Three Friends, Five Decades of Friendship, Four Nights on a Ship………………..

Two of my dearest friends and myself are celebrating a milestone birthday this year –  yes folks, it’s time to admit that on 4th August I shall be celebrating my 50th birthday!
We wanted to do something special to celebrate this momentous occasion and surprise, surprise, we decided to go on a cruise – who would have thought it! Neither Clare or Peta has cruised before so excitement was high as you can imagine. Peta’s sister and another friend also booked, and last Sunday the five of us boarded RCCL Adventure of the Seas for what was to be the best of times.

I shall do my review of the ship in another post (when I have my ‘work head’ on), for now suffice it to say that we were all truly ‘Wowed’ by the ship. Following her refurbishment she is looking brand new, you would never guess she has been in service since 2001. She is a stunning ship with something on board for everyone. Every age range is catered for.

One thing that surprised me, not being a fan of big ships, she never felt crowded despite the fact that this was a fully booked cruise. Even the sun deck wasn’t crowded on our sunny sea day.

You have the Royal Promenade which is bustling with life in it’s bars and shops, the Viking Crown Lounge high up on the ship with it’s live entertainment and a calmer more relaxing feel, Jesters, the night club, for late night dancing, and numerous other small lounges and bars for a more intimate quiet cocktail or two. There are also two theatres on board as well as an ice rink – fabulous ice shows!

We shared two deluxe balcony cabins which were lovely – and yes you do get a kettle and tea and coffee in your cabin on RCCL, although we did take our own Yorkshire teabags on board! Our cabin steward, Junior, was an absolute delight and couldn’t have looked after us better.

And the food, oh the food! So many options on board that it is where to start, although to be honest, apart from a couple of nights dining in the Mozart Restaurant, we mainly ate in the Windjammer, the buffet style restaurant. The food and service in here was absolutely wonderful, the best I have ever had in a buffet restaurant on board a ship, and a lovely relaxed atmosphere.

We sailed to Bruges and Le Havre (for Paris) and were lucky to have the calmest of seas. We loved both places but to be honest, the excursion into Paris from Le Havre took 11.5 hours, a very long day which I don’t think I would care to repeat.

All in all, we had a wonderful time and made some wonderful memories which we will all treasure. We laughed, we ate too much, we enjoyed every aspect of the ship, and funnily enough, we are already talking about our next cruise!