I disembarked from the Adventure yesterday after a 3-night voyage. We were originally booked for a B2B in February, which was obviously cancelled, and the March 13 departure they added after the rescheduled maiden was the only one that really fit our schedule.
Honestly, she's such a beautiful ship. There are people that insist to never sail on a brand new ship, and while there are teething issues there was nothing that would've ruined the cruise for me (although it may have for others depending what they were looking forward to).
- We had a deluxe oceanview verandah on Deck 9 aft, almost directly around the corner from the rear stairwells and elevators and a short walk from Animator's Table. The deluxe rooms are the ones in the "classic"
DCL style with a proper bed and fold-out sofa. With just the two of us we obviously didn't use the sofa bed so can't comment on reports on how comfortable (or not) they may be. The rooms don't look anywhere near as cheap or unfinished in person as some photos make them look.
- The staterooms do indeed have split bathrooms. Where the Adventure differs from the other Disney ships I've sailed on is that it is a stand-up shower only, no bathtub. For two adults this wasn't an issue or anything that we cared about, that would obviously be different for other families.
- Our dining rotation was Enchanted Summer: Olaf / Hollywood Spotlight Club / Animator's Table. All the menus were really good and as someone from a western country that really enjoys eastern food, I found the choices and quality to be excellent.
- Enchanted Summer's location is incredibly unfortunate, while the Maximus section is off on the starboard side of Deck 6, Olaf is located a bit further forward through a main thoroughfare between Guest Services and the Theatre. This means you have crowds of people walking through watching you while you're eating, plus the tables are very close together. Easily the most "squished" of the restaurants we tried.
- In Hollywood Spotlight we were seated in the balcony section which gave us a great view of the stage. We were very lucky actually, as the balcony section is rather small with only maybe a dozen or so tables up there. The show featured a pianist and a singer, joined by Mickey and Minnie and later Donald and Daisy as they sing several classic Disney songs. The characters then mingle with guests for photos. We had Minnie and Daisy visit us on the balcony. My understanding is these same characters/performers then immediately go to the Navigator's Club restaurant, so if you're in Hollywood Spotlight your entertainment is in the first half of dinner, if you're in Navigator's Club it will be in the second half.
- Animator's Table (and Palate) offer the classic Animation Magic show. There is literally no difference between its format on the Adventure vs. the other ships.
- Seas the Adventure is offered for viewing in the theatre on a first-come-first-served basis, while Remember is allocated to you in the Navigator App which you show to the crew for entry at your allocated time. Without spoiling anything, all I'll say is the puppetry and technology behind the main characters in Remember is amazing.
- The maiden voyage required reservations to be made in the app for the rides, character meet and greets and night 1 shopping. My understanding is reservations opened as soon as the muster drill was completed. They tweaked this for our voyage, no reservations were required for the shops, the only characters offered were Mickey, Minnie and Baymax (which opened after the muster), and ride reservations opened at the start of day 2.
- No other traditional character meet and greets were offered, instead characters would spontaneously appear someone and you could get photos on your own device. They also offer "Selfies at Sea" with Moana, Duffy and Friends, Mickey and Pals and the Princesses. These have the character(s) either at Wayfinder Bay or on the Garden Stage and they will pose so you can get photos or selfies with them behind you.
- Our voyage had more guests than the maiden, but a lot of the time crowds weren't much of a problem. The only times we really felt that there were thousands upon thousands of guests was when the upper decks were absolutely jam-packed for the fireworks. Certain times in the afternoon were also very busy in Imagination Garden and Discovery Reef with guests lining up for the quick service dining venues.
- The only quick service place we ate at was Mowgli's Eatery, the quality of the Indian dishes was very good. We also bought a bubble tea each from Bewitching Brews (matcha with milk and brown sugar boba) which was also very good.
- The Duffy Friendship show was very cute and absolutely caters to the Asian guests (and people like me that are Duffy and Friends diehards). The Moana show at Wayfinder Bay is the first movie compressed into a 15 minute show, I probably wouldn't see it again. Avengers Assemble is very similar to what I'd previously seen on the Wonder when it was sailing in Australia, just kind of on steroids in comparison.
- Sadly it's true that there is no adults pool area. The Infinity Pool and Bar area would be perfect for it as it's located directly next to the smoker's area.
- There are beverage stations scattered throughout the outdoor public areas.
- They have done away with the traditional "breakfast at your previous night's dining room", instead we were informed by our service team on the final night that we would be dining at Pixar Market which was set up with a buffet breakfast instead, how early you're asked to be there is still influenced by whether you are early or late seating.
- Disembarkation took the longest out of any Disney ship I've been on, sometimes there were gaps of 10-15 minutes between each luggage tag announcement. This didn't really bother us as we had late breakfast and our flight wasn't until the evening. I believe it was well after 9am before our luggage tag group was called.
- The shops had a great variety of merchandise, to the point we found it very difficult to decide how to limit ourselves!
- The bars are beautifully themed, our favourite hangout was Tiana's Bayou Lounge which is where a lot of the trivia was held and there would be live music in the evenings. Wayfinder Bay also had a singer perform at nighttime on the first two nights.
- Buccaneer Bar and Taverna Portorosso were the main venues for beverage tastings. Marvel Style Studio was used for our late night tastings (cognac and whiskey), as the venue turns into a "speakeasy" at night.
- For the most part the crew were great. Our assistant server was on his very first contract and was still trying to find his feet. Our main server had worked on other ships and was fantastic.
- We always carry our beer mug cards, which are still the "classic" ones that can be used between ships. The Adventure has a card specifically branded for the ship, which is something supposedly being rolled out fleet-wide. Bartenders have been told that the old cards are still to be honoured, and when we used them they did give us the choice of getting the old cards vs the Adventure-only one back. Despite the instruction, a couple of bartenders still checked with their manager before accepting our old cards and on embarkation day one bartender on the pool deck outright refused to take them (it was an experienced crew member previously on another ship that later told us this has been a recurring issue, and they are absolutely meant to be accepting the cards).
- The rollercoaster was still out of action, a photographer told us she heard it may not be running until April! Guests on the maiden voyage received $100 OBC per stateroom for the inconvenience, our voyage received $50 OBC per stateroom.
At this stage we are likely to book for a 4-night cruise in October. Pretty much any "negative" we had with the cruise revolves around things that can be solved relatively easily - crew experience, tweaking things based on feedback (adult pool!), etc. Except for Enchanted Summer Restaurant, that one needs a complete overhaul
Let me know if there are any questions!
