Great weekend getaway

Item: Carnival Radiance
Rating: 3.4
Author: dodhee

Carnival Radiance Cruise Review

dodhee

Contributor Level: Second Mate

156 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Reviews: 6

Helpful Votes: 146

Overall rating:

3.4 out of 5

3 Night Baja Mexico (Los Angeles Roundtrip)

Sail date: May 13, 2022

Ship: Carnival Radiance

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 5316

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 2 years ago

Review summary

It was a great belated Mother’s Day weekend for me because my 2 adult kids went with us with their partners. It was my son’s second cruise but he had more fun with this one, he’s planning to go again with his friends for his birthday in August.

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Our check-in time was 10-1030.. got there at 1130. There was about a 40 minute wait/line for the sail and sign card pictures. The documents check and the X-ray check was quick and easy. We had to walk up the loooooong ramp bec for some reason the escalator was not being used.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

My son loved Shaq’s… the buffet variety and tastes in this sailing, I found great, better than the MDR, in my opinion. I have always loved the food in the MDR, but on this cruise, I did not care for it at all, even the favorites like the chocolate melting cake, it didn’t taste the same at all.

Onboard Activities

4 out of 5

We loved the deck parties hosted by Deon, the CD

Entertainment

4 out of 5

The carnival radiance rock group was good, and also the acoustic singer at the lobby. The shows, we didn’t like at all. We miss the Vegas style production shows they used to have.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Presly, our steward was very attentive and nice. Michael John, who helped us during the muster was very nice too. How I wished we got his table at the MDR since he mentioned he will be serving there in the evening. The MDR crew (Yuri) was just ok on the first night, but made up for it the 2nd night.. they were more attentive and nice. Yuri even called us by name. The sea brunch crew that we had was not good at all. We do understand they are short-staffed but we saw other tables who got there after we did being helped and acknowledged, but we had to wait a long time before they came to us and take our order. They keep walking by us, looking at us but not coming to us. There’s one who came by asking if we want to order their special fresh juices (3x) but the servers took 30 mins to come. When he finally came, I said with a smile, oh yayyy, finally we get to order…. And then he said “ well, we’re short staffed, this is not McDonald’s…. I just didn’t wanna ruin my day and my vacation to start something with him. I tried to understand it but writing this review now, I think he should not have said anything like that, considering that he was the one late and we didn’t even complained, we waited patiently. The assistant server’s name I think is Melvin, who came by 3x asking if we want to order specialty juices. I forgot the name of the lead waiter. (I tend to just remember the names of people who were great)

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Coming from Panorama in January, I liked that the ship is smaller. I liked that I didn’t have to walk too far from the Aft cabins to the front of the ship. It was a quick walk. I liked that they kept the glass elevators in the lobby. (I missed it at the Panorama) We had a hard time finding the limelight lounge. It took me and my husband several walking back and forth from the casino to the aft elevator to deck 4 and then go back up again. You have to take the Mid elevator to deck 4… and then I guess they have to put more signs bec we had to ask an employee who patiently took us herself.

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Cabin was spacious enough for the 2 of us