01Sweetpea

My husband & I (mid 40s) recently got off the Adventure OTS 5/3 sailing and wanted to write quick review of our cruise. This was a shortened cruise, 6 days instead of 7, and went to Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua & St. Maarten. We booked this cruise last minute for us…7 weeks out! I am a PLANNER, and enjoy that part of our vacation, but for some reason I found there wasn’t a whole lot of planning to do for this vacation, maybe because it was just DH & I…NO KIDS!!!

We flew into SJU from JFK the day before, a less than 10 minute wait for our luggage and off to the taxi line. The cost from the airport to the hotel was $20 (or $22) and was a quick ride. We stayed at the DoubleTree Hilton in San Juan. It did take me a while to pick this hotel, but the final decision was the price I was able to get on Hotwire. We arrived at the hotel at 2pm to warm cookies…yummy. Our room wasn’t ready so we stored our luggage, grabbed our bathing suits, changed, and took the golf cart ride to the beach. The beach was nice, the waves were small but there was a slight undertow, but nothing that kept us from being in the water. There were lounge chairs and umbrellas for our use, however they are showing their age and could be updated. Since this is a public beach there is no place ON the beach to get food or water. When we went to leave there were several people waiting for the golf cart to go back to the hotel, so we decided to walk, it was a 10-15 minute stroll from the beach to the hotel. Once back we were able to check into our room. The room was fine for our one night, ALTHOUGH I was not fond the frosted glass bathroom door. While it provides a lot of privacy, it doesn’t block out everything.

For dinner we decided to go to Nonna, which is just around the block. Small quaint place with amazing Italian food, just as good if not BETTER that the restaurants on Arthur Ave in the Bronx! The gnocchi was delicious. Quick walk back to the hotel with a stop across the street at the supermarket for dessert & water bottles and we called it a night.

The next morning our game plan was to eat breakfast, drop our luggage off at the ship, check in (if possible), then head to Old San Juan for the day. We went to Bebo’s Café for breakfast, which is right around the corner. We were the only ones in the place at 8:00am, and the food was good. Back to the hotel, packed up our stuff and grabbed a taxi to the port (I don’t remember how much this was). We arrived at the pier at 10am, and were able to drop off our luggage, but the terminal was not open to check in. The porter said it probably wouldn’t open until 11:30 so we decided not to wait. There WERE people already standing in line waiting to check in. The porter did suggest we not come back until after 4pm to avoid any lines. Grabbed another taxi and off to Old San Juan.

The taxi dropped us off at El Morro, and we spent about 4.5 hours exploring Old San Juan. We were able to visit both forts, the church, the gate, the fountain, and just walk around the streets taking everything in. We had a tapas lunch at Pirilo Pizza Rustica and delicious pina coladas. We really enjoyed our ½ day in Old San Juan.

We took a taxi back to the pier, arrived around 3pm, and I was amazed at how quickly we were on board the ship. By the time we got in line, walked thru security, checked in (there was no one in the gold members queue), and boarded was less than 20 minutes!!! The QUICKEST we have ever gotten on a ship!

We went right to our room D3 balcony 7646 and our luggage was waiting. Unpacked and headed to the Solarium for our first Lava Flow! For some reason they taste better when you are on a cruise ship. :) We discussed each of us getting the premium drink package, but decided against it. We would have had to drink almost $600 worth of drinks to make it worthwhile…something we didn’t come close to doing. Because of the increase drink prices, we rarely added extra to the already 18% tip included in the price, which is something we always did on prior cruises.

Muster drill was harmless and it was off to dinner. We had early seating and our wait staff was Yen & Nana. Yen was fun and we enjoyed having him as our head waiter. Nana was polite and quiet, but wasn’t as engaging. When booking this cruise, I had requested a large table figuring we’d have other people to talk to...we wound up at a table for 10, but only 6 of us showed for dinner. DH & I speak no Spanish, and 2 of the other 4 spoke little English. They were all very nice people, and we each tried to keep the others involved in conversations. It was a little awkward at times, usually with DH & I sitting there smiling as the other 4 had a conversation amongst themselves, but in the end we made it work. Yes, we could have asked to be moved, but we decided to stick it out. In the end, I picked up some Spanish, and they learned a little English.

The food in the main dining room, IN MY OPINION, has gone down significantly in quality, selection, and quantity. RCI could save some money and stop printing out the big menus with fancy fonts and “interesting tid-bits” of information, and put the money towards the actual FOOD!

After dinner, we walked around the ship a bit, then headed back to our cabin. The past 2 days caught up with us and it was lights out by 10pm.

Next up…sea day.

My husband & I were on the same cruise, I'm interested to read your opinion of the cruise!

We are doing an abbreviated version of option #1 on May 3rd...sea day, Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua & St. Maarten. (Adventure OTS)

We've never been to Barbados or Antigua and I've always wanted to swim with the turtles. :)

Enjoy your cruise, we're boarding on May 3rd! :D

Thinking about booking the Treetop Canopy Adventure for our stop in St. Lucia. Has anyone done this excursion recently and can answer a few questions for me?

How far from the port is the zip-lining? and how long is the ride?

Do you have to book ahead of time or will there be someone at the port taking reservations?

If I book ahead of time, is there transportation from the port to the zip-lining site?

Thanks!

Thanks for the review. We're headed to Puerto Rico in 3 weeks and are planning on exploring Old San Juan before we board. The walking tour is exactly what I needed to help us!

Does anyone know if (and then how) I could add my Hilton Honors number to my reservation that I booked thru HotWire?

Thanks!

DH & I each have a card. I THINK when we got the card we each got 15,000 points, but I'm not 100% sure. :confused:

We are going on our second "free" cruise in a few weeks. :D

Helping 4 kids pay for college will quickly rack up the points. :eek:

The only change I didn't like was not being able to combine points. For our first free cruise, DH & I each cashed in points for certificates, then we combined the certificates to reach 125,000 points for the free cruise. Then we paid the upcharge for a balcony.

This time I wasn't able to do that, and thought we'd be waiting a while longer to cruise. BUT I was able to cash in 100,000 points and put the credit towards the discount price of a D3 balcony. Total cost...$32 plus port fees & taxes. To ME...a MUCH better deal that the 125,000 points for an OV.

We also cashed in the rest of our points for OBC.

DH & I each have RCI visas. 2 weeks ago, I tried to cash in 125,000 points for a free cruise with an OV room, however neither of us had enough points on our individual card, so I wasn't able to do it.

After a few phone calls, a rep from crown and anchor explained to me that if I cashed in 100,000 points for $1000 cruise credit, I would be able to get a D3 balcony for $32 plus taxes and port fees!!! And I got $100 OBC as well.

Sometimes the free cruise for 125,000 points isn't always the best option.

Thanks!

I think we'll plan to be at the port around 10:30, drop off our bags, head to Old San Juan for a bit and be back at the ship by 4ish.

DH & I are doing a modified version of #1 in a few weeks (Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua & St. Maarten).

We picked #1 because I wanted to go to Barbados & Antigua (we've already been to the other 2 ports).

I would pick based on the islands you want to see.

Thanks for the great review...counting down the bays till we board...26!!! :D

We are on the 5/3 sailing of the Adventure OTS. Since we don't have to be on the ship until sometime around 5, we are planning on dropping our luggage off at the pier and then heading to Old San Juan for the day.

I'm trying to decide which would give me more time to explore:

- dropping off our bags early and NOT checking in, does anyone know how early we can do this?

- Or dropping off our bags, check in and THEN go explore? Again, how early can we check in?

Thanks!

:)

Thanks for the review. Anxiously awaiting for 5/3 to get here!!!

Is there 24 hours soft service ice cream/yogurt available?

I got The Hilton DoubleTree for $111 + tax & resort fees. :)

Looking at booking a hotel on hotwire for the first time and a little nervous. :eek:

I need a hotel for May 2nd and Hotwire Secret hot rate hotel is giving me:

Condado area

95% recommended

4*

regularly $214 now $134

resort fee of about 20%

free internet

near beach, fitness center, pools, restaurants, business center, self-service laundry & golf nearby

Any ideas what it may be???

Thanks!

Thanks! At this point I'm leaning towards dropping off our luggage at the pier (possibly checking in depending on the time) then heading to Old San Juan.

Thanks everyone. DH & I discussed it and decided to just go ahead and pre-book the excursion.

We'll figure out a way to spend the extra OBC...just may need to have an extra Lava Flow or 2. :D

I cashed in some extra RCI Visa points for OBC for our upcoming Adventure of the seas cruise on 5/3.

DH & I usually don't take ship excursions, but with the extra OBC figured why not.

Can I book the excursion online and use the OBC to pay for it? I'd prefer not to wait until we board to book the excursion.

I'm not sure if this belongs in the San Juan boards or not.

My DH & I will be on the Adventure on 5/3. We'd like to spend some time exploring Old San Juan before we board the ship on Sunday, but not sure what to do with our luggage?

Are we able to bring our luggage to the ship in the morning and then not check in and board until later?

Or is it better to stay in Old San Juan and see if the hotel will hold our luggage after we check out?

We're going on a cruise...problem SOLVED!!!

IF I wanted to use 125k point for a free cruise, it WOULD have to come from 1 card, AND the price would be on the base price for an OV cabin, which is currently $1724.00

IF I cash in 100k points I can get $1000 credit towards ANY cabin on ANY cruise.

With the sale that is going on now, I was able to book a D3 for $1032 plus taxes for a total of $1160.12. I will then be credited back $1000 for a total of $160.12!!!

DH will cash in 40K points for $400 of OBC!

Southern Caribbean here we COME!!!

My DH & I both have BOA RCI Visas. Several years ago we were able to combine our certificates and have enough points (125k) for a free cruise.

We're looking at taking a last minute cruise (5/3 Adventure of the Seas) and when I called Royal I was told the FULL 125K points has to come from ONE CARD??? I have 123K and DH has 40K.

Is this true?

Since we will both be on the cruise, shouldn't we be able to use ALL our points?

anyone have any experience with this?

He is very outgoing & tends to be the life of the party! He is just a little anxious about the boat sinking, yes he has seen the titanic too many times!

He'll be fine then.

How outgoing is your child? I would definately suggest he go to the teen club the first night and meet the other kids there. or go to the arcade, he'll meet kids there as well.

And if he plays a sport, have him wear a T-shirt for the team he plays for. My oldest son is a bit shy and usually keeps to himself. On the first day of our Liberty cruise he was wearing a T-Shirt from a running camp he went to. In the Windjammer a kid stopped him and said he went to the same camp, but on different dates. They wound up training together on sea days.

My step-daughter is VERY outgoing, she makes friends with everyone! She is still friends with girls she met on our Explorer cruise 3 years ago, so she would have been 12 then.

I'm really enjoying your review...keep it coming.