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As we were on a selfdrive tour into Portugal and Spain we thought being a good idea to insert a short cruise and the 6 night Western Med. with Adventure of the Seas was just convenient despite we decided to avoid big ships after our transatlantic experience onboard Navigator of the Seas last year; after all it was for a short week and only 2 seadays.
Check'in was perfect (we booked parking for our car with RedParking near Malaga Airport for 54 Euro inclusive a return transfer to the ship; just great !).
Only after being recognised as Platinium Crown & Anchor member we got a nice table for two for dinner.
As we were early on board, the cabin was not ready yet, so we went for a drink to the windjammer and heard some guest ordering a glass of red wine and paying 9 $ ! So we ordered a nice bottle instead at only 27 $ (plus Spanish VAT and service = 33 $). Afterwards we experienced drinks in the bars are really expensive (cheapest cocktail about 7 $ plus VAT and 15 % service).
We bought a Platinium Wine Package (average per bottle about 20 $ + VAT and service) but twice the bottle we ordered was out of stock !
Dinner in main restaurant was ok, menu with enough choice (although reduced compared to the extensive menus we got with RCI on earlier cruises) and the service was friendly and professional (waiter from India, ass.waiter from Servia). We saw a lot of guests going to the buffet dinner (good quality and enough choice) in Windjammer, especially young people and families with kids.
Real disappoining are the two formal (gala ?) dinners: no special menu, no champaign, no special dessert and the same boring spectacle of singing (?) restaurant crew with the same songs as 15 years ago, no captains table ... time for change !
For breakfast we went only once to the overcrowded Windjammer; for breakfast we tried once also the à la carte (slow service) but the breakfast buffet in the main restaurant was ok.
For lunch same problem in Windjammer especially on seadays; but lunch in the main restaurant was fine and at ease.
We preferred to explore Ajaccio and Cagliari on our own so we were very happy with the free shuttle service; Rome we visited many times before so we just walked around in Civitavecchia and we enjoyed it.
The ship itself we do'nt like so much, the promenade is to crowded and noisy and as we said before every drinkstop costs ! It was also disappointing to see a nice quality coffee machine serving only ... hot water and the free coffee was poor quality.
Conclusion: it was a fair cruise for the price we paid (about 600 € pp) but too many small irritating things that we never experienced on smaller RCI ships; overall we quote this cruise not higher than our earlier cruises with Costa Cruises and MSC and even lower than NCL
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