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Adventure to Canada 7/20-7/26/19


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My wife and I just returned from a 6 day cruise on Adventure, out of Bayonne to Bar Harbor, ME and St. John and Halifax in Canada. It was only our second summer cruise, the first being on Lady G to Bermuda a few years ago. I mention that because the crew on Adventure reminded us of the Grandeur’s crew; they were genuinely happy, pleasant and went out of their way to make our trip as pleasant as it could be.

As an example, Canada has a regulation that ships in port can only have one bar per deck open until the ship sails away. The second port we visited in Canada (Halifax) had a sailaway time of 6 PM, well into the cocktail hour.  When we arrived at the Champagne Bar for our pre-dinner libation, it was closed as we were still in port. Without batting an eye, our waiter took our order, walked through the Promenade to the Pub, got our drinks and brought them back to where we were sitting in the Champagne Bar! Andrei, Nino and Jorgi were excellent barstaff and very personable and pleasant

The embarkation was as smooth as can be, parking is right next to the Terminal and we were on board very quickly. Unfortunately, only my wife’s bag was delivered to our cabin; when mine finally showed up, the plastic sleeve containing the luggage tag had been removed, Interestingly, the metal ring that holds the sleeve onto the luggage was intact but the sleeve was gone. Later, there were signs around the ship stating there were some delays in luggage handling but no explanation. I noticed several other bags on our deck that also had a hand-written luggage tag as mine did, so it was not an isolated occurrence.

Muster was at 2:30 PM for a 3 PM sailing and it must have set a record for the shortest muster ever! We were back in our cabin at 2:43!! Probably, the 100 degree temps outside were a factor.

We had MTD all week and, except for one evening it went smoothly. The food ranged from very good to excellent, and the wine steward was attentive. Our servers, Joyal and Ying were also very pleasant and efficient and made our dining a pleasure. I should add that John in the WJ at breakfast would always come by our table to get me a glass of fresh OJ each morning and bring my wife her tea.

As for entertainment, a group of four called Company Men put on an entertaining show doing songs from the last six decades. An RCL production “Can’t Stop the Rock” was just OK, the funniest part was the singer imitating Annette Funicello was about five months pregnant!

A couple, Kyle and Mistie Knight, did an illusionist performance that was very entertaining.

Disembarkation was quick and easy, we were scheduled for 7:40 AM, and were off the ship and in our car heading south on the NJ Turnpike by 8:03!

Now, for a (very) few negatives:

The comedian, Basile, wasn’t very funny. I left the show halfway through.

On most other RCL ships, the Schooner Bar is a relaxing piano/solo guitar bar. On Adventure, the pianist was playing either an electronic keyboard or amplified piano at full volume. Now I like rock ‘n roll as much as anybody, but I don’t need to have it blasted at me.

Parts of the exterior need repainting, our balcony floor looked awful. Paint splatters and paintdrops all over the floor and the railings need to be refinished. There were some kind of stains on the overhead bulkhead in our cabin, could have been sticky tape residue or something similar. Neither affected our enjoyment of our trip but it wasn’t something I expected to see on an RCL cruise.

For the first time, we felt crowded on this cruise. Yes, it’s a larger ship on a summer cruise with two sea days and cool, rainy weather on the port days so most everybody was inside instead of being at the pool, but this would fall into a First World Problems category so I’ll say no more and be glad we had such a wonderful experience overall!

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1 hour ago, eaglesfaninfl said:

Unfortunately, only my wife’s bag was delivered to our cabin; when mine finally showed up, the plastic sleeve containing the luggage tag had been removed, Interestingly, the metal ring that holds the sleeve onto the luggage was intact but the sleeve was gone. Later, there were signs around the ship stating there were some delays in luggage handling but no explanation. I noticed several other bags on our deck that also had a hand-written luggage tag as mine did, so it was not an isolated occurrence.

Very interesting...

The first time we ever sailed out of Bayonne, we had a similar thing happen.  We also had luggage tags with the metal attachments.  There is NO WAY that these just “fell off”.  They had to have been cut.

When we finally located our “missing” bags (no luggage tags at all..mysteriously missing), we were told by one of the staff that the Longshoremen at the Port were having a salary dispute with the Port Authority and, as in your case, many peoples’ bags had “lost” their tags.

I don’t believe for 1 minute that the tags were accidentally lost.  I don’t know if your situation was the same as ours but I find it very interesting that the situation has repeated itself.

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Very interesting...

The first time we ever sailed out of Bayonne, we had a similar thing happen.  We also had luggage tags with the metal attachments.  There is NO WAY that these just “fell off”.  They had to have been cut.

When we finally located our “missing” bags (no luggage tags at all..mysteriously missing), we were told by one of the staff that the Longshoremen at the Port were having a salary dispute with the Port Authority and, as in your case, many peoples’ bags had “lost” their tags.

I don’t believe for 1 minute that the tags were accidentally lost.  I don’t know if your situation was the same as ours but I find it very interesting that the situation has repeated itself.

When it happened to us last week, I immediately thought of your previous comment which I had read and remembered. My guess it was some ILU job action although I don't know that for a fact. As an aside, right next to the RCL luggage tag was an ID tag with my last name and cell number. That was untouched and remained on the bag.  Gotta love NYC!

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18 hours ago, eaglesfaninfl said:

 

 

As an example, Canada has a regulation that ships in port can only have one bar per deck open until the ship sails away. The second port we visited in Canada (Halifax) had a sailaway time of 6 PM, well into the cocktail hour.  When we arrived at the Champagne Bar for our pre-dinner libation, it was closed as we were still in port. Without batting an eye, our waiter took our order, walked through the Promenade to the Pub, got our drinks and brought them back to where we were sitting in the Champagne Bar! Andrei, Nino and Jorgi were excellent barstaff and very personable and pleasant

 

 

If you think that's bad..try a bar in Canada for a drink..lol...they prob have that rule to try and make more ppl spend their $ in Canada on our expensive booze....

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5 hours ago, MelissaM said:

I forgot to ask - did you exchange your US dollars for Toonies and Loonies prior to going?  Or did you just use a credit card?  Is there a better exchange rate?

Credit cards were accepted everyplace we were in Canada. The shops at the terminals had prices in both US and Canadian $. Can't speak for the non-RCL tours though

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On 7/29/2019 at 6:25 PM, eaglesfaninfl said:

My wife and I just returned from a 6 day cruise on Adventure, out of Bayonne to Bar Harbor, ME and St. John and Halifax in Canada.

 

We are travelling on Adventure in September and wondered if there were any immigration checks when you left the ship in St John? We are British Citizens and not sure if we are going to get held up in a queue when we arrive in Canada from the US. Any advice on your experience would be appreciated. 

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