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Adventure of the seas LONG review!


ckrobyn

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I think I can finally begin this review - the room isn't spinning anymore!

First off, I want to thank everyone on CC for their valuable insight and information in helping me plan this cruise....it's amazing how many of the "tips" I actually used!

Our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas was from January 29 - February 5/2006 :)

As some of you may already know from reading my "live" thread - we had a few issues on departure for San Juan day.....I got a phone call on my cell while awaiting our flight to Miami from Toronto's Pearson airport - I barely heard the phone ring, luckily I did and answered it, because it was American Airlines calling to tell me that our flight from Miami to San Juan later that day had been cancelled! You can imagine the shock I was feeling.....and the panic! Most of you know that I am a "planner" and this cancellation was NOT in the master plan! :eek: I was on the phone with the AA rep for a half an hour trying to get the 5 of us on a later flight. The 5 of us are me,, my DH, my DD and both of my parents who are 64 & 71. Luckily, we were confirmed on a later flight to San Juan out of Miami, but it meant a 6 hour layover in the Miami airport.......oh well - at least we were finally on our way to San Juan and the Adventure of the Seas! :)

We arrived in San Juan at 12:00 midnight on January 26th - the airport was empty....lots of cabs waiting so finding one wasn't an issue. We loaded our luggage (ovepacked again!) and headed for the Courtyard by Marriott Isle Verde Beach Resort - a short 5 minute ride. I knew before we left Canada that this hotel was overbooked......I called them asking to upgrade my room and they told me it wasn't an option as they were oversold for that night. I had called the hotel from the Miami airport during our layover to confirm our late arrival and was told by the reservation person at the front desk that it wasn't a problem. Well.....it WAS a problem! The hotel was totally booked and our confirmed reservations ( made over 6 months ago) were totally useless! You can imagine how I was feeling standing in the middle of the Marriott lobby at 12:30am.......

One major saving grace - I am a Marriott Elite Member, and because of this, the hotel was obligated to book us in at another comparable property, all expenses paid. They gave me a choice of 2 hotels, I chose the Intercontinental because of it's close proximity to the Marriott where we would spend the additional 3 nights.

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We were all tired, but headed over by cab to the Intercontinental. At this point I can comment on both hotels. The Intercontinental is a beautiful ocean front property, the rooms are lovely and very clean. This hotel is quite upscale and the price per night reflects that. Our city view room ( which Marriott paid for) was going at a rate of $329 usd per night. Keep in mind that we were travelling during high season, so the rates would likely be lower in the off season.

The next morning we awoke to sunshine in San Juan and lots of palm trees, so that made the events of the night before a little less irritating! We had a delicious buffet breakfast by the pool at the Intercontinental, and then headed back over to the Marriott to attempt another check in!

This time, no issues at all. In fact we were upgraded to Ocean Front Suites and they were gorgeous! The view from both of our balconies was flawless.....just miles and miles of ocean.....:) The Manager introduced himself and offered to take us all to dinner that night.....must had something to do with the phone call I made to the Marriott Elite Member's Customer Care line earlier that morning!!!

Despite the glitches we encountered at the beginning of our trip to San Juan, we had a very enjoyable stay and the Marriott certainly made up for the fact they could not accommodate us that first night.

This was our first time in San Juan and we were a little suprised at the fact it is very commercialized. I guess we were expecting it to look like other islands in the Caribbean - a little less spoiled by high rise buildings, shopping center's etc. I have no problems cruising out of San Juan, but it is not a vacation destination for us.

We visited Old San Juan and really liked the quaintness of it. Ladies, if you are looking for some real bargains on "knock off" bags and purses, you will definitely find what you are looking for in OSJ ;)

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In total, we spent 4 night pre-cruise in San Juan - a nice lead in to the 7 night cruise! The only other issue we had was the weather :( Unfortunately we had about a day and half of sun, and the rest of the time was cloudy, rainy or overcast.....apparently this has been the trend for most of the winter months this year in San Juan. The night before the cruise was an especially windy one. I was sitting on the baclony at the Marriott staring at the ocean which was swirling with white peaked waves........out came the Bonine! LOL

 

Cruise morning has arrived! After 10 months of careful planning we were finally going to meet the AOS :D

 

We awoke at around 5:00am ( not TOO anxious were we??) grabbed a coffee in the lobby and enjoyed it on the balcony. The early morning hours went quickly as we re-packed the overpacked suitcases :rolleyes: My DH is still quick to point out that once again I only wore about half of what I packed.......

 

We got in a cab to the port at about 10:15am - enjoyed the harrowing ride into San Juan ( the drivers don't signal and we didn't see any speed limit signs :eek: ) The reward for this ride was the sight of the AOS at the Pan American Pier , Once again I felt the same excitement I did when we boarded the Radiance last year for our first cruise. Once out of the cab at 10:30am, a porter was at our side ready to take our luggage to the check in area. Once we were luggage free, we went to wait in line which already had about 25 people waiting. I wanted to get to the Port early - I'd rather stare at the ship then a hotel lobby. In retrospect, getting to the Port at 10:30am was the ideal time for us. As we stood in line, a Port Co-ordinator walked up to us and asked if we were booked in s suite, which we were, and promptly removed us from that line and put us at the beginning of another one for suite guests. I was so caught up in the excitement of another cruise that I forgot we were entitled to priority embarkation! We waited for about 45 minutes and the doors opened. The time was now 11:45am. Check in was a total breeze - we had our Set Sail passes ready to go - we were issued our sea passes and boarded the ship at 12:05pm! The docs say they board at 4:00pm.......hmmmmmm :rolleyes: LOL

 

Okay, gotta shower and get ready for work. I will continue this as soon as I can ( probably over lunch!)

 

Stay tuned!

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Puerto Rico has many unspoiled areas outside San Juan. It is a very large island with mountains and a rain forest. It has an incredible cave system that is worth a trip. If you stay there again pre-cruise read up on more of the off the beaten track places. I am sure you will enjoy the island better if that is what you are looking for.

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. I am going to be on AOS in March.

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Puerto Rico has many unspoiled areas outside San Juan. It is a very large island with mountains and a rain forest. It has an incredible cave system that is worth a trip. If you stay there again pre-cruise read up on more of the off the beaten track places. I am sure you will enjoy the island better if that is what you are looking for.

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. I am going to be on AOS in March.

 

Hi Roimont,

We did not do the rainforest tour - perhaps we should have?

We did have the opportunity to see a good portion of the island - what I was referring to by the term "commercialized" is that the main island landscape is crowded with high rises that block the spectacular views of the ocean :(

I had never visited San Juan and I guess I was expecting something a little more "tropical" - this is just my opinion....

You will love the AOS!

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There is nothing in this world like the walk up the plank to the ship :) What an exciting feeling!

We were onboard by 12:10pm and made our way immediately to the Windjammer/Island Grill on deck 11 for some lunch. Having only ever sailed on Radiance class, I was used to the way the buffet was set up - in sections. On the AOS the buffet was one long line. Actually, 2 long lines as the buffet area was on both sides. On this point, I would have to say I prefer the way the Windjammer is set up on the Radiance. Having said that, there was never a long wait for food - and we really enjoyed what the Windjammer had to offer. The selections varied every day, but there were the usual choices like burgers, hot dogs and pizza that were available every day.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch and anxiously awaited the moment we could see our cabin for the first time. At about 1:45pm I went down to deck 10 to see if our cabin was ready - and voila! it was! I opened the door to Grand Suite 1324 on the hump for the first time and a rush of excitement overwhelmed me :) I had scoured the internet for pictures of this suite, but nothing could prepare me for the real thing of actually being IN it for the first time! What a great cabin! Not just the location which was utterly perfect, but the size and layout were incredible. TONS of storage space. We had a JS on the Radiance the year before and although the GS had a lot of storage, it was not as well laid out as the JS. The closets are located behind the bar and did not have any shelves in them. We did miss the walk in closet that the JS on the Radiance had. In any case, there were lots of areas to store our clothes etc.

The bathroom. Oh the bathroom! To me, the bathroom alone was worth the extra cost of the GS :D 2 sinks, huge soaker tub, marble floor, marble counter tops and piped in music. I could have lived in that bathroom! Storage everywhere! We didn't even use of half of it.

I'll continue this in a little while.......

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No issues with shower curtain mauling :o

The cabin itself is decorated very nicely - bright colors. As soon as our cabin attendant (Alejandro) walked by to greet us, I asked for an egg crate mattress topper for both the bed and the pull out bed, he brought these to us right away and it really made a difference in the way the mattress felt - very comfortable! The cruise compass was on the bed when we arrived in the cabin and I made sure to save them all and bring them home, so if anyone has any questions about the activities onboard - fire away!

The balcony - WOW WOW WOW! Absolutely huge! I believe it is just under 100sq ft :D We had 2 full size loungers as well as 2 chairs and a really nice sized table. The view from the balcony was second to none - I can't say enough about the view to do it justice. I spent a lot of time on that balcony and enjoyed every single second of it. There were 2 lights on the balcony, one on either side - very nice when it's totally dark on the ocean at night.

We also had complete privacy, even if I wanted to look in on another balcony, I physically couldn't without going overboard ( not that I would look anyways!) but you literally can't the way this balcony is constructed. If you are looking for total balcony privacy, you will have it with 1324.

The bar area in the cabin is really nice - mirrored shelves and equipped with all sorts of wine glasses etc. ( no wine though!) Great cabin for entertaining. The sitting area had a queen size pull out sofa bed which was suprisingly comfortable, a glass coffee table, 2 comfy wing chairs and a nice round glass topped end table. The TV was a good size with a DVD, VCR and stereo system all connected to surround sound BOSE speakers which were attached to the ceiling. I didn't know about this detail and was pleased to see it.

The bedroom area had the large bed ( I felt it was comparable to a king bed) as well as 2 night tables both with a drawer and storage space. The vanity area in the bedroom was very big - huge lighted mirror as well as a pull out magnifying mirror. Lots of drawers and a good shelf area on the side for clothes etc.

As you can tell, I was very pleased with the cabin and loved being in it for the week.

On the bed as well when we walked in was the folder from the Concierge ( Luis). The folder gave us all the information on the services provided by the Concierge as well as a key to the Lounge. I have mentioned in a previous thread about my first meeting with the Concierge, but for the benefit of those of you who have not yet heard about it, I will repeat it here again.

There was a voice mail in the cabin waiting for us when we arrived - it was Luis welcoming us aboard and inviting us to the lounge. I went to the lounge later that evening and introduced myself ( and my cabin # to him), I also thanked him for the email he had sent to me the week prior to the cruise. He said " you know, that email I sent to you was not a generic email that I send to everyone" - I wasn't sure where he was going with this until he said " We want you to feel special on this ship" As soon as he said that I knew that he had read Cruise Critic! The reason I know this is that I started a thread "Email from the Concierge" and I copied and pasted the email he had sent to me! On that thread, someone had suggested that the email I received was a generic one - to which I replied "suddenly I don't feel special anymore" I KNEW Luis had read it, there was no way he ever would have said that to me if he hadn't! I must have turned beet red when I realized he had seen my post on Cruise Critic and I asked if he had in fact read it....at first he skirted around the question and then realized the jig was up and confessed to having visited CC and was suprised to see his own email to a passenger posted on the internet! I have to say he was not upset about it all, and we had a good laugh together :) I think he realized how excited I was about receiving that email.

Luis is a wonderful Concierge ( not to mention VERY easy on the eyes!) I told him to read CC this week as I would be writing a detailed review - so Luis, if you are reading this........Thanks for a great week!

I'll get back to the review a little later this afternoon - I have typers cramp at the moment!

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Hi Robyn,

 

We made it back also... I hope you had a good trip back (will read about it later I guess)... It was very nice meeting you and the other CC members.

 

I'm terrible with names but I ran into a few of them on board; even though the ship was sold-out and well over 3000 guests onboard (don't know the exact number anymore but I thought it was 3500 or 3700)

 

I met the 'anniversary couple' in town and I spoke with Derrick a couple of times on the RP. I'm glad I went to the M&M because of the effect it has during the rest of your cruise.

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After spending a bit of time in the cabin, we decided to check out the rest of the ship. Compared to the Radiance, this ship was massive! We particularly like the Royal Promenade :) The pool deck was really great, enjoyed the idea of 2 pools and several hot tubs. Lots of deck chairs, although the ever present deck chair hogs were out in full force on both sea days - more on that later ;)

We had main seating for dinner (6:00pm) although dinner on the first night was at 6:30pm. At this point I have to say that we were absolutely blessed with outstanding table mates! A lovely couple and their 3 adorable children from Pittsburgh. We were cruising with our 9 year old DD and they had 2 girls one of which was also 9 so the kids had lots to talk about. We looked forward to having dinner with this family each night. Our waiter was Mustafa and he was excellent from the first day to the last. Hats off to him for a job very well done :)

Sailaway was after the muster drill which took place at 8:30pm. The whole drill took no longer than 20 minutes and we went up to deck 12 for sailaway at 10:00pm. It was different sailing away at night, kinda neat with the pool band and all the lights on around the ship. I liked sailing at 10:00pm, gave us time to enjoy the ship all afternoon, have dinner and unpack before we left port.

Having only cruised once before on a smaller ship - I was quite convinced that I would feel next to no motion on this bigger ship....wrong! The seas were rough that first night, in fact the Captain came on the announcement speakers to let us know that the swells were quite high and to expect some "movement" during the night time hours......what a shock to come back to the cabin later that night to find every drawer and closet door open! The ship was rockin' and rollin' and a few passengers were a tad green........even with all my fears about seasickness, I was 100% fine and actually enjoyed feeling the ship sway......I also was taking Bonine so that probably helped.

That first night was rocky, but with all the excitement it just rocked me to sleep!

First day onboard was a day at sea - woke up at the crack of dawn, grabbed a coffee from the Cafe Promenade and enjoyed it on my balcony. Made my way up to the pool deck around 8:00am to not only stake out my deck chair for the day, but to actually sit on it to reserve it. My DH brought me some breakfast out on the pool deck and we enjoyed a gloriously sunny, hot day. The drinks ( you know, the pretty one's with the cherries and umbrellas) were delicious - I am not really a drinker, but considering they charged the exact same money for a virgin drink as a drink with alcohol - I drank the one's with alcohol all week! The Pina Coladas were amazing.

The pool band was excellent - lots of passengers up dancing and everyone having a good time, how can you not have a good time on a cruise???

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First port - ARUBA

Awoke very early in the morning to see Aruba coming into view...very exciting as it was my first time back to Aruba in 15 years. We had decided not to book an excursion, but rather rent a jeep on our own to explore the island and find a nice beach to relax at for the day. Got off the ship at 8:30am and walked straight to the car rental place which is located directly at the port, no reservations needed at Hertz, we just asked for a jeep and got one for $70.00.

The jeep had to be returned by 5:00pm which was no big deal as we planned to be back at the ship by then to shower and have dinner before getting off again to enjoy downtown Aruba.

We drove to Baby Beach - about a 30 minute ride from the port to discover one of the nicest beaches I have ever seen! What was really neat about this beach was the fact it had over 200ft of calm, crystal clear, turqoise water where you could wade out the full distance and the water was still only at your waist! This is a perfect beach for kids. As the morning wore on, the beach became a bit crowded - but not so crowded that it was annoying, just other people enjoying a clear, sunny and hot day on the beach in Aruba. There was a place for cold drinks and snacks with the usual fare of hamburgers and hot dogs etc.

At this point I should mention that every single day of our cruise was hot and sunny. I can't believe how lucky we were to have perfect weather on our cruise 2 years in a row!

We left the beach at around 2:00pm and drove around the island for a bit - my DH has never been to Aruba. Dropped the jeep off around 4:00pm and headed back to the ship to shower and relax before dinner.

I should mention that in spite of a full ship ( we were sailing at passenger capacity) we never had to wait in line to get on or off the ship. In fact, we never really felt the ship was crowded - even on sea days. People just seem to disperse all over the ship....

Ooops! I forgot to mention an important part of our first sea day! Our Meet and Mingle!!!!!! Sorry guys :o LOL

Our Meet and Mingle was held in the Blue Moon at 11:00am on our first sea day and it was incredible to finally meet the names I had been chatting with for so many months! It was neat because for the first several months after booking this cruise I was talking to myself on that thread and thought I would be sailing on an empty ship! That was not the case at all. There were at least 15 people that attended the M&M which was good considering we only had 27 registered. For those of you that are reading this, it was amazing to meet you all :)

One thing I found highly unusual was that there were NO door prizes given away? I was a bit surprised by this........I didn't mention it to our RCI person - maybe I should have? They didn't even give a way key chain.....nothing at all :(

M&M's are well worth it - it's so neat to put faces with the screen names. Sometimes when you are by the pool and it's time for your M&M, it could be tempting not to go....make the effort, it's great to meet everyone!

More later.......hope you aren't too bored by these details yet??

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Also waiting for more.......when is late seating on the first night if the muster drill is at 8:30pm?

 

Going on AOS in 75 days!

 

Late seating......hmmmmm....from memory, each seating was a half hour later than it normally would be, so if our seating was at 6:30pm. then late seating would have been at 9:00pm that first night. These seating times were only for the first night of the cruise, our regular time was 6:00pm for the week.

You will love the AOS :)

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Robyn, your cruise review is awesome. I was just getting ready to have a cup of tea and continue reading, but you stopped. I know, sometimes life gets in the way of our cruise reviews!! :o

 

By the way, did you change your future cruise plans?? You are now booked on the Radiance instead of the Enchantment???? :confused:

 

Looking forward to your next installment. You are an excellent writer and the vivid details make us all want to BOOK ANOTHER CRUISE!!!!!!

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One of the major draws for us concerning this itinerary, was the Aruba port - we really loved the idea of having a full day and evening on the island, the ship didn't leave port until 1:00am

 

We made our way back to the ship around 8:30pm after walking around and enjoying the sights of downtown Aruba - and of course a peek at Carlos and Charlie's ;) Lots of crew in there partying the night away!

 

Next port - CURACAO

 

Once again, awoke bright and early to a bit of an overcast day. Got off the ship at 8:30am and the heavens opened for all of 5 minutes after which the sun was shining all day long! Because we had visited Curacao 2 years ago and stayed at Breezes Resort, we really wanted to see it again, so we hopped in a cab and off we went. Took about 15 minutes. Breezes is located next door the Sea Aquarium. Walked around the resort ( jumped in the pool - without a day pass :eek: ) and called another cab to take us back to the port/shopping area. We had already seen Curacao, so we walked around downtown a bit - shopped at some of the local craft stores and headed back to the ship for a relaxing afternoon by the pool. If anyone has questions about Curacao I will be more than happy to answer them as we spent a week there and know the island quite well.

 

A few tidbits of general info: The casino took all of my money! :(

I had heard that the slots were loose the first night....well they certainly tightened up the second night!!!! Lots of people in the casino every night, it was a fun place to be in spite of my monetary losses/donations to RCI....LOL!

 

We didn't see the ice show or any other show for that matter....we clearly are not "show" people as we didn't partake on our last cruise either. I liked the various lounges and bars on the AOS, many of them were dimly lit intimate settings that we really enjoyed. For those of you that smoke, there are plenty of areas onboard to indulge. My DH is a definite non-smoker and it didn't bother him at all.

 

We really liked the Royal Promenade - did a bit of shopping onboard at various times during the cruise. I didn't do the bingo thing - did it last year and considered it a bit on the pricey side. We really enjoyed the pool side contests ie" sexy legs and belly flop contest :) Saw the horse racing too.

 

Our DD was crazy about Adventure Ocean and spent a lot of time there in the evenings - gave DH and I some time alone ;)

 

Next day - AT SEA

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Robyn, your cruise review is awesome. I was just getting ready to have a cup of tea and continue reading, but you stopped. I know, sometimes life gets in the way of our cruise reviews!! :o

 

By the way, did you change your future cruise plans?? You are now booked on the Radiance instead of the Enchantment???? :confused:

 

Looking forward to your next installment. You are an excellent writer and the vivid details make us all want to BOOK ANOTHER CRUISE!!!!!!

 

Over the Edge -

You are observant aren't you? ;) You are absolutely right - I DID book the Radiance today! Cancelled the 5 night on the Enchantment and transferred the deposit to the 6 night Radiance Western!

Girls only cruise, no husbands - no kids!

Pre 40th Birthday cruise for me! Why don't you join us? The more the merrier!!

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We love sea days - no rush to do anything :)

The ever present chair hogs were out in full force at the crack of dawn. When I got to the pool at about 8:00am, there were over 70 chairs with pool towels, books, suntan lotion and flip flops strewn all over them, but no people! UGH! It's amazing how inconsiderate people can be......:mad:

We enjoyed a gloriously sunny day by the pool - we couldn't have wished for a better weather day and the wind on deck was minimal.

I should also mention that on our cruise last year, we couldn't get away from the photographer! I think they have radar and know it's your first cruise so they hunt you down! This time we didn't see them all the time, and when we did - we were happy to have him/her take a picture of our daughter during various activities. I ended up spending about $125 on pictures which pales in comparison to what I spent last year.

St. Maarten -

This by far is our absolute favorite port. I think part of it is because we spent 2 weeks there 10 years ago on our honeymoon and it holds a special place for us. The other reason is that it has 2 of the most beautiful beaches in the world ( in my opinion). We did exactly what we did last year - got off the ship and rented a jeep at the port. The jeep cost $75 for the day and because we knew the island, getting to where we wanted to go was no problem. DH dropped me off on Front Street and he and my DD toured around the island while I shopped.....I was looking for a watch and I found one! I bought a lovely diamond watch with a mother of pearl face, by Raymond Weil at Goldfingers. I have checked the prices in Canada since returning and I saved over $500.00 :D

DH and DD swung by in the jeep and picked me up at 11:00am and we headed straight to Mullet Bay Beach ( located right near the airport so you can see those planes land up close and personal!)

Word of caution to anyone going to this beach in the next few weeks - the waves and the undertow were wicked....waves at least 7 feet high! Made swimming a little difficult and a little dangerous. Aside from that, the water is crystal clear and gorgeous - by far one of the nicest beaches in world! Can you tell that we LOVE St. Maarten????

Headed back to the ship around 4pm, dropped off the Jeep. In case you are wondering, we rented from Hertz and the jeep was a 2005. Last year we rented from an unknown at the port and the jeep they gave us was from the 1980's .....lessons learned!

More review coming up - stay tuned!

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I am getting sooo excited reading this review. We are going on the AOS April 2nd. It will be our 1st cruise WITH kids.

You say the water was rough the 1st night. Was it calm after that??? Did the Bonine make you tired? How about with alcohol??

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I am getting sooo excited reading this review. We are going on the AOS April 2nd. It will be our 1st cruise WITH kids.

You say the water was rough the 1st night. Was it calm after that??? Did the Bonine make you tired? How about with alcohol??

 

The seas were rough on the first night as well as the last......I started the Bonine the night before the cruise, so I was fine.

Bonine does make you tired, so I suggest you take it at nightime before bed. I don't suggest you take it immediately after consuming alcohol!

You will love the AOS :D

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