Me, #theboy, and the unwanted guest on Allure

The front desk staff very friendly and the check in process was very quick. Me and #theboy went up to our room on the 14thfloor looking north over the ocean and the intracoastal. Lobby is large and comfortable. There is a high end steak restaurant in the lobby, plus a coffee shop. $3.00 for a large drip coffee.

The pools are open from dawn till dusk. They give you little cards to trade for towels, and then you get the cards back when you turn in your towels. You must have room key to access pool areas as they are fenced in. The resort is on a public beach and they have to keep the riff-raff out, yanno? There are two pools ocean front, each with a bar/restaurant. Additionally there is one adults-only pool on the 11thfloor with its own bar. Needless to say, I didn't experience this pool as the 13 year old is a few years short of being legal.

Free wi fi all over the property seems to work very well. There was a cooler, but not a fridge, in the room. Sufficient to cool beverages but would not keep perishable items.

Our room had 2 queen beds which were comfy, but a little soft for my taste. The balcony is private, but in the room you can hear lots of noise. Doors closing are very loud, and people walking by can be heard very clearly. Our room happened to be very close to the Hollywood amphitheater which is a great spot for live music, right on the public beach. (Not affiliated with Margaritaville.) Thankfully they quit playing at 9:00pm because it was louder than I wanted since I was dog tired and ready for bed.

The bathroom in the room had an interesting configuration with an opaque glass door (like a shower door almost) to the water closet. I've never seen anything like that, and it could be considered a little awkward if you're not particularly interested in your roommate knowing exactly WHAT you are doing in there. And sadly there really was no good spot in the bathroom to hang wet swimsuits. I may or may not have made the shower head fall to the floor because I'd hung my wet suit on it while it dripped into the tub. Couldn't support the weight, I guess. Good thing that, while I was unaware of it at the time, I would be losing a few pounds in the next week and potentially be in need of a smaller swim suit.

More to come...

Following!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Looking forward to your review.

Hint...wrap your wet things in a towel and get the excess water out, before you hang them...they will dry much faster!

I feel that a really good story is heading my way!

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip, and I’m glad that you didn’t have that heart attack!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sounds like you got thru crisis number one. Hoping not too many more but suspect a few more bumps are on their way.

I am looking forward to the rest of your review.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Waiting for the rest of the story.

Sent from my Moto E (4) using Forums mobile app

So you just decided to ride out what you thought was a heart attack?!?! I am guessing, in hindsight, that it was an anxiety attack. You poor thing. <|3

Intriguing start... Looking forward to the rest.

Looking forward to the rest of the story. :)

Anxiously awaiting the rest of the story.

Looking forward to reading more!

My son and I have just returned from sailing on the Allure, Western itinerary. I had high hopes that we would make lots of memories on this trip, and it is safe to say we succeeded. But not necessarily in the ways I anticipated. We have labeled this as the vacation that "Coulda Been Worse". CBW.

 

There were highs. There were lows. And a few "REALLY low"s.

 

We started off with a super early flight from Dulles to Fort Lauderdale on Friday. Halfway through the flight I was convinced I was having a heart attack. Great start, right? I was dizzy, nauseous, my left arm was tingling, and I was wondering what was about to happen to my 13 year old son when I dropped dead on the plane and they had to make an emergency landing.



Thankfully we didn't have to find out. I used to have a job where I traveled 10,000 - 20,000 miles per week, so this really was unprecedented for me, which of course increased the anxiety level. I saw it as a bit of an ominous foreshadowing at the time, and I was proved correct.



Once back on land I slowly started to feel better, and we made our way to Margaritaville where we had reservations for two nights. Thankfully FLL is a small airport and the rental cars are very conveniently on site. No need to take a shuttle bus to the rental cars.

 

Since this is Cruise Critic, and not Hotel Critic, I won't spend much time on Margaritaville in this review, but if you have questions, I'll do my best to answer them.

The front desk staff very friendly and the check in process was very quick. Me and #theboy went up to our room on the 14thfloor looking north over the ocean and the intracoastal. Lobby is large and comfortable. There is a high end steak restaurant in the lobby, plus a coffee shop. $3.00 for a large drip coffee.

 

The pools are open from dawn till dusk. They give you little cards to trade for towels, and then you get the cards back when you turn in your towels. You must have room key to access pool areas as they are fenced in. The resort is on a public beach and they have to keep the riff-raff out, yanno? There are two pools ocean front, each with a bar/restaurant. Additionally there is one adults-only pool on the 11thfloor with its own bar. Needless to say, I didn't experience this pool as the 13 year old is a few years short of being legal.

Free wi fi all over the property seems to work very well. There was a cooler, but not a fridge, in the room. Sufficient to cool beverages but would not keep perishable items.

Our room had 2 queen beds which were comfy, but a little soft for my taste. The balcony is private, but in the room you can hear lots of noise. Doors closing are very loud, and people walking by can be heard very clearly. Our room happened to be very close to the Hollywood amphitheater which is a great spot for live music, right on the public beach. (Not affiliated with Margaritaville.) Thankfully they quit playing at 9:00pm because it was louder than I wanted since I was dog tired and ready for bed.

 

The bathroom in the room had an interesting configuration with an opaque glass door (like a shower door almost) to the water closet. I've never seen anything like that, and it could be considered a little awkward if you're not particularly interested in your roommate knowing exactly WHAT you are doing in there. And sadly there really was no good spot in the bathroom to hang wet swimsuits. I may or may not have made the shower head fall to the floor because I'd hung my wet suit on it while it dripped into the tub. Couldn't support the weight, I guess. Good thing that, while I was unaware of it at the time, I would be losing a few pounds in the next week and potentially be in need of a smaller swim suit.

More to come...

From someone who has had a heart attack and survived because of proper medical intervention, it sounds to me that you have had some warning signs. GO TO A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY!

Good start.:)

Can't wait for the rest of the story!

From someone who has had a heart attack and survived because of proper medical intervention, it sounds to me that you have had some warning signs. GO TO A DOCTOR IMMEDIATELY!

Thank you for your concern. My husband has had a heart attack and I have experienced before what I thought *might* be the beginning of one. Turns out they were just PVCs, for anyone who knows what that means. (On New Year's EVE! Why couldn't these things happen to me on Tuesday morning at work? Why must it be New Year's Eve, or the day I'm leaving for vacation?).

I really do think this was anxiety, for a few reasons that I won't bore you all with. I'm just thankful that the episode didn't turn out serious enough to end up in the hospital, thus canceling our trip. I am ok today, after a nice long sleep in my own bed!

OP, you know your health more than me or others, but if you haven't had a thorough detailed exam since this 'attack', you're playing with your life. If you haven't as of yet been examined, I encourage you to go ASAP. That 13 yr old will be 14 next year and he needs you in his life.

Following! Looking forward to more!

Saturday in Fort Lauderdale. Looked out our hotel window to see the Harmony and the Carnival Triumph in port. Nothing like that view to get you excited about your upcoming cruise!

#Theboy hopped on Yelp to find a breakfast spot. Right next to the hotel was a tiny little spot called Cafe Club which had received excellent reviews, so that's where we went. Tiny spot with very little indoor seating, which is what he and I wanted in JUNE in FLORIDA. The humidity hasn't really hit yet for the summer in DC, so Florida felt super hot to us when we arrived. Other more seasoned folks were enjoying the patio seating in the blinding sunshine, but the wimpy ones... we sat inside.

We walked into the restaurant and were greeted by a few very friendly fellows who helped us navigate the menu. They specialize in crepes with various fillings. Everything here was super fresh and tasty. The berries were amazing. Could have eaten my weight in those! Anyone planning a stay in Hollywood Beach, I highly recommend this joint!

After a few hours at the pool, once the sun went down a little, I encouraged my son to try the flowrider. My thinking was that he could try it out HERE, and then when we got on the ship he could enjoy those even more since he'd not be a total beginner. The cost is $30 for 30 minutes on weekdays, and $45 for 30 minutes on weekends. There were only two other riders at the time so I thought my $45 was money well spent and #theboy would get a lot of riding time!

WRONG.

My kid is an adrenaline junky. He is an excellent skier. He is a downhill mountain bike rider who dodges trees, flies through mud puddles, jumps off everything he can find. But the flowrider and he are decidedly not buddies. The flowrider chewed him up and spit him out. After 5 minutes he quit and had NO desire to go back for more. The instructor and another guy who was riding that session kept trying to coax him, but #theboy held firm. He gave them a Nope Sandwich with extra NOPE sauce. Not gonna do it.

Oh well, I figured. "Coulda been worse". Could have cost me $50 for that 5 minutes instead of $45. CBW.

After debarking Allure our flight wasn't scheduled until 8:00pm and I didn't have any plans for what we would do all day to kill the time. I figured I would head to the front desk at Margaritaville to sweet talk them into letting me come back to use the facilities for a few hours, kind of like you find on dayuse.com or the like. To make a long story short, that didn't work. They gave ME a Nope Sandwich. So I still had no plan for what to do the day we would debark, but a week to figure something out.

We had dinner at Nicks on the Boardwalk that night. A definite South Florida beach joint vibe, super crowded, and the food was pretty good. I had grilled mahi which was properly cooked, but a little boring. Could have used a lemon butter sauce or something to kick it up a notch, but all in all, it CBW.

Time now to hit the hay and prepare to head to port in the morning.

OP, you know your health more than me or others, but if you haven't had a thorough detailed exam since this 'attack', you're playing with your life. If you haven't as of yet been examined, I encourage you to go ASAP. That 13 yr old will be 14 next year and he needs you in his life.

This brought tears to my eyes. You're right. Thank you. I'll go.

Franky, your first stop when you landed should have been the hospital not Margaretaville. You said that your husband had a heart attack and now you're exhibited classic signs of having a heart attack and decided to blow it off? You're health is way more important than a cruise and I would suggest that anyone who exhibits signs of a heart attack get your @ss to the hospital immediately!!

Think of the satisfaction you'll have when you get back from the doctor and are able to post "I told you so" here. That should be enough to motivate you! :D

 

 

After debarking Allure our flight wasn't scheduled until 8:00pm and I didn't have any plans for what we would do all day to kill the time. I figured I would head to the front desk at Margaritaville to sweet talk them into letting me come back to use the facilities for a few hours, kind of like you find on dayuse.com or the like. To make a long story short, that didn't work. They gave ME a Nope Sandwich. So I still had no plan for what to do the day we would debark, but a week to figure something out.

.

You disembarked.... what about the cruise. Lol

Sent from my iPhone using Forums