A Review With Pictures Of A Royal Time On Adventure Of The Seas - October 10, 2015

[bigque]

The Room:

 

Sitting in the champagne bar at the end or the Royal Promenade having a couple of drinks till announcement of rooms ready. Look up...Mirroe in the ceiling!

 

We went to check out our home for the week and upon arrival we found our luggage was there also. We have never had our luggage this early. The earliest prior to this was about 5:00. We were in 9320 (D-1) Center Hump Cabin. Room was plenty big, with the typical bathroom with small shower (Sliding glass doors) and the various things I had pre ordered in the online gift shop was there waiting in the room. Although I said the room was plenty big enough, were able to see a junior suite of one of the couples from our roll call and my wife should never had seen that room with even bigger space, bigger balcony, walk in closet and bathtub! She has made it known that is what she wants for our next cruise! The room was clean and neat and we had no problems with that all week. We met the room steward for the first time after we left and came back later. He was not the most personable of all the room stewards we have had in the past and we rarely saw him throughout the week, but whenever we came back after the excursions the room was clean, after dinner the bed was always turned down but we never saw him unless we saw him in another room down the hall. In the beginning we didn’t like a couple of answers he gave us when asking about something and it made his stock go down. It picked up as the week when on and turned out not be so bad. There were towel animals 3 times during the week.

 

9320 Center Hump Cabin

 

 

 

 

 

Room – A / Steward – C (this was compared with previous room stewards) /

Edited October 31, 2015 by bigque

[widallas]

Great review!!!

[wrdtrvllr]

Great review and pictures so far. We'll be on the Adventure 1 week from today!

[Susie51]

Great well-organized review. I like your grading system.

[Doralice]

Thanks for your review. I can't wait until June! We are even staying at the same hotel. [emoji3]

[NOSaints1]

Were 342 days to sailing when can we make reservations on the cruise planner?

[mxylpic]

Great review and pics. DW and I were on Adventure last Spring and will be sailing her again this July on this exact cruise.

[JustUs275]

I'm enjoying your review, very nicely done. We are in your age range and booked on Adventure for our 6th cruise, but our first cruise out of SJ...in a mere 475 days. :rolleyes: (and as soon as we board, we also head straight to the Windjammer for lunch :D)

[wanderlust79]

Thanks for the review! We did a Southern Caribbean route on the Adventure 7 or 8 years ago and I am really excited to be setting sail once again in just 35 days!! Your review and pictures are just what I need to get my fix and keep my pre-cruise crazies at bay! :D I really have forgotten what a great ship it is--glad to be reminded! :)

 

Can't wait to read more...

[bigque]

A couple more pictures from around the ship

 

How about a little free massage on the Royal Promenade

 

On our tour of the ship we went up to the spa & fitness center our friends as the wives wanted to check a couple of things out and plus they were having some drawings for free stuff.

 

 

 

 

Enjoying Embarkation Day...That First Day So Enjoyable!

Edited November 1, 2015 by bigque

[bigque]

After checking out the spa we headed up to an informal Meet & Greet of our roll call at the sky bar. As always this is a fun thing to do from the roll call as it is usually the first time to put faces with the names of the people you have been chatting with for months.

 

Our Roll Call Meet & Greet At The Sky Bar On Embarkation Day

 

After the Meet & Greet we did a little more exploring of the ship until they made the announcement for the muster drill. At 5:00. The Adventure does not depart San Juan until 8:30 PM but the drill is early. We had early dinner seating and because of the 5:00 muster drill the early seating is pushed back from 6:00 to 6:30 and the late seating from 8:30 to 9:00.

 

UP Next Day 2 - St. Thomas

[phabric]

Do you need to bring your life jacket to the Muster Drill?

[MiniChunks]

Do you need to bring your life jacket to the Muster Drill?

 

We did not have to on this sailing

[bigque]

 

Day 2 – St. Thomas

 

Being that Adventure leaves San Juan on a Saturday, this was the first time we were in a port on a Sunday other than the 3 day to the Bahama cruises in which we were in Coco Cay on Sunday. On this day we went to breakfast in the Windjammer and then headed off the ship to meet with our Excursion Operator as we were to meet him at 9:00. As we headed down to get off the ship we didn’t know what to expect as far as crowds but it was surprisingly few people, no long lines to get off. When you get down to the gangway there was a towel station setup to get towels to take off with you and station set up to purchase bottle water.

 

As said earlier this is the first cruise where we only booked private excursion companies and did not book any Royal excursions. I think I did this mainly because of the prices, type of excursions we wanted to do, and the times. When I looked at Royal’s excursions, a lot of them were for most of the day and we did not want to spend just about the entire day on excursions. In St. Thomas we booked an excursion with Godfrey Tours which was a Shopping and Island tour of St. Thomas. The tour operator Godfrey said that he usually didn’t book Sunday tours unless there were 10 or more people but he did the tour on this day even though there were only 8 people.

 

The first stop of the tour was in downtown Charlotte Amalie which is the capital and here we were let off at about 9:30 for two hours of shopping and sightseeing on our own This was a area full of duty free stores that line the streets and alleys as well as a straw market across the street form a small park. We did not make any major purchases here except for a couple of bottles of liquor that is not purchasable in the US and a couple of small pieces of jewelry. However from what we saw looking in the stores there were some good prices and much better prices than you see in the shops right at the port like DI.

 

 

 

 

 

After shopping and walking around we sat in this nice little park waiting for Godfry to return to pick up. St, Thomas was very hot...hotter than San Juan and when Godfrey retuned he gave everyone a nice cold bottle of water which was well needed!

[bigque]

We then continued our tour of St. Thomas. Godfrey took us to all points of interest in St. Thomas including the famous “Mountain Top” which was the home of the World’s best banana daiquiri’s as they advertise and Bluebird’s castle. Mountain Top is actually just a stop with a huge Gift shop and a bar but really has great views of the entire island. We went to many places that had spectacular views of the island. Godfrey was very knowledgeable and a good tour guide. The last thing on the tour which was optional was to get dropped off at either Magen’s Bay Beach or Coki Beach for beach time or you can be taken back to the ship. Megan’s Bay Beach is the nicer of the two but Godfrey suggested Coki Beach because you had to pay for Megan’s and Coki is free. We chose however to be taken back to the ship.

 

Godfrey Tours was not bad. We enjoyed it and especially enjoyed not having a bus full of people as we saw a lot of other tours that were filled to capacity as we went around. Oh and you received a free regular or virgin banana daiquiri at the Mountain Top.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Godfrey Tours – B+ / The Island of St. Thomas – A

[1ParticularHbr]

Do you need to bring your life jacket to the Muster Drill?

 

Royal stopped requiring this a couple of years ago - on all ships.

[bigque]

This 2nd night of the cruise was the first formal night so after a day a day in the fun and sun we dressed (We do dress for formal night however I wear a suit not a tux) for dinner. When we go to the room to get ready we had Canapés (For before dinner) and Petit Fours (For after dinner) waiting for us which was part of the romance package I ordered pre cruise. You get these on the formal nights. We went off to dinner and stop to take a picture as we purchase a formal night picture on every cruise. The dinner on the first formal night is not really that special. There was nothing that really just stood out. Three of us at the table ordered the duck and didn't really like it and had our waiter to bring us something else which he was happy to do.

 

After dinner we walked around a bit, looked around in the shops, sat and had a couple of drinks and then pretty much called it a day as we were pretty much wore out from the days tour on that blazing heat. My wife was surprised that I was calling it a day as I am usually out and about around the ship late at night.

 

When we did return to the room we had this cool dude waiting for us:

 

Up Next Day 3 - St. Kitts

[bigque]

Royal stopped requiring this a couple of years ago - on all ships.

 

Yes. They do not want people thinking that they have to go back to their room to get their life vest when they are somewhere else on the ship. They want you to get in your mind to go directly to your muster station and there you will be given a life vest.

[Marylandteachergirl]

Thank you so much for taking the time to write this review! I love your wife's cream color crochet top in St. Thomas. :)

 

We have been on Adventure three times and will be back on her for the Barbados route in January - and I never get tired of reading reviews. The Southern Caribbean is our favorite itinerary.

 

Again, thank you!

[TexCruise371]

WE board this week. Thanks for sharing! :D

[Magiccouple]

loved the sandwich on el churry! we went back for a second one!!!

 

such a great review!!!

Edited November 2, 2015 by Magiccouple

[NOSaints1]

What's some good hotels near the port, with lots to do?

[bigque]

 

Day 3 - St. Kitts

 

Once again as on the port days we got up and started with a breakfast in the Windjammer. I Would usually eat a pretty good breakfast but the wife usually just had fruit and maybe some eggs but breakfast was definitely not the best for her as you see in her grade at the beginning of the review.

 

We departed the ship at about 9:00 to meet up with our tour guide at 9:30 for St. Kitts. When you first get out in the little square at the port there are people with these trained monkey’s that you can take pictures with for a cost of $5.00. Some of these guys were a little pushy and will come and just sit the monkey on you. You just have to tell them no thanks and they will move on. I wanted a picture with the monkey. Don’t have to worry about poop as they have these little diapers on them.

 

 

 

 

[bigque]

In St. Kitts I chose Grey’s Island Tours which came recommended by various people here on Cruise Critic. The tour was called The Grand Tour of St. Kitts and as you can see by now this is what we like to do on the Islands. We like to go around and see the Islands and hear of the history, etc. This Island Tour consisted of a as it says a Grand Tour of the island from end to end and the beach or back to the port area at the end. There was about a two hour beach time for those who wanted to stay there at Cockleshell or South Friars Beach. As we are not really hang out at the beach people we once gain opted to go back to the port area and walk around the shopping area as we did in St. Thomas. Some of the folks we met from our roll call that spent time at the beaches on the islands did say that the beaches were nice and they had nice days spent on the beach.

 

Thenford Grey who was the tour guide and owner of the tour company was a very good guide. He was very knowledgeable of the history and other aspects of St. Kitts. You can tell that he really enjoys doing these tours and is very proud to be a citizen of St. Kitts. As other have recommended, I too hereby give my recommendation for Thenford Grey’s Tours (Grey’s Island Tours)!

 

St. Kitts is a beautiful Island. It is not one of our favorites in our top 5 but we liked it nonetheless. After this cruise we will have been to just about all the islands in the Caribbean that RCI sails to with the exception of a couple I believe so we now have a list of our favorites of all the ones we have been to.

 

 

 

 

A long walk up this staircase to the fort

 

A bird in the hand is worth a bunch in the bus...or tree tops!

 

 

Grey Island Tours – A+ / St. Kitts – B-

[bigque]

After we returned to the ship we headed to the Café Promenade to grab some pizza and sandwiches and there we ran into our friends Patrick & Zena. After eating it was getting close to the time for the Motown Trivia in the Schooner Bar. It was lots of fun and the activities guy that hosted it (Can’t Remember his name) was a good host and made it exciting. Now anybody who has ever gone to these trivia games know that the prizes given out are little cheesy prizes like key chains and highlighters but there were a group of people who played as a team who thought they should have won and one of the ladies kind of started going off about it. She got loud and boisterous and was very embarrassing but that is what happens when you let a little alcohol control your emotions!

 

After this it was back to the room to change for dinner.

After dinner on this night we headed back up to the Schooner Bar with Patrick & Zena for Karaoke. This too was lots of fun and we had the same activities guy from the Motown Trivia earlier in the day. This was the first time on a cruise that I actually let my hair down (I have a shaved head) and sang a couple of songs (I’m no singer)! Zena even talked my wife into going up with her to sing a song. There were a lot of people there and the more people drank the more they let loose and got up there to sing a song. I didn’t think that I would like karaoke but it was fun with lots of laughs…a real good time! Next on our plate was to go see the Headliner Show with the Comedian. This was advertised in the Cruise Compass as the “Can’t Miss Show Of The Cruise” and we fell for it. Boy oh boy was this guy bad. There was hardly anyone laughing and as I said in my review early in this review I found myself nodding out. We all purposely sat in the back row upstairs so that we can leave if he was not funny and we did just that when we just couldn’t take anymore.

 

 

This was also the night of the 70’s Party. My review and thoughts are at the beginning of this review.

 

 

 

 

 

Up Next Day 4- Sea Day