"ADVENTURE OF THE SEAS" review (VERY long)

[Punderful]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Great Review Punderful!
Hey what night did you guys "do" Portofino's? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

We did an 8:30 seating at Portofino's on Wednesday night (Curacao port day). But, apparently we missed one of the nights when the dining room staff sings and dances for the passengers.

Next time, we might try Friday night which had no special dining room activity.

For our sail we had:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE><LI>Sunday - Departure night - Casual dining<LI>Monday - Sea Day - 1st Formal Night<LI>Tuesday - Dinner on Aruba (late departure time)<LI>Wednesday - Curacao - Smart Casual - we ate at Portofinos<LI>Thursday - Sea Day - 2nd formal night<LI>Friday - St. Maarten - Smart Casual<LI>Saturday Night - St. Thomas - Casual[/list]

[B]Ron & Debbie -- Wayne, NJ[/B]

Adventure of the Seas - March 28, 2004

[DMorris]

??? what time were dinner seatings on the first night? I wanted to make sure we set up our meet and greet party ok. I read somewhere the first night was earlier than all the others. Thanks.

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Email: [email]Deanna34769@wmconnect.com[/email]

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Until our Martian Yatch Club Adventure

RCCL Adventure of the Seas 11/14/04
RCCL Voyager of the Seas 10/26/03
Carnival Pride 11/9/02
Premier Cruise Lines (5 sailings)

[Fab5]

My family and I just rtned from AOS 4/4 week. What a great time. The ship is beyond awesome, it is so beautiful. After a week I was still getting lost, always on the wrong side for dinner or show, so I did get my exercise which was good because I ate so much!

arrival was painless, we arrived at port around 3 pm or so and lines were hardly there, we went inside and I was impressed on how organized it was. Instead of waiting in one long line they broke down in lines for what floor your room was on. That did not take long and we were off to get our security pics/sea pass and on to the ship for arrival pics and then we were able to go to our room and drop off our carry ons and go exploring. We were probably exploring the ship between 4 & 4:30pm. We stopped at Windjammers for lunch. Food was ok but I was tired of the same breakfast every day. We only got to the DR for breakfast 2x's. Watch out for kids who like to touch all the food in the buffet lines instead of picking just one thing. Also heard of kids who would drink some juice out of cup and put it back again. Take cups from the back!

We had a fam strm 6200 in front of ship for my 3 teens which was plenty big, lots of closets, bunk beds, sleep sofa and bed. I just did not want to spend a week in the same room. My husband I and took a sm promenade rom 6281 down the hall and it was fine. It was fun lookng out the window and seeing the people, even watched the parade the first night in our room.

My kids enjoyed doing there own thing, mini golf, shooting hoops, ping-pong, climb the wall, but did not get into the teen club. There did not seem to be any RCCL employees doing anything in there. During the day there was no one there and only seemed to be with teens after 11PM.

My husband and I did Portofinos on Tue, Curacao port as we were not going into town that night. We made a 8:15 res. and really enjoyed the food and the service. Recommend the extra $40. I was stuffed. I think the food was better there than at the DR.

I met some people off these bds at the M&M party and it was alot of fun to put faces to names.

The pools were great. If you wanted a chair in the sun, that was difficult if you were not out early like we are not, but I like the shade better because I burn, so shade chairs in the back were easy to find.

The DR is gorgeous, we were on the 4th floor. Our waiter Ulrick was great and asst Alberto was fun. Our table mates were from Mexico City and did not speak Eng much so they only came to dinner 2's during the cruise. The food was not bad but I tought Carnival food was better in choice selection.

The ice show is fantastic, I went 2x's. The other shows were ok, my kids kept leaving. The comic Judy Kupa was hysterical. The cruise director was OK, other lines have funnier CD's.

We did all our own excursions. IN Aruba we went on the Jolly Pirate which we found online.
It went to 3 snorkel sites. It was fun about $36-$39p/p which included lunch and drinks.

Curacao - Did the Sea Acquarium snorkel. I enjoyed snorkeling with the big fish and you can feed them sardines. They have sharks and sea turtles behind plexiglass with sm holes to put your sardines in so they can eat them. The water was a little murky but if the sun is shining you can see pretty good. There is a dolfin show and sea lion show also that you can do while you are there.

In St. Marteen we rented a car and drove around the island and stopped at Orient beach for a while and then Mullet bay which was great because it wasn't as crowed as orient.

In St. Thomas we took the red hook ferry to St. John and rented a car and went to Cinnamon bay and then trunk bay and back to ship again Not much time to spend on St. John. Parking is limited at Trunk bay and parked on side of road. With a fam of 5 is was cheaper for us to rent a car then do the taxi route.

Shopped at Cardow's at Havensight mall by ship before boarding. Ask for Barbara and always ask the mgr for there best deal. We have always dealt with them for years.

Leaving the ship was easy. Had breakfast in DR around 830, started leaving ship around 9:15 and got luggage, went thru customs, took taxi to airport and got in line around 10-1030am. We had a 2pm flight but I still would get to airport early again because it is a zoo. Four ships with eveybody going home at the same airport. Lines were so long just to check in and then another line for security just as long. There is another security line by McDonalds we found out about while in the other one. Buy or bring food with you ahead of time, the lines are ridiculous.

We had a great week, I would do it again, though maybe an itinerary not out of San Juan.

any ques. jus ask
Barb
[email]BBadorrek@cox.net[/email]

[gkrebs]

Bill,

Good review. Lets me know that things have not changed much on the ship except for the Cd. I too had the same horrible experience at the airport with Delta Airlines on our return. If it had not been for our "free" first class tickets, we would have waited online for hours. I was determined that I would never go on a cruise out of San Juan again.

However, I did it again anyway. This time we used American Airlines, and what a difference. There were no lines. I wondered to myself if the airport was closed. American has its own wing and they handle things much better. We arrived at the airport at 9:50 and were checked in by 10:10 (after having a ciggarette). It then took us 10 minutes to go through Security. What a difference from the nightmare on tyhe other side of the terminal. If you ever consider going out of San Juan again, try American Airlines. Its the only way I will ever go there again. This was just this past October

[img]http://www.gifs.net/animate/ag00612_.gif[/img]


Gary

Explorer of the Seas 10/24/04
Dawn Princess 10/12/03
Voyager of the Seas 12/01/02
Adventurer of the Seas 4/21/02
Sea Breeze 06/98
Atlantis 06/70

Time to Set Sail

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[Corkle]

Gary,
That's great to hear because we're flying American Airlines in June. Thanks for sharing that info and thanks everyone who posted the great reviews on this thread!

Happy Sailing!!
Corkle
<img src=http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&prgb=000080&cdt=2004;6;20;7;33;00&timezone=GMT-0800> Adventure of the Seas

[abridalmaven]

I also used American and we breezed right in an out of both San Jaun and JFK. I was wondering about all the fuss about that airport when I had such an easy time. I guess American had it's act together. [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

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My vacation pics
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Norwegian Dawn May 23
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[gene624]

Happy that you had a good cruise~ you did not comment on the disembarkation experience which was my nemesis. We did enjoy the Portofino restaurant which we visited on the second formal night. Six of us! Did not take grandchildren nor their parents.
My adult bachelor son had his goal of making every bar onthe ship, I think he succeeded because on Sunday and Monday nights he came back at 3 AM!
I do not plan to use RCI again. It is amazing how different their sister company(Celebrity) is from the RCI unit.
Gene in Birmingham