Cheryl H

It is a Columbia jacket with a silver thermal dotted inner lining that was super light weight, comfortable, and warm. I could stuff it into my backpack if needed. I also wore a Columbia white, windproof/waterproof jacket over it when it was raining. I bought them at a Gander Mountain, but they can be ordered on line. My husband's Columbia "compass blue" one was the exact same kind for guys. When I get home I can check the exact style name on the jacket.

Thanks so much!

Was this the jacket you were referring to? (This is my friend, Laurel, not me.)

 

I believe it was a Columbia brand jacket, but I will ask and find out for sure.

 

Yes, that's the one! It's really cute. Thanks for asking.

I don't think there is such a thing as a free shuttle airport hotel, that has a low cost shuttle to the cruise terminal. When we went to Seattle, our first choice was Cedarbrook Lodge because they had a free shuttle from the airport.

However, then I called AlreadyThereTowncar service and the price for from that area to the pier area was approx 60 plus tip. That was 2011.

We ended up having Already There get us at the airport and take us downtown to the Pan Pacific. That way we were closer to things to do downtown and ready to get to the pier the next morning. The towncar service was great and I was really glad they were doing the driving as the traffic was really bad. We got to the Pan in time to have dinner at a Tutta Bella Pizza and then took the elevator down to explore Whole Foods. Then back up and into the Pan. Then we grabbed a cab over to the Aquarium,

I'm not sure I helped you at all....except to know that if you stay close to the airport, I'm not sure there is a cheap transfer over to the pier area.

Thank you so much for such a great review and great pictures! I do have a question. You had a cute white jacket that looked like it had a fleece collar. Where did you find it?

Thanks again!

Cheryl

Thank you!

I too fretted over the logistics of getting from Seattle to Vancouver for our cruise last month, but everything worked out fine. By going to Seattle we saved a considerable amount of money:

 

• Airfare was cheaper than going to Vancouver
  
• We could fly Southwest so had no luggage fees
  
• We each had almost $100 credit with Southwest from a price drop on a previous flight
  

So...even though there was time and costs involved with going to Seattle it was still a big savings for us. Here is what we did and the costs. I keep track of EXACTLY what we spend so these are actual costs including any taxes. Although we did a lot of tipping, those amounts are not listed below.

 

• Flight into Seattle arrived in the evening so we booked a night at the Super 8 Seatac. $60.87
  
• Took free shuttle from airport to Super 8
  
• Free breakfast next morning that started at 5 a.m.
  
• Had a car pick us up (and our huge amount of luggage) and take us to the Amtrak station downtown. I reserved the car online through Eastside For Hire. The company charges based on zipcodes. I found out there are several different zipcodes around the airport so the cost will vary a few dollars based on the location of your hotel. URL="http://www.eastsideforhire.com/"]http://www.eastsideforhire.com/[/url] $33.00
  
• Took the 7:40 a.m. train to Vancouver. $29 each, $58.00 total. There are two trains per day going from Seattle to Vancouver...one in the morning and one in the evening. I purchased the tickets about 3 months prior. If you wait too long, the "cheap" tickets will be gone.
  
• Got a taxi outside the train station in Vancouver to go to our hotel (Best Western Plus Downtown Vancouver) $12.28 Canadian
  

So...this was approximately $165 extra we spent but we saved around $400. The train trip up the coastline was peaceful and beautiful...we considered it an "excursion" rather than just a form of transportation.

 

I have posted a review with lots of photos from our trip...including a couple of days that we spent in Vancouver prior to the cruise. You might be able to get some additional ideas to help in your planning. Here is the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2055691

 

Good luck!! :)

Thank you for all the great information. A couple question. So for the train, did you have to check your carry ons too? Or was there room to bring those on the train with you.

So once in Vancouver's train station, how was going through customs? Was it quick and easy?

So coming home, did you just do the reverse? Was there any trouble with getting to Amtrak in time for your train back down to Seattle? Then did you stay another night in Seattle?

I'm normally a major planner. Some people may say control freak. This is the first vacation I've ever gone on that I feel totally out of control. I leave in 10 days and am close to panic mode! I just can't seem to get this down even though I've been at it for months. Please help!

We are first time cruisers. (husband, myself, 17 and 10 year old boys)

We're doing the Cruisetour from Anchorage to Vancouver on RC. I can find little to NO info regarding the tour portion. I have booked an excursion when we arrive in Denali. Its the Denali tour on the Argos. I booked for 6pm, but can't figure out when we arrive. Just see its an 8 hour train ride but the afternoon is ours?? Is that plenty of time for pick up for a 6pm tour?

Day 2 in Denali we are set up to do the Wilderness Tundra tour (included)..the upgrade is for 8 hours. My husband has some pretty severe back issues which make sitting difficult. From what I can tell, its 8 hours on the bus for the tour and then another 3 hours to get us to our lodging for the night. He's willing to do it if its worth it, or if there isn't a better way to spend our time/money in Denali. Suggestions and thoughts?

As for the rest of the trip, I feel as if I'm in no way 'planned'. (something to be said for going with the flow, but what am I missing?)

In Talkeetna we have nothing planned other then the tour included tram.

Juneau I have booked a whale watching trip outside of RC tours. They will drop us off at Mendenhall after the trip and we will take the shuttle back to the ship. Do I need to book the shuttle?

Skagway we've booked the White Pass railway. Can the rest of the day be spent wandering the town?

Icy Point, we have no plans...nothing. Nada. Help! We had booked a bear watching trip, but friends said it wasn't worth the money I panicked and cancelled.

Ketchikan, again. No plans.

I'm confused on dinner wear on the cruise. My TA told me khakis and button downs were fine for the boys for formal nights, but I'm reading that sounds like regular nights. No jeans for any nights? Do the boys/husband need sports coats?

Thanks for any help, suggestions you can offer. I've read and re-read any of the posts that seem relevant, but still need any help available!

We had our son with us on our Radiance Alaska cruise. It seems like (at least for your 10 year old), Adventure Ocean offered Adventure dining on about 5 nights of the cruise and two of those nights were the formal nights. So if you think your 10 year old might be interested in that, you wouldn't need to worry about dressing him up for formal night.

For Adventure Dining, we had to sign our son up some time during the day and select what entree he wanted (pizza, chicken nuggets, etc). Then I think we delivered him to Adventure Ocean at 6:00 pm. The staff took the kids to the Windjammer. They had them in a side room and gave them dinner and ice cream for dessert. Then they took the kids back up to Adventure Ocean for the evening activities. That left my husband and I free to go enjoy the formal nights on our own. We actually booked one night in Chops and one in Sambas. In Sambas, jeans are encouraged. In Chops, we just wore slacks and nice shirts. So we did not pack any formal clothes.

Also I want to say a word about Adventure Ocean. We are very protective parents and I wasn't too sure I would want my son to participate since I did not know the staff. However, the first day or evening, there was an open house and we met the staff and learned about all the neat activities they do with the kids. Our son loved it. In fact, he whined during our tours some days that he wanted to get back to the ship so he could go to Adventure Ocean.

You asked about the shuttle in Juneau. They may be talking about the shuttles that come every few minutes. There are white buses and blue buses. Either is fine. Just carry cash so you can purchase your one way ride back. It seems like it was 8 or 10 dollars one way per person. Have your tour operator show you where the shuttle buses pick up. We had a great lunch in the Taku building. It was the Twisted Fish. It was very close to the ship. By the way, the walk to Nugget falls at the glacier was a nice little walk. I think the total walk over and back with stopping for lots of pictures took us about an hour, but we took our time. We did not take the time to go in the Visitor center.

You will enjoy wandering around Skagway. Lots of little shops. We had a nice lunch in the Skagway Brewery. There's also a grocery store here. I believe it's one street over from the main street. We had to pick up a loaf of bread for our son who likes PBJ sandwiches. We pack Jif to Go for our kiddo.

At Icy Strait, if you aren't able to book an excursion, there's still things to do. Walk through the shops at the cannery building. They have some salmon canning machines going to demonstrate the canning process. Then we walked the beach down to the Landing Zone Restaurant. We walked through the restaurant and out the other side to watch the zip liners come down. Then we walked the nature trail. After that we got back on the ship for lunch. We came back for our whale watch after that. We did an excellent tour with F.I.S.H.E.S.

Ketchikan, we had a Misty Fjord flight with Seawind Aviation. Our son loved it. We landed and got out for pictures. Then flew back. Then we walked around Creek Street, rode the funicular up to Cape Fox Lodge for lunch. Then we walked the Married Man Trail down. Look around for it. I think it is behind the lodge. Have some cash on hand for the funicular ride. We thought that the shopping was the best in Ketchikan.

Does that help you? Have fun! You certainly picked a great vacation to start on for your very first cruise!

If you have a couple days to spare before your cruise, here's what we did and we really enjoyed it. We flew into Seattle and visited the aquarium the first evening, and visited the ferry (Clipper) to get our boarding passes for the next morning.

Then the next morning we bypassed the boarding pass lines at the ferry and checked our bags and boarded the ferry. I think it was about a 3 hour ride up to Victoria. We were stopped for a moment at customs in Victoria, but as soon as we explained we were in Canada to take an Alaskan cruise, they had us out the door quickly. We stayed a day and a night in Victoria at the Magnolia Hotel. Had a carriage ride and did some shopping on Government Street. Took a water taxi over to Barb's Fish and Chips on the wharf. Watched the kids feed the seals.

The next day we flew from Victoria over to Vancouver on Harbour Air. That company is amazing. We had purchased an extra seat since we were over the luggage allowance. However, they refunded our extra seat and sent our luggage on an earlier flight for free. They had free muffins and coffee and computers to use and we sat outside watching the floatplanes come in and out. Then it was our turn. Having the luggage sent ahead turned out to be a godsend because we didn't have to lug them up the ramp to their office in Vancouver. Then 2 young guys helped us get our luggage onto their free shuttle and took us to the ship terminal.

Coming back home, we had a flight from Anchorage since our cruise was northbound.

Excellent information!! Funny, we thought just the opposite about #1. Our sailing was northbound. It was great, but we had a red eye out of Anchorage to come home and we were beyond exhausted. I think next time we do a one way, we'll get that long flight to Anchorage out of the way first and cruise southbound and I want to go into Seward a day or two early to do the Major Marine tour you mentioned. But this next one, we booked a R/T Vancouver. So no Anchorage for us this time.

In Victoria, we enjoyed shopping in the Rogers Chocolate store on Government Street. There was a really nice jade store next door also. And the trip before that, I recall that there was a pretty nice giftshop at the Fairmont Empress Hotel.

We had some great fish and chips at Barb's Fish & Chips at Fisherman's Wharf. I know you can get a water taxi from there to the Inner Harbour to get to the Empress and Government Street.

Have fun! We love Victoria.

Always get to your departure city one day early...saves you from missing a ship due to flight delays, also gives a lost bag a chance to catch up with you before getting on the ship. Plus it's fun to explore the departure city.

Plan to get to the terminal before lunch so you can enjoy your first lunch on the ship!

Don't stop to take photos of the ship when you arrive at the terminal. I did this and a bus load of people moved on in ahead of us. Duh! I could have taken pictures of the ship every day! Ha!

Thanks for the review. We are going to Alaska September 2015 and the pictures really help.

Hello Freetimecrafter,

We're on the 09/04/15 cruise too. There's a few of us chatting on the rollcall already. Join us if you like. Not a lot of chatter going yet, but it's way early.

Cheryl

We used Already There Town Car service to get from the SeaTac airport to the Pan Pacific. No problems at all. Have fun on your trip.

Thanks so much for the review and the pictures. We are also on this cruise next year. Could you tell us a little more about your Tracy Arm day cruising. When you woke up, were you already in the Tracy Arm? Did you spend most of the day getting to the glacier? I didn't know if there was a particular part of the day that was more scenic...i.e. early morning, afernoon, or entire day. We are really looking forward to that day. We have an aft balcony.

Oops, edited to add another question.....I read that Rita's Cantina is converted to Rita's Crabshack during the Alaska run. Did you try them out? How was the seafood?

Thanks!

Cheryl

Yes, sign ups are at Adventure Ocean. When you first get on the ship, there will be a table set up with bracelets for the kids. The bracelet has their muster station number on it and must be worn all week. Anyway, the person at the table can help you know more about Adventure Ocean and what time sign up is. Signing up is easy.

Have fun!! Our son loves Adventure Ocean. His favorite is Adventure Dining.

The initial deposit date to me would have meant when I actually chose the sailing not when I purchased the next cruise certificate.

That's what I thought too....but when I called RCCL to tell them what cruise I want assigned to our booking number....they emailed me my booking and they kept the original booking date of October when we purchased the next cruise option.

We've only done it once....and the only down side to me was that we simply did an open booking. That was in October. Then we only just decided on which sailing we want. It all worked perfectly, except one thing. Back in October when I purchased it, I should have purchased our travel insurance.

So after recently assigning a sailing to our booking number, when I went to purchase our usual insurance, it asked for our initial deposit date which was clear back in October. Ugh. For that company, it had to be purchased within 21 days of initial deposit to have the medical condition lookback waived. Not a big deal, I ended up finding another insurance company that made it work because they only consider the intial deposit as a good faith deposit.

However, none of that will apply to you since you already know what sailing you want.

Enjoy your cruise!

For Icy Strait, we went back to the ship for lunch with no problem. We got off the ship in the morning time early enough to check out the cannery display, and we walked the beach down to the restaurant (Landing Zone?) where we walked through and out the back side to watch the zipliners come down. Then we walked the nature trail. Then we returned to the ship for lunch. Went back off the ship in time to meet our 1:00 whale watch with FISHES.

We are headed to Alaska again and I've been researching restaurants and prices. Icy Strait does have The Cook Shack that would seem handy and it looked like one meal of fish & chips was about twenty dollars. So we will probably be getting back on the ship for lunch again for that day.

However, last time we were in Ketchikan, our tour guide recommended an outdoor fish shack right on the pier for fish and chips. It was cash only so we weren't prepared. But this time we will. I think it's the Alaskan Surf shack and fish & chips appear to be about 12 dollars there. I read on trip advisor that if you mention you read about them on trip advisor, they'd give you an extra piece of fish. Not sure how true that is.

Juneau we ate at Twisted Fish in the Taku building and it was fantastic. But I would think it would be really easy to get back on the ship there. I sort of remember the ship being parked near the Twisted Fish because Radiance is in the background out the window of the restaurant in our picture.

Skagway we ate at the Skagway Brewery. It was just okay, but packed! Popular place. I agree with the others. It seemed like a long walk here to get back to the ship.

Have a great time!!

My research today on the ice caves was such that you can only get there by hiking 6-8 hours or possibly going via kayak (but you need to be experienced). It is too physically demanding for me to consider.

 

Here are some links that might help you:

 

http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/about-forest/offices/?cid=stelprdb5401454

 

http://beyondak.com/trips/mendenhall-glacier-trek/

 

Hope this helps.

 

Thanks everybody...

THanks! Sounds like it's beyond my abilities too...plus we have a kid along.

Also I thought I might add.....it was always a comfort to me to know that those ships all take the same route....so there's usually another ship nearby.....so if there was anything the captain needed, he could just radio for some assistance and another ship would be there in a jiffy.

Our son now prefers cruises over going to Disneyworld. However, he has never heard of the Titanic yet so we didn't have that issue. If you think it would help you, our cruise photo books are in the link below....you can show him pictures of my son having fun on the ship. He's been to Alaska once, Canada/New England twice, and a Bahamas cruise. I think our son's biggest worry was what he was going to eat. He doesn't like fancy food yet. But he did fine with the children's menu plus we packed Jif-to-go and some bread.

Hopefully he will take his queues from you. It really is a feeling of being in a huge hotel.

Perhaps you could get his mind off it by having him take his own camera and make up his own photo journal book. My son made one up with pictures of him touring a gold mine in Juneau and panning for gold, and all sorts of fun stuff.

On the whale watch tour, he wasn't too interested so he brought along his DS game. He played it the entire time. He was quiet and enjoyed himself and we were fine with that.

Well, have fun and I hope you come back and write and tell us how it went.

I'll throw one other suggestion out....on 08/27 you might consider hiring Salmonberry Tours to drive you on a day trip from Anchorage, down to your departure town. We hired them from Seward to Anchorage and it was great. Left all our stuff in their big SUV and were driving to the Wildlife Conservation Center, and Alyeska Resort for a ride up the tram, lunch at a local cafe in Girdwood. Then perhaps you could stay the night and take a short tour before you get on the ship.

For me, if money was no option, I would book 2 cruises, one north and one south, and then we spread out the days a bit more and 2 chances to take tours at all the stops, but that's my dream trip. :-)

We did the Chilkoot bus up and train back. I was really glad we picked the shorter train ride. It was glorious for about the first 45 minutes and then we were tired. They did allow me to go to the little platform on the outside of the car and take pictures. Then in Skagway, we had lunch at the Skagway Brewery and did some shopping. It was a nice relaxed day. Also there is a grocery store there in Skagway if you need anything.

But could you tell me more about the Mendenhall ice cave tour you mentioned? We've been to Mendenhall and I was considering re-visiting it again, but the ice cave sounds really interesting.

We all three took binoculars with us so we wouldn't be pestering each other to borrow. (me, my husband, and our son). However, we were so busy snapping photos and looking through our cameras using the zoom, that we sort of forgot to use the binoculars. Our whale watch tour with F.I.S.H.E.S. provided binoculars for our use, but there again, we were so busy snapping photos.... however, the binoculars we bought were really nice. My husband still uses his for star gazing. Mine were Nikon 7294 Monarch ATB 8x42. I forget what my husband purchased. Have fun on your trip!

No but it is still offered.

 

Tim

Thanks for the info. I hope our MDR waiter has his track shoes on so he can run after my filet and bernaise. :-)

We just got off the Freedom last Sunday and will tell you that it ain't what it used to be. Normally we enjoy Chops but we did not enjoy the new menu, the steak, or the mud pie. Largest change was the mud pie, it wasn't even close.

 

We will stay in the MDR from now on.

 

Tim

Did you order the Chops steak in the MDR? I hope it was still the same. What a disappointment about Chops.