Live from Radiance Pacific Coastal 9/16/06

[PH8]

I was wondering if the "sommelier" was the bar service guy in the dining room:confused:

[KathieKata]

"Sommelier" =

 

som·me·lier [ sùmm'l yáy ] (plural som·me·liers)

 

noun Definition: wine steward: a wine steward in a restaurant, hotel, or other establishment, who supervises the ordering, storing, and serving of wine

 

[Early 20th century. < French, variant of somm(er)ier "officer in charge of provisions" < somme "burden" < Greek sāgma "covering, packsaddle"]

 

:D

[IMNiles]

Sommelier?? I thought they were a thing of the past on RCCL ships.......:confused:

 

 

we had two!

[IMNiles]

I was wondering if the "sommelier" was the bar service guy in the dining room:confused:

 

I don't *think* so, as I believe he identified himself as the sommelier and was the one to host the "wine tasting," and the only time we ever saw him was when we were discussing wine, but for all I can't say for sure what his actual title was.

[CVU]

Ladylawyer, glad you have had a good time on your cruise.

 

I hope you got your bags at the airport that you were waiting for. It was fun meeting you and your friend.

 

I am sailing on Sunday with DH for Hawaii and am getting all excited now!! 3 sleeps left!:)

[IMNiles]

cvu, in case ladylawyer does not respond herself, I did find out she got her luggage. :)

[Guest allylaw]

[quote name=Please give a special hello to Ally too!

:D[/quote]

 

Hi hi hi hi Celia!!!! I'm going to book Thanksgiving on the Monarch tomorrow for my hubby and son...we'll be joining you on that trip!

 

Hope your Disney cruise was fantastic--do tell all...

 

Celia--wish you were here with us. Lorna and I are having a great time with our new pal Cindy--this girls' cruise has been an absolute blast...you'd absolutely love Cindy...such a kick!

 

Did Lorna post that we three are the dancing girls in the Karaoke final tomorrow night? (Don't ask how that came about:rolleyes: )

 

Yes, we were Quest victorious...but I think I bruised a rib in the process (doing the worm at Quest after eating a 16oz T-bone at Chops)

[ladylawyer]

Hi Dan! How was your day in The City?

 

Ally, Cindy and I went to the Titanic Exhibit at the Metreon. If anyone gets the chance to see it, I recommend it highly. It was very moving. When you enter the exhibit, you are given a card on one of the passengers. It tells you all about the person. I am happy to report that all 3 of us survived! To celebrate our survival, we walked to Ghiradelli Square and had a hot fudge sundae! Then, we went to "Menopause, the Musical," which is playing at Pier 39. It was hysterical. At the end, Cindy and I joined a number of audience members in a nice little can-can on stage. I've definitely got the dancing bug.

 

CVU, it was nice to meet you at the airport. As Dan mentioned, my luggage finally arrived at 9AM the next day. It was pretty dicey, for awhile. Apparently, when we were bumped in Seattle, my bag was not tagged for rerouting. It was sitting in Seattle, even though we were told it was in Vancouver. No worries ... unlike 2 couples who used the RCI direct transfer (where you put your RCI luggage tags on the bag, along with the airline tags). As of Wednesday, their bags still had not caught up to them. They were told "tomorrow," and we did see 4 bags being rolled to the ship today. At least they got a new wardrobe out of it.

 

We had a medical emergency yesterday (at sea day) and the US Coast Guard hovered its helicopter over the bow, to airlift the passenger. We thought it odd that Capt. Rune (who's adorable, by the way), suggested that we wave at the helicopter. We found out, at dinner, that it was all a drill. It was pretty interesting ... and better explained why we would be waving during a medical emergency.

 

Tomorrow is our last full day on the ship. We don't actually sail from SF until 2AM, so we still have some more time in SF tonight. However, I'm tired (too much fun) and we're hanging out at the internet cafe.

 

BTW, I've still never met Tony (San). Chat later! ~ Lorna

[PH8]

"Sommelier" =

 

som·me·lier [ sùmm'l yáy ] (plural som·me·liers)

 

noun Definition: wine steward: a wine steward in a restaurant, hotel, or other establishment, who supervises the ordering, storing, and serving of wine

 

[Early 20th century. < French, variant of somm(er)ier "officer in charge of provisions" < somme "burden" < Greek sāgma "covering, packsaddle"]

 

:D

 

K2-we know what a sommelier is.....the thing is RCCL used to have them,but got rid of them,until now apparently......

[love2cruiseseattle]

To any of the current Radiance Cruisers:

 

How are the beds? if they are not comfy, do they have egg crates you can request??

 

Thanks....

[tinkerme1]

Hi Lorna and Ally!

 

Ally, so glad you'll be with us at Thanksgiving! Yahoo!

 

Lorna: You both sound so happy. Warms the heart! I'm so glad that this trip was fabulous and that your time in SF was well spent. Can't wait to see your "trip report"!:D

[IMNiles]

Radiance does not yet have the new bedding, but I haven't had a problem with the bed this trip, so I didn't ask for an egg crate. I think it's mostly because I'm alone and not trying to sleep on the crack. :)

[IMNiles]

Alas, it's time to say goodbye to all my new friends on Radiance. What a fabulous time we had, and it was really great to meet all the cruise critic folks, especially Lorna, Ally, and Cindy, who let me crash their "girls table". :)

 

I'm now sitting here in the Long Beach airport, getting ready to order a lunch that I'm going to have to PAY FOR (gasp!). I'll compose some thoughts and post them later. Now is the time to ask questions before I forget what happened.. To anyone sailing into San Pedro/LA soon, though, here's my advice - BUY THE RCCL TRANSFER. The cab line was a huge mess, and the airport shuttles weren't any better. It took me 1.5 hours to negotiate a shuttle to Long Beach airport, and only because I made friends with an assertive group and we were able to essentially commandeer an entire supershuttle. Do not be deluded into thinking that having a reservation helps -- those people were all standing around waving confirmation numbers and shouting into cellphones, and not getting anywhere any faster than the poor schlubs like me who just walked up. The only people who escaped that heat island quickly were those who had non-cab/non-shuttle rides prearranged, those on the rccl transfer buses, and those who had rental cars waiting on-site. [incidentally, I had no choice - there was no rccl transfer to LGB offered]. Bless the hearts of those poor shuttle drivers who had to endure the wrath.

[Guest allylaw]

Alas, it's time to say goodbye to all my new friends on Radiance. What a fabulous time we had, and it was really great to meet all the cruise critic folks, especially Lorna, Ally, and Cindy, who let me crash their "girls table". :)

 

Dan--we had a great time meeting you and we can't wait for the Karaoke2 Super Singoff on the next cruise! :p Keep a shiny polish on that trophy and we'll see you again soon. Meeting you and Cindy really made this cruise an absolute blast. I can't tell you how much fun I had and such a wit you are :D. The Jan 07 cruise looks like a possibility...what's the sail date on the Monarch you and your crew are on???

 

Until then don't work too hard...

[IMNiles]

Ally, we're booked on the Jan 26 weekend boozer. 6 of us, all down in the lower dungeons of deck 2 and 3 (I'm quite sure nobody is going to be hanging out belowdecks). The more the merrier! You guys were lucky you had somebody meeting you in LA. That was a total cluster.

 

still working on composing a summary to post. hopefully today.

[Bella930]

Yes, I am officially suffering from PCD! It was great signing on to CC and being able to re-live our past week on the Radiance. What a blast! Now if anyone has pictures of Lorna, Ally and myself attempting to be back-up dancers at Karaoke I will pay for the negatives so they don't leak out! Dan, I did take the transfer to LAX and other than taking forever to find one of my suitcases at the pier (it was in the wrong color section) it went extremely smoothly. Did any of you happen to see the guy get off the ship in his bathrobe, it seems he packed all of his pants in his suitcase.

 

I knew my vacation was over when I paid almost $10 at the Burger King at LAX for a chicken sandwich combo. I am so ready to go again, I will have to check the Monarch's schedule. I think a "quickie" might hold me until I can schedule something longer. Cindy

[ladylawyer]

Cindy, I'm so sorry I missed "bathrobe guy." My sister's FIL actually had to wear his wife's t-shirt and yoga pants off the ship because she packed them (after he laid them out)! It happens a lot. Since Ally and I didn't get our luggage out in the hall until after 2AM (the lovely lady at the GR Desk said, "better late than never"), we had plenty of time to get everything packed, except what we were wearing home.

 

What a fun cruise! I'm so glad to have met you and Dan. Fortunately, my camera was resting comfortably on the seat while we were dancing, so you are safe ... at least from my camera. I don't believe Dan had a camera and Ally was busy. ;) I guess we'll find out if someone else recorded our "15 minutes of fame," in good time.

 

In case you can't take Dan's cruise, in January, Ally and I are on the Murder Mystery Cruise, on the Monarch, on March 16, 2007. Maybe you can do that. I'll also be back on board the Monarch, with DH, on May 21st. Lots of choices.

 

I'm getting a lot of feedback, on other boards, that others had a similarly unpleasant experience with Soledad. So, good to know that it wasn't just us.

 

I hope to cruise with you and Dan again, soon! Please keep in touch! I'm looking forward to Dan's Review! :D ~ Lorna

[IMNiles]

Rather than extend this no-longer-live thread, I started a new one for reviews of this cruise -

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=418760

 

I started with my first day - if anyone else who was on board has any comments, feel free to chime in!