A Cruisy Christmas - Radiance 16 Dec sailing from Auckland

[TulipBee]

I wanted to share some pics with you all of our Christmas cruise on Radiance around New Zealand. I suck at adding them here on cruise critic, but I've just loaded some of my favorites elsewhere. Here is the link:

 

http://belindabypopulardemand.blogspot.com/2017/01/a-cruisy-christmas.html

 

Overall the cruise was great and we all really enjoyed it. For around half of our group it was their first cruise and there was lots of excitement around everything from towel animals to the buffet's ice cream machine! My Dad REALLY loved the ice cream machine!!! :D

 

We had a bit of a weird situation in the MDR with the servers. We had a group for the first few nights who we LOVED. Then, for reasons nobody could explain, we were moved over a table to another section and things got weird between the old and new waitstaff. It actually got to a point where we were feeling really uncomfortable with the new waiter and his attempts to "outshine" the others. It went well beyond good customer service and bordered on creepy. We went and asked to be put back in the other section for the remaining nights, only to get back the next night and find out the new waiter had demanded we be moved back to his area. We finally got back to where we wanted to be, but the whole situation was weird and made us really uncomfortable.

 

I know people are always interested in knowing how good/bad Voom works. On Radiance it was great. I was on Serenade back in May and it was miserable. I demanded (and got) my money back it was so bad. On Radiance I could do anything I wanted - I was even streaming Netflix no problems.

 

If anyone has any questions about Radiance I am happy to answer them.

[easyboy]

Did you ever get to know the reason for the behavior of your new waiter? I would be intrigued.

Glad you had a great cruise!

[BekkaW]

Great review! Radiance is one of my favourite ships. It does sound very odd about the waiter and the whole moving situation, hope it didn't impact your enjoyment of the trip too much

[Clarea]

Beautiful photos, thanks!

[TulipBee]

Did you ever get to know the reason for the behavior of your new waiter? I would be intrigued.

Glad you had a great cruise!

 

We never got to the bottom of it. I mentioned it here in part because I was curious if anyone else had any insight into what might have been going on. We almost posted here on Cruise Critic during the cruise for help to try to sort it out!

 

Normally I don't really mind who my servers are in the MDR - but we REALLY liked the ones we started out with, and we were so glad to go back to their section after being stolen away. It wasn't that we disliked the other team (although we did re-evaluate this after the weirdness started), we just clicked with the first team.

 

But hey, if being fought over by waitstaff and the cafe running out of chocolate syrup are the worst things that happen on a ten day cruise then you've had a pretty good time :)

[TulipBee]

Actually, one other thing I did want to add. Ten days after disembarking I still had all the "holds" on my credit card from embarkation (the sea pass account had been paid in full). It took multiple phone calls to both RC and my bank and nobody could work out why it wasn't removed (RC told me their policy was to remove it in less than 72 hours post cruise). I ended up having to elevate it to get it removed. RC admitted on the phone that this happens quite a lot and they get quite a few complaints about holds not being removed for weeks post cruise. It is worth keeping an eye on your credit card post cruise to make sure that they do remove it in a timely way.

 

For the second cruise in a row as well my C&A points were also credited incorrectly. It was also fixed really quickly with an email - but it is just worth noting the systems don't always seem to work, so it is good to log in and check everything is in order when you get home.

[Coralc]

OMG! Those towel animal reindeer and Santa are adorable! Thanks for sharing the photos. The vineyard photo is interesting too. :D

[penguin9]

I understand now they don't provide shampoo and conditioner other than some shampoo/body soap in dispensers on the wall. Is that true? Could you get some from your cabin steward? Any shows we shouldn't miss? Any other secrets to avoid any crowded situations? Thanks!

[Clarea]

I understand now they don't provide shampoo and conditioner other than some shampoo/body soap in dispensers on the wall. Is that true? Could you get some from your cabin steward? Any shows we shouldn't miss? Any other secrets to avoid any crowded situations? Thanks!

Yes, it's true, and you may be able to get some from the stateroom attendant, but no guarantees.

[aussielozzie18]

Stunning photos! Thanks for sharing. I would take it as compliment that the waitstaff were fighting over you:D but I can understand that the whole situation made you very uncomfortable.

 

Sorry to hear there was a medical evacuation. Seems to happen quite frequently unfortunately.

[Haoie]

I was on the sailing just before yours! Man I miss that ship.

 

Weird situation for sure! That was on MTD was it?

[TulipBee]

I was on the sailing just before yours! Man I miss that ship.

 

Weird situation for sure! That was on MTD was it?

 

Yup, it was MTD. We were 8 people, so we had made bookings for every night early on to be on the safe side.

[bdpatrick]

I understand now they don't provide shampoo and conditioner other than some shampoo/body soap in dispensers on the wall. Is that true? Could you get some from your cabin steward? Any shows we shouldn't miss? Any other secrets to avoid any crowded situations? Thanks!

Yes, it's true. We were on the following new years cruise, and got some from our cabin steward.

 

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