Adventure of the Seas 9/16 Sailing Review

[mbrusyo]

We're just back from the 9/16 sailing out of San Juan and wanted to share a review.

 

First, we were fortunate to get to San Juan in the small window between Irma and Maria and we had a wonderful time. What a beautiful island! We stayed at the Marriott Stellaris, which had a fantastic pool with swim-up bar, and gorgeous ocean-view room. We ate at Oceana, which was very special, and at Orozcos, which served a mofongo I will dream about for the rest of my life! Getting to the cruise port was easy and embarkation was a breeze. We got there at 11 and were on the ship before noon, despite there being an enormous crowd. It was all very organized.

 

I'll break down the rest of the review into categories:

 

The Ship

The Promenade space inside was very nicely done - open and airy with nice shops and bars lining the sides. The only issue I had with this space was that a lot of activities were done here, like Zumba, and if you needed to get to a shop (e.g., to pick up sunblock for the day because you just ran out!) you sometimes had to put your face at risk by sliding between ladies Zumba-ing away and punching side-to-side. Other than that, it was nice. All areas of the ship were clean and comfortable. Our favorite was the Solarium, which is where we spent most of our time. The chairs there are really comfortable and there's a good amount of shade for those who don't want to roast in the sun all day. The only complaints I had were that it closed super early (8:00?!) and it would have been nice to have some music back there occasionally.

The Entertainment

That brings me to my next topic - entertainment. An 8:00 end time to the adults-only pool and bar should have been my first clue that this was not a nightlife-driven cruise. Actually my first clue was the sail-away "party" that was a short series of line dances (though fun to watch). We didn't do many activities during the day, as we were busy napping on the Solarium deck (until the daily 4:00 BINGO BINGO BINGO announcement, of course, which woke me up every single day!) but the night-time activities were sparse. The late-night venue, the night club on the 13th floor, was absolutely dead every time we checked it out. The most active area at night was the Promenade food counter :')

 

The Food

Here I'm going to compare with my only other cruise experience, which was Carnival. On Carnival, we found the MDR to be quite good with a fun variety that we enjoyed every single night. We only ate at the Carnival buffet for lunch. But on this cruise, my goodness. The MDR was inedible. It was so boring. Chicken marsala and lasagna? Seriously? I ordered roast pork shoulder the one night we ate there, and was served two thick slabs of dry (soooo dry) pork loin covered in thin gravy. It was disgusting. My husband ordered a steak, and received a thin grey piece of meat that was so sad looking we almost wanted to give it a proper burial. We shared some garlic shrimp that would have probably been tasty had they not been completely in-tact shrimp, which we needed to remove shells and legs from, thus making a disaster of the garlic stuffing inside. MDR = gross. Now, where RCI won over Carnival by a long-shot was the Windjammer. We ate there for breakfast, lunch, and several dinners and found it to be very enjoyable! Caribbean night was my favorite, and the morning they served crepes after breakfast. On our last day, they had a carving station that served ACTUAL roasted pork shoulder (delicious! also, amazing roast leg of lamb!), so I have to believe they knew that garbage they served on the MDR was not actually pork shoulder. We ate at both specialty restaurants and found Chops to be very disappointing. The steak was good, but everything else was off. The spinach, mac and cheese and wine sauce all had a ton of sweetener added, which was just weird and gross. Giovannis was an absolute delight from start to finish. I would have eaten there every night :hearteyes:

 

The Ports

Well, we didn't visit any of the ports we were meant to, but we did go to St. Croix, Aruba and Bonnaire. St. Croix was by far our favorite. We visited the beach that was walking distance from the pier and it was a lot of fun. The beach was nice, with some really good snorkeling. There were chairs and umbrellas to rent, and a great bar that served cold beer, tacos, and coconuts filled with rum! Aruba and Bonnaire were ok, but we just had a blast at St. Croix.

 

Misc.

The Captain and the cruise director were fantastic about keeping us updated with news about the hurricane and changes to our travel plans. It made it very easy to adjust our plans and expectations quickly as things changed. The cruise director, Elvis, was just adorable. Someone in that role can often be gimmicky and annoying, but Elvis was just so genuinely charming and enthusiastic it was totally infectious!

 

If anyone has any questions I can help answer having just come off the boat, let me know! Overall, I don't think I'd sail with RCI again unless it was a totally awesome itinerary not during hurricane season (stupid September anniversary! lol) I prefer a more lively ship with a younger demographic. But I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone looking for a slower, adult/retiree type of atmosphere.

[Honolulu Blue]

Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed your review.

[geomancer]

Carnival does have the reputation for a party atmosphere. I was on Carnival 10 years ago, but I'm sure a lot has changed. Haven't been on RCI yet but will be on Adventure in June. I'm kind of the opposite though, I am not looking to party, so maybe it will be a good fit for me.

 

"Younger" demographic is more likely to cruise when school is out. They're either in college, or have kids.

[Morecruisesplz]

We were on the same cruise and I would call your review spot on, although we have never cruised Carnival so no comparison for us. We gave up our MDR table on day #1. We ate 5 nights in the specialty restaurants and in the Windjammer the other nights. (We have shared your disappointment in the past with the MDR food.) The Windjammer just keeps getting better and better. On our last night, they even had a shrimp filled dish on the buffet. That's the first time we remembered seeing shrimp. And, at least in the WJ, if an entree you tried is not to your liking you can easily try another.

Chops was having trouble cooking steaks this trip. (Why? I have no idea.) But, when our steaks were not properly cooked on the first night and we saw other returning their steaks, you would have thought that someone in mgmt would have taken notice. I had the 16oz ribeye one evening and it was tasty but did not to be a "prime" cut steak, as the call it. Our last night in chops they tried 3 times to get a medium rare ny strip to me. First time was well done, 2nd was very rare and they brought it back to me well done. When I told the waiter that it was not acceptable, he said: "I can bring you some shrimp." I didn't want shrimp -- I wanted a steak. No one apologized, offered us a free meal on a future night or seemed to care. BTW, the lady at a neighboring table also returned her filet twice during this same time but they did get hers correct on the 3rd try. So someone had to know that they had a problem. We canceled the rest of our Chops reservations and switched to Giovanni for the remainder or package.

 

It was an unusually quiet cruise, but I don't think RCCL sounds right for you.

 

We would book (and will) again during hurricane season. We had beautiful weather every day, thanks to a caring Captain and his staff. We also received 2 free days of cruising, 50% off drinks, specialty restaurants, free wifi, etc. What's not to like?

[davekathy]

Thanks for sharing.