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

[cgolf1]

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 Caracao 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 Caracao 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. 

[cgolf1]

14 minutes ago, Wildcatfish said:

I know that MDR dress suggestions have become more relaxed in recent years, but "undressed" for the MDR might be a step too far!

The funny part is they didn’t fix the typo for the second Caribbean night lol. This was the funniest typo. 

[cgolf1]

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. 

[MJSailors]

cgolf1

     Good that you are enjoying the cruise. You seem to have a good balance of activity and relaxation for your vacation.

 One thing I would like to comment on, apparently you and your DW found yourselves dressed more appropriately for port sightseeing than dinner at the MDR after your excursion in Curaçao ,yet you decided to have dinner  in the MDR. You said “wasnt’t proud of the dress but didn’t have a choice.”  Perhaps you could have chosen to eat in a more casual spot, the buffet at the Windjammer for example ? 

 

 

[cgolf1]

16 minutes ago, MJSailors said:

cgolf1

     Good that you are enjoying the cruise. You seem to have a good balance of activity and relaxation for your vacation.

 One thing I would like to comment on, apparently you and your DW found yourselves dressed more appropriately for port sightseeing than dinner at the MDR after your excursion in Curaçao ,yet you decided to have dinner  in the MDR. You said “wasnt’t proud of the dress but didn’t have a choice.”  Perhaps you could have chosen to eat in a more casual spot, the buffet at the Windjammer for example ? 

 

 

 

We fit in with what many guests wear, and had a 5:15 my time reservation. It was RCCL's fault that our excursion ran late, holding us up for 30 minutes at the start for no shows, not ours. It wasn't formal night either. I am also gluten free so I had preordered my meal the night before and they make it up special for me.

 

I figure if people can wear hats and shorts, I can do this too. So if I would have bothered you, sorry, but I wouldn't have been the only one. I apologized to our waiters and honestly said we just got off the bus. In 16 cruises, roughly 112 nights on a ship, not wearing khakis and minimally a polo shirt twice to the mdr is pretty darn good. Also windjammer is not easy to deal with being gluten free so we stayed away for supper. 

[Bailey & Sophie]

53 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

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. 

 

You were probably overdressed for the "undressed" suggestion.

[cgolf1]

Road Rash, and knee was rough too:(

[MJSailors]

cgolf1

 Understand about the gluten free situation and pre-ordering dinner.

The assigned 5:15 time seems rather early,causing for rushing to get to the MDR on time. It is certainly not conducive to enjoying a relaxing meal

[Ocean Boy]

8 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

 

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. 
 

That is interesting to read. The week that I was aboard was the first week for this new group of performers. I thought they had some very talented dancers but one of the comments I made was that there was one female singer who I thought was really bad. She was painful to listen to.  I think you and I caught the same singer! 

[cgolf1]

8 hours ago, MJSailors said:

cgolf1

 Understand about the gluten free situation and pre-ordering dinner.

The assigned 5:15 time seems rather early,causing for rushing to get to the MDR on time. It is certainly not conducive to enjoying a relaxing meal

We originally had 5:45, booked online, would have been fine for excursion, and RCCL lost the preboard online reservations so are choice was 5:15 or 8. We will never do 5:15 again if possible. It was just too early. 
 

Sorry if I reacted too strongly to your post, I have had a minimum dress of khaki  pants and a polo shirt for me, but this cruise I guess I went with the masses and wore shorts twice due to the timing on a more casual night. 

[Ocean Boy]

1 hour ago, cgolf1 said:

We originally had 5:45, booked online, would have been fine for excursion, and RCCL lost the preboard online reservations so are choice was 5:15 or 8. We will never do 5:15 again if possible. It was just too early. 
 

Sorry if I reacted too strongly to your post, I have had a minimum dress of khaki  pants and a polo shirt for me, but this cruise I guess I went with the masses and wore shorts twice due to the timing on a more casual night. 

I don't really think you owe anyone an explanation.

[cgolf1]

Day 5 Compass

[cgolf1]

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. 

[cgolf1]

Before I forget, I thought I read here on CC on the Celebrity board that Caracao was trying to limit the number of ships coming in because there were too many tourists. The thing was our guide said the opposite, that they were building some places on the island to support more tourists because that is the main source of income for the island. No clue which is the right answer. 

[cgolf1]

Cactus Fence

 

Salt ponds and piles

 

Brain coral and other coral.

Edited February 16, 2020 by cgolf1

[leadvocal]

On 2/10/2020 at 1:14 PM, cgolf1 said:

 We have stayed in most cabin levels including a concierge veranda, but have pretty much settled now on insides and oceanviews. They fullfill the thrifty part of our cruising and we barely used our verandas anyways, so didn’t feel the extra cost is worth it for us. 

 

Ditto! My wife and I feel exactly the same way. We consider ourselves "value" cruisers.

[brillohead]

9 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

We then saw the flamingos. Unfortunately you can’t get out because it is a protected area.

Not sure where exactly you saw them, but when I was there a couple months ago there was designated parking on the side of the road and a dock built out over the water so you could get a better view of the flamingos.  

[cgolf1]

48 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Not sure where exactly you saw them, but when I was there a couple months ago there was designated parking on the side of the road and a dock built out over the water so you could get a better view of the flamingos.  

This was a lake, don’t remember the name. The guide said he would lose his license if he let us out of the vehicle. It was in a park of some kind so maybe that was why. Bonaire reminded us of St John when we went there from St Thomas For an excursion with how much land is protected. When we were on Caracao people were able to get out of their vehicles to get pictures. 

[Wildcatfish]

9 hours ago, cgolf1 said:

Cactus Fence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, talk about a "barbed wire fence"!

[brillohead]

1 hour ago, cgolf1 said:

This was a lake, don’t remember the name. The guide said he would lose his license if he let us out of the vehicle. It was in a park of some kind so maybe that was why. Bonaire reminded us of St John when we went there from St Thomas For an excursion with how much land is protected. When we were on Caracao people were able to get out of their vehicles to get pictures. 

I apologize, got my islands mixed up!  

It was on Aruba that we got out of the car to see the flamingos, not Bonaire.  Sorry about that!!!!

[dani negreanu]

On 2/10/2020 at 8:39 PM, Biker19 said:

And here I thought we might have something to compete with a @harryfat1 thread.😜

 

That was my first reaction too, thinking of Cheapo....

 

We're keeping in touch, he's doing mainly Disney Parks now....

[cgolf1]

Day 6 Compass

[cgolf1]

28 minutes ago, dani negreanu said:

 

That was my first reaction too, thinking of Cheapo....

 

We're keeping in touch, he's doing mainly Disney Parks now....

 

Nope, we are just cheap (thrifty), and I don't have the sense of humor he does. Would love to know if he can do Disney cheap. Some like minded thrifty people at work are pretty mad at Disney for the changes they are making at the parks, it has gotten too pricey and inflexible for their tastes. We gave up on DCL for the same reasons, just glad we never overpaid for a cruise, we switched at the right time.

[cgolf1]

Just a note about Chair Hogs! The solarium was stupid bad all week! We went to swim at 8 in the morning and there were 2 chairs available right by the entrance to the solarium area. The chairs were 10% utilized and only 5 people in the hot tubs and pool combined. It was like this all the time. Cruise lines really need to get this under control, it just isn't fair. I also really dislike the people that feel entitled enough to do this. I would love for one to try and explain why they feel they should own a chair for a day! Around the two main pools seemed similar, but there were at least spots a deck up you could sit at. Thankfully we had deck 4 which is where we spent a majority of our chilling out time.

[brillohead]

13 minutes ago, cgolf1 said:

Cruise lines really need to get this under control, it just isn't fair.

I agree.  I need a lounger in the shade, and they are few and far between!

I'd love to see a timer, like a parking meter, that you could spin for a thirty-minute period of time when you leave your chair to visit a pool, hot tub, bar, restroom, eatery, or whatever.  When the thirty minutes are up, a flag pops up to indicate that the chair is now available for someone else.  

 

I also like the addition of cubbies in some areas for people to have a dry place to stash their bag / towel / whatever while they're in the pool.  Many times people use up a chair just because they need a place to drop their belongings, and there's not always a dry place to set things down.

If people would only use a chair when they were actually using a chair, there would be plenty of chairs for everyone!