Rayza

Just been on Radiance and had this same experience. On the first day I was offered the middle size cup and 1 hole was punched. The coffee was terribly weak and was horrible. It didn't dawn on me until the next day a different barrista gave me the small cup and obviously the strength was better. When I asked for a larger cup the next day the barrista automatically went to 2 holes as he made it with 2 shots of espresso. I paid $A46 for the card and the small coffees were $US3 ($A4.05). The medium cups were $US4 ($A5.40). If you stick with the small cups and 1 shot you save about $A14 over the 15 coffees. If you want a larger coffee with 2 shots of coffee, it is actually cheaper to pay as you go than purchasing the coffee card. To complicate matters on 1 occasion I bought an iced chocolate and an iced latte; both a lot larger than a medium coffee ; and was charged 1 punch/hole for each. Still don't understand how the 50% off applies. If it is supposed to be for additional coffees once you have used the 15 then you need to keep the used card to show at the cafe.

We have recently returned from an 11 night cruise - Sydney to New Zealand return. We are novice cruisers. This was our third cruise, but first on RCL. Our other two cruises were on Princess and we were interested in comparing food and service between the two lines. If I had to sum up our experience in the dining room in one word I would have to say "inconsistent". Both the food and service was inconsistent. The service, while always professional, was sometimes slow ( 30 minutes from sitting down to being served entree). The demeanour of our waiter and assistant waiter were poles apart. The waiter appeared aloof and when telling the table about specials or delivering messages tended to talk over the heads of everyone. He certainly never engaged on a personal level with anyone at our table. The asst. waiter was lovely - friendly, smiling and always helpful. On the third last evening the waiter, towards the end of the meal, spoke to our table and told us that when we returned home we would have a survey form to complete and could we please complete the survey with a good rating as it would effect his and the assistant waiter's wages. Noone responded. The waiter then asked what we thought of the service. Another empty pause until I said that I had found the service quite variable. I understand that a lot of things go towards the outcome the diner experiences ; if everyone arrives at the same time things will be slow; if there is a problem in the kitchen meals might be slower. So my response was not necessarily aimed personally at the waiter but reflecting on how we had experienced things. The waiter then got very defensive and said in a raised voice "slow, slow, you think my service is slow". I tried to explain my comments giving him the example that on one evening we were offered bread rolls by the assistant on 3 occasions before our entrees arrived. In all of that time we were never asked if we would like drinks; just had water glasses topped up. The waiter then asked the table to give him a rating of between 7 and 10 on his personal service. Now I don't eat out a lot but it is the first time i have been demanded feedback from a waiter during the course of the meal. One of the other diners at our table told the waiter that it was inappropriate to request this assessment of the guests. With that he left our table. For the final 2 evenings the waiter was at best professional bujt towards surly. I had a discussion separately with the assistant waiter and she indicated to me that RCL processes are making it hard for the wait staff to provide much interaction with the diners. Each waiter and assistant serve 20 guests. The assistant waiter has to go to the kitchen and bring up the meals for each table as they become ready. When a table of 6 or 8 is made up of different groups, who arrive at differing times, all meals are ordered in one hit so early arrivers are delayed until the whole table is seated. If this happens at the same time on 2 tables then the waiters have difficulty in getting meals out quickly. Our experience on Princess was that the service was superior to that of RCL. On Princess we were offered a drink or asked if anyone would like to see a wine list every night. On Radiance because no one asked for the wine list on the first night we were never asked again. At the end of the meal Princess seem to have a liqueur special, which they sold in a souvenir glass for $3. Each evening on Princess we were asked if we would like tea, coffee or liqueur. On Radiance I asked for a cappucino one evening as it was listed on the menu, but when it was brought to me I was asked for my seapass to pay for it. Our experience with food in the main dining room on Radiance was similar to the service - some meal options were really enjoyable and some were close to being inedible. A chocolate souffle in which you can't taste the chocolate, misses the mark in my opinion. A "baked Alaska" that was in effect a 5 inch square dish with neopolitan ice cream with eggwhite piped on top, to which a micro torch had been applied to the middle, could be used in evidence of false pretences. A chicken cordon bleau that was so thin and dry it looked like a truck had run over it could not be described as restaurant quality food. The end pieces of the chicken were so thin and so overcooked that it could not be cut with a knife. We did report this to the head waiter one evening when he enquired what we thought of the food and his response to me was that if you find a meal that you like tell him and he would have it made for me each night. This defeated the purpose to me as I have no intention of going to a restaurant 11 nights in a row and eating the same meal. On balance though a seafood risotto that I had was superb, as was the lamb shanks my wife had. The green lipped mussels provided to our table on the last evening as an extra, were also delicious. Steak was generally cooked as requested and was enjoyable without being memorable. Again I would have to say that our food experience on Princess has been superior to what we experienced on Radiance. We are on Ovation next week for the Xmas cruise with daughter and grandchildren so looking forward to compare both the quality of the service and the food offerings. As Ovation doesn't seem to have the set sittings for dinner in the MDR; rather it is all "my time dining" I will be interested in how it compares.

Welcome Bazza. We live in Australia and have been to Dunedin twice - going again in November on Radiance. We have planned to hire a car and drive around Dunedin as we are going with friends who haven't been before. Pegasus car hire have the concession at Port Chalmers. All others you would need to catch a shuttle bus or taxi ($30) to the city to pick up a car. The drive from the city out along the Otago Peninsula is a great way to view the glacial harbour. You can go out along the top of the peninsula and come back along the southern shore line of the harbour. Lanarch Castle is a main attraction but I imagine you would have seen enough castles in the UK. At the end of the peninsula is the Royal Albatross Centre. They have tours of the breeding grounds of the albatross and also have boat cruises in the afternoon where you can watch the albatross taking off from the cliff tops. This might be too late though to get back to your cruise ship. There is also a fur seal colony that you can walk down to view. Cadbury's Chocolate factory have tours and it is good value. You can book online rather than going through the ship tours. The Otago Museum has a great Maori History gallery as well as several other galleries - all free admission. And of course Dunedin is known for the steepest street in the world. You can drive up Baldwin Street and lookout over Dunedin. The railway station is a great architectural piece to have a look at.

We're having difficulty understanding the dining options offered on Ovation of the Seas. Firstly there is no First Night Done Right as has been mentioned here on other ships. Is this something specific to just some ships? Also in our cruise planner options in preferences there is no button to modify our dining options. It just says My Time Dining. Does this mean that there isn't the traditional sittings on this ship? Does anyone know how My Time Dining works? For example when we go to book our dining options, you can select MTD but then it comes up with all of the chargeable restaurants and not the complimentary ones. From a website of Ovation of the Seas there are several complimentary restaurants, but within cruise planner you can't seem to access them. Clicking on more options button gives you the choice to book MTD in the main dining room but not any of the other complimentary dining areas. How does this all work. I would ring RCL call centre in the Philipines or wherever in the world it is, but having spent 40 minutes last week trying to get a cabin assigned to us without any success I'm just not up to talking to more incompetent unhelpful "customer service" staff

Well surprise surprise. Today my cart has a red alert indicating the price of each of the shore excursions has been updated/ And yes the price has been increased from $112 to $126. Even though I had booked the excursions at the discount price. Grrrrr.... Another half hour on the phone tomorrow!

I was wondering if anyone else has had problems with RCL pushing shore excursions at discount prices but when you book you don't get the discount. Last Friday I received an email with 2" high letters promoting "up to 30% off" for 5 days" on the beverage package and selected shore excursions. When you click on the "Buy Now" button you get all of the shore excursions listed and their applicable discount. Most (about 90%) had 10% off and the others had 20% off. None of the excursions that I could see had the 30% off so I presume the headline related to the beverage package discount. I selected 2 of the listed excursions and then went to the checkout to pay but neither price indicated the advertised discount had been applied. I also contacted my daughter, who has a separate booking on the same cruise, but she did not get the email offering the discount. However she went through the same booking process and was charged the same price. I rang RCL call centre and was told by the first consultant that there was nothing in my cart and this was because I did not complete the booking. He insisted that when I completed the booking the discounted price would be charged. I was a bit surprised at that as it is unusual to be presented with an amount for payment and then have a lower amount charged to your credit card. Additionally after I hung up I went back into cruise planner and the excursions were still in my cart and still showing the original price. I rang RCL again and got a different consultant who then told me that the price being shown was the discounted price and that I needed only to make the booking within the 5 pay period to get the excursions at that price. This again was strange as I had another booking coincidentally doing a similar cruise where the particular shore excursion was not on the discount list and the price offered on that cruise was exactly the same as the supposed discount price. I explained this to the consultant who put me on hold for several minutes and then when she came back she told the excursion was indeed on the "official discount list" that she had. She could not explain why it was not on the list sent out to [assengers. Our final discussion was the consultant telling me that I had to complete my booking by 2pm today to take advantage of the discount prices. Now I find, well after the deadline, all of the excursions are still at the original price. I believe that RCL are running a classic "bait and hook" scam where they use bright colours, large fonts, and short time frames to galvanise passengers into thinking they are getting a good deal. But in the end the prices just don't change. At the end of the day, the discount is a pittance in the total amount we are spending on the cruise, but it peeves me to see large companies act with what looks like unethical behaviour.

How does RCL handle passengers wanting to do their own thing on port visits? That is, do they make passengers who aren't on organised tours wait until all tours have disembarked or can you leave the ship at any time after the gang plank has been lowered?

Thanks for that. All makes sense once you see the booking details.

Does anyone know how this works? It is an offering on Radiance but doesn't give details about when it is held or whether there are multiple sessions. It does say main dining room, but no times or dates. Don't want to book in conflict with day tours.

I'm booked on Radiance of the Seas from Sydney Australia in November and have been trying to understand the costs of the specialty dining areas. The FNDR says "Embark on a culinary journey with a reservation at one of our specialty restaurants on your first night and save 50%." but the cost says "From $A18,90 per adult" Does this imply that all of the specialty restaurants are A La Carte and not fixed price? Given that Giovanni's is "From $26.46" why isn't FNDR "from $13.23" if it is really 50% off? Is the quoted price at specialty dining inclusive of tips or are they extra?

On cruises out of Australia does RCL present onboard accounts in US dollars and then convert it to Australian dollars or do they charge your credit card in US dollars? What is there exchange rate policy -e.g do they charge 4-5 cents below market rate?