My husband and I cruised to the western caribbean on December 11, 2010. This was a 5 day cruise out of Tampa. Our cruise experience has been with Royal Caribbean (6), Celebrity (2), Norwegian (1), and Carnival (1).

The Radiance of the Seas is a beautiful ship with a lot of glass. This is a Royal Caribbean mid size ship, but and it seemed crowded. There were a lot of children on this cruise and a lot of people using the handicap scooters that drive around (I don't know the proper name for them). Maybe that's why it seemed more crowded than I have experienced in the past. I should also note that the weather was windy and cool, so the majority of people were inside for this cruise. The weather was much cooler than when we have sailed at the end of January in the past. If you like hot weather and tanning, I would not recommend a December cruise. Skip to "comments" section at the end of this review to find out if we would sail on this ship again.

Pre-night in Tampa: I cannot rave enough about the Hilton Garden Inn-Ybor. It is clean, comfortable, and very close to the port. They have a free shuttle to take you there. The cost for a taxi from the airport to the hotel was $25. I highly recommend this hotel. While in Tampa, we ate lunch at the Columbia Restaurant. It was a great experience. Read more