mandyleighflies

I am up bright and way too early for work today and had to recap my *wonderful* day yesterday. First off, thank you to the kindness of strangers. I received more than enough random kindness yesterday than I can even begin to explain. I was in the grocery store checkout and the man in front of me randomly bought myself and the cashier candy bars. SO sweet, what an amazing gesture. Then I went out to my suv and it wouldn’t start. Yes. My car died in the grocery store parking lot. I called my husband hoping it was just a battery issue but he couldn’t jump it. Luckily, I have State Farm roadside assistance and they sent a tow truck. The driver had a special jumper box and suggested we try that before a tow. Wouldn’t you know…it worked. He said I should take my car to National Tire and Battery ASAP to get the battery checked out. I did just that (husband took groceries home) and the amazing staff at NTB said my battery was done and I needed a new one. I was Grateful for a simple, quick and relatively affordable fix. It was the original battery that came with my car (2017 Ford Edge) and so far *knock on wood* the first “issue” that has come around since purchasing her in 2017. I get home from this fiasco to continue laundry and cook food for my next two trips at work. My leg seems itchy. Fast forward to bedtime and I notice two red bumps on my leg. Spider bite. Awesome. I apply Vaseline and go to bed. This morning they are the same size but look like brown recluse (Internet search) bites and I will keep an eye on them. Fingers crossed they go away on their own in a couple of days. I am off to lovely Las Vegas today. I have zero plans on even leaving my hotel room. Stay tuned!

Tags done. Great success. Suitcase ready for a couple days at work. Next cruise setting up. AND so much laundry….and errands. It will be totally worth it 😆❤️

Hey kids. Long time no sea 😆😆 No you are not seeing things. I am living the dream of two cruises a week apart from each other. My husband and I just got off Allure yesterday morning and landed back in VA last night. In fact, I have one full day off before we fly out on Sunday the 17th…that day being today. I’m an FA so I’m home today but then on back to back work trips coming home the afternoon of the 16th. Thoughts and prayers appreciated. 🤦🏼‍♀️😆 Why the madness? Well. Here’s the story. Picture it, sitting on our balcony on Lady G this past spring. Yes myself and my father had the drink package, mom doesn’t drink, she just goes along with the shenanigans. We are sitting here with our drinks and my teenage kids talking about the holidays. My parents ask my kids what they want for Christmas and they give the usual “I don’t know, the newest *insert expensive electronics here* because ours are not the newest anymore”. How dull. The kids go off to hang out with new friends and the adults *and our beverages* get to talking. “Let’s take them on a surprise Christmas cruise” comes up from my mom. My dad is a once a year cruiser, it’s simply not his thing. He quickly says that would be great for mom and I to do with the kids. I then text my husband (their step dad) and my ex (their dad) about this idea. My husband says “no thanks but have fun” (I mean cursing with mother in law…I get It lol) and my ex says “we are actually vacationing in Key West that time frame and would love to coordinate vacations”. When I’ve had a couple Kraken colada’s on my balcony in Labadee…that’s all the convincing it takes. I email our travel agent friend and fellow FOB here on CC and it’s done. 2 Bedroom Grand Suite the week before Christmas. *insert multiple Kraken Colada’s here* What a fun surprise for Christmas. Ultimately, the surprise gets ruined because one day, hanging out with the kids I mentioned I can’t wait for Christmas and our cruise. However, there are things the kids don’t know about yet, which will make it fun. OH and speaking of those kids. Don’t feel bad for them and their “lack of the best technology”. When we disembark in Miami, their dad is picking us up, dropping mom and I at MIA and taking the kids to spend the next 5 days in Key West at a lovely resort. I will be sure to send everyone’s heartfelt condolences their way….terrible winter break. Now, how did I end up in this back to back “you have literally one day to get your whole life together and ready to go again” moment? Because everyone in my family thinks a like and hubby had booked Allure as an anniversary gift for us. Our Wedding anniversary is actually today but we celebrated this past weekend. An alluringly amazing anniversary *Live Allure OTS Dec 8-11th* If you want, go read that review for all the Allure. Anyway, welcome to my day of turn around. Currently re-doing luggage tags and chugging coffee, oh and Welcome Aboard.

Ship - Allure of the Seas Deck - 14 Stateroom # - 14632 Stateroom Category – JS (Junior Suite) Starboard or Port Side - Starboard Side Quiet Stateroom? Not exactly. You could hear some noise from the pool deck above you. However, this section did not seem busy on our sailing as we didn’t hear constant noise. We did hear chairs and there must be a mechanism of some type nearby as we would hear it “whirr” to life occasionally. Was stateroom a connecting stateroom? - No Balcony View - Great! Was wind a problem? - No If an aft cabin, was soot a problem? - NA Any specific problems with this cabin? - None. Any other comments? Tiny bedside night stands with no outlets or USB ports. We thought it was strange that a ship built in 2010 and refurbished in 2015 did not have at least beside outlets.

We made it home just in time for DC rush hour traffic. Everyone's favorite thing to deal with coming home from vacation. The United lounge in MCO is small and under construction but still a nicer place to sit and relax versus the terminal. Flight home was quick and easy and luggage made it! We like to check our bags when we buy tickets, it's a luxury for us to not have to haul it around for once. Overall we had a great vacation. Allure is beautiful, the crew were all very friendly. Food was great to us but we are also not Top Chef types, maybe it's meh to other's but we were happy with the offerings and the food itself. This cruise was not long enough to tell if I truly like the Oasis class of ship as by the time we were getting into a groove and figuring out exactly where things were and what was going on there, it was time to go. To be expected on a short weekend cruise out of Orlando there were many families, we really only encountered them in the elevators. Giant strollers are annoying, some of these were the size of a hotel housekeeping cart. I wish the cruise lines would require a size limit on these strollers, the slimmer ones are fine but when you are trying to get a double wide jogging stroller into an elevator...it's a lot. On to the next sailing in T-Minus 6 days!!

Today is go home day. It’s always a sad day but today I’m not as sad as I’ll be right back on a ship in 6 days 😆❤️🤦🏼‍♀️ We had a wonderful room steward and left an additional tip for him. We also always strip the bedding and clean up after ourselves to help make their jobs slightly easier. Currently enroute to MCO to catch our afternoon flight home. Will post more from airport lounge and flight home.

We watched Liberty sail away and got ready for our anniversary evening of vintages and chops. Cheers to 3 years!! ❤️❤️ (well tomorrow lol) 12-12-20 I started with the shrimp cocktail. Pete had the crab cake. We thought both of these app’s were good, on par with other Chops experiences. I ordered the Filet Migeon. Pete had the ribeye. I asked for medium rare and got exactly what I wanted. The steak was tender, juicy and huge. The shareable sides were mashed potatoes, asparagus, guyere tater tots, Mac and cheese and creamed spinach. We both opted for the chocolate cake for dessert and overall gave Chops two thumbs up. Great service. Awesome food. It rained basically the entire evening and since we had such a busy day on the island we were exhausted and once again called it a night early. Exciting. I know. They call me the life of the party at Bob Evans. We know how to through down…until 9pm 😆😆

Perfect day at cococay and funky wifi so sorry for the delay! Our balcony was at the beginning of the hump so it allowed for some extra space. We backed into port around 630am with Liberty at our heels. It’s amazing how they can back these ships up to dock. I cannot park my car backwards. 😆 We were on the island by around 930am and were able to snag a nice set of chairs with an umbrella with no issues by the Oasis pool. In fact, even with two big ships in port it never felt crowded. The Oasis pool is the one with the swim up bar, let’s just say the 3 day cruisers know how to party. Carnival had NOTHING on the pool party that happened at Oasis yesterday. We purchased the water park tickets and while this is more Pete’s thing than mine, I still went down the giant red slide. It was fun but not my cup of tea. He did the drop slide and I recorded it, hilarious 😆. I will be back to Cococay next week so I’ll do a more through breakdown in my next live on Freedom. This view will never get old or not be impressive. Upon our return to the ship we were surprised with a couple of beautiful swan towel animals and a card for our anniversary. Such a nice touch.

Being the ever exciting people that we are (and that Pete had enjoyed Vintages a little too much 😆) we called it a night after dinner. I grabbed a chamomile tea and read in bed and tired eventually fell asleep around 930pm. During night, however, the alpha code was used at least once, I think I heard it a second time, but I cannot be for sure. I just hope those people are ok.

Dinner tonight was Main Dining room. Italian night. Beef Carpaccio Minestrone Ceasar Salad Mushroom Rissoto with a side of grilled chicken (my request) Lasagna Tieramisu Delicious. Hot food was hot. Cold food was cold. Overall, great dinner. Wonderful service. We were in and out in 45 minutes.

Pre-Dinner views and beverages at Vintages.

Thank you!! It was a beautiful day in Nassau today.

Once we got back onboard we took naps and relaxed a bit in our room. Since we have a suite we still have twice a day housekeeping. We came back to a WABBIT. ❤️ Once nap time was over we got out and explored some more. This sailing is too short to see and do everything but we are giving a valiant effort. We attended afternoon trivia and then went up top for sail away!

Nassau is one of those places we come to so often that we rarely get off the ship. Today we did get off and walk around. We got a nice 2 miles under our belts. The new port area is beautiful! We enjoyed seeing this upgrade. We are in port with Carnival Elation, Disney Wish and Liberty OTS. We did walk to the Margartiaville resort. It’s not a bad walk and it looks nice. Not sure it’s worth the $70 per person (plus food and drinks) to use the facility IMO. We worked up quite the thirst on our “workout” walk. Took in some sights and drinks at Senor Frogs, typical experience there but LOTS of bees. I’m not sure if that’s normal but they were every where and very active. If you have a bee allergy be careful visiting here.

Good Morning!! We are pulling into Nassau for a day here. Not too sure what we are doing yet but we will get off and walk around. Dinner at Sabor was amazing. I’m self admittedly not a food photo taker so no photos but the food and service was amazing. Highly recommend to anyone sailing on Allure. We spent our evening having drinks with new friends and called it a night around 10pm. We are clearly party animals. 😆😆

Big Hello to SilkySal on Adventure!!! Cheers to a wonderful cruise!!

We are ONBOARD!! Check in as a suite guest is a dream. Parking is a nightmare. Whatever 😆❤️ Cheers from Schooner!!! The Junior Suite has long been Pete and I’s go to stateroom type. Just the right size for us when it’s just us, plus suite perks don’t hurt. Full ship this sailing. Will report how it feels but so far it’s not too crowded aside from the elevators.

We always fly in the day prior to our cruise. I am a scarred witness to delays and passengers missing cruises due to aircraft/weather/crew issues. You “day of” fliers scare the you know what out of me. This time around we stayed at the Hampton Inn and Suites Coca Beach. It was a typical Hampton Inn, clean, nice staff and a free breakfast. This one is also located in walking to distance to Publix and several places to eat. They also apparently have a park and stay package but we did not partake in this offer. These photos were our post stay but y’all get the idea. 😆 It’s 68 so layers for today. We are going to drive around and see some of coco beach before heading to Allure. See Y’all at check in!

CRUISE DAY!! Slept pretty well…just under 12 hours lol My husband loves a great meal. Waffle House is his guilty pleasure. The man flies around the world for a living eating amazing exotic foods. Waffle House is his favorite place. We indulged ourselves this morning. We are going to walk the beach a bit, maybe find more coffee then head to the port. We hope to arrive for boarding around noon.

We decided to try a local spot for dinner. We popped down to the Sandbar Sports Bar just down the street from our hotel. Tonight happened to be pizza night so we split a large pizza, had two drinks and called it a night. We did NOT try the Hurricanes 😆 We ran to Publix for candy and water and called it a night. Today was a long and fun day but we are exhausted. Time to relax and get ready for Allure tomorrow!! Goodnight CC!

We had a lovely afternoon at the Kennedy Space Center. It’s approx $75 per adult to enter (there are $5 discounts for seniors and military) and that sounded steep to us. However, it included every exhibit, bus tour, simulator and experience you could as for and we throughly enjoyed ourselves. We spent about 4 hours here, got lots of steps, and saw more awesome space history than we expected. This was a wonderful way to spend the afternoon. We are now heading to our hotel to get settled in and probably find beverages/food…mainly beverages 😆

Have a great cruise!! We sailed Adventure last summer to Halifax and loved her!

We have the car roundtrip. We like to be in “control of our destiny” with these things. Bags retrieved and car rented. We are on our way to the space coast!

Our beautiful 757 to take us south today. Enroute with only the most appropriate beverages.

Thank you!!! ❤️✈️ Parked. Bags checked. Pre-Check. Club. Vacation is way more fun than work 😆