Just off 5/30 AOS, any questions?

[jrm9999]

Just off 5/30 AOS, any questions?

- Jeff

[TerriDHair]

-What time did you get off the shipa and arrive at the airport?

-Have you cruised on Voyager-class ships before this, and, if so, how does the Adventure compare?

-Did you stay in San Juan prior to cruise-day, and, if so, where did you stay and what did you do?

-From where did you fly and did you find any good airfare deals?

And last but not least....HOW WAS YOUR CRUISE?!

Holiday 7/95
Enchanted Isle 7/96
Jubilee 7/97
Destiny 7/99
Triumph 7/21/01
Explorer 6/22/02
Conquest 6/22/03
Navigator 1/24/04
Carnival Spirit 2/27/04
Mariner 10/17/04
Adventure 2/13/05
[img]http://animatedgif.net/nauticalboats/ship_in_a_bottle_e0.gif[/img]

[jrm9999]

TerriDHair,

1. We got off the ship about 9:15. They started letting people off around 7:30-8:00, but our flights ere not until 5:30, so we book the rain forest tour. Tour was ok and better than sitting at the airport all day. Got dropped at the airport around 3:00 and had no line for anything.

2. We have cruised Navigator before. The design of the ship is basically the same but with different decor. Both are very nice. Navigator however has nicer balconies (in my opinion) because the are all glass where on AOS the are mostly steel. Navigator also has the Chops restaurant and also Jade which AOS does not have. Some of the bar themes are different as well. Other than that they are basically the same.

3. We did not stay in San Juan the night before. We flew in on a flight that arrived about 10:30 and took a cab right over. Traffic was a mess, especially at the pier. We got there and had to wait in line till about 1:30 when they started letting people on the ship.

4. We flew from Orlando to San Juan. I know they sometimes offer fare deals, but we did not get one. Our fares were around $450.00 on American.

5. The cruise was excellent. The ship is beautiful and in great shape. They did some work at the recent drydock and are continuing keeping it looking sharp. I saw some carpet get replaced and saw a lot of touch up painting going on around the ship, especially in bars and on the promenade. They did this at times when it did not bother anyone which was nice.
I will say that we did leave with the impression that the help on the ship in some areas was not up to par with other RCCL cruises. One example was stateroom attendants. We had 4 cabins on different places on the ship. All of them were not overly freindly and each had the be reminded everyday to do things like bring extra towels, even though they were told up front how we like things.

Issues like that don't make or break a cruise for me, but it is frustrating after you repeatly have to tell them what you want.

If there is anything else you want to know feel free to ask.

- Jeff

[Kteacher]

Hi Jeff-we are sailing the AOS on 7/11. which route were you on? Did you do any of the ship's excursions? Who did they have for entertainment? Thanks!

AOS 7/04
Sovereign 4/03
AOS 7/02
Nordic 7/01
Zenith 7/00
Nordic 7/99
Sovereign 5/98
Monarch 5/97
Sovereign 5/96

[imosoreal]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jrm9999:
even though they were told up front how we like things- Jeff<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Welcome back. Did you do any excursions? Did you play and win in the casino? Did you use any spa services? Was the food okay? Did you tip the crew at the time you told them how you liked things? Did you feel rushed or stressed arriving in PR on the same day you set sail? Hope you have time to answer my questions. Thank you.

Til our Adventure of the Seas 10/03/04

[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;10;03;22;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]

Triumph -- November 2003
Fantasy -- July 2001
Imagination -- Nov 2000
Fantasy -- Nov 1999

[jrm9999]

Hi Kteacher,

We took the Aruba, Curaco, St. Martin, St. Thomas route. We did a tour in each city as follows:

1. Aruba - See and Sea tour
Nice tour and would do again. They take you to a boat that lets you see underwater and you get to see a shipwreck. If you are at all prone to sea sickness take medicine before the trip. If it is rough like when we went it is easy to feel quesy on that boat. After the boat, you take a bus tour of the island.

2. Curaco
We went snorkeling by boat. It was pretty neat because the spot they stopped had lots of coral, lots of fish and a sunken tugboat to look at. After that we walked around town. It is pretty nice there and was nice surprise for us.

3. St. Martin
We took an island tour in the morning and did the Americas Cup in the afternoon. I would rate the island tour as so-so and the Americas Cup as excellent.

4. St. Thomas
We did the St. Johns beach tour. This was an excellent tour. I highly recommend taking a tour to St. John whether it is the beach tour or the island tour. St. John is probably the prettiest island of all.

As for entertainment, the cruise director was Marc Walker and I think he just got on the ship 2 weeks ago along with a bunch of others including the captain. Of the Royal Carribean singer and dancers, this was one of the best groups I have seen, and they had a new show I had not seen before which was nice. The ice cast is great. In fact we had seen the star skater before on the Navigator last year and he is as good as ever. There is a band that plays in the Viking Crown called House Party which was good and there is an excellent piano player named Peter Ritz in the Schooner bar each night. As for guest entertainers, I don't remember all of them, but we had 3 comedians who were pretty good, the Drifters played one night and there were a handful of others like jugglers and such. I am led to believe that the guests change each week as we saw some getting on and off the boats in some ports.

Anything else just let me know.

- Jeff

[jrm9999]

Hello imosoreal,

1. We did excusions in each port. I listed them in a post a few minutes ago on this thread.

2. I personally did not donate any money to the casino so am no help here.

3. My wife used the spa twice. Once for a massage and once for her hair. She gets a massage on every cruise and said this one was the best. She was happy with the work they did on her hair also. She was however very upset that they were always running late. Both appointments ran about 30 minutes late. This was a mess when doing her hair as she specifically scheduled it to have her hair ready for formal night dinner. We had early seating dinner at 6:00 and they did not even finish until 6:00, then she had to rush to get dressed and do makeup. So we were very late to dinner and left the other 8 we were traveling with in limbo because of this. That was frustrating because she told the spa that she needed to be out in time to get ready for the 6:00 dinner when she booked the appointment, then asked them what time would be best and let them set it all up.

3. We always tip at the end. We have done it this way every cruise and never had an issue.

4. I did not feel rushed going to PR the same day at all. However it depends where you are flying from. Living in FL, we are as close as you can get to PR and flights were direct. If we lived elsewhere I may have a different opinion.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

- Jeff

[pmfan]

Could you tell me, did they charge a cover charge for Johnny Rockets?

[buzzandjulie]

Glad to here you thought cruise was good am on AOS in October and have been discouraged by some of the reports that have been written but I am easly to please any cruise is great as far as I am concerned!

[Ms.Fixit]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by jrm9999:
TerriDHair,

1. We got off the ship about 9:15. They started letting people off around 7:30-8:00, but our flights ere not until 5:30, so we book the rain forest tour. Tour was ok and better than sitting at the airport all day. Got dropped at the airport around 3:00 and had no line for anything.

Hi Jrm999! My flight isn't until 5:30 also. What did you do with your luggage while on your Rain Forest excursion? Does RCCL keep it somewhere if you take an excursion or what can you do with it while you are in port waiting for the flight?

Thanks.
Luann

Adventure of Seas 10/3/04
Soveriegn of Seas 10/94
Soveriegn of Seas 10/89

[jrm9999]

pmfan - No charge for JR. No line either except on days at sea around lunch time.

buzzandjulie - It basically is what you make of it. Sure anyone can sit around and nit-pick every tiny detail, but to me thats worth getting upset about and ruining a vacation. Bigger items I will bring to their attention to get corrected but I will still not let it ruin my having a good time.

Ms.Fixit - When you debark the ship for the tour, you collect your luggage in the terminal. Once you get outside they have a truck sitting there and you give them your luggage. You go on a bus for the tour and they take all the bags to the airport in the truck. When they drop you off at the airport they have all the bags waiting and ready to go. That said, I had some valuable items I did not want to leave, so I packed them into a small suitcase (airline carry on size) and it fit under my seat on the tour bus.

- Jeff

[Got2Cruise]

[img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]Jeff, thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Did you and your wife do any shopping in any of the ports? Which port did you find the best values?

[email]Got2Cruise2004@yahoo.com[/email]
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=9400d3&cdt=2004;7;11;23;00;00&timezone=GMT-0500[/img]
till we sail ADVENTURE OF THE SEAS,

[shipgal]

what time was late seating on your cruise?Was it the same every night?

[jrm9999]

Hi Got2Cruise,

Well my wife likes to shop so she did in each port. She actually did not buy anything in Aruba because she felt it was expensive. Even little nick-nack items were $5.00-$8.00 when we have seen the same stuff at other ports for $1.00-$3.00. I don't know how expensive items like jewelry compared. Curaco was a nice surprise with a nice shopping area. I would say that prices were median there, but again we did not buy anything. One thing we did notice is that in the open air bazar selling areas the vendors do not bargain on price. Most ports you can bargain but each time she tried she got a firm "we do not bargain in Curaco" so she did buy anything.

We felt St. Marten and St. Thomas had the best prices. I bought a nice watch in St. Marten and bought some jewerly for her in St. Thomas. Smaller purchases seemed to be a good deal as well. Also, in St. Thomas there is a shopping area at the pier and also in-town. We noticed similar prices at both, but there is definately a better selection of goods in town. Also, in boh St. Marten and St. Thomas, don't hesitate to look at shops of the main strip. There are a lot of them just off to the side on side streets and we found some nice surprises from the standard t-shirt nd jewerly stores that line the main strip.

- Jeff

[jrm9999]

Hi shipgal,

On AOS, late seating dinner the first night is at 9:00 and at 8:30 the rest of the week. Also, the muster station drill is at 8:30 the first night.

- Jeff

[pmfan]

Hi jrm9999
Thanks for the information on Johnny Rockets. My daughter was thril to hear that there is no charge. Somewhere, on these posts, we read that after it came out of dry dock there would be a cover charge as there is on two other ships.

Could you tell me which nights they had midnight buffets. Is there a chocolate buffet? And if so, which night? Thanks in advance.

[Ms.Fixit]

Thanks Jeff for your reply on what to do with the luggage on debark day. That will be a big help as to making our plans for that last day.
Happy Traveling!

Adventure of Seas 10/3/04
Soveriegn of Seas 10/94
Soveriegn of Seas 10/89

[suedcpa]

Hi Jeff,

My husband and I are going on AOS June 30. I only have one question as you have answered most of the ones I did have.

Do they have Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream on the ship? I read somewhere that they were replacing the Ice Cream Parlors with Ben & Jerry's.

[jrm9999]

pmfan - In JR they only charge for drinks like it used to be. I had read also that they would charge for food after the drydock so I did not know what to expect. However if RCCL is sucessful with charging on other ships I would not be surprised if they started. Until then, enjoy

The midnight buffet was on Thursday (I think) but may have been Friday. I kept getting my days mixed up but this was the second formal night and I am pretty sure the buffet was that night. I don't recall a separate buffet just for chocolates, but there was a flood of desserts at the midnight buffet

Ms. Fixit - Your welcome

Suedcpa - Ben & Jerrys was added during the recent drydock next to the promenade cafe. However it was not open yet. It looked to me like it was all set to go except they had no ice cream. I am sure it will be open by the time you cruise. They do charge for Ben & Jerrys so keep that in mind. They still do have the free yogurt machines right next to Ben & Jerrys so that is nice as well.

[shiftman1956]

Hope you don't mind a couple more questions! My wife and I will be sailing on AOS on 9/19/04.

#1. My understanding is that the ship doesn't leave until 10pm on Sunday. Do they have dinner in the formal dining room on this night?

#2. We have eDocs and can print our boarding passes for our flights from Charlotte, NC the day before we go to the airport. Do you think this will be possible to do on the ship and do you think it would speed things up for us at the San Juan airport?

#3. We did not get luggage tags with our docs...they say to pick them up at the pier. Can we not get these from RCCL at the airport to save time?

Ok, that's enough for now! :)

Thanks for your help!

[jrm9999]

Shiftman,

1. Yes, they have dinner in the formal dining room the first night. Dinner was served 30 minutes later than the other nights. They hold the life-boat drill at 8:30, so late dinner is at 9:00. The early dinner was 6:30

2. I am not sure if the internet cafe has printers or not. Maybe someone else can help. As for speeding things up I am not sure. A lot of people say they had long lines at the airport. When we went, we did an excursion and a flight home later in the day. There were no lines at all by then.

3. I have never used Edocs, but I have heard other posters say to tell the porters at the pier and they have tags to put on it. I would stick around and make sure they put the tags on though and don't forget. I don't know if these are available at the airport or not.