ALASKA landtour 13A/Radiance cruise July 5, 2013 review with pics

[volunteer cruiser]

Day Eight Saturday, July 6, 2nd day on Radiance

Radiance cruised to Hubbard glacier

At 10AM, Meet & Mingle held in Quill & Compass Pub. Cruise director, Paul Ritter hosted the event. We had a very good turn out. Royal Caribbean provided nice canapés and non alcoholic drinks and door prizes, 2 of which were bottles of wine . Mom and I attended. I won the last door prize a nice canvas tote. I was able to touch base with a couple I had communicated with on our roll call who was going on a bear search with us in ISP. Paul Ritter was very nice and made himself available to chat with guests. He was one busy man and seemed to love his job.

 

At 1 PM I was dressed warm and on deck for viewing of Hubbard glacier. Suites guests were allowed to view from an area reserved for gold card holders. Walk all the way forward on deck 12 past the sky bar. There are a set of stairs going down to deck 11 for viewing.

Deck 11 for gold card holders, there was a lot of room and was great for viewing

 

 

Deck 12 viewing above us

 

The helipad below us

[Tkaklita]

Beautiful pictures, really love the shot of the mtn in the clouds overlooking the town, nice capture on that one.

 

Great info on the suites. We will be in 1556 next June for Alaska and will definitely utilize the Deck 11 viewing option.

 

Great review!!

[volunteer cruiser]

After viewing the glacier, everyone went to get ready for formal night dinner. I am thinking I am giving Radiance spa an advertisement with next set of photos. After a week in Alaska with little down time to shave, my brother starting looking like Grizzly Adams.

 

 

 

My sister in law made him a barber appointment for a shave and a little something extra.

 

 

 

The barber did an excellent job. My little brother cleans up nicely.

[volunteer cruiser]

Forgot a few pics of Hubbard glacier. I did not see any calving but I heard 2 loud booms that other passengers were telling me was calving but we weren't close enough to see.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you wanted to enjoy the hot tub you could still see the glacier via jumbo video screen.

[volunteer cruiser]

Beautiful pictures, really love the shot of the mtn in the clouds overlooking the town, nice capture on that one.

 

Great info on the suites. We will be in 1556 next June for Alaska and will definitely utilize the Deck 11 viewing option.

 

Great review!!

 

 

You are going to enjoy 1556. The location is perfect.

[volunteer cruiser]

Day 9, July 7 Juneau

 

I booked Harv and Marv Whale watching in July of last year. I booked their MV Alaskan boat that accommodates 7 to 12 passengers. I did not take any pics of the boat. It was a nice boat with 12 inside seats that have shock absorbers that you could adjust to any amount of bounce. It had a head for fluids only. They encourage you to use restrooms at boat dock before and after the tour. It has doors leading to the front uncovered observation area and one in the back. It was very roomy. We had 2 crew: the captain and a marine biologist student who explained everything about the area we were in and all about the marine animals. She was great. I am afraid I forgot their names, didn't write them down. The biologist always works on the MV Alaskan except for Fridays when the Disney ship is in Juneau, I know why:D. It was an enjoyable tour with awe scenery and lots of whales and sea lions.

 

 

 

 

 

[volunteer cruiser]

 

 

 

 

After the tour, I thought I had made arrangements over the phone with Callie to have us taken back to Radiance instead of Mendenhall glacier but somehow the messages didn't get passed on. The shuttle driver had 6 other people so she compromised and said she would go to the glacier and drop those off who want 40 minutes at the glacier, 20 minutes to take us to the pier and 20 minutes to go back to glacier. This is a view of Mendenhall glacier from inside the shuttle in the parking lot.

[volunteer cruiser]

We got back to Radiance with 45 minutes to have lunch in the Windjammer. Then on to the highlight of the trip for the twins, Helicopter and Dog sledding on Mendenhall glacier. We meet the rep then waited for 10 minutes for bus to take us to Temsco Helicopter. This is the order of the well synchronized system: tell shoe size and get rubber outer boots, go to the restroom, put on floatation device around waist, find out where you sit on helicopter then follow your guide to outside and stand in box until told to go to helicopter by following yellow line. Once you board helicopter you put on seat belt and head set. To communicate to pilot and others, you push a button on ceiling. Depending on total weight, helicopter can hold 7 total and that is including the pilot. We had 6 going and 5 coming back. A worker at the dog sledding camp was with us. The workers were all young like college age who got one day off a week. They rode the helicopter to town for a shower and to do laundry. We were lucky, the girl had just had a shower and our musher said he went to town yesterday. We meet our musher and he introduced us to his dogs. He lived in Alaska and worked for the owner of the company year round and is learning to compete in Iditarod.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[volunteer cruiser]

I forgot one step in the pre boarding process. You read and sign 2 different waivers, 2 different companys: Temsco helicopter and Alaska Icefield Expeditions, Inc. I asked a lot of questions about the care of the dogs and about taking care of of the glacier. Our musher said that the dogs are feed twice a day with a high fat food, all the workers can take care of minor injuries and illnesses that the dogs might have and if it requires a vet the dog is put in a carry box and flown to Juneau to the vet. A vet college student from France did an internship last year on the glacier. Dog waste is removed on a regular basis. I witnessed that, they shoveling all the time. The dogs get physical attention and all get to run a sled at least once a day unless tours get cancelled then it is less often. Because the temps in summer are warmer than the dogs are use to, they limit the dogs to running the 2 mile loop to twice per day at the most because they get to hot. Because Mendenhall glacier is a park, the dog sled company had to get permission and is held to strict guidelines to keep the glacier as clean as possible and return it to its pristine condition when they leave. The shoveled dog waste is put in barrels then taken to Juneau by helicopter tow.

 

 

[Tkaklita]

This is exactly what I want to do. There are six of us girls going to do the whale watching with Harv & Marv's and we will be the only ones on our boat, but I think there will be only two of us that want to do the glacier/dog sledding tour. What times were your tours?

 

How exciting your trips look!!

 

 

Linda

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[DiverDownAZ]

Loving the review, Great Pictures

[A&L_Ont]

Oh my god, your husband has a twisted humour, and I love it. I laughed when I saw this picture of the bear.

 

We have done Alaska twice and will wait till our son is around 11 like your niece and nephew. We think that should be about the right age for a good attention span.

 

You will love Panama. If possible do a full crossing. We did a partial from FLL. It was great but I think a full crossing would be better.

 

I am enjoying the review.

Andrew

[volunteer cruiser]

This is exactly what I want to do. There are six of us girls going to do the whale watching with Harv & Marv's and we will be the only ones on our boat, but I think there will be only two of us that want to do the glacier/dog sledding tour. What times were your tours?

 

How exciting your trips look!!

 

 

Linda

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

 

Meeting time was 9:20AM in front of Radiance for Harv and Marv. Time on the boat was 3 hours, not included shuttle transport time. Meeting time for the ships dog sledding excursion was 2:45PM. I thought we might be a little rushed only because we wanted to eat something before the dog sledding. We had enough time, only because we didn't stay at Mendenhall glacier after whale watching. The day worked out perfectly for us, we were blessed with good weather. If you do both and don't want to be rushed, you can pick a later dog sledding time, I think they had 2 more after ours, or make arrangements with Callie to be taken back to ship instead of side trip to glacier, if you want to eat before dogsledding.

[volunteer cruiser]

Oh my god, your husband has a twisted humour, and I love it. I laughed when I saw this picture of the bear.

 

We have done Alaska twice and will wait till our son is around 11 like your niece and nephew. We think that should be about the right age for a good attention span.

 

You will love Panama. If possible do a full crossing. We did a partial from FLL. It was great but I think a full crossing would be better.

 

I am enjoying the review.

Andrew

 

Thank you

11yo is a good age, the twins were attentive through the entire 2 weeks but I was glad we had the cruise last so when they were tired and needed down time they could go to Windjammer get an ice cream cone and go to the room and watch TV and recharge; almost 3 weeks later and they are still talking about it

 

My husband has a twisted sense of humor and it keeps us laughing. Our tour bus was rolling laughing at it.

 

We are doing a Panama Canal crossing April 2015, a 15night with 4 days in San Diego prior to. This will pretty much use up my husband's vacation time, so the full crossing will have to wait for retirement.

[volunteer cruiser]

This was our musher, aka Yukon Cornelius. I didn't get to write down our mushers name We weren't allowed to bring any bags or back packs on the tour. They had a long storage bench that padlocked that held everyone's bags at the Temsco's building. . He lives in Alaska and trains with the dogs all year, he travels with them to their winter home and he trains for the Iditarod. He was a very nice fellow and loved his dogs. I think his dogs were the most spirited because during breaks, the dogs were jumping around, barking, changing positions and getting all tangled up. He told us each dogs name and a little about their personality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[volunteer cruiser]

 

 

 

The camp had one puppy, 2 weeks old, it was too young for the twins to hold but they got to pet it. It was huge since it did not have to share diner.

 

[volunteer cruiser]

The dogsledding company had a smooth efficient system in getting tourist in and out. At any given time, there were 3 groups on the ground: 1. group waiting for helicopter to return to Juneau, 2. group visiting with the dogs, viewing the puppy, and asking staff any questions and or purchasing the nice pic the staff took of us mushing($20.00 a pic but I think worth it) 3. group mushing at half way point to get pic taken and give the helicopters a change to land with new tourist, I used it to take in the scenery and talk to Yukon. We had 4 helicopters in our group.

 

Why did we choose this company instead of another? I had looked into one out of Alyeska and one in Seward. My husband is retired military with 160th doing maintenance on Blackhawks and Littlebirds and now is an inspector of Littlebird helicopters and he liked the helicopter Temsco. Our pilot was young and nice and gave us a quick safety briefing once on board, since we were short on time at the station and didn't get to see the safety film. I felt safe because my husband asked him how he came about flying helicopters. He said he was a Littlebird mechanic in the army at Fort Campbell and when he got out of the service he went to flight school. He flies in Alaska in the summer and in Grand Canyon or Las Vegas in winter(can't remember which he said for sure).

 

 

 

 

On our way back to Juneau, we topped this mountain and I looked down and saw 2 hikers on the very top and all I could think of was "The Sound of Music" and darn it if that song wasn't stuck in my head the rest of the evening.

 

 

[volunteer cruiser]

Loving the review, Great Pictures

 

 

Thanks

[volunteer cruiser]

Here are 2 videos of the dog sledding. The first one shows how rowdy the dogs are when they are not running. The second one shows them being all business when running. Just click on pic and video should start.

 

 

 

[Tkaklita]

Amazing, amazing and even more of the dog sled adventure. I just finished chatting with Temsco and we will be set come December!!

 

Thank you so much for posting your fabulous trip, I am getting so excited for June!!!

 

Linda

[volunteer cruiser]

Amazing, amazing and even more of the dog sled adventure. I just finished chatting with Temsco and we will be set come December!!

 

Thank you so much for posting your fabulous trip, I am getting so excited for June!!!

 

Linda

 

 

You are very welcome. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish. I have Skagway, ISP/ Hoonah, and Ketchikan to go.

[Tkaklita]

You are very welcome. Hopefully tomorrow I can finish. I have Skagway, ISP/ Hoonah, and Ketchikan to go.

 

Noooo, I know bad for you, but great for us, we need more days of info and fabulous pictures, Lol!!

 

Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Forums mobile app

[volunteer cruiser]

Day 4 Monday, July 8 Skagway

 

I chose Chilkoot tours White Pass Summit Rail & Bus Excursion, bus up and train down 8:15AM meeting time. The tour lasted 3.5 hours. This timeframe was perfect for my family. Afterwards, my husband and I stayed down town and the rest walked back to the ship and had lunch in the Windjammer, then the twins swam.

 

At 8:20AM, we left in a small shuttle with the 8 of us and 3 other couples. Again I can't remember the name of our driver/tour guide. He had good information about the area as he grew up here. His sense of humor was a little odd. It rained lightly off and on but seemed to stop everytime we got off the bus for photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[volunteer cruiser]

At Fraser, B.C., we went through Canadian Customs. We all held up our passports and the agent boarded the bus, walked pass us looking at them, and that was it, easy and quick. Next we waited for the WP &YR train at the depot. This was a good restroom break and we stamped our passports, it is self serve. We were on the first car, after the engine unhooked from the other end and moved up to connect to ours.

 

 

 

Our guide made sure we got on the train. He did do something I though was odd. 2 of the other couples were waiting in front of us and he asked them if he had done something wrong as they did not give him a tip. I did not hear their reply, maybe it was his strange sense of humor.

The train car had bench seats, nice big windows, viewing platform at end of the car, and a restroom at the front of the car. Bottles of water were provided.

 

 

 

 

We sat on the right hand side of the train. On each seat, was a complimentary magazine that had a map and highlighted areas of the trip. The train had a guide speaking on PA system. Half way through the ride, a worker came by selling memorabilia.

 

[volunteer cruiser]