Adventure of the Sea Review w/photos.

[waterbugohio]

OK all, I'm going to start my review, but you need to bear with me. Hectic week this week, so you will get this in installments. With the Easter weekend ahead, I will get to it as quickly as possibly.

 

Thanks to those on another thread that helped me figure out posting photos. I will add as many as you can put up with.

 

First a little history. This is our 10th (I think) cruise. Three on the Serenade (which will always be my favorite) and one on the Liberty, Majesty, Navigator and tried a couple other lines with girlfriends.

 

We did this as a family cruise. Hubby and I (50's) along with Brother in law (50's) and we took my Mother in law who has only cruise once before. She turned 82 on the ship and although she has slight memory issues, she did wonderful. Also along was an Aunt and Uncle, and a cousin who roomed with the mother in law.

 

We started our cruise flying into San Juan early on Saturday morning. We arrived at the beautiful San Juan Sheraton Convention Center. Up to the pool deck and we see the ships that are in dock that day. Not possitive, but I think it was the Jewel

 

[waterbugohio]

still new at this picture thing.

 

Will try again.

 

[BonnieSte]

still new at this picture thing.

 

Will try again.

 

 

Can't wait. I am on her the 19th.

[waterbugohio]

OK , we have never stayed at the Convention Center. It was just being built the last time we were there. But the hotel is beautiful. Sorry, I don't have any photos of the inside of the hotel. Probably because the pool deck (floor 4) was to beautiful that I forgot to take any other photos. Will attach of few of the pool deck. But let me explain the pool. You sit in the pool and it reaches to the edge of the side of the hotel (of course a retainer below for safety reason) But when looking eye level, you are straight out from the port. It is stunning.

 

Wanted to go back up at night and take more photos, but we were exhausted.

 

Here are a couple of the pool deck

 

 

 

 

We had a little trouble with our luggage at our hotel. They held our luggage until the rooms were ready. About 3:00 we get the call that we have rooms. And the luggage would be right up. I'm in the pool at this time so the others just wait on the bags. An hour goes by, call the desk, "luggage on the way" up. Another hours goes by. Well, long story short, they sent the luggage to the wrong room. So it put us a couple hours behind but the hotel gave each room a $50 credit to be used for breakfast or bar. Of course we took full advantage of this and sat at the bar before heading to Ole San Juan for dinner.

 

Took at taxi to Ole San Juan. Not sure why, but we told the taxi driver we were going to Barachina's. He dropped us off and said "right down the block" which ended up to be about 4-6 blocks. Sure wish we would have known that before tipping him. Oh well, with everything we are about to eat, we needed the walk.

 

We have eaten at Barrachina's before and we had called ahead for reservations. Just make a note that you need to request the right room if you want to see their show while eating. We were in one of the other rooms, so we couldn't see anything. I have seen the show before, but was a little disappointed with this for the ones in our group that hasn't seen it. Anyway, our meals were great as usual. But I can say the pina colada is not the best I had all week. While they may be birthplace to the PC, they taste different than what I typically make or like. But I still managed to drink it!!!

[Havin'fun]

Looking forward to your review and pictures. We are sailing in January and have never been to Puerto Rico or on Adventure.

[LoveThoseSeaDays]

Looking forward to following along.

Please tell us more about Barrachina's -- type of food, what's the show?

We will be travelling with a large family group and are looking for a fun dinner in Old San Juan for the night before we cruise!

[waterbugohio]

After eating dinner, we did walk down to the waterfront. Stopped at a Walgreens and then a CVS (which is right across from the other pier) and purchased a few things that we had forgotten and our wine for the trip. Between the two places, they had a decent selection and we were set.

 

 

Boarding:

We were a little slow getting going on Sunday morning. We didn't leave the hotel till about 11:45 (which is late for us) Got to the port and there was a pretty good line. Waited in a short line for luggage drop off. Then in a longer line for check in. Shortly after we got there (probably right at noon) the line started to move. I think we were on the ship about 12:45. So not to bad. They have now changed (not sure when) and announced several times that the rooms are now not ready until 2:00. So off to the windjammer for some lunch.

 

For those that like the honey stung chicken, it is no longer available in the windjammer. I asked someone for it, and was pleasantly told they no longer server it, and "welcome back" As he knew I must have been a repeat cruiser!!! I did however find later in the week that the chicken was on the room service menu. We never did have a chance to order it though.

 

Spend some of the afternoon on the pool deck and the rest unpacking. I think we got our luggage about 4:00. And I had one rolling bag which I had six bottles of water in and 8 cans of rootbeer. I can't drink anything with caffeine in it and wanted to make sure I had something to drink. The rolling bag was delivered maybe 15 minutes later than the others, and had a note in it that it was inspected, and that nothing was taken.

 

Dining: MTD

We did MTD and I had used post of previous compasses to kinda try to decide a time for each night and booked them ahead. The one thing I will note, is if you want dining times off the standard 6 & 8:30. Those are the times to make sure to book ahead of time. We had no problem eating at 6-6:30 or at 8-8:30, but if/when asking for something in between, then we had to wait and got seated out of our area.

We were able to get our same area on all but one night. Our waiter and assistant waiter was the same except that night. I can't believe I forgot to take a photo of our waiters, they were both great guys. Ligourio (Im sure I'm misspelling his name) and Jason our assistant waiter were wonderful guys. We had prepaid our tips, but we did give both of them some extra at the end of the week.

 

Drinks:

I will take this time to talk about drinks. We are not big drinkers, especially with such a port intensive cruise. And with the recent increase in drink prices we actually drank less. We made it a habit to meet in one of the cabins before dinner every night and opened a bottle of wine and had pre dinner drinks. We also carried a bottle of wine to dinner most night. As for any other drinks, Royal really lost our business on drinks with this increase.

The first afternoon I got a Pina Colada at the pool and my husband got a Miller Lite. Our bill was $21.75 for the two. Sorry, this is to high for my blood and this cut back our drinking on the ship. My husband had a couple more Miller Lite through out the week, and I had a mudslide on the last night ($11.80) And sorry to the bartenders, but we did not tip any extra on any of our drinks, I felt cheap, but the 18% automatic seemed enough to us.

[waterbugohio]

Our rooms:

We can be considered balcony snobs. We started with a balcony and I really don't want to do anything else. Have done some "cheap" cruises with the girlfriends and done an OV, but even then, we usually splurge for the balcony. Just love watching us pull in and leave port.

 

We were in cabin 8314. We have stayed in cabins frequently on deck 8 or 9. Just really like that area as we can do a couple floors up to the pool deck and a couple down to the dining room. I like to do the stairs (within reason) to try and offset all the calories!!!.

 

I have noticed a couple of reviews from the same cruise we were on. One talked about the hardness of the beds. Either the beds are different in different areas, or we don't mind a hard bed. I slept really really good and the beds seemed fine to me. The only thing I noticed was that the two beds seemed to "come apart" till the end of the week. So if sleeping close (which we do) we felt like one or the other of us was always in the crack. My own fault though, I kept forgetting to ask the room steward if he could re-adjust them or add a foam topper.

 

Also hear of people talking about the worn carpet in the rooms and the old curtains. Wow, not till I got home and read this, did I think about the carpet. Not sure I even looked down to see if our carpet was new or old. So I guess I am not picky when it comes to that!!!

 

As for our steward. We had Edguardo, Ed for short. He was great, always calling us by name. Especially my Mother in Law. He called her "the birthday lady" all week. And was extra attentive to her. This was a really plus in my books as we were a little worried about her cruising. Ed also made sure we had ice in the rooms at all times. I wanted my rootbeer on ice. He also kept us wine glasses as he knew we had wine to share with our family.

 

Other rooms the family had were 8320, 8324 and my mother in law in a promenade room across the hall 8311.

 

Only one picture of the room

 

and a couple of towel animals

 

 

[waterbugohio]

Sorry folks, I have to run for the night. Will try to come back later and continue. This weekend may be busy but will try to write and post photos when I can.

 

to be continued....................................

[drarill]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us... looking forward to the rest!! :)

[JimAOk1945]

Your review is off to a great start. The AOS is a great ship. We were on her a couple of years ago over Christmas week.

 

My wife felt the bed was too hard but I slept very well. We had a great room steward who kept the room immaculately clean. He put a couple of mattress toppers on our bed to make her more comfortable.

 

Our cruise took us to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, Basseterre, St. Kitts, Oranjestad, Aruba, and Willemstad, Curacao.

 

What is your itinerary?

Edited April 4, 2015 by JimAOk1945

[New2cruise1483]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are going to be sailing on her in September, and love seeing pics and reviews :D

[waterbugohio]

Looking forward to following along.

Please tell us more about Barrachina's -- type of food, what's the show?

We will be travelling with a large family group and are looking for a fun dinner in Old San Juan for the night before we cruise!

 

Barrachina's is a nice restaurant in Ole San Juan. We have been there a couple of times. The food is good (not 5*) but just a nice, fun restaurant. It claims to be the "birth place of the Pina colada" The show is a "Flamenco Show" Check out the website for more info

http://www.barrachina.com/

 

This restaurant is very well know to cruise passengers. They advertise (and we have used them) that they will store luggage while in the city for the day. Works great for people that get off a cruise in the morning and don't have a flight home till later in the day. Take a taxi to the restaurant, check our luggage in secure room and go out exploring the city. Of course they would like you to return to eat at some point, but there is no charge for storing luggage.

[Sky616]

Great review so far. We sail in 1 year on Adventure for our 20th anniversary. We are going to three new islands so can't wait. I agree with you on the drink prices. We will definitely cut back on the ship. Will drink more at the ports. A port intensive sailing as what we have it just doesn't make sense to get the drink package. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[waterbugohio]

OK, back to the review.

 

Forgot to add that muster drill was before dinner at 5:45. Went pretty quick and we went right in to eat.

 

After eating we went up on the top deck for sailaway. For those that have never sailed out of San Juan, this is an awesome site. Love sailing past the forts in the dark. Will post a photo, but they didn't turn out at all. this was the only time I wished I would have gotten my DSLR Nikon out of the room, in stead of my little waterproof one.

 

 

After sail away we went to the welcome aboard show. While I read someone else's review from last week and they commented that they didn't like many of the shows. We felt like the show were really good. The welcome show was the normal Royal dancers and singers. Which is always good in my book.

 

 

 

Following the singers and dancers was the first of the comedians. Ed Regine. We all thought he was very funny. But maybe we are just easily amused!!

 

Edited April 4, 2015 by waterbugohio

[waterbugohio]

Day 2, Sea Day.

 

We had our sea day at the beginning of our cruise. Unlike the other southern routes that always did the sea day at the end. I will admit with the port intensive cruise with only one sea day, I think I like it better on the last day. Just a little more relaxing!!

 

We had a lazy morning with a late breakfast and then took to the pool deck. I will admit deck 11 was crazy. No chairs to be found anywhere. Can honestly say this was the worst we have seen the area around the pool. Again, it may have something to do with being the first day of the cruise. Everyone was ready to be out and about near the pool. For this reason (and since we seen them a number of times) We didn't feel the need to watch the "sexiest man", line dancing poolside, etc that was going on. Instead we opted to go up on deck 12 and head all the way to the aft of the ship. Nice quiet area with sun and shade areas. A great place of an afternoon nap!!

 

 

Late lunch in the windjammer found something we have never had before. At the entrance, they had a huge pan of blueberry pie. YUMMMMM. Only strange thing was they were serving it with either strawberry or chocolate ice cream. I think I would have liked it better with just vanilla, but still managed to finish my bowl full!!!

 

[waterbugohio]

Monday night was formal night. Here is a shot of my hubby and I. My mother in law and my brother in law.

 

 

We did not make it to the Captain reception. We have met the Captain on most cruises, but sometimes time just does not allow for everything, so we opted out.

 

I will apologize at this time for the lack of menu info. I didn't take pictures of our meals and didn't keep track of the menus. I will say that even though the menu's have changed and there may be things I missed. We still thought the food was always good. Maybe a little down scaled from our first cruise in 2008, but still good meals. Always plenty to choose from, wonderful breads, good appetizers, plenty of entree choices and deserts that are still good.

 

The show tonight was the "Invitation to Dance" Again, we though this was a good show. Sorry, no picture.

 

At midnight there was a late night, adult comedy with Ed Regine. Funny and but very "adult" Lots of talk of sex, etc. The best part of the show was when the comedian put the lady who heckled him in her place. He let it go several times and after about the fourth time, he put the joke onto her and commented that he wouldn't interrupt her while she was working (the streets) And this is a very nice way of repeating what he said. Just don't understand how people feel is it ok to yell out at performers. Just a real lack of class!!

[waterbugohio]

Day 2, Tuesday, Barbados.

 

I will try to review two excursions today, as our group split up.

 

First off I need to share one of my favorite photos of the week. As many of you will probably agree, I feel that my "pot of gold" is always near a cruise ship. Here is what we found as we pulled into Barbados

 

The first excursion in review is a Royal excursion. Four of our group decided they didn't want to veer out on their own, so scheduled the "Best of Barbados" tour. This was a 3 hour tour and they really enjoyed it. If interested, you will need to read the full description on the royal website as I don't have it. However, I will post several pictures from some of their stops. They very much enjoyed the gardens they stopped at.

 

 

 

 

[waterbugohio]

The second excursion is one we have done before. We did the Silvermoon swim with the sea turtles. For anyone who has not heard of him, please check out his website. https://silvermoonbarbados.com/ They do an awesome catamaran tour, the tour runs $115 per person, but is very much worth the price. This is a top notch catamaran, with only 12 people onboard. A fabulous crew and a homemade lunch. Also drinks are included. Stop at several spots to snorkle over ship wrecks and to swim with the turtles. We did this tour in 2008, and couldn't wait to do it again. Will let the pictures speak for themselves!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[waterbugohio]

After all the swimming and snorkeling, you leisurely make your way back to the dock. The front of the catamaran is awesome for just chilling out, have homemade pina coladas, and talking with new friends!!

 

The crew:

 

Edited April 4, 2015 by waterbugohio

[waterbugohio]

OK, lets try again.

The front of the catamaran:

 

[OSULabRat]

Great review so far! Sailing on her in 38 days... Following!

 

Sent from my SM-N910P using Forums mobile app

[JamesEM]

Following along, looking forward to more reports and photos.

[mbjonsn]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post this review. We sail in just 2 short weeks and cannot wait!

[scurrycruise]

Thanks, waterbugohio, I just booked Silver Moon for our cruise next month!! And OSULabRat, I hate to tell you, but I think you need to check your math. We sail on AOS on 9 May...35 days from now!