AOS 12/21/08 Christmas Cruise Review

[Jan_In_Maine]

Thanks for continuing on with the review (and the lovely pictures). Jan

[Mommy4lyfe]

I'm enjoying reading your review - thanks so much for posting. I look forward to the rest.

 

(You have some really cool clothes, really like the blue you wore for sailaway, and your formal outfit is beautiful!). Jan

 

Thank you:)

 

Thanks for the review, I know how busy you must be and to take time to share this is very special. I really am enjoying it, we will be on the AOS in April. I noticed your daughter is a young teenager, we are bringing our granddaughter with us, will she have others her age on the ship? Did you have much rain and I agree you do have some lovely outfits.

 

Sharon

 

My daughter did not meet kids her age to hang out with. The ones she met where either to young (12/13/14). She is 16 and looked at them as being kids. The ones that were 17/18/19 looked at her being to young. My DD is an only child and was ok with not making friends. 15/16 is the awkward age. Now on the cruise where she was 14 she made lots of friends and we barely saw her.

 

I really enjoy the pictures you've added. I've had difficulties adding pictures in the past due to size, etc. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks!

 

BRL

 

Photo bucket is the way to go. It allows you to determine the sizes.

[Mommy4lyfe]

Wonderful review!! THANK YOU!

 

We will be on the Adventure in just over two months in an aft cabin. I would love to do a cabin crawl. Would you mind telling me how to get involved in something like that?

 

Can't wait to read more..... :) (your pictures are terrific)

 

Our cabin crawl was planned and coordinated on our CC board for our cruise. Those who talked on the board and signed up for the crawl from a list of us who wanted to participate. See post #801 on the attached link.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=651998&page=41

[TennisLover]

 

My daughter did not meet kids her age to hang out with. The ones she met where either to young (12/13/14). She is 16 and looked at them as being kids. The ones that were 17/18/19 looked at her being to young. My DD is an only child and was ok with not making friends. 15/16 is the awkward age. Now on the cruise where she was 14 she made lots of friends and we barely saw her.

 

Take another AOS cruise with us (April - Easter week); my DD is 16 and will definitely hang out with your DD. She doesn't like tea parties either. Plus you and DH look like a lot of fun!

[Deborito]

Thanks for the great pics. We are in cabin 1688 in 19 days. Hope you took care of our room :). Great review so far can't wait to finish reading it.

[Kikkycat]

Your wardrobe is just lovely!! If you shop in Waldorf, would you share which store(s)?

[Mommy4lyfe]

Take another AOS cruise with us (April - Easter week); my DD is 16 and will definitely hang out with your DD. She doesn't like tea parties either. Plus you and DH look like a lot of fun!

 

Can not afford another cruise so soon. If I could I would be there.

 

Thanks for the great pics. We are in cabin 1688 in 19 days. Hope you took care of our room :). Great review so far can't wait to finish reading it.

 

I was in cabin 1668. However I did visit cabin 1688 on the cabin crawl and I must say "love it". You will be well pleased.

 

Your wardrobe is just lovely!! If you shop in Waldorf' date=' would you share which store(s)?[/quote']

 

I shop on line because I hate going to the stores now.

[Mommy4lyfe]

Day 4 was Christmas Eve and we planned so many things for that day. We had a trolley tour that we booked thru the cruise line. We planned a trip to Kontiki beach. The Captain's Welcome Back Reception, the show at the Lyrics Theater and Christmas caroling in the Royal Promenade.

 

So we started our day with our light breakfast on our balcony and than our breakfast at the Windjammer. The view from our balcony was not good.

Another view if you bend over the balcony.

 

Trolley Tour - The cost was $33.00pp. Save your money. It is not worth it. First this tour was not well organized by the tour company. We were to be on the pier by 9:30am to be transported to the trolley. The tour was to start at 9:45am. Most people where there by 9:30am but a few was late, so we had to wait and wait and wait.

 

Lady Patsy and DD waiting at the pier before the trolley tour.

 

DH and I waiting at the pier.

Than there was a problem with transporting us to the trolley train. They did it by taxi; however the taxi could only hold about 8 people at a time and it was about 30 of us. People started to complain and they brought more taxis over to transport us. The tour was not interesting at all. If you like old buildings than you will like it. I found nothing interesting about the tour. The floating market is a joke. Some boats in the water with some rags over top of them to create shelter. People live on the boats and sell their goods. I was not impressed. At the end of the 45 minute tour, if you wanted to stay and shop than you had to pay $12.00 to be taxied back to the ship.

 

 

[BarbaB]

Thanks for the great review. We will be on AOS in just two weeks!!! Did you by any chance use the laundry service?? Do you know how much it was?

We are in the DC suburbs now, but are originally from Annapolis. Small world -

 

BarbaB

[Kikkycat]

Small world indeed Barba. We lived in Germantown until 2000, when we moved to the other side of the District.

 

Have a terrific time on AOS!

[Mommy4lyfe]

After returning from the trolley tour, we caught a taxi to Kontiki beach. The taxi cost was $5.00pp each way, it was about a 20 min drive from the pier. When the taxi pull up to Kontiki it looks like the slums. You go up to a person sitting at the entrance and pay your entrance fee of $3pp, than when you walk in, it is like another world. Beauty as far as the eyes can see.

 

 

We did not see any nudity, but we did see some topless females, some old, some young, some skinny and some fat.

 

There are different sections/parts to the beach and we were told to find our chairs and park it and a person would come to us to collect the fee for the chair rental and the grass unbrella. No one showed up to collect any fees.

My DH is holding his stomach in. Men - vanity.

 

There are several places to eat and shop at the beach. We had cheeseburgers, fries and soda. Cheeseburger so so, french fries pretty good, but they charge for ketsup. If you order sodas make sure you get can sodas only.

 

We had a great day at the beach. I would highly recommend that beach.

[bilyclub]

Jerry was our Assistant Head Waiter the week before yours. He was always around and took care of business. Was the guy from Foreigner one of the shows? He got mixed reviews from our table.

[Mommy4lyfe]

After returning from the beach, it was time to shower and get a light meal at the Windjammer. A note about the bathroom, it did not appear to be that small, while I was in the shower DH shaved. Two people can fit in the bathroom with no spare room .

 

Now off to the Captain's Welcome back Reception. It was nice and of course our group from CC was together.

 

 

 

We had a great group of people who enjoyed spending time together.

 

Dinner in the dining room again was a great pleasure. Service excellent and food was good.

 

The show in the Lyrics Theater was fabulous. Singing and dancing a tribute to Las Vegas

 

We did not make it to the Christmas caroling that night because we were again exhausted. Other members of CC did not make either so therefore I can not comment it on it.

[Mommy4lyfe]

Thanks for the great review. We will be on AOS in just two weeks!!! Did you by any chance use the laundry service?? Do you know how much it was?

We are in the DC suburbs now, but are originally from Annapolis. Small world -

 

BarbaB

 

Yes we did and it was ok. We paid $24 to have my gown pressed and DH shirt pressed, DH shirt washed and pressed and DDs pants washed and pressed.

[Jan_In_Maine]

Glad you said that the train wasn't worth the money .... I've been debating on doing the train and then kontiki ... but guess I'll skip the train.

 

Was there any souvenier shopping at all?

 

I'm really (still) enjoying your review and pictures ... it is so nice of you to share. Jan

[sheri18]

great report....love the pics to go with it.....you have a beautiful family..

[cruisecookie]

I'm still enjoying your review and looking forward to more. By the way, it is a small world -- we live in Rockville, MD.

 

Did you go to Kontiki Beach in Aruba and Curacao?

[Mommy4lyfe]

I'm still enjoying your review and looking forward to more. By the way, it is a small world -- we live in Rockville, MD.

 

Did you go to Kontiki Beach in Aruba and Curacao?

 

We did Kontiki beach in both Aruba and Curacao. Aruba Kontiki was ok, but Curacao was greaaat!!!!!!.

[mdcruzer]

We (family of 5) are scheduled to sail on AOS during Spring break beginning April 5 and are catching a direct flight from BWI on that same Sunday. We live in Upper Marlboro, MD not far from Waldorf. Really enjoyed your pics!

 

Now for the questions:

Aruba - any reason you chose to rent a car and not catch a bus? Will be our first time in Aruba and most people recommend the bus. Should I consider renting a car? Was it worth it, is there that much to see by car? Originally planned on visiting a beach for a few houres then onto downtown for some shopping.

 

Curacao - How was Kontiki beach....read about the great massages given on the beach, Do you know if that's still available?

 

Any other info will be greatly appreciated....

[mdcruzer]

bump

[Mommy4lyfe]

We (family of 5) are scheduled to sail on AOS during Spring break beginning April 5 and are catching a direct flight from BWI on that same Sunday. We live in Upper Marlboro, MD not far from Waldorf. Really enjoyed your pics!

 

Now for the questions:

Aruba - any reason you chose to rent a car and not catch a bus? Will be our first time in Aruba and most people recommend the bus. Should I consider renting a car? Was it worth it, is there that much to see by car? Originally planned on visiting a beach for a few houres then onto downtown for some shopping.

 

Curacao - How was Kontiki beach....read about the great massages given on the beach, Do you know if that's still available?

 

Any other info will be greatly appreciated....

 

I never realized that so many people in our area cruise. Maybe we can get a group rate out of Baltimore if we all decide to cruise at the same time.

 

We rented a SUV in Aruba because we heard that there was not much to see and that we could travel from beach to beach. Also it was a lot cheaper than purchasing a tour from the cruise line and it gave us the freedom to move about as we please. It was 5 of us and the SUV cost us $71.00. Now that I have seen Aruba, if I go again, I will just catch the bus to go to the beach.

 

Kontiki beach in Curacao was great and yes they still give messages on the beach. There are many sections to the beach and as we walked the beach we say many different massage tents. I recommend that when you come in the front and your are facing the beach, go to your left until you see a raised gazebo next to a bar. That bar service was exceptional. The over filled my DDs non alcoholic fruity drinks and it appeared that people kept coming back to that bar for their drinks. When you first come onto the premises of the beach, the first section seemed to be slow moving and over worked. A lot of people come in and settle right there. Also as you go further down you will see volley ball games, souvenir shops and other food

places.

 

 

[Jan_In_Maine]

I've always wanted to have a massage at the beach .... any idea on the cost?

 

We have a tour planned for Aruba with ABC tours (hopefully it will be ok) Curacao, we have planned on just going to Kontiki ... So I've been doing a lot of "copy & paste" to my word document. Thanks, Jan

[BuyReallyLow]

you can upload your photos in photobucket and they will make resize, make you links to post, etc. very easy!! :)

 

Just signed up. What size do you choose? (for picture sizing?)

[mdcruzer]

Mommy4lyfe: great idea! Would love to do a group cruise. I see by your signature that your family cruises every year, around Christmas. We try to cruise maybe once every two to three years. We've haven't done a Christmas cruise yet but it's on the list. My DD's are only 5 and 3 and as long as schools out, it woulddn't be a problem. Just say when.

 

Jan: We too (me, DW, and MIL) are planning on having beach messages while in Curacao. I can't remember the exact price (quoted in another post) bit believe it was reasonable.

If you check out Curacao under the Ports of Call listing, you will easily find the post from canadiancruisers11 who highly recommended Kontiki Beach.

 

Here's part of what Canadiancruisers11 had to say:

Fresh water shower behind us and a beautiful massage hut right on the beach that we treated ourselves to as well...$45 for 40 minutes.

 

Can't wait until April 5th!

[Mommy4lyfe]

This was a sea day and a wonderful day it was. We enjoyed staying in bed late. We also enjoyed watching DD open up her Christmas presents. We enjoyed having Christmas breakfast together at the Windjammer. We walked around the ship some. The decorations on the ship was few.

 

 

 

There was a special Christmas production show called Holiday Spectacular Ice Show, it required tickets and we attended the 3pm show. It included the ice skaters, the RC singers and dancers. It was spectacular. We loved it.

This is a picture from last year but it is the same outfit we wore on Christmas.

 

At 7pm we went to the Lyrics Theater to see the production an Invitation to Dance with the RC singers and dancers. That was really nice.

 

Now off to the Reception for Platinum and Diamond members. There was a recital of classical music that was elegant and sophisticated. I understand from Lady Patsy that the drinks were stronger than the ones from the Welcome back party. The Captain was not there because he was spending Christmas with the employees and I thought that was great.

 

For dinner we had the traditional Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes. Yum, Yum.

Later that night we went to the Quest game show. Funny, funny funny.

 

We retired that night having a full and exciting day.