Overall Score: A-                         zac@zacwolf.com        º Photo Album        º Downloads        º Review
		Sail Date: November 28, 2004 Ratings: (out of a possible 100) Room:     Zac: 98 Charles: 95 Mark: 92 Jeff: 89 Overall: A- Facilities:     Zac: 100 Charles: 98 Mark: 91 Jeff: 96 Overall: A Food:     Zac: 94 Charles: 88 Mark: 85 Jeff: 96 Overall: A- Service:     Zac: 88 Charles: 85 Mark: 95 Jeff: 90 Overall: B+ Ports of Call:     Zac: 85 Charles: 92 Mark: 82 Jeff: 98 Overall: B+ Excursions:     Zac: 100 Charles: 95 Mark: 100 Jeff: 100 Overall: A+

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Also note that this information was specific to my cruise and reflects my experience and opinions. This information is not affiliated with nor supported by Royal Caribbean International, and RCI retains the right to change any and all options at any time for future cruises!

The review that you're reading is for a Royal Caribbean International cruise on their ship Adventure of the Seas. This is one of two Southern Caribbean itineraries that leaves from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Because this sailing was on a major US holiday travel weekend and we already had Priority Embarkation with our suite, we decided to handle our own air transportation to Puerto Rico. We decided to leave the day after Thanksgiving so we had a few "pre-days" in Puerto Rico to compensate for any travel delays. Besides a mis-directed bag (that American hand delivered to our hotel in San Juan later that night), we ran into no delays. We had a flight from RDU to SJU with a layover in Miami. One word of warning, the Miami airport is undergoing a major renovation so don't dawdle as they've created long corridors between concourses and it took us about 15 minutes of hoofing it to make our connecting flight. If you're not up for this kind of hike have a flight steward call you a courtesy cart when you land.

I highly highly highly recommend the suites aboard the Adventure of the Seas, not only because the rooms themselves are wonderful, but the priority embarkation/disembarkation can often make a big difference to your overall cruise experience. Based on the vast majority of reviews I read prior to taking the cruise, I found a very high correlation between people that had a good air-travel/embarkation process enjoying their whole cruise experience, compared to those that had a bad air-travel/embarkation experience disliking their whole cruise experience. With Priority Embarkation it took us only ten minutes from leaving the taxi to being in our suite. Just something to think about... If you're cruising in a non-suite room, I would probably recommend letting the Cruise Line handle your air portion as a couple on our cruise said that RCI arranged transferring their luggage from the plane to the ship, but I've also heard back from others that said that RCI did NOT handle transferring their luggage from plane to ship. They said they had to pickup their bags at airport baggage claim, then take them to an RCI truck for delivery to the port. Once at the port they had to retrieve their luggage from the truck and go through the normal ship embarkation luggage checking process. You should probably have your travel agent confirm this for you, as based on these two different stories it seems that RCI varies depending on ship, port, departure date, and possibly number of transfers they are handling, etc.

Another thing I did, based on recommendations I read prior to my cruise, was to pack everything I needed for the first day of the cruise in a carry-on backpack ("essential" toiletries, bathing suit, and Smart Casual dinner clothes {more on clothing later in the review!}) that I carried with me onto the ship. Even with the Priority Embarkation and Suite Accommodations, our luggage didn't show up in our suite until after our 2nd seating Dinner time (around 9pm). Also, based on American Airlines misplacing one of my bags on the flight to Puerto Rico, I would also recommend a packing strategy that doesn't pack all of one type of cloths in one bag and another type of cloths in another bag (say all your casual cloths in one bag, and all your formal cloths in another). If one of those bags gets lost in transit... So I would recommend that if you're packing multiple bags (and I don't see how you couldn't), that you pack each bag with a selection of all the different types of cloths you'll wear through the week, and if you're packing for multiple people this same advice goes as well; make sure you don't put one person's cloths in one bag, and another person's in another bag. Make sure each bag has enough mixture of "type" and "person" to get you through a couple of days incase a bag is lost.

About the only major concern I had going into the cruise came from several reviews I read prior to leaving. I'd come to understand that the first three weeks of December are actually the "slowest" weeks of the year for this ship (thus our great price on the Suite!), and so Royal Caribbean offers significant "last minute" discounts to Puerto Rico residents. They do this because the majority of their crew's pay comes from tips so they need to fill the ship as much as possible. My concern with this came from several reviews that complained that this caused problems from very rowdy and agressive Puerto Rican cruisers. While there probably was a majority of cruisers that were from Puerto Rico, I found every one of them to be VERY courteous, friendly, and conscientious of their shipmates. While almost all of the public announcements, and various event introductions, were first given in English and then repeated in SEVERAL languages, there was no kind of special treatment given to any one group of people. All of the shows were in English, but the crew did an excellent job of seamlessly integrating introductions and announcements in other languages as well. I will tell you though, if you are NOT comfortable with a very diverse group of people and languages around you at all times then this is probably NOT the cruise for you. I did see several older American cruisers that were from, let us say "a different era", that seemed very threatened and uncomfortable by all the diversity. It's something you need to consider strongly, as your comfort around and acceptance of this diversity effects only your own cruise experience!

Itinerary:

image © ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES LTD.

DAY PORT ARRIVE DEPART Day 1 San Juan, Puerto Rico - 10:00 PM Day 2 At Sea - - Day 3 Oranjestad, Aruba 8:00 AM - Day 4 Oranjestad, Aruba - 1:00 AM Day 4 Willemstad, Curacao 8:00 AM 5:30 PM Day 5 At Sea - - Day 6 Philipsburg, St. Maarten 8:00 AM 5:30 PM Day 7 Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas 8:00 AM 5:30 PM Day 8 San Juan, Puerto Rico 8:30 AM -

Room:  [back to the top] images © ROYAL CARIBBEAN CRUISES LTD.

Deck 10:

We stayed in the Royal Suite (room 1620). We did our homework and found the least expensive week of the year for this suite then split it between Charles and I and another couple, Mark and Jeff. This room was FANTASTIC! The amenities were incredible. The suite is nearly the square footage of our home! Jeff gave the suite a lower ranking because he felt it was starting to show a bit of "wear". Several of the lights (of which there are MANY) were blown, the entertainment center had some wiring issues, the drain on the outside hot tub was corroded, and some of the cabinet hinges were broken. We had a reception Thursday night before dinner, so we called facilities about the lights, and they were all replaced after we got back from an excursion. We were pretty much "done" with the hot tub so we didn't call maintenance on that one. For the rest of us we pretty much only reduced a few points because the sofa bed was very uncomfortable. These were all pretty minor things relative to the overall experience of the room itself. On Adventure Of The Seas Separate bedroom with king-size bed, private balcony with hot tub, whirlpool bathtub, living room with queen-size sofa bed, baby grand piano and concierge service. (1,188 sq. ft., balcony 170 sq. ft.) Also includes wet bar, mini-bar, dining table in a separate area, entertainment center, including a 42” flat screen TV, stereo, DVD player and VCR, surround sound system, private bathroom, vanity area, hair-dryer, phone, computer jack, vanity table with an extendable working surface for laptop computers and 110/220 electrical outlets. Sleeps up to four people and can accommodate a rollaway bed and/or crib. 360° View: Our suite came with: Wet Bar: Five litter bottles of premium liquors Bottle of white wine, bottle of red wine (both Coppola; as in Francis Ford), and a bottle of Austi Spumonte Selection of sodas, and canned mixers (tonic/club) Snacks (candy bars, M&Ms) Selection of cocktail, wine, martini, and champaign glasses Mini Fridge1 Entertainment: Two entertainment centers, one in the living room2 with 42" plasma screen, DVD/CD player, and VCR; and in the bedroom one 25" monitor and DVD/CD player and VCR. Baby Grand Player Piano3 Jazz music piped in with a volume control for each room (including "off"). Both a round two man hot tub on the LARGE private deck, and an oval one man whirlpool bathtub in the master bath. Both of these are "bath like" in that you fill them for each use, making about the only difference between the two size and location. Luckily the water on board is VERY hot, but both "tubs" can take awhile to fill. We were all hot tub people so we did fill both a couple of time4 Large three water head shower, can also be setup as a Steam Room5 Furniture: In the bedroom: King Size round bed In the living room: L shaped "Pit Group" seating with queen size sleeper sofa6 Walk-in closet7 Desk in the bedroom8 Round four person dining table9 Separate toilet room (sink, toilet, bedight), and bath room (dual sinks, bath, shower) Misc: Two "logo" robes to use while on board Priority Embarkation10 Access to the Concierge Lounge11 Tickets good for ANY time/day of the Ice Skating show12 Room service usually delivered a daily "snack" of fruit or chocolates Additional things we requested: Two additional "logo" robes to use while on board Switch out three of the five bottles of liquor for different brands Tonic Water Olives and olive juice (for dirty martinis) from room service

Notes:
¹ There is also another mini-fridge in the connecting service-entrance/prep-room. This little room is used by the staff/room-service if you're hosting an event in the suite. We only had a small cocktail reception so this room wasn't used so we stored extra sodas, and fruit in it's mini-fridge.
² MIDI based system with a cd-rom of about eight tunes.
³ The DVD player in the living room had very loose connections to the monitor. Luckily we were all very technical so we had the whole thing apart and re-wired in about 15 minutes, but the short in the wires caused us to lose video every time house cleaning came or someone bumped the unit.
⁴ Add the shampoo from the shower and you have a very fun/nice bubble bath!
⁵ Which acts as a handy dandy clothing steamer. A few minutes in there and all the wrinkles drop right out.
⁶ The usual 4" foam mattress sitting on wooden slats. We called it "The Rack". Found it more comfortable to pull it off on to the floor and use the sofa's cushions underneath it. Would be perfect for kids, but wouldn't recommend for light sleepers...
⁷ There is a small safe, shelves, racks, but NO iron (the prices on valet pressing are very reasonable, but I recommend the steam room)
⁸ This desk is more suitable for makeup than a computer, as there is no phone near it so if you choose to add the "internet connectivity" you'll have cords strung across the bedroom. We just used the end table in the living room near the phone/power outlets. When we cruised, the "internet connectivity" system was a 52k (usually connected at between 45k-48k) "dial-up" modem-based system that you rented from Guest Services (this was the first thing we did when we boarded as they go quickly!), that utilized the ships main satellite internet link. We were told they would be upgrading the system soon, hopefully to a broadband speed link, and wireless access points. The nice thing is that using the internet connection doesn't hold up the phone line meaning you can still make/receive calls. The Royal Suite has three different phone lines/numbers for your use.
⁹Glass top table, but with 18" raised wooden center. Mention only because it's not so good for playing Mahjong.
¹⁰ We arrived at the dock at 1pm to a HUGE crowd of people. We walked right up to the separate "Suite/Diamond" luggage check-in desk, and were then escorted to the front of the metal detector line, then right to a special line for Deck 10 rooms. We were given our Ship Charge card/room-key and from there we had our embarkation/disembarkation ID picture taken, had our "Welcome Aboard" picture taken, then boarded the ship. It took us 10 minutes from exiting the taxi until entering our room!
¹¹ Your room key doesn't open the Concierge Lounge, which I think is kind of silly. When you enter the suite you'll find a folder from the concierge that includes one card key to the lounge. The lounge is NOT open on boarding day, but the concierge personally visits your stateroom that first evening, so if you have any special needs plan accordingly. You can also ask for additional lounge cards for all the members in your party so you don't have to all go together.
¹² I highly recommend this show. The "plot" of the show was quite "thin"; it was boy meets girl, girl likes another boy, then *bam* girl ends up with first boy, OH, and all while images of famous art/fashion are moving about. Just don't think too much about it. The actual skating, though, was excellent, especially considering it's not a full size "rink". There was a touch of artistic/"Cirque-de-solie" style acrobatics that was quite impressive when mixed with the skating. Overall, not to be missed. Pretty much the only on-ship "priority" you get with concierge service is for the skating show and any spa treatments, everything else is pretty much "first come, first served" (i.e. Rock Climbing, Portofinos, etc.). You do get priority access for ALL off-ship excursions, so I recommend booking those directly through the concierge vs. using the desk in the promenade or through the RC-TV television based reservation system.

Facilities:  [back to the top]

While on board we also had art auctions on the two days at sea. As a result there was a great deal of "additional" art on board that was up for auction. There was a very nice selection of signed/numbered specialty prints (lithographs, serigraphs, etc) all the way up to originals and etchings. There seemed to be a good selection of "popular" art (Peter Max, Kinkade, etc) and even a few very different things (many sketches by Dali, and special edition metal plate print etchings by Rembrandt). Much of the art was on display all the time outside of Studio B, but twice a week they turned the Imperial Lounge into an art gallery where they held a pre-viewing then the auction. We went to one of the viewings, but nothing really grabbed my specific taste so we didn't stay for the Auctions. All and all it leant a nice air of "gallery posh" to what could otherwise be a giant mall at sea. The only problem I saw was that there wasn't a good sense of how much the opening bids would be, so while I think most people enjoyed the spectacle of it, they probably didn't sell much of the art.

I had read many reviews that ranked Royal Caribbean as a line that really catered to a more "active" clientele. I would really have to agree with this. Between the upper deck facilities like the pools and sports, there was also a VERY nice gym and other facilities in the SPA, the Studio B skating rink, and many many very active excursions available. One note here, many of these facilities did require special attire, like bathing suits (of course) but also gym cloths and tennis shoes (gym), and the skating rink required long pants (preferably jeans or other tough material). This was for both men and women, so pack accordingly! Also note that many of the water based excursions include the activity and some additional cruising around in the boat afterwards, so unless you like sitting around in a wet bathing suit I recommend taking something to change into after your activity. Also take your pool towel with you as most of the excursions didn't provide towels for after the activity. I would also recommend taking some of your own drinks and snacks as most of the excursions said they provided these but it ended up being shared soda/water poured into cups, and crackers/cookies. I suggest bottled water and candy bars. ALSO, if you're doing any underwater activities I recommend nixing a few little boxes of Cheerios or Fruit Loops from the Foodjammers to feed the fish with!

My only complaint of on-ship facilities is with the Casino. It was a beautiful space, but the slots were just plain TIGHT! There are two money making slot machines in the whole place. The two $1 Wheel of Fortune machines under the staircase right next to the ATM (which is also conveniently next to the Casino Manager's computer where they control all the various machines.) On Wednesday night I made back all the money I'd lost on previous nights (which I them proceeded to feed back in on Thursday but that's another story). I shouldn't have stopped when I did as that machine kept on winning. Later when I walked by a lady had it up to $600+ dollars, and the other Wheel of Fortune machine a few machines down was up to $700+. These machines are very loud with lots of lights and sounds. There was also a good crowd of people watching. These machines are pretty strategically placed where most people walk by while crossing through the casino. They are actually in the widest corridor in the entire casino (i.e. crowd friendly). Their placement next to the ATM and Control Computer is also pretty suspicious. My theory is this: I think the Casino Managers (one of whom is always at the control computer) gauges "crowd potential" and then decides when they want to let these machines start winning to draw a crowd. The more people they "catch" that are just passing through the casino means more potential people putting money into the slots. So if you play your cards right, hit one of these machines with a $20-$100 bill (don't use the tokens as that effects the odds of the machine since it doesn't know "up front" how much your loss potential is) on Wednesday night and you might be the lucky winner. Or better yet, I advise staying away from the casino all together, as it just kind of gave me the creeps as I started to add up how it all worked.

Food:  [back to the top]

Windjammers (a.k.a Foodjammers):
Style:	Review:	Dress:
Pretty much like any Golden Corral and/or Ryan's Steak House "buffet style" restaurants.	We only ate here three times on our cruise. Once on boarding, once for lunch, and once for breakfast. It's mostly for when you need food fast. Everything I had was good, but not what I would call "great". Also, I was very put off on the whole experience because the "crowd" this placed drew was very diverse with very diverse "etiquette" around how a buffet works. I don't mean as in "foreigners", I mean even between parts of the US. For me a buffet means you go to the "area" (i.e. salad, grill, pizza, hot foods, etc) that you want food from and you take what you want. For most people it seemed something more "cafateria" style as they started where they picked up their plates and walked single file around the entire buffet taking what they wanted, but waiting "in a single line" through sections they might not want food from. It was all very confusing and a lady we came to call "Jersey Bitch" got quite irate when I walked up to get some food from the "hot foods" section (we later sat next to this person in Portofinos and she did nothing but "complain, complain, complain" the entire time she was there. Some people just aren't having fun unless their complaining.).	Pretty much whatever goes (besides bare feet, and uncovered bathing suits)

Dinning Room Breakfast & Lunch:
Style:	Review:	Dress:
Pretty much like a Bob Evans or similar "fern bar" style food.	The breakfast and lunch menus remain the same throughout the week, and the seating is pretty much round-robin where you are seated at a table with others if chairs are available. They will take requests to be seated alone or as a pair, etc., so just ask your seater, but the default is round robin.	Pretty much whatever goes (besides bare feet, and uncovered bathing suits)

Dinning Room Dinner:
Style:	Review:	Dress:
While the food was no "Ruth Chris" I found it comparable to any fern bar (Ruby Tuesday, TGIFridays) and/or "popular chain" dinner restaurants (Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill, Outback).	I found all the food to be quite delicious, served at the appropriate temperature, plentiful, and satisfying. Dinner is at an assigned time and assigned table. Each seating has a menu of several different appetizers (that always includes a hot soup, and a cold soup), a single salad, three or four entrees (one a "heart smart" item), then a selection of three deserts. There is also an "alternate" dinner menu that pretty much stays the same all week and includes a ceaser salad, salmon, and steak. The cold soups can sound a bit "odd" but I tried them all and loved every one of them!	The dress for dinner is officially: "Smart Casual" (aka Business Casual ranging from upper end of slacks/button-up/tie, down to dockers/golf-shirt), and Formal on the two nights you're at sea, but three of the seven meals are very "negotiable" as far as dress goes. The first and last nights they understand that because of luggage issues you might be limited in what dress you have available. Since the first port of call (Aruba) the ship stays docked until 1am, that night is "extra casual". On the first night, we packed "Smart Casual" (slacks, button-ups, and ties) in our carry-on backpack, but on the "extra casual" night and the last night we wore shorts and hawaiian print shirts and no one batted an eye. I highly recommend going "Smart Casual" the first night, as it really sets a good impression for both your dinner table mates, and more importantly for your servers. The formal nights we wore tuxedos which seemed to be the majority of men; although there were several men in normal business suits as well. Some of the younger guys wore what I call formal "club clothes" on the formal nights, those being designer/couture oriented ensembles. Women wore a large range of styles on formal nights, but always with dress/skirts. Besides the younger guys, I didn't see anyone without at least a tie on formal nights. People all seemed to take it very seriously, yet there was very much a mood of celebration and not stuffiness. I read a few reviews about men that didn't want to "ruin their vacation" by having to get so dressed up and planned on only wearing a shirt and sport jacket on formal night. If there were any of those men on our cruise I didn't see them. For these guys I would suggest either room service or Foodjammers for formal nights, as otherwise you're more likely to feel far more uncomfortable than any discomfort of wearing a tie. As I said, the non-formal nights are very flexible, so people tend to take the formal nights pretty seriously.

Portofinos:
Style:	Review:	Dress:
This is their attempt at a more up-scale experience. I found it similar to the experience of a nicer "private" (i.e. non-chain) restaurant like, in say, Washington DC or any other large city.	I enjoyed the meal, the facilities were beautiful, and we had a live string quartet playing for entertainment. The food presentation was also wonderful, but the actual taste of the food didn't quite match my expectations. We had a 9pm seating, and I'll admit I was pretty exhausted from a long day, which might have played a part in my overall experience. The deserts here were AWESOME, almost worth the cover charge in and of themselves. But I was not very happy with the service. I don't see myself as an insecure person, but to me it really just felt as though the crew here were all having a big joke at our expense. For example, I ordered a tomato soup; I didn't read that it was a cold soup (which by the way, I do love as well). When they delivered my soup what I got was a small shallow bowl with a small stack of chopped avocado and a seared scallop on top. I chalked it up to a possible misunderstanding or possibly a "gourmet" treat where there might be a tiny amount of soup inside the tower of avocado. So with everyone, including our head waiter, staring at me I picked up my spoon and lifted the scallop to see what was underneath. The rest of the guys with me all had a good laugh because they saw the assistant waiter waiting behind me with the cup of "soup" that was to be poured around the tower of avocado. Don't get me wrong, I like a good prank, even when it's at my own expense, but frankly the "up-scale" nature of this restaurant didn't quite have me in the head space to appreciate this particular joke. I just felt it was out of place. All and all it was worth the additional $20 cover, but just make sure your expectations aren't very high or unrealistic going into it. I would say set your expectations toward this being a place that's more quiet, and "intimate" than a normal dinner in the dinning room; with good food and good company. Just don't expect a truely five star experience.	More formal than the dinning room, but with that said you can feel comfortable in slacks/shirt/sport-jacket(with or without tie) on up.

Johnny Rockets:
Style:	Review:	Dress:
Johnny Rocket's "Diner" style restaurant.	This is an excellent lunch alternative. There is now a "per person" cover charge of $3.95 to utilize Johnny Rockets. This is in addition to any Soft Drinks or Shakes/Malts you might order, otherwise it's all you can eat sandwiches, fries, onion rings, and desert. The cover charge applies to both sit-down and carry-out orders. I really enjoyed this place for lunch! The staff really has a lot of fun here. They do little "dance routines" when certain songs come up on the jukebox. The food is authentic Johnny Rockets Burgers, Fries, and Onion Rings; aka "diner" food. Even with 4000 people on board we never waited for a table any of the three days we visited (two were even "at sea" days). This restaurant is near the "kids zone" area, so I thought it might be covered over with teens and kids, but I did not see any the three times I visited. Just remember to tip these guys good. Besides the $3.95 cover, you're not really paying for any of the food, but tip as though you would be as the auto added %15 gratuity is just based on the $3.95 and any drinks you order.	Ultra-casual including wet bathing suits and no shoes in the outside booths

Concierge Lounge:
Style:	Review:	Dress:
The Concierge Lounge is pretty much ran as an extension of the Concierge, so if you utilize the room you should tip the concierge and the lounge food attendant separately as they aren't covered by any of the standard "voucher" envelopes.	If you're a Crown and Anchor Diamond member or staying in one of the suites, you're given an additional access key card to access the concierge lounge. The Concierge Lounge is open 24 hours a day, with coffee and espresso available at all hours. The Concierge keeps morning and evening hours. He is here to help with any issues you might be having, and to help with any Royal Caribbean shore excursions (he can also help with setting up direct non-RCI excursions as well). The concierge lounge offers complimentary snacks (both hot and cold) for continental breakfast and evening tea. Complimentary drinks (various cocktails, wine, and champaign) are also available during evening tea. The evening canapés are quite delicious, and the warm hors d'oeuvres are also tasty and filling. The petits fours and chocolates were just the perfect amount of sweet.	Ranges depending on the hour (depending on if folks are headed off ship, or to dinner) so there's usually a good mix of everything, but they request no uncovered bathing-suits/bare-feet.

Service:  [back to the top]

The "overall" score on this one was tougher and as such doesn't reflect the individual exceptional service we did receive. In general, as noted above, our dinning room and breakfast/lunch service got an A but our Suite attendant got a much lower score resulting in the overall lower scores for "service" in general.

The biggest initial surprise for me was the service. I had read many reviews prior to taking the cruise and about the only thing they all had in common seemed to be about the service being incredible. Maybe it was just bad assumptions/expectations to begin with, but initially I just wasn't very impressed. In general all the employees were initially just very cavalier about everything; similar to folks that have been doing the same job in and out every day and are just kind of sick of it. Don't get me wrong, everyone was nice enough. Both our Suite Attendant and Dinner Waiters were nice and social, but everything just seemed very rushed at first. There just wasn't the personal touches that I'd come to expect from reading previous reviews.

As the week progressed though, everyone really started to warm up and the service started to dramatically improve. Since this was my first cruise I think I just have to chalk it up to having had high "first impression" expectations that just weren't reasonable considering that your first impression of the staff happens to be on the one day where they are actually working on the majority of their "ship duties", that being the full disembarkation/embarkation of the entire ship. There is also the very hard cold facts of reality that your staff is also having to size you up. These guys have to work their butts off, and the blunt truth is that they just don't have enough hours in the day to make every interaction "special". Ultimately, they have to make tough choices as to who is going to get their extra time/focus based on personal preference and tip potential. I don't really know a good way around this issue. All you can do is manage your own expectations. Realizing that your cruise doesn't REALLY start until the first morning you wake up; as your embarkation day is really just about exploring the ship and accepting that first impressions are a two way street!

Our dinner crew we're especially great. They really went out of their way to make us all have fun! Both our waiter and assistant waiter really warmed to us through the week and by the end had the entire table working as a unit. To their credit, we found our Dinning Room service to be even better than that at Portofinos where they are responsible for a much smaller number of tables. This also points to something I said earlier about your dinner crew having to make tough choices. We had the distinct feeling that the other tables around us that shared our dinner crew didn't feel they got the same level of attention as we did. I'd say that's because we tended to engage and cut up with our crew and thus took more of their time. It really does go back to what I said about impressions being a two way street and realizing that if you want special treatment you need to give special treatment.

I was also impressed with the folks at Johnny Rockets. These guys always had GREAT energy. They do little dance routines when certain songs come up on the Jukebox. To be honest, someone in our group as well as others I talked to on ship, said they wanted to scream "stop dancing and bring me my burger", but I really disagree. We're all on a cruise, which means you should stop and smell the roses (or enjoy the dancing). They bring you fresh fries so hot they burn ya when you set down and as soon as you finish a batch, and the burgers are not going to go cold in the four minutes it takes a song to play, but if you're not "into this" then I suggest you order to go, and let the rest of us enjoy the fun. These guys work as a team, so you'll usually get something from everyone, be it your food, drinks, etc. so say hi, smile, and enjoy the fun!

Dinning Room service (breakfast/lunch/dinner) as well as Room Service was also very good. Everyone always had a smile and made sure you had whatever you needed.

Based on reading other reviews, I had come to expect that the Royal Suite had a dedicated Suite Attendant, but apparently we shared with other suites. This being just plain economics that your suite attendant is pretty much dependant on his tips for his salary, and one room won't pay that salary¹. Our Suite Attendant was also personable, but at first all of our interactions just seemed very rushed. Admittedly, we did have several initial requests², and everything DID eventually show up³.

¹ To prove my sincerity I did slip our Suite Attendant a hundred dollar bill on our first meeting. His reaction isn't what I expected. I think sincerely it may have been a cultural/language issue, or maybe this tipping behavior was just very different than the normal Royal Suite Patron I'm not really sure. I tipped him mid-week another $50 for going out of his way to get us some of the things we requested. He just kind of snickered, again I'm trying not to read too much into it, as I think it may just be a mismatch of expectations. There are four of us and the recommended Suite Attendant tip for the week is $40.50 per person, which we also gave him at the end.
² We asked for some of the complimentary bottles of booze to be switched out. Apparently the Suite Attendant is not directly responsible for the beverages, so someone from either room-service or a beverage manager came and switched them out. They initially brought the wrong thing, but out Suite Attendant did get that straightened out for us. We also asked for tonic water, and two additional robes. Turns out the entire ship was out of canned tonic water. So I asked our Suite Attendant if he would mind getting us a pitcher of club soda from one of the bar fountains. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I thought he rolled his eyes at me, again it may have just been a cultural/language(body language) thing, so I tried to let it go. We're all drinkers, so for us the wet bar was a big "feature" of the Royal Suite so it was important that it be what we wanted.
³ Sure enough though, a two litter bottle filled with soda water did show up the next day, which was really nice for our Gin and Tonic drinker. Well turns out after our first port of call in Aruba, two six packs of canned tonic water showed up in the room. Out Suite Attendant had his manager get off the ship and get us some tonic water, so that went a LONG ways towards repairing the initial mis-expectations.

Ports of Call:  [back to the top]

1. Aruba: [official website] I was a bit disappointed with Aruba. My Aunt had visited here a little over 10 years ago and had such wonderful stories of it. Either a lot has changed in that time, or possibly she was in a resort area that the ship didn't dock near. Oranjestad just had the feeling of a place that was a bit past it's prime. The streets were dirty, and the shops near the port were haphazard. Some of the buildings and shopping centers were nicely painted and maintained but the majority of the shops inside seemed to have been sort of junky T-shirt shack replacements of what was probably the original shops that opened there. We drove inland for our ATV Excursion, and passed a wide variety of houses ranging from what looked like middle class American homes all the way down to tin-lean-to shacks. Our excursion took us even further inland so we did get to see more of the countryside. That part was very beautiful in the contrast of a desert island covered in tall cactus plants surrounded by ocean. We traveled to the Natural Bridge, which was very pretty but being the primary natural feature near the port it is also being highly over-used. The road to the bridge is unpaved and was very rutted. The Island had rain a few weeks before and since the island has no grass to speak over, all the roads were further rutted and washed out by the rain. I saw issues of "overuse" everywhere. Our excursion took us even further inland, and the further from the port you got, the less habitation and more natural beauty you saw. I see this island facing some tough choices around land use in the years ahead.



2. Curacao: [official website] Where Aruba did at least have what seemed to be a "middle class" presence; I saw nothing similar in Curacao. Granted we stuck pretty close to the port, with our excursion here being only a taxi trip to the SeaQuarium. Between the port and SeaQuarium we mostly saw tightly-spaced concrete-block slums. Possibly the focus here was on "interiors" which we didn't have an opportunity to see, but most of the exteriors were pretty shabby, most weren't even painted. There is a large shopping area right across the walking bridge, and the view from the bridge has been strategically "facade"-ed in the brightly painted Dutch style, but as soon as you're past the facade you're in a shopping grid of multiple streets/boulevards consisting of tourist oriented T-shirt shops, jewelry stores, and souvenirs. There's even a McDonald's and a Burger King. Inside, most of the shops were clean and full of a decent selection of items. I did find some additional tablecloth linens for friends and family, some hand made wooden domino sets, and a new hawaiian shirt to add to my collection but that was about it. We went into the McDonald's to the use the rest room, and it was clean and nicely maintained, but one of the guys in our group was offered drugs on the way in and the guy kept hounding him until he pretty much had to tell the guy to go away.



3. St Maarten: [official website] My first impression of St Maarten (the Dutch side) was very good. They have gone to a lot of trouble to clean up all the areas facing the cruise ships. There is a small shopping center right near the dock, and a "water taxi" that takes you to the hotel area, and to the downtown area as the section between the dock and the hotel area was closed off for construction. Once you get off the taxi for the downtown area you walk through some very beautiful beaches with lounge chairs for rent that line the entire ocean facing area of downtown. You walk into the downtown which is undergoing a major beautification project. They are lining the street and sidewalks with bricks, putting in beautiful palms, and decorating the shops with bright paint and flower beds, but that work is still in progress so the street can be quite hazardous. There are trenches dug out for electrical conduits, and a good deal of construction equipment everywhere so you really need to watch where you're going. I think of all the islands we visited this island seemed to be the most up-and-coming. I got the impression that in another year or two it would be a very beautiful place, but after talking to someone back on board it would seem this construction has already been going on for ten years and might take that long to complete because of "island time". Having no prior experience I didn't know if this was just an exaggeration or not. The day prior at sea I had won an island tour at Bingo so Charles took that and got to see a good overview of the entire island, including the French side. Since we had an afternoon Snuba excursion planned I just wanted some shopping time to myself so I didn't go with him, but he really seemed to have enjoyed it. He learned a good many facts about the island's history which is quite diverse with the combination Dutch/French ownership. I do regret not getting to see/experience the French side. Oh well, there's always next time.



4. St Thomas: [official website] This seemed by far the cleanest, nicest maintained, and wealthest of all the islands we visited. All the homes near the docks seemed to be tourist oriented and/or upper-middle/wealthy class residents. The view from the SkyRide was really quite nice. The panoramic image above was taken from the top of the SkyRide viewing area. While RCI *DOES* stand behind the vendors listed in their "Explore! Shopping in paradise" with a guarantee¹,



5. Puerto Rico: [official website] Puerto Rico was a lot of fun. We arrived for our cruise a couple of days before departure and stayed at the Caribe Hilton in Old San Juan. Old San Juan was mostly a tourist area and as such it had nice hotels and nice condominiums, with the downtown village of Old San Juan being made up of of old spanish/creole architecture shops, restaurants, and bars. New San Juan though was another story, and was a very diverse mixture of million dollar homes right up against huge tracks of public housing. We took a ferry from Old San Juan to visit the Casa Bacardi factory. Much like the Hershey facility, you don't get to tour the actual factory anymore, but they have setup a self guided museum that's filled with exhibits representing the history, process, and future of Bacardi rums. You also get to try their various products at the end of the tour. One note here: The prices in the gift shop look great by most standards, but the Alliance Duty Free at the Puerto Rico Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport actually has the best prices onshore or off, with the exception of the "exlusive" items you can only get at the giftshop (the Bacardi 8, Bacardi Reserve, etc.). When our cruise finished we had about seven hours to kill before our flight so we booked the Rain Forest Tour through our concierge. This was a fun tour that took you (and your luggage) via bus to tour the rain-forest area of Puerto Rico. It was a very interesting bus ride through Puerto Rico where you saw a huge diversity of people and lifestyles. The tour of the rain-forest was very nice as it was much cooler (temperature) than I had expected, which was a nice respite from a week of hot weather. The rain forest area is beautiful.


¹ Quoted from the onboard MEDIA's "Explore! Shopping in paradise" handout, "Shop with confidence at each of the recommended stores on this map. All merchants on this map have been carefully selected and have paid a promotional fee to Onboard Media for includion in this program. Each merchant offers a 30 day guarantee. Excluding buyer's negligence or buyer's remorse, this guarantee ensures buyers that all participating merchants will repair or replace any unsatisfactory item. For puposees of determining quality and value of jewelry, only appraisals from independent graduate gemologists, not affiliated with any retail jeweler, will be acceptable. Please inquire about individual store return policies before finalizing any purchase. If you become aware of a problem during the cruise, please contact the Port & Shopping Guide for immediate assistance. If a problem arises after the cruise but within 30 days of the purchase date, contact the merchant directly and send a copy of all correspondence to Online Media Customer Relations. To expedite your claim, please include the store name, date of purchase, copy of receipt, and relevant documents, and a weritten descritpion of the claim. Onboard Media, 960 Alton Road, Miami Beach, FL 33139; www.onboard.com."

Excursions:  [back to the top]

1. ATV Rental - Aruba [official Rancho Del Compo website] This was by far our favorite excursion! Initially we hoped to do a horseback riding excursion, so I did my homework on Cruise Critic, and discovered that Rancho Del Campo came more highly recommended as compared to the ranch that RCI's excursion offering is with (Rancho Notorious). We weren't sure if we were going to be able to do horseback riding, as on Thanksgiving I ended up with a "personal problem" that might have kept me from taking part in something with a large amount of sitting {blush}, but luckily by the time I boarded the ship on the 28th I was feeling much better, so I contacted Rancho Del Campo via email about a custom tour as the largest person in our party was past their posted weight limit. We didn't hear back from them (they only check emails every couple of days it would seem), so we had our concierge call for us when we docked in Aruba. They just didn't have horses large enough to deal with all of us (we're all pretty big guys), but they DID offer an ATV tour of the island. Because we booked so late, we just so happened to end up with a group that consisted of just the four of us and two guides. I would highly highly recommend paying extra money to arrange a private group vs. being placced in a large group. I'm not sure about Rancho Del Campo's normal policy around ATV group size, but we passed another group ran by another provider and they had almost 20 people which I don't think would be very much fun, especially if they were of all different experience levels. With the four of us all being pretty comfortable on ATVs we really had a lot of fun and got to see a lot more of the island in our 3.5 hours. I think next time we'll see if they would be open to a custom tour that lasted all day and included more time at the swimming hole, etc, as we plan on taking a group of 8-10 for our next cruise. I would highly highly recommend Rancho Del Campo as they were nice and very flexible. They also run a shuttle that picks you up and drops you off at the dock. Since this is not an official RCI offering you'll need to book directly via the website or phone.



2. SeaQuarium - Curaçao [official SeaQuarium website] I have to say that personally I was most disappointed with Curaçao. This might be an unfair judgement since I didn't really get to see much of the island, but the parts I did see seemed very over-used and dirty. This even goes for the SeaQuarium, especially considering the admission price of $15.00. Basically it was a collection of 100-500 gallon tanks with a selection of fish, live rock, and anemones. It was all very low tech as instead of an advanced protein-processing/filtration system, they leveraged their location right on the ocean to do sea water exchange. It was very low tech yet at the same time because they were using real sea water they did have a much larger assortment of "harder to keep" fish then you would find in most aquariums in the states. As I understand it, this facility also offers "Encounter" programs that allow you to swim with Dolphins, Sea Lions, and Sea Turtles. I did see someone I recognized from our ship that was saying the Dolphin Encounter they just did was incredible. The facility also offers Shore Dives. I did enjoy the selection of animals, the Dolphin show and the 3-D slide show were good, but in my opinion, taken as a whole, the facility was not quite worth the $15 admission price. Unless you book an "Encounter", I recommend you use this day to book on-ship SPA treatments, rock climbing, ice-skating, etc. while everyone else is off-ship in the morning, then maybe disembark for some shopping in the early evening.



3. SNUBA - St Maarten [official SNUBA website] We booked our SNUBA excursion through RCI. We all had a lot of fun on this excursion. Both myself and Mark are PADI certified, but Charles and Jeff had no prior experience with breathing compressed air at depth. SNUBA offers a great "first experience" at doing so, as your "tank" floats on top of the water while you get to "dive" via a 25 foot air line. This frees you from having to worry about you're "equipment" (BC, tank, etc) and focus on getting comfortable underwater. Charles was a bit anxious going into this excursion, and they did make the mistake of putting both Charles and I (the two largest guys and thus heaviest breathers) on the same tank, so when our dive was nearly finished and we were heading back to the boat our tank did ran out of air. Luckily I had told Charles what to do if that happened so he responded very well, but I think overall he was more anxious with the entire experience than everyone else (thus he gave an "excursions" score a little lower than the rest of us). I would recommend SNUBA for someone that was very serious about wanting to get an initial SCUBA experience, as to be honest, based on my PADI certification, at 25 feet or less there really is nothing that can go wrong (from an "equipment" standpoint). At 25 feet or less you can easily rise from the bottom to the surface on a single breath of air (as the breath you take is "under pressure" and thus naturally expands as you rise making more "air" available to you even as you're exhaling while you rise), so we were never at any "risk", but with that being said I do have to say that the crew didn't spend any prep-time reviewing with people what to expect or what to do incase something did happened. As such I don't think I would recommend this excursion for older/younger people, or anyone that has any anxiety around a dive experience. It's more likely to turn someone like this against SCUBA than to interest them into persuing certification. All and all we had a good crew, and while the actual underwater part was very short (only 20 minutes), we did get to snorkle while the other groups finished their dives; then we cruised around the Dutch side of the island for a bit afterwards. They did tell us that if we wanted to SNUBA again, we should book by calling them directly as we could get the excursion for half the price the cruise ship offered it for. I don't know what, if any, additional "services/guarantees" booking through RCI offers you, but it's something to check into...



4. SkyRide & BOB - St Thomas [official SkyRide website] [official BOB website] WOW, this was a great all around experience. First to start with the crew: with St Thomas being subject to US regulation there was a great deal more "formal" safety equipment and information given than any of our prior excursions. The captain of the vessel was very professional and defiantly had an aura of confidence based on experience. He also told us that all of his crew were all certified "Dive Masters" or "Dive Instructors" (which specifies a specific number of hours of time underwater along with life-saving and hard science certification by PADI). This was much more "comforting" especially considering that the equipment itself has more safety features than say we had with the SNUBA equipment. As a result I would recommend this excursions for all ages and comfort levels (according to the BOB website: "We have a minimum age of 10 and a minimum height of 4 feet. As long as a person is in good physical health and can complete a questionnaire, they will be a perfect candidate for BOB"). We had three older people on our outing, and one even seemed very anxious about the whole thing, but the captain and crew really took their time with her, getting her into the unit, and staying with her throughout the dive. The underwater crew also holds certifications in underwater photography! They allow you to bring your own underwater cameras or offer Kodak disposable underwater cameras for $20.00. We purchased one on board and got some really great shots. Check out the Photo Album for these pictures. They take you down in groups of 4-5 for about 20 minutes and then you get to snorkle while you wait on everyone to finish. The boat both left and returned to the same dock as the Cruise Ship so you can make both the early and late excursion times with no worries of missing the ship. Also remember to snag some lil boxes of Cherios or Fruit-Loops to feed the fish while you're underwater. You'll get a lot of great pics that way, just be careful the yellow snapper are very agressive!



5. Casa Bacardi & El Yanque Rain Forest- Puerto Rico [official Casa Bacardi Visitor Center website] [official rain forest website] Before our Cruise we spent a few days in Old San Juan. While we were there we took a ferry over to visit the Casa Bacardi Visitor Center. They have a tram setup that takes you to a self guided museum that covers the Bacardi history and rum making process, then returns you to the gift shop and tasting center. You can sample all the various Bacardi products including the Bacardi 8 and Bacardi Reserve "sipping rums". When our cruise was done we had a 5:30 flight so we booked the Rain Forest Tour excursion. The included transporting our luggage to the airport and a bus ride tour of the El Yunque Rain Forest. This tour took you through new San Juan into the Rain Forest. There were several stops in the rain forest for picture taking, etc. It was a fun, educational, and relaxing tour. If you don't have priority disembarkation and a later flight I would highly recommend either the Rain Forest tour, or the Old San Juan walking tour as last day excursions meet in a different lounge than general disembarkation, and they disembark just prior to general disembarkation so it's a good way to avoid the crowds!

Miscellaneous:

Additional Review Websites:

• http://cruiseclues.com/shipstips/adventureoftheseas.htm This is a GREAT resource for additional informaiton about Adventure of the Seas

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