First ever cruise so chose a large "Family Friendly" ship. Adventure of the Seas. Quite a few poor reviews read after we'd booked ! so were very worried...but all was ok....read on for more..........
Travelling with 2x kids aged 10yrs & 2yrs. Youngest has a Dairy Allergy. We made this known at time of booking and was advised this would not be a problem. We emailed a doctors letter to our booking ...
We had a great time aboard this ship, and I attribute that largely to doing our research on Cruise Critic.
I don't feel like the bad reviews on here are fair, as the staff are incredibly friendly, and I think they are just as fed up of the Spanish as we are (brits), hence the reason they are discontinuing this cruise after 2012 season.
We had a leisurely breakfast on the balcony every ...
We chose this cruise because we wanted to revisit Rome and Florence and had never been to Malaga, Valencia or Corsica. We had completed a similar cruise last year out of Barcelona on NCL's Epic. The two experiences were very similar until the last 3 days.
We had read some other re viewer's concerns about the Spaniards and their smoking habitats. Apparently the ones on our sailing were not as ...
The cruise overall was great. Compared to other ships and companies the price was very low and we knew to expect a 12 year old ship. We were a little worried about some bad reviews concerning the "rude" Spanish and their love of smoking. The smoking wasn't too bad. We're both non smokers and didn't feel bothered. What to say about the Spanish? Just to call them rude is wrong. Let's put it this ...
This cruise actually started in Valencia, Spain-but that was not an offered port. That being said-this was an odd cruise having 2 starting ports, Malaga and then Valencia. The cruise was 95% Spanish speaking-making it necessary for all things done by the cruise director to be in 2 languages. The entertainment suffered as a result. There were no comedians, I assume because it is too difficult ...
This was my second time on the Adventure out of Malaga. I think that I had learned what to expect and what to avoid this time.
We knew that if we wanted to get lunch without a crowd we should eat at around 1 pm. We knew that supper should be taken before the show ended and before 9.15 pm. We booked a balcony so that we had somewhere to enjoy the sunshine without having to sit amongst large ...
We have been cruising on and off since 1991 (so we are not youngsters) with a variety of companies on assorted seas, oceans and rivers. Our children are long grown up and therefore we never utilised any of the many family oriented activities, which seemed to be enjoyed by those participating.
We took a taxi from the station which was 12 euros to the embarkation hall.
The loading process ...
Embarkation was very pleasant. We just walked on the ship at 3 o'clock. We had a junior suite and it was nice and lots of space in the cabin, but the bathroom was very small and had a shower curtain. The cabin was spotless. We had a huge balcony which we could hardly use because smoking on verandas is allowed on Royal Caribbean and so we sat in smoke for most of the time. Talking about smoking on ...
Our family of four flew into Malaga. We stayed at the NH Malaga Hotel which was great.
We embarked on the later side - about 3:30 and had no lines at all. Our rooms ( 2 side by side)were ready and we were welcomed by the wonderful crew.The room had more storage than I anticipated - even little cubbies in the room and bathroom.
One of our favorite events were the dinners in the dining room. ...
Too many passengers or too small ship?
The ship is not big enough for a ship full of passsengers. We had to fight to get a table for both breakfast and lunch. The lunch was often so crowded that they had to close the entrance. You must plan you day carefully if you want to eat decently and to get a sunbed. The ship rules said that it was not allowed to reserve sunbeds for more that 30 minutes. ...
