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March 15th Navigator of the Seas to the ABC's - 9 Night


Thetechie

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13 hours ago, Doug said:

Also worth mentioning is that Adventure Ocean on this ship is unlike any other design I've ever seen. I've taken a handful of bad pictures and a hasty video that don't do a justice but its completely opened for ages 3 to 11. It has a lot of stations where the kids can float between at their will. Towards the front they've used tape to mark of an area where they play games like dodge ball. Along one wall they have nooks with library books around them. There's a rock wall for the kids opposite the library wall with dodge ball in the middle of this. Farther back they have stacked tubes that are padded for the kids to relax or climb around in. Next to that is a dome hockey table. Further back there's a "princess" station which has doll houses and princess stuff. There's a handful of TVs here playing kids shows. Next to this is the arts and crafts table/center with a sink for clean ups. Further back they have a large TV (maybe 75") with bean bags around it and Nintendo Switches sitting above it. They said they play movies there too. Then they have a board game table with a bookshelf of board games. Next to this they have 3 Playstation 4's hooked to 3 50" TVs. They have about 9 or 10 gamer chairs on the floor next to them. I front of that they have a large table with an assortment of wacky chairs that they said is just a free play area. Hopefully someone can get some good shots of this on a future sailing. Definitely my kids most favorite Adventure Ocean experience.

I've seen a tour on YouTube with a member of the AO staff showing the vlogger around. If anyone's interested in seeing it I can find it again and post a link. I know it's difficult for people to get photos etc due to not wanting to post pics of children on public forums... there are no children in this video so it's safe to share.

I don't travel with kids but I did think it looks like a fantastic set up.

 

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Day 7 -Aruba

This is our last port stop on this trip, and maybe the one we were most looking forward to, because of the excursion we had booked.

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The ship docked about 7am and the gangways were down and open before 8. Our tour was picking us up just outside the port at 8:45, so we had a little time to grab a quick bit at the windjammer.

Today's tour was a Harley ride, touring the island. We have done this kind of thing in Hawaii before, and have always said there is no better way to see the island. Today did not disappoint.

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We took off from the shop about 9:30am and the weather was perfect for riding, not so much for pictures though. Overcast for the most part

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Saw some beautiful sights along the way

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The last stop before heading back to the shop was Baby Beach. There is a new adults only bar/lounge/pool that just opened about 3 months ago that our guide took us to

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The tour lasted almost 5 hours, and it was incredible!

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After returning to the shop, they gave us a ride back to the port. We had gotten a recommendation from our guide about a place to eat, and we were hungry, so we walked there, about a 15 minute walk to a little place called El Gaucho. Incredible steak and fish!

We spent some time walking around the shops, then headed back to the ship. All aboard is 6pm, and we were back on about 5.

Dinner in the windjammer tonight was Indian theme, I didn't care for much of it, so I hit the Kids Corner for a burger and fries, perfect!

We went to the main show at 10pm tonight, it was a ballroom dancing show by the Royal Caribbean singers and dancers, it was a lot of fun!

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As soon as the show let out, it was time for the 80's party on the Promenade. The people watching during and after did not disappoint! 

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The cruise compass for tomorrow shows the drink card as coming available!

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That's about all for today. The next two days are sea days as we make our way back to Miami...

 

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Day 8 - at sea

Today was our first of two sea days headed back to Miami, and it was wonderful! 

I got up early and took my laptop down to the promenade about 7:30 to get some stuff done, it was wonderfully quiet down there, and I grabbed some fruit from the Cafe. 

A little later in the morning, they had a Bloody Mary bar set up on the promenade 

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There was a “flash sale” on accessories, and it got pretty busy

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I stopped in one of the shops, and noticed that the ship models have already bred updated with the new slides and such, but a lot of the picture related items have not

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While wandering  around, we came across the Stowaway Piano Player. This guy is awesome 

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We went to a Q&A with the singer/dancer/ice skaters that was quite interesting. Did you know that the singers and dancers will help out backstage with costume changes etc. at the ice show, and the other way around? They also run spot lights for each other’s shows

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Tonight was formal night, we went to the main dining room 

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With celebrations of the the 50th anniversary for Royal, the had birthday cakes

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Tonight’s headliner show was a Whitney Houston tribute, she was great! She was backed with all live music from the house band, they are incredible. 

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After catching the late show, we wandered around the ship more, made a stop at the R Bar and got a red velvet, wow!611D894A-1EE1-4393-9261-E55A0AC6A2C6.thumb.jpeg.0e8a98d5242ba848b10880e1e8f89c5b.jpeg

After playing some late night (early morning) mini golf, we decided to call it a day. Last full day tomorrow!

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8 hours ago, Doug said:

Ha you managed to catch part of my family in one of your pictures. I'm wondering if you and I were talking on Day 8 about your Aruba excursion in the Diamond lounge?

I definitely agree the Stowaway Piano Player is a lot of fun. 

 

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That’s funny, gotta figure it could happen!

And that wouldn’t have been me in the Diamond lounge, I am still pre-gold. After today I will be gold though!

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Day 9 - Last full day....

Didn’t take a ton of pictures today, but I have a few  

We had a slow start to the morning, and went to the spa about 9 for a nice massage / nap! 

We were done just after 11 and went to the Windjammer for lunch. 

After lunch, we caught the show with the house band, it was a big band style and we loved it

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We went out on the deck and played shuffle board for a bit before heading up to the pool deck

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pro-tip, do the pool at slides starting at 5PM, there is no one out there!

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While walking the halls today, I looked up and noticed this right outside our cabin door, makes sense that we had good WiFi reception all throughout the cabin!

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Tonight’s dinner was at the Windjammer, it was seafood night, which meant I grabbed a burger and fries from the kids section

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After dinner was the fair well show in the theater, it was great

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After the show, we hung out at the Bamboo room, this became our favorite place to relax! Played some games and enjoyed our last few hours

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The Key breakfast was moved to Chop’s grill tomorrow

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The worst day of the cruise...

The day is here, the day we leave our home on the seas...

We pulled into Miami around 5am, and from what I could tell, we were cleared and self disembarkation started around 6:45am

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We headed up to Chop’s about 8:15 for our breakfast, it was delicious 

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We decided not to use our Key benefit for disembarking because we wanted to leave with my cousins, they had the latest departure possible, so we wandered around the ship a bit. The next cruise is the Zumba chartered cruise, so the pool deck was oddly empty, and they were craning in a ton of equipment 

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We were let off the ship about 9:20, and going down the gangway, we passed the crane

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When we got to the baggage area, our bags were already off the belt and waiting for us, assuming because of the Key

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Going through customs was super easy, nothing like I was expecting. We were out on the curb about 9:30.

Driving away from the port, the last view of the ship, you can see the crane putting crates up on top

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We had decided to rent a car for the four of us to drive up to Ft Lauderdale, that ended up being quite an adventure with shuttles and Uber’s to finally get us a car at the Miami airport, and we had to try a couple of them before we found one to fit all of our baggage

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We stayed at a hotel for the evening, and now we are at the airport waiting for our plane. 

Thanks so much for following along, this has been fun, and I think it actually caused me to take more pictures and remember things more to be able to document them. I don’t know when our next cruise will be, but likely something from the west coast, burning a couple days flying back and forth just makes it hard. I am jealous of all you guys that can just hop on a long weekend cruise!!

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