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Our First Cruise and we went big on the July 1 sailing on the Allure!!!

CSBM

By CSBM,
in Royal Caribbean International

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CSBM

CSBM

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I will be doing a trip report later this evening.....but this was our very FIRST cruise and went on the July 1 sailing on the Allure. We had a GREAT time and loved the ship. For those of you on the fence about going....do it!!

CSBM

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CSBM

CSBM

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This was our very first cruise. I wasn't sure if I could convince my husband to go again so we went BIG! It was my self (43), DH(47) and DD (14) and DD (12). We started off the vacation in Ft Lauderdale for two nights before we boarded. I LOVE planning vacations and this one was no different. I had read, researched, and reread all the reviews and spent my fair amount of time on Cruise critic. I felt this site helped me so much, so I want to in turn help others if I can.

 

 

We were planning on staying at Harbor Beach Marriott (my husband has platinum status with Marriott). I had heard GREAT things about this hotel and was really looking forward to a few relaxing beach days before we boarded the ship. We were to fly out on Friday and board the Allure on Sunday. It ended up that my husband had to work on Friday so he ended up not joining us until Saturday afternoon. I was fine with this and didn't mind traveling with our girls by myself. They are very easy to travel with and they were really excited about our trip.

 

When we arrived at the hotel it was already 3:00 and the hotel was buzzing. There seemed to be people everywhere. We were given a beautiful ocean front room. We were staying one night on points and one paid night. The girls wanted to go directly to the beach. We quickly changed and were at the beach by 3:30. They had chairs and the girls quickly joined in the ocean fun. They had a great time jumping the waves and I enjoyed a lovely view, nice chair, and umbrella. We then dried off, covered up and enjoyed a nice dinner at the Sea View Restaurant. The food was delicious, fresh, and priced similarly to a resort restaurant. We then went back to the room and that is when the trouble started......

 

 

The person in the next room (we had a connecting door) was playing his music loudly...I could hear every word to every song..I could also hear his cell phone conversation. The walls at this hotel must be PAPER thin. If you were staying next to a quiet person, I'm sure this wouldn't be an issue. Later I could hear him with a woman and I was praying that my kids couldn't tell what was going on....She left slammed the door and was mad....He then left shortly there after. He then returned at 6:30 AM with a gaggle of young ladies playing music and other things.....:cool: And I could hear ALL of it...It was awful. My girls were still sleeping so I didn't want to wake them, but it was horrific. By 8:30 they were waking up to the screaming, swearing, and loud music. I went down to the front desk and demanded a new room. In the meantime my daughter texted me and told me it was getting worse...so they moved us immediately to a new room (to be moved again later to a room with a view). We went to the new room where I promptly fell asleep due to the lack of sleep the night before:eek:

 

After a while we got dressed and went down to the pool area. The pool area of this hotel is BEAUTIFUL. We really enjoyed it and had lunch by the pool. Finally, my husband arrived (very happy to see him at this point) and he was not too happy with the stories from the night and mornings activities. They then moved us to a beautiful suite. Too bad we didn't have a lot of time to enjoy it. They did give us a credit for the night, but that image was stuck in my head....:(

 

 

We decided to go to Mass that night. The front desk said the church was 1.5 miles away. We decided to walk. Please, listen, don't ever walk to this church from the hotel. It was on a busy street, sweltering hot, and more like 2 miles. We are in reasonably good shape, but lets just say that we were absolutely dripping when we arrived at the catholic church.:p I'm sure that no one wanted to sit by the dripping, sweating people who had just walked in. We quickly grabbed a drink (we were now a few minutes late) and the greeter asks, "Did you walk?" we replied , "YES!" she asks from where and we told her from the Marriott...she said why do they tell people it's close enough to walk???? She says, "Don't worry we will find a ride back for you." My husband and I crack up...we have never been to a church where they just offer rides to the visitors:D So sweet. The priest was awesome and just what I needed to get my mind back in the right place, after the prior nights activities:rolleyes: Sure enough afterwards a sweet gal offers us a ride. Now we have always told our children not to talk to strangers, but we were so hot and sweaty there was no WAY we were walking back. She says they do this all the time. She ended up taking us to 15 Street Fisheries to eat dinner (close to where she lives) and then we took a cab after our dinner.

 

Dinner was delicious (highly recommend the peel and eat shrimp) and this restaurant has a GREAT view of the Harbor. It was fun watching the ships come in and out of the harbor. It was also nice to see all the HUGE Yachts.

 

More to come later.....

 

CSBM

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bugsy43

bugsy43

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Welcome back.

 

So excited to read your review thus far and looking forward to more. We leave in 3 weeks and for now have to live vicariously through great reviews like yous.

 

Look forward to reading more. :)

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