Adventure of the Seas Feb. 17-24, 2018 Report

[drrich2]

This trip report features sections to help people skip content useless to them, as I’m covering a range of issues in choosing & planning this cruise.

 

1.) Who We Are: Late 40’s guy (me), wife, 4-year old daughter (turns 5 early March). Wife & I aren’t rock wall/huge waterslide/flow rider people. I was taught gambling is a tax on people who are bad at math, so no interest in casino. Daughter is strong-willing, intelligent, tempermental, controlling and active. We can generally take a 7-day Caribbean region cruise.

 

2.) Why Cruise: Overall good value in a traveling vacation offering a wide array of entertainment options in an easy package for housing, transport, etc…

 

3.) Why Royal? When we started cruising, it seemed to have a rep. for one step up from Carnival, and photos I saw of Carnival ship interiors looked to me like Las Vegas threw up. I imagine that’s changed, but we’re used to Royal and have loyalty program points – now at Emerald level.

 

4.) Why Winter (Feb.)? Wife likes to trade a week of dreary southwestern KY winter for a week of summery Caribbean delights. That puts us at increased risk for missing the cruise (e.g.: sleet/ice on roads,heavy snows, the current severe flu season), but enhances the experience if we make it.

 

5.) Why Southern Caribbean route? We’ve hit most of the destinations the Oasis-class ships can hit, and I want our daughter Kadence to have visited a wide range of foreign holdings. I believe there’s value in having ‘been there,’ lots of places, even briefly. A southern itinerary offered Aruba (wife & I have been, she hasn’t), Curacao and also St. Kitts (both new to us). If you’re new to cruising, this won’t be so important. A 7-day Southern itinerary mean flying to Puerto Rico to start, so airfare was more expensive & we arrived later in the day (vs. Fort Lauderdale-based cruises), which meant more risk to miss the cruise if there was a flight delay.

 

6.) Why Voyager class? We like the Royal Promenade. Big ships sway less; wife’s prone to motion sickness. Oasis-class offer Central Park (serene, outdoors, we like but Kadence could care less) and the Boardwalk (we like; hot dog shop, carousel, play structures at the end for kids, the large Aquatheater with outdoor diving shows & a Dreamworks performance on Allure), and the Dreamworks experience; Adventure of the Seas does not. But Oasis-class are limited to several ports (require deep waters & don’t tender). I priced against the Oasis-class Harmony of the Seas cruise and saved ~$1,500 choosing AOS (but sacrificed some things). Voyager class offers some things we don’t use (e.g.: rock climbing wall,a flow rider) & AOS big water slides and a kids’ area called Splashaway Bay.

 

Edited March 1, 2018 by drrich2

[drrich2]

7.) Why Adventure of the Seas? It’s Voyager class, has water features, it was Jami & my 1st ship (honeymoon in ’06) and Kadence’s 1st ship (age 10 months).

 

8.) Special Concerns with this Cruise: Couldn’t get time off work approved till late so booked maybe 3 weeks out? Had to pay upfront. Our travel agent retired so I booked via an online agency that appears in Cruise Critic offerings. There was a 30% off each guest special, but on this forum it seems sales are viewed as a shell game making little-to-modest differences in trip cost. I didn’t buy trip insurance beyond some the agency provided as a perk, but that didn’t cover if we missed the cruise due to flight delays. If you buy insurance every trip, you end up paying for the missed vacation. I was sweating it till we got there, though.

 

9.) Basic Trip Costs: when comparing itineraries, compare cruise cost + airfare for total base cost. We fly Southwest due to cheap fares (since 2 checked bags/person fly free). We use interior staterooms because they’re cheaper. Compare with 2 Oasis-class offerings within a day of departure. But factor in higher airfare to San Juan; I think I saved $1,500 vs. the HOSoption. Per person:

 

a. AOS: $669 (taxes $70): St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Curacao, Aruba. Departs out of SanJuan, Puerto Rico.

b. Harmony of the Seas: $1,067 (taxes $108). Labadee (Haiti), Falmouth (Jamaica), Cozumel. Departs Ft. Lauderdale.

c. Oasis of the Seas: $1,304 (taxes $110). Same ports as Harmony. Departs Port Canaveral.

For our 3-some, fare + plane ticket if it were done Jan. 27:

Adventure out of San Juan Feb. 17:$669+$70+421.30 = $1,160.30/person. Roughly ~ $3,500 for 3.

Harmony out of Ft. Lauderdale Feb. 18: $1,067+108+328.96 = $1,503.96/person. Roughly ~ $4,511.88.

A little over $1,500 difference for 3 cruisers at the inside stateroom level. I didn’t factor in any port fees.

 

Costs (30% off/guest, $50 OBC):

 

Basic cruise fare with included gratuities: 2,120.03.

Excursions for 3 in 4 ports (12): $748.

Transport to/from Pier: $108.

Soda Package x3: $210.63.

All digital photo package: ~ $200.

Internet Package for 2 devices: $162.66.

Airfare: $1,719.90.

 

Make the math easy: $2120 + 750 + 110 + 210 + 200 + 160 + 1,720.

Total: $5,270.

TBD: Tips for shuttle drivers, souvenirs, $88 parking fee at airport, over-priced airport food.

Unexpected: Keeping high-maintenance strong-willed child placated & having fun, ran up > $200 in the Arcade! What sadist put the entrance to the Adventure Ocean (kids’ clubs) in the Arcade?!?!? Madness!!!

 

10.) Excursions – chosen for sight-seeing new places (St. Kitts & Curacao) & entertaining Kadence (beach fun).

 

11.) Crew Experience. Friendly, competent & effective crew.

12.) Windjammer & Café’ Promenade. We didn’t eat in MDR or special restaurants (noticed Giovanni’s near Windjammer and Izumi on Royal Promenade), so ate at Windjammer (buffet) or got pizza & snacks at Café Promenade on the Royal Promenade. I’ve heard Windjammer food called ‘cafeteria food,’ & I agree. I’m a glutton, not a gourmet, so that’s okay, but they’d pose no threat to a land-based buffet chain. C.P.’s pizza was awful; severely lacking taste, cheese tasted like dough it seemed, sad. I’m no pizza snob and enjoyed Sorrento’s pizza on the Allure, so despite being pretty forgiving about food…this was sad. We could usually find seating in the Windjammer pretty easily, but occasionally it was packed; just walk outside and use a table outdoors.

 

13.) Soft-serve frozen yogurt machines. A big deal for me. The one serving chocolate & vanilla (& swirl) worked; the other (including strawberry) wasn’t in service that I saw our week.

 

14.) Soda Package. I bought this for all 3 of us, in advance. Our daughter didn’t get the souvenir mug, but Royal didn’t have that irritating 15-minute lock-out after filling a mug, and we leave them behind anyway, so I let it go. And yes, her sea pass said Coca-Cola. We shared ourswith her.

 

15.) Nostalgia. On our honeymoon, we didn’t know our travel agent (we think) sent us chocolate-covered strawberries, so when they showed up, we scarfed them pretty fast before anyone could come take them away from us. This cruise was shortly after Valentine’s Day, so I ordered 9 of themfor $19 as a fun remembrance. Being Emerald, they had some cookies and bottled water waiting for us on arrival; that was nice!

 

16.) Major Victory: the mini-fridge was already empty. Y-e-s!!! No fighting our kid all week once she figures out there are M&M’s in the thing! Wonderful!

 

17.) Kids’ Club – Aquanauts in her age group She went a few times, had fun, wanted to go back. That’s a major win, because normally our little control freak wants to stay, as my wife puts it, ‘stuck up our hineys,’so their staff must be doing a fine job. Go, Adventure Ocean!!!

 

18.) What sadist put the entrance hall to AdventureOcean in the Arcade? Ran up a ridiculous tab, just > $200, in arcade bill. Plus some machines were down, and some didn’t work right.

Edited March 1, 2018 by drrich2

[drrich2]

19.) Splashaway Bay – a big fail with us because kids < 42” tall are excluded from the purple water slide, but to use the adjacent section’s little yellow water slide, an employee was adamant all kids (even if potty-trained!!!) have to wear swim diapers. Our kid’s been potty-trained quite awhile, she’s no longer a size apt to fit one, and the ship’s didn’t fit her (no surprise there). Pathetic showing for a cruise line billed as appealing to families. This matter is addressed in another thread, so no need to derail this one – the link.

Incidentally, it has a little green 'dump bucket' - I couldn't tell that from photos in advance, so here it is in action.

2

20.) The room t.v. had a decent channel selection, including some cartoons, but didn’t include access to our account. So those arcade charges can creep up on you…

 

21.) The photo section had kiosks, but you can’t access your photos when it’s closed and they’re in port. I don’t know why. In advance, I’d bought the $199 all digitals package with limited copy right release. I thought the photographers showed an interest and did a good job.

 

22.) Ship Vibe – more sedate than an Oasis-class cruise. Royal Promenade could be downright tranquil. Fine with me, but if ‘infectious party energy’ is your thing, you might need to look for it. We didn’t. I didn’t notice a lot of intrusive upselling; people didn’t intrude on us about spa services or specialty restaurants.

Edited March 1, 2018 by drrich2

[drrich2]

I plan to post about excursions later. In the meantime, a photo from St. Kitts:

Guess that's it for the ship...

[jakethecruiser]

I was on that cruise!!!!!! Check out my review from last week!!!!!!

 

 

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[drrich2]

One matter I neglected to mention; the freestyle soda machines were often out of some constituents, at times a lot of constituents. It's not that big a deal to me to substitute Diet Coke for Coke Zero, and if they don't have an option to add orange flavoring then cherry's fine, but the free style machines need more component refreshing, or there should be more of them. I saw 2 in the Windjammer and 2 on the Royal Promenade.

 

Hope you had a good time, Jake. My wife went to one production show, one ice show (Cool Art, Hot Ice) and one comedian performance, but I didn't. I've seen shows before, and Kadence is enough of a handful that on a fairly port-intensive trip with excursions at every port, it just wasn't practical.

 

Speaking of which, if you travel with a high-maintenance little kid, booking excursions for late morning where you can, can be sanity-saving.

 

We did the 2-device 'Voom' internet service; decent, and served for our daughter to watch YouTube videos on an iPhone (which can also be sanity-saving), but service didn't seem as snappy as I recall on the Allure of the Seas. Just a subjective impression. But we did stay logged on; I didn't have to re-enter info. and get back on, which was really nice.

 

Richard.

[smalltimecruiser100]

Thanks Richard. We're on the Adventure next year. Enjoyed your review!

[Keith1010]

Terrific report between the narrative and the photos.

Keith

[Hopetotravel]

We're on Adventure now and can see our account on the tv.

[Clarea]

Excellent photos!

[drrich2]

Hopetotravel:

 

Thanks for the correction, I must have missed it. I flipped through all the channels repeatedly. How did you access your account? Is there a special button on the remote?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[MaryCS62]

We got the deluxe drink package for 3 of us (me, DH & 21yo DD) & a refreshment package for 28yo -- medical issues, can't have alcohol.

We were looking forward to the different Freestyle sodas when in the mood for them, so I hope they fix them, or at least attend to them better, in May!

[drrich2]

For excursion review, I'll paste a condensed version of Royal's descriptions, and insert my thoughts in bold.

 

Kadence enjoying the iguanas basking near the ship in St. Thomas.

 

All Inclusive St. John Beach & Snorkel. Duration: 4hours.

 

Cruisefrom St. Thomas to nearby St. John and visit the stunning beach of Trunk Bay,featuring an underwater reef trail. Enjoy a narrated boat ride complete withphoto stops en route to Trunk Bay—famous for its long stretches of white sandand sparkling water. Discover tropical fish and colorful coral on the snorkeltrail or simply swim, sunbathe, and relax. STE8

 

· Trunk Bay: Enjoy 90minutes to snorkel, swim, sunbathe, and relax on one of St. John's mostbeautiful beaches.

· Scenic Transfer: Travelalong the southern coast from St. Thomas and across Pillsbury Sound en route toSt. John.

· Photo Stops: Marvel atSt. John's beautiful scenery at Cruz Bay, Hawksnest Bay, and Caneel Bay Plantation.

· Restrooms areporta-potties. Water and snacks may be purchased on the tour boat as food andbeverages are not sold at Trunk Bay. Cash is strongly recommended.

Our stop was at St. Thomas, but we've been there a number of times, and never visited St. John (we hit St. Croix last August on one of my scuba diving trips). The boat ride over was nice, sodas & snacks available to purchase, Trunk Bay had a bunch of people (and various gear offerings, like for snorkeling) but wasn't uncomfortably crowded, and it was beautiful), and on the bus ride from boat to it, we saw other beaches; it's obvious there are beaches in St. John that are beautiful with very few people, if that's what you want. Here's a shot of Trunk Bay beach from a brief stop, one of wife & daughter heading for the water & one of the little 'islets' out in the water that you can snorkel around. It was an overcast, rainy day.

 

 

Scenes of St.Kitts. Duration: 3 hours.

Take inthe rugged beauty of St. Kitts on a leisurely driving tour that includesbreathtaking vistas and historic landmarks. See historic Romney Manor and itspristine gardens. Then stretch your legs at the 300-year-old Fairview GreatHouse, meticulously restored to its former colonial glory. Outside, take photosin the lush botanical gardens planted with a wide variety of fruit trees,palms, and flowering plants. Pick out souvenirs at the gift shop. KT96

 

· St. Kitts Vistas: Seepanoramic views of golden sandy beaches, foaming crests of Atlantic waves, andthe tranquil Caribbean Sea.

· Fairview Great House: Seeauthentic Colonial furnishings and features—including the kitchen, bath, andstone cellar—at this former West Indies plantation.

· Fairview BotanicalGardens: Walk through ornately landscaped grounds, set with tropical trees,shrubs, and flowering plants from the 1700s to 1920s.

 

St. Kitts is beautiful; I wonder why it doesn't show up on more itineraries? Our bus driver/narrator Winston was quite good. Fairview Great House and grounds was nice:

[drrich2]

I think the Romney Manor stop had the more lush, beautiful grounds.

[drrich2]

But St. Kitts itself is really nice. There's a place were you can view the Atlantic ocean (rougher) on the left, and the calmer Caribbean on the right (2nd picture).

What is it about the malevolent undead that makes people want to come on in and buy something? We saw a number of these type things.

If you ever wanted your photo with a monkey, St. Kitts is your stop.

[drrich2]

Curacao Highlights and Beach Fun. Duration: 4 hours.

 

Spend half the day discovering the history and culture of the Dutch Caribbean on a tour that includes colonial forts, pastel-hued buildings and time on one of Curacao’s best beaches. Enjoy a commentated drive through the old city, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Pass Rif Fort, built in 1829 to defend St. Anna Bay. See the floating pontoon bridge, plus cross Queen Juliana Bridge while enjoying spectacular views of the harbor, the capital and city. Continue to Landhuis Chobolobo, an early-19th century plantation house that now operates as the distillery for Blue Curacao Liqueur. Be sure to have a taste of this world-famous spirit. Then head to the eastern part of the island, driving by the stunning cliffs of Caracas Bay and enjoying the breathtaking views. Your next stop is Mambo Beach, where you’ll have a couple of hours to relax and gaze at the turquoise Caribbean Sea, go for a swim or play on the pristine beach. CUC8

 

·City highlights: Enjoy views of key sights, the historic harbor, residential districts and natural scenery in and around Willemstad.

·Blue Curacao Liqueur Factory: Visit the early-19th century mansion that houses the Blue Curacao distillery for a tasting.

·Mambo Beach: Have fun in the sun on a top-rated beach, browse the shops or enjoy a meal at the restaurant (for an additional cost).

·Beach chairs are not included but can be rented.

Curacao is arid (unless it's unusually rainy; it was and I got hosed a little getting back to the ship). Bus tour was fun; narrator lady was good, Curacao is scenic, the stop at the distillery was ~ 15 minutes (I didn't get off; I don't drink & daughter didn't want to get off), Mambo Beach was okay but crowded (figure $3 to rent a lounge chair). But if you want to see a more beautiful view of Curacao, after your tour, get off the ship and head over to that swinging pontoon bridge, take water front photos and walk over to town. When the bridge is swung out, free ferries run back and forth, so you're not stuck.

[drrich2]

De Palm Island Snorkel, Beach and Aqua Park with Lunch. Duration: 4 ½ hours.

 

Snorkel, swim, relax and play at a private island designed for fun. Get oriented to De Palm Island's facilities and amenities - snorkeling, water park, water slides, three beaches, volleyball, banana boat and more - then the time is yours to enjoy. Expert instructors lead you while snorkeling in the waters that surround De Palm, considered among Aruba's best for colorful marine life. Tour includes beach chair, lunch buffet and complimentary beverage. Additional activities are available separately. AR73

 

·Inclusive Tour: Enjoy access to many water and beach activities, including a banana boat, plus a lunch buffet.

·Snorkeling: Discover spectacular marine life in waist-high and deeper waters on your own or on a complimentary reef tours.

·Water Park and Beach: Splash down the water slides or swim and relax on your choice of three beaches.

·Transfer to De Palm Island is via bus (25 minutes) and ferry (5 minutes).

·Minimum age: 10 for banana boat and 8 for Seatrek dive and SNUBA.

·Sea Trek Underwater Helmet Walk and SNUBA are not included in the tour price.

 

Note: I don’t think we’d try Kadence with SNUBA or a Sea Trek walk anyway; I don’t know what a banana boat is.

Aruba's capital is beautiful, but wife & I have done a sight-seeing bus tour of the island before, so I chose this tour for the water park for our girl. Again it was unusually rainy; Aruba's arid, but we got rained on during the ferry ride to & from De Palm island.

Most of the time it looks like this:

[drrich2]

Follow up on De Palm; we would've only had ~ 1 1/2 hours at the water park, but a fellow cruiser let us know they didn't mind if we stayed later and went back. In other words, take a later ferry. My wife asked staff at the store; that would be okay, but let them know as they'd need to call us a cab, which would like cost around $30 something dollars.

 

We did all that and spent 2 extra hours there. Got off the ferry and a small group (likely accidentally) 'stole' what we think was our cab, but the ferry guy got us on a bus back to the pier area (thus we saved money).

 

Oh, likely not a Royal Caribbean tour bus! Our ship towels were blue, most of the rest were sort of green and white striped. IIRC, the Norwegian Jade was also in port; cruisers from a rival line, but things stayed peaceful.

 

Richard.