2016 Alaska Part 1: Finally, My Bucket List Trip!

Alaska 2016 on Land and Sea, including Southbound on Radiance of the Seas Sunday June 19 through Saturday July 1, 2016

Oh, no!  Do we REALLY need yet ANOTHER really long Alaska trip report?  Probably not.  The Alaska reviews on CruiseCritic are among the best on CC – I think that Alaskan cruisers are really passionate about what they saw and do a great job in relating the excitement to the rest of us.  In fact, I’m indebted to several prior reviewers for keeping me energized and excited about Alaska, including WalleyeLJ and arymary.  Not that I needed much reason to be excited – Alaska has been a bucket list destination for me since I was a kid. 

So chances are I’m adding little that is ground-breaking (although I’ll still try).  However, a few reasons why I’m adding to the noise:

1. Some percentage of information is always dated.  So this review will be the “freshest” information for some period of time.  Oooh, shiny and new…
2. Some folks hate to search for prior answers.  No, I’m not talking about you – I’m talking about that other guy who posts asking “can I bring a bottle of wine onboard with me?” even though there are 4,376 answers to that exact same question already online.  Rather than rail against that kind of behavior I’ll flatter myself that I can provide a better answer than the others. 
3. I haven’t seen anyone organize their reviews in quite the way I’m planning to.  Have I read all the other reviews to confirm this?  Of course not – see #2.  (OK, sometimes I’m THAT GUY.)   But I do hope that I can provide a review that is a model of clarity and organization – and I like the challenge of trying to do this.  Why?  I’ll simply quote the ONLY bumper sticker I ever saw that I loved so much I’ve remembered it: “I have CDO.  It’s like OCD except the letters are in alphabetical order…LIKE THEY SHOULD BE!”
4. And, of course, I’m just so damn entertaining.   
5. Finally - the real reason is that this write up is mostly for me. By writing about the trip it helps me cement the memories in my brain.

There will be photos throughout. 

If you've already read this far you'll notice that I generally do not subscribe to the theory that "brevity is the soul of wit".  I hope to be able to convey the reasons behind the decisions we made during the planning period, along with various alternatives we considered.  When traveling, I LOVE the planning phase.  The more pre-planning I do the more fun I have on vacation - not because I feel compelled to do everything planned, but for the exact opposite reason.  The more things I know about that we /could/ do, the more free I feel to improvise once we're on the ground.  I can relax, knowing I'll be able to make QUICK but not RUSHED decisions, and certainly not uninformed decisions.

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