We love cruising and can do it more
often now that we have the time to do it. We don't always have the
money, but will always look for last minute deals and specials, that
way we can pay it off and enjoy the cruise without owing anything.
However, one issue we do have with Royal Caribbean is the booking process, both on line and on the phone. We have now had three cruises with RCI and each time the
booking process has been less than impressive. The customer service
staff are very pleasant and give one the impression of 'helping' but
in reality they really don't care, and that is a shame because the
experience on board their ships is wonderful. This cruise we booked
via the phone and the very pleasant customer service, and booked the
cheap airfare package. The lady on the phone told me what to do and
said to put 'air2sea' in the voucher area to get the cheap fares.
Well, I did this and nothing happened, no specials, no airfares, no
customer service. After numerous emails and many, many phone calls
nothing was resolved other than RCI wanting to charge us an extra
$2000 for the 'cheap' airfares. The airfares ended up costing us $510
with baggage and meals. We probably would have booked this cruise
anyway, as we had family and friends traveling on the same cruise,
but the incompetence/incorrect information made for a bad experience
prior to enjoying the cruise, and we did enjoy the cruise. We tried
to link our reservations and wanted to stay in cabins nearby but that
took months to do and even then we were one deck apart and at
opposite ends of the ship. So with the that said, here we go. We fly down the day before the cruise and stayed with my sister in Sydney.
Day 1 - We caught ferry from Rose Bay to Circular
Quay and took iconic photos. Here is our first sighting of the ship, Radiance of the Seas.
We dropped the bags at bag drop off and
joined the short queue to board the ship Radiance of the Seas. Once
on board we headed to deck 11 and the Windjammer Cafe for lunch and
our first drink of the cruise. Have to love drink packages. I ordered
a mojito and asked not to have a frozen one and YAY a real mojito,
the first real one on RCI. Windjammer on this ship has a similar food
layout as Celebrity Solstice, but not so many seats, although there
did seam to be more seats than RCI Voyager or Explorer.
So lets talk
about lunch outlets on the Radiance.
There are many lunch outlets on the
ship, most at the stern (back) of the ship, including Windjammer on
deck 11, which is by far the largest. Not only is there inside seating but outside seating as well. Some days it was a little too fresh to eat outside. The food was ordinary for
lunch. A lot of curries and Asian food, which Jonnie enjoyed each
day. Peter always found something to eat if we ate there for lunch,
but I tried the pizza it was basic and sort of tasty. I did have
beef and black bean one day which was lovely, but the rest was hit
and miss. When in Windjammer I mostly had French fries and gravy and
a Vegemite bread roll. The chips (fries) like the pizza were hit and
miss. The bread rolls were always lovely and fresh. After previous
trips on RCI I knew that Vegemite would run out by the end of the
trip so on the first day I took an extra 3 sachets, just in case.
Happily they didn't run out and the last two days I was using my
stash. Vegemite is not offered in the continental breakfast, so
Jonnie and I used my Vegemite stash and replaced it at 'real'
breakfast.
The Dog House, deck 11, which serves
gourmet hotdogs and has seating just outside the Windjammer was well
patronised. Jonnie had 'second' lunch here, including the first day.
It was good that there was this extra seating 'overflow', not only
for the Windjammer but also for the pool area. This Dog House
section, although open, is protected by windows on the side.
Also on deck 11 at the bow end of the
ship was the Park Cafe. This is where I ate lunch, or late lunch most
days. The Park Cafe is situated in the adults only pool area and
serves mostly 'healthy' food, …. well it serves soup, salads
(including fruit salad, which was yum), a choice of three sandwiches,
and two pies. I love tuna salad sandwiches, so that's what I ate most
afternoons.
Deck 5 had the Latitudes Cafe and also
had the same sandwich selection as the Park Cafe, so depending where
I was I would get my tuna sandwiches from either Deck 5 or Deck 11.
Deck 4 Cascades Restaurant also
provided lunch between 11.30am and 1pm, and although we did plan to
have lunch there to try it, we never had time to do it. Some specialty restaurants are also open for lunch for extra $$$.
After lunch and a few drinks we went to
look at our cabin. We were on deck 7 aft. In a balcony cabin 7126.
First impressions we were a little disappointed. The cabin appeared
small for three, although it would be fine for two. The balcony
overlooked the roof of deck 6, which meant that we couldn't look
down. I would be most disappointed in this ship if we were doing the
Alaska cruise, as many of the ice chunks would be missed from the
cabin balcony. We wondered how Jonnie was going to fit in as the
lounge was only a two seater and if it extended out to Jonnie's bed
we would have to climb over it to get from one side to the other.
Then we discovered the pull down bunk that was over our bed. That was
a little strange, but worked well during the two weeks. Although
other guests complained about the same set up, we thought it was a
good way to accommodate three people. Most of the cabin was similar
to other RCI ships. The fridge worked very well, still not cold, but
much cooler than other fridges in either RCI ships we have been on.
However, the bathroom was smaller and the shower curtain simply did
not work. The floor was always soaked after a shower. Luckily we
don't spend a lot of time in the cabin, and when we do it is for
resting or sleeping. Overall at the end of the cruise we were happy
with the cabin although the bed needs improvement. As in all cabins
the bed is made up of two large singles. In our cabin the beds were
of different sizes, which meant there was a large lump running down
the middle of the bed, and the mattresses were so hard it made it
difficult to sleep the whole night. Usually the mattresses are great
on the ships, but not this time. If it happens again we will ask to
get it changed, and hope the cabin attendant doesn't get into trouble
as it is not his fault. Our cabin attendant was wonderful, always
saying hello to us by name and making sure everything was good.
After the show one night I felt like a
hot chocolate, but as it was after 11pm and most bars and facilities
are closed, the only option was to go to the self serve drinks
station on deck 11 or room service at a cost of $7.95US delivery
charge, so I went without. If there was a small kettle in the cabin,
like on Voyager, I would have been able to make my own.
Each cabin has a flat screen TV with many channels dedicated to the excursions offered on the ship and Royal Caribbean ships and shopping. Some channels show repeats of the same shows on
a loop. However, the news channels were up to date with both
local, Australian and US news. The channels changed depending on where we
were. We would put on the position channel first thing each morning.
Anyway, first day always goes fast.
Many cruisers head to the eateries as we did, many go to their cabins
to unpack. We didn't have time to unpack until the morning of day 2. We
walked around the ship, well some decks, as first day is always good
to get photos as most people are either eating, drinking or in their
cabins. Like the adults only swimming area, The Solarium....
...and the pool room in the Colony Club.
We went up to deck 12 for 'Sail Away'
that was very low key on Radiance.
However, the view leaving Sydney
is always spectacular.
By the time we were out of the heads it was
7.50pm and dinner was 8pm. Dinner in the Cascades Restaurant was
always good. There were not many people there the first night, in
fact we never saw it full on any of the nights and we went all but
one night. That was strange considering we had great difficulty
trying to get our family members to sit with us for dinner as we were
told the 8pm sitting was full. Our dinner companions were a lovely
family from Mackay – QUEENSLANDERS!!! - although they were
originally from England.
I was determined this cruise to try the cold soups, which I did. I don't think I will be trying them again. I had them for 10 of the 14 nights, and except for the vichyssoise (which I have always liked), they all tasted like smoothies. Here is an example of the menu.
After dinner we went to the comedy show
in the Aurora Theatre, Chris Radburn who was funny. He followed the Cruise Director Rob McNally. As we were late getting to the theatre we sat at the back upstairs - a long way from the front. That gave us time to work out where we would sit other
nights. We decided on the left hand side in the middle at the front. The Aurora
theatre is large and very comfortable. The seats in the area we
always sat were comfortable and placed so that it was easy to see
over the person sitting in front. Drink service is also provided.
Unlike other RCI ships we have been on there is only one bar in level
4 and 5 of the theatre. 
