Family Adventure on the AOS 12/2/12 with Pics!

[Debitoo]

I just bought the Panasonic DMC FZ200. I also need to spend a lot of time learning this camera.........lol.

 

pat

It's a great camera. It is rich with features for a camera at under $500. I really want to learn how to use it. My photos DO get better as the review goes along, IMHO!

[Debitoo]

Muster drill was on time at 6:00 PM and we were one of the last ones to arrive. This is a good plan. You won’t be squished into the middle of everyone while waiting to start and you'll be able to beat the crowds to the elevators when it's over.

 

 

We were right at the gangway to enter the ship for Muster Drill.

 

It's a little hard to see, but note the LONG line of people still waiting to board the ship. I'm not sure what they will do with them about safety instruction.

 

 

The girl above in the bright green vest was Val from Brazil. She ended up being our cocktail server in the main dining room every night. She was WONERFUL!

 

 

After I took this picture, I got yelled at for taking pictures during Muster. OOPS! :o

 

Next up.....Dinner!

[LBumb]

great photos

[Debitoo]

After Muster, we headed over to the dining room for dinner. We had MTD and made reservations for 6:30 PM. All other nights we had reservations for 7:00.

 

Our waiter was Agnello, He was very good. The assistant waiter Juan, not so much. The thing that really stood out was the waitstaff seemed to be overwhelmed. This was every night we ate in the MDR. It was as if they had too many tables to take care of (and maybe they did). They seemed to always be running. It wasn't only our waiter and staff, but we noticed some of the other staff were also too busy. They never took time to chat or get to know us. On one night it took me 1/2 hour to get a cup of coffee after asking the waiter, assistant waiter, head waiter and the cocktail girl. We were never asked again any night if we wanted more bread. Don't get me wrong, they were all very nice, but I was unimpressed with the lack of attention. I felt bad for them.

 

We managed to entertain ourselves.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After reading many reviews and seeing pictures of food porn from various CC'rs, I was prepared for the worst. Very few of the pictures I have seen on CC really did the food justice. I was pleasantly surprised. The food was VERY good! We had the new menus. I was very impressed.

 

Now, here is my attempt at food porn. The pictures are not so good. (They do get better later on in the review).

 

This was beef something. My DD said it was wonderful!

 

 

 

This was Prime Rib.....it was tender and juicy! Done to perfection!

 

 

After dinner, it was time for sail away. I had a secret place to go to. Now if I could only find it!

 

The directions were: go into the forward most lounge on deck 5, and go outside a door on the starboard side.

 

We found it! It was the helipad and there was no one there! Why? Because it was pouring rain!

 

 

 

We waved good bye to Puerto Rico and made our way back to our cabin. We were pooped! It had been a long couple of days traveling. We had jet lag, (well, I did anyway). We dried off after our soaking at sail away, and went to bed. The sleep was incredible!

 

Next up: Day 2, St. Croix

Edited January 1, 2013 by debitoo

[Sirkeline]

Great review Debi :)

Will subscribe to this:p

Doing our very first B2B on Adventure (March 2013) in GS.

Was there lounge chairs on the balcony ?

Was the CL open on boarding day ?

Edited January 1, 2013 by Sirkeline

[Debitoo]

Great review Debi :)

Will subscribe to this:p

Doing our very first B2B on Adventure (March 2013) in GS.

Was there lounge chairs on the balcony ?

Was the CL open on boarding day ?

Thank you for reading this! :D You will have a great time. I wish we could have done a B2B. There was 1 lounge chair and 2 patio chairs and a table on the balcony. There wasn't really any room for another lounge chair. As for the CL, we didn't go there the first night. We did go on the 2nd night. It's a very small room with not much seating. No atmosphere. We were hoping for a little less lighting. We had one drink and then went to dinner. We found out later in the cruise that there was overflow for the CL next to the Viking Crown Lounge. That was much nicer, but not much seating in there also. We brought the kids (10 & 13) with us once.......got some nasty looks from people already seated and decided to not stay.:( The kids would have been fine but the bad vibes were overwhelming.

[Debitoo]

great photos

Thank you! ;)

[LizC]

Thanks for posting.

 

We leave Saturday....hope to read the rest !:D

[toto6]

Great start!! Looking forward to more. Sailing in March, making us more excited. :D Nice to see pics of San Juan port, heard alot about it.

[Debitoo]

Thanks for posting.

 

We leave Saturday....hope to read the rest !:D

I'm not sure I'll have it done by then but I'll try! Enjoy the AOS! It was wonderful!

[Debitoo]

Great start!! Looking forward to more. Sailing in March, making us more excited. :D Nice to see pics of San Juan port, heard alot about it.

There is so much to photograph. I wish I had taken more pictures! I took almost 2,000! Isn't the wait hard? Drove me crazy!

[Mark_K]

 

 

We’re finally on board!

 

Next Up: Meeting CC Roll Call Friends

interesting, particularly since the man in the tan shirt and the woman in the blue flowered shirt boarding the ship are my wife and myself.

[Coralc]

interesting, particularly since the man in the tan shirt and the woman in the blue flowered shirt boarding the ship are my wife and myself.

 

Isn't that a funny experience? I was reading someone's review of Serenade; I didn't pay attention to the date. As I was looking at their photos...sampling appetizers in the lounge...oh look, that's me! Their bridge tour photos, oh look, that's me!

 

And we never met them onboard. When I mentioned it in a post, they said they never BOTHER to participate in roll calls and Meet & Mingles. :D:rolleyes::D

 

Thank you Debi! We are very much enjoying your review.

Edited January 2, 2013 by Coralc

[cruznqueen]

Debi, awesome review so far. I love reading these and really appreciate it when people take the time to do this so others can have such valuable information. Thanks.

 

I do have a couple questions:

 

I am trying to find out if they had a "white" night and a "Caribbean" night dress code for dinner any night?

 

Also, did they offer ice show tickets on the first day when you arrived or if not can you tell me when they did?

 

Thanks so much.

[Debitoo]

Debi, awesome review so far. I love reading these and really appreciate it when people take the time to do this so others can have such valuable information. Thanks.

 

I do have a couple questions:

 

I am trying to find out if they had a "white" night and a "Caribbean" night dress code for dinner any night?

 

Also, did they offer ice show tickets on the first day when you arrived or if not can you tell me when they did?

 

Thanks so much.

 

We had dinner in the MDR every night except 1. I was not aware of a "white" night or "Caribbean" night dress code. From what I was told, Ice Show tickets were available on Sunday by Studio B starting @ 4:00. They had tables set up and you could make reservations for many of the shows then. Hope this helped and thank you for following along!

[Debitoo]

Isn't that a funny experience? I was reading someone's review of Serenade; I didn't pay attention to the date. As I was looking at their photos...sampling appetizers in the lounge...oh look, that's me! Their bridge tour photos, oh look, that's me!

 

And we never met them onboard. When I mentioned it in a post, they said they never BOTHER to participate in roll calls and Meet & Mingles. :D:rolleyes::D

 

Thank you Debi! We are very much enjoying your review.

You're quite welcome!;)

[Boavfan]

Love, Love reading this daily and seeing the photos. I will be on the AOS in February it's my first cruise so this is very helpful.

 

Thank you!

 

Michelle:D

[Debitoo]

We woke up Monday morning to a beautiful day! We were in St. Croix!

 

 

People were already starting to leave the ship.

 

 

 

We had a quick breakfast in the WJ and made our way outside.

 

 

It was bit of a walk to the port.

 

 

[Debitoo]

There was a band setting up on the pier to welcome us to the island. They should have started a little earlier!

 

 

We didn’t have any excursions planned because we wanted to take the kids to the beach and just chill out for the day. I had reserved chairs and umbrellas at Sandcastle resort; a short 10 minute cab ride from the pier. You can actually walk there from the dock along the beach if you want. What a great resort this was. It was perfect! For $20 you get 2 lounge chairs an umbrella and 2 rum punch drinks. We had rented chairs for the kids but they never once sat in them!

 

 

 

Someone decided to give his mule a bath. The only down side to this was...well, the mule decided to relieve himself while in the water. Thank goodness they were at least 50 yards down the beach from us.

 

 

 

[Debitoo]

The kids spent the entire time in the water collecting sea glass! There was lots of it!

 

 

 

The resort has a small fresh water pool, clean bathroom facilities, outside shower, bar and a great little restaurant. The chef Chad and waitress Kelly served up wonderful salads and sandwiches.

 

 

 

 

[Debitoo]

After the beach, we moved to the pool area to have a swim in the pool and to get a bite of lunch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Debitoo]

 

After several hours at the resort, we decided to head back to the port. We had a shopping mission to accomplish! We said goodbye to our gracious host and exited the property. There was a cab waiting! We hopped in and were quickly taken back to the dock.

 

 

 

We wandered around the area looking for a Sonya Ltd. hook bracelet and we found them!

 

 

If you are not familiar with them, legend has it that a beautiful young girl fell desperately in love with a sailor, and they planned to marry. She wanted to present her husband-to-be with a wedding gift that would signify their deep and unending love, but wedding rings–or access to them on a scarcely populated Virgin Island–were not an option. So, she raided his tackle box for fishing hooks and heavy leader and began to create. She snipped and smoothed the hooks, wrapped and braided the wire, and the first Hook bracelet was born. She made two, and on their wedding day, they clasped the bracelets around each other’s wrist with the open hook facing toward their hearts. They did this to signify that they were “hooked” to each other in love, and the tradition continues today.

 

Jessica & I each bought one. I was so happy that we found them!

 

We headed towards the ship. All aboard time was approaching and we didn't want to be "that family" that rushes to get on board as they are pulling up the gang plank!

 

 

Edited January 3, 2013 by debitoo

[ckrobyn]

Deb - did you have to book in advance with the resort, or did you just show up? The beach looks fantastic - I think we may consider this next month :rolleyes:

[Debitoo]

Deb - did you have to book in advance with the resort, or did you just show up? The beach looks fantastic - I think we may consider this next month :rolleyes:

If you call ahead they will put your name on the list and reserve your chairs/umbrella. No credit card info is taken They will reserve it till 12:00. I can't tell you what a great place this was. The food was excellent and reasonably priced. I would return there in a heartbeat! Plus the sea glass.....WOW! 800-524-2018 or 340-772-1205

 

Wish I was making that call myself....:(

[Debitoo]

Love, Love reading this daily and seeing the photos. I will be on the AOS in February it's my first cruise so this is very helpful.

 

Thank you!

 

Michelle:D

Thank you for your nice comments! I've always appreciated other reviews. It sure helps pass the time while waiting for your sail day to arrive.