runawaysoul

Sailed out of Port Canaveral several times. What we did was fly to Orlando, then drove to Cocoa beach. As another poster stated, there's nothing useful to do in Orlando with the time you have available - but you can enjoy Cocoa beach and/or the Space museum.

I despise buffets. However, I will say the Windjammer on the Radiance was nice. My abhorrence of buffets doesn't have anything to do with the quality of food, I just don't like food being exposed for anyone to touch. I've seen a kid lick food, and a mother scold the child, only to say "You put that back!" Sure enough, the kid puts it back. Can't remember which cruise that was on. The MDR is definitely less populated than it used to be yes, but fairly less likely to have my food licked..

That they did, like 5 or 6 times. No fault to the waiters though - they were as excellent as ever. They'd watch us cut the steak. A few times they took it away right after I cut it, since it couldn't have been any more raw if they forgot to cook it. Maybe they did.. Nonetheless, it was just an off cruise for us I guess.

I have never had a bad meal on RC in 22 cruises.

The waiters always say if you do not like your meal we can bring you another.

 

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We didn't have an inside cabin when I sailed last week, but I was the 3rd person. It was simply a sofa with a mattress topper, with the sofa back removed. I've had interior once, and it too had a sofa. I would assume it's the same way.

I understand the outsider feeling. When I was on Symphony last week, the activities listed on the app was much more than what was listed on the cruise compass. I think it would be great if they instituted their own twitter like environment in the app, with a hashtags to indicate what's going on, what's trending, etc. Obviously I can't do everything, but I'd like to try to spend each moment doing the optimal activity for the time I do have.

To enhance my experience, I'll search out hashtags on instagram and other places to get a feel the ship and how it is. Of course, I'm one of those guys that thinks planning a cruise vacation is a pre-cruise excursion - I enjoy the heck out of it.

I sailed the following week - my experience was similar to yours. The food across the board was really poor. In Chops alone, we had to return our meal 5 or 6 times over the 2 times we ate there. In general the food on the ship was no better than Applebee's and the like. My theory with that is that maybe bigger isn't better? Between all the restaurant choices and a record setting passenger capacity, I think they spread themselves too thin. Didn't even bother cashing in on the remaining nights on the dining package. My next cruise will be on a smaller ship for sure.

You're right, I'd rather discuss how nice the food was. This go round was absolutely awful. Food has always been Royal's strong suit, so having awful food for the first time in a lot of cruises gets a pass. Hopefully the next one will make up for it.

I would rather be discussing how nice the food was.

Dressing is a personal thing best left to the individual concerned.We personally take great pride in how we look but would never critisise anyone for how they look as it is a persons personality which counts.

 

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Our first cruise ever was Radiance of the Seas in Alaska for its first Alaska sailing in 2001. We had Captain Bill Wright who was awesome and so welcoming. By far it has remained our favorite cruise and our favorite ship. Enjoy!!!

I was on that same cruises - what an awesome time it was! It is also my favorite ship.. There's chatter of a possible Alaska cruise next spring, so here's hoping we get to go on Radiance again!

When I did Alaska, I did the White Pass train to the Canadian border, the sea plane (can't remember what excursion that was - was just ok, wouldn't do it again), and the helicopter ride to the glacier - a must do if you can!

Yes. The dress code is not enforced so you can pretty much wear whatever you want.

Just returned from Symphony of the Seas. I didn't see any tank tops or anything crazy. I find that cruise critic posters are more die hard, vocal of the bunch. They only represent a tiny fraction of the cruising world.

If I want to eat with Walmart people, I'll go to Windjammer. That place has declined so much during my time with RCCL, and so has the rest of the food for that matter. I'd much rather be discussing why the food stinks across the board than to be discussing why the 8 people on board didn't dress up for dinner.

I don't recall Johnny Rockets costing money in past cruises, but I also didn't get anything other than a milkshake from them. That brings me something else new to me - I remember getting a coupon booklet from Crown & Anchor or a free milkshake in past cruises (it's been at least 10 years since my last one). Each person got one, but now it's BOGO. The only reason I'm not complaining about it is because of all the restaurants that are on Symphony of the Seas, Johnny Rockets was the only one that was good. The food on RC is utterly AWFUL (on the first night we ate at Chops - I had to return my steak 3 times. It was so raw it wasn't even warm! We ate there again a few nights later, and this episode happened AGAIN!). I've gone from loyal to royal to a maybe 10% chance I'll choose them again next time out. Good excuse to branch out!

I second this. More than likely I'll be using St. Thomas to hop the ferry to St. John. St. John is amazing!

St John, short ferry from St Thomas has a great beach Trunk bay that has a snorking trail

I sailed the Radiance on its maiden voyage in 2001. My mother will be sailing with Princess on an Alaskan cruise in a few months. I helped planned much of it, so I will tell you what I know from my own research and experience with RC. Keep in mind I have not sailed on Princess. Radiance is my most favorite ship, even after 17 years and 6 cruises. The design of the ship is fantastic, and it suits Alaska well.

The Princess ship my mother is sailing on is the Golden Princess. It looks spectacular as well, and the folks I've talked to said it's a fantastic ship so I feel confident that it'll be a good ship. It's about 25% bigger than Radiance. Princess has been in Alaska longer than any other cruise lines, and they do have rights to go to places that other lines can't go. Pretty much everyone I've talked to said Princess does Alaska best, even those who are diehard RC loyalists. Their arguments are convincing enough that it will be a difficult decision to choose Princess of my favorite ship, should I ever be blessed enough to go again!

The worst part is not only is recovery time extremely short before you're ready to do it again- that early morning going to work thing the following Monday is something..special.. :o:o

OOOooo !! You sound a lot like my wife about ten years ago ! I mentioned a cruise wayyyy back in March of '95 when we were married. Her response..'No, Nope, NO way !! Well, in Oct 2006, I though w/our anniversary coming up in less than six months, WHY not surprise her with a five day cruise ! Sooo that's exactly what I did. Called Carnival, found a 5 day out of Mobile, on the ship Holiday going to Freeport/Nassau, booked it and promptly forgot about it.:eek: Soooo first week in Jan 2007 she mentions upcoming anniversary and says, 'Well, I guess we won't do anything, we haven't discussed it'. I THOUGHT, ' You, IDIOT !! You forgot to tell HER !!' I stammered, 'Uh, honey. we ARE doing something.. Was she shocked ! And when she finally closed her mouth she said, 'Well I hope I can ge the time off'. When we went in March 07, we hadn't even bee aboard thirty minutes when she happily exclaimed, 'WHEN can we do THIS again!?!?!? Well, ELEVEN years and 15 cruises late, I believe I can honestly say, I-er- We BOTH are cruise addicts !!

 

Mac

I understand your concerns. As Mark Twain once said, almost all worries never happen. I am prone to vertigo on occasion. I am also terrified of heights, sharks, and get motion sickness pretty easy. However, none of these things happen on for me when I'm cruising. Even my disdain of crowds goes away when I'm cruising. Perhaps much of that is due to my attitude (interesting fact - people who go to bed determined to wake up happy are more likely to do so than people who simply just go to bed). On my first cruise I ever went on, I had a lot of things on my mind as I really didn't have much of a choice but to go. I envisioned myself puking the whole time from motion sickness. I envisioned titanic scenes, getting caught in a hurricane. The thing with imaginations, you only have to feed it a crumb for it to believe it's having a 5 course meal. In the end, I think I ended up getting like 3 or 4 hours sleep each night because I was too busy having fun! I'll make this bet - I look forward to your positive review and your upcoming battle with cruise addiction! Enjoy!

1) 7 days is perfect. Shoot, once you're onboard, the day becomes 12 hours instead of 24...

2) I second the others in seeing a travel agent. They can do things for you that you won't be able to do yourself.

3) The best financial value is always the inside cabin. Obviously, you'll have to consider the "cost" of not sitting on a balcony. I have done inside, oceanview, and balcony. For me personally, I'm in the "once you go balcony, you can't go back" crowd. The reality however, is that you'll be spend maybe an hour each day on the balcony. There's just so much ship and activities to take in that you won't want to miss. From that perspective, that 1 hour a day on the balcony suddenly becomes expensive when you calculate the cost difference over that hour..

4) There are far more people who enjoy cruising than those who don't. On my very first cruise with my family those 20 something years ago, I thought that was the dumbest thing I ever heard. I thought I'd be miserable. Next thing you know, you're waiting for your 7th cruise... Personally, I get motion sickness on most things. Small boats, small planes, helicopters, sitting in the passenger seat in the car... But I've never been seasick on a cruise ship. I'm a low maintenance guy that enjoys a chicken sandwich from burger king as well as a steak from Longhorn. Cruises cater to the tastes of a very wide scope of people, so chances are extremely likely that you'll find something for you.

5) Owning stock for onboard credit - absolutely not worth it. You'll get like $100 OBC, but OBC isn't hard to come by. If you have the money to purchase that much stock to get OBC, then you have the money to pay off the balance of the minimum spending required for a credit card sign up to get at least a few free flights. Also mentioned above, a travel agent can get you OBC. A fantastic TA will monitor the cruise fare, and capture the price dips via OBC.

Those are just my opinions. Enjoy the pre-cruise planning process!

What should I book? I will be driving from Oklahoma to Galveston. I would like my cruise to be 7 days or less. Is 7 days too long? I am not the wealthiest person so how can I stretch my money and get the best value and yet entertain myself and my wife. Will my wife enjoy it? I was thinking about temporarily owning some stock for on board credit. Is that worth it?

Also, be warned that this affliction never goes away. Next month will be my 7th cruise, but it'll be my first cruise in over 10 years. Life got in the way, but my love for cruising was always a mainstay. You'll find yourself reading reviews, cruise magazines, whatever it takes to hold you over. Always take the time to savor each one!

That's kind of unfortunate. I still favor the intimacy of a smaller ship when it comes to Alaska. Radiance was the perfect size. Next time out to Alaska will be on Princess, since even loyal royals tell me it's better than RC for Alaskan cruises.

I sailed on AOS in 2002. It's frosted glass. You won't see your neighbors. Never had a problem with any neighbors on any cruise. Between the wind and waves, I doubt you'll be hearing much in the way of conversations next door, if that's your concern. I was also on deck 7 as well, room 7226.

Does anyone else notice this? Anyone who has been on CC for any length of time will see recurring posts about Adventure of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas. I've been on both, and honestly I couldn't really tell the difference between the 2. I would add Anthem to that group. I find RC to be extremely consistent across the board. So, what makes a ship a "cult classic"?

Thank you all for your responses! I think the opinions of RC are fair and pretty much spot on. I sailed Alaska on Radiance of the Seas, back in 2001. I agree that something gets lost as the ship gets bigger - but I still have fun. All of their excursions are booked and they're very excited. To be honest, I'm actually a little jealous. Even though Radiance is my favorite ship, Golden Princess looks spectacular. I'm fixing to get married, so I hope to go back with my wife. Whenever I do, I will be sailing on Princess!

I have a cochlear implant. It shows up on the security scan but it doesn't set it off. Sometimes they'll do the hand wand, sometimes not. Was a little more interesting experience back when cochlear implants weren't common knowledge though.

My first 3 cruises were on Carnival (Fantasy x2, Fascination), and my last 3 were on RC (Radiance, AOS, Mariner). My upcoming is on the Symphony. I was 20 on my first cruise on the Fantasy - so that first time cruising experience where everything was fresh, no matter hold the ship was - applied to me. I thought it was the most unbelievable experience in the world. The 2nd time on the Fantasy was my 3rd cruise. It was not a good experience. There was a gentleman at our dinner table who was never sober for any meal. One time he had passed out face first in his food and it splattered onto my plate. I had relief on the last night though, when he passed out at a bar in the Bahamas and missed the boat. Found out later that they were ex-cons and had gotten arrested for traveling beyond their accepted limit right after disembarkation, but a not so good cruise is still better than a good day at work. So, my first and last cruise with Carnival, while on the same ship - provided very different experiences. All 3 of the RC cruises were fantastic. Looking back on my cruise journals, it's interesting to read about my first RC cruise. I had even mentioned early on that Carnival was better, but I knew RC was going to be my cruise of choice from that moment on. My experiences have taught me a few things: 1) For the most part, how your experience is largely depends on you. Attitude makes a difference. It is statistically proven that those who go to bed determined to wake up happy are far more likely to than someone who didn't make that decision. 2) Reviews are too subjective to be used definitive research. I use them for entertainment purposes only when I'm itching for a cruise. 3) Travel agents are still the best way to go. They've been creative over the years in competing with DIY crowd. Utilize them in getting a feel for the personality of the ships. I'm an old soul - I enjoy the quieter side of life. So, even though I enjoyed Carnival, RC was much closer to my personality type. I think you will enjoy RC.

I was not aware that Princess has been in Alaska longer than the others. That is pretty good!

They do have a balcony. I was very adamant about a balcony. With Alaska, it's basically a free shore excursion..

At the moment, her friend still gets around, but she does have a wheelchair whenever she feels the need. Hopefully she will be no less mobile come cruise time in July. :)