Hi,

I am new here and would really like some feedback on a Radisson cruise I want to take. Here is the basic information:

Ft Lauderdale, FL to Ft Lauderdale, FL on Seven Seas Voyager for 7 nights departing on Dec 5, 2005. It is sailing to:

Monday Dec 5 Ft Lauderdale, FL 17:00
Tuesday Dec 6 Nassau 08:00 16:00
Wednesday Dec 7 At Sea
Thursday Dec 8 San Juan 13:00 23:00
Friday Dec 9 St. Thomas - Charlotte Amalie 08:00 16:00
Saturday Dec 10 Grand Turk 15:00 19:00
Sunday Dec 11 At Sea
Monday Dec 12 Ft Lauderdale, FL Disembarks

I am single and travel solo so I am trying to find the best single supplement I can. I noticed that the Radisson seems to have some of the cheapest singe supplements around.

Can someone tell me what sailing on a Radisson cruise is like. What are the rooms like, what does country club attire mean, etc. I have always wanted to take a nice luxury cruise, so any feedback would be great.

Thanks,

Welcome Jason :)

Have you sailed on other cruise lines before? The differences you will find on Radisson are no tipping, single seating dinner where you can ask to sit at larger tables if you like, wine included with dinner, an in room bar setup and fewer passengers with more space. Also don't forget everyone gets a balcony!

You picked an excellent ship as your first venture into the luxury line!

Even the most basic rooms (H) are lovely as they are enormous suites. There is a marble bathroom with a separate shower and tub, a walk in closet, a living area separated by a curtain from the kingsize bed sleeping area and a balcony.

There are 5 restaurants--all free. The food is wonderful.

The service is wonderful. While it is a luxury ship, no one puts on airs and needs to be the best attired. It has a casual atmosphere, but you are catered to.

There are free laundry rooms for self-service with irons and room service is 24 hours.

There is a gentleman host to accompany single women and they usually have special get-togethers to introduce singles.

Country club casual is nice casual--no shorts or jeans. This could be anything from an elegant designer dress to a simple top and pants for women. For men, it means no jacket or tie required. Semi-formal is jacket; formal, jacket and tie. About 1/3 wear tuxes on a formal night. Many men just wear a dark suit.

This is a wonderful ship and I'm sure you will have a great time.

Thanks.

This is actually going to be my first "adult" cruise. I went 16 years ago when I was 15 during a family vacation and just loved it. I just haven't had the chance until now to go again. I know that I wanted a very nice suite and most of the other cruise lines have them, but are way to expensive for a solo traveler, when you include the single supplement.

Thanks,

Jason, if you would like to see what life aboard a Radisson ship is like, there is a large group of board members on the Mariner right now. They consist of singles and couples. They will be posting from the ship and telling us what their day has been like. Most likely, they will even upload photos for us to view as well.
Look for posts with the word MINT (Mariner November 12th cruise)

Thanks Karen.

I will keep an eye out for that. I made the mistake when I first started looking into cruising a couple weeks ago of making an impulsive cruise reservation that I knew I wouldn't be happy with after I made it. I am happy to say that has been cancelled and that is what led me to the point I am now. Heck I am in no hurry, so why take the first thing that comes.

Thanks,

Just keep in mind that Radisson's recent policy--unlike many other cruise lines-- is to offer the "best deals" when cruises are first announced. Don't expect any special offers closer to cruise time. It's possible, but doubtful.

Dreps

Dreps,

My TA has a reservation for this cruise on hold until Tuesday, so I have time to check other avenues.

Jason,

Our very first cruise was on the Radisson Navigator in 2002. We were so glad we chose this line because of the smaller size of ship with fewer people on board, the beautiful and large standard cabin with balcony, the excellent service and the special quality of passengers on board. We were spoiled from the start. Radisson does everything top rate.

We recently went on our second cruise on a Princess ship - the Island Princess. Just a short 3 day cruise. The ship itself was beautiful and service good. But it could not compare to the Radisson Navigator in the areas I mentioned above.

As quoted from Sedona's above post:
"While it is a luxury ship, no one puts on airs and needs to be the best attired. It has a casual atmosphere, but you are catered to."

I totally agree with Sedona's above comment. This impressed us very much. All the passengers were so nice, down to earth and helpful to us as new cruisers. The staff were not only incredibly efficient, but very friendly. Always had a smile and truly interested in us as people not just passengers. They shared stories of their personal lifes with us. We felt like friends with the crew within a few hours.

You will not go wrong with chosing Radisson. The only problem, is that once you've sailed on the best, it's hard to go to another line :) :) :)

Cyndi

Cyndi,

It really does sound heavenly, which is one thing I was looking for kind of.

Really all I am looking for is a very very nice suite, on a ship where I can sit out and enjoy the sun and maybe sit on my balcony in the afternoon with a glass of wine nibbling on a little cheese and such. That would be the perfect cruise. Since I am traveling solo, it is hard to find at a good price due to the single supplement charge being so high. That would be the perfect cruise. However, since I have never done this before (besides the family one 16 yrs ago) I have no idea which cruises I would and wouldn't beable to do that on. It sounds to me that Radisson is one of the few that actually allows you to have Alcohol in your room.

Just getting away from everything for 7 days or so and not having to worry about finding a place to eat, like you would on a normal land vacation will be great.

Jason,

I think Radisson would fit your needs perfectly. Especially with the itinerary you will be on - you should have great weather to really enjoy the balcony. We had a lot of cold, cloudy or stormy weather on our cruise. But I still used the balcony every chance we got. Seeing the stars from our balcony at night was amazing. Even coming into the ports, it was great to watch the "new" world go by.

About the alcohol. Did you realize that not only can you have alcohol in your cabin, but Radisson provides, free of charge, 2 bottles (of your choice) of liquor to your room when you arrive? (For a single supplement I'm not sure if you still get 2 bottles. Someone else would know that). So I think you'll be very, very happy!!! Room service is 24 hours and is quite extensive. You can even have a full course meal of what is being served in the dining room served in your suite instead (wine included at no charge). We had lunch in our suite one day and asked for a malt (not on menu). They said that they would see what they could do. When lunch arrived we had malts for two. Delicous.

I could go on and on and on but right now I have to leave to go see - AFTER THE SUNSET. Not sure if you've heard about this new movie with Pierce Brosnan, but it is filmed on the Radisson Navigator!!!!!! The movie was just released this week. You must go see. I'll fill you in on it.

Cyndi

Cyndi,

Enjoy the movie and thanks for the feedback once again.

My TA said that I would get the two 1L of whatever, so that will be nice.

Oh no, I didn't realize this about that movie! Yesterday was my son's 13th b-day party, which consisted of taking him and 6 buds to see that movie, followed by pizza and a sleepover (AAAAUUUGHHH!!! My house will never be the same!). I let my DH stay with the boys for the movie so I could do a little shopping at the mall. Now I'm bummed out I didn't see it! And since the rest of the family already saw it, I guess I'll have to wait till it comes out on video. :(

Anyway, back to the topic at hand -- I wanted to mention that one of the (many) things I find appealing about RSSC is that they have no problem with you bringing your own alcohol on board, and drinking it in your room if you wish -- as any adult on vacation should be able to do. I have such a problem with the other line's policies, which I find to be rediculous, paternalistic and designed strictly for the purpose of squeezing every last buck they can out of passengers. I mean really, how would you feel about a resort telling you that you can't bring wine or liquor into your room to enjoy on your balcony?

I always enjoy reading the other cruise line's CC boards when they get the "booze smuggling" threads going. Somebody will post asking what the rules are, or what the corkage fee is (which is always a crack-up, because if the lines out-and-out forbade bringing our own booze onboard, why on earth do they have a corkage fee policy that allows us to drink our outlawed wine at dinner?) Invariably, in these threads, there will be some outraged person posting about how horrible the "rule breakers" are to be smuggling booze on board, and comparing them to formal-night slobs and pool chair hogs. Then there's this back-and-forth where the rule-breakers accuse the booze police of being ignorant lemmings who never question authority, and the rule-followers accuse the booze smugglers of being inconsiderate, classless dolts with a criminalistic bent. Then they start getting ugly, until the board host shuts the thread down. I always find it quite entertaining.

Sometimes I can't help myself from joining in the fun. Not too long ago, on the Celebrity board, I posted the following in a thread called "Booze Secrets", in which that exact exchange was raging:

"Gosh, I've learned so much from this board! Last time I cruised, my Boone's Farm bottle broke and spilled all over the tuxedo-t-shirt that my husband, Bubba, wears on Formal nights. Now y'all taught me I can just dump out some plastic grape-soda bottles and fill them up. This should also help with Bubba's alcohol odor at dinnertime, so maybe they won't make us sit off in the corner with the dude in flip-flops.

"As for licker, they just don't serve the kinda stuff Bubba and I are used to. In fact, I've never seen it served anywhere but my Uncle's cabin in the woods. So I'll be sure to put that in an Evian bottle, just to give it that touch of class.

"My question now is, how best to smuggle our...um..."other" favorite substances on board. Last time Bubba dumped out my face powder container and refilled it. Unfortunately, I didn't discover this until after I applied my makeup and went to dinner. My face got so numb I couldn't even move it. This prompted a nice plastic surgeon to give me his card, telling me that whoever did my Botox must have botched the job but good. Trouble is, it musta soaked in by osmosis, because I got so stoned I ended up booking appointments for a dozen nips, tucks and implants, and now Bubba doesn't recognize me." :D :D :D

There were some mighty unhappy people after that. I guess I should've left them alone, eh? :p

LeeAnne

I have seen those also and while I enjoy reading them, I have never posted anything like that.

I am wondering how many of them actually thought that it was real. I would have laughed if someone had responded back saying that they had a similar situation happen to them on there last cruise.

Oh, I included a line or two at the end that made it clear it was just a satirical take on the whole "booze smuggling" thing. ;) It was really a poke at the folks who assume anyone who brings their own alcohol on board must be a low-class schmuck. I really shouldn't have baited them, but I was suddenly possessed. Yeah, yeah, that's it...the devil made me do it! I was a bad girl. <img border="0" alt="[c]" title="" src="graemlins/c.gif" />

Jason - glad to hear that you would still get 2 bottles. Good deal!

LeeAnne - You are so funny! Loved the name Bubba. I missed that thread. I'll have to go back & look.

I just got back from seeing AFTER THE SUNSET. Loved it!!! It was a really fun movie. See the thread started today about the movie for more details. Don't wait for the video. Find someone to go with you NOW!! :D :D

Cyndi

Jason,

We did our first ever cruise on the Navigator in September. The suites are wonderful! The singles on board told us the rates are incredible if you're cruising solo.

My husband wore khaki's on Casual nights and a suit on semi-formal nights.

We had a bottle of Absolute and a bottle of Bacardi in our room and took both home! The menu in your room lists what foods room service provides, but quite honestly, we never used it.

I think you would enjoy it!

There is a room service menu but if it is dinner time, I'm pretty sure you can order from the regular dinner menu and aren't limited to the room service one. I only ever ordered breakfast or a pot of tea. Can't say I remember what was on that menu.

Howling L!!

R

LeeAnne, Great stuff u Devil! r/wes

Why thank you! <img border="0" alt="[12]" title="" src="graemlins/18.gif" />

Very funny post!

On to more serious matters....You can have room service deliver whatever is on the menu at Compass Rose. Some folks never leave their room and dine elegantly, and as well, from their suite.

At dinner, if you don't want wine, other alcholic beverages can be substituted.