Day 2 of My Alaskan Cruise

By:  Cody Thomas, a Marvelous Mouse Travels agent

We woke up on day 2 of my Alaskan cruise to what seemed like a typical Alaskan day. It was chilly out and quite a bit of cloud cover. We were very excited to bundle up into all of our warm clothes and get ready for a day at sea.

We took this opportunity to explore the ship and familiarize ourselves with where everything was and what Radiance of the Seas had to offer. We explored areas like the spa, pool decks, Schooner Bar, Cinema, Casino, shops of Centrum, pub, Bombay Billiard Club, Sports Courts, Starquest lounge, mini golf course, and everyone’s favorite the Windjammer buffet. This ship may be designed smaller to fit into areas in Alaska that other ships can’t reach, but it is not missing the great bars and eateries you can find on Royal’s larger ship.

There’s a joke amongst cruisers that if you aren’t eating every two hours you just aren’t doing it right. We took full advantage of the buffet and main dining room offers as Royal really does have wonderful food options onboard their ships. For breakfast you could find anything from avocado toast to custom made omelets. Lunch was an array of almost all kinds of food styles that could meet anyone’s desire, and dinner always had a selection of fine dining options. Cruisers on 7 night or longer cruises always look forward to lobster night! Let’s not forget to talk about dessert! My personal favorite is Creme Brulee, but they had endless rotating selections that were all very mouth watering.

After Exploring the ship and a little bite to eat there was a great shopping presentation we attended. This goes over all of your ports and where to find great souvenirs or good deals on jewelry while in ports. If you attend these presentations you get perks, coupons, and even freebies. It was very educational and they went over all of the departure/boarding times for each port and provided you with maps.

Guess what time it is... That’s right, it’s been two hours. We enjoyed a delicious lunch as the ship was pulling into Yakutat Bay. As soon as we arrived at Hubbard Glacier everyone raced to the top of the ship for their glimpse at this outstanding sight. As we got to the top deck the clouds broke and the sun greeted us as though it knew something miraculous was happening. Everyone was snapping pictures and peeling off their layers of clothes as it warmed up quite quickly. It was a perfect moment and a great way for Alaska to greet us and allow us to join its celebration of beauty. Radiance did a very slow 360 while some guests took an excursion that allowed them to get up close and personal with the glaciers. Once all were back on board it was time to say goodbye and hold on tight to the memories.

After all the excitement we headed to our stateroom to get ready for Formal Night in the main dining room. Dinner was a delight and by the second night your waiters/waitresses are getting to know your preferences. This is something that becomes more important as the cruise progresses because they will have your favorites waiting for you when you come in the next day.

Following dinner we heard a roar coming from the centrum. As we headed over to see what was going on we heard a lot of laughter and applause. It looks like they were gearing up for another guest activity. This time it was “Finish the Lyrics” and boy what fun was this to watch. Some people really got into it and knew theory lyrics, others had a bit of a brain fart, but they still were rewarded for their courage with a Royal Caribbean keychain!

After that excitement we were ready to continue the fun and we journeyed to the Aurora Theater to enjoy the musical talents and dancing entertainment of the Royal Caribbean entertainment team. The show we watched was called “Piano Man”. It still amazes me that these entertainers can dance without falling off the stage on a moving boat. What talent!

This is where our day two journey comes to an end. Continue the journey with us as we make our first port in Juneau tomorrow!