tlw3184

We just disembarked in Seward on May 25th. We booked the morning train through Royal that left around 7am and arrived in Anchorage at 11:30am. We had a rental car booked for four days with Enterprise at the airport for 12:30pm. I researched prices for rental cars for months and one day came across a price for $106 total. I quickly booked that price because all of my other research showed a price of $300 or more.

Once we got the rental car and loaded up all of our luggage, we made our way through downtown Anchorage and stopped for a quick lunch at Wendy's. I believe we finally made it to our hotel in Denali around 7:30pm. We did stop in Wasilla for some groceries and then made a stop at one of the viewpoints for Denali, but other than those few stops we drove straight to Denali.

It was a long travel day, but I wouldn't change anything about it. I'm glad we decided to do all of the traveling in one day because it gave us more time to enjoy Denali.

We were just in Denali for the Memorial Day Weekend. We stayed at the Denali Bluffs Hotel which had a restaurant and coffee shop. In town there were a few places to eat. One was a pizza place called Prospectors Pizzeria and this place was awesome. I could have eaten here every night for dinner it was so good.

There was a Subway, a little coffee shop called The Black Bear, and a place called Moose-AKa's. We ate at Subway one day for lunch and stopped into the Black Bear for coffee and a muffin. We never ate at Moose-AKa's.

There was also a food truck in the parking lot that served fish and chips I think. There weren't many options in town but I know most of the hotels had restaurants and there were a few in Healy north of Denali and a few south of Denali maybe 20 miles away. I hope this helps!

I will be on Radiance on May 18th as well! I'm so excited!! I've been planning this cruise for over a year now and I can't believe it is almost here.

We will be staying in Vancouver one night before the cruise and then plan on staying in Alaska until Tuesday after the cruise. We are going to head to Denali after we take the morning train from Seward to Anchorage.

Part of me wishes that we would have picked the southbound cruise because of the long journey home, but I'm just happy to be going to Alaska. If we like it, maybe we will try southbound next time.:D:D

I too will have the cruise compasses and menus, as well as anything else we receive and plan on posting them. I'm seriously thinking about doing a review for this cruise. I haven't done one yet on any of my other cruises, but always wanted to. There was so much information to gather for Alaska that it was kind of overwhelming. I have learned a lot on these boards and I would love to be able to share it with everyone and help other future Alaska cruisers.

I will be in a grand suite next month with family and will be sleeping on the sofa bed. I've been thinking about buying a mattress pad or something to take with me to make it more comfortable. I just have to make sure I have enough room in my luggage for it. :D

I'll be taking the morning train from Seward to Anchorage as well. I am interested in more info on this too, but haven't found much.

From the information I received in my cruise documents, it will take approximately 5 hours to get to Anchorage. It also says that the luggage will travel independently to the airport where you will need to identify it upon arrival. I'm not sure if we will have to leave our luggage outside the door the night before or if we will have to carry it off the ship.

I believe we will be getting off the ship somewhere around 6am. We are thinking we will have to eat breakfast on the train. I'm not sure that anything will be open for breakfast before 6am.

Sunset!

Definitely go for the GS!

Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I will be in a GS in May on Radiance so it is nice to see what kind of experience you had on her sister ship.

Pick a flight, any flight in the late afternoon. Even one to an incorrect city. Any flight from ANC.

I thought about this too, but would my bags automatically be taken in the airport for this flight or would I have control of my bags?

I am taking the Northbound cruise this May ending in Seward on a Friday. We are planning on taking the train from Seward to Anchorage and then driving to Denali on our own. If you definitely want to see Denali then I suggest you wait until June. The road into Denali is only partially opened in May. I believe the road isn't completely opened until June 8th. When we go in May we will only be able to go 53 miles in to Toklat River. I wish we would have waited a week or two for the cruise, but I'm still really excited to go!

I will be doing the Northbound cruise ending in Seward in May. I just called to see about booking this through Royal for the morning train leaving at 6:45am and getting to the Anchorage airport around 12:00pm. The representative I spoke with asked for my flight information. At this time I don't have a flight home yet, as we plan on staying a few days to go to Denali. He told me that I can't book this transfer unless I have a flight home that day.

I'm just wondering if this is correct? Has anyone taken this transfer and not had a flight the same day?

They should just add them to the balance. However, if they disagree, just wait and add them at final.

Thank you Bob!

If I call to add the prepaid gratuities today, do I have to pay for the gratuities today or will they just add it to my remaining balance? My final payment is due in a month.

Following along! Thank you for posting the menus!

Taking this shot resulted in 20 minutes of me taking people’s pictures. #idontworkforroyal #sweatingthroughmyshirt

 

Awesome photo!

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That sounds like so much fun! Are you going to have time after the cruise ends in Seward to explore for a few days? There's a cool resort in Girdwood that has an aerial tram, an animal conservation center in Portage that was awesome, and a handful of breweries in the Anchorage area that are worth checking out. Actually, if you rented a car you could more than likely do Girdwood and the conservation center in one day. I'm definitely not an expert, I've only been there once, but if you have any questions, let me know!

 

As far as gear is concerned for staying comfortable during your trip: I recommend quality rain gear if there's going to be any chance of rain (both jacket and pants), lots of layers because of the crazy weather (shirts, jackets, etc.), and waterproof hiking shoes or mid boots if you plan on doing some hiking or a lot of walking. I hope you have a great time!! ;)

We are definitely planning on staying for a few days after the cruise. We haven't decided what we will do but I would really like to go to Denali National Park. I'm not sure if we will have the time to do this though.

Thank you for suggesting some gear to take with us. I will have to look into getting all of these items before we leave. If I have any questions I will let you know!

Thank you!! Where is your cruise headed to?

 

I'll do my best to have another update at some point today so keep your eyes peeled! :D

We will be doing the Northbound Alaskan cruise from Vancouver to Seward. This will be my first time to Alaska so I'm really excited. I'm trying to do as much research and planning as possible :D

Some of my fav pics from our Alaska trip. 📷

 

 

 

 

- Christa 💜

Your pictures of Alaska are awesome! My next cruise will be in May on Radiance of the Seas! I can't wait. Thank you for sharing these.

I'm loving your review so far and I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

That's great! I can't wait to experience it! I've heard some great things about it!!! Do you know who their Genie was? I received an email from Sebastian stating he will be ours!

 

We have a Giant Schnoodle and a Saint Berdoodle! Meet Lady and Wally!

 

 

- Christa 💜

OMG! your dogs are so cute and they are eating a puppuccino :)

I will be following along on your journey. Congrats on the wedding and Happy Birthday! I hope you have an amazing trip!

Following! I will be doing the northbound Alaska cruise on Radiance in May and I can't wait. I hope you have an awesome cruise!

Following along. I hope you have an awesome cruise! I would love to do this cruise one day :)

We had 1530 this June for a South bound Alaska cruise. It was a fantastic location (small ship so nothing was that far away) and honestly we never heard a thing in the room. It was very quiet, except for the glacier day when lots of people were out on the balconies.

That is great to hear, thank you for sharing! I hope you had a great time on your cruise!

Loved this review! Thank you for sharing!

We just had grand suite 1032 (opposite side of ship) on Radiance to Alaska. Here are some photos. Love the grand suites - so spacious and great suite perks and ooooooh that bathroom! We did hear a lot of scraping from solarium above one night but that was about it for noise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures! I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed your cruise. I can't wait to go to Alaska and experience the suite life.

We had a great time. I did take pictures of the room. I can send them to you when I get home. I am not sure how to upload them. As for the perks: fruit basket in the room, we got a cheese plate one night and other goodies one night, concierge lounge that had free drinks and snacks nightly and the concierge was wonderful and left a message everyday telling you what was going on, there was a suite brunch which was very good on the first sea day, separate line for embarking and a breakfast in chops when disembarking, reserved seats in the theater, and free room service. If you know how to upload pics, let me know. I have never used shutterfly or photobucket

That would be great! Could you email them to me or if you want to upload pics here you would have to load them onto Shutterfly or photobucket and then copy and paste the web address in your post on here. Whichever would be easier for you would be great.