MuttMutt

Oddly enough I have seen the cruise ship step it up to drop someone off on 3 of my 4 sailings which one of the 4 was a B2B. My very first one in October 2019 after leaving Falmouth we made an overnight stop at Grand Cayman to drop someone off. That route was a 7 night from Galveston with Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and then Falmouth. The second was the 2nd leg of our B2B while headed to Cozumel and they dropped off when we got there a few hours early. And while on Adventure of the Seas last week we went up to full speed around 6:30 in the evening and made it in to Progresso around midnight due to a crew member's injury. While on the water the last sea day on the same cruise we had a woman choking in the Windjammer at lunch and one of the other passengers ended up giving her the Heimlich Maneuver then after a bit a person from medical came up to check her out. For a moment I actually thought there was a fight or something because I head glasses and plates being knocked off the table.

I am thankful that my girlfriend and her son just did as they were told, lol. Going through with Max's ID and Birth Certificate wasn't that bad other than having to go through an agent while disembarking and being one of the earlier people it was not an issue at all. But I basically told him if he forgot something he would have to find someplace to stay on his own on Galveston Island while I went alone on the cruise.

This is EXACTLY what I do when I sail. The big 32 ounce ones are good if you have some wine as well. We walked around in the terminal while switching from the first cruise to the second on our B2B and enjoyed it thoroughly, lol. Usually at breakfast I will fill it up in the Windjammer (32 ounce one will take just over 3 glasses) and then will fill up again around dinner most of the time. I think all restaurants have the complementary drinks available but the selection will sometimes vary from day to day and venue to venue. I personally like the lemonade, lemon-lime, and fruit punch but the strawberry-kiwi can be ok. The thing I have noticed is they are all sour like they have no sweetener in them so I generally add about a packet of the pink stuff per cup but the strawberry-kiwi seems to take two. With the covid protocols being relaxed they may be able to just fill it up for you but I that may not always be possible. I know with the protocols I just filled up with the cups that were available and no one seemed to mind a bit.

Good. I think you will enjoy it. Now I will tell you that you can probably cheat. As an adult you can have the board in front of you and kneel on the mat and have the water go around you and not push you out of the way. Then all you have to do is hold onto the board and do a little hop to get up on it and start riding around. Just remember that you need to move side to side a little bit once you are on the board as you will end up with some water in behind you that won't clear with you in front of it. After that have fun and practice, practice, practice.

Could scratch passport off the list and substitute birth certificate and state photo ID. Maybe that would make your brother happy.

I was in a similar mindset with getting on there but I just said, "You know what I have been climbing on a roof among other things and doing OK so why not." Now I am kicking myself for not doing it sooner. Will I ever advance to standing up, nope. But it's kinda fun to use the boogie board and mess around. They want you to get up on your knees and do a few things so everyone else gets a turn when you wipe out and I understand that but you could easily say, "Hey I don't want to get on my knees I just want to slide back and forth a bit and get a feel for it. How about a minute and a half and I will give way to the next person." Then just keep your rides in that time range if there is someone in line waiting, simple enough right? Plus you don't have to dive in from up above, you can easily just lie down and slide over into the water stream if that is what you are comfortable with. I will say that it's a little on the rough side when you wipe out but not so bad that I wouldn't gladly do it again the next time I get a chance.

Made it home late last night and literally just crashed. Still feeling a little lag and such. Being extremely sensitive to motion I am actually still surprised that I can sleep on a ship because I have rode trains for multiple days and been awake nearly the entire time (Amtrak from Omaha NE to Oakland, CA around 1994) The only time I have slept in a vehicle is when I am completely wore out and while on the train I caught about an hours sleep around Salt Lake City but was awake the rest of the time. Anyway I was able to do my dive and it was very nice. Only had 8 people out of about 2K along for the ride which makes it a lot of fun IMHO rather than having 20 people trying to squeeze in and get a look at the wildlife. For the first time ever I chose not to take a camera with me and just enjoyed the dive. I lost the mount I normally use on my wrist and I thought I had a good alternative but it ended up being a flop. So I just enjoyed the drift and relaxed as much as I could. One of the divers had an issue with his ear clogging up after the first dive so opted to just sit out the second one. We had buddied up on the first but I was perfectly fine just running solo since there was a decent number of people in the group and I have done solo dives in the past anyway. Had a little issue with my left ear and equalization on the way down but was able to get it sorted and enjoy things. Headed back to the ship caught a shower and then went up to the Windjammer for lunch which was as good as ever. Then grabbed Max and headed down into the port area to look around a little bit. Back had a little bit of a spasm every now and then but it's just something I am used to and it wasn't bad to walk around and stretch it out a bit anyway. I sampled a little bit of the honey agave tequila which I may have to pick a bottle of up at some point as I think it will complement my selection of vanilla tequila and my jamaica tequila (they pronounce it Hu-Mi-Ka but is hibiscus flower and something I got because of my wife) But Max didn't see anything that caught his eye so we headed back to the ship and I ended up taking a bit of a nap and pretty much chilled out the rest of the day. We had a sea day to look forward to before getting back to port and I took the time to hop on the Flowrider again a couple times and then headed to the hot tub. While in the Solarium hot tub I found a jet that was working AWESOME and was able to work out a few kinks which I am extremely thankful for and just chilled and chit chatted with a few other people who were there. I sent Max back to the room so he could catch a shower and I could enjoy a few more minutes in the hot tub and then head down and catch one myself. We went for dinner around 6:30 in the Windjammer and while there I dropped off a little thank you letter to the waitstaff supervisor with a package of mini kitkat bars to express my thanks for the service and while eating I had a chance to catch Chef Kenedy who while on this sailing is the head chef for the Windjammer and I also gave him a package of mini kitkat bars and a letter for the staff to express my thanks. I figured it would be a fitting way to express to everyone in the Windjammer how much we enjoyed the food and service while taking as little time away from their duties as possible and I am pretty sure it was a bit unique because they thanked me multiple times for my gesture. I thought it was well worth it after eating every meal while on the trip there and I think it is something I am going to try to continue doing. After dinner we stopped in the room for a bit and just hung out till our show was getting close to starting. While on the way down I had a couple other thank you letters that I had left over because I know sometimes you will see that one person multiple times throughout your day while on the ship. In fact when I was on my B2B on Liberty of the Seas there was a nice young lady we saw quite often in Sorento's nearly every evening. But on this cruise that did not happen so with my last 12 pack of kitkat bars and a few letters I headed down to guest services and gave everything to them and told them that I wished I could personally thank every single person who worked on the ship for our time there but knew that was not possible and asked that they get the letters around to as many people as possible on the ship so they would know how much we enjoyed our time there. The young lady was dumbfounded by the gesture and thanked us multiple times so hopefully the staff onboard do get to see them. I have no idea where the candy bars will end up but as long as they are enjoyed I am happy to bring them along. The last days show was Aaron Bonk and he did a bunch of juggling and whip cracking while there. It was very interesting to see some of it for sure and with his jokes and wisecracks thrown in we both enjoyed the show. Afterwards we headed back to the room to place our luggage outside and make sure everything was ready for us to go in the morning. When we left the room the next morning we had everything packed in our backpacks so that our room attendant was able to get in and get things ready for the next run without worrying about how long it was going to take to get us out of there. Breakfast was enjoyable and afterwards we headed down to deck 4 and wait till our number was available. Things were running about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and after the people who were carrying their own things off and those people who needed extra assistance or had the key were off the ship we were out and ready to go. I would say we were some of the first people to grab our bags and get out the doors and onto our bus to head to the parking lot. Overall we both had a really good time and for Max it was a major eye opener after living a pretty sheltered life in western PA. I am pretty sure he would like to go again so now we all are going to have to figure out who gets to stay home from now on to watch the dogs, LOL. The drive home was right about 10 hours by the time we stopped for fuel a few times and a bite to eat when we were past downtown Dallas. Still a little wore out today and dealing with a few things personally. My wife passed away on Feb 28th 2019 and with everything happening I didn't have a lot of time to dwell on it so today it is coming to the surface a little bit, going on a cruise ship with her was something I always wanted to do but never had the chance. All I can say is that if you have a loved one sit down and record a video of you guys just having a conversation sometime, I sorely miss hearing her voice many days. Other than that grab every opportunity you can to travel with your loved ones and make as many memories as you can while letting the things that are frustrating float away on the seas. Thanks everyone on Adventure of the Seas for the time we spent there and hopefully we can do it again. Next stop is Vision of the Seas on Black Friday 2022...

Have to agree with this. Make sure you check the box below that says not a spammer and complete the ten anti spam checks available so you don't have your access removed.

Nope but an interesting alternative popped into mind. Taking a large barge and anchoring it well off the reefs and using it as a floating dock could easily enable ships that are unable to tender to drop off passengers to then be tendered to shore.

And that is a great reason to keep Liberty running out of Galveston IMHO. But I also think that GC could build a pier and turn it in to a money printing factory even if only a couple of ships use it and the rest are tendered.

The bad thing I have seen is that when an Oasis class goes into Galveston we lose a lot of trips to Grand Cayman and Jamaica. Hopefully they start adding those back in at some point but I would love to see something like some 10 nights being offered from time to time as well. I don't see why it's not possible to have something like Adventure of the Seas sail out of Galveston and then go down to hit Cozumel, Roatan, then head over towards ABC and maybe stop at Falmouth or Grand Cayman on the way back for a 10 night. I know there are a ton of retirees out in Florida that make that more profitable but to start adding one every other month and then do the 4 or 5 night runs the rest of the time would be an issue. I also wish they would add the Oasis class and keep Liberty in Galveston as well doing something similar to what Adventure is doing right now. Trading a Freedom class ship for an Oasis class and only having runs on the same route is a BIG step backwards for me. 3 ships homeporting in Galveston should be doable as it will entice more people with more routes, I have been on 4 cruises and been to Cozumel 4 times. I am about to the point where I don't even want to walk into the port there unless I have a dive.

Just make sure everyone gives the same room number as the room that has the photo package and you should be fine. When they take pictures they usually just ask for a room number to tag so if everyone gives the same number as the one with the package all pics will get tagged for there and not be an issue. They will not be able to go into the photo gallery and swipe their seapass and see the pictures but that is a minor inconvenience and I am guessing that won't be a huge hassle anyway.

Ok drove past this morning and I will be honest it looks closed up to me. There is some stuff inside that looks like it was just dropped and left. Took a picture so you can decide for yourself though.

Something similar that I deal with when driving on long trips is when I go to try and sleep i have flashes of driving on the interstate and feel the motion. After being on a ship for 2 weeks last year the dive home was a very interesting feeling and trying to sleep that night after driving from Galveston to up by Tulsa I was not only feeling the ship but also the road. Anything over a couple hours of driving I feel that way and driving all day two days in a row is really bad. I left from the San Francisco area and drove down to Phoenix overnight then crashed till the next morning and left from there to head towards Oklahoma city. And another time I left from Oklahoma city and drove to Phoenix, left from Phoenix and drove overnight to get through Los Angeles and slept for a few hours then drove up the PCH to San Francisco which was a monster drive. The trip back home that time was from San Francisco to Reno across towards Denver on highway 50 or 51... can never remember the exact number then from Denver towards Guymon OK and finally down to Oklahoma city. It was a long trip each time and for a couple days while trying to sleep I kept have flashes of driving.

I used to use software on my computer to save tv shows and movies. I have a ton now and usually keep about 50 movies on my tablet at all times. On the ship I bring my Raspberry pi 4 with a controller to play games and need to pick up something to store movies on because it has Kodi installed as well so I can watch movies on the TV as well. They are tough to find right now but well worth having on long trips IMHO just need to search for some presetup image files to write to a micro sd card of the appropriate size and you are good to go. Most of the emulators are retro like Nintendo or Sega systems and sometimes will have as new as Nintendo 64 but it doesn't work very well. Pair it with a wired Playstation 3 controller and if you have kids or are a kid at heart is hard to beat when you have some downtime.

Ok just a short update today. Cozumel was very nice today. A little breezy this afternoon but we were able to go out and hit the water which was great. Waves started off around .5 Meter (1.5 feet) or so but ended the day closer to 1.5 Meter (4.5 feet) but near shore want too bad. Further out you could see some white caps and I can feel the ship rocking a bit more than 1 degree cycling about every 6 seconds on average. I tweaked my back just a bit pulling a fin off after my second dive so decided to skip the show this evening, being extra tired helped sway that decision as well. Anyway hopefully the night will be good and a little rest should fix me right up. I will try and be up and moving around 6:30 central time and hopefully make it up to the top deck to try a live stream on Youtube. You can find it here if you are interested www.youtube.com/c/MuttMuttOutdoors My plan is to start near the flowrider and give a little walk through and talk about some of the likes and dislikes as well as give a quick walk through of some of the common areas of the ship. It should be interesting and helpful for anyone who had never been on Adventure of the Seas but may have a cruise coming up. Anyway that is it for now, catch ya all in the morning!!

Sounds good. If someone else happens to be down that way before me by all means feel free to beat me to it lol.

Not sure but if you wait a couple days and let me know where it's at I can drive past on Monday and let you know by Tuesday.

So previously I have only sailed on Liberty and some of the differences are subtle and some are drastic. Check in was super smooth and ran nearly an hour early. We were scheduled for 11:30 and parked the car just after 10:00 and were at the terminal about 15 minutes later and in line. We waited for maybe ten minutes and were brought into the terminal and went through the x ray and metal detectors in less than ten minutes. Checking in at the counter was a little slow mainly because I was just enjoying chatting with the ladies at the counter who were basically waiting for people to show up. We then went upstairs and waited for around 20 to 30 minutes before getting on the ship. The first thing we did was a quick tour of the ship. I am traveling with my girlfriends son and he has barely been out of the western Pennsylvania area until about 6 months ago when they moved to Oklahoma. We had already went over the deck maps a few times but I wanted to get him used to being on the ship and getting around together. We started with a walk through the Promenade with quick glances down towards the Lyric Theater as well as the Casino and Studio B. Having been on a Freedom class ship already it was easy for me to get around and I gave him some basics on finding main area's like the pool deck and the Promenade as well as where our room was. After a couple days he has now become comfortable getting to the Windjammer on his own from the room and I am not worried that he is going to get lost. I reiterated many times that all he has to do is get to a main area and there will be staff members around who can help direct him or he can find a touchscreen. The internet is a bit slower this time and the number of people on the ship is pretty close to the same as it was on Liberty a few months ago, it could be me but I kinda doubt it as i generally have a pretty good feel for internet speed based on how long it takes for a request to complete. Even going onto reddit and seeing a few video clips was a pain this time while last time there may be a little lag here and there but it was still a mostly painless endeavour. Using the Raspberry Pi 4 that I have with a few emulators and roms was just as easy as it was on Liberty so if you need to hook something up on either ship I would not forsee an issue and honestly would expect a similar experience fleet wide unless the TV's are mounted differently in a particular room. On this cruise I took the plunge and signed up to try out the Flowrider. I have a total of 21 nights on Liberty but with a bum shoulder I really have to weigh the risks of certain activites. Anyway after watching the video and doing the stretches I got in line and went for it. It was very interesting for a first time run and I was actually able to get up on my knees with the bodyboard but once there I wiped out pretty quickly but had a ton of fun sliding back and forth across the water before that while I got a feel for things. I started from the top and dove into the wave on the reset and was struggling to get back up as I was a bit winded and my shoulder was giving out. I was almost up and wiped out, I was plain wore out. A few people afterwards were asking me how it was and I told them it was fun but boy does it beat the crap out of you, lol. I caught my breath and went back into the line to do it again. I had a lot of fun overall and will be doing it again sometime tomorrow or Sunday on the way back after visiting Cozumel. Today was Progreso Mexico and we waited till things had cleared out quite a bit since we didn't really have a lot planned. Mainly I wanted to walk on the beach and explore a little bit in town since I had never been there. We walked through the port area doing our best to dodge the offers to look around and shop as we DIDN'T want to carry stuff around while in town. We got to the exit and a nice gentleman asked where we were going and after we told him to town and to walk on the beach he pointed us to the shuttle bus which was slightly hidden behind some planters and trees. We boarded the bus and headed into town. All I can say is BOY that is a long pier for sure. Once in town we walked over towards the downtown area a block or so then headed around the block to head towards the beach and braved the gauntlet of cigars, tequila, and massage offers. I do have to say there was one very funny guy in a wheelchair who popped off about me being his "brother from another mother" and wanted to sing me a song. I gave him a fist bump and told him maybe on the way back. The walk otherwise was not bad at all to me and the beach was nice to see. It's been a couple years since I have walked barefoot in the sand so it was a nice feeling. Not that I haven't been on beaches mind you but usually I have my dive boots on and peeling those things off is a pain when they are wet and putting them back on sucks just about as much. Anyway we got down to the sand and slipped our shoes off and just walked along a little ways. While walking we saw a few of the pelicans doing dives into the water and took a few pictures together. I think Max had a pretty good time and on the walk over he spotted something he wanted. Eventually we turned around to head back and actually walked past where we had gotten onto the beach at as we were avoiding yet another offer of a massage. On the way back to the shuttle area we stopped at a shop and he picked up the figure he found for a decent price. He spent half of his spending money for the trip but the smile on Max's face was worth it. I did the haggling for him as he really didn't know what to do and his hesitation worked out in my favor anyway. I also bought a nice big bottle of vanilla to take home. We again saw my new "brother" and I slipped him a dollar and told him to keep his song for someone who really needed it, the little smile on his face made it worth it. We had to wait a bit at the terminal for a shuttle back to the ship but that gave us a chance to just sit down in the shade and relax. And I saw the prices for the tours offered there so next time I may be doing the little Cenote tour they have listed. Boarding the bus back was pretty easy as was getting back to the ship. I say easy compared to Costa Maya where the walk back from the bus/taxi area is a major endeavor if you are not used to walking much and I did that carrying all of my dive gear including about 20 pounds of lead weights. We have watched a couple of the shows so far and was able to see the ice show this evening in fact. I have learned a couple things so far on this trip because I had no clue the house bands played different songs when they opened up. I guess I am a little biased in a way as I like the Liberty of the Seas house tune better than the one on Adventure of the Seas, the Liberty one just seems a little brighter in a way. The Lyric Theater production show "Invitation to Dance" was very interesting and it was cool to see the band actually playing all of the music for the show, I really liked that and a few times ended up just watching the drummer instead of the show while he got really into the groove. Again the show doesn't feel as nice as Liberty of the Seas' Saturday Night Fever. The ice show tonight in Studio B was very enjoyable however and while different was just as good as the one on Liberty, sadly can't remember the name on Liberty but either one I would enjoy watching again. And I have to say that after watching the show Max's word of the week is "Legs", LOL. Adventure of the seas so far overall seems to have some better lighting in the Windjammer and the sinks were for sure a change after always doing "washy washy" with hand sanitizer on Liberty though the first day the exit being in a different area threw me for a little loop. And you can tell it's a bit shorter after walking through the combination art studio and picture studio and instantly being at the doors of Studio B where I was used to walking through the full art studio and then the On Air Club as well and having the picture studio outside of the Casino. A couple things I really didn't like however. Every time I walk through the Promenade and go past the stairwell down to the Casino I smell cigarette smoke. Personally I think the habit is a dieing trend and one that Royal needs to put the breaks on. Maybe the will loose a couple bucks on the smokers but lets be honest they will probably gain that back and then some when the rest of us who don't actually want to be in the casino. I personally hate even walking though and will often bypass it on the deck outside of the casino and will even avoid the smoking area's outside. The air draw from the casino onto the Promenade though is a killer for me for sure and I never noticed it on Liberty so maybe something needs to be done with the air handlers to fix the issue though I know that getting rid of smoking inside the ship will fix the problem once things are cleaned and aired out. So tomorrow is Cozumel where I have been quite a few times and I am hoping that my dive will still be good to go but it looks like the wind and waves may put the breaks on that one. I was able to dive there on my first cruise ever back in 2019 which was a few months after my wife passed away and was very bittersweet to say the least. I know I mention it a lot but that event changed me quite a bit. Then on Sunday I think I will try and do a livestream early in the morning from the ship however the internet speed is slower than I had while on Liberty in October and November so I am not sure how well that will work out. But I hope to do a quick walk around starting near the top of the ship and then head down towards the Promenade and finally stop on Deck 4 for a little question and answer time. Hopefully I can figure out how to get it all done this time. Anyway I have no issue at all coming back on the ship sometime in the future and can't wait for my Vision of the Seas sailing in November to see the differences it has a well. I will stop back and add a little more information on Sunday as well and I am sure I will have a few more things to add after I get home and have a few days to rest. MM

Not exactly sure. Tonight was a formal night and we had people in Johnny Rockets uniforms helping wait tables this evening. I'm just ecstatic that I don't have to rely on the Cafe Promenade for my evening meal. While on my B2B on Liberty we ate pizza 12 out of 14 nights while onboard. I'm hoping that Vision will have the Windjammer open in November as well.

Not sure if it's been posted and searching from my phone and tablet is a pain so if it's already been covered just ignore, merge, or delete. But the Windjammer is open on Adventure of the Seas. It's great because I hate dealing with the MDR and I am guessing a lot of people don't know because it's pretty well empty right now.

I was on Liberty of the Seas and hooked up my Raspberry pi 4 via HDMI without issue in my room. Unless the way the TV is mounted prevents access there should not be an issue. I'm on Adventure of the Seas right now and have it hooked up here as well without issue. If the TV has the Royal Caribbean iptv stuff activated (think in room menus and ordering or ppv movies) you just have to push the channel up or down button and it should switch over to HDMI without issue.

Arrival and clearance are two things. Not to mention the time it takes to get the ship positioned and the ramps in place. Even though it's a private destination im pretty sure there is still likely a need for the countries port authority to clear the ship as well. But once all that had happened they should start letting people of the ship when ready. So if the ship is docked, cleared, and staff are ready they should show people off the ship to go do whatever. If that happens at 7:05 am you should be able to be on the beach. If it doesn't complete till 7:45 you will have to wait till then.

Lots of changes on the construction site now. Most of the building is up as of yesterday when I got on Adventure of the Seas for my 5 night cruise. It was a cool dreary day and lots of people were looking at me odd while I wore shorts and a sleeveless shirt taking these but I think it was worth it. But things are looking good so far. I just hope that we don't just swap Liberty for something else and end up with less routes to enjoy the new terminal with.

If there is WiFi available and you don't have regular phone service and internet it should work. If you have data and cell service then it should work that way as well. Most cell phones are actually using VOIP for their cell service in a way, that is basically what VoLTE is with a few cell centric things thrown in. As far as additional apps nothing I can think of outside of the Royal app unless you have particular needs or desires. My phone service is through Google fi so data is included pretty much any place a royal cruise ship will dock when a cruise is based in the US. With that I get cell data included for no extra fees and cell calls are 20 cents per minute. If I was going to be someplace for a week or so I would pick up a sim card for a local provider which is what I did when I was in Jamaica for 2 weeks, just made sure to have an unlocked phone and dropped it in. Now with my current phone I can run multiple services since it has eSIM support so Google fi is in the eSIM and I can use a physical SIM from someone else if I need to instead of carrying a spare phone.