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LIVE from Radiance of the Seas...5/11 and 5/18. Alaska!

bradpole

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AngieGal3

AngieGal3

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Am I the only one checking for updates on Bradpole?

I enjoyed the cruise reporting but now I want to know if they are ok.

 

Bradpole's been on my mind a lot. I hope everything is going ok with him and his mom.

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jonbgd

jonbgd

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Good Morning Brad.

Sorry to hear you hasd to disembark early. Fortunate that you were in Juneau instead of Hoonah

Hope everything is well with your Mom. Look forward to your update to let us know everything is OK

We didnt hear the Alpha call must have been onshore at that time.

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bradpole

bradpole

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Hell everyone!

 

Thank you everyone for posting your concerns and best wishes we greatly appreciate everyone's concern. I have read every comment and they truly meant a lot to us while we had many uncertain hours and days to pass! THANK YOU!!

 

 

(some of this was typed in Vancouver some of this was typed when we got home)

 

After a few trying and stressful days we have begun our journey home. And what a journey it is. Incase you have never flown from Jeanu airport lets just saw your options are limited. You have a couple of choices. Alaska air, Alaska Air, or let me think what the other airline was... Oh that's right Alaska air! :-)

 

Needless to say our last minute fare (purchased 6 hours before departure) was as much as 7 night cruise in an interior cabin! Thankfully we have travel insurance and once we get home I'll begin that fun process. We flew from JNU to Seattle, spent a night there, rented a car and drove back up to Vancouver. Cathay Pacific only charged us $100 p/p change fee for a flight a week earlier. We could have rebooked all new flights but would have easily maxed our policy coverages, and we have no tight connections this way, Just lots of hours to kill here in YVR! Given the past few stressful days we've had we will not be doing any sightseeing in Vancouver before the flight home. Why press our luck right?

 

Hopefully we be home noon eastern Sunday!

 

Side note if you are going to get sick and get kicked off the ship in Junea Alaska, Juneau is both the place to have it happen and also NOT the place to have it happen, confused? I bet!

 

What was good about Junea:

Small hospital, incredibly caring staff. Everyone from doctors to nurses to general staff sooo friendly and helpful

Such friendly local residents

The hospital has a 9 room motel/hotel called Bartlett House in the parking lot that they charge $65 a night for families of patients. Can you guess where I stayed?

The port agent and company treated me like family. SERIOUSLY! They kept asking what they could do.

From taking me back to the ship to pack, getting me through customs (don't ask), taking me to the hospital, taking me shopping, even whisking me from the hospital to FedEx to ship our luggage home when it looked like a medical air transfer to Seattle would be involved~thankfully the transfer never happened!

Bus service in Juneau was very easy to use. There are basically 3 routes express from the valley to town, to town to the island, and from town to the valley. The bus drivers are very friendly and will gladly help you get to the right place. When discharge was close I took the bus to Walmart to buy a small luggage that we could pack the few things we didn't ship home. The port agent would have gladly taken me, but they had already done enough for me.

 

Bad things:

Small Regional hospital, limited in what they can treat. Serious cases are air lifted to Seattle or Anchorage promptly.

Hospital is not in town nor near ANYTHING! Thankfully there was a tiny coffee shop/sandwich place at the bottom of the hill that made good sandwiches.

 

So for those that think, "I'm going to Alaska I don't need travel insurance my health insurance will cover everything ," Guess again!! Yes the hospital expense will be covered by health insurance but the ship's medical expense, my hotel, FedEx for our luggage, flight changes, etc are not covered by your health insurance!

 

Thankfully something finally started to go right. We arrived in Seattle and checked into the Holiday Inn Express Sea-Tac and had a good nights sleep. The first for both of us in many days! The next morning we drove to Vancouver, took our time, and arrived in short order. I had priced a rental cat from Avis and Hertz, Hertz wanted nearly $200 for the one way rental, not too bad considering the maroon buses that travel between vancouver and Seattle (Quick Shuttle or something like that) charge $80 p/p almost went with Hertz. I then priced Avis and they only wanted $60 plus 32 cents a mile, much cheaper than Hertz!

 

We arrived at YVR with hours to spare! I have to say YVR is probably the best airport I've been to with the exception of Hong Kong. Friendly people, easy to navigate, plenty of dining and shopping, and digital scales all over to weigh your luggage before checking in! After checking in we quickly went through security and had a meal before boarding the flight. Just as the way out the flight on Cathay Pacific was very enjoyable. Good food, excellent service, lots of movies to choose from, and free drinks. We landed in JFK and quickly made our way home to begin the task of unpacking and filling out insurance forms.

 

Prior to the medical issue we had a wonderful cruise. Just prior to having the medical issue I dined in the new Giovanni's table. It was truly wonderful (I never got the chance to type up a review and post the pictures from the wonderful meal). I had never expected to dine there but decided at the last second to give it a try, and loved it!

 

Will we back to Alaska? I hope so! It will become a mission to complete the back to back cruises we never got to complete!

 

In the coming days I will post the pictures I took of Rita's menu, Izumi's menu, and

Lots of higher res pix of the ports we did make it to!

 

If anyone has any specific questions for me please feel free to ask. I'll be glad to answer almost any question Even those that involve my days spent in Juneau (except specific medical "what happened..." we are just too private to Discuss). Packing up the cabin and leaving the ship was an interesting process....one I NEVER wish to repeat!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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snowbird1

snowbird1

Posted
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Hell everyone!

 

Thank you everyone for posting your concerns and best wishes we greatly appreciate everyone's concern. I have read every comment and they truly meant a lot to us while we had many uncertain hours and days to pass! THANK YOU!!

 

 

(some of this was typed in Vancouver some of this was typed when we got home)

 

After a few trying and stressful days we have begun our journey home. And what a journey it is. Incase you have never flown from Jeanu airport lets just saw your options are limited. You have a couple of choices. Alaska air, Alaska Air, or let me think what the other airline was... Oh that's right Alaska air! :-)

 

Needless to say our last minute fare (purchased 6 hours before departure) was as much as 7 night cruise in an interior cabin! Thankfully we have travel insurance and once we get home I'll begin that fun process. We flew from JNU to Seattle, spent a night there, rented a car and drove back up to Vancouver. Cathay Pacific only charged us $100 p/p change fee for a flight a week earlier. We could have rebooked all new flights but would have easily maxed our policy coverages, and we have no tight connections this way, Just lots of hours to kill here in YVR! Given the past few stressful days we've had we will not be doing any sightseeing in Vancouver before the flight home. Why press our luck right?

 

Hopefully we be home noon eastern Sunday!

 

Side note if you are going to get sick and get kicked off the ship in Junea Alaska, Juneau is both the place to have it happen and also NOT the place to have it happen, confused? I bet!

 

What was good about Junea:

Small hospital, incredibly caring staff. Everyone from doctors to nurses to general staff sooo friendly and helpful

Such friendly local residents

The hospital has a 9 room motel/hotel called Bartlett House in the parking lot that they charge $65 a night for families of patients. Can you guess where I stayed?

The port agent and company treated me like family. SERIOUSLY! They kept asking what they could do.

From taking me back to the ship to pack, getting me through customs (don't ask), taking me to the hospital, taking me shopping, even whisking me from the hospital to FedEx to ship our luggage home when it looked like a medical air transfer to Seattle would be involved~thankfully the transfer never happened!

Bus service in Juneau was very easy to use. There are basically 3 routes express from the valley to town, to town to the island, and from town to the valley. The bus drivers are very friendly and will gladly help you get to the right place. When discharge was close I took the bus to Walmart to buy a small luggage that we could pack the few things we didn't ship home. The port agent would have gladly taken me, but they had already done enough for me.

 

Bad things:

Small Regional hospital, limited in what they can treat. Serious cases are air lifted to Seattle or Anchorage promptly.

Hospital is not in town nor near ANYTHING! Thankfully there was a tiny coffee shop/sandwich place at the bottom of the hill that made good sandwiches.

 

So for those that think, "I'm going to Alaska I don't need travel insurance my health insurance will cover everything ," Guess again!! Yes the hospital expense will be covered by health insurance but the ship's medical expense, my hotel, FedEx for our luggage, flight changes, etc are not covered by your health insurance!

 

Thankfully something finally started to go right. We arrived in Seattle and checked into the Holiday Inn Express Sea-Tac and had a good nights sleep. The first for both of us in many days! The next morning we drove to Vancouver, took our time, and arrived in short order. I had priced a rental cat from Avis and Hertz, Hertz wanted nearly $200 for the one way rental, not too bad considering the maroon buses that travel between vancouver and Seattle (Quick Shuttle or something like that) charge $80 p/p almost went with Hertz. I then priced Avis and they only wanted $60 plus 32 cents a mile, much cheaper than Hertz!

 

We arrived at YVR with hours to spare! I have to say YVR is probably the best airport I've been to with the exception of Hong Kong. Friendly people, easy to navigate, plenty of dining and shopping, and digital scales all over to weigh your luggage before checking in! After checking in we quickly went through security and had a meal before boarding the flight. Just as the way out the flight on Cathay Pacific was very enjoyable. Good food, excellent service, lots of movies to choose from, and free drinks. We landed in JFK and quickly made our way home to begin the task of unpacking and filling out insurance forms.

 

Prior to the medical issue we had a wonderful cruise. Just prior to having the medical issue I dined in the new Giovanni's table. It was truly wonderful (I never got the chance to type up a review and post the pictures from the wonderful meal). I had never expected to dine there but decided at the last second to give it a try, and loved it!

 

Will we back to Alaska? I hope so! It will become a mission to complete the back to back cruises we never got to complete!

 

In the coming days I will post the pictures I took of Rita's menu, Izumi's menu, and

Lots of higher res pix of the ports we did make it to!

 

If anyone has any specific questions for me please feel free to ask. I'll be glad to answer almost any question Even those that involve my days spent in Juneau (except specific medical "what happened..." we are just too private to Discuss). Packing up the cabin and leaving the ship was an interesting process....one I NEVER wish to repeat!

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Welcome home Brad, glad you made it home safely

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bradpole

bradpole

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Good morning!

 

The three links below are to some iPhoto Journals I took. click on the first picture for a full screen view with navigation of all pictures

 

The first, Icy Straight Point (Hoonah, AK)

http://polerez.com/journals/Icy%20Straight%20Point/Public/

http://polerez.com/journals/Icy%20Straight%20Point/Public/

 

The second, menus from Rita's, Izumi, and the wine list from Samba Grill

http://polerez.com/journals/Rita's%20Izumi%20/Public/

http://polerez.com/journals/Rita's%20Izumi%20/Public/

 

The third, some general pics from Vancouver, Ketchican, and Hoonah

http://polerez.com/journals/Alaska/Public/

http://polerez.com/journals/Alaska/Public/

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Sparkle 123

Sparkle 123

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Posted

So glad things are better for you and your Mom. Thanks so much for the updates and for the great photos and info. We are boarding the Radiance on Friday and are looking forward to our first trip to Alaska.

Hope you get to finish your trip sometime soon.:)

 

Lisa

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