www.cruisetalk.net 



Join our email lists to discuss your favorite cruises!

Home

Price A Cruise

Chat

Cruise Specials

FAQ

 

Features

General Cruise Talk

Alaska Cruise Talk

Disney Cruise Talk

Tim's Cruise Reviews

Member Trip Reports

 

Clint's Radiance of the Seas Western Caribbean Cruise - Nov 2004

We were on the Radiance of the Seas for the western Caribbean cruise
on November 28/04. This was our second cruise with Royal Caribbean
with our first last year on the larger Adventure of the Seas. After
one cruise with RCI, I expected roughly the same standards with the
Radiance and in general, I wasn't disappointed.

Staterooms:

Our stateroom was an inside aft cabin and we were not disappointed.
It was roomy enough and the lighting was adequate. Closet space and
drawers were also sufficient for our use. We noticed that the
double beds here were actually a bit better than the one we had on
the Adventure since we couldn't really feel the split between the
two separate beds like we did last time. If there's one thing that
can be improved is the shower curtain. The one installed was not
adequate in keeping in all the water from the shower. The shower on
the Adventure utilized a double glass door system which was far
superior. Otherwise, the cabin was nice and dark for sleeping at
night. Although we heard a little noise from the cabins next to us,
it was minimal. We didn't miss having any window or balcony at all
since we were hardly ever in our stateroom. We were either at port
or elsewhere on the ship and went back to our cabins just to relax
or sleep. We would definitely book an inside cabin again with RCI
unless we had a free upgrade.

Dining:

The main Cascades dining room was nice and meals were good.
Breakfasts had the same menu every morning. Lunch at the dining
room was okay. The dinners were good but not every meal item was a
winner. There was the odd appetizer and dessert that was not up to
par. One thing that my partner noticed was that the portions of the
main courses seemed to be smaller than those served on the
Adventure. We usually went upstairs to the Windjammer to get more
food after dining at the Cascades. In some parts of the Cascades
room, the tables were placed too cramp so walking to out own table
was tricky at times. The self serve Windjammer was good. It usually
had more variety of food than served downstairs at the Cascades.
Breakfast and lunch were busy at the Windjammer but during evenings,
most people chose to dine at the Cascades. The two other optional
restaurants onboard Portafino and Choppe House were available at $20
US per person but we never tried them since the meals already
included at the Cascades and Windjammer were fine by us. Other
passengers who did go to these optional rooms told us that they were
nothing special. There was another cafe available during late
evenings called the Seaview and they provided fare such as
sandwiches, salads and burgers. This was a nice feature. One thing
we did object to was that they charged for the coffee and tea
there. There was also a specialty coffee place on the main centrum
of the ship and they also charged. We had more availability of free
beverages on the Adventure.

Service:

The service by the stateroom attendants and dining room staff was
top notch as expected.

Entertainment:

The evening shows at the Aurora Theatre were a mix of the ship's own
crew of dancers and singers plus some outside comics and singers.
In general, the shows were quite good. We would have liked them to
mix up the entertainment each night rather than allocate music,
comedy and magic into different evenings. Rather than an entire
show of magic, we would have preferred each night featuring a
variety of entertainment. Live music around the ship was a nice
added touch.

Amenities:

Although smaller than the Adventure, the Radiance had fine amenities
including the gym/spa, mini golf, pools and the shops. There was
internet access but at 50 cents per minute, the service is a bit
steep. There were things to do during the days at sea such as art
auctions, cooking demos and dance classes. However, we felt that
there was more offered on the Adventure. As for embarking and
disembarking, there was no problem on the Radiance. The 6th level
contained the casino and for non-smokers, this was a problem. The
ventilation in the casino was not great and as a result, cigarette
smoke travelled to adjacent areas near the casino. My partner
wanted to avoid going on the 6th level whenever possible.

Ports:

Labadee, Hispaniola

The first port for our Royal Caribbean cruise of the western
Caribbean was Labadee, Hispaniola which is actually a part of
Haiti. This specific port is leased out to Royal Caribbean so only
their cruiseships come here. Labadee is actually a peninsula with a
few beaches. Getting to land from the cruiseship is by tender.

There is a small section for kids with floating fake icebergs to
climb and water slides but they charge an admission fee. Flotation
mattresses are also available for rent for those who just want to
float in the ocean. There are also locals who help with getting
beach chairs for you but they expect tips. So things here are a
money grabber. The cruiseship did have optional tours for
snorkelling, parasailing, waverunner and kayaking tours but we
thought that they were overpriced. Most passengers just spent the
day relaxing around the beaches. The area around Labadee was
pleasant enough but the beaches and shores themselves were fairly
rocky so wearing sandals in the water would be advised. Royal
Caribbean had organized a beach BBQ at an outdoor picnic facility
which was okay but nothing special. There is a market there
consisting of two buildings. One is a store where the souveniers
and items have marked prices and the other building is like your
typical market where locals try to hustle you for business. The
locals inside the market were aggressive but polite. If you don't
mind haggling, you could get some pretty good deals but if you
dislike this type of pushy atmosphere, then you best avoid the
market except for the fixed price store.

One big difference between this port compared to others is that
since it is pretty well being used as a private beach, you will not
be hassled by locals. The vendors coming around with drinks at the
beach locations are actually Royal Caribbean staff so if one wishes
to buy a drink, the cruiseship passcard is all that is required. As
for concerns about being in Haiti given the poverty and political
situation, Labadee was not a problem because the entire site is
enclosed by a high steel fence. Other passengers later told us that
they wandered off near the perimeter of the site and saw many
Haitians along the fence begging for handouts and food. The fencing
was mostly concealed in the distance from the main tourist areas.

We found Labadee in general to be a bit of a waste of time for us.
The beaches were too rocky and we didn't have access to inexpensive
activities since everything was run by Royal Caribbean. If one
wanted to just go lie on the beach all day and not much else, then
Labadee would be a suitable place. For those who want to experience
some culture, do water sports without going through the cruiseship,
or shop duty free, Labadee would not be the place to go. We decided
to stay on board the ship after the BBQ lunch for the rest of the
afternoon.

I like Royal Caribbean and would definitely cruise with them again
but would not want to go on an itinerary that included Labadee in
the future.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

One of the ports of call for our Royal Caribbean cruiseship during
the week of November 28/04 was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Probably the
most famous site in the region is Dunn's River Falls and we chose to
tour it on our own rather than through one of the cruiseship tours.
Once we disembarked from the cruiseship, there were cabs and
shuttlebuses available at the pier. Cabs to Dunn's River Falls were
$22 US for a return trip. Cabs allowed 1-3 people per vehicle. We
were also told at the pier that small shuttlebuses also go to the
Falls at $5.50 US per person. These were also based on return
trips. The only problem with shuttlebuses was that we had to wait
until they filled up the shuttle before leaving for the Falls so
since we were the first on the bus, we had to wait about 15 minutes
for it to fill up. The driver then asks you when you want to be
picked up at the Falls for the return trip. Our driver suggested 2
hours to see the Falls so we agreed on this time duration.

Once at the Falls, a woman then came onboard the shuttle to sell
tickets for admission to the site at $10 US per adult person which
was the same rate at the park's ticket booth. Once inside the
Dunn's facility, there were rentals for special rubber shoes as well
as lockers. We carried a small backpack so we didn't require paying
for a locker. We also brought along our scuba diving booties so we
didn't have to rent those rubber shoes on site either. The
cruiseship shop was also selling these rubber shoes in advance.
Shoes of some type are highly recommended as the rocks on the Falls
can be slippery and some of the bottoms of the water pools are a bit
rocky. If you have old sneakers you don't mind getting wet, they
will be suitable for the climb up the falls as well. Our scuba
diving booties turned out to be sufficient. The entrance to the site
is at the top of the falls so we took some stairs that were adjacent
to the falls to the bottom where the beach and entrance to the climb
were.

There are official guides dressed in blue polo shirts and shorts who
will take groups up the falls. Normally, they will ask to carry all
cameras for you so they can take photos of you as you climb. Of
course, they expect to be well tipped for their services. Also,
groups were told to hold hands forming a human chain up the falls.
This was suppose to make things safer but as we witnessed, this
method of going up the falls is not a guarantee against falling. We
saw a woman let go and she fell down the rocks during one of the
steeper sections. She wasn't badly hurt but we imagined that she
sustained some nice bruises. There are various points along the
falls where you could get off the falls and back on the stairs to
walk up the rest of the way. Not everyone there attempted to climb
the falls as many were happy to just walk dry along the side on the
stairs. We chose not to go with any of the groups which tend to go
up the left side of the falls. We made our way up on our own mostly
on the right side. With some breaks for photos, we made it all the
way up the falls in about 30 minutes. Going with a group would have
taken longer for sure. The water is a bit cool and if you have a
wetsuit, it is highly suggested that you wear it for the climb.
Cameras used there up the falls are also recommended to be water
resistant since they likely will get wet. We left our digital
camera on the ship and took one of those $25 underwater cameras.

After climbing the falls, we headed back down to the relatively
small but uncrowded beach where the ocean water was warmer until it
was time to depart. The exit back at the top of the falls was
strategically located at the end of a market so we did have to go
through some locals who tried to sell us their souveniers. These
locals who worked inside the Dunn's site were hustling but not as
aggressively as those in the town of Ocho Rios. The shuttlebus
arrived at the site parking lot on time as agreed. The total amount
we spent including the park admission and the shuttle was $31 US for
the two of us. Taking an organized tour through the cruiseship
would have cost more than double this amount. So it is quite
possible to tour Dunn's River Falls on your own rather than take the
more expensive tours. We were glad that we did see Dunn's River
Falls but we thought that it was not nearly as impressive as
depicted on photos in travel brochures.

The official website for Dunn's River Falls is
http://www.dunnsriverja.com

Grand Caymen

One of the ports visited on our recent Royal Caribbean cruise was
Grand Cayman. This was an eagerly awaited port since I've been
there before but wanted to take my girlfriend scuba diving there.
We were worried that we might miss this port since the Caymans were
hit pretty hard by the hurricanes and indeed, they had closed the
islands off to tourist travel for part of the summer/fall.
Fortunately for us, Grand Cayman had reopened just about two weeks
prior to our cruise at the end of November.

Getting to Grand Cayman is by tender since it had a shallow
harbour. This can be a potential problem in itself because we were
told that if the wind and waves are too rough, the captain would
cancel the port and spend the rest of the day at sea. Apparently in
the past, one of the tender boat workers had fallen and got crushed
to death between the boat and the dock during one of the rougher
wave days. This resulted in the cruiseships being much more careful
in deciding whether to allow tendering or not given the conditions.
Again, fortunately for us, the weather was picture perfect during
the day we were in Grand Cayman last week.

The downtown area pretty well recovered from the effects of the
hurricanes and the shopping was business as usual. There were four
ships at port during the day we were at port. Grand Cayman is above
average in terms of cleaniness and the attitude of the locals for a
Caribbean island. It is also one of the pricier island though.
Bargains can still be found though, especially in the liquor where
there are examples of certain liquors being even less expensive in
Grand Cayman than even Cozumel. For example, Malibu rum was $10 US
in Grand Cayman, $13 in Cozumel and about $19 back in the Miami home
port. Everything else like restaurants and activities were
generally more expensive than other islands.

According to other passengers who ventured to other parts of the
island, the damage from the hurricanes was more visible with fallen
trees and some buildings still not repaired yet. A few of the
organized tours by the cruiseship were also not available. We
decided in advance to do some scuba diving off the shore and Eden
Rocks Scuba Center was a 5 minute walk from the port. There are two
decent shore dives right in front of their dive shop and we spend
the morning diving the site called Devil's Grotto. Instead of
paying $85 US for a typical Cayman boat dive trip, I ended up paying
just $8 US for a rental for a tank.

I didn't go to other parts of the island during this trip but have
been to the turtle farm, Hell village and Stingray City before.
They are all worthwhile sites to visit. I wanted to take my
girlfriend scuba diving at Stingray City in the afternoon but for
some reason, only the snorkelling sections of Stingray City were
available that day. So after returning to the cruiseship for lunch,
we went back ashore to do some shopping. We would like to come back
to Grand Cayman again for a longer stay in the future.

Most of Grand Cayman appears to be back in business
again after the hurricanes. It is one of the nicer but pricier
ports to visit in the Caribbean.

Summary

In summary, we enjoyed our cruise on the Radiance of the Seas.
However, comparing it to the larger Adventure of the Seas, we would
rate the larger ship a bit higher. We liked the huge promenade on
the Adventure which was not available on a smaller ship like the
Radiance. Given a choice in the future, we would opt for the larger
ship. For first time cruisers, the Radiance would still be a good
ship to vacation on. This is simply the case of where veteran
cruisers would expect more especially if they have been on higher
end ships.

Clint
 

 

More on this cruise

Sue's Pictures


  Dinner Menus

 

Copyright 2004 www.cruisetalk.net