Radiance or Rhapsody to Hawaii

[roguecruiser]

Has anyone done the re-positioning cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii. Is an inside cabin on a lower deck a mistake on an ocean crossing to Hawaii? We are considering booking a "guaranty" vs choosing a cabin. Comments anyone? :cool:

[yogimax]

Saving money is NEVER a mistake. Since many days are at sea, you will not miss much in an inside cabin.

 

One important word of advice... if choosing a cabin on a lower deck avoid those in the far aft portion of the ship. They may very likely feel the vibration and noise from the ships propellers.

 

I would definitely go the "guarantee" route. You never know if you might get a better cabin. If you should get an aft cabin on deck two, you can change it for another cabin in the same category.

[Goes Cruising]

I did the repositioning from Hawaii to Vancouver last year with my two sisters on the Rhapsody. I originally had a large interior booked at a good location, but when my second sister decided to join, we had to scramble to get a room and ended up with a standard interior room. Radiance interior = 165 sq ft, Rhapsody Large interior = 142 sq ft, Rhapsody standard interior = 132 sq ft.

 

I am one of those folks who always says we don't spend much time in the room, it's just a place to sleep, etc. I'm all about saving money. If you end up in a standard interior on a Vision class ship, you better really, really mean that. I have had great cruises on Vision class, but they were all very port intensive. I have to say I would think twice about an inside on a Vision class again, especially with so many sea days.

[yj2cute]

I did the opposite crossing from Honolulu to Vancouver in an inside. No problems at all. And I saved a ton of $$. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

[roguecruiser]

We've been on Royal Caribbean before, but have never had a long ocean crossing.

Monarch '98' 7 night southern caribbean

Mercury '00' 7 night western caribbean

Grandeur '02' 11 night circle of caribbean

Majesty '03' 4 night Bahamas

Jewel '05' 8 night western caribbean

Radiance '12' 12 night Alaska

 

So my concern is with possible rough seas on an open ocean in an inside cabin. We have a hold on a category Q for Rhapsody right now, and am hoping that we "might" get a deck or cabin upgrade, because we've cruised with them before, but are not counting on that!

[cruisnpat]

We have an inside cabin booked on the Rhapsody going from Vancouver to Hawaii on Sept 25,14. Yes the cabins are small but we aren't in our cabin mush except to shower and sleep. Counting the days until our cruise.

[schwpaul]

I have done Honolulu to Vancouver and Honolulu to Ensenada on the Rhapsody and Vision respectively. We had a deck 2 outside cabin on both sailings. The cabins were mid-ship. We had 30-35 ft. sea two days from Ensenada. Upper decks and extreme forward and aft cabins had a lot of movement. Our cheap little room was not bad at all.

 

Paul

[roguecruiser]

We have an inside cabin booked on the Rhapsody going from Vancouver to Hawaii on Sept 25,14. Yes the cabins are small but we aren't in our cabin mush except to shower and sleep. Counting the days until our cruise.

 

Are you sure of those dates? We are looking at Sept 5 2014!

[PCWalton1]

Last November we did a 15 day cruise on Legend (which is about the same size) in an inside cabin (8051) and we thoroughly enjoy ourselves. There was 7 at seas days but we found plenty of room up on the pool deck where we hung out most days. Go for it, you will have a great time.

[Langley Cruisers]

Another angle -

 

Have not cruised to/from Hawaii but have sailed many times on Radiance-class ships. They are the only 4 ships in the fleet with the outdoor aft Windjammer seating, which would be perfect in the Hawaiian islands for sunset dinners. Glorious. :)

.

[FunCruiser56]

May I suggest you check out Celebrity? We spent years hoping for a cruise to Hawaii but always found RCI's prices to be too high, we love our balconys and spend alot of time enjoying breakfast and watching the ocean go by. We got fantastic prices on the Celebrity Solstice 11 night Honolulu to Ensenada, (now Vancouver).

The Solstice class ships are beautiful ships with wonderful crew and their larger size made the pacific crossing very comfortable and our cabin was on dk 11 and motion was never a problem for us.

 

Remember too that if your C&A member you will have similar status with Celebrity. We plan to cruise on the Solstice again to Hawaii sometime in future.

 

Bev

[franl24fan]

I have done the Rhapsody inside cabin from Hawaii back to vancouver and had no problems. I almost always have booked inside cabins, even before the new ridiculous double pricing for solos, there are lots of public places to sit and watch the ocean go by. IMHO I'd rather go inside cabin than not go at all.

[roguecruiser]

From what I've seen, the Celebrity cruise, inside cabin, 12 night, Vancouver to Hawaii, is at least 50% higher in price. $2200 vs. about $1400. If only the parent company (Royal Caribbean) would combine the cruise benefit programs of the two lines we would reach the next level. Currently they honor each others status but taking a Celebrity cruise does not gain us points on our Royal Caribbean status.

[europe14]

We are in an inside cabin on deck 4 on the Rhapsody sailing from Vancouver to Hawaii on Sept. 5. This is our 13th cruise and 11 of them have been in inside cabins. We have never been on the Rhapsody before, but have never had any problems being in an inside cabin. We are in a category K (large interior). I did think about booking the Radiance, but I liked the fact that the Rhapsody had one extra day in Maui.