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Have You Ever Wondered About The Entertainment On A Cruise?

The entertainment on a cruise ship just has to be experienced, and is one of the reasons that cruises have so much intrinsic value……not just for the journey, or the destination, but for the experience onboard the ship. On the Radiance Of The Seas, the entertainment was absolutely terrific. The Aurora Theatre was the venue each night of some highly entertaining acts, and in this video that I made, I tried to capture a few seconds of most acts. There is so much that I could not include as I like to keep my videos down to 10 minutes or less. I also felt it was important to show you the Cascades staff, who were also highly entertaining, as were the Cruise Director’s Staff who entertained us from the Centrum (the lobby) to the swimming pool. If you go on a cruise, you won’t be bored!

Hope you all have an even more entertaining evening with watching this video. Thanks for viewing it.

Do You Ever Wonder About Food On A Cruise Ship?

Don’t wonder anymore! Take a look at all the incredible options that were available on the Radiance Of The Seas, during the cruise from Vancouver to Alaska. You will see Cascades Restaurant, the Windjammer Cafe, the Park Cafe, Rita’s Cantina, Izumi, Samba Grill, and Chops Grille. You will see Indian food including the delicious Andhra Pakora Curry that I just had to have two servings of, and there was also Indian food available each night on the dinner menu in Cascades.

After I had uploaded the video on to You Tube, I realized I had duplicate coverage of some scones in the Windjammer Cafe, but then thought who’s going to pay attention……I’ll just leave it in! It was easier for me to not upload the video a second time – it takes hours to upload everything to You Tube. Anyhow, I hope you’ll take a look, and you might even get hungry! Hope you are all having a terrific weekend.

PS: Just wanted to add that thumbnail images (such as the image you see in the video) drive me mad.  You only get three choices or so and in this video I did not get lucky!  You’d think if you are showing a video about food, then the thumbnail image should show something really good or mouthwatering.   My thumbnail pictures actually came from what I recorded on my camcorder (not photographs).   Three thumbnails get selected automatically, perhaps based upon the positioning of that particular image during a crucial moment when the thumbnail gets chosen.  If the three that get chosen automatically are not the most appealing thumbnails, you are left with an option, and that is to edit the video again to get another chance at a better thumbnail.  From what I can see, you don’t get to pick one, so it’s all about luck.  I got the least appealing thumbnails to choose from.  The other video that I just posted recently that shows the Radiance Of The Seas – Part 1, has a much better thumbnail – which just goes to show – that sometimes you can get lucky.  But with this video, it wasn’t so.  Sometimes, I get to a certain point where I just decide that I cannot be bothered to go back and edit again.  Who has the time?

Royal Caribbean’s Radiance Of The Seas, Vancouver to Alaska – Part 2

On this video, I have more video footage than photographs. I captured a sighting of a porcupine – I’ve never seen one before, therefore, I was so happy to get that on video! I also show the specialty restaurants, and a little of the entertainment. Also, you get to see the Solarium, and my favorite breakfast place on the ship – the Park Cafe.

Royal Caribbean’s Radiance Of The Seas, Vancouver to Alaska – Part 1

This video will show my photos and video footage of the cruise, and the port visits, including pictures of Mendenhall Glacier and Hubbard Glacier. Part 2 will have more cruise coverage.

Some people go on a cruise ship for the destination, and some go for the experience on the ship.  I liked both aspects, because I just love cruises, and love traveling.  My other favorite parts of the actual cruise were the entertainment (got a little bit of Bollywood), the Park Cafe food, and the Indian food in the Windjammer Cafe, where I also got Indian tea.  It’s important to have some of those home comforts!

Icy Strait Point

It is now Day 4 of the cruise – Monday, May 14th, 2012.  I don’t have any excursions booked for today, but one of the main excursions for this port is the zip line – which is for all those who wish to experience adventure, excitement and who aren’t afraid of heights.  I’m not daring enough to take the zip line – I like adventure, and excitement – but I think I either don’t like to be too high up or I’m just afraid of rides.

Icy Strait Point is very picturesque, and I’m glad I came off the ship to take a look.  There were several people onboard the ship who didn’t want to get off today because it was raining, and there had been a steady drizzle for most of the day.  We had to get on a tender boat to get to where the boat docked, and when I got off, I couldn’t help but be in awe of how beautiful the Radiance Of The Seas looked against the snow-clad mountains.

That’s me – Davinder – posing in front of the Radiance Of The Seas.

After taking pictures of the ship, I walked along the beach, to where I could see the zip line.  The rain kept on falling on the lens of both my camera and camcorder, so I kept on putting them away, and then getting tempted to take them back out again a few moments later, and then away again after a few minutes because of the rain.  It was a busy time mostly due to the rain.  Here are some more pictures that I took along the way.

               

As you may have noticed in one of the pictures, somebody had started a little fire on the beach to keep everyone warm.  It was quite icy cold in Icy Strait Point, it surely lives up to it’s name!  The drizzle did put a little damper on my outing, as I would definitely have liked to take more pictures, but I didn’t want to damage my camera, and already had got it wet various times.

I walked into the big brown building which was kind of like a museum towards the end of the pier, and this building also had quite a few shops.  Apparently, I had missed a native dance, and found out about this later.

I then started on the track of one of the nature trails on the other side of the building shown above (museum) to the left of it, and discovered a most incredible sight – a lake with trees and snow-clad mountains in the distance (shown below).  By this point, it was drizzling quite a bit.  I then recorded the zip line on my camcorder, and will have to put it into a video later and add the link.

Altogether, I spent about two and a half hours in Icy Strait Point, and would definitely recommend that you get off the ship to visit this port.  Don’t listen to those who tell you there’s nothing to see here, if you like natural beauty, you will see a lot of that around you.  I then proceeded to take the tender boat shown below at the dock back to the Radiance Of The Seas.

  

Recommendations: take your umbrella to Alaska, and a thick jacket, plus gloves, and you can’t go wrong.  Will soon write about Day 5 of the cruise.

12 Day Trip Vancouver to Alaska, May, 2012

I flew into Vancouver from San Diego on May 10, 2012, and spent a day there, and then caught a seven day cruise on the next day from Vancouver to Seward on the Radiance Of The Seas.   The port visits for the seven day cruise from Vancouver to Alaska include Ketchikan, Icy Strait Point, […]