christmas ornament and an earrings I liked. The store had some neat "old Russia" military memorabilia as well as hats made in Russia. I saw several fur hats well as knitted hats I liked in those Russia store we visited they were just more $ than I would spend on a hat. Maybe if I lived in a colder place...

 

we stopped in another store that had products made in Alaska. We got another ornament, this one has reindeer fur and another fur. DD got feather earrings all made in Alaska. After that stop we decided to head back to Orca to check-in. We checked in right at 11:30am, the first ones, and were told we will meet you out front at 12n.

 

There was a standard Alaska souvenir shop, right there so we went in. I was already hot in my heavy fleece, so I looked at zip up jackets sweatshirts and bought a one. My DD got a t-shirt and a book of paper dolls-eskimos(she had seen the exact book on the ship and I said lets wait. it was $5 here so we got it Not sure how much it was on the ship) We spotted a penny machine, so we headed over to it. we chatted with the mom & daughter, who were on our ship, never saw them again.

 

we headed back to the orca office and waited. I think we left about 10 mins late as we were waiting for someone-I hate that! The drive gave us area info as we drove about 30 mins to the boat. He told us when we could see Mendenhall. etc

 

We got of our bus and headed down to the dock. Our driver said to wait a littles as another group had just beat us there and were getting on another boat. BUT waiting was no problem because there were EAGLES everywhere!

 

 

 

having a bit of a photo bucket problem right now, but hopefully I will be back soon! Lots of exciting stuff to come including out 3 B's of the day: Bubble Net feeding, breeching baby whale and BEAR!

[mollanjake]

[/img]

 

Once we were Safely on board we were given a safety speech and general rules and we were on our way. The only thing I didn't like about this tour was the cheerleader speech we got at the beginning. The gentleman went on and on about how some boats only go so far b/c of fuel use and that Cpt Larry was awesome and knew the whales and the whales knew the sound of his boat motor...we're already on the boat, you don't need to convince us! Ok just had to say it.

 

It wasn't very long before we saw the spouts from whales, we went over took a quick look, but were back on our way. They said they knew where a group of interesting whales was, we would head out there. Didn't take long, but seemed like there was a line of boats following us!

 

[/img]

 

 

[/img]

 

This group of whales was cooperatively feeding, "bubble net feeding" I didn't even know until just before our trip , but humpback whales will eat small fish in this instance herring. One whale will go under the school of fish and blow bubbles up which confuse the fish then all the whales swim up under the fish with their mouths open! What made this group so awesome is that they were doing it over and over again without much time btw. We were told that usually you will wait 10-20 mins btw feeds and only see it 2-3 times, theses guys were doing it every 5-7 mins and we saw it so many times I didn't even count!

 

The boat has a top area but only 12 people can go up at a time. The tour guide/naturalist made sure everyone got to rotate up there. Again everyone was good about letting kids in the front(or other shorties like myself)

[mollanjake]

[/img]

 

As if the bubble net feeding was enough. The group also had a baby with it and he just couldn't stop jumping out of the water!

 

The guide and young lady had seen the behavior enough that they knew when it was coming. The whales move as the do it, so you have to look for the jumping fish to see where the whales will come up. I have no idea how long we watched the whale, but it was pretty incredible.

 

The guide was pretty excited and was mad they he didn't have his camera, so I think it must have been an especially good day. He said the only thing that could have made the trip better would have been seeing an Orca jump out of the water and grab a sealion.

 

They served juice boxes/water and some snacks. MY DD LOVED the smoked salmon. Since we were heading to Mendenhall after this trip we had brought sandwiches.Yes we took food OFF the ship. Several people looked at us eating our sandwiches and I know they wanted them!

 

Of course we saw the sealions. Someone on the trip said the really wanted to see sealions, but I pretty sure most/all trips swing by this thing.

 

 

A little closer in we came across another group of whales bubble net feeding. This was closer in to the marina and there were mostly large boats watching.

 

While it was quite on board, I asked the young lady about Glacier Smooties. She confirmed that it was closed on Sundays and that I could not buy the products anywhere else in JUNEAU! Apparenlty the owner is a minister as well.

 

Nobody is allowed up top while the boat is moving, but there is an area in the back of the boat where you can stand outside. The inside was benches in the very front and benches and tables in the back. I would say 6 people could sit at a table. The boat was not packed, we all left our stuff where it was and moved around. We even once or twice slid into another table to see outside. The windows of the boat open so pictures can be taken from inside.

[mollanjake]

Orca Enterprises is a great Company to work with. Don't hesitate to use them. Sometime in the winter(off season) when I called I had to leave a message. But they returned my call. When I asked about the earlier tour, she said she would make a note and if one was added she would let me know.

 

The glacier add on. In my phone conversation I asked if they would pick me up from the glacier, she said yes, but if I really figured timing to get off the ship and getting to the glacier I wasn't going to give myself a lot more time. She said if we wanted to stay at the glacier longer than an hour, they would give me a shuttle pass to get back to town. They also gave us wrist bracelets for the Mendenhall Visitor Center. She also told me no food at the glacier and since we were traveling with a child we needed to eat on the boat.

 

 

When the boat got back into port, there were 2 shuttle vans, one for Mendenhall and one into town. The young lady drove just us to Mendenhall, my guess she returned to the boat after dropping us off. She talked to us about bear safety in the van. Seemed like common sense to me "don't approach a bear", she said you'd be surprised! When she dropped us off, she told exactly where to meet our pick up and the exact time.

 

When we got off a guy walked up to the door, my DH gave a listen, turns out their tour bus had left without them and then didn't know how to get back to town.

Edited July 21, 2014 by mollanjake