Nervous to go with RCCL
 

Hi, we have traveled as a family of three on 8 Celebrity cruises. We have found them to be more than we expected, lovely..service was top notch. I think they woiuld have fed us if we asked them to. Celebrity has always done more than we expected and surprised us with their atentivness. WE BOOKED THE ADVENTURE OF THE SEAS with RCCL. What should I expect to be different. I have afeeling the pool areas are not as nice, the food is not as grand...but what I do think is that my son will have a better time and there will be more for him to do. I have afeeling that it wont be as formal on the ship as Celebrity...I saw some reviews and I am not sure if I willbe real disapointed or not. Any comments? We leave on the 16th of March.

You will love this ship. Quite beautiful and a great itinerary. Your son will love the ice skating, rock climbing, etc. Pools are nice. RCCL has activities for all ages on their ships. I saw very little of our 13 yr. old Grandson...they just have something for them to do all the time.
As for you, be sure to book the Portofino at least one night. Fantastic! Have a great cruise!

Well, one can tell you the facts but how you like it will be up to you. Adventure holds more passengers than any Celebrity ship so you may find it crowded, especially during tendering. The food is not gourmet but O.K. The ship is clean and well maintained. If your son is a teenager, he will love it.

I've sailed both Celebrity and RCCL. Though I really enjoyed the food and service on Celebrity, I would choose an RCCL cruise for a more family-oriented holiday. It has a bit more of an upbeat atmosphere for kids- and all in all, I found the food to be very good.

Bloom

Go with realistic expectations and you will be fine. AOS is a huge ship with an enclosed promenade that feels like a mall. Food is ok, service friendly and efficient. Do not expect the formality of the dining room such as on Celebrity in terms of service, table settings, etc. Expect some cheesy entertainment as well including a kid's pirate parade at dinner.

Pools are crowded and noisier than on X. There are more announcements, more gold by the inch type sales.

Dress and atmosphere is much more casual. Food runs to fast food versus Aqua Spa. I agree that Portofino is well worth it. We dine in the surcharge restaurants every night on RCI that we are not in port late enough to have dinner.

I agree that RCI is a great choice for families.

While cruising over Christmas we met a family that was in your situation. They loved Celebrity and thought that there was a higher passenger to crew ratio on RCCL, but also commented that although they have some very high repeat cruise status on Celebrity that RCCL was treating them better. They were travelling with a 17 year old and said that he was having a much better time than in past on Celebrity.
I agree with all of the comments, do reserve at least one night at one of the premium dining rooms. You can't go wrong with the food!
There is an adults only pool area if you want to get away from the crowd.
Really want to try Celebrity as we have only been on RCCL. Maybe next year!

I hope its good. We will be on this ship in the summer. :-). Actually I think it will be fine because my expectations are geared for what this ship has to offer, not what it doesn't do well. We are looking forward to fun in the sun on a neat ship with alot of glamor, plus it goes to three islands we have not been to before so I think all should be well. It depends on what you like. For example some on this board prefer the destination to the ship so they just want to get "there" no matter how. Others prefer the ship and what it has to offer first. Still other like myself look for a bit of both. Anyway you will be at sea. It beats work. :S-

Im going on the same cruise the week after u. Let us now how u make out. I had the same worries about the ship being old and less updated, but i have been on other rcl ship and had a great experience. No matter what though it has a great int. and i have seen st martin and st thomas and they are thus far my farvorite stops, so that definitely is a plus. good luck

AOS is an excellent ship in all respects.

Is this the ship Samantha Brown cruised on? I watched, looks great with plenty activities for all ages.

I don't think so. She was on the Brilliance and the Freeedom.

I'm going on Adventure at end of March. Questions: (1) should I book my excursions ahead of time? (2) What about tipping? What's the rule of thumb? (3) And drinking? R soft drinks included for teenagers and what's the price for beer and wine? What other hidden costs should I aware of?

Hey me too, March 29? You can book your excursions before or during the cruise. Non alcoholic drinks in the windjammer are free, but soda at the bar arent. You can purchase special cups to get a deal with free refills,but im not sure the cost. Drinks are usually average, the only drink that I thought were over priced were the frozen drinks. as far as tipping is concerned youll recieve a booklet which gives u ideas on tipping, though there are definitely alot of people to tip. i didnt find there was any hidden costs, but they definitely lure you to purchase the photographs the take of you. I always get suckered by that, they really take good pics.

I've cruised on both Celebrity and RCCL and the "table settings" are just as nice on BOTH...LOL

If you will be in the Caribbean you really don't need to book excursions with the ship. They will be much more $$$ amd there will be cabbies aplenty at the pier. BTW I understand that once you book and excursion w/ RCCL the charge shows up on your CC right away whereas w/ other lines you will not be charged until you actually take the exxcursion and it will show up on your on board bill. You can choose to auto tip if you prefer. If so about $10.00 pp per day will be added to you bill. The suggested per diem rates for tips for the waiter, steward, etc. come to about that anyway.

We took a cruise on this ship last year to the eastern Caribbean and absolutely loved it. The ship is really nice, and we had no complaints about the service at all, but we have only cruised on RCCL so we have nothing to compare it to.

They do offer the soda package but I wouldn't recommend doing it. We got it this past time and I believe it was pretty expensive (maybe $40-60 per person?) and with it you don't get bottled or canned sodas, only fountain, and they didn't taste right. And you can only get it from the bars, not in the dining rooms.

And about booking excursions ahead of time...If you decide to book them with the ship, a lot of the more popular excursions will be sold out well ahead of your trip, so I would recommend booking them early. You could save money by booking directly through the companies on the island, but you can run into some trouble with this. A couple at our dinner table last year was very proud of the fact that they NEVER book through the cruiseline due to the cost, and were very disappointed when we got to St Thomas and their excursion had been cancelled because not enough people had booked and they were not told until they walked in the front door of the company. So keep that in mind!