Just got off of the Adventure from a 7-night cruise out of San Juan to St.Thomas, St.Kitts, Aruba and Curacao. We are a family of 5 including an 18, 14 and 5 year old. We have taken numerous other cruises with Royal Caribbean and also all of the Disney ships. We have sailed Radiance, Voyager, Freedom and Oasis class with our last cruise being a back to back cruise on Oasis in the Western and Eastern Caribbean. As such, I think we have a solid view of most of RCLs fleet and some comparison to at least one other line.

Adventure of the Seas was a beautiful ship. Unlike others who either reviewed this ship after getting off a brand new boat or those who perhaps are neat freaks, we found the Adventure to be in a great state of maintenance and appearance. Paint, wood, metal and all other surfaces seemed very well-maintained, even carpets showed little wear. I was actually struck, after reading several not so forgiving reviews prior to my cruise, with how much better this ship seemed than I had expected given its size and relative age (which is still pretty young). And just to throw a TMI laugh out there for fellow cruisers, I actually remember using the bathroom at one point and noticing the cabin door (for the first time) had tiny areas where the paint had flaked off near the bottom edges and thinking to myself - geez, i bet that draws a complaint from some neat freak in the future. I mean our stateroom wasn't perfect but to find flaws, I really had to be looking for them! Speaking of staterooms, we were in suite 9694 which suffice it to say is spectacularly laid out with tons of room and i would say worth every penny, especially if there are 5 or more of you in your family. The balcony alone is breathtaking and about the size of 3 regular balconies put together. We did end up having the interior bedroom have its thermostat go out such that it stayed on constantly cooling. Once we brought this to our stateroom attendant's attention, the thermostat on that unit was replaced within a few hours and we were great the rest of the trip. Also a note that the water temperature for the showers seems to fluctuate quite a bit when a lot of people onboard are all showering. Pick a time to shower when others are obviously not using as much water and the temperature stays pretty steady - just a note of advice.

To summarize the remainder of our cruise I will say the following: the biggest two complaints that seemed to have some merit were that the food is lackluster and that the shows are of lower quality than on the bigger vessels. I would say that because I read all of these negative comments, I went in expecting the food to be terrible and the shows mediocre. Both of those perspectives are also not entirely warranted. The food variety is very good with something for most palates every evening. The quality of the meals is good though not fantastic. It was probably slightly better on Oasis but not by a huge amount. And they do still have lobster night, also the same evening there is a very good prime rib. I will however continue to state that RCL dining, as a whole, is somewhat inferior to Disney in the dining department. Windjammer, yeah, its a big buffet with nothing amazing. I love their breakfasts, can't really stand their lunches. But its chow line for thousands. Now as far as the shows are concerned, I saw several, and they were all quite good. I heard the ones i missed were also good. The ice show had a packed house and was stellar. All in all, I would say they were very good. Great, no. Broadway level, no. But thoroughly enjoyable. Again, even though I'm a dedicated Crown and Anchor member, this is the other category of comparison where RCL will always come in 2nd anyway. Disney production shows are simply amazing. You can take your cruise ship Hairspray and have it. But until youve seen Alladin performed on the Fantasy, you aint seen what cruise ship performances can be. All in all, Adventure kept all of us entertained, from a great kids staff for the 5 year old (who found plenty of english speaking friends on a heavily spanish-speaking cruise), to the thrills and fun for the two older kids. Everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves. Read more