Review: Royal Caribbean - Radiance of the Seas - [October 16 , 2004]

[Net Reviews]

Review By:

Reviewer Comments:

This was a Mexican Riviera cruise on RCI's Radiance of the Seas,
hosted by Atlantis Vacations (all gay cruise). We've never seen a
review of an Atlantis cruise on RTC, so we thought it might be helpful
to anyone considering one.

We're a gay couple (of 8 years) in our early 40's. We've done a dozen
mainstream cruises on various lines, and wanted to try something
different. This cruise was 8 days RT San Diego, with stops in
Acapulco, Ixtapa, PV, and Cabo San Lucas.

Our cruise was booked directly with Atlantis, but can be booked by a
TA as well. Prices are higher than for a regular sailing (prices
quoted on the Atlantis website DO NOT include port charges, taxes, and
mandatory prepaid tips). Docs didn't arrive until 10 days before
departure. RCI was having major problems with their website for a
couple of weeks, so it was impossible to pre-register or to book shore
excursions ahead of time.

Things we liked:

The cruise was adults only, so no noise from kids. The entertainment
therefore was geared to adults only. One highlight of the cruise was
a performance by Margaret Cho, that alone was worth the higher than
usual cruise fare. Many events were held on the pool deck, like the
Captain's welcome cocktail party.

It was nice to interact with the crew, many of the officers and CD
staff participated in the theme parties and dances. (At his
reception, the captain said that it was his first all gay cruise, and
his wife had never had so much fun on a cruise before!)

There was a wide range of ages and interests on board. Cruisers
ranged from 21 to 81 years old, from many parts of the country. There
were a number of guests from foreign countries as well. Mix seemed to
be about 60% singles, 40% couples; and there were cocktail parties,
mixers, etc. geared toward both.

Best of all, the cruise dress code was casual, for the entire cruise.
Many guests brought costumes (or at least masks and beads) for the
Mardi Gras party. Other theme parties included a white party (white
clothing only), a Mexican Fiesta, 70's, 80's, and 90's disco parties,
etc. These parties started at 11PM and many went on 'til dawn.

Things we didn't like:

Royal Caribbean is not suited for a gay cruise in one respect.
There's activity 24 hours a day, but the Windjammer Cafe is closed
from 4:00 to 6:30 PM, and closed from 10PM 'til 7:30 AM. This put a
major strain on other dining options. The Seaview Cafe had waits of
over an hour for food on sea days in the afternoon. Many guests used
room service from 10PM to 4AM, so waits of an hour and a half were
common. On one night only, the ship opened the Windjammer for
"snacks" between midnight and 4AM. Also, the Windjammer had a bad
habit of opening late in the morning, sometimes as late as 8:30 (when
the posted schedule said 7:30).

The other major issue we had with an all gay cruise is that EVERYTHING
gets booked up fast. Alternative dining was sold out 5 minutes after
reservations opened, spa was completely booked by day two, shore
excursions ditto. This is very different from our experience on
mainstream cruises.

Atlantis had about a dozen staff members on board wearing nametags,
who didn't seem to serve any purpose. None of them seemed to know the
answers to our questions, they seemed to be just along for the ride.

The ship: The Radiance seems to be holding up well for being 3 or 4
years old . A number of guests had plumbing problems. The whole ship
had a problem with brown sludgy water coming from the taps on
different days. Furnishings are starting to look a little beat-up
and tired. Food and service were what they always are on RCI (we
prefer Princess and HAL, and even on our Carnival cruises the food &
service has been better than our cruises on RCI).

Overall we had a good time, but we're not going to give up our
mainstream cruising. We might do Atlantis again or another all gay
cruise. Probably the best part was being able to hold hands, give
each other a hug when we felt like it, and not have to explain
ourselves to anyone.