Adventure of the Seas - August 12th !!

[blondcat]

Hi Everyone

 

So excited to be heading on holiday tomorrow! I’ve been on (I think) 4 cruises - always with Royal Caribbean but spread out over a really long time.  Two of them were last year, Brilliance in Europe May-22 with my mother and Independence with my partner and step daughter to Bahamas last August. The 2 other cruises previously must have been over 12 years ago.  I’ve always really enjoyed Royal so feel happy to keep booking, although the recent feedback that seems to be skewing a bit more negative from folks here hasn’t gone unnoticed!  My partner says I have zero tolerance and should include this point for context - so if I moan about something you know to take it with a pinch of salt apparently 🙄

 

My partner and I have been together for 5.5 years and we’re in our early 40s and work in London.  Partner has an 11 year old daughter who I love as much as my own grown up son.  She’s fab.  So the holiday plan:

 

 - We fly tomorrow - British Airways London Heathrow to Miami - did some snazzy air mile shenanigans so I’m looking forward to the flight even though it’s the old BA plane

 - We’re staying in Miami for two nights at the Mandarin Oriental. We haven’t made many plans, but my partner is a sports nut - all sports - all American sports - he has so many t-shirts and caps from various teams across the States it’s ridiculous. He's told me there's an AWESOME cannot be missed pre season Miami Dolphin game on that literally would be a crime not to see 🤔.  In all fairness, my SD and I have never been to see an American Football game before so we’re pretty excited.  Partner is a  mad Tottenham Hotspur fan and season ticket holder and they host NFL games occasionally so he’s been to a few of those. Aside from that we’re only really there for late afternoon / evening on Thursday and then full day Friday.

 - Cruise is Adventure of the Seas, 7 nights, itinerary includes 3 ports, USVI St Croix, BVI Tortola and Coco Cay.  We loved Coco Cay last time.  Neither of us have ever been to St Croix nor Tortola so that’s some cool locations to tick off.

 - Once we disembark the ship we fly to Bahamas for 5 nights for a stay at Atlantis - hopefully we’ll make the noon MIA flight!

 

We purchased the unlimited dining package - I wasn’t fussed but partner loved the Chops meal so much last time I think he’d like to go there a few times.  The lovely concierge lady has already helped us with all our reservations which is one less thing for the list.  Partner has the refreshment package and step daughter has the soft drink package.  OH is sober 4.5 years but still drinks like a maniac (hence why he no longer drinks alcohol!) so thought the refreshment package made sense.  No point me buying the drinks package as I think he would have to as well.  No way we’ll drink $1400 worth which is the price for 2.  We’ll bring on 2 bottles of wine and I’m happy just to buy the rest for myself, that’s fine.

 

Posted tonight as I have a couple of questions I was hoping the experts could help with:

 

 - Football stadium looks like a right trek from the hotel so welcome any suggestions on best way to get there and is it possible to get a cab after the game or a nightmare ? Are Ubers popular in Miami ?

- Per previous spurs comment (don't judge) - I told him it's unlikely somewhere on the ship will show a 2pm UK game on Sunday 13th but promised I'd check ?

 

Anyway, no idea why I seem to style myself as some sort of domestic goddess before I go on holiday and clean the house top to bottom like the King is popping in for a visit but here we are.  Finish that and next stop Heathrow - hopefully no dramas with the flight!

 

 

 

Edited August 9, 2023 by blondcat

[twinmommy08]

Uber or a taxi from the hotel is your best bet. I can’t recall if the pub has tv’s, but you should ask guest services if they will be showing the game anywhere on the ship.
 

Adventure doesn’t have a sports pub with a ton of tvs, but Royal is known to show popular games on the outdoor screen near the pool. 

 

Have a terrific time and get some sleep! Long flight tomorrow 🙂 

[sandebeach]

Hope you have a great flight! We are also on this cruise and very excited to visit Tortola again. Right now the Caribbean is calm!

[blondcat]

20 hours ago, twinmommy08 said:

Uber or a taxi from the hotel is your best bet. I can’t recall if the pub has tv’s, but you should ask guest services if they will be showing the game anywhere on the ship.
 

Adventure doesn’t have a sports pub with a ton of tvs, but Royal is known to show popular games on the outdoor screen near the pool. 

 

Have a terrific time and get some sleep! Long flight tomorrow 🙂 

thank you, we’ll defo do that! And sort a taxi for the game. I can confirm we definitely did nit get a good night sleep after a late night and super early morning which was totally unnecessary as the flight was delayed 2.5 hours! Fingers crossed for the game on the ship :))

[blondcat]

6 hours ago, sandebeach said:

Hope you have a great flight! We are also on this cruise and very excited to visit Tortola again. Right now the Caribbean is calm!

I’ve been too scared to check the weather! It’s been abysmal in England for weeks. Don’t want to get my hopes up too much. Really excited for Tortola too - I think we’re doing the baths and snorkel type excursion. Hopefully bump into you at some point 😀

[blondcat]

Arrived at Heathrow to what now seems like standard British Airways delay of 2.5 hours. Heathrow T5 was in chaos and the boarding process was a nightmare. Blacklane are picking us up from the airport and messaged to say they’ve been tracking the flight and will adjust the pick up time which is good. Bit of drama on board with a guy vaping - captain had to come out and address it. My step daughter was loving the drama naturally. Why do people do this on planes ? He’d already kicked off about his seat and then not being allowed his blanket at the beginning of the flight. Anyway hopefully last few hours of this flight are uneventful. Movie selection is rubbish so I’ve been watching Last of Us again - absolutely love it. 

[Mabel the Great..Dane]

you had me at Tottenham Hotspur 🤩.  Enjoy your trip, I'm two weeks behind you, which is a bummer because my husband would much prefer me dithering on about the Spurs to someone else!

[blondcat]

Nightmare at Miami airport :((

I presume because of the delay they didn’t have the space to accommodate so many international flights landing at once. Took 2 hours for all the bags to come out. So many people missed their connections from the delays and on the flight cabin crew announced many of the flights would be rescheduled until tomorrow but if their bags were checked all the way through there was nothing that could be done to stop that! So passengers stranded in MIA with no luggage! Awful.

 

Anyway took 25 mins to get to hotel. Mandarin Oriental is beautiful. Was a huge storm driving in but an hour later the views from the bar were stunning! When I think of Miami I think of this pic we took. Early night for us all to get on eastern time 🙂

 

 

 

[perfect match]

Following along. Love your pictures from Mandarin Oriental! 

[smokeybandit]

17 hours ago, blondcat said:

It’s been abysmal in England for weeks.

Isn't that normal though? 😀

[Kiki and The Noush]

Loving the pics!  I hope you have a fabulous cruise 🙂

[blondcat]

17 hours ago, Mabel the Great..Dane said:

you had me at Tottenham Hotspur 🤩.  Enjoy your trip, I'm two weeks behind you, which is a bummer because my husband would much prefer me dithering on about the Spurs to someone else!

He would have loved that! He’s avidly checking the news for Kane BM news …

[blondcat]

1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

Isn't that normal though? 😀

🤣 I mean I don’t think many people visit England for the sensational summer weather but it started with such promise. May and June were so warm, Royal Ascot in late June was glorious, too hot for the men in their suits tbh. But July has been dismal whilst the rest of the world apparently set record breaking temperatures! I think it’s a bit nicer for the next couple of weeks - always the case when I leave the country 

[blondcat]

55 minutes ago, Kiki and The Noush said:

Loving the pics!  I hope you have a fabulous cruise 🙂

Thank you! We’re super excited now 

[smokeybandit]

9 minutes ago, blondcat said:

🤣 I mean I don’t think many people visit England for the sensational summer weather but it started with such promise. May and June were so warm, Royal Ascot in late June was glorious, too hot for the men in their suits tbh. But July has been dismal whilst the rest of the world apparently set record breaking temperatures! I think it’s a bit nicer for the next couple of weeks - always the case when I leave the country 

Last time I was in London was in Feb 2019 I think. Had glorious weather and the locals were very confused as to why it was so nice.

[Mabel the Great..Dane]

1 hour ago, blondcat said:

He would have loved that! He’s avidly checking the news for Kane BM news …

well...at least you have a nice cruise to enjoy....🥺

[Gabrielle R.]

Great pictures!!! 
I’ll be on Adventure in December, so I’m looking forward to hearing about your cruise!

have a great time in Miami!

[PompeySailor]

My DW is a die hard Spurs fan also 

(Tottenham ⚽️) COYS

We always seem to be able to watch the games when sailing on Royal 

 

Im sick of hearing about HK 😂

But as soon as I hear any new news on his move to BM I will post on here for you 

 

Following along

Have a great cruise, we love Adventure & enjoy Miami 

 

Happy Days!

[PompeySailor]

@blondcat

 

Looks like he has decided to go

 

England captain Harry Kane has arrived in Germany for a medical at Bayern Munich as he nears a move from Tottenham.

 

Bayern and Spurs agreed a deal worth more than 100m euros (£86.4m) for the 30-year-old on Thursday.
 

The decision to move was then left up to Kane, who is Tottenham's all-time top scorer with 280 goals in 435 appearances.
 

Guessing he has decided he can win his first piece of silverware with BM in the Super-cup in Germany tomorrow 

 

Still not 100% But the fact he has flown out for medical would suggest he has decided to try and win something 

[PompeySailor]

Latest 

HK and BM 

[blondcat]

3 hours ago, PompeySailor said:

Latest 

HK and BM 

BF is trying to convince himself it’s a good but I think he’s actually traumatised. Thanks for the updates!

[blondcat]

3 hours ago, PompeySailor said:

Latest 

HK and BM 

BF is trying to convince himself it’s a good but I think he’s actually traumatised. Thanks for the updates!

[blondcat]

So today went to the gym, was small but well equipped, I’m so out of shape, was a real struggle.

 

our room rate includes breakfast so we headed there after. Was pretty good and the egg station was great.
 

After that we went to the hotel pool which was perfect. Great service, gorgeous water and view. Not over croweded at all. Lots of Instagram posers which caught a few sniggers round the pool but if I looked like those girls I’d probably be doing it too! We were there from 10-2.

 

then headed to Nusr Et to see what all the fuss is about. They’ve just introduced a 40USD lunch so it’s a good way of seeing whether youd bother with the more expensive dinner. Honestly I would not. The service was poor, they screwed up my drink and then argued with me about it, forgot our side, my SD ordered her steak medium and it definitely was not that. They didn’t correct the bill for the incorrect drink. It was just underwhelming. The food was quite tasty though. 
 

Evening was the Miami dolphins - and despite the cab taking forever to get there it was so worth it. We had an amazing time … FIRST DOWN!!! We got so into it and getting home was a breeze. 
 

some pics including the steak which was allegedly medium 

 

 

[whitecap]

blondcat, will you be doing some live posting once onboard the Adventure?  We board on Sep 2d so would love some current information and or pictures.

Thanks and have a great cruise!! 🥳

[PompeySailor]

Done deal 

 

England captain Harry Kane has joined German champions Bayern Munich on a four-year deal, ending his record-breaking career at Tottenham.

 

The striker signs for an initial 100m euros (£86.4m) plus add-ons and could make his debut in Saturday's German Super Cup game against RB Leipzig.
 

Hope your BF is ok 🤣