March 4 to 11 Adventure of the Seas by Terry and Ruth DeCotis

Adventure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 50

Overall rating:

3 out of 5
Verified Review
Adventure of the Seas

7 Night Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)

Sail date: March 04, 2017

Ship: Adventure of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6514

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Our favorite part of the cruise was the destinations and the relief from the winter conditions in NH -and being with long-time friends.

We enjoyed the cruise.  RC does a great job with embarkation; it is quick and organized “within” the terminal.  They also do a great job with disembarkation within the terminal. In every instance, as examples- however, they leave you wondering where to go once you go through customs  --the same is true on board when you line up from the staging area to leave the ship - the leader talks to the first 20% of the group and left about 80% of us wondering what to hell was going on and where to go - they did this with the excursions as well - people were a bit disgruntled with the lack of attention to leading us to our destination :) All of us found the cruise ship a bit out of date and has the feeling of being in a 1950s paneled mobile home with painted doors.  The rooms were clean but needed some paint for sure. Given our total of11 previous cruises on Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, and Carnival over the years, this ship was in the worst condition in comparison. We chose this cruise line based on the ports and the timing in March and we are satisfied that was accomplished.  We also would not fly into Newark again and opt to pay extra for a non-stop flight - it was a challenge. So overall I'm glad I experienced the RC ship - I'm sure their new ships are much better.  The only reason we might choose RC again would be a destination or port that other lines would not offer. The food and service was equal or better than other lines.  There were no extras that we experience before - like a basket of munchies when having a drink, and chocolate on the pillows, etc *in addition the daily newsletter lacked organization and it didn't provide much information as we've experienced on other cruises. I would not recommend this RC ship to anyone as a first time cruiser - or anyone who has cruised with NCL, HA, or Celebrity as I think they would see a marked difference.  I am going to develop a cruise checklist for our next cruise.  I think the RC online check-in leaves a lot of unanswered questions.  I had found the small link that took me to the baggage tags - I made up 4 tags thinking that Dan and Pat might not find that link which she didn't - so we tagged their luggage with our tags.  No one was at the van in airport at SJ during disembarkation to tell us that we had to run our bags through customs before lining up after getting our boarding passes at the kiosk - again probably some who have cruised knew the ropes but we didn't but again we made out fine.  I am very detailed and need to know all the paperwork that needs to be processed--I actually designed a 3 ring binder that was tabbed with all the reservations and numbers in it which came in handy several times.

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

1 out of 5
The cruise director was hard to understand with his accent and he was a fast talker and not very informative - more of a showbiz guy and less of an administrator of details. Some shows were very good but most not the caliber you would expect. The sound was off and the singers were yelling and the sound was bleeding out so the true voice we couldn't hear clearly over the over compensation of the band - loud is not better - it drowned out the singers voices.

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
•All of us found the cruise ship a bit out of date and has the feeling of being in a 1950s paneled mobile home with painted doors. The rooms were clean but needed some paint for sure.•So overall I'm glad I experienced the RC ship - I'm sure their new ships are much better. The only reason we might choose RC again would be a destination or port that other lines would not offer. •Given our total of11 previous cruises on Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, and Carnival over the years, this ship was in the worst condition in comparison •I would not recommend this RC ship to anyone as a first time cruiser - or anyone who has cruised with NCL, HA, or Celebrity as I think they would see a marked difference.•I would not recommend this RC ship to anyone as a first time cruiser - or anyone who has cruised with NCL, HA, or Celebrity as I think they would see a marked difference

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
The cabin steward was EXCELLENT - he kept the cabin very clean and organized. However, the ship is not in good condition and he couldn't change that condition of course. •All of us found the cruise ship a bit out of date and has the feeling of being in a 1950s paneled mobile home with painted doors. The rooms were clean but needed some paint for sure. •Given our total of11 previous cruises on Celebrity, Holland America, Norwegian, and Carnival over the years, this ship was in the worst condition in comparison •So overall I'm glad I experienced the RC ship - I'm sure their new ships are much better. The only reason we might choose RC again would be a destination or port that other lines would not offer. •The food and service was equal or better than other lines. There were no extras that we experience before - like a basket of munchies when having a drink, and chocolate on the pillows, etc •I would not recommend this RC ship to anyone as a first time cruiser - or anyone who has cruised with NCL, HA, or Celebrity as I think they would see a marked difference. Have several cabin photos but the upload doesn't allow me to even upload one photo at 4200 KB which is less than the required limit of 4MB.

Ship tip

If you are a first time cruiser, don't use this ship as an example of what is possible for accommodations on a cruise ship. If you are a second time cruiser you'll be disappointed as I'm sure this ship would not prove to be a good comparison. The food and dining staff are excellent.

Ports of call

San Juan, Puerto Rico

5 out of 5
Stay at the Condado - very nice

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5
Take a taxi - it's less expensive and you see more.

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5
Take a taxi not the excursion - you learn more and see more.

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5
Take a taxi rather than the excursion - you see more.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

5 out of 5
Take a taxi rather than the excursion - you see more and learn more. See both the French and Dutch areas

Basseterre, St. Kitts Did not visit port

Take the train excursion - it is pricey but WELL worth the view and narration of the view and culture
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5 Comments

Gwbigdog    2 years ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise.

mmruiz    7 years ago

We were on her end of January and loved the ship so much that we're going again in February.

jenlwolff    7 years ago

I've been on Adventure twice before and going again in November. I completely disagree. It's an older ship but not that outdated. Everything was clean and service was fantastic. I feel as though you'd find things to complain about even if it were perfect.

kbrown10    7 years ago

Yup he lost some sleep over this one

drcliff    7 years ago

Did you speak to your therapist about this?

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