Blue Collar Diamond cruiser on the Adventure of the Seas Southern ABC Islands

Bill,

So glad to find your review. We are on Adventure in a couple of weeks and are getting very excited. This review will certainly help!!!

Loving the pics Bill. We were on Adventure in January of 2016 before the refurb. No slides, no flowrider, no dual level golf course. Now I want to go back.

 

O-H!

I - O,. lots of Buckeyes on this cruise BTW, didn't see a damm Maze and Blue shirt all week!

LOL! Not weird, I think you sensed my excitement when I realized we have similar cabins.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

PS - The cabin photos will probably go up around 11:30-12:30 eastern time, back to work, looking up at my countdown clock, its back to 354 days!

After getting the Next cruise booked, we still had an hour to kill before the rooms were available (2pm), so we went up to check out the Diamond Club as this was our first time on a Voyager class since becoming Diamond.

We met a lot of nice people in here during the week. Even the one English couple we sat with one night, I would still categorize as "nice" even though the seats next to them were the last ones left, they didn't tell us not to sit there, but I did have to ask, "May we?" twice ;) I think he said at least 5 times, "I can't understand you Americans" I managed to keep it civil. Both of our sea pass cards worked on the entrance to the club, we verified that as my wife's didn't work on Oasis at first. Another thing that didn't work on Oasis was the fancy coffee machine everyone talks about. It worked fine for my wife this cruise.

Here is a shot of the patio to the Diamond club.

We didn't know it then, but the couple in this picture would be our table mates. The guy on the left bears a very strong resemblance of comedian/impressionist Frank Caliendo, his wife bears some resemblance to actress Leah Reamy, but she really sounded like her. It was like dining with celebrities all week.

That took us up to 2pm and time to head down to our room.

Subscribing! 3 of my favorite things. Sailing out of San Juan, Staying at the Condado Plaza and being on a cruise. Thanks for taking us along.

By the way, I have been to Milford, NH, many years ago visiting a wire and cable plant that is probably not there any more.

LOL! Not weird, I think you sensed my excitement when I realized we have similar cabins.

 

Ok good to know. I may look into the shuttle service for my party of 3 and I'm enjoying the Adventure changes so far. Keep it up!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

The web gods are not smiling on you. I finished my tour of the diamond club and went to upload my cabin pics to my hosting site and it went down for maintenance! SOON!

Thanks Bill!

On Adventure 3/31/18.

For the first time since I signed up on CC, I cannot see the pix in a thread. :(

I am using Chrome but also tried to look at the thread using IE. Same thing. No pix.

Anyone else having an issue?

By the way, I have been to Milford, NH, many years ago visiting a wire and cable plant that is probably not there any more.

Hendrix by chance?

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Thanks Bill!

On Adventure 3/31/18.

For the first time since I signed up on CC, I cannot see the pix in a thread. :(

I am using Chrome but also tried to look at the thread using IE. Same thing. No pix.

 

Anyone else having an issue?

I also cannot see any photos, but I'm using internet that as FB filtered, so if the photos are on FB, I would not be able to see them right now.

Thanks Bill!

On Adventure 3/31/18.

For the first time since I signed up on CC, I cannot see the pix in a thread. :(

I am using Chrome but also tried to look at the thread using IE. Same thing. No pix.:)

 

Anyone else having an issue?

Are you at work or home, but I'm guessing if you looked in the last few minutes my picture hosting site tripod.lycos.com is temporarily down. Try again later. It went down as I tried to upload cabin pics.

Nice to see the outside seating area. On Freedom it is closed off because they are working on installing the starboard scrubber. That was a bit disappointing. I hope it doesn't tun into another two year project like the port scrubber did.

Hendrix by chance?

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

Yes, I think that was it. I remember they had the steam tubes for curing wire, very high pressure heated steam tubes about 100 yards long.

Finally after 2 years of waiting we were allowed to go to our cabin, As mentioned we got a great deal on 101328 a Junior Suite on the back of the hump. The price was so good, a month before the cruise, I saw a center hump JS was open and asked if I could move to it. I was told I could, for $2000. I think that is the biggest fee ever offered to switch inside the same class of room.

The balcony was a bit tight with 2 chairs and a lounger. Note to Balcony club members, the older style balconies of the Voyager and Adventure are the best for club initiation.

The web gods are not smiling on you. I finished my tour of the diamond club and went to upload my cabin pics to my hosting site and it went down for maintenance! SOON!

I'm waiting kinda patiently [emoji2]

I love the outdoor Diamond area. I'll have to ditch my sisters a few times to go and visit.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Even if you don't take a bath, its much nicer taking a shower in the Junior Suite.

Here is one of the horrible things we had to endure on our cruise. Our welcome back gifts were supposed to be a Diet Coke for the Mrs and a regular Coke for me. Can you say Free cruise? :evilsmile:

Actually, I am beginning to think Royal comes on to cruise critic to read my reviews, and probably others. This was the 2nd time in 3 cruises they have gotten this wrong. Again, Free cruise? Ok, you know I'm kidding, as you can see we had the softdrink package, so we didn't miss the coke can. (FYI, Freestyle Grade on this cruise B- More on that later)

One reason I think Royal has been reading my reviews is I've mentioned at least a dozen times not getting the meet and mingle invitation in my room. This time, for the first time ever, it was in our room on day 1.

I'm waiting kinda patiently [emoji2]

 

I love the outdoor Diamond area. I'll have to ditch my sisters a few times to go and visit.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

We had no problem ditching Jon and Penny and meeting them at dinner. On the last night, everyone at our table was in the Diamond Club and we went down together to join them in the dining room.

I - O,. lots of Buckeyes on this cruise BTW, didn't see a damm Maze and Blue shirt all week!

Thank heaven for small miracles.

Enjoying so far. :)

Seeing the photos now.:)

Are you at work or home, but I'm guessing if you looked in the last few minutes my picture hosting site tripod.lycos.com is temporarily down. Try again later. It went down as I tried to upload cabin pics.

I have visuals!! :)

Thanks! Pix look great.

Yay cabin pictures! I absolutely love the size and hope I don't get spoiled. This will probably be my only JS. Keep them coming and want to hear your comments about the Freestyle machines. I'm looking forward to them.

Seeing the photos now.:)

Lycos must have been having connectivity issues.

After getting comfortable in our room, our next tradition is to go check out our table location in the dining room. Being the last hold out for late seating traditional dining we are on deck 5. Penny and John went down with us as our reservations were linked. We found what should be a favorable spot, a round table for 8 on a balcony overlooking the main floor. This should be an ideal spot, but I told Jon and Penny the bad part of this location based on our Freedom cruise where we had a similar table. On a couple of nights, there was a show, and waiters singing only on deck 3 and at least 30 people rushed the balcony behind our table to watch. We couldn't move or even lift a fork. On this cruise just one lady came over to watch and I don't think any of us noticed her. Penny stood up do go use a rest room and pinched his lady's arm against the railing. I'm sure that left a mark.

Our first night in the MDR was less than spectacular. For that first night, it was Jon, and Penny, my wife and myself at the table. I told them with Royals current MO. the other couples probably had specialty dining booked as Royal was pushing that for the first nights. I was correct. On night two another couple from Idaho joined us, we would enjoy their company the rest of the week. On that 2nd night, the 4th couple also showed up, sat down and told us that they had reservations for Giovanni's, but they stopped in before to say hello. I thought that was a really nice thing to do. This was the Caliendo/Reamy look alike couple. We enjoyed them the rest of the week as well.

For most of my recent cruises including 7 day on Freedom, 7 day on Oasis, and a 4 day on Majesty, the first night menu was the "Mojo" menu. It use to have the prime rib and the Pork Chop. This time, disappointingly, it had neither. It did have a port centerloin with some fancy description. It was as bland and tasteless as I've ever had. No worry, I don''t really cruise for the food as much as some, but the appetizer, and desserts were good. The waiter was just back from a few months vacation and didn't have the recommendations or couldn't answer any questions, but it was no big deal and she was up to speed from day 2 on. The assistant waiter, a millennial from Indonesia was about worthless. Perhaps the most worthless I have ever experienced. I don't say that lightly. We never got asked what we wanted to drink, we had to flag her down, and then ask again 2-3 times before it arrived, and then we would ask for a refill and finally give up and leave with out it. If we could live without the optional drinks, we had to ask the waiter for refills on water as well, but we would still have to wait for the assistant. As for bread, we saw that this girl was working on 5 tables and we were clearly table number 5 in her rotation. We got whatever was left over in her basket that the other 4 tables didn't want. At the end of the night, we were asked for Coffee, only 1 of the 4 of us said yes, but we gave up and went to the welcome back show before it ever showed up. Day 2 would be worse.

We did leave dinner in time for the welcome back show. Here is another case where I think Royal is reading my reviews. :rolleyes:. A month before our cruise Casey Pelter was moved to Cruise Director of Adventure after a long time on Freedom. I really enjoyed Casey on Freedom and welcomed having him on Adventure. The only negative thing I said related to him was the Welcome back show on Freedom started with a 10 minute infomercial about Royal Caribbean. I thought that was poorly done, and perhaps he/they listened.

This show started off with a 30 second video about Harmony of the seas and as it was playing Casey walked on the screen. 30 seconds is better than 10 minutes. A couple of other times Casey used a 30 second commercial of this type to transition between acts and getting off and on the stage. This was entirely tolerable and I'm sure some people had never seen those short clips before.

The rest of the Welcome aboard show featured the orchestra, the RC singer and dances and a short bit by the featured entertainer. All of it made me want to come back and see those shows.

We ended day 1 with a nice soak in one of the hot tubs in the solarium. We were able to find a warm/open one every night. That is a big improvement over some past cruises.

Bummer! Can't see the photos. Saw them yesterday but not today. Can someone who couldn't see them before tell me if there's something to do in order to see them? TIA