05/22/05 AOS Just Back!!!

[jenjes3]

Hi everyone.. just returned from our 7th cruise with Royal Caribbean.. We had a wonderful time. Weather was perfect.... Traveled with husband and 2 daughters, ages 21 & 19. This is our 3rd Voyager class ship we have sailed on. We previously been on the Voyager and the Explorer. Along with the Sovereign, Granduer, Enchantment and Serenade. The ship was in good condition with a little wear and tear shown. The overall food was good. Sometimes the Windjammer for lunch would get to us but there was always the Cafe Promenade. Our dinners were good but the menus have changed with fewer choices. Our waiter and assistant waiter were excellent. Our cabin steward was very good but our daughters not so good.. One night room wasn't made up until I called someone at 10:30 p.m. I think sometimes they take advantage when there are young adults in a cabin instead of "mom & dad"....

 

We enjoyed the ports... specifically Trunk Bay in St. John.. , Dickenson Bay in Antigua, and Malibu Beach in Barbados. We stayed on the ship at St. Martin and St. Lucia.. We had been to St. Martin 3xs already and wanted to enjoy the ship to ourselves and we did!!!!

 

Our daughters enjoyed Jesters and Duck & Dog...

 

The negative things I noticed were ... 1. The entertainment, specificaly, the shows were not as good as we are used too.. we only went to 2 shows and the ice show which was very good. 2. Not enough island music by the pool.

 

We enjoyed the perks of the Crown and Anchor/Platinum status.. priority checkin and private departure lounge along with being off the ship first. We used a lot of the coupons in the booklet. We enjoy our "robes"...

 

We will be sailing again with Royal Caribbean .... not sure when and what ship! If anyone has any specific questions, please ask away....

 

Also.. it was nice running into some of my friends from cruise critic meet & mingle...

[Hypo]

We are sailing the AOS on June 26, 2005. What time were you able to leave the ship and what time did you get to the airport? We have a 12:30 flight and I know from past experience that the San Juan airport is a madhouse on turnaround days.

 

Thanks,

 

Mark & Juli

[showergirl5311b]

Hi everyone.. just returned from our 7th cruise with Royal Caribbean.. We had a wonderful time. Weather was perfect.... Traveled with husband and 2 daughters, ages 21 & 19. This is our 3rd Voyager class ship we have sailed on. We previously been on the Voyager and the Explorer. Along with the Sovereign, Granduer, Enchantment and Serenade. The ship was in good condition with a little wear and tear shown. The overall food was good. Sometimes the Windjammer for lunch would get to us but there was always the Cafe Promenade. Our dinners were good but the menus have changed with fewer choices. Our waiter and assistant waiter were excellent. Our cabin steward was very good but our daughters not so good.. One night room wasn't made up until I called someone at 10:30 p.m. I think sometimes they take advantage when there are young adults in a cabin instead of "mom & dad"....

 

We enjoyed the ports... specifically Trunk Bay in St. John.. , Dickenson Bay in Antigua, and Malibu Beach in Barbados. We stayed on the ship at St. Martin and St. Lucia.. We had been to St. Martin 3xs already and wanted to enjoy the ship to ourselves and we did!!!!

 

Our daughters enjoyed Jesters and Duck & Dog...

 

The negative things I noticed were ... 1. The entertainment, specificaly, the shows were not as good as we are used too.. we only went to 2 shows and the ice show which was very good. 2. Not enough island music by the pool.

 

We enjoyed the perks of the Crown and Anchor/Platinum status.. priority checkin and private departure lounge along with being off the ship first. We used a lot of the coupons in the booklet. We enjoy our "robes"...

 

We will be sailing again with Royal Caribbean .... not sure when and what ship! If anyone has any specific questions, please ask away....

 

Also.. it was nice running into some of my friends from cruise critic meet & mingle...

 

What time were you able to board the ship? And as for the menus I heard they had new menus, you say that there are less choices on them? Is there anywhere to view these new menus? Do they still have the basic things that you can order instead if you don't like what is on the main menu?

Thanks:)

[welove2cruisedou]

Hi, We also just went on the May 22nd sailing. What a nightmare, nothing went right. We stayed 1 pre night stay at the Caribe Hilton. We arrived at the hotel at around 4:15pm and when we went to check in at the desk, they told us our room wasn't ready yet. So we were like no big deal, we'll just sit in the lounge for the 45 minute wait and just relax. They said they were booked 100%. That doesnt give them any excuse to bump us around. Well we kept asking when our room would be ready and they kept telling us 45 minutes. Finally my boyfriend went up to the desk and told them off. It was 6:30pm when they finally told us our room was ready. So already that was a waste of time staying there. Then about an hour later we use the bathroom and the water from the toilet wouldn't stop running. So we had to call the maintance for assistance, well after the 3rd call to the front desk they finally sent someone up to our room to check out the stupid toilet. I really think the people working at the hotel are complete morons. The stupid guy had no idea what he was doing. He thought he fixed it but as soon as he left, the toilet started running again. My boyfriend was so fed up that he just shut the water off to the toilet until we needed to use it. Then to top everything all off, in the morning we were told to bring our luggage down to the front desk for Royal Caribbean to bring our luggage to the ship. So they said at 11:00am a representative from the cruise line would be picking up the luggage. Well it was around 12 noon when we left and they still didnt come to get the luggage yet. So we just put it on the bus we rode on to the pier. Overall the Caribe Hilton was gorgeous, just needs major restaffing. The staff sucks there and I would not recommend anyone going there unless you want a big hassel.

 

Well off to the Adventure of the Seas. We were actually early getting there, so we just walked right threw the terminal and showed our passports and were on the ship by 12:30pm. Wow, that was easy compared to the hotel. Got our sea pass on the way. Checked the ship out, was a few wear and tears but that is to be expected. We pretty much found everything pretty easily as we had been on the Voyager last year. The only thing we didn't like they had seated us with 6 other guest and we primarily go on the cruise to be by ourselves. So we asked to have a table for 2, we got a table for 4, they just told us we would have more room at the table. They were very pleasant to deal with. Next off to book our shore excursions. We got pretty much all the shore excursions we wanted, except we wanted to do the dune buggy in Barbados, but it was booked up quite fast. So if you want a certain tour make sure you book online or book early when you get on the ship.

ST. Thomas- we went on a bike tour over at Water Island. The tour guides were very knowledged people. They took us up to the top of the mountain where we were fitted with helmets and bikes. This was quite the adventure. My boyfriend likes to ride his bike fast so he had a blast. Some how on the way about 7 of us got off the trail. We all looked at each other and didn't know what to do. We thought we were on survivor. On a bike trip with no water waiting in the 95 degree weather was not very pleasant, but hey beets the cold here in Albany, New York.(It's actually quite nice here today) Finally they found us and we were on our way. It was actually quite fun. I would recommend wearing old clothes, the grease from the chains gets all over you. We stopped at the end of the tour at honeymoon beach. Not anything worth seeing if you ask us. Back on the ferry, in a rush we dashed back to the ship changed and went to the Frenchman's Reef for a tour of the wedding site. We want to get married there someday. Then off to the Paradise Point Tramway to have a Bushwacker drink. Yummy. We just love St. Thomas the people are so nice and pleasant to deal with there.

St Maarten- we went to Orient Beach. Yeah saw some losers in the buff we had a great laugh there though. Had a great lunch. It did rain but it helped cool things down. Then got dropped off at the pier. Got a watch in Little Switzerland store.

Antigua- we booked our own tour online for an ATV tour. It was awesome, we really had a great time on that adventure. We had the tour to ourselves. Highly recommend that to any of you.

St. Lucia- went on another bike tour. Much better than the first. It was pretty much all flat.There were like 3 big hills you had to walk up though. That was like very tiring, went hiking to a waterfall. It was quite a workout. Needs to say in brochure, plan on a tri atholon. Ride bikes, hike with a stick, swim in a cove. Was gross, the locals were smoking weed. Could not wait to leave that area. Was alot of fun though.

Barbados-we just got off the ship and walked around. Kinda scary walking around there. We kinda ran back to the ship terminal. Walked around the duty free shops.

Day at Sea- Layed by the pool all day and got a nice sunburn. Took last minute photos.

Didnt do first formal night. Second formal night was okay. The food was not anything worth bragging about. Friday was lobster and shrimp night-they call it Fisherman's Plate.

Went to the Ice Show was very good. Although one guy kept falling. Didn't go to any other shows as we were just to busy doing other things. Oh yeah, went to both of the Parades. I would have to say they catered mostly to the Puerto Ricans on this sailing. Lots of latino music. Got to catch up on my Spanish. LOL. They only bad thing about them are the kids. They are wild. My boyfriend and I tried to go ice skating. Numerous times the kids got told to stop throwing the snow from the ice. They would not skate in the same direction as everyone else. We could tell the activities director for the ice skating was getting fed up with them. One of the brats kept pushing everyone out of the way. He finally learned his lesson when he fell and got hurt. Personally I thought it was quite funny because the darn kid was such a moron. We wanted to do the roller blading and rock climbing wall but just didn't get enough time to do it all.

Last day of cruise-got up and outta the room by 8am went up to the Windjammer/Island Grill for our last breakfast. Whatta mess that was, too many people and not enough table and chairs. So we just ended up standing. Then we went down to the Royal Promenade to the Sports Bar to wait to depart the ship. It was nice that we could wait anywhere on the ship to wait to be called off as long as it was not on the stairways. Of course those darn kids ran around like wild animals. Another nightmare to tell, my luggage got lost or someone stole it. We went to the terminal where you get your luggage before going to the airport. Looked and looked for my luggage and it was nowhere to be found. Stupid morons, look at your luggage before you leave the terminal to make sure you got the right bags. I was so pissed off that I was yelling at the people at the luggage lost and found place. When you buy all brand name clothes and they are brand new, you don't expect to have someone take your luggage on you. I filed a report, but I somehow don't think I will see the stuff again. I have to call my travel agent and see what she can do for me. We did have travel insurance. So I guess it pays to have it. I hope I get my stuff back or at least get some type of compensation for it.

Well overall we had a great time. Everything we booked on our own turned out perfect. So next cruise we will do everything ourselves. We will never ever sail outta San Juan again. A bunch of moronic people work for Royal Caribbean there. We loved the itinerary but probaly if we do a southern caribbean cruise we will sail outta Miami or again from Cape Liberty. We are sad to be sitting here today. Thinking of all our experiences on this cruise. As soon as I figure out how to post our photo's on webshots, we will do that. I hope you all enjoyed our review. We just thought you might like to know all the crazy adventures we had. I guess that is why they call it "Adventure of the Seas"..

[ckrobyn]

Regarding the above post - not really sure what to make of it? It sounds like you ran into a few glitches, but to call all the RCI staff in Puerto Rico "Morons" ?? That is a bit harsh. Sorry about your bad hotel experience, I would be irritated as well if I was constantly told my room would be ready in 45 minutes and it wasn't. It's a hassle, but when hotels are running at 100% occupancy, sometimes it takes longer to prepare the rooms for turnover.....

 

It sounds like you had a good time on the cruise overall. I hope that was the case in spite of the unruly kids onboard.....

[jenjes3]

Hi.... I will try and answer the questions the best I can... I think we were on the ship by 12:00 p.m. It went very smooth and no wait due to out platinum status. We weren't allowed however in our room until 2:00 p.m. This was a little inconvenient, but workable! We were off the ship by 8:30 a.m. We were the first to be off and had no problem at all at the San Juan airport. Our Continental Airline flight was 12:00 and we had plenty of time to spare.

 

It does sound like horrible customer service at the Caribe Hilton. We didn't stay there this time but stayed on our last trip on the Serenade November 2003. We enjoyed ourselves and had no problems. We did not encounter the rude children on this trip. I guess we weren't around them.. didn't go ice skating but did go to the show which we enjoyed. I received very good service from Royal Caribbean but would be very upset if I had my luggage lost and taken.

 

The menus had smaller selections but always something we liked. There is your usual alternate choices like a decent steak or grilled chicken. My daughters would sometimes get the alternate choices if they didn't like something on the menu.

 

We loved our cruise and the ports and would go back in a blink of an eye.. Very very hard to get back to reality today... I want someone to make my bed and put my napkin on my lap@!!... Any other questions.. ask away..

[sandgrand]

Who was the cruise director and the captain on your sailing?

[hermang]

We were on the AOS this past January and other than "wet weather" we had a ball.

We booked one night pre at the Sheraton Old San Juan - we stayed there in 2003 when it was the Wyndham and we loved it then. Had a hell of ta time getting a room as it was supposedly booked solid as were most of the hotels - our TA got us the room at a decent price. The hotel is very close to some great restaurants. Had breakfast across the street for half the price. Took a cab to the pier Sunday AM - took all of 15 min to board at 12:00 - Our room was ready so we dropped our luggage and headed for the Windjammer. after lunch we did a quick tour of the ship to see what changed in 2 years.

 

Other than some rain every day until we got to St.Maarten - it was great. St.Maarten and St. Thomas was 85 and sunny and back in San Juan it rained again - but then again it was 18 and snowy in NY. HAD ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS with bags in San Juan - found a porter he got all of our luggage and he took us through customs and to a cab - very smooth

[worldclasscruizer]

 

One of the brats kept pushing everyone out of the way. He finally learned his lesson when he fell and got hurt. Personally I thought it was quite funny because the darn kid was such a moron.

 

.

 

Are you kidding me?? You thought is was funny??

:(

[Heyitsrick]

Who was the cruise director and the captain on your sailing?

 

A guy named Drew was the cruise director, and the Captain was Captain Remo. The captain's morning PA greeting was mostly about weather, with all kinds of stats.

 

 

We didn't experience some of the issues like the other poster did. There were some kids, but we never found them to be an issue at all. We were concerned that it might be a problem as we had asked for late dinner and ended up with the early seating, but the kids factor was no factor.

 

We weren't crazy about the dining room food quality. We missed the Sunday night fare (got on late), but went to the dining room on Monday night. We choose some kind of beef dish. Just wasn't good, and the four of us were all disappointed. We actually skipped the dining room one other night and went to the WindJammer instead. Our waiter was concerned that it was his service, but we assured him that it wasn't.

 

However, PORTOFINO ROCKS! We ate there twice during the cruise, and it was just awesome. No one should miss the Portofino (reservations required).

 

Peeves: Can't stand the "soda card" nonsense. Even the comedian (very funny guy from NY) made light of how inane the soda policy is. He made the point that you could order up 10 lobster tails at dinner, but for some reason had to pay for Coke. It's just ridiculous, and I don't care how many other cruise lines have this policy; it's B.S.

 

Same for Johnny Rockets...the DW and I stopped in one evening, and were charged $7.90 just for sitting down at a booth. Tip for anyone wanting to sample Johnny Rockets' food: Have one person alone go in and get stuff to go. This way you'll only be charged one service charge. I know, I know..It's 3.95 and won't break the bank. But it's the principle.

 

Shopping Shelby: There's a woman (Shelby) who has a nightly TV show talking up the shopping values for the next port of call. Seems RCI probably gets a fee from places like Diamonds International (I think there are more of these than McDonalds in the world), as Shelby would constantly talk up the same places. She also talked up a non-shopping beach spot in Barbados that we thought was really cheesy after visiting it called "The Boatyard". What a disappointment that place was. Kind of like "South of the Border" on the beach. Boo.

 

But, all in all had a great cruise and lots of sun. Mentioned the peeves here but the positives outweighed the negatives by far.

 

Leaving the ship: Our flight wasn't until 2pm, so we were in Group 9 to leave, which meant we didn't get out until 11:15 or so. Very, very boring to wait to leave. Tip: If you want to get off the ship early, put down an early flight time on your departure slip they hand out. They want a flight number, too, but don't put one on there. Just put down that your flight leaves at noon or something, and you'll get put on an earlier departure group.

 

We went to the dining room for breakfast on the last day, by the way. The Windjammer didn't have nearly its normal choices, and sections were closed down on that last day. The dining room had a nice sit-down menu of good breakfast choices.

[skogler]

What time and days were the ice shows? What night would be best to go to Portifinos? What nights were formal?

 

Thanks

[hermang]

Capt Remo must be back from Vacation - we sailed with him in February and he was getting ready to go on holiday - met his wife as she was with him for his last cruise.

Richard Spacey must be on vacation now as he was our CD. Shopping Shelby is Back - gad what a motormouth - sweet kid though. I agree about the soda card - I don't drink enough soda to even come close to justifying it - Comic is correct - someone should point that out to RCCL. I cant really get upset about Johnnie Rockets especially since C&A pays for our one lunch there. What I question is why Portofiino is $20 on AOS and $25 on some other ships. I agree though that is more than worth the up charge. We always found something worth while on the menu - even if it wasn't beef. Our waiter suggested the Jerk Chicken ( jamaican Mon ) he was right it really was good that night. I guess they are damned if they do and damned if they dont - some people don't like fancy and others complain if it is Turkey and Stuffing

[Heyitsrick]

One of the people we sailed with said this Drew guy was only a CD temporarily, so maybe he was a vacation relief.

[johndru]

If Richard Spacey is only on vacation, I sure hope he's back by our 6/26 AOS cruise! Have heard nothing but positive reports on him, and some "not so kind" things about the other CD.

 

Can't wait to meet Capt. Remo, too. Reading these threads, it sounds like he's worth meeting, too!

 

Twenty-three days until we wing our way outta here! Woo Hoo!

[welove2cruisedou]

Sorry about the comment about the kid falling, but if you saw this kid and how annoying he was he would of drove you nuts. When the ice skater activities director keeps yelling at the kid to behave, I do beleive the kid was just a bit rude. I guess you had to be there. I don't know where the rest of you people were on the ship but I am glad you didn't have to deal with these kids. My meaning of moron is someone who has NO COMMON SENSE, RUDE, UNPOLITE, BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS. ETC.

Also at the Caribe Hilton I know when the rooms are 100% booked it is hard to clean all the rooms by a certain time, but it would of been nice if they offered us some kinda incentive for our wait. Perhaps they should of hired more help that weekend. I deal with the public on a daily basis in a day spa, and let me tell you if we made someone wait more than 2 hours to get their service done, they would of got up and walked out.

As for my luggage, I still don't know where it is. I have called my travel agent and they are sending me a claim form, just to make sure if I never get my luggage I get some type of compensation for my personal property. They were actually pretty helpful. I recommend everyone to get travel insurance, so if you have any problems, you have yourself covered.

We really did have a good time on the cruise itself, just a few rude people that we had to deal with. Sorry if you don't like me calling them morons, but I guess you had to be there...

[hermang]

I looked back at our first cruise on the Soverign in 1995 - Capt Remo was the master - we have sailed with him 3 times already - a really great captain. Richard Spacey was the Bingo caller under Jeffrey Arpin - and subsequently got promoted - justly deserved.