Radiant New Zealand

[GUT2407]

Radiance of the Seas Jan 7 to 18. 

 

Sydney,

Cruising 

Milford Sound (Cruising) | Doubtful Sound | Dusky Sound | 

Dunedin, 

Akaroa, 

Cruising 

Auckland, 

Bay of Islands,

Cruising 

Sydney, 

 

This is our first Royal Caribbean cruise. One thing I found I don’t like about RCCL before we even left was the constant changing of pricing on things like drink packages, wi fi and specialty dining. Now when I book a cruise, I book at a price I can live with but then watch prices closely for fare drops until it gets to the date I can’t take advantage of any drops, but add in needing to check these additional prices was a pain. Just a soft drink package for me, coffee card for her and the basic internet one device because I had a few work issues I needed to monitor fairly closely while away, something I try to avoid but this time was simply unavoidable.

[GUT2407]

The cruise that nearly wasn’t.

 

We had booked to do a cruise on Solstice the week after this (Queensland Costal), when I received a very good offer on this one, lower price, better, in our opinion, itinerary for the time of year, perhaps most importantly, Solstice would have used a week of long service leave, this one didn’t, so we asked if we could change and to our delight there was no trouble.

 

It was the closest we had ever had two cruises, having returned from Tasmania on Majestic Princess on 15 December.

 

Unfortunately I did not pull up well after Majestic, I spent most of the cruise in agony. I, and my doctors, put it down to the slight movement causing my vertebrae to rub against each other and put pressure on my spinal nerves. For those who don’t know my spine is pretty much totally shot, among other things 90% of my discs are badly reduced in height and at least six levels are basically non existent. Toss into the mix a few tumours and fractures and back pain is a constant companion, then in the lead up to the cruise we had all the bushfire smoke, causing constant sneezing and coughing, for those not in the know coughing and sneezing are deadly enemies to the spine, one of my specialist had told me that about 70% of operations he performs are triggered by sneezes. For me Sneezes trigger what basically amounts to a mini stroke, due to the tumours and instability in the neck vertebrae a sneeze can cause the artery in the neck to be punched cutting blood flow to the brain, with the main impact being on my speech (and/or excruciating pain). On top of all that I had a couple of falls in the days prior to our departure.

 

Add in that on the Majestic cruise I managed to break a switch on my newest wheelchair and this cruise came very close to being a no go. We had booked a standard balcony cabin, the new chair being fine to get in and store in a standard cabin. The back up is not so friendly to standard cabins. Meaning that I would need to transfer from chair to sticks at the door and Mrs Gut would need to man handle the wheelchair through the door. Hey I am fortunate that I still have the mobility to do so.

 

Plus the chair that is out of action was very tender friendly, the fall back chair less so, this cruise having two tender ports, being naturally the two I am probably keenest to visit, Akaroa which we have missed due to weather previously, and Bay of Islands.

 

I rang Royal Caribbean a few times to try and transfer to an accessible cabin, without success, but with the suggestion that I visit the pursers desk as soon as we board to ask if there happened to be a no show for an accessible cabin if we could be moved.

 

So why didn’t we cancel? A few reasons I guess. One it was paid for and unlikely that the insurance would refund, two we were hoping that getting away from the smoke would reduce the sneezing and coughing, three even if I spent the whole cruise in bed with my dear wife fetching food and drink it would be better to do it on a ship then at home, plus it would be food she hadn’t prepared and cleaned up after, and she certainly deserves a break.

 

Then on the morning of the cruise the back up chair decided to play up.

[possum52]

Not a good start to your cruise Mr GUT. Are you still able to go with your chair playing up? I hope so. 

Leigh

[GUT2407]

On board now thanks Leigh, nearly said bugger it let’s just stay home, turns out the wires to the charging extension pulled out once I unplugged the extension it is working fine, the only issue is Mrs Gut will have to manually lift it in and out of the cabin. 
 

I have been promised that should an accessible cabin be a “no show” they will give us the opportunity to change cabins.

[cheznandy]

Have a great cruise Gut, hope an accessible becomes available for you.

Enjoy the Radiance,  it's a lovely designed ship. We liked sitting out on the rear deck of the buffet area.

 

[OzKiwiJJ]

Have a great cruise, Gut. I hope it's more comfortable for you than the last one.

Edited January 7, 2020 by OzKiwiJJ

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Have a great cruise. 
 

 

 

[gbenjo]

Great to catch up with you and  Karen, your lovely, long suffering wife for lunch on board today.Have a great cruise, see you at debarked.

( And you did not have to put up with me checking you in 😱😂)

Edited January 7, 2020 by gbenjo

[erewhon]

Hope our NZ weather improves for your cruise. and that the smoke does not follow you across the Tasman, as it is due here again this weekend.

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, gbenjo said:

Great to catch up with you and  Karen, your lovely, long suffering wife for lunch on board today.Have a great cruise, see you at debarked.

( And you did not have to put up with me checking you in 😱😂)

Thanks mate, see you in 11 days.

[GUT2407]

First opinions....

 

The ship is a little wheelchair unfriendly, lots of twists and turns and steps in unexpected locations.

 

The lifts, though plentiful are small, first ship I have ever been in where turning a wheelchair around is impossible.

 

The staff on the other hand are wonderful constantly wanting to carry things for me.

[GUT2407]

7 January

 

We normally head to Sydney the day prior to our cruise, but this time there were problems with doing so, mainly due to us having done a car swap with our daughter leaving us, for now, with a car that really wouldn’t hold a wheelchair and our luggage, plus the fact that had to work on the 6th. So an early start, it is less than a three hour trip, but I wanted as much margin for safety as possible.

 

Boarding went smoothly, there has to be some benefit of being in a wheelchair, one of them is boarding, you really are zipped right through, I guess they don’t want the staff assisting tied up any longer than necessary. Though Royal were happy for me to just drive myself on, some other lines insist on accompanying you.

 

Lunch in the Windjammer where we ran into a friend and shared a table with him over lunch.

 

We have a bit of a ritual, once on board explore the public areas to get our bearings top to bottom, (this was way easier when I could manage stairs and didn’t need to wait for lift space. And then dinner on deck, tonight opting for a burger from the buffet out on the back deck, absolutely wonderful even if a bit Smokey still

[GUT2407]

4 hours ago, cheznandy said:

Have a great cruise Gut, hope an accessible becomes available for you.

Enjoy the Radiance,  it's a lovely designed ship. We liked sitting out on the rear deck of the buffet area.

 

I think it will become “our spot”.

[GUT2407]

We have a couple of cruises booked on Serenade of the seas, where we have an accessible cabin, so being the same layout went to check them out, now they have automatic doors that are nice and wide, but open off narrow corridors. So it’s one up one down, funnily enough we found one cabin where entry would be a straight shot but it was a standard cabin with a narrow doorway.

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, gbenjo said:

Great to catch up with you and  Karen, your lovely, long suffering wife for lunch on board today.Have a great cruise, see you at debarked.

( And you did not have to put up with me checking you in 😱😂)

I had just said to Kerin, well we were lucky today, I had forgotten that your mob check wheelchairs in downstairs and then take them straight on, and her face fell and she said “no such luck look what’s coming”😱😛

[GUT2407]

Clocks forward one hour tonight.

[gbenjo]

14 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

I had just said to Kerin, well we were lucky today, I had forgotten that your mob check wheelchairs in downstairs and then take them straight on, and her face fell and she said “no such luck look what’s coming”😱😛

I suspect that might have been your comment.. not Kerin’s 😁😁 ( apology for the typo before when I called her Karen 😱)

[GUT2407]

6 minutes ago, gbenjo said:

I suspect that might have been your comment.. not Kerin’s 😁😁 ( apology for the typo before when I called her Karen 😱)

Then as we set sail she said, poor Christine if we sail at 4:00 Graham will be home for dinner.

 

And she has been called a lot worse than Karen.

[MicCanberra]

2 hours ago, gbenjo said:

Great to catch up with you and  Karen, your lovely, long suffering wife for lunch on board today.Have a great cruise, see you at debarked.

( And you did not have to put up with me checking you in 😱😂)

LOl, he would have enjoyed the special treatment.

[MicCanberra]

Bon Voyage GUT

[GUT2407]

No luck getting an accessible cabin, but was impressed asked when we first boarded, a few hours later Mrs Gut went down to ask about her coffee card and someone called out, oh that’s the lady was hoping for an accessible no show, can you check for her.

[MicCanberra]

10 minutes ago, GUT2407 said:

No luck getting an accessible cabin, but was impressed asked when we first boarded, a few hours later Mrs Gut went down to ask about her coffee card and someone called out, oh that’s the lady was hoping for an accessible no show, can you check for her.

Good work even if you didn't get the cabin.

[gbenjo]

16 hours ago, MicCanberra said:

LOl, he would have enjoyed the special treatment.

No ..not like the "old"days  He actually got no special treatment...unless of course you include the outright privilege of having lunch with me onboard......which goes without saying .🤣🤣

[cheznandy]

Gut, I know you prefer balconies, but if you get stuck again again and can't get an accessible cabin, have a look a 3639 and 3635.

Deck 3 insides, only 2 of them. they are sideways and large. Standard bathroom and door, but loads of room inside for a chair.

Same cabins on Serenade.

 

 

Edited January 8, 2020 by cheznandy

[GUT2407]

1 hour ago, cheznandy said:

Gut, I know you prefer balconies, but if you get stuck again again and can't get an accessible cabin, have a look a 3639 and 3635.

Deck 3 insides, only 2 of them. they are sideways and large. Standard bathroom and door, but loads of room inside for a chair.

Same cabins on Serenade.

 

 

Thanks for that it’s the door width that is the problem, plenty of room to store the chair, just getting it in the cabin, the door probably needs all of 2 inches.