Just back from Adventure of the Seas, 8 April 07 Cruise

[Annefran]

Hi All,

 

Just returned from our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas on Sunday. Absolutely a beautiful ship, wonderful crew, good food and wonderful weather. We had our first Junior Suite middle of the hump (9618)! We had the new bedding and new menus too. Will put together a review later this week.

 

In the mean time, if you have any specific questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them now.

 

Anne

[Leslie311]

How was your dining experience? I have read some negative reviews lately and was wondering if the new menus have improved the quality?

[jimbug]

Could you tell me if these were the menus you had on your cruise?

http://www.thepreismans.com/Freedom_menus.htm

 

Thanks!

[budgiemommy]

The menu for Portofino's was the same (we didn't have a Chops). The only menu that I can see that's changed is the Surf menu. Don't recall what it was changed to - sorry. All the others were the same I believe.

 

The only real complaint I had about the dinners was the lack of more chocolate options for dessert! The service was excellent, our dinners always arrived hot and only 1 night were some of the steaks not cooked to order (a little overcooked but not inedible). I did hear some complaints about the cod they served one night but I don't eat seafood so I can't comment on that.

 

Overall I was very impressed with the service and the food.

[jimbug]

Thanks for the quick response. :) I'm probably the only weird one who was actually looking forward to that Caribbean/surf menu...haha. Oh well!

[paggerscorvette]

Hi All,

 

Just returned from our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas on Sunday. Absolutely a beautiful ship, wonderful crew, good food and wonderful weather. We had our first Junior Suite middle of the hump (9618)! We had the new bedding and new menus too. Will put together a review later this week.

 

In the mean time, if you have any specific questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them now.

 

Anne

 

Omg, you had my room. We were on the AOS 3-25 to 4-1. Loved my room, balcony and my ship, lol. Hope you had as good a time as we did.

[Annefran]

How was your dining experience? I have read some negative reviews lately and was wondering if the new menus have improved the quality?

 

I thought the food was good majority of the cruise. The presentation was wonderful. I'm not an adventurous person when it comes to food. I don't eat seafood and there were many selections on the menu each night. I found that if you didn't like something, the waiters were very accomodating and would bring you something else. The only meal I didn't enjoy was the last night, I had the turkey and it was a little spongey. The desserts were ALL excellent.

[Annefran]

Omg, you had my room. We were on the AOS 3-25 to 4-1. Loved my room, balcony and my ship, lol. Hope you had as good a time as we did.

 

We absolutely loved our JS! On the last day, we went snooping to see what the Grand Suites and Owner Suites looked like. Most of the doors were open and we went in. Wow!!! They were awsome. Couldn't get in to see the Royal Family Suite though.

[EmJakeBubbie]

when I don't desire the menu options, I request a serving from the kid's menu - and almost never do I like the desserts (but they are always attractive), so for me it's the ice cream de jour. are the hump cabins desireable because of the xtra space on balcony (and/or) cabin? never had a hump nor a suite.

[Annefran]

Jake,

 

I would equate the room size to a regular hotel room and the balcony was very large. Plus had more privacy than a regular balcony room. As far as the "hump", my friends also had a JS and told me my room was slightly larger than theirs. So yes I would say that hump rooms have more space. Plus I could look out from my balcony and see up/down the ship because it stuck out more.

[LouMont]

Hi Anne,

Just curious if you had any of the cruise compass's for the week to get a peek at? I'm leaving May 6th on the AOS.

BTW I'm from TR...You?

 

Lou

:D

[Annefran]

Hi Anne,

Just curious if you had any of the cruise compass's for the week to get a peek at? I'm leaving May 6th on the AOS.

BTW I'm from TR...You?

 

Lou

:D

 

Sorry Lou, no I don't but I'm sure someone on CC will if you post the message. I never remember to keep the daily Compasses, lol.

 

Anne

[jimbug]

There is a fairly recent (January 2007) set of compasses posted on http://www.cruisedailies.com.

[Sandytoes]

jimbug - Thanks, for the menu and compass sites....Extremely helpful...:)

[SLH]

Hi All,

 

Just returned from our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas on Sunday. Absolutely a beautiful ship, wonderful crew, good food and wonderful weather. We had our first Junior Suite middle of the hump (9618)! We had the new bedding and new menus too. Will put together a review later this week.

 

In the mean time, if you have any specific questions just let me know and I'll try to answer them now.

 

Anne

Did you notice many young teens (13-15yr.olds) on board since this was probably after spring break? I'm thinking about next April on the AOS with my dd who will just have turned 14 before the cruise and I worry if there will be at least a few kids her age range. Also, how were the airfares to San Juan compared to Florida?

[ckrobyn]

Welcome back Anne!

So glad to hear you had a wonderful cruise :) Can't wait to hear all the details.......get that review going!

[Annefran]

Did you notice many young teens (13-15yr.olds) on board since this was probably after spring break? I'm thinking about next April on the AOS with my dd who will just have turned 14 before the cruise and I worry if there will be at least a few kids her age range. Also, how were the airfares to San Juan compared to Florida?

 

SLH, there were actually 250 13 yr olds on our ship. My daughter is also 14, turning 15 in November this year. She wanted to be with the older group, (14-17), so I signed her up to be with that group. Most her friends were 15-16 yr olds. There were a ton of kids on board. My daughter had a blast and said there were lots to do for her age group etc. I think your daughter will be OK.

[Annefran]

Welcome back Anne!

So glad to hear you had a wonderful cruise :) Can't wait to hear all the details.......get that review going!

 

Hi Robin! I was going to sit down this weekend and write out my review while doing laundry or something, lol. I will tell you we made it to the Coach Outlet store. I even ended up getting a purse. It was 50% off. Then we stopped back the next Sunday and they were having an additional 20% off. Since I had my receipt, they gave me the discount too! The cruise was wonderful, will write it all out this weekend I promise!

 

Anne

[sethinohio]

Anne- If you could give one (and only one) tip to a AOS cruiser (5/8), what would it be?

[Annefran]

Anne- If you could give one (and only one) tip to a AOS cruiser (5/8), what would it be?

 

That's really tough. There is so many great things about the ship/cruise. Issues-wise, I would check your seating when you get on the ship. We requested a large table 6-8 and were seated at a table for 2 the first night. They immediately changed us upon request and we loved (almost all) our tablemates. But that's a different story.

 

Number one tip, go with an open mind, don't sweat the small stuff and just enjoy everything that ship has to offer. That's what I did and with the exception of one glitch, I enjoyed the people, the crew, the food, the entertainment and the whole AOS experience.

[EggDropErin]

Glad to hear you had a great time. You took your cruise exactly a year from our wedding/honeymoon cruise. :D I loved Adventure and would love to go back.

[Cruiser42]

Thanks for your post! I'm trying to choose between the AOS and the Legend.

Was there anything about the AOS you werent happy with ? Thanks in advance....Lisa

[Annefran]

Thanks for your post! I'm trying to choose between the AOS and the Legend.

Was there anything about the AOS you werent happy with ? Thanks in advance....Lisa

 

To be perfectly honest, no there really wasn't anything that was bad. The one production show I went to "Velvet Rope", I left after 30 minutes because I found the music and costumes too dark for me. Other than that, the ice show and comedians were great. I wish that the Crown & Anchor society would give better gifts to returning cruisers. I have received the pleather blue frame on the last three cruises and I really don't need another one :rolleyes: .

[Annefran]

Ok I'll start my review now and see how far I get before I need to run errands. So forgive me if I don't finish it all today.

 

7 Apr - We got to San Juan around noon time. Our luggage took about 30 minutes to come out. We went outside, got a ticket and grabbed a taxi in less than 15 minutes. We stayed at the Marriott Stellaris Hotel. Absolutely a beautiful hotel with all the new renovations they just made. Unfortunately our room wouldn't be ready until 4pm. We changed into shorts, left our luggage with the porters for storage and jumped into a taxi to go to Old San Juan. My daughter wanted to go to the Coach outlet to spend her graduation money. The taxi dropped us right on there. Great prices, good selections and I even bought a purse too. Got more of a discount on it but more on that later. We chose to do a quick lunch at Wendy's,then walked around a little before heading back to the hotel about 3pm. We sat on the beach admiring the great view and soaking up the warm sun until our room was ready. The room was gorgeous, fluffy new bedding, flat screen TV and marble bathroom. We ate dinner in one of their 3 restaurants. Can get pricey but good food. We were asleep by 10pm from our long day of traveling.

 

8 Apr - We were up by 9am, ate breakfast at the hotel, grabbed a taxi to the Pier by 11:15 and were on the ship by noon! We had the whole day to explore and relax. There weren't many people on the ship just yet. We made our Spa appts, ate some lunch, I sat by the pool while my daughter ran off to the teen club to meet friends. It was a nice warm day, the waiters were already out and the band was playing music. At 3pm we went to see our cabin. This was the first time we had JS and I was anxious to see it. We had the center hump cabin. It was pretty large compared to the balcony cabins we usually book. I would say it was the equvalent size to a hotel room, walk in closet, tub in the bathroom, lots of storage space, seating area and larger private balcony. You could see up and down the ship from our balcony. At 4pm we met a few of our M&M friends by the pool bar for an hour. It was nice to finally meet everyone.

We had the early seating and had asked for a large table. Since it's just my daughter & I we always like to meet new people. To our surprise they gave us a table for 2! My daughter was immediately disappointed and so was I. We sat there the first night but my daughter had it changed for the next night. We didn't go to any shows that night. My daughter made some friends immediately and was off and running. I continued to explore the ship. I absolutely love the promendade, always my favorite place to walk, people watch and I like all the shops. Of course my first shop is jewelry. They had a pretty good selection and the prices weren't bad. But it was only the first night and I wanted to shop/compare to the other islands. After having a drink in the Promenade I headed to bed about 11pm.

 

9 Apr (Sea Day) - I was up on deck 12 to claim my lounge chair by 9:30. It wasn't very crowded at all, it got more crowded as the day went on but not unbearable. I really didn't much chair hogging at all. They had the usually Sexy Legs Men contest and for the first time, I volunteered to be a judge. I picked Mr Sexy Legs! It was actually lots of fun and a good way to end my afternoon in the warm sun. It was extremely hot that day with little wind. Back to the cabin to shower and get ready for dinner to stop at the M&M. There were quite a few people this time. Cheezy & company had trouble getting in with their flight but we were all glad they made it! Off to dinner, they seated at a table for 8 but there was only another family of 3. We hit it with them immediately, great people from WI (Todd, Laura & son Drake). My daughter & Drake were close in age so that was a plus. They were together the balance of the cruise with a group of 10 kids. We had wonderful waitstaff, Reganald and Riche', food is always good. I'm not really picky. After dinner I went to the production show. I usually like the shows but didn't like this one at all, actually left after 30 minutes. I found the music, costumes and decor depressing. I ended up going to the Promenade to browse, people watch and have a drink.

 

More to follow..........

[Terry in NJ]

Hi Anne,

Question, our family is considering this cruise for next year, departing on Easter Sunday.

Can you remember if the ship offered a Mass on Sunday? I know it departs that day, so I have no idea if they would offer a late afternoon one.

Thanks very much,

 

Terry in NJ