Blue Collar Diamond cruiser on the Adventure of the Seas Southern ABC Islands

FYI, this is my first trip report since the new forum software. I think I will be able to speed up this report by uploading my picturesfull sized and posting them that way as the new forum automatically resizes them to suit the viewer. I hope that works ok! This should save me the trouble of resizing each photo to 1024x768,

Bill and Gina from Columbus, Ohio here. This was our 14th cruise, 3rd as Diamond, 2nd for the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, and 3rdtime on a Voyager class ship. We are amid to late 50s empty nest couple. To start this report, I have to go back to April 28th, 2015 while on boardFreedom of the Seas and visiting their NEXT CRUISE DESK. Most of our cruises are this time of yea rand The OBC gained from booking our next cruise are worthwhile and wefrequently find the cruise fare goes up after we book. This visit to the NCD on Freedom was a very pleasurable experience and we had planned to book Oasis for late April 2016which we did.

Normally I would return from our cruise and start my tripreport while checking in on cruise critic with my next roll call. Withthe price I paid for my D1 7 day cruise fares on Freedom and my D5 on Oasis in mind, I got back on CruiseCritic and read reports of very low pricing on 2017 cruises for Adventure out of SJU and Navigator out of Miami. Both appealed to me and I was shocked to see a Junior Suite on Adventure for 2 people for just over $2k USD. This was less than we paid for D class cabins on the previous 2 cruises. At that time we could have gotten a D1 for around $1000 for a 7 day cruise.

The itinerary that occurred during our anniversary was very appealing to us with 3 new ports and one of our favorites as well. St Maartin is a familiar and welcome portwith Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao being new to us. The price was too low to miss out on, if I waited till I was aboard Oasis to bookthis at the Next cruise desk the price would have went to $5573! That is with the Diamond balcony discount! So my logical next step was to start a roll call since this cruise was 750 days away, which I think is anew record for me.

At first I was surprised that a CC member Thtalks had already started the roll call, but at these prices I guess I shouldn’t havebeen surprised. He started it while Iwas boarding Freedom! Thtalks ended up switching to an 8 day on Navigator with similar pricing! Can’t blame them it looked just as good. I told our local friends who sometimes cruise with us about the price and they joined us for our 4th cruise together. A couple of other well known CC members that I enjoy their reviews joined and later left. By the end of 2015 I was the senior member of the roll call. Not that this is worth anything. Ok, once at a Meet and Mingle, the Activities Director asked who started the roll call andwe were given a bottle of champagne. Actually that should have happened twice, but they changed the meet andmingle time for our Freedom cruise and we weren’t notified. I was told they had a bottle there for us.(Yea, I’m still getting mileage out of that incident!)

We decided on the Hilton Condado Beach for our overnight stay. It is close to the port and we were just getting in the afternoon before and not spending a lot of time in SanJuan so we didn’t stay near OSJ. In November of 2016 Southwest Airlines released their flights. I saved about $100 per person taking a flight with along layover in Baltimore, not arriving until 3pm in SJU. My friend who had around $3000 in Southwest vouchers picked the earlier flight that got in late Friday morning.

The roll call did pick up in the final months. Lots of good information was exchanged and plans made. Royal waited till the last minute to announce the Meet and Mingle would be 5pm on the first Sea day. Normal day,but odd time at least for me. Gettingback to the flights, Our Southwest flights were ok, we had to sit on a plane in Baltimore for 2 hours while waiting to leave for San Juan. It turned out the earlier flight that my friends Jon and Penny were on developed minor issues that they new nothing about. Southwestwas transferring some personnel to San Juan and an extra pilot flew in the jump seat of their flight. Well problems developed with that jump seat. They madeit to SJU no problem, but they had to wake up two mechanics, get them to the airport, put them on our flight and get the replacement jump seat into our cargo. As a result, we didn’t get into SJU till 5pm. At least the pilot bought 300 doughnuts to get us through the wait.

FYI - Related to my first trip report with the new forum software, cutting and pasting from MS Word seem to drop a few spaces between words, I was able to catch some before the 20 minute editing timeout occurred, I'll watch that on the next post.

Bill, I am looking forward to sailing along with you and reading about your diving adventures. Have a wonderful vacation!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Bill, I am looking forward to sailing along with you and reading about your diving adventures. Have a wonderful vacation!

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Thanks for the reminder,. I have downloaded all of my still camera pics, but I dove in Bonaire with my GO pro. I got 50 minutes of video, will try to get a couple of still pictures from that soon.,

FYI - Related to my first trip report with the new forum software, cutting and pasting from MS Word seem to drop a few spaces between words,....

Thank you, Bill, following.:D

I had the same problem with cutting and pasting, thought it's my old cranky computer:o

We did finally arrive in San Juan just before 5pm and the baggage claim and getting a taxi to the Condado Plaza Hilton were pretty routine. It was a quick 15 minute drive from the airport and I think the fare assigned was $14. My only complaint about this hotel was when you walk in there were no signs and2 separate desks. The hotel was full ofspecial event participants so I couldn’t see the check in desk and ended up waiting at the Concierge desk for 5 minutes till realizing I was in the wrong line. Getting in at 5pm and settled in our room by 6 we just walked around the hotel grounds and got a light dinner at the nearby Denny’s. We were too tired to tour OSJ.

We were given a 6th floor balcony room and we were able to see the port area just to our west. When our cruise-mates arrive back at the hotel we did have a game of Giant Chess out on the beach. We looked at the nice pool, swim up bar and beach. I think we will probably stay here again next year. That next morning I was able to get my first view of Adventure from my hotel balcony.

Saturday morning we killed time in the hotel on the property and just got some light snacks from their gift shop to hold us over till our gluttony would begin on board. I had contact San Juan Tours via their website to get a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise port. Their website is well done and one of the automated choices is SHUTTLE FROM HOTEL TO CRUISE PORT. It was a well written form and it let mepick a time, pick a pick up location, and it let me pay in advance via CC and the confirming follow up email was very detailed. After making the reservation, about a week ahead, I noticed I had picked the Caribbe Hilton as a pick up point not theCondado Plaza Hilton. I emailed themthe correction and I received both an email reply and phone call verifying my correct location. My fault, but handledby them very professionally. Continuingwith that theme, the driver arrived at the hotel along with several other shuttles, 5 minutes early. I waved to him, he pulled right up and verified myname, loaded the bags and we were on our way quickly. He was very personable and knew where he wasgoing. We were at the port at 10:45am! I planned on it taking more time. The detailed email and web info I received made it clear that the $15 per person cost didn’t include tip for the driver. We did tip him well. You might find a cheaper shuttle, but we will definitely use them again.

We found the priority bag check in line and dropped off our bags. We then joined the suite line andwe were number 2 in line! We were probably in line 20 minutes before the security doors opened around 11:10am. Check in was pretty routine and we found seats near the door and waited about 20 more minutes before the ship was ready to board. There was probably only 40 seats in the area and people were crowding the door (15ft wide garage style door, which was down and closed) A security lady manned the door and put it up and down at least 10 times allowing ship/dock people to going and out. Each time people inched closer to the door. Finally, around 11:30am we were on board and we walked into the Promenade. My first time on a Voyager class since 2009.

We headed for the windjammer where I saw for the first time, the hand washing station added just outside the WJ.

By 11:45 we were seated and having a nice lunch. I am a bit of an aviation nut, so I enjoyed sitting along the side of the ship where I could watch planes take off and land from the local airport.

750 days of planning was over, the fun was about to begin.

Subscribing...

By 11:45 we were seated and having a nice lunch. I am a bit of an aviation nut, so I enjoyed sitting along the side of the ship where I could watch planes take off and land from the local airport.

I also am a bit of an aviation nut. I always enjoy watching the activity at that airport when we are on Adventure. When I was a kid my father would take me to the airport so I could watch the planes come and go.:D

I also am a bit of an aviation nut. I always enjoy watching the activity at that airport when we are on Adventure. When I was a kid my father would take me to the airport so I could watch the planes come and go.:D

Me too, but good old ERI (Erie, PA) didn't have a lot of traffic.

Subscribing too.

Following

My husband and I will be doing this exact itinerary in Nov and I can't wait to read your report. One question - why did you use a shuttle instead of a taxi to get to the cruise terminal?

Subscribing! 3 of my favorite things. Sailing out of San Juan, Staying at the Condado Plaza and being on a cruise. Thanks for taking us along.

Following!

Definitely following!

I want to see all the pictures of the cabin and I was also wondering why you used a shuttle instead of a taxi.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Good ole Adventure. I was married on that ship, so she holds a special place in my heart. It's also been a long time since I've been on a Voyager Class ship. I can't wait to see the rest of your pics.

That was the first pic I've seen with her waterslides installed.

Yay! I came to cruise critic tonight looking specifically to see if you started your review. I'm glad I wasn't disappointed ;p

I look forward to following along.

Hey Bill! Hope you had a wonderful cruise! Excited to see and hear more!

Definitely following!

 

I want to see all the pictures of the cabin and I was also wondering why you used a shuttle instead of a taxi.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

This may sound weird, having never met, I did think of you when I was snapping the pictures of the cabin. Those should be up today.

I decided to go with the shuttle service because the hotel didn't have one and I was worried Princess Penny's bags might not fit in one taxi and I didn't want Jon and Penny beating us to the port. The shuttle was recommended to us and they were on time and professional and not that much more than a cab for 4 people. In terms of spending for the week it was pretty insignificant.

Our normal routine after being one of the first in the windjammer is to hit the pool deck having not seen the sun since October, but this would be our first overcast embarkation day in 14 cruises. It was in the high 70s, but windy and no sun that day. With the rooms not opening till 2pm we set up to look at the new flowrider and perfect storm slides.

Of course you must walk up the stairs to get to the top of the slides.

Hmm, the new forum software autorotates the photos. :o

Of course you must exit the slides.

On the Oasis and Freedom class, people rush to be on the flowrider, but it wasn't open on embarkation day at boarding time. Was this weather related or normal?

Next, I was interested in checking out the new bi-level mini golf course. Here are the first few holes.

I may have to resize to get this new forum software to stop rotating these vertical photos.

When you hit the ball into the blue hole here, it gets a ride back down to deck 12.

Then you finish up on the lower holes. The course is still in great condition.

Loving the pics Bill. We were on Adventure in January of 2016 before the refurb. No slides, no flowrider, no dual level golf course. Now I want to go back.

O-H!

This may sound weird, having never met, I did think of you when I was snapping the pictures of the cabin. Those should be up today.

 

 

 

I decided to go with the shuttle service because the hotel didn't have one and I was worried Princess Penny's bags might not fit in one taxi and I didn't want Jon and Penny beating us to the port. The shuttle was recommended to us and they were on time and professional and not that much more than a cab for 4 people. In terms of spending for the week it was pretty insignificant.

LOL! Not weird, I think you sensed my excitement when I realized we have similar cabins.

Ok good to know. I may look into the shuttle service for my party of 3 and I'm enjoying the Adventure changes so far. Keep it up!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

One more photo from the slide area. This is a our cruising friends, Jon and Penny, they are just lowly emeralds. (Only said that in case he reads this, he hates this photo)

There is also a small slide in the Kids H20 zone.

Then we visited the solarium. On Voyager and Freedom class ships we spent a lot of time in the solarium.

All this fun, and it was still barely 12:30 with the rooms not opening till 2. We had intended on booking Symphony of the Seas for late April 2019 while on this cruise. I've been very critical at times of how Royal operates the Next cruise desk on embarkation day. I had seen on Jewel and Majesty (in the past) where they just had a a sign up that said, "Call Guest Services for an appointment" When you did call Guest Services they didn't have the ability to make an appointment, this has been one of many examples of Royal's left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing.

On Freedom in 2015 I was happy to see a book out that let you sign up for an appointment or show up at the given hours. Then we signed up for mid day on the first sea day and that was our intention on this trip. We ran into one of our roll call members who knew this was my plan and he told us the next cruise desk was open and no lines.

The NCD on Adventure is mid ship deck 6 (thanks ALL THINGS ADVENTURE OF THE SEAS thread for this info. Perhaps it was Laura who mentioned that .) The area is spacious with some wait area and 3 desks. We were welcomed by a young lady and before you knew it, we had a cabin on SOS (weird acronym for a ship). The only problem was our friends Jon and Penny had canceled another cruise and already booked deck 12 for their Symphony cruise. There were no cabins anywhere near them for the cruise 750 days from now. No problem, I'll work it out later, we have plenty of time.