Disney sheep go rogue - an allure-ing trip report - with a dcl lessons learned perspe

[Scraptographer]

I am loving your report so far! You sound so much like us...we have done 7 disney cruises and are now looking to jump ship over to RCCL. One of the biggest things that is driving this decision is Disney's new OBB limitations. Having to book a cruise in 18 months wasn't in our plans, so I think we will be doing the Allure in 2016. I have been hesitant to switch ships, but your report is helping me along. Thanks for all the details!

Many thanks for reading along. I have to agree with you that being able to use an OBB really helps to 'take the edge off'' of DCLs prices, and their new policy is making an OBB so much less attractive. Being willing to consider RCCL has definitely been freeing for us.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to get some more photos posted to show even more details.

 

[Scraptographer]

ENTERTAINMENT. In order to put our entertainment interests into perspective, part of our enjoyment when we travel is being entertained, kind of like the RCCL show featuring King Julien declaring: Let YOU entertain ME! But I am getting ahead of myself. Suffice to say that as a family we enjoy going to the movies or to the theatre. Productions that we have seen as a family range from 'Wicked' to 'Spam-a-lot' to 'Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'.

We do enjoy watching Disney movies. Our VHS/dvd/bluray collection contains not only most of the classic Disney movies, but an amazing number of 'Disney Sing Along Songs' videos as well - those were the VHS tapes with essentially the 'best of' songs from the movies with the words running along the screen karaoke style. When we have cruised on DCL in the past, the entertainment options available to us as a family were very important aspects with respect to our enjoyment of our cruise, and Disney does family entertainment very well.

However, after 7 Disney cruises on 4 different ships, we have now seen all of the shows Disney has available, and most of them more than once. And although the Disney 'Broadway styled shows' are enjoyable enough for us to happily watch more than once, we have now reached the point that we have 'been there and done that' too many times. Essentially the entertainment on Disney is no longer the big draw for us that it used to be. Although we still enjoy the 'Disneyfied' stories with Disney music and talented performers, we were more than willing to branch out, so the options available on RCCL appealed to us at this point

Main Shows/Evening Entertainment:

In general, both Disney and RCCL have many family friendly shows to enjoy. The main difference is that DCL relies on the Disney brand, which of course is their forte, and which results in the majority of their shows being 'kid-centric'. As an example, on a week long cruise on DCL there will normally be five produced shows that centre around Disney characters, songs and movies. There will be a movie in the Walt Disney Theatre one night - potentially the same night as the Pirates in the Caribbean party since the characters/performers are needed elsewhere (this past March 2014 on the Fantasy the movie was 'Frozen') and there will normally be one night with a family oriented variety act (ventriloquist, magician, comedian etc). The same variety act will then perform a more adult themed routine on another night in a night club.

On the Allure of the Seas there were seven produced shows to watch, although only two were kid-centric, i.e. centred around Dreamworks characters, another four of these shows were definitely family friendly and only one show, the Broadway styled 'Chicago', contained adult themes, however it was still open to families to attend based on parental discretion. Overall, we felt there was a greater variety of entertainment on the Allure.



In addition to the singing and dancing production number that is 'Chicago', two of the shows were ice skating shows, one being 'Ice Games' and the other being 'How to Train Your Dragon on Ice' (which was one of the shows which contained Dreamworks characters). Ocean Aria and Blue Planet included cirque de soleil inspired acrobatic production numbers - Ocean Aria in the Aqua Theatre involved diving and feats of strength along with humour, while Blue Planet in the Amber Theatre had singing and dancing. The Headliner show on our cruise was MO5AIC, an acapella singing group that we really enjoyed, however I believe there are often tribute bands to such groups as ABBA and the Beatles as well as solo performers as 'headliner' options. The other Dreamworks character themed show is 'Let You Entertain Me', which is staged in the Aqua Theatre and includes diving and acrobatics, however the diving is not by the Dreamworks characters!

Each of these shows is performed 2 or 3 times or more, so ideally you can choose when you want to see them, however making advanced reservations is highly recommended, although a standby line is available for all shows. If you do not show up at least 15 minutes in advance of your reserved show, then your seat will be released to those in the stand by line. It is also recommended that you try to schedule Ocean Aria as early in the cruise as you can in case it is cancelled due to rough seas/inclement weather, as this allows you to go in the stand by line for a later performance.

The Allure also has a separate small comedy club where they have several shows during the week that are restricted to ages 18+. On the last night of the cruise they also have an open to all ages comedy show in the Amber Theatre, however it is scheduled for 10 or 11 pm, probably reducing the number of really young kids who might attend since it would be past their bedtime (side note: I think the Oasis of the Seas the general show might be on at an earlier time in the evening)!

From our family's perspective, we enjoyed all of the shows, and as in anything involving personal opinion, we found some shows were more enjoyable than others. The shows with the Dreamworks characters were cute and the young kids in the audiences really seemed to enjoy them. DH liked Chicago the best, DD and DS were all about Ocean Aria. I really enjoyed MO5AIC - especially 'opera guy' as I referred to him, don't worry it was only opera for 1 minute and 46 seconds, but it was great . The Ice Games show was both cute and intriguing, after all, they were completing spins and jumps and other amazing skating feats on ice while at sea! Blue Planet was enjoyable, and yet I was not overly enthused by it. I think I may have objected to their arrangements of some of my favourite Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel songs - don't mess with my classics! There, the dinosaur has spoken.

So, the true test, would we go back to see these shows again? Yes. Probably. As a side note, I had wanted to get a picture with the Madagascar penguins, and it turned out that the three times they made a character appearance, we were in a show. Grrrr. I might just skip a show to track them down next time. Although ideally we would prefer to see new shows, which is why if we were to book another March break trip on RCCL, we might choose a different ship in order to enjoy new entertainment options. I must admit though that the fact that the Oasis is swapping out 'Hairspray' for 'Cats' might make me more inclined to sail on the Quantum for 'Mama Mia'!! Really? Well a definite possible maybe anyway . I understand that on the Oasis, the shows are similar to those on the Allure but not identical, and in that case, we would definitely plan to see all of the shows 'again' as it were.

 

[Scraptographer]

Live Music:

DCL usually provides a small group of entertainers, some who sing (think duos, combos etc) or some who play musical instruments, sometimes in the atrium and other times that same group or performer will be in a lounge setting. However, the Allure OTS has numerous venues each evening that have musical groups playing live music, including 'dance lesson' opportunities at one of the night clubs with a live orchestra/band, as well as singers and singing groups.

RCCL often schedules Promenade Parties, think 70s Nights or 80s Nights themes, usually held after 10 pm. These 'bashes' include both live singers and 'dancers' (think cruise staff 'presenting' YMCA!) as well as the original music queued up by a DJ. For someone like me who does not like crowds and who considers 11 pm to be past my bedtime, I only caught the early parts of these activities, however if the cruise video is anything to go by, these events were very upbeat and well attended.

Character Interactions/Viewings:

Disney clearly has the 'market' on the magical character experience. Character interactions and viewings is the area where Disney shines, after all they have had over 50 years of practise! Add to that the particularly strong brand that is associated with Disney characters, and Disney is very hard to beat in this area. I mean it only takes a few notes of just about any Disney song and most of us are humming or singing along happily, often without even realizing it. Part of that magical experience might just be through subliminal programming . And of course DCL has the Pirates in the Caribbean show on deck with fireworks at sea - realistically, this has not been a big draw for our family. When the kids were little, they were in bed before the fireworks started and since then, we have only all been up on deck for the fireworks/party once.

The interesting thing is that RCCL does not try to beat Disney at this game, mostly they just try to join them . Realistically RCCL offers many kid friendly experiences, from character breakfasts with the Shrek 'family' and the 'Madagascar family' (DCL no longer offers character breakfasts on the Fantasy or Dream), to the 'Move it Move it' character centric parades, to meet and greets with Dreamworks characters, to movies and shows. The Boardwalk with its carousel (free to ride) and other fun family activities (fun house mirrors, bean bag toss games, free face painting and balloon twisted animals, Zoltar fortunes) is also a big draw for younger kids - not so much for my teenagers, but we saw lots of families with young children enjoying this area.

DCL and RCCL are just different experiences overall. On DCL, the character interactions and viewings are integral to the experience. It is neat to see what outfits the 'Fab 5' (or Main 8 if we add Daisy and Chip & Dale to the list) will be wearing. We discovered on our Baltic and Med cruises that the 'main' characters will often wear 'country appropriate' costumes, however the outfits on the Caribbean and Bahamas cruises have not changed all that much since we started cruising. In order to avoid the characters on DCL, you almost have to try - I mean our family wouldn't try to avoid them, but some might. On the Allure OTS, the character experience is there, but you almost have to search it out in order to experience it. While on our DCL cruises we used to 'collect' characters daily, on the Allure we only stopped for one character photo op and we spotted characters a couple of other times as we were heading to a show or a meal - and we didn't see those darn penguins at all - next trip forget Duck Season or Rabbit season, it will be 'Penguin season' (couldn't resist a Bugs Bunny reference !!


Other:

Both RCCL and DCL offer a 'Farewell' character related event on the last night of the cruise, which we have occasionally attended on DCL, but we did not attend on RCCL - too much else to see and do it would seem.

* DCL - Sea Ya Real Soon - On the last evening of the cruise, many of the Disney characters, including some of the stage show performers in character, appear in the main atrium. There is normally a 'formal' procession of the characters down over the stair case, followed by opportunities for those last minute meet and greets, with autographs and pictures (if you bring your own camera).

* RCCL - Character Farewell Party - on the final night of the cruise, many of the characters are available on the Royal Promenade for a farewell experience. We did not attend this.

 

[Scraptographer]

Character Meet & Greets/Related Activities at an Additional Cost: Disney offers two main kid-centric activities that involve an 'upcharge' - fortunately for us, they did not start offering these 'opportunities' until DD was too old to go! I copied the info on these activities from the DCL and RCCL websites since I had heard about them - and in the case of the Fantasy had seen little girls wandering around in all of their 'finery' after their experiences, and I know that my kids would have noticed - simply because if they had offered these activities when DD had been younger, we would have wanted to know about them, even if it were just to discuss with her the fact that we weren't willing to let her participate. Forewarned is forearmed. Note, we did not see a whole lot of 'Barbie' evidence on our cruise, but DD was not in Adventure Ocean either.
* Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique - Fairy Godmothers-in-training await the arrival of your little princess for one of 5 different makeover experiences. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique is for guests between the ages of 3 and 12. In all, there are six packages available ranging from $55 to $595.
* Royal Tea - Pricing for Royal High Tea is currently $270 for one adult and child. Each additional child is $210 and an adult is $69. the Royal Tea experience begins with a royal greeting by Lady Chamomile who presents each prince with a sword and every princess with a crown. Chef Brule joins Lady Chamomile to host the Royal Tea party and through the use of Disney storytelling introduce the Disney Princesses to the guests. A variety of sweet treats and savory snacks will be served along with hot tea. Apple juice will be available for the little ones along with a decadent tea cupcake. Children will not leave empty handed. The princesses will receive a Cinderella doll, an autograph book, a jewlery box with a charm bracelet that will be filled with unique charms presented by each visiting Disney Princess. The boys will also receive the autograph book along with a Duffy Bear and Disney Pins.

RCCL on the other hand now also offers a 'kid-centric activity at an additional cost, aimed at young girls featuring Barbies.

* Barbie Premium Experience $199 - The Barbie Premium Experience, on Royal Caribbean, brings aboard the fab-tastic style of the world's most famous fashion doll! Girls age 4 to 11 set sail on a Barbie dream cruise complete with fun, fashion and runway moments. Make lifelong memories and take to the waves in true Barbie style. The Barbie theme adds Barbie decorations to cabin doors, along with a special plaque welcoming passengers onboard. Inside the cabin, Barbie giveaways adorn the inside of the cabin and include fluffy blankets, tote bags, dolls and even a Barbie pillow case. Passengers are also given a special Barbie guest lanyard and a pink tote bag, with invitations to Barbie's exclusive Tiara and Teacups party, with cupcakes, pink lemonade and a lesson in tea-time etiquette, with Elira. During the week-long cruise, there are other events onboard the ship such as how to become a fashion designer and take part in a Barbie dance class that culminates in a glittering red carpet fashion show.

Apparently RCCL also offers 'More Barbie Fun!' (included in the cruise fare I think) as part of the Adventure Ocean Youth Program, where girls can enjoy complimentary Barbie features such as Barbie Movie Night, Barbie Story Time and other themed activities, plus Barbie movies on their stateroom TVs. And once again, we have no personal experience with these activities, however we did indeed notice that there were Barbie movies on our in cabin TV system as we rapidly flipped past them - whew!


MOVIES

Both DCL and RCCL schedule movies for viewing in their main theatres. DCL also screens movies in the Buena Vista theatre, a dedicated movie theatre, in addition to the Walt Disney Theatre, while RCCL screens movies in the Aqua Theatre in addition to the Amber Theatre. Both lines have the capability to offer 3D movies as well. DCL has the capability of playing movies on the Dumbotron screen on the pool deck. Once again, this an an area which plays to Disney's strengths. In fact we usually see at least one movie, normally on a sea day, when we sail on Disney. That said, I think we just had too many options on RCCL to just go see a movie, so maybe RCCL doesn't need to work that hard on screening movies.

On the one hand, I did indeed miss watching movies while in or by the pools, however at the same time I appreciated not having movies playing on the pool deck, since on Disney, a) the soundtrack can be noisy/annoying if you don't like the movie - think Hanna Montana (!) and b) some kids will hang out in the pool simply to watch the rest of the movie, therefore not giving up that (already limited) space to others who want to swim! On the Allure we did have the ability to watch movies under the stars/open sky in the Aqua Theatre. I guess what I missed was the Disney soundtrack playing in the background as we hung out on the pool deck. Hmmmm, the jury is definitely still out on this item.

Interestingly enough, during March 2014, Disney screened Dreamworks' 'The Need for Speed' since Disney is apparently handling the distribution of that movie, while on the Allure they screened Disney's 'Frozen' in the Aqua Theatre . And yes, DD and her friends caught 'Frozen'.

March 2014 Movie Schedule - The List

Allure OTS

* Amber Theatre - Mr Peabody and Sherman, Thor 2 The Dark World, Gravity

* Aqua Theatre - Frozen, The Hobbit

Fantasy

* Walt Disney Theatre - The Need for Speed, Frozen, Thor 2 the Dark World, Saving Mr Banks

* Buena Vista Theatre - Iron Man 3, Monsters University, Planes, The Lone Ranger, Frozen Sing-a-long

 

[perfectmatch300]

Glad to know that you are still reading. I am not sure that it is still on, but RCCL prices are/were even more interesting/competitive due to a BOGOHO sale recently. Just saying.

I was able to benefit from the BOGOHO sale for our Independence OTS cruise! I was not sure I would be able to get it on a previously booked cruise. I decided to call the first day the sale showed up on the website, and got the discount with no problems at all!

I was able to save $400.00 off a price I already thought was pretty good. At this point with the BOGOHO discount out 8 day Indy eastern aft balcony is about $800.00 cheaper than the 7 day Disney Fantasy cruise we took in 2013 in an aft balcony with our OBB discount. Even if I add in the cost of the soda package we will both be purchasing on the Indy, we still have what to us is a pretty significant savings. Also, our Fantasy cruise was in Sept, traditionally less expensive due to hurricane season. Our Indy cruise is in April, not the most expensive time of the year to cruise but certainly more expensive than hurricane season cruises tend to be.

So far I am really happy with my dealings with Royal Caribbean, so much so that I am seriously thinking of booking Oasis or Allure for spring 2016. I just have to get past the fact that I would be booking a full 2 years in advance!

I am still really enjoying your TR. The details you are providing will, I am sure, be really helpful in planning our cruise even though we will be sailing on a different ship. I am making note of all the differences and the similarities you have been pointing out between DCL and RCI. Thank you for taking the time to do such a detailed report.

 

[puzzlewoman]

This is awesome! Did you make those comparison sheets yourself?

 

[hezzie]

Great trip report/comparison!

We are in the exact same situation...teenage kids, been on all Disney ships multiple times and about passed out when trying to book another cruise for next year.

A 37% price increase from this year to next year for the same week is our breaking point. We are done with Disney for a while. We loved cruising Disney, but the service level has decreased immensely since we first started cruising with the kids.

Not sure if you plan to cover the topic of the casinos, but I would love to hear your thoughts. We don't gamble and have always appreciated the lack of one on the Disney ships! Did you notice any negatives with having the casino on the ship?

Again, thanks so much for the great report! Who knew there were so many of us in the same situation! Sadly, if Disney keeps up the price hikes, they are going to lose many fans.

 

[Scraptographer]

Atmosphere/Other Passengers

The other passengers on the Allure of the Seas were truly a mixed bag from across a wide range of demographics. Statistics provided by the Captain during his Welcome address indicated that there were 6000+ passengers onboard from 61 different nations. Roughly half of the passengers were from the US, while just under 1600 were from Canada. Our kids informed us that on the first night the Teen Club staff did an introduction activity where you stated your name and your country, and the majority of the teens present were from Canada (Ontario/often Toronto), although DD definitely had friends from England and from the US in her group of 'peeps' .

There was definitely a Dentist convention on board (we had lunch with a couple of them in the dining room one day) and there was also a rather large Asian tour group with interpreters - we noticed them when their guides were giving them a tour of the ship! Overall, there were 'kids' of all ages on board this trip, lots of families, lots of couples, and an amazing number of 'mature' people, a lot of them were very active. More than one of the regulars on the Flowriders was probably collecting their social security cheque/old age pension!

In general people were well behaved, happy and relaxed. DD even commented that she preferred the atmosphere on the Allure to that on Disney because (in her words) - on Disney people are really nice, but almost too happy and too peppy, while on the Allure she didn't feel any 'pressure to have a good time'! We definitely questioned her on that comment since we hadn't realized that she had felt 'pressured' to be perky and happy on Disney, but her response was that it was 'by comparison', and that she still liked Disney, she just felt more happily relaxed on the Allure. Did we mention that DD is a type A personality and rule follower who believes in 'participating'?

Other: The following activities have not been present on any of our DCL cruises, and during my pre-cruise research I read that people were concerned wrt their presence on a family cruise, but in the end they did not bother us at all:

* Although the Allure has a Casino, we only ran across it once by accident when we were looking for Studio B. We did walk through it then, out of laziness (shortest distance of point A to point B) and curiosity, and while some people were gambling, everyone seemed to be pretty laid back, and from our perspective, we were travelling through not loitering and no one seemed to be excited by our presence either. We could also smell smoke in the Casino as we walked through it, even though we chose the 'non smoking' side, however it was not enough to set off my allergies.

* The Allure also has a Sexiest Man contest, which we missed because we did not schedule it in and we were hanging around on the pool deck and not in the Aqua Theatre - and although I can not verify it, we did hear that a French Canadian won, so go Canada .

* Similarly, there was also a Belly Flop contest in the Aqua Theatre, which I caught by accident (while rushing back to my cabin through the Boardwalk). Since based on what little I saw it seemed to be good clean fun, if we do another Oasis class RCCL cruise, I will have to actually put it on our 'to-do' list.

Overall: the Allure was NOT kid centric, BUT it was very family friendly. Our kids were very happy with all of the other teenagers on board.

Teen Club: On Embarkation Day there is a meet and greet at 8 pm at the Teen Club on deck 15 and we insisted that our kids check it out that night, after which they were free to decide what activities they wanted to participate in. While DS hung around with his friends from home, they did join DD at the Teen Club occasionally. At least one major activity was planned each day, such as Teen only time on the Flowriders, the ice rink and the rock climbing wall. One night Blaze, a night club was reserved for the teens to hang out. Although DD often hung out at the Teen Club, and did participate in some of the 'major activities', she and her group of peeps would usually chat, play video games and go on pizza runs to the Promenade. The ship itself has a curfew of 2 am for teens 17 years and under and we were ok with our kids breaking loose a little and hanging out with other teens until curfew. We were also very clear that the kids had to let us know where they were going and to leave us messages if their location changed. And we also had the standard rules of stay in groups, no going in anyone elses cabins, no one else in their cabin, etc.

Side note: After arriving at our cabins the first day, as we started to unpack and change for dinner, very loud music started playing from the cabin next door. Very loud! I have to admit that I had a moment of misgiving about how the cruise was going to pan out if our neighbours were going to be noisy as the walls must be paper thin if we could hear their music in our cabin. As we opened our cabin door to go to dinner, our neighbour, a young boy, opened his door at the same time and we almost crashed into each other as he bolted out of his cabin.

As the young boy shouted an apology at me over the truly deafening music (i.e. our walls were not actually paper thin, their music was over the top), I took the opportunity to ask him to turn down the music through shouting and use of hand signals! Nodding his head towards the interior of the cabin (and drawing our line of vision into the cabin behind him), the boy, who it turned out was from a southern US state, commented - Ok, but its my brother's music, indicating another young boy on the floor. DH and I turned and continued walking, but we could not help but turn towards each other and ask at the same time: Was that guy on the balcony fishing? Yes indeed, there had been an adult casting a fishing rod off of his deck 7 balcony on the Allure of the Seas!

I have to admit that I have never seen anyone 'deep sea fishing' off of a cruise ship before, and I may have briefly thought, Really? Who takes their own rod, reel and lures on a cruise ship? Realistically, our neighbours may have had an excursion planned and wanted to use their own equipment and just couldn't resist casting their line off the Allure but in that first few moments it really did surprise me and the concept made me giggle .

After that one and only incident we did not have have issues with our neighbours either noise wise or otherwise, and they were very friendly when we met in the hallways.

 

[Lisa Lisa]

I'm enjoying your report so far and looking forward to reading more! It couldn't be more timely as we're considering jumping ship from DCL to RCI for spring break 2015. We had been looking at a Southern Caribbean on the Adventure OTS, but now I think we're going to have to consider the Western on the Allure as well. We've done Easterns on the Fantasy two years in a row, so we're ready for something new. I can't wait to read about the rest of your cruise, particularly your experience at Labadee!

 

[Scraptographer]

I was able to benefit from the BOGOHO sale for our Independence OTS cruise! I was not sure I would be able to get it on a previously booked cruise. I decided to call the first day the sale showed up on the website, and got the discount with no problems at all!

I was able to save $400.00 off a price I already thought was pretty good. At this point with the BOGOHO discount out 8 day Indy eastern aft balcony is about $800.00 cheaper than the 7 day Disney Fantasy cruise we took in 2013 in an aft balcony with our OBB discount. Even if I add in the cost of the soda package we will both be purchasing on the Indy, we still have what to us is a pretty significant savings. Also, our Fantasy cruise was in Sept, traditionally less expensive due to hurricane season. Our Indy cruise is in April, not the most expensive time of the year to cruise but certainly more expensive than hurricane season cruises tend to be.

So far I am really happy with my dealings with Royal Caribbean, so much so that I am seriously thinking of booking Oasis or Allure for spring 2016. I just have to get past the fact that I would be booking a full 2 years in advance!

I am still really enjoying your TR. The details you are providing will, I am sure, be really helpful in planning our cruise even though we will be sailing on a different ship. I am making note of all the differences and the similarities you have been pointing out between DCL and RCI. Thank you for taking the time to do such a detailed report.

I have to admit that RCI is pretty good about adjusting the cruise fares when they have sales, as long as you ask them that is . The Independence should be a great ship - I have been checking out the Freedom class myself - and although they don't have an Aqua Theatre, or a zip line, my kids would still be happy with the Flowrider and the rock climbing wall.

Thanks for continuing to follow along. I am almost done the basic comparison and about to move on to the day to day of our trip.

 

[Scraptographer]

This is awesome! Did you make those comparison sheets yourself?

Thanks for reading along. Yes I make the comparison sheets- that is just how my mind works! Both before and during the cruise I would make a comment to the family such as: Let's got to Windjammer, and when DH or the kids would ask What Windjammer was as an example I would state the DCL equivalent, in this case Topsiders or Cabanas. And then we gave the kids charging privileges since we wanted them to have options, but they worried about spending money accidentally. Which lead me to make these charts.

 

[Scraptographer]

Great trip report/comparison!

We are in the exact same situation...teenage kids, been on all Disney ships multiple times and about passed out when trying to book another cruise for next year.

A 37% price increase from this year to next year for the same week is our breaking point. We are done with Disney for a while. We loved cruising Disney, but the service level has decreased immensely since we first started cruising with the kids.

Not sure if you plan to cover the topic of the casinos, but I would love to hear your thoughts. We don't gamble and have always appreciated the lack of one on the Disney ships! Did you notice any negatives with having the casino on the ship?

Again, thanks so much for the great report! Who knew there were so many of us in the same situation! Sadly, if Disney keeps up the price hikes, they are going to lose many fans.

Thanks for reading along. This was a very timely question as I just posted my report about the Atmosphere on the ship, and for me that includes the casino and other ship wide activities that might make my kids unhappy. For us on this cruise, the Casino was no more intrusive (maybe even less so) than the 'calls' to Bingo on DCL.

I also think that there are so many of us in the same boat wrt checking out other cruise options than DCL, because Disney did such a wonderful job and hooked us all! Unfortunately DCLs prices are just more than I am willing to pay for the same itineraries!

 

[Scraptographer]

I'm enjoying your report so far and looking forward to reading more! It couldn't be more timely as we're considering jumping ship from DCL to RCI for spring break 2015. We had been looking at a Southern Caribbean on the Adventure OTS, but now I think we're going to have to consider the Western on the Allure as well. We've done Easterns on the Fantasy two years in a row, so we're ready for something new. I can't wait to read about the rest of your cruise, particularly your experience at Labadee!

Thanks for reading along. The Southern itinerary sounds great, a change in itinerary and new ports was one of the things that attracted us to the Allure OTS. I am just about finished with my overall comparisons and about to start on our day to day of the trip which is where I will describe Labadee. And spoiler alert, but we really enjoyed Labadee - the kids have both stated that they want to go back.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Thanks for reading along. The Southern itinerary sounds great, a change in itinerary and new ports was one of the things that attracted us to the Allure OTS. I am just about finished with my overall comparisons and about to start on our day to day of the trip which is where I will describe Labadee. And spoiler alert, but we really enjoyed Labadee - the kids have both stated that they want to go back.

Can't wait to see what you have to say about Labadee! It is one of our stops on our Indy cruise so I am definitely doing my research. Are you or your kids planning to do the zipline there? I would love to do it, but it does seem pretty pricey.

 

[Scraptographer]

DAY 2 - SEA DAY #1. And with my last post we are now back full circle to the end of Embarkation Day, or Day 1. I did not end up sleeping very well since although I was fine with DD staying out late to enjoy all things Teen Club, we had not arranged for her to come to our cabin when she got back, so we ended up getting up to check on her several times! Eventually she did arrive back safe and sound and I finally managed to get some sleep.

On our first full day of our cruise, DH and I managed to sleep in - ok, not as late as the kids managed to sleep in, but then we weren't out until 1 am either . We decided to head down to check out the jogging track and found it to be relatively pleasant to just get to walk and talk together, finally really starting to relax. A lot of other passengers were out enjoying the track as well, but not too many at that still relatively early hour anyway.

Eventually we headed off to the Promenade Cafe to enjoy our morning tea, and we were happy to find that the water was nice and hot, even if the tea bags left something to be desired! DH even enjoyed a muffin, but since the only G-free options were cookies, I decided to pass at this hour of the morning.

Heading back to our cabin, we woke the kids up and headed for breakfast. Windjammer was busy, but the lines moved quickly. Now this is when it would have been nice to have a Wave phone like DCL provides available in order to tell the kids where to find us. I decided to 'rock it old school' and used the 'house phone' at the entrance to WJ to call the kids' cabin. The problem was that they didn't answer - aargh. DS had already left the cabin (and managed to go a little astray ) - he did find us eventually, it was just a little more challenging this way . DD on the other hand got my message and arrived just after DS.

I took this opportunity since it was our first breakfast here to talk to a chef at the WJ in order to figure out what was safe for us to eat from a gluten free perspective and the chef even sent us out some gluten free pancakes which DS and I enjoyed - DD does not like breakfast food that much (which is why we ate breakfasts at WJ all week since it gave her lots of options).

After our late breakfast we headed down to the Promenade to watch the Move It Move It parade only to find the whole area already people lined. We found a spot in the Schooner bar (deck 6), to watch from above and then DH and I decided to relocate to the stairs by Focus in the hopes of having a better viewing vantage point from which to get photos. It was not a great spot since the best positions were already taken - and, people were ready to move in on any opportunity, for example when I leaned over to talk to DH and turned back to find my space had been encroached upon by kids! Apparently the Dreamworks characters are popular .

LESSON LEARNED, get there early if you want a) a really good spot to take photos from, and or b) you want to be up close and personal to the action and more importantly the Dreamworks characters (for the little kids especially) and c) to have Po twerk right in front of you! Overall we enjoyed the parade even if my photos were not the greatest.

And, it was funny watching our teenagers from across the Promenade - before the parade started I don't think the kids could have looked more bored!! That said, as soon as the parade started they perked right up and enjoyed themselves . Perhaps they were comparing Po's twerking technique to Miley Cyrus??

 

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Once the parade was done, we headed back to the cabin and changed into bathing suits and headed straight for the Flowrider. And yes, the kids convinced me to give boogie boarding a try! Once in line, DS's friends from home joined us and they teased me about boogie boarding for the first time. But, I was the only Mom in the line at that point, so I held my ground and teased them back . In the end, although I won't win any awards for technique, I held my own on that board for a minute or two - and then when I tried to jump up on my knees I had a spectacular wipe out . Both of the kids did great - and DH got photos and video of it all from safe on the sidelines - and his back says thank you for that . The line up was comparable to the wait for the Aqua Duck on a sea day, but more entertaining since we got to watch everyone else's athletic endeavours - and spectacular wipeouts sometimes too!

After my wild water ride, the kids headed off with friends while DH and I checked out the hot tub and then relaxed in the Solarium. Before long we were hungry and headed to Sorrentos for lunch - where we found the kids also enjoying G free pizza. DH and I stopped off at the Promenade Cafe for tea and cookies before heading back to our cabin via the Boardwalk. We discovered what turned out to be my favourite funhouse mirror, and avoided several of the others .

And then as we climbed the aft stairs by the Aqua Theatre, we ran into the kids again! This time they were in line to climb the Rock Climbing Wall. We immediately raced up to 'secret deck 11' so I could take pictures of the kids climbing from above them. Fortunately DS climbed on the far starboard side and I got some great shots, but I completely missed DD's ascent since I could not see her from that angle.

We all headed back to our nearby cabins to get showered and cleaned up for the first Formal night dinner after we headed out to see Ice Games. Although the story was a little hokey, the skating was great - even more intriguing when you realize that they are performing on a relatively small ice rink that is not just floating on the ocean, but the ship is actually moving through the waves!

DD looking at the costumes commented at one point: RCCL must have cornered the sparkle market for this show!

Heading back to the Adagio for dinner for our MTD reservation, we were a little taken aback when we were lead to the opposite side of the restaurant from the night before. We met a new set of serving staff and had to explain our gluten free requirements again. It was also not reassuring to discover that they could only find two of our three orders from the night before. My brain immediately began to question whether going on RCCL had been a mistake and to try to formulate a plan to figure out how to eat for the rest of the week if we were. Going to be continually shuffled around to different servers each night - it is so not fun to have to explain personal info again and again! And then our server Albert returned and was followed by our Head Server, Thawee, and between the two of them plus Katarina, our assistant server, they smoothed everything out, for this first evening together with them and for the rest of our cruise! From that night on we were very well fed and very well taken care of by this great serving team.

After dinner we wandered through the Promenade, taking advantage of several photo ops and enjoying an evening cup of tea. I am always amused when DS and DH end up waiting in lines, such as when waiting for photo ops, because they manage to get very silly and amuse us all, whether they are playing thumb wars or fighting over who is taller (DH is taller in reality, but DS wants to be so the rivalry is strong with this one) .

We finished up the evening in the Aqua Theatre watching Ocean Aria. Yes, this is another show without a strong plot line, but realistically between the high diving and arial feats, the acrobatics and gymnastics, the trampoline work, the feats of strength and the humorous elements, the story line is almost superfluous. DD's first comment when the show was over was to ask when it was on again!

And at that point, the kids ditched us again to check out the Teen Club. We parental units headed off to bed where we found our first towell animal of the cruise, a manta ray. DS called it a night fairly early (his book was apparently calling him - what was up with this kid? Not that we were complaining!) however DD once again enjoyed her freedom and hung out at the teen club with her new 'posse' until they got kicked out just in time to allow them to get back to their cabins before teen curfew!

 

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Can't wait to see what you have to say about Labadee! It is one of our stops on our Indy cruise so I am definitely doing my research. Are you or your kids planning to do the zipline there? I would love to do it, but it does seem pretty pricey.

Woo hoo, Labadee is Day 3, so that will be up in the next day or so.

 

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DAY 3 - LABADEE. Although we were in no rush to get ashore, we woke up relatively early for vacation . We did manage to get the kids up and moving (despite the daughter turning into a night owl on this cruise!) and headed to the Windjammer. We explored the buffet a little more today and as usual I ate very well since breakfast is my favourite meal - granted this took a little while, but even so DS surprised us by pulling out his book to read. Hmmm, maybe if video games didn't exist in our house then DS would be as voracious a reader as I was when I was young?

We headed off the ship after we picked up four towels from the pool deck to take with us. Note: although RCCL used to make you sign out towels, it would seem that they have changed this policy. From our perspective the towel service on RCCL was actually better than on DCL, since RCCL still have the towel stations manned, and every time we wanted a towel we were handed a warm clean fresh out of the dryer towel.

Disembarking the ship was interesting since the elevators have 'gangway' buttons, you simply push the button and it takes you to the deck where the gangway is set up. Once off the ship we scored a couple of photo ops and were prepared to walk the long pier to the beach when DH steered us into a line up for a ferry (one way only) that would take us straight to Columbus Beach. In a matter of mere minutes we were walking along Columbus Beach, checking out the Aquapark.

Columbus Beach was well set up with lots of lounge chairs, lots of trees and some portable 'shade tents'. We found a couple of loungers and then I retrieved another lounger from down the beach. In order to get a shade tent, I had to approach one of the local staff and wait until they could set it up for me. Realistically I was perfectly capable of carrying it and setting it up myself, however the system at Labadee is that the staff (local Haitians) help you and you tip them. Realistically since I had read reviews and been forewarned, we were prepared with some small bills for tipping and I was happy to secure the last 'shade tent', since we are very susceptible to sun burn!

After setting up our 'home base' for the day, we got down to the business of swimming and relaxing with a vengeance! One of our pre-trip purchases had been a Kyss bag that we had ordered online. A Kyss bag has a small chain and a lock, and is set up so that you can put your camera, money, iPad, kobo, whatever, inside and lock the bag and then lock the bag to your chairs, or a tree etc. It was not inexpensive to purchase, but for us it was money well spent. We locked our stuff up and headed into the water to cool off. The beach entry and swimming area were great. Although we brought water shoes with us, we had no need for them at this beach, however I have heard that at Adrenaline Beach it is a different story.

Someone who had been to Labadee on the Freedom the year before commented on how busy the beach was this day by comparison to her last trip, but realistically although it was indeed crowded, it did not feel over crowded, just busy - pretty much like our last trip to Castaway Cay. We signed the kids up for the Aquapark - an hour of play time cost $18 per person and you got to choose the timing. We chose the next available option of noon, which gave us time to get set up and swim. The process was relatively simple, but we should have paid a little more attention to what we were signing at this point. Once the kids actually got out playing on the blow up toys, DH and I wandered out onto the pier with my camera (with telephoto lens) and took pictures. The kids had an absolute blast.

As soon as their hour was up, we grabbed a quick photo op with a ship photographer and then headed immediately for the BBQ lunch set up, which was very similar to the Castaway Cay food set up - and the food was about on par, not horrible, not great. We easily found an available picnic table in the shade in one of the covered dining areas. And then we got to listen to lots of tales of silliness from the Aquapark hour .

 

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After lunch we briefly checked out the souvenir stands, but the only cheesy touristic picture frame (my usual souvenir of choice) was wooden not my preferred ceramic style, and it said 'God Bless You' rather than indicating the location of Haiti on it, so I chose to pass. We headed back to the beach where DS again surprised us by crawling back into his book! DD and I headed into the ocean and swam and played for a really long time. Seriously, maybe all of that salt water made us more buoyant, but we were out for about an hour - and with no life jackets or floaters holding us up . DH had decided to kick back and relax with DS, but he did take a few photos at one point.

Eventually we decided we had enough fun, sun and exercise and started to pack up to head back, and that's when DH realized that we had been over charged for the Aquapark excursion! As in double the cost!! Our receipt indicated that we had been charged for the Aquapark AND the Dragon Coaster. I immediately took the receipt and the kids (to be able to show their wrist bands) and headed back to the 'excursion' desk. Happily they did reverse the charge, however it probably helped that there were other customers in line waiting to sign up for the last session of the afternoon. LESSON LEARNED: double check your receipts.

DH and DS caught the tram that was just leaving, while DD and I chose to enjoy a wandering walk back to the ship. Luckily we had made sure that everyone had their own SeaPass and since each kid had an adult with them, there were no issues. Based on the beach areas that we checked out, DD and I were very happy with our choice of Columbus Beach as our home base of the day. If we go back, we will probably take our driver's licenses with us and consider the Jetski excursion. Although DD only had her G1 (beginners license) at the time, they would have accepted it and she could have driven the Jetski. DS hopes there will indeed be a next time since he should have his G1 next year!

LESSON LEARNED: Our whole family really really enjoyed Labadee. Both kids thought the Aquapark was great - DH and I probably should have joined them as there were other parents out having fun on all of the blowup toys . As an aside, everyone was required to wear a life jacket at the Aquapark, regardless of age. We also probably enjoyed ourselves more than on past visits to Castaway Cay - perhaps because the swimming seemed more inviting to us, the water was warm - and maybe because I was not making anyone run the Castaway Cay 5K?

 

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Back on the ship, DD found DS and they ditched us for the pool deck and hanging out with friends. Meanwhile DH and I headed off to the Solarium for our usual after excursion activities of swimming, ice cream, soda and hot tub - not necessarily in that order. It was really enjoyable to just continue relaxing our day away.

Eventually we all managed to get back to the cabins and cleaned up for dinner. I really cannot overstate how happy we all were to have two cabins which in turn gave us two showers which in turn de-stressed the dinner prep process for us. Even when we had to leave DS behind to finish his book (insert his but I only have 10 pages left whine here). Definitely earned him sympathy, since we had all been there at some point .

We had booked an early dinner since we had reservations for the early showing of Chicago. As a result, we did indeed have to skip dessert and head for the Amber Theatre where we scored great seats. The intro to Chicago by Alan Brooks, the cruise Director, requested that if we saw anything we liked in the show, then we should make sure that we let the entertainers know - and the teenaged boys in the audience definitely lead the applause when the first scantily clad actresses appeared on the stage . We definitely enjoyed the show, but it helped that a lot of the musical score is familiar. Overall, this is probably the one show that we saw that I would not classify as family friendly, but realistically, our kids are teenagers and they have seen more scandalous tv during Primetime.

After the show we headed back up the Promenade and did a couple of photo ops quickly. And then it was time for tea at the Promenade Cafe. Somehow we couldn't resist heading next door and treating ourselves to cupcakes - especially since they have gluten free cupcakes. After our sweet snackage, it was the usual routine with the kids heading off to the teen club while DH and I savoured our tea and conversation and people watched on the Royal Promenade. It turned out that DD went skating with the Teen Club at 9:30 pm before they headed back to the club for the rest of the evening. DD declared that the ice was not great quality ice, more like skating on plastic. At that point I was even more impressed by the professional skaters having to perform under those conditions!

And this was right about the time that DH bought me the world!! Or rather DH was a smart enough husband to not object when I brought it for myself . In one of the many many reviews that I had read I had noted that someone had posted what appeared to be glass globes for sale on the Allure. I had warned my DH well in advance that I had intended to check them out and we had hunted them down on the first night. Yes, I am someone who probably needs a 12 step program when it comes to globes and maps. And these globes... they were shiny ( I hope someone got that Firefly reference ).

It turned out that the shop called Willow sells gemstone globes in varying sizes. They are not cheap. The smaller basic globes cost $110 and the large globes cost $245 each. When DH tried to apply logic (which usually works on me) and asked me where I would display/keep the large globe at home, I replied that I wasn't sure. Normally the next move in this 'global chess game' would be to wait for me to draw the logical conclusion that perhaps I shouldn't buy said globe since it didn't pass the first logic test. I however countered that since I would really like to have one of these globes in every room of the house since they were so pretty (shiny!) that maybe I shouldn't buy the large globe...I should just buy a smaller globe for every room of the house!!! Yeah, we bought one large globe - DH is good at math as well as logic .

And at that point, with DH carrying my precious globe, we headed back to the cabin and called it a good night.