Adventure of the Seas Cruise Review!

This will be a review of our 16 night Mediterranean Cruise onboard Adventure of the Seas sailing from Southampton with plenty of pictures (a lot of food and drink ones :p)

Our itinerary was :-

Southampton

Day at Sea

Day at Sea

Gibraltar

Day At Sea

Barcelona

Villefranche Sur Mer

Livorno

Civitavecchia

Corsica (was originally Sardinia but changed for some reason)

Day at Sea

Malaga

Cadiz

Lisbon

Day At Sea

Day At Sea

Southampton

We booked this cruise to celebrate my mums birthday which was near the end of the cruise (ages 25 and 48/49), got a good deal with booking when the cruise first went on sale and received $400 OBC!!

We stayed the night before at a Premier Inn in Salisbury so we had a 30 minute drive to the docks in the morning - an easy drive with Sat Nav!

Arriving at the terminal around 930am we parked in the short stay car park (£1 for an hour's stay) as my dad had drove us down and we wanted to say goodbye properly instead of being rushed at the drop off point.

After handing the cases to the porters who checked luggage tags were in place (not easy to find them but we did arrive early!) we headed into the terminal where we asked for documentation to show we were actually on this cruise and then directed to security where unlike an airport there were no queues :eek:

As we approached the check in area it was great to see no queues at all in fact i don't think there was anyone else there apart from staff - a benefit of arriving early i suppose! We were shown to the Priority Boarding Line (Gold Memebers) and promptly checked in as I had printed out all the paperwork so we only needed to fill out the health declaration.

We were given boarding card Yellow 1 which was the first group to board after Suites/Diamond etc guests, once in the departure lounge there were maybe around 40 other guests sitting waiting so plenty of seats to choose from and there was also a small cafe if you needed a refreshment.

In the departure lounge Royal Caribbean have tables set up with information regarding the soda/wine/alcohol packages and you have the opportunity to purchase these prior to boarding.

They were running a special promotion for the Alcohol Packages (Classic & Premium) of receive the package for the whole cruise but only pay for 11 nights which made it quite a decent price considering the onboard cost of drinks!

The package should have worked out at $1760 (£1112) but with the offer it was $1210 (£764) plus we had $400 OBC so ours was actually £512 :D

A good deal in my eyes but did we get our monies worth? ;)

Our number was called for boarding around 11am so we didn't have long to wait in the departure lounge!

Since we were onboard so early compared to usual when we have flown to meet the ship we weren't ready for anything to eat so had a wander round and tried to get our bearing - this ship is massive :eek:

After a walk round we found the Cafe Promenade where we decided to christen the drinks package and have our first drink of the cruise!

Midori Lemonade!

Mojito!

You can also have the drink of the day on your package but you don't get the souvenir glass which didn't bother us, here's today's offering :-

We didn't try it as it doesn't sound too appealing IMO :confused:

The cabins weren't ready until 2pm so we had a tour of the Spa and filled out the cards for the free raffle then headed to the Windjammer for some lunch.

I must admit I hated the layout of the Windjammer on this ship, there are 3 sections shaped like a horseshoe and you really need to walk round first otherwise you end up missing something really good that was round the other side! The one good thing apart from the food in the buffet was the staff, they were really attentive and your drinks never ran low.

Today the Windjammer had roast beef, honey stung chicken!!, paella, grilled wahoo, vegetable byriani, roast potatoes with a lot more other stuff

By the time we finished lunch the cabins were ready so time to go and find ours!

I apologise because I am very "snap happy" when it comes to photos on holiday but for some reason i forgot to take any photos of the cabin, i only managed to remember to get a picture of the view from the window!

We booked a Promenade Cabin (7593) which is situated on the port side of deck 7 and is quite central between the forward and aft elevators.

Our cabin steward was Lil who was great, very friendly and helpful and always telling us which direction to go when we left the cabin so we didn't get lost!

The cabin was your standard Royal Caribbean cabin, slightly larger than an inside but with a bowed window offering a view of the Royal Promenade. There was plenty of storage space with a dresser which had to mirrored cabinets at either side, two bedside chest of drawers, a larger chest of drawers on top of which there was the older style TV (but it was interactive so could check account etc) and a wardrobe with shelves inside.

A decent sized bathroom with good storage space and the shower had a door rather than a curtain which i much prefer.

As seems to be Royal Caribbean's new idea the beds were automatically pushed together but a quick word with the cabin steward and this is rectified, why ask guests if the want the beds apart when you're not going to pass this information to the ship?? :confused:

A nice touch in the cabin was the refigerator and kettle, the teabags supplied are Tetley but you can lots of other ones at the Cafe Promenade but there is no coffee supplied so we took our own Nescafe 3in1 sachets! We also ordered extra milk from room service in the morning so we had fresh milk instead of UHT.

Our room was above the General Store and a cabin and looked onto the Sport's Bar, this was quite a good location as when they had sales on the Royal Promenade they were displayed directlly below us so we could have a sneak peek at what was on offer :p

All in all this was a good cabin, a bit noisy from the Promenade and also there must have been a crew stairwell nearby as we heard quite a bit of noise some nights and the walls are quite thin so pray you have quiet neighbours. You could also feel a lot more movement from the ship in the cabin which i wasn't really expecting given it's location. I loved having the interactive TV to check your onboard account and order room service which they then phoned the room to confirm you order and as sad as it sound i loved having a kettle for those early morning/late evening cuppas!

FYI the safe is really small so if you intend to bring a laptop larger than 10" it will not fit in the safe!

I must admit I hated the layout of the Windjammer on this ship, there are 3 sections shaped like a horseshoe and you really need to walk round first otherwise you end up missing something really good that was round the other side! The one good thing apart from the food in the buffet was the staff, they were really attentive and your drinks never ran low.

 

I was on AOS last year. I agree with you on the layout of the WJ. We never knew there was a grill in the back till day 5! :o

Enjoying your review so far. I'm in! :D

I was on AOS last year. I agree with you on the layout of the WJ. We never knew there was a grill in the back till day 5! :o

 

Enjoying your review so far. I'm in! :D

If i hadn't fancied a walk that day i probably wouldn't have found it and missed the freshly carved joiints!

Our cases arrived very early, even before muster so it was great to be organised and unpacked so we could enjoy the ship after muster.

In case anyone is interested the muster station for our cabin was C10 on deck 4.

The weather was starting to turn just before sailaway so we headed to see if our luck was in at the Spa Raffle, the raffle consisted of three prizes - a facial, a slimming wrap and a hot stome massage. Unfortunately we didn't win :(

We're used to a sailaway with music and the Cruise Director Staff getting everyone all hyped up ready to enjoy they're holiday but there didn't seem to be anything like that on this ship so we headed to the Promenade for another cocktail :)

Our big disappointment unfortunately :(

We had MyTime Dining which we've had on all our cruises so far and has always worked well however I don't feel it is suited to the larger ships.

We headed down around 615pm to the Mozart Dining Room on deck 5 and asked for a table for two but were told we would have a 1hr 30min wait if we wanted a table for two which was ridiculous. To cut a long story short we eventually got a table for two down the back of the dining room but were told if we wanted to always get a table for two we would have to make reservations for 630pm every night which kind of defeated the point of MyTime Dining IMO.

This really ruined our experience as I hate being tied down to eating a particular time as I'm not always hungry at the same time every night or am tired from a long day in port therefore we ate at the Windjammer half the cruise and a couple of times at Johnny Rockets.

When we were in the Dining Room it was OK, the tables for two were set quite close together so it was almost like a large rectangular table and everyone could hear your conservation and likewise you could hear theirs. Our waiters Rommel and Fazer were great and helpful when we wanted to slightly change dishes due to not liking part of them. It was the quality of some food items that let it down - quite fatty and chewy meat plus really small portions of sides (2 potato croquettes :eek:)

We really enjoyed the Windjammer for dinner, one of the side sections and the Island Grill were open with the side section having themed dishes. There was always a joint of meat being freshly carved and steak cooked Medium rare or Medium well every night plus a couple of currys amongst others. I think i became addicted to the currys :D

Johnny Rockets was a new concept for us having only sailed on the smaller ships before we had never had the chance to experience it and I can honestly say I loved it! The food was great and so was the atmosphere, endless fries and onion rings, club sandwich and then apple pie to follow plus a pint of beer I could hardly move afterwards. If you have the alcohol packages your drinks are inlcuded in this venue too.

We tried breakfasts in the Windjammer but found it too crowded, the Dining Room which was great but quite slow so mainly ended up having room service which we really enjoyed.

We hung the order menu out every evening and it always arrived promptly sometimes even earlier than we asked for but they do phone first to ask if its OK to deliver. The food was always hot but make sure you write down ENGLISH sausage or bacon if this is what you prefer.

For lunch we went to the Windjammer mainly or had room service if we'd been in port and fancied a quiet time in the cabin, can highly recommend the honey stung chicken and steak sandwich!

The Cafe Promenade was great for a snack morning, noon or night. In the mornings they had croissants and breads/pastries and doughnuts. In the afternoon they had soup, pizzas, pies, sandwiches and cakes and the same kind of thing in the evenings. When they had the pies they were great as they were kept warm so it was nice later at night for a snack!

Bacon & Hash Browns for breakfast

Honey Stung Chicken

Steak Sandwich

Club Sandwich

Hot Dog

Ketchup

Apple Pie

Oreo Sundae

We go on our first cruise next year on the AOT seas love this review

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Hi Lou

Enjoying your review looking forward to more!

We're going on AoS next July so reading with interest, we also have booked MTD, interested to hear you had trouble getting a table for 2.....

great job

Hi Lou

Enjoying your review looking forward to more!

We're going on AoS next July so reading with interest, we also have booked MTD, interested to hear you had trouble getting a table for 2.....

I would definitely make reservations online before you go if you want a table for two, really annoying but I guess the ship was full and a lot of people wanting this dining type

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Hi Lou

Enjoying your review looking forward to more!

We're going on AoS next July so reading with interest, we also have booked MTD, interested to hear you had trouble getting a table for 2.....

Us too, although there will be 4 of us. I wonder if the wait would be so long for 4. Think we'll pre book.

Loving the review, keep it up!

Us too, although there will be 4 of us. I wonder if the wait would be so long for 4. Think we'll pre book.

Loving the review, keep it up!

The only other table size we were offered was a 10, just a bit bigger than we were looking for!

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The only other table size we were offered was a 10, just a bit bigger than we were looking for!

 

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More tomorrow

Food pics

Cocktails to try

Entertainment

Ports of Call

Pictures of the ship

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Gosh, I'm really surprised at the wait times for MTD. Only sailed out of San Juan on Adventure so far, but never had to wait more than 5 minutes for a table for two. I don't like pre-booking times as we never really know when we're going to be hungry or want to see an early or late show. Sailing on her again next August out of Southampton so will be interested to see if they still have these problems.

Great thread by the way. Loving the pics.

Great review - loving it.