We sailed on the Radiance of the Seas, leaving Fort Lauderdale on Sun., 1/11/2004, for a 7-day cruise of the Western Caribbean. (This was only our 2nd cruise, our first being on RCI's Nordic Empress.)

We were amazed at the easy embarkation. We arrived at Port Everglades around 11:30 a.m. and walked right onto the ship (after, of course, the attendant document inspection, etc., which took a matter of minutes, at most). There was no wait at all! We were allowed to go straight to our stateroom, which is where I shall begin my review/critique: STATEROOM: We had staterooms, 3626 & 3628, as we were traveling with our two sons, ages 17 and 22. We were very impressed with the layout and economical use of space. We had done our homework & followed all the practical suggestions on CruiseCritic, etc., and adhered closely to the Calgon Packing List. (We even included not one, but two, hanging shoe pouches in our luggage to maximize our storage potential! We never even had to open those packages - maybe I'll offer them up on eBay. There was plenty of room for everything - and I didn't pack light!)

The stateroom was beautiful - great color scheme, comfortable bed, and seven days of great views! STATEROOM SERVICE: I have high praises for our cabin attendant, Fanny. True to RCCI standards, our stateroom was always clean and tidy, no matter when we returned. But, Fanny went above and beyond. One day our boys returned to their cabin to find a strange gorilla-like creature making himself comfortable on their stateroom sofa! My son had purchased a silly coconut/gorilla face in Key West, which Fanny noticed laying around and created a body for it out of their discarded clothes and a pair of flip-flops, and there he sat waiting to greet them after their shore excursion! And, she always had a smile - and not just the requisite Royal Caribbean "We're-here-to-make-you-happy" type smile, but a very genuine, caring smile. Read more