lauraodonnell86

Hello Laura,

 

Thank you so much for the posts. We are doing the Southern on May 20th. We are so ready and this makes us even more ready and gives us some ideas on things we may want to do. While we have our excursions we do have some time we could do some other things or stop to eat or drink.

 

Thank you!!!!

You're so welcome!! Have a blast! I know you will! Wish we were going with you! :)

Hi Laura - I know this thread was a month ago, but wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your pictures! They are beautiful and we are so excited to sail on Adventure next week!!!

Thank you so much!!! Really means a lot to me! I am soooooo jealous of your sailing. We had Adventure books again for next January but our cruise just got cancelled because of them finishing the rest of the dry dock :( so we had to move to Jewel of the Seas. I will miss the Royal Promenade the most. I hope you have a fantastic time and will report back to let me know! Enjoy!!!

Don't overlook the fact that RCL will reimburse you for airline change fees. Fine print reads, "If you incur a fee due to the change in your airline reservations, you will be reimbursed up to $200 per person, for Domestic Flights & $300 per person, for International Flights."

Yes they will give you $200 but flights have gone up since then over $150 a person. It might also be the fact that we are changing from flying on Saturday to Sunday. :mad::(

t minus 4 hours

 

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Excited for ya!! Have a wonderful time!!

We are waiting another 55 days and going on Adventure to Aruba and Curuaco anyway. Love to hear what you loved about those stops. The only reason we booked this cruise was for Aruba. Hope we aren't disappointed. It's been a long, hard road. (One I NEVER anticipated traversing!)

Here is a small review from our cruise January 2017. Down towards the bottom will be Aruba and Curacao! Enjoy!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2455277&page=2

I just got a new phone and didn't remember my periscope ID, so I created a new one. I normally shut my phone off as soon as we board, but I may keep it on till we are ready to leave port. I'll try to do a periscope and show the new slides and mini golf sometime Saturday afternoon. My new Periscope user ID is bluecollardiamond

Awesome! Excited for the Periscope!!

The email I saw said $200 per stateroom for standard staterooms, and $400 for suites. Of course, in typical RC fashion, they are not explicit that suites include JS in this case. Also, I'm not sure the OBC is given in addition to the price protection, that part is fuzzy too.

This is what my email says:

o Price protection is limited to the cruise fare. Taxes, fees, gratuities and other non-cruise fare items are subject to prevailing rates on your chosen sailing.

· You may also book any other Royal Caribbean sailing at prevailing rates.

· When you rebook any Royal Caribbean sailing you will receive $200 to spend onboard for a standard stateroom or $400 to spend onboard for suites.

Also Bob, do you have any advice for balcony rooms on Jewel? Anything weird like deck 6 balconies on Adventure?

I know you were on our roll calls. Sorry you bought the airfare:(. We'd been looking and thankfully hadn't pulled the trigger on it yet. Just got off the phone with the "redployment" line. Booked B2B on Jewel to replace what was cancelled. We were looking forward to the Aruba/Curacao stops but at least we got another B2B from SJU. The 400.00/week OBC will come in handy at least.

I need to discuss with my husband but I think that's what we will end up doing as well. But the airfare looks like it's about $100 more a person. We got married on Serenade in 2009 so it might be nice to be back on another ship like her. But we will definitely miss the Royal Promenade :( I agree with you about Aruba and Curacao. We visited them for the first time this past January and they were amaaaaazing! But we have Freedom booked for 2019 (think the same B2B you do) so we will have to wait to go back until then I suppose!

Is the OBC 200/person per week? I was thinking it was only going to be 200/week.

Yep, our January B2B just got cancelled and of course, I pulled the trigger 2 weeks ago on a good priced non refundable flight :mad::mad:

Sometimes it pays to check the everlasting "sales" every once in awhile....

 

Just gave up my C&A discount on our JS 9618 cruise on Navigator in Nov. 2018. Price of the cruise went up $150, but came with $300 in OBC.

Same situation with us for our January 2019 cruises!! YEAH! :cool:

I'll be curious to see how that goes. I first started hearing about hard mattresses back in 2015 around our Freedom cruise. Mattlresses were fine for us on that cruise. Believe me I know when a mattress is hard. I have woke up with no blood circulating in an arm from a too hard mattress. Oasis in 2016 was our first Diamond Cruise and they had a foam mattress topper on our bed without us asking. The same was true on Majesty last fall. Each cruise I hear other people talking about hard mattresses on the shuttles back to our car. Maybe mattress toppers are a new Diamond Perk? :confused: I'll be reporting back in about 3 weeks!

They were perfectly fine for us in January! No complaints! Sleep better than ever on the waves!

I made a Shutterfly site to share pictures of this cruise. It is arranged in sections based on type of picture, for example, general ship, embarkation, Presidential Suite, specific ports, etc. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

https://freedomoftheseasmarch262017.shutterfly.com/pictures

Really great pictures!! We are going on Freedom for the first time in January 2019! Never been on anything bigger than Voyager class. Your pictures make me very excited! Thanks for the awesome review!

Solarium:

 

 

 

 

 

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Awesome pictures of the Solarium!! That is our favorite place on Adventure and we have our first cruise booked on Freedom for 2019! Very beautiful space in there! Hot tubs look great!!👍

Hope this helps some of you....We've had #9708 a few times on both Indy &Liberty...I would suggest you book #9704 no connecting door and if it's a concern the wall #9708 and #9706 share is where the TV is with the Bose sound system in #9708 (we're always aware of sharing that wall with other's but some might not be ;)

 

In regards to people looking down on you from deck #10 don't be too concerned as you would have to be against the railing for those above you to see you and we've found other's seem to avoid looking and are more concerned about looking out at the amazing wake views. :cool:

Thanks Ashland!! This makes me feel a little better about booking 9404!!

We booked 9404, I hope we aren't disappointed. I've heard good things about the corner aft but then again, I've heard just what you said about the 9406 or 9706 being a little better because the balcony isn't an awkward shape. We've never done a corner aft so I was kind of booking blind. But the agent said it was a good cabin....I guess we'll see! We aren't too picky so it should be fine :D I mean, we ARE on a cruise!

Were you able to book that stateroom with only 2 guests?

Yes we were! When I called back to check on aft balconies on other decks, they said that deck 9 was the only one that you could book with 2 people. Some friends also booked a deck 9 after with just the 2 of them.

Thank you for all the help on this thread! We booked 9404 on Freedom for January 2019 which will be our first time on Freedom and our first time in a corner aft room! :D Can't wait!

We just booked Freedom out of San Juan for Jan 2019 the other day! We've never been on a Freedom class ship but thanks to your advice on another thread, we booked the corner aft on deck 9! We've never been in a corner aft so we're excited to try it! Your pictures make me excited!

My husband and I will be on with you Jan 13, 2018! We are doing 13th and 20th. B2B is the only way to go!

 

 

We will be with you the second week of your 2018 B2B. Love to have you join us on the Roll Call. We were also taken to Dickenson Beach in 2014 and whole heartedly agree with the taxis and the beach. (Little did we know) back then but we ran into RCC's excursion leaving as we arrived early afternoon after shopping in town. They were only there for several hours and we had our own excursion including drink for less than half the time they did.

 

I'm already on the roll call!! We are getting excited for 2018 and just booked another B2B on Freedom out of San Juan for 2019!! Can't wait!

Another negative, the big ships never hit as many islands. So, whereas Adventure stops at 4 or 5, will Freedom stop at only 3 or 4 in order to conserve fuel? One of the reasons to fly to SJ are the port intensive sailings, IMHO anyway.

 

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No, they are doing the same amount of islands just in a little bit different order.

Just got off HOTS and booked the same 4-21-18 & 4-28-18 cruise....but only as place holder's...I'm waiting to change to 5-18 when those booking come out.

We have them booked as place holders too. We are waiting for January 2019! Hopefully they are released Wednesday!!!!

Well I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the 4/21/18 cruise! Balcony on the 7th deck forward.

 

Thank you to all that helped me by answering my questions!

WOOHOO!!! Excited for you!! :D

Thank you all for the responses! Really appreciate it, and you have put any nervousness I had to rest.

 

Does anyone know where the smoking sections on Adventure are? My wife has asthma and is sensitive to smoke so I'd like to get a cabin on the opposite side if possible.

 

 

Also, and I ask this knowing that it changes and there really isn't a set rule, but does Adventure generally dock on the port or starboard side?

The smoking sections are on the port side of the main pool and then the casino. I would get a room on starboard if at all possible.

I'm not sure about which side they generally dock on but I think it changes quite often. I haven't really paid attention.

Have a great time! We just booked a cruise for May 2018 on Liberty. We've never been out of Galveston before so we're excited! I see your screen name and assume you are a dispatcher? I am one as well in the Kansas City, MO area. Enjoy your cruise!

Was Elvis Pinto your CD? We had Elvis as our AD on my jewel cruise out of San Juan and he did this as well as make everyone at home. It made me think he would make a good CD, which he probably is. I'll report back in about 6 weeks!

No it was Mercedes. But she wasn't at the Meet and Mingle in Jan 16. At both of them that we've been to, it's only been the Activities Manager/Director. I hope your M&M goes great!