Christmas on the Adventure with Max's Mom: My Photo Diary

[MrFunInTheSun]

Nice review and pictures. Thanks for taking us along with you.

[ckrobyn]

What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon - reading your amazing review!! :D

[maxs mom]

Later on we dressed for dinner and stopped off the the CL around 7. There we met Cynthia and David from the UK who are on the Adventure for 4 weeks! We also met Dale and Karen from Oklahoma who were previous cruise buddies of Guy and Lisa. Always a good time in the CL.

Guy and Lisa joined us after they had dinner.

We had our same table in the dining room tonight right by the window. Of course it was dark so it didn't matter. Good thing because when I went up there during the day to take a picture I found out that outside that window was a lifeboat! We walked right in tonight. No waiting. It was Italian nght and there were some great menu items new and old. I had a new appetizer.....arrancini.....quite tasty......then some old favorites....Insalata Mista and Tiger Shrimp. Then Sticky bread pudding for dessert. All of these were waiter recommendations and I dedided that I would just get whatever he recommended for the rest of the cruise!

They came around and made some informal shots at the dining room tables tonight. This was ours. We bought this, but like I said, I was too lazy to scan it, so I made a picture of it to post on here!

We were seated at about 8:40 and were all done and walking out of the DR at 9:30. Love it!

I strolled around a bit before going back to the cabin and to bed with a Jack Reacher book.

The Quest......with which we have a long and successful history......was tonight......at 11:45. Too late for us now, sadly! Ugh! We had to get up early the next day, so we passed. My how times have changed. We're not real fond of the way they play the Quest on the large ships. It's not near as much fun as on the "smaller" ships!

Time for bed!

As usual.....we had a neat little critter on the bed. I think we had one just about every night!

[maxs mom]

Thursday ~ December 27th ~ Aruba

Up early again today.... same routine.....coffee.. CL ....Breakfast in MDR.

I'm excited to be back in Aruba again. We are going to one our all time favorite beaches today. Guy and Lisa are going with us. We left the ship around 9. Before getting in a taxi we took time to make a few more Christmas tree pics.

The taxi driver takes us to the Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort on Eagle Beach. Great spot! We got there early enough to get some prime chairs and a palapa. It was a beautiful day, once again.

Best beach day of the cruise!

No crowds here! They all go to Palm Beach.

[maxs mom]

 

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

This was such a nice day. We enjoyed a couple of Amstel Brites, then ordered lunch, which was delivered to the beach. I was able to finsh the book I was reading.

This is the beach bar:

[Yorkshire Voyagers]

Really enjoying your review Jane, also a big surprise to see our friends David & Cynthia and Karen & Dale with you in your photo of the CL (as well as Jorgen and Juan in the background).

 

Your Grandeur review, summer 2012, was excellent as well.

 

We join the Adventure again on 20th January - seeing these pics, can't wait

 

Carol

[maxs mom]

We relaxed here until around 2 o'clock. Sometimes you have to wait a while for a taxi to come by, but today there was one right there and soon we were on our way back to the ship. Great beach day!

We had some nice down time back in the cabin before getting ready for the evening.

We met the usual folks in the CL before dinner and had a great time once again.

Guy and Lisa met us there after they had dinner. Their waiter made her a flower out of a napkin:

On to dinner at 8:30......walked right in......same table ......same waiter. We had excellent service and the food was very good once again. I had the crab cake, Caesar salad, cod. Then I had some kind of a rum cake with ice cream for dessert......all recommended by Christopher.....all excellent! John had the chicken cordon bleu and he raved about it and John doesn't usually rave about any food! He cleaned is plate tonight!

This is my cod:

Here is the rum cake:

After dinner we went to cash in our internet minutes.....better late than never. We had 90 minutes from coupons and then the prize from the M&M.

Then we went to look at pictures. We gathered all of them together and they held them at the desk for us so that we could decide on which ones to get at a later time. We hardly ever have any made, but we had a few made this trip.

Next ....it was on to the casino so we could get our free key chain in the spin to win thing.

Next, it was on to the theater for the Love and Marriage Game Show at 10:30......always a good time. Finally.......something that wasn't too late to stay up for! The show was refreshing in that all three couples had not seen or done this before. All couples were also married the appropriate lengths of time for each category......7 mos........17 years.......and 42 years. It was a good show!

We went back to the cabin after that........Good night!

[maxs mom]

Really enjoying your review Jane, also a big surprise to see our friends David & Cynthia and Karen & Dale with you in your photo of the CL (as well as Jorgen and Juan in the background).

 

Your Grandeur review, summer 2012, was excellent as well.

 

We join the Adventure again on 20th January - seeing these pics, can't wait

 

Carol

 

Oh .....that is so great! We sure did enjoy meeting those folks. Had a great time with them. Cynthia has e-mailed me from the ship since we got back. They continue to have a marvelous time. Hope that we can cruise with them again soon!

[fas64]

We dropped our stuff in the cabin....and guess what? All our luggage has arrived! We were starving so we went to the Windjammer for lunch. We walked all the way to the back and it was not crowded at all. A lot of people don't realize there is that back section when they first get on' date=' so it is usually not crowded back there on the first day. Lunch was really good. They were carving some roast beef at the carving station and it was excellent. That along with a salad made a great lunch for me. I had a coconut macaroon for dessert and it was quite tasty. I have never seen those before![/size']

 

We got back to the cabin and got unpacked. It was great to have that overwith so early. I went down to deck 6 to make a reservation with the Loyalty Ambassador so that we could book our Spring Break cruise.

 

I showered and got ready for the evening before muster. Muster was at 6 and was not too bad.

 

 

Afterwards we changed for dinner and went up to the Concierge Lounge for drinks before dinner. It as very busy tonight. Silvia is the Concierge and she was so busy taking care of everyone.....trying to make excursion reservations for everyone. We did not meet her tonight but met her on the second night.

 

 

I believe I understood Silvia to say that she hasn't been a Concierge but a couple of months.

 

We did, however, meet the bar servers in the CL.......Herbie:

 

 

And Shawn:

 

 

Shawn was our bar server in the CL summer before last on the Serenade. It was good to see him again. As a matter of fact, we ran into many crew members that we knew from the Serenade on this ship. It was amazing!

 

Anyway......Herbie and Shawn took real good care of us all week.

 

Ross, the port shopping guy, came in and sat with us for a little while. He was delightful. Soon Guy and Lisa joined us.

 

 

We stayed here until 8 o'clock when we went up to Portofino for dinner. Guy and Lisa went with us. We took advantage of our 2 for 1 coupons. Great deal!

 

I see the 2 guys from Spain in the background we had them on both out TA and 1 of our Med cruise last year (2012) you know that they are onboard for 6 months from Malaga to Southhampton, and we will be seeing them agian on our TA in April back to Southhampton. Did you get to met Mathew (bar tender) works cigar lounge?

[maxs mom]

Again......another critter awaited us in the cabin!

[maxs mom]

I see the 2 guys from Spain in the background we had them on both out TA and 1 of our Med cruise last year (2012) you know that they are onboard for 6 months from Malaga to Southhampton, and we will be seeing them agian on our TA in April back to Southhampton. Did you get to met Mathew (bar tender) works cigar lounge?

 

 

YES!!! We so enjoyed "the boys", as we called them. They were fantastic! They always came over and spoke to us every night. And we had some good discussions on health a couple of times. So interesting!

We did not have a chance to meet Mathew.

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ December 28th ~ Curacao

Another one of our favorite ports! It was a nice looking day outside!

It was pretty quiet up on the pool deck as well when I went to exchange our beach towels.

[travelnut4]

Thursday ~ December 27th ~ Aruba

 

Up early again today.... same routine.....coffee.. CL ....Breakfast in MDR.

 

I'm excited to be back in Aruba again. We are going to one our all time favorite beaches today. Guy and Lisa are going with us. We left the ship around 9. Before getting in a taxi we took time to make a few more Christmas tree pics.

 

 

 

The taxi driver takes us to the Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort on Eagle Beach. Great spot! We got there early enough to get some prime chairs and a palapa. It was a beautiful day' date=' once again.[/size']

 

Best beach day of the cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

No crowds here! They all go to Palm Beach.

I would love to go to this area of Eagle Beach on our cruise next month! I had read on here they weren't accepting cruise passengers anymore and to go to another area on Eagle Beach...PVC or something like that. How much was the taxi to and from Eagle Beach at Amsterdam Manor? I am considering the bus as well. Thanks for your help!

[maxs mom]

Same routine for coffee and breakfast. I had another egg white omelet this morning.......soooooo good!

Today we are heading out by ourselves over to a favorite spot close to the ship. We took a taxi to the Sea Aquairium Beach. Actually we have the driver drop us off at the Lion's Dive Hotel entrance. We just walk through the hotel and out on the beach at their property. The beach boy found us and we paid him for two chairs and the $3 beach charge......$18 in all. There are plenty of trees there for shade. We like this particular place because it is not as crowded as other spots on this beach and for the shade. Other places are cheaper. But they are loud and crowded. I prefer to relax. It is close to food, drink, and bathrooms. Here are some pictures of this beach. It is actually like a lagoon......kind of different. It is fun to swim out to the breaker, but I didn't do that today.

[Ocean Boy]

Aruba and Curacao are both awesome. Both are paces that I really miss going to when sailing out of Ft. Lauderdale.

[maxs mom]

I would love to go to this area of Eagle Beach on our cruise next month! I had read on here they weren't accepting cruise passengers anymore and to go to another area on Eagle Beach...PVC or something like that. How much was the taxi to and from Eagle Beach at Amsterdam Manor? I am considering the bus as well. Thanks for your help!

 

There was no problem getting on to this beach.....just get there early. I believe the taxi was $15 total......no matter how many people. They will take no more than 5 people in a taxi, though.

[maxs mom]

We saw an excursion from the ship come in to the beach right next to us. They were herded in like cattle and were on top of each other. I was happy to be where I was!

These two guys entertained us all day on their jet ski:

You can get some pretty good hot dogs for lunch here, but we decided to go back to the ship around 1:00 today and just get lunch on the ship.

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

Loving your review Jane, as always! Thanx.

[Cshgrand]

This is fantastic. Exactly a year today we will be embarking for this same cruise!! Mostly New ports for us, our first week of holiday without our son and we love good beaches so thank you so much for these insights!

 

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2

[maxs mom]

Sorry .....I had to take a little break as I accidently deleted all my photos for this cruise from Photobucket!! Grrrrr!!! I am uploading the ones I need to finish.....so I'll be back momentarily!

[maxs mom]

You can see the ship from this beach.

I've always wanted to try going to Playa Porta Marie on Curacao but the cab fare is $50 one way. Maybe one day if we can get some more people to go with us.

Back on the ship, we showered and went to the WJ for lunch. No one was there and it was nice. I must say the service in the WJ every time we were there was excellent!

We had a nice relaxing afternoon......of course.....reading and napping! We went up to the Blue Moon which is a hot spot for internet and checked our e-mail. It was nice and quiet up there. GOt a couple of nice shots o the pool area from up there.

This was a formal night again. John opted not to put on the tux again and that was perfectly fine. We met Cynthia and David in the CL and then were joined by Guy and Lisa later.

[saw777]

Guy and Lisa are doing a back to back and had this wonderful Grand Suite (1556):

 

 

 

 

 

We are a little more frugal and have an E1.....but a good location on the hump right in the center on Deck 8 (8320).

 

 

 

This is our wonderful balcony:

 

 

 

Loving your review. We are staying in GS1556 in September when AOS is sailing from the UK. Thanks for posting those photos, and also the ones of the CL. Did you happen to notice where the Gold Card area was on the pool deck for people to sunbathe?

 

Steven

[maxs mom]

David and Cynthia:

Guy and Lisa:

Jane and John:

While we were in the CL, the Captain made an announcement that we were turning around and going back to Curacao because of a medical emergency. A passenger needed to be med-e-vaced. A heart problem I think. But it wouldn't effect our arrival in San Juan.

So it was on to dinner at 8:30. Very good dinner and service once again. We both had prime rib. We don't usually eat beef as a general rule unless we are on a cruise. After tonight's prime rib.....which was very good......we decided we had had enough. No more beef until the next cruise!

After dinner, we wandered around for a bit and then went to the theater for the Beatle Tribute Band's performance. It was pretty good. Great music. They were pretty good for a tribute band, but not near as good as the Abba one or the Jersey Boys.....but we enjoyed it.

Shake it up baby......twist and shout!!!

We walked through the casino on the way back to the cabin and watched a lady drop $100 on my Pink Panther machine in the blink of an eye! Glad I didn't try it again!

After that....it was time for bed!

[maxs mom]

Steven......I'm not sure, but I believe the area for sunbathing that you are talking about is in the stadium area around the pool. You will really like cabin 1556. It's nice.