Last week DH and I took the final Alaska cruise of the season on Radiance of the Seas. What an awesome ship!

Day 0: Trip to Vancouver. We flew out of LAX, arriving in Vancouver at 9:15 at night the night before our cruise. Ordinarily, this would be a little too late for my liking, but there was nobody else there, so we breezed through customs, had our luggage in 15 minutes and were on our way to the Westin Bayshore. The cab was about $30.00 Cdn, including the tip. As Starwood Gold guests, we were upgraded to a harbor view room in the older tower. It was a very nice room, with a heavenly Heavenly Bed. That was all we were interested in, after a nightcap in the bar.

Embarkation: We took a morning stroll around Vancouver, then checked out of the hotel & took a cab to Ballentyne Pier about 12:00. There were still people waiting for cabs (I don't know what time they got off the ship), but we sailed through the security check and Platinum check in in 10 minutes. We were on board by 12:15. Our rooms weren't ready, so we strolled around for a bit, made our spa appointments and went to check out our cabin promptly at 1:00. Read more