Allure of the Seas Pictures

I have posted photos of the ship on the Sunkissed Adventures Facebook page.  If you are interested in general photos please visit the link:  Allure of the Seas.

Personal photos of our crazy antics are coming soon ;)

An Alluring Christmas

Last year, I escorted a group of 11 people on a Christmas Cruise aboard the Majesty of the Seas.  We had a great time.  It was nice to get away for the holidays.  It was also a good test for this year.  My husband, my mother, and her boyfriend had already booked the Allure of the Seas for 2011.

At this moment I am still drained mentally and physically from the trip.  We really did it up.  Full excursions in two ports and making sure to hit nearly everything on the ship.  So my review may take some time to finalize. 

Here is a sampling of where we went. 

How Do You Do It?

Many people that know me are well aware that I have been on nearly 10 cruises in the last two years.  Some people think I am crazy, others think I am lucky.  Every single one of them has asked me how in the world I do it!

So I thought I would dedicate this blog entry to my secret.  Which really is no secret at all!  I will go through each of the last cruises I have been on describing how I was able to get the awesome prices that I did.

Jewel of the Seas- 11-night Ultimate Caribbean & Panama Cruise (Our Honeymoon) November 2009.

This was was booked in April of 2009.  So approximately 7 months in advance.  We paid around $81 per day for this one because we booked it in advance.  The prices went up as we approached the sail date.

Carnival Imagination 3-day Bahamas- January 2010

Booked in July of 2009 with an Early Saver Rate.  About $60 per day.  Not sure of the price fluctuations on this one, but an awesome price!

Oasis of the Seas- 7-day Western Caribbean.  May/June 2010.

Booked on a special rate not available for the public so this one doesn't count.  BUT had I sailed as a regular client I would have paid about $140 per day had I booked.  Which is an amazing deal for a 6 month-new ship that regularly runs close to the $170 range.

Grandeur of the Seas- 4-day Western Caribbean- June 2010

Booked in January 2010. Six months in advance.  Paid $90 per day for a June/summer cruise.  Fabulous deal.


Liberty of the Seas 7-days Eastern Caribbean- November 2010

Booked in January 2010.  11 months in advance.  Paid $64 per day!!


Majesty of the Seas.  3-day Bahamas Christmas Cruise.  December 2010.

Booked in July 2010.  Booked 5 months in advance.  Florida resident rate.  $100 per day.  Great price for a cruise over Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.

Norwegian Sky.  3-day Bahamas.  April 2011.

Booked 4 days in advance.  Paid $59 per day.

Navigator of the Seas- 4-day Western Caribbean.  April 2011.

Booked 3 months in advance.  Paid $100 per day.

Coral Princess.  7-day Alaskan Inside Passage.  June 2011.

This is another one that doesn't count.  Booked as a special agent rate.  Sorry.  Would have been $314 per day had I booked it as a regular guest on May 31st.

Allure of the Seas- 7-day Western Caribbean.  December 2011.
Photo Coming Soon!

Booked 18 months in advance.  Paid $100 per day.  Prices went as high as $200 per day from December 2010 to the time it sold out.

So the theme here is- out of all the cruises I have taken in the last two years only ONE was booked at a great rate last minute.  Most of the others were good deals because we booked more than 6 months in advance.

I know that some people find it difficult to plan things so far out in advance.  But if you're willing to book when the rate is good and then wait it out, you too can sail as much as me :)

Budget Travel's Awe-Inspiring American Monuments

Budget Travel's 16 Awe-Inspiring American Monuments
I was browsing through the list of monuments that Budget Travel deems to be the best in the country.  After reviewing the article I realized I have been to many of those places!  Check out my Awe-Inspiring Travels :)

Golden Gate Bridge- 1992 & 2009 
Went with my parents when I was 9, then again for a conference in 2009 with a girlfriend of mine. I love San Fran!

Highway 1 - 1992

Don't have the pictures, but I certainly remember riding in the backseat of the car at 10 years old getting car sick along the way :(

Hollywood Walk of Fame- 1992

Have them but buried somewhere in my mom's guest room closet...

Las Vegas Strip- 2011

My first and I guarantee it won't be my last.  :)

Hoover Dam- 2011

A great stop on the way from Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon! 

Mount Rushmore- TBA

So this is one of the ones I have not yet been to.  My mom has always wanted to go, but there doesn't seem to be much else out there...  One day we'll make it!

French Quarter, New Orleans- TBA

Would love to do a road trip out to Texas and stop here along the way ;)

Gateway Arch, Saint Louis- TBA

Haven't had the burning desire to go there, but I'm sure I'd have a great time tasting the amazing ribs and sampling the local music scene!

National Mall, D.C.- 1994, 1997, 2009, 2010, 2011

Do you think I like the place??? I see something new every time I go.  Our country has a fabulous "downtown."

Independence National Historical Park- 2008

Silly me didn't get a picture in front of Independence Hall- but I have a picture of me inside it with a teacher tour group.  The following picture is at the National Park as well- Liberty Bell!

 Statue of Liberty- TBA

I'm hoping to get there in the summer of 2012 or 2013. 

 Times Square- TBA

I'm hoping to get there in the summer of 2012 or 2013. 

 

Grand Canyon Skywalk- 2011-not really but...

Okay I have a rant.  It's a small one.  While it is an awesome concept, the Skywalk is located in the Western Rim (not the best view).  There is a laundry list of things you can and cannot do (including bring your own camera...)  The South Rim is by far a better view and there is lodging, so you can make it an extended stay.  The South Rim is also where you can hike down and camp, raft, etc.  I did extensive research this summer when heading out there.  I chose South Rim- when talking to locals they all said that the West Rim is somewhat of a "trap".  So here are my pictures from the amazing South Rim from 4 different locations within the National Park ;)

 Millenium Park, Chicago

Haven't been there, yet...

Fenway Park, Boston- 1994

I am pretty sure we went there when we took a family vacation when I was 10.  Again, the photos are buried in my mom's closet!

So wouldn't you rather have an agent working for you that's been there and done that?!?  

If you're interested in the article feel free to read it here: Budget Travel's Awe-Inspiring Monuments

Promote! Like a Norwegian

So I will have to search for those missing posts.  They are lost out there somewhere on the internet!!

In the meantime I wanted to say a few words about Norwegian Cruise Line.  About 6 months ago I was in an agent webinar with NCL when they announced they were going to begin a program for travel agents.  They didn't give many details but said that it would be well worth it.

At the next month's webinar they revealed some of the features of this program.  Over the course of the last 5-6 months they have been truly supportive of travel professionals.  The programs and incentives are great, they make a full force effort to engage the agents. 

Here si what this tells me: they realize that more people book cruises with agents than without.  They realize that if they can get the agents onboard, both metaphorically and in reality, it will help spread the word about their ships and experiences.

I have only sailed on the Norwegian Sky, a quick 3-night Bahamas run. I have toured a nuber of their ships- Dawn, Jewel, Pearl, and Epic.I will be on the Epic in March to have the full week experience.  We're in a balcony room, so I will report on whether I had issues with the "peek-a-boo" bathrooms.

And now I will leave you with their brand spankin new TV commercials!

Oh No!

I appears as though we have had a malfunction on the blog!   I had it set up on, what I thought was, an automatic posting system.  I guess it didn't work as planned.  Boy do I have a lot of posting to catch up on :)

I will be finishing the Alaska trip review and providing more information about upcoming trips for Sunkissed Adventures and our monthly features!

Sorry to have been gone for so long!!

Hubbard Glacier & Glacier Bay

It was nice to wake up when we wanted for two days.  Without the anxiety of knowing that we had to be somewhere at a certain time.  On the first full day on the ship we sailed toward Hubbard Glacier.  We slept in and awoke when breakfast was delivered to our room.  (We placed the order the night before.)  It was very cold on this morning.

After breakfast we headed up to the Lotus (indoor) Pool.  There was a Ceramics@Sea enrichment class.  We were able to pick an item to paint- they would fire it Thursday night for pick-up on Friday afternoon.  We enjoyed ourselves for a few hours while the ship made it's way to Hubbard.  We were a little disappointed that it was not offered again until the day we were in Juneau (while we were on our excursion.)  So our pieces were fired unfinished and 1/2 painted.

 

When Ceramics @Sea time was up we headed down to the Bayou Cafe for the traditional Pub Lunch.  Neither of us ordered Fish & Chips (I don't eat fish) and hubby didn't feel like it that day.  We both enjoyed the Curry Chicken.  Very good actually!  Here is the menu:

Next we sailed up to Hubbard Glacier.  Kath Slamp- our Naturalist narrated via the open deck speakers and a channel on the stateroom TV.  I cranked our TV volume all the way up and kept our slider open to we could hear the commentary.  Below are a series of pictures as we approach.  The nearest the captain could get was 5 miles due to the ice flow.

That night we had dinner at Sabatini Specialty restaurant.  It was a 23 course Italian meal.  Okay, maybe not 23 courses, but it was long and a lot of delicious food.  

We went to bed stuffed that night!

We slept in again the following morning and took a walk around deck.  Today's itinerary included sailing through Glacier Bay National Park.  Only two cruise ships a day are allowed to enter the park and Princess has one of the contracts.  As we were sailing in we saw a dolphin swimming toward the ship and then it turned and followed behind us.  I couldn't capture it on my camera because he was just too quick.

Because most of the day was cruising through the park we chose to have lunch on our balcony.  We ordered chili and Moroccan Pot Pie of some sort.  The Moroccan food was good, chili not so much.

At About 1pm Alaska time we pulled up next to Margerie Glacier.  from the ship we seemed to be about 50 yards away- but in actuality we were still a mile and a half!

Directly next to Margerie Glacier is the Grand Pacific Glacier.  Very large.  The U.S./ Canada Line sits right on the edge of the glacier.  I kept looking around for it and could not find it.  I snapped a few shots of the surrounding area and we went on our way to Johns Hopkins Inlet to see more glaciers!  When we arrived home I looked up information on the Grand Pacific... well- I HAD taken a picture of it-

At first I thought- this is just a bunch of dirt!  But then, after reading up on it, I realized that the Grand Pacific has ground up so much mountain that it looks like dirt- but in fact it's a glacier!!

We sailed by a few more glaciers and picturesque mountains on our way back to the ranger station.

Glacier Discovery Train & the Coral Princess

     We planned to walk to the Alaska Railroad from our hotel, but the shuttle driver offered to drop us off. It was literally a 5 minute walk- maybe more with our 3 suitcases. He loaded up our things- drove us across the street and unloaded our belongings. There is a large, permanent, tent to the right of the building. This is where you drop off luggage. There was a rep from Princess there who tagged our bags and loaded them in to a van. We proceeded in to the depot for check-in. We purchased the tickets ahead of time through the Alaska Railroad company website ($30 less per person than the train transfer offered through Princess- same train though). The train leaves Anchorage at 10:00am and arrives in Whittier at 12:05pm. Great way to travel to the ship as there are only two options- bus or train. The buses are timed due to the tunnel in Whittier being one way and shared by cars & train! It was a beautiful two hour ride along the coast, winding around the mountain edges.

Anchorage Alaska Railroad Depot

Rail Car B

Inside the Depot (looking at the check-in desk).

Inside of Car B

Scenery along the Glacier Discovery Route

Emerging from the Whittier tunnel.  The cars were waiting for their turn.

Coral Princess

Makeshift Tent Train Station in Whittier

Caution- Whittier is rainy and foggy more frequently than not! We emerged from the tunnel in Whittier and could barely see the ship even though it wasn't far in front of us. We came prepared with good rain coats. It never poured, just a constantly heavy drizzle ALL DAY. Some people on the train were headed to Prince William Sound for a 4-5 hour Glacier Boat Tour. We chose to go on the ship immediately to get photos of each room with no passengers :)

Whittier

Whittier

Atrium

Coral Princess- I'd have to say it was a great ship but certain things are in desperate need of dry-docking! The material paneling inside the stateroom just above the bed/headboard was worn and yellow. I have a picture with my husband and it's almost embarrassing to show... The carpets were worn as well. I could feel that there was no padding left, they were all rather flat and hard under my feet. This made the children who ran down the hall multiple times per day even louder than normal cruise-ship-running-children. Our balcony was rusty- but that's hard to combat being on the water constantly. Otherwise all else was in great shape. The size of the ship was perfect- not too big and not too small. There is a smaller passenger capacity on this ship than most others of the same size. It never felt crowded unless you were looking for a table in Horizon Court at breakfast. Nobody ever sat outside on the Lido deck area due to constant rain throughout this trip and colder than usual temperatures.

View from our Balcony

A Spacious Closet!

This was my first Princess experience. People always talk about Princess Pizza and I always brushed it off and thought- ugh how good can cruise ship pizza really be?!? Okay, I will admit- I was addicted to it. It's real thin crust NY style pizza! We had it many times on this trip. Always hot and delicious!

mmm, Princess Pizza!