alaskawdw12

There wasn't much going on by the pool, but there are lots of activities all over the ship all the time. So many that sometimes we had to pick one over the other.

As for the motion of the ocean, we actually had a number of rough days and nights, and we were cruising at the end if July, so that just goes to show you that you never know, and you should be prepared with sea bands or medicine just in case.

We were REALLY rocking the night we were sailing into Juneau, which is protected waters and people always say it's like glass, but not on our sailing :)

And the worst rocking was leaving Icey Strait, which is also not open waters. We were rocking from side to side like crazy! It started during the Love and Marriage game show and people started leaving because they were getting sea sick.

Not trying to scare you! Just saying that just because other people have motion free sailings doesn't guaranty you will too and you should come prepared.

You'll have an amazing trip! Alaska and the Radiance are both as good as it gets!

My mom has to eat gluten free and had a great time on the Allure.

She went to the MDR on boarding day and told them she needs gluten free food. For the rest of the cruise they prepared special meals for her which she loved.

In Sorrento's on the promenade you can ask for gluten free pizza. It takes a few minutes for them to make it, since they don't have it just sitting out there like the regular pizza, but my mom liked it a lot and said it was good.

In Caffe Promenade you can ask for gluten free cookies. They have a couple of kinds and they're delicious.

In the Windjammer you can find food that's gluten free, and of course there is always the salad bar in there, as well as in the Park Caffe and the MDR for lunch.

I'm a huge Disney freak :) if I could live in WDW I would, however I would pick the Liberty.

I was on two Disney cruises with my family, one when I was 18 and one when I was 20. While the restaurants are amazing and the shows are the best in the industry I really didn't have anything to do during the day or after the show. My brother is younger than me, he had a great time in the teen area, but there was nothing for me to do and I was bored. If you go on the Disney cruise your daughters will have a great time, but your son will be bored...DCL doesn't do a good job with young adults.

RCL service is just as good as Disney IMHO (and coming from me that says a lot!! :))

and they have MANY more activities during the day, and I've read good things about their teen activities as well.

We first betrayed The Mouse only because the DCL cruise we wanted to go on to Alaska was double the price of RCL, so we very hesitantly strayed and we're very glad we did!

We did the Golden Eagle catamaran excursion through RCL after reading lots of great reviews of it on these boards. We LOVED it!!!!! It was the most perfect day. "We" are my parents (58) and DH and I (late 20s). It was one of the highlights of our cruise. Sailing, swimming in the gorgeous water, jumping off the catamaran, swimming up to the secluded beach to get a drink (all drinks are included). We even went by Maho beach and saw a plane come in over us! It left us with beautiful family memories we'll cherish forever. We're hoping to be back on the Allure in a few years and we'll definitely do it again.

We've been on the Radiance and on the Allure and on both we had all of our dinners (accept for our very first dinner on our first cruise) in the Windjammer. We too prefer checking the food out ourselves, tasting everything that looks good and serving ourselves. It's so nice in there in the evening!! Much more relaxed than the MDR, in our opinions. Quiet and peaceful. We just love it!!

On the Allure we kept on sitting in one section, so we had the same waiter every night who was in charge of our table. By the third evening, every time we walked in he would place diet cokes down at our favorite table, so we also got some of that MDR personalized feeling :)

We much prefer the food and the atmosphere of the Windjammer. It's our favorite place to eat onboard.

We picked RCCL's Radiance for our Alaska honeymoon cruise 2 and a half years ago. It was DH's first cruise ever and my first cruise not with DCL. We were a little hesitant since we're both real Disney freaks, we love everything about Disney - the service, the people, the atmosphere - but DCL to Alaska was double the price of RCCl, so we decided to give them a try.

We chose RCCL over the other lines in Alaska first and for most because of itinerary. Then after looking at the different lines to compare we preferred RCCL's food options and onboard activities too.

When it comes to itinerary, you have to look at the different options and figure out what's the most important to you. Other lines take you to see more glaciers, and if that's a priority you should go with them. The Radiance's itinerary included 4 ports, while most other itineraries included only 3. The ship also was docked for many hours from early in the morning, allowing us to do lots of activities in each port. We really wanted to see as much of Alaska as we could on land, so we preferred an extra port over another glacier viewing from the ship (our itinerary included Hubbard Glacier. It was breathtaking! We'll remember it forever).

BTW, the Radiance DOES have an outdoor eating area in the aft of the ship.

We loved loved loved the cruise!!! We loved it so much we are now loyal to Royal. The service onboard is amazing. Everyone's so nice! They're really right up there with Disney, in our opinion. The ship is gorgeous, the food is great and there are so many activities going on all the time! It's like being in summer camp for adults. The a Radiance is also the perfect ship for Alaska because it has so much glass all over the place, so no matter where you are you see the beautiful views.

We did it this past August. We were really looking forward to it, not for the food but for the fun, and it was the only thing that disappointed us during the entire cruise. The whole thing was totally rushed, nothing at all like the reviews I had read before booking.

We just went out of the restaurant to do a couple of line dances twice and that was it. It was so rushed that they didn't even offer us our second drink, we had to ask for it when they served dessert (we were on the $10 non alcoholic package).

It's supposed to be 8:30-10:30 PM. At about 9:40 PM we came back into the restaurant after a couple of line dances outside (which, naturally, non paying cruisers joined too...) thinking things were about to pick up, when the guy leading the whole thing comes up to our table to thank us for dancing and participating. We thought he was just checking up on everyone in the middle of the fiesta, but actually - it was over!! At 9:45 PM the waiters started stacking chairs on tables, while all of the fiesta guests were still there, and the guy who was leading the whole thing spent the rest of the time flirting with a girl at one of tables, while everyone else just sat and ate dessert.

We left at 10, never getting our third drink. Obviously we could have asked for it, we really didn't need another one, but we were just surprised that the whole thing was run so poorly and that they were basically kicking everyone out already at 9:45 PM. We were really disappointed and wouldn't recommend it.

Thanks so much for this review. Went to Alaska 10 years ago with ship cruisetour and will use your info to DIY in 2014 since my companion is in a wheelchair. Will have to do research to see if train or rental car is best for us.

 

Question about Denali shuttle bus. I know some buses are wheelchair accessible, but I like the idea of being able to get off the bus to break it up. Did Lior's back do okay through the bus ride? How bumpy? Did you see anyone in wheelchair on Denali buses?

 

Good to know that you were able to board Radiance so early considering late departure.

 

For those still planning, highlights of my trip to Alaska was Denali (make sure you at least got Tundra Wilderness tour), Kenai Fjords boat ride in Seward and Glacier Bay.

 

I love Alaska!!

Hi!

I'm so sorry to be answering you so long after you asked this question!!

Since you're going this year I guess my info can still be relavent, but I'm still sorry for not responding!

We didn't find the Denali bus to be very bumpy. I prepared myself for a really bumpy ride after reading about it here, so we were surprised to find that the road really didn't bother us and the seats were comfortable.

Lior did really well on the shuttle and I was so happy because this was the one activity we were doing that I was really concerned about in terms of his back. Because the bus stops every 90 minutes we could get off the bus and walk around (which were actually our favorite parts of the drive because it's so beautiful). Luckily, because it wasn't a bumpy ride, it wasn't any harder on Lior than a long ride on a train.

His back was bothering him a little bit by the time we got to Eielson Center, which was to be expected, but nothing too bad, we were still able to join the ranger walk there (which we LOVED).

It was a great day :)

I'm sorry, I don't remember seeing people in a wheelchair. That's not to say I didn't see any wheelcahirs, I just don't remember.

I'm so jealous that you guys are going back to Alaska!!!!!!!!!!! I can't wait to go back. Have an amazing trip!!

I've been on 4 cruises. On the first three we had a regular ocean balcony room. This past summer we were on the amazing Allure and we took a Boardwalk balcony because we got a really good price on it. We were nervous about it since we've been so spoiled with the regular beautiful ocean view balcony and also I'm extremely sensitive to noise when I'm trying to go to sleep. But the price was good and we decided to take the chance since there are only 2 ships in the world that have rooms like this.

WE LOVED THE ROOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In our opinion it's THE BEST kind of room onboard! We absolutely loved it. You get the best of both worlds, since you have a beautiful view of the ocean but you're also right there in the middle of the action. We spent a lot more time on our boardwalk balcony than we ever did on our regular balcony - watching people on the zip line, watching Oceanaria and especially Oceanaria practices, looking at the beautiful water...I wish I was there right now! :)

After Oceanaria is over the boardwalk is dead, so there's no noise to be worried about. You should try to be closer to the aft so that you get a better view of the water and the view of the shows and also get further away from Dazzles, where there sometimes are parties at night.

Also, there are the "secret balconies" at the aft of the 12th and 11th floor which are barely used and you can go out there for shows and beautiful aft views.

We were on the 11th floor and went out there for sail away, docking and the belly flop competition ;).

Definitely try this kind of room, it's our favorite!!

Right before we went on the amazing Allure this past August there was a whole multiple page long thread bashing Ken Rush. We were pretty nervous seeing so many people had such strong feelings against him.

To our surprise, we LOVED Ken! We thought he did a great job! Every activity he hosted was hilarious and well done, his staff is fantastic, we liked watching his show every morning and we also talked to him once after the ice show and he was SO nice!!

Anyways, just wanted to put that out there for anyone reading this thread who is planning on going on the Allure and might get worried by all the negative things written about Ken. Just a different opinion :) We really enjoyed him and you could tell he loves his job and is having a ball on the best cruise ship in the world! ;)

My family and I all only use sea bands and they really work for us!!

I suffer from really bad motion sickness in cars and on boats. The sea bands completely take care of it for me. We've been on cruises and boat trips that were rocking and rolling and we were amazed how it didn't affect us at all! Magic :)

Sometimes the bands slide slightly out of place and then my husband or I feel it a little. In that case a glass of ginger ale really does the trick (and putting the bands back where they're supposed to be :) ).

Have a great cruise!

That is strange...

On the Allure this past summer we ate dinner in the WJ every night. We had an amazing waiter (Organ, in case anyone runs into him). When he saw us come him he would immediately set up our favorite table next to the window with 2 diet cokes and silver wear wearing for us. It was like MDR service in the WJ!

and he was just amazing, so we tipped him on the last night of the cruise and he was more than happy to accept :) he really deserved it!

We had a boardwalk balcony on deck 11 on the Allure this summer.

I can't help with info on those two specific rooms, but as for the secret balconies - they're on decks 11 and 12.

We LOVED our boardwalk room!!! We thought it was the best type of room and the Allure is an amazing ship. You'll have a great time!! Sorry I can't be more helpful...

Thank you all so much for your quick, kind and helpful responses! :)

Things seemed clear until tahqa's response...lol...now I'm back to being confused :p

On my Norway cruise in 2012 the prices went down significantly... to about 60% of where they started. However, last summer they went down to about 75% of where they started and then rose up again.

Tahqa, do you remember when the price drops accured for those cruise?

Hi everyone,

Next year is my 30th birthday, and I have my heart set on a cruise on Adventure of the Seas starting on 31/8/14 headed to Iceland and Norway.

The problem is the current price listed is out of our budget...

I was wondering if anyone could tell me from experience if the price of this cruise might drop after final payment? I'm hoping there might be a chance, since it's the end of the season.

If not, are there other RCCL European cruises at the end of August/during September that usually get really cheap after final payment?

Thanks a lot! :)

Hi everybody!

Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments! I'm short on time right now, but I promise I'll respond to everyone!

Like my mom said, things have been crazy busy. I lead 2 bands, one that plays my music - which is somewhat known in the local indie scene - and a new one that plays covers at events, which hopefully will allow us to make a living doing what we love doing. Our band Hunny Band (you can check us out on Youtube ;)) has a new clip coming out at the end of this week, and our events cover band is just done with rehearsals, so there are TONS of things I have to do to try to get us up and running, including a big presentation show we put on a week and a half ago. I'm so sorry it's taking me so long to update!!

Back to the Radiance. The last time we spoke, Lior and I headed over to the Windjammer for lunch after dropping our stuff off in the room.

I would like to take this opporptunity to post the Cruise Compass. I kept all of them for you guys!

As you can see, I used a highlighter to mark off the activities we wanted to partake in. I highly recomend bringing one with you. I really loved lying on the bed, reading the activities out loud to Lior and us both getting excited about all of the great things we'd get to do the next day. I carried the Cruise Compass around with me, in my pocket, and that way we knew what we wanted to do, when and where it was happening and it made timing everything really easy.

NOTE - if you don't have the Compass on you, they have computer screens next to the elevators that can show you what's going on right now on the ship and where, it can show you the whole daily schedual, and it can even explain how to get to where you want to go. We actually used that last feature once...we walked up stairs that were in a different part of the ship than what we were used to on the second day of the cruise and felt all confused. We walked over to the computer screen, put in our room number and the computer showed us exactly how to get there (we were right there...embarrasing!!! hahahaha). I still think the easiest thing to do is carry the Compass around with you, if you're planning on participating in lots of things, like us.

We had pre-purchased 2 of the infamous water packages. Lior is a real water snob, lol. He only drinks botteled water. To be honost, I'll only drink tap water if it's cold...so I guess I'm a snob too. Also, being from a warm country, we have it ingrained in our brains that we have to carry water around with us on trips so that we don't get dehidrated. So we wanted the botteled water so that we could take 2 bottles with us everyday.

The bottles you get with the package are 1 Liter Evian water bottles, so they're a really nice size to carry with you in your backpack.

We also had pre-purchased one soda package for Lior. I decided I didn't need one, since water and ice-tea are free (so is lemonade), and I figured I could get my diet coke fix when we ate at restuarants of the ship. The soda package is VERY convinient. You can have as many drinks as you want at any venue!! That includes the restaurants, bars and even the theater! You just flash your card with the coke mark on it - and that's it. You don't have to walk around with the mug you get with tha package (you only have to use that mug when you want to use the Coke Freestyle machines, which currently don't exist on the Radiance).

Ok, so back to the Windjammer. We LOVED the Windjammer!! There's SO much food, so many options, really something for everyone. There are lots of tables with gorgeous views.

Here are a couple of Windjammer tips:

1. If you can't find a table during breakfast, go over to Izumi's. It's closed for breakfast, so the tables are open for the use of the Windjammer breakfast diners.

2. During other times of the day, check if there's room in the side room towards the Aft. We almost always found a table in there.

3. For dinner the omelet station turns into a station that barely anyone notices! So I'm telling you about it so that you don't miss it. This station makes made-to-order salmon, chicken breast, pasta and some other things. They make it for you the way you want it, with whatever sauce you choose! Isn't that great?? People don't realize the station is "open for buisness" and totally overlook it. The only other people we saw getting food from there were the people who asked us "where did you get salmon from?".

Plates packed, we sat down next to a window and enjoyed a wonderful meal and gorgeuos views of our beloved Seward. Lior went over to get himself his first diet coke from the bar and I took an ice tea. They have the free drinks (water, ice tea and lemonade) sitting out in cups at the bar under a glass partition, so it's not like people can sneeze into your drink...

The ice tea was really week and I didn't like it at all. It tasted like water with a hint of tea. It also wasn't very cold (I'm used to the Disney World ice tea with ice up to the brim of the cup). I switched to a cup of water, which also wasn't very cold...I found myself totally begrudging Lior's diet coke and, while the food was great, enjoying my meal less because I wanted a damn diet coke!! lol...Then I heard my mom's voice in my head, saying how silly it is that we've spent thousands of dollars on this trip, and now just to save $50 I'm enjoying it less ...that doesn't make sense!

I informed Lior that the first thing we're doing once we finish eating is going over to the guy selling drink packages and purchasing a soda package for me. Second thing on the agenda? Diet coke!!!! lol. And that's exactly what we did.

BTW, you get a mug anyway you purchase the sode package. The only difference between pre-purchasing and purchasing onboard (besides the fact that if you pre-purchase you don't have to wait in line) is that when you pre-purchase the package (say that quickly 10 times!) the Cola mark is printed on your sea pass, whereas if you purchase the package on board it's a sticker, so it can get worn down.

We went back to the room, because Lior's back was bothering him and he was still a little out of it because of the Bonine. I took the opporotunity to go over the Compass and plan the rest of our day.

After a short rest, we decided to go check out the ship. She was still pretty empty, so it was really fun to feel like we had the place to ourselves. We went into all the venues.

First we headed over to Schooner's Bar. This became our regular hangout spot between activities. It's a big piano lounge, with floor to ceiling windows and comfy couches. This is also where the piano shows take plays and where the pool tables are located. We loved bringing cards from the playing room down to the Schooner bar and playing cards with a nice cold glass of diet coke while enjoying the beatiful views of Alaska. Heaven! We became friends with one of the waiters there, who's from Malaysia, which was cool and interesting since we're not allowed in to that country.

We took out the pool sticks and played a round of pool (Lior won...on the plus side though, last time I played I was in Vietnam and I almost poked someone's eyeball out by mistake...this time that didn't happen, so it's an improvement! hahaha)

You take the sticks and balls out of those glass and wood closets behind Lior, to his right. It was a lot of fun!!!

We checked out the casino, since this was going to be the only time it would be empty and smoke free (note - I think there's a set activity in the compass sometime during the week when the casino is smoke free for a couple of hours). We don't like to gamble and we really don't like smoke (and we don't drink...what kind of musicians are we?! lol) so this was the time for us to check it out.

About the temprature on the ship: just like off the ship, it depends on what you're used to. For us, the temprature was fine, but it was too cold to wear shorts or a short dress. Indoors we wore closed shoes, long pants, a t-shirt or a tank top (for me) and a fleece jacket or sweatshirt. I also always had a scarf on. Sometimes the sweatshirt/fleece came off, depending on what we were doing, but I wouldn't walk around without something with long sleeves that I could put on. Obviously, like on land, here too we were the cold ones...other people were wearing sandals and pretty summer dresses. It all depends on where you're from and what you're used to.

We put our bathing suits on and went over to the pool to try out the jacuzzis. The Solarium only had one jacuzzi, and it was always packed whenever we wanted to use it. The outdoor pool has 2 jacuzzis and while they can also get busy, you have a better chance with them, since it's cold outside!! We took 2 pool towels from the towel station. The way this worls is simple - they swipe you card, so they know how many towels were taken out for your room. After you use the towel, you can just keep on trading it in for a clean and dry towel until the end of the cruise, when you hand in the towel for good. If you don't return the same number of towels you took out - there's a penalty.

The pool jacuzzi was empty. We were freezing and shivering taking off our clothes to get into the jacuzzi, but it was so worth it!!!!! Words can't express how amazing it is to be outdoors in a hot tob sorounded by snowy mountains. Amazing!!!!!! One of my favorit things to do onboard was relax in one of those outdoor hot tobs. We just relaxed, soaked in the breathtaking scenery and couldn't believe how lucky we were...it was priceless.

Mandatory Muster Drill was at 7:30 pm, so we had to go back to our room and shower quickly. This is when we met out amazing room attendant, Glendon, from the Carribeans. He was fantastic!!!!!!! It seemed like we would just step out of the room for a minute - zoom! The room was made!

He was the nicest guy and we really developed a friendship with him.

Here are some tips I read on the CC boards regarding the room attendant that I'm passing on to you:

1. Your room is made up twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. To make it easier on both you and your room attendant, the easiest thing to do is leave the Do Not Disturb sign on your door when you're in the room, and switch it ot Please Make Up Room when you leave. This way, he knows exactly when you're there or not, so he doesn't have to guess, and it prevents the knocking on the door or any other possible awkward situation...We found this to be a great tip! It really worked for both of us, because it made life simple. After he made up our room, he removed the sign from the door and left it in our room.

2. When we met him on the first day of the cruise, we asked him for 2 extra blankets to use outside on the balcony. That's a great idea I read here! It makes the balcony a whole lot cozier.

3. We asked him to remove the items from the mini fridge. I knew up front from these boards that there was a change happening onboard, and now the room staff aren't allowed to touch the contents of the fridge. He told us there's no problem for us to take everything out of the fridge and put it on one of the shelves. So that's what we did and it was a great idea, too. There's lots of shelf space in the room, so don't worry about it.

4. The last tip has to do with the room, not the room attendant, but whatever...You can store your suitcases under the bed. This will free up space in you room, which is great!

So Glendon came by introduced himslef and asked if we would be needing anything else tonight. We said all we needed were clean towels for the morning, and asked about getting 2 blankets and clearing the fridge. He said no problem abuot the towels and blankets, and, well, I already told you what he said about the fridge.

Muster drill time!

But I have to go...I don't even have time to go over this looooong post, so I apologise if somethings are writted all weird, lol. I'll be back!

Thanks for all the info on Seward and Exit glacier. I have added this to our itinerary prior to boarding the Radiance. I can't thank you enough for taking the time to share all your trip information. It is making my decision making for my family trip so much easier.

I'm so happy that I can help!!! Thank you :) It really makes writing this worth while! If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Have you considered a kenai fjords boat tour in Seward? I've read wonderful things about it and we met people who did it and loved it. We didn't do it because I've read that a lot of people get sea sick on those tours and I'm extremely prone to sea sickness, so I didn't want to take the chance of getting sea sick before getting on the cruise...I think that would be a nightmare. But if I had had the bracelettes against sea sickness I would have done it in addition to everything else.

Just another thing to consider for your time in Seward :) You obviously don't have to do it, since we didn't and we had the most amazing time in Seward and loved everything we did. I wouldn't have done the Kenai fjords tour instead of something we did, just in addition.

Also, if we had packed everything in the morning or before we went to sleep we could have checked out in the morning, before leaving for Exit glaciar, and just left our luggage in storage. That would have given us as much time as we wanted to spend at the glacier. But we were just too tired to stay up or wake up earlier to organize everything...it worked out fine, because we really enjoyed going on a little adventure by ourselves! But I'm sure the ranger walk is also fantastic. Just some more food for thought :)

Enjoy planning!! It's as much fun as going on the trip itself ;)

Looks like we are booking Alaska for 2014.

Thanks for all the help.

 

Alex

Hi Alex!

That's great!!! Can you take me with you? lol...You're going to have the experience of a lifetime!! :)

Happy new year, everybody!

Our balcony. As you might be able to see, the chairs and table were all wet for some reason. After lunch, we called room service and notified them of this (since we couldn't use the balcony if it was all wet...). Within minutes there was a knock on our door, and a crew member came in to see what the problem was and then wiped down the table and chairs. Problem solved! :)

Seward from our balcony. Isn't she beautiful??

I read about someone doing this in a review and decided it was a good idea and that we should do it too:

We opened the closet to make sure our life vests were in there and then took them out and put them on to fit them to us, that way we knew they were ready, worst comes to worse. Plus, that way we were familiar with them and would know what to do in case of an emergency. Then we put them back in the closet and didn't think about it for the rest of the cruise.

Lots of fun info waiting to be read. In that envalope are our tickets for all of the excursions we had booked.

but first...

LUNCH!!

We went up to the Windjammer for what would be the first of many wonderful meals there.

The view from our table. Can you spot the Holiday Inn Express? It's that long blue building in the center of the picture.

The centrium, where lots of fun activities take place.

The library

At 12:55 the haway doors opened and we were allowed to go to our room.

Our wonderful room! You can see the special cup waiting for Lior, since we had pre-perchased a soda package for him.

The shower has a curtain, not a door. I'm happy to report that the water flow was great! It wasn't the week little drizzle we were dreading.

Yes, we purchased the bottled water package (hiss, hiss...lol)

We walked back, and had a few more minutes to check out the small visitors center. It's really worth checking out! They have great displays and hands on exhibits. Definatly worth a visit.

At 11 AM we got on the shuttle back to Seward after a wonderful and memorable hour at Exit glacier. On the way, the shuttle dropped a family off at a hotel and the driver asked if anyone else wanted to be dropped off at a specific hotel. Talk about service!!

Back at the hotel, we packed up everything and put the luggage tags on the suitcases (I asked the front desk for a stapeler). We asked the front desk if they recomend we walk to the pier, and they said we could but that with all our luggage they think we really should take a cab. (They were right!! There was no way we could have made it with all of our luggage)

We waited outside for our cab and in no time at all we were over by the pier. The cab driver dropped us off next to the porters to drop off our luggage. Then we walked over to check in to the cruise!!

The view from the stairwell at the Holiday Inn Express.

Check in was a breeze!!! We had checked in online, so I think we were only in there for about 10 minutes! It was around 12:30 and the place was pretty empty. We checked in, went through security and there we were, standing next to the beautiful Radiance herself!!

From the second we boarded, every songle crew member we met was SO nice!! We were greeted by Kinsey, who was part of the cruise director staff and later became one of our friends on board. He greeted us with a huge smile and a "welcome aboard, Israel! Congratulations on your honeymoon!"

We were off to a great start!

Since it was already 12:45, we went right up to our floor to get rid of our carry on luggage.

Our room was a port side balcony on the 9th floor, catagory D2 room number 9214. It was absolutely THE perfect location. We were close to the mid section glass elivators, but far enough in the hall so that we didn't hear all the comotion from there. Since we were port side on a southbound cruise, we had gorgeuos views of every port we cruised to. It was amazing waking up everyday to such beautiful scenery.

There was a nice staff member standing next to the elevators on our floor who informed us that the rooms will be ready in 10 minutes, which was what I expected, so that was fine. The library is right there on the 9th floor, by the glass elevators, so we sat there and waited.

oops! computer FAIL! :)

Gooooooooooood moooooooooooornig Radiance of the Seas!!!!

We decided we didn't want to get up so early, so we got up at about 8:30 AM. We went down to breakfast in the lobby, and were greeted by this beautiful view of the harbor and the Radiance! Breathtaking!! Talk about the perfect setting for a breakfast. The breakfast at the Holiday Inn Express is fantastic, very similar to the breakfast we had at the Hampton Inn in Fairbanks. Lots to choose from, constantly being replenished.

We then stepped out onto the lobby patio to soak in the amazing scenery while I called PJ's taxi and the Alaska Glacier Guides to figure out how we're getting to Exit glacier. PJ's taxi round trip to Exit glacier costs $50. The Alaska Glacier Guides shuttle costs $10 per person round trip. So obviously for us it was a no brainer. the shuttles leave every hour on the half hour, and you can return at whatever time you want, you're not limited. At Exit glacier, there are free ranger lead hikes, and I was planning for us to get there for the 10 AM ranger lead hike, so we had to be on the 9:30 shuttle.

Check out was at 11 AM and we weren't all packed and ready to go...so we asked at the front desk if it was possible to check out later. They were very nice and said we could check out at 12:30. But that still meant we had to take the shuttle back from the glacier at 11, and wouldn't have enough time for the whole ranger walk. We decided we'd go for it and see what the ranger suggests, since we had an hour to spend at the glacier.

It turns out the shuttle will pick you up right from the Holiday Inn if you want, which is great! So we booked the 9:30 shuttle and went to wait outside.

Our shuttle. This company was SO nice, I was really happy we went with them.

It was a pretty and short drive over to Exit glacier. When we got there, the ranger was already standing in front of the visitors center with a few people standing with him for the 10 AM walk. We went over to him and told him that we had to be on the 11 AM shuttle. He said that since the guided walk is between an hour and half to two hours it make no sense for us to go with him, and suggested we take the mile long walk through the woods to the glacial river, where there's a viewing spot of the glacier. He showed us the rout on the map and we were off on our own little adventure!

VERY IMPORTANT!!! I can't stress this enough - bring mosquito repellent!! This was the place where we were most bothered by mosquitos (followed by Creamer's Field in Fairbanks). If you want to enjoy yourself you have to bring mosquito repellent.

There was a warning sign up that bears had been spotted in the area as well as moose, so we made sure to keep on talking so as not to sneak up on a bear. I'd just like to take this opprotunity to say that you should take a few minutes to read up on how to act in an area with bears and moose, that way if you encounter one you'll know what to do. I have to admit I had no idea moose are aggressive animals, so if I hadn't read up on it in advance I would not hesitate getting close to one out of sheer ignorance. So read up on safety, it'll just take a couple of minutes and it can save your life.

We went on our nature walk through the woods and just had the best time being alone, just us and nature. It was so much fun! The glacier and river are beautiful, and Lior said "yeah, it was beautiful, but you should have heard it"

thanks for the updates!!!!

and thanks for posting that video!!! the sea lion is ADORABLE!!! even if he couldn't care less about us!! :)

 

i can't wait for your cruise and cruise excursion updates!!!!!

 

thanks again for the the updates!!! great stuff!!! (so you didn't ask the "adults" to hold your hands in your run across the street? - actually, what i keep picturing is frogger!! :D)

i just watched the walrus video (at the end of that article you linked)..

they are so cute!!! the way they suck the thumb of the keeper....that's adorable...

that's really amazing rescue work the center is doing!!!

Thank you so much!!

Yeah, they're cute beyond belief! :) You just stand there melting inside because they're so adorable.

We are signed up for the mammal encounter. We just thought that these animals would be more interesting than the octopus or the puffins. Do you know anything about the puffin encounter? I'm wondering now if we should switch our encounter.

We met nice people from CC on our cruise who did the puffin encounter and they really liked it. I've also read a bunch of reviews by people who had done the puffin encounter, and the majority of them liked it. I know you get to feed them. The sea lions and harbor seals ARE very interesting :) you just don't interact with them at all.

Just sent my sister in law your list of must have clothing for Alaska trip. She is already in the prepare mode for our June 29 to July 12 trip. I am anxiously awaiting your info on Exit glacier as this is what I would like to do in Seward prior to boarding the Radiance on July 5. Thanks for continuing your review.

I'm so glad I can help! You guys are going to have such an amazing trip...

Exit glacier was great, we really had a good time there.