Alaska Cruise Tour & Cruise on the Radiance of the Seas Review 7/25/15 – 8/7/15

[Bmorecruiser021]

Hello Everyone,

 

This will be my first attempt at a review, so comments and suggestions are more then welcome :)

 

First introductions; I’m Kraig, and along with my wife Ali, we try to cruise once or twice a year.

 

Some times we go alone, some times with friends, and other times, such as this time, we went with family.

 

The purpose of my review is to educate, inform and provide a little entertainment. CC has helped my SO MUCH in planning and preparing for our cruises, that I wanted to give a little back. Help others (who like me; love reading reviews and getting their cruise fix for the time being) and inform those who are thinking about doing this vacation, of the little things we did not expect or plan for so hopefully you all can learn from our successes and failures :)

 

Now a little of the background: this trip started almost 3 years ago for us. My father-in-law wanted to go to Alaska. My wife and I, being the cruise lovers that we are, suggested a cruise and FIL loved the idea. Well before we knew it the trip started expanding as more and more family members heard about it. Long story short, there ended up being 15 us that wanted to and did end up going. Six of us: Me, my DW, my FIL MIL SIL & BIL wanted to see the midnight sun, so we started in Fairbanks (cruise tour 7B). My mother father, and brother wanted to see Denali and were on a little more of a budget so they started in Anchorage (cruise tour 5B) and my DW's cousins wanted to just do the cruise and stay a little after and explore Vancouver and Seattle. I’ll be giving you the play by play for our adventure, and telling you of the tips and tricks we picked up along the way, for those who are interested and intending to do this vacation themselves. Hope you like review. I’ll be more then happy to answer any questions you have along the way as well :)

 

Saturday ~ July 24 2015 ~ Baltimore to Fairbanks

 

Our flight was at 1pm out of Washington Dulles.

 

 

We drove the hour and a half to the airport and boarded our plane to Minneapolis

 

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

The plane ride was uneventful and we landed in Minneapolis ahead of schedule. We took our time and looked around the airport.

 

 

Grabbed some late lunch / early dinner and waited for the next plane.

 

 

At 3:30 (Minneapolis time) we board the plane and flew to Fairbanks

 

Again the flight was uneventful. We landed around 8:30pm Alaskan Time.

 

 

Everything was super easy!

 

 

Royal Caribbean (along with the other cruise lines) had what looked like rental car stands. We checked in, pointed to our bags on the carousel, staff picked our bags up and put them on the bus. We were given a number and waited for about 10 min. Our number was called and we boarded a bus for the hotel, which was about 5 to 10 min away :)

[Bmorecruiser021]

We got to the hotel and checked out our room

 

 

 

 

The hotel had two buildings, one overlooking the river, the other overlooking some trees.

 

 

We got lucky and got one of the rooms overlooking the river. One thing we learned is that the room assignments are random while on the land tour portion. Some days we got great views, others we got views of the parking lots, but more on that later.

 

 

We were hungry and grabbed a little snack then met with our tour director. He handed us our optional land excursion packet and the weeks itinerary (both of which i will scan and post tomorrow). We talked with him a little more then headed for bed, but not before setting our alarms, after all one of the main points of coming to Alaska was to see the midnight sun. So at midnight we got up and this is what we saw

 

 

Absolutely amazing!

 

Well that all for now. Ill write more and upload more photos tomorrow, until then all, good night

Edited August 12, 2015 by Bmorecruiser021

[js4rq]

Enjoying your cruise review so far! :)

[Bmorecruiser021]

Afternoon Everyone

 

So more on the Cruise Tour portion of our trip. I did a lot of research before out trip. Trying to figure out how much to budget for. I wanted to pay as much off ahead of time as I could, that way we would not have to worry about money while on vacation. I have to admit, that’s one of the major appeals of cruising.

 

So when we met with David, our tour director, the first night, he handed us our itinerary and our optional excursion packet with the princess and locations of the excursions

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily we had budgeted a good amount of money for the land tour part, knowing that we wanted to fly to McKinley and do a few other excursions. What I forget to budget for was how expensive food was and is up there, but more on that later.

 

We found out that the reason why information is so hard to come by is because the options and prices for the excursions are constantly changing from week to week. Whether, time and availability being some of the variables that effect what is available. For example, as you see white water rafting was available in Denali. We wanted to do this excursion, so we told David, and filled out the paperwork. Unfortunately, due to whether and the fact that we participated in another excursion, which i will tell you about later in the review, we were unable to go. It was ok though, we were never charged and did get to participate in other wonderful excursions along the way. The way the excursions work is/are, you fill out the paperwork, hand it to your tour director, then he or she makes all the calls and sets it up so you can go, the others in your tour group may be relaxing or doing other excursions at that time, but they set it up so you never miss anything important. Then on the last day of the land tour, they charge your credit card for what you actually participated in.

[Bmorecruiser021]

Sunday ~ July 25 2015 ~ Fairbanks to Denali

 

In the morning we woke up and met the family for breakfast in the hotels dinning room.

 

 

 

It was buffet style and the reindeer sausage was phenomenal!

 

Earlier I said we did not budget very well for food. Well breakfast at the hotels averaged $20 a day. I realized halfway through the land tour that food averaged $75 a day a person. $20 for Breakfast $25 for Lunch and $30 for dinner. Definitely not something we budgeted for, and with more research, I'm sure we could have found more affordable eateries, however we were told that all restaurants in the "tourist" areas raise their prices for the summer months, since that is the majority of their income for the year (can't fault them for that)

 

After breakfast we went back to our room to put our bags out then explored for about 20 minutes or so

 

 

Then we headed to the bus for our ride to the river boat excursion. This excursion was one of two that came with the land tour package and all in tour 7B went on.

 

When we got to the bus we met David and our driver Elizabeth

 

 

We came to find out that neither actually worked for Royal Caribbean. Royal subcontracts to tour companies in Alaska and not even David or Elizabeth worked for the same company. The company David worked for, which was seasonal and only operated during the summer months, contracted the bus company that Elizabeth worked for, which ran year long operations throughout Alaska. Each bus was given a different name so that we always would return to our bus, and even when we took the train, Elizabeth would drive and meet us at the next stop. So both David and Elizabeth were with us for the entire week of our land tour. Our bus's name was Ogilvie.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

We drove the 20 minutes to the riverboat landing and had a half hour to look around, shop and do the other touristy things.

 

 

 

One of the touristy things they had available was the 40 below room. A room that is kept at 40 degrees below zero, the same temperature that Fairbanks gets to regularly during the winter.

 

 

After looking around and buying a thing or two we went out to the riverboat.

 

 

 

The riverboat was huge, it had a gift shop (of course) and a restaurant onboard. They offered free blueberry donuts and salmon crackers on the ride and other food for a cost.

 

We waved goodbye to the riverboat landing and headed down stream.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

The day was overcast, but the scenery was still gorgeous.

 

 

The tour was narrated, with the narrator giving us the history of Fairbanks and a lot of little facts about the area.

 

We stopped a little ways down stream and a pontoon plane did a flyby then landed on the river next to us.

 

 

 

 

The pilot told us about bush-piloting and the adventures involved with it before taking back off and heading back to his airport.

 

We then continued downstream to a mushers camp.

 

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

At the mushers camp we met Tekla Monson, daughter of Susan Butcher, who was one of the first females to ever win the Iditarod. We learned that Susan passed away a few years ago from cancer, but Tekla now competes in the race. Tekla talked about what goes into preparing for the race for both her and her dogs. She also gave us a little insight into what it was like to actually run the race.

 

 

 

 

We then sailed a little farther upstream to where the river converges. Turned around and headed back towards Fairbanks, but not before seeing reindeer!

 

 

We approached a salmon camp and stopped.

 

 

One of the native Athabascan Indians gave us a talk about their culture and how important salmon was and is to them. She showed us how her people caught the fish then prepared and smoked it. I was very interesting!

 

[Italy52]

Enjoying you review --- looking forward to reading the rest of it. Thanks for taking the time to post.

[luvstocruzok]

Your review is exactly what I've been looking for. Can't wait to read more!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Bmorecruiser021]

Sorry about that everyone, computer died and I didn't have the cord….back to the review

 

The riverboat stopped and we were able to explore the salmon camp, which was set up like an Athabascan village.

 

 

They split the group (everyone who was on the boat, which was a lot more people then just our cruise tour) into 3 sections and had us rotate between presentations.

 

Our first stop was Native clothes and animals.

 

 

 

 

They taught us about the different animals in the area, how them made their clothes, and what all the symbols, markings, and types of fur on the clothes meant.

 

Next we made our way to the pelt and fur hut.

 

 

 

They taught us how they kept their houses insulated by growing moss and grass on the roofs and how they kept the meat and pelts away from scavenging animals by putting the hut on stilts.

[Bmorecruiser021]

 

Everything was incredibly informative and the fact that the presenters were native to the land made it all the more interesting to us.

 

Our last stop was the trapper shack and reindeer pen.

 

 

 

 

We learned what the hunters needed and did to provide food, clothes, and survival for their people. Nothing went to waste.

 

We were then given free time to explore the village. Ali and I made our way to the salmon smoking shack.

 

 

Then we bought a book written by Susan Butcher and her husband, and had Tekla sign it.

 

 

Then it was time to get back on the boat and head back to Fairbanks. All in all we had about an hour to visit the village.

[Bmorecruiser021]

We saw some beautiful houses along the river on our way back to Fairbanks. The whether started clearing up as well.

 

 

 

 

After arriving back to the landing we hopped on the bus and headed for downtown Fairbanks for some lunch.

 

 

 

 

Its amazing just how geographically far away Fairbanks is from all other cities in the world. Seeing how far we were from home (Baltimore / DC area) did make me miss home for a second (but only a second)

[MM27]

I am enjoying your review. I did a similar cruise tour some years back. Susan Butcher actually gave the presentation and her daughter rode with her on their ATV as she demonstrated how they trained the dogs in the summer. Very cool.

[Bmorecruiser021]

David gave us some good suggestions of where to eat. One of his suggestions was Big Daddy's BBQ. Elizabeth also said that was a great place. Boy did it not disappoint.

 

One piece of advice we learned quickly was to ask a local where the best places were to eat. We got really lucky and Elizabeth was a local and provided us with a wealth of suggestions and knowledge throughout the trip. On days we didn't see Elizabeth, we would go into a store, ask someone who worked their if they were local (you would be surprised how many people come up just for summer employment) and if they were, ask for eating suggestions.

 

 

Their slogan is "northernmost southern BBQ" and it tastes as good as it sounds.

 

 

Turns out Guy Fieri from Food Networks "Diners Dives and Drive-Ins" did a segment on them

 

 

I had the ribs and Ali had the pulled pork. Both were outstanding!

 

 

 

After lunch we headed back to the bus for our 2 and a half hour ride to Denali. We waited for the rest of our group by the fountain.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

I am enjoying your review. I did a similar cruise tour some years back. Susan Butcher actually gave the presentation and her daughter rode with her on their ATV as she demonstrated how they trained the dogs in the summer. Very cool.

 

Thats awesome! It was really cool to see Tekla ride the ATV, I was amazed how fast she ended up going. It was interesting too, Ali and I ended up seeing 3 different mushers camps, all with different Iditarod winners and their philosophies were vastly different. It was quite remarkable.

[Bmorecruiser021]

So one thing about the cruise tour groups i did not fully understand until the tour began….Im not sure about my numbers, but i think there were 90 or so of us that were on cruise tour 7B. Well they split that 90 into 3 groups of about 30. Each 30 had their own tour director and bus along with driver. Yes, all 90 stayed in the same hotels each night, but the experiences of each bus group were very different. Each tour director puts their own little spin on the vacation and may do things in very different ways. Some may know of some secret spots for food or great locations for pictures, so my advice is the more you talk to all of them, the more you learn. This was only David's third or forth summer tour directing. he was young and enthusiastic, some of the other tour directors were more seasoned and less optimistic, or so i was told. We had a wonderful time with David and he encouraged our group of 30 to interact. It led to great friendships that continued into to actual cruise portion of the vacation, and now that we are all in our perspective homes, still continues.

 

The scenery on the bus ride was beautiful.

 

 

 

 

We even saw the Alaskan Railroad Train passing by. It made us all excited to ride it Talkeetna in a few days.

 

 

We arrived to Denali a little before dinner time. Our hotel for the next 2 nights was the Denali Park Village.

 

 

The set up was interesting, there was a main lodge where the restaurant and gift shop was located, along with the front desk and a lounge.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

This was inside the main lodge.

 

 

The rest of the village was split into 2 story building with about 40 rooms in each building.

 

 

 

Our room was nice, big and comfortable, but it faced the parking lot. O Well.

 

 

The only bummer about it facing the parking lot was that out back had an amazing view.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

We walked the path along the river to the main lodge to meet up with our family for dinner.

 

 

 

We ate at the lodges restaurant. I had fish and chips and Ali had the reindeer pizza, both were very good.

 

 

 

After dinner my MIL wanted the family to go to the Husky Homestead excursion. So thats just what we did.

 

 

A bus and driver picked us up from the hotel and took us to the mushers camp to see the dogs and meet Jeff King, one of the Iditarod champions.

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

At the camp we got to play with the puppies. The trainers explained that it helps with their socialization. This way when they grow up and run the race they will not be distracted by other people or dogs.

 

 

 

One of the trainers gave the group a talk about how they train their dogs and what goes into training.

 

 

 

 

[Bmorecruiser021]

Then we all went into theatre where Jeff explained his racing style, told us stories about his races, and showed us the gear he used.

 

 

 

 

We did some shopping. Had to buy some "Alaskan dog treats" for our dogs. Then Ali grabbed a picture with Jeff before we headed back to the hotel for the night.

 

 

Well that all for tonight, ill share more tomorrow. I hope everyone is enjoying the review so far, if anyone has questions please feel free to ask. Until then, goodnight all. :)

[hisokaomi]

Enjoy u r review. . Keep coming! :-)

 

Sent from my SM-T235 using Tapatalk

[js4rq]

Loving the photo review!!! Looking forward to the next instalment.

[cruisinconniebean]

Great review! Makes me more excited for my trip in a couple of weeks!

 

Love reading about the cruise tour as we are going on one as well. Thanks for the advice regarding getting to know the director and drivers as well as asking opinions of locals...I'm sure it will come in handy!