Raschueler

Thanks for the great review! Now I'm off to find matching outfits like yours :)

Thank you for taking the time to post this great review :)

Thanks for the review! I love the Allure. Your kilt looked great!

Thanks for doing this! I know it takes a lot of hard work and time.

Thanks for sharing your trip! I will be going on my first Carnival cruise on the Pride in 2016, so I'm excited to learn some more about the Pride!

Thanks for the review. Sailing the Pride in Oct 2016, so I'm excited to hear all that I can about her!

559 days until my first Carnival cruise!

Might have to sneak another one in there before then :)

Thanks for sharing! I leave for Port Canaveral tomorrow and will be boarding Friday. I will definitely get a porter on the way out. Thanks for the great tip! (:

I had the same problem when trying to book my Mediterranean honeymoon cruise. I ended up picking Celebrity's Reflection. The ship was new and we really enjoyed it. It was a 10 day round trip from Civitavecchia, Italy.

Thanks for the great review! Loved the photos. I am going to remind my husband of The Couple's luggage anytime he complains about my packing!!

My husband and I also loved the Allure. We now feel spoiled though when we get on other ships and find ourselves comparing to the Allure, even though there is no comparison! We are 22 and 26. We went on a Med cruise this year and LOVED it. Definitely different than the usual beach days of the Carribean. There is so much helpful information here on CC for the ports,. I found so many DIY tour suggestions and good companies to use for group tours with roll call members.

Happy cruise searching!!

Thanks for asking this question! I had the same one. I will be boarding the Explorer on Jan 9th and need to sign up for a time to take the shuttle from the Radisson. If they are going to request us to arrive at a certain time, I wish they would tell us sooner rather than later.

I also collect ornaments from my cruises! Just glancing at my Christmas tree, I can see the Explorer, Reflection, and Allure :) I'm also reminded of Ravello, Labadee, Mykonos, and Bermuda from my other ornaments. I try to get one from every port, but sometimes can't find them or just flat out forget. Seetosea, I love your idea of turning a memento into an ornament. I'll have to start doing that when I can't find an ornament!

Wonderful review and great pics!

Thank you!

My husband and I did this on our Allure cruise. It was nice to just meet our luggage back home instead of lugging them around! We did each have our carry-ons though. We grabbed a cab, got breakfast, and hit the beach. We felt like vagrants with all of our stuff on the beach!! We still had a fun day, but I would find some sort of actual plans :)

We stopped on our way back for some pictures.

We were then back on the Reflection for a bittersweet last night.

We had an amazing day, but I must have been allergic to something there because my eyes were so red and itchy by dinner time. I took a Benadryl and was so knocked out that we skipped desert and went back to our room. I was upset we were missing our last night out on the Reflection, but we were so exhausted from our long day anyways!!

We did the early walk off which would have been much more effective if people actually listened to the times to go down to the meeting spot. We also were surrounded by people who had "a 9am flight that they couldn't miss." Ummmm, you're going to miss your flight and you shouldn't have booked it so early!!!

We finally got off the ship, met our roll call members, and made it to the airport without any problems for our afternoon flights!

Let me know if you have any questions! I also have the Celebrity Today's if anyone is interested in seeing them.

Next up was Ravello, a very beautiful, but expensive town.

Our driver suggested walking up the stairs to a garden, so we did that.

Definitely worth the walk!

We did some shopping, Matt got more gelato, and we were on our way.

Ahhhh the Almafi Coast! How nice to see you again (:

This time the drive was fine! I think it was because we came in from the opposite way.

We only had a little bit of time in Almafi, but the plans were gelato, a quick cheap lunch, and shopping for family gifts. We grabbed some type of sandwich from a little store and were quickly on our way.

Here is St. Andrew's Cathedral.

I didn't get a chance to take too many pictures here because we were running around like crazy.

Our guide told us that over 3/4 of Pompeii is still buried. They are saving the rest for the future since they said much of it is the same over and over, and they want to preserve it as best they can.

Here is another cast. This person was covering their mouth trying not to inhale the poisonous gases

I felt really bad for the dog though. Our guide told us that most of the animals had left town since animals seem to sense these sort of occurrences, but this one was chained up and couldn't escape.

Today we arrived in Naples, Italy. I had been to the Almafi Coast before and was very excited to return. What I wasn't excited about was the drive. Last time it was so windy coming from central Italy. Before we get there though, our tour took us to Pompeii. We booked this tour with many members of our roll call.

Pompeii:

Our driver took us to Pompeii and pointed out many things on the way. Once we saw Mt. Vesuvius he pointed it out to us and even told us that they call Capri "the pregnant woman" since it looks like a pregnant woman laying on her back. He told us stories and was a great driver and not frightening like my friend's distant uncle that drove us to Almafi on my previous trip!

At Pompeii, the tour company had arranged a great tour guide for us.

She told us that the people of Pompeii did not know that the mountains were actually volcanoes. She pointed out the rocks below our feet and told us it was formed from lava, so they could have known it was a volcano had they known it was lava rock. Apparently Mt. Vesuvius hadn't errupted in many years before the "Pompeii" eruption, so there was no known history of it.

In the piazza with Mt. Vesuvius behind us

There were many brothels. Our guide told us we could tell if it was a brothel if there was a stone bed!!

Here is one of the "menu" options

A theater

Cast

After dinner

There was a "So You Think You Can Dance Like the Stars" after dinner and wow that was entertaining!! It was held in the Grand Foyer. People signed up, and then were randomly paired.

This "couple" were the best. The song was "My Heart Will Go On" and they were basically acting out the Titanic. There was the drawing of Rose, the classic scene on the bow, Rose on the float, ect!

We had a fun night on the Reflection and were ready to see Naples!

Today was our last sea day and formal night. We did our usual lay by the pool and napping for our sea day. We really enjoyed having our balcony. We made it to the show before dinner this evening. The show was "Reflection The Show" and we really enjoyed it. We met with our friends in the hall before heading down. It was nice that they were only a few doors down.

We passed through the Messina Strait right before dinner. Gorgeous!!

We both requested two lobsters this evening. In comparison to Royal Caribbean (basically the only other time I eat lobster), it wasn't as good. Matt agreed. Oh well! Still fine for us.

Matt has a slight obsession with baked Alaska.

On our way back to the port, we stopped at a little pet store. We had to get something for our "kids." We returned our scooter, and then were just walking around town buying souvenirs when we ran into our friends again! We all got lunch at a little cafe. Matt tried to get a hamburger again...sigh.

Hey, at least this one had bread! I decided to just drink my second lunch :D I was still full from our actual lunch.

Once back on board, we all decided that we wanted to hangout by the pool. I planned on heading back to our room to get ready for dinner and to catch the 7:15 ventrioquist show, but we ended up in the hot tub having drinks and fun conversations so I quickly nixed the idea of going to the show. We all had an 8:45 dinner time, so we left in time for that and met after dinner at the Martini Bar.

You can see that my brain is beginning to show signs of overload - I forgot to post the photo of what the Cruise Room looks like now...

Each complete outfit is ready to Try On.

After breakfast, I'll take a cup of coffee, turn on the Caribbean music and start. If I'm still at it at noon, DH will (probably) bring me a glass of wine;).

I am very jealous of your cruise room! My cruise clothes are just sectioned to one area of my teeny tiny over-packed closet (my clothes rack literally ripped off the wall the other night, let's just say DH thought a tree fell on our house it was so loud!). I love all of your outfits, the comforter, and the lamp!!

Another vote for Crest whitestrips! They worked great for me and weren't too expensive. In my teens, my sister and I occasionally brushed with baking soda with a little lemon juice mixed in and that also works well.