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

[GEMomTo3]

Thanks for leaving a nice comment. Hope the trip report lives up to your expectation as sometimes we get too hyped up about reading a book that just came out and it fell way short of what we had hoped.

 

...

 

Have a great family cruise if we don’t talk again before you leave. It would be great if you can come back and let me know how your vacation was afterward. Always interested to know how other families spend their vacation time.

 

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post - I was so impressed at how kind your were to do this with many of your followers. It is so clear how much fun you and your family had and how much you just want to help out anyone you can. I spent time over the weekend reading the entire thread and am more excited than ever and feel much more prepared. I think it is the only review I have truly read for enjoyment and not just for information... My dad (also named Harry ironically) also appreciated knowing what the Gold discounts were, given that my parents and and my sister and I are all Gold - that is 4 BOGO beer/wines to go with our 10 bottles we are carrying on board. I did have a couple questions I thought you might be able to answer and if not, no worries - can ask them on my roll call.

 

1. Are the mini fridges in the rooms full of mini-bar stuff? And if yes, do you know if we can request the stuff to be removed. With 6 kids, it will be much easier to get this stuff out of the room then constantly police it.

 

2. As I am trying to pack, do you think it would be completely frowned upon if the young boys wore dressy tan/navy shorts to dinner as opposed to pants. My son has only two pair of dress slacks - and knowing his and my nephews track record for spilling, I would like to reserve those for formal nights. We are a casual family in general. The men will definitely where slacks, but didn't know if you saw shorts on the kiddos or not. I am not out to offend anyone and don't want my kiddos denied access to the dining room but also don't want to go out and buy $100 worth of dress pants for my quickly growing boy if nice walking shorts will do.

 

3. Did you see lifejackets or water wings on kids in the pool area? I am debating if we want to bring them for the two little ones and didn't know if they were even allowed. I know they don't supply them like Disney does. Would also like to have them for when we go to Labadee but hate to carry them on for just 4 hours one day

 

And thanks for posting the kids stuff. We do hope the cousins will be excited to try it out...although, my kids really didn't like the kids club on Disney in 2013, hoping this will be different since it is a little more structured. We shall see.

 

Will definitely be sure to let you know how our trip went when we return...we leave in 6 days for Florida and will be on the Allure on 3/8 - yeah!

[harryfat1]

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post - I was so impressed at how kind your were to do this with many of your followers. It is so clear how much fun you and your family had and how much you just want to help out anyone you can. I spent time over the weekend reading the entire thread and am more excited than ever and feel much more prepared. I think it is the only review I have truly read for enjoyment and not just for information... My dad (also named Harry ironically) also appreciated knowing what the Gold discounts were, given that my parents and and my sister and I are all Gold - that is 4 BOGO beer/wines to go with our 10 bottles we are carrying on board. I did have a couple questions I thought you might be able to answer and if not, no worries - can ask them on my roll call.

 

1. Are the mini fridges in the rooms full of mini-bar stuff? And if yes, do you know if we can request the stuff to be removed. With 6 kids, it will be much easier to get this stuff out of the room then constantly police it.

 

2. As I am trying to pack, do you think it would be completely frowned upon if the young boys wore dressy tan/navy shorts to dinner as opposed to pants. My son has only two pair of dress slacks - and knowing his and my nephews track record for spilling, I would like to reserve those for formal nights. We are a casual family in general. The men will definitely where slacks, but didn't know if you saw shorts on the kiddos or not. I am not out to offend anyone and don't want my kiddos denied access to the dining room but also don't want to go out and buy $100 worth of dress pants for my quickly growing boy if nice walking shorts will do.

 

3. Did you see lifejackets or water wings on kids in the pool area? I am debating if we want to bring them for the two little ones and didn't know if they were even allowed. I know they don't supply them like Disney does. Would also like to have them for when we go to Labadee but hate to carry them on for just 4 hours one day

 

And thanks for posting the kids stuff. We do hope the cousins will be excited to try it out...although, my kids really didn't like the kids club on Disney in 2013, hoping this will be different since it is a little more structured. We shall see.

 

Will definitely be sure to let you know how our trip went when we return...we leave in 6 days for Florida and will be on the Allure on 3/8 - yeah!

 

Thank you for the compliment and glad the trip report is helpful in your trip planning.

 

Interesting observation on difference in reading between enjoyment and information. I originally started this as informational/reference material but then I thought it would be as boring the tax memos I wrote for work. So I tried to spice it up with all the dumb jokes I can think of. Then when I saw how many people were reading the info just for enjoyment, I expanded the report to be where it is today.

 

There is the old adage that you treat people the same way you yourself wants to be treated. Taking that into writing/reading, I always enjoyed reading info is has many pictures (ADHD in me) and appreciating any humor involved. Between my personality and my occupational hazard, I try to avoid subjective broad comments such as “the ship is too crowded”. Yes and no. So I tried to let the picture do the talking and allow the viewer to form their own judgment on the crowding issue.

 

Sounds like you guys will have plenty of wine while on the cruise. We couldn’t get any wine prior to the cruise as FLL doesn’t sell alcohol on Sundays before 12 noon and we didn’t want to wait that late to board the ship. I am sure since it’s a big family gathering, you guys will spend enough time visiting crazy aunt in basement (aka photos) to have few keepsake pictures. That will mean the discount for gold level members will be appreciated by all.

 

As for your questions:

 

1 – Yes, the mini frig has the typical stuff. Yes, you can ask the cabin steward to remove them. No problem.

 

2- Dress code is a touchy subject here on the boards. Every week/month, you will find some thread with heated debate in what is the proper dress code for various occasions. Everybody has an opinion on it. I will give you the RCI official site first:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/customersupport/faq/details.do?pagename=frequently_asked_questions&faqId=255&faqSubjectId=334

 

If you read between the lines, they imply that shorts are ok up to lunch but they are leaving it in the gray area for dinner. Typically you will see many shorts on day 1 for dinner since most people haven’t had time to unpack so they go to dinner wearing whatever they were wearing when came on board. On the other non formal nights, maybe you can try any long jeans for the kids if you don’t want to be in the gray area. I wouldn’t spend extra $$ to buy clothes that they will outgrow in few months.

 

3 – We didn’t spend anytime at the kids’ pool area as my boys wanted to be in the grown up section instead. At Labadee, we were at the Columbus Cove area so also didn’t see many kids out there.

 

As luck have it, I do have couple pictures of kids in flotation assistance devices so I would say you can have them at the pool without any problems.

 

 

 

 

I didn’t see any ship provided flotation devices. Think you might need to bring your own. Just as a sanitary issue, in reading all the noro virus stuff going on with the ship the past few months, not sure if I want to use the devices other people have used. On Disney, who blows up these things? The pool deck worker? What happens when you want more air, do you go back to have them blow it up more? Personally, I would just bring my own.

 

Speaking of which, given how many little ones you guys have in your group, I would suggest you guys stock up on various small bottles of hand sanitizers in backpacks given the noro virus history on the ship. Little ones typically touch things that are full of germs.

 

As for the kids’ club, maybe they will want to go with their cousins as you have kids in 3 different age groups so it will only be fun if they can play with their cousins. The 11 year old might be bored and not want to go by him/herself, that’s the age of my younger one and this was his 8th cruise and he had enough of the kids’ club from previous cruises that he rather hang out with us.

 

I think you said in your original post that you want to do one night in specialty restaurant with your husband as a date night. If so, then the kids will need to go to kids’ club at least for one evening for that to happen, unless the other grown up members baby sit for you guys.

 

One last note for specialty restaurants, we didn’t do it, but I believe you get a discount for it on day 1. In theory, that is the best night to go as day 1 is always a zoo to get in as they stop everyone to check the cards and escort them to the table so expect few hundred people in line ahead of you on day 1 dinner so it’s not a bad night to do specialty dining. So if nothing else, prepare yourself and others in the group that day 1 will have unusually long lines at the entrance to MDR. Gets better after that.

 

Oh, given the size of your group, I would double check at the MDR on day 1 boarding that you guys are all seated together in the table size you wanted. If you recall from the problem we had on table placement, you need to check ASAP after lunch on day 1.

 

Especially if you do the sail away show and sail away wave – which I assume you might with 6 kids, then you won’t have too much time to get ready for the 6 PM dinner so specialty restaurants is a good option. Only drawback is they don’t have kids club on day 1 – which is probably why they offer discounts given RCI are gravy sucking greedy pigs - so it’s harder to do that when you have a gang of kids.

 

I think this answers all your questions. Write back with more questions the rest of the week if you think of anything else. Have a great cruise next week.

[LuCruise]

Thank you for taking the time to comment on my post - I was so impressed at how kind your were to do this with many of your followers. It is so clear how much fun you and your family had and how much you just want to help out anyone you can. I spent time over the weekend reading the entire thread and am more excited than ever and feel much more prepared. I think it is the only review I have truly read for enjoyment and not just for information... My dad (also named Harry ironically) also appreciated knowing what the Gold discounts were, given that my parents and and my sister and I are all Gold - that is 4 BOGO beer/wines to go with our 10 bottles we are carrying on board. I did have a couple questions I thought you might be able to answer and if not, no worries - can ask them on my roll call.

 

1. Are the mini fridges in the rooms full of mini-bar stuff? And if yes, do you know if we can request the stuff to be removed. With 6 kids, it will be much easier to get this stuff out of the room then constantly police it.

 

2. As I am trying to pack, do you think it would be completely frowned upon if the young boys wore dressy tan/navy shorts to dinner as opposed to pants. My son has only two pair of dress slacks - and knowing his and my nephews track record for spilling, I would like to reserve those for formal nights. We are a casual family in general. The men will definitely where slacks, but didn't know if you saw shorts on the kiddos or not. I am not out to offend anyone and don't want my kiddos denied access to the dining room but also don't want to go out and buy $100 worth of dress pants for my quickly growing boy if nice walking shorts will do.

 

3. Did you see lifejackets or water wings on kids in the pool area? I am debating if we want to bring them for the two little ones and didn't know if they were even allowed. I know they don't supply them like Disney does. Would also like to have them for when we go to Labadee but hate to carry them on for just 4 hours one day

 

And thanks for posting the kids stuff. We do hope the cousins will be excited to try it out...although, my kids really didn't like the kids club on Disney in 2013, hoping this will be different since it is a little more structured. We shall see.

 

Will definitely be sure to let you know how our trip went when we return...we leave in 6 days for Florida and will be on the Allure on 3/8 - yeah!

 

Would love to see a trip report if you have time to report back. We'll be on Allure next year with kids too so great to hear other's experiences. We'll have to bring water wings or floating device for our younger one too. Have a great trip!

[janeyzee]

Oh, one more pencil sketch for my signature photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Love that!!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Llmtax2000]

Harry-

 

I am so looking forward to reading through your report over the next 10 days before our family leaves for the Allure sailing on 3/8. My dad, ironically, is taking three generations as a late Christmas present. It will be my parents, my sister and her kids (kids ages 3, 6 and 11) and my husband and I and our kiddos (ages 4, 6, 8) - in 5 cabins.

 

 

We're on the same 3/8 trip -- myself and my 13-YO DD. I've also enjoyed anticipating our first trip on Allure by reading your report!

 

Thanks for all your effort!

[harryfat1]

We're on the same 3/8 trip -- myself and my 13-YO DD. I've also enjoyed anticipating our first trip on Allure by reading your report!

 

Thanks for all your effort!

 

You’re welcome. Glad the info is useful for your upcoming cruise but given you have already been on the Oasis and on the western Caribbean route, this is pretty much just a refresher info.

 

Have a great cruise next week.

[Miryam1234]

Harry, I had to come back to your review, because of your extensive report on Cozumel day.

See, besides Allure TA, to which I already have got your help with the small wonders list, we also had another cruise booked. However, now RCi has cancelled whole cruise, and we are forced to make another plans. As we are stuck with that particular week (due to daughter's spring break), I am again looking at Western itineraries. We did Western on Oasis and spent the Cozumel day in Tulum ruins, so I was looking at what you did there. Seemed quite nice day! So I am thanking you again for your valuable help.

Save travels!

[harryfat1]

Harry, I had to come back to your review, because of your extensive report on Cozumel day.

See, besides Allure TA, to which I already have got your help with the small wonders list, we also had another cruise booked. However, now RCi has cancelled whole cruise, and we are forced to make another plans. As we are stuck with that particular week (due to daughter's spring break), I am again looking at Western itineraries. We did Western on Oasis and spent the Cozumel day in Tulum ruins, so I was looking at what you did there. Seemed quite nice day! So I am thanking you again for your valuable help.

Save travels!

 

Good talking to you again. Wow, they cancelled the entire cruise? Did some group charter it? Must be nice to be planning multiple cruises at the same time.

 

As for the Cozumel excursion, we did it with RCI. Here is the link, looks like I am still the most recent cruiser to comment on it:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?ProductCode=CZT6&DestinationCode=CARIB&sourcePage=shorexByTypePortDest&ActivityTypeId=1

 

It was the most reasonable priced tour for what we wanted to do. Since you already went to Tulum, just note that the San Gervasio ruin is much smaller in size. So it all depends on what you are looking to do. It’s a solid half day tour that gets you back to the ship around 1:30 so you can eat lunch and still have a little time to explore the town area afterward if you like.

 

If you want to do your own thing, try tours plaza for 3+ hours to do your own personalized tour is you prefer.

 

http://www.toursplaza.com/eng/hiring-driver.cfm

 

Personally, I prefer the wild size of the eastern part of the island as it’s less commercialized than the west side, but the western side with the various all inclusive resorts and bars is more popular among tourists.

Another option is just get a taxi to Punta Sur and spend few hours there.

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g150809-d153774-Reviews-Faro_Celerain_Eco_Park-Cozumel_Yucatan_Peninsula.html

 

Without knowing more what your family prefers, not sure I have more to add at this point. Let me know if you need more info on the tour we went on or anything else relating to the island.

 

Here is the map of Cozumel that I originally posted and another cruiser found helpful as it lays out the big name places on the island so you know where’s what.

 

[Chelleum]

I have finally finishing reading your trip review. I got busy and had to stop, but I made sure to come back and finish. Your trip report was great! very detailed and informative. I also loved your pictures. The miniature and the pencil sketch ones were really nice.

 

I will be on the Allure in November first RCI cruise. I will be doing the Western itinerary, except we will be going to Nassau instead of Labadee. I booked on deck 11 AFT, because I wanted to be near the secret balcony. Unfortunately, by the time I cruise it will no longer be there.

 

Thanks for sharing all the information, it has been helpful with my planning. I'm the planner in the family and you answered all my questions. From pre cruise, cruise and post cruise. :)

 

Chelli

Edited March 23, 2015 by Chelleum

[harryfat1]

I have finally finishing reading your trip review. I got busy and had to stop, but I made sure to come back and finish. Your trip report was great! very detailed and informative. I also loved your pictures. The miniature and the pencil sketch ones were really nice.

 

I will be on the Allure in November first RCI cruise. I will be doing the Western itinerary, except we will be going to Nassau instead of Labadee. I booked on deck 11 AFT, because I wanted to be near the secret balcony. Unfortunately, by the time I cruise it will no longer be there.

 

Thanks for sharing all the information, it has been helpful with my planning. I'm the planner in the family and you answered all my questions. From pre cruise, cruise and post cruise. :)

 

Chelli

 

Hi, Chelli,

 

Thank you for the compliment. Glad to hear the cruise info is helpful.

 

If you are in Boardwalk balcony cabin, then being in the aft on deck 11 will still get you the better view of the aqua theater, even without access to the secret balcony. Interesting that they are replacing Labadee with Nassau. At least you get to spend a whole day there instead of half day if you are on an eastern route.

 

If you have any question on what we did as you research info for your cruise preparation, let me know. Have a great cruise in November.

[janeyzee]

Harry - I was in Cozumel today on Brilliance and took a creative picture of the towing, oh um sorry, the mooring lines and immediately thought of you! Just thought I'd share :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[harryfat1]

Harry - I was in Cozumel today on Brilliance and took a creative picture of the towing, oh um sorry, the mooring lines and immediately thought of you! Just thought I'd share :)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Hi,

 

Good to hear from you again. Mooring line, S’more-ing line, matters not what it’s called. I just like how they look and seeing how thick the lines are.

 

So will you upload your pictures of the S’more-ing line once you get home to share?

 

BTW – what you doing checking cc while on vacation? I would never check cc while I am on vacation. You can do that after you get home. Enjoy the cruise without outside distractions.

[janeyzee]

Hi,

 

Good to hear from you again. Mooring line, S’more-ing line, matters not what it’s called. I just like how they look and seeing how thick the lines are.

 

So will you upload your pictures of the S’more-ing line once you get home to share?

 

BTW – what you doing checking cc while on vacation? I would never check cc while I am on vacation. You can do that after you get home. Enjoy the cruise without outside distractions.

 

hahaha well when you get to be 60, like I did while cruising on Brilliance, then the mind starts to go and if I don't do something while I'm thinking of it, it doesn't get done, hence the visit to you on CC while cruising :)

 

Here are three photos, the first is the infamous S'more-ing line photo, then an Illustrator mode of the sign, and a mini-mode of the sign. You inspired me to take pics with all of my modes.

 

We're home now so it's back to cyberspace for me, uploading photos and posting photos. Helps me to live the vacation all over again!

 

 

 

[h20skibum]

Harry,

 

Thank you for taking the time to prepare and upload such a wonderful report. I just came across it last week while doing research for our next cruise and became obsessed with reading it from beginning to end. It brought back some fond memories of our Allure cruise a couple of years ago.

 

So it is back to my spreadsheet preparation for our Oasis cruise in November. But I just wanted to throw out a few figures. Your thread is now 56 pages with 177,661 views. If the 177,661 viewers have gone through all the pages which take an average of 7 to 10 minutes per page depending on whether you are reading blah, blah or scrolling pictures, that is roughly 6.5 to 10 hours per person. That's between 1,154,796.5 and 1,776,610 hours. If we use some fuzzy math and assume only one quarter of the hours to keep up with the thread were "borrowed" work hours, and using an average wage of $30 per hour, that is a hit to productivity between $8.6 and $13.3 million. WOW.:) But we all know everyone does this on their free time, so no worries. Keep up to good work.

 

In one of your posts, you commented on a rich family doing a tour in a limo. Depending on the size of their group, it may have been a "cheapo" way to go. It always pays to check all options. I often travel with four women (Yes, I am that guy), and they insist on bringing their three steamer trunks (or something equivalent) along. When pricing out options, it was less expensive than taking a couple of taxis, or even using a standard per person cost for a bus ride. Plus, with three of the women from rural Indiana where they just got dial-up internet last year and maybe never having seen one of those "really long cars", the look on their faces was priceless. It is certainly better than going this way.

 

 

 

Just had to put up one of my mooring line photos. Maybe there will be a friends of mooring line photos meeting some day soon.

 

 

 

 

Just a quick question if you know from what you observed. We are planning on doing the Dragon's flight zip line in Labadee, then planning on spending time at one of the beaches. Do they have lockers, or some place to secure your bag with towels and other items somewhere ashore? I don't think you would be able to take any type of bag on the zip line, and I would not want to. Just want to know if I will need to leave it on the ship and go back for it.

 

You make my last "Joe Friday" report, "Just the facts Ma'am", without a lot of blah, blah, look plain. I guess I will need to try some improvements next time. So now back to my trip planning. (Uh Oh, now 177,699 views, so the math no longer works:D)

 

Looking forward to following along on your future travels. Thanks Harry.

[harryfat1]

Harry,

 

Thank you for taking the time to prepare and upload such a wonderful report. I just came across it last week while doing research for our next cruise and became obsessed with reading it from beginning to end. It brought back some fond memories of our Allure cruise a couple of years ago.

 

So it is back to my spreadsheet preparation for our Oasis cruise in November. But I just wanted to throw out a few figures. Your thread is now 56 pages with 177,661 views. If the 177,661 viewers have gone through all the pages which take an average of 7 to 10 minutes per page depending on whether you are reading blah, blah or scrolling pictures, that is roughly 6.5 to 10 hours per person. That's between 1,154,796.5 and 1,776,610 hours. If we use some fuzzy math and assume only one quarter of the hours to keep up with the thread were "borrowed" work hours, and using an average wage of $30 per hour, that is a hit to productivity between $8.6 and $13.3 million. WOW.:) But we all know everyone does this on their free time, so no worries. Keep up to good work.

 

In one of your posts, you commented on a rich family doing a tour in a limo. Depending on the size of their group, it may have been a "cheapo" way to go. It always pays to check all options. I often travel with four women (Yes, I am that guy), and they insist on bringing their three steamer trunks (or something equivalent) along. When pricing out options, it was less expensive than taking a couple of taxis, or even using a standard per person cost for a bus ride. Plus, with three of the women from rural Indiana where they just got dial-up internet last year and maybe never having seen one of those "really long cars", the look on their faces was priceless. It is certainly better than going this way.

 

Just had to put up one of my mooring line photos. Maybe there will be a friends of mooring line photos meeting some day soon.

 

Just a quick question if you know from what you observed. We are planning on doing the Dragon's flight zip line in Labadee, then planning on spending time at one of the beaches. Do they have lockers, or some place to secure your bag with towels and other items somewhere ashore? I don't think you would be able to take any type of bag on the zip line, and I would not want to. Just want to know if I will need to leave it on the ship and go back for it.

 

You make my last "Joe Friday" report, "Just the facts Ma'am", without a lot of blah, blah, look plain. I guess I will need to try some improvements next time. So now back to my trip planning. (Uh Oh, now 177,699 views, so the math no longer works:D)

 

Looking forward to following along on your future travels. Thanks Harry.

 

Hi, Mark,

 

Another numbers person, eh? Guess my trip report is responsible for the GDP to decrease by 0.000000000000001% to the nth power in that people are reading this instead of working? Guess the FBI will be knocking on my door soon…

 

I like the picture of the cart. Classic. I do admit I did not even check the price of the limo. I did check the price of van for 3 hours, which was $195. But once you add up the admissions price and cost of tour guide to show you around the ruins, it wasn’t that cheap when compared to the previous price of the tour at $40/pp. Conceivably the limo might be cheaper than the $195 taxi price. Or if you just want to do ruins you should be able to arrange for a round trip transport from pier that is less than the $195 price.

 

http://www.toursplaza.com/eng/hiring-driver.cfm

 

http://www.cozumelinsider.com/Taxiinternational?From=Taxiczm

 

Yeah, I like mooring lines. I am sure Freud will have some sort of theory on why I like it. So if there's a "Friends of mooring line" meeting on a cruise, I have feeling that I will be spending half of my cruise on these "Friends of ..." meetings. The only place I see on the ship will be the dining area and conference rooms.

 

As for the lockers, I didn’t see any in our quick tour of Labadee. I went back to take a quick look at the pictures and didn’t see anything. I went ahead and scanned the Labadee map and it never mentioned anything about lockers on the pages. Maybe you need to go to the Labadee forum and ask that question.

 

 

 

 

 

No cruise planned for us so far in 2015. I am in the process of changing job so will not likely have much vacation accrued going into the rest of 2015. Thus, the more likely cruise vacation will be December 2016 instead.

 

Let me know if you need anything else on your cruise planning. Have a great cruise in November and by then maybe another 10 people will read the trip report from work and have another minor dent in the GDP…

[Lovincruisin1321]

I am entranced reading your "Trip Report". One of the best reads in a long time! My husband and I are going on the Allure for the first time next year. First big mega ship.

 

I see you have done a lot of cruising with a variety of cruise lines. After sailing on the Oasis, how do you feel about going back on a small ship? Do you feel like you will be bored?

 

Has this jaded your cruising experience?

[Lovincruisin1321]

Harry,

 

Again, enjoying this immensly!

 

Looking at the wonderful pictures and reading the detail, I feel like this ship is more of an Orlando Universal Studios environment.

 

Did you feel that way?

[Lovincruisin1321]

Again, new to the Allure.....

 

So I will not have the option of an 8:30pm seating with the same table mates every night in the MDR?

[harryfat1]

I am entranced reading your "Trip Report". One of the best reads in a long time! My husband and I are going on the Allure for the first time next year. First big mega ship.

 

I see you have done a lot of cruising with a variety of cruise lines. After sailing on the Oasis, how do you feel about going back on a small ship? Do you feel like you will be bored?

 

Has this jaded your cruising experience?

 

Harry,

 

Again, enjoying this immensly!

 

Looking at the wonderful pictures and reading the detail, I feel like this ship is more of an Orlando Universal Studios environment.

 

Did you feel that way?

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you enjoy reading the trip report. So what page are you up to so far?

 

Good question on being jaded for next cruise. If you glance through the Allure/Oasis old postings, you will find someone asking every month “We have been in Allure/Oasis, now what?” question.

 

Think it more or less depends on what you want from your cruise experience. Some people just want to relax and stare at their belly buttons for hours under the sun. Others like my kids want maximum entertainment/activity while on the ship so they only want the bigger size ships since they provide more options.

 

I think for us, as long as we cruise with the kids as a family, we will stick with the bigger ships as those provide the maximum number of options. If we do Royal again, it would be at least the Voyager size and just for me more than my family, I prefer to have the Madagascar characters on the ship. My kids are too old for the characters but I am not.

 

When we become empty nesters later on, then we will more inclined to try the smaller size ships as they will take us the more exotic ports that I want to see. We cruise to see/photograph/experience new things so highly unlikely we will cruise the same ship more than once. We might sail on Oasis 4 years down the road to see what changes they made since the original concept.

 

Yes, one can easily equate the ship to an amusement park experience. As matter of fact, Princess cruises took a swing at Royal in one of their ad videos saying if people are tired of sailing on amusement parks, they can go on Princess instead for the more “refined” cruising experience. I used the spreadsheet that as originally intended for Disneyworld and modified it for the cruise. Previously I have never used a spreadsheet for a cruise, only Disney vacations.

 

That being said, I think you can also look at this cruise as a big buffet offering you many things. Such that if you want peace and quiet, you can find it at the Solarium or Central Park. You can even find it at Royal Promenade as long as you avoid the parade and 70’s disco night party as you can see from my many pictures of the area being quiet. The ship is super-sized and you can always find quiet spots or action places on any given time. That to me is what so great about it.

 

I will be sad on the next cruise as I won’t be able to yell across the pier to all the ships there and say “Our butt is bigger than your butt…”

 

Hopefully this answers your questions. If not, come back with more. Have a great cruise next year.

[harryfat1]

Again, new to the Allure.....

 

So I will not have the option of an 8:30pm seating with the same table mates every night in the MDR?

 

Huh? Why would you think that? Don’t think I mentioned you can’t sit with whomever you want.

 

Can you find the post number or quote me on what you think I said? Think there is a misinterpretation of what I wrote.

 

You can certainly sit with whomever you want. Make the request ahead of time and double check once onboard to see who your table mates are.

[Lovincruisin1321]

I tried to find where you had the discussion on that and I probably misunderstood. I can't find it. I will defer to your experience.

 

I'm at the point of canceling our cruise on the Allure and going with a smaller ship. Please don't get me wrong. It looks fantastic but at the same time exhuasting. It's just me and my husband who don't want a boring experience but not the theatrical park experience either. We just got off the Celebrity Constellation which was a little too low keyed and not that much to do. Thank God for the Spring Breakers and the dozen fun firemen that provided some fun! I need something in between. Not too boring but not over the top either. I'm going to take a look at the Freedom or Voyager Class.

[Lovincruisin1321]

Thanks for the reply. I am only on page 21.

 

I probably should have put the response here. It is on the next one. I am thoroughly enjoying reading your experience and it is helping me with a difficult decision. I too, choose cruises based on destination. The upcoming one in 2016 is just an Eastern Caribbean so I'm not that excited. It was more about the ship but you will see, I think I've changed my mind. :)

[harryfat1]

I tried to find where you had the discussion on that and I probably misunderstood. I can't find it. I will defer to your experience.

 

I'm at the point of canceling our cruise on the Allure and going with a smaller ship. Please don't get me wrong. It looks fantastic but at the same time exhuasting. It's just me and my husband who don't want a boring experience but not the theatrical park experience either. We just got off the Celebrity Constellation which was a little too low keyed and not that much to do. Thank God for the Spring Breakers and the dozen fun firemen that provided some fun! I need something in between. Not too boring but not over the top either. I'm going to take a look at the Freedom or Voyager Class.

 

Thanks for the reply. I am only on page 21.

 

I probably should have put the response here. It is on the next one. I am thoroughly enjoying reading your experience and it is helping me with a difficult decision. I too, choose cruises based on destination. The upcoming one in 2016 is just an Eastern Caribbean so I'm not that excited. It was more about the ship but you will see, I think I've changed my mind. :)

 

Well, I can speak for you on what cruise you should pick. That’s a personal decision.

 

But if you have the stamina to read to the end of the report, I mentioned the fable of the 6 blind men and the elephant. What you are reading is just one family’s perspective on how to cruise. To gain more perspectives, you should also check out other trip reports from couples without kids. Their schedule might look vastly different than ours.

 

If the Celebrity Constellation was too low keyed for your cruising preference and the Allure is too ramped up, then maybe something in the Voyager class might be a compromise. Or maybe a bigger Carnival ship. My thinking is this – you can always avoid the crowd on a big ship and then pick and choose what activities to ramp up to get to the level you like. Whereas if you have a low key ship, you can’t “manufacture” excitement on your own. So go for something a little bigger than you like and leave some room for ramping up.

 

If you read up to night 5 of the trip report, you can see some night shots of the outside of the ship. Those are the views that I would pay to cruise on the Oasis class ship. Can’t see that anywhere else on other ships.

[Lovincruisin1321]

Harry, I found your post on the dining! For some reason it won't "quote" so I pasted it here:

 

 

DD basically takes the traditional MDR and split it up into 3 different theme restaurants , one is traditional American food. One is Asian Fusion food. The last one is the more formal food. Unlike the typical MDR food where the menu changes nightly, none of the menus of these 3 restaurants change. They remain the same for the entire cruise. So it’s up to each individual cruiser to decide which restaurant they want to eat in any given night and make the reservation accordingly.

 

That is what I meant when I said you go to the restaurant for different menu instead of the restaurant changing its menu for you. So now there will be no one big MDR, but various smaller venues. Very controversial topic with many cruisers chiming in at the RCI forum. Originally RCI was going to implement this on Oasis/Allure in the Spring time but a recent announcement says they will delay implementing it until later in the year. So for now, only Quantum has this.

[harryfat1]

Harry, I found your post on the dining! For some reason it won't "quote" so I pasted it here:

 

 

DD basically takes the traditional MDR and split it up into 3 different theme restaurants , one is traditional American food. One is Asian Fusion food. The last one is the more formal food. Unlike the typical MDR food where the menu changes nightly, none of the menus of these 3 restaurants change. They remain the same for the entire cruise. So it’s up to each individual cruiser to decide which restaurant they want to eat in any given night and make the reservation accordingly.

 

That is what I meant when I said you go to the restaurant for different menu instead of the restaurant changing its menu for you. So now there will be no one big MDR, but various smaller venues. Very controversial topic with many cruisers chiming in at the RCI forum. Originally RCI was going to implement this on Oasis/Allure in the Spring time but a recent announcement says they will delay implementing it until later in the year. So for now, only Quantum has this.

 

Oh, you meant Dynamic Dining. Originally that was RCI great dining idea that they were going to push out to the Quantum and Oasis class ships. But there were some issues with it on the Quantum and last I read is that they are holding it off on Oasis class ships and change it similar to Disney style where the server is supposed to rotate with you to different restaurants each night.

 

You will need to check on the Royal boards for the latest news on what’s happening to dynamic dining and what ship gets what. Since I don’t even know when my next cruise will be and with which cruise line, I haven’t been really following all the news on dynamic dining as it may not affect me.

At the time of my original writing, I wasn’t happy with the initial design/implementation, but that info is now obsolete with the current changes.

 

You can read up on the concept directly from Royal’s own PR:

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/quantumoftheseas/dining/restaurants/

 

The original idea was to divide the dining room into 3 separate restaurant types and you pick and choose any given night and given time on which place you want to eat. The theory is it “frees” you from being forced into one MDR and their nightly menu. But I am lazy. I like the same spot and same waiter nightly. Let the menu change and I stay in the same spot the entire cruise. Not the other way around. Personal preference.

 

But even with dynamic dining, you can eat with whomever you like.