AOS 9/6/09 Sailing

[khank]

This is my first review. I’m not a writer, but reading these boards helped me so much in planning for this cruise that I want to hopefully help others with my thoughts. As I write this, I’m still feeling the ship’s movement and so wishing I could rewind and do it all over.

 

To first give some background info – DH & I traveled with another couple and we are all in our mid-40’s (kids are in college or staying with relatives for this trip). This is our 9th RCCL cruise, 10th overall and our friends’ 2nd RCCL and 3rd overall cruise. We have all sailed the Mariner; therefore, we’ve been on a Voyager class ship before.

 

We had absolutely perfect weather for the entire trip! We flew into San Juan on Saturday and stayed at the Marriott Stellaris – very nice hotel. Because it had rained earlier in the day, the weather was extremely comfortable. After checking in, we took a cab to Old San Juan and explored El Morro fort and the town. I had the best Mojito ever at an open-air bar; unfortunately I don’t remember the name. We ate dinner at Raices which had been recommended by several different shop owners. The food was great and reasonably priced.

 

We left the hotel on Sunday at around 10:45 to head to the ship. When we arrived, the line was already extremely long. I asked a porter about priority boarding for platinum C&A members and he led us to another waiting area in the front, allowing our friends to go with us. After about a 15 minute wait, they let us in the terminal and we breezed thru check-in. We had another wait of around 20 minutes and then we were on the ship. I think I was the 6th person to board!!!!

 

The ship is in great shape and we had excellent service the entire cruise. We attended many of the shows and with the exception of Quest, I was surprised how many empty seats there were. I highly recommend the ice show! The shows we attended we enjoyed, with the exception of the midnight comedian. His humor went beyond “adult humor” and was quite gross. I’ve attended many midnight comedian shows in the past and have always enjoyed them, but definitely not this entertainer. I did make a comment about it on my comment card and wonder if others felt the same. We enjoyed the piano sing-along in the Schooner Bar and cocktails before dinner in the Blue Moon lounge (formerly Viking Crown) on the 14th deck.

 

I will primarily focus on the ports and our excursions. Everything we did, came from reading reviews on cruise critic.

 

In Aruba, we went to the Radisson on Palm Beach. We arrived around 10:00 and there were very few people on the beach. We paid $16/pp and for this we had use of their facilities poolside and on the beach (to include towels). DH and I walked along the beach and both felt that the Radisson beach area was by far the nicest.

 

In Curacao, we booked a full day snorkel trip with Curacao Actief. It turned out that only the 4 of us were on the tour, so our guide, Howard, tailored it to us by giving us different choices. He offered snorkeling at a spot which is seldom snorkeled due to the difficulty of getting to it (we are intermediate & experienced snorkelers). He explained we would hike to an area where we would then have to swim against the fairly strong current to another area where we would again hike and would then swim out through a “shore break” surf to the snorkel spot. We decided to go for it. Because this sight is seldom used, the coral formations were absolutely amazing! We saw numerous fish and it was quite the adventure. After this stop, we went to the Tugboat to snorkel some more. We saw octopus, squid, eels and lots of other fish. From here we went to a scenic park for lunch and then to the caves. It was really cool seeing the water come up into the caves as it does. After this we went off-roading to a boca where we stood on a plateau of 5000 year old coral and sediment, here we saw numerous sea turtles swimming in the boca below. This was really a fantastic adventure!

 

Dominica was one of our favorite islands! DH wants to come back next year and stay here for a week as there is so much to see and do. We took the Roseau Valley Treasures tour with Levi Baron of bumpiing tours. Levi truly enjoys what he does and is such a fantastic tour guide. We went to Titou Gorge first. I truly hate cold water and was not entirely sure I wanted to get in. Boy am I sooooo glad I did! Words cannot describe this place! It was truly amazing! From here we went to Trafalgar Falls and enjoyed the warm water. We then drove thru the botanical gardens to Morne Bruce a scenic overlook of Roseau. Along the entire trip, Levi would point out plants and fruits and would even stop to pluck a piece for us. Our last stop was Champagne Reef where we enjoyed great snorkeling.

 

In St. Thomas, we took the Red Hook ferry to St. John and went to Trunk Bay. This is the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. The beautiful sea, powdery white sand beach and plenty of shade when you wanted it made for a great day. Venturing their on our own via taxi gave us a lot more time there than the tours who showed up mid-day. I truly did not want to leave! On our way back to the ferry, we stopped at the Tap Room in Mongoose Junction and enjoyed their beer.

 

I am so very glad we did not do the ship’s excursions. We saw them and they were very crowded and did not stay for very long at any of the stops. I highly recommend doing excursions on your own. We were extremely happy with those we did and definitely recommend them!

 

Tomorrow, it’s back to work and reality. This was one of the best vacations ever!

[iambumbo]

Nice review. I will be on AOS on the same itinerary on the 20th. We will also be staying at the Marriott Stellaris the night before, although we won't get in until 8:30pm, so probably save the Old San Juan touring till the next day and then get over to the pier around 3pm or so. I see you got in early, did it look like the ship was filled up by 3pm? This will only be our 3rd RCCL cruise, so no priority check-in for us and would prefer to avoid the line.

 

Was there a returning cruiser's party? I'd heard they dropped that perk as of Sept. 1 for us lowly gold members, but maybe not. Also, did they drop the free drinks from the captain's party? People are saying they won't go if they drop the booze and I'm curious if that really brought attendance down from normal.

 

Great to hear service was top notch. Any suggestions for food to have/avoid that went beyond or didn't meet expectations from past cruises? Thanks!

[lovemylab]

Great review! Thanks for taking the time to share!

[khank]

Yes, there was still a party for all C & A members which did have free champagne, yellow birds and a few other drinks. We did not make it to the Captain's party so I can't comment on that one.

 

I would think the line would not be too bad at 3:00 for embarkation. My guess is that the 11:00 - 1:00 time is the busiest.

 

We did dine in Portofino on Wednesday. The food was fantastic, but the service just ok, not bad, just ok. I was truly surprised by this as I had read how wonderful the service was. We had dined at Chop's on the Mariner and both food & service were amazing. Perhaps it was an off night for them. We had no complaints with the food anywhere on the ship. We ate breakfast in the dining room on sea days and they had a french toast special the first sea day which was to die for!

 

This was a fantastic cruise! Enjoy! I wish I were going again.

[nimbex1970]

Hey fellow cruiser, we did the same sail. I agree that the service was superb, my favorite of all cruises. Just wanted to chime in that we entered the port at 3:30pm and the line was the entire length of the covered port area. Many planes have arrived by then and it was a very long hot wait. I really think early before the planes arrive is the best time... we hung out and had bar drinks at the hotel:D big mistake!