Come Sail Away With Us!! - allure OTS Live Blog 9/23/2018-9/30/2018

tortoni · October 4, 2018

Wow, Sabor looks good. Will give it a try when we go at the end of the month!

cft8 · October 4, 2018

Sabor looks amazing. My DH is very anti-guacamole - he will not touch anything with avocado (whereas I just finished eating avocado toast for lunch). Next time we are on a ship with Sabor, I am telling him that it's so good it changed the mind of an entire family on CC.

His reaction will probably be :rolleyes:

Then I will have it all to myself, so either way, it's a win.

lcookie · October 4, 2018

Wow, Sabor looks good. Will give it a try when we go at the end of the month!

Be sure to report back.

Sabor looks amazing. My DH is very anti-guacamole - he will not touch anything with avocado (whereas I just finished eating avocado toast for lunch). Next time we are on a ship with Sabor, I am telling him that it's so good it changed the mind of an entire family on CC.

His reaction will probably be :rolleyes:

Then I will have it all to myself, so either way, it's a win.

Hopefully his experience will match ours. But hey as you say win win for you.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Costa Maya -

We were just here in April and spent the day at the port. My plans this trip were to head over to Mahahual. With all of the reports of seaweed I backed off of that plan. The backup plan was to visit some ruins and go to the 7 color lagoon.

After much deliberation I let lil bits decide what we would do this day. She decided that today would be another boat day. She initially wanted to go to the pool at the port, but after spending most of yesterday in the water that itch was scratched.

Her current plan was to go spend the day in Kids Club. She had read the activities after our trip to the arcade and was wide open to participate. This is another one of her favorite activities yet this was the first time she is participating.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

All that being said I have the morning to myself. I decide to head up to the flowrider for advanced surfing hour.

Just to watch of course.

The weather is perfect but there is a rain cloud off in the distance.

The cloud moved in fast on us.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

After standing on the sideline for most the morning it is now "Amateur Hour"!!!

Going Once

Going Twice

Sold

WIPEOUT

Let's Try This Again

Easy Now

Hold Up Wait

Too Late

By no means did I think this task would be easy, but darn! It took all I had in me and that wasn't even close to being close enough.

The entire time the trainer is yelling "JUST RELAX - LET YOURSELF GO - FEEL FREE" as he zinfully stands there in water shoes and no board.

Really?????

Now I know how Teenie feels when we are doing math homework [emoji1]

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Relaxing was the last thing on my mind. You can't tell someone who crunches numbers for a living to simply put most of your weight on the back let and let it rip. The entire time my brain is running like a mainframe. "60/40 no 80/20 no 55/45". All the while the water is rushing pass me and splashing in my face at 100 MPH. And dont forget my coach that is barking out orders like a Drill Sargent. I was focusing on everything but my legs of which were wobbling like a toddler taking their first unassisted steps.

Total sensory overload but I was loving every minute of it!

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Edited October 5, 2018 by lcookie

lcookie · October 5, 2018

After my session was over I decided to head over to the boogie board and rebuild my confidence.

Total Zen going on here.

Then I try to get fancy and kneel on the board.

Yeah I Know -

This is a bad idea but I'm already committed.

Watch out there now!

How did I end up here?

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

I blame it on the stiff cross wind. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

OK so now that the rust is knocked off time to man up and master this surfing thing.

This time I switch sides because my lack of balance has to be contributed to my bad knee that I jacked up sking many moons ago.

Some truth was to be had from that as I did do a little better.

See that hand up in the air. That is a major win.

This is the face of a champion! (in his own rights [emoji2] )

Or is it the face of someone that is feeling he is getting too old for these shenanigans?

I'll let you be the judge.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

I sit out in the sun for a while then head down to freshen up and meet the girls. Mama is sleeping in today so Teenie and I head out. First we chase down her cupcake reservations, then we nab a bite to eat.

After that I drop her off at kids club and head back to meet mama. She grabs a small meal then we head to the solarium.

Don't know if it was like this everyday but this place felt like a sauna.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

We hang out there until the kids club session is over. I go to pick up lil bits and mama goes to the library to read. Not sure what capers we get into next but we end up kidnapping mama and heading to MJ trivia eventually.

We didn't do too bad but didn't get close to winning either. Next we go get ready for formal night pics and mama hit one of the flash sales on the way to the dining room.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

So we get to the MDR and head to the reservations line for our seat when the lady says "I'm sorry sir we don't have any reservations for you" Come again please. I set both formal night reservations on day 1 soon as we checked into the cabin. Can you please check that again? Oh I see sir your reservation was for 5:45.

Not sure how that got botched when I requested the same time both nights. Let alone the first formal night went off without a hitch.

No biggie - Go With The Flow!

We step outside and take a few photos then our table is ready shortly after that.

This was the first time I actually felt the boat rocking. Capt had her running wide open towards Port Everglades.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Because of the mix up we are seated after the presentation.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

After dinner I host my traditional private photo shoot.

The little one loves to play along with my shenanigans but mama not so much. She'll give me one or two and that's it.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

A couple more

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Getting ready for a long night we head to the room to dress down a little.

Next we head out to catch blue planet. I give this the "Best Show at Sea" award for this cruise. The visuals were well done and thought out. You really felt like you were there if you know what I mean. I just really enjoyed it.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

After the show we dropped teenie off and headed out to "The Quest"

RC's Quest is not as PG as MSC but definitely not as Over The Top as Carnival.

MSC - Kids Allowed

RC - Cameras Allowed

Carnival - NONE OF THE ABOVE!

This was mama's first "Real Quest" experience and she enjoyed herself.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Not ready for the party to end we head to the casino. Yet another first time for us on this ship. Not wanting to play too hard we drop our life savings into a penny slot and get ta running.

Yes we are double fisting the water as fast as we can. The stress of losing our mortgage money right before our eyes is getting to us.

We drop down substantially and I try to convince mama to go heavy. She is having none of it and hit the button one more time.

Ding Ding Ding - Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

We are now up 7% for the night. Hey that's approaching 401k territory.

Of course I am dreaming of that 5th wheel toy hauler we cannot take home because she refused to Max Bet!

but

Cash Me Outside - How Bout Dat!

Who's Dat Lady! [emoji14]

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Now we are so high off our winnings we can't wind down. Next stop back of the boat.

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lcookie · October 5, 2018

Get this. We just figured out how to get ice so we head out just to find this

Life can be so cruel.

We head back to the room and find our little princess all YouTubed out.

That closes out this evening. Be sure to check back in for the "Grand Finale" - Seaday 2 aka Day 7

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lcookie · October 6, 2018

Seaday 2 - The Grand Finale

This is our last day onboard so we have to get in as much as possible today - as if we already haven't been doing that already.

This day starts off with a BANG!!!

Yep yep yep. My Try Dive Scuba lession starts bright and early at 8 AM.

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lcookie · October 6, 2018

We got a 10 min pep talk then about 15 mins of on the water training. They then gave us 20-30 mins of free swim. I must say I really enjoyed this experience so much that I want my dive certification.

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lcookie · October 6, 2018

The wind was howling today. You could barely walk through some of the corridors.

After I dried off we went down to Johnny Rockets for bfast. Most of the day this is a pay restaurant, but it is included in your cruise fare during bfast.

The atmosphere was quaint and the food was good. Very similar to the buffet just fresher.