cruises_toalaska on Xanga

Wednesday, 06 April 2011

Radiance of the Seas, Vancouver to Seward, Awesome!!

We had the distinct pleasure of sailing on RCI’s Radiance of the Seas from Vancouver to Seward. In a nutshell…

We choose this ship based first on itinerary. We wanted a one-way route to ensure no ‘repeats’ and to cover the most scenery possible. Second was food. She and I are almost food snobs. And wine snobs. Ok, we really like good food and wine. Based on reading far too many reviews on cruisecritic, I settled on the Radiance to fulfill both these criteria. Touchdown.

The ship is beautiful, and huge. Very clean and light throughout. Our balcony room was perfect. Great use of space and storage. Comfortable bed (we like them firm). Decent size bathroom. Only negative is a shower curtain versus door. While some may feel a balcony is a waste of money, we love to enjoy our room and view and don’t always want to dress/whatever to wander the decks. There was not one physical aspect of the ship (save for the shower curtain) that I found lacking.

Random thoughts: Vancouver is fantastic. It would be a shame to get in just the day prior to sail since there is so much to see and do. We had four full days and loved every minute. Embarkation was a breeze. Cab dropped us off right next to the porters who took our luggage. We walked through numerous cordoned areas, never waiting. And soon enough, were on the ship. For on-board wine, we had the 7 bottle platinum package. Decent wine selection. Not great, decent—I don’t regret our decision but I’m not blown away either. I also opted for the soda plan as I like a lot of soda. Prices and drinks at the bars were actually very good. I pay more for drinks at home. Seriously. Service at dinner was outstanding. I mean…OUTSTANDING! Always available, never obtrusive. As for dress, we are probably the ones that others look down upon. Not that we hate to dress up, but we are very active during the day and hate to eat late. So between shore side activities and our 6pm seating, we just didn’t want the extra chore/pressure of dressing formal, or even semi formal. While we caught a few eyes in the dining room, we never felt underdressed from our other table guests or our amazing wait staff. She always managed to look awesome but I never once donned a tie or jacket. (In partial defense, I was also never in jeans, shorts, or t-shirt) So how was the food? Breakfast at the Windjammer was OK. That’s all I can say. Selection remained the same. I’m a sucker for fresh fruit and smoked salmon (even if Atlantic farmed) so I was very content, but any forays into the other fare, especially cooked, was always very pedestrian. Generally dry and overcooked after sitting out on the line. Stay “fresh”, be happy.

Lunch was an improvement. They had a great salad bar and rotated two salads frequently which were awesome, a Thai beef and Thai chicken salad. Get ‘em both. Equally appealing was the daily rotating Indian dishes (usually three of them). Always ranging from very good to awesome!

Dinner was a touchdown. From app to entrée to desert, we were always very pleased. I have to give a shout out to the cold soups! Excellent. Nothing was ever overcooked (a huge pet peeve of mine)…from seafood to beef. And I have no doubt that if it were, our wait staff would have corrected it immediately! We did not eat at Chops, but did eat at Portofino. Awesome!! Totally worth the surcharge in my mind but the main dining was so much more than adequate, that I couldn’t interest the rest of our party (wife included) to pay a surcharge more than that one time. Not a reflection on Portofino, but a reflection on the main dining. Excursions. We avoided all the ship offerings because we are not fans of big busses and large moving masses of people. (Yes, I can appreciate the irony of that statement while reviewing a cruise). Plus, we are really taken aback at how much the cruise lines take of the cut…generally 25-50%. Instead, I perused the cruisecritic board and found independent contractors along the way. While this did save a little money, it more importantly gave a very personable encounter in each case. Comparing with our dinner mates, we all agreed our excursions seemed much more intimate and rewarding. Plus we felt really good about all our money going to the local operator/owner.

So who do we love? Ketchikan: ‘alaska seaplane tours’ float plane. Ryan (owner) was our pilot/guide and we had the plane to ourselves (3 of us plus him). Misty Fjords and lake landing…with a little mountain goat spotting along the way. Incredible experience and personal service--three cheers for Ryan! By the way, Michelle from Island Wings (another independent cruisecritic favorite) sent us his way when she was full. Military discount.

Skagway: Temsco Helicopter glacier tour. I’m sure they are also the service that supplies the ship excursions, but we walked right up without reservations. I would not call the experience “personal” but it was very professional. They have their glacier tour down to a science! Load up three birds, flying tour on the way to the glacier. Climb out onto the ice and be met by their guides that stay on the ice all day. After you get out, the previous tour enters the helos and returns. Lather, rinse, repeat. A very smooth and impressive operation. We loved it. Actually walking on a glacier and exploring its cracks and crevices was an awesome treat. 40 minutes on ice. We then rented a car from Avis and headed to the Yukon. Beautiful scenery and live black bear encounter. No mil discounts.

Juneau: Hopped on a shuttle to Mendenhall glacier. $7 each way or $5 for military. Explored on our own. Bear scat, but no bears. Beautiful glacier and pleasant easy hiking. Then Orca Enterprises for an afternoon of whale watching. Very nice and comfortable boat with good seating, huge windows, head, and ample outdoor space, not too big or too small. Upper deck for increased visibility when stationary. Great experience and sightings. Significant mil discount.

Icy Straits or Hoonah: one word, TECKK Outfitters. Ok, that was two words. We had originally contacted them for just a morning of bear searching. Edna (co-owner) handled the preliminaries. Very courteous and prompt with answers. Required no money down. Keith, her husband, did the touring. Picked us up outside the boat area, swung us by his house to pick up his pup (Trigger) and let out his geese…all the way giving a tour of Hoonah. Then he dropped off half the van occupants at the dock for their morning of whale watching as the three of us (4 counting Trigger) headed into the bush in search of bear. Seriously. The four of us (ok, five if we count Keith) heading over old forest service roads deep into the back country! We couldn’t have asked for more personal, attentive service. Within minutes, I felt like family. Keith is as open and good natured as they come. We really felt like we were penetrating the real Alaska with a real Alaskan! After four hours of deep and persistent searching, we came back with no bear sightings…such is the reality when trying to find a wild animal out in the wild, but we had zero regrets. When we come again, and we will, there will be no need to call anyone else. In fact, we had such a great experience with Keith and his organization that even though we had just whale toured the prior day in Juneau, we opted to hop aboard his boat for the afternoon tour. Wow. WOW! The boat is new and totally equipped for rough seas and full fishing assemblage. And in true TECKK fashion, the experience was very personal…boat has room for pilot and lookout, and 5 guests. That’s it! We spent the next four hours zipping across Point Adolphus with more whales, to include full breaches, than we could keep a count of! I’m not lying, whales were everywhere and we were right in the middle of them! Oh, and just to show the fickle nature of bears, Keith’s afternoon tour ran across three large brown bears! Mil discount.

In Seward, disembarkation was equally quick and efficient. We rented a full size Yukon from Hertz for the one way drive to Anchorage. Hertz picked us up at the port and drove us to the store about a quarter mile away. It was a bit pricey, but really not much more per person than any of the “coach” offerings…plus we were in full control of our stops. Visited Exit Glacier (nice), the Wildlife Refuge Center (awesome), and took the tram up Alyeska Resort (breath taking). The weather was perfect. And in hindsight, so was our trip.

Special thanks to Royal Caribbean, Ryan at ‘alaska seaplanes’, Orca Enterprises in Juneau, Temsco in Skagway, and Keith at TECKK for a truly remarkable week!