Toonjie's AOS Review

Here's the overall Itinerary:

Friday, May 9 Pre-Precruise- Sheraton, Tarrytown, NY

Saturday, May 10 Precruise- Marriott Resort & Stellaris Casino, San Juan

Sunday, May 11 Embarkation- Adventure of the Seas!

Monday, May 12 Day at Sea

Tuesday, May 13 Barbados- Welchman Hall Gulley/Bathsheba (Exploring with rental car)

Wednesday, May 14 St.Lucia- Private land & sea tour with Herod, Jalousie Plantation Resort-Scuba diving on Piton Wall

Thursday, May 15 Antigua- Shopping/Eli’s Eco-Tour

Friday, May 16 St. Maarten- Ferry to Anguilla-Shoal Bay Beach/Shopping

Saturday, May 17 St. Thomas- Scuba diving/Sapphire Beach/Shopping

Sunday, May 18 Debarkation/4 night post cruise, Wyndham Rio Mar Beach Resort

Monday, May 19 Hiking El Yunque Rainforest

Tuesday, May 20 Beach/Belz Factory Outlet Mall/El Yunque-hiking

Wednesday, May 21 Culebrita/Culebra tour with East Island Tours

Thursday, May 22 Pool/Explore Old San Juan & Shopping 8:00pm Departure

Grab your peanuts and popcorn, here it comes…..

“Toonjie’s Very Excellent, Much Anticipated, Long Awaited, Engagement Anniversary and Belated Honeymoon Adventure of the Seas Cruise Vacation with Reminiscences of Our Past 2 AOS Cruises the Very Same Week”

“A Sign of the Times” The Pre-Pre Cruise & Preliminaries

It’s the kind of vacation that’s so anticipated it makes your eyes twinkle at work over a month out, the twinkle that keeps you going through a long winter. Almost 2 full weeks in paradise, no more cold weather and most importantly, no work or chores! For the first time we reserved this cruise with the LA while onboard the AOS last May. As we looked at cabin availability, I was shocked to find both 1688 and 1388, the much coveted corner aft cabins, were available. I quickly snatched both of them up. 1388 for my mom (74, can’t walk long distances, arthritic hip, uses a scooter onboard) and 1688 for DW and I. We had 1688 on the Mariner 2 years ago and loved it. Then it was a last minute cancellation that allowed us to get it, but to get both these cabins that are usually scooped up 2 years in advance was a dream come true.

In December, we got a very special Christmas present when we found out we were expecting! It’s a boy! Josiah David, was the name selected after perusing dozens of baby name books. We quickly calculated the due date. We’re okay, RCCL allows women up to 27 weeks pregnant to cruise, DW will be 24 so we just make it and planning begins in earnest taking into account the limitations of my mom and a pregnant woman.

Littlest AOS Fan:

The shocker-A few weeks before the cruise I’m reading a CC thread on pregnant women cruising and the poster quotes the RCCL website as stating women 24 weeks and over can’t sail. What!!!??? I know I double and triple checked and so did my wife and we were fine. I check the website, sure enough it’s 24 weeks, not 27. The next morning I call RCCL and am happy to know I wasn’t losing it, the pregnancy policy was changed on April 1st, but all those who booked before then would be grandfathered.

DW Just Prior to Cruise

Whew! All we had to do was fax a doctor’s note to the Access Department. DW has a doctor’s appointment the week before we leave, so we get the note, (which we were planning on having just in case, even before the policy change), and the next morning I fax it to RCCL. Friday, as we’re packing up and trying to get out of the house as early as possible to enjoy the Sheraton and so we can relax and get to bed super-early, I check my email and there is an email from the Access Dept. with a waiver attachment. The email basically states they’ll let us change the cruise date for no penalties, etc., but if you do want to go, then sign your life away and doom your baby! (Okay, well, not quite that blunt!) I fax the waiver in and bring a copy of all the paperwork and emails from the Access Dept. just to cover all my bases and well, skip ahead to embarkation day-all you experienced RCCL cruisers already know what happened- No need to show any doctor’s note, DW could have been in labor and no one would have noticed! I joke it would be easier to sneak an 8 ounce baby on board than an 8 ounce bottle of rum!

Okay, enough of the preliminary hassles. We’re off to the Sheraton and it’s hard to believe that our vacation is about to begin. We got a rental car from Hertz about 15 minutes from our house and then bring our car back, pack up the rental car and then we’re off. (It’s actually cheaper here in the NY area to rent a car both ways than to park your car a the airport for 12 days @ $20/day) Hertz is great with the upgrades, since we are #1 Club Gold members (free membership with coupon), and we get a nice Ford Escape small suv when I had only reserved a full-sized car, made packing all the bags easy! We seem to always overpack even though this time we said we wouldn’t and we planned on doing the mid-week laundry special so we’d have plenty of clothes for the 4 day post-cruise.

The Sheraton in Tarrytown is a brand new hotel, which just opened last Fall and it’s only 10 minutes from my mom’s house in Yonkers so since we have a 2:30am wake up time in order to make our 6:00am flight, we decide to use Priceline and get a cheap hotel near my mom’s house so we can get an extra hour of sleep in the morning. (New Fairfield, CT, where we live, is only an hour from New York City) We got the Sheraton with a $65 bid and it was really worth it, this pre, precruise stay really provided a nice buffer between the real world and the vacation world! With all the faxing of waivers and overpacking we don’t check in until around 4:00pm. One nice touch was they were giving out free kettlecorn (Dale & Thomas). We have ours as soon as we settle into the room and quickly decide to stock up on more from the large bowl in the lobby, it was yummy! I’ll save the details of the hotel for my Tripadvisor review, but the room was brand spanking new with a super-comfy bed and great bath with a wonderful shower. Here are a few pics of the room:

We had big intentions of working out in the fitness room, which is really nice and overlooks the pool, but we’re both getting pretty tired and just want to wind down, so we skip the workout, (the first in a series of workout skips!) and just head to the pool and hot tub. We have the place to ourselves and thoroughly enjoy it, but the signs on the wall keep grabbing my eye, are these really necessary?? It’s such a clean, brand new hotel, but these signs kind of remind you what could be in the water! Gross! Are these really signs of the times? Do we really need 2 signs?

How about people with festering carbuncles? Oozing pustules? Weeping rashes, gangrenous or otherwise grotesque limbs? Yuck!! Okay, time for dinner! I drive to one of our favorite restaurants, Pizza & Brew to get a pizza. On my way out in the lobby, I tried to print out our JetBlue boarding passes, but they wouldn’t download to the public computers or even when the reception people tried to help, they wouldn’t download to their computers. On the way to get the pizza, I search for Wifi hotspots and find one, but still no luck. I conclude JetBlue is having a problem. We enjoy our pizza, some more kettlecorn for desert and settle in bed around 9:00pm. Our goal was 8:00pm, but still not bad. I set the wake up call, the alarm clock and both our cell phones just in case. A few loud neighbors keep us up for a while, there’s obviously a party in a nearby room and a man with the most annoying laugh seems to find everything happening there funny. The soundproofing between rooms could be much better, but that’s my only complaint about the hotel. We manage to get 4-5 hours of sleep, not too shabby.

Standby for the next installment...

I see that you rented a car in Barbados. I'm in port from 4 a.m. to midnight and I'm thinking about renting a car there. Please give some suggestions about this after posting your full review.

Loved the beginning of your review and am waiting for the next installment. :)

Congratulations on becoming new parents. :D Loved the ultrasound picture. :cool:

Your funny....love the story so far........please continue. The pictures make it especially great!!!!

Great review so far :D How long do we have to wait for more??? :confused:

First off, CONGRATULATIONS on your pregnancy!!! :D :D You sound very excited, that's great.

I LOVE your review so far! You are so funny. We are sailing on AOS in July and have cabin 1388 also. SHHHH, it's a surprise. ;) I happened to call RCCL one day and found out that cabin was avaliable. I have heard so much about this stateroom here on CC that I grabbed it. :rolleyes: This will be our first aft and second balcony cabin.

Anyway, you had the same itinerary as we do. Can't wait to hear the rest. Thanks.

I will be very interested to know your time line for Anguilla. We have thought a few times about going over but have been told that a day in port is not long enough. IE the ferry gets delayed on a regular bases.

So please post cost and timing needed.

Thanks!

I had read that you and your wife were planning to do that. I started researching and I would love to sail over to Anguilla for the day. We have been to St. Martin/St. Maarten so many times. How was the timing? My husband is a worry-wart about missing the ship. We are cruisers who like to get away from the touristy areas, but we are beach people. Would it be worth it to go over for the day? We have a small group of friends that I would have to talk into going and they are all cruise newbies..Last Sept. on the AOS we had an awful rainy day in St Martin- we just walked around Marigot in the pouring rain and found a little deli that sold $2 beers so I got buzzed. Can't wait to see more pictures... Thank you for taking the time to make your review. Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Jane

Keep it coming:D Great review, nice pics and congrats on your baby to be. How quickly do you think you guys will cruise once the baby is born?

Antisipating more of your jouney.

Keep it coming:D Great review' date=' nice pics and congrats on your baby to be. How quickly do you think you guys will cruise once the baby is born?

Antisipating more of your jouney.[/quote']

 

Thanks!! Check out our countdown timer! He'll be 4 months old and turn diamond with us on the Mariner! We are grandfathered in from the new policy of no infants under 6 months.

Here's the next chapter folks, thanks for all your replies! The adventure continues:

Saturday May 10th

“Perfection & the Parrot” Pre-Cruise

2:30am comes all too fast, but I’m too excited to care. Our bed was so comfy and the shower so refreshingly wonderful that it makes up for Mr. annoying laugh and his irritating interruption of our sleep. It had been raining out and had recently stopped so we are greeted by the lovely smell of fresh rain on newly placed cedar mulch as we leave the hotel. The highways are empty and in a 10 minute drive and my mom is waiting for us and we throw her suitcases in and are on our way. We’re running about 10 minutes late and arrive at JFK airport at 4:10am. I fill up the car at the BP station which is so conveniently located right at the entrance to the airport. JetBlue’s terminal is surprisingly busy for this hour. The last 2 years, JetBlue’s San Juan departures not were from Terminal 4, (made famous by the Tom Hanks Movie, The Terminal), which was almost empty at that hour.

The curbside check-in was not yet open and so I get a wheelchair for my mom to sit in, bring in all the bags and have DW and mom wait while I return the rental car. Fortunately that goes smoothly and I’m at Hertz with the car checked-in in about 5 minutes and I run up to the Airtrain and catch a train waiting there right before it leaves. Yes! Making up lost time. I’m back at JetBlue’s terminal by 4:45 and we clumsily make our way through those annoying mazes of “velvet rope.” Wouldn’t you know that as soon as we & our 8 bags navigate our way up to the front with all the dexterity of a walrus on ice skates, the curbside check-in opens early! It feels great to dump all our check-in bags. A porter comes to get my mom an here’s where travel with a handicapped person has its advantages. The porter takes us right to the front of the security line and we go through the scanners with no problems. (All time we were behind made up!) Just in time to order breakfast sandwiches from the shops right in front of our gate. As we return with our sandwiches they call early boarding and I wheel my mom on, we get settled in and eat breakfast as everyone else is getting on the plane.

We’re big JetBlue fans and are lucky being in the New York area, we can fly them almost exclusively. (Our flights are free from frequent flyer miles!) Their signature feature is personal tvs on the back of every seat. Usually the tv signal drops out not too long after you get over the ocean off the US coast. Last year it lasted maybe 15 minutes into the flight at best, but this year it lasts almost an hour. They give you free movies to make up for the lack of tv and we have our Itunes library loaded on my laptop with some of our favorite tv shows just in case we don’t like the movie selection. We watch 27 Dresses, which was pretty bad, but okay for free. Jumper is the other equally bad movie, I catch a few minutes while DW is sleeping but the turbulence we start experiencing is unnerving my “always scared on planes” wife so we watch one of favorite episodes of The Office to take her mind off it. Nothing like a little comedy to keep your mind off plunging 35000 feet into the ocean! We break out the last bags of kettlecorn to further soothe her.

Around this time DW has another problem, she unselfishly gave me the window seat and a big guy got the aisle seat and has the annoying habit called “Jimmy legs” on Seinfeld. He is constantly shaking his leg up and down, Mr. annoying laugh has nothing on this guy and on top of it all he’s one of those people’s who’s birthright it is to always have both armrests. Fortunately, we are ahead of schedule and land at 9:24am, some 15 minutes early.

Wheelchair porter is waiting for my mom and we sail through the airport with no hassles. He takes my mom all the way outside the airport and I call Charlie Car rental and they send a van to pick us up. I go back in and get a porter and all our bags come out very quickly. The luggage porter takes all our luggage out to where the rental car vans pick people up and within 10 minutes the Charlie Car Rental van is there. The driver is very nice and we are at Charlie Car Rental in 5 minutes. Our experience here is much better and faster than last year’s at U Save Car Rental, which took about 45 minutes. It takes only around 15 minutes and we are all set, that’s fast by Caribbean standards. I’m just looking forward to the day when island car rentals are as fast as here in the states! Charlie’s Car Rental is on Isla Verde Ave. right near the El San Juan and Intercontinental hotels, as well as the Ritz. We get great directions from there to the Marriott and we arrive at the Marriott by 11:00am.

The Marriott has come to be one of my favorite hotels in the world because it is just as close to perfection as possible. The staff is trained to the highest standards and is extremely helpful and friendly from managers to belhops. We check-in and upgrade our Priceline room to an ocean view room for $50, that made it $160 for a room that is normally over $350 a night! (No resort fees were charged) My mom doesn’t care too much about her view so we don’t upgrade her. She luckily gets a room that does have a partial ocean view.

We go up to our room and it’s gorgeous. We’re on the 10th floor almost on the corner of the beach and the pool area. Here’s some pics:

Our room:

Nice Flat Screen TV: (You can plug and view virtually any device into the tv via that great panel on the side of the cabinet!)

View Straight Down:

Mom's View:

We relax and settle in a little and enjoy the view and the warm air and then head to the pool. By now it’s after 12:00pm and it’s time for lunch since we have a big meal at night at the Parrot Club and our reservations are at 6:30pm. I hunt down our favorite, the Empanada Lady, and fortunately she is there. She makes the best empanadas I have ever had and also sells bottled water and soda for a dollar a pop, so it is much cheaper than the Marriott bar food prices! Make sure you look her up on the beach, I believe she is only there on weekends. Go out of the pool area onto the beach and turn left and she sets up shop right at the corner of the Marriott property. We get a couple of chicken and a couple of beef empanadas and some water and eat them by the pool. DW doesn’t trust street vendors while pregnant so she gets a chicken sandwich from the bar. For dessert we all get Pina Coladas, (virgin for DW and mom), and toast to being in paradise!

We spend a couple of hours by the pool, I do some body surfing in the ocean and DW and I take a walk up the beach to explore a little. We can see they are still working on the lower levels of La Concha, the Renaissance resort a few blocks down from the Marriott that has totally been redone. I didn’t have time this trip to check it out, but it looks like a nice property, just nowhere near as nice as the Marriott. We take a nap and just to make sure we’re up in time to get ready for the Parrott Club we get a wake up call. We ended up getting up on our own early and I was in the shower and DW out enjoying the balcony when the wake up call came. When I got out of the shower I heard a knock on the door and it was a security guard, they had sent him up to wake us up since we hadn’t answered the phone. Now, in my book, that is a classy, well-run hotel! A very nice touch!

At 6:00pm we head down and get our car, (we did valet parking for $20 a day, it makes sense since self-parking is $15 a day, last year we self-parked, but this year we splurge.) We have a nice drive to Old San Juan (OSJ) but as we get onto Fortaleza Street, we get caught behind a garbage truck. It’s almost comical, we are now late for our reservation, the garbage truck is blocking up the whole little one lane, one way street. It’s just one of those travel times you just have to sit back and laugh and enjoy the ridiculousness of it all. Traffic is backed up as far as the eye can see and we are the first ones behind the truck. I guess you can say that you can learn a lot about a town by its garbage. It’s actually interesting to watch the garbage produced by the different stores and bars. I call the Parrot Club and let them know we are running late and they say no problem so we just relax and chill and enjoy going down the street literally store by store as the garbage is collected. It was probably about a 20 minute delay that became a laughing point of the trip.

The Parrot Club more than made up for our little scenic tour of Old San Juan’s garbage. Service was impeccable as always and the food is spectacular. All 3 of us had the Salmon special that they were having and it was just great. All the vegetables, spices and seasonings at this place taste like they were just picked a few minutes ago! Desserts are equally great. DW and mom have the crème brulee, which is to die for, and I have the banana spring rolls which are simply delectable. Fortunately DW can’t finish hers and I have to help her out!

Parrot Club's very romantic outdoor courtyard:

After dinner, we drive back to the Marriott and drop my mom off and then head back to OSJ for a romantic walk along the same route where I popped the question last year.

We park in the public lot by Paseo Princessa and make our way past the fountain and up to El Convento through the San Juan Gate. The courtyard of the El Convento Hotel is where I proposed and we end up there and I ask her if she’d still say yes? She says yes again, yeah!

Gorgeous romantic spots near the waterfront abound on Paseo Princessa:

I don’t think there’s a more romantic place than OSJ at night and we make our way over the cobblestone streets down to the waterfront and back to the Marriott, which was hopping when we arrive back. There is always Latin dancing in the lobby on weekends with live music. It makes you feel like you’re at Carnivale, yet a quick elevator ride, and I do mean quick, these bad boys sail, and we’re in our quiet room for a much needed good night’s sleep.

oh my................

Here's some more pics of this gorgeous resort:

DW enjoying the bathrobes

..and the balcony:

Pool area:

Hottub:

Lobby:

Coffee Shop:

Or Starbucks, right across the street:

Walgreens, right up the block:

Japanese Restaraunt, right next door:

Port Cochere:

Charlie's Car Rental, right across the street! (How cool is that!)

Pool:

Great review. Did you have to ask out of the resort charge or did they not charge you because you upgraded your room?

wonderful, funny review, and great photos....:D

come on, you are leaving us hanging...........we want more!!!:cool:

Great review. Did you have to ask out of the resort charge or did they not charge you because you upgraded your room?

We didn't have to ask about waiving the resort charge, one factor might be that I got the internet for $14.95 anyway because I had to enter my mom's final grades. (She's a Professor too.) So that may be why there was no separate resort charge. My only possible complaint about the Marriott is the separate charge for the internet, but with the great prices you can get it for on Priceline, I don't even care! We've gotten it for $110 a night for the last 2 years!

We are in the midst of deciding where we want to stay in SJ for a 3 night pre and 1 night post, your pics and review of the Marriot is hard to ignore. However Priceline will only state 2 persons per room and we need 4 per room because of our 2 little girls. I am scared that the hotel would not be able to accomodate our request for 2 double beds. Any advice?

Wonderful that you will have your new son with you on the Mariner.

Keep up the great review, it makes me soooo want to goooo:D

Thanks for the great review, Toonjie! I am eager for more! We will be on AOS next March and haven't booked a room for our pre-cruise stay yet. I have never used Priceline, so I could use a little advice, if you don't mind. I did a priceline search for the Stellaris and the rate is around $265 per night. When I clicked the choice for naming your own price, it seemed to me that I would have to accept whatever hotel Priceline chooses for me. How did you negotiate your excellent rate?

Thanks for the great review, Toonjie! I am eager for more! We will be on AOS next March and haven't booked a room for our pre-cruise stay yet. I have never used Priceline, so I could use a little advice, if you don't mind. I did a priceline search for the Stellaris and the rate is around $265 per night. When I clicked the choice for naming your own price, it seemed to me that I would have to accept whatever hotel Priceline chooses for me. How did you negotiate your excellent rate?

You may not get the Marriott, but if you stick to bidding resort only you will great hotel. We got the Marriott this Sept. for $115 . Last year I got the El San Juan which is very nice for about the same price. Some people have gotten the Caribe Hilton or the Intercontinental. Try using the search feature for priceline and you will get tons of info.

Great review so far. I love the photos.

Thanks for taking the time to share!:)

BILL

We are in the midst of deciding where we want to stay in SJ for a 3 night pre and 1 night post' date=' your pics and review of the Marriot is hard to ignore. However Priceline will only state 2 persons per room and we need 4 per room because of our 2 little girls. I am scared that the hotel would not be able to accomodate our request for 2 double beds. Any advice?

Wonderful that you will have your new son with you on the Mariner.

Keep up the great review, it makes me soooo want to goooo:D[/quote']

 

after booking, if you get the marriott (or whatever hotel) you can call and ask...SOMETIMES they will accomodate requests for PL rooms, but, priceline only guarantees a room for 2 people...whether or not the hotel will honor this request is up to them, the mood of the agent checking you in, the overall occupancy of the hotel and probably the phase of the moon!

 

i've only used PL once (my cousin bid for us...) and at the Sea-tac hilton, we were able to get 2 beds for mom & i......with no trouble...(my cousin called the hotel for us...)

Thanks for the great review, Toonjie! We stayed at the Mariott Stellaris this past April 25th and 26th, pre AOS. It was wonderful! I have never slept on such a comfortable bed in my entire life. I should have looked to see what kind of mattress that was, lol. Cant wait for more of your review!

Thanks, Steve for the Priceline tutorial! I think we will try to bid as it seems like a great way to get a good price on the hotel.

Toonjie, What camera did you use? Shopping around for a new camera and your pic's are awsome!