AhaOhio

Well a lot of things make it through airport scanners. I remember something that happened quite a few years ago when I traveled internationally extensively for work. I had brought cake to the office and took a large carving knife in my briefcase to cut the cake as there were no utensils in the break room. A few days later I was due for a trip from Europe to Mexico and packed all paperwork and stuff in my briefcase which was one of those with leather on the sides and a large metal band around the middle. I had forgotten that the knife was still at the bottom of the case. BUT at no point during the trip did anyone notice it! Also when I mentioned about how nice the security guys at the Allure were I really really mean it! I got to meet the top security boss and his deputies. All were the best people ever. Wish that I had took note of their names so I could have given them credit in my post-cruise review!

Yeah! We finally did it. We had a cruise planned for around the same time last year, but that plan imploded spectacularly when our granddaughter tested positive for Covid just hours before our intercontinental flight. So what was it like this time around – same destination different (and much bigger ship)? EMBARKATION I will start with the embarkation. We had (as advised by so many) booked the earliest possible time slot. We had also as advised by RCCL arrived at the terminal (new Galveston terminal) just in time for our slot. And so had everyone else! The lines seemed to go from the terminal to the state of Delaware. And there was zero mentioning of any time slots. This particular day was not extremely hot, but I would imagine that this extremely long wait outside could be outright dangerous for people with health conditions or small children. It just seemed so disorganized! When we eventually got inside the terminal everything went very quickly and efficiently. There was one piece of information that we had never received (causing a minor delay) that I wish to forward here: If you are an international traveler with ESTA you NEED to bring a paper copy of your approved ESTA to the checkin before boarding. Nothing was mentioned about this and our papers were in our checked luggage. Another thing to think about is to very thoroughly go through anything that is in your checked luggage. Some small item in a pocket could when noticed on the X-ray cause concern. Our son – who is a hunter – had forgotten an empty shell in one of his short pockets. This caused a very friendly and interesting behind the scenes tour of the security area of the terminal. Mind you the security staff were all extremely nice and friendly. Procedure is procedure so they for all obvious reasons have to check everything. Still sort of wonder what the fate was for the other (unknown) guy who had been caught with loaded mags… So, for the good stuff. One thing that was obvious wherever we were on the ship was the staff! Everyone was extremely nice, efficient, and helpful. That kept us smiling throughout the cruise. Once onboard we had a quick lunch at Sorrentos which was quite good and made it up to our cabins. The luggage arrived very quickly. Here again a piece of advice: We were on the 14th floor and it seemed as if this made it easier to catch an elevator as the only cabins above us were the suites on decks 17 and 18. It seemed as if it was much more difficult for cabins more in the middle of the ship. It was also only a few easy steps to the pool deck which we frequented a lot. DINING/MEALS Then about the meals. This was really good throughout. We had every dinner except one in the main dining room and it was great every time. Much thanks to wonderful service (thanks Deepah, Guarav and Honey). There was a lot of variety and we always found something for everybody. Breakfasts were split evenly at main dining room and Windjammer. We had no problems finding a table at the Windjammer and it was a lot better than I would expect. The way it is organized with different stations definitely reduces the queuing there. We ordered room service breakfast one day when we were supposed to be on an early excursion. Whoever takes care of the orders would need to read the requests more carefully. A lot of what we ordered did not materialize including 2 teacups and around half of the food. Still better than for some of the neighbors who as we were told did not get anything at all after they had ordered. We had one specialty dinner and two lunches. The dinner was at Izumi Hibachi and was great fun for everybody. It was dinner and show all rolled into one. Highly recommended! The lunch at Sabor was also good. It is a fun place. Food could be a little bit more spicy but it was good enough. The best meal we had on the ship was the “Taste of Royal” lunch at 150 central park. It was perfectly executed and the matching wines were perfectly suited to each plate. It also included – which we did not know beforehand – a behind the scenes tour which was very interesting. Great value. It was also great to see how much our grandchild enjoyed the food (especially medium rare filet mignon). EXCURSIONS In Roatan we went for the Maya Key tour as it had a bit of everything. The beach is pretty. There are quite a few animals to see. The lunch is OK. The snorkeling guides are fantastic! The guy who helped us assisted our granddaughter all along the best parts of the reef. The downside is that the swimming area at the beach is cordoned off so only a rather small area is available for swimming. More like a splash pool in the sea. Costa Maya was a disappointment in that we had high expectations for this stop (Mayan Ruins, Lagoon…) and the port was cancelled due to bad weather. Yes we know that this can happen and this if for the safety of the ship and us all. BUT when I have done some research I have found that this is a quite common thing for Costa Maya. Same thing happened the week before and apparently many times more. If this port is so prone to bad weather conditions would it not be better to consider another stop instead and change the itinerary? Cozumel was definitely the best stop. We were on the “Royal Swim” dolphin experience. This was the coolest thing ever. We got to spend so much time with the animals. Had a nice lunch. And have the pictures to prove that we were all indeed pushed by the dolphins as well as pulled by their dorsal fins. ENTERTAINMENT As for entertainment on the ship we saw the ice show which was totally spectacular, most of the aqua show (until a technical error cased them to have to stop the performance) and Mamma Mia. All are very good performances. For families with children, I would however consider not taking them to Mamma Mia as it is a rather long performance and if the kids are anything like our grand daughter they will have worn themselves out with other activities climbing or ziplining or just playing all day. Room standard and disembarkation One thing we did notice about our stateroom right after we got on was that the cleaning was less than perfect. There were quite a few crumbles on the carpet that never really went away at any time during the trip. This sort of indicates that the vacuuming is not done properly. Towels that we dropped in the bathroom to indicate that we wanted them replaced were back on the hangers. Things like that. It was however as we packed up our stuff that we noticed one really icky thing – something that we would have alerted the room steward to if we had seen it before: When we checked the bottom cupboard in the bathroom for any items we saw that there was a big blob of dried “dodo” in the toilet and that it had most likely been there at least since the previous cruise! This grossed us out as it indicated that toilets are not cleaned as they should be and particularly since from what we heard there was a norovirus outbreak on the previous cruise (which is why RCCL pushed embarkation times back half an hour). Towel animals are nice and all but proper cleaning is important – especially when it concerns the bathroom… And disembarkation went really smooth and quick. All luggage was easy to find. And all formalities were extremely efficient. If only there had been some uniqueness to the numbers outside the terminal where the taxis pick up passengers. We told the driver that we were waiting by “number 6” and he said he was there but could not see us. Unfortunately the same number appears on both the back and front of the terminal. Not easy for anyone to know but it all was sorted fast enough.

Booking for first day is not available in the cruise planner. Sea days only it seems.

We are sailing on Allure from Galveston on the 19th of February. We would - if possible - prefer a "sit down" venue for lunch on boarding day. Thinking of either Giovannis or Sabor. Does anyone have experience of simply walking up to any of those venues or is it necessary to book? If reservation is required I hope that this can be done by using the app in the terminal before boarding

Cruising from Galveston Tx on Allure February 19th. So I should not believe all instructions stated in the app then?

I have seen a lot of recent embarkation day videos where passengers or for that sake crew do not have masks. BUT when I check the app for my upcoming cruise (departure Feb 19th.) it states that masks have to be worn at all time indoors (except while dining). Is mask mandate still on then?

Many many thanks for sending this! Perfect. Now where did I put that highlighter???

I have searched in the cruise compass section but have not found any recent ones matching the current itinerary for Allure from Galveston. (Day 1 through 3 at sea. Day 4 Roatan. Day 5 Costa Maya. Day 6 Cozumel. Day 7 at sea). Any hint on where to find one before the trip?

Ended up booking a limousine service. I prefer to have everything pre-booked. A bit pricey but peace of mindd is priceless...

Cruising on Allure Feb 19th and would very much want to see Chacchoben. So far it is not available in the Cruise Planner. How close to the cruise are tours added? Alternatively if Chacchoben is not going to be bookable we will have to change to Kohunlich instead. Would prefer Chacchoben as it can be combined with some beach time...

I have been searching/waiting for a specific excursion in Costa Maya to pop up in the cruise planner: We do want to see Mayan ruins but feel that a whole day tour (like Kohunlich) is a bit too much. Waiting for Chacchoben tour as the trip by bus is half of Kohunlich and that a combo with some beach time would be really nice as well. Anyone more experienced than me who knows how long it takes for all tours to be shown in the planner? (Also very excited for the cruise! Started laying out stuff to be packed...)

Just a few days ago the option to book Chops Grille appeared in the cruise planner for our cruise on the Allure beginning on February 19th. Unfortunately when I try to book I get the message that no available slots exist for booking (I believe the wording was "we are swamped"). Does this mean that every possible seat in Chops is booked for every time on every day of the cruise? Or is it so that they open up a limited number of seats to be booked in advance (and at the 15% discount). If it all indeed got booked - wow that was fast!

We have a reservation for a hotel that does not provide a shuttle service (Hampton inn & suites). All transportation from airport to hotel and from ship to airport on debarkation day are taken care of. I assume that taxis will be very busy on embarkation day. Can they be pre-booked well in advance (once we know our check-in time) or are there better options out there? Aside from walking the 3+ miles that is.

Does this mean that all other times for Chops are already booked? Or is it that this is a promotion for 2nd night only? Eagerly waiting for reservations to open up for others such as Giovannis and Sabor so we have all of that taken care of before sailing.

Just saw that the Wipeout Cafe has gotten "with El Loco Fresh" added to the name on Allure. Anyone know that this means that in addition to the dogs and burgers they also have the full El Loco Fresh menu?

We were booked on Liberty from Galveston last February with granddaughter but at the very last second (at airport hotel in Denmark) we got her Covid result and it was positive. Thank my lucky star for getting full coverage travel insurance! Now we will be on the Allure this year instead!

Well if the package limit also goes to $14 all is well. - Peculiar that Royal still has the old info on their own websites though.

Could not find a roll call for this cruise so I added one.

We are booked on a cruise from Galveston in February of 2023. We have also booked (early reservation and savings advertized) the deluxe drink package for the entire group. We may not save a lot but it is convenient to have prepaid as much as possible so we can just enjoy the trip as we get on board and not worry about cost once we get there. But here is the rub: As I understand it the package covers drinks up to a maximum of 13$ a pop. Previously basically all cocktails have been priced at 13$ meaning that more or less everything was included in the package. Now as I check the (few) available bar menus in the cruise planner app I see that same drinks have been increased one dollar in price and are now listed at $14. There goes the convenience of ordering without a care in the world. Now - apparently - we will add one buck to the shipboard account each time. Or have I missed something?

Going on Allure next February. I know that booking as much as possible in advance will make life easier once we are there so I add options as they begin to be offered so we will not miss out as things get booked. Today Izumi Hibachi was available for booking with a discount. This seems like a fun dining option so I booked it. But I am a bit confused as to what I pay for when I book. For four persons (three adults and a child) the price I baked when booking was close to two thousand Swedish krona (around 200$). When I look at the menu the food is listed at á la carte prices with the mains around just under 50$. So what part of the experience have I paid for? Is it only the seating, the salad and the desert? Or does it include the main as well (basic main)?

I just saw the offer for the drink package and am confused about one aspect: Does an 18% gratuity be added to the price of the package when I purchase it or Will an 18% gratuity be added to by onboard account for every drink purchased? (Will be sailing on Allure of the seas next February)

I want to add a few comments regarding the insurance. Here you buy that through the travel agent and the cost of the policy is a percentage of the total you pay the agent. This in turn means that you will not be reimbursed for anything you book yourself on the side. For us this means a total of just around $1500. This is for: Transit from home to airport in Copenhagen and return All Covid tests Hotel stay at Copenhagen airport Hotel cancellation fee in the US (basically had to pay full price for the stay due to late cancellation) I managed to cancel the Limousine service in Houston w/o paying anything. This leads me to the conclusion that IF you are opting for the insurance it would be wise to have as much as possible included in the bill from the travel agent. Let them handle the hotel reservations and as much of the ground transport as possible. That way - if anything bad happens you can recover more of your costs. As for us our grand daughter quite enjoyed the Copenhagen hotel and the nice meal we had there. The only total loss (except the testing stuff) was that we had to pay full price for the hotel in Galveston that we never used.

Well well... We were booked on the Liberty of the Seas cruise that is about to leave Galveston in two and a half hours from now. We will not be on the ship. First some facts about us: We live in southern Sweden and were booked on a flight from Copenhagen yesterday (Saturday 19th). We tried to follow all requirements so all vaccinated adults took the antigen test the day before the scheduled flight and our granddaughter had a PCR-test taken. We would get the PCR-result "some time" before midnight same day. Checked into the airport hotel at Copenhagen airport and waited for the result. Unfortunately this turned out to be Covid positive so all we could do was to cancel all reservations that we could cancel online, forget about the airline reservation (non refundable). Find no way to contact RCCL online so damn that. (But we bought a rather expensive insurance policy from the travel agent that covers sudden illness or similar). We seem to be able to recover most of our expenses but are obviously extremely disappointed about how it all turned out. I understand that there are rules but my conclusions are as follows: With a family it is far too risky right now to book any cruising adventure while the rules re testing and certificates are where they are now. The chances of any one in a larger party to be denied boarding are far to high to be disregarded. We will definitely wait until the situation returns to normal before even attempting again (but we have promised out grandchild who is totally devastated) that we will do this adventure as soon as it is safe. Also If you are living in an EU country and are looking for airfare to go on a cruise that leaves from the US (or anywhere else in the world) I would recommend picking an EU based carrier and not a UK based one. After brexit there is simply so many additional layers of reporting required for say British Airways that it is highly impractical to use them. I spent almost two hours attempting to enter a pre-entry registration form (courtesy of the British Government) where the website crashed seven times and some of the information that had to be filled in had to be mere guesswork due to the way the questions were set up. Imagine doing that for a party of five - anyone would go nuts.

OK and many many thanks for all the replies with good advice. We will do as follows: Get our granddaughter to take a PCR test in about two weeks time and provided that is negative proceed as planned. Meaning getting all in our little group tested on the Friday afternoon, take a flight to Houston/Galveston (extremely early) on Saturday morning. Overnight somewhere in Galveston and go to boarding as early as possible. Then we have to take another test as the cruise returns to Galveston to be approved for the return flight but that is another issue. As for the 90 day rule: As long as everybody that can be vaccinated is vaccinated (proved by EU passport) and each of us tests negative how can RCCL tell if anybody was infected 60, 90 or 210 days ago?? Seems like the cruise we are longing for (needs some sun after half a year of dark and cold) can still happen! No need to cancel yet. A question: Here we usually purchase a cancellation insurance (for about 6% of total travel cost) that will get us a full refund if anybody gets sick or any other disaster hits. Does that exist in other countries? This is why I will not (or do not need to) consider accepting cruise credit.

I got this information by calling the RCCL support number. As I am in Sweden that is the number I called. Twice! First there was a lot of calls waiting so I opted for service in english at this time I was told that the time limit was 180 days! When I tried again and got a Swedish operator she checked different rules by port (this was for Galveston, Tx) and found that there the rule was 90 days. The reason I decided to check this up was that you can get an EU Covid passport if you have been vaccinated OR if you have been verified sick but has recovered. I sort of expected that our grand daughter would be better of (i.e. being allowed in ports and not only on RCCL excursions) in this case. As it has turned out it is the reverse. Apparently the rule has something to do with the state of Texas.