This year we had the opportunity to travel to Europe on the RCL’s Adventure of the Seas Cruise ship prior to her going into drydock and to sail back to the US on her immediately after the drydock. So what can they do in just 18 days….oops make that 20 days. They delayed our return by two days:) This was our chance to see!

These are my observations and I am contrasting the two balcony cabins which we stated in and were a few doors apart. So I may see differences which were not actually modifications. This occurred with a few items in the cabin since I did not discuss this with the employees or contractors.

Well, as dry docks go, some needed things were accomplished but there were more problems than you could imagine. The problems people are experiencing seem much worse than before the drydock Sinks and toilets are closed in many public locations, the hot tubs and pool are shut down in the Solarium (lots of rumors about why…not good ones), In our room, the heater was stuck on … anyone enjoy a sauna as your bedroom? Others had no hot water, some only had hot water, some had no water! The lines at guest services for the first few days resembled Disney during the Holidays. In one lounge, two of the new chairs collapsed when our friends sat down. In our room, the new thermostat is installed upside down…really….upside down. In other rooms, they are sideways, in some rooms they are barely hanging on the wall, and can be spun around by hand.

Many things got fixed or upgraded during the drydock but most didn’t. The ship was painted and some of the rust on the balconies was addressed (still plenty to deal with). There was some new carpet and a one new ugly statue in one the Champaign Bar. A few chairs were replaced and really not much else.

Before we got off the ship we took the time to look around and identify things that needed to be repaired and took some photos of areas where we knew they would be working, so we could compare. It didn’t appear many visible repairs were made….mostly paint and carpet.

Crew members told us that there would be 1,400 contractors on board working around the clock. They would be redoing many things in the cabins, improving the internet, adding cabins in the existing meeting space and updating many of the common areas. So here is my assessment of what they did,

Electronics:

I felt that the internet speed was just fine on the first leg of the journey but I didn’t think to measure it. However, I did measure it on MSC’s World Europa on Nov 19^th and found it to be: 46.9 MBS in the room and slightly higher in the common areas This was the MSC basic internet package. After the drydock, the Adventure of the Seas internet measured 9 MBS in the room and common areas….RCL’s VOOM isn’t close to the fastest internet at sea but functional.

Another area where improvements were being made dealt with the TV closed captioning. Before the drydock, closed captioning only worked on one or two channels (The only one I could find was MSNBC…really…MSNBC?). I wasn’t sure how they were going to fix that. But they did! Now, closed captioning works on all the channels I tested ….even Fox News. Unfortunately, all the channels on the TV stopped working a few days later (including the ones generated on the ship) …but the TV still looks nice:) (This did get fixed by replacing a bad cable.)

The door locks have been updated and it appeared that new temperature controls were installed in some rooms. (This may of just been a difference between the cabins.) The locks work fine, however the controls are a disaster and the HVAC problems were throughout the cabins.. some rooms are too hot, some too cold. Some cabins have opted to leave the balcony door open or to prop open their hallway door to better control the cabin temperature.

In our cabin, the thermostat was installed upside down. So the controls and writing on it were upside down. Either this was an update gone wrong or an indication of poor quality assurance and poor maintenance. As an engineer, I expect that it was wired incorrectly and someone opted to mount it upside down so you still could turn the control downward to cool the room instead of upward. That would be easier than just reversing the incorrectly attached wire. However, in this case, the wires were crossed (that is why the heat was stuck on). When that was fixed, the control was left upside down. The result is that to cool the room you need turn the thermostat up and to heat it you turn the thermostat down. That might be OK as a short-term correction, but to leave it like that is an issue. It looks bad and makes guests question what else is not being done maintained or installed correctly.

Everyone we have talked to has been having problems! Not a good situation after a renovation. Lots of issues and many people are being given future cruise credit because of the problems…not us…but many guests. (Well that changed …after I wrote this we were provided 15% FCC….I guess Guest Services read this blog:)

Cabins: The cabins did receive new bedding.. I thought the TV had been upgraded but I was incorrect (I went back and looked at the old pictures.) It would be great if RCL would add programming that you actually wanted to watch. Thankfully, its pretty easy to hook up a Roku or your computer to watch anything you want. The locks on the door are now electronic. The biggest change was the installation of a nighttime “floodlight” that is triggered anytime someone gets up in the night or morning. It was a great idea, but did it have to be 1,000 watt bulb (just joking but it is bright!). Luckily that can be fixed with a magnet and a folded over “cruise compass”.

The new cabin area was not completed during the drydock The 2^nd floor conference room area remains closed with construction signs.

Common Areas: New carpet was installed in many areas along with some new chairs. This included some if not all hallways. Several improvements were made to the Champaign bar, but nothing of great significance other than the ugly statue I previously mentioned. I was surprised how many things were not corrected. The missing stool in the Blue Lounge bar was still missing, the rust in many of the doorways remains, electrical sockets are still taped off and sinks and urinals around the ship remain “Out of Service” The pool and hot tubs in the Solarium have been closed but no rationale has been provided.

Impression: if I was going to grade the improvements, I would probably give it a C- and I am being generous. There are definitely some contractors that need to be fired. The ship definitely needed repainted and it was. However, in general, the improvements were quite superficial and the problems caused reached the point of being humorous. Of course, its hard to be too critical or upset when you are spending your time on the ocean. So, I might bitch a little bit…but I am happy to on the Sea surrounded by a great crew and many friends.

An update since I wrote this: There were many workers continuing to work on upgrades in several areas and as the cruise neared its end, many of the issues had been addressed. Hats off to the crew! There are still many problems and many unhappy guests, but the crew handled everything “Royally”. Personally, we enjoyed the cruise, despite a few problems, and plan to do this again. Did I hear that the Explorer of the Seas is going to drydock next year?

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