Adventure of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,220 reviews

Had a great time

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Adventure of the Seas
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dk2202
First Time Cruiser • Age 20s

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Sail Date: Mar 2009
Traveled with children

We had a great time despite a few issues. Nothing is ever perfect, right? I will never recommend going out of San Juan. If I were to sail to San Juan I am pretty sure that I would not get off the ship. We went to Senor' Frog's for dinner the night before we embarked and we visited the old fort the next day which was quite nice. I am sure there are some nice spots in Puerto Rico, San Juan is not one of them. We arrived at the pier at 11:30 and were eating lunch by 11:45! We had some sort of plumbing problem (sewer gas in the bathroom) on the first full day which was quickly resolved and RCI gave us pretty nice credit towards our next cruise. We were supposed to have adjoining rooms with an another family which did not happen. They claimed to have no record of this request, so they did not doing anything to make up for it. That was no big deal as far as I was concerned. I actually preferred not to have my in-laws coming and going into our stateroom as they pleased. The food in the dining room was great every night. The waiter, head waiter and assistant were very nice and did a great job. The head waiter and the waiter often cut our food. They were all very nice to our nieces. They gave us anything we asked for. The food at the windjammer was usually pretty good. I got prime rib and lobster together one night. My sister in law and her husband did the same thing with no problems. We took a catamaran/snorkeling excursion in Aruba which I highly recommend (Pelican Tours). Even if you don't snorkel the ride and the open bar are well worth it. We went to 2 spots to snorkel and the 2nd was a sunken cargo ship which was amazing. We did the Dolphin Academy excursion in Curacao which was great. We got to pet and hold dolphins. They did all sorts of tricks right in front of us. We spent some time at a nearby beach (Breezes?)and then did some shopping in Willemstad. The next port was St Maarten. We were advised the night before that most of the shops would be closed because of Good Friday! That put a damper on things a bit. How did they not know that in advance? There ended up being several nice shops open at the pier when we returned to the ship. We paid for a beach and shopping excursion which was not very good. The beach itself was pretty nice. We were at a section of Orient Beach that was a dive (Boo, Boo Jam). They had busted up lounge chairs and umbrellas. They had much better lounge chairs that were chained and locked. I got the impression that they were reserved for regular visitors. The restrooms were in bad shape and the changing rooms were mostly filled with busted umbrellas. The food that they served for lunch was ok at best. The bus driver sat at the bar the whole time which was somewhat disturbing. I am not sure if he was drinking or not. We took a tour of St. Thomas in one of those modified pick up truck taxi's which was very nice, even though the driver drove like a nut. Our return taxi to the ship was worse. We went to Blackbeard's castle (not sure how the stone tower equates a castle). They had a building where rum was made and you could sample their rum and drink free punch or rum punch. The rum and the punch were good. We did some shopping which was great. We went to Magen's Bay which was excellent. We ate the food that was sold at the beach. The food was good, but not cheap. There are tons of shops at a mall right by the pier. We had great weather even though the locals said it was hotter than normal all week. We had a couple of showers going from Curacao to St. Maarten. We used the valet service for our baggage when we returned to San Juan which should have worked out real nice. We found out when we arrived at PHL that our baggage was still at the pier in San Juan. We received out baggage the following day with several souvenirs missing. Our cab from the port to the airport got into an accident with another cab. We were told that the ship will be getting a facelift in 2 weeks and it will be dry docked for 9 days. I have to say that the ship was in pretty good shape despite being 9 years old. I was really impressed with the ship and the crew overall.

Cabin Review

We had an ocean view with a balcony. The room was really nice. We were supposed to have adjoining rooms with my sister in laws family which didn't happen. The dividers on the balconies are stationary so we could not sit out on the balcony together. I thought the bathroom was just right. There was plenty of room to stow everything. The hallway was noisy at times because of kids running and yelling as well as some rude adults talking loudly late at night. We all slepy really well despite the noise.

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