<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />My wife and I had our first cruise experience on Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas from April 29th through May 6. I can say enough good things about the ship, crew, stateroom and food. Sure, there were some passengers who were less than courteous but we have encountered that on dry land as well. If anyone has any questions about the ship we will try to answer them as best we can but truthfully there was far more to see and do than we could possibly take in. The only glitches came from US Airways but since we don't fly very often it is difficult to say whether that was par for that airline or not. Warning: RCI sent us tags to put on our bags before we got to the airport which would ultimately identify them to RCI personnel in San Juan as to which stateroom they were to be delivered. After the initial check in at the airline counter we carried our bags to security for the final inspection at which time we noticed the aforementioned tags were missing. The TSA agent said the airline tears off all tags prior to placing theirs on bags. Luckily I had used only 3 so had enough to replace those torn off.
We are saving our pennies for the next trip with RCI.
We stopped at Barbadous, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Maarten (sp)and St. Thomas. We did not take any tours through the ship but hired a guy in Barbadous to take us around who did a pretty good job. Did the same in St. Lucia with ok results.
We had stateroom #8304 a deluxe view with balcony. That is the only way to go at least for us. There was plenty of room for the two of us and while the "space capsule" shower was a new experience it got the job done.
What did we enjoy most? That is a hard question to answer as it was all so great. I think the availability of so many different activities on the ship coupled with the port stops for a flavor of the Caribbean was great. The staff was exemplary and no matter what level of employee we talked to, when we thanked them always said "my pleasure" and seemed to mean it.
I don't think there was anything we "hated" about the trip but there were some things that surprised us and others we would do differently.
1. Some of the passengers could be just downright rude. You know the cutting in line at the lunch buffet (don't know why as there was plenty of food and plenty of time or free room service if one missed a meal), jumping in front of us when an elevator came and failure to respond to a smile and hello. We finally agreed some people just prefer to be unhappy and/or rude.
2. We asked for 2nd seating at dinner with a table for 8. Our thought was less children at an 8:30 PM dinner and with 6 others at our table we would have interesting conversation and maybe make new friends. No one but us showed the first two nights so we moved to a table for 6 which had an opening. That worked ok but they were two couples travelling together making us the odd ones although they were very cordial. Second seating is too late for us as by the time dinner was over we were pooped out from the day's activities and usually crashed. Next time we go for first (main) seating.
3. The time ashore is obviously limited and we did not properly prepare to budget our time wisely. Next time we will do more research and book tours as appropriate.
4. We (I) took way too much clothing. I took my tuxedo and wore it the two formal nights (which by the way I like) and a sport coat and slacks for the dress casual night (which many diners failed to do)however; took way too many slacks and shorts. One could reasonably get by with two pair of walking shorts, an additional pair of slacks and a few casual shirts. Can't speak for the ladies.
We have no frame of reference but think RCI is the line for us.
Al & Sandi
Last edited by Administrator; 07/03/2007 02:38 PM.
