Adventure of the Seas Review

4.0 / 5.0
2,220 reviews

Poor in comparison to Carnival

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Adventure of the Seas
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chuckeee
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: May 2010

We've recently finished the 5 night Western Mediterranean cruise, departing Barcelona on RC's Adventure of the Seas. As we had also done a Western Caribbean cruise with Carnival, a few weeks earlier, we had a great chance to compare the 2 cruiselines side-by-side. Both cruises were done on our honeymoon. We can confidently say that Carnival won in practically every category. This rather surprised us, as we had read in forums online that Royal Caribbean was supposed to be the 'classier' cruiseline. Here were the major differences:

Food: Carnival's food was simply amazing. I am a real foodlover, and we really could not find any fault at all with the food on the Carnival cruise. The Deli section on Carnival (where you can order things like pastrami on rye) was sadly missing on the Adventure of the Seas, and the quality of the salad bar, hot meals, and desserts on the Adventure ship was poor. The *best* dessert we had on RC was worse than the *worst* dessert we had on the Carnival cruise. It was as if the recipes used on RC were just not tested enough (the staff on RC are not allowed to actually alter any of the recipes themselves, and must follow them blindly, so they can hardly be blamed for the bland food). The night-time dining experience was a disappointment on RC. We had specifically requested a table for two, and given that it was our honeymoon, thought that surely we could be accommodated (there were very few other honeymooners on board). As it turned out, we were dumped at a table with 6 other people, all from the same family. On Carnival, we could choose whether we wanted to sit at a table for 2 each night (which we did), and we were always able to, given that Carnival has a *lot* more of them. Also, late dining on RC is just *too* late, starting at 9:15pm. Meals often didn't finish until well after 11pm. Service was also markedly slower on RC than on Carnival. Many other things (such as RC having pre-packaged butter packets, rather than Carnival's special whipped butter, made dining less enjoyable on RC).

Staff: RC's staff pretty much all had a chip on their shoulders. Genuine smiles were nowhere to be seen. I actually would've settled for 'indifference' but the staff were often plain rude. Carnival's staff were *always* cheerful, and really great fun. The difference was extraordinary. The cruise director was 100 times better on Carnival.

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