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Leaving the kids behind! Allure July 2nd-9th, 2023


Jacklynn

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3 hours ago, Coda_Sarah said:

I am enjoying your live thread!  We are sailing Allure at end of August.  Question for you….you mentioned:

 

It's boarding day! We have an 12:00 check in. We checked it right at midnight but 11 was the earliest instead of the 10:30 I was expecting. Others on our sailing said the same thing so I'm unsure if it's a Galveston thing or Allure thing. Or maybe just our sailing.

Boarding was fast. We arrived at the terminal at 9:50 and were greated by porters and let inside right at 10am. From there security was fast and we sat only for a minute before boarding at 10:27.

 

Just double-checking.  Your check in time was noon?  I’m guessing they went allowed folks in before their check in time.  Also, it appears they were letting guests board before 11 too?  10:30 is awesome if that was the case!

Our boarding time was 11, which was the earliest offered unlike our Dec trip on Independence when 10:30 was offered. But they let us into the building at 10 and let group 1, which we were in on just before 10:30. 

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5 minutes ago, Jacklynn said:

Our boarding time was 11, which was the earliest offered unlike our Dec trip on Independence when 10:30 was offered. But they let us into the building at 10 and let group 1, which we were in on just before 10:30. 

Okay got it!  There was a typo where you said your check in time was 12.  Good to know you were able to board sooner than 11!

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Crazy how once you return real life takes over 😂

Day 4 Evening

We got back on the ship after our time at Roatan and we were quite hungry. We didn't end up eating anything on the island, so we headed up to the windjammer. The Windjammer has been fine. Not outstanding, not horrible. Some days we found more that we enjoyed that others, but it served its purpose.

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After eating we got showered and wandered around duck hunting and watched people getting back on the ship from the deck 5 track.

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At dinner I got the Asian pork tacos and coconut shrimp and Matt got salad. The Asian bao tacos were not great as they were rather tasteless and dry, but the coconut shrimp was delicious!

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I got a steak for my main and pineapple cake for dessert. The steak had great flavor and was tender but definitely on the less cooked side of medium, but was still good. The pineapple cake was just okay.

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Matt got the same steak but a chocolate dessert. He enjoyed both.

We spent a few bucks on slots and walked around a bit before calling it a night.

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Day 5 - Costa Maya.

I set my alarm for 4:50am this day because I wanted to get a 5 mile run in before it got too hot and other people got up.

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After a sweaty run I got showered and we got a slow breakfast while we let those with excursions file off into Costa Maya before we did. We didn't have anything planned for this port, just planned to walk around a bit and see if anything was worth buying and make use of a more empty ship.

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It was really hot this day in Costa Maya. It felt like we were dripping sweat by the time we finished the long pier walk. We stopped to watch the flyers and then walked around the shops.

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They were rather aggressive here. I'm not afraid to say no thank you and walk away, I'm not easily pressured or feel uncomfortable about foreign markets - but several venders would step in front of me even after I said I wasn't interested and block us from walking away. I'm not scared of stuff like that, but it was annoying. Plus the prices were higher than I was interested in even after haggling.

Funny enough, my sister was on another cruise that ported here 2 days before us and she is a sucker 😂 she paid $85 for the same product that we just so happened to also look at and initially were told was $45 and haggled to $25. We didn't end up buying it though because he couldn't find the one we wanted. Lol she said she didn't know she could bargain with them.

We looked at some name bracelets for the kids but they wouldn't go lower than $45 for 3 and that was too much for me. They might have taken less later in the day but we didn't feel like sticking around.

The liquor store was odd, we had nothing to compare the Mexican liquor to but the Titos they had was almost $10 more per bottle than we buy it at home in Tennessee. Plus a worker was following us so close she was almost touching me. Like, I get it, watch me closely if you think I look like I might steal something (I did have a bag), but she was practically breathing on me.

Spoiler: our shopping experience was MUCH better at Cozumel.

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We headed back down the long dock to eat lunch and we did airline logo trivia. My word, we knew practically none 🤣

Then we did the zipline and rock wall with no wait. I was so nervous to do the zipline, but I didn't die so I consider it a success ha!

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We did friends trivia at 4 then headed to the hot tub before showering for dinner. We got into a bit of a habit of going to the hot tub while early dinner was happening, then showering and walking through central park before our 7:45 dinner.

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Tonight was white night. I loved how a good portion also participated in the themed nights. It made it feel festive 🙂

We split some escargot and I got corn cakes and Matt got the pablano soup. I kept forgetting to grab pictures of his.

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I got the chili-lime salmon and Matt got the burrito. Both were decent.

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For dessert I got the Tres Leche cake and Matt got some warm apple dessert.

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Our after dinner stroll included watching the county dancing party in the promenade.

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Day 6- Cozumel

We started our day watching us pull into port and grabbing a big/protein breakfast. The big breakfast was needed as we were doing some drinking this port.

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No, not at Senor Frogs 🤣. We booked the Mexology class through Royal which is held at Dolphinaris. We were to meet for the excursion at 10, so we shopped first. MUCH better than Costa Maya. The venders were way less aggressive. Still trying to sell you their products but in the expected way, so a better shopping experience, which means we actually spent money.

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We bought 5 shirts for $20 and each of the kids a name bracelet for 3 for $25. I also got my dad a cheesy shot glass that he likely doesn't need. Ya know, all the necessities.

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We lined up for our excursion and got our bracelets that let us attend. They had us line up and said they were taking us to the next place to get started and they proceeded to take us to the middle of the shopping area and said okay, you have 25 minutes to shop, we will be back to put you in cabs then....

Uhhh what? Lol many of us just stood there like what just happened. There was zero indication that we'd start the excursion with them "giving" us 25 minutes steps from the ship where we all had already shopped lol. Thankfully a mariachi band came and entertained us all until she came back 😂

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We headed to Dolphinaris and from there the excursion got much better. Actually, it was a blast! I highly recommend the Mexology excursion in Cozumel if that's your kind of thing. Let me know if you have any questions otherwise here are some pictures.

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After getting filled with cocktails we decided to head back to the ship for some real food in our tummies. Then we walked around until it was time to watch people make their way back into the ship - it makes for great people watching 🤣 Thankfully no pier runners!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 7/11/2023 at 8:28 PM, Jacklynn said:

At dinner I got the Asian pork tacos and coconut shrimp and Matt got salad. The Asian bao tacos were not great as they were rather tasteless and dry, but the coconut shrimp was delicious!

Funnily enough I had the same experience with the Bao tacos on my Freedom of the Seas cruise this past weekend. I usually enjoy them but I thought they were dry and did not have the same flavor as in the past. No worries. my waistline can attest to the fact that I found lots of other things to sink my teeth into! 

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  • 2 months later...

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