Back from the Allure with an18-month old

[sherezada]

We had a blast! I actually think the baby enjoyed it more than us! Here are some of my thoughts:

 

-Royal Babies nursery is wonderful! It's $8/hr. We left him both formal nights for 2 hours. He didn't cry when we left him and he was sound asleep when we picked him up. They give you a phone in case they need to contact you, and a report when you pick him up, with what he did/ate/drank, when he went to sleep...even which toys he liked to play with!. They ladies were amazing. The only bummer is that they are only open til midnight. We had to cut off our "dancing time" (music starts at 10:30 pm).

 

-There's a huge room with all sorts of toys, soft climbing areas, small slides, etc for parents to play with their kids. We visited it once and had it all to ourselves. Mi kid enjoyed it a lot.

 

-There are so many activities kids can enjoy: the parade, the Madagascar show in the Aqua theater, the fountain show, the carousel, the balloon artist, the family festivals at the Boradwalk, the 3D children movies...there's even a special "fish" show for kids at the Kids Zone theater.

 

-Do the DreamWorks breakfast! It was great to be able to see and take pictures with the characters (with your own camera), instead of chasing them around the ship whenever they were scheduled to appear.

 

-The dining room has a kids menu. Every night my husband kept eating our kid's food! It was that good. By the end of the week, when the waiter brought the plate to the table he said "should I put it in front of the baby or just give it to you?" LOL!

 

-Bathrooms diaper changing stations are stocked with Huggies wipes

 

-We requested the pack-n-play, but didn't use it. Instead, we pushed the bed against the wall, took out one of the extra duvets from underneath the bed and converted the bay window into his own little bed (we had an Central Park View room in Deck 9). It worked perfectly, and we appreciated the extra space that would've otherwise been taken by the pack-n-play.

 

-Diapers: I brought about 10 diapers from home, then bought a medium size pack of diapers(46) in FL before I boarded. It was the perfect amount. By the end of the trip I had about 10 diapers left.

 

-Other things I bought before boarding: a small pack of swim diapers, 2 cases of water, one 10-pack of Capri Sun juices, goldfish crackers. All were used by the time we left. I also bought a bucket and shovel, and some water toys from the dollar store, which I then donated to other kids at the pool the last day.

 

Things I will not pack next time:

-baggies for soiled diapers- The room gets serviced twice day. I never felt they stinked up the room, plus we were hardly ever there anyway.

 

-inflatable tub- he did fine just standing in the shower while I bathed him (there was enough space in the shower for him and me kneeling down), and the baby splash zone was more than enough for water fun.

Tip: once we got to the pool too late (baby zone closes at 5pm) and my baby was eager to get in the water, so I got him into the shower right by the baby splash zone, and every time he said "water" I pressed the button. He enjoyed it a lot.

 

-I didn't bring a shoe organizer and I didn't need it. There is soo much storage space in the cabin!

 

If you have any other questions let me know.

[Colorado Kat]

That sounds like a wonderful trip for your family! I'm glad things went well.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Thanks for the review! I'm thinking of booking a cruise on this ship for my family next year. Did you have just a window view of Central Park or the balcony? We are looking into a Central Park balcony! Also.. Could you tell us more about what's offered for breakfast & lunch? I have never sailed with RCI so this would be new for me! Is the MDR open every morning for a sit down breakfast? Thanks! :)

[sherezada]

We had the Central Park View (bay window), no balcony. Honestly, I liked it better because of the whole "bay window bed" we did for our toddler. I've heard some people like the balcony rooms so they can have a space to hang out while the baby sleeps in the room, but we traveled with our parents, so whenever we wanted some alone time we left the baby with them. Now, if you don't have kids, then by all means go with the balcony. Although, I have to be honest, we were barely in the room. I think I'd rather walk around central park than be in a balcony looking at it (and use the extra money for buying stuff/drinks on the ship).

 

The MDR is open for breakfast every day. I think it is open for lunch only on sea days. We went there for breakfast twice (once for Dreamworks experience). You can do a la carte or use their buffet. On the buffet they have the usual: eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, rolls, fruits. On a la carte you can order other things like pancakes, waffles, omelets, etc. They had a chocolate indulgence section in a la carte, with chocolate rolls/muffins, chocolate pancakes, chocolate shakes, etc, which I took full advantage of. MMmm, delicious!

 

If you go to the Windjammer for breakfast you have way more options: honey ham, salmon, cold cuts, cereal, hard boiled eggs, french toast/pancackes/waffles, yogurt, hash browns with corned beef...even fried rice! The food in RC is delicious, in my opinion. I miss it a lot.

[JennLuvs2Cruise]

Thanks so much for the information. And yes, I have a son who would be 2 & 1/2 at the time of the cruise. We are very excited to try out the Allure of the Seas. And I agree about the balcony being sort of useless when you could easily just walk through the neighborhoods themselves & enjoy it more. I think the window will be good enough for us! And my mom & aunt sail with us as well, so I will have some help from them when I need some alone time. We may also use the Nursery one or two nights to try the speciality restaurants. Did you try any of them? Any you recommend? Thanks so much! :)

[sherezada]

Unfortunately we didn't try any of the specialty restaurants on this trip. We were a party of 11 as a family reunion, and it was the first cruise for many of the members, so they wanted to experience the complimentary stuff first. We would've felt bad to diss them to go to a specialty restaurant. I mean, the whole purpose of the trip was to spend time together!

 

Next time we'll definitely try one or two.

[Keith1010]

I am glad to hear the vacation was a success.

 

Keith

[Shado716]

I am so glad to see this! I leave on Sunday June 5th on the Allure with my family and my 18 month old son.

Did you use the in room baby sitting at all? Also, was there any problem scheduling time with the nursery or was it pretty much available whenever you needed it? I heard they only let you schedule a certain number of hours for the nursery??

 

I was going to bring my son's inflatable tub.... He HATES the shower at home. Is the shower a handheld? If so, I may leave the tub at home too.

 

How did you schedule the dreamworks breakfasts? When I tried to schedule on line, I was not able to... I hope I am able to do this once onboard?

 

Any other tips or hints you have would be great. I am so glad to hear your little one did great. :)

[sherezada]

I am so glad to see this! I leave on Sunday June 5th on the Allure with my family and my 18 month old son.

Did you use the in room baby sitting at all? Also, was there any problem scheduling time with the nursery or was it pretty much available whenever you needed it? I heard they only let you schedule a certain number of hours for the nursery??

 

We didn't use the in-room babysitting (we had our parents for that :-)

When we went to sign up for the Royal Babies, the lady told us we had 20 hrs we could schedule at that time, then after day 3 more slots would open up, as other parents didn't book them. I only booked 4 hrs. The way I saw it, I didn't pay a bunch of money to have my kid stuck in a nursery all the time. I wanted him to enjoy the cruise with us.

 

I was going to bring my son's inflatable tub.... He HATES the shower at home. Is the shower a handheld? If so, I may leave the tub at home too.

Yes, the shower is a handheld, and there is a bar placed low in the shower (I assume for you to rest your foot in while you shave), that your kid could hold on to.

 

How did you schedule the dreamworks breakfasts? When I tried to schedule on line, I was not able to... I hope I am able to do this once onboard?

I tried doing it online too and couldn't find how to. When I got to the room, I saw that I could have scheduled through the TV, but everything was already booked! So I went to guest services to see if there was any way we could get into one, and the lady did her magic and got all 11 of us in for one morning.

 

Any other tips or hints you have would be great.

If you're using one of those spray sunscreens, put it on before you get to the pool deck. Otherwise you'll waste half of it. It is very windy out there!