Live - Allure of the Seas - Jan 6-13 Star Class!

[ryanbarckley]

Hi Everyone!

Im finally within a few days of my next cruise so I thought I'd give this live blog thing a try. First off, I've asked several questions on here the past couple of months in prep for this, so THANK YOU to everyone who chimed in with answers and ideas. Second, please feel free to ask whatever questions you might have, I'm happy to try and answer whatever you come up with.

 

Let's Start with the Basics! 

Who: 8 of us: Me (27), my girlfriend,(25), my sister (20), her husband (22), my sister (15) and my mother (52). Along with 2 of my grandparents in a seperate room. 
What: 7 Night Western Caribbean Cruise on Allure OTS
Where: Miami, Nassau, Cozumel, Roatan, Costa Maya
When: Jan 6-13
Why: Because I need a vacation! I work in television production, our days and hours are long and endless, and it's time! I just finished spending a rainy New year's Eve in the middle of times square and I'm ready to go!

Our room: 2 bedroom Aquatheater Suite! Star Class Baby! My grandparents are in a Central Park balcony room right near the diamond lounge (because why not).
Our genie: Charlie Stoll

 

I've cruised several times before (5 I believe, all with Royal, my grandmother is diamond plus and wouldn't have it any other way, I've always been satisfied so why not). Everyone else joining has also cruised, with the exception of my girlfriend. This is her first time cruising or even out of the country, her family are Disney people to the max so they always vacation there, but I'm excited to show her something new. Our upgrade to the suite is also a surprise for her (shh don't tell!)

We fly in to Ft Lauderdale on Saturday morning, and we'll be driving in a rental down to Miami, and staying at the Holiday Inn Port of Miami.  I plan on getting to the ship as early as possible on Sunday Morning, I want to get this vacation started. 

 

I've exchanged a couple of emails back and forth with our genie so far, he seems very nice, they've mostly been generic emails and I haven't gotten anything concrete from him just yet. I know it's been a busy couple of weeks on board with Christmas and New year's having just happened, so I'm not really worried, I know they'll take care of us, but I did think I would have had a bit more communication at this point. 

More to come as I over pack the next couple days! Looking forward to talking with all of you. 

[FMZ]

Sounds like a good time in the making! We'll be following along! 

[champagne123]

I will be following along..not because I want to read a review on the Allure (have been on Allure and Oasis a couple of times), but because I love your enthusiasm!!!   I hope you all have a wonderful time and your girlfriend falls in love with cruising!

[JulieMcCoy]

We’re on the Allure right after you, on the 13th, so looking forward to following along!

[DCT61]

Charlie is WONDERFUL. The best Genie ever assigned to us. 

[Mrcar09]

Like Julie, we will be on the Allure 1/13 sailing as well. I look forward to following along while we do our final preparations. If you don't mind the request, I would be especially interested in you embarkation experience on Sunday. We are traveling with two young kids so we want to streamline the process the best we can. Enjoy your vacation and the time with your family, I'm sure your girlfriend will love it.

[ericaleadavis]

We just got back from Allure with the same itinerary! You are going to love it!!!

[KansCocoa]

Can’t wait to follow along!

 

I’ll be joining you on this sailing - and in fact, I believe you’ve signed up for the Cabin Crawl that I’ve set up! Can’t wait to see YOUR cabin - I have a “measly” Crown Loft Suite, wah. 😉

 

Looking forward to meeting you - we fly down tomorrow to start getting our “sea” legs!

[buckeye rob]

Sounds great already.  We are in 10770 in September.  Have opportunity for deck 8,  Little larger, but closer to the climbing wall I believe and noisier ?  Be waiting to hear.  Have fun !!  Regards, Gerry.

[CatLadyFemme]

Following! We'll be on Allure in July, and in a Central Park Balcony (reassuring that your D+ grandparents have chosen the same!), and so excited to hear about your adventures. Enjoy!

[ryanbarckley]

13 hours ago, FMZ said:

Sounds like a good time in the making! We'll be following along! 

 

Welcome! Glad you're here

 

13 hours ago, champagne123 said:

I will be following along..not because I want to read a review on the Allure (have been on Allure and Oasis a couple of times), but because I love your enthusiasm!!!   I hope you all have a wonderful time and your girlfriend falls in love with cruising!

 

I hope she does too! I'm confident she will, everyone keeps telling her how much she'll love it, and I'm doing just about EVERYTHING to make sure she does.

 

13 hours ago, JulieMcCoy said:

We’re on the Allure right after you, on the 13th, so looking forward to following along!

 

Wish I could stay on board and join you! I could use some extra vacation.

 

12 hours ago, DCT61 said:

Charlie is WONDERFUL. The best Genie ever assigned to us. 

 

Glad to hear it, I've read some good things about him. Any tips for us first time suite/star class-ers?

 

10 hours ago, Mrcar09 said:

Like Julie, we will be on the Allure 1/13 sailing as well. I look forward to following along while we do our final preparations. If you don't mind the request, I would be especially interested in you embarkation experience on Sunday. We are traveling with two young kids so we want to streamline the process the best we can. Enjoy your vacation and the time with your family, I'm sure your girlfriend will love it.

 

I plan on writing a bit about embarkation! I'll get some info from my grandparents doing the "regular" embarkation as well as ours through the suite lounge.

 

10 hours ago, ericaleadavis said:

We just got back from Allure with the same itinerary! You are going to love it!!!

 

I can't wait, not sure I'll be able to sleep.

 

9 hours ago, KansCocoa said:

Can’t wait to follow along!

 

I’ll be joining you on this sailing - and in fact, I believe you’ve signed up for the Cabin Crawl that I’ve set up! Can’t wait to see YOUR cabin - I have a “measly” Crown Loft Suite, wah. 😉

 

Looking forward to meeting you - we fly down tomorrow to start getting our “sea” legs!

 

Hello there! Yup, That's me! I haven't ever seen ANY suite (aside from a Junior) so im excited to see what the others look like for comparison/future cruises. My girlfriend will probably wind up addicted to the suite life, so I'll just HAVE to sail in a suite from now on, what a terrible way to cruise, she'll probably have to REALLY drag me in to doing that.

 

8 hours ago, buckeye rob said:

Sounds great already.  We are in 10770 in September.  Have opportunity for deck 8,  Little larger, but closer to the climbing wall I believe and noisier ?  Be waiting to hear.  Have fun !!  Regards, Gerry.

 

I was originally in that room and switched down to deck 9, because of the added space. We're 6 so every inch counts! I'm curious what noise and what not will be like as well, and will definitely write back about it, since theres not a ton of info on these rooms.

 

7 minutes ago, CatLadyFemme said:

Following! We'll be on Allure in July, and in a Central Park Balcony (reassuring that your D+ grandparents have chosen the same!), and so excited to hear about your adventures. Enjoy!

 

Thanks! The Central Park balconies seem to be a popular choice, a friend of mine sailed in one a couple years ago and loved it as well. I'm looking forward to seeing one and seeing what the whole park is like.

[ryanbarckley]

Alright! Time to pack. 33 hours until we fly. No time like the present. This should be easy, I've been mentally running through lists non stop for the past couple weeks. I have a series of small piles already going so I should be able to just toss this all in my bag and be good to go...

 

Let's start me grab my shirts, lets see...gotta bring the whale shirt, and the palm trees and surf board shirt, and oooo I have to bring that Disney one, hmm, how about these and WHAT...this pile is already huge...crap. I'm doing exactly what I promised I wouldn't do, too many things...

 

Hang on, let me pick out formal night...alright, blue sport coat, check, khakis, check. now the shirts (CRAP MORE SHIRTS). This blue one seems good. and OOOH this one and this other one, as a backup of course (NO! NO EXTRA STOP IT).

 

Phew I'm tired...what's that? I haven't actually packed anything yet? Just a big pile of shirts? (any favorites? - I gotta narrow this down somehow - I wear button up shirts if you couldn't tell)

 

 

Grrr...well...I have to get up early to check in for our flight (Southwest, gotta get that early boarding spot!), maybe I'll just sleep it off now, and pack when I wake up super early. I'll have to, because I'm busy the rest of the day picking people up and visiting people before I'm gone. Aright. Sounds like a plan. I DEFINETLY won't put this off any longer.

 

Ok time for sleep...But wait! All those nice people on cruise critic replied to my live blog! Gotta give the people what they came for. Let me just write for a minute, what's that? I spent another half an hour? This seems to be going well. Alright. Let's try this again in the morning.

 

Until then...

 

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

 

- NOT Mark Twain (commonly misattributed)

[KathyK60]

My daughter (20) and I will be joining you on this cruise.  We'll be in "steerage," I mean interior cabin on deck 7!  Our first time on a ship this size.  Can't wait for the fun to begin!

[AshleyDillo]

Make sure you take advantage of the Star Class laundry services.  It's amazing to come home after vacation with clean laundry!

[RFerrington]

On 1/3/2019 at 8:04 AM, DCT61 said:

Charlie is WONDERFUL. The best Genie ever assigned to us. 

+1.  We LOVE Charlie.  He is the greatest.  Tell him "hi" from Dan and Raye.

[RFerrington]

On 1/3/2019 at 12:15 PM, buckeye rob said:

Sounds great already.  We are in 10770 in September.  Have opportunity for deck 8,  Little larger, but closer to the climbing wall I believe and noisier ?  Be waiting to hear.  Have fun !!  Regards, Gerry.

We've been in 10330, 9730 and 8330 (3 times) and I can tell you that there is a WORLD of difference between ALL of the other ATS and Deck 8.  Deck 8 is WAAAY bigger - both the cabin and the balcony.  If you have a chance to upgrade to Deck 8 - TAKE IT !  The absolute ONLY complaint I have with the ATS is the walking distance way back there.  We have moved up to Deck 17 permanently but we really, really enjoyed our times in the ATS.  Nothing like them !

Edited January 4, 2019 by RFerrington

[RFerrington]

My biggest recommendation to you is - do not fail to enjoy your balcony.  THAT is what you are paying for, with the ATS.  It's absolutely stunning.  Make sure you have at least a couple of meals out there with the whole fam.  That's one of the nicest things about Star Class - you can have as much food as you want brought from any specialty restaurant and they don't care who is eating it, if it's in your suite.  So anyone (even the Grands !!!  LOL) can come and enjoy the in-suite specialty restaurant.

 

You are so lucky to have Charlie.  He comes from a big family himself, so he will LOVE your family.  ...and don't tell anyone...but he will be more than happy to include your Grands for the reserved seating in the theaters.  I wouldn't take advantage of that but he will include them when he can.

 

Charlie is a great party-planner.  Let him do his thing.  Party on !!

[buckeye rob]

2 hours ago, RFerrington said:

We've been in 10330, 9730 and 8330 (3 times) and I can tell you that there is a WORLD of difference between ALL of the other ATS and Deck 8.  Deck 8 is WAAAY bigger - both the cabin and the balcony.  If you have a chance to upgrade to Deck 8 - TAKE IT !  The absolute ONLY complaint I have with the ATS is the walking distance way back there.  We have moved up to Deck 17 permanently but we really, really enjoyed our times in the ATS.  Nothing like them !

Thanks for the info.  We have been in 11330 on Oasis and really loved it except for the tub.  (Due to being a transformed secret balcony) ?  Didn't really mind the walk at all, being that the CK is directly above those rear elevators.  I saw a couple videos of 8330 and it seemed the climbers were right there at your balcony.  Maybe the sound was turned up but seemed noisier from the AT and Boardwalk.  Reading or listening too much into that ?  Regards, Gerry. 

Edited January 4, 2019 by buckeye rob

[RFerrington]

15 minutes ago, buckeye rob said:

Thanks for the info.  We have been in 11330 on Oasis and really loved it except for the tub.  (Due to being a transformed secret balcony) ?  Didn't really mind the walk at all, being that the CK is directly above those rear elevators.  I saw a couple videos of 8330 and it seemed the climbers were right there at your balcony.  Maybe the sound was turned up but seemed noisier from the AT and Boardwalk.  Reading or listening too much into that ?  Regards, Gerry. 

To be fair, there is some noise from the AT.  It was never enough to bother us but there always seems to be something going on out there.  We just shut the doors and it never bothered us.  The master BR is away from the AT side so it's very quiet in there.  As for the rock climbers, yes...they are right there by the balcony but they never bothered us at all.  It was fun watching them.  The activity out in the AT is part of the appeal of the ATS.  I loved watching them practicing for the shows and it was really fun to watch the shows from up there.  You can see the people in SCUBA that are working with the divers/performers.  All very fascinating. 

 

I agree with you about the bathtub.  VERY hard to get into/out of.  Even the original ATS that were built that way from the beginning have the high bathtubs.   I think that the bathrooms in the ATS are the biggest/only disappointments related to the suites themselves.  Very small and unimpressive, IMO.  But overall, those suites are great !

[ryanbarckley]

8 hours ago, KathyK60 said:

My daughter (20) and I will be joining you on this cruise.  We'll be in "steerage," I mean interior cabin on deck 7!  Our first time on a ship this size.  Can't wait for the fun to begin!

 

Welcome! Can't wait to see the ship Sunday morning!

 

8 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

Make sure you take advantage of the Star Class laundry services.  It's amazing to come home after vacation with clean laundry!

 

Oh I plan on it! It sounds like a game changer. 

 

6 hours ago, RFerrington said:

+1.  We LOVE Charlie.  He is the greatest.  Tell him "hi" from Dan and Raye.

 

He seems pretty popular! I'm looking forward to it. I've asked him a few questions via email so far, and he hasn't actually given me the answers I wanted (they've been generic like "of course we can do something like that" instead of specific answers. I'll talk to him once we're on board and I'm confident he'll live up to the great reputation!

 

6 hours ago, RFerrington said:

We've been in 10330, 9730 and 8330 (3 times) and I can tell you that there is a WORLD of difference between ALL of the other ATS and Deck 8.  Deck 8 is WAAAY bigger - both the cabin and the balcony.  If you have a chance to upgrade to Deck 8 - TAKE IT !  The absolute ONLY complaint I have with the ATS is the walking distance way back there.  We have moved up to Deck 17 permanently but we really, really enjoyed our times in the ATS.  Nothing like them !

 

I was originally in 10330, and 9730 happened to open up somewhat last minute so I immediately called and switched us. I wish deck 8 would've been available but I'm sure we'll be more than happy on 9!

 

6 hours ago, RFerrington said:

My biggest recommendation to you is - do not fail to enjoy your balcony.  THAT is what you are paying for, with the ATS.  It's absolutely stunning.  Make sure you have at least a couple of meals out there with the whole fam.  That's one of the nicest things about Star Class - you can have as much food as you want brought from any specialty restaurant and they don't care who is eating it, if it's in your suite.  So anyone (even the Grands !!!  LOL) can come and enjoy the in-suite specialty restaurant.

 

You are so lucky to have Charlie.  He comes from a big family himself, so he will LOVE your family.  ...and don't tell anyone...but he will be more than happy to include your Grands for the reserved seating in the theaters.  I wouldn't take advantage of that but he will include them when he can.

 

Charlie is a great party-planner.  Let him do his thing.  Party on !!

 

Yeah I normally don't spend a ton of time on our balcony, but I'm thinking I'll wind up spending way more time here. I was definitely planning on getting some meals for our room, and glad to have what I thought confirmed (that they can eat with us in the room). 

 

What sort of parties did he plan for you? I was thinking of doing something like this. 

 

3 hours ago, buckeye rob said:

Thanks for the info.  We have been in 11330 on Oasis and really loved it except for the tub.  (Due to being a transformed secret balcony) ?  Didn't really mind the walk at all, being that the CK is directly above those rear elevators.  I saw a couple videos of 8330 and it seemed the climbers were right there at your balcony.  Maybe the sound was turned up but seemed noisier from the AT and Boardwalk.  Reading or listening too much into that ?  Regards, Gerry. 

 

I'm not too worried about noise, but I'm sure we'll hear some. We'll be participating a lot whenever there is stuff in the Aquatheater so that should work out for us. 

 

3 hours ago, RFerrington said:

To be fair, there is some noise from the AT.  It was never enough to bother us but there always seems to be something going on out there.  We just shut the doors and it never bothered us.  The master BR is away from the AT side so it's very quiet in there.  As for the rock climbers, yes...they are right there by the balcony but they never bothered us at all.  It was fun watching them.  The activity out in the AT is part of the appeal of the ATS.  I loved watching them practicing for the shows and it was really fun to watch the shows from up there.  You can see the people in SCUBA that are working with the divers/performers.  All very fascinating. 

 

I agree with you about the bathtub.  VERY hard to get into/out of.  Even the original ATS that were built that way from the beginning have the high bathtubs.   I think that the bathrooms in the ATS are the biggest/only disappointments related to the suites themselves.  Very small and unimpressive, IMO.  But overall, those suites are great !

 

Yeah I'm disappointed in the tub but luckily I'm the only one in my group that's tall, so everyone else will probably be fine with the short bath.  

[ryanbarckley]

Alright, after a couple last minute runs to shop rite (grocery store) and CVS, Im all packed.  Our flight is in 9 hours, and I'm sure I won't be sleeping much tonight. 

 

We're out to dinner at an amazing margarita and taco spot in Jersey City NJ to celebrate the official start of vacation! Cheers to everyone! (Margarita pictures to come!)

[LuCruise]

Following along. Sounds like an amazing cruise with your group.  We were on the Allure a few years ago and loved it.  Our Symphony cruise coming up has same itinerary as yours so interested as well.  Safe travels.

[ryanbarckley]

Celebratory margaritas, tacos, guac and quesadillas to start the vacation! Wouldn't have it any other way.  

 

This is 5 of the 6 of us in the ATS. Hi everyone!

[ryanbarckley]

10 minutes ago, LuCruise said:

Following along. Sounds like an amazing cruise with your group.  We were on the Allure a few years ago and loved it.  Our Symphony cruise coming up has same itinerary as yours so interested as well.  Safe travels.

 

Welcome! I hope to get one symphony some time "soon" myself!

[MrFunInTheSun]

Thanks for bringing us along!