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“The Starry Neighbor (Neighbour?) Chronicles: New Year, New Celebrations, Same Crazy Friends” – Allure of the Seas 12/30/2024 – 01/03/2025


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Posted

“The Starry Neighbor (Neighbour?) Chronicles: New Year, New Celebrations, Same Crazy Friends” – Allure of the Seas 12/30/2024 – 01/03/2025

ALBlogpic.thumb.jpg.9fa8288b63ba85e44c8d6dfb5b729ae1.jpg

We’re back!!!!

By “we”, I mean @GregD, @TheBoss518, and I, plus Hubby and all the freeloaders!

Our last adventure together was on Anthem to Norway in July 2022. You can see how that adventure went here.

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/33005-“the-starry-neighbor-neighbour-chronicles-pining-for-the-fjords”-–-anthem-of-the-seas-july-8th-15th-2022/

After Norway, we weren’t sure when we would sail together again, but you know cruise friends…we are never really done.

Going back through our old texts, way back to February 2023, I told @GregD that we booked SY for March 2025. The rest of the conversation went like this:

Me: I booked the ATS on SY. Have been wanting to try it out.

Greg: So, if we were to be star class “neighbors” again, which deck, and side should I book?

Me: I booked 9734, but I thought you didn’t cruise in March.

Greg: We may consider it to cruise with friends.

---Later that day---

Greg: Sooo, start thinking of blog titles!

---At this point, we may have confused some of you because you all thought this was an Allure sailing, we’re getting to that---

---A few months later (June 2023) ---

Me: I might be moving that SY March 2025 sailing to UT 3/10/2025. But that will free up money to do a NYE sailing in December 2024, another 4 nights so that would be 8 nights total instead of the 7 nights on SY. If I keep SY in March 2025, I won’t be able to do NYE 2024 (girl math lol)

Greg: Perfectly sound logic, what ship would NYE be?

Me: Allure, kids haven’t done that one.

Greg: Ok, maybe we will jump over, I will discuss with @TheBoss518

---A few hours later---

Me: So, what did @TheBoss518 say

Greg: But it’s only 4 days…kids are working on her, one freeloader wants NYE on a ship, other can celebrate a birthday

Me: That’s a sign to go for it!!!

---Few days later---

Greg: We are moving it, but we are booking a CLS.

Me: Cool! We will still see each other.

---Few months later (October 2023) ---

Greg: There has been a change… (sends screenshot of new SC cabin number on Allure)

And so, the “Starry Neighbor (Neighbours?) Chronicles” continues!

Posted

It's so fun to go back through all these text messages!

So I remember when SY originally was booked, we were actually on our usual February cruise, and it was @asquared17 favorite ship, Oasis. @TheBoss518 and I were discussing future vacations. We found out that @Lovetocruise2002 had booked Symphony. The week they were going, might have coincided with the spring break for our kids too. We have to change our usual trip week because of the eldest freeloaders cheer competition schedule. 

Anyway, after way too many cocktails, we booked SY and I remember it being quite spendy for that week, but worth it to sail with friends again. 

When we heard they were switching to Allure and Utopia we looked at trying to do both as well. Johnny was pretty upset because IIRC SY would have been during his birthday. Allure actually departs the day Lydia turns 15. If we did both, both kids would get a "birthday cruise"

Ultimately, we couldn't swing both, so we stuck with Allure. Johnny gets a consolation prize though, this coming summer, we are going to Scotland for 18 days, which he is really excited about. (I'm willing to blog that trip here in "other travel" if people are interested, let me know).

Upgrade to star class....As was mentioned earlier, we originally booked a CLS. The Boss and I had a Freedom B2B booked in the Royal Suite for just the two of us that got canceled due to a charter, so we took the $$ from that to upgrade this one to Star....cruise math. 

 

 

 

Posted
15 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

 

There's been a change ... 😆😆😆

 

Sometimes change is a great thing!!

3 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I love cruise math! But I also do remember I was sad for you guys when you lost Freedom. That remains one of my favourite rooms.

We were really bummed to lose that one too. As sad as it was when the one leg got chartered, we were also a little relieved that it made the decision for us. We were pretty sure we were going to cancel on our own. Final payment was right after Heather got a big promotion at work, so she didn’t want to start the new position with an “oh by the way, I’m leaving for a week”

One of these days we will book that room!

Posted

Details from the @Lovetocruise2002 family portion of the blog....

Who’s Going?

Me, Hubby, D18, D16 (aka, the freeloaders)

Flight

Delta from DTW-FLL/MIA-DTW; booked through Air2Sea. It was cheaper to fly into FLL and return from MIA so that’s we ended up doing.

Pre-Cruise Stay

We debated staying in Miami for this trip. However, the last time we went to the Intercontinental Miami with the kids, it didn’t sit well with us. We decided after that trip that the Intercontinental Miami would be a stay for just Hubby and I, not the whole family.

Since we were flying into Fort Lauderdale anyway, there was no real question where we would stay. We totally fell in love with the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort last December and Hubby fell in love with Surf Style LOL, that combined with the fact that we would be able to visit La Bamba again, it was a no brainer. We were also excited to hear that @Jax would be there as well at the same time!

Itinerary

28 DEC Arrive Fort Lauderdale, FL

29 DEC Fort Lauderdale, FL

30 DEC Miami, FL (Cruise Day!)

31 DEC PDCC, Bahamas

01 JAN Nassau, Bahamas

02 JAN At Sea

03 JAN Miami, Florida (Go home)

Cabin

2 BD ATS this time.

Pre-Cruise thoughts

-        While the freeloaders have been on many ships, this is actually their first time sailing a non-amped OG Oasis class ship. This will be their first time seeing the AT without the Ultimate Abyss.

-        Once again, in the spirit of a live blog, please do not hesitate to ask any questions.  I will do my best to find out whatever I can for you. I will even go scope out the CL for @OCSC Mike. But will not do the WJ lol

-        When responding to a post with a series of pictures, please do not include the pictures in your reply.  It just makes for easier scrolling.

-        Lastly, I will try to post videos and stories on Instagram.  You can follow me @lovetocruise2002

Posted

Some other dates to note...

As already mentioned by @Jax in her blog, there have been some changes to the SC program since September 1st of this year. The shoreside program was introduced and it has been met with many mixed (mainly negative reviews).

We got our SC survey on 10/02 for a 12/30 sail date (89 days out).

We filled it out about a week later and heard promptly (about a day later) from our Shoreside Genie, Juan. I replied that very day and never heard back from him for over a week. I ended up reaching out to Royal Caribbean over FB messenger to get him to reply. He replied with an apology over the delayed response and after that incident, he has been nothing short of awesome. Our exchanges after the initial hiccups have been prompt (within 24 hours) and he has been efficient in booking our dining and requests. Today, I got a final goodbye email from him and he said Haffnar would reach out soon in the next few days. I ended up enjoying dealing with Juan and asked him if he could handle our shoreside requests for our March UT sailing. He said he would wait for our survey to come in and go from there. I have heard so many bad stories about other shoreside genies, I did not want to let this one go since it has been going well, so hoping we can get him back.

Our RU offers came in exactly at 60 days out. We did not even put in any bids this time. I thought about it but decided against it because the kids have yet to try an ATS and I would like to try it too without the abyss in the way. So we are staying put. Also, that would have messed up our "Neighbor/Neighbours" blog title lol

Posted
1 hour ago, GregD said:

Johnny gets a consolation prize though, this coming summer, we are going to Scotland for 18 days, which he is really excited about. (I'm willing to blog that trip here in "other travel" if people are interested, let me know).

Interested! 

Also exciting to have this blog to read. I've done Allure twice now and it's...growing on me. Still love Freedom class best. 

And what's with all these suite blogs lately? Interiors represent! 🤣 I'll do so next month.

Posted

Details from the @GregD family portion of the blog....

Who’s Going?

Me, Heather @TheBoss518 Lydia and Johnny, my freeloaders 

Flight

Delta from ALB-MCO then MIA-ALB.

Pre-Cruise Stay

A few months after booking, we were approached by one of Heather’s friends Ang. She was a cheer coach with Heather when Lydia was little. We have been good friends since. We had traveled to Florida together before, and she mentioned she wanted to do so again with her daughters. 
 

So we are flying down on the 26th with them to Orlando. We are doing two days in the parks, with an open day to do whatever. 
 

We are staying at Lake Buena Vista resort and spa in a 3Br/3BA room together. It’s off Disney property, but close enough that’s it’s really convenient.

Following this, we are dropping Ang and her girls off at the airport and taking the Brightline down to Miami’s

Itinerary

26 DEC Arrive Orlando

27 DEC Hollywood Studios

28 DEC open day (I tried to convince @TheBoss518 we should road trip to La Bamba, but she didn’t go for it….

29 DEC Animal Kingdom 

30 DEC Miami, FL (Cruise Day!)

31 DEC PDCC, Bahamas

01 JAN Nassau, Bahamas

02 JAN At Sea

03 JAN Miami, Florida (Go home)

Cabin

2 BD ATS where we will wave gleefully across the ATS to Sabrina and her family while muttering thank goodness we aren’t all in the same room together……

Just kidding about that last part…..maybe..🤣🤣

Posted

Other pre-cruise stuff. My SS genie experience has been a crap shoot. It’s taken week for mine to respond to anything. I gave up on the whole process it was so annoying.

We have not heard who our ship genie is yet so who knows. 
 

We do want to do a little partying for Lydia since it is her birthday the day we board, but nothing too crazy. I’m thinking a raucous happy birthday sing along in CC to completely embarrass her would be sufficient 🤷🏻‍♂️

Posted
2 hours ago, GregD said:

I'm willing to blog that trip here in "other travel" if people are interested, let me know.

Absolutely! I last visited Scotland when I was 14 and would love to see your pics. 

PS. Is this something people do? I have the nicest, most detailed Euro river cruise blog at that other place that barely got a single Like. 😆 Next time I’m bringing it to you fine people! 

Posted
1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

We just need @SweetPea to blog and this will be a good collection to read until I depart in about 3wks.

Well, we leave Jan 5, so not much sooner than you! But i will likely blog as i see this as our last Royal for the foreseeable future. 

 

1 hour ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

We filled it out about a week later and heard promptly (about a day later) from our Shoreside Genie, Juan. I replied that very day and never heard back from him for over a week.

Ha! Never received the survey. Heard from shoreside Genie Nov 22. Crickets since and i 💯 refuse to follow up. The cards are falling where they land. There is reasoning behind my madness so i honestly hope i don't hear back at all. 😆

 

Can't wait to read about your collective ATS experiences. We liked our room well enough on Symphony but Allure and Oasis, like many of their staterooms, i just can't. I stand by my "90s College Dorm style" comment that i can't shake. 😆 C'mon, for what they are charging, it doesn't take a lot to rehab/update their upper tier suites to this century. 

Posted
11 minutes ago, GregD said:

I should also mention to any of you from the Orlando area, I’m open to suggestions for the open day on places to eat etc.

Could be the open day, could be connected to a park day, but highly recommend Art Smith's Homecomin' in Disney Springs. It's southern and pretty similar to Mason Jar on Wonder/Utopia if you've seen/read reviews.

@Lovetocruise2002 ate at a Mexican place not far from me (I live very close to the Magic Kingdom) that I've never even been to called El Patron; she can chime in about it. It's not La Bamba but I think they liked it.

Wish I could help more but we're frugal and don't stray too far from home so I'm lacking in non-chain suggestions.

Posted
45 minutes ago, GregD said:

(I tried to convince @TheBoss518 we should road trip to La Bamba, but she didn’t go for it….

At least you tried lol

44 minutes ago, GregD said:

Could you imagine 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 

No way lol

23 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

but Allure and Oasis, like many of their staterooms, i just can't. I stand by my "90s College Dorm style" comment that i can't shake.

I am not a fan of the ATS in general on the inside. Definitely do not love the decor of OA/AL. It's the balcony that I love.

20 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

ise2002 ate at a Mexican place not far from me (I live very close to the Magic Kingdom) that I've never even been to called El Patron; she can chime in about it. It's not La Bamba but I think they liked it.

It was ok. Definitely not La Bamba. I haven't even found one place that is comparable. El Patron is worth a visit though if you are craving Mexican. I just remember that their Queso did not do it for us. But that was also the evening that we had been up for way over 24 hours cause we got stuck in ATL and had to drive the rest of the way (at 3:30am) to Orlando remember? So terrible lol

I can't wait to go back to Boston Lobster Feast in March. Cannot wait to take my parents there.

Posted
5 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

that was also the evening that we had been up for way over 24 hours cause we got stuck in ATL and had to drive the rest of the way (at 3:30am) to Orlando remember?

Totally slipped my mind that it was THAT trip. After a margarita or two, Taco Bell might have tasted good to you at that point. 🤣

23 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I believe that Disney springs has some amazing restaurants

There are definitely other good restaurants there besides Homecomin' but I've only eaten at one and didn't love it. Most are owned by celebrity chefs like Art Smith, Morimoto, Jose Andres, Cat Cora (hers is elsewhere at Disney), etc. so between that and Disney, you're definitely paying a bit of a premium (frugal or not).

I've had chicken tenders at Guy Fieri's "Chicken Guy" and they were pretty good but I don't think that's what @GregD wants for dinner.

Oooooh.... while I'm rambling about Disney Springs... Gideon's Bakehouse for amazing, huge cookies! They're expensive but they weigh like half a pound each. When it's busy there's a line out the door and they only let so many people inside at one time.

Posted
1 hour ago, LandstromCruise said:

Hey let’s not be talking about that previous trip. We don’t need any bad travel vibes seeping into this trip 

Very true! I am already nervous thinking about it. I still have trauma from the March 2022 fiasco, and the last few years have just added to that. Fingers crossed big time for next Saturday! Consider this topic closed lol

Posted

It makes no sense to me the incompetent lack of consistency it has become with Royal but they surely haven't forgotten how to continue raising rates and cutting the perks.

Sweetpea can't say this will be her last blog.  tales of Batman would be highly missed..... she can blog the "haven proper" under other travel.

Even i have ventured over into other options not only for itinerary but bang for buck was there.  each sailing has its own memory and you just sail with it making most of what you want and roll with it.  I refuse to stay in dry dock.

 

Posted

The plan for the next few days will be hectic.

Let me backtrack on life lately since we last blogged in August...

I went back to teaching in September and it has been a complete whirlwind since then. This year's group is a busy one, we saw it coming years ago, but it doesn't really make it any easier. All I can say is thank goodness for the blessing of having a good team around to work with. That's what keeps me sane in teaching these days.

Hubby is working away as usual.

D18 is now in university, majoring in Pure Mathematics for now. She just wrapped up her first term with better grades than Hubby and I ever pulled off. Now she just has to figure out what she wants to do with that.

D16 is plugging away in Grade 11. She ended up with a really tough load of courses this semester (English, Bio, Chem, Accounting). To make her luck even worse, she has been in this constant cycle of tests in each of the subjects landing at the same time, every other week. She is exhausted. Everyone, is so looking forward to a few days away in warmth and sun.

Because life has been so busy for us, Christmas totally snuck up on us. This combined with the Canada Post strike, which then caused backups with Purolator, UPS, and FedEx, most of the Christmas gifts made it (thank goodness for Bezos Prime), except for a portion of Hubby's. I thought it would safe because it was coming from Kentucky through UPS. However, after shipping label was created and it showed no movement of UPS picking it up, I contacted the company and they told me because it's an international shipment and UPS will eventually hand it off to Canada Post, they have to hold the shipment until Canada Post is up and running again. Canada Post started running again a few days ago, but they will not accept international shipments until Monday (the 23rd), so Hubby is out of luck.

Today's plan is to print luggage tags and set sail passes. Haven't even looked at those yet. On the agenda is to put together my info list for when the ship genie reaches out. I decided to do things a bit differently with shoreside. Some people were sending shoreside a whole list of requests that they would normally send the genie. I decided to hold off and only have shoreside book my dining, and save the rest for when the ship genie reaches out. I am going to see how that works out for me.

Also on the "to do list" is laundry and start packing. We leave one week from today, but Tuesday and Wednesday will be a wash due to family Christmas get togethers. One week to La Bamba has me so excited! 

Posted
17 hours ago, GregD said:

Johnny gets a consolation prize though, this coming summer, we are going to Scotland for 18 days, which he is really excited about.

 

 

 

As a Scot from Perth, if you want any suggestions of "non standard" stuff to do then ping me and I will see what I can come up with

Posted
27 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I really need to try La Bamba my next time in PE.

Yes you do!!! 

26 minutes ago, OCSC Mike said:

As opposed to impure mathematics? What in the world is that?

(Says an Ivy League dropout who was a good math student until I got to calculus and it ceased to make any real world sense).

I am cracking up at this! I have no clue either. Hubby and I are both Science majors. I will ask her when she wakes up lol

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