At Sea - Adventure of the Seas Eastern Caribbean Cruise - April 18-19, 2024

 Two days at sea in a row.  I look forward to days at sea.  We got up very early this morning to record some footage of the ship that I hope to eventually turn into a ship tour.  Passengers on this ship are an early crowd.  I don't recall seeing this many passengers up and about this early in the day.  

We managed to snag seats right on our deck overlooking the promenade.  Our cabin window is on the right side, third window past the elevator.

We enjoyed some time both days on the promenade deck.  This area started off as a very quiet area which was nice, and then a family came to play shuffleboard, very loudly.  When we picked our seats the next day, we intentionally picked somewhere away from the shuffleboard games.

On our second sea day in a row, I started the day with a specialty coffee, which was covered by one of my Diamond loyalty level drinks.  Both Paul and I each had 4 drink coupons a day to use.

We attended the Captain's Corner with Captain Jaret and Cruise Director Dan. I was a bit surprised it wasn't more highly attended. On other cruise lines talks like this by the Captain fill the theater. It was a fun hour that went by fast with some great questions and humor. 

Captain Jaret is from Newfoundland, Canada. He has been with Royal Caribbean 25 years and has commanded all five voyager class ships which are his favorite. His reason is that the Voyager class ships have more horse power per ton and for the passenger's benefit they have more elbow room. I would definitely sail this class again for that reason.

The Captain talked briefly about the Discovery class coming out in 2029 which will be similar to the Voyager and Freedom classes. He put his plug in for convincing Royal to let him Captain this new ship. Clearly, he is excited about this upcoming class.

A question was asked about dry dock happening in the fall. A number of participants are on the transatlantic cruise either to or from dry dock (or both). Wouldn't that be fun? The ship is in Europe for 19 days which would be an ideal amount of time to explore some of Europe. If only we had the time off....

The Captain talked a little bit about dry dock. They have these large blocks that are no more than about 2 meters high that the ship sits on. They design exactly where to put the blocks based on the specific ship going into dry dock. Divers are in the water as they slowly enter dry dock to help guide the ship which then ties up and then the divers stay in the water once the dock is closed and the water slowly drained to make sure it sits right. It sounds like quite the process!

The Adventure's top speed is 22.5 knots. They need to use 5 of the 6 engines to achieve that speed (one engine is reserved as a backup). A headwind has the most affect on their ability to achieve that speed. They can drop down to 4 engines at about 21 knots, 3 engines at about 18 knots, and 2 engines at about 14 knots. The ship takes on about 1,000 tons of fuel at Port Canaveral each cruise - 300 tons of HFO and 700 tons of MDO (I hope I got those acronyms right).

Starting with the Harmony and all ships built since, they have an ALS system (Air Lubrication System) which creates bubbles at the hull to cut down on friction and help the ship go faster.

The top three senior officers are the ship's Captain, the Staff Captain (2nd in command), and the Chief Captain (3rd in command). Those three senior officers are on the Bridge for every arrival and departure. Otherwise, the ship is generally run by the other officers. A senior officer would get called up when there is high traffic or low visibility. 1st and 2nd Officers work 8 hour shifts.

Captains and other senior officers usually work 10 weeks on and 10 weeks off. Some of the other officers on the Bridge work 14 weeks on and 14 weeks off.

At each port, a local pilot boards. They are the expert on the local tides, dock, which ballards can take how many lines, etc. In the US it is required they take command, although the Captain is still responsible for the ship and the Captain's staff still do the docking. Local pilots also work as a translator with lineman in foreign ports.

When deciding whether to back into the dock or pull in forward, a lot of factors come into play. Sometimes they are doing drills on certain lifeboats. Other times the current or swells play a role and with some docks, the location of the gangway matters. Cozumel is one of the hardest ports to dock at because of the combination of currents (which are ever changing) and wind speeds.

Late in the last afternoon, I finally made it to the pool deck.  It was a beautiful sunny day with a breeze.

The saddest part of the cruise, seeing all the luggage start lining the hall.  Fortunately, we were carrying our own luggage off the next morning so didn't need to be packed yet but it still marks the end.