Radiance of the Seas, Day 7: at sea

Another sea day. And some of us are looking forward to it after three days of intense activity. It’s good to pick a cruise with sea days so you can enjoy the ship and on this voyage we’re covering a lot of nautical miles. But it’s also a time when you can be annoyed by details.

The shower pressure in my cabin is too low so it seems hard to fully rinse off the soap. Of course, it’s a 15-night voyage and while the ship can produce 1,650 tons of water a day from salt water there are a lot of people on board and hopefully all are taking showers. But it still feels a bit cheap. So too is only having a wall-mounted liquid soap dispenser and basic bars of soap. No shampoo or conditioner. And, apart from at breakfast, there’s no fresh milk to have with tea – just half & half (milk and cream) and non-dairy creamers in little plastic tubs. Oh, and on port days, there’s a staff member on the passage into the Windjammer buffet breakfast flogging bottles of water to take ashore. Is it only people from drought-ravaged Australia who regard shower pressure and bottles of water as a right?

On the other hand, there are many (most) features of the ship I really enjoy. The staff mix is great because it’s a complete hodgepodge of nationalities: there are lots of American staff (black and white), Spanish speakers, Turks, Filipinos, Chinese, Indians, Jamaicans, Thai Mauritians and even Australians. And, as I’ve detailed before, there are lots of places to go on a ship this size.

I avoid the International Bellyflop Competition at the main pool and skip the Hula dance class but go to the digital photography classes, which turns out to be informative.

Words: David McGonigal.