Just off Adventure, open to answer questions

[Clarea]

Can you tell me if Adventure has a Chef's Table? We are booked on an end of June cruise and would like to do this.

There was no Chef's Table on our cruise this past February.

[Emmysmomma9]

We had a great time- 2 teens and 2 53 yr olds. We travel based on the ports and a ship has to have a promenade. You can tell that the decor is older but everything was clean. We were on Freedom 2 yrs ago- liked the cabin decor much better on Freedom. Tino, the activities director was super energetic and lively. Erik was also in activities and led amazing dancing lessons by the pool and also ran some interactive games in the lounges. Bobby was the CD-calmer , but seemed to be doing a good job. The shows were 50/50 . We has 8:30 dinners in hope of seeing shows before dinner like on our last cruise, but the shows were mostly at 10:30p and we were exhausted by then. Ice skating was FABULOUS-a must see! The final night's entertainer- a mime/comedian was really good too. The staff shows were mediocre and an entertainer mid-week was good for those over 60- imitations of Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis. I though other reviewers were exaggerating, but , there sure were alot of spanish speaking people and everything was translated. They even had a seperate love and marriage show in spanish. They seemed to be in large groups and did not interact with others. I like to meet new people and this severely hindered that. Thank goodness for the Reggae band at the pool- when they weren't playing - the dj was playing loud, pounding latin/hip=hop music which was not relaxing for me, and I enjoy that music-at the appropriate time. Nothing you can do except choose departures from another port. We loved our ports, our dining staff, room stewards, and all the ships staff seemed friendly, hard working and polite except for a few here and there. Lounge chairs were still reserved, but if you go on deck 12- where it's more peaceful and breezy, you have a better selection. THe MDR food was good the first 2 days and great the remaining days. We could always get extra servings and the waiters encouraged us to try new things. Seems towel animals are provided on Formal nights, unless your steward is into making extras. We took a private excursion in St Thomas- Simplicity from Red Hook and sailed with a total of 6 people to Hawksbill and Honeymoon beach- good snorkling at Hawksbill,and we only saw one sea turtle, not many fish, at Honeymoon, but Josh has a marine biology degree and was very helpful in pointing out interesting sea life and spent alot of time with us as we snorkeled- which none of our other snorkel trips included. Capt. Charlie cooked us a delicious chicken and rice lunch which we ate on board-with real silverware! In St.Kitts, we took the ship excursion to zip-line---EXCELLENT!!!

Every single person, from van driver to all the staff at the zip-line were professional and helpful- I never zip-lined in my life and was told that this system is so secure and the safest -which it was. You don't need to hold on with your hands, you brake by leaning back. The views were wonderful. The ride up the mountain is very bumpy and you have a short walk down a uneven pathway between runs...so you need to be in decent shape to handle this. We has time to eat lunch on the ship(got back at 11:10am as we were the first van to the excursion), change clothes and get a taxi to Caramobola- Oh MY GOODNESS- the most amazing views in the world! Laying back and looking at Nevis vanishing into the clouds...great time there (but the free wi-fi does not work). Glad we ate on the ship because as we read here- service is slower than slow....and why waste the $$$ ? In Aruba- we went to DePalm pier by cab and turned right- We walked a bit to explore, but the places further away had alot of boat congestion at the beaches, so we went back to the first beach in front of the Radisson, and got a huge umbrella and 4 chairs.. i think 35 for umbrella and 10 per chair. We brought blow-up swim tubes from walmart at home and relaxed. The restaurant on the pier- next to Dunkin' Donuts!, was wonderful! Sitting on a deck , under a thatched roof eating delicious food - perfect! Great prices and everyone got huge glasses of ice water too. This is getting long- but I'm going to continue...In Curacao, we pre-arranged with a van to take us to Porto Playa Mari---Oh MY! Another beautiful spot in the world! Glad we didn't think of driving there ourselves...it is a long ride through hot, desert areas to get there. We arrived by 10am, got 2 sets of chairs and umbrellas for $23 total- the rates are posted- so you dont have to shop around. There is one woman who walks around after an hour or so and collects the fee. You can walk farther away from the restaurant if you want more privacy. The snorkeling was fantastic with hardly any waves. Many, many fish along the 2 stone piers and around the balls they have places inthe water to encourage coral growth. There is also a scuba shack here. Food was delicious, again , under a thatched roof with pitchers of icy cold water. There is an outdoor shower and bathrooms as well. SO-all in all an excellent trip. Any questions? I have all my compasses in the luggage that I will empty later today

Edited April 20, 2015 by Emmysmomma9

[Paulette3028]

........I though other reviewers were exaggerating, but , there sure were alot of spanish speaking people and everything was translated. They even had a seperate love and marriage show in spanish. They seemed to be in large groups and did not interact with others. I like to meet new people and this severely hindered that. Thank goodness for the Reggae band at the pool- when they weren't playing - the dj was playing loud, pounding latin/hip=hop music which was not relaxing for me, and I enjoy that music-at the appropriate time. Nothing you can do except choose departures from another port........

 

It sounds like you overall had a wonderful cruise. When we cruised out of San Juan on Jewel in 2013, it had many many more Spanish speaking cruisers, which is to be expected. I am sure everything was translated into Spanish -- the Activity Manager even did his own Morning Show totally in Spanish.

 

They added many many Spanish songs to the playlist for Karaoke to make it more enjoyable for those cruisers to participate, which was fine. They had an interesting Karaoke session one night, where the singer did not pick their own song. Instead they were asked to pick a number which would correspond to one of the songs in the play list. When my DH picked a number that was a Spanish song, they just substituted the next English song in the book. So everyone adapted.

 

We very much enjoyed the S. Caribbean cruise on Jewel, and just have to go with the flow, when embarking from a country where a different language than you is primarily spoken.

[amypintx]

Emmysmomma9 - For St. Kitts were you able to book the ziplining excursion online beforehand or did you have to wait until you were on the ship? We're going on Adventure in July. It says I have to book that excursion onboard. Just wondering if that was common???

[FloatMe]

Emmysmomma9 - For St. Kitts were you able to book the ziplining excursion online beforehand or did you have to wait until you were on the ship? We're going on Adventure in July. It says I have to book that excursion onboard. Just wondering if that was common???

Were you able to reserve other excursions for this trip yet? I do not remember being able to reserve shore excursions more than 3 or 4 months befor the cruise. If you were able to make other reservations but not for this particular one, then that usually means the have filled the excursion to about 70%. They usually hold about 30% for people to book on board. We had a similar proble with one of the couples in our group. They went to the shore excursion desk on embarkation day (they open at 1:00pm) had no problem getting the excursions we they wanted.

[JohnGaltny]

Seriously BASIC question.

 

I see the ship departs at 8:30 PM. We usually have 5:00 PM departures and get to the port about 11:00 AM or so. Can we do that on Adventure?? Do they still board between 11:30 and 12:00 with such a late departure??

 

Thanks.

Edited April 21, 2015 by JohnGaltny

[Clarea]

Seriously BASIC question.

 

I see the ship departs at 8:30 PM. We usually have 5:00 PM departures and get to the port about 11:00 AM or so. Can we do that on Adventure?? Do they still board between 11:30 and 12:00 with such a late departure??

 

Thanks.

Yes, almost the same boarding times as other ships. Maybe a bit later on the average. I've been on Adventure when staterooms don't open until 2pm.

[amypintx]

Were you able to reserve other excursions for this trip yet? I do not remember being able to reserve shore excursions more than 3 or 4 months befor the cruise. If you were able to make other reservations but not for this particular one, then that usually means the have filled the excursion to about 70%. They usually hold about 30% for people to book on board. We had a similar proble with one of the couples in our group. They went to the shore excursion desk on embarkation day (they open at 1:00pm) had no problem getting the excursions we they wanted.

 

Yes. We can reserve others. Hopefully we can get it on board! Thanks for the reply.

[cruiselvr04]

Just off this same route on Adventure Sunday. We had a great time also. Not sure why all the bad reviews. The ports of call are great as was the entertainment and crew.

[Emmysmomma9]

we arrived from NY at 10:55am- were in line at the port by 11:40am. The relatively short line started moving at 12:00noon exactly and it was fast and easy to board!

[Emmysmomma9]

we booked right after making the final payment. Someone else on the cruise tried a couple of weeks later and could not, but if you go to guest services on day 1 you probably can get reservations. It sure was worth it! Seems there are several vans that leave in a staggered schedule, there were people arriving when we were leaving the excursion.

[bigque]

There is no Sorentos pizza on the promenade on this ship, correct?

[ckelly14]

Just off this same route on Adventure Sunday. We had a great time also. Not sure why all the bad reviews. The ports of call are great as was the entertainment and crew.

 

I booked the same cruise for 2016 and read all the reviews on cc from the last few months. The vast majority were very favorable, especially for the ship and the crew. The ones that are negative mostly dealt with the poor food quality in the MDR, drink prices and constant selling on board. A few were disappointed in the entertainment but we are going on a port intensive cruise so I am not particularly concerned.

 

The problem that I'm having is that I was planning on compensating for the poor MDR choices with a few specialty restaurant visits. However, I noticed the Adventure only has one specialty restaurant, and guests under 13 are not allowed. We are going on the Radiance in June to Alaska, and there are plentiful specialty choices. Perhaps I should consider the Jewel?

[Clarea]

There is no Sorentos pizza on the promenade on this ship, correct?

Correct, though Cafe Promanade does serve pizza slices.

[LeesSummitCruiser1]

I booked the same cruise for 2016 and read all the reviews on cc from the last few months. The vast majority were very favorable, especially for the ship and the crew. The ones that are negative mostly dealt with the poor food quality in the MDR, drink prices and constant selling on board. A few were disappointed in the entertainment but we are going on a port intensive cruise so I am not particularly concerned.

 

The problem that I'm having is that I was planning on compensating for the poor MDR choices with a few specialty restaurant visits. However, I noticed the Adventure only has one specialty restaurant, and guests under 13 are not allowed. We are going on the Radiance in June to Alaska, and there are plentiful specialty choices. Perhaps I should consider the Jewel?

 

We had a 10 and 11 year old children who ate with us in the specialty restaurant. I think they put that there in case they need to ask kids to leave who don't know how to eat at a nice restaurant.

[ckelly14]

We had a 10 and 11 year old children who ate with us in the specialty restaurant. I think they put that there in case they need to ask kids to leave who don't know how to eat at a nice restaurant.

 

Good to know. Our kids will be 10 and 11 next year and we always eat dinner together on a cruise.

 

How did your kids like the cruise? Anything I should know?

[wildcat46]

Can I ask what snorkel tour you booked on St. Kitts, whether you enjoyed it, and how you booked it? We are going there in January and hope to snorkel.

[hotmamma51]

Our group of 27 got off yesterday. It was a pretty good cruise visiting St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba and Curacao. I noticed that there are not many threads about this ship so feel free to ask me what I thought.

 

Here is what we did in port:

St. Thomas-Shopped a little in the AM and went back on board to enjoy the pool.

St. Kitts-Asked a taxi for the best beach, he suggested we stop at South Friars and then to Cockelshell. We loved Cockelshell.

Aruba-Took a ride to Palm beach for the day.

Curacao-Went snorkeling for the day, it was great. I will look up the company if anyone wants it.

 

Thank you for taking questions,

What did you enjoy about Palm Beach

How was the water at Cockshell Beach in St. KITTS, was there a problem with seaweed.

Are there small refrigerators in the cabin

How did you obtain tickets for the Ice Show.

Again, thank you

[hotmamma51]

Emmysmomma9- Thank you for sharing. I appreciate the time you spent on your review. It is a great help in deciding excursions.

[Emmysmomma9]

Thank you for taking questions,

What did you enjoy about Palm Beach- beautiful view, clean, easy to get food,drinks, umbrellas, chairs and taxis. No one bothered us after we sat down. ropes in the water to mark off safe swimming areas.

Are there small refrigerators in the cabin- yes- very small- filled with items.

How did you obtain tickets for the Ice Show.- no reservations- just show up. Easy to get into the first show, but the others had lines.

 

Again, thank you

Edited April 22, 2015 by Emmysmomma9

[glentally]

 

We are doing a private snorkel sail on St. Kitts.

 

We liked cockleshell and Friars beach both last year.

 

hello Leessummit,

 

What private snorkel are you doing? Where did you hear about it. I like the idea of paying a little more and not being with 16 people trying to sightsee.

[kittylikeswater]

Will be on the Adventure Jan 2016. Any recommended shore excursions in St Lucia or St Kitts. This will be our first time on Adventure and have never been to these ports. Thanks everyone

[Clarea]

Will be on the Adventure Jan 2016. Any recommended shore excursions in St Lucia or St Kitts. This will be our first time on Adventure and have never been to these ports. Thanks everyone

We enjoyed Cockleshell Beach in St. Kitts. Beautiful view of Nevis in the distance.

[SpncrChi]

Was there a Royal Babies and Tots Nursery on board?

[fhp123]

Can you tell me about Muster Drill. Is it outdoors or are they in different venues? The last few cruises were in the theaters, studio B and not life vests. How is it done on Adventure.