lauraodonnell86

Deck 8 hands down. Three flight up to Windjammer and three down to promenade. If you can get one on the hump, that's even better! :-)

 

Cindy

Totally agree!! That way you don't have to wait around for elevators! Deck 6 balconies really hinder your view when sitting down. Deck 8 for sure! :D

As I hit 35 days no announced time and date set. People leaving on Adventure this week have had 50 people signed up for awhile, but no assigned time and date yet. Or perhaps whomever updates the website is way behind? There are no current M&M's scheduled for Adventure and about 10 other ships.

We didn't get the notice of when/where our M&M was going to be until the 2nd day on our cruise on Adventure in January. And the M&M was a complete flop. Last year (Jan 2016), they at least had someone pass the mic around and everyone said their screen name and where they were from so you could put a face with a name. This year, the activities director said thanks for using Cruise Critic and then gave away a few prizes. He seemed really rushed to get it over with. At the MOST, it was 15 mins long. We didn't even go for our second week because it was a huge waste of time.

I'm sorry if this has been answered up thread but my computer is not cooperating at the moment and I can't seem to read from the beginning!:mad:

 

Can you please tell me what days were formal nights on each leg?

 

Thanks so much - really enjoyed reading your review.

It depends on the itinerary. The first week it was night 2 and 6. The second week it was night 2 and 4 or 2 and 5 because we were in port late on night 6.

Hello all, I am starting to plan our next cruise and I need your expertise and experience. My wife and I are seriously considering Adventure of Seas out of San Juan that visits St. Maarten, St. Kitts, St. John's, St. Lucia, and Barbados.

 

I have read a few trip reports on Adventure recently but wanted to get some more opinions.

 

How was it sailing out of San Juan? Is the clientele much different than what we have encountered on Freedom and Allure out of Florida? I only ask this because one reviewer said the other cruisers were loud, obnoxious, and crazy. I know the refurb was cut short because of the hurricane but that things have slowly been added but the room still were ignored? Are they really that tired looking? I'm fine with worn out carpet and couches but I read where there were broken lamp shades and torn curtains?

 

We have only ever sailed out of Florida but we are thinking of this cruise because of the itinerary and thinking this might be a great one last trip before starting a family but we don't want to be stuck for a week if the other cruisers are going to be crazy.

Hello! As you can see from my signature, we are big fans of Adventure. Sailing out of San Juan is the best if you like to visit many islands and not be at sea all of the time. The clientele is actually really great. My husband and I go in January because that is our anniversary so we don't take kids. There are not many kids on the ship because of the cost to fly to San Juan (I believe). The other clientele is not "loud and obnoxious". I will say that there will be more Puerto Ricans than you would find out of Florida but that isn't a bad thing at all. We've never had a bad experience!

You are right that the refurb didn't fully happen. The rooms aren't bad at all. I have never heard of broken lamps or torn curtains. There are places that the carpet could use replacing but it's not as bad as people make it sound. The complainers are the loudest, just remember that. When you are sailing out of San Juan, you aren't necessary going for the ship like you are when you sail out of Florida. Because you get off the ship every day but 1. With that being said though, Adventure is a gorgeous ship that I know you will have a blast on! Let me know if there are any other questions I can answer for you!

Hi Laura,

 

Loved your review, helped build the excitement we will be sailing on the 10 nighter next Wednesday :cool: can you tell me if palm beach in Aruba is the best choice for two kids ages. 10, 11

thanks

I have heard about that special 10 night sailing and that sounds like a WONDERFUL itinerary! We did not go to Palm Beach so I can't speak for that. But I will say that I heard it is more lively whereas Eagle Beach (where we went) is quieter and less busy. We've heard great things about Palm and plan to go there next Jan on our cruise. Enjoy your cruise!

Hello! Thx for posting. Quick question. The show times, were they opposite dining times, late seating, early show or if late seating, the show will then start AFTER dinner, like 10?

 

 

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We always do late dining. For the most part, the shows are before dinner for the late diners. Usually at about 7 or so. And then like you said, the opposite for early diners. They would go to the show after dinner. Sometimes, they have 1 show time for everyone and that is usually at 10:30. Examples of this would be Welcome Aboard and Farewell shows.

Great info! I will definitely be bringing my own then. Thank you again [emoji106]

 

 

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No problem! Let me know if you have any other questions I could help you out with!

What a great review Laura. We are going on Adventure on 15th April and also doing a b2b. Been on this ship 7 times and done this itinerary before. Love this ship and all the islands. We are gutted that she is moving north after April 2018. We heard that Freedom will be taking her place, so we are waiting patiently till next week to see the new deployment and get something booked from San Juan again..

We are also bummed about Adventure leaving but also excited for something new!! Enjoy your B2B in April! We had an absolute blast!

Quick question since you have been so helpful to me...the hair dryers on Adventure are they small travel ones or are they a full size/full power one? My daughter has very thick hair and I don't know if I should bring my own or not. I don't want to spend 30 mins drying her hair lol

 

 

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No, it's the small travel one that won't stay on unless you hold down the button. I would definitely bring your own if you can!! I always bring my own because like you said, you don't want to spend forever drying hair!!

"We'd never been here before so just like the other ABC islands, we didn't know what to expect. I had read a few things about taking the city bus to beaches here but I didn't write that much down about it. When we saw the price of taxis, we decided to start walking in attempt to find the city bus! We wanted to get to Mambo Beach and taxis were showing to be $40. I'm not sure if that's round trip or one way but either way, it's too much!! "

 

 

I had your instructions to find the bus but had hurt my heel so we ending up taking the taxi. It was $20 each way but if you had a group of 4 it was the same price. We enjoyed Mambo Beach and Carambola Beach as well thanks for helping me plan our trip.

 

Dave

Great!! So glad you enjoyed the beaches!! Bummer that you had hurt your heel. Hope that didn't put a damper on your vacation!

I checked again; it looks like next week, 3/30 like you said

:loudcry::loudcry: NOOOOOOO!!! Alas, we will have to be more patient. :rolleyes::eek:

Thanks! It was a great year to be a Pats fan, that's for sure! Our medical stuff is fertility related, so extra emotional, but we're learning a lot about ourselves, our friends, and life!

 

The biggest thing I've learned is that I need to spend MORE time on cruise ships. In fact I think one of the doctors we saw prescribed it. So it had to be done! We're stoked to be heading back to the southern Caribbean again, and doing a whole bunch of things we've already done before but loved.

 

Enjoy your 2018 cruise, and maybe we'll see you on another ship one day! We love cruising out of San Juan, and going to the south caribbean. This time we're flying in one day ahead of time, and spending a night near the university. It was a super cheap hotel but with good reviews, only one way to find out if we like it!

 

Happy sailing! :D

 

p.s. This thread is helping me get stoked for April! I don't think it's sunk in yet for the wife... but I'm in cruise mode already.

You are soooo close to the cruise! I have the countdown on my phone for our next cruise and we hit 300 days today! That's sooooo long!!! Tell wifey to start the countdown!

I'm sorry to hear about the fertility stuff. I wondered if it was because I remembered you guys talking about babies :) I will be sending positive thoughts and prayers your way! :hearteyes:

Good idea flying in a day early! We always do that but are taking a risk next year and flying in same day to save some $$. Please let me know how the cruise was! Write a mini review like I did! I would be in heaven being able to see how your time was!!

I just called again checking on Freedom/San Juan for Oct 2018 and was told those itineraries will be available on Monday 3/20. That said, I'll keep calling and checking here on CC :D

 

Chris

I hope this is correct! I am have been waiting and waiting! They told me about a week ago that it was going to be March 30th. Fingers crossed for tomorrow!!:)

Hey Laura, great review! We were with you on the Jan 2016 B2B :) Didn't think we'd make it for a cruise this year, as we've been going through some medical crap that we had to pay out of pocket (don't believe in the hype of "free" Canadian health care, but that's another story)...

 

Nevertheless, we're doing a B2B on the Jewel coming up in early April!!! Decided it was a worthwhile investment in our mental health. :D Glad you had a good cruise, and maybe we'll see you guys again on another one day!

Hey there long lost friends!! You crazy Patriot fans you! ;p;p I'm sorry to hear that you guys have been going through medical stuff! I wonder about you guys often because I remember trying to convince your wife to book another cruise! We booked another one for 2018 on Adventure and it sounds like it'll be our last since Adventure is leaving San Juan! Not sure what is replacing her yet but we are excited to find out! I'm so excited you guys are going in April! Have a wonderful time and I hope to hear about it from you! :)

Haha. I'm about to go meet Matt at the NYC meetup at 1pm. I'm sure he will be periscoping some of it.

He better! You guys have fun!!

GREAT review Laura. Thanks for doing it.

 

I'm saving this one for future reference.

Thanks Yorkvillain! That means a lot! I recognize your name from Matt's Periscopes :D

Just found this review and it is awesome! We are currently planning a B2B on Adventure for January or February 2018. We've sailed her before and love the southern caribbean routes out of San Juan. We're trying to get the best of both worlds with different islands like you did. We're actually contemplating RC for one leg and Celebrity for the other. (we've only sailed Celebrity once and don't know much about their ships though) We are beach lovers and SO appreciated all your pictures!

You can't go wrong with Celebrity either! We've only been on 1 Celebrity cruise but we really loved it! The food was the best we've ever had. I will say that it was an older crowd than RC but that didn't bother us too much. We prefer the entertainment on RC. You will love this itinerary! Glad you enjoyed the review! :)

Thank you so much for the review. My DH and I are doing a B2B in March 2018 and it will be our first B2B and our 2nd time sailing out of San Juan.

 

I am so glad that I booked it, knowing that Adventure will be leaving San Juan next summer/fall. :(

How exciting that you are going on your first B2B! You will fall in love and never look back! We were sad to see that Adventure is leaving too but we are excited to find out what will be replacing her! We've been on Adventure multiple times and would love to try something new :)

These are great - both the scary and the funny ones!

 

Ours isn't nearly as dramatic, but on our first cruise, when we were passing over the straits of Florida, the captain announced our water depth as being 4,000 some odd feet! What!! My husband's and my jaws dropped. We just felt so little on that ship given that perspective. I knew the ocean was deep, but I didn't realize it got that deep in the Gulf/Caribbean. We still laugh about that.

In January, we were on Adventure of the Seas headed to the ABC islands from San Juan. Somewhere in the middle, the captain announced that the water depth was almost 16,000 feet. It was pretty creepy knowing it was that far down!

Check your Credit Card terms. You may have travel insurance through a credit card. I know Chase Sapphire covers you.

We have Chase Sapphire but the thing I'm worried about is getting stranded in Kansas City due to weather and not being able to get to the next island. I heard that if you have insurance through Royal, they will fly you to that next island at no extra charge. Is that true?

Same here.....we just stayed in 7342, directly off the elevator area, and never heard a soul in the hallway all week.

Would you recommend that room? I see it's not directly in the center of the hump. Did you feel like your view was obstructed much? Thank you!

We are looking to book Freedom soon and was wondering if there are any balcony cabins that we want to avoid. Example: on Adventure of the Seas, deck 6 balconies have steel rather than glass and I see that as a negative. We've never been on Freedom class ships so we really don't know. We have a balcony on the bump booked on Adventure for next January. We've never had a bump room but have heard good things about them. Any advice for Freedom? Thanks!! :D

Can anyone confirm if the "Suite/Pinnacle" breakfast is still in Giovanni's or if it has moved to Chops since Chops recently opened? Thanks.

 

As far as room "revitalization"....we were told in Dec that the rooms would not be "refreshed" until "wet dock" which would be late 2017 or early 2018. The person that told me this is also the same person that told me FR would be moving to SJU and AD would be moving to NJ. However, since we haven't heard any rumors about "cancelled" cruises during that time frame....I am guessing that we might see a "blank" in the AD schedule for May 2018...whenever the schedule is finally released...and the "wet dock" will be during the time between SJU and NJ (or wherever it goes).

I heard that Adventure is moving to Fort Lauderdale and not NJ but who knows!! Can Wednesday please get here?!?! By the way, the rooms were not refreshed when we were on in Jan. I think you are right about it possibly getting the refresh May 2018.

Found it on the deck plans, did you use them for a next cruise? How was that experience. I had a great experience with NCD on Freedom, a not to great experience on Jewel in 2014. I will probably walk by and check out their "system" on day 1. On Freedom they had a booklet out where you could sign up for a time and show up at that time and be seen at that time! On Jewel in 2014 they had a sign up on the desk that said, "Call Guest Services for an appointment" When I did so, they acted like I was a prank caller and couldn't tell me anything. They said to just show up. I did that, got there when another couple was there. We tried to wait quietly. The rep told us to go away and come back. When we did, another couple had shown up and was waiting. They weren't happy that we " jumped" ahead of them. The rest of the experience wasn't much better.

We were very happy with our experience using Next Cruise in January on Adventure. We went on the first day of our B2B because you got 2 entries into the raffle to win OBC. We didn't win but we knew we were booking anyways so we decided to do it early. I'm glad we did because the next week, our cruise went up in price.

Yes, there is a book that you can sign up for an appointment time. They renovated the Next Cruise area and it's very nice. On busy days/times, there were 6 representatives working at the same time!

I've also seen info showing that the Freedom is moving to San Juan in May of 18. I hope those sources are correct. Freedom is my favorite ship with Adventure being my 2nd favorite.

That's good to hear!! We love Adventure and haven't heard anything but good about Freedom! Can't wait to find out for sure this week! Hopefully tomorrow!