BoopTennis

embarkation for us out of San Juan was fine. I think we got there around noon or little after, did not take too long to get on board. There were lines but they moved pretty fast

Reading your review has brought back so many happy memories from the 28 days we have spent on Adventure and made me even more eager for next September to arrive when we'll board her again for two cruises back-to-back. Thank your for taking the time to write such a detailed review and to post so many photos. Best wishes to you and your family for many happy days cruising in the future.

WOW! 28 days on one ship (i know across various cruises). and more to come. that is awesome, you must know the ship so well. I did a fair amount of exploring but am sure there were a lot of fun places I did not find

I will try to get the rest of the compasses posted this weekend. I have them all

my 9 year old son loved the Boatyard in Barbados last week. We got off the ship and took a taxi for $2 per person into town, they walked to the beach from there. Paid the $15 per person (less for kids I think) included lounge chair, umbrella and free drink. Water was great he played in it and they have inflatables and water toys he played on

our food in the MDR on the Adventure last week was great. Hot, yummy, nice selections. I tried new things each night and never resorted to the "classics" (the items that repeat each night).

omg i wish they had had that cake on our cruise! they absolutely did not I would have known LOL, i am a chocoholic

we did the Dunns river falls a couple years ago and it was fantastic! we did it in January and water was brisk but not so much we didnt enjoy it. One gal in our group had just broken her wrist a couple days before that, had it in a cast, wrapped it in plastic and still climbed the falls!

After that we went to Mystic Mountain i think it was called, went up a ski lift deal which was fun then down on a bobsled and that was simply hilarious and fun. i laughed the whole time

Good review! Brought back good memories. We sailed on the Adventure of the Seas out of Southampton UK to Iceland and Norway back in mid 2014.

 

What I am curious to know is whether the food in WJ is the same or different when the ship sails out of Europe versus out of USA. This is a video I made of the WJ dinner. Perhaps you can let me know any differences to the food on your recent cruise. CHeers and have a blessed 2016.

[YOUTUBE]n32QJIrVd08[/YOUTUBE]

You did a very nice job with the video. I did not take photos in the WJ, i should have i guess. I will try to remember the differences, although i did not go through the entire buffet line much, i generally went and grabbed something quick and got in and out.

ONe thing I forgot to mention (AND forgot to photo!) that your video reminded me of...when you first entered the WJ they had a huge display of a little village made out of Gingerbread Houses. It was up the whole week (we sailed on Christmas week). It was lovely, just for viewing not for eating. But that took up some room in the front as you went in

As for food, we did NOT have sushi! And i had read before that AOS did, so my youngest son was disappointed. Looked like a good selection.

I think you had more soup choices. Also more Asian food choices looked good. I didnt see a make your own pizza station, on ours, i would have like that, maybe one day they had it and i missed it. They had premade pizzas for pepperoni, cheese and one other. It was ok not great.

We had hamburgers and hot dogs with buns, not sure if I saw that or not on your video

We also had a taco bar with hard shell tortillas (not soft ones) and beef and various toppings.

I cant comment on the exact other foods there, some might have been a little different I am not sure

I also forgot to mention that on Christmas morning, as you got close to the WJ doors, they had a small station to hand out free egg nog (both alcohol and non alcohol). I took advantage of that at least twice :)

so so sad to see the cruise end, it went by so fast, i wish we could have stayed on!

1st groups were called at 7 am. We had a 9:20 time. Windjammer was open for breakfast until 9 or 9:30. We grabbed breakfast then finished getting out of our rooms, then we went to hang out in one of the lounges that had coloring book pages and crayons for kids. Played some cards and walked around a bit one last time.

Got off the ship, customs line was pretty long took about 40 minutes. Lots of taxis waiting and maybe just a 5-10 minute wait to load up. Taxi to airport was 15 minutes or less and cost $25 plus tip which included $1 per bag fee.

Not sure if I mentioned it but Kids Club was great, 9 yr old enjoyed it a lot, ate dinner one night with them. Met friends that he hung with at the pool also.

I will try to get the rest of the compasses posted soon.

LOVED the cruise!!!

Friday, Christmas Day, Sea Day

I do enjoy sea days and we only had one of those! And Christmas morning on top of it! First I hung little Christmas stocking on all our door handles with small chocolates inside. Hid just a couple little gifts for the grandson.

They had a Champagne Brunch in the MDR so we did that. Rest of the day we just hung out at the pool, played some mini golf, guys played some basketball, some played ping pong. Early morning almost every lounge chair on the main deck had a towel on it, few people, LOL, that was the day the Deck Police came out and cleared some of that out. Fun to watch THAT LOL

Santa showed up somewhere and there was Christmas caroling and other things to partake in if one desired. It was a nice day for our last day.

Dinner was great, had a poblano and corn soup which was great, also shrimp cocktail (always 2 appetizers for me, sorry) also good. Have LOBSTER which was yummy and a soufflé of some sort for dessert. Very nice. We had late dinner seating so put our big checked bags out in the hallway before dinner (although they stated to get them out there by 11 pm for pickup).

Christmas was a full moon, as you may have known. Had not had a full moon on Christmas since like 1977 and will not see it again until 2034. So I thought that was pretty cool and the full moon was B E A U T I F U L from the ship! Just awesome! I tried hard to take a photo but it just does not capture it correctly.

I must mention that our waiters were awesome. Both took such good care of us and especially our grandson. They always called him by name and knew that he wanted cheese rolls up front and brought extra to him. Always asked how his day was. Also our stateroom attendant Charlie was fantastic. Thank you to all the hard working people on the cruises that make our vacations so wonderful.

Our bar server was also great, he even would look for me during the day by the pool (they all have multiple jobs they must do, work long hard hours) and greet me by name and say hi. Just a little extra touch.

our group with our main waiter

i tried to capture the Christmas full moon, but didnt get it the way i wanted

Love this guy, he took such good care of us

the last dinner, the waiters all paraded through the dining room and everyone waved their napkins. They had also done that for all the chefs on an earlier night. there are a LOT of chefs!

here is a link to flights in and out of the airport by MAHO

http://www.sxmairport.com/flights-info.php

for parking, as you drive across the bridge towards the airport, you will come to a "T" intersection. Turn left goes right past the runway spot and by the Sunset Bar, a little further down is a casino (we were able to park there for awhile and hubby even gambled a bit and won some $$ LOL). or you can turn right and head that way. I think you just have to look for a spot and maybe have to walk a bit to get back to Maho Beach

I have also heard that Mullet Beach, a bit north of Maho, has parking and you can walk to Maho but I do not have first hand experience about that

Thursday Barbados

We decided to not pre-book an excursion for Barbados so we weren’t too booked and could relax a bit. Plus it was now Christmas Eve! So we spent time around the pool and exploring the ship. We did decide to get off the ship for awhile in the afternoon…5 of us got off and took a taxi into town for $2 per person. Dropped us off, my youngest son and I looked for a place with wifi to grab some quick emails, another son and his family headed for Boatyard (beach). I had researched that here on cc and it sounded great, and I heard later they had an awesome time. Got the lounges and umbrellas and a free drink for $15 each and my grandson had so much fun playing on all the water toys.

My other son and I asked around and found this internet café. For $5 we both got free internet for 20 minutes or so on for both of our devices. So that got us all caught up.

We grabbed taxi back to ship. That evening we played music trivia in one of the lounges which was fun. After dinner played cards up in the game room.

Dinner I had a caprese salad, which I liked, some sort of mushroom ball appetizer, also good. Entrée had tiger shrimp on rice which was good but tiresome to peel the shrimp . For dessert had two things and they were both awesome and I was way too full. One was a bread pudding and it was out of this world. Other was a dessert sampler, had three things, I was only interested in one of them (chocolate) and it was a little mousse type cake and it was the best dessert I had all week. I would have liked that every night LOL. This was also the 2nd formal night.

Several nights my husband and some of the others went to the casino. I don’t enjoy gambling so did not partake. Hubby thought the casino was a little better than other ships we have been on, a better selection of table games. Negative was the craps table only allowed single odds bet (whatever that is). Casino had smoking except for one night was non-smoking (we are not smokers), I could detect the smoke when we walked thru there.

I don’t remember if I mentioned ping pong before. They had several tables available and we played a few times, did our own little tournament, and that was fun. It’s up on the top deck so wind can be a factor.

this is the internet cafe we found

Great Review. I will be taking this same cruise in March, 1st time to the Southern Caribbean and 1st time to SJU & 1st time on AOS. Thank you so much for taking the time to post it!

you will have a great time. I love the S Caribbean itineraries!

we just got back from our cruise departing out of San Juan and while there we ate at Orozco's one night. it was very good, enjoyed the atmosphere and food and drinks! its right on Ashford just down a block or so from Marriott

have fun! take a towel, and wear water shoes, and maybe an extra dry shirt to wear over your swimsuit on way home because you will be soaking wet. you will be able to leave your stuff safely in the van while you are tubing

dont take anything on the river that can't get wet. water camera only

I was able to view them without a problem. Thx for posting.

thank you for letting me know

we had a short rainstorm, with the SUN OUT, so we had a rainbow!

another food picture. this was called Chocolate Sensation and it was yummy

our inner tubes for our river tubing ride

Wednesday Dominica

Another active day and had to make everyone get up fairly early again! We had reserved in advance a River Tubing tour with AnTours (directly through AnTours, not through the ship). We docked, grabbed quick breakfast at Windjammer, then walked off the ship. Driver with AnTours sign met us at the end of the pier where all the tour operators were waiting. There were 7 of us in our family group. One other couple from Canada joined our group and after a bit of a wait we piled in the van and off we went. Driver’s name was HenryFord (“like the car” LOL) and he was funny and told us all about the island on our drive. Fairly long drive (30 minutes? Didn’t track it too much), went thru town then up into mountain and lots of narrow curvy roads.

Got to the top and another truck with a bunch of inner tubes was waiting with guides. We hopped out and started getting outfitted with helmets and lifejackets. We all wore water shoes and I recommend you do this for this tour!

At this point we waited again for awhile, longer than I would have liked, for another group of people to come. Maybe another 8 or so. But after that, once we got going in the water, everything was perfect.

They helped us get into our tubes. Not that difficult. They seems to be good quality and sturdy tubes. The water is not deep you can easily stand up in the river. They got us in a bit of a line then pushed us off. It was SO FUN! I was afraid the water would be very cold but it was not bad at all (and I am a BIG chicken when it comes to cold water). Off we all went, and did it over 45 min to an hour, I didn’t really track, but it was a very long and nice ride. Part of the river were fast rapids, then you would have a calm area to just float awhile. I lost count of how many guides were with us but plenty to make sure we were all ok. Maybe 6 or 8 guides?? They would swim fast and be in front of us and also behind us. They would rush ahead to be by the rapids and rocks to make sure if we got stuck they pushed us to get us going again. There was plenty of water and I got plenty wet

For this I had purchased one of those cheap old style 35mm disposable water cameras. You definitely want something waterproof for this adventure! Those pictures are in for processing so I don’t have them yet to post but will later if any of them come out LOL. This was so much fun I was laughing the whole time.

Again our ages for this tour was 9 yrs- 65 yrs. One dad had a baby that looked one year old or less. I’m not sure I would have done that (baby did not seem too happy) but she was safe the whole way. No one got hurt.

After the nice long ride down the river we got out and took off all our helmets and lifejackets and turned in our tubes. Then they had rum punch for us (YUM) and also nonalcoholic punch if you wanted THAT. Then the drive back to the pier, which did not take very long because we had gone down the mountain on the river. HenryFord told us more about the island and some jokes and even quizzed us at the end (in a funny way). We did learn a lot about the island.

Dominica is clearly one of the more tropical/non commercialized islands we visited.

I am so glad we did this tour. I like active adventures

Back on ship just hung out and enjoyed pool etc. Dinner had Caeser salad (good), crab cake appetizer (good), some sort of Beef Ragu entrée (just ok) and for dessert this yummy “yeast cake” with vanilla ice cream. I don’t know what it is about how they names these foods, they taste great but the names need to be improved LOL

PS this island took a pretty big hit with Storm Erika a few months ago but everything was fine that we saw and it did not affect our tour at all

driving back to pier

our ship in the distance

i did not take a lot of photos of the actual planes coming in. There are plenty of those on YouTube and elsewhere. Here are a couple. But i was sitting on the sand right under where the planes came in and it was an AWESOME feeling! Photos dont express it properly. If you love planes (I do). then go see this place at least once

this photo does not show it well enough (and it is a smaller plane). but they come real low right over your head. and the bigger jets are not to be missed

the runway is on the other side of the small street. they land right there. and take off there. When we were there, no one was hanging on the fence for takeoff. but sand blew everywhere so when a plane was taking off i got away from that area LOL

headed back to pier after Maho

arrived at Maho beach and so excited to see the planes!

my son and grandson played in the water while planes came in, had a great time