Allure of the Seas - Feb 17: Review with some pics

[Lloyd555]

Glad that you got to watch the ships leave the port. Hope to do the same next February.

[srvdmy4usn]

We got to the rocks and I jumped right up on them.

 

 

Where is this at?

[CrzGrl62569]

I would kill my mother if she posted a picture of me with my underwear showing on a public forum!!!

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I am really enjoying your review. You have a very cute family. I can't wait for more!:D

[CBCit]

A little off topic, but beautiful puddycat:)

[MomtoCCC]

Suscribing - looking forward to reading some more!

[gambee]

Very nice start thanks for sharing your adventure with us, can't wait for more :)

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for sharing your cruise adventure with us!

 

Great timing to be by the rocks while the ships left port.

[redsoxfan79]

We woke up next day and it was sunny, but it was very cool. I could see people walking around outside with long pants and sweatshirts. But at least the sun was out! DD, as always takes about 1 - 2 hours getting ready. The limo guy called to say can that he could pick us at 10am. I knew we could be ready but not DD so I told him that we'd prefer the original 10:30 time.

 

Unfortunately, he said that a marathon was going on and it would block him from coming at 10:30 so I agreed to 11am, which didn't make me happy since I really wanted to be on the ship asap.

 

At 11am, he showed up right on time. We went through some of the water the day before so I wanted to get more and a little more face-sunscreen. We had lots of sprays, but only one 15 lotion...not great for my DS, a redhead. In minutes we were at walgreens, shopped quickly and went to the cashier. My visa was rejected at the register. Arrggh! I decided to use my discover card, but got extremely nervous cause the visa is the credit card that I used for my seapass! Frantically, I got back in the towncar and started calling my visa company as we drove up to the pier. Each person that I talked to would give me another number to call. We got to the pier in minutes and we're getting out of the taxi and I still have to call another number. I tried to get luggage tags for the cases of water, but one guy said another guy would do it, but that guy was putting luggage tags on a party of 15's luggage. yikes! Finally I walk over to another guy and have a $5 in my hands and I get 2 luggage tags right away. Off we go inside ...it was rather cool that day and the kids wanted to get inside.

 

Once inside the terminal, I was still on phone with 3rd number. I was getting so mad. I got this person on the phone and we had to go thru security. I was told by security that I needed to put the phone thru the scanner so I told the 3rd person (who was telling me that she couldn't help me and I needed to call someone else!) that she needed to hold while the phone went thru the scanner. I was fuming now. I thru the phone in my backpack (with the visa lady still on hold) and put it thru the scanner. Then I got the phone back and wanted to go to the 7th floor check in line, so we got the NEXT phone number from her. Btw, none of these people could forward me to the next person, so DD had to enter the numbers that I was saying into her phone's notepad (or something) so she could read them back to me later. Finally got next person when up checking in at the pier. This next guy gave me yet another number. I was sooo mad and I made that very clear to the guy on the other end. I stopped being nice after the 2nd call. I was worried that the RCCL check-in would reject me (while I was on hold with the next number). I got my pic taken and we got thru. I decided to hang up and call later in the day once we were on the ship.

 

I needed to relax now. btw... i never got my WOW card since I was on the phone and my DH (first time cruiser didn't know that I should get one so he didn't ask). No biggie, but I do love to give them away.

 

Then the day got better...we didn't have to wait in the seats and walked right on board. When we got in the promenade, everyone was really excited. I started showing them all around MY ship. Well, it felt like my ship since I just got off the Oasis a few weeks ago. We went to Windjammer since kids don't like salads or roast beef. We walked around for 15 minutes and couldn't find a table. It was so crowded we decided to leave. As we left, they weren't letting anyone else in. I told the family that this enormous crowd was just the first day crowd and that made them feel better.

 

We decided to go to Sorrentos. We got a table in front of Sorrentos, which I loved so we could people watch. I ordered gluten-free cheese pizza. DS doesn't like pizza so I ran to Park Cafe and got him 2 bags of chips while I waited for my pizza. When I got back both DD and DH were munching down their pizza. My pizza was finally ready but it looked funny. When she gave it to me I saw that it was just crust and cheese. Silly me, I guess I should have mentioned the sauce, but I really thought a cheese pizza included sauce (at least it does here in New England!) I had to reorder. This time the pizza came out good. After we ate, it was a little after 1pm...which mean the rooms were ready!

 

We headed to the rooms. We had rooms connecting rooms 7202 and 7204. I really liked the accessibility of the connecting door. I went on the oasis a few weeks ago with my sisters, brother and mother and we had one balcony room and one central park view room across the hall. It was a little bit of a pain to go from room to room to see if they were ready for dinner (or whatever reason). You had to remember your seapass card or leave the door open with the deadbolt (or you'd get locked out). Having a connecting door was much nicer. We asked our stateroom attendant (blanca) to open the partition which made it even better. She was terrific. Friendly and very attentive. She unlocked the door and opened the door for us when she saw us coming down the hall. She got us wine glasses, and always replaced them when they were used. My DD and I shared one room (the one with the bed next to the balcony) and DH and DS had the bed near the closet (7204) which they liked as well. We decided to have an adult in each room since we were concerned about DD staying out late and us not knowing (which she did, so all this did was get me worried each night since I knew she was out late!).

 

We unpacked, walked around some more (boardwalk, aquatheatre, located our dinner table on the 3rd floor). DD didn't want to stay outside for long so we briefly saw the boardwalk and she told us she didn't want to walk on the pool deck today (too cold). It was time for the lifeboat drill which always makes me want to take a nap. After the quick lifeboat drill, DD wanted a sweatshirt and DH made a stop in the bathroom. I was getting nervous, cause I wanted to get up to the top deck. By the time we got there, you guessed it. No more spaces by the railing. I asked if they wanted to go to the private aft decks...they wanted to stay where we were and that was fine by me. The group in front of us were spread out so we could see past them easily. Not my planned-out, wave-while we-stand-at-the-railing experience, but it was still fun.

 

Then we had to tell DD that she only had about 20 minutes to get ready for dinner. A 16-year old girl needs much more time than that. She did a nice job of getting ready, except she decided that her nice floral sun-dress, that is floor-length in the back and up to her knees in the front needed a leather belt...which she just had never worn. It was too large and she needed a hole punched in it. After about 10 minutes of trying with toe-nail scissors and the wine opener, we gave up. It looked fine without the belt.

 

Our table of 4 was on the 3rd floor, straight as you come in, in the main section. The kids had a bench-seat and we had chairs. There was a big post behind me and DH, so we kept our chairs in so the servers could get by us. They run around so fast and it is so tight in the dining area. I feel bad for them...they definately work hard (well, our main server did...not so much with the assistant waiter).

 

The main server (Dwight East) was wonderful. He kept saying "Are you serious?" whenever you asked for anything or ordered anything. It was cute at first, then it got a tiny bit annoying and then it got endearing cause we liked him so much. Every night he knew my son wanted chicken fingers and french fries (he removed the veggies quickly before my DS saw them). He would cut my DD's prime rib or wedge salad (of course, she can cut her own food....but he would grab her silverware and cut all her food as we would all laugh). He was great with my gluten allergy. Always double-checking everything before I ordered it and again as he brought it out to me. I don't even know our assistant waiter's name. He walked around aimlessly. I never got gluten-free bread...which I got on the Oasis every night. No big deal since it isn't that great anyways. I could have asked for it, but I didn't bother. Dwight brought us the drinks most of the time and the bread was just left on our table when we got there. Occasionally, the assistant waiter brought us drinks, but perhaps only once a night. I felt bad for Dwight cause he was doing both jobs. He got drinks, took orders, cleared the table, checked with the kitchen about my allergy, brought me the next day's menu, joked around and cut food!

 

 

I was really nervous on the first night of dining. I looked around and most people were dressed much too casual. I don't mind a few people, but it seemed like about 3/4 were in shorts, t-shirts, or jeans. My family put on nice pants, buttoned-down shirts, and sun-dresses. Well, it made me very nervous for Formal night the next night. I was afraid we would be overdressed and my family would be mad at me because we were going to wear suits and gowns.

 

After dinner we changed into more casual clothes for 'Chicago' which started at 9pm, I wanted my kids to head up to the teen center for the meet and greet. I tried hard to convince them, but they were nervous and didn't want to go. So we walked around floor 5 (promenade - my favorite!). DH and DD went to the Schooner bar while DS and I went to amber theater. We got there really early which is one of neurotic habits. I get nervous if I'm not at the start (or close to it) of any line.

 

We got front row seats for 4...felt bad, but we held seats for DD and DH. They told us they would be right along (they did this quite a lot), but they were always very late. I think DS got more mad at them than I did. A man plopped two tiny kids in the seats next to our 4. Front row center! There were only two seats and the littlest one didn't want to sit on his dad's lap so the dad left them there alone! They were only about 5 and 2 years old. They were already loud and squirming everywhere. He came back to them (about 10 minutes before the show started). I thought he was going to take them away....instead he orders them sodas! DD and DH show up and I moved so DH could sit next to them. He is much more tolerant than I am. I would want to sternly tell them if they didn't behave I was going to escort them out. I, of course would never do that so I needed to remove myself from the situation. Before the show there was an announcement (my son and I had this speech memorized by the middle of the cruise since each show had the same announcement...

"limited bar service during the show so order drinks now, no flash photography, no recording...and here is the big one.... no unattended small children in the first 3 rows").

 

So we thought for sure that this guy would come back and take them away. Nope! At the start of the show, the waiter showed up (lights down) looking for the kids. They hooted him over and then the little 2 year old put his gingerale in the arm rest's cup holder (it didn't fit in the cup holder at all so it rocked all over the place). As it was about to go over (onto DH) he grabbed it and held it for the entire time. The kid said to him "Hey that's my drink" to which DH said "I will hold it until you want to drink it". The kids were so noisy that the people in the second row were getting so mad. The dad came back (in the middle of show) and talked to them a little (didn't kneel down...just hunched over a little blocking everyone behind them. Then he left. I don't know what they talked about. DH was trying hard to ignore them. Then about 10 minutes later he came back. Stood up right in front to chat and then finally took them both away. He never made any attempt to stay out of people's way! btw... later in the week, my DS and I were looking at our pictures in Focus and we looked down on the Promenade to see a mother taking a picture of a kid in the fancy old car. The kid was actually in the car grabbing the steering wheel while he jumped up in down on the seat, pulling at the wheel. You guessed it! It was the same 2 year old.

 

The show, Chicago, was good although I've seen it quite a few times. I've even been in it when I used to do alot of community theatre. So the story was a little old to me. I really did enjoy it.

I liked Velma (DD didn't like her voice...it was a little piercing ...not sure if that is the word to describe it). I personally didn't like Roxy. Deep voice, but just something about her voice. She seemed to lose volume every so often. Amos was good, Billy Flynn was a typical Billy Flynn...also good. Mary Sunshine was fine too. Mama Morton, Amos and Velma were probably my favorite. I loved watching the band on the stage and I love fosse style dancing.

The ensemble dancing and singing was great. I didn't love one or two of the cell block tango monologues... emphasis on the strangest part of the monologue. OK. I am a really picky critic of musicals :-) My DS was getting tired and had his fill of musicals. DD was Brooke Wyndham in her high school's Legally Blonde for two weekends before the cruise. And I dragged him to 3 performances (I went to all 6).

 

About 2/3 though Chicago, DS fell asleep which mortified me cause I know the actors can see the first few rows. I tried to wake him but it wasn't working so I left him alone. At the end of the show Roxie and Velma throw a rose or two in the audience.

Well, the plastic rose that Velma threw flew right to DS and hit him on the head. It woke him up quickly! DD, DH and I laughed so much. I wonder if Velma wanted to wake him up :)

 

We knew it was time to get DS back to the room ...before someone threw something else at him :) DH took him to bed while I walked around with DD. DD was fine during the day, but I could tell that something was wrong. She kept looking at any little group of teenagers and she came to the conclusion that every single teen on the ship brought at least one friend. And she thought she couldn't go up to the teen center cause no one would come over to her and she would look stupid. I could see her eyes tear up a little. I felt like I had wasted money on this cruise since she was so unhappy...well, that would change as the week went on. But that night, we went to bad a little sad.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

i can imagine the stress of the credit card fiasco. Did you ever get it straightened out? Sometimes the CC companies will block a card when they see it "travel". I usually (if I remember) call my CC companies before I leave on a cruise to tell them I will be using it and where. I will surely do it before my cruise next month!

 

Looking forward to more.:)

[redsoxfan79]

i can imagine the stress of the credit card fiasco. Did you ever get it straightened out? Sometimes the CC companies will block a card when they see it "travel". I usually (if I remember) call my CC companies before I leave on a cruise to tell them I will be using it and where. I will surely do it before my cruise next month!

 

Looking forward to more.:)

 

 

When we were unpacking around 1:30, I called the 'next' number and got someone who cleared up the issue in 1 minute. Yup, my mistake for not calling before I traveled. I didn't have to call the previous two times with my visa so I took it for granted that this time would be ok too. Live and Learn!

[Carguylee]

Thanks for the revi so far!

[redsoxfan79]

Where is this at?

 

We stayed at the Lago Mar which is located at 1700 S Ocean Lane.

 

So If you continue south on the beach for about 1/4 mile (at the most), you will be at the rocks.

 

[IrishLassie]

Loving your review. Really upsetting tho when there are parents that don't give a d.... about their children. As my DH always says "some people should not be parents" !! I'm surprised no one from the crew didn't tell them to take the child out of the car.

[jamer8]

I am loving your review! We are from the Boston area also, and we're going on the Oasis over April vacation. My DS is in 8th grade, and DD is in 7th grade, so I'm paying close attention to your kids experience, especially your son. I'm sure you will get to it, so I'll be mostly patient , but I was wondering if you rented the i-phones while you were on the ship, and if not, how did you stay in touch with the kids?

 

Also, did you happen to make such a thorough review of your Oasis cruise? If so I'd love to read that also.

 

Thanks again, I can't wait for "the rest" !

[srvdmy4usn]

We stayed at the Lago Mar which is located at 1700 S Ocean Lane.

 

So If you continue south on the beach for about 1/4 mile (at the most), you will be at the rocks.

 

Thank You!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[redsoxfan79]

Since this was February, I wasn't sure if it would be warm or cool in Nassau, so I didn't want to book a water activity. We ended up booking the Atlantis Beach day (which included a tour

of the DIGGS aquarium area). It turned out to be a good choice, although a better choice would have been just the DIGGS tour. It would have saved us a little money since it was too cool for the beach...but we were hoping that we might get to the beach. We wore sweatshirts and were shivering for the first half of the day.

 

When we got outside the Allure on the pier, it was chaos. There were hundreds of people going to Atlantis and we didn't really know where to go. I asked a few different people and found a small line at the front for us. We ended up going past most of the people doing the aquaventure.

 

We got in a bus which took us over the bridge to Atlantis. We were the only ones doing the DIGGS and the beach so we were told we needed to go to the beach first. It was much too cool for that so I asked if we could do the DIGGS tour first. The excursion person said we weren't supposed to do that, but she totally understood and told us that she would personally walk us over to the DIGGS tour first. She was nice, but we did have to wait another 15 minutes outside in the cold until she was ready to take us.

 

We walked around the DIGGS and it was a nice little tour. We were lucky enough to have good timing and we saw a Stingray being fed.

 

Then we were left to roam on our own.

 

We went to the beach area and decided against it based on the wind. DS found a concession stand and wanted french fries so we stopped and ate at a little table.

 

We roamed around the pool area and then watched some people doing the lazy river and water slides. We couldn't get a great view, but we got an idea of what it was like. The people doing the water slides looked like they were having fun, but it got a little cloudy and we talked to some on the ship later and they said it got really cold around 11:30am.

 

We headed back to the ship at 11:30. It worked out OK...DH got to see his fish and I got to get back to the ship and relax. DS wanted to eat at Johnny Rockets so we headed there. DS loves his chicken nuggets so we ate at here a lot. DD and I got chocolate shakes and I found out that Johnny Rockets had a really nice hot dog

with a gluten-free roll for me. Yum! I had that about 4 times this week! It costs a little to eat here, but it's so little that I didn't mind. It was $4.95 a person and then you have to pay for drinks (sodas are included in the soda package). So it generally cost me between $10 and $20 to eat here.

 

We changed into bathing suits and went to the pool area. Since we ate lunch, the pool area filled up with the people coming back from Nassau so we didn't find the best lounge chairs but we got 4 that were fine. We sat there a while. DH read Girl with Dragon Tattoo,

DS read his Harry Potter book. DD sunbathed and I got restless...too much to do on the ship so I didn't want to sit around.

 

I took DS and DD to watch flowriders. It was cool out so there were only a few there. There was 1 guy that was really good - you could tell he was a surfer. Whenever we went to the Flowrider all week long, this guy was there while his girlfriend sat on the benches reading a book.

 

Then we moved beach chairs to where it was less windy since the sun was gone. We found some near one of the hottubs and DD and DH decided to go in the hottub. The one near us was overflowing with

people so they went to find another one. I asked DS if he wanted to go in the hottub, but he seemed cranky so I decided to join DD and DH. It was very, very crowded in every hottub. I couldn't find which one they were in so I had to walk for a while looking for them. I finally found them, squeezed myself into the warm bubbles and it was heaven! After a while I felt guilty and decided to go back to DS, who was even more cranky. OK, time to do some things that will make him happy. So I told DD and DH that I was going to hang out with DS for a while.

 

DS and I went back to the rooms to change and then off to the promenade deck. The Rising Tide bar was there and I suggested that we go for a ride. DS asked "Can I go in that?" Sure.... we got in and got a nice table near the bar. The bartender there was nice and joked with DS a lot. I got a kalhua and cream (kalhua sombrero...which must be a New England drink, cause I had to describe it to every bartender on the ship) and DS got a water.

We walked around the ship a little more, exploring, since we didn't get a chance to do that yet.

 

Then it was time to get ready for Formal night. Once we were dressed, they didn't want to leave the room cause they thought I might be wrong about formal night. They thought they would all leave the room and see a bunch of people dressed like last night (short, jeans and tee-shirts). I convinced them to head out. They kept laughing and giving me glares until we got to the elevator and saw some people dressed up very nicely. Phew! I wanted to leave early and get some pictures before the photographer lines got long. We did that (asking the photographer not to do any silly poses that we wouldn't consider buying - no hands on hips for us!...).

 

Then it was off to see Dwight and hear more of his "Are you serious"? After dinner, we did more pictures out in the Promenade, and then we had to wait in line to see the Captain...who seemed very friendly. The kids were horrified when I kept asking strangers to take pictures of us. Then we walked around the boardwalk where the kids threw sandbags thru holes (some kind of game on the boardwalk). Then it was time to go back to the room and change for our show. We headed to the Boardwalk and saw that Oceanaria was cancelled and rescheduled for wed...right after headliner. I wasn't surprised. Everytime I've been on the Oasis, it was always postponed too.

 

We walked around the sports deck. DH and DS played ping pong which was right near teen club so DD could see lots of teens hanging out. Then we went back to the promenade and the all of a sudden DD said "Can I have my seapass. I want to go for a little walk." This was about 8:30pm. So I told her that we were going to get on the Rising Tide bar and then head to the casio so she could meet us in one of those spots. DH was a little nervous but I thought she could walk around and we'd find her later. We went in Rising tide bar again and the Bartender said "Hey Josh (DS), how's it going?" I must be a bad mother if a bartender remembers my 13-year old son. After the Rising Tide Bar reached Central Park, we didn't see DD so we went to the casino. I saw a few kids walking around so I thought the rule might be that kids are OK in the casino, but can't play. I had been on a few cruises, but not with kids so I didn't pay attention

to kids in the casino. I should have researched this rule, but I didn't. Anyways, DH and I sat down at 2 slot machines near the cashier and DS stood next to me.

 

About a minute later, someone came over to us and said that DS had to leave. I wasn't surprised and DH took him out. I told him that I'd meet them back at the room. I wanted to play a little while longer. After 2 tries (at 2 cents a try), I won $137.00! Yeah! I always stop when I'm ahead so I left and went back to the cabin. It was close to 10pm now and DS always turns into a pumpkin around now. He likes his sleep! I asked DH if he wanted to roam around and I'd stay with DS. He was happy watchingTV (he found a movie to watch) so I roamed. DH and I were wondering were DD was. I figured she went up to the teen center so I said I'd head up there to make sure.

 

There is a sign that says Teens Only so I didn't want to go in, but I walked by a few times and couldn't see her. Every time I took an elevator, I took a glass one so I could look at each floor, hoping to see her while I was in the elevator.

 

I went to Sorrentos on the 5th floor and grabbed a coke and a table to people watch. Now, it was about 11pm. I saw a bunch of teenagers walk by and I expected to see her with them. I thought this

was the group that was hanging out in the teen Center. DD wasn't with them so I was starting to get worried. I went back to the room and talked to DH. He was getting upset and told me to go into the Teen Center no matter what. I headed back up there and this time (around 11:45), I saw her!!!! She was with a few girls, talking to the teen counselor. I was sooooo relieved! I was tired now and went to back to room, told DH that she was safe and went to bed.

DD showed up at 1am. She had a nice night and met a nice group of girls. The next day I knew I had to tell her that she needed to keep us informed so we won't worry.

[redsoxfan79]

I am loving your review! We are from the Boston area also, and we're going on the Oasis over April vacation. My DS is in 8th grade, and DD is in 7th grade, so I'm paying close attention to your kids experience, especially your son. I'm sure you will get to it, so I'll be mostly patient , but I was wondering if you rented the i-phones while you were on the ship, and if not, how did you stay in touch with the kids?

 

Also, did you happen to make such a thorough review of your Oasis cruise? If so I'd love to read that also.

 

Thanks again, I can't wait for "the rest" !

 

 

My son is kind of a loner, who doesn't love meeting new people. He stayed close to us the whole time and had no interest in hanging out with kids his own age. DD said there were lots of kids in the teen area for his age group if he wanted to go. So I'm sure your kids will have a great time if they venture out.

 

I-phones...in retrospect...shoulda done that! It would have saved me a lot of sleepless nights. I was afraid that my careless DD would lose it and I would have to dish out $500 or whatever it cost to replace. We did use notes on the outside of the cabin door a few times and it worked great. But I was the only one that left the notes so they always knew where I was! :-)

 

Oasis... I didn't write a trip report, but I'll summarize the trip and compare it to this one at the end of the report. I loved both ships... they are almost the same. The shows were the big difference.

[Dolby1000]

Have you forgotten about us poor souls living on these great reviews until it becomes our turn?

 

More please! You're off to such a great start, such a handsome family.

 

 

OWD

[ibcnusoon]

Loving this review, your family sounds like mine!

[redsoxfan79]

Sorry that I haven't posted for a while...we had a snow storm on Friday that was larger than predicted so I didn't get to work that day, and I left all my cruise notes at work.

....................

 

Tuesday:

 

As I was lying in bed (before the sun rose), I could feel that the ship was getting even more rocky. I woke up early (around 6:45) and got ready. I went out on the balcony and saw that it was completely overcast and very windy. I was concerned about any of us getting seasick so I packed a bunch of dramamine. I wrote a note for DD to read when she woke up to take 2 dramamine. I woke up DS and DH and told them to take some too, and to let them know I was optimistically going up to the pool deck to get us chairs for the day. I wanted them to meet me up there in about 20 minutes. It was about 7:30am now. When I got to the pool deck, I saw that none of the pool lounge chairs were out. They were still stacked up one on top of each other. Strange...it wasn't raining (I think they knew what the weather was about to come!).

 

I decided to head to the solarium and got 2 solarium chairs. It started to rain and my chair selection was very good. I had two chairs directly in front at the bow, under the glass roof. After about 30 minutes (still no sign of DH and DS). I quickly went down to tell DH I was in the solarium. The pool chairs were still stacked up. Back in my solarium chair, it looked like it was lightening up a bit. Beyond the black clouds, I could see white in the distance getting closer. But as it got closer, I found out it was a wall of pouring rain! DS and DH shoedw up and DH came into the solarium since DS couldn't go in. They were going to windjammer. They had a quick breakfast there and DH brought me a milk so I could have my usual carnation instant breakfast. DD finally appeared, looking rather sleepy. She ate in the windjammer and then the rain stopped. After she ate breakfast, we looked outside for chairs on the pool deck since we knew DS couldn't go in the solarium. They were just starting to put some out, but it wasn't good out there. DS had to lay across the chairs so they wouldn't blow away while we went to get towels. Any empty lounge chair was actually moving because the wind was so bad.

 

I was about to get my stuff off the solarium chairs (it had been about 15 minutes since I left those chairs). But the wind was just too bad out here to stay...I put my sandals under my lounge chair and a minute later, they blew away and the guy behind me caught them. After about 2 minutes, I looked at DH and said 'you and DD go back to the solarium chairs' (which I was about to take my stuff off). I decided that I didn't need a pool day today. I will walk around with DS (only 13 so no solarium for him).

 

So my DH and DS had a great day. The solarium was the only warm, non-windy (and I mean really windy today!) outdoor place on the ship. Every hour or so, I would visit them in the solarium to see wonderful how my nice seat selection was.

 

DS and I had a fun day. We headed to Johnny Rockets again for lunch. I asked DS to go to the solarium to see if DD and DH wanted to go to Johhny Rockets while I waited in the short line to be seated. But was told couldn't enter the solarium. I thought this might happen so I told him to just let them know he wanted to tell his father where he was going. He quickly asked them if they wanted to have lunch with us, and then left.

 

DD and DH decided to join us for a milkshake so they showed up right before we were about to leave and then headed back to the solarium to read/sleep the rest of the day. DS heard the announcement for BINGO and we thought it might be fun so we went. We got in line in front of the Amber Theatre. I got DS a bingo machine and he thought it was so cool. He had the best time playing Bingo. We sat near the front of the theatre. He only had one number to go in the first game so he stood and everyone booed him. He loved that. He didn't win that game, but was starting to get the gambling addiction :-) He got to stand on the next game too. The bingo-guy called the next number and I heard my rather-shy DS yell "BINGO". How fun! The bingo-guy said that "a Junior Cruiser is the winner!" in his caribbean accent. He was the big winner of the day since he was the only single winner. He won $375. He didn't win the next game ... or the raffle for the aqua theatre cabin, but one win was all we needed! Everyone congratulated him as we left the theatre.

 

 

 

It was time to get ready for dinner. We were eating at Chops tonight. DH really enjoyed eating here. The service was slower than the usual MDR service, but that is because this was a much more relaxed atmosphere. Each time I've been to Chops, it seems loud and it is difficult to hear the servers. No difference this time. The food was wonderful. The server laughed my DS ordered chicken fingers at this nice steakhouse, but she happily got them (all the way from the MDR). We ordered so many different a-la-carte sides. You can order as many as you want. We got 3 different potatoes (mashed, baked and the one with proscuitto and cheese - I was told that I could only have the baked, DD wanted mashed and DH wanted the cheesy one). When the food came out, I was told I could eat the mashed so I did, and my massive

baked pototo needed to be thrown out :-( We also got brocolini, asparagas and mushrooms. The Filet Mignon's were delicious!

 

I booked the comedy club for tonight, but wasn't sure if DD would want to stay with DS while we went. DD kindly agreed to hang out with her brother so we gave them their sea passes and off we all went in different directions. Dh and I walked by Dazzles, and could hear a band playing so we went in. It was two girls playing a tamborine and guitar to recorded background music. The bottom floor was packed so I remembered from the Oasis that there was an upstairs. We watched a few songs from a table on the second floor. Unfortunately, this must be the smoking floor, but we grinned and beared the cigarette smoke.The music was nice and the two girls sounded like quite a large band with the recorded music adding to their voiced.

 

It was time to leave for the comedy show. I wanted to get there a little earlier, but I was trying not to be my neurotic-self so I wouldn't annoy DH too much. We got there and there were only a few seats in the last row and a bench along the wall. I picked two comfy chairs in the last row with a table next to us. Good choice since people really started squeezing in tightly on the bench along the back wall. The place got packed and they had to send people who couldn't find seats away. I had heard the second

comedian a few weeks earlier on the Oasis. His name was Kivi. I liked him then. I expected that he would perform the

exact same act. I was pleased that about 1/2 or more of his act was different. And I enjoyed the jokes that he repeated so much that they were still funny this time around. DH really enjoyed it too.

 

We got back to the cabin to see two sleeping kids....how precious! I'll get a good night's sleep tonight!

[jamer8]

I'm glad you're back to reviewing! Thanks for your reply. My kids are both very shy also, but since they are only one grade apart (7th and 8th) they usually do a pretty good job teaming up together as buddies when we vacation. I'm hoping they'll be brave enough together to go check out the teen scene.

 

We were all shocked by that storm friday! It was not fun driving to work Friday in it...you're lucky you got to stay home :)

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of your review, thanks again!

[redsoxfan79]

Wednesday - St. Thomas - swimming with the turtles

 

I was so excited!!!! I woke up to see that it was sunny. Well, it was if you looked straight out the balcony, but if you looked toward St. Thomas, you could see lots of clouds :( We had a quick breakfast in the Windjammer. Well, it was quick once we found a table. We mad the mistake of splitting up to find a table, and my DH found one but couldn't find us to tell us so he left the table after a minute. I told him he should have waited at the table because I was just about to send DS to look for him. Well, DH got a little mad at me. I found a table quickly after meeting back up with DH. He was still mad and kept scolding me for leaving him, and then he went to get breakfast while I stayed at our table. Two women at the next table looked at me and said "That's why we leave our husbands at home!" I smiled back at them...I needed that!. We left the Allure and met up with our excursion (Caribbean Sail to Christmas and Honeymoon Coves). It took us a little time to figure out where to meet up with the tour, but we just kept walking along the pier and then we saw the group of people holding signs with each tour name. The tour lady told us to wait by kiosk in 20 minutes. So we decided it was a good time to lotion up even though it was still cloudy. The group for this tour kept getting bigger and bigger.

 

In about 30 minutes, 2 ladies showed up and told us that there were 90 people from allure so they needed to split us into 2 groups. They did it in a strange way...they told us to hand our tickets to either of the 2 girls. We picked the one near us just because it didn't seem to matter. The other group left first and got on their nice pirate ship (I think it was called the Silent Lady) about 20 minutes before us (no worries since the day will be long anyways). When our group got to the dock, we were told that there were 2 more people than collected tickets. So they did a roll call. Then they needed to pay someone so one crew member left the dock for a few minutes.

 

We boarded the Bones pirate ship. We sat in the back of the boat (but there was a door open on the floor to the deck below direclty where our feet were). I thought they would close it, but it was the bathrooms so it stayed open the entire day. Again, no worries, just told kids not to fall in! :-) Off we went, music blaring. If you take this excursion and you don't like loud music, you might want to sit in the front or middle of the boat, but the front got very wet due to waves hitting the front of the boat.

We needed to wait for the very slow Kon Tiki party boat to turn around in the small area of water at the pier. It only took about 5 minutes and we were finally off! We left around 11am.

 

They drove the boat towards the other St. Thomas pier ...I thought we were going to stop...but they just took us their for the nice view of the other cruise ships.

 

We hit a rain storm that lasted about 2 minutes. But it was fun since the song that was playing had something about "raining" in the lyrics. The sun came out and that was the last bad weather of the cruise! The crew, including the captain and crew (sorry...forget their names), chatted with each family, asking where we were all from and just chatted. They passed out the fins and snorkels during the trip over. About 20-30 minutes later, we got to turtle cove. There were a lot of other ships already there and 2 of our crew members stood on the bow of the boat, yelling to snorkelers to move out of the way and making sure we didn't run over them.

It looked like a little island that we were going to snorkel near. They gave us life vests which were flat...not any air in them, but they said we could add some puffs to the straw-like thing if we needed it. Then they told us how to jump off the ship and off we all went (some of the older people stayed on the boat). I'm not a great swimmer so I gulped a bunch of water during my plunge off the ship.

 

The minute I got in the water, I puffed as much air in my vest as I could, but it only helped a little. My kids also wanted air. DH didn't seem to want to help them out, he thought they were fine so I tried to puff air into theirs. Still not a big help, but still helped a little. Then off we swam to follow the girl crew member who was taking us on a tour of the snorkeling spots. She told us never to put our feet down on the ground (if we ever came close enough to it) and not to touch the turtles. Right away...someone yelled 'turtle'. DD and I are not great at this mask stuff so we would put on our masks only when necessary. Therefore, I am probaby not the best person to say how good the snorkeling was. I looked down a few times and saw turtles. By the time I got there, they were on the bottom and looked small, but still really cool.

 

Many people saw them when they were breathing on the surface. Not me or DD. Then the crew girl found a sea urchin and she let anyone hold it that wanted to. Then she made it over to the other side where the coral reef was. I saw a few fish and my little buddy, DS, told me he was going back to the ship and asked if I wanted to go with him. I think he was just trying to 'save' his mom, but he also looked a little tired. I think we were out there swimming for about 30 minutes. It was easy climbing up the ladder after taking off the fins and handing them to a crew member. Then we sat on the boat and watched the other snorkelers.

 

Most headed back with 10 minutes, included DD and DH. The crew stood on the bow again, shouting to those in the water to move out of the way...we were headed to Water Island! The minute were were back on the boat, they passed out the painkillers. I think it was rum, orange juice, pineapple juice and coconut juice. I'm not a big fan of pineapples and coconut, but I tried it. It was fine but I passed it to DD to try (she didn't like it cause of the alcohol). I was happy with my cold can of coke. The kids had water and DH had a beer (or two or three!).

 

They put up the big black sails and turned off the engine. Our side of the boat was up really high ...one time the other side hit the wind and went up high, and the woman across from me fell right on the floor. She laughed and got back up. One of the crew came around and gave everyone pirate tattoos. We drove past the Allure on the way to Water Island. It took about 20-30 minutes to get there.

 

Once we were at Honeymoon Beach (on Water Island), the crew told us we could take the dingy (fits about 8-10) or swim ashore. The crew said it

really was further that it looked. I thought "I can do it!" So we gave 2 towels, sunscreen, wipes (gotta have clean hands!) and DS's cheerios (we knew he wouldn't like anything at the BBQ) to the captain who promised he'd get it all ashore on one of the dingy runs. Off DS jumped and started swimming. DD was next. They told us we could jump off the high part at the back of the boat (not me!), but DH did it....and made a huge splash too! Then it was my turn. I held my nose this time so I wouldn't inhale as much sea water this time. That worked. Didn't swallow water this

time.

 

My family kindly swam way ahead of me so I was the last one. I swam for a while and looked back...didn't make as much progress as I was hoping, but 'just keep swimmming'. I finally got there and really never paniced. But it was a long swim. I asked DH why he didn't swim with me cause I'm not a great swimmer. He told me that he was worried about himself making it to shore so he needed to go as fast as he could. Are you kidding me? He can swim great, and I never had a swimming lesson in my life. Well, DS and DD did turn around a lot to see if I was still on the surface so

that made me feel better.

 

Got to the island and waited for the dingy to bring our stuff (2 dingys later, but they were quick). By now everyone was in the line to eat. We went over and got in line for the BBQ. DH filled his plate and DD got some salad and bread. We brought some cheerios from the Allure for DS so he was ok for now. They had bbq beef brisket (I think), bbq chicken, salad, pasta salad, rolls and a bean dish. I asked the buffet servers (which were the Bones crew, plus about 2 others) if they knew if there was anything I could eat (no gluten). They got the bbq sauce jar so we could look at the ingredients, but it contained modified corn starch so I had to stay away from the bbq beef, but the chicken didn't have sauce and the

salad dressing was fine so I had chicken and salad.

The captain of the Bones was felt bad that I had a food allergy so he went off and then came back with a nice big glass of red wine for me! How thoughtful!

 

A dog came over (a very hungry dog) so I fed it a lot of my chicken. He seemed happy and then he moved to the next group of people and got more food. DS was upset that I was feeding him, but I saw no harm. I think DS thought that all this people food wasn't good for the dog.

 

We went over to the beach and the 4 of us sat on our 2 towels. I guess we should have brought all 4. DD headed for the rest room while DH and I walked the beach. It was a short beach so the walk didn't take too long. We checked out the restrooms which were adequate. We all went in the water for quite a while. It was so warm and it was nice to finally have the sunny, warm weather.

 

We watched the Kon Tiki pull up to the beach. It was fun watching everyone get off the Kon Tiki cause they got out in chest high water and were carrying their towels high above their heads. Some of them weren't very successful keeping their towels dry. The 2 hours on the beach went by quickly. Soon it was time to go back to the Bones pirate ship. We all decided that we were not going to swim back so we went over to the dingy and it was definately quicker and easier, but I'm glad I swam to the shore...got my exercise in for the day (or week!). On the Oasis, I took the spinning classes, but I decided not to do them this time. The ride back to the ship was quick. The crew asked us to hoot and holler loudly as we approached the Allure. With the music blaring and all the hooting, we got a lot of looks from everyone on their balconies.

 

It was getting late...we were probably one of the last people to board the Allure. We got back around 5:20pm and all aboard was at 5:30pm.

 

Here is a picture of the Bones ship as we were getting off at dusk:

 

They had already pulled up one of the gangplanks. We had about 20 minutes to get ready for dinner. I took a quick shower and I had to scrape off the pirate tattoo (soap and eye makeup remover didn't help so I scratched it with my nails).

 

I couldn't believe that DD actually was ready by 6:05! Not bad. Dinner was nice...not sure what we had. I'm not much of a foodie so I didn't take notes or pictures of each of our meals. I remember liking all of the food good enough, but none were spectacular except for one appetizer that I really liked (beef carpaccio).

 

After dinner, we walked through the casino, then got in the elevator to go change for the headliner and oceanaria (one right after the other since the aqua show was postponed to tonight). In the elevator, a man in a black suede jacket asked us if we enjoyed our dinner. I said "Yes, it was very good, how about yours?". He looked at me funny, and then I noticed that I recognized him from a picture that I had seen. It was the cruise director, Ken Rush. So much to my kids horror, I said "Oh, you're Ken Rush" and he said "yes, I am". I said "Well, how was your dinner, I guess you have to eat too, right?". He laughed and my kids were giving me the evil eye ....mom, you talk way too much! Anyways, he wished us a nice evening and got off on the 5th floor.

 

We quickly changed and headed to the Amber Theatre for Mozaic - a young acappella group. We sat in the back so we could leave quickly to go to oceanaria which started 15 minutes after the headliner ended. We all loved Mozaic! I left before the last song (Bohemian Rhapsody) so I could make sure we got seats for Oceanaria. My family joined me 5 minutes later. DS was looking forward to the diving show since he loved watching the diving during the Olympics. We all thought it was good, but not great. DH was disappointed that he couldn't follow the story line. I told him that the story line was not important... you were just supposed to enjoy the diving, swimming, trampoline and other acts (one man upside-down balancing on another man's head was really cool). We were all disappointed that no one dove from the highest perches. Both times on the Oasis, they dove from way up high, but not this show.

 

We walked around a litte, but it was a long day and we all wanted to go to bed. DD was telling me again how it was not fun without friends on the cruise. Off to bed ...hoping for more sun tomorrow in St. Maarten.

[Cruisin' Again 86]

Great Review & Pictures !!

 

We are cruising on Allure in May and now considering Lago Mar over the Hyatt. How far was your cab ride from airport and/or port ?

 

Thank You !!