6/17 AOS reveiw!!!

[Cruisechic470]

We just got back from the AOS 6/17 sailing here is my review.......:D

We cruised the Barbados route, traveling to St. Lucia, Antigua, Barbados, St. Maarten and St. Thomas. This was our seventh cruise, our 2nd with RCCL.

Pre-Cruise/ Embarkation:

Our flight left Fort Lauderdale around 7 and we were in San Juan around 9:30. We decided to walk around Old san Juan before taking a taxi to the pier. Embarkation was short and easy considering we got to the pier at the worst time (1:00-2:00). We received our luggage shortly after.

Cabin:

We all loved our cabins. We had two connecting PR rooms on deck 8. We had a great view of the promenade and they were great for people watching. One problem was the limited storage (less then usual). Our cabin steward was not the best. She was always late to make up our room and when she did manage to come on time you could tell she was in a hurry. She was only friendly when she wanted to be.

Dining:

~ Breakfast:

On the first day (sea day) we ate in the dining room and both the service and the food were great. We also had great tablemates. For the next 6 mornings we ate in the windjammer due to time. We found the windjammer food to be better than usual. The windjammer service was excellent!

~ Lunch:

Lunch overall was very good. We never got a chance to eat in the dining room for lunch, but one day we ate at Jonny Rockets. The food was really good and well worth the cover charge of $3.95. Every other day we ate at the buffet. The windjammer service was excellent at lunch also.

~ Dinner:

We ate in the dining room every night. The service and food was outstanding. We had a table for four on deck 4 (Straus dining room), main seating. The head waitress, Diana, was wonderful. She came to our table to see how things were every night and we also saw her up in the windjammer at breakfast. Our wait staff was also great. Our waiter Mitch was from Turkey. Our Assistant Waitress, Lea was from Romania. The Bartender was also very good, he had our drinks waiting for us every night when we got to the table.

~ Café Promenade was perfect for late night snacks, and the service was also good.

Ship:

The ship itself was amazing. It was the prettiest ship we had ever sailed. The décor was gorgeous. We loved the ice skating, the golf, the promenade and the inline skating. The pools were also very nice. We didn’t have enough time to enjoy everything the ship had to offer.

Entertainment:

The entertainment quality varied. “Riptide”, the band in the imperial lounge was great. The welcome aboard show and the farewell shows were the best. The ventriloquist was hilarious. The ice show and the production shows we found to be boring. We were 15 minutes early to the ice show and there were no seats.

Barbados:

We had been to Barbados once before and liked the island a lot. Last time we had gone to the boatyard for the day.This time we had booked though Silver Moon in Barbados, and were really looking forward to it. But due to a tropical wave coming through they canceled the tour and we got a full refund. We decided to do a two hour island tour with Scott, he was very friendly and informative. The tour cost us only $80 (not including the tip) for the four of us. We got back on the ship and had lunch, than got back off and walked to the downtown area to shop. We had a good day, and we felt we had just as much fun as we would if our excursion wouldn’t of been canceled.

St.Lucia:

We had nothing planned for St. Lucia. We walked around the shops at the pier, then took a water taxi downtown. There, we were offered a 2 hour tour of the island for $60 for the 4 of us. Our tour guide was Felix. Although he was friendly, he was not very knowledgeable of the island. The tour ended at Rodney Bay beach. We spent approximately an hour there before taking a $10 taxi ride back to the ship. The shopping was expensive here. We enjoyed Barbados more then St. Lucia.

Antigua:

Antigua was our favorite island. We spent the day at Dickenson Bay beach. It was gorgeous. We did this on our own. It worked out cheaper. It was a $12 taxi ride for the 4 of us. At Tony’s water sports we rented an umbrella and 4 chairs for $20. The shade was worth it. We also rented a jet ski for half an hour ($45) and a Hobie cat for an hour with lessons ($50). All beaches in Antigua are public - so I recommend spending the day at one of the 364 beaches. The shopping here is also expensive.

St. Maarten:

St. Maarten was a shopping day. We had been there before and the prices are the best. We took the water taxi to the shops ($5pp roundtrip). We had a good day overall.

St. Thomas:

The immigration went smoothly and we were done in 5 minutes. In St.Thomas we did a half-day sail with Island Girl, we had so much fun!!! It was $90 a person… and worth it. It was just the four of us, but it can accommodate up to 6 people. The Sea Scooters were great for snorkeling. The captain, Mike and his daughter Aerial were both great. We usually do our shopping in St.Thomas but the prices were much better in St. Maarten.

Disembarkation:

Going through immigration in St.Thomas made disembarking much easier. Once off the ship were out of the port in 10 minutes.

Overall:

The AOS is a beautiful ship and we do plan to sail her again. Next time we’ll try the opposite route even though we loved the ports.

[HookLine&Sinker]

Thanks for the review, we sailed on the AOS in April of 2005 and are going again in 2008. I'm glad to see it's still as wonderful as I remember!

[Cruisechic470]

Thanks for the review, we sailed on the AOS in April of 2005 and are going again in 2008. I'm glad to see it's still as wonderful as I remember!

 

It definitely was wonderful! We hope to sail he again next year also. What itinerary are you sailing in 2008?

[EggDropErin]

Thanks for your review. We didn't care for Antigua when we stopped when sailing AOS, but I think we're gonna give her another try on next year's Explorer cruise.

[OKC Cruisers]

Wife and I are doing the Aruba route on AOS in February 2008 and we can't wait! :D

[hipster1]

Great review! Glad you had a great time..We did the Aruba route last Feb. and it was awsome...We just booked the Freedom (Western route) for this coming March!

 

Allie

[kittymom65]

Enjoyed your review, thanks for taking the time to post!

[IBookHePays]

Thanks for your review...couple questions, if you don't mind.

 

Was the Barbados island tourguide, Scott, also from Silver Moon? We are booked for that in Barbados as well, and I'm wondering how you changed your plans.

 

Was Dickenson Bay Beach affected by any construction at the Sandals resort? And was it crowded? We are going on our own, as well.

 

Thanks so much!

[Cruisechic470]

Thanks for your review. We didn't care for Antigua when we stopped when sailing AOS, but I think we're gonna give her another try on next year's Explorer cruise.

 

What did you do in Antigua?

[Cruisechic470]

Thanks for your review...couple questions, if you don't mind.

 

Was the Barbados island tourguide, Scott, also from Silver Moon? We are booked for that in Barbados as well, and I'm wondering how you changed your plans.

 

Was Dickenson Bay Beach affected by any construction at the Sandals resort? And was it crowded? We are going on our own, as well.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Scott wasn't from silvermoon. He offered us the tour after silvermoon was cancelled and we were back at the pier.

 

At the time, they had only started the construction, so you could only see it from the street. It wasn't crowded when we were there. But, when the sandals is complete, I'm sure it will be more crowded.

 

Hope this Helps, Have fun!

[HookLine&Sinker]

We did the Aruba route in 2005 and are doing it again in 2008. We loved the ship and leaving from San Juan. We enjoyed Aruba and Curacao but loved St. Martin and St. Thomas.

 

In March of this year we took the Explorer out of Miami to St. Martin, St. Thomas, San Juan and Nassau and liked the Adventure and the ports she went to much better.