Radiance of the Seas Hawaii Sept 28 long part 1

[Majesty Fan]

Well after being home almost 2 weeks we are still not organized but before I get lost with all the info I will write a review. We left the day before the cruise as we do for every cruise and went to DisneyLand with an old WDW ticket. We flew from FL to LAX and had no travel delays or baggage issues. We were off the plane and headed to DisneyLand in 30 minutes. We stayed at Paradise Pier. The hotel was really nice and had a nice pool and waterslide nd hot tub. We had lunch in the hotel I had a great club sandwhich and hubby had a cheeseburrger and coke and beer it was $22. We then scotted to the Park. We walked to the park which was maybe 15 minutes. The Park was decorated for Haloween everyhwere you looked was pumpkins, orange or ghost or pirates. we go to ride 5 or 6 rides and then saw the parade before headed out of the park. We had priority seatings at the RainForest Cafe. You will definetly need this at dinner time as it was a mad house. We had always wanted to eat there. I think we were so tired that we did not enjoy it as much as we proablably would have on a n ormal day. We then turned in for the night. The next am we woke up early around 8am as we are 2 hours difference in time. We had breakfast at the hotel I had the tropical fruit and it was the best tropical fruit I had the entire trip. It had Papya, pineapple, mango and kiwi! We then headed to the lobby to wait for Prime Time Shuttle. I had reservations for 2 for 10am they fianlly showed up at 1045am. The driver told us that there was a huge mess at the port and boarding would not take place until 1pm. I just figured it was because the last cruise was late. 15 days later I would find out the real reason. The port was mess! I have been on 22 cruises and never seen anything like that! Nobody was giving directions or managing the oncomming passangers or bagage. After standing in a line with 20 or so people a group of 20 or so cut it line! Well hubby wnet off on them and then our luggage got taken by the porters. The other line was huge but since we were Diamond we scooted to the front of the line. Once inside it took just a few minutes to get on the ship and checked in. We had done check in one line so that took just a few minutes. We took the picture and then headed to deck 11 the pool deck to wait till 1pm when the rooms would open up. As soon as we got off the elevator the bar guys were nabbing you for the coke cup or wine and dine. I had preordered wine and dine but then bought the coke card. For the 15 night it was over $100. We then watched the luggage guys litterly throw luggage some not making into the ships containers some falling apart. Anyone who had wine or beer had the luggage opened up with underware to bear in the CA sun and liquor pulled out. Ouyr cabin was then ready and we haeded down there. We had cabin 7160 which was a gty balcony cabin. It was a little smaller than I thought but it was fine. There was plenty of room to store lluggage. The bath room is quite small but all of our items fit there w/o a problem. We did notice that there were no amneities in the cabin this cruise. Lunch was in the Windjammer and was quite good. I love the salad bar, especially the waldorf salad. I am not a pick person when it comes to food. The food in the Windjammer is not gourmet by any standard but it is good for both breakfast and lunch. Lunch there was always a salad bar, pasta, hamburgers, hot dogs, some type of soup carved meat, deli sandwhiches, and plenty of desserts. The desserts were both sugar free and non sugar free and had cookies, cakes, tarts. Key Lime Pie was on boarding day and you will not see it in the dinning room until the last night. Breakfast there was typical far of pastries doughnuts, hot and cold cereal, and grits, breads and toast and salmon, capers, cottage cheese. there was a omlete station. I was glad to see that back as the last cruise we were on did not have it. There were also pancakes, french toast, waffles and different flavored panckes as well. These were not made to order. Plus bacon and sausage and turkey sauasage. Other venues to eat were the Solarium. It was open from noon-6pm? there were beefo hot dogs, humus, wraps, and the best was the crepes. We had the chocoalte and coconut. Seaview cafe was on deck 12 by the adventure ocean pool. Everything there is made to order. There were cubans, tuna melts, chips and dips, hotwings, clam chowder, reuben, fries onion wings, hamburger, hot dog, chili, ceasar salad, grouper sandwhich and fish and chips. Plus they have awsome shakes! Allow at least 10 minutes for the meal. We ate there several times. my favorite was the reuben and clam chowder. We do not eat at Portofino's or Chops. The pools had heated water. I can remember beeing on Navigator and the water was freezing! The water is salt. The first sea days was in the low 70's and windy but by the second sea day it was pool weather. If you do not get to the pool early you will not get a deck chair by the pool in either the main pool or solarium. We tried the solarium it was nice and warm and the sship was a bit rocky so it was like an instant wave pool! The solarium is beautiful. During the day there were many activites like trivia, bingo, scrap book class which I went too. volleyball, mini golf tournamnets, daily movies. Plus on the ship were 2 Hawaiin groups. One was 3 singers and they were fantastic. They really like to sing you could really tell that they enjoyed doing what they were doing. The other was a group called Spirit of Polynesia and they did varoius dances of the Islands at different times on the ship. One the night before HNL they did somewhat of a luau. The entertainment was for the most part pretty good I would give it a B. There was a comdien who was pretty funny, there was gugler, magician, piano player named Glenn Smith who has done the cruise ships for a long time but is really good. Johnny Thunder from the Drifters was on the ship and did a really good show. Our tablemates did not like him as he is outdated they said. I happen to like the oldies. There was a female singer from Nashville who sang very good and then a guy from t he Diamonds. I had never heard of the Diamonds before but the music was good but it was more like he was taking a jog down memory lane. One guy was actually yodeling during another show. The singers and dancers were horrible! We have seen lots of shows but this was the worst! The show and cast were brand new and it showed. They need to go back to square one. The the singing was not in sink and after 15 minutes we left which is not something I do! But we are spoiled we have seen the #1show and it happens to be on Disney. It is called Disney Dreams. The other show we did not go to. The cruise director was Kirk Deitwiler and he was really good and he was easy to talk too. Some changes I saw were diamond menbers we are now Diamond Plus but there was no letter in the cabin with concerige key becasue they were over 150+ diamond and diamond plus members so we would be moved to the starquest disco. Never notified had to ask guest realations. The dimaond lounge was open several times during the day. In the am and in the evening. We went every evening before the show or before dinner. Ther was no priority tender tickets. We did ask the CD and ther was some almost imddeitely in our cabin. The best entertainment was MATT YEE!. Matt is a unique guy. He is an asian hawaiin who is gay. He sang anicet hawainn sing along songs otherwise knows as songs you know. The Schooner bar was packed almost every night to hear Matt. He got everyone into the show. We would listen to him for awhile and then go play pool. There are 2 self leveling pool tables on the ship. Even if you do not play pool they are amazing to watch. All you have to do is give the bar waiter your cabin key and he will give you the pool sticks. There was 70's night, the quest, 50's and 60's, country western night. Love and Marriage game. The food in the dinning room was good. Most nights it was very good. The Escargot is my favorite every night you could have a steak or chicken or cesar salad. There were no menu's the same so everynight was different. There were 2 Lobster nights. Don't get excited becasue the first Lobster night the Lobster looked like a medium to Large Gulf Coast Shrimp. The second one was bigger but not the size they used to be. I tried a lot of Indian food. One night we had some Pasta with peaunut sauce. It was really good but it was spicy hot! Most of the deserts were good, they have made them smaller than in years past. We liked the fact that everyone as far as staff wears tropical shirts. We had a great team in the dinning room. We only missed 2 times. Several nights there was an outdoor party by the pool. One was to view the Volcano which we did not see and the other was the night before we got to HNL. Both had food by the pool with glowing drink specials! More on the ports later.