Blue Collar Diamond cruiser on the Adventure of the Seas Southern ABC Islands

[Canadian Tyler]

Hi Bill! Glad to see you back with another great review. Pictures working fine for me. Sorry to hear you had dining problems...free cruise!

[gottalovecruising]

Looking forward to the rest of your review

 

 

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[KatPem]

Looking forward to the rest of your review. We are sailing on the Adventure in October, our first on Royal Caribbean. We are doing a different itinerary but look forward to it all the same. Thanks for sharing!

[BillOh]

We returned to the ship in St Martin in plenty of time, walking the 1/2 mile from downtown directly to the ship bypassing the $7 200 yard boat ride. It was formal night, so we got ready and hit the diamond club before dinner. I don't remember if this diamond clue is moving after the final dry dock changes or not, but I really like the location and layout of this one. We met some very nice people up here and had some snacks to hold us over till late dining. I still think of the British guy who seemed to obsess on the point after I mentioned that we drove from Columbus, Ohio to Port Canaveral for a 4 day cruise. "I must have heard about how American's are obsessed with their cars 20 times!. But we always managed to have a good time up there and show up to dinner happy.

 

This morning I found my notebook from the cruise., I would need it to remember some of the dining room stuff and odd other facts that I took the time to write down. (Hey, its part of how I enjoy a cruise.) I did notice on the first day that the hamburger in the windjammer contained more Soy than I remember from any other cruise. More cutbacks? ;) Actually I don't mind that. My wife and I are both weight loss surgery patients. I had the lapband years 8 years ago and the inlet to my stomach is restricted. Sorry if this is TMI, but if I don't take the time to chew properly things can get stuck and I'm uncomfortable for awhile. The soy breaks down faster, so that doesn't happen as much and I don't mind the soy taste that much. (As long as that doesn't make its way to Johnny Rocket's.)

 

I didn't write down what I had for dinner the 2nd night, but I did write down, "Dinner ok", Our waiter Nicole did a good job again, but our assistant waiter became even more worthless, and I didn't think that was possible. This night all 4 couples were at dinner and everyone was getting along great and having a great time with each other. I'll stop and point out it was my wife Gina and myself Mid 50s, Jon and Penny mid 40s, from Central Ohio, Another couple from Idaho that were very close to our age. She said she had just turned 56, and then the celebrity look alike couple from Rhode Island who were probably our same age. It was a good mix.

 

Just to show it wasn't just the Ohio couple, everyone noted we couldn't get bread, and when we did it was the bottom of the basket. We never got asked if we wanted any drinks and we were there 30 minutes before we were asked for drinks. Penny asked specifically for a drink she got in the champagne bar. 30 minutes after we asked we still had nothing besides now empty water glasses. Penny asked about her drink and was told they can't make that one in the dining room. Penny at this point got a little upset, in a controlled way, and told the assistant waiter that this was fine, but if she had told her that, she would have just ordered the wine. We never got soft drink or water refills that night and only saw the bread once. As dessert was ordered the AW asked who wanted coffee. 3 people said yes, and 30 minutes later it never came. Penny talked to the head waiter and mentioned the drink mix up and the lack of coffee. Later we saw him talking to the AW and much to my surprise, she was yelling back at him. I have never seen that before and have suspected that would be a big no-no. Later I learned that each of the other two couples also spoke to Guest Services about the lack of drinks and bread.

 

The next morning we saw Nicole our waiter in the Windjammer and she specifically stopped to talk to us. We made it clear we were happy with her, but have never seen anything like the AWs efforts. Time for a picture. I did walk all over the ship, since it was our first time on this ship, taking pictures. On several ships like Allure and Freedom I found the ship model and admired it. I found the model on this ship and was admiring it a full 5 minutes before I had a W T F moment.

 

Like me, if the readers forgot, I was on Adventure, not Brilliance. I guess there is no rule that says the model has to be the ship we are on, but this struck me as a little odd.

 

 

Next up, Sea day #1 and the Meet and Mingle.

Edited May 11, 2017 by BillOh
typo correction

[juiceman]

Time for a picture. I did walk all over the ship, since it was our first time on this ship, taking pictures. On several ships like Allure and Freedom I found the ship model and admired it. I found the model on this ship and was admiring it a full 5 minutes before I had a W T F moment.

 

Like me, if the readers forgot, I was on Adventure, not Brilliance. I guess there is no rule that says the model has to be the ship we are on, but this struck me as a little odd.

 

 

Next up, Sea day #1 and the Meet and Mingle.

 

I was on the same cruise & am enjoying your review Bill. I did not know that there was a second ship model on the Adventure. There is also a model of the Vision of the Seas on Deck 9, but I did not know about the model of the Brilliance. I was on another cruise (I think the Allure) & it has a model of a Freedom class ship on it. I'd have to look through my cruise photos to see if I can find it.

 

Oh, I did see someone on the cruise wearing a U of M hat. Wasn't me though (I'm from Michigan), I cannot stand them!

[BillOh]

I was on the same cruise & am enjoying your review Bill. I did not know that there was a second ship model on the Adventure. There is also a model of the Vision of the Seas on Deck 9, but I did not know about the model of the Brilliance. I was on another cruise (I think the Allure) & it has a model of a Freedom class ship on it. I'd have to look through my cruise photos to see if I can find it.

 

Oh, I did see someone on the cruise wearing a U of M hat. Wasn't me though (I'm from Michigan), I cannot stand them!

 

 

Looking at your signature, I see we will be on Symphony with you too. come join our roll call and help pass the remaining 700 days.

[BillOh]

Hi Bill! Glad to see you back with another great review. Pictures working fine for me. Sorry to hear you had dining problems...free cruise!

 

 

When are you going to break down and try an Oasis class? ;)

[Canadian Tyler]

When are you going to break down and try an Oasis class? ;)

 

Haha! Once the prices come down!! I'm too "frugal" aka cheap.

[BillOh]

Day 3 was the first of two sea days on this cruise. As I frequently do, I woke up around 7am, grabbed my running clothes and took off for the running track on deck 12 for a few slow miles. I'm a retired marathoner after back surgery, but I can't resist a run when the weather starts getting warm. As of today and for the next several months Adventure's running track on deck 12 goes all the way around the front of the ship. I may be wierd, but I love fighting a 40mph headwind, and then turning the corner at the front of the ship and suddenly having a 20-30mph tail wind. In April/May a Caribbean wind feels good to me after another midwest winter. I will miss when all of the Voyager/Freedom class tracks are shortened. The only thing, as far as I know ;) That Carnival does better is their tracks aren't shared with deck chairs and sun bathers. For that reason you have to get your runs in by 8am or your dodging bar tenders and families moving chairs around.

 

This day there was probably no breeze. I think we were only doing 10 knots so I suspect we had a tailwind as the air was incredibly still and it was already mid 80s with high humidity. i could feel the calories jumping right off me into the sea! I did 3 miles in about 33 minutes starting at 7, so I got to see many of the first chair hogs of the cruise coming out. Chair hogs on sea days are not anything new, but I did observe chair hogs are becoming more sophisticated. By that I mean, i saw at least 20 towels brought from home and placed on chairs early. I guess the thought is it is easier for them to spot and they think the anti-hogs won't disturb a towel that obviously doesn't belong to the ship. (I may have to re-think that and perhaps start a new towel collection of the world! ) The other thing I noticed is Designated chair hog guards. I saw plenty of people that claimed 5 more more chairs and left one or two guards behind to protect their turf.

 

I'm new to Periscope, but before I ran, I did a quick scope and caught a few chair hogs in the act. My persicope ID is @bluecollardiamond. I may have to go watch that video(s) again. (Adventure's Voom isn't as good as Oasis or even Majesty, I had to do two videos when the first one dropped. Later on the last sea day , when I had one day of free internet used Facebook live to show my friends the ship, I video'd more chairhogs in action. More on the Adventure internet when I get to day 7,the final sea day.

 

Confession time and you can flame away, because I can take it! I mentioned the air was still and it was hot. When I finished my 3 miles I walked by a row of 7 chairs all, with them covered with the blue ship towels. Nobody was around, I grabbed one, wiped off my face and torso, and then dumped it in the towel station return.

[Rickster]

I - O,. lots of Buckeyes on this cruise BTW, didn't see a damm Maze and Blue shirt all week!

 

 

Sucks 2 B U! [emoji41]

 

 

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[BillOh]

Something new did happen on this cruise. that I hadn't seen or heard of before. This was only our 3rd cruise in a Junior Suite. We got an invitation that clearly had the word TOUR in the title. It mentioned a suite tour and explanation of Genie and other suite benefits. It called for meeting outside the Suite Lounge early this sea day afternoon. As near as we could gather, everyone that showed up was in a Junior suite. They lead us into the lounge were we waited a few minutes until someone from Guest Services came to talk to us. To be honest, on this ship, as it was today (May 2017) the Diamond Club is a far nicer place to spend time than this room was. Are they moving these lounges when the retrofit is completed?

 

A couple of people in this group were also in the CC roll call and I had mentioned to them that all of the suites were sold out before our cruise and I wondered how they were going to give us a tour. Well, we quickly learned we were headed to Boleros to see a presentation of the suites and benefits. My wife and I an I think most of the 16 or so people there all bailed out on that and didn't go to the presentation.

 

Random picture, I like the outside view of this ship and voyager with the older style balconies. Maybe it is because I m am nostalgic with Voyager being my first ship.

 

[BillOh]

After my run, my wife and I showered, yea, you can do that in a Junior Suite :evilsmile: we headed to the MDR for breakfast. On this ship, one side of deck 3 was the Diamond breakfast and the other side "everyone else" in the middle was a buffet that both could use. The service was a little better on the Diamond side. The menu on that side had a couple of entries the regular side didn't I tried Texas French Toast and it was awful. I needed a steak knife to cut it. I ended up eating from the buffet part and we joined Jon and Penny on the other side a few days with no problems.

 

The Meet and Mingle was held up in the VCL area at 5pm. We struggled to get to the 25 min for awhile, but we ended around 31 and I think at least 25 showed up. My wife won a bottle of champagne, which we shared at dinner. I did meet several of the people that helped get me entertained over the previous 700 days. We played 2 rounds of trivia this day, the general triva, we actually won, along with Jon and Penny. . Yellow wristbands as the major prize. Later in the day we won again on a geography trivia, my specialty, we teamed up with a couple of 20 something girls from not far from us (I forget where)

 

We spent another evening pre-dinner in the Diamond club and enjoyed ourselves. Once again I didn't even bother write down what I ordered. What ever it was, I can't even remember it. Drama continued with our Assistant Waiter. When Coffee didn't come we asked our main waiter and she said she asked the other girl if she asked if anyone wanted coffee and that girl said she did ask. (She hadn't) At this point I think the other 2 couples talked to the head waiter or guest services. Everyone got chocolate covered strawberries in our rooms and that we got assigned a different, much better assistant waitress the next day. (The original assistant was still working the 4 other tables nearby, she made a point to smile and say hello. We didn't make it out of dinner in time for the headliner show, Jon and Penny went anyway, only missing 15 minutes.

 

Next up, one of my anticipated days, Bonaire and our 36th anniversary. (Also Scuba diving and snorkeling)

[Yorkvillain]

Loving the review Bill. Great job.

[cruzeluver]

Really enjoying so far. Thanks! We are looking at Adventure for next Spring, possibly booking while on Oasis in October. Fantastic pics!!

[CruisingYiayia]

After my run, my wife and I showered, yea, you can do that in a Junior Suite :evilsmile: we headed to the MDR for breakfast. On this ship, one side of deck 3 was the Diamond breakfast and the other side "everyone else" in the middle was a buffet that both could use. The service was a little better on the Diamond side. The menu on that side had a couple of entries the regular side didn't I tried Texas French Toast and it was awful. I needed a steak knife to cut it. I ended up eating from the buffet part and we joined Jon and Penny on the other side a few days with no problems.

 

We were on the Adventure last week, too. We had breakfast the first morning in the MDR on the Diamond side. The pancakes I ordered were the worst pancakes I've ever had...I couldn't even cut them with a knife. My sister and brother-in-law both ordered the french toast and said they were horrible. My husband, however, enjoyed his ham and cheese omelet. After that experience, we ate breakfast in the Windjammer. We also found service in the MDR for dinner to be very slow. We had a 4 night specialty dinner package, so we only ate in the MDR the 2nd, 3rd and 7th nights.

[BillOh]

I had forgotten on the sea day when I got tired of sunning myself in the solarium I went an hour walk to see what I could see. I walked a lap around the outdoor part of deck 4 and thought that I should play shuffle board. I was a grade school champion at Shuffle board and I've never played on a cruise ship.

 

 

Since Gina was still worshipping the sun and nobody else came along, I played against myself and won!

 

I started to go out onto the bow of the ship as I Iike to on Radiance, Voyager, and Freedom class ships. Royal has stymied my attempt at every turn to get out on the bow of the Oasis class. About the time I got up the stairs to the bow a heavy rain started. By the time I walked back and around to the other side the rain had stopped so I admired the view.

 

 

I resisted the urge to do my, "I'm flying" routine.

 

[perfect match]

I am enjoying your review very much, Bill! Can't wait to hear about your diving in Bonaire! :cool:

 

I just read through the whole review so far and was able to see all pictures except the ones of your room and a few others around that part of the review.

 

I have been considering booking the same sailing on Symphony since we have some friends who are already booked and are asking us to join them. I would love to cruise with our friends again AND maybe get a chance to meet you! Hope I can figure out a way to make our schedule work for that cruise!

[floatel_lvr]

Loving the review Bill. Enjoy Bonaire we haven't been to that island yet.

 

Sorry to hear about the AW issues. That can make dining challenging. We had a waitress once who told my wife there was no way to get cookies for dessert. My wife went to Cafe Promenade and brought back a big plate of assorted cookies for the table. When the Maitre'd saw this he freaked out. He said... "oh my your waitress will get you those"!!! My wife replied "not ours, we already tried that route"... it was a very interesting next few nights...

[BillOh]

Friday, May 2nd was the main reason we cruise this time of year. This year it was our 36th anniversary and our first time in Bonaire. I had dropped a Happy Anniversary message into the Cruise Directors Morning show box and heard that read. Drew continued to do a good job as CD and we enjoyed his morning show. For the past year or so I knew I would be diving in Bonaire on this cruise. The fact that my wife doesn't dive is usually not a problem. She normally comes along with me and hangs out on the boat, but for this dive, I went for a shore dive through a private excursion. Even though this was our anniversary, Gina had no problem staying with Jon and Penny and shopping in the morning while I dove. I got out of shopping at Bonaire! I would meet them later back on the deck before our noon snorkel excursion.

 

Royal continued to disappoint me in the excursion department, at least before this cruise. It was around late February, early March when I went to the online cruise planner to look for a dive. I had seen them there for several months, but now there was none on the site. Normally I go private for diving anyway, but since I was trying to time it to get back in time for the group snorkel excursion I thought going with a Royal excursion would be best. But no, they didn't offer one on their site, at least until 2 weeks before our cruise it was available again. Sorry, I plan further than that ahead.

 

With good reviews on Trip Advisor and a couple of recommendations from the scuba section of cruise critic I chose a shore dive with VIP diving. The reservation was very easy and I had good communication with them before the cruise. I was told a driver would pick me up at 8:30 and take me to the shop where I would meet other divers and we would be taken to the best dive site of the day. I was very happy with how VIP operated and communicated.

 

I got off the ship as soon as it was cleared and there were a bunch of divers waiting to get off the ship first. Clearly I chose the right place to dive. My pick up was scheduled for 8:30 so I had a little time to walk around. The first thing I noticed was a group of 4 cargo container/truck trailers on the dock near the ship. It made the area directly outside the terminal a little crowded. I dismissed that thought until the transportation company came to pick up those trailers. Each time a truck came to get one of those trailers, security had to stop all traffic leaving the ship. To me this seemed like buffing the floor of a the entrance to a movie theater just as the movie was letting out. They couldn't have done this 30 minutes earlier or an hour later? With all the excursion busses there, it made for a congested, possibly dangerous area.

 

Right at 8:30 am my ride showed up and for some reason other than punctuality I was happy.

 

I was immediately reminded of a local band Gina and I frequently go see - http://www.sixfootblondeband.com/

In about 5 more minutes, Ms Amici joined us and we were on our way to the dive shop. In the discussion on the 5 minute ride to the shop I learned Ana from the ship had about as many dives as I had and that another person visiting the island for a week was diving with us.

 

 

We spent about 30 minutes filling out the required paperwork and getting fitted with rental equipment as well as hearing about the area we were diving. The lady that greeted us at the dock, I'm sorry I forget her name, was also our divemaster, She was very good and easy to work with. We discussed that I was only doing one dive while the other two were taking a second dive. VIP was very good at communicating this and arranging the schedules to accomodate everyone. I know they had other customers that day and I believe they put the 3 of us together based on our schedules and abilities and matched us up with a great dive master.

 

We drove about 3 miles to a parking lot near the airport where we put our equipment together and headed out to dive. We could see our ship about 4 miles away. We even heard her horn as she started an emergency drill. Our divemaster had told us she thought it might have been a tribute to Adriana Florencio an Royal crew member from Adventure who had gone missing the week before. I had heard of this news story, but didn't learn that she was found dead on the island later that previous week. We did receive a security notice in our cabins to be careful on the island. The first time I had heard anything like that for this island.

 

The dive was wonderful. I would describe it like diving inside someone's really big aquarium. Lots of variety of small colorful fish and an amazing variety of coral. After my bleak shore dive in Grand Caymen, the coral was a pleasant suprise. I didn't see any remarkable large fish, rays, or turtles, but this was a pleasant dive and I was very happy with VIP and will use them again. I left my camera and other valuables in a locker at their shop so the only photos I have will be taken from the Gopro video I took., I promise to process them and post them this weekend.

 

After that dive I was taken back and dropped off at the ship were I would meet the rest of my crew for a catamaran/snorkel excursion at noon.

[BillOh]

I was dropped back off at the ship exactly at 11:30 as VIP promised. (I enjoyed the dive and must emphasize the professionalism and customer service provided by VIP) I had booked, along with Gina, Penny, and John a Royal catamaran snorkel excursion for 12:30. Actually I think Jon picked this one out. Since I was already ashore we said we would meet at the pier near the ship. I got back early enough to check our room and see if Gina was there. She wasn't but she left a note saying, "Happy Anniversary" and a Dive Bonaire polo shirt and T-shirt she had bought while shopping. I assumed they were still shopping and thought I had time to grab some food in the windjammer. I went there, knowing I was just going to grab a burger, no bun, and sit down and eat it before meeting my group.

 

As you go into this windjammer and bear to the right, there is a section of Ethnic food. Most of the way back, there is a station with plates and utensils. That is right next to a taco bar that people tend to take there time to get what they want and move on. There was a long line. After grabbing my plate I went around the corner where there was no line, grabbed the burger. While heading to a table to sit down and eat, I decided to put some of the melted cheese from the taco bar on my burger. I stepped into the middle of this group of people where there was space, grabbed a ladle of cheese and poured it onto my burger and was gone before 99% of the people knew I was there. I didn't hold up the line or get in anyone's way. Some people would say this is cutting in line and that shouldn't be done in the windjammer. To me if your stuck in line behind the lady who examines every diced tomato cube to get just the right one, GO AROUND HER! On other ships who determines where the line start and ends?

 

I ate my my "snack" as quickly as anyone with my digestive condition could and joined my cruise mates on the dock to wait for our excursion. I mentioned Jon had picked this excursion and Penny and Gina agreed wholeheartedly with it having enjoyed our first catamaran excursion in St Kitts 3 years ago. I think they were disappointed at first when a twin hull ferry came to get us. They thought this was going to be our excursion boat, but it was just a taxi to another pier about 400 yards away. Our catamaran couldn't get into this pier because of Adventure's ship lines. They were all relieved when we were transported to the other pier and saw MUSHI MUSHI waiting for us. I just happened to google the ship and found this link - http://www.privatecharterbonaire.com/cruise-ship-passengers/. This was the ship were were on and had a great time with. On our water taxi to the other ship I took this photo.

 

 

Now is a good time to mention that while my wife loves snorkeling, she has trouble with many masks on her face. She saw this on Facebook and told me to buy it. I did.

 

 

This is the one I bought for her and she loved it. I found it again by googling full face snorkel mask. She will take it on every cruise now. The girls love riding up front on catamarans.

 

 

We sailed the MUSHI MUSHI about 20 minutes to a sport that was pretty nice. Everyone had an hour to snorkel, but by 45 minutes most people were done and back on board having refreshments. I quickly found out as the sun came out the fish were congregating under the boat in the shade, so hopefully I got good video/pics from my Gopro. I promise to work on that this weekend. Oh, that reminds me, on the sail we hit a school of flying fish that all scattered into the air and flew quite a ways. I've seen this from a cruise ship deck, but never up this close. It was then that I realized, earlier on my dive I had seen a really ugly fish with weird fins. I then realized that this is what I was seeing. I'll capture a still image and post it.

[BillOh]

2/3rds of our Anniversary was over, and we were having a good day, when we returned from our snorkel excursion around 3:30 we found this waiting in our room.

 

 

Leroy had been a pleasure to be around all weekend. He circulated through the Diamond club like a gracious hosts engaging everyone in conversation. He comes off as, and probably is, a real nice guy. However, you look at it, even blue collar guys like me like to be treated the way he treats guest.

 

We booked a 7pm dinner for Chops. We have spent our 27th, 30th, 32nd, 34th, 35th, and now 36th anniversary at Chops. Most of the time it has been a great experience. The last great experience was on Freedom in 2015 where I had the Peppered Bacon appetizer for the first time and a Veal Chop - steak. Both were wonderful along with my wife's petite filet. The experience on Oasis was pretty bad, the bacon appetizer was pure fat and unappealing and my Medium well NY strip was way past well done. Fortunately we got enough to eat off my wife's filet which I swear she ordered medium.

 

 

Chops on Navigator is up accross the Italian restaurant near the windjammer,but on Adventure they put it on deck 4 near the Schnoor bar where the Mexican restuarant is on Freedom. I prefer the window view on Freedom over the central park location on the Oasis class, but this was nice.

 

 

We saw felllow roll call member JDELTA celebrating his birthday there. The Veal chop was not on the menu, but I went with the NY strip again and this time ordered it medium. (I've developed more of a taste and tolerance for Medium as I get older. Suprisingly my wife ordered Medium well, which she never does at home. I thought my steak was better than hers, but we were both happy. After dessert we decided to visit our table mates in the MDR for dessert. (another dessert) ;) It was a great dinner, very enjoyable with great service. They sang for our anniversary and brought a piece of cake we shared. More on night 3 in the MDR soon.

[BillOh]

Last night I started pulling stills from my gopro dive video, I thought I'd post a few.

 

[Ocean Boy]

Nice!

[caseythegr]

Last night I started pulling stills from my gopro dive video, I thought I'd post a few.

 

 

Gorgeous!

[BillOh]

A few more dive photos.