LIVE! Allure of the Seas April 30th 2023 - 7N Western Caribbean out of Galveston TX.

[binro01]

It's that time again! One week out from fly out day to our next cruise!

The Details

Fly Out from Chilly Utah on April 28th 2023. Doing our first time flying out of Provo Airport vs Salt Lake City International on Allegiant Air. We couldn't pass up on the price. 4 people round trip direct flights to Houston Hobby for $771.00. This price also including 4 checked in suitcases. Thank you black friday sales!

This is the first time ever cruising out of Galveston Texas and the new Royal Caribbean terminal. I'm currently working with my business development manager for Royal Caribbean to get an interview with their person in charge to make a video about the new terminal and the future plans RCI has for this port, so if this actually becomes a thing, that will be some pretty sweet info for all of us here.

We are staying 2 nights pre cruise in Galveston right on the beach at the Red Roof Inn Plus+ Galveston Beachfront. We got a great price. Don't judge LOL! But we love the location to the beach and the pier.

This will be our Third time on Allure OTS but the first time our twin 19 year olds will be on an Oasis Class ship so it will be fun to experience it through their eyes!

 

No DBP for me this cruise. Pricing for the DBP has gone kinda crazy. Cheapest I saw was 73.00 per day + tips. I would be playing the breakeven game in my head and that's no fun for me.. I will just stick with the drink of the day from time to time and take advantage of my All inclusive excursions in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Specialty dining will be relegated to some sea day lunches at Izumi Hibachi and Giovanni's Table. We will also do a Dinner at Samba Grill. Other than that its the MDR, Buffet, the Dog House, The Park Cafe and the new El Loco Fresh that has taken over the old Wipeout grill location on Allure. 

We are also staying in Houston near the airport the day we get off the ship. No need to rush to an airport a distance away from the port and stress.

This is the typical 7N cruise to the Western Caribbean. Yea.. Roatan, Cozumel and Costa Maya. Been there done that have many tee-shirts... But again, this will be the first time for our twins to do this itinerary, so again, it will be fun to see it through their eyes.

I'm also trying to arrange an interview with Allure's Hotel Manager officer and the Cruise Director on this cruise. So again more cool opportunities for you folks to ask your questions to these individuals.

A little bit about me and the family

Me and my family have been cruising since the year 2000, so going on over 2 decades. My wife and I are in our early/mid fifties and we have 3 boys, ages 33, 19 & 19. The twins have been on quite a few cruises, while poor Chase had to deal with Mom and Dad raising up twins and pinching pennies but he did manage to go on a couple with us.

This will be our 5th Royal Caribbean Cruise and we do love the entertainment and the things to do on their ships. We have moved most of our main stream cruising business to Royal Caribbean over Carnival and NCL recently. When we look to do something more upscale we have booked recently with Celebrity and Princess, but Celebrity has been our default recently too.

This will be the third time my wife and I will be on Allure OTS, so we know her quite well. We love the fact that there is NO waterslides and there is still the Champagne bar vs the silly Bionic bar with horrible drinks.

 

Overall this will be our 14th cruise.

Just last year, by pure dumb luck followed by some persistence and diligence..I started a YouTube Channel. I posted a video on YouTube hyping up our coming cruise following @Sea Dog Google Earth Itinerary concepts to basically get me and the wife excited about our first RC cruise after the pandemic during the cruising restart. Well somehow a bunch of people found that video and decided to subscribe to my channel. NUTS Right?

So I said to myself, "Self, if people like this stuff, lets see what happens when I post some other stuff. Like hacks I learned over the years. Explaining how packages work on each line.. Basically creating videos about my answers to questions my friends asked me about cruising..."

Fast forward to today, and over the last year, the channel has grown from 0 subscribers to over 8000 and quickly approaching over 1 million views of the videos I created for the channel. From this my wife and I decided to open up a travel agency that she runs and now thinks she is my boss and I'm just the marketing wing of her budding travel empire.

So without further delay... or more word salad.. I give to you, an homage to what started off my channel. I created a new Cruise Hype video for this cruise critic Live thread! Enjoy and welcome aboard!

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by binro01

[Sea Dog]

Bravo well done!!!!!

 

Thank you for the shout out I'm so happy I can be an influence to others. The video looks fantastic. I love the stock footage you got from Royal. If I may ask how did you get access? Was it solely on the number of subscribers? I'm trying to build my page but so far Royal hasn't given me access to all their good video. Any tips on how to get that?

 

Again great job I just went to your YT page and subscribed. I'll be following.

 

Cheers!

[binro01]

2 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

how did you get access

So the way I got access was mainly from my Travel Agency build out. Even though we only launched the travel business 2 months ago, I became involved with my host agency about 6 months ago. Through this, I got access to the press center materials.

[Sea Dog]

3 minutes ago, binro01 said:

So the way I got access was mainly from my Travel Agency build out. Even though we only launched the travel business 2 months ago, I became involved with my host agency about 6 months ago. Through this, I got access to the press center materials.

Thanks that is what I figured. It helps to be associated with an agency.

 

Ill continue to produce contact and hopefully one day Royal will give me access. Again great job!!!

[Coralc]

Red Roof Inn Plus was reportedly struck by lightning last night. I don't know if that is the same place, a reported hotel fire occurred at 4 AM. All third hand news. 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Coralc

[binro01]

1 minute ago, Coralc said:

Red Roof Inn Plus was reportedly struck by lightning last night

Yikes!!! I will need to check into this! Thanks!

[Fontaid]

4 hours ago, binro01 said:

Yikes!!! I will need to check into this! Thanks!

This does appear to be your hotel. Damage was caused by either a transformer or a lightning strike. The Galveston County "The Daily News" says more details will be available on Monday. Here's a screenshot from "The Daily News" (with credits) showing damage. 

[binro01]

Holy cow! Gonna call them tomorrow.

[SKSMIKE5]

We leave 28 May, will be following! There are 4 families, 18 total staying in VRBOs ahead of cruise. Have read mixed reviews regarding getting to the port the morning of the cruise. Some say they couldn't find transportation to take them so we'll be interested in your experience. 

[binro01]

14 minutes ago, SKSMIKE5 said:

We leave 28 May, will be following! There are 4 families, 18 total staying in VRBOs ahead of cruise. Have read mixed reviews regarding getting to the port the morning of the cruise. Some say they couldn't find transportation to take them so we'll be interested in your experience. 

Galveston is an interesting town. I hear that Uber can be difficult, and have the Lyft app ready. We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

[jbrinkm]

22 minutes ago, binro01 said:

Galveston is an interesting town. I hear that Uber can be difficult, and have the Lyft app ready. We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

 

We prebooked an old fashioned taxi and it worked out really well. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Suites, the one further down the Seawall, so it was a good 20 minutes away from the port. There are some taxis on the island that may not want to make the big trip to one of the airports but would rather just run a few small trips from hotels to the port. The rideshares sometimes do seem to have problems - really long wait times or cancelling. Maybe that will get better on May 1 when Uber is allowed in. (Prebooking a rideshare doesn't mean anything; they can still cancel at will.) Our taxi driver (minivan) was hailed many, many times by people who wanted to go to the airport, but she was on her way back to another hotel to drive another group to the port. 

[SKSMIKE5]

3 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

 

We prebooked an old fashioned taxi and it worked out really well. We stayed at the Best Western Plus Suites, the one further down the Seawall, so it was a good 20 minutes away from the port. There are some taxis on the island that may not want to make the big trip to one of the airports but would rather just run a few small trips from hotels to the port. The rideshares sometimes do seem to have problems - really long wait times or cancelling. Maybe that will get better on May 1 when Uber is allowed in. (Prebooking a rideshare doesn't mean anything; they can still cancel at will.) Our taxi driver (minivan) was hailed many, many times by people who wanted to go to the airport, but she was on her way back to another hotel to drive another group to the port. 

Thank you. How early can you prebook a taxi? Did you do it online? Sounds like that might be a good option. There will be 6 of us in our VRBO about 5 miles from port.

[catlady66]

38 minutes ago, binro01 said:

Galveston is an interesting town. I hear that Uber can be difficult, and have the Lyft app ready. We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

 

55 minutes ago, SKSMIKE5 said:

We leave 28 May, will be following! There are 4 families, 18 total staying in VRBOs ahead of cruise. Have read mixed reviews regarding getting to the port the morning of the cruise. Some say they couldn't find transportation to take them so we'll be interested in your experience. 

I’ve heard great reviews for Galveston Salt Water Moms for transportation.  It’s all Mom’s with mini vans and they’ll even take detours if you need to stop and pick something up from the store

[firefly333]

I've been doing uber. One time last dec I did click on a 50% more expensive uber to get to the port. It was some big weekend not just cruises, like Charles Dickens parade, idk. But I've always gotten a ubee, maybe not the cheapest one. A taxi would be more.

[Tricia28]

On the same cruise as you. Went on the Christmas sailing out of Galveston 4 months ago. That was the cruise that all the plants in Central Park froze. I truly hope they have replaced them. It is my favorite place on the ship. This will be my 8th time on Allure. Last time we went in a Crown Loft Suite but this time it's a balcony guarantee for us. We bought the UDP but did not purchase the drink package.

[Tree_skier]

21 hours ago, binro01 said:

It's that time again! One week out from fly out day to our next cruise!

The Details

Fly Out from Chilly Utah on April 28th 2023. Doing our first time flying out of Provo Airport vs Salt Lake City International on Allegiant Air. We couldn't pass up on the price. 4 people round trip direct flights to Houston Hobby for $771.00. This price also including 4 checked in suitcases. Thank you black friday sales!

This is the first time ever cruising out of Galveston Texas and the new Royal Caribbean terminal. I'm currently working with my business development manager for Royal Caribbean to get an interview with their person in charge to make a video about the new terminal and the future plans RCI has for this port, so if this actually becomes a thing, that will be some pretty sweet info for all of us here.

We are staying 2 nights pre cruise in Galveston right on the beach at the Red Roof Inn Plus+ Galveston Beachfront. We got a great price. Don't judge LOL! But we love the location to the beach and the pier.

This will be our Third time on Allure OTS but the first time our twin 19 year olds will be on an Oasis Class ship so it will be fun to experience it through their eyes!

 

No DBP for me this cruise. Pricing for the DBP has gone kinda crazy. Cheapest I saw was 73.00 per day + tips. I would be playing the breakeven game in my head and that's no fun for me.. I will just stick with the drink of the day from time to time and take advantage of my All inclusive excursions in Cozumel and Costa Maya. Specialty dining will be relegated to some sea day lunches at Izumi Hibachi and Giovanni's Table. We will also do a Dinner at Samba Grill. Other than that its the MDR, Buffet, the Dog House, The Park Cafe and the new El Loco Fresh that has taken over the old Wipeout grill location on Allure. 

We are also staying in Houston near the airport the day we get off the ship. No need to rush to an airport a distance away from the port and stress.

This is the typical 7N cruise to the Western Caribbean. Yea.. Roatan, Cozumel and Costa Maya. Been there done that have many tee-shirts... But again, this will be the first time for our twins to do this itinerary, so again, it will be fun to see it through their eyes.

I'm also trying to arrange an interview with Allure's Hotel Manager officer and the Cruise Director on this cruise. So again more cool opportunities for you folks to ask your questions to these individuals.

A little bit about me and the family

Me and my family have been cruising since the year 2000, so going on over 2 decades. My wife and I are in our early/mid fifties and we have 3 boys, ages 33, 19 & 19. The twins have been on quite a few cruises, while poor Chase had to deal with Mom and Dad raising up twins and pinching pennies but he did manage to go on a couple with us.

This will be our 5th Royal Caribbean Cruise and we do love the entertainment and the things to do on their ships. We have moved most of our main stream cruising business to Royal Caribbean over Carnival and NCL recently. When we look to do something more upscale we have booked recently with Celebrity and Princess, but Celebrity has been our default recently too.

This will be the third time my wife and I will be on Allure OTS, so we know her quite well. We love the fact that there is NO waterslides and there is still the Champagne bar vs the silly Bionic bar with horrible drinks.

 

Overall this will be our 14th cruise.

Just last year, by pure dumb luck followed by some persistence and diligence..I started a YouTube Channel. I posted a video on YouTube hyping up our coming cruise following @Sea Dog Google Earth Itinerary concepts to basically get me and the wife excited about our first RC cruise after the pandemic during the cruising restart. Well somehow a bunch of people found that video and decided to subscribe to my channel. NUTS Right?

So I said to myself, "Self, if people like this stuff, lets see what happens when I post some other stuff. Like hacks I learned over the years. Explaining how packages work on each line.. Basically creating videos about my answers to questions my friends asked me about cruising..."

Fast forward to today, and over the last year, the channel has grown from 0 subscribers to over 8000 and quickly approaching over 1 million views of the videos I created for the channel. From this my wife and I decided to open up a travel agency that she runs and now thinks she is my boss and I'm just the marketing wing of her budding travel empire.

So without further delay... or more word salad.. I give to you, an homage to what started off my channel. I created a new Cruise Hype video for this cruise critic Live thread! Enjoy and welcome aboard!

 

Great stuff

 

[Tricia28]

My daughter and I are driving to Galveston tonight so we can be up and early to board. Very excited!

[ShrinkinTexas]

We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

 

What is the earliest boarding time on RCCL from Galveston?

[binro01]

29 minutes ago, jbrinkm said:

We prebooked an old fashioned taxi

I would love to know who you prebooked with 🙂

[binro01]

2 minutes ago, ShrinkinTexas said:

We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

 

What is the earliest boarding time on RCCL from Galveston?

11:00 AM

Edited April 22, 2023 by binro01

[binro01]

4 minutes ago, Tricia28 said:

My daughter and I are driving to Galveston tonight so we can be up and early to board. Very excited!

Drive safe! Have a wonderful cruise! Keep the lights on for us next week!

[firefly333]

33 minutes ago, ShrinkinTexas said:

We are also the earliest boarding time, so hopefully we might miss the big rush.

 

What is the earliest boarding time on RCCL from Galveston?

I had a 1030 am boarding last 2 times out of Galveston. So probably the earliest time if you get in at midnight the night before. 

[binro01]

16 hours ago, Fontaid said:

This does appear to be your hotel. Damage was caused by either a transformer or a lightning strike. The Galveston County "The Daily News" says more details will be available on Monday. Here's a screenshot from "The Daily News" (with credits) showing damage. 

So I tried to call the hotel with no luck. No answer. Just a message from Verizon. I then called the corporate HQ and they said they cant reach the hotel either. So.. I just cancelled. I cant take the risk. It was such a good price too. Oh well. Still going to be on the Seawall and got a decent deal at the Quality Inn and Suites Beachfront on the Seawall for $188.00 per night for our two nights there.

This is what I love about CC. I could have been stuck without a place to stay or had to scramble last minute.

[firefly333]

4 minutes ago, binro01 said:

So I tried to call the hotel with no luck. No answer. Just a message from Verizon. I then called the corporate HQ and they said they cant reach the hotel either. So.. I just cancelled. I cant take the risk. It was such a good price too. Oh well. Still going to be on the Seawall and got a decent deal at the Quality Inn and Suites Beachfront on the Seawall for $188.00 per night for our two nights there.

This is what I love about CC. I could have been stuck without a place to stay or had to scramble last minute.

Idk if you care about a outside pool. Both quality inn and beachfront palms next door have the same owner and share amenities. You can do either pool at either property. Also cruise parking is free. Just call a uber. I did this for march 27 to april 6, 10 days on radiance and they said np. Beachfront palms had a full breakfast so I assume so does quality inn. Kroger next door to them has anything you need for cruising. Quality inn the rooms are a little bigger imo and nicer. 

[binro01]

35 minutes ago, firefly333 said:

Idk if you care about a outside pool. Both quality inn and beachfront palms next door have the same owner and share amenities. You can do either pool at either property. Also cruise parking is free. Just call a uber. I did this for march 27 to april 6, 10 days on radiance and they said np. Beachfront palms had a full breakfast so I assume so does quality inn. Kroger next door to them has anything you need for cruising. Quality inn the rooms are a little bigger imo and nicer. 

Thanks for all the great tips! I usually call Uber or Lyft in general. I always check which one is not on surge pricing 🙂