This was our first cruise experience ever and I have to say it's by far the best vacation I've ever had. I had planned this trip since June 2016 and had done all sorts of research. At first we had no idea which cruise line or ship to choose from since the decision is overwhelming, but then we had the most helpful travel agent narrow down for us between 2 choices of cruises based on our vacation style and interests. I recommend this to anyone to find a great agent that doesn't just sell the product but really gets to know your style of travel.
In the end we chose Adventure of the Seas due to the exotic ports of call. We figured the ABC island itinerary would make the most out of our dollar since those islands are expensive to travel to on their own. I never would have considered Royal Caribbean as our first choice cruise line since I read a lot of the reviews on this site and wasn't sold on it. Knowing the food wasn't great and the service was mediocre, especially on the oasis class ships, I was very weary of the experience I would have. Well, I have to say, if your expectations aren't high to begin with, then you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much better things turn out especially on this average size ship (we were told not to try the Oasis class ships as our first time cruise due to the overwhelming amount of people, line-ups and wait time for elevators). I'm somewhat of a fussy hotel vacationer so when we first booked, I was happy to know I'd be getting a brand new room since the AOTS was going to dry dock in October/November 2016. To my disappointment, hurricane Matthew had deterred a lot of the refurbishments and none of the new rooms would be build by February. So after moving us to an old corner ocean view room on deck 2 I was even more weary, but not entirely bothered.. yet. In the end, It turned out to be a relatively small, ugly out dated room.
The ship itself was fantastic. I did noticed the "outdatedness" of the AOTS like so many reviews have previously said but the refurbishment that did happen seemed to spruced things up. I knew getting into it (thanks to our agent) that there would be some extra costs to our trip like gratuities, drink packages, a la carte dining, shore excursions and such so I was on my toes for any other extras that we might encounter since we were limited on money. The drink package wasn't worth it for us since we're not heavy drinkers and highly recommend not getting it if your not there to get drunk. Aside from getting the soft drink package maybe, they do have a "Thirst Quenching" station in the buffet area with free water, lemonade, strawberry kiwi drink and unsweetened ice tea. Cruising is definitely for people with money and also very heavy on formal wear, at least on this ship. I was a little thrown aback with how serious people took the formal thing so I felt a little out of place. We never did the dining room since it's exactly the same food served in the buffet style Windjammers cafe on deck 11. We had no issues with the food. I feel like a lot of reviewers on here must be picky eaters because there was nothing wrong with anything they served in the buffet. Don't get me wrong, it's not fine dining but there was so much choices that your bound to find something you like. Breakfast was my favorite. The staff that was on that week was actually not bad. Very friendly unless you tried to have a conversation with the Asians (not to be racist but this seemed to be a trend), which have barely any knowledge of the English language so aside from that very good. Our room attendant Wilma from Costa Rica was excellent! She was very personable and had 19years of loyalty and experience to Royal Caribbean. We had a great conversation with her and she made us feel right at home. She made us towel animals every night which, as tacky as it is, i was actually looking forward to.
Location of this room was ideal but the beds were terribly hard along with super flat pillows so beware. Ask for padding if need be. We only realized too late that we could get something to help. Other then that the room was extremely small but was super clean so that made things a bit more tolerable. I was glad that we at least had a port hole window to look out of. All in all, the room was probably the only thing that bothered me but we were only there for in and outs and naps, so it was tolerable and didn't try to dwell on it more then that, after all, i was on vacation. But next time we will definitely look into getting a nice room with balcony.
A lot of hustlers and hagglers waiting to take your money at every turn.
We arrived in San Juan 2 days prior to the cruise so we ventured to Old Town to visit the forts. This place is amazing in the Isla Verde region where we stayed at one of the hotel resorts. Well worth the surfing and boogiboarding.