Annefran

Good morning friends and welcome to day three of LIVE from Allure of the Seas! It's a beautiful but rather windy day here aboard Lady Allure. Today will be kind of a busy day with the meet and mingle and then my slot pull afterwards but I promise to update as soon as I can.

 

Our first full day at sea! Stay tuned as the day gets under way :)

 

Off to have COFFEE!! :D

 

Good morning from Allure

 

 

Good Morning Chris, I am living vicariously through your review right now. I will be doing the same exact itinerary this Saturday on Oasis and cannot wait. My review won't be nearly as good as yours. Enjoy every minute of every day...you deserve it.

Anne, I just booked the April 8-18, 2016 Eastern Carib cruise on the Anthem.

 

 

 

Theresa

Very nice, 10 day cruise. Will have to take a look at that one.

I hear the 'DING' of the seapass card :) best sound in the world

Love that sound Emmy!!! You know it's all good from there. [emoji572]️

So exiting to see, that will be me and my Florida CC friends next Saturday. Thanks for posting Chris.

That will probably be it for tonight my friends! I'm stuffed and pretty sure I'll be going to bed soon.... well maybe after a few drinks :P

 

Tomorrow Oasis, also known as Lady O, will be in port!

 

Thanks for tuning in everyone. See you all tomorrow :)

Great job on your postings Chris. Take lots of photos of Oasis for me. Cannot to be on her next week. Have a good night.

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I spoke to two different reps about dining in the Grande. They both said the same thing, the dress code will be the same as formal night on any other ship. You can wear a tux if you want but dress code will be enforced (or not) as it is on any other ship.

Thanks for the update.

Annfranne your going the week after and doing live post omgosh even more I get to sail on this ship three weeks hehe :D

Will definitely try to do a LIVE review from the Oasis for everyone too. Now that I have my IPHONE should be easier. Not taking a laptop though, will use RCI's computers if I have to. Happy Cruising!

I appreciate the compliment on the photos Anne. This can be a warm up for you on sister ship Oasis :)

Oh you got that right Chris. I will be you this time next week. Flying out of Newark to Ft Lauderdale to stay one night and board the Oasis. Maybe you can teach me how to load photos into the postings instead of attaching them. Have a safe flight and have fun!

Hey Chris, will definitely be looking forward to your daily posts. I love the Allure. Going to try to do my own live postings from Oasis 3-10 May. ;) I'm not good at the pictures like you though. Safe travels and have a wonderful cruise. :D

how do you compare Liberty to Explorer? Is it just bigger or are there more offerings? It has the flowrider, both Chops & Portofino's, 2 pool areas, boxing ring, just a to name a few things. ;) [/color]I know that they've revitalized a lot of the older Royal ships, but I'm waiting for them to shed the Vision and Sovereign class ships.

Unfortunately I think those lousy Bahamas itineraries are here to stay... They're a necessary evil to operate 7 night cruises out of NY, which Royal seems to like mixing in. What annoys me is that the 8 nighters don't have better itineraries. You CAN run a better itinerary on an 8 night cruise with 2 days down and two days back up. We shall see!

 

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Dave, you are probably right, blah. I'll just avoid those itineraries as much as possible. I don't have to tie my vacations into school or college vacations anymore, sorry Roe! So I can cruise pretty much whatever time a year I want as long as I have the $$ and vacation time. ;) Look forward to seeing the new itineraries soon though. I probably won't cruise next Summer on Liberty. We sailed on her back in 2009 and loved the ship. It's larger than Explorer but not overwhelming like the Oasis brands.

Everyone have a great hump day!

Since they announced Anthem from Cape Liberty November 2015 - April 2016, no chances for Bermuda during those months...unless one mid April but I doubt it. I suspect Anthem leaving Bayonne in April anyway. I too think the itineraries will be the same as Quantum. Although, I thought I read it here that the Anthem may offer some western caribbean ports....like Grand Cayman, Roatan and Costa Maya and Labadee. That would be nice, better than the Florida / Bahamas run but I'm sure that would mean more like a 9 or 10 day cruise.

Hi Roe, I hope they ditch that horrible Florida/Bahamas itinerary once the Anthem comes to Bayonne. I cancelled our Dec 2014 cruise because of that itinerary. I'm doing the 12 night Caribbean with friends in April 2015 for now. Will be anxious to see what they offer for Anthem on April 25th. And you are correct about Bermuda too, they wouldn't start sailing there until late April or early May 2016.

Checked my cruise, no price drop on my D8 Balcony cabin. What I don't understand is why they are charging so much for my traveling single? I couldn't get the studio balcony cabin, sold out of course because there aren't that many. I am a waiting list. There's only about a $300 difference between one person vs. two people in the cabin. That doesn't seem right to me....will have to call RCI to inquire.

Has anyone spoken to a Dynamic Dining representative about how "formal" it will be yet? Just curious because I'm ok with wearing a formal dress. Just wondering how formal it will be for the men; jackets will suffice or do they have to wear a tie too? I know my cruise friends want to eat in the Grande at least one night but don't want to do the really formal thing. Let me know what you found out from the Rep please. Thanks!

Yaaaawn I'm quickly losing interest in the Quantum Class with all this nonsense. Will definitely do Quantum, but may consider a less expensive alternative to Anthem.

 

 

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Dave, email me at Anner40@yahoo.com when you get a chance.

Yes....and adding in that they also promoted Anthem sailing from FLL for months in advance of people planning to book it.

Yes very annoying. I think what happened was they couldn't get a definitive answer from Bermuda about making upgrades to allow QOS to sail there. So they quickly switched around the ships. Makes sense and I'm OK with it. I was disappointed at first but as long as they have a ship going out of NJ I'm good. Sorry for FL though...I know many were really looking forward to Anthem. Hopefully it will all work out.

Anne understand either way. You know we would welcome you to our roll call(again) and would be happy with you joined us.

 

By the way, our roll call is now on part three... :eek:

 

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Thanks Chris, I saw that, wow!! DD will be home this weekend. I plan on discussing our QOS cruise with her. If she doesn't want to go in Jan or at all, I will switch my Dec 2014 to your cruise. Not too many cabins left. I'd be happy with a balcony cabin if it's just me. Will keep you posted. Happy Easter!

Anne I agree with you that I'll continue to cruise on Royal because I like their product a lot(as evident by what will be soon my third sailing on the Oasis class)

 

As you know I have the 12 night Caribbean sailing booked on Quantum. Now this will be her second to last sailing out of Cape Liberty so I figure I better sail on Q to experience what the class has to offer. Because of my line of work and limited vacation time it might be a while before I can sail on Anthem or the third one in the class or even Oasis 3.

 

I think the biggest issue I have is they touted Quantum as sailing from CL year round and now it will only be just over 6 months. If they had planned this the whole time I think people wouldn't had an issue if they had just come out and said it.

Chris, I'm still debating whether to join you all on your cruise in April or not. I have some friends sailing with you already (Polly & Ken). I would be sailing alone since DD would still be in college. Not sure yet...may sail the same exact itinerary in January with DD instead. Decisions, decisions....:rolleyes:

Yaaaawn I'm quickly losing interest in the Quantum Class with all this nonsense. Will definitely do Quantum, but may consider a less expensive alternative to Anthem.

 

 

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Dave, you & I are on the same page. I just posted this on another thread.

With all the hype in the last year and now this it's sort of let the air out of my balloon for Quantum ships. I'm happy that Bayonne will continue to have a ship sailing year round. We have sailed on the Liberty and actually loved it. I'm just OVER all this now. Just my opinion. I have a Quantum cruise booked for Dec 2014 Florida/Bahamas and I'm going to cancel it. I really hate the itinerary and not sure when I'll rebook at this point. Need to sit down, look at the calendar and decide if I really want to cruise on Quantum or just wait for the Anthem. I will continue to cruise on Royal as I'm loyal. :cool:

With all the hype in the last year and now this it's sort of let the air out of my balloon for Quantum ships. I'm happy that Bayonne will continue to have a ship sailing year round. We have sailed on the Liberty and actually loved it. I'm just OVER all this now. Just my opinion. I have a Quantum cruise booked for Dec 2014 Florida/Bahamas and I'm going to cancel it. I really hate the itinerary and not sure when I'll rebook at this point. Need to sit down, look at the calendar and decide if I really want to cruise on Quantum or just wait for the Anthem. I will continue to cruise on Royal as I'm loyal. :cool:

Strong HOPE as well we will finally hear the new itineraries for Summer '15

 

I better let Ken know:):);)

So excited finally the Summer 2015 schedule! Dave, Ken & I have been anxiously waiting 👍

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I really hope QOS docks at Havensight too. Really don't like CB at all. This is good news 👍😀

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Anthem's Caribbean sailings were inexplicably delayed as well, and there's no Bermuda issue there. Makes the whole thing seem less Quantum-specific.

Totally agree Dave. End of April is my bet right now.

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Here a couple photos of the work being done in Bayonne now.

0700 under the VZ not that bad. I was tracking her through the realtime AIS system. Going to take some pix of the new construction for the QOTS terminal in Bayonne. Stay tuned !!!!

Safe travels Ken. Cannot wait to see some photos of Bayonne area. I did see a bunch yesterday on the QOS FB page that someone took They are definitely breaking ground and moving right along. Happy Cruising!