Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Quick Adventure of the Seas Review - March 11 Sailing

MaineTraveller
 Share

Recommended Posts

MaineTraveller

MaineTraveller

Posted
Posted

Hello All!

 

I wanted to write up a few thoughts from my recent Adventure of the Seas cruise. I didn't take hardly any pictures of the ship itself but I wanted to share a few thoughts on our wonderful vacation. I also didn't keep any of the compasses, I completely forgot.

 

We were on the March 11, 2017 sailing. I sailed with my boyfriend (now fiancee), my parents and his parents. My parents are cruise veterans and go once or twice a year, he and his parents had never been on a cruise.

 

Itinerary:

San Juan

St. Thomas (8am-5pm)

St. Kitts (8am-5pm)

Sea Day

Aruba (8am-8pm)

Curacao (8am-11pm)

Sea Day

San Juan

 

Pre-Cruise

We flew in the afternoon prior to the cruise. We stayed at the Marriot Stellaris hotel in the Condado Area. My fiancee travels for work weekly and paid for 3 rooms with his marriot points. He's a platinum member but it did nothing for us at this hotel. It was a nice hotel but I wouldn't stay there again, everything was extremely overpriced, our rooms were ready extremely late (almost 5pm before we got all 3), and no executive lounge. Not one of our better Marriot experiences.

 

The morning of embarkation we got up and toured Old San Juan for a few hours before heading to the ship.

 

Embarkation

We arrived at the cruise terminal around 2:30pm. Embarkation was quick and painless and it was nice to have the rooms opened as soon as we arrived. We headed up to the Windjammer for a late lunch and our luggage had already arrived by the time we got back.

 

Stateroom - 6642

I was a little disappointed that the rooms didn't get redone as part of the dry dock but the rooms were in great shape. We didn't have a topper on our bed but I thought it was pretty comfortable without one. Our stateroom attendant was fantastic. Once he saw me saving towel animals we got one every night the rest of the cruise and a bonus towel cake for my fiancees birthday. He even had a bottle of champagne waiting for us after dinner the night of his birthday.

 

I was a little worried about a deck 6 balcony since the balcony's on the Adventure are more closed in and deck 6 doesn't have as much glass but it was fantastic. The deck furniture looked new and we loved the privacy of the alcove style balconies. We also loved the location. We were very close to the aft elevations and stairs and it was easy to run up to the room from the Promenade.

 

Main Dining Room

I thought most of the food in the main dining room was really good. I had a couple dishes that were misses but overall we thoroughly enjoyed our experience all week. We had the early 6pm seating. We ate in the dining room 6 nights and the Windjammer one night. We didn't do any specialty dining and didn't feel the need to.

 

Our dining room server was Rogelio and he was fantastic. His assistance Mirko was a little non-present but he seemed to have a lot of tables he was trying to accommodate. He was good about keeping water glasses full and drinks coming but he was sometimes unavailable to deliver sauces and coffees with deserts. Overall, the service was really good and we really enjoyed the experience.

 

Windjammer

I was pleasantly surprised with the Windjammer. Everything I had was really good. I especially enjoyed the fried eggs and pre-made omelets they had at breakfast. Much faster than waiting at the omelet station. There were lots of servers roaming around for drink refills and we never had an issue finding a table.

 

Drink Package and Bar Service

I bought the drink package during the 30% off sale. I'm not sure I quite broke even but I'm still glad I got it. I enjoyed the specialty coffees from Cafe Promenade in the mornings and afternoons, as well as being able to grab bottled water whenever. Most bar staff were more than happy to give you 2 if requested. The free style machines were an added bonus and we loved getting vitamin water and soda whenever we wanted. I do wish they would put a chip in your sea pass card, carrying those cups around was a pain.

 

Most people on the ship seemed to have the package but bar service was still great. We never waited very long for a drink. There were tons of bar tenders at the bars during sea days. Also, lots of roaming deck servers and servers prior to shows and activities. Drinks were strong. My only drink compliant is that they didn't have hardly any of the beers shown on the pub menu, overall a minor compliant.

 

We never had to sign or were given a receipt with the package.

Well done Adventure!

 

Ship Activities

We loved the addition of the flowrider, mini golf, and water slides. They are great additions to this ship. We had a great time doing the boggie boarding and stand up surfing on the flowrider. We also enjoyed the 2 story mini golf and the water slides. I think more adults than kids were using the slides and loving them. The kids area on the main pool deck seemed like a nice addition and didn't take away too much pool space. We also tried the rock wall but man that thing is challenging haha.

 

I never had trouble finding a chair on sea days but shade spots and spots by the pool were hard to come by.

 

More to come later on ship entertainment and ports. Feel free to leave any questions and I'll try to answer them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaryL31

MaryL31

Posted
Posted

Thanks for your review. I was also on this cruise. I have to say that this was perhaps my most enjoyable cruise (have cruised 12 times, and 8 were with RCI). I was able to truly relax on this ship, more so than I have ever done before. We all had the drink package and none of us (2 couples in early 50's) had to sign. Bar service was wonderful everywhere except the Sports Bar.

The drink card, to my knowledge, was only offered on the last day and it was $85 for 10 drinks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaineTraveller

MaineTraveller

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Ship Entertainment

We only attended the main theater shows 3 of the 7 nights. We also saw the ice show. Overall we enjoyed the shows we did see. We saw the opening night show, which was a comedian, he was very funny. We also saw the last night variety show with a ventriloquist, also enjoyable. Mid-week we went to see Two Funny Guys, they were fabulous! We really enjoyed them.

 

We also really enjoyed the ice show. The ice show was offered during the evening on Day 4 and during the day on Day 7. We didn't see any of the production shows. My parents went to the first one and thought the music was a little old for their taste. I was a little bummed we didn't make it to Don't Stop the Rock but it was offered at only one time the night we were in Curacao until 11pm. And the Quest was due to start right when the show ended. Not great timing.

 

We also attended the Late Night Adult Comedy (twice, two different comedians both great). Love and Marriage Game show, 70's Party (fantastic energy from the cruise staff great fun!), the deck party (fun but wish this was before a sea day not our Curacao day) and the Quest. The Quest was very lightly attended I think due to timing, they held it at 10:30pm the day we were in Curacao until 11pm, I think people were beat.

 

We also enjoyed Trivia in the Schooner bar, piano in the schooner bar (this was always busy), karaoke (wish they offered this more than an hour a night), music in the pub (music 6 of the 7 nights) and the music on the promenade in the evenings.

 

Overall lots to do and all events seemed very well attended.

 

Ports

We like others chose this ship for the itinerary

 

St. Thomas

The 6 of us rented out Rumbaba for the day, a sailboat that is available for day trips for $150 a person. We did some sailing, snorkeled at a fabulous reef, snorkeled in Christmas bay to see the sea turtles and had a fabulous fresh grilled lunch. Overall we really enjoyed the day and had a wonderful time with just our party. It was so nice to snorkel without 75 of our closest friends. We saw a lot of value in the price as well, we've paid $100 for day sails in the past with a ton of people so it wasn't really that much more to do a private sail.

 

One word of caution, the sail picked up in Red Hook. We grabbed an open air taxi and we assumed that most of the other passengers were going to Red Hook as well. We ended up going to the other cruise ship pier, Coki beach and then Red Hook. It took over an hour to get there, very frustrating when you have spent so much money on your day.

 

St. Kitts

We booked an Island Tour with Thenford Grey. We had a great experience. We stopped at Romney Manor, Brimstone Hill Fortress, Timothy Hill and Shipwreck Bar and Grill. Mr. Grey was our guide and he was a wealth of knowledge. He entertained us all day. There was also two families with 4 kids on the tour and even the kids seemed like they had a good day. Mr. Grey kept them engaged and picked on them a bit throughout the day to hold their attention.

 

Romney manor had some beautiful plants and it was nice to see how the Batik was made. Brimstone Hill Fortress had amazing views and I loved this stop. Timothy Hill was a nice view but it was packed with other bussess and visitors. Shipwreck was a great end to the day for some lunch and swimming. Overall I would highly recommend and it seemed like a terrific value at $55 a person.

 

Aruba

We rented a jeep and struck out on our own. We rented from Royal car rental. They were right outside of the cruise ship terminal and in no time we were on our way. We did visit Airkok Natural Park. We stopped at the visitor center to use the restroom and then headed to the Fontein Cave. We also stopped at Boca Prins. From there we headed down to the Natural Pool. Yes the road is extremely rough but we made it and it was well worth it to go our own. The pool is great and we were there with just one other family for almost half an hour before a huge tour group ascended on us. From there we headed to the natural bridge. We then proceeded to drive on the dirt road connecting the gold mine ruins to the California lighthouse. We stopped at a few sites along the way and had a great time. We stopped at the lighthouse but it wasn't open for visitors so we headed to Arashi beach. The snorkeling here was fantastic, we snorkeled around for about an hour until 5 huge catamarans dumped their passengers into the reef to join us... ick. We stopped at Eagle beach for lunch on the way back to the cruise port. Overall a fantastic day ashore!

 

Curacao

We rented a car from Avis at the pier. I would not recommend renting from them. Our car was available but at the other pier even though I had put in the Mega pier when I made the reservation. We waited over an hour for it to be driven over, had I known how close the other pier was I would have walked over. Another family came in with a reservation not long after us and they didn't have a car for them so they sent them over to the Budget in the Renaissance, who had cars but they had to start all over again getting a reservation. My parents rented from Budget and saw this poor family. My parents were on their way within 15mins, I think I'll try them next time.

 

Once we finally got our car we promptly got lost heading out of the city but corrected our course and headed to Shete Boca National Park. We had a fabulous morning exploring the bocas. The park was well maintained and it was easy to navigate. from there we headed to Playa forti so my fiance could try the 40ft cliff jump. He had a good time and the water is beautiful there. The beach was a little rocky but I enjoyed the water, it was hot that day. We had lunch at the restaurant adjacent to the cliff. I can't remember the name but the service was terrible and slow, food wasn't great and it was pricey. Would not recommend.

 

From there we headed down to Playa Santa Cruz hoping to catch a ride to the blue room. We were too late, Captain Goodlife leaves promptly at 1pm daily. So get there early if you want to do that. There was no one on the beach but 8 or so cars in the lot so he must have taken quite a few out that day.

 

We decided to head down to tugboat beach to snorkel since I really didn't have anything else planned and I didn't know with beaches in the area would be best. This ended up being a great decision and we thoroughly enjoyed tugboat and did some amazing snorkeling there. It was hard to find but we made it and had a great time. We headed back to the ship after and returned the car around 5pm. We got cleaned up and headed out into the city to explore. Most of the shops were closing up around 6pm so keep that in mind if you want to do some shopping with a late port time. We thought the city was beautiful and I did manage to pick up a couple things from the ladies with the booths by the queen emma bridge while they were packing up.

 

My parents went out into town after dinner and apparently they got off the bridge just in time because it was open for an hour and a half while they were walking around with people stuck on it for that long, just a word of caution.

 

San Juan

We did the El Yunque airport transfer our day of departure since we had a late flight. It was awful. The rainforest itself is beautiful and worth the trip but we had a terrible driver that left us rushed at El Yunque. He took us the long way to get there, provided very little information and overall just didn't plan the time well. He added a 15min beach stop along our out of the way trek to get there cutting our time at the park even more.

 

Overall

Overall we had an amazing trip. The ship was awesome and the itinerary even better. Service was fabulous. Bar staff was great. We never experienced any pushing selling on board at all. Drink package tables, specialty dining and spa booths existed everywhere but the staff manning them stood there quietly unless someone approached them. Very much appreciated.

 

Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaineTraveller

MaineTraveller

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Thanks for your review. I was also on this cruise. I have to say that this was perhaps my most enjoyable cruise (have cruised 12 times, and 8 were with RCI). I was able to truly relax on this ship, more so than I have ever done before. We all had the drink package and none of us (2 couples in early 50's) had to sign. Bar service was wonderful everywhere except the Sports Bar.

The drink card, to my knowledge, was only offered on the last day and it was $85 for 10 drinks.

 

Ahh you know we never made it into the Sports Bar, guess I'm glad we skipped it;p

Link to comment
Share on other sites
printingchick Great Review Rare

printingchick

Posted
Posted

Do you mind me asking how much it was to rent a car in Aruba? Was it difficult finding your way to all the highlights mentioned? We're considering a tour which remarkably does exactly your itinerary. It's offered through Viator or Pelican Adventures. I'm curious if we'd do better renting a car and doing it on our own.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MaineTraveller

MaineTraveller

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Do you mind me asking how much it was to rent a car in Aruba? Was it difficult finding your way to all the highlights mentioned? We're considering a tour which remarkably does exactly your itinerary. It's offered through Viator or Pelican Adventures. I'm curious if we'd do better renting a car and doing it on our own.

 

The jeep was $115 for the day. We added the additional $25 for insurance and put in $15 for gas. We didn't have a very good map, just a simple island map printed out on 11x17 paper but we found our way around. The hardest part is getting out of town and onto the right route. If i did it again I would probably pick up a better map before I left home. Hope this helps!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 4 weeks later...
Clarea

Clarea

Posted
Posted
What are "drink cards"?

The cruise line has been offering punch cards for 10 drinks at times. If offered at all, they usually appear in the last half of the cruise for prices that range from $64 to $89, plus gratuity. They can be shared.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail on Sun Princess®
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...