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The party continued and just sort of turned into the Quest adult game show. Laura saved me a seat and I found myself front row on team 2 led by none other than @mpoole3. It didn't take long for the night to unfold (or undress?). Pretty soon Michael was walking around with four bras. No mention where they came from. What happens at Quest, stays at Quest, but some things can't be unseen. If I can't unsee them, then neither should you be able to. That's our team's best effort in two minutes to create a "Lady" from a manly man being interviewed by the host. It was close but we won! Now @Matt can no longer point to the water bottle trophy from the Quest second place finish on the Harmony Group cruise in his scopes because among other things, the first place price package included a first place water bottle (that is identical).

I wonder if Poole realized he had that bra on upside down. Nevermind....

Day 4 Dinner I went back to the MDR where the Rack of Lamb was very good. After dinner I strolled around the ship and then checked out the main theater where "Rock of the Ages" was playing. Later I found myself at Boleros where they had a Latin band playing who were very good. Right after I took this photo this area filled with people dancing. Around 10pm I headed to Studio B for the 80's Flashback party and it was packed.

Thanks to you and Poole, you might as well have done this to me...

Day 5 - Galley Tour We start the tour on deck 3 in the lobby area where you would check in for dinner at the MDR. From there our group of about 16 heads to the deck 4 galley. Behind the divider that blocks the galley from the seating area they have a bulletin board and several notices and tips such as how to tie an apron or the proper way to push a trolley. My eyes went straight to the "Drink of the Day" guide for crew: Now you know how to make your favorite DoTD! They had another section with 24 common drinks including the Slushy Coco Loco. I always wondered what's in a Coco Loco.

Our guide today would be Arasu who is the Executive Sous Chef. There are five primary galleys on board. If you spread them out on land they would cover 2 acres. The specialty restaurants all have their own smaller galleys unique to each venue. Arasu did a great job explaining in technical detail the science and timing they use to keep food at the ideal temperatures to maintain safe food conditions. Why is it so important he asked us? Because he explains "There 4,000 guests and 1,025 crew on board but only five beds in the hospital down stairs". Some appetizers being prepared: Shrimp any one? Is it weird that I was so tempted to reach my hand in their and just swish them around? (rest assured I resisted) These were being used to make the shrimp appetizers for later today. The bread making station. That's all dough on the counter getting ready to be baked. Do you have any idea what he is preparing here? In my Serenade live blog I talked about having a plate of butter called Escargots À La Bourguignonne which must translate to "lots of butter". I wasn't too far off, that is a large scoop of butter he is placing on top of the little critters getting them ready to go in the oven. Once in the oven the butter melts and covers them in buttery delight. Arasu went on to explain the many "lines" they use within the galley to maintain separation between food groups. Beef on one, Chicken on another, fish separate from shell fish, etc. They go to great lengths to keep foods separated. Wait staff are not allowed to go all the way into the galley to avoid cross contamination. This way if someone with an allergy orders chicken or fish there is a high degree of confidence it hasn't come in contact with shell fish or vice versa. He went on to explain the various ovens they have including some that can use steam or heat to cook, or a combination of both. Super heated steam is very efficient and quick so they can cook hundreds of meals in record time. It was very informative and with my son joining me on an upcoming cruise it's comforting to know his allergies can be accommodated safely.

I keep looking out the peep hole but so far he isn't looking my way, yet.

Also for any future Adventure cruisers, here is a quick reference guide to key events, subject to change of course with the ship repositioning. The subject of straws came up recently. This was observed in the Behind the Scenes Galley tour.

Main Seating (or traditional dining) happens every day at a fixed dinner time. You have an assigned table, which you dine at every night, and also have an assigned waiter and assistant waiter. Tables are usually larger, seating 6 or more, but smaller tables can be had if you'd rather not share company. The times are generally scheduled to work around the theater performances each evening. My Time Dining has no set time each day, it's like a regular dinner out at a land restaurant. You can make reservations or just walk up, and doing the latter could mean a small wait. You'll get whatever table is available, and whichever wait staff are assigned to that section. Food is the same in both plans, it really comes down to whether you want flexibility about when you have dinner each night. More detailed info can be found at these links: First Time Cruisers: Dinner on Royal Caribbean What You Need to Know About Royal Caribbean's My Time Dining

+1 for this. First cruise ever this past March/April, and it was such a good feeling just sipping that drink (lava flow!!), feeling the breeze, and letting yourself go for just a little. It really brings that "I'm finally on vacation" feeling home. Let that settle in for a bit, and then worry about (leisurely) exploring or having lunch or whatever. You've waited a long time for this moment, so take a little while to just savor it and take it all in. The ship won't mind, it'll be there all week.

I'm not sure, but he sure did seem to be enjoying it.

Get yelled at by my wife for not doing what she wanted to do as soon as we got on the ship ?? ;)

I'd be more concerned on HOW it moved it's head..

Are you talking about me? Or to me?

Thanks! For about the price of renting a condo for a week on the coast of NC (we live in NC and have done that many times), we will be able to cruise to Mexico instead. We are looking at doing a ruins tour in one port and then a beach resort in the other.

Well then, here is the full list of other "Common Drinks", Royal Caribbean style:

yeah..I guess leaving the ship around 8am or 930 makes a big difference then ...as does self check out too.....I have never done anything else on any cruise so far. Way more fun being one of those people outside waiting to get in the building then leaving!

So, who's surprised ? Show of hands..... That's what I thought. ?

First thing is to get drink out on the pool deck. Enjoy that sun, breeze and cold drink. Then take the time to explore the ship before it gets too crowded. Its a great time to get your bearings on board and also a great time to get some photos as its nice and clean and empty.

Do a Bee Line to the closest Bar --- Have a Bloody Maryland ---- then head up to the Windjammer .... even if it's a zoo, you can't break tradition.

Speaking of which... here is the RavPower travel router I am trying on this cruise pictured beside an iPhone for scale. I first mentioned this in the first post. It has come in very handy. The latest update to 11.3.1 on iPhone continues to have wifi issues. When I'm on 'royal-wifi' my phones don't roam around the ship very well without disconnecting from the the wifi. I first noted this on Serenade when I upgraded to 11.3 during the cruise. After the upgrade I experienced more wifi issues. I blame Apple for this, not Royal. With the above travel router and it's internal battery I can slip it into my pocket and wander around the ship. My phones stay connected to it and I don't have to re-connect every time I wake up my phone. I've placed several wifi phone calls through it and I've scoped through it. It seems to work well.

Breakfast in the Windjammer. Gotta love that view. One thing about my cabin. My door is at the entrance to the elevator lobby. Noise hasn't been an issue, sometimes I heard loud people walking down the hall but you'll hear that in any cabin. The thing is this. There is this creepy dummy on display and every time I open my cabin door it is the first thing I see. Last night his head turned as I walked past. Okay, maybe that was Kraken.

Day 4 - Sea Day Peak-a-boo Bridge The Peak-a-boo bridge is a unique feature of the Voyager class. It allows you to look down into the navigational bridge. This is a public outdoor deck and the entrance is located off solarium on the forward, port side of the ship. The leads to a narrow outside deck with views aft when you first step out. Heading forward you are in front of the gym. Here there is a covered area with views down into the bridge. Having been at sea for a day and half now everything has a layer of salt on it so I apologize for the poor pictures. Now lets get a bit geeky. <geek/on> There are two displays here that let you see the details of the ship and our course. It looks like we have a direct course towards the "BYE PILOT" which I assume is the Bayonne pilot station where we will pick up the local pilot to assist us getting to the pier. I noted the 'Desired ETA' was 08:00 but also noted that is UTC so lots of time to make our scheduled arrival. In between the two displays are some explanations of what the bridge is, the layout and various components and systems. On the displays I could see several ships around us but couldn't see them in the haze present on the ocean this morning, End of geekiness </geek off> It's a cool feature but can be windy at times. They had it closed yesterday so I was happy to find it open today.

Day 3 - Evening Dinner was in the Windjammer tonight, Tex-Mex night. After dinner I saw the saddest face pop up on my phone on the Periscope app: Apparently FOMO was in play so @Matt held an emergency meeting of the central Florida RoyalCarribeanblog.com users. I tried to watch the scope but the sound of the waves on my balcony made it hard to hear him, plus I was having so much fun on board that I had to put my phone down and get back to the Schooner Bar. This included another round of Billy Pando in the Schooner Bar. That's @mpoole3 and @Big Dawg Ron. He is known for his association with rubber ducks and his shirt reads "RELEASE the Quackin" which was entirely appropriate given the volume of Kraken and Cokes (or diet Coke) being consumed around the piano bar. Adult late night comedy at 11:15pm with Lucas Bohn. Pretty good.

Siiiigh..... Man, the water gets me every time.

Top tier event. This is when I miss my Nikon. The dancers were great but this is where iPhone photography falls short. With my Nikon this photo would be clear: None the less they were very good when seen live. It could have been the drinks that kept flowing as we waited for the Captain, but the numbers flew past pretty quickly. Over half the ship were C&A members, I think I heard 232 Diamond and 131 Diamond Plus. Ron beside me kept on yacking in my ear so I missed the rest. (Just kidding Ron). Captain Shawn and a few of the Senior Officers: The top cruisers with something like 1328 points (+/- 25) were called up and gave a short speech when they called upon @mpoole3 to re-gift their bottle of Champagne to him. I think he was shocked.

When you see yourself in twangsters photos but did not realize he was twangster ?

Here are some other Promenade photos taken while in the neighborhood:

Izumi is a new addition to the ship added during the February 2018 dry dock.

Pub Crawl! There are a large number of RCPeriscopers and folks that joined a FB group cruise page. One of the events was a pub crawl which basically means 50 to 60 people descending on a bar at once (swarming) before moving onto the next bar and so on. Stops included the Schooner Bar, Champagne Bar, The Pub and the Sky Bar.

This balcony is not as deep as my last balcony on Serenade. Sitting down you definitely feel like you are in a cave. Leaning against the railing doesn't feel unnatural. Looking down the life boats stick out ever so slightly but you still have great views down to the water.

Since I was up here I went into the Viking Crown Lounge Even the Diamond Lounge seems like it was refreshed during the dry dock: Since I was here I checked out the day 3 dinner menu. They always have it the Diamond Lounge.

As I walking around I caught the two Laura's and Ron scoping each other

Heading aft JR remains in the same place: Ping pong tables: Adventure Dunes starts on deck 13 and ends on deck 12. Heading up past the flow rider you can see how Adventure Dunes plays from the upper deck to the lower deck:

The pool deck area in the daylight. The new kids water park: You can see where they placed the new deck 12 cabins in the panoramic ocean view cabins. The jogging track was re-routed around the solarium open ceiling and you can see the color difference where the new jogging track meets the old jogging track. The new cabins created a new St Tropez sun deck much like on the Freedom class that have received the new cabins in this area. Just like Liberty they have installed glass dividers to break the wind in this area. On Freedom this area was more open. The view of the solarium from St Tropez. I couldn't go into the new cabins since they are occupied (I saw people in them from the helipad on day one) but the hallways in this area smell and look new as you would expect.

Adventure Ocean entrance and arcade game area

Giovanni's

Windjammer in the morning: They have a different style of hand washing stations leading into the WJ on both sides. They feature air blowers built into the 'wings' on the faucet so you don't need paper towels. Works well. The WJ bar: Great views aft:

Following dinner I wandered around the ship taking advantage of diamond happy hour drinks since I didn't purchase the drink package. The Captain's address in the Promenade at 8:00 was well attended (maybe it's the free sparkling wine). The ship band was there to entertain us while we waited for the Captain. To the pub then the Schooner Bar for live music. I finally met @mpoole3 and a few others. He had a friend he cruised with to Cuba who let us into the Suite Lounge so we could take a few pictures. Absent of Coastal Kitchen it reminds me of an Oasis class suite lounge a little bit. Since we were up on deck 14 we checked out the silent disco which was very busy. Returning to the cabin I discovered a gift waiting for me. This is my first cruise as a Diamond Plus and it was a Crown and Anchor beach towel.

Day 2 - St. Maarten No official excursion today although I did get a letter in my cabin with a 20% offer if I took it to the Shore Excursion desk to book one. Instead of booking something through Royal I jumped in a shared cab to Maho Beach for $16 roundtrip. This is the beach at the end of the runway for the airport on the Dutch side of the island. I had looked up incoming flights and scheduled my day to arrive when a couple of larger jets would be arriving. First WestJet from Toronto: A few minutes a Delta jet from Atlanta arrived: A JetBlue plane took off between the two arrivals. I had been sitting on a beach towel lined up with center of the runway. When I saw the JetBlue plane getting to takeoff I moved over closer to the Sunset bar. I've been here before and didn't want to discover sand in crevices I didn't my body had for the next week. A short time later that group of friends in the water when WestJet arrived broke into cheers and I looked over to see a guy had hit the sand on his knees and opened a ring box that he was presenting to a girl standing there in shock. Before I could react and try to save him, she accepted. Another man down. With that it was time for a beverage so I jumped in a taxi and headed back to the cruise ship pier. I decided to contribute to the local economy before getting back on board. $3 plus tip or 2 for $5.

Main Dining Room: Day 1 dinner menu: With a 6pm dinner but an 8:30pm sail away it left some time after dinner to explore the ship. It did feel odd after the muster drill at 4:30pm not immediately having sail way but it allowed me to have a few diamond happy hour drinks and take some pictures around the ship. The peak-a-boo bridge. More on that later.

Cabin Tour! 9532 port side forward balcony The balconies on Adventure are somewhat cove type in nature. Lots of privacy from neighbors.

We arrived into San Juan a few minutes early. Standard approach with views of Old San Juan on the left side of the plane. New San Juan: Off the plane a few minutes before noon. Signs and a kiosk near baggage claim pointed to the Royal Caribbean transfer desk. Checked luggage is accepted here and placed on a truck. Have your luggage tags handy as you won't see you bags again until they are delivered to your stateroom. I only had carry on and the bus isn't really set up for people with carry on luggage, requiring a seat be used for it. Rumors of a delayed embarkation, boarding apparently started at noon. A simple extension cord was confiscated. Security was the most thorough that I've seen. I had to argue to keep my cell phone charger but in the end they relented. It's a European style that plugs into the euro power port on board leaving the North American outlet for other things. They asked me if I was from Europe. Sure, if I can keep my charger, yes, I am! Ten minutes spent having them go through every layer of clothes in my carry on. Despite that I was on board by 12:45pm. The escalators to the upper floor where the main gangway is located are broken so we boarded on the pier where you would normally would at a port of call. It's 1:35pm and they just announced cabins are ready. Time to check out my cabin!

Please! Make it go away... It keeps on telling me to do strange things...

Love the sounds of the 80's flashback party....I haven't been on a cruise yet that had this. Is this something new or?...looks like a blast!

Wow......it took that long from 9:30 till 11 am to do all that? I am usually boarding the ship at 11am when I cruise. I always do the self check out when disembarking and its about a 20 mins process max in my experiences.

When we departed Harmony in March, there was no longer a porter line. I asked our porter and he said they didn't have a dedicated line anymore. Even so, the porter was worth the tip. He managed to get way ahead of us in line (no idea how). Customs was easy and the porter completely arranged a taxi van for the 7 of us and all our luggage (it was a squeeze). Most airlines allow you to drop off bags 4 hours before your flight. There were a ton of people waiting for the 4 hour point. We had a 2:15 flight but one of our party had a 2:45 flight. Once all the bags were taken, we took a taxi to the beach for lunch and took an uber back to the airport.

Are you sure about that? Is the dummy's name SLLLLLLLLAPPY??

It's been WAY too long since you've been on a cruise @twangster! ?? Can't wait to read your blog. Safe travels ?