A Review - Adventure of the Seas - May 9th

Hi all! I wanted to a review of our trip on Adventure of the Seas May 9-16. I’ve learned so much information here on Cruise Critic, I try to “pay it forward” as much as possible. Hopefully there will be some things of use to some of you. This review may be a little scattered, but I will do my best to remember as much detail as possible. It will take me several days to write this, so please be patient with me…I want to share each day with you all.

The players in this story include myself, my Sister-in-law, Daughter, Sister and Mom. How we got to this particular vacation was a little mixed up. This cruise was supposed to be a trip for my daughter and myself. We then found out in early February that she is going to be making me a first time Grandma! (We are currently in discussions about a MUCH cooler word for me than that!) As you know, the cruise industry policy is that you can’t cruise, if at any point on the cruise, you enter your 24th week of pregnancy. Well…guess when she reached her 24th week? Yep…3 days into the cruise! So we had to scramble for a plan B. We couldn’t go earlier because she had college finals. And later is out for a VERY long time for her. I had paid for airfare, hotels, deposits on excursions, etc. So I called my SIL, who has had a very rough year, and asked her if she wanted to go. She was thrilled and so the vacation changed to my daughter, mom, sister, SIL, and myself spending a few days in Puerto Rico, then my SIL and myself getting on the cruise ship. Confused yet??

San Juan Thursday- We stayed at Casa Sol Bed and Breakfast in Old San Juan. DD wanted to stay in Old San Juan to experience the colorful buildings and culture. After a long and detailed spreadsheet of hotels and B&Bs in OSJ, listing prices and minimum night stays, we decided that Casa Sol was for us. And I am SO GLAD we made that choice. Our hosts, Eddie and Tisha, were amazing in every way possible. With only 5 bedrooms, Eddie’s 25+ years in the hotel industry and Tisha’s interior design background made this place, located 3 blocks from Ft San Cristobal, feel like we were visiting family. We had homemade breakfast every morning in the open air patio while Eddie’s daughter went to the school across the street and their dog Oreo laid by the front gate. It's a no frills place...there are no TVs in the room and no phones. You are there to sleep, relax and enjoy the company. But if you want to stay in OSJ and have as close to an authentic experience as possible, I can’t recommend Casa Sol enough.

Our room had two twin beds

Open Air Patio

Basic Bathroom but very nice

This room has a full size trundle bed

Hallway looking from patio to the main gate. The only "doors" are to the rooms themselves down the hall.

Looking forward to your review, I am going on the Adventure in October. Congratulations on your future Grandmahood.

If you request it, Eddie provides personal pick up service from the airport so you don’t have to wait in the cattle call lines after a long flight. Our driver, Pedro, was also a huge part of our vacation. He was fun and friendly, showing us the sights as we traveled to Casa Sol. I started talking about other times we would need taxi service. Pedro gave me his phone number and I was able to text him when and where we needed him and he was there, every time, on time. I think in total we used him 5 times over the course of 4 days in San Juan and at the end of the cruise. It was nice to know that my family flying back Sunday morning while we were on the ship made it to the airport safely and on time. He got a very nice tip from me for taking such good care of us.

After we arrived Thursday afternoon we were tired and really only wanted dinner, after only eating horrible airport bagels that morning and peanuts on the flight. Eddie directed us to a restaurant a couple blocks down called El Jabarito. What a great place! The staff was friendly and fast. And the food was amazing. There was no waiting and it never got overly crowded. It's very festive inside and the atmosphere was very relaxed. They brought us out little samples of the food to help us decide, which really helped. Most of us settled on the Chicken Creole and red beans and rice. Yum! We also got a picture of homemade sangria that was very good.

Inside Jabarito

Here we are having a fun time before dinner and after a few drinks!

Chicken Creole and Sangria. What a great way to start vacation!

We walked around for just a little while and then called it a night. Our big day was coming up tomorrow.

San Juan Friday – Pedro picked us up bright and early at 7:30am Friday morning. Breakfast at Casa Sol wasn’t until 8:30 but Eddie said he would make us a “light” breakfast of fruit. If what he sat out was “light”, we were in for a treat the rest of the trip! We had bowls full of fresh bananas, pineapple, papaya, fresh local breads, freshly squeezed orange juice and coffee from the local coffee shop that Tisha’s brother owns. We were very satisfied and ready to start our day.

Pedro drove us to the airport and we rented a minivan from Alamo using some of my Southwest Rewards points. We then set out to El Yunque Rainforest. It is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System. It was very easy to find El Yunque. I do suggest getting off PR3 and taking the toll road of PR66. The rental cars are equipped with the ez passes and will bill you about $7 on the credit card on file. Super easy and saved lots of time and traffic. Driving in Puerto Rico isn’t hard, you just have to be very aware. If they don’t like that it’s one lane…then they make 2! Stop signs are optional and it’s perfectly ok for 3-4 cars to run the light after it turns red. However, I had no close calls…and only held my breath about 3 times! My sister has limited mobility and was worried she wouldn’t be able to do much in the rain forest, but it’s very easy to see by car. Hwy 191 takes you all the way through the rainforest. It’s very easy to just drive that road and stop and take pictures along the way. You will see sights like La Coca Falls, the lookout tower, and El Bano. We picked the rental up by 8:00am and were at El Yunque by 9:00. It took us a couple hours to drive through. I suggest getting there early. It can get hot and about lunch time is when the crowds really started picking up.

La Coca Falls

Huge Palm Leaf

This used to be a pool

Tower

Pretty Windows climbing up the tower

My DD and I at the top of the tower. It's an easy enough walk, although I did announce to anyone that would listen that big girls were NOT supposed to climb towers! lol The views were well worth the steps. They were gorgeous.

Interesting side note...if you see, my daughter is dark complected. Her father is Puerto Rican, which is one reason she was so excited for this trip. The problem? She speaks NO Spanish. The entire trip the locals would talk to us in English then turn to her and rip off some Spanish. It was funny watching her try to figure it out then having to explain she had no idea what they were saying. lol

After El Yunque we drove up PR3 some more to Laquillo Beach. You pay $4 to park and $1 to use their changing rooms and bathrooms. Umbrellas are $10 and chairs are $5. There are tons of kiosks within walking distance to get food, and there are a couple places within the beach area as well. We were hungry and went to one of the food stands near the beach. We had empanadas, these pancake like things made from plantains and seafood, chicken and plantain kabobs, and local drinks. I don’t think anything was over $2 and most were just $1 each. I think all 5 us of ate for around $20. We got settled in and spent several hours relaxing on the beach. It was very clean and beautiful. It wasn’t crowded at all and the people that were there were families.

There are a couple vendors there but they are not pushy at all. One seemed to like my hair (or me, not sure which), and made this flower for me. When my family asked about getting one he told them $5. Lol Needless to say, I was the only one that ended up with one.

I could have stayed all evening at the beach but we had 5pm reservations for dinner at La Estacion in Fajardo. The restaurant is just past the Hotel El Conquistador and used to be a gas station. The food here was FANTASTIC. Service was great. We didn’t have to be at our Bio Bay tour until 8pm, so we told our waiter that we would be here and taking our time, but would make it worth it to him. Their Pina Coladas are to die for. They also have a margarita there that is made with mustard greens. Sounds horrible but was one of the best margaritas I’ve ever had! I had the shrimp and Mahi Mahi mofongo which was great. DD had the cheeseburger (she’s pregnant and heartburn is her enemy right now). Sis had the chicken Mofongo. SIL had the swordfish (which was so fresh it didn’t arrive to be cut until about 30 minutes after we were there). Mom had the 15oz strip steak. It was hilarious watching them set this big slab of food in front of my 5ft tall mother, but she ate almost all of her steak!! I was impressed!! The atmosphere was fun and they all seemed to enjoy watching us have an early Mother’s Day celebration, opening cards and gifts we had all packed for each other. There was no fuss about us being there 3 hours. I’ve read they don’t like credit cards, but we had no issues. In fact, they were able to split the bill between 3 cards with no problems.

Outside of La Estacion

Colorful Interior

Little Woman...BIG STEAK. Her justification was that she didn't eat the fries. She ate that salad though!! Good for her. :-)

My Mofongo. I really enjoyed this.

I could have had about 3 more of these but I was driving. I don't know...if I had been drunk I might have driven more like the locals and fit in!

After we were stuffed from dinner the last thing we wanted to do was Kayak in the pitch dark at the bioluminescent bay. So it’s a good thing we had reserved the motorized boat tour!! We used Bio Island tours and they were beyond fantastic. Let me say this…if you are an experienced kayaker, then the kayak tours may be for you. However, most people aren’t and it bordered on comical and plain pitiful watching these people struggle with their kayaks. In a kayak you have to paddle in a two person kayak for ONE MILE in the Pitch Black just to get to the bay. Then you have about 15 minutes to piddle around in the mouth of the bay. You then have to paddle the same MILE back..in the dark…fighting a very strong current. We probably passed 50 kayakers and NOT ONE looked happy. We watched one couple fighting while stuck on a mangrove root. We saw 2 kayaks having to be pulled by their guides because they had just given up. In fact, one couple, on their way back out of the bay, literally said to us “We are dying out here”. It was around $56pp to do the motorized boat tour. There is a 7 person maximum limit on the tour, plus 3 crew members, so very small and intimate. We were able to sit back, relax and actually LEARN about the bay, the mangroves and the very cool little plankton that glow as a defense mechanism when agitated. We were the last tour of the evening and it was very dark because even at 9pm, the moon hadn’t risen yet. Plus, with the motor boat, we are able to go to the very back of the bay where it’s dark. Our guides were great. They really knew their stuff about not only the ecosystem of the bay but also the history of the bay. They gave us poles to put in the water and stir up the plankton. Then we all laid face down on our seats and scoop water in our hands. It looked like tons of little stars twinkling in your palms. It was amazing to watch. The fish that glowed while skimming the top of the water looked like little tinker bells! We then relaxed and on the way back through the mangroves they shined lights into the trees and showed us the resting iguanas. No spiders or boas to see on this trip..which was FINE by me!

After the tour we loaded back up in the van for the easy hour or so drive back to the airport. We didn’t have to stop for gas. We paid $60 to bring it back not full. We didn’t even use half a tank of gas, but it was worth it to not have to stop in an area we didn’t know at midnight with 5 women in the car. Dropping the rental off was painless and we immediately caught a cab back to the B&B. We promised Pedro we wouldn’t wake him up at 1am to drive us. I think he appreciated that!

San Juan Saturday– We woke up about 8:00 to Eddie making breakfast. We had fresh fruit again, along with local breads and jams. We had this wonderful French toast that was stuffed with bananas. SO GOOD!! We also had bacon, fresh orange juice and pineapple juice. We had plans to visit both forts. That just didn’t happen. We made it to Ft San Cristabol, but not El Morro. We were way too tired. The fort was very nice. Forts don’t interest me much, but it was cool to walk around and take very interesting pictures.

Thought her shadow was cool. This is the tunnel leading to the dungeon.

What's that I spy with my eye?? Our home for the next week!

After the fort we walked 3 blocks south to Café Puerto Rico for lunch. Streets North to South run uphill/downhill in OSJ. Streets East to West are mostly flat. Keep that in mind when planning your walking routes. Café Puerto Rico was nice. It was busy, and we did have to wait about 20 minutes. But they will take your name and you can walk to a couple of the shops right next door. I had the pork appetizer and a side of red beans and rice. I am so glad that’s all I got, because it was so much food! It also came with a side of plantain fries that were very good served with Thousand Island dressing. Their pina coladas weren’t as good as at La Estacion, but their mojitos were noteworthy. Service wasn’t over the top friendly but they got the job done. I didn't have any pictures there. I think I just forgot and wanted to sit and eat.

Puerto Rico is a place I wasn’t planning on falling in love with but I did. It is a place I will be coming back to and spending a week or two and really exploring.

The streets are seriously so pretty.

Blue cobblestone is gorgeous but a pain to walk on! Notice the hill? It's not as easy to go down as you think!

Becky and I left the rest of our family about 4:30 to head to the ship. Pedro was right on time and we had an uneventful trip to the Pan American Pier.

Up tomorrow…day 1 on Adventure of the Seas!

Looking forward to your review, I am going on the Adventure in October. Congratulations on your future Grandmahood.

Thanks! We are very excited. She is my only daughter and is having a girl. We don't have a chance. lol I had a hard time finding baby things until Barbados. I could have spent a small fortune there on little dresses!

We really enjoyed Adventure. I hope to take my daughter back in a couple of years.

Loving your review! We are doing the same cruise in June. You wouldn't by chance have the compasses do you?

Thanks! We are very excited. She is my only daughter and is having a girl. We don't have a chance. lol I had a hard time finding baby things until Barbados. I could have spent a small fortune there on little dresses!

 

We really enjoyed Adventure. I hope to take my daughter back in a couple of years.

Where did you find baby things in Barbados ?

Loving your review! We are doing the same cruise in June. You wouldn't by chance have the compasses do you?

I THINK I have them all. I put all of my papers in an envelope. I'll try to dig them out tomorrow and either scan them or take photos

Where did you find baby things in Barbados ?

After you come through the main gate there is the outside eating area and some outside shops, near the restrooms. There were a few onsies and several little dresses. They all said 6 months but a couple were really tiny and had the stretch bodice area so I think they will work. I bought 4 at $10 each. I didn't see if they had boy things. Barbados was the only place I found infant things.

After you come through the main gate there is the outside eating area and some outside shops, near the restrooms. There were a few onsies and several little dresses. They all said 6 months but a couple were really tiny and had the stretch bodice area so I think they will work. I bought 4 at $10 each. I didn't see if they had boy things. Barbados was the only place I found infant things.

Thanks so much for the info....and congratulations...becoming/being a grandma is an amazing time in our life !!!!

Will you give Pedro's phone number to me?

Thanks so much for posting. The B&B sounds great and the Mofongo you had looks fantastic. We are going back to PR next fall for a cruise on Adventure and am taking notes!

Great review!....thanks for taking the time and congrats on being a grandmother....best job ever....the store in Barbados is likely....best of barbados....a cut above your usual souvenir shop........barbados is my second favorite island . ...have done 2 land vacations there....we are doing the bio boat in feb before the aos with family members...we booked for the whole day with tours by ellis.....doing the rain forest,a beach,dinner in farado and the boat ....going to be a long day!....I am mobility challenged and so glad to hear i'll be able to see a lot in the rain forest....looking forward to the rest of your review!

Cruise Day 1 – At Sea – We got to the port around 5pm. We weren’t being good little cruisers and following the email schedule Royal sent us. We just wanted to spend time with the family before we left for a week. When you get to the port, there are not 100 porters waiting to whisk your bags away until they show up at your front door. You had to lug your bags into a line to be checked in and loaded into the carts. There wasn’t anything “wrong” with this I suppose, and the line wasn’t obnoxious. I just like getting rid of my 2 very heavy suitcases as soon as I get out of the taxi. It’s not like I saved any money. Once I handed over my bags the tip jar was pointed out very clearly to me. Once your bags are safely loaded onto the carts by the porter you are directed through the mouse maze to another line where you go through security, then are directed to the appropriate line to get your cruise identity, aka your sea pass card. I felt bad for my SIL. If there was a security line she got caught with something. Checking in it didn’t like some of her jewelry in her bag. She got caught at one port with seashells. Then at the airport on the way home she was picked as the random person to get checked while I breezed through TSA Pre-check. Overall check in was very fast and painless. However, I am a firm believer you get better service when you are actually pleasant to the people helping you. So we joked with folks. We smiled and said hello to people when they made eye contact. It was amazing watching people soften after just a smile. Try it…it works!

We went and confirmed our MTD reservations. Which is a good thing because although I had made it for all week, on Thursday showed up in the system. So we decided to make a standing reservation for 6pm. We ask for a table near a window. I like looking at the ocean and it keeps you out of the isles where there is a ton of foot traffic. After a quick trip to get holes punched at guest services it was time for muster. Muster was muster, what can I say? We were outside. Yuck. We were in the front of the line. Hooray! At least I could breath.

We went to our stateroom after muster and our luggage was already there. That was quick! So we took the time to unpack before dinner. We were in aft stateroom 7688. The room itself is on the small side.

But who cares when you have THIS balcony?

It was heaven to have that much private outside space. We ate several breakfasts here and spent most nights out here before turning in for the night. We didn’t hear any noise from the crew area below or have any soot issues. There is a little more vibration and random noises, but nothing that bothered me. Are there wear and tear areas in the room if you look hard enough? Of course. But it was clean, so a little rust just isn’t going to ruin my vacation. Jasina was our stateroom attendant and was great. She was a lot of fun to joke with and did a good job with the room. We weren’t very needy though. The water pressure in the shower is fine. The water pressure in the sink is a joke. We did have to call maintenance twice to turn down the AC in the room. You can’t have two females in their 40s and 50s in a hot room…it’s just not pretty. Both times we called they came quickly and were able to turn down the AC. Let me talk a little about the showers. It’s not the most luxurious shower I’ve ever taken. But you saw my size in earlier photos. I am, in no way, petite. The shower was plenty big for me to move around in, wash my hair in, and even shave my legs in. You can tell a woman did not design the showers. If they had, there would be a little fold down foot rest to shave on. Would make life so much easier in the star trek tube.

Dinner was on deck 5 in the Mozart dining room. We asked for a table for 2 which is the silliest thing ever. You are at a small table about 3 inches from another on each side of you. Please don’t have any expectation of privacy. However, it was fine by us, as the people around us were a lot of fun to talk to and get to know. Our head waiter was Osden and our assistant waiter was Alexis. They were both great. Alexis was more at ease and joked. Osden was much more straight laced, which is exactly what made him hilarious. If you said anything off color or jokingly around him it was so fun to watch him get all flustered trying to balance the fence of super professional and letting loose. I took absolutely no photos of food. And the only thing I will say is I found the food good. It was better that I wasn’t cooking it. Would I pay $50 a plate for any meal I had on the ship? No. There was escargot every night. There was shrimp only on the two formal nights. The 2nd formal night had the fisherman’s platter (lobster). They were small and everyone was able to order at least 2. No one tried for a 3rd.

We were on the fence about drink packages until dinner. After we both blew through $25 at dinner we went straight down and bought the premium package. I had $300 OBC so it wasn’t too painful for me. I more than got my money’s worth. I don’t think my SIL did…she isn’t much of a drinker. I will always get the package. I don’t think she will again. I mostly got my drinks from the casino, Café Promenade, and the Champagne Bar. Service all three places was fast and friendly. All the guys at Café Promenade were awesome. But I also tipped $1 every drink. Since I’m not a complete lush it didn’t break the bank and with all the 0s I saw on other people slips, I think it mattered, at least a little. They all knew us by first name. The drinks were very strong. One time they were out of pina colada mix. A girl I hadn’t ordered from before told me she couldn’t make the drink. Then one of the guys stepped in and said “I got this”. He left for several minutes and came back with mix. Apparently he had stolen it from another bar. He said they yelled at him. HA! The last night I was getting my last drink of the cruise. They asked me if I’d gotten one of the pretty glass hurricane glasses during the weekend. When I said no they handed me one and said “enjoy”. That was a nice gift.

I am a non-smoker and smoke can give me a horrible headache, so I was worried about the casino. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I mostly stayed to the pitiful slots in the super small nonsmoking corner. But a few times I was able to venture out to the other slots and didn’t have many issues. I think they did a decent job keeping it ventilated.

After a long day, we decided to skip the welcome back show and enjoy our balcony. We missed sail away due to rain but it was nice to sit on our covered balcony and enjoy a drink before bed.

Will you give Pedro's phone number to me?

Sure. Email me at shaninance at hotmail dot com. I'm sure if you text him and let him know what time your flight arrives he will meet you there. Tell him I sent you! :-)

Following and enjoying, thank you :)

I am just loving your trip report.....We will call Advenure home in a few short weeks...we sail the other route on 8/8 BUT we have the same cabin! I can't wait to hear more about the ship and about that balcony

Love the balcony..enjoying your review!!

Cruise day 2 – St Maarten – We woke up Monday morning in St Maarten. We had room service out on the balcony. Room service was prompt every morning. We used them as our alarm clock. I do not like the room service "regular" eggs. The egg beaters taste much more like real eggs than the regular offered eggs. Just make sure you write a note on the room service card to cook them well done if you don’t want them runny. Learned that lesson on this morning. A note about crispy bacon wouldn't hurt either!

Good Morning St Maarten!

We had no real plans for the day other than to go to Maho Beach and watch some of the planes come in. The afternoon was to be spent shopping. The ship had talked endlessly about how St Maarten was THE shopping port of this cruise.

We got off the ship about 10:00 or so and had to get our photo with the sign. I wanted to do that at every port along with get a stamp in my passport. Forgot the passport stamp at every port and the picture at every port but this one. *sigh*. Oh well, next time, right?

Our one and only sign photo!

The port is very clean and easy to navigate. We went to the taxi station and told them there were 2 of us to Maho Beach. They shuttled us into a taxi van with several other people. I completely forgot how much the Taxi was. I’m going to say about $7 or $9pp. Maho Beach really isn’t much of a beach. It looks like it’s really eroded. We were the only ship in port so it wasn’t uncomfortably crowded, but it is definitely not someplace I wanted to spend a whole afternoon. There were a few topless sun bathers, so keep that in mind if plan on 13 year old Jr along for the trip! Luckily, we got there right as a spurt of planes came in...about 10:45am. And double luckily, our cab mates didn’t want to stay after seeing the planes either. So even though we got there about early and told the cab driver we’d stay until 2, by 11:45 we were ready to leave. We found our cab mates and off we went to do some shopping.

Maho Beach

Plane coming in

Here is the plane schedule that is written on the beach bar there

Shopping in St Maarten really disappointed me. I’m the type of person that will refuse to eat at a chain restaurant if I’m on vacation. I want local food, local flavor, etc. So I like shopping done by local artisans only. The “strip” in St Maarten is mostly overpriced jewelry and nick knacks made in china. Not for me. I did find some very pretty things in the linen shop for myself, my sister and mom. Other than that, shopping in St Maarten was a bit of a bust for both my SIL and myself. So we decided to call it a day and head back to the ship.

The water taxi is very easy. $7 one way or $5 for the day, unlimited trips. It was an easy ride back to port for $7.

Here is the beach that is right off from where you get off the water taxi. Seemed nice enough if you want an easy beach day.

Once back on board, we went to the windjammer for lunch. There were always tables in the windjammer. I also liked that you didn’t have to make multiple trips to find a table, put your food down, and someone stand guard while you got drinks. There is wait staff that will get you drinks and keep them filled. Key to success...head to the LEFT as you enter the windjammer. It always seemed less crowded on the left side and in the back.

Dinner that night was the 1st formal night. I can’t comment on the menus each night. That isn’t important to me so I never paid it any mind. I walk in the dining room, look at the menu and can always find something for dinner.

We went to the 9pm production show that night. It was Invitation to Dance. It was the Royal singers and dancers and featured dancers that were some sort of Latin dance champs. I don’t have my compass in front of me or I could tell you for sure their names. The “pro” dancers were pretty good. The staff dancers? Well, you could tell they weren’t pro dancers but did they best they could. It was entertaining enough, but not my favorite show of the week. My SIL found it amusing that one of the male singers was the same person that led our muster drill. HA. After a few drinks with the guys at the Café Promenade, it was time to grab a to go drink, a turkey sandwich (those little suckers were tasty!), and head back to the room to enjoy our balcony some more.

Thank you for all the kind words.

It will probably be Tuesday before I can continue. I do some freelance hair and makeup work and I have an event in Virginia this weekend. Everyone enjoy your weekend (especially if it's a long one!)

Thank you for all the kind words.

 

It will probably be Tuesday before I can continue. I do some freelance hair and makeup work and I have an event in Virginia this weekend. Everyone enjoy your weekend (especially if it's a long one!)

Love the review. Thank you for taking time out to write it looking forward to more!!!

great review!