Royal Caribbean - Adventure of the Seas Review

Overall 4.57 of 5 view all 7 reviews

AirTraveler
Parker, CO

Hold onto your wallets

business traveler

Pros

Staff was excellent, Great dining experiences

Cons

deck music too loud during day, Non-stop sales pitchs, Lots of extra costs, Shopping, yuck!, Short port stops

AUG

2008

Royal Caribbean - Adventure of the Seas —

My family took our first cruise this past week on the Adventure of the Seas. Our cruise was the 7 day Caribean cruise with stops at Barbados, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Marten and St. Thomas.

Overall it was OK. The staff are great, the ship is immaculate and the food in the dining room was above average.

Here's the negatives:

Hold on to your wallet.

After paying for your airline ticket and cruise fees you will be bombarded non-stop with sales pitches for art, watches, booze and jewelry; all of which are overpriced when compared with any major city n the USA.

If the on-board attacks aren't enough the moment you step off the ship the locals go at it with even greater fervor. I felt like a success just getting through the gauntlet of taxi drivers we were then funneled through these "Diamonds International" stores everywhere we went, no bargains there.

Additionally the stops were too short with the ship casting off at 5PM which allowed for NO time to really enjoy the island's true culture. But if you let people stay longer they may spend more of their money on shore rather than on the ship.

The main pool area had a only one flaw, the music from the band was amplified so loud relaxing was out of the question during the day.

The highlight for me was our dining table waiter, what a great guy! This man made dinner the no-miss time of the day. Additionally our room attendent was a gem of a man.

Now if you like being catered to by outstanding people and don't mind spending more money than you can imagine this is the place to be. But if I had it to do over I would have taken the same money and rented a condo for a week in Hawaii or one of our cruise "destinations." It would have cost about the same and I would actually know and experience something about the place I stopped at.

Probably won't do this again.