ScottL

Well, I'm definitely not a veteran cruise like a lot of others on this message board but my wife and I just returned from a 7-night Eastern Caribbean on Allure of the Seas last night and it was wonderful! This was only my 2nd cruise (first was a 5-Night on Carnival) so I'm still a newbie myself. The best advice I can give you is to ask questions on this message board and use this resource as much as possible. The people here are so friendly and will answer almost anything...it really is so much more than just a message board; Matt has built a wonderful community! As for Cruising advice, The first day is a long one. Usually you have traveled in the night before (or the morning of, if you're brave!), you've got to get to the terminal, board the ship....then once you are on the ship it can be overwhelming for first-timers. Your staterooms are usually not ready for a couple of hours so you're going to be walking around the ship with your carry-on bags, not having a clue what's going on. Before the ship departs you have to attend a mandatory muster drill, then there are a slew of activities (sail away parties, dinner, shows, etc.). The first day on a cruise can be very overwhelming and even stressful, but it is NOT indicative of the rest of the experience. My advice would be to not plan anything for the first day...usually by the time the muster drill is over everyone is ready for dinner and a little relaxation. Just take it all in, enjoy it and know that this will most likely be the busiest day of your cruise. After that, you can put your brain in "cruise mode" and just enjoy everything!

That is correct, we're in the Allure!

We're on the ship and enjoying our lunch courtesy of Chops Steak house. We've done a little bit of exploring and I am totally in love with this ship! I want to thank everyone (especially Matt) for answering all of my silly questions and helping us prepare to make this the best vacation ever! The only sad part is that next week it will be over....but I'm going to enjoy every second while I can! Talk to you all in a week!

So I'm embarrassed but I found the video and it wasn't from Matt after all. It was when I first discovered all these cruise videos and it was one of the few that are as comprehensive as all of Matt's videos so, over time, I just mis-remembered it as being from him. I sincerely apologize for all the confusion and Matt, you're still the best!

oooooh! We can summon him like the genie from Aladdin???? The original, not that silly live-action version, of course. ?

So when I decided to take my wife on a cruise about 3 months ago the deciding factor (and how I found out about this site!) was Matt's Allure of the Seas ship tour. It might have been Oasis or Symphony but he did such a wonderful job walking through the entire ship and explaining what was included versus what was extra that after I finished the video I knew that was the ship I had to take my next cruise on! I'm trying to explain everything to a friend and that video would be perfect, but I can't find it for the life of me. If I remember correctly it was definitely an Oasis class ship (Symphony/Oasis/Allure) and the video was about 13 minutes long. I know he had a Central Park Balcony at the end of the video.....does anyone have a link to it or am I just making stuff up in my head again? ? p.s. I think the video was 1-2 years old. I've scoured his Youtube site and can't find it....did it get taken down for some reason?

ok, Thank you. I was getting a little worried there!

Whoa! So this thread talked me into purchasing the photo package for my wife and I (both staying in the same stateroom). When I went to purchase it on the Royal Caribbean website I added it to the cart, selected my wife and I and it is charging us twice. I thought the package was per stateroom, not per guest...am I missing something here?

I haven't been on a Royal Caribbean Cruise yet but in January when we cruised with Carnival it was actually pretty slick. Every night they have different backdrops stationed all over the ship and whenever you passed one that you liked you could just jump in and get your pictures taken. The photographers were really good and gave you 3-4 different poses for each backdrop. There were never any lines and at most only 1 person in front of you so it was always very quick. I'm usually allergic to cameras so wife is always on me about taking pictures with her and this was the perfect opportunity to have some made. They turned out well and it was well worth the money. I keep going back and forth on the Royal Caribbean photo package for our cruise next week.....It's about $100 more expensive than Carnival's was and while I'd like to have a bunch of pictures taken on this cruise I'm not sure the price is worth it. (At least on Carnival their digital photo package also included 3 extra large canvas prints that are now hanging on our wall, which I don't think is included in the RC photo package). p.s. I'd say every night there were at least 10+ different photo ops throughout the ship, and it also included "natural" photos of us doing our daily stuff an things on the ship, like disembarking at a port, sitting on the lido deck, playing trivia, etc. There were a lot of cool photos in the package.

From what I understand the propulsion problems have been an ongoing issue for quite a while, @Benny , unless you heard of something new. We're flying into Miami and we've got a shuttle booked with RCCL to get us to the cruise terminal. Based on the current hurricane trajectory it looks like Miami will miss most of the big stuff and I"m hoping since everything should be calming down by Wed. or Thurs. that the roads will be back to normal by the time we fly in on Sunday morning.

Hey @Diamondntherough , We're sailing on Allure Sept. 8 and right now I don't think there is anything to worry about. It looks like this week's cruises will be shortened but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything is in order by next weekend. I haven't heard anything official from RCCL but all the weather reports/RCCL updates I've seen it looks like everything should be over by Wednesday or Thursday at the latest, which means they should have a few days to get ready for us on the 8th.

Thank you! My mom said that on Carnival you are not allowed to bring plastic containers so she wasn't sure how RCCL handled them. We'll bring our own shampoo/conditioner but she was worried about getting that vitamin water on board! ?

So we're sailing out on Allure next week and my parents decided to join us at the last minute. They are Carnival Pros but have never been on RCL before and had a couple of questions. Since I'm the one that talked them into coming they have told me in no uncertain terms that it is my responsibility to find the answers. ? #1: Does the Allure supply Shampoo/Conditioner in their staterooms or do we need to bring that ourselves? #2: I know we can bring a bottle of wine or a 12-pack of soda cans on-board but my mother drinks Vitamin water in the plastic containers. Would she be able to bring this on-board with her instead of the soda?

Do they use RFID cards on the Allure or the other ones?

So this is only my 2nd cruise and I'm very ignorant to all of this but I saw a different post that spurred the question. I understand that the Cruise Directors oversee all activities on any particular sailing but people seem to imply that, while they may not be able to ruin a cruise, they can definitely take a "good" cruise and make it "great!". I'm not sure I fully understand this as it seems to me once the itinerary is set the Cruise Director just needs to execute the plans. Can someone explain what differentiates a great cruise director from the mediocre or even bad ones? How do they influence your cruise experience and enjoyment? And a bonus question, since we're sailing on Allure next Sunday (Sept. 8, can't wait!) does anyone know who our Cruise Director will be and if they are "good" or "bad"? This whole things fascinates me and I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts!

We took our first cruise back in January and did the Blue Lagoon Dolphin, Sea Lion and Stingray interaction which was absolutely incredible. I think the reason you see so many disjointed reviews on Blue Lagoon is because, while the area is absolutely beautiful and totally relaxing, the staff can be a little disorganized leaving people to feel rushed/stressed. The Blue Lagoon beach is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been and if we ever go back to Nassau I would absolutely purchase a Beach Day there. It's about a 45 minute boat ride from the pier and I think we had to stand around at the ship for 30-45 minutes before they took us over there. Once we got to Blue Lagoon we had about 30 minutes to explore before our animal interactions started. The interactions were amazing, but prepping for each one and moving from location to location was very unorganized and confusing at times. By the time we were done they were selling us pictures but we were running late and almost missed our ferry back to the ship. If you were going for a beach day without an itinerary I would highly recommend it. I've added a short video we took from the ferry landing..it doesn't do the beach justice but hopefully will give you and idea. Here are my pro's and cons to Blue Lagoon: Pros: Most Beautiful Beach I've ever seen Not overly crowded Staff is super friendly, helpful and fun Cons: Not very organized; if you have a big itinerary you're going to feel rushed expensive; souvenirs, pictures, drinks...everything seems pretty expensive 45 minute ferry ride each way (could be a con for most people but the crew on the ferry was so damn fun and entertaining we thought it was the best part of the entire trip - they even called my oldest son (18) down from the second deck and made him dance to the YMCA in front of everyone and public humiliation is always a good time for everyone! ? ) Blue_Lagoon.MP4

We'll be on Allure in Sept. and one of the stops is in Labadee. My parents decided to join my wife and I on the cruise at the last minute and my dad wants to do the zipline. I was trying to figure out what the difference between Dragon's breath and fire are and, best I can tell, one is sitting while the other one is laying on your belly and going "superman" style. They're both the same price, can someone tell me if there are any other differences and if one is better than the other? Thanks in advance. ?

He posts them on youtube almost every day. You can find him under RoyalCaribbeanBlog ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfDmvOCNsoIW5kSp95HsdUg )

Sorry to keep bothering everyone with questions, but as long as y'all keep answering I'll keep asking! ? So we booked our cruise back in May; it's a 7-Night Eastern Caribbean on the Allure, departing on Sept. 8. Originally it was scheduled to go to Labadee, St. Maarten, San Juan and Nassau. I'm sure they sent me an email a while back but I don't check that email every day and I just noticed that Nassau has been completely removed from our itinerary. I'm sure it's because of the propulsion issues on Allure and personally I don't mind that, I'd prefer to just do circles in the ocean for 7 days and relax on the ship, but "momma" needs her beach time and I'm starting to get a little worried. Our new itinerary only has us stopping at the first 3 (St. Maarten, Labadee and San Juan) but with all the unrest in San Juan I'm starting to wonder if they'll cancel that port too, which means we'd really only have St. Maarten and Labadee. Will Royal Caribbean have a "plan B" if things get so bad in San Juan that we can't make a port visit or will we just get another sea day?

Thanks @twangster , that's what I thought it would be but I just wanted to get confirmation. We don't do things like this with my parents very often and I"d like to have some pictures of them with us for the memories. ?

OK, so I have a new question! I've seen a few similar questions on this board but some of the answers left me more confused than when I started (I can be a little dense sometimes...) so forgive me for asking this again. We had some unexpected changes in our family over the weekend which resulted in a pleasant surprise. To skip all the details my parents have decided to go on the cruise with us (and they were able to get the very last ocean-view cabin!). I'm planning on getting the photo package for my wife and I. I know the packages are tied to the room, so any pictures my parents get by themselves will not be on our package which is OK. But what if the 4 of us take some pictures together...since my wife and I are in it along with my parents, will those be included in our package or just the ones that only contain the two of us?

You got that right! The information is wonderful and the people in this community are even better. I'm sure this will be the 2nd of many more cruises to come, but even if it is not I plan to become a regular fixture on these boards moving forward. Either I can always learn new stuff about cruising or maybe one day (when I'm a grizzled old veteran cruiser) I'll be able to share some advice with other newbies like me ? And if neither of those work I can always just live vicariously through everyone else's excitement!

Ya know, @Floski that's not a bad idea. I"m sure with a picture of the DD-214 plus the veteran status on my license I should be able to convince them it's legit. But I guess it's much ado about nothing, it's really not that hard to pack it and throw it in the cabin safe for a week.

We took our first cruise back in January. It was a 5-day cruise on another cruiseline and we really enjoyed it. So much so that we upgraded to Royal Caribbean and are getting ready for our 2nd cruise in just over 20 days! I think the best advice anyone gave me was not to let the first day discourage you. While cruises are great, that first day can be quite stressful....you're typically traveling and/or coming from a local hotel, you've got to get to the ship, get your luggage taken care of, get through the boarding process and with so many people it can be a little daunting. On top of that, once you get on board, your stateroom will most likely not be ready so you'll have to roam around the ship until it is. At some point you will have to attend the muster drill and a few other things. For the unprepared it can be very exhausting. That's not to say it's not fun; there's definitely a great atmosphere as the ship pulls out of port that very first time. Just make sure you set your expectations for the first few hours. In my head the "real" cruise doesn't begin until after the muster drill. I think a 7-day is a good starter cruise. As I said above, our first was 5 days and we were so overwhelmed it took us 2-3 days just to learn our way around. Just about the time we were getting comfortable with everything the cruise ended and we were sad. The last night we found a whole new area of the ship we didn't even know existed and never got to visit!

yeah, I'll stay away from that...I think the Spiced Rum Runner is going to be my drink of choice. ?