Thrifty Couples Adventure of the Seas 2/1 to 2/9 Trip Report

[cgolf]

Rest of night
Due to the timing of the muster drill and our early seating I ate my first dinner in shorts and a T shirt ever. Wasn’t happy about it, but really didn’t have much of a choice. Dinner was good and our servers seemed nice. After dinner we went to the welcome aboard show. The comic was Rick Corso, who we have seen before, but he was still funny. We also went and listened to Lyndon play piano in the Schooner bar. He puts on a good show and always drew a crowd. He didn’t have a dynamic voice, but knew what he was capable off and stayed nicely in that lane.


Overall day 1 went very smoothly. I think a lot was due to the similarities with the Freedom, we felt like we knew our way instantly.

The next part I will leave to the mods if they want to remove it or not. The artwork on the ship in my opinion was tasteful, but some American parents may not be super happy having their kids see it, or at least initially be shocked. These aren’t pictures, but my wife’s words about the art just totally cracked me up, wow there are a lot of nipples, we mostly used the aft stairs, so not sure if this was in the forward stairs. Also managed Day 1 without using an elevator.

 

[cgolf]

Day 2 Cruise Compass

 

[ljcrochet]

I was shocked at how little storage the cabin on the Disney Fantasy had over the last 2 royal carribean cruise I was on. My girls have either cruised in their own cabin next door to us or in a cabin with their grandma on their last 4 cruises. I can't imagine having 4 people in one cabin and we are basically just in the cabin to sleep.

 

[cgolf]

After breakfast we stopped up watched the pickeball briefly, it was a full court. We played mini golf a time or two that day. We wanted to do the 10 am trivia, but they were on question 5 when we got there at 9:55. We were a bit bummed but took it in stride.



We did hang out a bit on deck 4 reading and just looking out at and listening to the ocean. This has always been our favorite spot on a ship. You can get some sun if you want or like me can hang out in the shade.



There was a confusing announcement about the port shopping show, making everyone think it had started 15 minutes early. The port shopping was the least informative of all that we have been too. I know the shows are repetitive, but we have won some stuff at them, and in the past we had learned something about the ports and some places to pick up good souvenirs. It was all about the bling at this talk lol.



We had lunch in windjammer and it was packed at 12:30. There was even an announcement telling people to bug out after they finished up. Luckily we had no issues finding a seat towards the back with a good view out. Do miss the outdoor seating of the Brilliance.

 

[cgolf]

After lunch I did the sports trivia solo. I got 14 of 20 right with zero internet help, and I had changed one right answer so should have had 15. The winning group had 17. I felt I did flying solo, and I am pretty sure on some of the trivia winners are google supported



We had a lazy afternoon and the main dining room was packed at 5:15, guessing due to the super bowl. Service was really slow, but the food was decent. We did notice the menu wasn't changing much, and the cold fruit soups my wife likes were not on the menu any more. We watched part of the Superbowl in the theater, fun to see the different fans reactions, and then we went to the ice show. We stayed for about 5 minutes and the noise of the skates on the ice got to my wife. Also saw the lead female skater under rotate on a couple jumps and end up on her backside, growing up my mom loved Olympic figure skating and I got to watch too, yeh me lol.



We went back and watched the end of the Superbowl and then saw Rick Corso's adult show after the game. He does put on a funny show and we enjoyed it. It seems like he changed his act up some, or I forgot it lol. After the show, we crashed after a long enjoyable day.



One note about the theater was that it seemed overly loud, and my hearing isn't the best.



So far this has been a very enjoyable trip and is just great to get away from work.

 

[starvenger]

We went back and watched the end of the Superbowl and then saw Rick Corso's adult show after the game. He does put on a funny show and we enjoyed it. It seems like he changed his act up some, or I forgot it lol. After the show, we crashed after a long enjoyable day.

A good comedian is always trying to rotate in new material. I suppose bad ones do that as well.

 

[cgolf]

Day 3 Cruise Compass

 

[cgolf]

Day 3 we really slowed it down. Checked on pickle ball and their were no open courts again. We had fun playing ping pong in the wind and some mini golf too. We tried the pools, but the felt too cold so we used the hot tub for a bit. We relaxed some on deck 4 and enjoyed formal night. I did notice one gentleman wearing a hat in line, but not sure if they kept it on. I wore a short sleeve button down shirt tucked into dress pants, and I would say in general I fit in. In the Caribbean I don’t believe in wearing a jacket.


I do want to go back briefly to night 2 when I saw at least 4 gentlemen wear hats into the main dining room. All I will say is they were definitely older than us. I don’t care about any of this, but I know some are interested in how people dress.


After supper we watched a Mind of a Tenor, Darryl J Williams. He is a great singer, but I am torn on if he talked about himself too much. His personal story was interesting, but at times it felt it was taking away from the performance. Probably explaining it horribly so hope you get what I mean. I did really enjoy his singing and recommend seeing his show.


we then went to the finish that lyric game show and it was ok. The host had some weird rules, second chances, that made it seem a bit clunky, but it was ok to watch. We went and watched Lyndon on piano again and it was standing room only. This guy continues to draw a crowd. watched this until we were ready to turn in for the night.


We did notice staff constantly painting and maintaining the ship. They were redoing a fair amount of the railings. They seem pretty serious about keeping the ship looking good.

 

[cgolf]

Day 4 Cruise Compass

 

[cgolf]

I know the dress code has been relaxed, but I was a little worried about what we would see this night

 

[cgolf]

Curacao Day. We had an afternoon excursion so we went out in the morning and did some shopping and got some pictures which I will post in a bit. Walking across the floating bridge, was pretty cool. With the wind it felt like we were back on the ship. We chilled out in the morning before our excursion. After lunch we went on the Discover Curacao tour. We did get a late because they were waiting for 6 guests that never showed up.


The museum was interesting, the Hato cave was really cool, and we had a good drink at the blue Curacao distillery. We got back to the port at 5:10 and while speed walking back and looking up at the ship I went timber lol. Thankfully I rolled and saved the camera and had some road rash on my leg. For the second time I went to the 5:15, got there a couple minutes late, supper in shorts with a sun shirt. My wife was in shorts and a tank top. Wasn’t proud of the dress but didn’t have much of a choice.

 

[starvenger]

I know the dress code has been relaxed, but I was a little worried about what we would see this night

It's basically Hawaiian shirt day in the dining room.

So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. It's what Bill Lumburgh would've wanted.

 

[cgolf]

After supper we went to the stage show Jackpot. This was a disappointment for us, especially after our cruise last year that had some of the best stage singers I have ever heard.


I am hoping the lead guy was sick, because the best I can say is he was awful. The lead lady had a pretty voice if she didn’t go for the loud at the top of her lungs high notes, which she did a lot. She also oversung duets drowning everyone else out. The second lady singer was the best of the bunch by far, The second guy was pretty good too. They should have flipped the singers. The two leads made it a very difficult watch/listen.


After the show we bummed around a bit and turned in early because our shore excursion the next day was early.


Caracoa was a beautiful island. Even though it had the largest population it felt just right, and the colors of the buildings was very nice to see.

 

[cgolf]

It's basically Hawaiian shirt day in the dining room.

So, you know, if you want to, go ahead and wear a Hawaiian shirt and jeans. It's what Bill Lumburgh would've wanted.

Read the part under the blue highlight. A very funny typo

 

[cgolf]

Road rash from the effort to get to supper! Knee was ugly too

 

[trackchik6]

I am interested in your thrifty cruise advice We have been on one 3 night Disney cruise and we didn't spend any additional money on board We stayed on board in Nassau and didn't pay for anything additional at Castaway Cay. We are planning to go on our 1st RCCL cruise (oasis class ship) in 3/21 and I am also planning to not spend additional on food or drink packages. We have $250 in on board credit that I think we'll use for any extra food / drink that we want. (I know some people use the on board credit for tip, but I am considering the tip as part of the trip that I was always willing to pay, and the extra food / drink as "extras" haha).

 

[cgolf]

I am interested in your thrifty cruise advice We have been on one 3 night Disney cruise and we didn't spend any additional money on board We stayed on board in Nassau and didn't pay for anything additional at Castaway Cay. We are planning to go on our 1st RCCL cruise (oasis class ship) in 3/21 and I am also planning to not spend additional on food or drink packages. We have $250 in on board credit that I think we'll use for any extra food / drink that we want. (I know some people use the on board credit for tip, but I am considering the tip as part of the trip that I was always willing to pay, and the extra food / drink as "extras" haha).

Here is how we do it.

We set a number per night per person we want to keep our cruise under before taxes and port fees, for us it is 150. This also doesn’t include tips or shore excursions. We then start researching the cruises that fit that criteria. We have searched multiple lines in the past, but now we are looking to build loyalty with RCCL and Celebrity.

Celebrity is a bit tricky to book. You need to be careful to ensure you book a refundable deposit. On our upcoming Apex cruise we broke our 150 rule to book an oceanview with 2 perks vs an inside with no perks. We got the classic beverage package and 300 OBC. We did the math and if we had 3 sodas and an adult drink a day each, the oceanview would be the same out of pocket as the inside. We later used a sale to get the free gratuities making this a very good deal.

Our biggest score on Celebrity is our cruise after the Apex on the Constellation. The total cost per night with taxes and port fees and the classic beverage package, free gratuities, and 300 OBC was roughly 130 per night per person. That is a steal considering we will likely have minimal out of pocket on a ten night cruise.

To help keep costs low we book shore excursions on sale, and use our OBC to help pay for them. Many lines run sales from time to time on excursions so it pays to book before boarding.

After buying a lot of DCL gear on our first trips we have really limited what we buy on board. The shops being expensive on the Edge and RCCL not having anything that caught our eye helps. If you have any thoughts of buying something like a decent watch in port, the best way to do it is to get a piece of jewelry as well. Watches can only be discounted so much, but they tend to give you a better deal overall if you pair the two together. We don’t buy stuff like that often, but my Bulova has saved me money because my skin oils trash cheaper metal watches.

On RCCL we generally only get the drink of the day and hope for the 10 drink card allowing you to get ten drinks at a pretty good discount. The card can be shared but is not always available. Our first two RCCL cruises it was offered halfway through, unfortunately this last one it wasn’t. This year we each had two 8 buck drinks so with gratuities spent about 40 on drinks.

Flights and hotels are tough nowadays. Southwest used to be the cheapest for us until this year. Hoping when the 737 maxes are back in service their prices go down and they add some more fights. In Ft Lauderdale we have 2 hotels we like, but they aren’t dirt cheap unfortunately. Port Canaveral we have a hotel that has been a great deal but we haven’t sailed from there in a while.

Other than that it is the stuff mentioned at the beginning of this thread outside of the cruise itself that allows us to splurge a bit.

 

[cgolf]

Day 5 Compass

 

[cgolf]

On Bonaire we did the Bonaire Highlights North and South excursion. This tour stopped at an old house that we briefly walked through and our driver had the cactus liquor that we could sample. I really liked this stuff, but I seemed to be in the minority. We then saw the flamingos. Unfortunately you can’t get out because it is a protected area. We then went to the salt flats where we saw the salt ponds and old slave huts. Here the area was all dead coral. Thankfully our guide told us it was illegal to take coral. We saw other groups pocketing a fare amount of it. Our driver gave us a lot of info on the tour, but it would have been nice to get out a bit more. It did meet our goal of seeing a lot of the island though. One bonus was this tour started early so we got to places ahead of the rush.


After the excursion we grabbed the same lunch, still pretty much the same selection, and briefly went back out to check the shops. We got some Bonaire salt and a bottle of Cactus liquor. During the afternoon we played some mini golf and chilled on deck 4. We each did splurge on the drink of the day which was pretty tasty.


This was probably our laziest night. We swam for awhile after supper and used the hot tub. We planned on going to the Love and Marriage show but we were ready to crash. We later heard we made the right decision and the show wasn’t as fun as others have seen before.

 

[cgolf]

Brain coral and other coral


Cactus fence


Salt ponds and piles