Fort Lauderdale Pre and Post Cruise w/Photos: Gallery One/Restaurants/Las Olas

[Host Faith]

Hi, and thanks for the great review with photos! We will be staying at The Westin Beach and Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Can you tell me how far it is from where you were, and is it within walking distance to restaurants?

Thanks!

 

Hi there! I think the Westin was about a 5-minute car ride to the Gallery One area. There are some restaurants around the Westin if I recall. The first that comes to mind is the Casablanca Cafe, which is highly recommended here on CC.

 

If you wanted to visit Las Olas Blvd, or the restaurants that I mention here in this thread, taxis are always available. Or, you can walk; I think it would be about a 25 minute walk from the Westin to Truluck's.

[Host Faith]

Great review Chrystal. So glad I found it. My wife and I are staying at Gallery One in a couple weeks for a long weekend. We were planning to take in Blue Martini for a little dancing but wasn't sure if it would be too young of a crowd for two 40 somethings. Your pictures and review came at a great time. Looking forward to the rest.

Be sure to post a review of Allure as well. We are sailing her in February.

 

Hi f7prez! Your plan sounds like a great one. We really enjoyed the Blue Martini, there were people from all ages there and it was a lot of fun. Have a great weekend in Ft. Lauderdale!

 

I'll definitely post a photo review of the Allure when we return. Looking forward tot he cruise and to writing the review. :)

[Host Faith]

Chrystal,

 

Many thanks for yet another enlightening and informative photo review. We'll be staying at the Gallery One in the very near future for 2 nights pre cruise and had already been planning to dine at Coconuts and Mango's. Pleased to hear that you really enjoyed them.

 

And by the way, we'll be visiting Aruba on our cruise and will be taking an island tour there with Ivan. Part of the reason I made the decision to book with him was reading the excellent photo review you did of your cruise on the Serenade from this past October.

 

Jack

 

Hello Jack! Great choices for restaurants, we're looking forward to visiting them again this fall.

 

Wow, I'm so happy to hear that my Serenade review helped you make the decision to book with Ivan! He's a great guide, I'm sure you'll have a nice day with him. We really enjoyed Aruba. Have fun on your cruise! We love the Southern Caribbean. :)

[Host Faith]

So, we got about 4 hours of sleep that night. We stayed up talking and packing. We could tell that this was going to become a pattern….

 

Woke up and dressed for our cruise. I decided to wear a free-flowing strapless dress. Figured it would be comfortable and would carry me into dinner that night if my luggage hadn’t arrived to the stateroom. Dresses like these make for light packing!

 

 

 

We didn’t eat breakfast at the hotel (I had some fruit and crackers), since we knew we were making a beeline for the Windjammer (the Liberty of the Seas' buffet) once we boarded. Since the sun was trying to come through the clouds, I decided to take a walk around the hotel property and explore a bit.

 

 

 

I watched the bridge open to let the boats through from the hotel pier. I saw the water taxi and a couple boats pass. So cool.

 

 

Used the free internet for a couple minutes (the far side of the lobby leads you to a staircase, take it to the second floor and you follow the corridor to the right), then went back to the room to grab my suitcase.

[Host Faith]

I checked out at 10 AM and got my cash deposit back.

So we returned Crystal’s rental car to Alamo at the airport, and the rental included a free shuttle to the cruise port. When we got upstairs the shuttle was waiting, and there weren't many people on the bus. Very nice and efficient! We were on our way to the ship by 11.

 

 

 

 

 

The bus dropped us off right in front of the Liberty’s terminal. Having sailed the Adventure and the Serenade, I was AMAZED at the size of the ship at first glance! She dwarfed the Princess ship in port. Rae, having only sailed the Carnival Glory, was completely blown away at her size and loved the ship's outer appearance.

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

We dropped our luggage off at the porters (tipped them $1 per bag). One of them fell in love with Crystal, he offered to take us all to dinner when we got back, LOL! It never happened of course. Anyways, once we dropped our luggage off, we made our way through security and check-in. I was a Gold Crown and Anchor Member, and there was a separate line for all members, Gold and up. Since we arrived around 11:15 or so, there wasn't much of a difference between the lines at that time. I did hear it got pretty crowded later, so it's wise to arrive early.

 

Everything went smoothly. There was a delay to board the ship for about an hour and a half. Fortunately, we were some of the last guests to find seats in the terminal. Everyone after us had to stand for those 90 minutes. It pays to get there early! Just my opinion. :cool:

 

I'm showing these photos for anyone sailing Royal Caribbean; this gives you an idea of the check-in process. Maybe you'll see the lady with the crazy hat, she was a hoot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

So that's pretty much it for our pre-cruise experience. Had a wonderful time. Feel free to ask questions, I'm happy to help :)

 

Up next, our post-cruise time in Fort Lauderdale!

[Host Faith]

The last morning of a cruise is hardly ever fun. We weer a little melancholy as we finished packing. Because we had such late flights, we decided to leave our stateroom around 9:45-10:00. As we headed toward the Platinum theatre for the next wave of departures, we came across a worker who asked if we were trying to leave the ship. We said yes, and she said, "Just take the elevator down to deck 1 to depart." We quickly found an elevator and were off the ship (sadly) in less than 10 minutes.

 

What we didn't realize was how long a walk it is from the ship to the luggage terminal. I think we were walking (stopping and starting) for about 10-15 minutes. I wouldn't carry a whole lot of heavy things off the ship, but leave those things outside your door the night before so you can retrieve them in the terminal!

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

We quickly went through customs and caught a taxi to the airport's car rental center. The cost of the taxi was about $20. Our last glimpses of the ship:

 

 

 

We rented a car from Enterprise for the day, and the cost was $60 including taxes and fees. I know we could have gotten a lower-priced car by booking through Hotwire, but with rental cars I like knowing exactly who I'm dealing with ahead of time.

 

Upon getting to the lot, the manager upsold us an SUV for the day. :rolleyes: It was very nice and filled with some cool amenities. A lot of the car was controlled by the touch screen in the center of the dash.

 

The drive to Las Olas Boulevard was only supposed to take about 10-15 minutes, but we were silly and listened to the GPS that ended up taking us toward Miami! We ended up in some random neighborhood for a while. We had to turn off the GPS and use the handy map they gave us at Enterprise to navigate the area.

 

An hour later, we found Las Olas. Yay!

 

[Host Faith]

I chose Las Olas Blvd because I figured we could fill several hours by walking in and out of the shops, having lunch, etc. What a great choice. It's a beautiful area:

 

 

 

In front of our car:

 

 

[Host Faith]

When reading about Las Olas online, I always wondered what the Blvd actually looked like. So for those of you who are wondering like I did, here you go :cool::

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

We parked and used the meter (pretty cool). Wish they had meters like that in Jersey!

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

I really liked all the outdoor seating at many of the restaurants on Las Olas. Upon the recommendations on Cruise Critic and Tripadvisor, I suggested we give Mangos a try and the ladies agreed.

 

We wanted to get a table outside, however it was so busy there that we settled for a booth in the back area with large windows instead. We were so hungry since we didn't have breakfast that morning.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

 

I like to order water with lime when in restaurants.

 

 

Random pics of the decor:

 

 

 

 

 

At first, Crystal tried the Egyptian Mango Nectar to drink...it was waaay too thick, so she went with the IBC Root Beer. She loved it.

 

[Host Faith]

I ordered a Greek Salad with Blackened Chicken. Rae had the Las Olas Shrimp (pasta dish), and Crystal had the Lobster Pot Pie.

 

Everything was DELICIOUS! All the seafood was incredibly fresh. Loved my salad, and the chicken on top was very flavorful.

 

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

After such a leisurely lunch, we decided to spend the afternoon wandering around Las Olas. Crystal went to add some more money to our meter.

 

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

We spent a lot of time in this shop. Crystal bought a couple pieces of jewelry. The clothing is pretty pricey though (of course). If you love sparkly clothing and accessories like me, you'll love this boutique.

 

 

Our SUV:

 

[Host Faith]

The Blvd is beautiful and it was a lovely day, I couldn't stop taking photos. Walking down Las Olas:

 

 

 

Found some more of Britto's work. Royal Caribbean's ships sell his work:

 

 

[Host Faith]

 

 

 

[Host Faith]

 

[BlueHerons]

Wow Chrystal! What a fantastic and informative review!

 

As Floridia Departure regulars, we try very hard to get people off 17th Street and to other parts of Fort Lauderdale and I think your pictorial will do more in five minutes than we've been able to do in years!

 

Love, love, love Blue Martini! It's a lot of fun and not packed with only twenty somethings. I've spent many a bachelorette weekend partying there with my forty something bride friends!

 

Make sure you try Seasons 52 (Galleria Mall) and Big City Tavern (Las Olas) when you come back.

 

Did you notice all the green parrots in the trees on Las Olas?

[aarep]

Great review! I loved all of the pictures. Brings back lots of memories of all the things I like about Ft. Lauderdale. Your room at the Gallery One looked exactly like the same one we had a short time ago. We have pictures of the same views from the room. Thanks again for the review and information.

[Host Faith]

Wow Chrystal! What a fantastic and informative review!

 

As Floridia Departure regulars, we try very hard to get people off 17th Street and to other parts of Fort Lauderdale and I think your pictorial will do more in five minutes than we've been able to do in years!

 

Love, love, love Blue Martini! It's a lot of fun and not packed with only twenty somethings. I've spent many a bachelorette weekend partying there with my forty something bride friends!

 

Make sure you try Seasons 52 (Galleria Mall) and Big City Tavern (Las Olas) when you come back.

 

Did you notice all the green parrots in the trees on Las Olas?

 

Hi BlueHerons! Thank you, I'm so happy you like the review and photos.You give so much great advice here on CC! I was wondering what you and RoyalCruz would think :D.

 

The Blue Martini is awesome. Loved seeing people of all age ranges there. I can see myself making a stop there each time we're in Fort Lauderdale!

 

Seasons 52 is an awesome restaurant; we have one here in NJ (Cherry Hill). My Mom and I have a lot of our lunches there when I visit her since it's one of our favorite spots. I'm a big fan of their blackened fish sandwich- yum. I'll check out Big City Tavern too!

 

I don't remember seeing the parrots! :( Can't believe I missed them.

 

Thank you for your Miami blog too; we're considering spending one night in Miami, then one night in Fort Lauderdale before our Allure cruise. Your blog has been helpful :)

 

As a matter of fact, we're considering staying at the Surfcomber in South Beach. We figured it would be nice to stay at a hotel with beach access, and we were thinking of having dinner at Ola at the Sanctuary, and breakfast at the Front Porch. Any tips? Should I consider another place to stay or any other restaurants?

[Host Faith]

Great review! I loved all of the pictures. Brings back lots of memories of all the things I like about Ft. Lauderdale. Your room at the Gallery One looked exactly like the same one we had a short time ago. We have pictures of the same views from the room. Thanks again for the review and information.

 

Thank you so much! We liked the Gallery One a lot. :)