ajtaylor29

Thanks for the report! We'll be boarding on the 16th, can't wait!!! Did you dine at any specialty restaurants and if so - your opinion? thanks!

We always do either private tours or DIY days in port....20 cruises in and never missed a ship! The tour operators do NOT want you to miss your ship, it's bad for their business....so they'll make sure to get you back in time. When you read horror stories about people missing their ship, it's either a rare, unpreventable delay (due to traffic accidents, etc.) or an alcohol related "i forgot to get back on the ship" event!!! Anyway - as for St Marten, we've done several private excursions and had a great time exploring the island. We've also just grabbed a cab at port and gone to Orient Beach for the day.

Oh no!!! We'll be on Allure in 10 days so i'm anxiously watching for your updates....but this is not good news?!? The first time we were supposed to go to Costa Maya (4 years ago) and try out Maya Chan....the ship cancelled due to weather and took us to Progresso instead. So, now we're hoping to get there in 2 weeks....but i'm going to try and keep an open mind that it might not happen....again.... Enjoy the rest of your cruise, and keep us updated!

Thanks for the review and your observations on both cruise lines. We started out on Carnival ships when we started cruising then migrated over to Royal where we mostly cruise now! But, we took a Carnival cruise last year and i wouldn't hesitate to do it again for the right itinerary. I agree with your comment about the longer cruises. Since we always book at least 7 day cruises (longer if we can get them!) we haven't experienced the drunken, kid-crazy cruises that some people talk about. On Carnival last year (which was a 12 day Europe cruise) we had a great time and found the passengers to be "normal" law-abiding citizens just like us?!? On a recent 7 day RCCL cruise, we witnessed a fight break out in the main pool. NOT kids, or drunken college kids, but ADULTS who of course were probably overserved and should definitely have known better than to behave like that. All that to say - it can and does happen on every cruiseline from time to time, but other passengers behavior has yet to ruin any cruise for us. Just like seeing someone in shorts enjoying their vacation, in the MDR on elegant night has ZERO affect on my cruise experience!!!

i'm curious about this too, hopefully someone will respond who's been recently. I don't smoke anymore but i do vape, so it will matter to me as well....

We don't usually do most shows, either, but i will say on our last 2 cruises we have gone to the main shows and enjoyed them! The aqua theater on Symphony was amazing, and Allure has one too so we'll definitely go see that. I've made reservations for the broadway show (my hubby isn't too excited but we'll see....?!?!) A word of advise - if you DO decide to book shows, try to do it early in the week, especially the aqua and skating shows. On our December Symphony cruise we had wind all week, which caused a lot of show cancellations. If you book early, you have a chance to either see the show OR rebook for later if it gets cancelled. We are gamblers, so we spend a lot of time in the casino, especially when we're sailing without family like this upcoming Allure cruise! We had originally booked a junior suite but we bid on several suites via Royal Up, and we "won" the bid for the Crown Loft Suite! We're excited about it, we've sailed in Crown Loft Suites before and really love them (especially the 2 bathrooms). I will definitely report back to you about the condition of the ship once we return. From everything i'm reading, Allure is a fan-favorite of many RC cruisers so i'm excited to try it out!

We will be on Allure in 3 weeks, first time on that ship so i'm looking forward to it! We booked parking right across the street (port of galveston), this is our first time at the new RCCL terminal. In the past, we've parked further away and shuttled over, it's always been easy. You're correct - you will be able to eat all your meals at Coastal Kitchen, including lunch on embarkation day. We've had access to CK on other RC ships, and I think the food is very good (definitely a step up from the MDR). We usually will eat here instead of MDR or Windjammer (buffet), then sprinkle in a couple of specialty restaurants as well. There is a lot to do on this ship so the kids should have a blast! You should be able to book shows a few weeks before sailing (on the royal app). If you have any specific questions, i can find out while i'm onboard April 16th!

In January, disembarking from our Odyssey cruise, we had a 3 pm flight booked. But, we arrived at the airport before 8 and were able to change our flight and get on the earlier one at 9! Much better!!!

I see this is an old thread, i'm not sure what the current policy states. But, i will say i'm a big fan of adults only, especially in a bar, casino or HH setting. There are plenty of areas around the ship for kids, but imo they shouldn't be allowed in adult venues. I realize many kids are very well behaved....but many are not. The problem with these policies is that they're not really enforced, people bring kids in anyway, then the burden falls on the staff to say something and often they'd rather not. So, the other guests just smile and grit our teeth while someones unruly child runs around doing cartwheels.

So far i'd have to say Symphony. But, we're on Allure in 3 weeks and i love seeing that it's the favorite for many of you!!

We sailed Odyssey in January and it was our first experience with a star-class suite. SO, we definitely had some different experiences than our normal cruising since we had such great service, all specialty dining included (so we never ate in WJ or MDR). Even tho we loved our cruise, and considering the star-class experience which we loved of course, here were some reasons that this wasn't our favorite ship: All Star class suites are at the back of the ship. We had a royal loft suite, which was amazing with an amazing balcony, BUT there are no elevators or stairs on the back third of the ship, so we had a long walk back and forth to our cabin all week. It was good getting the exercise but at times I wished it were more convenient to pop in to our cabin for something. I agree about the elevator buttons. It wasn't THAT bad, but it took some practice to master and we also had a few accidentally pressed buttons. We didn't love the location of Coastal Kitchen on this ship (right outside the WJ). We only ate in there twice since we had all the other specialty restaurants available but both times we ate there it was empty. Totally different experience on Symphony, where CK is always busy and is in a great location. I think having it down a hall on the way to WJ and feeling very closed off just made it not that appealing. The casino did seem small for such a big ship. I didn't find a lot of VP machines that i like, so that could have been better. On the positive side - we loved Playmakers on this ship! We did North Star, I-Fly and the VR experience (all thanks to our genie who walked us in to these things - i probably wouldn't have tried I-Fly or VR on my own, but he encouraged me to try them and i actually had a blast!) We liked the shows. I liked the solarium, we enjoyed sail-away from there since it was a little chilly leaving Ft Lauderdale, and the panoramic view was great! We've been on Symphony twice and I much preferred it to Odyssey. The layout on Odyssey just seemed a little odd. We're about to try Allure and looking forward to it. For reference, we've also sailed on smaller ships and loved them too....We basically love all of our cruises!! If the right itinerary at the right time pops up, would i sail Odyssey again? Absolutely!!!

Absolutely nothing to worry about! We were there in January, had a great day. The area is secure and well maintained. You won't even know that there's a country in turmoil just over the horizon. Many of the staff on the island are locals, and super nice people. Enjoy!

That's what we do too.

Sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. We've done almost 20 cruises now and have loved every one of them! Some better than others of course.....But we don't cruise for the food, or for the chairs by the pool. We cruise for the ports, and for watching the ocean go by wherever we're sitting on the ship. We relax, we have fun, we drink too much sometimes (?!?), we have some great food and some not so great food, we love interacting with the staff (who are almost always super friendly and helpful), we love hanging in the casino. We've been lucky to never get sick on a cruise, but it can happen to anyone, anywhere, we're aware of the risks with so many people on board. We go into each cruise with excitement and expectations for a great trip. A few disappointments or oops moments on a cruise do not ruin our week. There are definitely people who just do not like cruising, and that's ok. Maybe that leaves a little more room on board for those of us who love it!

I'll be on this cruise with you! 🙂

The free cruise offers (as far as what type of room you're offered) are based on how many points you accumulated on your last cruise. My husband and I are both prime but usually i get more points on a cruise than he does. So our offers are slightly different. He gets offered a jr suite, i get offered a grand suite, for example. Or i get a jr suite, he gets a balcony. If we don't cruise for a while, the room type offers will start to lower, maybe both of us will get balcony offers....even tho we're both prime for the whole year, the offers are based on the last cruise. Does that make sense?? And, just wait for someone to come on here and tell me i'm wrong....?!? And maybe i am - but i THINK this is correct!!!

We've sailed numerous times on both RC and Carnival. We started out years ago on Carnival then switched over to RC and that's now our preferred line. While there are pros and cons to both of them, we just feel like things are better on RC. Last year, we took a Carnival cruise after being away for a while (because of a great itinerary in Europe). We had a great cruise mainly because of the ports, and we had a great cabin (aft-wrap). The food was a little disappointing, but the crew was friendly and engaged. It was an older ship, but we don't mind that especially on a cruise that is port-intensive and we're off the ship so much. This was a 12 day cruise, and there were few kids and few young partyers. That demographic just isn't going to be on a 12 day cruise regardless of which line you're on. We would sail Carnival again for the right itinerary, and we haven't tried any of their newest ships so i'd like to do that at some point. We've also considered Virgin and Celebrity (one of these days we'll try them!) We did one on HAL and didn't love that one (even tho the food was good and the ship was nice and the Panama Canal was great), the ship seemed very quiet most of the time. I guess we prefer a little lively, not too crazy and not too dead. We love to cruise and really have never had a bad cruise! We always try to go at least 7 nights (any less than that what's the point?!?) which also keeps the wild party people away for the most part, regardless of which line you're on. And btw - while i know Carnival has the reputation for being the party cruise line - we've seen some wild behavior on RC too. So, my advise would be to book this one for the great itinerary and have a great time!

lol, that is true! Hubby and I never had a problem with that (15 drinks a day!!!) but one year we took our 25 year old son on a cruise with us and bought the drink package for him. Most days he was whining about being out of drinks before the sun set and we were giving him our extras?!? That was many years ago, i thought maybe by now they had dropped that 15 drink limit, i guess not.

As others have pointed out, everybody has an opinion based on their individual needs, so it's hard to say whether it's worth it to you or not, only you can decide that! MY opinion, tho - is that we've done Star class once and loved it, and i wasn't sure i would?! We royal-up'd a bid to go from our grand suite to a royal loft suite on Odyssey and we won the bid. We were happy paying the cost since it cancelled out the need to buy UDP or UBP. We really were excited about the cabin, and i wondered whether the Genie would drive me crazy?!? However, i will say that our genie was great! He helped us with dinner and show reservations, always showing up and escorting us to a great table or seats for the shows. He arranged special times for us to do many on-board activities (i-fly, virtual reality, North Star, etc.) - some of which i would not have done if he hadn't encouraged me to, and i ended up having fun! If we decided not to attend something, we let him know and he cancelled for us. He arranged a taxi pickup in ports and escorted us off the ship first so my husband could make a tee-time! One night we had a football playoff game to watch and he reserved a prime table in playmakers for us. We tipped him generously for his great service that week (as others have mentioned, the regular tips are included in star class but definitely you'll want to tip your genie and room stewards specifically). We cruise often and love the suite life! I'm sure we'll do Star class again when the right deal comes along, but i also know i can be happy cruising without it. Just get me on a ship and i'm happy!

we had UDP on our Symphony cruise in December, very full ship. They automatically booked us the first night at Chops. As soon as we boarded, we went to one of the specialty restaurants and they helped us book all week (lunches and dinners). We accepted some early or late times because the prime dinner hour was completely booked. But, as the week went along we noticed half-full restaurants even during hours that were supposedly full, and on a couple of occasions we were able to shift our reservations. We ate one night at Wonderland at 7 (i think) and the restaurant was not full at all. So - try to be a little flexible and i think you'll be able to work it all out. We thought it was well worth the $$, we tried all the restaurants, and never went to the MDR or WJ all week!

We were on Odyssey mid-January in Star class suite. I'm reading these comments and wracking my brain to remember whether we only got 4 pieces or 8?!? (some times my cruise memories run together! We were on Symphony in December, not star class but had UDP, and i know we got 8 pieces that time). But I really think we got 8 pieces on Odyssey....i know between the 2 of us we had a lot of food and probably didn't finish it all. I think my opinion going forward would be that if i don't get full on what they serve me, i don't mind paying the $15 or whatever to get another roll....

We have stayed in the crown loft suites (twice) on Symphony and last month had the Royal Loft suite on Odyssey. Loved both of those cabins!! We loved the star class experience and our genie was great (again, this was on Odyssey so it's possible that things are done a little differently on Symphony). Every day we had breakfast (and Starbucks coffee) delivered to our suite, and every afternoon we had snacks and cocktails delivered. In our case, it was WAY more food than we could ever eat (definitely felt wasteful) but we were travelling alone so we had nobody else to help us eat the snacks! There were usually 2 cocktails, sometimes 4. (Of course, we had no problem drinking those everyday!!!) We even told our genie to "cut back" on the food they were delivering because we couldn't eat it all, but i don't think they really did. If we asked for a bagel at breakfast they sent 3 bagels. If they delivered sandwiches for an afternoon snack, there were 4 huge sandwiches on the plate. All that to say - i'm sure with 2 star class suites they're going to give you so much food in the afternoons/happy hour time that i'm sure you'll have enough to share with your crown loft people (not sure about the alcohol). But, as far as meals go, i agree with the op above - you're not going to be able to serve a full meal to the CL guests unless they purchase the UDP; if they do, i would imagine that the genie would be happy to provide service to everybody in the suites. And remember - the genie is being paid to take care of TWO star class suites, not 4 suites...so, if he/she does help you with the other suite guests - be sure to tip accordingly! 🙂 One other observation: we LOVED the location of the suites on Symphony!! The whole 17th deck was suites, right off the elevators and right next to Coastal Kitchen. Easy access in the middle of the ship. On Odyssey, the Star Class suites were all aft suites, so all the way at the back, with a LONG walk from the elevators to the back. We love the aft balcony experience, but it was definitely a hike every time we came and went from our cabin. (Odyssey only has 2 elevators, and no stairs near the back either....) Maybe that's why i didn't gain any weight on this cruise, even tho there was food in front of me all day, every day! 🙂

Hmmmm, well that's not my understanding but oh well it worked out fine for us. Maybe more to the story for me is that we had "free" cruise offers from the casino. We were using those to book future cruises, and were told we had 30 days. Maybe it is 60 days if you're booking a regular cruise (without another offer).

We have never booked a future cruise while onboard, because in the past you either had to know and book a specific cruise while on board, or you could pay the deposit then have a VERY short window to select your cruise (i think it was 7 days) after your current cruise ended. We didn't want to feel pressured to figure it out that quickly so we never did it. on our last cruise (2 weeks ago) we were told that RC has updated their policy to allow 30 days for you to decide instead of 7 days, which for us felt much better so we decided to do it! The OBC you get depends on how long your cruise is. We've decided on a Greece/Croatia cruise in the fall (Yea!!!!!) and it's a 7 night cruise, so we get $300 OBC. That's "free money", when we knew we would be booking more cruises so why not!!! In addition, when we went to the future cruise desk we reminded them that we use a travel agent and they said no problem. They automatically transfer the cruise info to them and they get credit for booking for us, as usual. We got everything confirmed this week so we're good to go. Another great cruise to look forward to!!!

Totally agree! We tried it on Symphony (w/ friends), beautiful space. We let the waiter choose for us and loved trying many different appetizers, main courses were great. Then, recently on Odyssey (just hubby and I) and the space was just ok, and instead of letting the waiter choose the apps for us i wanted to try some different ones. I was disappointed in all my choices! We decided after that meal that we probably were done with Wonderland. I do think that when they offer to make the choices for you, you should go along. I believe they serve you the best options on the menu....and some of the others are just not that great!