Allure of the seas 9-16 Dec

[Traveler]

Another cruise is soon to start and after few discussions with myself I decided to write something . not promising tons of updates (need to work also ) but will try.

This cruise was booked around two month ago when we just came back from our Symphony cruise , I was looking for a cruise  for my spouse birthday and the dates/price worked. When I booked the cruise I had the option of balcony or Junior suite , the difference was 600$ , we booked the balcony. For many days I was sorry for not booking the JS as we both have 71 C&A points , JS would brought us to Diamond ...  so I kept browsing everyday just to see  that all the JS gone. Few weeks after I saw one JS coming up and the price different was 200 $ ! , I called as fast as I could and successfully re booked and got the JS (that was a good answer to the question  - can you change your cabin after final payment) . sometime YOLO cost more

The plan :

Flying to Miami , take a car , drive to Orlando for three nights, Enjoy Universal park  + some shopping and on Sunday drive to Miami to catch allure.  crazy I know but I could find only flight to Miami using miles and my spouse really had the craving for  hot butter beer. I kept browsing United site everyday hoping to find a flight that will take us to Orlando ans save me the 3.5 hour drive after a long flight , what do you know , two days before our scheduled departure I found one , so I quickly changed our flight to Miami (via Swiss) to a direct Newark flight with a connection to Orlando , the bonus was that the Miami flight started at 5 am while the Orlando one 12 PM .

Where we go and what we are planning  :

Day -3 Flying to Orlando , connect during the flight to work to cover my vacation (somehow not all my clients been told I am out for this week) . 
Day -2 Universal/adventure island - We both love this park and feel it has just the right attraction  combination.
Day -1  Shopping , working (again) and resting.
Day 1 - Miami Terminal A
Day 2 - Nassau , no plans currently , maybe to stay on the ship ,maybe to walk around for a while.
Day 3 - Sea day - sushi class
Day 4 - Cuzumel - Going to the downtown and maybe some other activities 
Day 5 - Roatan - ATV rides and a beach brake 
Day 6 - Costa Maya - We booked the Maya Chan per the recommendations from this site.
Day 7 - Sea day.
Day 8 - Flying back home 

Day - 3 

It was as stormy day back home so we decide to take a taxi and not just walk to the train, arriving to the airport was quick (20 minutes) and check in was very fast. soon we found our self in the launch were I had to lead a working call (good the launch was empty) while sharing a presentation, surprisingly it went very well. I even found sometime to buy myself a book. Flight was on time , during the first minutes of the flights before we got over the storm clouds we heard twice a loud noise and very bright light , nothing that force the plane to turn around  but still alarming. 15 minutes later the captain called it "our exiting take off". rest of the flight went Ok , saw some movies and eat a good lunch.  11 hours later we landed at Newark , immigration was quick and we could wait for our Orlando flight at the new United Launch (yes working again) , it was a good place to eat dinner. The Orlando flight was delayed for about one hour but it was not too bad.  I slept most of the internal flight , landing around 10:30 PM , we quickly collected our suitcases and pickup the rental car from Avis. 20 minutes after we were at the hotel , just about time for me to take another working call  with a south eastern client (and for my spouse complaining that this is not vacation if I am taking calls all the time) . 

Only one picture for today.

   

 

 

[Sweety]

Woohoo. Following.

[mworkman]

Following! Good call on the upgrade to JS.

 

[Traveler]

Day -2 

4:30 AM I was up , Jet Lag you know (anyway that was my excuse , actually had to follow some working issues but do no tell my spouse, the good thing the JS has a big balcony , I think if I will continue like that this is  were I will sleep at the next 7 days) . I still had to buy tickets to the park  so I was waiting to 7 AM when the hotel ticket counter will be opened. on  7 AM I Went down to see that a small line already formed but no issues since two people were handling requests. when I finally got to one of the representative he gave me the detailed, took our names and told me that I am lucky has they still have place on the 8:30 shuttle , then he told me he needs to go and the other person will take care of me. on the same time another lady just arrived to the other representative asking for the shuttle and secured 4 places , when he started to handle my request he told me no more room on the shuttle. That really annoyed me as if the other guy would continue with my booking it would not happen. I told him if this is the case I would go and by my tickets (same price) online. So I went back to the room to book online . It was fast and also allowed me to save the tickets on there application so I do not need to print any paper. Since we did not had the shuttle we decided to walk to the park which was perfect , its only 15 minutes walk (our hotel is just across from the park), I did not want to take the car as the parking place locate not that far from the hotel so it might even take more time to enter the park , park the car and walk to the entrance . We arrived to the park at 8:50, happy to see it was already opened, was also very happy I booked my ticket online so I can skip some of the queues , or that's what I thought anyway. We went to the entrance, present our app just to get red light from the gate . They told us we need to go to the guest services to check it out .... Well here goes the "book online and skip the lines" ... after 15 minutes wait at the guest services (while I mumbling R rated words)  we have been told we need to upgrade the tickets and it will cost 9 $ each. I asked how come I am required to pay more and have been told that recently they raised the park tickets fee  and maybe they did not updated the web site , whatttttttt ????  , I explain her I bought the tickets one hour ago and  ask if they raised the price during the last hour ? she said she can not do anything and maybe it is a glitch on the site. I claimed its a scam , and if they can not maintain the site they should blame there IT people (really wanted to ask her if by any chance they are getting IT services from the same company as Royal Caribbean). I really do not mind the extra money , I did mind our time that was wasted instead of enjoying the rides. I guess she saw that the "trying system" will not work here and hey what do you know she found a way to fix our tickets without extra cost. So we finally could get in.  I thought to buy the express tickets , but it cost around 90 $ each (for one time per attraction) ,  well 90 $ is actually 3 night dining package , 6-8 drinks  or Chef table  so we decide to take the chance. Happy we did it , lines were no more than 15 minutes (many even 5 minutes) and it was like that until almost 1 PM. We done all the attractions we wanted and even got the hot butter beer (yes very sweet , but much better than the regular butter beer). We had something to eat at the city walk and went back to the hotel ,took  the car and went to buy some food (so we will have better breakfast than what we had at the hotel ) and some very important things for  the cruise (two bottle of wines ...) after all that we still had time to walk back to the park to enjoy the night show (very nice). 

All in all it was very nice efficient day. Oh , step count 32400 .

 

On the way to the park 

Someone that was trying to use RC website :

The harry potter castle during the night show

Lots of walking today

[firebuck]

34 minutes ago, Traveler said:

We done all the attractions we wanted and even got the hot butter beer (yes very sweet , but much better than the regular butter beer).

Agreed!!   I had the cold butterbeer first and was very very disappointed - it was like cream soda with... greasy whipped cream.  Not good.  The hot butter beer on the other hand was absolutely amazing and can't be missed.  I need that recipe haha.

[The Cruise Junkie]

Following Have A Good Trip 

[Traveler]

36 minutes ago, firebuck said:

Agreed!!   I had the cold butterbeer first and was very very disappointed - it was like cream soda with... greasy whipped cream.  Not good.  The hot butter beer on the other hand was absolutely amazing and can't be missed.  I need that recipe haha.

When you find the recipe please share 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Following as usual @Traveler!  Have a great time!

[Traveler]

So we maid it on board after a long drive , room is very nice , balcony is huge .

Enjoying first lava flow 

[Traveler]

Interesting thing

For the prepaid internet now you are not getting a code but you need to create account which  automatically get you the voucher. 

 

[Lovetocruise2002]

Miami is such a beautiful port to sail from.  Enjoy!

[Traveler]

Another way to cruise. Oh well maybe next time, I wonder if they have a buffet there, if not I think we will skip it

[rjac]

28 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Another way to cruise.

But, no helipad for those great photos! 

[Traveler]

JS Costal kitchen update.

I tried to call them to reserve a table for tonight but no answer. On 5:45 e we went up and being told we can have a table at 7:30 which was not a good time for us as we have  a show at 8 . The host gave us her phone for reservation on other days so we will try again tomorrow. For tonight it will be the MDR

 

[mworkman]

11 hours ago, Traveler said:

JS Costal kitchen update.

I tried to call them to reserve a table for tonight but no answer. On 5:45 e we went up and being told we can have a table at 7:30 which was not a good time for us as we have  a show at 8 . The host gave us her phone for reservation on other days so we will try again tomorrow. For tonight it will be the MDR

 

That's one of the first things to do once you get onboard, if your in a JS is to beat feet up to Coastal Kitchen and book reservations for the entire cruise. If you don't the chances are harder getting in to dine there.

[Traveler]

Day 1 :

Yesterday  was all about contribution to the US economy, which was OK for me for the first two hours  but since there is huge price  difference between the US and home we to advantage of it. Anyway its just to explain why although originally we came with two suitcase  now we had three , good that I printed enough luggage tags.  Finally it was the cruise day, we woke up around 5 am (Jet Lag) and started to get organized while I had to take some working calls. The plan was to start and drive around 6:30 AM so we will drop the luggage at the port and I will continue and drop the car at the airport. We checked out from our hotel, Holiday inn suites across Universal , its perfect hotel if you visit Universal , the room are big and comes with kitchen and allot of space. The hotel is quite old and need some ramp up but its clean and its the second time we stayed there.

As we start our way to the port , my spouse ask if we can go for few minutes to Walmart to complete some last minute shopping , I knew Walmart is never few minutes (because of me most of the times, I always need to check the outdoor section and electronics) but I said why not , although we planned to be at port around 10:30 ... but its not a deal breaker. Around 7:45 we started our way on the turnpike. the drive was OK most of the time , not much traffic on Sunday morning. when we were getting  close to Miami three  things happened , one , the traffic started to be slow , second , the car complained about the gas level (I was prepaying for  gas) and it started to rain heavily. Quick assessment of the situation and we decided to go first to the airport to drop the car and catch a taxi/Uber to the port. That came to be a very good decision as the port was very busy. We arrived to the car rental center around 11:15 , dropped the car and took a taxi (flat rate of 27 $). At port we were around 10 minutes in traffic but once we arrived all the check inn process was very quick. We dropped the suitcases , gave some tip to the porter and went enter terminal A. We went to the second floor to a very quick check in and went to the ship , all in all I estimate it around 7 minutes (including security). First stop was the WJ , nothing much to say as not really existing food. During the lunch time a lady approached us to offer dining packages , I have asked her about chef table , she went to check for us for any promotion but came  back with zero of them , oh well we will try next time. the rooms were opened at 1 PM ,  I looked at  the  key room and saw that again they did not linked my account with the my club royal status , I was annoyed as I called them before to cruise to make sure there are no issues and they promised me everything going to be OK. I called club royal , waited on line for 15 minutes to get one person who did not helped much, the call was cut at the middle so I had to dial again , waited  another 15 minutes until got another person who after another 15-20 figure out what happened and how she can fix it. She told me they are going to send an email to the ship and I should go to guest services to re print my key (which as you know on day 1 of the cruise the lines are crazy). I wanted the status associate mainly because the internet (and yes also the free alcohol). It was not  such a good start and it also made me to be late in reserving CK , but hey I am on vacation and not going to let things like that to  ruined it. Another thing that was missing was the C&A free water, but since I  am already used to it I just notify the cabin attended and he fixed it for us. We went to explorer the ship for a while , for some reason we did not find the water slides and the dry slides , but what do you know we found Sabor  We took our first drink and went to the muster drill. After the drill ended we went back to the cabin for sell away from our balcony

. Since we did not had  reservations to CK we went up to try our luck , as I wrote before no much luck (at least for the time we wanted) so we went to the MDR which was not bad and took only one hour. 

Post the  MDR  we went to the casino to talk to the casino host about the status , he said he got  the email and added a sticker to my card , he also made a call to IT and they add  the internet to our account, so issue were fixed just on time before we had to go to see Mama Mia, we both thought the show is one of the best RCL production so far , not so for the set but more about the performance, or maybe we just liked the fact we know most of the songs :-). Mind the show is 2.5 hours ! (with 15 minutes break) and for  sure is not suitable for kids.

That was a long day (including 3.5 hours driving) , well tomorrow its a sea day , we are arriving Nassau   

[Traveler]

8 hours ago, mworkman said:

That's one of the first things to do once you get onboard, if your in a JS is to beat feet up to Coastal Kitchen and book reservations for the entire cruise. If you don't the chances are harder getting in to dine there.

You are right , but I was busy trying to fix several things before , anyway the good news is that I called them today and reserved a table without any issue 

[Traveler]

Quick CK update , we brought wine with us and it's the first time ever we were asked for corkage fee . I know it's not a new fee .

[Traveler]

CK menu

[rjac]

44 minutes ago, Traveler said:

CK menu

Traveler, how dare you! Where's the desert menu!

[Traveler]

Just now, rjac said:

Traveler, how dare you! Where's the desert menu!

 Was saving for the day recap

[rjac]

You're a Good Man, Traveler. Now tell us the truth, did you have one of each on the desert menu? 

[Traveler]

1 hour ago, rjac said:

You're a Good Man, Traveler. Now tell us the truth, did you have one of each on the desert menu? 

I tried the Valarhona bar, it was ok but not what I expected

[Traveler]

Some Casino news (for me anyway) they added another level to the reward program- for 8000 points you get certificate for a free junior suite offer 

[Traveler]

Day 2  , 

First sea day ! we are in Nassau :-) , regular breakfast at the WJ (7 AM at the morning) it was amazing to see how many people were in the WJ so early, I even found some vegetables to eat. Although we had  no special plans  we went down to walk around and increase our step counts. We even bought some gift to bring home..The water color and the view  was very nice , the weather was changing every 5 minutes between sun and clouds with light rain from time to time, it was not too warm to walk and browse the city.

 

Although we heard many bad things about pushy sell people we did not felt it too much, yes , many offer you few hours trips but once you say no thank you they leave you alone. After few hours we went back to the ship , I called CK to reserve dinner  and catch lunch at Solarium bistro, it was not bad , I preferred on the WJ lunch, less option = less temptations to resist  . Post lunch we tour the boat and I must say it was quite empty for Nassau port , many disembark from the ship , no issue to find prime location near the pool.

I went to rest for few hours , much needed to gain back some of the missing sleeping  hours .., that was good, finally it felt like vacation  .  We went up to the CK , as it was official nigh I wear some dress shirt and my spouse went with a dress, we felt over dressed in the CK I counted 10 man (And some woman) with shorts , many with polo shirts and T-shirts ... For us service was very fast , we both took the lobster salad for starter , for main I took the  veal tenderloin and my partner, the prime rib ,the  portion of the veal was quite small but it was enough for me , both were good but not something special. For desert I took the Velarhona bar and we also tried the cheese cake. We brought wine with us but since they wanted a 15 $ corkage fee so  we decide to skip it and just use our BOGO offer for two glass of  wine  (total 11 $) , it strange for me to pay 15$ to open my 14 $ bottle  . On day one we were very tired , so although we went to see MamaMia and enjoyed it my souse went back to the room after the break. Today we waited for the brake, entered in the theater, waiting until the show will start again and found empty chair to enjoy the second half. 

 

[Traveler]

Something must be done , escalations to be submitted , maybe I can send email to RC CEO or book the president cruise so I can complain directly. The lighting in the MDR and the rest of the restaurants is just horrible for food photography

 

[Traveler]

Internet speed is not bad on the Allure , I had no issues connecting to the  work VPN , share a presentation and lead a call using Skype for business phone from my laptop

 

[Traveler]

I must say, heaving to tow device package make out live easier, no more stealing the internet from each other

by the way internet package were offered for 10 $ per day on board

 

[Guy Gadwa]

Following & enjoying your blog! 

[rjac]

6 hours ago, Traveler said:

The lighting in the MDR and the rest of the restaurants is just horrible for food photography

I am sure that RC's concern is "is it bright enough that you can consume what's on your plate (oh, looks like mystery meat again tonight...yummo!), if so use your camera/smart phone flash". 

[Traveler]

Some Christmas decorations around the ship:

[rjac]

1 hour ago, Traveler said:

Some Christmas decorations around the ship

Thanks so much Traveler. We've always wanted to do a Christmas/New Years cruise but can't work it in with the grand kids. And NO I'm not footing that bill! 

So, have you found that special place on deck 14 yet? Great location for some  cruise fun you can enjoy even with your clothes on. Deck 14, port side, all the way forward and through the sliding glass doors. That will put you on the observation deck right over the bridge. You can even walk out on the deck over the wings. Great views looking aft. Great place for some really cool views/photos when leaving a port. Word of caution, VERY windy, hang onto your hat/toupee...enjoy!

[Traveler]

1 hour ago, rjac said:

1 hour ago, rjac said:

So, have you found that special place on deck 14 yet? Great location for some  cruise fun you can enjoy even with your clothes on. 

 

Actually, we visit this place yesterday ,this were most of the paradise island were taken from. Very nice deck I just wish they have added some chairs there. 

[Traveler]

Day 3 - Sea Day 

We woke up much too early for sea day , again I had to join some meetings at the morning. Post the meetings we went to eat something small as we schedule Sushi class. This time the cruise team did not done really good job in coordinating the activities , between 10 am to 11 am we had : The C&A welcome back party, the meet and mingle meeting and cruise port talk ,

Anyway , I  took the numbers C&A numbers  from the TV  recording , total 2780  C&As , 1521 Gold , 526 Platinum , 212 Emerald , 322 Diamond , 164 D+ , 37 pinnacles  2 cruisers were with 1700 points  and the top one with 2035 points

IT was time to go  to Izumi for the class, we arrived at time , signed some waver, washed our hands again and started the demonstration , I do not have many pictures from the class as we were wearing gloves to prevent any food issues. The class was nice, I learned some new things and yes its allot of food to eat at 10:30 AM  (or any other time). Most of the people did not complete the food they created. All in all I am happy we booked it and will recommend to try it at least once, I just wish they have done it in a better time (lunch time maybe). Here is my creation :

Post the class , we went to explore the ship once again to see whats going on , it was quite cold and windy outside so we went to the casino for a while, later we went to eat some very late lunch at the park cafe

, we were still full from the morning sushi, after we thought its a good time to take a nap. we were planning to watch the water show but it was canceled due to  the ship movement and it was  moving quite allot  , when I walked I thought I might had too many drinks , but considering the fact  I was only drinking water I guessed we encounter some rough waves. later  went to the WJ for recon only and we found some interesting dishes so we had to taste them for the research only ... sure .

Velvet cake strikes back

They established  a pasta station, some veg/fruits drinks, jerk chicken and tasty Indian food. around 10 PM we went down to the Casino as they were going to have a raffle of an upgrade to  a crown loft suite for the rest of the cruise , three names were announced but none of the people  were not around so they lost it , at the end some lady won it (She was in regular balcony room) , surprisingly I did not won , its not that I needed the upgrade , I just wanted to have more pictures to share in the blog . Love and marriage was our next station, there were many volunteers so the eliminate process  took some time but was very funny , the activity director (Fabio)  was very funny, the cruise director Jemmy  was less fun , but we will give him another chance during  the quest. The interesting thing was that none of the couples were watching the show before (after all its the same questions every time and you can prepare for it  if you really want to win). 

it was time to go to sleep as we were tired from the early morning , quick email round and I called it for that day.

 

 

[Sweety]

Woohoo for red velvet cake. Can't wait.

[Traveler]

For some strange reasons some one keep stealing our cabin do not disturb sign, I guess some is really liking RC magnets .... After the the third time I gave up and created  improvised sign from the endless port shopping Advertising materials , I hope no one will fancy that 

[Traveler]

Day 4 Cozumel :

Regular breakfast in WJ , it was quite empty and off we go to the port. Near our ship we had Celbrety Edge , we were so close we could see what people order for in room breakfast

As we did not any special plans we be just took a taxi to down town and started to walk around  drank a margarita and tryed to avoid the over pushy  store people (one even called us and ask  if " want to see his junk ?" , at least he was pointing his store and not something else.

Soon it was  time for lunch. We got some recommendation from this site for few options and we choosen  Casa Denise  which was very close , it's was quite good and I liked that they did not try fishing for customer. 

Post lunch we walked over to Mega supermarket which I was reading about in @Matt posts. It's really a good place to buy some local food, spices and even Alcohol (cheaper than the ship prices for rum and tequila) they accepted dollars with good  exchange rate , We bought some hot sauces and candies. It was very easy to catch a taxi going back to the port. It was almost time for all aboard so I went to the balcony to watch the process and some peer runner , well all on board was 5:30 PM , last people boarding was around 6:05.

At the evening we went to WJ for a quick bite before we went to watch the aqua show. As always it was a nice show , the fact the ship moved allot adedd to the difficulty level.

I

[Traveler]

Welcome party in Costa Maya 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

Yikes !!!

[Traveler]

       Day 5 Roatan .

Again we woke up much too early for a vacation , I am sure on the last day before we need to leave ,  our jet lag will be gone the good thing comming up earlier is the ability to watch the sunrise.

.. 

Post breakfast (the regular WJ nothing really to tell about) we started to do our way to the peer to catch our RC tour - jungle ATVs and a beach break , I booked it during one of the pre cruise sell. We arrived 10 minutes earlier so we had to wait few minutes. The ride to the ATV location took around 20 minutes on decent roads . We arrived , sign a waiver , saw some safety movie (at least most of us ), and got bandanas plus helmets. We still had to wait around 15 minutes for the previous group to come back but it was not too bad. Near  the ATV they had an  Ambulance  parked and reafy, I guess just in case. It was long time ago since I last used an ATV , so long that I do not  even want to admit it  (let's just say  it was no long after high school). The tour starts with going again over the safety roles and riding in circles just to see no one have any issues 

Post the training session we started our real trail and although it takes few minutes to understand exactly how the ATV behaves its becoming fun after, the only issue is the smoke the ATV creates , feels like being few hours in the smoking section of an RC Casino . The trail is nice and contain going up and down hills and passing over muddy water . Remember to bring clothes and shoes you are not really attached to ...   We also  had one photo stop with nice jungle view

. During the ride , we one of the passagers  roll over 180 degrees during going up the hill , nothing seriously happened to him (although the ATV ended on his leg)  but it was a good reminder for the possible hazards. All in all it was enjoyable experience , messi but nice , My shoes post the activity , they are originally black 

After the ATV activity (1 hour net ride) we were transferred to the Sol Mar beach. The beach is a very clean one, with cristal clear water

We had two hours to enjoy it , we grabbed two chairs and order beers an a cocktail (3$ beer , 10$ cocktail) , we also ordered the island sampler plate which came with rice , fried platano and kebabs - stake , chicken and shrimp, all were very tasty.

After the two hours beach break we returned to the port , did some windows shopping and drank a coconut water . We returned to the ship atound 4 and went to Sabor , I figured out we need at least once to go and eat there before it is being replaced. I will write later about Sabor