My husband and i sailed on the Adventure of the Seas on February 10 to the 17, 2008. It was our 8th cruise, so we definitely have past experiences to compare it too. We vacationed with our brother and sister-in-law, who were first time cruisers. Six of our cruises have been on Carnival and one several years ago was on the much smaller Sovereign of the Seas. I was anxious to see if there were going to be any noticeable differences. Generally the RC ships have a higher star rating than alot of the Carnival ships, so I figured the standards would be higher. We didn't find this at all. That doesn't mean we were disappointed. We thoroughly enjoyed the entire cruise. We had our usual balcony room which was almost identical to Carnival ships. The food, service, cleanliness of the ship were all very comparable. Our room steward, Edwin, was the friendliest we've ever met. Very pleasant to talk to. Our waiter, Noel, and his assistant Wei Wei, did a wonderful job at making sure we enjoyed our meals. We shared a table with 4 other veteran cruisers and enjoyed their company very much. The ship was clean and the decor was beautiful. The entertainment was, well, very entertaining. We took in the ice show which was amazing for a moving ship and much smaller than usual ice pad. The show in the Lyric Theatre was tremendous. Very talented group of young people. Captain Tommy was comical and did a great job at keeping the ship steady, even though we had a windy week. I would definitely recommend this cruise to first timers or veterans.