Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6]

Our final day on the Radiance of the Seas included a stop at the Hubbard Glacier.

We woke up that morning and had breakfast with several family members, then we waited for our approach to the glacier. On our last Alaskan Cruise (where we visited Glacier Bay), I remember being very close to the glacier on the cruise ship itself, so we didn't feel the need to book an extra excursion that would take us closer to this glacier (because I assumed we would be just as close this time around).

As we approached the Hubbard Glacier - I am going to be completely honest here - I was very disappointed, especially considering how close we were able to get to the glacier last time. Don't get me wrong - it was gorgeous and all, but we were quite far from it and unable to see/hear the ice cracking like we did over in Glacier Bay. Despite that, it still made for a fun morning with our family all together in one stateroom and we still had some amazing views!

A naturalist was on board and oddly enough, he was the Canadian Mountie we listened to on our first day! From our stateroom, we were able to hear him on one of the channels on the TV, so we hung out on the balcony with the volume up on our TV and enjoyed the view!

My brother in law said it best when describing our cruise - he said it felt like we were floating in a post card! That's 100% accurate.

One benefit to this glacier day vs our previous cruise was the weather. The sun was shining and it really was a perfect day weather-wise!

At lunch, a cake was out on display for dessert (and it was yummy, too). I still never figured out how they made those mountains!

An Elvis impersonator was also present at lunch for entertainment! :)

While scanning over the daily schedule, we saw Disney trivia listed at 1 p.m. I already knew I wanted to play, but I wasn't sure I could rope anyone else into playing with me. To my surprise, I asked the question out loud and almost our entire group was in! Yay!

We arrived at the Schooner Lounge to play and the room was PACKED. We were instructed to break into teams of 6 and the guy running the trivia even had to have more copies run because there were so many groups!

I wasn't sure what to expect, but this was by far the easiest trivia I've ever done. They handed us a sheet of paper (face down of course) and told us when to begin. Our trivia basically consisted of partial views of different characters faces (about 20 of them) and we had to write who they were. My team was done in seriously 0.2 seconds and were among the first to turn in our form. Three teams finished all right at the same time and after a little deliberation, he decided that our team was the winner because we were the only team out of the three to have all of the characters names spelled correctly!

Winner winner chicken dinner! We were so excited! What did we win? Royal Caribbean key chains! Yay!

We expected to be in trivia about 45 minutes and when I asked Jason the time, he said it was only 1:08 p.m. Trivia seriously lasted about 5 minutes! Hah!

Our dinner that evening was delicious as always and we had a great time with our wait staff on our final evening of the cruise.

The final show and goodbye was great as well!

Even though the cruise itself was over, we still had two days of fun remaining - stay tuned for more from Alaska!  

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG

Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2]

On our last Alaskan cruise recap, I left off with our first evening on the ship and sailing away from Vancouver. Thankfully, our first full day on board was an "at sea day", so we ordered room service for breakfast. On Royal Caribbean, a continental breakfast is complimentary in the mornings (if you choose to do so), but any other type of room service throughout the day comes with a fee. We ordered coffee, fruit, and bagels and it was all nice and fresh (and yummy, too)!

After reading through the day's schedule, Jason and I decided we wanted to hear the Canadian Mountie speak. Coming from a law enforcement family (and as someone who loves history), the idea behind their troop fascinated me.

We also dropped Brayden off at the kids club for about an hour while we listened to the Mountie and he really enjoyed "circle time"...whatever that was! Hah!

After lunch, we took naps then went for a swim in the indoor solarium pool. This is normally an adult only area, but they were kind enough to open up hours in the morning and afternoon for the kids to swim.

Brayden LOVED the pool!

To get back to our room, we had to walk outside (which was rather chilly). Royal Caribbean does this silly thing with their pool towels, so you can't really use them for very long because you're paranoid about forgetting to return them. Basically, you check the pool towel out with your room key, and if you don't return it by checking it back in, your room is charged $25 per towel. Anyway, we used my sweatshirt to cover Brayden up with, so he turned into a little penguin while walking back to the room. It was SO funny and we heard so many giggles from people as they passed us by in the hallways!

That evening was formal night, so we got dressed and headed to dinner! I know I mentioned this in my previous post, but I truly loved our wait staff! They were so kind and generous and helpful. All 12 of us were also seated at one giant table which was nice!

We had a lovely towel creature waiting for us when we returned to our room! :)

We also enjoyed another gorgeous sunset as we sailed to our first port of all, Ketchikan!

By the time we woke up the following morning, we were docked in Ketchikan. We didn't plan any formal excursions here, so we took our time eating breakfast, getting off the ship, and shopping around town.

I just love the landscape of the port in Ketchikan. It's so colorful and welcoming!

We also had a chance to finally SEE our ship from the outside for the first time! With the way it was docked in Vancouver, we couldn't even see it before boarding!

My main goal in Ketchikan was to purchase an Alaska Pandora charm which I did! Some of our crew also walked to Starbucks which was about a mile away. If you're interested in Starbucks at all at any of these Alaskan ports of call, Ketchikan is your place. Unless you plan on taking an Uber, no other port has them within walking distance.

I loved being able to walk around slowly, take our time, and simply enjoy the clean and fresh air! It was a great day for sure!

While Brayden and Jason napped, I had the chance to do something I never get to do on a cruise - I spent about 2 hours on the balcony, drinking coffee and reading a book! It. Was. Heavenly!!!

Once Brayden woke up from his nap, he snuggled with me for a little while, then we got him dressed to go swimming in the pool!

Once leaving Ketchikan, I stood out on our balcony to snap a few pictures of the gorgeous landscape. Alaska truly is a magnificent place.

Back to the Solarium pool we went!

He truly loves the water!

For dinner that evening, we had a rip roaring good time while chanting our waiter's name during the parade and waving our napkins in the air. This truly was a wonderful time with Jason's family!!

Up next: Juneau and Skagway!

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For recaps from our 7 night Alaskan cruise on board the Radiance of the Seas, check out these links below:
Alaskan Cruise: Travel Day & Boarding the Ship [Part 1] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: At Sea Day & Ketchikan [Part 2] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Icy Straight Point [Part 3] & VLOG (Icy Straight Point & Juneau)
Alaskan Cruise: Juneau & Whale Watching [Part 4]
Alaskan Cruise: Skagway & A Musher's Camp [Part 5] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Hubbard Glacier [Part 6] & VLOG
Alaskan Cruise: Seward and Anchorage [Part 7] & VLOG

Disney Cruise Day 7: Last At Sea Day

Our goals for our final at sea day were to relax and just simply enjoy being on the Disney Fantasy. I had a massage booked that morning and Jason wanted to watch the latest Star Wars movie (Solo), so we slept in, took our time getting ready, and enjoyed being on a giant vessel out at sea!

I loved looking at the "map" every day on the TV in our room to see how far we'd sailed!

After breakfast, I stopped by the Cove Cafe for another cold brew. I'm seriously addicted - they are delicious!

My massage was booked for mid-morning and after saying goodbye to Jason, I headed up to the Senses Spa.

They had me change into a robe, then wait in this little room to fill out paperwork and wait for my name to be called.

After meeting my massage therapist, she took me down the hallway to this room. The view was awesome (but let's be honest...who really notices the view during a massage when you have your face down in a pillow?)

Sooo...what were my thoughts on this massage? Well, I decided to splurge for it because it was my birthday trip and I'd never experienced the spa on a cruise ship thus far. What I booked was the 50 minute Swedish massage and somehow, the massage therapist talked me into a hot stone massage. I've had a hot stone massage back at home in the past, but that's not what I booked to begin with on the ship and I shouldn't have let her talk me into it. From the get go, I felt as if the massage therapist was pushing "higher" services and product at me to raise the price of my massage. The massage I actually wanted was the massage I booked in the first place and her tactic didn't register until she was already underway into the hot stone massage. At the end of the massage, she then came in and tried to sell several different Elemis products to me. Don't get me wrong - I fully understood that I was on a cruise ship and that's what they do, but I didn't really care for the whole thing. It also made for a less than enjoyable experience in the spa and to be honest, I'm not sure I would return for a massage. I was seriously bummed as this was something I was looking forward to for so long.

So, after leaving the massage room, I headed over to the bathroom to change and decided to take a shower. These Elemis products really were nice and I enjoyed being in the spa, but I still couldn't shake my feeling of disappointment with the whole thing.

This is the changing area with lockers that are provided for use.

After the massage, I decided to walk around the ship and explore! Jason wasn't out of his movie yet, so I had a bit of time to see the sights and relax.

I also happened to be out on deck when the horns blew which was really fun to hear!

Our captain also made an announcement that we had to make a pit stop at Turks and Cacos due to a patient on board who needed medical attention. It was interesting to see the process - we got fairly close to the island and they literally sent a little boat out to collect the patient. I hope they were able to get the medical attention they needed!

Once Jason returned from the movie, we had lunch and then decided to take a nap.

It was a day of relaxation after all!

At dinner that evening, our server gave me the biggest surprise ever!

A little back story - two cruises ago, the menus were changed a bit which means that the pot stickers (one of my menu favorites) were taken off the pirate night menu and replaced with something that doesn't taste very good at all. So on pirate night, I mentioned to our server (Ana from Portugal) that I missed my beloved pot stickers and on our last at sea night, she surprised me with a plate full!! I jumped up and hugged her...I seriously couldn't believe it! This is the kind of thing that I feel sets Disney apart from other cruise lines. She seriously made magic happen for me!

Since it was our last day at sea, we also enjoyed a little lobster that evening.

This guy was waiting on us in our room when we returned! :)

Our DVC lanyards were also given to us on this day. We proudly wore them the remainder of the cruise! I loved hearing "Welcome Home" everywhere we went!

Up next: Castaway Cay and our final day on the Disney Fantasy!

Disney Cruise Day 4: Another At Sea Day (& My Birthday!)

Up next on our recent Disney Fantasy cruise was yet another at sea day. This day was a little extra special, though - it was also my birthday!!

My only major plan for the day to go for a 3.6 mile run (in honor of my new age) and brunch at Palo which I planned to thoroughly enjoy. This restaurant is definitely one of our favorites!

I love the jogging deck on the larger ships because I don't have to count as many circles to equal a mile! :)

Lo and behold...while out for my run, look who I "ran" into! The mouse himself!

I'm pretty sure he was headed to a character breakfast because Doc McStuffins was also out there with him. A quick selfie HAD to be taken because how often does that happen?!

Thankfully, my fit bit helped me keep track of mileage!

After the run, I went up to the Quiet Cofe Cafe for my first (and definitely not last) cold brew of the trip!

Our room door also had a few extra special decorations in honor of the special day!

After breakfast, we played a little Disney trivia and won! Yay! 

Before long, it was time to get ready for Palo.

We were seated in a corner booth overlooking the ocean.

Our waiter was fabulous! He really really did a great job!

Palo brunch operates with a small plate and menu option variety. Guests begin with three tables - the one to the right is pastries, the one in the middle is seafood, and the one on the left is hors d'oeuvres. 

I might have made a couple of trips here!

In the mean time, we were offered a menu which included breakfast and lunch items. We were encouraged to split the items so we could eat more. Logic, duh.

The eggs benedict were amazing!

I only had a slice of the flatbread, but it was pretty tasty!

My most favorite item here though is the lasagna. It's seriously the best I've ever had!

After way too much food, we were talked into trying the steak. 

It was good, but I was trying to save what little room was left for dessert.

Dessert was served in a similar appetizer fashion.

There were so many delicious ones to choose from!

At the end of it all, this awesome dessert plate was brought to our table along with a rose!

We loved our time here!

In true form of tradition, Jason had to change Palo to "Halo", even though he doesn't play Halo anymore! (We've taken this picture on every single cruise since 2009!)

After a really long nap, I woke up and asked Jason if he wanted to attend the DVC preview, "just to see" what was new and put our name in the hat for the $200 on board credit. He agreed and off we went.

Well, needless to say, we drank the koolaid and ended up buying into DVC on this cruise...but more on that later!

Dinner for this evening was served in royal court. I was so surprised to see a sweet little note from our server!

Isn't that precious?!

Dinner was good, although I was still a little full from Palo.

They wait staff also sang happy birthday that night.

Our blanket animal that night was a shark!

I had a great day celebrating my birthday on board the Disney Fantasy and received so many happy birthday wishes from cast members and guests alike! It really was a fun day!!

Up next: Beaches and Swimming in Tortola!