KathyC

Pre-shutdown, the Oceanview Cafe on Summit was amazing.  There was a rotating station every night with some of the best buffet food we have had in our 31 years of cruising.  The fresh made daily ice cream in Scoops was fabulous.  None of that frozen chemical stuff that comes out of the machines for us! LOL  Loved the map on the wall that told you where each section was and what they were serving in it each meal.  Hand tossed pizzas, too. 
We're back on her in April, I hope things haven't changed too much.  We sailed Beyond on October, and while she had some struggles due to staffing issues, we were not unhappy.

We're on Summit April 8 - come join! 

Just disembarked from Beyond and had a great time. Celebrity is my line. This ship along with Edge and Apex are designed specifically to target the 27+ straight and gay couples with no kids, fresh walets-  who need locations to take Instagram pictures. Champaign glass shaped hot tubs, comedic modern art, clear plunge pools including many cruisers with thong style bikinis. The ship also includes needles tech.  I'am very happy with a light switch with and a toilet flusher.  These cabins have 3-4 mood light settings, electronically controlled window shades - this is clearly for the 27+ crowd.  Having said that they do have a kids club. There is traditional cruise food as well as art on the plate style and other trendy type vegan etc.  The entertainment on our 5 night voyage included a comedian, a Broadway review  (featuring modern musicals / numbers).  However they also had a "soultown" show- which is clearly directed at the 60 plus cruisers. I would note that all of the slots are also high tech including wireless cell-phone chargers on most. Also, I hope you are sitting down - NO BINGO - they prefer Deal or No Deal- which was interrupted on my cruise since Captain Kate turned the ship around to perform a rescue. Certainly a picture with Captain Kate says it all for your Instagram or Tik Tok...  The gym has the most high tech equipment, including Pelatons and all manner of classes and personal training.  The same can be said of the spa treatments. The ship has 3 separate DJS which sometimes battle during silent discoes or take turns on the pool deck parties playing different styles of music. 
As far as the drink package goes, with the pricing changes - either buy the premium or drink sea water.  The only thing included on the basic package is Coors light and diet coke (as an example).  Not a single martini, non-fat -double shot, no whip whatever latte is included, or any of those post modern cocktails that take longer to make than to drink are included. The best is on embarkation day, the first bar you have to pass is the Martini Bar and you realize that nothing on the menu is included in the basic package - conveniently located next to guest services for the on-board premium upgrade fee.
Having said that everyone cruises different.  Having been on both Edge and Beyond, Celebrity would love nothing more than to entice the 27+ crowd away from Virgin Voyages- and I would note that Virgin is struggling since they have not marketed to anyone over 40, yet many 27-40s still have mortgages and recent alimony payments for their first marriages and therefore cannot afford the rockstar suite.  That being said, Celebrity has not forgotten about their 60's crowd and I think they have done a pretty good job of keeping most happy.  

This is weird.  We have 4 Royal cruises booked for 23/24 and ZERO Celebrity.  First time in a long time I don't have a Celebrity cruise on the horizon.  May need to rectify that situation!

For those of you that have book this cruise.  Spectras Cabaret is available on the planner to reserve!!!

Has the entertainment booking window opened yet?
My inlaws are on this sailing, and they keep asking me questions...I haven't sailed Quantum class since 2015, yet they keep thinking I have all the answers.  They are asking what they will need to pre-book.  I told them probably anything in the theater. Anything else?

Yes, we were in the "parade".  We were on Captain Kate's instagram.

Me neither. It was there before. 
 
I’ll try again. 
 
 

We just got off Beyond, Capt Kate was only a passenger but she still was welcoming to meeting everyone and even did Bugnaked Trivia.  Did you win?? That was the only way to hold her on our sailing.  😄 

OMG yes!  Sorry I didn't see this post!  We just got back.  Did you love it???  I'm sorry I didn't see this post sooner, we could have met up! 

We'll be on Beyond for her first North American sailing.  Can't wait!  October cannot get here fast enough...

Thanks for your honest words!  We're considering a sailing in Aug 2023 on a Celebrity ship that takes us to some of your stops. I only know a little about that part of the world, so hearing about what's at those ports is very helpful.

Thanks for your honest words!  We're considering a sailing in Aug 2023 on a Celebrity ship that takes us to some of your stops. I only know a little about that part of the world, so hearing about what's at those ports is very helpful.

Thanks for your honest words!  We're considering a sailing in Aug 2023 on a Celebrity ship that takes us to some of your stops. I only know a little about that part of the world, so hearing about what's at those ports is very helpful.

One last thing I want to leave you with. 
The only real issue I had on the trip was I got real tired of hearing people complain.  Our cruise has over 300 Pinnacle cruisers and the most of the rest was Diamond and Diamond plus.  The ship had a couple of meetings with the staff warning them how picky the cruisers on this cruise were going to be.  Most of the people on the cruise were great but there was enough that were not that you got tired of hearing it.  I was told that the ship had to leave about 350 staff in Copenhagen because the USA would not give them a work visa.  All the ships are short staffed to start with.  All the staff was working their hardest to make a great cruise for us.  I seen the glass half full and appreciate everything they did.  Please, going forward do not be the glass half empty person and only see what you did not get on your cruise.
Thank you for following,
Mike
 

Day four of the land tour.
We appreciated being able to sleep in a little after our late excursion, and we opened the window as soon as we got to the room, so it was a comfortable temperature. We had a leisurely breakfast at the buffet, and waited in the lobby for the bus to arrive. And we waited... And. We. Waited. About 10:30 the tour director said there was a delay and she was not allowed to give us any details. We thought maybe the bus driver tested positive for covid since she kept saying she wasn't allowed to give any more information. DH and the kids killed some time playing cards, and I read and took more pictures of the mountain and helicopter/plane tours. After all, we were not going to be seeing Denali again.





 
About noon, the tour director finally told us that there was a problem with the bus, not the driver. Her husband, who is a driver with the same company, was bringing his bus to our hotel so we could continue our trip. We finally left Talkeetna about 1:30pm and our next stop was Anchorage. The original plan was to stop for 2 hours in the city for lunch and for those who did not bring emed tests to go to a testing center to take their test to be able to board the cruise ship. The delay threw that off a little, and we didn't get to Anchorage until almost 4pm. The covid policies for the company were changing with every tour and instead of testing at the hotel this evening as most of us planned, the tour company required everyone to get off the bus at the convention center to test. If you had your emed test, you were brought to a big open room with several tables to complete the video call. This meant the driver had to pull the luggage off the bus in the middle of downtown Anchorage as some people had theirs packed. The process seemed extremely disorganized, and you could tell the tour director was frustrated with the changes. They have only been back to cruise tours for 4 weeks since being shut down so I'm sure it all felt new. Plus they kept changing where and when they wanted us to test on her. To get everyone's results took about 2 hours, but in the end, I think this worked out the best.
1. The entire group tested all at once so no one could accidentally forget or not be able to test because of poor internet connection at the hotel. You had to show your negative results to get back onto the bus and continue the tour.
2. A couple people had invalid emed tests and they were able to get tested at the convention center while we were still there. The test at the convention center was $89, but at least they had an alternative.
3. Fortunately everyone in the tour tested negative, but if there was a positive test, you were not allowed to continue with the tour. Had we waited until we were at the hotel that night, or if we had tested the night before and tested positive, we would be stuck in rural Alaska with few options for hotel or transportation.
As I said, everyone was negative though so it was back on the bus to Alyeska which was about an hour away. We arrived about 7pm, got to our room, opened the window and went to dinner at the hotel. This was the nicest hotel as it is a ski resort in the winter. 
The day seemed a little of a waste because of the mechanical problem with the bus, but we didn't really have anything planned. We could have taken the aerial tram to the top of the mountain, but it closed before we arrived. We were ok with the way the day turned out - the kids were tired because of the long bus rides, and tomorrow we have two included excursion before boarding Radiance of the Seas! Bags in the hall by 8:30am, and the bus leaves the hotel at 10.
 

We were on Radiance last month - have an amazing time!  We didn't do the cruisetour before hand, but wish we had. Our favorite things about our sailing were the two train rides we did. We did Goldstar on the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Seward then in Skagway the White Pass Summit Railway.  If we ever go back to Alaska, we'll be exploring the interior more. 

Day Four: Icy Strait Point 
I practically overslept again today. By the time I woke up, we were already in port. We had a quick breakfast then got all our layers and rain gear on since there was lots of wind and rain. We got off the ship and headed off to find another magnet after posting the blog. We didn’t find one immediately but what we did find was a free ride through a forest on a gondola.

There was a giant gift shop there and another gondola you had to pay for to go up to the mountains. We opted for shopping instead of going up. There was a perfect magnet that matched the one we found in Juneau. We also got a deck of foil cards. It was still rainy and cold so instead of walking to Hoonah we started to head back to the ship. On the way we saw a whale come up for air. It was so magnificent and majestic. Even if you’re not paying for a whale watching tour, I definitely recommend being on the lookout for whales. 

We got lunch then walked around the ship a bit. We were going to go to a trivia but unlike most activities they started on time and we were late so we missed out. I went to the library and did the daily puzzle they had there then went looking for a book. Instead of finding a good book, I found a duck! There were these ladies in the library playing Kings in the Corner so I asked them to teach me how to play. They gladly did and we played a few games. One of the ladies told me that she and her daughter had been looking for a duck all cruise and couldn’t find any, so I gave her the one I found. I won two of the games we played then had to go back to the stateroom to read and write for a bit.
Now it’s time for the duck of the day! I hid the blue duck named Dewey. My brother hid the yellow, Huey, and my dad hid the green, Luey. Duck Tales! Oh wait, this isn’t Disney. Oh well.

We got all fancied up and went for pictures. Then we went to a magic comedy show with Bill Cook performing. He was amazing at magic and I couldn’t stop laughing. If you’re going on a cruise with him performing, go to the show. If not he was on Penn & Teller so you could look that up. It was the best show I’ve seen all cruise. 

We went to dinner a little rushed since the show ran over a bit but still got there on time. I had a fruit cup, lasagna, and vanilla ice cream. I know, a boring meal, but it was really good.

After, I went to get my first souvenir. I love cruising and one piece of it I love is the towel animals they put in your room. We had stopped by the photo desk and found the perfect thing for me. It was a stuffed elephant that looked like a towel animal! Now I can feel like I’m on a cruise whenever I want. 

My brother and I went to Optix where it was very chaotic. There were super competitive people playing video games and foosball. We just sat in a quieter corner until most of them left. Then we chose to do a scavenger hunt since there was no activity planned. We won and got metal straws and a pop socket for a prize. Then we played Mario Kart and I got second in the first round. We couldn’t finish the game though since we had to be back to the room by 11 pm and went to sleep. 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Three: Juneau
I slept in so much today, to around 8 am. Once we got up and ready for the day, we had a quick breakfast. The plan after that was to go swimming, rock climbing, and then play mini golf, but it was too cold and windy to do any of that. So my parents headed off to scrapbooking. I didn’t want to go with them so I went to Optix and played another game of foosball. I lost and no one wanted a rematch so my brother and I went to hide the duck of the day! Today’s duck was Seńior Quacks. My brother hid the duck today in his favorite place, a bush. Good luck finding him. Hint: he’s blue. 

I got bored just sitting in the room afterwards so I went back to Optix and played a game of twister and won! I played foosball and yet again lost. I’m trying to get better at it but I’m not sure how well that’s working out. 
There was a paper airplane competition that I attended thinking it’d just be fun and I wouldn’t win anything other than a keychain if I did end up winning. There were three rounds. The first was distance on floor level. I passed that easily. The second was distance over a longer distance and you had to make it to the other balcony. I almost missed it but made it and moved on to third, test of height. My plane wasn’t designed for height so I missed, but I still got third place, and I got not only a keychain, but a medal too. 

We had a quick lunch at Windjammer, then went on shore to Juneau. We canoed on Mendenhall Lake and got really close to the glacier. I even touched a big chunk of ice with my oar. It was really great, but was also little cold. If you do that excursion I definitely recommend layers and the outer layer being water resistant or quick dry. 


We shopped for a bit and found our magnet for Juneau. My family travels a lot and everywhere we go we get a magnet from there to put on our giant magnet boards at home. 
We boarded the boat right before we pulled out of dock. Since we were cutting it so close, we had to rush to dinner with all our stuff. At dinner for the past few days, we’ve had a table for eight and no table mates so half the table is empty. Finally, three people joined us. They seemed pretty nice and were very friendly and talkative. For dinner I had Caesar Salad, Pork Chop, and Mississippi Mudpie. All of them were amazing, but there was a bit too much fat and bones in the pork than I’d like. 

My brother and I went to Optix again after dinner and played the Logo Quiz. We got 48 out of 50 of them right. We also played foosball but didn’t have the time to finish the game. Below is the schedule for Optix today. They never have times on them but the first one always starts at 9 pm and the last ends at 12 am. Usually they each last half an hour to an hour. 

Then we went to a comedy show with Alvin Williams performing. He was hilarious and his show was family friendly and slightly interactive. We had a crowd that was quieter and smaller so he kept making jokes on how we were so quiet. Overall I totally recommend going to his show. 
We went back to the stateroom and as always, I fell right asleep. 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day Two: Sea Day and Inside Passage
This is morning we had a bit of a late start. I, of course, woke up around 6 am and read a bit but everyone else slept in a little bit later. It’s colder today so I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt under a t-shirt and I’m warm and cozy. At breakfast the pancakes were wonderful as well as the chocolate donut. The whipped cream was a little strange, it tasted like butter and I didn’t really like it. 
We went to a sudoku competition and some other guy finished the puzzle in almost four minutes! I’m not great at sudoku so I turned my paper into origami. Afterwards we listened to a talk about the Klondike Gold Rush and Mounties, but we couldn’t stay the whole time since we wanted to go to the Alaska Port and Shopping Show where they gave us some great tips on where to shop and a coupon for a free pendant that I might show a picture of in the next post. Then we had a quick lunch and my mom and I headed off to a lady’s pamper party. A little bit later we went to a Disney trivia and we won, only missing one question! My brother and I went to go to Optix, but a sign on the door said “At the basketball court” so we figured they were playing basketball which neither of us wanted to play. We headed back to the stateroom and I wrote some in my nook. Later we found out from the Royal Caribbean app that they were playing dodgeball, not basketball. I would’ve liked to play dodgeball, but I only found out after they were done so I guess you should always check the app or go see what Optix is doing if they’re not there. 
Today’s duck of the day is Belle. She’s my favorite duck because she has a book. I wanted to make sure she liked where she was hiding so you can guess where she went. 

You guessed it, in the cozy little library on deck nine. We went back to see if she was still there a couple hours after we hid her and she was. Hopefully a book lover finds her soon. 
We played around in the room a bit and I read some. Surprisingly, we found internet from the Canadian shore for a little bit and posted my blog yesterday even though we were at sea. 
Tonight was formal night so we got all fancy and took some pictures. Sadly when I’m fancy, I’m wearing a dress and sandals and therefore a bit cold. But it was okay since we staying inside most the time. 
Once we got all the pictures we wanted, we rushed off to the production of Piano Man. We got there about ten minutes late but could still find some seats. I figured it would’ve been a bunch of Billy Joel songs with a small amount of storyline, but then they started playing Elton John and then Wizard of Oz. I got very confused and the storyline was nonexistent. The tech team had some problems moving set and with lighting and audio. I only stayed because the performers were amazing even with the random script they had to go off of and I love music. 
Then we rushed off to dinner. I had a fruit cup, roasted chicken, and carrot cake. I have to say, all three were amazing and I entirely recommend them, though the carrot cake is not there every day, so be on the lookout for it. 

These were some of the activities to do in Optix, but I didn’t do any of them. A friend told me the selfie hunt was quite a workout and was fun. 

I played on their foosball table. I won and then we went back to the stateroom and I read some more in my nook and watched the beautiful sunset which seemed to never end. 


I read until I almost fell asleep in my nook, then had to get in bed and sleep. 

 
 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

Day One: Embarkation 
Finally, the day to get on the cruise! We woke up around 6:00 AM since we haven’t quite adjusted to the time zone yet and we just lazed around our Airbnb for an hour or two. Then, since we’re in Canada, we decided to find a local place to have breakfast and found Tim Hortons which was amazing. I got a chocolate croissant and definitely recommend going there. 
After breakfast, we had a bit of time to spare so we went to a lighthouse at Stanley Park. It was windy and rainy so we had on rain jackets but I wished I had my gloves. The weather is in the 50s and 60s so that’s a little chilly for a Floridian. 
Then it was off to the cruise port to board the ship! It all went pretty fast until we got to the room to wait to board, but that wasn’t too bad either. Once we got on we went to Windjammers, the buffet, and had lunch. The burgers there were amazing, but for dessert the only ice cream they had was chocolate so I got a slice of pound cake instead. 
Once we were done with lunch, we played a quick game of ping pong and then headed off to see the stateroom. It was bigger than any other stateroom that I’ve been in before, since my parents booked the “Ultra Spacious Oceanview”.  When I first heard that, I was most excited that we would get to see the ocean, but I absolutely love how much space we have too. There was this little room with a bunk bed in there for me and my brother to share and it had a curtain to separate it off from the rest of the stateroom. The best thing about the whole room was these two giant windows with a platform to sit in them. There was plenty of dresser and closet space to put everyone’s clothes. It’s pretty great. 

 

A little bit later we went to the check out the teen club, Optix. The soda bar isn’t open anymore, and there’s a lot of video games in there. It seems like a great place to meet up with friends, have a nice chat, and it has scheduled activities everyday.
 
 

Finally we had started moving from the dock, so we went up to the top deck to get a cool picture with the Lion’s Gate Bridge as the ship passed below it. It almost looked like we wouldn’t make it under. 
We went to dinner and everything seemed so fancy. We have great waiters who somehow always refilled our drinks without us even noticing he was there. I got Caesar Salad for a starter, which was amazing, New York Strip Steak for the main course, and Apple Blossom a la mode for dessert. Both the starter and dessert blew me away, but I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t any A1 or any sauce but it was great other than that. 

After rushing through dinner, I went to Optix to do a scavenger hunt. It was this question sheet that you had to run around the ship and try to find all the answers. My group didn’t finish all the questions, but we won with the most questions right. The grand prize… a highlighter. Honestly I would’ve loved it even without the prize. 
We are participating with Cruising Ducks so I went back to the stateroom and got my duck of the day to hide before getting some sleep. Today’s duck was named Scrooge. 

Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!
 
 
 
 

Travel Day Post
After a 4:00 AM wake up call, we were on our way to the airport to catch the first flight. Unusually, lines for both checking bags and security were shorter than expected when we got to the Orlando airport. We did have a bit of a holdup before we could get to our gate though. One of our bags had to be searched because they didn’t know what something in it was. So they took it aside and pulled out our lunchbox that we brought to eat on the second flight. The perpetrator was a block of cheese. Luckily that didn’t make us late for the first flight and we got on with no problem. Sadly my dad couldn’t sit next to the rest of us on the plane, but he was only a row up and across so it was alright. The flight was smooth and I got a cup of hot tea about halfway through. We got off at Toronto and only had an hour and fifteen minutes to get through customs and catch the flight to Vancouver. 

Customs was pretty easy too, we had to walk a lot and then we got to the desks with the people checking everyone. You show them your face and passport and they make sure you are who you say you are and then they ask if you’re bringing any food. If you had meat or dairy, they had to make sure it was sealed and from the USA. We had brought salami and that troublesome block of cheese so it took a little longer but then we were on our way to our gate. The best part about customs was that we got to skip the whole security line. Then we were on our way to the flight to Vancouver and got there just in time to board. 
 
The five hour Vancouver flight was tiring. This time they had soda so I got Sprite and my mom got Diet Coke. I tried to sleep on the plane for a bit, but I’ve never been able to sleep that well when we’re flying. When we started the descent to Vancouver, we saw the mountaintops peeking out from the clouds and it all seemed so magical. 

Once we got our checked bags, we headed over to pick up our rental car. It was a little small for all our stuff, but we made it work. Then we were off to the Lynn Canyon to see the suspension bridge. The whole forest was like we stepped into a fairytale and we hiked for an hour. We might have done more, but there were so, so, so many stairs. Either way, I highly recommend it, just don’t forget your water bottle and camera. 

We got to the Airbnb which was rather comfortable and had our airplane leftovers for dinner. Then we got the must do of any vacation: ice cream! It was at this cozy little place called Welcome Parlour Ice Cream that had a kind of sampler dish where you could get four scoops of ice cream. I shared it with my brother, Jonathan, and it was amazing. Then we met a very friendly dog who just loved attention. It was nice that even though we had to leave our dog at home, we still had dogs around. 
 
Finally we got back to the Airbnb and Jonathan and I just fell straight asleep, excited to board the ship the next day. 
 
Stay tuned for my Alaska Adventure!

The following is from my teenage daughter who is doing this as both a summer project and a bit just for fun
Pre-Cruise Post
Tomorrow my family and I will be leaving Florida to go on Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas Alaska cruise! I’ve never been on a Royal Caribbean cruise or an Alaska cruise before, but I have been on quite a few Disney cruises in the Bahamas, Caribbean, and even the Panama Canal. This cruise was originally planned for 2020 but with COVID, it got pushed back a year, then another year. I’m just glad that it wasn’t canceled again, yet (I’m hoping I didn’t just jinx it), and I’m very excited to be cruising again!

A little bit about myself: my name is Caitlyn and I’m 13 years old. Now you’re probably wondering why a teenager is taking the time to write a blog while cruising. There’s two reasons really. One, I love writing more than almost anything else. I even go to an arts school to major in creative writing. Two, I had started researching what there was to do on the ship. Thing is, all the information I could find was from an adult’s perspective. I could find advice on what club to go to once the kids were asleep, but couldn't find almost any information about activities for teenagers or specifics about the teen club Optix, other than it exists.  So I said to myself: "Self, why don’t you help all the other teenagers going on this kind of cruise and write the info yourself?" And so that’s what I’m doing.

I’ll be going on this cruise with my mom, dad, and my 15 year old brother, Jonathan. In my posts, most of the pictures will come from Jonathan. Sadly we can’t take our dog Coco, so we had to find people to take care of him. Luckily, we have good friends who offered to let him stay at their house so he isn’t lonely. I will miss him from the moment we leave till when we get back again.



The toughest part about this cruise was probably the planning. Seven days to fill with excursions and the endless possibilities of what we could do. Needless to say it took a lot of planning, but I’m happy with the way it turned out. We’ll be doing a fun excursion at almost every port. There’s also a little bit of an adventure after the cruise before we go home too, but more on that later.

Nope, I was wrong before, the toughest part was packing! Since I live in Florida, we have to fly to Vancouver to board the ship. We can only have four carry-ons (one per person) and we’re only checking two bags so we don’t have any space to spare. One way to save space was using these wonderful packing cubes that make everything seem to take less space… although, it can’t do anything to make these clunky hiking boots any smaller




We are nearly done packing already and somehow all of our clothes and shoes and cameras and everything fit into our suitcases. Now it’s just a matter of waking up tomorrow before the sun is up and fitting everything in the car… Wish us luck!

Only one more day till we fly out and I think I might explode with excitement! I’m going to try my best to post every day, but we didn’t get the internet package, so I can only post at ports. If I miss a day, I’ll catch up later. I just can’t wait for seven days on the seas to the last frontier to see the beautiful scenery and run away from the Florida heat.

Stay tuned in for my Alaska Adventure!

I second the travel agent comment above.  While some agencies do charge fees for things like changes (like Costco Travel for example) a good TA does not. They will be able to see cabins that you cannot from the regular booking website, plus have access to other cabins that you can only reserve by calling Royal (which the TA will do).  They can also help with answering questions about entry visas and if they don't know will get the answer for you.  Some agencies will also price check your reservation and secure you lower prices (which in turn lowers their commission but they do it anyway) so you pay the lowest price.  If you book yourself, you have to do that check every single time on your own, and call Royal for a re-price yourself.  The good TA will sit on hold for you, once again for no charge.  

We're back! Had a great time on the whole, but a couple of hiccups. We made it off the ship in decent time and found our excursion bus, along with others wearing the yellow stickers. Somehow though, our bus driver was confused about which tour we were on (another driver had switched the tours) and started taking us to the wrong locations. We got it sorted out and had a lovely time! ; ) I'll do a more detailed trip report soon : )