Dinkachu

We are going back on Allure in 3 months. We tried to do too much the first time and came home exhausted.

Pick and choose the things that you really want to do, but leave yourselves time for some relaxing.

As everyone said, the ship is magnificent and it is huge.

We studies the Allure deck plans posted on the RCCL site and it really helps us have an idea of where everything was before we boarded.

Enjoy your cruise!

You are so sweet to describe all the fun instore for our Christmas cruise !! I can hardly wait !! My 2 favorite things... Christmas and cruising !!! It all sounds wonderful ! I love the idea of caroling, and all the decorations. Excited we can decorate our cabin ! Love the idea of doing a stocking for our stateroom host.

We would come to the M&M if there is one. Best of luck to your son on his interview. We've just lived in Houston 3 years, but would be happy to help in anyway we can.

What is your favorite restaurant other than the main dining room ?

Our son loves CHOPS - and since it is his celebration, we will eat there for certain. I like Giovanni's best. There is a new Mexican restaurant this time, Sabor. We had Rita's on our last tour. Some of the men enjoyed the Samba's - all you can eat meat grilled on a sword. There is also a new Japanese restaurant on board. So many good places to choose!

Hoping your cruise is magical.

I'll check in with our cruise page from time to time to see if we have enough for meet and mingle.

Blessings.

I am NOT good at attaching photos...

These include: The little tree we took, hubby decorating the door, the special menu for Christmas Day, Tree on Royal Promenade, etc.

Attempting to attach photos...

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Thanks, Dinkachu !

We have been on the Oasis but new to the Allure. First time Christmas cruise.

Are you allowed to decorate your cabin ? Can you put lights on your balcony ? I read somewhere that you can order a small tree from Gifts.??

Is there any special Christmas event that we need to sign up for online ?

Is the ice show a Christmas theme ?

You must have enjoyed it,to be going back.

Do they have Christmas music ?

I think I read that they have a Christmas worship service. Is that Christmas Eve or Day ?

Thanks for answering my questions ! Are you on our roll call ? Not many people over there.

 

Gina

DECORATIONS: While the ship is decorated beautifully, I took a whole suitcase full of decorations for our cabins, the cabin doors and my scooter. I took a small, plush Christmas tree and my son took a 'Charlie Brown' tree. We even took stockings for the room attendant and waiters. We had a 4 ft tall inflatable penguin on our balcony - and it was featured on the cruise video. We did not have lights on the balcony, but we did have them in the room - the battery powered ones.

All Special Christmas events can be signed up for on the cruise. There was caroling, led by the Captain, on the royal promenade. They gave us caroling books we could keep. We enjoyed the variety of traditional carols and more modern songs.

There are worship services both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, they had gingerbread cookies in our room.

Christmas Day, we went to see Santa in the ice skating studio. My husband and son went Ice Skating. They had eggnog for everyone. The Captain and his wife were there visiting with all of us.

There are TWO ice shows that week - the regular one, and a special Christmas ice show you book once onboard (see the cruise compass for the date and time).

Christmas Day we also received a small gift from RCCL. Christmas Day is the day they have the special menu in the dining room too. We could keep the menu. They had traditional Turkey and other options as well.

We love Allure and especially on Christmas!

I am on the meet and mingle site and tried to get a group to do a free meet and mingle party onboard - but it is a very inactive group. Perhaps as we get closer to the cruise, it will pick up.

Ironically, we are going on this cruise to reward our son, who is graduating for college this December. He just told me yesterday, that he interviewed for a job in Houston at Johnson Space Center - so we may be asking Houston questions if he gets the job.

I will try to find photos and post them for our Allure Christmas Cruise. I'm so far behind on my scrapbooking, that they are still in photo envelopes!

We had our travel agent call RRCL while in her office yesterday, and they said that MTD reservations could be made no later than 90 days before sailing. You can still change them once on board.

When can you make dining reservations in the specialty restaurants on the Allure ? Do you have to be paid in full ? We sail Dec 20 and would love to make a res for Christmas Eve !

WE are booked on this same cruise, and just talked to our travel agent about this very issue today. We can begin booking specialty restaurants 90 days before the cruise. Sometimes, they open before then, so I check frequently, but they guarantee you can book 90 days out.

You DO NOT have to be paid in full to book specialty restaurants, but it will probably be paid for about the time they open reservations.

We plan to make specialty restaurant reservations, especially when we want a specific day and time, but we have always been able to get in when we book on the ship too.

We sailed on Allure at Christmas 2011, and would love to answer any other questions you might have. I see you've been on Oasis, and they are similar. There are a few special treats at Christmas.

Maybe we'll see you on the cruise!

We loved first watching, then racing a horse on RCCL. We brought things from home to decorate our horse.

Crowds became sparse over the years, and the last time we had a horse race, there were very few of us participating. So, I believe it was a lack on interest that killed horse racing on RCCL.

Perhaps, if there is a renewed interest, they will bring it back.

My mom has severe asthma. She stays out of the casino and avoids places on the ship where smoking is allowed.

On Freedom, our family was on our balcony one evening. Cigarette smoke wafting from the next balcony triggered an asthma attack that put mom in serious medical jeopardy for several hours. A trip to the ship's doctor, a few nebulizer treatments and steroids helped her make it through the rest of the trip.

Dad knocked on the door of the cabin next door and a lovely couple said they were sorry and agreed they would not smoke on the balcony again. He did not think it was necessary to report them.

Though it may be rare, sometimes the issue is a medical one.

We always enjoy the poolside parties on RCCL's Caribbean cruises.

As previously mentioned, they no longer have the whole roasted pig, but there is plenty of finger food and fruit and of course, those 14.00 drinks in a pineapple or with little umbrellas!

There is usually live music and an ice carving or two.

Enjoy!

FALMOUTH - is a long way from any excursions - so expect a long ride, but we did enjoy the trip to climb the falls at Ocho Rios. The teenagers enjoyed riding 4 wheelers through mud and visiting a sugar plantation. There is not much to do in the port of Falmouth itself, some souvenir and jewelry shopping, so 2 of our party just went back to the ship for a quiet afternoon.

COZUMEL - The over 80's in our group had a great time visiting a miniature village of Historic Mexico. The rest of us went on a pyramid and beach day. There was a bit of drama with a broken bus and nearly missing the ship - so be sure to book through RCCL if you choose a long excursion from Cozumel, as they waited for us since it was an RCCL cruise. The 20 year olds went on a submarine excursion that they really loved. It was a 1/2 day, so they still had time to find Señor Frog's and/or Hard Rock.

GRAND CAYMEN is our favorite of these ports. A family favorite is the excursion to swim with the Sting Rays. There is also a 1/2 day trip to a Turtle aquarium, with a stop in "HELL" that the older members of our group found more their style. We have done some swim/snorkel and dive tours here too. Cayman has the best snorkeling/diving of the 3 ports.

Unless RC puts a truly rough surface on the pool area IT WILL BE SLIPPERY, just like many pools at home or in hotels. If they put a truly rough surface, around the pool, many would complain about it hurting their feet.

I expect any wet area to be slippery, but when the Windjammer has a slippery floor, and I have slipped there, that is sugnificat.

I grew up with a pool - we have always had one in our current home (27 years). My brother used to work for a pool installation company. NON-SLIP pool decks are the NORM in the industry. They also have COOL DECKS - which is what we have now. It is non-slip and cool. They are NOT rough enough to hurt our tender tootsies!

We have also traveled extensively and most hotel pools have non-slip pool decks.

We were on another cruise line a few years ago and were delighted to find a non-slip surface around their pools.

Clearly, there are solutions to this issue that RCCL should explore.

Because we need a handicapped room for a full time wheelchair user, we have to book a year or more out, get rooms with less desirable views and pay full price.

We are grateful that we at least able to cruise on a very accessible fleet with RCCL.

But no, we are realistic enough to know that we will never be upgraded - so we never check.

Enjoy your upgrades.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and we love reviews that are full of photos. If they are redundantly filled with people repeating the same activity or in front of the same feature, I just scroll past them.

Due to the expense of Wifi and that I am out and about enjoying the cruise, we usually post reviews upon our return. I make notes when there is something I want to be sure to share.

Negative reviews have their place. We peruse them for useful info. For example, we chose Allure over Oasis to avoid CATS after reading overwhelmingly negative reviews. We were glad to be warned which jewelry shops to avoid on St Maarten.

I do feel sorry for cruisers who let picky little issues dampen their fun. You can always find something to be happy about on a cruise!

We are booked on Allure this Christmas. This will be our 2nd Christmas on Allure, and our 9th at Sea. We LOVE Christmas sailings. The ship is decorated beautifully. There is caroling on the promenade, ice skating on Christmas morning, gingerbread house displays, eggnog, Santa visits, they have special Christmas ice shows. We found plenty of turkey (Main Dining room and Windjammer) - though most of my family made other choices. I decorate the room and the door. We take stockings for the crew and our family.

You can expect more children on board - but it is, after all, Christmas!

SUGGESTIONS: BOOK SOON and be prepared to enjoy the cruise.

But was the choice based on Sambas or Cats :what:

CATS was the initial deciding factor, and if there were no SAMBAS, we would still have chosen ALLURE to avoid CATS. The fact that there was also a SAMBAS was just icing on the cake.

This is an honest question, Not a slam or derogatory comment... My question is. Would you seriously not sail a ship because on one of the seven nights there was not a "broadway" type show that you were interested in seeing? (I know you said you saw the same show twice) For me, I always just thought of it as one more option, I consider the ship and the ports, but never put any thought into the show that was playing.(mostly because most ship have the branson missouri, Hee Haw shows that I would never walk into anyways)... To my knowledge there are only a handful out of all the cruise ships that actually have a "broadway type" show on them... so if not the oasis, what ships on any line (based on the show) are on your list for consideration? Also, as you said, you would rather see the "full production" but due to the size of the theaters and the wing space, they cant really do the full production, they dont have the space or the budgets for the scenic elements.. That's why the broadway version will always be a more complete option"

YES, when planning our Dec. 2015 cruise out of Ft. Lauderdale, we chose to leave on ALLURE on Sunday, instead of OASIS on Saturday (we live in Central Fla, so flights are not an issue) in large part, due to CATS. We have sailed both ships, and they are comparably splendid. SO, it came down to horrible reviews for CATS, which we did not enjoy locally either, and the men wanting all you can eat meat on a sword at SAMBAS, which Oasis does not offer. So, CATS was at least 50% of our reason for choosing ALLURE. Actually, I just asked the family and even if we couldn't get into SAMBAS, they still would choose ALLUE to escape CATS, so I guess Avoiding CATS really was or reason for choosing ALLURE over OASIS. Maybe we should re-think this plan. If others make similar decisions, it might be less crowded on Oasis.

We saw 'GREASE' on Allure out by the Aqua Theater on a night when there was no Oceanaria show. They had 2 big screens. It was free - but the POPCORN was NOT. They also showed Shrek on night.

Don't know about the other theater.

When deciding on our Dec. 2015 cruise out of Lauderdale, we could have chosen a Sat. departure on Oasis or a Sunday departure on Allure. We live in central Fla, so no flights to worry about.

All things being fairly equal, we choose Allure because we were bored in a local production of CATS and it has bad reviews on Oasis, and the men in the family love all you can eat meat on a sword at SAMBAS, which Oasis does not have. So, we booked 3 Boardwalk balcony rooms on Allure.

I wonder if Oasis has lost other travelers due to CATS? Maybe we should re-think our plan - perhaps there will be fewer crowds on Oasis!

While we love dressing up, and no one stops us from doing so, the days of requiring formal dress in the MDR are long gone.

Back in the mid 1970's, while sailing on the Emerald Seas, I remember passengers being turned away from the main dining room on formal nights if their dress did not meet the standards of jacket and tie for the men and dress or dressy pants for the ladies.

It is not just a cruise ship phenomenon - we attended a formal evening showing of Phantom of the Opera at the theater recently to find that people showed up in jeans and even shorts.

We have been to 5 star restaurants on shore and seen similar casual dress.

RCCL is following a trend of dressing down.

I use a wheelchair, and my mother-in-love is in a scooter. On Allure, we found that if we would arrive at the venue early we were often seated first and got fairly good seats. If you get to the venue toward the end of seating, they may not have room for the wheelchair, even if you have a ticket.

Unless there's a Wheelchair icon shown than RCCL's tour is not able to accommodate a wheelchair. The reason could be that the excursion vehicle is not able to accommodate a wheelchair and or the factory is not accessible.

 

Suggest you contact RCCL's Access Dept. for specific details.

Ph: 866 592-7225

FX: 954 628-9622,

e-mail special_needs@rccl.com

Thank you - that will save us disappointment later. We'll just stay close to the ship and look around.

We'll be on ALLURE in a few weeks and have a member of our party in a wheelchair. The wheelchair folds and a couple of steps to transfer to a bus or van is not a problem.

Has anyone been on the Chocolate Factory tour on St Thomas offered by RCCL?

Would it be possible to do the tour in a wheelchair?

The only wheelchair accessible tour is sold out and most of the other tours require walking, stairs, or beaches.

THANK YOU.

WE have sailed on Royal many times and have 2 family members with serious shellfish allergies.

Royal's main dining room and specialty restaurants are very good about dealing with allergies. When they had Rita's aboard Allure they made us our own chips.

We do NOT do buffets. Once saw shrimp in the beef stir fry.

Also, ask if they use peanut oil to fry in places like Johnny Rockets. Better safe than sorry, but you should be able to enjoy your cruise.

We always decorate our doors on RCCL. Only had a wreath taken one Christmas - and the room steward recognized it on another door and returned it to us.

Now - we personalize the decorations with our Cabin Number or a nickname.

Be sure to label with permanent marker or ink and we've never lost another decoration.