Radiance Hawaii reviewers - Where are you?

[Michelle1234]

Hi, were shortly on the Radiance to Hawaii. Anyone just back on this last cruise or the one before who can post a review?

 

Thanks a bunch!

Michelle

[Darkwolfe]

Make sure you write one too Michelle. We're still a couple of years away from the big circle cruise we want to take, but anything you learn now, may still be useful then. :)

[JJ2sail]

The one before this last one, was the 14 day Ultimate Alaska. The first Hawaii trip would have just returned on the 12th, give them a couple of more days.;)

[Michelle1234]

I am a long winded reviewer when I get back from a cruise.;)

 

Yep, I know they just got back but I'm counting on that desire to relive the cruise and not go back to real life yet.:-D

 

Michelle

[wrp96]

A friend just got back and posted this short review for us http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=11998625&postcount=38158

[seetosea]

We just got back from the 15 night Hawaiian cruise aboard the Radiance of the Seas. Some quick observations:

 

Kirk Detweiller is the cruise director and he is the best there is IMHO. He was involved in many of the activities and led the Country Line Dances daily. He also got a dance troop together (about 60 volunteer cruise passengers) and had us practice the Hukilau so that we could be the opening act at the passenger talent show.

 

Don't miss Liar's Club. It was hilarious

 

This ship was in excellent shape

 

Food was good - how else would I gain 6 pounds!

 

Staff was friendly as always

 

We had a D1 aft 8172 - the balcony was good size for entertaining

 

It's a long walk from 8172

 

Chops was excellent - don't miss the mudpie for dessert

 

Plenty of activities and shipshape dollars were given freely

 

The only negative was debarkation. They had you go through customs on the ship and there were only two customs agents working when we went through. Many people chose not to follow the colors called so they were disappointed when they got off the ship and their luggage wasn't there. They also caused those whose color had been called to be delayed on the ship. Then they had people and handtrucks going two directions through one small doorway.

 

Any questions, ask away.

Jackie

[Michelle1234]

Thanks for posting the link to the review. It was very informative. Thank your friend for me.

 

Also thanks for posting about the 60 person Hukilau. I just proposed to our Meet and Mingle group that we try to do that as a group. I think it would be really fun!

 

Keep the information coming!

 

Best,

Michelle

[cruisingrightalong]

We did the 14 Day Hawaii from San Diego in April/May this year. Ask questions! The debark for us was the worst also only because of the fact that ONE PASSENGER ignored the call! to pick up her visa! and then after that everyone got panicky because they had booked 12 noon flights or earlier out of San Diego. We got off at 11 a.m. and got our 12:40 flight! Latest we have ever disembarked.

 

San Diego embark was great......we have sailed out of there 3 times now and this last was the easiest and best embark we have had.

 

Lou

[efac57]

We have also just returned from the Radiance 15 night Hawaii trip and in the main enjoyed an excellent cruise from start to finish.

 

Good weather on most of the sea days, only 1 very cloudy day coming back, meant that we could make the most of these days on deck and believe me, they were just as relaxing as we antcipated.

 

As this was our first trip to Hawaii, we certainly made the most of our port days, hiring cars in Hilo and the 2 days in Lahaina, one word of warning is to pre book your car hire, we took a chance and got lucky by booking on the day but it's not a risk I would take again as most of the hire companies were fully booked.

 

The road to Hana is a must do for me now, spent a full day out there and even drove the road back in the dark, which was interesting to say the least.

 

The ship is in good condition, always seemed spacious and all the staff we met from dining room, cabin to bars were very friendly and helpful.

 

We booked late, an inside guarantee, and were very pleased with both the decor and space in the deck 8 inside cabin we were allocated.

 

Which brings me to our only issue with this cruise and that is the quality of the food served in the main dining room in the evenings. We do know pretty much what to expect, having done around 16/17 previous cruises with various different lines, and that is what I would call upscale banquet catering, not gourmet cuisine but good quality produce well prepared.

 

Unfortunately we feel the food in the main dining room on this cruise did not meet the standard we have enjoyed in the past, to such an extent we went to the specialty restaurants 5 times in total, chops twice and portofinos the other three, and one other night we ate at Dukes on the beach at Waikiki.The food on each of these occaisions could not be faulted and was really first class.

 

To be more specific the fish was quite often tasteless, veg appeared to be tinned rather than fresh and the absolute low point was when pork medallions were offered as a main course and in fact it turned out to be a large breaded pork steak of mainly dark meat, sorry not good enough.

 

On the positive side some beef dishes were well cooked and tasty as were the times we used the main dining room for breakfast and lunch.

 

Overall the only other issues we saw were a disorganised scrum for tender tickets before Kona and the disembarkation fiasco, neither of which caused us any major problems.

 

So all in all an excellent trip but we feel rccl needs to work on its main evening menus before we would use them again.

 

Cheers

 

Ian

 

PS Hi to Vahishta and Jambi it was a pleasure meeting you