Magical Hawaiian Radiance of the Seas Detailed Trip Report with Many Pictures

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

It was hot and Maria was having a few hot flashes. :o She was fanning herself with the dessert menu and our wonderful waiter helped her out several nights!

 

 

We told the waiters that we would not be there the next night because we were going to Giovanni’s. They told us that we would miss the singing the next night. We were so sad! So they sang all of the songs that they would be singing the next night to us right then and there. So sweet!!!

 

Maria had to hit the little girl’s room so badly. She waited too long. A rookie mistake by a seasoned cruiser... Lesson #6 – It’s a long dinner – pee early. There will be a long line after dinner at the women’s room outside of the MDR. She couldn’t wait in that line, so we hopped on the elevator and she was going to stop at our room on the 10th floor. We got on at 5 with a few people. We stopped at 6. Those people got on and pushed floor 7. OMG, it took so long. I couldn’t help laughing and Maria started to laugh, not good for a person in her delicate condition. We were cracking up so hard that we felt we had to offer an explanation for the last couple in the elevator – that there was a pee emergency. They understood! Maria ran out when we stopped at 10 and Frank told the people – we’ll let you know how it turns out tomorrow. :) We make a lot of friends in the elevator…

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

There was something going on in the Centrum most nights. But all I wanted was my bed!

 

 

We got our first towel animal!

 

 

It was bedtime for me and out to the casino for Phil. The time of sunrise was wrong in the compass again, but I had learned to double check the tv because that was more accurate!

 

Up next - Day 4 - 2nd Day at Sea!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

DAY 4 – 2ND DAY AT SEA

 

Yesterday felt like 2 days at sea in one – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. So relaxed and happy!!! I got up at 6:30, but there was no sunrise today. Very foggy and storms off in the distance!! Beautiful! (To me… LOL, I told Phil to come look at one of these beautiful pictures and he said you’re a dark person, aren’t you…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

I actually woke up at 3:40 am. My body was still adjusting to the time difference and this is one reason I am glad that we did the 5 sea days on the way to Hawaii instead of the way home. After some watching of the non-existent sunrise, I laid back down until 8:30, because I could… :) I got up and ran up to the Windjammer to get a plate of ice cold food. Yuck! I don’t know why the food was so cold. This cabin (1060) was so well situated as it was one floor down from the Windjammer and the first cabin near the stairs and elevator. Perfect! You could hear a little noise from the Centrum from the parties at night but not much and it was never late. So, even though it was convenient, the food was cold. I could have ordered suite room service for breakfast, but Phil doesn’t usually eat breakfast, so I don’t really take advantage of it like I should.

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We figured out that the football games should start at 9 am PST. Unfortunately, there was no satellite service… :( No football anywhere on the ship even when the satellite came back on. Some of my favorite memories are watching football games on board our cruises, but it was not meant to be this trip. My Ravens lost 13 – 19, so…

 

It was definitely warming up, but there was not much sun. Sea was not that wavy, but the ship was really rocking. LOVE IT!! The Captain said on the speaker that the ship is “rolling” today. LOL, it really was rolling even though the waves didn’t look too high. The Captain called the weather “sunny / cloudy”. Frank went to town on this and the rest of the cruise was spent telling us things were good / bad; hot / cold; etc. :) We hung out on deck 5’s smoking section. It was nice because it was fairly empty and had a nice view, closer to the water. Some people did their running here (fast / slow). It looked energetic and exhausting.

 

 

 

 

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[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We explored the ship a little and went to the Park Café for lunch. It is located in the Solarium, which was hot and muggy and packed with the roof closed. They also have a salad bar here where you can have them put in the salad whatever ingredients you want. Very nice! They had a beautiful fruit bar set up on the pool deck. We got the Drink of the Day, which was a Peach Koala Cooler. So yummy! It was the first really delicious drink we had had. When we went back to get another, it was not as good. I think he missed an ingredient. RE the service on the ship, everyone that we dealt with personally was great! Our steward, waiter, assistant waiter, dining room bartender, concierge – all great. Several of the other employees were not, some almost rude. I have never experienced this before and it is a direct departure from what we are used to on our cruises. As the cruise went on, it did get much better. This is just something I noticed early on. As I mentioned, one of the pool bartenders was kind of mean and the guy at the Park Café was mean. It really made us not want to go back there, but it wasn’t at a level where we would complain. Just thought maybe they were having a bad day!

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

GIOVANNI’S

 

We had Giovanni’s for dinner tonight! It was my favorite restaurant of the cruise. Great!!!! At first, we were a little worried. The restaurant was not crowded and had many empty tables when we first arrived for our 7:30 pm reservation. (We booked 3 restaurants online before the cruise and got a 20% OBC credit.) We were asked to wait while they cleaned off the 1 dirty table in the restaurant. :) We didn’t mind because it was by the window. Our waiter, Thomas, first dropped off 3 bottles of wine on our table and disappeared. The hostess dropped off bread and oil / vinegar and we asked for butter, which she promptly brought. Then, we waited and waited… And that is the only complaint in this awesome experience. :) Oh also that we were so stuffed afterwards that we had to go right to bed… :o

 

Thomas came back eventually and gave us a refresher course in how Giovanni’s works – family style for appetizers and pasta and your own main dish. Maria asked about the fried calamari and fish appetizer we had had at lunch at Giovanni’s on the Allure. We didn’t see it on the menu. He said that they don’t have it at dinner, only for lunch, and delivered the further bad news that Giovanni’s wasn’t open for lunch this cruise!!!! Perhaps they would open he said but most days they were doing special events, such as the suite meal we had attended and the C&A lunch that we had not attended. (I should have mentioned we received an invitation to attend another meal for C&A members today in the Cascades Dining Room – apparently those from Giovanni’s do the food - but we didn’t go. We also didn’t attend the Meet and Mingle because it was held when I had my spa appointment and Phil doesn’t do mornings too well…)

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Then, when he brought the appetizers, Thomas surprised us and said the chef had some calamari and made some just for us! OMG, it was so delicious!!!! He also had more caprese, tenderloin and scallops for all! Delicious!! The appetizers could have been a meal. But they weren’t…

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

For our pastas, we had penne with Bolognese sauce and crab ravioli.

 

 

 

M&P ordered the tenderloin, which was awesome. Frank got the osso bucco, which was excellent. I ordered the lamb chops with fries instead of spinach and no sauce. When he brought the meals, Thomas held my plate way up and said you had the chicken breast. I said, no, lamb chops. He said firmly, NO, you had the chicken breast! I was like, oh it is fine (knowing I was so stuffed it definitely did not matter!), but Maria was like no, she ordered the lamb chops!!! (She always has my back!) He brought the plate down and it was the lamb chops!! LOL!!!! It was SO funny! Food was amazing!!

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We had cannoli for dessert. It was not a type we had had before – more of a mousse type consistency - and we were so full so we did not finish it. Can you believe it??? We left food on our plates?? I wish I had that cannoli now!

 

 

We left the restaurant at 10:15 so it was a nice night and we were ready to retire (except Phil who went to the casino to gamble, drink, and smoke). Clocks went back another hour tonight! I was loving all these extra hours from Royal – and we never had to give them back!!! :) We returned them to US Airways after the vacation, but that was okay… :D

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

DAY 5 – 3RD DAY AT SEA

 

Sunrise was at 6:07, but it was cloudy again. The sunrise is only on my side on the way to Hawaii so my chances to get a good sunrise picture were dwindling. It was much warmer out and quite beautiful, even if the sun was not out. I was still waking up at 3:30ish! Bizarre!! I don’t think it was the time difference because that would mean that the time should change when the hours went back further. ???? Very odd!

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

P&I ordered suite room service for the first time! It took less than 30 minutes and the food was hot and yummy! I never do this enough! It is such a nice experience! Phil doesn’t usually eat breakfast so I hate to do it just for myself!

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Around 10 am, we left our room so our steward, Putu, could do his thing. He is the best steward we have ever had! We loved him! For example, Phil had looked all over the ship to get a white bucket to keep some beer iced for him at night, like he usually does, and none of the bartenders would get him one. Never has that happened before! Putu got him 2 buckets so fast! Phil gave him $20, which Putu at first tried to decline. Also, Phil always brings lots of sugar back to the room because he likes a lot of sugar in his coffee, so he had extra on the counter. Putu put them all in a sugar caddy. So sweet!

 

We went to the smoking section on deck 5, which is right outside the restaurant area. As I said before, it is a very nice area. The chairs are the most comfortable and the view is great! You are so close to the ocean. While we were there, some maintenance men unlocked a ladder on the wall that was hidden behind the wall. Then, they climbed up and started the engines of the tenders, which were hanging there. One tender did not sound too good! M&F found us there and said you can’t hide from us! We just tried all of the smoking sections! They gave Phil some info on a very nice smoking section on deck 13 they found. And we gave them some advice on a tender to avoid should there be an emergency. This was their muster station… We sat on 5 for quite a while. We joked that we had 2 of the 3 best balconies on the ship and here we were. But it was very relaxing!!

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We went back to our room and then met back at 1:15 for lunch and to try the Quill Pub to watch the Eagles game, which was the Monday night football. We had high hopes that they would have football today! The game was on ESPN, but the ESPN channel playing in our room had soccer. We had lunch in the Windjammer. There is a room off the side of the Windjammer that was rarely crowded. I went in that room and saved us a table while everyone went to get their food. The food was very good!

 

We were afraid that the Quill Pub would be crowded with football starved fans (this is where we were told the football would be playing if there was football). It was packed … with people doing arts and crafts… No football! We went everywhere we could think of with a tv to see if they had the game on, but no. We ended up on the smoking section on 13 and had a couple of drinks. It was very nice. Lots of people were in line for the rock wall, which was much more popular on this ship without a northstar, flowrider, ifly, etc. However, it started to rain a little and they closed it down. We explored the ship a bit. They had a Hawaiian musical group playing in the Centrum and people were doing the hula up and down the floors from the centrum. There had been another C&A event today, but we did not attend. M&F went by and said it looked like the whole ship was there. This was a very relaxing day!!

 

 

 

I love the elevator views on this ship!!!!!

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

People doing the hula!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Diamond Lounge – we didn’t go too much because we liked Mo, the concierge in the concierge lounge. Also, 3 of us had the premium drink package (purchased online pre-cruise), so we didn’t use the free drinks offered much.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AryMay]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more!! Love the photos!

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

It was starting to warm up!!

 

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

We went back to our respective rooms and agreed to meet at 7:30 to go to the concierge lounge before dinner. Phil went up to 13 and got a few sunset pictures for me. We hadn’t really had a sunset yet.

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

The concierge lounge. I forgot to mention on the first day or so, we went out the sliding doors of the concierge lounge to what looked to be a patio area that overlooked the ship and ocean. It was very nice! But we could not get back in. The sliding doors wouldn’t open. There were a couple of ladies inside (it was early in the day, not regular hours). One of the ladies got up and opened it for us and said we had to wave our arms in a certain way. She did not say it in a pleasant manner, though, and seemed irritated with us. It was kind of funny that someone would think we should just know that. :o We were VERY thankful though and appreciated her letting us back in because we had no idea of how to get out of there! There was a locked gate.

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Our waiter warned us that it was not a “strong” menu tonight, and it wasn’t, but we found what we did get to be surprising good. M&F got the Classic Menu’s steak, which was excellent and asked for mashed potatoes instead of what was offered. Phil got the orange roughy, which was not roughy because we did not get to Australia yet, the waiter explained. It was a little dry. I got the calamari without the Caesar salad AND the mixed grill with lamb (delicious), bacon wrapped sausage (good), and chicken breast (did not try – which makes it even funnier that the waiter in Giovanni’s pretended he brought me chicken breast because I do not like chicken breast). I forgot to mention that the bar server in the MDR had a fuzzy navel waiting for me every night! And beer for Phil – he was the best for that, he had one waiting for him, brought a new one before he was even finished and gave him a few to bring back to the room. We loved him!!

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

 

 

 

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

I forgot to mention that the desserts on the cruise were not great, anywhere on the ship. Not awful, of course, but just not what we have experienced on other ships. We were stuffed so it was not a big deal, but just wanted to mention it. Mostly because I had read a review for the Radiance a few weeks before ours while it was in Alaska. The writer had said the desserts were not good and I thought, yeah, right, no way!! Actually, she was right… :) She had also mentioned that the beds were not comfortable and I knew that had to be wrong because I have always found Royal’s beds to be very comfortable. No, it actually wasn’t wrong. They must have gotten new mattresses on this ship recently. :rolleyes:

 

We finally made a show! I apologize for not making a lot of the shows, but we did not do the evening shows on this cruise. 1) We were exhausted after big late dinners and early risings and intensive ports; and 2) Our last 2 cruises were Quantum and Allure with unbelievably awesome entertainment and shows. It seemed more prudent to pass and just relax for the ports coming up! The show we did go to this night was the adult comedy show, which was pretty funny. We met 2 young guys in the elevator while we were deciding whether or not to go. They had seen the comedian at the Welcome Aboard show and said the jokes were aimed at old people. We said we are old people!! But they said we looked young for that crowd. LOL! We did find him to be pretty funny, though.

 

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to more!! Love the photos!

 

 

Thank you so much!!!

 

 

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