Back from the Radiance of the Seas

CRUZINQUEEN

Massage Therapist
Back from the Radiance of the Seas 10/9-10/14 out of San Diego with stops in Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada 5-daycruise. Loved this ship, would sail her again in a minute, and have been checking her sister ships for an upcoming cruise. Radiance is beautiful, the staff is wonderful, we had the pleasure of having a Dance School on board, so every night in the Centrum area we had our own Dancing with the Stars, they love to dance, and loved to teach others, what a treat !

I have sailed the last three cruises with my Mother, and got spoiled with her handicapped room ! She had the nerve to say she was claustrophobic in our balcony stateroom ! I have created another Queen... LOL. We sailed with Mom's sister and her daughter. Mother and Daughter cruise, the Aunts had the handicapped room this time.

Loved the Solarium on this ship with its African theme, great lounge chairs. They freely gave away towels at the pools, but they also did not police the chairs, bad news. My Cousin is a Coffee-aholic and loved the Lattitudes coffee offerings. I had a 75 minute Stone Massage, loved it, but very expensive, the spas have toned down their sales pitches, good news. Tried the My Time dining, but ended up eating just the four of us each meal, and at the same time with the same waiter, so no plus on My Time. We ate the last night at Chops, great meal, and since we did the Auto-Tip with My Time, no pressure to dine the last night.

Unfortunately Cabo was a bust, it rained almost the whole day. I love San Jose del Cabo anyway, so we just had a lunch, and back on board for the Solarium.

Ensenada was a nice surprise, our wine tour was cancelled because the highway was torn up. But the shopping was nice, a light lunch, and a horse drawn carraige back to the ship pier. The pier is very long and most told us to walk to the pier, but as we were travelling with two women in their 80's, ambulatory, but not up to a brisk mile walk. I had to wrangle a bus ride off the pier, and beg a bus to carry us back. Just a little inconvenience though.

Overall, another great cruise, we were planning the next one on board !
 

PH8

Staff Captain
Tried the My Time dining, but ended up eating just the four of us each meal, and at the same time with the same waiter, so no plus on My Time.



!
Im confused..you didnt like MTD cuz you sat with the 4 of you and had the same waiter??:shrug:

I love the solariums too on the RD class ships............very pretty..........
 

CRUZINQUEEN

Massage Therapist
Sorry about that, I didn't explain myself very well. I am a fan of conventional dining, I like meeting new people and having the benefit of having the same servers each night. They get to know your likes and dislikes. It seems to me that the benfits of My Time are eating when you want rather than a fixed time, and eating at different tables each night. Since we ate with just the four of us each night, we didn't get to know others at dinner. This was ok on this cruise because we had a group of us sailing together. We found a waiter we all really liked, and requested him each night. The My Time Maitre'De asked us when we wanted to eat each night, the night before....no spontenaity there. Now I realize it was because we wanted the same waiter. His tables were ALL regulars BTW. So I didn't get the benefits of My Time, because we basically ate at the late seating each night. My perception is we didn't really use My Time because of OUR choice, so I don't feel I can comment on it, from this trip. My travelling companions wanted My Time dining, and I was happy to try it. But I am planning on late seating with a large table on my upcoming cruise on Celebrity. Although many couples requested tables for two on our cruise, I would like to meet others, and hope we can find someone to join us for dinner at the specialty restaurant also. I enjoy going out with my husband at home alone and with others. But on the cruise I hope to meet new people.

So I don't have an opinion any further on My Time dining based on this cruise.
 

verosnowbird

Quartermaster (Helmsman) - QM
We too are fans of traditional dining, and we're sure that it was not going to work well on RCI, having experienced it on Princess (didn't like it) and on NCL (really didn't like it), but we were pleasantly surprised on how well it works on RCI. I think it mostly depends upon if you are travelling with a small/large group or just by yourself.

We did it on NV in March....two couples....loved it, had the same waiter, changed dining times to corresponded with planned activities. Didn't have to make a reservation in advance.

Did it on JW in September...two couples. same as above. Some night had a reservation, some nights no reservation, no wait. Ate usually around 8.

Did it on EN in September....4 girlfriends.....loved it, had the same waiter for two nights, changed times, no problems, no reservations.

JW in two days.....dining with 6 others....too much trouble to coordinate dining times so we'll stick with traditional.

If it's just DH and I, we like to meet and talk with other couples, so we would opt for traditional. We are empty nesters, so we eat dinner by ourselves all the time, so we really don't want a table for two (too much like home, LOL).

I do think RCI has worked out a lot of the issues other lines have. We hve had to get a beeper on Princess and have waited a bit on NCL.....not really long, but the dining tables next to us were always being set up or broken down, and I felt the dining room on NCL was chaotic....not a very pleasurable experience.

Rita
 

Libby

Bosun (Boatswain)
Back from the Radiance of the Seas 10/9-10/14 out of San Diego with stops in Cabo San Lucas and Ensenada 5-daycruise. Loved this ship, would sail her again in a minute, and have been checking her sister ships for an upcoming cruise. Radiance is beautiful, the staff is wonderful, we had the pleasure of having a Dance School on board, so every night in the Centrum area we had our own Dancing with the Stars, they love to dance, and loved to teach others, what a treat !

I have sailed the last three cruises with my Mother, and got spoiled with her handicapped room ! She had the nerve to say she was claustrophobic in our balcony stateroom ! I have created another Queen... LOL. We sailed with Mom's sister and her daughter. Mother and Daughter cruise, the Aunts had the handicapped room this time.

Loved the Solarium on this ship with its African theme, great lounge chairs. They freely gave away towels at the pools, but they also did not police the chairs, bad news. My Cousin is a Coffee-aholic and loved the Lattitudes coffee offerings. I had a 75 minute Stone Massage, loved it, but very expensive, the spas have toned down their sales pitches, good news. Tried the My Time dining, but ended up eating just the four of us each meal, and at the same time with the same waiter, so no plus on My Time. We ate the last night at Chops, great meal, and since we did the Auto-Tip with My Time, no pressure to dine the last night.

Unfortunately Cabo was a bust, it rained almost the whole day. I love San Jose del Cabo anyway, so we just had a lunch, and back on board for the Solarium.

Ensenada was a nice surprise, our wine tour was cancelled because the highway was torn up. But the shopping was nice, a light lunch, and a horse drawn carraige back to the ship pier. The pier is very long and most told us to walk to the pier, but as we were travelling with two women in their 80's, ambulatory, but not up to a brisk mile walk. I had to wrangle a bus ride off the pier, and beg a bus to carry us back. Just a little inconvenience though.

Overall, another great cruise, we were planning the next one on board !
Thanks for sharing. We'll be on the RD for her 10 night Mex. Riviera sailing on Dec. 11 and are really looking forward to it. We were on the RD for two weeks summer and fell in love with the ship and the staff. Can't wait to see some of our friends.
 

CRUZINQUEEN

Massage Therapist
Enjoy Libby, I fell in love with this ship too ! When I came home I went right to the RCI website to see where her sister ships were, was I ever shocked to see the Brilliance in Dubai !
 

CRUZINQUEEN

Massage Therapist
Radiance or Brilliance ??
 

CRUZINQUEEN

Massage Therapist
Thanks, I would go on her again in a second.
 
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