We booked a land/cruise package through RCCL, which began on July 15th from Fairbanks for 3 days on land, boarding Radiance in Seward on July 18th, and cruising for 7-nts southbound to Vancouver. Estimated cost for the land/cruise portion for DH and I was $7,043.39 plus air fare from Indpls to Fairbanks @ $400pp 1-way. We were booked in a mid-ship balcony cabin #9092, just behind the glass elevators on the port side, which, as we had hoped, did a good job of blocking the cold wind while cruising; also, the balcony is larger.
Tuesday, 7/15/14, 3:57pm - Flew Delta from Indpls to Fairbanks with 1-hr layover in Minneapolis. Worth the extra $ to book "economy comfort" seats! Arrived Fairbanks 8:30pm (12:30am Indpls time). Our group of 6 was pretty exhausted and hungry. Arrived to a baggage claim nightmare at the airport due to the fact that 3 planes arrived at the same time. I think everyone was tired, hungry and very irritable; lots of pushing/shoving going on in order to retrieve luggage from the belts! As luck would have it, our group was the last to leave on the RCCL shuttle to Pike's Waterfront Lodge, which was a 30-minute drive in the rain.
When we arrived at the lodge, which was beautiful, we were directed to Cheryl, our tour Director, who was in the middle of briefing those who had arrived before us. We quietly waited another 30-minutes for her to finish with the first arrivals (our tummies were growling now). Finally she released the first group of people and began briefing us about the land tour options. It was after 10:00pm when she finished with us and then stated, "Oh, by the way, the on-site restaurant just closed @ 10:00pm for food orders but you can still buy a drink, if you want." What did she say?!!! Back up!!! In my opinion and the others, Cheryl should have immediately sent us over to the restaurant and then re-joined us there to brief us on the land tour!!! Big mistake Cheryl!!!
Great cabin! Right behind the hump elevators on port side, which nicely blocks the wind while cruising! The balcony is larger than the others too!! Had 2 loungers, 2 chairs and a table on the balcony!