Last week, two days after Qantas decided to ground their airline, I flew to Perth (on Virgin). to join Radiance of the Seas for a 7 night cruise to Melbourne. Due to airline arrival time and oppressive heat in Perth I decided to go straight to the ship arriving at peak embarkation time, 1pm. What a nightmare. The majority of passengers were 65 yrs plus and the queue of people was as long as I have EVER seen a queue. The 1950/60's vintage terminal had no air-conditioning (that I detected) but had wobbly ceiling fans that only seemed to benefit those standing right underneath them. RCCL Terminal staff (locals)at the ground floor were all very friendly and informative and luggage was whipped away without any fuss but the line of people standing there waiting to board upstairs and going absolutely no where was incredible. No reasons were given for the delay despite the long and uncomfortable wait. Some old people were very affected. It was unclear if it was a cruise terminal, customs and immigration or RCCL problem. Finally the line started to move at a snails pace and some 2 hours later I was finally on board. This needs some serious attention.
My cabin was delightful. Smaller than Rhapsody balcony cabins I have enjoyed in the past but newer and very very smart. My luggage was there fairly quickly, no wonder after such an appalling delay on the pier.
Then I found out that due to the Qantas debacle we were going to stay in Perth overnight waiting for 200 plus passengers that had been unable to get to the ship in time for the scheduled departure. Not from the ship staff but from other passengers. An announcement was made sometime later by the Captain. Nice for those passengers but at the expence of one of the ports of call, Esperance. Pity.
Cabin 1520 on Radiance is a balcony cabin (with an interconnecting cabin door)on Deck 10. Some noise does come thru the interconnecting door. Late night horizontal folk dancing, excited conversation and a TV a little too loud can be a bother.
Plenty of hanging space, cupboards, drawers etc. NO tea or coffee maker in this cabin but a fully stocked mini bar. Duvets can be too hot so I asked for a blanket instead. Balcony was (is always) wonderful.
Very little hallway noise was noticed.