New Zealand Cruise Days 2 and 3

Days 2 & 3 were sea days, so we had time to explore the ship, food, entertainment and get into 'our' shipboard routine.

FOOD

We ordered room service breakfast which was ok. It arrived on time and we appreciated the fact that they made a phone call to advise us that breakfast was coming. We did order some room service most mornings. RCI now only have free room service for continental breakfast, all other orders have a $7.95US delivery fee.

The first morning we ordered toast, bagels, fresh fruit, cereal, and tea. Toast was burnt, bagel was good, fruit was good, cereal – well we didn't order enough milk, guess we assumed if one ordered cereal it would come with milk (it doesn't), tea was good with lots of hot water but only one tea bag each and only 5 sugars in total for the three of us.

Over the two weeks we ordered most mornings, but after the toast was either burnt or only toasted on one side so we stopped ordering toast. Most times it was tea and croissants, muffins or bagels. We couldn't order Vegemite, so we had our stash of Vegemite for breakfast. I think US ships underestimate the importance of Vegemite to Australians, especially at breakfast. We didn't order fruit after the second day as the plate of fruit, which was very good and varied, wasn't what we liked. The banana was huge, so it was better for us to pick up a banana or two at the Windjammer for the afternoon snacks. As well as the Vegemite, we got a few extra teas, sugars and hot chocolate (couldn't order hot chocolate in the continental breakfast either).

After room service tea ordered for 8am in the cabin we would go up to breakfast in the Windjammer. Again, breakfast is served in the Cascades restaurant and at the Park Cafe. Although the Cascades breakfast menu looked good - see photo left - we really need to get up earlier to try the Cascades. Cascades is open for breakfast from 8am -9.30. However, we would head to the Windjammer and their breakfast was wonderful – the best meal of the day. Windjammer is open for breakfast 7am - 11am.

Windjammer on Radiance is the only ship that I've come across that makes perfect poached eggs, although to have eggs Benedict one needs to go to two different stations to get the eggs, sauce and muffin. Sad, I know 😀. After the first few mornings when I had scrambled eggs, I would have eggs Benedict, hash browns and crispy bacon. Sometimes I had to go to another station to get the crispy bacon and hash browns, but by week two they were on the same station as the poached eggs and hollandaise sauce. I also like to try the different foods, and liked the English fried bread.

As I said, I enjoyed breakfast in the Windjammer and would often run into our dinner staff which was good as we could chat. As part of our drinks package we had fresh fruit juices. On Explorer and Voyager we could get those juices all day, and I would enjoy the fresh orange juice in the mornings. However, on Radiance it is only at breakfast. As I like my juice I got into the habit of taking my drink cup to breakfast and getting one or two fresh orange juices and pouring them into my cup to drink during the morning and early afternoon. Glad I didn't opt for a Royal Replenish drinks package, as it would not be worth it for me on the Radiance. We will talk about the drinks in another post. Breakfast is also available at the Park Cafe from 6.30am - 10am.

For lunch there was not a lot of choice, although we didn't try the restaurant as we were busy with other activities, maybe we should have. Lunch is available at Windjammer buffet 11.30am - 3pm; Cascades 11.30 - 1pm; Park Cafe 11.30am - 6pm (for snacks); Cafe Latte-tudes 11am - 11pm (for snacks); Boardwalk Dog House 11.30am - 6pm (hot dogs); and Brasserie 30 - no idea where that is 😲- 11.30am -1pm. There are also two specialty restaurants open for lunch at extra cost. Peter would always find something, roast, curry (there was always curry), salads. Jonnie is happy with his rice and Asian lunch. Me, well ... I really don't think I am fussy, but I like what I like. If we were all eating lunch at the same time in Windjammer, I would have a small bowl of chips and gravy, wasn't too bad. I tried the pizza, which was ok, but one couldn't have pizza every day. One day there was beef and black bean which was really good.

A good thing about cruising on a 'food freighter' (thanks Mickey Live for the term) is that one can try different things. Jonnie would always have ice cream and a cookie for dessert, and Peter wouldn't have any and I usually didn't, EXCEPT one day I felt like some sweets. I always love fresh fruit, and one day they had chocolate mousse cake and 'pavlova'. The Pavlova was a marshmallow meringue with a dob of cream and piece of peach. They all tasted lovely, and I had each separately at other lunch times.

Most of the time I had lunch at the Park Cafe or Cafe Latte-tudes. Each day they had tuna salad sandwiches and croissants with Camembert and ham, both of which I like. Radiance also has afternoon tea in the Windjammer, 3.30pm - 4pm, and we went twice, but it really wasn't worth the visit. Limited sandwiches and left overs from lunch.

Cafe Latte-tudes and Park Cafe have snacks most of the day.

Dinner in the Cascades Restaurant was always wonderful. The staff were very attentive, as were most of the staff on the ship. Cascades has a different menu each night, although, like Solstice, has a constant menu each evening. Jonnie would often have the chicken breast dish on this constant menu, and on other RCI ships and Celebrity Solstice I also had the 'constant' chicken breast dish. It is a good thing that I didn't on Radiance as the menu choices were good, and I was trying different things. Last cruise on Voyager, one of our dinner companions ordered the cold soups each night and they looked so good that I wanted to try them this cruise. On Voyager the cold soups came in lovely little glasses. On Radiance it came in soup bowls. Very different. The first night the soup was watermelon and raspberries with mojito foam and pistachios (right), tasted lovely. 

The following nights it was served in a glass and was actually two servings. They were really like a fruit smoothie, and tasted good, but not for dinner. I probably won't try them again.

 

The food was really good and the service exceptional. I often had two appetizers and a main meal (called an entree on board), and rarely a dessert, except for ice cream and sherbets (sorbet). Sometimes I just had the two appetisers. The mains (entrees) were large, and I often couldn't eat a whole one. The staff were disappointed when one didn't finish a meal, and one couldn't order a small meal, so sometimes it was better to order two appetisers that I liked.  

Desserts were popular at the table, and although I didn't often order, others did.

 

Many nights a dessert was named something different, but was really the same dessert.

Overall we liked the Cascades food. I had a very tasty sweet potatoe and pumpkin quiche one night (vegetarian - I often had vegetarian) and the following day in the Windjammer they had the same 'pumpkin pie' for lunch.

Overall, the food was great in the Cascade dining room and so-so in the Windjammer. Did we go hungry? NO, it is a food freighter, there is plenty of food, just not a variety.

There was a lack of availability of tea, coffee hot chocolate, water late at night - only room service or walking to the pool area, (the opposite end of the ship), and although open 24 hours, I didn't want to walk there late at night, and it was sometimes very windy. Voyager had a small kettle in the cabin and it was often used for both late night tea/hot chocolate, and early morning tea - instead of room service. We wish all cabins had a small kettle.