danp2482

There were 4 Pelotons on WOS last March when we were on. I believe it is the only ship in the fleet with them but I could be wrong!

Hey everyone, I understand that Labadee is essentially a secure area but with the state department travel warnings, I just wanted to get some information/advice from everyone. We've never had a stop at Labadee. Has anyone had or heard of any safety issues while a ship was there? Not expecting that we'll be in danger but just doing due diligence for our trip next month. Any information would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Hoping someone could provide some info! Wife and I have an upcoming cruise in September. We'll be in a crown loft suite! This will be our first suite experience. We've done a few JS but this is a special trip! We were wondering what the options for in room dining are at the suite level. We know there are no charges for breakfast but are we able to get the main dining room menu or costal kitchen menu delivered to our room? Has anyone had any experience with this? Any information would be great! Thanks!

Thanks for the info. So not reaching capacity is the norm during normal operations? There were some stories that came out of the school vacation weeks the past few years where availability was limited, reservations were required and you only got so many reservations. I know a lot of that was covid protocol but I wasn't sure if that was the norm for school vacation weeks as well.

I was wondering if anyone with experience could help out with a question. We typically don't cruise during school vacation week but it just ended up working out that way this spring. What is Adventure Ocean like during a school vacation week? Are time slots/reservations required? Do they reach capacity? I know there were certain issues post covid with the time slots and cruises with a lot of children but now that operations are pretty much back to normal, does anyone have any insight to how things have operated during a school vacation week under normal operations. Thanks for any information you can provide!

I can only imagine how exhausting turn around day must be for them but this was our 6th time on a 3 day sailing and this was the only time I noticed the difference.

As I mentioned, I have previously reviewed a 2 separate 3 day sailings on Freedom of the Seas so instead of a full review, I figured I would post some basic observations and field any questions anyone may have! Having had our 3 year old daughter with us, I will also include info on the current state of Adventure Ocean as I have not seen many post about it recently. The planning for this trip began on our previous Wonder of the Seas sailing in March. We always seem to have another sailing booked before we get off a previous cruise! Not really because you get that much better of a deal, for us it’s more of wanting something to look forward to! The last day of the Wonder Cruise was at Coco Cay and as we walked past Splashaway Bay, we both decided that we would most likely add our daughter to the reservation. We had heard a rumor that Kids Sail Free was coming back and when it did, we jumped on the chance and added her. We managed to keep it a surprise, until we got to the port and she was pretty excited! The cruise for the most part was great! Unfortunately some liquid sunshine on our Coco Cay day but we were early risers and managed to get about 4 hours on the island before the rain moved in. Observations from Freedom of the Seas, 3 Day Bahamas with Coco Cay, 7/15/2022 Embarkation: Smooth as it could be. Our 3 year old is still unvaccinated and required testing at the port. We had a 10:30 embarkation time. We arrived at 10:15 and waited a short time before testing opened. Once we were let in, it was about 40 mins total time before we were on board and some of that was because embarkation had not started yet. Passengers: Capacity limitations seem to be a thing of the past! The ship was packed! We sailed many times prior to covid and ships were always packed! Not complaining about it, I knew it would be back to normal eventually. Even though it was busy, loungers were still available and we never waited for service. The best way to put it is that the normal capacity, didn’t seem to overwhelm the crew or the ship. That being said, another sad observation was that it appears the days of people feeling fortunate and being excited about being back on a ship also seem to be over. I observed many entitled guests acting rude, not only to crew but to other passengers. Blasting music from portable speakers, cutting in lines, rude tones and demeanor towards crew members, no please or thank you, etc… I know that’s everywhere but it seemed very prevalent on this particular sailing. Also, I know gratuities are prepaid on food and beverages if you have a package but I never saw anyone but me give anything extra the entire weekend! Ship: The ship was in great shape! Its obviously not a brand new ship but recently amped and everything was in working order! The ship didn’t feel tired one bit! The ship was clean and I observed the crew taking great care of the ship to keep everything as pristine as possible. No Compasses, Menus or Account Statement: It appears the ship is making an effort to go completely paperless. A cruise compass was not delivered to our room each night and they were not out on the shelves at guest services. You could get one from guest services if you asked but they weren’t just out for the taking. Menus in the restaurants still existed but bars all had QR codes to scan. I was really hoping they’d bring back hard menus at some point. We also only got our account statement emailed at the end of the cruise. It was not printed. Food and Beverage: Food was up to the usual standards! We had booked the UDP prior to the price jump. We dined in Giovani’s multiple times. All of our meals were great and we even had our best Chops meal ever. As far as beverage goes, I have a few observations. I am becoming less of a fan with how Royal basically has one beverage menu for the entire ship. With the exception of a few venues, all the bars function of the same menu. I have never sailed Carnival but I recently noticed that they have a lot of venue specific beverage menus and I think Royal needs to take a page from that playbook. You can usually find a bartender that will go off menu for you and make something different but that seemed to be lacking this sailing. (More on that) Another thing I observed is that they’re having some supply chain issues. At least they were on this sailing. There were multiple times when ordered things that they did not have. The only Bourbon the ship had was Wild Turkey. After Coco Cay they were able to get some Makers onboard but that was it. Multiple instances they did not have Hendricks Gin. Nichole asked for a moscato one night and they didn’t have any between Chops or Giovani’s. I didn’t note any crown royal on the ship anywhere. There was no Cachaca in Boleros for Capprihina’s and they couldn’t make certain drinks throughout the ship due to lack of ingredients. I’ve only experienced supply issues one time at Sandals early on during the reopening from the pandemic. I actually joked with Nichole that this situation never happens on cruise ships! Adventure Ocean: I don’t have much experience from Adventure Ocean other than our January Odyssey sailing and this one on freedom but I would say the experience this time was night and day! It appeared Adventure Ocean was operating business as usual. No longer required to make reservations. Open 8-10 first night, 2-5, 7-10 the second night and 9-5, 7-10 the third night with the option to pay for 10pm-1am. The activities were all in full swing and the indoor play area was open. Our daughter had a blast and kept begging to go back each night. Crew & Service: I have noted a few posts on here mentioning crew being tired. I think that is probably a good assessment of things. The service on the ship was great! Definitely at the standard you would expect but the crew felt a bit stiff if that makes sense. Usually the crew is more personable and friendly. Every sailing I’ve been on, there has been crew members that stand out. Ones that I rave about in my reviews or leave gratuity envelopes for. No one stood out or went above and beyond during our short adventure. Like I said, the service was great and the ship was in great shape but the crew just didn’t seem as happy. As I mentioned before, we never felt as if the ship was understaffed or service was lacking but maybe that is on the back of the crew and maybe that is why they seemed stiff. I know staffing issues are also causing some contracts to be extended for long periods as well. This may sound like complaining but it really isn’t. Just observations! We still had a great time and I wouldn’t hesitate to get back on Freedom tomorrow! These observations were just different from the norm! If anyone has any questions or I can provide any information, please don’t hesitate to ask!

Hi everyone! As I have already reviewed a 3 day cruise on Freedom of the Seas a few times, I thought I just give some brief observations from our 7/15/2022, 3 night Freedom of the Seas with Coco Cay sailing. I always start any of my reviews with some background about us as cruisers. If you’ve already followed along on another adventure, you can skip to the next post! I have used many reviews here to gather information about certain ships, certain cruises and get excited for upcoming cruises of my own. I have written some other reviews and really enjoyed reliving my vacation here! I also really enjoyed the dialog with other forum members and being to provide information as well as help you all get excited for a cruise you might have coming up! The enjoyment I get from writing the reviews helped me decide to write reviews after as many cruises as I can. If you haven't read any of the other reviews, let me give you a bit of background! DW (Nichole) and I have been really fortunate to have completed 16 cruises! We also have a 3 year old daughter and she completed her first sailing on Odyssey of the Seas in January of 2022. She came along on this 3 day adventure and had a blast! Nichole and I both work hard but love to vacation and try to do it as much as we can! (Always have to have something to look forward to!) Our vacation tastes range from numerous Vegas and Disney trips (both world and land) and multiple cruises. People frequently comment on the fact that we travel to repeat destinations or same style vacations but I guess when you know what you like, you just keep going back for more. I can imagine that I'm amongst like minded individuals here! In 2014, we decided that we were going to give cruising a try. We had always been interested in trying it out and seeing all the new entertainment and offerings of modern ships continued to build our interest. Not knowing if we would enjoy it and both of us being worried that Nichole may have some some sea sickness issues, we chose a 4 day cruise. Not only did we love it, but 4 days was not long enough and we found ourselves booking another cruise. The rest is history and as I've mentioned, we've been fortunate enough to complete 16 cruises across 3 cruise lines. We've landed on Royal Caribbean for our last 11 and currently really enjoy RCI and their fleet of ships. We’re currently Emerald level in Royal Caribbean’s Crown and Anchor Society.

Our upcoming sailing is on Freedom. That is what I am most interested in hearing but hearing whats going on around the fleet would be ok as well.

Hey everyone! Trying to find out the current procedures for Adventure Ocean. When we used it on Odyssey back in January, you were required to book all your sessions on the first day and were only allotted a certain amount of time slots per sailing. The time slots seemed like rigid slots as well 9-12, 2-5, 7-12 if I remember. If you weren't booked, you could show up and hope to get in but there were no guarantees. I think a lot of this was due to limiting the numbers in AO due to protocols but I had not used AO prior to covid so I don't know what it was like without restrictions. Has anyone used adventure ocean recently and can fill me in? Thanks!

Hi! I Can't speak directly to Ovation but on Odyssey you are given a ship cell phone and they call you on it. It is definitely possible for the kids to request to be picked up before the session is over. When they do, the staff calls the cell and you head on over to get them!