Semi-Live on Allure: Everything is New Again with Toddler Cruising

[silentbob007]

Hi all … it has been years since I’ve contributed much but thought I’d share on our first cruise since the pandemic and our first cruise with a child. 
 

The unexpected cruise

I had been whispering the word “cruise” in my wife’s ear for a while, but even this time last year, she was still worried about pandemic cruising with our son. Over the Christmas holiday, we had some family members ask us about cruising for spring break. They wanted to look at a Disney and I laughed and said I’d get back to them but that they were going to be surprised about the price, especially for the first week of April and still spring break season. I did research and most cruises on all lines were nutso bonkers expensive with one reasonable option being Allure of the Seas out of Galveston. They were interested and then suddenly my wife was too … right now she is still saying she will only cruise with a Central Park (which are the only ships she’s been on anyway) but that’s a battle for another day. We booked in January (so fairly late) and then I needed to figure out what it meant for midwesterners to cruise out of Galveston. 
 

Note: I will be wrong this in fairly short segments since I’m on my phone and it is not as easy for me to manage longer writing. 

 

[silentbob007]

Galveston

Probably my least favorite port to cruise out of in Florida is Port Canaveral. Nothing against the facilities, but the logistics being a bit away from Orlando MCO is more annoying to me than ports like Miami or Fort Lauderdale with fairly easy transport to the ships. Generally with PC, I’m in the fly the day before, get a rental car, stay in Cocoa Beach, drop at the ship, return the car, then go back to the ship crowd. 
 

Well … that’s not how it seems to work with Galveston. There are rental car agencies in Galveston, but they all appear to be closed on Sunday (when Allure docks). There are lots of hotels, but many of them were already booked solid by the time we booked the cruise. Add in flying in the weekend of the Final Four in Houston and leaving on Easter … planning has not been fun or cheap. My before mentioned extended family members chose to drive. We, on the other hand, flew into Houston from O’Hare on Southwest with a stop but not plane change in Dallas. Very bad storms made us change our plans from staying in Chicago on Friday night and instead got up at 2 AM to make our flight and arrive at Houston at 3 PM one time zone away. It was a long day. 
 

My family chose a Holiday Inn Express about 15 minutes from Houston Hobby. We took a taxi to the hotel and crashed in our room. The next day our son rode in our family’s van (with car seat) to the port while my wife and I grabbed a Lyft.

 

We arrived at the port at about 10:30 (we had the earliest arrival time booked at 11) and there were still quite a few people waiting for rides (evidently taxis and ride shares were in short supply). The bag drop and check in was painless. We had to wait maybe 20 minutes to board since we waited to board with our newbie cruisers rather than jumping up go to when they called D+. We were on by about 11:10 or so I think.

 

 

[silentbob007]

The planning piece

 

We’ve flown several times with my son. The first two times I felt more like a pack mule than a person as we tried to juggle the checked bags, the carry on bags, the stroller, the travel crib, and the car seat. Now that my son is two and a half, we ditched the crib and I was trying very hard not to take the unwieldy beast of a car seat. We also now have a Mountain Buggy stroller that folds to fit in the overhead.  When my BIL decided to drive, I asked if he could bring an extra seat for the drive to the port. Since we are coming back on Easter, I just booked us on the cruise line bus to the airport (out of IAH instead of HOB on the way home). With the stroller, my wife’s large purse, my son’s small backpack, my backpack, a single roller board, and my CPAP, it was still a lot to handle (in addition to 2 large and one small checked bags).

 

The Holliday Inn Express in Webster was a compromise with the other family members who had already booked it. Otherwise I probably would have stayed at the Doubletree near the airport with a shuttle and then gone back to the airport the next day to catch a shuttle bus to the port since we did not have a car seat. 

[sargemrs]

2 hours ago, silentbob007 said:

The planning piece

 

We’ve flown several times with my son. The first two times I felt more like a pack mule than a person as we tried to juggle the checked bags, the carry on bags, the stroller, the travel crib, and the car seat. Now that my son is two and a half, we ditched the crib and I was trying very hard not to take the unwieldy beast of a car seat. We also now have a Mountain Buggy stroller that folds to fit in the overhead.  When my BIL decided to drive, I asked if he could bring an extra seat for the drive to the port. Since we are coming back on Easter, I just booked us on the cruise line bus to the airport (out of IAH instead of HOB on the way home). With the stroller, my wife’s large purse, my son’s small backpack, my backpack, a single roller board, and my CPAP, it was still a lot to handle (in addition to 2 large and one small checked bags).

 

The Holliday Inn Express in Webster was a compromise with the other family members who had already booked it. Otherwise I probably would have stayed at the Doubletree near the airport with a shuttle and then gone back to the airport the next day to catch a shuttle bus to the port since we did not have a car seat. 

Enjoying your review.  We'll be onboard with 18 in August!  Every little detail will be appreciated!!

[catlady66]

We leave April 30th on the Allure so I appreciate the review.  I'm curious about the traffic going into the port as we are driving in.  I'm expecting it to be a crawl once we get close but wonder if that is true.

[atakkat]

Leaving on 4/23. Really enjoying your review.

[silentbob007]

4 hours ago, catlady66 said:

We leave April 30th on the Allure so I appreciate the review.  I'm curious about the traffic going into the port as we are driving in.  I'm expecting it to be a crawl once we get close but wonder if that is true.

Arriving around 10:30 the traffic for us wasn’t too bad. We had to wait a few minutes for drop off spots to clear but that’s it. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by silentbob007

[silentbob007]

Reservations

 

Reservations for this cruise have been frustrating to say the least. Part of this is from booking late. Part is from improper assumptions about how things work post Covid. Part is sheer stupidity on the part of Royal Caribbean. 
 

We booked late enough that MTD was the only option. Since we were crossing with newbies and my wife prefers specialty dining (or really Coastal Kitchen) over the MDR, I did not immediately make MTD reservations. The shows had also not been released either (and weren’t until right after the start of March) so figuring out timing was hard. To add extra complications, we were also trying to plan some date nights with kids swaps. Long story shorter, the day shows opened up I reserved them trying to keep our family schedule in mind. What I didn’t count on was MTD not ooening until 6:30. This ended up making the shows near impossible with our son. He can’t go to a late show or late dinner and nothing before 8:30 dinner reservations remained. Even if we tried to do standby and were actually seated by 6:45, we would not make an 8:00 show and have at least decent seats. My bad … I didn’t realize how bad MTD had gotten until it was too late, remembering it used to open before early seating on some ships but definitely not an hour after. Another example of scheduling woes works be Mama Mia. On our sailing it is offered on days five and six with a matinee on day six … which would be great but it’s a port day. No shows on Day 7 at all, the last sea day. I’m sure there’s a reason for it, but it strikes me as silly on its face. 

[silentbob007]

Day 1 continued

 

We boarded and headed straight to Central Park. I wanted a beef sandwich and I also wanted to book our specialty dining that our TA had comped us. Since we had ice show reservations at 8:15, I decided I didn’t even want to deal with the craziness of the MTD standby line and used our D+ BOGO coupons to book early dinner am for everyone at Giovanni’s. 

 

With reservations done, we went down to complete muster and grab some pizza. The new muster is definitely a world of improvement. Watch a few videos in the app, go to your station to get scanned, then you are done. It actually felt kind of weird not to have a time in the afternoon blocked off where we’d have to gather and then fight for elevators with every other person on the ship. 
 

Cabins opened at 1. By the time we made it there, two of our three bags had arrived. My son kind of cooked with the tablet while we unpacked and lamented his bag had not been the one to arrive which had his full supply of clothes, diapers, etc. A few bad visions danced through our heads while I kept saying it must have just made it on another cart. Sure enough it arrived maybe another hour later. 
 

[silentbob007]

Adventure Ocean

 

There was an open house for AO in the afternoon of day 1. We took our son up to register him and check out the facilities. We decided to try one hour on day 2. It would be our first time leaving him with non-family and my wife was hesitant about it even though everyone was very friendly and the 0-36 month area seemed very nice and secure. I believe costs for that age group is $6 an hour and they will change diapers, feed, play, and do nap time if desired. the ship is full of kids but it did not seem difficult to reserve space in this age group. 
 

Cabin

 

We caught a lucky break and were able to book a 3-person GTY ocean view balcony cabin for a decent price. We ended up being almost all of the way aft, but I’m not going to complain considering the GTY saved us about $2000 from the cabin booking we were going to make. 
 

We met our cabin attendant and he told us Allure was now on once a day service. Dang it! This one does irritate me because tips have gone up so much (over $16/pp/pd) that I do not appreciate a drop in service, especially for a family room that needs a little more TLC given the tiny trash receptacles and diapers, sofa bed that takes up most of the floor space when open, etc. Even if they skipped the full bathroom cleaning and just reset the room furniture and emptied the trash in the morning, that would be more manageable. 
 

 

Edited April 4, 2023 by silentbob007

[BecciBoo]

12 minutes ago, silentbob007 said:

tiny trash receptacles

Ask him for one of those outsized trash bags to keep in the bathroom and request he empty it at days end every day.  I have even taken tall kitchen bags with me for laundry and trash,  I always hated those stupid little buckets!

[silentbob007]

Good idea. I actually asked him to come empty the trash this morning as there have been some unexpected bathroom issues this morning unfortunately. 
 

I have also just been folding up the sofa myself and piling the bedding next to it. 

Edited April 4, 2023 by silentbob007

[silentbob007]

Dinner and a Show

 

As noted earlier, we had an early dinner at Giovanni’s. It was not super busy. We had great service from our waitress and the food was well recorded. The kids ordered from the kids menu which was free for our child and like $12 each for the other two. It took a little under two hours so we did not make it to our ice show as early as I works have liked and all of the closer seats were filled. 
 

I noticed a few changes in the menu from what was posted … notably no veal. The filet was very nice. I was less impressed with the meat and cheese board which was better at Jamie’s. My wife said the bolognese seemed gritty and didn’t hold a candle to mine. One more notch for me … my tiramisu is better too. 😉
 

The ice show was good as usual though Allure’s show is probably my last favorite because of its weird monopoly and ship location theming. It just always feels randomly self serving. 
 

After the show it was time for bed. Our child seemed to be enjoying the show until he fell asleep. Those 9 PM nights are rough. 

 

Edited April 5, 2023 by silentbob007

[silentbob007]

Diamond Drinks

 

This is my first cruise with “drinks on the card” not limited to the old lounge menu. It is nice to have such freedom so I expect it to end in the near future. I’ve been trying drinks I’d never get otherwise and still leaving plenty more on the card. I called before the cruise to have a C&A account made for our son. As a result, his D+ pin was waiting in the cabin when we arrived and he gets free drinks as well. I’m sure he would  appreciate buying coffees and mocktails for his family members. He seems pretty happy with his few bottles of apple juice each day. This seems like the most respected perk for our new cruisers.

 

Speaking of apple juice, I had never noticed it completely disappears off of the self serve lines after breakfast. This makes it harder when you have a crying toddler and you did not plan your juice retrieval appropriately. Thankfully several counters sell Minute Maid bottled juice. The Vitality Cafe in front of the spa seems to be an under utilized place to get smoothies, juices, and coffee drinks. I think most don’t realize it exists and it is a nice haven with good drinks and available seating away from the sea day madness of the Royal Promenade or Park Cafe. The Starbucks kiosk of the promenade is always busy and not available on any drink package or for a Diamond freebie. 
 

 

[silentbob007]

Roatan

 

Our just stop was Roatan. I booked a private tour with Victor Bodden for the day. It was very reasonable at $25pp for our whole group plus tour add ons. We really enjoy holding the sloths so we got off early (a little after 9 ship time) to get there before the sloths went to sleep. It was crazy in town but we finally got out and had a great time with our driver Tex. A few of us did a fishing add on that was very much not worth it as it was just the wrong time of day.  Our family group got taken back to the ship while the others stayed at the beach for a few more hours. It is very nice to be flexible but have control of the itinerary. 
 

 

[silentbob007]

Costa Maya

 

I have never booked a tour in Costa Maya. I’ve been on Cruise Critic long enough that in the old days I’d go to town and beach at the Cat’s Meow. This time I figured I’d give Maya Chan a shot based on CC and vloggers. 
 

Double whammy. I received an email from Mark yesterday they were canceling because they had too much sea grass and couldn’t get it cleaned and offer the service they wanted to provide. This morning it became moot anyway … The captain announced the port was canceled due to winds and unsafe docking conditions.

Edited April 6, 2023 by silentbob007

[ajtaylor29]

52 minutes ago, silentbob007 said:

Costa Maya

 

I have never booked a tour in Costa Maya. I’ve been on Cruise Critic long enough that in the old days I’d go to town and beach at the Cat’s Meow. This time I figured I’d give Maya Chan a shot based on CC and vloggers. 
 

Double whammy. I received an email from Mark yesterday they were canceling because they had too much sea grass and couldn’t get it cleaned and offer the service they wanted to provide. This morning it became moot anyway … The captain announced the port was canceled due to winds and unsafe docking conditions.

Oh no!!! We'll be on Allure in 10 days so i'm anxiously watching for your updates....but this is not good news?!?

The first time we were supposed to go to Costa Maya (4 years ago) and try out Maya Chan....the ship cancelled due to weather and took us to Progresso instead.

So, now we're hoping to get there in 2 weeks....but i'm going to try and keep an open mind that it might not happen....again....

Enjoy the rest of your cruise, and keep us updated!

[silentbob007]

Yeah missing a port is always disappointing, especially with only a few ports to begin with. No substitutions for us today … it has just become another sea day. I’ve not caught all of the announcements but I’m assuming we’ll get refunded port fees at some point. 
 

We’ve just been chilling today. Plenty of pool chairs open this morning as the savers were caught unawares. I also did see a few of the no saving warnings on some chairs. 
 

Random rant #1

Same rant as before Covid … why do people feel the need to be so disgusting? Children get a little bit of a pass here, but I’m taking about adults. I saw someone taste a salad dressing in the windjammer by squirting on his plate, dipping  his finger in it and tasting it, then using the same hand to grab the bottle and add more. Then the lady in front of me at Wipe Out Cafe today decided she would just eat chips out of the serving bowl while waiting in line then stink eyed the attendant who kept saying ma’am please no. 
 

Bring your personal bottles of hand sanitizer everyone. 

Edited April 6, 2023 by silentbob007

[silentbob007]

Sea Days and Adventure Ocean

 

The first two days of this itinerary are scheduled seas days. I wish I could say we ran around and did so many things, but we really didn’t. Even before having a child, I did not do a lot on sea days. I don’t really like being on the pool deck when the ship is empty let alone when there are 3,000 people running around. We did grab some chairs by a pool for a little bit on one day, but the wind was so high we were constantly getting water blown on us from the pool splash. 
 

On the first day, we took our son to try an hour in Royal Babies and Tots. We had registered the day before and reserved the hour. We had never left him with non-family before so it was a bit hard on him and his momma. They asked if they could feed him, when his nap time was, etc, and we left his bag with diapers and his pacifier. They put a sticker on his back with his name and muster station, handed us a portable phone, and told us he would be fine but that we could call if we needed to. We left with him sobbing and my wife sobbing, and headed down to Cafe Promenade to use his card for a free coffees. An hour later we were reunited and everything was fine and the staff reassured us that he calmed down after a few minutes and watched some TV while having a snack. 
 

There is an unattended play room in the middle of AO for smaller kids that our son enjoys. We can take him in there and he can play with the toys, play kitchen, play houses, and the small slide. I'm glad there are some play spaces specifically for him. 

[slyster]

Thank you for your review.  We are cruising in a few months, and I cannot wait.  You mentioned it in your first post, but just double checking....is 11am the first available time to choose for boarding time check-in?  Just wondering when it is our turn to do that.

[silentbob007]

Yes, 11 AM was the first time slot. We were still getting documentation in order so I used the app and was able to skip to the time selection the day it opened (60 days out? I forget now.) and leave the rest blank. I don’t know that anyone actually checked our time at the Galveston terminal, however. Since I coordinated the bookings, I had the reservation numbers and was able to link everyone’s reservations to my app and reserve everyone in my party the same time. 

[lazydayz]

Thanks for the live review.  I am enjoying it. 

[silentbob007]

Well we managed to dock in Cozumel today so there’s a positive though there was still some grumbling about the 7:30 AM arrival time. 
 

We didn’t do a whole lot on our extra sea day yesterday. It was our final “date night” with our family taking our son so we had dinner at Chops and then reservations for the comedy show. 
 

Service started a little slow at Chops for our 7:15 reservation. I ordered a couple of starters, the crab cake and beef carpaccio, that were fairly meh. The goat cheese salad was very nice. My wife enjoyed her shrimp cocktail and tuna tartare more than my starters. She was very happy with her petite filet. I thought the bone in rib-eye was nicely cooked but fairly under seasoned. Maybe I just want e feeling it last night. Since service took a bit, we got our desserts to go so we would make our 9:30 comedy reservation before they opened it up to standbys. My wife’s red velvet was good but my key lime pie was underwhelming and had almost zero key lime taste … it tasted like a sweetened condensed milk custard on a crust with meringue. 

[silentbob007]

Shows

Ice Games - We saw this the first night. As I said before, it’s not my favorite ice production but is still amazing for what they can do. We got there maybe 20 minutes early and most of the prime seats were taken. The “reserved” seats were in the back left as opposed to directly facing the front. As usual that huge section was mostly empty meaning that the standbys ended up getting better seats once that section was released to everyone. The guest act was a dancer with hoops. 
 

OceanAria - we went the evening of our first port day. The water was sloshing so much I figured it works get canceled but I guess they managed to squeak it in. There were no high dives from the tower or aerial wire performances. Still a nice show and my son was enthralled. The reserved seats were the first three rows in the middle. 
 

Comedy Live - the host joked about it being Royal Caribbean’s smallest venue and that feels true. Reservations went quickly and the standby lines were long with only a few getting in. First comedian was Nora Lynch and she was funny. The second comedian was Phil Palisoul and he was hilarious. Definitely adult oriented but not obnoxiously so.

[atakkat]

Wonderful Review. We will be sailing in 2 weeks.