A toddler takes her parents cruising: Allure of the Seas June 24, 2012

[SarahGT]

We survived our big family cruise on the Allure of the Seas (June 24, 2012, Eastern Caribbean) and I thought I'd share our experience with others, especially since I found so many helpful trip reports (Nenner1, QTMichele, Terpfan101, BrianAlt, and many others). I do have some pictures, but not as many general pictures as I had hoped to take due to unforeseen circumstances (illness and a toddler being the primary ones).

 

About us:

My husband and I live in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and have a 21-month-old daughter, Samara. We’ve travelled a lot with her (Jamaica when she was 7 months old, San Diego last summer, San Francisco this spring, and lots of long car trips to see family). She’s typically a trooper when it comes to travelling or pretty much anything else (we are so spoiled).

 

This was a big family vacation trip, as we were travelling with all of my husband’s family. His dad (my FIL) arranged this cruise as a birthday present for my MIL and then paid our fares to join them (very, very generous). There are three siblings (husband, SIL-1 and SIL-2), living on both coasts, with the parents in New Mexico, so we don’t all get together very often. Planning started last October and a cruise on Disney was considered as an option, but my MIL and SIL-2 both loved what they’d heard on the Allure of the Seas, so we went with that (and Disney was much more expensive and MIL is a Chicago-freak).

 

So we planned this excursion to be a surprise for my MIL. For her birthday (in late May), FIL told her about it, that they were going on a romantic cruise for two (Tee hee). They’d cruised lots of times before, but never just by themselves.

 

Here’s my MIL’s reaction to finding out about this romantic trip:

 

 

 

We would then surprise her onboard with the whole family and more waterworks would ensue.

 

So, besides ourselves, here’s our travelling companions:

FIL and MIL

SIL-1, husband (BIL-1), and two daughters (6 and 4) (niece1 and niece2)

SIL-2, husband (BIL-2) and 14-month-old son (nephew)

SIL-2’s MIL

 

We were all on Deck 12, balcony cabins (again, thank you, very generous FIL). SIL-2 and us had adjoining cabins, and everyone else was nearby. We were in cabin 12696 (bed near the balcony).

 

Towards the door/closet

 

Towards the balcony.

 

Please ignore the mess – this was taken as we were packing – our room didn’t always look this bad. We later figured out that we could have scooched the couch down and put the pack-and-play right next to the bed and have had more room to walk, but I wanted some distance between the babe and our bed.

 

Thanks for reading along so far. I’ll do my best to answer any questions anyone has. We didn’t do as many activities as I’d thought we would, and I may not remember everything, but I’ll do my best.

 

I will also be posting the cruise planners from our trip (as soon as I get them scanned). Any hints as to the best way to post them will be much appreciated. I’m using picasa for the photos.

 

 

Next up:

Planning and packing

[dal_diva]

So far so good, anxious to hear the rest of the story.

 

And, you do indeed have a very generous FIL.

 

d

[SarahGT]

Once we’d booked the cruise, the planning began – all in secret for fear of spoiling the MIL’s surprise (totally worth it). I am the designated planner for family trips and so began researching what to do for the cruise.

 

Before we left, I’d booked for the entire family (party of 13):

A meal at Samba, Chops, and Giovanni’s (all at 6 pm – for the kiddos)

 

The dancer at Samba (with an entranced niece)

 

My Time Dining at 5:30 for the remaining evenings

Note: because we had a party bigger than 10 (although they didn’t charge us for the two toddlers), I had to book the specialty dining reservations via e-mail (I forget the branch of RCL that I contacted, but the pre-cruise planner phone staff were able to direct me to the correct person)

 

Chicago (for day 3 at 7 pm) (the two BILs and all the kiddos did not come to this show)

 

For just our family of three, I booked:

Excursions for St. Thomas (Destination St. John: Coastal Cruise) and St. Maarten (Butterfly Farm and Marigot)

A character breakfast (for Day 6), Ice Games, the Prohibition Party, Ocean Aria, and Blue Planet (the last three just for the husband and I)

 

Because I’d likely waited too long to book Ocean Aria and Blue Planet (I booked these about 3-4 weeks before we left), only late night showings were available for these, so we knew we’d have to make arrangements for the tot (grandparents, nursery, whatever) She likely would have loved both shows, so I should have gotten to this earlier. We also likely would have been able to get seats on board for earlier shows, but I wanted everything in place before hand (did I mention that I’m the designated trip planner?)

 

For those not packing for little ones, you can skip the next section:

What we took with us:

 

2 checked bags (with much finagling to get to 50 pounds)

 

2 carry-ons (backpacks), 1 personal bag (baby tote)

 

Stroller (umbrella stroller - First Years Ignite - it has a shade, reclines part way, and can hold up to 50 pounds – although she’s not there yet!) Samara really likes this stroller and we've had success travelling with it to SF and Philly and car trips and the park

 

Our stroller rests in Central Park after a long day of hitting the hallways (please note that the stroller is fully licensed and registered)

 

Ergo baby carrier - did not use this as much as expected to - we usually use this in the airport parking lot - shuttle - check-in - security trek, but since we weren't in economy parking - that was full!!, we didn't have to - we did use it for the St. Johns excursion

 

Baby in Ergo baby carrier, mama with back pack to balance baby - in St. Thomas before our excursion

 

Folding bathtub - Prince Lionheart - folded up small enough to fit in a checked suitcase. While this might not be on some packing lists, I was really happy to have it. We’d had difficulty getting Samara to take showers on other trips, and I just wanted something that I knew would work. This is a great tub – we actually use it as our primary baby bathtub at home as well.

 

Bathtub in the shower of our stateroom

 

Enough snacks and diapers to get us through the first day in Florida

 

Arranged for a pack-and-play at the pre-cruise hotel and onboard

 

Next up:

Fort Lauderdale adventures

[retiredgram]

Great so far. Keep it coming.

[NorbertsNiece]

Loving this :D

[meggie711]

Enjoying your review!! The pics of the surprise brought tears to my eyes. So sweet. :)

 

I wish I'd known about the portable bathtub before! Would have been great for camping trips with our little one.

[chipq]

Great start, thanks for sharing. I also wish we had a collapsable bathtub the first cruise with my daughter; the shower was quite an adventure!

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

[SarahGT]

Enjoying your review!! The pics of the surprise brought tears to my eyes. So sweet. :)

 

Thanks for the encouragement. Those of us at the dinner where my MIL found out she and my FIL were going on a cruise really played it up - "oh, how romantic, just the two of you!" (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). We even had our daughter wish them a bon voyage before the cruise.

 

The surprise on board was even better! It was so worth the hassle, although I'm still amazed that my FIL managed to hide the credit card statements for the cruise (since he and my MIL work together in the family business - along with SIL-2).

[SarahGT]

Great start, thanks for sharing. I also wish we had a collapsable bathtub the first cruise with my daughter; the shower was quite an adventure!

 

http://luv2cruise.blogspot.com

 

Yeah, after our first adventure in a hotel with only a shower did not go so well, I went a little crazy figuring out what to use and spent way too much time looking for photos of the bathrooms on the Allure of the Seas. I also thought of using an inflatable tub or a a drain plug/flap cover to create a shallow tub out of the shower base. The drain plug would not have worked at all as our shower's drain was large and rectangular - which I didn't know before our cruise.

[jlrn366419]

Maybe you can confirm whether or not strollers were available to rent. I know the website says they are not but they were listed as available to rent (I think, it's been nearly a year) on the kids compass last year on oasis.

 

Loving this review btw! Will be on Allure w/our 2 yo next month.

[Familygoboston]

Yeah, after our first adventure in a hotel with only a shower did not go so well, I went a little crazy figuring out what to use and spent way too much time looking for photos of the bathrooms on the Allure of the Seas. I also thought of using an inflatable tub or a a drain plug/flap cover to create a shallow tub out of the shower base. The drain plug would not have worked at all as our shower's drain was large and rectangular - which I didn't know before our cruise.

 

I love the tub idea! I thought when I had mine 20 years ago they had invented scads of stuff since I was a kid, but they just keep coming up with more;)

Enjoying your review and it will be very helpful to the next grandparents and parents traveling with we ones!

[SarahGT]

Maybe you can confirm whether or not strollers were available to rent. I know the website says they are not but they were listed as available to rent (I think, it's been nearly a year) on the kids compass last year on oasis.

 

Loving this review btw! Will be on Allure w/our 2 yo next month.

 

Here's what the Royal Babies and Tots compass says "The Royal Babies and Tots Nursery has a limited amount of strollers to make traveling with your little one a little easier. Please stop by the Royal Babies and Tots Nursery on Deck 14 Forward, during open hours to rent a stroller. Strollers are recommended for children under 55 pounds." It doesn't say anything about the fee for renting a stroller - sorry. I hope you have a great cruise.

 

I'll have the Royal Babies and Tots compass scanned soon and will post it.

 

Sarah

[jlrn366419]

Here's what the Royal Babies and Tots compass says "The Royal Babies and Tots Nursery has a limited amount of strollers to make traveling with your little one a little easier. Please stop by the Royal Babies and Tots Nursery on Deck 14 Forward, during open hours to rent a stroller. Strollers are recommended for children under 55 pounds." It doesn't say anything about the fee for renting a stroller - sorry. I hope you have a great cruise.

 

I'll have the Royal Babies and Tots compass scanned soon and will post it.

 

Sarah

 

Perfect, thanks so much for the information.

[sunset785]

I am super excited about your review! We are taking our 18 month old next June and needed ideas for excursions that would be suitable for him.

[dep]

Once we’d booked the cruise, the planning began – all in secret for fear of spoiling the MIL’s surprise (totally worth it). I am the designated planner for family trips and so began researching what to do for the cruise.

 

Before we left, I’d booked for the entire family (party of 13):

A meal at Samba, Chops, and Giovanni’s (all at 6 pm – for the kiddos)

 

The dancer at Samba (with an entranced niece)

 

My Time Dining at 5:30 for the remaining evenings

Note: because we had a party bigger than 10 (although they didn’t charge us for the two toddlers), I had to book the specialty dining reservations via e-mail (I forget the branch of RCL that I contacted, but the pre-cruise planner phone staff were able to direct me to the correct person)

 

Chicago (for day 3 at 7 pm) (the two BILs and all the kiddos did not come to this show)

 

For just our family of three, I booked:

Excursions for St. Thomas (Destination St. John: Coastal Cruise) and St. Maarten (Butterfly Farm and Marigot)

A character breakfast (for Day 6), Ice Games, the Prohibition Party, Ocean Aria, and Blue Planet (the last three just for the husband and I)

 

Because I’d likely waited too long to book Ocean Aria and Blue Planet (I booked these about 3-4 weeks before we left), only late night showings were available for these, so we knew we’d have to make arrangements for the tot (grandparents, nursery, whatever) She likely would have loved both shows, so I should have gotten to this earlier. We also likely would have been able to get seats on board for earlier shows, but I wanted everything in place before hand (did I mention that I’m the designated trip planner?)

 

For those not packing for little ones, you can skip the next section:

What we took with us:

 

2 checked bags (with much finagling to get to 50 pounds)

 

2 carry-ons (backpacks), 1 personal bag (baby tote)

 

Stroller (umbrella stroller - First Years Ignite - it has a shade, reclines part way, and can hold up to 50 pounds – although she’s not there yet!) Samara really likes this stroller and we've had success travelling with it to SF and Philly and car trips and the park

 

Our stroller rests in Central Park after a long day of hitting the hallways (please note that the stroller is fully licensed and registered)

 

Ergo baby carrier - did not use this as much as expected to - we usually use this in the airport parking lot - shuttle - check-in - security trek, but since we weren't in economy parking - that was full!!, we didn't have to - we did use it for the St. Johns excursion

 

Baby in Ergo baby carrier, mama with back pack to balance baby - in St. Thomas before our excursion

 

Folding bathtub - Prince Lionheart - folded up small enough to fit in a checked suitcase. While this might not be on some packing lists, I was really happy to have it. We’d had difficulty getting Samara to take showers on other trips, and I just wanted something that I knew would work. This is a great tub – we actually use it as our primary baby bathtub at home as well.

 

Bathtub in the shower of our stateroom

 

Enough snacks and diapers to get us through the first day in Florida

 

Arranged for a pack-and-play at the pre-cruise hotel and onboard

 

Next up:

Fort Lauderdale adventures

 

Where did you purchase that bathtub ? PLEASE

[ginamarie935]

I love the picture of your daughter watching the Samba dancer. Her face says it all. I can't wait to hear the story of how you all surprise your MIL. She is one lucky lady. :)

[SarahGT]

Where did you purchase that bathtub ? PLEASE

 

I picked it up at Target - but the Target nearest my house didn't have any - I had spotted it at another one. Amazon also has them - in more color choices. The official name is the Prince Lionheart Flexi Bath. I will warn you that the stopper is sometimes a bit squirrely to get into the drain hole, but it stays in securely, despite my daughter's wanting to play with it.

 

Sarah

[SarahGT]

I forgot to add in the earlier post on planning – My in-laws are big wine fans, and although we did not purchase a wine package for the cruise, every other family we were travelling with did, however (of varying sizes – 4 bottles to 12 bottles), however, and we had more than enough wine.

 

Also, I had looked into the RCI's Babies 2 Go program where you can pre-purchase diapers, wipes, and baby food for use onboard. I didn't go with it because it seemed really expensive ($24 for 24 size 4 Huggies diapers and $5 for 33 wipes), it only offered diapers in sizes 2-4, and we would have time (and luggage space) to pick up diapers once we were in Ft. Lauderdale. I do not know if diapers, wipes, and baby food were available for purchase somewhere on the ship. I would assume they would be, but I (thankfully) never had to find out (or look for them in port).

 

Since our cruise left on a Sunday and we wanted to ease into our vacation, so we flew down to Ft. Lauderdale on Friday morning. The flight (United from DCA) was around 2.5 hours long and uneventful. Samara napped a little, screamed none, and enjoyed the matching game on my iPhone.

 

We had booked a 1-bedroom suite at the Robindale Suites (709 Breakers Ave. 954-565-4123, 1-800-342-7109) for $99/nt + tax. I wanted a hotel near the beach and stumbled upon this hotel (it’s part of a group of small-ish hotels that seem to be mostly renovated apartment complexes). A couple of days before we left, I got a call from the hotel. There would be exterior paining going on at the Robindale Suites while we were there - would that bother us? If we wanted, they would move us to another hotel in their group for no additional charge. So, we took them up on their offer and were now reserved at the Winterset Suites (2801 Terramar Street, 800-888-2639; normally $150/nt for a 1-bedroom). What awesome customer service to let us know about the work and offer a remedy.

 

The taxi from the airport was around $25. There wasn’t much in close walking distance to the hotel (besides the beach and other hotels) – but the grocery and Galleria mall were maybe a 30 minute walk away. Our room had a living room with dining area, small kitchen, and separate bedroom with bathroom. This spoiled us before the cruise, but it was definitely nice to have some parental-only space and be able to watch movies after Samara went to sleep. The hotel had two small pools, coin operated laundry facilities, beach towels and mats for guests to use, and lots of lizards for little girls to search for in the gardens. My photos of the exterior of the hotel did not turn out at all - guess I shouldn't have tried to take them in the rain - but it was a lovely, lush landscape. The hotel was great for us – not a boutique hotel by any means, but it gave us room to hang out and relax.

 

Living area/baby's room.

 

(Parental) bedroom with king bed.

 

The weather was not looking great for our stay in Fort Lauderdale – tropical storm/depression Debbie was off the coast and things were rather wet and windy for much of our stay.

 

The first night we walked to the Galleria Mall in search of dinner and a grocery store to stock up on baby essentials and items for breakfast – having a kitchen in our room was great. We had a lovely dinner at Seasons 52 – great food, awesome wine, well-behaved baby, friendly waiter. Ahhh…. We were on vacation.

 

The second day in Ft. Lauderdale began rather rainy, so we stayed indoors and read/played games. That afternoon we visited the Bonnet House – a 15-20 minute walk from our hotel. The Bonnet House (900 N Birch Rd.) is an early twentieth century artist's studio (Frederic Clay Bartlett is the artist – I hadn’t heard of him before this trip) and gardens. We had a coupon from Sunny.org for buy-one-get-one free admission, so we bought two house tours (which also included the gardens). It was a typical old-house tour (I say this as a former old-house-tour docent myself). It wasn’t really a lot of fun for Samara, so we took turns with her and the staff were great, helping her find some swans and lizards to look at. We also took a golf cart tour of the grounds – where we saw a raccoon in the middle of the day and a small flock of monkeys that live on the property. The grounds were probably the best part of the property. They’re pretty extensive and not too-mucked with from what was formerly a barrier island.

 

Here's some views of the Bonnet House:

 

 

These are shells embedded in the walls

 

Baby on the run - these steps and many of the paths throughout the house were made of coral.

 

Since the rain appeared to be holding off, we went to the beach where there were yellow flags at the lifeguard posts. The water was very nice, but Samara wasn’t too keen on it. So we again took turns walking along the beach with her, as she didn’t like it when either of us went into the water without her. There were lots of sea turtle nests roped off along the beach, so we talked about turtles a lot.

 

That evening we had dinner at a nearby hotel – I’m drawing a blank at the name, but it was not nearly as good (baby behavior or foodwise) as the night before.

 

In the next installment: Surprise!

[troyandcarol]

Awesome so far!! We are leaving in a couple weeks with our 3 soon to be 4 y/o daughter and I love reading about how other families do it. Thank you for taking the time to help us all out:)

[vivavegas]

Loving your review! Looking forward to reading more!:)

[Wilda]

Can't wait for the "surprise" part of your review...:D

[SarahGT]

Can't wait for the "surprise" part of your review...:D

 

I hope to have that posted tonight, but I need to wait for "someone" to let her mama type

After the surprise, I think the review is going to get a lot less detailed (spoiler alert) as husband, baby, and I all get sick by the second day. Ick. and stay sick for most of the rest of the cruise. Double ick.

[newbiecruiser09]

Loving reading your review fellow No Va poster :D

[KatieMcG]

So sorry to hear you guys got sick! We are planning a cruise with our little one, who will be 18 months when we go. Where did you "arrange" the pack and play rental - through the hotel, the cruise line, or a rental agency near the port? Would you mind sharing how much the rental was?

 

Also, if your third passenger doesn't need a bed, do you have to book for a 3-person cabin? Or can you put the pack and play in a 2-person stateroom, and let travelers who need the 3rd bed have the 3-person rooms?

[newbiecruiser09]

Also, if your third passenger doesn't need a bed, do you have to book for a 3-person cabin? Or can you put the pack and play in a 2-person stateroom, and let travelers who need the 3rd bed have the 3-person rooms?

 

Every "body" on the ship has to be accounted (and paid) for so if you are having 3 in a room (regardless of sleeping arrangements) you need to book a room that holds 3.