jupiter03

I've stayed in both 11128 and 11528 on Allure. I didn't hear any noise. In fact, this was one of the quietest cabins I've ever been in. I think because it is in the very front of the ship, very few people will venture this far. 

Pros: the cabins are huge. There is a very nice and huge walk in closet. These rooms have two windows, so lots of natural light. 

Cons: the couch was so far away from the TV that you couldn't really watch it, not that we watch much TV on a cruise. No full length mirrors (which I've always had on other cabins, even lowly inside ones). Very long walk to the back of the ship for dinner/boardwalk/windjammer.

I would totally sail in this cabin again if the price wasn't so high. If you have any other questions, let me know.

@Jax Thanks for the great pictures of Paradise beach. I booked a pool daybed, but your posts have me second guessing this. When you say it was loud, was that because of loud music playing or just loud people? Did you find #14 to be quieter? (less music? less crowded?) I was worried about 14 being right next to the path between the pool and the beach, but your pics looks really appealing.

I emailed ShareholderBenefit@rccl.com on Dec 12 with all my info and got the automated response, but have not heard anything back yet. It's never taken this long before. Would it be a bad idea to resubmit using the link too? My cruise isn't for a few more months, so I suppose I should be more patient. Anybody else with recent results from requesting this?

Well, looks like they released some Caribbean bookings for 2026. I noticed that Harmony only has three itineraries for March 2026 - a 7-day cruise, an 8-day cruise and then a transatlantic. March seems awfully early for transatlantic, isn't it? Does this mean no spring break cruises for RCCL for Galveston then? I wonder what they are replacing Harmony with?

OK, it looks like they let me book a reservation for 2 and a reservation for 1, so maybe they can seat us near each other or let us get it take out so we can eat it somewhere else. I'll ask Sharla if she has any insights. Thanks for all your help!

I'm trying to book izumi sushi, not the hibachi.

I wanted to take advantage of the izumi sales in the cruise planner and when I select a reservation for 3, it says there are no reservations (We're stuffed! Reservations are not currently available). But when I select 2 people, suddenly there are plenty of time slots. I've never been to izumi before and wonder if they only have tables for 2? It seems unlikely that there are only 2 seaters left for all the reservation times. Are there any workarounds for this? Do I need to call?

Thanks for the heads up. I was able to get a 4-device internet plan for my Harmony cruise for $300. I was going to get the 3 device plan for $280, but for another $20, that 4th device will come in handy when somebody inadvertently kicks someone else off when switching devices and forgetting to logout. These are the cheapest prices I've seen for a long time.

For the people complaining about having to watch the cruise planner for sales, I'd rather have sales then no sales. I have a cruise booked on another line that never has cruise planner sales and their add ons never get this cheap.

I've never prepaid gratuities before, but with this new change, looks like it would be a smart move. 

When I call my TA to prepay gratuities, do I pay right now with my credit card or does it get added to the final payment balance? If I pay right now, is it refundable in case I cancel the cruise later?

I was going through my old paperwork to see how much gratuities have increased since I started cruising. I could only find folio receipts as far back as 2014, when grats were $12pp. I'm guessing any older cruises were using the old envelope method, when you had to prepare cash in separate envelopes for your waiters/room steward. Or I just lost those receipts. I can't remember when the change was made to add gratuities to onboard accounts.

Yes, this is what I do every year for spring break. After incorrectly guessing when spring break will be 2 years in a row (it's either the 2nd or 3rd week of March in TX), I now book both weeks as a refundable fare and when school calendars come out a year or so later, I cancel the unneeded week. My school district has no consistent pattern as far as I can tell and I've tracked back 10+ years of calendars. However, Royal Caribbean always seems to know when Spring Break is, as the correct week has always turned out to be the more expensive week. 

Since they are booked refundable, the deposit usually comes back on my credit card a few weeks later.

2 hours ago, Mikei31 said:

Now what I’m running into while looking for a last minute cruise this July or August is every search is returning with the error, “no rooms available for 3 people”.   I have 2 adults and 1 child.  How can this be?  And there’s no filter to add in guests so only available cruises are shown.

 

I am left to click on every single date and try,  only to get the same message 

It's possible all the cruises have reached maximum capacity. Cruise ships have been selling out and rooms for 3 sell out pretty fast. I'm always checking for price drops and I've found that for my last two cruises, no rooms for 3 were found several months before sailing. My spring break 2024 cruise is already sold out for rooms for 3+ except for suite class.

I've been on Allure twice this year and had a fantastic time both times. They were both very crowded ships, but we tried not to do anything at peak times to avoid crowds.

We found the service great. We had early fixed dining and our waiters were fantastic and routinely had us out in 45-50 min each night. We don't like to dilly dally and one night I think we set a new record, getting in and out in about 30 min. Food came out hot, picture perfect, tasty enough for me. Some nights the menu had so many things, I got multiple apps and entrees. Some nights didn't suit my taste, but I always found something good to eat. I also hit the Windjammer every morning for breakfast and lunch. Yes, it can be crowded around peak times, so adjust your timing if that's important. We'd always try to hit the Windjammer for a late night snack at 8:55pm right before they closed and it was pretty empty then.

Central Park looked a ton better in June than it did in March. The arborists are doing a fantastic job filling everything in. It was very picturesque.

I saw every show and they were all great, except for Blue Planet (that one seemed a hot mess and hard to follow). Almost all the shows required reservations and I showed up ~30 min before the show and was always able to find a good seat. 

Our room attendant cleaned our room when we were at dinner every night. Once a day cleaning is fine with me, except for all the plates/cups/trash that builds up. I wish there were a place to drop off these items, so my tiny table/counters weren't cluttered.

I found the ship in good condition and it looked less tired than Liberty OTS did. It was nice overlooking the boardwalk without the big purple slide to block views, like you see on newer Oasis-class ships.

Don't worry about all the bad reviews. No cruise is perfect, so some things might go wrong, but not everything will go wrong. As long as you don't let it 'ruin' your cruise, you should have a great time. Ex. Embarkation/Debarkation on my March cruise was a nightmare due to power/internet issues. Whereas my June cruise, we pretty much walked right on at 10:30 (we had an 11am checkin) and walked right off (did self debarkation and walked off at 7:30am). 

Just got back Sunday. I reserved the north lot (not premium). I thought I would be able to enter the north lot through the left entrance (red X), but that was blocked. They routed me all around as I've indicated with the red line. There were uncovered spots open below the covered spots, but they routed me to the left after scanning my code, so I'm not sure if those were all premium parking spots. We were able to still get a great spot and it was a very short walk. Note, you can't walk straight through the covered parking spots to the ship, as there is a fence blocking you.

There are two crosswalks to get from the parking to the building, which I've indicated in blue. There were porters available near the crosswalk, so I didn't have to drag the heavy luggage very far. 

3 hours ago, deep1 said:

I have no problem getting invoices but promotional emails are far and few between. My fiance gets them and I don't think she asked for them , maybe just gave them permission. I have "signed up " a few times for deals and last minute stuff and seldom get anything.

 

I didn't use to receive promotional emails, but started getting them after checking in for my cruise last month. Now I literally get 2-3 emails from them everyday. Sometimes they are sales for booking a new cruise, sometimes they are cruise planner sales for my next cruise. I didn't do anything to turn them on that I recall. I wish there was a way to change the frequency. I don't know why companies think I want to hear from them so often. Once a week would be fine. I just checked my email trash and I've had 60 emails from them since Mar 9.

Just got back from Allure and people were complaining about internet also. My experience is that my cabin in the very front of the ship on deck 11 had decent internet for downloads (~ 8 mbps) and terrible for uploads (<1). I also had good internet speeds in the windjammer. However, the internet was pretty much non-existent while waiting for every show I went to (aquashow, comedy show, theater). I did notice that my internet worked again in the middle of a show. At first I thought they must be blocking the internet in these venues, but maybe it's related to the number of people who were trying to use the internet at any one time. The comedy club is tiny though, so I don't know.

The best speed I got was 14.3 mbps on deck 15 near the solarium on the last sea day. (see attached)

I suspect the in-cabin internet speed depends on how close you are to the wifi routers and I may have been lucky to be near one, as I heard others complain how the internet was useless for them.

Just got back from Allure and every show (except the comedy club show, which is in a tiny venue) had extra seats even after all the stand by people were let in. Even the ice skating show had extra seats. Now standby seats do tend to be the ones that are leftover after all the reservation people show up, so keep that in mind. I was surprised so many people skipped their reservations, as the shows were sold out on the app.

I'm currently on Allure and have been surprised that almost all of the shows have plenty of empty seats once shows begin. I've been getting a lot of flack from my son for insisting we show up early to get a good seat and that all the shows are sold out, only for a lot of people to not show up. The only show that did not have empty seats was the comedy show, where the room is especially small. All my shows were booked near the end of the cruise and if I had known this was the case, I would have tried the stand by line earlier in the cruise.

This is the strategy I use for spring break cruises. I always book the two most likely weeks at refundable deposits, which usually add $200-300 per cruise. Deposits are $750 for three of us, so we can't just eat that cost. In Austin, spring break usually coincides with SXSW or the University of Texas spring break. IF SXSW and UT both have spring break the same week like this year (and their schedules come out a lot earlier), then I have high confidence spring break will be that week. But when they conflict, like in 2024, it's a gamble which it will be.

It sounds like you ran into the same problem I did when 2025 cruises came out Dec 2022 and they were not adding the correct refundable add on price. This resolved a few days later, which is when I booked. Have you checked refundable deposits since? Perhaps your second cruise has a more reasonable refundable add on now.

Looks like Twangster was right!  I checked again today and non-refundable deposits are back to the usual ~$200 upcharge. As a bonus, it looks like there is also a flash sale today, so prices are $50 lower than on Thursday. Yay!

Wow, those are some good prices! I live in Texas, so we are limited to Galveston only. Yes, very interesting how the bookings for that sailing all show up as refundable as the default. I spot checked interior/OV cabins in case it was just balcony cabins that didn't have the NR deposit, but they were all like that. Very interesting!

Thanks, I checked a few other sailings (summer 2024, thanksgiving 2024, all the march 2025 sailings) and they all seem to have outrageous refundable deposit add-ons. Is everybody booking non-refundable fares then?  What is everybody doing to protect themselves from unforeseen events? I know you can buy travel insurance, but I'm thinking about all the things that can happen in 2 years that wouldn't be covered by insurance. 

I normally like to book refundable deposits when I book out a few years, because you never know. However, I've checked a few cruises from today's deployment and the refundable deposit for each cruise I've checked out is equivalent to the 30% all guests discount. So when I click refundable deposit, Royal is pretty much charging me full price. It's annoying that you can't see this charge until you've fill out all your contact information for everybody. Here is a screenshot from one cruise.  Is anybody else seeing this? Is this a bug?

My internet package is back to the $13.99 for 1 device that I saw yesterday (vs. the $14.99 I booked at this morning). I noticed that when I book 2 devices, it comes up as $167.93 (or $11.99 per device, instead of $13.99 for the first device and $11.99 for each additional device. Three devices are coming up as $237.93, which is the lowest price I've seen in awhile.

Voom is so inconsistent. On my Liberty of the Seas cruise in March 2022, the internet was terrible, except for facebook and youtube. I tried just loading google or wikipedia and it would time out. I tried all over the ship to no avail. Same ship in July 2022, internet was awesome. Everything loaded pretty quickly. I could even stream videos from my doorbell camera. We were at full capacity, so I was worried it would be even worse, but it was surprisingly good, though did slow down during busy times of the day.

Weather was nice and sunny in both cases. Who knows why it was so inconsistent.

Ah man, you guys are so lucky! I've been tracking key prices for both my next cruises and they are both tracking at $32.99 right now. It was $34.99 a few weeks ago, so I guess this is a sale. Still too rich for me.