travel agent advised us NOT to cruise AOS

[monn_a]

Ooops...double post

Edited March 7, 2009 by monn_a

[kooljamming]

Because the OP didn't mention anything about the TA dissing Adventure based on HER needs. Thats why.

 

Yes, we make recommendations based on our likes but if someone STATED what their needs and likes are plenty of us could certainly be objective enough to give an opinion on whether or not a certain cuise might, or might not, be right for a person. And that would be based on personal experience. With many TAs they may not have ever even stepped foot on the ship in question.

 

 

Did anyone bother to ask or simply ASS-U-ME what wasn't stated. Playing TA, do you have enough info on the OP to make a GOOD recommedation?

Edited March 7, 2009 by kooljamming

[Davey Interweb]

Are you kidding me...read the reviews on this site...I sailed AOS and absolutely loved it...you will always have those that don't have a good time, but it's a great cruise. You need to find another TA...

 

Did you read the OP's last post? Sure, there have been many glowing reviews of AOS on this particular forum, but there have also been a great deal of negative ones. Would I recommend it based on personal experience? Maybe, but with strong caveats.

[Ocean Boy]

Did anyone bother to ask or simply ASS-U-ME what wasn't stated. Playing TA, do you have enough info on the OP to make a GOOD recommedation?

 

I didn't assume anything. I went by what was written. To do otherwise would have been an ASS-U-MPTION. And, no one is playing TA. The OP stated that she was interested in Adventure. Some of us gave our opinions of the ship. If she wants an opinion on whether or not she might be happy with this ship and itinerary then she is welcome to tell us what her likes and dislikes are and those of us who have EXPERIENCED the ship and itinerary will be happy to try to provide an answer specific for her desires. That is how it is around here. We actually try to help each other.

Edited March 7, 2009 by Ocean Boy

[kooljamming]

Did you read the OP's last post? Sure, there have been many glowing reviews of AOS on this particular forum, but there have also been a great deal of negative ones. Would I recommend it based on personal experience? Maybe, but with strong caveats.

 

The things that are negative could be the difference between a good and a great vacation. Information communicated to the actual TA but not mentioned here. I don't waste much time with positive reviews. The negative ones are more helpful in setting my expectation.

Edited March 7, 2009 by kooljamming

[kooljamming]

It makes NO SENSE that an RCC employee would talk down about one of their ships. We sailed on AOS and would do so again in a minute. Something is up here and it is not AOS.:confused:

 

What a bunch of garbage. Sorry. No RCI rep will advise against sailing on any of their ships.

 

PS: the Serenade sailings may be higher priced. Your TA is looking for commission. Change your TA. :D

 

I didn't assume anything. I went by what was written. To do otherwise would have been an ASS-U-MPTION. And, no one is playing TA. The OP stated that she was interested in Adventure. Some of us gave our opinions of the ship. If she wants an opinion on whether or not she might be happy with this ship and itinerary then she is welcome to tell us what her likes and dislikes are and those of us who have EXPERIENCED the ship and itinerary will be happy to try to provide an answer specific for her desires. That is how it is around here. We actually try to help each other.

 

Ocean Boy: Sorry I guess I misread some of these posts....my bad:D

Edited March 7, 2009 by kooljamming

[Davey Interweb]

The things that are negative could be the difference between a good and a great vacation. Information communicated to the actual TA but not mentioned here. I don't waste much time with positive reviews. The negative ones are more helpful in setting my expectation.

 

Very true. I'll take information I glean from reviews with a grain of salt; generally I dismiss any that are entirely negative or entirely positive. No cruise or ship I've ever been on has been flawless. Me, I've never had a bad cruise, but I would easily rank my AOS experience right at the bottom of all the sailings I've done. Experiences are quite subjective, aren't they?

 

There are some great ships sailing the southern route, and it'd be difficult to make a bad choice. Each will have a different feel to it and it's up to the TA to determine what their client is looking for out of a cruise, based on the questions they ask of them and the answers they receive. That's supposed to be what they're there for.

[granddutchess]

We sailed on AOS back in June 2007 and had a fantastic time. Everything about the cruise was top notch. We are scheduled to go again on AOS this summer. I would book it and get a different TA.:)

[satxdiver]

I was on the Adventure last September and loved it. I had a great time on the ship and in Puerto Rico before and after the cruise. I plan to do it again.

 

The ship sails from San Juan, PR. Surprise ...a large number of the pax are Puerto Rican and speak their native language of Spanish. They are US citizens, but they speak Spanish. If you are biased against Puerto Ricans or do not like it when other languages are spoken particularly Spanish, then this is not the ship for you. If you think everyone has to speak English and dress and act like an "American", then pick another ship.

 

Where I live, Spanish is a fact of life as is their customs and dress. It was like old home week aboard the Adventure and I enjoyed the multiculture. Every day in the Compass on the front page was a statement about tolerance towards those of a different culture. Evidentally some had problems reading and understanding the message!

 

I personally cannot imagine a RCCL employee recommending one ship over another or influencing pax to consider another ship unless money was involved - the old bait and switch ploy.

[Davey Interweb]

I personally cannot imagine a RCCL employee recommending one ship over another

 

What? I have to ask, why is this so implausible to you? RCCL had four ships regularly sailing round-trip San Juan (three now). Of course it's possible a rep might steer a travel agent to recommend one over the other.

 

Also, out of curiosity, where would bait-and-switch come into play here?

[kooljamming]

I was on the Adventure last September and loved it. I had a great time on the ship and in Puerto Rico before and after the cruise. I plan to do it again.

 

The ship sails from San Juan, PR. Surprise ...a large number of the pax are Puerto Rican and speak their native language of Spanish. They are US citizens, but they speak Spanish. If you are biased against Puerto Ricans or do not like it when other languages are spoken particularly Spanish, then this is not the ship for you. If you think everyone has to speak English and dress and act like an "American", then pick another ship.

 

Where I live, Spanish is a fact of life as is their customs and dress. It was like old home week aboard the Adventure and I enjoyed the multiculture. Every day in the Compass on the front page was a statement about tolerance towards those of a different culture. Evidentally some had problems reading and understanding the message!

 

I personally cannot imagine a RCCL employee recommending one ship over another or influencing pax to consider another ship unless money was involved - the old bait and switch ploy.

 

Are you saying this ONE ship will meet EVERYONE'S needs? Wouldn't this defeat the purpose of having multiples ships and different classes of them:rolleyes: Can you imagine a RCCL employee recommending Oasis of the Sea, the Nation Unto itself to EVERYONE, even the NOOTS?

Edited March 8, 2009 by kooljamming

[monn_a]

Did you read the OP's last post? Sure, there have been many glowing reviews of AOS on this particular forum, but there have also been a great deal of negative ones. Would I recommend it based on personal experience? Maybe, but with strong caveats.

 

I think that's what I was trying to convey...you will have good and bad reviews...but if you look at the reviews the good ones far outweigh the bad ones...all we can give here is opinion...any experience is what you make it...:)

[Wilda]

I would question the ta......while our last cruise on the aos in May wasn't as great as our first in April 05, it had nothing to do with the ship or the staff. In fact, we loved the ship, the itin, the staff and the cd Mike was excellent.

 

We just like a balance of passengers.....just being honest.

 

Perhaps the ta is being given more of an incentive to sell the serenade.

 

I used a TA to book the first cruise my husband and I took together. We booked a guarantee balcony on Golden Princess prior to 9/11. In early October we were upgraded to a mini-suite and received a substantial $$$ reimbursement to boot:D The next year we booked another Princess cruise- no upgrade this time but still had a great time!

 

We decided to switch to Royal and told our TA we would like to book the Serenade. Well you would of thought there was infidelity in our relationship:eek: She used every trick-up-her-sleeve to get us to go back to Princess. The next year we tried Adventure and thoroughly enjoyed it....but she certainly didn't enjoy seeing us on that ship. The level of engagement drops noticeably when we consider another line. By this time I'm thinking that she had more of a loyalty to Princess...

 

Anyhow our next cruise we decided to do a 9-day on the Crown Pincess and she was positively gushing with enthusiasm;) Last year we told her we were going to travel with our 8-year old grandson and wanted to book Liberty of the Seas because of all the bells and whistles. By now you are probably thinking I've seen this movie and I know how it ends;) Well, she strongly encouraged us to consider the Crown and the Caribbean Princess ships. We didn't and are now completely hooked on the Freedom class ships of RCI.

 

Needless to say we will not use her, or any other TA again to book a cruise (it only took us 6 cruises to figure it out). Don't get me wrong...I do appreciate it when a professional gives me an unbiased opinion based on what I am looking for. It is the constantly biased opinion that makes me wonder about motive.

[BarbaB]

We took our first RC cruise this year on AOS, and loved it. Had the best time, enjoyed all of the ports, and the staff was great. We had cruised on Carnival and Holland before - loved Carnival, not old enough for Holland. We were so impressed with Royal that we have already booked our next cruise on Explorer. We have not "paid" for a vacation in years, using our timeshare, but have really caught the cruising bug.

 

Go on AOS and enjoy

 

BarbaB

[Davey Interweb]

Looks like the OP booked on Summit instead. It's clear now that her travel agent was just trying to steer her toward a more expensiv...oh wait.

[In your dreams]

How does one find a good TA??? And...how does that work? We need one for southern Caribbean cruise in Jan. 2016.

 

Ellen

[searoses]

You have asked a question on a 6 yr old thread....not allowed to give ta info on the boards....I bet if you list what you are looking for....when,how many people,budget ...you will get good,current info and then book directly with whatever line you choose...this will allow you to keep control of your booking as lines will only deal with your ta should you go that route...good look searching!

[pcur]

Well, I have been on one of AOS's notorious bad behavior cruises, and I can tell you that the behavior I saw was unbelievable. I won't get into specifics because there are some of you that refuse to believe these things can happen, and all you'll do is flame me.

 

That being said, I have also had a fabulous cruise on AOS. It's just a matter of when and where with that ship. I'm sure the overwhelming majority of cruises are great. It's the few bad ones that can really leave a bad taste in one's mouth.

 

FYI....The fabulous cruise was in February. The bad cruise was in October, which seems to be the time of year that generates the most complaints.

 

I agree 100%. The RCCL rep talked about recent complaints, which I think means the comment surveys filled out after the cruise, and probably those from December. As a matter of fact, that comment sounds almost word-for-word what my husband wrote on his survey.

 

We were on the 12/7/14 sailing and had exactly the same experience with some really obnoxious behavior by almost all the passengers on the ship. We were on the Jewel the week before, 11/29, and it was similar but not as bad.

 

I think our bad experiences had a lot to do with near-holiday season sales in PR.

[S.S.Oceanlover]

I agree 100%. The RCCL rep talked about recent complaints, which I think means the comment surveys filled out after the cruise, and probably those from December. As a matter of fact, that comment sounds almost word-for-word what my husband wrote on his survey.

 

We were on the 12/7/14 sailing and had exactly the same experience with some really obnoxious behavior by almost all the passengers on the ship. We were on the Jewel the week before, 11/29, and it was similar but not as bad.

 

I think our bad experiences had a lot to do with near-holiday season sales in PR.

 

It's amazing that almost 6 years later the same thing is still happening.

 

Bill

[Big_G]

It's amazing that almost 6 years later the same thing is still happening.

 

Bill

 

Maybe it was a reunion cruise. ;)

[In your dreams]

I'm meeting lots of interesting people on this AOS Jan. 2016 forum. I would like to ask everyone this:

Why did you book this particular ship and date, to cruise on?

I have never been on the AOS, nor have I cruised from San Juan.

[Paulette3028]

If there is someone reading this thread that has been on Adventure in the past few weeks/months, could you tell me who the Activities Manager was on board your sailing and the date of the sailing.

 

To all those going on AOS, I am sure you will have a good time.

[JTBCruiser]

I'm meeting lots of interesting people on this AOS Jan. 2016 forum. I would like to ask everyone this:

Why did you book this particular ship and date, to cruise on?

I have never been on the AOS, nor have I cruised from San Juan.

 

Our very 1st cruise was out of San Juan on Carnival back in 1991. We had a blast. For some reason we just got too busy and never cruised again until 4 years ago, now we try to go once a year. Last Feb we went on Jewel of the Seas out of San Juan. Long flight from the Midwest but we had no issues flying in, got to the ship in time before it left port and thoroughly enjoyed the islands. We are taking her sister ship, Serenade next month in the Western Caribbean. Now for the AOS. I did lots of research and wanted to go back to Southern Caribbean so we picked AOS in March 16. I sifted through the comments and decided it had enough interest for us to give it a try. We initially booked an aft cabin on the 10th deck then just last week upgraded to a JS on the 10th deck because of the price. I think the ship has lots to offer, will stop each day at a new island and will enjoy the food choices throughout the ship.