AOS – 10/11/09 Review - Barbados Route

[masonpips]

This was our 5th RCCL cruise and we are Platinum (now DIAMOND!) members. Our previous cruises were Mariner, Navigator, Liberty, and Mariner - all out of Florida and all during Fall Break (2nd or 3rd week in October for OK schools)

Pre-cruise/Friday
Flew in Friday, October 9. All flights on time and smooth (this is big for me, I’m not a good flyer). We caught a taxi to the Conrad and checked in easily. Booked a family suite so we had some extra space and instead of the lagoon we faced the other tower and could see the ocean from our balcony. We walked down to La Concha so we knew where it was (had friends coming in the next day) and ended up eating at Chili’s as our two kids are not too adventurous for meals and it was getting late.

The area near the Conrad is interesting. A completely abandoned building right next to the hotel, next to very nice condos. We never felt unsafe but it is best to be aware of your surroundings. We also stopped at Walgreen’s by La Concha for water.

Saturday
We had Starbucks for breakfast and hung out at the pool. It was very nice and the kids enjoyed the water slide, hanging out on the beach, the volleyball games in the pool, etc. About 1 pm we cleaned up and took the bus to OSJ. It was at least a 30 minute wait to catch the bus but a quick trip over. We wandered about once we got there and ate at La Fonda del Jibarito (http://www.eljibaritopr.com/)

I had the shrimp, dh had the flank steak (the best choice) and DS had the other steak (round steak type). It was all good but not as exotic as I thought it might be. We left there, hit the Coach and Polo outlets as well as Marshall’s (where I threatened to buy another suitcase) and wandered down by the cruise ship docks. It rained and we looked for a taxi or bus but the taxis were trying to take advantage of the weather and charge extra ($14 for a $12 fare) so we hoofed it back to the Conrad. I am a cheapskate by heart and we needed the exercise. LOL! It was a nice walk (rain stopped) and we headed north and walked along the water. I think it was 2.5 miles in total.

After that excitement we did a variety of take-out for dinner – salad from the Deli in front of La Concha (we went back to Walgreen’s for supplies) for DD, DS had chicken from the new rotisserie restaurant at the Conrad and DH and I had sushi and noodles from 8 Noodle, also in the Conrad. Dh visited the casino and we all got to bed at a decent hour.

Sunday!
We were up and ate our Dunkin’ Donuts (and Starbucks coffee) while repacking and getting ready. We left the hotel about 10:20 and were at the ship by 10:35 (going off my facebook updates here). We were NOT able to give our luggage to the porters but had to stand in line. We were in the C&A line (per the porter) and about 5th from the front. We stood outside for about 40-45 minutes I believe. Finally they started taking luggage, opened the doors and we went in. Once through the scanners, there were many agents available for check-in and that was painless. Once we had our SeaPass cards we were directed to white plastic chairs to sit and wait.

We were in the 2nd row of the chairs and were moving our carry-ons to a seat when they rolled up the giant door and started boarding. I posted on facebook from the ship at 11:53 – I think we had boarded about 10 minutes before that. We were in the first 20 people on board.

We visited Deck 5 to make My Time Dining reservations (7:30 pm for 7 people, we were the first people on the list), Guest Relations for 2 Dect phones ($50 total for the week, did not work in San Juan or St. Croix – US ports) and the spa to see if we might want to do something. The Rasul was broken all week.

We went to the Windjammer after that for lunch and then wandered the ship ending up in the 19th Hole until our rooms were ready. We met a nice couple on a back-to-back and they were so relaxed and happy they had a week left!

We were Aft 1394 (friends next door in 1694). We first had aft on Mariner (7692) and I felt that they closet and bathroom were significantly smaller on the AOS. I don’t know if it was the higher deck or the later ship that made it bigger? The room felt huge so I think they may have modified the layout a little in the later ship versions? Overall the room was great for the 4 of us (DS is 12, DD is 10) and we had plenty of room. We’ve also had GS and a one-time free upgrade to an OS but a JS suffices just as well. DH and I took several showers in the Gym Shower/sauna area and that helps the room not feel so confined when everyone is getting ready together!

No clue what we did after that until Muster but I do recall a drink of the day and wandering about. Given this was our 5th RCCL cruise, we knew the ship very well (Mariner 2x, Navigator 1x and Liberty) but it’s nice to see the different artwork/layouts. The Windjammer seemed a lot different w/the bar in the back, the Sports Bar was nice on the Promenade and everything else felt about the same.

We kept checking on our luggage. By muster time we had none. In fact, there was very little on Deck 10 at all. We asked Leon (stateroom attendant) about it and he said some wrong bags had come and they sent them back. Ours never arrived until well after dinner. Given that we were in the very first group aboard, I was not impressed by the luggage handling. I’m sure ours was just stuck in the bottom of a bin and not seen until the end but you’d think they could keep up with it from the beginning a little bit better (on the Liberty we were in the first 20 to board and had every bag by 2 pm, had sent our clothes out to be pressed and had them back by muster!).

Muster was painless and no lifejackets were required. As aft folks we were allowed to use the crew stairs going down, but they wanted us to use the regular stairs going up. We waited until they left and used the crew stairs again. 5 flights later and that was done.

At 7:30 we went for dinner, explaining that our luggage had not arrived and we were still in (nice) shorts. They were TOTALLY fine with it. We had a nice table for 8 w/Roland as our waiter – we looked out over the rest of the dining room. Dinner was Prime Rib – cooked exactly as ordered and delicious. There was gambling and drinks later

The rest of the week will not be so detailed so some general comments:

• The only shows we went to were Love & Marriage and The Quest
• We ate in the dining room 3 nights, Portofino 2 nights (regular and wine-tasting) and Windjammer 2 nights – My Time Dining was fabulous for us and we made a reservation in advance as we left each time and then were able to easily change it.
• We played Win a Cruise Bingo only – they did not do a cumulative Grand Jackpot Bingo due to the port intensive itinerary (per my DH who asked)
• There were VERY few kids on board. My DD (9-11) had 30 kids in her group and I never saw more than 15 in the kid’s club at any time. They combined the 6-8 and 9-11 groups nearly the whole week. She made a great friend early on and spent a lot of time there. My DS (he was 11, turned 12 today) did not fare so well. No one showed up for any 12-14 age things and if they did it was typically the 15-17 year olds as they combined almost everything there too. Our friends had a 13 year old along so they hung out together but my son spent more time hanging in our cabin than he usually does. I think this was due to the distance to San Juan from the US. We’ve cruised this same week for years and have always had more kids onboard because getting to Florida is a lot easier!

[masonpips]

Monday – at sea
The pool was DESERTED at 9 am. I couldn’t believe it. We laid out until about noon and it was busy then but unlike any “at sea” day I’ve seen. We had lunch in the main dining room and it was excellent. The salad bar station is not to be missed!

I would say that 90% of folks dressed up for Formal Night. I was VERY impressed. Not a ton of tuxes, but a ton of suits and almost every lady in at least a cocktail dress. It was very nice to see on board! We enjoyed the filet in the dining room (again, cooked perfectly) and part of the Captain’s speech in the Promenade, including some free champagne!

Most of our nights included time in the casino playing blackjack. I’m not a big gambler but had a thoroughly enjoyable time each night!

Tuesday – Barbados
We ate breakfast in WJ and headed off the ship by 9 to meet Tess from Sasha for our 3 hour tour (cue music). She was *delightful* and we immediately felt good about this excursion. Wayne drove us to the beach and pointed out locations along the way. http://www.shasacatamarancruises.com/. Jason was waiting for us and the entire experience was wonderful. I cannot recommend them highly enough! We had the 7 of us (there was room for 12) and that was it. We saw HUGE sailboats for 50+ people and were so happy we were on a smaller boat. We went to the shipwreck site first and Jason brought some bait and we saw literally hundreds of fish. It was great.

We left there and the turtle spot was packed so we sailed for a bit before venturing in. Again, Jason was in the water with fish bait and we saw two turtles. When I type “two” you might think “that’s it?”. Well, when one has a shell about 3 feet long, seeing two is enough. It was AMAZING. He was huge and kept swimming up/down, all around. A smaller one came as well and the whole experience was fabulous!

We sailed back and had Wayne drop us at the Boatyard – they wouldn’t let us eat w/out the whole wristband purchase so we grabbed a cab and ate lunch back on the ship.

Tuesday night was Portofino’s for the 4 adults and we enjoyed every minute. The filet was as fabulous as ever and the portions on the pasta have gotten smaller which is a good thing as we had room for dessert!

Wednesday – St. Lucia
My dh and I left the ship and walked around town, but chose not to do an excursion that day. We did get caught in the rain on the way back (one of two 15 minutes showers the whole trip) We enjoyed a relatively empty ship and Johnny Rockets for lunch!

We decided to eat in WJ that evening so we called MTD and let them know and reserved our spot for Friday night. WJ was great – we got to sample every dish from the menu and they had a “crepe bar” for dessert (their first night to try it). It was excellent!

We did Win a Cruise Bingo and Love & Marriage that night - Bingo was $55 for 6 paper cards and $67 for the electronic machine and 30 cards. I think one person did the paper. LOL. Two people had bingo at the same time so they both got paper cards and the first one with a number drawn won.

Thursday - Antigua
We left the ship and asked for a taxi to Runaway Beach. It was closed (for water issues or for smells of dead animals, we heard two stories) so they suggested Dickinson Beach instead. That was fine w/us and it was $12 for 4 people (full van). Your best bet there is to go to the Taxi Stand to the right as you enter town and ask - if you don't you will be hounded by drivers for trips. You will also be asked 12,083 times if you'd like beads in your hair.

The beach was close (10 minutes?) and we were dropped off at a nice place. We thought our friends might have already been there so we walked down past Sandals (looked very nice) and rented chairs ($5 each) farther down. There was a little store where we were dropped off and the kids/dh went for a bag of chips, drinks for all - about $20 total. Caught a ride back later for the same price. The kids and I returned to the ship, dh shopped a little (they closed at some point for lunch) and gambled a little too.

That night we had Portofino's wine tastings dinner ($54.50 per person). We went up at 6:15, were seated immediately and there were 2 other tables (of 8 each) and maybe one table past that. Not very full at all. After awhile they did open up for regular dinners too. The meal was VERY good and the wines were excellent. We wouldn't do it every cruise but were glad we did it!

Friday - St. Maarten
My favorite place! Dh and I were up early and at Orient Beach by 9:20. We were among the first groups to get there and we hung out until 12:30 or so. We rented chairs at Club Orient for $12 and just relaxed. It was gorgeous, windy enough to keep you from boiling hot, but not enough to annoy you. We met our friends at String Bar later and shared a hamburger before heading into town. We shopped a bit (hitting Guavaberry Emporioum for the first time) and bought some liquor and looked at jewelry. The stores were mostly closing from 2-3 for a funeral so we left about 2:30. Dh did find a store w/Tommy Bahama shirts for 25% off retail so he bought one.

Back to the ship and some relaxing/cleaning up for dinner. We went back to the dining room (same table, Roland for dinner) and enjoyed our lobster. My 10 year old DD tried it for the first time and said "this is WAY better than crab" (her before-lobster favorite) and ordered/ate a 2nd one! It was VERY good! Later on we went to The Quest and our friends were team captains. They had never been to Quest and participated whole-heartedly. I laughed my a$$ off. Hysterical as always and they did a great job mixing it up and adding new stuff so you can't "stage" items as much. Very nice job.

Side note: we only saw Casey Pelter (Cruise Director) at the two shows and in the casino one night (he was giving away chips until you won a hand). He did a great job at the shows and seemed very personable - really liked him and his quick wit at both shows too!

Saturday - St. Croix
We slept in until almost 9 and got off the ship to walk around a bit. We considered the beach right off the ship but honestly were happy hanging by the pool without sand in all areas (lol). We bought some touristy stuff off the ship and enjoyed the views back of the ship and the walkway near the water. Hung out at the pool most of the day, stopping to pack about 2 pm or so. We opted to have dinner in the WJ again so we could take advantage for the $4 blackjack tables up until 10 pm.

Sunday - leaving the ship
I got up at 6:15 and we left the room at 7. I think the VERY best thing about Platinum is the departure lounge situation. We went to the dining room (Deck 5) had coffee and pastries and hung out w/maybe 25 other people. At 8:05 they came to get us and we were off the ship in 2 minutes. The luggage situation was UNREAL. EVERY bag from the ship was unloaded and in rows. Problem was, the rows were combined so just being Blue 1 didn't help you a lot in finding your bags - we've always had the conveyer belt so this looked organized but was kind of a nightmare.

We found our bags and the porter whisked us through customs (which did not include looking at passports, just throwing them your declaration form) and into a taxi. We were at the airport and had already checked in/printed our boarding passes so we did the Agricultural scan and paid for our 3 bags to be checked. The Bag Drop operated by American Airlines SUCKS. They had ONE woman working it and some guy had overweight bags so he sat down on the floor and unpacked without her taking anyone else. A nightmare. After 9 am they finally brought more people in to check in folks and we were done and through security (with absoluely ZERO line since they were all waiting to check their bags) by 9:05. An hour from ship to gate.

Flights home were on time and uneventful. A great cruise overall. I wish DS would have had more kids to hang around with so we'll probably book from FL in the future (and/or Thanksgiving week) but I can't fault RCCL (lol). We really enjoyed the service, the ports, the food, etc. I'd go again tomorrow!

Hope this helps others - if you have questions, please ask - I haven't done anything w/photos yet but I'll get there...!

[youngestof9]

awesome. thanks for sharing. We were debating Shasa and I've heard great things.

My kids will be 12 and 5 and we're going in January of 2011. I hope there are some kids for them to meet.

Welcome back! Glad you had a nice time.

[travel_babe]

Great review, it makes me anticipate my cruise even though we're doing the Aruba route. Can't wait to see some pictures too!

[Cleocruiser]

Great review ! Do you have the activities for the 12 - 14 yr old group. We are going on that route in March and will have a 12 and a 15 year old with us. Was your 12 year old able to do thing on his own, like the rock wall or did you have to be with him after the first run through?

[Eliger]

Thanks for your review of the Barbados route of AOS. It provides additional anticipation for the second sailing of our b2b in December. It was nice to hear that the pool area wasn't too crowded, particularly in the early morning! And the boarding time problem tells us not to rush over too soon!

Gerry

[masonpips]

Originally Posted by Cleocruiser

Great review ! Do you have the activities for the 12 - 14 yr old group. We are going on that route in March and will have a 12 and a 15 year old with us. Was your 12 year old able to do thing on his own, like the rock wall or did you have to be with him after the first run through?

We did not keep the activities cards, mainly because he didn't do many of them. They encouraged us to be nearby at the rock-wall but I'm not sure if they would have required us to be there or not. Our friend's son (13) climbed it more than our son but his parents were there most of the time. Everything else was on their own all the time.

One other note: we pre-ordered the tux package for dh (as we have done on every cruise). The tux arrived and was 1) too short (pants) and 2) too tight (neck). Dh had to make several calls and a visit to the tailor to get it straightened out. The tailor said "oh people ALWAYS order the wrong size". Considering my dh KNOWS his inseam (32") and the pants were significantly short and his neck size (in fact we spent some $$ at the Polo outlet buying the same neck size), he was slightly irked because it was obvious the tux was the wrong size, not the measurements! Not a huge deal but just in case you're ordering in advance...

[ace1zoe2]

We sailed this route in June 09 and had a wonderful time! St. Lucia & Antigua were our favorite ports. Not much to see/do in St. Croix, hopefully they will be adding more excursions and vendors to the area. St. Maarten was nice as was Barbados. We booked all of our excursions privately instead of thru the cruise line for the first time & everything turned out great. Did Cosol Tours in St Lucia & Adventure Antigua, the guys played golf in Barbados at a bargain price of $90 including club rental & cart. Did Joyce Prince tour in St. Maarten & spent some time at Orient beach. Had a wonderful 2 days pre cruise in San Juan hiking in the rain forest & doing the Vieques bio bay tour. Would like to go back some day and do the other southern caribbean route... but Hawaii first then Europe while our daughter is living in London.

[CruisinManiac]

The Rasul was broken all week.

The Rasual was broken the week before, and the technician said it was broken the week before that. I mentioned that the last time DH and I were on the AOS in 2003, we had trouble rinsing off with the rain water because it was steaming hot. He said that was the problem and why they had to shut it down. Makes me wonder if the thing is ever operating correctly.

were at the ship by 10:35 (going off my facebook updates here). We were NOT able to give our luggage to the porters but had to stand in line. We were in the C&A line (per the porter) and about 5th from the front. We stood outside for about 40-45 minutes I believe. Finally they started taking luggage, opened the doors and we went in. Once through the scanners, there were many agents available for check-in and that was painless. Once we had our SeaPass cards we were directed to white plastic chairs to sit and wait.

We were in the 2nd row of the chairs and were moving our carry-ons to a seat when they rolled up the giant door and started boarding. I posted on facebook from the ship at 11:53 – I think we had boarded about 10 minutes before that. We were in the first 20 people on board.

We were at the port by about 10:30, and there was a line of about 25 people - with luggage - in front of us. After about two minutes, a gentleman starting asking if anyone was a Diamond member or in a suite. We raised our hand as we were both., He quickly took our luggage away and put us in front of the entrance doors. Shortly afterwards, we were the first inside to register, and then we were escorted directly to the ramp to board. Couldn't believe it! We were even invited to eat in the dining room for lunch. However, we did not get our luggage until very late afternoon. My theory was that because it was the first in the bins, it was on the bottom and the last to come up.

Monday – at sea
The pool was DESERTED at 9 am. I couldn’t believe it. We laid out until about noon and it was busy then but unlike any “at sea” day I’ve seen.

We found the same thing every day. I think it was because the majority on the ship were up late partying, and didn't get going until afternoon. Even so, there seemed to always be plenty of outdoor seating.

We found our bags and the porter whisked us through customs (which did not include looking at passports, just throwing them your declaration form) and into a taxi.

Oh, so you are one of those line cutters that people are complaining about. We didn't need a porter, but did notice they were breaking into the fast forming line. Several people got mad and told them to move to the back. It didn't bother us as we moved quickly along.

We thought it odd that they did not check passports and barely looked at the customs form. The guy that looked at ours, just laughed. I guess because we didn't spend anything! lol

Glad you had a good time. We certainly did.

[Ocean Boy]

I am curious as to how you liked having the first day as the sea day on this route? We did this route on Serenade a few years ago but the sea day was the last day. I was really happy to have the last day at sea to unwind after doing such a port intensive itinerary.

[CruisinManiac]

We normally have a sea day the first day and the last day, but with this cruise, the second sea day came in the middle. I really missed having a sea day at the end of the cruise...especially when the Captain invited us for a bridge tour at 3:30 on the afternoon of St. Thomas. Had to cut my pool deck time and go get cleaned up. Didn't want to walk into the bridge in my bathing suit.

[masonpips]

Here are a few photos. JS 1394:


Portofino's Wine Tasting - Lobster and Scallops


Same meal, filet

[masonpips]

Crepes at Wine-Tastings dinner


Dickinson Beach - Angtigua


Orient Beach - St. Maarten

[masonpips]

My DD (she's 10 and her back is turned so I hope this doesn't bring out the stalkers, lol, just loved this shot) - Angtigua


St. Lucia (we walked around, it rained, I went to the pool and hung out the rest of the afternoon w/sunshine)

[kjacruiser]

Nice Review....Sailing Thanksgiving week with the family.....

[CaribbeanSoul 05]

What a fantastic review! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. We are sailing on the AOS Barbados route in early January and found your post very helpful.