Adventure of the Seas?

[TestingH2O]

My family is interested in a Southern Caribbean itenerary but DCL rates are a bit outrageous. Plus the timing isn't great.

Has anyone sailed the Adventure or another ship in that class? What did you like? Dislike?

Would we be better off on a larger, newer ship and just get a shorter day in San Juan?

I'd love to hear your experiences.

 

[bumbershoot]

I can't answer yet! We'll be doing that cruise on that ship this December.

We are very excited.

We liked Vision just fine, and that's an "old" and an even smaller ship than Adventure, so we aren't worried.

 

[FairestOfThemAll37]

I quite enjoyed the AotS. I was traveling as two adults in a suite so my experience may or may not help.

I prefer smaller ships and we chose this for the itinerary. The ship was very well maintained and didn't feel as old as she is. There is a very nice adult only solarium.

I've never done DCL on a Southern itinerary so I don't know if this problem is across the board or unique to Royal. Check-in at San Juan is insane! It was tolerable with the priority lines but still much more chaotic than anything I've experienced on any line out of any port!

The porters are not lined up where passengers are dropped off, instead everybody goes through one snaking line to drop off bags then get in another line for security/check-in.

We went late thinking we'd avoid the crowd and our mouths fell open when we saw the line haha.

We did have a great time and booked another Southern onboard though we will be on the Jewel this fall.

If you have any specific questions, I'll do my best to answer on memory. I sailed last November.

 

[Laz]

We have left from San Juan on numerous occasions. We fly in the day before and get to the port early on departure day. There are no lines and no problems.

 

[ldo]

AOS would be a fine ship. I went on Navigator in March. AOS will have a center enclosed promenade with shops and piza parlor area, good pool deck area, adults only solarium area with 2 hot tubs, multi level dining room, large buffet area (also open for dinner). Ice skating rink will also have an ice show. Rock climbing wall and putt-putt. It has more than the Vision/Radiance class, not quite as much as Freedom (no flow rider), and less than newer ships. We liked Nav. fine. We esp. liked the promenade and the pizza parlor.
dislikes: Main dining room food is good to OK. We paid for speciality dining 3X (very good). RCCL does not use their outdoor movie screen very well--only 2-3 movies played at night and one was a repeat. No movies on sea days in production theater. Teen clubs typically only staffed at night, but they do have around the ship activities (scavenger hunt, etc.).
We prefer DCL for the movie theater, fun dining, great shows, but not for double the price, esp. if there are a lot of port days, where we would be out exploring and ready to just relax when we got back.
SJ: We have also cruised from SJ--fly in day prior no worries. But, consider RT airfare in your price vs. cruising out of FL. For our family of 4, the airfare adds at least $2K to the cruise price. I have heard that b/c the SJ RCCL sailings have more Latinos, sometimes entertainment was in only Spanish--don't know about recent sailings. Our 3 day RCCL and 7 day Celebrity sailings had entertainment in English. Cruisecritic.com should have AOS reviews from SJ.

 

[Laz]

AOS would be a fine ship. I went on Navigator in March. AOS will have a center enclosed promenade with shops and piza parlor area, good pool deck area, adults only solarium area with 2 hot tubs, multi level dining room, large buffet area (also open for dinner). Ice skating rink will also have an ice show. Rock climbing wall and putt-putt. It has more than the Vision/Radiance class, not quite as much as Freedom (no flow rider), and less than newer ships. We liked Nav. fine. We esp. liked the promenade and the pizza parlor.
dislikes: Main dining room food is good to OK. We paid for speciality dining 3X (very good). RCCL does not use their outdoor movie screen very well--only 2-3 movies played at night and one was a repeat. No movies on sea days in production theater. Teen clubs typically only staffed at night, but they do have around the ship activities (scavenger hunt, etc.).
We prefer DCL for the movie theater, fun dining, great shows, but not for double the price, esp. if there are a lot of port days, where we would be out exploring and ready to just relax when we got back.
SJ: We have also cruised from SJ--fly in day prior no worries. But, consider RT airfare in your price vs. cruising out of FL. For our family of 4, the airfare adds at least $2K to the cruise price. I have heard that b/c the SJ RCCL sailings have more Latinos, sometimes entertainment was in only Spanish--don't know about recent sailings. Our 3 day RCCL and 7 day Celebrity sailings had entertainment in English. Cruisecritic.com should have AOS reviews from SJ.

Our last cruise out of SJ there was a large quinceanera party. We found the Latinos on board very friendly and lots of fun! The staff will explain everything in English and Spanish. We found only one of the lounges had entertainment only in Spanish, but the dancing was open to anyone.

 

[ldo]

agree with PP. Would likely not have bothered us, but my coworker was somehat offput with the main entertainment only in Spanish--but that was a number of years ago. I would have no issues sailing on AOS from SJ if the price was right.

 

[Sweetsarj]

Just booked this ship for a southern Caribbean itinerary out of San Juan March 2017. The ship is set to undergo 61 million dollars in new updates this November. I seriously can't wait!! There will be a new splash area for kids, 2 new body slides, 2 new restaurants and refresh of staterooms.

 

[Laz]

I would like to return to the Southern Caribbean as well. The ship will be refurbished and the price appears reasonable. I have been on both routes, so I hope they begin to include other islands such as Martinique and Dominica. My biggest negative is the airfare from Indiana.

 

[keishashadow]

My family is interested in a Southern Caribbean itenerary but DCL rates are a bit outrageous. Plus the timing isn't great.

Has anyone sailed the Adventure or another ship in that class? What did you like? Dislike?

Would we be better off on a larger, newer ship and just get a shorter day in San Juan?

I'd love to hear your experiences.

Sailed her April/May, had a great time. Yes, she's an older ship and is due for drydock. Poolscape smaller, liked the adult pool although the decor seemed to be a bit of a mishmash there lol. DR food was average, I've had better on RCCL. Overall service very good. Great itinerary (the gist of it for us)

AoS is Voyager class, I enjoy the bells & whistles more on IoS - bigger Freedom class.


good idea to work in time to explore Old San Juan...it's not to be missed. Ship sails out of Pan Am Pier, makes that a bit more challenging as to not being in walking distance. Recommend coming in a day prior. The Sheraton Old San Juan is average but nice base to just walk around Old San Juan. If sailing CCL you can walk your luggage to the ship! We've been staying @ the Caribe Hilton, a lovely old grande dame of a property with beautiful surroundings.

Entertainment staff enthusiastic, did a great job with the promenade 80's/disco & parade to lesser extent. . Ice skating show highlight of the week. The Irish lounge had great acoustic guitarist, who was on his last rotation unfortunately. We find most production shows to be marginally entertaining, this ship's shows were disappointing even from that prospective. Marriage show always funny. bingo seems to be even more of a rip off since last we cruised. If you want to play, bring a pencil or your own dobber.

Casino was very 'tight', many complaints. Karaoke was very popular and surprisingly, trivia was well attended and lively.

I would like to return to the Southern Caribbean as well. The ship will be refurbished and the price appears reasonable. I have been on both routes, so I hope they begin to include other islands such as Martinique and Dominica. My biggest negative is the airfare from Indiana.

Out of PIT, booking on SWA have had nice price drops and able to adjust. We don't have direct flight options unfortunately but as a bonus we tack on a week @ WDW post cruise = really reasonable flight costs from SJU to MCO, then MCO to PIT

One negative is, for us, flights out of SJU seemed to be scheduled with early am (doesn't work with ship schedule) or very late afternoon departures. Warning, it takes a looooong time to navigate crowds at airport. 1st an agricultural inspection, then (even with TSA pre check) longest security lines I've seen anywhere.

 

[lucky978]

We are considering this shop for a trip July 2017. Nice to hear all of the positives. I'm new to cruising (never been) so would like to hear what the best sites/agents are for booking (if that is allowed here). Thanks so much!

 

[monsterkitty]

We just returned on Saturday from our Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas.

We flew into San Juan 3 days early so we could sight-see. If you can do this, do it! The food was amazing, the beaches are beautiful, and Old San Juan was fun to explore. Hot, but fun. We didn't rent a car so we had to rely on taxis and we did one tour so we could see the rainforest. It would have been cheaper to rent a car, but there are a few (hundred) crazy drivers so taxis were a better option for us.

We got to the port at about 10:15am and got in line. As we had never cruised before we didn't know what to do. Others helped us get in the correct lines. We were probably on board by 11. We couldn't get into our stateroom until 2 so we went to the gym and ran on the treadmills. After that we ate lunch in Windjammers and then went to our room.

The ship is older and there were signs that it is in need of some TLC, but it was fine and we were very happy with our room. We were on Deck 9 in a superior balcony room. It was small but fine for just 2 people. There is no way we could do an interior room without losing our minds.

Staff was so friendly and helpful. Our steward was amazing and left us a new towel animal every night. The best was a monkey swinging on a clothes hanger. There were a lot of Quinceanera parties on board, but we didn't notice the staff speaking in mostly Spanish. Never once did we notice a show only in Spanish, but maybe we missed those? We don't speak Spanish fluently, but we never once had trouble communicating.

Food- very disappointing! We did "My Time Dining" and had no problem getting a table when we wanted. The main dining room food was good, not great. Windjammers, however, was like a Country Buffet, but almost worse. Let's just say that DH gained 3 pounds on the cruise and I gained 2. I ate a lot of salads and fruit (which I prefer). The desserts were very good. The cookies were well trained and kept jumping on my plate of fruit.

Drink packages: I don't drink alcohol but DH does like beer and sometimes other drinks. We figured out that it would be cheaper for both of us to just get the basic Refreshment package of pop, water, coffee, etc, and he could pay for a beer out of pocket if he wanted one. He did drink a few beers a day, but that was way cheaper than buying the lowest alcohol package that didn't come with water or coffee. The biggest waste was for me as I drink Diet Coke in the morning, but none of the places that served Diet Coke were open in the morning before we left for our shore excursions. I ended up buying a 6-pack of pop on board so I could have one each morning. If we had to do it all over again, we would just buy the water package because coffee is free with meals.

Islands: St Maarten was nice. We went with a non-cruise vendor for our tour, Bernards, and it was great. We did the beach and sightseeing tour.
St. Kitts was very pretty as well. We did the mountain bike tour and loved every second of it.
St. Johns Antigua was better than the previous two islands, but very dry as they are in a drought. We did the Eco Kayak and Snorkel tour and it was great.
St. Lucia was going to be a just walk around and see what we could see, but the taxi drivers and tour companies were really aggressive. We ended up doing a 5 hour Island tour with a taxi. It was $140 total, but way cheaper than the exact same tour we could have booked on the ship. The island reminded us of Kauai.
Barbados was by far our favorite island! We did the Beach Hop tour we booked onboard and the tour guides were a riot! If you go, you must do this tour!
Cruise day was really boring, haha. There were shows and other things to do, like bingo, but we weren't interested in those. So, we sat by the pool for an hour, donated some money to the slot machines, and wandered a lot.

Disembarking: we had a 12:30 flight, so we didn't put our luggage out on the last night for the luggage fairies to handle. Instead, we left our stateroom at 6:50 and carried it ourselves to the meeting room. They let us leave the ship at about 7:15 where we then went through customs. We were in a taxi and on our way to the airport by 8.

Would we do this cruise again? Probably not, but not because of the ship. We liked cruising but we would rather do other types of trips. Other than the food we loved everything about the islands and the tours we took. The staff on the ship were amazing.

I know this was probably too long, but I hoped it helped!

 

[monsterkitty]

One more thing! If you get the basic drink plan, you can get the non-alcoholic versions of drinks as they are included in this plan. Let's just say I had a lot of virgin Pina Coladas!

 

[lucky978]

We just returned on Saturday from our Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas.

Thank you for this great review. I'm surprised the food was not that good. I've heard so many things about cruises and how great the food is. Guess not on this ship! Glad you had fun!

 

[monsterkitty]

Thank you for this great review. I'm surprised the food was not that good. I've heard so many things about cruises and how great the food is. Guess not on this ship! Glad you had fun!

I was really shocked about the food! Trust me, I'm a human garbage disposal and will eat anything on my plate. The mac and cheese, however, was the worst I've ever had. My husband couldn't even eat it. There were some things that were very good, such as the last night they had a Mongolian bowl where you picked what you wanted and they cooked it. Over all, though, I was shocked. Every dessert we tried was great and the cookies were very well trained to jump on your plate as you loaded up on fruit.

The second to the last day I was behind a guy in line who has been on 30 cruises, all RCCL and more than 10 on Adventure of the Seas. He said that this was by far the most disappointing food he has had. He wondered if it was because they were getting ready to go into dry dock so the regular chefs were already on a different ship for a while.

 

[bumbershoot]

We figured out that it would be cheaper for both of us to just get the basic Refreshment package of pop, water, coffee, etc, and he could pay for a beer out of pocket if he wanted one.

Refreshment is JUST soda. ($8ish per day)

Replenish is soda, bottled spring water, bottled sparkling water, espresso-based drinks, Tazo tea, fresh-squeezed OJ at breakfasttime, and virgin drinks. (~$20/day)

If we had to do it all over again, we would just buy the water package because coffee is free with meals.

That's what I do. Get the Evian water package ($39 plus grat paid up front for 12 one-liter bottles of Evian, delivered to your stateroom as a case) then order the other things I want. I get a latte a day and a beer or two a day. That's pretty much it. When I was trying to make Replenish worth it I was always sloshing around and couldn't have the beers I wanted b/c I was full of liquid.

You should be able to get coffee all day, at the MDR, at Windjammer, and at/near the espresso kiosk off to the side or back. They should have big urns of the free coffee (on Freedom although the espresso place uses Starbucks beans, they have Seattle's Best for brewed coffee (of course, those are the same company now) all day.

Barbados was by far our favorite island! We did the Beach Hop tour we booked onboard and the tour guides were a riot! If you go, you must do this tour!

Good to know!



There's a cruise review in progress on cruisecritic's Royal boards, for Adventure's Southern itinerary FYI.

 

[monsterkitty]

The $8 package was not available. It was just the Replenish or whatever it's called for the $19/day.

 

[Laz]

I just want to step in to say that it is not required for you to buy a drink package. My wife and I maybe have one alcoholic drink a day, We drink lots of water due to the heat of the Caribbean. We do not mind the tap water (children of the 60s who drank from a garden hose), so we will each buy one bottle of water and refill it. I get all the coffee, lemonade, and ice tea I can drink from the Windjammer Buffet. I had iced tea at dinner and coffee with dessert. We did get a soda package for a DD when she traveled with us. However, I do want to say that it is your cruise! Make sure you get what you want to ensure you have the best time you can while on board.

 

[msjprincess]

The $8 package was not available. It was just the Replenish or whatever it's called for the $19/day.

Really? That's bizarre, I've never seen that before.

 

[monsterkitty]

Really? That's bizarre, I've never seen that before.

It's listed as one of the beverage packages on the site. When we prepaid for the drink packages, it wasn't a choice. I wouldn't have picked it because I wanted the bottled water and other drinks. When we got onboard and DH was thinking about upgrading to a package that does have alcohol, the family in front of us was arguing about the Refreshment package not be listed.

I just want to step in to say that it is not required for you to buy a drink package. My wife and I maybe have one alcoholic drink a day, We drink lots of water due to the heat of the Caribbean. We do not mind the tap water (children of the 60s who drank from a garden hose), so we will each buy one bottle of water and refill it. I get all the coffee, lemonade, and ice tea I can drink from the Windjammer Buffet. I had iced tea at dinner and coffee with dessert. We did get a soda package for a DD when she traveled with us. However, I do want to say that it is your cruise! Make sure you get what you want to ensure you have the best time you can while on board.

I'm aware that it's not required. In fact I said that if we cruised again I would just get the bottled water package. My body doesn't like to drink tap water from places that I'm not accustomed to drinking the water.