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

[harryfat1]

Day 2 – Sea Day: Woke up at crack of dawn. Staggered to the window curtain where the crack was and closed up the crack. Cursing myself “!@#$%^&*” for leaving it the crack open before going to sleep last night. Crawled back to bed to sleep as who wants to wake up early on vacation?

 

This concludes the trip report for the morning portion of day 2….

[RCJ1]

Great review Harry. My wife and I anxiously await each installment. Wondering if you will complete it by our cruise date 2/8/15. Great to see your family had a good time. :):)

Edited January 10, 2015 by RCJ1

[cruiselover2890]

Few more pics of the ship

 

 

 

So funny! I see some of my family members and my back in this picture on the lower right hand side haha! Im sure I will see us in a few more of your pictures. :cool:

[Coralc]

So funny! I see some of my family members and my back in this picture on the lower right hand side haha! Im sure I will see us in a few more of your pictures. :cool:

 

Isn't that odd when you see photos of yourself in someone else's trip report?

 

Great review Harry! We are very much enjoying it. :D

[bunzini]

Loving your review-chuckling as I read. Love it~!

[Cruisin' Along]

Fantastic TR. Thanks for taking the time to write it and share your photos. I'm especially enjoying it because I, too, am cheap! Looking forward to more. :)

[harryfat1]

Great review Harry. My wife and I anxiously await each installment. Wondering if you will complete it by our cruise date 2/8/15. Great to see your family had a good time. :):)

 

 

Hi, RCJ1, Thanks for the kind words. Let's see, February 8 is 4 weeks away from now. Barring any foreseen real life issues that keeps me occupied otherwise, I sure hope to be done before then. The ADHD in me can’t stay focused for that long.

 

Yes, we had a great time on our cruise. I hope you and your wife have a fantastic cruise as well.

[harryfat1]

So funny! I see some of my family members and my back in this picture on the lower right hand side haha! Im sure I will see us in a few more of your pictures. :cool:

 

It’s a small world, indeed. Glad I didn’t catch anyone in any embarrassing poses. I just took that picture from the top as I liked the merging convergence of 2 overhead canopies and the seats between. How funny your family just happens to be there. Hope you folks had a wonderful cruise as well.

[harryfat1]

Day 2 - Actually, I did try to wake up early on day 2. In my grandiose pre cruise planning, I had great visions of waking up early daily to take pictures of sunrise and sunset at the secret balcony. But in reality, like the commercial says, eh, not exactly. But that’s ok. We’re on vacation.

 

In case anyone is following along from my original spreadsheet schedule, I had planned to attend the meet and mingle event at 9:30 AM. Signed up the family for the event. Well, couldn’t get the family up as they were exhausted from day 1 and still on California time of 3 hours behind. If anyone from the roll call is reading this, sorry I didn’t get a chance to meet you folks at the meet & mingle.

 

So by time we finally rounded everyone up (minus the in-laws as they get up early and have their own routine) and walked up to the windjammer, it was a huge line of at least 200 people waiting to get in. Whoa Nelly! The lady in charge of the area suggests that we try another area to eat so we went to Johnny Rocket instead as I know the Captain’s welcome back party for repeat cruisers is at 10:15 at the aqua theater so that would be the perfect location.

 

So here are some pics from Johnny Rockets. For most part, I am not a big JR fan of their burgers as I had eaten it at other land based places and I certainly wouldn’t pay the cover charge to eat their lunch. For me, if I eat a burger for lunch, I much prefer the Guy’s burger joint over at the Carnival 2.0 upgrade ships. But food is subjective. I am sure someone else will prefer JR over Guy’s burger. That’s fine. Breakfast on other hand at JR is pretty good. Not crowded. Food comes out fast and hot.

 

Here are pictures of the boys at JR – not exactly awake yet.

 

 

 

 

Now they look much more awake with food in their system

 

 

 

In a rare occasion, the kids took pictures of us for a change

 

[harryfat1]

This is what my wife had at JR – she loved it. She slaps on a healthy dose of Tabsaco sauce on top and it has a nice zingy crunch flavor to it. She equates to eating spicy French Fries for breakfast

 

 

I prefer a sweeter breakfast myself along with OJ and coffee

 

 

 

Not sure who ordered this one

 

 

After we stuffed our faces, we made our way outside to the Captain’s welcome back party for repeat cruisers – note all the free booze in the background. Unlike other cruise ships that don’t really check too carefully if you are really a past passenger or not, Royal has people that actually check every person’s card to see if they are a repeat cruiser. so trying to sneak in someone else will be a challenge.

 

 

Shrek and Fiona were outside of the party entrance area taking pictures with guests at the party. I don’t know why we didn’t take a picture with them at the time as that would have been great. Maybe I wasn’t as awake either.

 

[harryfat1]

In theory a cruise report here on cruise critics wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory picture (or two) of an alcoholic drink. But since I am cheap (did I mention I am cheap?), that makes it more challenging. Thank goodness for the welcome back party with the free booze. So here is my obligatory picture of an alcoholic drink.

 

 

Although I did have one of those “classic cartoon moments” where you have the angel on one shoulder and the devil on your other shoulder giving conflicting advices. As a dad of 2 kids, I wonder what kind of message we are sending to our kids in drinking at 10 AM in the morning and displaying proudly the pictures of the alcoholic drink, considering there are some cc readers here are under 21. Is this really the message we want to tell the young ones? On the other hand, there’s a little voice that tells myself to shut up and stop wasting time worrying about such non sense and start drinking my first one and maybe have time for round two.

 

Guess which voice won out?

 

 

Although to give equal representation to all the youngsters out there, here is a picture of your non alcoholic drink

 

 

[rtw68]

Really enjoying this! We have only cruised on Carnival thus far but I would really like to cruise on Allure or Oasis in the near future! :)

[RCJ1]

In theory a cruise report here on cruise critics wouldn’t be complete without the obligatory picture (or two) of an alcoholic drink. But since I am cheap (did I mention I am cheap?), that makes it more challenging. Thank goodness for the welcome back party with the free booze. So here is my obligatory picture of an alcoholic drink.

 

 

Although I did have one of those “classic cartoon moments” where you have the angel on one shoulder and the devil on your other shoulder giving conflicting advices. As a dad of 2 kids, I wonder what kind of message we are sending to our kids in drinking at 10 AM in the morning and displaying proudly the pictures of the alcoholic drink, considering there are some cc readers here are under 21. Is this really the message we want to tell the young ones? On the other hand, there’s a little voice that tells myself to shut up and stop wasting time worrying about such non sense and start drinking my first one and maybe have time for round two.

 

Guess which voice won out?

 

 

Although to give equal representation to all the youngsters out there, here is a picture of your non alcoholic drink

 

 

 

Outstanding! Glad the devil one in this case.

[mechcc]

Loving your review.

[jeditden]

Fun review! Preparing myself for 4 weeks from today!

[mad-dog74]

Was on Allure last year! Awesome pics!

[Easy_Cruiser]

Thank you for the fun review! Love your sense of humour. Four more weeks till Allure for us, too!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[harryfat1]

Really enjoying this! We have only cruised on Carnival thus far but I would really like to cruise on Allure or Oasis in the near future! :)

 

Thanks for the encouraging comments. I think you should give Royal a try, especially the Oasis/Allure class ships. As you can see so far from my cruise report, these ships have things/events on board not found in other cruise lines. From my cruise history below, you can see that we like to sample different cruise lines and all have their strength and weaknesses so it’s good to see the difference and pick out what works best for you.

[harryfat1]

Fun review! Preparing myself for 4 weeks from today!

 

Thank you for the fun review! Love your sense of humour. Four more weeks till Allure for us, too!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Wow, more folks from the 2/8/15 sailing. Think you guys can have a mini roll call meeting here…

[harryfat1]

Speaking of roll calls, as we sat down, Karen, the organizer of our roll call spotted me and came by to say hi. Even though I missed the meet & mingle, she recognized me from the pictures I had posted in the roll call info. Actually I met Karen back in 2010 when we both sailed on Mariner of the Seas.

 

I feel privileged to have done so as Karen is a legendary figure in the RCI circle. During the captain’s welcome, they gave Karen and her husband, John, a special recognition for being the highest ranking C&A member on board. And on day 4 of the daily compass (see below) , the ship actually showed their picture on the front page as a special recognition for achieving 2,100 cruise points. That’s an amazing achievement so just wanted to give a special shout out to her. Now if I can only somehow buy some C&A points from her as I only have 1/100th of what she has…

 

 

[harryfat1]

All righty, onward with the story on day 2. At the captain’s welcome back repeat cruiser party, they brought out the special performers from the Ocean aria show. Kids, don’t try this at home.

 

 

 

 

 

I showed this picture in the beginning sample area but will do so again to complete the series

 

[harryfat1]

Then they brought out the special VIP performers - Captain Tore and the hotel director. Very fun to see that the captain isn’t a stuffed shirt like some of the other ones you have seen.

 

That is one thing I have to compliment Royal is that they have their captains out there mingling with the crowd so much more than the other cruise lines. With those captains, you get a sense that they are not comfortable with the PR side of the cruise business. The one time you see them is the 30 minutes of day 2’s formal night meeting the captain and they look so stiff and uncomfortable in being there. I don’t know if Royal captains are more extrovert than others but at least they are much more smooth in dealing with the passengers in the PR side of the cruise process.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

After their routine, the captain and the hotel director each gave a presentation on the past and present status of the Royal and their appreciation for repeat cruisers coming back. During the presentation, I learned that the Royal symbol on top of the aqua theater came from a previous Royal ship and they kept her DNA alive on Royal so that isn’t a brand new build. That is very interesting. Didn’t know that previously.

 

 

They then introduced the keys members of various departments. They put the executive chef last and of course he got the biggest cheers.

 

 

Then the welcome party is over and they invited people to come to the stage to see what it looks like up close and have picture taken with the captain. Here is what the flooring looks like

 

 

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Like this view from the stage. If I had a wide angle lens, that would have been great. Should have brought my cell phone and taken a picture from there with my 360 panoramic app. So if you will sail on the Allure/Oasis and plan to attend the party, be sure to have camera/phone on panoramic setting to capture the wide shot.

 

Another difference between Allure and Oasis is that on Oasis, you have a hang glider guy up there in the wired outline above in the cross beam area above but nothing on the Allure. Wonder why?

 

 

 

Here is the picture of the boys with the captain. He seems very friendly in our quickly conversation and commented on the camcorder around my younger one’s neck. We also had one taken with the captain with the 4 of us but that didn’t turn out well as my wife blinked. No problem, we will have other chances to take pictures with the captain later on.

 

[calicostorms]

I just saw your spreadsheet and literally busted out laughing!!! (very loudly I might add). Not because I think it ridiculous but because it is absolutely something I would do - friends and family are always making fun of me for my many spreadsheets.:D

Loving the 'report' so far :)

[harryfat1]

After the party, we rushed over to the Move it, Move it party which was scheduled to start at 11:30. By time we made it to deck 6 at the Schooner Bar’s lookout area, it was 11:18. Not much time left to find a spot before the parade. I wished Allure could have scheduled this parade for later in the day as if they want to treat us repeat passengers with party, it’s not possible to make it back to the parade and still have a seat as those were taken long ago.

 

For those who are unfamiliar with the Allure deck plan, I have attached a PDF of deck 5 & 6 to help get your bearings straight. In first picture, this was taken from deck 6, at schooner bar on the port side overlooking the Royal Promenade on deck 5 below. Note the people already have situated themselves in the chairs along the parade route. Don’t expect to just walk in and find a seat even at 20 minutes before parade.

 

 

We didn’t like the view here and moved across to Focus on the same deck 6 but on the other side. That was where I stayed with the boys and the in laws. My wife has a difference preference in taking pictures of the parade – she like the “in your face” close up shots on ground level whereas I prefer the higher bigger picture view so we set up in different positions for the parade. In essence, you are getting 2 different perspectives of the same parade. Get 2 for price of zero.

 

You see where we stood at the staircase of Focus looking down in the second picture. I like it especially if you have smaller kids. Nobody can “butt in front of you” if you stand there – something that happened to us on day 7’s parade. Especially useful if you have smaller kids. So as my wife takes picture of s, I took a picture of her location 5 minutes before the start of the parade. Smack dab in the middle behind the red car. In theory this looks like a great spot as from the pre parade picture of seeing the wide area. In reality that spot didn’t work out as literally just seconds before the parade started, the security people came in and kicked everyone out of that area. They should be more clear/open early in the process to let people know what areas are not acceptable to stand.

 

 

 

 

 

al_deck05_v2013_sep.pdf

al_deck06_v2013_sep.pdf