Tres Amigas Review - Allure of the Seas Oct 14, 2012…Ole!

Oh, no, not another Allure of the Seas Review?!?! Well, I thought that what really made our October 14 Eastern Caribbean cruise one of our best cruise experiences to date was the social aspect of it, enhanced by participating in our Cruise Critic Roll Call.

SO, we thought this would be unique, not just another cruise review from one perspective. If we can all get coordinated here, it will be a tale of 3 women who met on Cruise Critic, found common ground and a budding (and continuing) friendship, dragged 3 husbands along for the ride, found other friends to join in the fun, and had a most amazing week on land and at sea. And for myself, I wanted to relive it one more time before moving forward to planning our next cruise.

Essentially, my thesis/theory for this review is to be open and put yourself out there on your roll calls, pay attention to who you’re talking to, get to know them, let them get to know you, and your cruise can be like a fun reunion of meeting up with your ‘old’ new friends!:)

The major playahs here will be myself from Delaware, Sherri (Sunebeach) from Kentucky, and Macy (wannasail4ever) from Alabama. This is our 2nd cruise with Sherri and 1st with Macy. We all have different life schedules and commitments, so please bear with us if each of us jumps in at different times or disappears for a while.

I’ll start with some background on me (and DH Paul, aka crazycatsailor). We are mid/late 50ish and began cruising together 6 years ago after I chaperoned my daughter’s high school chorus/band on RCL Majesty of the Seas for a Musical Festival/Competition and wanted to get right back to a cruiseship without the work of keeping tabs on 200 kids:eek:! Paul grew up on the water, loves it so much that he entered the Coast Guard the day he graduated High School. We have cruised once a year since then, are working towards twice a year and more.

We have only been married since 2006, so we enjoyed the honeymoon phase through our first few phases spending time together. As often as possible we would request a table for two in the Dining Rooms, and were perfectly happy to not mingle with anyone else.

As cruising has become our love and addiction, we began gravitating towards other addicts to get our fix with:D. Cruise Critic has been an amazing resource for us. In our obsession we want to know everything about every nook and cranny of our ships, all the options for excursions and making every second of our cruise count, and we know we can find it here.

Our 2010 cruise on the Oasis of the Seas was the first time we really started getting active on a CC Roll Call, and began making new friends months before we set sail. We named ourselves ‘The Big O’s’, MarlinJim designed t-shirts for us, we planned meeting for our first roast beef sandwich at the Park Café and sailaway on the secret deck 14,

some excursions together, and a get together on our last night so we could compare notes and say goodbye. Our highlight on that cruise was that shortly after setting sail we met up with the Allure of the Seas before her maiden voyage for a great photo op and amazing experience. At that moment we decided we would book a cruise on the Allure while on board.

(Credits for this amazing photo is to CruiseCarrie)

Paul and I really clicked with CruiseCarrie (Carrie and Jim) on that cruise. They talked us into booking the Freedom for 2011 and decided to join us. We also booked the Allure for ourselves in 2012 at the same time.

Flashback to Freedom of the Seas now, November 2011:

It was fun having our reunion with Carrie and Jim on the Freedom, and on that roll call we clicked with Sunebeach – Sherri and Mike. If any of you have had the pleasure of being on a roll call with RevSmith, she was on that cruise, and she was a great cheerleader, ringleader, dancing countdown number poster, and a wealth of knowledge! When we walked into the Meet & Mingle, Mike and Sherri invited us to sit with them (it was pretty obvious who we were since Jim and Carrie gave me and Paul t-shirts ‘Hello my name is Judi and I’m addicted to cruising’ (Of course Paul’s had his name on it, not ‘Judi’):rolleyes:

We ran into Mike and Sherri again towards the end of the week and enjoyed a few hours hanging out at the Schooner Bar together. We hoped we had planted the seed for them to consider joining us on the Allure.

In the meantime, after those 2 great experiences with the CC Roll Calls, I started the thread for our October 14 Allure cruise. I think I found my true calling – being the official greeter!

Into our second page of the roll call, Macy piped in (wannasail4ever) and became another official greeter. Right away I appreciated her friendliness, helpfulness (she had already sailed the Allure so had good first-hand experience). Ray and Betty (Raybettn) also became frequent posters, and FINALLY around Thanksgiving, Sherri/Sunebeach posted that she and Mike were considering booking. It was the funniest thing starting to get emails/texts from both her and Mike that they were going to surprise the other with this cruise as a Christmas gift! Oh, no, I worried they’d be double-booked!

Not to take anything away from everyone else on our roll call, but the three of us did a pretty good job of hogging the roll call, although it grew to well over 100 Meet and Minglers! Since my memory sucks, I had started keeping a list of everyone’s names for myself, and ended up being the keeper of the roll call.

YES!! I finished my cruise, I finished my report, now what do I do??

Read someone else'e report :D

Yahooooo!

As our excitement grew, our planning for the cruise took on a life of its own.

We began talking about getting together the day before the cruise to watch the Oasis sailaway. We all did a lot of research to figure out how to get to the jetties that you see on Port Fever. This is what I'm good/bad at...my uber-organization that somehow always fizzled into disorganized chaos! I found a great review by Nenner1 that gave explicit directions to getting to the right spot. In my organized phase, I compiled all this great information into one post, and even added it to our personal website (see my signature). But when I got to the disorganized phase, totally forgot where I put that! It wasn't until I just looked back at our roll call to refresh my memory that I found my link to Nenner1's review. Oh, and I think I've already hit my disorganized stride, since I think I'm starting to get all over the place...partly cause I want my buddies to have time to pipe in and they don't seem to be around right now!

We all talked about Hotel recommendations. On our last pre-cruise night in Fort Lauderdale Paul & I stayed at the Hyatt Place Fort Lauderdale North. It was an ideal location - good shopping across the road for last minute things (Publix, liquor store, Payless for the forgotten water shoes, and plenty of places to eat). But for whatever reason it was twice the price, and we found that the Renaissance was highly rated and with our AAA discount it was in the low 100s. One thing I noticed since our last time in FL was that quite a lot of the hotels are now charging for Internet, parking and shuttles. Sherri and Mike booked the Renaissance also...Macy and Butch (OH, I think I forgot to mention Butch:eek:...so sorry! I owe you an ice cream!) stayed across the 17th St Causeway Bridge on the other side of the canal.

Others from our roll call were either travelling with groups of their own, coming in the day of, already on the ship, or staying at different hotels, so again it was just us 3 amigas and our DHs.

Now, I should add something here about our DHs. I kind of started worrying as we were getting so friendly about how our DHs would react...what if they didn't get along...even what if WE didn't get along as well as we thought! (I've had the experience both ways - feeling comfortable chatting with someone on a board and in person...eh. AND vice versa). Although Paul and Mike have their own CC logins (crazycatsailor and wildcatfans) mostly they and Butch would ask us 'what are they saying on the boards?). But they were great with sharing the excitement, helping us make decisions, and 'schlepping' around with us!

YES!! I finished my cruise, I finished my report, now what do I do??

 

Read someone else'e report :D

 

Yahooooo!

Hi Sinny! I've seen your posts on the 'post a picture of your dress' boards. I 'lurk' there to get cruise clothes ideas...even though I haven't bought a new cruise dress in a while.

OK, so where am I now? Oh yeah, still planning - that took me 2 years and was so much fun. That's why I like to book a cruise as early as possible. What better way to make the enjoyment of a cruise last than have 2 years with it! For most of that time we just wish time to go fast so we can get there, but as we get really close I panic that it will be over soon. Is that crazy or what?!?:p

So we had our hotels booked. By the way, speaking of hotels, Paul and I opted for a pre-flight hotel also. We live in Dover, Delaware...minimum 1.5 hr drive to any airport; we can get to the airports at Philly, Baltimore, Reagan, Dulles and even Newark, NJ in 2.5 hrs, so we have a lot of options. Our best airfare was Jet Blue out of Reagan airport - I don't remember exactly, but round trip for the 2 of us, with extra legroom seats one way, taxes and insurance was just over $500, I thought was a great deal. Originally we started looking for less expensive offsite parking there and found a website that advertised $8/day at the Renaissance hotel in Arlington, VA. On a whim, we called there and they had a Park, Sleep & Fly package for not much more than the parking itself, and we figured since it is more than 2 hrs driving we'd start out the day well rested...I am NOT an early morning person!

Thanks for the review!

Hi Sinny! I've seen your posts on the 'post a picture of your dress' boards. I 'lurk' there to get cruise clothes ideas...even though I haven't bought a new cruise dress in a while.

OK, so where am I now? Oh yeah, still planning - that took me 2 years and was so much fun. That's why I like to book a cruise as early as possible. What better way to make the enjoyment of a cruise last than have 2 years with it!

Hi! I've seen you too before :)

I love the planning phase. Someone once asked me that wouldn't it save a ton of money if I just planned but never went anywhere.

He probably thought he was being REALLY funny :rolleyes:

Planning excursions in the ports was next.

Our cruise visited Nassau, St Maarten and St Thomas.

Nassau was a mixed bag for us - most of us have been there plenty. Mike and Sherri planned to do a Segway tour as well as some other members of the RC.

Paul and I thought to walk to Junkanoo Beach and have lunch at the Fish Fry, but that didn't happen - (the aftermath of having TOO good a time the night before!). Macy and Butch said they'd join us there...I don't know how THEY made it:p, but they got some pictures so we saw what we did..or didn't...miss.

St Maarten - Macy highly recommended Bernards Tour for our day in St Maarten and 10 of us chose to do that together. I emailed Bernard after we got that number of people together so we could all be on the same bus. Mike and Sherri chose to do a more active excursion - that crazy Mike! They did the Rhino Rider Snorkeling Adventure. When we get to our REAL reviews coming up (this is just reporting our planning phase still) we'll get Sherri to discuss their experience.

St Thomas - This was the 3rd time on St Thomas for me and Paul...one of our favorite ports. This was the first time at the Crown Bay pier and not Havensight. We had previously been to Sapphire and Coki Beaches, and each time had a view of St John and wanted to try that next. We usually prefer planning excursions on our own, but the logistics of coordinating of getting to the ferry, taking the ferry, taking a cab to get to a St John's beach (we were leaning towards Trunk Bay) and back made us nervous about timing. The 3 couples all wanted to do this excursion together and we all agreed that the ship excursion would be the way to go.

There are several excursions to St John in the catalog, and we finally figured it out - most of them head over on the same ferry and then you go on your merry way to either the shopping or walking excursion or stay on the boat for the coastal tour. All of them give you plenty of time on your own.

Hi! I've seen you too before :)

 

I love the planning phase. Someone once asked me that wouldn't it save a ton of money if I just planned but never went anywhere.

He probably thought he was being REALLY funny :rolleyes:

Oh, what I wouldn't give to make this my full time job! Paul and I always say I could make a TON of money if there were people out there willing to pay me to plan their vacations to this kind of detail. If that kind of job was out there, I'd be having to give my current boss (IT consultant) notice!:D

Being a Travel Agent isn't the answer.:mad: I'd be losing money spending this kind of time for someone else with the commissions they get.

Thanks for the review!

Hi Kirk! I think I'll do a couple more posts for now since I have to get to real life (for a while anyway)

PLANNING CELEBRATIONS AND PARTIES!

During our roll call everytime there was a birthday, anniversary, wedding, etc. we said we'd have to toast it when we were together. We figured we'd be toasted all cruise with THAT mentality!

Macy had mentioned from their previous Allure cruise that Rita's Fiesta was a fun way to start the cruise with a bang! We all agreed that the first night would be a great time to start the celebration! We had SO many people sign up for that one that we thought we'd be taking over the whole restaurant.

For anyone who doesn't know what Rita's Fiesta is -Rita's Cantina is a Mexican restaurant on the Boardwalk...it's where the Seafood Shack is on the Oasis. I always thought the Seafood Shack was kind of a dud...it never seemed to have much activity the week we were on the Oasis. Rita's Fiesta seemed to be a great way to fill the restaurant and bring some activity to the Boardwalk in the evening.

For $20 for cocktails/$10 for no alcohol - you get a family style meal that was actually quite a bit better than I expected, silly Mexican hats, 3 drinks (mostly Margaritas which are QUITE strong - although you can request other drinks or beer), or sodas for the $10. AND best of all, a fun party atmosphere!

And a warning if you should choose to participate in the dance contest - how did I miss knowing this?!?, and if the winner is a tie (and I suspect even if not) - the tie breaker is downing a shot of tequila the fastest.

More on that...and pictures (it's a good thing none of us are running for public office) later.:D

Sherri and I learned about the Prohibition Party on the same day, and the texts between me, her and Mike (Paul was driving or he would have been in on it!) were fast and furious! We decided this was a MUST DO...having read from even jaded cruisers that this was the highlight of their cruise. There were a lot of 'off CC' posts between us as we planned our costumes!

Again, for those who haven't heard (especially since this is exclusive to the Allure)...the Prohibition Party, in keeping with the theme from Chicago which is the play performed on board, the Jazz Club is turned into a Roaring 20's Speakeasy on only one night of the cruise. It sounded like a fun party to us...ESPECIALLY if you were to dress up and get into character. For $35, it is a 2 hr event that includes drinks (many gin-based for the time), hors d'oeuvres, and entertainment.

Our worry had been that it is SO exclusive - it started out being 50 people only but I think that has been increased to 100 - but on a ship of close to 6,000 passengers we thought it would be impossible to get tickets. We watched the Royal Caribbean website like a hawk for when the shows, dining and entertainment opened up. I have to admit I was selfish, and waited until all 6 of us were booked before telling everyone else about it.:o

As the entertainment opened up we did book the shows, but none of us (especially me and Macy since we'd pretty much seen the similar shows on the Oasis and she had been on the Allure) went too crazy over them. For me and Paul, we knew you could get totally stressed out trying to do everything on these megaships, so we agreed to be more selective about what we really wanted to get to.

One thing I noticed as a second timer to an Oasis class ship. Some of the 'firsts' that we were so amazed by on our first time on the Oasis didn't entice us a second time - specificially I'm thinking the zipline, the carousel, the Rising Tide bar. Maybe it is just us - we both started the cruise pretty wiped out from work and real life, and were wanting to have time to relax; or maybe it was because socially we had so much more planned on this trip than ever before.

We didn't make it to as many specialty restaurants as we planned on. I'm one that doesn't mind spending a little extra on a specialty restaurant on a cruise if it provides a different kind of experience, and especially since we LOVE food (obviously from all my posts lamenting my weight! :eek:) and our little burg doesn't have much in the way of restaurants beyond the chains.

We really enjoy the flexibility of My Time Dining. To me there is nothing more annoying while on vacation than having to cut short time relaxing or doing something fun to go get ready for dinner, or missing something that is happening during our dining time. And we don't like leaving an empty space at the table with traditional dining if we choose to go to a specialty restaurant or if we're tired and just want room service or the Windjammer, especially if it's spur of the moment so we couldn't give our table and wait staff notice. Even with MTD, if we happen to find a wait staff that we really enjoy, we can make that request. That was our experience on the Freedom last year - we had Vincent and Devendra (no I DON'T have a great memory, I was going through a pile of papers yesterday and found a paper they gave us when we asked their names...we gave them WOW cards...excellent!)

Somewhere along the line we had heard that some of the Specialty Restaurants were being offered at 1/2 price for the first and second night to MTD cruisers. Obviously, we had Rita's Fiesta scheduled the first night and the 2nd night was formal night, but we decided that since we really wanted to try Samba's Grill, we could still dress up (we - or at least I like to dress up, and Paul is kind enough to dress like a penquin for me).

But no 1/2 price - that promotion was done away with when they moved to the Dining Packages instead. There are 3 packages - Central Park, Chef's and Choice Dining Packages. You book one of a list of restaurants according to the package (i.e Giovanni's, Chops, Sambas, 150 CP, Chef's Table, Izuma) ahead of time for the first night and once on board book another 2. Besides that we had Rita's already planned for the first night, we thought if we really had our hearts set on something and then couldn't get it at a convenient time it wasn't worth the savings.

So we did Sambas the 2nd night for full price. At that point we still wanted to go to Giovanni's and Vintages later in the week (we totally enjoyed making a meal of tapas one night on the Oasis), but one time we'll have to do a B2B to fit it all in!

I'm going to have to take a break now or the kitty will have no fresh litter and we'll have no creamer for the coffee, etc.

I've yakked quite a lot here - although I kind of have a sequence in mind, which is a synopsis of our planning phases and then more detail as we began the trip, input from my co-horts, etc....feel free to pipe in with questions or comments.

Hey, this is the second of the three amigas...

We met Judi and Paul on the CC boards and in real life on the Freedom in the fall of 2011. We just kinda "clicked". Like Judi said, clicking on line, is much different from 'clicking' in person. We, too, were worried that two or three of us might click, but the 4th might not. We were so glad it all wen't well and we really enjoyed spending time together...or not. That was our rule...if one or the other of us couples wanted to be 'alone' then, we'd graciously acquiesce. No harm...no foul. [THIS is KEY to these kinds of friendships working..just sayin':rolleyes:]

The minute we disembarked from the Freedom,Judi and Paul went to work on 'selling' us on the Allure cruise. [not really...I just like to make them feel like they did :p lol] When the DH finally 'surprised' me for Christmas, I immediately went into full on planning mode with Judi on CC boards.

A word or two about the CC boards...they are what you make of them. I "met" some great people on the boards of course, Amiga number three...Marcy and her DH Butch. Ray and Betty, Tarius, Happytraveller from Scotland, Jeff and Sheila from San Diego [can't remember your CC name, I'd have to refer back to our roll call] Benyae and her aunt, and several more. When we met in person, we also clicked, but on different levels.

Back to the cruise at hand... the three amiga's planned a pre-cruise meet and greet of our own. We met the day before the cruise to watch the Oasis sail away from the 17th Street bridge, then went to dinner together. The plans for the water taxi didn't work out, unfortunately. We were really looking forward to that.

We met again after muster drill for sail away on our secret deck...aft.

Then went directly to Ritas for our cruise kick off fiesta!! What a Party!!

We LOVED the Rita's Fiesta...don't know why people [a term I will loosely use for "food snobs" on CC] compare it to Taco Bell, as it was much better than that! LOVE ME some shrimp wrap thingy's...whatever they were called!! I could have eaten them every night!! As you can see, we had a fabulous time, from what I can remember of it!!! [just kidding]

Like Judi said, we planned our excursions both together and separately. The DH likes to be 'active' and wanted to to the Rhino boats and we'd already decided on that and booked it before the rest of the group chose the tour. We all seemed to want to do the St John's tour and the DH's love of boats lead us to take the scenic boat tour version rather than the walk and shop tours. The six of us had a great time on the way over and back.

My favorite things from the cruise were the new friends...and old.

The absolute best thing we did was the Prohibition party.

We all dressed up and played our parts...[imagine best 1920's New Yourker flapper babe accent] We became "Bubbles and Big Daddy" for the evening. It was so much more fun than if we'd just worn our everyday clothes etc. The looks we got from the other 5996 passengers was priceless as they didn't even know about the event as it's a big "Shhhhhhh!" secret.

Hey, this is the second of the three amigas...

Well, fancy meeting you over here Sherri :D. Now where's that Marcy chick...ha ha, I know...it MUST be your spell check!

We met Judi and Paul on the CC boards and in real life on the Freedom in the fall of 2011. We just kinda "clicked". Like Judi said, clicking on line, is much different from 'clicking' in person. We, too, were worried that two or three of us might click, but the 4th might not. We were so glad it all wen't well and we really enjoyed spending time together...or not. That was our rule...if one or the other of us couples wanted to be 'alone' then, we'd graciously acquiesce. No harm...no foul. [THIS is KEY to these kinds of friendships working..just sayin':rolleyes:]

 

A word or two about the CC boards...they are what you make of them. I "met" some great people on the boards of course, Amiga number three...Marcy and her DH Butch. Ray and Betty, Tarius, Happytraveller from Scotland, Jeff and Sheila from San Diego [can't remember your CC name, I'd have to refer back to our roll call] Benyae and her aunt, and several more. When we met in person, we also clicked, but on different levels.

Hopefully some of you from our Roll Call will come over here to say hello! See, it's the same as our Roll Call - me and Sherri hogging it all! But really, although the 3 of us clicked the most, we had so much fun with other people. Ray and Betty (Raybettn) led the way for us by already being on the ship on a B2B. It was great that we always ran into Sheila & Jeff (oreok) even when we didn't plan on it. Silly Sherri - that was Bennaye's SISTER Susan (even at 10 yrs my junior your memory is as bad as mine). I got SUCH a kick over Stuart's (SunnyElgin) excitement over going on the cruise and being there for his dad's wedding to Happeetraveller. It was so nice to see them around the ship in their kilts and I'm so sad I didn't see Hazel in her wedding dress.

DivaAAC wanted to surprise her DH with their 10 yr anniversary vow renewal, and Paul (an ordained minister among all his other skills!) volunteered to 'officiate'. It was a special moment for us to be there.

It's so strange too chatting with people and not necessarily having a face to go with them, so you don't know whether you actually were interacting with them or not! On the boards Gina(ginamarie935) was very friendly, and we knew she'd be travelling with 2 other couples so we might not see them much...we never even realized till later in the week that Sherri and I were dancing with her friends at Rita's!

Back to the cruise at hand... the three amiga's planned a pre-cruise meet and greet of our own. We met the day before the cruise to watch the Oasis sail away from the 17th Street bridge, then went to dinner together. The plans for the water taxi didn't work out, unfortunately. We were really looking forward to that.

As I mentioned before, we had been working on figuring out the best way to get to where we could watch the Oasis (and whatever other ships sailed on Saturday). On the map, it looked like about a 1.5 mile walk, do-able if we took it easy, and I figured we could walk up the beach to the nearest hotel from there to catch a cab back. We also found out that there's a trolley we could have grabbed a block from the hotel to get us partway there. To put a crimp in the plans for us- but a good thing for Macy...she and Butch had met a childhood friend they hadn't seen in 32 years for a late lunch and afternoon of catching up, so our plans to find them were pushed back. So the 4 of us started the walk, figuring we'd catch the trolley if it was there. We walked by the stop, didn't see one in the distance, so started crossing the 17th St bridge. Almost halfway up we realized that it was a delusion that we were in decent shape as we huffed and puffed up a very steep incline! At that point a trolley passed us by, but we were behind the barrier separating the walking path from the traffic, and there was no stopping on the bridge unless the gate was lifted for tall ships to pass under. We found an observation area on the bridge where we had a great view of the Oasis' aft, and that was good enough for us!

We texted Macy and Butch to let them know where we were, and kept hoping they would show up to watch sailaway with us - we had been talking about this for months...even if it wasn't the exact location we had planned on. Around 4pm she texted asking if we were still on the bridge and next thing we knew...reunion! (can it be called a reunion if you've never met?!?)

We watched a Princess ship sail first and then the Oasis.

The water taxis were running, but because of high winds they were running late and having trouble docking. After waiting for way too long we finally gave up and headed to the Bimini Boatyard for dinner.

We met again after muster drill for sail away on our secret deck...aft.

Paul and I had such amazing memories of the Oasis sailaway with the 'secret' deck 14 forward being the perfect spot that we suggested that for our sailing. Unfortunately, we never made an alternative plan - because the door was locked because of high winds. During the day we had scouted out the aft deck 14 so headed there hoping that others might think the same way. It was a real disappointment because we thought that would be a place we could meet others from our roll call, but I'm thinking Jeff & Sheila showed up and maybe a few others...it was a blur to me by then (oh yeah, I didn't wait till sailaway for my first drink as usual, raced from Muster Drill on Deck 7 Boardwalk aft (held under the overhangs because of rain) to the front of the ship on deck 14 and then the aft deck 14 - a workout if you know the size of the Allure!)

Obviously Butch had done this before and could just relax...

Before we knew it we were late for getting to Rita's!

My favorite things from the cruise were the new friends...and old.

 

The absolute best thing we did was the Prohibition party.

 

We all dressed up and played our parts...[imagine best 1920's New Yourker flapper babe accent] We became "Bubbles and Big Daddy" for the evening. It was so much more fun than if we'd just worn our everyday clothes etc. The looks we got from the other 5996 passengers was priceless as they didn't even know about the event as it's a big "Shhhhhhh!" secret.

 

OMG, you all look FABULOUS!!! I can't wait to get on the Allure!! Probably in 2014 as we have 2 other cruises booked for next year - but I love reading the reviews! Great job!!

Then went directly to Ritas for our cruise kick off fiesta!! What a Party!!

We LOVED the Rita's Fiesta...don't know why people [a term I will loosely use for "food snobs" on CC] compare it to Taco Bell, as it was much better than that! LOVE ME some shrimp wrap thingy's...whatever they were called!! I could have eaten them every night!! As you can see, we had a fabulous time, from what I can remember of it!!! [just kidding]

 

We had stopped by Rita's during the afternoon to make sure we could get a large table together, which we knew was tricky since we already had a list of more than 24 people from the RC booked that night. We were told to just get there a bit early. That didn't work out so great with sailaway being a little late, and I had to run back to the cabin for a pit stop first.

By the time Paul and I arrived Mike, Sherri, Ray, Betty, Bennaye, Susan, and another couple we had never met before

were seated at a large table. I felt bad for them, it was potentially awkward sitting with people who have been chatting (even if online) for the past year or more. I still missed how they ended up sitting at our table - they weren't on our Roll Call....much less they never even heard of Cruise Critic! I don't remember their name, but they took it in stride and seemed to have had a great time too.

Finally, Macy and Butch arrived fashionably late...time to get the party started!!!

I think this is the photo I was taking from the camera in my hand in the above photo:

Yes, what WERE those shrimp wrap thingy's..because we all could have made a meal of that. With all the negative reviews we'd read, we were pleasantly surprised. The chips and salsa were very good, and by the time dessert came around I was too full to partake. MAYBE that's because the drinks were as good and strong as past reviews have said???

Now, ladies...you know how they say 'what happens on the ship stays on the ship'. I guess we need to agree how much to tell about what happened at Rita's! :D:D:D

My favorite things from the cruise were the new friends...and old.

 

The absolute best thing we did was the Prohibition party.

 

We all dressed up and played our parts...[imagine best 1920's New Yourker flapper babe accent] We became "Bubbles and Big Daddy" for the evening. It was so much more fun than if we'd just worn our everyday clothes etc. The looks we got from the other 5996 passengers was priceless as they didn't even know about the event as it's a big "Shhhhhhh!" secret.

 

Who posed you for the picture by the car? It's well composed! You all look fantastic! I am greatly looking forward to this event!

My favorite things from the cruise were the new friends...and old.

 

The absolute best thing we did was the Prohibition party.

 

We all dressed up and played our parts...[imagine best 1920's New Yourker flapper babe accent] We became "Bubbles and Big Daddy" for the evening. It was so much more fun than if we'd just worn our everyday clothes etc. The looks we got from the other 5996 passengers was priceless as they didn't even know about the event as it's a big "Shhhhhhh!" secret.

 

Besides Rita's, this was probably my favorite moment of the cruise.

The only negatives I'll say here about it is:

1. It coincides with The Quest, and that was a great disappointment for us to miss, even if they're starting to get a bit 'tired' and redundant after seeing so many of then.

2. It's a bit late in the evening (starts at 10:30pm till 12:30am - $35 was a bit high for 2 hrs. I would have liked 10pm-12:30am for that cost.

We were SO glad we dressed up - Sherri's right, I can't imagine it being as much fun not dressing up. We had so much fun for months planning our costumes. It's pretty funny... people asked what was the highlight of your cruise? A 20's Speakeasy costume party and a Mexican fiesta!

I repurposed my first Cruise cocktail dress and did some altering and adding on after Sherri bought the dress I almost bought. Macy SAID she didn't plan anything until the last minute, but looked mahvelous! And SO amazing was how coordinated our men were - that wasn't planned! Bubbles and Big Daddy were amazing at getting into the part - as was the blonde 'doll' and the guy with the cigar:D

It was so much fun walking around the ship in our costumes. That photo is one of my favorites of all time. One of the professional ship photographers posed us and shot that. We took quite a lot of photos, but I thought this one was the best composed and without too many 'normal' people in the background. We left behind a LOT of boa feathers in our wake. SUCH great memories!!! We're the Cat's Pajamas...and the Bee's Knees!!!

I was just thinking back to embarkation. As most Allure reviews state, generally the embarkation process is a breeze.

I had gone onto CafePress to customize a shirt for myself. While I was there, I decided to open a 'store' so anyone from our roll call could order shirts - I did lots of variations and designs (all using that great Allure photo from Carrie I posted earlier). I didn't mark up any prices, but nobody bought anything anyway!:eek: It was a great learning experience though, and I'm working on doing an 'addictedtocruising' store there and keeping it simpler.

I wore my shirt on embarkation day figuring that way people could find me. I did a double-take when as we got out of the taxi at the pier someone approached me and asked if I was delacruz. I totally forgot I had the shirt on (I get very discombobulated at the point of checking in and out - I usually let Paul handle that...I just do the pre-planning!) It was OmishJoe, who hadn't been very active on the Roll Call, but kept up on it and must have seen my post with the design!

We got separated from Mike & Sherri when they went to the left for check-in for deck 10 check-in and we went to the right for deck 8. After check-in we were seated in the Platinum C&A section - they were in the Gold, and Macy & Butch were somewhere in Emerald. We joked that we'd rather be 'slumming it' and hanging out with them, so we tried to move to the Gold section when we found them, but were stopped - we were told THEY could move to where we were but we couldn't stay THERE. Weird.

As we headed back to our seats with them we found Macy and Butch, so now we all got to move up to Emerald.

So, just a heads up to anyone travelling in 'mixed' C&A company.