I recently returned from a wonderful cruise on Adventure of the Seas which included three generations of our family. We are ages 25-76 with both novice and experienced cruisers. I was the coordinator of the whole adventure and with the help of the excellent crew and staff of the Adventure of the Seas everything went smoothly. My husband and I had previously sailed on the ship so I knew there were appealing features for everyone in our group. We had four cabins from balcony to promenade to inside so that was good for all to see the differences and learn the benefits of varying locations on ship. The variety of activities and venues on the ship provided enjoyment for everyone in our group. The younger ones were the late-nighters who enjoyed the Schooner Bar and the casino. The early risers loved coffee from room service and the coffee bar. We all enjoyed the pool deck and the pool bars, dinners in the main dining room, and the excellent beach itinerary. To sum up the highlight of this cruise for our family we all agreed that sitting as a group around Keith's piano in the Schooner Bar and singing our lungs out one night was hilarious and the smiles never left our faces the whole time. I'm smiling right now as I write this--it was that good. Keith is truly an entertainer. Highly recommend. Our family has travelled quite a bit in Mexico over the past 20 years but Costa Maya was a new port to us and what a lovely surprise. Not so commercialized yet and we found it refreshing. First thing to do is get out of the immediate port area and take a taxi to the malecon where there are little beach clubs and more locals. We spent our time ashore walking on the boardwalk, sat under umbrellas with some ice cold buckets of beer and fresh pico de gallo (Big Mama's), and ate street tacos from a local cart vendor. Enjoyed by one and all. We also took an independent excursion with Cozumel Beach Bar Hop which goes to the east end of the island which has no electricity for the most part. Off the beaten path and more authentic small beach bars with loads of fun and frivolity. These are rustic beach places with sand and surf not chain restaurants with fancy bathrooms. The millennials thought they were hip and the rest of us remember when Mexico used to have places like this everywhere. Looking forward to the next one--bon voyage! Read Less

We live in Canada and knew we would need to reacquaint ourselves with the sun by end Jan - hence this cruise. For this first time, we decided to splurge on a Jr Suite, which was affordable due to the short length of the cruise. What great accommodations! Could not believe how much storage space we had available - many of the storage cupboards went empty! Wow - a couch and two lounge chairs - yes, purchased at the "uncomfortable furniture store from which Royal purchases all their seating accommodations" but having a choice was wonderful! Balcony was lovely. Lots of space to kick back and enjoy the view. Huge soaker tub in the bathroom. We are not bath people, but if we were, it would be great! Shower was OK at best. Temperature setting was not necessarily related to the temperature of the water! Many issues on this trip ... Kept doing the USD to CAD conversion and charging my card in CAD even though I asked them to charge my card in USD (because my card gives a much better conversion rate). On Day 2, when I got notice from my card that a purchase had been made, I noted it was in CAD. Called down to guest services, who advised I could not resolve the issue over the phone but needed to go to the service desk. Headed on down, waited in line, got to the desk ... and the staff member said yes they could fix it, but that I needed my credit card in addition to my sea pass card ... like the woman could not have advised this when telling me I had to come down to the desk? OMG! Back up to the stateroom, back down, more time in line to contemplate my wasted time and ... voila ... after only 30 min more, signing the waiver requesting my fees be charged in USD, re-swiping the card, re-issuing the sea pass card, all was fixed. Right until the next day, when I got to do it all again!! There were many in the line-up on day 3 that were having issues that had apparently "been fixed" the previous day. In my case, the day 3 fix did work. Hope everyone else experienced success too. I have a food allergy. First time on a Royal cruise that we did not see our section head waiter or preview the next day's menu so the cooking staff could ensure my food would be prepared away from the food to which I am allergic. Mind you, we rarely saw our waiter either ... once to place our order and ... that's it. We often order from the non-published Indian food menu on Royal - usually a great variety of curry options. Asked our waiter what the Indian food option was and his answer, without checking mind you, was chicken curry and vegetable curry. If that is the limited choice offered on the boat, it is what it is ... but it is not a move in the right direction! Assistant-waiter was great! Evening of day four, the toilet made a bizarre noise - like a regurgitation. Hesitantly took a look - volumes of black, gooey slime/sludge was quickly working its way to toward the top of the toilet bowl. Called maintenance who said they would be there in 20 minutes. We had our suite evaluation plans, including putting our suitcases on the bed, and waited for maintenance. Husband called again 60 minutes later; gotta say, tone was a lot less pleasant than mine. About 10 minutes later, an engineer came to take a look. His comment ... OMG! Guess I did not sound panicked enough. He went out into the hallway and accessed the plumbing panel, did his thing, and the goop disappeared. Good news ... did not exceed the volume of the toilet bowl! He sent someone to come and clean the toilet ... took some scrubbing! The smell of the tobacco smoke from the casino permeated everything on deck four and the promenade on deck five. Consideration should be given to obtaining better smoke eaters, installing two-stage doors into the smoke polluted areas, and creating a negative pressure to keep the smoke in the Casino area, so the rest of the passengers are not subjected to the odour. The greats! Though incredibly overworked, our cabin attendant went the distance to make sure we had everything we needed! Kudos to his hard work and attention to detail. Mariia was the guest services contact who permanently fixed our card issue. Not only did she fix it, she called the next day to make sure it was not re-occurring. Her attention to detail fixed the problem correctly, her professionalism in checking back to make sure everything was fixed was very much appreciated and her concern and empathy made us feel appreciated and valued. Diamond Lounge - real plus Great coffee in the machine!! Staff were outstanding - attentive, friendly and efficient. Concierge Lounge ... not on this boat! It has been replaced with a Suite Lounge. Decreased services for Loyal to Royal members. Rather than being disappointed there are more C&A members sailing with Royal and cutting back on level perks, how about maintaining perks and privileges. Top Tier Event - Absolutely outstanding Great ice show performance. Even better were the staff awards. So great to see hard-working team members be recognized for their contributions. Everyone we spoke to felt the same way. Kudos Royal - great step in the right direction! Production Shows Good effort and very entertaining. One of the shows was centred on a dancing team and, while this seems to be the trend after last year's Tango team, liked the older shows that told a story a bit better. Headliner shows - great! So ... some really great stuff; lots of room for improvement. Each time we ran into issues that seemed to be dismissed by staff, we kept reminding ourselves we were down enjoying a cruise to Grand Cayman, Costa Maya and Cozumel and were enjoying warm, sunny days where we could have been home in the record, cold temperatures. We counted ourselves lucky. Read Less

My husband and I went on this cruise for our honeymoon and we loved it so much we want to book another trip! We felt very pampered on this trip. The staff on this ship was amazing! The activity organizers were so much fun and there was so much to do on the ship that we were never bored. We played a lot of trivia each day and went to all the game shows. There was always someone there if you needed something on the ship and all the staff was very friendly. You did not even need to get off your but if you wanted a drink. There was always waiters walking around taking orders and bringing drinks. The ship was kept very clean. Our cabin was cleaned twice a day when we were at breakfast and dinner. There was always staff making sure that people washed their hands before entering the buffet. You never saw garbage around because they were always cleaning up and you often saw them scrubbing hand rails, menus, etc. Our room had lots of storage for all of our stuff. We had a balcony room that was very secluded from other balconies. The bed was so comfortable! We slept so good every single night. Our room was right next to the elevators which was great and the rooms were so quiet that you could not hear others in the rooms around you. The food was great. There was a large variety. Every meal in the dining room and specialty restaurants were three course meals. We thought they were very filling. We never went hungry on the ship because there was always something to eat. One of our favorite things was the breakfast food in the windjammer. The ports we went to seemed really safe and getting on and off the ship was simple and quick. We did one shore excursion through the ship and it was great! We would highly recommend the drink package if you are planning to drink. Beers on the ship cost $7 and almost all other drinks cost $12. The deluxe drink package includes as much bottled water you want and as much soda as you want. They have the CocaCola soda machines on the ship that have a variety of different options to choose from. They give you a souvenir cup to use on the machines. Without the drink package the only thing you can get for free on the ship is glasses of water, juice, tea, and coffee from the buffet. Almost all the drinks are $12 or less so they are covered under the drink package. This is for the specialty restaurants too. The only things not covered are Starbucks and some of the more expensive wines. Since we were on our honeymoon the crew gave us a card and left chocolate covered strawberries in our room. We both got $50 gift cards to the Spa as well. We loved that there was an adult only pool area as we were on our honeymoon and did not want to be bothered by children. We would definitely go on this cruise ship again. We chose to take our luggage off the ship on the last day ourselves and we were glad we did because that meant we could get off the ship first. The only thing that was hard for us was finding our airport transfer that we set up before the trip. There was not very good signage for this. There were people standing around that we could ask. Read Less

This cruise was a let down for me. It was an 8 day cruise and the cons overweighed the pros by a lot. First of all, everything closed SO early. The buffet closed at 9 pm but started sectioning people off at 8:30-845. I’ve never been on a ship that the buffet closed so early. If we wanted food after 9, it was basically just pizza. A lot of things in general were closed. The flowrider was only open a couple hours a day, the climbing wall was only open a couple hours, the skating rink didn’t even open until the end of the cruise. They advertised these activities but then didn’t act on them. The skating rink wasn’t even open to passengers until the end of the cruise and it was only 30 min segments. So many of the bars were closed for many times in our cruise. One day, we had to go around to 3-4 different bars until we found one open and this was at noon. The MDR didn’t have lunch available on port days. The buffet was extremely boring and lacked flavor. The breakfast and lunch buffet had no variation of meals whatsoever. The lunch particularly was very poor. The MDR food was alright. The waiters were great. There was practically NO entertainment. This thought was commonly heard amongst a lot of passengers on the ship. A lot of people just sat around bored because of the lack of entertainment. Everyday felt so long because of the lack of entertainment. The entertainment they did have was mediocre at best. Our room steward didn’t talk to us once. He didn’t introduce himself, didn’t say hi, nothing. He did leave a tip envelope for additional tips (we did prepay tips) but he did such a poor job we did not tip him extra. Some days we would leave in the morning and come back 2-3 and our room still wasn’t attended too. The room other than that was fine. All in all, I would not recommend this cruise and would not sail on this ship again. Out of my 20+ cruises, this sadly was my least favorite one. Read Less

This ship was a little older than some of the other ships but it was overall a nice looking ship. The embarkation went really smoothly and disembarkation went as well as could have been expected for a suite customer. This is an older ship so if you want all the bells and whistles you may not get them on this ship. I loved the shows they provided on the ship they had a little bit something for everyone. My stateroom attendant as well as the dining room staff in the Saphire dining hall were excellent. I ate breakfast in Giovanis restaurant and that was excellent also. I did not really care for the food in the Windjammer. I enjoy the ports and shore excursions most notably Toppers Rhum in St. Maarten. That place was awesome. Depending on where the ship traveled too would be my decision if I traveled on this ship again. Read Less

I'm a loyal RCCL cruiser (Diamond member) and frankly, I much prefer the Voyager class ships versus the huge Oasis class ships, primarily because I love the ability to walk outside and listen to the waves from Deck 4. However, this cruise was just barely average. Entertanment was virtually non-existent (for an 8 day cruise) and what they did have wasn't really worth watching. Food was okay (primarily MDR), but service was rushed (for no reason) and non-attentitve. Cabin Steward was great. Cabin itself was as expected, ship was clean, but the overall service and food was just adequate. I will continue to sail with RCCL, I prefer them over NCL, and will continue to look for Voyager class ships, but will lower my hopes and expectations. Pros: Cabin Steward (from China) really did a great job and wasn't pushy and begging for tips. Ship was clean and in well working order despite her age. Food was okay, nothing special. Cons: Service in the MDR was rushed beyond belief and non-attentive. Entertainment was virtually non-existent and a real let down. Am sailing on this same ship in February for their 6 day cruise, let's see if that is any different. Read Less

We did a b2b on Adventure to escape the cold and to spend time with friends. Our cabin steward was Sherwin and he was the absolute best we’ve ever experienced! Kind, always smiling and incredibly efficient. Superb does not come close to describing Sherwin. I have deadly allergies to seafood, mushrooms and tarragon. I emailed the ship prior to the cruises with the information and requested a table for two to avoid accidentally being served someone else’s food along with trying to avoid inconveniencing other cruisers with needing to preorder my food each night. Royal has become more and more slack on some ships the last couple of years. The head waiter is supposed to manage allergies. On some ships I had to have the head waiter handle my food at lunch time as well. Not by my request, it was policy on certain ships. Our first week I asked the waiter to please find our head waiter and explained why. After speaking with the head waiter she tried to pass me back to the waiter telling me she would be fine. I insisted on the headwaiter doing my orders. I have been on ships where serious mistakes have been made with my food by waiters who did not take the allergies seriously. Fortunately I survived! The head waiter was pretty good until the night prior to the 2nd formal night when she told me lobster would be served. She suggested we dine in the cabin. I said no I would like to be in the dining room and if it was too much for me we would leave. I asked her to just make sure our dinners came out quickly like she had done the other nights and hopefully I would be fine. We barely saw her formal night. The waiter came by and I asked if she could make sure we had more vegetables with dinner. It was almost an hour after our appetizers that we received our entree and no vegetables, no head waiter. We did not return to the dining room that week. Our second leg we had the same table, new waiter. Again I requested a visit from the head waiter due to deadly allergies. The head waiter took my order and served us. All seemed to be going well till the waiter came by, obviously unamused by my request to see the head waiter. He started laughing about me having so many allergies. HE LAUGHED at me! I was upset, my husband was LIVID! We spoke with the head waiter and naturally he apologized. He called over the dining room manager. Naturally he apologized as well. Really??? We have been on about 35 cruises and had never experienced anything so uncalled for and rude. We reported it to guest services. The Assistant Maître D and Restaurant Operations Manager took us to another dining room and apologized profusely. In our estimation this could be solved with a chat with the waiter, requesting that HE apologize and provide him with some much needed training. Their solution was to call me the next day at 5:30 pm to say we were being moved to a private table in the dining room on deck 3. We would be escorted to our table, the head waiter would take my order and they would introduce me to the chef. I know they were trying to solve the problem but what they did punished us. We lost our excellent table, had to wade through a huge crowd to get into the dining room and the so called private table was the one we typically sat at for breakfast by a window. Nice during the daylight but very dark at night. This dining room was loud and not at all pleasant like deck 5 where we had been. The head waiter was very nice and so was the chef. The dining room was the issue. We did not return to the dining room. We ate in port, the WJ or one night in Johnny Rockets. This episode with dining room issues due to my allergies was not an isolated incident. This was the straw that broke the camel’s back! Disembarkation was horrible on our turnaround day as well. It was handled badly at the port, complete chaos with many many annoyed people trying to get off the ship to get home ALL at the same time! We got off as quickly as we could the day we went home because we needed to get on an earlier flight due to weather at our home airport. We grabbed our luggage where they weren’t finished lining up bags much to the shagrin of staff at the port. A porter was understanding and helped. We travel a lot. We have cruised less and less with Royal the past few years since in our estimation Royal Caribbean service and food has deteriorated dramatically and there is no consistency between most ships. We travel for fun and enjoyment. I don’t need to be fighting for my ability to eat safely. We are D+. Friends suggested that we try Celebrity. Their food handlers are certified in something called DineAware. We’re booked on a b2b in the new year. Hopefully they are as good on-board as their Vacation Planners were on the phone. Read Less

Elvis Tribute Artist cruise; having sailed on many RCCL ships, I found Adventure to have positives (smaller size easier to get around) and negatives (RCCL has tried to squeeze all of the amenities of Oasis class ships into this smaller one making for some tight spaces). Food was OK but choices very limited. Complimentary was either the main dining room with service that was way over the top ingratiating or the Windjammer buffet. There is also a Cafe in the Promenade that is small and crowded with pick-up items. That main dining room service---our waitstaff hovered over us constantly asking if the food - and "most especially" the service were excellent. About halfway through our meal, we just wanted to tell them to go away but held back knowing the mean well and in their culture they are being gracious. Only ate in there one time. Windjammer food was fine and if not, option to go back for something better. Ate in Giovanni's - one of the fee restaurants and did not think it worth the $35 each price tag: ate in a la carte Izumi and would never do that again - again not worth the money --- extraordinarily limited menu and food just OK. Good daytime place to relax and read is the Blue Moon lounge on Deck 14. Gripe---paying for a junior suite did not give us privileges to the "Suite Lounge" - always has on Oasis class ships but not this one. Cabin: nice and spacious and comfortable. Our cabin attendant was fine although having pre-paid tips and having asked nothing of him over and above his ordinary duties, found the TIP, TIP HOORAY envelope left in our room on the last night annoying. Yes, we caved and gave him an extra tip. That's all one does on these ships - everything wants and "additional" tip which should only be added for extraordinary service. Hard to comment on entertainment as we were enveloped in the shows included in our private group; we did think, though, that there seemed to be limited entertainment and thought we would have been looking for something do at night if not for our group events. Best port of call was Grand Cayman but given that it was a tender situation with a very short day, we elected not to get off the ship. Costa Maya and Cozumel are two places no one really needs to ever go. Read Less

I talked a very hesitant friend and her husband into trying a cruise and decided my wife and I should go along. Glad we did. I should first describe my idea of a great cruise...really relaxed. Stayed at the Fortuna hotel pre cruise. Really neat little boutique hotel near the beach. Boarding was effortless. There was no line for Diamond and a short line for general boarding. On board in 10 minutes and a drink in hand. Love the drink package. Had a balcony cabin 7534 with plenty of room and quite comfortable for me. Explored the ship. Had not been on Adventure (although have also been on Navigator and Explorer). Love the ship and the peekaboo bridge. Pool bar was my favorite and Schooner was a close second. All on board meals in the Windjammer (don't like wearing long sleeve pants). No complaints about the food. There was a minor issue when the crew served dessert and plugged the entrance. Cabin service was attentive and no complaints. Requested a daily ice bucket and it was delivered. Labadee was Labadee. The buffet was fine and typical. Already paid drinks are great. Avoided the locals. San Juan is one of my favorite places. The forts weren't open for my friends and wife to see but we had a great hike along the old wall and 2 great meals in town. We were there from 1300-2100. Sint Maarten was up next. We went out to the airport by private cab. It was much more crowded than the last time we were there (likely would find other things to do next time) but it was fun for the first time friends. We stopped for a bit in town after the airport and had a good time strolling the boardwalk. Last port was St. Kitts. My wife and friends did a dolphin excursion while I wandered around the port and town. When they got back we hiked about 10 miles around town. Great fun. Finished with 2 great sea days. The production shows were ho hum. Game shows were fun. We're not late nights so didn't catch much after 2200 except Love and Marriage. Jogging track is a bit short. I went by time and no idea how many laps. The info says 8 laps to a mile (I showed closer to 9). All in all another great cruise on Royal and will definitely return. Stayed at Red Carpet Inn post cruise. Comfortable, ok accommodations. Read Less

This was our second NYE cruise and third time on the Adventure. We appreciated the upgrades that were added in the last dry dock. Embarking and debarking were easy, probably the best we have ever experienced at Port Everglades. We had a walkoff with the Suite Concierge and it took 12 minutes total. Our grand suite (1578) on deck 10 was lovely and very convenient to the elevators. Very large with plenty of storage, a mini fridge, wetbar, a nice bathroom and balcony. The balcony had a padded lounger, a table and two chairs. It is completely covered, and was quite pleasant most of the time. We were a little concerned the cabin might be noisy as we were located under the pool deck, but that was only an issue on NYE when we tried to turn in around 12:30. Once the deck party ended, all was quiet again. We had the Ultimate Dining Package and enjoyed one dinner at Chops, one at Izumi and four at Giovanni’s Table. Chops and Izumi are both on the Royal Promenade and were a little too noisy for us. Giovanni’s Table is located next to the Windjammer with a beautiful ocean view. We got great service from Amar and Arvind at GT. Christopher was the Suite Concierge and did a great job. He made our dinner reservations pre-cruise, though we changed several onboard. He also hosted a suite party at Giovanni’s Table for lunch one sea day. The party was well attended with many officers, including the Captain and Hotel Director. Nearly every day we received goodies in our suite, including gifts from the Captain, the Hotel Director, Christopher and the casino. We had requested a beach towel as our Diamond Plus gift, but housekeeping called and said they were out. So they substituted a tote, which came in handy as we were packing. Service was good throughout the cruise. Our cabin steward, Renato, was very good and kept the cabin in great shape. Mercedes was the cruise director, and did a fine job. Entertainment was good. We really enjoyed the production shows, the comedian and the staff talent show, Adventure’s Got Talent. The outdoor movies were fun, including Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again and Oceans Eight. We had colds all week so we stayed on the ship in Grand Cayman. In Costa Maya, we took a taxi to the town and enjoyed a great walk. At Cozumel, we shopped at the port and returned to the ship early. Even though we were not feeling the best, we had a great time and will gladly sail on the Adventure again. Read Less