Thelongos

Cupcakes!

Always love taking pictures in front of the Jonny Rocket status

Valerie sculpting a horse!

I had this for dinner one, a vegetable burrito, tasted like a veggie enchilada.

Blueberry peach crumble with vanilla ice cream...

Moist chocolate cake ( Val couldn't wait)

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Hi all, Only been on for 1 day so far, but really loving this cruise. Royal has really thought of everything!

We got on around 11am and immediately went to park cafe. We then went upstairs to book our Coastal Kitchen reservations. After that we went to the next cruise desk and were a bit confused on dates so we are still pondering... We then went to the vitality spa to get the thermal package which made us hungry so we then went to the boardwalk for the "Sicilian" dog, because why not?

After walking around a bit more to explore and wait for our room to be ready, we found ourselves in the solarium (which also has... You guessed it ... Food!) and had to sample the seafood paella, which was great.

Once the room was ready (about 1:45) we headed down to check out our room. We are in a junior suite on deck 8 starboard side. The room is super spacious and we are happy we opted for the js. Our bags weren't in yet, so we wandered up to the sports deck to get our wristbands and see if anyone was on the flow rider or zip line. Due to lightning the zip line had not opened yet, but some of the staff had just opened the flow rider for demonstration so we watched them for a bit.

We had a few minutes before the muster drill so we checked back in at our room and our bags were just being delivered. Perfect timing so we got a little unpacking done before muster. After that we watched sail away from our balcony!

Timing had all gone great so far and we were able to do a quick change of clothes before heading down for dinner at first seating in main dining room. We had a table for six but only four of us were there and we enjoyed the company of our table mates!

Since we were unsure if we were going to prefer the main dining room or coastal kitchen better, we had made late reservations at coastal kitchen as well. Why not have a second dinner on day one of vacation? Right?

Well, coastal kitchen was amazing and we think we will probably go there all week, that is after we find our table mates and tell them that it wasn't their company that made us change plans! The food was remarkable and the service was great. A little more slower pace that the main dining room, intimate and less crowded.

After dinner number two we enjoyed a stroll down Central Park and listened to the piano player which was a fabulous ambience and end to the evening!

Lenny and Valerie at the cruise terminal.

Park Cafe Food

Central Park

Paella, daily catch off back of boat and miso soup

Mushroom crepe, turkey vegetable salad and feta tomatoes

The Sicilian is on a cheddar bun and I put sausage and peppers on it.

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Lenny, I just watched your cabin crawl scope and you asked about your hot phone. When I scope, or watch scopes, the phone does get hot. I have a partial case on my phone. Perhaps your phone got too hot. Scopes also drain a lot of battery power. I solved that by getting a new iPhone as my other one was a bit older and I also carry an auxiliary battery.

 

And just in case you didn't know it, you are doing a great job.

Thanks for the tip Andrew. You rock as usual. Still so happy about your upgrade bud! We definitely would like to see that cabin, perhaps that may be our next upgrade in the future... Although I'm a bit scared, as I'm sure you are, what if you never go back to Sky Class? =O

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Is this a countdown clock or just your wallpaper? Or both? I love it! If it's a clock, which app is it?

Yes, this is a phone app, called Countdown Plus: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appsbeyond.countdownplus.lite

We use it to see how many days for cruises, vacations and birthdays etc. You can upload your specific pictures you want for it to metro you and your friends excited when you share it. It's a one time fee of 5$ I think.

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Lenny, your ship awaits in port for you. She is also docked the "normal" way, so hopefully you will have a sailaway today.;):)

 

Safe trip to the port and enjoy your day.

Thanks Andrew, we saw this post on the car and it made us feel real good! It was a good 40 min drive but everything takes longer with excitement!

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I'm on the Allure in one more week!!! [emoji2]. Take good care of her!!!!

 

 

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Will do Rob, we're having a blast and only been on a few hours!

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After people watching, we went to the beach and watched the neatest volleyball game ever as they didn't use hands--just feet and their heads!

After that, we went to the beach and watched the waves for a bit (periscoped the waves) and we could have stayed there all night, it was very meditative.

A bit after 9 it started to get real dark and we figured we should get some rest before the big day tomorrow so we went back to our hotel, Room Mate Lord Balfour. It's a cute boutique hotel on Ocean Drive. The rooms are a bit small but I hear a lot of the Miami Beach hotels are as they were built so long ago. The hotel is very art deco (I think we may be in the art deco district).

I can't help it but I keep having the feeling I'm being watched...

And lol at this guy holding the soap all night...

Night all!

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Haha, I have no clue why the pics are sideways as they are not that way in my phone.

After dinner we walked around and people watched. If you don't know...Miami Beach is a great place to people watch... So many people having so much fun.

Here's two pics we took while eating dinner outside.

We also saw people riding giant big wheel (from when we were kids) that are apparently street legal now and also motorcycles with hydraulic lifts. A lot of other neat things that I just can't fit in here... Needless to say this is a fun city to be in.

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We had dinner at a place named A Fish Called Avalon, recommended by the hotel staff.

It was very good. It started out with the standard bread (although a portion of it was warm raisin bread), followed up by a terrific lobster bisque that had some sort of sweet pink cream liquor on top.

Then, the main course arrived, which we shared... Paella with lobster, shrimp, calamari, mussels, scallops, tomatoes, spinach, orzo and more...it was so good that I passed out in a food coma!

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You should go down to south pointe park if you haven't already! It's nearby where you are (judging by your volleyball scope), although you're probably having dinner soon

No were early birds, we had dinner at 6pm haha. Kids trained us we'll.

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Just saw your south beach scope! I'm on south beach too, because I work here :)

That's great! Where do you work, can we walk there?

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Well, better late then never!

We're finally off to South Beach.

Had a tiny flood at our office coupled with a down server at the last minute... Murphy and his laws are setting us straight this week lol!

Lenny is driving and navigation has us at 3.5 hours, so we should arrive a bit after 5pm.

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This is going to be great. Following. I also saw your deep fried Oreo broadcast! :)

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Woohoo, only 3 days until were traveling to South Florida!

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In our case, pre suite class, we had an invite from the CK Maitre' D to contact them for reservations. They provided the direct phone line. FWIW, I plan on securing all our reservations for our Fall 2017 block when we board in September. Hopefully I can book them all in advance. I may have to ask Mr Franklin for help. ;) But we are talking about 9 voyages, upwards of 50 dinners.

Wow that's great, thanks John! We're excited for our visit there next week!

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Thank you for sharing! I can't wait for your review, we are booked in a RFS in November. Following this post now.

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Not to further keep this discussion from the topic of the sun deck, but how does a JS guest make dinner reservations at CK? I can see we can make reservations online beforehand on sky class reservations but on our one sea class I can't see the option. I'm supposing we just call or visit once onboard? Thanks for the help :)

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I'm on this sailing too. Ready for vacation!!

:D:D:D:D:D

Only a few more days!

We are on this sailing also, first time on RCCL !!! looking forward to it. Does anyone know if they have a onboard app that we can text with my 10 yr old around the ship ?? i know other cruise lines do but i haven't seen anything as of yet. Thanks...

Perhaps one day they will get that app. Regardless, you're all going to have so much fun!

Lenny: do you have any excursions planned? I have the same itinerary on Allure in September.

We do not typically plan excursions ahead of time as we are go-with-the-flow while cruising, if we even get off the boat at all in some ports we've been to many times. We really love the ship experience! If anything, we'll pick up a zipline, snorkel or bike tour once we get in country and gauge the weather.

I am on your sailing too. Can't wait!!

This work week can't be finished soon enough. Luckily, I am only working through Wednesday.

 

Minus the Periscope part, I could have written your initial post. We are going on the cruise without our kids for our 10 year anniversary - thanks Grandparents. I am also figuring out the whole Voom situation as we want to skype or facetime with the kids but I also don't want to be tempted to check work emails or other work info. I am thinking about getting the package so I can text my husband on board (as opposed to a walkie talkie) and then have skype access to the kids and I will delete all my work sites and email off my phone. I too am looking forward to unplugging but also want certain access.

That's great - Happy Anniversary! We look forward to running into you guys on board!

We did a similar no kids cruise on our 5th anniversary. We'll be missing our children (but not too much, at least for the first few days haha). And yes, thinking the VOOM will help alleviate that somewhat. We are unsure if we are going to get "two" internet packages to communicate between ourselves as we are typically together. We have done walkies before and that has helped in some situations--especially with children. #unplugfromstress

Yay Lenny! Glad your sail date is finally approaching soon. You'll have to tell us what they do for the holiday.

 

I'm also interested in the itinerary. A few cool new itineraries for Allure lately.

 

I'll be checking in here and on Periscope. I know you'll both have a wonderful time. :)

Thanks Pharaoh, it's because of your's and other similar scopers out there that I decided to do it... You guys are sharing so why shouldn't we. Everyone deserves some cruise fun!

I am on this sailing too! Can't wait.!!!

Hooray, it's going to be awesome!

Yes, we can't wait either!! :D

The problem is if we can get our work finished early this week we can head to S. Florida a few days earlier... but you know how that goes. So, it's hurry up and wait I suppose!

They did fireworks from the Breakaway when we were on board. So it isn't impossible. :) And Disney does it all the time.

That's neat to know. I can see how professionally trained crew measuring wind and other factors can pull it off. Perhaps, cost/benefit ratio is not good enough on RCCL sort of like the midnight buffet I miss (although that had to be such a waste of food).

On Allure in 2011 and 2013, what was called "Captain's Corner" was held in the Aquatheater and it actually had the Captain, Hotel Director, and Engineering person, and the CD. I'm told on rainy days it was moved to the main theater, but I had nice weather both times. Anyway, On Oasis The Captain's corner was held in the Comedy studio and was only the Captain. The venue was way to small for all that wanted to attend and was a bit of a disappointment compared to previous Allure events. I'll be curious to see if its changed on Oasis. It usually in one of the last 2 sea days.

Hi Bill, that sounds interesting. I'll have to check that out and see if it's still available.