Live from Radiance Cruise Tour #15-- June 16-July 1

[DiamondPlusCruiser]

Cruise Tour #15 is considered the "Cadillac" of the Cruise Tours as it visits every town and area of interest.

Our guide was Cole and her boyfriend Spiff was our bus driver-- two of the nicest people you ever met.

We only had one early wake up-- leaving Fairbanks for Denali-- all other departures were late afternoon which was nice. They also changes this tour from last year in that instead of taking the train from Denali to Talkeetna we took the bus-- which was great since Mt. McKinley was out and we pulled over in a rest area to take pictures. We then took the dinner train from Talkeetna to Anchorage rather than the bus as they did last year.

BJ was also in the Champagne Bar on our cruise-- I've known him for several years when he was on the Grandeur. Actually he was supposed to go back to Grandeur but missed his flight and they sent him to Radiance- he's never seen snow before! We took him on the Whale Watch excursion with us in ISP and he loved it. Dennis was working in the Scoreboard and we stopped by for a hello drink since he sailed with us on both Mariner and Brilliance.

[dirtgirl]

Welcome back DPC! Sounds like you guys had an awesome time!:)

How much was your flight-seeing tour?

[DiamondPlusCruiser]

Flight seeing was $260 per person in Juneau and $390 per person for the Mt. Mckinley landing in Talkeetna- both worth every penny

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='DiamondPlusCruiser']Flight seeing was $260 per person in Juneau and $390 per person for the Mt. Mckinley landing in Talkeetna- both worth every penny[/QUOTE]WOW!!! :eek:

I have loved reading about this adventure of yours, DPC. Thanks for sharing. Now I REEEEEEEEEEEEEEALLY want to go to Alaska!

[happy2fly]

[COLOR=black]DPC,[/COLOR]
[FONT=Courier New][FONT=Verdana][COLOR=black]Thank you for sharing your experience with all of us. I've enjoyed reading about your land tours and cruise and it sounds like you and your group had a wonderful adventure. Again, thank you for writing your review and sharing your experience.[/COLOR][/FONT] :) [/FONT]

[IMNiles]

Now about the cruise:

 

...

The balcony railings were not varnished and there was considerable rust. The glass on the balconies and around the Windjammer were also in need of replacing as they were scratched and cracked. ...

 

 

Thanks so much for the review, DPC! My friends and I board her in just under 6 weeks and we're really excited! I'm a bit disappointed to hear about your experiences with the condition of the ship, considering that my own impression just 9 months ago was that she seemed to be in fine shape. Our sailing was, in fact, delayed a bit because they were replacing all of the balcony glass in the wake of the recent fire aboard a princess ship - I wonder if that new glass is much more prone to scratching/breaking? They also stripped all of the outside railings and re-varnished them on our trip, so maybe we'll get lucky and they'll get to those again before we re-board.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post!

[Buccaneergirl]

DPC - What a great review! It sounds like I should have picked #15(instead of #14) since you only had to be up early once on the landtour!

Glad you had such a wonderful time and thanks for sharing it all with us!!:D

[FreewayFortune]

Thank you for sharing your review. We saw lots of whales last year in Juneau but no breaching only bubble net feeding. It must have been amazing to see them breech.

[DiamondPlusCruiser]

Thanks so much for the review, DPC! My friends and I board her in just under 6 weeks and we're really excited! I'm a bit disappointed to hear about your experiences with the condition of the ship, considering that my own impression just 9 months ago was that she seemed to be in fine shape. Our sailing was, in fact, delayed a bit because they were replacing all of the balcony glass in the wake of the recent fire aboard a princess ship - I wonder if that new glass is much more prone to scratching/breaking? They also stripped all of the outside railings and re-varnished them on our trip, so maybe we'll get lucky and they'll get to those again before we re-board.

 

Thanks again for taking the time to post!

 

 

I think the reason the glass was cracked was most, if not all of the rubber spacers were missing or half falling out-- I'm sure this caused some vibration that in turn caused the glass to fracture. Like I said, the condition of the ship wasn't enough to ruin our vacation by any means-- the ship was very clean-- but considering the Monarch was in better physical condition and she's 10 yrs older and gets much harder use I was a bit shocked by the condition of the Radiance. Hopefully these issues will get corrected when she goes into drydock next year.

[maren91]

Thank you so much for the great review, you have given me some great ideas for my August 2008 trip. A question for you, if you had to choose:

 

Cruise Tour #15 vs. Cruise Tour #11 - 12-Night v. 11-Night the different being no Alyseka (sp?), that's all. If I take #11 I will be able to spend an extra day in Vancouver.

 

or

 

Taking Cruise Tour #15 and spending only one day in Vancouver post-cruise.

 

I have to be back by a certain date so I'm debating what to do.

 

Basically, is Alyseka worth the time you spent there vs. spending that time in Vancouver?

 

Thanks.

[Bennett'sCruise]

Thank you so much for the great review, you have given me some great ideas for my August 2008 trip. A question for you, if you had to choose:

 

Cruise Tour #15 vs. Cruise Tour #11 - 12-Night v. 11-Night the different being no Alyseka (sp?), that's all. If I take #11 I will be able to spend an extra day in Vancouver.

 

or

 

Taking Cruise Tour #15 and spending only one day in Vancouver post-cruise.

 

I have to be back by a certain date so I'm debating what to do.

 

Basically, is Alyseka worth the time you spent there vs. spending that time in Vancouver?

 

Thanks.

 

KEEP IN MIND .... that extra day for a 12-day CruiseTour will get you an extra C&A Cruise Credit ... if that matters to you! It mattered to me .. unfortunately, I didn't realize what I had done (booked the 11-day) until it was too late to change to the 12-day. :o OUCH ...

 

~d

[DiamondPlusCruiser]

Yes, the day in Aleyska was great-- would have loved 2 nights there-- not much to do in the town of Girdwood, but the resort was fantastic.

 

Personally if I had a choice of Alyeska or Vancouver I would choose Alyeska.

 

Also, if you're doing the Cruise Tour-- you need to request to have Cole as your Guide and Spiff as your Driver.. they're a couple so they work together-- they do all the different Alaska Cruise Tours and are simply THE BEST!