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

[harryfat1]

When I was on the Oasis in 2012, they insisted on a band to hold my glasses in place. I concocted one from two hair bands, and they approved it. My daughter was behind me, and they made her wait until I got back to the take-off area, so she could use it for her glasses. I wouldn't trust that they will overlook glasses without something securing them around your head. Too dangerous for those below if your glasses should fly off - (and I wouldn't want to risk losing or damaging my glasses. That would make the rest of the cruise pretty sucky).

 

Thanks for the info.

 

yeah, I wouldn't want to risk my glasses flying off in the wind on day 2 of the cruise. Sounds like it may depend on the workers enforcing the rules. Having a cord seems to be the best option.

[harryfat1]

Interesting lobby displays

 

 

 

 

View from hotel lobby to the back waterways - see the group of people there waiting for the water taxi

 

 

[harryfat1]

In case anyone is following along based on my original Excel schedule, we were going to do the water taxi ride from the hotel as the water taxi is $26/pp all day pass and the hotel is one of the stops of the water taxi. So the hotel besides being a great bargain, it’s convenient as it’s part of the water taxi route. But when we got there, my older son started to complain about his stomach not feeling well. Must be something he ate at breakfast.

 

We didn’t want to chance it by going on any long boat tours in case he gets worst. So we passed on going on the water taxi ride this time. Too bad as we could have seen some nice scenery from the pictures I have seen form tripadvisor. Next time.

 

Another great thing about the hotel is that it’s not that far from the beach, just 10 to 15 minute walk. So after we checked in and was told our 2 rooms will not be ready until 3, we had some time to kill now we have no water taxi ride. We dropped off our luggage with the hotel and walked to the beach area.

 

 

 

We didn't know it at the time, but our rooms happened to be right here facing the front

 

 

On the draw bridge on way to beach

 

 

Pretty clouds in the sky looking back away from the beach area

 

[harryfat1]

View of the bridge on the way to the beach

 

 

 

Guess what we saw on the way in the sky?

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We are here

 

 

Very gentle waves compared to the CA beaches

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

More pics

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

The water is probably cold as I didn’t see many people in the water around our area, except for these folks

 

 

We weren’t really dressed for the beach so the best we could do is just bum around the sand for a little while

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Looking further south, there are more activities down there

 

 

Doing the max zoom out, if you want more people/action, you want to be further down south and also see the rock area where you can go and watch the ships sailing away.

 

 

For those in the higher income category, here is the Sonesta, right across the beach and they claim every room has ocean view

 

 

In case you don’t know what sand looks like up close, here it is…

 

 

 

OK, after enough pics and not really dressed for the beach, time to head back across the street to grab a bite to eat

[harryfat1]

 

Now if it’s just up to me, the semi-illiterate numbers guy, I would just say “hey, how about that? Chairs. Take a picture. As I am sure you never seen chairs at home”. But as Cruisemeister8 has shown in post #912, A chair by any other name can still hold people’s butt comfortably (think Shakespeare will not be happy with this comparison) and perhaps she can much more eloquently describe this setting than yours truly…

 

 

 

 

 

Alrighty, so we are back on this side of the street. If we had stayed one more day in FLL, it would have been great to walk out/down the beach area to play for few hours. I read many reviews of cruisers that just fly into town for 1 night and then blow out the very day they disembark. If your schedule allows it, take the extra day or two to hand out in the beach area. It’s very nice. I wish we could have stayed one extra night and then we could have squeezed for both water taxi and beach time in FLL. Mental note for next time.

[harryfat1]

 

 

There’s a Subway there across the street so it’s a simple lunch solution. I am sure you all seen Subway sandwiches so I won’t need to show what we ate. I always hate the first meal after the cruise – be it at the airport or anywhere else. Now back in the real world where you have to pull out the wallet and pay with real money. Then you look at the prices of the food and realize that the same crappy dessert at the buffet all week long that you snub your nose at – I won’t bother eating that crappy cheese cake as I have better option – now that similar cheese cake costs like $3 each. Dang…

 

 

But you know what? We don’t need your stinking overpriced cheese cake. We got 6 free cookies from the Double Tree hotel when we checked in (they give free cookies to every guest) so that was what we had for dessert during lunch.

 

 

Took a picture of the Sun Trolley. If you plan to be in FLL for one or more days, look into getting a daily pass with Sun trolley. $3/day pass to take you around some popular areas around the beach and malls. We rode that years ago but wasn’t on my schedule of things to do this time. If we had stayed multiple days, then it would have been on my list to ride it around town.

 

 

[harryfat1]

After lunch, did some obligatory visiting of a different uncle in prison

 

 

Then it was time to walk back to the hotel to see if our room was ready for us. Walking back over the bridge to the other side where our hotel is. If you do the water taxi, you can cruise on these waterway. Looks nice. Will do that next time.

 

 

 

 

 

As someone who takes pictures of everyday people, I appreciate when people are friendly in front of the camera. Like this guy waving at me when he saw me zooming in on him at the top of the bridge and waved at me

 

[harryfat1]

OK, made it back to the hotel. Got the room keys. Was pleasantly surprised they gave us 2 connecting rooms. I just asked to be on same floor as the in-laws but the hotel gave us connecting rooms.

 

Now for people that have never stayed there, it’s much more than a room. Much more like a condo actually. First you get a living room. Then a decent kitchen with all the cookware and utensils. Then you get a nice dining table for 4 and a separate bedroom. All this for $113 out the door price! So after you download the app, check prices daily and if you see the Galleryone at a good price, RUN, DON’T WALK to your wallet to reserve the room.

 

With Last Minute Travel (LMT), you pay the entire $113 upfront when you book it but you typically have until 3 days before check in to cancel and get all your money back. For our 2013 Boston cruise, I booked the Embassy Suites in Boston using LMT for a 1 night pre cruise stay but our red eye on JetBlue to Boston was canceled and we couldn’t fly out the day before the cruise. I called LMT to explain our problem and they put me on hold while they called the hotel to speak to the manager and was able to get all my money refunded so I had good experiences with these guys in the past.

Here’s the living room area. The older one still not 100%

 

 

Kitchen area

 

 

Dining table and note the connecting door to the in-laws room next door

 

 

Bedroom has sliding door leading out to a balcony

 

 

[harryfat1]

Nice shower in the bathroom

 

 

Couple of miniature filters

 

 

 

And here is the last WOW factor – DOUBLE BALCONY

 

Yes, this LONG balcony is just for an one bedroom. The other side is from the living room and this side is from the bedroom. So it’s almost just like the cruise where you can go round and round in circular inside/outside but it’s only one bedroom and did I mention it’s only $114 out the door?

 

 

[harryfat1]

For $114, I know they weren’t going to give me the top of the line ocean view or the waterway view in the back but these two rooms are high up and not a bad view as I can see the front entrance and cars along the street. Better than the back street alley view of garbage dumps I was expecting at the rock bottom price.

 

There’s the Gallery mall right in front of the hotel (the big white building) and across the street in the yellow building is the Publix supermarket that we will go later on to get food.

 

 

 

 

View of neighbors across the way

 

 

Downtown FLL few miles out to the west

 

 

[harryfat1]

View of the entrance of the hotel from above

 

 

Here is the middle connecting door between 2 rooms. Ours on the right and the in-laws on the left

 

 

Here are couple pre sunset picture of FLL since I was never able to take a picture of one during the cruise

 

 

[harryfat1]

So with the older one not felling tip top shape, it was decided we will just have a simple dinner into hotel room since we have kitchen facility to make something basic

 

 

The younger one likes to do these fancy setups

 

 

 

OK, with the table set, time to go down to the supermarket to get some food.

 

Stopping by the lobby/back area to check out the water taxi area we would have gone in perfect world

 

 

 

Matching $10 RCI shirts

 

[harryfat1]

Hey, check that out. How about that? Trees. Bet you folks don’t have trees back at home. Take a picture. Anyone who knows anything about trees or plants (Guess whom am I looking at?) is welcome to chime in

 

 

Some sort of modern art thingy

 

 

Another sun trolley car zipping by. They stop at the mall next door

 

 

 

Hotel in the background

 

[harryfat1]

Road to over the draw bridge – where we were earlier this afternoon at the beach

 

 

 

We don’t have these guys in California. Didn’t take any pictures inside the supermarket

 

 

OK, all done with food shopping. One thing of note for CA people – FL still gives free plastic grocery bags when you buy food. For the politically way left CA, they charge money for plastic bags in some counties and soon might voting on a state wide law to ban all plastic bags.

 

[harryfat1]

Few pics of the sunset clouds as we walk back

 

 

 

Part of my pre cruise research for places to eat around the hotel points me to a pizza place that is more well known in the east coast – Primanti Bros - we don’t have one in CA. Per Yelp reviews, they are pretty good so the plan was for just for me and my father in law to go and get the take-out pizza to bring back while the rest of the clan stay in the hotel and make dinner.

 

(With dinner in process for day 8, time to bring the fat lady onto the stage as I am almost done with all the pics)

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Couple pictures of the neighborhood as we wait for the pizza

 

 

 

Here is the pizza. Super large size with 5 toppings. Real nice tasting. Put the leftover in frig and heated up before going to airport in the morning and ate the rest on the plane as lunch

 

 

Interesting to note that coming from CA, we went to the supermarket to buy the salad that came from CA and drank the wine from CA as well

 

 

[harryfat1]

The chicken came from the supermarket, but we made the pasta in the kitchen ourselves

 

 

 

Also bought dessert and breakfast pastry for tomorrow morning

 

 

 

So we ate the dinner and then just sat and watch TV and went to sleep.

 

The sofa is also a bed and the younger one slept there as he wanted more space than share it with his brother

 

This ends day 8’s trip report. Day 9 will be very short as we left for home early in the morning

[Coralc]

Hey, check that out. How about that? Trees. Bet you folks don’t have trees back at home. Take a picture. Anyone who knows anything about trees or plants (Guess whom am I looking at?) is welcome to chime in

 

 

 

Did you feel the little earthquake this evening? :D Unusual to have one here and have it be at ground zero on the USGS site (Hayward fault)

 

Yes...those are interesting palm trees....and I don't think we have that particular variety here, or it is uncommon. Thank you. :D

 

We have very much enjoyed all of your photos and your review. Did you happen to notice the tagline for urinals dot net on their home page? It is very funny.

[baman]

Like this i will try it for my next one

 

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[janeyzee]

When I was on the Oasis in 2012, they insisted on a band to hold my glasses in place. I concocted one from two hair bands, and they approved it. My daughter was behind me, and they made her wait until I got back to the take-off area, so she could use it for her glasses. I wouldn't trust that they will overlook glasses without something securing them around your head. Too dangerous for those below if your glasses should fly off - (and I wouldn't want to risk losing or damaging my glasses. That would make the rest of the cruise pretty sucky).

 

 

Not one word was said to me but I'm sure it varies by employee. Maybe some don't check or don't care. I zipped with glasses and no band to hold them on. Next time I'll be sure to have a band just in case. Zipping was fun, wouldn't want to be refused access.

 

 

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[ucfalli]

Hey, check that out. How about that? Trees. Bet you folks don’t have trees back at home. Take a picture. Anyone who knows anything about trees or plants (Guess whom am I looking at?) is welcome to chime in

 

 

 

Look like foxtail palms. Way to tell them apart from royal palms is that they have "bushy" tail like look... hence the name. Christmas palms are similar looking but from my knowledge they grow in groups together.

 

 

Enjoying the review!