LIVE 🚢🎉🥳🍾⛵️Allure of the Seas - April 5, 2024

[Denversail]

This trip was a super last minute decision. Mr. IT and I decided 15 nights from the cruise that we would book it. I called 14 days out and was luckily still able to get an ocean balcony. He said they only had two more available. My free casino offer was for a junior suite but those were sold out. 😞

 

Just to explain some of the alias’s… I posted a news alert on my last live which was this Feb. I used these aliases in that review. Dupable (my mother) called me first thing the morning after my announcement that I’d be doing another live. She was so excited. It was like she will be on the trip with me. We will discuss more of her stalking tendencies later. Let’s just say she is following us all very closely. 😳  

[Denversail]

1. Our cruise is out of Orlando for 3 nights stopping @ Nassau and Coco Cay. We will have no sea days this trip. Mr. IT hasn’t been on a vacation since our Hawaii trip in 2022. We did a weekend of Glamping last summer but I’m not sure that I would really count that as a vacation. He has been stuck at home with the dogs lately while I travel the world. At least that is how he describes it. 😂

[Denversail]

Dupable has recently taken to noting my neighbors addresses so she can do further research when she gets home. She has also started joining my cruise trip FB pages. She now updates me on peoples updates. She was very excited to let me know that folks on my Greek Isles cruise are talking about ducks.

[Denversail]

We abruptly booked all the travel plans. Checking in on the same day I booked the cruise was a first for me. Mr. IT went into a short frenzy trying to locate his travel documents. I’m happy to report he located them and will still be traveling with us. 🥳🥳

 

We are obviously booking everything very last minute. As with all things our flights were outrageous. Just to fly the Walmart of the sky’s (Southwest) was $1460 for the times we needed. We decided that the $260 extra per person and the 3 hour later home arrival at the end of our trip was worth first class. I know it is just a 3 1/2 hour flight but you’ll notice we are steering towards comfort and convenience this trip. It is a pattern.

[perfect match]

So how are the dogs doing now? Both your dog and your son’s dog were having health issues during your last cruise. I hope they’re both doing better. 
 

Is Dupable coming along this time? I thought that she wasn’t but then I started wondering if she had decided to come along. 🤔

 

I’ll be following along closely since we will be boarding Allure 3 1/2 weeks after you. I can’t wait until it’s our turn!

[MeganGC1983]

Here for this. We sail Allure in May. Thanks for taking us along. 

[Denversail]

20 hours ago, perfect match said:

So how are the dogs doing now? Both your dog and your son’s dog were having health issues during your last cruise. I hope they’re both doing better. 
 

Is Dupable coming along this time? I thought that she wasn’t but then I started wondering if she had decided to come along. 🤔

 

I’ll be following along closely since we will be boarding Allure 3 1/2 weeks after you. I can’t wait until it’s our turn!

The Pups are both doing well. Wolf’s dog is back on her normal kibble feeding plan. She has put a few pounds back on. Thank you for asking.

 

I keep reminding Dupable that she is not coming on this trip. I’ve gone over our plans in more detail with her than Mr. IT. She was just here actually telling me word for word the update I should post about her on this live. She was so ecstatic that you asked about her. She thinks she is a star with fans now. She of course also requested I talk more about ducks. Always the damn ducks. She is trying to convince me to take her ducks and hide them on the ship. I think she has joined a bunch of duck groups on FB. 🐥🐣🦆🐤

[scubaslayer]

I am happy the dogs are doing better. You know we were all holding our breath at the beginning of the last live you did. Will there be the same level of drinking and casino on a shorter cruise with Mr IT?

[Denversail]

16 minutes ago, scubaslayer said:

I am happy the dogs are doing better. You know we were all holding our breath at the beginning of the last live you did. Will there be the same level of drinking and casino on a shorter cruise with Mr IT?

Mr. IT has what we like to call a vacation setting. We have both purchased the drink package. We will not be spending a huge amount of time in the casino. We don’t have any sea days this trip. I would guess Mr. IT will spend maybe two hours gambling this trip. I’m sure I’ll spend a few more than that. We have enjoyed some comedy shows in the past, trivia’s, and a few dance clubs. We have also enjoyed some of the performers in the pub on past cruises. We don’t ever seem to make it to any shows. This trip will be very beach heavy. I’ll be posting details soon. 

[Denversail]

Mr. IT and I have been discussing how to proceed with our live. Mr. IT is super into photography. He loves taking pictures. We have decided that he will provide the photo content for the trip. Prepare to be photo dumped! We are getting really excited about our trip! We leave in 11 days. 

[scubaslayer]

10 minutes ago, Denversail said:

Mr. IT has what we like to call a vacation setting. We have both purchased the drink package. We will not be spending a huge amount of time in the casino. We don’t have any sea days this trip. I would guess Mr. IT will spend maybe two hours gambling this trip. I’m sure I’ll spend a few more than that. We have enjoyed some comedy shows in the past, trivia’s, and a few dance clubs. We have also enjoyed some of the performers in the pub on past cruises. We don’t ever seem to make it to any shows. This trip will be very beach heavy. I’ll be posting details soon. 

My husband likes to lay about and read on vacations. I sort of make him go do things. I think if I didn't decide on vacations and do the planning, he would be perfectly content just being at home like always but he enjoys the things I plan. I kind of look forward to trips with just the 2 of us once the kids start their own lives but also the teens have made things more interesting and fun.

[Denversail]

Let me lay it out for you all.

 

4/4 Depart - we will be arriving at the Denver airport at 4 am for our 6 am flight. We will park at the airport for convenience since we will only be gone thru the 8th. 

Arrival - noon in Orlando. We decided to rent a car for the duration of the trip. This is in the theme of convenience. We will pick up our rental at the airport from enterprise. 
 

I know that we will be starving at this point. Our plan is to stop at rocksandbrews.com for lunch.

[Denversail]

We will then drive to Cocoa Beach. Our hotel for the night is Hilton Cocoa Beach Oceanfront. We have a king bed with an oceanfront view booked. We figure with arrival time, rental pickup, lunch, and drive time we will arrive at our hotel between 3 and 4 pm. That is perfect since the hotel has a 3 pm checkin. Our plan is to hit the beach for a few hours if the weather is nice.

 

We have dinner reservations for Gregory’s at 7 pm. I’m sure after that we will call it a night.

 

[Denversail]

We will wake up on cruise day and head to Simply delicious for breakfast. We will plan to get there a little before they open. We will see how it goes. We will then head back to the hotel and checkout. I would like to be heading to the terminal by 10:30 at the latest. Our hotel is 6 miles away and we plan to park at the cruise port again for convenience. We obviously checked in late for this cruise and got the latest possible boarding time. We will be ignoring that *****. 

[Denversail]

We will be enjoying an ocean balcony on deck 9. We booked the drink package and 2 WiFi devices. We opted to book our dining individually instead of the package. I didn’t want to have to run on the ship and book reservations. For convenience we booked Giovanni’s boarding day lunch and 150 cp, chops, and samba for dinner. 

Edited March 24 by Denversail

[Denversail]

Mr. IT and I were last on Allure of the Seas in Oct of 2016. We loved the ship! Here are a few of Mr. IT’s pics from that trip.

[Denversail]

Our excursions this trip will be a resort pass to Margaritaville in Nassau. We are doing the Beach Club @ Coco Cay. You will notice a theme. This is my 3rd time in a row doing the Beach Club. I really enjoy it. It creates a relaxing day for me. 
 

We won’t need to be to the airport until 2 pm on Monday. My plan so far is for us to take our time getting off the ship and head over to Disney Springs. I thought we would be able to do some shopping and get some lunch. 

[Denversail]

We are 25 hours in and I think with 17 followers. Followers, fans, stalkers, you all call yourselves anything you want. The duplets could be a good name choice. I’m just sayin this following can be anything we want it to be. Let’s reach for the stars. 

[perfect match]

1 minute ago, Denversail said:

Our excursions this trip will be a resort pass to Margaritaville in Nassau. We are doing the Beach Club @ Coco Cay. You will notice a theme. This is my 3rd time in a row doing the Beach Club. I really enjoy it. It creates a relaxing day for me. 
 

We won’t need to be to the airport until 2 pm on Monday. My plan so far is for us to take our time getting off the ship and head over to Disney Springs. I thought we would be able to do some shopping and get some lunch. 

I hope that Mr IT will take plenty of pictures of the Beach Club! I initially had no plans to spend the extra $$$ on it but the price dropped enough that I decided to go ahead and give it a try. Besides, Coco Cay was really crowded the last time we were there and I like the idea of going someplace we’d feel less like canned sardines than we did that day. Oh, the food looked good, too!

 

Glad your pups are doing better. There were a lot of us who were concerned about them on your last trip.

 

You’ll have to admit that having Dupable and her ducks around does keep things interesting. I’ll be thinking of her if I find any ducks on our upcoming Allure B2B. However, I have no plans to hide any ducks of my own.

 

 

[renee1222]

3 hours ago, Denversail said:

We will wake up on cruise day and head to Simply delicious for breakfast. We will plan to get there a little before they open. We will see how it goes. We will then head back to the hotel and checkout. I would like to be heading to the terminal by 10:30 at the latest. Our hotel is 6 miles away and we plan to park at the cruise port again for convenience. We obviously checked in late for this cruise and got the latest possible boarding time. We will be ignoring that *****. 

We also have a later than desired boarding time on Allure a week or so after your cruise that I would like to ignore 😆 so I will be very curious to hear your experience on what time you arrive and if you are allowed to drop off bags and/or board early or if there is a waiting area until assigned time.

[mousemom11]

3 hours ago, Denversail said:

Let me lay it out for you all.

 

4/4 Depart - we will be arriving at the Denver airport at 4 am for our 6 am flight. We will park at the airport for convenience since we will only be gone thru the 8th. 
 

Reading this gave me PTSD flashbacks to your airport arrival on your last trip. 😂. At least this time you won't be waiting for Dupable to show up and can arrive on time. I'm very glad to hear that all the pups are better. Looking forward to following along again.

[Denversail]

13 hours ago, renee1222 said:

We also have a later than desired boarding time on Allure a week or so after your cruise that I would like to ignore 😆 so I will be very curious to hear your experience on what time you arrive and if you are allowed to drop off bags and/or board early or if there is a waiting area until assigned time.

I typically get early boarding times but when I don’t I ignore the suggested arrival time. The only time that I thought I was going to be turned away was in Miami last year. I was in line with probably the first 40 people or so and noticed the guy checking and turning people away. I think they just do this in the very beginning when letting the first folks through. I was solo so I just nodded to the people ahead of me as if I was with them and he let me through. We didn’t have issues in FLL or Galveston this year. Fingers crossed on this port. I have read other reports from folks going out here that it wasn’t an issue. In my experience once they let you in the building you are good. I’ve never had anyone check it past that point.

[Denversail]

We started off Monday cold and snowy. I opted to work from home today rather than attempt driving downtown. Mr. IT doesn’t have that option. He reported the roads as a slip and slide adventure. He made it in safely.

Don’t worry I have already checked the forecast for when we leave. Reporting so far is showing sunny skies in Denver when we leave on the 4th. 

[Denversail]

I always seem to take a punch when I book a vacation. I think of it as the universe balancing itself.

 

I went to the dentist on Thursday to get a crown. This was for my lower back left tooth. I have a very small mouth and the dentist warned me it was going to be difficult work. I spent 3 unpleasant hours in that chair. It was the most uncomfortable dental procedure I have ever been through.
 

It’s over so why do I mention it? Half of my tongue is still numb from 4 days ago. The dentist explained to me this morning that I have a Lingual Nerve injury. I had to google it. 90% of these heal on their own within 8 weeks. Some take up to a year and less than 1% never heal and become permanent. 
 

Food now tastes strange and the textures all feel mushy and fuzzy. I repeatedly bite my cheek while eating. This also involves occasional drooling. So that is all just very lovely. 

[Mr. IT]

22 hours ago, Denversail said:

Mr. IT and I have been discussing how to proceed with our live. Mr. IT is super into photography. He loves taking pictures. We have decided that he will provide the photo content for the trip. Prepare to be photo dumped! We are getting really excited about our trip! We leave in 11 days. 

LETS GO