Adventure of the Seas Review, May 14-21

[Melbourne84]

Cruise Review – Adventure of the Seas

May 14 – 21, 2016

San Juan to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Curacao, and Aruba

I could just make this post one sentence long: IT WAS AMAZING!

But I will go into more detail J

My husband and I are 29 and 31. RCCL is our favorite cruise line. This was his 4th cruise (2nd RCCL with me) and my 9th (NCL Norway and Sun and Breakaway and RC Serenade, Jewel, Indy, and now Adventure). My husband chose the cruise because he really liked the itinerary and I had no objections. I’ll just bullet point some things, and let me know if you have any questions:

We flew out of Cleveland straight through to San Juan. We arrived a little less than 2 hours prior to our flight. Lines for United were a little scary (I had to check a bag) but TSA was a breeze. The straight through flight was nice.

We did an RC transfer to ship but will do a taxi in future. We've done taxis before but our TA talked us into a transfer this time. We prefer to keep all luggage with us, as we can manage it and I’ve had luggage lost before and it sucks. Well, your luggage is put on a truck while you’re directed to the transfer bus. Our bags must have been some of the last onboard, which always scares me. Had a very good driver, spoke about many things and how Zika is being overblown in the US. Very interesting.

Onboard by 230pm?? Note for future cruises – I will bring my own travel alarm clock and a watch. We never knew what time it was unless we were on the stairs by the electronic screens that post the time. SO ANNOYING, especially with how we ran from activity to activity, always looking for a clock. (I prefer to turn my cell off and leave it in the safe. I’m on vacation!)

Minor complaint: set up of Windjammer food stations. We had a HORRIBLE time on Breakaway buffet – it wraps around the back of the ship. No stations = loooong lines that are difficult to break into if you just want to grab and go. I figured out that most people would just get in line, not realizing you can duck in and out to grab food. The station layout (like on Indy) was much better. Adventure does have some separate stations for beverages, desserts, fruit, make your own sandwich, etc but salads, hot foods, and espeically the omelette station caused long lines. Still, not a horrible wait. Ample seating. Only had trouble finding seating for breakfast on the first sea day – had to sit allll the way in the back, but we got a nice view of the wake.

Room: We were in 8530. The bad: we were actually pretty let down by the décor…corals and pastels from the 90s. Yeah yeah, we’re on a cruise, with a balcony, how can we complain? I guess just being on Indy right after refurbishment and having nice rooms on Jewel and Serenade, we were a little disappointed. Also, our bed was rock hard. Reminded me of sleeping on the floor. I’m young, and a side sleeper, but I could not sleep on my side the entire 7 nights. I honestly think the only thing that got me through was that I was so exhausted every night. I recall previous cruises loving the beds, but not this cruise. I got several bites the first 3 nights. We checked for bed bugs and determined they were spider bites, but we saw under the sheets that at least 3 mattress toppers had been added. Still rock hard. My husband didn’t mind, saying he likes firm mattresses. Other than that, only very minor things showing the ship is ready for refurb, like a cracked sink drain, slightly worn carpet, etc. Oh third big disappointment – look at Voyager Class ships’ balconies then at Jewel and Freedom Class. Voyager has large oval cutouts, for lack of a better term, whereas other ships’ feel much more open and have more glass. The pro is that we left wet suits out to dry and never feared that wind gusts would sweep them overboard. Still, I didn’t expect to feel so closed in by the balconies. Also, no more free pen and pad of paper. I like free souvenirs and like to collect pens/paper from hotels, cruises, etc. Another plus was that the fridge wasn't stocked with expensive drinks and snacks. It was nice to have space without having to clear it all out.

Overall condition of ship: Fine. I was nervous it would be noticeably rusted, worn, faded. Not so. Many areas actually shine like new. If you really look hard, you will find room for improvement, but this really didn’t impact our cruise at all. Gorgeous theater, dining room, shining stairways, etc.

Crew: Never met an unkind person. Great room steward, amazing dinner staff (we had My Time and so 2 diff waiters and asst waiters, plus the maître d), friendly in Windjammer, sports staff, all throughout the ship.

Food: No complaints. My husband said they could have had more choices, not really sure what that means. There is only one specialty dining but we always are content with MDR food. I really missed the chilled fruit soups when we went on NCL 2 years ago. Windjammer was always fine. I missed Sorrento’s, although there is pizza and small sandwiches in the Café (never the quasadillas that Indy had though, bummer). The Café has this Willy Wonka pie – you have to try it.

Sports – My husband lives for soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and I love volleyball, dodgeball, and the rock wall. I wish they would enclose the court with a net, like NCL does. When a ball goes overboard, that’s the end of the game. The putt putt course was nice. Kinda fun trying to play on the 2nd to last night as we raced back to San Juan – the wind almost put me overboard, and I'm only slightly exaggerating. The ball would go near the hole, stop, then slowly roll back haha. I even got a hole in one – while at Hole 5, it jumped the barrier and proceeded into Hole 6 J

Trivia: I’m giving this its own section because this is I think the first time we ever did the trivia, and we ended up doing 3-4 trivia a day. A lot of fun, especially the movie trivia, scary trivia, and scavenger hunt. You’ll learn a lot, and you might want to study up on the countries and capitols in the world while on your flight down J I named the capital of Sudan as well as the continent with the most countries due to studying the magazine on the plane.

Fitness center: amazing facility, crappy group class schedule. Only free classes were 7 and 730 am (who’s getting up after dancing under the stars til 2am?) and 5p (I think just a stretching class, I can do that on my own, and who’s going to do that right before dinner?). Boot camp and pilates cost $12 I think plus 18%? Not that I cruise to use the gym, but I’m disappointed there are not more free classes at better times, like Bosu, step, fab abs, etc.

Drink package: Husband got the pop package. He learned to not show the SeaPass or cup until the bar staff came over to him. We noticed this on Indy too, that bar staff may ignore passengers who come just for a pop refill.

Shows/activities: Great shows and comedians as usual. Saw Invitation to Dance, which I didn’t mind seeing again. There was only one other production show (aren’t there usually at least 3?) and we just weren’t that into it. A tribute to rock throughout 1950s-90s? I didn’t care for most of the songs, and that can really ruin a show for me. We also saw El Gaucho again, great show. The Quest was amazing. The last two RC cruises, we lay down just for a cat nap and ended up missing the whole thing. We also loved the gameshows at 9/10pm. Ice show had the weirdest storyline but the skaters threw some amazing tricks. I was disappointed in the lack of variety for what I call the Arts/Crafts classes. It was just, IIRC, an adult card-making workshop, then 2 or 3 other days it was just scrapbooking. I"m a pretty accomplished scrapbooker already, so I skipped these. Cruises past featured make your own bookmark, painting with Crayola watercolors, make a memory box, etc.

Swimming: I swam about 5 min, determined it was too chilly, and went in the hot tub about 15 min. That’s it. But the pools and hot tubs are very nice and weren’t really ever too crowded. MOvies were often shown in the afternoon and after dark on the screens which was nice. One night they showed the Force Awakens. Get there early for good seats as there are many things to obstruct your view from most places on the pool deck.

Ports! In St. Thomas, after much research and debate, we chose Coki Beach over Hannah and her Horse’s beach (Lindquist). EXCELLENT decision. Coki is our fave beach by far. 20 feet apart underwater we could clearly see each other and all the fish. There are waves but not tremendously disturbing (like some other Atlantic side beaches we’ve been to). $9pp each way plus $20 for two loungers and umbrella.$56 for 3.5 hours at a beach of our choice, not bad. I think we were the only cruise ship at every port we visited. We had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the shops. Beware the monkey men. Curacao was our favorite port. Absolutely gorgeous. Also, very clean and safe, even across the floating bridge. Watch for iguanas, they abound and are pretty cool to look at. We chose to just wander rather than do an excursion. Aruba: We did the Mi Dushi snorkel/catamaran. This was 2nd to Coki only because we didn’t feel the snorkeling was that great. We had a wonderful time sailing the turquoise water, and we visited 3 ok sites. One was the wreck of the WWII ship Antilla, but we were pretty far from shore so waves + wind = pretty difficult to fight. The wreck is large but water’s not too clear, so it's hard to tell what you’re looking at. BBQ chicken lunch onboard was fantastic. The crew was great. One did a double back off the rope swing.

Debarkation: We actually slept until 8:30, a rare treat on debarkation morning. We chose not to leave luggage outside the door and were glad we didn’t, just so there was no way it would get lost as with our NCL cruise – the suitcase was like on the total opposite side of the warehouse and we were on a schedule to meet a group for an excursion – definitely not fun. e left our room at 9:30 and waited an hour in the ice rink. One thing I learned for next time: You can get off the ship pretty much whenever you want. Obviously, you should stick to your debarkation time as instructed but we got nervous when they seemed very behind schedule. At 1030 they called a group that was scheduled for 915…I found a crew member and asked if they were really over an hour behind (our flight was 230) and long story short we found we could just leave, and we’re GLAD we did. Obviously there’s a reason groups leave at once, to keep the lines low and prevent mass exodus of 3,000 people at once. But I went with my instinct and it was a good thing. Immigration sucked. I do not understand the difficulty in filling out the form the night before and having your passport out. Took us close to an hour. We saw people with many bags using the porters and they appeared to immediately go through immigration…not sure why we had to wait so long? Transfer to airport: again, a taxi would have been much simpler. Separated from luggage again and it was quite confusing. Some people just dropped their luggage by the truck that was for United passengers, yet they were Delta, etc, so there was confusion and irritable people. At the terminal, they just unload all the luggage on the sidewalk and everyone crowds around and you’re in the street and it’s a mess. I highly suggest a taxi. I remembered from last San Juan cruise we needed to do agriculture, and while the transfer driver got everyone's attention and explained agri needed to be done prior to checking in, many people apparently didn't understand or didn't listen. The United line was very very long. Know that you need to print boarding passes prior to getting to the counter. This was highly confusing. People went to the electronic printers and printed passes and paid for bags and were asking how they get the sticker for their bags and were pretty angry that you need to get back in the long line to go to the counters anyways. TSA was ok, long line but they moved it pretty quickly. To sum up: take a taxi, don't forget to do agriculture first, have one person in your flight's check in line while the other prints passes/pays for checked luggage at the electronic screens. We were ok but many people were very confused and anxious about making their flights. After all that, we had less than an hour til our flight boarded, just long enough to be able to enjoy a non-rushed lunch. Good thing we left the ship when we did.

Favorite place: helipad after 11pm. There was no one there and I highly suggest laying on a bench or the ground and looking at the stars. It's just different here than anywhere else on board. Quiet and no lights. Unfortunately the moon was super bright but it’s so relaxing to listen to my iPod while seeing as many stars as I could and wondering their distance, as well as feel the cool breeze and see the clouds race between us and the moon. There was one windy night it was closed to passengers, however.

Overall, we give this an 8.25 out of 10 (couldn’t decide between 8 and 8.5 J). You will have a great time on this ship, it’s far from the eyesore some reviews make it out to be, the food is great, the staff are all very pleasant and helpful, and the ports are absolutely amazing.

I’m happy to answer any questions!

[WhiskeyTangoFoxtrot]

We're boarding Saturday for this itinerary....can't wait!!!!!!

[nanofrog]

Cruise Review – Adventure of the Seas

May 14 – 21, 2016

San Juan to St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Curacao, and Aruba

I could just make this post one sentence long: IT WAS AMAZING!

But I will go into more detail J

My husband and I are 29 and 31. RCCL is our favorite cruise line. This was his 4th cruise (2nd RCCL with me) and my 9th (NCL Norway and Sun and Breakaway and RC Serenade, Jewel, Indy, and now Adventure). My husband chose the cruise because he really liked the itinerary and I had no objections. I’ll just bullet point some things, and let me know if you have any questions:

We flew out of Cleveland straight through to San Juan. We arrived a little less than 2 hours prior to our flight. Lines for United were a little scary (I had to check a bag) but TSA was a breeze. The straight through flight was nice.

We did an RC transfer to ship but will do a taxi in future. We've done taxis before but our TA talked us into a transfer this time. We prefer to keep all luggage with us, as we can manage it and I’ve had luggage lost before and it sucks. Well, your luggage is put on a truck while you’re directed to the transfer bus. Our bags must have been some of the last onboard, which always scares me. Had a very good driver, spoke about many things and how Zika is being overblown in the US. Very interesting.

Onboard by 230pm?? Note for future cruises – I will bring my own travel alarm clock and a watch. We never knew what time it was unless we were on the stairs by the electronic screens that post the time. SO ANNOYING, especially with how we ran from activity to activity, always looking for a clock. (I prefer to turn my cell off and leave it in the safe. I’m on vacation!)

Minor complaint: set up of Windjammer food stations. We had a HORRIBLE time on Breakaway buffet – it wraps around the back of the ship. No stations = loooong lines that are difficult to break into if you just want to grab and go. I figured out that most people would just get in line, not realizing you can duck in and out to grab food. The station layout (like on Indy) was much better. Adventure does have some separate stations for beverages, desserts, fruit, make your own sandwich, etc but salads, hot foods, and espeically the omelette station caused long lines. Still, not a horrible wait. Ample seating. Only had trouble finding seating for breakfast on the first sea day – had to sit allll the way in the back, but we got a nice view of the wake.

Room: We were in 8530. The bad: we were actually pretty let down by the décor…corals and pastels from the 90s. Yeah yeah, we’re on a cruise, with a balcony, how can we complain? I guess just being on Indy right after refurbishment and having nice rooms on Jewel and Serenade, we were a little disappointed. Also, our bed was rock hard. Reminded me of sleeping on the floor. I’m young, and a side sleeper, but I could not sleep on my side the entire 7 nights. I honestly think the only thing that got me through was that I was so exhausted every night. I recall previous cruises loving the beds, but not this cruise. I got several bites the first 3 nights. We checked for bed bugs and determined they were spider bites, but we saw under the sheets that at least 3 mattress toppers had been added. Still rock hard. My husband didn’t mind, saying he likes firm mattresses. Other than that, only very minor things showing the ship is ready for refurb, like a cracked sink drain, slightly worn carpet, etc. Oh third big disappointment – look at Voyager Class ships’ balconies then at Jewel and Freedom Class. Voyager has large oval cutouts, for lack of a better term, whereas other ships’ feel much more open and have more glass. The pro is that we left wet suits out to dry and never feared that wind gusts would sweep them overboard. Still, I didn’t expect to feel so closed in by the balconies. Also, no more free pen and pad of paper. I like free souvenirs and like to collect pens/paper from hotels, cruises, etc. Another plus was that the fridge wasn't stocked with expensive drinks and snacks. It was nice to have space without having to clear it all out.

Overall condition of ship: Fine. I was nervous it would be noticeably rusted, worn, faded. Not so. Many areas actually shine like new. If you really look hard, you will find room for improvement, but this really didn’t impact our cruise at all. Gorgeous theater, dining room, shining stairways, etc.

Crew: Never met an unkind person. Great room steward, amazing dinner staff (we had My Time and so 2 diff waiters and asst waiters, plus the maître d), friendly in Windjammer, sports staff, all throughout the ship.

Food: No complaints. My husband said they could have had more choices, not really sure what that means. There is only one specialty dining but we always are content with MDR food. I really missed the chilled fruit soups when we went on NCL 2 years ago. Windjammer was always fine. I missed Sorrento’s, although there is pizza and small sandwiches in the Café (never the quasadillas that Indy had though, bummer). The Café has this Willy Wonka pie – you have to try it.

Sports – My husband lives for soccer, basketball, volleyball, dodgeball, and I love volleyball, dodgeball, and the rock wall. I wish they would enclose the court with a net, like NCL does. When a ball goes overboard, that’s the end of the game. The putt putt course was nice. Kinda fun trying to play on the 2nd to last night as we raced back to San Juan – the wind almost put me overboard, and I'm only slightly exaggerating. The ball would go near the hole, stop, then slowly roll back haha. I even got a hole in one – while at Hole 5, it jumped the barrier and proceeded into Hole 6 J

Trivia: I’m giving this its own section because this is I think the first time we ever did the trivia, and we ended up doing 3-4 trivia a day. A lot of fun, especially the movie trivia, scary trivia, and scavenger hunt. You’ll learn a lot, and you might want to study up on the countries and capitols in the world while on your flight down J I named the capital of Sudan as well as the continent with the most countries due to studying the magazine on the plane.

Fitness center: amazing facility, crappy group class schedule. Only free classes were 7 and 730 am (who’s getting up after dancing under the stars til 2am?) and 5p (I think just a stretching class, I can do that on my own, and who’s going to do that right before dinner?). Boot camp and pilates cost $12 I think plus 18%? Not that I cruise to use the gym, but I’m disappointed there are not more free classes at better times, like Bosu, step, fab abs, etc.

Drink package: Husband got the pop package. He learned to not show the SeaPass or cup until the bar staff came over to him. We noticed this on Indy too, that bar staff may ignore passengers who come just for a pop refill.

Shows/activities: Great shows and comedians as usual. Saw Invitation to Dance, which I didn’t mind seeing again. There was only one other production show (aren’t there usually at least 3?) and we just weren’t that into it. A tribute to rock throughout 1950s-90s? I didn’t care for most of the songs, and that can really ruin a show for me. We also saw El Gaucho again, great show. The Quest was amazing. The last two RC cruises, we lay down just for a cat nap and ended up missing the whole thing. We also loved the gameshows at 9/10pm. Ice show had the weirdest storyline but the skaters threw some amazing tricks. I was disappointed in the lack of variety for what I call the Arts/Crafts classes. It was just, IIRC, an adult card-making workshop, then 2 or 3 other days it was just scrapbooking. I"m a pretty accomplished scrapbooker already, so I skipped these. Cruises past featured make your own bookmark, painting with Crayola watercolors, make a memory box, etc.

Swimming: I swam about 5 min, determined it was too chilly, and went in the hot tub about 15 min. That’s it. But the pools and hot tubs are very nice and weren’t really ever too crowded. MOvies were often shown in the afternoon and after dark on the screens which was nice. One night they showed the Force Awakens. Get there early for good seats as there are many things to obstruct your view from most places on the pool deck.

Ports! In St. Thomas, after much research and debate, we chose Coki Beach over Hannah and her Horse’s beach (Lindquist). EXCELLENT decision. Coki is our fave beach by far. 20 feet apart underwater we could clearly see each other and all the fish. There are waves but not tremendously disturbing (like some other Atlantic side beaches we’ve been to). $9pp each way plus $20 for two loungers and umbrella.$56 for 3.5 hours at a beach of our choice, not bad. I think we were the only cruise ship at every port we visited. We had visited St. Kitts before so just walked around the shops. Beware the monkey men. Curacao was our favorite port. Absolutely gorgeous. Also, very clean and safe, even across the floating bridge. Watch for iguanas, they abound and are pretty cool to look at. We chose to just wander rather than do an excursion. Aruba: We did the Mi Dushi snorkel/catamaran. This was 2nd to Coki only because we didn’t feel the snorkeling was that great. We had a wonderful time sailing the turquoise water, and we visited 3 ok sites. One was the wreck of the WWII ship Antilla, but we were pretty far from shore so waves + wind = pretty difficult to fight. The wreck is large but water’s not too clear, so it's hard to tell what you’re looking at. BBQ chicken lunch onboard was fantastic. The crew was great. One did a double back off the rope swing.

Debarkation: We actually slept until 8:30, a rare treat on debarkation morning. We chose not to leave luggage outside the door and were glad we didn’t, just so there was no way it would get lost as with our NCL cruise – the suitcase was like on the total opposite side of the warehouse and we were on a schedule to meet a group for an excursion – definitely not fun. e left our room at 9:30 and waited an hour in the ice rink. One thing I learned for next time: You can get off the ship pretty much whenever you want. Obviously, you should stick to your debarkation time as instructed but we got nervous when they seemed very behind schedule. At 1030 they called a group that was scheduled for 915…I found a crew member and asked if they were really over an hour behind (our flight was 230) and long story short we found we could just leave, and we’re GLAD we did. Obviously there’s a reason groups leave at once, to keep the lines low and prevent mass exodus of 3,000 people at once. But I went with my instinct and it was a good thing. Immigration sucked. I do not understand the difficulty in filling out the form the night before and having your passport out. Took us close to an hour. We saw people with many bags using the porters and they appeared to immediately go through immigration…not sure why we had to wait so long? Transfer to airport: again, a taxi would have been much simpler. Separated from luggage again and it was quite confusing. Some people just dropped their luggage by the truck that was for United passengers, yet they were Delta, etc, so there was confusion and irritable people. At the terminal, they just unload all the luggage on the sidewalk and everyone crowds around and you’re in the street and it’s a mess. I highly suggest a taxi. I remembered from last San Juan cruise we needed to do agriculture, and while the transfer driver got everyone's attention and explained agri needed to be done prior to checking in, many people apparently didn't understand or didn't listen. The United line was very very long. Know that you need to print boarding passes prior to getting to the counter. This was highly confusing. People went to the electronic printers and printed passes and paid for bags and were asking how they get the sticker for their bags and were pretty angry that you need to get back in the long line to go to the counters anyways. TSA was ok, long line but they moved it pretty quickly. To sum up: take a taxi, don't forget to do agriculture first, have one person in your flight's check in line while the other prints passes/pays for checked luggage at the electronic screens. We were ok but many people were very confused and anxious about making their flights. After all that, we had less than an hour til our flight boarded, just long enough to be able to enjoy a non-rushed lunch. Good thing we left the ship when we did.

Favorite place: helipad after 11pm. There was no one there and I highly suggest laying on a bench or the ground and looking at the stars. It's just different here than anywhere else on board. Quiet and no lights. Unfortunately the moon was super bright but it’s so relaxing to listen to my iPod while seeing as many stars as I could and wondering their distance, as well as feel the cool breeze and see the clouds race between us and the moon. There was one windy night it was closed to passengers, however.

Overall, we give this an 8.25 out of 10 (couldn’t decide between 8 and 8.5 J). You will have a great time on this ship, it’s far from the eyesore some reviews make it out to be, the food is great, the staff are all very pleasant and helpful, and the ports are absolutely amazing.

I’m happy to answer any questions!

Great review. We also enjoyed our cruise on the Adventure in February except for those horrible hard beds. I had a backache the entire week because of this. Nancy

[Seacreature101]

Thanks for the informative review. Looking forward to May 2017. Good to hear Curacao was your favorite. Starting to weigh options on ports. Our itinerary is a bit different with Bonaire and St. Maartin instead of St. Kitts and St. Thomas. Glad you had a good time!

[Artemus]

Thank you for your review. I'll be on Adventure this summer and was thinking about the RCCL transfer, but based on your report, I think I'll just do a taxi.

[MudflapsMitsy]

I was wondering.............what does it mean that you had to do Agriculture? Is it a form that needs to be filled out prior to getting in line? And if so, where is the form obtained from? Thank you in advance for any information.:confused:

[Ashland]

I was wondering.............what does it mean that you had to do Agriculture? Is it a form that needs to be filled out prior to getting in line? And if so, where is the form obtained from? Thank you in advance for any information.:confused:

 

No form to fill out...agriculture check at SJU inside the door in each terminal you put your luggage through a scanner they put a sticker on it and then you take your luggage to check it with the carrier you're flying with.

 

Easy to do and usually a quick process.

[DonnaK]

Just a note about the balconies: Only 1st generation Voyager class ships have the steel balconies (Voyager, Adventure, Explorer). 2nd generation Voyager class ships (Navigator and Mariner) have glass balconies like Jewel and Indy have.

[Ashland]

I was on the same itinerary and time as the OP...We did May 7th-14th and May 14th-21st.

 

While I agree with many things the OP noted...certainly not all...but each of us has their own experience and impression.

 

One thing for sure we had a great cabin location for both cruise's #9628...and an amazing cabin steward...such attention to detail he had, even after 20+ cruise's with RCI he was one of the best.

 

We usually eat many of our meals in the WJ but not this cruise as it ended up being a disappointment...Meals in the dining room (MTD) much better once we found a table for two location we liked.

 

Also not happy with the variety of movies in the screening room vs poolside...they should have rotated them...seating for movies poolside not set up for comfortable viewing at all...and the poor sound and bright lights just added to the disappointment....(remember we were on her for two weeks).

 

Another thing that struck us as annoying was the pushing of the Med-Spa (botox), acupuncture and foot analysis...having these three gentlemen standing in the Promenade at the narrowest point each night was ridiculous.

 

We did this cruise for the itineraries and those certainly did not disappoint...actually looking forward to booking this cruise again next May when the bookings open and see all the improvements that AOS is going to be given when she goes into drydock in October.

[Melbourne84]

Yes, Agriculture was very easy, no line for us. It's fast-moving though. You just put your bags through the scanner and grab them when they come out. They'll put a small sticker on them. Just look for the 'Agriculture' signs at the airport.

[Sea and Me]

As the poster mentioned beware of the monkey men! When we were in St. Kitts a few years ago a man approached my DH with a little monkey. He gave it to my husband and took a picture, NOW came the surprise, he charged him $10 for the picture!!! What a rip off, but hey on vacation so what did it matter?? Just beware of the cute little monkey in his diaper!!

 

Have a good day.

Carol

[BillOh]

Yes, Agriculture was very easy, no line for us. It's fast-moving though. You just put your bags through the scanner and grab them when they come out. They'll put a small sticker on them. Just look for the 'Agriculture' signs at the airport.

 

Hello neighbor, thanks for taking the time, I'll be watching every Adventure review from now to next April. What did you do at Curacao?

[marcus85204]

Ditto.

Edited June 7, 2016 by marcus85204

[bettece]

see ya at the Meet & Gree

[shipssailing]

Thank you for sharing your review.

[Melbourne84]

We just explored close to the ship in Curacao. It's a great port if you just want to do that (meaning you don't need to take a taxi to the city center or for shopping). There's a lot to see right off the ship (no beaches I think). There are many shops facing the ship and more inside Rif Fort, which is a very easy walk from the ship. You can see it from the ship. I think Rif is now like an open air shopping mall? You can walk up the steps in the historic fort for a nice view of the ocean and some of the city. We crossed the floating bridge which is very fun because it tests your balance a little. We proceeded to just walk around the first block, which is mostly shops and restaurants I believe. Everywhere around there is a perfect photo opp. I mean, this is one of (if not the most) gorgeous ports I've been to. Even if you do an excursion, you should still have ample time (we were there 8am-11pm I think) to walk this route. Slightly disappointed the city didn't 'light up' at night as I thought it would. Hope that helps. Oh, we were interested in the maritime museum a little further away, but decided to just enjoy the empty ship. next time we'll definitely do an excursion to see more of the island. Our tablemates took a guided tour (sounded like it was all day and they saw a lot; not sure if it was thru a well-known tour guide) and another couple thought the caves were really cool (they're extremely muggy/hot though so dress accordingly!).

[Melbourne84]

Be on the lookout for iguanas. We saw five and they're not something we see at home so it was neat. One was in the grass and somehow both green and purple, really cool. Also, I loved the waves crashing into the rock/boulder barrier parallel to the ship. It's nice to sit on the concrete wall and take pictures or just watch the waves roll in.