⭐Live Allure TA 🚢 March 1, 2020 - Time to rub the lamp 🧞

[bigeck]

4 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Just one🤔🤣🤣

Magic 8 Ball says Not Likely

 

If anyone has some drink recommendations,  I'll give it a shot

Count me in aswell. Sorry I jumped ship to Anthem. 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Looking forward to following along John.  Should be an interesting one. 😉

[booplesnoople]

Think I could jump in a suitcase and come along? I'll sleep on the balcony, you'd never even know I was there!!

I'm so pumped for this sail-along! 😁

[loltastic]

I don't know if I'd ever leave that room!  So looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Edited February 28, 2020 by loltastic

[Ukigirl]

Never done a TA before, just Caribbean and Alaska so wondering if there will be some different and unique drinks that we haven’t seen.  That’s your mission John and LaLa, should you choose/decide to accept it. Good luck and God’s speed

[A&L_Ont]

20 hours ago, Ourusualbeach said:

Good choice of titles.😉

Agreed, I fully approve. 

 

12 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

What are you doing for lunch on boarding day?

You made me snort. 

 

8 hours ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

Maybe they have Pizza....  

No port side BBQ, at least not yet. 🙂

Edited February 29, 2020 by A&L_Ont

[Milwaukee Eight]

37 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

You made me snort

You must know the story behind my question. Lol

[A&L_Ont]

21 minutes ago, Milwaukee Eight said:

You must know the story behind my question. Lol

Yes, and I have a feeling John will elaborate in a few days. 
 

Thinking about it, can’t he eat brunch at home and breeze down the I-95 like all lucky Floridians?  Just asking, like any other jealous cruiser from the north would. 🤷‍♂️

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, bigeck said:

Count me in aswell. Sorry I jumped ship to Anthem. 

 

You should be🤣

 

I thought you were going to Jewel 🤔

[John&LaLa]

56 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

Yes, and I have a feeling John will elaborate in a few days. 
 

Thinking about it, can’t he eat brunch at home and breeze down the I-95 like all lucky Floridians?  Just asking, like any other jealous cruiser from the north would. 🤷‍♂️

 

I'm torn on elaborating. Need to give it another day or so to sink in

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

Agreed, I fully approve. 

 

Probably because you wrote it. 🤣👍

 

I'm guessing my choices will show up soon enough.😉

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

Looking forward to following along John.  Should be an interesting one. 😉

 

Thanks Sabrina. Glad to see you made it.

Hopefully Ashley shows up.

[Lovetocruise2002]

25 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I'm torn on elaborating. 

After last week’s post, you cannot leave us hanging like that.  Do tell. 😆

 

And I am sure Ashley will show up. 

[MrFunInTheSun]

Wahoo! Ready for those sea days! Thanks for bringing us along! 

[John&LaLa]

Let's go over the background on this trip. It's fascinating.

 

To begin with, this was originally an Eastern Caribbean cruise. 

Here is our roll call.

 

But fate stepped in. Well that and a bad azipod bearing, a collapsed crane in Freeport, and possibly an opening in the Cadiz drydock schedule.

 

FWIW the November 2020 crossing is almost 4 times bigger than ours

The title eventually got changed. 😉

 

The entire 2019/2020 Allure fall/winter/spring season has been a mess due to a bad azipod bearing. They changed a lot of itineraries to make up for lower speeds so they could operate on two azipods instead of three. They were going to go to Freeport in March or April 2020 and repair it prior to her spring 2020 TA and amplification. And then a crane fell on Oasis while she was having similar work done in spring 2019. This destroyed the only facility on the East Coast that could do this kind of work. So now they have to send her to Europe to fix the bearing and do her Amplification.

 

Not sure how or why a slot opened up in Cadiz to both fix the bearing and do the 57 day Amplification, but that seems to be the explanation to change the original TA, cancel the March Caribbean cruises and send her early. Oasis ended up having an emergency repair and then a Med season prior to being Amplified.  It makes more sense to pretty up Allure prior to the lucrative Med season, so here we are.

[John&LaLa]

Now, I don't remember the exact date, but they announced this new TA in January 2019. I jumped on it early and started looking at pricing. Low and behold, I noticed I could book a 2 bedroom Aqua Suite with only two people. In a moment of weakness, I booked it. $11,600 to put two folks in an 8 passenger suite. This was on January 15, 2019.  I booked 9330

 

The next day I realized I just left $600 in OBC on the table by not booking it an Next Cruise 5 days later when we sailed on Adventure. So on the second day of our Adventure cruise, I stopped by Next Cruise and booked it again.  This time I decided to go big and book 8370. It was $400 more, but I netted out $200 since I now get the $600 OBC.  So, on January 20, 2019 I now have two non refundable deposits on the same sailing. Oops.

 

At many points last year I was secretly hoping the pods would crap out and they would cancel the voyage. I'd get my two deposits back and a couple of big fat FCC's.  That never happened.

 

But I did call C&A and negotiated a full refund of my deposit. 👍  

 

I basically waited till the month before Final and told them them how I ended up with two cabins, and I was going to cancel 9330 at final. Would they like me to do it now and credit the $900 to 8370, or wait until final and just get a $700 FCC.  I think they realized they would have a better chance selling the suite at a decent price vs trying to sell it after final at a discount.  And of course they made a big deal out of telling me they were doing me a big favor. 😉

 

I think it was a win/win for both parties

[The sea calls my name]

I have been waiting a month for this review since we booked our first TA cruise for 4/4/21 on Harmony of the Seas. I will be taking each swell and wave with you. I pray that you truly have fair winds and following seas.

[John&LaLa]

And there were more adjustments to the final price, both up and down. 

 

1) I was able to apply a $500 casino certificate. That is harder to do now since we are booking more group rates with my new travel agent.

 

2) My old TA gave me a $600 discount. I'm sure other folks get bigger discounts (this was around 5%) but I'm happy.

 

3) We added my 30 year old son to the booking. He sailed with us last year on Serenade TA.  Cost to add him was around $850. As Ken mentioned earlier, this is a loser for Royal. The drinks, food, internet, and tips alone are north of $1,500 if purchased individually. 

 

BTW, Patrick is a 'souvenir' from our first cruise in 1989 on Carnival. He had just left the US Navy when we did the TA last year. 

He prefers sailing on Royal to his 4 years on the USS Reagan. 🤣

He lives in Atlanta now and just arrived here last night

 

4) I added 3 Business Class tickets through A2S for the flight home. Around $1200 per person.

 

So we are into Royal for right at 15K not counting two nights in Barcelona at the end.

[John&LaLa]

3 minutes ago, The sea calls my name said:

I have been waiting a month for this review since we booked our first TA cruise for 4/4/21 on Harmony of the Seas. I will be taking each swell and wave with you. I pray that you truly have fair winds and following seas.

 

Thanks, we are bringing Harmony home in October 2021. 

 

Repo's are great if you have the time. This will be Laura's 12th and my 8th. First on an Oasis ship.

Edited February 29, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Like I said earlier, my original fear for this trip was the azipod bearing.

 

And then this popped up

 

At first I thought it was a joke.

 

 

Obviously,  it wasn't. 

So we'll do washy washy,  and hope Barcelona is open for business on March 13. 

 

BTW, I'll keep you all posted on any developments, but I'd rather not discuss it much unless something really happens to impact the ship.

 

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Before I start posting a lot of pictures, I stole this from an earlier review😎

 

Just a little housekeeping to begin with.

Be mindful when quoting posts with pictures. 

If it's not relevant to your comment, try and delete them, it will make the picture police happy.

I like to use the thank you button instead of creating a post that just says thanks

It doesn't mean I'm not acknowledging your kind words

I will try and answer all the questions I can, but I need to be mindful of spending time with the lovely LaLa

Feel free to answer any questions that others pose. sometimes I'm slow or occupied. See above

I will try and post one picture of Bella per day. Some will be current from our sitter, and some will be vintage Bell.

Play nice. I really don't want this to go off the rails, and force the admins to delete stuff

 

If you are one of the lucky ones onboard with us, feel free to contribute.

 

Anyway, have fun and goodnight from Cocoa Beach

 

PS. If it's slow, there may be a few memes. 

Edited February 29, 2020 by John&LaLa

[The sea calls my name]

27 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Thanks, we are bringing Harmony home in October 2021. 

 

Repo's are great if you have the time. This will be Laura's 12th and my 8th. First on an Oasis ship.

That would have been our preference but there was a significant difference in the price. I am just ecstatic to finally being able to do this Bucket List trip. Since retirement comes 9/2020, and we will be moving permanently to our beach house in Ormond Beach, I am hoping to get some good last minute deals in the future. Hope to meet you and your lovely Laura one day soon. ( of course would love to love on that precious Bella also) I so enjoy your Bella and A & O's Lucy.

[bigeck]

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

You should be🤣

 

I thought you were going to Jewel 🤔

Anthem Ta won the price war and April is better for me as I still work.

Remember It's me thats missing out on the balcony, wings and Kraken.

So this will be hard for me to read and feel happy.

I did give you a head start for your hotel in Barca

Edited February 29, 2020 by bigeck

[little britain]

I know (and feel I virtually know!) so many people on this crossing! 
Safe travels!

[Eastern flygirl]

Have a safe and fun cruise, I know you will.  Love your stateroom, you will have a great view of the Aqua Shows.  I always enjoy your reviews and will be following along.  

Good luck to you and Laura in the casino.