The Silver Moon was still taking on fuel when Trek Trendy presenter and his travel companion Dan stepped aboard in Seward, Alaska, cases already whisked away to their suite on deck 8. The idea of crossing from glaciers to tropical beaches entirely by sea sounds like a fever dream, but the route is real, the ships are extraordinary, and the price tag is the kind of number that makes you read it twice. This is the story of roughly 4,000 miles of ocean, two luxury vessels, and one mother-son handoff in a rainy Vancouver terminal.
Glaciers, hot rocks, and a French restaurant in the Alaska wilderness
The Silver Moon carries a maximum of 596 guests across its roughly 700 feet of hull, which means it never feels like a crowd. Their deluxe veranda suite on deck 8 runs about 390 square feet: a queen bed converted to twins on request, a walk-in wardrobe, a separate bath and shower, a coffee machine, an included mini bar, and a private balcony with two loungers pointed directly at snowcapped Alaskan peaks. That balcony earned its keep the moment the Alaska Railroad pulled into Seward below them.
Dinner the first night meant the ship’s French restaurant, Ladam, where an $80 per person cover charge covers the full menu. Dan ordered the thinly sliced Maine lobster with mango salsa and lobster mayonnaise. His companion went straight for caviar, then the fillet of grass-fed beef topped with cafe de Paris butter, and finished with a chocolate indulgence. The 2017 Dom Perignon was an extra line on the bill, but the verdict was straightforward: as a one-off, yes, it is worth it.
The Alaska sailing brought Hubbard Glacier close enough to watch from the suite with takeaway coffees in hand, and an independent Polaris excursion in Ketchikan added an adrenaline beat to the schedule. Ketchikan, population roughly 8,000, can receive more than 15,000 cruise passengers in a single summer day. The ship’s alfresco Grill on deck 9 served up an evening of hot volcanic rock cooking in near-freezing air, complete with obligatory bibs, before the captain announced a rare ship-to-ship sighting: the Silver Whisper crossing their path in the dark.
A Royal Genie, a robot bartender, and 5,000 fellow passengers
Vancouver marked the end of Silver Moon and the start of something considerably larger. Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas stretches 1,141 feet and carries nearly 5,000 guests, more than four times the gross tonnage of the ship they just left. Dan flew home; mom flew in from the UK, jet-lagged but ready. After one night at the Rosewood Hotel Georgia in downtown Vancouver, the two of them walked into Canada Place and met their Royal Genie, Elizabeth, who handled priority boarding and later sourced two single mattresses when the grand loft suite’s king bed refused to split on its own.
The grand loft suite spans two decks: a dining area with welcome snacks and an inclusive soft drink selection on the lower level, a sofa bed, a main balcony over the aft, and the bedroom upstairs. The ship’s North Star observation pod, billed as the highest observation deck at sea, usually costs around $40 per person but came included through Star Class. The Izumi sushi restaurant, the bridge tour, and the West End production of We Will Rock You in the Royal Theater also arrived courtesy of Star Class access.
The Bionic Bar delivered a vanilla vodka and orange and a gin and tonic via robot arms that, as the transcript notes, ‘are not the tidiest,’ requiring a staff member to follow behind cleaning up spills. Dinner in Wonderland required painting the menu with water to reveal its options. The main event was short ribs with a Bordelaise sauce alongside an off-menu vegetarian special.
A Jeep and a coffee farm at the finish line
After days at sea, the first glimpse of Hawaii arrived on a clear morning. Their Royal Genie reserved an elevator to ease disembarkation, and a lifeboat tender carried them ashore. A rented Jeep was waiting.
At the Mountain Thunder Coffee Farm, beans grow on the volcanic slopes above the coast. It was there, hiking back down toward the Jeep, that the full cost came together: the Silver Sea leg originally priced at $12,030 was reduced to $2,788 using future cruise credit from a cancelled Antarctica trip the previous year. Royal Caribbean carried no such credit, and came in at $25,547. The grand total for both ships, the Vancouver hotel, and everything in between: $28,335.
The bottle of Moet on the lower deck
The welcome bottle of Moet in the grand loft suite arrived already chilled, sitting on the dining table beside the welcome snacks when they first walked through the door.
From a port city of 8,000 people where grizzlies reportedly outnumber tourists to a volcanic coffee farm accessible only by four-wheel drive, the Pacific crossing delivered something the headline alone cannot contain: not one trip, but two entirely different definitions of luxury running back to back, with a wet Vancouver morning and a mother’s jet lag bridging the gap between them.
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