Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[C2174]

.... Well, kinda! You posted the pic of the Sonesta hotel. I said, "wow, it would be great to stay in that hotel for the night before our Serenade cruise in November. I wonder how much it really is?" (Yes, I too like to book things in advance.)

 

I looked on thier website and the prices were over $300 per night mid week. Ugg, not in my budget. But then I checked out all of the rate classes that they have and figured out that I quailified for one. I was able to reserve a room for $148 (with tax and fees)! I'm looking forward to the trip even more now! THANKS!

 

Thanks also for the "trip" on the Oasis and the entertainment! I'm more intrigued by her now.

[harryfat1]

Thank you for your detailed answer.

Do you have a photo of hallway from the elevator toward the aft?

 

Only pic I have would be what I posted back on day 3. This was taken from the very end of the hallway with my back to the secret balcony and your cabin would be the first one on the left. Looking as far as the eye can see is long corridor of cabins and the elevator is somewhere toward the end.

 

[harryfat1]

.... Well, kinda! You posted the pic of the Sonesta hotel. I said, "wow, it would be great to stay in that hotel for the night before our Serenade cruise in November. I wonder how much it really is?" (Yes, I too like to book things in advance.)

 

I looked on thier website and the prices were over $300 per night mid week. Ugg, not in my budget. But then I checked out all of the rate classes that they have and figured out that I quailified for one. I was able to reserve a room for $148 (with tax and fees)! I'm looking forward to the trip even more now! THANKS!

 

Thanks also for the "trip" on the Oasis and the entertainment! I'm more intrigued by her now.

 

Did I mention that you are supposed to pay me 10% commission on all savings?

 

Cool on getting savings. What discount category did you used? AAA or Government or they have some special promo?

 

A week before your arrival date, call the hotel and ask nicely to speak to someone about them assigning you a less obstructed ocean view. This is the only picture I have of the place but you can tell the some of the lower floor rooms will likely have a big old palm tree leaf in front of you – similar to the obstructed ocean view from the Princess ships.

 

 

 

Regardless of what view you get, great rate and you are just one crosswalk away from the beach.

 

Go check out the Primanti Bros. place one block away for some 24/7 food while you are there. Think soccerdad72 will join you.

 

Oasis? I have never been on Oasis. You sure you don’t have me confused with someone else?:p

[C2174]

I really was too excited about my good deal! :-) Allure.. .I meant Allure... LOL

 

It is the government rate. Great idea for getting assigned the best room! I'm setting a reminder now. The rate was so much of a discount I called them to make the reservation just to be sure there wasn't something I was missing.

 

My husband LOVES pizza, so Primanti Bros. it is... I think they owe you a commission (or at least a pizza coupon for your next trip).

[harryfat1]

I really was too excited about my good deal! :-) Allure.. .I meant Allure... LOL

 

It is the government rate. Great idea for getting assigned the best room! I'm setting a reminder now. The rate was so much of a discount I called them to make the reservation just to be sure there wasn't something I was missing.

 

My husband LOVES pizza, so Primanti Bros. it is... I think they owe you a commission (or at least a pizza coupon for your next trip).

 

Glad you found a great deal. That’s the good thing about writing a trip report - it helps people in making their vacation just a bit nicer. Wasn’t really pushing for any business to that hotel as it’s beach front property, way out of my budget but since you snagged a great deal, it’s all the better.

 

I looked at their web site, looks like the prime real estate is floors 9 and 10 as they charge extra for those. So when you call, ask for floors 6 to 8 as they will still be high enough up to look past the trees but not at the higher price range.

[Jules.]

I've just finished reading your review after sitting down last night to start it. Wow, thanks for sharing your cruise with us fellow CCs :)

[Bimmer09]

Harry-thanks for the huge amount of work and passion you put into this mammoth review.

 

It was a great read start to finish!

 

Best wishes,

 

Norris

[NJ&Ozzie]

I'm lurking and enjoying as well - I'll be on the Allure in April, so watching out for things to plan/do.

 

Hey Thoie,

I'm lurking too! Also on the Allure Apr. 19th. See you then.

Just luving your review Harry. Getting excited about our upcoming TA after seeing your wonderful pics. And glad we'll get to see the Allure before it's retrofit changes, etc.

See that Cuddy was your CD Assistant. We've had Cuddy as CDA on Adventure of the Seas a number of times & thought he was a blast.

Great job Harry.

NJ :)

[koopmanclan]

Thanks so much....I am new to all of this and I have been glued to your review as we sailing on the Allure in Aug. My husband and I met working on cruise ships and it has been our dream to take our children cruising. Your review has given me many tips and ideas. Many thanks from The Koopman clan in the UK.

[harryfat1]

I've just finished reading your review after sitting down last night to start it. Wow, thanks for sharing your cruise with us fellow CCs :)

 

You’re welcome. Hopefully this info will be useful to some cruisers down the road.

 

Impressive in reading all this info in less than a day. You must be very good at speed reading or have mastered the art of 45 seconds web page scrolling…

[harryfat1]

Harry-thanks for the huge amount of work and passion you put into this mammoth review.

 

It was a great read start to finish!

 

Best wishes,

 

Norris

 

Hi, Norris,

 

Thanks again for your compliment. You definitely have the biggest influence on me writing this tome. Many cruisers will also need to thank you for guiding me in the beginning process to get to the final result.

 

Maybe I will follow your footsteps and move some of the info here at cc to a new blog space for others to read as well.

 

Now that I am done with this project, I need to go back to various people’s reviews and look at other people’s work, such as all your other cruise reviews. Much more fun to be a guest of a party than hosting your own party.

[harryfat1]

Hey Thoie,

I'm lurking too! Also on the Allure Apr. 19th. See you then.

Just luving your review Harry. Getting excited about our upcoming TA after seeing your wonderful pics. And glad we'll get to see the Allure before it's retrofit changes, etc.

See that Cuddy was your CD Assistant. We've had Cuddy as CDA on Adventure of the Seas a number of times & thought he was a blast.

Great job Harry.

NJ :)

 

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you found the info helpful.

 

Sounds like this TA sailing will have a lot of cc folks on it. Be sure to go back to do some research on the TA of Oasis coming back to US in October 2014. I remember reading that sailing ran into some cold weather and there were massive complaints from the guests as they had no places to go because the Oasis class ships are made more for warm weather sailings and the guests couldn’t use the outside decks. But hopefully you guys will have warmer weather.

 

Yeah, be sure to get to the secret balcony ASAP before they start to block it off during the TA in converting to suites – RCI are greedy gravy sucking pigs.

 

For my money, Cuddy was better/more fun as a CD than Jerome. It would be great if he can be promoted to CD someday.

 

You and everyone on the TA have a great cruise.

[harryfat1]

Thanks so much....I am new to all of this and I have been glued to your review as we sailing on the Allure in Aug. My husband and I met working on cruise ships and it has been our dream to take our children cruising. Your review has given me many tips and ideas. Many thanks from The Koopman clan in the UK.

 

You’re welcome. Glad you found the info helpful. I tried to write to beginning cruisers in providing more details in my trip report to help folks connect the dots.

 

Go attend the free central park gardening tour and ask how many plants they had to replace for Europe as the climate is very different compared to the Caribbean.

 

You and your family have a great cruise in the summer.

 

Cheers,

[Disney Sheep]

Many thanks for the great review Harry. Just wanted to let you know that my friend had a great time on the Allure last week, and as a first time cruiser it was great for her to have your recent experience to fill in the blanks with the stuff I had already told her!

 

So again, thanks for the great review. And by the way, she too took your approach of sticking with what was available in the basic cruise price, vice paying for any of the 'extras'.

[harryfat1]

Many thanks for the great review Harry. Just wanted to let you know that my friend had a great time on the Allure last week, and as a first time cruiser it was great for her to have your recent experience to fill in the blanks with the stuff I had already told her!

 

So again, thanks for the great review. And by the way, she too took your approach of sticking with what was available in the basic cruise price, vice paying for any of the 'extras'.

 

Hi, Yvonne,

 

Great to hear that your friend had a wonderful time on her cruise. Wow, didn’t realize it was her first cruise. After this, all ships will look small to her.

 

Did she find all the drinking water area as I remembered that she had some concerns prior to the cruise?

 

Yes, I concur that a first time cruiser can just stick to the venue covered by the regular cruise fare to see if that’s satisfactory to them. Only after the first cruise, then they can upgrade to better dining options if that’s their preference. Don’t feel the pressure to do specialty dining and other added extras if they are not sure if the basic cruise experience is sufficient for them.

[PoohUnderstands]

We stayed at the party until 11 PM, then it was time to drag our tired bodies back to the cabin after a long day. Think the official party ends after 11:30.

 

Technically I signed up for the Madagascar breakfast for day 7 mornings at 7:45 AM but there’s no way we would make that. Why would they make it that early is beyond me considering the MDR is opened between 8 to 10 AM that morning.

 

We were grandfathered in not having to pay the $10/pp fee to dine with the characters as we reserved the breakfast prior to September 1, 2014. I thought it would a nice thing to do the breakfast thing if it was free but no way was I going to pay $40 for us to eat there after they implemented the new fee. Now with the tired family, even the free character meal didn’t appeal to me.

 

 

 

 

I did stay up a little bit that night to double check the OBC from the TV screen so that I know how much we have left in the account to spend for day 7. As I posted previously, they gave us an extra $17/pp OBC from some sort of port tax refund, but no idea which one and why. Money is money. Planned to use it both on the aunts and uncles on day 7, our last day on the ship.

 

This concludes the day 6 trip report.

 

 

Fantastic thread! We are not going on the Allure until April, 2016, but I am as OCD as you almost! Grin. How soon were you able to go online and start reserving(ALL the things you have to reserve-this is definitely a new cruise experience for me!)? I tried their site yesterday, but needless to say, nothing was available. Can you give me some idea how far out you can start to reserve things?

 

Pooh

[DarthGrady]

Great review and pics! Thanks for sharing them!

[soccerdad72]

Harry - just thanking you in advance, as I borrowed (errr, stole ;) ) your planning Excel spreadsheet and am starting the process of filling in the boxes with dinners, shows and excursions. :D I'm sure my family will think I'm insane, but when it's all said and done, they'll appreciate it (maybe). :o

[Shar27]

In post #587 you attached a file:

 

Allure of the seas showtime.pdf

 

I was wondering where you found that schedule. I am trying to find one for the Oasis of the Seas and am not sure where to look.

 

I just loved your review and although there are a few differences between the two ships, I found it very, very helpful. Thank you!!

[baileysdad]

Digging the tilt-shift effect in the photo with the tram.

[baileysdad]

@Shar27 -- We're on Allure in a few weeks, and they've taken the show times PDF off of the web site. Sadly, it may be that they are removing it from all ships/sailings. I emailed RCCL, and they confirmed the removal from the Allure sailing, but gave no explanation. I asked that they consider putting it back up since it've very helpful.

[harryfat1]

Fantastic thread! We are not going on the Allure until April, 2016, but I am as OCD as you almost! Grin. How soon were you able to go online and start reserving(ALL the things you have to reserve-this is definitely a new cruise experience for me!)? I tried their site yesterday, but needless to say, nothing was available. Can you give me some idea how far out you can start to reserve things?

 

Pooh

 

Hi, Pooh,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Didn’t realize I was the standard that people use in gauging how anal/OCD they are – Gee, if I am not as anal/OCD as that urinal spreadsheet guy, then I am ok…

 

My time in reserving the shows is not typical – I was able to reserve the December shows in May, whopping 7 months out. I think that happened just when RCI was converting their software to accommodate the Quantum sailings for late 2014 and in the process, they opened reservations for everyone else. Think the typical timing for most people is 2 to 3 months out.

 

I would suggest you join/monitor your cruise’s roll call and chances are if anyone can book their shows, the whole roll call will know about it. As soon as I was able to book my shows, I posted it on my roll call so people on my roll call knew about it.

 

Have a great cruise next year on the Allure. Chances are it won’t be like the last HAL cruise you were on.

[harryfat1]

Great review and pics! Thanks for sharing them!

 

Hi, Grady,

 

Thanks for the compliment. Actually I need to thank you as I actually went far enough back to look at your 2011 cruise review in preparation for my cruise.

 

You are one of the legends of these boards with all the cruise ship pictorial reviews. I always found your info very helpful. You are much nicer to your readers than I will ever be in categorizing the pictures by deck to give them an idea of what’s what. I am too lazy and just ramble on.

 

Thanks again for all your cruise reviews and whenever I decide on the next cruise, I am sure I will scroll through your list to see if Grady has already done a review to make my research that much easier.

[harryfat1]

Harry - just thanking you in advance, as I borrowed (errr, stole ;) ) your planning Excel spreadsheet and am starting the process of filling in the boxes with dinners, shows and excursions. :D I'm sure my family will think I'm insane, but when it's all said and done, they'll appreciate it (maybe). :o

 

You’re welcome (I think – almost sounded like a backhanded compliment). Steal the spreadsheet all you like, that’s why I uploaded the template so anyone can take it and convert it for their personal usage or else I wouldn’t have shared that info.

 

You don’t have to populate the spreadsheet to its fullest extent if you want to leave more “play it by ear” moments. You can drop in meal time/specialty restaurants (if any)/show times. Those you should track with or without a spreadsheet – just a daily planner will do – as you wouldn’t want a schedule conflict between specialty dining and shows.

 

I think Europe is a challenge for these mega ships as you typically only have 1 sea day versus 3 sea days for the Caribbean. And the port days could be long excursions to far away museums and sites that require a lot of walking, which means you will be tired by time you come back at night. So you will need to be choosier on what part of the ship you want to see/experience as you will be pulled between the ports and what the ship has to offer.

 

One suggestion I have is go back to summer of 2014 and search Oasis to see if anyone posted daily compass for the European sailings. Not saying it will be exactly the same but at least you have an idea on what’s being offered on the ship and perhaps pencil in some activities that are important to your family.

 

Have great time in Europe this summer.

[harryfat1]

In post #587 you attached a file:

 

Allure of the seas showtime.pdf

 

I was wondering where you found that schedule. I am trying to find one for the Oasis of the Seas and am not sure where to look.

 

I just loved your review and although there are a few differences between the two ships, I found it very, very helpful. Thank you!!

 

@Shar27 -- We're on Allure in a few weeks, and they've taken the show times PDF off of the web site. Sadly, it may be that they are removing it from all ships/sailings. I emailed RCCL, and they confirmed the removal from the Allure sailing, but gave no explanation. I asked that they consider putting it back up since it've very helpful.

 

Hi, Sharonna,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad some of the info is helpful even on a different ship.

 

Baileysdad already answered your question on the show time PDF as he had posted a similar question on the boards.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2169268&highlight=allure

 

I guess for whatever reason, RCI decided not to update the current show time. Maybe post dry dock with new show and Allure being in Europe, they haven’t decided on what show to have at which time. Too bad as that schedule is helpful in helping people decide nights to attend the various shows.

 

But if you are cruising in 18 days, shouldn’t you already have all the show info under your reservations online?

 

Have a great cruise next month.