FlaPackFan

Thanks so much?

 Thanks! I'll definitely check it out.Unfortunately, the most recent CC from Matt's  CC page was from May 2017?

Thanks, Matt!!!

On 2/19/2018 at 1:56 PM, HLWIser said:

I'm back from Adventure's first cruise post drydock! Unfortunately, I did not take as many pictures as I had planned - my greatest apologies!! I ended up leaving my phone in the stateroom the entire time, but on the Adventure of the Seas - past, present, and future cruisers Facebook page, many of the other passengers posted lots of pics of the ship if you are interested.

I am a bit of a rare cruiser as I have been on 12 RC cruises but none in the last five years (except this one). So, I have some thoughts on what I experienced and how it differed from years past. I'm not sure if I just don't remember some things or if things have changed since 2013, but I did definitely notice some differences that I'll touch on below.

Overall thoughts: 8/10: Amazing!! I had the BEST time, and five days flew by way too quickly.

Embarkation: 5/10: Okay.. so... we got to the ship around 10:30. We flew by security and checked in the C & A line. We boarded the ship right away. No waiting, no lines. That was amazing. However, I am not sure what happened with the cards, but either they had a large defective batch of cards OR the printer was not able to handle the high volume of printing (I never really got a clear answer), but when I walked onto the ship where they scan your card, mine wasn’t working. There were two other people to the side that had the same issue. They had to reprint our cards at Guest Services while we just stood on the deck waiting, watching other people scan in and walk onto the boat. I was there for maybe 15 minutes when the lady told me to just go to guest services to get another printed. She did not give me my old one. I got to Guest Services (almost completely empty- no lines!) and the girl was so confused at my story. She asked how I got on the ship and if I had even made it through security if I had no card.. then she got a little irritated and said I should have waited because they were on the way to where I was standing with my card. She printed me a new one anyway and said it should work. Well, it didn’t. Lol. I had to go BACK to guest services after I went to the Windjammer because the bartender said my drink package was not scanning correctly. ANYWAY – after that, it worked fine, but it was a pretty sour way to start a vacation, especially since none of them really seemed to know what was going on. GOOD NEWS HOWEVER: They had the room ready when we got on the ship (11:15 or so).

Food 8/10: Honestly, this was the best food I've ever had on a RC ship. In the past, I think food was rather mediocre, but on this one, Windjammer and Main Dining room got high points from me. The Windjammer (7/10) was pretty basic, but had a large selection and seemed to have a good "flow" with all sides being open. I enjoyed breakfast the most, as they always had grits, eggs, rice, fruit, etc, so no day looked the same. We did not do any specialty besides Johnny Rockets on Valentines Day- it was just okay. My salad was just lettuce with some fried chicken on top, and my boyfriend's burger was way too greasy - even for a cheeseburger. LOL. Our waiter did only charge us for the Junior Cruisers rate (6.95 each instead of 9.95), so that was nice. The Main Dining room was incredible. My favorite meals were the Caprese Salad, the Tiger Shrimp, Lobster, and Duck a la orange. The Cherries Jubilee and Baked Alaska are always a favorite too. Our waiter/ assistant waiter Maria and Dewa were THE BEST. I have never had that great of service before. I loved them so much.

Drinks 6/10: Bar service was absolutely horrible. Is it always like this? I want to say the entire ship had less than 100 kids, and there were a ton of adults, especially youngish (20s-40s), so they just might not have been prepared for the high volume of adults at all venues. In the Main Dining Room, it sometimes took until midway until our entrée to get our FIRST drink. Viking Crown/ Blue Moon was also horrible. The pool bar on the sea days was always packed. The worst might have been Imperial Lounge. I'm talking standing in line for 30 minutes for one drink. Boleros was a little better, Champagne bar was also better, Schooner bar was better at some times than others. Basically, if I wanted a drink at nighttime I either had to be prepared to stand in line for 30 mins or call the cocktail waiters over after only a few sips of my current drink. HOWEVER, quality of the drinks was 9/10. Heaviest pours were at Schooner, Blue Moon, Boleros, and the Casino (imagine that?) We definitely utilized our drink package. Between the two of us, for 5 days, we had over 90 drinks… and I don’t even think I’m that heavy of a drinker. I enjoyed many Miami Vices, Lava Flows, Titos & Soda, Titos & Redbull (for those late nights in Blue Moon).

Entertainment 10/10: I LOVED THE ENTERTAINMENT ON THIS CRUISE! They had a great variety of gameshows, comedy, ice skating, dancing, Karaoke, etc. We went to some type of gameshow every night in Imperial. Funny story- my boyfriend’s brother in law won the Belly Flop, Word’s Sexiest Man, and him & I’s team won the quest – he was a crowd favorite, lol. The whole ship I’m pretty sure thought he was my husband, but our significant others are not as outspoken as we are so we are the ones that did the participating!

Stateroom 6/10: I never met our stateroom attendant. I have no idea who he was lol. My boyfriend did meet him and said he was very friendly. Our stateroom bathroom was not the cleanest (dark hairs in the shower, dirt/ an old champagne cork under the toilet area when we arrived?). We had a balcony room on deck 8 – room 8630. The boat was really rocking on days 2 and 3, and there was a “popping” sound in the balcony door when it would rock. I could never figure out what it was, but I’ve never heard that before and it was pretty loud. We tried to open the door and figure out where it was coming from but couldn’t.

Other thoughts:

One thing I noticed far more than other cruises in the past is the constant approaching/ selling of extra services like specialty restaurants and the drink package. The first day we were approached constantly, in every venue, trying to get us to purchase something. I’ve seen this before but never this bad.

The boat was rocking BAD on Night 2, All of Day and Night 3. They had to drain and close the pools.

We LOVED Zumba on the pool deck on all the sea days :) so fun!

My highlight of the cruise was the Silent Dance party in Blue Moon. It was so much fun.

We did not get close with any bartenders this cruise. In the past, I always have chatted with them and gone to favorites, but this time, there were different bartenders every day and night at each venue so it was hard to do that.

The Cruise Director, Casey Pelter, was only seen at the “big ticket” items – Belly Flop, Love and Marriage Gameshow, The Quest, and that’s really it. I also saw him at the Crown and Anchor event in Imperial, but I did not see him any other time. I would have liked to. I LOVED his staff though! Neal, Lorenzo, Maya, Prince – they were all amazing and we got to know them pretty well since we participated in everything.

St. Thomas Mountain Top was absolutely beautiful. I wish we would have spent more time there. I have never seen something like that in my life – I am going to have to go see that again.

Hurricane damage is still very apparent in St. Thomas, St. Maarteen, and San Juan, PR.

The ship is gorgeous. All of the public areas do not show signs of age, in my opinion. They are fresh, new clean, and I enjoyed it so much, we booked ANOTHER voyage on her for September 31- August 7 for New England and Canada ?

I have decided I am the biggest fan of the Voyager class. I have been on Oasis & Allure 2 times each, and while they are amazing, I think they might be a little too big. Adventure never felt crowded unless a show had just let out and people were walking to get somewhere else, or at the bars when people wanted a drink. The pool deck was never so crowded that you couldn’t find a chair. Adventure was just the perfect size – I was worried I had been “spoiled” by Oasis, but honestly, it was my favorite size of all of their fleet.

One last thought – they have GREATLY improved the Café Promenade food options. The vegetarian pizza- which I think was just cheese pizza with maybe 3 leaves of spinach added- was actually delicious. The cheese tasted like REAL CHEESE! Their sandwiches and salads/ snacks were also pretty good for a quick bite after a few drinks at Blue Moon or in the middle of the day after the pool.

I can't wait to sail on her again!!!

Glad you had an AWESOME  Cruise! Any chance you have a Cruise Compass to share? Thanks ?

On 2/17/2018 at 10:28 AM, KLAconQueso said:

I'm a little over excited, so I'm going to go ahead and start the thread and give a bit of a cruise preview. If you guys have any questions or things you'd like me to check out, post it here!

This is my first time on this ship (and class of ship!) and all of the ports are brand new to us, so this will be a very exciting cruise.  

My husband and I plus 10 members from his side of the family (!!!!) will be traveling to San Juan early in the morning on February 22nd, and finally arriving around 3:00 PM (San Juan time). We are staying in Old San Juan in an Air BnB that we are splitting with our siblings in law (two other married couples all around the same age). My in laws and others are staying at the Casa Blanca Hotel. We got a great deal on this AirBnB, so really excited that we were able to find something reasonable in the area of the city that we wanted to be in!  

The cruise doesn’t embark until February 24th, so we will be spending two days exploring the city prior to our cruise. I know a lot of questions have come up here regarding the condition of the city, so I will be sure to share whatever pictures and information that I can!  

Now for our itinerary, we will be visiting St. Maarten, St. Kitts, Antigua, St. Lucia, and Barbados – leaving us with only one sea day! VERY port heavy itinerary.  

St. Maarten – We will be taking a Bernard’s SXM Tour (Third Party Excursion) 

St. Kitts – We have an early afternoon Island History and Rum Tasting Tour booked through the cruise line 

Antigua – We will be taking a taxi to Valley Church Beach 

St. Lucia – We are taking a Jeep Adventure and Beach Break excursion that we booked through the cruise line (and swinging by a brewery “tap room” with great reviews near the port!) 

Barbados – We have chartered a private catamaran tour for only our group with two snorkel spots, lunch buffet, and drinks included (SO excited for this!) 

As I mentioned, each of these ports are totally new to us so really excited to see what’s in store.  

For our cabin, we started out in an interior cabin beneath the casino. However, thanks to some price drops, we were able to move up to a Deck 8 Interior Promenade Cabin! It’s our first time in this type of stateroom and we are really excited to check it out based on feedback we’ve had.  

I don’t anticipate we will be doing any specialty dining this cruise (unless we can convince some in the group to join us in the newly added Izumi!), so we will be going to the Main Dining Room with our group during traditional early seating. Additionally, we DID spring for a Deluxe Drink Package this cruise once we saw it drop to $39/pp per day – worth it to us, especially since we are not diamond and do not get the perk of the nightly happy hour (though, this is our first cruise as Emerald!). I did also purchase a single VOOM code to stay connected back home (I worry about our dog!), and also to share our trip with you guys of course!   

Thanks for reading – very much looking forward to sharing our upcoming ADVENTURE on the Adventure of the Seas!   

Please share if you have the Cruise Compass, it's been almost a year since anyone posted a copy! 

Thanks ?

Greetings! Please help! I'm looking for a recent Cruise Compass, with the same itinerary as our 4/28/18 Adventure cruise out of San Juan. We have 2 sea days on days 2 & 5. Any help will be appreciated, as we are trying to book dining, etc. for our family reunion/50th anniversary cruise!

Many Thanks???