Royal Caribbean's
Radiance of the Seas
December 18 - 24, 2005
Cruise Review
by
Cindy Neil
Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2005 20:12:35 -0500
From: helena_sophia@yahoo.com (Cindy
Neil)
Subject: Radiance of the Seas - December 18 - 24, 2005
My husband and I had a great time on our cruise from
Miami-Bahamas-Jamaica-Grand Cayman-Miami. Some notes:
Ports of call appear to operate on many of the same principles
as Renaissance Festivals. They exist to sell you things and amuse you. They
are not to be considered as representative in any way of the real life of the
island. This impression was especially strong in Jamaica.
Our Jamaica tour (the Falls Climb) unfortunately plays
up Jamaican stereotypes WAY too much. I will count myself a happy woman if I
never again have to say another "Hey Mon" or sing about how "I'm
feeling hot, hot, hot" or chant "Olay olay, olay olah" for fifteen
minutes straight (it didn't help that I was sitting in an ice-cold waterfall
for said 15 minutes). However, the setting itself was wonderful and we enjoyed
the climb... though for some reason they force you to hold hands with the person
above you the whole climb; it would have been much easier and there would have
been fewer abrasions and bruises if climbers had both hands available and were
facing straight up instead of sideways. I understand that holding hands allows
the guides to maximize ratio of climbers to minders, and to keep things moving
at a good clip in order to process as many people as possible, but I think we
were pretty much at the point where the money-safety balance was beginning to
tip the wrong way.
Cruise lines appear to have various marketing agreements
set up at their ports which allow for very limited tourist-geared shopping areas.
I believe cruise lines are a real boon to the local economy, but this appears
to lead to very hard-sell marketing in some places (in some locations in Jamaica
we felt like we needed a crowbar to beat them off), so pick and choose if that
type of thing bothers you.
We missed Grand Cayman on this trip due to slightly rough
weather -- a front came through that produced 10-foot swells. It didn't make
us uncomfortable in the ship, and actually provided a really neat opportunity
to experience strong waves and wind at sea, but getting from the ship to a tender
boat would have been dicey. I do not think that RC will be offering any kind
of refund because of the missed stop, and that's fine with us, but be aware
that this may occur.
Be advised that as with any cruise you will be charged
for anything and everything exorbitantly. There are gratuities built into every
cost but they really hammer you to tip more. A *lot* of things are extra...
in fact room and board are the only things built into the cost of the cruise.
Skip the soft drink deal that RC offers at the beginning
of the trip unless you guzzle Coca-Cola products by the gallon. Each soft drink
deal costs $40, and I think I had progressed to a $20 Coke by the time we disembarked!
Seems silly to access the internet on a cruise, but in
case you're an addict like me, internet time costs 50 cents per minute -- a
cruise may or may not have WiFi access, though Radiance apparently does... I
expect WiFi probably costs too, though). Connections are not fantastic since
you're satellite-dependent, so don't go downloading movies or anything bandwidth-heavy.
If you are bothered by large crowds, go to your stateroom
when you arrive and read a book or play solitaire or whatever until embarkation
is done with. I was ready to murder someone within the first hour: on one side,
there were vast hordes of people all ready to spend, spend, spend, and on the
other side there were personnel with merchandise and services to sell, sell,
sell. Drove me nuts. So avoid it if you're inclined to be bothered by it.
The ship has lots of amenities, though, and almost anyone
could have a good time! There's an extensive gym; at least five pools; a hot
tub; a very nice movie theater in a sort of IMAX set-up; multiple dining facilities
ranging from the cafeteria (buffet style, of course, very good selection, very
attentive and friendly staff -- look for Karen San Juan, she took it as her
personal responsibility to help me get over a cold) to a couple of specialty
restaurants (we loved the Italian restaurant, Portofino) to the main dining
hall (meh). There's a casino (we didn't really see the point but if that's your
thing, it looks like it's relatively extensive). We didn't have a chance to
take advantage of the champagne bar; aside from the wine selection, which was
quite good, other shipboard drinks were mediocre.
There are a whole lot of options open for tours and activities
in port; you can purchase excursion spots in advance (or if you're silly, wait
until you're on the ship). Excursions seem to involve a lot of herding on the
part of the guides.
If you prefer to forge your own path you have the whole
day at each stop, but it's a good idea to make plans and do research in advance.
If you want to do things in smaller groups there are undoubtedly many privately
available guides who will let you pay them to go at your own pace, experience
things a little more in depth, etc.
PLEASE pack in advance carefully. We scrambled through
packing the night before we left because I had just returned from the other
side of the country, and we brought more than we needed to of some things and
not enough of other things. I ended up without a bathing suit. It sounds obvious,
but bring a bathing suit. There's NO place to get one if you're a woman (men
and boys don't need to worry about this, they can pick one up on the ship or
at any port).
If you have a digital camera, bring your charger. Duh!
They will also be happy to SELL YOU a digital camera... They also sell reasonably
priced disposable cameras if you're desperate. A waterproof digital camera would
be have been a wonderful accessory.
In terms of recommended dress codes: If you really want
to rent or bring a tuxedo, go for it. But it's not necessary. A suit is perfectly
acceptable on formal nights. Same goes for women: if you *want* to spend the
money on a cocktail dress, you can and should, but you're also fine bringing
a nice dress -- something you might wear to church, for instance, or for an
office function in the summer time, or for going out to a relatively fancy restaurant.
Jeans are fine as casual wear, though anything in the way of office casual works
too. The cafeteria only requires that you wear shoes (flipflops work) and have
something on besides a bathing suit when you come in (also no tank tops, though
I don't know how strictly this is enforced). Shorts are probably not a great
idea in the main dining hall, but I don't know that they would throw you out
either. The specialty restaurants require "smart casual", which equates
to a jacket/blazer and good slacks for guys, nice dress for women (there's virtually
no difference between "smart casual" and "formal" for women
unless you want to spend the money to make the distinction).
Our cruise was a week. We were wishing by Day Two that
we had traveled with a group of people -- friends, relatives, mortal enemies,
whatever. Being around one person 24-7 gets old fast, even if you're married.
:)
One special note: DO NOT under any circumstances book
a return flight from Miami to anywhere during the morning of your return to
Miami. This may or may not be true of other Royal Caribbean trips returning
to other ports. The disembarkation process on 12/24 was handled VERY badly by
the Radiance staff. "Express walkoff" became a joke. We were told
all week that we could leave any time after 7 am on the day of return to Miami,
and ended up not getting off the boat until nearly 10 am (with a 15-minute cab
ride to Miami International Airport, and an 11:20 am flight out, which I felt
cut it way, way too close -- I was SURE we were going to miss the flight). There
were definitely people who had booked flights based on certain expectations
about disembarkation -- and thus they missed those flights, had to pay a change
fee, etc. etc.
Overall a good trip, though, and my husband and I are
seriously considering investing in RC stock; the cruise industry is hardly shrinking.
We speculated a LOT about how fast the cruise lines would jump on Cuba once
there's a turnover there -- Castro can't last all that much longer, and while
I don't know anything else about the island's politics it seems likely that
a party advocating a fast return to capitalism stands a good chance to succeed
the man. Our cruise made a big circle around Cuba and I expect that RC and all
the other lines would really like to make some stops in the middle of the circle.
We'll see about doing another cruise... I'd like to spend
a week on a single island next time we do something like this....
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