Welcome to Your Favorites, where you have the opportunity to share your travel experiences with fellow Internet Travelers around the world.

Royal Caribbean International

MS Adventure of the Seas

Your Rating:
Reviewed by: : Theo Wolfe
# previous cruises: 5
Date of Trip: January 5, 2003
Itinerary: Caribbean - Southern

My only comment is that BIGGER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER!

The pool and deck areas were very clean and there were always plenty of deck chairs available. I especially appreciated the Adult Only swimming pool and whirlpools altho I do feel they could be "monitored" better.

The food left much to be desired. It was highly seasoned with hot sauce and seasonings. One meal in the main dining room had garlic in every entree served that evening. The Portofino restaurant with the $20.00 per person cover charge is a big rip-off. You get basically the same food you get in the main dining room. We did not go because of all the complaints we heard about it. Johnny Rockets had good old time hamburgers and hot dogs, malts & shakes and probably the best food on the ship... and we are not into "fast food". The service in the dining room was adequate. We had a hard time ordering drinks because the wine steward or bar person was never available. The head waiter kept asking for our approval of his service as if he had to be assured he was doing his job which sometimes became annoying...we found this true in other areas too.

The cabin we had overlooked the Promenade and was very nice. We had two twin beds pushed together and they were one of the better sleeping beds we have had on a cruise. There was plenty of storage and closet space, a safe in the closet, extra blankets and pillows. A mini-bar, sofa, vanity/desk and a window seat overlooking the Promenade. It was rather noisy until about midnight because we were directly over the Sports Bar. We did not appreciate the parade down the Promenade at midnight the last night of the cruise when we had to be up early in the morning to leave ship.

The ice show was very good. The stage shows were not of the quality we have seen on other cruises. Many of the shows we would have enjoyed seeing (game shows, comedy shows, etc) were held at midnight which made it difficult to attend when you had excursion trips planned for early the next morning. Much better planning is needed with regard to show times! There was not adequate notice given for participation in the activities either. It gave one the impression of "being staged".

Never having been to Aruba, it was a big disappointment. It was like the Mojave Desert with a beach. Curacao was more colorful and the dolphin encounter was wonderful for all ages. St. Maarten was probably the prettiest island other than St. Thomas and had the best shopping, we felt better prices than St. Thomas.

Altho our cruise was billed with English as the primary language, we were in the minority, I'm sure. The main language spoken was Spanish and most of the passengers seemed to be from San Juan. There were over 400 children on board, a lot of them totally unsupervised, running, yelling, playing on the elevators, in the casinos and in areas designated as adult only. For those of us who wanted to get away and relax with peace and quiet, we chose the wrong ship.