Adventure of the Seas review 3/13-3/20

[qwestcruiser]

Just got back from out 1st cruise ever on the Adventure. We were celebrating our 10 year anniversary. I'm 36 and my wife is 34. Arrived in San Juan at 1:00 p.m. Sunday. Weather was 80's and sunny. After getting our bags proceded to the holding the sign Hobbit Travel from whom we booked our trip. Free transportation to the pier where the boat was docked. About a 20 min trip. Boarded the ship at 2:00 p.m. Both Princess and the Carnival Destiny were also parked at the pier. Stood in line about 20 min to check our bags to the porter. Tipped the guy $2 and proceeded inside the boat to get our seapass card with room assignment. Brought on our carry-on with swimsuits and headed to our balcony room #9288. Nice room, bigger than I expected. I had called Royal Caribbean a week prior and had roses, champagne and chocolate cover strawberries waited in our room when we arrived. You can find the prices on the Royal Caribbean home page. About $92. Wanted to start things off special for my wife. We then headed up to the Windjammer buffet on deck 11 for lunch. There, you can by a pop card with thermal container. $48 including tip. We decided to get 1 card since the coke products where $1.50 a glass. We thought between 2 of us, we would get our monies worth. Buffet was about equivelent to an Old Country Buffet, which I like so it worked for me. Then headed to the pool. Live Caribbean band playing which made the mood festive. Ordered my $6.95 watered down pina colada and basked on the sun. Hint, get your frozen drinks on the islands. A little less money and alot more booze. Next, bought a bucket of beer. $3.48 a can including automatic gratuity. Hint, if you want cheaper beer, you can get 20 ounce taps beers at some bars for about $4. We then headed back to our room to check for the rest of our luggage which will be delivered and set next to your door. Ours didn't come until 9:15 which was sad since we wanted to make the 1st dinner at 9.p.m. that night. Probably the only lowlight of the trip though. Headed down to Cafe Promanade on deck 5 for slices of good pizza. Retired early that night because we left for the airport at 5 a.m. Hint, if at all possible, fly into your departing city a day before. Would have helped our energy level some.

Day 2 at sea:

Got up and ate at the Windjammer around 8:30 a.m and then headed to the pool around 9:30. Chairs fill fast and we had to settle for one on 2nd deck. That was ok, but you will have to jump into the pool every 45 min because the sun is hot and intense. Live band was going again. Drank pop this morning. Tried out their workout room for 1.5 hours later that day.

About 15 treadmills, 6 crosstrainers, bikes, and machine weights. Plenty of room for everyone. Got ready for our 1st formal dinner. 90% of guys were either wearing a tux or full suit. I was glad I had a dark suit. Many formal picture opportunities will available to you. We took advantage of alot of these times. Pictures are $20 for a 8x10 and you don't pay if you don't like. Had an excellent steak dinner with appetizer, salad and dessert. You won't believe the dinners. I'm talking 3-4 thousand calorie dinners. We had late seating and in the future I think it make more sense to do early seating. Alot of times my wife and I were so full we just wanted to go to our room and be done for the night at 10:30. Waiter Kamal gave us excellent service. Don't miss the dinners! After dinner, headed up to Jesters. It's a 2 story dance club. Met some people from Chicago and partied till 2 in the morning. Good times.

Day 3- Aruba

We rented a open aired jeep down the pier and to your right. $85 for the day plus I paid $15 for insurance just in case being in foreign country. Do this if you can or at the very least do a tour with jeeps. I didn't feel overwhelmed and the person gave us a map. After going to the lighthouse, follow the offroad sign and go for miles along the beach. Amazing! Headed down to Baby Beach. There is a beach shop there where you can rent snorkeling gear. $5ppp hour. We snorkeled for an hour and there were many fish. Some guy was throwing bread out so the fish were going nuts. Bring bread crackers if you can remember. Many more fish here than Trunk Bay in St. Johns, which I'll write about later. Got back to the pier around 3 and did some shopping. After dinner went to the Love&Marriage show. Very funny, a must see!

Day 4- Curacao

Shopped some more today. Ended up looking and buying a 3 stone anniversary ring for my wife at Effe. Went to some 9 stores. They offered us beer at Effe and came down about $2,000 on the ring we wanted. No tax here as well as St. Maertin. Hint, try a Polar beer. My wife and I loved them. Great tasting. Went to the Quest show tonight. Go, this show is hillarious. Trust me, you won't be disappointed!

Day 5- At Sea

Layed out and relaxed!

Day 6- St. Maertin

Took a cab $10 to Orient Beach today. Beautiful white sand and aqua water. The beach consists of about 10 beach bars with chair rental in front of them. We plunked down where the taxi dropped up off which was in the middle of the strip call Kakao bar. 2 chairs and an umbrella where $16 for the day. Waverunners $80 an hour, parasailing $50 single or $90 tandem and water trampoline $10 a day. Bottled beer $3, daquaris $6. Shopping along the beach also. There is some nudity but it's more comical than anything. It didn't offend my wife and I. Mostly just topless now and then. Best beach I've ever been on in comparison to Ft. Myers. Ft. Lauderdale, Daytona, Clearwater, etc. You can body surf in the waves. Beware, hold your sunglasses. My wife lost her in the sea. Later, we took a cab to the downtown shopping area. Stores galore and liquor is cheap. Tons of jewelry stores.

Day 7- St. Thomas

Cabs are more in St. Thomas. They don't give you any deals for having more people in your cab like St. Maertin. We decided to go to the famous Trunk Bay in St. Johns on our own. Took a cab to the ferry port, Red Hook. $8pp then got on the ferry round trip $12 and then took a cab from St. Johns port to Trunk Bay $4pp. Total cab fare spent including ferry was a whopping $60 but I guess you could spend that on a shore excursion. Trunk Bay is a protected park. $4 pp to get in and $5 pp for snorkeling gear if you want it and we did. I didn't think a beach could be better than Orient Beach but this was. The clearest bluest water you can imagine with white powder sand. Breathtaking. If your into beaches, you can't miss it. Rated top 10 in the world. The snorkeling was just ok. Not that many fish but the water is sure clear. Ferries run every hour and we caught the 1:00 one. Headed to the ship, got some lunch and went back out shopping at the pier.

 

We really enjoyed this cruise and I hope my review helps anyone who researchs as much as I do. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Dave

[ckrobyn]

Dave,

 

Thanks for the comprehensive review!

 

We are recently booked on this same cruise for Jan/06 and are very excited about the ship and the southern itinerary :)

 

Now all I have to do is wait a mere 10 months.....:eek:

[MURRAY557]

Thanks for the review. Going in August 05 and I was wondering about the names and locations of the beaches. This certainly helps. You mentioned it was so hot you had to get into the water every 45 minutes or so, I'm thinking if it's that hot now, I'm going to roast in August. Did you try Johnny Rockets? Were there any party spots on the beaches one should try to get to? I heard they stay late at one of the ports so you can hang out later in the evening there. Do you recall which port it is? Thanks in advance for the info.

[Heidict]

Ohhh, the memories. Our first cruise was also on the AOS this past December. It seems ages ago, but it was great reliving it through your review.

 

Glad you had such a wonderful time. We loved it!!:D

[rascalious]

We did mostly the same things you did. We have been on AOS the last two years - sure want to do it again soon - except the $2000 ring thing - been there, done that too! LOL! We went over our duty limit on St Martin (ring and dvd camcorder purchase). The Customs guy said we should have bought in St. Thomas where the duty limit is much higher. Still only cost us $32 in extra duty, but a hassle to divert to the Custom's office on disembarkation in Puerto Rico.

[rascalious]

Thanks for the review. Going in August 05 and I was wondering about the names and locations of the beaches. This certainly helps. You mentioned it was so hot you had to get into the water every 45 minutes or so, I'm thinking if it's that hot now, I'm going to roast in August. Did you try Johnny Rockets? Were there any party spots on the beaches one should try to get to? I heard they stay late at one of the ports so you can hang out later in the evening there. Do you recall which port it is? Thanks in advance for the info.

 

Don't know where the OP is from, but we did not find the temps unbearable. Of course, we live in west Texas, so anything below 100 degrees was alright. What is the killer is the humidity, which we are not accustomed to. We had temps in the high 80's on both our cruises - Sept. 2003 and 2004.

[Hal from Ohio]

Qwestcruiser,

 

We're sailing the week of 4/10 on the Adventure. Who is the current CD?

I think Richard Spacey just left for another ship. I'd appreciate the name of, and your opinion about the current Cruise Director. Thanks.

[qwestcruiser]

Hal, Richard Spacey was still the CD on our cruise. Didn't hear that he was leaving. We really enjoyed his humor!

[qwestcruiser]

Thanks for the review. Going in August 05 and I was wondering about the names and locations of the beaches. This certainly helps. You mentioned it was so hot you had to get into the water every 45 minutes or so, I'm thinking if it's that hot now, I'm going to roast in August. Did you try Johnny Rockets? Were there any party spots on the beaches one should try to get to? I heard they stay late at one of the ports so you can hang out later in the evening there. Do you recall which port it is? Thanks in advance for the info.[/quoteTThe beaches we did were Orient Beach in St. Maertin, about 20 min from ship and Trunk Bay beach in St. Johns. You catch ferry in St. Thomas to go there. It wasn't that it was so hot but more like the sun is intense when sitting in a lounge chair on the pool deck. 83 degrees when we were there. Tried Johnny Rockets first night since our luggage didn't arrive until 9:15 p.m. They start you off with these awesome onion rings with ranch sauce. Got to plates of those. My wife ordered a chili dog and I ordered a burger. Too full to try their malts. It's kinda greasy, so if your ok with that, I recommend it. Big party spot was not on a beach but close walk at the Aruba port. Unfortunately, since we ate at the late seating 8:30, we were too full to go there. I'm not kidding, if you plan on going there I hope you have early seating. And if you think your going to say no or less at the dinner table, good luck. We instead chose the Love&Marriage show. Try to get to the one of the ice shows as well. Very solid. If you want to party on a beach Orient Beach will work for you. About 10 little bars along the beach. About average prices.

[candyman1276]

Just got back from our cruise on the RC "Adventure". We had a great time and really enjoyed the ship and her crew. The service personal were exceptional and helped make out trip a pleasant one. The food was very good overall. but we were a little disappointed with the food in the main dining room. Lets just say there was room for improvement. My wife's biggest complaint was the coffee served throughout the ship. She loves her coffee and usually has several cups a day. The coffee was consistantly bad, whether in room service, the buffet, or the main dining room.

The ship itself was an "adventure." I think it took us three days to find everything on the ship. There was just so much to find and enjoy.

In Aruba we took a taxi to Palm Beach, a great beach for water sports. In Curacao, we mainly shopped and enjoyed the local color. We rented a jeep in St Martin and made Orient Beach our first stop. A great beach for swimming, water sports, or just people watching. After touring the island, we went to the Sunset Bar near the airport for lunch. An interesting local watering hole. We took the ferry from St Thomas to St John's and it was well worth the cost (taxi's and ferry). St John's is my idea of an island paradise. Great beaches, little development, Just beautiful.

A strong suggestion, fly to San Juan a day early and stay a day later. If at all possible avoid the San Juan airport on Saturday or Sunday. We were there on Sunday and the place was an absolute ZOO. We were also told that it was this way every weekend. Three cruise ship in port with over 3000 passengers each, not counting others who were trying to get out of San Juan.