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Allure of the Seas October 10-17 (2BR ATS)


wannabecruiseexpert

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Thank you to all of the fabulous bloggers on here that have helped feed my newly found addiction this past year. I am going to try and give back and hopefully give you something to read while waiting on your next cruise!

 

The who – Myself, DH, 3 daughters (22, 14, 6), and then DD22 and DD14 are both bringing a friend

The what – Our week full of firsts. This will be our first time: in a suite, sailing star class, trying a specialty restaurant, letting the older kids bring a friend (what were we thinking 🤪), trying out the Beach Club, sailing on an Oasis class ship, visiting Costa Maya, sailing out of Port Canaveral and my first ever blog! Those are just the easy ones I can think of off the top of my head.

The when: Sailing October 10 - October 17. DH will drive down Oct 8 by himself (he doesn’t like to fly). Myself, DD14, her friend and DD6 will fly down the evening of Oct 8. DD22 and her friend are flying down Oct 9.

The where: Our itinerary is ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL ; COZUMEL, MEXICO ; PUERTO COSTA MAYA, MEXICO ; NASSAU, BAHAMAS ; PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY

The why: Do we seriously need a reason??? We booked this one sometime mid last year and it has since evolved into a college graduation cruise for the oldest.

The how: As I said above, this sailing was booked sometime last year. I was upset a huge milestone birthday cruise for myself was cancelled. I was reading all of the live blogs about star class and I thought it would be something I could only dream about. Then one day one of the fabulous posters here mentioned a great price on this sailing. I looked it up, price was doable, it just so happened to be fall break according to our school district’s future draft calendar so kids wouldn’t miss school. It's like it was meant to be! I emailed the fabulous @michelleand the rest is history.

 

Countdown: 20 days until flight ; 22 days until boarding 

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10 hours ago, wordell1 said:

I would be interested in what you had to go through to bring the 14 year old daughter's friend along.  

My TA said I need to take a notarized letter stating I have permission for her so we are using this one https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/dam/royal/resources/pdf/minor-traveling-without-parent-or-guardian-form.pdf

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On 9/18/2021 at 11:48 AM, Rags1 said:

We are one week behind you!  I can’t wait to follow your trip. You will be blown away by star class!

We are all so excited! I think we have watched EVERY star class youtube video.

On 9/18/2021 at 11:55 AM, WAAAYTOOO said:

We were on this one and the one before it but had to cancel due to vax protocols.  Have a great time !!!

Yeah I remember seeing you were on it when we booked this one. It was either you or @Lovetocruise2002 that mentioned the deal a while back, which is why we booked. So thanks to both of you! Hopefully the protocols change soon and you're able to get back on a ship! 

On 9/18/2021 at 1:59 PM, Lovetocruise2002 said:

First time in a suite and first SC!  You are in for a huge treat!!!

I would have liked to work our way up. We have only been in an interior and a balcony so far and I would have liked to go on more before this one so my kids (and us) appreciate the difference more. 

On 9/18/2021 at 2:01 PM, AshleyDillo said:

Yaaaaay! I have been enjoying following along with all the blogs since I departed Allure last Sunday. You guys are going to have a blast! This helps with the post-cruise depression and the agonizing wait until the next one.

I loved following yours as well!

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Since we are still new to cruising (previously sailed another line Feb '19, Independence Nov '19 and Adventure's first Nassau sailing), I'm not comfortable booking private excursions yet. Since DD6 is unvaccinated, we would have to choose through the ship anyways for her. These are our current plans:

Cozumel - I am taking DD14 and her friend swimming with dolphins. We did the dolphin encounter in June and thought the swimming looked fun as well. DD22 and her friend will either do a tequila tasting through the ship or will just get off and stay around the port area. DH and DD6 are planning on doing the reef semi-sub. This one is kind of "iffy" as we aren't sure about the tight close space everyone will be in.

Costa Maya - This has been our trouble one. I have been working with private journeys and have chosen a ruins tour combined with lagoon swimming. In the beginning, working with private journeys was great but ever since we chose what we wanted to do, I feel like I'm being given the run around. It's been spotty email communication and computer broken and telephone not working type emails. It's on my to-do list for this week to actually call and try and see if we can finally get something finalized. 

Nassau - The 4 older girls are going snorkeling while we take DD6 on the pirate ship.

CocoCay -  We have a floating cabana at the beach club. Kids are excited for the slide. We had an over the water cabana at Labadee and loved it - it was my favorite day so far and I'm hoping this is just as good. 

Since we are arriving Friday before the Sunday sailing, that means we have all day Saturday free, other than picking up the older kids from the airport. We may go to Kennedy Space Center and may do Magic Kingdom. Or we may be lazy and stay at the rental.

Countdown: 18 days until flight ; 20 days until boarding 

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1 hour ago, Peachykeen said:

Wow - we are nearly in the exact same situation! We are going on this same sail date, in a 2BR ATS, our first time in Star Class and first time on RCCL, with our DD5, getting a cabana at Coco Beach Club! I guess great minds think alike! 😉 Is Alan R your genie too? I'll see you onboard!

We have Smitha! I’m sure we’ll bump into each other a lot! See you then!

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This post will be all about communications with our Genie.

Being that this is our first time, I had no clue what to expect other than what I've read on here. I did, however, know to expect a questionnaire. It came via email August 25, or 46 days before sailing. Honestly, I didn't fill it out. Seems to me that they don't give the genies useful information so we didn't take them time to complete it.

On September 4 (36 days before sailing) I received the first emailing from our Genie. We will have Smitha. It was a welcome email with a few attachments of all of the star class benefits and some regulations (such as not being able to enter stateroom if we are there). I replied to this email with a few generic requests and questions. Nothing worth noting.

A few days later I received a very detailed email. A few things that surprised me to note -

1. At this point, our official check in time was 1:00. I knew we could arrive 1 hour earlier. Smitha's email said:

Arrival:

When arriving to Terminal 1 at Port Canaveral please find the purple Star Class flag where two Terminal Genies will be greeting Star Class guests outside the entrance of the terminal.  They will escort you through security ensuring that a porter follows with your suitcases (please do not hand over your suitcases at the regular drop off area as we won't be able to expedite it). I will be at the second level of the terminal,  by the check-in area where you will be escorted to.  I will then escort you to your suite and will be delighted to assist you in any way desired, making sure your arrival experience is the best of what Royal Caribbean has to offer.

 Thank you for advising your arrival time confirmation to ensure a seamless boarding process and avoid any unnecessary wait. Boarding usually starts as from 11:30am so you may arrive at 11:00am and start check-in so you may board early.       I wasn't expecting to be able to arrive 2 hours early. I wonder if that's because we have a little one who needs to be tested at check-in. Not sure.

2. In the prior email I sent, I mentioned some candy the kids like - m&m's, etc. She replied merchandise sweets are not included unfortunately.      I was a little surprised by that one because I’ve seen countless photos and posts of bowls of m&m’s and candies.

3. She included a list of options for the mini bar.  As your mini bar is included, please let me know your beverage preferences in advance from the following options: Evian Water | Tonic Water | San Pelegrino sparkling water | Club Soda | Coca-Cola | Diet Coke | Coke Zero | Sprite | Sprite Zero | Fanta | Ginger Ale | Minute Maid Juice orange & apple |  Beer: Amstel Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Corona, Guinness, Heineken, Miller Lite, Stella.

May I also ask if you prefer to be greeted with one of the following bottles: Champagne Moet Chandon Brut 750ml | Wine Chardonnay Cakebread Napa 750ml | Wine Pinot Noir Belle Glos Las Alturas Monterey 750ml | Wine Sauvignon Blanc Cloudy Bay New Zealand 750ml | Wine Cabernet Sauvignon Sequoia Grove Rutherford 750ml | Wine Merlot Duckhorn Vineyards Napa 750ml

 The rest of the email was basically describing all of the specialty restaurants and she did give us a preliminary dining and show schedule.

Countdown: 14 days until flight ; 16 days until boarding 

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7 hours ago, JeRam said:

We are cruising in November, star class. How does it work with the unvaccinated minors? can they not go into certain restaurants? Is there Kids club? So lost...

As things stand now, the only things that seem like they will personally affect us are we won't be able to eat at Izumi and won't be able to sit in the lower main seats at the shows in the main theater. We were looking forward to both of those but it is what it is.  Kids club will be open.  

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2 hours ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

As things stand now, the only things that seem like they will personally affect us are we won't be able to eat at Izumi and won't be able to sit in the lower main seats at the shows in the main theater. We were looking forward to both of those but it is what it is.  Kids club will be open.  

YMMV with the restaurants. We just got off Ovation last week and I don't think any of the restaurants were vax-only. The only thing we really couldn't go to was the theme nights because there wasn't enough room in 270 for them to have a separate area for un-vaxed during those.

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On 9/24/2021 at 9:17 AM, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Beer: Amstel Light, Budweiser, Bud Light, Coors Light, Corona, Guinness, Heineken, Miller Lite, Stella.

I am curious if there is any lead way with this. We aren’t beer drinkers but we DO enjoy hard ciders or hard seltzer. I wonder if they would do a swap out with whatever us on board if requested 

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5 hours ago, Booscruize said:

I am curious if there is any lead way with this. We aren’t beer drinkers but we DO enjoy hard ciders or hard seltzer. I wonder if they would do a swap out with whatever us on board if requested 

Before she sent this, I told her my older kids liked Dr Pepper and she said she would try but those are the options. I feel like she’s being strict but we’ll see

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14 hours ago, Booscruize said:

I am curious if there is any lead way with this. We aren’t beer drinkers but we DO enjoy hard ciders or hard seltzer. I wonder if they would do a swap out with whatever us on board if requested 

If at all possible, they will get you what you want.

A couple of years ago, we were on B2B SC on Anthem (our Genie was Yen Lee....awesome Genie).  Dan loves Modelo Negro so we told Yen that we would love to have a couple of Modelo Negros in our beverage selection.  She wrote back that she was very sorry but that the Anthem no longer carried Modelo Negro.  It was not a huge deal and we thanked her and made a couple of other selections, which were perfectly honored.  We totally forgot ALL about even asking for Modelo Negro....it just wasn't that important to us.  One afternoon, Yen came knocking at the door with a big shoulder bag which you could tell was very heavy.  When she got inside she started pulling out bottles of Modelo Negro (I think there were about a dozen !!) to our astonishment.  She said she "found" them...we did not ask any questions but Dan was so happy.  This is the kind of thing that makes a Genie worth the price of Star Class.  She had remembered the request and gone out of her way to make that wish come true.  It was only ONE of the highlights of that incredible 16 days.  Oh, and I forgot to mention...not only did she bring the bottles of beer, but an entire saucer full of freshly cut limes.

Ask for what you want but don't be disappointed if it's not possible....but then don't be surprised if your wish is granted anyway !!

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6 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Ask for what you want but don't be disappointed if it's not possible....but then don't be surprised if your wish is granted anyway !!

Thank you so much! We are really easy going with things like this. We can always just go down to PlayMakers and get a hard cider if we REALLY wanted some. Just figured since it was on board it’s an easy request but the fact that u had such an amazing and memorable experience makes my heart flutter for November!!! 

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12 minutes ago, Booscruize said:

Thank you so much! We are really easy going with things like this. We can always just go down to PlayMakers and get a hard cider if we REALLY wanted some. Just figured since it was on board it’s an easy request but the fact that u had such an amazing and memorable experience makes my heart flutter for November!!! 

If they have it on board, they will get it for you !

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On 9/26/2021 at 10:31 PM, Booscruize said:

I am curious if there is any lead way with this. We aren’t beer drinkers but we DO enjoy hard ciders or hard seltzer. I wonder if they would do a swap out with whatever us on board if requested 

I have requested seltzer (Truly) and it’s no problem

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12 minutes ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

So I guess the final week or so leading up to the big day is pretty agonizing. Other than figuring out transportation for everyone, everything is pretty much planned so it's a bunch of...hurry up and wait. 😴

Countdown: 7 days until flight ; 9 days until boarding 

I’m looking forward to hearing all about your trip since we will follow you on the 17th. And I agree, the wait toward the end is brutal😂

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We'll be on the same Allure 10 October sailing in a 1 bedroom ATS! We do have a few RoyalUps in, so we'll see where we end up, but even if none of them come through we've seen our cabin on YouTube videos and it'll be fantastic either way. 

This is our first time on RCL so looking forward to experiencing an Oasis class ship! We'll be on the starboard side so if you're on that side too maybe we can yell down and say hi! 😄

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On 9/18/2021 at 11:40 AM, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Thank you to all of the fabulous bloggers on here that have helped feed my newly found addiction this past year. I am going to try and give back and hopefully give you something to read while waiting on your next cruise!

 

The who – Myself, DH, 3 daughters (22, 14, 6), and then DD22 and DD14 are both bringing a friend

The what – Our week full of firsts. This will be our first time: in a suite, sailing star class, trying a specialty restaurant, letting the older kids bring a friend (what were we thinking 🤪), trying out the Beach Club, sailing on an Oasis class ship, visiting Costa Maya, sailing out of Port Canaveral and my first ever blog! Those are just the easy ones I can think of off the top of my head.

The when: Sailing October 10 - October 17. DH will drive down Oct 8 by himself (he doesn’t like to fly). Myself, DD14, her friend and DD6 will fly down the evening of Oct 8. DD22 and her friend are flying down Oct 9.

The where: Our itinerary is ORLANDO (PORT CANAVERAL), FL ; COZUMEL, MEXICO ; PUERTO COSTA MAYA, MEXICO ; NASSAU, BAHAMAS ; PERFECT DAY AT COCOCAY

The why: Do we seriously need a reason??? We booked this one sometime mid last year and it has since evolved into a college graduation cruise for the oldest.

The how: As I said above, this sailing was booked sometime last year. I was upset a huge milestone birthday cruise for myself was cancelled. I was reading all of the live blogs about star class and I thought it would be something I could only dream about. Then one day one of the fabulous posters here mentioned a great price on this sailing. I looked it up, price was doable, it just so happened to be fall break according to our school district’s future draft calendar so kids wouldn’t miss school. It's like it was meant to be! I emailed the fabulous @michelleand the rest is history.

 

Countdown: 20 days until flight ; 22 days until boarding 

Looking forward to following along.  Have a fantastic trip!

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On 10/1/2021 at 12:44 PM, Rags1 said:

I’m looking forward to hearing all about your trip since we will follow you on the 17th. And I agree, the wait toward the end is brutal😂

Thank you for following along! I'm currently in the....need to get 2 weeks worth of work done in 1 week....phase so being super busy at work is helping some.

On 10/1/2021 at 1:15 PM, karmamule said:

We'll be on the same Allure 10 October sailing in a 1 bedroom ATS! We do have a few RoyalUps in, so we'll see where we end up, but even if none of them come through we've seen our cabin on YouTube videos and it'll be fantastic either way. 

This is our first time on RCL so looking forward to experiencing an Oasis class ship! We'll be on the starboard side so if you're on that side too maybe we can yell down and say hi! 😄

Did you hear anything about your royalup? I saw on the FB group that a lot of people got upgrades!  I'm embarrassed to say that I know know ship lingo yet but we are in 10330.

17 hours ago, Tiffeven said:

Looking forward to following along.  Have a fantastic trip!

Thank you! I hope we have as much fun as you just did 😜

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1 hour ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

...

Did you hear anything about your royalup? I saw on the FB group that a lot of people got upgrades!  I'm embarrassed to say that I know know ship lingo yet but we are in 10330.

...

Nothing yet, all 4 of our offers are still in pending status and able to modify/cancel. Fingers crossed we find out soon!

10330 is on the port side and our 11730 is on the starboard, but that just means instead of screaming down at you we can scream across!  😄

If we end up staying there or getting a 2 bedroom Aqua Theater Suite like you then we could plan a time to be out on our balconies and wave. 👋

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Today's task - manage to somehow get something done at work before I leave. Not sure how successful I'll be

This evening consists of DD6's test at CVS 🤞 and then we also have to pack. Kids are mostly done and they are the hard part

I did email Smitha yesterday and ask for an entertainment schedule and was told shows have been changing (which I knew from reading the boards) and she didn't have a confirmed schedule yet. Our original schedule she sent us has watching the aqua show from the balcony but kids want to watch from the seats so I'm trying to see what the best options are.

Countdown: 1 day until flight ; 3 days until boarding 

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Tomorrow’s the big day! I can’t contain my excitement. This trip has been such a long time coming. 
1 CVS test and 6 at home tests done and all negative. Our flight to MCO was Friday at 6. I saw on our FB group that cancellations were starting due to MCO halting flights in and out due to some bad storms. I saw 4 flights heading to MCO and 3 were either delayed or canceled. Ours said on time. We boarded and started moving, only for the pilot to say they were told we couldn’t land so we’re going to wait a while and they would update us in 30 minutes. Then another 30. After about an hour and half they had us get off and said they were trying to figure it out. 
I had no clue what I was going to do. The drive would have been about 8 hours and by this time it’s after 8 pm so I figured I better go ahead and start the drive. Decided to check one last time and by some miracle, they said we were allowed to land and we’d board again in about 15 minutes. We ended up landing about 11:30 pm. So many people are still having issues trying to get here!

 Now off to TRY and get some sleep and dream of an easy embarkation  😴 💤 

 

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So getting on the ship was horrible! 

We arrive at 11:30 and didn’t get on the ship until about 1:20. It took forever to get the test result for the little one. Finally get the negative  email and finish checking in and we had no clue if we were supposed to wait for Smitha or not. I ask someone if we’re supposed to be with our genie and they went and asked a different person who told them that Smitha had been there waiting for us. 
 

Once we got with her, she took us to our room which was full of snacks and drinks. 
 

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We had lunch at Sabor, which we ALL loved but the portions are huge. I had the chicken stuffed jalapeños and shared quesadillas with DD6. The staff was also really good, especially with the little one. There’s not many things she likes better than being called princess 👑 

Dinner was at Coastal Kitchen. I’ve talked up the filet so much (after reading all about it here) that everyone other than DD6 got it and everyone loved it. 
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On 9/27/2021 at 6:55 AM, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Before she sent this, I told her my older kids liked Dr Pepper and she said she would try but those are the options. I feel like she’s being strict but we’ll see

I believe  they can’t not get off the ship as they used to. pre covid it seems Genies would snag your stuff prior to embarkation or mid cruise at a port to grant wishes that they needed to personally grab. They are stuck on the ship and can only work with what they have. 

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1 hour ago, starbrat said:

I believe  they can’t not get off the ship as they used to. pre covid it seems Genies would snag your stuff prior to embarkation or mid cruise at a port to grant wishes that they needed to personally grab. They are stuck on the ship and can only work with what they have. 

There were a few cans of Dr. Pepper in the fridge. Not sure where she found them but the kids were extremely happy about that!

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13 hours ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

There were a few cans of Dr. Pepper in the fridge. Not sure where she found them but the kids were extremely happy about that!

I just read they now can get off when at port canaveral and go to Walmart. things are slowly opening back up. 🥰

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Yesterday started with breakfast on the balcony from Johnny Rocket’s. I was worried about the temperature of the food but it was still hot. B29F67BD-31A4-4622-ADCA-12C31411C2E8.thumb.jpeg.458f5a0eb93f2f328ff016118dedde04.jpeg19AA516E-4B44-40B0-94A3-906DC450A56E.thumb.jpeg.367862688b68ab7aac81d0174f06838a.jpeg 
 

Today was a sea day and our first formal night. The big kids roamed the ship and we took the little one to the pool. I haven’t noticed any capacity limits for the pool but they were enforcing a limit of 7 (or 8 ) on the circle current thing that makes you swim around in circles. Not sure what it’s called but it was really neat and after a a few minutes we were told to get out, even though there were no people waiting to get in. I’ll take pics of it later.

For lunch, half of us went to Johnny Rocket’s and the other half went to Izumi for sushi. I don’t eat sushi but they said both the food and the service was great!
 

Our waiter at Johnny Rocket’s began telling us all the prices and how shakes were extra and then I asked if it was included in star class and he was like, “oh you have a black card? Forget everything I just said” Told us we could order anything we wanted and as much of it we wanted and then told us we could take the chairs if we wanted😂 Kids thought it was hilarious! It was also really great seeing the staff dance. DD6 got up and danced with them and it was so cute 🥰 

 

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21 minutes ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Our waiter at Johnny Rocket’s began telling us all the prices and how shakes were extra and then I asked if it was included in star class and he was like, “oh you have a black card? Forget everything I just said” Told us we could order anything we wanted and as much of it we wanted and then told us we could take the chairs if we wanted😂

Ohh good, guess they figured out the black card. The last night onboard we went to JR and they were very confused on how to process the transaction. Only restaurant we went to that had and in-out style charge.

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3 hours ago, wannabecruiseexpert said:

Our waiter at Johnny Rocket’s began telling us all the prices and how shakes were extra and then I asked if it was included in star class and he was like, “oh you have a black card? Forget everything I just said” Told us we could order anything we wanted and as much of it we wanted and then told us we could take the chairs if we wanted 

Interesting.  That is very similar to the response we got at JR a number of years ago.  When our waiter saw the SC card he said, "Just keep ordering".

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