Just off the Radiance.

[Johnnyflatstick]

Would be happy to answer any questions. Saw all the shows but one, ate at both Chops and Potofino's. Did not go to the dining room at all.

[pacthepuppies]

Hey:D - here are a couple- How was every little thing:eek: !!!

We go in 7 weeks and i am dying to hear how she is just out of drydock- so

clean? fun? food? what cabin? what itinerary? what show is a must see? which a must miss? what was the best part, the worst part????????

how are the beds? did they put in shower doors, or are there still those pesky curtains??? did you pre-tip/ over-tip/undertip?

THANKS!

Lisa:)

[gratefulguy]

Many will be interested if there were any significant changes to the ship or its routine operations after being in drydock--have you been on Radiance before? How does it compare to any other cruises/ships you have sailed on? Thanks.

Hope you had a great time!

[SusieC]

I'm curious about the menu at the Seaview Cafe. There have been many posts about other ships changing their menus, just curious if the Radiance changed theirs during drydock. We're sailing 2 weeks from today - woohoo!!

[wyattm]

Would be happy to answer any questions. Saw all the shows but one, ate at both Chops and Potofino's. Did not go to the dining room at all.

 

 

Hope you had a nice trip. Are they getting ready to change CD"S on the Radiance. Did they change the shower curtians to doors while in dry dock(hope so) We are on the Hump in a few more weeks. Hope it looks as good as it did last year. How's the food,drinks. Who is playing in the Schooner lounge.:) We had a blast last year in the Schooner lounge.

[nanfromatlanta]

We have cruised on the Radiance twice, the latest being this past December. The food in the dining room was quite good. Usually we eat in one of the alternative restaurants at least once on every cruise. We can't see paying all that money for a cruise, and then paying every night to dine in an alternative restaurant, especially since we have some favorite selections on many of the menus.

 

Hope you enjoyed the Radiance. It is our favorite ship.

[Radiance1]

Would like to know about the dress attire for dinner, how many formal, casual, etc.. We've heard that they are doing away with the smart casual night(s) and since we are going to be in the Radiance in 43 days we want to pack accordingly.

[Nick Needs To Know]

I'm with the other posters that would like to know about the food... Buffets, Seaview, Chops, Portofino... All of it. Thanks.

 

Nick

[Johnnyflatstick]

OK, I will attempt to answer all.

 

There were no "smart casual" nights. There were 2 formal nights and 2 "casual" nighta which were the first and last nights. In between there was "casual/country", "casual/carribean", "casual/50's & 60's".

 

As I said, we did not go to the dining room at all. We are at Chops & it was excellent. Tried to go again on the second formal night but it was booked, so we went to Portofinos. It was also very good, but if I had to choose I would go with Chops. An outstanding Filet Mignon, family servings of vegetables & a very full belly!

 

We were in cabin 7110 and it had a shower curtain, not a door. This was a handicap cabin though so the others may not be the same. This cabin was twice as large a regular balcony due to it being a handicap cabin. It is on the bach side of the hump and has a huge balcony. My only problem with the balcony is deck 7 is right over the life boats so if you look down you are looking at the white metal roof of the life boat deck. If you saw the news with the blood stains on the white metal when that guy went missing a couple of months ago, well that is right outside your balcony. So in this cabin you had to look out and rear to see anything. Not terrible, but something to think about. The bathroom was huge, again twice normal size. This cabin was close to the size of an average hotel room.

 

Not sure who played in the Schooner lounge, we only went there for Bingo each afternoon. This is a nice area though.

 

Seaview cafe has not changed and serves various salads and soups, burgers, dogs, wings, chicken fingers, fries, etc. The hrs were mostly noon-6:30pm and 9pm till 1am.

 

The dry dock apparently was just a mechanical maintenance thing. The overall ship layout is great, but there are many pieces of worn furniture in the Schooner and the Windjammer & if you look at any wood area you will likely see it is faded in many places. The ship was very clean, but does not "pop" l;ike I felt the Serenade did when I was on it last year.

 

Definitely not new beds or bedding, but our bed was fine.

 

Tips - This system was new to us. On our first cruise several years ago (Carnival), you were given envelopes to use to tip the various people with. On that cruise they even closed all alternative dining in an obvious effort to make you go to the dining room and tip (or be very obvious that you were not tipping). All our sruises after that (Carnival, Princess, RCCL) had the tips put directly on your card & if you wanted to make changes you could go to the purser and do so. This time they left a letter in the cabin Thursday evening explaining the process. You could sign off and leave the letter and they would put the tips on your card. If you did that you would be left vouchers and envelopes to give to the various people. The other option was to not turn the letter in and you would be left envelopes to use to tip with. It seems they are going back to making it very obvious to everyone who tips and who does not. In our case, we took the envelopes and tipped those who served us during the week. We ate in the Seaview, the Windjammer, and the specialty restaurants so we ripped those folks and not the dining room wait staff. We tipped the cabin steward as well. My opinion is these people need to be tipped appropriately, but I also think the cruise line goes too far with this sign and voucher thing just like every excursion goes too far begging for tips. People know they should do the right thing. Giving them envelopes and vouchers and making a big production out of it is not going to make cheap people tip and just seems to lower the "class" rating a bit. Just my opinion.

[pacthepuppies]

Johnnyflatstick, for your honest reviews on this and several of the other threads- I have been hopping around behind you like a bunny!

I appreciate your thoughts...

i remember the tipping when we last cruised gasp :eek: ! 11 years ago was with the envelopes but i do not remember it being such a big deal... i esp. know what you are saying about the excursions, as i have read many others talking about needing to tip every tom, dick, and harry so to speak- very hot topic on the destinations board...

it sounds like our cruise will be as wonderful as we plan to make it!!

good luck on getting your land legs back!

[jrm9999]

Who was the captain and cruise director?

[Johnnyflatstick]

The CD just got on the ship last weekend and is leavign for Europe in a month. His name was Peter Benning. Capt Hemri (sp?) looks like he is about 25 years old, but is really like 38 and the youngest they have.

[jrm9999]

Thanks. Do you think the CD's last name may have been Benfield instead of Benning?

[Johnnyflatstick]

Yeah, sorry. Benfield is correct. I was looking at all the Cruise Compasses I saved and his name is nowhere to be found.