IslandBoundMama

Side note....you know you’ve recently been on a cruise when your 9yo randomly says at the dinner table, “The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...”.

11 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Please tell me you had one of their margaritas!! They are sooooo tasty!!

It's not just @Lovetocruise2002's favorite place in FLL, you know.  

Oh no...I didn’t. Welp....gotta go back...

After the pool, we headed out to dinner at, drumroll please: La Bamba!!!

It was totally delicious and I can see why @Lovetocruise2002 loves it as well.  It was probably the best queso I ever had.  Hubs had a taco salad and I had a beef chimichanga. The finale was the fried ice cream!!! You had to roll me out of there.

We came back to the room and decided to watch the last episode of Handmaids Tale that we missed while on the ship last week. Then it was time for bed.

14 hours ago, WannaCruise said:

Awesome review so far.  Looks like you're all having a great time!

Ok..gotta ask important question.  What happened to the twisty lollipop thing that is usually sticking out on the top?  My kids would love this but I know the lollipop would be the best part.

I was wondering the same thing. I looked around the room and nobody had one on their cake that night. 

Our fish is still on n the water.  He made a little friend the same age as him.  He’s shy so it’s only because she talked to him first.

They’ve been playing for a while, then she just asked him to go to the hot tub with her.  Everything is happening so fast.

7 minutes ago, DanielB said:

beautiful pictures and trip report.  thanks for sharing and enjoy the Allure!

Thank you!!! Lil guy is excited about the donut shop.

21 minutes ago, Skid said:

This is great...we are booked there in a couple of months (oops, no in May, got my dates mixed up). Are you going to La Bamba? @Lovetocruise2002 will never forgive us if we don't try it. It's her favorite restaurant there (maybe anywhere).

Hubs asked if I knew of any places and that was one of only three I had written down. They should give @Lovetocruise2002 restaurant credit for the business she is sending them.

6 minutes ago, Skid said:

Tell him we are the people that want to borrow him to ward off the chair hogs! Good job!

Hahaha...I love it!!!! I felt so bad that family got up and left. They thanked my hubs for saying something but they were so kind, they just didn’t want an issue. It was a shame. 

Our new BFF, our Uber driver Marco, got us to the Renaissance Inn Sade and sound. We handed off our luggage to the bellman and he tagged it and locked it in the luggage storage room.  We encountered lots of locals of the lizard persuasion.  We named one Godzilla because he looked like a mini Godzilla.

We walked over to the shops/restaurants across the way and had lunch at Burgerfi. The three of us cost about $21 and change.

We walked back and enjoyed the AC in the lobby.  At 2:30pm they called and said our room was ready which was FABULOUS because their website has a stern warning to cruisers that check-in is not permitted until 4pm. 

Our fish is in the pool now...

23 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

^^^IMO, that deserves a mention on your post cruise survey.

I agree. I was disappointed in his lack of care. I told hubs if his colleague could get one that quickly then he could of too or at least asked his colleague if he had one.  There was no way I could carry those off the ship with nothing. 

1 hour ago, Skid said:

@IslandBoundMama, amazing blog, amazing vacation and most of all amazing family! Continued happy sailing and safe travels.

Thank you @Skid. I’m enjoying the vacation and also enjoying sharing it with you. My hubs asks me who I’m “texting” and I try to explain the community to him.  I’m not sure he gets it.

1 hour ago, ellcee said:

STAAAAHHHHPPPP!!! I mean, don't, but the kid/dolphin pics are too adorable. Happy you made it into a picture!

Hahaha...thank you!!! I love them so much! Yes, the only reason you caught a glimpse of me is because I wasn’t behind the camera.  I’m always the picture taker. I also tend to hate my picture taken so it rarely happens. 

I’m the woman whose hair gets wet and looks a mess...other women just look normal or cute, not me.  

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Those Blue Lagoon pics are awesome!

Thank you!!! They all aren’t loading for me yet.  Whatever host site they use isn’t working well with my phone phone. Curious to see them all, but I’m in love with the ones I’ve seen so far.

25 minutes ago, MotleyCruiser said:

Many times you will find their secret stash 'under' the trash liner in the pail....but I'm a guy and would have dumped the trash on the floor and used the liner that was in there too.

Haha...thanks!!! I’ll remember for next time. 

45 minutes ago, PRebecca said:

I am SO enjoying following along! Thank you for your great attitude with hiccups that pop up in the day to day!

Thanks for following!!!  I can’t wait sit to see what the next week brings us. 

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Lovely pictures and blog , Enjoy Allure and have a wonderful cruise.

Thank you much!!!

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Haha...Welcome to the club!

Did you feel a lot of motion in that suite?

I teased hubs and told him we couldn’t let our new Suite Lounge friends see us in the WJ and ruin our reputation.

No motion at all...only vibration when docking. 

Oh my sweetness!!! Now that I have access to my email I’m seeing some of the Blue Lagoon pictures.  They don’t want to cooperate good on my phone.  I think I can download better on a pc, but here are a few:

...we were double checking our room and found a pile of clothes in my son’s room.  One shirt was even damp.  I asked hubs to ask the room steward for a plastic bag because all of our luggage was gone.  He simply says to my husband, “I don’t have any.” 

Hubs comes in and tells me this and I said...even if he has no RCCL bags, he must have a plastic trash bag. Hubs goes out and sees our neighboring room steward, tells him our issue and he replies, “No worries sir, I’ll take care of you.” Disappears and comes back with a bag in seconds. 

Well...we are pulling up to the hotel...Ft. Lauderdale here we come!!!

Day 5 - Laundry/Barber/Hotel Day

Disembarking we super fast and Uber was there instantly.  You are all caught up now. We are currently in the Uber heading for the Renaissance Inn in Ft. Lauderdale. 

Final thoughts on this past week and forgotten tidbits:

On day 3 we awoke to no running water in our cabin. We called guest services and was told it was a broken water pipe that was affecting a lot of the ship. No flushing toilets, no washy washy...nothing.  We went to the WJ and same thing. No washy washy so they were squirting everyone with antibacterial.  Ewww guys...just ewww.

Back in the cabin, my hubs asked our cabin steward if we could have a bottle of water. He said no and that we were only entitled to one. Hubs explained he had medical issues to attend to and our cabin steward said he would check with his supervisor.  The water appeared and all was well.  Our cabin steward was not the greatest at all.  No connection, no warm ness and not wanting to make any effort.  It was disappointing but I don’t let that bother my vacation...except today when he really rubbed me the wrong way.....

Day 4 - Sea Day

Hubs couldn’t sleep so he got up and went to the pool.  Lil guy and myself slowly got up right after, went to breakfast and met him at the pool.  We spent all day there until about 1pm. My fish was finally tired. We sailed by Coco Cay and could see a ship docked there from very far away. 

Had annoying chair hogs in front of us at the pool.  Put four towels down on four chairs at 9am and left. At around 11am there were families looking for chairs so my husband said something to a worker and he said anyone could have the chairs. A family took two of the four chairs stayed an hour and left.  A second family then came and took the two chairs they vacated. About 12:30pm here comes chair hog family to start their day and they instantly start in on the two people saying they had to get out of their chairs. The family gets up and my husband interjected and told them they didn’t have to get up.  He told the chair hog family that they can’t reserve chairs for four hours without being there and think that’s okay.  Chair hog mom says, “Well my kids didn’t want to get up sooooo...”

You could tell that she was the one that just got up and not the kids. 

We headed back to the room for a nap.  Got up and had our second visit to the Suite Lounge. Lil guy had coke and two crab cakes. We met more lovely people and Mario came in as well. Had dinner at the dreaded Windjammer because the dining room was not appealing either.  We’ve seen a lot of rainbows outside because of all of the rain showers. 

Then off to see the show for the evening Showgirls. After the show we packed up and then went to the 80’s party. 

We had dinner in the MDR and went to the show Oh What A Night. It was a tribute to Frankie Valle and the Four Seasons. It was good!

Our schedule hasn’t allowed us to make it back to happy hour and I’m missing a lot of complimentary drinks at this point.

So, fun fact...they said that bridge portion between the Atlantis buildings is a suite that rents for $25,000 for a minimum of four nights.  Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan and Beyoncé have all stayed there to name a few. 

Where did I leave off? Oh yes, Blue Lagoon.  After the dolphin encounter it turned pitch black outside. We decided to catch the 2pm boat back to the ship because if we didn’t get that one we’d be stuck there until 4pm.

Good thing we did.  It started lightning and thundering. On the way back we even saw two water spouts. The ride back was fun.  It was a very lively crew that got everyone up to dance.

Okay...I’m done laundry and they’re done at the barber already. We can’t check into the Renaissance until 4pm but we’re gonna see if we can at least give them our luggage.

UberXL is pricing out at $74 from here but our driver from this morning gave us his number and he’s going to take us for $60. It’s a win win.  I hate that we have so much luggage.

This little laundry mat was great.  Nobody speaks English, but the owner, operator does and was very kind and helpful.  I almost kidnapped an adorable old grandpa from here.  He spoke to me in Spanish and I have no idea what he was saying.  He left and smiled and waved bye to me.  So stinking cute...