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Our adventure on the Adventure

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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Here is a quick “post” review of our recent sailing on the Adventure of the Seas – May 20-26. This is not meant to be a travel log just a summary of the highlights for those that it may help.

Pre-cruise spent a lovely afternoon and evening at La Concha. Enjoyed lunch poolside and then dined at Perla that evening. Both were very enjoyable and all of our selections were delicious. We won some money in the casino during our night at La Concha and that proved to be a good omen for the rest of the trip. Of course the next morning we ate breakfast at Pinky’s across the street and then played in the La Concha pool area until we checked out. La Concha is a really nice resort and even nicer when using Marriott points to stay there.

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Embarkation

I had recently upgraded to a Suite Guarantee and we were assigned a room only about a week prior to sailing. My wife was unaware we are sailing in a suite as it was a surprise for her birthday. Arrived at the port about 10:50 Am and the suite line for entry began to move almost immediately. I just asked my wife to follow me and she did just shaking her head probably thinking I was trying to pull a fast one. Embarkation was very smooth and by 11:20 or so we found ourselves the 3rd and 4th people boarding. Not sure how this happened (we were not that close to the front of the line outside the terminal) but just went with it. Once on board we went to confirm our dining reservations and to my dismay there was no record of any of my reservations. We later found out that the mix-up was due to the late room upgrade. All the reservations were under our old cabin number. I would have thought it would be linked to the reservation number (hello IT department???). After we got all the reservations settled we went to the WJ and had a very nice lunch. Then we toured the ship having not been on Adventure for many years and certainly not since the refurb. During our tour we booked some spa appointments for the first sea day and then had a few cocktails while touring. Muster was fairly painless but would have been nicer if it could have been in the AC. However we were not in the sun and not wearing life vests so all in all not so bad. First night dinner was in Giovanni’s and our waiter Benny was amazing. We also checked in at both the Concierge Club and Diamond Club to see the layouts and the Diamond Club is in a primo spot in the Viking Crown including comfortable outdoor area overlooking the sports court. Headed to the Schooner to check the entertainment and it was a quiet night so we hit the sack early.

 

Port days

St. Thomas we did Emerald Beach and it was a very pleasant, quiet beach day. It was Sunday so very low key.

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Curacao we went to Mambo Beach by cab and had a wonderful time. We had never been there before and found it to have a very nice shopping area if you are into that but also a REALLY nice beach with assorted restaurant/bars all along the beach. This is a VERY pretty spot to spend a day. We went out by the floating bridge as the sunset but could not get the photo I was hoping for… it never got dark enough and we had to head back to the ship for “All Aboard”.

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Aruba we went to Palm Beach which is also a nice spot with powdery soft sand. The only problem was there were really high winds that day with gusts that were literally sand blasting us and also pulling umbrellas out of the ground and sending them sailing. We only stayed for about 2 hours before giving in and making it a pool day. This night was a late sail away and there was a deck party on board. The deck party was well attended and a lot of fun.

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St. Kitts we decided to take a tour. We selected the Scenic Railway tour. It was relaxing but it was a little odd to see that so much beach front area on St. Kitts is loaded with garbage and junk. The whole first third of the tour looked like a junk yard. After that there was some nice scenery but other options would have been better for us.

 

 

Ship

Ship looked to be in great shape (as it should a few months after refurb). Flow Rider is a great addition to any ship so we were glad to see one added. The mini golf is actually very nice but that could also be due to the fact that it is brand new. The slides are weak at best. The slides are not very fast and you could get stuck in spots and have to shimmy along to get moving again. You also had to wear a shirt which seemed odd to me… that shirt did not dry for days. I had to finally put it on the balcony in the sun to finish it off.

 

Food

Our dinners were all specialty and they were great. Each night was a very good to excellent experience. The chef’s table food was wonderful. Although we found that Royal seems to be cutting back here too. We had 10 people attending and when they served the last wine all of us wanted more. The waiter explained that he was only allowed to serve 2 bottles of it!!! There were 10 of us???? With an up charge of $85 per person that seemed really lame on Royals part. I mean the Oberon is a $20 bottle of wine!!! We “convinced” him to get a third but that left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth after a stellar dinner.

Most breakfasts were WJ and it was always tasty. Did WJ for most lunches except one Johnny Rockets lunch and the two sea days we did the Tutti Salad in the Main Dining room. We found the food to be very good and I am sure it has to do with choices. Not everything looked great but we were always happy with our choices. One day my DW decided to grab some French fries in the WJ during lunch. We were both amazed at how great they were. We went back for more. We tend to not eat a lot of fried food and almost never have French fries but these were outstanding.

 

Entertainment

The Latin band in Bolero’s was very good. The piano player in the Schooner bar wastalented but did not ever get the crowd going. There was also a guitar player in the Schooner also talented but verylow energy. We missed the shows otherthan a pair of comedians that were fair. The Love and Marriage show was very good and Casey did an excellent jobwith this and all week as far as we were concerned. The bartenders in theSchooner and Champagne bar were all very good. Denis and Claudia in the Champagne bar were very talented “mixologists”. If you sail soon give them a chance to makeyou something special. Casino was kindto us this week and we came out ahead both in PR as well as on board. The last sea day we did a galley tour andbackstage tour. Both were fun, as they alwaysare. The galley tour was unique becauseit was Lobster night and we saw them preparing the 6K lobster tails. YIKES!!! We were not thrilled that Royal is starting to show movies poolside duringthe day. At night we totally getit. But playing Dr. Strange (and Ihappen to like the movie) poolside at very high volumes was not as good ascalypso or reggae for during the day. Much better for this to be an evening eventwhere the movie is the draw.

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Debarkation was very smooth and we had none of the issueswith taxis that others have mentioned.

This was a great trip for my DW and I and we thank thewonderful staff of the AOS for the part they played in making it soentertaining and relaxing. We made MANYnew friends and got the well needed break we were hoping for.

 

If anyone has questions let me know and I will do my best toanswer them.

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Clarea

Clarea

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Thanks Bob! Also drink cards we available by day 5...

That's not bad, so if they are available on the morning of day 5, we would have 3 full days to use them. That would work for us.

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juiceman

juiceman

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Thanks for the review! That's odd about having to wear a shirt on the slides. They did not require anyone on my cruise back in April to wear a shirt. Did they say why they were requiring them? But, that is why you got stuck on the clear part of the blue slide & also why you likely thought the slides weren't very fast.

 

A cotton shirt would hold you up on the slides, but a rash guard seemed to be OK.

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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Thanks for the review! Any more details on the galley tour? Was it worth it? :)

 

Thanks!

 

This was a "freebie" galley tour offered to Diamond Plus guests. It did not include the brunch. We have done the galley tour with champagne and brunch in the past and enjoyed it but whether it is worth it I would think is highly individual. It was worth it to us when we did it since it was raining out. Turned into an enjoyable time and nice meal with champagne. The freebie was certainly worth every penny... :D

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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Thanks for the review! That's odd about having to wear a shirt on the slides. They did not require anyone on my cruise back in April to wear a shirt. Did they say why they were requiring them? But, that is why you got stuck on the clear part of the blue slide & also why you likely thought the slides weren't very fast.

 

A cotton shirt would hold you up on the slides, but a rash guard seemed to be OK.

 

I thought it odd as well. They did not say why they required shirts but they were adamant about it. You are correct about the cotton shirt, the folks with rash guards did not have the same issue. I did not have anything other than cotton with me.

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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FYI.. you will notice many spacing issues in my post. It appears that typing in word and pasting into CC does NOT work well. Tried to fix the issues but they all reappeared. :-(

 

 

Same thing happened on my attempt as well. I'll have to try the suite guarantee sometime, I've never done it b4. I wish I had done only WJ and specialty dining. The MDR for me was just ok. Glad you had a good trip, loved the suite surprise.

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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Same thing happened on my attempt as well. I'll have to try the suite guarantee sometime, I've never done it b4. I wish I had done only WJ and specialty dining. The MDR for me was just ok. Glad you had a good trip, loved the suite surprise.

 

Thanks Bill! Yes, the suite surprise was really fun. She walked into the cabin.. looked around, did a bit of a double take and with a big smile said... DO WE HAVE A SUITE??? It was priceless.

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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Thanks for the report. We sail her this fall and are so excited.

 

Do you remember the specifics of the drink cards? How many/how much?

 

10 Drinks for $85. The drinks (specialty/martinis etc... ) were $12. Did not see any menu items higher than that other than some wines by the glass.

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marys350

marys350

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I really enjoyed reading your review and seeing your photos. We will be on the Adventure of the Seas in April, 2018, visiting the ABC islands and St. Martin. Your picture of Mambo Beach looks beautiful. Do you remember the approximate cost of the taxi? Was there a specific spot on Mambo Beach where you asked to be dropped off? I'm wondering if Lion's Dive Resort was nearby.

Thanks,

:)Mary

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lakemurraykid

lakemurraykid

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I really enjoyed reading your synopsis and seeing your photos. They were beautiful. I'm really happy you wrote this as we are sailing on hr June 10. We're really excited, so your synopsis was quite meaningful to us.:)

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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I really enjoyed reading your review and seeing your photos. We will be on the Adventure of the Seas in April, 2018, visiting the ABC islands and St. Martin. Your picture of Mambo Beach looks beautiful. Do you remember the approximate cost of the taxi? Was there a specific spot on Mambo Beach where you asked to be dropped off? I'm wondering if Lion's Dive Resort was nearby.

Thanks,

:)Mary

 

Hello Mary! I believe the taxi was in the $20 - 25 range. We actually meant to request the Lion's Dive Resort but forgot. We were towards the far end when dropped off. Mambo was beautiful and when the sun was shining (kept peaking in and out) the water is bright blue. Say hello to Bob!

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floatel_lvr

floatel_lvr

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I really enjoyed reading your synopsis and seeing your photos. They were beautiful. I'm really happy you wrote this as we are sailing on hr June 10. We're really excited, so your synopsis was quite meaningful to us.:)

 

I am thrilled it was helpful. Enjoy your upcoming cruise. Great ship and crew!

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