I've already reported the negatives of the vibrating stern suites on "Cruise Talk", and am happy to say that is just about the only negative there was on the VTC, to our experience. By topic, here are some other items that may be of interest.

THE SHIP:
We arrived at LAX between noon and 1:00 PM on sailing day. From fellow guests, we heard there had been some delays in Radisson's transfers to the ship but we had no problem as the bus was ready when we were. Once onboard, it was the customary VERY short line, champagne in hand, to check in. We were invited to wait on the pool deck and enjoy lunch and meet fellow guests until our suites were ready, estimated at 3:00 PM. They were ready at 2:30, and all our luggage was already there.

We had some concerns, as the ship was totally full. The concerns proved to be groundless, as the service and food was fully up to Radisson's high standards, and perhaps a bit above. We generally dined in the Compass Rose, had lunch at La Veranda, and had room service breakfast. Room service was especially fast and efficient, considering the ship was full. We also dined in Signatures and La Veranda. We skipped Latitudes, as the menues there are not exactly our personal favorite foods. Food everywhere we experienced was excellent, plus. We must confess to not having seen much of the evening entertainment, as we arrived at most of the ports early, and we are old! What we saw was top notch. There were several top notch lecturers onboard. The ones we were able to hear were Dick Holt and his lectures on the building of the Voyager and the Panama Canal, and Robert McFarlane (former member of President Reagan's administration) and his lectures on world afairs, then and now. One of the most interesting features of the latter was his not-too-complementary comments concerning the present administration and the present war. I shall go no further on this subject, as it is beyond the scope of this board. Suffice it to say that I was most surprised at the even handed treatment of this most controversial matter. Since we have been sailing Radisson the past two+ years, we have seen much greater emphasis placed on the lecture program, and that's a good thing!

THE ITINERARY:
From LA, we had two sea days to Puerto Vallarta, then Manzanillo, Acapulco, Huatulco, Puerto Quetzal Guatemala, San Juan Del Sur Nicaragua. This was followed by a day at sea, the Panama Canal transit, a "technical stop" (more about this later) at San Andres Island, Grand Cayman, Day at sea, then cruise end in Ft. Lauderdale. I'll omit mention of Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco, and Grand Cayman as these are frequently visited, and there is so much information out there about them. The others are more unusual, so here is a brief account of our visit there.

Manzanillo:
This is an industrial port, and without taking a very long tour to another area, it really is of little tourist interest in itself.

Huatulco:
Remember this place. If your Spanish is as bad as mine, pronounce it "Wah-tool-co" and you'll be understood. It's in the middle of a national park, with nine scenic bays, and is just now developing up in selected and approved areas, with strict architectural restrictions, with the intent of it becomming the "Jewel of Pacific Mexico". Property prices there are still low, and legal schemes have been put in place to allow US citizens to buy property there within 32 kilometers of the beach, which Mexico generally prohibits.Heck, we may move there! We took the Five Bays Cateraman excursion to see unspoiled coastline and natural beaches. The only negative is that the snorkeling isn't great there, as is true of all of Pacific Mexico.

Guatemala:
Lynn87 and her husband Richard set up a private tour for us with them. We went to Antigua to see the Spanish Colonial Architecture and visit the Jade jewelery factory and shop there. Guatemallan Jade is a lighter green than Chineese Jade, and also comes in blue, pearl, and the levender that was discovered after Hurricane Mitch in 1998. Prices weren't bad, especially if one opted for silver mountings rather than gold. Then we went into the countryside to a small hotel that used to be a coffee plantation and met with some of the indiginous people and viewed their handicrafts. One 11 year old boy was most taken with my wife's nail polish and wanted some for himself! In the best Spanish I could muster, I told him "Senioritas si, Hombres no.

Nicaragua:
It's a long way from the port to anything. We chose to go to the City of Granada, which is about a two hour drive each way. So ones spends more time on the road than in town. And of all the third world countries I've seen, Nicaragua is either the most "third world" or close to it. Yet, it was an interesting cultural experience. And a BIG bottle of beer is only $1 US, so you know I'd be happy! Notwithstanding this, as a cruise ship stop this was far from the best, due to the distance from the port to get anywhere remotely of interest.

Panama Canal Crossing:
Frankly, this is the main reason most guests booked this cruise. Definitely the high point. As I am old and have forgotten most of my high school and undergraduate history and geography, I had actually expected to traverse a long canal. Wrong. From the Pacific side, the ship goes through two channels with locks. The channels are a little over 1000' long and 110'wide. The ship is pulled through by diesel electric locomotives called "mules", two at the bow and two at the stern on each side attached to the ship by cables as the water rises. Then the ship enters the man-made Gatun lake for most of its journey through Panama. We stopped at what is called the Gatun Yacht club (where there are no yachts, by the way) for an included party, local entertainment, and the opportunity to buy hand crafted items from the local indiginous people. To enter the Atlantic or Caribbean, the ship went through one lock in the same manner where the water level fell to sea level. Everybody's got to do this at least once.

San Andres Island:
This was a "technical stop" only, and only a few tenders ran and few got off the ship. We didn't, but should have done so.This island is part of the South American country of Colombia, though it is just off the east coast of Nicaragua. Because our cruise departed from a US city different than its destination in the US, the infamous Jones Act required it to make a stop at a foriegn country OTHER than Mexico, Central America, or the Caribbean to be in compliance. Thus, this two hour stop at an island that is technically part of South America. But those that did visit the island reported that it was beautiful and unspoiled, with nice beaches. It's too bad that a REAL stop at San Andres couldn't have been subsituted for Manzanillo.

In conclusion, the fact that all these othere elements of the cruise were so great made our vibrating and shaking cabin (and my wife's resulting illness) easier to bear, in one sense. In another sense, these facts made the cabin problems harder to bear, as they diminished what otherwise would have been a near perfect cruise.

Thanks,
Richard :) :) :)

Thanks Richard, I appreciate the time you always take to make a detailed review when you return. Wahtoolco sounds very interesting. Maybe we can get a gang of LCTers and retire there!

enjoyed your report, Richard. Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences with us.

Since we had to disembark in Acapulco because of Marty's broken leg I really enjoyed hearing about the part of the cruise that we missed.I will print your comments and take it to him in the hospital.
Enjoyed meeting you and sorry that we weren't able to see more of you.I am sure that you and Marty would have enjoyed talking about cars.

Bette:

Perhaps if insurance came through fully for you, both of you could try it again someday. I too am sorry about the injury. The LEAST of the reasons is that I didn't get to talk cars with Marty. The GREATEST reason is that the start of a two week cruise is the worst time to suffer a debilitating accident ---- though there never is a good time.

But if Mary wants to "talk cars", he is always free to email me. Or, as I did once, he can actually post a car oriented thread right here on LCT. Nigaire will allow it, and once I posted a thread a bout "German Cars" and it had about 80 responses!

Thanks,
Richard

Richard, Good review. I also enjoyed your posts from on board. Thanks for sharing your experence.

Betty

Richard, great report. Sounds like some of the ports are better treated as "sea days" and I hope RSSC listens to what you said about San Andres or whatever it is, as a full day rather than a couple of hours. I visited Hualtulco with two of my children on our coinciding spring breaks when I went back to school in the mid-90's and it was beautiful, but not as pretty as Ixtapa (that is a purely phonetical spelling of the place)! Glad to hear you had a great time! Question, is Carol subject to seasickness or could this possibly have been a stomach virus? Your experience was so bad, I just have to ask. I remember folks coming back after the Voyager came out of drydock after the rock incident complaining about cabins at the rear of the ship, but nothing quite this bad. I got so alarmed that I called my TA for June to get my H category changed, and he reports that he has had about 25 people get back from the Voyager, several on the world cruise, and heard no complaints, but he said that none of them were in the stern suites. He even communicated with Captain Dag, who reported to him that "at some speeds there is a slight vibration in the rear due to harmonics in the propulsion system". At any rate, he has asked his sales rep to get me more forward if there are cabins available. From your description of what happened, it was so vivid to me that I had a bad dream about it happening to me! (That's when I e-mailed my TA) I sort of imagined it like a tail-spin of sorts. At any rate, I am sorry that you had this experience, but hope it was an isolated one, not to be repeated. And, of course, glad to hear all the rest was up to Radisson's standards. When's your next cruise? Did you do any onboard booking?

jhp:

Yes, we booked the Diamond Venice/Athens May28, 2005. No, Carol is not subject to seasickness. We have cruised the Navigator TWICE and Carol said "What vibration?" Moreover, we cruised the RCI Grandeur right through Hurricane Floyd in Sept. 99 with no problems. Neither of us have ever had ANY motion sickness in our long lives! I apprecieated your saying, we are not complainers about small things. (Actually, I'm not even a complainer about open bar. I'm just a "suggestor".)But the motion in our VTC cabin was really bad. Not a few shakes. Not a few creaks. You've got those on any ship. If one doesn't like them, stay home! You are very correct that these cabins were not occupied on the world cruise, which was not so full as to require it. Now, I wonder why?? Capt. Dag's remarks were true. at below 14 or 15 knots there was no problem. But as we approached 20 knots (at which the ship had to cruise much of the time to stay on schedule), the vibration was bad. Above 20 knots, a jerking from side to side was present. But the rest of the cruise was great! I'd take the Voyager again, but I would stay away from the stern portion. Something is wrong back there.

Thanks,
Richard

Richard - thanks for the review! I would LOVE to do the canal one of these days. I'll have to park it in the back of my memory ...

Masaki

Richard -- Thanks for the informative review of the VTC ports. A canal cruise is on my list, and as we pick one it will be good to have your port reviews to help with the choice.

Richard,

Thanks for the report...glad to hear you had a memorable visit in Guatemala! Yes Guatemalan jade is world famous and in some circles the most prized, especially the recently discovered lavender viens...the majority found in my home state of Zacapa! Too bad the stop in San Andres was short, because it is really beautiful!

I wish we had bought some more of the Guatamalan Jade!

As far as the matter of some of the ports actually being better used as sea days is concerned, I would put Manzanillo only in that classification. We couldn't find much to do there, and the always honest tour desk people said the six hour bus rides offered by the ship "might not be worth the time."

But to be fair, the ship had a destination (the Canal), limited speed, and a set route. Ports had to be selected from that route that would fit a schedule.And frankly, the Pacific side of Mexico may not be one of our favorite parts of the world, but we realize it is a necessary route if we want to experience the Canal. What I wish is that Manzanillo could have been deleted and San Andres Island (a required Jones Act stop) could have been used for a "private beach day" like they have on the Paul Gauguin. Logistics and timing might have been a problem with this, and I'm not smart enought to know the answer.

Thanks,
Richard :) :) :)