Adventure of the Seas B2B 6/3 Live(ish) Review

Hello All,

The hubs and I sail out tomorrow on Adventure for our first B2B! I'm going to try my hand at a live review...my hope is that I'll be able to have all of my thoughts and memories fresh in my mind, and if nothing else, have a journal for us when I'm done.

Our itinerary is as follows:

6/2: Fly Out

6/3: Sailaway

6/4: St. Maarten

6/5: St. Kitts

6/6: Antigua

6/7: St. Lucia

6/8: Barbados

6/9: Sea Day

6/10: Turnaround day.

6/11: St. Thomas

6/12: Sea Day

6/13: Curaçao

6/14: Aruba

6/15: Sea Day

6/16: St. Kitts

6/17: Disembark

6/18: Explre OSJ and fly home

Thanks for following along!

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Today started out VERY early. We are usually last minute packers, but this trip takes the cake. The alarm went off at 4:00am for us to finish packing, get picked up at 6:15, and be at the airport by 7:00. We were able tog er everything packed and ready in time.

We flew American Airlines this trip. We're normally Delta boys, but I couldn't beat the price. We take one big vacation each summer, and splurge on First Class for the trip. I was able to get both tickets on American for a few hundred dollars more than one ticket on Delta.

We got to the airport at 6:57, and we're at our gate by 7:20. Our flight schedule had us connecting in Miami. This morning, Miami practically shut down because of a massive thunder storm that decided to sit on top of the airport for more than an hour. As soon as we were all boarded, the captain announced a ground stop at Miami. What is normally a 35 minute flight turned into a 4 hour ordeal. Thankfully, our flight attendant kept my cup full.

When we arrived in Miami, we found utter chaos. The terminal was packed with passengers waiting for their flight out. It was an absolute zoo. The CSRs for AA didn't help matters either. They were of little to no help, and were extremely rude on top of it. I was able to call and get us on the next flight to San Juan.

We were served lunch while on board. I opted for the cheese enchiladas. I really wanted the shrimp and orzo salad, but they ran out before she got to me. It ended up being quite tasty. And the cookies were delicious.

We arrived in San Juan 5 hours after our originally schedule arrival time.

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Once we were off the plane, we made our way to the baggage area. It took over 30 minutes for our bags to arrive. Once they finally did, we headed for the taxi stand and got a cab. Our fare was $23, including $1 for each of our 5 bags.

We are staying at the Hyatt Place City Center. It's a nice hotel, clean, and reasonably priced. I was able to get us a suite for ~$25 more than a regular room. We paid $219 for the night.

The suite is a one bedroom, with a kitchenette, and is 695 square feet. It is quite spacious, and the view of the harbor is beautiful.

Living/Dining Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Kitchen

The View

We're off to find somewhere to eat, tuck in early, and then tomorrow we board!

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Sounds like a great trip! Looking forward to hearing about it.

Great start with nice photos! Will be following along.

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Love Southern Caribbean. Won't be on a cruise until September so will follow you to get my fix. Have a wonderful time :cool:

I love Hyatt Place hotels! And I love San Juan! I will be following your review! I will be on an Amtrak train for the next two days, heading to North Dakota from Buffalo, NY, so I will look forward to reading your review.

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Yes, the Hyatt Place is nice and NEW - and very close to the Pan Am pier where the AOS is located.

Easy walking for dinner at Olive Garden (right across the street) or Ponderosa steakhouse located at the end of the harbor.

Both reasonably priced.

Everything else is a taxi ride away, which you should use at night.

Very nice photos!

Yes, the Hyatt Place is nice and NEW - and very close to the Pan Am pier where the AOS is located.

 

 

 

Easy walking for dinner at Olive Garden (right across the street) or Ponderosa steakhouse located at the end of the harbor.

 

 

 

Both reasonably priced.

 

 

 

Everything else is a taxi ride away, which you should use at night.

Which we learned when we decided to walk to the Walgreens that is "only" a mile away. We regretted not grabbing a cab 5 minutes in.

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Very nice photos!

Thanks! Many, many more to come!

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A couple I snapped while en route. I'm not sure what we were over, but it was beautiful nonetheless. The water is amazing! Can't wait to get up close!

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Had this B2B reserved last Nov/Dec but plans fell through....following along with envy to see what I missed!

For those of you have seen the back and forth on some other threads about whether or not St. Lucia is happening on our cruise, or others coming up, the answer is no for ours. Martinique it is...

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What an amazing trip you are going on. Sorry about the change in itinerary and your delayed flight. Glad you booked a day ahead so you didn't have to stress so much.

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Will be doing this in Feb. with a couple different ports on the second leg. Will be following your trip report. Hope you have a great vacation.

Thanks for the review.

We woke up this morning to a ship out our window!

I originally booked this cruise in early April of 2016 as a surprise for my husband. He is a workaholic, and I decided that if I went ahead and booked a vacation, it would force him to take time off. I told his boss that we would be gone, and he agreed that it was a great idea. I waited until we were in New York last summer, and the first words out of his mouth were, "But what about work?" He was shocked that his boss and counterpart already knew. He was excited about the cruise, and we were able to keep it booked. It has been many months of anticipation.

I originally booked us in an ocean view cabin at the front of the ship. When the dry dock was announced, I switched us to a panoramic ocean view cabin. I was extremely excited about that stateroom, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. When they cancelled those additions, we were moved to a balcony room. I was able to snag the same corner aft on Deck 8 for both legs of our B2B. As fate would have if, while checking to see if the itinerary changes were in fact correct, I noticed the pricing had changed. For our second leg, I was able to bump us to a JS Guarantee for $40 more.

This trip will be our first corner aft (did center aft on Rhapsody in December, and LOVED it!) and our first JS. My greatest fear is we will be spoiled by the JS and forced to only book them in the future.

Time for breakfast, and to pack everything up. We're planning on getting to the port at 11:00. More

To come!

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We woke up this morning to a ship out our window!

 

 

I originally booked this cruise in early April of 2016 as a surprise for my husband. He is a workaholic, and I decided that if I went ahead and booked a vacation, it would force him to take time off. I told his boss that we would be gone, and he agreed that it was a great idea. I waited until we were in New York last summer, and the first words out of his mouth were, "But what about work?" He was shocked that his boss and counterpart already knew. He was excited about the cruise, and we were able to keep it booked. It has been many months of anticipation.

 

I originally booked us in an ocean view cabin at the front of the ship. When the dry dock was announced, I switched us to a panoramic ocean view cabin. I was extremely excited about that stateroom, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. When they cancelled those additions, we were moved to a balcony room. I was able to snag the same corner aft on Deck 8 for both legs of our B2B. As fate would have if, while checking to see if the itinerary changes were in fact correct, I noticed the pricing had changed. For our second leg, I was able to bump us to a JS Guarantee for $40 more.

 

This trip will be our first corner aft (did center aft on Rhapsody in December, and LOVED it!) and our first JS. My greatest fear is we will be spoiled by the JS and forced to only book them in the future.

 

Time for breakfast, and to pack everything up. We're planning on getting to the port at 11:00. More

To come!

 

 

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Following along- we will be on the Adventure next year. Enjoy your cruise!

Following, we will be on Adventure in July!!!

We arrived at the pier at 11:25. It's was a 5 minute cab ride from our hotel. The fare was $11, plus $1 per bag.

After dropping off our bags and checking in, we were on board by 11:43. It was the quickest we've ever gotten through security and on the ship.

This is our first time on anything larger than a Radiance Class, and the Royal Promenade looks amazing. Can't wait to explore it more.

Our vacations begin when we've had our first cocktail, so we went by the Champagne Bar for a celebratory drink. Our cocktails were delicious, and I believe I'll be spending plenty of my spare time down there.

After the bar, we headed up to the Windjammer to grab lunch. The new hand washing stations are nifty. The faucet is in the middle, and the two "wings" on the sides have the hand dryers. We found the food to be better than the ships we've sailed on previously.

The shore excursion desk was a madhouse at 2:00, when we were told excursions to Martinique would open. With the last minutes itinerary change, we were concerned that there would be a large number of people booking ship excursions, and we wanted to get there early. We were able to get what we wanted, and are glad to have that checked off of our list.

Up next: luggage, muster, dinner, and then ???

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We woke up this morning to a ship out our window!

 

 

I originally booked this cruise in early April of 2016 as a surprise for my husband. He is a workaholic, and I decided that if I went ahead and booked a vacation, it would force him to take time off. I told his boss that we would be gone, and he agreed that it was a great idea. I waited until we were in New York last summer, and the first words out of his mouth were, "But what about work?" He was shocked that his boss and counterpart already knew. He was excited about the cruise, and we were able to keep it booked. It has been many months of anticipation.

 

I originally booked us in an ocean view cabin at the front of the ship. When the dry dock was announced, I switched us to a panoramic ocean view cabin. I was extremely excited about that stateroom, but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. When they cancelled those additions, we were moved to a balcony room. I was able to snag the same corner aft on Deck 8 for both legs of our B2B. As fate would have if, while checking to see if the itinerary changes were in fact correct, I noticed the pricing had changed. For our second leg, I was able to bump us to a JS Guarantee for $40 more.

 

This trip will be our first corner aft (did center aft on Rhapsody in December, and LOVED it!) and our first JS. My greatest fear is we will be spoiled by the JS and forced to only book them in the future.

 

Time for breakfast, and to pack everything up. We're planning on getting to the port at 11:00. More

To come!

 

 

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What room on deck 8 you will stay? we have 8690 in November.

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Have a cocktail for me.

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Following! I will be on the Adventurer on the 17th.

Following! We'll be on Adventure October 2018 also corner aft !!:cool: