Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Allure of the Seas - Day 3

Allure of the Seas
Feb 23, 2016
Labadee, Haiti


I woke up to the vibration of the ship and knew we were docking in Labadee. (being an ex-crew member, you just know the feel of thrusters)  So once again I was up and dressed but this time I went up to Deck 16 to watch us dock.  By the time I got up there, we were tying up but it was still very pretty to look at the view and watch the island come alive at our arrival.  (for those that don't know - Labadee is a peninsula on the island of Haiti that was purchased by Royal Caribbean.  The people that work and live on that part of the island are native Haitians, but are employed by RC.  No one else other than the employees are allowed on that part of the island as it is fenced off from the remainder of the country.  They are paid salaries by RC, but of course we tip so needless to say, they are very happy when a boat as large as Allure comes in)

I went back to the cabin and Laurie was awake - so we went up for some breakfast before heading off the ship.  

We just love Labadee!  We had decided the day before to rent a beach cabana and the minute we got to it, knew we made a good choice.  It had soft cushions and white drapes around it, plenty of beach towels and a cooler full of ice cold bottled water.  Not to mention it came with 2 floaty mats.  We also had Franklin, who would be our attendant for the day.  He got Laurie and I some beach chairs so we could lay in the sun and was always asking what he could do for his "Queen's".  Even asked us if Bob and Deb were with us when they walked up, as I think he was afraid someone was trying to poach our cabana! He was a peach!  Was always checking in on us, let us know when lunch was being served and of course brought us lots of frosty beverages.

All four of us spent the day lounging, had a late lunch then went for a swim with our floaty mats while Deb sat at the waters edge and Bob took a snooze in the cabana.  Lots of laughs when I got stuck in some coral and couldn't get my mat off of it.  God forbid I get off my mat :)

Great day all around.  Headed back onto the ship around 3.15 or so.  We didn't have to be back on board till 4.30 but the island closes down earlier (to push everyone back on board I think)  We didn't mind as we had reservations for the Mama Mia show at 5pm and I needed a shower.

Mama Mia was fantastic!  Almost Broadway quality and although I have seen it several times it was thoroughly enjoyable!

We met up with Bob and Deb at the Champagne Bar for our normal pre-dinner drinks.  Boleros didn't have any music (live or otherwise) so it was very boring.  We immediately took a liking to Andre, our bartender.  

Dinner was great as usual as we got to know our waiters, Mauricio and Vigilio, and started having some fun with them.

Since we didn't have a show that night we walked around the Promenade a little and had a drink on the Rising Tide Bar and then popped in at Dazzles before heading off to bed.


Allure of the Seas - Day 2

Allure of the Seas
Feb 22, 2016
At Sea

I was awake fairly early (darn internal clock!) and when I peeked out the balcony, I could see it was sunny.  I got too excited to get up on deck to go back to sleep, so I put on my swim suit and grabbed my pool bag and off I went.  

Got up to the pool deck and grabbed 4 chairs together.  It wasn't busy per se, but the professional cruisers were definitely out and getting chairs for the day.  Laurie came up not too long after and I think Bob and Deb were there by 9. They went to get breakfast first, since we weren't starving, as we do a tag-team thing so there is always someone with the chairs.  It amazes me how many people come down, drop nothing but a towel on each chair and then leave for 2 or 3 hours! I will admit I find it slightly entertaining to 1) see people come back for the first time in 3 hours to find out their towels are gone and there are other people sitting in their chairs and 2) people who walk around at 11.30am on a sea day, wondering why they can't get a chair next to the pool.  Its kinda mean, I know, but very funny.

Spent the day lounging by the pool (or in it) and reading. It was a bit breezy so I spent more time sitting on the side of the pool since it was in the sun (our chairs got into the shade much earlier in the afternoon than I would have liked)

We never got anything on our door about dinner, so we went to My Time at our reservation time and asked. As they were "looking into it" the Maitre D came over and asked if we would be interested in Traditional Dining.  We were like "YES!" so they brought us upstairs and we were seated at our table, where we would be the rest of the week

After dinner we wandered through the shops on the promenade and strolled through Central Park and the Boardwalk.  Decided to take in some air and went for a casual lap on the walking track on Deck 5 before heading off to bed


Allure of the Seas - Day 1

Allure of the Seas
Feb 21, 2016

After some breakfast at Einstein Bagel Bros across the street, and a quick run down to Walgreens (my toothbrush broke in half in my bag!) we were back at the hotel and waiting downstairs for our cab before 10.15am.  Could you tell we were excited to get on the ship?!?

Deb and Bob were also going to take a cab from their hotel at the same time.(they stayed at the Renaissance Ft Lauderdale Cruise Port (for $20 less per night and said it was MUCH nicer)) and meet us inside at the pier.  It timed out perfectly as they were right in front of us going thru the security line.  

We somehow lost Deb and Bob in the boarding process, so we headed to the Windjammer.  Door to door we were having lunch in just over an hour!

We had lunch and then our cabins were ready so we went to check it out and put down our stuff.  Cabin was nice - Cabin 12653 - it was a interior balcony overlooking Central Park.  (we had chosen that one when we booked the year before)

So after putting down our carry-on bags, we grabbed our SeaPass's and headed up to the pool deck.  It was a nice, sunny afternoon and it was "frosty beverage time" as Laurie calls it.  Deb and Bob found us a little while later, sitting with our feet in the pool and drinks in hand, and we made plans to meet at Bolero's for pre-dinner drinks.  After a while we went for a walk around Central Park to look at menus at some of the specialty restaurants to see if we wanted to make any reservations.  We ended up sitting down in the Aqua theater to chill for a few minutes, when Laurie got a brilliant idea!  "Let's go to the Champagne Bar now, get a drink and we will already have a seat when they call for the muster drill"  Man, there's a reason I like to travel with her :)  So off we went.

Drill was nothing to talk about other than the cute "Wash Your Hands" video they made you sit through during the drill announcements.  (keep this in mind for future postings)  Once it was over, we went for a walk to watch sail away and ended up on the aft of deck 5, which ended up being a fantastic place!

When we got out to sea, we headed back to the cabin and by then our luggage started to arrive so the unpacking commenced!  We got unpacked and settled in to our home for the next 7 days.

We headed for drinks about 7pm, because we had a 7.45 dining time, due to My Time Dining.  We were sat fairly quickly and within 10 minutes we weren't going to like it.  Our waiter was nice enough but you can tell there was no interest in knowing us, since we wouldn't be with him the next time.  I wasn't a fan of that.  After dinner we asked a Host if we could switch to Traditional Dining for 8.30.  He took our cabin #'s and said he would leave us a letter the next day to let us know if we got it or not.

We had tickets to the Aqua show (called OceanAria) that night at 10.45 so we wandered around the Boardwalk a little before making our way to the theater to wait to get in. It was actually getting quite windy, so I wasn't sure if they would do some of the stunts (we had seen a similar show on Oasis, called Oasis of Dreams), but they did not disappoint and it was amazing!!  

After the show ended, we were all pooped from a long first day so we headed back to the cabins.  We told Bob and Deb we would be on the "beach pool" side (zero entry pool that looks like sand) and would save them chairs the next morning and would see them then.






Sunday, March 20, 2016

Allure of the Seas Feb 2016 - Pre cruise

Ft Lauderdale, FL 
Feb 20, 2016

Laurie and I got to Ft Lauderdale a day before the cruise - Feb 20th, staying at Extended Stay America.  Since we landed and were at the hotel just after 10.30am, we had taken the Sun trolley up to Beach Place on Sat afternoon for some lunch at Lulu's Bait Shack, and some shopping at CVS and a little wandering around.  For $1 a ride - it was worth it.  Rode the trolley back and got to kill a little time.

Got checked into the room about 3pm.  Not impressed but you live, you learn. (quick review: $285/night for a room with 2 beds and 4 walls; no amenities; 2 tiny towels each, 1 soap; kitchens without even plastic utensils or napkins; for that price, stay at a brand name hotel in the exact same area) 

Later on we met up with Deb and Bob (our friends we met on Independence in 2015) for dinner at Carrabba's next door, and then even did some shopping at Ross across the street and Walgreen's down the road for some of the items we forgot (or in my case - I needed allergy tabs!)

Off to bed at a decent hour so we would be up and ready to go by 10.30 when the cab was coming to pick us up.  

Still cruising ... just as a passenger!

Thinking that I will now use this blog as a bit of a journal of my cruise vacations ... I still LOVE being on a cruise ship; being a passenger is just as fun, with not an ounce of hard work :) 

I am not sure if I can back date posts, but if so, I will have to spend some time going back to review pictures and remember some memories from the following:

Independence of the Seas - March 2015
Oasis of the Seas - February 2014
Oasis of the Seas - August 2013
Freedom of the Seas - April 2012
Costa Atlantica - February 2010

In the meantime I am going to get started on the 2 cruises I just got home from over the last month

S