Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[harryfat1]

Zooming in

 

 

 

 

 

Backup singers/performers

 

 

[harryfat1]

More show pics

 

 

 

OK, so in my previous posts, I mentioned we got “lucky” during the cruise in getting the freebies. On day 4, we received the freebie glow ring when the disco lady tossed one across the RP to us. During this show, they were tossing out the glow sticks to the audience. Of course, you know cheapo dad would want one so I waved my hand vigorously while they were tossing it and the younger strong guys with the baseball arms heaved one to me on the higher tier (guess a guy with a big SLR around his neck stands out) and I caught it and this one went to my younger son since the older one got the ring yesterday so you see him very happy to display it the rest of the show

 

 

You start to see the various glow sticks in the audience after they tossed them

 

 

[harryfat1]

As with most acts, they have an audience participation part.

 

 

Thank you for being part of the act

 

 

 

Check out that outfit

 

 

The end of the regular set

 

[harryfat1]

People wanting “encore” as they haven’t sang the most popular ABBA song yet

 

 

Here comes

 

 

Dancing Queen...

 

 

Final bow for a great show

 

[harryfat1]

As always, I take pictures of the crowd

 

 

Don’t be in a hurry to get out. Let people go first and 10 minutes later, it’ll be totally empty

 

 

They are in the front selling CDs and signing autographs with fans

 

 

 

The boys wanted to take a picture with them

 

 

So that’s our experience with the headliner show. Everyone will have different experience depending on who shows up for your sailing.

[Disney Sheep]

 

At any rate, I digress.

 

On with the show - literally. So this band is basically the ABBA impersonators and they do a very job in looking and sounding like them. Since I know their songs from old days - might even have a 45 or two in my LP collection, I enjoyed the show and so did my kids even though this is not their musical era. To demonstrate that music is subjective, my wife didn’t really care for the show as she didn’t grow up listening to the original ABBA. She liked the next day’s show, Blue Planet, which I thought sucked so there’s no accounting for musical taste, not even for accountants. We like what we like and just leave it at that.

 

 

 

Ok, so I am laughing out loud again - and DH just waited patiently until I read him what I was giggling about. Just to say that I agree with you about your thoughts about the headliner show. Being anal myself I have created a schedule for our upcoming Oasis March cruise and have booked the headliner spot in. And yes, I know we can simply not go if it doesn't interest us, but if I knew ahead of time who the headliner is going to be, I might just re-jig my schedule in advance. Oh well, clearly this is a 'tough' problem to have !

 

We had MO5AIC on our Allure cruise last March and enjoyed them, again luck of the draw. However I really did not like the music with Blue Planet, don't mess with the music arrangements of my 'classic' music.

[JamesEM]

Agree 100% about the Headliner Show, I was on the Allure in Nov, passenger started leaving five minutes after the show started. It was so bad....I stayed another 20 minutes just to see how many other people would leave, at that point I left only to return at the end of the show to see how many people stayed, less than half.

[Miryam1234]

ooh, I am so envious now! I am a huge Abba fan, although I am a bit too young to have ever seen them perform live. They are Swedish, which is kind of next best thing to being Finnish in our opinion as we were part of Sweden like 205 years ago. I think their music is just beautiful and immortal!

 

I've seen different groups of impersonators over and over again, and same goes with the famous Mamma Mia musical. I know it's coming to Allure later this year, but apparently only after dry dock and I will be on the TA just before. Bad, bad, bad planning on my side.

Thanks for sharing the photos, I can feel how you enjoyed their show! I would have danced and sung out loud the whole time. Come to think of that it was probably better that I was not there - my performance might have disturbed some fellow cruisers. :p

 

Back to you Harry, still more to come!

[cruisemeister8]

OK, here is another complaint in the report - you know that since I am anal and the more anal you are, the more complaints you have. It’s a given that anal people complain more than average – it’s who we are by definition.

 

First of all, RCI requires the cruisers to make reservation months ahead from home to reserve the show for “Headliner”. But none of us are ever told who the headliner is. Only when you get in the ship, do they reveal the mystery person. For us, we were “lucky” (depends on your musical taste) to get Abbacadabra (the band ABBA from the old days) in that at least I liked ABBA songs when I was young.

 

But I have also seen other cruisers’ daily compass and they have people I never heard of. If they are truly Headliner, that must be really really small town they are playing in as I don’t know them. The thing about musical taste is that it is as subjective/personal as is food. All of us like whatever music we like and it’s all individualized. On a 7 day vacation, we have 24 hours X 7 days = 168 max awake/sleep hours. Probably minus 3 hours if you board around 12 noon and get off at 9 AM on day 8 - that leaves you 165 hours the entire cruise.

 

RCI is asking me to blindly trust them that they will find some entertainer that may or may not fit my musical taste as I am giving up at least 1 plus hours of the 165 hours to be in a theater for some unknown music. To me that’s similar to saying – book a meal with us with some mystery “headliner” chef that will whip up some meal for you, but we can’t tell you what type of food it will be. Just trust us that you will like it along with the rest of the 6,000 passengers.

 

The solution to me seems simple - RCI should email me days/weeks prior to sailing with an email that says “Subject to last minute changes but we have tentatively plan to have “John Doe” as your headliner. Please note that due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot guarantee John Doe will be performing on your cruise and if somehow he cannot perform on your sailing, we will have a different headliner”. Whatever disclaimer they want to put in. I care not. The idea is to give me (and others) a chance to Google/Youtube John Doe’s music to see if we like it or not. For example, if he is a country singer and I only like R&B, then I know I won’t need to go to the show as that’s not for me. I won’t need to invest the 1 precious hour out of 165 to be there or pre schedule my time dining/specialty dining around show time for that night.

 

RCI spam me weekly email prior to the cruise with “Harry, your dream vacation is coming up. Do you have all your plans set? If not, let us help you spend the extra money you didn’t budget for as we have tons of way to get you to open up your wallet and waste your money”. So I know they have my email. Just tell me ahead of time who may or may not be the headliner and let me decide how to spend my 165 hours.

 

The system as it stand now is we all book a “headliner” for fear of missing out as it may not be possible to book while on board and then once on board, you scratch your head “who is this guy?” and then you can’t do any research and decide to go to the show or not that night. More info ahead of time would be good.

 

 

 

AMEN, brother Harry! Preach that scheduling gospel! Can we get a hallelujah to the sales spam? ...Hallelujah, brother Harry! Can we get a hallelujah to schedule of headliners? ... Hallelujah, brother Harry! The man speaks the truth!

 

I wondered the EXACT same thing back in the day when I was scheduling our Allure trip. WHO is this 'headliner' I'm booking? Surely Royal doesn't just pick someone week by week to show up? They have got to have an advance booking schedule! Granted, things can change. But posting a tentative schedule, especially in the short term prior to the cruise, could really help people plan their activities.

 

Like you, I trusted them to provide someone entertaining as we had not really been disappointed on our previous trips. (Well, there was that one trip that had a horrible singer. I don't know if it was her butchering a Reba song or exhaustion from the day's excursion, but it was the only time I've fallen asleep in the theatre. Hence, I don't remember much of her.) But back to the Allure headliner. It wasn't until we were on the ship that the compass told us we were going to have some guy singing Frank Sinatra-style lounge tunes. :eek: Uh, no thanks. Waaaaaaaayyy before our time. So yes, we skipped it that night and did other things. But like you said, had I known in advance that that was who we were having, I could have planned the whole night's dinner differently and maybe booked a different show that night.

 

Perhaps if we ever get to go again, we may luck out and get one of these contemporary music tribute bands that seem to be making the rounds.

 

Since you and I both like to analyze the possibilities, maybe the reason they don't tell us who's playing in advance is to prevent pre-judgement. Hypothetically, are you going to reserve seats months in advance in eager anticipation of an ABBA tribute? Insert the name of any performer, and like you said, music is subjective. Maybe you would or wouldn't reserve. But no entertainment promoter wants to see low reservations because that would indicate a show is a flop. Why bring them onboard? Cancel the contract! (Hey maybe we're on to something?) Better to let people make the decision in the moment. Pre-judgement is definitely the difference. At home, you have time to scoff at "only a tribute band." (What? Did you expect the REAL insert-entertainer's-name-here. For a pretty penny, they have theme cruises for that.) On board, and with a high enough bar bill, you're more likely to show up anyway just for something to see.

 

Just my two cents. Back to our regularly scheduled report from Harry.

[harryfat1]

ooh, I am so envious now! I am a huge Abba fan, although I am a bit too young to have ever seen them perform live. They are Swedish, which is kind of next best thing to being Finnish in our opinion as we were part of Sweden like 205 years ago. I think their music is just beautiful and immortal!

 

I've seen different groups of impersonators over and over again, and same goes with the famous Mamma Mia musical. I know it's coming to Allure later this year, but apparently only after dry dock and I will be on the TA just before. Bad, bad, bad planning on my side.

Thanks for sharing the photos, I can feel how you enjoyed their show! I would have danced and sung out loud the whole time. Come to think of that it was probably better that I was not there - my performance might have disturbed some fellow cruisers. :p

 

Back to you Harry, still more to come!

 

Yes, my boys and I liked the show. I have downloaded few of ABBA’s songs to insert into the DVD slideshow that I made from all the pictures we took.

 

Hopefully you get a good headliner for the TA. Wonder how does your entertainment schedule differ compared to a typical 7 night cruise?

[harryfat1]

 

At any rate, I digress.

 

On with the show - literally. So this band is basically the ABBA impersonators and they do a very job in looking and sounding like them. Since I know their songs from old days - might even have a 45 or two in my LP collection, I enjoyed the show and so did my kids even though this is not their musical era. To demonstrate that music is subjective, my wife didn’t really care for the show as she didn’t grow up listening to the original ABBA. She liked the next day’s show, Blue Planet, which I thought sucked so there’s no accounting for musical taste, not even for accountants. We like what we like and just leave it at that.

 

 

 

Ok, so I am laughing out loud again - and DH just waited patiently until I read him what I was giggling about. Just to say that I agree with you about your thoughts about the headliner show. Being anal myself I have created a schedule for our upcoming Oasis March cruise and have booked the headliner spot in. And yes, I know we can simply not go if it doesn't interest us, but if I knew ahead of time who the headliner is going to be, I might just re-jig my schedule in advance. Oh well, clearly this is a 'tough' problem to have !

 

We had MO5AIC on our Allure cruise last March and enjoyed them, again luck of the draw. However I really did not like the music with Blue Planet, don't mess with the music arrangements of my 'classic' music.

 

Agree 100% about the Headliner Show, I was on the Allure in Nov, passenger started leaving five minutes after the show started. It was so bad....I stayed another 20 minutes just to see how many other people would leave, at that point I left only to return at the end of the show to see how many people stayed, less than half.

 

AMEN, brother Harry! Preach that scheduling gospel! Can we get a hallelujah to the sales spam? ...Hallelujah, brother Harry! Can we get a hallelujah to schedule of headliners? ... Hallelujah, brother Harry! The man speaks the truth!

 

I wondered the EXACT same thing back in the day when I was scheduling our Allure trip. WHO is this 'headliner' I'm booking? Surely Royal doesn't just pick someone week by week to show up? They have got to have an advance booking schedule! Granted, things can change. But posting a tentative schedule, especially in the short term prior to the cruise, could really help people plan their activities.

 

Like you, I trusted them to provide someone entertaining as we had not really been disappointed on our previous trips. (Well, there was that one trip that had a horrible singer. I don't know if it was her butchering a Reba song or exhaustion from the day's excursion, but it was the only time I've fallen asleep in the theatre. Hence, I don't remember much of her.) But back to the Allure headliner. It wasn't until we were on the ship that the compass told us we were going to have some guy singing Frank Sinatra-style lounge tunes. :eek: Uh, no thanks. Waaaaaaaayyy before our time. So yes, we skipped it that night and did other things. But like you said, had I known in advance that that was who we were having, I could have planned the whole night's dinner differently and maybe booked a different show that night.

 

Perhaps if we ever get to go again, we may luck out and get one of these contemporary music tribute bands that seem to be making the rounds.

 

Since you and I both like to analyze the possibilities, maybe the reason they don't tell us who's playing in advance is to prevent pre-judgement. Hypothetically, are you going to reserve seats months in advance in eager anticipation of an ABBA tribute? Insert the name of any performer, and like you said, music is subjective. Maybe you would or wouldn't reserve. But no entertainment promoter wants to see low reservations because that would indicate a show is a flop. Why bring them onboard? Cancel the contract! (Hey maybe we're on to something?) Better to let people make the decision in the moment. Pre-judgement is definitely the difference. At home, you have time to scoff at "only a tribute band." (What? Did you expect the REAL insert-entertainer's-name-here. For a pretty penny, they have theme cruises for that.) On board, and with a high enough bar bill, you're more likely to show up anyway just for something to see.

 

Just my two cents. Back to our regularly scheduled report from Harry.

 

Haha, always nice to preach to the choir. Maybe we should sit down for a beer next time we cruise and commensurate over our other RCI gripes. My wife will call it the old folks complaint session.

 

Actually before we begin the finer details on the headliner thing, let me back up for just a second and insert the sample entertainment schedule for the Allure for people that are not familiar with the background. That’s what happens when you read trip info from the non-professional. I present the debate first and then the facts afterward. Cart before the horse.

 

On the Allure, if you want to see a “Headliner” performer, you need to make a reservation ahead of time. So if you go to page 2 of the attachment, you will see that the “Headliner” shows are in days 4 & 5. The reason they have 3 shows instead of the traditional 2 shows with other cruise ships is that they didn’t built the theater big enough to seat ½ of the 6,300 guests all at once unlike the other traditional ships.

 

I will spare the people the math (unlike the windjammer) but the capacity of the theater is only 1/3, not ½, so you should get a reservation if you plan to attend the more popular time slot.

 

In my opinion, the 8:30 slot is probably the most popular as it’s good for families compared to the 10:30 or 10:45 show time where many small kids (maybe seniors also) will be snoozing away once the lights are dimmed. So if you don’t have reservation for 8:30, odds may not be great for you to get in/get a decent seat as stand by, especially if you have a big party/family. Thus you book a time slot you like to block off the prime time of the cruise and it may or may not work for you but you just don’t know.

 

At any rate, back to the headliner debate. We all understand things can change with performers, but if the people are truly “headliners”, their schedules are booked weeks/months out. They know exactly where they will be 3 months out. All I ask is RCI give me a few weeks heads-up prior to sailing on who might be performing on my cruise, which by then should be pretty firm as who will be performing, barring any injuries or illness, as the headliners would need to book flights to get on the ship. I can then look up the person and adjust my prime 8:30 time slot to do something else if I don't like that style of music. Tell me and let me decide.

 

We do MDR nightly so it has no impact on meal but if someone had my time dining or specialty dining, they might have had to adjust their time for the meals to fit into the show time. Especially once the ship goes to dynamic dining, how much effort and adjustments you make at that night’s dinner in order to make the show will depend on how important you value the performer.

 

Finally, there is the “opportunity cost” of just being there early to sit and wait and then decide when/if to leave if the show isn’t what you wanted. Especially hard to do if you are stuck in middle row and people around you are seated, you would feel bad to walk out and disturb the people around you. There are musical entertainments all over the ship, as I will show shortly; there was a classical music concert in CP that I would have like to attend if I didn’t like the Headliners or there were Latin music in Boleros for people that like Latin music or be in casinos or visiting uncles or aunts at RP. Many options on a mega ship.

 

The technology and communication method is there. They could/should use it. If not, then people will go to the show like on JamesEM’s cruise and then walk out early and often and afterward be unhappy and give a bad review/feeling about the cruise. That can/should be avoided.

Allure of the seas showtime.pdf

[Melissa at Mohair Meadows]

I love the helmets. I remember walking 2 blocks in my skates to the neighborhood pond and skating all day there. It's a wonder we survived our childhood. :rolleyes:

 

I'm loving your review. You have a lovely family.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Melissa at Mohair Meadows

[harryfat1]

I love the helmets. I remember walking 2 blocks in my skates to the neighborhood pond and skating all day there. It's a wonder we survived our childhood. :rolleyes:

 

I'm loving your review. You have a lovely family.

 

Thanks for the compliment and glad you are following along.

 

I barely survived with the railing next to me as you see many beginning level people are all near the railings. Without the railing on a regular street, I sure hope there are no expensive cars parked along the street…

[harryfat1]

After the show was done, we went up to deck 15 to see the Central Park area from above as I have seen many nice pictures of the area from other cruisers. Up to now, I have been showing mostly the crowded scenes of the ship as that is what draws the most attention (parades/shows), but there are also other parts of the ship that are tranquil and peaceful. I would be remiss if I didn’t at least talk about them or take few pictures of those areas in this report.

 

Up to now, I have been mostly focused on the Boardwalk area in my pictures because 1) that’s where we stayed 2) that was where most of the action is during the day. However, central park is a different place at night. We were up close in walking around Central Park at night on day 1 but for tonight, I wanted few pictures from above.

 

At first glance of next 2 pictures, you think they are the same picture, but they are not. Compare the two and you will see the difference in that they are the opposite ends of CP but both are stunning at night time when all lid up and viewed from above.

 

 

 

Then the two pictures after that are the closer shots of the area with many people sitting out listening to the classical music concert. If you go back and look at the day 5 evening schedule I scanned couple pages back, you will see that from 9:15 to 10:15, there is a classical music concert in the park by the string music group.

 

We were catching the tail end of the concert as we were approaching the area but we can see and hear what is happening down there. If you stop and think for a minute on the possibility of listening to an outdoor classical musical concert at night during middle of December in an open atrium on a cruise, that is really a great concept. Huge wow factor that only a mega ship can offer.

 

As we walked around and taking pictures, the concert was winding up with the finale song – Time to Say Goodbye. I love that song but it always make me sad. I know in 2 days’ time, it will be our turn to say goodbye as our vacation is at the tail end but I try to block out the feeling as we still have one more port to visit tomorrow.

 

People sitting and listening to the concert. If you look at the very bottom of the 3rd picture, around the 6 o’clock area, you will see the performers in white shirts though the glass canopy

 

 

 

Here they are from the opposite side, zooming in. Didn’t bring a tripod with me so can’t get a clear picture at night zooming in but you get the idea who were playing. The area is special during these classical concert times. Do drop by at least for few minutes and soak in the ambience at night. This is why you cruise on a mega ship - to do/see something you are unable to do on a typical cruise ship.

 

 

[harryfat1]

Same concept with the next 2 pictures. At first glance , you think they are the same pictures but if you compare the two, you can tell they are different (no red dot in one and the center column art work is not in one but the other) – opposite end.

 

 

 

Max zoomed in. I love the idea of seeing decks stacked on top of each other and on each deck, people are going about their business on the ship and taking pictures of that moment. Hey, I see a small wonder.

 

 

Here is a picture of my wife taking pictures of my in-laws on his point and shoot camera. Hard to do in these dimly lit areas with a basic point & shoot. I like the top and bottom covering of this picture – that is where the band plays during the afternoon but I was never there when they played. Always too busy doing something else.

 

 

One last picture of the area before moving onto the backside – you see the Rising Tide Bar underneath the glass canopy. Also note a couple on the left with a man in a suit pushing a baby stroller across the CP. I think they just finished listening to the classical music concert and is heading back inside the ship. That would be a great time for a family to be spending in a park at night outdoors in December and the little one asleep in the stroller listening to music. Other than Oasis class ships, it can't be done elsewhere.

 

Overall, I wish we would have spent more time in the CP area at night as it’s a nice place when lit up and seen from above. Maybe should have come out on day 2 or 3 evening but we were too busy over at the Boardwalk taking pictures of the aqua show from secret balcony and visiting the aunt in basement (ship photographer). There are just too many options to do on the ship. Great for those B2B or TA cruisers as you have plenty of time to explore the ship that a typical 7 night cruisers can’t.

 

[harryfat1]

Quiet time by the pool area at night. Should have taken an up close picture of the reflection from the mirrors above

 

 

Kiddie pool area

 

 

 

 

Picture of the younger one with mama with the Boardwalk in the background

 

[harryfat1]

Quiet scene on Boardwalk tonight with no Aqua show or any movies/fountain shows playing

 

 

When I took this picture, I didn’t think too much about it, just a zoom in of the area. Now at home and looking at it, I wished I could have been in the same spot during the water show and take pictures of the divers/swimmers.

 

Chances are they would be blurry as it’s too far/zoom/dark without a tripod but then the protective glass would make it hard to use on a medium size travel tripod. You would need a more serious heavy duty to see over the glass and with all the people walking around at 9 PM, not sure it’ll be realistic to have a tripod spread out. Somehow the arch angle of the tall diving platform reminds me of the gargoyle wings statues.

 

 

 

Couple more shots of the life down below. Very quiet at this time at 10:38 PM

 

 

 

All’s quiet at the miniature golf. Again, I should have walked around there more and taken some night scenery of the statues while it’s all it up. Would look vastly different compared to the daytime shots.

 

[harryfat1]

You see the workers cleaning up/setting up the windjammer above on deck 16. They were long closed by 9 PM so no guests inside. Underneath, you see many youngsters playing ping pong

 

 

Close up shot of the ping pong area. Note the enclosed glass surroundings to protect the small ping pong balls from being blown every which way from the wind on a cruise? Much much better setup than the Carnival Spirit where the ping pong was out in the open toward the front of the ship and impossible to play when the ship was sailing

 

[Haber]

Completely agree for the headliner. We did a music festival last summer. 130 acts over 10 days. You bet I YouTubed or Groovesharked every one of them ahead of time to figure out which ones I wanted to go to. (And I might have made a spreadsheet)

 

Research also shows that people prefer music they’re already familiar with. So giving people the opportunity to listen to a musical act (or the band they’re covering) ahead of time will make the show more enjoyable for everyone and lead to less walk-outs. Also a good idea if you’re bringing kids to the show who might be completely unfamiliar with the band that’s being covered and can’t figure out why you’re so excited and thinking of wearing the bell bottoms you brought for the disco party.

[harryfat1]

OK, so as I have shown/discussed, we had boardwalk view cabins on deck 14. We ended up here after booking couple other cabins on the ship. In perfect world, we would get 3 cabins back to back to back and have the cabin steward open the balcony partitions we can all connect but I was 1 day too late in booking the cabins and another couple came in and booked the cabin between the boys and the in-laws so we had a skipped cabin.

 

Since it was the holidays, my original plan was to spell out the word “W-O-W” in each of the 3 sliding glass doors with red colored Christmas garlands and then taking a picture of it from across the way (maybe charge RCI for advertising fees – cheapo dad always thinking ways to make a buck). Well, that plan went down the toilet. But just imagine that if you have the 3 letters WOW spelled out at the sliding glass and take a picture of that, it would have been cool.

 

So here is what it looks like across the way at night time. The original idea was to take pictures of everyone during the day but somehow never got it done but I think the night time picture turned out better as our 3 cabins were the only ones lit in the immediate area and it stood out (where are the neighbors anyway? are they early sleepers or out partying/watching the headliners?)

 

 

You can kind of see the difference in bed configuration from this far out – our bed is closer to balcony and the boys’ beds are further away

 

 

 

 

You can easily see there were people on deck 15 playing basketball at 10 something before the 11 PM shutdown but we didn’t have any noise issues even when they were playing

 

[LuCruise]

Wow, thank you so much for sharing these amazing pictures.

[harryfat1]

Here are few pictures of my wife taking picture of me across the way from our cabin

 

 

She complained she couldn’t see me in a black background wearing a dark suit so I made myself easier to see by being next to the light

 

 

Who’s that lurker on the other side?

 

 

After couple pictures, all the guys walked back inside the nicely air conditioned cabins – the heck with waving at me across the way. Good enough is good enough. We want to be in AC and take off these dang uncomfortable shirts and ties. Only the ladies were outside for couple more pics

 

 

 

Then it’s down to one only. If I was a better photographer, I should have taken a vertical picture of her in the cabin relative to the boardwalk area below to show how high up the balconies were. But I didn't. Should have/could have...

 

 

So before we leave the cabin discussion, just want to say once again I am a HUGE fan of the area. Given we like to see & photograph people/things, this is THE place to be on the whole ship. There were tons of things to see the whole cruise from this area. If you still have access to the secret balcony, go there daily. It gives you the added water dimension not seen on the boardwalk side as then you see both ends. We paid $20/pp to upgrade from central park view cabin. Best $20 ever spent.

[harryfat1]

Close up shots of the basketball players

 

 

If you look closely right in the middle of the picture, you will see a security guard dressed in the blue uniform standing in the middle of the walk way. He was there the entire time I was there just looking at people. Don’t know how long/often he is there. Maybe he is there to keep an eye on me as I look like a stalker with my big camera...

 

 

Wipeout Café. We never came here for food – only for the free ice cream. Too fast food oriented for my liking. You can come here for breakfast if you want fried eggs/omelets cooked to order. I have read complaints from some cruisers on their hours. I think on port days they open earlier at 7:30 AM but on sea days they open later at 8:30, so if made to order eggs are important to you, come here but just check the daily schedule on what time they open as it changes daily.

 

 

 

Last picture for the night. Hey, check this out. How about that? Chairs. Lots of chairs. Take a picture. Bet you don’t see this many chairs all lined up at home…

 

 

This concludes the day 5 trip report. On day 6, we actually venture out more than 1,000 yards away from the ship to be on an excursion.

[harryfat1]

Completely agree for the headliner. We did a music festival last summer. 130 acts over 10 days. You bet I YouTubed or Groovesharked every one of them ahead of time to figure out which ones I wanted to go to. (And I might have made a spreadsheet)

 

Research also shows that people prefer music they’re already familiar with. So giving people the opportunity to listen to a musical act (or the band they’re covering) ahead of time will make the show more enjoyable for everyone and lead to less walk-outs. Also a good idea if you’re bringing kids to the show who might be completely unfamiliar with the band that’s being covered and can’t figure out why you’re so excited and thinking of wearing the bell bottoms you brought for the disco party.

 

Wow, 130 acts over 10 days. That’s intense amount of research.

 

Even if you just spend 5 minutes per act searching & listening to their stuff to see if you like it, at 130 X 5 that is 650 minutes or almost 11 hours of just searching and listening. You must be a big music lover to just start this research, not counting the actual time of spending 10 days at the festival.

 

Of course, you know my accounting mind would need to quantify how many hours at minimum you need to spend and do the calculation. Like Pavlov’s dog, show me numbers and I need to crunch it somehow. This is occupational hazard…

 

Still reading this report, eh?

[harryfat1]

Wow, thank you so much for sharing these amazing pictures.

 

Thanks for the compliment. I know you have posted questions on the boards on possibly getting a cabin here on the boardwalk area if the price is right so glad this info is helpful.

 

Wherever you ended up staying, just be sure to go up to deck 15 at various times of the cruise and take pictures of CP and Boardwalk at night. They look and feel different during the evenings versus daytime.