AOS Review 11/29/09-12/06/09

[lovemylab]

Been off the ship for two weeks now...been meaning to do a review sooner so here it goes. This was our third cruise (all with RCCL). I was cruising with my husband (we are late 20's/early 30's with no children).

 

Precruise:

 

We arrived in San Juan on Friday (Nov 27th) around noon. We booked the Sheraton Old San Juan through priceline ($90 a night) and arrived at the hotel around 12:45ish. When we arrived they had a room ready so we quickly put our luggage in our room and headed out to do some sightseeing.

 

We spent the day walking around Old San Juan and did some shopping followed by a late lunch at Barrachina's. The food was good and the Pina Colodas were awesome. Prices were reasonable, I think it was $14 for two Pina Coladas (they were mixed strong). Only other place we ate this day was at the Chicago Burger Company (at the Sheraton). Again prices were reasonable.

 

Saturday we had breakfast at La Bombonara. Food was excellent and lived up to the excellent reviews it receives here on CC. Two coffees, two freshly squeezed OJ and two mallorcas came to $14. I highly recommend this place to anybody who will be visiting San Juan.

 

After breakfast we visited El Morro and then made our way to the Don Q store and museum on the waterfront. When they are open they offer free samples of their products. Bartenders there are very friendly and will gladly mix your rum however you wish. Tips of course are appreciated.

 

After Don Q, we then took the ferry (which is located across the street) to Catano and then caught a cab to the Bacardi factory. The Bacardi tour gets mixed reviews on this board but we loved it. The ferry and cab ride was $7pp for a round trip. When you get to Bacardi you receive 2 drink tickets each. While they don't take you into the factory you do visit a museum where you learn about the history of the company and rum making - we found it informative and a great way to spend a few hours of the afternoon.

 

In the evening we had dinner reservations at Pamela's in Ocean Park. We had a reservation for a table on the beach. Food was delicious and we couldn't think of a better way to spend our last evening in San Juan before leaving on a cruise. Pamela's was not cheap - but the ambiance and food was worth it.

 

 

Emabarkation:

 

Could not have been smoother. We arrived at the pier at 10:30ish or so. There was four people in front of us. The baggage handlers started collecting luggage approximately 30 minutes later. Around 11am they started letting people in the terminal. We were on the ship for 11:30am.

 

The ship was decorated for Christmas and as the week continued, they would bring out more decorations.

 

 

Cabin:

 

We booked an inside cabin for this cruise (our last two cruises were both balcony's). I know a lot of people say that once you have a balcony you can never go back - we are the complete opposite. We loved our inside cabin and don't think we would go back to a balcony! We spend very little time in the room anyways and I sleep better in complete darkness - so for these reasons the inside cabin was perfect for us.

 

 

Food:

 

We had no complaints about the food. On seadays we ate breakfast and lunch in the dining room. On port days we ate breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer. For dinner, we went to the MDR 5 times, Portofino twice and the Windjammer once. The food in the Windjammer was hot and there was lots to choose from.

 

In the dining room we had My Time Dining. Loved it! We had the same wait staff all week and they were fabulous. We did not have to make a reservation (we were told onboard that it was not needed) - we just showed up and were seated immediately.

 

We had read on here that the best night to go to Portofino was Wednesday as that was Caribbean night in the dining room. On our sailing Caribbean night was actually on Tuesday.

 

 

Entertainment:

 

Beatlemaniacs were onboard that week. They were great and sang a wide variety of songs. The performance had people on their feet.

 

The Royal Caribbean singers and dancers had two shows. Can't Stop the Rock and Invitation to Dance. They were okay although we liked Invitation to Dance better.

 

We also went to the ice show. We thought it was just okay.

 

Quest & Love and Marriage Show - absolutely hilarious as always. We felt the cruise director on this ship (Chris Northey) did an outstanding job during these two games.

 

 

Ports:

 

Aruba - we booked a half day tour with ABC jeep tours. We chose the one that went to the Natural Pool. The ride to get to the Natural Pool was an adventure - very bumpy but a lot of fun. The tour was suppossed to be 3.5 hours but it ended up being just over 4 hours as our guide also took us to a few other sites that were not listed.

 

Overall, we loved this tour and would definitely recommend this company. My only advice is to get in one of the jeeps with the driver from ABC. You do have the option of driving yourself however in those jeeps there is nobody from the company to point out things to you.

 

Curacao - we booked a dune buggy tour with Bazz Fun Rentals. It was another half day tour and we found the scenery in Curacao to be similar to that or Aruba. There was only 6 people on the tour and it went off road. There was also a 45 minute beach stop.

 

If you are looking at taking a dune buggy tour I would also recommend this company. Price was $75 per person. We paid an extra $30 so that we could have a buggy all to ourselves (otherwise you switch drivers). Apparently the dune buggy tours through the ships don't go offroad which is why we didn't book through the ship.

 

Dominica - we had booked a river tubing tour with Antours. When we got off the ship we met up with the guide and that was when we were informed that the river tubing had been cancelled - apparently it had rained the night before and the water level in the river was too high. We received a full refund from Antours. We asked the guide if we could join another tour so that we could still see the island. He let us know that he could take us on a 2.5 hour tour to the Botanical Gardens, Sulpher Springs, Trafalgar Falls and the rainforest for $20 each. There were plenty of taxi drivers around the pier offering similar tours in the same price range. The ones we encountered were all friendly and professional.

 

St. Thomas - this was our third time in St. Thomas. Instead of docking at Havensight, we docked at Crown Bay. We only learned of this when we were at the Port and Shopping Show onboard. Our plan was to head to St. John on our own (I was planning to take the public $2 taxi however that plan went up in smoke when I learned we would be docking at Crown Bay - I had wrote down directions for how to get there from Havensight).

 

Getting a taxi to take us to Red Hook was very frustrating. We got off the ship in plenty of time that would allow us to catch the 9am ferry. However in St. Thomas the cab drivers want to fill their cabs before they will leave so we waited. Another couple was with us and had already waited more than 10 minutes. We waited some more. We made it very clear to the taxi driver that we would like to catch the 9am ferry. We were told it would not be a problem. Finally, we were on our way. Of course we had to stop downtown to let off some people...and I swear we had the slowest taxi driver that I have ever been with. I am looking at my watch and commented that "I hope the ferry is still there".....I was told, "oh lots of time the ferry leaves at 9am"....my response back to him was "well it's now 9:05 according to my watch". We ended up missing the ferry by about 3 minutes. Needless to say he didn't get a tip (and I always tip). The lady who was working at the ticket desk told us that we shouldn't have even paid him.

 

We ended up catching the 10am ferry to St. John and spent a few hours at Cinnamon Bay. When we went to leave Cinnamon Bay there were no taxi's around. We headed to the restaurant to see about calling one and one of the workers there offered us a drive into town. Normally we would have played it safe and gone with a taxi but we couldn't be bothered waiting (and then running into the situation like we had earlier....where one won't leave unless their taxi is full). If anyone does go to Cinnamon Bay they may want to make arrangements for a taxi to pick them up at a set time.

 

When we got back to St. Thomas we did a bit of shopping in Charlotte Amalie before heading back to the ship.

 

 

Disembarkation:

 

Was also a breeze. Our color was called and we made our way off the ship. Quickly found our luggage and waited in a line to get past Homeland Security. Once out of the terminal there were plenty of taxi's available.

 

 

Post-cruise:

 

We stayed one night at the Intercontinental ($90 through Priceline). Room wasn't ready when we arrived however they stored our luggage and we had full use of the facilities until our room was ready. We were also given coupons for two free drinks. We ate a late lunch/early dinner at the grill restaurant near the beach - prices were reasonable.

 

We flew out of San Juan on Monday. Airport was fairly slow. It took us approx 45 minutes to reach our gate from the time the taxi dropped us off. There were three lines to go through - agriculture inspection (having the tags on your luggage from the ship doesn't matter, everyone has to go through it), baggage check-in and then security.

 

 

Miscellaneous:

 

We had 1400 Puerto Rican's onboard. There have been lots of previous posts complaining about their behaviour - we didn't encounter any problems at all. Passenger wise, this was one of the friendliest group of passengers we have ever sailed with. We noticed more children on this sailing than on our Serenade sailing two years ago - but that was likely due to us sailing right after Thanksgiving. However, the children we encountered were well behaved.

 

We boarded the ship with an onboard credit due to price drops and the next cruise booking we made two years ago. Part of our onboard credit was in Canadian dollars (from the price drops). This was conerted to US dollars on the first day of the cruise using the Bloomberg exchange rate. We set up our onboard account with a credit card - requesting that the credit card comapny convert the charges (and not RCCL). The other cruises we have taken with RCCL, this request had been ignored. This time it was done the way we asked - may have been in part due to me highlighting that area of the seapass in bright pink.

 

 

 

We have absolutely no complaints about the AOS. The ship is beautiful, the staff are friendly and the ports were awesome. We would gladly cruise on the AOS again.

 

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask and I will do my best to answer.

[CaribbeanSoul 05]

Thanks so much for posting your review! We sail on the AOS 1/3 and so it's great to hear about a recent experience. Sounds like you had a great trip!

[cruisingbajan]

I am thinking of booking this ship for our 1st anniversary(which is still over a year away:eek:) but we like to book early. You sound like you had a great time.

 

Could you tell me how the ship looked maintenance wise? Did you have adequate space in the cabin to move around? Do you get hot items for room service i.e omelets sausages etc...?

[lovemylab]

I am thinking of booking this ship for our 1st anniversary(which is still over a year away:eek:) but we like to book early. You sound like you had a great time.

 

Could you tell me how the ship looked maintenance wise? Did you have adequate space in the cabin to move around? Do you get hot items for room service i.e omelets sausages etc...?

 

Hi Keith

 

We booked this cruise back in April 2008 so I can understand wanting to book early!

 

Maintenance wise the ship was excellent. We had an inside cabin which didn't allow a lot of room however we barely spent any time in the cabin anyways so for us it was adequate. You can order hot items through room service.

[Ruth]

We enjoyed our cruise. Only thing I wish that the staff on Adventure of the Seas would get is... No Rap Music in the Windjammer Cafe in the morning. -The Adult Only party they through had a young DJ playing RAP Music -Adults in their 40's and 50's Don't listen to RAP music. The night of the Adult party we hopped bars till we found one small bar -the Piano Bar -I think it is called the Schooner Bar.

Piano Player was great. Playing 70's & 80 music -singing a long with him, Elton John songs etc and many others.

 

Adult Pool was constantly being invaded by little ones unattended by parents. Parents on this cruise didn't have a handled on their children. My husband Wittness two small children running up and down stair -They tripped a lady who -later we found out something was broken. The husband of the lady was so mad. He grabbed one of the children to hand over to staff of Adventure of the Seas. After a long time of being question by staff the child finally told them who he was. The other child that ran off was of the same family. The family was responsible for medical cost. Not sure if people like this ever get it.

 

We cruise a lot. But it seem the cruise lines are not enforcing families to have supervision over their children. They have the run of the cruise ship now. This is really becoming a real problem. Not sure why cruise lines don't enforce supervision of young people.

 

We always have late sitting at dinner so we are sitting with adults.

 

Overall I would give this cruise a thumbs up. You will enjoy it. Hey -my worst cruise was a good cruise. But we love cruising. We prefer 10 or 14 days now. 7 days isn't long enough.

 

Merry Christmas everyone

All the Best@

[pxy cda]

Saturday we had breakfast at La Bombonara. Food was excellent and lived up to the excellent reviews it receives here on CC. Two coffees, two freshly squeezed OJ and two mallorcas came to $14. I highly recommend this place to anybody who will be visiting San Juan. The Coach outlet just south of El Convento was a must stop for bargains as well.

 

We set up our onboard account with a credit card - requesting that the credit card comapny convert the charges (and not RCCL). The other cruises we have taken with RCCL, this request had been ignored. This time it was done the way we asked - may have been in part due to me highlighting that area of the seapass in bright pink.

 

 

Hi there,

 

We were on AOS this past April and we LOVED it - I would love to be on her again SOON!

 

We also had breakfast at La Bombonara - this is a must stop for culture, awesome (and very reasonably priced) breakfast. So yummy and the coffee is to die for! Sooooo good! We stayed at El Convento a super choice for location although the Sheraton would be our next best choice for having OSJ at your doorstep for pre/post cruise stays.

 

Can you advise why you choose the credit card conversion vs the ship? This is of interest as a fellow CDN.

[cruisingbajan]

Hi Keith

 

We booked this cruise back in April 2008 so I can understand wanting to book early!

 

Maintenance wise the ship was excellent. We had an inside cabin which didn't allow a lot of room however we barely spent any time in the cabin anyways so for us it was adequate. You can order hot items through room service.

 

Thanks for the response.

 

We also see our cabin as just somewhere to sleep at night. I think I will totally enjoy cruising this ship.

[Ocean Boy]

Any idea why Adventure ended up at Crown Bay in St. Thomas? I had not heard of that happening before. It would certainly be a challenge to the plans I usually make prior to arrival.

[lovemylab]

 

Can you advise why you choose the credit card conversion vs the ship? This is of interest as a fellow CDN.

 

We get a better exchange through our credit card company. However, we also have a US dollar credit card and that is usually the one we use on a cruise.

 

Any idea why Adventure ended up at Crown Bay in St. Thomas? I had not heard of that happening before. It would certainly be a challenge to the plans I usually make prior to arrival.

 

No idea. We heard the woman mention it at the Port & Shopping Talk and afterwards went to Guest Relations who confirmed it. We were the only ship in St. Thomas that day. Had we not gone to the Port & Shopping show we wouldn't have known until we docked :eek: