Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, Sept 20-27

Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas











This was our first time cruising on anything but Carnival. I was looking forward to it as we had talked a lot about trying other cruise lines. I found myself comparing Royal to Carnival right from the start -- some good, some bad.

Day 1: We drove down on Friday, Sept. 19, the day before the cruise. We took our time getting to Cocoa Beach and took several breaks and a long lunch at Waffle House.

We pulled into our hotel around 4:30-5 p.m. 

The Days Inn was really nice. We had a room with a balcony that overlooked a huge palm tree, but if we looked out a little way, we could see the ocean. It was an easy, short walk to the pier and the beach. 

After spending a little time walking along the beach, we went back to the room, cleaned up, and headed out to meet Rick, Ashley, and the kids at their room, which was a suite with a kitchen. Annabelle made a great dinner of pasta, Texas toast, and Caesar salad.

We took three of their suitcases to make it easier on them in the morning.

Day 2: We checked out of the hotel a little before 11 a.m. It was an easy drive to the port, but we got there way earlier than our check-in time, so we hung around the parking garage, where we met Vickie and Jim, who live in Savannah but had once lived in Effingham County.

We got on the ship and went through security shortly before 1 p.m., which was when we could get into our room. After hanging around the room for a while, we went down to get a bit to eat, only to discover the marketplace closes from 3 to 5:30 p.m. All the drink stations were also shut down. There were some glasses of pre-poured water and lemonade, which I grabbed only to discover lipstick on my glass -- yuck!

If we wanted anything to drink, we would have to go down to deck 5. 

The staterooms were about the same on Royal as they were on Carnival. One thing we discovered was that when booking, it costs a lot more on Royal than on Carnival if you want to pick your own room. We let Royal pick it and were disappointed that instead of a full glass window on the balcony, there was a wall limiting the view when seated. But in all honesty, it didn't take long to get used to it, so that initial disappointment quickly wore off.

View of the parking garage from our balcony

The kids had a slightly worse day one, but handled it better than I would have. When they arrived at their room, the television wasn't working, and rather than just replacing it, the maintenance personnel took it off the wall and worked on it right there. Additionally, they experienced a sewage backup, which was cleaned and disinfected; however, they then had to contend with the strong odor of bleach.

The next day, we woke up and were feeling a little better. We went down to get a bite to eat at the buffet, which was pretty good. Throughout the rest of the day, we soaked up some sun, played cornhole, and some weird soccer-type game.

The second day on the ship was another sea day. In the evening, we went to see Miguel Washington, the comedian. Unlike most cruise ship comedians, this guy was good!

The next day was a port day in St Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. We didn't have an excursion planned or anything, which was probably a good thing because it rained - a lot!

Freedom Statue in Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. The statue commemorates the emancipation of enslaved people in the Danish West Indies on July 3, 1848. 
Eliza James-McBean Clock Tower in Frederiksted, St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. 
What a cute little lizard!

The next day, we ended up in St. Thomas. Again, no excursion, but we spent the time wandering about Charlotte Amalie. 

A replica of the famous Little Mermaid statue, located in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

Government Hill in Charlotte Amalie, the capital of the U.S. Virgin Islands. 

That was followed by what was supposed to be a day in San Juan, but we were just a few blocks from the ship when it started pouring. We were in a square where there were several vendors set up selling stuff, one of them motioned for us to come take shelter under his tent -- well appreciated.

Christopher Columbus Monument located in Plaza Colón (Columbus Square) in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

Antiguo Casino de Puerto Rico building and the distant Castillo San Cristóbal fortress

When it started to slow down, we tried to make it back to the ship, but the rain started in torrents again. It took a while, going from one shelter to another, before we finally made it back to the ship to dry off.



That evening on the ship, they had a big birthday party. All-in-all that was pretty cool, but where they held it was just way too crowded!



The next day was dry and mostly sunny for our stop at Coco Cay, Royal's private beach. 




Tiki makes friends wherever he goes


There were a lot of things we liked about Royal and some things that we didn't like so much. Our observations were that:

Royal's food was better than Carnival and we appreciated that they brought a basket of bread to the table at dinner rather than doling out one piece at a time.

  • I do prefer working with a personal vacation planner, which Carnival offers, but Royal does not.
  • The free coffee on Royal was better
  • Carnival has places like Shack's Chicken and Guy's Burgers, but on Royal, you have to pay extra for the burger place
  • Royal does not have 24/7 ice cream, but their pizza was way better.
  • Although we never really watched it much, Carnival has the movies on the Lido deck, Royal doesn't
  • Their comedian was good; they also had a magic show and an ice skating show in addition to the normal musical presentations.

When it was all said and done, I absolutely would not hesitate to go on Royal again.

After we got off the ship, Rick took Rick and Ashley and the two youngest grands to go pick up their rental car while I waited with Desmond and Annabelle at the parking garage. Heading home, we stopped in St. Augustine for a little bit, then hit the road again. 

Brotherly love


Our next stop was at Buckee's in Richmond Hill. That stop ended up taking way longer than we expected. As we waited for the kids who were following in the rental car, Rick happened to walk around the truck and caught sight of the rear right tire -- it had a huge bubble in it. What should have been an easy fix turned into a nightmare. 



The spare tire was good, but the mechanism to lower it had totally corroded; we could not get it off, and, being that it was almost 6 p.m., there was nowhere to go for help. Rick called AAA, and the guy worked on it for over an hour; he even called someone to try to get advice -- nothing.

We figured we would have to try to Uber home. Rick went in and asked the clerk how long we could leave the truck there. She called for a manager, but before he arrived, she told him that her husband could probably help. Not knowing what was going to happen, Rick, Ashley, Kaius, and Elias headed home in the rental car, and I and the other two grabbed an Uber for the hour-and-a-half drive home.

Fortunately, the clerk's husband was able to help. When he was done, Rick asked how much he owed, and he said maybe just a little to cover his gas to drive out there. 

The next few days were spent unwinding from the cruise with trips to Savannah and Tybee Island.



And finally a few more random pictures from the trip
Someone really loved the pool

Is there anything more beautiful than a sunset at sea









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