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Hi everyone, I have been mostly absent/lurking the last few months. To make a long story short, we were forced to cut short our August French river cruise trip. In post vacation depression, I booked us on Allure of the Seas for spring break March 2019. Allianz ended up not paying on our insurance claim (long story but keep in mind insurance doesn't cover all unexpected emergencies such as a minor child's major health issue) and I planned on canceling the trip. Especially planned on canceling as airfare to Florida was attrocious. As a result, I didn't do any research or make any black friday purchases for this cruise (though I got a few deals on our August europe cruise). Fast forward to today after a horrendous day at work to discover $360 frontier airline flights (which did turn into 470 by the time bags, seats etc were purchased!) and I have decided that debt is ok if it saves my sanity. So now we are definitely keeping the allure cruise and I'm overwhelmed by everything. Show reservations, restaurant bookings and the dreaded do I spend 950 on two people drink pkg. What advice can people give me in terms of booking restaurants or shows first? I really want to do 150 and the izumi hibachi...and the hibachi isn't covered with any of the 3-5 night pkgs, so i was considering the ultimate dining, but i'm worried about food and drink fatigue and we'd lose a ton of money on my 16 year old. I'm rambling but the biggest ship I've been on is Freedom and I am just overwhelmed by everything! I also need major advice on good hotels in Miami. Part of the great frontier deal was that we are flying in at 530 am and will really have all day in Miami. I've never been there and I'm not sure even what areas to consider. I'm not feeling we have to do the beach but I'd love to have a hotel with either beach closeness or a good pool. What else is there to do in Miami for one day (with a 16 year old) that doesn't break the bank...since I'm actually considering the freaking ship drink pkg! I will definitely head to the cruise compasses when I stop hyperventilating, but for now I'd love to hear opinions on what not to miss on allure!! Jane

@Lovetocruise2002 , this is the only thing I don't remember getting on either the Liberty or Freedom, other than the Top Tier event, who knows I probably missed it... 38 days to Star class on Allure.

And thanks for the point out to a good company! I follow another podcast that also is sponsored by them, so I guess two opinions must be worth something.

@mom2mybugs Here's something you can do, it's free and your 16 year old will thinks it's really cool. After the muster, go directly to deck 14 as quickly as possible, port side, all the way forward and through the sliding glass door. That will put you on the observation deck right above the bridge and you can stand out on the "wings". Great place for the sail way out of Port Miami or any of the other ports the Allure visits. Word of caution, it is VERY windy up there! Have a great cruise!

June 2020 on Mariner for 4 nights! Now to plot for the big reveal!

@firebuck I actually came across your blog earlier today. Great info. Love the pics and all the stuff you put into it. We cant wait for this cruise. Its our first. Hope the wife and kids don't get sea sick!

I was waiting for the bot to mess up with that first contract opposed to FIRST CONTACT! ?

I plead guilty

Sample menus are cool, but simplified to cover all ships in the fleet. Here are Oasis menus from last week that may be closer to what Allure offers. Chops Grille 150 CP Note - they were able to convert the "Tenderloin for Two" into a single serving for just me. Giovanni's Table

https://twitter.com/cruiseindustry/status/1070029489088868352?s=21 New Galveston terminal coming. Looks like an Oasis class ship will be announced for Galveston soon. And for those that doubted the Houston area could support an Oasis class ship, read where it says ships are operating at 110 percent capacity and maybe two more cruise terminals possibly coming

In essence, the O3b Networks combines a larger reach of satellite with high speed & medium latency to deliver satellite Internet services at faster speeds compared to older technologies . Latency of 140 ms with a connectivity speeds of over 500 Mbit/sec is the usual norm at sea.

Yeah, the packages are definitely being priced appreciably higher for 2019 than they were for 2018. $42/day seemed to be the best sale price for most 2018 cruises, but I'm not seeing anyone who's reported less than $52/day for a 2019 sailing. The good news is that it "only" translates to one more cocktail, or a couple of beers, per day if you typically drink the same amount most days; if you're like most vacationers and do most of your "celebratory imbibing" on embarkation day, you may find that it's enough to make the Chefs Table day and port days more manageable. Here's a quick, rough example of a way to easily hit $52 on a sea day: Grande cappuccino / latte / espresso with breakfast, and one more in the afternoon: $8 1 "lighter" cocktail (e.g., mojito or one of the sake-based drinks in Izumi, where the alcohol / calorie content isn't crazy) around lunch time, or a sail-away beverage on port days: $13 2 glasses of wine with dinner: $26 (bearing in mind that most decent / good wines will have you going over the $13 per-drink limit by a few bucks) 1 beer at the pub while watching the evening entertainer: $6-7 Total for the above is $53-54, and in my view not an unreasonable or difficult "target" on a daily basis. Throw in a fresh-squeezed OJ with breakfast, and there's another couple of bucks shaved off, which would let you replace a cocktail with a more-manageable beer or two. You definitely don't have to drink like a frat boy on hazing night to break even or keep up.

Day 4 Falmouth Jamaica 12/5 Day 4 started off on a sour note. Only the American Icon was open for breakfast, and with that came a 20 minute wait. Only having the lowest portion of the dining room seems easy to correct when it gets busy, just open up another area. We decided to give Johnny Rockets a try and there was no wait to be found. By halfway through the meal a long line had developed. Our server seemed like she was very rushed throughout the meal. The meal overall was what we call a Sysco meal. Everything tasted like it came out a box and was just “meh” overall. When we got back to the room our room steward informed us that the towel washing machine was out of order and that they were flying someone from Miami to meet us in Cozumel and that wasn’t for another two days. Nikki’s spa day As it was Nikki’s birthday yesterday she went off for a spa treatment today. As usual it’s a much better deal to do it on a port day rather than a sea day. Today’s special was mini-facial and a 50 minute massage for 169 plus 18% gratuity. Nikki rated it average, but she’s been spoiled by the Spa at Aria in Las Vegas. The one thing that did bother her was the pushy sales pitch at the end to buy overpriced lotions. At one point the person said “what you on cruise and have no money” what I said Nikki should have said back is “let me just check Amazon really quick.” Addie went back over to the Flowrider when they opened and I’m pretty sure I created a monster by suggesting it. She went three times today and got the hang enough to get her knees up on the board. Before dinner there was time to stop in on one of the Dreamworks character meet and greet with the characters from Trolls. We went up around 5:30 to see if we could get into Coastal Kitchen, as junior suites can’t make reservations in advance. We walked into an empty restaurant but a thirty minute wait. That would have run past our reservation time for standard dining so we killed some time and then made our way to Silk for our 6:00 reservation. Service while very friendly was spotty at best but even that outshone the food by leaps and bounds. Perhaps we got spoiled on the first three nights but the food was borderline bad. Not just average but bad. Between the three of us we ordered and tried the following Shrimp Cocktail- were almost salad sized shrimp and I wish I had gotten pictures post cocktail sauce as the sauce was runny and had zero horseradish flavor Caesar salad- Addie didn’t mind this one. Spaghetti Bolognese- if the spaghetti at Jamie’s earlier in the week was a good burger at a nice restaurant, this was McDonalds. Garlic Tiger Shrimp- this was the most boring bland dish I’ve had all week, and that includes food at the Windjammer. It was flavorless and the shrimp which had been bisected to resemble a lobster shell just stuck to the shell. ISkate- after dinner it was time to head to studio B for the ISkate show. I really wish they’d just let it be what it really is, a planned, rehearsed, and choreographed show. The premise that “they always follow orders now they get to do what they want” is contrived and clearly false. It was a decent show and it was fun watching them knock over the lights on the ice several times as the space is rather small. Mo5iac- The highlight of the night came in the Royal Theater, with Headliner Showtime featuring Mo5iac. They’re a group of 5 a capella singers based in Las Vegas. They’ve crafted instruments using only their voices that rival master beatboxes from the 1980s. It was a very fun show with a myriad music styles ranging from jazz to pop to classic rock to Christmas music. There was a bit of crowd participation and some singing along. By far the most interesting part was an all a capella rendition of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody. I then found myself a seat in the casino for a couple hours more of blackjack. I’ve never witnessed a place where people make more stupid decisions while playing blackjack. Normally that is only the stuff of small limit tables, but at a $25 minimum table I witnessed people splitting tens, and a guy split 4s against a dealer 8. That lunacy meant I was time for bed so I strolled back up to 8 to our room.

Just keep in mind that you won't see luggage tags yet..That will show up later...like around day 50 in the My Documents link.

In an abundance of caution, I would personally bring the original Rx bottle for the controlled medication, but not bother about it with the others. This goes double if the controlled medication is an opioid or some other easily abused for non medicinal purposes medication. The last thing you need is overzealous security somewhere acting like you are smuggling something.

If you have never cruised with Royal before, (your post sounds like that might be the case) the check in process can be fairly lengthy, so you'll want to dive in and get that done well ahead of time. (passport info, guest info, emergency contacts, flight info, airport transfers, etc.) Personally, I like to think of it as an important milestone to reach to build excitement. It also helps get things prepared to reduce that pre-vacation stress that we all experience to varying degrees. Are these reasons compelling? Probably not, but, to each their own. FYI: We are also sailing on FOTS out of SJ, but, on January 27th. 52 DAYS!!!

Double C&A points for solo is based on the cabin you sail in. It sounds like you paid the full single supplement so you should get double points.

For number of guests you select "1" for one Bungalow. Use any name in your party to tie to the reservation. That will buy you one Beach Bungalow which is good for up to 6 people on Labadee. When you arrive at Columbus Cove and check in, they will put VIP wrist bracelets on everyone in your party. I've done Labadee Beach Bungalows twice and Coco Cay once. I've never had to give them a list of names.

Yes it is confusing but only book 1 bungalow and it is good for up to 8 people. You will be given a piece of paper to add in names but I never did that and it wasn't a problem upon checkin with the attendant. I've done these twice and have another booked for March. We love these bungalows with the sandy beach and sandy water bottom (no rocks). You are very close to the BBQ area and we just brought our food to the bungalows to eat. If you want to eat at the Barefoot Beach BBQ, maybe your concierge could arrange a golf cart for you.

We did the Chefs Table on Navigator and it was excellent! Make sure your hungry when go, if that's your plan...we didn't eat breakfast or lunch the next day...?

Run, don't walk, to Chef's Table for the tenderloin (assuming it's on the menu on your sailing). I enjoyed that more than my ribeye at Chops and the ribeye was out of this world. Agree with the multiple tips from people to book it on board when the discounts are offered. As @JLMoran said, I haven't heard of an entire sailing of CT filling up. Bon appetit and bon voyage!

Sometimes crew members are new to a station and eagerly trying to follow the rules and training. This is likely something not covered by the training manual so a 1st contract crew member might pause and search their memory to make sure they aren't doing something that isn't allowed.

No, no. The one that was substandard was the MDR steak. Whle I’ve never ordered it in the MDR, I’m sure the upcharge Chops steak is fine.

Maybe Oasis Five To Galveston In 2021. Makes Lot Of Sentence. Wonder If The New Terminal Will Be As Nice As The Terminal In Miami Fl,

I'll be waiting, I'm planning on booking a summer 2021 cruise out of Galveston. Sadly though I think the next go round of cruise schedules for the Caribbean, which should come out next week, only take us to April of 2021. The article said Fall of 2021. I'm sure something will leak out. The Icon also makes sense, Houston/Gulf coast is the beginning and termination points for some of the largest natural gas pipeline infrastructures in the US and soon to be large LNG facilities.

Hopefully official ship announcement will come when they reveal the rest of the Caribbean itineraries

It's official! Fall of 2021. Michael Bayley hints at Oasis Class and eventually Icon Class but no definitive ship announcement yet. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Royal-Caribbean-to-build-nearly-100M-cruise-13444607.php#photo-16603325

getting ready to send an email to MEI and get the YOLO ball rolling...

After a quick shower we went up to Wonderland for Nikki’s birthday dinner. Walking in your supposed to be teleported to the land of Alice in Wondeland down to the uniforms of the service staff. Adventurous eater and Andrew have never gone together in a sentence before, so take everything I say with numerous grains of rice. Once seated it took quite a while to get menus and about 15 minutes to even get water as the restaurant was quite busy. Our server Pedro made it up to us throughout the meal with friendly and informative service, which is a must when nothing looks as it seems. Pedro went through the formalities of allergies and then asked that we “trust him” and all we had to choose was our main courses, which we went with all of the Earth options (Short Ribs, Pork Belly, and Chicken.) Appetizers started coming out shortly thereafter which were perhaps a little bit too whimsical for me. Liquid Lobster with caviar Tuna Tartare with Lime sorbet Barbecue chicken eggs Shrimp Katafi For entrees we had Terroir Beef Roasted Chicken Berkshire Pork Belly The short ribs and chicken were both delicious. The pork belly was too fatty for us when you add in that it’s battered and deep fried. Pedro came back around and asked if there was anything else we’d like to try (some tables ordered tons more) and we ordered the Vegetable Garden as Addison was dying to try it. The “dirt” that was there before has now been replaced with Avocado purée. We were all stuffed by then but the entire reason for coming to Wonderland was the dessert course. We again left it in Pedro’s hands and trusted him. He brought out enough dessert to feed half the ship, including a special poison apple for Nikki’s birthday. The deserts were all delicious with the exception of the meringue and bourbon sorbet dish which didn’t work for us. The presentation of “The World” is all very over the top and frivolous. Pedro also informed us that even though we had prepaid full fare for Addison that he had refunded it and charged her the kids price of ten dollars. We settled up the tab and then headed of to Adventure ocean to drop off Addison and we thought head to the comedy show. We arrived almost ten minutes before showtime for the comedy show to find a packed house and not a seat to be had. Even with reservations we would have been standing in the corner at the back of the room. So we decided to skip it and head off to the casino. After picking up Addison we sat in Central Park listening to soft rock covers that I’m not sure most people even picked up on. At one point it was a John Tesh-Esqe cover of Metallica’s Nothing Else Matters. After that it was time to get some rest for our Almost Sea Day at Falmouth Jamaica.

Being away from the home port and off the boat we finally got a chance to get up next to the boat and get some clear pictures. After the Pier walk and walking through the makeshift village we wandered off to Adrenaline Beach where our beach bed was for the day. If you’re traveling with little ones or much older ones, be sure to wait for the tram as it’s a pretty long walk out there. The tram will drop you right off near the closest restaurant and restroom near adrenaline beach. Once we were signed in we got our choice of the available beach beds, as we didn’t rush over and took our time the first row of beds right on the beach we’re all taken (those come with two extra lounge chairs) so we wound up one row behind. All in All I found the beach bed to be a really good value, being able to get it at a slight discount was nice, but still would have been worth it at $175. It’s your own private space with is invaluable without having to shell out five to six hundred for the cabana. It comes with extra beach towels, six liters of Evian Water, two lounge floaters, and plenty of pillows to keep comfortable. Once we settled in it was time to get in the water, and then it hit us that we had left the water shoes up in the room, and of course the water was full of sea weed and what seemed like exceedingly spiky rocks. I’ll just have to keep reminding myself that at home it’s thirty degrees and I’m relaxing in the tropics. Nikki ordered a couple of Labdoozies but forgot all the lessons she’d been taught. She forgot to mention a regular cup so we of course were brought specialty cups and charged for them. After hanging out for the beach and one visit to the dragons tail coaster, we went back to the shuttle stop to catch the shuttle. It was quite warm so shuttling back was a very popular option. Boarding back on the ship is where we were hoping one of our Norwegian favorites would be there, refreshing cold towels to wipe off with before boarding the ship. Not to be found though, just another stop to scan SeaPass cards to return towels. Boarding was quite efficient, but that might be because we were a couple of hours before all aboard. With the ship still quiet, we went up to the pool area to take in the water slides while the lines were shorter. One plus of slides while in port is that the wind is almost non existent which can be a problem while cruising. Since we were early and the flowrider opened in 10 minutes we ventured over to wait in line before it opened. Be sure to bring your seapass cards the first time as you need them to be able to sign the waiver form. It was a good thing we got there first as by the time it opened the line was ten people deep. Addie and I booth did the boogie board side and it was hard work. Just trying to keep from wiping out is an effort in itself. I managed to jam my thumb on the way up at the end so that was the end of my illustrious Flowriding career for today. Addie went back twice more.

Day 3 12/4 Labadee, Haiti We finally got moving today about 8:45 and decided rather than heading to the MDR as planned we would just grab something in Park cafe again. The convenience of it basically being on the other side of the hall (our room was behind the restaurants so you had to navigate all the way around them) made it a good choice. The girls stuck to the same options as yesterday and I just went with some cereal. After a quick bite it was time to head off the ship and visit Haiti for the first time. Exiting the ship was smoother than anything we’d experience before on Norwegian or Carnival. What caught me the most off guard was that there was an escalator, which I’d never seen before on a ship. Is this a common thing on RCCL ships? Also while disembarking we walked past Captain Johnny’s Harley Davidson waiting to cruise around the next port. I’m guessing we holds his Callaway’s in the storage trailer.

True, but Liberty has alternating Western routes every other week. Oasis can pretty much assume those. Plus, if they keep other ships in TX then those ships could potentially do some longer itineraries from time to time to mix things up.

@WAAAYTOOO @SpeedNoodles yes, I agree with your suspicions however email looks legit and signed with name and title of the CS agent. I guess Royal is flirting with AI ;) I've politely asked them to re-read my questions and to answer them again - we'll see

I don't think I've ever heard of so much being packed into Day 1. Way to go !

Would love to hear about the chat feature of Royal Caribbean's app

Yes, it could have been that. This incident got my attention because from what I know about guest relations, crew members usually try their best to comply with the guests' (reasonable) request. Even if it was against policy, the usual reply would be, "Let me see what I can do about it." I asked very nicely and respectfully and I felt "scolded" in return. I guess this Floridian is just used to being asked by Disney cast members, "How can I make your day magical?" LOL

You will find that info on your itemized receipt.

If you booked directly through RCI I would expect the invoice to convey that information.

Galveston is the 4th busiest American cruise port even ahead of NY/NJ. Only the top 3 FL ports surpass it. That says a lot right there. It makes a lot of sense to home port a ship such as an Oasis class ship in Galveston. It would be the closest Oasis class to me and provide a needed diversion to the standard PEV/PC departures we have seen until PoM entered the fray. Think about it... four US home ports for the greatest and largest cruise ships in the world. It's hard not to get excited about that.

Well, after 3 cabin moves and who knows how many phone calls by our TA, we are back in the original cabin we booked a year and a half ago! @Matt is 100% correct when he says use a travel agent, John Ames at MEI really came through on this! Scott

This happened to me once. We were going on Allure of the Seas and randomly one day our reservations got cancelled. Like you, I had my MEI agent on it immediately and they made it so easy on me by fighting with RC to get things fixed.

I never used to get anything from Royal ... I think I average 2-3 promotional emails a day now ... not sure which is worse.

From Celebrity all the time..taken 1 Celebrity cruise... nothing from Royal and I have taken 11 cruises....yet they assure me that everything is ok...lol.

Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

Day 12: End of cruise I need to go to a Cruiseaholics Anonymous meeting tonight.

The 12 Bar Band at the Centrum

Advanced Napkin Artistry

Piano Melodies with Henry at the Schooner Bar

Go check the prices for a Disney cruise that week. That will make you feel better ?

Sometimes it's better to not know what other people paid. Next time you take an airplane, I guarantee you will not have paid the same as anyone around you. Some will have paid less, and others will have paid more. All depends on timing. I've been tracking air prices for next July and it's amazing how the prices can vary day by day. I'm waiting for a fare that is what I'm willing to pay, and then will book. Then I won't look anymore because I don't want to know that others are paying less. LOL If I'm reading this thread correctly, the other person you are referring to are sailing at a different time of December than you. If it makes you feel better, go do a mock reservation for the week you are sailing, and the week they are sailing, and you will see how the prices are so different.