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Adventure of the Seas | February 16-23, 2014 | "CliffsNotes Review" + Photos

hscruiser

By hscruiser,
in Royal Caribbean International

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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Hi all!

 

I just returned from my Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas, visiting St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba, and Curacao. For this review, I’ve decided to do things a little differently. Instead of a blow-by-blow photo trip report, I’m going to do a bulleted “CliffsNotes” overview of the cruise (mostly due to time constraints, honestly!). I’d then be more than happy to answer any detailed questions about anything. Accompanying this is a link to the photos and videos I took on the cruise. I encourage you to flip through them, because they do cover many parts of the ship, both cabins that I was in (I’ll explain), and all four ports. Instead of a traditional camera, this time, I opted to use my iPhone 5S. Because of this, some of the photos do leave a bit to be desired in terms of quality, but I was overall very happy with the quality that came out of the phone. Here goes…

 

EMBARKATION

 

  • · Though not as flashy as ports like Miami and Fort Lauderdale, San Juan did the job.
  • · It was kind of interesting to board the ship from an open-air gangway.
  • · If you are Platinum or above, keep your eyes out for the priority baggage drop-off; the lines there are much shorter than the general drop-off lines.

SHIP

 

  • · I really enjoyed the Voyager-class design; it reminded me of the design of Freedom of the Seas. Various venues were logically laid out, and the ship was big enough to have features like the Royal Promenade, but small enough to keep approachable and easy to navigate.
  • · Adventure desperately needs the dry-dock that she’s scheduled for next month…
  • · The ship was generally clean, though there was dust here and there.
  • · Every single beverage machine (lemonade, iced tea, etc.) was broken, forcing the crew to have to make lemonade and iced tea by hand.
  • · The cabin carpeting needs replacement.
  • · Several elevator buttons were worn down, not working, or simply missing.
  • · The soft serve ice cream machine had leaks throughout the week – crew were handing out the ice cream cones, likely because of this.
  • · However, none of these issues were glaringly obvious, and did not have a notable effect on the overall cruise.

CABIN

 

  • · Very long story short, we initially had cabin 8392 (aft balcony), but switched to 9200 (family ocean view). This second cabin was huge, comfortable, and featured plenty of closet space. There are pictures of both 8392 and 9200 in the photo album that I’ve linked below.
  • · Some cabins had “old” televisions, while others had flat screen televisions. At times, the interactive menus were glitchy.

FOOD

 

  • · I found the food to be generally better prepared than on the Allure of the Seas.
  • · The Windjammer ranged from fair to very good, with most items being average.
  • · Café Promenade was a feature that we all loved, and featured baked goods, fruit, and pizza (cheese, pepperoni, and daily special).
  • · Our dinner menus were the typical seven day lineup. The menu tended to feel a bit repetitive day after day…seemingly half of my table’s plates every night had a garnish of grilled tomato and asparagus.
  • · Again, though, execution in the dining room was pretty much spot on.
  • · We went to Portofino, which was phenomenal. Outstanding.

SERVICE

 

  • · This is really hard to sum up in writing, but in general, everyone in my family agreed that Adventure is, with a large handful of exceptions, an unhappy ship.
  • · While service was technically fine, the crew at large seemed overworked, exhausted, and simply unenthusiastic. In other words, morale wasn’t as high as what it was on Allure, for example. This may point to some issues with management and their relationship with crew on the ship. With that said, the crew continued to work incredibly hard, and I still struggle to believe just how much work each and every crewmember has to put in. But some kind of morale boosting could be called for – and I don’t blame this on the crew, I blame it on management and leadership aboard the ship. It just seems like the workload and hours are really keeping the crew down.
  • · Granted, I didn’t encounter every single crewmember onboard, so I make this generalization with a large grain of salt.
  • · Service at Portofino was excellent.

ENTERTAINMENT

 

  • · I happened to like our cruise director, Mercedes. Her show introductions were gratingly repetitive (“Come on, everybody, hands in the air!”), but she was friendly, sweet, and very visible throughout the ship. A few of the morning talk shows during the week seemed like something straight out of Adventure Ocean, however.
  • · The handful of cruise director staff was tremendously hard-working and great. Bjorn, especially, was hilarious.
  • · The comedy show on the first night with Carl Banks was very good.
  • · The two production shows, Invitation to Dance and Jackpot, were both fine, though they felt tired – much like many of the other areas of the ship.
  • · The Las Vegas Tenors headliner show was outstanding, and was by far the best show of the week.
  • · The "Farewell Show" was really well done, with crewmembers from all departments ending the show with an arranged song on stage. It was a great way for the passengers to show thanks to the incredibly hard-working crew.

PORTS

 

  • · Magen’s Bay in St. Thomas was beautiful, though a bit crowded because of the fact that Carnival Valor was also in port that day.
  • · We ended up just browsing the shopping village in St. Kitts.
  • · The beach in Aruba was beautiful…it looked like something straight out of a Royal Caribbean advertisement!
  • · Curacao was a nice place to simply walk around – due to its Dutch history, the city felt very European. The moving bridge was neat!

OVERALL

 

  • · My past two Royal Caribbean cruises were on Freedom of the Seas and Allure of the Seas, both of which I sailed at the time when they were the latest and greatest from Royal Caribbean. This cruise represented a more “average” Royal Caribbean product – Adventure is neither the oldest nor the newest ship in the fleet.
  • · Ultimately, we had a great time, and I wouldn’t hesitate to cruise Adventure of the Seas again, particularly after she gets spruced up at the upcoming dry-dock. I enjoyed leaving from San Juan because it led to a more interesting itinerary than what one could get out of Florida – we are actually already looking at a Jewel of the Seas cruise for next February that has a fantastic itinerary out of San Juan.

 

Again, if anyone has any questions, please ask – I would be more than happy to try to help!

 

Here are the photos from this cruise: https://picasaweb.google.com/110310513812477111844/AdventureOfTheSeasSouthernCaribbeanAFebruary16232014?authkey=Gv1sRgCIaSmtqk_vOliwE

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sachmo9085

sachmo9085

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Thanks for the quick overview! We are debating between this cruise or one of the itineraries offered on the Jewel out of San Juan as well. I feel like Aruba and Curacao are both gorgeous to see, but like there isn't anything spectacular to do other than hang out on a beautiful beach and snorkel (not that there's anything wrong with that as we love to snorkel, but we also enjoy seeing unique historical sites like the Brimstone Fortress in St. Kitts). Any thoughts on what else one could/should do while in Aruba or Curacao?

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Vonodin

Vonodin

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Thanks for the review we leave Sunday on her. Quick question, what time did you embark? How were the lines?

 

 

I too am leaving Sunday and wonder the same question.

We are thinking of waiting till early afternoon.

 

Enjoyed the review. Straight and to the point. Looking forward to being on her, no matter how tired she or the crew are.

 

Thanks,

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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Thanks for the review we leave Sunday on her. Quick question, what time did you embark? How were the lines?

 

 

I too am leaving Sunday and wonder the same question.

We are thinking of waiting till early afternoon.

 

Enjoyed the review. Straight and to the point. Looking forward to being on her, no matter how tired she or the crew are.

 

Thanks,

We arrived at the port at around 12:30. The lines weren't bad at all, and we were onboard about 25 minutes later. It was a pretty quick operation.

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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What did you think of cabin 8392? How long were you in that cabin before switching? I will be in an aft for the first time in a few weeks and am curious to hear you thoughts.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Cruise Critic Forums mobile app

The problem for us was that we were a group of 4, and 8392 accommodates a maximum of 3. Royal Caribbean was incorrectly selling the cabin to groups of 4, despite the fact that it is much too small for 4 people. Otherwise, the cabin itself was fine, and the balcony was especially deep. For the few hours we were in there, I enjoyed the view out the back of the ship!

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ValerieJo

ValerieJo

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Posted (edited)

Thanks for the review. We did this route last year and loved it so much we are doing it again in a couple of weeks.

 

I was a bit concerned about the condition of the ship as she was showing her age a bit last year.

 

I bought the pop/soda package. Did you notice if the freestyle machines were working?

 

I agree about sailing out of San Juan, it's a great place to sail from. We liked the Jewel itinerary as well. Notice my signature box, we couldn't decide so we are doing both :D

 

Thanks again for the update.

Edited by ValerieJo
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sellwingri

sellwingri

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Thanks for the review we leave Sunday on her. Quick question, what time did you embark? How were the lines?

 

 

I too am leaving Sunday and wonder the same question.

We are thinking of waiting till early afternoon.

 

Enjoyed the review. Straight and to the point. Looking forward to being on her, no matter how tired she or the crew are.

 

Thanks,

 

Me three!! Guess we're all very anxious to leave.

 

We're planning to get to the pier by around 11am. The sooner we get to the pier, the sooner we'll be able to board, and start our vacation!

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henchgt

henchgt

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I agree with your service review 100%. Almost seems as though they cut staff back a good 10% over the last year.

 

 

SERVICE

 

  • · This is really hard to sum up in writing, but in general, everyone in my family agreed that Adventure is, with a large handful of exceptions, an unhappy ship.
  • · While service was technically fine, the crew at large seemed overworked, exhausted, and simply unenthusiastic. In other words, morale wasn’t as high as what it was on Allure, for example. This may point to some issues with management and their relationship with crew on the ship. With that said, the crew continued to work incredibly hard, and I still struggle to believe just how much work each and every crewmember has to put in. But some kind of morale boosting could be called for – and I don’t blame this on the crew, I blame it on management and leadership aboard the ship. It just seems like the workload and hours are really keeping the crew down.
  • · Granted, I didn’t encounter every single crewmember onboard, so I make this generalization with a large grain of salt.
  • · Service at Portofino was excellent.

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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Thanks for the review. We did this route last year and loved it so much we are doing it again in a couple of weeks.

 

I was a bit concerned about the condition of the ship as she was showing her age a bit last year.

 

I bought the pop/soda package. Did you notice if the freestyle machines were working?

 

I agree about sailing out of San Juan, it's a great place to sail from. We liked the Jewel itinerary as well. Notice my signature box, we couldn't decide so we are doing both :D

 

Thanks again for the update.

I don't believe Adventure has Freestyle machines yet.

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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Any info you can provide on St. Kitts would be great!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

 

We only strolled around the shopping village right at the port; I unfortunately don't have any other information. From what I've heard, there isn't much of a city to walk around. Hopefully others can chime in on this.

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lufty70

lufty70

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I agree with the crew evaluation and condition of the ship. We were on the ship Feb 9 right before you and the bar staff around the pool were horribly unfriendly and hard to even find one most times. Our waiter in the main dining was great though, and a few other exceptions. Very unusual experience with unhappy crew in all my cruises with RCCL, hopefully the dry dock with boost something or they change whoever is the manger on that ship!

No free style machines on the ship yet, we were in room 8200 and it was in ok shape, furniture and such were in need of an upgrade that is for sure. Still had old tv, etc.

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zuggie

zuggie

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We were on both the Feb. 9th and Feb. 16th - and commented several times what a "happy" ship the Adventure seemed to be. Service was excellent and every crew person we encountered had a good attitude. But can't speak for the Windjammer as we ate there only once or twice.

 

And, we thought the ship was in great ship. If you really looked, I guess you could nitpik a few things - but it looked a lot better than I expected knowing it was doing it's big drydock next month.

 

Great embarkation. They try to open the doors to the terminal at 11:30, but can't do it until they can assure customs that every passenger from the previous cruise is off the ship. And that includes the B2Bers that do not plan to leave the ship on turnaround day. At 11:15 all remaining B2Bers are taken down the terminal where they flash their passports at the customs officer, and then turn right around and reboard the ship.

 

In St. Kitts, take a look at Thenford tours. Great tour, small price, small minibus - gets top ratings in TripAdvisor. Caters to cruise ship passengers wanting to arrange their own tour.

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ewenix

ewenix

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I was looking at your photos (very nice) and wondered.

Do you always take your Hawkeye pennant on vacation?

That sorta jumped out at me since I'm a native Iowan.

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hscruiser

hscruiser

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I was looking at your photos (very nice) and wondered.

Do you always take your Hawkeye pennant on vacation?

That sorta jumped out at me since I'm a native Iowan.

I'm sorry for not noticing this post earlier!

 

There was some kind of large Iowa group on our sailing - alumni reunion or something? Anyway, we saw those kinds of things on several cabin doors and a few on the hallway walls. They're not mine - I'm actually from New York! ;)

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