Cruising With JT

So awesome to see more folks putting down deposits!! Wooooohoooo!!

Day 3 Live Review from Allure of the Seas.
 
Today we were in Labadee Haiti.
I tried to get up early enough to catch the Sunrise. No such luck, as by 6:45, the sun was very well up into the Sky. Considering that I am writing this review at 1:00am, pretty sure I won't be up early enough to catch it tomorrow either. I will shoot for Thursday Morning.
When I did get up, I made my way up to the Decks to Scope Our Approach into Labadee Haiti. It was extremely windy, so I decided to scope from the Solarium to help cut down on the Wind Noise.
I could See Mountains Haiti in the Distance with Clouds on the very top of the Mountain. I managed to catch the Ship's Horn Sound on the Scopes. The First one, scared the daylights out of me as I was not expecting that. The next short 3 blasts did not startle me as much.
I decided to have Breakfast, in the wind Jammer, as were meeting another Couple from our group in there.
After Breakfast, My Husband and I headed over to Haiti, at about 11:30.
It was Extremely Hot, I think at least 90 Degrees. For the Beaches in Haiti, I had Reserved a clamshell beach lounger for two, for the Price of $35 for my husband and myself, that was a great deal!!! I did have the Suggested Drink "The Labadoozie" it was YUMMY!!!!
We only ended up staying about 2 hours. We were back on board by 1:30.
My Husband and myself decided we wanted to spend the Rest of the Afternoon in the pools on the ship.
After we jumped into the pool for a few. We decided to then go to the hot Tup over the water, that is right outside of the Solarium, for Sail Away from Labadee Haiti. It was very nice experience, the water is not too hot!!!
For Dinner we decided to Skip the MDR dinner and do our own thing. We decided to eat at Johnny Rockets for Dinner. It is very reasonably priced, $6.95 per person. They bring you onion Rings, and Fries. They have a selection of Burgers, or Chicken sandwiches to choose from, and GREAT milk Shakes!!!
After Dinner, we had reservations to see the comedy Show. They had the opening comedian who was from Florida, and the Main Comedian. Unfortunately I do not remember their Names, but I can Definitely say, the opening Comedian was better, and made me laugh more!!!
After the Comedy show, we went into the Amber Theater, to watch the Love And Marriage Show.
There was a couple on their honeymoon, married 3 Days. A Couple that was Married for 29 Years. And then a Couple that was married for 60 years.
It was very Funny, as the couple that was married 29 years and, when asked about ex Girlfriends, the Wife asked Tim, the Cruise Director, what about Baby Mamma's? Let's just say poor Tim the CD had his hands full with that Couple.
The Couple that was married for 60 years took away first place, with matching the most correct answers.
After that is was almost midnight, and I am not a good night owl, I turned in for the night.
Tomorrow we are in Falmouth Jamica. We are planing on hanging out in Margaritaville, and doing some souvenir shopping.

So awesome to see more folks putting down deposits!! Wooooohoooo!!

YOLO Booked it!
 
Just put down my deposit for the Harmony group cruise!  My wife and 2 kids will be coming with me (7 and 5 at time of sailing).
 
I now have a deposit down on 6 cruises...I need help!

Even better news for him warming up to the idea then...I'm paying this cruise on my personal card so he will never see a bill  :)
 
Can't wait for the zipline at Labadee! We also had a great time at the Blue Hole in Jamaica and wanted to go back, and I've been booked 3x to Cozumel and never been able to go - I'm ready!!!
 
484 days to go...

That is great news that you will be joining us, Sue!
 
Love your strategy for booking this cruise and I think your husband will eventually warm up to the idea (like after the credit card bill hits). 

Well I may be looking for an alternate spouse when my husband Frank learns that I just booked us on this cruise in a JS! He loves cruising but doesn't like to book much in advance due to our business (I on the other hand love booking asap), so I don't know if he would agree to me booking this cruise now. I chose not to ask to find out.
 
Instead I took Matt's advice of booking the cruise as a Birthday present, and since Frank doesn't like booking in advance I just won't tell him until 2 months before.  :P  Btw, the Birthday is mine, how can he say no to my Birthday cruise, even if the Birthday was 2 weeks before? HaHaHa!
 
Seriously though, I know he won't have a problem when he learns. I figure I'll tell him the last night of our Anthem cruise next month...that is when he always is an easy mark for booking another cruise  :D
 
Very excited to go on this cruise! Our 1st time on an Oasis class, a JS cabin on the center hump, meeting all of you, Labadee (1 of my favorite places), and we have never been to Cozumel.

I know it's pretty common knowledge among cruisers.  But to anyone new to cruising or just to confirm for those who've heard it before...book early to get the best price!! 
 
We booked within days of Royal Caribbean releasing our October 2016 cruise. So well over a year out from our cruise.   Our travel agent has checked EVERY sale that has come out since and not one has been able to give us a better deal than our original booking.  Even with higher percentages off, and even with OBC added, we still have a better deal.
 
So while of course I'm still hoping there's that one magical sale that will save us some money before final payment....I'm really glad we booked as early as we did since prices seem to only go up from there!
 
Happy Cruising :)

Great to hear more folks who have booked the group cruise! I am sure more folks will be joining as the months go along...and can't wait to share more details as it gets closer and hope to find out more on what group events etc we will be doing :D

Day 2 Allure of the Seas.
 
I had a great Day today. I woke up at 7:00 am. My first stop of the Day was Starbucks!!!! Next I headed up to the Sports deck to do some Periscoping, of the pools, and the Flow Rider. I absolutely loved watching the people on the flow rider, it's so fascinating to me, to see people learn how to surf, with the flow rider. I could scope that for many hours!!! 😉
At 9:30am, I attended the meet and mingle. We had 135 people signe up, and about 70 came, that was pretty good. At 11:00 was the Slot pull. Each person put in $15, and we each got three spins on a slot machine. Any winnings would be divided equally between all of the people that participated.
We ended up winning back half the amount that we put in which was not too bad, I did not expect when anything actually. I have not really ever had much luck in a casino, but I also do not have a lot of experience either.
I Finally got to meet Celisse who is my Fellow Roll Call Friend, and Periscoper.
After those two events, it was time for lunch. On previous periscopes I have heard all about the park café roast beef sandwich, so I knew that's what I wanted to try for lunch today. I think it was Michael Poole, that first recommended the roast beef sandwich to me, and I have to agree, that it was one of the best roast beef sandwiches I've ever had!!!
After lunch I do a little bit more Periscoping from Central Park, then it was time for the cabin crawl.
I thought this would be a good opportunity to periscope be cabin tour of the rooms of different types of cabins. It was a little challenging however for me to periscope, as I had a hard time being focused as far as what information I needed to say about the cabins, it was very distracting because there was a lot of people in the cabin crawl. The largest cabin on the tour was supposed to be a royal family suite, however the couple that signed up their cabin for the royal family suite decided to pull out and did not answer the door, or they were not in their Cabin. when we came to do the cabin tour. I think out of all of the cabins that were on the tour today, the most impressive was the Aqua Suite on the aft of the Ship, as Nick pointed out, it is a Sky Class Suite.
The last cabin on the tour, was a Junior suite, handicap accessible cabin. I unfortunately was having some technical issues with Periscope freezing and lagging with the location of that Cabin. I am hoping there was enough there see you could get an idea of what the room looked like.
This evening was Formal night. It was a lot of fun to see everyone dressed up, as I love dressing up as well when given the opportunity. After dinner, we previously reserved to see the oceanAria Show.
If you go on Allure, I would highly suggest you reserve, and see the show, it was wonderful!!!! Sorry that I could not Scope this show, there is regulations with the copyright laws that her prohibit any video recording of the show, even though I have seen some periscoper's scope the shows, from their aqua Suite balconies I did not want to break the rules, as there was a gentleman walking, around making sure anybody in the audience below was not video recording the show.
It was a couple that was sitting next to us that was pushing their luck with video recording the show.
Tomorrow we are in port at Labadee Haiti.
I plan on being up early to try to catch the sunrise, as well as Allure pulling into the port.
I will have to look at my data useage, to see if I can periscope from the beaches on Haiti. I will be bringing my snorkel gear, and I have reserved one of the clamshell loungers for myself my husband Dirk.
 
Thank you again everyone for following me along here, and periscope, as I appreciate the support very much. I enjoy sharing my experience on Allure, with all of you. 😊

Well I am Stephanie and, I went on the Allure of the Seas group cruise and had a Fantastic time. I travel with my Fiance Jeremy who also had a wonderful time. We will be on this cruise and I booked Cabin 10730 a 2 bedroom Aqua Theater suite in the new Star Class.. You just cant beat the perks and the price from Club Royale! Looking forward to meeting new people and cruising with old Favorites from the Allure!!

I booked a couple of days ago but this means that I will now have to choose between this cruise and my already-booked Christmas 2017 cruise on Adventure out of SJ.  Decisions, decisions.
 
I got a VERY good rate on the Adventure due to a computer glitch on "opening day".  I snagged an Owner's Suite at an already good price but when you add the Club Royale discount to it, it was really GREAT.  I would have to cancel that if I stay with the Harmony in Sept.
 
Originally I booked a Crown Loft Suite on Harmony but really wanted a suite that qualifies for the Star level service.  Yesterday, I got it !  One of the 2 BR Aqua Theater Suites opened up and I snatched it.  This pretty much seals the deal on which cruise we will choose ! I hate to give up a good price deal on Adventure but I don't think I can turn away another 2 BR ATS !  I have one for our Feb. 2017 cruise (also on Harmony) and I think I will want that Star service again ! 
 
Looks like we will probably be going with the group again !  We had such a blast last time !

Hello everyone!
 
I didn't see a thread started on this yet so thought I'd get one started...just wanted to see who else is booked on the Harmony of the Seas group cruise sailing next September 16, 2017!
 
I've already put down my $500 deposit and will be coming along with my sister (she too is a cruise addict).
 
490 days to go! Really looking forward to getting to know you all more over the coming months and hanging out on the world's largest cruise ship together :)
 
Cheers,
John
 
@johnt_83 on Periscope :D

PS -- I am going to try and do my first ever live periscope on Norwegian Pearl this summer to Alaska, still need to look into all the details about their Internet etc but the sailing is on 7/24/2016 and I'll be going with my wife and 4 other friends. Glacier Bay sailing out of Seattle (this is where I live too!)

Thank you for blogging and sharing your first day Kat! Glad to see you are having a great time...and no more worries about the sail-away, you are going to have a fantastic time!

Last Part Three First Day on Allure of the seas.
 
It was about 5:30, so we started getting ready for dinner in the MDR.
Our Dinner seating time was 6:00pm.
It was very good, we have a female waitress, she is very nice. I forgot where she's from at the moment, but I will find out tomorrow. I chose for a starter, shrimp cocktail, for the main course, I really wanted a slow roasted prime rib. I also had a baked potato. For the desert, I had a blueberry and peach, crumbled dessert, with vanilla ice cream on top. After dinner, we headed to the boardwalk/promenade deck, where I proceeded to periscope some of that as a rising tide bar was just coming down. That is so cool to me,
that there's a bar that goes up-and-down, while you are there with your friends/Family having Cocktails!!!
 
I FINALLY... Had my first Drink on the Ship after Dinner. I took Matt's recommendation, and had the lava flow. It was very yummy!!!
I am now relaxing in my cabin, as I feel like I've had a long day since I did not sleep very well last night from the excitement of my cruise today.
I think my husband Dirk, is somewhere downstairs looking for his drinking buddy, that can be very dangerous, we shall see.
 
I look forward to a fun day at sea tomorrow many activities planned, the meet and mingle, a slot pull, and then a cabin crawl. I will look and see on the cruise compass, what other activities I can join in During the Day.
I do have a show booked tomorrow night, I will have to look at my schedule to see what it is.
 
Thank you again for following me, here and on periscope.

I'm on the fence! We have oasis booked for November and I would have no problem forgoing that one for the group cruise if it weren't considerably more expensive. I know it's to be expected on the new ship, maybe I'll flip a coin on Tuesday when the new promotion flips around the way they take the same amount of money.

Welcome John. Join in a live periscope sometime and you'll get a good idea of who'all is going on the group cruise. My wife and I are booked. Can't wait.