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

[Hoopster95]

So we rolled out of izumi and headed for the Centrum to check out the nightly events... tonight was the Capt's reception and photos in the Centrum

 

 

 

Of course being formal night which we missed in the MDR, we were still dressed appropriately as were most all other guests. Capt Juan Caranti gave the usual address to the crowd including the number of nationalities on board, as well as introducing his officers in charge of the various depts. Note the 2nd picture is the hotel director Robert Taggart... from my hometown Vancouver. What a totally interesting guy. If you have the chance to say hello to him this guy is super funny and his life story is awesome. ON one of the mornings CD Steve sat him down in the Centrum for a Q&A period with the crowd and he was super entertaining. I got to introduced myself to him one time walking as his Vancouver brother and he lit right up wanting to chat. Great guy.

 

 

 

 

Tonight's was the first production Show "Piano Man". I had mentioned earlier in this review this cast of singers and dancers was excellent, especially the singers. You'll hear more from them when I review the Mystery Dinner held on night #4.

 

 

 

The "If You Know It, Dance It" game show is always a hoot to attend so we checked that out in the Centrum, this time watching from above rather than my usual participation. By 10pm that was it... Karaoke was empty when we walked into the Colony Club and nothing else at all was scheduled. We headed up to Starquest fully expecting it to busier as it got later... that never materialized and empty dance floor or not we stayed for a couple of hours hanging out with UNV-IT/Sammi and enjoying the evening.

[cruisehabits]

UNV-IT!!!

 

We sailed the Oasis TransAtlantic 2014 from Rotterdam together and spoke several times. We actually live 10-15 minutes from one another.

 

If you get this message.....please email me @ cb35@bellsouthdotnet

 

I'd like to have you work on a few items for me!...... Chris

[JamesEM]

Thanks for the info on Samba's, enjoying your review and photos, looking forward to your reports of the islands. DW have considered taking a cruise to HI but, we are still undecided.

[Hoopster95]

Thanks for the info on Samba's, enjoying your review and photos, looking forward to your reports of the islands. DW have considered taking a cruise to HI but, we are still undecided.

 

Glad you're enjoying the review James. I've found when I've included excursions and tips in ports, the number of CC'ers looking at the review seems to wane... seems we all want to know more about the specifics of the ship more so than the ports of calls. Nonetheless I will review of the ports of calls as well, maybe a little shorter than some of my earlier posts regarding the specifics of the ship and the sailing itself. :)

[tropiclvrs]

I think you'll find quite a lot of people interested in your review on the ports of call since this is not a typical Caribbean itinerary, and isn't reported often. I've been to Hawaii several times but never on a cruise so I'm looking forward to that perspective!!

 

Thanks for taking the time do do this!

Edited October 2, 2015 by tropiclvrs

[Hoopster95]

We woke this morning to again very cloudy skies. The sun was trying to peak out every so often, but truthfully the low cloud cover was everywhere and it seemed Capt. Juan was doing a great job trying to stay out of any rain as rain clouds were all around us during the day... you could actually see the rain coming down in the distance.

 

So what does one do on a cloudy non pool day on a Radiance Call ship? Go to the gym, have a great workout, clean up, go get my daily morning machiatto from the DL, and then head to breakfast at my favorite spot at the aft seating area of the Windjammer

 

 

 

And to mention once again, we were one of only 2 tables eating breakfast back there and this was approx 9:30am... I couldn't believe it. And for those of you in the deck 10 suites below the WJ, I've seen it asked here several times on CC if people at the WJ above can see down into the balcony.... yes, a little bit if they are standing at the railing

 

 

 

 

Finishing breaky, there really wasn't a whole lot scheduled for events until the afternoon, so we wandered the ship a bit a decided to enjoy a game of mini-golf.

 

 

 

The photo below you'll see the aft view from the mini-golf deck 13. Note the empty tables at the Windjammer seating area. You also get here a good look of the aft deck 12 with a few of the loungers facing aft... a very quiet spot I would imagine. I also mentioned the rain clouds above.... note to the left of the picture we avoided and were just passing a real downpour to our starboard side.

 

 

 

Most of the holes on the mini-golf require some hitting balls off of the rocks, etc in order to get them in the right direction. I actually got a hole in one on one of the holes!! But hole #9 I was brutal... ok ok... all the other holes I wasn't so great either lol

 

[Hoopster95]

Heading down and out towards the Centrum area just to check out the crowds and see if there was anything going on at the Centrum or pool, we discovered RCL was serving fresh fruit out on the deck, with of course the requisite talented carvings. In fact, as the weather got better and warmer those last 3 sea days RCL provided a full on BBQ buffet on pool deck for a couple of hours that was really good.

 

 

 

 

 

Not being into doing anything else that was going on at that morning, we decided to get some more exercise by joining some of the many walkers I saw daily up on deck 12. Instead of using the exact route of the jogging track which cuts through underneath the Windjammer at the pool deck, we consistently continued in a counter-clockwise direction aft through the Adventure Ocean area and around the kiddie pool to then re-join the jogging track area.

 

Btw, I was told it's 6.3 laps around the Radiance jogging track for 1 mile.

 

Following my goal to not have my camera in my pocket 24/7 on this specific cruise as I always do, I thought that I really didn't take all that many pics of the deck 12 open areas of the ship on embarkation day on my own personal ship tour and I wanted some more detailed pics, so here they are.... starting at the aft port side of the ship, is at the Adventure Ocean outside deck area just aft of the basketball court with the mini-golf above. An Arcade is just to the right past the loungers. You can follow me here:

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findacruise/ships/ship/decks/deck/home.do?deckCode=12&shipCode=RD&shipProfile=1638&sailDate=1151009&hasNavigation=false

 

 

 

 

And still no one sitting at the outdoor Windjammer eating area, and still those rain clouds ever so close to us.... rain rain go away!!!!

 

[Hoopster95]

Walking around aft to the starboard side of the ship, again you can get a good look of the rather empty aft area with a few loungers... great of you want piece and quiet but not much else

 

 

 

 

Walking forward and turning back around to look aft, here's a shot of these tables & chairs I pointed out yesterday which are just up the stairs from the WJ seating area and just outside of Samba's Grill... almost never used but a superb spot to have Windjammer lunch with awesome views if all of the aft seating is full... or even if not full!

 

 

 

And on this starboard we once again pass by Samba's Grill which I reviewed on night #1 but never did take any pics of the outside signage. That sign outside gives a few specifics I hadn't bothered to read before:

 

"Our slow roasted meats include a selection of our popular favorites:

• Fraldhina - Tender and juicy cut from the bottom of the sirloin
  
• Frango - Tender chicken breast wrapped in bacon
  
• Beef Tenderloin - The most tender cut of beef slowly roasted
  
• Lamba - Parmesan cheese and herb crusted pork loin
  
• Linguica - Brazillian styled cured pork sausage"
  

 

 

[Hoopster95]

During the last couple of sea days (days 5 & 6) I did see the kiddie pool area being used on those hots and sunny days by a few of the 25 kids on board and parents hanging out in the loungers. Not having kids I've never paid much attention to this area whatsoever, but I thought I'd take a few pics for details... and noticed right away something I hadn't realized before in that the first shark there on the left is actually a little kids shower to clean off the salt/chlorine... very cool.

 

 

 

 

The sign on the entrance to the turret/slide says:

"Welcome to Adventure Beach

Waterslide Hours

• Sea Days 11am-3pm (weather permitting)
  
• Port Days 3:30pm-5:30pm (weather permitting)"
  

 

 

 

 

Walking forward from the Adventure Beach area, and just before getting to the pool deck, deck 12 juts out at it's maximum point with a great shot back aft. The stairs to the right also take you up to the rock climbing wall & the Viking Crown Lounge. This is a great view spot for sailaway and late pier runners I would suspect!

 

[Hoopster95]

Continuing our walk past the pool deck starboard we end up at this spot, the SkyBar immediately to our left and the Solarium roof just ahead. Note the narrow the jogging track is with limited space... this became a definite bottle neck for walkers/joggers/looky-loos no matter how careful everyone was. I must commend (like on Legend) I think most all cruisers were cognizant of joggers and truly did their best to step aside and know where they were while enjoying their walk. Only once or twice times did I find myself needing to totally stop/slow down in order to wait for a gap to go through. Kudos to all of you on this sailing and thank you

 

 

 

 

Here we are now as far forward as you can go on deck 12, with entry to the gym just to the left (out of the picture). I had mentioned this earlier, but since my last radiance sailing in 2012 I had forgotten how poor the view is from here.... I'm really really big on site lines and views, and the view from Serenade was so much more superior as the walls/railings were built differently. Here you can see the height of the covered railing by comparing to the RCL worker ahead. On Serenade, basically only the bottom foot or so is covered, with the rest being glass angled upwards and towards you, but with easy views downward to the helipad and beyond even if seated on a lounger or chairs. Here on Radiance you must be standing. BTW the bincolars do work but they're a bit cumbersome.

 

 

 

 

Again to point above I'm basically standing almost right next to the railing and still don't even have a glimpse downward to the helipad. Onwards we went now on the port side and ended up at the SkyBar area. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been told this totem pole has been here since day 1 on Radiance... is that correct??

 

 

 

Here's the explanation of the totem artwork called "The Adventures of Raven". Note the signage on the right explaining RCL's commitment to the environment by "RCL building 8 new ships between 2000 to 2004 featuring gas turbines which reduce emissions"... I had to think about that for a second and then look it up on line... but of course Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. also owns Celebrity, whose 4 Millenium Class ships also have gas turbines like the Radiance Class ships, so there was the answer to my question of the "eight new ships"

 

[Hoopster95]

One place we had not ventured into yet was deck 13 forward.... the so-called "St. Tropez" deck on Voyager & Freedom Class. There's no signage for this area on Radiance, so we just walked on up to check it out. I had never realized it, but look closely under the big ball (radar) and you can see a circular seating area. I could imagine this would be a great place for sailaway.

 

 

 

Also through the glass at this spot is the best place for a bird's eye view into the Solarium

 

 

 

Looking forward, you can see a few loungers and not much of an expansive deck area. Also note very little view here as well looking forward as you get to the bow. Not much up here other than quiet space away from the pool deck.

 

 

 

I walked up here a couple of times while walking along the jogging track below by detouring up the stairs and down the other side just for fun, and only once did I ever see a pair of towels on a lounger, so this area was definitely little used on this sailing.

 

 

[truffles2]

Do you still have to go outside to get to samba Grill? When we were on for Au, they took us thru the kitchen because it was raining???

[Hoopster95]

You can see here the actual view from deck 13... you can barely make out the tip of the bow of the ship on the helipad, so I was somewhat confused as I did not have this issue on Serenade in the Med with any sitelines for photos or video. Obviously both ships in this regard truly are not equal, and perhaps Radiance will have some kind of changes done here during drydock... but who knows??!

 

 

 

And what's a cloudy/non-pool afternoon on any RCL ship without shooting some hoops!!! lol. Someone was playing basketball right before us and right after us, and you can see that there's a few people on the rock wall, so at least the venues were being used by various cruisers through the day. And we also were able to slip in another nice couple of hours at the Solarium/hot-tub later in the afternoon prior to dinner, speaking with many great people along the way.

 

 

 

 

Interesting to note that the Alaskan itinerary map was still on display here just outside the Windjammer just past the elevators, right before heading out the rotating doors to the pool deck (oh btw.... these doors no longer rotate! They're now locked and it's a regular push/pull open door). Finally here on day 3 they updated it with the Vancouver - Hawaii itinerary

 

 

 

 

Tonight was our first MTD experience. We did as the Maitre'D said... come early at 5:30pm and if you don;t mind sitting with others we'll have you seated right away. If you remember early on in this review I mentioned that the Maitre'D told me not to bother booking from 5:30-8pm on any night, fully booked throughout the entire 10 day cruise. I suspect the demographic and early mornings at port made the early seating a massive issue for those looking to dine early if they had not reserved pre-cruise. Anyhow we sat right away and within 10 minutes our table was full. We had great service and the Pimiento menu... Italian. It was very good, not excellent. Nevertheless a really nice meal and I did not leave hungry, that's for sure!

 

Tonight was the first headliner of the cruise, a guy named Peter McMahon ("The Superman of Entertainment"). He's an Aussie who impersonates others (ie. Elvis) sings songs and does a little bit of comedy along the way. The focus was on songs from the 50's and 60's. He must've had 20 cups of coffee before his performance... hyper is an understatement. I did not enjoy the show, however 90% of the rest of the crowd gave a standing ovation so I was definitely in the minority about how I felt about this guy... I just didn't get it.

 

The rest of the evening was relatively quiet. Again there just wasn't a massive amount of things going on other than the normal pianist at the Schooner Bar and Band ion the Centrum. Starquest was totally dead again so it was off to bed relatively early.

 

Btw, for those of you Rosario Strings fans out there... they were on board! Yes, they are very good and nice to listen to. After trivia on night, can't remember which night, we sat chatting and listened to them for a while. They have a fan base as several couples gathered when they started their performance. They moved from Centrum to Schooner bar depending on day and time. They also sell their CD's at each venue. I should've taken a picture for you out there who are fans.

[Hoopster95]

Do you still have to go outside to get to samba Grill? When we were on for Au, they took us thru the kitchen because it was raining???

 

Ah!! .... Good question. I never heard of this. We went in the the front/main entrance where the signage is outside on deck 12. So where did you enter? From the rear of the Windjammer or Rita's somewhere, then up a flight of stairs??

[truffles2]

I think they took us on an employee elevator in the kitchen area. Rather weird.

[Coralc]

Ah!! .... Good question. I never heard of this. We went in the the front/main entrance where the signage is outside on deck 12. So where did you enter? From the rear of the Windjammer or Rita's somewhere, then up a flight of stairs??

 

It is even worse if you have to use the restroom while dining at Samba.....and it's raining. The restrooms are on the other side of Adventure Ocean....through the wind and the rain. :rolleyes::D

[IrishLassie]

Loving your review & pictures. Can't wait for more ! :)

[PhilNDebbieAtSea]

I think they took us on an employee elevator in the kitchen area. Rather weird.

 

 

Very interesting! We were wondering what would happen if it was raining... How did you know or find out that they would take you from an inside route? Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[loupana]

Hoopster95, you are rocking it just as you did with your Quantum review. Loving it...

[Dreamer115]

We did this cruise in 2013 and loved it. In fact we came home and within a month had booked it again for 2014. We did change our mind after a few months and changed it up a bit, we are leaving in 2 weeks for an east coast cruise Quebec to Florida on Serenade. Your comments about better views on the Serenade impress me. I am quite short so that was one of my complaints I could not see without looking through glass in most of the railings on the upper decks. Hard to take decent pics.

We travelled with another couple on our Hawaiian cruise and didn't get to one of the places you mentioned that I would like to see on the Serenade. The rotating bar, where is it and do they have one on the Serenade and is it open to all cruisers or only diamond or whatever and above. WE are only on cruise # 2 so don't have access to all bars.

Looking forward to seeing the rest of your review.

Connie

[truffles2]

Very interesting! We were wondering what would happen if it was raining... How did you know or find out that they would take you from an inside route? Thanks!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Honestly, I don't remember!:o

[emeraldcity]

I think they took us on an employee elevator in the kitchen area. Rather weird.

 

We dined at Samba on a night when it was cool for the walk there, but raining when it was time to leave ... yes, they escorted us out the back way, down an employee elevator (no carpet or marble floor with a sign advertising the day of the week :)) and through a bit of kitchen, then through a doorway back into passenger areas.

[Deatsch]

Looks like the helm to me.

 

If you weren't steering the ship, who was? :mad:

[dreamer976]

Claudio, so excited to see you're doing a review of our sailing!:D Yes, I was one of the few who had the "guts" to approach you with your yellow hat and your wife up at the Sky Bar at sail away. Don't believe we saw each other again until we were in the terminal in Honolulu on "kick you off" day, although I was in/at quite a few of the same places at the same time you were.

 

Loving your review so far and I also disagree about people dropping off when reviewing ports and excursions - THIS IS HAWAII!!!! Who could ever tire of seeing photographs and "talking story" about this amazing place? Not me or anyone I know of.

 

It was also great to see the two of you and the UNV-IT!!! duo hit it off so well; always makes a cruise a little more special when you've met great people.

 

Can't wait for more . . .

 

Ellen

[Beachcruzer]

I think you'll find quite a lot of people interested in your review on the ports of call since this is not a typical Caribbean itinerary, and isn't reported often. I've been to Hawaii several times but never on a cruise so I'm looking forward to that perspective!!

 

Thanks for taking the time do do this!

 

I'm interested in what you've done in the ports of call too, since you always seem to do fun and exciting things. I appreciate your honest opinion on the different shore excursions and make mental notes of things I'd like to try in the future. I've never been to Hawaii so I'm really looking forward to hearing what you and Lisa did and all of the pictures. :D:D:D