While I was searching for a way to visit as many islands in Hawaii as possible, and because I enjoy cruising, I found this very reasonable 11 day cruise which included visits to the major islands in the chain with excellent ports. The ship Radiance of the Seas is a midsized older ship which proved to be an excellent size for a more intimate cruise. The dining facilities onboard were the best ...
This was my wife's 20th cruise and my 19th, and for both of us was our 17th on RCL. This is also the year of our 20th anniversary. We chose this cruise because we love Hawaii, we love sea days (have taken a Transatlantic cruise before), and the Radiance class is our favorite in the line. Radiance itself was the first RCL ship we sailed on, and we hadn't been on it since the 2011 refurb, so we ...
This was a family "bucket list" trip for my dad and unfortunately it was not the ultimate experience that he was hoping for.
Embarkation was a long meandering walk and when we boarded the ship no one was giving any directions as to where we needed to go. Finally another guest told us that most people were in the Windjammer, since rooms were not read at by 1 pm. When we got to the cabins (1 ...
Here's some information and highlights from a 7-day northbound royal caribbean cruise aboard Radiance of the Seas with a 3-night post-cruise land tour:
Getting to and on the ship in Vancouver:
For two people with two bags, it was $35 plus tip for a taxi from the airport to the ship.
We arrived on July 1, Canada Day, so the terminal at Canada Place Pier was a sea of people heading down to ...
Northbound Alaska
Will include stuff we would do differently and anything else that would improve our experience (and maybe yours too).
Embarkation in Vancouver
Check-in is 11am-3pm. Don’t check in at noon. You will have 2,000 people in front of you. Next time, I would get to Canada Place at 10:30am or after 1:30pm.
Once on board and preparing for the rest of the week (Day ...
We are pretty loyal RC cruisers. We'd sailed to Alaska 11 years ago on the Norwegian Dawn from Seattle with 15 family members. At that time decided we'd return as a couple in the future to see more of Alaska. The cruise ports and acommodations were similar for both cruises. This time we started in Vancouver, BC then sailed the Inside Passage, Ketchikan, Icy Strait, Juneau, Skagway, Hubbard Glacier ...
This cruise was an amazing deal! I only had 1 week vacation, so a 5 night cruise fit our schedule perfectly. We live close to Vancouver, it is a very convenient port for us to cruise out of. I was interested to see Prince Rupert as the US/CDN exchange rate is quite high right now, a port in Canada would be a better value for us. We stayed at a 'stay and cruise' hotel in Burnaby. You can park ...
Pre-Cruise:
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stayed at Best Western Plus Downtown Vancouver; Excellent Hotel with location within walking distance to the Mall and restaurants. Lots of REAL bargains on shoes, handbags, purses, dresses, etc.
FREE Shuttle provided by Hotel to the Cruise Port
Victoria:
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Took FREE CVS shuttle from cruise port to Fairmont Empress Hotel where we boarded the CVS ...
This was our 3rd cruise and we thought we would try royal Caribbean this time. After reading some of the reviews of radiance of the seas I was a bit concerned but it was amazing. It all depends what you expect the ship is older but it was very clean the staff on the most part we brilliant and the food in the main dining room was excellent. Alaska is amazing we did a whale watching trip not with ...
So I am all for one giving reviews and giving praise when it's due and when it's not. So here it goes.
Boarding the ship was quick for me, I have MS, so I was in the disabled line, otherwise the line was long and we got there about 11:30 am.
After we were checked in we roamed around the ship, we didn't go eat because we reserved Chop's for the 1st night (PS. it's 1/2 off a person for the ...