Our first sea day is my first good opportunity to check out different areas of Adventure of the Seas to see what is new and different, as well as see how the policies are working.
The first place I headed was the main dining room for breakfast, and the experience is the same, but the menu has been updated with a new look, and I think the market fresh vegetable bowl is new as well.
Going from Nassau to CocoCay meant we never truly were at sea in the traditional sense, but today the ship will spend all day at sea as we head west to Cozumel.
I decided to head up to the pool deck and enjoy some time outdoors with the sea breeze, and it stared off as a beautiful day with sun and a few clouds.
After catching up on some work, I walked around the ship to check out different facilities.
First up is the fitness center, which is open although it has limited capacity.
The fitness center requires passengers to sign up for a time slot, as only 16 people can use it at a time. You can sign up via the Royal Caribbean app, or in person at the entrance.
There are machines blocked off to promote social distancing.
The complimentary sauna and steam rooms in the fitness center are closed until further notice due to Covid-19 concerns.
Something else a lot of cruisers love is the ice cream on the pool deck, and that is operational throughout the day. A crew member serves it for you.
The pool deck experience was fantastic, and one of the nice nuances of being on a ship with reduced capacity is you can roll up to the pool deck mid-morning and not have to compete for a lounge chair by the pool.
I wrote yesterday about some of the lessons learned early on, and the lack of crowds is a really nice "side effect" of the current state of cruising.
For lunch, our partners from MEI Travel rented out Giovanni's Table and invited everyone who booked into the group to enjoy a meal.
Unfortunately, the weather turned for the worse in the afternoon and the sun gave way to clouds and rain.
I headed inside and enjoyed some time catching up with friends onboard, and it was the kind of relaxing afternoon on a sea day that I missed being able to experience during the shutdown.
Our evening schedule was back to routine tonight, with taking the kids to the main dining room for dinner, and then dropping them off at Adventure Ocean.
Speaking of Adventure Ocean, the reservation system up there is working out just fine and yesterday (day 3) they opened up bookings for everyone beyond the initial 15 hours we were limited to when we got onboard.
Dinner was at Chops Grille, and it was another fantastic evening of service and quality food. Throughout the ship's dining venues, the service and food temperature has been really good.
Maybe all this time away from cruising has changed my expectations, but overall the restaurant experience has been terrific.
After dinner, we headed to the Duck and Dog Pub to enjoy acoustic music with Kieran, who I first saw on Facebook doing live videos from his cabin during quarantine.
I love live music in the pub, and Kieran has a great combination of personality and talent.
Tomorrow we will be in Cozumel, rain or shine!
