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View Full Version : Alaskan Cruise - Day 3



Cinderelley
07-21-2009, 02:37 AM
We woke up, packed our bags, and headed towards the ship at about noon. Getting through the lines at the pier went rather quickly and we were soon stepping foot on the Radiance of the Seas. They told us that our rooms weren't ready yet, so we headed to the Windjammer for lunch. The food was delicious. Then we wandered around the ship for a while. It was a beautiful ship. Eventually, our rooms were ready, so we went to check them out. Ours was room 8588. It was in a perfect location - a balcony room in the middle of the ship on the land side. Throughout the cruise, we realized several advantages to it.
1) If we opened the door at night, we could clearly hear the music from the centrum.
2) If we closed the door, we couldn't hear any of the music from the centrum.
3) When we got to Juneau, I woke up and there were eagles fishing right off the balcony!!!:D
4) The elevators are just across the centrum and the stairs were right around the corner.
5) The balcony was slightly larger than most of the other ones and protruded out from the side of the ship, so it was great to take pictures from.

The kids and my parents were close by. We had the muster drill at 4:00 pm. DH got Alaric's life vest on while I got DD's life vest on. We had to go to different muster stations, so I went with DD. While we were there, I was trying to take a picture of DD in her life vest, much to her chagrin. Our play fighting was interrupted by a man saying "Alright you two. There's only one way to stop this. Get together and I'll take your picture together." Since Danielle hated being in the orange life vest, he took a great "blackmail" photo to use against my daughter. We had a great conversation with him while waiting for the muster drill to be over.

Once we were released, we went back to the rooms, ditched the life vests, grabbed the cameras and headed up on deck for the big send off. There weren't any big activities, but we enjoyed watching the scenery go by. Then it was time to head to dinner.

Dinner was wonderful. The service was superb. Our waiter was Norbert from India. Our assistant waitress was Leticia from Brazil. They did an outstanding job every single night. Additionally, my stepfather loves finding out about people, their lives and where they come from. He got to know everything about them, and they graciously answered every question.

After dinner, the kids headed to the teen area, my mom and Jeff went to the show, and Tom and I continued exploring the ship. The temperature was in the low 80s in Vancouver, and it was beautiful out on our balcony. I enjoyed feeling the fresh air and hearing the water so much, that I decided to leave our balcony door open while we slept. Big mistake! I woke up around 2:00 am, freezing my behind off. I considered waking DH up & making him get out of bed to close the door :thedolls:. I knew it was my fault though, so I did it. I was shivering so hard that I woke DH up anyway when I got back into bed. Other than that, I slept like a baby.

Jeff
07-21-2009, 07:34 AM
Sounds great!
Thanks for the report!:thumbsup:

crazypoohbear
07-21-2009, 08:40 AM
Sounds like everyone is off to a great start!
Too bad about freezing with the door open, that would have been great fresh air to sleep by!
The eagles sound incredible.
Can't wait to hear more.

TiggeRia
07-21-2009, 02:15 PM
I'm just starting to read your trip report now...I'm taking a cruise on the Radiance of the Seas next summer, and look forward to hearing about your experience!!! So far it sounds wonderful!

Cinderelley
07-21-2009, 07:07 PM
I'm just starting to read your trip report now...I'm taking a cruise on the Radiance of the Seas next summer, and look forward to hearing about your experience!!! So far it sounds wonderful!

You can click on my homepage and see pictures I took if you want to. I'll warn you that there's 800 of them. I didn't have a chance to split them up into sections like I usually do, because different family members wanted to see them right away.

TooGoofy
07-23-2009, 08:46 AM
An Alaskan cruise is my dream vacation. Thanks for giving me a "preview"! Off to read day 4 now...

Tick-Tock
07-24-2009, 06:05 PM
I'll warn you that there's 800 of them.

LOL. 800 is hardly anything. My DH took 1,400 pictures in one day in Alaska. And we were there for 10 days.

NJGIRL
09-14-2009, 12:50 PM
I think I would love this cruise (maybe not the cold) but seeing eagles on the balcony would be so cool.