Fort Lauderdale Pre and Post Cruise w/Photos: Gallery One/Restaurants/Las Olas

Good Morning All! I wanted to share my experiences in Fort Lauderdale pre-and-post-cruise, in the hopes that the info is helpful to someone. These boards were a source of so much great information as we prepared for our cruise, I just wanted to return the favor.

We sailed March 8th, so we arrived on Wednesday the 7th around 12:30 PM. I've taken excerpts from my RCI Liberty cruise and will post them below, with a couple more details. I figure that many people may not stop by the Royal Caribbean board and it might be helpful to have that information here in this forum.

We stayed at the Gallery One hotel, ate at Coconuts, Truluck's, and Mango's on Las Olas. We also went dancing at the Blue Martini, and rented a car from the airport after the cruise. Feel free to ask any questions you may have! :)

My friend Rae and I flew Jetblue from Newark to Fort Lauderdale. We met our friend Crystal a little later. Here goes:

Upon landing, Rae and I took a taxi to the Gallery One Doubletree Hotel by Hilton. The taxi cost $22 plus tip, and the ride took about 20 minutes or so down Route 1. Crystal rented a car at the airport when she landed a few hours before us (she flew from Texas), and was having a blast visiting a museum in the area so we agreed to meet her there.

There were a couple factors for me choosing this hotel. First, we wanted to have dinner at a restaurant and go dancing afterward, and the Gallery One was a block away from where we wanted to go. It was only for one night, so being right on the beach wasn’t necessary. Plus, we could get a suite with two queen beds and one pullout couch, so we didn’t have to share beds. And finally, the price was better than what I could find by bidding on Priceline at the time (spring break season), so I could save money as well as earn some Hilton Hhonors points. The price of the room dropped twice before the trip, so I was a very happy camper.

It was pretty cool and drizzling when we arrived. I was actually glad we didn’t have a beachfront hotel since we wouldn’t have been able to enjoy any time on the beach anyway. Here are a couple pics of the hotel lobby. Lots of natural light, a bright, airy space.

Checkin was great! Jonathan, the front desk clerk, saw that I noted in our reservation that we were all celebrating our birthdays together. He said, “I have some bad news- your room’s not ready yet. But it’s your lucky day since you’re celebrating your birthday- we’re going to upgrade you to a two-bedroom suite with two bathrooms for free, so you can have a nice start to your vacation.” Yay! I was so excited, since I had seen that room configuration but decided it was more than what I wanted to pay.

One thing I love about the Doubletree- they give you fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies when you check in. And I don’t mean a thin little cookie with hardly any chips…you get a nice, substantial cookie loaded with melted chocolate chips. So good! Rae and I each had one, and when Crystal arrived a few minutes later they gave us a couple more :cool:

I put cash down for our incidentals (sort of a way for me to hold my excursion money securely), and we made a mad dash for our room. We were on the 10th floor, and our room had a nice view of the Intracoastal Waterway.

*Note that generally, the Gallery One requests $500 in cash if you put that down for incidentals instead of using a credit card. Also, valet parking was $25 for the night.

Rae and Crystal’s Room had the balcony:

My room had a King bed.

Both rooms had marble baths. Rae got very excited when she saw how nice the bathroom and overall room was. She was doing a little dance in the bathroom, LOL:

 

 



 

 



 

Some more pics of the room and the view. When I made the room reservation, I requested that we have all kitchen cookware and utensils available upon our arrival. There's an option for you to make those requests in your confirmation email. We had plates, silverware, and water and wine glasses, plus dishwasher detergent available in the kitchenette:

We were pretty hungry, so we decided to take a drive around time and find a place for lunch. It was a pretty cool and breezy day. We drove along the Beach Blvd for a while. B Ocean hotel is right on the corner, down the street (and across the bridge) from the Gallery One. I can see why some people are concerned about how isolated the B Ocean is. It's a nice, maybe 15-minute walk down the Blvd to the other hotels that are lined up next to one another (Hilton Beach Resort, Atlantic Resort, etc). It looks a little lonely by itself. Looking at the third photo, we had just passed the B Ocean, and you can see where the other hotels start in the distance. If you don't mind the walk, it looks like a lovely place to stay.

I heard about Coconuts from Tripadvisor.com and here on the Florida Departures board, so we decided to find it with our GPS. What a great restaurant! They had free valet parking.

 

 

 

Coconuts was right on a marina, so we had a nice view. Just a wonderful, laid-back atmosphere. It was pretty busy when we arrived. I think it was about 1 PM.

We settled in and looked at the menu. We had a hard time choosing what to order! Everything sounded great.

 



 

The waiter came by and let us know about the specials of the day. One thing stuck out for Rae; they had a bratwurst burger with caramelized onions. She grew up in Germany and always talks about how she missed having a good brat, so this was right up her alley. I settled on a Crab Cake BLT, which was another special of the day. Crystal tried their popular fish tacos. We all decided to order a sandwich/entrée, and split each one into threes so we could try everything.

Crystal tried the Maine Root blueberry soda. She wasn’t sure at first….

…but then decided it was really good. She loved it and quickly poured the rest into her glass!

We started with the conch fritters. Never had them before, but I will be ordering them in the future. Very good with a great texture, the taste is hard to describe but delicious. The sauce that went with them was rich and sweet, so good.

 

 

 

Crab Cake BLT. Who knew those flavors would go together so well? This was Crystal's favorite:

 

And I forgot to note- my name is Chrystal, and my friends Rae and Crystal (no 'h' in her name) sailed with me. Didn't want anyone to get confused :o:)

A couple more shots around the restaurant. We spent a good 90 minutes here. We hadn't seen Crystal in such a long time so it was nice to catch up. The lunch crowd dissipated and we had a nice quiet deck pretty much to ourselves. I was still getting the hang of my camera at this point, the pics got better as I went along ;)

 

 

 

Thank you this is so much fun. We leave for Fort Lauderdale in 10 days! Cannot wait!

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing. We are leaving for Ft. Lauderdale on the 15th - maybe give the same restaurant a try.

:)

Thank you this is so much fun. We leave for Fort Lauderdale in 10 days! Cannot wait!

My pleasure! You're so lucky, enjoy your cruise! :D

We drove around a bit after lunch with no place in particular in mind. It was pretty cool to see the town I had been reading out for months in preparation for the trip! We ended up stopping at a beauty supply store (couldn’t believe the prices for haircare- so sad I couldn’t fit anything in my suitcase!). Crystal got some headbands, and I bought a couple pairs of sunglasses. Mine broke the day before the trip so it was nice to get a couple cute pairs.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at the Publix supermarket across the street from the hotel. It was about two blocks down. A nice market, we picked up some cheese and water crackers, some pepperoni, fruit, and a bottle of wine. Because of the heavy lunch, we planned to eat light at dinner and come back after dancing to enjoy our food. We put everything in the fridge to keep cool.

We tried to take a nap back in the room but were so excited to show each other our dresses, shoes, etc, and talk that that didn’t work at all, lol. We originally had a dinner reservation at Truluck’s for 8:00, but I ended up pushing it back to 9:15 because of our chattering away and primping for dinner. :rolleyes::)

It was a rainy and cool night, and while Truluck’s was literally the next block over (as was the Galleria Mall), we decided to drive. Plus, it was a trek in our heels. We had to circle around and take two U-turns to get into the parking area because we missed the entrance. No biggie, we laughed the entire time. We gave our car to the valet, and he parked it a few yards away in front of the Blue Martini, where we planned to end the night.

Truluck’s restaurant was lovely, and the perfect way to start our birthday celebration. I made a note in our ressie that we were celebrating our birthdays (seeing a pattern here? :cool:), and we were pampered from start to finish.

The restaurant’s décor was rich, with deep reds and mahogany furniture. This would be a very romantic place for a date night. I fully intend to return here with my husband Wes when we sail the Allure.

Our waiter was awesome, and helped us make our selections. Rae and Crystal ordered the crab cake entrée. Since I heard so much about the New Orleans BBQ Shrimp, I just had to make a meal out of that. I ordered a wedge salad to go with it.

We were served a warm raisin bread while we waited for dinner. It wasn't too sweet and didn't have any cinnamon. Some of the best bread I've had.

Everything was DELICIOUS! The crab cake was about 95% crab, no filler. Fresh and wonderful. Rae had the mashed potatoes and marinated mushrooms with hers. Crystal enjoyed the mashed potatoes and steamed broccolini.

My BBQ shrimp was amazing. It didn’t have a traditional barbecue flavor. They make a compound butter with Creole spices, a little beer, and sautee the shrimp in the butter and spices. Divine.

Wedge salad. Out of focus, but it was very good:

Crystal said the mashed potatoes were the best she ever had. She told the waiter how much she loved them, and he brought her out a box of them to take back with her. I thought that was so sweet of them. So glad we had a microwave in the room so she could actually enjoy them! She was so happy when he brought them out:

At the end of our meal, the waiter came by to wish us a Happy Birthday. He brought us each our own chocolate melting cake with a scoop of ice cream and a candle.

I appreciated the fact that they didn’t sing Happy Birthday, just kept everything low-key, simple, and elegant. We took a picture with our cakes:

...and this was the result about 5 minutes later...what a delicious dessert!

Now after all that rich food, it was time to burn it off by hitting the dance floor at the Blue Martini next door- and that, we did! My view of Truluck’s. You can see the Gallery One hotel down the street, it’s the building with the red square.

We were let right into the club (no cover charge for us, not sure if that's the norm) and were blown away at how lively it was. There was a live band finishing up their set. We caught the last 20 minutes of their act, and they were awesome. Young and energetic with great singing. Everyone was dancing already, and it was PACKED.

It was ladies’ night, so they offered free three olives martini’s to all the ladies. I had a pomegranate martini, and I think Rae had an Amaretto Sour. Crystal had a couple shots. The bartender subtracted the cost of the three olives martini from our orders, so we each paid about $3 or so for our drinks :D

After the band finished their set, the DJ got started. I think we danced until about 2 AM. They played R&B, Hip-Hop, Latin, Reggaeton, 90’s, and even threw in a couple Bon Jovi songs (LOVE!). There were all kinds of people there, all ages (well, over 21), all backgrounds. We had a blast.

Crystal tends to be the life of the party wherever she goes, lol:

Great pictures. Thanks for sharing. We are leaving for Ft. Lauderdale on the 15th - maybe give the same restaurant a try.

:)

Hi Daisyloo! I'm glad you like the photos. We loved every restaurant we tried, I don't think you can go wrong at any of them. Enjoy your time in Ft. Lauderdale, and have a great cruise! :)

Great review so far! Looks like you all had a great time. I love that area of FLL. Bob:)

Great review so far! Looks like you all had a great time. I love that area of FLL. Bob:)

Thank you Bob! We had a fantastic time, can't wait to go back this fall :)

Hi, and thanks for the great review with photos! We will be staying at The Westin Beach and Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Can you tell me how far it is from where you were, and is it within walking distance to restaurants?

Thanks!

Great review Chrystal. So glad I found it. My wife and I are staying at Gallery One in a couple weeks for a long weekend. We were planning to take in Blue Martini for a little dancing but wasn't sure if it would be too young of a crowd for two 40 somethings. Your pictures and review came at a great time. Looking forward to the rest.

Be sure to post a review of Allure as well. We are sailing her in February.

Chrystal,

Many thanks for yet another enlightening and informative photo review. We'll be staying at the Gallery One in the very near future for 2 nights pre cruise and had already been planning to dine at Coconuts and Mango's. Pleased to hear that you really enjoyed them.

And by the way, we'll be visiting Aruba on our cruise and will be taking an island tour there with Ivan. Part of the reason I made the decision to book with him was reading the excellent photo review you did of your cruise on the Serenade from this past October.

Jack