Part 19
Nighttime videos and Labadee.
First some video of a small part of the show Ice Games just so you know the song style.
The areas of the ship that were displayed:
- The Neighborhoods ( Royal Promenade with special attention to Sorrento's Pizzeria, Central Park, Boardwalk with special attention to the small restaurants around the place, Pools and Sports Zone, Vitality SPA, Casino, Arcade, Sport Zone, Entertainment place)
- Some intros and outros related to the "Games" theme..
- Arcade had a theme of Castlevania (with vampires and castles) and a love triangle theme.
- Casinos's theme was "money money money" (at least they got that right..)
- Sorrento's and Central Park were themed to Italian towns and French towns with restaurants.
Now, before We go to Labadee, we had a restaurant staff that assigned and called people to their tables.
Whats special about this guy? normally they are just officers dressed in good clothing.
In this ships's case. This guy was dressed thrice as Michael Jackson, did the dances and the voice and was even heavy paint on the face to a resemble mid-transformation Michael.
Later on he donned a pirate like suite with a fake parrot, I do not remember very well if the other suites were tropical Puerto Rican dancer, but he changed themes every day except the Miami and the Sea days (which he was Micheal Jackson look alike).
Labadee
We only wanted to relax and we actually woke up pretty late. We got our traditional breakfast almost bordering with early lunch and we went our way towards the private cove.
Full Panorama of Labadee, Haiti
This was pretty obvious.. get down the ship...find the active gangway and on your way you go. Except one fine problem.. we forgot to get towels lol and they are nowhere to be seen once you get down to the ship. Noone offers towels unless you BUY them.
Also, while we waited for the tram.. my nephew went to check some of the prices for the "attractions". And Jesucrist.. almost every single attraction like the Zipline.. cost more than 100 USD
FOR A SINGLE USAGE. Thats beyond outrageous, no wonder less and less people were doing these services. Hell we hardly seen any people lining up to register and pay. Most preferred to rent a boat or jet sky with these prices..
The only ones who seemed to get in, had the Diamond+ ranking on their cards (lanyards). Which if I remember correctly.. you get most of these things for free.. including a special cabin (cabana) in a private beach.
Anyway once we took the tram, I got down to get to buy some sandals and my mom went with my sister, nephew and niece to get a place in the Columbus Quiet Cove. I needed urgently sandals since mines were falling apart and I had hope to find good ones.
And Nope.. We took a lot of searching and they only had these chinese low quality crap and Crocs. Neither of them were of my size.
So I went towards the "Artists Village". Not a fan because they're incredibly pushy.
One guy was insisting and I just said "I ONLY NEED SANDALS..BUT I CANT FIND ONES FOR ME". So went to search real ones while others just looked at me seeing if I took "the bait".
Anyway dude was looking everywhere for my sandals in a ton of stores on the other side of the village and finally found a few.
Some were very cheap made others were of plastic and made in china and the last 2 pairs were of authentic leather and had nice "Labadee" detail. So tested both, both were very uncomfortable and only one fit me.
Since I had nothing but my shoes and I did NOT WANT to fill my socks And shoes with sand, I decided to buy them.
I was all "lol are you joking"? when he mentioned a price of 60 USD.
I told him the price was way too high, he then asked me how much I would pay. I paid him 30.. mostly 15 USD for him because he put effort in finding.
Then we went to get the change. Now here is the part that es me off and a lot of other buyers..
The other vendors immediately got greedy and started to push me around and one was VERY insistent that I see his wares.. There was nothing of interest for me in his stand but still tried to push a lot of things on my hands.
I finally had enough got the change and told him NO.
Others tried to close around me to "invite me" to see their wares. I had to be VERY firm.
We again seen various groups scattered of tourists ed off and even screaming profanities because the vendors were very rude at them. This is the second time I have been to Labadee and in both I had seen cases where profanities and almost fights took place and the local police had to put down the vendors. And in one case the vendor was completely removed (pretty sure he lost his permission to sell forever in that property). All because the vendors lie, overpush and even pass the boundaries and try to push visitors around.. a huge nope and for anyone who goes there.. take the tram or avoid the area.
Anyway, after getting finally to the Columbus Cove, found my mom had already had an attendant put chairs for us and we sat down in the shadow of palm trees. We read a bit, took naps and went to swim.
The water was pretty cold but as usual.. completely calm and decent to swim.
What surprised me this time, was that photographers of RCCL in partial scuba suit, were roaming the beach areas waist deep offering photos.
Panorama of our zone.
I also was paranoically checking the time. Because if you remember my last tip report. I was annoyed because the food was gone so fast fro the BBQ area. I was not taking any chances this time and after drinking a bit, swimming, etc.. when the time to open was close, I sat down and waited for the place to open up.
The hilarity is.. while most of the food was decent, there were a few offerings that were already cold. Like the burgers . The Buffet system was not working correctly I guess.
By the time I ended my food.. the restaurant area was now packed.. I went towards my mom with some extra food and got her some chicken. Then I told my sister that was time to get food or it would run out. So she went to get her fill with my nephew and niece.
After that, we returned to get some sun and take a nap again.. Later on we decided to return to the ship.
We enjoyed most of the day until we were tired (the sun was toasty!) and decided to cool down inside the cruise ship.
So we went to take the tram back to the Labadee's port entrance and we headed towards the exit. But before we arrived, We made a quick pitstop on the restroom by the Customer Services.
Now the weird part....
There was a huge crowd by the security center where you get scanned before taking the pier and then into the ship.
Turns out there was a severe accident and they were preventing people from going INTO the ship.
Noone informed us anything else. Mere minutes later a french medical helicopter which the decals of the French Coast guard (????) went around the area then stopped and landed right by the long pier that you take to get to Labadee from the Ship.
Right in the middle of the walking path.
So for what I could take. Seems someone fell from the ship and crashed straight into the pier below. He was medivaced quickly and the area was cleaned. The whole ordeal took around 1 hour of us waiting in line under the hot sun. The file was half a mile long when they finally opened the doors.
Whats weird if that no other website mentioned any accidents!
Despite seeing the knocked out dude get airlifted.
We got up, went to our rooms to take a nice shower to get all refreshed out.
Then later I did a solo trip to see finally the missing show of Dreamworks "Let YOU to entertain ME" which was constantly cancelled because of problems with the Aqua theater equipment.
Which was pretty simple but enjoyable and involved mostly songs themed to Madagascar of each characters.
I still think the Oasis of the Seas's offers were way better in terms of shows. Allure had more "mob" or "popular" events like the flashmobs and impromptu dances around the ships.
And the staff puts a lot of effort to do these "shows". So I blame management on cheapening out on the planning and of course.. on the creative process and groups they hire.
This show is pretty simple. You have to fill a "gauge level" that is arbitrarily set by King Julien (completely ridiculous reasons of course). So the Madagascar group has to dance, entertain and get people to applaud etc so the gauge goes up. Every character gets a turn (Gloria, Alex and Morty) then King Julien gives out an score. But of course, the level never goes up because "they are not HIM".
Continued on Part 20..
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