Cruised for the 1st time on AOS - 4/2/06

[HookLine&Sinker]

And we are hooked! For many years friends of ours have been asking us to take a cruise with them and I've always been nervous about it. Afraid I'd get sea sick (never happened), uncomfortable that I couldn't come and go as I pleased (they had to pry my fingers off the railing to get me off the ship when it was time to leave!). One night after a few glasses of wine at their daughters wedding I said yes and wish I had done it years sooner!

 

This is my first post and I'm inexperienced about posting reviews so I will just give a brief overview of our experiences and if anyone has specific questions please email me tzack@optonline.net and I will do my best to answer.

 

We flew to San Juan on Saturday, not wanting to risk missing the boat and more than willing to enjoy a little time in San Juan. We booked our hotel and transfer through RCCL and stayed at the Marriot Courtyard. I know there are many different views about booking things through the cruise line but being new to the whole process I felt more comfortable knowing that everything was taken care of. The hotel was right next to the airport, clean, small casino (our friends won $400), decent restaurant. Our transfer picked us up at 1:20, after a 15 min. ride to the dock, we got in line with pre-printed sailpass in hand and were getting our photo taken at 1:50 and in our cabin at 2:00. It could not have been easier.

 

We booked cabin #7558 w/balcony and our friends were across the hall overlooking the promanade. We found the room to be perfectly sized for 2 peo. w/plenty of closet space. One note about the balcony - just do it. Coffee in the morning, pulling into port, watching people run for the ship - worth every penny.

 

We booked our excursions thru RCCL, again I know you can save money doing it differently but for us - this worked best. Everything was perfect, if anyone wants more info about what excursions we did etc. just say so. I don't want to bore people.

 

Everyone we encountered from RCCL was top knotch. I felt special, catered to and pampered. They were funny, charming and wonderful. My husband forgot to have a pair of pants hemmed before we left, called to see if there was a tailor on board. He arranged to meet him in our cabin at 9am, measured, hemmed and returned the pants at 3pm. When he asked what the charge was the tailor said none - we gave him $15 tip as that's what it would have cost us to have them done at home. I was very impressed.

 

On another note, I am severally hearing impaired - having lost most of my hearing due to a virus about 15 yrs. ago. Without my hearing aid I can hear very little. I emailed RCCL through their special needs addy to make sure the theatre's were equiped with infrared systems. I rec'd a response that they were and a HOH kit would be installed in my room. I travel quite a bit for work and was not really sure what this was. We stopped at Guest Relations to inquire and they said that someone would be right up to install it. They installed a TTY phone, an special smoke detector that flashes, a magnetic doorbell that attached to my door and vibrated clapper type things that sat on the night and flashed a red light to let me know someone was at the door. The vibrating clapper things were also attached to the phone so if I called for a wake up call I could put them under my pillow so they would vibrate and wake me. My husband and I were totally blown away. The 1st night we went to get the headset at GR they had some trouble understanding what we were looking for. The sound engineer for the show lent me his set that he uses to check the system. We went back after the show when we weren't so pressed for time and worked it out and every night after that they had it waiting for me.

 

Speaking of shows - the cruise director Richard Spacey was outstanding. Charming, funny, clearly loves his job and I wanted to take him home. I thought all the shows were fun, some better than others and if you are expecting Broadway you will be dispointed. If you are expecting to have a drink, some fun and relax you will enjoy them.

 

As you would expect during days at sea the pool was crowded and chairs could be scarce. I suspect the chairs are like closets in your house, no matter how many you have they are all full. Get there early or be patient some one will leave.

 

Apparently there were 500 children on our ship but I don't know were they were. I can tell you were they weren't and that was in the adult areas. I was prepared to expect the worst - it never happened. The kids I did see were so clearly having fun with there new friends from the ship and were well behaved. Maybe we just got lucky.

 

When it came time to leave we were flying on American and took advantage for $10 pp, having our boarding passes and luggage tags preprinted on the ship. They were left on our bed the last afternoon. I believe only AA and United have this service. We waited in the Sports Bar for our group to be called. We left (begrudgingly) at 8:50, walked right off, got a porter, found our luggage, dropped it off at the AA desk in the terminal and hopped in a cab. Since we didn't have to check our luggage or get boarding passes at the Airport we zipped though security at were at our gate in under 1 hour from the time we left the ship. Well worth the $20 in my opinion.

 

I'm not sure if this is the kind of info people are interested in, if not my apologies. I will close by saying we had the best vacation ever and they've got us "hook line & sinker"! We are already planning on going to Bermuda next year and the Mexian Riviera the year after that with the same friends.

 

As I read this it's not very brief - oh well.

[QuitMyDayJob]

Great review! Thanks so much! We'll be going on the AOS for the first time next month and I'm reading everything I can on this ship. Thanks for the information. It sounds like you had a wonderful time--I'm so glad! And I'm with you about the balcony--it's just great! :D

 

How was your experience in the dining room? Did you sit at a table with others that you didn't already know? Did you eat in Portofino at all?

 

Thanks again for the review!

[HookLine&Sinker]

We requested the late seating which worked great for us.

 

We sat a table for 4 so we did not meet any new folks. I believe my husband requested a small table if possible due to my hearing. He knew I would be uncomfortable with a large group of people I didn't know. I speach read but it can be hard in a large group and I often don't get things 100% accurate and it can be alittle embarassing for me :o . Friends and family are used to me but strangers can sometimes think I'm a little pecular since I sometimes answer the wrong question :) . We did eat with a group in the main dinning room for lunch one day and everyone was very nice and I could see how eating at a larger table could be quite fun for most people.

 

We did not eat at Portifino as we live in a large metropolitan area and have access to fancy restaurants frequently and didn't feel the need to go. However I've not heard of anyone who has gone that being disapointed and we did peek in and it was lovely. On a unual side note, the ladies room next to Portifinos was beautiful with a ceiling to floor view of the ocean - i just loved it.

 

You will have a wonderful time and I'm just green with envy thinking that someone else is in stateroom #7558 as we speak and it's not me!

[Daycare Provider]

:p I can't wait until April 2007 for my crusie. Everything you wrote sounds great...ho hum...

[ck1234]

Great Review, enjoyed it a lot...thanks for sharing!:)

[wolfcathorse]

who was your captain, do you remember reading who it was?

[Jeanie821]

Thank you, HookLine&Sinker! I'm sailing on Enchantment of the Seas next year, and while I myself have no special needs, there was a woman in our group last year on Carnival who needed a wheelchair, but Carnival doesn't seem to know word one about accessibility issues. She told them that she needed an accessible stateroom; while the stateroom was accessible, the bathroom was not (the doorway was too narrow to accomodate the chair). To make matters worse, when the issue was brought to the purser's attention, they did nothing to help. This poor woman was stuck having to use the public restrooms and fitness club showers! I'm now assured that RCCL does pay attention to the special needs of its clientele.

[HookLine&Sinker]

The Captain was Arnolf Remo. He seemed very nice. Though we didn't speak with him but just watching him on stage at the last show and at the last dinner he really seemed to be friendly and enjoy his job. Lots of smiling and hand shaking etc.

 

Regarding having special needs - the crew could not have been more helpful, everything was done with a smile whether it was helping us get a tailor or the assisted listening device so I could hear the show. Being our first cruise we don't have anything to compare it to but I know what excellent customer service feels like and it was spot on.

[mar915]

Glad you enjoyed my mom and son will be exactly one deck above your room and ours is next to it. Can't wait for 2 more months.

 

Mary

[WBL Cruzerz]

I agree HookLineandSinker...AOS was awesome. We got off the ship the day you got on. We were so sad to leave and we want to go back! Had a great time. Our favorite things were the Promenade (fun people watching, shopping and snacking in the cafe), the mini golf (check out the bar up above the mini golf, very cool and an excellent view, surrounded by windows). Oh, and the islands. We had never done the Southern/Eastern...loved it!. Kids (13 & 14) had a promenade room, will definitely do that again, fun to watch the parades and the action from the window seat. We had a balcony...nothin like watching the ocean go by before you go to bed at night. Can't wait to cruise again...looking at the Mariner in 2007.