High Hopes . . . Big Let Down!!!

Item: Adventure of the Seas
Rating: 2
Author: DominicL

Adventure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

DominicL

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 47

Overall rating:

2 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 14, 2015

Ship: Adventure of the Seas

Cabin number: 8276

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

The cruise was poor at best. The embarkation and disembark process was terrible. The ship was outdated. The dinners were good quality food; all other food was terrible. We had to ask to have dinners as close to the doors (mid ship) as possible because the constant vibration from the engine was making my wife sick. The nonstop sales pitch when aboard the ship got tiring after a day or two; think infomercial (act now!!, come to the promenade for a free chain when you buy a pendant, spa service $20 off . . wait $30 off . . . wait $50 off). UGH!! I'd prefer it if they set a competitive price and let me choose what I want. My thoughts don't go on the Adventure of the Seas until it gets a refresh. If Royal Caribbean has a better quality ship with better food choices and stopped the sales pitch they would probably be a good company to sail with. Their customer service on board was actually very good. It was the only thing preventing me from giving it an outright terrible rating.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5

Dinner service was good and food quality was better than I expected. The rest of the food choices were terrible! Windjammer was hideous. If you missed your dinner the options were VERY limited.

Entertainment

1 out of 5

We found it hard to find anything that was of interest to us. About 2 days in we just gave up trying.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Customer service was great. All the staff was friendly and had were clearly trained on quality customer service!

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

The ship was outdated. We felt we were in a 90's Las Vegas Casino when aboard the ship. We heard an update was coming in 2016 though.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5

Our stateroom attendant was great. The room was outdated. It smelt dank and musty (never could get rid of the smell).

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S.V.I.

3 out of 5

St. John's, Antigua

3 out of 5

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5

St. George's, Grenada

1 out of 5

8 Comments

Cruisers4Lyfe 4 months ago

Thanks for sharing

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deboftheseas 8 years ago

it's Explorer of the seas living the dream, watch it

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deboftheseas 8 years ago

you know what it is....the booze packages have changed everything.... there has been a real shortage of waiters on the pool deck since introduced. We do Oasis in January, we turn Diamond on this sailing, yahoo, when we started on RC, I thought reaching a level like that was unattainable for us...but a cruise here and a cruise there adds up, I believe this is our 11 or 12th on RC...#21 overall. We were on Explorer in Feb before the refit, it was pretty sad looking around the pool, needed a lot of tile work, but the rest of the ship looked okay, Someone loaded A You Tube Video you'd love, Its Explorer after the refit and its called Living the Dream....see if you can find it, its really well done....both ship and video

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Patrick4 8 years ago

we have done 5 on royal and that's it. I noticed less wait staff at the bars last march..they are cutting corners that way but that was it. An older ship is just that. Again, well said!

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deboftheseas 8 years ago

thanks, we cruise a lot and I work in the cruise business, so I think I know what I'm talking about a good percentage of the time

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Patrick4 8 years ago

last comment, well said

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deboftheseas 8 years ago

Glory is an older ship as well, your husband will enjoy any cruise when its your first, ad you have nothing to compare it with. If you read a couple more reviews on Adventure you'll see how other people loved it. There are probably areas that look tired, but you'll find that on all older ships, especially around the pool and other outside areas. I've sat on many ships where there is vibration in the dining rooms.. cuz they are always at the back of the ship and on lower levels. Carnival Pride was one of the worst for vibration in the lower level of the dining room at the aft end. People love to compare each line and ship, they are all different, the way the Captain runs his ship makes all the difference. The way things are done by a cruise line, no matter which one you choose, are not consistent with every ship within that cruise line. Especially food....I've had my favorite entree on Royal Caribbean on every cruise, sometimes it's not good at all other times its fantastic... depends on who is cooking it on that ship, or how the head chef interprets the recipe. So just go with an open mind, have fun, and believe about 1/4 of what you read on here and you'll be fine

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TNTGreen 8 years ago

We almost booked this ship but opted for Carnival Glory. I read a lot of comments about how it's outdated. This is going to be my husbands first cruise so I tried to select a ship to where he would want to do it again. Fingers crossed

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