Welcome to the last day of our Alaskan cruise. It was the most exciting, scary and terrifying night we had. As the ship tossed us about in our beds, we were terrified we may never make it back to shore on this boat. We kept waiting for them to call us to the lifeboats, but the Radiance of the Seas limped into harbor the next morning. Several hours late, broken and not to set sail again for months.

We chose the Radiance of the Seas with Royal Caribbean because of the size of the boat. It was able to get closer to the Hubbard Glacier, shore line and not have to use a tender (small boats that take you in as you dock out at sea). We also made sure to have a balcony room to ensure great views of the glacier.

We were so excited as the time to approach the glacier came. We were able to get the closest to the glacier as any cruise line had been able to so far that season. It was beautiful!! We had brought binoculars to get close up views. We went out on the top deck to see it and it was freezing. The wind was whipping and even with a down jacket, hat and gloves I was still freezing. The girls and I did not last very long on the deck but went back to our room and watched from the balcony. It blocked the wind and we were able to see really well. The water was a beautiful icy blue with icebergs swirling all around us. One side was the large, looming Glacier and the other side had towering green mountains.

After we left the beautiful Hubbard glacier, our ship headed back to port in Seward. The wind was really picking up and the boat had started rocking. Around 4pm or so, we went to go play bingo. Yes, please judge us. We have our minor children gambling. Our kids actually love playing bingo. They think it’s so much fun to mark off the numbers and Royal usually keeps their bingo pretty tame. The rule is, of course, if they won, we would have to be the ones to collect the prize. And yes, the host made fun of us a few times too. And no, they weren’t the only kids in there. But while Radiance is a great boat, there is not a lot for kids to do so we did end up playing bingo, trivia and doing some of the family activities from the kids club. Watch my daughters, Piper, ship tour and some of things she enjoyed doing on our YouTube channel. As we are playing bingo, there was a loud sound of metal grinding and churning. It was scary and everyone jumped up to look out the window.

The boat seemed to shudder to a stop, the engine noise changed and the wake stopped. After a short minute, the boat resumed but at a slower speed. There were no announcements and the crew didn’t seem worried so we figured everything was okay. After bingo, we made our way up to the captains bridge. We had been invited to meet the captain and tour the bride. At this point, we were having trouble walking. The boat was really rocking. We all felt unstable. We made it the captains bridge and got to tour it. The captain had to take care of something (maybe a broken engine…?) and was not able to be there. We still were able to meet several crew members and see how the ship was run.

After the tour, we went to the WindJammer for dinner. As we were eating, all around us, people kept jumping up and running to the bathroom. The boat, at this point, was moving so much even the food and water on our table were moving around. Fortunately, no one in our family gets seasick but so many people around us were. Piper and I walked around to do a ship tour. The pool water was sloshing out and flying about. On the upper decks, I was actually worried for our safety and we quickly made our way back inside.

We had packed our luggage for departure the next day. Our suitcases kept rolling around our room. Cabinets doors were opening and closing. The fog horn was blowing non stop as the boat heaved back and forth. We tried to go to bed but no one was able to sleep. I was actually being tossed around in the bed from how the boat was moving. The next morning we were so happy to see daylight but we were not in the port yet. We arrived to Seward three hours late. We found out one of the propulsion engines had been damaged by hitting an iceberg and failed. We were limping back to port at a very slow speed, causing great turbulence. Once we were off the boat, as we explored Seward, we kept seeing the Radiance, still docked. We found out later that day, the next cruise had to be canceled. Unfortunately, the next several cruises had to be cancelled due to this issue and it affected good friends of ours who were set to cruise two weeks after us. They are finally getting to go this spring. Even with the crazy ending to our cruise, I would highly recommend it. We absolutely loved being to see so many ports that are not accessible by land. The sights from the boat were beautiful and for us, we enjoyed having “regular” food for the kids and especially knowing there was allergy friendly food. We also enjoyed not having to drive and felt like it was a real vacation. I expected to not love Alaska as I dislike cold and love the sun and sand. I fell in love with Alaska and can’t wait to book another Alaskan cruise down the road. It is expensive but we found many free things to do in several ports. I highly recommend it and hope you enjoy it as much as we did.