Adventure of the Seas 6 Night Review 4/21/19

[Prinny11]

This will be a day by day review of my recent 6 night cruise on Adventure (4/21 – 4/28).  I will try to be as detailed as possible, without going into 10 minute increments of my daily activities.  As a long time reader on CC, I tried to be as aware as possible to be on the lookout for the most commonly asked questions on here and will try to touch on as much as possible.  I have 10 total in my group. Me and bf (36 and 45), my brother and sister in law and their 2 kids (40 and 45, 11 and 9), my parents (65 and 66), and 2 family friends (38 and 72).  As you can see, we have a broad age range so I will be covering Adventure Ocean as well as adult only activities.  We have all been on RC many times.  I will post the frequently asked questions first, so if you don’t want to read the rest then you don’t have to.

 

FAQs

There was a gluten free area in the Windjammer. Smoked salmon was available also.

Formal night on day 2 and 5. Other themed nights were 70’s and Caribbean night.

Distilled water and an extension cord for CPAP were delivered to our room by our steward.

Cruise director was Drew Devine.

Quest was night 4, Silent Disco was night 2, Love and Marriage was night 3. There was also a 70’s party and a White Night party.

Everyone in my group had the Deluxe Beverage Package. Never got charged extra for any of the alcoholic drinks anyone had which included regular mixed drinks, frozen drinks, shots, a variety of wines, martinis, Johnny Rockets milkshakes, and even Johnnie Walker on the rocks.

We were at terminal 29.

Balcony room 9340 had the bed by the balcony.  The interior rooms that connected only had a chair in the room, whereas the regular interior room had a loveseat.

Never saw a drink card on this cruise, but it was only a 6 night so I don’t know if that had an impact.  Drink packages and specialty restaurants were pushed hard the first 2 days.

I did not have the Key, I did not stay in a suite, and I am not a Diamond member, so I have no information on any of those aspects.

 

Pre cruise:

The cruise left on a Sunday and with this being a shorter cruise at 6 nights, we decided to extend our vacation a little bit and head to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday. We flew in Thursday evening and rented a 5 bedroom house through VRBO for the days leading up to the cruise. Friday and Saturday were spent around the pool at the house and it was the perfect way to kick off the vacation.

 

Embarkation day:

We arranged for a private van to pick us up at the house at 9:30am.  It was about a 15 minute ride from the house to the port.  After we were unloaded, we got in the security line at 9:57am.  We were through security and checked in by 10:10am.  Boarding had not started yet, so we were seated in the lowly Platinum section and waited.  At 10:30 boarding began.  Suites, Pinnacles, and the people that had the Key were called first, then D and D+, then Emerald, Platinum and Gold, then everyone else.  We were on the ship at 10:41am.  Since none of the lunch venues were open yet, we made our way to the pub for a drink.  We all had the deluxe drink package which we bought about 3-4 months ahead of time at $44/day.  For all of us, it was no issue whatsoever in reaching the break even point.  Most of us (myself included) made out like bandits. Around 11:30 we made our way to the Windjammer for lunch.  I’m not much of a buffet person, but I had more than enough food to choose from.  The fried chicken was great!  Rooms were ready right at 1pm, so after the initial rush died out, we made our way there.  Bf and I had an interior (I have motion issues and looking at the water while the ship is moving is a problem, so a balcony is wasted on me).  My brother and his kids both had interiors with a connecting door.  My parents had a balcony directly across the hall from us, and the other two had a balcony about 20 cabins down the hall.  Rooms 9345, 9343, 9341, 9340, 9278.  My room steward was Kim Adame and he was excellent.  Bf has a CPAP and Kim brought him a gallon of distilled water and an extension cord since there were no outlets near the bed.  The other rooms near us had Emma and had nothing but good things to say about her.  About half the luggage was already in our rooms, and the other half was just down the hall in the crew service area, so we just grabbed them and took them to our rooms ourselves.  We all agreed to part ways and meet up again at dinner. 

 

After unpacking, bf and I went to check on our table for dinner.  I had emailed the dining department about 2 weeks before the cruise to get us a table for 10 for the main seating.  I received a confirmation back about 2 days later with our table number.  We had a great table against a dividing wall and next to the windows.  I have to sit with my back to the water, but everyone else enjoyed the view we had.  We roamed around the ship and sampled drinks from different bars until it was time to get ready for dinner.

 

My sister in law had taken the kids to get registered for Adventure Ocean and said it was disorganized chaos.  We knew there would be a lot of kids on this sailing since it was Easter/Spring Break, but she said it was like the people running it had never seen kids before.  People standing all over the place, no line, no organization.   We have been on many RC cruises and she said none of them were even close to being as disorganized as this was.

 

We all met back up at main dinner seating which was at 5:30pm.  Our waiter was Santana from India, and assistant waiter was Romnick from the Philippines. The first night was a little rough getting going.  We could tell that these two hadn’t worked together before, and a short while later Santana informed us that this was his first sailing on this ship. It was the start of his third contract and he was previously on Freedom. I have no idea what everyone ate and I have no pictures of our food or the menu, but the menu was identical to the menus that have been posted all over these boards recently.

 

After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show which consisted of the cruise director, Drew Devine, comedian Sam – Frede? Freele? (don’t remember his last name), featured ball room couple Michele and I don’t remember the girl’s name from Italy, and the rest of the singers and dancers.  It was pretty short, about 25 minutes.  We hit up the pub before returning to the theater for the late night adult comedy with Sam.  He was ok.  A couple funny bits, but nothing hilarious. We had a night cap and then called it quits.

 

To be continued...

 

[Prinny11]

DAY 2 – AT SEA

I am a sun worshipper and I used to be one of those people that got up at 6:30am to get a perfect spot by the pool.  Not anymore.  I slept in and rolled out of my room around 10am. During our wanderings the day before, I found a great sundeck all the way forward that I didn’t think would be crowded since it was so far from a pool.  Chairs were plentiful and I sat there with my book for about 2 hours.  Bf is not the lay in the sun type, so he went to lose money in the casino.  I’m not really a breakfast eater so by noonish I was getting hungry. I decided to take a walk and try to find some of my family.  I found my brother and the kids at the main pool.  He told me he was there around 8:30am and was still able to find 2 chairs in the shade.  He said everything around the pool was occupied.  Either with bodies or towels.  I’m sure all the people were just in the windjammer or something. 😂😂 I moved on and found my parents in the solarium.  Reporting an arrival time of approximately 9:10am, they were able to grab 2 chairs in the shade.  The solarium was jammed, as was the pool, which was salt water.  And cold!

 

My mother and I went to lunch in MDR.  We both got salads from the salad bar and it was very good.  I then got the preposterous idea that I should try the flowrider.  I don’t know why I never felt this urge on any of the previous ships I have been on with a flowrider, but whatevs. It was a very long line (as to be expected on the first sea day in the middle of the afternoon).  It didn’t go well.  There is video and pictures, neither of which I will be sharing.  I went back to lay in the sun for the rest of the afternoon until it was time to get ready for dinner.

 

My sister in law took the kids ice skating.  She reported the line being very long and people being turned away.  Long pants and socks were necessary, and they also make everyone wear a helmet.  Kids under the age of 13 needed a parent or guardian present.  The adult did not need to be skating, but they had to be there.

 

It was the first formal night.  The dress ranged from shorts and flip flops to gowns and tuxes.  In my group, the women wore short dresses, the guys dress pants and a button down shirt.  That’s about as formal as we get.  I will say there were a lot more people dressed up than I have seen on previous formal nights the past few years.   Dinner was in MDR again and I have no idea what anyone ate, but everyone was satisfied.  Menus again were identical to those recently posted.

 

After dinner, we went to the show which was Invitation to Dance.  Nothing spectacular.  On par with the non-Broadway production shows that are on older RC ships.  Very talented singers and dancers.  We overheard someone raving about Perry Grant in the Schooner bar, so after the show we went there.  His schtick was funny for about 45 minutes, but it gets redundant after that.  Especially since he doesn’t play anything that was written after 1960 and Judy Garland was long dead before I was even born.  Also, we ran into him in the port at Costa Maya, and he wasn’t overly friendly.   I don’t remember what we did after Schooner, but I imagine it was a bar.

[Prinny11]

DAY 3 – GRAND CAYMAN

 

Against my better judgement, we booked an excursion through the ship for this port.  For me, ship excursions are overpriced, crowded, and take way longer than they should because they jam so many people into them.  We did the Sea Turtle, Stingray, and Island tour.  It was supposed to be 9am-1pm.  Last tender was 2:45pm and the ship was leaving at 3:30pm.  I hate tendering, its annoying.  We arrived at the pier right at 8:45am, which is the meeting time that was on our tickets.  As soon as I walked up, I was immediately reminded of why I hate ship excursions.  Mobs of people huddled around the sign that designated their particular excursion.  After about 45 minutes, a guy finally walked over and grabbed our sign and led our group over to a bunch of busses.  He put about 20 of us on a bus and our guide Trevor introduced himself.  We went to the sea turtle farm first, which was very nice.  I knew the turtles were large, but I wasn’t expecting them to be quite that large.  I guess because it was my first time ever seeing them in person. We walked around for a bit, held some much smaller turtles, went to the hatchery, and the gift shop.  We stayed there about 30 minutes and then moved on to the Tortuga rum factory, although all we did was go in the store because that is all we had time for.  The fresh cakes were delicious, but none of us bought anything.  We were whisked away after 10 minutes and made our obligatory stop in Hell.  I feel like this could be so much more profitable, especially the gift shop, if it was better organized and maintained.  Seems like such a wasted opportunity. 😈

 

After our 15 minute stop in Hell, we made our way to the dock where we would catch the boat to take us to Stingray City.  For those that don’t know, about a 25 minute boat ride offshore, there is a sand bar where the stingrays gather.  As we approached, there were about 6 other boats carrying 50 or so people each already there.  It was a zoo.  It was windy that day so the water was kind of rough.  You couldn’t touch bottom where our boat anchored, but you only had to swim about 20 yards to get to where you could touch.  They offered snorkels, masks, and life jackets for anyone that wanted them. Our guides did an excellent job of bringing the stingrays around us.  They had a bucket of squid so everyone could feed the stingrays if they wanted, and also ran a very organized photo shoot.  Everyone was able to get individual pictures in several different poses with the stingrays.  They ended up taking 10 photos of me and the bf and all 10 pictures were $40, in digital format, which I didn’t think was bad considering the photo prices of some other excursions we have done.  We stayed there about 30-45 minutes to give everyone on our boat enough time to swim and get pictures done.  As soon as we got back to the dock, our original bus had arrived and Trevor drove us back to the pier.  We made it back to the pier around 2:20pm, which was disappointing because it left virtually no time to shop.  We wanted to leave the port area to shop, but there just wasn’t enough time.

 

Back on board, we all went to get ready for dinner which was at Chops tonight.  Our 2 previous cruises we dined at Chops and both times we were disappointed.  Not great service, cold sides, etc.. We really weren’t going to do any specialty on this trip, but Wendel from Chops twisted my arm on the first day when we were hanging in the Schooner bar and gave us an offer we couldn’t refuse.  He remembered my name every other time I saw him on the ship, and even when he saw my bf without me, he asked about me.  I can’t say enough about how great Wendel was.  Our Chops experience was completely redeemed!!  It was absolutely fantastic and none of us could possible shove in another ounce of food by the time we were done.

After dinner, we hit up the show and I have gone totally blank on what that show was.  For the life of me, I can’t remember.  Must have been super thrilling.

[Prinny11]

DAY 4 – COSTA MAYA

 

We had no excursion plans for this stop.  I have done Mayan Ruins before and didn’t really want to sit on a bus for 3 hours just to get there and back.  We had a beach day planned for the next day in Cozumel, and since I’m really the only one in my group that likes to lay in the sun, I wasn’t convincing anyone to join me to another beach.  Everyone pretty much went their own ways.  Me and bf shopped around the port briefly and then returned to the ship.  It down poured for about 20 minutes so we opted for a nap, checked out the photo gallery, got some pizza, did some trivias, then got ready for dinner. 

 

Dinner tonight was in Giovanni’s.  We did Jamie’s on Harmony last year and loved it.  I’m not a pasta person at all, so most Italian restaurants don’t really do anything for me.  I don’t want to say I was disappointed in Giovanni’s, but its just not my cup of tea.  Everyone else thought it was good, not great. 

 

There was a tribute to Adele tonight, sung by one of the vocalists on the ship.  I passed on this because I didn’t need to hear 14 songs about Adele getting dumped, but my mom and sister in law said it was good.   Then we all went to the ice show. It started out kind of slow but then picked up speed and finished very strong.  We had 1 fall and 1 near fall.  I always feel bad when the skaters fall because asking them to jump on that small of a rink is ridiculous to being with.  Good show overall.

 

After the ice show, we did a poker run. We did the Champagne bar, Schooner bar, the pub, Imperial Lounge, Sky bar, Blue Moon, then finished at Boleros. Nino in Boleros was awesome!  I wish we would have discovered him sooner because we hung with him in the evenings for the rest of the cruise.  We all put in $5.  My dad won with a straight.  We wanted to get a blackjack table with most of us but smaller ship = smaller casino and they only had 3 blackjack tables.  We were never able to get more than 2 or 3 of us together at a time.  I hate playing with people that don’t know what they’re doing so that was very short lived.

[Prinny11]

DAY 5 – COZUMEL

 

We opted for Mr. Sancho’s in Cozumel since it comes very highly recommended on CC and other internet review boards.  I don’t know if everyone’s high praises left me with unrealistic expectations, but I was disappointed.   It started with the taxi ride to get there.  We have 10 in our group.  At the taxi stand, the guy told us we could only fit 8 into one of the vans and the other 2 would have to go in a regular cab.  $34 for the van, and $17 for the cab.  Ok fine.  As everyone was getting into the van, it was discovered that this was actually a 15 passenger van.  There was plenty of room for all of us to fit, in a regular seat, with seatbelts.  We were told that for insurance reasons they can only take 8.  So you buy 15 seat vans knowing that you can only take 8 people in them???  Total BS. We were given this same song and dance on the way back and again paid $34 for the van and $17 for the regular cab.  Had I known this ahead of time, we could have rented a van for half the price and drove ourselves.

 

I was very much looking forward to laying on the beach all day, but the actual amount of space on the beach was very small.  From where the tables and chairs end to where the water starts is about a 10 foot wide strip that is at a 45 degree angle down to the water. I don’t know if it was high tide, or that’s just how it is at this time of year, but there was very little beach to be had.  The water was cloudy and it was very rocky in the water.  As for the beach club itself, the table and chairs were on top of each other and the food was not good (not that I really expected it to be).  The best thing about this place was the service.  Your drink was not even half empty and they were already around asking if you wanted another.  There is a swim up bar at the pool and we spent a lot of time there. The bartenders were excellent.  We left around 3:30pm to make it back for all aboard at 4:30.  My mother and I ventured across the street from the port to do a little shopping before heading back to the ship, but about 5 minutes in, we decided we didn’t need any trinkets or $5 tshirts. 

 

Tonight was the second formal night of the cruise and dinner was back in MDR.  It was quite windy in Cozumel so that made for a bumpy sail away.  I am fairly prone to motion and this was the first time all week that it bothered me.   It was pretty bad during dinner and I didn’t end up eating anything after my salad.  I didn’t even eat the lobster!  After dinner, I went to lay down.  Everyone else went to the show.  It was a Frankie Valli and Four Seasons tribute.  They all said the show was excellent, probably the best of the week.

[Prinny11]

DAY 6 – AT SEA, FINAL DAY OF CRUISE

 

Having not gotten the beach day I was hoping for in Cozumel, I was determined to be in the sun as much as possible on our last day.  Since I had a very early night, I was up super early.  I ventured out around 7:30am and was amazed at how many towels had already found their way to chairs around the pool.  There was a single I could have had in the sun, but I decided to go up to the sun deck at the front of the ship because I knew it would be empty.  There were a few chairs in the shade already taken, but otherwise it was wide open.  Around 9:30, Bf came around to see what I was doing.  He, my mom, brother, and our 1 friend were going to the sushi making class in Izumi at 10am.  It was $30 per person and they each made 5 rolls.  They all thought the class was great and they ended up with a ton of sushi!  They would not allow you to take leftovers, but you were able to share with anyone so the rest of us that didn’t participate sampled what they made. 

 

During their class I was wandering through the promenade shops.  The $5 Tshirt sale was starting at 10:30am.  OMG.  The table started getting set up around 10:05, with a rope around the whole table keeping people about 3 feet back from the table.  By the time 10:30 rolled around, people were 10 deep around the whole table waiting for these $5 shirts.  All these people just spent thousands for the cruise and they were throwing elbows over $5.  It was quite comical once the crew took the rope down.

 

After sushi we parted ways, agreeing to meet in the Schooner bar at 2pm for TV themed trivia.  We didn’t win, but I did get a key chain for knowing a spin off question.  Yahoo.  Dinner was in MDR and our servers threw so much food at us it was ridiculous.  We were also given a small cake for dessert celebrating RC’s 50^th birthday.  After dinner we went to the farewell show that featured comedian JR McCollum.  He was funny and we returned later on for his adults only show.

[Prinny11]

DISEMBARKATION

 

Our flight out of Fort Lauderdale was at 9:50am.  We knew a flight this early had the possibility of being an issue, but it was the only non stop flight, so we decided to take the risk.  We did self assist departure and were in the line outside the theater at 6:45am.  They started letting people off at 7:20am and we were through the line and customs by 7:35.  We got a shuttle to the airport and were checked in there and through security by 8:10am.  Plenty of time.  Our 3 hour flight was on time and I was home doing laundry by 1:30pm.  Way better than waiting for a later flight “just in case”. 

 

That's all I have for now.  I think Adventure is now moving to New Jersey for the summer, so I don't think this itinerary is being run again, but if there are any questions I would be happy to answer.  Cruise Critic has been very helpful in my planning, so I just wanted to give a brief review to hopefully help others!

 

Happy Sailing!!

 

[Missusdubbya]

Thanks for you review

[Tree_skier]

Good stuff so far.  We will be on this same cruise Dec 1 2019 so I'm looking forward to your review.

[pam_1024]

Thanks for the review!  We will also be sailing Dec 1st.  8th RC cruise but first on Voyager class ship.  Reading all the reviews I can.  

 

[KmomChicago]

Thanks for the review.  You answered a lot of questions with your thoughtful comments.  Once your brother's kids were registered in for the week at Adventure Ocean, did things go better? 

 

I appreciate the feedback on the evening entertainment, which is one of the most enjoyable aspects of cruising for my husband.  After I made him sit through the Jersey Boys movie last year, he became an instant Frankie Valli fan (he is much younger than me and had never really heard of him before the movie).  We then saw him live in Chicago last fall, which was a great experience but funny because of an audience of nearly 4,000, we were probably among the 50 youngest. I am 52 but look "maybe 40 at the most" as I am often told (seriously, I literally was carded today at the grocery store for buying a bottle of Boone's Farm and the cashier laughed when she saw my birthday, could not believe it) and he just turned 39.

 

Anyway I have seen a few mentions of this tribute show and hope it will still be aboard in August for us.  I know we would love it. I also think I noticed from the schedules in some other reviews that the Welcome Aboard show is fairly early on embarkation day.  On some of our cruises it has been after 10pm which is annoyingly late for us so we will be glad to have a show we can stay awake for that first night.  We will certainly see the ice show as well and we have never seen a song and dance show on a ship that we didn't love, regardless of the theme or cheesy factor.

 

I'm with you on ship excursions. I really don't like them much. I don't like the prices, though I can live with that, but I really, really don't like the cattle call bus-packing or the time lost in processing big groups. I prefer to either walk around the town myself, arrange a private tour in advance, or rent a car and drive around to whatever we want to see, on our own schedule and without 75 of our closest friends sharing the ride.

 

Last it's good to hear about the wide range of attire on formal night.  My husband and daughter don't like sitting around in the dining room for supper or dressing up on vacation, and we are not going to upgrade our dinner options, so they are fine with the buffet and staying in their casual clothes. My mom is taking us on this next cruise and she and I may eat in the dining room certain nights but we may also purposely skip it on the formal nights.  Not like we ever go hungry on board regardless.  However I am interested in the sushi class, both for a fun activity and obviously for the grub.  I'd rather learn to make it myself than just pay for it at Izumi - go figure?? I see they have a cupcake class as well that looks fun. 

 

I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!

[GalwayGirl03]

Thanks for the review! We are also on this cruise on 12/1!