ABC cruise on Adventure of the Seas April 2018 Review w/ pics

[Mrs.C05]

Hi everyone!!! It's been a while since I've done a cruise review! Sorry! I can get a review going if anyone is interested in reading. Oh what the heck, I'll post it anyways.

 

It's the Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao and St. Marteen itinerary, out of San Juan, PR on Royal Carribbean Adventure of the Seas. This was 6 months after Hurricane Maria and Hurricane Irma slammed through the islands. The itinerary date was April 29th-May 5 I believe.

Irma also hit Florida. Thankfully we did not have any damage, but it was the most stressful 72 hours of my life. We boarded up, brought most of everything inside or tied it down, but DH kept going out side to check on things. :mad::eek::rolleyes:

 

I'll get my photos organized and start pasting.

[khm1]

Great! Following this review. I have the same itinerary coming up on Freedom in January. Freedom has taken Adventure’s place in SJ.

[RBKL]

Looking forward to your review.

[RayNash65]

Looking forward to you pictures.

[Mrs.C05]

Well I'm currently uploading photos to photobucket, as it seems Google Photos's has removed their embedding capabilities or however I used to upload my last few reviews. Please bear with me.:confused:

[MalteseMama2]

I am hoping to book a similar itinerary. Looking forward to seeing your photos.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Mrs.C05]

Cruise Review, April 2018 San Juan cruise

Our cruise was finally here!!! Saturday April 28th, we arrived at Orlando International Airport with Dad and Maria, to fly to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Had no issues with check-in, checking bags or security. We had a good 2 hrs before our flight. Flight was kinda bumpy but not too bad.

Once in San Juan we grabbed our bags from the carousel and then stood in line to grab a taxi. This must be something new, as we don’t remember doing this when we last went out of San Juan in 2015. Taxi line took about 10 minutes but we got one, we requested to go to CVS and then to the ship. Driver had no problems doing that. Their port was under construction, I’d imagine due to Hurricane Maria/Irma. Check-in was a breeze, fast and easy.

Glimpse of our room and around the boat before getting off to walk around Puerto Rico....

[Mrs.C05]

Day 1, San Juan:

 

Once on the ship, we dropped off stuff to our room and then got lunch. (I don’t remember what I had.) After that we (Dad, Maria, Tommy and I) got off the ship to go walk the “Paseo del Marro”) the walk way along the fort. One route we took was closed off so we had to find another way.

Once we found it we were hot and felt like we were walking forever. We finally came to the end, cut through the fort and walked back towards the port until we found a taxi.

 

Looking back before going up the hill into the fort:

I thought Dad was going to not speak to Tommy the rest of the cruise:o.

 

All was fine though; we got back to the ship just in time to catch the 5:30 muster drill. They had 2 muster drills, one at 5:30pm and the other at 7:30pm. We did our own thing for dinner, so Tommy and I ordered room service. They do charge a fee of $7.95 per room, but you can order as much or as little as you want. We ordered a Cesar salad and chicken quesadilla for me, and Tommy got a pizza and hot dog for himself. All was really good!!! We couldn’t eat all of it though so we saved it for later. Ended up throwing it out though since we forgot to put it in the fridge.

[Mrs.C05]

Day 2: Hello Sea Day!!!

 

 

Today was asea day so we slept in, but still woke up at 7:30am. We got breakfast at theWindjammer (veggie egg white omelet, granola parfait, and hashrounds for me) andthen walked around. We played putt-putt, watched the Flowrider, and walked around.

[Mrs.C05]

 

 

For lunch we had Johnny Rockets for a fee of $9.95/pp, all you can eat and it comes with 1 fountain drink too. We ordered ½ onion rings ½ fries, a grilled chicken sandwich, and a bacon burger. Being platinum, you get BOGO milkshakes. (you also get a sheet of what discounts you get being platinum in your room). After lunch we relaxed in the room with beverages until I went to the gym at 2pm.

Tonight was formal night, and the promenade was packed!!!

Dinner was in the Sapphire Dining Room was shrimp cocktail, I don't remember what I ordered for an entrée, and strawberry cheesecake for dinner. The cheesecake was delicious! It would be something I ordered almost every night for dessert.

[Mrs.C05]

On to the next day.....Day 3, Curaçao!!!

[Mrs.C05]

Pulling in to Curacao:

For Curacao,we arrived at 8am, so we had breakfast delivered to our room for a fee of$7.95. Order all you can eat for that fee, so we ordered scrambled eggs, bacon,sausage, cereal, bananas, etc. Once done eating, we got off shopped around,walked across the moving bridge, and got back on the ship just in time forlunch.

Walking through the fort to the city:

Walking over the "walking bridge"

The famous sigh I wanted to find:

Famous "Locks of Love" or something like that:

We got back on the boat for lunch together in the windjammer (they had excellent chickenburgers).

[balanceok]

Following.

 

We'll be on the Adventure in February for a B2B.

 

Thanks for your review.

 

 

:cool:

[aliciam]

Thanks for your review! Looking forward to seeing more.

[cltnccruisers]

Hope there's more to come. We're taking the granddaughters on AOS for their first cruise in 2020.

[Mrs.C05]

Yes there is more, just finishing up some work and homework with Ethan.

[Mrs.C05]

So we had some really loud neighbors, and we had a conjoining door so we could literally hear their conversation, their snoring, their loud, blaring music, etc. I know the cabins are not made sound proof, but have some courtesy! We did call security because they were blaring their music until 3am! We called to have someone come ask them to turn it down, and then the next day we got this. Not expected at all!

 

 

We got lunch together in the windjammer (they had excellent chicken burgers) and then got back off to go to Blue Bay Beach, which was a 15-minute taxi ride to this “community”. We stayed here a good 3hrs snorkeling and laying on the beach.

Our taxi was waiting at 4pm so we all were done by then anyways to leave. Our taxi dropped us back off at the ship and we were all headed back for showers.Between the taxi ride $20 there and back, and the beach, it was a $60/couple day. Not too bad. We went back to the room for showers and get ready for dinner, which was at 6:30pm in the Sapphire Dining Room. I had the roasted chicken with au jus sauce, and veggies, and cheesecake for dessert.

[Mrs.C05]

Day 4, Bonaire:

We woke up at 8:30am and grabbed breakfast in the MDR. We heard about Bonaire being small, from our waiter, Edmund last night at dinner. We had breakfast in the MDR before getting off to meet Betsy and Jack to walk around. (Miscommunication with Dad and Maria on what time.) There was very little to see in the shops once off the ship. This is the best place to do an excursion if you don’t plan anything.

 

 

 

I booked the Woodwind Tours thanks to Cruise Critic. We could only get in on the afternoon tour, since we were a group of 6. We got back on the ship for lunch before changing and getting ready for our excursion. We met right off the ship, and walked to the right of the pier to go to the meeting place for the Woodwind Tours, at 12:45pm. Then we waited for the boat to get back. They arrive right at 1pm, they reload everything and we get on board at 1:15pm. Once on board they offered beverages (soda, water, alcohol, etc.). They came around to fit you for snorkels and fins, if you need it, and give us the rules and regulations talk, etc. Once we get out to the reef where we are to snorkel it’snow around 2pm. We had to zig-zag to get to Klein Bonaire. We are split up into 2 groups, and hop in and snorkel for a good 1hr before heading back in.Snorkeling was very fun and wish it were longer. Once back on the boat, they cooked up some noodle dish which was delicious and offered beverages again, then they prepared and served the noodles dish, and I ordered a beer, but I didn’t like the beer. The dish was delicious! The pictures they sell you afterwards are totally worth the money!

We arrived back to the pier at 4pm and walked back to the ship. Once back on board we all went to get ready for dinner. Dinner was in the Sapphire Dining MDR again. I had the shrimp cocktail, NY Strip Loin and veggies, and warm chocolate cookie with ice cream. The entrée was a little tough but not bad.

Good-bye Bonaire!

 

After dinner we called Ethan as usual and went to the casino a bit. Tomorrow is Aruba, and we’re meeting for breakfast at 7:30am in the MDR before getting off to go shop.My Dad has been here before so he was saying we’d shop around and get 4 wheelers. You'll have to find out what we end up doing!

[Mrs.C05]

Day 5, Aruba: 05/02/18

Hello Aruba!

 

We arrived in Aruba right at 8am, and got clearance at 8:30am. We had breakfast in the MDR, and got off the ship at 9:30am. We shopped around, grabbing a shirt for me, and also a hat-shirt combo as well. My Dad has been to Aruba 3x now so we were following him on what to do. We shopped around, grabbed Starbucks, checked emails, and negotiated car rentals.

Dad, Maria and my Aunt and Uncle all got a Jeep Cherokee to share, and Tommy and I got a Kia Rio. Own car, a/c, and touring the island on our own was perfect!

We signed all the paperwork, got on the ship to eat lunch real fast, and got back off to tour the island, around 1pm.

We drove until we saw a beach, which we stopped at that had a bunch of kite boarders.

Kite surfers:

Driving around the island:

Edited August 28, 2018 by Mrs.C05

[Mrs.C05]

Sorry these are so big. I'm editing them in Photobucket, and it briefly goes to the size I want, and then re-enlarges. What gives?

[Mrs.C05]

Aruba, Continued:

Then we went to the “California Lighthouse” and there were plenty of dunes around it to go off-roading, but I wasn’t about to do that in a Kia Rio.

We took pictures and left to keep driving. We found a small bar and grabbed a drink there. One they way there we stopped a place off the side of the road. I wanted pics because the water was just so pretty and inviting!.

Tommy wanted to find a certain rum here in Aruba called Rum Palamero, which the bar used to make our rum drinks. He asked where to buy it and they said at a supermarket, which Tommy saw while driving. We found one on the way back and got what he wanted. Jack and Betsy were tired and done, so we took them back to the ship, and dropped our car off. By this time it was 3:30pm. We hopped in the Jeep and went to another beach that had a bar on it. They had happy hour at 4pm so once our first drink was done, we ordered one more round and called it a day.

Had my feet in this water before heading back to the boat.

[Mrs.C05]

Barefoot Aruba Sunset Dinner:

We have a sunset dinner reservation that we had to get back on the boat to change for. We grabbed gas to refill the Jeep, and headed back to the ship. Once on board we changed for our reservations, and grabbed a taxi to head down there. It was a reservation for 6:15pm, at Barefoot Aruba, which was right on the water, by the airport. It wasn’t too loud, but was cool to see the airplanes come in. The sunset was really pretty and the food was excellent! We were done and in the taxi around 7:15pm. I would definitely go stay in Aruba for a few days. We got back on the ship and went to the room to call Ethan and talk to him.

 

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mrs.C05]

Got this photo of the ship on our way back from dinner. We felt perfectly safe going to and from this place.

 

 

 

Once on board, we called Ethan, and then we went to the ice show. It said to arrive at 9pm to get a good seat for the 9:30pm show.

We got there at 8:30 to stand and wait and I’m glad we did.

It was pretty packed, and when the doors opened some people were pretty rude pushing their way in.

The ice show was pretty awesome to see on the boat, and a very good performance.

[Mrs.C05]

Day 6, Sea Day

Today is a sea day……we slept in,grabbed breakfast, chilled in the room, made a laundry bag for our room Steward Norma to take, and grabbed a Johnny Rockets milkshake that was BOGO (bc we’re platinum). Now we’re back in the room waiting on room service. It’s a late“lunch” but dinner is at 6:30pm tonight, which is also formal night. We ordered a quesadilla for me, and burger for Tommy. Dinner tonight was shrimp cocktail, ____________ and warm chocolate cookie with ice cream.

I think these are the only two pictures from sea day:

 

 

[Mrs.C05]

Day 7, St. Marteen ----- My favorite island!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our original plan was to rent dune buggies butwe got off and shopped around first.

Then everyone went back to the ship,except Tommy and I. The island got hit hard with the hurricane's but they were doing the best they could to get back on their feet: