LikesToRaceCars

Ahh what a great way to ring in the new year with a new Cheapo Dad report. I have thoroughly enjoyed your past reviews and look forward to what this one will entail.

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Ahh one of my favorite reviewers back at it again. I loved your last report so I am delighted coming across this one. I will keep my expectations low :D

Such a fascinating review and stunning photos. I hate cold weather but I think I would make the sacrifice to take in the scenery and wildlife. Maybe one day I will be able to do a similar trip. I will continue to keep following your thread though :)

Excellent review, I can't wait to visit Alaska (a month to go whoohoo).

I sailed on the Vision last Sept/Oct in the Med and I enjoyed the ship. Yeah there are always little things that can be nitpicked but I wouldn't say anything deterred from my my overall experience negatively. It is a smaller ship and there aren't as many activities as the larger ships or have all the amenities like Flowrider, ice skating ring, and so forth. However it does have things that the larger ships don't have like the Centrum and they also did things like karaoke with the ship band that I had not seen while cruising on other ships.

The way I look at it is cruising on any ship and visiting different ports is generally more fun than being at home and having to go to work everyday. Just tell your friends to enjoy the ride!

So if they are going to cut back on the movies available, why not let us connect a device to the TV to watch a movie stored on your phone? Or review pictures, for that matter?

 

(I know the aux input has worked on SOME tvs for SOME pax, but obviously this is not standard practice or it would be allowed on ALL tvs.)

I always bring my Ipad and hook it up to the television with a HDMI cord and an adapter which takes it from the device to HDMI as long as it is a somewhat newer flat screen. Worst case scenario I can always just watch it on the tablet.

I do suspect the crappy programming on the television is to encourage people to do activities outside of the stateroom which could yield potential profits for them ;) I agree it would be nice if they had more variety though cause sometimes after being out all day you just want to veg out in the stateroom and watch television or at least I do.

LOL, I am male but I agree the conversation may be more amusing or creepy depending on your perspective if I were not.

I am looking forward to the Alaska cruise and plan on taking a ton of pictures. I am traveling with my father and this will be his third Alaskan cruise and my first. Being away from home, work, and seeing new things is always fun for me ;).

Thank you for taking the time for writing the review, it was very enjoyable. I will be going there in May for a 7-day cruise but no land tour but we are spending 4 days after the cruise in Vancouver. This gives me some idea of what to possibly anticipate.

On all the ships I have been on they announce on the ship when the ice show distribution is and you can just pick them up at that time. I have not had any issues with getting tickets in the past.

I will say if you want seats to the facing the front of the show (the end zone section effectively), you will want to get to the show a bit early as those seats tend to go quickly otherwise you will be on one of the sides.

Harry, I have been slowly reading your review for about a month now (finally finished hehe) and I have enjoyed it thoroughly as many others have also indicated. I have been wanting to cruise on the Allure for a little while now so your pictures of the ship and helpful hints I find useful.

I have never really thought of the decor in the bathroom before but now after seeing the elephant urinal pic, I will now be perusing all of the men's restrooms on all future ships to see what they have now :D.

I hope you and your family enjoy your future travels and I look forward to reading any further reviews if you decide to do any more.

One good option at Chichen Itza is to find out what time you have to be back at the bus , and break away from the group to see what you want (this is what my wife and I did, and we covered way more ground than the tour did). We had done some research on the parts of the ruins and then made our own packet up to use as a guide.

 

And ironically, my wife nicknamed the ferry the "vomit comet" as she puked her brains out. It's a rockin' and Rollin' good time!

I have also done this excursion when I was on the Navigator in port at Cozumel. As long as you are doing the ship tour they won't leave you behind (had this tested on a couple occasions now but luckily they were ship tours ;)).

I think greenbbs' suggestion is a good one as well because this is also what we did. Our time at the ruins was extremely limited but the tour guide gave us the option to look around ourselves and meet them at a designated location at a certain time or we could follow the guide around. We chose to walk around ourselves and time wasn't much of an issue for us and I even shopped briefly and took a ton of pictures.

The ferry from Cozumel to Playa Del Carmen does move quite a bit and many people do get nauseous in my experience. I don't really have a problem with motion sickness but for some reason the ride over in the mornings has left me a little white in face. Coming back in the afternoon I never have a problem.

As for the walking, there is a decent amount of walking all around. My father travels with me and he doesn't get around quickly either but he is still able to cope with it. Getting to and from the bus, we aren't generally moving too quickly for anyone and my father keeps up fine. When we are walking on our own he just takes frequent pit stops to rest.

That being said the ruins are fantastic to see and well worth the commute IMO.

Never had a problem getting a 2 seat table, I just tend to ask for a 2 seater the first night and we are good to go the rest of the cruise. This is through MTD.

I tend to eat dinner every night in the MDR just because I like the food better in the MDR opposed to the WJ. I don't tend to get overly dressed though, generally business casual for most nights and on formal nights I will wear a suit and button-up shirt with no tie.