Adventure of the Seas April 28th - May 5th ABC/St Maarten Cruise Musings

[MACE]

Had a great time on this AOS Cruise, can now cross off the ABC Islands from my bucket list!

 

Embarkation- Our flight landed in San Juan at 10:30AM. Took about 1 hour to collect our luggage as we shared the baggage area with another flight that got in about the same time we did. Got to the terminal around 11:45, onboard enjoying Lunch in the WJ by 12 noon.

 

Food - We thought all the venues we used (WJ, MDR, Cafe Promenade, and Room Service) had good, hot, and tasty variations every day

-MDR, we had My Time Dinning and the first night got table 176 which is level one in Sapphire right at the bottom of the stairs. Awesome Waiter VZ and assistant Manuel. We were able to reserve this table for every night for the duration of our cruse. Even with their new menus, we always had a good choice of Fish, Chicken, Pasta, Steak, and other meat/Beef options. My favorite dish was their Beef Short Ribs which I've never had before.

 

Voom Surf and Stream - We thought it performed much better than on our HOTS cruise last June, albeit with my Droid (but not with my daughters iPhone) when occasionally coming up from Deck 3 to our stateroom on deck 10, it would freeze, and I had to disable/re-enable wi-fi to get it working

 

Stateroom - We had a JS #1340, starboard side, mid-aft on deck 10. New carpet and drapes. 2 chairs, a lounge char, and table on our Balcony. Cabin Steward Nickoli just ok, always saw him on his phone, a couple of times, he took till 1PM to refresh our cabin. Next door stateroom #1342 tried to flush something down the toilet they shouldn't have, and blocked all flushing for about 10 nearby cabins till Maintenance could clear the blockage. On our cruise, AOS always docked Port Side with Island views.

 

Shows - They were good. Lyric Thereat was never full, we had Invitation to Dance, Jackpot, Headliner Marcus Terell (semi-finalist on America's Got Talent) and a couple of Comedians. CD Chris Brown was alright,, I think Magic Marvin should take over as CD. Quest and Majority Rules was awesome, Hot Art Ice show was good, though they just brought on new performers and they must have being getting used to the small rink and skating during a day at sea, as there were at least 3 falls and trips.

 

Unlimited Drink Package - Anything over $12, you had to pay the difference. Could always order a Drink and a Bottle of Water together, or order two drinks showing 2 valid DX coded Seas Passes. Plenty of Bar tenders and waiter serving drinks onboard.

 

Islands - Fantastic!!! We did our own exploring and/or renting taxi's for the day, JEEP for the Day in Aruba (run, don't walk from renting from Royal Car Rental in Aruba), and Zip Line from Rain Forest Adventures in St Maarten. Visited the Renaissance Curacao Resort & Casino, Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino in Bonaire, and the awesome Holiday Inn Resort Aruba - Beach Resort & Casino on Palm Beach. Our favorite experiences were renting a taxi for a 3 hour private tour in Curacao that included Hato Caves, Flamingos, and multiple stops for great pictures, finding the new Natural Cave Pool in Aruba, and the Zip Line in St Maarten, that had fantastic friendly staff every where on the old Rockland estate property.

 

Disembarkation - Waited one hour from collecting our luggage to clearing customs. Tip: Get in the line that parallels 'Gold Card' C&A members, they had two agents working who would also check non Gold members vs just one agent check all others. There was also a separate line for porters to help you clear customs.

 

Post Cruise Stay - One night stay @ the Sheraton Old San Juan Hotel. Great location in Old San Juan withing walking distance of a lot of attractions and sites. One the 2nd floor outdoor Dinning area, got to watch AOS sail silently off into the night at 8:30, on her reposition cruise to Cape Liberty, Bayonne NJ, and during breakfast Sunday morning, see the CCL Fascination right in front of us, and the Jewel of the Seas glimmering off in the short distance from the Pan America Pier.

 

Overall, we loved this cruise, the islands, the staff we met, new friends we found onboard, the friendly locals we met, and our ADVENTURE we had in the Southern Caribbean!

Edited May 7, 2018 by MACE

[thetone]

Thanks for the report. Question about the islands, how was the wind? We are sailing in a few weeks and the weather report is for 20 mph gusts.

 

Cheers.

[MACE]

Thanks for the report. Question about the islands, how was the wind? We are sailing in a few weeks and the weather report is for 20 mph gusts.

 

Cheers.

Aruba was the most windy, though it was also windy at Curaco and Bonaire. In Aruba, the winds felt nice counter acting the heat, when driving around in our rental with the windows down. On our last day at Sea, sailing from Aruba to St Maarten, we had 42MPH head winds that made it an Adventure being on decks 11 and higher

 

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