Martijn Nathan

Age: 20
Occupation: Accountant
Number of Cruises: 5
Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean International
Ship: Radiance of the Seas
Sailing Date: January 2nd, 2005
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

Background

If anyone had said that at the age of 20, I’d be writing a review on my fifth cruise, I would have looked at that person in disbelief . However, after our first cruise on Millennium in 2002, we became addicted forever. After Millennium we did a back-to-back cruise on Explorer of the Seas. At this point, my sister, who is now 22 years old, decided she wanted to work on a ship.

One thing lead to another, and before we knew it, my parents and I were on our way to visit her on Radiance of the Seas, where she was working in the youth staff. She had such a great time during this five-month contract, that she decided to go back to the Radiance on another contract. So at the December 30th, at 5 am, we headed for Amsterdam Airport again (we live in the Netherlands, about 30 miles from Amsterdam).

I didn’t write a review last year, but this time I thought I would be useful to write one, pointing out both the things that have improved, and the things that haven’t.

Getting (out) there
KLM/NWA decided to stop flying directly into Miami this year. Therefore, we were forced to travel through Detroit. We encountered very strong headwinds, causing the flight time to be 8 hours and 45 minutes. The flight was operated by NWA, with their very modern Airbus A330. These planes have an individually-controlled entertainment system. However, since I am 6 foot 6, I had little to no legroom. It was really an extremely cramped experience.

The NWA terminal in Detroit is excellent, and very modern. Customs were quite fast despite all the somewhat exaggerated procedures. Ah well, at least now I know what a criminal feels like, not even being able to keep you fingerprints private. The picture they took must have been awful, as 9 hours in something quite similar to a sardine-can doesn’t really improve your appearance.

From Detroit we flew to Ft. Lauderdale on an airbus A320, which had more legroom! This flight took us another 2.5 hours.

>From the Airport we took a taxi to the Riu Florida Beach hotel in Miami Beach. On our last cruises we had always stayed in Hotel Sheraton Four Points, also in Miami Beach. However, after a slightly traumatic and embarrassing incident involving both my mother and a flooding bathroom, we decided to switch to another hotel.

To be very honest, we had expected a bit more from the Riu. The entire hotel looked very old, and was begging for some serious refurbishing. Our room was spacious, and had two queen-size beds. Make sure you take your sunglasses (not because of the weather, because rain was poring down when we arrived), but to be able to look at the light green walls.

Our bathroom was quite adequate, except for the fact that one of the knobs you use to adjust the water temperature fell of. (what are they called?)

The hotel didn’t have roomservice, but had an excellent breakfast-buffet. I actually ran into someone I know there, what are the odds!

After some serious shopping in the Aventura mall, and spending a day by the pool, it was time to head to the port and meet my sister on January 2.

Embarkation
Embarkation, the thing that can make or break your vacation before it even really begins. Unfortunately, the cruise lines don’t have total control over what happens during embarkation.

We departed out of Miami, which has got 5 different terminals. However, there were 6 different ships in, including Explorer and Navigator of the Seas. The Navigator was docked at the pier that is usually occupied by Radiance of the Seas.

At first, we were thrilled by the scenery. Unfortunately, we had a cabdriver that barely spoke English. He had no idea where he was going. After 30 minutes of touring through the ports traffic jams, with many debarking passengers begging for a taxi, we felt it was time do something. After a lot of contradicting information, we finally found out what we were supposed to do. We had to drop our luggage at some obscure parking lot, that looked like it had also been used by cocaine smugglers and for assassinations. Fortunately, there were some RCCL officials there, telling us that we could leave our luggage in a truck. They also informed us that embarkation hadn’t started yet. According to him, the best thing we could do was proceed to the Biscayne Bay mall, for another session of serious shopping. I’m still not sure whether this guy was completely ignorant or if he just had a great sense of humour. The only thing we wanted to buy was a bottle of water, since it was really hot.

We decided to stay, and wait for embarkation to begin. On my way to buy another bottle of water, I ran into my sister, who had been looking everywhere for us. That was great, although I never bought that bottle of water. (By the way, I spotted a great business opportunity, when someone offered us 20 dollars for the bottle of water we had bought for 1,50.)

After another 30 minutes of waiting, embarkation began, and we were on the ship within 20 minutes.

We felt that Port Everglades does a way better job dealing with large numbers of ships/passengers.

First impressions for the second time
Radiance of the Seas is simply stunning. I won’t go into great detail about the ships design, because that’s been done by millions of other people. If this is what you’re looking for, I have inserted a link to a great website at the end of this review. This website has got many great pictures, as well as a very detailed review on a trans-canal cruise on the Radiance.

We entered the ship on deck 2, which is not as glamorous as entering on the promenade deck (5), but it was great to be welcomed by all of my sisters friends.

We headed for our stateroom right away, to see if it was ready. We had booked a superior ocean view cabin on deck 9 (9048) for the three of us. It was slightly more spacious than the Deluxe ocean view cabin we had last year. It was rather cramped then, with the three of us in such a small room.
The stateroom was good, it had all the amenities, a tiny little bathroom, and a private balcony.

The shower had that sticky shower curtain, that everyone seems to hate so much. Of course, the worst nightmare (ok, one of the worst!) of any cruiser became reality: We dropped the soap several times. I’m telling you, you don’t need that 10 dollar yoga class, because picking up the soap in a tiny little shower with a curtain that won’t stop sticking to you, with a really rocky ocean on top of that, requires a lot more flexibility, determination and balance than any yoga class.

Our stateroom attendant was quite good, the cabin was very clean and she was always around. Nothing wrong with the cabin, that’s for sure.

What goes in……
Cruising is all about food. The quality of the food and (dining room)-waiters is one of the things that matter most when people rate a ship.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to be slightly critical on this point.

I think it would be nice to begin and end with something very positive: The Windjammer is excellent. The breakfast is great, with a lot of choice, although I have my doubts about the freshness of some of the fruits.

Lunch is also great, as well as the afternoon snacks. Most of the things offered are to die for.

So, now the time has come to explain why I’m not enthusiastic about the food and dining room service.

Last year, we had very nice waiter and assistant waiter. The assistant waiter was still on board, and had made a promotion. When we went to check our table assignment (always do this!!!!), we asked the maitre d’ if he could be our waiter again.

When we entered the dining room, we were unpleasantly surprised to see that we didn’t have him as our waiter. The other guys turned out to be funny though. The point is, they didn’t know it. I’m not going to tell you their names, because we wouldn’t want them to get in trouble or anything.

It all starts with the fact that our assistant waiter was simply inaudible. I’m sure he was a really nice guy, but with all of his mumbling it was really difficult to determine what he was trying to say.

Our waiter was a whole different story. He really was fake, with a fake smile that would fade away as soon as he thought he was out of sight of any of the passengers. When he told us his recommendations, it was like listening to a cd. Track 1: Entrees sunday. Track 2: Dessert sunday, and so on. There was no interactivity whatsoever, and he would walk away when he almost got the end of the sentence.

No, I’m not done yet. Because the combination of the two really is lethal. At some point, when our waiter was playing one of his tracks, our assistant waiter started explaining what kinds of bread they had that day. Simultaneously! What was he thinking!?

It gets worse. As soon as we had ordered a bottle of wine with the waiter, our assistant waiter would kindly inform if we wanted another bottle.

And now: the crème de la crème. I will now explain the slightly unusual title of this cruise review. There were four of us dining at the table. Let’s assume we all have 5 courses per dinner, minus dessert so that makes 4 “potential pepper meals” per person per dinner. We tried both of the alternative restaurants, so that leaves 5 days in the dining room.

5 days x 5 courses x 4 persons = 100 different meals (aiiiii). That means that the assistant waiter would ask us a hundred times: “would you like some fresh pepper tonight?”. He always mumbled this particular sentence, even when the meals were very “unpepperish”, like lobster.

Sometimes, our waiter would also come and ask us whether we wanted fresh pepper, since the communication between the two was almost non-existent.

We felt very sorry, actually, because these guys were clearly in the wrong business. On the other hand, you pay a very large amount of money, so you expect a little service.

The last point of criticism in the food-department regards the menus. When we did the back to back cruise on explorer in July 2003, we had the same menu twice. We were surprised that the menu hadn’t changed last year. However, this year, we had the same menu again, so that’s the fourth time! It is really no fun to know exactly what dish comes what evening, and to eat exactly the same as on your last three cruises.

The food itself is good, it is warm and tasty. It could use some fresh pepper though…….

As I said, we tried the two alternative restaurants, Portofino and Chops Grille. They were in one word amazing. It was nice to escape from the crowded dining room. The food that was served in these restaurants is excellent, and so is the service. The steak I had in Chops was probably one of the best ever. Thumbs up!

….Has to come out.
I’m sorry if you think the title of this chapter is slightly inappropriate. Please keep in mind that I’m only 20 years old and from the Netherlands, where people tend to be very direct.

What I want to discuss in this chapter is public cleanliness on the ship. We noticed that the public bathrooms were usually very dirty. Some people didn’t ever bother to flush the toilet after their “toilet sessions”. The floor was ALWAYS soaking wet. Thank god you weren’t able to determine what the fluids on the floor were, but considering the very rough seas, I’m afraid it’s not water…..

The toilets also seemed to be a bit worn out, the tiles and toilets seats were damaged. Overall, it just didn’t seem to be in the same great shape it was in last year.

Radiance rocks!

Radiance of the seas rocks for two reasons.
The first reason why Radiance of the Seas rocks is its entertainment. There is simply always something to do. The ship always felt alive and kicking. There’s something for everyone, ranging from the classiness of the Belly flop and sexy-legs competitions, to the sheer excitement of “win a Royal Caribbean key chain”-bingo.

I think the production shows in the aurora-theatre were fantastic. We saw “the piano man” and “welcome to our world”. They were very colourful and “high-energy”. The singers were very good, better than last year, but the dancers seemed to be slightly less talented. Make sure you see these shows though, because I think they are great fun.

The other shows ranged from awesome to awful. It just depends on your taste.
If you like a very active ship, than Royal Caribbean is perfect for you!

The second reason why Radiance of the seas rocks, is the fact that it rocks. We encountered some pretty serious waves, and there really was a lot of movement. I noticed many people got seasick, but under these conditions that was perfectly understandable.

It didn’t really bother me though, because the motion is one of the little things that reminds you of the fact that you’re on a ship. Getting out of my bed, on a wobbly ladder was quite challenging!

The ship has got two stabilizers, that are supposed to take away 90% of the ships motion. I wonder what it would have been like without them!

How a not so exciting itinerary became a lot more exciting!

We were supposed to go to Cococay (RCCL’s private island), St. Maarten and St. Thomas.

However, because of the high waves, it was impossible to tender into Cococay. That’s why the captain decided to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico instead of Cococay. Everyone was really happy about this. San Juan is a nice little town, that unfortunately was crowded because of all the tourists. (there were four mega-ships in port). We did a 2,5 hour bus tour when were there on our back-to-back cruise, so we just walked around a little bit and then returned to the ship.

In St. Thomas, we did the same. It’s a gorgeous island, but this was the third time we were there, and since the sun was finally shining, we rushed to deck 12 for some serious tanning. There was a little surprise for us that day, because the ship docks in St. Croix in the evening, and people can get off the ship for about three hours. The reason it stops here is to refuel.

We fell in love with St. Maarten the first time we stepped of the ship. This is by far our favourite island in the Caribbean. (not just because it’s a Dutch colony). This was also our third time on the island, and it gets better every time we get there. My mother bought a beautiful watch and a really cool digital camera.

Some mysterious ship named “octopus” was docked next to us in st. Maarten. Later I learned that this 126 meter long ship is owned by Paul Allen, Bill Gates’ business partner. It is the largest private yacht in the world! It is soooooooooo decadent!

Final thoughts
Please don’t think that Radiance of the seas is a bad ship, because it’s not. Every time we were in port, I felt proud to be on the prettiest ship of all. You are definitely going to have a great vacation.

I was just a bit sad to see that the ship was not as spic-and-span as it was last year. Also the entertainment and dining room-service were (obviously) developed to meet the taste of the Americans. That is of course logical, but for Europeans this can be quite frustrating at times.

Nevertheless, enjoy your vacation, and if you have any questions, or strongly disagree with me on some point, please let me know! My e-mail address is martijnnathan@hotmail.com

Martijn Nathan.

Oh yes, I promised to give you that internet-address. Here it is: http://psp.club.tip.nl

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