All Things Adventure of the Seas ¡Olé! Edition

[Jolimont]

As you may know the Adventure of the Seas is heading towards Spain as we speak and will spend the summer and fall in its new home ports of Barcelona and Malaga, then she will head back. The 2011 schedule indicates that the same will happen next year. This is a big change because so far the AOS’ homeport has been San Juan and nothing but San Juan. I bet the crew is excited about seeing new ports of call!

 

So let first welcome the Adventure to Europe and also welcome discussion of the ports of Barcelona and Malaga, the ship, its crew, its ports of call around the Mediterranean, excursions, etc. RCI is putting more and more of its ships in Europe and the European cruise market is growing rapidly which makes this French-American cruiser very happy :-). But there still is very little information out there about Europe-specific cruising, so please CC members who cruise AOS in Europe, share with us!

[Bobal]

Thanks for starting this page Jolimont and looking forward to hearing reports from those who are cruising around the Med on Adventure. Since it's only just started its crossing it may be some days before we hear from the first cruisers on the new itinerary so let's keep this thread going. We'll be sailing on Adventure at the end of August so looking forward to hearing from those who are on the earlier sailings :D

[Jolimont]

So what's the AOS doing this summer and fall?

 

Right now it's on day 4 of a transatlantic to Barcelona which takes 14 nights. First sailing out of Barcelona is May 15.

 

Then there are many 4, 5 and 7 night sailings scheduled. First part of the season the AOS is in Barcelona (4 and 5 nights), then it moves to Malaga on June 21 when it starts doing 7 nights all July and August. Then it's back to 4 and 5 nights out of Malaga. Repo cruise back is on Nov 28 and she resumes sailing out of San Juan on Dec 12.

 

It looks to me like with the AOS RCI is trying to do in Europe what it has done successfully in the US for a long time: short "party" cruises that attract a lot of locals mixed with 7 nights that are more of a vacation but too short for North Americans to come all the way to Europe. Will going after the local market work? Spain isn't exactly doing great right now, unemployment is 20% there, things were a lot better just 2 years ago. I hope it works.

 

Germany and France didn't suffer as much in this downturn, but RCI does not have any home ports there, that may be a weakness, but maybe there are very good reasons that I don't know about.

 

I am not seeing any RCI advertizing in France and I didn't see any in Barcelona either when I was there 2 weeks ago. Are they advertizing in the UK? Come on RCI, sell those cruises!!! It looks like AOS is priced cheapest of all the RCI ships in Europe, hopefully it will motivate natives. It certainly motivated me to drive 900km all the way to Malaga!

[peteukmcr]

Thanks to the OP for starting this thread.

 

We will definitely post feedback following our upcoming sailing on AOS on May 20th. RCI are advertising Med cruises in the UK and from what I can see ours was pretty much booked up (only inside cabins available) many weeks ago.

[Bobal]

We're on the 7 night sailing from Malaga on 28 August. It's cheaper for us to fly to Malaga and have guaranteed good weather for the whole cruise than to sail on the Independence from Southampton - and we'll have more of a mix of nationalities onboard, which we prefer. Will be interested to hear from anyone on the 7 night sailings when they start up

[Aviator of the Seas]

I, for one, am not happy that the Adventure is leaving San Juan for the summer. So much so that I am bringing it back in November on the Barcelona to San Juan transatlantic.:)

 

Happy sailings to those who will enjoy it during the European summer.

[ChipLondon]

We are sailing back to back on The Adventure beginning of June, really looking forward to trying this ship, having sailed on all of her siblings. I will post comments on our return.

[Jolimont]

We are sailing back to back on The Adventure beginning of June, really looking forward to trying this ship, having sailed on all of her siblings. I will post comments on our return.

Hello Chip and everyone else who's responded so far. Are you doing 2x5 nights or a 5 and a 4? How did you like her siblings?

 

And, why is Adventure so much cheaper than other RCI ships in Europe? Sailings out of Southampton on the Independence are really pricey, even Brilliance out of Barcelona is a lot more. What's up with that?

[Jolimont]

I keep reading about price drops and how people get on board credit when they call RCI. I checked. For my July 24 sailing the price for my cabin category has actually gone up $200 per person. So maybe they are selling those cabins well!

[peteukmcr]

Hello Chip and everyone else who's responded so far. Are you doing 2x5 nights or a 5 and a 4? How did you like her siblings?

 

And, why is Adventure so much cheaper than other RCI ships in Europe? Sailings out of Southampton on the Independence are really pricey, even Brilliance out of Barcelona is a lot more. What's up with that?

 

We've sailed on Mariner & Navigator that are '2nd generation' voyager class, so it will be interesting to see the differences other than not having full glass balconies.

 

We really enjoyed Mariner & Navigator, so much so we're booked on Navigator for 2011 and now will have to see the Mariner itineraries now that she's on her way to Europe in 2011 as her US West Coast sailings will stop in Jan 2011.

 

Not sure why her sailings appear cheaper than other ships in Europe.

[peteukmcr]

I keep reading about price drops and how people get on board credit when they call RCI. I checked. For my July 24 sailing the price for my cabin category has actually gone up $200 per person. So maybe they are selling those cabins well!

 

The prices for the 3rd & 17th June 4 night sailings are very close to what we paid, but they did shoot up earlier this year for our sailing.

 

I was advised by a cruise consultant that they would provide OBC that would be equivalent to the 5% discount you get for booking online if you booked over the phone and they would honour price drops.

[1lovehols]

I'm doing the AOS 21 june. Other than Malaga most of the ports are the same as the nOS has done the last couple of summers.

[kernow]

We are on Adventure in October for a 6 night cruise. We did a 5 night on Navigator the same week last year and so far even allowing for an extra night Adventure is more expensive. This time last year we had already had 2 price drops.

 

Julie

[Jolimont]

We are on Adventure in October for a 6 night cruise. We did a 5 night on Navigator the same week last year and so far even allowing for an extra night Adventure is more expensive. This time last year we had already had 2 price drops.

 

Julie

Did you also sail in Europe last year Julie?

[Jolimont]

I was looking for a hotel room in Granada for our pre-cruise visit to the Alhambra and realized something interesting: There is actually a hotel inside the fortress, it's called Parador Granada and it looks amazing. I inquired yesterday about availability and price, no response yet, but it's probably pricey. How would it be to wake up within the fortress and look around before anyone else arrives?! What a treat that would be! The other hotel I was considering in Granada is the Hotel Albero. 40€/night, 5.5€ for parking. Gets good reviews on Tripadvisor, staff was very quick to respond to my queries, it's a bed.

 

Note: if you're going to visit the Alhambra you need to make a reservation and pick a specific date/time, they only admit so many people per time slot. http://www.servicaixa.com/nav/es/mucho_mas/granada/alhambra_y_generalife_09oz/visita_general/index.html

[kernow]

Did you also sail in Europe last year Julie?

 

Yes, we did a 5 night from Malaga to Tenerife and Madeira. It was a great cruise with predominantly British and Spanish passengers.

 

Julie

[LegalEagle2012]

We are doing the 7 night from Malaga on AOS on 31st July - so far have a very small Roll Call too!

 

Any ideas on hotels for first and last nights in Malaga - 2 adults and 2 children - most appreciated.

[kernow]

We are doing the 7 night from Malaga on AOS on 31st July - so far have a very small Roll Call too!

 

Any ideas on hotels for first and last nights in Malaga - 2 adults and 2 children - most appreciated.

 

 

There are 3 of us (2 adults and a teen) and last year I had difficulty finding a hotel in the city that took more than 2 in a room. We ended up staying at the Melia Costa Del Sol in Torremolinos which was no distance from Malaga. We are staying there again this year for 2 nights pre cruise.

Post cruise we stayed at the Novotel which is right by the airport.

 

Julie

[Jolimont]

We are doing the 7 night from Malaga on AOS on 31st July - so far have a very small Roll Call too!

 

Any ideas on hotels for first and last nights in Malaga - 2 adults and 2 children - most appreciated.

You could check the Silken hotel in Malaga. We stayed at the Silken Bilbao and it was a fantastic hotel. The Barcelo Malaga also looks good.

[Jolimont]

I've wasted a perfectly good hour today browsing many links on this page, some of those photos are stunning!

 

http://cruiseclues.com/shipstips/adventureoftheseas.htm#adventureoftheseasmenus

[Alexis]

I am wishing you "Good Luck" on your

All Things Adventure of the Seas ¡Olé! Edition

From what I see and read, it looks like a great start to the thread already.

Sincerely, Alexis

[Jolimont]

I am wishing you "Good Luck" on your

All Things Adventure of the Seas ¡Olé! Edition

From what I see and read, it looks like a great start to the thread already.

Sincerely, Alexis

Thank you Alexis!

Looks like the two Cruise Directors on the Adventure are going to be Casey Pelter and Mercedes Lafuente. I don't know anything about them, I'd like to hear about their style if you know.

Also, do you know if they're going to do announcements in Spanish and English all the time or just English or what? On Carnival it was just English over the PA 90% of the time.

[Alexis]

Thank you Alexis!

Looks like the two Cruise Directors on the Adventure are going to be Casey Pelter and Mercedes Lafuente. I don't know anything about them, I'd like to hear about their style if you know.

Also, do you know if they're going to do announcements in Spanish and English all the time or just English or what? On Carnival it was just English over the PA 90% of the time.

 

I never had either of those Cruise Directors so I know nothing about them.

You could find out from the people who sailed on the other thread like Robyn who started it, etc. who I believe had Mercedes Lafuente.

I would suggest going over there and asking that question. They will be glad to help you.

(No, you will not be hijacking it. We fool around a lot with each other. ;) )

When I was on the AOS and sailed for two weeks in Nov/Dec from San Juan they did the Muster drill in about 5 languages because we had a lot of people from many different countries on board. After that Muster Drill they were only in Spanish and English unless there was a very important announcement.

If there are a lot of Europeans and Americans on board her over there, I am going to assume announcements will be made in more than one language.

[Bobal]

We had Mercedes as cruise director on the Voyager in October 2008. She is Spanish speaking and that time we sailed from Barcelona with a lot of Spanish onboard. From experience on sailing in the Med (we've sailed 3 times from the Med- twice from Italy, once from Spain) they will speak in English, in the country from which they've sailed and then in other languages depending on the number of guests onboard. eg if they have a very big German group they will speak in German, otherwise it will be English and Spanish and/or Italian.

[Jolimont]

Interesting about the cruise directors. I am hoping for one who is cognisant the public address system overuse, and provides a couple of good shows, but other than that, I'm good with all the ones I've had. OK, Carnival's John Heald needs to change his jokes, they get old.

 

Speaking of Carnival, anybody has any guess why RCI is betting the house on Europe while CCL is very timid here?