Trip Report: Radiance July 2016 A Whale of A Time!

I enjoyed the trip reports of others so much, I thought I'd add mine to the list. I'm also doing this same report on my blog (see link below), which will also include video. I will only upload photos here. Video will be added to my blog last, when I figure out how to splice it together. This report will take me a while, but I WILL get through it! I got a few of the MDR menus, but not all.

Day 1: We left for the airport at o'dark thirty: 4am-ish. We (we being my mom, my daughter and myself) boarded our 6:30am flight for Vancouver, BC Canada and arrived on time. We waited for my sister and her husband to arrive, about an hour later, and we made our way through customs and hopped into a cab to the pier. Yes, it is stressful flying in same-day, but due to work schedules, it was a must.

A little about us: 1 is in her 30's, 2 of us are in our 40's, my mom is older than that ;) and my daughter turned 10 during the cruise. This was my brother-in-law's first cruise. It was my daughter's second (and 2nd time to Alaska, too), my sister's 5th cruise (and 3rd time to Alaska), and my mom and I have been on 6 cruises - 4 of them to Alaska.

We booked this cruise for a few reasons: Icy Strait Point and Seward are new ports to us and we wanted to try the Radiance of the Seas (we've taken RCCL to the western Caribbean and to Scandinavia/Russia). We've been to Alaska twice on Princess - one round trip from Vancouver and one Southbound. And we've done a round trip cruise on Disney to Alaska, too. We let my brother-in-law choose where to cruise, originally. He'd never cruised before, so we gave him the option of the Caribbean or Alaska. He chose Alaska (yay - honestly my favorite place). We chose the ship and itinerary from there.

Back to Day 1: Checkin was very smooth and we were on the ship in very little time (especially compared with Disney 2 years ago!!). We had lunch in the Windjammer and it was surprisingly very good. I didn't expect it to be that good from the reviews I'd read, but they had a good selection and several very yummy meat/gravy type options and the curry and soups were always good, too. We arrived on Canada Day, so they had a HUGE cake. Very pretty. Apparently a little too crunchy, though. I didn't have any. We checked out our room, unpacked, explored the ship a bit, and went to our 8pm dinner time. No shows for us, though. We were too tired.

I will say that the sail away party was a bit of a disappointment. It consisted, literally, of two little girls dancing on deck. After Disney's sail-away party, this one paled in comparison, greatly. But, in all honestly I went to Alaska for Alaska. The little ship annoyances amounted to basically nothing. We really had an awesome cruise.

I loved our cabin. We had cabin 7654, towards the aft of the ship. It has an oversized balcony, which was wonderful! My sister and her husband had 7174 - at the very back, with a wake-view. I have to say, I preferred our room to hers. She had a bigger couch and longer room. But our balcony was shaped better. Her balcony was sort of cut off since the glass was angled so steeply.

Yes, the balcony rails needed to be refinished badly and we had issues with our shower on day 2 (more to come on that later), and the ship definitely showed its age, but honestly, I really enjoyed the ship. I've cruised on RCCL previously: on the Enchantment in 2000 and the Jewel in her inaugural year. The Radiance reminded me of those ships. She has classic style and elegance. The layout made a lot of sense to me and it was great to have the Windjammer (or as my DD kept calling it, "the Wickersham"!) right upstairs, which made grabbing a bite convenient on sea days. I would also grab a plate of fruit for my DD just before it closed so she'd have a little something to eat at our usual dinner time, since we had late seating. It kept her from becoming grumpy from being too hungry.

And because I'm always curious as to what others use: I took 3 cameras along. I took the Sony a6000, with 35mm, 50mm, and 35-210mm lenses. I had tried to rent a 70-200 f2.4 lens, but the ordering process was somehow not completed and I was unable to rent one for the trip. I plan to buy one before I go back to Alaska. I also took a Panasonic fz1000 and a Sony 200v Action Cam. More about these as we go.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

I for one am looking forward to the rest. On the same cruise and ship 6 weeks from today!

Ok, did some switching. I need to fix the photo links...

Okay, sorry. I couldn't edit my previous posts. If anyone knows how I can just delete the first few posts with photos, please let me know.

How about a do over?

I enjoyed the trip reports of others so much, I thought I'd add mine to the list. I'm also doing this same report on my blog (see link below), which will also include video. I will only upload photos here. Video will be added to my blog last, when I figure out how to splice it together. This report will take me a while, but I WILL get through it! I got a few of the MDR menus, but not all.

Day 1: We left for the airport at o'dark thirty: 4am-ish. We (we being my mom, my daughter and myself) boarded our 6:30am flight for Vancouver, BC Canada and arrived on time. We waited for my sister and her husband to arrive, about an hour later, and we made our way through customs and hopped into a cab to the pier. Yes, it is stressful flying in same-day, but due to work schedules, it was a must.

A little about us: 1 is in her 30's, 2 of us are in our 40's, my mom is older than that and my daughter turned 10 during the cruise. This was my brother-in-law's first cruise. It was my daughter's second (and 2nd time to Alaska, too), my sister's 5th cruise (and 3rd time to Alaska), and my mom and I have been on 6 cruises - 4 of them to Alaska.

We booked this cruise for a few reasons: Icy Strait Point and Seward are new ports to us and we wanted to try the Radiance of the Seas (we've taken RCCL to the western Caribbean and to Scandinavia/Russia). We've been to Alaska twice on Princess - one round trip from Vancouver and one Southbound. And we've done a round trip cruise on Disney to Alaska, too. We let my brother-in-law choose where to cruise, originally. He'd never cruised before, so we gave him the option of the Caribbean or Alaska. He chose Alaska (yay - honestly my favorite place). We chose the ship and itinerary from there.

Back to Day 1: Checkin was very smooth and we were on the ship in very little time (especially compared with Disney 2 years ago!!). We had lunch in the Windjammer and it was surprisingly very good. I didn't expect it to be that good from the reviews I'd read, but they had a good selection and several very yummy meat/gravy type options and the curry and soups were always good, too. We arrived on Canada Day, so they had a HUGE cake. Very pretty. Apparently a little too crunchy, though. I didn't have any. We checked out our room, unpacked, explored the ship a bit, and went to our 8pm dinner time. No shows for us, though. We were too tired.

I will say that the sail away party was a bit of a disappointment. It consisted, literally, of two little girls dancing on deck. After Disney's sail-away party, this one paled in comparison, greatly. But, in all honestly I went to Alaska for Alaska. The little ship annoyances amounted to basically nothing. We really had an awesome cruise.

I loved our cabin. We had cabin 7654, towards the aft of the ship. It has an oversized balcony, which was wonderful! My sister and her husband had 7174 - at the very back, with a wake-view. I have to say, I preferred our room to hers. She had a bigger couch and longer room. But our balcony was shaped better. Her balcony was sort of cut off since the glass was angled so steeply.

Yes, the balcony rails needed to be refinished badly and we had issues with our shower on day 2 (more to come on that later), and the ship definitely showed its age, but honestly, I really enjoyed the ship. I've cruised on RCCL previously: on the Enchantment in 2000 and the Jewel in her inaugural year. The Radiance reminded me of those ships. She has classic style and elegance. The layout made a lot of sense to me and it was great to have the Windjammer (or as my DD kept calling it, "the Wickersham"!) right upstairs, which made grabbing a bite convenient on sea days. I would also grab a plate of fruit for my DD just before it closed so she'd have a little something to eat at our usual dinner time, since we had late seating. It kept her from becoming grumpy from being too hungry.

And because I'm always curious as to what others use: I took 3 cameras along. I took the Sony a6000, with 35mm, 50mm, and 35-210mm lenses. I had tried to rent a 70-200 f2.4 lens, but the ordering process was somehow not completed and I was unable to rent one for the trip. I plan to buy one before I go back to Alaska. I also took a Panasonic fz1000 and a Sony 200v Action Cam. More about these as we go.

Anyway, on to the pictures...

Day 2: The ship was rocking and rolling quite a bit during the night and throughout the entire second day. We hit a storm that created a good deal of motion and a lot of passengers were pretty green, including my brother-in-law and my mom (and she was wearing a patch). I used to get extremely sea sick but this is the 2nd cruise now where we’ve had rough seas, the kind where you walk where the ship tells you to walk, and I didn’t get sick. Thank goodness! I actually enjoyed the motion.

Unfortunately, we were woken via loud speaker in our cabin around 3am. The captain came on asking for registered blood donors to make themselves known. We later learned that it was someone with leukemia who needed a blood transfusion. We slowed quite a bit and I heard we stopped so that person could be taken off the ship. I feel horrible for him/her and I hope they got the blood that they needed and are home safe, now.

We woke later and decided to go to the MDR for breakfast. I forgot to mention that we had requested a table to ourselves but found we were at a 10 or 12 top the night prior. We spoke with Amar who very swiftly and patiently dealt with our situation. The other folks at our table wanted the early seating. I like to do vlog videos and it just gets very awkward at a shared table, so a table for just us works best. They were certainly very nice people and I’m guessing they got the earlier time slot, since we didn’t see them again. Amar did an awesome job with quite a few grumpy people who didn’t have the seating they wanted. We had a 5-top the rest of the cruise.

So back to breakfast: my daughter ordered cereal and bacon. I had eggs benedict (which, honestly, were better in the Windjammer – you could put more hollandaise on it, and fresh sliced ham instead of Canadian bacon).

I went to wash my hair before breakfast and the spray was going everywhere except out of the nozzle. I held the nozzle to look at it and the whole thing came off in my hand! See the photos. Since my hair was full of shampoo, I had to use the now power-wash-force hose to rinse my hair. An annoyance, but it was fixed before we got back from exploring the ship, so no biggie.

We explored the ship and unpacked, stuffed ourselves silly, and we saw our first whale! I ordered room service a bit later (before switching to running up to the buffet for fruit instead of room service) and I gotta say – it was pretty bad. The fruit plate was ok. The hot crab and artichoke dip was ok. The cheese plate, however, was horrible. The crackers were extremely stale saltines and the cheese was questionable. Not good.

We all took a much needed afternoon nap, as we’d gotten up so early the day prior and stayed up longer than I would have liked. Because of our naps, we missed the early show. I’m totally ok with that. I don’t go to Alaska to watch shows. I would really rather sit on the balcony and watch the scenery.

The rocking and rolling let up around 6pm, so both my mom and brother-in-law were able to enjoy dinner with us. Dinner was really good. I had my favorite meal of the cruise this night. There is a picture below. I can’t remember what it was called, but it was beef with a mushroom gravy and it was melt-in-your-mouth good. I thought I had a photo of the menu, but I can’t seem to find it. The crab ravioli appetizer was ok. The chocolate soufflé was amazing. I’m not crazy about sweets, so I was pleasantly surprised by the soufflé. The other desserts were just ok.

Afterwards, went back to our room and relaxed. We found our first towel animal! At first, I thought it was a dog's tush! LOL But then we decided it was a dinosaur. There was a beautiful sunset that night!

I was on this same cruise and agree, the sail away was uneventful, however the cruise was wonderful.

Excellent review, and love your photos!

Thanks so much for sharing! :)

Our turn next month!

I for one am looking forward to the rest. On the same cruise and ship 6 weeks from today!

I'm glad you are looking forward to it! I wish you the best on your cruise! We had an absolutely amazing time!

Excellent review, and love your photos!

Thanks so much for sharing! :)

 

Our turn next month!

Thank you! I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did! I loved it so much, I'm thinking about doing a b2b on the Radiance!

We are considering Radiance for a cruise out of Sydney in 2018.

We have never cruised on Royal, but are Diamond since are elite on Celebrity.

Does Royal have fixed dining times or fixed with a choice of anytime dining?

How did you like the ship? We are considering an aft balcony.

Thank you! I hope you enjoy your cruise as much as we did! I loved it so much, I'm thinking about doing a b2b on the Radiance!

That is why we are doing it this time! Had just the one week Seward to Vancouver

on Radiance four years ago.

This time we are not getting off the ship in Vancouver! :D

Same cabin, corner aft 9256, for both legs! :)

We are considering Radiance for a cruise out of Sydney in 2018.

We have never cruised on Royal, but are Diamond since are elite on Celebrity.

 

Does Royal have fixed dining times or fixed with a choice of anytime dining?

 

How did you like the ship? We are considering an aft balcony.

There are fixed times - early and late seating - and our cruise also had anytime dining.

I enjoyed the ship. I like the layout, love all of the glass, especially up i the Starquest Lounge, high above the water. It's an older ship, but they are constantly working on it. I'm already planning another trip on the Radiance in the summer of 2018.

That is why we are doing it this time! Had just the one week Seward to Vancouver

on Radiance four years ago.

 

This time we are not getting off the ship in Vancouver! :D

 

Same cabin, corner aft 9256, for both legs! :)

Very nice! I'm planning on doing another northbound in 2018 with friends and I'm hoping to make it a b2b. I loved our room so much that I'm hoping to book it again.

I wish I could go again sooner!

Very nice! I'm planning on doing another northbound in 2018 with friends and I'm hoping to make it a b2b. I loved our room so much that I'm hoping to book it again.

 

I wish I could go again sooner!

We have been on each class of RCI ship, with the exception of Quantum class (that is

in the works ;)). But we still love the Radiance series as our favorite! :)

Excellent review, and love your photos!

Thanks so much for sharing! :)

 

Our turn next month!

Thank you so much for your review and especially pics of the MDR menus. We are on the same sailing as island lady. We were supposed togo last year but I ended up in the hospital the day before we were scheduled to leave (that's where I found out I had gluten issues) So glad to see so many options for me on the MDR menus!

Thank for taking the time to post it all! :)

Thank you so much for your review and especially pics of the MDR menus. We are on the same sailing as island lady. We were supposed togo last year but I ended up in the hospital the day before we were scheduled to leave (that's where I found out I had gluten issues) So glad to see so many options for me on the MDR menus!

 

Thank for taking the time to post it all! :)

"Sea" you on board very soon! :)

Yes, no problems with the Gluten issue. I went through Gluten sensitivity on Serenade

last February. Had no problem with the Gluten free selections. Even Chef's Table was

totally doable, and in fact my pasta entree was better than the regular one!

My sister is joining us on our northbound leg, boarding in Vancouver. She has Celiacs

and can't have any Gluten at all...ever. She has no problems on RCI ships either. :)

We're on the August 12th sailing as well...looking forward to the rest of this review to tide me over until we go! Thanks for posting it!

Thank you so much for your review and especially pics of the MDR menus. We are on the same sailing as island lady. We were supposed togo last year but I ended up in the hospital the day before we were scheduled to leave (that's where I found out I had gluten issues) So glad to see so many options for me on the MDR menus!

 

Thank for taking the time to post it all! :)

My daughter has gluten issues, too. Not severe, but enough that she's always the kid who wishes she could have the cupcake at parties. They provided gluten free bread and provided 2 different kinds in the MDR and the rolls in the Samba Grill we were told were gluten free. I hope you enjoy your cruise!

"Sea" you on board very soon! :)

 

Yes, no problems with the Gluten issue. I went through Gluten sensitivity on Serenade

last February. Had no problem with the Gluten free selections. Even Chef's Table was

totally doable, and in fact my pasta entree was better than the regular one!

 

My sister is joining us on our northbound leg, boarding in Vancouver. She has Celiacs

and can't have any Gluten at all...ever. She has no problems on RCI ships either. :)

That's great to hear! I was worried with my daughter, but the staff were very helpful.