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Adventure of the Seas Refurbishment Q1 2018


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From my travel agent this morning:

"Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas will receive all new enhancements during a 30-day dry-dock beginning January 13, 2018, to include the addition of specialty restaurant Izumi Japanese Cuisine, new inside and oceanview staterooms and a Suite Lounge. In order to accommodate the dry-dock, the January 13, 2018 through February 10, 2018 sailings have been cancelled. As a result of this change, we need to reaccommodate guests booked on these sailings. As a gesture of good will, we will be offering the following compensation package."

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10 minutes ago, tdcackler said:

From my travel agent this morning:

"Royal Caribbean’s Adventure of the Seas will receive all new enhancements during a 30-day dry-dock beginning January 13, 2018, to include the addition of specialty restaurant Izumi Japanese Cuisine, new inside and oceanview staterooms and a Suite Lounge. In order to accommodate the dry-dock, the January 13, 2018 through February 10, 2018 sailings have been cancelled. As a result of this change, we need to reaccommodate guests booked on these sailings. As a gesture of good will, we will be offering the following compensation package."

Obviously, with them having to cancel cruises, this wasn't a planned remodel? Is this common?

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Yep, they offered me something similar. The problem is that all of the Jewel sailings depart/return on Sunday. I am a pastor so being gone one Sunday is tough enough, I'd hate to be gone two in a row. We will work with our TA to see what they can do for us. 

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5 hours ago, jticarruthers said:

Hopefully they don't screw up this refurb as bad as the last one.

Not really fair to say they screwed up the refurb.  It was done in Freeport.  Much of the refurb supply was affected by a hurricane.  Not much could be done about that.

Also worth noting that the Adventure is moving out of San Juan to eventually land in Ft. Lauderdale.  The Freedom of the Seas is headed to San Juan... and I think I will too!

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12 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

Also worth noting that the Adventure is moving out of San Juan to eventually land in Ft. Lauderdale.

Adventure is moving to Newark, NJ, I thought? It's taking over all of the New England / Canada itineraries. Is it going to be in Ft. Lauderdale only for the winter months or something?

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12 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

Not really fair to say they screwed up the refurb.  It was done in Freeport.  Much of the refurb supply was affected by a hurricane.  Not much could be done about that.

Also worth noting that the Adventure is moving out of San Juan to eventually land in Ft. Lauderdale.  The Freedom of the Seas is headed to San Juan... and I think I will too!

We can each have opinions, as someone who followed the news about the drydock and what was impacting it pretty closely and then was directly impacted by being on one of the cruises shortly after the dry dock was "completed", lets just say I have a very different opinion and leave it at that.

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1 minute ago, jticarruthers said:

We can each have opinions, as someone who followed the news about the drydock and what was impacting it pretty closely and then was directly impacted by being on one of the cruises shortly after the dry dock was "completed", lets just say I have a very different opinion and leave it at that.

At the risk of dredging up painful memories for you, could you share some of those details? All I've ever seen here (this thread and others) was that the original dry dock could only be partially completed due to a hurricane striking the area or otherwise impacting the ability to get the work done. If that was truly the root of it, saying that RCI "screwed up" does seem like an overly harsh statement, as it's an act of God and totally beyond anyone's control.

But if there were other factors that could have been managed by RCI to ensure things were done on time even with the hurricane, like failing to have all parts / furniture / supplies delivered far enough in advance, then that could certainly be a "screw up" that RCI deserves blame for. I just don't know as I'm too new here. :)

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1 hour ago, JLMoran said:

Adventure is moving to Newark, NJ, I thought? It's taking over all of the New England / Canada itineraries. Is it going to be in Ft. Lauderdale only for the winter months or something?

In NJ in June of 2019 and Ft. Lauderdale in December of 2019.  It may be a seasonal thing.

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57 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

At the risk of dredging up painful memories for you, could you share some of those details? All I've ever seen here (this thread and others) was that the original dry dock could only be partially completed due to a hurricane striking the area or otherwise impacting the ability to get the work done. If that was truly the root of it, saying that RCI "screwed up" does seem like an overly harsh statement, as it's an act of God and totally beyond anyone's control.

But if there were other factors that could have been managed by RCI to ensure things were done on time even with the hurricane, like failing to have all parts / furniture / supplies delivered far enough in advance, then that could certainly be a "screw up" that RCI deserves blame for. I just don't know as I'm too new here. :)

I agree with this.  If there is another view that could be worked through, I'd like to hear it.

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Ugh... I'm booked to sail on Feb 24 and sailing so soon after a refurb makes me a little nervous in case something goes wrong and they either 1) extend it or 2) are still sort of wrapping up work.

I'm not one to normally be negative about these kinds of things and normally, I wouldn't care... but this will be a first cruise for a couple family members and I'd just hate for them to get the wrong impression.

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3 hours ago, klaconqueso said:

Ugh... I'm booked to sail on Feb 24 and sailing so soon after a refurb makes me a little nervous in case something goes wrong and they either 1) extend it or 2) are still sort of wrapping up work.

I'm not one to normally be negative about these kinds of things and normally, I wouldn't care... but this will be a first cruise for a couple family members and I'd just hate for them to get the wrong impression.

All the public spaces (slides, flowrider, etc) were finished a few weeks after the last refurb.  They were replacing carpeting in hallways when we sailed, which was 5 days after the last refurb ended.  The staterooms REALLY, REALLY need to be updated - they still have the old light blue and coral pink carpeting from c. 2002, and the wooden furniture was really beat up.

That said, it's a fairly long dry dock for what remains to be refurbished (updating cabins, and adding Izumi), plus it's in January and unlikely to be hit by bad weather, so I'd take the risk and sail on her.

Heck, we're booked on her again this November, despite our past issues.  It's that southern Caribbean itinerary... can't beat it. 

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6 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

I agree with this.  If there is another view that could be worked through, I'd like to hear it.

The scars have healed so I don't mind running through it. Its very much a "who do you believe" story though so not a lot of cold hard facts that will shock you in anyway.

Basically, there was a hurricane that went through the Bahamas a couple of weeks prior to the scheduled drydock. The hurricane was pretty severe, there was damage, etc. so certainly not doubting that. However, the drydock itself was very clear in  stating that the impact on them was minimal, they were back open for business the next day etc. Fast forward a couple of weeks, no issues reported, drydock work started on time.

About halfway through the drydock the announcement was made that due to the damage to the facility they would not be able to complete most of the planned work. When it was pointed out that the drydock wasn't damaged the message changed to the fact that the items needed to complete the work weren't delivered and so on and so forth.

Over the course of several increasingly angry calls/discussions with various levels of RCI management I was left with my own personal opinion which is that they didn't plan the drydock well. It may very well have been screwed up "by" the hurricane but if you are going to plan a very expensive and time consuming drydock, during hurricane season, in an area that is regularly impacted by hurricanes, you probably should have built a little contingency into the plan to allow for that ;)

Ultimately I was pretty ticked off at the time, more or less over it now, but would never sail on an RCI ship shortly after launch/refurb again.

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@jticarruthers, that's definitely a more detailed story than I've heard elsewhere. I suppose it's possible that, while the dry dock wasn't actually damaged in any meaningful way, the hurricane did still interfere with delivering all the supplies on time. But I agree that you'd think they have contingency plans in place for that so an alternate delivery date could be managed without any major hassle. If the hurricane somehow damaged any required landing strips or cargo ship ports in the area and that was a factor, you'd think they'd have specifically mentioned that rather than dry dock damage.

I also agree that if the timing of the hurricane interfered with the delivery of the supplies that they'd have a secondary date, and they'd just rework the schedule to move things around and do what could be done with what was on hand first.

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Realized I didn't really explain why I felt that there was more to it.

So over the course of the whole deal I spoke with:

Customer Service Rep - Pre cruise

Crown & Anchor Rep - Pre cruise

Supervisor - Pre cruise

Assistant to Michael Bailey - Pre cruise

Customer Service Manager - On Board

C&A Diamond Rep - On board

Customer service supervisor - Post cruise

Every single one of them had exactly the same script in front of them that went like this:

 

Me - I am calling about the AOTS drydock

RCI - yes the facility had a lot of damage and unfortunately we weren't able to get all the work done

Me - Really because the facility announced right after the hurricane that it took only minor damage and was open normally for the start of the drydock

RCI - well yes but the area was devastated, people couldn't get to the facility to work and so on

Me - Seems odd the news reported that it wasn't as bad as feared in that area

RCI - well sir the real problem was that a lot of the containers and equipment for the drydock weren't able to be delivered

Me - But the hurricane was two weeks before the drydock, are you telling me you couldn't get everything straightened out enough to proceed with the work in two weeks?

RCI - One of our containers ended up all the way in Venezuela, there was just no way for us to get everything pulled back together to get it done

 

Basically my take away was that they hadn't given themselves enough contingency time to recover from what was absolutely an unfortunate act of god.

Given that this was all right on the heels of the Empress of the Seas refurb, Liberty OTS sailing around for months without working slides after its refurb, Quantum/Anthem/Harmony all having write-ups about launching with work needing to be done during the first few cruises, etc. I feel pretty comfortable arguing that RCI screwed up the drydock ;)

 

 

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16 hours ago, jticarruthers said:

Given that this was all right on the heels of the Empress of the Seas refurb, Liberty OTS sailing around for months without working slides after its refurb, Quantum/Anthem/Harmony all having write-ups about launching with work needing to be done during the first few cruises, etc. I feel pretty comfortable arguing that RCI screwed up the drydock ;)

Ding, ding, ding, ding  Bingo !!!

I had the exact same thoughts when it was happening.  Being a 2-time victim of Empress-Gate I had a few [panic] flashbacks around the same time.

Given that Royal has SUCH a checkered track record with "refurb" decisions (not to mention their change-o switch-o with which ships were leaving or staying in the fleet) over the past couple of years, I also questioned how much of this was really hurricane-related and how much of it was Royal's poor logistics.

Given the fact that they are now going back and doing everything that they originally planned is a bit of evidence in their favor.  At least it seems like, at this point, that they did not renege on their refurb plans but just simply had to postpone them.

Glad to see Adventure getting everything she deserves but shudder at the idea of 4 cancelled cruises to get there.

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10 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Glad to see Adventure getting everything she deserves but shutter at the idea of 4 cancelled cruises to get there.

Yeah, I'm really frustrated about it. They cancelled the cruise, offered me $200 Onboard Credit and a chance to transfer to a select handful of cruises out of the same port and keep my rate OR rebook at prevailing rates. I have a kids sail free promotion that saves us a ton with our two boys. If I had known they were going to cancel the cruise, I would have booked another one when I did this one and got the better offer. I'm beyond frustrated at the complete lack of customer service from RC - to a point where I'm about ready to tell my TA to skip it and I'll never sail on RC. I'm ok with paying the difference between my cruise and a different one, just give me the discounts since they cancelled it, not me. Grrrr.

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What I don't understand is the need to cancel cruises in Jan/Feb 2018 when up until last month the schedule was only available to April or May of 2018.  By delaying just a few months, they could have put the drydock right at the start of the Summer 2018 - Spring 2019 booking season and avoided canceling anything already scheduled!  I don't see any possible benefit to creating the mess they've made.  The only possible justification I can think of is this was the only available time at the drydock facility.

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Past May you are back into Hurricane season ;)

But in all honesty I agree, with as limited as the RCI schedule releases are compared to some other lines you would think they could work it in without impacting existing bookings. Possibly they are realizing that the ship really really needed the work done and decided to bite the bullet.

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1 hour ago, jticarruthers said:

Past May you are back into Hurricane season ;)

But in all honesty I agree, with as limited as the RCI schedule releases are compared to some other lines you would think they could work it in without impacting existing bookings. Possibly they are realizing that the ship really really needed the work done and decided to bite the bullet.

Thanks for your more detailed explanation.  It sheds new light on the situation.  And I agree RC should not have cancelled a month of cruises to finish the refurb when the ship is barely scheduled out for 18 months.  Poor planning there for sure.

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My takeaway from my AOTS experience was that they realize they lose a few existing customers over it but ultimately aren't too worried about it because they are bringing in new more profitable customers to replace them.

In my case for example I talked about the fact that I had a group of 8 cabins booked for this coming Thanksgiving that we were thinking of cancelling in response to the way AOTS was handled last Thanksgiving.

If you think about it though they would love me to cancel those cabins, all 8 were booked on "opening day" and are priced at about double now what they opened at. So they got to hold my deposits for 18 months and then resell the cabins for double the value. Probably to "new" cruisers that will spend a lot more on board than my "experienced" cruise crew.

The whole sequence really damaged my view of RCI, not that I really blame them for their decisions as they are the "profitable" ones for the company.

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2 hours ago, jticarruthers said:

My takeaway from my AOTS experience was that they realize they lose a few existing customers over it but ultimately aren't too worried about it because they are bringing in new more profitable customers to replace them.

In my case for example I talked about the fact that I had a group of 8 cabins booked for this coming Thanksgiving that we were thinking of cancelling in response to the way AOTS was handled last Thanksgiving.

If you think about it though they would love me to cancel those cabins, all 8 were booked on "opening day" and are priced at about double now what they opened at. So they got to hold my deposits for 18 months and then resell the cabins for double the value. Probably to "new" cruisers that will spend a lot more on board than my "experienced" cruise crew.

The whole sequence really damaged my view of RCI, not that I really blame them for their decisions as they are the "profitable" ones for the company.

I don't think there will be many tears shed at the next RC board meeting over any of this

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Mark, you are right. They won't shed any tears. But that's the problem with many corporations today. They look at it in the short term rather than the long view of gaining a customer for life. They say, "Well, we can fill your cabin on this cruise." But they may not be able to fill the cabin on the multiple cruises I planned to take over the next few years.

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2 minutes ago, tdcackler said:

Mark, you are right. They won't shed any tears. But that's the problem with many corporations today. They look at it in the short term rather than the long view of gaining a customer for life. They say, "Well, we can fill your cabin on this cruise." But they may not be able to fill the cabin on the multiple cruises I planned to take over the next few years.

I totally agree but when people get fed up their basic attitude is " See ya and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out"

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20 minutes ago, MikeK said:

I totally agree but when people get fed up their basic attitude is " See ya and don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out"

And in the long run, it will cost them. Same with Disney. Same in most areas of life. Like, I won't shop at Kohl's unless it is on sale because they have conditioned me not to pay full price for anything.

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I can't remember the exact situation that happened, but I will log in to "my Cruises" book a dinner/excursion/Voom, you get the idea, and then sometime later I will get an email saying, don't forget to book your dinner/excursion/Voom, again you get the idea, if I was logged in with a different user name or email address I would understand. It's like marketing and operations live in two different IT spectrum's. I'm an IT guy, I work on computers and networks every day, I get that it's not easy, but it's like the IT department builds the web page and then never uses it or has to experience it for themselves. Sorry, just me venting.

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On 4/28/2017 at 8:32 AM, jticarruthers said:

But in all honesty I agree, with as limited as the RCI schedule releases are compared to some other lines you would think they could work it in without impacting existing bookings. Possibly they are realizing that the ship really really needed the work done and decided to bite the bullet.

I think the most likely reason is that a slot opened up at the facility where they do the refurbs, so they decided to take it rather than wait until some distant time in the future.

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  • 3 months later...

I know this thread is a couple of months old now, but we are actually booked on the new Feb 12-17 Adventure of the Seas sailing.  It will be the first one out of dry dock and I wasn't really worried about it, because I thought most major renovations were done during the Bahamas dry dock incident.  Will all the cabins be updated, or are they already updated?  I was hoping to never see the old sea green and salmon colors again!  :)

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