ADVENTURE/ABC's Aug 20-27,2016 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

After a late night "on the town", today was all about sleeping in with no time-line, checking out the sports deck for an in-line skate down memory lane for the final time, and then spend some time at the pool deck.

But first.... some R&R with a Machiatto in hand

 

 

 

We had a light breakfast and headed up to the sports deck, socks on, in order to do our usual conquering of the rock wall. My usual "MUST-DO" on every ship, besides having a photo with a life-ring, is to ice skate on every possible ship with a rink (and I have so far!), so now instead it's become a quest to get to ring the bell at the top of the rock wall on as many ships as I can until I can't do it anymore. Mission accomplished on Adventure

 

 

 

The next set of pics will be extremely rare in a couple of months... the in-line skating track. This area is gonzo during drydock, and there are no others on any ship anywhere as Adventure is the final of the Voyager Class ships to be upgraded. Soon, here you may a few loungers leading out back to the Florider, the new slides, and Splashaway Bay for the kids. Truthfully, I can only last maybe 15-20 minutes as the boots of the skates always seem to dig into my ankles no matter how many pair I try... does that happen to you too? Anyhow, here's the inside office where you sign the waiver and grab your equipment (right beside the golf simulator, which is also gonzo I might add)

 

 

 

 

And now on to the track itself that I will never see again.

 

 

Edited September 13, 2016 by Hoopster95

[LuCruise]

Great review and pictures. Wonder why they are removing the inline skating track? It's something we would totally do if we were on the ship. Is something going in its place?

[Hoopster95]

More images of the soon to be extinct In-Line Skating venue

 

 

 

I'm not sure if this slide will change as according to the deck plans "Splashaway Bay" is located here post refurb.

 

 

 

 

Well... that's it. The final go 'round of the in-line track. See ya later, was fun while it lasted, but newer and better things are coming and I can see this deck being very busy and well used with the Floriders and slides.

 

 

 

And of course with Adventure Dunes being taken away as well, we just had to get a final 9 holes in. The pool slides will be here according to the new deck plans

 

 

 

Lastly we got ready for some pool time. As expected, the pool deck was already full. We grabbed a single lounger, brought it over to one of the shaded sides and used that as our base camp. Passenger vs. staff volleyball was on in full swing just before noon and before the mid-day festivities up on pool deck

 

[Russ Lomas]

Well... that's it. The final go 'round of the in-line track. See ya later, was fun while it lasted, but newer and better things are coming and I can see this deck being very busy and well used with the Floriders and slides.

 

 

Goodbye inline skating....hello FLOWRIDER!!! Sad to hear the inline skating is going, but overjoyed they will be adding the flowrider soon. I have wanted to sail on a Southern Caribbean cruise for a couple of years and have been waiting for RCCL to put a ship down there with a flowrider on. Time to start checking out the pricing on the Adventure for our next booking.

 

Thanks for your amazing review. We have a 9 day Navigator cruise booked doing the ABC islands and your photos and info will be invaluable in out planning.

[Ocean Boy]

Great review and pictures. Wonder why they are removing the inline skating track? It's something we would totally do if we were on the ship. Is something going in its place?

 

I always thought he in-line skating was rather gimmicky. The track is short, winding, and half the time you are skating into a head wind. You can't get much speed up. On Navigator getting rid of the track made room for the flowrider and relocation of the mini-gold course.

[preschool teacher]

Say it isn't so....the review is over....and what a great informative review it was!!!!!

I'm doing the ABCs in Dec. and will do some of the things you did!

 

THanks for taking the time to share with us.

[Hoopster95]

Say it isn't so....the review is over....and what a great informative review it was!!!!!

I'm doing the ABCs in Dec. and will do some of the things you did!

 

THanks for taking the time to share with us.

 

 

Not quite over yet... Don't you want to know how I did in the Sexy man contest?!? Lol ..... I came 2nd. Super funny Puerto Rican guy had way better moves and the crowd wrapped around his finger, I couldn't overcome so he won in a landslide. Of course all the svelte ripped guys who took it seriously didn't win a medal as usual. 2nd and 3rd places went to Canadians... all the rest were USA men and were shut out... I guess American men aren't very sexy! :p

 

Also today was the third of the Ice Skating shows, as the first two were on the Aruba night when we went to dinner at Barefoot. Normally I wold think an afternoon show to be a total waste of time, however with the extreme heat of the week and how busy we were, it was absolutely perfect for us this time. We left the sun, heat & pool around 2:15pm and headed for the rink. I believe we weren't the only ones thinking this way.... Studio B was packed solid with standing room only. The show is cold "Cool Art, Hot Ice" and does not make any sense at all, zero story line. Seen it before and was ok then, but unfortunately I don't think the skaters were very much into a mid-afternoon performance and there were many falls and wasn't very inspiring. Having said that gf figure skated (almost pro) in her younger years and even after viewing the ice show on Explorer this past May, still astounded at the proficiency of the skaters being able to gather enough speed for the spins and lifts in such a limited space StudioB provides for professional skaters. It was nice to hear from someone as experienced and made me appreciate the performance after all.

 

 

 

 

We had thought about dinner at the WJ again tonight, but opted for MTD as Aila has been an awesome server, and reviewing the menu in the morning we decided to do MTD on the final evening. Immediately after dinner was the only theatre show available to all guests on this final night, the "Farewell Variety Showtime". As usual, the finale ended with CD Dan Dan introducing and welcoming all the various staff and officers of the ship onto the stage for a final farewell.

 

 

 

We had packed most all of our stuff between the Ice Show and dinner, so we made time now to finalize. Out went the suitcases as we were in no hurry the next day (flight at noon). Back out the activity staff did a parade late in the evening at 10pm... very strange, should've done this at the beginning of the cruise.

 

 

 

The evening ended with some great Jazz performed by the RCL singers up in Blue Moon, where there singers encouraged partners up to the floor for a couple of slow dances while the performed live... that was a super nice touch we took advantage of. We then went on to check out the dancing at Jester's as well as the Latin band Son Machine Trio in the Imperial Lounge, where the crowd was pretty decent right up to about midnight, then began thinning out very quickly. We headed for bed too.

 

With the morning (and debarkation.... YUCH!!!) upon us, we had breakfast in the D+ area of MDR, and headed back to grab our carry-ons. I said good bye to my aft balcony one last time...

 

Buh bye Adventure and San Juan.... until next time

 

 

[Hoopster95]

 

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Hey CC'ers,

 

Thx to all for the kind words from everyone who followed along! Really nice of you to let me know that it's helping you make decisions on your future cruise or that your just plain entertained with the photos ... I really hope that more of you post reviews and photos of the ABC's with Navigator and Adventure making these islands a normal route into 2017.

 

Like my other reviews, I'll rate the various things about the Adventure how I perceived them. I think I'm tough and realistic on my ratings (I don't give 10's just because) so bare with me and my perception of things:

 

"5" is a pass, but just barely...

6 ok

7 is very good but not memorable

8 memorable, but not the best ever

9 totally excellent, have recommended or raved

10 the best EVER

 

Food: -- overall 8 --

Giovanni's 8.5 ... great Ossobucco and seafood, equal in great quality to previous ships. Service a bit off... not in execution but perhaps in attitude? Hard to put a finger on it. First night was really off, second night better. If not for waiter being a bit off, absolutely a 9 here.

MTD 7 ... Hit or miss depending on which dish. Flawless service though.

WJ 8 ... Strictly based on the Indian night day 4. If I had gone another night and quality was same, this could be higher! Totally impressed with the Indian feast. Of course if other nights were garbage.... well, you know

DL 7 ... one breakfast (smoked salmon/bagel, fruit, muesli) all fresh and very good. Mostly just routine coffee stops.

CL n/a ... (only routine morning coffee)

 

Entertainment: -- overall 7 --

Production Shows 7

Singers 7

Dancers 6

Headliners 8 ... Stephanie Parker an 10 on her own, one of the best Headliners ever.

Pool band 8 ... excellent!

Latino Band 7 ... good but not as good as some others

Schooner piano player n/a ... didn't spend any evening time in the Schooner Bar

3 pce ballroom band 8 ... played a lot of Latin, top 40 and other music as well. The bar was always full with people dancing when they were on set. Have to give them props.

 

Staff -- overall 8.5 --

Activity Director and staff 7.5

CD Dan Dan 9 ... one of the better ones on my list

Stateroom attendant 9 ... not a single thing missed, never once mentioned the survey or WOW card, always fun to speak with

MTD Aila & Kowong 10 ... flawless in every way.

Bar Tenders 9 ... Various Bars incl Pool and SkyBar, never an issue with a long wait or bad drink. Excellent on this ship (this sailing anyways) imo.

 

Venues -- overall 7.5 --

Helipad 9 ... love it out here

Sports Deck 6 ... refurbed with slides and Florider will up it to at least a 9 I would think

Imperial Lounge 7

Promenade 8 ... the focal point of this ship, excellent events here and a great gathering place

Casino n/a ... I didn't use this time

Pool Deck 8

Solarium n/a ... it's not really a "solarium" is it?

Gym n/a ... normally a daily gym rat, I did not use this cruise

Jester's 10 ... excellent dance venue and night spot, will be totally missed, the most unfortunate casualty of the refurbs imho.

Blue Moon 7 ... as always, Viking Crown is a stable great venue... and will be rocking when the nightclub lights are added and dance floor expanded when upgraded in 2 months.

 

Excursions: -- all DIY 10 --

St. Maarten 9

Bonaire 7.5 ... Voyager Tours brought this down a bit, Woodwind on her own 9.5 or 10.

Aruba 10 ... one of my fave islands in the entire Caribbean

Curacao 8 ... would've been higher had I had my timing right at the various sites as I explained

 

Overall

Itinerary 9 ... fantastic itinerary

Overall cruise value 8 .... highly memorable itinerary, one of the best for the Caribbean. Great staff overall, good food. Good entertainment and live music. A memorable vacation. I believe the overall score could be higher with the upgrades... Izumi and Chops options (people, take advantage of the dining packages!), Florider, likely lots of upgraded furniture and so forth. Plus San Juan is an awesome place to start or end a cruise and to stay an extra day. This was one of my more memorable Caribbean sailings.

 

 

Next up is...... TADA!!!... Harmony in January. Now that should be interesting to say the least. I'll need to buy a new memory card for the bazillion photos I'll be taking :p

 

H A P P Y C R U I S I N ' E V E R Y O N E ! ! ! :D:D

Edited September 14, 2016 by Hoopster95

[Hoopster95]

Say it isn't so....the review is over....

THanks for taking the time to share with us.

 

Yep, now it's over :p:D

Thx for following along Cathy

 

(p.s. those of you subscribed might want to hang on a bit as over the next week I may add a bunch of ABC photos from my 2013 trip here on this review rather than starting a new thread. As mentioned during this review, there were a few different things I did on that trip, with some awesome photos to share!)

Edited September 14, 2016 by Hoopster95

[medic368]

thanks for the well done review. we will be on the final cruise before dry dock 8 days, same ports plus Antiqua with a full day pre and post in San Juan. Your insights and great photos have helped a great deal in some of our final decisions.

[NemoCrownie]

I am so sorry to see this end. This has been one of the best reviews, ever. I really appreciated your links, maps and detailed how-to instructions.

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Hoopster95]

thanks for the well done review. we will be on the final cruise before dry dock 8 days, same ports plus Antiqua with a full day pre and post in San Juan. Your insights and great photos have helped a great deal in some of our final decisions.

 

Thank you medic :)... Antigua is awesome as an add-on to this itinerary. Another one of my fave islands. You're going to have a blast! If you do not have a set decision in Antigua, perhaps look up Adventure Antigua and also keep Stingray City in mind

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g147243-d254411-Reviews-Adventure_Antigua-St_John_s_Saint_John_Parish_Antigua_Antigua_and_Barbuda.html

 

 

This has been one of the best reviews, ever. I really appreciated your links, maps and detailed how-to instructions.

 

Thank you so much Nemo, very nice of you and it's great to know it helped you :)

[Daveintb]

Really a well done review, one of the best I've seen , thank you for taking time to do this , we enjoyed all the pics [emoji41]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[runningmoms2girls]

I loved following along. Thank you!

[inna61]

Thank you so much for your wonderful review, great tips, and awesome pictures!

[Sheebee]

This review is so helpful ! Thank you for posting .

[SkiQueen2007]

I tried to post this yesterday but I don't think it went through.

 

Thank you so much for this detailed review! I especially enjoyed reading about your Aruba and Curacao DIY adventures. I'm leaning towards renting a car and exploring at both of these islands so it was great to hear how you spent your day.

 

I'm on Adventure for the St. Thomas, St. Kitts, Aruba and Curacao route and I'm so excited to sail her with all her new changes. Thanks for the photos to give some perspective of where the new items are going. I've sailed on the Navigator but it was a long time ago, the photos were a great review.

 

I really hope you do another one of these for Harmony!

[Hoopster95]

Hi everyone,

 

Daveintb, runningmoms2girls, Inna61, Sheebee, Skiqueen... thank you for the very kind words. :)

 

I mentioned I would look back at a few photos of things I did or areas of the ABC's I viewed back on my Vision cruise in November 2013, and try relay them here within this review just as a side note. I wish I had done a review of that sailing as it was just before my very first review on CC (May 2014 Navigator). I remember reading Max's'moms review of the same sailing (Vision cultural cruise out of Colon) and had wished at that time I had done one as well... I have phenomenal close-up pictures of Panama's Gatun & Miraflores locks, and the Embara Indian Village amongst other areas. I will stick with the ABC's

 

First Bonaire...

 

And here's a view on Bonaire on a beautiful clear morning sail-in from my aft JS... no superstructure in the way here like on Voyager Class aft balconies.

 

 

 

 

As mentioned in this review, "downtown" Bonaire is only maybe 3 blocks long for tourists. I had walked a few of the back roads and in and out of lane-ways and buildings, but really was pretty much done very quickly. All we had planned that day was Woodwind in the afternoon so truthfully we were a little bored and disappointed with the town core of Bonaire... this was the one place I did no research on other than Woodwind. Here's a few pics of center of town. I remember having plenty of time to get back on the ship and a stress free lunch on board before heading out again in plenty of time for Woodwind.

 

 

 

 

Vision was docked at the further west pier, not the east pier as Adventure had just done.

 

[Hoopster95]

This was my first excursion on Woodwind, and all the reviews were correct... first class all the way, a ton of fun and one of the best values for an excursion anywhere in the Caribbean imho. Here's Deidre & Alejandro back then as well

 

 

 

And again some more phenomenal professional photos to share with you from Alejandro. Note how he does his best to include the group into his photos as well as solo shots as I provided to you in this review... gives a great perspective with the group floating above

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, if you do Woodwind the pro photos are a must in my humble opinion.

I tried to look at pdf's of the compass but I didn't take any photos... I wasn't reviewing yet so I didn't bother! I believe if I remember right sailaway was 6pm so we were hitting sunset as we were sailing away... taken from deck 10 at the front of the ship. On Adventure deck 12 viewing will be gone so not a really good direct unobstructed view forward anymore after the refurb, deck 13 will have the huge white cover of the bridge blocking a lot of view downward and forward.... I would opt deck 11 (either side of the bridge peek-a-boo) or better yet the helipad would be my #1 choice for Adventure facing forward

 

[Hoopster95]

Here's a few additions/different things about my first Aruba visit in comparison to this Adventure review....

 

Starting with the California Lighthouse pre-renovation

 

 

 

Just below the Lighthouse (about a mile) on the coastline this huge tree is still perched today... I did not get a picture of it on the Adventure trip[ as we drove by due to time, but I did point at it as we drove by in fond memory.

 

 

 

The rocky coastline.... remember these boulders are up to 15 feet tall, you have to climb on top of them. Pictures do not do justice of this area, which like the tree above is just below the lighthouse on the coastline, and adjacent to those white sand dunes that you're not supposed to drive on that I have mentioned

 

 

 

 

Working my way in the opposite direction from the Lighthouse east, rather than from Arikok west as I had done on the Adventure cruise, we find the Alto Vista Chapel. I add this to show you how many more people there are during busy(er) season with various excursions running

 

 

 

I had mentioned in the Adventure review about the hundreds/thousands of Inukshuks that many previous tourists have built on the beach. I provided a close up photo with maybe 5-6 in the foreground.... well here's what a full beach looks like

 

 

 

and yes... you carefully walk through this area as not to disturb or topple the memorials... supposedly brings bad luck.

[Hoopster95]

I loved this place! And for those of you with kids would make for an absiolutely excellent 2 hour stop.

The story about this place is worth reading and this was a destination I purposely made to visit on this tour for the day

http://www.philipsanimalgarden.com/

 

 

 

This guy wanted to butt heads when I was petting and feeding him

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

As mentioned, after reaching the western entrance to Arikok National Park i the mid-afternoon, I made the decision not to enter the park, but go to a beach I had researched pre-cruise to chill out and enjoy the sun for a couple of hours. This is Baby Beach at the south east corner of Aruba, in the town of San Nicholas. It was very easy to find by car once you go into San Nicholas. The weirdest thing about this beach is that it was so beautiful, but not very far away is a refinery of some sort with large stacks and large iron structure.... just don;t look that way and the place is gorgeous lol.

 

 

 

 

[Hoopster95]

A view of the famous pontoon bridge connecting Punda and Otrabanda, this view from my aft balcony.On the Adventure sailing, not once did we see/hear the bridge open, albeit we were only in town for a couple of the final hours while docked. On Vision, we witnessed the bridge open & close 4 different times during the day, twice from our aft balcony and twice on land. Very very cool!

 

 

 

 

I walked in Otrabanda for a bit, where the locals live. I did not take any pics the farther I walked where the buildings really changed into older, more sketchy homes/buildings, but here are a couple of shots of you can expect... nothing special at all really, there a very nice church and a couple of other buildings but truthfully there is nothing here at all in comparison to other things you can do and see

 

 

 

 

It'll truly be a shame when the Vision Class ships get too old for the fleet and are done away with from RCL forever... it's examples like these that make a gigantic difference. While we watched the pontoon bridge open for us and we're able to get unreal pics of Vision in the background almost everywhere we were on town, a larger HAL ship was docked at the mega pier. Now with Voyager Class a constant in Curacao (Adventure & Navigator) I am only assuming those ships will not dock within the bay... I really hope I'm wring because it is very very cool

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Fort Amsterdam, just on the other side of the pontoon bridge, worth a visit for those of you hanging around town for the day

 

 

 

 

Remember the market pictures? Here they were 3 yrs ago... prob the same vendors too! Love seeing Vision in the background

 

 

 

 

This is where we picked up the Willemstad trolley tour

https://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g147278-d2454599-Reviews-Willemstad_Trolley_Tour-Willemstad_Curacao.html

I see in reading recent reviews nothing is mentioned about the Blue Curacao Liquer Distillery, but at that time we did go there on this tour... maybe this tour doesn't go there anymore? From a fellow reviewer:

"This tour gives you lots of information on the Downtown area. You get to see the Queen Emma pontoon Bridge, Handelskade (Merchants Wharf), Floating Market, Scharloo the former Jewish Neighborhood, The Wedding cake house, the Pietermaai Cathedral and then back to town and last visit to the Fort Amsterdam."

 

Here's the distillery... and this liqueur is wonderful. I don't get it up here i my neck of the woods.