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Matt & Mary's Great Adenture Review

maryjaden

By maryjaden,
in Royal Caribbean International

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maryjaden

maryjaden

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We will be boarding the Adventure of the Seas on Monday. The first sailing after dry dock. I will give you a bit of background about us. Myself, Mary and my husband, Matt. I love to cruise, Matt...not so much. But he does grudgingly sail with me occasionally.

 

We took this cruise to celebrate our 50th Birthdays. It is also the first real vacation we have taken without our children in 15 years (ages 15 & 20). So I make no promises as to how often I will post during the actual cruise, but I am going to try once a day. Also I am fairly computer illiterate, so I may not get photos up until I get home.

 

We are staying in the Royal Family Suite. I originally started in a GS, then upgraded to an OS. A few weeks ago the RFS showed up online and I called to get a price to upgrade, thinking maybe we would take another couple with us because you usually can't book it for 2. The nice lady at RCL said because it was released and close to sailing she could move us into it for nothing. So I took it. Now for 2 people, I think the OS would be better...more "living space", but it has a much smaller balcony. The RFS has a huge balcony, 2 bedrooms/bathrooms. I think it may work well for future sailing with family. Anyway, we shall see.

 

There were several planned upgrades that did not get completed during dry dock. Water slides. flow rider, Chops, Izumi, interior cabins, suite lounge to name a few and some upgrades were indefinitely postponed. I will check on these, report and get photos. For the inconvenience, we did receive a letter 2 weeks ago for a 25% FCC. I have not seen anything further from RCL.

 

So here we go.......

 

We flew into San Juan today, Saturday. It was the same price flying in today with two nights hotel as it was flying on Sunday. So I thought we would take the extra day in San Juan. We left Wisconsin at 1:00 am. It was 22 degrees....yikes!

Arrived at the Milwaukee airport at 4 am for a 5:30 flight. Short layover in Charlotte, then arrived in San Juan at 2:18 local time to a balmy 86 degrees. I am still in jeans and heavy pullover.

 

We are staying at the Sheraton OSJ. Upon check-in she greets me and says thank you for staying with us one night......I don't think so.. So after getting out my paperwork and her making faces at the computer, she said she did find the second night under my husband's name......but the room isn't ready.....yeah right. But she will give me a call in about an hour, so we went to have a drink at Senior Frogs which is conveniently located right next door. She did call promptly in an hour, we checked in and all is good in the world.

 

Originally planned on walking around OSJ tonight, but the day is catching up. Matt is snoring right now.

 

Schedule for the week:

Sunday - San Juan - Jungle Tour and Pig Roast Tour with Ellis Tours

Monday - Board the Ship - Yippee

Tuesday - At Sea (dinner at Giovanni's, was going to do Chops, but that didn't work out so well.)

Wednesday - Barbados- Atlantis Submarine Tour

Thursday - St. Lucia - Cosol Tour

Friday - St. Maarten - Bernard Tour

Saturday- disembark and fly home

Sunday - Try and rest from my vacation...lol

 

So there you have it so far. I will check in as often as I can and answer questions. I will get lots of photos, but may not get them posted until I get home. If you are looking for something specific, let me know and I will do what I can.

I apologize in advance for spelling/auto correct errors.

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maryjaden

maryjaden

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Sunday update. Awoke this morning and watched the Adventure dock. The Anthem was also docked when we came back from our tour just now.

 

We did a tour today with Ellis Tours. We went to the jungle, spent time at the Charco Azul (blue pool). It was great. We were the only ones there. As this being winter and the rainy season, the pool was more brown than blue but is was very nice and relaxing. We stopped at Guavate on the way back and stopped at a pig roast. We had the pork, yellow rice and plantains. It was all very good. Again, very few tourists and many locals. Live music with dancing. Ellis was very knowledgeable about the area, history and Puerto Rico. The tour was in a new Ford Explorer. There were four of us. Nice and comfortable. It lasted about 5 hours and was $50.00 pp.

 

I will say that whoever said that Puerto Rican's see the center line as a suggestion, they aren't kidding. Very winding road in the jungle. If you are prone to car sickness be advised.

 

Tonight we are going to wander around OSJ. Find a pina colada and have dinner.

Tomorrow we board. I inadvertently let slip that we have the Royal Family Suite to my husband. When the Adventure was docking this morning, I said "look, you can see our balcony". He looked at me and said, "We have one of those cabins?" I was going to keep it a surprise......I think I have turned him into a cruise snob, which is funny, because when we travel in the states, if it has a bed and shower he is good to go.

 

Tomorrow we board. Probably won't sleep much! I will try and post tomorrow and let you know how embarkation and first day goes.

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maryjaden

maryjaden

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Looking forward to the review and hearing about the changes since the dry dock.

 

Bob, I have a question for you. This is a logistics question. I was surprised to see Adventure docking from my hotel room window this morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan.

 

Is this the Pan Am Pier? I guess I assumed it was further away (you know what they say about assuming...)

 

Thank you.

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Coralc

Coralc

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Bob, I have a question for you. This is a logistics question. I was surprised to see Adventure docking from my hotel room window this morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan.

 

Is this the Pan Am Pier? I guess I assumed it was further away (you know what they say about assuming...)

 

Thank you.

 

Is Adventure docked right in front of your hotel? If so, that would be very unusual.

 

Adventure boards at the Pan Am pier, which would mean that there is water between you and the ship. But from Old Town, it is just around the curve of the bay to the pier.

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drarill

drarill

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Bob, I have a question for you. This is a logistics question. I was surprised to see Adventure docking from my hotel room window this morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan.

 

Is this the Pan Am Pier? I guess I assumed it was further away (you know what they say about assuming...)

 

Thank you.

 

Looking forward to your review. We are celebrating NYE on the Adventure.

The Adventure docks at the Pan American Pier. The Pier in front of you is the Old San Juan pier, it is close to the Pan American pier but not close enough.

Happy cruising!!

Edited by drarill
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maryjo881

maryjo881

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Thank you for your replies on the Pan Am Pier. Until I got here, I assumed they were farther apart. The Anthem is docked right in front of the hotel tonight. Adventure must have been backing down to the Pan Am Pier this morning.

 

Is your hotel close enough where you could walk to the pier? We were thinking about staying in Condado, but maybe we will stay closer to the pier.

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maryjo881

maryjo881

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It doesn't look that far, but when we inquired talking to several people here in Puerto Rico, we have been told that you cannot walk to pier.

 

Oh okay thanks for the response! I'm going to show DH the Ellis tours. I think that's a good way to go.

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Clarea

Clarea

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Bob, I have a question for you. This is a logistics question. I was surprised to see Adventure docking from my hotel room window this morning. We are staying at the Sheraton Old San Juan.

 

Is this the Pan Am Pier? I guess I assumed it was further away (you know what they say about assuming...)

 

Thank you.

I'm guessing that you are looking across the bay at the Pan Am pier.

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brightfeather

brightfeather

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Sunday update. Awoke this morning and watched the Adventure dock. The Anthem was also docked when we came back from our tour just now.

 

We did a tour today with Ellis Tours. We went to the jungle, spent time at the Charco Azul (blue pool). It was great. We were the only ones there. As this being winter and the rainy season, the pool was more brown than blue but is was very nice and relaxing. We stopped at Guavate on the way back and stopped at a pig roast. We had the pork, yellow rice and plantains. It was all very good. Again, very few tourists and many locals. Live music with dancing. Ellis was very knowledgeable about the area, history and Puerto Rico. The tour was in a new Ford Explorer. There were four of us. Nice and comfortable. It lasted about 5 hours and was $50.00 pp.

 

I will say that whoever said that Puerto Rican's see the center line as a suggestion, they aren't kidding. Very winding road in the jungle. If you are prone to car sickness be advised.

 

Tonight we are going to wander around OSJ. Find a pina colada and have dinner.

Tomorrow we board. I inadvertently let slip that we have the Royal Family Suite to my husband. When the Adventure was docking this morning, I said "look, you can see our balcony". He looked at me and said, "We have one of those cabins?" I was going to keep it a surprise......I think I have turned him into a cruise snob, which is funny, because when we travel in the states, if it has a bed and shower he is good to go.

 

Tomorrow we board. Probably won't sleep much! I will try and post tomorrow and let you know how embarkation and first day goes.

We are excited about being on the AOS in March -- so thank you for doing this review and I hope you have a wonderful experience this week. Thanks again,

 

Diane

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maryjaden

maryjaden

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Ok, sorry I didn't get to post yesterday. I had it mostly complete and I hit a wrong key and lost it some how.......exercise in futility (or it may have had something to do with the wine).

 

Ok embarkation day. We took a taxi to the pier at 11 am. It took about 15 minutes. We pulled up and the lines were really long. No one was collecting luggage or giving any direction. Carol went up and found the Suite line so we went to that. Then we were instructed that we had to go back in the long line and drop luggage first. We are still outside the terminal. Another RCL employee told us to stay in the Suite line. The port staff finally started taking luggage at 12:00.

 

One thing to note, there was a juggler and a clown entertaining outside the terminal. There was also water and ice cream for purchase.

 

They took our luggage, then we went in the terminal and there was one woman handing out health forms (no pens anywhere). If she had to explain the form it created quite a back up. We filled the forms out at the check in counter. All of that went smoothly and soon we had our cards in hand and headed to the Ship. All in all it actually only took about an hour, so not too bad.

 

As we heard that wonderful ding, they were also handing out free fruity cocktails. I kept waiting for someone to ask for my card. We were told rooms would be open by 2 pm. We explored the Ship a bit decided to see if we could get into our cabin. The hallway door was open so we went.

 

As I suspected, the GS or OS would be a better fit for two people than the RFS, but what an awesome balcony, table for four, two additional chairs and two lounges. The cabin was not refurbished. Furniture and carpet shows wear but the bed is comfortable. So it's possible that it is new. We have had a few bathroom issues. Lights not working, toilets not flushing or just randomly flushing. I called our room steward and this was taken care of promptly.

 

Good news for the flowrider fans, it is open and operational. The two water slides are not, but are expected to open soon. The new children's water area is also done. Suite guests were being allowed to use the diamond Lounge next to Viking Crown lounge unofficially because the Suite Lounge is not complete. I have not, mainly because we don't utilize the Concierge or suite lounge much other than to grab a drink and go.

 

I am kind of jumping around here, but after we checked out the cabin we went to the Windjammer. The food was good and hot. There was plenty of seating. After lunch we went back to the cabin. We had two suitcases, two small bags and a bag with water and soda. One large suitcase and both small bags were delivered rather quickly. Waited quite a while for the other suitcase and the bag with the contraband in it. I thought maybe I was going to be summoned to the naughty room, but it did finally show up. One of the water bottles and one of the soda cans had leaked.

 

I am going to post this now as I am starting to get messages and don't want to have to redo it. With any luck i will continue this soon.

Edited by maryjaden
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maryjaden

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Tuesday -at sea. Today was a lazy day. We did have a cocktails and appetizer reception with the officers in the Viking Crown lounge. I didn't eat too heavy today because we were having dinner at Giovanni's. Sorry I forgot to mention that the food in the MDR has been very good so far. I also heard a few other cruisers mention that RCL seems to have stepped upped the quality of the food compared to what it has been of late. Anyway, Giovanni's was excellent. I will post menus when I get home.

 

We did see the ice show this afternoon and it was excellent. The pool areas have been full most of the day, but a fun band on deck to listen to. I am posting again as I keep getting connectivity messages. Tomorrow we are in Barbados.

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drarill

drarill

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Tuesday -at sea. Today was a lazy day. We did have a cocktails and appetizer reception with the officers in the Viking Crown lounge. I didn't eat too heavy today because we were having dinner at Giovanni's. Sorry I forgot to mention that the food in the MDR has been very good so far. I also heard a few other cruisers mention that RCL seems to have stepped upped the quality of the food compared to what it has been of late. Anyway, Giovanni's was excellent. I will post menus when I get home.

 

We did see the ice show this afternoon and it was excellent. The pool areas have been full most of the day, but a fun band on deck to listen to. I am posting again as I keep getting connectivity messages. Tomorrow we are in Barbados.

 

Thanks for the update! Can you find out when is the suite lounge opening? :):) I'll appreciate the info.

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