Radiance of the Seas.....Past - Present - Future

critterchick · July 9, 2011

Do you know who is going to be the cruise director on the Radiance?

Rub it in now. How long of a drive do you have to get to the Enchantment?

Garry

Bobby Brown.:) He and his wife, Becky (Activities Director) will be accompanying Radiance on her trip Down Under and will be the permanent (to the extent that any assignment is permanent) CD/AD.

cruisenfever · July 9, 2011

We never met Reyno, he sounds just wonderful. ;)
Who will taking his place in the DL?

***

Right now he is not sure. The young man that Reyno has been training is a Guest Services Officer. Reyno was not certain whether Steven will be the permanent Concierge in the DL or not.

Do you know who is going to be the cruise director on the Radiance?

Rub it in now. How long of a drive do you have to get to the Enchantment?

Garry

I see that Jean has answered you.:)

It took us a little over 7 hours but we stopped for about an hour to eat and stretch our legs. We said the next time we will just pack a lunch and just stop for gas and whatever else needs to be taken care of.

dramaqueen4lyfe · July 10, 2011

Love Bobby and Becky Brown for obvious reasons if you check out the flag in my signature. :p Seriously I think they are a good team and a good choice for Oz.

Received that email from Reyno as well. He is a great guy. I would have loved to have had him on our Radiance cruises down under but I know that Enchantment will be happy to have him back. My commute to Enchantment is even shorter than Patti's, a mere 90 mins. :D Have to start making some plans.

BTW I just had confirmation from Radiance that although they are serving Starbuck's Coffee, Lattetudes is keeping it's name and they are not accepting Starbuck's cards.

mommabean · July 10, 2011

Love Bobby and Becky Brown for obvious reasons if you check out the flag in my signature. :p Seriously I think they are a good team and a good choice for Oz.

Received that email from Reyno as well. He is a great guy. I would have loved to have had him on our Radiance cruises down under but I know that Enchantment will be happy to have him back. My commute to Enchantment is even shorter than Patti's, a mere 90 mins. :D Have to start making some plans.

BTW I just had confirmation from Radiance that although they are serving Starbuck's Coffee, Lattetudes is keeping it's name and they are not accepting Starbuck's cards.

Too bad about the Starbucks. I had so hoped we could use our cards like I hear they do on Allure. I guess there must be a coffee machine in the DL so with one in the CL lounge, too, we can always have a decent cup of coffee. Hopefully both machines won't break at once.

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island lady · July 10, 2011

Possibly group space held by a travel agency?

Yup, I am guessing that too. How do they do that?

island lady · July 10, 2011

They knew "YOU" wanted it.:p Bob is correct in that it could have been in a block of cabins snagged by some large TA.

LOL!!! Yeah, since I figured I could save about 2 grand on this cabin versus...sigh...my real choice of 1100....I could buy a few shore excursions for that. Actually 1100 was snagged up first thing, and was not a choice I had anyway. I will still enjoy my big corner balcony just under the JS! And the best thing is that 9256 opened up for me! :D

CroozeAddict · July 11, 2011

Hi everyone. We just returned from a fabulous cruise tour on Radiance. I can't say enough good things about it. :D Check out the pictures and videos at the link below.

Here's the review I posted ...

Tour: Jun 28 2011 – Jul 1, 2011

Sail: Jul 1, 2011 – Jul 8, 2011

We arrived at Anchorage at about 6pm (from N. Carolina) so it was a long travel day. The Royal Caribbean Cruise Tour folks were there at the baggage claim and all we did was point to our bags and they took it from there. Being exhausted, that service was more than welcomed. :o) (Throughout the cruise tour, we did not have to drag our luggage around at any time. RCI picked them up at the room and they were delivered to the rooms at the next stop-over.)

Denali - We arrived at about 2:30 pm and explored the town before attending Cabin Nite Dinner Theater. The show was great but the food was mediocre at best. It was cloudy so we couldn't see the summit of Mount McKinley. We missed the Natural History Tour the next day because DW was feeling queasy (suspect something she ate at Cabin Nite Theater because she was fine by noon.) The lodging at the McKinley Village Lodge was pretty rustic. Don’t expect a fine hotel here.

Talkeetna – We arrived at about 4:30pm and our Tour Director (Andy) told us that the town shuts down at around 7pm. We asked him if we could just take the next available shuttle to town and check-in at the hotel later (we had the Flyer Tour booked for 6pm). He said no problem … he would get our room keys to us later. Andy was such a fabulous Tour Director. He handled everything and accommodated everyone all the time. The town was small and quaint but very beautiful. We did a quick walk around and walked over to the K2 airline to take an airplane ride around the McKinley summit. (Good thing we did this because it was another cloudy day.) This excursion was awesome. I never realized that McKinley is surrounded by glaciers. (Photos at the link below). When we returned to the hotel, we were pleasantly surprised at the high quality of the accommodations. The Talkeetna Alaska Lodge is outstanding! We left Talkeetna early the next morning for Anchorage to do pre-cruise check-in. This pre-cruise check-in was a total waste of time in my opinion. We all assumed that this “check-in” would be the same as pier check-in and our Seapass Cards would be given to us then … didn’t happen. We still had to do everything at the pier in Seward. Andy told us we could upgrade our transfer from Anchorage to Seward by going on a train vice a bus for $25pp. We took the upgrade and we weren’t disappointed. It was a beautiful trip.

Seward (Embarkation) – It was raining steadily. Embarkation was a breeze! From the time we got off the train to the time we were aboard Radiance was about 15 minutes. (Despite the Anchorage check-in, we still had to show SetSail Pass, Passports, and Credit Card.)

Radiance of the Seas – Simple beautiful! The dry dock enhancements were all up and running with no noticeable glitches. We had a center hump cabin (8594) and it was great! We had fabulous views for the entire trip! The Main Dining Room was great. Our waiters were among the best we’ve had and the food was nothing short of outstanding! We were assigned table # 437 (just forward and next to the Captains table). It was a table for 8 and our dinner mates were the best. It felt like we were saying goodbye to family at the end of the cruise. We also met other great folks during the cruise. Note: We did notice a very slight sewage smell in the starboard hallway forward of the centrum area. Out cabin attendant told us there were plumbing issues in a few of the cabins up there. I never noticed the dreaded fans or cabin doors open so it couldn’t have been too bad. All of the public places onboard were immaculate and beautiful!

Hubbard Glacier was awe inspiring! We got a good video of calving. We ran into a huge ice field while approaching it so the captain had to proceed slowly and cautiously. (See link to pictures below) God's creation is so wonderful!

Juneau – We did the Dogsledding by Helicopter excursion and went to Mendenhall Glacier. I never dreamed we’d be playing in the snow in early July! The dogsledding was fantastic! Mendenhall was worth seeing but a guide told us that it is receding at a rate of 200 feet per year.

Skagway – We got here on the 4th of July and they had a very nice parade. We did the White Pass Railroad excursion to the White Pass Junction and back. It was well worth every penny!

Icy Strait Point – This is a very small port made up of lots of shops. We did our Whale Watching here and the Hump Backs were out in force. They took us to Adolphus Point. (Good pictures and videos in the link below)

Ketchikan – This is a very beautiful town with lots of old historic buildings. We went to the Great Alaskan Lumberjack Show. This is something not to be missed. They put on a very good comedy routine in addition to the competition.

Canadian Inside Passage - I was a bit concerned about our balcony being on the starboard side after reading what some folks on CC said about the "port side is a must for southbound cruises". Those statements are rubbish. I went up on deck to see both sides and I say the port side is best. The port side saw some awesome Orca Whale displays too. (see pics).

Debarkation - Started about 30 minutes late ... never found out why. But once it started, it was flawless.

Overall this was a wonderful vacation. Royal Caribbean truly lives up to it's reputation! Thank you RCI

Vids and pics ...

http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc49/GaryMelillo/Cruise%202011%20-%20Alaska/?start=all

purplegrattan · July 12, 2011

I would love to know if the Radiance still has a cinema or if it has been replaced with the big outdoor screen.

Ransthewiz · July 12, 2011

I would love to know if the Radiance still has a cinema or if it has been replaced with the big outdoor screen.

Don't know since the refurbish but I did a b2b Panama/Vancouver April 30, 2011 - May 20, 2011 and they had a cinema, justed loved it....

Bridge Maven · July 12, 2011

Don't know since the refurbish but I did a b2b Panama/Vancouver April 30, 2011 - May 20, 2011 and they had a cinema, justed loved it....

On our June 17 cruise it had both. Some movies were shown in the Cinema and some were shown on the new outside screen.

falltex · July 12, 2011

Radiance review - Fabulous!

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Hi everyone. We just returned from a fabulous cruise tour on Radiance. I can't say enough good things about it. Check out the pictures and videos at the link below.

Here's the review I posted ...

Tour: Jun 28 2011 – Jul 1, 2011

Sail: Jul 1, 2011 – Jul 8, 2011

We arrived at Anchorage at about 6pm (from N. Carolina) so it was a long travel day. The Royal Caribbean Cruise Tour folks were there at the baggage claim and all we did was point to our bags and they took it from there. Being exhausted, that service was more than welcomed. ) (Throughout the cruise tour, we did not have to drag our luggage around at any time. RCI picked them up at the room and they were delivered to the rooms at the next stop-over.)