Shrek Takes On Mickey: The Dreamworks Experience Aboard Allure of the Seas 9/18-25

[floydfamily4]

My oh my! The atrium, the pools, the moving bar, the pools, central park, the pools I have been having this debate about which ship to go on in 2013 and I tell you, your report is exactly what I needed. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your details and pictures. I am very appreciative and waiting for the next installment (patiently would be a lie but I am waiting ). Thanks!!

[wilma-bride]

Amzing, just amazing. Did I miss it or should the Shrek boat not have got an extra point for those roast beef sandwiches

[SoCaOC-Mom]

What a great trip report. I can't wait to see more.

I'm also very interested in your take on the club, plus or minus the Shrek experience,

[podsnel]

WOW....that ship is SOOOO over the top!! I really would like to sail on her sometime....although, I think alot of my RCI cruises are going to be out of Bayonne, NJ in the future....it's just too easy for us!

[narsibvl]

Stunning....who could have thought, so much could go into one ship. I would think at least two 7 night trips is needed to do justice to this ship.

..and oh...i am impatient...what happens to the tally in the end ? Does disney win !!!?

[eeyorefanuk]

Really loving this, thank you so much.

We would not be able to go on this one as want to go to the med again, but if and when we get back to america, maybe a week on disney and a week on this one

Looking forward to more, and even DH looks forward to your daily updates.

Thanks again,

PS Sad disney is behind at the moment though on the scoring

[MAGICFOR2]

Wow! The ship is beautiful! I see alot of familiar things from LOS, but so much more here. That moving bar rocks! I am already thinking that I might have to cross over to the dark side, even though Jim says if he's paying for a cruise it will be Disney.

[jns]

Really loving this, thank you so much for sharing

[lucas]

Originally Posted by livingis2me

The prices for Starbucks were exactly what they cost here in Tampa, FL. I believe it was something like $4.85 for a venti Java Chip Frap. They do take Starbucks gift cards too!

Ron

Wow - nice tip! Never heard that before.

[morgansmom2000]

Originally Posted by nenner1

To help those of us, like me, who don’t know our aft from a hole in the ground:

Yeah, I don't know my aft from my elbow either.

[nenner1]

When we were finished eating, the staterooms were ready so we headed to our rooms on Deck 14 forward. Deck 14 is the highest regular deck with staterooms (aside from the uber-pricey Loft Suites on Deck 16-17). Being a family of 5 we had the option of booking one of the family staterooms that hold up to 6, or our normal configuration of an inside room across from a balcony room. For more space, a lower price, and more toilets, we chose the latter. We liked the location of Deck 14 for the proximity to the pool decks (one flight up), and our rooms were literally feet from Adventure Ocean, the kids' club.

Our children had #14575, a Category L inside:





The beds were supposed to be apart, and after meeting with our awesome stateroom host Anthony he quickly fixed the room setup, and it did seem much more spacious that way.





This stateroom is 172 square feet- rather small. Compared to Cat 11 on the Dream (169 SF) and the Magic (189 SF) it was in actuality pretty similar. It seemed larger to us than the room the kids had last on the Magic, though, and I think this impression was solely due to the separated beds.
The kids’ room did have a pull –out sofa, but since we wanted Sarah to sleep with us, we elected not to use it.

The dual ipod/iphone dock-in every room was awesome. Be aware if you have some older model ipods they might not fit well. My husband has a first generation itouch and it did not sit right in the dock-we had to wiggle it and almost force it in. But once we used a lot of pressure, it did work. My iphone 4 fit perfectly.



In the bathroom, the sink counter and console was much shallower in depth than I expected. It wasn’t really a problem-just something I hadn’t noticed in pictures I had seen previously. Don’t expect to keep a lot of items in the cabinets below the sink. They don’t hold much. Maybe we are just high maintenance, but we just kept our toiletry duffel on the floor and used it to store our bathroom items rather than unpack all of our toiletries, sunscreens, and supplies. There is no clothesline, which I missed, but there are plenty of hooks for hanging wet bathing suits; Six in the bathroom alone (2 on the wall, one in the shower and 3 behind the door), and a few more on the wall in the room.



Shower- the standard Royal Caribbean “toothpaste tube”. It seemed slightly roomier than I remembered from Freedom class. And as much as I loved this awesome bar to rest my legs on while shaving, I hated the basket that held our shampoo and other bathing items. It had very wide wire and leaned at an angle and our shampoo and conditioner- despite being very large bottles-constantly slipped though the wire to the floor. Not a huge deal- just annoying. Also no soap dish or shelf inside the shower, so we had to prop our soap elsewhere. I did like that there was no shower curtain to stick to my behind.



Close up of the basket that holds virtually nothing:



And woman's best friend: the shaving bar:



The toiletries- not great, standard hotel toiletry fare. Blah. My daughter liked using the shampoo and conditioner and I did use the shower gel. Of course these will not stay put in the aforementioned toiletry basket, so you have to keep them on the floor or propped on top of the “all-in-one” mystery liquid dispenser standard on Royal fleetwide (it’s actually 2 in 1 shampoo/conditioner but it’s more fun to call it mystery soap.)



No comparison here to the much larger and much higher quality H20 line of products on DCL that we love. The smell of those H20 products will trigger amazing cruise thoughts in my brain for probably the rest of my life.



Biggest pet peeve: no trash can (that I saw) in the bathroom. I was not used to that, but by the end of the week we were in the habit of taking the short walk to the only other stateroom garbage can to dispose of our tissues, wrappers, and empty product containers. (Who knew there was a little one there all along inside the door of the 8-inch deep cabinet below the sink(!)

One thing we did like: turn the bathroom light off at night and it automatically switches to a non-obtrusive night-light setting!




Our stateroom was directly across the hall, 14574 -a Cat. D2 Balcony, and appointments were very similar. It was noticeably larger than the inside room, but also noticeably smaller than Freedom Class.

At 235 total SF (182 interior SF plus a 53 SF Balcony), this room was also quite smaller than our previous Cat. 5 on the Magic (268 total SF , including balcony). These rooms on the Dream (Cat 6) are a little smaller than the Magic and only a tad bigger than Allure at- 249 SF with Balcony!) Overall pretty comparable.

It had the bed by the closet- which we did know ahead of time. (On Allure and Oasis each room alternates, one has the bed by the closet and the next has the bed by the balcony). Not sure if we preferred that setup or not. Yes, getting into the closet was a bit of a hassle, but we did like having the couch area near the balcony, like we were used to on DCL. The bed was super comfortable- very soft!











As with all other Royal Caribbean ships, there is a refrigerator stocked with mini-bar drinks and snacks. We removed these items and placed them on the shelf over the TV so we could utilize the refrigerator.





Also like the magazine rack to store all of that in-cabin reading. We would also find this area quite useful for our small day to day use items like batteries and sunscreen.



Storage is not as ample in these rooms as either DCL or Freedom class. The desk drawer space is limited, although there is pretty ample shelf storage in the closet for folded clothing. We found it sufficient for the three of us, and the kids had plenty of room for the two of them, but for 3 or more....it would be very, very tight. I also prefer nightstands with drawers to the small bedside tables with open shelves. I was always knocking stuff on the floor here. No storage trunk like on DCL, for sure missed that!


We did, unfortunately have smokers next to us, and the smoke was quite heavy on the balcony when they were out there smoking. We are sensitive to smoke so this was disappointing. I wish Royal would at the very least make one side of the ship no-smoking on balconies. No offense to the smokers out there. There were not out there all the time though so we did still enjoy our balcony. We are bona fide balcony snobs, no doubt about it.



The smoke did bother Ron quite a bit. And even though they were downwind from us, we really could smell it on our balcony. It was a younger couple in the next room, I’d say in their early 20’s , and they were from another country: my guess Spain, or Italy somewhere in Europe. I couldn’t quite discern their language. But of course Ron had a solution. If they were going to smoke, well, we were going to fart. Okay , if they were going to smoke, RON was going to fart because everyone knows girls don’t fart! Now I don’t know that any actual gas blasting occurred out there- just the “announcement” of that intention, joke or not left me quite embarrassed, and if so it wasn’t very effective since they did not curtail their smoking at all (not that I expected them to). I’m sure they got a laugh out of it. And of course I saw them constantly the rest of the week. I'm sure each time they thought "Oh, look one of the farters!" So embarrassing!

Just as a note, there does seem to be quite a lot more smoking on this ship-both in public areas and on balconies. I attribute it to the VERY high international population of the cruisers. Americans very well may be in the minority on this ship, as they are marketed very heavily in Europe and South America. Up on deck it’s easy enough to avoid but if you get stuck playing the balcony smoker roulette, oh well…sorry ‘bout yer luck kid. I wish both RCCL and DCL would just make one side of the ship balconies smoking and the other side non-smoking. It would be a win-win and encourage early booking. Anyway, off my soapbox!

Our stateroom did have 2 robes. I think this may be that they are only provided for adults- the other room had all of the kids booked in it, and they didn’t get the robes. I loved these, very nice!




**Continued**

[nenner1]

We did like the decor. Not as cheesy or garish as Freedom class. Understated and classy. Love how the art had lighting, we loved to just use those lights at night, it illuminated the room in just enough light for us to go about our business while still dark enough for Sarah to go to sleep.



Rooms were very clean and still in excellent repair. No nicked or scratched furniture or plastered holes in the wall like on the Magic.

They even had Caller ID!



One other thing I did not like is the recessed stateroom doorways. It’s nice to not be blocking the hallway trying to open your door, but it can make for some close encounters with your neighbors if you happen to be entering and leaving at the same time. Occupants from both rooms cannot enter or exit at the same time, and it seemed to happen to me quite a bit. Of course because we had across-the-hall rooms for our family we were in and out more than most others would be.

Here you can see the close proximity of the doors:



And our door decorations:





I know, I know..pretty lame (for me anyway). I got started late on my printing and did not end up getting as many magnets printed out as I would have liked. I’m ashamed! Ha ha!

So, here we go with the points. Mickey scores for overall higher square footage, the split bathrooms, toiletries and the storage. Shrek scores for decor, bed comfort, and lighting.

Staterooms:

Shrek-1

Mickey-3



Tally:

Shrek-13

Mickey-12

[nenner1]

Originally Posted by lucas

Yes, I think I'll stay with this one. It just feels better over here!

Good choice!!! LOL!

I mentioned it over "there" but we have been on the Wonder, Magic and in May we went on the Dream. Loved it! One thing RCCL doesn't have is the AquaDuck!!

For sure, really looking forward to the Duck!!!

I am just not into the Shrek characters at all - didn't even see all the movies. (It is just dh and myself - no kids.) We have been on the Voyager and the Explorer and we are going on the Oasis for Thanksgiving 2011 and we have the Fantasy booked for Thanksgiving 2012. We are looking to book something in March 2012 but haven't decided on which ship yet. Depends on how the Oasis goes - we may book the Allure. I've read that the Oasis/Allure don't feel like ships as you hardly see the water - so I am worried about that. I think we'll either love the Oasis or hate it! We live in South Florida so it is really convenient for cruising.

Thanks for the wonderful review(S)!

You are welcome, of course! I think if you love Disney you will indeed love Oasis or Allure, you can easily avoid the Dreamworks stuff but a lot of it is quite fun. I totally do recommend going for an oceanview or balcony room to help keep that connection to the water. I will say there was more motion than I expected for s ship that size- it seemed very similar to every other cruise we'd been on as far as movement goes.

Originally Posted by floydfamily4

My oh my! The atrium, the pools, the moving bar, the pools, central park, the pools I have been having this debate about which ship to go on in 2013 and I tell you, your report is exactly what I needed. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your details and pictures. I am very appreciative and waiting for the next installment (patiently would be a lie but I am waiting ). Thanks!!

You are so welcome! I'm glad you like it!!!

Originally Posted by wilma-bride

Amzing, just amazing. Did I miss it or should the Shrek boat not have got an extra point for those roast beef sandwiches

LOL, it probably should!

Originally Posted by SoCaOC-Mom

What a great trip report. I can't wait to see more.

I'm also very interested in your take on the club, plus or minus the Shrek experience,

Thanks so much! there is lots of info on the clubs to come. The short story is the kids really liked it- Savannah would have stayed all day and night if we let her. Brendan was the oldest and he liked being "Big man on campus". Sarah's club had the best attendance and she did like it but occasionally balked at going (once she got there she was fine). Activities are very similar to DCL- they even do their own version of Flubber. More pics and info to come-stay tuned!

Originally Posted by podsnel

WOW....that ship is SOOOO over the top!! I really would like to sail on her sometime....although, I think alot of my RCI cruises are going to be out of Bayonne, NJ in the future....it's just too easy for us!

Oh I hear ya! Isn't it great to just drive over and hop on? It would be awesome if they brought a Freedom class ship up there (not sure if Oasis/Allure could fit under the Verrazano!) Over the top, yes, that is the perfect description!!

Originally Posted by narsibvl

Stunning....who could have thought, so much could go into one ship. I would think at least two 7 night trips is needed to do justice to this ship.

..and oh...i am impatient...what happens to the tally in the end ? Does disney win !!!?

Yes I would think to do it properly a back to back is the way to go. We squeezed an awful lot in- probably as much as anyone could.

As far as who wins, well...not even I know yet! (I have an idea). It's kindof an imprecise scoring system so anything could happen. I think Shrek might have an edge. We'll see!

Originally Posted by eeyorefanuk

Really loving this, thank you so much.

We would not be able to go on this one as want to go to the med again, but if and when we get back to america, maybe a week on disney and a week on this one

Looking forward to more, and even DH looks forward to your daily updates.

Thanks again,

PS Sad disney is behind at the moment though on the scoring

LOL going on this ship after a week on Disney would be quite a feat! I think you would enjoy it though. I do wish these ships did nore interesting ports, but due to their size they are limited on where they can go. And it's amazing that between Allure and Oasis 12,000 people sail one of these ships each week! And demand is still high! So glad you are enjoying it!!

Originally Posted by MAGICFOR2

Wow! The ship is beautiful! I see alot of familiar things from LOS, but so much more here. That moving bar rocks! I am already thinking that I might have to cross over to the dark side, even though Jim says if he's paying for a cruise it will be Disney.

You very well might have to convince Jim! It's something else, that's for sure. It is strange how it is so alike Freedom class- yet so different too.

Originally Posted by jns

Really loving this, thank you so much for sharing

You're so welcome, thanks for reading!!!

Originally Posted by lucas

Wow - nice tip! Never heard that before.

Yup, his gift cards never last long so we didn;t have any to redeem, but..yeah..!LOL

Originally Posted by morgansmom2000

Yeah, I don't know my aft from my elbow either.

You said it sista!!!!

[floydfamily4]

OK, so I have now priced a trip on the FOS in a large oceanview for 4 for under $4k. I can't wait to see your comparisons of the kids clubs and other activities. I thought about a balcony but can't fight the smoke and I will be upset if I paid for a balcony and couldn't use it. You reference the independence of the Seas and you seemed to like it. The FOS is the sister ship right? Can't wait for more!

[sweetpee_1993]

Following along hangin' on every word! We are set to be on the Fantasy with you next September. We just got off our first ever cruise, 3-day Dream, last month. It took Mickey to get me to try cruising...now I'm trying to be open to cruising in general. The in-laws are wanting to do a big family reunion cruise for Thanksgiving 2013 on the Allure your TR is absolutely invaluable for me right now. If you happen to know where I can see more pics, floorplans, etc. for RCI's ships let me know. I'd really reaaaally appreciate it!

Originally Posted by nenner1

Call me a balcony snob, too, but is that indoor/outdoor carpet I see?! We had a balcony on the Dream and the floor decking was so nice, smooth, and aesthetically pleasing. I don't want to say it was wood planking because I'm 99% sure it's a faux thing but kudos for the effort in maintaining a higher level of decor even outside on a balcony deck. Ya know? That scratchy cheap-o indoor/outdoor surface would be a serious downer. Ugh! Oooooohhhh....would the balcony deck surface be another point for Mickey???? I would be so pleased with myself if I just evened out the ballgame!!!! Go Team Mickey! ((although I'm thinking just from what I've seen there's a whoooole lot that Shrek wipes the floor with the mouse on))

I totally want to thank you for the genius behind booking a stateroom directly across from yours for the kids. On RCI my BiL says he always gets his kids a separate stateroom. I could never see my DH sailing without a balcony room so I'm looking at those balcony room prices thinking "dang, this could hurt". Booking the boys inside across the hall is pure genius! Saves us a buck and provides a little more separation!

OOOOh! And is there anything on Allure akin to the Wave phones? Those were essential to keep up with the boys on the Dream. I don't know what I'd do without them on a ship that's even bigger!

Again, cannot thank you enough!!!!! Your report is my new textbook to study!!!!