Aussie Hailz's Review of South Pacific on Radiance OTS 1st April, 2014

[Hailzmick]

I'm hitting the hay for tonight... Plenty more pics, gossip & review to go! :-)

Stay tuned!

[Hailzmick]

The Casino- I LOVE casinos on cruise ships! We live an hour from the Crown Casino in Melbourne and yes, it is a fun night out- but my god- it's an expensive one!!! Last time Mick & I were there- we got a drink each & I got a bottle of water too & it was $30! So we don't frequent it very often.

More about the Casino on Radiance later... I did frequent it a bit! ;-)

 

The Aurora Theatre- it was lovely!!! Absolutely lovely! Fit for a queen! There weren't a lot of drinks waiters but to tell you the truth, we were too busy enjoying the wonderful shows, acts and entertainment, that I didn't even want to order a drink!

Unfortunately I didn't get any pics of the theatre! :-(

 

The Day Spa- hmmmm, the day spa! I've got more to tell you about this later in my review. Stand by...

 

The waterslide- ok, so it isn't really for grown ups, but it DID look awesome. If push came to shove I would have had a go on that bad boy!

 

[Hailzmick]

The indoor cinema- luckily I had studied the deck plans and done some research before we went, otherwise, I never would have known there was a cinema. It was tiny and tucked away in an secret location, but just another awesome thing to do on sea days.

 

After being full on tourists for about an hour, we headed to the Windjammer to have some lunch. It was really nice. I did promise myself I would limit my food intake on this cruise, (yeah right Hailz!!!). I DID try. I can't help that overeating runs in my family and all the food was begging to be tried! And tried we did! Mick is a super big foodie- before we met, he was a very exclusive chef in NSW- so everything we do is related to food, somehow or another! (Should we cue the violins again?!)

 

We then went to the mini golf and played a round each. It's not often that you can play mini golf and have the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House in the background.

 

 

 

[Hailzmick]

It was hard work, lol, so off to the bar we went again! I'm not this much of a drinker in normal life- I totally promise!

 

 

This time, drinks pool side. I've got to say, there was never enough people working behind the bar here. There wasn't a time where I waited less than 10 minutes for a drink- which if I was at a club in the city would be very normal, but it's very unusual for a cruise ship. (In my short cruise history).

 

I did want to add here that we had an Unlimited Drinks Package. I think it was about $65US per day, per person, and it was absolutely worth it for this particular cruise. Because there was no strenuous day trips or heaps of places to go everyday, it was great to relax and unwind with a drink, (or lots)!

We are going to Europe next April and doing two cruises in May, but we won't be purchasing drinks packages for the first 12 night cruise at least, as we will be way too busy to get sloshed everyday/every night.

[Hailzmick]

Insert excited squeal- 1pm came around and Mick & I realised it was time to see our room!!!

 

As Mick is a balcony snob, we had told our TA that we wanted an amazing balcony room, and she recommended an AFT facing balcony. Well... I had been googling images of AFT balconies for the whole time our cruise had been booked, but little did I know, our room was SO MUCH MORE AWESOME than the photos showed! Woweeee!!!

 

Mick & I have this silly thing of opening up hotel doors together, the very first time we enter.

Opening up doors on cruise ships is no exception.

With huge smiles on our faces, we slowly opened up room number 8172. "Holy crap!" was said by Mick.

 

I ran in to the room, forgetting about our luggage outside our door & darted out to the balcony! And balcony it was. I have no idea how I could ever go back to anything else than an AFT balcony... It was amazing, it was tremendous, it was PERFECT!!

[Hailzmick]

Sorry about the millions of posts- it disappears off the page if I post too much!

 

THIS IS THE VIEW THAT WE SAW!!!

 

 

 

 

[Hailzmick]

We stood in the glorious sun, looking around at the amazing view. Of course we took some selfies.

 

We also took a peak at the balconies next to us. As we were smack bang in the middle of the ship at the back, I think our balcony jutted out just a slight bit further than the others. After about 10 minutes, we went to have a look at the rest of the cabin!

 

It was actually really big. We had a huge king sized bed, a three seater couch with room to move and a coffee table. We also both had a bed side table each. There was also a desk with mirrors, which I used to get ready in front of every night, as the light was a lot kinder to me than the light in the bathroom.

 

 

The bathroom was very small and pokey- but unless you're in a Junior Suite or above, that's the standard size. (We have a JS on one of our next cruises!)

 

 

TIP NUMBER 8) we always bring some sort of air freshener with us. Usually an air neutraliser like One Drop for the toilet/bathroom. Especially if there's more than just you staying in your cabin. No one wants to walk in and get a face full of any unkind smell & your room attendant probably doesn't want to either.

 

We also had HEAPS of storage and closet space. No one could ever say there isn't enough room. & if they did, I would say they have way too many clothes! Ha ha.

[Hailzmick]

We sat silently on the end of the bed, taking it all in, looking out of our HUMUNGOUS private balcony and staring at the Sydney Harbour Bridge. All of our hard work & saving had paid off... This was life, this is what it's all about!

 

Ok, so you may think I'm a bit dramatic, and yeah I can be somewhat, but seriously- it was the very best feeling and if I could bottle it and sell it as a perfume, I'd be a trillionaire! Ha ha!

 

After about 5 minutes, I heard a knock at the door. It was our room attendant.

In my previous three cruises, I've had the most amazing room attendants- so the bar is set quite high. We've never actually asked for anything & we actually tell them that making up our room once a day is absolutely enough. Our rooms have always been cleaned so thoroughly, & always by men who want to get in, get the job done and move on to the next room. So we've never had a reason to complain about a room steward.

 

Anyway, this larger than life, Jamaican lady, pounced through our door and introduced herself. We were thrilled to meet her so soon and although she was VERY full on, I was excited to see someone with so much energy.

She spent about 15 minutes talking to us about her family and her job with RCCI, but the weird thing was, she REALLY made herself at home, taking a seat on our bed and taking her shoes off. At the time, I thought nothing of it, but looking back, whoa, weird!!! Ha ha!!!!

The next day I left her a tip as an extra incentive & she thought it was all she was going to get so she stopped cleaning. She replenished our towels & occasionally emptied our bin, but that was it. I rang up guest services and they got her supervisor to call me back. After the misunderstanding, she was back to being loud & in our faces again but still didn't clean our room very thoroughly. (Thank goodness we didn't have kids with us!)

 

We spent the next hour unpacking our bags and setting up our room so it felt like home.

 

TIP NUMBER 9) Setting up your room ASAP is a good idea. If you leave it to later then you may never get it done. Plus you can work out what you'll be wearing that night when you attend your first dinner.

 

TIP NUMBER 10) If I have a balcony room, I always bring washing powder. This way, I can wash smalls in the sink & put them out on the balcony to dry. I wash my bathers everyday & it helps if you're on short or long cruises... I don't really want to hand over my undies, (I know the staff are very professional, but I'm happy to wash my own!)

 

It was muster drill time and everyone rocked up on time. (Does that ever happen!?) A gorgeous and very tiny lady from Cambodia was our Muster Drill tick sheet person. We chatted to her for a while and then went to our room to get ready for the show and dinner.

 

where we got ah the firs the cruise.

[Hailzmick]

Ah- sorry about the last sentence! It's Fri night here! Ha ha!

 

At 6.30pm on our first night, our ship had started on its journey and we were in the theatre, where we got a great seat to watch the first show of the cruise.

The show was great and do you know what? One of the main dancers was our Muster Tick Sheet lady! I didn't take my eyes off her dancing- she was absolutely amazing!

 

The show ended about 8.15pm and it was time to walk into the Main Dining Room for dinner!!! We had a late sitting at 8.30pm. We got there at 8.29pm and what do you know, we were the 3rd couple out of four to sit down.

 

Mary & Hugh (from Adelaide, South Australia) sat to our right and Dave & Tania (from near Dubbo in New South Wales only 20 minutes from where Mick grew up, in the middle of no where!) sat to our left. Both couples were in their late 40's and had grown up kids- so instantly, they took us under their wings.

 

 

Hugh & Mary xxxx

 

.

 

Tania & Dave. I can't remember a time I didn't see a smile on his face!

As it turned out, the fourth couple didn't show up on the first night so the rest of us decided that six of us was plenty and we were happy with that- (little did we know the best was yet to come!)

[Hailzmick]

Our waiters were lovely! Both men, who were quite funny & they were very fast and efficient! We never even met the manager of the dining room- so at the end of the cruise when we had to tip- we didn't tip him! His tip went to the waiters.

 

 

I ordered a Bacardi Razz with the drink assistant- that's just raspberry flavoured Bacardi. I discovered it on our last cruise and loved it!

The lady who took our drinks order came back with standard Bacardi. Usually it wouldn't bother me if a drink is wrong, but it really dislike the taste of standard Bacardi. I asked for another one- to which it came back as a standard Bacardi again. It ended up being the running joke at our table, as it continued night after night. (That's WHEN the lady eventually got our drink orders- we usually rocked up to dinner with drinks we purchased from other bars, just in case she didn't see us at all through dinner). Gosh, I'm really sounding like I like a good drink!!!

 

After dinner we were quite full and tired after such a huge day. We had a night cap at our favourite bar, Schooner Bar, and headed back to the cabin.

Stay tuned for day two of our cruise!

[loungelady55]

Loving the tips! following

[Hailzmick]

Day 2- AT SEA!

 

Well, what a sleep! Truth be told, once asleep, I could sleep thru a hurricane. But the bed was super comfy and I kept the curtains open a little bit, so waking up to a HUGE balcony with the view of the big wide ocean, was amazing! Yes- I could wake up to this EVERY morning!

 

 

We had looked thru our Cruise Compass the night before and highlighted what we wanted to do on our first day at sea.

Breakfast was number one on my list! Ha ha.

We ate breakfast at the Windjammer. It was fairly easy to get a seat. It's hard not to get a bit of everything. I try to eat something really heathy first and then if I'm still peckish, I can get something that's not so healthy, but it won't be a huge something.

Mick always gets omelettes made, but although I like them, the queues can get rather long & I'd rather be eating and people watching than standing in a line!

I'm quite sure breakfast was also offered in the Solarium as well as the MDR.

 

 

11am & next on our list was an early morning trivia in the Colony Club, (after trying the Cocktail of the day, of course, prepared by Devina)!

[Traveler360]

We're going to be on Radiance next week. This is our first RC. Thanks for all the info and tips. We've done several cruises with Princess and no one ever mentioned tipping on the first day. We had wonderful service ... So is this something one should do on RC to get good service?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Hailzmick]

Day 2- AT SEA!

 

Well, what a sleep! Truth be told, once asleep, I could sleep thru a hurricane. But the bed was super comfy and I kept the curtains open a little bit, so waking up to a HUGE balcony with the view of the big wide ocean, was amazing!

 

 

We had looked thru our Cruise Compass the night before and highlighted what we wanted to do on our first day at sea. Breakfast was number one on my list! Ha ha.

 

 

We ate breakfast at the Windjammer. It was fairly easy to get a seat. It's hard not to get a bit of everything. I try to eat something really heathy first and then if I'm still peckish, I can get something that's not so healthy, but it won't be a huge something.

Mick always gets omelettes made, but although I like them, the queues can get rather long & I'd rather be eating and people watching than standing in a live! I'm quite sure breakfast was also offered in the Solarium as well as the MDR.

[Hailzmick]

We're going to be on Radiance next week. This is our first RC. Thanks for all the info and tips. We've done several cruises with Princess and no one ever mentioned tipping on the first day. We had wonderful service ... So is this something one should do on RC to get good service?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

My first cruise was with Princess to NZ. Princess are quite different to Royal Caribbean, but both companies don't pay amazing wages- so tipping is always smiled upon.

Although I liked Princess- RC is a million times more fun & I feel like more people want to chat to strangers & mingle on RC.

It depends what you're after in a cruise.

 

On ANY ship I'm on, I tip bar staff as I'm a drinker while on holidays. You get good service regardless. Just extra amazing if you give a tip I guess. That's just my opinion however.

Hope this helps!

[Hailzmick]

Not sure why CC just posted my reply twice- sorry!!!

Will keep going.....

[Hailzmick]

For Trivia in the Colony Club, Mick & I sat at a table for four and about 10 minutes before the trivia started, a very chatty lady in her mid 50's, asked if she could sit down. Her husband sat promptly next to her and he was even more chatty. What a fun couple they turned out to be!!! After narrowly losing in trivia, we sat talking to Janet & Bob for about an hour, before moving to a bar to chat some more. They were from Manchester in England and were the friendliest couple we had ever met! We ended up meeting up with them every day for trivia and drinks and just general chat. Stay tuned for more Bob & Janet goss!

 

Lunch was in the Windjammer & I didn't hold back! Ha ha. I even had Apple Crumble & frozen yoghurt for dessert.

 

 

In the early afternoon, I took Mick to his first game of Bingo. He had never played before. What an eye opener that was. We walked past the room where it was being held, (the Colony Club) about an hour before it was meant to start, (2pm), & there was ALREADY a line up for bingo tickets. Yikes!!! I quickly jumped in the line & Mick scored us some seats. I lined up for about 30 minutes & paid over $80 for books, but I was determined to win, for Mick of course! Lol.

 

Bingo was meant to start at 3pm but didn't start until 3.45. It was taking up my cocktail tasting time. Luckily there were numerous waiters walking around getting orders. Crisis averted! Ok, so we didn't win, but we did have fun. Not enough fun that we did it again, but it was good to give it a go. At least it cleared the ship on sea days so we could sun bake where we wanted to! Ha ha!

[rkmw]

i enjoyed reading your post but can i give you a little tip, be careful mentioning TA's on CC as its against the rules

[Hailzmick]

Eeeeep!!! I had no idea!!!! Thanks for the heads up!

[Hailzmick]

Back to our room to get ready for dinner. Every evening I made a big effort to get ready. I washed my hair, blow dried AND straightened it. And even re-applied my make up. This is quite a big deal for me, as I've said previously, I never do my hair usually!

 

Dinner was amazing again! (Food & company!) When we got to our table, there was a new couple! Even though we specifically asked the Universe not to send anyone else. The mood at the table was a bit different as we spoke to our new table mates, Steph & Jeff, from Los Angeles. Steph seemed nice, but stand-offish and quiet and Jeff, hmmm, he was a bit uptight & not very fun. (I promise, my view of them changes dramatically!) We chatted with them about their trip over to Australia & a few other things, but the six of us seemed to have more to talk about.

 

After dinner, Mick & I hit up the casino, where I played Black Jack & met Dave, from Mexico... the best casino attendant I've ever met. Apart from the fact that he looked like Fez from "That 70's Show", he was also really helpful at showing me what to do AND he was super fun! Mick took out about $150 on the machines and I spent it all on Blackjack! Oops!

Dave & I took some selfies but I think they're on my iPad! I'll find them before my final post!

 

:-)

[Hailzmick]

Day 3: AT SEA

 

After a bit of a sleep in after a few too many beverages, Mick & I had a delicious breakfast, then, you guessed it, hit up Divina for a cocktail of the day.

 

 

It was then time to have a bit of a sun bake. If you recall, I've already said I burn mega easily, so Mick had to lather me in sunscreen and we hit up the deck above the pool. Only a mini bake of 45 minutes and I was ready for another drink and lunch.

 

 

 

Today, the progressive trivia was in the English pub, where we bumped into our two favourite trivia pals, Janet and Bob, (who saved us a seat at their table!!!) I'm not very good at world trivia, or music trivia if the music is from the early 80's or before, but everyday at trivia, we seem to have a huge laugh & score really well. (Um, I supply the laughs, they supply the answers, lol!)

We told Janet & Bob that we were really hoping to be a part of the Love & Marriage game show that is on in the Aurora Theatre that night. We'd seen it before & thought how damn funny it was! So they said they'd meet us after dinner to see if we made the cut!

 

Dinner was interesting! Ha ha.

 

We were the last couple to turn up, (we were never late, our table guests were just always really prompt!) To put it mildly, Jeff was D-runk! Drunk, drunkie, drunk, drunk! He was HILarious!!! If this was the real Jeff, I was ready to jump on to that bandwagon. Steph was also a little bit drunk. Maybe more heavily tipsy. They were so much fun and as a table, we all thoroughly enjoyed each other's company!

I think they were just nervous to meet new people, but this was them- fun, wild and free!

Mick & I told the table group that we needed to head off, (every night, dinner finished after 10.30pm as we were always having so much fun!) because we wanted to head to the Love & Marriage game show.

[Hailzmick]

10 minutes later, Mick & I were sitting in the Aurora theatre, in the third row from the front, ready to put up our hands to volunteer to be the "Newlyweds" for the game.

 

Picture this- hundreds of people sitting in the audience listening to the Cruise Director ask who wants to be involved in the game.

Janet & Bob are sitting next to us, cheering us on to be picked.

 

ALL OF A SUDDEN, six really loud people come booming into the theatre. Everyone turns around to see them & to make out what they were yelling out... To my absolute embarrassment (& secret enjoyment), it was our table mates, yelling out- "PICK HAILZ & MICK!!!"

Ahhhhh- drunk Jeff & Steph were leading the pack! How funny!!! As it turns out- the Cruise Director picked a couple who had only just gotten married the day the cruise left. (Totally understandable!)

Can I also add- in no reflection to my last statement- the CD was a bit of a toss. His assistant was great, but he, well he thought he was amazing, but he was just boring, not funny and if he ever did have a spark, it was long gone.

By now, the time was after midnight. We had an early morning ahead and some berocca to drink!

 

 

The gorgeous Steph & her partner in Crime, Jeff!

[FirstCruise2331]

Very entertaining review!

[Hailzmick]

Day 4- NOUMEA

 

Waking up to land was exciting! Looking out of our balcony, we saw the most amazing views.

 

 

In the Cruise Compass, it said we needed to get a bus into town. I'd been to Noumea on my cruise with Nicky, but Mick had never been there, so we wanted to see lots of things and make the most of it!

 

TIP NUMBER 11) When you're getting off the ship, chances are over 2,000 people will be getting off as well. If the ship is letting people off at 9am, we were ready to walk off at 8- & every time, we were on the first tender, or one of the first to walk off the ship.

If you don't have much to do on the islands, then maybe wait until after 9am when the crowds have dulled down.

 

Back to Noumea.

 

 

We caught the bus into town. It took us to the tourist centre where there's a bit of a market and lots of info about tours you can take.

 

We decided to jump on a coach, (not to be confused with couch- which is what Tom Cruise jumped on), costing $15 each, which took us on a one hour tour of the island, up to the very peak of a hill to see the views and around to a school and some Government buildings. It was great & it helped us get our bearings.

 

 

[Hailzmick]