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Radiance RT Hawaii Review ~ 9/23/06

Bennett'sCruise

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Bennett'sCruise

Bennett'sCruise

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The Happy CocoNUTS have returned!

 

Bill and I stayed in San Pedro the night before sailing at the Doubletree. We were able to stay the night and park our car for 14 days for only $150. Very kewl. We took their free shuttle over to the port the next morning.

 

The Pre-Cruise Dinner at the Whale & Ale in San Pedro could not have gone better. The manager was a delight to work with and we all enjoyed ourselves. I recommend this place highly!

 

Embarkation was a breeze! Bill and I arrived at 10:30 a.m. and were standing in line about 5 minutes before they opened the doors. We checked in about 11 and got right on the ship. The Windjammer didn't open until noon (I think ... maybe it was 11:30) so we found some other NUTS and did a little exploring.

 

It was neat to run into Kieron right away. He is one AWESOME Cruise Director!

 

We had 80 nuts on our M&M list ... and nearly all of them showed up at the event on the first day out. The Gift Exchange went really well ... although with that many folks, we felt a little rushed. The staff gave us some extra time in the Odyssey to finish up. Kieron made an appearance and gave away a RCI mouse ... congrats, Ray!

 

We played Trash on 11 (and unfortunately some other pax close by got a little perturbed that we were having so much fun:o ) ... that game is a blast! We met up there after morning Trivia and played until lunch time every single sea day (of which there were 9!!)

 

The second day out we had our Stateroom Crawl. Some 45 of us "crawled" thru several categories of staterooms. Thanks, everyone, for opening your rooms up for us! It was incredible to see how organized Vikki Garcia was with her family of 4 in an Inside on Deck 4. We ended up in Dave & Daryl's Grand Suite on 10 with some refreshments. It was all very nice ...

 

We were able to arrange a dinner at Chops for our group. They closed on Tuesday night just for us. How incredible is that!! 47 of us ate off a limited (but VERY GOOD) menu. It was so much fun ...

 

The CocoNUTS were a real force in just about every contest and event on the 14-day cruise. Some NUTS decided to just lay low and enjoy the quiet peace of sailing across the teal blue Pacific. Others got involved in just about everything. What's so great about cruising is that either way, it's a successful vacation.

 

Bill and I loved our stateroom (after 6 moves pre-cruise!:rolleyes: ) We were in a D1 ... 9590. It's central to everything! We felt very well taken care of by our stateroom attendant, Ita.

 

We enjoyed the main seating with a table on Deck 4 ... right next to the Captain's table. Of course, the one night that he ate there, Bill and I were at the Mystery Dinner in Portofinos. Whether it was in the Dining Room, the Windjammer, The Seaview Cafe, Room Service, or one of the snack bars, we found the food to be excellent.

 

The shows were also very good. Unfortunately we missed the best one (according to everyone else) ... and that was Piano Man. It was neat having Hawaiian entertainment on board all the way to Hawaii.

 

The crew all wore Hawaiian shirts on the way over and while cruising around the islands. It wasn't until we headed home that they donned their regular cruise uniforms. Loved the relaxed atmosphere.

 

Captain Rune Lockling. What can we say. Oh my. Never have we seen a captain like this. Herdy Gerdy. He was extremely visible around the ship. He loved to get involved in things the pax were doing ... and he was always a big hit. Heard rumors about a pair of black Speedos being hoisted from Hawaii back to California. I didn't get up to 12 to confirm this ... but got it from very reliable sources. Seems the Captain was having a little fun. HA! The cake decorating competition between the Captain, the head bakery chef, and the asst. hotel director was a riot. A lot of frosting and cherries being thrown around. This one time it was not good to have a front row seat!

 

The Cruise Director, Kieron Buffery, is our favorite. We know him from NCL ... their loss is definitely RCI's gain! AND, he had his first ever (on RCI) late-night sing-along in the Schooner Bar. The place was absolutely PACKED!! Kieron ROCKS! I just hope he continues doing this event ... it was a super-big hit! He has such a great voice ... KEEP SINGING, KIERON!

 

Kieron is assembling a good CD staff of young, energetic kids. They are excited about what they do and do it very well. They took lots of teasing from certain NUTS! ( Are you awake yet, DANIEL? Morning Trivia was a little hard on him. It's only because we liked you so much!)

 

Bill was "chosen" to perform in the Elvis competition. He's promised me this is the LAST ONE he'll do. Yeah, right ... I've heard that before. Anyway, after some very fierce competition, he won the contest ... AGAIN! I'm pretty sure all the NUTS in the audience had something to do with that ....

 

We found the ship to be clean and well run. Seems someone was always cleaning somewhere. The sanitation stations were up and then they were down and then they were up again. We heard "rumors" about norovirus striking some pax and crew ... but no one we knew. Our opinion is that those little hand sanitizers need to be left up all the time.

 

The one suggestion we had ... have a channel on the stateroom TV's set up to broadcast the Bridge (and other) announcements during the day. That way we won't have to scramble to open our door just to hear what's going on. We've seen this done on other cruiselines and really enjoy the convenience. Another thing we'd like is to be able to know what the sea conditions are ... the wave height, etc. This is missing from the Capt's Log channel.

 

Disembarkation was a nightmare. Seems the Customs officials took their time getting on board and then took their time setting up. Unfortunately, the cruiseline usually gets blamed for this. We understand it's not their fault and tried to calm people down around us. Some folks were just determined to leave in a bad mood. Whatever. I felt sorry for the crew whose job it was to answer questions that morning. We were back to our car and on our way north on the 405 by 9:00 a.m. That was good enough for us.

 

While waiting to disembark. We heard folks behind us complaining about absolutely everything from Day 1 to Day 14. Bill and I wondered what cruise/ship they had been on for 14 days ... because our experience was just the opposite from theirs from beginning to end.

 

One thing I've failed to report on was Quest. That's intentional. Oh my. What a riot.

 

For those looking forward to sailing on the Radiance in the near future ... you're in for a treat. We sail on her again in June and we can't wait!!

 

~Dianne

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IMNiles

IMNiles

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Thanks for the great review! I was on the repo cruise immediately prior to yours (from Vancouver) and REALLY wanted to stay on the ship for the Hawaii loop (alas, life intrudes). We had a different CD (Pierce), but I agree that Captain Lokling was great! He genuinely seemed to be having a good time, and that just rubbed off on everyone else.

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akh40

akh40

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What were the port cities in Hawaii like? Alas, I've never been there...did you spend much time off the ship, on the Hawaii beaches? Or shopping? Did you have any rough weather? I think I would be a little timid about being in the 'open sea' so much...although I would love the 'at sea' days! Thanks for such a great review!

 

Amanda:)

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Bennett'sCruise

Bennett'sCruise

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What were the port cities in Hawaii like? Alas, I've never been there...did you spend much time off the ship, on the Hawaii beaches? Or shopping? Did you have any rough weather? I think I would be a little timid about being in the 'open sea' so much...although I would love the 'at sea' days! Thanks for such a great review!

 

Amanda:)

 

Our itinerary was:

Honolulu - overnight, 2 full days there. We got off the ship and did the Arizona Memorial, Mighty Mo, Bowfin, a lunch cultural cruise, and the Duck. The ship docks at the Aloha Tower and there is a shopping center right there ... great shops and restaurants.

Lahaina, Maui - 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. We went to Kaanapali Beach. Bill snorkeled and I rented a cabana and read. Very kewl. had lunch in a place right on the beach, shopped at the Whaler's Village then taxied back to Lahaina. Shopped a little more and went back to the ship. That evening we did the Old Lahaina Luau. Very KEWL!

Kona, Big Island - 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Bill played golf, I shopped and shopped some more.

We did not book any excursions thru the cruise lines.

Weather was great. The first 2 days out from LA we cold and foggy ... we expected that as we are from California. Had no rain in Hawaii. However, if it does ever rain, everyone just keeps going ... it stops and drys quickly. No probs.

The biggest seas we got into were about 12-15'. (our estimate). We've been in 25' seas and didn't have a problem with those ... so 12-15' was nothing for us. We saw several folks with the wrist bands and patches on. DH gets motion sick riding in a car on flat land ... but does very well on the ocean. We absolutely LOVED the open water ...

 

~d

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glennjudy1

glennjudy1

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We are taking this same cruise next year and are so looking forward to it. We do have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Were there many children on board? Does the dinner menu vary all 14 days or does it repeat? Did you happen to notice if they ran a lot of spa specials, especially during the sail back to LA? Thanks.

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Bennett'sCruise

Bennett'sCruise

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Sorry to jump in Dianne...There were 60 kids between 3-17 on board. Two were mine and they had a great time in the teen program. Any questions feel free to ask.

 

Good to see you over here, VIKKI!!:D Jump in any time ... please!!

Dinner menu was different each of the 14 nights. Yummy!

I'm pretty sure there were spa specials ... I don't pay much attention to that but I'm sure there were ... can't tell you what they were, tho. I'll look at my Compass' and let you know what I find.

TRASH ON 11: Trash is a card game that is completely addictive! We met up on Deck 11 (between Windjammer and the pool) each morning and played for a couple of hours.

~d

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CL-JW

CL-JW

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Hey CocoNUTS!

 

We finally have our pics on-line.

 

I'll be sending an e-mail to all of the NUTS with direct links. The ones with People are by invitation only - they have to be accessed via the e-mail. The others are public.

 

Links to the public albums are below too:

 

Interiors: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554712295WwWKkf

Exteriors: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554711399CuFMaG

Ports: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554710256sCeifX

 

Rob, you will be receiving these via e-mail as well so you can link to the website (once you are up and about).

 

We still haven't decided if we're going to write a review. We usually do, but we're dog-tired right now!

 

C.

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Bennett'sCruise

Bennett'sCruise

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Hey CocoNUTS!

 

We finally have our pics on-line.

 

I'll be sending an e-mail to all of the NUTS with direct links. The ones with People are by invitation only - they have to be accessed via the e-mail. The others are public.

 

Links to the public albums are below too:

 

Interiors: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554712295WwWKkf

Exteriors: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554711399CuFMaG

Ports: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554710256sCeifX

 

Rob, you will be receiving these via e-mail as well so you can link to the website (once you are up and about).

 

We still haven't decided if we're going to write a review. We usually do, but we're dog-tired right now!

 

C.

 

GREAT PIX,



CRAIG & JACK!!

:D Amaaaazing:D

It was fun to relive everything

thru the lens of your camera!

Wish mine turned out so good ...

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wjterry

wjterry

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We are taking this same cruise next year and are so looking forward to it. We do have a couple of questions if you don't mind. Were there many children on board? Does the dinner menu vary all 14 days or does it repeat? Did you happen to notice if they ran a lot of spa specials, especially during the sail back to LA? Thanks.

 

Let me say YES there were a lot of kids on board. We were so fortunate to have 2 two year old twin boys in the cabin next to us. It was the only complaint I had with the whole cruise. The parents never did try to control them.

 

It was a fantastic cruise except for the KIDS.

 

Judy

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jnnifer01

jnnifer01

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Great review, Dianne. Shaun & I had a wonderful time and we loved meeting all of you great Coconuts. We both love the Captain. He's a riot! :D

 

Wjterry- I know exactly who you're speaking of. We saw the couple with the twin boys a lot around the ship and they didn't have much control of them at all, other than a leash on each. Sorry your cabin was next door to them:(

 

We had a fantastic time and can't wait to do it again. I hope to sail with all of you again in the future.

Keep in touch Coconuts :)

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Cruise Gopher

Cruise Gopher

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Spa specials were sparse.

 

I took advantage of a port day special of a pick n' mix special. I got a 25 min hot stone massage and a 25 min sweedish massage combo for $109

 

They had other things in the pick n' mix special such as foot massage, hand and neck massage, mini booster facial, sun salt glow.

 

On the last sea day they had a morning announcement where they said the first 16 people to call the spa and yell "Yaba Daba Doo" would get a buy one get one free on any treatment, so that was a good deal, too bad I had already done a facial and a massage previously in the cruise. They were not getting any more of my money.

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celle

celle

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Hey' date=' Caryl! Good to see you here!!:D [/font']

 

~dianne

 

Hi Dianne,

 

I check anything that has "Radiance" in the thread title. Have previously cruised on Brilliance, and loved it.

 

See you next year!

 

Caryl

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skiiergirl

skiiergirl

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Good to see you over here' date=' [b']VIKKI!![/b]:D Jump in any time ... please!!

Dinner menu was different each of the 14 nights. Yummy!

I'm pretty sure there were spa specials ... I don't pay much attention to that but I'm sure there were ... can't tell you what they were, tho. I'll look at my Compass' and let you know what I find.

TRASH ON 11: Trash is a card game that is completely addictive! We met up on Deck 11 (between Windjammer and the pool) each morning and played for a couple of hours.

~d

 

 

Great review Dianne! I bet Chatti Patti, Chris and Martha were ring leaders in your trash group. Glad you had a great time! Hope Patti & Jim are having a grand time on their continuation! Thanks for sharing!

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