KelJ

Good news!! I hope you enjoy Samba more than we did. In September it was awful.

I was so disappointed when this Allure repositioning cruise to Galveston was canceled and became non-revenue. In hindsight it was a blessing in disguise.

That really sucks, but I love your descriptive writing!

We have sailed many times with Royal on various class ships. In September we went on our first Oasis class ship, Allure. Last week we were on Adventure, not our first Voyager class sailing. We were bored and underwhelmed by Adventure, particularly its dining options. Allure spoiled us. We hope to stick with Oasis class and Quantum class in the future. BTW, we waited longer for elevators on Adventure than we ever did on Allure.

Yes! I forgot to mention the suite sundeck. It is awesome! And they have cold wet washcloths for those hot days. And little bags of chips!

Last month on Allure we were in a crown loft suite and only had to make reservations for the late-night comedy. The letter from the suite concierge stated so as well. Perhaps something has changed since September.

Out of eight or nine nights, we ate there three times. We tried to make a fourth reservation late in the week and were unable to because there were no openings. I think we would’ve been okay had we made all of the reservations the first day. Remember that this was in December, so I think the ship was only at about 75% capacity.

In December we were in a junior suite on Anthem and were able to get Coastal Kitchen dinner reservations a few nights but of course never saw the inside of the suite lounge. Then last month we were in a suite on Allure, and we loved the suite lounge/CK combo and the all-day drink access.

Carol, thanks for the correction. I swear I read here recently on someone’s Quantum review that the suite lounge was serving the all-day drinks as well.

And if you are in a suite on Quantum class or Oasis class, your drinks are free all day in the suite lounge (beer, wine, soda, bottled water), with cocktails added during happy hour.

Not if you are in the suite lounge.

Drinks in the diamond lounge are no longer complimentary. They are deducted from your four daily allotted drinks.

Free wifi. Free drinks in the suite lounge and Coastal Kitchen (bottled water, soda, beer and wine all day, cocktails in the evening). You can eat all meals in Coastal Kitchen, but you still need to make reservations for dinner there. Free appetizers in the evening in the suite lounge. Free room service for all meals. Free pressing on the first formal night. Reserved seating in shows, so no reservations necessary except for adult comedy. Gratuities are not included.

We sail on the 22nd and are in Bermuda on the 24th and 25th 🤣

We’re currently on Allure in a crown loft suite. We love our suite & the awesome shower. We love how close we are to the Suite Lounge/Coastal Kitchen. And we love the free drinks all day in the Suite Lounge. We have an appointment with Next Cruise and want to book Oasis class again. Are Oasis and Allure the only ones with the awesome shower in the crown loft suite? I know Harmony replaced it with a tub/shower combo. What about the other Oasis class ships? We really want to book on a ship that has the awesome shower. Also, do all Oasis class ships offer free beer & wine during the day in the suite lounge, or is that just an Allure thing?

Yes, on a Sunday. Thank you. I will check this out. Do you happen to know the approximate price per bag? I read a post about it and was thinking that we’d still need to rent a car to spend the day sight seeing. I guess we could taxi or Uber to the airport in a car big enough for our luggage and then Uber wherever we want to go for the day and then Uber back to the airport. I’ll find out if the car rental ends up costing around the same or if Bags to Go is the way for us to go. Thanks again!

We are considering doing this. Royal only offers one post-cruise excursion (which we’ve done before), and it would still get us to the airport much earlier than we’d like. I wish Royal would bring back their luggage valet service so we could explore baggage free.

I too wish they’d bring back the luggage valet service. We will have most of the day to spend in Fort Lauderdale in September as we have a 5:45 pm flight, and it would be convenient if we could spend the day luggage free. The only post-cruise RCCL excursion is the Everglades airboat ride, which we’ve done before and which would still get us to the airport much sooner than we’d like. In the past they offered an excursion which took passengers to Sawgrass Mills Mall. Viator used to offer the same post-cruise tour as well. Since COVID, neither Royal nor Viator offer it. Posters here have suggested finding a luggage locker. There are none available within a reasonable distance. Others suggest a day pass to a resort hotel, but this doesn’t appeal to us as we’ll just have spent over a week in the Caribbean sun and also don’t want to mess around with transporting our luggage via taxi or Uber from cruise port to resort to airport. We are thinking our best bet will be to rent a car for the day. It’s not ideal, but we can’t find any other options that appeal to us. I’ve searched on the Florida departures board as well. What do you guys do if you find yourselves “stuck” in Florida on disembarkation day?

Yes. We were all originally booked on this cruise and were quite disappointed when it was canceled. I’m happy to read the updates about the good outcomes. We were given very limited price-protected options.