Travels

Helllooo! Just a little back story…my parents celebrated their 40th anniversary in January. They decided that they wanted to celebrate with a cruise right around Spring Break and that I could join them. If you have been around for a bit, you will know that I also joined them on a cruise in 2011 for Christmas. That was my very first cruise and I loved it!

Did the Allure live up to my first cruise on the Holland? The Allure is the largest cruise ship in the world, but is bigger always really better? Let’s find out!

My parents and I met up in Ft Lauderdale the day before to just relax before we hopped onto the ship. Unfortunately, somewhere between Boston and the start of the cruise I picked up some funky stomach thing and was not feeling 100%. I spent the majority of the first day on the ship just laying in our room with the curtains drawn and napping. Unlike my last cruise I didn’t get a chance to walk around the ship and take pictures for reals until the next day.

This is the first photo I have from the cruise…

Yep, first photo after not feeling so hot and it is with a Pina Colada in hand. Heh. Priorities folks.

Also, can we talk about my pale skin? Did anyone guess that my skin turned bright red and stayed that way for the rest of the week?! I call it an “Irish Tan”.  I also never realized I had some many freckles. Awesome.

Our first full day on the ship was “At Sea”, which is just cruising. The Allure has 6,000+ guests and the pool seemed to be where every single person was hanging out. Fortunately, I know the game and got there early to reserve my chair. Win!

This ship has three main pools and one more in the adults-only area (BLISS!). One is a sports pool where volleyball, aquaerobics, etc are done. Another is a Beach pool where the sitting area just slopes into the pool, and then the Main Pool.

There is also a children’s water park-type area, which was seriously a mad house from 9-5 every day. They served free frozen yogurt there sometimes which resulted in a lovely mixture of pool water and yogurt mixed together all over the deck. Did you know kids are messy?

The ship also has 10 hot tubs, with a few of them overlooking the ocean. Lovely!

In addition to the pools, Deck 15 has a sports zone that includes 2 FlowRiders, a surfing simulator, a mini golf course, and a zip line.

I participated in all of these activities except the flow rider. After my surfing adventure in Punta Cana, I’m a little board shy. I did watch everyone else wipe out though. It was just as fun.

Once I had a little sun on my skin, we decided to check out some other parts of the ship. First up, the Boardwalk.

There are a few restaurants, the aqua theatre, a carousel, two rock climbing walls and a few other fun shops. This was actually one of my favorite parts of the ship. I love the atmosphere and the aqua theatre!

  

We even went to watch Grease, the sing-a-long version, and drink margaritas in the aqua theatre one night.

We checked out the spa, the gym, and a few other spots before heading back to the room to get ready for formal night. I still wasn’t feeling 100% but I put on my fancy outfit and headed to dinner.  That night we had tickets to see Ocean Aria, a diving show that was amazing! When we got back to the room we were greeted by a fun little towel guy. Maybe a bat? A bat wearing sunglasses and a hat!

The next morning was our first port stop in Labadee, Haiti.

Right. I know what you are thinking. Why the heck would you pick Haiti as one of your cruise destinations? Royal Caribbean owns this piece of Haiti and I firmly believe that RC designed the itinerary on the idea that Allure is more about the ship than the port destinations. My Mom decided to stick back on the ship to enjoy a relatively empty boat, while my Dad and I ventured out.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be outside. The water was so beautiful and warm. Kind of like being in a bath. In a good way.

While I enjoyed the water and just being outside, I was a bit disappointed with this stop overall. It was SO crowded. There are two main swimming beaches. We decided to walk to the furthest one thinking that maybe not as many people would be there. Nope. Still crowded. There wasn’t a huge place to swim so it felt a little like the crowded pool on the ship. Also, the view was not *exactly* what I was expecting.

Objects may appear closer than they really are. We were pretty far from the ship, but still…I was hoping for just open waters!

After lunch and a few Labaduzee (a frozen rum drink!), we headed back to the ship. On the way out we stopped in a shopping area that sold local woodworkings, crafts, clothing, etc. The people were super aggressive trying to get us into look at their goods, but we did find a few fun things to take home.

While were in Labadee I discovered that “Hot as Haiti” is not a real phrase. Apparently I have been saying that wrong for years and I’m an idiot. Haiti. Hades. Whatevs. I’m here to tell ya folks…The phrase could easily include Haiti. It was blazing hot there! Pretty, but hot.

I spent the rest of the day at the pool just relaxing and reading. I was on a mission to finish the book Gone Girl by the end of the cruise. There might have been a nap squeezed in there too. After dinner we saw the show CHICAGO and relaxed on our balcony enjoying the sounds of the waves.

Ok, that is enough rambling for today. I’ll post a bit later with our other two ports and some final thoughts about our cruise.

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