We had some family come and friends come and it was a wonderful time! We choose Royal Caribbean this time, as we've never sailed with that line. And reluctantly, we choose an older ship, the Adventure of the Seas - built in 2001 is pretty old for a cruise ship. All the cruise forums I read said it was one of Royal's best kept ship and that it didn't look like it was 14 years old, so I booked.
We were amazed. It was a beautiful ship..and didn't seem like it was any older than like 2-3 years. It was modern, up to date, and we had a GREAT time! We left out of San Juan, Puerto Rico and sailed to Barbados (which we've been to), St Kitts (which we've been to), St. Croix (new to us), St. Lucia (new to us) and Antigua (which we've been).
Mom and Dad Gwilliam went with us, and they certainly made some memories......with dad passing out from heat exhaustion when we were first boarding in San Juan...then when we were on a speed boat excursion in St. Lucia he passed out on the boat..and we had to take him to land, where he went to the hospital..on the French side of the island, with everyone speaking French.
All in all, it was a fantastic and well deserved vacation! We loved it! Only thing that would have made it better, was if YOU were there with us!
This was the view from the roof top eating area from our hotel in San Juan, looking out towards the ocean:
Ha Ha..this is a good one......Shelley and I were getting something to eat after we got on the ship, and were walking around trying to find a place to sit, and Shelley said, "There's your mom and dad..go over and sit with them", so I walked over and when I got closer, just about to sit down, I noticed that IT WAS NOT THEM! You know how everyone has a twin? Well, this was theirs! Shelley made me take a pic to prove to them their twins were on board with us!
The main atrium coming in...
One of the three level dining room....our table was on the bottom level, but right in front of a window..so we got to see the ocean every dinner..It was a great spot!
View of the "main drag" where most of the shops are. The promenade. Royal has this on most of their ships, and they have inside rooms that overlook this. You can see the windows with curtains..there are three floors of inside rooms that overlook..It's nice because you can get natural light. we were on the top level of the rooms that look down.
Here is the wedding chapel. Since this cruise was for our 25th Anniversary now, we had to make a visit here to renew our vows.
This is the theater where movie theater movies were shown:
Another view of the promenade...just up higher.
Where have we been?
Nice and uncrowded out here:
This was a freaky (as Jacob and Hannah would say) place..It was the Joker's Wild Lounge where dancing and games were played. There were medieval statues all over that looked real. There was a "game" called Silent Dance where people put on headphones and listened and danced to the music. There were two different channels that they could listen to. It was quiet without the headphones on, so we watched them sing and dance, thinking nobody could hear them, because they were hearing it in the headphones. It was SO funny!
Mom and Dad listening to our chef at lunch. We had a semi-private lunch one day and it was fun
We are waiting for the ice show to start. We never did get around to going ice skating! Maybe next time?
The ice skating show was AMAZING! They did olympic style tricks and dances....and it was amazing what they could do in such a small ice rink.
Lynnette & Bill at dinner
Let's eat!
Max and Stephanie:
Mommy:
They made us towel animals like Carnival does
Ah! This is the life!
Shelley snorkeling....we saw fish, and large sea turtles and some stingrays
We found a geocache in St. Lucia. It was magnetic stuck under this thing.
We went zip lining in St. Lucia and the grounds of the zip lining place was BEAUTIFUL! Notice the groundcover...it's halved coconut shells! Keeps the weeds down.
This is a cocoa pod.
Inside it's all gooey..and if you eat the cocoa bean (pod) like this, you will get sick. It has to be roasted and dried. You can suck on it, (which we did) but it's really bitter.
Time for Antigua.
We went to the beach, but who wants to pay $30 for a taxi when you can ride the local bus for $1.50? NOT US! It was a fun little bus ride, and only required a 1/2 mile walk through town. We got away from the tourist spots and saw a little of the real country.
And the beach? wow! Fantastic!
We were sitting under these palm trees. Relaxing.
We had lots of company
Kathryn and Lee (Adam's friends). They were so fun! Glad to have them come with us
Adam and Leslie:
We went mini golfing one night.....
And watched Maleficent one night on the big screen.
Time for St. Maartin..
Colorful buildings means it's St. Maarrtin (or Martin). One side of the island is French, and the other side is Dutch.
This was our favorite excursion.....Just the 12 of us speed boating, snorkeling, going to three different out islands..it was so fun! This is where dad passed out and went to the hospital. The owners of the excursion company took mom and dad to the hospital and translated everything for them....they were wonderful to help out.
These photos don't even come close to how pretty it really was
There were 6 ships in port here....busy busy busy!
Relaxing and reading on board one afternoon
This is the "peek-a-boo bridge" up in the front of the ship. It overlooks the bridge....so you can see into it
Here is the bridge! Pretty unimpressive, isn't it?
We had an extra day in San Juan after the cruise, and we rented a car and went to the rain forest on our own. Wow, was it ever beautiful! Probably the prettiest place we've ever been....even more so than Maui. We REALLY liked going there.
We had a little bed & breakfast that I found for that night. It was only about 15 rooms, in a large house along the beach. It was called Tres Palmas (Three Palms)
I wonder why it was called Tres Palmas:
The view from our bed & breakfast....Note the three palms? It was very nice.
