We sailed from Vancouver, BC to Hawaii with 5 days at sea before reaching Hawaii. We had a pre-cruise stay at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. Our pre-cruise stay was booked through our on-line TA with Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean had reserved a City View. We upgraded ourselves to a Harbor View. We stay in room 1012. Two big picture windows. Absolutely beautiful. We could see the Radiance head on from our window. The hotel is steps away from the pier. We took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Taxi's are plentiful at the airport, about $26 Canadian, which we paid by credit card. My husband tipped him US money.
Embarkation Day We had to have our luggage ready to be picked by the Bellhop at about 9am. We were checked in for the ship at the hotel by RCCL representative. Hotel checkout is at 12 noon. I would recommend, to do your ship check-in, get breakfast and then check out of the hotel. We waited in the hotel lobby until 11:30am. We walked across the street to the pier to board the ship as a group, lead by a RCCL representatives. We were in our cabin about 12:30-12:45pm. Our luggage arrived about a hour to hour and a half later. We had cabin 7600, E3 deck 7 starboard mid-ship. We could see straight down into the water from our balcony. The balcony had 2 chairs with a table. The cabin was comfortable for 2 people only.
Sea Days Time to get to explore the ship and the spa. I visited the casino and left the casino unhappy :-( I didn't win a thing. My husband played bingo. We ate at Portofino's for our 20th wedding anniversary. The food, service and atmosphere was wonderful. 5 coarse meal beautifully presented. We ate in the dinning room only once and that was embarkation day. We were supposed to have a table for 2, but we had a table for 4. We really enjoyed our tablemates but preferred the variety of food at the Windjammer buffet. The food we had in the dinning room was presented well and tasty. The food in the Windjammer was also tasty. We played pool on the self leveling pool table. It was cool shooting pool while the ship was rocking and the balls staying in place. My husband enjoyed spin class, which by the way is extra, I believe it cost $10 a class. I loved my seaweed wrap and massage. My husband now knows what the fuss is about having a pedicure and manicure. He had a hand and foot/leg massage with his manicure and pedicure and he loved it ! The entertainment on the ship was OK to good.