I was on her in January and I do not think she is showing her age, except for the propulsion issue currently (In January there was no evident problem).
Except for possibly new carpet, fabric, paint and adding the new restaurants, she is a pretty awesome ship (Been on her three times, 2012, 2017, 2019).
Now that it is officially single digits until sail away, I figure it is not unreasonable for me to get this live blog started! (though I AM endlessly amused by the people who have recently started their posts far in advance of their sailings. *cough @StayFrosty @Lovetocruise2002 @Matt cough*) I will be transparent in that, since this is my first live blog, I can't guarantee I will be able to stay on top of it the way I might like, but I will be doing my level best to share with all of you for multiple reasons. First and foremost, I have gotten so much out of other's live blogs and genuinely want to give back to this community in any way I might be able to. But it isn't ALL altruistic. I think, if I'm able to stay on top of a live blog, it will make a great memory in a bottle of my trip to allow me to revisit wistfully on extra stressful days. I think I will start with a bit of background organized in a format that I'm shamelessly stealing from one of @Lovetocruise2002's blogs.
Pre-cruise report:
Sailing: May 12-19, 2019, Allure of the Seas, 7 Night Eastern Caribbean cruise
Sailing with: Me (32), and my parents (not my age to tell)
Flying from: PHL to FLL on Southwest and returning on American (boo baggage fees, yay nonstop flights at reasonable times)
Pre-cruise hotel: Ended up with Holiday Inn Express Ft. Lauderdale Cruise-Airport (the one on 17th Street)
We cycled through many different hotels before we ended up with this one. Like the sane person I am, I would check on hotel prices about once every 2 weeks starting 8 months in advance and if I saw a great price at a hotel that looked convenient or interesting I booked it just to guarantee the price. At one point I had 4 hotels booked at the same time. You may be starting to get the impression that I take as much enjoyment from planning my vacation as actually taking it. You would be correct. And thank you kindly for enabling that! Other hotels that were considered and discarded:
Drift Hotel - liked that it was close to the beach, disliked that it didn't seem to have as many amenities as other hotels, such as having someone there to hold our luggage if we got there far before check-in.
Holiday Inn Express & Suites Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruise - liked that it had 2 queen beds (not doubles) for a good price. Disliked that it didn't seem very walkable
Hampton Inn Ft. Lauderdale Airport North Cruise Port - this was the #1 hotel until the price recently came down for the Holiday Inn on 17th Street. I liked that it had the normal things like a free airport shuttle, concierge, pool, but it also was across a smaller side street from a shopping center that has restaurants, a Big Lot & a liquor store where my dad could grab some wine. But you just can't beat the convenience (from what I hear) of hotels in that 17th Street strip so while this hotel was walkable...the Holiday Inn Express won out.
The itinerary is as follows:
Day 1 – Fort Lauderdale
Day 2 and 3 – At Sea
Day 4 – Basseterre, St. Kitt's
Day 5 – Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas San Juan, PR
Day 6 – At Sea
Day 7 – Nassau, Bahamas
Day 8 – Fort Lauderdale
We have booked a third party excursion on St. Kitt's through Thenford Grey. I've heard good things about him on here and elsewhere so I'm excited for this tour. We were originally slated for St. Thomas as a stop, but as many of you have probably already seen, Allure is having some propulsion issues and we will now be stopping in San Juan. There are many people in my sailing's FB group who are devastated by this news. While I respect that reaction, I don't want to start letting negativity seep into my vacation before it has even started. So goodbye trip to Secret Sands beach we had through Royal and hello to last minute research into self guided walking tours through San Juan. I'm actually legit excited about this change as I would prefer getting to know the history and culture of a place than simply laying around on the beach all day. And that FOOD. So time to dust off my super rusty 14 year old spanish lessons and go with the flow. WEPA! And for Nassau, we have been before and my parents have no desire to get off the off again. With a ship like Allure to explore and relax on instead, I will not be arguing with that.
Cabin: We have a hump balcony Junior Suite on the 8th floor. Very much looking forward to "having" to walk through Central Park to get back to the room. ~*~WOE~*~
Pre-purchases: Besides the excursions which I covered above, we will be trying out The Key (I see it as a great little upgrade to Sea Class) and my mother and I have the refreshment package. Since my mom doesn’t drink, my dad gets the 2 bottle of wine allotment to himself and will supplement that with the occasional beer here and there. Nowhere enough to warrant a drink package for himself. The last time we were on a cruise, he would decant half of his bottle of wine into an empty (clear) water bottle from the room. The moment he proceeded to do this with his bottle of red as well was the moment I was mentally buying him a portable wine tumbler for this trip. None of the crew members said anything, but seeing him walk into the MDR with a clear water bottle full of dark red wine was not our proudest hour. Though if you asked him, he would quip that Jesus paid him a visit and turned that water into wine. *facepalm*
Random Pre-cruise thoughts:
I am going to take as many pictures as I can remember to, though it’s not ingrained.
Please let me know if there is anything in particular you would like me to check out or take pictures of for you. I am open to requests.
I will make sure to detail how easy or difficult it was for me to get reservations in Coastal Kitchen as a Junior Suite. That is something that seems to have very mixed results so I’m curious how it will work out. Ideally we would have reservations there every night except for the night we have Giovanni’s reserved.
If all goes according to plan, I shall be running a completely unofficial and entirely arbitrary “Allure’s Best Steak” competition since I plan to have steak in Chops (Key lunch), Coastal Kitchen, Giovanni’s, and the MDR (Key breakfast). I will be sure to let you know my thoughts.
I will also make sure to note how I am liking the Key since that’s such a new feature and it seems to vary wildly from ship to ship.
I have reached the point in trip antsyness where I’m overthinking my packing and buying unnecessary things from Amazon to help. Because buying a toiletry bag is the most important thing in the world right now!
I promise future posts will have more pictures!
After tons of research, I finally booked our cruise!! We will be going May 2020 on Symphony!! It's only our second cruise and first to the Caribbean...and first on Royal Caribbean. We are beyond excited....My brother in law, sister in law, and niece are going...Also, my mother in law is going and she got a junior suite and is paying for our daughter and my niece! I just had to share! ?
I was listening to VHF radio on PTZ yesterday and heard she had divers in the water for 3-4 hours yesterday.
They notified the Captain of the port when they were going in which is standard procedure.
Cristobal is a very cool fort and they have some great info about life during the time it was used. I found mofungo good but very rich. A shared amount was plenty! I can’t wait to go back!!! Jane
I'm in the same boat (or should I sat ON the same boat) regarding Allure May 12 port change. I'm not too happy about it but looks like we'll be doing a walking tour of some sort.
@Schilefam I called RCI just now and the rep was super helpful. He spoke to a couple departments and also to his supervisor to ensure that the excursions we booked through them will still happen. It'd just be slightly delayed but we are guaranteed to still have the same amount of time as stated on the excursions. I'm not sure which one you booked and how long it is. Ours is 11-4pm. So even with an one hour delay, we'll be back by 5pm to make the 6:30pm sailing.
San Juan is beautiful and you won't need to book an excursion unless there is something you really want to do. It's very walkable. I've felt safe there every time I've gone.
1. The forts are great for the family and is walking distance. Old San Juan is beautiful and close to the dock.
2. I’m from PR and is safe to wonder around. If you don’t feel safe, just stay in the tourist areas.
3. Taxis are a little expensive. I would recommend Uber.
Absolutely safe. We really enjoy Old San Juan and my kids (youngest is 7) like walking the forts, especially El Morro. It’s only about $8 admission to both forts for adults, kids are free. Its cheap way to explore for a few hours.
So our May 12th cruise on Allure has changed its itinerary to now stop by San Juan instead of St. Thomas. But we'll only be there from 7am-2pm. My cruise planner hasn't even updated to show San Juan excursions. My questions are:
1. what can we do on our own that can kill a few hours? (We have 2 young kids)
2. Is it safe to wonder around town by ourselves?
3. How much are San Juan taxis?
Here's a link about the nursery. It is not free. You'll have to pay $8/hr to use the nursery. The free program is only for kids 3 years-old and up. And they do recommend reservation at the beginning of the cruise because there's a specific staff to kids ratio they have to follow. But you can cancel any reservations later on if you feel like you don't need them. Hope this help!
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/category/category/royal-babies-tots-nursery
It seems like the issue is that your plan doesn't include local phone calls.
The website states that local charges may apply.
If it is true that few companies set up a free number and the charges are due to a phone plan that doesn't include local calling, it appears this is not something unusual for the UK.
What am I missing that makes it 'outrageous' for Royal to act like most other businesses?
I just returned with my family from a 5 night Western Caribbean cruise on Navigator of the Seas. It was our first cruise, and our trip was part amazing and part nightmare. I spent a lot of time on this site (and others, but this site was a truly valuable resource) trying to become as informed as possible, but some things just can't be learned until you experience them yourself. I'll share some of my thoughts/experiences here.
When people say to fly in at least a day before because things happen, believe them! We booked our flight 2 nights before our cruise was to leave. I spent weeks watching flight prices to try to get the lowest price. I compared leaving out of Newark or Philadelphia, and flying into Miami or Fort Lauderdale. I finally purchased tickets for the 6 of us out of Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale. I booked long-term parking, a shuttle through SAS Transportation from Fort Lauderdale to our hotel in Miami. Everything was set, and we were to spend the day before our trip exploring Miami. On the way to the airport, I received a text alert that our plane was delayed from 6:20 pm to 7:00 pm. No big deal. As times approached, we proceeded to get 8 separate text alerts with further delays. The plane finally arrived around 10pm, and we were able to board around 11. We left the gate, started heading toward the runway, and received a message from the captain that all flights to South Florida were grounded because of storms, and that we'd be heading back to the gate. We were then told that we'd be getting off the plane and to await further instructions. About a minute later, we got a message for everyone to sit down, that they were looking for another set of captains to take over the flight, and that it would be at least another 15 minutes. When everyone was acting confused, it was explained that the current crew had 'timed out', and that by law they couldn't fly us because they were already on duty for all the hours of the delay. In the meantime, I received a text saying our flight was cancelled. I feel like we were being lied to, because the story changed many times. We all got off the plane and were told to go to a ticket booth to find out our options, and then to get our baggage back. Our options included: 13 flight choices, the earliest of which would have gotten us to Fort Lauderdale at 11 am on Sunday, when we were supposed to be on the ship in Miami at noon, or to wait on standby. There were no flights available out of Philadelphia on Saturday. We were told that the odds of 6 of us getting a plane on standby was extremely small, because all the flights were completely full. We started looking for other flights from other nearby airports, and all along the east coast that we could drive to. We found flights out of Atlanta that would have cost $655 per person, and would have required us to drive 2/3 of the way. We decided our only option was to drive from Philadelphia to Miami. Now, we are no strangers to driving. We've done the drive from New Jersey to Disney many times. But we always prepared for the long drive. My wife works nights as a nurse, and always works the nights before we leave so she can sleep all day and take the night shift driving. It works out well for us. This time, she worked the night before but only took a 3 hour nap before having to go to the airport and spend 7 hours there. And we had no blankets, pillows, DVDs for the kids in the car that we would have had if we had been expecting to drive. Nonetheless, we left Philadelphia at 1am and arrived at our hotel at about 7:30 pm on Saturday. We got to eat dinner in the outdoor marketplace then crash in our rooms. Now, I have to figure out how to get our money back for the flights, and if we can get our timeshare points back for the night in the hotel we didn't use, and if SAS will return our money for the shuttle ride we didn't take. The parking lot didn't charge us. But we are still out the luggage checking fees ($30 X 2 bags), the tip we gave the porter, the tip we gave the parking lot shuttle driver to and from Philadelphia airport...I don't know how airlines can run a business that way. How they can leave people stranded without any options. They should work to get a suitable replacement flight, or buy you tickets on another airline, or guarantee tickets for another flight at the same price. I will never use American Airlines again after feeling lied to so many times. Ironically, if we had booked only one day in advance from the start, we would have been fine, as the weather was fine that day. But if we had only booked one day in advance and the flight was cancelled, we wouldn't have had the option to drive, and we would have missed the cruise.
My Time Dining. The first thing we got hit with when boarding the ship (after going through security) was the My Time Dining people. They wanted to book us for the same time every night. I had gone with the MTD because we like to have flexibility and didn't want to be locked in to the same time every night. Because of our group size (6), they told us that we should book the same time every night or we might not get a table, and that the only times available for a table of 6 were 5:30 or 8:15, almost identical to the non-MTD times. We took the 8:15. We ended up canceling 3 of the 5 nights and going to the Windjammer instead because the kids didn't really like anything on the menu in the Main Dining Room. Maybe the My Time Dining would work out well for a smaller group, or for people who don't like the 5:30 or 8:00 options, but it really didn't work out for us.
Food. Overall, the quality of the food available ranged from ok to excellent. We could always find something we wanted in the Windjammer, and the Promenade Cafe was a nice option for snacks/pizza. El Loco Fresh was also good, as was the soft-serve ice cream. We were always stuffed, and I don't think I want to eat for the next week and a half.
Layout of the ship. I had done my research and thought I was prepared for the size of the ship, as well as knowing where things were, but it still took some time to find our way around. For example, made the mistake a few times of going to our floor (2nd floor) in the front half of the ship, not realizing that you can't get to the rear of the ship from the front, and have to go to the back elevators to get to the rear of the 2nd floor. Also, we learned that if we wanted to get to the Royal Theater on the 4th floor, it was best to get off the elevator on the 5th floor and walk to the stairs, or else we'd have to walk through the smoky casino (YUCK!). There are parts of the ship that we never did make it to, such as the Helipad, the shuffleboard, the arcade.
Entertainment options. We found the entertainment options to be very good. We went to see the ice skating show, a couple of comedians, 2 singing/dancing productions. Our family also really enjoyed the trivia/name that tune games that they held, and we won the 80s name that tune game show. The keychains weren't exactly 'life-changing' as the host of the game show said, but they were a nice souvenir.
Scheduling. This was by far the hardest part for us. Not only agreeing on things all 6 of us wanted to do, but also making sure all 6 of us were showered and ready, and that we scheduled things around our meals. We often found ourselves rushing from one thing to the next, or missing the first few minutes of something. Not the ship's fault, it was totally our fault.
Outdoor activities. The deciding factor for this ship for us was the water slides. And ironically, all of us went on one of the slides exactly once, and only 2 of us went on the other slide at all. The pool area was nice, but often crowded. We only used the pools one day, as it just didn't seem worth the hassle of dealing with wet bathing suits and not having a place to dry them.
Staff. The staff was pretty much amazing overall. Our room attendant, the wait staff, everyone was very attentive. Our cruise director, Hugo, was unbelievable. He was everywhere, and his energy level was always at an 11. The only problems we encountered was a language barrier at times, as it seemed there was no one who didn't have an accent and they didn't always understand us (or us them).
Nassau. When looking for suggestions online for things to do in Nassau, I came across many people recommending to 'stay on the ship'. I couldn't understand that, our kids had never been to the Bahamas and we wanted them to experience it. We didn't book any excursions, because we couldn't all agree on any. I wasn't spending close to $1,000 for Atlantis when some of the people aren't really into waterslides, or for a dolphin experience when some of the people think it is cruelty to animals. So we decided to spend our money in Labadee, and just wing it in Nassau. We ended up taking a taxi for $4 per person to Cabbage Beach, then spending $40 on 2 lounge chairs and an umbrella. Then we had to put up with people trying to sell us coconut drinks, or hair braiding, or parasailing, or banana boats, or wooden flutes, or wooden turtles every 30 seconds. The beach looked beautiful, but the water was extremely rough. I was the only one who went out into it. I wasn't planning to go above my waist, as I'm not a swimmer, but a big wave came and toppled me over. I honestly believed I was going to die, and I lost my glasses into the Caribbean forever. One hour and $100 later, and we were back on the ship. This was the day that we ended up doing the pool and the waterslides. I would definitely recommend booking one of the excursions if you plan on getting off the ship in Nassau.
Labadee. Labadee was beautiful. We spent the extra money that we didn't spend in Nassau to get an over-the-water cabana in Nellie's Beach and to do the Dragon's Breath zip-lining.
Cabana - not cheap at all, but I am glad we did it. My wife wasn't too happy with the location of ours as it was close to the beach, but we didn't get off the ship early enough to get our pick. I actually preferred the location, as the stairs didn't let out into deep water as some of the others. Having an attendant to get us drinks was nice. She was nice, but made sure to make it clear right away that she didn't work for Royal Caribbean, and worked for tips. Having shade when we wanted it was nice, as many of us were burnt from the day at Nassau/in the pool. We also had a golf cart driver who would take us where we needed to go (zip-lining, lunch, etc).
Dragon's Breath zip-line - it was a fun, exhilarating experience. Also, not cheap. Just know that if you are planning to do it, it will eat up about 90 minutes of your day for 50-60 seconds of zip-lining. 90 minutes because you have to fill out waivers, get fitted for your straps, wait for other people in the group to show up, go to a smaller practice zip-line to learn how to do it, take a truck up to the top, then finally get to do it. It was still worth it to me, and everyone in our family loved it.
Food - the food was decent, barbecue style food. It was nice that it was included, and that our drink package worked here.
Artisan's market/village - by no means should you go here. They swarm like vultures on an animal carcass. Ruined the end of an otherwise perfectly nice day.
Drink package. Our group got 5 refreshment packages, and my wife got the Deluxe Beverage package, as I don't drink at all. We were booked into separate rooms because we were the only ones over 21, so we had to split us up on the reservation to book 2 rooms, so it wasn't an issue just getting her the deluxe package. Honestly, I'm not sure if we drank enough to make it worth the cost. But personally, I liked having the peace of mind knowing it was paid for already, and not having to worry about how much money was being added to our tab throughout the cruise. Nevermind that soda costs pennies a serving, and charging $600 for 5 people to be able to drink soda for 5 days seems outrageous, that is an argument for another day. Also, having access to the Coke Freestyle machines was nice, but there are only 2 locations on the whole ship, and only 1 at times when the Windjammer is closed. You either have to carry your cup around all the time, or risk not having it and having to go back to your room to get it if you decide you want soda. The cups we got were the old variety. On day 5, they brought out the new style cups with the handles and straws, that you could buy for $8.95 to use for the rest of the trip.
Gratuities. Even though we prepaid gratuities, and the drink package also had 18% added, we always felt the need to be pulling out cash for people. The whole trip, in fact. Baggage handlers, shuttle drivers, cabana attendant, golf cart driver, waiters in the main dining room. And it hardly seemed fair that many of the people, like the people serving food in the Windjammer, weren't getting tips even though they were working just as hard. We tipped our room attendant on the first day as a sign that we'd take care of him, and it was nice that we were able to charge additional gratuity to the room by going to guest services and filling out a paper.
Misconceptions. I had several misconceptions going in from reading these message boards, that I was surprised about when on the cruise. First, I thought there would be 24 hour self-service soft-serve ice cream available. Not only was it not available 24 hours, but it also wasn't self-service. I'm assuming that the standard 'only available on Oasis or Quantum class ships' answer applies here. Second, I thought there was a pizza restaurant called Sorrento's on board. I had read how people thought it was awful. I looked around for a Sorrento's and never found one, the only pizza available was at the Promenade cafe, and it wasn't bad. Third, I thought that cabin-door decorating was a 'thing'. I only saw one door decorated on the entire cruise, and that was only on the last night for someone's birthday.
Length of cruise. For us, I think the 5 night cruise was just right. We chose this length because of work and school schedules, but I honestly believe any longer would have been completely exhausting for us. I can't imagine keeping up that pace for 9 or 10 nights, not to mention the amount of food,. The 3 night cruise that includes Coco Cay sounds nice, but I'm not sure it would be worth the drive down there (or risk trying to fly again).
That's all I can think of at the moment. I'll add more below if anything else comes to me. Overall, it was a fun experience, even though we had to drive, and lost out on a free day in Miami before the cruise and a free day in Fort Lauderdale after the cruise because we had to drive instead of flying. Now I'm going to go collapse from the drive home and the mountain of laundry.
SLJ got a reaction from Floski in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from VinceC in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from Ken23 in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from Baked Alaska in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from WAAAYTOOO in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from Schilefam in San Juan on our own?
SLJ got a reaction from JohnK6404 in Allure Propulsion Issues
SLJ got a reaction from ZinzMat in Allure nursery questions