telecruiser

Thanks for posting. I was standing on deck 12 making a video of us passing under the bridge.

It was a beautiful morning.

I know that sometimes people mistakenly pick up the wrong suitcase, especially if it is the common black or gray color.

 

My little Southern Redneck self knows that duct tape can take care of all your problems....:D:D. So I bought a roll of the brightest lime green duct tape I could find and I put a strip of it on every side of my suitcase.

 

Now not only can I pick it out a mile away.....I figure if anyone takes my suitcase it's because they intended to all along.

 

But so far no one has wanted a large red suitcase with lime green stripes.....:'):'):')

That is what we were assuming. Also, we did have a pretty distinctive strap and luggage tag, both of which remained intact.

I just want to insert a little positive note to the forum. My wife and I completed our Alaska cruise on the Radiance on June 30th. We were travelling with another couple. We disembarked in Vancouver and we had luggage tags #1 for all four of our bags. We all exited the ship as soon as our number was called. In the chaos of soldiered suitcases and mobs of fellow travelers we quickly managed to retrieve three of the bags. The fourth, one of ours, was nowhere in sight. This has never happened to us before, even at an airport. All of the #1 bags were quickly cleared out. My wife stood with all of our carry on bags and the three suitcases we did have, and the three of us began scouring everything as it came off the ship. Some port assistance ladies saw we needed help and they all began looking as well. We kept checking the small area where they were putting bags that lost their paper tags.

Our plan was to share a cab with our companions. They had an earlier flight than us, so we eventually sent them on ahead to the airport. It was looking like we would have to hunker down for a bit and wait and see what happens. Eventually the place turned into a ghost town and our suitcase did not exist. The port ladies directed us to a RCI desk to fill out a Personal Property Report. I filled it out and we were directed to call the toll free number on it the next day to begin the follow up process. We got to the airport in plenty of time and flew home. The next day I called the number and that began an emailing process including itemized lists and receipts if possible. So what was in our bag? Some clean clothes and our shoes and all of our souvenirs including our Diamond pins. Oh yes, this was our first Diamond cruise. As we tallied up our estimated losses, I pictured all of those hard earned "free" happy hour drinks going down the drain. Mind you, we had no single item of great monetary value in the bag, but there was lots of stuff. It really adds up when you start to list it. I should mention we did purchase trip insurance, so we figured this would all get covered eventually.

So after a couple of days of emails back and forth, the RCI lost luggage dept. assures us they will investigate and to please give them a week. Today at noon, Fed Ex rings the doorbell and there he is with our suitcase looking good as new including the original green #1 tag. Everything was still in it, including the Diamond pins. The only paperwork was a customs declarations that the port people must have had to complete to ship it to us. They obviously went through the bag to list every single item and declare some sort of value. I immediately emailed the RCI rep I had been dealing with to let her know all is well.

Bottom line is I have no idea what happened, but it all worked out "this time." We usually do several days of post cruise stays at a port, but not this time. We might have needed that stuff. On our last cruise we did the self walk off for the first time to make an early connection and it was really quite easy. Maybe we should consider that for more cruises, especially if there will be a post cruise stay.

Food is so subjective from one person to another... I personally really liked Samba the one time I got to try it.

But the OP may hate it...they really have to try it for themselves. Hopefully pictures and descriptions will help.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=47881841&highlight=grill#post47881841

Thank you for the reply and the link with your photos and review. It looks good to me!

Have a great time. We'll wave to you as you get off the ship in Seward!

Interesting. It sounds like RCL is trying to pump up its current quarter results by offering incentives to pay off your balance early. A little bit of a shady tactic (from a shareholder perspective) to shift revenues around to make this quarter look better. I'd love to see an analyst question why this is done on the next earnings conference call and see how they react.

I suspect you're over thinking it. They are probably just trying a new tactic to see if they can lower the cancellation rate prior to final payments being made.

Who has been to Samba grill on Radiance? Is it good?

Looking forward to your review. As you get off the ship on 6/16, I'll be getting on. Wave to me lol, I will be a passenger with a big smile , until they make me leave on 6/23!;)

We'll wave to you as you get off on 6/23!

Absolutely fabulous! It seems like only yesterday that we were boarding in Sydney! ;)

 

Merion Mom,

Can you please tell me what nights were the formal nights on your current Seward-Vancouver cruise?

Thanks everyone for all the replies.

Can you order the blended specialty drinks like lava flow and such on the vouchers?

Thanks for the replies. When you order drinks at a bar with the "voucher" do you need to tell the server to use the Diamond voucher, or will they see it automatically in the system?

Hi everyone. We are doing our first cruise as Diamond next month on Radiance. Also our first time on Radiance, but we have cruised on Brilliance, so are familiar with the class. Can anyone give us some pointers on using our "perks" particular to Radiance. Things like happy hour lounge or using the vouchers and how to use the Internet benefit (if any) would be appreciated and anything else to get our long earned loyalty's worth, lol. BTW, we are in a standard stateroom. Thanks.

To keep the story short and to the point i forgot to mention i saw it from about 20 foot away so i walked over and picked up the plate and gave it to one of the waiters standing there who said nothing to that person. There is no way i would have left it there and was surprised the waiters did nothing and did not want to shame them on here although i suppose that could be a gross thing because they did nothing.

So the waiter took the plate back to the kitchen and then brought out the "other" plate of cookies?

Agreed - even if you advise the waiter and s/he says it's fine, they really don't mean it and it's terribly rude. They have a routine to follow. If you come in that late, they need to drop whatever they are doing to get your order and your food and get you out of there in time to set up for the next seating, thus interrupting the service to all the other tables for which they are responsible. Just because others might do it doesn't make it any more right.

This.

How is it better to just not show up? Wait staff, and possibly table mates, are then left hanging, to guess if you are late or not coming. Staff just being polite or not, in asking the next night, they were still left hanging.

 

I said a few minutes late is fine. In all our cruises, I've never seen the servers hesitate to begin normal service after just a few minutes. They don't seem to be bothered in the least that there are some empty chairs. It's when they are all done taking the orders and then the stragglers show up, that I can visibly detect irritation and flow interruption among the servers. As I said, this is my observation. And as others have mentioned, many people do specialty choices or Windjammer or something else.

My observation regarding first night: Don't be more than a few minutes late. It is better just not to show and then go ahead and come the next night. The servers seem perfectly understanding that the tables won't fill on the first night. On the second night, when they ask you where you were, they are just being polite. Pretending that they actually care.

That being said, I always notify the waiter if I know I won't be there the next night.

I think this might be a good idea. Maybe there will be less room service trays piled with dirty dishes sitting in the hallways all day long.

Looking forward to your report and photos. We did same itinerary on Brilliance last year. We stayed at the Boston Common Hotel and Conference Center just off Copley Square. It is very old (historic) and showing it's age, but reasonably priced compared to everything else in the area. We also had dinner at Solas Irish Pub. As we walked by, the atmosphere just pulled us in.

We spent our one full day walking the Freedom Trail. Just stunning walk.

Post cruise, we did the Hop On/Off bus because we had most of the day to use before our rather late flight out.

Please post lots of pictures.

Following along. Great start. We did same itinerary on Vision in 2005 and stayed two nights at Murphy's. Have Radiance booked for same itinerary next June. I really enjoyed your Panama Canal live report. We were on the eastbound after your trip. Your report gave us some good preparation hints. Have a wonderful time. I promise this is not your last Alaska cruise.

You could do a later flight in the day and do this water taxi from the ship and do some sightseeing. We did it last year and it worked great. Look at the bottom of the page for the cruise ship special.

http://www.roweswharfwatertransport.com/#!directions---cruise-ship-to-water-taxi/c22sb

That is a tough break. I'm guessing that had you purchased non-refundable airfare with cash that you would be in an even worse spot?

Loving your review. Brings back many memories. Looking forward to the rest.

Thank you for the replies!

Hello, can someone please tell me if the safes are the digit code type or the card swipe type? Thanks.