Hello from the sea!

As I type this to you, I am sitting on a pulled-out sofa bed in our stateroom, listening to the sea rush by below us. In case you missed it, we are aboard Royal Caribbean International’s flagship Allure of the Seas, currently at sea between Florida and Haiti., courtesy of our friends at Fisher-Price. I still cannot believe we are here!

Oops, there was supposed to be a prologue to this post that talked about our day of flying from Ottawa to New York to Florida, but by the end of the day that started at 4 am, I didn’t have the energy or wherewithal to recharge my phone let alone write a coherent blog post. A few highlights of the day included almost not being able to land in LaGuardia due to fog (we were able at the last minute), the kindest group of New Yorkers you ever could meet, who moved themselves all over the plan so the kids could sit with us, one very sick boy (better now), one relatively sick mom with an extended coughing fit on the plane (yes, I was totally that woman) and me thinking around 5 pm that maybe I didn’t want to go on a cruise after all. It was a Very Long Day.

All of that evaporated the moment we stepped on to the Allure of the Seas just before lunch today. After a day of airport mayhem, I was expecting the worst when we arrived at the port, but we breezed through the various security checkpoints and were walking up the gang plank on to the world’s largest cruise ship within half an hour of arriving at the port.

And oh my good god, what a ship! Did I mention world’s largest? Wowza! She’s a third of a kilometer (362 meters) long and has 16 passenger decks. She can house more than 6,000 guests. She is awesome, in every sense of the word.

Allure day 1-2

I had done all sorts of obsessive reading and research before the trip and all that went flying out the window as soon as we walked up the gangplank. Where would we go? What would we do? Somehow we found ourselves on deck 14, where we found ourselves pretty much alone in the Wipeout Café, where we found guacamole and salsa and pretzel dogs and hamburgers for lunch. (There are tonnes of complimentary food selections, and some upscale restaurants where you can eat for an additional charge.)

Within the first couple of hours on board, we had lunched, admired the Flow Rider surf simulator, played mini-golf, had not one but TWO servings of ice cream (did I mention complimentary?), ridden the carousel (!) twice, toured the Boardwalk and Central Park (the ship? Has a park – an entire football-field length of green space!), had lemonade and snacks and coffee at the world’s only Starbucks at sea, and watched my 10 year old baby zip his way across the ship on five stories above the Boardwalk on the ship’s zip line. More about that tomorrow!

Allure day 1-4

Did I mention the complimentary ice cream? Twice in four hours? Oh yes!

Allure day 1-3

And two rounds on the carousel, too! 🙂

Allure day 1

Oh yes, and all that? Was before the ship even set sail!!! Here’s the boys on our stateroom’s balcony, watching Florida slide away as we sail out to sea.

Allure day 1-5

Pretty good first day, eh? I can’t wait to see what tomorrow, our first full day at sea, will bring!

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

2 thoughts on “Hello from the sea!”

  1. Looks fabulous! One thing I’ve always been curious about is sea-sickness on a cruise. (I get motion sickness and I’ve never been on a cruise.) Let me know how this goes for you and your family …. have fun! 🙂 Julie

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