RADIANT? Royal Caribbean RADIANCE of the Seas 2024 Alaskan Itineraries Reviewed! One is WAY Better! 

Absolutely agree!

The added one-way costs are why we typically only do round trip itineraries... But there are advantages if the budget is there, like you mention, being able to do more in the origination or destination ports. HAVE AN AMAZING TRIP!!!!

We are doing the one way. We budgeted a little more for 3 days in Anchorage. Kept looking for deals on hotels. The biggest expense as well is the car rental from the port and leaving it in Anchorage. The air line tickets were fine. I booked them through Royal Caribbean.

Thanks so much and congratulations on your cooking channel! Let me know if you have any questions, always happy to help!

@@ThisistheCruise will do and thank you. We made it home late. We didn’t watch yet. If not tomorrow night, on Saturday for sure

@@CookandBakewithSamer no worries. I'm on a cruise now and will get back to you when I return

I totally understand. For me, the distinction between a Sea Day and a Scenic Cruising Day is that a Sea Day doesn't offer anything beyond the walls of the ship. Done well, a scenic cruise offers a level of enrichment and enhanced experience you wouldn't otherwise get and a regular day at sea. This really depends on how the cruise line handles a scenic cruising day. For example, Holland America has their naturalists available in some of the public areas during scenic cruises to talk to passengers about what they're seeing. Plus they'll do talks over the P/A (only heard in public areas - or on the stateroom TVs) during those times as well. This is super interesting for places like Glacier Bay or Geirangerfjord Norway. We even had this happen during a scenic cruise of Stromboli - we were watching it erupt while Holland America gave a history of the island, the people, and how they handle the eruptions. If the line just treats it as a way to keep people on the ship and doesn't do anything special, then yes, I completely agree - it's just a little bit more interesting Sea Day.

Completely agree - another viewer who's been to Alaska quite a bit prefers Hubbard over Glacier Bay - but another friend of mine is the opposite, stating, "Hubbard is bigger, if you're looking for a single glacier - but Glacier Bay is a better overall experience." There's so much to see in Alaska that one trip isn't close to enough!

Nice! I hope you have an amazing trip!!!

@@ThisistheCruise thank you!

I honestly don't recall. However - it's likely that one of two things happened (even a combination) - I overlooked it - OR (more likely) it's the same itinerary that leaves at an earlier date and I didn't point it out in the visual. My graphics come from my app, and I try not to have the repeated sailings displayed. (I can easily confuse myself LOL. :-D) I hope you guys have (or had) an amazing time!!! If you remember, let me know how it went - I'd love to hear what you thought! Thanks for watching!!!

Thank you for replying. We're going on the July 19 cruise. Looking forward to it! Have a blessed week!!!

I've thought about it. I'm a very big HAL fan. What itinerary are you on and I'll run it through quick (at a minimum) and let you know how it scores.

​@@ThisistheCruise Zaandam July 10, 2024 (Thanks)

Of course! - 18.77. Right in the middle of the pack. Two areas where this one takes a little "hit" compared to some of the other itineraries: Only 3 stops and truly "round trip" from Vancouver. Some of the itineraries get a little bump because they go to both Vancouver AND Seattle. Major PROS with this itinerary: GLACIER BAY!!!!!! TWO days cruising Glaciers PLUS Inside Passage! Jeepers that's nice. Because you're doing all that amazing cruising, you don't have time for an extra (4th) stop - so it's understandable. And another bonus is that you don't have a throw-away stop at Victoria or similar. @HollandAmerica does it right, honestly. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I'd rather do this itinerary over any of the Royal's itineraries because it goes to Glacier Bay. Hands down, running away. Side note - I haven't really discussed my updated scoring methodology, but it's based on a weighted average, looking at all the stops from 10 different facets, plus scenic cruising, origination/destination and how desirable and unique the cruise is, etc... then those scores are compiled and weighted (it's fairly complex for a simple person like me. :-) ) for a score out of 100. It's literally impossible to get to 100 - so I'm still tweaking how I want to do the scoring, but for comparative purposes, it works pretty well. I hope that was helpful - It looks like an AWESOME cruise and I know you're going to have an incredible time!

And then there are the reasons why I chose this cruise. HAL ship is smaller. (I’m not going that far spending that much to ride go karts, a roller coaster, bumper cars, interaction with a mouse, etc.) HAL has better births (is anyone who picks NCL aware that it goes to Ward Cove not Ketchikan?) HAL generally has longer (better) times in port. (I was in port with Disney on my last AK cruise, the passengers that I met at the top of Mt Roberts were rushing to return to their ship at the farthest away birth because their time in port was early & short) Glacier Bay is nice, but having done both, I prefer Hubbard. (I’m glad I saw Mendenhal in 2008 when it was a lot more visible than it is now.) July - so I can take an excursion to see bears. (At this point in my life - School is out - or I would like to go very early/very late so I can see non-summer scenery) Vancouver - I like sailing between mainland Canada and Vancouver island/ Haida Gwai instead of in the gulf of Alaska. (Though I would for a 14- night cruise!)

What cha drinking there on the shelf behind you?

Hi - thanks for reaching out. I was trying to remember why I didn't review this particular itinerary in my ultimate Alaska video ( ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-pZdu8FQNMKU.html ), and then it came back to me when I looked it up. It's technically two one-way cruises combined into one 14-day cruise. I'm 100% for those types of itineraries (in fact I did that just last summer in Norway - two 7-days combined into one 14-day). The reason I didn't include this in that ultimate video is because it looked like the same itinerary twice... and it ALMOST is, but there was something I missed. You're visiting Glacier Bay twice (YES!) and then you ALSO visit College Fjord on the northbound portion and Hubbard Glacier on the southbound part. That's GREAT because I feel Glacier Bay is the best holistic experience, PLUS you get two other glaciers to compare it to. AND if the weather is bad one day at Glacier Bay, you get another shot! Cons: You visit the same ports twice, missing some of the diversity of Alaska Pros: Can you really have enough Alaska? You get to "go back" and do different things in the ports where maybe one visit didn't offer enough time to do. This is a great idea for a video - so thanks so much for the comment. I'm going to try to record one this week and get it posted ASAP. Thanks for watching!

@@ThisistheCruise Thanks, just subscribed. I am going to watch this video.

Thanks so much!