Itinerary departed San Juan, Puerto Rico on Sunday evening. Ports of call were St. Thomas, St. Maarten, Antigua, St. Lucia and Barbados.
This cruise was our first experience with a cruise ship. Because reviews are largely opinions, I believe it is important to provide a little background of the reviewer (me). Since this was our first cruise, I cannot make comparisons to other cruises or other ships. Well, that's not exactly true since I did sail the North Atlantic from Germany to New York compliments of the US Army, but that's another story. While being new to cruising, I am hardly new to traveling. I have spent time in 49 of the 50 states, Alaska excluded, Canada, Mexico and 9 European countries. I have stayed in many very nice hotels and dined in some of the better restaurants around the country. This then becomes my comparison basis.
I'll provide a few pointers along the way for the peer-novice who may read this review. The seasoned cruisers may also gain some additional insight as well. With that being said I'll start at the out set. My wife and I planned this cruise to celebrate our 35th anniversary. She has been suggesting that we do this for the last 10 ten years. So last April I fired up the PC to see what I could find. Upon visiting the cruise site, I noticed what appeared to be a very reasonable offer for a 7-night cruise. After a few clicks I found out that the itinerary was on the Adventure of the Seas, a Voyager class cruise ship. Having seen the Discovery documentary on the building of Voyager I very rapidly became interested in this cruise. A little poking around and I choose a stateroom on the upper deck with a balcony. It was 9690, deluxe ocean view on the port side aft. Fast-forward for a moment to say the view was nearly 270 degrees and was simply spectacular. Anyway, I selected the cabin and then was prompted to select flights if I so desired. Since I was "new" I guess I figured I would do everything through RCI. POINTER - In retrospect, I would not book the flights with the cruise line. I could have saved about 50% by booking flights on my own. There are some risks to this, but if you do it smartly, you'll be fine.