Lisa77064

Good idea and tip.  We purchased nonrefundable first class air fare for our return home so we'll have to figure something out.

Thanks but it was somewhat ruined yesterday.  I received an email that the overnight train portion of the tour was canceled due to technical issues with some of their rail cars.....in July?  Rather confusing since the Via Rail train company knew nothing about it.  I was looking so forward to that portion of the tour.

Royal's solution is to spend yet another day and night in Vancouver and then fly to Edmonton and then bus to Jasper.

We have stayed in Vancouer several times before and even took some tours there.  To me, this 3rd night in Vancouver is just a wasted day.  

Alberta Quilter, THANK YOU so much for the wealth of information.  Lots of good info to consider.  Can't wait.

Try this link:  https://www.royalcaribbeancruisetours.com/content/uploads/2020/11/CANADA-2CA.pdf

Thanks.  Due to age and sister's limited mobility, we are more lookers than doers.  Some of the images of area mountains look incredible.  It will be our 3rd cruise to Alaska.  1st was a straight cruise, 2nd was Denali post cruise, but we are most excited for this one.  We loved the trains on both prior Alaska cruises and we've already spent a number of days and nights in Vancouver on prior trips.   We are staying one extra night in Calgary and are working on how to spend that extra day.  

Hopefully I'm in the right place.  We booked the Mountain Resort Experience Cruisetour 2CA at the end of our June 2022 cruise via Royal. I am looking for more information in general from prior travelers who actually took this tour.  I have the basics but nothing more. Are the days full?  Any tips I should be aware of?  Things not to miss?

Sybil, Congrats on getting your corner of the ship.  Can't wait.  

We will be on Vision next May as well.  We are on a wait list for a Family Veranda.  Too early to release them to "smaller families".  Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the original poster asking this question.  I was in the same boat for an October cruise.

We were given a guaranteed stateroom and ended up in the new bank of tiny cabins and balconies on the 10th floor.  The more I read, the worse it sounded - especially for a 2 week cruise.  Tiny vanity?  Plastic desk chair?  No room for room service?  No room to scoot a walker between the bed and wall?  Itty bitty balcony?  Just wasn't looking grand.  So the hunt was on.

To my amazement, there were quite a few family verandas remaining for hardly any more $$.  Wasn't the case several weeks ago when I checked - it was over a grand to make the switch.  Not the case this time.  I took what was "offered" to me.  9199 which is next to the corner aft.  For grins, I looked online and saw that both corner afts were still open.  Slide me over again!  Now we have 9197 and I am thrilled.  

I have only read positive things about this corner aft and have decided to end my search and thank my lucky stars.  Celebrity should be excited too as I was on Booking Confirmation revision #9 haha.  In my defense, it only involved 3 cabin changes.  Done!

So excited!  

We did the Denali tour as stated above beginning July 5th.  Our weather was HOT and clear and Denali was quite visible all the way to the top which is apparently a rarity.  The smoke from the fires wasn't bad when we were there.  I am glad we did this tour but man oh man oh man, it is a lot of traveling while sitting.  Since we weren't hikers, canoeists, etc., there wasn't much for us to do late evening (after we arrived).  The cabins were hot due to the high temps and no ac.  It did finally cool down by wake up time.  We were told you couldn't buy a fan anywhere - all sold out.  The joke in town?  "Crazy how you have to come to Alaska to get a suntan".  Haha. 

Time to travel again!  We finally made it to the glass domed train and it was running late. Why?  They said the tracks were sooooo hot that the train had to travel slower than normal.  Wow!  Of course, our seats were in a portion of the train that wasn't getting much air.  Hot inside!  Dinner was fabulous though.  

I have to say I was a bit disappointed by the train ride.  Last trip to Alaska, we took the train from Seward to Anchorage and OH MY, was it ever stunningly beautiful.  This train ride and terrain wasn't anything like that train ride.  We did see a few moose along the way.  Again, dinner was good.

We stayed at the Marriott Hotel in Anchorage.  It was nice.  Did a Trolley through Anchorage.  The added landscaping and flowers were unbelievable!  I have never seen anything like it.  It was attributed to the great weather and 20 hours of sun daily.  Amazing.  

Finally, the return flight home from Anchorage to Houston during the late night early morning hours.  Lord, I wish I could sleep on a plane 😞  

Was a fabulous trip all together but for us personally, I don't think I would do the Denali quick tour again.

We did a Duck Tour in Ketchikan (fun), Helicoptered to Mendenhall Glacier and walked around from Juneau (OMG blue blue blue!) , rented a Hummer and trekked down the Yukon Highway to Emerald Lake from Skagway (stunningly green), and did the Glacier Discovery Tour off the ship in Glacier Bay (WOWOWOW).  

Ooops my bad.  Didn't realize.  I actually tried to delete my earlier post but couldn't figure out how.  

Sorry all.

2 hours ago, mac1_131 said:

Get the cruisetour brochure off RCI website it has a little more detail.

I did and I still find it very lacking.  <Laughing>, we are just going to grab a seat and ride the roads for the views.  Should be enough for us.  Thanks.

realltitsmema, We have JS 1100 too!  I've heard it is quite coveted.

Thanks all.  We've cruised on Radiance to Alaska before but we were total Alaska  newbies.  I get it is an older ship but I love all ships.  We scored an Aft Junior Suite for this cruise - super excited.  We booked some nice excursions this go-around - air, land and sea.  We'll be landing on a glacier, driving a Hummer to Emerald Lake, etc, another boat/city tour, and the newish Glacier Discovery Boat tour at Hubbard.  We are spending a couple of precruise days in Vancouver.  I'm beginning to think our 2 day Denali cruise tour will be plenty for us as we are senior citizen sisters with one walker.  Looks like we just need to sit back, bring our personal items in a separate bag, and enjoy the ride.  Can't wait!

realityitsmeme, I've heard the longer pre and post tour add-ons can be exhausting.  I'm guessing since ours is so short and mostly travel, they will handle all baggage and transfers.  I read somewhere that you should pack separate bags for certain tour days.  I doubt that will apply to our short tour.   I'm resolved to sit and enjoy beauty while traveling.  Maybe we will find something tame to occupy any extra time we might have while we in town.  

mapleleaves, that's all I've been able to tell so far.  Lots of travel, travel and travel some more.  I've done the long train from Seward to Anchorage before and loved the beauty.  More curious about first hand tips and info, I guess.  I have come across very few posts about this excursion/trip but most are so very old.  Like a decade ago haha.  Sister uses a walker so seeing the countryside from a hopefully comfy "cushion" is good for us.  

We booked Cruisetour 11A through Royal Caribbean on the Radiance of The Seas end of June 2019.  The information we have found online is so minimal.  It consists of:  Day 8 - Seward to Anchorage to Denali; Day 9 - Denali/Talkeetna/Anchorage; Day 10 - End journey in Anchorage and fly home.  

Would love to hear some recent stories, advice, general information, etc. about this quicky tour.  

I am happy to see this thread still alive too. We are cruising out of Boston on the Serenade, Hump Cabin 9576, mid October. Quite exciting to finally get a hump. Can't wait.

We are on Freedom now. The ship is spotless and well maintained. The staff has been wonderful across the board. Most helpful group of employees ever. We had a small plumbing issue that was immediately fixed. Love this ship with the exception of their food offerings. I am far from a foodie so for me to complain, it means something. Selections in main dining are lacking, often repetitive, and poor quality -especially the beef. Tough as nails - even the 2nd attempt. There were several nights I struggled picking an entree. At lunch one day I was disappointed how fast they shut down the tutti fruity salad bar even though the doors were still opened. Nothing was refilled. Your choices were meager. Great ship, great staff, great fun but disappointing food. You won't go hungry though. Oh.... The expanded room service for $7.95 plus gratuities was pretty unappealing to me. Just an odd mix of offerings.

Should have tried a different card. Oh how I detested that light-card system.

Interesting. We were on the Liberty for New Years and yes, the fridge was turned off and there were 2 tall bottles of water on the vanity. Fridge was empty. We thought it might have had something to do with the ship arriving late due to fog and they just didn't have time to bring everything back up to snuff before we boarded.

We called and they came right up and turned it back on for us. Never stocked it though which was good with us because we always empty it immediately.

We were on the fogged in Liberty New Year's cruise too and our beds were super comfy! They had some sort of topper on it.

Our local Houston Channel 13 news just said there will be no customs agents until tomorrow morning. Poor travelers :( We sat on the Liberty (RCI) overnight on December 26th due to fog but still managed to make 3 ports even though we had to switch one port completely.

"Though small, they moved the table into the closet to free up space."

How in the world did you get that table into the closet? We barely had room for our clothes, a few pair of shoes and a fold up walker? Our luggage wouldn't even roll between the end of the beds and the wall - it was that tight.

I am really beginning to wonder if our particular cabin was shorted a few square feet for some reason or another. We were in 7295.

That picture is incredible. I think I found myself in the middle of that cattle call. I have more complaints about the port set up than I do the cruise by far. The AC was off and people were suffering. Medics had to be called. There was no organization whatsoever. Our line was merged to let the medics through and then totally forgotten at some point. We waited forever in the front of the line for our turn to go through security.

The cruise was fun - always. Any cruise is fun. We did have time to eat scrumptious shrimp at Landry's and had even more time to do some after Christmas shopping in Galveston prior to late boarding.

We had a promenade room on Liberty over New year's and it was TINY! Only 160 sq ft. There was barely enough room between the end of the bed and the wall to get through. Smallest ever. Not sure if this is normal?