Just cruised on Radiance Mar 21-25

[PhotoMike]

   Just off the Carnival Radiance this past Friday morning, from a very fun 4 night Spring Break cruise. Our last cruise was on Victory a few months before the whole pandemic thing hit us all, so it was neat to see the changes. The ship was beautiful. We stayed in an ocean suite on deck 7 (in fact, it was right next door to our previous cabin on Victory), and had no complaints about the room or service. Our family of 4 had the room set up with the king bed, the sofa made into another single bed, and a roll-away. I guess my only nit-pick with the once-a-day cabin service (we chose evening) was that the beds stayed out the entire week. I suppose I could've put the couch back together & folded up the roll-away every day myself, but we made due. That configuration does cut down on your space, though. The cabin didn't appear to be remodeled in any way from it's former life as Victory, but it was clean & comfortable, and we liked it. Once-a-day service also only gives you fresh towels & wash cloths once a day, so if you want a fresh set for 2 showers a day, you'll have to ask your room steward for extras (which we did with no problems). A handy perk with the suite was a free bag of "wash & fold" laundry service, which we took advantage of. You also get 2 extra complimentary bottles of water with a suite. I took advantage of an upsell offer to get this cabin & I thought it was worth it!

   On to the food. I will preface this by saying that I'm definitely NOT a foodie. I'm a blue-collar construction worker who packs a lunchbox with PB&J's and stuff like that every day for work. I have read that the MDR dining on Radiance felt a little lacking in quality, and I'm going to have to agree with that. I mean, I had the sweet & sour shrimp on the first night, and it was pretty lousy. Looked & tasted like it came out of a microwave or air fryer. Our 12 yr old got the steak (not the steakhouse one, the free strip-loin), and he felt the same way as I did. The quality definitely wasn't there from past cruises (I'm a gold card on Carnival so I've been my way around a ship's dining room a time or two..lol). On the other hand, we did Cucina del Capitano one night & it was OUTSTANDING. Exceeded all of my expectations. Same goes for Sea Day Brunch. I actually went to that twice because I loved the 12hr French Toast & banana creme pie so much! Guy's, Big Chicken, & Blue Iguana are all great. I tried a little of the smokehouse food on the first day & it was pretty good, too. So I will say that if you don't care for the MDR fare, there's plenty of options.

   We had 2 production shows on this cruise (impressive for a 4 nighter), and they were Rock Revolution and Soulbound. Guys...don't miss EITHER of these shows. They were terrific! We sat on the floor for both, and really felt immersed into the productions. Definitely a talented group of entertainers on the Radiance right now. Ryan Rose was great, we tried to hit up as many of his events as possible (the various themed deck parties), and they were all well-attended & very fun.

  As far as shore excursions, we rented a gold cart in Avalon, Catalina and did the ship's La Bufadora excursion in Ensenada. Both days were very fun. You'll find that the first golf cart place you come to in Catalina will probably have super long line, but there's another one just down the street, which we used (Catalina Island Golf Cart Rentals & Tours). We rented one for 2 hours, but only really needed about an hour & a half, and they pro-rated the time used & gave me a bit of a refund which I thought was pretty nice of them. It was fun to explore on our own, but boy those hills are STEEP, so pump those brakes!  The Bufadora trip was one of those "been there, done that" kinds of things once completed. I don't feel the need to ever go there again, but it was cool to see once. But man, the vendors are HIGH PRESSURE! They were on my girlfriend pretty relentlessly, and were very successful in getting a significant portion of the cash that she brought..lol! I mean, it was 82 degrees there & they sold her a blanket, for crying out loud. I asked her if she needed me to go into one of the pharmacies there & get her some Preparation H after that experience (she didn't find that as funny as I did..lol!)

   I had been stressing about this whole Covid testing procedure for months. I ended up buying a 6 pack of the Binax Now tests & we did them in a hotel room in Chicago before we flew the next day. I have to say, it was pretty easy. The only thing...and this grinds my gears BAD... was that one of our test kits didn't include a nasal swab! I'm so glad we had a few extras, because we had to break one out. I just feel like that's extremely sloppy quality control on Abbot Labs. I mean, you could train a dang chimpanzee to put all the right stuff in a box & seal it up. They need to package those tests in a clear plastic container, because you don't know if you're good to go until right when they tell you to break the seal & open the box.

   So all in all, we had a great time on Radiance. If anyone wants any specific information, I'd be glad to help. (I'm not an expert & didn't hit up every single event, but there's YouTube videos out there of people who are and did..lol)

[arctickitty]

Thanks for sharing!

[PattiPB]

Thanks for posting! I loved the Radiance last month!

[JMKreno]

We were on the same cruise this past week. Overall, very happy with the Radiance and the experience. A bit shorter than we'd like but it worked for the dates and that isn't a NEGATIVE against the cruise just wasn't able to really "get to know" the ship that well. Guess we'll have to go again and make it a B2B! 

The only major complaint we had was the tendering process in Catalina. WOW. What a crapshow that was. Took us almost 3 hours to get off the ship. Were told that we could get tendering tickets between 9 and 11, and since we didn't need to start our Golf cart rental until 12, we figured going down at 1015 would be early enough to get a ticket and off within an hour. Nope. We got to the liquid lounge at 1015 and were told that they weren't giving any more tender tickets because the general tender boarding would start within 30 minutes and we were told to wait. So we waited. 1045, "still loading groups with tender numbers", general boarding now in 15. 1100, still loading boarding tender numbers. General boarding now 30 minutes away?! We were  getting a little stressed as we mentioned we needed off to make an appointment at 12, we figured almost 2 hours was ample time to get to shore (literally a half-mile tender ride). So they then start having the people now massing waiting for general boarding down onto deck 1, 1115, 1130, nothing. 1145 starting to really stress out. Nothing "still loading tender numbers". They FINALLY get us into a tender at almost 1215 which then proceeds to sit at the ship for another 15 minutes loading. We didn't get to shore until almost 1240 after starting the process at 1015am. We had to call the rental place who understood this issue and had no issue accommodating us even though they were completely full at that time. Ended up a great day, but wow that was a disaster. There only seemed to be 2 tenders going back and forth, and each held hundreds, so they'd just wait to fill them up. Same thing coming back, we were on the boat in a massive group, but the boat wasn't completely full so they waited 20 minutes for stragglers to show up. It was incredibly hot inside the boat (trying to get out of the sun) so with the kids it was a very long and uncomfortable wait. They definitely need to fix that process. Cabo we've never wait more than about an hour from 1st tender number to general boarding and I think that's because they have dozens of tenders loading constantly vs 1 or 2 large tenders. 

 

Again, cruise was great otherwise!

[PhotoMike]

I just thought of this bit of info. I had the cheapest "social media" internet plan, and can confirm that iMessage on my iPhone worked the entire week. Also, it supported the cruise ship tracker app that I have, so I could see where we were (there's a map buried in the menu on the in-cabin television, too, but it's not as detailed as the app that I use.)

[PhotoMike]

1 hour ago, JMKreno said:

The only major complaint we had was the tendering process in Catalina. WOW. What a crapshow that was. Took us almost 3 hours to get off the ship.

Wow, that stinks!  We had priority tendering with the suite, but didn't use that perk. We just walked down to the lounge around 9 or so, and we waited maybe 10 minutes and we were on a tender. Coming back wasn't bad either. Sorry you got caught up in all that mess!

[JMKreno]

Just now, PhotoMike said:

Wow, that stinks!  We had priority tendering with the suite, but didn't use that perk. We just walked down to the lounge around 9 or so, and we waited maybe 10 minutes and we were on a tender. Coming back wasn't bad either. Sorry you got caught up in all that mess!

Yea, we didn't let it ruin our trip (some people will let something like that consume them). It's really a matter of "what the hell?!" ha!

 

We COULD have gotten off much earlier and I heard there was no line (like you mentioned around 9) but that was 3 hours before our scheduled rental so we didn't think we needed off quite that early...who knows?

[nyonefivetwo]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:03 PM, PhotoMike said:

We had 2 production shows on this cruise (impressive for a 4 nighter), and they were Rock Revolution and Soulbound. Guys...don't miss EITHER of these shows. They were terrific! We sat on the floor for both, and really felt immersed into the productions. Definitely a talented group of entertainers on the Radiance right now. Ryan Rose was great, we tried to hit up as many of his events as possible (the various themed deck parties), and they were all well-attended & very fun.

THIS! Oh my goodness. I was on Radiance just before you, and the productions cast was one of the best I've ever seen. And Ryan Rose was quite possibly the best cruise director I've ever had!

Thanks for sharing your experience!

[Buffettfan 225]

Minor question- which way did the ship face in Catalina (Avalon) and Ensenada?  
we will be port side and 3mo ago on Radiance enjoyed watching sea lions below us on dock shore from port side . Hoping senior parents can see them from balcony & watch tendering while in Avalon from port side again. Thanks

[Itried4498]

14 minutes ago, Buffettfan 225 said:

Minor question- which way did the ship face in Catalina (Avalon) and Ensenada?  
we will be port side and 3mo ago on Radiance enjoyed watching sea lions below us on dock shore from port side . Hoping senior parents can see them from balcony & watch tendering while in Avalon from port side again. Thanks

 

It's always been portside.  The Fantasy-class ships use to be allowed to drift, so both sides would face the island at some point, but they are anchoring the Radiance.

[Tiger0613]

48 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

 

It's always been portside.  The Fantasy-class ships use to be allowed to drift, so both sides would face the island at some point, but they are anchoring the Radiance.

I was in a port side oceanview cabin on the Inspiration in August 2016.  The port side never faced the port in Catalina.  I could tell this even when I wasn't on the ship.  I could see the ship from the shore and from the ziplining excursion.  Starboard was always facing the port.

[keahi89]

On 3/27/2022 at 11:03 AM, PhotoMike said:

As far as shore excursions, we rented a gold cart in Avalon, Catalina and did the ship's La Bufadora excursion in Ensenada. Both days were very fun. You'll find that the first golf cart place you come to in Catalina will probably have super long line, but there's another one just down the street, which we used (Catalina Island Golf Cart Rentals & Tours). We rented one for 2 hours, but only really needed about an hour & a half, and they pro-rated the time used & gave me a bit of a refund which I thought was pretty nice of them. It was fun to explore on our own, but boy those hills are STEEP, so pump those brakes!

so no real need to pre-book a cart??  they have a lot?  also, i heard you need to bring your proof of car insurance or have to pay extra.  is that true?