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Of course there is a Piano! - Allure OTS (1740), Sept. 17-25, (Sort of) live blog


ScooterScott22

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Excited to be sailing this Saturday.

Just sharing a little explanation about the late start  for  this thread.  There is a fairly significant back story to this sailing and some reasons why it is starting at this time.  I’ll share a portion of the story in posts below.  
 
First just the basics.  We will be doing the 8 night southern Caribbean on the Allure of the Seas.  It will be myself, wife and son.  We have added my parents to sail with us this cruise.
 
For anyone who chooses to follow along, I’ll try to do some brief but regular updates but as this trip is going to focus on the family time, so I’m apologizing ahead of time for any brevity or lack of updates.
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We have been watching the storm and as of yesterday figured it was likely going to impact the sailing.  We are expecting some route changes and maybe skipping Labadee but who knows.

There was a rumor posted that the genies heard pretty good odds of changes.  Yesterday it was said the big decision/update would be tomorrow, so hopefully someone will hear something and pass it along.

 

And now we will return you back to the regular blog posts.

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First let me share a little bit about how we got here.  Sorry some of this maybe a little long.

 
This all starts back in May 2019 aboard the inaugural Alaska sailing of the Ovation.  We were sailing in a grand loft suite and did enjoy the experience.  While onboard the opportunity to book the Tokyo to Seattle sailing a couple years out came up and we took advantage.  
 
Fast forward to when things went off the rails, that infamous spring of 2020.  With everything going on we lift and shifted to a later cruise sailing from Sydney to Honolulu.  We were very excited to book into 8734 grand loft suite with some guidance from @WAAAYTOOO
 
That sailing seemed good for a a little while and then magically the whole cruise disappeared.  Through some work by my wife, she tracked down that they cancelled that whole cruise and scheduled the ship out of Brisbane.  She was able to get things worked out so that we would be in the same room from Brisbane to Honolulu.  Really should have been a no-brainer on Royal’s part to reach out and offer the move but it took quite a bit of effort from DW.  We really thought Royal dropped the ball with managing the change/cancellation but this was happening all over the place and not just to a sigle sailing so they will get a little bit of leeway for now.  
 
All looked settled once again, until Australia cruises were cancelled and did not have a viable re-start date.  At least with everything shut down , it was really just a wait and see thing.  
 
Finally as things started to re-open we looked into sailings that might be interesting.  Having never done the Southern Caribbean/ABC islands the itinerary looked good and with the credits we just had all we needed to do was settle on a stateroom. 
 
We really were looking forward to the 8734 grand loft suite but since we had switched from the Quantum class to the Oasis class it would not be an option.  Since were had always been booked into Star Class, we were thinking that the Star Loft suite would be the best fit for the three of us.  But….  …The option of the Royal Loft 1740 was there, so why not, right???
 
Of course, so it was settled, Royal Loft suite it is.
 
Looks like it was finally set, now just a waiting game.
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To continue, the bad part of the waiting game is that you can change things up.  

 
We did a sailing on Freedom and then were on one of the early Wonder sailings.  Each time we discussed the Allure cruise.  Thanks to to casino offers and some friends wedding anniversary we ended up with two more sailings in May.  Because of work schedules we didn’t get to all do both cruises.  The wife and son did the Navigator and after the disembarked we did a red eye so my son and I could join our friends on Harmony.  Mom and dad had work to do so our son got the best and went on both.
 
All of this really brought us to the decision that 1740 was going to be too good to do alone.  We had floated a few hints but finally pulled the trigger on formally asking my parents along.  
 
They live about 1000 miles and we speak or FaceTime often but really haven’t seen them in the last two years.  We did get one good visit in there so this will be some good family time with them.
 
My dad was pretty open to joining.  My mom, despite having two brother that were in the Navy, is not the most comfortable person at sea.  So this was never a solid plan until they committed a little over 2 months ago.
 
Now the real planning could begin!
 
The first decision was what do we tell the parents.  Do we let them know all the details?  We already told them they had no planning to do and we would organize everything.  All they had to do was pack and make it to the flights.  
 
The fact that we would be doing Star Class and have the Royal Loft suite would now become a surprise for them.  It is partially because they will be doing their first cruise with Royal and some of that might might be lost on them OR quite a lot to figure out.  
 
The late start to the thread is since by chance they find the live blog section, I held off posting this until now.  I also limited any other posts that might indicate the plans, just in case they found the site and started putting things together.  Yea, they are older and of a certain age group that is not as technically savvy, but they are better than others I have seen.  
 
So today kicks off the (semi) live blog thread.
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With the itinerary, room and travel party set we were now ready to go.  

 
But the cruise was still a few months away.  
 
We shared some details about the ship and discussed some general plans.  The decision was made to for the parents to fly in on Thursday for the Saturday departure.  So we would be driving to the port to pick them up and stay in the FLL area.  
 
Flights for them booked.  Check
 
Searched for hotels and after awhile, finally decided in the Hilton Marina. 
 
Questionnaires arrived and I did mine and sort of did what I could for the parents.  Just left the more obscure questions blank but did tell the Genie that I was the one who submitted those on their behalf once we had contact with him.
 
By the way Jay is our genie for the sailing.  We have looked a little bit and it seems like things will go well.  I followed the live blog by @rags and have full confidence in Jay.  (Thanks @Rags1 for the wonderful thread, congrats on the big win, the retirement and the restaurant opening). 
 
We have done a little planning with Jay but are also trying to be open to letting the week unfold for us.  
 
Headed down to the port yesterday and picked up the parents. 
 
I will try to do some updates but fair warning, 
things might not be as robust as other live blogs.  
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Couple of updates, decided to do the Hilton Marina, so kind of a late decision on that and it wasn’t quite up to past stays.  

We knew that it was under construction but there were a couple hiccups that were outside of that expectation.  The AC seemed a little sluggish, but we went to dinner and hoped to that the rooms would cool.  They didn’t and we had to change rooms.  

The other thing on our minds was watching Fiona.  It really looked like it would impact the sailing, at least with Monday at Labadee.  So back to watching some of our normal Florida resources for watching storms, including our old local TV weatherman Jim Van Fleet.  

Rumors were also starting to show up on the “inter-webs”.  One stating that updates/changes would likely be announced in the evening.

Well we got the news and they are basically flipping the route.  Instead of Labadee first we will now make the run to the south and hit the islands then come back to Labadee.  

Getting ready for the last sleep before boarding and will be happy to roll over in the morning, open my eyes and see the ship outside our window!

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Time to catch up a little, since this is a sort of live blog didn’t want to get too far behind.

Saturday was boarding day, but before we get to that quick note about the hotel.  I have stayed at the Hilton Marina a few times for work and we knew there was the construction.  Right now, things are probably where I would only do that location if the price is right and we really are just using it to sleep before boarding.  The pool and pool bar are fine.  Lobby area remodel is done and the coffee shop is nice.  Most rooms are typical hotel room feel.  Everything else is impacted by the construction.  The bonus really is the views, especially if you get one overlooking the port.

Since I’m an early riser and headed out for a jog, got to see our ship sailing in.

image.thumb.jpeg.23410d2d4087d5e43c63e9eeb4f57ed7.jpeg

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Boarding was pretty smooth for the most part.  

The hotel lobby was on the busy side, since there were three ships in port.  We loaded up the car and made the short drive into the north port entrance.  Both lanes had about 6-7 waiting so pretty quickly made it past security.  

Dropped our party and bags off and was happy to see that the porters we encountered actually knew what Star class was and were helpful with guiding us to the right place and not just trying to grab our bags.  Everyone else started the checkin at the curb with the port staff as I parked the car. The lot was pretty light so only took a second to catch up with them and head inside.

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We were paired up with a couple from Canada that were sailing in Star and Jay was their genie also so we all made it through to the suites/Star area to wait.  

The wait was a little longer than anticipated but Jay collected us and we headed on board.  They only had one gangway for boarding for some reason so that was somewhat of the issue causing the slowdown.  Jay did keep us moving as best as he could and I really liked the way he used his briefcase to ease into line😀.

He said our rooms were ready so took both parties up and dropped us off into our suites.  It was right at noon and we had lunch scheduled at Chops so only a few minutes to check out the wonderful room and balcony.

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