Vancouver and Alaska Cruise. On RCI Points
For a few years we had expressed the wish to take a cruise to Alaska, after hearing how wonderful the scenery is in that part of the world. We thought this would have to wait until we retired. Then we entered into the points system with RCI, we own two separate weeks at Barnsdale Country Club in Rutland. We have been owners at Barnsdale for around 8 years and exchanged our weeks with RCI, on the weeks exchange program. The points system offered us a points partner program were you can use your allocated points to buy other holiday requirements. For those who have not looked at the points program or are skeptical of it, an example: the points allocated for just our mid-season week at Barnsdale gave us a weeks exchange in the Caribbean and a week car hire. That has to be good value. When we entered into the points system we had a couple of unused banked weeks.
We decided to look at the possibility of our dream trip with points thinking this would still be out of reach. I rang RCI Points and they put me on to their cruise specialist, who asked me which cruise line we would prefer and the dates we would like and the standard of cabin. I went for what we thought we would really like thinking he would quote far more points than we could afford. To my surprise, he was able to quote the points value for our trip while we were on the telephone and gave me a choice of cabin on the deck I had requested and with a balcony as requested. For two people this was within the points we had to spend, so we booked.
We decided to take flights to Vancouver 7 days prior to the start of our cruise and spend the extra time exploring Vancouver Island and Vancouver city. RCI booked our hotel accommodation for the first week through Points partners too. We arrived in Vancouver on the evening of Saturday, August 16 and stayed in one of the airport hotels. On Sunday morning we picked up our rental car (booked with points) and headed for the ferry to take us to Vancouver Island. For three nights, we were to stay in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia. Victoria is a great place, very clean and friendly. It was the annual Dragon Boat races the weekend we arrived, so the atmosphere was very exciting. Our hotel was very central, near the Inner Harbour. We found we were spoilt for choice of good, reasonably priced restaurants - the seafood was exceptional and lots of choice. We are both scuba divers and decided to take the opportunity to dive the breakwater of Ogden Point. The sea life was really very good - we saw large sunflower starfish, lots of large sea cucumbers, and an octopus. The water was very clear and not as cold as we expected - the temperature was 11 degrees Celsius at 15 metres. We took a day trip, travelling north up the Island, staying a while in Nanaimo, and walking along the seafront, where we had the best fish and chips ever tasted. The fish was fresh caught that morning. We then travelled across the island to Tofino on the Pacific Rim National Park with its long sandy beach. We returned to Victoria in time to get a late evening meal. More time is needed to explore Vancouver Island. We returned on the ferry to Vancouver. Staying in the city, we explored Chinatown, Gastown, Granville Island, Robson Street for shopping, and Stanley Park. We found the trolley bus tour very good value and made the best use of our time in the city.
We joined Royal Caribbean’s cruise ship, the Vision of the Seas, on the Sunday morning. A buffet lunch was served in the Windjammer Café; our luggage was delivered to our cabin. The cabin was spacious and well-equipped, and we were very happy with our choice; the cabin steward was very attentive but not intrusive.
The ship was wonderful. We had been concerned about the number of passengers, as we do like our own space, but these were unfounded concerns - we enjoyed it all. We had lovely weather, dry and warm for the region. On the third day, we arrived at the Hubbard Glacier. It was breathtaking - no picture can do it justice. We spent about 1.5 hours viewing it from the ship. It is such a wonderful sight and so peaceful in the area, you can not quite believe what you are seeing.
The next morning, we docked at Skagway. We had decided to take a trip to the Yukon Territory by coach. This was interesting. We travelled over the summit of White Pass and through glacial-carved valleys. We had a stop at the village of Carcross to explore the historic town. It was misty as we went over the mountain from Alaska to the Yukon, but the views and scenery were stunning - lots of photos taken. We then had time to explore the town before we departed Skagway for our next port of call, Juneau, the capital. We arrived at 7am. Our choice for this day was Mendenhall Glacier and wildlife quest. We started out by coach along the shoreline to a small dock, where we boarded a waterjet powered catamaran for wildlife viewing. We saw whales, stellar sea lions, and harbour seals. A naturalist onboard explained the behaviour and habitat of these species. Our coach was waiting as we returned to the dock to take us to the Mendenhall Glacier. Nothing we had experienced prepared us for this - it was magnificent, and the photos taken are beautiful. The sun shone and it was just awesome. We then had time to explore the town of Juneau before returning to the ship to depart at 4pm. At 8am Friday morning, we arrived in Ketchikan. This was our last port of call. We went to the Saxman village to view one of the world's largest gatherings of totem poles and then to the historic George Inlet Cannery, where we were shown a short video of the way things were done to harvest and process the abundant Alaska salmon. From the Cannery dock, we again took a boat trip to see whales, seals, and bald eagles, returning to the dock where our cruise ship was anchored. Again, we had plenty of time to stroll around the town of Ketchikan before our ship departed for Vancouver. That evening we cruised the Misty Fjords as darkness fell. The following day was spent at sea and around 5:30pm that evening we spotted orca whales - what magnificent animals.
The food onboard was first-class, and you really could have put pounds on if you were not very careful.
Breakfast: served in three locations - Poolside 6am -7am, Windjammer Café 6:30am - noon, and the Aquarius dining room from 7am – 9am.
Lunch: two locations - Windjammer Café 12pm – 3:30pm and the Aquarius dining room from 11:30am – 1:30pm.
Dinner: two formal dining sittings - in the Aquarius dining room at 6:15pm and 8:45pm.
Casual Dining: in the Windjammer Café 6:30pm – 9pm.
Snacks: Solarium 10am – 6:30pm and 10pm – 3am, Windjammer Café afternoon tea 3:30pm – 5pm, waiters strolling the lounges with midnight delight snacks or Aquarius dining room special buffet 12:15am – 1am. (Taste of Alaska, Everything Chocolate, Gala Buffet.)
Plenty of good entertainment onboard during day or evening.
Bar: prices were about the same as in Vancouver, open from 9am until wee hours.
Shopping was very reasonable, with lots of special offers daily, open 8am – 10pm.
Casino Royal open from 10am to wee hours.
Day Spa open 8am – 8pm.