FionaMG

What language do they speak? Like many other crew members Adventure Ocean staff come from all different countries and often speak more than one language. Even if nobody speaks your children's language, the staff will do their very best to make sure they are included. Kids are great at non-language communication anyway, much more so than adults. It's been a long time since my kids were young enough to go to Adventure Ocean so I can't remember the exact age groups but unless there are only a few kids on board, they do usually stick to the stipulated age groups. I have heard of an older child being allowed to move down an age group but not the other way round. This is something that you would need to discuss with the AO staff on the day. Be sure to go along with your children to the open session on the very first day. You'll find details of when it is in the cruise compass.

Just edited this bit of my post as I missed out an essential "not": The folks in Italy, Spain and France may not accept dollars and if they do you can be sure the exchange rate will not be in your favour.

In the western Med the only thing you need dollars for is the casino on board the ship, so if you're planning on making a contribution there it might be worth getting some dollars. Otherwise, unless you're planning on paying your onboard account in cash, you really don't need to take dollars at all. Incidental expenditure aboard the ship will be priced in dollars but it'll be charged to whatever card you set up for your onboard account. Be sure to have them charge it in dollars and not pounds, leaving your CC company to do the exchange. The exchange rate is bad enough at the moment without you supplementing Royal by letting them charge you an even worse exchange rate. All of your ports are in the euro zone so that's the currency you're going to need. The folks in Italy, Spain and France may not accept dollars and if they do you can be sure the exchange rate will not be in your favour. Even if you want to tip somebody like a tour guide, it's much better to do it in euros. If you give them dollars they're going to have to exchange them and chances are they'll lose out by doing so. Any additional tips you may want to give crew will be just as gratefully received in euros as in dollars, since the euro is reasonably strong at the moment.

I am guessing that at 15 feet it's probably long enough to plug in at the desk or wherever the nearest outlet is and still have the device next to the bed.

Oh my, keeping my fingers crossed for you that it turns out to be something you'll be pleased with.

All those of you who enjoy chef's table should be sure to comment on this on your end-of-cruise surveys. Maybe corporate will listen. I have never done it because I don't drink wine but I definitely agree that as a concept it should be the chef on the day that designs the menu and not some pen-pusher back in head office.

Prices fluctuate wildly and largely unpredictably depending on how well or how badly a particular item is selling so you should buy when you see a price you are comfortable with. Thereafter it is important to keep checking your cruise planner daily because you are not locked in to the original price you paid. If you see the item cheaper later on you can cancel and rebook without penalty. The only thing is, you will have to pay again and it may take up to about 10 days for the refund of your original purchase to show up in your account. Note too, that the cruise planner closes for purchases 3 days before sailing. After that, you will only be able to buy on board and it is almost always more expensive. Hope this helps. Have a great cruise.

I have not been there myself but my niece spoke very highly of the Melia at Cable Beach. Said it was one of the best she'd been to. Maybe you could check out day passes there? She and her husband got a taxi to get there.

Sent. Hope it helps.

I've had no problems either, touch wood, been in at least once or twice a day (my name's Fiona and I'm an obsessive planner ?). Seriously, though, try clearing cookies, using a different device or using a different browser. I find an incognito window often does the trick.

Hi Richk. We did an 11-night Serenade cruise in November/December 2017 for our wedding anniversary and it was great. Our itinerary was not exactly the same as yours but we did visit 3 of the ones you'll be going to. I did a post-cruise review of it but it was over on another forum, so I'll send you a private message with the link so you can read it if you like. I'm sure your going to have a fabulous time!

PMs sent. Hope I've done it right and you all get them. Thanks again to @tiny260 for suggesting it.

Yes, on the menus I saw from a recent Explorer cruise, they were in addition to. Those menus looked a lot more interesting than the ones I'm seeing on the app for my upcoming Adventure cruise.

Oooh, I didn't realise that was a thing (brainwashed by CC). I will do that. Thank you for the tip. ?

Sounds like you may be doing the same one we did last November / December. We were on Navigator but I believe it's Explorer doing that route this year? I actually did a joint live report on it over on CC. I'm too new to this board to know if I'd be allowed to post a link to that review but I can tell you it was a fantastic cruise. My personal favourite was Aruba, where we just caught a cab to Eagle Beach. So beautiful and one of my top favourite spots from all our cruises. I'll be happy to provide the link if one of the Mods says it's ok to do so, but in the meantime here are a couple of pics of Eagle to get you in the mood. ?

The curries and, for dessert, the hot bread pudding. Yum. ?

Click on the head+shoulders icon top-centre-right. This opens up a new page where you'll see your name with a wheel next to it. Click on the wheel. This opens up the settings page. The sign out button is all the way down at the bottom.

Yes, it is totally allowed. As far as I know, pretty much every restaurant will plate up and cover food for you to take away with you or, in the case of the WJ, you can just get it yourself. I have heard various people say they especially do this with dessert at dinner because they're too full to eat it at the time but want to enjoy it later, as a late night snack. One thing to bear in mind is that the "fridges" in the rooms are not really fridges, more like coolers, so you shouldn't store anything perishable in them for any more than a couple of hours at the most.

Ha ha, us too! ?

Although some seem to be a bit more interesting than others. The ships sailing from the UK, for example, have pies and curries on some of their menus.

Yup. Case in point. Navigator last November, the two people at the table next to ours took about 3 bites before abandoning the rest. ?

I did actually hear of some people who signed up to their local (can't remember what sport it was) club because even with the cost of the membership fee they were still able to save on the cost of the hotel room with the MVP rates!

If you're talking about the "Register Now" link part way down the page, you don't need to do that. All you need is to already be a Hilton Honors member, which I'm guessing you probably are since you said you usually stay at Hilton brand hotels, and to be able to prove some sort of sports affiliation when you check in, in case they ask you for it (a golf or tennis club membership or something like that. I do competitive athletics, which qualifies me for it). At some point during the booking process I think they prompt you to insert your HH number.

I don't suppose you have any sort of sports affiliation? If you have you could try pricing it through the MVP programme, which can sometimes work out cheaper. Link here: https://stay.hilton.com/mvp/

Yes, indeed. We actually used Uber as flew in from across the pond with heavy bags, but our son came in from the West Coast to join us with just hand luggage and he used the rail system. The station is only about 100 yards from the hotel.