nyold

Hello, I hope it's okay to do a live-blog style recap (instead of it being live). I also took pictures of all the cruise compass pages and MDR menu. Please let me know how to best upload these, or whom I should contact to get them added to the cruise compass section.
-----------------
This is my first cruise, with DW and in laws, for 8 nights from FLL to Eastern Caribbean, on Adventure of the Seas, 12/21/2019 sailing. The ports visited: St Thomas, St Marteen, San Juan, and Labadee.
We originally considered booking on Allure, but finally we decided on Adventure. This fact will become important later. We did a GTY balcony room, and scored a spacious balcony on deck 6 fore.
We bought the refreshment drink package (non-alcoholic) and the surf voom package. No specialty dining option because we figured we’d have enough to eat. Our dining time was traditional seating at 8:30.
We booked our travel through MEI travel, and had Michelle as our contact person. She is extremely helpful and friendly, and really responsive with our questions.
Due to inclement weather, the day before our departure the captain sent a note that they’re rearranging our ports of visit, but generally still keeping the same ports and same time-ish for each port. I did book excursions with a 3rd party, so I called them and let them know of the change. He was very accommodating (partly due to the fact that the whole ship is on the same boat as us, literally), so he has to work around the change.
I wanted to do a live blog but I figured I’d rather write a review afterwards so that I can enjoy my vacation. That’s why I didn’t create a thread beforehand. I just jot down the basics of what we did each day.
Day 1
We drove for 1 hr from Palm Beach to FLL, and parked our car at Discount Parking. Definitely would not recommend this vendor. It seemed like they only had 1 shuttle dedicated to cruise passengers, so we had to wait a long time to get taken to the pier (and also at the end, we had to wait almost 1 hour at the pier to be picked up). I did see a lot of Park N Go shuttles, so next time we will try that one.

Due to inclement weather (again), the terminal was moved from pier 29 to pier 18. There was no communication about this from Royal Caribbean. I only found out from the facebook group. I don’t know how people would have found out otherwise. The check-in was quick. There is a short line for the security, then the ipad person took our pictures, and quick picture in front of a backdrop, but other than that off we go to the second floor, which connects to a gangway going to deck 4.



 
We arrived at the terminal around 12:30, and stepped to the ship around 12:45. Although it’s almost one (and therefore our room should be ready soon), since we didn’t really have carry on, we went straight to WJ for lunch. There was a special gingerbread town decoration at the entrance of WJ

Of course we started utilizing our drink package. We ordered pina colada and mango daiquiri. On the first day, they let you use your set sail pass instead of your seapass card to order drinks.
After lunch, we went to our rooms to find out it’s all ready. The seapass cards were waiting in front of the room. Inside the room, all the excursions that we have bough with Royal Caribbean (including explanations about drink package and internet package) are waiting on our bed. I thought the whole thing was extremely well-organized.
 
The room is very spacious for just the 2 of us. There is plenty of storage. The only negative thing is that the balcony still feels a bit closed in, and basically feels like a glorified port hole. I guess this is what you get for doing a GTY. But a balcony is still a balcony, so no complaint here. The closets and drawers offer plenty of storage space.
Within 10 minutes, the stateroom attendant knocked on our door, introduced himself, and informed us about the muster drill. Collin, he is very nice and attentive, and we were very pleased with his service throughout the cruise. There were several times when I came back to the room carrying plates of food from WJ, and he saw me, and he opened the door for me. This happened as early as day 1 btw, so he was definitely quick in memorizing our faces lol.
After the drill, we went exploring around the ship, with drinks in hand of course. The ship is fairly nice-sized, but not too big that I feel like it’s a floating city. I know this used to be considered “top of the line” when it was first launched, but now that there are much larger ships around, Adventure of the Seas is considered medium-large.





There were Christmas decorations around the ship, so it felt really festive. However, they’re also “blocking” some access areas especially on deck 4 and 5, at both ends of the ship (so near Centrum staircases). Not a big deal because most of the time it was never that crowded, except during special occasions where you feel like the added stairway would have alleviated the crowd jam a little bit. Also, there were ship photographers in front of the Christmas tree, preventing you to take your own pictures. You can have your pictures taken, but then you’d have to pay to get them.

During the sail away, we went to deck 12 aft to watch. It was windy and slightly raining.
After the sail away, I tried a the flow rider for a little bit. Bad idea. It was hard, and I think my neck got whiplashed when I fell? I only noticed the soreness the day after. I saw some other people having fun on it, so good for them. Also the flow rider area is VERY windy throughout the cruise, because it’s at the top deck, aft. When the ship was docked it was okay, but whenever ship was on sea, it gets very windy.
I also tried the slides. There are two slides: yellow and blue. The yellow one is supposed to be faster, but it also has a slight “bump” in it, meaning you cannot rest your head completely but you had to hold it up a little bit. This became a problem due to my sore neck, but was a lot of fun otherwise. I have been to a lot of water parks in Orlando, and I can say that these two slides were definitely top notch in terms of speed, thrill, and drops. Also because the ship was rocking, no two “sessions” were the same. It keeps you guessing and anticipating with every turn. I must have done each slide at least 10 times throughout the cruise.
I also talked to one of the lifeguards (Matthew) which was very friendly. He said that one passenger hurt his head on the yellow slide because he laid down his head completely during the bump, so he cautioned me not to do that. He also mentioned that he used to work on Allure, and this was his second week on Adventure. He also didn’t know how to do flowrider in the beginning, but they have crew-only hours to train them, and after several times, now he can at least stand comfortably on it. I guess it made me feel better for not getting the hang of flow rider right away?
Then we wasted some time at the solarium reading / enjoying the hot tub. There was a 5pm raffle for $500 voucher at the spa, although we didn’t win ☹
By this time, it’s already 6 pm ish, so we checked out WJ, which was American-themed. They had a welcome onboard cake, and beautiful dessert spread. I took 2 platefuls of food (one for savory things, one for sweet things) to our room, where the cruise compasses for day 1 and 2 were already waiting. I took pictures of them all so that we can plan out the night and the next day over dinner.


Before dinner, they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was just a countdown to light the Christmas tree. I expected some singing at the bridge but there was none. This was where the promenade was full of people, standing by and getting around, and the added access (blocked by decorations) would have been helpful.

At dinner, our table was right by the entrance. Because we emailed Royal Caribbean ahead of time, 4 of us were seated together. Our waiters were Franco and Antonio, and they were both very attentive. They even remembered our preferences (my steak rare). On the first two nights, we ordered hot tea, so by the third night, when we sat down, there were already tea bags prepared, and he brought out mugs of hot water without being asked. It’s the little touches like these that make long lasting impression.


I went for double entrees right away: NY Strip and Salmon, while DW went for prime rib. The NY Strip was great, but I feel like the cook is one “over.” I usually order medium-rare at most restaurants on land, but this time I had to order rare in order to get the same cook. Just FYI. For appetizers we did calamari and shrimp cocktail, and for dessert we did chocolate cake, creme brulee, and blueberry cobbler. The appetizers tasted good but the portion was kinda small. Well I guess you could always order double appetizers, and that's what we ended up doing for the rest of the cruise. The desserts were good but not amazing.







After dinner, we went to a comedy show. But shortly into it, we realized that it’s not our style (it was an adult show) so we just left and went back to our room and slept early. The nice thing about Lyric Theater is that, you can sit in the balcony on 4th floor (and it has a separate entrance that goes to deck 4 instead of deck 3). So that if you decide that the show is not your thing, you can leave without disturbing too many people. We ended up watching shows this way for most of the cruise. There is also a bar by the entrance on deck 4 (INSIDE the theater) so you can keep going back to order drinks, again without disturbing people.

Day 2: Sea Day
I started the day by running on the jogging track on deck 12 at 6 am. The wind was very strong, fore to aft, so half the time you're fighting serious wind, and the other half you have the winds on your back. After about 1.5 mile or so I gave up and just continued on the treadmill in the gym. Fun fact: strava app could not recognize my location, even though technically GPS should not need data connectivity. It keeps thinking that I'm in FLL and somewhere off the coast of North Caroline (both locations are wrong). In the end it thinks that I ran 1200 miles over 10 minutes. Woot! 
After running, I tried both the sauna and steam room at the gym. At 7 am they were both empty. The steam room was smelly, so I didn't really stay. The sauna was nice. The gym also has shower rooms that are a bit larger than the shower in our staterooms, with the same brand of shampoo and soap. The gym also has unlimited bath towels to use. So this is a nice option for those of you whose rooms are crowded or just wanted a larger shower.
Afterwards I grabbed breakfast in the Promenade cafe (mostly just fruit cup and coffee). Then me and family (who had woken up by this time) went to a Sunday Mass which was held at the Imperial Lounge, and then on to WJ for breakfast. 

After breakfast I went to look at the shops on the promenade. They had $10 sales (all kinds of things for $10, with buy 4 get 1 free). The only items catching my attention were the tote bags. They are of really good quality. But other than that, they also had sunglasses, shoulder bags, men's watches, scarves, all for $10.

Then I went to an origami class at the Schooner. The instructor was really nice and patient with newcomers, which makes the pace a bit slow for me. So I sort of did the class while watching the TV at the bar. We created frog (very basic), and butterfly (respectably complex). The instructor used old cruise compasses (like from July) for the papers, which is really neat as it saves trees. After the class, she handed out instructions for us to take home.

For lunch, we went to the MDR. I had the Asian Noodle (which is kinda like Singaporean Mee Goreng), which I thought was good but the balance between meat and noodle was off. Too much noodle for that amount of meat. We of course also got food from the salad bar (amazing! it's a must for any salad lovers). Next to the salad bar, they had a buffet line with food from WJ (I don't think it's the entire WJ offering, but the "special entrees" from WJ that day).





 
After lunch, we just lounged around at the Solarium and/or Main Pool, going back and forth between different pools and whirlpools, and reading / listening to music / watching people dance at the main pool stage... with drinks in hand. The weather was still a bit chilly and not many people were outside, so finding lounge chairs was not difficult at all. I bought a waterproof ipad case so I can continue reading in the pool and whirlpool... as long as I don't drop it. The main pools (two in the open area and one in the Solarium) were salt water, and it has shallow entry area as well as deeper inner area. The cool thing is that whenever the ship rocks (and on this day, it still rocks pretty hard as we are not that far from the tropical storm system brewing in the East), the pool water sloshes around as well, creating some kind of mini waves and a mini-beach effect. 

We did this all afternoon, falling asleep every now and then, and also rode the water slides whenever I was bored. Again, due to the chilly temperature, there was barely any line on the slides. Good for me I guess. Afterwards we caught some pretty sunset pictures, and then we headed to the gym for more exercise (I ran on the treadmill some more). After exercise and shower, we headed to dinner. Tonight was the formal night. As we were heading to dinner, we saw people on the promenade from the early seating, and they were dressed really nicely with Christmas gowns and suits.


We stopped by our room quickly before dinner in order to take picture of the cruise compass (we do this every night, so that we can plan out the day over dinner). Turns out Collin had made a towel animal for us. I think it's a bunny?

Whereas my inlaws got elephants with googly eyes

For dinner today, I had the duck A L'orange which was very good, tender and crispy on the outside. 
We also tried the carpaccio, escargot, carrot cake, and cheese plate. The carpaccio was okay (missing some salt), escargot was good. The cheese plate was very good and I wanted to order this every night, but little did I know the dessert menu only got better from here, so this ended up being the only night I had the cheese plate. First world problem I know...





Starting on day 2, there is a performance every night in the MDR during dinner. Most days it was one crew named Lalo, who sang and played guitar at the same time. His voice is pretty good, but he really knows how to work the audience. He sang Sweet Caroline, and asked everyone to sing along. The atmosphere (in all 3 floors of MDR) was generally very interactive and relaxed, despite it being a formal night. I took a video of his performance, but couldn't figure out how to upload video to this site. If you know how, please let me know.
In front of the MDR, they had a backdrop of some formal-looking French garden. Our family took a quick picture there. I could not take a picture of just the backdrop because there constantly were people in there.
After dinner we watched a show. It was a ballroom dancing show, mostly on Jazz pieces, but they had some Latin and Caribbean pieces as well. I think the performers are really talented. They can all dance different styles of dancing. Overall I enjoyed the show. 

Hello, I hope it's okay to do a live-blog style recap (instead of it being live). I also took pictures of all the cruise compass pages and MDR menu. Please let me know how to best upload these, or whom I should contact to get them added to the cruise compass section.
-----------------
This is my first cruise, with DW and in laws, for 8 nights from FLL to Eastern Caribbean, on Adventure of the Seas, 12/21/2019 sailing. The ports visited: St Thomas, St Marteen, San Juan, and Labadee.
We originally considered booking on Allure, but finally we decided on Adventure. This fact will become important later. We did a GTY balcony room, and scored a spacious balcony on deck 6 fore.
We bought the refreshment drink package (non-alcoholic) and the surf voom package. No specialty dining option because we figured we’d have enough to eat. Our dining time was traditional seating at 8:30.
We booked our travel through MEI travel, and had Michelle as our contact person. She is extremely helpful and friendly, and really responsive with our questions.
Due to inclement weather, the day before our departure the captain sent a note that they’re rearranging our ports of visit, but generally still keeping the same ports and same time-ish for each port. I did book excursions with a 3rd party, so I called them and let them know of the change. He was very accommodating (partly due to the fact that the whole ship is on the same boat as us, literally), so he has to work around the change.
I wanted to do a live blog but I figured I’d rather write a review afterwards so that I can enjoy my vacation. That’s why I didn’t create a thread beforehand. I just jot down the basics of what we did each day.
Day 1
We drove for 1 hr from Palm Beach to FLL, and parked our car at Discount Parking. Definitely would not recommend this vendor. It seemed like they only had 1 shuttle dedicated to cruise passengers, so we had to wait a long time to get taken to the pier (and also at the end, we had to wait almost 1 hour at the pier to be picked up). I did see a lot of Park N Go shuttles, so next time we will try that one.

Due to inclement weather (again), the terminal was moved from pier 29 to pier 18. There was no communication about this from Royal Caribbean. I only found out from the facebook group. I don’t know how people would have found out otherwise. The check-in was quick. There is a short line for the security, then the ipad person took our pictures, and quick picture in front of a backdrop, but other than that off we go to the second floor, which connects to a gangway going to deck 4.



 
We arrived at the terminal around 12:30, and stepped to the ship around 12:45. Although it’s almost one (and therefore our room should be ready soon), since we didn’t really have carry on, we went straight to WJ for lunch. There was a special gingerbread town decoration at the entrance of WJ

Of course we started utilizing our drink package. We ordered pina colada and mango daiquiri. On the first day, they let you use your set sail pass instead of your seapass card to order drinks.
After lunch, we went to our rooms to find out it’s all ready. The seapass cards were waiting in front of the room. Inside the room, all the excursions that we have bough with Royal Caribbean (including explanations about drink package and internet package) are waiting on our bed. I thought the whole thing was extremely well-organized.
 
The room is very spacious for just the 2 of us. There is plenty of storage. The only negative thing is that the balcony still feels a bit closed in, and basically feels like a glorified port hole. I guess this is what you get for doing a GTY. But a balcony is still a balcony, so no complaint here. The closets and drawers offer plenty of storage space.
Within 10 minutes, the stateroom attendant knocked on our door, introduced himself, and informed us about the muster drill. Collin, he is very nice and attentive, and we were very pleased with his service throughout the cruise. There were several times when I came back to the room carrying plates of food from WJ, and he saw me, and he opened the door for me. This happened as early as day 1 btw, so he was definitely quick in memorizing our faces lol.
After the drill, we went exploring around the ship, with drinks in hand of course. The ship is fairly nice-sized, but not too big that I feel like it’s a floating city. I know this used to be considered “top of the line” when it was first launched, but now that there are much larger ships around, Adventure of the Seas is considered medium-large.





There were Christmas decorations around the ship, so it felt really festive. However, they’re also “blocking” some access areas especially on deck 4 and 5, at both ends of the ship (so near Centrum staircases). Not a big deal because most of the time it was never that crowded, except during special occasions where you feel like the added stairway would have alleviated the crowd jam a little bit. Also, there were ship photographers in front of the Christmas tree, preventing you to take your own pictures. You can have your pictures taken, but then you’d have to pay to get them.

During the sail away, we went to deck 12 aft to watch. It was windy and slightly raining.
After the sail away, I tried a the flow rider for a little bit. Bad idea. It was hard, and I think my neck got whiplashed when I fell? I only noticed the soreness the day after. I saw some other people having fun on it, so good for them. Also the flow rider area is VERY windy throughout the cruise, because it’s at the top deck, aft. When the ship was docked it was okay, but whenever ship was on sea, it gets very windy.
I also tried the slides. There are two slides: yellow and blue. The yellow one is supposed to be faster, but it also has a slight “bump” in it, meaning you cannot rest your head completely but you had to hold it up a little bit. This became a problem due to my sore neck, but was a lot of fun otherwise. I have been to a lot of water parks in Orlando, and I can say that these two slides were definitely top notch in terms of speed, thrill, and drops. Also because the ship was rocking, no two “sessions” were the same. It keeps you guessing and anticipating with every turn. I must have done each slide at least 10 times throughout the cruise.
I also talked to one of the lifeguards (Matthew) which was very friendly. He said that one passenger hurt his head on the yellow slide because he laid down his head completely during the bump, so he cautioned me not to do that. He also mentioned that he used to work on Allure, and this was his second week on Adventure. He also didn’t know how to do flowrider in the beginning, but they have crew-only hours to train them, and after several times, now he can at least stand comfortably on it. I guess it made me feel better for not getting the hang of flow rider right away?
Then we wasted some time at the solarium reading / enjoying the hot tub. There was a 5pm raffle for $500 voucher at the spa, although we didn’t win ☹
By this time, it’s already 6 pm ish, so we checked out WJ, which was American-themed. They had a welcome onboard cake, and beautiful dessert spread. I took 2 platefuls of food (one for savory things, one for sweet things) to our room, where the cruise compasses for day 1 and 2 were already waiting. I took pictures of them all so that we can plan out the night and the next day over dinner.


Before dinner, they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was just a countdown to light the Christmas tree. I expected some singing at the bridge but there was none. This was where the promenade was full of people, standing by and getting around, and the added access (blocked by decorations) would have been helpful.

At dinner, our table was right by the entrance. Because we emailed Royal Caribbean ahead of time, 4 of us were seated together. Our waiters were Franco and Antonio, and they were both very attentive. They even remembered our preferences (my steak rare). On the first two nights, we ordered hot tea, so by the third night, when we sat down, there were already tea bags prepared, and he brought out mugs of hot water without being asked. It’s the little touches like these that make long lasting impression.


I went for double entrees right away: NY Strip and Salmon, while DW went for prime rib. The NY Strip was great, but I feel like the cook is one “over.” I usually order medium-rare at most restaurants on land, but this time I had to order rare in order to get the same cook. Just FYI. For appetizers we did calamari and shrimp cocktail, and for dessert we did chocolate cake, creme brulee, and blueberry cobbler. The appetizers tasted good but the portion was kinda small. Well I guess you could always order double appetizers, and that's what we ended up doing for the rest of the cruise. The desserts were good but not amazing.







After dinner, we went to a comedy show. But shortly into it, we realized that it’s not our style (it was an adult show) so we just left and went back to our room and slept early. The nice thing about Lyric Theater is that, you can sit in the balcony on 4th floor (and it has a separate entrance that goes to deck 4 instead of deck 3). So that if you decide that the show is not your thing, you can leave without disturbing too many people. We ended up watching shows this way for most of the cruise. There is also a bar by the entrance on deck 4 (INSIDE the theater) so you can keep going back to order drinks, again without disturbing people.

Hello, I hope it's okay to do a live-blog style recap (instead of it being live). I also took pictures of all the cruise compass pages and MDR menu. Please let me know how to best upload these, or whom I should contact to get them added to the cruise compass section.
-----------------
This is my first cruise, with DW and in laws, for 8 nights from FLL to Eastern Caribbean, on Adventure of the Seas, 12/21/2019 sailing. The ports visited: St Thomas, St Marteen, San Juan, and Labadee.
We originally considered booking on Allure, but finally we decided on Adventure. This fact will become important later. We did a GTY balcony room, and scored a spacious balcony on deck 6 fore.
We bought the refreshment drink package (non-alcoholic) and the surf voom package. No specialty dining option because we figured we’d have enough to eat. Our dining time was traditional seating at 8:30.
We booked our travel through MEI travel, and had Michelle as our contact person. She is extremely helpful and friendly, and really responsive with our questions.
Due to inclement weather, the day before our departure the captain sent a note that they’re rearranging our ports of visit, but generally still keeping the same ports and same time-ish for each port. I did book excursions with a 3rd party, so I called them and let them know of the change. He was very accommodating (partly due to the fact that the whole ship is on the same boat as us, literally), so he has to work around the change.
I wanted to do a live blog but I figured I’d rather write a review afterwards so that I can enjoy my vacation. That’s why I didn’t create a thread beforehand. I just jot down the basics of what we did each day.
Day 1
We drove for 1 hr from Palm Beach to FLL, and parked our car at Discount Parking. Definitely would not recommend this vendor. It seemed like they only had 1 shuttle dedicated to cruise passengers, so we had to wait a long time to get taken to the pier (and also at the end, we had to wait almost 1 hour at the pier to be picked up). I did see a lot of Park N Go shuttles, so next time we will try that one.

Due to inclement weather (again), the terminal was moved from pier 29 to pier 18. There was no communication about this from Royal Caribbean. I only found out from the facebook group. I don’t know how people would have found out otherwise. The check-in was quick. There is a short line for the security, then the ipad person took our pictures, and quick picture in front of a backdrop, but other than that off we go to the second floor, which connects to a gangway going to deck 4.



 
We arrived at the terminal around 12:30, and stepped to the ship around 12:45. Although it’s almost one (and therefore our room should be ready soon), since we didn’t really have carry on, we went straight to WJ for lunch. There was a special gingerbread town decoration at the entrance of WJ

Of course we started utilizing our drink package. We ordered pina colada and mango daiquiri. On the first day, they let you use your set sail pass instead of your seapass card to order drinks.
After lunch, we went to our rooms to find out it’s all ready. The seapass cards were waiting in front of the room. Inside the room, all the excursions that we have bough with Royal Caribbean (including explanations about drink package and internet package) are waiting on our bed. I thought the whole thing was extremely well-organized.
 
The room is very spacious for just the 2 of us. There is plenty of storage. The only negative thing is that the balcony still feels a bit closed in, and basically feels like a glorified port hole. I guess this is what you get for doing a GTY. But a balcony is still a balcony, so no complaint here. The closets and drawers offer plenty of storage space.
Within 10 minutes, the stateroom attendant knocked on our door, introduced himself, and informed us about the muster drill. Collin, he is very nice and attentive, and we were very pleased with his service throughout the cruise. There were several times when I came back to the room carrying plates of food from WJ, and he saw me, and he opened the door for me. This happened as early as day 1 btw, so he was definitely quick in memorizing our faces lol.
After the drill, we went exploring around the ship, with drinks in hand of course. The ship is fairly nice-sized, but not too big that I feel like it’s a floating city. I know this used to be considered “top of the line” when it was first launched, but now that there are much larger ships around, Adventure of the Seas is considered medium-large.





There were Christmas decorations around the ship, so it felt really festive. However, they’re also “blocking” some access areas especially on deck 4 and 5, at both ends of the ship (so near Centrum staircases). Not a big deal because most of the time it was never that crowded, except during special occasions where you feel like the added stairway would have alleviated the crowd jam a little bit. Also, there were ship photographers in front of the Christmas tree, preventing you to take your own pictures. You can have your pictures taken, but then you’d have to pay to get them.

During the sail away, we went to deck 12 aft to watch. It was windy and slightly raining.
After the sail away, I tried a the flow rider for a little bit. Bad idea. It was hard, and I think my neck got whiplashed when I fell? I only noticed the soreness the day after. I saw some other people having fun on it, so good for them. Also the flow rider area is VERY windy throughout the cruise, because it’s at the top deck, aft. When the ship was docked it was okay, but whenever ship was on sea, it gets very windy.
I also tried the slides. There are two slides: yellow and blue. The yellow one is supposed to be faster, but it also has a slight “bump” in it, meaning you cannot rest your head completely but you had to hold it up a little bit. This became a problem due to my sore neck, but was a lot of fun otherwise. I have been to a lot of water parks in Orlando, and I can say that these two slides were definitely top notch in terms of speed, thrill, and drops. Also because the ship was rocking, no two “sessions” were the same. It keeps you guessing and anticipating with every turn. I must have done each slide at least 10 times throughout the cruise.
I also talked to one of the lifeguards (Matthew) which was very friendly. He said that one passenger hurt his head on the yellow slide because he laid down his head completely during the bump, so he cautioned me not to do that. He also mentioned that he used to work on Allure, and this was his second week on Adventure. He also didn’t know how to do flowrider in the beginning, but they have crew-only hours to train them, and after several times, now he can at least stand comfortably on it. I guess it made me feel better for not getting the hang of flow rider right away?
Then we wasted some time at the solarium reading / enjoying the hot tub. There was a 5pm raffle for $500 voucher at the spa, although we didn’t win ☹
By this time, it’s already 6 pm ish, so we checked out WJ, which was American-themed. They had a welcome onboard cake, and beautiful dessert spread. I took 2 platefuls of food (one for savory things, one for sweet things) to our room, where the cruise compasses for day 1 and 2 were already waiting. I took pictures of them all so that we can plan out the night and the next day over dinner.


Before dinner, they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was just a countdown to light the Christmas tree. I expected some singing at the bridge but there was none. This was where the promenade was full of people, standing by and getting around, and the added access (blocked by decorations) would have been helpful.

At dinner, our table was right by the entrance. Because we emailed Royal Caribbean ahead of time, 4 of us were seated together. Our waiters were Franco and Antonio, and they were both very attentive. They even remembered our preferences (my steak rare). On the first two nights, we ordered hot tea, so by the third night, when we sat down, there were already tea bags prepared, and he brought out mugs of hot water without being asked. It’s the little touches like these that make long lasting impression.


I went for double entrees right away: NY Strip and Salmon, while DW went for prime rib. The NY Strip was great, but I feel like the cook is one “over.” I usually order medium-rare at most restaurants on land, but this time I had to order rare in order to get the same cook. Just FYI. For appetizers we did calamari and shrimp cocktail, and for dessert we did chocolate cake, creme brulee, and blueberry cobbler. The appetizers tasted good but the portion was kinda small. Well I guess you could always order double appetizers, and that's what we ended up doing for the rest of the cruise. The desserts were good but not amazing.







After dinner, we went to a comedy show. But shortly into it, we realized that it’s not our style (it was an adult show) so we just left and went back to our room and slept early. The nice thing about Lyric Theater is that, you can sit in the balcony on 4th floor (and it has a separate entrance that goes to deck 4 instead of deck 3). So that if you decide that the show is not your thing, you can leave without disturbing too many people. We ended up watching shows this way for most of the cruise. There is also a bar by the entrance on deck 4 (INSIDE the theater) so you can keep going back to order drinks, again without disturbing people.

Hello, I hope it's okay to do a live-blog style recap (instead of it being live). I also took pictures of all the cruise compass pages and MDR menu. Please let me know how to best upload these, or whom I should contact to get them added to the cruise compass section.
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This is my first cruise, with DW and in laws, for 8 nights from FLL to Eastern Caribbean, on Adventure of the Seas, 12/21/2019 sailing. The ports visited: St Thomas, St Marteen, San Juan, and Labadee.
We originally considered booking on Allure, but finally we decided on Adventure. This fact will become important later. We did a GTY balcony room, and scored a spacious balcony on deck 6 fore.
We bought the refreshment drink package (non-alcoholic) and the surf voom package. No specialty dining option because we figured we’d have enough to eat. Our dining time was traditional seating at 8:30.
We booked our travel through MEI travel, and had Michelle as our contact person. She is extremely helpful and friendly, and really responsive with our questions.
Due to inclement weather, the day before our departure the captain sent a note that they’re rearranging our ports of visit, but generally still keeping the same ports and same time-ish for each port. I did book excursions with a 3rd party, so I called them and let them know of the change. He was very accommodating (partly due to the fact that the whole ship is on the same boat as us, literally), so he has to work around the change.
I wanted to do a live blog but I figured I’d rather write a review afterwards so that I can enjoy my vacation. That’s why I didn’t create a thread beforehand. I just jot down the basics of what we did each day.
Day 1
We drove for 1 hr from Palm Beach to FLL, and parked our car at Discount Parking. Definitely would not recommend this vendor. It seemed like they only had 1 shuttle dedicated to cruise passengers, so we had to wait a long time to get taken to the pier (and also at the end, we had to wait almost 1 hour at the pier to be picked up). I did see a lot of Park N Go shuttles, so next time we will try that one.

Due to inclement weather (again), the terminal was moved from pier 29 to pier 18. There was no communication about this from Royal Caribbean. I only found out from the facebook group. I don’t know how people would have found out otherwise. The check-in was quick. There is a short line for the security, then the ipad person took our pictures, and quick picture in front of a backdrop, but other than that off we go to the second floor, which connects to a gangway going to deck 4.



 
We arrived at the terminal around 12:30, and stepped to the ship around 12:45. Although it’s almost one (and therefore our room should be ready soon), since we didn’t really have carry on, we went straight to WJ for lunch. There was a special gingerbread town decoration at the entrance of WJ

Of course we started utilizing our drink package. We ordered pina colada and mango daiquiri. On the first day, they let you use your set sail pass instead of your seapass card to order drinks.
After lunch, we went to our rooms to find out it’s all ready. The seapass cards were waiting in front of the room. Inside the room, all the excursions that we have bough with Royal Caribbean (including explanations about drink package and internet package) are waiting on our bed. I thought the whole thing was extremely well-organized.
 
The room is very spacious for just the 2 of us. There is plenty of storage. The only negative thing is that the balcony still feels a bit closed in, and basically feels like a glorified port hole. I guess this is what you get for doing a GTY. But a balcony is still a balcony, so no complaint here. The closets and drawers offer plenty of storage space.
Within 10 minutes, the stateroom attendant knocked on our door, introduced himself, and informed us about the muster drill. Collin, he is very nice and attentive, and we were very pleased with his service throughout the cruise. There were several times when I came back to the room carrying plates of food from WJ, and he saw me, and he opened the door for me. This happened as early as day 1 btw, so he was definitely quick in memorizing our faces lol.
After the drill, we went exploring around the ship, with drinks in hand of course. The ship is fairly nice-sized, but not too big that I feel like it’s a floating city. I know this used to be considered “top of the line” when it was first launched, but now that there are much larger ships around, Adventure of the Seas is considered medium-large.





There were Christmas decorations around the ship, so it felt really festive. However, they’re also “blocking” some access areas especially on deck 4 and 5, at both ends of the ship (so near Centrum staircases). Not a big deal because most of the time it was never that crowded, except during special occasions where you feel like the added stairway would have alleviated the crowd jam a little bit. Also, there were ship photographers in front of the Christmas tree, preventing you to take your own pictures. You can have your pictures taken, but then you’d have to pay to get them.

During the sail away, we went to deck 12 aft to watch. It was windy and slightly raining.
After the sail away, I tried a the flow rider for a little bit. Bad idea. It was hard, and I think my neck got whiplashed when I fell? I only noticed the soreness the day after. I saw some other people having fun on it, so good for them. Also the flow rider area is VERY windy throughout the cruise, because it’s at the top deck, aft. When the ship was docked it was okay, but whenever ship was on sea, it gets very windy.
I also tried the slides. There are two slides: yellow and blue. The yellow one is supposed to be faster, but it also has a slight “bump” in it, meaning you cannot rest your head completely but you had to hold it up a little bit. This became a problem due to my sore neck, but was a lot of fun otherwise. I have been to a lot of water parks in Orlando, and I can say that these two slides were definitely top notch in terms of speed, thrill, and drops. Also because the ship was rocking, no two “sessions” were the same. It keeps you guessing and anticipating with every turn. I must have done each slide at least 10 times throughout the cruise.
I also talked to one of the lifeguards (Matthew) which was very friendly. He said that one passenger hurt his head on the yellow slide because he laid down his head completely during the bump, so he cautioned me not to do that. He also mentioned that he used to work on Allure, and this was his second week on Adventure. He also didn’t know how to do flowrider in the beginning, but they have crew-only hours to train them, and after several times, now he can at least stand comfortably on it. I guess it made me feel better for not getting the hang of flow rider right away?
Then we wasted some time at the solarium reading / enjoying the hot tub. There was a 5pm raffle for $500 voucher at the spa, although we didn’t win ☹
By this time, it’s already 6 pm ish, so we checked out WJ, which was American-themed. They had a welcome onboard cake, and beautiful dessert spread. I took 2 platefuls of food (one for savory things, one for sweet things) to our room, where the cruise compasses for day 1 and 2 were already waiting. I took pictures of them all so that we can plan out the night and the next day over dinner.


Before dinner, they had a Christmas tree lighting ceremony. It was just a countdown to light the Christmas tree. I expected some singing at the bridge but there was none. This was where the promenade was full of people, standing by and getting around, and the added access (blocked by decorations) would have been helpful.

At dinner, our table was right by the entrance. Because we emailed Royal Caribbean ahead of time, 4 of us were seated together. Our waiters were Franco and Antonio, and they were both very attentive. They even remembered our preferences (my steak rare). On the first two nights, we ordered hot tea, so by the third night, when we sat down, there were already tea bags prepared, and he brought out mugs of hot water without being asked. It’s the little touches like these that make long lasting impression.


I went for double entrees right away: NY Strip and Salmon, while DW went for prime rib. The NY Strip was great, but I feel like the cook is one “over.” I usually order medium-rare at most restaurants on land, but this time I had to order rare in order to get the same cook. Just FYI. For appetizers we did calamari and shrimp cocktail, and for dessert we did chocolate cake, creme brulee, and blueberry cobbler. The appetizers tasted good but the portion was kinda small. Well I guess you could always order double appetizers, and that's what we ended up doing for the rest of the cruise. The desserts were good but not amazing.







After dinner, we went to a comedy show. But shortly into it, we realized that it’s not our style (it was an adult show) so we just left and went back to our room and slept early. The nice thing about Lyric Theater is that, you can sit in the balcony on 4th floor (and it has a separate entrance that goes to deck 4 instead of deck 3). So that if you decide that the show is not your thing, you can leave without disturbing too many people. We ended up watching shows this way for most of the cruise. There is also a bar by the entrance on deck 4 (INSIDE the theater) so you can keep going back to order drinks, again without disturbing people.

Sailing on 12/21, and got it yesterday. 

Definitely a no at the spa.
Your best bet might be in the morning they have smoothies in the Windjammer.

We purchased the Refreshment package, and also it's for convenience. The same logic applies to anything that's all-inclusive. We go to a buffet even though with the same amount of money we could have gone to a restaurant and order a-la carte, but if we go to buffet we WOULD eat more than we would have otherwise. Whether or not we would go break even, we're not sure. We're not big eaters / drinkers. But certainly, if I didn't have the drink package, I would not randomly try this drink or that drink.... and would stick to iced tea and water for most of the cruise, which defeats the purpose of the vacation to begin with. 

While the items on the menus are common across the fleet, the order and combination they appear can change.  If the last cruise didn't eat a lot of chicken they might adjust the menus next cruise to offer chicken entrees more frequently. 
The food and beverage manager and head chef can also adjust menus depending on how much food budget has been consumed that week.  Each cruise has a specific budget.  If they have surplus budget they will offer more expensive items into the rotation.  They don't want to to fall too short of the budget or the budget will be reduced by corporate over time.  If they are constantly $10k under budget, the food budget will be reduced by $10k.  This is why the menus listed in the Royal app are often different than what actually appears in the MDR on any given night.  
Things you learn when you take the galley tours...

So what's preventing you from grabbing a plate and eating the 2nd dinner there? ?

Woah thanks all for the game suggestions.
We have tried Pandemic, Hanabi, The Mind. They're great games, but we might want to try a few new ones.
I hear there's a Pandemic The Cure which is more travel friendly, and Pandemic, Forbidden Island, they both have ipad version as well. 
We like Codenames (the full version) with lots of people, but we might try Codenames Duet as well.
Ok we'll try a bunch of these and update you guys. The idea is that we'd sit in the lounge during the game show, and if it's a thinking type of game (like Forbidden Island or Pandemic), it can be done quietly, and at the same time we might participate in a trivia game at Schooner's for example. 

Woah thanks all for the game suggestions.
We have tried Pandemic, Hanabi, The Mind. They're great games, but we might want to try a few new ones.
I hear there's a Pandemic The Cure which is more travel friendly, and Pandemic, Forbidden Island, they both have ipad version as well. 
We like Codenames (the full version) with lots of people, but we might try Codenames Duet as well.
Ok we'll try a bunch of these and update you guys. The idea is that we'd sit in the lounge during the game show, and if it's a thinking type of game (like Forbidden Island or Pandemic), it can be done quietly, and at the same time we might participate in a trivia game at Schooner's for example. 

Woah thanks all for the game suggestions.
We have tried Pandemic, Hanabi, The Mind. They're great games, but we might want to try a few new ones.
I hear there's a Pandemic The Cure which is more travel friendly, and Pandemic, Forbidden Island, they both have ipad version as well. 
We like Codenames (the full version) with lots of people, but we might try Codenames Duet as well.
Ok we'll try a bunch of these and update you guys. The idea is that we'd sit in the lounge during the game show, and if it's a thinking type of game (like Forbidden Island or Pandemic), it can be done quietly, and at the same time we might participate in a trivia game at Schooner's for example. 

There are card rooms on most ships that have tables for game playing.
 

I have never seen anyone playing a game be asked to move. AaMoF, when we first started cruising, we used to play gin rummy in the Viking Crown room (back when there was actually a Viking Crown statue there !).  We didn’t know about the Special Diamond event (we’d never even heard of a “Diamond” back then) and when they started setting up for the event, they told us just to stay put if we wanted to.  We attended our first ever Diamond event that night without even knowing what it was.  They were very kind.  We just kept playing cards and were astonished when the server came by and asked if we wanted a drink !  Heck yeah !  That was waaay back.

I've seen Trivial Pursuit, Uno, and other card games I've never seen before. Don't worry about sitting in any lounge, if someone asked you to move or leave they are just being rude.
I actually commented to my wife on the last cruise that I was impressed by the number of younger kids and adults sitting around playing cards and other games. I guess I was just surprised they didn't have their face buried in a phone or tablet keeping up on Facebook. A welcome and refreshing surprise. 
As @WAAAYTOOO commented, my wife and I found ourselves sitting in the Viking Crown Lounge reading our books and people watching, we had our fill of the sun for the day and just wanted someplace quite and comfortable to sit.

As a longtime lurker, I suppose I'll make my first post on here to suggest a few board games, since that's one of my main hobbies. There's a lot of great board games you can play co-op as 2+ people when you move out of the traditional Monopoly/Sorry space. Here's a few recommendations from my favorite two player things. They're ranked from least to most complex.
Codenames: Duet - A game about connecting different words together by giving creative clues Forbidden Island - Collect various artifacts from around an uncharted island before it sinks into the sea! Pandemic - A strategy game about saving the world from disease epidemics. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective - Solve cases with Sherlock Holmes. On the iPad, I'd recommend Carcassonne or Patchwork as pass and play two player things. Though do note those aren't cooperative. I think there are also at least digital versions of Pandemic and Forbidden Island, but I haven't tried them.
This now has me thinking if I'd have any luck on my upcoming Symphony cruise with putting a "Hey let's play some board games at X time!" thing on the Community noteboard at the card room to find some fellow nerds, as I'll likely at least be bringing a game or two for me and the GF to play.

Here are a few co-operative games to look into that would work great on a small table in the lounge...
Codenames: Duet (2-player only) Any games in the Exit: The Game or Unlock! series (basically, escape room in a box, though each one is playable only one time, once you know the solution) Flip Ships (OK, this probably might take up too much table space, and maybe be too boisterous, but I love it dearly) Forbidden Island Hanabi The Mind or The Game  

@ultron87 welcome, great feedback and suggestions, you can try the posting and let boards know how it went. 
I also neglected to mention the many trivia contest they have on board, I know we participated in General trivia, Harry Potter and Star Wars. A lot of fun.

I don't think you should have a problem in a lounge. People are there to drink and chat with friends in addition to whatever happens to be going on there. You'll just be using the table for something in addition to holding your drink. Even in the theater before the show starts would be acceptable I think.
We may use your idea in a few weeks. I mean, would you rather my kids play Uno quietly before the curtain opens or listen to them increasingly complain that the show hasn't started yet? ?

@ultron87 & @tarrkid Welcome to the RCB forums.
@ultron87 & @tarrkid Thanks for list of games!

My only caution would be if there is a lecture, which might occur in a large aft lounge on some ships.  My son and I were quietly playing chess on the Radiance when about 100 folks swarmed around us for a destination lecture and then chewed us out for being there first and quietly talking about our game.  Now the speaker had a microphone, and we were at the very edge of the stern by the windows, but we were made to feel uncomfortable.

You might be surprised at how many people will stop and chat if they recognize the games you bring.  Maybe even like to join in.
Friends brought several Keyforge decks on a recent trip and had several people stop to chat/sit for a while.
Besides regular card decks, we like to bring a Fluxx deck (usually Pirate Fluxx or sometimes Zombie Fluxx - but never Monty Python Fluxx) and we have been known to bring Exploding Kittens (our 3 cats don't mind that we like the game). 

I have seen people playing card games and stuff like that during things like music shows in the lounges. I personally plan on bringing the card version of monopoly and clue (has an app add-on you can get for ios) when my wife and I go next. Long as you don't mind the sound and aren't loud you'll be fine. And if you have a few drinks while you are there then they will be very happy lol.