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

Have you considered Norwegian's Pride of America 7-day cruise around the Hawaiian islands?

I actually typed this as well on my last reply then erased it ;)

I agree, this imho is the best way to cruise Hawaii, with a couple of over-nighters and maximum time in ports.

Now here's an idea for RCL... I pray someone at Royal reads the following...

How about 2 one way itineraries as follows:

14 days from Hawaii to Papeete which would include 4 ports in Hawaii (incl an over-nighter in both Maui and/or the Big island), 4 days at sea, and then 4-6 days (with sea days in between as needed) to visit Morrea, Bora Bora, Huahine, etc and ending in Papeete. Then do the same itinerary in reverse from Papeete back to Honolulu.

I'd be willing to bet there'd be a full ship of many C&A members on both those legs!.... I'd be one of them :D:D:D

Continuing on with my ship walk-about I continue through the mini-golf to check things out. I played a couple of times and that was enough. There were mini-golf competitions held throughout the cruise so you avid golfers out there can try out your luck bouncing golf balls off of rocks to get that hole-in-one and win that RCL medal!

Coming back to the mini-golf starting point and looking out over the starboard side you get a great view of the entire kid's pool area.

Here you cross the "bridge" which connects mini-golf to the rock climbing wall. Here's a shot facing aft back over the bridge to where I had walked from

And the rock climbing wall. On the left of the shot below, you see the sign up area for the rock wall. Also on this side you see the glass partition... behind that glass is the Concierge Lounge outdoor area... I'll touch on that in a bit. It is locked from the outside, you can only enter from the inside as a D+. Pinnacle or Suite guest.

So from here I went to the right which offers a smoking area with chairs/tables and direct access inside to the Viking Crown Lounge by day... "Starquest" nightclub by night. Here's a shot looking back at the entire aft deck 13

So from the outside area we entered into the Viking Crown for our first look. I had soooo many awesome memories from my Oz 2012 sailing up here with tons of friends and lots of action, good times!

On Serenade, the rotating bar was broken, and supposedly unfixable until the next dry dock as they have to dismantle the entire bar to get at the mechanics. I was really hoping that after 3 years Radiance's bar was still working... and it was! Good stuff! The entire bar, including the stools and black area within the steel bars rotates at slow speed (approx one revolution in about every 10min)

I love the dance floor on Radiance Class, one of my favorite features on her. During the day private events are held here incl Hula Classes, private functions, the DL overflow buffet is here, etc. By night, the separate dance floor is perfect by not taking away space and provides an excellent lighting area.

And leaving Starquest out the hallway towards the elevators (just opposite of the CL) is this statue of Marilyn Monroe. Of course I have a somewhat risque photo with her that I won't include in this review lol.... Like most all RCL ships, there is some really interesting one of a kind art on Radiance.

Entering into the elevator area, this is the only deck on Radiance Class that is different than any other deck at the elevator area. To my left would be the CL entrance door.... you can see to the far right the entrance to the DL. Also for you RCL nuts who know your ships, I'm not including a picture cause it's not very good, but what animals(s) are featured here on deck 13 when you enter the elevators and look out towards the glass? Bragging rights are on the line!!!!

I'm going to back track and go back outside by the rock climbing wall for a moment to talk about the CL. I only entered the CL maybe 5-6 times during the cruise, a couple of times in the morning with no camera in hand and the other times with several people inside so I didn't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable by taking pictures. Having said that I don't have any inside shots of the CL. There are plenty on-line and in other reviews. I also have a couple of good shots in my Serenade review, which is exactly the same as Radiance.

This shot is on the port side facing that partition I mentioned earlier. Note the signage... "Warning! Electrified glass! You will be thrown off the ship if you enter!!!" lol

And there's the outside area. As you can see the inside area is set back somewhat from the railing and thus your view of the sea is compromised. I would estimate that only about 10% of the inside of the CL has an ocean view.

The DL is smaller in comparison, but the partition opens up into the Viking Crown for overflow... full view floor-to-ceiling windows of the Viking Crown made this my choice venue for the lounges (plus Sunil was awesome!).

It was at this point we headed down to our room. We had an L interior 9751, the 1st cabin forward from the Centrum so a super convenient location. This is the first cruise ever that I did not take pics of the room... I have various pics of all my rooms I've ever had, and by the time I remembered that I hadn't taken any here, the room was a mess or whathaveyou, so i just didn't bother.

What I can talk about is for all you Canadian brothers & sisters reading this review.... there's a current thread ongoing regarding pre-purchasing obc in Canadian funds at 10% exchange rate vs. the current 35% bank rate! Upon entering my room, all 6 of my purchased obc's were sitting there on the bed waiting for me... all was good and confirmed right off the bat.

Done for now... deck 5&6, sailaway & Samba's Grill to come tomorrow

Glad I found your review! I love your writing style. Following....

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Now here's an idea for RCL... I pray someone at Royal reads the following...

How about 2 one way itineraries as follows:

14 days from Hawaii to Papeete which would include 4 ports in Hawaii (incl an over-nighter in both Maui and/or the Big island), 4 days at sea, and then 4-6 days (with sea days in between as needed) to visit Morrea, Bora Bora, Huahine, etc and ending in Papeete. Then do the same itinerary in reverse from Papeete back to Honolulu.

Years ago, this was an actual itinerary for Celebrity Century as a repositioning cruise when Celebrity began cruising in Australia. Sadly, they no longer have this :( It was certainly on my bucket list.

Great review (as usual)!!! Can't wait for the rest.

I've often thought about cruising Hawaii in the future (when I have the time), but I'm never sure if cruising is the way to go. My bucket list trip is a week in Hawaii followed by that 18 night Transpacific that Royal offers!

 

Entering into the elevator area, this is the only deck on Radiance Class that is different than any other deck at the elevator area. To my left would be the CL entrance door.... you can see to the far right the entrance to the DL. Also for you RCL nuts who know your ships, I'm not including a picture cause it's not very good, but what animals(s) are featured here on deck 13 when you enter the elevators and look out towards the glass? Bragging rights are on the line!!!!

 

I feel like they are some sort of large birds... Ostrich or something?

Entering into the elevator area, this is the only deck on Radiance Class that is different than any other deck at the elevator area. To my left would be the CL entrance door.... you can see to the far right the entrance to the DL. Also for you RCL nuts who know your ships, I'm not including a picture cause it's not very good, but what animals(s) are featured here on deck 13 when you enter the elevators and look out towards the glass? Bragging rights are on the line!!!!

These birds are hard to get a good photo of..... blue birds.

Loving your review! While I love Radiance, I would agree it is great for a cooler itinerary. We did the bottom of Australia and around NZ on our first trip on her, and there is so much seating inside where you have large glass areas to see out. I can see your point about the pools, which we generally don't sit around. My big bugbear with Radiance is we have had Junior suites a couple of times and the noise from the above deck (same with Rhapsody JS we have had) is very disappointing. Our next cruise on her is booked for 2017 so we are looking forward to what the refurb will bring. :)

Glad I found your review! I love your writing style. Following....

Thank you cookmg :)

Years ago, this was an actual itinerary for Celebrity Century as a repositioning cruise when Celebrity began cruising in Australia. Sadly, they no longer have this :( It was certainly on my bucket list.

Wow.... really? I see Princess had this (somewhat) the last couple of years as well with the Pacific Princess but that's ending. Having 4 sea days sandwiched with some excellent ports of call in Hawaii and Tahiti would be spectacular! Sigh... we can only dream

Great review (as usual)!!! Can't wait for the rest.

 

I've often thought about cruising Hawaii in the future (when I have the time), but I'm never sure if cruising is the way to go. My bucket list trip is a week in Hawaii followed by that 18 night Transpacific that Royal offers!

 

I feel like they are some sort of large birds... Ostrich or something?

Ah!!!! Excellent idea... land vacay in Hawaii followed by the Transpacific to Sydney. As for the large birds.... you're close but no cigar :p

These birds are hard to get a good photo of..... blue birds.

Ding ding ding!!!! You are the winner! :D

(p.s. keychain is in the mail :p)

Our luggage had not arrived, so we dropped off our carry-on bags, freshened up a bit and headed back out. We had walked the entire upper decks and now it was time to check out the interior spaces of decks 5&6... but as we arrived on deck 5 I quickly remembered that I wanted to check out the Helipad while we were in Vancouver in order to get some shots of us up there.

For those of you who have never been on the Helipad, it's open to the public. It's an awesome place to chill out, and especially for sailaways/sail-ins to ports. Because I really did cruise differently this time (ie. I spent two of my sail-aways this time enjoying the view from the Viking Crown instead) I never did get down to the Helipad for sailaway. Also because two of our ports were tender ports somewhat farther away from shore.... the Helipad is super for close sail-ins.

So you newbies who want to check out the Helipad, just make your way out to the outside deck 5 Promenade deck, and walk forward. You will get to a more enclosed portion of the hallway that seems for crew only... it's not, continue on. You'll notice a swinging gate there which the crew can close to deny access at night, during windy weather, for maintenance, etc

Proceeding forward you reach a set of stairs. It's really unfortunate, but there is no way a mobility challenged person can make it up there unless you walk those stairs (there's no elevator, etc).

But I do have a suggestion.... the outside crew area is up on the helipad deck and almost level with the Helipad. There's only maybe 5 steps to get up to the helipad from there, so if by some small chance you are able to get special clearance to be escorted through the staff area via elevator to deck 6, you might be able to get up there.... I've never heard of or seen a picture of anyone who is mobility challenged up here, so I'd love to see an awesome picture of you in your wheelchair celebrating that you actually did get up there!!! Here's what you get to see... love it up here.

If you wish to follow me via the deckplans, just pop open another browser an open up the RCL site:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?deckCode=05&shipCode=RD&shipProfile=1638&sailDate=1151009&hasNavigation=false

We walked along the entire length of the Promenade outside deck to the Centrum. Coming back into the Centrum on deck 5 is the Cafe Latitudes area. This area had many cruisers waiting there so I did not snap a photo. It was normally a very well used area at all times of the day. Having taken several several pics of the Cafe Latitudes menu and areas on prev ships I did not get a good photo here to share with you. I did note they had a couple of "new" free goodies incl. rice crispie squares either dipped in caramel/chocolate or rainbow sprinkles. Thye also had the cheesecake pops which I have seen talked about on CC but not tried yet.... YUM!!!

We continued on through the shops. Here you'll find a ton of sales every seas day... watches, $10 sell off items, booze, you name it... and they push hard! While some of it seems like junk, I still have many of the $10 ties in my wardrobe, and well as a couple of belts. If you buy 5 items at $10 you get the 6th free. I didn't buy anything this time.

Continuing forward there's a small foyer area separating the shops to the photo area. This foyer is also an entrance area into the Conference Rooms. There's also an door here to get outside on deck 5.

Onward through the photo gallery and the art studio

All the way forward you reach the Aurora Theatre. Like I reported on Serenade, and because I guess I've been spoiled/sensitized by the incredible theatres on Voyager and higher Class of ship, the Radiance Class theatre seemed very boring to me... also drab colour scheme & very uncomfortable seating that I find tend to make you slouch down (not good for bad backs I suspect). I sat in the front 5-6 rows each time and the sound was excellent. Also, I think I already mentioned, the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers were excellent on this cruise, with the foursome singers being one of the strongest 4 I have ever had the pleasure to listen to

Walking out of the Aurora Theatre balcony level (deck 6) takes you out to the hallways leading back to the aft of the ship.... on the port side you'd walk right in front of the entrance of the Quill&Compass Pub and then through the Casino. We walked on the port side, which led us immediately to the entrance of the Radiance Cinema. 1st run movies were shown daily.

Moving on we walked through the back of the Quill & Compass. I spent zero time here on this cruise... if I want to sit in a pub without an ocean view in a dark bar, I'll just stay at home. Only minor events were held here with a couple of Karaoke hours, and then just the soloist guitarist. On my 2012 Oz sailing, the Quill & Compass was standing room only with many nightly events, very well used space and just rocking with a ton of fun! Very very different this time around.

Next is the Casino... I signed up for the poker tournament on the 1st sea day at the 4pm time slot and only one other cruiser signed up! The 1pm time slot only produced 6 particpants too. Very strange. I didn't go back. I did note that the blackjack tables were always busy, but cash table poker was non-existent unless I just plain missed out later in the evening. Btw, the smoke could be smelled wafting nightly out into the Centrum on deck 6.

Also on deck 6 in the Centrum is the "old" Champagne Bar. On Serenade it's now the more modern looking "Vintages" (I just looked it up, Brilliance is vintages as well). I suspect since Radiance was one of the very first upgraded ships in 2012, her 2017 dry-dock will bring this space up to speed with the rest of the fleet as well and convert it to Vintages.

Beyond the Centrum to the aft area of the ship is the main entrance to the Schooner Bar & Colony Club, as well as the self-leveling pool tables and 3 of the specialty restaurants: Chops, Giovanni's & Chef's Table

I find that Radiance Class Schooner Bar to be the nicest in the fleet with great views out at sea compared to any other Class. It's a nice open and beautiful space, plenty of art and interesting things to look at, and a very popular venue on Radiance used for Trivia daily morning, noon and evening.

Nightly the pianist plays, I'm not one to hang out with the piano player. But if anyone here who has cruised often has ever witnessed Matt Yee.... WOW!!!!! Does he still perform on cruise ships? I saw him twice, un-freakin-real, standing room only for hours and a show unto himself.

Across from the Baby Grand piano are the side-by-side entrances into both Giovanni's and Chops. First shot is Giovanni's... 2nd Chops

Although I ate 6 out of 10 nights in specialty, I did not eat at Chops as I dined there 3 times on Legend in March and really wanted to try as many new things as possible that I haven't tried yet.... let's call it Dynamic Dining and Quantum cruising "Hoopster Style"

(lol!!! Just play he sing Gangnam Style and insert the words "Cruising Hoopster Style"... Bwahaha!! Yup, I can do the dance too hehe)

Reaching the end the Schooner Bar, you pass this one-of-a-kind globe on Radiance. I have a couple of pictures here from my Oz sailing and some of the many friends I made, so this area brought back great memories.

Entering through the doors you enter the "Bombay Billiard Club" area with the self leveling pool tables... and boy were they ever bopping up and down the first few sea days as we had some rough waves. It's really a mind trip watching the table moving on you as your trying to shoot... it's you, the player, that's moving, not the table!!! The table stays perfectly level. Really tricks the mind.

Directly opposite the pool tables is a nice set of furniture that reminds you of a living room. Open the furniture cabinets and you'll find a big screen TV! Many played Wi games, and events such as US Open (Tennis), baseball and NFL were shown.

On through to the Colony Club Lounge. Since my first sailing on Radiance, and confirmed on Serenade, this area of Radiance Class is my least admired space on the entire ship. It is primarily a massive "empty" (tons of clutter and furniture, no people hardly ever) space of extremely expensive real estate at the aft of the ship. It is somewhat on the dark side with very little natural light, and you cannot see outside at all unless you go sit right at the aft windows the very farthest away from anything that is going on at the dance floor area. This space is mostly used in the evening for events such as game shows, dancing, and The Quest was held here... very difficult to hold the Quest and not even close to the same as on a Voyager/Freedom/Oasis Class in Studio B. Needless to say I only came back here when needed to attend an event. Just not my favorite place to hang out but many events were held here and seemed that many enjoyed the area.

It was here as we exited Billiard Club, and basically right in front of that memorable globe by chance, that I heard "Hey, that's Hoopster!" I kinda stopped abruptly, looked at Lisa and looked back... That's when this cool & casual couple stopped and said "Yeah, you're Hoopster aren't you?" Lol... it was UNV-IT here from CC. He recognized my selfies from the reviews. Awesome! New friends already and only been on board a couple of hours. Gotta love Cruise Critic. You'll be hearing more about UNV-IT as I go along through this review.

We are almost finished our ship tour and planned to check for our luggage before muster, so the last place we have to check out was the MDR. I had MTD for this cruise so I didn't care about any specific table so I was in no rush this cruise to head into the MDR to check tables, etc as I normally have in the past.

Deck 4 (shown above) is the MDR seating, MTD is above on deck 5. Also note the Capt's Table was ready to go and Capt Juan did dine a couple of times that I was there.

We dined at MTD 3 times only the entire cruise. We had a nice table on deck 5 close to the entrance but right at the railing for some great views. Note that the Maitre'D told me not to bother booking MTD between 5:30-8 on any night as it was fully booked every day of the cruise.... nice. This is the same as Legend as I reported in my March review. For all you Dynamic Dining haters, this is way worse than my experience at Dynamic Dining. The Maitre'D did mention that if I was wanting to share, they can likely get us in. So for night #3 we book for 6pm and was seated on a table for 8.... no problem, it was filled up with others within 15-20 min. The other 2 nights the same, received the exact same table as I guess they didn't have anyone on the cruise reserving that specific table for 8. Note that it did fill up between 5:30-5:45, and being close to the Maitre'D station there was a steady line there pretty much the entire night of at least 10 people deep. On another positive note, While the Italian menu on night 3 was "meh", the lobster (Fisherman Plate) on night #6 was perfect! Also my final MTD on night #8 was also fantastic, so I really hope other cruisers had good MDR experience on this cruise as well... btw formal nights were night #2 and #6 at sea (before we got to Hawaii)

And unknown to me until I got home, I snapped this shot from deck 5 looking down into the Cascades dining room, and that table in the forefront ended up being our table those 3 nights that we did end up dining there.

That's it for tonight.... I'll finish up day 1 tomorrow.

 

I feel like they are some sort of large birds... Ostrich or something?

I think Jewel has the big birds. And Serenade has cows. :D Great review Hoopster!

Hoopster95,

Thanks for the review. We seem to be following you. Legend in March (us in June), now Radiance in September (us in January). Hope you are planning a voyage on Celebrity Constellation between now and May 2016!

Loving the pictures - they only wet the appetite.....

Regards,

Aus ATC

I think Jewel has the big birds. And Serenade has cows. :D Great review Hoopster!

Ah, ok. Glad I'm not going crazy!! :p

Right after the Dining Room, we headed up to our room before muster to check for our luggage... one piece was there and within 10 minutes another showed up so all was good. For the most part we had the majority of bags unpacked prior to muster.

The muster station out on deck 5 was facing the pier, and there were still quite a few people coming in over the gangway. Wow, cutting it very close I thought. I wondered what the hold-up was (late flight, etc). And then I thought what if one of those couples were in fact late.... next port of call is 6 days later in Hilo! Ouch... how would ChoiceAir and various travel insurance handle that one? And i thought to myself if I'm ever on a Transatlantic, Transpacific or any other cruise with 2-3 sea days before hand I will 110% get to the embarkation port minimum 1 day before hand.

So with muster being done, I had posted on our roll call that if any CC'ers wished to meet on sailaway to head up to deck 12 Skybar and we could all say hello to each other. They all new I was going to wear my yellow RCL hat.... barely anyone was there or if they were no one said anything. Within minutes UNV-IT & Sammi showed up. These two are a blast. We got on great right away so we talked up a storm, grabbed a drink, and the ship began to pull away.... Hawaii here we come!! Cheers!

During sailaway, a couple of others from our roll call gathered enough courage to ask me about my yellow hat and they introduced themselves, but we never did get any kind of gathering. Heading out and away from the pier you get great views of the Vancouver skyline & Stanley Park

Approaching the Lion's Gate Bridge was to be a highlite for me. I watched many a ship go under and finally it was my turn. For those of you who haven't seen it, I posted a "time-lapse" style sailaway with some excellent shots of Radiance last year going under the bridge perched from Stanley Park's Prospect Point:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2097912

Mid-span of the bridge I believe is 200-201 feet... Highest point of Radiance is 178, so I was hoping to see the illusion of how close the mast/funnels were to the bridge as we passed under, but this passing didn't phase me. In fact it put into perspective how close Quantum's funnels are to touching the Verrazono for example, and I was on Indy in Lisbon and they had to get a running start on Indy in order for her to sink into the water to get enough clearnace... I tell you that one looked really close! Here on Radiance it looked like a piece of cake, and maybe those of you who sail out of Tampa often can chime in a compare this to the Skyway Bridge (which I've never experienced but I understand the clearance is a ridiculous 5 feet!)

Wasn't long after that we went down to prepare for 6pm dinner

Upon entering the Centrum from the gangway, I booked Samba's Grill for night #1 with one of the specialty staff. Radiance offered a special for all guests on day 1 at 50% off, so I was able to save my D+ BOGO for night #2.

I was looking forward to this dinner as it would be my first time in Samba's ever, plus I was looking forward to the views while we sailed through the gulf islands and out to sea... neither disappointed!

We were the first table in Samba's at 6pm. By the end of the night when we left they may have had a total of 20 people max. We had the choice of a perfect window table.

Service was excellent and the guys running the show in Samba's were just excellent at all times explaining how things work. After a short hello and explanation how things work in this restaurant, vegetable sides are brought out center table, and even before that you have the opportunity to enjoy the salad bar... the salad bar is not typical, and has excellent ceviche, mussels and a few other different goodies I have not seen on any other ship (ie. WJ)

With this Brazilian restaurant, meat is served in stages and sliced from a "gaucho" who comes out with a slab of meat and cuts pieces in front of you to your plate. 3 sauces are served, with recommendations from the waiters of which one to use for each specific meat.

Soon after our appetizer plates were cleared, the main courses started to come.

Note the green sign on the right... the other side of that sign is red. There are 6 courses of meat so go hungry!!! As you proceed through the courses, and if you're too full to continue, turn the sign over to red to hold off the food until you're ready... when ready to continue with more food, flip over to green.

The sunset was seemingly perfectly timed to wait until we were done our main course so that could head outside for a couple of quick pics at the railing, let alone sit and enjoy while sipping the remainder of our wine.

Deserts were awesome too

Overall an outstanding dinner to start our cruise! I believe I use a consistent and fair rating system to rate my experiences throughout all my reviews as follows:

• 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 rate my first experience at Samba's a 9. Totally excellent, very memorable, and I will both recommend to others as well as visit Samba's again for sure when I get the opportunity. Kudos to RCL and the staff/chefs here. I really enjoyed this first meal.

Being the first night on board, we purposely knew that we would miss the one and only "Welcome Aboard" show in the theatre at 7:15pm, so I have nothing to report there. Again, very rare for me to miss shows as I normally like to see them all, but this cruise I was definitely and purposely doing things a bit differently to see how things went.... After the fact, I did not regret missing that show whatsoever. We ended up walking the ship, shooting some pool, etc, but truthfully night #1 activities were very much lacking as is the norm. After sitting through a few Karaoke participants, we headed up to Starquest to check things out but it was very much dead, so it was off to bed early.

5 days at sea coming up!

Heyooooooo. Just got home today Claudio. Had the most amazing time hanging with you guys. We will for sure be life long friends and hanging outside of cruises too. The rest of our trip was fantastic. I'll shoot you an email with all the details.

I'll jump back in here tomorrow and post on some of your points. Enjoying the review bud. I know you have somemore good pics. Can't wait to see lol.

Heyooooooo. Just got home today Claudio. Had the most amazing time hanging with you guys. We will for sure be life long friends and hanging outside of cruises too. The rest of our trip was fantastic. I'll shoot you an email with all the details.

I'll jump back in here tomorrow and post on some of your points. Enjoying the review bud. I know you have somemore good pics. Can't wait to see lol.

Hey hey buddy!!! I need to hear all about your Maui travels, especially sunrise & sunset up at Haleakala. If you want, maybe at the end of the review when I get to Maui you can post a couple of your pics up there for those cruisers next year doing Radiance with the Maui overnighter. Say hi to Sammi :D:D

Hey everyone! Time to continue this review...

It was interesting to note the schedule of events of the sea days, and as CD Steve Davis mentioned, basically this was combination of two cruises struck together - (1) the first 5 days at sea was one cruise with most all the shows and events all crammed into these days, and (2) the last 4 days with long port days a whole lot less going on on the ship for events and shows. Rather than give you a day-by-day run down as I have in past reviews I'm only going to go through a few things I think might be worth noting for those of you looking at this cruise the next few years.

The average demographic on this cruise was definitely over 50 (in fact I would say 60 was the average). Even though we gained an hour on 3 of the 5 sea days, thus longer sleeping time, the Starquest nightclub had it's small group of regulars nightly but was pretty much deadsville throughout all the sea days. Not a whole lot went on after 10:30pm other than the usual Schooner Bar pianist, casino & Starquest. Know that most all the typical game shows, trivia (including progressive), and even the Quest were all held in the 1st 5 sea days prior to reaching Hawaii.

Whether this was all CD Steve Davis' decision or not, I think it was a great move in that it was evident from the get-go that the night life paled even on sea days with many of the interactive events not being well attended whatsoever, whether they were in the Centrum on Colony Club. The most consistent events were trivia crowds. The Quest for example only had 4 teams... the 5th set of captains were up and no one behind them wanted to play, so they offered to sit down and let only the 4 teams play on... very lame. There may have been a total of only 100 people in the colony club with perhaps a total of 50-60 of the people actually close enough to want to play and participate. Once we hit Hawaii's 1st port, the final event was always around 10:15pm so that people were all heading to bed no later than 11pm.

After leaving the incredibly fantastic weather in Vancouver, I awoke to cloud, showers, and cooler weather on this 1st day at sea. Heading to the gym there were still a million towels placed all over the loungers, but hardly anyone in them. Looking through the compass, I found myself struggling to get a grip of what I wanted to do today indoors... as I thought, for my own personal tastes I think a Radiance Class ship or smaller on a TA or TP is just not for me. I am not into towel folding in the Centrum, or knitting classes in the Starquest in the morning (actually scheduled in the Compass), or sitting through a Izumi or Chops presentation in order to receive the sell job of eating there.... nothing wrong with any of these but that's not what I want for my own personal vacation. The only thing I regret missing is the guest speaker in the Aurora Theatre in the mornings explaining the history and site seeing in Hawaii as I was told he was fantastic.

So in a nutshell for the start to day 1, there you have it.... here's a few pics.

I noted right away in the pic above how there is no R-Bar on the deck plans and wondered since my Oz cruise in 2012 if anything had been updated or not.... nope. Still the regular bar with no updating. Not only that, note the green/glass staircase. I suspect that will be gone in her next drydock. I believe this particular presentation was for Samba, but each specialty restaurant was featured on each one fo the sea days as we progressed through the cruise.

The Meet & Mingle was also held this morning and this was well attended, but being in the Colony Club and with so many people scattered front and back, no one even attempted to mingle as it was awkward.. truthfully should've been held in Starquest. Steve Davis did intros and a couple of raffle prizes were given out. One of a roll call brothers from Oz set up the gift exchange, which I was very embarrassed to admit I had totally forgot to bring anything, so they began to go through the list. Many people already began to leave as they did not have gifts to exchange, and since everyone seemed to be comfortable in their mini-groups and not mingling at all, we left as well to enjoy the rest of our day which included the 1st "Thriller" Dance practice and hanging out in the Solarium pool and hot-tubs where we got to chill out all afternoon and meet/speak with plenty of great people.

We have a ton of fantastic Asian cuisine and culture in Vancouver, so my two previous Izumi experiences were extremely lack luster for me so much so that I've avoided Izumi for the most part. But again... trying new things and making my own schedule, we decided to use my D+ BOGO here tonight for a lighter meal and boy was I glad I came here! Dinner was superb this evening! They let me use the D+ BOGO as 50% off the entire bill (to match the Samba deal the night before) so we went to town and ordered some great food tonight.

Like Samba's the night before, we arrived for 6pm and only one other table was up there. During our 1 1/2 hr dinner there may have been a total of 7-8 tables served... that's it. I found that interesting considering the 170+ D+'s and 17 PNs on board with the BOGO night 1 or 2, plus all the deals they are offering for specialty during the day.

Izumi is located port side of the ship just aft of the Windjammer, and like Samba the night before with great ocean views right at the window. Service here was just as excellent as the night before in Samba's...

As a side note I saw most all of the waiters in specialty working the next day in the DL, WJ, Park Cafe and other venues of the ship and they all remembered me throughout the cruise and said hi, asking me when I was coming back to dine again or if I was trying the other venues.... it was like seeing my regular nightly MDR waiter in a way expect m ore of them as I got to know them. For example Zeek from Sambas saw me anytime I went through Park Cafe and the Solarium all those sea days and he always made a point to say hi and ask me if I needed anything. All those guys and gals were great with this aspect

I asked the waitress what the top recommendations of the day are... learned that early in my cruising carreer as they've pretty much done the taste tests and know what is fresh and good. Most of what she recommended was on our list as well so we ordered it all! Great appies incl Shrimp Goyoza & Tuna Tataki, as well as the Seafood Citrus Salad with lobster & Octopus, but the main course rolls were totally outstanding and fresh. we had the Crispy Philly & Surf & Turf rolls as recommended by the waitress as well as the assorted Sashimi combo

Being already full we were going to skip the desert but I was really intrigued by the ice cream which is covered in a hardened shell. It was explained to me what it is and how it's prepared but I truly can't remember how they did this dish, but I really liked it. It was very different than anything I've ever tried.

So as per my rating chart as I used the night before:

• 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'll rate Izumi as an 8.5... having so much Asian cuisine daily at home has likely sensitized me a bit, but this was by far and away the best Izumi yet I've tried with great service & excellent food. I definitely recommend Izumi here on Radiance to future cruisers and it was memorable for sure.... yet Samba's the night before was just a slight notch above as a totally different experience. Nonetheless, superb meals both night 1 & 2 to start the cruise!