Many of you also know that Heather and I got married on 8/8/2008. Since then, we've hoped to be able to go on some sort of major vacation for our 8th wedding anniversary. A couple weeks ago, we were fortunate to be able to make good on that dream as we set sail on a 7-night cruise of the Eastern Caribbean on a fantastic ship called Allure of the Seas. This was both of our first time on a cruise of any kind, and we were so excited to experience a type of vacationing that we'd heard so many of our friends speak highly of! Normally our posts can get a little long just covering a single day's adventure. Having to cover an entire week's worth of adventures is going to take a couple posts, so consider this part one!
Here are a few facts about the ship just so you can appreciate the size of the vessel. The Allure of the Seas is currently the 2nd largest cruise ship in the world, bested only by its sister ship Harmony of the Seas, which is only one foot longer at 1,187 feet long and nearly 200 feet wide. The Allure of the Seas contains 25 dining options, an ice skating rink, an indoor theater that seats almost 1,400, and an outdoor theater on the back of the ship that seats over 600. It's a BIG boat!
We boarded the ship on a Sunday at lunch time, and explored around for a few hours before it left Port Everglades at 4:30 in the afternoon. We found a great vantage point on the 14th deck to take in the scenery as made our way out to sea off the Florida coast just north of Miami.
Before we left, we got to watch the Carnival Conquest head out to sea! Despite some concern beforehand, the weather could not have been better!
Our view as we headed out to sea
Our cruise was off to a fantastic start! The ship and scenery were absolutely fantastic! But after only an hour at sea, the Captain came on the intercom and announced that there was a medical emergency on board and we were turning around to go back to Florida to drop them off. It seemed like quite a massive ordeal to bring the entire ship back to port rather than send a helicopter or another ship out to ours to pick up the ill passenger, but that's just what we did! We ended up leaving Port the 2nd time about 4 hours behind schedule, and we wondered whether we'd be able to make up the lost time and still make it to our first island destination on Wednesday morning.
In the meantime, we had two full days at sea to explore the ship and all it had to offer. We had an ocean-view balcony stateroom on the 7th deck. What you've probably heard about cruise ship staterooms is true. They're small! That said, our room was laid out in a way that worked well for two people, with plenty of closet and other storage space, including enough room underneath the king-sized bed for our suitcases. By far the best part of our room was the balcony. About 6x8 feet with two chairs and a little table, it was a perfect place to sit, watch and listen to the ocean, and enjoy room service breakfast in the morning or look at the stars at night.
Here are a few pictures from around the ship:
This is called the Royal Promenade. It's on the Deck 5 and has everything from a Starbucks, to a New York-style pizzeria (free), to fancy shopping (a la Kate Spade), to a bar that hosts nightly activities like trivia and karaoke. The grennery you see at the top of this picture is a glimpse of Central Park on Deck 8. Yes, this boat, having a largely open center, has a full blown park and garden!
And this is Central Park! This is where you find some of the fancier places on the ship like a Coach handbag store, a wine bar, Park Cafe, and three of the nicer restaurants (Giovani's, Central Park 150, and Chops Grille). We also found musical entertainment most evenings here, ranging from a 6-piece classical and jazz group to solo classical guitar. Generally it's really peaceful here, and they pipe in bird sounds which add to the authentic feeling of the space.
The view from our balcony! The Bahamas are barely visible on the horizon.
A couple of goofballs hitting the links!
The two full days at sea were so much fun! Having a seemingly endless supply of activities to offer, and a tremendous display of locations in which to host them, we never had even a moment of boredom!
About a third of the way forward from the rear of the ship on Deck 15, we had a great view of the Boardwalk on Deck 6 down below. It has a carousel, hot dog vendor, candy shop, 50's burger joint, mexican food restaurant, and that gorgeous open-air theater in the center of this picture. As you can see, this ship has balcony staterooms that face inward to the Boardwalk and Central Park, and outward to the ocean!
We spent the first couple late nights in the jazz club on Deck 4. We loved the styling in there with the fancy black leather chairs and great mood lighting in the tray ceilings!
Cheesy in name but beautiful to see, Dazzles on Decks 8 and 9 was a nightly hotspot for everything from a DJ club vibe all the way to big band jazz (why we were there) :) The view through the two-story windows looks out over the Boardwalk and the rear of the ship.
The list of things we did on the first 2 1/2 days on the cruise are simply far too long to list in the blog, but they include attending the first of several fine art auctions, drinking $1 mimosas (several), entering in a ping pong tournament, eating self-serve ice cream by the pool, watching a dodgeball tournament at the basketball court, formal night in the dining room, a show at the Aqua Theater, a fancy and incredibly delicious dinner at Central Park 150, and more! And so far we're only as far as Tuesday night on a Sunday-to-Sunday cruise! In the next post, we'll share our experiences at the three island stops on our cruise (St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee (private area on the island of Haiti). We'll also share more of our overall thoughts on cruises, a few tips and tricks that we've learned, and what we think about going on another one! You won't want to miss that!
It's wonderful to be back writing on this blog and we hope it finds you all well. Until next time!
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