bcarney

Was doing some airfare searches last night and found a good one for ORD->SJU over Easter break, and I recall hearing that Adventure hadn't been "fully" refurbed so I did a quick Bing search and came up with this page: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/contentSitelet.do?pagename=revitalizations where they say more "love" is to be done in 2016. I haven't booked yet, but since it's my favorite ship it was hard not to pull the trigger....

Does anyone know when Adventure of the Seas will be refurbished in 2016?

Matt makes a strong argument when he uses cold, strong Labadoozies as well.

My (now) 6 and 8 year olds *l*o*v*e* Adventure Ocean... it's a factor in cruise decision making.

DUDE - you'll love Adventure! See how often Adventure appears below...

Not yet; third quarter cruisers reservations were made in the first half of the year or prior, before the Chinese economy started to contract. Six to twelve months out from now would be a better reflection of the current state of cruising in China. Edit: which isn't to say it's bad; just one good quarter isn't necessarily reflective of current conditions. (Especially considering: The cruise company on Friday morning announced fourth-quarter earnings of $228.8 million, or $1.03 a share, down from $490.2 million, or $2.19 a share)

We sailed out of SJU at least six, maybe seven times (I don't remember what port we sailed from on Empress). Lines are generally longest around 1:00-3:30pm due to people coming in on same-day flights from the mainland. My first sailing from SJU was on a Carnival ship; we were literally the last couple to board as our flight landed at 6:45pm or so and sailing was at 8pm. There were no lines then, LOL. I'd either get there early, check in and dump the luggage and head out (or stay on board), or haul your stuff around and check in later after exploring. We've learned to avoid the mid afternoon crunch time, you have to stand outside during part of the checkin process and the heat can be unbearable if you just flew in from the frigid north.

The bars will have a separate menu you can choose from. Frankly, it's all pretty lame drinks like rum and coke, gin and tonic, etc., just your basics; but at the price one can't complain much. My last cruise, last April on Jewel, there was a lot of confusion amongst the bartenders as to what was complimentary and what wasn't. My next cruise I'll just buy one of the packages and not worry about it.

IIRC Seaview Cafe was only open from 2 or 2:30pm to 5 or 5:30pm, at least that was the case back in April. We skipped lunch one day just to be able to east the Cuban sandwiches there.

Amen to that, brother....

Since you asked (and a lot has changed in two years) ... our last RC cruise was probably our LAST RC cruise. The level of service that was there in the past is gone, the nickel and diming is out of control, and costs have increased to a point where it's no longer a vacation option for us. Hell, the shock of signing a receipt for a single $14.16 drink on embarkation day was the death knell for me on our last cruise. We're looking at Carnival, MSC, and all inclusives for our next vacation. RC is totally off our radar for now.

They look like this, until they get the bill at the end of the cruise:

Adventure Ocean offers a program where the kids come with you to dinner at 6pm, then you tell your waiter they are leaving with AO at 6:30 and the kids get an expedited dinner. You then walk them out to the entryway of the MDR at 6:30, and AO staff is there waiting to they take the kids to AO while you and the rest of your party enjoy your dinner. You can pick up the kids anytime before 10pm (there is a fee for after 10pm pickups). There is no cost for this service, so take advantage of it. Nice avatar, BTW.

Nope.

I saw a bride (well, I assume she was a bride, unless she was wearing one heck of a fancy white dress) on my last cruise, but I assume weddings are held somewhere private. I didn't see a ceremony on board but I wasn't looking for it either. Rather than getting married right on the ship, I've met some people that got off the ship at an island and were married there on the beach, and then the rest of the cruise was their honeymoon.

You too? Jewel last April was probably our last Royal cruise as well, unless I can find a cheap one on Adventure with even cheaper airfare. Looking at MSC, Carnival, and Norwegian now (along with some all-inclusives); I don't see paying a premium price for what's now a sub-premium product/experience.

Be more concerned about what's above or below you. One cruise, on either Enchantment or Vision, we were in a cabin directly above the area in the theatre where the loudspeakers are mounted to the ceiling. They had a late show on our first night, with loud music - things in the room vibrated, and the kids sure couldn't get to sleep (and neither did I). If you're below the pool area I understand you can hear them setting up the chairs in the mornings.

It's been a while since we did it, and when we did the arrangements were made by the hotel we were at so unfortunately I can't give you the name of the tour operator since I don't know it. When we got to the area we had to take a flat bottomed raft out to the boat, and then we climbed into the boat for the excursion. We definitely didn't take kayaks. It was cool seeing the fish swim in the water leaving glowing trails behind them, and we were allowed to swim in the water and when you splashed in it, it glowed. Definitely worth the late night!

I've only used them once, on my last trip, and they definitely saved me money - but I think it was a computer issue. We were just over a year out so most flights weren't published yet. I logged into ChoiceAir and noted that flying from our 'local' (2 hr away - DTW) major airport ran around the $650/pp range. Other semi-local airports were similar, $650-$800 range. I then checked the tiny (very tiny! - MBS) airport near the town I grew up in, about 1 3/4 hours away, and tix ran $461/pp. I booked immediately. The flights went well, on time, and it was GREAT getting through TSA - there were only about 30 people in the entire airport when we boarded. Parking was a breeze as well - the major airport would have run me $120+ for parking, and it was only $42 at the small airport. Bonus was that I was only 4 rows away from the airport doors. All in all, a great experience. If I cruise RC again I'll be checking ChoiceAir (and smaller airports) first.

You'll be up quite late (we didn't get back to the hotel until 2:30am), but if you can do it I recommend the bioluminescent bay trip. It's surreal!

We were right in front of that platform! Immediately to the right of the 'staging area' where they sorted dishes before serving. We had a party of 14 so they rearranged some tables in that section for us. Our waitress was Imelda from the Philippines, and Asst Waiter was Dwayne Cooper from Jamaica. Our head waiter was a young looking man named "A.P." from India, who will undoubtedly be someone very important with RCCL one day. We were on Jewel 4/4-4/11.

We were on Oasis last year, and just recently got off Jewel. I will have to say that the MDR food on Jewel was quite good, probably the best we had in ages. Oasis was ... meh. On Jewel we did happen to be seated near the doors where staff brought out food from the kitchen, so that may have been a factor, as the food arrived hot to warm, unlike Oasis which was always cold. One sad note is that the Indian/Vegetarian food was missing from the menus in the MDR on Jewel. My wife spoke with the head waiter and they did make a few dishes for her however; I tasted the Aloo Gobi and it was fabulous. Now, the Windjammer, well that was another story. I enjoyed the Windjammer on Oasis; good variety, good quality. On Jewel, well ... epic fail. Other than fresh pineapple and melon the fruit was all canned, the corned beef hash was canned, the gravy for biscuits and gravy was the constancy of warm milk (and I'm not exaggerating there at all, it was nasty!!!), no variety at all at breakfast times. Asian, Indian, and other ethnic foods were missing, and their "South American inspired" lunch menu consisted of...potatoes. Highly disappointing compared to past cruises. I really dig eating styles of food that I can't normally get at home, types of food I've had on past cruises; they were missing on Jewel and I wound up eating burgers twice which is very unusual for me.

I *literally* just got off Jewel last Saturday and had a similar situation. We had connecting rooms that we booked during the first BOGOHO offers last May, before the computer pricing algorithms figured out people like me would book two rooms instead of squeezing us into one. We are a family of four, with an 8 year old boy and a 6 year old girl. I have to say it was NICE having the two connecting rooms - given the age of our children. With the six month old daughter, however, I'd just have everyone stay in one room. Momma's going to have to be spending a lot of time with her anyway... at least that was the situation in my case when we first sailed with kids when they are 2 years old and an 11 month old. Tip: RC offers (or at least they did) a baby package that contains food, diapers, etc., and at the time it was around $35-$40. It comes in a waterproof bag with the RC logo on it. Buy the package if only for the bag - it's a great bag, we're still using it on cruises for carrying towels and bathing suits, etc when we go onshore!

Contact RC - they had a number of vans running from various hotels to the port when we sailed on Oasis last year. The hotel we stayed at had enough passengers to warrant having their own van and staffer to direct people on-site.

Lots of (fairly angry) talk. I was in a group of 14 people on this cruise (4 children though), and 8 of them said they'd never cruise RC again due to the drink prices. We were on a port intensive itinerary, so the drink packages didn't make any sense since we weren't back onboard until after 5pm. One couple in our group ordered a first round of drinks before dinner on day one - the tab was over $26, and that wound up being their last drink onboard. I watched a couple on day two ask for the price of a Pina Colada in the solarium. $12. They walked away shaking their heads and commenting about how this wasn't the experience they were sold. I don't think the pool bar was coincidental, it was spring break week and the ship was packed. There was rarely 3-4 people there, even at the height of the day. Not the lines 2-3 rows deep you see on other cruises. We were planning on taking advantage of the onboard booking incentives for one of the longer Serenade cruises this November but cancelled those plans after being hit with these crazy drink prices. For the first time in 15 years and 12 cruises I'm now considering other cruise lines. A couple - my closest friend and his wife - went with us on this cruise and called me this morning to let us know that they booked another line for this November instead. We may follow their lead.