We had traveled on Royal Caribbean in 2012 (repositioning cruise from Miami to London), and enjoyed the cruise, very much. This 2018 cruise, we were celebrating my one-year survival and almost no evidence of disease (cancer). On board, the rugs were stained in the halls and our cabin; tablecloths were stained for two meals. Glass windows and portholes were grimey. As obaumlackl wrote, two elevators were out of commission the entire cruise; two worked sporadically. (Should never happen!) Bad news, especially for disabled persons. Food in Windjammer was, indeed, mediocre and repetitive; breakfast and dinner in Sapphire Dining Room were a little better and service during dinner was great. We, too, thought that more local foods would be served. Of course, we could have lobster if we wanted to pay a great deal extra. Of our ship-arranged tours, the Boston tour (in the Steps of Paul Revere) was a disaster. Little pertained to PR and Revolution; most was a Chamber of Commerce welcome tour to Boston (during the rain). Eight hours of this! Ramps to and from the ship were often too long, especially for disabled persons. They were also slippery. Nothing special for Crown & Anchor Members that we saw. On our previous cruise, there was a welcome back cocktail gathering for C&A members,, and a special departure lounge. Couldn't find evidence of either. I think we've sworn off Royal Caribbean. Read Less

View Fall Foliage in Canada and New England areas. There was NO fall foliage. Local guides told us Fall Foliage appears from mid to late October, we were 4-6 weeks too early. embarkation was smooth with no delays. Day 1 had excellent weather sunny and 75-80 degree temps. Day 2 cold, windy, and rain. Windjammer buffet had average tasting food, no variety 95% of the food was the same every day. Expected more local foods and items from New England e.g. Clam Chowder. Breakfast and snacks at Cafe Promenade were the same every day and mediocre at best. Food in Sapphire Dining room again was average at best. Didn't see any local favorites on menu. Some items e.g. the Steak Diane wasn't very edible and had to be replaced with a different entree. Service in Sapphire room however was excellent, the wait staff, Kenneth and Mohammed were the best. Cabin was neat and clean. Entertainment was average. Casino was to have low limit tables at times but bet minimum never changed. The entire time 2 elevators never worked and 2 others worked occasionally. Read Less

We enjoyed three nights precruise in NYC and then 10 days of enjoyable cruising. We traveled with my stepmom and chose this itinerary based on her dream trip & booked a suite as a splurge. The perks that come with the suite more than made up for a couple of disappointments with cruise staff. We loved the free appetizers and drinks each night in the suite lounge. The suite concierge and our cabin steward went above and beyond expectations. We experienced several occasions when we thought Princess just does things better and will likely carry on cruising with Princess for the most part (22 Princess cruises & counting!) Our major disappointment came with a RCCL shore excursion staff person who on several occasions was no help or assistance for my stepmom (she has limited walking stamina and frequently uses a walker). Able-bodied & scooter-riders seemed to do well but my stepmom had frequent difficulties with sharp angled gangways (especially experienced in Quebec City) and long walks from ship to terminal buildings. The golf cart transport in We really enjoyed the cruise otherwise. Read Less

Our luggage was taken to security. We were not notified and questioned where our luggage was. We were told it could be up until 9:00 PM when we received our bags. One bag was in the room by 4. We were advised to go to security. We were not notified our missing bag was being held in security! We went to security and were told we had to be present to open our bag. They opened our bag and there was nothing illegal in the bag We could not get a reservation for dinner in the main dining room and we booked our cruise 2 months in advance. We were told we had to call the dining room to make a reservation. No one answered the phone the whole first day. We were told at almost every port we had to meet in the theater 1 hour prior to our excursion. We sat in the theater and waited for our excursion to be called. We scheduled our excursions so we didn’t have to get up early. There was absolutely no reason to meet in the theater when we could have met our excursion on shore at the advertised time. No port maps before arrival at any port. Preview of port excursions was done in the art gallery. Art work blocked the screen. Could not understand the presenter. English was very poor Service in the main dining room, even with a reservation was so slow we could not get to the first show. Over 2 hours for two people to eat is inexcusable. Read Less

We were impressed with the condition and décor of the ship. Our rooms were a good size (inside promenade view) Bed was very comfortable. Overall very happy with cabin and the ship. Food was good not great, a bit repetitive every night. We ate in the Giovanni table one night and it was excellent, wish we had went earlier and we would have definitely went back. Our first couple of days breakfast was cold in the Windjammer. Facilities' on board were great however the evening entertainment could have been better. The comedian was good and the singer from the Jersey boys was great shame he was only on one night as he was only singer you could hear every word he was saying. The ice show was ok but we found the RC entertainment team singers and dancers poor compared to previous cruises we have been on. Overall we found cruise to be excellent value for money. We had the All Inclusive package and it was great and also included Starbucks. Read Less

We thoroughly enjoyed the ship, itinerary and shore excursions. Our interior Promenade View cabin was what we expected. Very nice. The service in the dining rooms was very good. What we found disturbing is the food in the Main Dining rooms. Once upon a time customers raved about the inclusive meals. We, among others, found the inclusive meals tasteless. Beef had no flavor and most fish selections were dry. I had sirloin steak one night and prime rib another. Both had absolutely NO TASTE. Now in order to enjoy the food you MUST select the specialty restaurants. We went to Chops and had a fantastic meal. We did enjoy meals in the Windjammer. Windjammer had many selections and the food tasted like food.Disembarking in Qubec was outstanding. They have quite an orderly procedure. Just about everyone needed a taxito the airport. There was no mayhem. People waited online, were directed to an available taxi and were assisted in loading the luggage. Read Less

This was a unique opportunity for us to experience a cruise ship outside of the Caribbean. The itinerary sounded intriguing, so we booked it in late December 2017. Good thing, as we were told the cruise had sold out. We took the Amtrak train from our home town (Washington, DC) to the Liberty International Airport station, then grabbed a free hotel shuttle from there. It was raining when we arrived, so we opted to have dinner in instead of exploring the city. Getting to the cruise port at Cape Liberty, NJ the next day was just a quick Uber ride from our airport hotel. Tip: be sure to have your luggage tagged with the cruise line tags before you leave for the port - once you get to the curb at the terminal, the valets are there ready to take your bags immediately. We found the entire check-in process to be orderly, well-organized and efficient. The terminal had a nice (large) waiting area set up with coffee and water while we waited for the gangway to open. We were on board the ship by 11am and immediately began enjoying this beautiful ship. The stateroom (ocean view balcony) was lovely - plenty of room for two, and we loved being on the 8th deck ("3 decks away from everything" was our motto). There were two elevators being renovated during our cruise, and the ship was full - so we ended up using the stairs quite a bit (which was good to help us burn off some of the delicious food!). We mostly ate in the Windjammer (buffet on Deck 11). This ship has a bar in the windjammer, and we had the beverage package so it was easy to grab a shot of Bailey's in our coffee whenever we wanted. This was great, except when we were in port in Canada - the authorities only allowed one bar per deck to be open - so we had to run over to the pool bar. The Royal Caribbean orchestra, singers and dancers were spectacular! So much quality entertainment - everywhere you go, there's a great live band playing - but not so loud that you can't enjoy a conversation with your travel mates or new friends. Only negative on this cruise was the port support at Quebec. We were told this was the first time this ship had docked in Quebec, and the port seemed to be completely unprepared for the ship. They had stacked metal storage containers up on the dock, and jury-rigged a gangway from Deck 4 over to a stack of 2 storage containers, then down to a single storage container, and finally to the dock. This was far too steep for most of the seniors and folks with mobility issues, and lacked an overall feeling of professionalism we encountered at every other port of call. Read Less

Have enjoyed cruising on Royal line before but this ship was the worse experience we have ever had. Embarkation and disembarkation was great, We had a back to back cruise, on the first half going to Canada we were in a balcony room, but not too bad, only complaint was the odor of dried urine which was always present, the room attendant did clean it a few times daily but it did not help much, storage was adequate for an older ship, but on the second half of our trip we had to move to a interior room with no window or view screen for the outside, there was no circulating fresh air which cause my husband to have increased sinus problems and me to have frequent nose bleeds, the room was small with no room to walk along the bedside, we had to approach the bed from the foot of the bed then get on our knees and crawl up to the head of the bed which was not easy for someone who has muscular problems and a need to go to the bathroom throughout the night. We only ate at the Windjammer and had difficulty finding seating most times maybe because most of the tables were large with couples taking a large table so they could eat together and the smaller tables where you can sit and eat while having a private conversation with your companion were not plentiful, all the tables were too close. The only good thing were the dining servers, most were very friendly and constantly there if you needed anything. There is much more i could say that was not good on this ship but i won't. I have enjoyed cruising in the past on Royal and plan on doing it again only not on Anthem of the Seas Read Less

I hope this report is as helpful to those heading to New England & Canada as other reports were for us preparing for our cruise. This was our 5th cruise all with RCL and the first time on Adventure of the Seas. Liberty is our favorite ship. Overall we had a very nice time. What attracted us to this ship was its itinerary. We had wanted to do the NE/Canada itinerary for some time. We flew to Newark airport and took an Uber to the port. It was hands-down the smoothest boarding we have every had. We had a balcony cabin on the bump out of deck 9. The location was great, not too far from the elevators yet very quiet. Two of the elevators near our cabin were out of service frustrating many passengers. We opted to take the stairs most of the time. Once onboard we checked out our cabin and then went to the Windjammer for lunch. After lunch and back to our cabin our luggage had arrived. We unpacked and then went up to the top deck as we sailed out of the harbor. You don’t pass the Statue of Liberty when you leave out of Cape Liberty but you can see it in the distance. It was very windy as we set sail. We chose my time dining. We tried to call to make reservations but so was everyone else apparently. We decided to walk down and see if we could make them. The best time we could get was 7:30. A little later than we had hoped but better than waiting in the long line with the others that did not make reservations. The third-floor my time dining room seemed to confuse a lot of people. There was one desk to the left as you approach the dining room where you would go if you did not have reservations and then two desks past that one on either side of the entrance to the dining room for reservations. No one seemed to want to go to the left despite the sign that clearly read reservations both sides. It was a long line on the right hand side and hardly anyone on the left. More than once we walked past that long line to the desk on the left side. We had asked for a table for two most nights. One night we sat at an odd table placed in a doorway right next to the servers staging/cleaning area. Our waiters didn’t have any of the tables around us. It appeared to us that this table was an add on and not a usual table. Needless to say we didn’t get very good service that night. When asked by our head server how everything was I felt compelled to tell him that this was not a very good table. He offered to move us but by then we had already had our appetizers and didn’t want to move. He took note of our displeasure so we weren’t seated there again. Our ports on this cruise were Portland, Bar Harbor, St. John New Brunswick and Halifax. We booked our excursions on our own, independent of the cruise line. We prefer doing things on our own so as to have flexibility. We arrived in Portland early Sunday morning. We were in Portland a few years ago so we had already been to Kennebunkport and to the Portlandhead lighthouse. Once off the ship we walked to a nearby church for mass and then headed over to the Holy Donut. If you go there, don’t let the long line around the corner deter you, it moves fast. The donuts made from potatoes were very good and worth the wait. We had 1pm reservations on a small lobster boat with just 10 other people. The company, Lucky Catch is close to the port. We had a great tour with them. We learned a lot about trapping lobsters. Everyone on the boat had a chance to participate baiting the traps and pushing them in. We learned the difference from male and female lobsters and got to band the ones big enough to keep. At the end of our 90 minute tour we got to purchase the lobsters big enough to keep for just $7 each. You then walk them next door to the Portland Lobster Company where they cook them and serve them with lunch for $12. It was a lot of fun and interesting. The beautiful weather added to the fun time that we had. Next port was Bar Harbor. This was a tender port. If you didn’t have a ship excursion booked you needed to be off the boat before 9 am or else wait for those with booked excursions to get off. They were using large whale watch boats to tender so it went fast. We were on the first boat to tender in. Here we had booked bikes to ride through Acadia. We aren’t big bikers so we opted for the Pedego electric bikes. This was so much fun. You can pedal as much as you want or push the pedal assist when you get tired. The bikes also have a throttle that makes going up hills very easy. The bikes can go up to 20 miles per hour if you want. The owner of the shop gave us great directions to the park loop road. There was some traffic before we got to the park that can be a little nerve wracking but once on the park loop road the traffic is one way and two lanes making it easy for cars to get around you. We stopped at Jordan Pond restaurant in the park for an early lunch before heading back. We hoped to ride up Cadillac Mt but didn’t have enough time as we had only rented the bikes for 4 hours. Back in town we stopped for a drink at an Irish pub near the port. We then walked up and down the main street checking out the shops and ended the late afternoon having a bite to eat on the patio at the Bar Harbor Inn where you get an amazing view of the harbor. I could have sat there all day. The next day we arrived in St John New Brunswick. This was the only port we didn’t make any pre arrangements. It was going to be a short stop. We had to be back on the ship by 2:30. Many people were going to see the reversing falls but everything I had read said you either needed to be there right at the right time or go there twice in the day to see the water going in a different direction. Neither appealed to us. We decided to head over to the museum to learn about St. John. We walked along the walkway near the water and stopped at a craft show that was set up. I purchased a few pairs of unique earrings made of crushed lobster shells for gifts. What we learned at the museum was that St. John was once a vibrant ship yard where many vessels were built. The museum houses many ship artifacts. After the museum we headed over to the farmers market. Where we live we have an amazing farmers market so this wasn’t very impressive to us, but none the less I’m glad we went. From there we decided to start checking out the neighborhood pubs. This is something we like to do when we visit new cities. Our first stop was to the Cask & Kettle. We sat at the bar and had a pint and talked with the bartender. From there we walked around the corner and up the hill to the Big Tide brewery. Here we had some delicious sweet potato poutine with our drinks before taking a slow walk back to the ship. Our last port was Halifax. It was here that we planned to rent a car and drive out to Peggy’s Cove. We hadn’t made reservations and didn’t think it would be an issue. The closet car rental to the port was Hertz and they didn’t have any cars left. They pointed us in the direction of Budget about a 15 minute walk from the port. Luckily they had a car. For about $42 US dollars we rented a Toyota RAV4 for the day. We set our google maps for Peggy’s Cove and were off. What a beautiful drive and area. Once there we parked at the Information Center and walked out to the light house. It was so scenic. This is what you imagine Nova Scotia to look like. The colorful houses reflecting in the water and the large rocks leading out to the lighthouse. There were quite a few tour buses parked behind the main gift shop when we arrived. They had pulled away before we left so we had a few minutes without the large crowds. I bought a latte just inside the gift shop that tasted great. We grabbed a few souvenirs and then decided to share a lobster roll from a stand on our way to the car. We headed back to Halifax and decided to stop at the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where many of those who lost their lives on the titanic are buried. This stop and Peggy’s are cruise excursions for those that rather go that route. We saw some of the people from the ship on tours at them both. As we approached the graves you could hear the tour guides commentary. It was very moving to see these graves, some with names while others with just numbers. From here we returned the car before headed over to the museum. We are not normally museum people and this was the second one on this cruise. The titanic exhibit was the highlight. We both agreed the cemetery was more interesting. We left there and headed back towards the ship along the boardwalk. With time to kill we stopped at the Garrison brewery close to the cruise port for a pint. You have to walk through a large market at the port to get to the ship, giving you one last chance to grab some souvenirs. Our last full day was at sea. Observations about this cruise...you would definitely say the crowd on the ship was as “older” crowd. We never used the pool or hot tub but saw others that did. It never seemed hot enough to us. The highs were very pleasant, in the 70’s most days. We spent many nights in the Duck & Dog pub listening to Carlo. He had quite a following. He is a guitar player from the Philippines that sings many songs that the crowd sings along to. He had quite the following on our cruise. The balcony on this ship is not as large or as open as those on Liberty. The room are about the same. We used the gym both days at sea. The food on the ship was just okay, nothing memorable, good or bad. Our room steward was very attentive. There were very few people out on the deck at night but it was windy most nights. RCL seems to be cutting back on some of their services. Free room service is limited to a continental breakfast. Anything else will cost you. At the bar if you don’t request a certain alcohol you will be given top shelf and pay a lot more for a mixed drink. Being able to upload your photo and fill out your documents online makes for a quicker boarding. If you have never been on a cruise you will enjoy the Adventurer. We had a good time and don’t sweat the small stuff, (like elevators being out). Others seemed very annoyed. This being said, I would likely not recommend this ship to others who have been on a higher class ship solely based on the food and the balcony, two things that we look forward to on ships. Read Less

We were on The Adventure of the Seas. We left out of Bayonne, NJ. Leaving on the 31st of September returning on the 7th of September. Sailed up the East Coast. The weather was perfect the whole trip. My 90 year old Mother was with us. The staff were all gracious and helpful. Our stops were Portland, Maine, Bar Harbor, Maine, St. John’s, New Brunswick, Canada, & Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In Bar Horbor took a bus tour around Acadia National Forest. The guide was fantastic.... We got to stop a couple of times to check out the views.... a nice excursion for people that don’t want to go on a hike. We ate in the formal dining room every night. Our waiters were attentive and very nice. The meals were good. Portions have gotten a bit smaller but we never left hungry. I would stay away from the steak that is on the menu every night. The specialty steaks, Steak Diane, filets, & the prime rib were all fantastic. The Windjammer is always good for breakfast and lunch. The bistro on the promenade is handy to grab a slice of pizza or a sandwich. Our room steward, Noroni, did a great job keeping the room clean and the ice bucket filled. My husband and I had a balcony room and my Mother and daughter an interior room across the hall. Their room had a big window overlooking the Promenade. A warning though is that in the evening it was pretty loud with music and entertainment. Read Less