October 15 Allure of the Seas - Itinerary Change

[KLA]

Just got an email from my travel agent - looks like we will now be visiting San Juan instead of St. Thomas. No idea if any other sailings are affected.

We have updated information about your client’s sailing.

Allure of the Seas currently has a speed restriction that will result in slight adjustments to their itinerary. For their convenience, the updates are noted below. The new port of San Juan, Puerto Rico offers the opportunity to visit the culturally rich city of Old San Juan and the lush rainforest of El Yunque. We apologize for this change, but have no doubt that their vacation will be nothing short of amazing. We can't wait to welcome them onboard.

DAY	PORT	ARRIVAL	DEPARTURE
Sunday	Ft. Lauderdale, FL		4:30 p.m.
Monday	Nassau, Bahamas	7:00 a.m.	2:30 p.m.
			New Time:
			1:00 p.m.
Tuesday	At sea
Wednesday	NEW PORT: San Juan, Puerto Rico	12:00 p.m.	8:00 p.m.
Thursday	Philipsburg, St. Maarten	8:00 a.m.	5:00 p.m.
Friday	At sea
Saturday	At sea
Sunday	Ft. Lauderdale, FL	6:15 a.m.

 

 

[Matt]

Thanks for sharing this.

[WAAAYTOOO]

Well, I guess this answers the question about whether or not Allure fixed the propulsion problem(s) it had been experiencing the past couple of sailings....

Personal opinion - I would WAAAY rather visit San Juan than St. Thomas.  I think the schedule change is a GOOD thing but that's just me.

[KLA]

11 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Well, I guess this answers the question about whether or not Allure fixed the propulsion problem(s) it had been experiencing the past couple of sailings....

Personal opinion - I would WAAAY rather visit San Juan than St. Thomas.  I think the schedule change is a GOOD thing but that's just me.

What would you recommend? We had originally planned on the champagne catamaran tour through the ship to Honeymoon Beach to St. John (which we were REALLY excited for!) and were already planning to spend a couple days in San Juan before our Adventure cruise in February.. so now we're just feeling a little bummed about the stop now and would love to find something exciting to do! I have a feeling we'll be seeing the forts and everything in February. 

[Matt]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Personal opinion - I would WAAAY rather visit San Juan than St. Thomas.

Agreed

[DocLC]

5 hours ago, KLAconQueso said:

What would you recommend? We had originally planned on the champagne catamaran tour through the ship to Honeymoon Beach to St. John (which we were REALLY excited for!) and were already planning to spend a couple days in San Juan before our Adventure cruise in February.. so now we're just feeling a little bummed about the stop now and would love to find something exciting to do! I have a feeling we'll be seeing the forts and everything in February. 

Personally, I'd do old San Juan this time, and perhaps the ports or a food tour and save the adventure stuff (no pun intended) for your Adventure precruise where you could go to the rain forest, the luminescent bay, etc. 

[KLA]

11 hours ago, DocLC said:

Personally, I'd do old San Juan this time, and perhaps the ports or a food tour and save the adventure stuff (no pun intended) for your Adventure precruise where you could go to the rain forest, the luminescent bay, etc. 

I think we're making up our own little culinary tour... 

Mofongo lunch at Mojito's
Pina Coladas at Barrachina
Dessert at Senor Paleta

... any other suggestions? A good place to stop for rum drinks?

We were thinking about cancelling our island tour at St. Maarten in favor of a beach day, but I think we've decided to keep it and spend a couple hours in the afternoon after the tour at the beach near downtown and walk back to the ship around 3:30.

[Wenderzs99]

We got the same email yesterday for our September 3rd sailing.  Our stops were supposed to be Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Kitts.   San Juan was put in place of St. Kitts, much to my disappointment.  St. Kitts was the only stop that I have not been to before and I was looking forward to seeing the monkeys that apparently like to steal your drink on the beach.

Does anyone know why they are doing this?

[Jason.H.]

I would be super upset. When we went to san juan we couldn'd believe it was a cruise port. There was nothing to do there, sure there's an old fort and some shops. You can visit those anywhere (ft macon in NC is a much neater fort). You can go do the bacardi rum distillery tour or shop. That was all the excursions (at the time, couple years ago). St. thomas and as you mentioned St John have the prettiest beaches in the caribbean. I don't know maybe I need to give San Juan another chance but I just don't see what there was to like about it especially more than St. Thomas. You must make future plans to make your way to St. John again. It was the prettiest, cleanest beach I've ever seen. 

[KLA]

19 minutes ago, Jason.H. said:

I would be super upset. When we went to san juan we couldn'd believe it was a cruise port. There was nothing to do there, sure there's an old fort and some shops. You can visit those anywhere (ft macon in NC is a much neater fort). You can go do the bacardi rum distillery tour or shop. That was all the excursions (at the time, couple years ago). St. thomas and as you mentioned St John have the prettiest beaches in the caribbean. I don't know maybe I need to give San Juan another chance but I just don't see what there was to like about it especially more than St. Thomas. You must make future plans to make your way to St. John again. It was the prettiest, cleanest beach I've ever seen. 

I was disappointed at first since we've been planning this for so long, but we're making the best of it! This will already be our second week on board and it's shaping up to be kind of a 'wing it' port where we just go and check out some local food and explore. Not a cruise killer for us! 

[KLA]

38 minutes ago, Wenderzs99 said:

We got the same email yesterday for our September 3rd sailing.  Our stops were supposed to be Bahamas, St. Thomas and St. Kitts.   San Juan was put in place of St. Kitts, much to my disappointment.  St. Kitts was the only stop that I have not been to before and I was looking forward to seeing the monkeys that apparently like to steal your drink on the beach.

Does anyone know why they are doing this?

There's a propulsion issue with Allure - I'm just grateful sailings haven't been cancelled!

[monctonguy]

That's months away and they have that problem now?....Can't get it fixed in the next 2 mths?

[quiltlinda]

I just found out yesterday about this for our October 1 sailing.  They took out St. Kitts where we were going to be from 8 to 5 and had booked a great six hour catamaran/snorkeling/rum swizzle/lunch excursion.  And they changed St. Thomas from a 10 to 7 day to a 8 to 5 day on a different day so everything there has to be rebooked!.  And we don't want to go to San Juan again - have been there enough.  At least this time, the ship docks at noon so maybe we might be able to get some sort of a water tour, but it is no substitution for six hours on and in the water that we had in St. Kitts. 

From what I have read, this problem has been occurring with them for a while.  I agree with what has been said before that this should not take so long to fix, but then again, I am not the most mechanical person and know-nothing about ship maintenance, etc. But thousands of people are being inconvenienced by this and not just the passengers.  Shouldn't RC do something for us, their loyal passengers?  

Just my two cents....

[BugsyCruiser]

My allure sailing from November 2013 had an issue with one of the azipods but our itinerary was not affected (Western Caribbean). It happens.... Isn't the first time, won't be the last. Like KLA said sure it's disappointing at first but at least the sailings haven't been cancelled.

 

One thing I learned is that when it comes to cruises I never book with my heart set on I have to go to this port. Things can happen and the itinerary gets changed and that's when you get the people who say my cruise has been ruined because I wanted to go to this island 

[Jason.H.]

If its a propulsion problem I'm assuming ship will need dry dock for repairs. These ships use an electric motor pod directly driving each propeller (so all underwater). Pods can turn 360 degrees to direct propulsion, so no need for a rudder, pretty cool. Diesel generators in engine room provide electric power for drive motors. Now if its a generator problem that should be able to be repaired/replaced in port with some heavy machinery. 

[Matt]

Here's an explanation that someone posted in the comments on the blog post and why it may take a while to fix

Quote

When the Captain was asked a few weeks back (the week they returned at Midnight and had a plan to sail out at Midnight) - he indicated that they had a team of divers that went under the ship and worked in a enclosed environment (basically an underwater dry dock) - there was damage to one of the 3 propellers. The damage was cut away to help reduce vibrations. A new propeller has been ordered (one can't just get those on Amazon), it's creation time can take up to six months. Once it's created, it will be shipped to Port Everglades where they are going to attempt to replace in the same fashion that the initial fix was done. This is a new technique they have been working on to alleviate having to put the ship into Dry Dock. For now, the Allure has to sail under 20 knots to avoid heavy vibrations (think of driving a car when one of the tires has a giant chunk missing out of it).

 

[monctonguy]

Big job...and a big cost I am sure!

[Candio]

We just email today that they are changing our itinerary for this weekend Aug 20..and its thursday..lots of fun on the phone today with Costco excursions they are trying their best to change us around and find venders to accommodate us on our new days new times..we also had excursions through the ship, they are all kinds of screwed up have us leaving for deep sea fishing at 10 am and swimming of a yacht at 945...too short notice for even them to figure out...hope the ship keeps on keeping on!

[EmersonNZ]

Presuming they just don't have a propeller laying around (Not sure it is something you have laying under your bed) the lead time to manufacture on would be at least a month, then you have to ship it (3 weeks by ship and a very expensive flight otherwise which they will probably go for considering operating costs). Then there is planning the fix itself. I imagine they already have a team of divers assembled and are setting up a simulated environment to plan the fix. Having over 1000 dives including some working on repairing fishing boats (Somewhat smaller than Allure ) it is going to be extremely difficult and you would want to prepare for it just like astronauts prepare for a spacewalk. They are probably going to have to preform a fix that has never been done before and probably has never been designed to be attempted in the water. As a Diver this is right up there with the most difficult dives your could imagine and is going to be extremely difficult. The only thing they have going for them is it is it isn't at depth so decompression should be an issue and if it is a controlled environment hopefully the visibility isn't too bad (I've done a fix where even with high powered diving touches you could only see an arm length in front of you, I can't imagine doing this type of fix in bad viz).

I really hope they do a documentary on this fix as it really is going to be an interesting one...

[BrianAlt]

Anyone else see this post on the Royal Caribbean FB page?  I can't believe how delusional people can be.  Bait and switch?  Wow!  What a plan by Royal Caribbean!

Plus he has GOLD status!! (The bait and switch claim was made in the comments.)

[EmersonNZ]

1 minute ago, BrianAlt said:

Anyone else see this post on the Royal Caribbean FB page?  I can't believe how delusional people can be.  Bait and switch?  Wow!  What a plan by Royal Caribbean!

 

A 'gold' member.... (1 three night cruise)... I bet they are really worried about next years profit now..... 

I totally understand people being upset and personally I think there should be a free cancellation or maybe a on board credit offer but I don't for one sec blame RCL for this. It is likely it was due to a manufacturing fault and I am sure if so it will be costing the ship yard (I presume you get a pretty good warranty when you buy a $1.2b ship) but there will also be costs accrued by RCL (Which I am presuming as they will be insured for). They will have contracts with the ports they are missing, costs with the new ports, contracts with suppliers from everything from fuel to food. There is no way this is a decision they have taken likely and would absolutely rather avoid it if they could.

[ellcee]

Jeeez. Of course it sucks when you have your mind on something but people are a little too much. The trip isn't canceled. San Juan is gorgeous - been there a few times and winged it....had great days there. The island is beautiful, there actually are quite a few things to do and there are a ton of places to eat.

[BrianAlt]

I love San Juan!  I think he's lucky his itinerary changed, AND I TOLD HIM SO!  

San Juan, PR >>>> St. Kitts 

[EmersonNZ]

Just now, ellcee said:

Jeeez. Of course it sucks when you have your mind on something but people are a little too much. The trip isn't canceled. San Juan is gorgeous - been there a few times and winged it....had great days there. The island is beautiful, there actually are quite a few things to do and there are a ton of places to eat.

Agreed... We loved our time San Juan and would be very happy to spend another day there. St John is fantastic but so is San Juan so it's like choosing between 2 very yummy flavours of ice cream 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I agree with you, Emerson.  If people are SO unhappy that they actually want to cancel the cruise, I think Royal should let them do just that.

I think it's pretty short sighted of the passenger to do that, but if you are really THAT upset about this [better, IMO] change to your itin then by all means, we do NOT want you on our cruise !

[Matt]

Allure is going to be dry docked in January

 

[EmersonNZ]

50 minutes ago, Matt said:

Allure is going to be dry docked in January

 

 

That makes sense. I imagine anything he divers are doing before then is just remedial instead of full repairs. 

[KLA]

I'm convinced some people just like being angry and being a victim. 

I'm excited for our stop at San Juan now. We've never had a day where we just walked around and found new fun local food and drinks. Old San Juan sounds like a great place for that! 

And, since we lost our snorkel day in St. Thomas, we switched to a snorkel tour in St. Maarten! Captain Alan's Boat Charter - 4 hour tour. :) 

Can't wait for Allure! 

[Jason.H.]

I can't imagine how much a propeller costs and weighs for a ship this size. Probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range and more tons than I would was to try to install as a diver under the water! I've seen them do it on the crab fishing ships on deadliest catch. They stated that the propeller was over 40k dollars and had to use divers and adjustable flotation for the under water install, and those are 100 ft ships. 

[rjac]

42 minutes ago, KLAconQueso said:

I'm convinced some people just like being angry and being a victim. 

I'm excited for our stop at San Juan now. We've never had a day where we just walked around and found new fun local food and drinks. Old San Juan sounds like a great place for that! 

And, since we lost our snorkel day in St. Thomas, we switched to a snorkel tour in St. Maarten! Captain Alan's Boat Charter - 4 hour tour. :) 

Can't wait for Allure! 

I really like your positive attitude, keep it up! By the way, some great sidewalk shopping opportunities in Old San Juan for dome knock off designer hand bags.

[DocLC]

45 minutes ago, Jason.H. said:

I can't imagine how much a propeller costs and weighs for a ship this size. Probably in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range and more tons than I would was to try to install as a diver under the water! I've seen them do it on the crab fishing ships on deadliest catch. They stated that the propeller was over 40k dollars and had to use divers and adjustable flotation for the under water install, and those are 100 ft ships. 

There was an article that once suggested each blade costs about $10 million, so a three blade propeller would be $30 million. This was based in 2010. And given that they're either bronze or an expensive alloy, I can believe they're quite expensive. 

[BrianAlt]

50 minutes ago, KLAconQueso said:

I'm convinced some people just like being angry and being a victim. 

Exactly!

[WAAAYTOOO]

1 minute ago, DocLC said:

There was an article that once suggested each blade costs about $10 million, so a three blade propeller would be $30 million. This was based in 2010. And given that they're either bronze or an expensive alloy, I can believe they're quite expensive. 

Yikes !!!!

[RestingBird]

5 hours ago, KLAconQueso said:

And, since we lost our snorkel day in St. Thomas, we switched to a snorkel tour in St. Maarten! Captain Alan's Boat Charter - 4 hour tour. :) 

Glad you signed up for the 4 hour tour, gotta watch out for those 3 hour tours...might end up stuck on an island ?

And to the delusional "never sailing with Royal again" guy, it's a first world problem.  Realize how lucky/blessed you are to be able to afford a cruise at all.

[KLA]

1 minute ago, RestingBirds said:

Glad you signed up for the 4 hour tour, gotta watch out for those 3 hour tours...might end up stuck on an island ?

HAHA! We had a friend who was really encouraging us to do the 6 hour tour - he's done it a few times and absolutely loves it - but we wanted the shorter tour so we get a chance to walk around downtown a little bit afterwards on our own since we've never been to St. Maarten! 

[RestingBird]

1 minute ago, KLAconQueso said:

HAHA! We had a friend who was really encouraging us to do the 6 hour tour - he's done it a few times and absolutely loves it - but we wanted the shorter tour so we get a chance to walk around downtown a little bit afterwards on our own since we've never been to St. Maarten! 

Sounds like a good move.  We've stayed away from long tours as well for the same reason.  If you go back to St. Maarten maybe the 6hr one will be something to try.

[Shoshiep]

Hi all. We are sailing on the Allure Oct 15th route and trying to wrap our heads around the new itinerary change. We booked this cruise specifically because of the St Thomas port and Nassau ports. We will be taking our 4 kids ages 9-16 and one of the main reasons was to visit the Aquaventure water park at Atlantis. Now with the change we will arriving in port at 7am and leaving at 1pm. The water park opens at 9, but is it worth it to spend so much on tickets to only be there a few hours. Has anyone else done the water park in a few hours, what time should we plan on needing to leave the park to get back to the ship in time before it sails. 

A second question, any suggestions on what to see in San Juan with the kids? We loved St Thomas/St Johns and are pretty disappointed to not be seeing those fabulous beaches. 

Thanks

[KLA]

1 hour ago, Shoshiep said:

Hi all. We are sailing on the Allure Oct 15th route and trying to wrap our heads around the new itinerary change. We booked this cruise specifically because of the St Thomas port and Nassau ports. We will be taking our 4 kids ages 9-16 and one of the main reasons was to visit the Aquaventure water park at Atlantis. Now with the change we will arriving in port at 7am and leaving at 1pm. The water park opens at 9, but is it worth it to spend so much on tickets to only be there a few hours. Has anyone else done the water park in a few hours, what time should we plan on needing to leave the park to get back to the ship in time before it sails. 

A second question, any suggestions on what to see in San Juan with the kids? We loved St Thomas/St Johns and are pretty disappointed to not be seeing those fabulous beaches. 

Thanks

Hi! I guess I will be seeing you on board! We're sailing the week before on the ship as well, so if you have anything you'd like me to check on the week before boarding, please let us know. 

With regard to San Juan with kids, I know @Matt will have some great feedback on this! As far as Atlantis, I guess it's really up to you. In my opinion, if that's what you were really set on doing, I'd splurge and enjoy the time that you can get there. Another option could be to stay on board the ship and enjoy the pool areas while they are empty. There are also a lot of different things within walking or taxi distance of the port at Nassau if you decide you'd rather save Nassau for another visit.

[DocLC]

2 hours ago, Shoshiep said:

Hi all. We are sailing on the Allure Oct 15th route and trying to wrap our heads around the new itinerary change. We booked this cruise specifically because of the St Thomas port and Nassau ports. We will be taking our 4 kids ages 9-16 and one of the main reasons was to visit the Aquaventure water park at Atlantis. Now with the change we will arriving in port at 7am and leaving at 1pm. The water park opens at 9, but is it worth it to spend so much on tickets to only be there a few hours. Has anyone else done the water park in a few hours, what time should we plan on needing to leave the park to get back to the ship in time before it sails. 

A second question, any suggestions on what to see in San Juan with the kids? We loved St Thomas/St Johns and are pretty disappointed to not be seeing those fabulous beaches. 

Thanks

Even without the itinerary change, I wouldn't have done the water park at Atlantis. It's just not worth the money for the short amount of time. I made the same decision in January as 7-2, didn't allow enough time either. 

There are some nice beaches in San Juan and can't say that the ones on St. Thomas were that much better. I haven't been to St. John's, so I can't comment there. My son did love the historic forts in San Juan, so that might be worth considering and doing the beach in Nassau. 

[fonemanbob]

We love San Juan.  Stayed there before our Southern Caribbean cruise a couple of years ago.  Enjoyed touring the fort.  Found an excellent restaurant we dined at twice.  The beaches are really nice. Bottom line more to do in San Juan than St.  Kitts.    Be thankful you were not on your cruise and your port was cancelled.  That has happened to us twice but life goes on.  We were fortunate last year our stop at Ephesus, Turkey was not cancelled .  I"m so glad we used the advice of bloggers and did a tour there.  Also last year we stayed in  Barcelona at Hotel 1812 on Las Ramblas  for 3 nights before and after our sailing.  And look what happened there this past week.  Does that mean they should cancel Barcelona.  Absolutely not.   WAAAYTOOOO put it best.