The half -way point on a pair of Alaska cruises
Due to really poor Internet connections on the ship, I gave up on posting while at sea the past week. Dad and I arrived back in Seattle early this morning, took the Quick Shuttle bus to Vancouver, and he’s about half-way back to Kelowna right now, while I’m at the Delta Airport Hotel waiting for Cathy to arrive.
Dad and I had a great cruise – the pleasure of having only a few hours of rain in total and lots of glassy seas added to the stress-free luxury of the ship. The weather seen to the right as we left Seattle was typical of the whole week – high cloud with temps in the 50s.
The Vision of the Seas was a bit surprising, as many of the reviews I’ve seen rate it a bit higher than the Radiance, while I’d rate it a notch below. It’s 3 years older and looks it – it has a lot of rough edges such as cracked tiles and grout and very dirty upholstery on some of the fabric-backed chairs in the Windjammer (the buffet restaurant). The decor is a fair bit more subdued than the Radiance, there’s no GPS readout on the TV and public screens, and the navigation (the layout of rooms) is more confusing. The level of service was excellent, as expected – far above what we got with Costa in February.
The only excursion we went on was in Juneau – a whale-watching trip with Captain Larry (it easily met the very high expectations I had for it). A full review of the cruise, with lots of photos from the 509 pictures in my already-edited album, will be posted a few days after we get back from this next cruise. Now, however, it’s time to go and find a hot tub…
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