A family of 3, including a 9 years old child, spent 11 days on board of Radiance of the Seas: 5 days with stops at various Hawaii islands, the rest at sea cruising back to the mainland (Vancouver). Original itinerary included 6 port-of-call days and 5 days at sea, but after collecting the full payment, RCI suddenly changed itinerary to 5 port days and 6 sea days. They offered no compensation whatsoever, not even a symbolic gesture such as a cabin credit or some perk. It was too late (expensive) to cancel, so there was nothing we can do but to hope they won't cancel another port day.

Usually we like going off the ship to explore ports of call, take an organized excursion or self-guided tour, so the first half of the cruise was very interesting, however after leaving the last port, things quickly became boring, despite the crew doing their best to keep passengers entertained. Most of the shows were unimpressive, some hardly suitable for kids. The kids program lacked any entertainment, so our child never wanted to go back after spending only a few hours there. The 'cinema' room was super small (considering the number of passengers on the ship). On-board TV had only a handful of channels, most showing content that looked a decade old or more. Internet was super expensive ($10/hour or $25/day) and offered connection speed that was slower than dial-up modems in early 90s. Out of 3 pools on the ship, only one was covered, but for some reason it was for adult-only. The rest were in open areas and of no use since air temperature quickly dropped soon after we headed north.

Food on-board was generally good and there was plenty of it, though salads, desserts and especially fish were clearly not chief cook's top recipes. All public/common areas on the ship were very clean and well maintained. Read more