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I realized that I never recapped my thoughts on the UDP. As you remember, this was an experiment for us to see what level of specialty dining is right for us on future cruises. I am glad we tried it, but it will probably be our last time with the full package for a few reasons. On the plus side, we enjoyed all of the specialty restaurants that we tried. There was enough variety of food was enough to keep it interesting on an Oasis class ship with all the different restaurants. The food quality and service was really good. The price is also good when you figure in the cost of UDP for the week divided by the 7 dinners and 4 lunches we had. It added up to less than $20 per meal. On the negative side, there was just too much food. I would probably never eat a full meal at lunch and then follow it up with a full dinner, especially if I had breakfast. I think it may have worked better if the ship had portside BBQ or Playmakers where we could have had a lighter lunch. We also missed having the same waiters for each meal in the main dining room. I definitely can see why some would rather pay extra for the improved food quality vs the MDR, but we like the MDR food. We will definitely still use specialty dining going forward, just not the UDP.

I am on Navigator as we speak. Two of these bags were delivered to our room and I've gotta say these bags are very substantial, very well made, and very attractive. When I get home in a week I'll post some actual photos.

In honor of being -11 degrees and Mt Washington breaking the record for the coolest wind chill (-106 degrees). . . .

Navigator, Freedom, Oasis, Odyssey, and Wonder have them. Mariner does not.

I'm finally packing today (sail on GR tomorrow !!).

Day 4 - Ensenada We stayed on the ship again today, but so did a lot of others. It really felt like a day at sea with fewer things to do. I took a couple of calls in the morning for work, and then we ventured out for breakfast up in the Windjammer. We've found that breakfast at WJ is great for us because of the variety. We wandered around after that and did a lot of people watching and chilling. We grabbed lunch around Noon and then got into our suits for an afternoon in the water. We attempted to enjoy the main pool and sit in the chaise lounges in the shallow water for a while. I had successfully fallen asleep and a mini-human jumped over the middle section into the water next to me, which splashed me in the face and promptly woke me up. We hung out for a while longer and when more mini-humans joined forces, we vacated and went to the Solarium pool. We ended up in the water for over three hours, and were very wrinkled when we finally got out. We attempted the dining room again, and this time I ordered the Chops Grille Filet Mingon for $19.99. I ordered it medium-rare, and was a touch on the rare side, but it was excellent overall. It came with a choice of peppercorn or butter sauce, and I chose the butter. It was just melted butter, and I didn't use it. I ordered a baked potato with it, and they brought out mashed potatoes instead. I didn’t bother saying anything because I finally had good food and the mashed potatoes were fine. After dinner, we wandered around to various venues looking for a place to hang out, and ended the night in the Schooner Bar with the piano music and vocals that were okay. Came back to the 2nd and final towel animal of the cruise. Apparently, they don’t do them every night anymore. I miss them!

We had a 1030-1100 check in time. Got to the port at 1030. Onboard by 1050. No one was inspecting check in times as it really wasn’t necessary. A much nicer experience than boarding in Boston back in October. No one was yelling at people as they went through security The longest wait was actually in traffic leading up to the porters. Security wasn’t bad at all

So true about people not knowing. Our cruise on Allure leaves tomorrow…I snagged the earliest check in time possible on the day check in opened back in December. Meanwhile my SIL (who has never cruised before) waited til a couple weeks ago to check in for herself and BIL and was “so happy the latest check in time was the only one still available…why would you want to get there any earlier than you have to just to sit around and wait?”. I was so baffled by that statement til I realized she was probably imagining it more like checking in for a flight and couldn’t imagine why anyone would want to sit and hang out at the airport for five hours or so before departure.

64 days and counting!!!! Cant wait for the worlds largest cruise ship (for now)!!!!

I have never asked them to serve me multiple of a course at the same time, but any time I have ordered multiples they had my second plate at the server's station waiting for me to finish my first. Since all the dishes are plated separately in the galley I think it's as much a space at the table issue as it is old school proper etiquette. Your server is fetching stacks of plates with lids and bringing them back to their station to distribute for efficiency purposes. That's why you will often see them use an entire plate for a single side order...that's just easier for them to carry to dining room. It shouldn't be an issue to ask for both plates at the same time, but it's going to get crowded at the table when multiple people do this.

We rented a Casita on our last cruise and yes, all day. We like the button you can push service even though we were in front of bar so they were always available! You get water included in an ice bucket and we ended up getting a nice fruit plate that was delivered to us. We liked how we can have a designated space to relax. You choose your Casita location when you sign up on ship.

You should be fine with the day you've reserved. The only time I observed crowds on the pool decks and solarium were during sea days. I believe you'll enjoy the casita (we only live once)!

Maybe the admins can add a 'rainbow' avatar (with LGBT across it) so LGBT members can select and ID themselves should they wish to.

If it helps at all, I just got off Navigator this week and spent every morning of my 3 night cruise up on the jogging track at 5am. At 5am, the chalkboard signs for the reserved casitas already had names on them for the day ("Welcome, Smith Family!"). So, it really is aaaaaall day. I also agree with @14Terry- it was flipping COLD up there on the pool deck! I felt sorry for all the people competing in the belly flop competition - there I was wearing a coat and wrapped in my blanket while they were in swim trunks only... Pool deck and Solarium were NOT crowded, but the hot tubs were!!!

Tonight was the parade of nations with all of the staff carrying their nation's flags. It was really fun. Lot of national pride out on the Dancefloor! today passed by in a blur. At one point the seas got quite rough outside but the ship wasn't bouncing too badly. There was a lot of pushing to shop and use the casino because they had to close those around seven, once we entered Chesapeake Bay. There was a comedian this evening, they had captains corner today, lots of live music both in the day and in the evening, and then they had a flash mob this evening for about five minutes. They've been practicing that Flashmob all week and it was cute. then came the parade of nations which was really nice, followed by a big dance party. My puzzle buddy and I were at the table a couple of times today, but the puzzle table seemed to be newly discovered by families today. Lots of families with kids crowding around wanting to work on the puzzle so my puzzle buddy and I left the table whenever that happened so everybody could get a chair and get a turn. Café latitudes had a long line all day long and naturally, I got one last scoop of Ben & Jerry's. The ceremony honoring the veterans this morning was really nice and they had a very big cake afterwards which was beautiful. I'll include a photo below. I've come to bed relatively early so I can finish my book and donate it to the little library next to the puzzle table. I've got the TV on and of course it's playing the "wash your hands" song. I'm self assist in the morning so I'll be barreling out of here and grabbing a cab for the airport. all in all it's been a good trip and a nice break, which is really all I wanted. And every time I cruise solo, I figure out things that I like, things I don't like, things I want to do differently next time, things that I look forward to each cruise. It's certainly a different experience each time. I mean this time I tried gambling! And had those massages, which I haven't had in years. and with this cruise, I've sailed all of the classes of ships that royal Caribbean offers, so now I have a great frame of reference when planning. Thank you so much to everybody that followed along and commented… It's been really fun sharing my photos and adventures with you. Safe travels!

Well, it didn't really make sense as clearly there were many many couples who chose to not share their table with other couples and were consequently seated at eight-tops all around the restaurant. There were plenty of tables to go around. The servers were on top of things and didn't mind seating people by themselves it was just the hosts that seemed to have been instructed to try to get singles to share.

I'm OK with not making Pinnacle in my lifetime - I don't really need another nametag... LOL - I must say, I do love the cruisers that are very proud to wear those nametags though - I just wish they wouldn't complain to the Diamond concierge about every little thing. My parents are at 163 and never received a crystal block at 140...I wonder how back-logged they are? I'll hit 140 on our next cruise!

So things have been so crazy the past year and a half since moving to Florida, I’ve been lax in doing liveblogs. I’m hoping I can use this cruise as the way to get back leading to being probably one of fifty liveblogs on next year’s icon inaugural. Some background- this will be my second time on Odyssey. Was able to sail her during the “dark times” of October 2021 when the ship was mostly empty and you couldn’t even sit at bar stools. I still loved the ship so when the opportunity came up we jumped at it. The Specifics Guests-It’ll be me, my wife, and my 12 year old daughter on this sailing (who the other day informed us that she had counted and this will be her 17th cruise), My mom and aunt will be on as well in their own room Room- we’ve booked a junior suite on Deck 11 pending some unforeseen RoyalUp magic. After having one in 2021, I’m a big fan of the split bathroom over the walk in closet. There’s still lots of room for clothes and having more space to get ready is better. DX- can’t do that one anymore. Stress related epilepsy and a neurologist who says no drinking. Luckily she didn’t say no gambling, so you’ll still find me at the blackjack table, just with a “plain” Coke in hand instead of a Captain and Coke. Dining-not long after we book onboard Harmony this past April, the dining package went on sale for 235, which giving the selection of specialty restaurants seemed like an OK deal, it’s also the last time we’ll be able to get children’s pricing as our daughter turns 13 in June itinerary- as with most southern Caribbean this is a sea day heavy sailing. Our only stops are Labadee, Aruba, and Curacao. Luckily that leads to pretty long times in port with time to explore. We’ve been to Labadee several times, and have flown to Aruba for weeklong vacations. So Curaçao will be the first time for us.

Looks like a few of us on here will be joining Chris on his journey in March across the pond to Spain. We should plan a meetup at his office for a slot pull or something.

This is also the case on Odyssey! We loved hitting up Starbucks in the WinnJammer or cafe.

Just to close out this thread -- someone on my roll call found a third-party tour group in Guadeloupe with an acceptable tour, so wife and I joined that for 190 Euro total. And we now have a private tour booked with Beyond the Beach in Martinique; that one is $$$$ -- 320 Euro total for a half-day 5-hour booking, that's just barely 50/50 between driving time and our time at the botanical gardens and Anse Mitan beach. Plus a 15-minute stop at a bakery to grab a quick bite, since the area restaurants get very crowded on Sundays and it would push us into even more expensive full-day booking territory. But it's still a better choice for us than their stock tours, since those include stops we just don't care to do. But I have to say that working with Beyond the Beach was very pleasant, considering I was putting together a booking last-minute, and they definitely tried to help me with making a multi-passenger option that I could post to my roll call. No one was interested, though, so I'm "stuck" with the private booking for just the two of us.

https://crew-center.com/small-fire-breaks-out-icon-seas-meyer-turku-shipyard

Meeting US CBP while boarding a ship in Vancouver is much like going across any border crossing into the US. All the same checks will be performed. They are actual CBP agents with the full computer systems available and the regular kiosks and stuff used at all border entry points into the US. If you can't drive to the US or fly to the US because of your past record then the same will apply boarding the ship in Vancouver.

I certainly get cost:benefit ratio wrong but I never do something that I have decided isn't worth it in advance.

I'm trying this.... everytime I try to save, it just never reloads the page.... Nvm it worked, I was just impatient.

NP, I'm standing on the shoulders of the others who figured it out here.

Does Mr. Bayley need a better razor in that video, or is he going for a scruffy look?

When they see my belly, they know it's good to bring mine both out.

I have the same verbiage for a sailing from NJ later this month. Looking back on ticketing booklets from 2022, the same statement is made there as well. Unless someone here says otherwise, I'm assuming the 12, up to 17 floz, non-alcoholic beverages on embarkation day are still allowed.

@Xaa that game has been off all week...but I'm actually in the arcade now and see the door! That would have been so cool,I had no clue what it was. Also...I'll continue my review later tonight if I can...got nights 2-4 to update! I can tell you that I won't have a proper review of AO because my kid left after approximately 9 minutes.

This is day 1. Strolled through Ocean View Cafe. It's busy, lots of choices beautifully presented. Lunch at Lumanae. Very busy. Service prompt despite this. Extra staff is obvious so is training and experience level. It was very noisy. Surprising. Split pea soup with ham and scallions. Soup was poured from a taurine into a small bowl containing ham and scallions. Very nice. Delicious - one of my Celebrity favs. Kale salad. Small, good for a starter. Quinoa, orange sections, light lemon flavored dressing also nice. Tasty. Steak Frits w/bernaise. A medium sized uncut sirloin a bit fatty and undercooked but tender. Two potatoe wedges as frits. Taste was good. I can think of a lot of ways to improve presentation. Dinner next. Overall B+.

Day 9: A pleasant surprise. Raw on Five. As I've noted previously in my reviews, I'm not enamored by specialty restaurants as they seldom set themselves apart from main dining venues - our exceptions are Murano and Eden. I can now add Raw on Five. We walked up for lunch without a reservation and were seated immediately in a desirable window table. An experienced waiter - that I judged so by his manner, presentation and skills - approached and gave an explanation of the menu. There's no up-charge to dine here. Menu items are al a carte and priced accordingly. I thought the pricing was reasonable. I ordered a sashimi plate with a choice of 4 of 6 items on the menu for that plate. My second order was something akin to a California roll- A green topped tuna roll. The green top was beautifully sliced avocados neatly laid on top of each of 10 pieces forming a roll. This was $12 - well worth it. My wife had shrimp tempura. She liked it. The best parts of this lunch experience were that it was delightfully quiet in a beautiful setting with 5* food quality and table service. A. We debark tomorrow morning. This is our 5th cruise on an Edge class ship, the first right after the cruise industry's restart in June 2021. They take some getting used to but it has been pointed out to us that each new class ship in the Celebrity fleet builds on what worked and what didn't in the previous class. Edge is an improvement on a lot of levels especially propulsion, hull design, system management and cabin design. I like the restaurant changes that are part of the cruise industry's trend to offer more dining options moving away from "Main" dining concepts that have predominated since the beginning of the Golden Age of Cruising in the early 20th century. The average age on this cruise I'd estimate to be 65. It's an old crowd, few kids, If any at all, and an adults only cruising experience as compared to the younger crowd and family experience on RCL ships. It isn't for everyone but it works for us. The Sky suites were nice but I have trouble justifying the enormous up charge. We'd rather take two cruises in the $4-5K range than one for $8k+. That's just us. If price is no object, go for it. Some of the perks - priority boarding and debarkation, private dining room - Luminae - access to Blue and the Retreat - are nice but I can do without all of them. As I've mentioned Luminae wasn't great and the Retreat was, IMO, in the one instant I went out there to try the pool and lounge chairs, was more crowded than I would have expected of the exclusivity you're paying for to be in there. The Retreat Lounge is a bit on the boring side. Folks that were in there stuck in their groups and the two times we went there for cocktails before dinner we didn't socialize and stuck to ourselves. This will be my last post in this series. Hope it's been informative and useful if you are considering a voyage on Edge class ships in the Celebrity fleet.

As a follow up, in case anybody is wondering, the Dinner on the Edge(Magic Carpet) was really nice. I must say though, that although the food was decent, it really was the atmosphere that made the experience special. Our dining time was just before sunset so we were able to enjoy a nice sunset while we dined. The experience is not like Chef's Table and I'm not sure if everyone on the Magic Carpet that evening had the same menu. One strange thing that happened is that right before dessert was served, the Host and the Chef came over to our table and spoke to us as well as the couple at the table next to us. They asked how our meal was and to offer a 'special' on the cost of the dinner. All of us were a little confused, but said "OK"!! The next day we checked our account but didn't see any change. We waited one more day then asked the Suite Concierge to look into it. They did verify it was a valid offer and said they would credit our account for the difference. I would recommend the Magic Carpet for sunset views and al fresco dining. An example of the menu is attached below:

Here is my summary post!This was the first week of the NEW Menus on Adventure of the Seas. In the MDR three things were consistently good. Caesar salad was better than most restaurants on land. Really great lettuce and dressing. The little steaks are quite tender and tasty. The standout dinners I had were both Indian food. Lamb on french night and chicken on bon voyage night. I think the Indian entrees were the way to go and would have done it all 4 nights. The warm cookie with ice cream and the cheesecake were also delicious. Everything else was a very mixed bag. My husband had a few weak entrees. Spaghetti, fish on the first night, lamb on bon voyage all a big letdown. Tomato soup was good. Crab cake was AWFUL. A few things had tasty and bad elements in the same dish. Greek tapas plate (good humus bad pita) and corn cakes (savory salsa) come to mind. In the Windjammer the indian curried porridge at breakfast was great, and the coconut cookies. Key lime in a cup was nice. Breadsticks GREAT! Mac and cheese good. All other pastry desserts in both venues were basically flavorless. I was surprised. They looked pretty and tasted like bland wedding cake. Big suggestion: INDIAN NIGHT in MDR. Across the board, overall the indian food was a strong suit, and a pleasant suprise and others felt the same way. Breakfast: my one MDR breakfast was great. Normal American stuff. Room service continental breakfast was pretty good one day and really a letdown on the other. We enjoyed our 1 MDR lunch and wish we had done that more but we liked eating at 2pm with dinner at 8. I hope this is helpful to someone--- we were asked over and over how we liked our food but to be honest it was a formality. We had a great time, but marveled at how amazingly inconsistent the food was! Happy sailing. Thanks for reading. Back to work

It appears the coolers are delivered wrapped up. Photo courtesy of Warren Caesar

Day 2: Dinner at Luminae. Change of plans. We had thought we were going to do our version of progressive dining by ordering from different main restaurants in Luminae. Turns out we liked the offerings on the Luminae menu. More on that later. After our meal I inquired of the hostess about ordering from the main restaurant's menus while dining in Luminae. Her response did not seem to encourage that although she said it was possible based on availability of a Luminae server to go and get the dish and a person in that restaurants meal staging area willing to make that dish available to Luminae staff. I probably would't try this. Although it can be done, both times we've dined in Luminae it's been very busy. Table staff doesn't need extra work although I'm sure they'd be glad to do it. On to the meal: We dined at 8:10pm right after the 7pm theater production show. This can be problematic because early show goers tend to dine afterwards - that's a lot of people looking to get seated in one of the ship's restaurants. Luminae was busy when we arrived but it wasn't show goers. We were seated promptly. Again, it was quite noisy. More on that later too. After a time, we were approached sequentially by several wait staff asking if we had been served yet. This seemed to reflect some disorganization on who was serving our table. There seemed to be plenty of wait staff. Strange - this is a restaurant manager issue that I would not have expected in Luminae. We sat for quite a while waiting for wine and beverage service. When it came it was fine and beverages were promptly obtained and served. Our order was taken about the same time. The starters we ordered came quickly. The main course took a while to get served - again, wait staff organization issues . The lobster, hearts of palm salad was absolutely delicious. Nice sized chunks of lobster in a creamy dressing. I had a Jerusalem artichoke soup with a big mushroom and a thin slice of prosciutto in it. Excellent flavor and consistency beautifully presented. Main course consisted of Baked Alaskan Halibut on Jasmine rice and a small side of bok choy. We enjoyed a glass of Conundrum Cab blend. The halibut was deliciously baked with a very fine crust on top of it and drizzled with a lemony sauce that did not take over the dish - maybe the best fish dish I've had in any restaurant aboard a Celebrity ship. Prepared and presented perfectly. We finished with a delicious chocolate cake with a small scoop of coffee ice cream and an espresso. Meal quality and presentation exceeded expectations for fine dining. A real treat. This one gets an A. Not a plus because of the noise and seemingly confused wait staff about who was serving our table. On the noise. I wear hearing aids so, of course, everything is amplified. Even when I took them off, the noise levels were uncomfortably high. The design acoustics seem wrong - low ceilings and no baffling. I spoke to the Hostess/manager about the noise levels. Apparently I'm not alone in my expressed concerns about it. I asked if there was seating with less noise and she said there is. She made a note in her system that would I like a quieter table. In my 22 years of cruising, I have complained 2x, this was one of them. Both professionally addressed. To be clear, the points I raised in Luminae are nit-picky issues. However, my sense is that for what you are paying for Celebrity's "Suite Life," these issues shouldn't exist.

it will depend a bit on the bar but generally coke zero is offered everywhere. On my sailing there were days when the promenade cafe seemed like it only had coke zero.

You should be able to get it no problem.

We absolutely loved cruising on Allure in April 2022, so much so that we booked her again for this upcoming April. The ship just felt really elegant to me and had so much to do onboard. I'm super happy that we got a 7 night on her this time rather than the same 6 night we did last year because I'm thrilled to have an extra day on board with no port stop! My only complaint about the ship from last year is that we felt that there wasn't a ton to do late at night, but maybe that is because we don't drink (bars were open...). Food choices were very limited after 9pm and I got sick of pizza. But that may have been helpful that we went to bed earlier and weren't so sleepy to get up for our port activities. I loved OceanAria and the music in Mamma Mia, ice show was so-so. "Family" comedians weren't that great, but ok. I take my enjoyment of the entertainment with a grain of salt - it's all free and if I really don't like it, I can always leave and do something else. We didn't end up doing the adult comedians, but hoping to on this upcoming cruise. Food was pretty good, IMO. We primarily tried to eat in the MDR, due to my husband's preference, for most meals, but did try out some of the other places. I LOVED Central Park and the Boardwalk - both new to me since that was our first Oasis ship. I really enjoyed the free dance classes they offered. Our Voom worked pretty well (although it has switched to Starlink since then). Really enjoyed the zip line. My kids were happy to have 2 Flowriders. They liked going ice skating one of the days. The teen club seemed great, although neither of my kids really hung out with kids they met there - the oldest hung out with other teens from our roll call that we connected with beforehand (and met for the first time right before walking them all to the teen meet up the first afternoon). My younger teen really didn't end up connecting with the other kids and would either hang with the older sibling's group, or just stay with us. I think he was intimidated by a lot of the older boys in the teen club (he was still 12 and there were a lot of 15-17 year olds on our sailing). Pools seemed nice but we didn't spend a lot of time there since we had so many water activities during our port days. We chose to do a lot of the other stuff on board instead during the sea days.

My favourite thing about Allure is that when on the boardwalk you have a clear line of sight to the water. The other oasis class ships all have the Ultimate Abyss in the way.

I'm on Allure now and it doesn't feel old or outdated to me. I was just on Wonder in June so I do have a good frame of reference.

We love all the Oasis class ships, including Allure. All the entertainment options are fantastic. There are many specialty dining options and we really enjoy those in Central Park. I agree that I wish it had a Playmakers, but with so many other choices we still think it’s a great ship.

Welcome to the boards. First, check out a full walkthrough tour of the ship I think you'll find this review interesting: Allure of the Seas review

Welcome to the boards! Having no Playmakers is the worst, but OceanAria is the best. But considering you are new to RC, the best and worst from seasoned cruisers won't really matter as you should go into the experience with the most open mind. Something that is the best/worst for someone else might be the opposite for you. I would suggest looking at Matt's blog and post about the Allure.

This is the cooler being sold on board.

Can’t wait for the first person sailing and receiving one to come back to this post to let us know all about it!

Yes and no. We planned on doing a whale watch and a trip to Mendenhall but with the schedule switched to just the whale watch, so I didn't see Mendenhall (at least up close, we could see it from the bus on the way to the whale watch boat) so I really can't compare it. From what I've seen, I think the Dawes glacier and it's fjord is prettier and it was cool getting up close to it, and being basically at sea level with the floating ice. We also got to see seals on the ice by Dawes and they were small and camouflaged so I'm not sure we would have been able to see them from the ship, and I don't think they are in the Mendenhall lake (I think it's a freshwater body of water enclosed by land, vs the salt/brackish water connected to the rest of the ocean/inside passage). Along the way the boat's crew kept an eye out for animals, and at one point spotted a bear but it ran away when the boat got close. I think you might see bears and mountain goats, and certainly bald eagles from Mendenhall. They brought us to an area they knew sea lions hung out, which was really cool, and they kept an eye out for whales but unfortunately none of them popped up. From the ship you probably wouldn't have passed by the sea lions (they were hanging out in what the crew called an island but was more like a large floating rock), and you might see whales but the ship wouldn't stop or point them out. So the pros of doing Dawes is a closer, but different view and a potential to see a lot more wildlife. But like you said, canoeing by Mendenhall glacier also means an up close view, and I'm sure your guide will point animals out, but you aren't going to get whales, seals, or sea lions, and I don't think there is that much floating ice. But if you don't do Dawes, you will save a lot of money, you wouldn't be cooped up on a small boat for 5.5 hours, and you wouldn't be as rushed as we were once we got to Juneau. I guess in the end it's hard to compare the experiences, and it's all up to what you want to do. And despite them both being glaciers, they are different.

If anyone is still following along, it looks like I got confirmation that we DON’T sail in the tour boat all the way to Juneau. At some point we do meet up with the ship and get back on (probably around 12:00) before we sail into Juneau.