Part 4 VOS review 7/16/04

About our Promenade Cabin:

About the cabin, as I understand it, most of the inside and Promenade cabins are similar in size. The inside cabins have the bed against the far wall, while the Promenade ones have the bed on the side wall in the middle of the room. Because the beds were together for us, the size was about a Queen or King size. It was decently firm (with the slightly thin mattress on a solid bedframe). Our room had two small love seats. One was under the window, while the other was next to the first one, and opposite the vanity. Each side of the bed had their own nightstand and their own light. The night stand had one drawer, and an open space underneath. The light consisted of a wall light, and a separate reading light. (My reading light didn’t work, but I never had a need for it.) The phone was located on the night stand closest to the window.

The vanity had a separate light and large mirror. There was a central drawer where the hair dryer was. To the side (next to the window) was a door that covered the in-room refrigerator. We had our room steward empty it. He, also, disable the sensor. On each side of the mirror are small mirror doors that cover a narrow storage area with glass shelves. To the left of where your feet are is two more small shelves.

In the corner of the room, and opposite the bed and next to the closet, is a very narrow dresser with the TV on top of it. The three small drawers in it don’t hold much. The three shelves above the TV held a little more.

The closet has several shelves. One has the safe. The safe is locked and unlocked by a 4-digit code you create. It is large enough to hold a 35mm SLR Camera with room. The closet has a regular hanging bar with some hangers. There are two drop down bars about ½ way down you may fold down if you need more hanging space.

The bathroom is small, but adequate. Both “babchia” and myself are not small, and we had no problems with the shower (curved doors), or with using the bathroom. There is a shelf under the sink that contains spare toilet paper, the floor towel, and a rectangular garbage receptacle. In addition, there is storage behind a mirror door in the corner with some glass shelves.

Some notes about the bathroom: The shower, is European in design. The shower is a handle on the end of the hose. You may change the height of the shower, or hold it with your hand. There are two settings: Regular and Pulse. To control the shower, there are two knobs. The one on the left is to control Hot/Cold. The one in the center is to turn the water on/off..

If you are worried about storing your suitcases, don’t be. There is plenty of room under the bed. To provide additional clothing storage, I used some of my suitcases that I kept there and just pulled them out when I needed them.

You will find your room steward will clean your room twice a day. In the morning (about the time you have breakfast), and in the evening (about the time you have dinner). The steward will clean up the room and make your bed in the morning. (Check the arrangements of the pillows. It may be different each day.) In the evening, your bed will be turned down, a mint left on each pillow, and a different towel animal will be left for you. (We kept them all in-tact until the end of the cruise. They start to take up a lot of room after about the third day.)

The window of a Promenade Room has two curtains. One is a heavier sheer to allow light through. It really doesn’t provide much privacy from the rooms opposite yours. In addition, there is a heavy blackout curtain. Use this for privacy, and at night. While they do turn down the lighting in the Promenade in the evening, they turn the lights back up at about 1-2AM to get people to go to bed, and to clean up and setup the Promenade for the next day. It can be a little discerning to wake up and see the bright light leaking through the curtain, and then realize it is only 4:30AM.

Your room does come with a clock, but it is on the digital display on the phone, and does not light up. They do offer an automated wake-up call if you wish to use this service. I preferred my own travel clock because it was easier to read at night. (The phones also have Voice Mail. You can call from room to room, or from a number of phones located in public areas, including near the elevators.)

Television programming is limited. One channel has old TV Shows (Chico and the Man, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeanie, etc.). They tend to repeat the same shows. Some channels are from cable channels, but have RCCL commercials instead. These include Cartoon Network, and TNT. These channels also tend to repeat the same shows. CNN Headline News is live. Also, CNN International, Bloomberg (with Spanish text), and CNN/ES (Spanish) are live. There is usually a movie or two per day that are shown on multiple channels in different languages. There is also a channel that has basic information about the ship (location, pool temperatures, speed) and may have a live camera view of either the Promenade or the Bow of the ship. Finally, there is usually one channel that has rebroadcasts of parades or special shows (such as the Marriage Game) being played repeatedly. If you were to bring a VCR, you could probably record some of the better material, unedited, that you might want to have to remember your cruise. This is some of the things that are probably included in the Cruise Video you can buy. (I didn’t buy one for $30, so I can’t say for sure.)

As for power, there are two 110 Volt AC plugs on the desk, and one 220 Volt plug. The two 110’ plugs are next to each other. Because I had a fan, night light, battery recharger, cell phone recharger, and hair curlers in the room, that was not enough. Using the power strip more than made up for this. I never used my extension cord I brought, but if I had brought something that needed to reach beyond the vanity, I would have been glad to have it. (There is, also, a plug in the bathroom that is dual voltage (110/220). It is suppose to only be for razors. I didn’t use it, so I couldn’t tell you anything about it. Unless you know how to use it, I would advise leaving it alone.)

The refrigerator is small. I was able to put several cans of soda, and a small cake into it, but it barely kept them cold. I found I needed to use ice to have a cold drink.

(Speaking of cake, one was was delivered to the room with a small chocolate “Happy Anniversary” sign on it. The cake was too big for the two of us, so we ate some, and placed the rest in the newly emptied refrigerator. It took us days to get through all of it, but more on that in a moment.)

So, now onto the rest of Day 1…

After checking out the ship, we went to the Welcome Aboard Show. The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers did a quick song or two, then we got a short comedy set by special performer Tom Cotter. Because we had the Late Seating, we went to eat afterward. We got to meet our table mates and our waiters. One couple was with a large group, and was hoping to be moved to another table with their group. (They ended up eating with us on Friday and Saturday nights. By Sunday, they were able to get moved.) All of the people at our table were wonderful. Each had something to add to the conversations, and all were willing to let someone else talk.

After dinner, we eventually headed back to our room. After a long day, we were tired.

For the rest of the week, it is hard to remember everything. (I didn’t keep a diary or notes.) I will try to point out our highlights.

Many of the days, I got up early to catch the sunrise or arrival at an island. I would get too excited and would get up very early. To help make up for this, a few times I could be found taking a nap in an outside chair on Deck 4. This deck was usually fairly quiet during the day.

see part 5.

I have copied and combined all of the parts of this review after Part 1.

Sorry about this mess.

Read the entire review at:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?postid=1744631

DH of Babchia