Day 3 aboard Allure of the Seas includes our first port of call, Royal Caribbean’s private island paradise, Labadee, Haiti. This was our 3rd or 4th visit to Labadee, but our first since Royal Caribbean constructed a pier for the island. This is a huge improvement of the experience as tendering to shore can sometimes challenge one’s patience. Further, there is no way RCL could hope to tender 6,000 passengers on an Allure sized ship, so it only makes sense that they would build a pier here.
Labadee is mainly a beach visit with various activities such as snorkeling, parasailing, and jet skis available for cruisers to enjoy. There’s of course, the world famous Labadoozee to drink and no lack of beach chairs and floatee mats for lounging on the beach or in the water.
Royal Caribbean provides a barbeque lunch on the island for all guests. MrsMJonTravel and I elected to forgo the barbeque and just relax on the beach. A few beers and a Labadoozee later, we were ready to return to the ship in mid-Afternoon. We grabbed a quick snack in the Windjammer and headed to our room to rest and get ready for the evening of celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary.
Our evening began at Allure’s Champagne Bar with a bottle of Moet & Chandon and caviar, which the bar was providing to all guests who purchased a bottle of champagne. After that, it was off to a phenomenal dinner at Chop’s Grille.
We both ordered the 10oz filet mignon, accompanied by sides of broccoli, mushrooms and potatoes. The staff at Chops went out of their way to accommodate MrsMJonTravel’s aversion to gluten, dairy, and soy. In fact, they were aware of her food allergies before our arrival and the chef specially prepared sides for us. Our server, Charlon, was just simply awesome. In fact, I’m certain he has served us before on a different ship.
After a wonderful meal, we capped our evening with a couple glasses of wine at the Vintages Wine Bar on Central Park. Vintages is the one venue on board that we have visited each day of our cruise, and the wonderful staff just knows what we want without telling them. Three days on this marvelous ship and words still don’t do her justice. So here are a few images for you.
Awesome review, good to hear you felt there was enough to do to spend a 7 day period not getting off the ship.
Lets all stop calling Labadee a private island, RC don’t even refer to it as that. It is a leased beach on the Haiti side of Hispaniola. I’m not sure if this is good or bad, while visitors get to enjoy the day in a safe environment, you never actually get to see or experience Haiti. However this is probably true of a lot of cruise locations, where you are packaged off in groups 🙂
“Simply” might have been a little over used. Haha. Love your blog. Look forward to reading all your posts.
Thanks! I “simplified” my words a bit. 🙂