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Our excursion today is The Butchart Gardens. The tour is marked as 3 1/2 hours but the gardens are 45 minutes from the port so we would only have ~2 hours in the gardens. Our bus driver took us through a public city park on the way out of town. Here we saw many wild Peacocks walking around. More on this park later. The bus ride is about 45 minutes to The Butchart Gardens. Our driver provided some history and facts about the area and Butchart Gardens. The original owners purchased the land for a limestone quarry as part of the family business to make portland cement. While traveling in Europe an eagle broke into a bird enclosure and killed all the song birds. Word made it to the Butcharts while in England so they diverted and went to Germany to acquire some unique small birds only available in Germany. Arriving back into England a day late from this diversion they missed their ship back to America. They would have to take the next ship a week later. The ship they missed was the Titanic. There are seven gardens within the overall facility. This is called the sunken gardens and it was the old Limestone quarry from the business. The Ross fountains were added later by a grandson who assumed the gardens as the Butcharts grew older. There is a merry go round for the kiddies. This Sequoia seedling was planted in 1934. The rose garden has a seemingly endless variation of roses. This brings us back to the start with the same picture but with a spin. With that our time was up and we headed back out to the bus parking lot.

The 4 year old redhead running up to Kristin Bell in the outtakes is mine...

Fresh off dinner it was time for the RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com podcast recording. Fittingly it was held in the chapel. The faithful all gathered to hear Matt's sermon.

Where was i? Oh yeah... Day 6 Afternoon. Group Cruise trivia in the Star Lounge I missed the start of the event because I was off doing something and forgot. I did get to hear the answers though. Followed by a give away. After this we did a small cabin crawl. That panoramic ocean view cabin was still looking pretty suite. Annette's aft balcony was too. Funny how the travel agent gets the bast cabin... After this was dinner followed by some walking around the ship taking random photos. Nice sunset tonight, just had to wait for it to pop through the break in the clouds. Later I found the piano player in the Schooner Bar. Then to the pub... Dining Room picture With the light fading after 10pm I headed aft for just one more photo.

The ride back down to Victoria was another 45 minutes and the driver gave us the option of being dropped off in town or taking us back to the port. We chose to get off in town. Victoria itself is quite beautiful. It's also the provincial capital. The harbor is home to one of the busiest seaplane bases in the world (according to our bus driver). After walking around a little we found a pub. This is Garrison's Pub. Fish and chips were in order. The chips are beer battered and very good. Finally I saw a bear. From the look on his face he was quite surprised by the unnexpected Twangster sighting. Here are some floral Orcas. This is a public school but it has an eight year wait list. People are known to pick a name of a future child, submit it and hope for the best once they eventually actually have a child. (according to our bus driver when we drove past earlier). From here we walked over to the park I mentioned earlier, Beacon Hill Park. This is a free city park open to the public. What caught our eye when the bus drove through here in the morning were the wild Peacocks that roam freely. Above us we could hear dozens of birds nesting in the trees. Turns out they were Great Blue Herons. Standing on white washed pavement it dawned on us we were in the landing zone so we quickly moved on. While not as over-the-top as Butchart Gardens, the grounds of the park are very nice and well kept. Within the park is a children's petting zoo. The suggested donation is $4 per adult. The peacocks are free to roam in or out of the petting zoo but the theory is they know they are safe so they tend to hang out here. They were on top of the buildings, on fences and walking around on the ground. Our bus driver claimed this was the 2nd largest watering can in North America. Victoria marks the start of the TransCanada highway. At 7,821 kilometers or 4,860 miles it crosses Canada and goes from coast to coast. Here there is also a statute in memory of Terry Fox. I remember Terry from my youth growing up. He lost a leg to cancer and sought to run the entire length of the trans Canada highway. Our bus driver explained earlier there are still charity events in his name around the world and at over one billion dollars raised since it is the single largest fund raising charity ever. At this point we were right on the water so we chose to follow it back to the ship. There was a path and stairs leading somewhere so we thought it might be a photo opportunity. You can't quite see them on this day but on the horizon are the Olympic mountains of Washington state. Walking towards the ship the pier is just around the corner. It was a very easy and pleasant walk along the shore on a paved trail. Every so often there was an opportunity to make it down to the shore. In this photo you can see some people hanging out on their balcony in the upper left most aft balcony cabin by the left flag pole. It's the @cookingyos (fellow Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruisers). cookingyo.com - It's a real website.

Day 7 - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada With an 9:30am expected clearance and a 5:30 all on board time we had a good amount of time in Victoria. Many Seattle based cruises have limited time in port, arriving in Victoria around dinner time and leaving around 10pm. The stop here is a 'technical' stop, required by a law that at a high level makes it necessary to have at least one foreign country on the itinerary. Since Alaska is part of the US, stopping in Canada satisfies the foreign port requirement. I'd highly recommend every one pay attention when booking an Alaskan cruise to the arrival and departure time in Victoria. So many bad reviews of this port are centered around a late arrival (right at dinner time) when local stores are closing and it's getting darker. Like it's Victoria's fault people didn't read what they booked and then complain when the cruise lines do exactly what they said they would do. Not so on this itinerary which is one reason I booked it.

The dreaded day has arrived. Self assist time was stated to be 6:30am to 7:15am. We had mostly packed the night before. I hear Matt and Matt, Cookingyo and Earl closed both the R Bar and the Casino Bar but I wouldn't know anything about that. I set my alarm for 6am and we were on our way down at 6:45am. It was easy to get an elevator that wasn't packed and we immediately were directed outside on deck 4. Disembarking has already started and we had a short queue to be scanned off the ship. Customs was a breeze. One officer was looking at passports opened to the photo page as we walked past him, moving all the time. That's it? Yes! Super easy. I quickly looked in the Lyft app and saw the airport ride would be $41. The cab area was close to where we left the terminal and seeing my phone open they offered a $40 rate to SeaTac airport. The ride share area is a bit of a walk from the terminal so taking a cab was a lot easier as they are right there. Minimal traffic before rush hour at 7am and we were at the airport by 7:45am. The meter read $48 so the driver over-rode it and entered a flat rate $40 on the credit card terminal in the cab. Overall a very easy disembarkation and transfer to the airport.

Back on board we made our way to deck 12 to exercise the drink package and take in the last sights of Victoria. I spotted a Celebrity. It's the Soltice who we started this cruise experience with. Well past our departure we had some pier runners. Okay, maybe they were more pier sauntering. With Seattle so close the Captain was able to wait for everyone. After this off to our last dinner in the MTD dining room.

No worries, we're just enjoying a beer at a pub in Victoria while you non-cruise types are chatting.

Never mind! I found it in the Cruise Planner. It was weird: When I first looked at the Cruise Planner, there was a main menu called "Photography", but after I logged in, it was gone. So I tried looking in "Internet & more", but that had only 3 levels of Voom. But then I went into "Internet & more" a second time, and it had 3 three Voom followed by two photo packages. Okay, I have now been initiated into the "Buggy Website Complaints" group.

As someone who was born in a (mostly) desert continent, this amount of ice, let alone water, absolutely astonishes me. Thank you for these incredible photos. Alaska is now firmly on my bucket list! (Super stretch cruising goal - fly to Seattle. Cruise to Alaska and back. Then jump aboard a repositioning cruise from Seattle back to Sydney!)

T minus 2 days. Bags packed. Boarding pass printed. SetSail pass printed. Luggage tags ready. Check, check, check and check. I think I'm ready. Amazingly I don't feel like I forgotten anything, which means in about 10 hours at 35,000' I will remember exactly what I forgot. Such is cruising. For the flight to Seattle tomorrow I have a 6am departure. I had plenty of choices of flight times all day but I chose 6am so I could visit something in Seattle I've always wanted but haven't been able to yet. The Chihuly Garden and Glass exhibit at the base of the Space Needle. I'm a sucker for blown glass so I'm looking forward to this as a pre-cruise excursion. I'm flying with Delta, my favorite airline since I am heavily vested in it's frequent flier program. At 13,500 Skymiles this may be the cheapest round trip flight I've booked using frequent flier miles. A direct flight was available departing later and arriving at nearly the same time but at several thousand more miles so I chose a connection in Salt Lake City given the early time of day plus day before cruise booking. Connections don't bother me since I've flown a bunch. Loyalty pays - I've been upgraded to first class on both segments. Not bad for an 'award' ticket. My son is joining me on this cruise flying in from the East coast. With a Friday to Friday cruise itinerary it meant an extra day of vacation for him so another day on top of that to fly in the day before was a problem. He doesn't get that much time off at this point in his career. He elected to fly in the day off the cruise, something I tend to avoid. Flying from the East coast the time change is working in his favor. Fingers crossed. I booked my cruise through MEI Travel and added the official hotel for the Royal Caribbean Blog Group Cruise when it was offered oh so long ago. Time flies, it's almost cruise day! Shout out to Jacki York at MEI Travel for proactively checking each and every sale over several months to verify I had the best price. Our cabin on this cruise is an interior with virtual balcony. A full balcony cabin was nearly twice the price, per person of course. I did an Alaskan cruise last year on Celebrity with a balcony. One Alaska lesson I learned last year was that good excursions can be pricey. Alaska excursions are well worth the price in my opinion to experience Alaska however adding up the total cost of a vacation experience on my second Alaska cruise I chose to spend money favoring excursions that were my second choice from last year over the cabin so interior virtual balcony it is. Basically by booking an interior cabin we got our excursions 'included' compared to the cost of booking a balcony. Excursions this time around: Juneau Skagway (The description read much better when I booked it!) Victoria Booked during various sales it definitely pays to book excursions early and watch sales. Most of them have increased in price over the months since booking. I booked our excursions with enough time for us to self explore before or after as weather permits. Alaska here we come! With that it's time to close my laptop and pack it, else I might forget it in the morning at oh-dark-early when my ride arrives to carry me to the airport.

All the marketing on the Mariner of the Seas worked... going to book for end of August.

FIXED. After calling back 3 more times, I finally got a nice representative named Carlo. He put me on hold, worked some magic, and now i will have about 500 bucks coming back on my credit card. Amazing how 3 different people can't do anything and just say "sorry". apparently, they have the power to do anything...most of them just don't want to help. whew. now i really need a vacation trying to get my vacation sorted out.

thanks for the awesome pics @twangster had my wife sit down with me last night and showed her everything in this thread. This live blog of your pretty much sealed the deal for her in wanting to cruise to Alaska now. Thanks!!!

Great advice on booking two connecting/across rooms. I never even considered this, but it makes a ton of sense! I'll contact MEI to ask for some quotes on various scenarios. I'm sure it's a good idea to have a pro in my corner, anyway. Thank you so much!! You've all been so helpful, and I'm really looking forward to this now.

Here's the rule on kids in their own room: Stateroom must be next to or directly across the parent's stateroom. If next to the room may be connecting (with a door in the middle to connect the 2 rooms) or adjoining (no connecting door) but if in a balcony you can ask the room attendant to open the balcony divider between the 2 rooms. You can't book this configuration online but need to call or ask a travel agent for help. Many of us use MEI Travel, a sponsor of this blog, You can ask the TA if there are any special connecting rooms. For example, I have an OV balcony connecting to an interior room on Adventure which was really inexpensive. I agree with the 7 days if you can swing it considering flying is a huge part of the cost. One of the reasons we are doing a 5 day is that it is over Thanksgiving week. All of my kids have off that week but I have a soon to be college student who wants to be home part of the week to see friends. For us its a compromise as I'm hoping the college kid will keep wanting to travel with us when possible! This will be our first cruise during Thanksgiving as we normally would go to WDW, however, a cruise is so much more relaxing. Having done 7 fun days on Liberty, I think there will be plenty for us to do!

This is a great idea, no matter which ship you choose! On our first Royal cruise with our kids, who were 12 and 16 at the time, we sailed on the Freedom in July 2010. Rob and I had an ocean view balcony, and we put the kids in an inside room across the hall. It was $100 cheaper than having all of us in the balcony. It is wonderful to have the extra space, two closets and two bathrooms with 4 people. We have also taken the kids on two Oasis cruises. On the first one in June 2012, we had the last ocean view balcony aft and the kids had the boardwalk balcony across the hall. That was about $800 more (I think) than having all of us in the OV balcony. It was so nice having the extra space before, I decided it was worth it. Plus I got to experience the boardwalk balcony myself. On the second Oasis trip, our youngest son graduated high school and took 2 friends, so that one was a little different. We had an ocean view balcony, a Central Park balcony and a boardwalk balcony. I don't think you even need actual connecting rooms to do this. The kids just have to be "near" you. Our kids were directly across the hall on the two trips with just the 4 of us. My suggestion is that you consider this when pricing your trip. You might even be able to get a better deal with 2 cabins if you book a balcony and an inside (but not necessarily on the Harmony). ?

The different shades of blue are just incredible! This struck me at glacier national Park and here there are even more shades. What amazing framed pictures these would make! Thanks for taking us sad wannabes with you!! Jane

I've been fighting with the website for a month. Different computers, mac and pc, different browsers, cleared cache, etc. Called support and they were clueless. What I did finally find to work tonight and it has been flawless is to use the Chrome browser in incognito mode. This way no cookies or data is cached. This was the solution to all my woes and I was able to print 5 set sail passes and luggage tags and actually be able to browse excursions, etc. Prior to incognito mode, it was hit or miss being able to actually see my reservation(s) with most of the time getting errors saying my account could not be updated or accessed at this time. Use incognito mode! Or try private mode in other browsers.

I think it’s an Asian port

Is that a new location in the Caribbean Royal visits?

Correct you get points based on the land tour and cruise. In my case I had booked the "8B" cruisetour on Radiance (13 nights) and was in a suite for the cruise part. Total points earned was 26, 13 points for each night and an extra 13 points for staying in a suite for the cruise.

We started cruising about 4 years ago and started off on a 5 day Brilliance cruise and after wished we had done 7 days. We are mostly introverts and we don't do the social things like Bingo, trivia, etc. We hang out mostly as a family with my kids (not 18, 15, 11 and 7) going to the teen/AO clubs every once in a while and in the evening. We enjoy the balance of family time and couple time that cruising offers. We like My Time Dining for semi-casual dining but if you want true casual dining the Windjammer would be your best bet. However, every ship the Windjammer gets crowded during peak hours and I never eat there as it is too crowded to me for breakfast and lunch. It isn't very crowded during dinner. With My Time Dining you can get a table just for your family easily too. My vote is Oasis class (Harmony especially) if in the budget but if not in the budget then go with Freedom class (Independence). Both will have good activities for you and the kids. We are trying Independence and Adventure for our next cruises in 2018 and 2019 but will go back to Oasis class (Oasis or Harmony) for spring break 2020. Just an FYI, OV balcony staterooms are very tight for 4 and especially tight on Oasis class. If there is any way to do 2 connecting rooms (even interior) that is so much better to have an extra bathroom and extra space. If you go out of Cape Liberty, don't go during Spring Break as it may not be very warm then! I'd also avoid the Mariner Perfect Day because you will be taking a chance if construction will be done by your cruise plus Nassau is really expensive. Final thing, if you decide to go out of Miami or Fort Lauderdale, you can fly in to either airport. It is about a 35-45 minute drive between the 2 cities.

From the kids perspective, they're are going to have a blast on any of the ships you choose. Independence and Mariner both just got updates they would love but obviously there will be more for everyone to do on an Oasis class. When we took our kids on their first cruise they were 12 and 14 and absolutely loved it. We started them out with tight restrictions (requiring them to check in with us every couple of hours or leaving notes on the mirror in the cabin as to where they were). as they proved their level of responsibility, we loosened up their reigns. We just set the expectation that if at any point they broke a rule (within reason) or missed a check in time, they would be glued to our hip for the next day. Happy to say we never had any incidents. It was a real pleasure to see them in their own element on the ship enjoying everything with other kids their age. Surprisingly they checked in with us more frequently than either of us expected which was great! Lots of tears from both of them at the end of the cruise but many of their friends they stil keep in contact 2 years later.

I would vote for Independence of the Seas. Recently had a dry dock with many new features. Teens will love Flowrider, Water Slide, Rock Climbing, Basketball Court, Mini Golf, Escape Room, Laser Tag, Trampoline Park, etc... The ~4200 passenger size doesn't feel that large and getting on/off ship flows smoother than 6000+ passenger ships. The 5 night itinerary is a selling point- not trapped for 7 nights if unhappy after 2 days... Smaller Bars with nice live music combos. Food is Food. Windjammer works and Pizza/Sandwiches available in Central Promenade. We've been on two Freedom Class ships and loved them. Independence is on our 'to do' list.... You can certainly request, and receive, a private table in the main dining room. We are a party of 3 and get our own table >80% of the time...

Show this page to your husband: Photos of Library & Card Room When I saw it, I told my wife, "Look! This is great! They have boring stuff too!!!"

@JLMoran -- I thought of you when I saw this.

If you've seen Deadpool 2, you'll get this. ?

The only tea I drink is a Long Island Iced Tea. But, I don't think Bailey's would be very good in it.

Will be giving that a try ASAP!

Just shove me out the door. I will drift down to the helipad just fine....

Bailey's in your hot tea is also very yummy

A bots job is never done.

Wow! Thank you all so much for the recommendations! Great information and I really appreciate it. We have gotten ourselves set up on the cruise planner and were flipping through today. We're going to spend some time this weekend booking our excursions. I like the idea of getting sale prices on some of these items, but I also don't want to miss out on the opportunities. I have no idea how quickly some of these book up. Thank you for the thought about booking now and potentially changing our booking later if we find it at a different price. Getting pretty excited! Now I just have to wait several months until we actually set sail! 5 months out is probably a little too early to start packing!

Matt had you take the photo?...how convenient ?

See, these photos and the clear awe being expressed are why I believe you have to see Alaska on a Radiance ship, Voyager class at the largest, because only those smaller ships can actually get to all these places. Can Ovation even go to this spot? If she can, can she get anywhere near as close without hitting the cliffs on either side while turning? And get you get nearly as much time with a good view when you'll be fighting with twice as many passengers to see it all? Sure, Ovation is a cold-weather ship and has a lot more to offer on board, but when the goal is seeing all of that stuff not on the ship, I don't know if the potential trade-offs in the final experience are worth it.

Photo intensive post coming up. As much as I try by dumping picture after picture into this blog there are no words or mere photos that can adequately capture the beauty and how you feel when experiencing Alaska live. This will serve as my feeble attempt because it was a pretty incredible morning. Just understand these photos don't do it justice. I had a prime spot at the very front of the bow as we approached Dawes glacier. I hardly noticed the rain. But it was time to let someone else have a turn. Sharing is caring. I made my way through the crowd and grabbed a shot of the glacier including my new best friends. I went back under the cover of deck 4 to get out of the rain so I could change to a different lens. There were more 'growlers' as the senior officer on the helipad called them when the chucks of ice (glacier) are a certain size. The blue color comes from hundreds of feet of ice compressing and squeezing the oxygen out of the ice. With the sun now coming and going it dramatically changed the colors of the glacier, growlers and cliff walls of Endicott Arm. Here two different arms of this glacier meet. Where the glacier has been rubbing down the wall of the rock face it grinds off pieces of rock that form the dark strips that can be seen on top of the glacier. Everywhere I turned there was something that caught my eye. We had reached our closest approach to the glacier at approximately 1 mile. From here the Captain began to slowly turn the ship in a clockwise circle. There isn't a bad spot to be, except maybe in the casino, the pub or a restroom. From here I ventured up to deck 12. A polar bear had emerged on the ship roaming around with the ship photographers. With the first 90° of a turn complete the ship was sideways across Endicott Arm and the views in direction we had come from was pretty impressive. As impressive as the glacier may be, I was equally impressed with the cliff faces of the rock walls of Endicott Arm surrounding the ship. It was truly awe inspiring. The deck 12 sun deck above the Sky Bar was a popular spot for a quick selfie. With that it was time to leave. We began our departure back down into Endicott Arm.

If you want a nice reasonably priced beach on St. Maarten, there is Great Bay beach right by the cruise ship. It is a $7 water taxi ride round trip and chairs are about $20 for 2. @twangster has pictures in one of his live blogs (I think it was the Christmas one). I did a private tour in March. A tour is a great way to see the island the progress of the island post hurricane. Back in March, Orient beach was still not back to normal and only had 1 restaurant and I don't think any bathrooms. We also saw Maho beach (where the airplanes land). That seemed back to normal with restaurants and facilities but it was very crowded for a very small beach. In general, the Dutch side seemed to have recovered better than the French side. When we go again next year, we'll either do a snorkeling tour or go to Great Bay beach.

And this is why I find the pizza onboard to be abominable -- After all, the best pizza on the planet comes from New York / New Jersey! Chicago's a close second. ? And with that, we've met the requirement that "all conversations must eventually come back to the pizza."

St. Maarten -- Soualiga Destinations / Capt. Bob's! You can find my review here:

We don't have Netflix but will be signing up for a free trial when it comes out, as we may be in the movie! We were in three scenes, so we have three chances of making it in! LOL Actually, two are the same scene, but we had changed our clothes for filming of the next scene and were waiting so they stuck us in the background. So my husband and I can be in the same scene two times; once in our shorts and once in our evening wear! LOL There were others on the group cruise that filmed background scenes too; I can't wait to see who actually makes the final cut!!!

Or you can carry a compact camera and have someone take your picture. Most everybody is happy to take pictures. Our one and only family cruise that we did NONE of the formal night pictures turned out. From that day forward we always have a compact camera with us. A USB or disc is nice to have. We have never purchased a package but always buy 2 or 3 pictures each cruise. The key is to visit every single photographer and get a picture taken. Some of the best pictures we have are doing casual poses or being silly when leaving or coming to the ship. A picture is worth a thousand words and can be priceless to look back on.

That’s the film they were shooting when @Matt and a few others (@twangster?) were on board and even had a chance to be extras!

I booked a tight connection in Salt Lake and for the first time ever my arrival gate was literally right beside my connecting departure gate. Connection made, the flight up to Seattle was uneventful. We arrived at our gate at 9:38am. After waiting for my checked bag and hailing a Lyft ($39.95) I got to the hotel at 10:45am. Ride sharing apps use an area of the parking garage to operate from. After baggage claim you have to proceed up one level and across a skybridge into the garage to row "i" where there were dozens of folks waiting for their drivers. At the hotel apparently I was the first to check in from the group and they had one room ready on the 2nd floor so I took it despite not really having a view of any sort. Bag dropped in my room I headed out for the 10 minute walk to the Space Needle and Chihuly Garden and Glass.

We got 133 pictures on ours last July on the Oasis

The photo package can be a great deal, but it relies on you to take the time to stop and take a lot of photos with the ship's photographers. There's certainly ample opportunity and many have reported getting a ton of great photos with the package. I think they key is to get into the habit quickly of stopping to take photos and even taking individual photos to help get more shots in.

They will take as many pictures as you want to pose for! Usually they will take pics at the mdr, all over the ship on formal night, right when you get off the ship at the ports, with the captain sometimes. On formal nights you can take a ton! Jane

update. apparently, we were supposed to pay off the balance by the 25th of June (last monday), but, i did not get any email, no phone call, nothing!!!!! now the 1600 dollar balcony room is going to cost us 2100 dollars, and our on board credits are gone. NOT COOL ROYAL CARIBBEAN!!!!!!!