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Cruisechic470

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Krausssj

Krausssj

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Its great to hear you had a great time while on the AOS, I think you just did the Aruba route, is that right?

 

We are going on her our second time as well and this time to Aruba too. We loved the ship in 2005 when we did the Barbados route and hope to have another great experience aboard her again.

 

Did you bring home copies of the daily cruise Compass? If so, we'd love to get scanned copies of them for the week. It gives us a chance to plan what to do when during the week. Like when trivia is held or when other events are going on.

 

How did she look overall? How was the crew? Anyone on the crew especially nice or helpful? How was the cruise director and who is it??

 

Thats all I have for now and thanks in advance,

 

Steve

 

I loved this cruise! We did it two times, once the Barbados route and once the Aruba route. I loved both itineraries, but prefered the Aruba route. I know you'll love it! A review is on it's way...
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cds2423

cds2423

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We just got back from our AOS cruise.. Aruba route. Feel free to ask any questions and I promise a review is coming!

 

I'll be doing the same cruise in Oct with my family, i'm wondering if you flew in the day of the cruise or the day before, if it was the day before where did you stay that night?

Any don't miss things to do on board?

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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Its great to hear you had a great time while on the AOS, I think you just did the Aruba route, is that right?

 

We are going on her our second time as well and this time to Aruba too. We loved the ship in 2005 when we did the Barbados route and hope to have another great experience aboard her again.

 

Did you bring home copies of the daily cruise Compass? If so, we'd love to get scanned copies of them for the week. It gives us a chance to plan what to do when during the week. Like when trivia is held or when other events are going on.

 

How did she look overall? How was the crew? Anyone on the crew especially nice or helpful? How was the cruise director and who is it??

 

Thats all I have for now and thanks in advance,

 

Steve

I know you'll have a great time. Overall the crew was great, but we did have some issues with the bar staff. We think this is because gratuity is included in the drink, so they don't have to work for thier tips. The cruise director, Mike Swajowski was funny and his team was great! I do have some compasses that I can email you, but it might take me a while to scan them. The AOS is still in great shape and I plan to sail her again in the future.

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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I'll be doing the same cruise in Oct with my family, i'm wondering if you flew in the day of the cruise or the day before, if it was the day before where did you stay that night?

Any don't miss things to do on board?

We flew in the day before and used priceline to get the Radisson Ambassador for $110. It wasn't our first choice,but was great for a night.

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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I had an amazing time on the AOS and would love to share it with all of you. This was our second time on the Adventure of the seas, last time we did the Barbados route and this time we did the Aruba route. To answer a very common question here on CC… which itinerary is better? It depends what you do on each island and what you enjoy. Personally, both itineraries were great but we prefer the Aruba route.

 

We arrived in San Juan a day early. We decided it was best to go to the hotel to drop off our stuff. On out taxi drive to the Condado area we nearly get in a head on accident, but (thank god) our taxi driver stopped within inches. At this point we were all ready for a Pina Colada. We were staying at the Radisson Ambassador and to our pleasant surprise our room was ready at 9:30. But when I opened the door there was 1 king bed (for a family of four)!!! With a quick phone call, we changed that. The Radisson Ambassador was not our first choice, but that’s what Priceline gave us and it was suitable for one night. We paid $110 for the room. We even got a balcony….overlooking Burger King! We took bus B21 to Old San Juan. It was 0.75 a person. The pro to this would be the price, much less then a taxi. The con would be that this bus runs on island time and didn’t really follow a schedule. After arriving in Old San Juan, we walked around. We had already seen the forts and everything. We ate brunch at La Bombonera, a local favorite. We all had mallorcas (I hope I spelled that right). They were so good. If you want to eat with the locals, come here for breakfast or lunch. We walked down by the water and shopped. Old San Juan is pretty dead when no ships are in! We were so hot that we decided to just take a taxi back to the hotel, instead of waiting for the bus. In the afternoon, we walked around Condado, went to the beach (rocky, but nice) and took a quick nap by the pool. On our walk, we stopped at Starbucks. There are lots of Starbucks in San Juan, they actually have more of a variety on a menu then in the states. Try the Coconut mocha or the dulce de Leche frappicinos at Strbucks. For dinner, we ate at Uno’s Chicago Grille. It wasn’t exactly authentic, but it was good!

 

The next day we went to Burger King to get coffee, they automatically put milk in it. Then we changed and went to breakfast at the Latin star. The food was good, but the service wasn’t. It’s like our IHOP, open 24 hours. Straight from breakfast, we went to Stella Maris, a small, Catholic church in Condado and the priest was great! They had a Spanish mass at 8 and an English mass at 9:30. It doesn’t exactly look like a catholic church, or any church, when you look at it. From church, we went back to the hotel and got all our stuff together. It was finally time to get on the beautiful AOS again! When we arrived the line was never ending! But it moved really fast once they opened the door. At noon, we were on the AOS. We got a soda card and something small to eat, none of us were that hungry yet. We sat by the pool and relaxed. At 1:00, we went to our room, but had no luggage yet. We played golf and walked around. The next time we went to our room, our luggage was there and we unpacked. We got ready for dinner and went to the dreaded muster drill, then to dinner which is at 6:30 instead of 6 the first night. Our waiter Ardeth from Columbia was great and our assistant waiter Santiago was also great! He kept the bread coming. We were on deck 5, table 540. It was just the four of us at our table as requested. We went to the sail away party, which is always fun! Then to the welcome aboard show with mike the cruise director and John Wing (a comedian). He was hilarious. From here we went to the sail away parade in the promenade and then to bed.

 

TO BE CONTINUED...

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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Really looking forward to your review. Adventure will be our first cruise and we are trying to read as much as we can about it.

You'll love the Adventure and I'm sure you'll be overwhelmed by everything it has to offer. It was our 9th and we were still overwhelmed!

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cds2423

cds2423

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We flew in the day before and used priceline to get the Radisson Ambassador for $110. It wasn't our first choice,but was great for a night.

 

I always hate choosing a hotel room in a strange place, every little tidbit helps. Thanks

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Gon2hwe

Gon2hwe

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Great Review so far! We will be on the AOS July 20th. We're still looking for others taking the same cruise to come join our Roll Call and Meet & Mingle. Anyone who hasn't joined yet come on over!

 

Keep the review coming. We're all getting excited about being on the AOS.

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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We were in san juan when we woke up, the ship was cleared at 8 and people were beginning to get off at 8:30. We were group 7 so we didn't get off until 10. Once off the ship it doesn't take long since you already did it in St.Thomas. If you have an early flight, you can arrange it with guest services to get off in the first group. :D

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Krausssj

Krausssj

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I know you'll have a great time. Overall the crew was great, but we did have some issues with the bar staff. We think this is because gratuity is included in the drink, so they don't have to work for thier tips. The cruise director, Mike Swajowski was funny and his team was great! I do have some compasses that I can email you, but it might take me a while to scan them. The AOS is still in great shape and I plan to sail her again in the future.

 

Cruisechic470,

 

my email address for the compasses is: krausssj@hotmail.com

 

Thanks again!!!

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CoasterBill

CoasterBill

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Thank you so much for taking the time to write the review. I am very much intrested in the evening main shows so I was so glad to see what you thought of the first nights.

 

We are going in January on the same route. As you can see from below we have been on a number of cruises but what will be really exciting for us this time is that we are taking friends that we have been talking to about going with us for about 5 years now. They really are unsure about it but I really think they will love it when they get there.

 

If you could send us the compasses as well that would be great. I would love to show them what the days events will be like.

 

My address is coasterbill@yahoo.com

 

Thank you again for your review and I look very much forward to reading more!

 

Bill

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Cruisechic470

Cruisechic470

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Days at sea are always relaxing. We woke up around 8 to find an empty pool deck, so we got great loungers, we got windjammer breakfast and brought it back to our loungers. Still, at 9:00 there were empty loungers on deck 11 and deck 12 was empty. This is unusual. We walked the track, 5 laps is a mile and the winds were so strong at the front that there was added resistance. We swam while the pools were still empty and clean. We went to the cooking demonstration at 11 which had great carvings.

The rest of the day was spent playing mini golf, watching Mr. Sexy legs, taking a poolside dance class and reading. Then it was time to make ourselves look good for formal night. Dinner tonight was the Captain’s Gala dinner, which is not lobster night. But a great menu regardless. Right from dinner we went to the Captains reception. Free Cocktails. This starts at 7:30, but the captain doesn’t talk until 8:10. The Headliner Showtime is Paul Boland, an impressionist/singer. He’s funny, but some of his impressions were geared towards an older crowd.

 

Aruba is one of our favorite islands. The last time we were here we did the Jolly Pirates excursion which was fun, but this time we wanted to see more of the island. We rented a jeep with Royal. Check the tires before you leave the lot , because ours weren’t good enough for off-roading. We first went through town and stopped at a grocery store for beer, soda and water. Then we stopped at two beaches: Rogers and Baby. Both beautiful in different ways.They’re both close to each other. Rogers was empty. Baby was shallow and the snorkeling was excellent. Then we made our way to Palm beach for lunch, which wasn’t good and overpriced. I don’t know the name, but it was on the pier. Our last stop was California lighthouse. You can’t climb it, but definitely go see it. Shopping in Aruba is decent , the open air markets are great for souvenirs. We took lifestyle photos tonight. If you don’t know what these are, they’re casual, posed pictures. Tonight was Italian dinner and the wait staff sang to us in Italian. The ice show was tonight, but we didn’t go as we’ve seen it before. We went to the adventure feud game, which is basically like Family feud, then we went to the Love and Marriage game. This is always funny and someone got engaged on stage! Fountains follows this and it’s funny in a disgusting way. Its only about 6 or 7 minutes. We had an early day in Curacao and went to bed.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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