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Kevin just returned from a six-night cruise on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas.

It went out of Fort Lauderdale over to the Western Caribbean. And not only did he sail on a lure, but he also sailed in a crown loft suite. Kevin joins us on the phone for the first time in almost two years. Hey, Kevin. Hey, Doug. How are you doing? Good, man. It's funny because I'm looking through our call history here. and it's been about two years since we last chatted,

but in a way, it was a long two years,

but in another way, it seems like we just chatted yesterday.

No, it's crazy. Lots, lots happened, right?

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So I wanted to hear all about this Crown Loft experience on Allure.

But before we do that, you are over in the Washington area.

So in the northwest part of the United States, you had to get down to Fort Lauderdale for your cruise. Give us some pre-crued spots. What made you want to take this sixth night clear across the country when there are other options in your neck of the woods? Well, we definitely wanted to get somewhere warm, right? You know, this sailing was in November over the Thanksgiving holiday, and it's starting get a little chilly up in this neck of the woods. And we wanted to get to the warm sunshine of the Caribbean. So you fly out of Spokane, you make your way to Lauderdale or the Miami area. Did you do any pre-cruised time in South Florida? Not as much as we usually do, but we did get in the day before,

stayed in one of the beachfront hotels there in Fort Lauderdale, just that way we were ready to go to board on the ship the next day. You make your way over to Terminal 18, which was

built specifically for these Oasis-class ships, and you go to board a lower of the seas.

How was the embarkation process? Was it any different because you were in a crown loft suite um they they do separate out you know i guess uh normal normal check in from sweet check in um the theory it's supposed to be a little bit more expedited uh which you know know, looking at the lines, it did seem like it,

you know, was shorter. But it did take us probably, I'd say, you know, 30 to 40 minutes from curb to ship. A lot of that was just getting all the documentation verified. You know, obviously right now

there's all the, you know, you have to see your negative test and your vaccine cards and so forth.

And that was taking a little bit longer than it seemed in the past.

And now that Allure is ramping up capacity, it's, like I said, it seemed a little bit longer than when I sailed another rural ship back in July.

So you make your way on board

Allure. What was your first impressions of the ship? It's a really awesome ship. We've never sailed

an Oasis class ship before. So it was definitely pretty cool to see. You entered the ship right

on the Royal Promenade on deck five. And so it's pretty spectacular.

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