Adventure of the Seas Review 1/21/17, post drydock with pics!

[aubreyc1988]

Pictures do not do these creatures justice, they are magnificent and HUGE

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Stingray City Continued...

 

 

 

There was about 10-12 stingrays swimming around, and yes, they are free to come and go as they please. Ask the tour guides and park rangers about them, they have so much amazing info, don't want to spoil it for everyone with too much info!

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Stingray City Continued...

 

 

 

Holding one was one of the coolest things I have ever done, maybe even cooler than swimming with dolphins

 

 

 

 

I love how theres some water on the lens here, makes it look like my husband is being censored : D

 

You do have to pay for the photos they are taking, but you are also able to take your own videos and photos, which is what we did. You spend about 45 min-1 hr at stingray city, ample enough time. It was so amazing, I would totally do it again if I had the chance!

[aubreyc1988]

 

 

After the stingrays, we got back onto the boat and did a little more touring around the island, as well as stopping at a beach to eat. I don't have pictures of it, left my go pro on the boat for this stop. The food provided was good, delicious bbq chicken, pasta, banana bread, plantains, soda.

 

After the lunch stop, we all got back on the boat and went to this snorkeling stop.

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

 

 

After the snorkeling stop, we headed to a beach for our beach break

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Our beach break was at Rendezvous Beach, which is the BEST beach I have ever been to. If you've been to Carnival's Half Moon Cay, this beach BEATS Half Moon Cay. Not only is it secluded, but the ocean floor is perfect for beach goers - no rocks, soft sand, slight waves, perfect water temperature.

 

 

We were offered some rum punch type drinks, and spent 45 minutes chilling in the water. It was a perfect last stop! The tour company wasn't done with the tour though! We still sped around the island, checked out some $$$$ yatchs, and made our way back to the cruise ship, with PLENTY of time to get back on the boat.

 

We even had time to race this guy! He tried hard, but he was no match for us!

 

 

 

 

 

SO MUCH FUN!!!

 

[aubreyc1988]

Antigua Conclusion (Day 4)

 

I really enjoyed this excursion and antigua! To me, it's the perfect way to see the island without doing one of those boring city tours. The highspeed boat will keep you awake, get your adrenaline going! The stops are well planned and I think the price per person is very fair, considering this is an ALL day tour with lunch and the sting rays! The staff were wonderful and did a fantastic job, would HIGHLY recommend this company! And if high speed isn't your thing, do the Eco Tour!

[easyboy]

Stingray City (Antigua)

One neat aspect of doing it with Adventure Antigua is that they pay to have a dedicated dock, so you will only be doing the stingrays with the people in the boat with you on the excursion, instead of a big cruise ship excursion. I didn't even think about this when booking, but i would have hated to be in a really large group

Yeah you right. That is one big consideration that I would also fail to consider. Not just comparing the ship's price.

[leadvocal]

Your review and pics are fabulous! Thank you!

[OHCruisin]

We booked with BioIsland in Fajardo. I do not think there is any type of tour that goes there. We have a rental car so will be driving ourselves. It was $52 pp and they have an online reservation system. They were about the only one I could find that did the boats instead of kayaks that we could drive too. I checked for reviews so we'll see how the tour goes.

 

I plan to do a review as well when we get back so will post on how the excursion was.

 

We did this excursion last year. They were pretty good. The bio wasn't very bright when we went, but they did have tarps to cover for better viewing.

[marys350]

Antigua Conclusion (Day 4)

 

I really enjoyed this excursion and antigua! To me, it's the perfect way to see the island without doing one of those boring city tours. The highspeed boat will keep you awake, get your adrenaline going! The stops are well planned and I think the price per person is very fair, considering this is an ALL day tour with lunch and the sting rays! The staff were wonderful and did a fantastic job, would HIGHLY recommend this company! And if high speed isn't your thing, do the Eco Tour!

 

We did Eli's Eco Tour and I can also highly recommend this company.

[OHCruisin]

Antigua Conclusion (Day 4)

 

I really enjoyed this excursion and antigua! To me, it's the perfect way to see the island without doing one of those boring city tours. The highspeed boat will keep you awake, get your adrenaline going! The stops are well planned and I think the price per person is very fair, considering this is an ALL day tour with lunch and the sting rays! The staff were wonderful and did a fantastic job, would HIGHLY recommend this company! And if high speed isn't your thing, do the Eco Tour!

 

I've done this tour twice and agree with you. Great way to see the island and so much fun! Sitting in the back almost required wearing a snorkel from all the water flying back at us at high speed:D

[aubreyc1988]

Your review and pics are fabulous! Thank you!

 

Thank you! St Lucia will be posted tomorrow, had a girls day out with my bestie today and just tired out from it tonight! Lots of great info and pictures to come!

[linswi]

Did you (or anyone) happen to notice the height of the rock climbing wall? Or the difficulty rating of any of the routes (if there was more than one)?

[beccawes7471]

Loving your review, we are on AOS in about 6 weeks. Thanks for all the great pics and insight!

[aubreyc1988]

Did you (or anyone) happen to notice the height of the rock climbing wall? Or the difficulty rating of any of the routes (if there was more than one)?

 

I didn't do the rock climbing wall, in fact I don't remember even seeing it. But since this was a port intensive cruise, I didn't really explore the ship as much as I would have ordinarily.

[aubreyc1988]

Loving your review, we are on AOS in about 6 weeks. Thanks for all the great pics and insight!

 

Thank you, can't wait to post the next installment! Dang work is so busy I haven't been able to! I need to go back on vacation! :D

[aubreyc1988]

St Lucia

 

So, for St. Lucia I had booked Cosol Tours.

 

http://cosol-tours.com/tours.html

 

 

After reading it, it sounded great, as well as so many good reviews on Tripadvisor. The price of 75.00pp for an all day tour is amazing, plus it said it included the mud baths and the volcanos, as well as seeing the Pitons, which were high on my check list I emailed the company to double check that it did indeed do all those things and after I got confirmation, I booked it.

 

Now, maybe it's because I am picky or I just got off an AMAZING tour with Adventure Antigua, I was not impressed with this company at all, as you will see as I review it with photos!

 

I'll start off with saying that 70-80% of your day will be spent driving and having this view

 

 

 

Driving STRAIGHT to the Pitons without stopping will take (according to Google) 2 hours each way, so consider at least 4 hours of driving time.

 

Sometimes while in the van you will have nice views, such as

 

 

But while actually sitting in the van, you mostly see this

 

 

Which believe me, after hours of looking at, gets really boring. Anyhow, you do stop many times for "Scenic vista views and beers." The views are nice, but there are SO many vendors set up at these points, you will get bombarded with people trying to sell you crappy shell necklaces and what not. I wouldn't be surprised if Cosol gets a cutback for stopping at these places. As for the free drinks, they were nice, but I think they could have been passed out in the vans. It's mass chaos when you stop, because Cosol is a HUGE company and you will be split up into groups of 10-15 upon meeting them. I would say Cosol had at least 10 white vans, following in each other the whole day, in additional to other colored vans, which I assume were different tour companies. Not all the stops were pointless, but most were.

 

Next post will have pictures and details of our first stop on the way to the Pitons!

[aubreyc1988]

Cosol Tours, first stop.

 

Now, not all the vans do all the stops in the same order, but you will be with many vans at the same stop

 

First Scenic Vista stop, beer stop (at this point, we were ok with stops, because it was the first one. By the 20th one, that's another story)

 

 

 

Awww, our home away from home, Adventure of the Seas

 

 

Not the best photo of the crowds, but it should give you a better idea. Remember the license plate of your white van, so you can find it easy. The tour guide we had, and the one we ended up going with halfway through the day don't really guide you, you have to find your way back to your van yourself - and they are ALL white vans!!!

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Cosol tours, second stop

 

So back into our van for some more, you guessed it, scenic driving! :D

 

Our next stop was a banana plantation, which was pretty cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

They do have some samples of rum, bananas, plantain chips for you to try, which were yummy. I didn't think the bananas tasted any better than the ones we get in stores in the US. The rum was very different, almost cinnamon-y, like rum with fireball. And of course, there are vendors, so you can buy anything and everything you taste

[aubreyc1988]

Cosol Tours, Stop 3

 

Back in the van for more driving! YAY

 

La Soufriere town

 

 

 

 

 

and then back in the van!

 

My husband loves being in the van

 

 

 

Just kidding!

 

[aubreyc1988]

Cosol Tours, stop #??? Stopped counting haha

 

Breakfast...Lunch?

 

Then we stopped for breakfast, and it was almost 11:30/Noon, so really was more of a tapas style lunch. Everything was very good, they had laid out about 10-20 different tapas style tasters for everyone and drinks. Then we got back in the van to our next stop

 

Now, I can't remember if we did the mud baths or the Pitons/Snorkeling first, so I'll just cover the mud baths first.

 

While we were in the van, our tour guide told us we had to pick between the volcano OR the mud bath. :eek: I thought we were able to do both, but in a pinch, we decided the mud bath. When you enter the mud bath area, it smells SO much of sulphur, almost takes your breath away when you first drive into the area. But you get used it, as bizarre as it sounds to say that! There were a lot of people at the mud baths, and there really wasn't a lot of mud to be found in the buckets, and I didn't want to use the black mud, only the grey, so I only did a light coating. And I sat in the volcanic bath for a while and wow, it was amazing! I felt like the water and the mud itself really toned my sun burn down, which was a huge relief! Worth the stink, believe me!

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

After the baths, we went up to see what we could of the volcano

 

 

Then off to the waterfall! Remember the waterfall I told you about in San Juan being SO cold??? My husband and I braced ourself for the frigid temperatures, but this waterfall was like 4x warmer than La Mina in San Juan! The bottom isn't nearly as treacherous and it's easy to get in and out of

 

 

Me going under the waterfall :D

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

So now, finally the Pitons and snorkeling between the Pitons.

 

Vista view of the Pitons

 

 

 

Then back in the van to get to the snorkeling between the Pitons. When we got to the dock, we all got out, our tour guide told us to get some drinks and go to the bathroom, and something about "bumpy". So we did that, when we were looking around for our group, we couldn't find them. Finally I spotted a couple who were in our van, just followed them to where they were going, and we got into some boat with Bumpy, whoever that is, I assume another tour group's tour guide. We were lucky we didn't miss the boat the Pitons with Bumpy, that's for sure! Thanks to the Canadian couple in our van who we followed, we made it on the boat though!

 

 

 

So the beach between the Pitons, most of it is private or "for fee" chairs, some of is public, with maybe 10-15 chairs. You probably won't get a free chair. This isn't a big deal, because before you get out of the boat, they tell you that the snorkel stop if 45 minutes, which is pretty short.