My 6/15 AOS review... completed

[Cruisechic470]

AOS 6/14/08

 

I had an amazing time on the AOS and would love to share it with all of you. This was our second time on the Adventure of the seas, last time we did the Barbados route and this time we did the Aruba route. To answer a very common question here on CC… which itinerary is better? It depends what you do on each island and what you enjoy. Personally, both itineraries were great but we prefer the Aruba route.

 

We arrived in San Juan a day early. We decided it was best to go to the hotel to drop off our stuff. On out taxi drive to the Condado area we nearly get in a head on accident, but (thank god) our taxi driver stopped within inches. At this point we were all ready for a Pina Colada. We were staying at the Radisson Ambassador and to our pleasant surprise our room was ready at 9:30. But when I opened the door there was 1 king bed (for a family of four)!!! With a quick phone call, we changed that. The Radisson Ambassador was not our first choice, but that’s what Priceline gave us and it was suitable for one night. We paid $110 for the room. We even got a balcony….overlooking Burger King! We took bus B21 to Old San Juan. It was 0.75 a person. The pro to this would be the price, much less then a taxi. The con would be that this bus runs on island time and didn’t really follow a schedule. After arriving in Old San Juan, we walked around. We had already seen the forts and everything. We ate brunch at La Bombonera, a local favorite. We all had mallorcas (I hope I spelled that right). They were so good. If you want to eat with the locals, come here for breakfast or lunch. We walked down by the water and shopped. Old San Juan is pretty dead when no ships are in! We were so hot that we decided to just take a taxi back to the hotel, instead of waiting for the bus. In the afternoon, we walked around Condado, went to the beach (rocky, but nice) and took a quick nap by the pool. On our walk, we stopped at Starbucks. There are lots of Starbucks in San Juan, they actually have more of a variety on a menu then in the states. Try the Coconut mocha or the dulce de Leche frappicinos at Strbucks. For dinner, we ate at Uno’s Chicago Grille. It wasn’t exactly authentic, but it was good!

 

The next day we went to Burger King to get coffee, they automatically put milk in it. Then we changed and went to breakfast at the Latin star. The food was good, but the service wasn’t. It’s like our IHOP, open 24 hours. Straight from breakfast, we went to Stella Maris, a small, Catholic church in Condado and the priest was great! They had a Spanish mass at 8 and an English mass at 9:30. It doesn’t exactly look like a catholic church, or any church, when you look at it. From church, we went back to the hotel and got all our stuff together. It was finally time to get on the beautiful AOS again! When we arrived the line was never ending! But it moved really fast once they opened the door. At noon, we were on the AOS. We got a soda card and something small to eat, none of us were that hungry yet. We sat by the pool and relaxed. At 1:00, we went to our room, but had no luggage yet. We played golf and walked around. The next time we went to our room, our luggage was there and we unpacked. We got ready for dinner and went to the dreaded muster drill, then to dinner which is at 6:30 instead of 6 the first night. Our waiter Ardeth from Columbia was great and our assistant waiter Santiago was also great! He kept the bread coming. We were on deck 5, table 540. It was just the four of us at our table as requested. We went to the sail away party, which is always fun! Then to the welcome aboard show with mike the cruise director and John Wing (a comedian). He was hilarious. From here we went to the sail away parade in the promenade and then to bed.

 

Days at sea are always relaxing. We woke up around 8 to find an empty pool deck, so we got great loungers, we got windjammer breakfast and brought it back to our loungers. Still, at 9:00 there were empty loungers on deck 11 and deck 12 was empty. This is unusual. We walked the track, 5 laps is a mile and the winds were so strong at the front that there was added resistance. We swam while the pools were still empty and clean. We went to the cooking demonstration at 11 which had great carvings.

The rest of the day was spent playing mini golf, watching Mr. Sexy legs, taking a poolside dance class and reading. Then it was time to make ourselves look good for formal night. Dinner tonight was the Captain’s Gala dinner, which is not lobster night. But a great menu regardless. Right from dinner we went to the Captains reception. Free Cocktails. This starts at 7:30, but the captain doesn’t talk until 8:10. The Headliner Showtime is Paul Boland, an impressionist/singer. He’s funny, but some of his impressions were geared towards an older crowd.

 

Aruba is one of our favorite islands. The last time we were here we did the Jolly Pirates excursion which was fun, but this time we wanted to see more of the island. We rented a jeep with Royal. Check the tires before you leave the lot , because ours weren’t good enough for off-roading. We first went through town and stopped at a grocery store for beer, soda and water. Then we stopped at two beaches: Rogers and Baby. Both beautiful in different ways. They’re both close to each other. Rogers was empty. Baby was shallow and the snorkeling was excellent. Then we made our way to Palm beach for lunch, which wasn’t good and overpriced. I don’t know the name, but it was on the pier. Our last stop was California lighthouse. You can’t climb it, but definitely go see it. Shopping in Aruba is decent , the open air markets are great for souvenirs. We took lifestyle photos tonight. If you don’t know what these are, they’re casual, posed pictures. Tonight was Italian dinner and the wait staff sang to us in Italian. The ice show was tonight, but we didn’t go as we’ve seen it before. We went to the adventure feud game, which is basically like Family feud, then we went to the Love and Marriage game. This is always funny and someone got engaged on stage! Fountains follows this and it’s funny in a disgusting way. Its only about 6 or 7 minutes. We had an early day in Curacao and went to bed.

 

Curacao is my new favorite island! This morning, we were up early. We had breakfast at the windjammer (I forgot to mention that we ate in the dining room on Tuesday). We were meeting for our half day snorkel tour with Curacao Actief at 8:30. We were picked up in a open jeep and our tour guide Howard showed us downtown. Then we went to our first snorkeling stop: the tugboat. We were the only ones here and the snorkeling was the best we’d ever done, and we’ve done a lot of snorkeling. We saw squid and there was an abundance of fish. We stopped at the old quarantine hospital for a quick history lesson and a local snack. I can’t remember the name, but they were stuffed pastries, similar to an empanada. Our next snorkeling stop was also great. There was lots of coral and a drop off. We had another snack of watermelon before wrapping up the tour. Howard took us to the fort for great views of the island and then back to the dock. We walked to a fort turned shopping mall for a quick lunch and then went over the floating bridge to more shops. I thought the shopping was great here! On our way back over the floating bridge is started to open and all the tourists (including us) went running and jumped onto the dock. Little did we know, we could have got off on the other side. We gave the locals a good laugh! Our favorite part about Curacao was all the colorful houses that look like we were actually in Holland. Once back on board we watched us leave port at the Curacao sail away party. The crown and anchor party for early seating was at the same time, so we decided we’d go to the late seating party. We got ready for dinner, which was the get out there dinner. A lot of people go to Portofino on Wednesday, but I liked this menu. After dinner we went to the Crown and Anchor party, where the loyalty ambassador announced news about the Oasis, but that’s already been on CC for days. She also announced that the AOS itinerary will be changing and it will be introducing 2 new islands: Grenada and St. Croix. The captain was here and it was another great opportunity for free cocktails! Tonight was the Quest, “Can’t Stop the Rock” and 70’s disco street party, but we didn’t go to any of that. We did, however, go to the helipad tonight. To get to the helipad go through the imperial lounge and all the way forward.

 

Thursday was spent relaxing and enjoying everything the AOS has to offer. We played mini golf, relaxed by the pool, went inline skating, went to a napkin folding demonstration, watched the Ms.Bi-cep competition and went to lunch and Johnny Rockets. YUM! That night was formal night and we all got dressed up again. Dinner was nice, and incuded the fisherman’s platter (Lobster). If you missed the first skate show, you could catch it again tonight. The headliner show was Howie and Bert: on the edge. They were funny (and crazy) . They juggled and performed crazy stunts. It was a great day.

 

Friday we were in St.Maarten when we woke up. We got off the ship as early as possible, after a quick breakfast in the windjammer. We bought all day passes for the water taxi, costing $6 pp, and headed downtown. We planned to do a little shopping but most of the stores were not open yet as most opened at 9:30. But we had the America’s cup 12 metre challenge booked for the morning and had to head back at 9:30 to meet them by the ship. We grabbed a iced blended coffee from Rituals Coffee, St.Maarten’s Starbucks, on the way back . The coffee was good, but nothing can beat real Starbucks. After meeting at the dock for our tour, we made our way to where we were supposed to meet the boats, but a serious squall of wind and rain came through. It felt like being outside during a hurricane here in Florida. Our tour guide said this was the first rain they’d had in St.Maarten in a year! He pushed the tour back to 12:30, but we decided to cancel because St.Maarten is one of our favorite shopping ports. We were so cold, we went to buy a towel before taking the water taxi again to the shops. We got some great jewelry and knock-offs. We ran in to other people who had the America’s cup booked and they said it got cancelled all together. I was upset that we couldn’t do our excursion, but shopping cheered me up and I knew we’d be back to St.Maarten very soon! Our money was returned to our account that afternoon. Tonight was another production show, which we skipped. We went to the late night comedy, which wasn’t very late (10:15) and it wasn’t very funny either. There was also a parade and deck party Friday night.

 

We’ve been to St.Thomas a million times, so this time we decided to go to water island. We woke up early because we had to be to the dining room for immigration before 9. It was a quick and easy process, and we were out in no time. We had a quick breakfast at the windjammer (for the last time = [ ). We took a taxi to Crown bay Marina in St.Thomas. Some ships dock here, but the AOS docks at havensight. It cost us $8 pp one way from havensight. The ferry is small and red (you can't miss it). It runs back and forth most of the day. If you google water island, it has a website and on that website there is a schedule for the ferry. The ferry cost $9 pp roundtrip. It's a short ride... around 7 minutes. Once on the island we walked to honeymoon beach, which is gorgeous, and straight down the road from Phillip's landing, where the ferrys dock. You have to walk up and down hills, so wear comfortable shoes. There are no cabs here... you're on your own. We walked as I mentioned, we tried to rent a golf cart from some of the properties, but it didn't work out. You can take a guided bike tour, which can be booked through the ship. All we did was go to beach, but I really wanted to see more of the island, and plan to return and stay on the island for longer than a day. We were the only people on the beach, nothing like St.Thomas. If you have been to St.Thomas so many times and want to get away from the crowds, come to water island!! If you get hungry, there's Heidi's beach bar on Honeymoon beach and depending on when you're there, a pizza boat runs up and down the beach. Honeymoon beach has restrooms as well. Back on St.Thomas, we had lunch at Tickle’s, (at crown Bay) and the food was excellent. We did some shopping and headed back to the ship. We watched us sail away from our last port and said goodbye to the AOS. Dinner tonight was great and the waiters even sang to us again. After dinner we bought 5 pictures from the photo gallery (we couldn’t decide) and went to the farewell show. This was great! Then, unfortunately, we had to pack.

 

The next morning, we had breakfast in the dining room, then waited in the Solarium for our number to be called. We went straight to the airport and sat in the airport all day.

 

Overall, we had an AMAZING cruise aboard the Adventure. The service was great (except for bar staff), the food was yummy and the ports were all great!

[ladypalmtree]

Sounds like you had a fantastic time. I would love to do another intenerary..we always do Mexico...forty minutes to the port..and off we go. DH only has a seven day window once a year for vacation..and hates to drive and fly...lol

[Cruisechic470]

Sounds like you had a fantastic time. I would love to do another intenerary..we always do Mexico...forty minutes to the port..and off we go. DH only has a seven day window once a year for vacation..and hates to drive and fly...lol

 

We had a great time!The flying/ hotel is a hassle, but the itinerary makes it well worth it. :p

[cruisingagentone]

Thats funny that your tour guide said it hadn't rained in St Maarten in a year because we were there in February and it poured!!!

Sounds like you had a great time

[Cruisechic470]

Oh really! He must have been on island time! So we're not as unlucky as we thought.

[MARTYsmom]

I see you sat at the airport. Our flight back isn't until 2:30pm. (hope AA doesn't make it later) Is their a decent place to eat at SJU?? hope to try and kill some time. will use the luggage express so we will have less hassle with luggage.

 

loved your review---printed it so i can keep it as a reference for things to do.

[marshabear]

yeah, we were in St Martin in October and it rained most of our day there...we made the most of it though, just continued with our sightseeing and shopping!! :)

 

 

Marsha

[shonandsuzie]

We enjoyed the detail of your review. Thanks for taking the time to write it. How was your cabin?