theotherchad

We have sailed on and enjoyed a number of ships and never had a bad cruise. However, I do have particular memories of two ships that were more special. The first was Rhapsody of the Seas. Our first 5 or 6 cruises were on this smaller, older ship. This ship sailed out of Galveston for several years running and there was just something special about the crew and cruise director staff. Our very first Cruise Director was Dan Whitney, better known as Dan Dan the Party Man. Then, after several sailings on that older Vision class ship, we had our first sailing on the Voyager of the Seas. That was special because this was the first sailing on a ship that had an indoor Grand Promenade! My wife loved the Vintages and I loved the pub and we both loved the Cafe' Promenade for early morning coffee and late night pizza. In May, we'll sail on our first Oasis Class ship, the Allure of the Seas. By the way, I noticed that several posters on this thread listed Allure as their fave, but the most recent reviews on Cruise Critic are very negative. Any thoughts on why this might be?

I agree about Don, more about him being annoying than about click bait. I'll occasionally watch, but he just seems to complain more than inform. I find Tony on La Lido Loca pretty amusing. I get his sense of humor and I usually agree with his opinions. Bembridge is probably the most informative cruise vlogger, and his fellow Brit, Emma Cruises is also really informative. The only issues are that Emma spends too much screen time on really cheap cruises based in the British Isles and Gary Bembridge focuses much more on the higher end super traditional cruise lines, so they aren't as tuned in to what I am interested in. If you haven't watched Visit with Us, Rich and Helen are a couple of Brits who do videos on mostly very high end cruises, but I find his narration subtly hilarious.

Wait, what? You have Don and La Lido Loca blocked? Why?

I must admit, considering that this next cruise in May is our first in about 4 years (hello COVID and other complications), and that it will be our first cruise as Diamonds, I'm way more excited than a man in his late fifties should be. We're talking "six year old who just got a pony" excited.

It depends on the ship. The policies and availability, etc of various lounges differs. Still, to me, even if the Diamond lounges did completely disappear, it seems to me that the anytime anywhere drink vouchers that replace them are an upgrade, not a cut. I do feel like for some cruisers, there is a status thing where they like the idea of being in a "special" lounge more than they care about actual benefits. As a brand new diamond, about to go on a ship that does have a diamond lounge (Allure OTS), we might go to the lounge and we might not. But we will definitely take pleasure in the roughly $60-$100 per day that 4 free drinks each will save us as a couple instead of griping about not having a lounge to make us feel special.

I've never been there. if it's still there, I don't know about it. Sorry, I don't really live in Tomball, I just sleep there.

Thanks for the responses. It's clear to me that the problems that the reviewers I mentioned had seem mostly due to their not taking advantage of the app and just not being as experienced with RCCL cruises.

Thank you! This falls into the category of "mystery solved." Basically, people who don't bother to download and use the app miss out and end up lost and confused.

Thanks, that's reassuring. The reviews made it sound like you couldn't get a reservation for anything and that everything was bad. I know that can't be right. I may have more questions, but we don't sail 'til May.

Any tips about reservations for specialty dining and shows? Which can you do on the app well in advance and which do you have to get after boarding. Any issues with this? We're sailing Allure in May of this year and I'm a bit rusty, after missing the whole COVID era of cruising. It has been nearly 4 years now for us.

There are only two reviews posted thus far on the Allure since she started sailing Western Caribbean routes out of Galveston, TX. Both reviews were so horrendous that I question what exactly is going on. One described not being able to get reservations for all but one show and not being able to get even MDR seating. It sounds crazy to me. I've never had those problems in over a dozen RCCL sailings. Can anyone who has sailed on her over the last month or so shed some light on the situation regarding Specialty dining and show reservations? How difficult is it? How early do you need to make reservations to get them?

I don't know. Is that a place in Majahual or in Tomball? 😁

There was a post on another thread saying that the Tropicante was charging $8 for beers, etc. Like really crazy prices. There is no way they could get that price, given the other competition. If it's true, that's just an idiot that doesn't understand how to run a business. I wonder if that was a rival beach restaurant trying to libel them? There are some pretty snaky people in that business.

Wow, that is insane. One of the greatest things about Mahahual and Tropicante was that the prices were always reasonable. Certainly cheaper than Cozumel or other more developed ports. I feel sure that there are more reasonable options on the beach at Mahahual.