Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[harryfat1]

Hey, free food sample, just like Costco

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

Time for the demonstration part of the tour

 

 

 

 

You get to hear some history and background on how they make their chocolate bars. They add in more chocolate than the average bar but much more expensive

[harryfat1]

 

They asked for a volunteer to come forward to help them add in the ingredients

 

 

 

After the demo (which was pretty long for about 15 minutes), more freebie samples of hot chocolate. Wouldn’t want to drink in August when it’s 90+ degrees outside but in December, it was good

 

 

And of course, the final part is a given. Time to visit the uncle in prison. They didn’t bring you all the way out here just to try their free samples, right?

 

 

[harryfat1]

$5 a pop for a small bar

 

 

This reminds me of tea shop or perfume display

 

 

 

More shops outside if that’s your thing

 

 

Just standing around waiting for all the shoppers to be done visiting their uncles

 

[harryfat1]

OK, back in town, almost back at the pier. Be sure to have some small bills for tips for driver and tour guide. They make it known they would appreciate it if you tip them and they stand by the door as you walk out.

 

 

Back at the port, safe and sound. Time stamp of this picture is 1:29 and the official start time of the tour was 9 AM (but be at the end of the pier by 8:45) so it’s a pretty long tour from begin to end. Great value for $40/pp on a ship sponsored tour. You see a lot of things and learn about the island/history and the tour adds a different dimension to the cruise and not just “we sat inside the ship all day long”. Go out and see more of the area if you are physically able to do so.

 

 

In summary, I like the tour. I knew ahead of time that this Mayan ruin is a baby one compared to the Chichen Itza one so I was ready for the lack of wow factor. Given it’s a short overview of the Mayan ruin and the island, it did its job well. Given how rough the ocean waves are from the storm, I am glad I didn’t take the ferry over to Tulum as I would most likely be sea sick from the turbulent waters.

 

If I had to structure this tour myself, I would have cut out more of the part 3 of the sales pitch at the chocolate store and added more time at the beach (30 minutes instead of 15). But then I know the tour company gets kick back money for every bus load of tourist they can dump onto the area. That’s the business side of tourism. Happens everywhere.

 

If you will be stopping at Cozumel on your cruise and looking for a tour for the family, take a look at what we did. You can either do the same or hire a driver with Tours Plaza to see the island on your own agenda.

[harryfat1]

So we are back at the cruise terminal. As always, they put a gauntlet of shops in front of you to wade through as you try to get back to the ship, just in case you have any thoughts of visiting your uncle in prison - that you hasn’t already done so many times earlier in the day if you were on a tour.

 

 

 

 

 

Just in case there are not enough shops downstairs, they have more upstairs so you can be sure to maximize your uncle visitation time

 

[harryfat1]

All right, finally made it to the edge of the pier

 

 

Here is my wife & I with 3 ships in the background

 

 

For those that don’t want to venture far off from the ship for whatever reason, come here and chill out by the sand and the water and have a drink and get your Wi-Fi so you can be connected. Combine that with all the shops behind us, relaxing way to spend the day.

 

 

Back into the security zone

 

 

 

[Coralc]

$5 a pop for a small bar

 

 

WOW! I think we will stick with Ghirardelli bars. :D (3 or 4 for $10 at the outlet store in San Leandro) :D

Edited January 31, 2015 by Coralc

[harryfat1]

WOW! I think we will stick with Ghirardelli bars. :D (3 or 4 for $10 at the outlet store in San Leandro) :D

 

Yeah, at the price of $5 each, I didn’t see people fighting over them like the $19.99 watches back on the ship.

 

Thanks for checking in, I think I have bored everyone to death with the Mayan rocks pictures. Awfully quiet here talking to myself today.

 

When I was younger and starting out in my accounting career, I took BART (for non- bay area folks, BART is our version of the subway) to/from work. I had to work late many nights and whenever I walk past the BART stations, that’s when all the weirdos show up late at night. They would stand there and have a loud conversation with themselves.

 

Figured I might have turned into one of those guys. Although nowadays with people and their wireless Bluetooth device in their ears, you don’t know if they are really crazy in talking to themselves or there is an actual real life person on the other end of their ear…

[Coralc]

LOL Harry! :D We are still very much enjoying your review. The San Gervasio ruins are interesting. I was going to ask if you saw the Africanized Honeybee traps on the way out there. (big white boxes in the trees) But I realized that they have probably all been blown away in hurricanes over the years.

 

We do have our own departmental fruit/vegetable/plant detector dog. He works at UPS, the post office, FedEx, etc. :D Sorry to interrupt. :)

[harryfat1]

LOL Harry! :D We are still very much enjoying your review. The San Gervasio ruins are interesting. I was going to ask if you saw the Africanized Honeybee traps on the way out there. (big white boxes in the trees) But I realized that they have probably all been blown away in hurricanes over the years.

 

We do have our own departmental fruit/vegetable/plant detector dog. He works at UPS, the post office, FedEx, etc. :D Sorry to interrupt. :)

 

Oh, please, you KNOW that I have no clue what an Africanized honeybee trap looks like even if those bees sting me in the rear. Not exactly close to my area of knowledge.

 

Just thinking maybe I should have written a trip report for a 4 day cruise instead of 7 days as I only have enough jokes for 4 days’ worth of reports such that my report was mildly entertaining up to day 4 and now I have nothing funny to say because I am out of aunts/uncle jokes. Maybe need to look into my family tree tonight to see who else is bad enough else I can drag out…

[dani negreanu]

Well, Harry, I was not only not bored to death, I had enough energy to look at your other reviews, thinking "why not get 3 laughs for the price of one" :) I was especially looking for pictures, but there were none.... Nevertheless, I was very pleased to find out that one of your boys is named Aaron, like my DH. So we also have 2 boys, 2 years apart, and the eldest is named Itamar (one of Aaron's 4 boys). I mean Aaron (Moses' brother). Maybe your boy is named after someone else? My DH is named after his grandfather, a Jewish tradition.

[beachseasand]

Thanks for doing this wonderful review. Finally caught up to you my DH is a few ports behind me, but he will catch up. Even though we are going on the Oasis this has been very helpful to us, since we will be doing the same ports of call. Thanks again and happy cruising to you and your family.

[micmacmissy]

 

 

:D SMILE, Harry! :D

 

I'm still here...keep talking!

[flpenguin]

Thanks for the info on the tour-we are thinking of booking it for our trip in March-we're swimming with the sting rays in grand cayman the day before and not interested in snorkeling, No way the kids are going to survive a 8 hr tour to Tulum-my husband I have been there already so no need to have miserable kids

[rncruiser]

I'm still here and still enjoying your posts. I'm dreading the end of them almost as much as I dreaded the end of my cruise. I guess it's pretty sad that reading your latest posts is one of the highlights of my day😊

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[Dan1964]

Talk about ADHD, all I see in this is BLAH, BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!

How about actually getting to your report. Oh wait, I'm no longer interested!

[bobmacliberty]

I think you win Harry for most pictures in a review...perfect :D

 

I work with a guy who is an admitted chocolate snob. According to him, the less sugar the better (too bitter for me), and therefore also the higher the price. He's brought back very expensive chocolate from Brussels and Switzerland that I think is a complete waste of money, but that he absolutely loves. He would have been in heaven at your chocolate stop. To each his own I guess.

[cruisemeister8]

We're not bored, Harry. We're the kind of lurkers / readers who save comment until the end. LOL!

 

I appreciated seeing the whole tour through your camera. Now I don't have to go. Seen rocks; done that. Ha ha. No seriously, I read all the stories in your sign pictures. I do the same thing on tours. Take pictures of all the informational signs to read later. Between the environment and the tour guide yapping, my brain turns to mush to 'learn' anything on vacation. I'm also guilty of keeping all the informational pamphlets and free maps that tourist traps are famous for handing out. But I digress.

 

I agree with you that 15 minutes at the beach is a jip. It's more like a 'photo opportunity' that many of these tours slip into their descriptive language. Been on a few of them and have learned to read between the lines of the description. But the chocolate place did look interesting. It's no Hershey or Ghiradelli; but I didn't know it was there. So thank you for that. And I loved the picture of your boys sampling the varieties of chocolate next to each colored wrapper. It speaks volumes. You have a very lovely family.

[janeyzee]

Then it struck me that cruise lines should start the people’s vacations/partying mood BEFORE they get on the ship. Such that if they brought out entertainers like ones you see on cruise (see Cuddy the assistant cruise director and the leopard girl working the crowd at the show on day 7).

 

So what we needed was a “wave”, YMCA dance and maybe a Gangnam style dance to liven up this crowd as we waited. Every major entertainment event has a “warm up act”. They need to have couple of the party organizers at the cruise waiting area. The workers there are WAY too corporate anal. In theory my vacation started when I was issued the sea pass card downstairs so entertain me while I wait…

 

I'm late to the party but I'm smiling as I read this review. You might be cheap, you might be anal, but you are funny!! I think you should have taken the role of Cruise Director and led all the cruisers who were waiting to board in a wave and a YMCA dance! You'd have been a hit.

[Cruisin' Along]

 

OK, here is a butt to butt competition. Whose butt is bigger? Of course our butt is bigger. Nah, nah, nah, nah, our butt is bigger than your butt…Let’s do a cheerleading chant. 2-4-6-8, whose butt do we appreciate? Allure, Allure…

 

I always knew - somehow, somewhere - there was a situation where it would be just fine to brag about one's butt being bigger. You found it! :D

[harryfat1]

Good morning to everyone. Wow, thanks to everyone’s comments. Woke up this morning to a slew of responses. Thanks all the feedback.

 

Just like running a marathon, at certain point of the run, you are just by yourself along the trail and it’s nice to see/hear a voice.

 

Almost done with the report. Should have day 6 completed by end of today.

 

Tomorrow might not do much since it’s Superbowl but might be able to sort/upload some pics in the morning to kick off day 7.

Edited January 31, 2015 by harryfat1

[FishOn55]

talk about adhd, all i see in this is blah, blah, blah, blah!

How about actually getting to your report. Oh wait, i'm no longer interested!

 

 

 

huh?

[harryfat1]

Well, Harry, I was not only not bored to death, I had enough energy to look at your other reviews, thinking "why not get 3 laughs for the price of one" :) I was especially looking for pictures, but there were none.... Nevertheless, I was very pleased to find out that one of your boys is named Aaron, like my DH. So we also have 2 boys, 2 years apart, and the eldest is named Itamar (one of Aaron's 4 boys). I mean Aaron (Moses' brother). Maybe your boy is named after someone else? My DH is named after his grandfather, a Jewish tradition.

 

Morning, Dani,

 

Thanks for your kinds words. Wow and wow that you read all my older reports. Think you are really ready for a cruise (or two) after reading all that mindless gibberish.

 

Sorry no pictures in the first 2 trip reports as they were not done in “real time”. Those were written in its entirety for the “review” section of the forum and you cannot insert pictures in those reviews. Just upload in MS word and that’s it. This is my first forum posting with pictures. I didn’t even know how to upload pictures to Flickr & attach to a post until just few months ago.

 

My son wasn’t named after anyone specifically. We bought a kids name book and just literally looked through it page by page until we decided on one name we liked. Or if you want to be sarcastic (who me being that way?), I tell people since it's the first boy name in the book (starts with AA), we just stopped and picked that name as we were lazy and didn't want to read the rest of the book.

 

Have a wonderful cruise on the Allure during her European itinerary this summer. Be sure to attend the gardening tour as some of the plants you see while in Europe will be different than the ones here.

[harryfat1]

Thanks for doing this wonderful review. Finally caught up to you my DH is a few ports behind me, but he will catch up. Even though we are going on the Oasis this has been very helpful to us, since we will be doing the same ports of call. Thanks again and happy cruising to you and your family.

 

Thanks for the compliment. Glad this info is helpful. You and your husband have a wonderful cruise in March.