Really enjoyed our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas
Adventure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 163
6 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: October 20, 2019
Ship: Adventure of the Seas
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
We really enjoyed our cruise on the Adventure of the Seas (cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to the Cayman Islands and to Mexico Oct 20 to Oct 26). We had just been on an older, smaller ship, and we realized how much we liked the larger ship with a greater variety of activities.Embarkation
We arrived at the Port Everglade Terminal 29 around 10:30 am and dropped off our suitcases at the baggage carts. We were then instructed to drive to the midport parking garage, where we parked and then had to take a shuttle back to the terminal building. It took a bit of searching to find the shuttle at the back of the garage, as the signs were not well placed. The south Florida sun was very hot, while we waited (no about 10 minutes for the shuttle to arrive. Back in the terminal, the team did a great job. We were through security and check-in in about 10 minutes and we were eating in the Windjammer buffet within 30 minutes of our arrival.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Main Dining Room: Waiter Charlie and Assistant Waiter Mohammad (Table 581) were excellent. Charlie was more reserved, but provided excellent service. Mohammad was very personable and entertained us with his ‘yummy, yummy’ comments. He was always joking with us, yet always gave us great service. We had just been on another Royal Caribbean cruise a few weeks ago and found many similarities in the dining room offerings. Many of the starters, entrees and desserts were identical to our recent cruise to Bermuda. Regardless, with few exceptions, the food was good.
As on our previous cruise, breakfast was better than lunch. Burgers were no match for Guy's Burgers on Carnival. There did not seem to be as much variety in the WIndjammer from day to day as on previous cruises. At times, the buffet got very crowded, but we never had a problem finding a seat. The staff working in the buffet were very friendly. (Tip: We used hand sanitizer at the entrance to the Windjammer and brought a small bottle of our own, so we could use it every time we returned from the buffet. Suggestion to Royal Caribbean ; Make hand sanitizer available in the buffet so people can use it before and after getting food. ) Promenade Cafe (Lunch): This is located on deck 5 on the Promenade. We had pizza and small sandwiches there a couple of times. They ran out of the type of sandwich my wife wanted, and they said it would be ‘a while’ before they made more. Still, it was a nice alternative to the busy Windjammer. The Main Dining Room was also open for breakfast and lunch on most days. We ate breakfast there a couple of times and enjoyed that more than the buffet. We also paid the $9.95 charge per person to eat in Johnny Rockets. The burgers were very good (still not as tasty as Guy’s on Carnival), but the onion rings were hard (reheated?..not sure). We asked for different onion rings, but they were undercooked.
Onboard Activities
The casino was smoky and smelly, regardless of where we sat (in smoking or non-smoking). It’s time that cruise lines ban smoking from casinos. While we didn’t win (as expected), we did enjoy playing and there were some newer machines to choose from. We played a very flat, unimaginative miniature golf course one afternoon. (Hole 7 does move from deck 13 to deck 12. Otherwise, it was pretty boring.) We didn’t go to the spa, we didn’t play bingo, or much else. We did go to a presentation about cruises to Alaska (my wife won a door prize) and to another presentation (next cruise?..can’t remember, but my wife won another door prize). For the most part, we relaxed.
Entertainment
We could not understand the logic of the schedule for entertainment. On some nights, shows started later, but on others they started at 7:00 pm - so we had to rush through the end of dinner to make the early show. 7:15 TO 7:30 pm would be a better start time for early shows. The singers and dancers were good, but the song selection was strange. For example, the songs from “Can’t Stop the Rock” were all from the movies...but there was no indication in the title or in the sets that would indicate that. One of the songs was the theme from Men in Black. An odd choice. The hypnotist show was very funny. We sat next to someone who was hypnotized on stage and he honestly thought he never left his theater seat. He had no recollection of being on stage. The farewell show was ok, though the comedian wasn’t as funny as some of the others we’ve seen on cruises.
Service and Staff
Very good. We had pleasant experiences with everyone, from the port (luggage handlers, security, embarkation staff), to housekeeping, to guest services, to the food staff (several of them talked to us for a while in the Windjammer). We did have an issue with our dinner table (it was a large, wide rectangle which made it difficult to talk (or even see) anybody. We spoke to head waiter Fiorella Aldana at breakfast the next day, who got the table modified. Thanks again, Fiorella!
Ship Quality
The ship looks great and we really enjoyed the open areas on deck. We also took a lot of evening walks outside on deck 4. The Promenade was a great place to go in the evening. But, the casino is too smokey and overcrowded. It should be redesigned for easier movement and for airflow. Also, our cabin was on deck three forward and our main dining room was on deck three aft. The ice skating rink prevented us from walking to the dining room, so we had to go up to deck 4 and walk through the casino to get to dinner.
Cabin / Stateroom
Our room was ready at 1:00 pm as advertised and our suitcases showed up soon after that. We had an interior cabin on deck three (forward cabin 3007). The room was small, but had plenty of room and storage space for two people. An extra person would have been a challenge. There is enough room under the bed for a couple of large suitcases. The closet had about a dozen wooden hangers for our clothes. We briefly met our cabin steward and only saw him a few times for the rest of our cruise. Our room was always clean by the time we got back from breakfast and after dinner. We had towel animals in the room twice on our six day cruise. If you are considering booking a room on this part of the ship, be aware that noise was an issue because we were directly below the schooner bar. For a few hours in the evening , we heard and sometimes felt the bass from the music. We used a white noise machine to drown out the bass. As on most cruise ships, there are only two power outlets in the cabin, located on the desk, just to the left of the TV. And, speaking of TV, it was still awful. Not that we wanted to watch a lot of TV, but half the channels were Royal Caribbean’s content (daily show, cruise shopping, shore excursions, etc..) which repeated endlessly. There were a couple of sports channels, a few news channels (either ends of the spectrum - Fox & MSNBC), a few channels for kids, a music channel with nobody I’ve ever heard of, a couple of channels that showed old TV shows, etc… But, very little new content and no movie channels. I seem to remember better choices on past cruises, so this must have been a cost-savings measure for RC.
Ship tip
There are lots of chairs available on the sun deck - if you like sitting in the sun with no available shade. Also, most of the chairs in the Solarium were ‘reserved’ very early in the morning. Nobody from the ship enforces the ‘no reserving chair’ rule. We found a couple of chairs in the shade (my wife couldn’t find one in the sun) so while we were there for a few hours (11am to 3 pm), we saw MANY chairs where nobody ever used.
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Visited the beach area the night before the cruise. Had some great tacos at the Drunken Taco. Stayed at the Holiday Inn Express overnight. Under construction. Didn't feel all that clean. Probably wouldn't stay there again.
We had never been to the island before, so we did the Land & Sea tour (09:45 - 13:15). Got off the ship just before 8am so we did not need a tender reservation. We walked around the shops until it was time to meet at the pier for the excursion. We took a very short (about two minutes) drive to the first stop, a boat/submarine. The water portion of the tour lasted about 45 minutes and was enjoyable. We saw lots of coral, fish and a couple of shipwrecks - but no sharks, turtles or stingrays. Next stop was ‘Hell’, which is an interesting collection of strange rock formations. It was not too big, but we got a few decent photos. We also had our passports stamped in the Hell store (they charged $1) and bought some postcards from hell to mail to people. Third stop was supposed to be a rum cake factory, but was actually just a tiny store. The last stop was the Cayman Turtle Centre (a conservation facility and tourist attraction located in the West Bay district). This was awesome! So many sea turtles! My wife got to hold a baby sea turtle. I wish we had more time there.
Again, we had not been to Costa Maya before. We took a tour to the Chacchoben Mayan Ruins (11:30 - 16:30) and enjoyed it more than we thought we would. After meeting in the theater, we walked down the pier to meet our bus. (Tour guides...SLOW DOWN while waking! The group was large and very spread out on the pier.) The bus ride took about an hour and it poured for most of the trip. But, we only had a few sprinkles while we toured the ruins. My sneakers were caked with mud and clay because the grounds were so wet. It took a while to clean them off later. Also, watch out for fire ants! We got to climb up the side of one pyramid and we also saw some monkeys in the trees. The ruins are impressive.
We chose not to do an excursion in Cozumel and stuck close to the dock. My wife found a nice purse in a leather shop and one of our dinner table mates bought a great pair of boots. We got back on the ship for lunch and spent the rest of the day on the ship.
Disembarkation
Off the ship on-time, through customs with a less than 10 minute wait, bags were waiting for us in the terminal. Total time from ship exit to shuttle was about 20 minutes. I took the shuttle and returned to the terminal to pick up my wife and all our bags.
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