The Radiance of the Seas is the lead ship in the Royal Caribbean Radiance Class with 2500 passengers and over 850 crew. She is smaller and doesn’t feel anywhere near as crowded as the fancy new classes of ships that hold two and three times as many passengers. Miranda and I also tried out a porthole cabin for the first time and decided it was probably the worst of both worlds. No balcony to go outside, but all the light to wake you up, even using a document clip to try to keep the curtain closed couldn’t keep enough light out. We’ll stick with interior cabins over the porthole cabins for sure. We also tried the third deck for the first time and found it to be surprisingly accommodating. Most people queuing to leave the ship get stopped at deck four, so we never really had to wait in line to leave. We were only three decks below the Schooner Bar and the eight flights we had to walk up to the Windjammer made us feel a little better about our dessert choices. Another nice thing about being so low in the ship was that we felt very little of the motion from the waves or wind. The one new oddity we discovered is that Royal Caribbean has begun to install motion sensing lights just inside the cabin door. This makes middle of the night bathroom trips safer for one person and even more annoying for the other.

Boarding the cruise ship in Tampa was a very easy and streamlined process. From the time we were dropped off until we were sitting on deck was no more than 20 minutes. Sailing out of Tampa is a longer process than the other Florida ports, but the reward at the end is going under the Sunshine Skyway, which is lit up at night with a multicolor display.

Cozumel, Mexico

We arrived in Cozumel to an overcast day and busy port. There were six ships in port that day, reminiscent of our last few days in the Bahamas before COVID shut everything down. We had scheduled an excursion through Royal, the Legacy of the Maya: Ruins, and Chocolate Tasting. After disembarking, we did a short walk around the vendor village area and then met Edwin, our guide for the day. We loaded aboard a coach with about 40 people and headed to The Mayan Cacao Company. The facility is a chocolatier, Mayan history exhibit, and bird sanctuary with a number of rescue parrots. This stop includes some chocolate tastings, chocolate making demonstration, and a bar with multiple chocolate themed drinks. A trip through the gift shop later and we were back on the bus headed to the Mayan Bee Sanctuary. On the drive around the island, we saw several four-person rental cars with their tops cut off and scooters. There’s really just the one main road around the island, so this could be a fun way to spend the next trip here. The bee sanctuary was a total tourist trap, it wasn’t even mentioned on the itinerary but we went with it. The first part was a Mayan walking us through a traditional ceremony, and then a couple of photos and a walk through some craft buildings. Our next stop was the main attraction, the Mayan ruins at San Gervasio. This walking tour lasted about an hour and we explored a number of sights that we shared with a few sunbathing iguanas. At one point, Miranda wandered off to checkout a small house and we made the decision to leave her if she didn’t catch up. Eventually she did, and we were back aboard the coach heading to the port.

Our southernmost stop was Roatan, an island off the coast of Honduras. We didn’t do an excursion through the cruise line, instead this was a recommendation from our favorite travel agent at USAA. The company was called Victor Bodden Tours and we picked their Sloths & Party Boat tour. It started with finding the company in the row of vendors just outside the cruise village, which was easy with the instructions they gave use. The four of us boarded our bus with our driver, Louis, and learned it would just be us. We drove down the coast a bit and then inland to Victor's Monkey & Sloth Sanctuary. Here we got to go into some of the enclosures to interact with the animals. First were the capuchin monkeys, who seemed to prefer Todd as the high ground of the group. We got pictures and videos of them jumping from person to person and perching on our heads. After about 10 minutes of filling in for their normal climbing equipment, we moved on. There were a couple of spider monkeys, but we didn’t go in with them as they aren’t quite as agreeable as some of the others. Our next experience was letting their resident friendly macaw sit on our shoulder and jump on our heads. We didn’t know this going in, but the macaw exacts a price in the form of a piece of our shirts. Our last experience was getting to hold the sloths. They had a number of them out that we got to hold and a couple of newborns that we got to watch. We saw a few of the other animals they care for before getting back on the road. Our next stop was the party boat, and sure enough, it was just the four of us again. Our crew operated a tritoon boat with a large flat deck and a bar in the middle. This boat could have held 40-50 people, so having it to ourselves was pretty cool. The boat took us out and east down the sandy bay coast. The reef here is anywhere from 100 to 200 yards offshore and it creates a calm swimming and boating area with the waves crashing against the rock and coral. The bartender started making drinks, from daiquiris to dirty monkeys and canned beers, they had a pretty good selection. We started to get a little nervous that this wasn’t an open bar, even though the description clearly says it is. Most of the time it’s a rum punch or some other watered-down drink on a party boat, but not with these guys! About halfway down the coast, we entered into a small, protected area that is home to the Roatan Institute for Marine Sciences and a diving resort. There are pens with a large number of dolphins that we could see from the boat. We got to see them training and being fed, as well as a number of dive boats coming and going from the resort. Our final stop was Nikki's Coral Garden, where we anchored for about an hour to swim. The ride back included lunch and then we parted ways with the crew and met up with Louis. Our two stops on the way back to the ship were Mayak Chocolate for a little shopping, and then the Roatan sign along the coast.

At-Sea Day

We were up early for our port of call in Belize since it was a tender port, meaning we’d have to ride the small boats ashore. The weather was pretty ugly out, but we had hope that it would clear up. As we finished breakfast, we got a message from Todd and Vivian saying they were turned away from their excursion meeting place because the stop had been cancelled. Sure enough, a few minutes later the captain came over the speaker and said that the high winds would keep us from being able to make our scheduled stop. Getting into the waters off the coast of Belize City requires picking up a pilot at English Caye Lighthouse and then navigating a narrow channel to reach the protected anchorage. The winds were nearly double what were forecasted and this made it impossible for our ship to safely get in. That means we’d get an unscheduled at-sea day. These are interesting because the crew has backup after backup ready to roll but we didn’t find out for a couple of hours what was in store. Our day ended up consisting of trivia, trivia, and more trivia. Our win in the morning trivia brought our win count to four for the cruise. After dinner we watched a rock cover band but just before the show started, we were informed that our port the next day was also cancelled due to weather and we’d be returning to Cozumel, which was nicer than another at-sea day. Following the concert, we settled into the Colony Club for the night. First up was the Yes/No game where the host attempts to get his guest to say yes or no during a three-minute interview. Vivian went up last and killed it. We rapped the night up with karaoke.

AT-Sea Day

Out last full day was an at-sea day. A chance to sleep in, pack, and not get blown overboard. Going from 70’s to 60’s doesn’t sound like a huge change, but add in 35 mph winds and it started to feel more like an Alaskan cruise on deck. Miranda and Vivian got a climb in on the ships climbing wall. We also competed in the last few trivia rounds but we only placed second twice, which was unfortunate since we had a ringer in Vivian for Name That Tune: Bagpipe Edition. The bagpiper onboard said he used to play for the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, and Vivian owns four of their albums. I’m pretty sure the perfectly innocent looking lady at the bar who beat us was cheating. We almost didn’t get a chance to finish the night with this game because fifteen minutes before it was scheduled to start, we heard a message over the intercom that was barely audible over the music of the previous show. The one thing that was clear though, was that as soon as it ended, crew members were quickly making their way towards the forward section of the ship. Not long after that, the music stopped and the water tight doors began to close. It wasn’t clear to us that we could still open these doors, so we found ourselves “trapped” in different sections of the ship. While I was in the staircase area, people complained of being able to smell smoke. Miranda, Todd, and Vivian were in the Centrum and heard another message about a fire in the forward laundry room. I saw a crew member open one of the doors and I walked through behind them back to the Centrum. Shortly afterwards we got a message on the intercom that the crew was dealing with an issue and asked us to stand by for further announcements. We took the opportunity to return to our rooms for passports and jackets in case we found ourselves heading to our muster stations. The Centrum appeared to be a rally point as groups of crew members gathered, were given instructions, and proceeded to their assigned locations. About ten minutes later the all-clear was given and the captain came over the intercom to let us know there had been a fire in the forward laundry room, but the situation was now under control. The night got back on track with our bagpiper trivia and then a Couples Game in the Colony Club before we turned in for the night. During one of the last nights, we finally discovered a solution for the new motion light in the room. The roof panels are made of metal, and there’s a magnetic Do Not Disturb sign attached to the metal cabin door.