Our first cruise was with Royal Caribbean on the Adventure of the Seas from Malaga on the 8th of November 2010. The reason for the cruise was as a taster for a longer cruise in 2012 to celebrate our silver wedding and to see if my wife could enjoy a cruise. We had read numerous reviews of the ship and the five night cruises from Malaga with differing ratings and conclusions and so were a little concerned. We booked a Promenade inside cabin and again we were concerned, after booking, about the reported noise from the promenade deck. The following is a review of the cruise and our findings:

Monday:

We flew with Easyjet from Glasgow to Malaga. Flight was ok despite the seat pitch being a little tight. I am 6'7" and the pitch is 29". We had booked a private transfer and on reaching Malaga we were approached by a rep from Royal Caribbean to ask if we were going on the Adventure. When we told her we had arranged a private transfer online we were told bruskly to "go over there." Our transfer was through Nerja Taxis and all I can say was WOW. Our driver took our bags and escorted us to the car; a black Audi A6. Our holiday had just begun. We were dropped off at the terminal and joined the massive queue that went along the side of the terminal. After standing for about 10 minutes a porter came up and took the couple in front of us away. A porter then came up and took our bag and spirited us away towards the front of the terminal. He checked our bags in and motioned for us to go over there. "Over where?" I asked. He again motioned to go over there and when I didn't understand he escorted me into the terminal and placed me in the queue in front of a couple right next to the security check. I felt really bad as I had just been whisked to the front of the queue and it is just not a British thing to do. It was later explained it was because we had checked in online and had our seapass documentation and labels but on my whirlwind journey to the front of the queue I saw others with documentation and labels. Our check in went smoothly and we were told to go to Gate B. We bypassed the boarding photography as we both looked rather bedraggled and thought a memento of our image was not advisable. We walked along the tunnel and were waved past the stern gangway. I am disabled and by this time was dead beat and in a fair bit of pain. We entered the ship via the bow gangway, our pictures were taken for security and we headed to deck 7. We found our cabin and to our joy the cabin was ready. On opening the door I expected a small claustrophobic room with very little space. What we found was a compact cabin with a nice double bed and to our joy the cabin was lit. The bay window facing us looked onto the Promenade deck which had the shops and bars etc. We dumped our cases and headed off for something to eat. On reaching the Windjammer restaurant we were amazed to see a mass of people all milling about. There was no way we would get in. We went for a walk to explore the ship and lodge some funds on our Seapass account as we don't have a credit card and came back an hour later to see if matters had improved. They hadn't. It was explained to us that due to the Spanish culture they tended to sit on even after the meal was finished and so hog tables that were needed. We went back to our cabin and our first meal on board the ship was a box of mini snickers from the minibar in our cabin. We read our copy of the ship's paper and headed off to the Promenade Bar where we managed to get some pizza, cakes and the all important mug of tea. After refuelling we went back to the cabin to prepare for the muster drill and got ready for dinner. We were in the first sitting (18:45) and so headed off around 18:40 to the Mozart restaurant on deck 5. We were shown to our table and our waiter introduced himself. We had asked for a table for 2 but were at a table for 8. A guest at our back was complaining as he had asked for a large table as he was sociable and had been sat at a table for 4. We said we would swap but it was frowned upon. Our fellow diners came from South Wales, Dublin and Liverpool and so language wasn't a problem. Our dinner went without a hitch but the other diners had problems. One asked for soup and was given the fruit starter which he was unable to eat. The same guest and his wife asked for the sirloin and received a large slab of red bloody meat. It turned out that this was the Fillet Mignon which was an extra at $14.95. The soup was never forthcoming and the steak was not what was requested plus it was an expense that wasn't explained. After dinner we headed off to our cabin as we were exhausted and so we ordered some room service and were bunkered down by 22:00 with an expectation of noise caused by the 23:15 parade. Much to our joy we heard nothing as our cabin (7609) was at the stern end of the Promenade deck and looked onto a massive sculpture. The location of the cabin was next to the stern lifts and the library. Read more