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My Adventure review, Mom perspective

LillCruiser
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Biker19

Biker19

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Rockwall, Gianna LOVED it! She climbed both sides and rang the bell but wasn't able to get to the bell on the middle leg.

Yes, that middle one is tough - she did well to get the other two done. The next time you can challenge her by having her use only one color of hand holds.

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LillCruiser

LillCruiser

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Good morning Day 3! And we remembered to set an alarm on our phones for 7:30 am, YES!

 

Happy Father's Day to Aaron!

 

Speaking of phones, we did not bring any additional charging cables or what have you with us. We had the 2 outlets per room and I had read about power surges so we didn't plug our phones directly into the outlets. Instead we brought a few power banks and charged them. We didn't have any need for more than 2 outlets in our room. I used the blow dryer provided, adequate and worth not packing my own, and my own hair straighter. Other than charging our power banks we had no use of the outlets. So if you aren't working from the ship or have zero medical concerns involving an outlet, don't get sucked into that worry. You are truly hardly ever in your cabin, unless you want to be and have a balcony or something. Not much interest in an interior stateroom for hanging out when there is so much more to do outside of it. Also we did not have Wifi, on purpose. GASPS were heard throughout my family when this announcement was made but I promise everyone adjusted and even enjoyed being unplugged. If you want my advice, unplug. Spend the saved money on the $2 mimosas...hahah!

 

Ok back to waking up. Everyone was up and at 'em today and after giving Aaron his Father's Day cards that I remembered to pack (way to go Mom!) we got a move on. The buffet was way less crowded arriving earlier in the day. Fully bellies and with an eager family ready to cram in some swimming and flowrider time before we arrived in Port Canaveral at Noon, we hit the ship with a purpose. This family won't be accused of not using our time wisely. *grin*

 

Everyone was excited to watch our arrival into Port Canaveral. After we cleaned up from the morning adventures we grabbed lunch at The Windjammer and then started the process of heading into Florida. Getting off the ship was really organized. We made use of the provided towels and used the Lyft app to get a driver to us in under 5 minutes.

 

We went to Ron Jon's at Cocoa Beach and did the tourist thing. Then we went to the Walgreen's across the street and grabbed some Gatorades and bubbly water and made our way to the beach. We rented an umbrella from a little stand there for a few hours ($10) and enjoyed the waves. The water was amazingly warm. Everyone stayed in it the entire time. Remember when I called myself the "sunblock applying" one? Yeah I was on high alert and watched the time closely for reapplying. Remember that the ship and ocean is REALLY windy and that the spray on sunblocks are feeble at best in the wind. It's a labor process to rub that dang cream sunblock in every 90 minutes but no one had a ruined minute of fun from a sunburn so it was worth it. After quite a few hours in the ocean we made our way to a cute frozen yogurt joint and had a few minutes of blessed A/C and a cold treat.

 

All aboard was 8:30 and we were back by 7 using Lyft again. ($25 each way). Time for dinner! Even though it was Father's Day and Aaron truly enjoyed all the time we spent with the kids everyone decided they wanted to do something different for dinner. The kids wanted to hang with their new friends for dinner at the Windjammer and Aaron and I really wanted the Main Dining room. So we agreed to meet up after dinner. Father's Day dinner without the kids might sound weird but it was oddly satisfying. Like a break for my awesome husband to enjoy a kind of date night, just the two of us.

 

Side note - if you would have told me before this trip that I would be ok sending my kids off (together) alone without us, I probably would have told you you were absolutely crazy. But here we were doing it, and it was great! We had very specific rules - they were NEVER allowed in to anyone's stateroom and no one was allowed into ours. We also had times and places to meet up every time we separated. They obeyed rules and check ins and it ran very smoothly. They never had the run of the ship, but they did enjoy more freedom than I realized would happen before leaving.

 

Dinner was great, we laughed and enjoyed some of that wine we were allowed to bring on board. It was great to connect in the middle of a family vacation. (insert some sappy music here)

 

Anyway, the night time activities were great! The boys attended the Teen Night get together and we were able to get some quality time with Gianna. Late night swimming is fun!

 

It's now night time meet up at the Promenade cafe for our late night snack, talk about our day, and plan a bit about our arrival at Cococay tomorrow! Excitement was the theme.

 

Ahhh the sheets feel so cool and crisp after the hot Florida sun.

 

Good night Day 3.

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maggie416

maggie416

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What a great review, you should be a writer! I am especially enjoying your review on this ship since we will be on her next year. We are somewhat apprehensive because we have cruised on The Anthem the last 3 years, and absolutely love that ship, but we are doing a back to back so no way were we passing that up! 2 weeks on a cruise! Talk about using those stairs! We have been on the Explorer which is the same class as the Adventure. We enjoyed that ship so this will be fine. I do like reading the reviews on the ship we will be on. Thanks!

Marg

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Tin can

Tin can

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Fabulous review, loving it!

 

We are travelling across from the UK next year for a very similar cruise and this is so useful.

 

So looking forward to more [emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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LillCruiser

LillCruiser

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Good morning Day 4! 7 am wake up with the phone alarm. I am loving the family's willingness to get up early and enjoy all of the day.

 

 

 

Today is THE BAHAMAS! We are at Cococay and I have 3 children rushing us along so they can get their first sight on the bluest of the blue water that they keep hearing about. Remember the first time you saw it? It is like a postcard. Every single time.

 

 

 

Side note, I think yesterday was the first time that we turned the TV on in the morning while getting ready. (I told you we were so committed to the unplugged thing.) Check out The morning show from the cruise and activities director on channel 14. First, our Directors were a blast, and second it was kind of fun. Kept us grounded with info, sometimes showed the activity or show from the night before, and did some kind of shout outs. I have no idea about those but if you're into that kind of thing maybe check at Guest Services. Lots of Happy Birthday wishes being mentioned.

 

 

 

Through my CC reading I knew that getting off of the ship as one of the first few boats would be ideal for picking our spot at Cococay. This time the family totally agreed with me, seriously the teen barely argued, and everyone ate breakfast and got their rear ends in line for the tender boat. Another very seamless transition off of the ship.

 

 

 

Oh another side note, before we left for the day I knew we wouldn't want to eat at the formal dinner tonight. I read that we should let someone know that, so we went to Guest Services and waited in line. Here I am in my little happy bubble watching this lady in front of me walk up to the very sweet smiling representative and suddenly she transforms into Cruella DeVil and exclaims so loudly "I CANNOT WAIT TO GET OFF OF THIS BOAT!" and launches into her tirade. To which, and be proud of me here Cruise Critic people because you taught me well, I lean over to my husband and say "Ship." hahah. Poor lady, I can't imagine what could be that bad. Annnnd back to the reason I was there at Guest Services, to cancel my dinner reservation. I let the rep know we wanted to cancel our reservation in the Main Dining room for dinner to which she replied, "Ok, just don't show up." I guess that is that.

 

 

 

So here we are getting on the tender boat and heading to Cococay. There is a tingle of excitement and lots of smiles. WHAT will this beach be like? And OOOOOO and WOW the water is SO BLUE!

 

 

 

Cococay was fabulous. Being one of the first boats is key, well, to my happiness anyway. We found our perfect spot with shade and dumped all of our towels and snorkel gear. We brought our own gear and that made life pretty simple. We decided to explore a little and happened upon a live conch and that was pretty exciting and picture worthy.

 

 

 

We all snorkeled for a bit and just generally enjoyed the water and how clear it really was.

 

 

 

LUNCH TIME! Wow is lunch on that island something to behold. So much of it. Plenty of different stations of food and fruit and dessert and drinks. We found a gyro station and that was a great find. Really tasty. A fun bonus is all of the chickens and iguanas on the island that like to stroll by you as you eat at the picnic tables.

 

 

 

After lunch the kids wanted to check out the inflatable water park. After watching for a few minutes they were sold and wanted to give it a go. I was worried that one hour wouldn't be worth it but decided to go with the flow and sign them up and pay. I am SO glad I did. They loved it! One hour of climbing on the big inflatables is a lot of in and out of the water and pretty exhausting! Seriously though, the best thing and they still talk about how much fun it was.

 

 

 

Right as they were exiting the inflatables area the heavens opened up. It started as a light drizzle and then it was an all out tropical rain shower. We didn't mind getting wet at all but our towels, that was another story. There was a mass exodus off of the island and lines quickly formed. Imagine everyone kind of dealing with the rain while packing up our snorkel equipment that was spread all around our lounge chairs and not knowing what in the heck to do with all the towels that were getting SOAKED.

 

 

 

Well we did our best and everyone grabbed a 500 pound wet towel, I volunteered to carry the extra two we brought along, and we decided to line up. Thankfully they are amazing at loading that boat quickly and the line didn't seem too bad. We were back at the ship and THANKFULLY they had a towel check in the minute we got off of the tender boat. One of my favorite views was seeing our magnificent ship sitting in the ocean without a dock. I know the dock at Cococay is a great idea because people won't have to miss this incredible stop, but there is something special about seeing your ship just drop anchor in the ocean with nothing around. So cool.

 

 

 

Everyone grabbed a shower and we decided to head to the Windjammer for dinner because we wanted to be at the 7 pm show. Dinner was wonderful and dessert tonight was surprisingly yummy! They had someone making crepes and even had a peanut butter and chocolate option. SCORE one for the desserts in the Windjammer. It helped me deal with my lack of creme brulee that night.

 

 

 

We had a ventriloquist for our 7 pm show and he was really good and very funny. Lots of giggles and even the adults enjoyed him.

 

 

 

Tonight was family karaoke and my daughter enjoys singing. She sang Bruno Mars "Grenade" and received some great compliments and applause. Isn't it always the best seeing your kid happy doing something they love?

 

 

 

The rest of the evening was relaxing. We did the late night snack thing eventually and went to bed ready for our day in Nassau the next morning. Tonight we had more towel animals. Why are towel animals so fun? Especially when you aren't 100% exactly sure what it's supposed to be and the family decides to all put in their two cents as to what it is. Que lots of laughter and bets.

 

 

 

Good night Day 4.

Edited by LilTurano
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ChristinaP252

ChristinaP252

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Thank you for taking the time to create this and share so much, including your pictures. We leave on the Adventure in 36 days for the same itinerary with 2 17 year olds and a 16 year old. I'm really enjoying your writing and look forward to the remaining days! One quick question - one of your pics showed a laundry bag and note. Did you happen to use the laundry service and/or note the pricing?

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LillCruiser

LillCruiser

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Thank you for taking the time to create this and share so much, including your pictures. We leave on the Adventure in 36 days for the same itinerary with 2 17 year olds and a 16 year old. I'm really enjoying your writing and look forward to the remaining days! One quick question - one of your pics showed a laundry bag and note. Did you happen to use the laundry service and/or note the pricing?

 

 

 

It was $35 for anything you could fit in the bag with wash and fold service. Not the biggest bag and we decided not to use the service.

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ChristinaP252

ChristinaP252

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It was $35 for anything you could fit in the bag with wash and fold service. Not the biggest bag and we decided not to use the service.

 

Thank you so much! My husband is determined to do laundry (never at home - just on vacation I guess!) This is our 7th cruise and he's shocked there's no laundry room on AOS (they've been gone from all ships for YEARS - last I can recall is Disney in 2006 - so I'm not sure of his memory!) He keeps telling me that he needs to wash shirts and socks. Every time he mentions it I cannot help but be confused at him!! LOL

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