My Adventure review, Mom perspective

Well it should have been 7 to 7.5 hours but with the tires it was significantly more! Hahahah!

Could you tell us where in PA you had your tire trouble? Were you on the PA Turnpike or Route 80? I used to hitchhike to Pittsburgh from Kutztown, PA.

Could you tell us where in PA you had your tire trouble? Were you on the PA Turnpike or Route 80? I used to hitchhike to Pittsburgh from Kutztown, PA.

It was in Clarion.

It was in Clarion.

So you took I-80, beautiful country, not much traffic until NJ. Hope you have better auto luck when you drive in to take a nine day on the Anthem. The kids will love it.

So you took I-80, beautiful country, not much traffic until NJ. Hope you have better auto luck when you drive in to take a nine day on the Anthem. The kids will love it.

Thanks! Not quite sure what ship is next but that one is on the radar for sure!

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us all. Absolutely loved your writing style and you have a beautiful family. Welcome to the "addicted to cruising" club!!!

Thanks for the review.

Great review!! Your family is adorable!

Great Review. We are on August 3, 2018. Reading your review and seeing your pictures, I can't wait to get on this beautiful Ship. Thanks.

Thanks for the welcome! We will check it out for sure. Bayonne has some big ships for next year so we may be back, it’s nice to save that airfare on a family of 5, but Florida and Puerto Rico are still on our radar. Thanks for the tips!

Yep, we are sailing on Anthem out of Bayonne in November. We have been slowly declining in size since we did Allure so it will be nice to get back to one of the larger ships.

Wonderful review!! The planner-of-all rocked the vacation!!! Your whole family seemed on board for fun...way to go mom the organizer!!

Now for the next trip!! (Oh..and I am with you on the creme brûlée fix!!). Thanks again..we will be on Adventure OTS in September! Yea!!

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Thank you for an entertaining review. We are on Adventure next year out of Ft Lauderdale headed to Eastern Caribbean. Whenever we book a cruise (one a year) I start stalking cruise critic! Lol! I recently read they are changing menus in dining room. Hope they keep Creme Brulee. I am also a big fan. Thanks again for taking the time to do this!

So glad the review is being enjoyed! Thank you for all the wonderful comments.

I loved reading your trip report! Especially the "keeping it real" section about the sibling arguments. I booked my family of 5 on Mariner of the Seas, which appears to be the same size as Adventure. I hope they like it as well as your family did! (We've only been on Disney Cruise Line so far)

The Windjammer was, well, ridiculous. I consider myself somewhat of a foodie insomuch as I love food. All the reviews I read that had a negative tilt to Windjammer had me ready to accept whatever prison like cafeteria food they were going to try to push on us. WELL well well let me tell you about my first meal of Prime rib, horseradish sauce, mashed potatoes, lentils, more fruit than I probably should have ate, and roasted veggies. Heyyyyy, don't judge. I ate last at 8 am and it was now 2. I was pretty hungry and, well, down right thrilled at the choices.

 

Remember folks, it's a buffet. There will be things you don't like. Sooooo try, try again. I'm pretty sure no one has died from starvation on a cruise. Wink wink.

 

Here is my ONE and ONLY nod to the great food debate; the desserts on the buffet. My word are they beautiful. So colorful and glossy. Strangely though, very tasteless. Even those Ranger cookies? I'll just call them the best of the worst. That way I won't lose some of you readers. Haha! Keep the faith on the desserts though, because the main dining room is coming!

I agree with you about the desserts- they LOOK fabulous but are tasteless. The exceptions are the key line tart and the chocolate souffe with the expresso sauce. The best dessert I've ever had was the birthday cake my TA arranged for me- that was sooooooo yummy!

Wonderful review, thank you!!

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Great enjoyable to read review! A couple thoughts.....ships electrical outlets for electronics are perfectly safe. As you found out, you never need to go to guest services to report you will not be making your main seating dining, however if you have reservations in a specialty restaurant you will need to cancel those. When possible, and as a courtesy, we usually inform our waitstaff during dinner the night before if we plan on missing the next night dinner service. Lastly, I cringe each time I see photos of people getting those Bahama braids....they are not known for good hygiene. The pick and combs they use are never properly cleaned prior to the next usage, I have heard of lice issues in the past.

Pre Day 1.

We drove to Bayonne, NJ the night before our departurre..

I'm coming to this late, but what part of Ohio did you drive from? We make 1 road trip cruise a year and haven't sailed from Bayone yet.

Thanks for the welcome! We will check it out for sure. Bayonne has some big ships for next year so we may be back, it’s nice to save that airfare on a family of 5, but Florida and Puerto Rico are still on our radar. Thanks for the tips!

Tampa and Port Canaveral are almost exactly 1000 miles from Central Ohio, We drive to one of them each year, we will probably try Bayone to New England/Canada some day.

I'm coming to this late, but what part of Ohio did you drive from? We make 1 road trip cruise a year and haven't sailed from Bayone yet.

We live near Akron.

We live near Akron.

Great job, I always say I can get something out of every review, but it wasn't hard with yours. We didn't start cruising till we became empty nesters, our first ship was the same class of ship back in 2006. BTW, since you are interested, this thread is a group of Buckeye Cruisers = https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1446505

Great job, I always say I can get something out of every review, but it wasn't hard with yours. We didn't start cruising till we became empty nesters, our first ship was the same class of ship back in 2006. BTW, since you are interested, this thread is a group of Buckeye Cruisers = https://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1446505

Thanks, I’ll check it out!

Hi! Just like everyone else I loved your post! I have a specific question because our son is worried about what comes after Adventure Ocean. I know, I know - first world problems. Here's his worry. He LOVES Adventure Ocean and this will be the last year he can do the organized activities because he's 11. Can you give me any ideas of what your 12 year old son did? Was there anything organized or is basically all on them to make friends. What all can they do? Thanks so much for any ideas!

Hi! Just like everyone else I loved your post! I have a specific question because our son is worried about what comes after Adventure Ocean. I know, I know - first world problems. Here's his worry. He LOVES Adventure Ocean and this will be the last year he can do the organized activities because he's 11. Can you give me any ideas of what your 12 year old son did? Was there anything organized or is basically all on them to make friends. What all can they do? Thanks so much for any ideas!

LOTS of activities! Some as simple as dedicated times for teens only to be at the ice rink, or flowrider. They had many games they would play and had a few dance parties. Like everything else he would want to do some and then skip others. Usually he really enjoyed the evening activities, especially once he made a few friends. They had a “who dunnit” type of mystery game one day and both of my boys really enjoyed that. Some games where physical and sometimes it was video games. I’ll look for the teen schedule and post a picture in just a minute!