Adventure of the Seas - July 15-22 Review

Just off Adventure of the Seas (July 15 sailing). Had a great time, visiting five very interesting islands, celebrating a College and High School Graduation, and my Mom came too! As most who have been on this ship have said, the staff is great, the food just OK. But we agree with those who say we are not shopping for the food, preparing it, cooking it, or cleaning up – so none of that interfered with our enjoyment of the trip!

Pros

I really enjoy this size and design of ship. It was designed in the late 1990s, when the drive to monetize every square inch of a ship was not as prevalent as it is today. We never, EVER, had trouble finding a chair by the pool, or on any deck. Many times, outside on deck 4, even on the sea day, we were all alone – so peaceful. Elevators not crowded, buffet not too crowded, etc…Basically the ratio of passengers to public areas is better than current ships.

On the NCL Breakaway, finding a chair was always an issue, I couldn’t get within 20 feet of a railing for sailaway out of NYC, and the worst was the corridors for the staterooms. If you encountered a staff member with a cart, you had to put your back against the wall to let them pass. I am not kidding, the corridors on the Adventure of the Seas are twice as wide as those on the Breakaway.

I love being able to walk around the entire outside of the ship (not possible on many newer ships), on deck 4 (with steps up to deck 5 at the front). I cannot believe how many times I was outside at the front of the ship, all by myself, while sailing – and they even have several benches there – never used!

The buffet offered many different varieties of food, most of which was good.

Cons

Promenade Café – usually very crowded, sometimes 20 people on line. Then when you get to the counter, many items not labeled, or mis-labeled. Just adds to it taking much longer to serve each person. Six different salads, all with multiple ingredients, not easy to figure out by looking at…these were never labeled the whole trip. Fresh-brewed coffee here was nice and convenient, but with six pitchers of milk, is it that difficult to include a low-fat or skim option? Nope! Only whole milk and half and half. And one time, all the pitchers were gone, for about 20 minutes.

Movies – they have a big screen outside by the pool for movies – but they kept repeating the same movie – only three different choices for seven nights.

Trivia – many times this was run by a very nice woman, who spoke English poorly. You know how some people treat trivia seriously, hanging on every word – but if half of the words are unintelligible, that’s a problem. The poor woman, knew her limitations, and kept apologizing about it – not her fault at all!

Main Dining Room – We were a party of 8, and were assured many months ago that we would all be at the same table, as requested – but of course that didn’t happen – although they did fix it for the rest of the cruise. Here we also had another language barrier problem. Head Waiter did not know the menu – Corvina was an entrée, we were not familiar with it, and asked her – and her reply? “It is a fish”. Many orders were wrong. She was very sweet and only wanted to please, but she was not prepared. I am leaving a lot out – we are not snobs at all, but it was bad. We asked for plain, decaf black tea (Lipton, Bromley…anything!) and were told they only had herbal tea. Later the Maitre D said that it was available. He tried very hard to make things right.

All beef dishes could only be ordered medium rare or medium well. Which of course means that they are just sitting there, waiting to be served, rather than cooked to order. Most nights all three levels of the main dining room were half full. I think the cruise lines are successfully implementing their strategy of driving everybody to the specialty restaurants, or to the buffet.

We laughed most of the above off, and had a wonderful family vacation! Thanks to all my fellow CC members for all the valuable information posted on the tour options on each island – I could never have planned everything without you!!

Appreciate the feedback. I understand about the trivia. You should try it on Oasis, with the Rising Tide bar fountain going full blast, hawking and music on the Royal Promenade. Very difficult.

Great feedback, thank you!

Did you happen to catch the "parade"? I havnt been on RC before but I understand that there is a parade that goes through the ship?

Appreciate the feedback. I understand about the trivia. You should try it on Oasis, with the Rising Tide bar fountain going full blast, hawking and music on the Royal Promenade. Very difficult.

Very true, or we had people on the Rising Tide shout out answers on their way by. :)

Great feedback, thank you!

 

Did you happen to catch the "parade"? I havnt been on RC before but I understand that there is a parade that goes through the ship?

No, we missed it, but it was on the schedule!

There are usually two parades on a 7 night cruise, one on the first evening around 5 and one the last evening at about the same time. Your daily Compass will have the complete information.

Thanks for the review. Going on Adventure next year so very interested in reading all I can about her.

Thanks!

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Adventure on Saturday!

Corvina was an entrée, we were not familiar with it, and asked her – and her reply? “It is a fish”.

This made me laugh! Just curious though, how would you have preferred that she respond? I'm guessing that most people who ask her "what is corvina?" probably do not know that it is a fish. At least her reply was correct!

Thanks for the review! We will be on the Adventure on Saturday!

 

This made me laugh! Just curious though, how would you have preferred that she respond? I'm guessing that most people who ask her "what is corvina?" probably do not know that it is a fish. At least her reply was correct!

I forgot the exact wording, but it was clear from the menu that it was a fish. We may have asked "what is it like?" - expecting to hear something like "It's a white, flaky fish, similar to sole"...or "It's a thicker fish, similar to a swordfish steak..." - something like that.

I just remembered there was a dish labeled in the buffet "Almond crusted fish"...:D

Thanks for the review! I almost forgot how tight the hallways are on the newer NCL ships until you mentioned it. Glad to hear AOS has wider hallways--my mom uses a walker and it was impossible to get down the hallways with the carts and such on NCL Getaway :(

Do you recall if the main dining room served lobster?

What islands did you visit. Saint Lucia or Martinique?

Thanks for your review, we were on the Allure this past June and had much the same experience in MDR.

Thank you for your feedback!

Do you recall if the main dining room served lobster?

Every night in the MDR lobster was available for $30. One night near the end it was free. Two people ordered it - one said it was mushy, because it wasn't from cold waters. The other person liked it very much.

What islands did you visit. Saint Lucia or Martinique?

We went to St. Lucia. Thanks to CC, I knew about the possibility of Martinique, and was ready for either.

Beware of misinformation on this topic, such as this, posted on 7-13-17 by rsharp83:

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No one on Adventure is going to St. Lucia for months. And Royal will continue to mislead and obfuscate the issue because they know how popular St. Lucia is and how unpopular Martinique is with many cruisers.

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I posted this on another thread yesterday:

Just off Adventure, we did go to St. Lucia, but I don't think that has any bearing on future sailings. This is a very large construction project, with different conditions each day, which will affect whether the ship can dock there. Those who blasted RC for the last minute notifications about the switch to martinique on june 7 and 28 are misguided. Site conditions on construction sites change daily. And I am not an RC apologist, as you will see from my review in a day or so.

What nights were your formal nights?

Nights 2 and 6 (I am 95% sure, lol)

We were on this same sailing. Yes- without question, we visited St Lucia as scheduled...so all the hub bub was for nothing. Beautiful Island. Was on a public beach for all of 5 minutes before I was offered cocaine and marijuana! :eek: Sorry-- just wanted a beer!

Loved the ship - must wear shirts for the water slide or no ride. Flowrider was as busy as ever. Golf was generally empty. Shows were ok- not Oasis class, but not horrible. You'll have a good time if you relax and realize you're on vacation!

Food in both Windjammer and MDR was average at best. No changes in Windjammer food--pretty much always the same options for both breakfast and lunch. Fully functioning bar in the WJ made up for it. :-)

Dinner in MDR- worst part was our head waitress would seemingly get lost after serving the main course. We're talking 1/2 hr- 45 minutes after everyone was finished before cleaning up and offering dessert. The Asst Waiter worked much harder than she did-- he was a pleasure. Seemed like they tried too hard to make fancy meals-

Other staggering thing- stopped by the Excursion desk afternoon before St. Lucia. 2 ladies working there actually told us they have no idea about the island- they had never been there themselves, and had only been working for 3 weeks. They were certainly honest, but didn't expect to be told "Uh- your're on your own!".

But overall- had a wonderful time. Great conversations with the bartenders, nice ship, and cool intinerary (Although think I like a less port intensive cruise! Had to go see each island- felt too "busy!". (1st world problems!)

can you compare balcony cabins to anthem?

Thank you for the review as we board in three months!

For many of the reasons you mention, we loved that class of ship, and the freedom class which is almost identical. Our favorites.

Thanks for the review!

Dan

can you compare balcony cabins to anthem?

Anthem is, of course, newer so furniture is more updated. There were 2 separate closets which was nice. Also had an electrical outlet by the bed. Cabins and balconies, depending on categories, are bigger on Anthem. All that being said, Adventure cabin/balcony experience was fine. We loved both ships and, in our opinion, this should not be a deciding factor in picking a cruise. After all, only a small percentage of time is actually spent in the cabin.

 

Other staggering thing- stopped by the Excursion desk afternoon before St. Lucia. 2 ladies working there actually told us they have no idea about the island- they had never been there themselves, and had only been working for 3 weeks. They were certainly honest, but didn't expect to be told "Uh- your're on your own!".

This same thing happened to us on Anthem in 2015 and it was even more ridiculous. The only 2 people from the excursion department were both on vacation at the same time. The rest of the staff was new (literally the third day for one of them) and not one of them had ever been to that particular port (Barbados).

Fortunately, the guy from the jewelry port shopping desk knew everything and did a great job in guiding us. We informed corporate of his extra effort.

I think I will start a separate thread. Will be interesting to see if this has happened with any type of regularity.

Thanks for the review...we were on Adventure last September and got re routed so we missed 2 islands. Guess we will just have to go back!! :)