Review of our Spring Break allure of the Seas family cruise

[momoforeo]

Here is my review/synopsis of our trip on the Allure for spring break. No pictures because I don't have them on the computer I am using. I hope you enjoy and if you have any questions, please ask and I will try and answer. This was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean, but not our first cruise ever. i have cruised on a few of the other lines including Carnival, Celebrity and NCL.

 

Our journey began with a 2 day car trip down to Florida from NJ. the ride wasn't too bad, we had plenty of movies for the boys to watch, lots of snacks and good weather. Our only snag was in the state of VA where we hit gobs of traffic. It added around 2-3 hours to our trip. The night before we sailed we stayed at family's house to celebrate the holidays and get a good nights sleep.

 

The next morning after breakfast, we began the short journey to the Port Everglades. We pulled in to the Pier around 10:30 and were directed to drop off luggage. The process was very easy and we found parking very close by. We walked into the terminal, walked through the metal detectors and up to the waiting area. They did not check our cooler bag which contained some soda and water bottles. We waited up in the Emerald area for priority boarding. While there we sat across from someone who had a son our YDS's age. The trip was off to a positive start.

 

We boarded the ship a little after 11am. You enter the ship on the Promenade level near guest services. Our first stop was to get a hole punched in our cards so the boys could wear the cards on lanyards. The ship is so large and our first impression was WOW. We decided to head up to Central Park and the Park Café for the famous Roast Beef Sandwich. It definitely lived up to its name.

 

 

The ship was mostly tastefully decorated with lots of open space. Central Park definitely has the feel of the park with live trees, birds chirping and upscale restaurants and shops. Our next stop was up to deck 15 to get lounge chairs by one of the pools. There are 4 pools on deck 15, plus the adults only Solarium. We sat by the sports pool. My dh waited at the chairs while the boys and I explored the ship. Alex, younger DS wanted to try the zip line and boogie boards on the Flow rider, so he did that first. He was the first person to ride the zip line on this trip. While it is a short ride, it goes quickly and you are above the boardwalk area which is about 9 decks below.

Our room was ready by 1pm and we dropped off our carryon bags. I was pleasantly surprised to see that our other luggage was waiting outside our cabin. We had two interior rooms with slightly different configurations. Our bed was against the back wall and gave us plenty of walking around space. The boys had the other configuration with the bed by the closet. Both beds were pushed together, but as we left the cabins to explore, we met our cabin steward (or should I say stewardess, Tessa - who was fabulous the entire trip. We all enjoyed the towel animals she left every other night, along with the chocolate on the pillow) She quickly agreed to separate the boy’s beds.

The whole family went to the sail away up at the sky deck to meet with other cruise critic members. Alex hooked up with two boys his age. Then it was time to quickly change for dinner since we had the early seating.

 

 

Our dinner assignment was at 6pm and our waiter was Bruno from Brazil. He was an excellent server. The food in the main dining room was mostly enjoyable; though there was one night everyone was disappointed. We always had quick service in the dining room and were usually finished with our meal in about one hour. We also ate in Chops one night and Giovanni’s another night. Both were excellent though the service at Chops was slow.

 

The first night we went to see Chicago. Excellent production and much better than any other show I have seen on a cruise ship. The next night was the comedy club. We had later reservations, but we managed to go standby for an earlier show. The first comedian was very good, the headliner was ok. (Rondell Sheridan). We also saw Ice Games, better than many ice shows and Blue Planet, dancers and aerialists. This show did not wow us, I don't know if it was because our seats weren't great, we were just too tired or had seen similar shows elsewhere. However the production was very good, ie dancers coming out of the tree. And the last formal show was the Aqua Show. The divers were really good. Reservations were good to have because the shows did fill up, but it was possible to wait on standby and get into the shows. We did this for a couple of shows because we wanted to go to an earlier show than we had reservations.

 

The informal shows we saw were the Quest, Love and Marriage, 60 seconds or less, Belly Flop. All were enjoyable and somewhat standard games on ships, though Quest is unique.

 

Ports of call were Labadee, Falmouth (Jamaica) and Cozumel (Mexico). In Labadee we went to Nellies. Good location, with soft wave and very relaxing on the mats, though it can be crowded since it is also the area where people use kayaks. We did the Dragon coaster. This coaster fits up to two people (you pay for one person and the second rides for free). You control the breaks on the coaster. Alex thought Aron went too slow. Ben controlled my coaster and we went very fast for most of the trip. Food was our only issue as they closed at 1:30 even though we didn’t need to be back on the ship until 4:30. The boys were on line at 1:00 and one of the servers told them it was closed and they would have to walk to another station, which was around 10 minute walk. It was a very relaxing, though hot day. I did miss the cold water towels you receive on Celebrity.

 

In Falmouth we took a 1.5 hour cab ride to Beaches resort to enjoy the facilities and get a tour. Cab cost $150 plus tip. The resort is ok and has many restaurants, a nice pool and water park area. We did not go to the beach, but it looked nice. Our only comment is the place looked a little worn.

In Cozumel we did the Dolphin Push, Pull Swim in Chakanaab through the cruise line. This was a great experience. We were put into groups of 12 and really got to interact with the dolphins. You get to swim on a dolphin’s belly by holding onto its fins, you get pushed on a boogie board by a dolphin and you hold a dolphin. Lastly you pet and hold a Manatee. Manatees are closely related to elephants. I thought it was well worth the money. After we had lunch and then the boys went snorkeling and swimming, while I relaxed on the beach. There is also a botanical garden to walk through, fake Mayan ruins and a few cafes.

 

There were three sea days. While at sea there are many activities to do. We participated in many of the trivia contests. They have a progressive trivia game, which was fun. Our family even won one of the trivia contests. Some of the other activities were miniature golf, flow riders, zip line, ping pong, shopping, karaoke (at night), and tons of other activities. On the last sea day, every one did the zip line. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. We also played Bingo and lost. They had lots of different Trivia games, including a progressive one that you needed to play for 5 days. As a family we even won one of the general trivia contests. There is so much to do on the ship. Once Aron and I discovered the Adults only solarium, we spent most of our time during the day sitting on a lounge chair.

 

We ate in most of the free venues. We had breakfast in Johnny Rockets the first morning. They serve fresh omelets and pancakes. We also tried breakfast at Windjammers buffet, Solarium bistro, main dining room and Park Café. Park Café served fresh bagels with a variety of toppings or prepared sandwiches and hot oatmeal. We ate lunch one afternoon at Johnny Rockets, very good hamburgers and shakes. We also had lunch at Windjammers buffet and found it typical of most cruise ship buffets – crowded and so-so food.

 

The boys participated in the teen clubs. They did not go to any of the shows, but spent every night with the teens. The first night they went to the club. There were not a lot of teens there that night, especially Ben’s age. Alex hung with the boys he had met at sail away. The next day, the first sea day, Alex spent the day with his new friends. Ben spent most of the day with Aron and I. He found a few teens to hang with, but only for a couple of hours. That night he went back to the living room (teen lounge) and met a group of teens. For the rest of the trip he was busy. The teens had some organized activities, but the boys mostly just hung in the lounge or in the hot tubs. Some of the planned activities included dodge ball tournaments, basketball games, scavenger hunts, amazing race games, dances, etc.

 

One complaint was the theater was very cold. The first night I had on a dress and light sweater and froze. After that I wore jeans at night with a long sleeve shirt or heavier sweater if I planned to be in the theater. Other venues were not as cold.

 

Our only other complaint, was while there was a lot of choices of activities on the ship each night, the last night there was minimal choices. They repeated the comedy show early in the night and then later had a family friendly comedy show; however it was a lot of the same material we had heard earlier.

 

It was a fabulous vacation for the entire family. While I had originally thought the ship would be too large and overwhelming, I never had that feeling. There was never an issue getting chairs by the pool, lines were not too bad for the elevators except right when a show had let out and you didn’t notice how many teens were actually on the ship. I would highly recommend sailing on the Allure or Oasis.

[CCJack]

Thanks for such a great review.... How early do you need to get to the shows to get a decent seat? We are on the Allure Western in July.

[momoforeo]

It depends upon the venue and show. We usually got to the venue around 20 - 30 minutes early and got decent seats and our drinks. However for the Aqua show we moved our seats when they released the "reserved for suite" seats to get the more comfortable chairs.

 

They allow standby in with about 10 minutes before showtime.

[swim13]

Nice review! Your son's are very lucky! Are you going to be adding any pictures later?

[terpfan101]

Hi there. Great review. I have a question regarding the dolphin/manatee excursion that you did as I'm looking at booking that. What time did you do it at (and do you recall how the time posted compared to ship and Cozumel time)? Also how long did it take from start to finish? Thanks!

[LBumb]

great job

[momoforeo]

Hi there. Great review. I have a question regarding the dolphin/manatee excursion that you did as I'm looking at booking that. What time did you do it at (and do you recall how the time posted compared to ship and Cozumel time)? Also how long did it take from start to finish? Thanks!

 

We picked the 9:30 time frame. We got off the ship in Cozumel and on the pier they direct you to the group running that tour. We signed in and then the group that was going on this and the other dolphin excursion took cabs over to Chakanaab. The tour guide put us in the cabs and paid the fare. When we got to Chakanaab they directed us to the lockers and we then were seperated into groups of around 12 for the actual "swim". I don't recall exactly how long the swim took, but after we were done we had a quick bite to eat in the cafe, bought our pictures, went down to the beach and snorkeled for around an hour. We left at 2pm. The tour guide meets you in front and arranges the taxi ride and fare. I think the departures were every hour starting at 1pm and ending at 3pm for our ship. We were on ship time which is East Coast time. We did not change our clocks.

[momoforeo]

Nice review! Your son's are very lucky! Are you going to be adding any pictures later?

 

I will try!:D

[vivavegas]

Great review! I'm sure the trip made your sons very happy!:)

[terpfan101]

We picked the 9:30 time frame. We got off the ship in Cozumel and on the pier they direct you to the group running that tour. We signed in and then the group that was going on this and the other dolphin excursion took cabs over to Chakanaab. The tour guide put us in the cabs and paid the fare. When we got to Chakanaab they directed us to the lockers and we then were seperated into groups of around 12 for the actual "swim". I don't recall exactly how long the swim took, but after we were done we had a quick bite to eat in the cafe, bought our pictures, went down to the beach and snorkeled for around an hour. We left at 2pm. The tour guide meets you in front and arranges the taxi ride and fare. I think the departures were every hour starting at 1pm and ending at 3pm for our ship. We were on ship time which is East Coast time. We did not change our clocks.

 

Hmm good to know. Do you recall though if the actual swim was under 2 hours total? It says only 1 hour in water time. Also you did 9:30AM, does that mean you met onboard and left around that time? I'm thinking of doing it at 8:30AM which is listed as local time (so it's really 9:30AM ship time). Is that the one you did? I'd love to be done by noon ship time to get to Mr. Sancho's for the afternoon.

[momoforeo]

We did the one listed in Royal at 9:30. Unfortunately I don't remember all the details, but I am pretty sure we were done by 12 (ship time) with the swim. i will check with my husband to see if his memory is better than mine.

[terpfan101]

We did the one listed in Royal at 9:30. Unfortunately I don't remember all the details, but I am pretty sure we were done by 12 (ship time) with the swim. i will check with my husband to see if his memory is better than mine.

 

9:30 ship time right? if so that's the one I'm looking at. Thanks in advance!

[momoforeo]

I forgot to mention in the review one of our "daily" activities was to send a free video or picture postcard to friends and family. The loved recieving them and with the video we were able to record what we had done that day. The video booth was never crowded and only took a few moments.