Radiance of the Seas - - Profile and Photo Guide

When people think of Royal Caribbean, they tend to think of the line’s big ships - - Oasis of the Seas, Freedom of the Seas, Voyager of the Seas and their sisters. However, there is also another side to Royal. Here, I am not talking about the older ships - - the Vision and Sovereign classes - - but rather a class of smaller ships that was built contemporaneously with the Voyager class. The lead ship of that class is Radiance of the Seas.




Radiance is not merely a scaled down version of Royal’s giant ships. Rather, it is a different type of cruise experience. Yes, it has the flavor of a Royal Caribbean cruise but it emphasizes the more elegant aspects of Royal. By elegant, I do not mean formal - - it is relaxed and casual atmosphere - - but rather the handsomeness of the décor, the sophistication of the layout etc.



Although Radiance is significantly larger (90,090 gross tons) than Royal’s Sovereign class ships (73,941 gross tons), she carries less passengers than the Sovereign class ships. Thus, there is more space per passenger, giving the ship a more luxurious feel.



In a recent refit, Royal enhanced the ship with the addition of a variety of new specialty restaurants including a Brazilian steakhouse, a Mexican cantina, an Asian restaurant, a specialty hot dog stand, and a venue that serves more healthy light fare. The card room was also transformed into a room for the sophisticated Chef’s Table, where a small group of guests are led through a specially-prepared multi-course meal by a chef and a sommelier. These additions plus the existing Chops Grille steakhouse, give guests lots of choices. What makes the decision making more difficult is that the ship’s main dining room is quite spectacular.



Radiance is also elegant technologically. In many ways, she is like a fine European sports car. Her gas turbines combined with her azipod systems make her very fast and maneuverable. She is finely tooled for performance. As with a sports car, one may not need such performance on an everyday basis but it is neat to know that it is there.



Beyondships’ profile of Radiance of the Seas is at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-ROS-Profile.html. The multi-page photo guide begins at http://www.beyondships.com/RCI-ROS-Tour-1.html