Bellyflopchamp

We went with our daugher when she was 20 months old back in November. I can say it was not the most relaxing vacation, but very very fun. Like another poster she slept great at home and then on the cruise she decided she did not want to anymore. She slept good at night, but not in a pack and play. We had also brought my mom and had 2 cabins. My mom called it an early night just about every night so we were fortunate enough that after the second night our daughter just slept in my mom's bed with her.

We went on the Allure of the Seas. I was very disappointed in their toddler play pool. It was only one small one but was in with all the other splash zones for potty trained kids. This caused a few melt downs when we wouldnt let her go into the more fun pools. The new Oasis class ship (Harmony) looks like they increased the toddler area a bit more so if it is going where you want it to go when you plan on cruising I would recommend that one. It will also have water slides and a huge dry slide in the back of it.

We also did the nursery and it was OK, but we were not overly pleased with them. The second night of the cruise they ended up keeping her up until we picked her up at midnight. they said she was playing great so they didnt want to try to put her down. This threw her off for the rest of the trip. You just need to be very very specific with them as they do tend to just do whatever to keep the kids quiet. We did not have much trouble getting the times that we wanted. We were at first limited to about 18 hours total, but after the third day or so they opened up any other times and you could just ask what they had available.

Here are a few tips that we took or wish we had taken:

1) I wish that I had my wife take the baby for a bit to give me a little bit of relaxation time earlier on in the cruise. The final day I had gone to try to take a nap, but it ended up getting interrupted a bunch of times from people coming in and out of the cabin (Cabin Steward cleaning my mom's room, my mom coming through our room to get to hers as her card was burried in her purse, my wife rumaging through things.) I probably should have just gone to the solarium instead but didnt really think that through. My wife did get out for a few hours for a nice massage and that seemed to help her relax a bit. I highly recommend you taking some time for both of you to just unwind while the other watches the kid.

2) We are very very glad we brought my mom and had adjoining cabins. We had a sitter all the time to watch our daughter at night which allowed us to enjoy the nightlife a bit.

3) We are glad we got a balcony cabin. Our daughter loved looking out at the water, plus it gave us a place to go and relax a bit if we were trying to get her to sleep...unsuccessfully.

4) I wish we were more specific with the nursery staff. I think that second night really threw our daughter's sleep schedule off and she was extremely tired the rest of the trip after that. She would not nap either because of the things going on. The only time she napped was when I was holding her. Not my wife, me.

5) We packed way way too much. We had packed about 2-3 outfits for our daughter for each day, a bunch of toys, a pack and play that she never slept in. While we used a lot of the clothes, we probably could have re-used some or hand washed. We did not even touch the toys plus Royal has the toy exchange. The pack and play cost us $70 to bring and we didnt even use it. It was a waste.

We were on this same itinerary back in November. In Nassau we did Blue Lagoon which was a ferry over to the island so we did not have to worry about it. St. Thomas we did a private sail boat tour that we set up and asked the owner of the ship to get us a taxi that had seatbelts for a car seat. We had purchased a cheaper cars eat for this trip as we did not want to bring along the heavy $300 one we have in our cars.

In St. Martin we did the Orient Beach break and they had a large bus for that. We sat in the very back of it and it did have seat belts. If you book through the cruise line they will tell you any age restrictions. A lot are 4 and up so I would think that those would be ones that might have a different kind of transportation other than bus.

That should be plenty of time. You might even be able to put a hold on it now if you wanted to. The deposit is usually not that much and the balance is not due until about 75-90 days out. I have not sailed Carnival so I dont know what their policy is for that.

The reason for the cabin suggestion being mid ship is due to movement. The lower your cabin is as well as the closer to the middle of the ship the less movement that will be felt in your cabin. If you dont plan on spending a lot of time in your cabin then this isnt as big of a deal. If you know you dont get seasick this also isnt a big deal. Our first time we were at the front of the ship on deck 12 so we completely ignored that whole thing. We also only slept in the room (including afternoon naps, the Caribbean sun drains your energy like crazy or at least for us New Englanders).

I would also suggest to be aware of what is around the cabin that you are booking. Like you said you want to try and get a cabin that only has other cabins above or below it. If you cant find one like that make sure you are not right below the pool deck or right above/below a club. They will be loud. Also try to make sure you arent near a crew only entrance as those can get noisy with people coming and going all the time.

Quick add on question. Are there typically some larger van type taxis as well? We are cruising with friends who have two little ones in car seats and two adults. I know that we will have to take separate taxis, im just wanting to make sure their family will be able to fit in one.

There are plenty of can of SUV style ones. We had one little one in a car seat plus my wife way over packed and we had 2 carry on suitcases 2 large checked suitcases a regular stroller and a pack and play. We found one that fit everything.

Not sure if this has changed or not, but it was what we had paid back in November for ours. I still got here through the RCCL website.

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

I would also recommend using a porter when collecting your bags at the port. The two times we have cruised we did that and got through customs in no time as they pretty much let you skip the line, and then they bring you out and directly to a cab and put your luggage in it for you. Best $10-$15 you will ever spend.

But even without a porter there are plenty of cabs there. You should not have any problem finding one without pre-arranging one.

We had a ton of issues trying to combine our two reservations for just about everything (dining, shows, excursions). We just ended up booking for the same time under both reservations and then went to the MDR the first day and told them to combine the two reservations for the whole week. Our TA also had called up a few weeks before we departed to have them fix the glitch. I dont know if it ever was fixed, but we were fine once on board.

With 9 people it is probably better for you to make a reservation, but it is not needed. You may have to wait a little longer as tables that size are more limited, but when we were on the Allure a few months ago there was a party of like 20 and another of like 60 that came without reservations.

As for eating in the same restaurant, you can eat wherever you like (Windjammer, specialty or MDR), but if you do the MDR you will be on the deck 3. All the food is the same regardless of which deck you are on. They are not doing the dynamic dining on the Oasis class anymore. Each deck of the MDR has a different name and decor, but the menu is exactly the same. With that said, we did get sent up to deck four once with MTD as there were no tables left on Deck 3. Surprisingly service was still great.

Overall the nursery was pretty good. The main problem that we had was that on the first night we had her in there (night 2 of the cruise) they ended up keeping her up until we picked her up at midnight. We had told them that she would probably get tired and could have her bottle and go down around 9 or so, but it didnt look like they tried. Basically they just told us that she was playing quietly the whole time. This had her lose a lot of sleep, and stressed my wife out as it was our first experience with any nursery really. It really messed with our daughter's sleep schedule and threw everything off for the entire week.

The one time we used it during the day I believe that all they did was plop her in front of the TV for 3 hours. My wife had went to check in shortly after we dropped her off as she was screaming when she dropped her off and she had calmed down and was in a stroller in front of the TV watching some cartoon. When I picked her up she was in a stroller in front of the TV watching cartoons. And the staff seemed like they rushed me out without giving an update. At the time I did not realize that when my wife checked 3 hours earlier that she was in the stroll watching TV. If I did know that I would have asked more questions so I cannot be sure that is what they did, but it appears that way to me. It seems like they just do whatever to keep the kids quiet.

Oh, and the second night we dropped her off we had thought that maybe we just werent specific enough the first night so we had told the staff that she is pretty tired and that they should give her the bottle and try to put her to bed around 8:30. They called us at 8:45 saying she was freaking out and wanted us to come down. By the time I got down there (less than 5 minutes as we were eating at Samba just one floor up from the nursery) she was already calmed down and they told me they think she is just tired. Well duh, I told you that she was and she should go to bed at 8:30.

We were fortunate enough to have my mom with us and the rest of the cruise my mom had actually wanted to go to be early so we would just have her sleep with our daughter.

The nursery staff were very accommodating to changing the schedule around as well. ORiginally they had told us if we cancel within 2 hours we will be charged, but we did that a few times and they did not charge us at all as they said they know plans change with the little ones and they were busy anyway.

We were just surprised with a trip on Allure of the Seas for a 7 day cruise with our 2 & 4 year olds leaving Dec 27.

 

I am very overwhelmed!

 

Here are some questions: Stroller?? I have a double sit-stand.

 

Babysitting?

 

Drink Packages?

 

What is included for adults & kids and what costs extra?

 

My husband is legally blind so any suggestions for us.

 

Excursions - Haiti, Jaimaica & Cozumel

 

Can you leave your kids on board and leave for excursions? is that safe?

is it safe to have them on the excursions? are there any excursions my 2 year old can do?

 

Thanks

We were just on the Allure a few weeks ago with our 21 month old daughter. We used the nursery for her a few times, but were disappointed in it. I think if we used it during the day on sea days we would have had a better experience. I can explain more if you want.

Since your Husband is blind I would suggest you contact the special needs department. They can let you know if there is anything special needed for him.

As a previous poster mentioned Haiti is its own private island. You can easily just walk or take the shuttle cart to the beach there with everyone. I have also been to Dolphin Cove in Jamaica but it was just me and my wife at the time and did not really pay attention much to children as it was on our honeymoon when we went. From what I remember it would probably be good for both of your kids and they did have a little swimming area. It will probably be about an hour drive from port as well.

For drink packages, I for one will always get the alcohol package (cue the jokes about my screen name) but for me they are worth it. The mixed drinks run you around $10-$12 each and beers are around $6. The premium includes sodas and bottled water which is nice. It works out in the end for me. But if you only have one or two drinks a day and not much soda you wont need a package. They do serve plenty of free drinks in all the restaurants (iced tea, water, lemonade, juices, milk).

As for what is included, you can get away with not spending anything if you were cheap enough. The ship has many free dining venues. The kids program will be free for the 4 year old, and the nursery is $6/hr from 11-5 and $8/hr from 5-midnight i believe. The times might be slightly off there. There will be a lot of free activities including the shows. There are also specialty restaurants where the carge is around $30-$40 per person but your 2 year old should be free and the 4 year old might be cheaper.

If you have any specific questions let me know. I'd be happy to answer them.

I'm not one to stereotype, but I can assume that someone with the username "Bellyflopchamp" has got to be going with a booze package ;)

 

dp

I may have been seen enjoying a cocktail or two on my last cruise.

Hi not that we are alcoholics, but our question is are the packages really unlimited. We are looking at the ultimate package, so if we for instance l want six cocktails are we going to fined out that we will be charged for one cocktail because they have say a limit of 5 cocktails in the package.

If there is a limit do you get notified that you have reached it so you do not automatically get charged and get a shock at the end of the cruise.

If there is a something on RCCL's website we can't find it so if there is the info on the site could you please send the link.

Thanks

Mark and Allan

I also want to clarify that you do not need to purchase the ultimate package to get unlimited cocktails. The same alcoholic beverages are included in both the premium and the ultimate. The difference between the two is that with the ultimate you also get the replenish package which includes fresh squeezed oj and premium coffees (lattes, espresso etc...). All of the beer, mixed and frozen cocktails are the same between the two and both are unlimited.

And while you can only get one drink at a time you can bring up two seapass cards to get the two drinks, and you can also order a double if you are drinking things like scotch or whiskey.

Your little one did quite well to be able to stay until 9:30pm or 10pm. And then you didn't miss too much in terms of evening activities or shows. Guess there was just too much excitement around her to sleep. :)

 

Yeah, good point about the timezone. We are the same as the ship so at least no complications there.

We only brought her to the Aqua show and the Ice show. The Aqua show was a rescheduled show and was at 5:30 or around that and the Ice show was at 3:30. She actually was pretty good throughout most of the trip, but you could tell that it was wearing her down as she started to have more frequent melt downs on the last two days.

we bought a cheap one on Amazon for our trip recently. You will need it to get a cab, but on a shuttle/bus you can sit them in your lap.

We did use the car seat on one of the islands, but we had arranged for a taxi ahead of time to ensure one with seat belts. The other time we were on a bus and just took up the back of it and buckled her in or held her.

We got lucky on the plane too as we booked her as a lap toddler, but the third seat was unoccupied which allowed us to have her sit in that and gave us more room. We also had the extra space seats on Jet Blue which were amazing and definitely helped with the 3.5 hour flight. We will probably not book her on our laps ever again as we were worried about the third person all the way until the door closed on the plane. It was nto going to go over well if she had to sit on one of our laps for the 3.5 hours.

When we were on the Allure a little over a week ago there were plenty of kids that were up late, like past 11 late. Our little one did not want to nap (she is 21 months) at all unless we were holding her and even that only lasted 30 minutes. She also did not sleep well in the beginning and lost a good amount of sleep right off the bat. From day 3 on she went to bed around 9:30 or 10 and woke up around 8am.

I would also say that it depends on where you are from. If you live on the east coast they may go to bed around the same time as normal, but if you are from a different time zone that could impact when they go to sleep as well. For example if you they are on PST and normally go to sleep around 9pm that might shift to midnight for them at least for the first couple of nights.

The last night of the cruise we saw a lot of kids awake at midnight and i assume it was to get them back on schedule.

quick question. It's been a long time since we have been on Royal. We are going on the Allure next Sunday. These drinks sound amazing. Can you get these drinks at any bar on the ship? Or do certain bars only make certain drinks? Do the bars have drink menu's, or should I take someones idea and write them all down? I don't hear much about the champagne bar? Does that have it's own menu? Love reading all these drink ideas!!

The only bars that I saw a menu in was Schooner bar and the Pub. That's why I found the old fashioned with Hennessey. We did not go into the Champagne and Martini bar, but I would have to assume that they would have a menu.

The Pub menu was mostly beer and did have some cocktails on the back. You can also ask the bartenders what they recommend, and if you find yourself on the rising tide as for the Voronet.

My drink of choice on the cruise last week was an Old Fashioned. The Schooner bar made them with Hennessey which was really good. If you are going on the Allure the two bartenders on the Rising Tide bar also made good ones. They also introduced my wife to a new drink. It is much like a peach belini, however it has a foaming blue curacao. It is called a Voronet. SHe absolutely loved them. You might only be able to get that one on the rising tide bar or the champagne bar tho as it does require the special blue curacao.

Comedy live is right near studio B. Both are forward deck 4. You should be fine if you get there 15 minutes before show time. We actually got in on standby one night when we showed up 5 minutes before the show. We got lucky but were able to get in.

Thanks so much. I was worried about getting from Studio B / Amber Theatre in just 15 minutes (with time to get out of the theatre itself) so very good to hear these are doable. I would have increased it to 30 minutes if really pushing it but the times I picked were more ideal.

 

Thanks for the great description for question 4. Good point about the elevators. The specific venue for the last one is the comedy club. So for this one, I do not want to sit at the front and also need to make sure we don't lose our reservation as I know the venue is small. I am going to note the best route to get there. Very helpful.

For the Comedy club the seating is very, very limited. If you have a reservation you need to show up 10 minutes before in order to get a seat. For most venues they release the reservations 10 minutes before but the comedy club is 5 minutes before. If you get there only 5 minutes prior to the show, chances are you will not get in as you will then need to go to the back of the line for stand by.

If you are going there from dinner, just let the wait staff know that you will be seeing a show and need to get out 20 minutes prior to the show time. They were very good with us when we requested things like that. They were able to get us in and out as fast as we wanted really which was nice.

I posted a more general question in the past, but now that I am able to book shows and dining, I want to make sure the following times that I booked are possible on the Allure.

 

1. If a show (Ice Show) ends in Studio B at 5:45pm, do I have enough time to get to MTD (deck 3) for 6:15pm?
   
2. If Mamma Mia ends at 7:30pm in Amber Theatre, do I have time to (scoot quickly) and get to MTD for 7:45pm?...hoping to sit on main level near front for the show
   
3. If a show (Blue Planet) ends at 5:45pm in Amber Theatre, do I have time to (scoot quickly) and get to MTD for 6pm?...hoping to sit in balcony near the front for the show
   
4. How much time should I leave to get go from the Main Dining Room (deck 3) to the kids club (deck 14) and then to Studio B (deck 4)?
   

 

Thanks in advance.

For the first three you should be fine. We had made reservations for every night and were consistently late due to having a toddler and a Nana slowing us down and we still got in with the reservations just fine. 15 minutes should be plenty to walk the length of the Promenade even with a kid in tow.

For number 4 it would depend on the elevator situation for getting up to deck 14. I would suggest walking the length of the Promenade to the front of the ship and taking the first elevator, either up or down to go to deck 14. You will start on deck 5 so it will only go down maybe one flight as there isnt much on deck 3. In my experience last week I was able to go from AMerican Icon up to my stateroom (forward deck 12) run back down to the Promenade back to the aft, up to central park, to the forward elevators and back to my cabin in about 10 minutes. Granted I was walking fast and used the stairs in some instances as I was trying to find my wife who disappeared, but it is easily doable to go from dinner to the kids club and down to studio B in about 10-15 minutes. If the Promenade is packed you could also just go up to Central Park to walk the length of the ship then take the elevator to 14 from there.

What a lousy experience.

 

I have heard that for the late night party, they will just let your kid stay up and play unless they go to sleep on their own.

 

Were there other toddlers in the nursery or just babies?

 

If I dropped my child off and they left her in a stroller and didn't interact with her, I'd be upset. I'll take her out of the stroller when we drop her off if we try on our cruise.

 

Did you talk to anyone about this while you were on the ship?

They actually put her in their own stroller. We did not bring her up in ours. She did fall asleep in that one on one of the nights, which I am fine with. Liek I said, I never confirmed that all they did was put her in front of the TV and leave her there. They did give her a bottle of milk so maybe it was just random luck when I walked in and they had just put her back in there. There normally were other toddlers and babies in there. They seemed pretty busy most of the time. At the time I picked her up there was another baby that they were trying to get down to sleep so maybe she began getting fussy and they wanted to quiet her down. I did not complain to anyone on the ship as I did not know all the details and I hadnt realized that my wife went back and saw her there until after I had gotten back, which is another reason I did not question it.

My advice is to be very specific as to what you want them to do with your child as they tend to try to keep them quiet and entertained rather than keep them on somewhat of a schedule. Just specifically say she can do X for this amount of time, read her X book at this time, give her the bottle at this time and put her down to sleep.

The night she was up till midnight we basically said she was still a little wired and that they could keep her up until she blew off the energy, maybe like an hour or so. then when we went 3 hours later she must have still been displaying that energy because she was still up.

Some of the staff seemed better than others. It also very well could have been our daughter being a pain but they didn't really tell us that. She has never done day care as our work schedules allow for us to not need it. We have left her with sitters but usually in familiar environments like our house or our family's homes that she has been to before.

We also probably needed to be more specific when we dropped her off. The time she was up till midnight I could say there could have been a miscommunication between us. Also I don't know for sure if she was just in front of the tv the whole time that one afternoon but my wife swung by about 15 minutes after we dropped her off and she was in a stroller in front of the tv. When I picked her up she was in a stroller in front of the tv and the staff didn't give me an update as to what she did all day. I didn't want to ask too many questions as there were other children and they were sleeping.

What do you mean, they didn't put her to sleep? Did they put her in a crib? Were they supposed to do something special?

They have cribs there that they would put the kids to sleep in. They just let her play until midnight because she wasn't getting cranky. We told them to put her down to sleep around 9 or something like that. They did not even try to put her in a crib or give her milk or anything.

Forgot to mention that we took her to the Aqua show (Ocean Aria) and the ice skating show. She was great at both of them and seemed to really enjoy them as there was a lot of action. We also did the farewell parade which she loved. Just wish we planned ahead a bit more on that as we still had to pack everything up before putting her to bed so again she was up until about 10pm that night.

For the dining we did have my time dining, and originally I booked dinner around 5:45 each night, but we found that difficult to get to as getting everyone ready, including my mom who was almost as bad as the toddler, took a lot longer than I am used to. One night we decided to go at 7pm in order to get out and go to the meet and greet with Po and still ahve the kid up. Of course that was lobster night so there was a huge line and we didnt sit until close to 7:45. We were still able to get the wait staff to rush things along and got out just in time to get to Po.

If you can't tell, my daughter got obsessed with Po.

So we just got back Sunday evening. Not quite as relaxing of a trip as I had hoped. Our little one did not want to nap at all throughout the entire trip unless she was being held by one of us and that only would last about 30 minutes anyway.

I was a little disappointed in the nursery. We dropped her off there a few nights during the week, and they did not really follow our instructions, or we just gave too vague of instructions. The first night they actually never tried to put her to sleep even though we told them that she could probably go to sleep within 30-60 minutes. They had her up until midnight and that was only the second night of the cruise so it was a bad start sleep wise for her. Another time we dropped her off we speficially told them to try and put her down at 8:30 (more specific this time because of the previous incident) and they called at 8:45 saying she was very cranky. When I went down they had her calmed down and told me she seemed like she was tired. Obviously she was as I told you to put her to sleep at 8:30. A third time we dropped her off in the afternoon and they basically just put her in front of a TV for the 3 hours she was there.

We got lucky with the second cabin and my mom offered to have her sleep in her bed with her. That worked wonderfully as she refused to go down in the pack and play.

The toys for the toy lending were nice, but we were out and about so much we hardly touched them. I was also disappointed in the baby splash area. It was very small and right in the middle of the rest of the H2O zone. There was no signage anywhere saying which area she could be in and we got yelled at for being in the wrong area once. The bad part about it is the baby one is so tiny with only two small shower things but all around is a bunch of the same looking things and the babies started getting grumpy they couldnt play in the other areas.

The other disappointing thing was the timing for the dreamworks characters. They had Po from Kung Fu Panda only at 9pm. A lot of the meet and greets were later which either made us skip them or try to keep her awake, making the sleep deprivation that much worse.

Dinners with her were fine. We ate in the MDR all but one night. That night she did room service and we ate at Samba (which was also the night we got called to the nursery because she was tired and cranky). The waitstaff was great and always made sure she had what she needed.

Overall we all had fun. The little one had a blast, just needed more than tiny cat naps throughout the day. Would I take a toddler again, probably not, adn if I do we would probably look into doing a B2B with the first week having the kids, second not. Both the wife and I were exhausted by the very end.