Welcome to the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast, a week of look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host, Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 256.

This week, I am getting ready to head off to Seattle to take my very first Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska.

In fact, this is a Royal Caribbean blog group cruise to Alaska.

I cannot wait.

And on this week's episode, we are previewing this cruise, sharing what we got line up,

all the great group cruise events, and everything else in between.

Here we go.

Over the years, I've taken a lot of real Caribbean cruises to vary destinations in the Caribbean,

but I've never had the opportunity to expand my horizons to go on a completely new itinerary until now.

This week, I'll be joining a lot of friends from Real Caribbean blog on Explorer the Seas

as we take a seven-night cruise to Alaska and take on this new adventure together.

This cruise is a Real Crimean Blog group cruise where I invite anyone listening to this podcast

or reading RealCrip and Blog.com to join me on a Royal Caribbean Cruise.

After all, the only thing better than a Royal Caribbean Cruise is a Royal Caribbean Cruise with friends.

And in addition to the exciting place we'll be visiting, we have some fun events lined up for those of us in our group.

And I think this is going to be an unforgettable experience in that we not only get to discover Alaska together, but sharing the experience with a large group of friends.

And speaking of friends, on today's episode, to preview our cruise is Annette Jackson from MEI travel. Welcome, Annette.

Hey, Matt, you're all packed and ready?

No, but I am ready. I am excited to go to Alaska. This is my first time going to Alaska.

I know. Have you been to Alaska before? I have not. I think you've forgotten our conversation years ago.

I said I would never go to Alaska until I was much older than I am, or you did a

...