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Hawaii experience |
| Reviewed By: Scullion, Manchester on 17th Apr 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises |
Times cruised before: 3-5 |
| Cruise Ship: Radiance of the Seas |
Sailed:
September,
2007 |
| Destination: Hawaii |
Age: 46-55 |
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We travelled from the UK using British Airways from Manchester. All the bad reports we heard before we left about losing luggage were, thankfully, unfounded. The flight, the very generous bagage allowance and the entertainment (videos) were excellent. The first problem we encountered was finding the Royal Carribbean rep at LAX. we were fortunate to catch sight of an elderly gentleman 'half' waving a clip board to attract attention. Others, however, weren't so lucky. Some of the passsengers bound for an overnight stay in L.A. prior to embarkation the following day spent a considerable amount of time roaming the airport looking for a sign of a rep. They eventually had to make there own way to the hotel. We did speak to a fellow BA passnger at breakfast in the hotel whose luggage hadn't arrived with them on the flight. they weren't very hopeful of getting it before the ship left port.
The next problem was the queue to embark the ship at the docks. Having completed an online checkin to 'save some time?' you would think it would be a breeze at check in, not a chance. We queued along with several hundred others in the blazing sun for over an hour, it wasn't a good start to the day or the cruise.
Having cruised with RC sevearl times before the state room was as expected if just a little 'tired'. This ship is one of the oldest in its class and probably due for an over haul.
We liked the idea of cruising for 5 days before we reached Hawaii, it gave us time to aclimatize to the time zone and get over the jetlag. Those 5 days were well spent relaxing, sunbathing exploring the ship, etc.
I am always nervous when it comes to meeting your dining companions for the first time but, thankfully we had a great table of 5 couples 4 of whom were americans and us two Brits. We have made some great new friends which enhanced the cruising experience considerably. I have been on other cruises where the dining experience has been one to forget.
The entertainment on cruises to this destination is predominantly aimed at Americans because they are by far the largest group. Most of the entertainment was average but, I must give a special mention to two acts on the ship. the first is Matt Yee, an American Hawaiin who performs generally in the piano bar and really gets the crowd going, if sometimes he is a little risqe' - don't get involved at your peril!.
The second act was a band who played in the Colony Club. They were a six piece band who played all sorts of music. Two singers, male and female who had great voices and a great band behind them. At the time of writing this review their name escapes me.
The Hawaiin islands are well worth a visit. The Hawaiin people are so nice and pleasant, very warm and welcoming. We tended to arrange our tours when we got to port which saved us a considerable amount of money.
As with the outward trip the return trip to LA was well received and relaxing.
The itinery says there is a stop in Mexico, be aware this isn't a stop where you can get off ship. The ship doesn't even touch the docks. It is only to satisfy some obscure maritime law. I feel RC are being disengenuous when they mention this stop in the itinery, a point I raised with them to no avail.
When it came to dsiembarking we had to queue again through the ship to pass through customs which took about an hour at which point tempers were frayed. Having passed through customs we then had to queue again on deck waiting to get off the ship. If that wasn't bad enough the fiasco on the docks where the coaches/buses were waiting to take passengers to the airport was unbelievable. There was no organisation we had no idea of which bus to get on. When we eventually got on the bus other people had put thier luggage on the bus only to find there wasn't any seats on the bus - off with the luggage. We then had a couple of hours to wait a LAX prior to checkin.
Overall from the point we got on the ship to point we got off the ship was great the rest was a shambles and needs addressing quickly. I wrote to R.C. to explain and complain what had happened but I got a standard 'sorry', ' were doing everything to minimise these occurrences' response. Not very encouraging. because of this we are thinking of trying a different cruise line for our next cruise.
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| Quality of Food |  |
| We ate dinner in the dining room and breakfast in the Windjammer | | Entertainment |  |
| Too many american performers on the big stage. The smaller bars/clubs had better entertainment | | Shore Excursions |  |
| Booked a helicopter tour but had to be cancelled due to the weather. Didn't find out until we got to the heliport so wasted a day. | | Staff | |
| Bar waiters | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities | |
| | Cabins | |
| | Overall Rating | |
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