Review of Cruise Tour 4B with Teens - RCL Radiance 7/17/15 Southbound

[cruisin0218]

If you decide to continue with your cruise tour as scheduled and you decide not to take any of the bus tours then other things are available in the park. There is a very nice visitor center with a good film about the park. There is a gift shop and food at the visitor center. There are also scheduled times for sled dog demonstrations in the park. There are walking trails as well. There is a free shuttle within the park to get you from one activity to the other. Other tours like the rafting and flight seeing can be scheduled outside the park. However things like rafting and flightseeing can be done without making the trip all the way to Denali.

[bmoo323]

I've been reading along also. My wife and I were on the Radiance at the same time as the original poster (I think we were even at the table next to you at dinner!), so I thought I would add my 2 cents. We didn't do the cruise tour, but did a semi-DIY trip to Denali from Anchorage. I say semi-DIY because it was a package from Alaska Denali travel, but I believe you could book the individual pieces on your own if you wanted to.

 

In Denali, we did the Denali Backcountry Adventure tour and it was definitely one of the highlights of our Alaska trip. Its a 12-13 hour trip on the park road all the way to Kantishna, so it does make for a long day. Its probably not for everyone. The weather and wildlife cooperated with us, and I can see how if it didn't the tour would not be a highlight of the trip. We went on the Wednesday of that week and it was one of the 2 or 3 best weather days we had in Alaska.

 

I look forward to reading the rest of the review of the cruise. I know for us it was incredible.

[Haysiedaze]

I've been reading along also. My wife and I were on the Radiance at the same time as the original poster (I think we were even at the table next to you at dinner!), so I thought I would add my 2 cents. We didn't do the cruise tour, but did a semi-DIY trip to Denali from Anchorage. I say semi-DIY because it was a package from Alaska Denali travel, but I believe you could book the individual pieces on your own if you wanted to.

 

In Denali, we did the Denali Backcountry Adventure tour and it was definitely one of the highlights of our Alaska trip. Its a 12-13 hour trip on the park road all the way to Kantishna, so it does make for a long day. Its probably not for everyone. The weather and wildlife cooperated with us, and I can see how if it didn't the tour would not be a highlight of the trip. We went on the Wednesday of that week and it was one of the 2 or 3 best weather days we had in Alaska.

 

I look forward to reading the rest of the review of the cruise. I know for us it was incredible.

 

Welcome, thanks for adding to this report.

 

Were you the people in torn shorts and stained white t-shirts drinking shots of Jack Daniels sitting next to us in the main dining room? :D Oh wait that wasn't on this cruise........

 

Thanks for adding your experiences to this review. It's nice that Wishuponasea and you are taking the time to add your inputs from the same cruise. As I have tried to point out, people doing the same excursions can have such a varied experience based on all the variables in Alaska (although if I had tried to take my teens on a 12-13 hour tour of Denali I would have been fed to the first Grizzly Bear they saw :eek: ). It's nice they can see multiple reports in one place.

[Haysiedaze]

Some more sail away pictures. Note the low clouds. The next day was cloudy and then in Juneau it poured but the rest of the time the weather was good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bmoo323]

 

Were you the people in torn shorts and stained white t-shirts drinking shots of Jack Daniels sitting next to us in the main dining room? :D Oh wait that wasn't on this cruise........

 

QUOTE]

 

That was not us. We were one of the many couples that got a rendition of "happy versary" though. :)

Edited July 31, 2015 by bmoo323

[Haysiedaze]

The first night of our cruise sailing from Seward to Hubbard Glacier was the only time we felt any rocking motion on the ship and then to me it was minimal. For the rest of the cruise it was smooth sailing as far as I remember.

 

On Saturday I got up early and went out to the back of the ship with my coffee. It was a cool, cloudy and hazy day but very calm.

 

 

Sailing towards the glacier you are treated to beautiful waterfalls cascading down lush green mountains. From my favorite place in the back of the ship you could easily go from side to side to see whatever beauty you were being treated to and believe me there is a lot of it! The only issue from back there on deck 11 is you cannot here the information being broadcast over the speaker system. I actually prefer the sound of the ship passing through the water and am not sure I missed much (then again if you can’t hear it how do you know what you missed).

 

 

 

 

While we were already bordering on spectacular views, the first sight of Hubbard Glacier was SPECTACULAR. My wife and I spent all the time there in the back of deck 11. I am estimating there were no more than 20 people back there. The captain positioned the Radiance very close to the Glacier and then just slowly rotated it back and forth for 3-4 hours. We could easily move from side to side to be in constant view of this wonder of nature. My understanding from a couple that joined us during the afternoon was that on the helicopter pad there were so many people some had to hold their cameras over the heads to get pictures of Hubbard. What a shame, we had plenty of room and the people we met there made the afternoon so enjoyable. What an incredible day we had.

 

First Views:

 

 

 

To be continued...........

[Haysiedaze]

Passing by an ice flow:

 

 

 

 

We were treated to calving. The thunderous noise, followed by cascading waterfalls of ice crashing into the sea, was breath taking. We did hear that a cloudy day brings out the best color of a glacier. The shades blue were beautiful. I’ll stop here to post pictures (continued pics in next post)as I cannot adequately describe the place.

 

A picture to understand the sheer size of Hubabrd. Judy is on deck 11, the ships boat out gathering ice for sculpturing is between the ship and the glacier

 

 

The Glacier

 

 

 

 

 

In the center here you can see the splash of one of the calvings

 

 

Oh and my kids spent the time watching the glacier with friends in a hot tub. How cool is that. They had such a great day with their new friends on board. They are still in touch through Skype with many of them. We never witnessed any issues with the kids on board (I hope no one else did either :rolleyes: ).

[Haysiedaze]

The end of another calving

 

 

Some more pictures

 

 

 

 

[Haysiedaze]

 

Were you the people in torn shorts and stained white t-shirts drinking shots of Jack Daniels sitting next to us in the main dining room? :D Oh wait that wasn't on this cruise........

 

QUOTE]

 

 

 

That was not us. We were one of the many couples that got a rendition of "happy versary" though. :)

 

Happy anniversary from us.

 

I heard we missed a birthday cake for our son on the last night of the cruise in the main dining room. We took him to the Samba Grill. Our table mates said that the other teen at the table got to enjoy the cake though.

Edited July 31, 2015 by Haysiedaze
missed sentence

[wishuponasea]

Impressions from the Tundra Wilderness Tour:

 

It was another early start to the day. I'll say that the early starts day after day on the packaged land tour do wear you down. 6 AM bag pulls and fitting in a breakfast before the bus leaves led to some drowsy afternoons.

 

I'm not sure we really planned it out, but we were fortunate to pick seats on the driver's side of the bus. As Haysiedaze said, that is were the action is going to be as you drive into the park. Even though you would get that point of view from the other side of the bus on the way out, the perspective seemed not quite the same, and fatigue will start to set in by then as well.

 

The wife side of us was interested in seeing animals, and there weren't many good opportunities to see them close and active. From what our driver said, the populations in the park aren't that large, and that was a reason behind establishing the park - to protect what was there. Our driver seemed to know where the best places were to spot something, but even when we did, they were usually far away.

 

The husband side was more interested in the geography, scenery and especially getting to see Mt. McKinley. The scenery is magnificent, and we were fortunate that Mt. McKinley was very visible at each of the points along the highway were it could be viewed.

 

The busses are of the school bus variety, but they do have coach like seats instead of plain school bus seats. I say coach like since they aren't as nice or roomy as what we had on our actual tour coach. They were closer to what a Greyhound bus might have had about 20 years ago. And they did have those awful school bus type windows with the small tabs you need to pull to open or close them.

 

The thing is that private vehicles are not allowed past a certain point on the highway (I think it was about 19 miles in), so the wilderness tour bus or the shuttle bus are pretty much it for getting farther into the park. With the shuttle, you can get off and do hiking, etc. on your own. Our tour bus went to milepost 62 and turned around there. There were quite a few stops along the way, but we were let out only at designated areas, and the stops there weren't long enough to freely wander.

 

We are used to long rides when we have visited national parks, so that wasn't too bad for us. In fact, I was glad to have someone else be doing the driving. I have no doubt there are better, and probably more economical, ways to tour Denali, but we had made the bigger decision to do a packaged tour, so in that context, the Tundra Tour was just fine.

 

Just to conclude comments on the land tour - another early start the next day for the "long march" to Seward. Rain almost the whole way. There was still some great scenery, and the clouds even added to it. But, that ride made the Tundra Tour seem like a quick trip to the convenience store. One bonus though - we got to see some Dahl Sheep very close along the way. Not just the little white dots of Denali.

 

This was the first time we took a completely packaged tour. Don't think we will do it again. If you have the interest, do some research, plan and arrange your own.

[Haysiedaze]

On Sunday we docked in Juneau. We had scheduled a float plane trip to Taku Lodge through the ship (the only excursion we booked through RCCL) that was scheduled for 12:30. We got up, had breakfast and went shopping along the street in front of the port. By 11:00 am it was raining. We headed back to the ship for a snack. When we got to the meeting place for our excursion we were told it was cancelled. I was bummed out but I am glad they were being careful after the recent float plane mishap. The good news is we got $1280 placed onto our sea pass account (immediately) and along with the $400 on board credit we got from our travel agent we didn’t worry about drink prices or gratuities for the rest of the cruise :D !

 

So we went back onto the ship. The kids met up with their friends. Judy and I had lunch. I got ansy and at 2:40 I went out to the bus kiosk to ask about going to Mendenhall Glacier. The busses leave on the hour and on the half hour. I texted everyone and said I was going rain or no rain. Well Judy surprised me (she is a city girl and on this trip she was out of her element) and said she’d go. The kids stayed on the ship.

 

We put on a sweatshirt and rain jacket. Judy had an umbrella and off we went on the 3:00 PM bus ($20 round trip per person). By 3:30 we were hiking out to the glacier. We took our time and took some pictures (it was cold, foggy and rainy) along the way. We enjoyed the smell of the fir trees and the beautiful fresh air. Once we saw the falls and glacier we were so glad we took the chance.

 

At the falls we were getting hit from above by the rain and hit sideways from the spray from rush of the water from the falls, yet we didn’t care. After Hubbard, Mendenhall in the rain was not as impressive but imoressive in it's own right. It has receded so much over the years it was aways off and the weather hindered the view too. On the other hand we loved the awesomeness of Nugget Falls. Being right next to the roaring water, feeling the spray and just enjoying being together, was a real special time for us. We took pictures of another couple and they returned the favor. After a while we headed directly back to the bus. We did not go into the visitor center. We were back just in time for the 4:30 pm bus and made it to the ship by 5. A quick shower and we were ready for our dinner.

 

So while on a nice day you would want to stay longer and go into the visitor center you can do this trip in 2 hours. It was just enough time based on the weather. It is worth the effort especially if your other excursions are cancelled.

 

 

 

 

 

[Haysiedaze]

Our next port was Skagway. Here we took Chilkoot Charters Yukon Adventure by 25 passenger van. Brian was our guide. We enjoyed the tour of Skagway and up to Carcross. We were the only 4 on the van from Skagway to the White Pass Train Station at the Canadian Border Station. Here 9 passengers joined us from their train ride. With just 13 of us we all had plenty of room.

 

Brian was interesting and stopped at several places on our way to Carcross. Carcross Desert was interesting and was worth seeing. We went as far as Emerald Lake. It was another cloudy day and while the lake was beautiful I’d love to see it in sunlight.

 

Emerald Lake

 

 

The Jewel and Radiance in Skagway

 

 

We next stopped at the section of Carcross that has a Taxidermy Museum, Sled Dogs, Alpaccas, Mountie Museum, gift shop, ice cream stand and we had our barbeque lunch there (inclded with the tour). The chicken, coleslaw and rolls were quite good. It was all you could eat. I loved the work of the taxidermist. The highlight is his rendition of a Wooly Mammoth made from Musk Ox hides. My son fell in love with the sled dog pupplies and we had to make sure one didn’t make its way back onto the van with him.

 

After that we had a bried stop in Carcross itself complete with the anitomically correct Caribou Statue! Here I stamped the passports at a little table outside the general store showing we made it to Canada.

 

 

On our way back we stopped for the customary Welcome to Alaska sign. I only mention it because at this stop we ran into the infamous Alaska State Bird, the mosquito. There will be no blueberry shortage in this area of Alaska! The worse part was as we were waiting on the bus for others, Brian left the door open. My daughter proceeded to “hunt” them in her seat for the rest of the ride back to Skagway and there are several of them squished on the windows of her seat. Other than here we did not have any issues with mosquitos on the trip.

 

That night Judy and Emily went to see the Illusionist Show. I chose to go to the helicopter pad for sail away. While they enjoyed the show, I loved the fjord as we left. Jewell, Radiance’s sister ship, left the port just before us. I loved seeing her with the mountains in the background. Again there were beautiful water falls to gaze at and again I was treated to a rainbow. This time I think the pots of gold were at one end, Ketchikan and at the other end, Icy Straight. Then a real treat a spectacular sunset. What a beautiful sail away.

 

 

 

More pictures to follow and then Icy Straight Point

[Haysiedaze]

Taxidermy Museum

 

 

One of the many lakes in the Yukon

 

 

Jewel heading out

 

 

More Sunset

 

 

The rainbow

 

 

Last picture of the evening

 

[Budget Queen]

I've been reading along with interest - and although our cruise tour next May is with Celebrity - I'm assuming that the cruise lines use the same company to out source the cruise tours. This will be our first cruise tour - 7A Grand Heartland Tour from Seward, Anchorage, Talkeetna, Denali (2 nights), and Fairbanks. I've land traveled Alaska once before - DH has never been. I figured I would rather we not be out there driving alone as parts of the trip are remote and cell phone coverage spotty - chose to leave the details to the tour company.

 

After reading this I am concerned about my choice. :eek: So now I am convinced that I do NOT want to do the Denali excursion - riding for that long in a dusty school bus isn't my idea of a fun time. So - can I ditch the Cruise Tour for the day and go off and find something to do on our own? Is that allowed? Are their better private companies that we can book independently? Any and all advice on this would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

I hope that the cruise portion of your trip was fabulous! We sail Celebrity and I have no doubts about our cruise portion of our trip - Vancouver to Seward. :D

 

You have made some wrong assumptions- each cruiseline is independent, they do NOT use the same vendors on their tours, and have their own rail cars if using the trains. They stay in different hotels. Frankly- with Celebrity- IF you have the TWT included in your tour- they do NOT refund this, of course, you do NOT have to take it and can do what ever you want- BUT you are throwing away over $100pp and frankly the significant reason, why you would go there. http://www.nps.gov In May- it is of significant advantage to go northbound for Denali Park. I also always recommend adding days in Fairbanks, since you see little of the area on a cruise tour. A car rental is necessary in my opinion.

[Haysiedaze]

Had to take a break and catch my breath yesterday :)

 

 

Will try to dive back into the review today

 

[Haysiedaze]

We arrived at Icy Straight early on Tuesday of our cruise. This is a tendor port but we had no issue departing around 9:00 am for our 10:00 am Whale Watching Excursion with Glacier Wind Charters.

 

Theresa picked us up just outside the cruise port right on time. She was friendly and engaging, a very customer savy business owner. She gave us the brief tour of Hoonah (it is a very tiny community) and then took us to the dock to meet Captain Shawn.

 

Shawn too made us very comfortable from the outset. His boat, the Kohola, is a catamaran style outboard with twin outboards. We were blessed with a beautifully calm day and bright sunshine. On the boat with our family of four were 2 people from our roll call. We had already met Becca at the Meet and Greet on board the Radiance so it was nice to be with new friends. The ride was very comfortable and there was plenty of room in the cabin for all 6 of us. Soda, water, coffee, chips and salmon dip with crackers were provided. There is room to walk completely around the deck outside and you can get incredible views without being crammed together. Glacier Wind is an exceptional excursion and well worth booking way in advance.

 

As for this excursion – SPECTACULAR sums it up. While waiting for the tender for our ride back to the ship after the cruise, we got to compare notes with people that took F.I.S.H.E.S (another small boat company) and also from one of the RCL “big boats”. The people from F.I.S.H.E.S were watching the same group of whales we were and were actually closer to the breaches we saw and also said their excursion was SPECTACULAR. The person that was on the RCL excursion saw us looking at pictures with the group from the other small boat and couldn’t believe it. They saw the back of one whale. They said they cruised in circles without sighting any other whales. They were not happy. Again it is wildlife and that was our lucky day, not so much for them.

 

So here are pictures of the big boat and Icy Straight Point/Hoonah. My next post will be from our Glacier Wind Charter.

 

 

Hoonah Harbor

 

 

Spectacular views from Glacier Wind Charter even without whales

 

 

"Big Boat"

 

[Haysiedaze]

No words can describe the beauty of the whales we saw. It was only about 10 minutes from the dock before we saw some. Shawn had had one previous tour that day and that tour got to see a pod of Orcas. They move fast and we did not get to see them. One other highlight of Glacier Wind is that Shawn put a hydrophone into the water and we got to hear the whales! He also shows a tremendous respect for them and always tries to keep a safe distance away. He also leaves his motor running when we drifted so the whales knew where the boat was.

 

So what did we see?

 

Spouting

 

 

 

 

 

We saw a headstand, the whale goes straight up and slides back into the water. I know this picture is fuzzy but it is so unexpected as to what and when the whales appear that I was lucky to get it.

 

 

A "Fluke Wave" from a distance

 

[Haysiedaze]

We saw tails

 

 

 

 

 

and then we saw 3 whales breach!!!! One I managed to get a quick shot of. SPECTACULAR!

 

 

Next up Ketchikan - Anan Creek

[Haysiedaze]

I am down to the review of our last excursion. I have noticed that many have read this so I hope it gave you some insight into this cruise and cruise tour. Thanks for reading along. As the planner for this family trip, I’d love to say I planned on saving the best for last but no it just ended up that way. I booked Anan Creek Bear Viewing with Island Wings in May of 2014 for our July of 2015 cruise. I did this based on the information provided by many in this forum. All I can say is THANK YOU! I mean it THANK YOU.

 

Within a week or so of my booking someone in our roll call also booked it for his group of 6. After that someone else reported on the roll call that it was sold out. We booked the inside cabins to allow us to spend the money on this excursion. That was so worthwhile. I can cruise on a balcony in the Caribbean but I could never witness nature in its most incredible form as I did with Anan Creek without saving on the cabins.

 

As for Island Wings, Shona replied within a day of my request for booking. She kept us informed right through the October lottery for passes at Anan. The owner pilot, Michelle, was fantastic. What an adventurous life she has had. She has flown enough hours to have been off the ground for over 3 full years of her life. My wife and daughter were not thrilled with me for booking a float plane excursion (never mind 2 but Juneau was cancelled) but in the end loved it. Island Wings is a great company.

 

By the way they only take 5 passengers plus your assigned bear guide on The Lady Ester, Michelle’s plane. Five of the other roll call group, were flown by a pilot that leases dock space from Michelle. He is the only pilot she will work with because she trusts his piloting skills. That is a pretty high recommendation in my book.

 

After an incredibly smooth landing at Anan we got out at a ranger outpost. Here we turned over any food to the bear guide, Tim. He only will carry food for someone with a medical problem to the bear viewing area. We were told to use the outhouse at the beach as the one at the platform can be an adventure. If a bear brings their salmon to eat up near the outhouse you are stuck in it until the bear leaves. Believe me if it is as aromatic as the one on the beach I’d take my chance with wrestling the bear to get out of it!

 

After a fairly easy hike from the beach we arrived at the bear platform. On the way the path is covered with bear skat. There are numerous places where bears had dug for food too. It makes you appreciate having an armed (large caliber pistol and bear spray) guide with you.

 

So without further words here is what we saw at Anan Creek

 

 

Michelle, Tim and her plane

 

 

Scenery

 

 

 

The path in

 

 

 

Juvenile Eagles

 

[Haysiedaze]

We also saw a few (dozen) Eagles

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Haysiedaze]

I almost forgot one very important thing at Anan. When you arrive at the platform you can sign up to go down into the blind that is at river level. When we got there there were already 10 or so people at the platform. They had signed up for all but 2 individual times. I got one of the two and the other went to one of the 6 in our other roll call group. When I mentioned this to Michelle on the way back she guessed the others in front of us signed up for more than one 30 minute time. She was not happy and told Tim to check for this in the future. You are only allowed 1 30 minute time and there are 5 in the blind at the same time. If you see people signing up for more than one time bring it to the attention of the rangers at the platform. I got to go and was with in 30 feet of a huge black bear, it was incredible. Don't let greedy people spoil your chance!

 

We saw black bears (6-7 different ones according to Tim)

 

Bears show up from the cliff above

 

 

and from the many caves in the river bank

 

 

 

they are intense

 

 

 

they are successful

 

[Haysiedaze]

We saw 2-3 brown (grizzly) bears. After 2 years with mom one was out on his own for the first year. He was in the learning mode for catching salmon. We got quite a kick out of the antics. Diving, jumping, clawing and sitting as it chased dinner. Finally it was rewarded.

 

 

I saw a salmon here, where did it go?

 

 

I give up

 

 

Finally Success

 

 

I need my nails done or don't mess with me check out my claws

 

 

One brown bear walked from the river up towards the platform. It got within 30 feet or so before turning and disappearing into the brush. Wow! No zoom needed!

 

[EMED2010]

Soooo excited! I will be in Anan on Sunday. I hope I have of good luck as you. Thank you for the tip about the sign ups. I will definitely speak up if I do t get a time. I didn't pay all that money not to get my turn.we are also doing a whale watch at ICP although we are with FiISHES but it sounds like they get close too.

[Haysiedaze]

Soooo excited! I will be in Anan on Sunday. I hope I have of good luck as you. Thank you for the tip about the sign ups. I will definitely speak up if I do t get a time. I didn't pay all that money not to get my turn.we are also doing a whale watch at ICP although we are with FiISHES but it sounds like they get close too.

 

Enjoy and may you be blessed with good weather, lots of whales and bears!

I wish I had known about the double sign ups, my whole family and the other people in our group might have had the thrill of the blind.

 

Steve

[Budget Queen]

Enjoy and may you be blessed with good weather, lots of whales and bears!

I wish I had known about the double sign ups, my whole family and the other people in our group might have had the thrill of the blind.

 

Steve

 

So you are saying, not all of your group got to the blinds?? You've got to be kidding. I've been there 3 times, and always, it was made sure you got to the blinds. (which is a significant element of this viewing. You signed up for your time through the guide and rangers, instructions, right when you got there.