My View: The ABC Islands on Navigator of the Seas (A picture heavy trip report)

[depplep]

Very interesting photos. I would have guessed it was Curacao if I didn't know. Also has elements of Aruba with the desert landscape. Can't wait to see your photos of Aruba. We haven't been in years and it's one of our favorite islands.

[bingies]

Thanks for the great review and pics, we are doing this back to back in January.

 

 

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[APDMOM]

This is awesome! She is our friend Karen. She told us she was so nervous up there she was shaking and thought she'd pass out. :p

Well, let her know that we think Royal should give her a free cruise. We really enjoyed her! :D

 

PS: If she would like to have some pictures, she can e-mail me at APDMOM@live.com

[APDMOM]

Thanks for all the positive comments and for reading along! Coming up shortly: Aruba! :cool:

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 7 - Aruba

 

 

[APDMOM]

I love seeing our “future ships” in port! We will be on Adventure of the Seas next summer for our first back-to-back cruise:

 

Bridge of Adventure

 

Navigating from the helipad:

 

Since we knew we had an early arrival in port, we figured the Windjammer would be crowded. So, we opted to order the free room service breakfast.

[APDMOM]

Thanks to our friends here on CC, we found out about Trikes Aruba. After a quick view of their reviews on Tripadvisor, we decided to book a trike for 3 ($285 total). It was our favorite excursion to date, and worth the money to us. The only small disappointment was that we ran out of time for the beach stop. Traffic was very slow downtown. However, we have been to Aruba beaches, so we were okay with this.

 

Tip: If a beach stop is important to you, let the tour guides know. I think some of our stops were a bit longer than necessary. One family was dropped off at the beach by the shuttle from Trikes Aruba, so that is also an option.

 

With that, here are my views from the back of the trike:

 

The tour guide goes on a short ride with each driver to make sure they are comfortable with the trike.

 

…and off we go!

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

 

 

Our first stop was the California Lighthouse:

 

Fellow CC member and new friends, Sobro, leading us to the lighthouse:

 

Similar lizards to what we saw in Aruba... this one is enjoying a snack:

 

This tour looks like fun too… might look them up for a future trip:

[APDMOM]

Forgot to mention: There are 8 trikes. We were divided into two groups - each following their own guide. We passed the other group twice during our tour:

 

A picture is worth a thousand words! If these expressions don’t sell the tour, I don't know what will! :)

 

[APDMOM]

Our second stop was at “The Chapel of Our Lady of Alto Vista”, the site of the oldest Catholic Church on the island. The original structure was made out of branches and wood, built in 1750. This church was built in 1952 at the same site:

 

There is a path by the chapel where you can see more of the fauna and flora. (DH is still taller than DS, for now!)

 

Ready to roll again!

[APDMOM]

All the trikes took turns to be in the lead. Here we are behind the tour guide car:

 

 

I got to be in the driver seat - if only for a photo!

[APDMOM]

Third stop: Casibari Rock formations. We chose a bit of a steep and climb. Tip: Ask the tour guide to point you to the easiest place to climb if you have difficulty. I think there were three options. We chose the most difficult one. It is not really hard, and it takes only about 3 minutes to get to the top, but if you have trouble with small spaces and narrow steps, ask for the easier sides.

 

On the way up:

 

 

The view of the ships from the top:

 

Other views:

 

 

A bit hazy, but Navigator is still there:

[APDMOM]

It is a beautiful area!

 

There are some vendors and a bar:

 

Back to our ride!

 

Second time passing the other group:

 

Flags by the airport:

 

One final quick stop: The tour guide took a picture with our camera for us.

[APDMOM]

A glimpse of our ship from the traffic jam…Can you spot a crown and anchor?

 

 

 

Lush trees - riding back to Trikes Aruba base:

 

I wish we had stopped at this windmill - I really wonder about its history... wait, there is another excuse to book a cruise back to Aruba!

[APDMOM]

Time to leave Aruba behind. See you in June, Adventure!

 

 

After our busy day, we had dinner in the Windjammer. This became our son’s standard dessert...Scoops of ice cream from the Jammer, with sprinkles and chocolate chips on top:

 

This evening, they also had a special selection of cakes. Man! I will have to book another cruise! I was so focused on taking pictures that I totally missed that delicious looking caramel sauce… (as if I need another excuse to book a cruise) ;)

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

That is it for tonight! I will be back tomorrow to post many ship pictures and my view of our sea days.

 

[JamesEM]

Enjoying the photos, and reports.

[Sobro]

Caution, riding the Trikes will make your mouth tired from all of the grinning!

 

Great pictures once again APDMOM. I told our tour guide Ramses that next time I'll make my wife drive so I can sightsee better. Somehow when the time comes I don't think that will happen.

[Destaw71835]

Great review. I must book a cruise visiting the ABC Islands now!

 

 

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[amydandrea]

Following! Love this review

 

 

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[BillOh]

 

Tip: If a beach stop is important to you, let the tour guides know. I think some of our stops were a bit longer than necessary. One family was dropped off at the beach by the shuttle from Trikes Aruba, so that is also an option.

 

Excellent point, we ran out of time and didn't stop at the light house because we were running a little behind. We still had a great time. Another tip, for those less manly or perhaps less life skilled, they now have automatic transmission models as seen with the green trike below. Also the OP mentions a trike for 3 people, this is important to note as some trikes, like our manual transmission Orange one only seats 2.

 

The white one is manual transmission and holds 3 people.

 

[BillOh]

 

 

 

Fellow CC member and new friends, Sobro, leading us to the lighthouse:

 

 

 

I miss my Orange trike. We saw those other tours as well, we ended up on a lot of their vacation videos, everyone was filming us on the cool excursion. It really was one of my favorite excursions ever. Now if you will indulge me one more time, here is one of my favorite vacation photos ever, taken by my wife.

 

[Sobro]

Nice picture BillOh. I hope Orange ran a little bit better for you. It stumbled quite a bit at low rpms. I did my best to blow out some carbon, even got the front wheel light a couple of times.

[BillOh]

Nice picture BillOh. I hope Orange ran a little bit better for you. It stumbled quite a bit at low rpms. I did my best to blow out some carbon, even got the front wheel light a couple of times.

 

 

I don't remember when you were there, but it did run well for us in May of 2017. The biggest problem I had was self induced. The rear end of the trike was about 8 feet wide and about 8 feet behind the driver, easy thing to forget when going around a corner. It was lucky my wife didn't end up face down in one of the traffic circles.

[Sobro]

That's me leading the pack in APDMOM's pictures above.

 

Yeah, driving from the center of the vehicle is hard to get used to.