Family Review - Allure, July 10: 4 Adults, 2 Young Kids, 1 Room

[figgyva]

Can six people survive on Allure in one cabin for a whole week? I hope to answer that question and whole lot more in what will probably be a very long review of our July 10 trip. If you like wasting a lot of time on CC reading about what everyone else has done, then this is probably a good place for you to land.

 

I’m putting together a pretty comprehensive review that will take the parent perspective on all things related to Allure and the Eastern Caribbean ports-of-call. After using CC extensively to prepare us for our first cruise with kids, I figured that I would give back and give some more insight to those who may follow. And to them, I wish you a hearty “Good Luck with That!”

 

For some background, we are a Latin family of six, with two grandparents, two parents (DW and myself), and two kids (DD1 is nearly 8, DD2 is just over 2). DW and myself have been on several cruises, the grandparents were on one a lifetime ago, and this was the kids' first venture on the sea. We're comfortable international travelers based in the US (ex: DD2 has been out of the States three times now).

 

In general, we had a great time at our ports hanging out on the beaches. DW’s a beach lover, so that’s what we do despite my general apathy to hanging out at the beach in the middle of the summer. You see, I burn, she doesn’t. But, being the male in the relationship means accepting certain sacrifices. Besides, I don’t think that the kids would be too psyched about sitting in a car and taking a tour, so the beach is probably the best way to give them some good relaxation time.

 

I’ve posted reviews to the port boards and invite you to read them for more information. Here are the links:

 

Nassau

St. Thomas

St. Martin

 

The rest of the posts here will focus on embarkation, our Family Oceanview Stateroom with Balcony (and six people…yikes!) and the various facilities. I hope that you enjoy.

[CloseCreations]

Can't wait for your review. We are traveling with MIL and FIL, along with our DS8 on Allure next August 2012.

[figgyva]

After days of collecting and sorting clothes, we woke up on Saturday morning and got all of the luggage ready for transport. Four adults, two kids, and a week of supplies needed to get packed into the minivan. No problem…I love lively life on the edge. Five suitcases, a little rolley, an umbrella stroller, and a few backpacks later, we’re ready to go. Since I like to get the airport as late as possible just to show how great a traveler I am with the family, we leave for the 30 minute drive about two hours before departure. No problem.

 

Ten minutes into the drive, I’m relieved to be on the road and making good time when I make the standard off-hand comment about an important bag, in this case, my trusty LL Bean travel backpack with a great interior pouch where we store our passports. It also has my camera, the kids’ DVD player, you know, all of the important stuff. My wife looks at me with that “deer in headlights” meets “oh no you didn’t” look. Yeah, it was my fault, I had the bag, went to grab something else (probably at her request, by the way), and left it sitting in the kitchen, where it still remains. My lovely, beautiful, stress-case phased DD1 starts asking, “What’s wrong?” Children are wonderful, aren’t they? They always know what not to say at exactly the right time to say it. Twenty minutes later, were back in the same place, now with important bag in hand. 90 minutes to flight time.

 

A mere 15 minutes later, we’re at Washington National Airport. I hate this airport. I decide to drop the family off at the terminal and park in Economy. Twenty minutes later, I finally get back to them. 55 minutes to flight time.

 

Check in is a breeze. I love JetBlue. The terminal is awful. I hate this airport. Pick up breakfast outside security, show my amazing prowess of breaking down an umbrella stroller within 5 seconds and loading all of our bags, shoes, and contraband baggie of five goldfish crackers in DD2's hands (really?) in two minutes. My family rocks. Then, I see my in-laws struggling. For two, well-traveled people, they are absolutely miserable in the security line. Huh? What? Oh? Despite that, we’re carrying breakfast, through security, and sitting at our gate in 15 minutes. Rock on, we made it with 10 minutes to spare before boarding. We rock.

 

We get to Ft. Lauderdale and I decide to revisit my previous sentiment. I hate this airport. How far do we have to walk outside, in the summer heat, with all of our luggage, to catch a hotel shuttle in this place? It’s ridiculous. Prior to that, my wife makes me call the Embassy Suites to get our shuttle. The first response from their Concierge is, “Just get a taxi, it’s easier.” I say OK and hang up. My wife responds with, “Well, they said that the shuttle was part of the package?” “Do you have a confirmation or anything.” “No…I didn’t think that I would need it.” This proceeds into the standard spousal bickering about what you need when while trying to find the non-existent proof of getting a shuttle. Finally, I call the Concierge again. “We booked under a package that says we get a shuttle.” “OK, where are you at.” Really? Couldn’t you have been helpful and asked about our booking when I called last time? About 20 minutes later, we’re on the shuttle and going to the hotel.

 

The Embassy Suites is beautiful. My wife did good. We could see Oasis from one of the common balconies. Everyone is really excited. After some food down the street and hitting the grocery store, we settle in. Shockingly enough, both kids slept through the night in our room. When traveling with kids, invest in a cheap white-noise generator. They are fantastic.

[figgyva]

DD2 wakes us up bright and early by 7:00 AM. This will be a trend…she dictates our sleeping schedule. We get showered, dressed, and head down for the complimentary breakfast. It was good, but I would rather be on Allure for breakfast. Oh well. I run out to the balcony with DD1, and there she is, just waiting for us! We’re so excited. I’m trying to let go of my anxiety over having all of us in one cabin. “It’s alright…we’ll be fine.” I tell that to myself about 100 more times during the day.

 

We leave the hotel promptly at 11:00 AM and catch the shuttle to the port. On our way, we see people walking to the port with their luggage. You know, I appreciate the desire to save some money and everything, but after what you just spent to go on this cruise, does it really make that much sense to walk? The ship is something like a mile away from the Port Everglades entrance, and there’s nothing else within a reasonable walking distance before the entrance. Then, there’s no sidewalk leading to the ship in port, so these walkers just create a traffic jam when trying to get into port. Our driver expertly navigates his way through the wayward walkers and gets us to the port.

 

Off the shuttle, tip the driver, tip the porter $20, and watch our luggage get moved from nearly empty cart, past several nearly full carts, to the cart just leaving for the ship. It is the little things in life that make us happy.

 

We enter the check-in area, are directed to an available counter, check-in, get photos taken, and get our SeaPass cards. First glitch of the day is that DW’s card isn’t taking the photo. Uh oh. No problem, they say, just get it retaken when we’re going through security. Hmmm, that doesn’t seem right, but we’ll take your word for it. 10 minutes, and we’re getting our picture taken just behind the counter. The photographer takes my card and then asks for one for the grandparents. “It’s OK, we’re all in the same room.” The photographer pauses, looks at me, looks at them, and then responds with a cordial, if telling, “Uh, OK.” “It’s alright…we’ll be fine,” I say to myself, probably for the 70th time.

 

Upstairs we go, where we’re directed to a separate line from everyone else so DD1 can get her wristband for muster station reporting. That’s pretty cool, I wasn’t aware of that. DD2 is ticked off that she doesn’t get one and starts fussing about it. In retrospect, it is interesting to me because, if we use the nursery, then how would they know where to take DD2 should the ship suddenly start sinking? No worries…they use name tags on their backs in the Adventure Ocean nursery. But, at the time, I don’t even think about it. “It’s alright, we’ll be fine,” is all that’s going through my mind.

 

They direct us to a line of seats to wait for boarding. We sit down, and five seconds later, they tell us to get up and board. That’s great and all, but did we have to sit down? I’m not really complaining because this is probably a pretty good sign that we’ll be on the ship in no time. We get to security, they take DW’s photo again (no problem at all), and here we are on the gangway. A minute later, we’re walking onto the Royal Promenade, next to the Champagne Bar in front of the Rising Tide Bar. Altogether, I would say that once we got off the shuttle, we were on the ship in less than 30 minutes. That’s actually pretty darn good time.

 

The Royal Promenade is great, but we want to get away from everyone. Following CC suggestions, we head up to Adventure Ocean to register the kids, only to find that it won’t open until noon. But, we wait, and we’re golden. Then, to the Park Café for a handmade salads, sandwiches, and, of course, the famous roast beef. It really is that good. From there, onto the MDR to check on our table location, until they tell us that we don’t have a table and ask us to come back later. OK, not ideal, but I guess we’ll just go with it for now. We head up to the Viking Crown Lounge to check out the view from there for a potential sail away location and decide that the kids would probably rather be outside. So, to the room! “It’s alright, we’ll be fine.”

[spcopps]

Ten minutes into the drive, I’m relieved to be on the road and making good time when I make the standard off-hand comment about an important bag, in this case, my trusty LL Bean travel backpack with a great interior pouch where we store our passports. It also has my camera, the kids’ DVD player, you know, all of the important stuff. My wife looks at me with that “deer in headlights” meets “oh no you didn’t” look. Yeah, it was my fault, I had the bag, went to grab something else (probably at her request, by the way), and left it sitting in the kitchen, where it still remains.

 

I so feel ur pain. Driving to Ft. Lauderdale in June (13 hour drive as is) we get an hour away from home and I look at DH and asked "did you get the suitcase with our clothes". He looks at me and I knew right away!! Needless to say it was MY fault because I put our clothes in a different suitcase than our bath and other items LOL. We had to turn around which added an additional 2 hours to our drive :eek:. I could have lived without our camera but not the clothes!!! Did I mention we were traveling with a 7 year old and twin 3 year olds?!

[figgyva]

I so feel ur pain. Driving to Ft. Lauderdale in June (13 hour drive as is) we get an hour away from home and I look at DH and asked "did you get the suitcase with our clothes". He looks at me and I knew right away!! Needless to say it was MY fault because I put our clothes in a different suitcase than our bath and other items LOL. We had to turn around which added an additional 2 hours to our drive :eek:. I could have lived without our camera but not the clothes!!! Did I mention we were traveling with a 7 year old and twin 3 year olds?!

 

As DW would say, "At least you realized it then!" I think that, once you have kids, you have to relearn how to travel. I travel a lot, often with DW, and before kids, it was easy. But, after DD1 was born, everything changed. We become disorganized, lost our ability to efficiently pack, and tend to forget things in the chaos. When DD1 was just over two years-old, we were at National Airport getting ready to check in for an international flight with a connection in Miami. DW asked "How many bags are we checking in." I responded, "Four." "But we have Five bags." "No, we have Four bags." "Well, we packed Five bags." It turned out that we had forgotten DD1's bag with everything. We had to book a later flight so that we could retrieve the missing bag and hope to make our connection. Fortunately, DW's sister and BIL were waiting for us at our gate in Miami (coming from a different city for the same connection), and helped us run with DD1 and stuff to the connecting gate to make it on time.

 

Experiences like these help us be confident that, no matter what happens, everything will probably work out fine.

[DonnaK]

I'm loving your review so far! Keep it coming...

 

(We board Allure in less than 4 weeks now!)

[lindalo5032]

Really enjoying your review! Love your humor and writing style! :)

 

We will be on the Allure Sept. 4th. Looking forward to the rest of your review! Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

[mousemom11]

I'm loving your review so far! My family gets annoyed with me when I do bag counts in the house, after the car is loaded, and after we unload the car at the airport. But, by golly, we have never forgotten a bag!

 

There is hope for the future, figgyva. My DD's are now 12 and 10 and can pack their own bags (using a packing list that I give them) and, best of all, we no longer need a sherpa to get through the airport. Although we do need to tote a deep-cycle marine battery with us to power all our electronics. ;)

[figgyva]

Someone once told me that you have three pounds of stuff for every pound of baby. That load only seems to decrease a little as the get older, but I can't wait for them to be old enough to forget things for themselves! :D

 

That said, DD1 does have her own rolley for her carry-on stuff, and DD2 insisted on having one for herself. The challenge there is that, now I have to worry about more bags! I know, eventually, they won't even want to travel with me and DW and I will have to do it...all...alone.

 

I think that we toasted that eventuality the other night. :rolleyes:

 

I'm working on my next post, the one about the stateroom, but I want to get photos in, so it may not be until tonight or tomorrow.

[nenner1]

Awesome review so far! I can't wait to hear how you survived the week all in one stateroom. We are a family of 5 and were all in one D1 last year in Independence (the youngest was under 2 so it was allowed),,,and OMG, never again! :p We have 2 rooms for our upcoming Allure cruise! ;)

 

More, please!

[cruzincouple2011]

I am having a ball reading your review! I love your humor and sarchasm! i feel your pain, we have 2 young kids as well (2 yrs and 10 months)....packing 3 outfits per day, plus diapers, plus formula/baby food/bottles...makes for a heavy load!

 

We are boarding the Allure September 25 (without the kids!!).....and CAN NOT wait!!!

 

Look forward to more of your review and your pictures!!

[figgyva]

i feel your pain, we have 2 young kids as well (2 yrs and 10 months)....packing 3 outfits per day, plus diapers, plus formula/baby food/bottles...makes for a heavy load!

 

I will say, for all of those out there planning to cruise with toddlers, potty training DD2 leading up to the trip was a fantastic idea. Diapers just take up so much space, and while you can buy them before you get on the ship, it's still a pain (especially in ports-of-call). We were thrilled that DD2 was up for the challenge (just following her second birthday) and went with it. There is a bit of an added inconvenience of having to rush to find restrooms, but she was great. She had one accident during the trip, and that was in the stateroom lav as she was running to the toilet. I won't fault her for that!

 

Although, I will admit that she stayed out of the restroom for a good long time while playing in the water at Cable Beach. :eek:

[kmurph22]

Although we do need to tote a deep-cycle marine battery with us to power all our electronics. ;)

 

AMEN!!! Ha Ha! Ipods, phones, ipads, computers, cameras, kindles..... we must bring 67 cords with us on each trip.

 

Loving your review figgyva!

 

We are a family of 6 also and have decided to bite the bullet and get 3 cabins for our next cruise.... so I think I know where you are headed....

[fdthird]

More please!

[Familygoboston]

Loving your review! Sure your cruise turned out great because you have a great sense of humor;)

You bring me back- we are about 10 years ahead of you in " kid years" and I'm having a good chuckle over your descriptions of traveling with the little ones. I can promise you... It does get easier, just keep takin' em:rolleyes:! Mine are 14 and 16 and have gone everywhere, and are great travelers today!

Can't wait to read the rest!

[BLAMBKY]

:rolleyes: I just can not wait to hear how the 4A/2K in :eek: ONE room turned out!!!:p you are either VERY brave or stupid! So??? Which one are you going to admit to being?

Just to clarify- I could not imagine sharing a room w/MY or DH's parents, even in the largest, best suite on the ship. Nope. Could not imagine it at all....

[chevygirlgonecruizin]

I am reading your post to my husband and I am in tears laughing. :p OMG! It's like reading about ourselves and trips we have taken! Minus the grandparents. Our little one is not so little anymore. He's 18 and traveling with mom and dad are not at the top of his priority list. But I still remember like yesterday all the chaos just getting out the front door! I would get so stressed out and my DH was always the trooper who did whatever to try and make everything ok. I look forward to reading more about your " Everything is gonna be fine trip."

Kelly

[fllisa]

Really enjoying your review! Love your humor and writing style! :)

 

We will be on the Allure Sept. 4th. Looking forward to the rest of your review! Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

 

 

we are also on the Allure Sept 4th and there is a roll call for his sailing if you care to join in the conversations. Just so you know...

 

Anyway, I am enjoying the roll call and this review of Allure.

 

Liisa

[figgyva]

Two grandparents, two parents, and two kids are sharing a stateroom…doesn’t that sound like a lead in for a really bad punch line? At the very least, it’s an extreme reinforcement of Latin family stereotypes, but did we really think this was a good idea. Well, uh, no, WE didn’t, but DW did, so here we are. And, you know what? It actually worked out well.

 

Now, I reiterate, we're a close family. My MIL takes care of the kids when they're not in school and we're at work, and we do take vacations together, but sharing a stateroom on a cruise ship is a whole other level. Other than some arguing about who was snoring loudest (earplugs helped), we actually did have our own spaces. Sure, privacy was nominal, at best, but on a family vacation with little kids, how much privacy do you really expect to have, anyway? Yes, it's a dissonant argument, but that's my story and it makes me feel better. OK?

 

We (or, rather, DW) booked a Family Ocean View with Balcony (FB), 11166 as an impulse booking on Liberty last year. The location is really perfect. It’s just a few feet from the lobby, two decks from Adventure Ocean, and three decks from Central Park for easy cross-ship transit. With small kids, you appreciate location a whole lot more.

 

As for the room, DW and I were shocked at how large it is (given that this was our fourth cruise and we already know how small staterooms are). I figured on posting photos of it since there is a lack of information on the FB rooms here on CC. This one is from the "hallway" next to the lavatory.

 

 

The room actually felt spacious, as much as a stateroom can feel spacious. To get a sense, veterans will recognize that the room has an extra window next to the sliding door to the balcony. That must add a good 4-6 feet to the width and makes for a pretty large balcony. One thing that you can barely see in the photo on the right is that the desk has three drawers and then two narrow cupboards between it and the window. We used those as a pantry. The fridge is next to the drawers.

 

 

The sofa is next to the balcony and the queen-size bed is in the interior, near the lavatory. Funny enough, when the steward makes up the sofa bed, the head of the bed was next to the balcony door. It’s tight to get around to the balcony when the sofa bed is made up, but our steward, Evelyn, informed us that she’d deconstruct the bed in the morning. This was a little detail that I really didn’t expect and one that made the room really perfect during the day, especially for moving around and letting the kids play on the floor.

 

 

At night, the curtain pulls across the entire room, giving a bit of privacy between the beds.

 

 

From this shot, you’ll note how much space is between the primary bed and one of the two full closets. You can actually walk into the room without balancing yourself to keep from falling on the bed! Shocking. That closet has the micro safe in it and the nice full-length mirror on the side.

 

 

Another shot of the space between the bed and the closet. DW and I were kind of shocked at the floor space.

 

 

The second full closet is next to the primary bed. It’s identical to the first sans the safe in the third cubby from the top. It has two hanging racks with a little space for full-length dresses and such. DW and I fit all of our clothes and most of the kids clothes in this closet, with some room to spare. Note that there is also space above the closet. Also note the curtain on the left which separates the bunk beds from the rest of the cabin. The bed is a good three feet from the closet, so again, plenty of space to walk around.

 

More coming up in the next post.

[figgyva]

I'm glad that everyone is enjoying the review. Here are some other ways that the FB is special.

 

 

The bunk beds are basically in a closet space next to the door. This isn’t ideal when you have kids since you’ll probably want to go in and out of the cabin while they sleep. Even worse is that it’s right across from the lav. We invested in a cheap white noise generator long ago and it works magic for drowning out noise, so we used that and it was great. One word of warning, though, is that there is absolutely no power anywhere near the beds, so make sure that anything you need there takes batteries. Much to my dismay, DW snuck an extension cord on board and despite my expectation of getting called down to the shame screening room, it got through. But, it was of no use anyway since the nearest power port is over at the desk. Fortunately, we had batteries in our walkies and just used those and replaced the walkies with DECT phones (one free from AO for DD2). Note that the top bunk has a rail but the bottom does not. We had purchased an inflatable rail for placing under the fitted sheet for DD2. After the second night, Evelyn automatically made the bed with it. She rocked.

 

Another thing to note is that 11162 is also a FB but reversed, so there are bunk beds on the other side of the wall from these ones. Now, I won't go into a rant about how parents tend to forget what it is to be parents on cruises. Well, OK, maybe I will. Parents need to respect that a cruise ship is one big party, but that party happens away from the staterooms. The staterooms are part of a hotel, and in the hotel, people really appreciate a general silence they usually need to get a good night's sleep. Sure, kids can be rambunctious when you let them stay up late, but that doesn't mean that you turn a blind eye to your kids when they're kicking and pounding the common wall with another room. DD1 stayed up until after 10 PM on most nights (at least two hours past her normal bed time), but she never pounded on the wall. Sure, part of that may have been the thought in the back of her head that she might find herself flying off the balcony if she were to wake her sister, but another part is in her understanding that, to have a good time means occasionally getting some sleep. So too goes for the parents who let their kids run up and down the halls at all hours. Please, like they don't know what's going on.

 

Fortunately, the folks next door spoke Spanish, and DW is really good at showing you true fear when speaking Spanish. Before I could even blink, she went next door, pounded on the door, had a not-so-polite conversation with the mother, yelled at the kids, and calmly stepped away. You have to really love Latin women. :D The kids weren't a problem for the rest of the cruise.

 

 

Here's DD1 in the top bunk. Isn't she cute? I usually avoid personal photos, but since no algorithm in the world will actually be able to trace this shot, I figure it's OK. You can tell from it that the rail goes pretty darn high, higher than the rail on her loft bed at home.

 

 

Next to the bunk beds is the third closet. It’s kind of dead hanging space, but we used it a little to keep some of the kids clothes. It also serves as a rail for the lower parts of the beds. Note again that the curtain next to it that closes to separate the beds from the main room.

 

 

There’s nothing special about the lav, about the same size as any other standard stateroom. The lack of a bathtub wasn’t a problem since DD2 can stand fine, and she even loved holding the shower head, so we turned it into a bath time game. The lav had a lot of space for little things, though toiletries for six of us were a little bit of a challenge to keep organized.

 

 

Oh, and about that single shower/toilet situation. We had a bit of sharing going on, but I don't really think that it was too necessary. I think DW came in once while I was showering, but that was to bring DD2 in to do her thing. I left the cabin a couple of times to use the public facilities for doing my business (and I'm sure that the family appreciated that consideration!). Sure, two restrooms would have been nice, but we did OK. I'm betting, though, that DD1 would probably make a second restroom a necessity within the next few years.

 

Changing clothes was a little bit of a challenge, but one we adapted to. Sometimes we used the lav, sometimes we used the bunk area with the curtain drawn. But, most times we weren't all in the room at the same time, so it really didn't matter too much.

[drmomto3kids]

Thank you for your great trip report! I'm hooked. I love seeing the pictures of the FB. I would certainly have considered booking one if I had seen them earlier. We ended up booking an ocean balcony and a boardwalk balcony across the hall from each other for DH, 4 kids, and me. Now I'm sure I can't talk DH out of his boardwalk balcony even if there were FBs left! (Plus I sleep better without his snoring! So I'll happily take my ocean balcony across the hall!)

[figgyva]

Upon entering our stateroom, we already had most of our luggage, so we unpacked everything and stowed the bags. Based on CC suggestions, DW had packed all of the kids clothes in plastic bags, with labels for “day” and “night” together with the appropriate name. What a great idea! My daughters and I had a great time of throwing the clothes across the room for storing in the closet. Then, throughout the trip, we only needed to pick the right bag for changing or for packing on port days. A week’s worth of clothes for the six of us fit fine in the available closet space with a good amount of space to spare.

 

During our unpacking, the rest of our luggage came in and we met Evelyn, our stateroom attendant. We’re actually pretty easy going, but I wanted to get a bunch of requests out of the way right up front, so I had a conversation with her on a few items:

- Emptying the fridge: No problem, just take everything out and put it up on the top shelf of the desk. The bar staff will remove it the next day.

- Getting an extra balcony chair: Will have to check with supervisor. “No biggie,” I said. “We have six folks and I was hoping to have more than two chairs. More on this below.

- Make up the sofa bed: No problem. It was only not made because she would make it up at night and then back to the sofa in the morning. I doubt that I’m alone in being surprised by this level of service and I was impressed.

- Towels for six: No problem.

- Take out a light bulb in the bunk area. To explain, each bunk has it’s own light, and DD2 had figured out how to flip the switch. I could just imagine spending a whole night watching the light go on and off. She’ll have to check with her supervisor.

 

With that out of the way, time for the Sail Away party in the Aqua Theater. It was fun and everything, especially for the kids, but then I realize that we’re actually leaving port, and there I was stuck in the theater, barely able to see anything. It would have been cooler to have the party a bit before or after the actual sail away. But, then again, maybe I’m just silly to think that my kids would have actually appreciated lounging the Viking Crown, sipping a cocktail, and appreciating the grandeur of this monstrosity of a vessel. So, I dealt.

 

Explore a little more, then back to the room to get ready for dinner (early seating). We decided to stick with a traditional dining schedule since the kids are used to eating at 6 PM and it allows us to maintain at least a little routine. It ended up working out really well. But, on this day, of course the stateroom supervisor would like to speak to me about my “issues,” just as we’re heading to dinner. “They aren’t issues, so much as inquiries,” I responded as I sent the family along thinking that this might take a while.

 

Sure enough, it did. First, I received an apology and a full explanation for why we couldn’t get an extra balcony chair. You see, the rooms were built furnished, and then put onto the ship, and blah, blah, blah. “Yeah, that’s fine, I was only inquiring.” 10 minutes later, George, the supervisor, is still explaining the situation. “I’m good, man, just move on!” I thought, trying to look as polite and attentive as possible. He eventually moved on to the light. While showing me how difficult it was to remove, he proceeded to explain how he could probably have it changed out, but they would have to put it back in when making the bed, “to make sure that no one peed on it or anything.” I tried hard not to show my amusement and instead look on very seriously and content with his explanation. “I’m good, man, just move on!” I thought to myself as I imagined my family waiting for me at the dining room with dessert sitting on the table.

 

Then, George noted our Gold coupon books, welcomed me back aboard and noted how important repeat cruisers are to them. “Yeah, I’m only Gold,” I thought, but, hey, I like this direction the conversation is taking. “What I would like to do is thank you personally and apologize for the inconvenience and the fact that no one inspected the room before you arrived (news to me). Do you drink?” “Uh, yeah.” “How about wine? White or red?” “Definitely red.” “Then I will give you a bottle of wine in appreciation for your loyalty.” Wow, OK, I accept.

 

Sure enough, the next day, we had a bottle of wine and four glasses with which to share it waiting for us. It was a completely unnecessary gesture, but I certainly would accept it. What’s more is that, as I was putting DD2 to bed, Evelyn came by and dropped off four robes. All of the sudden, I felt bad about saying anything at all. They probably think that we’re just a bunch of over-privileged Americans who want everything handed to them. But, I erased those thoughts and decided to just go with it.

[figgyva]

I love seeing the pictures of the FB. I would certainly have considered booking one if I had seen them earlier. We ended up booking an ocean balcony and a boardwalk balcony across the hall from each other for DH, 4 kids, and me.

 

DW and I had first considered connecting balconies to have the separate spaces, but that ended up costing so much more than the FB at the time that we decided to give it shot. Despite my concerns, I'm glad that we did. The room had a whole lot more space that I expected, to the point that I'm really surprised that it's not considered a suite.

 

Of course, then the question becomes, "Would we do it again." If the price is right on separate staterooms and we had six traveling together again, then I would probably push for that. But, with a price difference of more than $1000, I would do the FB again. If it were just the four of us, I'm not entirely sure which direction I would go. I thought that the bunk beds were great for the kids, and they loved the idea of having their own space. But, the primary passenger rates are so high on the FB that they would probably have to give me JS privileges to really consider it.

 

Have a great cruise! I would share your preference for the Ocean Balcony over the Boardwalk Balcony.

[rthouse]

I'm really enjoying your review even though I don't have kids. Your sense of humor and your wit make for very amusing reading!

 

Thanks for sharing your experience!