Frank Ross

Age: 40
Occupation: Analytical Supervisor
Number of Cruises: 2
Cruise Line: RCCL
Ship: Adventure of the Seas
Sailing Date: May 25th, 2004
Itinerary: Eastern Caribbean

This is a family oriented review of our cruise on Adventure of the Seas. I will make some comparisons to the Cruise that we took last year on Voyager of the Seas.

For our May 2004 cruise we booked a Family Stateroom 6500. This sleeps six comfortably, especially when four are children. The room is not overly large and privacy can be a problem as the only doors are the main cabin door and bathroom door. A large curtain partitions the main cabin separating the sofa bed and queen bed. Another curtain closes off the small room with the bunk beds. There is no DVD player, but programming on the standard size TV was entertaining for the kids. Storage was OK, but not great.

Last year we had booked a Family Suite. This had tons of room and was very comfortable (not luxurious). This Suite has two bathrooms and doors that close the Master Bedroom off from the rest of the cabin. It also had a DVD player hooked up to the standard size TV in the Lounge/Dining area. This cabin easily had enough storage for its capacity of eight people. For our five it seemed spacious.

One item about the Family Staterooms forward on deck six. They are located just above an area for crew recreation (sunning). There are metal gates on either side of this area and metal hatches opening into the ship. These gates and hatches slammed all day and night at odd times. Loudly.

We also had problems getting the curtains on the windows to close all the way. This bothered my wife, who needs darkness to “sleep in” properly.

Adventure Ocean is popular with the 10 and under crowd. I highly recommend this program for the kids. On both Formal Nights the kids can be signed up to eat at Johnny Rockets supervised by the Adventure Ocean Staff. My 7 and 9 year olds always wanted to stay as late as possible. Note: you pay for “Late Night”, but it is great for the parents and kids.

For the older kids the program is poor. My son is 13 and did not feel comfortable in the Teen Disco. The activities that the Staff organized for young Teenagers never inspired or entertained him. I think the idea is to encourage Teens to stay in the arcade and spend money. I firmly told my kids that I was not paying one cent for the Arcade. Optix should have Play Stations or Game Cubes, in addition to the Disco. Cabin TVs should be compatible with these game systems, too. Heck, if RCCL wants to make money they could rent these systems out. The arcade could be more for adults, of which there were always a few. I am not surprised that teenagers are often an annoyance on these cruises. Teenagers should be entertained, too.

Last year we took Voyager of the seas to Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozemel. My older son, at twelve was bored out of his skull until we started hitting the beach and doing tours. We rode horses in Jamaica, including in the water, swam with stingrays in Cayman and snorkeled in Mexico.

In May 2004 we did SCUBA at St. Johns (Coki Beach Dive Club for kids 8 and older), America’s Cup Regatta at St. Maarten, sailed on the Unicorn and climbed up to Fort Rodney at St Lucia and snorkeled with Turtles at Barbados. Lots of activities to keep the teenagers busy and happy. I also bought the Laptop for games and DVDs.

Overall, I highly recommend the Voyager Class of ships for a family vacation.

Ask a Question About Royal Caribbean Cruises