Alaska Cruise Tour & Cruise on the Radiance of the Seas Review 7/25/15 – 8/7/15

[island lady]

We are corner aft wrap 9256. Love that cabin for views on both sides! :) Though, of

course, we are only viewing "where we used to be" as we pass on through. ;)

[margord]

Hey Kraig,

 

I just finished reading you entire post and enjoying all the pictures. It was EXCELLENT - wish I had something like this to read before we did Alaska. I really look forward to your next review.

 

Marilee

[Bmorecruiser021]

Hey Kraig,

 

I just finished reading you entire post and enjoying all the pictures. It was EXCELLENT - wish I had something like this to read before we did Alaska. I really look forward to your next review.

 

Marilee

 

Thanks Marilee! And thank you for all the great information on our upcoming Baltic cruise. It was really helpful and I'm so excited for July now! (not that I wasn't before) :D

 

-Kraig

[hawkette64]

Thanks so much for the great review and pics. So many great tips and ideas. We head to Alaska next year on the Radiance.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Thanks so much for the great review and pics. So many great tips and ideas. We head to Alaska next year on the Radiance.

 

 

My pleasure. Have a great cruise! I hope you enjoy Alaska as much as we did![emoji1]

[birdylady]

Kraig,

 

Forgive me if this was already covered, but... I have a question. As part of the cruise tour, you get accommodations in Fairbanks. What I'm trying to figure out is the first day. Do we fly in a day early like we would for the cruise or is the first day 'only' accommodations? Since our tour 'starts' on June 4th, do I need to plan to fly in on the 3rd and make a hotel reservation so we don't miss anything scheduled for the 4th?

 

Thanx,

Erika

[ledaebel]

We are coming in aday early because of previous problems with plane delays. We have no idea what hotel NCL will be placing us. So, we will be there a day early and think we may rent a car and take a ride down the southern road. I've heard from a friend who lived:p there that there are only 2 main roads out of Fairbanks and I know the tour is going north.

 

I hope NCL lets us know what hotel they will be assigning us in Fairbanks so we can get a room therefor Thursday night and not have to move our luggage twice.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Kraig,

 

Forgive me if this was already covered, but... I have a question. As part of the cruise tour, you get accommodations in Fairbanks. What I'm trying to figure out is the first day. Do we fly in a day early like we would for the cruise or is the first day 'only' accommodations? Since our tour 'starts' on June 4th, do I need to plan to fly in on the 3rd and make a hotel reservation so we don't miss anything scheduled for the 4th?

 

Thanx,

Erika

 

Hey Erika,

 

Yes "day 1" is travel day. So we arrived on "day 1" at 8pm, met with David, our tour director, and went to bed. "day 2" was the riverboat tour and such. If you look at post #5 I scanned the "cruise compass" for the land tour part. So just like on the boat, where embarkation day counts as "day 1", your travel day to Fairbanks counts as your "day 1" Hope that helps clarify :)

 

But honestly, if you have the time and financial means I do recommend flying in a day or 2 early and exploring Fairbanks on your own. Ali could not take that much time off work so we just did what RCI offered, but a lot of others in our M&M and cruise tour arrived a day or two early and stayed in downtown Fairbanks and enjoyed themselves :D

[SWPD]

Afternoon Everyone

 

So more on the Cruise Tour portion of our trip. I did a lot of research before out trip. Trying to figure out how much to budget for. I wanted to pay as much off ahead of time as I could, that way we would not have to worry about money while on vacation. I have to admit, that’s one of the major appeals of cruising.

 

So when we met with David, our tour director, the first night, he handed us our itinerary and our optional excursion packet with the princess and locations of the excursions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily we had budgeted a good amount of money for the land tour part, knowing that we wanted to fly to McKinley and do a few other excursions. What I forget to budget for was how expensive food was and is up there, but more on that later.

 

We found out that the reason why information is so hard to come by is because the options and prices for the excursions are constantly changing from week to week. Whether, time and availability being some of the variables that effect what is available. For example, as you see white water rafting was available in Denali. We wanted to do this excursion, so we told David, and filled out the paperwork. Unfortunately, due to whether and the fact that we participated in another excursion, which i will tell you about later in the review, we were unable to go. It was ok though, we were never charged and did get to participate in other wonderful excursions along the way. The way the excursions work is/are, you fill out the paperwork, hand it to your tour director, then he or she makes all the calls and sets it up so you can go, the others in your tour group may be relaxing or doing other excursions at that time, but they set it up so you never miss anything important. Then on the last day of the land tour, they charge your credit card for what you actually participated in.

Great review. Used a lot of your information and made a bunch of notes. We see you were in the Grandeur January 2015. We sailed on her that month too. Been on her 19 times. Love that ship and drew. We are booked for the 7B June 17 this year. You were and enormous help. Thanks

[woof359]

Thank you for taking the time to post so much info and such great pictures, were going on our first cruise and first trip to Alaska this June on the Radiance, still learning a lot and you have helped a BUNCH, Many thanks

[BEENSAILING]

I just spent a wonderful few hours reading Kraig's great review and looking at gorgeous photos! This was a very informative review of Radiance ending in Vancouver. While the land portion activities look great, the idea of having a suitcase outside of a hotel room door at 6 am every day for days is one of the reasons we cruise...going different places and no unpacking and repacking for at least a week. So if we ever did do an Alaska cruise, I think I would pass on the land add on. (I have been to Anchorage and environs a few times and DH used to work at the slope.) 6 am is just not my time of day....

[WendyVF]

I just got back from a land tour. In reality most days it was 8 or later that we had to have our suit cases out and it really wasn't an issue. I think it was typically an hour or so before we had to be on the bus. It worked out that we got ready, put them out and then went and had some breakfast.

 

I think it really depends on which land tour you book. It'd be nice if those details were available when you were trying to chose a land tour!