irishgirl0525

Ok! this is very late and not live at all, but here is my blog! I'm sorry it wasn't live, I was just so ready to sleep by the end of the day!

Departure day-Saturday 3/2-

We woke up in NJ to 4 inches of snow on Saturday morning, but thankfully, we did not have a huge delay. Our flight took off about 2 hours late which was annoying, but I was so glad that we were not on the Southwest flight that clipped another plane’s wing and caused a huge delay for those passengers.

After landing we went to visit our friends in Coral Springs and since we were late getting in, we were much later arriving in Miami than we had anticipated. My husband dropped me and my sound asleep daughter off at the Hyatt Regency at 9:30, and then had to drive the car to Miami airport to drop it off, then uber back. Not the most convenient of plans, but it worked. While he did that, I repacked our suitcases for the 3^rd time and prepared our embarkation day bag.  Next time, I leave 25% of what I took at home!

Embarkation Day-Sunday 3/3

Our plan was to hit the terminal between 10 and 10:30 AM. We caught an Uber and arrived at about 10:25, dropped out bags with a very helpful porter whom we tipped well, and then headed in. 

There were others their ahead of us, but not a huge crowd.  It was 10:31 when we went up the escalator, and we walked onto the ship at 10:45. I couldn’t believe it. We had just gotten our picture taken in front of the fake background of the ship when they announced they were boarding Key passengers and we were literally standing right there. We were almost the first passengers on the ship! I felt that the Key paid for itself in that moment!

We got on board, took it all in for a few minutes, and headed to the Amber theater to check our carry on bags which was another Key perk and a very welcome one.  We headed to Sorrento’s for a slice of pizza (and Mai Tai’s, our first official drink) because we needed something to tide ourselves over until our 12:30 Chops lunch reservation.  After that we headed to the pool deck, changed into swimsuits and enjoyed about an hour at the beach pool (and some more mai tais!)

Lunch at Chops followed. We had a lovely waitress named Yuting from China, who took a liking to our daughter.  We ordered the Chops burger, which I was looking forward to.  It was not bad, but just ok. I was sorry I hadn’t ordered the tenderloin. I also wanted to try the goat cheese salad and the gruyere tots but I knew they were not offered for embarkation day lunch. I did ask though, just in case but they were not able to do it, too much going on the first day and those items are time consuming from what I was told. Not a big deal at all, we still got mashed potatoes and mac and cheese!

Our room was an extra large balcony on deck 10, starboard side. It was perfect for the 3 of us. We unpacked and organized the room until it was time for muster, which wasn’t too terribly painful, and then we were in our room for sail away.

We were in Silk on deck 5 for dinner and we shared a table with another family of 3 with a 7 year old boy and we got along great with them. They also had the deluxe drink package so when the servers with shots came around each night, we never turned them down. 

Our waiter and assistant waiter were very nice, but the first few nights, drink service was extremely slow. It did get better by the end of the week. I know they are really busy and we weren’t in a hurry, it really was not a big deal.  They took great care of us throughout the week. I ordered an appetizer plus escargot every night that we dined there, and one night I asked the headwaiter about having savory bites that I had heard about, and he made sure they were there on Wednesday night. (BTW, I am at a loss for why these are missed. They were kind of dry and odd but we ate them because it was a special request and I didn’t want to be a jerk.

We got Shannon signed up for Adventure Ocean after dinner that night as we had missed sign up that afternoon. She was thrilled to go and play, and that gave us a chance to walk to the Boardwalk for some margaritas.  We realized that Ocean Aria was about to start, and lo and behold, there were special seats for The Key, so we got a great spot to watch the show, which we thoroughly enjoyed. I kept wondering how they allow for the forward movement of the ship when they start a dive to where they finish but they had it figured out so I tried to stop worrying about it

We headed back to Sabor for margaritas from inside the restaurant, where they were decidedly better than the ones we got at the bar out front. I tried the Avocado margarita which was very good, and I can’t remember which one Ken had. We got the guacamole to go and headed to pick up the little one. 

Ken went back out to get some drinks for the room so we could enjoy on our balcony. 

It was a long first day but very enjoyable!

Up next-Nassau, where we stayed on the ship.

3 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Following! And happy 10th anniversary!

Thank you!!

On 2/27/2019 at 2:05 PM, ThyriC said:

I'd skip the art auction personally.  I'm not in the market for fine art and if I was, I'm not sure a cruise ship would be where I'd want to purchase the art.  I like looking at the gallery, that's fun.  But the art auction, not even the free champagne can get me to be interested in buying art.  

 

My SIL and BIL have bough SO MUCH art on the many cruises they have gone on, and then my BIL brags about how many thousands of dollars they have spent on the stuff. And they have totally bought into how much they will be worth, etc. And my husband and I are like, WTF? who spends that much money on cruise ship art? They are not buying art from dealers at home, so it's not like they are collectors. I just don't get it. To each his own, really, it's not like it's unattractive art, but it's a lot of money.  Like $25k on a sculpture. He just wants us to know that they have that kind of money to spend, but I'm not impressed.

4 hours ago, Matt said:

Art auction, port shopping info events, and bingo.  I know some love bingo, but I'd only play bingo if it's the one where there is a guaranteed winner. Most of the time, that is not the case.

Oh that's good to know, I was thinking I would play bingo but I didn't know they don't all have winners. It shows you how much I play bingo.

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Hello all! I will be attempting  to live blog as much as I can from Allure of the Seas, March 3rd Sailing to the Western Caribbean.

I am going with my husband Ken and our 5 year old daughter to celebrate our 10 year anniversary.  We picked Allure because it was recommended as a great kids program and I liked the itinerary, I wanted to go back to Cozumel. 
It's a first cruise for my family and my 3rd, though it has been 11 years since my last cruise on Navigator OTS in March 2008. She looked very different than she does today! Before that I was on 2 different Carnival cruises for which I did very little planning but times have changed.  For 11 months I have pored over posts, obsessively listened to Matt's podcast, and have packed with Sheri on CTTV multiple times. 

My nails are done, our bags are packed (though I will be repacking them tonight because I have way too much stuff) and our plane boarding passes and set sail passes are printed. 

Getting there:

We are flying out of NJ tomorrow morning to FLL and then going to take a detour to visit a friend in Coral Springs. Then we will head to Miami tomorrow night and try to get some sleep!  I fully intend for us to be at the port by 10:30 AM on Sunday and one of the first on the ship to explore and attempt my first public periscope (please bear with me if you are following me!)

The itinerary:

Western Caribbean:

Nassau-We will stay on the ship, which probably won't be as empty as we would like

Cozumel-Beach day at El Cozumelino

Roatan- Private tour with Victor Bodden tours because I want us to be on our own schedule and stay as long or as short as we want to. We are planning on seeing monkeys and sloths, then some lunch at a local place and snorkeling off of West Bay Beach. 

Costa Maya-We will spend the day at Maya Chan beach where we will renew our vows and enjoy some relaxation time. Still back and forth on whether or not we'll leave our LO on the ship for this one (she told us she wants to stay on the ship) but that will likely be a game day decision.

The room and board:

We are in stateroom 10602 large balcony room.  We did bid on a Jr Suite and Crown suite through RoyalUp but I do not have my hopes up that it will come through, the ship has been sold out for several weeks and we didn't bid much. It would be a nice treat though.

We got the deluxe drink package for $44 per day and the Key which we scored at $19.99 and I felt that was well worth it.  We are looking forward to Chops for lunch on embarkation day.   We do plan to eat in the MDR, but have a reservation at 150 Central Park and I plan to reserve Chef's table on board when we figure out what day is best. We may add something else but I enjoy the traditional dining and my husband thinks that sounds good too, getting to know the waiter, table mates, etc.

We love craft IPAs but not expecting to find much of that on board, so it will be morning bloody marys and poolside margaritas.  Any other favorite drink suggestions welcome.  I heard @Twangster order a frozen lemonade with grey goose on periscope today so I'll have to try that, sounded delicious!

Oh and I almost forgot, we are celebrating my husband's birthday while we're there as well which falls on Mardi Gras this year.   Our daughter is very excited about Adventure Ocean and keeps telling us how she can eat dinner with us and then they'll take her to go the "kid's club". I can only hope she likes it as much as she thinks she will.

So much to look forward to and I look forward to sharing it with you all!

We'll be getting off Allure as you are getting on!  I'm sorry we'll miss you, it sounds like our 5 year old daughters would get along very well, we have a social butterfly too! She is very excited about Adventure ocean! 

I am super late responding to this, I guess my notifications were off...I checked and there are 4 ships in port that day. That's a lot!

Last night my husband said he would like to get off the ship because otherwise it's 3 straight days on the ship, which is fine with me, but it's his first time and he's not sure he'll like that.  I told him then he can do the research and pick an excursion because I am out of ideas for Nassau!

After much deliberation, I finally made a decision this morning and cancelled our dolphin encounter and booked El Cozumelino. Between not feeling great about supporting dolphins in captivity and really wanting a relaxing beach/pool day with a swim up bar, we figured that was the best way to go. I'm excited about a relaxing day!

looking forward to following!

On 2/3/2019 at 12:17 PM, Joe V said:

What’s the cost of the vow renewal at Maya Chan?

I was quoted $265 plus 12% gratuity for the vow renewal. which I thought was very reasonable.

Thanks so much for all of the feedback, I'm sorry I disappeared, I was at work and then got busy and couldn't get back to the board!

23 hours ago, rjac said:

What ship are you on and have you cruised it before? 

We are going on Allure and it's my first time on the ship and my husband and daughter's first time so that's why I thought it would be fun to stay on.

22 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I'm sure it's just me, but with all of those other beach days planned, I would probably choose to stay on the ship in Nassau....especially if Nassau is near the end of the itinerary.

This is what I was thinking, we have other beach days planned. Nassau is actually the first port we are going to.

17 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

We did Blue Lagoon and quite enjoyed it.  Having said that, we are doing same itinerary as you on Symphony and we'll be staying on the ship for Nassau day. We prefer another sea day and Nassau us a good stop to give up.

I originally planned to stay on in Roatan because I have been there before but then I heard Nassau was the one to skip. 

15 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

My husband and daughter did the blue lagoon beach break and dolphin swim back in March. Pics and details are in my Anthem blog (link in signature below). They loved it and hubby did mention how beautiful it was there. He said that was his favourite beach in comparison to Labadee and Coco cay. And he also mentioned that the water level is quite shallow before it gets deep so great for kids. I feel like it is a pricey excursion though.

I think this is what is making me consider it the most. I think the shallow water will be great for our daughter and the beach seems like it will be the prettiest. I will check out your Anthem Blog.

We actually have a Dolphin encounter booked in Cozumel but I plan to cancel it since my husband is feeling guilty about the dolphins being in captivity and then we would do El Cozumelino.   If we did this beach break in Nassau i think we could at least see the dolphins and sea lions (according to my friend) if my daughter wanted to.  But you are right, it's a pricey excursion. 

So I'm torn between these two options. I was pretty set on staying on the ship for our Nassau stop and enjoying as much as we can when people are off the ship. However, I was out with a friend last night who has been to Nassau a few times and said it's a dump, don't do anything near the port, but she really, really loved her Blue Lagoon beach day, and that it was so beautiful. I have read mixed reviews on the experience there, and I really don't want to spend 5 hours off the ship for that port, but maybe I should reconsider.

I know it's all based on what kind of experience I want, very subjective, but I would love to hear opinions and your experience/advice.  We are doing a western caribbean itinerary with stops in Nassau, Cozumel, Roatan and Costa Maya.  Is the beach at Blue Lagoon going to be better than the others? 

We'll probably do El Cozumelino in Cozumel, we are doing a private tour and West bay beach in Roatan and Maya Chan in Costa Maya so we have no shortage of beach days. 

Just now, coneyraven said:

Oh sure --- I'll try that, holding a plate of bacon and my coffee

Exactly!

The only thing I'm going to do is POSSIBLY jog around the track if I'm up early enough in the mornings.  Other than that, I'm going to eat what I want and enjoy. Presumably not to the point of exploding

Thanks for the blog,  I have enjoyed reading it.

We are going on this itinerary in March on Allure.  What time did you meet the ride for Maya Chan?

16 minutes ago, KJones said:

I'm not thrilled about the conditions either (or the cost!), but my family has been begging for years to do something like this. So I'm caving this time but then will never have to consider it again thanks for the advice to contact the facility!

I am feeling like we don't need to do and can wait and let our 5 year old do it when she is older, but we have talked it up so much to her before now, she is looking forward to giving a dolphin a kiss, so I'm torn. I am sure we can do a lovely beach day in Cozumel instead.

My husband is now second guessing our Dolphin encounter because he feels it's not fair that they are in captivity so I'm not sure if we'll cancel and do something else or if he'll just deal with it. I feel the same way about it but I guess i have an easier time turning a blind eye to it. It will probably bother me when i am there. I'm researching other options for the day in Cozumel, but for now this is what we have booked.

16 hours ago, KJones said:

We're signed up to do the dolphin excursion while in Costa Maya, which is supposed to end at 9:30a. The ship departs at 3pm. Would it be worth the time/money to spend the rest of day at Maya Chan? I imagine we wouldn't get to spend more than 4 hours there.

Oh that is an early excursion!  Maya Chan is $57pp per day, but you would be able to take advantage of lunch while you are there and get your money's worth. You may want to write to Jane at Maya chan and ask her thoughts on the timing. It takes about 25 minutes to get there from the cruise port so there is travel time too. She is very helpful, see what she says.

Just now, Sh2738 said:

Yea the prices are staying high for 2019. I have a Nov 2019 sailing on Symphony but luckily I was able to get 49 for Black Friday but haven’t seen it any lower and it probably won’t go lower than that. Back at 52 now. 

I keep checking since I have seen others say they got it for $42 but I'm guessing it won't change. Maybe I'll get lucky!

4 hours ago, JLMoran said:

@ellcee@Broons77

@ellcee@Broons77

Drink fatigue is real. The better a price you can get for the Deluxe package, the easier it is to "break even" across the trip and not feel like you need to be having a "party like it's 1999" day every day. If you think that bringing your allowed two bottles of wine would be enough, at least with MDR dinner drinks, to cut down the amount of drinking you'd be paying a la carte to less than the daily package cost, consider skipping the Deluxe package and just get Refreshment packages instead. Then you have all the non-alcoholic stuff covered and you can get alcohol as / when / where you want it.

I got it for $52/day. I had hoped to find it for lower but that's the lowest I've seen so far so at least I've got the best price as far as I know.

We were just talking about this because my husband listened to the podcast about the drink package yesterday and is it worth it for us. It could be but we are pretty sure that drink fatigue will hit us, hopefully not too early in the week. 

I didn't know how to delete those tags up there so they are just hanging out, sorry.

1 hour ago, Sh2738 said:

I wish I could do 150 but as I travel with a vegetarian it’s not really an option as the current menu only shows one so called option for a vegetarian, a piece of cauliflower. For sure not worth the cover charge for some cauliflower. 

Would love to try it so hopefully they get a better menu soon with more options for vegetarians. 

But if anyone has experience lately eating there as a vegetarian please feel free to share, maybe I’m missing something. Thanks 

I thought the same thing when I saw that cauliflower "steak". Give me a break. I know a lot can be done with cauliflower, but let's not get carried away. We're not idiots.

35 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

If you want a really, really, really good filet -- then you will absolutely want to do Chef's Table, and kill two birds with one stone. I didn't have it, but @ellcee did when she went to CT on Anthem; she said it was the best filet ever, and even better than Chops (which she'd had just the day before). The rest of the food is equally awesome, IMO, and you're getting some really good wines with the meal. It's also very much a social experience, between talking with your table-mates, learning about the meal first-hand from the chef, and learning about the wines from your sommelier.

Yes this all sounds good, though I didn't realize that they always have a filet on the menu, at least I didnt' see it on a sample menu. But that's great to know.

35 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

 

If you want a really, really, really good filet -- then you will absolutely want to do Chef's Table, and kill two birds with one stone. I didn't have it, but @ellcee did when she went to CT on Anthem; she said it was the best filet ever, and even better than Chops (which she'd had just the day before). The rest of the food is equally awesome, IMO, and you're getting some really good wines with the meal. It's also very much a social experience, between talking with your table-mates, learning about the meal first-hand from the chef, and learning about the wines from your sommelier.

Yes, Chef's Table is pricey when you buy it on the Cruise Planner, but if you're OK with going to it on day 1 and not buying the seat for it until you're on board, you should likely score a discount for that night from the specialty dining folks who will be hawking specials the whole day. That said, I paid full price as I didn't want to miss MDR and meeting our table-mates on night 1, and I felt the meal and wines were worth every penny I'd paid and then some.    

If I'd gone to NYC for that meal I'd have been out more than double what I'd paid in the Cruise Planner. If I'd gone to a restaurant in Morristown or Montclair that was on par with NYC, I'd still have paid a lot more.

Ah a fellow North Jerseyan! I live in central NJ but work near Morristown and I see your point.  Have you been to 90 Acres? We did their "Bring Me Food" tasting menu for our anniversary earlier this year and yes, it was definitely pricier than Chef's table.

To your point about the MDR on night 1, I also don't want to miss out on meeting our table mates on the first night, it's one of my favorite parts of cruising.  I may just wait until after Christmas to book, right now all of the nights are available.

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And keep in mind that if you pay full price, you can expect to be able to have as many glasses of wine as you like; from what I've read here, you do not get that perk if you buy the meal at a discount on Day 1. So while it says you get 5 glasses of wine in the description, you can easily have several more than that. I want to say I had more like 8 or 9 glasses by the time it was all said and done, and they don't do light pours either. If five glasses of wine is your limit, then no reason not to grab a discount if it's offered.

The only other specialty dining venue I've been to so far is Wonderland. I happened to like it, but it wasn't a blow-my-socks-off experience the way Chef's Table was. You definitely need to be a seafood lover, given how many of the appetizers are seafood-based. It's good for a one-time experience, but after that I'd spend my money on other specialty dining venues.  

I can definitely do more than 5 glasses of wine (and hopefully feel ok the next day) but then we also have the Deluxe drink package which may not get any use that night so then is it worth it, especially if we are just tired of drinking later in the week. I keep going back and forth on this but for now, we have the deluxe drink package and we'll probably keep it that way and decide if we need it in the future or not. We can drink our fair share but I'm not sure if we can for 7 days in a row.

Thanks so much for this info, this helps a lot.

1 hour ago, tiny260 said:

150 Central Park, the Sea scallops and short ribs are good, but my best is the Tenderloin for 2, very well prepared and great flovor.

Chefs Table, I have not done it yet, but will be dinning in January when I'm on Allure, pinging @JLMoran for his feedback, but I would say if you like a 5-6 course meal specially prepared for you with matching wines, then it is for you. I'm not even a wine drinker and I'm going to give it a chance. Yes, in October on Freedom, they were walking around the ship and giving discounts if you tired the Chef's table, we were going to but didn't have an open night.

Hamburger, I wouldn't have this insight until I tried one on Freedom, but the hamburger that you get in Chops on the Lunch menu is amazing, best hamburger I have had on any cruise ship.

Don't discount Chops to much, what I have figured out is that you have to know what to order, as an example, I'm from the Midwest, so when I get a steak and baked potato I usually get a russet potato, from Chops I got a Yukon Gold, so it was a little off, but the Mac and cheese is good as well as the mushrooms. Some people like the special tots they have but I don't, but they will bring you all of the side dishes you want, if you want to try them all.

Jamie's is also very, very good. Have not done Wonderland so have no input. Izumi Hibachi is also very, very good, I assume you know what you get there, but you can also order sushi as an appetizer at the Hibachi grill.

On another thread you asked about lobster night, it has been the second formal night of the cruise recently. 

Thanks! I don't want to discount Chops, I love a good steak house but i have just been surprised at how many people I have heard say that they were disappointed about Chops overall. That doesn't always stop me  

Thanks for the info on Lobster night. That's kind of what I thought but I was curious to know if it ever changed. I know things are always subject to change.

Maybe we will just take our chances and see if they are offering any kind of discount for Chef's Table. It sounds like a cool experience. We went to a farm to table restaurant for a "bring me food" experience, where they gave a list of ingredients they were using for the night and then brought us different dishes with wine pairings and we enjoyed that, so maybe this will be a good choice for us)

44 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Up front a word of warning:  The MDR steak is NOT equivalent to a Chop's filet.  I'm not a huge steak fan but I had the MDR steak once and NEVER again.  It was awful.  So if you're REALLY in the mood for a good steak at least once on your cruise, I highly recommend that you do NOT depend on the one in the MDR to be it !

IMO the best steak (unless you're in a full suite and can take advantage of the one in the Coastal Kitchen, which is excellent !) is actually at Jaimie's.  The second best is in Chop's.  I don't think we've ever tried the steak-for-2 at 150 but I've heard others who have gotten it and enjoyed it.

150 is not the restaurant it used to be, IMO.  When 150 Central Park was new to the fleet it was what Wonderland tried to become (I am NOT a fan of Wonderland) - a whimsical dining adventure.  There were multiple courses and it was an adventurous but tasty menu.  I still enjoy 150...but it's not what it used to be.  I still believe it is the best "regular" specialty restaurant on the O class ships though.  I absolutely love the specialty salts that they bring to you with the bread.  They used to do a whole big presentation with the salts and explain to you where the salts come from but I think they minimize this now.  I found it fascinating.  Whatever.

I have done the Chef's Table a number of times and so we don't do it anymore but it's a fun and LONG event with lots of courses and wine pairings.  If you're into presentation, this will be a treat.  I strongly recommend that everyone does a Chef's Table once.  Even if it's not on this next cruise for you, think about doing it at some point.

Something that I don't think most people realize....if you are dining at 150 and decide that what you REALLY want is some mushroom soup from Chop's (and I ALWAYS think this...no matter what restaurant or meal I am at !), just ask and they will bring you a bowl of mushroom soup from Chops !  The last time we were at 150, we got mushroom soup appetizers and red velvet cake for dessert, neither of which are on the 150 menu !  I've never been bold enough to ask for an entree from a different restaurant...not sure how that would go over, but my guess is, they would get it for you.

While I have never gotten it, I have heard that the room service burger is very good and if you are going to be on Symphony (your post didn't mention which O class ship you are on), I hear that the Playmaker's burger is very good.  Just to show you what a gourmet I am, I actually think the Windjammer burger is pretty good.  Go figure.

Thanks for the feedback and thoughtful reply about 150 CP. 

I was planning to get the Chops Filet in the MDR for the additional charge. Is that the filet that you said wasn't good? i figured that the MDR filet would not be as good as that one but that if it was from Chops it would be the one they serve there. . They don't have Jaimie's on Allure unfortunately.

I don't know if I would have the nerve to ask for an entree from a different restaurant, but if we don't make it to Chops, maybe I'll ask for the tater tots from Chops which look really good to me. 

 I forgot to mention we are on Allure. I wish we were going to be on Symphony because I might eat every night at Hooked, that menu looks great, and Playmakers as well. 

1 hour ago, rjac said:

We've been on the Allure 4 times. The Bow and Stern Pub on deck 5 (promenade) has the largest varieties of beers on board, as well as mixed drinks. I'm not an IPA fan, so I can't help you there. But, I'm sure you will find an IPA there that will satisfy your thirst.

Thank you!