the Allure of the Seas review (Eastern Caribbean August 2013)

[disneyholic family]

i never finished my WDW trip report and i'm not going to at this point..

however, several people have asked for more info about our Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas cruise so here goes

first - we LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED LOVED the cruise and the Allure of the Seas,..
Loved it...really really really really..

i can't say enough about how much all four of us enjoyed every aspect of the cruise...

Royal Caribbean was wonderful...the ship was AMAZING!!...the crew was outstanding....5 stars+....actually 5,000 stars plus!!!

the above was just cutting to the chase..

backing up...

ever since reading a review of the Allure on the DIS boards cruise forum, i have been lusting after a cruise on the Allure..

about 2 years ago, the podcast crew announced they would cruise on the Oasis of the Seas, so i immediately signed up and was so excited that i would get to cruise on an oasis class ship (the allure and the oasis are sister ships, both in the royal caribbean oasis class of ships) and would finally be on a podcast cruise...
i was supposed to be on all of the earlier podcast cruises, but each time someone in my family decided that week was the week they would marry...
then, sure enough, my nephew decided to marry labor day weekend - and there went my podcast cruise on the Oasis......

but wait - we still had to fly all the way to the united states for the wedding...
and if we were going to fly all that way, well....that meant we just HAD to make a visit to the mouse (right?)....(even though the wedding was in detroit, a very long way from florida)...
and since we were going to visit the mouse that would put us in florida, albeit orlando....which really isn't all that far from fort lauderdale....
so i took a look at the royal caribbean website and found my dream cruise - the allure of the seas eastern caribbean - fit perfectly with the wedding schedule...

but i didn't book at that point....nope....after many past cruises where i paid a kings ransom to be on board and all the late bookers paid less than a song for the same cruise - i decided i was going to wait until the last minute to book....

in other words, i decided i was going to wait for the price drops....
of course, it wasn't a sure thing at all given that this cruise was in August..
typically, big price drops occur for off-season cruises (e.g. september/october/november) - rarely for summer cruises....

but since i'd missed the early booking deals, it was either book at peak prices or wait....and wait...and wait....let me tell you, it takes nerves of steel to wait....

but wait we did.....
i figured out when final payment day was for the cruise and waited
This meant waiting until June to book the August cruise...
though i kept checking the various websites to see how things were moving along (and joined the cruise thread on cruise critic - so i already knew several people who were going)..

anyway, the moment final payment came and went, i began price-checking in earnest...

i found a local agent (the official rep in israel) and for the rooms we were interested in the price had just dropped by $500/person - in other words, the price dropped by $1,000 per room!!!!! yippee...happy dance...
i booked right then....without delay....just in case it was a mistake....
now, i might have waited longer....with off-season cruises, the price will continue to drop between final payment and the cruise itself...
but i decided i couldn't take that chance with a summer cruise..
i considered myself lucky that i was able to get any price drop at all!!

bottom line, holding out until after final payment paid off for us...
and i would definitely do it again...absolutely...

however, you can only do this if you're willing to either miss the cruise entirely, or end up paying more.....you are gambling after all..
you also have to be willing to take whatever cabin is still left...
if you're not willing to take whatever is left, or possibly not go on the cruise at all, then don't do this....bite the bullet and pay the premium....

so that's it for my gambling...in my next post, i'll talk about the room we booked, the ship, the cruise, etc etc etc

more to come

 

[mmbl]

What's are 'podcast' cruise? Never heard of that. We've been on both the Oasis and Allure. Both really nice,but liked Oasis just a little better. Thanks.

 

[disneyholic family]

There were 4 of us on the cruise: DH and me in one room, DD and DSIL in the room next door.

The rooms weren't connecting, though we did have the panel between the two balconies opened, so that we could cross over via the balcony if we wanted.

We picked Boardwalk Balcony rooms.
Had DH and i been on the cruise alone, i probably would have booked a suite (as we like to hang out in the concierge lounge), but since it was the four of us, i went with regular rooms.

Originally i was going to book an ocean view balcony for DH and me, with DD and DSIL in an inside room across from us.
But because of the Allure's unusual ship design, it has unusual 'inside' rooms that actually have balconies.
So my second thought was to book an oceanview balcony room for DH and me with DD and DSIL in a boardwalk balcony across from us.

But the more i looked at the rooms the more convinced i was that DH and i should try a boardwalk balcony room too.
After all, they're only on the Allure and Oasis and who knows when i'll ever be on either of them again.
And then as it turned out, the big price drop was for the boardwalk balcony rooms - so it was fate.
I booked two very good boardwalk balcony rooms on one of the 'secret balcony' decks.
This way we would have our cake and eat it too. We had the interesting boardwalk internal balconies as well as the lovely external 'secret balcony' only a few steps away from our cabin door.

and it was perfect. the perfect location and the perfect rooms for us.
We really loved being able to watch the action on the boardwalk - as well as the ocean which we could also see from our cabin balcony.
And we also spent a lot of time out on the secret balcony - where there were rarely any people and never more than one or two others.

i have to look up our room numbers as i don't remember now what they were.
I'll edit this post with the rooms numbers when i find our reservation.

i looked it up - we were on deck 11, in room 11721
here's a picture i found on the internet of the oasis that gives you an idea of what the boardwalk balcony rooms are:
https://www.google.com/search?q=boa...asis-of-the-seas-review-2010-draft%2F;640;428

in this picture, you can see how you see both the ocean and the boardwalk - this is further back than our room, but we also could see both the boardwalk and the ocean...i really enjoyed the view...in this picture, you can also see the "secret balconies" that have both and internal and external view....it was great for watching the stragglers racing back to the ship - including a few who almost missed the boat - one family boarded after all but one rope had been dropped....and at another port, several people were brought to the ship by launch..
https://www.google.com/search?q=boa...heseas.com%2Fimage.php%3Fship%3Doasis;500;333

More to come on the pre-cruise excursion/dinner/entertainment reservation process, boarding, activities, food etc.

 

[disneyholic family]

by the way, regarding the size of the ship/number of passengers - when i first heard about the Allure/Oasis - before i read that review - i was sure i would hate being on a ship that large with so many people...
the ship holds over 6,000 passengers....passengers, not crew, passengers..

who in their right mind would want to be on a ship with 6,000 passengers???

well, that's what i thought when i first heard about the Oasis and Allure.

But then i read the review and it sounded appealing..

And then we went on the cruise and i have to say the Allure of the Seas felt much LESS crowded than on the Disney cruises we've been on.
We've been on the Disney Wonder and the Disney Dream and i felt the crowds much more intensely on both of them than i did on the Allure.

In fact, most of the time we couldn't figure out where all the people were on the Allure. And that's despite the fact that our cruise was FULLY BOOKED with over 6,000 passengers...
Yet there was only one time it seemed crowded - during the parade. And even that didn't feel as crowded as i felt on the disney dream.

Somehow the allure is able to swallow up the passengers in a way that you just don't feel crowded.
and many times we felt like we were on a private ship with just a few passengers...
we were continually amazed by it.

 

[disneyholic family]

What's are 'podcast' cruise? Never heard of that. We've been on both the Oasis and Allure. Both really nice,but liked Oasis just a little better. Thanks.

the company that owns the DIS website - is a travel agency that also has a weekly podcast about Disney...

the people on the podcast sometimes go on a cruise (mostly disney cruises, but also royal caribbean) or Adventures by Disney trip which regular people can book to go with them - those are the podcast cruises and trips..

here's the link to the Dis Unplugged podcast homepage:
http://www.disunplugged.com/

This is the link to the dis unplugged podcast forum:
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=158

here's the link to the podcast cruise forum: http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=174

here's the link to the DIS adventures by disney trips forum:
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=184

 

[disneyholic family]

once i booked our rooms (11721 and 11719), DD and i quickly booked all of our shows...

the Allure of the Seas has an amazing variety of shows and activities.
The blockbuster shows can all be pre-booked and it's advisable that you do.
I thought i would be bothered by having to do this, but i found that it reduced the tension. I knew that i had seats to all the shows and i didn't have to worry about it once i'd made the reservations.

Even though we were late making our reservations (due to our late booking) we were still able to get all of our first choice times.

The shows that you pre-book are:
OceanAria - a dive/water show that is AMAZING)!! - we loved it and went a second time (waiting in the standby line for the show we didnt' have reservations to).
the Comedy show - stand up comics - the comedians change. both of ours were outstanding and we enjoyed it so much we went a second time.
Ice Games - an ice skating show that we enjoyed so much we went a second time (are you seeing a pattern here???)
Chicago - the musical - we enjoyed it (we'd seen it before on broadway) - we thought the performers were very talented.
Blue Planet - acrobatic show (sort of like cirque de soleil) our least favorite, though we also enjoyed it (and the performers were amazing as well)
Headliner show - changes with each cruise - a headliner (band/comedian etc) - ours was a very funny guy who does singing impersonations...

in addition to the above for which you should make advance reservations, there are several other shows that don't have reservations, nor do they need them - there is no problem getting in to see them (how to train your dragon ice show, dreamworks parades, madagascar aqua show, etc.) as well as zillions upon zillions of activities.
This is where we LOVED Royal as compared to Disney. We've found Disney cruise lines to be lacking in organized activities for adults.
The biggest problem on Royal is there are so many activities at the same time, we just didn't know what to pick.
There were always multiple things to do at the same time!!
You can easily be busy every minute of the day!!!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

once we'd reserved the shows, DD reserved her excursions.

Initially, DH and i weren't going to reserve any excursions, but when i read up on the ones that DD had booked, i couldn't resist booking the same ones for DH and me.

Our port excursions:

Nassau - Dolphin Swim at the Blue Lagoon Island - outstanding!!!!!!!!! we loved every second of it and would definitely do it again. highly recommended!!

St. Thomas - Sea Lion Swim at Coral World - interesting and unusual, but i wouldn't do it again. And i wouldn't go to Coral World again either. I didn't like St. Thomas, but if i found myself there again, i would probably check out St. John.

St Marteen - Golden Eagle Sailaway - catamaran sail and snorkel - OUTSTANDING!!!!!!!!! we LOVED LOVED LOVED this and would do it again in a heartbeat...the most relaxing excursion we've been on ever!!! highly recommended!!!

 

[disneyholic family]

you can also pre-book your dining...

at the time we sailed, there were 3 choices - early dining, late dining and what Royal calls "My Time Dining", which is what we selected.

For MTD, we were able to reserve our preferred time each day (so as to not conflict with excursions or shows).

as it turned out, i picked 6 PM every single day as that worked best with our schedule. (but i could have chosen a different time each day had i wanted to)

As a result, we ended up at the same table with the same waiter/assistant each day - which i really enjoy. I loved our waiter/assistant waiter/ head waiter so i was happy we had the same people every day. And i was very pleased with our table location, so i saw no reason to ask for a change, though i noticed others around us were far less happy and did ask to be changed.
There was no view from our table and it was in the back against a wall in a small quiet area. I really liked that. Other people were upset that they weren't by the balcony railing and didn't have a 'view', so they asked to be moved the following day. But i loved that off the beaten track quiet area. Perfect for me.

But it was clear they were open to moving people around if requested.

I also loved that they gave DH and me our own private table for two. Very romantic.

By the way, DD and DSIL never ate in the main dining room. They prefer the buffet restaurant for their meals - more on that later.

as for the specialty restaurants - we only ate in one of them - rita's cantina for the fiesta - and we prebooked that as well.

 

[disneyholic family]

all the pre-booking is done online on the royal caribbean website.
it doesn't matter whether you reserve your cruise directly with Royal or through a travel agent.
Everyone has a reservation that they can go into and make all their pre-cruise reservations as well as to complete their cruise documents.

Once you complete the online cruise documents, you are able to print out your SetSail Pass, which you'll need to bring with you to the port.

 

[disneyholic family]

if you're planning on taking any cruise, anywhere in the world, i highly recommend you sign up for the cruise critic forum and find the thread for your particular cruise.
It's wonderful 'knowing' a few people before you board.
We ended up spending a lot of time with one of the couples we 'met' in the thread and were able to at least say 'hi' to the others.
it makes the cruise even friendlier than it already is (by the nature of a cruise).

you should also sign up for the royal caribbean 'meet & mingle'..
people on the cruise critic forum typically arrange to meet at some point of the cruise - but Royal Caribbean has formalized this.
they will hold an official meet and mingle as long as at least 25 people sign up.
You sign up for it on the royal caribbean website (linked from the cruise critic forum).
It's free. And just because you sign up, doesn't mean you have to show up.

Royal Caribbean had refreshments, a gift for each person, and a game with prizes. It was lots of cheesy fun and it was great meeting the people from the cruise critic forum thread!!
on our cruise, they held the meet & mingle on the third day of the cruise (the first sea day). The first day of the cruise was sunday, second day was monday (nassau) , third day was tuesday - the first sea day.

 

[disneyholic family]

after spending 5 days at WDW (yikes - so little!!), Sunday rolled around and it was time to make our way from Orlando down to Fort Lauderdale.

This was our first time. Until this cruise, we had only sailed out of Port Canaveral, an easy 1 hour drive from WDW.

But cruising the Allure required us to get ourselves to Fort Lauderdale, a solid 3.5 hour drive from WDW.

In our favor, it was sunday, so i knew the traffic wouldn't be as bad as on a weekday.

But 3.5 hours is nothing to sneeze at, and there is always the possibility of traffic/car trouble/etc slowing us down.

being the worrier that i am, normally i would choose to arrive in FL much earlier than this - as in Saturday for a Sunday cruise. But with so few days in WDW, we weren't willing to sacrifice even one day.

So we left on Sunday morning before the crack of dawn.

i had the car loaded up, went to check us out of our rooms (at the pop century) and we were on the road by 6 am.

i had planned on stopping at one of the turnpike service stations about halfway to FL, but as it turned out, i was so exhausted i had to stop at every single one to walk around and wake myself up.

I forgot to mention that we drove in the 7 seater mini-van (chrysler town and country) that we'd rented from Alamo at orlando airport.
There was no fee for dropping the car off at fort lauderdale airport (only 10 minutes from the port).

so getting back to the drive - i stopped at every single turnpike service station between orlando and FL (all but one of them are beautiful with lots of food, big clean restrooms, etc).
we reached FL airport at about 10:30 AM, turned in the car and boarded the free alamo shuttle to the port, arriving at the RCI terminal about 10 minutes later. we dropped our luggage with the RCI people - tipping them and watching them load up the luggage into the big caged carts.

I don't know when they opened the doors to the terminal, but when we got there it was already open and there was no one waiting to go through security.
so we breezed right through security and headed for check in.

Check in is by deck or frequent cruiser level. DD and DSIL had been on RCI once before, so they were members of the royal caribbean frequent cruisers club (with your first cruise you can become a member), so we could have gotten into that line (there are different lines for different levels).
That line was empty - but the deck 11 line was also empty and it was closer, so we just went into that line - but there wasn't anyone in line, so we went straight up to one of the check in windows.

You should understand that this terminal is MASSIVE with zillions of check in windows. There are so many i doubt there is ever much of a line even for a full voyage (which ours was).

Check in for all 4 of us took about 5 minutes and we were on our way to the waiting area, again MASSIVELY BIG. At this point we did make use of DD's frequent cruiser status (after only one cruise) and sat in that area. The seating is by level, but even though DD was the lowest level, it still meant boarding the ship before all the newbies (like us).
Boarding had just begun as we arrived at the waiting area.
They board the suites and the super frequent cruisers first and then each level after. Within 5 minutes, DD's level was called and we began the boarding process.
5 minutes later we were on the ship oohing and aahing as every review i've ever read said i would be.

It had to be the easiest and quickest boarding process i've EVER experienced. Easy breezy.

the moment we boarded, we headed straight for guest services to sign up for the unlimited internet package (you don't really have to do this at guest services, but i didn't know that then). There was some other reason we went straight there, but don't recall why. If you do need guest services, it's a good idea to go straight there, as the line got longer as the day went on.

 

[NikkiMouse]

Wow! Your cruise trip report is sounding fantastic!

Really really really makes me want to go on a cruise when it's just me and DH!

Can't wait to read more

 

[Claire4dpins]

Really enjoying this detailed report Beth -- so thanks very much for sharing.

We have a first ever cruise booked for this Sept -- the WBTA on the Magic -- so we are not totally sure how we'll feel about cruising yet! I am fascinated by hearing about this massive, more adult ship though -- your report is making me think it may be something to dream about one day.

Glad you had such a great trip and thanks very much for sharing it here.

 

[Portugal1000]

Enjoying your trip report. I was wondering what kind of adult activities there were other than shows during the day. Do they have games, quizzes etc.

Saw that one of the big Royal Caribbean Ships will be sailing out of Southampton next year on mini cruises and really hoping to try one.

 

[disneyholic family]

Really enjoying this detailed report Beth -- so thanks very much for sharing.

We have a first ever cruise booked for this Sept -- the WBTA on the Magic -- so we are not totally sure how we'll feel about cruising yet! I am fascinated by hearing about this massive, more adult ship though -- your report is making me think it may be something to dream about one day.

Glad you had such a great trip and thanks very much for sharing it here.

Enjoying your trip report. I was wondering what kind of adult activities there were other than shows during the day. Do they have games, quizzes etc.

Saw that one of the big Royal Caribbean Ships will be sailing out of Southampton next year on mini cruises and really hoping to try one.

thanks! i'll continue my review over the weekend..

as for adult activities - tons and tons and tons...yes quizes and games and games and games and every kind of activity you can think of...whatever you like..
i'll post the daily schedules from our cruise so you have an idea....

we happen to love trivia games....we went to at least two a day, and we missed several that conflicted with other games and activities we wanted to go to....(and the various trivia games focus on different areas - so there were trivia games on music, on movies, on movie music, on general stuff, on michael jackson, etc etc etc)...there was a trivia game that rolled over from day to day....
all of it was soooooooooooo much fun....most of the people who love it came to each one so we all got to know each other (and make fun of each other in a friendly way).....such a blast..

and there were other games....can't remember - we went to so many different games - and you get silly prizes at all of them..
and of course, it's all free...

and there were dance classes, line dance classes etc etc - all free..

i have to post the schedules for you...

there was other stuff we didn't do...tons of it (pool games, arts and crafts, cooking, beer/wine tasting and lots more)...all for adults...

i have to get those cruise compasses for you (the schedules)..

 

[Portugal1000]

Sounds great. Really tempted to book one next year from Southampton. Love the fact that there is loads going on. My son will be 14 so will need to look into activities for him. My husband refuses to get on a ship, been trying to get him on a Disney Cruise for years but he hates the thought of open water.

 

[disneyholic family]

Sounds great. Really tempted to book one next year from Southampton. Love the fact that there is loads going on. My son will be 14 so will need to look into activities for him. My husband refuses to get on a ship, been trying to get him on a Disney Cruise for years but he hates the thought of open water.

disney does great cruises - wonderful ships and crew..
just for us, we found it really lacking in organized activities for adults...
what i call, "summer camp" for adults..
disney has great kids activities, but nothing for adults..

royal is fantastic for adults - i can't tell you about kids, because DD was already 'grown up' on the royal cruise...

DS was a teen when we cruised on disney - 15 on his frist cruise, 17 on his second and he LOVED it....non-stop activities for teens (i was totally jealous)..

however, in the reviews i've read, Royal also does a good job for kids...
i'll post the link to the original review i read that convinced me to try royal...they had 3 kids on the cruise with them, so she has a lot of info about kids/teen activities...

as for open water - there are life jackets, lifeboats....and to tell the truth, i am MUCH more afraid of flying than being on a ship in open water..

 

[disneyholic family]

about that open water - when i was on my most recent disney cruise - we went through a hurricane and lived to talk about it...

those ships are built for rough seas!!

 

[disneyholic family]

and i completely forgot all the fun adult events in the evening - parties, scavenger hunts (sounds stupid, but the funniest adult game ever), etc etc

 

[disneyholic family]

this is the review from the Disboards Cruise forum that first got me interested in trying out the Allure of the Seas

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2810383&highlight=shrek

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