Adventure of the Seas, Southern Caribbean, June 24th-July 1st...An installment review

[TerpsBball]

Hello,

 

My family and I just returned from a week-long cruise on theAdventure of the Seas. We left San Juanon Friday, June 24th. I’ll provide this review in installments. Here’sa little background…

 

Demographic info: We are a family 4 from Maryland. We are comprised of…me, my wife, my son (15)and my daughter (13). We are at the Diamondlevel (not bragging, just letting you know for information/review purposes).

 

The first installment will be “Pre-Cruise Planning”

 

Stay tuned….

[TerpsBball]

Pre-Cruise Planning

 

Cruise Info: We had booked a next cruise while on board ourlast cruise in November 2015. We couldn’t book as far out as June 2017 at that time, so we booked another cruise and just changed the reservation when the summer itineraries opened in the spring of 2016. For booking on board, we received a reduced deposit and a small on board credit. We had cruised the Adventure out of San Juan previously and like the islands. We like to book two adjoining inside cabins. We’ve had the corner aft before (1388), but with two teenagers, we much more prefer the two cabins. The extra bathroom, extra storage, and extra space are huge advantages. To us, these two adjoining rooms are very much like a suite. We choose rooms 9637 and 9639. We prefer to pay a little each month (dividethe remaining balance due by the number of months left to pay the balance).

 

Shore Excursions: We had visited a few of the planned stops before, so there were some excursions we already knew we wanted. Cruise Critic was also very helpful in ourresearch for the islands we had not visited previously (thank you to all who have provided so much info). We booked all of our excursions well in advance. I’ll go into more detail on those particular days.

 

Flights: Southwest comprises about 75% of the flights out of BWI. As soon as the flights opened, we booked them. We chose to fly down the day before. We had a noon, non-stop flight from BWI to San Juan (about 4 hours). We take a rental car to/from the airport. It allows us to keep our car in our garage. There are many ways to save on rental cars via coupons online, so when the math is done, you don’t spend that much more on the rental cars than you would with long-term parking. The peace of mind knowing our car is safe in our garage is worth the extra expense to us. Anyway, the price of the round trip flight was about $350 per person. I checked this frequently, and it never was cheaper than when we purchased the tickets.

 

 

Hotel: We sailed out of San Juan in January 2014 and stayed at the Embassy Suites Isla Verde. So, we opted to say there again. We made a reservation as soon as possible (about a year out). It was, with taxes, $242 for a two-bed room. I’ll detail the hotel experience in the next installment, but I will say now that we will likely not stay there again.

Next up...Travel Day

[new-to-cruising22]

following as we leave next week!!!!

[Cruise a holic]

Following- will sail on the Adventure of the Seas in 2018. Our first sailing on this class of RC ships. We really love the Oasis and Freedom class ships- not so much the Quantum class ships. We are also Diamond class members and interested in any perks we might receive.

[TerpsBball]

Travel Day

 

 

Flight: We had a noon flight out of BWI, so we left the house around 8:30. This allowed us to drop off our dog at the kennel, gas up the rental car, and make the hour-long trip to BWI in plenty of time. Not much to report about this, except the smoothies we got at Wawa (a local convenience store chain) were really good.

 

We took the rental car shuttle to BWI. We had 4 carry-on bags and 2 checked bags. We used a portable luggage scale to check the weight of our checked bags. I think we purchased this from Amazon. We take it with us, too. It takes the guesswork out of things. We had checked in 24 hours before our flight and had boarding positions between B4 and B10 (not sure of the exact numbers, but they were at the beginning of the B’s). We then got some subs at Subway (why we didn’t get them at Wawa is chalked up to a bonehead moment…Wawa subs are great and would have been MUCH cheaper than the airport Subway). The flight was on time, very smooth, and arrived 10 minutes early.

 

Baggage claim is downstairs at the San Juan airport and was pretty efficient. We moved outside to the taxi area (it wasn’t marked that well, but we knew where it was from our previous trip). There was a line, but the folks there kept it moving well. The prices are set, and you are given a slip of paper with the price on it before you get in the cab. We were headed to Zone 2 (Isla Verde). The cost with the 4 of us and our 6 bags was $24 (fees are tacked on for the airport and gas).

 

Hotel: As stated earlier, we opted to again stay at the Embassy Suites. Check-in time was at 4, and we arrived at 4:40. Our room wasn’t ready. The nice lady at the desk said she would call us. We could also check back in about 15 minutes. However, other people were receiving room keys and there was only 1 other family waiting. Hmm… But, when we checked back at 5pm, we were told our room was being worked on for maintenance. We asked if there were another room available and we told, “yes, we could put you in something else.” Why did we have to ask? So, we checked into our room…very nice and clean. We were short on towels and washcloths, however. There are 4 of us, but there were only 3 towels and 3 washcloths. So, my son called housekeeping and requested 2 more of each. We then walked to Chili’s, which is about a 10-minute walk from the hotel. There is a 24-hour supermarket next to the hotel (leave the hotel and turn right) and a Walgreen’s a short walk the other way. Chili’s was good and comparable in price to what we pay here. We then went to both the supermarket and Walgreen’s after dinner. We picked up a case of water at Walgreen’s and some drink mix (those little packets of powder to put in the water bottles) at the supermarket. The supermarket also sold beer.

 

When we got back to the hotel (about 2 hours later…7pm), we wanted to shower and get the plane stink off. But, the extra towels/washcloths had not arrived. We called housekeeping again…no luck. We called a 3rd time…no luck. So, I walked around the hall, found the cart and got what we needed myself. Interestingly, another guest was doing the same thing.

 

We watchedsome of the College World Series (congrats Gators) and went to sleep.

 

Next up…BoardingDay

Edited July 3, 2017 by TerpsBball

[lrn2cruise]

Thanks for sharing!!!! Following

[TerpsBball]

Boarding Day

 

Breakfast on the weekends at the Embassy Suites starts at 7:30. At this time, there was a line. Not a problem, as the hotel was crowded. Embassy Suites advertises the cooked to order eggs. However, with a line approximately 50 deep, there was only 1 cook. It took my wife about 45 minutes to get her omelet. My kids and I elected to go to the standard buffet line. We waited about 30 minutes. Again, we have no problem waiting our turn. But, the food was cold. Cold eggs and sausage don’t go down so well.

 

While much of the hotel was eating, I elected to see if we could check out early. We could and settled the bill ($242 for a1-night stay). We normally wouldn’t have had an issue with this, but with the late check-in, no towels, and sub-par breakfast, we decided to call Embassy Suites Customer Service when we returned home. We praised some parts of the stay, but we constructively pointed out the areas that needed work. When we checked in the first time we stayed there a few years ago, we had to wait over 2 hours for our room (past 4pm, as well). Since this happened again this year, coupled with the other stuff, we made the call. For the record, we have NEVER done this before. Customer Service was very nice about it and wasn’t happy about the experience we had.

 

Anyway, back on the morning of the 24th, the valet promptly got us a cab. He literally clapped his hands and a guy started his engine. Amazing. The cost to go to the Pan American Pier was $28. The driver was great, and we were there in about 15 minutes. We left the hotel around 9:45, as we figured e’d get ahead of other guests heading out to the ship, too.

 

Pier: We arrived at the pier easily and unloaded. We were early, but there were probably 100 others already here and more arriving. The ship was just finishing unloading. We asked the pier staff (baggage handlers, not RCCL personnel) where to go to drop our luggage. Two gentlemen didn’t speak English and two more didn’t know where Diamond and above where supposed to drop of bags. There were others asking the same question. The only info we received was the bags would be collected near the middle. My son and I took our checked bags towards the middle and met up with some other Diamond and Pinnacle members. They didn’t know where to go, either. We finally spoke with a pier worker who stated we should stay right where we were and around 10:45, our bags would be collected. So, if you are Diamond or above, when you pull up to the terminal, the place to drop off your luggage is in the center. Around 10:45 or 11:00, they did put out a sign. To be fair, we were early, but the workers have certainly done this before and should know where the locations are. Maybe RCCL could include a diagram in the cruise docs? Just a thought (I did include it in my survey). At any rate, it all was squared away within 30 minutes. We were then directed to stand in the far-left line at the right side of the terminal. This was the Suite/Pinnacle line. However, Diamonds and above were directed here. We entered the terminal and were quickly checked in. There were a few chairs (not as many as last time). Around 11:15, they were letting people on. We entered on Deck 4 and headed up theWindjammer (Deck 11).

 

Windjammer: We’ve always eaten breakfast and lunch in the Windjammer, so we are familiar with it and like it very much. This time, we thought the Windjammer really upped its game even more. There were even more selections, especially in the desert area, which is always good. We like the layout of the Windjammer on the Voyager class much better than that of the Oasis class. There is also a new handwashing area right at the entrance, which is very convenient.

 

Cabins: The cabins opened at 2pm. Ours were great, as was our Stateroom Attendant (Wendell Mack). Again, we love having double the storage and double the bathrooms. Yes, the carpet was a bit worn, but that didn’t detract from anything. The rooms were very clean and everything functioned properly. I will say the mattresses were a bit hard, but that didn’t stop us from sleeping. Our luggage arrived by about 4pm.

 

Muster Drill: Our muster station was the Dining Room. Muster Drill was at 5:30 (or maybe5:45). Dinner was 30 minutes later this night.

 

Dinner: We had a 4-seat table on deck 5 (#576, to be exact), first seating (typically 6pm). Our waiter and assistant were Francis and Pravin, respectively. Both guys were awesome, and more details will be provided in the “food” section later on.

 

Sail Away: The ship pulled out around 8:30. Leaving at that time is so nice, as San Juan is pretty all lit up.

 

Next up…St.Maarten (tomorrow, I hope. It’s my bedtime right now.)

[Taishartrueblood]

Looks great, thanks for doing this!

[Dan-P]

Great start.

 

We are on the Adventure in Sept (also flying out of BWI) and will be following along.

 

Dan.

[Clarea]

Nicely written review, excellent start.:)

[easyboy]

Well-organized review!

Following.

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

[Jenjer]

Very helpful looking at this cruise on Freedom in 2018

[TerpsBball]

Day 2, 1st Port – St.Maarten

 

We’ve been to St. Maarten a few times in the past. So, for information, I’ll let you know what we’ve done both before and on this trip. One advantage to this trip was the cruise was from Saturday to Saturday, instead of the normal Sunday to Sunday. This meant we were the only cruise ship in each port at which we stopped.

 

Previous trip, Horseback Riding: This was done during our January 2014 trip on the Adventure. We thoroughly enjoyed this excursion and would certainly do it again. We thought the horses were well-cared for and the excursion was handled well. You could buy pictures at the end, but they were expensive. The operators encouraged people to pool their money, buy one CD and then email photos back and forth. We opted not to do that, as we took photos along the way. The operators had no problem with that and that's what most people did.

 

This trip, The Race: We had read good things about this excursion and it didn’t disappoint. There were about 60 people on this excursion. You were provided with an all-day ferry pass as part of the tour, although riding the ferry wasn’t part of the race. It just allowed you to enjoy Philllipsburg at the end of the activity. Anyway, you were divided into teams of 4-6. Each team established a team name and then said why they chose that name. I won’t go into any details about the race (take the excursion!), but they were fun and provided an interesting way to learn some things about the island. One member had to do a very short swim in the ocean (from the beach to a buoy…about 25 feet out). The challenges were optional, but they were fun. At the end, you are provided with rum punch while the totals were added up. There were 13 teams in our excursion and the top 4 were separated by only a few points. We finished 8th, which we were satisfied with, as our point total (the less number of points you have, the better you finish) wasn’t too far from the top finishers.

 

After the excursion, we headed back to the ship. As aforementioned, we were the only ship on port this day. You could really tell. It was much less crowded then at other times we’ve visited. Since it was a Sunday, there were some stores not open, but most were.

 

Next up….Day3, 2nd Port – St. Kitts

[TerpsBball]

Day 3, 2nd Port – St.Kitts

 

 

This was our 2nd time in St. Kitts, and we knew we wanted to repeat the Skyline Safari Zipline. We did this in 2014 and had a blast. We booked this excursion early, because there are a limited number of spots. You must weigh at least 60 pounds and no more than 270. You are weighed when you meet the tour representatives.

 

As a general note, we prefer to take excursions first thing in the morning. This allows us the rest of the day to do whatever. We are normally early-risers, so this wasn’t a big deal for us. Each day, the ship was cleared to let passengers off by 8am. We were to meet the tour operators for this one at 8:15, I believe.

 

For this tour, you walk off the ship and head to yellow, open building at the end of the pier. This is where the tours meet, and the Zipline tour is on the left. You fill out a waiver and get weighed. You are then loaded on a nice van (with A/C) for about a 15-20 minute ride to the location. Once arrived, you can rent a locker for $3 to secure your belongings.

 

My son used his GoPro (some of the helmets had a GoPro mount and some didn’t) and my wife used her cell. Once geared up, you are loaded in the back of an open-top military truck and driven up a windy, bumpy road to the top. The first line is over 1300 feet long, and the views are breathtaking.

 

Many different ages can do this tour. When we first did it in 2014, our daughter was 11. This time, we were joined by a lovely family of a grandfather (~70) and his granddaughters (late teens). Everyone had a great time. Once the tour was over, our van driver promptly drove us back to the ship. When we did this tour in 2014, we had to wait about an hour for the ride back, so being able to return right away this time was a plus.

 

We will likely go back to St. Kitts about the Freedom in 2019 and will do this tour again.

 

Next up…Day 4, 3rd Port - Antigua

[TerpsBball]

Day 4, 3rd Port – Antigua

 

For Antigua, we chose the Eco Kayak and Snorkeling tour. We had read good things about it on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic (again, thanks to all who provide such good info). You are driven in a small bus for about 20 minutes to the start of the tour and loaded in a boat (about 20 or so people). Once you arrive at a small island, the guide takes you on an uphill hike (about 5 minutes) to the top of the hill. This hike is not required if you think it might be too difficult. The trail is well-defined, but it is quite rocky and not “improved.” The views at the top were awesome. The same grandfather (with his wife this time) and granddaughters were on the tour. The grandparents had no issue making the climb. They were such wonderful people.

 

After walking back down, you were prepared to snorkel. Masks and fins were and vests were optional. The snorkeling was magnificent. You swam among large reefs,with a lot of fish to see. After about3 0 minutes, you were loaded back into the boat to take you to the kayaking portion.

 

The kayaks were located near another small island which was plentiful with mangroves. Each kayak held 2 people. Life vests were optional, but the water was fairly shallow for most of the time. Water shoes were highly recommended in the event you happened to fallout, the guides didn’t want you to step on anything. The guide pointed out some interesting features, to include finding and passing around starfish, sea urchins, and sea cucumbers. The paddle was not too strenuous, although it was a nice workout. The water was calm and the views serene.

 

At the conclusion of the tour, you were taken back to the start, which is the home of the tour hosts. Here you were served rum punch and banana bread in there nice backyard garden.

 

We thought this was a fantastic day.

 

Ice Show: This is day I believe we saw the ice show. It was done a few times during the week, and we chose to attend the later show on this day. No tickets are required, and the doors open 30 minutes prior to show time. We went to the 9:15 show (I’m pretty sure that was the time). The skaters were great, and we really enjoyed it.

 

Next up…Day 5,4th Port – Martinque

[TerpsBball]

Day 5, 4th Port –Martinque

 

About 3 days before we left for the cruise, we received word that Martinque would be substituted for St. Lucia. We knew the dredging in St. Lucia would likely cause this to happen. We had planned to have a beach day (i.e., take no excursion) in St.Lucia anyway, so we didn’t plan on trying to book a tour in Martinque.

 

There were showers in the area this day (the only day we had rain), so we went into town early. Honestly, there wasn’t much to see here, and we were not really impressed with the stop. We walked around for a few hours and came back to the ship in time for the skies to open up. Wow, did it rain. We saw folks coming back from tours who were drenched.

 

We did speak with some folks who had taken a hiking excursion. The wife of the couple thought it was great, although her husband wasn’t a hiking fan. I guess the point is there is stuff to do.

 

Johnny Rockets: Since we knew we weren’t taking a tour, we thought this would be a good day to go to Johnny Rockets. As Diamond members, we receive buy one-get one free milkshakes. So, we split the bill between my Sea Pass and my wife’s Sea Pass. Since we last cruised, sodas were now included at Johnny Rockets. The shakes, onion rings, and burgers were great. It opened at 12, so we got in line about 15 minutes early. By about 12:30, there wasa fair wait. However, we feel this was caused by the weather. Because of the rain, no one wanted to sit outside. So,if the weather was good, there probably wouldn’t have been a line. On the Oasis class ships, Johnny Rockets serves breakfast. This is not the case on Voyager class ships.

 

Next up…Day 6, 5th Port – Barbados

[TerpsBball]

Day 6, 5th Port – Barbados

 

For Barbados, we chose Snorkeling with Turtles, Shipwrecks, and Beach. Once in the terminal (which had many nice shops), we were loaded in a very nice charter bus for about a 5-minute ride tothe dock. At the dock, we boarded the excursion boat. The crew was very nice, and the ride was about 10 minutes to the snorkel site. We were provided with masks and vests. No fins are used (so as not to hit the turtles). Vests are mandatory. Once The water was crowded with people from many tours all bunched up trying to see the turtles. There was another tour group next to us who had fins and chum, which attracted the turtles. We saw several HUGE turtles. They would swim right next to you, which was really cool. However, if that other group hadn’t been there with their chum, we likely wouldn’t have seen as many. We were then taken to 2 shipwrecks. Honestly, the snorkeling here wasn’t really impressive. After this stop, we were loaded up on the boat, served some really good rum punch, and taken to a secluded beach. The beach was awesome…very peaceful and the drinks kept flowing. We stayed here for about an hour before returning to the start of the tour.

 

Overall, we enjoyed the tour, but we probably wouldn’t take it again if we return to Barbados. The tour was just a little crowded (not our individual tour, but so many different tours were in the same small area to see the turtles).

 

Next up…Day 7 - Sea Day

[TerpsBball]

Day 7 – Sea Day

 

A nice, lazy day at sea, which was only interrupted by the necessity to start packing. There was a watch sale in the Promenade, as well as a t-shirt sale. We picked up a couple of t-shirts and some other things. Regarding the shops, there are the ones you normally see on the ships.

 

Photos: We also looked at our photos. Pictures were taken often, especially on formal nights. The lines for these backup quickly, so if you want to get a formal portrait taken, you should show up early for dinner. Someone earlier was asking about Diamond perks, and photos are one of them. My wife and I each receive 1 free 8x10 photo. There are 4 kiosks where you can view your pictures, as well as finding them on the walls. The kiosks apparently group the photos by room. For example, if either my wife or I had used our Sea Pass to have a photo taken, we could view it on the kiosk. However, one time, my daughter had used it (it was the first Sea Pass I grabbed out of my pocket to hand to the photographer), the photos only showed up if my daughter’s card was used at the kiosk. Maybe they could work it so if reservations were linked, all photos for all reservations would be shown (just a thought).

 

Packing: Yuck, but we had to do it. We do self-disembarkation, so we didn’t place our bags outside of our room. Again, our travel scale came in handy.

 

Next up….Day 8 – Leaving for home & Final thoughts

[cinesage]

Even though DW and I had to cancel our June 3 cruise on Adventure to the same ports, I've enjoyed reading your detailed review. Thank you!

[TerpsBball]

Day 8 – Leaving for home & Final thoughts

 

Disembarking: The Windjammer opened at 6am this morning( normally, it was 7). So, we ate early. People who self-disembarked were to meet on deck 2 (Conference Center) and leave at 7. Times for all luggage tag numbers were posted on the TV in the cabin and on the interactive displays around the ship. My intrepid wife noticed there was a4 0-minute gap between the self-disembarkation at 7am and the next group at 7:40. So, around 7:20, we went down to deck 1 and walked right off the ship. Customs was easy, and it took about 10-15 minutes to get through the line. By 7:45 or so, we were in a cab headed for the airport.

 

The cab fare was again preset ($27), and the ride took about 15-20 minutes. Our flight was at noon, so we had time to kill. We had checked into our flight via my wife’s phone the day before. We also printed out our boarding passes in the Diamond Lounge. We were at the end of the “A” group (A52 – A55).

 

When you get to the San Juan airport, all your luggage MUST go through US Department of Agriculture screening. They give you a sticker. If you don’t have it, you cannot check your bags or carry on your carry-ons. You can only check in bags within 4 hours of your flight. We were okay on that, so we checked our 2 bags. We are also TSA Pre-Check, which is very convenient. The San Juan airport doesn’t have a whole lot of options for food. We were in the B terminal and spent $55 on chicken sandwiches and burgers. Ouch.

 

Our flight wound up 40 minutes delayed. We also ran into weather just outside of BWI and landed late. No problem. Baggage claim at BWI has never been stellar, and it took over 30 minutes to get our bags. We then got our rental car and headed home….A GREAT VACATION.

 

Miscellaneous Comments

 

Internet: We opted not to get the internet package. Diamond perk…my wife and I each received a free 24-hour time period. We have Verizon and had coverage in San Juan. However, within a few minutes of leaving the pier, that coverage ended. We chose 2 other days on the cruise and utilized our free internet. It was very easy to set up on my wife’s phone.

 

Cabin Stuff: There is a safe in the cabin, and you can enter your own PIN. At one point during the week, our safe didn’t accept the PIN. We called Maintenance and a person was there within 10 minutes. He opened the safe, and then we reprogrammed it. Easy. We use a Belkin power strip. We bought this from Amazon after having it recommended on Cruise Critic. It’s never had an issue. It also has 2 USB connectors, which we used to charge phones. There is no clock in the cabin. There is a small clock on the phone display, but you cannot see that at night. So, you can either use your phone or a small travel alarm. We have a small travel alarm. There were plenty of hangers, and having 2 rooms doubled the amount. We usually take some plastic bags for wet stuff. Each shower had a clothes line.

 

Clothes: We try to minimize on the amount of clothes we take without shorting ourselves. We didn’t wear all of the stuff we brought, but we got it pretty close. I will say that we do not carry formal clothes. My son and I would wear nice pants and button-down or polo shirts in the dining room. My wife and daughter would wear casual dresses/pants. We don’t wear shorts ort -shirts in the dining room, but we don’t dress up formally either. It saves on a lot of suitcase space and doesn’t detract (in our opinion) from the “look” of formal night. Just our 2 cents.

 

Food: Lots of subjectivity here, but we were generally impressed with the food. To us, the Windjammer has upped its game with selections. Well done. The Dining Room menus are the same of the past few years. There are some dishes on there we really like and some we found just okay. However, we definitely did NOT have a bad meal there. Three desserts really stood out…Berry Crumble , the Strawberry Cheesecake, and an Ivory Chocolate Mousse. Wow. We could eat these every day (you can eat the cheesecake every day). Our wait staff was AWESOME. We received numerous appetizers and entrees without asking! We are also especially partial to the chilled soups.

 

Diamond Perks: Someone responded earlier about the Diamond perks. They are automatically loaded on your Sea Pass, and there is a list of them in your cabin. I don’t know all of them of the top of my head, but the ones we use are as follows:

 

· Diamond Lounge: My wife LOVES, LOVES, LOVES, the coffee machine in there. She was there every day. The lounge is located on Deck 14. Every day from 5pm-8:30, there is Happy Hour. The snacks are good and so are the drinks. We would typically go here for a few drinks before dinner. We were allowed to take the drinks with us. They are complimentary. To get in the lounge,you scan your card to unlock the door. There is also a Diamond Concierge there at certain times during the day. His name was Leroy, and he was awesome.

 

· BackstageTour: We were invited to take the Backstage Tour of Studio B (the ice show). This took place on the sea day and was very interesting. It was hosted by one of the skaters and lasted about 20 minutes.

 

· Photos: Each Diamond adult gets a free 8x10 photo

 

· Merchandise: Each Diamond adult gets 15% off RCCL merchandise (excludes sale items) once

 

· JohnnyRockets: Each Diamond adult gets buy 1-get 1 shakes (once)

 

· Internet: Each Diamond adult gets 1 free 24-hour period, or a discount of a package (I think $19.99)

 

Next Cruise Desk: We booked a next cruise while onboard. We don’t plan on going until the summer of 2019, so we make a booking for one that has been announced and will just change the reservation when the summer of 2019 itineraries are released. We got a $50 credit per room (we booked 2 rooms). My suggestion is to go here BEFORE the sea day, as it is jammed on that day.

 

Final Thoughts: I’m sure I’ll think of other things to write about, but I think this covers most of the stuff. Naturally, if anyone has any questions, don’t hesitate to ask. Sorry I don’t have photos, but my wife is the family photographer. Overall, it was a great vacation on a great ship. The quality family-time was certainly the biggest blessing.

 

:cool:

[Hopetotravel]

Thanks for the report. Our family group will be doing this cruise in Feb. 2018. Some of the group have adjoining interior cabins on deck 8, basically underneath of where you were. Can you tell me where the connecting door is and what would normally be there if there wasn't a connecting door ?

[TerpsBball]

Thanks for the report. Our family group will be doing this cruise in Feb. 2018. Some of the group have adjoining interior cabins on deck 8, basically underneath of where you were. Can you tell me where the connecting door is and what would normally be there if there wasn't a connecting door ?

 

Hello,

 

Our cabins were 9637 and 9639. If you entered cabin 9637, the bathroom was on the right and the closet on the left. Passing these, a small chair and table were on the left and the desk was on the right. The bed was straight ahead. Directly past the small chair on the right was the connecting door to 9639. Cabin 9639 was the mirror image of 9637. Guessing, I would say if the connecting door were not there, it would just be the wall, maybe with a loveseat instead of the chair?

[Husky1987]

Thank you for the great report. We're on Adventure in Sept. with the other southern itinerary and can't wait.

 

Did you find the Diamond Lounge crowded/overly crowded at times?

 

Any other areas of the ship that you thought got crowded at times that should be avoided?

[TerpsBball]

Did you find the Diamond Lounge crowded/overly crowded at times?

 

Any other areas of the ship that you thought got crowded at times that should be avoided?

 

Hello,

 

The Diamond lounge had it's largest crowd right before dinner (we were on the early seating). However, you could find a place to sit, as there is a nice outside area. We never felt it was too crowded. We typically saw the same people in there each day. You can also get 3 free drinks at any bar in the ship at that time (frozen drinks excepted), so it's likely some did that. Once or twice, we went back to the lounge after dinner (around 8) and there were very few people there. The "nightly event" is from 5-8:30.

 

We really didn't find an area that was too crowded. The Promenade gets crowded when photos with the Captain are being taken, but there was never a time where we said, "Oh, we shouldn't go there" about any place on the ship. The pool deck does get crowded on the sea day, but that's any ship.

[reallyhooked]

Excellent review