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Just off the Radiance yesterday! Any questions??

ckrobyn

By ckrobyn,
in Royal Caribbean International

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Just off the beautiful Radiance of the Seas yesterday - we had a spectacular cruise on the Western Itinerary and enjoyed picture perfect weather in every port despite the weather reports (that I checked every day for a week before leaving) that said RAIN in every port! Phooey on the weather man! :p

I will be writing a comprehensive review as soon as the room stops spinning ( I thought I was over the whole sea legs/land legs thing), but apparently not! LOL!! I took tons of pics and will post a link to webshots as soon as I get all 200 of them downloaded!!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask and I will answer everyone!

We had JS 1100 and it was a wonderful cabin :D with an amazing balcony!!!!

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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Hey Robyn

 

Glad you had a great time, I read another post about the cruise which was not to positive.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=441518

 

 

I guess it is all in the attitude. Can't wait to read your review as we are considering this for next year.

 

 

Sue

Sue, I'm glad you replied with that link. I want Robyn's opinion on that post, too!
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wraithe

wraithe

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Welcome back, looking forward to your review. My first Radiance cruise is in March and I can barely stand the wait. Curious as well about your views compared to the other thread. Learned a long time ago that it's all subjective, but I tend to believe the positive reviews more than the negative.

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Kjudge

Kjudge

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Glad you had a great cruise. We are going Sunday for Thanksgiving week. Did you tender at both Cozumel and Grand Cayman? How were the Seas? Did you book any excursions you liked or didn't like? Thanks for the info :-)

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BobBeaSea

BobBeaSea

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Well, well, well,.... our intrepid cruiser is back. 6 nights a little short? :)

Glad you and the rest of your wolfpack had a great cruise. The weather in the Caribbean always calls for rain, no worries. Check out the other thread mentioned above....seems not all of you had a great cruise. This is quite normal....

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Obviously I cut and pasted the other review....

 

Just returned Saturday (11/11) from a 6 night Western Caribbean cruise on the Radiance of the Seas, and I must say, I was more than a little disappointed. As Diamond C/A members, we are well aware of what to expect from RCCL. However, this cruise fell short in many areas.

Ship Layout: Poorly designed Centrum area leads to massive bottlenecks, especially during Formal Nights, when portraits are being taken and lines of people block walkways. Compound this with a "raffle" at the gift shop kiosk and much screaming and pushing could be found.. The pool is WAY too small for a ship this size. Get 20 people in, and it was full. The pool at our house is larger than this.

Food: Good selection in the Windjammer and Seaview Grill. The Main Dining Room,Cascades, was a different story. The food was bland, cold, meat was tough and the presentation was non existant. Does one broocoli stem constitute a side dish? This was the first time in over 40 cruises I ate from the alternative menu 3 times. The chicken breast was very good.

Tendering: Extremely time consuming. You get a tender ticket at 9 AM (after standing in a line that stretched through 2 lounges) and finally are called at 1130. We were only in Cozumel until 430. Grand Cayman was the same thing.

Entertainment: Poor and tired. Unfunny comedians, out of step dancers, screeching singers, and a magician with a few good tricks.

Disembarkation: Did express walk off. Started at 815 AM and did not get off until 930. Line snaked through the boutiques and photo galleries and they only let about 10 people go at a time to customs. To top it off, the ship docked at a different terminal than departure, requiring shuttle service to the parking garage. Another line to wait in.

On the bright side:

Our servers in the Dining Room, Vanda and Nancy, were the best we ever had on a cruise.

The ship is gorgeous and very well maintained. Looked almost new.

Great sugar free deserts especially the strawberry cheesecake and peanut butter cookies.

Great room steward Herbert.

A chance to reconnect with 11 family members who now do not want to cruise again for a long time.

I don't mean to sound so negative, but I have come to expect much more from RCCL. In fact, even our last Carnival Cruise on the Miracle was 1000 times better than the Radiance.

In closing, we may give RCCL another chance on one of the smaller Vision Class ships (our personal RCCL favorites). But in the meantime, it's back to Celebrity, Princess, or HAL for us.

 

We are all entitled to our opinions. Having said that, I had a totally different cruise experience than the one above. Insofar as the ship layout - that is subjective. I had sailed on the Radiance before and knew what the ship's layout was like and thought it was perfect for that size of ship. I still feel that way and think the Radiance is a beautiful well maintained ship that does not look tired or worn. The pool is a typical size for this ship. The Radiance is not wide enough to accomodate 2 pools on the deck like the Voyageur class - there was plenty of room on the pool deck and the design was perfect for this size of ship. I disagree with the idea that 20 people in the pool renders it "full". On our only sea day (which was really HOT) there were way more than 20 people in and around the pool and although there were that many of us, I did not feel at all crowded. There is a nice ledge all the way around the pool where you can sit in the water without being in the pool and that worked beautifully for many in our group (there were 10 of us).

Food bland??? That is a matter of opinion :rolleyes: LOL! I can speak for many in my group that the food was delicious both in the Windjammer and the dining room each night. I won't go in to detail because everyone's tastes are different, but suffice it to say that there was definitely something for everyone as far as the food went!

Tendering? Always a pain in the butt no matter what ship you are on. We tendered in Cozumel and Grand Cayman and at times it was a lengthy process - but you know what? I'm on a CRUISE and I'm not going to let a little delay or extra wait time ruin my experience.....attitude has a lot to do with it. :)

I didn't really see the shows - I did see parts of a few, but shows really aren't my "thing". However, many in our group did and said they enjoyed them.

Disembarkation is always miserable! LOL - after all, you are getting OFF the ship! Funny that it wasn't a problem for us at all...we just waited by the pool until our number was called and we were forced off a wonderful cruise ship!!!!!!

I will write my review soon.....gotta get back to work! I just wanted to address the above review as I know many of you were waiting for my take on things....

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Did you have a Hurdy-Gurdy time with lots of kisses? How was the cake-decorating contest? Did Capt Rune calm down for the regular 6/8 day runs?:D :D :D

 

LOVED the Captain! His announcements were really funny :p Plus, he was a very "visible" Captain and mingled a lot with the passengers. I watched the cake contest from the top of the centrum on deck 10 so I couldn't see a lot of it, but heard there was fun with "cherries" LOL! No, he didn't calm down and I'm glad he didn't - he was terrific :D

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Hey Robyn

 

Glad you had a great time, I read another post about the cruise which was not to positive.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=441518

 

 

I guess it is all in the attitude. Can't wait to read your review as we are considering this for next year.

 

 

Sue

 

Sue - book the Radiance without hesitation! This was my 2nd cruise on her and she is fabulous. Reviews are always a matter of opinion, take what you can from them, but make your own decision. We had a wonderful cruise on a great ship :) I will write the review asap....

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Welcome back, looking forward to your review. My first Radiance cruise is in March and I can barely stand the wait. Curious as well about your views compared to the other thread. Learned a long time ago that it's all subjective, but I tend to believe the positive reviews more than the negative.

 

Wraithe,

 

Look very forward to your cruise on the Radiance - I have no doubt whatsoever that you will have a fabulous time :)

 

You're right, reviews are totally subjective. Where one has a great experience, another may not as seen in the review I copied and pasted.

 

The ship is completely gorgeous and well maintained by excellent crew.

 

If you have specific questions, please ask!

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Glad you had a great cruise. We are going Sunday for Thanksgiving week. Did you tender at both Cozumel and Grand Cayman? How were the Seas? Did you book any excursions you liked or didn't like? Thanks for the info :-)

 

Hi Kjudge,

 

Yes, we tendered in both Cozumel and Grand Cayman. The seas were perfect and smooth and the weather was outstanding. We booked the Deluxe Beach Break in Cozumel - I wasn't really crazy about this excursion, the beach was just "okay" - it just wasn't really what I expected ( maybe my expectations were too high???) I can give you more details if you want them - just let me know.

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

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Well, well, well,.... our intrepid cruiser is back. 6 nights a little short? :)

Glad you and the rest of your wolfpack had a great cruise. The weather in the Caribbean always calls for rain, no worries. Check out the other thread mentioned above....seems not all of you had a great cruise. This is quite normal....

 

Hey Mr. Bob :p

 

We had a wonderful cruise, and YES 6 nights is too short! LOL

 

The wolfpack all enjoyed themselves ;)

 

Rain? What rain?? LOL

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isujim

isujim

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Welcome back..........we were on the Radiance about 3 weeks before you as it did the repo through the Panama Canal. We had a great experience as well.

 

We must all remember that one mans junk is another man's treasure:)

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delacruz

delacruz

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I was on that cruise also - sitting at work today TRYING to get back into work mode. I agree that all in all, the cruise was wonderful. I was on the Majesty of the Seas 1 1/2 yrs ago, and the food was the same - not gourmet, but enjoyable. Tendering was fine, we saw it as another excursion. I was only disturbed that in Cozumel they allowed vendors on board the tenders to sell their junk.

 

The 6 nights was the longest cruise I've done to date...midway through we were SO relaxed and feeling like we had plenty of time left, then suddenly it was over! :(

I would do it again in a second - already booked my next cruise on the Grandeur for next year.

 

Although the ship took a bit longer than usual to clear customs, we were in the taxi to the Airport less than 1/2 hr after our color tags were called.

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Shar27

Shar27

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Hey Robyn

 

Glad you had a great time, I read another post about the cruise which was not to positive.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=441518

 

I guess it is all in the attitude. Can't wait to read your review as we are considering this for next year.

 

Sue

 

Now that thread didn't last very long, did it? Per usual, a few nasty posters had to come along and ruin our nice little conversation.

 

Robyn, how are you ever going to get to 5000 posts when your numbers are going in the wrong direction?:D :rolleyes:

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BobBeaSea

BobBeaSea

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Why did that other thread disappear? I hadn't looked at it in awhile but it seemed like everybody was being nice to each other (even while disagreeing).

 

I am confused as well, the thread didn't seem too bad although I missed a couple of hours. Sorry for the hijack Robyn. :)

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