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umograd83

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    Woohoo! All checked in!

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    I took my Covid test this morning and came back negative. My bag is almost packed and I am in Vacation mode. Here I come, Carnival Liberty!  First time solo for me in a balcony cabin.  Next time I need to convince hubby to come with me. He can have his skiing!

    • Like 1

    Goodbye, Carnival

    in Carnival Cruise Lines

    Posted

    We were considering doing NCL out of Boston. We live a little over an hour away. I've been on Royal, Princess, Carnival, and Celebrity. I've never done any of them a second time. This is the first time I've repeated a cruise line. 5th cruise, 2nd time on Carnival.

     

    I was thinking o NCL partially because I thought I'd gain the experience of being on most of the really popular lines and then settling on my favorite for a while. But ultimately I decided not to because I heard the food on NCL was bad. What did you think about it?

     

    I didn't think the food was bad on NCL. But I'm not a particularly fussy eater, either. We are going to do the Boston to Bermuda on Dawn again because Boston is so close to Maine and it's easy to get there. We go down to Boston by bus or train. No matter what line you go on, I think you will find good food and bad food. The only food I ate on Royal that I didn't like was the gazpacho. Carnival has the best gazpacho. Out of the three lines, Carnival has had the best food. However, I did like the set up in the buffet restaurant on the Allure. Instead of standing in a long line to go through a buffet line, they had round "pods" with different kinds of food at each one - i.e., salad stuff on one, even gluten free food on one. I thought the pods made getting your food a lot easier.

    Review - Allure 9/11/16 - first time on Royal

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    OMG! You get on the ship on the Promenade deck. My jaw dropped when I saw the Promenade. It is huge! There are so many shops and bars! We made our way up to Deck 16 to the Windjammer restaurant to eat lunch (more on this later). After lunch we wandered around the ship with a map in hand. I have never seen anything like this ship! You have to hand it to Royal Caribbean for creating this masterpiece. The five neighborhoods idea was brilliant! What is does is disburse the crowds throughout the ship. We hardly ever felt like we were on a ship with 5,855 passengers (the official count for the week of September 11). We walked up to the Boardwalk and checked that area out, including the Aqua Theater. When looking at pictures online, I thought it would be bizarre to have open space in the middle of the ship, but it was really not odd at all after seeing it. What I don’t get are the balconies looking into that space. If I’m going to pay for a balcony cruise, I want to be looking at the ocean, not the ship. I think it would be kinda noisy, too.

     

    The cabins were available for occupancy at 1:00 and we made our way up to our cabin at that time. We met our cabin stewardess, Charlotta from Jamaica, at this time. She is one of the best cabin attendants we have ever had. She was very pleasant and attentive to our every need.

     

    We took the rest of the afternoon to explore the ship. I thought it would be really hard to find our way around the ship because it is so big, but it wasn't hard at all. We had to remember that Promenade and the walking track were on Deck 5, Broadway and the Schooner Bar are on Deck 6, Central Park was on Deck 8, our balcony cabin was on Deck 9, the pools are on 15, the Solarium is on Decks 15 and 16 and the Windjammer Restaurant was on 16.

     

    At 4:00 we made our way to one of the main dining rooms as this was our muster station. I was pleased that it was inside because it was very hot that day in Fort Lauderdale. When we arrived, a crew member scanned our Sea Pass for attendance and we were directed where to sit. Once everybody was seated, we watched a short film on the television and then we were sent on our merry way.

     

    We had arranged to meet other Cruise Critic meet and mingle folks at one of the bars on Deck 15 for 15 minutes after the drill. However, as is usual, only a few people showed up. We had early seating at the American Icon restaurant (dine anytime restaurant), so we did not stay long. We arrived at the restaurant when it opened and stood in the line for those who had reservations. There was also another line that was for people who did not have a reservation. At this time of night (5:30), it was not crowded and there was hardly a wait. We were seated at a table for eight, which went well that first night. Our waiter was Dante from the Phillipines (he looks like Usher!). I cannot remember the assistant waiter's name. They were both very good. Another night we were the first people to arrive to be seated at a table for 8 in our area. Nobody came for ten minutes, so Dante took our order. We had already eaten our appetizer when the others filled up the table. One of the guests ordered three appetizers. We were not served our entree until she was done eating her three appetizers. We waited about 45 minutes before being served. We should have asked Dante to bring us our entree earlier. Live and learn. Needless to say, we did not wait for dessert. After that night we asked for a table for two.

     

    We did not eat in the dining room on the two formal nights. We both have been cruising for a long time. I used to like to dress up, but now we do not enjoy dressing up nor do we want to bring formal clothes with us on the cruise. So those two nights we ate at the Windjammer.

     

    I will say that I think Carnival has better food than Royal Caribbean, but just slightly. The prime rib I had on the first night was fabulous. The desserts were okay. We ate lunch and breakfast in the Windjammer most days. The first day we ate at Johnny Rockets for lunch )$) and it was very good. We also ate breakfast there one day (free breakfast). The only specialty restaurant ($) we ate at was Sabor. We loved the food at Sabor. The cruise was a second honeymoon for us and we ate there on our anniversary. We enjoyed it so much, we ate there again the next day for lunch (same menu). I also had a Coney Island hot dog at The Boardwalk Dog Walk one day for lunch. Neither of us cared for the doughnuts which were available on the Boardwalk.

     

    . . . to be continued

    Review - Allure 9/11/16 - first time on Royal

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    My husband and I are both late 50s. We are seasoned cruisers, being Platinum level on Carnival. Fifteen years ago, five days after 9/11, we honeymooned on the Carnival Paradise, eastern Caribbean. Needless to say, it wasn't quite the honeymoon of our dreams. We decided to do a second honeymoon cruise with the same itinerary. Time. I chose Royal Caribbean because there was a great sale on balcony cabins on Expedia.

     

    We always go to the embarkation city a day early. Neither of us had been to Fort Lauderdale before. We picked the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina, which is very close to the port. We enjoyed the hotel, especially the pool, and will probably stay there again. They have a shuttle service to the port for $6 per person. We made a reservation for the shuttle the day before the cruise. We took the 11:00 shuttle.

     

    This was the fastest we have every checked in. We arrived, the porters came and took our baggage, we went through security, went upstairs and were directed to the line for Deck 9, showed the rep our paperwork and gave her my credit card, received our Sea Pass card, had a photo taken and walked onto the ship. Holy cow! Only 11 minutes. Even though we are Platinum on Carnival and check in inside a separate lounge, afterwards we have to wait to board the ship. I was really, really impressed with how efficient the check-in process was.

     

    We entered the ship on the Promenade deck. (to be continued)

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