Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[harryfat1]

Mine also as I like to have fruits after all the meat. Can’t get this at JR. Would need to go to another place to get this if I was at JR again, which is why I still prefer buffet for breakfast over JR if both places have no lines and of course, salmon.

 

 

 

A bit of glare on these next few pics but it shows the view of the back of the ship. I should have just shoved the camera next to the glass to get rid of the glare

 

 

 

Hey, just only noticed it now that the zip line landing area is like lights on street - red/yellow/green.

 

[dixi_lynn]

You mention Captain Tore. Would that be Tor Isak Olsen?

[harryfat1]

You mention Captain Tore. Would that be Tor Isak Olsen?

 

Per the picture we have with him, it says his name is Tore Grimstad

 

[TomAceEsq]

A cheap polarizing filter will help get rid of that glare. Loving your review! :)

[Josie2]

Harry, many thanks for the comprehensive reply and great photos. We are I think prepared for some extra activity in the area, and hope the primo views including of the ocean will outweigh any negatives. We also recognize it is quite a walk back there but hope this will help burn a few extra calories!

 

Thanks again.

 

 

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[harryfat1]

A cheap polarizing filter will help get rid of that glare. Loving your review! :)

 

Hi, Tom,

 

Thanks for the kind word and the heads up on the filter, but I couldn’t use a filter on those pictures because they were taken from the Panasonic underwater camera that I also use as a regular point & shoot. I do occasionally feel embarrassed to walk around the food area sticking a big old camera in front of the various food areas so when I go to the buffet, I sometimes strap on the point & shoot around my neck and that’s less conspicuous to walk around and take food pictures.

 

Especially in buffet area I have to walk around with a plate of food and then having to duck down underneath the plastic protective guard area, I feel less embarrassed with a small quickie one hand shot from a point & shoot around my neck than a big old SLR.

 

Actually I brought a polarizing filter with me on the cruise for my bridge camera – the Canon zoom but that requires me to pop in an adapter ring as those bridge cameras have no lens threads and then I also have to do a step up ring as my polarizing filter is from my wife’s Canon SLR which is different size. So with all the work involved, I never really used all the filters I brought to the cruise. Maybe on next cruise, I will spring for a new SLR for myself and play with these more.

[my3cees]

You are not cheap, we're a family of 5. I'm planning our trip as well. I love it pulled them out of school a week early, I would have done the same thing..

[TryingCruising]

I'm enjoying your review! It's allowing me to relive our Allure trip last spring. You have great photos, and I like reading about all the activities the family does together.

[my3cees]

I've read that the Aqua Theater sells out, for the public area balcony. Was it crowded? What deck is it located. Taking notes as i read.

[harryfat1]

You are not cheap, we're a family of 5. I'm planning our trip as well. I love it pulled them out of school a week early, I would have done the same thing..

 

Hi,

 

Guess “cheap” is all relative. I understand some people’s perspective, such as my wife’s, that are more purists and feel that the kids’ education should come first. I respect that concept especially after they come back from the cruise, they had to work extra during the Christmas break and we had to go to their school mate’s houses to copy the notes from school that they missed as well as well the extra homework for the week. Then the first week back to school in January, they had to do a lot of makeup tests and so on to catch up to the rest of the group. So I understand the repercussions of taking them out early.

 

However, the cost savings can be substantial. Just looking as an example of Liberty of the Seas sailing between this year’s pre-Christmas and during Christmas sailings. December 13, 2015 (preholiday – need to take kids out 1 week) for 2 cabins of 4 people at the basic Promenade view inside cabin is $1,400 per cabin or $2,800 for 4 of us. Then the immediate following week, December 20, the same cabin jumps to $2,640 per cabin or $5,280 total, for a difference of almost $2,500 extra in cost.

 

That is for a basic inside cabin. If you price out balconies, the difference is even more as now it’ll be $3,600 extra for 4 of us if we cruise one week later. The extreme premium price to pay for holiday sailings. Judging from a ship load of kids on our pre-holiday cruise, many parents came to the same conclusion as I did…

[harryfat1]

I'm enjoying your review! It's allowing me to relive our Allure trip last spring. You have great photos, and I like reading about all the activities the family does together.

 

Hi,

 

Thank you for the compliment. Yes, we pretty did everything as a group since it’s a family vacation. You will see a lot of multi-generational families during these holiday sailing times.

 

The in laws have their routine in the morning in that they are up before 7 AM and they eat at the windjammer as soon as it opens and then they walk around the ship either on deck 5 around the track or deck 15 and then they chill out at the solarium. We get up later and eat breakfast and then go back to the cabin to meet up with them at the agreed upon time and head out to do things together.

 

Cruise vacations are perfect for multi-generational groups.

[#4'smom]

Hi Harry,

 

Loving this review. We sail tomorrow on the Allure and we're super excited about it and have picked up lots of tips from you, thank you.

 

We're thinking of buying shares in RCL and I see you have done so too. As an accountant have you found this a good investment? Perks? OBC?

[harryfat1]

I've read that the Aqua Theater sells out, for the public area balcony. Was it crowded? What deck is it located. Taking notes as i read.

 

Hi,

 

I am not sure I understand your question as you are combining two ideas into one question. Let me try to break down what I know and then you can come back with a different question if my explanation didn’t answer what you have in mind.

 

Somewhere in my long report in previous pages, I did a calculation of the capacity of the aqua theater. Think it was 735 people capacity at aqua theater and they do 6 shows per cruise, that means the theater can only seat 4,400 people out of 6,300 max capacity for the ship. In theory, some people won’t be able to go but some are repeat cruisers that already seen the show and don’t need to go again.

 

The popular times (9 PM) will tend to be booked first versus the later 10:45 show. You reserve the shows either online from home prior to the cruise or do so when you board as they have a small % of seats open to be booked while on board – do so ASAP on day 1 when you board. If you don’t have show reservations, you can be at the ‘stand by’ line such that up to 10 minutes before the show, if they have people that reserved the space but didn’t come, the stand by line people are allowed to fill any vacant seats. But if you have a big family, you may not be able to find 5 seats in a row 10 minutes prior to show time.

 

The “secret/public balcony” was on Oasis prior to her dry dock in 2014, now turned into suites. Between now and Allure’s dry dock in the spring 2015, you can still access decks 11/12/14 in the back as those are still public decks. If you see from my pictures, not crowded at all at these decks to view. After Allure’s dry dock, those will also become suite balconies (I believe).

 

The best seats are still in the theater as you are closer. Try to watch the show there first to get the “wow” effect. Then you can watch it from the public balconies for the later shows, if they still exist for your sailing. If you have boardwalk balcony cabins, you can also watch the shows from there. Finally, you can just watch the show from the far back row standing if none of the options are available to you, but you will need to stand and may have people in front of you to obstruct your view.

 

So not sure if this info answers your question or not. If not, come back and ask. No worries, this is different than other cruises and took me awhile to figure it out.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry' date='

 

Loving this review. We sail tomorrow on the Allure and we're super excited about it and have picked up lots of tips from you, thank you.

 

We're thinking of buying shares in RCL and I see you have done so too. As an accountant have you found this a good investment? Perks? OBC?[/quote']

 

Hi,

 

Sorry couldn’t finish this before you guys sail away. Hopefully you find it enjoyable/entertaining. I want to see pictures of the Icky Woods dance when they called you folks to board the ship…

 

First of all, never get stock tips from people online. They know less than you do.

 

That being said, I wouldn’t buy RCI stock now when the economy is doing well. The stock has sky rocketed the past few years. The time to buy these economically sensitive stocks (meaning the company does well when people have jobs/money/401k doing well and then people spend money on cruises/vacations) is not when things are going well.

 

The best time to buy these stocks is when the economy is in the toilet. Everyone is laid off and nobody is working and taking vacation. The company does poorly financially and the stock drops. Basic adage of “buy low, sell high”. Wait couple years as the economic cycle turns downward (they always go in cycles), then buy the stock.

 

You must own at least 100 shares of the stock to get shareholder benefit and here is the link for what OBC you can get – typical $100 OBC per 7 day cruise.

 

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=103045&p=irol-shareholderbenefit

 

What you doing checking cc the night prior to cruising? Aren’t you supposed to either already be in FLL drinking away or at home packing instead of getting stock tips from a total stranger?

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

[Disney Sheep]

Hi,

 

Sorry couldn’t finish this before you guys sail away. Hopefully you find it enjoyable/entertaining. I want to see pictures of the Icky Woods dance when they called you folks to board the ship…

 

First of all, never get stock tips from people online. They know less than you do.

 

That being said, I wouldn’t buy RCI stock now when the economy is doing well. The stock has sky rocketed the past few years. The time to buy these economically sensitive stocks (meaning the company does well when people have jobs/money/401k doing well and then people spend money on cruises/vacations) is not when things are going well.

 

The best time to buy these stocks is when the economy is in the toilet. Everyone is laid off and nobody is working and taking vacation. The company does poorly financially and the stock drops. Basic adage of “buy low, sell high”. Wait couple years as the economic cycle turns downward (they always go in cycles), then buy the stock.

 

You must own at least 100 shares of the stock to get shareholder benefit and here is the link for what OBC you can get – typical $100 OBC per 7 day cruise.

 

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=103045&p=irol-shareholderbenefit

 

What you doing checking cc the night prior to cruising? Aren’t you supposed to either already be in FLL drinking away or at home packing instead of getting stock tips from a total stranger?

 

Have a wonderful cruise.

 

Ok, this made me laugh! Well, actually I have enjoyed all of your review and laughed before when reading, but this brought me out of 'lurkdom' since my DH and I have had similar conversations and made similar comments.

 

Although I am more 'administratively retentive' than 'financially' I do love me some numbers! Our family of 4 (including 2 teenagers) did an Allure cruise for March break last year, and we loved it so much we are heading back this March break to check out the Oasis. I did a cruise report on another board last year, and my spread sheet looked similar to yours - but being an 'admin type', I made my schedule in Word :). And yes, I already have a spread sheet made for our Oasis cruise, lots of pretty colours too.

 

Bottom line we are enjoying your review - I say we, since although I am reading it, every time I laugh I end up having to pass my iPad to DH - it is easier than explaining myself! And yes, that means he has read quite a lot of your review now as well! We also understand the 'camera concepts' you bring up, since we usually travel with a Canon DSLR, an Olympus waterproof camera, and a point and shoot Nikon - and DH grumbles when he has to deal with the time change issues.

 

Looking forward to 'the rest of the story'.

[charmy98]

Thank you so much for the great review. I can't wait to read the rest. I saw in an earlier post that you said you emailed your seating preference to RCL. Hubby and I will be going on the Oasis in 2 weeks time. Can you tell me where you found the seating chart for the MDR please.

[harryfat1]

Ok, this made me laugh! Well, actually I have enjoyed all of your review and laughed before when reading, but this brought me out of 'lurkdom' since my DH and I have had similar conversations and made similar comments.

 

Although I am more 'administratively retentive' than 'financially' I do love me some numbers! Our family of 4 (including 2 teenagers) did an Allure cruise for March break last year, and we loved it so much we are heading back this March break to check out the Oasis. I did a cruise report on another board last year, and my spread sheet looked similar to yours - but being an 'admin type', I made my schedule in Word :). And yes, I already have a spread sheet made for our Oasis cruise, lots of pretty colours too.

 

Bottom line we are enjoying your review - I say we, since although I am reading it, every time I laugh I end up having to pass my iPad to DH - it is easier than explaining myself! And yes, that means he has read quite a lot of your review now as well! We also understand the 'camera concepts' you bring up, since we usually travel with a Canon DSLR, an Olympus waterproof camera, and a point and shoot Nikon - and DH grumbles when he has to deal with the time change issues.

 

Looking forward to 'the rest of the story'.

 

Hi, Yvonne,

 

Thanks for the kind words from you and your husband. I always appreciate the folks coming out of the “lurkdom” to say hi. Good to have a dialog with people about cruises instead of me having a monologue by myself discussing my troubled family tree. Jokes are only funny when you hear other people laugh on the other side. With comedian in comedy club, they get instant feedback if their jokes are funny or not. With written jokes, the feedbacks are very few and far in between. So I appreciate you dropping a line as I practice my joke telling skills. My goal is to go back on the Allure as a comedian and get paid to be on the ship and I have lots accounting debit and credit jokes guaranteed to bring down the house.

 

Sounds like you are another candidate for the “Friends of Excel & Schedules”. You might not be using Excel but you do have a schedule for your cruise and with colors to boot, that sounds like you need to attend the support group!

 

Also sounds like you guys are partially employed by the Travel Channel with all your photographic equipment when you travel. Yes, make a note to synchronize those clocks or else you will be miserable for hours after the fact.

 

Have a wonderful cruise on the Oasis.

[harryfat1]

Thank you so much for the great review. I can't wait to read the rest. I saw in an earlier post that you said you emailed your seating preference to RCL. Hubby and I will be going on the Oasis in 2 weeks time. Can you tell me where you found the seating chart for the MDR please.

 

Hi,

 

Thank you for the compliment. Actually I never saw any map of the dining room. Don’t think there is one online as it’s all electronic on RCI's computer screen.

 

I saw some tables for 6 from youtube video of someone that was on the Allure so I knew they had tables for 6 by the railing. I wasn’t expecting or really knowing which table they would assign to me. Just wanted a table to see down onto deck 3 so we can take pictures. The corporate HQ lady was very nice (much nicer than the workers on the ship at the MDR by the way) in accommodating my request. And they gave me a front and center table.

 

So if you know what you want – table for X number of people in your party and where you want to sit (by railing or by window or secluded table for 2) – just email them. They are very nice.

 

Have a great cruise.

[harryfat1]

As we were in the windjammer area, it’s a good time to discuss the dreaded seating capacity percentage that I mentioned in the beginning of the report (seems like so long ago). I will probably lose the few remaining folks following this thread after writing this.

 

So the windjammer line sucks. We all experienced that first hand on any given day. Why?

 

With everything about the Oasis/Allure getting bigger and bigger compared to the previous generation of ships, did anything get smaller? As a matter of fact, yes. The often criticized windjammer buffet area became smaller. But just saying it’s smaller doesn’t work for me as an accountant; I need to quantify the difference in my head.

 

From my research online, on the Voyager class ships, the windjammer seats 670. Assuming the max capacity on a given cruise of 3,840, that yields the windjammer capacity at 670 / 3840 = 17.4%.

 

Now we move over to Freedom class ships and their windjammer capacity is 774 and the ship’s max capacity is 4,375. So that yields us 774 / 4,375 = 17.7%. Very similar results as the Voyager class.

 

Now we come to Oasis class. Max windjammer capacity is 719 (notice it seats LESS than Freedom) and theoretical max ship capacity is 6,300. That yields us a whopping low percentage of 11.4%. Compare that to the 17.4% of other classes, it’s woefully inadequate. What the heck?

 

I know that the Oasis during her recent dry-dock moved Izumi out of the windjammer area and that in theory added more capacity but even if you add in the approx. 73 seats from Izumi, that only yields you 12.6%. Still not enough in comparison to the other bigger ships. So next time you are in the long line at the windjammer, you know what is causing it.

 

So the first obvious question is why don’t they just make it bigger? It’s a huge ship after all, just make it bigger. Sounds simple, no?

 

The next question to ask is “where?” can they expand the space? They can’t go sideways toward the port or starboard side as then the windjammer would be way over the side edge of the ship. They can’t go forward and steal more space as that would block the central park area’s sun view. They can’t go back and make it bigger as they would block off the sports court and golf and zip line. They can’t go up as there are suites above and Royal makes big $$ charging premium prices for those so you know they won’t give that up. So in essence the windjammer is cornered in the slot it’s been assigned because RCI wanted the “wow” factors of central park/boardwalk and all other amenities.

 

Finally, unlike other cruise ships that have their buffet area on the same deck as the pool and therefore have people come in and out of the pool area into the buffet and if there are no tables to sit in the buffet, they can eat by the outside pool; the Allure’s windjammer is a self-contained food area. It’s not intermixed with the pool deck, which is one deck lower so there is no relief from people moving to the pool deck.

 

Here is one picture taken from the back end of Windjammer overlooking the golf and sports area. See the red arrow area? They can’t make it any bigger in crowding over toward the back as that would impact the golf on this side/zip line in the middle/basketball court on the starboard side.

 

 

I hear whole lot of snoring and crickets in the background…

[harryfat1]

After breakfast, we headed back to the cabin to meet up with the in-laws and we headed over to our first activity for the day – central park walking tour with the landscape specialist. It started at 9:30, meeting in front of the Coach Handbag store. When we got there, there was a big crowd in the area, so I thought, oh, wow, this must be a popular tour. Look how many people are here. Then the Coach store opened at 9:30 and a whole mass of people went in to visit their uncles in prison – as it turned out, the Coach store had some advertised sales that started at the same 9:30 time slot and a ton of people couldn’t pass on Coach store sale.

 

So with the rich people out of the area inside the store visiting the uncles, it was only us the poor people hanging around when the landscape specialist showed up. He is from the Philippines and he used to work for a big hotel for many years before coming on board to the Allure. There is a team of them working just on the maintenance/upkeep of all the central park plants and flowers.

 

I am the first to admit that I know ZIP/nothing/nada about plants and gardening in general. My yard work at home is limited to mowing the lawn and whacking the weeds and trimming whatever trees and bushes my wife tells me. Other words, brainless stuff. So I don’t really understand all the nuisances being discussed about plants and gardening but I found it fascinating overall on what challenges they face on a moving ship versus a land based gardening area. For example, on a ship they only have limited sunshine area because the walls of the balconies limit sunshine to only when the sun is high in the sky. They don’t get much early morning or late afternoon sunshine due to the angle limitations.

 

I also have to admit I wasn’t paying 100% attention to what was being said as I was busy on the side taking pictures or just drifting off with my ADHD. Of the few things I did hear (and remember), it’s this crane thing – looks like a harpoon or missile launcher from a war ship but it’s actually a crane that lifts pellets of plants/flowers to and from the central park area whenever they switch out different plants. For example, since it was December during the holiday season, they had a whole bunch of poinsettias on the ship. Later on, that would be removed to be replaced by something else and if anything big is needed to be carried on and off the ship, they use the crane from above to do that.

 

The original concept of the plants in central park called for more exotic type of tropical trees but due to US agricultural limitations for fear of bug infestation on those plants, they had to scrap those and opted for more US friendly plants/trees. The ship buys from supplier in the Florida area that knows all the US regulations so they get the plants & trees that comply without any problems.

 

When the Oasis was in Europe in 2014, they had to replace up to 4,000 plants on the ship as the weather in Europe is vastly different than the Caribbean and what would grow in the warm moist climate would die in Europe. So whatever lessons they learned from Oasis in summer of 2014, they will use it for the Allure in 2015 when she goes across the Atlantic.

Later on, I will show a butterfly that was flying around in the garden area during the tour. He said that probably was a stowaway from the prior week in St. Maarten as they have a butterfly from there.

 

Another interesting story told was that sometimes they get birds that comes inside the central park and stay and then at night time fly into the central park balconies when the people open their balcony doors and they would scream and call guest service in frantic voice saying they have “big birds” invading their cabins and the landscape people would have to go to the cabin along with ship security to crawl all over the cabin underneath the bed/inside the closet/bathroom to find these tiny birds.

 

There were other info he talked about during the whole tour but like I said, I didn’t pay 100% attention and was drifting off to the side taking pictures. In theory, I could go back and listen to the camcorder session as my son recorded most of it but I am sure most of the people won’t care to know that much stuff. Overall, it was a great tour. Look for it during the sea day on your daily compass. Considering it’s a free tour (did I mention I am cheap), it’s very nice.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Crane above at the top

 

 

Close up shot

 

 

These central park view cabins would have been ours if we hadn’t jumped on the sales price to move over to balcony view for $20/pp upgrade

 

 

Note where the umbrellas are – by the entrances/exit area of central park in the background. The presenter was telling people to look behind them about something but I don’t remember what (hey, don’t knock it, not a professional reviewer, ok?)

 

 

After enough background info, time for the walking part of the tour. Note the irrigation hose

 

 

[Coralc]

Well, *I* think it is interesting. Agriculture, remember? And I inspect a branch of the company, Ambius that did the original planting/design/living wall for Oasis and Allure. It will be a tour we will take when we sail on the big ships. Thanks. :)

[S.C.]

All caught up this is a great review!

[travelgoddess1]

Just for the record, Harry, I am also laughing (at the appropriate moments) when reading your reviews. And so are the 66,600 or so people who are following this. :D

 

I believe that RCI thought the other dining venues around the ship would relieve the pressure from the WJ. Other ships have fewer choices, so the WJ had to be larger. Obviously, they thought wrong, as the WJ gets quite crowded at certain times. Your observations about timing to avoid crowds is spot on, and we do a lot of that, as well. We do our part to alleviate crowding -- we have never gone to the WJ on either Oasis or Allure (other than the time I stepped inside to take photos). You're welcome. :rolleyes: :D

 

I will be sure to book your comedy show next time we sail with you and your family!

Edited January 25, 2015 by travelgoddess1

[Museofthesoul22]

Loving this review. You are so funny and you can definitely count me into the Friends of Excel group :-) it might or might not be one of my favorite things to create Excel tracking sheets for everything. My DW thinks I'm crazy, but hey how else would I know my vacation utilization rate for any given year and the percent that is on a real vacation vs other life stuff :-P

 

I've become slightly addicted to reading your review and literally spent a good chunk of yesterday reliving your cruise experience. When I first clicked on this and saw the over 400 posts there was no way I thought we would still be on the review or digest should I say (?) and very interested by the end!

 

I now really want to cruise on the Oasis/Allure, but I am also excited for our first RCCL cruise on the Freedom this September :-) I am definitely in the category of this is where I want to go and this is the best value to get me there. We use Costco Travel and we got a screaming good deal on the Freedom cruise :-) not that I monitor cruise prices weekly, daily, hourly after booking or anything.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Upcoming Booked Cruises:

 

Princess Cruise Line- Regal Princess departing March 22, 2015 (Eastern Caribbean)

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line- Freedom of the Seas departing September 27, 2015 (Western Caribbean)

 

Past Cruises:

 

Princess Cruise Line- Grand Princess in May of 2001 (Eastern Caribbean)

Disney Cruise Line- Disney Magic in February 1999 (Bahamas)