Cruising - April 21

Tuesday, April 21:  

First time change today means we're aging faster, or maybe not. The Aqua show last nite was quite the thing; "an ancient underwater civilization comes to life"! We sat way up close, right in front of a huge half-moon shaped dive pool on bench seats designated, as we learned too late, as being a "splash area". We soon felt as wet as the cast of acrobatic swimmers. Talk about wetside seats. But no harm done. The water was warm and the night air balmy. 

 

Spent the day roaming through more of the ship then, of course, happy hour in the Blaze bar.  We are blazingly happy :) We talked quite a bit with new friends Linda & Lew from Michigan.  Our favorite bartender had a great memory and had our drinks ready as we walked in the door.

 

 Tonight we saw the main theater attraction "Chicago" for a far drier indoor theater experience. This was their last performance.  After a 5-yr run they will be changing the show to Mama Mia.

We sat at an 8-person table tonight and along with my sister and her hubby, we met Don & Pat from Chicago and Sivilia & Bob from Seattle.  We love this open seating arrangement where we can meet new people each night.

 

Cruising - April 19 - Embarcation

European Vacation - 2015

This blog will relate our Big Summer of '15 trip cruising to Barcelona, followed by driving through Europe for a month and a half. This will a be a "sampler" drive of several thousand miles, not spending a lot of time in any one place (four nights max). We actually need the blog for ourselves so that after the trip we can sit back and reflect. We had fun planning this happening over the past four months and we have been assured (by ourselves) that everything will go precisely as planned. So stay tuned.

April 18 - D-Day!  Our neighbors, Bob & Linda, picked us up at 4am for the drive to the airport.  Stars were out and no-one on the road.  We got to the airport to see a line already snaking around turnstiles at Southwest - but no one appeared behind the counter until 5am. 

(Leo & Suzie, the LeTote bag is perfect for travel)

At the TSA checkpoint, Norm was able to walk right through with a pre-TSA check on his boarding pass while Pam had to wait in line.  Same thing happened last year on our Hawaii trip....it frosts her cake that she's the one with the TSA federal clearance yet Norm gets the pre-check status.  Things appear to have changed as there were no bins but Pam still took the baggies out and shoes off and iPad out, etc. - no one was there to tell us otherwise...but we breezed right through.  Pam didn't recognize ANYONE working there.  Years have gone by....

With Starbucks in hand, we settled in for an hour wait to board.  We were lucky to snag an exit row having only 2 seats so we were as happy as can be to the first leg - to Phoenix.  And speaking of "legs", Norm had restless leg syndrome, sometimes called "legs in a box" the entire way. He is certain he caught thrombosis from too much contact between his knees and his nose. 

But as we lined up to board for the Fort Lauderdale leg - with our (paid extra for) "A" boarding pass in hand - we noticed a dozen people lined up in wheelchairs, plus families with - horror - little kids with preemptive rights to board ahead of us "A" class folks, grabbing the best spots. Even a service dog boarded ahead of us!  We finally did get aisle seats across from each other and every seat on the plane was filled.  

Pam talked quite a bit to Barbara and Russ from Phoenix who sat next to her - also headed to "Allure of the Seas". In fact, it turned out most of those on board were part of the 6,000 strong passenger contingent we'd soon be sailing, swimming and dining with on "Allure". We'll soon all be finding out what living the fun life on board the largest cruise ship in the world is all about - at 255,000 tons, it is six times the displacement of the "Titanic". (Perhaps that's not best reference point, on second thought.) 

We arrived at our hotel - Quality Inn - without a hitch.  This place is a cruisers' mecca and we always stay here - free pickup at the airport, free breakfast and free transport to the dock.The shuttle bus was packed so Pam headed to check-in while Norm retrieved the luggage.  Unfortunately the room wasn't ready yet - what?  It's 5:30....so we sat for 1/2 hr with everyone from the shuttle.  After a bit of prodding, we were ensconced in our room and ready for dinner.  

Pam's sister and her husband, Linda and Robert, had arrived yesterday so they were relaxed - unlike us.  We decided to do our own thing and will meet up for breakfast in the morning.  We crawled next door to McDonalds for a burger.  We don't go to McDonalds at home but since it was next door...geez, $14.61 later for two burger meals.  Guess we're not in Kansas anymore.  

We're headed back for a long winter's nap and to dream of the fine cuisine on the ship tomorrow - certainly a huge step up from our fine dining tonight.

April 19:  We took the shuttle to the cruise dock at 10:30 for embarkation.  Boarding was a breeze what with the army of Royal Caribbean personnel available for checking. 


                 Here we are on the shuttle bus heading to the port:

                                         Linda & Robert:

 

 Once on board, we settled into a table at a brewpub until our rooms were ready.  A couple of beers later...we headed to our stateroom to find our luggage waiting outside our door - like clockwork.  

 

 

These paintings were in the brewpub - as a rower, Pam loved them!

 

 

Linda and Robert bit for the unlimited soda package for $92/ea - special cups included - that's a lotsa Coke. The ship is a miracle of varied and creative revenue streams. Still, there's a great deal of food and fun provided as part of the cruise. However, the unlimited WiFi package for $180 per device was a must have. That means one our two Ipads could be connected to the ship's high speed internet at a time. We got a 30 buck discount because of our exalted status as Diamond members. 

 

 

Cruising - April 19 - 20

April 19-20

The Diamond member Happy Hour was one of the best we've had.  Lots of hot and cold edibles and an open bar for beer, wine and mixed drinks. A woman sitting at the bar next to Pam began to talk non-stop about her failed marriage and her ex's "emotional incest" caused by sleeping in the same bed as his Mom until age 12. Say, what?  Maybe we mistakenly latched onto a cruise comprised of the weirdly disenchanted. Problem solved when the woman suddenly departed, quite distraught, and we could return to peaceably imbibing our Bloody Mary's (Norm) and Rum Punches (not Norm). 

We had an 8 pm dinner following the 3 hour booze fest. We were the life of the dinner table until Norm pitched face forward into his potatoes au gratin and started snoring heavily. Okay, just kidding about the snoring. Then it was off to bed by midnight, with dreams of cockle shells and languorous, sunny days to come.

 April 20:  slept 'til Noon today, waking to puffy clouds, blue skies and crisp ocean waves skimming past the ship. We walked around part of the ship to view the many venues and nooks and crannies.  

Taking in the whole enchilada properly is way more than an afternoon affair. Our fellow 6,000 passengers seemed to be easily absorbed within the massive vessel, like a gallon of water in a six gallon capacity sponge - no crowding or press of people. We typically avoid use of fantastical imagery in describing things, but "Allure" is really spectacular. Carousel, rock climbing wall, two-level bar lit up with fountains underneath, Central Park, colorful wire dresses floating in the elevator area....Starbucks!....Johnny Rockets, and oh so much more.