Adventure Southern Caribbean Adventure April 19, 2015

[Familygoboston]

Have you seen any comedy acts? Do they have them on the ship?

 

Three was a comedian the first night at the welcome aboard show, and one scheduled for late night comedy on the last night. The other headliners were a frank Sinatra and Judy Garland show(which we skipped), and re Voiced the a Capella group. (Which we liked ! )

Edited April 25, 2015 by Familygoboston

[micmacmissy]

 

The show tonight was Invitation To Dance, and we took Ocean Boys advice and gave it a pass! ;)

 

Good call. That show is TERRIBLE!

 

Loving your review! Thanks for taking the time to do it live! :)

[Familygoboston]

We arrived in St Croix this morning, another perfect day, but a little cooler than Antigua and St Martin!

We are off to go kayaking this AM, since we didn't prearrange our taxi, I'm concerned that some may not want to go 30 minutes away to cane bay where the tour starts...hopefully, they are used to going long distances and don't balk at a long can ride! ;)

 

I did post some photos from St Lucia on our website last night. Today is another water camera day, so photos form Barbados ,St Martin, and today will have to wait till I return home. We have a 9:45 departure time, so we don't have to rush out tomorrow. Can't believe this great week together is coming to an end! :(

[Ocean Boy]

 

The show tonight was Invitation To Dance, and we took Ocean Boys advice and gave it a pass! ;)

 

 

How good to know that it is alive and well.:rolleyes::rolleyes::eek::eek::rolleyes:

[cruiseapril]

Great review. Great info. Enjoy the port reviews.

 

Questions?

 

Perhaps you said- wondering where the turtle swim is in Barbados? Where do you start?

 

What is your opinion of St. John's? It gets such mixed reviews. Thanks.

[happyiam]

Wow, I almost missed the boat with your latest review! Glad to catch up (I feel like one of the runners.) :) Sounds like another great cruise for you. I am also enjoying your new blog. I always learn something new from you. Pictures are beautiful. Safe trip home.

[Familygoboston]

Happy Jam- no- you've just made it before the wahhhn, wahhhhn! ;) It's lacking night, and tomorrow we disembark:( this is my first time LIVE posting and it's been fun, and with the new internet (and doing photos only on Twitter and my blog which is much faster) it's not the time killer I expected (after all, this is still suppossed to be a vacation :p )

 

Thanks Cruise April- the turtles can be seen on the RCL turtle catamaran excursion, or you can contact one of the private boats. We used Calabaza, I'll try to post a link to all my tours when I get home, but she's easily found if you google calabaza and Barbados. They pick you up at the pier 1 (a bus stop) right outside the pier building and walk or drive ou to the cat just a few seconds away. She explains all in her welcome emails, plus you'll get an email after your trip with recipes to everything she served and a link to photos her guides take through out the day!

[Familygoboston]

Today we arrived in sunny St Croix. Columbus also arrived (and wrecked his havoc) in St Croix (then it was Spanish Santa Cruz). We kayaked in the very harbor where he sailed into the heart of native settlements with 17 ships! Can you imagine, never having seen a sail or a piece of metal and suddenly you are faced with 17 ships filled with both!:eek: This is the scene set for us by our tour guide Brian of Virgin Kayak in Cane bay ($50 pp). We took a cab over to Cane Bay ($18 pp rt, very trustworthy as they give you a plastic boarding pass for the day and they return right on time to bring you back!) where there is also a beach, beach bar/restaurant, dive shop and that's about it!

 

After a short drive to the put in spot, we peddle kayaked (it really is less energy and easier for beginners to do this, but we all agreed we felt naked without the paddle. DH LOVED this because both hands were free for photos! ) all around the harbor and the famous bioluminescent bay (yup, this little glowing creatures were in there, but darned if we could see them lighting up in broad daylight!) The day on the water was made amazing by Brian's evangelism for this struggling little National Park was clear, and we learned so much about th ecosystem, flora fauna and history of St Croix. It was more than a little thrilling to literally be plying the same waters as the natives and later Columbus in our little boats! We had a grand total of 7 of us on the tour with Brian and it was spectacular!

 

We returned to Fredrikstaad, and had just enough time to do a walk about town for photos and to see what was what. It was refreshingly devoid of giant diamond stores, and the colonial architecture was very pretty as was the sea side walkway installed along the harbor.

 

We had a late lunch at 4 in the windjammer, and are presently doing the dreaded four letter P word in anticipation of having bags in the hall tonight (always the very worst part of the cruise!)

 

Lest you think that what we've posted so far is all we have to say about this cruise, rest assured, there was lots I've had to leave out, like why security had to face check my DD in the shower:eek: We need to know exactly how many pairs of glasses were sacrificed during this trip (I can't yet report, we might find at least one, and I'm not ruling out losing another before we touch down in Boston:rolleyes:)

 

And of course PICTURES! Lots and lots of pictures to come!

 

Thanks for cruising along with us! Since the internet stops at 8 AM it's unliekly there will be another live post, but we will be back soon! Thanks for following along on the Adventure adventure (why, oh why must I do that?)

[Ocean Boy]

Thanks for cruising along with us! Since the internet stops at 8 AM it's unliekly there will be another live post, but we will be back soon! Thanks for following along on the Adventure adventure (why, oh why must I do that?)

 

Thanks for taking us along with you! Have a safe trip home.

[trouble1964]

Great review. Great info. Enjoy the port reviews.

 

Questions?

 

Perhaps you said- wondering where the turtle swim is in Barbados? Where do you start?

 

What is your opinion of St. John's? It gets such mixed reviews. Thanks.

 

 

Hijack---we used Calypso cruises, as Calabaza was booked up. I would recommend them in a heartbeat! They picked us up outside the cruise terminal and took us to the dock. It was $100 for adults and everything included. A premium bar (no cheapo watered down stuff), great food, great crew. They have a page on F book and reviews on Trip Advisor.

[Familygoboston]

And are we home yet? Have we had a reunion with the cute pooch on page one? Oh no we have not! I'll spare the details cause we lived through it and it bores me, I'm certain it would bore you! We are hoping to be home tonight, but I'm not holding out much hope! :( even though we are here and seated on an actual plane, a bunch of people are stuck in customs who are supposed to be here, so who knows if we will wait for them or not.

Anyway, it will be a several days before DH can get to photos, I'll start writing so the review can go up quickly once we start, but losing one more day in an already crazy weekend isn't good!

 

In general for those of you traveling soon:

-Adventure is on good working condition though an occasional piece if upholstery might look worn or stained, it's nothing that detracts from the look and feel of the ship.

-the crew is as advertised, generally positive and friendly. I feel this reflects the top down management and this ship sea like a well cared for bunch who want to succeed for their managers!

-the cd was Bobby from Scotland and he was very traditional, but very smooth! Tino his activities manager was hysterical and they are a great one two straight man/joker combo.

The rest of the activities staff is super high energy and super inclusive!! Eric (from Mexico) saw my DH struggling to figure out the dance in Latin night by the pool and he grabbed our hands and led a tutorial and made us feel like the cool ( very pale) kids even if the others were laughing at us ( just a little)

-the food was excellent overall. Really when u have the same menus, you can compare ship to ship, and adventures was some of the best, in our opinion.

- WJ always had a table even on the busiest days, staff cleared quickly and almost always got drinks. We had an overall excellent experience there!

 

More later we are pushing off!!

[Familygoboston]

Well, 36 hours after disembarking AOS, the airline finally managed to complete our 6 hour air journey in the same time zone...the condition of US air travel could not be worse (but I shouldn't cahllenge it, because I'm not confident that's even true:(! Our furry old girl was very happy to see us!

 

A few other thoughts on Adventure:

 

-Before we left we heard that people were inquiring about the condition of the bedding, and we did find it very very tired! Of course we also sleep at home in a bed built like a case for a fine Swiss watch; we are completely encased in memory foam! So after the first night on the bed, which was very hard due to the cushioning being condensed over time, we did have our cabin attendant bring the eggcrate topper, and the bed was much better after that! The pillows had also lost most of their "loft" so we asked for extras.

 

-Johnny Rockets was offering a special while we were on board. There was a card that you get checked off for each meal it reads; "Enjoy 3 meals and get the 4th meal is on us. When completing the 4th meal you can win a free dinner for 2 persons in Giovanni's on Day 7"

 

-Pool towels were offered without swiping a sea pass at the pool deck, but the attendants handing them out at the gangway or shore excursion meeting points in each port WERE scanning sea passes for towels taken out and scanning again when you bring the used ones back. "We want to make sure the beaches...our guests visit stay as clean as when we first arrive..."

 

Ok, have to get back to laundry...maybe we could use some groceries, but will have more later!

[ckelly14]

Glad you made it home safely!

 

Can you comment on the level of smoking/smell of smoke on this cruise? Not sure about smoking habits of PR guests compared to mainland U.S. population. Was smoking or smoke smell intrusive? My wife is like a blood hound for smelling smoke; not sure if I would cancel our cruise because of it, but I am also considering celebrity for this exact issue...

[Ocean Boy]

And are we home yet? Have we had a reunion with the cute pooch on page one? Oh no we have not! I'll spare the details cause we lived through it and it bores me, I'm certain it would bore you! We are hoping to be home tonight, but I'm not holding out much hope! .

 

Looking forward to the story.:confused:

 

Heading to Boston Saturday. I need some time in the North End with the paesani.:)

[Familygoboston]

Glad you made it home safely!

 

Can you comment on the level of smoking/smell of smoke on this cruise? Not sure about smoking habits of PR guests compared to mainland U.S. population. Was smoking or smoke smell intrusive? My wife is like a blood hound for smelling smoke; not sure if I would cancel our cruise because of it, but I am also considering celebrity for this exact issue...

 

I just wrote a quicky review on All Things Adventure about this!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=46399844#post46399844

 

General conclusion, it's much better than it was on this class, when there was smoking in several Promenade bars on on the outdoor promenade. We found almost every passenger complying with the rules and with the exception of walking on the starboard pool deck (walk on the port side) or Casino or Schooner Bar (where the smoke wafted from the casino) it was really smoke free. There was a guy smoking on his balcony (very rarely) so we didn't drop a dime, but I'm sure if we had complained, that would have been stopped. Avoid the casino by going up to the Royal Promenade on deck 5 to get from the aft to the bow (or back) of deck 4 and using the Centrum (glass) stairs. If your wife likes trivia or karaoke/sinalongs, these are held in the Schooner bar and I found it intolerable, so I'm sure anyone sensitive would...we even noticed that the singer there, his voice was pretty much shot by the last night!:(

 

Looking forward to the story.:confused:

 

Heading to Boston Saturday. I need some time in the North End with the paesani.:)

Sounds great! Have a canoli for me! Next week I will start a full day by day review and post Cruise Compasses and a ships tour on our website!

Edited April 28, 2015 by Familygoboston

[Krittie67]

woohoo! Can't wait to read your review - I have a year to wait but I am getting excited for my first Royal Caribbean cruise!

[Mamacane71]

What a wonderful trip! Went to your blog. Super! Thanks for sharing!

[Familygoboston]

woohoo! Can't wait to read your review - I have a year to wait but I am getting excited for my first Royal Caribbean cruise!

First Cruise!! yeah!!

 

What a wonderful trip! Went to your blog. Super! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks for the kind words!! I just posted Antigua which I had hoped to do on board, but ran out of time because I was having too much fun! :p I still have the "water camera days" Barbados and St Martin to post once we get those photos off of the water camera, and loads of ships photos too!

 

Here is the latest post on Anitgua:

http://www.goseeittravel.com/travel-blog/2015/4/28/antigua-its-all-about-that-boat-with-apologies-to-meghan-trainor-aboard-adventure-of-the-seas

[Familygoboston]

Started posting the photo review today...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=46523687&posted=1#post46523687

 

Also, if you are looking for the Cruise Compasses:

 

http://www.goseeittravel.com/adventure-compass-southern-b

 

See you all on the other side :D