drarill

I asked at Guest Services and they said March/April for Chops opening. Hope that it is done faster for your NYE cruise!

Thanks so much for taking the time to answer all our questions. This is going to be our fourth NYE cruise on the Adventure and we like Chops a lot. Keep having fun and again, Thank you!!:)

Tuesday -at sea. Today was a lazy day. We did have a cocktails and appetizer reception with the officers in the Viking Crown lounge. I didn't eat too heavy today because we were having dinner at Giovanni's. Sorry I forgot to mention that the food in the MDR has been very good so far. I also heard a few other cruisers mention that RCL seems to have stepped upped the quality of the food compared to what it has been of late. Anyway, Giovanni's was excellent. I will post menus when I get home.

 

We did see the ice show this afternoon and it was excellent. The pool areas have been full most of the day, but a fun band on deck to listen to. I am posting again as I keep getting connectivity messages. Tomorrow we are in Barbados.

Thanks for the update! Can you find out when is the suite lounge opening? :):) I'll appreciate the info.

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Chops framework next to the schooner bar.

Thanks for taking the time to share your pictures with us. Can you find out when is Chop's opening?? We have two cruises on the Adventure booked, NYE and another one in June to celebrate my daughters high school graduation with a group of her friends. I appreciate all the pictures and updates. Happy cruising!:)

Bob, I have a question for you. This is a logistics question. I was surprised to see Adventure docking from my hotel room window this morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan.

 

Is this the Pan Am Pier? I guess I assumed it was further away (you know what they say about assuming...)

 

Thank you.

Looking forward to your review. We are celebrating NYE on the Adventure.

The Adventure docks at the Pan American Pier. The Pier in front of you is the Old San Juan pier, it is close to the Pan American pier but not close enough.

Happy cruising!!

Bummer. Ah well, can't be helped I suppose. It's not that I care about it being a suite lounge, I just got a bit spoilt on my Jewel cruise with the new location of the concierge lounge. Looking out at the ocean as we sipped our drinks was lovely. We might still poke our heads in but whether we'll stay and drink is another thing as it might be too crowded. Like I said no biggie.

 

In response to the post above - I know we'll have access to the concierge lounge but so will all the D+'s on board and as it's quite a small room, I imagine it gets crowded pretty quickly and I'd prefer to drink somewhere I can actually sit down in. Plus the location of the concierge lounge is not the best.

We are on the NYE cruise and was looking forward to the new Suite Lounge. On our last cruise the CL was monopolized by an extended family in a couple of suites and some Pinacles. It wasn't a biggie for us, because we liked the Diamond Lounge better. But still, after many AOS cruises we were looking forward to the new lounge.

I really hope they update the rooms though, the Adventure deserves a good upgrade. Have a great cruise and hope you share with us your experience after the refurbish. :)

I was 2 years old, back in 1968. My parents were moving to Spain to finish their PhD's and decided that a Transatlantic was a great idea. The ship had a class system and we were cruising on second (cabin) class. But still, my classy, charming and smart dad made such an impression that we were invited to have dinner with the ship's captain. :)

I was trying to find information about the ship and found an interesting story. This cruise ship was hijacked back in 1961...

http://www.ssmaritime.com/Vera-Cruze-Santa-Maria.htm

http://www.maritimeprofessional.com/blogs/post/hijacking-of-the-ss-santa-maria-13422

Hope you have a wonderful cruise Cindy. We are looking forward to our fourth New Years Eve celebration on the Adventure in less than three months. Happy cruising!! :)

Seems like a pretty significant increase on the price of the Refreshment package, formerly Royal Replenish. $19 -> $26 per day. Over a 35% increase.

Agreed. Celebrity's beverage packages are much better. They also include canned sodas, the Premium is $22 per night and the Classic $18. We won't book any beverage package for our next cruise, with our D+ and suite benefits it is not worth it.

Cindy:

Did you talk to the suite concierge about the refurbishment of the ship? Any information will be appreciated. I'm really enjoying your review. :)

Do you know this Puerto Rican flag used to be painted with the right colors? blue, red and white.... In July someone changed the colors to black and white to reflect the dark period our country is going through, due to the economic crisis. You can see the before and after on this link

https://www.buzzfeed.com/adriancarrasquillo/artists-paint-over-famous-door-in-puerto-rico-because-of-isl?utm_term=.brMX6NZoo1#.qevJwbYoo2

We have a port stop in Ponce in February of 2018. I am so glad you posted those pictures as there is not a lot out here to look at. Thanks.

Loving this review...

You can also visit Ponce's Art Museum http://www.museoarteponce.org/index.php?idi=2

Most people come to see Leighton's Flaming June...

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/20/flaming-june-frederic-lord-leighton-house-museum

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1632584-leightons-erotic-flaming-june-both-fascinates-and-irritates-art-world/

I saw an article on a social media site about Captain Busto. It was in Spanish and I couldn't get it to translate so had to have Mr Ski interpret for me. In it he read that it will take 6,000 people ...working 24 hours a day...to complete the refurb in the allotted time frame. I don't think the 6,000 people and the 24 hours are simultaneous!:D I asked him did he mean 600 and he said "No...it says 6,000".

I think this is the article you are talking about, a friend of mine wrote it.

http://www.elnuevodia.com/suplementos/deviaje/nota/primercapitandecruceroboricua-2228603/

Captain Busto says that the project will take six thousand people working for six weeks (a month and a half).

We are looking forward to our NYE cruise on the Adventure. :)

What's the upcharge for Cafe Al Baccio? I didn't see the charge mentioned anywhere. Do you pay a la carte?

I don't know if this link with the prices is going to work here...

http://www.cruisewithgambee.com/celebrity-drink-lists/

We usually have some kind of drink package and the coffees we order are included. :):)

I really enjoyed the review and this was just the information I needed. We are Diamond on Royal and just booked our first Celebrity cruise, as they announced they will be doing the Caribbean during the summer of 2017. We love the itinerary. We love Key West and we've never been to Costa Maya and the date worked out perfectly for all of us. They had a promotion that gave us ALL FOUR PERKS. We couldn't believe it and neither could our TA, but after checking, we have it in writing. We got the free internet, gratuities, drink package and $300 OBC. We will be sailing on the Equinox and while we normally book a balcony, we booked an OV...and still got the perks. Since we are Elite on Celebrity, we also get the free bag of laundry. On Royal, we just got off Liberty 7-nights, and found out you had to be on an 8 night cruise to even get the Wash'N Fold for the discount of $20, so we lost that as Diamond. We were usually busy during most of the hours for the Diamond Lounge so the drink package will work much better for us. My Grandson has cruised with us since he was 3 and is Diamond. He's always preferred Royal and was excited about the new water slide on Liberty since we had sailed Liberty a couple of years ago on a Med cruise and it wasn't there at that time. It was added during dry dock. He used it exactly once...because of the line. He wasn't as impressed with the food on the Liberty and when he found out about the perks, he was all in for booking Celebrity. We're anxious to see how Celebrity compares to Royal. One thing I did notice is the number of food venues that are an additional charge. No Sorrento's pizza and no Promenade Cafe for the sandwiches and desserts. Mast Grille sounds good so I hope we don't miss Sorrento's and the Promenade Cafe too much. Love the idea of the regular ice cream on Celebrity. If anyone has copies of the menus, I would love to see them. Please share.

IMHO the Ocean View Cafe is superior to the Windjammer. I was also disappointed about the hours the WJ was opened on our last cruise. The OVC offers pizza, sandwiches and desserts practically around the clock and also closes really late at night, unlike the WJ. No-one has mentioned Cafe Al Baccio, you will find sweets and great coffee there all day long and they also close late at night.

Hope this helps.

Excellent comparison. We are D+ in RCCL and prefer Celebrity during the summers if we go to Europe. For those long itineraries, our Elite's laundry coupons are a blessing. I also like Celebrity's non-alcoholic drink packages better. Canned sodas are included in Celebrity's packages unlike Royal's.

Suite guests in Celebrity dine in Luminae. They also have both; concierge and butler services. Although Royal is trying to improve their suite experience with the genie, Suite lounge and Costal Kitchen IMHO Suite life is better in Celebrity. Most of these improvements are not available fleet wide. :)

We're looking at Eastern and Western Caribbean cruises, so for X that would be the ships out of Miami and Ft. Lauderdale (Silhouette, Reflection, Eclipse, Equinox, Summit). As for RCCL/RCI there's more ports ships to choose from, too many to list here. It's relatively easy for us to fly to any port in Florida, Galveston is closest but not the most direct. We'd consider other cruises in Europe and Alaska if we weren't so limited for time.

 

Thank you for suggesting the suites, and I think someone else mentioned the aqua class also, I hadn't thought of those. I will check it out.

The Luminae experience for suite guests is amazing!!! so much that we didn't need to go to many specialty restaurants on our last cruise.

From previous cruises, we love Murano and always have a good time with the kids in Q-Sine. Not a big fan of the Tuscan Grille although most CC members think is fantastic. We also really liked the Lawn Grille.

Booking a suite gives you so many options.. Luminae, Blu, MDR (you can ask for anything from the MDR menu in Luminae) and specialty restaurants. We cruised with a big group in June and were offered 40% discounts to go to the specialty restaurants. Our suite package also included the Premium Beverage package that IMHO is much better than Royals, pre-paid gratuities and unlimited internet.

:):)

far out suggestion:

 

Is there a roll call still posted? Maybe ask for help there.

Great idea... this is the link to the roll call.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2180170

Are they at least willing to check the safe at the end of the cruise, once the current occupants have departed the cabin? There's a slim possibility that they too won't notice the rings at the back of the safe.

There is... reading this thread I realized that we never checked our children's room safe before or after our last cruise. We had adjoining cabins and only used the safe on our room.

I sympathize with the OP. I really wouldn't mind if RCCL asked me to check the safe.

Well, we are taking a 1yr old and a 3.5 yr old in August on the Millennium, also in a Sky Suite. So, we'll let you know how it goes :)

Have a great time. We started cruising with our children when they were two and three, fifteen years ago. They are D+ and Elite on their own rights now. We cruise in suites most of the time and on our last cruise two weeks ago we enjoyed Luminae most nights. My only advice to you and the OP is to ask them to speed up the diner. Dining in Luminae takes a looooong time!! :D:D

BTW, There were plenty of families in Luminae during our cruise and never saw anyone misbehaving. :)

One month ago I was surfing Navigator's flowrider. I really like the sports staff on the ship.

The Adventure is suppose to get a flow rider soon... looking forward to our NYE cruise on the AOS :)

If you have sailed on Celebrity and RCCL in a suite which ones would you find comparable? It looks like the Sky suite is smaller than a Grand suite. We booked a 5 day cruise to Bermuda in an Owners suite on Grandeur for August 2017, but have found that we can book a 7 day cruise on Celebrity Summit for a cheaper price during the same time frame in a Sky suite which currently includes internet, drink packages, gratuities, and $300 OBC. I am wondering if the Celebrity suite is more like the Grand suite.

We have sailed in GS, CLS and OS in Royal and RS and CS in Celebrity. Now that our children are older we decided this year to "downgrade" ourselves to two Sky Suites and it was great. Someone compared the SS to the Jr suites in Royal and probably in size they are similar but unlike Jr suites in Royal, a SS gives you full suite benefits. A butler, concierge lounge access and Luminae. Celebrity's beverage packages are also better than Royals IMHO. Hope this helps.:)

You don't happen to know what time the last bus was back to Fira from Oia?

 

We hope to do this when we arrive in Santorini

 

Thanks

They gave us different options. We chose 5:30 pm, had an early dinner in Fira and went back to the ship around 8:00 pm.

Hi italia103,

 

Any chance you stopped in Santorini? If so, what time was the last tender?

 

Thanks - appreciate the help!

We arrived in Santorini at 2:00 PM and the last tender was at 8:30 PM

We are on same cruise 29 July. This was really interesting , thanks. Do you also know if it is possible to get to Oia from santorini port without having to take the cable car? Would appreciate any advice

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You can take a boat to Oia from the port. I think we paid 11 euros to get there and at the end they drove us to Fira by bus. Hope this helps. :)

We just came back from the Reflection and really missed BO5. I have to mention that I'm extremely allergic to sea food and SO5 or the Porch were not an option for me.

SO5 looked almost empty every time we were around. My daughter and some members of our group tried it once but two of them had GI issues after eating there and didn't go back.

The Ocean View cafe had sushi on the last sea day and it was really popular. :)