Radiance of the Seas

Has anyone done the Honolulu to Sydney via New Zealand cruise on Radiance of the Seas in September? Thinking of doing this one next year, 2017. Interested on how the weather was and if 18 nights and the length between port days was any problem.

Will also be interested in any tours that you found were good.

Thanking you Leeland

Hi,

Anyone on the ship can tell us how she's looking?

All smoothly running ie MTD etc, drink prices

Has anyone done the Honolulu to Sydney via New Zealand cruise on Radiance of the Seas in September? Thinking of doing this one next year, 2017. Interested on how the weather was and if 18 nights and the length between port days was any problem.

Will also be interested in any tours that you found were good.

Thanking you Leeland

We have done this sailing a couple of times before and are actually booked again for Sept 2017. The weather is normally perfect though a little cooler heading for and in New Zealand. We loved the sea days and there it's lots going on during this time. One excursion we did before and will do again is Patrick's in Bora Bora, it is fantastic, try googling it. Hope you decide to join us.

I just got off Radiance and had an absolutely lovely time. We did B2B Vancouver, B.C. to Honolulu to Sydney. The weather was wonderful. Of course, after we left the French Polynesian islands and headed to New Zealand it started cooling down and was about 65 when we got to New Zealand. The first two nights and first sea day after leaving New Zealand and crossing the Tazman Sea were pretty rough but the first 27 days we mostly had following seas. I would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone! We had an aft balcony and while we mostly loved it, that rough sea day and nights made us change our minds and we'll go more towards mid-ship from now on. :D

Hi,

Anyone on the ship can tell us how she's looking?

All smoothly running ie MTD etc, drink prices

We were the first cruise where they moved MTD from Deck 5 to Deck 4 because there were so many of us and for awhile it was a mess. The hostess seemed quite overwhelmed and didn't seem to know what she was doing. It finally got worked out, at least for us!

We are Diamond so we didn't buy a drink package - just went to the Diamond Lounge up in Starquest every evening before dinner. The concierge, Juan Diego, was the BEST!

I thought the ship was looking pretty good. The internet wasn't that good and I'm glad I didn't buy it, just used our free 48 hours.

We did that sailing in 2014 and it was wonderful however we started in Sydney. Our first part of the trip was the 13 day NZ, followed by the Transpacific then Hawaii to Vancouver. We cruised over March 19th, ( NZ ) back to Sydney, spent 9 day post cruise in Sydney then out again April 10 through May 9th. There was plenty to do. If you go to Bora Bora, do Patricks Lagoon tour. You swim with Reef Sharks and Sting ray. The water is crystal blue.

We have done this sailing a couple of times before and are actually booked again for Sept 2017. The weather is normally perfect though a little cooler heading for and in New Zealand. We loved the sea days and there it's lots going on during this time. One excursion we did before and will do again is Patrick's in Bora Bora, it is fantastic, try googling it. Hope you decide to join us.

I organized our group's tour with Patrick in Bora Bora. Vaitiare (Patrick's daughter) is wonderful to work with. She now handles all the bookings. When we booked our cruise, I contacted them and booked all four of their outrigger canoes (I wanted to make sure we were the only ones on the excursion). Then the list of people on our roll call wanting to take this excursion got so long, Patrick ended up renting a catamaran as well. We ended up with almost 80 people going. I went to the concierge (as we're Diamond, we went to the Diamond Lounge every night before dinner) to see about getting tender tickets for all 80 of us. He worked with the cruise director that they would walk us to the tender as a tour. The concierge, Juan Diego, was AWESOME to work with!

We did a tour in Papeete with Tahiti Discovery. It was a full day up into the mountains. It was fun and I would definitely recommend it.

In Moorea we spent the day at the Hilton. For $86 you get a day pass and get to use their facilities and that includes lunch. We really enjoyed the day.

In Wellington, we arranged a private tour with Cruise Wellington. Our tour guide was wonderful. We had a group of 6 and were picked up in a van that seated us perfectly.

Anita when we were leaving Wellington, a tropical storm was rolling in. Capt Sindre was wonderful. We had some movement during the evening but the storm was behind us for the most part but he still expected 30 foot waves. Our Tour in Tahiti ended around Noon and because we arrived on a Sunday only 4 stores were open and we weren't leaving until 10 PM. Majority were back on board by 2 PM. Since we were in Wellington twice NZ & Transpacific sailings, we did the Ship wreck tour and watched a Sheep Herding demonstration during our 2nd visit.

We where on the mentioned cruise as well.

Ship is in really good condition and the entertainment was phantastic.

We didn't like most of the food in the MDR and MTD was crowded at our time at around 7:30.

We had a daypass at the Moorea Intercontinental ( which includes an a la carte 3 course lunch with drinks) and rented a boat at La Plage Bora Bora.

We'd do both again, particularly having the Bora Bora lagoon for ourselfs was wonderful

Wrong board

Dear "impatientlywaiting" Anita,

we became aft snobs. During your transpacific from Honolulu to Sydney you had an aft cabin. Can you tell us( if you remember ) if there was sun on the balcony the most time of your cruise? My husband loves sun and I am not sure if there would be enough sun at the aft balcony because the aft is most of the time in the north or north/east on this cruise.