gillyd42

Excellent review, I have really enjoyed following your adventures as we too are sailing on Quantum at Christmas then spending 5 days in New York.

You have given us some ideas of what to try, and like you we like our burgers!

Your daughter is adorable and looks to have had a great holiday.

One question, who did you book your stretch limo with and did it cost much more than a standard car service? Think this would be a great idea to surprise my family.

Safe trip home

i have checked in on-line for my family (4 of us). When I go to print our set sail passes, I can do this for 3 of us but not for the youngest. I have tried various times over the weekend and it says that it cant process the details for him. All the information is showing as complete, so no missing information.

Tried to phone RCI, guy said he didn't know what was wrong and cant check the check-in details and just to keep trying.

Anyone else experienced this or can offer some advice

Many thanks

Excellent review and very helpful - thanks

We sail on the quantum christmas cruise from the uk and will also spend time in new york after the cruise for new year.

My kids are a lot older than your little one, but it was good to hear your views. I am a little worried about the younger one as he is what we call a picky eater and usually ordered a burger when we were in the mdr and he didnt like anything from the main menu -so that might be a challenge.

Would also be good to hear your views on new york -are you planning to review that part of your holiday?

If it's early December you might have a better time of it. If it's mid to late December with only 6 hours in the park, you certainly need to decide on your top 6 attractions to visit & dedicate approximately an hour to each for time waiting in line. I would venture to say that Harry Potter would be equal to at least 3 because it can be a 3 hour wait to enter if not more.

You might get more useful info on tripadvisor as well.

Thanks for the tips - there are a couple of rides we definitely want to do and I think just a little ambitious to be able to do the HP ones. Maybe just take a walk around there.

THanks

Gill

We did this trip this past February and had a great time at Universal. The Explorer docked at Port Canaveral at 1:30 pm, shuttle left at 2 pm we arrived at Universal at 3 pm. We had a good five and half hours there before return.

 

Definitely a good idea to purchase tickets in advance so you just walk right into the park. Make a game plan of the attractions you are most interested in. If you arrive at the park later in the day as we did, many of the early morning crowds are filing out.

 

Here' a link to a very helpful website that gives estimates on crowds for certain days. They pegged our visit last year perfectly saying it would be light and it was.

 

Here's the link:

 

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/

 

Have a great time.

 

Jonathan

Thanks for the link - as I thought going to be very busy. It's my sons 18th birthday that day and he would love to spend time in the park. I think (as suggested in posts below) we will plan on visiting a couple of rides and just soak up the atmosphere.

I just want to do the Jurassic ride.

Thanks again

Gill

Tried posting on the port of call board but now trying here - thanks

We are arriving PC at 1pm in December and are planning on taking the ships shuttle service to Universal Studios. I know that on the day we go, it is open til 9pm and the ship leaves port at 11pm.

I understand that because this is in peak period that the parks will be very busy, however this is likely to be a one-off trip for us.

Has anyone taken this trip before and how long do you really get in the parks, worried that although the transfer time is approx 1hr that they will herd us back onto coaches and that this takes time.

i was also planning to buy my tickets in advance to avoid queing - are there any other tips that you seasoned travellers could offer.

Thanks

Gilly

We are arriving PC at 1pm in December and are planning on taking the ships shuttle service to Universal Studios. I know that on the day we go, it is open til 10pm and the ship leaves port at 11pm.

I understand that because this is in peak period that the parks will be very busy, however this is likely to be a one-off trip for us.

Has anyone taken this trip before and how long do you really get in the parks, worried that although the transfer time is approx 1hr that they will herd us back onto coaches and that this takes time.

i was also planning to buy my tickets in advance to aviod queing - are there any other tips that you seasoned travellers could offer.

Thanks

Gilly

Heard Pete Matthews (Juggler) is entertaining on the maiden voyage - it was announced recently on the Adventure of the Seas after he performed.

Great review. Was the mad man playing his violin at Vigo. I'm told he is always there. He certainly was last year and I'll be there again in a few weeks on the Indy to see for myself.

 

 

Carousel. Med 2001

Voyager of the Seas. Med. 2010

Adventure of the Seas. Med. 2013

 

Independence of the Seas. Med. 2014

We visited vigo about 10 days ago and he was still there, with his enchanting music and sense of humour - you always get a bon voyage from him.

Hope someone can help.

We are spending time in New York pre and post cruise.

Can anyone advise if I can get taxi to Bayonne from New York and vice versa, or would I have to arrange a car service.

Travelling by train not really an option for us.

Thanks in advance

Was preselected - missed the call phone went to voicemail. Phoned rci on hold for 40mins for the chap to tell me what the menus were in each restaurant then said i would have to wait til may 15th to book them. Will try c&a tomorrow, suspect different operators have different answers. The chap hadnt even heard of dynamic dining and had to speak to a colleague!

we sailed to Malaga last year arriving around 11-11.3.

I got up early to watch us pass through the straits, it would be about 7am, but the light wasnt that good. But once the sun was up we really enjoyed sitting out on our balcony, having breakfast and watching the coastline - some really pretty villages and then then planes flying over us to land in Malaga.

The good news is taking a winter break on a cruise, the bad news is (as you are aware), that Royal Caribbean isn't available then. While Costa is one option, have you considered the NCL (Norwegian) Spirit sailings from Barcelona? For ship review, check out Cruise Critic reviews like this one: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=299. The Spirit offers free-style cruising, teen disco, waterpark, and a casual vibe.

 

Also, the MSC Splendida (with its European style, cuisine, and language), also departs from Barcelona. Check ship reviews such as this one: http://www.cruisecritic.com/reviews/review.cfm?ShipID=380. It is mentioned that while many fellow passengers may not speak English, the crew will. And your menu and daily newsletter will be in English. Tablemates at assigned dinner seating will speak English, and announcements and lifeboat drill will be in five languages- including, but not leading with English.

 

Have a great school break cruise! :)

Thanks for this, will take a look - Gilly

I usually cruise RCI which I really enjoy.

We are looking to get a break for our Feb school week so are limited to destinations and don’t have the luxury of time to be able to travel to the Carribean for a week.

So, I came across an offer for Costa Cruises in the med leaving from Barcelona. For a week I think I can accept that it isn’t RCI but can you as seasoned travellers give me some ideas on other things I should be considering.

Eg: I expect there will be a small number of English speaking travellers/crew , will this impact our interaction on the cruise line. Weather will be a lot cooler but expect to be able to do a lot more without the humidity/oppressive summer heat.

Thanks

Gilly

Hi there, I know this is probably a really strange question but we are sailing on adventure in june and was wandering if the coffee you get in prom café come in a cup with a lid so hubby can go down in morning and get some for the room. we were going to buy those containers you can fill up and then keep coffee warm and also so hubby can bring back to the cabin but wont bother if we can get same sort of thing in the café thanks

yes, they did have plastic cups with lids. I tended to just use the mugs and not fill to the top.

Gilly

Great review :)

 

Looking forward to more, we are on Adventure in June 2014.

You are going to love this ship, especially as it will have gone through a revitalisation and have new features.

Nice review, so far. We sailed Adventure out of San Juan this past Feb. and loved it so much we are going again Jan. 14. Glad you had a great time.

 

Cheers,

 

Koohiichan

We really enjoyed this cruise and ship - to be honest i have to say one of my favourite holidays of all time - so relaxing. We are thinking of going back next summer too

DAY TWO – At sea ( will try to work out to post photos later)

Woke early and sat out on the balcony, nice and sunny with a lovely breeze. Went down to CP to get a couple of coffees and had these out on balcony. Also picked up tickets for the ice show, these were available from 8am and RC said these go really quickly, however they still had some come 10.30am? I also understand they put on an extra show due to demand.

We all went for breakfast about 9.30 and the WJ was really busy, eventually got a table. Breakfasts were really nice with a lot of variety, considering this is en-masse cooking I was surprised by quality.

Had our meet and mingle in the Blue Moon lounge, which had been organised by Patsy (thanks Patsy) and had our gift exchange. RCI had a little buffet of canapes and cheeses, the chef certainly done a great job witht this, although there was a lot left as most people had just come from breakfast). Got a couple of RC freebies, and met the cruise director HelloClo, who was really nice, introduced herself and some of the team, throughout this cruise her energy and enjoyment of her job was clear to see.

After MM , youngest headed off to kids club so I went to look for hubby, 40 minutes later gave up, headed to cabin left a note (which was a good idea, and used for the rest of the cruise to keep tabs on each other) to say I would be out on deck 4. Wasn’t too long before he found me, he had been wandering around looking for me, this ship is so big. Many people say they use small radios to keep in touch, but to be honest sometimes its nice just getting some me time and not being “on call” for the family. Despite the ship being full I could always find a nice spot to hide away and relax.

We had all agreed to meet at a central point for lunch each day, and if you weren’t there then it was assumed that you had other plans. Lovely lunch, then went separate ways. Boys to teen club, hubby to read and get some sun and I went to the spa.

The spa was really nice with great views and lovely ladies. I had a pedicure which was really relaxing and I thought quite reasonable in price.

Met up with hubby and joined the queue for the ice cream, which I have to say was a line of 40 somethings, not a kid in sight WOW, and very tasty too.

Sat and relaxed and saw a pods of dolphins _ WOW – was I excited – I was like a big kid.

After this took advantage of the mini golf being quiet and we had a game, we were to have an ongoing competition for the rest of the holiday, with the looser having to get up first each morning to go for the coffees at CP. After 2 games of loosing I started to arrange room service for the coffee!

We also used the arcades a few times, was surprised how quiet it was. In our C&A vouchers we had some for arcade credit which we put on the kids cards, this was great for our nightly game of air hockey.

Tonight was our first formal night so we all got ready early, as I wanted to get some formal photos done. We headed up about 645pm and there was only one person in front of us. So we waited. Later that night and at the other formal nights, there queues were huge, so we were lucky – takes a lot to convince my lot to get a formal photo done, in fact I did promise hubby that would be the last (hope he doesn’t believe me)

Dinner tonight was in another station, which I wasn’t really bothered about, waiters were nice, but it took 40 minutes for them to find our wine from the previous night. In fact they didn’t find it, but found a bottle of the same make that had been opened, so we had that, by this time we were fed up and just wanted a drink – I think this could have been handled a lot better and was a bit of a dampner for our first formal night. Do you know our bottle of wine turned up one week later – go figure!

Highlight of the meal was the duck and strawberry cheesecake.

We all went to play golf after dinner which was really fun, then boys went to teen club. We were both feeling exhausted so headed back to our cabin and watched an in room movie – which was a real treat, as I never get the chance to sit down and enjoy a film. We also had vouchers for the movies too, which we used later in the cruise. These vouchers were starting to come in handy – WOW

Strange thing through the night, could hear some announcements on the ship tannoy, I did kind of panic thinking something was up – but as nothing seemed to happen I went back to sleep – not sure if this is common or not?

Been avidly following your review ( and the adventure one too) and dont want your holiday to end! you any future plans for a cruise?

Well done - gilly

Apologies for posting this weeks after the event - i am sure you all appreciate having good intentions to doing a review. Well here is mine (in installments)

We are a family of 4 from Scotland, with two teenage boys who were so excited for this holiday. Having cruised previously on the Grandeur this was deemed a real “ adventure” due to the size of the ship and the length of the cruise.

We travelled from Edinburgh to Southampton the day before the cruise began. Left at 7.30am to get a head start before traffic built up, had 3 short stops to change drivers and arrived at the Hotel in Southampton at 3.30pm – not bad going. Only down side was the heat, it got to 28’ the further south we got, and it was quite uncomfortable for a while.

Novotel in Southampton was nice, reasonable sized room for the four of us with air conditioning and a tv so we could catch the rest of the Wimbeldon finals. After a rest we took a walk out of the hotel over to the shops to buy a few things we still needed to get. We then took a walk up to the Mayflower Park which had nice views of the docks etc., when we arrived in Southampton there were a couple of cruise ships in and we heard them leaving, when they sounded their horns. It was still really warm and we were getting hungry so headed over to Frankie & Benny’s for dinner which was nice although they had ran out of 2 of our favourite starters.

Back to the hotel about 9ish and fell into bed, we were so excited about the next day, because we were so tired from the journey we easily fell asleep.

We woke early, after 7 and got dressed and organised and headed down to breakfast around 8.30, the breakfast room was busy with a lot of other cruisers (4 ships in total leaving this morning). To be honest we were so excited we couldn’t eat much. The plan had been to go to the shopping mall and waste some time there before boarding the ship too early, but I am sure as you know cruisers out there no, you cant wait any longer and want to get on board.

So we left hotel at 10.15am and headed to the cruise terminal parking area, which wasn’t too busy and easy to use. There were RCI staff in the car park along with a van to collect our luggage, which was a god send, having four huge pieces of luggage, the up side of driving to the ship, I always tend to take too much on holiday and this one was no exception.

We walked to the cruise terminal, there were no queues and give a sticker to represent our “gold” status and told to go through a specific lane, to be honest made no difference as there wasn’t many people around. Went straight to check in and got all our paperwork etc. As we stood here it was announced that boarding was not taking place. So at least we didn’t have to wait around. After the obligatory photo we walked up the ramps to the deck four boarding area. We were on the ship by 11am. WOW

No matter how much research you do or review other people’s photos and video clips, I am always overwhelmed by how nice the ships are and the Adventure was no exception. Climbing the stairs to the Royal Promenade blew us all away – I cant tell you how excited I was feeling. Naturally we just wanted to explore but thought we would take advantage of a few minutes rest and a coffee in the quiet Café Promenade – I really enjoyed the coffee here and this was the first cruise that I didn’t buy any of the premium coffees.

Youngest son took off to explore the Royal Promenade and came back to report in about everything they had on this deck and had we finished our drinks yet!

So off we went deck by deck working our way up from the RP, dining room to the sun deck areas. We found the sports deck and played table tennis for a while, then the boys played basketball. This was a really special time on the ship as it wasn’t too busy and we could really take in everything around us. I did feel a little overwhelmed at how big this ship was and was constantly getting lost, couldn’t even work out if I was at the front/back at times, not to mention what direction I was travelling in – this was very amusing to the kids.

I headed back to guest services to see if I could book a bridge tour. Thanks to fellow C.C’ers I took your advice to book on the first day rather than wait on it being advertised in the compass. So a lovely lady got us all booked in, we were the first on the list. Will give more details of the tour later on.

So after that up the WJ for lunch and again down to some tips from this website went straight to the back to the island grill area and got a seat right away. I have to say we really enjoyed all the food we had on this cruise and the quality and variety in the WJ. I know a lot of people have had some complaints but to be honest I couldn’t pick fault once. Even when it was busy the staff were so helpful in getting you a table for your family. The staff on the Adventure were so nice and friendly, exceptional service. Loved the “no washy washy, no yummy yummy” greeter at the door of the WJ and the lady with the amazing smile and personality who always had a different hair garment everyday – her laugh and smile was so infectious. I heard from people later in the cruise who had her as a MDR waiter that she was so much fun and made their dining experience one of the best. I digress…..

So lunch (sorry no food photos, never lasted long enough to get photos) was really nice. Left here and headed back on our tour of the ship working our way down, out onto deck four and up to the heli pad which was an amazing place to sit. We headed back to CP for more coffees and cookies!

It was announced at 1.40pm that our cabins were ready, so cups away and off we headed to deck nine. I waited for the lift with youngest son and hubby and eldest climbed the stairs, needless to say they got there first and just headed in. I always like us to go in together so we can all say WOW together and get that first impression.

Our cupcakes had been delivered, which were immediately devoured by the men in my life. The Junior suite was really nice and much bigger than the one we had on Grandeur. Couldn’t believe the size of the walk in wardrobe – it was amazing – room for all our clothes, my shoes and all four of the suitcases and you could still stand in it – WOW.

Loved the balcony, plenty of room for us all to sit out. I should also point out that 3 of our 4 suitcases had already turned up at this point – WOW – so I started to unpack, while the men put the tennis on the telly – Andy Murray was playing the Wimbledon final and we really wanted to watch it. My sons left us about 2.30 to go and explore, they had made arrangements to meet up with someone who they met on the cruise last year, and would come back just before the muster drill.

Room service came to deliver our fruit bowl, champagne and choccy strawberries, which we loved.

Met our cabin steward Ronnie who was lovely and asked if we could get a deck chair (the ones you get at the pool) for our balcony. Unfortunately he didn’t quite understand our request so brought his supervisor along. He said that usually they don’t allow you to have these, but I explained there were four of us and could benefit from another chair and that it would help with hubbys back. Later that night said chair was out on the balcony WOW

So off we went to muster drill which luckily didn’t take too long, as a lot of people wanted to get back to see the tennis final! So back to our room, ready for sailaway – we decided to stay in our cabin for this and open out champagne and see the end of the tennis. Pretty special sailing down the Solent, sipping champagne and toasting Murrays’ win.

We all got changed for dinner and headed to the MDR, we had chosen my time dining and pre-booked each evening’s meal before we left the UK.

We had two great waiters Edi and Juan, who were very nice, always busy but had time for a little chat each night. As is said before we were really impressed with the meals we had, and the kids enjoyed the escargot (eldest, practically every night) By the end of the fortnight our head waiter couldn’t believe how many he had ate!

Highlight of tonight’ s meal was the blueberry and peach crumble – WOW

Boys headed to teen club and we had a stroll around the ship, watched the sun set and headed back to our cabin and finished the champagne – what a day!

Looking forward to your live-ish feeds. We are sailing out on the AOS in April. This will help us feed the crusie addiction monster while we wait for our turn to come. If you get a chance our room is going to be 9570 our first junior suite. Wishing you good travels!

We are in same cabin on med cruise in july - would also love to see any photos and of the balcony!

Agree, when our kids wanted burgers after they left the club on Grandeur last week they had to order room service.

My kids loved going to the solarium around 10ish for snacks - does the Grandeur still do the late night offering - and do they still do chips (question from the youngest!)