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

[harryfat1]

So here we were standing by the dead bridge on the wrong side of the Promenade way far away from where the captain was speaking on the other end so we had to slowly squeeze in between the people to try to get closer.

 

 

 

The captain gave the typical speech of welcoming the people. He said there were over 6,200 people on the cruise. Theoretical max is slightly over 6,300 so we are pretty close to the max with 5,400 as normal double occupancy so counting triples and quads, this sailing is 121%. This is higher than the typical companywide ships of 104.7% as of 2013 per their annual report. This is expected as its pre-Christmas holiday season and many families are cruising and they have 3rd and 4th berths filled during this time so I typically expect a much fuller sailing during this period versus something else in say, late October.

 

The top 3 nationalities on this cruise is US/Canada/Brazil. Then he introduced the rest of the senior staff and that was pretty much it.

 

 

During the speech, my wife wandered off to the higher deck looking for a better angle shot so these pics were taken by her.

 

 

I like this picture she took of the area as you can see from this there are many things happening. The captain just finished the speech (he is to the left of the red car), above the cupcake place is the band playing. Next to that is the staircase where they have one ship photographer taking pictures. Then to the lower right hand corner, you have people standing on the red carpet taking pictures with ship photographer with the red car (if you are there before 8 PM, the captain will be there in the picture – see my previous post). After 8, it’ll be just you and the car.

 

 

For holiday only, they also have another ship photographer taking pictures of guest with tree as background. The captain’s picture will be here on day 5. So you can see that formal night is very busy photo opt time as many people likes to buy pics in their formal clothes that they seldom wear. Big profits there.

 

[harryfat1]

Thank you, Harry, for your awesome review! I am enjoying it immensely and am using some of your tips for our upcoming trip on the Oasis in August. I do have one question (seeing that you have informed us you are cheap....lol...I am the same way!) You had breakfast in Johnny Rockets one morning. I know JR's is a fee venue; did you have to pay for breakfast as well?

Can't wait to read more! Thanks for all the time you are putting into this!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad this info is helpful.

 

Yes, it’s maddening frustrating trying to figure out what venues Royal has on the ship that is free and what isn’t. I spent a lot of time in the beginning research process trying to figure it out. The rule of thumb to go by to differentiate between free or not free is ask yourself is there a better alternative?

 

Such that the better ones will cost you money. For example, donuts are free but the higher value alternative of cupcakes is not free. Soft cone cream from machine is free but scoop ice cream costs extra. The basic coffee (Seattle’s Best Coffee) is free but Starbucks (which owns SBC by the way) costs money. Basic hot dogs and burgers are free but higher value Johnny Rocket burgers costs money. See the pattern here?

 

To answer your question, no, Johnny Rocket is free for breakfast daily. From lunch onward, then there’s a cover charge. They couldn’t make it any more complicated if they tried. Just follow what I eat – I didn’t pay anything extra to eat the entire cruise. I did have to pay for drinks on day 7 as we wanted to ride on the Rising Tide Bar but that’s different.

 

Take a look at the daily compass planner and at the meal section - I have just scanned day 2 as part of the discussion. You see from 8 to 10 AM, they list Johnny Rocket on the program with no $ next to it? That’s free. Look down few lines on JR for lunch starting at 11:30, then you see the magical $ appearing? They then charge you $. So if you rather not pay extra for your meals, dine at places that do not have $ signs next to them.

 

 

Hope this helps. If not, come back with questions. Have a wonderful cruise.

[harryfat1]

So with the captain’s star wars vehicle ascending up the ship, we then stood around and asked, now what you want to do? Here is where I will digress and go on a rant about Royal’s lack of commitment to family travelers, especially on the Allure. In theory with the family all dressed up, today is a perfect time to see some sort of show sitting in the comfy theater. Nope. Not going to work.

 

Why? That’s because Royal assigned the musical “Chicago” for Allure. For those unfamiliar, Chicago has adult themes and is rated “R” for mature audience with the official Royal caution right on their web page and on their daily compass mentioning the show has explicit language and adult theme. May not be appropriate for audiences under 17. Maybe I am just an anal parent but why would you want to put on an adult show on a cruise that is really geared for families? I understand there’s the artistic side of the musical but they certainly could have picked a more “G” rated ones and perhaps have the Chicago on the other smaller ships where there are less children on board. We originally booked “Chicago” as part of the shows to attend months ago but after thinking it over, we cancelled that.

 

So OK, no Chicago. Hey, about a comedy show? We like funny stuff. They have comedy shows on the ship, let’s go to that one. NOPE! That won’t work either as per Royal’s policy, no one under ages of 18 is allowed to any of the comedy shows until day 7’s family show. You can’t book it online prior to the cruise – I tried but the system won’t allow me to add my kids name to the comedy show reservation as they are under 18.

 

Now I understand comedy is much funnier if it was raunchier and add in few swear words. I get it. If I can use adult themes/language for this report, I might make it more funny as well. But any half way decent “professional” comedians have materials that are family oriented and they certainly could have had more comedy shows throughout the cruise that is restricted to age 18 or higher.

 

For example, they have 16 comedy shows scheduled for 7 nights, they could have easily picked 3 of those 16, on nights when Chicago is playing, and they could have made at least 1 show that night for the family. Is that really so much to ask? On 2 previous Carnival cruises, they have comedians doing 1 family set per night early and have the adult shows at 11 PM that same night. Much more family friendly that way versus the RCI system.

 

So with Chicago and the comedy show not available to families, those are 2 events not available for booking online pre cruise for us.

 

I know they are taking Chicago out of the Allure by dry-dock in May 2015 and putting in Mama Mia, so that would help other families down the road.

 

OK, end of rant. We now return you back to your regularly schedule program.

 

Since there are no scheduled shows to attend, we just visited the shops at the Royal Promenade area and visited the crazy aunt in the basement few times (aka taking pictures with the professional photographers). After awhile, the boys started to get grumpy as it’s getting boring for them to just stand in line forever and then stand in unnatural poses asked by the photographer. Chin up/chin down/hands before your back/over to somebody 10 feet over without falling down...

 

So I took them back to the cabin while the wife and the in-laws walked around for a little more taking pictures. Then later on, my wife came back but said her parents are still going strong downstairs walking around taking pictures. We then just stayed by the balcony and watched another show of Ocean aria before calling it a night. Last pics for day 2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

See the band performing above the Boardwalk area in Dazzles, the dance lounge. We never made it there. Was going to go there at the Meet & Mingle event but since we missed that, never had the thought to go there.

 

 

In retrospect, if I had to rank in preference which vacation days were the favorite and least favorite, I would say day 1 was the best and day 2 is the lowest ranking. In a sense I feel guilty in doing so as it’s like ranking your 7 kids (God I hope I don’t have 7 kids) to see which ones you like the most and least. They are all yours.

 

Just like all 7 days are vacation days and my motto in life is “the worst day of my vacation day is better than my best day at work”. Not to say day 2 was bad by any means, nothing bad happened to anyone and we all had fun. Just that by default day 2 is typically the “blah” day of the cruise as it’s the transition of day 1 excitement to recovery time/energy in getting to the cruise and switching to vacation mode so it’s the “Monday” blues that gets the bad raps.

 

Thanks again to everyone for following along and appreciate all the comments. We go on to day 3 – first port of call.

[Loucat]

Your review is one of the best I have ever read on CC. You have incredible humour along with details and exceptional pictures.

It is like reading an unfolding story of day by day interesting information~

The Allure is not for me as seeing all of the crowds and reading about the wait line in the Windjammer is more than I have patience for but I am so enjoying your Allure journey!

Thanks so much for taking time to share with all of us.

[harryfat1]

Day 3 – Labadee.

 

For those unfamiliar with Labadee, it’s Royal’s private area that they have on lease with Haiti. I read somewhere the lease runs into 2050 or so. Matters not exactly when, it’ll be there for anyone reading this in foreseeable future. I know it’s easier to say it’s their “private island” but technically it’s a peninsula. The good thing is that you don’t have to compete against other land based vacationers at the beach and you feel safe leaving your valuables at the beach chairs knowing only people at the beach are your fellow ship mates.

 

I think I had my wakeup call scheduled around 7:15 or so. Then I went out to the balcony to look outside to see what the weather was like and glanced out at the water area behind the ship and saw bunch of speed boats zipping by behind the aqua theater going from starboard to the port side making a lot of noise whopping and yelling. I had seen pictures of this “welcome parade” from other cruisers so I knew it’s a great photo opportunity. I sped out of the cabin, grabbing my lanyard with the sea pass and of course, a camera and rushed over to the back of the ship 70 feet away to the secret balcony. Keep in mind I was in my sleeping shorts/t-shirt, bare foot and barely awake when I turned on the camera. Hoping nobody took any pictures of me taking pictures. Not a pretty site if you know what I mean.

 

By time I made it to the back of the ship, the speed boat welcome party is heading back to the docks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So the first take home lesson here is try to get up early and be at the starboard side if you want to take these pictures. Especially if you do not have a starboard facing ocean balcony and depending on your access to the “secret balcony”, you will need to go to deck 15 to take pictures of the speed boats so leave yourself plenty of time.

 

Also depending on how far along you are in reading this info as far as planning the location of your cabin, if you have a choice to choose between starboard or port side balcony cabins, for western Caribbean, I would pick the starboard side myself as all 3 ports, you leave the ship on the starboard side and there are more to see on that side versus the port, which is more water view but if that’s your thing, then do that instead.

[harryfat1]

Here are some more pics of the area after the speed boats had gone back to the pier

 

Empty beach area prior to any peasant/royalty invasions

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

The workers in the area gearing up for the cruisers to get off the ship

 

 

 

I spotted this boat off the aft and zoomed in. Don’t know what they do

 

 

 

Here is a picture of the cabanas by the water front. Think the going rate to rent one of them for the day is like $225, they hold up to 6 people. Needless to say, I passed. Did I mention I am cheap?

 

You can also see the roller coaster and the part of the zip line from here at the top of the hill

 

 

Max zoom of the previous picture to see what the top building looks like up close

 

[harryfat1]

You should start to get scared when an accountant is trying to be “creative” – can you say ENRON? Nevertheless, I gave it my attempt by taking a picture of the long hallway from the ground level taken from the very back of deck 14. Yeah, I know, that’s pathetic as on the creative level of 1 to 10, it’s about a 2.3. But hey, give me a break as that’s about as creative as I can be at 7:40 AM without coffee and in my underwear in hallway squatting down. Like I said, not a pretty picture.

 

 

Here is a picture going the other way – from our cabin to the end where the secret balcony is. I would make this trek constantly to get my pictures. So sad it will be gone.

 

 

So I made it back to the cabin and started to wake up the rest of the clan. As they started to stir, I went out to our balcony and saw some movement in the corner of my eyes and looked up at windjammer and guess who I saw – the inlaws eating breakfast upstairs waving at me.

 

 

[harryfat1]

So the big decision of the morning is where to eat breakfast. On the TV channel in every cabin, they have the “apps” that shows you what the capacity level is for various venues. If you look at windjammer, it’s red. Not good.

 

 

Since we ate at Johnny Rocket yesterday, we can try that again. You will notice that JR is not on the page and we would need to go to either next page on the screen to look for it. But to paraphrase Humphrey Bogart in the movie “Treasure of Sierra Madre” - Apps? We don’t need any stinking apps to tell us if Johnny Rocket is busy. We have boardwalk balcony. We can stick our head outside and see for ourselves the old fashion way – with our eyes.

 

So here is the view from above. The coast looks clear. No lines at 8 AM.

 

 

I have no idea who these people are but I just wanted to focus on what they ate for breakfast from above.

 

 

Since this was the beach day, switched over to the underwater point & shoot camera and headed downstairs to JR.

 

 

As luck would have it, we were seated in the same booth as yesterday

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here is what I had. Wanted 2 eggs sunny side up. Looks great. Pancakes were ok - bit dry.

 

 

Wife had the same Tabasco and potatoes.

 

 

After breakfast, we stopped by the donut cage on the boardwalk. I believe they have 6 types of donuts daily. Per the schedule, it’s there from 7:30 AM to 11:30 AM daily. So it’s still pretty fresh. I think I read that on the Oasis, they have it behind the counter and someone helps you in getting one and on the Allure it’s self-help. Personally I prefer the Oasis way as I had read other reviews on small kids touching them and then not taken them at the Alure. So the Oasis system ensures food is not contaminated.

 

That being said, we grabbed couple as an afternoon snack. Just to be anal, I grabbed the ones from the far back end of the tray, thinking nobody has touched those so if you want a donut on the Allure, wouldn’t hurt to do the same.

 

 

 

 

If you want a really simple self-help breakfast on the go – say you are running late on a port day for a tour off the ship, come here and grab a donut and have some coffee and you are good to go. Sometimes you just don’t have time for a sit down breakfast.

 

[harryfat1]

Your review is one of the best I have ever read on CC. You have incredible humour along with details and exceptional pictures.

It is like reading an unfolding story of day by day interesting information~

The Allure is not for me as seeing all of the crowds and reading about the wait line in the Windjammer is more than I have patience for but I am so enjoying your Allure journey!

Thanks so much for taking time to share with all of us.

 

Thank you for the high praise. I am glad my info is helpful/entertaining to those reading it.

 

As for being detailed, that’s an occupational hazard. All of us accountants are trained to be detailed oriented. We had a wonderful time on our cruise and I just want to share our experience with others and hopefully whatever info I still can remember will be useful in other cruiser’s planning.

 

Actually the windjammer experience gets better the rest of the cruise. I hope you stick around long enough to read about that.

 

I have a long way to go to complete this before any final judgment can be made. Only on day 3 at this point. Maybe the criticism of the report is that it’s too detailed and nobody really wants to read all this. I should just keep it simple by summarizing it as “we came, we saw, we ate, we pooped, we got fat, we took pictures and we left”, but then I guess I won’t get a chance to talk about the Icky shuffle.

[Miryam1234]

 

OK, for you and those folks that may never be on the ship, here is the list (and you know I am anal enough to bring it 3,000 miles back home an useless piece of paper). It has our check marks on them so you may want to get your own clean copy.

 

Now if you are a real anal planner at home, maybe you can come up with a route to walk around the ship to see all of them in a most efficient manner (e.g. less back tracking).

 

Thank you for this valued piece of paper you carried around for 3,000 miles. You see, it's not useless, if somebody finds it useful. I printed it out for reference.

If I come up with a route, I shall share it!

 

Totally loving your report style! Funny and informative at the same time. In no way useless time to be read at work.

[rncruiser]

Please continue with your anal trip report style. I am loving every word (and picture) of it. Not only am I re-living my cruise through your report, but I am getting to see some of the things I missed.

[Megville]

Still along for the ride Harry. Thanks for taking us on vacation with you!

[oklahoma cruiser]

OK, I am SO enjoying this review...er, "report". I love your writing style and your sense of humor; and your boys are great....typical teens. I have never considered the Allure as it cruises from Florida, but I may have to reconsider it. We've only cruised Carnival, and we really enjoy it; but maybe adding a new line to our resume wouldn't hurt.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this !!!!

[harryfat1]

Thank you for this valued piece of paper you carried around for 3,000 miles. You see, it's not useless, if somebody finds it useful. I printed it out for reference.

If I come up with a route, I shall share it!

 

Totally loving your report style! Funny and informative at the same time. In no way useless time to be read at work.

 

Please continue with your anal trip report style. I am loving every word (and picture) of it. Not only am I re-living my cruise through your report, but I am getting to see some of the things I missed.

 

Still along for the ride Harry. Thanks for taking us on vacation with you!

 

 

OK, I am SO enjoying this review...er, "report". I love your writing style and your sense of humor; and your boys are great....typical teens. I have never considered the Allure as it cruises from Florida, but I may have to reconsider it. We've only cruised Carnival, and we really enjoy it; but maybe adding a new line to our resume wouldn't hurt.

 

Thanks for taking the time to do this !!!!

 

Thanks for everyone’s kind words. Appreciate the feedback.

 

I will keep plugging away. That’s one good thing about being a “bean counter” is that we are grinders. We have the perseverance to grind away daily. Only difference is instead of counting beans, I am counting (uploading) vacation pics, which is far more enjoyable by the way.

 

Oklahoma cruiser, yes, keep an open mind in switching cruise lines. If you look at my cruise history, we like the variety provided by different cruise lines. If you have the patience to plow through the rest of the trip report to end of day 7, then you can formulate your own opinion if this type of ship is right for you.

[harryfat1]

On the way back to the cabin to meet up with the in-laws and changing into the swimming clothes, we saw the workers cutting up part of the carpet. Later in the cruise, we saw them working on another section so looks like they are putting in new carpets near the aft by boardwalk.

 

Blurry pictures taken by the point & shoot but you get the idea that they are constantly upgrading and changing the ship

 

 

 

Which deck is the gangway? That’s the question we all seem to ask on our cruise ships as sometimes we get off on deck 2, sometimes on 1. Never know where to go when you get off the ship on port days. No issues on Oasis/Allure as they have a specific “gangway” button. Like the “easy” button on the Staples commercials, just press “gangway” on any elevator, it will take you there. Sometimes it will stop a deck 3 and as soon as you walk out, you see signs that has arrows pointing down to an escalator and that takes you out – after you are “ding” out by the system of course. Other times, elevator takes you directly to deck 2 and you just walk out from there without the escalator.

 

 

So we finally made it off the ship and the time stamp on this first picture was 9:33. We didn’t want to take any of the bigger more expensive cameras to the beach so only pictures this morning is just from the underwater camera which is pretty decent, just tends to over expose some pics every now and then. But I saw some brave (crazy) souls out on the beach/in the water with the expensive SLR taking pictures. Must be my profession in being conservative and not taking any chances.

 

Anyway, before I show pictures of Labadee up close, I should provide a map of the place so everyone has their bearings straight. For this attachment only, I am making it bigger as it’s too hard to see the details on a smaller size.

 

 

 

So if you look on the left side of the map, that’s where the ship is docked and then you walk along the pier to the various buildings. The big decision of the day is do you want to go left or right? They have beach area on both side but they provide totally different experience.

 

Option 1- The left side is where the zip line is and much bigger waves/rocky area right by the front. If you go further down, the waves are less intense as they have breaker walls down there.

 

Option 2 – The right side is more calm but less scenic. The water is bath tub calm. Takes longer to get there.

 

Actually there are many other options but for us, those were the 2 main choices. We opted for option 2 and we wanted to end up in Columbus Cove, which is at the far right hand side of the map. So if you look at the map and think of clock dial, we get off the ship at 9 o’clock on the left but need to get WAY over to the other end of the resort area by 3 o’clock on the right. Got it? Good, because I am not going to repeat it...

[micmacmissy]

Day 3 – Labadee.

 

For those unfamiliar with Labadee, it’s Royal’s private area that they have on lease with Haiti. I read somewhere the lease runs into 2050 or so. Matters not exactly when, it’ll be there for anyone reading this in foreseeable future. I know it’s easier to say it’s their “private island” but technically it’s a peninsula. The good thing is that you don’t have to compete against other land based vacationers at the beach and you feel safe leaving your valuables at the beach chairs knowing only people at the beach are your fellow ship mates.

 

Umm, you shouldn't feel safe doing that! On our Indy cruise, we were the first ones at Columbus Cove, other than the locals setting up their instruments and a Labadee "security" guard, and my cell phone went missing. (I was three feet away, distracted while my kids were running into the water.)

 

Be careful on Labadee, and everywhere on vacation, for that matter! I think Labadee especially has a false sense of security, and most people think the way you do (I did, too!).

 

Another interesting tidbit is that after my phone went missing, we found out that Royal Caribbean does not have any system in place for reporting crimes that occur on Labadee. Fair warning!

 

Now back to your excellent review...it's wonderful - hilarious and informative - and I've enjoyed every second of it. Your family could not be any more adorable! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

[Bimmer09]

Thank you for the high praise. I am glad my info is helpful/entertaining to those reading it.

 

I have a long way to go to complete this before any final judgment can be made. Only on day 3 at this point. Maybe the criticism of the report is that it’s too detailed and nobody really wants to read all this. I should just keep it simple by summarizing it as “we came, we saw, we ate, we pooped, we got fat, we took pictures and we left”, but then I guess I won’t get a chance to talk about the Icky shuffle.

 

Harry the high praise is justified as Helpful and Entertaining are the hallmarks of a memorable review. Future Allure cruisers can plan better when they see the ship laid out before them without just a list of dry facts to wade through. "We came, we saw, we ate..." etc. Although you can't smell or taste the food, photos help give you an idea re variety, cuts of meat, greasiness, care in presentation-if it's tough cheap cuts of meat slung on a plate then you can be sure they are not trying to "wow" you and make you long to return. A cruise line without avid repeat cruisers is doomed to dump their cabins at a discount just to sail full and there goes the margin...

 

Photo reviews are not for everyone to publish- you spend a lot of time taking the photos while you could be snoozing in the sun or trying to stay upright on a barstool ( I strap myself in with bunjee cords) and then there is the lengthy process of uploading and writing text. Some people don't have the time or inclination to share so generously for the benefit of all. A one paragraph review of a cruise can help somewhat-but not enough to excite or inform or to explain why things were so good or so dire onboard.

 

Keep doing what you are doing- it's very helpful and very entertaining.

 

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming....

 

Norris

[harryfat1]

Umm, you shouldn't feel safe doing that! On our Indy cruise, we were the first ones at Columbus Cove, other than the locals setting up their instruments and a Labadee "security" guard, and my cell phone went missing. (I was three feet away, distracted while my kids were running into the water.)

 

Be careful on Labadee, and everywhere on vacation, for that matter! I think Labadee especially has a false sense of security, and most people think the way you do (I did, too!).

 

Another interesting tidbit is that after my phone went missing, we found out that Royal Caribbean does not have any system in place for reporting crimes that occur on Labadee. Fair warning!

 

Now back to your excellent review...it's wonderful - hilarious and informative - and I've enjoyed every second of it. Your family could not be any more adorable! Thanks for taking the time to do it!

 

Wow. Thanks for the info. So I will change what I said previously and make a point to tell others to keep an eye on the stuff at the beach. We didn’t bring any electronic equipment off the ship to the beach, other than the camera which was strapped to my neck all the time, even in the water as it was water proof. Only other thing we had was $60 in cash inside the beach bag in case we wanted to buy something at the area.

 

I saw some of my neighbors at the beach area who were pretty open about leaving their cell phones at the beach chairs as they wandered off. During lunch time, I had the family go and grab lunch to bring back as I didn’t feel that safe to leave stuff at the lounges and go off 200 feet to get the food. Glad I was right in being cautious.

 

Thanks again for your input and glad you are following along.

[harryfat1]

Here we are – first port. But even to get off the pier, we had to navigate past many pellet full of provisions as all food and drinks are brought off the ship to Labadee so you see tons of food and drinks.

 

 

 

 

It’s been mentioned in other reviews but in case you didn’t get to read those, Oasis/Allure has 2 colors on the ship. The bottom half is baby blue. Seldom shows up in pictures as it’s always masked by the shadows and the deep blue ocean reflection but when set against the whiter pier background, the baby blue pops out.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the beach towel station that you can check out beach towels for the day. They just scan your sail card before and after. We all have lanyards around our necks with the sail card and it’s really easy as you don’t have to take it out, just flip it over to the back of the card with the bar code side and all the ship workers have hand held scanners that can read though the plastic of the lanyard. This works for all events on the ship so very convenient to have that instead of dealing with wallets/purses.

 

[Haber]

Can I join your OCD planner therapy group? Can I admit to cutting and pasting your spreadsheet into another document to save? Then I decided that was too anal and deleted it. (I'll make my own later. Shh!)

 

I'm going on the Western Oasis in March so other than all the wonderful photos you took from the secret balconies that I'm jealous of (sob!) your report is incredibly helpful. Will definitely be stealing the miniature and vintage photo ideas.

[harryfat1]

At this point, as we are near the end of the pier and I looked back and noticed that we must have walked over 1,500 feet by now and I noticed that when we arrived at the end, there were no refreshments. Yeah, as in nothing to drink or eat or anything.

 

What the heck? We are on a cruise. We can’t survive walking around 1,500 feet in the harsh condition of blistering 80 degrees heat with no shade and expect to survive without refreshment stands. This was a major hardship we had to endure and Royal didn’t even have any foresight to provide cooling stations/free drinks at the end of the pier. They have water stations at various key points of marathon races and from a cruise perspective, 1,500 feet of walking is like a mini marathon.

 

We need this refreshment stand. My cruise vacation has been ruined and it’s only day 3. I will write to the President of RCI about this and as soon as I get home post my grievances on cruise critics. I demand at least $200 of OBC to compensate for the pain and suffering I have endured under these harsh conditions as they have ruined my dream vacation.

 

 

Blah, blah, blah…. (Yeah, whatever. Go soak your head & chill out. Hurry up and show the pictures already. Time to scroll down)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So at the end of the pier, we stopped at that is a very popular picture spot. As matter of fact, the ship’s photographers use this same backdrop for the official pictures. My in laws bought one. Expect a lot of people to be there visiting their crazy aunts (taking pictures) around here so be patient in trying to find an empty spot.

 

 

 

So here we are, officially in Haiti. Now what? Saw some entertainers as we walked toward the plaza area. Keep in mind from prior postings that our final destination is the Columbus Cove beach area to the far right. You can either walk there or take the free tram. Guess which one we chose?

 

 

 

The driver was fairly aggressive in hinting that everyone on the tram can pay him a tip to drive them to the other stops but I think everyone just ignored him.

 

Here are some sites as we drove along the road

 

 

Note there are many loungers in the area. No worries to finding one. Behind the tree, toward the water is where the zip line area is. This area is much closer to the main plaza area so it attracts a lot more people that just wandered off the ship but from what I read, it's not for swimming so we moved on.

 

[harryfat1]

Kids’ water playing area. If you look at the right side on top of the hill, you can see where the zip line starts. No worries, I will ahvve better pictures of the zip line than what’s shown here but just wanted to give you an idea where we are now. If you are following along the map that I posted earlier, the tram ride is the blue line from the left to right. The kids’ playing area is about half way down the tram ride.

 

 

 

 

The obligatory t-shirt shack

 

 

Then the tram stopped here and the driver didn’t go anymore. Eh? I know this spot isn’t Columbus Cove and some guests got off, others were confused on where we were. The driver must not have been a happy camper in not getting any tips from the group just sat there in silence, so I walked off the tram to the front and ask him if he is going to Columbus Cove. Nope. He just pointed to the direction of the arch area and said go there and that was that. Friendly chap.

 

OK, everyone out. We walk the rest of the way. Note the mud puddle in the area. Think it must have rained the previous day/night.

 

 

OK, the following info is just my nonscientific deduction on why he isn’t going to Columbus Cove. Note in the pervious post 's picture that this driver has the longer 2 trailer hitches? The Columbus cover area is a small turn around area and only the trams with 1 trailer were making it out there. I saw that coming back and that’s what I think in the longer trams can’t get there. So if you have mobility issues and want to get to Columbus Cove, be sure to ask the driver if he goes there. Not all do. Or I could be wrong and the driver is just P.O. that he didn’t get money from us.