RADIANCE/HAWAII Sept 11-21,2015 REVIEW w/lots of photos

So once on board I had some free time to roam around and take a few pics of the island from afar before sailaway. Going up to deck 12 I snapped a few shots as I roamed the top deck and began walking forward and immediately noticed this from afar...

Well well well!!!! The Solarium roof actually works! Who woulda thunk it. So the following shots (for me anyways) are super rare as I have not seen many posted at all for any Radiance or Vision Class ships, so here you go all you RCL fans.... enjoy!!

And here we are inside the Solarium... they should really open the roof up way more often. There's plenty of shade in various areas as you can see. It was just awesome feeling the fresh air in there instead of the dense humidity we all know. I really feel that Jewel would be well served doing this regularly out of San Juan on her Southern routes, providing a second outdoor area for 7 hot days rather than just the super small outdoor pool.

There you have it! Funny enough, I quickly went down to get ready for the Diamond Lounge, maybe a half hour later we headed up and I had thought there would be some great pics of the open Solarium from the Viking Crown... not to be. They had closed the roof within that 1/2 hour! Ugh!! Would've made for great video to see the roof in operation and I just missed it (theme of the day it seems).

Anyhow on the way back to the room I haven't had many shots of the Centrum, especially from above, so I took this random shot

From the Viking Crown, we got a glimpse of UNV-IT & Sammi walking the deck, whom we hadn't seen for over a day, so we bee-lined down to deck 12 to catch up with them and enjoy sail-away out there. In the meantime, sailaway was being held up... and for the second day in a row I got to see them hoist up one of the tenders (What's the smaller boat skippered by the in-charge RCL staff? RCL's own version of a pilot boat/supervisory boat?). And not only that, the sunset that was happening was also totally awesome. I

Soon enough, that little boat was being put into it's place and Radiance was starting to head off into the sunset.

Tonight we were again free to do whatever we want for dinner, and I had made a point of trying Rita's one night on this trip so this was going to be the night! After enjoying the rest of sunset as we sailed away, down we went through the WJ at prime time height of dinner (about 7'ish) and entered the hustle and bustle of Rita's....

Uhm... NOT!! Seriously, the above photo is what we walked into, a ghost town, nada, zilch, no one. But we sat down nonetheless as the waiter noticed us and came on over. Every night it seems there's a Margarita special ($6) so of course we had to order that, plus we went over the menus

My decision was made pretty quick actually... we would share their two signature meals: Seafood Basket and Rita's Combo, the last two items on the menu, and the two priciest. I figured I wanted to try the best they had so why not!

The Margaritas came... I should've sent them back but I didn't. They were passable but just barely. Way too much syrup. So shrugging our shoulders we continued on as they brought the condiments consisting of tartar sauce, cocktail sauce and lemons. The coleslaw was dry and tasteless, and the buns were basic hamburger bun bread... not too good of a start so far

The Crab Cakes came first (part of the Seafood basket). They weren't cakes... the were perfectly round balls, totally overly deep fried into a thick crispy crust which I assume took away much of the crab taste. They were not all the great. Hmmm... more disappointing food. Hmmm... no one else coming for dinner. Hmmm... do they all know something I don't?

Next the seafood basket and the chowder came. Good news... the chowder was out of this world!!! They could serve this at Chops no problem. Extremely good, with thick chunks of everything in it and a very good portion in the sourdough bread bowl. The basket however was again blah... it wasn't bad, it just was very very average... I can go to any fast food or fish&chip place at home and get this. This too was a little over-fried so maybe it was the oil being used?? I just don't know.

And finally the crab legs came out, wrapped in paper, with drawn butter (well, my guess is melted in the microwave). Again not bad, but not the greatest either.

And here's the full table with all the entrees

So let's go back to refresh your memory about my rating system I use:

• anything under 5 - unacceptable, a change is needed
  
• "5" - is a pass, but just barely...
  
• 6 - not bad, just ok
  
• 7 - is very good but not memorable
  
• 8 - memorable, but not the best ever
  
• 9 - totally excellent, have recommended or raved, but still not the very best ever
  
• 10 - the best EVER I've experienced on RCL
  

I hate to say it, but this is the very first RCL meal in any review I've done where I've failed the dinner and the experience.... I give Rita's a 4. Now the meal wasn't the grossest ever, but comparing this to my experiences at Sabor on Navigator for example, and other outstanding meals and evenings, there's no way this passes. Plus the entire hour'ish we were there no one else at all came in to eat. I guess everyone else feels the same? The icing on the cake?..... Take a look at this bill

There's no way this meal should've been charged anything at all compared to $60 at Chop's or Giovanni's for example... just no way.

RCL has to do something with this space. It's totally useless as Rita's. They tried to change it to the Crab Shack but obviously it's horrible and failing even more than when it was Mexican. I don't know what the answer is but there's some great real estate here to be used for something else me thinks instead of being empty night after night after night with no revenue being produced.

Anyhow, there you have! Thankfully the evening was enjoyable on board with good trivia, and superb production show and "Radiance Rocks" dance party (Ckassic Rock) in the centrum. Then hit the sack getting ready for our last port of call tomorrow

Thank you for reviewing Rita's Crab Shack. From your description, Red Lobster sounds much better.

All of the accessible waterfalls in Maui are on the road to Hana. You could have gone as far as Twin Falls which isn't too far in--possibly that is what your original tour was. Iao Valley is lovely but you were not given correct information as far as seeing water falls. But kudos for finding Ululani's--that alone is worth stopping in Maui! :)

Heck ya!! ... let me know when you start planning ;)... try to urge a few others to join like Merion_Mom is doing in 2017. Btw, would have to be Explorer all the way (not Radiance Class) for my personal tastes... and even better if they decide to bring Q or Ovation over within the next few years!!!!... sigh... I know, I know... I'm dreamin' :rolleyes:

If RCL ever decided on Q Class comng over I'd have to pull a "Mario" and work from my on-board office for a few months :eek::D:D

I'll definitely let you know because I'll want to pick your brain for tips and advice. 😀 We don't have anything planned in 2017 yet, but want to do something extra special for our 30th anniversary. :D. I'd love to go on another Quantum class ship, and can't wait until we go on Anthem next year!

I really enjoyed your pics of the helicopter ride. I can't even imagine how gorgeous that must have been in real life!

Hi there.

Will be in the Radiance in exactly 14 days (yay!). What stations are picked up in the room televisions? Are football games televised in the rooms or somewhere on the ship? Thanks!

Hi there.

 

Will be in the Radiance in exactly 14 days (yay!). What stations are picked up in the room televisions? Are football games televised in the rooms or somewhere on the ship? Thanks!

Hello! From Vancouver to Hawaii, it depended on the satellite coverage. And, unfortunately, the satellite never picked up any football ([emoji458]) games in the rooms or in any venues... [emoji16] That's okay, we found other things to do and, with unlimited Internet package, could check repeatedly on the scores. [emoji4]

Have a great cruise!!!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

The Final day.... sigh....

We arrived in port to a somewhat cloudy day. In fact it rained/showered several times during the day, with one specific tour stop that we were going to drive on by but urged the tour guide to stop and let some of us out who wanted to... got drenched! But the rain is warm and we dried off quickly. Like some of the other ports, Nawilwili is nothing special right at the cruise pier itself, unlike many other Caribbean ports for example where it's gorgeous and you pier right beside shops, etc.

This final excursion was the "Hollywood in Hawaii - Movies and Waterfalls Tour". So after a good breakfast we headed down to the pier to find our group. This is very very easy in Nawilili as the warehouse/pier is divided up with signage/lines for cruisers to get into, and very easy to be directed to taxis, etc. Note the line-up for the DIY's to get the free shuttle into town or a taxi (seemed to go quickly)

The tour was run by an private company called "Robert's Hawaii Bus Tours". They are huge in Hawaii, and many on our roll call booked every port with them. I just think that's not a good idea whatsoever, no way 4 days of buses in paradise can show you Hawaii properly. I knew this was a bus tour for this final day, but didn't know it was going to be Robert's providing this service. It was one of those 30-35 passenger smaller buses so quite comfortable.

The premise of this tour is to show you all the spots where famous films were shot, and then see that area live. A majority, say at least 60%, were films 1980 and older. To be truthful, I didn't know some of what I was seeing as I thought the tour itself would be interesting anyways and we'd get to see the sites along the way. So here's an example... they would show scenes of South Pacific and then we'd either drive by or stop to view

Here's a better example.... scenes of Voodoo Island were played. Many of you may remember this and the scenery of this beach. Note the beach and peninsula on the TV screen

And for this particular site we got to stop and hang out for 10-15 minutes. There were several movie buffs on this tour and really into seeing the history of the movies as we stopped at these sites. And here's that beach in real life.

Do any of you recognize it from "Voodoo Island"?

One of the most interesting stops was on the main road from the Highway that leads up to Waimea Canyon - Coco Palms Hotel. Coco Palms was destroyed by hurricane Iniki in 1992. Totally destroyed, it went through the courts for over ten years before being settled. The owners walked and the property has been like this ever since. This hotel has had several moves filmed here, but is most famous for Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii. But the most fun clips shown were of a B movie called Dinocroc vs. Supergator!

So above you can see the Dinocroc walking towards the back of the tour bus to eat the bus driver, and I just knew I had to get a shot of that exact spot with me running... and then of course photo-shopping a dinocroc in the background about to bite my butt!!! Haven't done the photo-shopping yet, but here's the pic I want to use lol!!

There's signs everywhere that say "keep out" and "no trespassing". It's a very unassuming turn into the overgrown parking area so easy to miss. The gates are locked and only the tours are allowed in... there's no booth to get tickets or anything of that nature, you have to be on a tour.

We saw clips of this spot on the bus of Elvis in Blue Hawaii singing to his bride to be (I think)... I'm positive some of you recognize this right away

The hotel itself is in super bad shape, imho no way to salvage. Things are falling apart everywhere, and there was an arson fire in a wing of the hotel in the past years too. But I understand through the tour guide that there is progress in getting a new investor/buyer who may be planning to re-construct this hotel within the next 2-3 years to it's approx original look and feel... with obvious comforts of today. I suspect if/when that happens, it's going to cost a pretty penny to stay here.

We were waaay early on this tour, so timing was very good to us not being stuck behind or fighting any other tour groups at all. They offered to take us to a local park/beach just to hang out for a bit as we were early for our provided lunch. What a beautiful place, I would definitely come here for a day in the sun/sand/water if I were to stay on Kauai on land.

We headed off for lunch provided to us at a local restaurant. I had the Mahi Mahi burger and it was awesome! They did really great for us, not just a little wrap or sandwich.

Of course I didn't want to settle for just a water or coffee.. I wanted to try a local concoction of some kind so i asked the kind bartender to make us her favorite drink.

Passion Fruit & Mango Margerita coming right up!!!

Note the red powder on the brim of the glass... That's called Hi Ling Mui. It is totally delicious and absolutely made the drink come alive. Google it, you can use it for many applications, but seriously it's is so special on the fruity drinks. Try it if you get the chance.

After lunch we continued into the Waimea Canyon, along the way viewing a couple of more clips and especially most clips of Donovan's Reef

..... and here we arrived!

This is an area of the Wailua River State Park. From these vantages points you can look down into the valley. There's no access to the waterfalls themselves and they are quite a distance away from the viewing point.

Some of you may know there's excursions down in the valley as well, including a raft river ride down through the Fern Grotto.

We hopped back into the bus and still had a full afternoon to go. Here's the bus we were on.

It was actually quite a long day of driving, and by the end really wanted to get back to the ship, but in the meantime we saw a couple of more interesting spots, but nothing overly interesting that we actually got to get out and view up close.

So for example Many scenes of Raider's of the Lost Ark were shot here. Note the photo below ... between the plane propeller's and Harrison Ford in the distance are the mountains, specifically the the one that looks like King Kong's head. Here we are live below... we did not get out or anything like that as all these areas are private properties with homes on them, but they showed us scenes in the movies and stopped at various spots for us to view from within the bus.

Along the way we saw clips and sites of Gilligan's Island, Uncommon Valor and many more. The biggest disappointment was Jurassic Park. I knew this was one area we would be viewing and it was touted in the advertisements. We specifically viewed clips of the rampaging "ostrich-like" reptiles through the fields near the beginning of the movie and the large brontosaurus eating leaves from the tall trees... everyone knows those scenes

And then at 40-50 mph on the highway the guide says "and here we are to your left, Jurassic Park". Within 5-6 seconds we were past it. What a joke! That was it? Hmmm... if you weren't quick on the camera you were s.o.l. and even with camera, if you really didn't know the significance of the photos you wouldn't have a clue when you got home. There's no signage, no nothing indicating what this is. It's private property so there was nowhere to enter or view any of the fields. Really too bad, would've been awesome to do what I'm planning for that previous Coco Palms photos... take photos here and photo-shop in scenes from the movie! Oh well....

We settled in for the lengthy bus ride back to the ship... as mentioned previously, we were ready to get back. Overall I give this tour a 6.5... definitely not memorable but also not a failure. It was better than "ok" but it wasn't "great" either.

We arrived back at the pier very early, at least 2 hours before all-aboard time. We were told there's a beach within a few blocks walking distance to the ship, and there are signs within the pier terminal that say that as well, so we decided to head off and hopefully spend our last couple of hours on this cruise in the sand on the beach. It was maybe a 15 minute walk around the bay and we arrived here

A nice comfortable beach, many locals here with kids in the water with boogie and surf boards. You can just barely see through the palm trees and foliage where Radiance is poking through in the distance just above the volleyball net so that you can get your bearings on distance from the ship. We had a nice hour and a half here and headed back

There was hardly anyone at all getting back on board, so I think pretty much all cruisers were done with site seeing, back early and packing as it was the last day. Thankfully we had mostly sun the entire 90min we stayed there. We went up and began cleaning up a little bit too as we pack super light, so got a lot done in short time and then headed out for sail away.

And finally I got to enjoy a sailaway from the helipad, one of my favorite things to do.

The Nawiwili harbour is tricky to navigate as the ships have to perform somewhat of a tight S-turn to into and out of the breakwater. Tugs assisted and I think more than once actually got right to the hull to push a couple of times. You can see the beach we were just at off in the distance.

It was really windy out there, so we finally decided to head on in to the DL for our final pre-dinner drinks of the cruise and to say goodbye to various people we had met including Sunil. And away we went.... goodbye Kauai!

Thanks for posting this review! My wife and I looked at doing this cruise because it went to all of the islands. However, as you discovered, you cannot see each island in a day. So we spent 2 weeks in Hawaii. We spent 3 night in Honolulu, 3 nights on the North Shore, 3 nights in Lahaina, 3 nights in Hana, and 2 nights on Volcano.

It was a planning nightmare with all of the flights and hotels but was the trip of a lifetime!! We are avid cruisers (Diamond) and would have loved to do this as a cruise. However, to do Hawaii, you REALLY need to stay there and island hop.

We will have to go again since we didn't make it to Kauai.

Beautiful pics and I am glad you enjoyed your cruise. You are lucky to have found the BEST Hawaiian Ice in Maui !!

Sorry for all the delays everyone... 10-12 hour days since my return, I haven;t been able to keep up as in my past reviews...

So last night UNV-IT and I decided to get together and do Giovanni's. I asked Sunil to book us in and he gave me a card to present when we showed up for 20% off our bill... nice! So here now on our final night and having spent some time up the DL, we met up and headed for 7:30pm dinner.

It was prime time dinner hour and really packed.... NOT! We were one of only two tables there this final night. I asked the Maitre'D about this and she said that this cruise was very different than most in that final night is normally much more busy. Granted by the time we left there were about 10 tables, but still not well attended.

UNV-IT had some serious reservations about going to Giovanni's as he had a bad experience his only other time on another ship, but this time settled his fears. We had a superb dinner, great wine, and great service. We had various antipasti, then the absolute must have pasta's incl the deelish risotto and gnocchi, and all of our entrees were excellent. I had the veal tenderloin

This is the 3rd time I think I've ended a cruise in a specialty venue and I think from now own will try to do so. It's just such an awesome way to end the trip with an incredibly good meal, especially with friends. As per my rating system I'll rate this evening's dinner as a 9, totally memorable and I fully recommend Giovanni's to anyone.

Now I usually don't eat this late, and especially at 7:30 as this 7:30 time really kills any of the shows/games going on around the ship. We missed the finale show and if we ran to it we could've made the extra Magician Act for 9:30 but we didn't bother. Instead we shot some pool just outside of Giovanni's and then hung around the ship all evening. Not much was going on, and we planned on meeting up in Honolulu for dinner the next evening, then it was bedtime and final packing.... that was it!

I'm going to be very careful in rating and giving credit where it's due. As mentioned, I may not cruise this itinerary again unless I'm sailing just to be on the ship rather than seeing Hawaii... ie. Put a Quantum Class on this route and I'll be the first guy in line booking!

So to refresh the memory of my ratings:

"5" is a pass, but just barely...

6 ok

7 is good but not memorable

8 very good, memorable, but not the best ever

9 totally excellent, have recommended or raved

10 the best EVER

Food:

Chops n/a (the one venue I didn't go to)

Izumi 8

Giovanni's 9

Mystery Theatre 6

Samba's 9

MDR 8.5

WJ 6

Rita's Crab Shack 4

Food overall 8

Entertainment:

Mystery Dinner 8.5 (fun!)

Production Shows 8

Singers 9

Dancers 7

Headliners 6

Caribbean pool band 7

Centrum and interior music 7

Activity Director and staff 7 (trivia, dancing, events)

CD Steve Davis 9

Overall Entertainment 7 (I'll have to look this cruise up to remember any of the entertainment)

Venues:

Sports Deck 6

Viking Crown/Starquest 9

Centrum 8

Casino n/a

Colony Club Lounge 5

Pool Deck 6

Solarium 9

Overall venues 7 (just can't compare with Voyager Class and above ships]

Excursions:

Hilo 9 (RCL Volcano hike)

Kona 8 (RCL Helicopter)

Maui 6 (independant)

Nawiliwili 7 (RCL - Robert's Hawaii)

People

Fellow Cruises 100!!:D (what can I say.... UNV-IT and Sammi were awesome, the Thriller crew was awesome! Just superb people all around)

Staff 10 (superb service throughout the ship, Sunil was awesome, stateroom attendant was superb... I've had a really good run of these the last few years, excellent staff on this ship)

Cruise Overall = 7 - "good but not memorable"

So bottom line most food (other than WJ and Rita's) was excellent as was the service! My bias on the ship itself (Radiance Class) and venues, as well as what I perceived weak entertainment made the cruise a little blah. I think for any one of you (many!!) who just love the Radiance Class I think this cruise may likely have rated 8 or more, especially since it seemed the MDR and service were superb on this ship.

As a final thought on the itinerary itself, Gator0178 in the post above said it 100% perfectly for how I feel about it, and the itinerary he mentioned he did on land, albeit a little bit of a pain to set up, is absolutely the only way to go if you want to see Hawaii.... or close your eyes and get on the NCL Pride (gasp!!!) whereby you're in Hawaii day 1 and get the fantastic overnighters on one of their 7 day cruises.

I really hope you enjoyed my review.... I really appreciate all the kind words and shout outs by all of you who followed along. If you've got any questions feel free to ask and hopefully I'll know the answer. By all means email me anytime (signature below) and look at my signature once in a while to see if a cruise I'm booked on matches your vacation plans... you never know!

I will make a few posts in the near future with what I did in Oahu for 3 days before flying home (ie. rental car - full island circle tour, Waikiki Beach & Paradise Cove Luau, Pearl Harbour USS Missouri & Arizona Memorial, Dukes!!) as I've received a couple of emails asking for some of my thoughts, and a few people have posted they'd like to see what I did to get an idea, so I'll continue on if you wish to follow

In the meantime....

H A P P Y C R U I S I N ' E V E R Y O N E ! !

Thanks for your review and photos, you were font of good information. While I would like to do a HI cruise, I can't get DW on anything less than a Voyager class ship.

Going on the Radiance for NYE in the South Pacific. We'll be celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary and looking to book one of the Specialty Restaurants. I see you (Hoopster95) highly rated Giovanni's which we've already booked. Any suggestions on which to book for our special evening?

Also, on booking restaurants, trying to decide the best time to book to be able to go from there to the last evening performances without a lot of time between. So, what time do most of the evening production shows start?

Thanks for excellent review. Found it very helpful. Going on the Radiance in September this year - same cruise to Hawaii leaving from Vancouver.

Would like to get some ideas of how things work with the cruise ending in Honolulu and disembarking and then going straight from the Ship to the Pearl Harbour Tour with Airport drop of. This tour is listed on the RC Tour site. Would like to leave Honolulu later that night to fly back to Vancouver then onto Toronto and wondered what happens if I was to book the Pearl Harbour tour - do they keep our suitcases on the Tour Bus whilst we are doing the tour? I noticed that no bags, etc is allowed on the Tour. Would like to hear from you or anyone who might have done this? Thanks.

Thanks for excellent review. Found it very helpful. Going on the Radiance in September this year - same cruise to Hawaii leaving from Vancouver.

 

Would like to get some ideas of how things work with the cruise ending in Honolulu and disembarking and then going straight from the Ship to the Pearl Harbour Tour with Airport drop of. This tour is listed on the RC Tour site. Would like to leave Honolulu later that night to fly back to Vancouver then onto Toronto and wondered what happens if I was to book the Pearl Harbour tour - do they keep our suitcases on the Tour Bus whilst we are doing the tour? I noticed that no bags, etc is allowed on the Tour. Would like to hear from you or anyone who might have done this? Thanks.

I have done RCL excursions off of other ships, which then provided for airport drop off.... What you said is 100% true. All RCL excursions on any sailing that provide airport drop-off will store your luggage/bags on the bus the entire time you're site seeing. However you should make inquiries of when they take you to the airport... usually very early in the afternoon (say approx. 2pm or so normally) so you will likely not have time to see everything at Pearl Harbor, at least you'll get a taste.

Thanks for your quick response. Your answer was very helpful because now I am thinking since our flight back to Canada isn't until very late that night (after 10 pm) that instead of doing the RC Tour that we may purchase a Pearl Harbour Tour from the Pearl Harbour website and then we can book a hotel in Honolulu starting from the night before the ship docks in Honolulu so we can have a room to drop off our luggage and return to after the tour and before going to the Airport for our flight back to Canada.

Not sure if you or anyone have any suggestions about doing this?

I want to do/see as much on the Pearl Harbour tour and like I said our flight back to Canada is not until very late in the night. Not a waste of money for the Hotel room (even though we won't actual be spending a night in the room but would have the room for convenience of having a place to store our suitcases and to refresh before going to the airport). Any thoughts?