Back from Adventure yesterday... ask away and read my thoughts..

[JENANDGENE]

Hello everyone! Just returned from Adventure of the Seas at about 1:30 this morning after a LONG day of travelling. I am going to attempt to write as much of my review as possible however I do have a napping 21 month old daughter and I may need to post in installments.

 

Here goes.....

 

Saturday May 6 day prior to cruise

 

I still had to work, as horrible as this was. Thank God I had finished most of my packing already. I was supposed to work until 3pm but managed to escape by noon. After last minute preparations and packing the car, we were off. First stop, my Mom's to drop off our 21 month old daughter who was staying behind for the week. I think dropping her off is much more traumatic to me than it is to her, she really could care less..... then we headed to the airport where we had booked a hotel room for the night. On the way to the airport we stopped for dinner and I had Steamers and Lobster (might as well start off the vacation right huh?) We ended up at the Days Inn at Bradley International Airport at about 7:00 pm and since we needed to be up at 3:45 tyhe next morning decided to turn in early. Now is a good time to mention that I am 23 weeks pregnant...just about 6 months. From the pregnancy I have sciatic nerve pain in both hips which causes some pretty extreme pain. Usually worse when I sit still and then try to move. I have a relatively soft bed at home which seems to help the problem after a good nights sleep. Well.... let me just say we should have stayed at home the night before even though we would have needed to get up over an hour earlier. The bed at the days in should have just said "Georgia Pacific" on the mattress because it was about as soft as plywood. Needless to say I did NOT sleep AT ALL. As a matter of fact the pain was so bad that I was up pacing the room crying at midnight thinking if the beds on the ship were going to cause the same pain that I would rather not go. It literally felt like a knife in my hip joints all night long. Needless to say I was all too happy to get up when 3:45 finally rolled around! I decided this was not the best way to start your vacation!

 

Sunday May 7 Embarkation day

 

We headed to the lobby of the Days Inn at about 4:30 am grabbed some danish and some really horrible coffee (even worse since I have to drink decaf) and headed to the airport. Check in and security were a breeze, literally less than 10 minutes for both... so now at the gate with another hour and a half until boarding I am wondering why on earth I bother to get there so early... oh well boarded the AA flight and took off at 6:50 am... 3 hours and 50 minutes later we landed in San Juan...I love direct flights! Went to baggage claim found our bags and then waited for the RCCI bus. This was really simple since RCCI has HUGE signs near baggage claim telling you where to wait. We waited less than 10 minutes and a bus was ready for us. We turned our luggage over to a box truck at the airport and boarded the bus....not sure how much I like splitting up from my luggage but they must know what they are doing because we had no problems and we took off for the port with very little wait. About 10 minutes and an only slightly terrifying bus ride later ...... there she was! This is my 5th RCI cruise and the sight still gives me goose bumps :) We unloaded the bus, all the time wondering how long we would be waiting to check in since it was only 11:30 am....we walked into the terminal (no need to worry about bags since they were handled at the airport) and literally walked right up to an agent to check in NO LINE... really, I swear. Check in took about 3 minutes thanks to our Set Sail passes and we walked right onto the ship IT WASN"T EVEN NOON YET!!!!!!!!!!!! Has anyone ever noticed that first step onto the ship when you take a deep breath and think..... Ahhhhhh ship smell :) My DH and I laugh at each other because we both do it.... We were informed that our rooms would be ready at 1pm so we headed up to the windjammer to have some lunch. YUMMY! Windjammer food was not gourmet, but tasted good and was hot and fresh all week. I also played the "How many desserts can I fit on that little plate?" game.... Answer 5, if you try hard enough! After lunch we decided to explore the ship ( well DH explored, this was my 3rd Voyager class ship so I pretty much knew my way around) the we went to our room. We had cabin #7283 promenade view.... I never spend the extra on a balcony but I do like the inside window, fun if you like to people watch. We shortly met our stateroom attendant Stacy from Trinidad... AWESOME! She was timely and accomodating the entire week and when I mentioned the hip problem from being pregnant I found not 1 but 2 full egg crate mattress pads atop our bed that night which I am convinced made all the difference in saving my vacation!!!!!! The bed was actually comfortable! Also this is my 5th RCI cruise so I was gold going Platinum but without even asking we had 2 robes to use for the week.... I think I got special Mommy treatment :) She was my favorite stateroom attendant to date! We changed into our swimsuits and headed up to the Solarium pool to take a dip..... Ahhhh heaven. When we headed back to our room we found our luggage was already there!!!!!! This was at about 4:30 pm. We showered and changed for dinner leisurely and walked around a bit more before heading to the dining room to eat yet again. Dining room food was consistently yummy all week.... however I was not as thrilled with the staff. To tell you the truth I can't even remember either of their names or where they were from because they just didn't interact with us much, and service was SLOW. We were the last table to leave every night and were always getting our main course when other tables were having dessert. What made this bearable however was the fact that we had a GREAT table and were never in any hurry to leave because conversation was always good. There were 3 other couples besides ourselves and we spanned the US nicely. We are from Connecticut and the others were from Texas, Wisconsin, and Colorado. After dinner we had the muster drill which took about 20 minutes.... the staff was more than accommodating asking me from the get-go if I wanted a place to sit instead of standing. When I assured them I would be fine they checked in with me at least 3 times to make sure I was holding up OK.... I was impressed with the treatment I got due to being pregnant pretty much all week :) After muster we headed up to the pool deck wher we had planned our informal get together for cruise critic members.... had a good turn out and it was nice to finally put faces (and names) to user names....Stayed up on deck until show time 10:45 pm for all guests that night and we went down to get a seat. Featured performers were a comedian and a juggler both worth seeing. Also our first introduction to our cruise director RICHARD SPACEY...........he is a hoot! He is one of the younger cd's I have seen and he was great. Full of energy, funny, and involved. By this time I was pooped! Even though they had a parade on the promenade at midnight I couldn't make it....Remember up since 3:45 with really no sleep the night before. I planned on watching from my window but couldn't convince myself to get up when it started.....I don't remember it ending...

 

I will stop here and post more very soon.... remember any questions ask away..... hope you enjoy!

 

~Jen

 

Monarch of the Seas July 1992

Voyager of the Seas October 2002

Explorer of the Seas January 2004

Jewel of the Seas September 2005

Adventure of the Seas May 2006

 

Navigator of the Seas November 2007

[wrp96]

Jen, sounds like you had an amazing cruise, at least from the start of your review. Glad you could have a great trip just by yourselves before the new addition arrives.

[PattiB]

Hi Jen,

 

Sounds like you had a great time, can't wait to hear more...

We're going on the same cruise 2/18/2007.:)

Did you arrange the air or did you get it through RCI?

 

Patti

[TryingCruising]

Thanks for sharing! I was on Adventure in March for my first cruise and love reliving it through others reviews! :D

[Sweetly]

Hi Jen,

Can't wait to read the rest of your review. It seems so far that everything was going well. We are on the AOS in 2/18/2007. :)

[shortstop95]

Post More. We leave this Sunday for the AOS. How's the ship look.. showing age? How full was the ship?

[JENANDGENE]

Hi all... let me answer questions first...

 

 

I set up my air myself. It was WAY cheaper than through RCI.

 

The ship was COMPLETELY full, however the only time it really seemed crowded was at the pool on sea days. The ship is showing some age and wear and tear, but nothing that was REALLY bad. The most noticable thing was the elevator buttons. We routinely ran into buttons that didn't work. On our deck only one side would activate the up button, and in the forward starboard side, one of the elevators you actually COULD NOT stop at decks 8 and 9 because the buttons were broke. There were also the minor things.... a few carpet stains..... chips in tables..... tiny rips in chairs.... nothing major though. And even with the wear and tear the ship was kept AMAZINGLY clean. I think I was spoiled because we sailed on Jewel last fall and she was still in her inaugural year, so there was NO wear and tear noticeable. That's probably why I noticed it more this time. She is still an mazingly beautifulk ship.

 

Now where was I....

 

Day 2 Sea Day

 

We began the day with breakfast in the dining room. I like to be able to sit and be waited on when we have the time. plus my DH loves the Smoked Salmon plate and the Eggs benedict. My only dissapointment was Jewel had a chef making crepes fresh every morning in the dining room and Adventure did not... I missed those yummy crepes!

 

After breakfast we decided to play BINGO.... let me admit now, I am a bingo addict. I must shout out to Dollar Bill Phil the activities director :) I "checked his balls" the first bingo session. If you don't play bingo thats the person that verifies that all the balls are there before the game starts. I always offer to do it once a cruise because you get a T-shirt, a keychain, and a free "drink of the day" (which of course went to DH). He noticed I was pregnant and made a big deal out of it... by the end of the cruise he knew my name, DH's name, my daughters name, that i was having a boy this time, and what we were naming him! He made binbgo a hoot, even though we played all week without winning :(

 

After bingo we took a dip in the Solarium pool, then got some lunch in the Windjammer. More sunning and relaxing... then more bingo LOL! They had "Win a suite" bingo this after noon. Apparently the only room not booked was the "Royal family suite" so they gave it away as an upgrade in a bingo game. We got to tour the room prior to the game and I must say HOLY CRAP! It's HUGE... It has a bedroom with 2 twin beds and 2 pullman beds so that sleeps 4, a regular size bathroom with shower (same as in my stateroom), a HUGE walk in closet (like half the size of my stateroom), a sitting room that has a couch that pulls out to sleep 2, a master bedroom that sleeps 2 with another bathroom with a HUGE tub and shower, and it has a HUGE aft balcony with a table and chairs on one side and 2 lounge chairs with a smaller table on the other. DID I MENTION IT WAS HUGE? Anyway....we didn't win.

 

Now off to dinner (time to eat again already?) I can't remember what I had..but it was good whatever it was. We then went to the show where we saw Martin Duvee an impersonator. He was really really good. He could do voices from Michael Jackson to Rod Stewart to Celine Dion. And he nailed all of them, he must have done 50 impressions in his show it was quite amazing.

 

After the show it was off to bed, we pretty much turned in early every night because I get tired pretty easily.

 

More soon.....

 

Thanks everyone for reading.

 

~Jen

[Cruising Khi]

Thanks, Jen! What a great review so far. I went on AOS last year for my honeymoon. It was our first RCCL cruise, and we loved it! We also thought that Richard Spacey was really funny and were amazed at Martin Duvee. We didn't notice the wear and tear, but we were just so excited to be on such a huge ship, we were probably wearing rose-colored glasses!:) I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

[Crazy Cruiser Man]

I am glad to here that you had a great time

We are going on the same cruise in feb 07 and also have a inside promenade room. actually we have 4 rooms 2 wich are connecting for my wife and i and next to us are my kids.and the other 2 are for friends (they are first timers) cant wait to see there faces when they get on.

[shortstop95]

Post More.

[polarismom]

Wow great stuff can't wait to hear the rest, We have the RFS on EXplorer 6/22/07 mom of 4 can't let 3 of her babies 13-11-7 :D out of her site over night teenager and friend got inside cabin. Tell us MORE PLEASE!! best part of the Boards!!:) PolarisMOM

[karcruiser]

Can't wait to read more! I'd love to sail the AOS next April (just came off the Explorer on April 9th), but so far the high prices are holding me back. I guess it doesn't help that after having my first balcony on the Explorer, I want one on the AOS too!

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to post......sounds like you enjoy the food on the ships just as much as me!!!!

[KKeeganS]

I'm glad your trip went so well, and you got the appropriate attention given your mom-to-be status. The review is great, giving me a nice fix until September. Can't wait for the rest!

[rascalious]

Waiting for more. We love the AOS. See my signature for proof.

[25dbb]

Anxious to read more.....We are going on Adventure on July 30 and will also

become platinum members with that cruise....one question....when was

the muster drill????after dinner?????

 

dbb25

[RM]

Thanks for the review. Can't wait to read more! I'll be on the Adventure July 2 and am looking forward to hearing more!

[MGoBlue2]

Back from Adventure yesterday... ask away and read my thoughts..

 

I tried all day to read your thoughts but couldn't, so I decided to read your post instead. :)

 

Very nice.

[njoyndride]

I read them. She was thinking - last week at this time I was..............

[JENANDGENE]

LOL, I meant my thoughts on the cruise, but they would be rather easy to read right now "I wish I was still on the ship.... I wish I was still on the ship....."

 

 

Muster drill was at 8pm right between first and second seating dinner. We did not sail until 10pm so it seemed to work out well that way.

 

Also I must add that afetr breakfast the first day my DH did climb the rock wall..... then we had the Meet and Mingle which I forgot to mention. It was very nice RCI had snacks (mostly caviar and stuff I stayed away from) and iced tea and lomonade and stuff. We met quite a few CC members and it was really nice to keep seeing familiar faces throughout the week :)

 

 

 

Day 3 --- Aruba!

 

I was pretty excited about our stop in Aruba because I had not been to this island on any previous cruises. We docked at 8am, which was just perfect timing since we had just gotten upstairs to the Windjammer for breakfast as we were pulling in. We snapped a few photo's and went into eat. I have to admit I was pretty shameless when we ate breakfast in the Windjammer. Each time I seemed to somehow magnetically been drawn to the waffle area.... not sure how this happens, but each morning I ended up with 2 waffles once smothered in blueberry topping and one smothered in strawberry topping, each finished off with the biggest spoonful of whipped cream I could manage.....................mmmmmmmmmm waffles.

 

Anyhow after breakfast we decided to get off the ship and walk around and explore a bit since the excursion we had planned did not leave until 2:15 pm. We headed downstairs and walked around, the shopping area is quite nice and VERY close to the port which is great. I like how you walk off the ship and are literally in downtown. We also stopped in one of the casinos. I am really not a gambler. All I do is get irritated when I put $20 in a slot machine and its gone in 5 minutes. So I don't play to win money, I play for fun. So when I saw they had 1 penny slot machines I figured "Hey just my speed" So we sat down and I managed to play slots for an hour and a half and I only spent $3.75 HA HA! That's my kind of gambling!

 

We headed back to the ship and decided to eat at Johnny Rockets since we were in port and it wasn't crowded. We used our Crown and Anchor coupons so the only thing we paid for was the chocolate shake DH and I split (well really I drank my half and then half of his half! :)) I think Johnny Rockets is great.... I walked out of there SO stuffed I thought I would explode.... they just keep bringing you more fries and onion rings until you have to roll yourself away!

 

We changed and headed down for our excursion The Jolly Pirates Sail, Snorkel, Swim and Swing! They brought us to the boat on this hysterical bus.....the same one they use for the evening Kukoo Kunu bar hop.

 

After about a 10 minute drive we got off and boarded the boat.... whic looked like a real hionest to god pirate ship.

 

They started off by offering drinks, which I thought was a little odd since most of the time they don't let you drink until after the swimming parts, but apparently pirates don't care..... I didn't drink so "to each his own" Anyways we sailed about 20-30 minutes to our first snorkeling spot, which was nice and shallow only about 10-15 feet and had a lot of nice fish to see. We stayed there about a half an hour then sailed to another spot and tied off. This was when the crew sis their "rope swing show" which was really quite impressive, then gave about 30-40 minutes for anyone else who wanted to (and had drank enough) to try it. We only had one person almost hit the side of the boat because they "forgot" to let go... It was amusing to people watch, everyone from the young show off guys to 60 year old women tried it, oh and all different sizes too. Of course the larger people kinda more fell off the side of the ship than actually "swung" The one person I couldn't convince was my DH. He would rather sit with a drink in his hand and watch everyone else even though I would have loved a picture.... oh well. Next we sailed to the wreck of the Antilla a WWII supply boat that is sunk in about 50 feet of water. We snorkeled here for about 30 minutes. I have to warn anyone who does this..... you need to be a good swimmer. The wreck has many parts that are very close to the surface and covered in SHARP coral. Also quite a bit of fire coral. There is also quite a current. I am a pretty experienced swimmer and I took off my mask to clear the fog, all the while thinking I was swimming away from the wreck, but the current was so strong it had pulled me back in and I ended up scraping my leg on the wreck. Thank god I avoided the fire coral however I did gash myself rather well. Oh well, what's a few battle scars. After trhis snorkel we sailed back to shore and got the bus back to the ship. We got in at about 6:45 so we had missed dinner in the dining room.

 

We headed up to the Windjammer for dinner instead. This was the first time ever I have eaten there for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was good, however they don't have EVERYTHING the dining room has like they claim. My DH had eyed the Tiger shrimp on the dinner menu and they did not have any. Oh well, it was good just the same.

 

After dinner we headed to the ice show. It was quite good however I was so tired from the day I found myself fighting to stay awake! Needless to say we hit the hay right after the show...... we needed our rest for Curacao, we had the Sea Lion swim planned!

 

~Jen

[wrp96]

Jen, it was only fair that you got to drink half of his half of the milkshake since you are carrying his child. You need all the nutritious milk you can get - I'm sure that's why you drank half of his half.

 

Oh, and our Kukoo Kunuku was slightly different than that bus. I think Aruba just knows how to decorate its buses.

[Jofirsttimer]

Jen - This is probably one of the most interesting reads I have encountered on these forums. I am scheduled to cruise on voyager 17th June 06 in the Med and I honestly cannot wait!!!! This will be my first cruise and your description is giving me butterflies at the sheer anticipation of seeing the ship for the first time!!!

 

I will defininely post a full and frank review like you have to assist others (and entertain:p !!!) You are really giving us a 'seagull's view' of your time onboard ship. LOL!:D

 

lad to hear they took good care of you and your unborn baby! And you deserved the extra milkshake!

 

Jo

[dave&micki]

Hi JEN -- glad to see you are having a great time -- I saw that you got to look at the RFS(sorry you did not win it )--We have it booked for JAN 07' and I really like what you said about it There are five of us (all family and we all get along)--so you feel we will have plenty of room without being on top of each other???--Also --Do you remember if there was more than one T.V. ???--Looking forward to hearing more !!! THANKS--

[Crazy Cruiser Man]

LOL, I meant my thoughts on the cruise, but they would be rather easy to read right now "I wish I was still on the ship.... I wish I was still on the ship....."

 

 

Muster drill was at 8pm right between first and second seating dinner. We did not sail until 10pm so it seemed to work out well that way.

 

Also I must add that afetr breakfast the first day my DH did climb the rock wall..... then we had the Meet and Mingle which I forgot to mention. It was very nice RCI had snacks (mostly caviar and stuff I stayed away from) and iced tea and lomonade and stuff. We met quite a few CC members and it was really nice to keep seeing familiar faces throughout the week :)

 

 

 

Day 3 --- Aruba!

 

I was pretty excited about our stop in Aruba because I had not been to this island on any previous cruises. We docked at 8am, which was just perfect timing since we had just gotten upstairs to the Windjammer for breakfast as we were pulling in. We snapped a few photo's and went into eat. I have to admit I was pretty shameless when we ate breakfast in the Windjammer. Each time I seemed to somehow magnetically been drawn to the waffle area.... not sure how this happens, but each morning I ended up with 2 waffles once smothered in blueberry topping and one smothered in strawberry topping, each finished off with the biggest spoonful of whipped cream I could manage.....................mmmmmmmmmm waffles.

 

Anyhow after breakfast we decided to get off the ship and walk around and explore a bit since the excursion we had planned did not leave until 2:15 pm. We headed downstairs and walked around, the shopping area is quite nice and VERY close to the port which is great. I like how you walk off the ship and are literally in downtown. We also stopped in one of the casinos. I am really not a gambler. All I do is get irritated when I put $20 in a slot machine and its gone in 5 minutes. So I don't play to win money, I play for fun. So when I saw they had 1 penny slot machines I figured "Hey just my speed" So we sat down and I managed to play slots for an hour and a half and I only spent $3.75 HA HA! That's my kind of gambling!

 

We headed back to the ship and decided to eat at Johnny Rockets since we were in port and it wasn't crowded. We used our Crown and Anchor coupons so the only thing we paid for was the chocolate shake DH and I split (well really I drank my half and then half of his half! :)) I think Johnny Rockets is great.... I walked out of there SO stuffed I thought I would explode.... they just keep bringing you more fries and onion rings until you have to roll yourself away!

 

We changed and headed down for our excursion The Jolly Pirates Sail, Snorkel, Swim and Swing! They brought us to the boat on this hysterical bus.....the same one they use for the evening Kukoo Kunu bar hop.

 

After about a 10 minute drive we got off and boarded the boat.... whic looked like a real hionest to god pirate ship.

 

They started off by offering drinks, which I thought was a little odd since most of the time they don't let you drink until after the swimming parts, but apparently pirates don't care..... I didn't drink so "to each his own" Anyways we sailed about 20-30 minutes to our first snorkeling spot, which was nice and shallow only about 10-15 feet and had a lot of nice fish to see. We stayed there about a half an hour then sailed to another spot and tied off. This was when the crew sis their "rope swing show" which was really quite impressive, then gave about 30-40 minutes for anyone else who wanted to (and had drank enough) to try it. We only had one person almost hit the side of the boat because they "forgot" to let go... It was amusing to people watch, everyone from the young show off guys to 60 year old women tried it, oh and all different sizes too. Of course the larger people kinda more fell off the side of the ship than actually "swung" The one person I couldn't convince was my DH. He would rather sit with a drink in his hand and watch everyone else even though I would have loved a picture.... oh well. Next we sailed to the wreck of the Antilla a WWII supply boat that is sunk in about 50 feet of water. We snorkeled here for about 30 minutes. I have to warn anyone who does this..... you need to be a good swimmer. The wreck has many parts that are very close to the surface and covered in SHARP coral. Also quite a bit of fire coral. There is also quite a current. I am a pretty experienced swimmer and I took off my mask to clear the fog, all the while thinking I was swimming away from the wreck, but the current was so strong it had pulled me back in and I ended up scraping my leg on the wreck. Thank god I avoided the fire coral however I did gash myself rather well. Oh well, what's a few battle scars. After trhis snorkel we sailed back to shore and got the bus back to the ship. We got in at about 6:45 so we had missed dinner in the dining room.

 

We headed up to the Windjammer for dinner instead. This was the first time ever I have eaten there for dinner. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was good, however they don't have EVERYTHING the dining room has like they claim. My DH had eyed the Tiger shrimp on the dinner menu and they did not have any. Oh well, it was good just the same.

 

After dinner we headed to the ice show. It was quite good however I was so tired from the day I found myself fighting to stay awake! Needless to say we hit the hay right after the show...... we needed our rest for Curacao, we had the Sea Lion swim planned!

 

~Jen

We are going on that cruise in feb 07 and want to go on the joly pirate

would you recommend it and from their web site the offer lunch

did you get lunch.

and do they offer flotation devices if you go in the water.

[Bigerr19]

Jen,

My wife, son and I were on the same cruise as you and I saw the banana bus parked there in the morning as well. I asked my wife if she wanted a big banana for her car at home and all she said was "um...no."

 

We did a similar snorkeling excursion at the same time you were on Jolly Pirates. We were on the white catamaran that pulled into the first spot just before you guys left and also stopped at the wreck as your boat was leaving. You're right about the wreck snorkel, it's not just a lazy float looking at fish, it's quite a lot of swimming, but a great spot nonetheless.

 

Sounds like you had as much fun as we did on the cruise!

[dave&micki]

:D Hi Jen....wow what a great review so far. I can't wait to get on her, unfortunately we're not going till january. But I am very excited as we have the royal family suite and I have been asking on these boards for quite some time for feed back on the room, and now I have it. Please hurry and write more:D :D