More of my 2/27 AOS review

[VanessaC322]

Click below for first part of review

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=147548

 

On Sunday night, I started my meal with Chicken Consomme with Pastry puffs. It was like chicken soup with little round pieces of bread floating in it. It was bland and not that good. I ordered the Rib Eye which was good but my piece was very fatty. I could only eat about 1/3 of it. The key lime pie was good. Jeremy had Cod and said it was excellent.

 

Sunday night was the Academy awards. We are huge movie buffs and we excited to see that they were playing by satellite feed in the Schooner Bar. We watched them there.

 

Monday

 

The first couple days of the cruise, some of the bars offered the Unlimited Soda Card. It was $6 per day for adults and $4 per day for kids. I purchased one and received a free souvenir Coke cup. We then went to the General store on the Promenade and purchased a liter of Captain Morgan for $9.95 and paid the $9.50 corkage fee to take it back to our room. We used the Coke cup to get Diet Coke and then added some of the Captain in our room. It was an economical way to buy Captain and Cokes and was worth the corkage.

 

Our favorite bar was the Sky Bar overlooking the pool on Deck 12. The bartenders there were great and made this awesome frozen drink called The Love Connection. It’s part Strawberry Daiquiri, part Pina Colada, and part something orange. All frozen and layered. It was yummy.

 

We took $20 into the casino the first day and came out with $130. Throughout the week we heard announcements of people hitting fairly large jackpots on the slots. The dealers were all very nice and helpful and answered any questions. The casino had slots, Blackjack, 3 card Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, Let it Ride, Craps, and Roulette.

 

Monday night was the first formal night. The Captain addressed everyone on the Promenade at around 8pm. Free champagne drinks were provided. For dinner on Monday night I had Shrimp Cocktail, Beef Tenderloin, and Strawberry Cheesecake. It was a good meal.

 

After dinner we went to the Blue Moon lounge on Deck 14 and listened to the band, D’Version. They played all different types of music and were very good. We enjoyed watching some very talented couples dancing. After that we went to Jesters, the night club, where all of the drinks were served in cups that glow in the dark due to the black lit atmosphere. It was a lot of fun.

 

Tuesday

 

Tuesday morning we arrived in Aruba at 8am. We ordered room service this morning and had omelets and pastries. The omelets were only mediocre and my husband finished mine for me.

 

We got off of the ship and found a taxi. We went to Eagle Beach for $12 each way. The beach is free but we paid $5 each for beach chairs and $1.50 for a bottle of water. The beach was beautiful and not very crowded. Aruba is very windy though and sand was blowing most of the day. We returned to the ship for lunch at about 1pm.

 

Jeremy lost my SeaPass card and it was no problem to have it replaced at Guest Relations. They even got me a new sticker showing I had the Coke Package.

 

We went back into Oranjestad and did some shopping after lunch. I found an internet café that charged me $.10/min to call home. We did not buy much. We waited until St. Thomas for that.

 

At dinner Tuesday I had Crab and Shrimp bisque, Caribbean Jerk Chicken and Rainforest Chocolate Cake. This was the least appealing menu to us and the dining room was half empty due to being in Aruba until 1am, so if you want to eat in Aruba or Portofino tonight’s the night to do it.

 

After dinner we went to the Love and Marriage game show, which was hysterical. The one couple had been married for 58 years and they stole the show. There was a sail away party and buffet on the pool deck and a guy was selling drinks served in hollowed out Coconuts and Pineapples. They were good but messy.

 

 

More to come (I will post it on this thread)

[Conanc]

Hi Vanessa,

 

Thanks for another great review! Can't wait to read the rest of them. Keep 'em coming. :)

 

Do you remember if they ever had chocolate covered strawberries available anywhere? They are our favorite!

 

Next up -- AOS in 10 days! :D

[dicechick]

Conanc, they have chocolate-covered strawberries in the Champagne Bar along with canapes in the evening before dinner.

 

Hi Vanessa!

 

I'm enjoying your review. Hopefully I'll get my act together and get one written as well. We're having huge withdrawal from this trip and finding it very hard to get back into the swing of things. We're starting to plan our next trip, probably to St. Maarten. We loved it there. We're also looking into a Mediterranean cruise. It always helps when you have something to look forward to.

 

It was great to meet you and Jeremy. Keep the review coming.

 

Tracy

[VanessaC322]

Tracy,

It was great meeting you and Phil also! I wish we could have hung out more because you guys always seemed to be in the middle of the party!

 

Jeremy and I loved St. Maarten too. Wait until I get to that part of the review. It was crazy! We are thinking of taking a land vacation there too. We also are thinking of a Med. cruise for sometime in the future. All I know is that we had a great time on our trip and now it's back to reality. We're starting to plan the move to Florida!

 

Vanessa

[cruisinmait]

Your review is great. My husband and I will be on the AOS in June. I love hearing how much everyone loves their cruise.

[stuffic]

Keep it comin' Vanessa. Thanks!

[VanessaC322]

Wednesday

 

On Wednesday we visited the island of Curacao. We docked at around 8 am at the capital, Willemstad. You can call home for cheap. Right off the ship there is an information desk. Take a left right after that and there is a little place to call. We walked into town by crossing the floating bridge. You also have a nice view of the highest bridge in the Caribbean beyond that. We walked through the streets and looked in some of the shops but honestly found nothing to do. There were knockoff purses for cheap in a lot of the shops. We started to walk back to the ship but saw that the floating bridge had been moved for boats to pass. They don’t really warn you. If you are walking on the bridge and it starts to move, you could be stuck on it for a half hour to an hour. We went back to the ship and hung out. I recommend taking a tour while at Curacao so that you can really appreciate the island.

 

We played Bingo on Wednesday afternoon. It cost $35 for five games. There is a progressive jackpot that rolls over if no one wins it. We never win at Bingo but we had fun doing it.

 

At dinner I had an appetizer that I can’t remember the name. It had scallops on it. It was excellent. For an entrée I had the Shrimp Scampi. It comes with the shells on it and before you have a chance to take them off, the head waiter comes around and just grabs your fork and knife and does it for you, without a word. I found this strange. I liked the scampi so much that I ordered more of it. It was very good. For dessert I had the warm chocolate cake. Very good meal.

 

Thursday

 

Thursday was our second day at sea. We attended the shopping talk for St. Maarten and St. Thomas given by “Shopping Shelby”. They say that a free cruise will be given away, but they just give you an entry blank and you have to find the place in St. Maarten or St. Thomas to drop it off. Just a warning. We left half way through the talk because she talks SO FAST that it was giving me a headache.

 

That afternoon, we attended the horse races on the Pool Deck. Although we did not have near enough for a Meet and Mingle on this cruise, we had independently met up with Tracy and Phil from Vancouver and they were in the horse race. We went and screamed and cheered for them, but they didn’t win. Bummer.

 

We attended the ice show on Thursday night. The options were either Tuesday night at 7pm and 9pm (while docked in Aruba) or Thursday night at 5pm and 7:30pm. We went to the 5pm show even though we had late dinner seating. It was excellent! We would have gone and seen it again if we could have. There were a few little snags in the performance, but it was hardly noticeable. At the end, Richard (CD) came out and told us that 2 days prior, there was no show. Because of injuries and such, they had to redo the show and bring in new cast members. This was quite impressive because the show was amazing.

Second formal night. Photographers everywhere, but they were quite nice and not pushy. For dinner I had Clam chowder (good), a Pork Chop (just ok) and Black Forest mousse. The mousse was ok. I was not all that impressed with dinner. I was expecting lobster night to be a formal night but no such luck. Milton told us that we would be having it Friday night.

 

After dinner we went to Karaoke Idol. A lot of the performances were alcohol fueled but a few stood out. One guy, about 25-30 years old from Tennessee, did an incredible version of “Bust a Move”. He knew every word by heart and was flirting with the judges, running through the audience, and just having fun. We laughed our butts off. It was a good time.

 

 

More to come!

[gsb]

Keep it up!

What night was your least favorite in the dining room? Don't want to miss the lobster or escargot, or any other good seafood.

Want an "off" night to schedule Portifinos.

[VanessaC322]

Our waiter told us that we were supposed to have lobster on the second formal night, then it was Friday. We finally had it on Saturday night. He said that this was because of a problem they had. So, I don't know if we ate the food in typical "order" or not. But our least favorite night was Caribbean night or Sunday night. Caribbean night falls when we are docked in Aruba so I would say that Sunday is a good time to go to Portofino. You don't even need reservations then. We had made reservations for Friday night at Portofino and cancelled them because we enjoyed our tablemates so much.

[Penguinlo]

Great review, will you be finishing the rest? Did you already and I missed it? Thanks for the great info!