Brandis

I know it‘s touristy but it was fun last time and I enjoyed the food. I can go to a regular restaurant any day.

I really like RCL's Radiance Class, there are lots of indoor areas with huge windows and comfortable seating. Even the mid-ship elevators have a view and the Viking Crown Lounge offers almost 180 degrees view. I don't think heating lamps are prohibited on ships, as the Alaska Marine Highway ferries have a covered solarium like area for tents and they do have heating lamps there.

Last time, we even did a 3 part tour while in Juneau, first to Mendenhall Glacier, then the Whale watching and finished at Gold Creek. Really liked it. The salmon with the maple syrup glazing was delicious and the surroundings were nice. On our upcoming cruise, I decided to do all our tours on our own, so we rented a car in Juneau through Turo then will go to the Glacier first, visit a salmon hatchery and finish with the salmon bake, giving us some time to spare to walk around in Juneau. This time, we do the Whale Watching in Icy Strait Point. I contacted Gold Creek Salmon Bake about booking it on our own and was told that they accept Walk-Ins, they recommend to be there about 15 min. before the posted starting time to give a head start before the organized tours arrive and we could just pay at the bar.

Anyone has the Muster 2.0 version for Radiance? According to the app, were in B1. And I know that I will find out on the ship, but I'm at the point, where I'm done with most of my cruise planning and preparation and just try to keep me occupied 🙂 Can't just count down the days up to the cruise, can I?

Thanks! I booked a Tesla on Turo.

Thanks! I just saw on the National Parks page that the entrance fee is included in the tour ticket price, so I guess the tour ticket should be ok as proof of purchase. The Natural History Tour is included in the price of the pre-cruise tour, so that's already paid. But I saw in the tour description that you can upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour for $40 or so, which I was planning to do anyway. The brochure says it can be purchased with a tour rep. The second tour goes so much further into the park, I think it's absolutely worth the extra cost. Besides, it's fun to ride the bus on the gravel road. 🙂

We're doing a RCL pre-cruise tour which includes the basic bus tour into Denali. I assume that the Park pass to access Denali is included in our tour package? Do they hand out those passes or are they kept by the guide (or maybe are some kind of group pass)? The reason I ask is that after the bus tour we continue to Talkeetna, where I arranged for a flightseeing tour including glacier landing, for which one also needs a park pass and the flight tour company told us that if we already got a Denali park pass, it is valid 7 days for additional visits so we wouldn't need to buy another. Also, is that pass park specific or valid for all parks operated by National Park Services? Is the pass also valid for access at Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau?

I've done the salmon bake before and it was delicious. Also, the setting in the woods was nice.

We're a party of 5 and our ship arrives in Juneau at 9AM. I was thinking on exploring downtown in the morning, then getting a taxi to Gold Creek Salmon Bake. I contacted them and they recommend on showing up about 15min before the posted starting time of 11:00 in order to beat the rush when guests arrive by the provided transportation. Apparently no reservation is necessary and they accommodate walk up guests. Then about 12:30 either going back by bus to the dock and get a taxi from there to Mendenhall or if that's possible, get a taxi directly from Gold Creek to Mendenhall. How long would you recommend for Mendenhall Glacier if we don't plan to do serious hiking, just enjoying the view a bit and tour the visitor center. How difficult would it be to get another taxi from there? Finally, we would like to visit the salmon hatchery, their visitor center and then catch another taxi from there. Keeping in mind that we probably would need a van for the 5 of us. Would you recommend to pre-book all of this with a local taxi company or would this be feasible by just calling a taxi or Uber when we need it? If taxi, any recommendations? How much should I expect to pay for this? Thanks!

We‘re doing Cruisetour 1b next summer, with Talkeetna as the last leg, after Denali. The program say free time at Talkeetna from 5:30 PM, which feels a bit late, as it‘s only about a 3h drive from Denali to Talkeetna and I‘d guess the Denali tour should be over by noon?

Thanks!

Oops, sorry!

We're doing the 3 nights pre cruise tour with stays at Denali and Talkeetna. On the tour map, I noticed that apparently only the Anchorage - Talkeetna leg is on the Alaska Railway, with further transfer from Talkeetna to Denali by coach. Not sure why they do this, as we did this tour in the past already and then we stayed on the train all the way to Denali before taking the coach back from there to Talkeetna. Anyways, on the trip back from Denali to Talkeetna, it doesn't show an arrival time. We were thinking on doing a flightseeing tour to Denali, which leaves at 6.30 Does anyone know when the RCL coach usually arrives in Talkeetna after doing the Denali bus tour in the morning?

I know Whistler is in Canada, but I felt it fits better here than in the Canada/New England board, as that one seems to concentrate on the Northeast. I'm trying to find summer prices for the Peak2Peak experience in Whistler. All the official sites seem to remove them at the end of the season. Does anyone know last summers prices?

We’re a party of 5, so lots of bags as well, obviously, even with a minivan, it could be tight. Transfer isn‘t an option, as we want to see some stuff on the way to Whistler and will need a car anyways back in Vancouver. I was just thinking of Japan, where it‘s really easy and pretty cheap to send bags to the next destination. Most of the times, the bags arrive at the next hotel even before you do.

We'll be arriving in Vancouver from an Alaskan cruise next summer with Royal Caribbean. Are they usually berthing at Canada Place or are there other cruise terminals farther away from Downtown? Also, we plan on going to Whistler after the cruise. Does anyone know a luggage transfer service that would take our suitcases to Whistler for us?

A couple of years ago, we did Whale Watching in Juneau, it was part of a bigger excursion package (Mendenhall glacier, whale watching and salmon bake) They had a $100 refund guarantee if we wouldn't see any wales, they said they didn't have to pay not even once in 10 years of operation. And we truly saw so many whales on that trip, it was amazing!

We once had a great salmon bake in Juneau, it was pretty much in the middle of the city, but there was a wooded creek with an old mine and it felt miles from civilization. 🙂

On Brilliance of the Seas, the Solarium Pool usually was open 24h a day. I sometime went up there around 3AM when just woke up. Had a nice relaxing swim, grabbed a slice of pizza from the 24h snack bar in the Solarium and went back to bed. On our upcoming TA on Wonder of the Seas, there are plenty of nights I could do that. Do they keep any of the pools open at night?

It even makes less sense for Wonder of the Seas TA. Our last day is in Nassau. Coco Cay would be farther north and closer to the final destination of Port Canaveral. And Wonder leaves Nassau in the early afternoon in order to get to Port Canaveral early in the morning. So Coco Cay would have made much more sense, they could have stayed there longer than just half a day.

RFID cards don't have a black magnetic strip, but a chip and an antenna, which is basically a thin wire which is inbedded in the card near the edge, in a loop. If you interupt the loop by punching a hole, the card won't work anymore. Why not use a plastic card sleeve on the lanyard?

Solarium Bistro is also a breakfast favorite of mine. Pretty much anything I'd want at the Windjammer I can find at the Solarium Bistro as well. If I just want some cereals and tea, Park Cafe is the place to go. And for an old-fashioned American breakfast (for us non-Americans), Johnny Rockets is great and the outdoor seating is a plus as well. That breakfast shake looks great, in the past, they didn't server milkshakes. I asked since it's included in the refreshment package but was told they only started doing shakes for lunch. We usually try the MDR once or twice per cruise for breakfast, since it's sometimes nice to be served. But there usually was a long wait until the order arrived and more often than not they got some stuff wrong or forgot to bring it.

I think, originally Oasis class was only planned to be used in the Caribbean. Wonder was supposed to go to Asia initially, so she shares some similiarities with Quantum-class ships, like the renaming of Dazzles into Music Hall and the additional casino in place of the Disco. In Oct. 2019, we were on Spectrum of the Seas out of Shanghai to Japan and certainly appreciated the fully enclosed Solarium. As an added perk, on Quantum-class ships doing Asian routes, the Solarium is part of the Suites area, so it was never crowded. Windjammer is definetly bigger, it was moved down one floor compared to the other Oasis class ships which allowed them to do a circular design, opening up room for additional seating. However, I'll certainly miss the lounge chairs in the Aqua Theatre, not sure why they got rid of them. My guess would be capacity, on a bench of the same lenght you probably get almost double as many people compared to a row of lounge chairs. Another thing which is different on Wonder compared to the other Oasis-class ships is the shows. Would have loved to see another musical onboard. But with the initially planned deployment of Wonder in Asia, I think they were trying to put in shows which don't depend too much on dialog.

In my opinion, the app is better, if it works... You can also do the health questionaire right with the check-in in the app, no idea why the same is not possible on the website. Also, the website provides no easy possibility to add the Set Sail Pass to your wallet, as it is only shown as a PDF you can print out. Another problem the app seems to have is that it cannot handle different departure ports or split cruises. Wonder is currently doing 4 night cruises out of Barcelona as well as 3 night cruises out of Rome which apparently can be booked as weeklong cruises from Barcelona as well. You still can add the 3 night cruise in the app, but as soon as you try to open it to do the online check-in, it tells you that it cannot find that cruise...

When the first ship tours of Wonder came out earlier and I saw that big movie screen on the pool deck, right over Central Park, I was worried that if they ran movies on that, the sound of the movies might spoil the atmosphere in Central Park, especially when eating outside at Giovanni's or listening to the guitar player. Looking at the current ship entertainment schedules, it seems that movies are always playing in the Aqua Theater. That would be a great change. But then I'm wondering if the screen on the pooldeck is being used for anything now.