Radiance Review - Great ship, Terrible Pipes

[jonbgd]

Another thing I want to mention....I noticed several deck chairs stacked up on deck 5:

 

I took a closer look and saw this letter:

 

I think it is a great thing that RCI donates all these chairs and used shower heads.

I was wondering why so many loungers on the deck I thought it was for the Alaska Itinary and they were storing them there

Great they donate But what would Habitat for Humanity use them for?

[burnedup]

You wrote "Thanks for the information....I think we will just check out the shops and go back to the ship".

 

Don't do that! As someone else mentioned, across the street from the ship is an old fort used as a museum. We have been through it a couple of times and will do it again when we are there in March. It is really interesting and very inexpensive and you may be doing yourself a disservice if you don't see it. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only thing worth seeing in Aca, including the cliff-divers.

 

Having said that I also have to agree with some of the comments regarding Aca ............ they have the most aggressive peddlers, taxi-drivers and shop keepers in the world. Really a bunch of dorks. Fortunately, you'll miss most of them if you go to the fort.

[Aquahound]

I started uploading my pictures from this cruise and stopped when my camera battery died. Here's what I have so far. Just click on the picture.

 

[sunnydaysmile]

I started uploading my pictures from this cruise and stopped when my camera battery died. Here's what I have so far. Just click on the picture.

 

Very nice pictures and a great review - thanks for sharing your experience. I hope they have the plumbing issues fixed before we sail in January

[SConnolly]

Sorry to hear about your plumbing issues.

 

We sailed Nov 16th 5 day cruise and were also on deck 9 in a D1 port side.

 

Sprinkler system went off in the cabin on our 2nd last night and we were completely flooded.

 

Before anyone asks, we don't smoke, use candles, hairdryers or hang clothes from the sprinklers. Were D+ and understand cruising basics.

 

It happened about 2 minutes before we set out for the evening, funny to look back on but not a the time. Joan our cabin attendant was outstanding and could not do enough for us, as well as the housekeeping staff in general. Guest relations sad to say were not on their game and needed constant prodding.

 

There were no spare cabins to move us to as that week there were plenty of cabins on the ship that also had toilet issues and sewerage pipes or similar were bursting.

 

 

We still enjoyed the cruise. We love Radiance Class but agree its time for Radiance herself to spend a week or two in Rehab / dry-dock and get herself together.

[VegasCrossfire]

You wrote "Thanks for the information....I think we will just check out the shops and go back to the ship".

 

Don't do that! As someone else mentioned, across the street from the ship is an old fort used as a museum. We have been through it a couple of times and will do it again when we are there in March. It is really interesting and very inexpensive and you may be doing yourself a disservice if you don't see it. As far as I'm concerned, that's the only thing worth seeing in Aca, including the cliff-divers.

 

Having said that I also have to agree with some of the comments regarding Aca ............ they have the most aggressive peddlers, taxi-drivers and shop keepers in the world. Really a bunch of dorks. Fortunately, you'll miss most of them if you go to the fort.

 

Thanks so much for that information....we will keep it in mind. We have been to Acapulco many times (my aunt owns a beautiful house there) and have stayed for weeks at a time. But we have never been to that fort (that I can remember). We have seen all the "touristy" things, so going to the fort might just be the right thing to do that day.

 

What type of things do they have in there? I'm not much of a "museum" person, but if it is filled with pictures and information from the past about Acapulco, I would be most interested.

 

You'll be there in March? We'll be on the March 22nd sailing.

[JJ2sail]

Hi Paul,

It was nice to finally meet you on board!

 

We had a cabin on deck 8 on the hump, and did not have any plumbing issues.

 

I just wanted to add that, we did go to the Diamond breakfast a couple of times and it was fine, no real difference except you can get a latte if you want.

 

Also wanted to mention that soft drinks were free in the Diamond lounge, along with the wine and champagne. I know people were wondering about that.

[Aquahound]

Hi Paul,

It was nice to finally meet you on board!

 

We had a cabin on deck 8 on the hump, and did not have any plumbing issues.

 

Hi Jen. It was great to meet you! Thanks for all the hard work you did on our roll call.

 

I'm glad to hear that the water on my floor did not leak down to your room.

[burnedup]

I'm certainly not a museum hound either and we more or less stumbled on the Fort even though it's right there by the ship, big as life. If I remember correctly it is called Fort San Diego and was built early in the 1600s and was the most important Spanish military installation in the New World.

 

It's a very large display of artifacts including everything from military items to those representative of the social life. It'll be our third time there and if I go to the same museum three times it must be good.

 

I guess we are on the same trip as we are also out of SD on 22 March. It'll be our first time on RCI except for a 7 day cruise on Vision about 5 years ago. I won't bad-mouth except to say we were not really impressed.

[happy hiker]

Paul.........We had no idea you and Tina were going thru such an ordeal with your plumbing. Barry remembers seeing a fan in one of the cabins, so I guess that was probably yours. Well, you two certainly made the best of the situation and didn't let it ruin your vacation. Good for you. Great job with the detailed review, too.

 

We enjoyed meeting both of you. Thanks for the Florida travel info and the drink recommendation!! Perhaps we'll see you on a Voyager ship some day. We like that class, too.

 

Susie

[Aquahound]

We enjoyed meeting both of you. Thanks for the Florida travel info and the drink recommendation!! Perhaps we'll see you on a Voyager ship some day. We like that class, too.

 

Hi Susie! It was great to meet you and your hubby. If you make it to the Keys, look me up.

 

I hope you enjoyed that chocolate martini. If you liked that one, go for the espresso next. You'll wonder where it's been all your life! ;)

[Bargeo]

We will be onboard in January.....sure hope the plumbing problems are solved. Couple questions for you:

 

What nights were formal?

 

Did you go to any of the shows? How were they?

 

How was the weather?

 

How rough were the seas?

 

Did you bring any alcohol with you? (I won't tell, honest);)

 

How were people dressed on formal nights? Majority following the dress code? More casual than in the past?

 

That's all I can think of now, but may have some more in the future. Thanks!!!!!

[Aquahound]

Bargeo,

Days 2 and 10 (sea days) were formal nights.

 

We did not go to many shows. There were 3 production shows. The only one we saw was Tango Buenos Aires. It was pretty good. The comedian and ventriloquist shows were pretty funny.

 

We had very good weather. Acapulco and Ixtapa were the hottest and most humid (88 degrees/80% humidity). The other ports were just slightly cooler. It was sunny every day. The only cool days were the final 2 sea days heading back to San Diego.

 

The only time we felt the ship moving was the first night and the final 2 nights. The roughest we saw was 15 ft seas heading back up to San Diego. The Radiance handled the seas very well. The pitching and rolling was not enough to make people sick. Although, when we were about to enter San Diego harbor at the very end, the ship rolled enough that I almost rolled out of bed. It listed back and forth about 3 times.

 

No, I did not bring alcohol on this trip. However, there were a lot of people having to go down to the naughty room at the beginning. One lady (a CC member) got called down for a Listerine bottle. If you pack alcohol for this ship, you have to conceal it very good.

 

On formal nights, the vast majority of the ship was dressed to code. Tuxes were not very common. Most men wore nice suits. Given the older demographic of this cruise, this was not a crowd that you would see going casual on formal nights.

[joanne59]

Thanks for all the tips about the ship and the area that you visited. You both should be given gold stars for your attitude about the flooding issues. Not sure I would be as happy, even more so when I found out it was a recurring problem. What is up with RCCL, they have issues on Enchantment too???? I've been loyal to them for many years, but would have a tough time accepting that they are aware of the problem and can't seem to fix it. Folks pay good money and expect a dry room...they just allow unsuspecting guests to continue to cruise on ships with flooding issues. It seems very unsanitary when you are talking about sewage pipes. Again, you are troopers and kudos to anyone who sails on this ship while it still has problems. There are so many ships out there, I'm not willing to risk getting a soggy cabin with a potty that won't flush (ewwww!!!). We are giving Celebrity a go this time around...love RCL but need a little change.

 

Happy cruising to all...

[cruisenfever]

Just off the 11/30th cruise on Radiance and we had very limited rusty/brown water in our OS which was 1066 on the port side. In fact, this is probably the first time of our 12 cruises on Radiance that we didn't have to plan on what time to shower or flush the toilet because of the water problem. We just ran the water for a few minutes and it was fine. We did have the water turned off from 10:30 until 3:30 on one of our port days.

 

Captain Anderson told us at dinner that they were replacing all of the old pipes that transfer the water to the cabins with PVC pipes and they are currently putting in new filtration systems that are located between the walls on all decks between cabins. It is a time consuming operation, but when completed should eliminate the rusty/brown water problem.

 

Did the Radiance have the "Diamond Breakfast"...we really enjoyed that on the Mariner last month and looking forward to it on the Radiance in January.

 

Thanks

Radiance did not have a brunch for Platinum, Diamond or Diamond Plus guests. I believe they eliminated that and now just have the P/D/D+ cocktail party on one evening. When we did our b2b on Radiance last April-May we did not have a special brunch.

 

Paul, thanks for such a thorough review! Wow, I wonder if RCI wouldn't be better off taking the ship out of service for a cruise or two (NOT MINE!!!!;)) and really fix their problems.

Jean, replacing all the pipes with PVC and then replacing all new filtation sytems on each deck between each cabin would take much longer than taking her out of commission for 2 cruises.

 

 

Is anyone here Diamond Plus ???? Did you use the Conceirge Lounge?

 

Carol

Yes, and it was wonderful. Georgina is the best Concierge.:D

The CL was jam packed due to the length of the cruise and low cruise prices drawing in an extra large senior citizen crowd. And overflow lounge was opened in Starquest (viking crown) and it was completely filled with people, too. The standard wine and champagne was served to D and mixed drinks offered to D+ with the initial showing of your seapass marked D+.

Any ship that offers price reductions for Residency, Military, Police & Fire will draw all ages groups........not only senior citizens with their Senior Discount.:eek: And it doesn't matter on the length of the cruise either as to how crowded the CL is...........it depends on the number of D+ people on board that want to use it.

 

You mean you haven't reached 55 to take advantage of the senior discount?:p

[hcat]

thanks for the review (esp as to port safety & plumbing) & everyone's posts--

 

we'll be is 8594 in late April & hope it is dry in the cabin On Solstice recently our cabin floor was wet when we arrived near the closet & bathroom--never know the source & lived with the loud fans for about three days--luckily it dried out, did not smell & did not recur --& that's a new ship!

 

Hoping all goes well on Radiance--we are looking forward to it!

[hcat]

I started uploading my pictures from this cruise and stopped when my camera battery died. Here's what I have so far. Just click on the picture.

 

 

Great pictures--thanks so much for the link

[Aquahound]

Hoping all goes well on Radiance--we are looking forward to it!

 

It will. I know that most of the focus on this thread has been on the plumbing problems, but there is so much good to say about the Radiance.

 

Like Patti said a few posts ago, she has been on this ship 12 times, and I don't blame her. I plan on sailing Radiance again when she moves to Florida.

 

Thanks for the kudos on my pictures. :)

[cruisenfever]

One thing I would like to add is that when traveling to Mazatlan or any of the ports in Mexico I would NOT use a credit card. Yes, I did call our credit card company prior to leaving informing them where we would be and when.

 

We used our cc in Mazatlan at Sr. Frogs both in the terminal and then when we went into town. That was on December 3 and the only time we used it in Mexico.

 

When we got to the Hampton Inn on December 12 it was denied so I called Chase and was immediately connected to the Fraud Department. Seems like somebody was having a lot of fun at our expense to the tune of $3000+.:eek:

 

Luckily I had my two receipts from Sr. Frogs. Account was closed and new cards have been issued.

[VegasCrossfire]

I'm certainly not a museum hound either and we more or less stumbled on the Fort even though it's right there by the ship, big as life. If I remember correctly it is called Fort San Diego and was built early in the 1600s and was the most important Spanish military installation in the New World.

 

It's a very large display of artifacts including everything from military items to those representative of the social life. It'll be our third time there and if I go to the same museum three times it must be good.

 

I guess we are on the same trip as we are also out of SD on 22 March. It'll be our first time on RCI except for a 7 day cruise on Vision about 5 years ago. I won't bad-mouth except to say we were not really impressed.

 

We will be on the same trip. Have you signed onto the M&M yet?? (I didn't see your name).

 

We will definitely make it to the fort. I appreciate the information and I can hardly wait for the trip!!:D

[mommabean]

 

You mean you haven't reached 55 to take advantage of the senior discount?:p

 

Well.............NO! :D I have DH to take me along for the discount.

 

I will say that the longer and cheaper the cruises I've been on, the older the crowd. There aren't too many average, younger working people that can take off more than a week at a time.

 

This cruise had the oldest demographics of any cruise I've been on - older than even the 2 week PC and 2 weed SA cruises. All available ship wheelchairs were in use and I was surprised at the amount of people using walkers.

 

I was told that the cruise following ours had over 500 people over the age of 70 coming on board. That's almost 25% of the ship. 75% of the people on the ship were to be over 50.

 

I do think it's the senior discount that gets them on. Low prices work for us (DH I mean ;) ) Pay less - cruise more. We have the time. :)

 

Gina

[Aquahound]

This cruise had the oldest demographics of any cruise I've been on - older than even the 2 week PC and 2 week SA cruises. All available ship wheelchairs were in use and I was surprised at the amount of people using walkers.

 

This was definitely the oldest demographic I have ever cruised with. I found a couple things comical.....like the line-up outside the dining room at 5:30. What really made me laugh was when I walked in to the Aurora Theater at 6:00 to take pictures....an hour before showtime. There were several blue puffs of hair in the seats. I actually broke out in laughter on that one. :D

 

Another challenge that was new to me.....I had two excursions cancelled due to lack of participation. One was a 4x4 Jeep tour, and the other was the PV Land and Sea tour. When we tried to re-book in PV, we had to go with pick #4 because #2 (horseback) and #3 (another horseback) were also cancelled. I can only assume it was because of the older crowd that the active excursions were not meeting the minimum numbers.

 

There is good to be said though. The ship lacked excessive partiers, and the vast majority of people had smiles on their faces. All in all, it was a very well behaved crowd.

[Driftwoodgal]

Paul,

 

Sounds like you had a great cruise. I had plumbing problems on my October 9 cruise in the GS. We have 9256 booked for our January cruise. Those duckbill fans do make a bunch of noise.

 

I want to see whales more than anything!! Still debating on where to try to do a tour to see them. I have heard Cabo is the place and then Puerta Vallarta. Did you get any feed back about the best place to catch them?

 

We are doing an independent tour in Acapulco and going to La Perla to view the cliff divers. Have you been there?

 

For those that used the Diamond Breakfast......lattes were served. I just want my one cup of weak coffee.

[Aquahound]

Colleen,

 

Whales were very sparse on this cruise. There was a sighting from the ship on our first sea day, but that was really it. Cabo seemed to be a popular place for whale watching, but the folks there said that it was still a week or 2 too early to see them.

 

I did not do an excursion in Acapulco. I really had no desire to see the cliff divers. The feedback I heard was not too good. Apparently, they really hound you for money prior to diving, during, and afterwards. Of course, I can not say personally because I was not there. There were plenty of excursions going there, so it must be popular.

[Aquahound]

And now for some pics:

 

Radiance in Puerto Vallarta:

 

 

Lowering of the RCI colors for getting underway: