We spent one night pre-cruise, and then spent the day of disembarkation in town until about 6 PM, since we had late night flights. Every second was fabulous- we barely slept so I have lots of details and photos to post.
This trip was to celebrate our 30th birthdays. We’ve been friends for several years and have been through a lot together. Originally, we wanted to go to Barbados, however the cost of flights shot up quickly. I figured it would be awesome to cruise on a Freedom-class ship, and we all agreed that cruising would be an incredible value. None of us had ever been to Cozumel, so we quickly booked our cruise and flights and anxiously awaited our turn to sail. Two of us have birthdays in April, and one had her birthday in January, so we kind of met in the middle
The cast:
Chrystal (me): I LOVE cruising. My friends call me the “momma hen,” the voice of reason, the one they come to for a listening ear. I love travel and want to just live well and enjoy every second of life. I try to see the beauty in everything. I arranged the entire trip and wanted the girls to have a relaxing and fun time.
So, for those of you who are familiar with my reviews, this will take me a while to get through. I like to chronicle our trip by the hour, with lots of photos. I actually purchased my first Canon camera before the cruise, since I wanted to take great pictures. I have the compasses as well.
Feel free to ask questions, I love helping to plan travel whenever I can. Hopefully this will help those of you preparing to cruise, and if you don’t have one booked yet, may this serve as a virtual vacation!
Ok, so I’ll start at the beginning. Crystal lives in Texas, so she flew into Fort Lauderdale from Dallas on Spirit Air. She was pretty happy with her flights. Since her flight departed at about 6 AM CT, she slept most of the time. No bad news to report about Spirit Air. Since she got to Fort Lauderdale around 10 AM, she decided to rent a car so she could explore a bit on her own.
Rae and I live around the corner from one another, so we flew from Newark on Jetblue. Our original plan was to take the NJT train from Princeton Junction into the airport, but my husband decided he wanted to drop us off and pick us up. Such a sweet man. A pic of us coming off the NJ Turnpike:
Our flights departed at 9:40 AM. EWR was nice and quiet when we got there at 7. This was our first time on Jetblue, and I have to say I was impressed by their service and efficiency. And I loved that our checked bags flew for free.
We went through security quickly and easily, and sat for about 45 minutes before boarding. Our flight was smooth and uneventful. The leather seats were comfy and we had lots of leg room. The TV's in the seats were a nice touch. They had stations like Bravo, CNN, MTV, and ESPN for viewing. I had my Kindle Fire loaded with a couple movies so I used that instead.
I liked the free snacks they offered on Jetblue. The Terra Blue potato chips were yummy, not too salty:
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 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, 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
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.
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:
View from the balcony. You can see the oceanfront hotels and the Atlantic in the distance.
Some more pics of the room and the view:
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 from the Gallery One.
I heard about Coconuts from Tripadvisor.com and CruiseCritic.com, 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.
Crystal tried the Maine 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!
I ordered the crab cake BLT, Crystal ordered the popular fish tacos, and Rae had the bratwurst sandwich. 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:
Fish Tacos. A nice contrast to the heavier sandwiches, the mahi mahi was fresh and the flavors were clean and bright. Very refreshing. The mac and cheese was "okay." Crystal and I can make that from scratch at home and it tastes much better:
Bratwurst burger. Rae's and my favorite. Mind-blowingly good! So much flavor packed into one bite. It's a must if you go to Coconuts! This one was the special of the day, so if it's available when you're there, order it, you won't be sorry.
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
We drove around a bit 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 Publix 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.
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?
), 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 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:
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 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
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.
Told you that Crystal tends to be the life of the party, lol:
Headed back to the room around 2 AM. We rearranged our bags for embarkation the next morning while snacking on the items we bought earlier. All that dancing made us hungry! We forgot that we needed a corkscrew- fortunately, room service brought one up for us.
Up next- first day of the cruise! Feel free to ask any questions you may have, and please leave comments :)
For Part 2, click here.
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