A Review: First Time with Royal on the Adventure

My family and I have been off of the Adventure for a few weeks now after a fantastic 7 day Southern Caribbean trip. I think we all want to get back on board, as we left sunny 85 degree weather to return to below freezing temperatures, snow and frost. Where is the blue water outside my window? We’re done unpacking and finally finished with the dreaded loads of post vacation laundry.

I was a little hesitant to write this, but when I am planning a vacation I will read anything and everything I can find. So here goes anything and everything.

The Adventure:

I am looking forward to your review. I board on the 5th.

So who is my family?

I am 31 and traveling with my 41 year old husband. We currently live in rural Michigan. We have done a few cruises before, but this was our first one with Royal Caribbean.

My parents are in their 60’s and haven’t cruised extensively but have sailed exclusively with Royal.

My sister and niece also joined us. My sister is 28 – her first and only cruise was almost 15 years ago. This was her 12 year old daughter’s first cruise (and first time on a plane).

I haven't asked them yet if its okay to post their pictures during this review, so there may or may not be some of them as I go.

Looking forward to your review, we are boarding the Adventure on 5/11/18 out of Bayonne N.J.

We're taking our granddaughters (13 & 15 by then) on AOS in April, 2020, so we eagerly read any reviews we find. We're especially interested in things that might appeal to them. Thanks.

We're taking our granddaughters (13 & 15 by then) on AOS in April, 2020, so we eagerly read any reviews we find. We're especially interested in things that might appeal to them. Thanks.

At 12, my niece was too old for the younger age group in the kid's club, but my sister didn't feel comfortable leaving her in the older group. It seemed like the teen group met each other in the teen room, but didn't really hang out there. My niece loves to swim and spent a lot of time on the water slides, pools and flowrider. She also liked the mini golf course, ping pong tables and all the games they had on the deck (chess, checkers, etc.). While she didn't participate in anything structured or spend much time with other kids, she was seldom bored and had a great time.

Several years ago we took a family trip to The Sleeping Bear Dunes in Northern Michigan, rented a cabin and went hiking, tubing and a slew of other outdoor activities.

We all had a really good time and wanted to do another family vacation but couldn’t agree on a destination (Gatlinburg, TN? Myrtle Beach?). We finally decided a cruise was the best choice. We had to book our trip the week of spring break so my niece wouldn’t miss any school. We booked right after the 2018 schedule came out in early 2016.

Our Itinerary:

March 31: San Juan - Depart at 8:30

April 1: Cruising

April 2: Curacao 8am-8pm

April 3: Bonaire 7am-5pm

April 4: Aruba 7am-11pm

April 5: Cruising

April 6: St Maarten 8am-5pm

April 7: Disembark in San Juan

Looking forward the your review! We are boarding on 5/11 and this will be our first time on the Adventure

Looking forward to your review, we are boarding the Adventure on 5/11/18 out of Bayonne N.J.

I forgot the Adventure was moving to NJ. What ports will it be visiting?

The Planning

I researched, planned and impatiently waited for two years. Two years! I constantly checked prices, and they seemed to only go up, except for one price drop that we were able to take advantage of after several emails to our travel agent.

My husband and I are very independent travelers, but my parents insisted on everyone using their travel agent to book as a group. They find it helpful and worry free, I found it annoying and time consuming to have to go through a middle person for everything. Aside from a bottle of wine from the agency that was waiting for us in our cabin, we didn’t see any positives to booking through a travel agent.

The original plan was for my husband and I to fly down on Wednesday and stay in OSJ, while the rest of my family would also fly on Wednesday but stay elsewhere at the Waldorf Astoria El Conquistador Resort . We had plans at El Yunque rainforest and the bio bay.

Then the hurricanes hit. Our hotel in OSJ, The Sheraton, wasn’t damaged but provided rooms for relief workers and was closed through January. We were worried they would extend their contracts and cancel with us, but luckily we were able to keep our reservation. The rest of my family wasn’t as fortunate. Their hotel remained closed through sometime in early April. They didn’t bother to send out an email – while I was trying to help my sister price out food and activity costs, I happened to see a note on their hotel’s website about being closed. They were never contacted, but called and confirmed that their reservations were cancelled. My parents, sister and niece decided to cut their trip short by flying in on Friday and staying at the Marriott Stellaris on Condado beach for one night. After a lengthy argument with American Airlines, they were able to change their flight without a fee.

From the time of the hurricanes to the end of January, my husband and I felt like we were in vacation limbo. We were pretty sure our hotel would be open to tourists by the time we arrived, but were trying to prepare for the loss of our reservation. We temporarily made a refundable reservation for just Friday night at the Marriott Stellaris in Condado but cancelled it as soon as we knew that the Sheraton in OSJ would work out. We also decided to cancel our one day car rental as we were no longer going to visit the rainforest or the bio bay. At the time, El Yunque only had one trail open with very limited parking and we were reading that the water in the bio bay had been so churned around during the storms that the glow wasn’t as bright as it had been. I was disappointed, but it gives me an excuse to return to Puerto Rico. I'd love to do the other Southern Caribbean cruise to goes to St. Lucia and Antigua. Next time, we’ll go down early again and either stay at El Convento in OSJ or somewhere outside the city, preferably on the beach.

I forgot the Adventure was moving to NJ. What ports will it be visiting?

Bahamas, Canada, New England, Caribbean

From the time of the hurricanes to the end of January, my husband and I felt like we were in vacation limbo. We were pretty sure our hotel would be open to tourists by the time we arrived, but were trying to prepare for the loss of our reservation. We temporarily made a refundable reservation for just Friday night at the Marriott Stellaris in Condado but cancelled it as soon as we knew that the Sheraton in OSJ would work out. We also decided to cancel our one day car rental as we were no longer going to visit the rainforest or the bio bay.At the time, El Yunque only had one trail open with very limited parking and we were reading that the water in the bio bay had been so churned around during the storms that the glow wasn’t as bright as it had been. I was disappointed, but it gives me an excuse to return to Puerto Rico. I'd love to do the other Southern Caribbean cruise to goes to St. Lucia and Antigua. Next time, we’ll go down early again and either stay at El Convento in OSJ or somewhere outside the city, preferably on the beach.

We were in OSJ in March as a port stop, so only 8 hours. It had recovered fairly well by then but still showed some wear and tear. We stopped at El Convento for a drink and to try to decide between it and the Sheraton for a later trip. El Convento won. We shopped our way back towards the ship and stopped for dinner at Marmalade. What a fantastic experience. Unique decor, excellent food with great presentation, superb staff. OK, it's a little pricey but we're on vacation. Besides, the bean curd soup alone is worth the trip.

So after all the planning, replanning and worrying, it was Wednesday, March 28th and time to fly. Our layover was in Charlotte, NC before finally landing in San Juan. The airport was in good condition and fully functioning.

After retrieving our luggage, we walked out to the transportation area and went straight to the taxi stand. They asked us what general area we were going to and gave us a written price to give to our driver.

Within two minutes we were in a cab by ourselves and on our way to the Sheraton. When we told our cab driver that it was our first time in Puerto Rico, she drove out of the way a couple of times to show us different highlights. We were already planning on tipping pretty heavily during this entire trip, especially in P.R. and St. Maarten, but gave her a little extra on top for her efforts.

We were in OSJ in March as a port stop, so only 8 hours. It had recovered fairly well by then but still showed some wear and tear. We stopped at El Convento for a drink and to try to decide between it and the Sheraton for a later trip. El Convento won. We shopped our way back towards the ship and stopped for dinner at Marmalade. What a fantastic experience. Unique decor, excellent food with great presentation, superb staff. OK, it's a little pricey but we're on vacation. Besides, the bean curd soup alone is worth the trip.

I had researched El Convento before our trip and then we took a peek while we were there. It's beautiful. We had also considered Marmalade for dinner but cheaped out.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we were excited to hear that we had been upgraded to a corner suite with a balcony. It was a really nice room with a great view, but it wouldn’t last long. There will be more on that at the end of the day.

This is the lobby, to the left of the stairs is a small technology area with a few computers and a printer.

Our original room:

The view from our balcony:

The rooftop pool:

With its own great view:

There was also a really nice gym that we enjoyed using, and a restaurant that we didn't use.

I'm getting on Adventure this coming Saturday and can't wait to hear more about your trip! We've been on Adventure many times and she is my favorite ship!

Following along. Adventure looks like a gear ship too. I also like planning and we booked symphony 2 years in advance. The anticipation is great.

Scary with the hurricane hitting right before your trip with the unknown. Looks like you got a nice room though.

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I'm enjoying your review. I have Adventure booked for next January.

Sounds great so far

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Our first order of business was to wander around the beautiful cobblestone streets of OSJ and find a restaurant. We ran into Barrachina’s first. We went in to get a table and found out that they unfortunately closed at 5:00 – no dinner on Wednesdays. It was 4:55 and the kitchen was closed. They wouldn’t even let us have a drink at the bar, but allowed us to purchase pina coladas to go.

We walked around with our drinks to cool us off and ended up at Punto de Vista restaurant on the rooftop of Hotel Milano. It was quite windy but also a perfect first night experienced to sit on the roof eating shrimp mofongo, fish tacos and tostones.