wstephensi

It depends. There was an eveving where we went through a pretty good storm, but because we of the way (and speed) we were moving, the rain all hit the front of the ship. We had the front-most balcony where you could not only see out the side, but out the front as well via a clear plexiglass shield. We sat out there for hours with drinks, watching the rain and the lightning over the open sea, and didn't get a drop of rain on us. 

One of our "favorites" is breakfast on the balcony - room service breakfast, then enjoy outside!

Sorry to hear. It was so beautiful when we visited in October.  It was our favorite port of the cruise.

I respect that people may have the "worst cruise" ever, but what thing or things made it so.

Next cruise will put us at D+.  It only took us 23 years and a pandemic with double points.  
Don't see Pinnacle happening in this life time. 

Next cruise will put us at D+.  It only took us 23 years and a pandemic with double points.  
Don't see Pinnacle happening in this life time. 

We had an arrival time window from 11:30 am to noon. We arrived around 11:20am. We went right through (OK, we had also a Jr. Suite, not sure if that makes a difference). The boarding was quick for us, except that we had to go 3 rounds until they could ready our boarding passes. They had a technical issue with 2 readers.
Markus

Here a short summary of our latest cruise on the Adventure of the Seas. The good stuff first:

·        Ports of call were great: Boston, MA - Bar Harbor, ME - Portland, ME – Saint John, NB – Halifax, NS. Regardless of the colder and mostly rainy weather we enjoyed mostly self-guided tours. The Hop-on/Hop-off “Pink Bus” in Saint John was great and provided a good overview of the area. The final walk through the city was nice too. The 7-hour “Top 10 best of Halifax tour” was nice, but way too rainy and cold. We even had a leak in the bus dripping water on us due to the heavy rain. Tour guide was great, and we heard some really good stories.

·        Stateroom 6694: This was our first Junior Suite. The location was on deck 6 in the aft. Perfect for this cruise, because of the location the balcony was never too cold. The obstructed view did not bother us at all.

·        Staff: As always, the staff on Royal Caribbean ships are extremely friendly and helpful. We noticed a few novices, but they did their best and we felt always welcome.

·        Embarkation: Except for a small hic-up ad the port where they had issues checking us in, we were boarded within 30 minutes of arriving at the port at 11:30am. We could even access our stateroom around 12:45pm – Great!

·        Specialty Restaurants: We had the UDP and enjoyed the good select of food and hospitality of Chops, Giovanni’s, and Izumi.

Here some not so good things:

·        Organization: This was one of the worst experience we had with Royal Caribbean. Not sure who was in charge, but that was a mess!

o   Tender in Bar Harbor: You had to get tickets (good idea), we where told our group could leave the ship approximately between 9:00 am and 9:30. Well, they were an hour late. The staging area was crowded. Some may believe COVID is over, but it was not pleasant sticking together like cattle.

o   Shore excursion staging for Halifax: Everybody had to go to the Lyric Theater around the same time. Get in line, all the way down to the stage, show their tickets, get a sticker (for the bus number), get all the way up and wait, and wait and wait. Until they got call. Again, more than 40 minutes delay for us.

o   Disembarkation: Same story as above, everybody cramped into Studio B (the Ice range, and of course it was cold). The overhead monitors were unreadable. We were supposed to leave the ship at 8:30am but ended up with roughly 50 minutes delay.

·        Headline shows:  Some shows where not great at all. The Comedian Michelle Balan on the first night was really bad, we left ½ way through the show The show on the 2nd night didn’t impress either, the singers where off a few times. Dario’s “El Caucho” show was nice and the Ice show was good, too. We skipped the rest of the shows.

·        Windjammer Café: I am pretty sure the selection on the buffet in previous cruises was more divers, changed more often and catered to special dietary needs. There was absolutely no change on the breakfast buffet in 9 days I could see. The lunch had some varieties, but besides craving station it was always something like hamburger, cheeseburger, Hot dogs. There was a small selective change for dinner, but not much.

On a different topic: When looking for transportation to the airport, stick with official taxis, Uber of Lyft. We walked past the lane towards the taxi signs and ended up in a small van with 9 people as a group taxi for $22 / person. Generally, not a bad idea, we had done this before in other places. This was not a good choice! The loaded the van full, I was in the back, the luggage constantly slipped towards the passengers, and I had to hold it back, so it did not hit anybody on the head. The driver wasn’t driving carefully (OK, we were in New Jersey you could argue), but he hit every pothole at full speed. Most unpleasant drive in a long time. My wife asked for a receipt – nope, asked for a transportation license – nope, we took photos of the drivers license and the license plate. This was reckless.


Anyway, overall we enjoyed the cruise, but the next trip will be back into the Caribbean for some warmer weather. Markus

My wife and I had the same discussion last week on Navigator. It was our first cruise back at full capacity. While we enjoyed the uncrowded ships it was also really nice being back on a ship that had some 'life'. I was a little worried about crowds but was quickly reminded how cruise ships have a way of dispersing crowds. Other than pool decks on sea days we never felt 'crowded', lines were non existant after day 1 and we had a fantastic cruise. I'll take the 'old' experience than the half full ship with masks and testing requirements anyday.

Royal Caribbean made it official as of Oct  1st!
woo hoo!!

Keep in mind the number of children who are homeschooled has steadily increased. Also remember that not every school does the summer, winter and spring break schedule. There are plenty of schools that do the 2 months on and several weeks off route. I was shocked at how many children and teenagers were on my Sept 7-16th cruises on Nav. I don't sail in the summer to avoid the majority of children often aboard those sailings. In all honesty don't expect any sailing on Royal to have no children, just expect less during the months most are in school.

We sail a lot in October due to our anniversary.  I am surprised the number of children on board.  I thought we would be the only bad parents that would take their kids out of school.  

Can you believe there are weirdos getting close to D+ with nothing but East/West Caribbean and Bahamas cruises (aside from one 7-nigher in Alaska)? Some people!
P.S. If my attempt at humor failed, see my signature. We enjoy our ship routine, a few select excursions even if we've done them before, and could probably go to Cococay once a week if it were feasible. Different strokes...

Have you tasted the robot drinks, though?

I’ve heard of the museum, but I did not see a museum, my particular  tour did not allow time for it. 

It has been reported that official word will come tomorrow

Funny, that's my condition on every cruise I sail on.

It’s not confirmed 

Next cruise will put us at D+.  It only took us 23 years and a pandemic with double points.  
Don't see Pinnacle happening in this life time. 

Next cruise will put us at D+.  It only took us 23 years and a pandemic with double points.  
Don't see Pinnacle happening in this life time. 

We like to sit with a cup of coffee and watch the t-shirt sale madness 

We received them on our recent cruise on the Explorer. 
Also, regarding Diamond Plus members having access to the Concierge Lounge, please see the  update (dated 3/4/22) on the RC website. As of 3/15/22 Diamond Plus members do have access to the Concierge Lounge. Some ships have Suite Lounges and currently Diamond Plus members don't have access to those (unless they're in a suite).
On the RC homepage click on the 3 bars on the top left of the page (to the left of the RC LOGO), then click "Crown & Anchor Society", then click "View Member Benefits updates", then scroll down to "Suite & Concierge Lounges". I hope this helps.
On our recent Explorer cruises in May, we were in the Concierge Lounge prior to dinner, every evening. Happy cruising everyone!

i love the idea of an upgrade but the obsessive planner/type A personality in me has a hard time letting go of not knowing where my cabin is until i'm aboard 😅

Did Halloween some time ago on Radiance out of Tampa.  Grownup Halloween party on the pool deck complete with costume contest.  Teen club did a haunted house for the Adventure Ocean crew.  Adventure Ocean crew trick-o-treated in the shops and other venues with the staff.  Halloween themed photos with kids and with grownups.  
It was a lot of fun for the whole family.

We cruise on average every other year.  I have not had much luck with future cruise on board.  Usually the next itinerary I'm interested in is not published yet. 
You can get a future cruise certificate while on board that may help if your undecided or awaiting the cruise calendar to be updated. 
Not sure they can help if your already booked.