erries

My husband does not have celiac disease, but he is moderately allergic to wheat, so he often chooses gluten free options because they're guaranteed to be wheat free as well. He's looking forward to the gluten free options on the ship. His symptoms are similar to what someone else here described -- bloating and itching. It's not like we have to rush him to the hospital every time he ingests wheat, but if he can avoid it, he does. Since this seems to be a hot topic and my husband is in a similar situation (i.e. it's not strictly "medically necessary"), I'll try to remember to report back about our experience after our Allure cruise in May.

Jamaica - we did a tour including Lunch - at Good Hope Plantation. Nice tour and also a very tasty Jamaican lunch. This was a tour through the cruise line.

Hey Betty, I'd love to hear more about this excursion. The one we're considering for our upcoming cruise is described as follows on the website:

1700's Great House & Plantation Tour with Lunch - FY16

This is a full Estate experience with 4x4 access to select parts of the plantation in our special purpose off road vehicle. Take a walk through one of the most sought after great houses of the 18th century and discover the ruins of buildings that were once the jewel of the Caribbean. The Good Hope Great House built in the 1700's and restored in its entirety, with painting antiques and the lush surroundings of a 2,000 acre working enterprise. Walk on the lands once owned by the largest planter in Jamaica, John Tharp. Travel to the ruins where the waterwheel and kiln still stand today. Your day will not be complete without a visit to the pottery house to see the work of the resident potter and finally stop at the Trading House, the only store of its kind in the Caribbean where you can purchase some great pieces of art, carvings, books and souvenirs made in Jamaica before returning to the cruise ship pier.

A Jamaica jerk grill BBQ lunch is included with this tour.

Does this sound like the same excursion you did? If so, can you tell me a little more about it? I've been asking all over the boards, and it seems no one has done this.

I was last in Falmouth two years ago, and there was a restaurant inside the gated Royal Caribbean area right at the port that served jerk chicken and Red Stripes. I'm not a jerk chicken connoisseur, but we loved it. So if you're not feeling very adventurous -- and assuming this hasn't changed in the last two years -- you can get your jerk chicken and Red Stripe fix without ever leaving the port area.

Maybe! May 4th??

Nope, ours is the 18th. Maybe you can do the river tubing first and come back and tell me how it went! :)

The Park Cafe roast beef sandwich has become a boarding day lunch tradition for our group, despite the crowds and chaos. Getting through the lunch line itself isn't too bad, but depending on when you get there and the size of your group, finding seating in or near the restaurant can be challenging. We'll be on the Allure in May with our usual group of four plus two cruising newbies for a total of six people. I'm wondering if it might make sense to find an alternate place to sit -- maybe in the shade on the pool deck or something? -- and drop off all our bags and half our group, go get food at Park Cafe and carry it back, then let the other half do the same. Then we get our roast beef sandwiches but a much less chaotic dining experience. :D The only problem with this plan might be navigating all the stairs or elevators while carrying plates and drinks.

We'll also be in Falmouth on the Allure in May (maybe same cruise, OP?) and are considering river tubing. I'd also love to hear from anyone who has done this, either with Royal or a private company.

We were there two years ago, and my husband rented snorkel equipment -- not the excursion that takes you out to a reef in a boat, just the snorkel and fins and goggles. I don't remember the exact price, but it was relatively cheap -- I'm thinking probably $10-15? He found a small reef with TONS of fish inside the roped off area where you're allowed to swim, and he spent almost literally the entire day out there, floating around and exploring it. The few times he let me use the gear while he took a break, I was able to swim down among the fish, with them going right past my goggles in front of me. For someone who hasn't done much snorkeling (only two other previous excursions on other islands), it was pretty incredible. Now this was two years ago, so I don't know if that area is still like that, but we're booked to go back in May... and my husband has his own equipment this time. :cool:

What about for lunch? We cruised two years ago and did sushi for lunch one day, and I remember it being a flat fee (I think $5/person?), not a la carte. Is that not still the case?

Has anyone done the RC excursion in Falmouth titled "1700's Great House & Plantation Tour with Lunch - FY16"? Here's the description:

This is a full Estate experience with 4x4 access to select parts of the plantation in our special purpose off road vehicle. Take a walk through one of the most sought after great houses of the 18th century and discover the ruins of buildings that were once the jewel of the Caribbean. The Good Hope Great House built in the 1700's and restored in its entirety, with painting antiques and the lush surroundings of a 2,000 acre working enterprise. Walk on the lands once owned by the largest planter in Jamaica, John Tharp. Travel to the ruins where the waterwheel and kiln still stand today. Your day will not be complete without a visit to the pottery house to see the work of the resident potter and finally stop at the Trading House, the only store of its kind in the Caribbean where you can purchase some great pieces of art, carvings, books and souvenirs made in Jamaica before returning to the cruise ship pier.

A Jamaica jerk grill BBQ lunch is included with this tour.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has done this. I posted about it in the Jamaica forum several days ago, but this board is much more active, so I thought I'd hijack this thread to try to get an answer. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback, guys -- crisis averted! We were only considering that flight because all other reasonable times were booked up, but then I had a brilliant idea -- to check nearby airports. We ended up with a 1:30 flight out of West Palm Beach for way cheaper than the FLL ones we were eyeballing anyway. We'll have to arrange transportation from the port to PBI, but that shouldn't be a problem.

I wanted to follow up with this solution in case someone else in a similar situation stumbles onto this thread. Check nearby airports!

Bumping. Would really love some feedback on this from anyone who's done it!

Do you think it's possible to make an 8:45am flight out of FLL on departure morning? We'll be on the Allure, if that matters. All research I've done here on CC thus far indicates anything earlier than 9:30 is pretty risky, but I thought I'd ask directly. Any success stories?

Ditto; my group is also considering this for an upcoming cruise.

How late is the Windjammer open for breakfast on departure day on the Allure?

Try the Labadee board. There are tons of discussions there about the cabanas:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=406

Look under the Platinum column:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cas/benefits.do

Ooh, a lapel pin! Now I'm REALLY excited! :D

Thanks, Bob.

This is slightly off topic, but what other perks does Platinum receive? We'll be Platinum for the first time on our upcoming cruise in May. Do we get special boarding, any good coupons, etc?

As a WVU alum, I'll keep my mouth shut about the Orange Bowl... ;)

I really enjoyed your review; it was a nice change to read one from the point of view of someone in my age group. Also loved your dresses, of course! I have to ask: How many pairs of shoes did you take? I bet you guys had a lot of luggage... :D

So while everyone else left, we just sat there on the beach, drinking coco locos, waiting to get stranded and get our next cruise for free.

This is hilarious and awesome.

tgunth, I hope you'll come back and update us after you contact RCCL. I'm sure the negative responses here are discouraging, but regardless of my personal opinion about your situation, I'm incredibly curious to know what RCCL's response will be.

I'm doing the same itinerary (minus Cozumel, of course) next week. We leave in two days, and reading this review made me so excited that my stomach hurts now, ha ha. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Erica

PirateGal, thanks for your review! I'm going on the Western itinerary on the Liberty in May, and it made me really excited for my own trip to read your review. Glad you had such a good time!

Erica

Anyone know if there is a swimup bar in the adults pool.

There isn't a swim-up bar in the Solarium pool, but there's a bar right by the pool, like literally within a couple feet from it. And there's a table with stools in the pool itself, under the bridge - the stools are underwater, and you can sit there in the shade of the bridge and put your drink on the table.

http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh276/erries2008/05cruise/DSC02312.jpg

erries, I am soooo jealous that you are leaving on saturday. Like I said in my last post, we were just on the Liberty last week doing the western.....and I miss her already. We had sooo much fun and the weather was perfect. It was hot and sunny every day. Have lots of fun and I hope your weather is as great as ours was!

Thanks so much, Erin! We're leaving this evening to drive up to Pittsburgh and spend the night at the hotel connected to the airport... then we're flying out tomorrow morning from Pittsburgh to Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale, then catching the shuttle to Miami. It'll be a long day, but I can't wait! I've never been on anything bigger than the Mariner, so I can't wait to explore the Liberty. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the work day today, ha ha.

Erica

erin1998, thanks so much for posting those pictures! Most of the Liberty-at-Labadee pictures I've seen have been cloudy and overcast, but it looks beautiful there in your photos! I'm leaving this Saturday (two days!) for a western Caribbean cruise on the Liberty; I'll be in Labadee next Monday. I'm so excited!

Thanks again for sharing the pictures,

Erica