Adventure of the Seas - for the rest of us

[radmax50]

I would first like to thank all of the long time and frequent posters here. I have learned so much from your valuable posts, your experience and your suggestions. The intent of this review is to speak to the "rest of us", meaning those of us, like me, who lurk and don't post much, for those, like me, half afraid to state their opinion for fear of being attacked by elite travelers who all seem to be D+++++ and travel only in GS and above.

 

Adventure of the Seas has Godparents who are all associated with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Their photos are on Deck 5 (I believe) and it's something to see, read and absorb.

 

The ship is in marvelous shape despite its age. Reading reviews here, I half expected to see a dirty, smelly rust bucket. I guess some of the color schemes are dated. If you want a new ship, there are new ships. We chose the ship for the itinerary. San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. We were not disappointed in the ship or the ports.

 

Embarkation was quick and painless. We left the hotel at 12:45PM and were on Deck 12 by 1:10PM. We are platinum, so that saved a little time in line, but the lines weren't all that long. With staggered arrivals, it seems that nobody has a long wait to board the ship.

 

Eventually, we made our way to the Windjammer. We were able to find a seat easily, despite what I had read, the food was quite good, despite what I had read and there was definitely something for everyone. We had a few breakfasts there, a few lunches, our dinners were always in the MDR or Giovannis. We saw tons of waiters to get drinks, clean tables and answer any questions. I still think it's incredible that a staff can prepare food to please that many people with so many varied tastes. Nobody is going hungry on the ship!

 

Drink prices - we drank wine all week that was $8 to $10 per glass. We had bottles of wine between $30 and $56. This is in line with our local chain restaurants. We had frozen drinks that were around $10, I can't recall any drink more than that. Mixed drinks were $8 to $10, also in line with our local chain restaurants. We are not beer drinkers, so I didn't pay much attention to those prices. I was expecting every drink to be $14. Not the case at all. Drink prices, in my opinion, are exactly in line with what we pay at a local chain style restaurant. We did not purchase a drink package, as this was a port intensive itinerary. On a cruise with many sea days, we probably would purchase it.

 

There were also a LOT of passengers wearing really cute lanyards to hold their sea pass cards. Please don't allow what you read here to influence your decision to wear or not wear a lanyard. If it makes sense for you, wear it! You can also buy a little wristlet type lanyard to hold your card if you prefer. It's your vacation, do it your way.

 

There were a few chair hogs on Day 6, our sea day, however, I did see the deck patrol out and removing towels mid morning when the pool deck became crowded. One group had "reserved" at least 10 chairs and it seems that the deck patrol gave them a good 45 minutes to show up. They removed their towels and later when they arrived, someone else told them that you couldn't reserve chairs. They took it well and just found new chairs.

 

Since we didn't travel in a suite and we are not D+, we did not even know where those lounges were located. Please, don't think that everyone on the ship is in those suites. All of the interior rooms were booked, we had a beautiful balcony location very close to the centrum elevators. There were two C & A events and there were no pinnacle travelers onboard. I know that reading these boards, you are sometimes under the impression that everyone is a pinnacle. There were over 1200 C & A members on this ship, not a single pinnacle. Once again, "normal" travelers are the norm.

 

My intent of this is to just have normal travelers like me feel more comfortable when traveling on the Adventure or any ship. The experience and insight provided by the more seasoned travelers is very valuable. Just please enjoy YOUR vacation the way you want to.

 

We had an absolutely fantastic time. Our best Caribbean cruise yet (until the next one).

[5kids2dogs]

Do you have the cruise compasses you could post? I'm going on the same cruise. Thanks

[viper88]

We are sailing on her next summer and can't wait. Can you give reviews of any excursions you did at each port?

[dacsmom]

Thanks for the review. I am doing the same itinerary in October.

[dividedsky]

Thank you for your post, it's nice to read a normal review!

 

Can't wait for our cruise on her in Feb!

[mardavbetale]

I would first like to thank all of the long time and frequent posters here. I have learned so much from your valuable posts, your experience and your suggestions. The intent of this review is to speak to the "rest of us", meaning those of us, like me, who lurk and don't post much, for those, like me, half afraid to state their opinion for fear of being attacked by elite travelers who all seem to be D+++++ and travel only in GS and above.

 

Adventure of the Seas has Godparents who are all associated with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Their photos are on Deck 5 (I believe) and it's something to see, read and absorb.

 

The ship is in marvelous shape despite its age. Reading reviews here, I half expected to see a dirty, smelly rust bucket. I guess some of the color schemes are dated. If you want a new ship, there are new ships. We chose the ship for the itinerary. San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. We were not disappointed in the ship or the ports.

 

Embarkation was quick and painless. We left the hotel at 12:45PM and were on Deck 12 by 1:10PM. We are platinum, so that saved a little time in line, but the lines weren't all that long. With staggered arrivals, it seems that nobody has a long wait to board the ship.

 

Eventually, we made our way to the Windjammer. We were able to find a seat easily, despite what I had read, the food was quite good, despite what I had read and there was definitely something for everyone. We had a few breakfasts there, a few lunches, our dinners were always in the MDR or Giovannis. We saw tons of waiters to get drinks, clean tables and answer any questions. I still think it's incredible that a staff can prepare food to please that many people with so many varied tastes. Nobody is going hungry on the ship!

 

Drink prices - we drank wine all week that was $8 to $10 per glass. We had bottles of wine between $30 and $56. This is in line with our local chain restaurants. We had frozen drinks that were around $10, I can't recall any drink more than that. Mixed drinks were $8 to $10, also in line with our local chain restaurants. We are not beer drinkers, so I didn't pay much attention to those prices. I was expecting every drink to be $14. Not the case at all. Drink prices, in my opinion, are exactly in line with what we pay at a local chain style restaurant. We did not purchase a drink package, as this was a port intensive itinerary. On a cruise with many sea days, we probably would purchase it.

 

There were also a LOT of passengers wearing really cute lanyards to hold their sea pass cards. Please don't allow what you read here to influence your decision to wear or not wear a lanyard. If it makes sense for you, wear it! You can also buy a little wristlet type lanyard to hold your card if you prefer. It's your vacation, do it your way.

 

There were a few chair hogs on Day 6, our sea day, however, I did see the deck patrol out and removing towels mid morning when the pool deck became crowded. One group had "reserved" at least 10 chairs and it seems that the deck patrol gave them a good 45 minutes to show up. They removed their towels and later when they arrived, someone else told them that you couldn't reserve chairs. They took it well and just found new chairs.

 

Since we didn't travel in a suite and we are not D+, we did not even know where those lounges were located. Please, don't think that everyone on the ship is in those suites. All of the interior rooms were booked, we had a beautiful balcony location very close to the centrum elevators. There were two C & A events and there were no pinnacle travelers onboard. I know that reading these boards, you are sometimes under the impression that everyone is a pinnacle. There were over 1200 C & A members on this ship, not a single pinnacle. Once again, "normal" travelers are the norm.

 

My intent of this is to just have normal travelers like me feel more comfortable when traveling on the Adventure or any ship. The experience and insight provided by the more seasoned travelers is very valuable. Just please enjoy YOUR vacation the way you want to.

 

We had an absolutely fantastic time. Our best Caribbean cruise yet (until the next one).

 

Glad you had such a good time. We've booked the adventure for our 25th anniversary, traveling this October.

 

Just a quick question, does Giovannis have a different menu each night?

 

Thanks :)

[ColoradoGurl]

Thank you!!!

[cb at sea]

Wow...where do you live that drinks are so expensive??? Our "chain restaurants" are around $5-6 for mixed drinks....$4 for domestic beers.....I don't drink wine out, since it's expensive anywhere....I get wine for home for about $3-6 per bottle.....I think a $56 bottle of wine is really, REALLY out of line and the "buzz" is no better than the cheaper stuff!

[BobbyD]

Your experience on the Adventure is identical to ours in March. It was wonderful! Thanks for your thoughts.

 

You're so correct. If I didn't know better or was easily influenced and took too closely to heart some of the stuff on this site, I would run screaming and never cruise again!

[Paulette3028]

I would first like to thank all of the long time and frequent posters here. I have learned so much from your valuable posts, your experience and your suggestions. The intent of this review is to speak to the "rest of us", meaning those of us, like me, who lurk and don't post much, for those, like me, half afraid to state their opinion for fear of being attacked by elite travelers who all seem to be D+++++ and travel only in GS and above.

 

Adventure of the Seas has Godparents who are all associated with the attacks of September 11, 2001. Their photos are on Deck 5 (I believe) and it's something to see, read and absorb.

 

The ship is in marvelous shape despite its age. Reading reviews here, I half expected to see a dirty, smelly rust bucket. I guess some of the color schemes are dated. If you want a new ship, there are new ships. We chose the ship for the itinerary. San Juan, St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados. We were not disappointed in the ship or the ports.

 

Embarkation was quick and painless. We left the hotel at 12:45PM and were on Deck 12 by 1:10PM. We are platinum, so that saved a little time in line, but the lines weren't all that long. With staggered arrivals, it seems that nobody has a long wait to board the ship.

 

Eventually, we made our way to the Windjammer. We were able to find a seat easily, despite what I had read, the food was quite good, despite what I had read and there was definitely something for everyone. We had a few breakfasts there, a few lunches, our dinners were always in the MDR or Giovannis. We saw tons of waiters to get drinks, clean tables and answer any questions. I still think it's incredible that a staff can prepare food to please that many people with so many varied tastes. Nobody is going hungry on the ship!

 

Drink prices - we drank wine all week that was $8 to $10 per glass. We had bottles of wine between $30 and $56. This is in line with our local chain restaurants. We had frozen drinks that were around $10, I can't recall any drink more than that. Mixed drinks were $8 to $10, also in line with our local chain restaurants. We are not beer drinkers, so I didn't pay much attention to those prices. I was expecting every drink to be $14. Not the case at all. Drink prices, in my opinion, are exactly in line with what we pay at a local chain style restaurant. We did not purchase a drink package, as this was a port intensive itinerary. On a cruise with many sea days, we probably would purchase it.

 

There were also a LOT of passengers wearing really cute lanyards to hold their sea pass cards. Please don't allow what you read here to influence your decision to wear or not wear a lanyard. If it makes sense for you, wear it! You can also buy a little wristlet type lanyard to hold your card if you prefer. It's your vacation, do it your way.

 

There were a few chair hogs on Day 6, our sea day, however, I did see the deck patrol out and removing towels mid morning when the pool deck became crowded. One group had "reserved" at least 10 chairs and it seems that the deck patrol gave them a good 45 minutes to show up. They removed their towels and later when they arrived, someone else told them that you couldn't reserve chairs. They took it well and just found new chairs.

 

Since we didn't travel in a suite and we are not D+, we did not even know where those lounges were located. Please, don't think that everyone on the ship is in those suites. All of the interior rooms were booked, we had a beautiful balcony location very close to the centrum elevators. There were two C & A events and there were no pinnacle travelers onboard. I know that reading these boards, you are sometimes under the impression that everyone is a pinnacle. There were over 1200 C & A members on this ship, not a single pinnacle. Once again, "normal" travelers are the norm.

 

My intent of this is to just have normal travelers like me feel more comfortable when traveling on the Adventure or any ship. The experience and insight provided by the more seasoned travelers is very valuable. Just please enjoy YOUR vacation the way you want to.

 

We had an absolutely fantastic time. Our best Caribbean cruise yet (until the next one).

 

Nice, VERY nice to read your summation. I have cruised enough and read enough on CC to know that most people on a cruise ship do not participate on CC and that most cruisers are 'regular' people, not "Pinnacles". We love the friends we have made, even if they are only friends for the time we are on board with them....others remain friends long after....either way works for me, to have a good time on board.

 

Let me ask you a question....who was the Activity Manager on board during your cruise?

[radmax50]

Let me answer some questions. I have a few cruise compasses, I'll try to post if I can figure out how. We took RCCL excursions at every port. I HIGHLY recommend the Airport Adventure SXM, what a great time! You go to the Airport on St. Maarten, anchor and you can snorkel or swim and watch the planes land and take off. I honestly cannot remember the name of the activities manager, the Cruise Director is Bobby, his staff was really nice and entertaining. The one time I saw the activities manager was on the sea day, day 6 around the pool for all of the activities. We ate at Giovannis just one night, the rest of the nights in the MDR. I don't know if the menu changes nightly, but there is certainly enough on the menu that you could have a different meal each night if you choose.

[Ashland]

Thanks so much, loved your review.... but please don't think all upper level cruiser's are alike. We're D+ and very low key...non-assuming... keep to ourselves....and we don't usually sail in suites....just JS (sweet enough for us) when the price is right or a balcony.

 

Will be doing a B2B next May to celebrate our 40th anniversary...we've been to the southern caribbean on Jewel but really looking forward to the Adventure. Glad to hear she's in such good shape and has a wonderful crew.

 

Please don't hesitate to post more often and hoping you enjoy your next cruise :)

[radmax50]

We are sailing on her next summer and can't wait. Can you give reviews of any excursions you did at each port?

 

St. Lucia, we took a coastal cruise to the Pitons with a short stop for swimming. Antigua we took a really nice island tour that really did show us the island. Barbados, the same thing, an island tour and we loved it. St. Kitts we took the railway and like the other islands, we enjoyed it thoroughly. We have always booked shore excursions through RCCL, I know that others don't, but once again, booking through the ship is the norm, not the exception. Don't be afraid to book the shore excursion through the cruise line. Friends on the ship swam with the turtles, visited the mineral springs and others simply got off the ship and shopped and ate. We were the only ship in port every day, that did make it nice, as we've been in St. Maarten with 5 other ships, it can be chaos.

[radmax50]

Thanks so much, loved your review.... but please don't think all upper level cruiser's are alike. We're D+ and very low key...non-assuming... keep to ourselves....and we don't usually sail in suites....just JS (sweet enough for us) when the price is right or a balcony.

 

Will be doing a B2B next May to celebrate our 40th anniversary...we've been to the southern caribbean on Jewel but really looking forward to the Adventure. Glad to hear she's in such good shape and has a wonderful crew.

 

Please don't hesitate to post more often and hoping you enjoy your next cruise :)

 

Have a great time on your anniversary cruise and thanks!

[radmax50]

Wow...where do you live that drinks are so expensive??? Our "chain restaurants" are around $5-6 for mixed drinks....$4 for domestic beers.....I don't drink wine out, since it's expensive anywhere....I get wine for home for about $3-6 per bottle.....I think a $56 bottle of wine is really, REALLY out of line and the "buzz" is no better than the cheaper stuff!

 

I think the wonderful thing about cruising is simple. You can drink if you want to, you can not drink if you want to. If you want to drink wine, you can. If you don't want to drink wine, don't. Same with beer, mixed drinks or anything. Pretty much everyone I know has a budget for vacation, we do too, and we stick with it. We also enjoyed the entertainment, the comedians, the group Mo5aic and the ice and production shows. All very entertaining.

[LuvtheWater117]

Your review and observations are exactly how I felt on Adventure in April. I went in with very low expectations based on all the complaints on here and I ended up having one of the best vacations of my life. And we're emerald but could care less about status

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[radmax50]

Your review and observations are exactly how I felt on Adventure in April. I went in with very low expectations based on all the complaints on here and I ended up having one of the best vacations of my life. And we're emerald but could care less about status

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk[/quote

 

I'm glad you had a good time, too! The big perk I see from being Platinum is a little discount on the cabin plus an easier embarkation. I'll take it.

[Ashland]

Have a great time on your anniversary cruise and thanks!

Nice...Mo5aic was on AOS...we saw them on Oasis...amazing group..glad to hear they are still doing onboard shows as well as their Vegas gig.

[fhp123]

I'm going on Adventure August 1st. Did you stay overnight in San Juan? What hotel? I'm staying at the Courtyard Miramar if anyone has any feedback on that hotel. How many (and what days) were formal night?

[radmax50]

I'm going on Adventure August 1st. Did you stay overnight in San Juan? What hotel? I'm staying at the Courtyard Miramar if anyone has any feedback on that hotel. How many (and what days) were formal night?

 

We stayed at the Sheraton Convention Center (not the one in Old San Juan). Our flight arrived rather late, so we were just having dinner and sleeping there. The hotel was lovely and we had a really nice dinner there, too. We'e been to San Juan a few times, so touring the fort and Old San Juan wasn't that important. If we had more vacation time, we would have gone a few days earlier, but we just didn't have the time off work. The morning of the cruise, we did visit the pool (an infinity pool) and had some pretty good photos of the ship. Formal nights were Day 2 and Day 5, on our itinerary, that was St. Maarten and Barbados. People were dressed nicely, we enjoy seeing that.

[Paulette3028]

Let me answer some questions. I have a few cruise compasses, I'll try to post if I can figure out how. We took RCCL excursions at every port. I HIGHLY recommend the Airport Adventure SXM, what a great time! You go to the Airport on St. Maarten, anchor and you can snorkel or swim and watch the planes land and take off. I honestly cannot remember the name of the activities manager, the Cruise Director is Bobby, his staff was really nice and entertaining. The one time I saw the activities manager was on the sea day, day 6 around the pool for all of the activities. We ate at Giovannis just one night, the rest of the nights in the MDR. I don't know if the menu changes nightly, but there is certainly enough on the menu that you could have a different meal each night if you choose.

 

You had Bobby Brown as the Cruise Director and people have said that he organizes a great set of activities for the cruises that he is the cruise director on. If you have a copy of one or two of the cruise compasses, generally speaking the Activity Manager co-hosts the morning show that the CD does, and their name (at least their first name) usually is listed on the cruise compass.

[Paulette3028]

Nice...Mo5aic was on AOS...we saw them on Oasis...amazing group..glad to hear they are still doing onboard shows as well as their Vegas gig.

 

We loved Mo5aic when we saw them on Allure, and then we had the good fortune to have them again when we sailed on Indy very recently......they are OUTSTANDING....so if you are on any ship, where they are the headliner....GO to see them....you won't be disappointed at all!!!

[cruisinfever]

We are sailing on her next February. So happy to hear your review. Our last cruises have been on Freedom class but am just as happy to be on Voyager class. Did they still have wine packages? Also happy that Deck Patrol do address the "chair hog" issues.

Edited May 20, 2015 by cruisinfever

[Clarea]

We are sailing on her next February. So happy to hear your review. Our last cruises have been on Freedom class but am just as happy to be on Voyager class. Did they still have wine packages? Also happy that Deck Patrol do address the "chair hog" issues.

Wine & Dine packages are gone. However, it does seem like bottled wine prices have gone down, so the lack of a wine package may not be a big thing anymore.

[radmax50]

You had Bobby Brown as the Cruise Director and people have said that he organizes a great set of activities for the cruises that he is the cruise director on. If you have a copy of one or two of the cruise compasses, generally speaking the Activity Manager co-hosts the morning show that the CD does, and their name (at least their first name) usually is listed on the cruise compass.

 

Sorry it took two questions for me to answer this question. It was Renato. I do believe that's the name he went by (no last name). Once again, I will try to post some of the cruise compasses, but if you want a specific activity for a specific day, I can try to answer that.

 

Once again, sorry that you had to ask twice, I know that's an important issue.