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

[harryfat1]

Let’s see, it’s 3 PM, which meant time for the last reserved show, Ice Games. I personally don’t like to do any shows on day 7 as that’s my “frantic” time as in I am frantic to run around the ship doing things that are on my check off of things to do and still haven’t done it yet and I hate to have a show time in middle of the day that blocks out my precious time. (See attached PDF once again about show times)

 

But if you look at when they offer the Ice show, it’s not an easy choice, especially if you have the traditional dinner at 6. For example, if you want this show at day 2, your only choice is 5 PM. That is pretty aggressive scheduling in think you can be dressed for a formal night for a whole family to be inside the skating rink by 4:30 for a 5 PM show. You would need to start showering/getting dressed by 3:30, especially if you have a family of 4 that needs to use the bathroom. You are almost giving up the ½ of the afternoon for this show.

 

The next choice is day 5. That conflicts with the “headliner” show. Which is why it would be great if you KNOW ahead of time who is the dang headliner is so you can either skip the headliner show and go to ice show on day 5 instead. But you don’t know so you reserve a slot for the headliner, just in case he/she/they are good. This leaves the last slot of 3:30PM on day 7 as the only time for the ice show for us.

 

So what is “Ice Games”? Again, the plot (if there was even one) makes no more sense than the previous Madagascar show. Essentially they are just showing you the various neighbor/areas of the ship. Which is somewhat silly as you are seeing this on day 7. Shouldn’t they be telling me that Giovanni is a place to eat at day 1 at the BEGINNING of my cruise rather the end?

 

Whatever. Like in Monopoly, you roll the dice between sets and then you “land” on a neighborhood. Yeah, doesn’t make much sense to me either. Just watch it for the technical skating part, which was quite good.

 

 

Allure of the seas showtime.pdf

[harryfat1]

Oh, before I start, let me digress some more. I already mentioned in previous posts one of my pet peeves is people saving seats even when the PA kept broadcasting “Please do not save seats”. Saw a grandpa/grandma take seat reserving to a whole new level. They came in and blocked out the middle end area – the prime real estate- to save seats for their family.

 

They had the grandma sit in the aisle seat and physically prevent anyone from crossing the seat and then grandpa stands up facing the back with his arms stretched out to block out the total of 7+ seats for the rest of the family.

 

WTH? If I was drunk and belligerent and not with the family, I would try to sit in those seats and have a big argument with them until security comes as they are nor supposed to save seats. I can understand someone having a seat for a spouse but when 2 saving for 7+ and being so blatant about it, that’s just wrong.

 

To top it off, at 3:20, the rest of their clan shows up (Asian woman in her 30’s with man and kids) and the grandpa asked, where were you guys, we have been saving these seats for you? Know what the woman answered? But the show doesn’t start until 3:30, it’s only 3:20, what’ the hurry?

 

ARRRRGGGHHH - If I could instantly transport bad thoughts from my head to hers, I would have done it. I think when God was handing out brains to each person in the world, this woman missed the memo and didn’t stand on line…If she was half way apologetic in being late due to whatever reason (long lines at gift shop/photo shop/kids play ground), then I would let it go as unfortunate delay caused her to be late. But her being so nonchalant about taking up seats where others could have been sitting in bugs me.

 

Yeah, I know anal people and their pet peeves.

 

Anyway, onward with the show

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

Giovanni- they were playing the famous Italian song, Funiculi Funicula, during the skating piece. You can listen to a different version to have an idea on what was the background music since we are not allowed to videotape these shows

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

This move you won’t see everyday

 

[harryfat1]

Whatever you do, don’t let go…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aferschweiler]

Hi Harry - I am too a lurker who is very much enjoying your review. I will be sailing on the Oasis one year from now (but who's counting) with my husband and 2 sons. After reading your review on your cabins, I was able to switch from one oceanview balcony to 2 boardwalk balcony rooms for less money!! I think the boys will really enjoy watching all of happenings down below. I was wondering though from your perspective, would you rather have adjoining cabins on the 14th or 10th floors of the oasis? Thanks again for all they information, entertainment, and pics. Helps get my kiddos pretty excited :) Take care from Portland OR!

[harryfat1]

Dude is ready for formal night in the MDR. Think anyone from cruise critic will complain about his dress code ruining their dinner/cruise if they sat within 100 feet of him?

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

 

 

Now it’s “On Air” – the Karoke/music place

 

 

[harryfat1]

Kids, don’t try this at home

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

Double swing & spin

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Ring lady from Russia

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Challenger arcade

 

 

 

 

 

Land in jail

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

The ring lady taking a special bow

 

 

Big Finale with everyone coming out

 

 

Overall it was a good show. I recall back on the Mariner when we saw the first ice show, it was like a WOW experience to see that on a cruise ship. Now it’s less of a wow factor in comparison to the aqua shows but in of itself, it was a good show. Ignore the content and look at it for the technical skating work and you should enjoy it. Just be sure to reserve the time slot for it.

 

Note we sat at the “end zone” section but higher up compared to sitting in row 1 on the side for the How to Train Your Dragon show. I prefer to be on the side as you don’t see as many heads in photos when they take them but you don’t have skaters coming at you and you don’t see the words as easily from the side. Like this last shot above - you can only get this sitting in the end zone section.

 

Pick your poison.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry - I am too a lurker who is very much enjoying your review. I will be sailing on the Oasis one year from now (but who's counting) with my husband and 2 sons. After reading your review on your cabins, I was able to switch from one oceanview balcony to 2 boardwalk balcony rooms for less money!! I think the boys will really enjoy watching all of happenings down below. I was wondering though from your perspective, would you rather have adjoining cabins on the 14th or 10th floors of the oasis? Thanks again for all they information, entertainment, and pics. Helps get my kiddos pretty excited :) Take care from Portland OR!

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

Great that you can switch and get more space for family of 4 in 2 cabins. If you saw my previous posts of the 2 connecting cabins and once they open up the inside connecting doors and the outside balcony partition removed (they have to ask for supervisor permissions but I think they always allowed it from what I have read), you will have a lot of space. RCI is weird at times on their pricing so it makes sense to keep trying different cabin combinations.

 

We wanted deck 14 as it has access to secret balcony. Without it, I would go down to 10. I assume you are looking at 10711/10713 or 10311/ 10313. Not sure I want the far connecting cabins of 10699 versus 14711 as 10699 is pretty far inside the boardwalk area and you see too much of your neighbors. You may want to search for those cabin pictures to see what you prefer.

 

Have a great cruise next year.

al_deck10_v2013_sep.pdf

al_deck14_v2013_sep.pdf

[JamesEM]

Continue to follow along, great photos, as a fellow bean counter I guess there are certain traits in our DNA that make us the way we are. This past Nov. I was on the Allure and our tablemates kept coming to the dinner late and giving the excess they were Diamond Members and they were in the Diamond Club having Diamond free drinks and appetizers, well after three nights we bailed out and ate in other venues.

[harryfat1]

Continue to follow along, great photos, as a fellow bean counter I guess there are certain traits in our DNA that make us the way we are. This past Nov. I was on the Allure and our tablemates kept coming to the dinner late and giving the excess they were Diamond Members and they were in the Diamond Club having Diamond free drinks and appetizers, well after three nights we bailed out and ate in other venues.

 

That’s OK, they probably didn’t want to be with you “peasant cruisers” anyway so the feeling is mutual.:p

 

Speaking of Diamond Club, as we were walking around the ship taking pictures, we were outside the diamond lounge and since my wife is not a cruise critic’s person or knows much about the Royal’s caste system, she thought she can go in and take a picture. Nope. My son reminded her that the sign at the front says she must be a higher level person to go in and we are not it.

 

Then a couple walks by and heard us talking and smugly said, “but we are” and waltzes in. What a snob.

[harryfat1]

Alrighty, last reserved show out and done. Back to RP to buy the souvenirs from the gift shop (aka visiting uncle once more – he gets the most attention on last day of the cruise). As I mentioned before, gold level crown and anchor repeat cruisers have certain discounts available to them, one of which is 10% RCI logo stuff if you buy more than $25. Sorry, they don’t count the $10 t-shirts as part of the $25 – we checked. So do bundle your purchases in one big bulk to take advantage of the savings, which unfortunately typically means waiting until day 7 when you have to stand in line to pay.

 

Speaking of discounts, another gold member discount available is BOGO milk shake at Johnny Rockets. My kids have been looking forward to getting that so off we go to JR to get those after we were done visiting the uncle in prison.

 

Oh, heck, let me just scan and upload the gold member benefits so people know what they can get instead of me saying it line by line.

 

 

More afternoon dancers at RP

 

 

Waiting at JR for the shakes

 

 

Wife being a CPA, double checking that they applied the BOGO discount correctly on the bill. Younger one cares not as he already started sucking on the straw as soon as he has his hands on the cup

 

 

We took the milkshake “to go” as we are in a hurry to go to the next activity, The Rising Tide Bar. That’s the problem with day 7, everything is more rushed as you feel you can’t get enough of the “bucket list” checked off for the cruise.

 

On the way there, saw the balloon man once more. He was ready to close up shop and has one more monkey balloon left and guess who he gave it to? Yeap. Think he just wants to get rid of it ASAP and be done with his shift for the day.

 

[Folk Singer]

Thanks for the photos and narrative.

[harryfat1]

So here we are, finally inside the Rising Tide Bar after seeing so many people go up and down from it all cruise long. Finally our turn. The kids have their milk shake, the adults ordered the gold member and above special BOGO beer and wine.

 

View of the guest services and long line with couple extra helpers outside of the line area asking people if they could be helped quickly without standing in the long line

 

 

 

Slightly different perspective of RP being a bit back/behind the red car

 

Higher up

 

 

Most of the uncle visitors in prison are gone from the 3 PM crowd but few stragglers remain

 

 

[harryfat1]

In-laws and the Focus area in the background

 

 

Schooner Bar on the other side

 

 

Another woman talking to the Guest Service workers

 

 

OK, here we are out of the RP and into CP area on the Rising Tide bar. Like I said previously, I like how they connect the various neighborhoods together with the Rising Tide Bar and various glass canopies so you get some natural lights from above the RP.

 

Depends on your imagination, these pictures remind me of 3 different things – First, the black area above the looks like a night sky with stars. Second, it looks like the opening scene of the Star Wars movie where you have a big ass Imperial trooper star ship flying over your head. Third, if you are a fish at the bottom of the ocean, you will see a bottom of a sail boat gliding above you. So it will depend on how drunk you are, you can pick one of the 3 options listed or you can come up with your own…

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Here are views of CP from inside the Bar

 

 

 

 

 

You can enter or exit from CP as well as from RP

 

 

[harryfat1]

Damn monkey drank my Heineken while I was taking pictures. Bad Monkey! Bad!

 

 

Moment later, you see the monkey past out after stealing the drinks from my beer

 

 

One more pic of the area before the bar slowly descends back down to RP

 

 

Pretty quiet now at RP. Time stamp of the picture is 5:02 PM. You can argue with anyone that says the ship is too crowded. Really? What crowd at 5 PM on a sea day in middle of RP?

 

 

 

Picture of Focus’ staircase. My favorite place to stand for parades

 

[harryfat1]

Speaking of Focus, there are more people standing there visiting their aunts in the basement (aka deciding “Hmmm, Honey, which one of these pictures makes me look less fat?”)

 

 

OK, we are back to RP and time to get off. Wife taking picture of me taking picture of the bar

 

 

Here was my picture – wanting to get a picture of the bar relative to the other background area like the ceiling and café to the left. Should have moved the camera more to the left as not to include the useless Plexiglas on the right and more guest services on left. Need more practice at taking pictures

 

 

The rest of the clan went back to the cabin to shower and change for last dinner on the ship. I had to make one more quick stop up to CP to get something to bring back to the cabin as a pre-dinner snack.

 

 

Yeap, you guessed it, got the famous Kummelweck sandwich. So well known, they even have a Youtube video on it

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M5_4ydqP0U

 

It’s the probably the most preferred sandwich on the ship from most cruiser’s reviews as the veteran cc folks make bee line right after boarding the ship and head for the central park café for this on day 1. While I thought it was pretty good, my preferred style is still the buffet as I want to have chicken/pork/beef/fish all at once on my plate – the variety and quantity presence in me overwhelms any one sandwich but food taste is all subjective but I am glad I was able to try it at least once on the cruise

 

[harryfat1]

Thanks for the photos and narrative.

 

You're welcome.

 

Just as I always tell people that asks me for free tax advice at BBQ and parties, you get what you paid for...

[harryfat1]

As we head eastward toward FLL, the sunset is over at the aft but didn’t have time to go to the secret balcony to take a picture of the sunset.

 

Another should have/could have moment post cruise

 

 

Tonight’s dinner was Pomodoro in case anyone is following from the menu I posted previously

 

 

 

Didn’t bring SLR to dinner tonight. Just the point & shoot