Review: AOS, Southern Caribbean, 8/17/08

[debcip]

This was a a cruise undertaken by two families of four. This was our family's fifth cruise and first with RCI. Both sets of parents are 50-ish and the kids are 15, 15, 13, and 12.

 

We flew into San Juan on Saturday, and stayed at the Intercontinental, all arranged by RCI. (in case of natural disaster or plane malfunction causing a glitch. This happened to us in 2004 but that is another story). As this ship did not sail until 8 pm on Sunday it may not have been necessary. The Intercontinental is very nice, as is its beach and pool area. Restaurant Alfredo's is pricey and only fair. The only issue was confusion in our pickup on Sunday morning--we were told that it would be at 1 and that the driver would come into the lobby and identify himself as the RCI driver. When it got to be 1:30 and no one had announced himself, we got on the next bus taking on tourists which appeared. Frankly I am not certain that this was our assigned bus. But the driver got us to the dock regardless! The beauty of this entire procedure was that our bags were taken separately to the ship; those persons who had their own bags (either those who came directly from the airport or who stayed at the hotel but took a cab to the dock) had to wait in an extremely long line to take care of their luggage and then another line to check in; those of us with no bags walked right on. We spent some time in Old San Juan before embarking. This was a waste. FYI, you cannot walk from the ship to Old San Juan (other ships dock right in town but not this one)

 

Ship: Beautiful, and well maintained. The theater spaces were a cut above those of other ships. The Promenade is a great public space. It works so much better than the "split" promenade deck of other ships. We loved having the shops, an eatery, and two bars in the central open space. Brilliant design idea. It was quite inviting, and a great place to people watch!

 

Staterooms: From all accounts I was expecting these to be very small. They were more than adequate with plenty of storage space for two. Four would have been tough. Bathrooms were spotless. Tiny stall shower but perfectly adequate. One complaint: our daughters had an inside stateroom which frequently had a sulfurous / sewage-like smell.

 

Outer decks and pool area: Laid out very well, with adequate number of chairs, plenty of walking space, and enough shaded areas. There were always chairs available, even late on at sea days. Very well done.

 

Excursions: This was my only disappointment on this cruise. I did not feel that the desk personnel were really familiar with all of the excursions and they did not really help me to figure out what I wanted to do. We really did need a lot of assistance, as the website was so user un-friendly and there were so many excursions from which to choose.

In St. Maarten we took the Marigot/Beach tour, only to find on our arrival in Marigot that it was a French national holiday! (everything was closed.) They clearly should have been aware of this. They did give us a partial refund when we asked but we would not have chosen this tour had we known. Part 2 of this tour, Orient Beach, was nice and the surf there is very rough. I got knocked completely over in water which was only about 2 feet deep!

In St. Thomas we did the Coral World/Megan's Bay tour. This was actually quite good. Coral World is an interesting place with an underwater observatory where you can see many varieties of tropical fish in their reef. There are iguanas freely roaming, and there are sea turtle and sting ray tanks.

Both of these excursions began at 11:00, which I did not like at all. I would much rather have gone out early and been back in time to relax for a couple of hours before dinner. Again, this should have been pointed out by the excursion staff.

We went to the beach on our own in both Aruba and Curacao. The beaches are so hot that you can't stay on them more than a couple of hours, and I am a beach person! Overall I think that if we had it to do again, we would have just gone out early, taken a cab to a different beach every day, and been back by 1 or 2 to spend some time on the ship. I'm not certain that I would take any of the ship's excursions just to go to the beaches.

 

Shopping: Excellent if you are interested in high-end watches, jewelry, etc. It was tough for my girls to shop--not much for them out there at a level between the souvenir shop and the diamonds.

 

Ship staff: My husband and I felt very well taken care of and pampered by everyone we encountered. My girls, however, felt that they were not treated quite as well, as though they were an annoyance to some of the staff. I am not sure that I recognized this, but my perspective is not a teenager's.

 

Food: Very good. Interesting selections and overall great quality. I had only one dinner which disappointed me (pork tenderloin, first night). The Cafe Promenade is open 24 hours, which is nice. This includes hot coffee (the best coffee we've ever had on a ship) and ice water available all day and night, pizza, sandwiches, desserts, and rolls/pastry in the morning. I also thought the central location of this Cafe was great; usually the 24 hour eatery is tucked away on the Lido deck somewhere. Chef made a vegetarian Indian dish every night.

 

Bars: If you are a beer drinker the best selection of beer is in the Duck and Dog Cafe on the Promenade. This is also a nice place to sit and have a drink and still be in the thick of things. There is also a bar on the 14th floor which is practically surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows and is very quiet. We did not discover that until the 5th day! The game room is up on the 14th floor as well.

 

Disembarkation: Take advantage of the offer to have your bags automatically checked. It is $20 and well worth it. It was a bit disorganized getting off, we had to search around a while to figure out where we were supposed to go. A little signage would have been helpful. We also had no voucher for transport back to the airport in our packet; apparently you don't need one.

 

Overall we really enjoyed this cruise. I think the atmosphere is somewhat subdued but not stuffy. We would absolutely cruise with RCI again.

[bplazo]

We did the Adventure a couple years ago and just loved it.

 

I always try to book our own excursions, I have found that I am always a little disappointed in the cruiselines excursions. They are usually overcrowed and more expensive than private excursions. I one time had some questions on one excursion and the person at the desk gave out wrong information.

 

Did you do the Aruba route or the Barbados route? We did the Aruba route and did ABC Jeep safari, My teenage daughter and her friend had a great time doing this.

[debcip]

We did the Aruba route. Went to Palm Beach in Aruba, on our own, and just hung there and purchased some activities at the beach stand. That beach was enjoyable, very commercial but still nice. The couple we were with knew someone in Curacao so we went where they took us. Overall it was great to go to all of these islands. I have friends going in Dec. and will let them know about your Jeep suggestion. Thanks!

Debbie