Adventure Preview/Review

[Seacreature101]

Almost Bon voyage! Have a great trip if you shut off till you get back!

[seabeew]

If it's not too late to ask, could you find out who is playing in schooners? I'm on the adventure next week.

 

Thanks!

 

 

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[minnz21]

We are doing the same route come end of July. Plus, we booked the San Juan Food Tour as well before. Hoping to hear more about that.

[leosmom08]

Can't wait to hear more as we are doing the same route next October!

[MikeBayAreaCa]

Just off the ship and sitting in the airport. This will be a quick capsule. More to come when I get home.

 

Pros:

 

Very clean ship

Most crew members great. (A few bar tenders looked put upon.

Dining room lunch

Embarkation: fast and easy.

Disembarkation: Did self disembark. Meet by 7:00 in the conference room and was at the airport by 7:35.

Cruise director: Clo was very good

Room. Better than I

Thought. Bathroom was fine and enjoyed being on the balcony.

 

Cons:

 

Buffet: I will be kind, but by far the worst we have had on a cruise. My wife hated it. I tried to be positive about it, but she was right. Almost the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day. What was there was bland and not very good.

 

The dinner we had one night was better, but still did not meet our approval.

 

Bonaire: Unless you snorkel no reason to go there.

 

The hard sell. Everyone is trying to sell something or wants more tips.

 

Premium drink package. Drink burnout is real. It was worthwhile to us since we paid for one at the pre cruise rate and used credit for another. If we had bought two we would have lost money.

 

Getting the bar reciept and the expectation of more tips about the out of line 18% you pay for the package. How about separate receipts for package buyers that don't have the tip line. We tipped cash for cocktails, but not for beers and wine.

 

We would only get the drink package again if we had enough credit. The longer the cruise the Likely we would purchase it.

 

 

Casino smoke: blew right into Schooners.

 

Many men wearing shorts on formal night. It does not bother me, but why even have a formal night?

 

 

Hits and misses.

 

Main dining. Overall the quality of food had gone down. Some nights it was pretty good. Our table crew was very good.

 

The ship. No issues, but it felt too enclosed. Prefer Radience class

 

Entertainment was hit and miss. We went to all the shows and for the first time ever left one after it started.

 

The gym was ok, but too small.

 

 

 

Overall we had a very good time, but it was not quite what we thought we would be getting. We did book a New England fall cruise, but may look into other lines also. This would be a 3 out of 5. Good, but no WOW.

Edited July 2, 2016 by MikeBayAreaCa

[descotes]

Hi Mike. Sorry we didn't get to meet you --- there was only 5 people that showed up to the meet and mingle. Was going to do a short review when we get back but I agree with your 3 out of 5 rating. Wasn't impressed with food and probably won't do another cruise out of San Juan.

[MikeBayAreaCa]

It was difficult to get to the meeting at the time it was scheduled.

 

Embarkation

 

As usual we got there early and got in line. I think we were on board by 11:30 or so. Very, very easy.

 

Our Room: 8th floor balcony. Clean and neat. We usually go with a GS, but this room was just fine. Bathroom was better than I imagined. We really don't watch much TV, but there was a sufficient number of channels. There were many Spanish channels. The only issue I had was on the last night. I had to wake up and take all the hangers out of the closet. We had a very bumpy ride back to San Juan and without anything on the hangers they kept making noise as the ship rolled side to side.

 

Pool

 

We didn't spend any time at the main pools, but enjoyed the solarium. The events held by the main pool are not my cup of tea. The solarium was nice and I did not see any kids.

 

Speaking of kids almost all of the youngsters to teenagers we saw were great, although they were a few brats that don't realize that you don't barge into the elevator before letting people off.

 

 

Ice Show:

 

Excellent. Well done production and a very talented group of skaters. Go see it if you get a chance.

 

Singers and Dancers: I enjoyed their shows. The headliners, Sebastion and Amanda were very, very good. We took two lessons from them during the week.

 

The guest entertainers were a mixed bunch. One very good comedian/juggler,

one pretty crude comedian and a female string quartet. I can't understand telling almost dirty jokes at the farewell show with kids in attendance. I was cringing at his jokes. The strings quartet was talented, but oh so boring. We left early.

 

Library

 

I am glad I brought my own book because the library was lacking in quantity and quality. How about taking a few thousand dollars, take a trip to a bookstore and upgrade it.

 

We did love the information screens all around the ship. It was nice to check menus and the compass pretty much from anywhere.

 

One thing you need to be careful of is the very slippery floors. The Windjammer floor was always slippery. The non-carpeted area by the elevators on deck 11 were also slippery. They should really fix that before they have a serious injury to a passenger or crew member.

 

 

Gym

 

We were there everything morning early.

 

There is plenty of equipment, but the layout could be better. The large whirlpool takes up too much space and is really out of place. The dumbbell rack area is just too small.

 

 

More to come.

Edited July 2, 2016 by MikeBayAreaCa

[KMagz]

Singers and Dancers: I enjoyed their shows. The headliners, Sebastion and Amanda were very, very good. We took two lessons from them during the week.

 

The guest entertainers were a mixed bunch. One very good comedian/juggler,

one pretty crude comedian and a female string quartet. I can't understand telling almost dirty jokes at the farewell show with kids in attendance. I was cringing at his jokes. The strings quartet was talented, but oh so boring. We left early.

 

Hello -- we were on this sailing with you. Not sure if you caught "Spectrum" the Motown singers but we thought they were excellent -- I could understand younger cruisers being not as enthralled.

[MikeBayAreaCa]

Yes, there were good and I enjoyed their show. I am not part of the younger crowd. Many years removed from that.

 

The only show I didn't go to was the late night comedian on the last night. Having a late show on the last night doesn't make much sense, but he was but very good anyway.

[MikeBayAreaCa]

Drink Package.

 

We both had the premium drink package. It was nice being able to try new drinks. Only once to I try something I did not like. I took a few sips and got something else.

 

We both got a numbers of waters each day. We kept some in the room and we always grabbed some before leaving the ship.

 

I got 3 to 4 diet cokes a day.

 

I kept a log of what we drank and we came close to breaking even. Since we only paid for one it worked out well. I doubt we would get it again since we are going back to a GS for our next cruise and a drink or two in the CL will suffice. We were never drunk because we spread our drinks out, but I saw plenty of people drinking constantly. Not sure how the do it.

[KMagz]

.... I saw plenty of people drinking constantly. Not sure how the do it.

 

On that rocky last day at sea, the drunk folks were the ones walking *straight*. :)

[murphy4]

Did you do any excursions on the islands? Did Aruba, Curacao and st marten last year. First time for Bonaire