Adventure of The Seas - June 4, 2016 - A first-time cruiser's review with Pics

[SDQTraveler]

Hello Everyone!

 

We returned from our first cruise a few weeks ago, but were unable to write a report until now. We booked the cruise in December 2015, and had some hesitations later mainly due to the negative reviews online. Overall we loved it.

 

I am currently uploading the pictures and will post them soon!

 

Pre-Cruise Travel

 

We departed from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic at 7:00 am and arrived in San Juan 40 minutes later. Our flight was ahead of schedule, so we had to wait for 20 minutes or so before we could proceed to immigration. It was worth the wait, as the immigration hall was completely empty and the luggage was already delivered. No line at customs, and we were in a cab by 8:30 AM.

 

We went to OSJ and had a delicious breakfast at Casa Cortes, then walked a bit around the area, and then took another cab to the pier.

 

Check-in / Boarding

 

It took us over 30 minutes to reach the pier, as there was a lot of traffic going in to pick up arriving passengers. We finally arrived at 11:00 am, which was perfect timing, as luggage drop-off opened right at 11:00. The line was very short, and by 11:20 am we had our Sea Passes. Boarding started at 12:00 and again, short line.

 

We then purchased our drink packages, and reserved our dinner at Giovanni's Table right away. Lunch at the Windjammer was nice, since it was almost empty.

 

Rooms were ready a few minutes before 2 PM, and our luggage was being delivered as we arrived.

 

We then took a cab to the city, and returned right before the Muster Drill.

[lauraodonnell86]

Following along!! :D

[cruiseturbo]

Following!

 

Very excited to see your pictures and read your review! We will be on the Adventure in Sept. I try to read reviews and watch you tube videos of the ship everyday to keep me occupied until then!! 83 days before my cruise but I am sure they will fly by!

 

Thank you for taking the time to do this and I look forward to reading more.

[Clarea]

Looking forward to more.:)

[bobmacliberty]

Following. We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. Will be interesting to hear your perspective!

[SDQTraveler]

To continue with the report, I will be commenting on different areas, most of them positive comments, as we didn't run into any issues and found the quality of service very good. It is very hard for us to rate the quality of service and amenities, as this was our first sailing. We travel a lot and have been to a different range of hotels, from very basic Ibis hotels in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, to luxury beach resorts in the caribbean and Hawaii, so although different, this is our basis to compare and rate.

 

Service

As mentioned in the previous paragraph, we found the quality of service very good, and in some cases, exceptional. We had a great stateroom attendant who always made sure we had everything we needed. We usually ran into him as we returned to our stateroom, and there was always a conversation topic.

 

Diner staff was also excellent, both at the Vivaldi Dining Room and at Giovanni's table. Even on very busy nights, they were very efficient and always approached us with a high level of courtesy and a big smile. The bartender quickly learned our drink choices, and made a special drink following my wife's dietary requirements.

 

Bar service was for the most part very good. We only ran into a few bad apples (One bartender at the Schooner Bar who didn't seem to be happy with his job, and a bartender at the Imperial Lounge, who was very rude). We found the rest of the crew members that we interacted with to be very nice.

 

Stateroom

We had a D2 Balcony on Deck 10, the most forward stateroom portside (1530) so we had a direct view of the bridge. The stateroom was in good shape, but some maintenance work was performed in the balcony several times (deep cleaning, painting, etc). We were a bit afraid to not have a lot of space, but it turned out to be good for us. We have seen a lot of complaints about the bathroom and shower space, but trust me, any 3 or 4-star hotel in Paris has a similar or even smaller bathroom.

 

 

Ship

Contrary to a lot of reviews, we thought that the ship was in very good conditions. Some painting and maintenance work being done in different areas and I heard some people complaining, but we found this to be normal because this is the only way to keep it in good shape. The decoration is indeed very outdated, specially in the corridors and staterooms. Hopefully they change it to modern colors when she goes to dry dock later this year.

 

Food

The Windjammer breakfast and lunch was somehow repetitive, but we always managed to get something different every day. The dessert were tasty but not very impressive. With so many different stations, they could really have more food variety.

 

We tried the lunch at the main dining room on sea day, and it was good: very tasty menu choices, great service, and amazing salad bar!

 

Dinner was always great. We knew it wasn't a Michelin-starred restaurant so our expectations were not very high. The variety of items in the menu was something that we always appreciated and the portions were very generous. The dessert selection was always very good, with a lot of options including sugar-free and gluten-free. Our special dinner at Giovanni's table was excellent. The only problem was that we ran out of space :) I read in several threads / reviews that the portions were big, but I never pictured them to be THAT big. By the time we were done with the pasta, we were already full, but that didn't stop us from having the main course and the wonderful Tiramisu.

 

Cafe Promenade was very basic. The sandwiches were not bad, but the could have been better. The pizza was not consistent, sometimes it was very good, sometimes it was tasteless. It was still nice to have at least one place where we could grab a snack after midnight.

 

Room Service: It was just OK. It was very useful to get snacks good snacks (fruits, cheese, spinach dip, desserts), but sandwiches and salads were not good.

 

Wifi

We purchased the "Voom" package a week in advance and it was a very good deal compared to the price onboard. I have an IT Background, so no big expectations. I was very surprised. The coverage was excellent, and the speed was reasonable. I understand that a lot of cruisers are frustrated because the newer ships have super fast Internet, but we never had an issue checking my e-mail, sending text messages and pictures, and using apps like Instagram, Facebook, or Snapchat. Typical speed was between 0.5 Mbps and 1.5 Mbps, which seems to be slow when you have 900 Mbps at home, but again, I was able to accomplish what I needed without any problems.

 

Entertainment

 

We were also afraid to get bored at some point, but we always found something to do. We particularly enjoyed the 70's party, the night shows at the Lyric, the ice skating show, and the pool activities.

 

Departure / Customs

What a chaos! I knew it was bad, but never imagined it was going to be such a difficult experience. It took us over an hour to find our luggage and go through customs. On top of that, the pier staff was very rude when we approached them. Finding a cab was relatively easy and it took us around 10 minutes to get back to OSJ. We spent the day first in OSJ, where we had a nice mofongo and Piña Colada at Barrachina, and then explored the Condado area a bit before our flight back to Santo Domingo.

 

Overall we loved the cruise and we are looking forward to the next one.

Edited June 26, 2016 by SDQTraveler

[SDQTraveler]

Day 1: San Juan

 

Look! It's our ship!

 

Thanks for such a nice flight, captain!

 

Breakfast at Casa Cortes Chocobar

 

Check-in time

 

Here we go!

 

....But first, a Mango Piña Colada!

[SDQTraveler]

Day 2: St. Marteen

 

Good Morning, St. Marteen

 

 

Maho Beach

 

 

 

Captain's Welcome Speech

[SDQTraveler]

Day 2: St. Kitts

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SDQTraveler]

Day 3: Antigua

 

 

 

 

 

 

[SDQTraveler]

Day 4: St. Lucia

 

 

 

 

 

[Debitoo]

Adventure was my first ship (well, the first since 1988), and we loved her! Would sail her again in a heartbeat!

 

Thanks for the review and the great pictures!

[SDQTraveler]

Day 4: St. Lucia (cont.)

 

 

 

 

[birdlord]

Following along. Beautiful photos!

[OceansOfTravels]

BEAUTIFUL photos! Thanks for sharing! :D