Adventure of the Seas review - July 2013

[gillyd42]

Apologies for posting this weeks after the event - i am sure you all appreciate having good intentions to doing a review. Well here is mine (in installments)

We are a family of 4 from Scotland, with two teenage boys who were so excited for this holiday. Having cruised previously on the Grandeur this was deemed a real “ adventure” due to the size of the ship and the length of the cruise.

We travelled from Edinburgh to Southampton the day before the cruise began. Left at 7.30am to get a head start before traffic built up, had 3 short stops to change drivers and arrived at the Hotel in Southampton at 3.30pm – not bad going. Only down side was the heat, it got to 28’ the further south we got, and it was quite uncomfortable for a while.

Novotel in Southampton was nice, reasonable sized room for the four of us with air conditioning and a tv so we could catch the rest of the Wimbeldon finals. After a rest we took a walk out of the hotel over to the shops to buy a few things we still needed to get. We then took a walk up to the Mayflower Park which had nice views of the docks etc., when we arrived in Southampton there were a couple of cruise ships in and we heard them leaving, when they sounded their horns. It was still really warm and we were getting hungry so headed over to Frankie & Benny’s for dinner which was nice although they had ran out of 2 of our favourite starters.

Back to the hotel about 9ish and fell into bed, we were so excited about the next day, because we were so tired from the journey we easily fell asleep.

We woke early, after 7 and got dressed and organised and headed down to breakfast around 8.30, the breakfast room was busy with a lot of other cruisers (4 ships in total leaving this morning). To be honest we were so excited we couldn’t eat much. The plan had been to go to the shopping mall and waste some time there before boarding the ship too early, but I am sure as you know cruisers out there no, you cant wait any longer and want to get on board.

So we left hotel at 10.15am and headed to the cruise terminal parking area, which wasn’t too busy and easy to use. There were RCI staff in the car park along with a van to collect our luggage, which was a god send, having four huge pieces of luggage, the up side of driving to the ship, I always tend to take too much on holiday and this one was no exception.

We walked to the cruise terminal, there were no queues and give a sticker to represent our “gold” status and told to go through a specific lane, to be honest made no difference as there wasn’t many people around. Went straight to check in and got all our paperwork etc. As we stood here it was announced that boarding was not taking place. So at least we didn’t have to wait around. After the obligatory photo we walked up the ramps to the deck four boarding area. We were on the ship by 11am. WOW

No matter how much research you do or review other people’s photos and video clips, I am always overwhelmed by how nice the ships are and the Adventure was no exception. Climbing the stairs to the Royal Promenade blew us all away – I cant tell you how excited I was feeling. Naturally we just wanted to explore but thought we would take advantage of a few minutes rest and a coffee in the quiet Café Promenade – I really enjoyed the coffee here and this was the first cruise that I didn’t buy any of the premium coffees.

Youngest son took off to explore the Royal Promenade and came back to report in about everything they had on this deck and had we finished our drinks yet!

So off we went deck by deck working our way up from the RP, dining room to the sun deck areas. We found the sports deck and played table tennis for a while, then the boys played basketball. This was a really special time on the ship as it wasn’t too busy and we could really take in everything around us. I did feel a little overwhelmed at how big this ship was and was constantly getting lost, couldn’t even work out if I was at the front/back at times, not to mention what direction I was travelling in – this was very amusing to the kids.

I headed back to guest services to see if I could book a bridge tour. Thanks to fellow C.C’ers I took your advice to book on the first day rather than wait on it being advertised in the compass. So a lovely lady got us all booked in, we were the first on the list. Will give more details of the tour later on.

So after that up the WJ for lunch and again down to some tips from this website went straight to the back to the island grill area and got a seat right away. I have to say we really enjoyed all the food we had on this cruise and the quality and variety in the WJ. I know a lot of people have had some complaints but to be honest I couldn’t pick fault once. Even when it was busy the staff were so helpful in getting you a table for your family. The staff on the Adventure were so nice and friendly, exceptional service. Loved the “no washy washy, no yummy yummy” greeter at the door of the WJ and the lady with the amazing smile and personality who always had a different hair garment everyday – her laugh and smile was so infectious. I heard from people later in the cruise who had her as a MDR waiter that she was so much fun and made their dining experience one of the best. I digress…..

So lunch (sorry no food photos, never lasted long enough to get photos) was really nice. Left here and headed back on our tour of the ship working our way down, out onto deck four and up to the heli pad which was an amazing place to sit. We headed back to CP for more coffees and cookies!

It was announced at 1.40pm that our cabins were ready, so cups away and off we headed to deck nine. I waited for the lift with youngest son and hubby and eldest climbed the stairs, needless to say they got there first and just headed in. I always like us to go in together so we can all say WOW together and get that first impression.

Our cupcakes had been delivered, which were immediately devoured by the men in my life. The Junior suite was really nice and much bigger than the one we had on Grandeur. Couldn’t believe the size of the walk in wardrobe – it was amazing – room for all our clothes, my shoes and all four of the suitcases and you could still stand in it – WOW.

Loved the balcony, plenty of room for us all to sit out. I should also point out that 3 of our 4 suitcases had already turned up at this point – WOW – so I started to unpack, while the men put the tennis on the telly – Andy Murray was playing the Wimbledon final and we really wanted to watch it. My sons left us about 2.30 to go and explore, they had made arrangements to meet up with someone who they met on the cruise last year, and would come back just before the muster drill.

Room service came to deliver our fruit bowl, champagne and choccy strawberries, which we loved.

Met our cabin steward Ronnie who was lovely and asked if we could get a deck chair (the ones you get at the pool) for our balcony. Unfortunately he didn’t quite understand our request so brought his supervisor along. He said that usually they don’t allow you to have these, but I explained there were four of us and could benefit from another chair and that it would help with hubbys back. Later that night said chair was out on the balcony WOW

So off we went to muster drill which luckily didn’t take too long, as a lot of people wanted to get back to see the tennis final! So back to our room, ready for sailaway – we decided to stay in our cabin for this and open out champagne and see the end of the tennis. Pretty special sailing down the Solent, sipping champagne and toasting Murrays’ win.

We all got changed for dinner and headed to the MDR, we had chosen my time dining and pre-booked each evening’s meal before we left the UK.

We had two great waiters Edi and Juan, who were very nice, always busy but had time for a little chat each night. As is said before we were really impressed with the meals we had, and the kids enjoyed the escargot (eldest, practically every night) By the end of the fortnight our head waiter couldn’t believe how many he had ate!

Highlight of tonight’ s meal was the blueberry and peach crumble – WOW

Boys headed to teen club and we had a stroll around the ship, watched the sun set and headed back to our cabin and finished the champagne – what a day!

[Koohiichan]

Nice review, so far. We sailed Adventure out of San Juan this past Feb. and loved it so much we are going again Jan. 14. Glad you had a great time.

 

Cheers,

 

Koohiichan

[onlyonetrevorfrancis]

Great review :)

 

Looking forward to more, we are on Adventure in June 2014.

[drarill]

Great review, just booked the Adventure for NYE 2014-15. :):)

[Carolynne67]

Great start to your review, can't wait for more as we are sailing on Adventure August 2014:D

Thank you for taking the time to write.

[gillyd42]

DAY TWO – At sea ( will try to work out to post photos later)

Woke early and sat out on the balcony, nice and sunny with a lovely breeze. Went down to CP to get a couple of coffees and had these out on balcony. Also picked up tickets for the ice show, these were available from 8am and RC said these go really quickly, however they still had some come 10.30am? I also understand they put on an extra show due to demand.

We all went for breakfast about 9.30 and the WJ was really busy, eventually got a table. Breakfasts were really nice with a lot of variety, considering this is en-masse cooking I was surprised by quality.

Had our meet and mingle in the Blue Moon lounge, which had been organised by Patsy (thanks Patsy) and had our gift exchange. RCI had a little buffet of canapes and cheeses, the chef certainly done a great job witht this, although there was a lot left as most people had just come from breakfast). Got a couple of RC freebies, and met the cruise director HelloClo, who was really nice, introduced herself and some of the team, throughout this cruise her energy and enjoyment of her job was clear to see.

After MM , youngest headed off to kids club so I went to look for hubby, 40 minutes later gave up, headed to cabin left a note (which was a good idea, and used for the rest of the cruise to keep tabs on each other) to say I would be out on deck 4. Wasn’t too long before he found me, he had been wandering around looking for me, this ship is so big. Many people say they use small radios to keep in touch, but to be honest sometimes its nice just getting some me time and not being “on call” for the family. Despite the ship being full I could always find a nice spot to hide away and relax.

We had all agreed to meet at a central point for lunch each day, and if you weren’t there then it was assumed that you had other plans. Lovely lunch, then went separate ways. Boys to teen club, hubby to read and get some sun and I went to the spa.

The spa was really nice with great views and lovely ladies. I had a pedicure which was really relaxing and I thought quite reasonable in price.

Met up with hubby and joined the queue for the ice cream, which I have to say was a line of 40 somethings, not a kid in sight WOW, and very tasty too.

Sat and relaxed and saw a pods of dolphins _ WOW – was I excited – I was like a big kid.

After this took advantage of the mini golf being quiet and we had a game, we were to have an ongoing competition for the rest of the holiday, with the looser having to get up first each morning to go for the coffees at CP. After 2 games of loosing I started to arrange room service for the coffee!

We also used the arcades a few times, was surprised how quiet it was. In our C&A vouchers we had some for arcade credit which we put on the kids cards, this was great for our nightly game of air hockey.

Tonight was our first formal night so we all got ready early, as I wanted to get some formal photos done. We headed up about 645pm and there was only one person in front of us. So we waited. Later that night and at the other formal nights, there queues were huge, so we were lucky – takes a lot to convince my lot to get a formal photo done, in fact I did promise hubby that would be the last (hope he doesn’t believe me)

Dinner tonight was in another station, which I wasn’t really bothered about, waiters were nice, but it took 40 minutes for them to find our wine from the previous night. In fact they didn’t find it, but found a bottle of the same make that had been opened, so we had that, by this time we were fed up and just wanted a drink – I think this could have been handled a lot better and was a bit of a dampner for our first formal night. Do you know our bottle of wine turned up one week later – go figure!

Highlight of the meal was the duck and strawberry cheesecake.

We all went to play golf after dinner which was really fun, then boys went to teen club. We were both feeling exhausted so headed back to our cabin and watched an in room movie – which was a real treat, as I never get the chance to sit down and enjoy a film. We also had vouchers for the movies too, which we used later in the cruise. These vouchers were starting to come in handy – WOW

Strange thing through the night, could hear some announcements on the ship tannoy, I did kind of panic thinking something was up – but as nothing seemed to happen I went back to sleep – not sure if this is common or not?

[gillyd42]

Nice review, so far. We sailed Adventure out of San Juan this past Feb. and loved it so much we are going again Jan. 14. Glad you had a great time.

 

Cheers,

 

Koohiichan

 

 

We really enjoyed this cruise and ship - to be honest i have to say one of my favourite holidays of all time - so relaxing. We are thinking of going back next summer too

[gillyd42]

Great review :)

 

Looking forward to more, we are on Adventure in June 2014.

 

 

You are going to love this ship, especially as it will have gone through a revitalisation and have new features.

[blueboys24]

Hi there, I know this is probably a really strange question but we are sailing on adventure in june and was wandering if the coffee you get in prom café come in a cup with a lid so hubby can go down in morning and get some for the room. we were going to buy those containers you can fill up and then keep coffee warm and also so hubby can bring back to the cabin but wont bother if we can get same sort of thing in the café thanks

[gillyd42]

Hi there, I know this is probably a really strange question but we are sailing on adventure in june and was wandering if the coffee you get in prom café come in a cup with a lid so hubby can go down in morning and get some for the room. we were going to buy those containers you can fill up and then keep coffee warm and also so hubby can bring back to the cabin but wont bother if we can get same sort of thing in the café thanks

 

yes, they did have plastic cups with lids. I tended to just use the mugs and not fill to the top.

 

Gilly

[blueboys24]

Thanks for your quick reply don't think we need to purchase those cups now at least that's more money to spend on holiday yaaaay

[CheshireCaty]

Great report. I'm sailing on AOS for the first time next May and you're getting me so excited!! :)

[Arabd]

Really enjoying your trip report. We're on adventure next year so reading with extra interest!

[Hodgy11]

Great review, just booked the Adventure for NYE 2014-15. :):)

 

Hi Drarill,

 

Yours is the first comment I have seen regarding the 2014/15 NYE Cruise. We have tentatively booked this same cruise, but since we are coming from across the other side of the earth just wanted to check that the NYE Cruise in the Caribbean is worth it?

We're planning to be in NYC fro XMas then do this cruise and a few days in Florida before heading back "Down Under". Have only done HA Cruises before, so wanted to try a different Cruise Line this time.

 

Cheers