Radiance of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We had a wonderful time on our Alaska Cruise!  The Ship's Crew kept us entertained with many options and the scenery was breathtaking!  Hubbard Glacier was a sight to behold and we were so fortunate to get close to witness the ice calving.  The Food, the room, the atmosphere, was top notch!  

I was disappointed by so many things on this ship! The shows were less than desirable and it wasn't kid friendly, unless of course you wanted to send them to the 'daycare' of the ship.

I'd rate the cruise alone, excellent.  We had a great time, but the customer service we received prior to the cruise was horrible.  Just knew our experience on board would be a nightmare because of what happened before we even boarded, but glad to say, that wasn't the case.  Cheap Cruises did what they could to fix what happened, but Royal Caribbean was useless.  Will be a long time, if ever, before we cruise with them again.  Cheap Cruises already has a lengthy report from what happened so no need to do so again here, but I did appreciate the assistance from Amber and a couple of the other agents.   

We completely enjoyed our cruise.  The ports were fantastic and the crew went out of their way to help us with anything we needed.  I do not eat meat, dairy or eggs and the chefs were always making me something special to eat to help with my dietary needs.  Thank you for a wonderful cruise!

This is was an awesome cruise.  The scenery is absolute beautiful.  The ship was in way better shape than last year.  They made great improvements.  Our cabin Steward was the best we have ever had.  This was our favorite cruise.  Our Assistant Waiter Avinash was the best we have ever had.  Our 4x4 excursion in Sitka was terrific.  This was one of the best run excursions we have been on.  They were so nice and the snacks were homemade.  Ketchikan and Juneau have a lot of stores to shop in.  

We had the best servers!!! The entire crew was awesome. Great food in dining room. Hawaii was beautiful loved every port. Only wish it was warmer during sea days to Vancouver but it was to be expected. Would do this again in a heartbeat!

Cabin was very comfortable and the staff, particularly the bar staff were fantastic. The shows were somewhat ordinary and the casino was lousy (to us). We enjoyed all the islands, however Kuai and Maui were our favorites. Beware of your possessions as we had our camera stolen on board. Lovely eating area on Deck 11 at the rear of Windjammer restaurant. The Giovanni restaurant serves great food. The disembarkation at Vancouver was the best one ever, speedy and smooth.

The ship itself and the cruise was good. The trip from Hawaii to Vancouver was cold and rough, it was like being in north Atlantic and not the Pacific. Embarkation in Hawaii and debarkation in Vancouver was the worst I've been in. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing.

We had never travelled with Royal Caribbean before.  We enjoyed our cruise but think radiance of the seas was very dated and needed a refurb.   We also found it had no self service laundry , over our holiday we spent over $100 Aust on laundry service.  Some entertainment was fabulous and some extremely average !  I think I definitely would recommend p and o but not sure about radiance of the seas 

First time on Radiance and with Royal Carribean, older ship and some strange smells around the ship. Crew were fantastic and overall it was a great experience. Food in Cascades dining room was pretty hit and miss. We were on deck 3, very loud banging at night during rough seas, I would recommend being higher up in the ship.

Loved the ship, the staff, the food, the entertainment, the drink, the kids club, the rooms and everything in between. As a first time cruiser this trip has defiantly set the bar for fantastic holidays and all I want to do is cruise everywhere now!

Beautiful Ship but would prefer Carnival Spirit over it for future cruises, Spirits main areas were a lot cleaner than Radiance.

Food

Radiance Dining - Windjammer 5*s - Dining Room 3*s didn't like the Menus

Spirit Dining - Lido 4*s - Dining Room 5*s great Menu every night, 24hr Ice cream & Pizza

Entertainment

Radiance - 3*s - Like the Orchestra but not a fan of the shows

Spirit - 5*s - Playlist Productions are fantastic

Cabin

Radiance - Interior 3*s - Great size, uncomfortable beds & pillows, Small bathroom, nicer colour scheme than Spirit and loved the curtain to close off sleeping area

Spirit - Interior 3.5* - Great size, bigger bathroom than Radiance possibly due to the large lounge in Radiance where Spirit only had a chair. Beds and pillows more comfortable

Cruise Director & Entertainment Staff

Radiance - 3*s - Think his name was Steve (forgettable), Entertainment Staff, only liked a couple and where was Bingo? Never heard an announcement!

Spirit - 5*s - Eli - Best Cruise Director ever and entertainment staff from Jess, Baby Jane and Mason are all fantastic, BINGO was the best with Jess!

Adult Area

Radiance - A hot solarium that smelt of chlorine, never saw the bar open and kids freely walked through

Spirit - SERENITY Deck - PERFECT!! Pool, spa, pods, hammocks, bar always staffed, live music at times and no kids. I have no problem with kids on cruises, i take my own but sometimes you need to just chill and relax.

Access

Radiance - Well my calves got a workout using stairs as the lifts were hopeless. There's 6 i think near Centrum and some forward but that's it

Spirit - Glass elevators in Atrium and elevators at either end

Salon

Radiance - Great staff and service

Spirit - Not used it as yet.

Tour of Ship

Radiance - All Access - Missed some due to timing, no photos at all with Captain who wasn't there at the time

Spirit - Behind The Fun - FANTASTIC tour and a must do. Price included photos with Captain on the Bridge with you/family and the whole group, also had photos with Head Chef in Galley, food samples and champagne in Steakhouse.

This is based on my personal experience, remember everyone's experience is different, happy cruising.

Amount of time at sea and on land.

Beds need to be softer.

Kettle in rooms.

Hold breath walking in part of corridor deck 9.

Had great weather so able to use pool, whirlpool, sightsee.

Enjoyed my trip.

The cruise was great. The problem I have with Royal Carribean is that during the entire cruise someone is trying to sell you something, spa services, beverage and resturant packages.  It got very old after the first few days. 

We were first time cruisers and only did the back to back because of the itinerary. Back to back was Australia top end & New Zealand, was sick and tired of constant up selling, the put the drinks prices up mid cruise by around 12% probably due to the bars being almost empty after 10.30pm. Took ages to get onboard & kicked off at 8.15am. Excursions were vastly overpriced. Food in the windjammer wasn't bad but main dining room was basically the same food with a different name, the waiters constantly hassled you to leave good survey results as it would cost them money in their salaries. Cabin boy challenged us as to why we had opted out of automatic gratuities as they had given him a list of "offending cabins" as apparently they work for an agency that only pays them a pittance & RCI seem to think that on top of the £000's you pay them for your holiday you have to also pay their staff! Ship was ok but could do with a tidy up. Cabins ok, shower not bad. Tendering to ages to get onshore if you had not booked a trip with them. Would we cruise again- maybe, would we go with RCI- definately not!

entertainment in theater- great juggler/comedian, energetic and talented singers/dancers in a surfeit of polyester and bad wigs.

older ship, some strange odors, but crew worked  hard to please.food through very good but missed the salmon at brekkie.c

can the art that's be any worse??

Just finished a great 8 day cruise of Southern Australia. All went well except final day disembarking from the middle of Sydney Harbour due to Ovation of the Seas commandeering our dock. The 3 stars are not for that, just think that the ship is looking tired & could do with a spruce up internally.

Just putting it out there not a whinge the food the crew the entertainment was on par for fun and enjoyment. But how ever there is a smell on the ship that is bad really really bad that was the only put off for myself

Royal Caribbean is far too focused on your hip pocket and taking you for every dollar they can get. So save yourself a lot of frustration, and go with someone else.

I took my family on the Radiance of the Seas with Royal Caribbean for a 14 night trip from Sydney around New Zealand and back again. Stopping in about 8 ports and doing day trips in each port. I have previously taken my family on other cruises, such as Carnival Spirit, and while the ships are near identical in size and similar in structure this is where the similarities end. To be fair for those who have never sailed before the Radiance has had a recent refurbishment in mid 2016 and is of a reasonable fitout standard, so for first timers don’t despair, but do hang onto your wallets!

Yes the biggest difference between Royal Caribbean and Carnival is attention to detail, particularly the part where they try and fleece you for every dollar you have. From the minute you step aboard, to the minute you walk off 14 nights later the staff are at you constantly to pay more. This philosophy is ingrained into everything they do, from the ship layouts, to the port destinations, and the day trips.

To start with the Radiance is nearly identical in size and shape to the Carnival Spirit, expect on the Radiance they pack in an extra 400 passengers. These passengers have to go somewhere, and that’s probably an extra 120 rooms, with only about 6 floors of cabins that’s about 20 more rooms per floor. So consequently your rooms end up about 50% smaller to accommodate the extra guests. Yep smaller room, smaller balcony, smaller bathroom and so on.

The refit in 2016 has taken the Radiance up to a reasonable standard in look and feel. Not as nice as the Carnival, but acceptable. However in the refit they added a host of speciality dining rooms. This effectively is a “pay to eat” scenario, where in turn they have removed additional “free” dining experiences. The net result of this is almost all of the dining options are extra. Also that then effectively locks this area of the ship off to those who do not wish to pay. This was certainly not the case in Carnival where only one or two speciality dining rooms existed. To add to this they also have the unusual habit of closing the bistro early and forcing people who (for example) want something outside of hours (say an evening coffee) to go and pay for it in the “specialty café”.

Then there is the crew, who have been instructed at every turn to push sales. Sales of shore trips, sales of internal trips, sales of drink offers, sales of everything you care to name. It gets to the point where you dread seeing a crew member because you just know they are going to push something on you.

After this you have them cutting corners on shore trips and docking. Instead of going into the main port of the city, in most cases Royal Caribbean opted to stay outside of town in a commercial dock and then charge you a bus fair ($15 USD per person) to get into town. Or the other fun one was charging me $160 USD for a trip to the Cadbury Factory (fun trip) but was advertised on the door at only $40 USD ($55 NZD). Yep a whopping four times the price! When I complained I was told it was not their problem and I should call their help line if I had an issue. I complained again, and again, and was eventually offer a 20% rebate on the price. Now I fully expected they to make a profit on the day trips, that is their business. But they are booking 100s of these trips, and the door price (even have a pic of it) is $55 NZD (about $40 USD) for the family and I was charged $160 USD. On top of that they didn’t even book the tickets for my $160 USD, they just dumped us at the door and told us to sort it out ourselves. Had to wait over an hour because they didn’t book the tickets.

Regrettably the Cadbury Tour was not a unique experience. The bus trip to Christchurch (this time stopped 2 hours outside of town) was a rough as guts bus ride into Christchurch, where you got 30 minutes for essentially a toilet break before turning you around and racing back to the ship. So much for Christchurch, all I have is pictures of the toilet…

With their attention to fleecing you of your money, their small rooms, and poor ship layout I would strongly suggest you book with someone else. New Zealand is lovely, the people are great, and the place is so much fun to see, such a pity we went with Royal Caribbean.

Oh as for those “Specialty Dining” options, we did try one, it was very disappointing, a specialty steak place and I have had better steaks from Aldi, this was full of fat and sinew, very disappointing.

When we boarded the ship, we had a bit of a problem when we boarded but they helped us out and we got on. Overall it was pleasant experience. Our rooms were always clean and the food and hospitality was very good to. It was a good for a first cruise and no mistakes were made.