impatientlywaiting

Got off Radiance in October and was informed there were no kettles on the ship for any cabin.

We cruised the end of March on a week cruise out of Tampa with 1,000 college kids - WORST CRUISE EVER. I have never seen so many rude, ill behaved people. The crew couldn't control them. If I had been the captain I would have left them at the first port of call. On one tender boat ride they made half a dozen small children cry because they were screaming their school song. When asked by the parents and the tender crew to quiet down, they cussed them out and then got louder. The cabin attendants really hate it, too. Can you imagine 4 drunk dudes in one cabin - DISGUSTING. Needless to say, we'll never cruise during spring break again.

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About 4 or 5 cruise ago I started bringing along one of those over the door shoe organizers for the bathroom door. It holds EVERYTHING for DH and I and we love it! He originally laughed at me when I brought it out the first time but now he waits for me to get it hung up so he can unload his stuff into it too!

We also cruise with several family/friends and we all bring small white boards with magnetic strips for the outside of our cabin doors to leave each other notes during the day.

Not that I've ever noticed.

I used WiFi calling in the South Pacific (somewhere between French Polynesian islands and New Zealand) earlier this month with no apps. I have T-Mobile and incurred no extra charges. I did not buy internet on the ship - was using one of our 24 hours of free internet as a Diamond C&A. I have a Samsung Galaxy S7. It worked perfectly.

We have done this sailing a couple of times before and are actually booked again for Sept 2017. The weather is normally perfect though a little cooler heading for and in New Zealand. We loved the sea days and there it's lots going on during this time. One excursion we did before and will do again is Patrick's in Bora Bora, it is fantastic, try googling it. Hope you decide to join us.

I organized our group's tour with Patrick in Bora Bora. Vaitiare (Patrick's daughter) is wonderful to work with. She now handles all the bookings. When we booked our cruise, I contacted them and booked all four of their outrigger canoes (I wanted to make sure we were the only ones on the excursion). Then the list of people on our roll call wanting to take this excursion got so long, Patrick ended up renting a catamaran as well. We ended up with almost 80 people going. I went to the concierge (as we're Diamond, we went to the Diamond Lounge every night before dinner) to see about getting tender tickets for all 80 of us. He worked with the cruise director that they would walk us to the tender as a tour. The concierge, Juan Diego, was AWESOME to work with!

We did a tour in Papeete with Tahiti Discovery. It was a full day up into the mountains. It was fun and I would definitely recommend it.

In Moorea we spent the day at the Hilton. For $86 you get a day pass and get to use their facilities and that includes lunch. We really enjoyed the day.

In Wellington, we arranged a private tour with Cruise Wellington. Our tour guide was wonderful. We had a group of 6 and were picked up in a van that seated us perfectly.

Hi,

Anyone on the ship can tell us how she's looking?

All smoothly running ie MTD etc, drink prices

We were the first cruise where they moved MTD from Deck 5 to Deck 4 because there were so many of us and for awhile it was a mess. The hostess seemed quite overwhelmed and didn't seem to know what she was doing. It finally got worked out, at least for us!

We are Diamond so we didn't buy a drink package - just went to the Diamond Lounge up in Starquest every evening before dinner. The concierge, Juan Diego, was the BEST!

I thought the ship was looking pretty good. The internet wasn't that good and I'm glad I didn't buy it, just used our free 48 hours.

I just got off Radiance and had an absolutely lovely time. We did B2B Vancouver, B.C. to Honolulu to Sydney. The weather was wonderful. Of course, after we left the French Polynesian islands and headed to New Zealand it started cooling down and was about 65 when we got to New Zealand. The first two nights and first sea day after leaving New Zealand and crossing the Tazman Sea were pretty rough but the first 27 days we mostly had following seas. I would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone! We had an aft balcony and while we mostly loved it, that rough sea day and nights made us change our minds and we'll go more towards mid-ship from now on. :D

We just did 29 days in an aft balcony, deck 9 on Radiance. DH said never again would we do an aft cabin. On rough days, the ship moved a lot back there so we spent most of our time mid ship. From now on we'll be closer to mid ship!

Hi all, a couple questions:

 

1) If I book onboard and don't want to use the OBC then can I save it and use it for that future cruise?

 

2) I have a bunch of Visa points. If I use them to reduce my cruise price does that mean I don't get all my C&A points for the sailing? Thought I read that somewhere but now I can't find it.

 

Thank you!

 

 

 

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Make sure you INSIST on taking your OBC on your NEXT cruise. Some of the staff will say you have to take it immediately - you don't.

We just got off Radiance - 29 days Vancouver, B.C. to Sydney, Australia. We had 6:30 MTD (there were 6 of us). With the exception of 2 nights where the hostess screwed up, we were at our assigned table (314) every night with the same waiters. MTD is so popular it was moved from Deck 5 to Deck 4. The regular dining times of 5:30 and 8:30 are either too early or too late. When we were done eating (usually a little over an hour each night), the line for the non-reservations was ridiculously long and we heard lots of grumblings as we walked by them when we left the dining room.

My son is Autistic, and is very picky due to sensory issues. I contacted the special needs department for RCCL regarding his food allergies, and pickiness, and they sent me an email that stated:

 

"Guests are allowed to bring on their own supply of dry, nonperishable food items such as cookies, crackers, chips, energy bars, etc. They may also bring on their own individual packets of salad dressings. Guests may not bring on board any potentially hazardous food items. (Items that require refrigeration, freezing, reheating, or storage by the galley). We recommend bringing your child's favorite food onboard, but please note perishable food items are not permitted to be brought onboard due to U.S. Public Health Guidelines."

 

On port days when we have excursions, I would like to just bring him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I can make him in our room. Do you think a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly would be considered "perishable?":confused:

You won't be allowed to bring a sandwich off the ship for excursions at any ports - per the islands rules not RCI's. They (the island authorities) now scan your bags, or hand search bags, or sometimes have dogs sniff each and every bag that comes off the ship looking for food and/or drugs. Some islands won't even allow pre-packaged food only bottled water.

We just got off a b2b (29 days) and sometimes all we wanted for lunch was a pb&j but couldn't get that for lunch. We would take the packets of peanutbutter and jam/jelly from breakfast back to our cabin and at lunch we'd get bread in the WJ and make our sandwiches (to eat on the ship). The Park Café had individual bags of Lays potato chips! A perfect lunch!

I read somewhere that the RCI excursion people are taken to the front of the tender line and everyone else needs to get a ticket, which is available starting at 6:30am. In all of the cruises we have been on, have never experienced the ticket issue.

 

What is the deal with the tickets? Should one of us rush down at 6:30am to get tickets? Do you get tickets based on the time you want to get the tender? We have a 9am privately booked tour and would like to understand the process.

 

Thanks!

Yes, RCI excursions get off on the tenders first. You will need to get your tender ticket as soon as you can.

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We just did it on Radiance. Dinner was in Giovanni's. It was a fun evening but didn't think it was worth $65.

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you are correct...benefit for you...and any other diamond members to use for themselves...but this is a topic that people feel that they have earned so why can 't they share a benefit...because you can't...just like your not supposed to take the drinks out of the diamond lunge either...unfortunately that one sometimes gets lax when no one catches you...

We take our drinks out of the Diamond Lounge every night down to dinner. Nobody says a word. Most of the people do it.

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We were on her last year this time and had no issues. Don't listen to the complainers.

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Not having ever had to use Tickets, if the Room Stewards are suppose to be receiving dinner tickets for those assigned to MTD and not getting them, then it would go further down the line to the person suppose to print out those tickets, transfer up to housekeeping ? so the room stewards can load on their carts. and deliver to the rooms. If the room steward doesn't have a ticket to deliver then someone is dropping the ball in getting them printed up for everyone who needs them.

I'm not sure who gives me my ticket. It's put in the slot above my cabin number on my door, not in my cabin. I would think if it was my cabin attendant, he'd put it inside my cabin.

That's the way MTD works - you have to wait to be seated, even with a reservation. :confused:

No it's not. I'm on Radiance right now. We bypass the line with our ticket in hand, give it to the person at the podium and then seat ourselves at our assigned table.

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Okay, I'm on Radiance right now. I made MTD reservations for 4 before we left on the cruise. We get a "ticket" in our cabin every morning for that night. Except for 2 nights ago, for us anyway, everything has worked out perfectly. We present our ticket, and we can then seat ourselves at our table. There are 3 (sometimes 4) stations open to check in for MTD. We've been switched to Deck 4 since there were so many of us wanting it. If there is a group reserved together, you only get 1 ticket - it goes to the person who made the reservation originally.

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We're also on board and are receiving the slips. We pre-booked for 6:30 every night. Up until last night, ours was perfect. When we checked in we were told somebody had just seated themselves at our reserved table and they wanted to put us at a table for 12. We said absolutely not and they should move those people off our table. They wouldn't and we ended up in a section around loud people. It was not a pleasant experience. Our waiter, from our assigned table, came by later to see what had happened. We told him we were mad and we'd definitely get the problem fixed. Hopefully I did that today {fingers crossed}!

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We use white boards (high school locker size) on the outside of our cabin door. We leave each other notes and by the end of a cruise, our cabin attendant and even other passengers leave us notes too! It ends up being quite fun!

We sailed her last year and also would not hesitate to sail on her again! The older, smaller ships are the best!

We did just the ship's bus ride to Paris. Once we got to the city, we took the Hop On Hop Off bus around the city. You can get on and off at any stop. It was the perfect way to see Paris.

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Nope, not working for me either and hasn't been for several days. I've got a Samsung S7 and going through the webview on Chrome is a pain. I'll send CC an email and ask when they're going to update it. It hasn't been updated since 2015.

As experienced cruisers, we know not to book early am flights on disembarkation day. However, due to an involuntary airline schedule change and other circumstances, we have no choice but to book a 7:50A flight out of FLL. Rebooking our cruise, flying out of MIA, taking a later flight or overnighting are not options at this point. We will also be packing light and traveling with only carry-on bags.

 

What else should one do or consider on disembarkation day in order to make the beeline?

 

Night Before: Pack Standard Sized Carry-On Bags

5:30A - Mobile Check-In via phone

6:00A - Line up for Self-Disembark

6:30A - Disembark

6:40A - Global Entry/Passport Control

6:45A - Taxi from Port Everglades to FLL Airport

7:00A - Check in Bags up until 7:05A cut off point (Otherwise, self-carry bags onto aircraft)

7:05A - Proceed to Gate

7:20A - Boarding

7:40A - Doors close

7:50A - Take off

On our last cruise, Alaska Airlines changed our flights without telling us. When we called and explained that there was NO WAY we could catch an 8:00 a.m. flight after getting off a cruise ship, they changed it without question and no change fees.

I wouldn't chance it! But that's just me! Good luck!