cruisingjodi

Thank you for the info. I think we will take our chances with the excursion.  I will update people post cruise with a specific review on this particular snorkel tour.  I think it is 11 days until we will be there😀

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• October 6, 2010
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• 134 posts
• Western Pennsylvania

Has anyone done the Princess Cays snorkel excursion and is it worth doing?  We like to snorkel but I can’t find any reviews on this.

Thank you for the update.  It wasn't clear how long there were going to be problems.

Thank you for the information.  I will let you know about the visit but am very excited to return to the spot.  I know it took a hurricane hit but sounds like everyone is working diligently on recovery.  If it’s anything like we remember I just want to go back for nostalgia sake.    🏝

Hi .  We will be in St. Thomas on February 26, 2019  from 12:30 to 10 PM.  We went to Sapphire Beach on our honeymoon and want to check it out for our 40th next year. We will Dock at The Crown Bay I'm guessing.  Will we get there in time to spend beach and snorkel  time and how hard is it to get a taxi?   We really want to do this and is it realistic?   Thanks

We had an inside room because of cost and it was a savings of $2000. 00 that I spent on excursions. I did not scrimp on those. We did have a lot of inclement weather so I doubt if we would have spent much time on the balcony but I can’t know that because we chose inside. If money were no object, I am sure I would have had coffee out there in the morning and wine before dinner. But we had a wonderful time on our cruise and have no complaints that we did not get a balcony. And yes it’s dark, but I had my cell phone clock set up this time so I could always look what time it was. My husband and I both slept well and loved Alaska. Good luck deciding. There are so many things to decide. Whatever you do, there’s something else you won’t be able to do, so be happy with your choices. Alaska is amazing.

I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis. I have been there. Surgery, chemo , and radiation for breast cancer in 2001 with a senior and sophomore in high school. It was hard to imagine leaving my kids when they were still dependent on me. So one family cruise, which was already planned before my diagnosis, 2 graduations, 2 college graduations , 2 weddings,and 5 grandkids later I am still here and my husband and I just took that wonderful trip to Alaska that you were planning. I will pray for you Dev’s Mom and hope that you have a future trip soon with your son and many more in the future.

Thanks everyone, I was not so much worried about getting back to ship as I was getting off the ship for the tour, like you said everyone wants to get off early at the same time, so we scrapped this and decided to do a post cruise trip by train to Denali. This way we get to see more of Alaska. Thanks for everyone’s advice.

Adventure Bound trip was the most amazing experience we did. Rugged and spectacular immersion into nature. They are flexible and easy to work with. Before you decide not to go, call them. It might put your mind at ease.

Do it. It is an amazing excursion. We did it in May of this year and they did wait a few minutes for other guests. I estimate we left 15 to 20 minutes past the 8:15 predicted start time and we were back by 6 PM.

We sailed May 18 to 25 th 2018 the first cruise of the season Northbound. I mainly wrote an itinerary review but I do discuss the Radiance in my review in 2018 reports. I have done Carnival, NCL, and Royal Carribean cruises. I have never been on one of the huge cruise ships so do not have any experience with those type ships. We loved the Radiance and had nothing bad to say about it. We thought the entertainment was good , food good for the most part, and only minor complaint that Windjammer food could be hotter. We did spend a lot of time off ship to do excursions as this is what we were there for. But our room steward was excellent and we were very happy with everything on the ship. Some staff seem more experienced than others but I feel like that is true anywhere. If you want to be happy, you will be. Have fun and don’t let the Debbie Downers bring you down. It was an amazing trip and I still am smiling about the fun we had.

Inside was great. Of course I would have liked a balcony for morning coffee and such if money was no object, but our weather was not conducive to hanging out on a balcony anyway. I booked very early, watched for every price drop and called and got adjustments down, and spent the extra savings on excursions. The cheapest I ever saw a balcony was 1500 dollars more than our final cost and that paid for 4 excursions for the two of us that I also booked early and monitored for price adjustments. If you did not use it much last time I would spend the money on other things.

You may be early into port and then you could make the Adventure Bound tour if it’s running that day. The return is by 6 PM. It was such a great experience and if they will work with you, it might be doeable. I know we checked in at 8:15 for ours in May Northbound, but waited for some people from other boats. We booked November of the year before but reconfirmed 2 weeks out. It was a 10 minute walk from dock and if your group is fit you could be a walk up. There was still room on our boat the day we went. It was a weekday though and it looks like you are in Sunday. Do you have time in Seward to do Major Marine Kenai Fjords tour? We were with back to backers on that trip and they made the boat with plenty of time to spare. Good luck deciding.

Skagway has a nice trail near the ship dock. If kids are active you can never go wrong with trails. We drove to Emerald Lake and stopped several places to get out. But we are 62 and 59. I have 5 grandkids in your age group and I am not sure they would appreciate the scenery like we did. When we got back to Skagway we started the Dewey Lake trail but did not have time to go very far. There were kids that seemed like they were having fun with the freedom of exploring the paths. I can only comment on train from Seward to Anchorage but it’s long and scenery driven. Kids on that train were sleeping or into there technology. But there again , it’s your vacation too. Balancing all age groups needs is sometimes tricky. Kim-mo Suggestion to have a tour catered to your group if you have the funds sounds like a nice idea. Good luck deciding. There is so much to do in Alaska.

We loved Adventure Bound also. Highlight of our trip too from Juneau off the Radiance.

We went with Southeast Aviation this May. We booked privately a year out and we and one other couple had a splendid tour with Kevin. It was as described above and we also landed on a lake that had just thawed. There was no one else around. You could tell Kevin loves showing people his part of the world. This was my husband’s favorite excursion And although the weather did not look so good when we pulled into Ketchikan, it was beautiful scenery once we flew a little out from Ketchikan. If you are looking at next year, you have time to pre book and may get a better deal and longer tour with a private vendor. Ours lasted about 1 and 1/2 hours in the air.

We saw a lot of wildlife in May by taking private excursion in Juneau on Adventure Bound from Radiance northbound. Also saw bears on drive in rental car from Skagway to Emerald Lake. Also did the Icy Strait whale watch and of course saw lots of whales. And in Seward take a Kenai Fjords tour to see lots of whales and wildlife too. Researching what you want to do is important. And a good bit of the fun. I agree with JT1962. The boat is transportation. The itinerary is what is most important for you to decide. Have fun planning. These boards are most helpful.

Have a wonderful time. Thank you for your kind words.

So the day in Anchorage was spent shopping downtown for souvenirs. They did have a street craft fair on Sunday where we got Earrings made by an Alaskan resident for our two daughters. For our 5 grandkids we gave up trying to find local gifts and bought things they would like. I had not researched Anchorage as much so we had some fun trying to figure out what to do. We did end up driving to Thunderbird Falls and hiking there. It was a nice hike and it is not too strenuous for most abilities. The time was winding down and we made our way to the Ted Stephens Airport to turn our rental car in and fly back to Pittsburgh. Security was fairly intense at this airport, so give yourself time to go through it. We were not cutting it close, but with the lines the way they were and the thoroughness of the security team, I would not. This is the end of my review. It has been fun and I have enjoyed sharing our Alaska story. For anyone that has followed it go out and make your own memories now and enjoy as much as you can in the beautiful state of Alaska.

The second day in Seward we took a shuttle to Exit Glacier. This is a $15.00 round trip and most people spend approximately 2 and 1/2 hours there according to Alaska experts unless you are into scheduled treks with Park services. We enjoyed this place as it was a different perspective for us on glaciers and there are landmarks about the receding glacier and where it was at certain points in time. There is also a visitor center to learn more. The trails are easy to navigate and it was a nice way to spend part of our last day in Seward. We had the 6 pm train to Anchorage scheduled and they stored our luggage for us for the day. When we returned we were dropped in Seward proper and took a hike down along the water back toward the harbor. There are a lot of shops in this part of town and restaurants according to the shuttle driver but we did not spend much time in town because once we started the walk along the water we never made it back up to the streets in town. At 6 PM we took the Seward to Anchorage train. There is a lot of beautiful scenery on this trip too, and we did not upgrade to dome class, but still enjoyed the ride. In May there was plenty of room still on the train on a Saturday evening, but I cannot speak for availability otherwise. I had booked reservations earlier in planning our trip as I did not want to worry about not having transportation to Anchorage. We did not fly out until Sunday evening so picked up a ride to Ted Stevens Airport for a rental car. There were drivers waiting when we got off the train and a Lyft driver charged us $20.00 to get us to the airport. We had our car within 10 minutes and the total was $47:00 for a 24 hour rental. We made it to our hotel and were sleeping by 11:30 as we knew the next day was going to be long.

Adventure Bound is out of Juneau if you are there from 8 to 6 and does Tracy Arm Fjord.

They offer a wonderful small boat experience also and it was the highlight of our Alaska tours. So rugged and unspoiled nature at it’s best.

Very nice review. Love the pictures.

This is one of my best