Adventure of the Seas Review

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Adventure of the Seas - Eastern Caribbean

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Adventure of the Seas
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GREG
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Oct 2006

We just got back from a 7 night cruise to the Eastern Caribbean for our anniversary and we had a great holiday. We're both Canadian, 25 and we don't have any kids. We've been to Varadero Cuba, Puerto Vallarta & Playa Del Carmen Mexico on all inclusive resorts in the past 3 years but wanted to try out a cruise.The ship itself is amazing! I couldn't believe all that there was to do on the ship. It's got a bunch of pools and hot tubs scattered throughout the ship, a rock climbing wall, a rollerblade track and an ice rink along with 2 theatre areas among many other things. The evening entertainment was great and we only missed one show the whole time. The ice show was incredible and we really enjoyed the Love and Marriage game too. The other shows were all good to great, but make sure you don't miss those two. Our room was small but nice. Who spends much time in there anyways? As far as service goes, it was amazing too. We had a problem with our safe and they had a guy up to fix it in about 2 minutes. As for the restaurants, we ordered an apple juice and a cranberry juice the first night and never had to ask again. Our waiter/waitress never let our glasses run dry and were constantly attentive to our food requests. Lobster is my absolute favorite meal and our waiter just kept bringing Lobster tails out until I couldn't eat any more our second last night. My wife and I joked that they must have competitions between the waiters to see who can get their table to eat the most because they were constantly trying to bring us more food, which was some of the best food I've ever had. We ate like royalty. Even the Windjammer cafe buffet was great, although the service there wasn't what it was in the main dining area.

I had read a bunch of reviews before going and the one thing I had wished there was more of was commentary on excursions, so I figured I'd focus on them for my review. I booked two online with outside companies and one with Royal Caribbean. Our first port was Barbados and I had pre-booked a tour of the island with a company called Glory Tours from Barbados because I had read a lot of good reviews about them. Big mistake. From their website and emails to me we weren't sure if we were supposed to meet them at 8:30 or 9:00 and for 2 weeks prior to the cruise I emailed them to clarify and they never responded. So we showed up at 8:30 just to be safe... and they never showed. We finally left at about 9:30 and went back to the ship. Not the way we wanted to start our first cruise. We decided to get a tour through the ship, but by then most of the excursions were already sold out. So we ended up doing one to Malibu beach which was actually quite nice and got a tour of the rum distillery. But we never got to see any monkeys and the Harrison's caves that I had wanted to see are under renovations for the next couple of months. Overall it was nice. Next was St. Lucia and again I had pre-booked a tour of the island online, so we were pretty nervous for how this one would go. We booked with Jungle Tours and it turned out that this was the BEST tour we did. Shal from Jungle Tours picked us up at 9:00 on the nose and toured us throughout the rainforest, taking us to two waterfalls, the drive-thru volcano and the Pitons. It was just us and an American couple in the back of his land rover, so it was great because the tour was really personal and we weren't getting herded around with 20 other people or anything. Everywhere we stopped the locals told us he was the best guy on the island. He was hilarious too. We asked him to turn on some music and when he asked what kind we told him to put in his favorite. So he put in not reggae or caribbean, but country music! It seemed so out of place to be driving through a rain forest with Garth Brooks belting out of the speakers, but it was fun. He took us to a restaurant on the beach by Soufriere and then had us back to the ship just in time. If you only do one tour I would recommend his. Next we went off to Antigua and this time I had planned to take a taxi. It turns out that the taxis on all the islands double as tour guides and will take you for tours of the island. So, that's what we did and our taxi driver took us to a natural formation called Devil's bridge and then to Long beach which is where the Pineapple resort is and it was beautiful! We rented snorkeling equipment and went right out from the beach and saw a ton of fish. My wife and I both thought that either this beach or Veradero Cuba's is the nice we've ever seen. Then our taxi picked us up and took us back to the ship for a grand total of $60. We did some shopping there but be warned, they are aggressive in trying to get you to by shirts, key chains, etc. Then we had a massage on the ship and it was expensive but was well worth the pampering we got. The next island was St. Maarten. We had pre-booked the Lotterie Farm tree top zip line tour through Royal Caribbean and it was great too. We went through a big obstacle course with about 25 stations ranging from rope bridges to zip lines. Be warned though, it is hard work, so if your not too fit you might be exhausted by the end of it. We enjoyed it but didn't think it was as good as the one we did in Puerto Vallarta because the highest zip line was only maybe 20 feet and the one in Puerto Vallarta was 90 feet. Then we did some time on a beach about a 20 minute walk from the ship and some shopping. This island was the cleanest one and the shopping felt just about like you were back home. No one really pressuring you while you were trying to look and there were some great prices. I think it was the best one shopping wise. Finally we hit up St. Thomas U.S. Virgin Islands. We did the Ultimate Island tour. We booked this through the ship again a couple of nights before after our Barbados disaster. We got to see some of the island, Magens Bay (which was also absolutely gorgeous and had fish swimming around your ankles only 2 feet into the water!)and Blackbeard's castle. Our guide was good but we were the only non-Americans on the tour and we felt he just tried to focus and cater on them the whole time. Oh well, like 90% of the boat was American or Puerto Rican, so I guess they cater to their largest clientele. Even still, it was a good tour. Blackbeard's castle wasn't quite as cool as I thought it would be because it was really just a 20 foot tower in the middle of a bunch of pirate statues but it was neat to see. We finished up there with some shopping and went back to the ship.

So, overall I would definitely recommend booking through Royal Caribbean online for all of your tours (except Jungle Tours in St. Lucia). They seemed about the same price as doing it on your own and you know that you'll be taken care of and back to the boat on time with them. Getting a taxi to give you a tour might not be a bad idea either if you'd like a more personal tour, but it might be hit and miss whether you get a good taxi or not. We didn't hear of anyone who had a bad taxi but you never know. If you are buying gifts for yourself or other people St. Maarten's the place to do it, although St. Thomas wasn't bad either. If you have an early flight you might have a tough time catching it. The San Juan airport seemed like a gong show and we almost missed our 11:25 flight. We had to sprint from gate 2 to 29 to catch it as they were paging "last call" while we were still getting everything torn apart by the security station. And we were with the first group to leave from the ship, so if you get put in one of the later groups try to get switched to an earlier one at the reception desk on the ship. Based on the amazing food, service and entertainment I don't think I'd cruise with another cruise line next time. We had a great trip and hopefully this review helps you have a great one too!

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