Adventure of the Seas Review
March Break on Adventure of the Seas
Rating by category
Additional details
My boyfriend and I sailed on the Adventure of the Seas in early March 2013 to the Southern Caribbean out of San Juan, Puerto Rico. I have sailed previously with RCL, Princess, NCL, and Holland America. We had been looking forward to this cruise for months in advance, and we had certainly done our research. We booked three excursions (in St. Thomas, St. Kitts, and Curacao) as well as the Mystery Dinner Theatre online before leaving, and we were glad that we did. Once onboard we found that many of the excursions were fully booked, and there were no tickets left for the Mystery Dinner.
1. Embarkation
We flew from Montreal, QC to San Juan, Puerto Rico one day before the cruise and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott hotel. Taxi from the airport to the hotel cost approx. $20 USD and it was the same from the hotel to the cruise port. In San Juan there are set rates for cab fare between different areas of the island, so make sure to ask someone at the airport before you leave. We only found out after the fact that our cabbie had overcharged us (only by $3, but still). On the day of embarkation, we arrived at 11:30 AM and joined the slowly growing line to drop off bags to the porters. Once inside the terminal building, it was virtually empty and took less than 15 minutes to check in. We were onboard at 12:00 PM and began our mission of touring the ship. We highly recommend making your first stop the Main Dining Room (MDR). Ensure that you are happy with (a) the location of your table, and (b) the size of your table. This is the time when shuffling can occur. Overall we felt that the highest level up (which is reserved for Anytime dining) had the best ambiance, but the staff were unable to switch us out of Traditional Dining (Anytime was full).
Cabin Review
We liked the location of our stateroom (E1 category, #9542, balcony) as it was close to the aft stairwell. We did not experience much noise, probably because we weren't at the "food end" of the ship. The bathrooms were small, as per usual on cruise ships, but the shower was great! RCL has this curve-out style of shower "door" that makes the shower seem like a little cylindrical pod. Tons of room to manoeuvre compared to Princess showers (and I am definitely on the taller side, too! 5'11" and 145 lbs). The stateroom furnishings were old and showing wear. This didn't really bother us, though. The real issue were the mattresses. They were extremely old and sagging in the centre. Not only were they completely unsupportive, but you were able to feel the metal frame beneath it while sleeping. We asked our room steward three times over the course of the week for some extra padding, but none was ever provided. The small (0.5 inch thick) memory foam overlying the two twin beds, making it into a queen size, was also pitifully compressed. Time for new mattresses, please!