KWong

I bought these: https://www.amazon.ca/Mpow-Waterproof-One-Piece-Cellphone-Compatible/dp/B07T422DZ2/ref=dp_ob_title_sports

The brand says MPow but I suspect that you can find similar style pouches.

Poster joined an hour ago and drops this on us. 

41 minutes ago, MotleyCruiser said:

Just a quick head's up. Be prepared for possible craziness getting for Indy on the 6th. The Monsters Of Rock embarks on the 6th. Cranes, tour Buses, Black t-shirts, and 100's of folks arriving really early!!!

We had 70,000 Tons of Metal right after our cruise. We saw lots of folk loading things onto the ship, but overall there were no issues getting off. 

55 minutes ago, mac66 said:

I got that. I was suggesting bypassing the jumping through hoops and just bring it.

OK, fair enough. In that context, I kind of feel like it creates more complications than there needs to be, but it's something to consider.

Apparently I forgot to add this:

Day 6 – Debarkation Day (aka You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here)

I know people don’t like talking about this day, but I’ve always found it helpful to know how people got home, especially when you have to fly. For us, we had a 2pm flight back to Toronto, so realistically we had plenty of time to get off the ship.

For this trip, we were assigned tag number 32, with an estimated debarkation time of 9:30am – about as middle of the road an assignment as one can get, I think. This gave us, in theory, plenty of time to get ready, pack up and leave.

When we woke up (roughly 6:30-ish), I looked outside and discovered that we were in the process of docking, so barring any unforeseen clearance issues, we’d be getting off the ship shortly.

We got dressed (in our travel clothes… le sigh), and headed up to Windjammer one final time. The buffet was actually not that busy, perhaps a testament to our going up a little later than the norm. And this worked out well for us. Not that we were going to overdo it on food, but certainly we weren’t “fighting” the masses to find a seat.

After breakfast, we went back to the room to do finish packing our carry-off bags and do a final sweep of the room. After exchanging goodbyes with our attendant, we headed down to the Promenade to wait.

 While we were waiting, we saw some of the charter cruise workers come in with display boards for their t-shirt stands. In hindsight, I should’ve taken a picture and/or bought a shirt. Not that I’m a huge metal fan or anything, but “70,000 Tons of Metal”? You know you’d want a shirt with that on it as well.

 Regardless, we were called ahead of schedule, around 9:15, and dutifully made our way to the 4^th deck and the exit ramp. Unlike previous Oasis class cruises, we headed straight down to the baggage area – a nice surprise, given that I was expecting a 30-60 minute wait to go down. The lines were indeed kind of long – I estimated about 45 minutes for the Suites, 60-90 for everyone – but since we have NEXUS, it was a simple matter of picking up our bags, showing the officer in the centre exit our cards, and heading through customs. Our debarkation, from ship to outside the terminal, took us under 10 minutes.

 With so much time before our flight, we debated going somewhere else for an hour or two, but we decided just to go to the airport. Bit of a misstep on our part, because we were at the terminal well before 10am, and the 3 hour bag drop window was still over an hour away. So that meant some waiting.

Once the window opened, there was somehow only one Westjet employee at the counter helping three separate lines (special assistance, check in and bag drop). So this was… interesting, but eventually some other agents made their way to the counter to help out. This was not ideal, but since we’d checked in on the ship and had TSA Pre-Check, we had very little concern about making our flight. And indeed, we were through security around 12. A little later than I expected, but still nothing to worry about at all.

We got a pre-flight meal at Shula Burger (note: onion rings look much better than they taste), and with little fanfare, got on the flight home.

Once at Toronto Pearson, we went over to the NEXUS line, where there appeared to be only a few NEXUS kiosks working. Fortunately, there were several of the standard kiosks available, which we used to breeze through customs. Easy peasy, and after picking up our luggage and car, we headed home.

On 1/24/2020 at 1:17 PM, gailecn said:

Thank you for the great report!! I noticed everyone was wearing helmets at the ice rink. Is it a requirement? Do you recall if there was any kind of waiver you could sign to choose not to wear it? (Asking on behalf of my figure skater daughter, who will moan and groan and act like she can't possibly skate if she's made to wear a helmet. ) I don't remember that being the case several years ago...

The helmets (which I believe were skateboard helmets) were a requirement.  I don't recall there being a release waiver for the helmets. I sympathize with your daughter though - I'd not wear a helmet if I could avoid it.

With that said, there were enough first timers on the rink that I took the stance that the helmet would help protect me somewhat from them. I saw a lot of wipeouts, and thankfully I didn't add to that total.

2 hours ago, mac66 said:

Two words....Rum Runners

OP isn't looking to drink the vodka on the ship. Rather, they want to purchase and bring it home.

2 years ago my brother brought beer onboard at embarkation (I think he read the DCL embarkation rules or something). They took the beer, gave him a receipt, and returned it on the last night. We ended up drinking warm beer that night.

OK, here we go:

4 hours ago, JasonL said:

There will be lots of people packing around luggage on embarkation day until 1pm when the rooms open. Some people don't even use the porters and choose to drag their luggage around themselves until their room is open. If you choose to do this you won't be the only one, but i  think it's completely unnecessary. A roller bag is totally normal though 

I saw that on my last cruise as well. Not what I would do, but to each their own.

For us, we carry our electronics on with us, as well as swimwear, wine and the 12 non-alcoholic bottles of stuff. That generally amounts to 2 backpacks and a rolling carry on bag. A little bulky, but manageable for the few hours we have to lug the stuff around.

4 hours ago, teddy said:

Hawaii recently banned sunscreens with certain chemicals (starting in 2021).  Here's a link to some info.  https://www.hawaii.com/blog/reef-safe-sunscreen/

I followed the guidelines and bought a sunscreen that met that criteria.  

 

Same. Wasn't too hard - start with the zinc oxide sunscreens and check the other ingredients to make sure its reef safe. 

1 hour ago, Wilson said:

Side topic... I wish they would ban the aerosol sunscreens on the ship. Not only does a good portion of the product fly on to other people, it makes for a slippery surface on the decks. Many catamaran excursions have ban the use of the aerosol products to avoid slips and falls. 

I wish they would ban aerosol sunscreens full stop.

 I do use a non-aerosol spray that works quite well, probably because it's non-continuous and you aren't meant to hold it 2 feet away from you when spraying. 

I'm working on scanning those. I'll try to get those posted here or with Matt over the weekend

You forgot about Johnny Rockets for breakfast.

2 hours ago, CHRIS WONG said:

I'm impressed you can hear the different UK accents.

In truth I only know that your accent differs from my wife's. If you hadn't said anything I wouldn't have known what, exactly, the dialect was. So don't give me THAT much credit

Well, enjoy your cruise! 

39 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

egarding your USB cable question: Be aware that the USB ports on the ship are the low-amperage variety that charges phones fairly slowly, and may not deliver enough current to be able to charge a tablet.

IIRC on my Harmony trip the amps on the USB port was enough to charge my iPad on its own, but not enough if I needed to charge something else. So not dissimilar to a cheap 2 port USB hub. 

You really don't have that much time in Barcelona, and I think it might be a mistake to cram as much as you can in the 48 or so hours that you're there. 

But with that said, I think the X-factor is whether you've done an Oasis class ship before or not. If you have, I'm not sure that Allure will hold that many surprises for you, so take your time getting on. 

If you haven't, it might be better to get onboard sooner. 

Customer Relations might be able to help you if you email them. I know Dora the Explorer was one of our movies. That was a hard pass for me. 

That sucks. When my wife got hurt on board (due to a panel in the Boardwalk bathroom falling on her foot) the Allure they were very attentive once she reported it, even though the injury was minor. You'd think they'd be the same even with one of their externally operated excursions. 

Transport. Florida laws require a full car seat for your 3yo, booster for your 5yo. When my kids were of that age I'd just bring the car seat and/or booster with me, since I could check the seat for free and the booster fit in the overhead with no problems. Latch system made it easy to put the seat in a cab or Uber. If you don't trust that, you can hire a private car or rent one for the day. Peace of mind trumps cost when it comes to the kids. 

Where are you staying if you don't mind my asking?

Cozumel. There are some ruins on the island. I've not been, so don't know if it's worth seeing.

You have to take a ferry to Playa del Carmen to get to Tulum or Chichen Itza. The latter is about 6 hours round for 30-45 minutes at the site. Tulum is about half that travel time. And there's still the ferry to deal with. Because of the ferry factor, these are about the only two excursions I'd ever book through the cruise line, and even then I'd just do Tulum. If you ever vacation in Cancun, that is probably the time to go to Chichen Itza. 

Definitely book the internet package, but keep checking to see if the prices change. 

32 minutes ago, twangster said:

Not going to lie.  I have a hard time not inserting "Mc" when ordering the Egg Muffin.

In fairness, is this not the standard upon which we compare all our breakfast sandwiches to? 

I believe that they do, in the aqua theatre.