Adventure B2B Review

[lauraodonnell86]

Hello all!

 

I thought I would write a small review on our B2B on Adventure recently. I have been helped out by so many people on Cruise Critic and would like to help people in return. This is my first review so be patient with me :) Let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you.

 

First - the Itinerary

 

Week 1

San Juan

St. Maarten

St. Kitts

Antigua

St. Lucia

Barbados

At Sea

 

Week 2

San Juan

St. Maarten

At Sea

Bonaire

Aruba

Curacao

At Sea

 

We went in a day early and stayed at Hampton Inn near Isla Verde in San Juan. It was a nice hotel and the staff was wonderful. They have a small reception from 5-7 with free drinks and snacks. The burgers at the pool bar are SOOOO good! :D The room was $250. I think it was a little steep because of the San Sebastian festival that weekend.

 

It was about 5 minutes walk to Isla Verde beach. We walked there Friday night and then again on Saturday to swim before heading to the ship!

 

Side note: I'd like to add some pictures along the way but seem to be having trouble. The photos are jpg but it's saying there are upload errors. Can someone help me out?

[Biker19]

The photos are jpg but it's saying there are upload errors. Can someone help me out?

 

The best way to do this is to use a hosting site for the pics (like Photobucket) and link to the pics there.

[lauraodonnell86]

Testing a picture of Isla Verde Beach in San Juan

[Biker19]

That works.

[trishs]

Hello all!

 

I thought I would write a small review on our B2B on Adventure recently. I have been helped out by so many people on Cruise Critic and would like to help people in return. This is my first review so be patient with me :) Let me know if there are any questions I can answer for you.

 

First - the Itinerary

 

Week 1

San Juan

St. Maarten

St. Kitts

Antigua

St. Lucia

Barbados

At Sea

 

Week 2

San Juan

St. Maarten

At Sea

Bonaire

Aruba

Curacao

At Sea

 

We went in a day early and stayed at Hampton Inn near Isla Verde in San Juan. It was a nice hotel and the staff was wonderful. They have a small reception from 5-7 with free drinks and snacks. The burgers at the pool bar are SOOOO good! :D The room was $250. I think it was a little steep because of the San Sebastian festival that weekend.

 

It was about 5 minutes walk to Isla Verde beach. We walked there Friday night and then again on Saturday to swim before heading to the ship!

 

Side note: I'd like to add some pictures along the way but seem to be having trouble. The photos are jpg but it's saying there are upload errors. Can someone help me out?

 

We will be on the Adventure March 29th for 10 day.

How was the internet? Says it has Voom.

What did you do on

Antigua

St Lucia

Barbados

Bonaire

Curacao

Aruba

We haven't been to these stops. We enjoy a good beach day. Thanks for your review.

[lauraodonnell86]

We will be on the Adventure March 29th for 10 day.

How was the internet? Says it has Voom.

What did you do on

Antigua

St Lucia

Barbados

Bonaire

Curacao

Aruba

We haven't been to these stops. We enjoy a good beach day. Thanks for your review.

 

Sorry I don't know about the Voom as we do not get internet. We lock our phones in the safe and disconnect. I know not everyone can do that with family and jobs but we are lucky.

 

I will be addressing each island that we went to. Sorry I'm a little slow. I'm still trying to 100% the pictures :D

[trishs]

Sorry I don't know about the Voom as we do not get internet. We lock our phones in the safe and disconnect. I know not everyone can do that with family and jobs but we are lucky.

 

I will be addressing each island that we went to. Sorry I'm a little slow. I'm still trying to 100% the pictures :D

 

We own our business so have to keep in touch. But its fun.

No worries on being slow. It takes time.

I saw the first pic. Beautiful water. I can't wait.

Thanks so much for doing this :)

[lauraodonnell86]

Since we'd been on Adventure of the Seas several times in the past, we weren't as worried about getting there early. We stepped on the ship at about 3 that afternoon. There was absolutely no line at the terminal and we were on the ship within about 10 mins! It was fun to walk around the see the new additions. My husband and I immediately changed into our swimming suits and gave the new slides a try! They were so fun! Muster was at 5:45 and went smoothly.

 

We were in a Promenade stateroom for this cruise. Usually we do a balcony but wanted to save a little money this time. It was quite a bit smaller than what we were used to in the balcony room. We heard some people complaining about the noise from the Promenade but we never had a problem with that. We were very aft though, almost not even on the Promenade.

 

First stop is St. Maarten. We did our annual Orient Beach and Maho excursion.

Orient Beach - FYI, Where they drop you off is clothing optional and down a little ways is a nude beach.

 

Maho Beach - A must do if you've never been!

 

That night was the Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception. They hand out champagne and the Captain introduces all of the officers on board. Captain Shawn Mcduff was so great and very entertaining.

[lauraodonnell86]

We own our business so have to keep in touch. But its fun.

No worries on being slow. It takes time.

I saw the first pic. Beautiful water. I can't wait.

Thanks so much for doing this :)

 

No problem! Even though it's time consuming, I hope that it'll help people with their planning. Since we've been to these islands several times, I'm finally getting the hang of things and learning tips and tricks! :rolleyes:

[sg1phileshipper]

Great start. Did exactly the same B2B in the same order in September and I am having some awesome flashbacks!

 

 

Cindy

[sg1phileshipper]

We will be on the Adventure March 29th for 10 day.

 

How was the internet? Says it has Voom.

 

.

 

 

Had surf and stream in September and it was pretty decent. Good enough to stream netflix movies. Don't know if it was voom back then.

 

 

Cindy

[tlaffin]

Thank you for doing this! Enjoying your review so far and looking forward to the rest - much appreciated! :) My husband and I were on the Adventure for our honeymoon/first cruise 8 years ago and we can't wait to sail her again on April 29th!

[docd]

Will be doing your week 1 itinerary in December. Looking forward to your review! All new ports for us.

 

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[lauraodonnell86]

Up next: St. Kitts!!

 

This year we started doing something new with regards to beer. We took a small soft sided cooler and filled it with ice from our room. When we got off the ship, we would buy 6 beers at a place right on the pier. Usually you can find them for 6 for $10 or $12. MUCH cheaper than on the beaches usually! Depending on where you are, they tend to be $2.50-$4 per beer. Just a way to save a little $$.

 

We took a taxi to Carambola Beach Club. The taxi was $8 for two of us to get there. Same on the way back. It's only about 10-15 min drive and it's a beautiful drive at that!

 

I'm going to have to double check my notes at home but I believe 2 chairs and an umbrella was $20. Possibly $25. You don't have to get a chair though. There is a bar/restaurant on the beach. Beautiful snorkeling out by the rocks.

 

 

We love Carambola and probably will not ever go anywhere else while we are there!

[lauraodonnell86]

Thank you for doing this! Enjoying your review so far and looking forward to the rest - much appreciated! :) My husband and I were on the Adventure for our honeymoon/first cruise 8 years ago and we can't wait to sail her again on April 29th!

 

Exciting!! I will be jealous of you! We love Adventure of the Seas and don't mind sailing her year after year :)

[lauraodonnell86]

Great start. Did exactly the same B2B in the same order in September and I am having some awesome flashbacks!

 

 

Cindy

 

It is a GREAT back to back to do, that's for sure!

[Clarea]

... We love Carambola and probably will not ever go anywhere else while we are there!

Beautiful photos.

 

Is that Nevis you see in the distance from the beach?

[lauraodonnell86]

Beautiful photos.

 

Is that Nevis you see in the distance from the beach?

 

Yes Bob, I believe it is. I looked at Google Maps and that would make sense. Never realized it! Thanks for pointing that out!

[Tomnsgirl]

Hello,

 

We will also be on the March 29th 10 day sailing. I really enjoy sharing your pics with my 10yr old G-baby she gets excited, this will be her 1st cruise and ours out of San Juan. We also are flying in a day early, my supervisor highly recommended Hotel Milano in the heart of OSJ, he and his wife love it there so we thought we would give it a try I believe Zone 4 for taxi

[lauraodonnell86]

Next up: Antigua (one of my faves!)

 

I put this on my roll call board and I feel that it's worth mentioning on here. The taxi drivers in Antigua are very pushy and will try to talk you in to going to the beach that they want to drive to. So if you want to go to a certain beach, be strong lol. Most of them drive small vans/buses and generally wait for 6-8 people to join until they will take you. It is quite chaotic in my opinion compared to other ports but it is worth it when you get to the beach!!

 

We took a taxi to Dickenson Bay. We'd never been there before and wanted to try it out. It was about a 10 min drive. I'm sorry I can't remember the fare for the taxi but I don't think it was too bad. I will update this when I get home with the amount. I will also confirm on the chair prices.

 

Where we were dropped off, the Sandals resort was to our right as you are looking at the water. We walked to the left though to get a chair. It was a GORGEOUS beach! See for yourself...

 

 

This little "bay" area is where we swam. Water was very calm and no rocks to worry about.

 

These are near the Sandals property. We love walking the beach and came across these while we were on our walk.

 

When we walked the other way, we came to a point (at the end of Dickenson Bay) and it was so beautiful. There is something about the color of the rock, the sky, and the water....

 

A rainbow off in the distance during sail away!

[MN55442]

Enjoying your review. We will be on our first B2B January 6 and 13, 2018. For turnaround day did you have to disembark and then get your new Sea Pass and reboard?

[lauraodonnell86]

Enjoying your review. We will be on our first B2B January 6 and 13, 2018. For turnaround day did you have to disembark and then get your new Sea Pass and reboard?

 

My husband and I will be on with you Jan 13, 2018! We are doing 13th and 20th. B2B is the only way to go! On turnaround day, we all met in the Imperial Lounge at 11 and were issued our new Sea Pass cards. Then we were released...just like that! We did NOT have to get off of the ship. We didn't have to get off last year either on our B2B. But I will say that we talked to a couple who are on for 9 weeks and they say that it really varies from week to week. I guess it depends on what San Juan customs feels like for the week. So I won't promise that you won't have to get off the ship but we haven't.

 

We thought about going back to Isla Verde beach on turnaround day but it's actually really nice on that day because hardly anyone is on the ship. The pool and hot tub in the Solarium is nice and empty :D Fun watching the newbies come on as well :)

[lauraodonnell86]

Since I can't figure out how to edit my previous posts, I'll just make a new one for the correct prices.

 

Taxi to Carambola Beach Club St. Kitts - $16 for 2 people round trip. 2 chairs and umbrella is $30 there.

 

Taxi to Dickenson Bay Antigua - $12 for 2 people round trip. But they made us wait for at least 2 other people. If it was just me and my husband, it would have been $24 round trip for the 2 of us. Still not bad at all! 2 chairs and umbrella were $20.

[Clarea]

Since I can't figure out how to edit my previous posts ...

You only get about 15-20 minutes to edit your post.

[MN55442]

Thank you Laura! Hopefully we can stay on the ship! The hot tub would be fabulous would hardly anyone around! Looking forward to next January! We love San Juan and sailing the Southern Caribbean.