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Royal Caribbean International

MS Adventure of the Seas

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Reviewed by: Kathy K.
# previous cruises: 8
Date of Trip: July 6, 2008
Itinerary: Caribbean - Southern

My husband and I just got back from a Southern Caribbean cruise on Adventure of the Seas. We were very happy with the ship, our balcony cabin was great and we enjoyed our time on the ship and on the islands. We had one sea day at the start of the cruise, and then visited five islands in a row before docking in San Juan. We would recommend this cruise if you enjoy a port intensive cruise on a large, beautiful ship.

We found the public areas to be very comfortable. There were lots of chairs on several levels around the pools; chairs on the promenade deck; comfortable chairs in the bar areas, and soft, easy chairs on the balcony landings overlooking the Royal Promenade at the stern end. The chairs on the balcony landings were a nice touch and often used by groups and families.

We liked the Blue Moon bar in the Viking Crown. We often sat by the windows overlooking the pool deck or the ocean with drink in hand and enjoyed the view and the quiet or the music, depending when we were there. We also liked the Schooner Bar on deck 3. We enjoyed the Cafi Promenade on the Royal Promenade and enjoyed the promenade area in general.

Deck 4 is the promenade deck. It is basically a walk-around promenade. On the bow end you run into stairs and can either climb them, cross over and down to the other side, or cut through the ship through doors at that point. Not a perfect walk-around deck, but close to it.

The pools were very popular and towels were available all day at the pool. This pool deck area had the games that were played and the music was from this area. The Solarium area was quieter and had its own pool.

We walked through the casino and it is large, noisy and smokey. Our dining room table friend said he donated at the casino. We had a coupon in our Crown and Anchor book that gave us a free spin and won us six cents.

We did not use the children's programs or babysitting.

We had excellent service in the dining room. Our waiter and assistant waiter were very good. The head waiter was very gracious and appeared nightly to assist in some way. We thought the food ranged from good to sometimes very good, depending on the night and what we had. On this cruise, we had a recommended menu for the evening and then a separate complete menu. We did not eat at the specialty restaurants.

The Windjammer has a wide selection of food and we ate breakfast and lunch there. We enjoyed the food. Because we had island days for five days, the Windjammer was not as crowded at lunch at it would have been on a sea day. People return at different times and the flow of people seemed better because of this. We always found a table. The service at the Windjammer was excellent. The tables were cleared quickly, used plates were removed from our table as we finished eating, and the waiters brought us additional iced tea, coffee or water. There is free soft serve ice cream just outside on the deck. The Ben and Jerry's on the Royal Promenade is very popular, but is not free.

We also ate at Johnny Rocket's on the sea day and were lucky to be seated right away. Unless you are a first time cruiser, you have a Crown and Anchor booklet with a coupon to use that pays for the $4.00 charge at Johnny Rockets. The food is otherwise free. This bunch of waiters seemed to enjoy dancing and we had a fun lunch.

We had a balcony cabin on the port side, just six cabins from the stern of the ship. The bedding was new and the room was pretty. The balcony was completely enclosed on each side, rather than a panel that is open at the very top or bottom. This class of cabin was just a little bigger than the basic balcony cabin but not by much. There was adequate room for a full sofa, rather than a love seat. We had plenty of hangers and the closet was large enough. The safe was over the TV and this put it at a good level to use it, rather than in the closet where safes have been on other cruises. We had nice storage in the bathroom along one side of the mirror, and along both sides of the mirror at the desk. There were two sets of four drawers and some open shelves, also two small night stands with storage. A full sized person could fit in the shower, but probably could not pick up the soap he or she dropped without opening the shower doors. I liked the curved shower doors. Our cabin was quiet. Our balcony was quiet, as well.

We attended two of the shows and both were with the RCI singers and dancers. They were a talented bunch of performers and we enjoyed the shows. We missed the Mowtown show, which I heard was good. I waited in line on the sea day at 9:00 a.m. to get tickets to the ice skating show. The line was quite long. On the Freedom of the Seas, there were four people distributing tickets at four tables in the Royal Promenade, and there was little wait to get tickets. There were only two people with tickets at one table by Studio B on the Adventure, and this made it slower. People talked to each other in line, so it did not matter much, but the Freedom gets the prize for handling the distribution of ice show tickets.

The ice show was very good. There were 10 skaters from all over the world and they did amazing jumps on the smaller ice rink on a ship. The ice show is worth waiting in line for tickets.

We left San Juan at 8:00 p.m. and many people were on deck for the sail away. There was music and a happy, fun feeling on deck. We passed El Morro, and the fort was lit up with spotlights. A Carnival ship was still in port preparing to leave and was all lit up and pretty.

Our sea day was the next day and the weather went from sunny to cloudy to 30 minutes of rain by lunch, then partly cloudy the rest of the day.

The next day we arrived in Barbados and the weather was hot with a clear blue sky. My husband went on a diving excursion and I went on the ship's Tiami Sail and Snorkel excursion. We were on a large catamaran sailboat and sailed to a nearly bay. One of the crew put fish food in the water and four sea turtles came. The turtles were amazing to see. They served free rum punch, beer and soft drinks after we were back on board, which were enjoyed by all. They put up both sails and sailed the catamaran back to the pier and this was a really enjoyable ride back to the ship.

St. Lucia was our next port. It was another clear and sunny day. My husband again did a dive trip and said these two dives were the best of the cruise. There is a coral preserve at Soufriere near the Pitons and he dove in this area. He said the coral is abundant and colorful, the water was very clear, and there were lots of fish. I did a coastal cruise to this same area and the Petit and Grand Pitons are magnificent to see. These huge volcanoes seem to rise out of the ocean and are green and beautiful. We stopped at a beach to swim, which felt good on a hot day. Out of nowhere, six kayaks surrounded the boat with men selling jewelry, carvings, hats, etc. They did not run into anyone in the water, but it was intimidating to have the kayaks so close to us in the water as they maneuvered around the boat. Some people bought from them.

We next stopped at Antigua. The weather was clear and hot. We did the Canopy Zipline excursion. We went by bus to the top of a mountain across the island. They got us into gear and instructed us on technique and safety. There were nine stages, several bridges, one straight drop down, and stairways to go up and down along the course. There were three ropes holding us on and two cables that we rode on. It was more challenging to keep straight on the cable than I had thought. It was a fun thing to do. The climb back to the top is hard, with multiple stairways and a climb up some rocks between stairways, so keep this in mind if you decide to do this excursion.

At St. Maarten, my husband went diving again and I took the ship's excursion to the French side of the island. This is a bus tour and we had about 45 minutes to shop at Marigot. The traffic is tremendous on this island. Again, we had great weather.

Our last port was St. Thomas. We had to go through U.S. Immigration when the ship docked. U.S. citizens went to the 5th level dining room, and other countries went to the 4th level. The U.S. Immigration official looked at my passport and sent me through. RCI put a happy face on my card, and I was free to leave the ship. Guess what! My husband went diving again! I went on a ship's excursion to St. John's. The ferry took us over and a bus took us to Trunk Bay. The beach was beautiful. We were in the Virgin Island's National Park. There was an area to snorkel that had underwater plaques to follow with information about coral and fish. The snorkeling was actually good here, with some fish and coral both. The water was about 15 feet deep.

I also spent time swimming and enjoying the beach. Later that day, my husband and I went to Paradise Point just down the road from the ship, and rode the gondola to the top. We had a wonderful view of the ship and St. Thomas. There is a bar with food at the top and there are shops. We went back to the ship and were sorry to leave St. Thomas, our last port of this trip.

We had sunny and hot days at every port. There were no other ships at any of the ports, though, which was unusual. At San Juan, we were off the ship by 8:00 a.m. We had a 3:00 p.m. flight, so we did the Bacardi Rum Factory excursion in the morning. Our driver took us a tour of Old San Juan and then to the Bacardi plant. The tour was not of the distillery, but was an informational tour with a video. The Bacardi history is interesting. We visited the gift shop and then went to a covered, open air area with a bar.

We each had two tickets to use at the bar. Everyone left for the airport feeling happier about security and checking in than we might have.

We had checked our luggage through the ship and left it at American's area after we left the ship. We were to next see it at our final destination. This worked out fine. Our luggage came off the turnstile in Kansas City at midnight that night as we waited for it. We applauded.

We met Jim and Pam from Baton Rouge, Louisiana at dinner. Our other four dinner companions were from Denmark and moved to the second seating, so we did not have time to get to know them. Jim and Pam were wonderful people to share dinner with. We met the people in the next cabin and would invite them over, too. There were a lot of families on board, some newlyweds, couples of all ages, and a number of older people, too. There were people from many countries who came to the Caribbean for this cruise.