Radiance...Part 3

A Rude Awakening.............

After a LATE night out, it would have been wonderful to sleep in a bit but we were awakened paromtly ar 830 AM with PA annoucnements throughout the ship. The PA announcements could be clearly heard in the stateroom even with the "in room" announcements turned off.

The Breakfast the never was...............

Spotty service in the food area continues as ours, and many other in-cabin breakfast orders disappeared into thin air and never materialized. That was just as well as we made our way up to the Windjammer. If one thing remains constant, it's LOUSY breakfast foods. Just as I remembered abord Voyager, RCI's buffet breakfasts are, in my opinion, really bad. Eggs are runny and tasteless, bacon and sausage was greasy, waffles, pancakes and such were limp and heavy with little to no taste. C'est la Vie! Stick to bakery items, cereals and fruits and you'll be fine.

OH just STOP trying to be innovative Already!

In an effort to boost service levels and try and provide a more personaized level of service, RCI has made some changes in the way that the Windjammer is run. Upon entering, you are greeted by a server and guided to a table. (Nice Touch!)
They then tell you to help yourself to the buffet and take your drink orders. (NICE touch!)
BUT...if you try to get drinks by yourself, you end up standing in line as the majority of the coffee, tea, lemonade dispensers; are no longer self service. Long lines build up and it can be very inconvenient during peak service hours. Great idea, lousy execution. Buffets are supposed to be SELF SERVICE..lets leave them that way!

Overall....As I reported before, the ship is a real gem and once the crew gets in sync, she'll be one of the best. The're just getting used to her and hopefully they'll have just about everything down pat once this "shakedown" cruise is over.

It's amazing how well everything is functioning aboard the ship, especially since she was delievered early; something many crew credit to the ship being built in Germany.

I'm off to enjoy the ship....more later!

Tim Rubacky
Consumer Affairs Editor

[jim]

Tim,
Thanks for the review. 28 days till we see her in person.
Jim

[Donna]

Hi Tim,
Enjoy the ship, love reading all about it, thanks a bunch! Hey, how about joining all of us on the CM New Years cruise on Golden, its going to be a blast. Come on and think about it??

Donnassei

[Kathy]

Tim-
I am considering Radiance & Infinity for Alaska in June - in your opinion which do you think would be the best one? Do you think Radiance will have all of her "bugs" worked out by mid June? Hope you are going to do an in-depth review of the ship. Did you see the aft Cat D cabins on Radiance?
Thanks.

Kathy

[John]

Jim wrote:
>
> Tim,
> Thanks for the review. 28 days till we see her in person.
> Jim

If I am counting right I think that puts you on the April 23 sailing.
We will be onboard that week. Looking forward to this one.

Tim-
Thanks so much for the news! I still want to hear the negatives you referred to in Part 1. We are booked in the E3 category far aft. We leave 4/23 from Ensenada for 7-days, finishing up in Seattle. 27 more days!
Vada