LIVE from Radiance Apr. 21, 2023 - The Panama Canal - Canal au Niveau de la Mer

[little britain]

44 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Ask them if you have a chance, if you can reserve the times and restaurant  you want for your BOGO coupons before you board at home? Then once you are on the ship if you can then use your coupons the 1st two nights in the time slots you booked at home and if they can refund the $$$ your original booking was and then just use the coupons to pay the 1st two nights.

 

Can you still use your coupons like that.........Years ago we always did it like that so we could get the times and restaurant you want. So  no need to rush to the restaurant to try to get the times we want.

I pre- bought 2x dinners - one each, for days 1&2.
Went to Giovannis on boarding and she kept one for day 2 and moved another to day 8.  I don’t see how you could reserve a time without booking ( and paying).

[little britain]

@twangster are you going to give any clues as to what you look like lol 🤔

[twangster]

1 hour ago, njkruzer said:

Hi.  We're on the eb transit in October and the 8nt coastal cruise from Vancouver first.  My app fir the 1st cruise says Diamond lounge is on Deck 4.  When you click on show on Deck plans it takes you to deck 4 cabins.  When we were on Jewel TA in April,  with lots of D, D+, and Pinns on board, we used D lounge on Deck 13 and extended into Viking Crown lounge.   Could you check on where they have D lounge on your cruise?  The app says Deck 13, which seems right but you never know.  Thanks. 

 

The Diamond lounge overflow is the VCL like Jewel. 

[Jimbo]

18 minutes ago, little britain said:

I pre- bought 2x dinners - one each, for days 1&2.
Went to Giovannis on boarding and she kept one for day 2 and moved another to day 8.  I don’t see how you could reserve a time without booking ( and paying).

I did pay for the 1st two nights, when booking at home...........I'm asking will they refund that money back to me and so I can then use the BOGO coupons in those 2 slots? Will Royal do that for us onboard?

Edited April 21, 2023 by Jimbo

[njkruzer]

Just now, twangster said:

 

The Diamond lounge overflow is the VCL like Jewel. 

Thanks.

[Jimbo]

2 minutes ago, little britain said:

@twangster are you going to give any clues as to what you look like lol 🤔

He will be very easy to find, he will always have a camera in his hands............

[twangster]

3 minutes ago, little britain said:

@twangster are you going to give any clues as to what you look like lol 🤔

 

I'm the guy at the bar.  

[little britain]

Just now, Jimbo said:

He will be very easy to find, he will always have a camera in his hands............

He’s beaten me to every photo so far!!!!

[Jimbo]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

He’s beaten me to every photo so far!!!!

You have to keep up !    lol

[Tree_skier]

2 hours ago, twangster said:

Dinner in Samba tonight

 

 

 

 

I love Picanha... I was at Texas de Brazil on Monday night. 🙂 

 

Enjoy!

[SteelCityCruiser10]

49 day until we board Radiance in Seward!  Liking the pics so far!

[twangster]

Our progress...

 

 

[twangster]

Great chat with the bar staff in the Colony Club.  We are in good hands. 

[SteelCityCruiser10]

17 minutes ago, twangster said:

Great chat with the bar staff in the Colony Club.  We are in good hands. 

always a good sign for a good cruise 🍻 

[twangster]

On the way to dinner

 

 

Sunset soon.

 

[HicksRA]

1 hour ago, Jimbo said:

I did pay for the 1st two nights, when booking at home...........I'm asking will they refund that money back to me and so I can then use the BOGO coupons in those 2 slots? Will Royal do that for us onboard?

Yes. I do this all the time. They will charge the onboard price for the BOGO and just refund your previous purchase in obc. 

[twangster]

Samba Grill had three guests tonight, and I was one of them. 

 

 

Great views!

 

 

Meat.  

 

 

And a sunset. 

 

The other couple finished 30 minutes ago.  Weird having the whole restaurant to myself.  

 

[little britain]

Colony Club (whole area closed off for Pinnacles) at 7pm. 

[little britain]

2 hours ago, Jimbo said:

I did pay for the 1st two nights, when booking at home...........I'm asking will they refund that money back to me and so I can then use the BOGO coupons in those 2 slots? Will Royal do that for us onboard?

Then just turn up and say 2 are dining?  Why do you want refunding so you can 

pay a more expensive on board price ? 

Edited April 22, 2023 by little britain

[Cherful59]

1 hour ago, twangster said:

Samba Grill had three guests tonight, and I was one of them. 

 

 

Great views!

 

 

Meat.  

 

 

And a sunset. 

 

The other couple finished 30 minutes ago.  Weird having the whole restaurant to myself.  

 

You would think this restaurant would get more business, but it didn’t have a lot of people when I ate at it either.

[little britain]

Milestone block received and happy to see it’s the old style! 
 

 

[Another_Critic]

1 minute ago, little britain said:

Milestone block received and happy to see it’s the old style! 
 

 

I got a Radiance block on my fall Voyager transatlantic.  😄  The only time I sailed Radiance was March 2001.

[twangster]

After dinner I walked around attempting to walk off the Samba effect.  

 

 

 

The helipad was open and with only my phone with me and no tripod there wasn't a lot I could capture.  There was a light sea mist in the air and the horizon was still of light pollution from Texas so it wasn't great conditions for astrophotography but it was a nice evening otherwise and there was a sky full of stars above the ship.

 

 

 

At one point a guest with a strong LED flashlight appeared and started shining their light all over.  This had to irritate the bridge who need to keep their night vision intact, especially in the northern Gulf with lots of small boat traffic.   

 

I'm hoping they don't close the helipad at night as a result.  It's the darkest part of the ship 🙂 

 

 

 

I'll hop to try again with my good camera and a tripod.

[twangster]

I was getting pretty tired and despite intention to check out the theater I went to my cabin and was just going to close my eyes for a few seconds and...

 

Something about waking up several times with the thunderstorms last night and I was done.  

[twangster]

Day Two - Sea Day

 

Up early having crashed early, we find ourselves well into the Gulf.

 

 

A lot has been said with people having issues connecting or staying connected to Voom.  It's become enough of a problem that they now have a video that cycles in between the Wash Your Hands jingle and other such videos on the ship TV channel.  It goes into length about how to disable these features that Apple and Google have added to their OS.

 

 

 

The CD also mentioned it during his welcome aboard video.  

 

Starlink speeds have been a little variable this morning at an early hour when few reasonable people should be up.

 

 

 

I'm in my cabin I had the door closed.  Let's take a look at the wifi on Radiance.

 

20 MHz channels so we won't ever get fantastic connection rates.

 

I am connected to the ship's access point with a 6 Mbps down and 39 Mbps "physical" connection.  That's not so great.  

 

 

Let's try the shoe in the door trick. 

 

Cabin doors are all metal and if you wanted to block wifi signals the best way to do that would be to place a piece steel between you and the access point.  A piece of steel like a cabin door.  By propping the door open a little, some signal is allowed to leak into the cabin.

 

 

With my door propped open I am now getting a PHY rate of 52 Mbps down and 117 Mbps up. For a 20 Mhz channel that isn't terrible in the real world.  

 

 

Despite this boost in wifi strength, Starlink is still be throttled by the ship. So it doesn't do a lot except make for a more stable user experience.  My pictures for example are uploading a bit faster.