perfect match

We’ll be on Allure in about 4 weeks. We’re doing a B2B to make it a seven day cruise. 🛳️🛳️ I’m sorry we’ll miss you, but I’ll definitely be glued to your review. 😀

That brownie sundae is one of my favorite desserts! To me, some calories are worth the calories I’m consuming when I eat them even though I know I’m going to have to pay the price working them off later. We saw Robert Neary at Busch Gardens, Tampa about a month ago. We both loved his show! We would love it if he showed up on our upcoming Allure cruise

Thanks. Glad to be here. Looks like Celebrity did a good job celebrating St Patrick’s Day! I loved the drunks McDrunkerson sign and the Guinness Chicken in the buffet! 😂

I’m glad you made it home safely. Love the plane seats. I might even be convinced to start going places that require a plane flight again if I knew I was going to be in a seat like yours were. Thank you again for another great trip report. I know I’m not the only one here who is grateful that you’re always willing to take us along with you.

I guess I’ve fallen behind with the busy week we’ve had at our house. I’m finally caught up now and am planning to stay current for the rest of this sailing!

I’m there for that concert, @Ocean Boy! There will definitely not be a piano in our room though. 😕 When I first started reading this review I thought both you and Lisa had lost some weight. You’re both looking good. That concert in your cabin was amazing! It sure looks like you, Lisa and Owen had a great cruise. Thank you for taking all of us along with you. Hope you have a safe and smooth trip home.

I love ❤️ your cabana-up! Looks like it was a great move to me. Great food. Great view from the cabana, From my personal point of view an even better view under the cabana. That’s where my underwater camera and I would be. 🐠🦈🐟🐡😎

@harryfat1, I hope you and your family have a great time in NYC. It’s an amazing place. @h20skibum, DH and I live about 45 minutes from WDW. As local Annual Passholders, our touring style is a bit more relaxed than most people coming in for a vacation because if we don’t get to do something we wanted on one day, we can always come back another day. We still haven’t ridden Guardians of the Galaxy or Troon because we don’t want to deal with the whole process one must go through to even get in line to ride them. We’ll get to them eventually. I have a couple of tips for you. Restaurant times often open up at the last minute. By that, I mean a couple of days before you plan to eat there. We don’t plan way in advance but can always find somewhere we want to eat. If you can’t find the time you want, book as close to that time as you want, then keep checking to see if you can adjust the time to what you really want. You’d be amazed how often that has worked for me. Plan some down time into your days. The Florida sun is hot. 🥵 The air is humid. All the concrete reflects the heat and makes it feel even hotter. Hydration is essential. I’m sure you already aware of this, but I see lack of rest and cool down breaks and lack of hydration catch up with people every single time we visit any of the parks. The lightning lane all day option is a great choice if you’re willing to spend the extra $$$$. The lines really do move quickly, and if you book your next attraction fairly close to where you already are and maybe enjoy an attraction with a short wait time before your next ride time opens up you really can fit a lot into your day. One of my favorite planning resources before moving down here was www.disboards.com.

Andrew, I haven’t laughed so hard in quite a while! Your reply was right on point. I expected no less from you. Just so you know, I’m not a big fan of raisins. There are none in our house, but unlike you I have been known to eat them on occasion. Just not in recent memory.

Harry, thank you very much for another awesome trip report! I really appreciate that you and your family are willing to tale us along with you on your vacation. When I read the paragraphs I quoted above all I could think was how true your words are. The memories that we make with those close to us are so very precious. DH and I value our memories as much as you do yours. Speaking of memories we really enjoyed Cirque du Soleil Bazzar! Every performer in every segment of the show was excellent, the costumes and music were pure Cirque du Soleil magic. Since you’ve wrapped up your review, I’ll leave you with a few pictures.

We drove into St Pete on Saturday and the drive from where I-275 splits off from I-75 when approaching Tampa from the north was insane! When we left St Pete after the event we were attending we decided to go home the long way. We drove south out of St Pete and over the Sunshine Skyway bridge to I-75 and headed north from there. We even saw a cruise ship out a short way past the bridge. I couldn’t tell who it was because I was driving and thought that even though traffic was light it would be a really good idea to keep my eyes on the road. After our drive through Tampa I was seriously rethinking my plan to look for a cruise out of Tampa. I like the idea of a stay, park, and cruise hotel with round trip transportation to the port. We’ve done that when we cruise from Ft Lauderdale or Miami because the drive to either of those two ports tends to take a lot longer than the 3+ hours it is supposed to take. Stay, park and cruise makes for a far more enjoyable first day of the cruise than driving down the day of the cruise does. I do wish that the ships sailing out of Tampa would hang around in Tampa for a little longer in the spring and come back earlier in the fall. We like to cruise during the late spring and early fall and there aren’t options for those times out of Tampa. Before I forget, I want to congratulate you on all of the progress you’ve made in your weight loss journey. Don’t go too crazy on the cruise so you won’t have to lose any of that same weight that you’ve already lost! Good luck 🍀 earning enough money on your free spins to cover your Panama Canal excursion! I’m not at all lucky in the casino. If you figure out how to make those free spins work for you please let me know how you did it and maybe I’ll give it a try. 😂

Sounds like you had a great first day on Oasis! I was wondering about those delicious dried cranberries though. Aren’t they cousins to your favorites, raisins? Didn’t sound like something like I’d expect you to be saying. 🤔😂 I’m glad you not only saw the rainbow 🌈 but also caught it in your video. 🥰

Thank you! May 3 Allure cruise shows are booked!

I’m loving this cruise already and we’re not even on the ship yet!

I’m sorry to see your review drawing to a close, Harry. I’ve been enjoying following along with you. I may be absent tomorrow, actually later today because we’ll be at the Cirque du Soleil show, Bazzar, in Tampa tomorrow. I believe we discussed our shared enjoyment of Cirque in your previous Navigator review so I wanted to follow up and let you know that yes, we’re actually going at last. Don’t worry though. I’ll be back to finish up reading here! 😀

I’m checking in and ready to board. Well, board virtually anyway. Thank you for taking us along Andrew, Lisa, & Owen.

I’m here! I’m very interested to hear how you like sailing from Tampa. I keep saying we need to try it because I know DH would love sailing under that bridge as would I. The catch is that we really like the big ships because we love everything they have to offer. I do like your itinerary so maybe if I can find that at a time that we are looking to sail we might make a Tampa cruise happen. We did have one Tampa cruise on Brilliance planned. However, it was cancelled due to a full ship charter. We moved that one to Harmony out of PC which was cancelled due to the Covid shutdown. I have two words to say to you about how to make your Panama Canal excursion happen, and I know you can do it - casino winnings! 😂 You can do it!

This happened to us, too. We were booked on a 3 day Allure cruise that was cancelled due to the ship going to a full ship charter. We had the 4 day following the cruise that was cancelled so when I got the email with my alternate options I called and booked the 3 day following our 4 day. At that point everything was fine. Several weeks later I saw a nice price drop on my rebooked 3 day Allure so I called and got the price drop. However, at that point there was a $200 change fee applied ($100 each). I had to remind them that it wasn’t us who wanted to change our sailing date but Royal who decided to allow the charter group to take over our sailing. After the rep went back and forth with her supervisor I was able to get the charges removed. They told me it was a glitch. The good news is that the change fee charges did not reappear when I made additional and final payments. I most definitely checked to be sure!

I have been thinking about using AARP gift cards but the line in their T&C about not being refundable if the cruise is cancelled even if it’s Royal who cancels has kept me from trying them. We have had two different cruises cancelled by Royal due to whole ship charters recently and to say I would be very unhappy about losing that money because I’d paid using AARP would be putting it mildly.

I think that instead of trying to walk the whole trail I’m going to find the end of the black line closest to the pier and just walk out that way. I’ll get my exercise swimming and ziplining. Do you have any pictures of that end of the trail, or of landmarks to help find the entrance. I know, it’s probably obvious but I haven’t been to Labadee in a while and I just can’t picture the area in my mind.

we paid about $50 per person for the zipline at Black Friday prices. I don’t remember the ‘regular” price, but I think you’re pretty close. I’d have to think long and hard about paying that “regular” price. @Coralc, you’re giving me way too many ideas that would get me in trouble! 😂🤣😱 I’m getting the hammock ready to pack! 😎

What’s even stranger is that as Inwas logging in to start doing my bookings for May 3 it looked at first like they were open, then all of a sudden the image on my screen switched to say that entertainment bookings were not open yet. I thought at the time it was just the page switching from the April 29 cruise switching to the May 3 cruise. 🤷‍♀️ I’ll keep checking. I’m sure they will show up eventually..

Glad I was able to help out with the pricing information. I thought that slide in my picture looked larger than life! 😂 We will be doing the zip lines while we are there. We are thrill seekers and think the ziplines are fun. I love the views of the ship from the nature trail Harry marked in black. We walked out to the dragon’s 🐉 breath rock formation once. It was not long after I had both knees replaced so I was not very steady on my feet on those stairs and uneven surfaces. I was too busy trying to remain upright so I didn’t notice much. I’ve done a lot of rehab work since then so maybe I’ll give it another try after our zipline rides. Either that, or I’ll stay in my comfort zone and go for a swim instead. 😃🐠

I’m not sure how we have managed to miss stopping in Routan for as many years as we’ve been cruising. We will be making our first stop there on our Wonder cruise in September. It will be the first new port for us in a while. How long does it take to enjoy the aviary in Costa Maya? I haven’t made any plans for there because it is an early, short day. The birds are beautiful, so I’m thinking it would be a good place to spend a little bit of time on shore. Besides, it would be interesting to see how my old, surgically repaired legs handle the rope bridge! 😂

Thanks for the reminder. I’ve been busy all weekend and almost didn’t look. i was able to book shows for the first leg of our Allure B2B that boards April 29, but not the second leg that boards May 3.I like to book things in advance so once we’re on board I don’t have to think about anything but enjoying our cruise. I hope they’re not going to keep me waiting too much longer to book our entertainment for the May 3 sailing.