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I just realized I'm way overdue for writing this. But that's good, it gives me a chance to remember what was easily the most amazing meal on my recent sailing on Freedom of the Seas! I booked this dining experience on the Cruise Planner, about 2 months ahead of our sail date, for $89. I got to choose from any night of our sailing, so I chose our third night (second sea day), figuring it would be better to enjoy this on a day when I wasn't completely worn out from a port day excursion. I did not receive a confirmation of this booking when we boarded. Instead, I had a paper delivered to the cabin on Night 2 noting to meet in Bolero's Lounge, where we would all be escorted to the actual table once everyone had arrived. Oddly, the invitation said to dress in Smart Casual style, where the Cruise Planner indicated Formal. I don't know if this was a glitch in the on-board system or if Royal is moving yet another dining venue to less formal wear, but I decided I was going to ignore this and dress as if it were formal night. And it was a good thing, as everyone else who showed up for the meal was also in their fancy dinner best! The experience actually started while waiting for everyone to gather, as we met the gentleman who would be our waiter, sommelier, and host. His name was Mario, and he came out dressed in a very formal charcoal gray suit and white gloves. If this wasn't an indication for everyone attending to be dressed formally, I don't know what is! That made the invitation's suggestion of Smart Casual even more inexplicable. Mario had a tray of champagne glasses waiting for us, and we were welcomed to enjoy a glass while we waited for everyone to gather. As I usually do on events like this, I showed up about 10 minutes early and ended up being the first one there. Mario and I chatted a bit, and he told me his nickname among the crew was "Super Mario" because of all the jobs he has to manage among the dining staff, including his role in the nightly Chef's Table experience. No, he's not that "Super Mario", but they actually do know each other and get along very well. The other guests arrived, and it turned out we were a small group -- only 7 total (I was the only solo guest, as I was never able to convince my younger daughter to join me). Two of the three couples were also from NJ, but much further south than me; the third couple were from Texas. We were told that normally they have between 12 and 15 guests each night, but for whatever reason this particular night had only about half that. Now the second discrepancy from the printed invitation came out – While the invitation said that we would be dining in Giovanni's Table, it turned out that our group was so small that evening that we would be dining in the MDR, on a small balcony towards the top of the staircase that's located between decks 4 and 5. This was kind of amusing, since we had the My Time dining folks on deck 5 and several of them walked down the stairs and past our table to leave; we got more than a few stares as they looked us in our finery and dining on food that was definitely not the same cut as what they had on their menus. I'm undecided if I preferred actually eating in the MDR, with the elegant decor all around us that I felt fit the theme of the night better, or if it would have been a little better to eat in Giovanni's just for a chance at fewer bystanders walking by. The view of the MDR from our private table / balcony, taken after the meal had ended Speaking of menus, we had our planned menu for the evening waiting for us at our places: We were told by Mario that the order of the menu was being adjusted slightly, so as to work better with the order in which the wines were being served. It was also explained to us that the menu was a little misleading in terms of the Entree selection, as there were really only two choices; the branzino or the filet mignon. The Truffle Tagliatelle was a Pasta course that would be served before the entrees, and have its own wine pairing. Finally, Mario pointed out the dessert – Yes, you're reading that right; we were going to be served the same dessert that is offered in Wonderland on the Quantum and Oasis class ships! All of us were super-excited when we saw this! Our scallop carpaccio was the only course served without a wine pairing, as it was intended as a palate cleanser. It was absolutely delicious, and as we ate the chef came out to tell us about the dish: what carpaccio meant (a dish of raw meat or seafood that was sliced very thinly), how the dish was prepared, and why each ingredient was chosen / how it enhanced the desired flavors; this would be repeated for each course, and I was really wishing my younger daughter was there as I know she would have absolutely loved this facet of the experience. Next up was the salad, a Maine lobster salad served with hearts of palm of and pineapple, and paired with a Chardonnay named Ausièrres Blanc. I never would have thought that pineapple and lobster would work, but it did and very well! And the Chardonnay was also very good; it's actually one of the few varieties of white wine that I like. Next was our soup course. This was a smoked tomato soup that had been in the smoker literally overnight; the soup actually smelled like barbecue sauce, the smoke flavor was so strong! It was served with a crouton, a slice of fresh parmesan, micro greens, and creme fraiche; the wine pairing was as rosé wine named Whispering Angel. All of us were quite surprised that a mildly flavored, more fruity rosé would be paired with something as bold and strongly flavored as this soup; many of us asked how the wine would not be overpowered by the soup, but Mario assured us that it would balance surprisingly well. And wouldn't you know it, he was right! I'm not a real fan of rosé wines, but this worked remarkably well and the wine itself was quite palatable for me. And the soup itself was amazing! Every one of us was gushing to Mario about how great it tasted; it may have smelled like barbecue sauce from the intense smoking, but the flavor was not at all overpowering, just this rich and intense flavor of the roasted tomato blending beautifully with the smokiness. We all were wishing there was some way to get some to take home and enjoy after our trip. Next we had our pasta course, a truffle tagliatelle. The pasta was freshly made, and the black truffles gave it a really distinctive flavor; not the same as truffle oil, though similar; it was much more intense and I found I much preferred it. The butter was very light, just enough to keep the pasta from sticking. And it was served with what was my favorite wine of the evening – a Tuscan red named Lucente LaVite. I ended up having 3 glasses of this! Next, our main entree was served. I chose the branzino, along with about half of the table, and it was served with a Pinot Grigio named Danzante. This white I wasn't as fond of, but the branzino was quite good. I'd never had it before, and the main reason I ordered it is because of all the seasons of Master Chef that I'd watched, where the restaurant takeover episode would have the contestants serving a branzino appetizer; I wanted to know what the heck this fish tasted like that was such a standard! ? Those who ordered the filet mignon had their entree paired with a Cabernet Sauvignon named Sequoia Grove. Each of us was allowed to try the other's wine to see how we liked it; I've never been a fan of Cab, and I found this one to be no different. I don't know what it is about that variety vs other reds, but I haven't yet found one that I don't wrinkle my mouth at after the first sip. Finally, it was time for dessert. Before we were served, Mario poured each of us a small glass of a late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc named Errazuriz. This was definitely a dessert wine, very sweet and not something to have with an earlier course. With the wine poured, each of us had a plated chocolate globe placed in front of us; not one who knew what this dessert was failed to take a "before" picture: Mario then went around the table with a gravy bowl filled with melted caramel, which was poured over the chocolate until the surprise inside was revealed. And again, not one of us who knew was this dessert was failed to have our phones out, ready to take video as our turn came to pass: We all agreed that this was one of the best desserts we'd ever had, whether we'd already gotten to enjoy it on a previous Oasis / Quantum cruise, or if it was the first time we'd had it. And the wine worked very well with this; I will have to remember to see if this wine or a similar one is offered when I sail Anthem in October, as my wife and I agreed we would like to try Wonderland during that trip. After dessert was done, we were allowed to enjoy another glass or two (or three!) of whichever wines we particularly enjoyed. Mario had multiple bottles of each one available, and we all stayed at the table for maybe another half hour while the plates were cleared and our chef came out one final time. We all thanked him heartily for one of the best meals we'd had, and each of us took our photos with him to remember the experience by. Yeah, I definitely look like I've been enjoying the La Volte Toscana by this time! Each of us was presented with a check showing a zero balance, but all of us wrote in an additional tip to cover the service and meal prep that went far above and beyond the price that we paid. I learned afterward that the tip was recorded in the final bill as a charge to Giovanni's Table, which makes sense since that was the originally planned venue. Keep this in mind should you decide to do Chef's Table yourself and also give an extra tip to your waiter and chef. Because believe me, after that meal and the wine, you may not remember doing it by the time you see your final cruise bill! ? That wraps up my review of Chef's Table. This is definitely a must-do experience at least once in your cruising life. And I have to say, the price is unbelievably reasonable considering typical on board prices for high end wines like the ones we were served. The Toscana that I enjoyed so much was over $30 a glass in Vintages, and even when I found it in my local wine store it was over $60 a bottle! Considering we were served 5 different wines, that's at least $90 in onboard pricing right there, considering that not one of the wines we were served would be an "average" wine found on the MDR menu or in the lower-priced section in Vintages; on land it would still have likely been at least $40 or $50 for the wines. And the food itself was easily a $125 affair if I had anything similar at a local land restaurant, keeping in mind that I'd likely have to travel to Manhattan or one of the more popular culinary hubs in northern NJ like Montclair, Ridgewood, or Morristown. For only $89, this meal was an absolute steal and one of the few true bargains I would argue you will find on board without buying a package of some sort. This is true fine dining and And don't feel that you can't bring your kids to this. I know I had asked about this months before my cruise and was told the same, but I want to just offer my own confirmation now. As long you have kids with an adventurous palate or who enjoy gourmet cooking, they'll be fine with this. And while they can't drink the wines offered, as I noted the meal alone is easily worth more than the price you're charged. On the other hand, it also makes for one hell of a date night with your SO if you can arrange for the kids to be left at Adventure Ocean or the nursery.

Main Dining Room: Day 1 dinner menu: With a 6pm dinner but an 8:30pm sail away it left some time after dinner to explore the ship. It did feel odd after the muster drill at 4:30pm not immediately having sail way but it allowed me to have a few diamond happy hour drinks and take some pictures around the ship. The peak-a-boo bridge. More on that later.

Welp, here we are two weeks away from our cruise, can't believe how fast the time has passed from when we booked. If its any indication of how excited I am, I have two bags packed already ?. Well one is really just really things I know I wont be wearing the next two weeks like my sports jacket and some beach stuff and the other is my camera bag with my camera, lenses. and tripod. Here is what we decided on and have booked for each of our ports Labadee - Zipline, coaster and inflatable waterpark (I might be more excited for that than my kids lol) Jamacia - Dolphin encounter Cozumel - Mr Sanchos, maybe a little shopping downtown also On the boat Have a show booked pretty much each evening Dreamworks breakfast Internet package Soda package

Day 2 - St. Maarten No official excursion today although I did get a letter in my cabin with a 20% offer if I took it to the Shore Excursion desk to book one. Instead of booking something through Royal I jumped in a shared cab to Maho Beach for $16 roundtrip. This is the beach at the end of the runway for the airport on the Dutch side of the island. I had looked up incoming flights and scheduled my day to arrive when a couple of larger jets would be arriving. First WestJet from Toronto: A few minutes a Delta jet from Atlanta arrived: A JetBlue plane took off between the two arrivals. I had been sitting on a beach towel lined up with center of the runway. When I saw the JetBlue plane getting to takeoff I moved over closer to the Sunset bar. I've been here before and didn't want to discover sand in crevices I didn't my body had for the next week. A short time later that group of friends in the water when WestJet arrived broke into cheers and I looked over to see a guy had hit the sand on his knees and opened a ring box that he was presenting to a girl standing there in shock. Before I could react and try to save him, she accepted. Another man down. With that it was time for a beverage so I jumped in a taxi and headed back to the cruise ship pier. I decided to contribute to the local economy before getting back on board. $3 plus tip or 2 for $5.

Cabin Tour! 9532 port side forward balcony The balconies on Adventure are somewhat cove type in nature. Lots of privacy from neighbors.

I'm doing something I never do and don't recommend. I'm flying in the day of the cruise, tomorrow. Coming from the US West I'm taking a red eye tonight at midnight to NYC then off to San Juan in the morning landing in San Juan at 12:05pm. I booked air through Royal's Air2Sea program plus I have travel insurance so between the two and with a evening sail away I'm rolling the dice. I came across a deal on this 5 Night cruise and couldn't pass it up. $549 all in, solo in a balcony with $50 OBC. Air2Sea was actually cheaper than Delta direct plus it provides some limited coverage in case of delays. Between air and cruise fare I'm right at $1k for this trip. Shortly after I booked the news of a cheap cruise broke and many members of the RCPeriscopers.live group jumped on board including @mpoole3 who will be live blogging on the main page of RoyalCaribbeanBlog.com so this will be a light blog for me. Keep an eye on the main page for his blog. We have one port of call on this cruise, St Maarten. I have no plans this time and may just take a taxi to Maho Beach and explore that area and a few beaches nearby. On my last stop in St. Maarten I took a coastal catamaran and we sailed past Maho Beach but we were offshore. There are few other beaches close by so I may just beach hop this time. After St Maarten on day 2 we have 3 sea days on our way to Bayonne, NJ where Adventure will spend the summer alternating embarkations with Anthem. On this cruise I transferred the booking over to mpoole3's brother who is a travel agent which netted another $50 in OBC. Consequently gratuities are covered and I'll have little left over for a few drinks since I'm sailing without a drink package. I'm traveling light having crammed everything into a 22" carry on suitcase. That'll help if I have flight delays or need to leverage Air2Sea to fly me to St. Maarten. I should have enough time for a shower in the JFK Delta Sky club in the morning. With no checked luggage I'll have everything with me in the club and as soon as I board Adventure in San Juan. Two other new additions for me on this cruise are a new travel router and some iPhone lens(es). Credit for this travel router goes to @Galveston Steve and credit for the Moment iPhone lens goes to @JLMoran. Indeed this blog has the effect of causing people including myself to spend some money! I've used the new travel router on a couple of business trips to share my free wifi plan on Delta courtesy of TMobile so my non-TMobile work phone and laptop could join. It worked well for that so in the interest of traveling light I'm leaving my trusted travel router at home. It's been a while since I've taken a red eye but it's practice for my overnight flight to Barcelona to join Symphony on her transatlantic to America in October. Looks like my inbound aircraft is now in the air on its way here. So far so good.

Thanks. Dumb luck really, night shots are usually taken after diamond happy hour, so... I'll try to get some shots to show the balcony on a sea day coming up. You get a good view when sitting but more private. You do need to lean onto the railing to look down at the pier or ocean. All iPhone photos. I am experimenting with 'Moment' app so some are shot with that, some with the native camera app. No tripod on this trip, all handheld.

@hayley_bopp, we just followed the principle "it never hurts to ask". I don't think the group size would matter so much, since a larger group means they already have that much more money put in to cover the extra bottles needed, but you could be right if they budget a certain number of bottles per night ahead of time; in that situation, our basically half-normal size group was just getting lucky. I imagine they also regularly get guests who don't drink but are dining with spouses / significant others who do, which also leaves room in the "budget" each meal for some extra glasses to served without charge. I would guess that if they do pre-budget a certain amount, and guests then ask for additional that goes over the budget, at that point they would just start charging the normal per-glass rate to your Sea Pass card, or maybe a per-bottle rate split among the group if everyone asks for a particular wine. Denying guests additional glasses at all would probably not go over well. Oh, and I forgot to note that the entire meal was a good three hours, plus the half hour or so after dessert that we spent chatting and enjoying our extra glasses. It was 9:30 by the time we all got up to leave, so do plan on seeing only late-seating shows that evening, or just going to the pub or another of the smaller venues and watching whoever is performing live that night.

I know. I was very surprised. I am in charge of planning. Everybody is happy.

We arrived into San Juan a few minutes early. Standard approach with views of Old San Juan on the left side of the plane. New San Juan: Off the plane a few minutes before noon. Signs and a kiosk near baggage claim pointed to the Royal Caribbean transfer desk. Checked luggage is accepted here and placed on a truck. Have your luggage tags handy as you won't see you bags again until they are delivered to your stateroom. I only had carry on and the bus isn't really set up for people with carry on luggage, requiring a seat be used for it. Rumors of a delayed embarkation, boarding apparently started at noon. A simple extension cord was confiscated. Security was the most thorough that I've seen. I had to argue to keep my cell phone charger but in the end they relented. It's a European style that plugs into the euro power port on board leaving the North American outlet for other things. They asked me if I was from Europe. Sure, if I can keep my charger, yes, I am! Ten minutes spent having them go through every layer of clothes in my carry on. Despite that I was on board by 12:45pm. The escalators to the upper floor where the main gangway is located are broken so we boarded on the pier where you would normally would at a port of call. It's 1:35pm and they just announced cabins are ready. Time to check out my cabin!

For me, the secret is to always get the horseradish and a bit of au jus. I friggin' love horseradish, so your mileage may vary. The au jus also makes it a little sloppy. I'm OK with that. I'm a little bit sloppy as well. I find a dark corner and eat my daily ration of one sloppy Kummelweck sandwich per day, with jus dishonorably dripping down my arms. Just the one, as far as anyone else knows.

If it's not being displayed, it is most likely either chartered or sold out - with the charter being more likely than a sell out this far out.

Thank you for the review! Just sealed my decision to book Chefs Table on AOS in August! It will be our Anniversary! I can’t wait!

I am going to sign up for July on Majesty.

@Sweety, great news! And a little surprising -- From the time when I'd been tracking, SWA and the other low-cost carriers tended to either sell out or go way up in price inside the 90-day mark (if they aren't sold out well before then). Maybe I was just being too picky about the flight times, so I saw some artificially limited results.

Following as always! So glad you decided to blog. Looking forward to some great Adventure pics, especially with your new toys. Safe travels @twangster!

Scroll down to the section labeled "Specialty dining" https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2016/08/08/food-royal-caribbean-cruise

No worries at all Annette. My intention wasn't to air my dirty laundry but to provide honest feedback of my experience to the OP. Thanks!

Todd, Our goal at MEI-Travel it to make the planning and rechecking process on reservations easier for you - not to add stress or not provide information to you. I am sorry that this ball got dropped on the quote. I am looking into this and going to speak to the agent, but I wanted to reach out and let you - and anyone else reading this know - that if you ever encounter any issues with an agent, I am here to help. At any time you can contact me at [email protected] and let me know what is going on. I will then find a better fit for you within the agency. Thank you for your honest feedback. The only way to improve sometimes is to know of a weakness.

Haha! I always say that I am Hubby's personal TA/genie too but he says that I am the TA that he never asked for ?

Don't go in with the mentality that you have to see and do it all. bring a highlighter with you and once on board, go through the cruise compass and highlight those "must do" items that are top priority for you. Give yourself some room to just "wing it" while on board. Half the fun is just wondering around meeting people and seeing where you end up. The first cruise my wife and I went cruised, i tried to make sure we did as much as possible and we ran ourselves ragged. It's a vacation, relax and have fun! cheers!

These two posts above are completely contradictory. I have to completely agree with @Garnet21 here. I am in no way saying that what you observed is acceptable but you were on a cruise that departed from China. Obviously, there would be many Chinese people there with their own cultural differences. That being said, I myself am I huge germaphobe, and knowing that, there are places in the world that I would never consider visiting because of cultural differences and what is considered acceptable hygiene. But that choice is my own, and if I were to go willingly, then I would have to tolerate the differences in cultures. As far as enforcing any rules, as noted on many other threads, even the enforcing of dress codes in the MDR and hand washing is quite relaxed. It would be difficult to implement rules on this one. No one here works for RC either. We are just a community of people who love RC or want to learn more about RC. Writing to RC directly or noting your concerns on your post cruise survey might be more constructive. And this is the bottom line right here.

The Master list?

We were upgraded from an Oceanview to a verandah cabin, but asked to go back to the cabin we had as the upgrade was to far forward. We then arrived to the pier and received a $200+ bill for a complimentary upgrade that we didn't accept. It was eventually figured out and we received a complimentary dinner at Chops for the confusion.

LOL...My wife received an email from RCI that stated "here's the requested receipt" which i asked her if she had requested one. She had not. So i logged into RCI to check what was going on, as our cruise was paid in full. That's when i noticed we were on a different floor...then i noticed we had been upgraded from a JS to 2BR suite. No phone calls asking for additional money requested...just a fantastic upgrade that we enjoyed and are willing to take at any time. :-)

We once had a free upgrade on Liberty from a Grand Suite to an Owners Suite. We were so surprised it should happen to us.