We are just back from our Alaskan Cruise on the Radiance of the Seas sailing from Vancouver to Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, and Hubbard Glacier. The trip was fantastic--I know that my pictures will come no where close to the true beauty of this trip. It is awe-inspiring. Our whale watching trip in Juneau was incredible. Our weather was excellent. There are few words to describe this trip. Now, the comparisons begin.
Embarkation: Nightmare is the word. We arrived at port at 10:45, only to see many people just leaving the ship. We accrued $3.50 more for the taxi just waiting in line to be dropped off. Once inside the terminal (Ballantyne, not Canada Place), there was no one from RCCL to tell me what to do. I lucked into finding the lady who gave us our boarding number of 1. we went through security and up the escalator to check-in, where there were 2 lines: one for suite check-in and Diamond Club (multiple trips on RCCL--not just one), and the regular check-in. They had 4 people working special check in, 3 working regular. Once you check in, you are directed to go sit in folding chairs, packed tightly in a small area on a concrete floor. Once all the chairs are full, and people are moving to the floors, and standing, a very quiet gentleman came out to explain the process. Unfortunately, no one passed the second row of chairs could hear him. We were finally cleared through customs and on the ship by 1:15. Total time to embark 2 1/2 hours. Later passengers recorded times of 3 hours.
Cabin: We had a D which is comparable in size to a Cat 6. The room felt a little bigger than on Disney. There is adequate storage space for "things" : shoes, cameras, bags, etc. in a shelf unit in the closet, 2 smaller units at the Desk, a corner unit in the bathroom, shelves over the TV. The only drawers in the room are the desk drawers, and even though they call it the "dresser", it is still just a desk, with desk-sized drawers. The closet had a unit that could have either single or double rods. Unfortunately, half of the closet is designed so that the hanges don't fit completely in the closet, they have to be moved side-ways or tilted a little bit. I had packed our dinner clothes on hangers, and still needed more hangers, since there was no drawer space--I never received the hangers I requested. The bathroom was very small with a round shower.
Entertainment: We were limited in the shows we were able to attend. The late seating shows were generally at 10:45, and being east coasters, the time change made it difficult for us to stay awake. We did see the Osmond Brothers (Wayne, Jay and Merrill) who were very entertaining, and we enjoyed the last night show. We skipped dinner to see "Rocking in Paradise" and wished we hadn't. The staging and coreography were amateur, IMHO. The movies shown in the cinema included Changing Lanes, Laura Croft; Signs. There were movies for purchase on the TV that were a little more recent (THe Bourne Identity, Down with Love; How to Lose a Guy). $9.95 per movie.
Dining: There is one large seated dining room, on 2 levels. The other restaurant was Windjammers which served buffet foods. Also available at certain times was Seaview Cafe, which had terrific fries and onion rings, together with burger, Reubens, crab salad, etc. The cafe was very small, and they didn't allow take-out, so there was generally a 15-30 minute wait. I thought the food was good, and as on any cruise, bountiful. I did get slightly bored with only 2 restauarants. There are 2 alternative dining rooms: Portofino (northern Italian) and Chops (steaks, meats). Both charge $20 per person. For a variety of reasons, we didn't try them.
Ship: The ship itself is very pretty. There is a central area that spans from the 4th floor to the 11 th floor. There are a number of seating and lounging areas around the chip, with lots of glass for viewing the beauty of Alaska.
Kid's Programs: There were 110 kids under the age of 13 on the ship. There were 8-10 counselors total. All the counselors have college degrees in education, or related fields. There are lots of planned activities--games, contests, scavenger hunt, etc. The kids clubs themselves are not very large, but appear to be well stocked with art supplies (crayola gets a plug in the intro to the program.) Each time my daughter participated, she received a credit which she later redeemed in prizes ranging from a key chain to a t-shirt, to a back pack. She really liked the prize program. The younger kids had a pirate day, where they paraded around the ship dressed as pirates--they looked like they were having a blast. My daughter is not quite 11. She liked only having a few girls here age in the program--it was easier for her to make friend with the other girls. She still prefers the Disney program, because she enjoys the free time that Disney gives. The kids program generally runs from 9-12 in the morning, then it reopens from 2-5, and reopens again at 7 until 10 at night. After 10, they have stay open til 1 am for a late night party which costs $5 per hour per child. We had late seating, so our DD had to choose between participating in the kids clubs, or coming to dinner with us--most times she picked the kids clubs.
I was concerned/surprised by a couple of things involving the clubs: there are no pagers that I saw--I'm not sure how they keep in contact with the parents of the younger kids. The children are also given the opportunity to sign in and out as young as age 6 (but you must give permission). The offer a scavenger hunt for 9, 10 and 11 year olds, to form groups of 3 to go out for an hour at a time for the scavenger hunt--this is without counselor supervision (again, you must give permission). I was most concerned by the apparent lack of concern for simple rules. My DD came back the 2nd night and said a 9 year old boy had hit her in the face with a ball. The 3rd night, the same thing occurred. On night 4, she came back in tears with a mark on her face. The same boy had hit her again with the ball. I went to the club and expressed my concern that she had been hit repeatedly by "L" I asked him to just keep a check on what was going on. Despite my request, it continued to happen whenever this kid was in the club. He also deliberately hit the other girls. (Please don't flame me for allowing my DD to go back to the club--I thought if was being taken care of by the counselor, and why should she be punished for his inappropriate behavior).Eventually, they ganged up on him, and tackled him. That seemed to stop the hitting.
Staff: Here is where the difference was so notable. Most of the staff was very friendly and helpful. Our wait staff was as good or better than any I have had on Disney. Unfortunately, there were some interactions which marred the trip. There were some minor annoyances, but then I had an interaction concerning our de-embarkation luggage tags with guest services. The indivdual working had no business in customer service; She didn't listen to a single question of mine, yelled at me and acted as though I was completely stupid. I ended up spending 2 hours of my cruising time trying to deal with the problem with the tags, and my transportation. (By the way, I was right, and she was wrong). I decided after this interaction, that I would just save my money for a Disney Cruise and leave RCCL alone.
I'd be happy to answer any questions. Please do note, it was a wonderful trip--I can just imagine how great it would be with Disney.
Embarkation: Nightmare is the word. We arrived at port at 10:45, only to see many people just leaving the ship. We accrued $3.50 more for the taxi just waiting in line to be dropped off. Once inside the terminal (Ballantyne, not Canada Place), there was no one from RCCL to tell me what to do. I lucked into finding the lady who gave us our boarding number of 1. we went through security and up the escalator to check-in, where there were 2 lines: one for suite check-in and Diamond Club (multiple trips on RCCL--not just one), and the regular check-in. They had 4 people working special check in, 3 working regular. Once you check in, you are directed to go sit in folding chairs, packed tightly in a small area on a concrete floor. Once all the chairs are full, and people are moving to the floors, and standing, a very quiet gentleman came out to explain the process. Unfortunately, no one passed the second row of chairs could hear him. We were finally cleared through customs and on the ship by 1:15. Total time to embark 2 1/2 hours. Later passengers recorded times of 3 hours.
Cabin: We had a D which is comparable in size to a Cat 6. The room felt a little bigger than on Disney. There is adequate storage space for "things" : shoes, cameras, bags, etc. in a shelf unit in the closet, 2 smaller units at the Desk, a corner unit in the bathroom, shelves over the TV. The only drawers in the room are the desk drawers, and even though they call it the "dresser", it is still just a desk, with desk-sized drawers. The closet had a unit that could have either single or double rods. Unfortunately, half of the closet is designed so that the hanges don't fit completely in the closet, they have to be moved side-ways or tilted a little bit. I had packed our dinner clothes on hangers, and still needed more hangers, since there was no drawer space--I never received the hangers I requested. The bathroom was very small with a round shower.
Entertainment: We were limited in the shows we were able to attend. The late seating shows were generally at 10:45, and being east coasters, the time change made it difficult for us to stay awake. We did see the Osmond Brothers (Wayne, Jay and Merrill) who were very entertaining, and we enjoyed the last night show. We skipped dinner to see "Rocking in Paradise" and wished we hadn't. The staging and coreography were amateur, IMHO. The movies shown in the cinema included Changing Lanes, Laura Croft; Signs. There were movies for purchase on the TV that were a little more recent (THe Bourne Identity, Down with Love; How to Lose a Guy). $9.95 per movie.
Dining: There is one large seated dining room, on 2 levels. The other restaurant was Windjammers which served buffet foods. Also available at certain times was Seaview Cafe, which had terrific fries and onion rings, together with burger, Reubens, crab salad, etc. The cafe was very small, and they didn't allow take-out, so there was generally a 15-30 minute wait. I thought the food was good, and as on any cruise, bountiful. I did get slightly bored with only 2 restauarants. There are 2 alternative dining rooms: Portofino (northern Italian) and Chops (steaks, meats). Both charge $20 per person. For a variety of reasons, we didn't try them.
Ship: The ship itself is very pretty. There is a central area that spans from the 4th floor to the 11 th floor. There are a number of seating and lounging areas around the chip, with lots of glass for viewing the beauty of Alaska.
Kid's Programs: There were 110 kids under the age of 13 on the ship. There were 8-10 counselors total. All the counselors have college degrees in education, or related fields. There are lots of planned activities--games, contests, scavenger hunt, etc. The kids clubs themselves are not very large, but appear to be well stocked with art supplies (crayola gets a plug in the intro to the program.) Each time my daughter participated, she received a credit which she later redeemed in prizes ranging from a key chain to a t-shirt, to a back pack. She really liked the prize program. The younger kids had a pirate day, where they paraded around the ship dressed as pirates--they looked like they were having a blast. My daughter is not quite 11. She liked only having a few girls here age in the program--it was easier for her to make friend with the other girls. She still prefers the Disney program, because she enjoys the free time that Disney gives. The kids program generally runs from 9-12 in the morning, then it reopens from 2-5, and reopens again at 7 until 10 at night. After 10, they have stay open til 1 am for a late night party which costs $5 per hour per child. We had late seating, so our DD had to choose between participating in the kids clubs, or coming to dinner with us--most times she picked the kids clubs.
I was concerned/surprised by a couple of things involving the clubs: there are no pagers that I saw--I'm not sure how they keep in contact with the parents of the younger kids. The children are also given the opportunity to sign in and out as young as age 6 (but you must give permission). The offer a scavenger hunt for 9, 10 and 11 year olds, to form groups of 3 to go out for an hour at a time for the scavenger hunt--this is without counselor supervision (again, you must give permission). I was most concerned by the apparent lack of concern for simple rules. My DD came back the 2nd night and said a 9 year old boy had hit her in the face with a ball. The 3rd night, the same thing occurred. On night 4, she came back in tears with a mark on her face. The same boy had hit her again with the ball. I went to the club and expressed my concern that she had been hit repeatedly by "L" I asked him to just keep a check on what was going on. Despite my request, it continued to happen whenever this kid was in the club. He also deliberately hit the other girls. (Please don't flame me for allowing my DD to go back to the club--I thought if was being taken care of by the counselor, and why should she be punished for his inappropriate behavior).Eventually, they ganged up on him, and tackled him. That seemed to stop the hitting.
Staff: Here is where the difference was so notable. Most of the staff was very friendly and helpful. Our wait staff was as good or better than any I have had on Disney. Unfortunately, there were some interactions which marred the trip. There were some minor annoyances, but then I had an interaction concerning our de-embarkation luggage tags with guest services. The indivdual working had no business in customer service; She didn't listen to a single question of mine, yelled at me and acted as though I was completely stupid. I ended up spending 2 hours of my cruising time trying to deal with the problem with the tags, and my transportation. (By the way, I was right, and she was wrong). I decided after this interaction, that I would just save my money for a Disney Cruise and leave RCCL alone.
I'd be happy to answer any questions. Please do note, it was a wonderful trip--I can just imagine how great it would be with Disney.
