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

[harryfat1]

Well, seeing that we are dead in the water with no announcements and we can’t see squat from the port side as the we docked on the starboard side, it made no sense to just sit there so we went back to the hallway and walked up to the top deck on the other side to see what was happening.

 

 

 

 

Then we saw some emergency vehicles there with people standing but not much action and still no explanation.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Since we had no idea what was happening, there was only one thing else left to do – eat – since the younger one is hungry. So off we went back down to the Royal Promenade and had some pre dinner snacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the snack, the captain made the announcement over the PA that “the patient” was transported off the ship successfully with the Emergency folks at the shore side. HUH? Someone had to get off the ship the same afternoon their cruise vacation started? That really sucks. I hope whoever that person is, he/she is doing well.

 

So after the snack, it was after 5:30PM and our dinner was at 6 (traditional ding time). We then went back to the cabin to wash up and get ready for dinner. Which meant another pre planning idea (port web cam) is down the toilet. So much for pre planning events for the cruise. Oh, well, matters not. We are here and that's what counts.

[DutchCruiseFan]

Awesome review!

And you have some beautiful pictures of the ship!!

[Miryam1234]

We have connecting cabins 14711/14713 and the in-laws have 14717. These are the Boardwalk view cabins. I am going to pull forward few pictures taken from other times into this discussion as it’s more relevant here than showing them later.

 

First one is the typical set up that has you have seen a thousand times before. This set up has the sofa closer to the closet.

 

 

The way Royal configures their cabins, every other cabin has a opposite configuration in that it has the bed closer to the closet. I much prefer the former approach as you have more space to maneuver to get the clothes in the closet and you don’t have to try to navigate around the bed as soon as you walk in. Since we have connecting cabins, the door opens up in between and you can see from this picture that to the right is our cabin and to the left are the boys’ cabin and you can see the difference in room configuration. Do note that their sofa is longer so if more sitting space is important to you, look for that.

 

 

 

Can you tell me where exactly is the connecting door in the cabin? I am particularly interested in the one which has bed closer to the door and sofa to the balcony as I seem to be stuck with similar configuration during our forthcoming Allure TA, although with ocean view balcony. Hey, any cabin with balcony is good enough for me, but just wondering...

 

And thanks for the report & photos. I have especially enjoyed the miniature and old-fashioned ones!

[harryfat1]

Can you tell me where exactly is the connecting door in the cabin? I am particularly interested in the one which has bed closer to the door and sofa to the balcony as I seem to be stuck with similar configuration during our forthcoming Allure TA, although with ocean view balcony. Hey, any cabin with balcony is good enough for me, but just wondering...

 

And thanks for the report & photos. I have especially enjoyed the miniature and old-fashioned ones!

 

Thank you for the kind words. Yes, I like the miniatures and the vintage ones as well. I will probably do another set of vintage ones later when I show the pictures from the swim suit fashion show where they showed the history of the swimwear from the old days. Think that will era appropriate.

 

As for the door configuration, the connecting door (if there is one) is right as you enter the cabin. Across from the bathroom. In the pictures you attached, in first picture, the bathroom is to the left of the picture and the connecting door is to the right, behind the TV looking back at the front door. As side note, I wouldn’t want the cabins with connecting door if there were no family members on the other side. From my experience with other ships, these connecting doors are not as well sound proof as the regular walls so people can hear you and vice versa. One cruise we had connecting cabin with family with twin young girls and we can hear them cry throughout the night from the closed connecting doors.

 

If you have a cabin number, go post a question on the boards and someone can help you estimate which bed configuration you have. Someone awhile back did an analyses of which bed room has which set up so if you ask, someone can help you figure it out.

[big_schots]

Enjoying the review. Love your sense of humor. I'll be following along to the "blah, blah" end.

[harryfat1]

Before I continue on the “Days of our lives” mundane step by step retelling of our vacation story, let me digress with couple related topics. Many times I have read comments on these boards that Oasis/Allure isn’t for them as it’s to big/too hard to figure things out. Actually of all the ships we have been on, this is one of the easier ones to get around (some ships have galleys in middle of the ship so you can’t get there from here). If you ever do get lost, by all the elevators, they have these touch screen info boards (think giant iPad) that you can have it to show you how to get anywhere.

 

Or if you want to know what is happening now, they can show you the electronic version of the daily compass so you know what events are coming up and how to get there from where you are.

 

 

My kids being the new generation of tablet/phone users can’t get enough of this stuff and they play with it every chance they get. Just be sure to wash/sanitize your hand afterward as who knows how many hands touched those previously.

 

The screen also has estimated crowd level at various dining venues so you can judge for yourself on how much of a wait you might have when you get there. I will talk more about that when we get to that point.

 

 

Another thing I learned later during the cruise as I was listening to the cruise channel show on TV as I was reading the daily compass (you mean somebody actually watches that stuff on vacation? Hey, provides good background noise as I read). They divide the ship into 4 color quadrants – see the attached PDF of deck 14 where you see green/aqua/yellow peach color area. This division applies to all decks so as you walk around the ship and you get confused on where you are, look for these signs on the wall. Besides the obvious “you are here” signs, there is subtle info built into the signs. Note the color quadrant on the second pictures as well even if they are showing you the restaurant, they still tell you where you are standing.

 

First note the color yellow on the right side of the sign, which means you are in the yellow quadrant, starboard side on the aft. If you walk to the other side (port side), that sign will be aqua color as you are now in the port side aft. Then the second thing to note is on the curved sign(in this picture its on the left), it ALWAYS points toward the front of the ship. So if you don’t know which side is front of the ship, look at where the curved side is and of course, the picture of the ship behind it also helps. Finally, if you look at any door number, there’s a little pointy arrow that shows you the direction toward front of the ship.

 

al_deck14_v2013_sep.pdf

[harryfat1]

Thanks again to everyone’s encouragement to keep going. In re-telling the story, it’s as if I was on vacation again. Hey, cheapo dad scores with BOGO (buy one get one) free cruise and I don’t even have to pack or sit in 6 hour plane ride on the second one! At the snail pace of me writing this (trying to deal with real life obligations as well), it will take longer to write this than my actual vacation. If you have the stamina to slug through this and read to the end, I think you need a cruise vacation more than me.

 

I think I will be associated the “blah, blah, blah” theme going forward. Maybe I should contact cruise critics to change my screen name to blah blah blah…

[harryfat1]

OK, onward and forward with the “Days of our lives”. So as we are back to the cabin getting ready for dinner on day 1 around 5:45 PM, I went outside and saw that the cabin steward has opened the balcony partition between the 2 cabins (yeah!) and with the inside connecting door also open, it’s one big revolving door to go from our cabin to the kids side. As if we have a big suite of 360 square feet of combined space and extra-long balcony AND 2 bathrooms.

 

So as I look toward the aqua theater and in the dusk light, I noticed that the ship is sailing once again. Crap. So I grabbed the camera and told the family I will be at the back secret balcony taking picture of the ship sailing away. Got couple shots as we pulled away.

 

 

 

At which point, my camera’s battery started flashing “out of power”. Double crap. Of all the time to have battery power failing on me. So then I whipped out the point and shoot and tried to take few sunset pictures but they were pretty sad looking as I can’t get enough lights with the setting sun. This is the only good one I can salvage without spending a lot of time in post-production software tinkering but you get the idea.

 

 

So after few shots on the underwater camera not being satisfactory, I decided to just go as far as I can on the SX30 and if I run out of battery, so be it. Took few more of these.

 

 

 

This is the final picture I took as I knew I had to leave for dinner even though the ship hasn’t sailed out of the channel yet. So another tip for those planners out there – if you want to do any specialty dining, day 1 would be a good day to do so especially if you have the traditional 6 pm dining slot. By time the ship sails and all the activities (not even counting delays that we experienced), you will be rushed to get to the 6 PM dinner anyway. So reserve a 6:30 or 6:45 dinner as that will give you enough time to eat as day 1’s shows starts at 9 PM (check your compass time to be sure) and you will have more time than we did.

 

[Cshgrand]

Really enjoying your review. Good job!

[harryfat1]

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, my wife took few pics on her cell phone. Cell phones nowadays can sometimes take better pictures than the regular cameras as there are more updates on the software apps for phones whereas the camera never gets any updates.

 

 

 

Then switched battery pack for camera and went off to dinner. For those that have cruised previously, day 1 dinner in MDR is always hectic as they stop the guests at the front entrance to check the card for table numbers and others have questions to ask about their seating. When we made our way down to deck 4 at 6:08, the line waiting to get inside must be at least 200 people ahead of us. Wow. Here is one view of what our dining area looks like.

 

 

In case anyone’s interested, here is what we had for dinner (part 1).

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

More food pics (part 2):

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! It's become my new guilty pleasure. I need a bucket of popcorn!:p So entertaining! Blah Blah Blah...

[harryfat1]

So after stuffing ourselves, we made our way back to the cabin as we still haven’t had the time to unpack the suitcases. This is one cruise where we were running around so much that we didn’t unpack before dinner. For those interested, like many cruise lines, Royal has free booze taste testing on day 1 at the stores to attract the foot traffic into the stores.

Here is our first view of the aqua theater at night from our balcony as they prepare the area prior to the 9 PM show, which we had reservations. After unpacking, we made our way down to the theater trying to find a good seat.

 

 

Now here’s another diverging theory difference between me and most people on what chair sections to sit in while in the aqua theater. For those who are unfamiliar with the aqua theater seating, the seats in the theater are alternating beach style seats and bench style seats with no back support. However, if you are a photographer (or trying to be one in my case), there is a bar in front of you and the people’ heads are in your way from the section below when you try to take pictures. If you want a less obstructed view of the performance, especially if you have small kids that can’t see past tall people in front, take a look at sitting at the bench style seats instead.

 

I wish I had better pictures to proof my point but for now (on a Friday night when I am tired and not really wanting to search hundreds of pictures), this is what I will use as it’s right in front of me. If you are sitting in these beach style chairs with backing, you see that railing to the right in front of you as you look at the stage? That’s why some of my pictures of the show have parts of peoples’ heads. Hard to raise camera that high above.

 

 

Now if you sit in this row, the bench style seats, where the guy in the blue shirt has a clear unobstructed view of the stage because he doesn’t have a high bar in front of him?

 

 

If you are really anal, bring a tape measure on your cruise and measure the difference and proof me wrong with numbers. If people give you funny looks on why you are measuring the height of the seats, just tell them you are from cruise critics.

 

I understand why people like the beach chairs as they are comfy and that’s why we sat in them but if you want to take pictures or have small kids, think about the other seats and if you arrive later to the show, the bench style seats are typically still available when all the bench style seats are filled up.

[harryfat1]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this! It's become my new guilty pleasure. I need a bucket of popcorn!:p So entertaining! Blah Blah Blah...

 

Thanks for saying so. I will keep plugging away. Man, I am still on day 1. Long ways to go.

 

Hope you don’t expect free popcorn on the cruise as Royal charges you for it. Actually, that’s one of my few “negative” comments on Royal. Popcorn is such a small cost compared to other stuff they are giving away for free at the Boardwalk area (free donuts/free JR breakfast/free hotdogs/free balloons for kids) such that if you walk around the “boardwalk” area, you associate popcorn and cotton candies as part of the area fun. Such a small cost to generate goodwill for people but they passed on it and rather nickel and dime us instead. Sigh.

 

At any rate, I digress. Pass the popcorn bucket…

[nexus42]

Thanks for posting, really enjoying this trip report!

[shoppgirl]

Just wanted to say I'm following along and enjoying your report and photos!! I think it's great that you're still on day 1 because that means your posts are so informative and entertaining to read! We are going on Oasis in March....so reading about her sister ship is great!

[lotus land]

Thanking for taking to write and share your trip report. Really enjoying it - love your sense of humour and writing. I really like the vintage photos. As a fellow trip planner/scheduler, I appreciate your spreadsheet. Keep plugging away blah blah, scroll down

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[harryfat1]

SPOILER ALERT – OK, the following sections will have many pictures from the Aqua show. If you plan to go on the cruise in near future and rather not have your show “spoiled” by looking at the pictures of the performances now, skip the next several sections. This is for people that have either cruised before and just want to see it again or people that will never sail on Allure, at least you can see the show here. Personally I think you are REALLY missing out if you don’t even consider sailing on Oasis/Allure - in case you can’t tell by now that our family is a huge fan of the ship.

 

I find it interesting that they wont allow food in the theater but they will sell you alcohol. Money, money. No worries, we didn’t use any flash photography for our show pics. Which won’t work anyway under these lighting circumstances. Some pictures are blurry but hey, you get what you paid for this reading this report…

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

More Oceanaria pics:

 

Hey, kids, look up in the air, what is that? Is it a plane? Is it a bird? Is it Superman?

 

 

 

 

See the shadow heads in front of me that I have to try to raise the camera above to take this picture – remember, comfy seats do not equal better camera seats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I like the trampoline part of the show. Took many action burst pictures from the jumps. For those that are into photography, these were taken on a 7 year old Canon SLR (10 MP) on the cheapest Canon lens (fantastic plastic) opened wide the f stop at 2. Goes to show you that you don’t need the newest equipment to take pictures of the shows. Not to say that I will probably will get better results with a newer camera/better lens but for family vacation photos, I can live with these and save money. Did I mention I am cheap?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

This being a water show, there are many dive board sequences and here are few sample shots. I must say it was a lot of fun to just press a button on the camera and it fires in continuous bursts. Not something I typically do on regular family vacation photo shots as those are the typical stand in front of ‘dirt’ and snap a picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, you getting bored by now with too many water show pics? Few more and we move on.

 

 

 

 

The cast getting a well-deserved round of applause

 

 

All of us were happy with the show

 

 

Large crowd making their way out of the theater

 

[harryfat1]

Here is picture of the crowd leaving the aqua theater. Now is probably a good time to digress and talk about the crowd level on the ship. I have seen many posts from cruisers worrying about the crowd level on such large ship. My response is - yes, there are a lot of people on the ship but just like traffic on the freeway in major cities, if you avoid the rush hour time, you don’t have deal with as many people. For example, go to the show early and leave late.

 

 

Here is a picture of the theater few minutes after the performance as the crew cleans up and gets ready for the next show later that night. Notice how empty the theater is? Now is a good time to leave as the crowd would have thinned out. So just be patient and you will avoid some the crowds.

 

 

OK, onward with the rest of day 1. We made our way through the royal promenade to the central park as I wanted to see CP at night since I have seen some really nice night pictures from other cruisers.

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After walking around, we headed back to the cabin to shower and call it a day as we are running on adrenaline from the excitement of being on the ship and the night before we only had few hours of sleep from the late night flight into FLL. So few more pics of the ship as we made it back to the cabin.

 

 

 

 

Before going to sleep, they started the second night show of Ocean aria at 10:45 PM. Couldn’t resist to stand and watch some more from the balcony, as are many of my neighbors from the Boardwalk area. Do note that if you are sensitive to noise, the show does run late after 11 PM and even with door closed and locked, you can hear some rumblings from the music and the crowd but nothing big deal. My wife said my snoring is much worse than the noise from the show.

 

 

 

 

So this concludes the day 1 trip report (you thought we would never get here). As you can see, we did a lot of activities for the day and that’s our style of cruising. Not to say you need to do it this way. Everyone has their own preferences on how to spend their vacation time. As the week goes on, we do slow things down a bit before making a mad dash on day 7 but we are getting ahead of ourselves. Just like all cruisers, very happy to be on the ship sleeping in a new bed for next 7 nights.