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Review of Radiance of the Seas 10/09
We boarded the ship around noon at San Diego and the process was crowded but not disorganized. We took our roller bags to the stevedore who had his back turned to the passengers so we along with others placed our things in the cart and departed without a tip. We had lunch in the Windjammer and then walked off the ship to enjoy San Diego a bit more. We decided to take the ferry to Coronado Island which departs from a dock a few hundred feet from the cruise ship terminal. We returned in time for the lifeboat drill which was handled differently than on other cruise ships. Life jackets were not required and passengers ignored requests to stop drinking and talking on cell phones. Radiance just didn’t seem to be taking the drill seriously at least at our life boat station number 9. Eventually, an elderly lady with a cane yelled at everyone to “Be quiet!”.
We had been assigned the late seating for dinner but for Eastern Time zone people that just doesn’t work so we reported to the “My Time” dinner area where we were informed that this option had to be selected at the time of booking and was now filled. I appealed this decision up three levels without success so we left furious to eat in the Windjammer. Our absolutely top pleasure on cruises is to eat dinner in a main dining room. Also, we were shocked at the inflexibility of this very misnamed “My time” dining option. The following morning I started up the chain of command where I had left off and again got nowhere. If the ship’s first stop would have been a US port I would have packed up and left although my dear wife would have probably talked me out of it.
Later that morning we were asked by our room steward if everything was all right. I vented for a while about dinner and he volunteered to “reach out” to a friend to get things changed and thank goodness he managed to accomplish it. As a rule of thumb we always just “throw out” the first day of a cruise because of fatigue and confusion but the first day on this cruise was terrible.
The cabin was inside and typical in size and layout for cruise ships. The bed’s pillows were very old and worn, the type you would send off to summer camp with the kids. The room steward provided us with two additional and by stacking them we could sleep well enough. The bathroom had a fairly strong smell of sewage so I used two face towels to block the shower drain and the drain beneath the toilet brush and that reduced the stench. Our deck four cabin was directly beneath the shops and the noise of steps and moving furniture was annoying but ceased by 11 PM so sleeping was not greatly affected.
Cabo San Lucas was extremely wet with flooded streets. Our glass bottomed boat trip, which we negotiated independently, had to return to the dock because of inclement weather and rough seas. We were given a full refund something that would have been unlikely on an excursion booked through the ship. Radiance conducted numerous, fun activities, typical of RCCL and we enjoyed them. This is a strength on RCCL cruises.
Radiance is introducing a new disembarkation procedure. They no longer announce colors for leaving the ship. All passengers are assigned a venue in which to wait on the final morning, like the restaurant, Schooners etc., and when that group is supposed to leave only that room receives the announcement. There is NO expedited departure and all “main” luggage must be placed in the hall the night before; the cruise director said that San Diego customs required this. We had our doubts and kept out two rollers with us in the cabin. On the last morning we were walking with our rollers to our meeting room when we crossed a line of people leaving so we just joined in and walked off. Customs was a breeze and no passports were even requested.
As a last thought, we will continue to take RCCL when we see a good price but in the future we will nail down the dining options before giving them any money.
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