Live from the Radiance of the Seas August 31, 2018 to Seward to Vancouver

Hello to my friends who are reading. It is currently the last day, and I won’t be able to post a ton today, using the DW’s free day of internet today. We have had minimal time on the ship when we are not sleeping, eating, drinking or watching shows.

Back to first night in Denali.

So, we had a 32 foot RV with a toilet shower, a nice bedroom with a comfortable bed in the back, a very uncomfortable bed over the cab of the RV a double bunk of single beds. So, because Sue is needing shoulder surgery they got the very comfortable bed in the back with the restroom next door. Sally chose the lower of the two double bunks directly in front of the restroom. And K and I had the very uncomfortable and awkward to get into and out of especially in the dark overhead double. I rarely get up at night to go to the restroom and nobody wanted to go walk in the dark to the pit toilets at night, so my DW was very unhappy with the uncomfortable bed and the dangerous in the dark climb down from the bunk, after a couple of nighttime trips to the toilet. Not to mention that because of the cold, and the fact that nobody who went to the bathroom bothered to turn on the heater during the night I didn’t sleep well either, and apparently an uncomfortable bed turned me into an occassional snorer. How awesome is that?:eek: According to the DW I haven’t snored at all on the ship. The next night my wife went to the sofa, and I had the whole upper bunk to myself, found out now that she wasn’t in bed that one of the other perks of the bunk is that the pads that make up the bed separate, and I about fell thru.

Nights in Denali were not great sleeping experiences.

So day 2 in Denali to follow.

JC

I am back!

Day 2 in Denali came with a steady soft rain. After simple breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, toast, and bacon before our 9AM time for the TEK bus, which is a converted school bus that runs trips from outside the park to Wonder Lake near Mt McKinley (Denali). You are guaranteed a seat only on that bus trip. You can ride the other TEK buses, but only if they have open seats (generally not a problem at least when we were there). The park road is gravel that in places is very good in others very rough, and still in others scarily perched on a dangerous ledge with no guard rails anywhere. The bus had no bathroom but stopped at all the camping areas or visitor centers for us to relieve ourselves. We had our cameras, and backpacks stuffed with sandwiches, snacks, water, and gear to deal with the rain or other conditions on the bus.

The bus was filled with an assortment of passengers from several countries, some dressed slightly technically like us, to completely inappropriately dressed in sandals and light weight clothing, and at the other end of the spectrum people geared up like they were going to live with Grizzly Bears for a week. Several of these people were carrying, giant digital cameras with multiple gigantic zoom lenses and multiple camera bodies. The typical process of the buses, is everyone is staring out the windows for any signs of wildlife, if and when someone spots something the bus stops and we all try to see what was originally spotted, sometimes a Grizzly, sometimes, Dall Sheep up on a mountainside, Caribou in a field, a partial sighting of a moose (I never personally saw one in Denali, but I saw a picture one of the photographers took from the bus), a golden eagle, and other maybe animals that many others didn’t see. Visibility was a couple of miles at the best of times, to a few hundred yards at other times. At the Eielson Visitor Center we could see hardly at all. The rangers there had a huge calendar where someone drew a picture daily of the view of the mountain. The day before we arrived it was drawn beautifully, but on the day we were there, there was a simple note on the date that said “What Mountain?”.

We saw a lot of animals, but it is a long day by the time we reached Wonder Lake at mile marker 86.5, which is where the bus turned around to repeat all of the stops we had made to reach that point. We saw even more animals on the return trip, especially Caribou and Grizzly Bears. We were told the oft repeated joke for the first time on this bus ride. Do you know the difference between a Caribou and a Reindeer? Reindeer can fly. Ugh.

By the time our designated bus arrived back at TEK it was almost 6:30PM, that is a long day in a school bus. I cooked all of the meals except for sandwiches and salads. On this rainy evening, we had stove top cooked pork chops, baked potatoes, French bread (in the oven that we figured out how to light), a salad, and of course wine. Our RV really only seated four at the table, so I usually ate on the sofa. After dinner we watched an episode that I had downloaded from Starz of the White Queen. This show became the nightly entertainment for our RV trip as we would watch one or two of the one hour episodes each night before calling it a night.

JC

Day 3 of Denali (after night two), and my wife decided to spend the night on the sofa leaving me to have the overhead compartment all to myself. Since we were pretty tired sleeping improved for all, it rained off and on all night.

After trips to the wonderful vault toilet for the gang, I mixed up a batch of pancakes, and bacon. It was actually pretty good. The rain finally ended for a while and the skies cleared up. We all agreed that we had enough of riding the bus, so we wandered down to the Teklanika River and we walked beside this river that spread out across a very wide valley. There was a brushy and tree filled slope up on the sides and then a rock, gravel and loose tree limbs covered river bed. The waters split into many fingers, ranging from tiny shallow pools to a raging torrent that wandered around the valley from side to side and the middle.

As we walked thru the campground past the little area where the park rangers would hold lectures in a tiny outdoor theatre, we noticed an amazing RV. It looked like it could haul troops to the ends of the world. I believe it was a Global X Vehicle. After doing a bit of research, it is hard to say that was the brand, needless to say, I was afraid to get too close as I figured it might react menacingly.:eek::')

Our walk along the river was about 3 miles each way and we walked up to the bridge on the park road, it was occassionally muddy, and we had to cross regularly small streams, some of which required careful steps on rocks to keep the feet dry (we all had goretex boots on, but you always worry about stepping in over the top, which I did one time leading the ways as one of the rocks rolled under me. We never encountered anyone on our side of the river except near the campground, but we saw at least 3 groups ranging from 4 to 15 people walking along the far bank. We were glad to have spent time at the visitor center yesterday, as we saw examples of all of the different scat of the various animals that live in Denali. IE Bears and Moose, the two animals I wouldn’t want to meet along the side of the river. Fortunately, for us we saw neither of those.

The river was a grey milky color which comes from the glacial nature of the waters, and I am pretty certain that the running portion of these rivers are void of fish. They do not feed into the ocean but into the interior of Alaska and Canada.

We intentionally varied our path as much as we could on the return hike, as the side of the river is criss-crossed with small trails that showed lots of foot prints (human) and game trails.

When we returned to the RV, we had a late afternoon lunch of sandwiches and snacks before doing a bit of wandering around the camp before a dinner of fried chicken, baked potatoes, salad, wine, and cookies. After dinner we settled in and watched a couple of episodes of the White Queen before our final night in Denali. Sleeping was better for most except for me. Since, I was now master of the big bed over the cab, I had found the absolute middle of it, which lead to a gap between the sections of “padding” (plywood with 1 inch of foam and a covering). These sections kept sliding further apart as the night went on making the bed even more “comfortable” so comfortable, as I began falling into the ever widening gap. By morning, my bottom was about 5 inches below the grade of the upper berth, and I was in real danger of actually falling thru to the table in the dining room. When I got up in the middle of night unaware of my precarious position I decided I was so comfortable that I should get up and pee. When I sat on the edge of the section and tried to step down onto the seat of the dining area, the pad just about flipped and almost dumping me face first on the table. I caught myself fortunately, and did my business before returning to my comfortable bed. Only in the morning, as I looked up at the bed, did I see my bottom sheet hanging down from the ceiling several inches, did I realize how close to crashing down I had come.

JC

You paint great mental pictures JC. Looking forward to further instalments.

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You paint great mental pictures JC. Looking forward to further instalments.

 

 

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I'm waiting for the cruise to start. [emoji6]

 

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john, usually it is not about the cruise. Vacations are much more than the DL.;):halo:

JC

john, usually it is not about the cruise. Vacations are much more than the DL.;):halo:

 

JC

Plus the DL is the only place to meet like minded people. [emoji6]

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I'm waiting for the cruise to start. [emoji6]

 

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Day 4 in Denali, came as the prettiest day in Alaska, and really after this the weather was almost universally good with the exception of Ketchikan which has quite the reputation for rain. It was, also, our last day in the park. I again cooked breakfast which consisted of pork sausages, scrambled eggs and toast. After breakfast we started double checking that we had everything stowed away safely in the RV before a last walk around the camp. By 11AM we were pulling out of Teklanika campground and retracing our route out of the park. We stopped to view a couple of different groups of caribou, and another grizzly before we reached Savage River and gave the park ranger we had met when we entered our pass back.

Next stop near the park entrance is the park rangers sled dog camp. We spent about 45 minutes looking at the dogs in their pens and reading about how the rangers use the dogs. Our timing was pretty good as they were out practicing some of the dogs pulling wheeled sleds. We are all dog lovers, and our friends Sue and Shelby are obsessed with sled dogs as they currently have 3 Siberian Huskies (did I mention they are nuts?).

After visiting the dogs we left the park and began the 200 mile drive to Big Bear Campground and RV Park in Palmer Alaska. Palmer is next to Wasilla and it was in Wasilla that we visited a Fred Meyers store, to restock food and wine. The highway skirts the eastern side of Denali, and we were finally able to see some clear views of the peak of Mt. McKinley. At one point there was a nice little park where tour buses, also, stopped to allow their patrons to take pictures of the mountain. After using the toilet and taking our dozens of pictures of the mountain we had lunch in the RV before heading back to Palmer. In Wasilla we filled the RV with gas which again was $100 since the credit limit for gas apparently is $100 on Shelby’s credit card. Amazingly it always seemed to fill the tank perfectly. We talked about eating out, but the group voted to endure another day of my cooking.

The Big Bear Campground and RV camp was located on a nice piece of flat ground near an industrial park. It was surrounded by pine trees, but it felt like we were in civilization, and the three ladies all fell in love with it despite its mundane unnatural looks. They had nice large showers, flush toilets, and a laundry room. They felt like they were in heaven at last. It is amazing how vault toilets make you love indoor plumbing. Since the weather was so nice, we bought a $5 bundle of firewood at Fred Meyers and we sat around the campfire for a couple of hours burning the small bundle and what we gathered from remnants of other people’s fires. Dinner was grilled pork chops on our tiny charcoal grill, baked potatoes, salad, Tate’s brand cookies, and wine. After dinner another episode or two of White Queen, and of me trying to fall through the bed all night.

JC

Ok people, I need a little bit to play off here.

JC

Ok people, I need a little bit to play off here.

 

JC

JC I’m here. Having travelled a few of the same highways as you I’m invisioning the miles and views.

I’m thinking you are almost at the ship.

Ok people, I need a little bit to play off here.

 

JC

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Thank you Andrew. John you are retired. I still work and go 100 MPH every single day. :')

Although since I know I have about 10 days.... that might be the spur I need to kick...:eek:

JC

The morning in Palmer started off a bit grey and drizzly, but it cleared up later in the day. We had a breakfast of pancakes, fried eggs, and bacon. Then we started the process again of getting ready to hit the road.

Before I left a co-worker wanted us to watch the movie RV (starring Robin Williams), and of course, I knew they were just trying to make me worry about our ability to do the RV thing. So, last night it was on Starz/Encore and I DVR’d it and the DW and I watched it last night. It was as stupid as I expected, but at least one part of the movie fit with our lack of RV skills.

Our Grey water tank was indicating full, so since our RV hook-up had all of the facilities at our disposal, I put on the purple latex gloves and after trying to read the manual I went out in the drizzle with my rain jacket on and from one side of the RV removed the large flexible hose and tried to hook it up on the other side where all of the hook-ups and dump things were located. The manual was a hand typed document that probably was better written than some, but it lacked important details like pictures of the actual parts and how they assemble. In our quick RV training back at the beginning of the adventure this was demonstrated by showing us the hose, and the valves on the other side. Not quite enough training for the two men doing the Randy Quaid Cousin Eddie job even though both of us have advanced degrees.

After much discussion and trying to figure out which end went into the dump hole and which part attached to the opening. In retrospect it should have been obvious, but in the rain and with a lack of trying to logically figure it out we moved forward. One end of the hose it was just the round opening. On the other end it had a large plastic head with a reducing cone. Shelby deduced (quite convincingly) that this end went into the valve opening on the RV. I was the one with the purple latex gloves on so, I really should have made him be even more convincing. So, I take off the cap off the valve opening, and I inserted the reducing cone into the opening, it seemed to fit pretty well, so I opened the grey water valve and then the black water valve which started the flow. OMG.... the flow was strong. So, strong that it immediately oozed around the flat part of the pre-cone and dripped down into the RV floor below the valves. Since, I was holding the hose forcibly against the valve opening I was committed to continue holding it instead of turning off the valves, so for the next three or four minutes I was over come with a powerful stench and the continuing dilemma of how bad would the mess be if I stopped holding it to shut the valves. Shelby was very helpful during this process by telling me how much was still flowing thru the hose....

Finally, I was satisfied that closing the valve was the best option and quickly let the hose completely disconnect and then shut the two valves. My gloves smelled and were covered with a yellow sludge that smelled exactly twice as bad as you would imagine. At this point I had Shelby disconnect the hose from the water supply to the side of the RV. I then began using my sludge covered thumb as a jet nozzle and began hosing down first my gloves and second the area below the valves. After about 15 minutes I had thoroughly cleaned up my mess and diluted the remnants to the point where the smell was pretty much unnoticeable, and the hose thoroughly flushed. I took my gloves off, and we finished up readying the RV for the last road trip to Anchorage, and the final trip to Seward.

In the movie our failure was filmed with all of the RV parks residents sitting in lounge chairs (like a theatre) watching Robin Williams and the local stoner kids helping him empty the tanks. The movie version was far more spectacular than ours. In their version a stream of this process disgusting matter was shooting into the air like an oil gusher covering Robin Williams. So in retrospect we didn’t do so bad.

JC

JC, why did I see that coming. LOL.

After our wonderful system dump experience we began our drive to Seward. Palmer is about an hour from Anchorage and lance thru Anchorage we got on the Seward Highway which winds around the coastline across from the Kenai Peninsula which looks quite lovely from the road. The first part of the drive along this coastline had the Alaskan Railroad on either side of the road for the drive down the length of this bay. I think most people took this railroad to meet the ship in Seward. When you reach the final portion of the bay there is wildlife conservation park located along the shoreline. On our drive to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center we saw several eagles and a mountain goat on a cliff beside the highway.

We decided to stop at the Conservation center, and had a quick lunch of sandwiches in the RV before spending about 90 minutes walking thru the park. The park is home to a few Brown Bears that you could get very close to thru the fence, There are several moose in the park, including a male in full rut with a frightful bloody rack. There are injured eagles and owls who have lived in the park for about 20 years. There is a herd of Canadian Bison that is being used to reintroduce Bison into Alaska after they were wiped out about 100 years ago. There was a large group of Elk. A group of wolves were there, and a really smelly porcupine. The park only cost $15 per person, and I felt it was well worth the money.

After we left the conservation center the road finally began to rise up from sea level and we went thru a couple of passes and for the first time the Alaska Railroad tracks were not next to the road. The drive was thru some lovely valleys and mountains with several glimpses of glaciers, truly Alaska is the land of a thousand glaciers. Eventually, we returned to near sea level as we approached Seward. We drove past our future campground to scope out the parking situation at the port. There was a small Crystal ship in port, and the parking was a large empty lot just to the North of the piers. Obviously, not a lot of people drive and park for a cruise from Seward.

At this point I called ABC Motorhomes to discuss how we were going to turn in our RV. They told me to park the RV in the lot and lock the keys in the cab, and later someone would pick it up. This was perfect as we were able to use the RV as transport until we boarded the Radiance the next day around noon. After sorting that out we went to the local Safeway store, and bought a couple of bottles of wine per stateroom for our cruise, along with a few items for dinner in the RV that evening. After departing Seward we drove a few miles back up the Seward highway to Stoney Creek RV park. The nearby creek was indeed Stoney as there was a construction project going on widening the creek and adding more flat ground for future camp sites. There was nobody in the office, but they listed our parking spot of a board showing all of the reservations. The camp was about 50% full, and the facilities while adequate were not up to the standards of the previous campground. I decided to forego a shower the next morning opting to shower in my cabin instead. Dinner was another production by me for the group. We ended up watching another couple of episodes of the White Queen, and the group were asking if we were going to finish the series on the ship. I said we could but that I bet we won’t. I was correct.

The next morning, we broke camp, about 10:30 and drove the few miles back to Seward where we stopped at a gas station to fill the tank and the propane tank. Then we stopped at the Seward post office so my wife could post some postcards to her mother and friends. Then we drove to the parking lot, and quickly checked in. Sue and Shelby were in a full suite and are Diamond, we had a aft balcony and we are diamond plus, and Sally is just gold having only done a single cruise, so I figured we would have to wait a bit for Sally to make it thru the process. I was wrong, as she sailed thru and joined us within three minutes at security. The process was quick, and I am pretty certain, there was virtually no naughty room people as they didn’t seem to blink at bottles of wine or anything. We flew thru and were on board amazingly quick.

I figure as a public service, I would do a quick accounting of the cost of an RV trip to Alaska. The RV for the trip cost $1869 which included insurance, use of barbecue, chairs, coolers, and a $600 drop fee for leaving the RV in Seward, and etc. Fuel for the RV for the entire trip was $300 with an additional $18 for propane. Food not including wine came to $280. Camping fees and entrance to Denali came to $420. Grand total $2887. Or $577 per person or per night for the group. Considering some of the lodges I had looked at pre-trip were more than that per night per person.

JC

To continue the accounting bit a tiny bit further. The Alaskan Railroad for transfer from downtown Anchorage to Seward was $172 per person for Adventure class and $353 for Gold Star Service. The train from Anchorage to Denali was about the same pricing. So, paying for Gold Star Service for just the train portion of the trip would have cost more than the entire RV experience. Plus the convenience of being inside the park at the 29 mile mark was priceless.

If you don’t mind roughing it very little (mostly just the sleeping) the RV is a tremendous value. The cruise was great and we did just about everything imaginable on the cruise, as I will describe in the coming days. However, when asked by Krystal and Sally tell people that their favorite part of the trip was the RV adventure.

Just something to think about.

JC

Oops a small correction the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center was only $12 per person.

JC

How long till Symphony crossing?

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How long till Symphony crossing?

 

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We fly to Barcelona in 21 days and 6 hours. The cruise is 10/28.

JC

That was a great deal JC regarding the camper vs staying at the lodges.

When we return we will rent a car and stay in lodges along the way. A rental car, like your camper, would be faster than the tour bus from points A to B. However we will still be seeing points along the way, without waiting for 35 other people to load into the bus.

Day 1 of the cruise. Just for John.

We sailed on the Radiance one time before in its maiden year. On that cruise we sailed from Vancouver to Hawaii way back in 2001. It has been a long time since we had been on a ship this size, since I prefer ships that have a flowrider. I am glad, however, that we did not sail the Explorer to Alaska because we spent so much time in ports on this cruise. Not to mention that the flowrider weather was something cooler than ideal. I still think the Radiance class are lovely ships and while they are not the Ovation of the Seas they are still quite nice. The Radiance is showing her age though, as there were lots of things in our cabin, on our balcony and generally around the ship that shows a lot of wear and tear. Nothing that affected our enjoyment of the ship or the cruise.

Muster was at 7:30PM and it finished about 7:45PM. Prior to muster we went to the very crowded Diamond lounge for cocktails. This cruise and the diamond lounge had a strong Aussie flavor as many of the fine folks we met were from Australia and were returning homeward on this and the future sailings of the Radiance. After we had a cocktail, conversation was brought to a halt by the diamond concierge. Juan Diego Miranda-Allen, introduced himself to everyone and then began with a speech quite unlike any I have ever endured in any other diamond lounge or nightly event. This speech seemed to be set off by a couple of Australians coming in not thru the door but sliding panels that separated the Diamond Lounge from the nearby Viking Crown lounge. Juan Diego, immediately went to lock these panels.

Juan Diego’s speech, consisted of the following tidbits and others I have probably forgotten. He made it clear that it is corporate policy that there will be no overflow lounges for Diamonds. That it is corporate policy that each diamond member will have three drinks loaded on their sea pass card. That he and his staff will happily serve cocktails daily from 4:30PM until 8PM, but there would not be an overflow lounge because it was against corporate policy. He emphasized this many times. I assume so that we would not refer to him in the questionnaire as not being a superior diamond concierge because he was following corporate policy. He droned on for at least 15 minutes about this and other rules. I was quite fed up by the time he finished. So much so, that I decided to leave before he finished and we went down the hall to the concierge lounge which was about twice as big with about half as many people.

The concierge in the CL was very polite and very quiet. He was very friendly and completely unobtrusive. The bar staff in the CL were very charming and since they had a full bar to do service from it was a much better level of service. Later in the cruise, I was told that many pinnacles and diamond plus members complained about how snobby the CL’s patrons were. I will say the CL was more reserved, but that is probably because there were less people in there than the DL with more space. Our friends in suite 1034 had been there for a while and had obviously bonded with the bar staff and concierge. I never bonded with Juan Diego the entire week. :eek: Although one evening he did the obligatory find out about us conversation. Although, I had the suspicion that it was because I had mentioned to the bartenders in the CL how much better the CL was than the DL.:evilsmile:

Muster was typical, although they chased us out of the lounge at least 30 minutes prior to time and then chased us from the general areas to go to our muster station where we got to spend about 40 minutes of time. I know that muster might save life’s in an emergency, that said, I am pretty certain that is way overplayed. After muster, we tried to return to the DL or CL only to find them closed the rest of the evening, so into the Viking Crown Lounge to get a cocktail, since we have until 8:45PM for our my time dining reservation. The bar staff there struggled to get drinks to the thirsty diamonds, diamond plus and Pinnacle members before the witching hour of 8PM. I barely got a couple of glasses of wine. Almost reminded me of the bars on the Liberty of the Seas a few years ago on what turned out to be spring break for the University of Florida.

Dinner in the main dining room was fine. I ordered escargot that was not hot enough, and hard to imagine not flavorful enough. How can you take garlic, butter and cheese and make it bland. After dinner we went to the Welcome Onboard Show which began at 9:45. The show was about half over when we arrived and the Aurora theatre was packed so we stood at the back of the theatre. After the show let out we said good night to our friends and went to bed. Bed was wonderful after the RV. Great night sleeping was had for the DW and I.

JC

That was a great deal JC regarding the camper vs staying at the lodges.

 

When we return we will rent a car and stay in lodges along the way. A rental car, like your camper, would be faster than the tour bus from points A to B. However we will still be seeing points along the way, without waiting for 35 other people to load into the bus.

I am almost always a DIY guy when it comes to trips. I just like the freedom.

JC

I've heard of other Concierges making that speech. Blah, blah, blah.

Surprised lounge did not reopen

Good start. [emoji33]

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Thank you, John.

Many years ago, when we first started cruising there was a bit on SNL that to this day I think perfectly describes happy birthday or happy anniversary etc on a cruise ship. It was Tarzan, Tonto and Frankenstein singing Christmas or Happy Halloween or Thanksgiving. Since the crew is from all over the world but mostly from countries where English is a second or third language. SNL with Phil Hartman playing Frankenstein Monster, Jon Lovitz playing Tonto, and Kevin Neelan playing Tarzan would sing the song for happy birthday and Phil would just go errgghhh... at the end. Juan Diego could have fit in that cast.

JC