We had some company stop by tonight, so blame Robin & Jack that I'm not further along
kidding!
Back to the Review
Tonight was our first Formal night. We headed to the Concierge Lounge for cocktails prior to dinner and met Marcus who was manning the bar in the Lounge. DH was not happy about having to wear a tie and I did hear about how he was suffering through it
We stopped at one photo area for a Formal Portrait, but I didn't drag him around like I usually do. This was our 2nd time to the Dining Room and we had a different Waiter and Assistant Waiter than the 1st night. DH and I had a table for 2 each night and we were seated next to a lovely couple who had their own table for 2, Barbara and Tom.
The food was good, but we still feel that Carnival beats Royal Caribbean when it comes to the Dining Room food.
After dinner we headed down to the Lobby Bar to people watch for a little bit. We were debating going to the show, but we had an early excursion in Aruba the next morning, so we called it a night. Tonight was our first towel animal, a dog
Aruba
This was our 2nd time to Aruba. Our last time there was in June 2002 and we just hired a taxi for a quick tour of the island. DH wanted to book the Harley Tour and it sold out so this time we planned to finally do that.
We booked our tour direct with Big Twin Aruba Harley Davidson. The cost to rent the motorcycle for 1/2 day was $130 and the price of the tour was $20 per bike. The ship offers this tour for $295 so we saved 1/2 the money by booking direct.
We got off the ship and walked down to the Harley Dealership, it was only a 5 - 10 minute walk. We were there before they opened so we sat outside and introduced ourselves to another couple who was also going on the tour. Our Tour Guide Rene' arrived and we went inside to do the paperwork and get our helmets. Rene' gave us a map outlining where we would be driving on the tour. Really, we just followed him the whole time, but it was nice to have a rough idea where we were heading
We were joined by another couple and Rene' told us the tour would be just the 6 of us and himself.
Our first stop was to the Aruba Aloe Factory where we viewed their manufacturing plant. It was interesting and the air conditioning felt really good
It was going to be in the 90's that day
and I'm not really used to that type of heat since I work in an air conditioned office. Our next stop would be a quick photo op outside the new Hard Rock Cafe before continuing on for a stops at the California Lighthouse, Alto Vista Chapel, Casibari Rock, Colorado Point and Baby Beach before stopping for lunch and then heading back to Oranjestad. The tour was great and Rene' was awesome! I would highly recommend this tour
We felt that we got to see much more of Aruba by doing the motorcycle tour vs. a taxi tour of the island.
We did have one funny thing happen, well we found it funny, but I don't think the local Aruban woman did
We stopped to fill up the motorcycles with gas at the end of the tour at a gas station across the street from the Harley Dealership. Rene' was first in line and the gas station employee pointed out spots he wanted us to pull into for us to fill up the bikes. We pulled into our spot and my DH was filling his tank when a woman pulled in and started yelling at us that she wanted our spot and we were facing the wrong way so we needed to move
Instead of getting into anything with a local resident, I called over to Rene' and said "Umm, Rene' this woman does not seem too happy with us"
She kept yelling things and we just ignored her because the gas station employee was right there with us
Well, Rene' and the woman got into a disagreement, which in turn made the woman angry and she threw her car into reverse and almost hit another woman so a shouting match ensued between them. We left while the 2 women were still yelling at each other and went across the street to park the motorcycles. Well this woman wasn't having any of it and came over to the dealership and started yelling at the Owner
Boy, was she mad! I couldn't help but look out the window to see whether she was going to run the motorcycles over when she left
A couple warnings for those who are thinking of this tour: Wear good riding shoes if you're the driver of the motorcycle, Aruba doesn't get that much rain so the asphalt has a tremendous amount of oil build up which makes the streets slippery
Make sure to bring sunscreen with you because anything not covered will get tanned or burned and make sure to reapply at a couple of the stops; and, if you're going to be the passenger on the motorcycle, make sure to stretch your back while riding. It's been so long since I was on a motorcycle for that length of time that my back was bothering me from sitting in the same position for the tour, oh, and I almost forgot....Look out for the locals when you go to fill up the motorcycle at the end of the tour
Here are some pictures from the Harley Tour.......
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Adventure of the Seas; Sep 6 - 13, 2009; Southern Caribbean
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