Feb. 2012 Adventure of the Seas Southern Caribbean Cruise Review

[bandjwayne]

Review of Southern Caribbean Cruise on RCCL’s Adventure of the Seas

Feb. 5-12, 2012

 

Background info: Husband and I are in our early 30’s. This is our 5th cruise in 11 years; 2 on RCCL Voyager class, and our last 2 have been on Carnival. We decided that we really didn’t like Carnival as well as RCCL, although we haven’t been on RCCL since 2004 so we were interested to see how much has changed. This is also the first time we’ve went with friends. They were 2 other couples are in their 30’s, first cruise for both of them.

 

Day prior to cruise: We flew into San Juan a day ahead of time and stayed at SJ Suites in Old San Juan. We paid $200 for a 2 queen room and $125 for a single queen room. I picked this hotel based of the location, reasonable price, and reviews on Trip Advisor. It was in the heart of Old San Juan which made it so easy to walk around. It was clean and the front desk attendant Ramone was very helpful. It is a little weird to use a key to get into the hotel, but I appreciated the safety. The downfalls are that there are not many amenities and it’s rather old, but for a one night stay it was perfect. Watch out for the taxi prices as we had varying rates. 4 of us paid $27 from the airport to hotel and the other 2 paid $30. It cost us $5/person (so $30 total) to get from the hotel to the seaport (although Ramone said it was $15 plus $2/bag).

 

Day 1 – San Juan

Embarkation went very smoothly. We arrived at the pier around 11:30. Make sure you get in the line to get rid of your checked luggage first, prior to getting in the line to board the boat (with only your carry on luggage). The lines moved very smoothly and we were on the boat by 1:00. We explored the boat, ate at the Windjammer, and then found our rooms. We had a balcony room 7590 which was nice. I did notice that I liked our balcony on the 7th floor more than our friends on the 6th floor because they did NOT have a glass railing so it was hard to see the water when sitting down…so book a balcony on the 7th floor & higher! We met our room attendant Allen from the Philippines right away and I was very impressed that he knew all of our names prior to meeting us. Our luggage arrived well before our Munster drill at 6:00. Our 6:00 dinner time was pushed back to 6:30 the first night because of the Munster drill. We met our waiter Loronzo from the Philippines right away. Then our asst. waiter Rincard from Nicaragua came and started pouring our water. He was shaking & clearly very nervous. It seemed like that was the first times the waiters had met also. Then we experienced a first…Rincard disappeared all night and even Lorenzo didn’t know where he went. Lorenzo worked extra hard to make sure that we had a nice dinner service.

Day 2 – St. Thomas

The weather was partly cloudy, in the 80’s, and a few showers (which was the same for the entire cruise). Our room was on the pier side so it was nice to wake up and see the action going on outside. Since we’ve been to St. Thomas before we decided to walk around in the am. We started walking to the downtown area, but turned around after it seemed to far away. There were plenty of taxi’s around to take us downtown, but we decided to just stay around the Havensight Mall area which is right outside the pier area instead. Our friends who went downtown said we didn’t miss much…more local vendors selling crafts then what’s available at Havensight. We did the BOSS excursion…little underwater scooters at Turtle cove. It was definitely an unique experience and the boat crew was great. They had a high priority on safety and made us all very comfortable. We also had a fun time snorkeling as the underwater scooter part was divided into 3 groups so we only did that for ~30 min. and had the rest of the time to snorkel & hang out on the boat soaking up the sun. At dinner this night Rincard the astt. waiter amazingly appeared…I thought for sure he wouldn’t be back. He still was very nervous, but did better as the trip progressed. Lorezo worked so hard the entire cruise which I really appreciated as usually dining is my favorite activity. Tonight at dinner we met the photographer Gareth from South Africa. He wasn’t your typical photographer…he was a funny guy who spent much more time socializing w/the guests then focusing on his photography skills and working, but we didn’t mind☺

 

Day 3 – St. Kitts

The Cruise Compass newsletter had a note in it today to go to Guest Relations and get a early departure ticket if your flight leaves before 11:00. Do this right away as there are only so many tickets and the have a number corresponding to how you get off the boat, so we got ours right away and were the first off the boat. St. Kitts was a beautiful island with old volcanoes, hills & valleys w/lots of trees. The shopping area is right off the pier and easy to walk around. The monkey population of this island is 4:1 over people and boy we found that out right away when there were all sorts of people trying to put monkeys on you & take your picture w/your camera & charge you $. Be aware of this as they can be kind of pushy & do it w/out you agreeing & then expect $. We did the Zip Line tour which was a lot of fun, despite the fact that it rained for ½ of it.

 

Day 4 – At Sea (and my birthday☺)

We had lots of fun celebrating my birthday during this leisurely day at sea. My husband sent me roses (6 purple ones in a square vase for only $25) and I opened cards from my kids & friends. We ate at Jonny Rockets…tasty onion rings & nice service. I was sung Happy Birthday here, the dining room, and Portofino’s the following night….I think I should go on a cruise every year for my birthday now! The belly flop contest had to be rescheduled do to some slight rain showers, but it cleared up so fast that we had an informal show by passengers who were looking forward to it. Tonight was the Love & Marriage show hosted by the cruise director…SO SO funny…don’t miss it! We had great bar service from Clyde at the pool & dining room…a few extra tips make a difference.

 

Day 5 – Aruba

I think Aruba was my favorite stop on this cruise. It was very clean, easy to walk around, cheap & easy transportation, good shopping, and of course BEAUTIFUL. We learned it’s very windy on this island so it’s best to go to the beach in the afternoon when the winds die down a bit. We did the sail, snorkel, swing excursion in the morning. We road a graffiti art bus to where we got on our “pirate “ ship. We snorkeled in 3 different spots, w/the best snorkeling being at the 2nd stop. At the last stop after we snorkeled for a while we were able to swing on the big rope swing off the boat and into the water which was so much fun. Our friend ended up being the entertainment part of the trip…she piggy back road a crew member while he did a summersault into the water. I think we all expected more of a “show” but I’m guessing the crew didn’t do much since there were so many people on our boat who were enjoying the swing…which was just fine w/us. On the way to this last stop the bartender Jennifer starting serving up yummy mixed drinks…way better than the rum punch I was expecting. There was good party music playing which got the boat a dancing…so much fun☺ After the excursion was over we went back to the boat to eat (and sober up). We then did a little shopping & were going to walk to a beach when a bus driver in a brightly decorated bus told us he’d take us there for $2/person. We were the only ones on the bus so he even waited for us when we stopped at a gas station to pick up some drinks. He said he’d be back every 15 min. to pick us up, but we ended up taking a taxi van back for $1.25/person. It was so cheap because it picked up multiple people and made multiple stops, but we were in no hurry so it worked fine for us. A regular taxi was MUCH more expensive.

 

Day 6 – Curacao

Today was our final stop. In the morning we did an excursion to the Blue Curacao liquor factory & the Sea Aquarium. The liquor factory was TINY…nothing like the Bacardi factory in San Juan so I wouldn’t really recommend it. The sea aquarium was ok…a lot of it was outside and it rained the whole time so we missed the sea lion and dolphin shows. If you want to swim w/the dolphins though this would be a perfect place as you actually go outside of the aquarium and swim in the ocean! The shopping area was an easy walk and the town is very pretty w/all it’s colored buildings. The floating bridge connects some shopping areas and when it’s open you can take a free fairy across to the other side. We walked to the market area and took some pictures. The food is imported from Venezuela (only 35 miles away). There are not many beaches (but lots of iguanas) on this island due to it being on a big rock so I’d suggest not doing a beach trip here…pick St. Thomas or Aruba instead.

 

 

Day 7 – At Sea

Another beautiful day at sea…the only day it didn’t rain. We hit up some of the activities on the boat…rock wall climbing, mini golf, bingo, etc.

 

Departure

As I said on day 3, get the self departure tickets if you have an early flight! The tickets said to get to Studio B an hour early (so at 7, w/departure starting at 8) however, the guest relations person said 15 minutes early would be fine. We got there at 7:30 and stood around til 8:00. Not the best location w/all your luggage, but I didn’t care as I was just wanting to get off the boat early enough to catch our 10:43 flight. We had a number 1 on our ticket so we were in the first group off the boat. I’m not sure how many numbers it went up to…at least 3 and there was up to 600 people that could demark this way. Anyway, it all went smoothly and we were off the boat @ 8:15, to the airport by 8:30. Remember to go through USDA clearance right away, not to your airline gate otherwise they’ll just send you back…this isn’t clearly marked at the airport. The worse part of our whole trip occurred now as our airplane had engine problems that had to get fixed so we had a ~4 hr delay that included boarding/reboarding gate change. This made us miss our connection in NYC thus we had to spend the night at a hotel there. I was very disappointed w/Delta’s customer service overall…ahhh!

Overall comments:

A few things that I noticed on RCCL this time was that they had hand sanitizer everywhere and even verbally asked you to put it on before entering the Windjammer and dining room. None of us got sick and it seemed like everyone on the boat was sick from what I could tell. Also, the food didn’t seem to WOW me like it has in the past. We ate at the Windjammer for breakfast & lunch. Their menu seemed to be pretty similar everyday and was just ok for lunch. Dinner at the main dining area had pretty good variety, but the taste wasn’t as great as I remember and I was disappointed with the desserts…nothing came close to rivaling the Chocolate Molten Cake I remember on Carnival. Although it was really convenient to order room service for breakfast the food wasn’t very good and the choices were very limited. Room service does get props for their timeliness. They called saying the food was on the way 20-30 minutes ahead of the time I had requested – so remember this if you use them as your wake up call. I did sneak down to the café promenade for some coffee. Be sure to bring a mug w/you from home if you want more then their tiny cups hold! This is the first time we’ve ever ate at a specialty restaurant (Portofinos). It was the best food on this cruise, but I was expecting a more leisurely paced intimate dinner then what we got so I’m not sure I’d do it again…after all we had friends for table mates in the main dining room. Richard Spacy was the cruise director from England. He was HILLARIOUS and definitely the best cruise director we’ve ever had. The Love & Marriage show that he hosted was the funniest show ever so don’t miss it. I was disappointed that 2-3 of the shows only had one viewing at 7:30. We were never done dining to make it to these shows despite us showing up for dinner right at 6:00.

 

 

Final Thoughts –

We had a terrific time and have turned our friends into cruise lovers! I wasn’t quite as impressed w/RCCL this time as I have been in the past, but it still was very good and I can’t wait to go back again!

[cot427]

Thanks for the review! I sail in about a week on the alternate itinerary. Can't wait!

[davekathy]

Thanks for sharing your Cruise. We'll be doing a B2B on the Adventure Of The Seas starting 18 March 2012.

[netgear2020]

thank you so much for the review , I have a question.

 

I know there are 2 lines , one for the luggage at the port and another to get the sea pass. Im traveling witha group of 4 , i was wondering if we can slipt , 2 of ur go to the porter line with all the luggages while 2 friends make the line to get the sea pass. That way as soon as I dropped the luggage I join them at the other line.

[bandjwayne]

thank you so much for the review , I have a question.

 

I know there are 2 lines , one for the luggage at the port and another to get the sea pass. Im traveling witha group of 4 , i was wondering if we can slipt , 2 of ur go to the porter line with all the luggages while 2 friends make the line to get the sea pass. That way as soon as I dropped the luggage I join them at the other line.

 

That is what we did. They guys got in the luggage line and the girls got in the check in line. Saved about 15-25 min or so that way. It was a fairly smooth flow. Make sure you keep all your travel docs with you ! Enjoy your cruise :D

[blacksheep2]

WE were on the same cruise and have many of the same opinions--the food was good but not the WOW experience in the past-I am ok with the breakfast and lunch being somewhat the same in the Windjammer-I am picky and when I found things I liked it made it easy-we had a great room attendant in Emmerson Thomas-was there when we needed him and gone when we wanted to be alone-he must have some kind of radar-he too knew our names and greeted us day one

The shows were great and Richard was so funny-the Love and Marriage show was a hoot- and the Quest too-

We enjoyed St Kitts so much we did the Rail and Sail and saw all of the island--lots of rum punch too-needed a nap that afternoon

This was a very good cruise---

[blacksheep2]

Forgot one thing--the internet sucks--it was so slow --

[Choozin Croozin]

Great review!. Thank you for taking the time to post! Four weeks and we'll be doing the same thing. :)

[Topo Gigio]

I don't know who your guide was, but complete wrong information.

 

Curacao gets most of it's food from USA & Europe (next time go to a local supermarket and you will see for yourself!) some vegetables and fruits are imported from Venezuela, Colombia and Dominican Republic due of being highly perishable. Lots of vegetables come from as far as California!

 

In Curacao there are over 30 small beaches, so don't know where you get that info. If you want a good beach you can try Mambo@ Seaquarium, Porto Marie, Kas Abou, Knip or Jeremie.

 

Curacao being on a big rock?? huh? Saba the other island that used to form part of the Netherlands Antilles is a big rock. Curacao is low land with little hills at the western part of the island.

[gelo7]

Excellent review.

[Mach1]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review, I am looking forward to being back on the AOS.

 

Curacao is a beautiful island, and we found one of the most beautiful beaches there that I have ever seen! Just a little bit of reasearch will help feature travelers to this island. ;)

[Topo Gigio]

Thank you for taking the time to post your review, I am looking forward to being back on the AOS.

 

Curacao is a beautiful island, and we found one of the most beautiful beaches there that I have ever seen! Just a little bit of reasearch will help feature travelers to this island. ;)

 

Amen!

[davekathy]

bandjwayne...On your sailing were the three different (Formal, Smart Casual, Casual) evening dress guidelines suggested? On our 2011 B2B Cruise we never had any Smart Casual evenings. I don’t want to pack for Smart Casual if there isn’t going to be any.

[bandjwayne]

Yes, there was one smart casual night, however most people I saw and us dressed the same as the casual nights. I forget what night that was, but the formal nights are on nights 2 & 6.

[dwdwnurse]

Thanks for the great review - we leave in 29 days! Can't wait!!!

[NemoCrownie]

We were also on this cruise. Your review pretty well summarizes most of our experience except our cabin attendant was almost never seen - and it seemed purposeful. We only had towel animals on three nights! Our dining room waiter and assistant waiter were awesome after the first night - which I think was exhaustion and having to meet all new passengers. We actually liked the food in the MDR. We missed most of the shows as the 7:30 shows were before we were finished with dinner. Loved Richard Spacey, quite hilarious.

 

Our snorkeling excursion to Trunk Bay on St. John was cancelled so we went to Sapphire Beach - beautiful beach and it was a fun afternoon after we got over our disappointment.

 

We absolutely loved Aruba and we really liked Curacao. We had a great island excursion on St. Kitts with Royston Tours and ended at the beach but it was too windy and cloudy to go swimming or snorkeling. He was a great tour guide and very funny. St. Kitts is not one of our favorite islands but it was still a great day.

 

Overall, even with the cloudy, somewhat rainy weather, we had a great week. However, we learned that we prefer the Radiance class ships. We missed the totally glass balconies and the open air seating in the Wind Jammer. However, the plusses for us were the number of chairs on the pool deck, the cigar lounge for Hubby and the Crusie Director, Richard Spacey.

 

Embarcktion and disembarking (sp?) were much easier than anticipate based on previous comments. We were on and off in less than an hour.

 

My biggest gripes were that we couldn't find iced tea and lemonade outside the Wind Jammer and we didn't like the soft serve machine being located on the pool deck with such short hours. Also, getting coffee in the morning was inconvenient since I am an early riser and had to go down to the Promenade Cafe for coffee. This sounds whiney and these were actually minor inconveniences. We really did enjoy our cruise and can't wait until our next cruise on the Brilliance next February. We really like RCCL and realize each ship has a different character and attracts different types of people.

[suezyq50]

Thanks for posting. We are onboard March 18. Our cabin is just right downfrom where yours was, 7660. Any drink specials? When we were on the Freedom, one bar had happy hour prices on margaritas.

[bandjwayne]

I don't remember any drink specials other than the "drink of the day"; however we didn't really spend much time at any of the bars. We met Clyde our drink waiter at dinner and he served us at the pool area which is where we tended to drink the most. Tipping him a few extra bucks seemed to be the way we got our drink specials...aka extra strong drinks.

 

The last time we were in St. Thomas we went to Sapphire beach too and had a lovely time. I really loved Aruba & Curacao the best too. We've never been on a Radiance class ship, but have heard they're very beautiful.

[crisndeefromde]

We just got home from doing B2B this cruise and this past weeks cruise. We were in DECK 3 dining room and had the best waiter and asst waiter in all of our cruises. Our food was great and if one of us didn't care for the meal, another suggestion was taken and brought quickly.

 

St Lucia while beautiful ...too many snakes..yikes...

 

can't wait to go again.

 

Only disappointment was Fernado the concierge.

[Geema]

Does anyone know if they open the dividers on the balconies on this ship? Looking at booking this ship and it's nice to be able to have the balconies open in between for the friends and families.

[bandjwayne]

Does anyone know if they open the dividers on the balconies on this ship? Looking at booking this ship and it's nice to be able to have the balconies open in between for the friends and families.

 

Our balcony on the 7th floor and our friends on the 6th floor were both very private. I'm pretty sure there is no way to open up these dividers. I'm not sure about the other floors though.

[MrZoey]

When we were on Adventure in January (deck 9), we couldn't open the balcony dividers:(