*Live* Rogueperson's Allure of the Seas December 1 - 8

[Rogueperson]

This is a busy week for live threads.  We have @MrFunInTheSun doing his Live on the Oasis of the Seas and someone else possibly doing a live on the Adventure of the Seas at the same time.

 

Also, this maybe a dual live thread again if @death_star wants to chime in.

 

A little bit about myself.  I've done three live threads now and they're a lot of fun.  Royal Caribbean is my default cruise line at the moment, but my last Princess one seriously had me rethinking that.  I did a live thread on that one too.

 

I booked this cruise i while back.  I believe I was on the Grandeur (my first live thread) when i actually booked this one.  Its been a long time coming so its finally here.  I've been very hesitant to book an Oasis class.  I've heard good things, but this class was always priced somewhat higher than the other ships.  Also, its really rare for an Oasis class to do anything other than a 7 night cruise.  I prefer 9 - 10 nights if possible.  My last 6 cruises have been 9 nights or longer with the exception of my Princess one which was really a spur of the moment and gift from my mother.

 

This one was a little bit of an adventure.  I by default book interior rooms.   When I booked, I thought I got a decent deal for a midship interior.  They are actually pretty rare on the Oasis class.  But also, at the same time, when I booked, I was not Diamond yet.  I didn't make diamond until after I booked and did not qualify for the higher diamond balcony discount.  Nonetheless, it was a decent deal.  Fast forward to August of this year, just prior to final payment.  I noticed that with my diamond discount, the Central Park balcony had dipped about 100 bucks below what I paid for an interior.  I called my travel agent and she got me the balcony room for a lower price and only at a sacrifice of $25.00 OBC.  It was a net gain, so I took it.  To my dismay, the lower price had taken into effect lower tax and port fees, BUT for some odd reason, she could not get Royal Caribbean to change that, so my price was only 70 bucks lower, not 100, but still a net gain.  Final payment came and went so i'm locked at this price.  The bid emails started coming, but I didn't really see any benefit.  The only thing that was slightly interesting was the Jr. Suite, which is as high as I could bid on but for a minimum of 300/person (600) for more room, I didn't really care for it.  BUT, I had noticed that the prices had continued to drop for OCEANVIEW balconies.  I know I can't get a price match after final payment, but usually when prices fall below what you pay for, you can get the upgrade for free.  So, yep, I got a free upgrade from Neighborhood to Oceanview and kept my OBC.  If i had made a bid, it would have been 200 bucks minimum bid to get this room.  so yep, I lucked out there.  so now, i'm sitting on an Oceanview, for less than what I originally paid for an interior, that I saw was a decent deal at the original booking.

 

I've done some research on this trip and one of the scary revelations is that there will be EIGHT ships cruising out of Fort Lauderdale this sunday, including Adventure of the Seas, Sky Princess, Celebrity Edge and Regal Princess.  I did the math here and at 90% of each ship's maximum occupancy, the number comes out to 28000.  I did the math earlier using 97% double occupancy, and it came out to 26000.  Doubling that number for passengers coming and going, we're looking at between 52,000 - 56,000 people.  I know for a fact that Adventure is coming in at over 100% which means my guess is already off by 700 people.  The only saving grace is that Sky Princess isn't boarding until 5pm, which means we won't have to deal with them, but they will still count as number of passengers processed in a day.  Port Everglades' record is 54,700 set in March of 2016.  Will we break it today?

 

When I originally booked, this ship was supposed to go to Cococay, Cozumel, Costa Maya and Roatan, but due to the ships ongoing propulsion problem, we will not make it to Roatan and instead, we are going to Nassau.  So our Itinerary now Nassau, Cococay, Cozumel and Costa Maya.  I've been to Nassau and Cozumel many times, but Costa Maya is brand new to me.  Woot, new port!!!  Also on another note, 8 ships will be in Cozumel the day we're there, so its going to be a packed day on the island of Cozumel.

 

As for dining, I have already purchased the 3 specialty dinner as well as Chef's table.  Chef's table is my go to activity for EVERY cruise I go on with my wife.  We splurged on it one year on the Carnival Pride and was so good, we vowed to do it on every cruise that offers it.  Allure is no exception.

 

So, sit back and enjoy the ride.

 

If anyone's interested, here are my previous ones.

 

 

 

 

 

[mcgore83]

Looking forward to this review! We board on the 15th. Thank you in advance for taking the time to share your vacation with us.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Wahoo! Thanks for bringing us along! 

[Rogueperson]

5 minutes ago, MrFunInTheSun said:

Wahoo! Thanks for bringing us along! 

I'm going to try and follow yours.  Not sure how well cruise critic will work on Allure.  I had a hell of a time on Navigator.  Maybe Tapatalk will work properly, though i doubt it.

[STANMELB]

We are sailing with you. See you on board.

[MrFunInTheSun]

41 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

I'm going to try and follow yours.  Not sure how well cruise critic will work on Allure.  I had a hell of a time on Navigator.  Maybe Tapatalk will work properly, though i doubt it.

For mine I just use the Chrome ap exclusively on my iPhone for cruise critic and it works fine for me. 

[Rogueperson]

Just now, MrFunInTheSun said:

For mine I just use the Chrome ap exclusively on my iPhone for cruise critic and it works fine for me. 

That's what I used.  When I was on the Navigator, there was this annoying issue that Cruise critic would just keep resetting over and over and it would not refresh.  It might be the poor ping and speeds on the Navigator.

[MrFunInTheSun]

1 minute ago, Rogueperson said:

That's what I used.  When I was on the Navigator, there was this annoying issue that Cruise critic would just keep resetting over and over and it would not refresh.  It might be the poor ping and speeds on the Navigator.

You should be set on Allure then. My live back in May on Allure all was good. 

[Rogueperson]

Aha!!! I think I figured out how to post on here with Tapatalk! The trick is to not go into the forums with tapatalk but post from out side so to speak. If you use the notification, it tries to log you on constantly and fails. even though you are logged in, the reply function seems blocked.

Instead, just scroll down on the home screen until you find the subscribed list and enter that way. You get a slightly different interface but this interface allows you to post.



test photo from last cruise.


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[Rogueperson]

My anxiety is probably getting the better of me. Some friends of mine on facebook who was supposed to fly home today had their flight cancelled for no reason. They were scheduled to fly in two hours (well that was two hours ago and they haven’t updated anything). I looked and there’s a major storm brewing in the northwest. They say this stretches for 2000 miles!!!.

I’m hoping this won’t affect my flight. I need a minimum of 15 hours to get to Miami. I could theoretically start driving if i find my flight is cancelled and drive through the night. ugh, that would stink!


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[xpcdoojk]

We are sailing January 5... My DW would like to know the night of the themed parties and what parties they are having.  IE Disco night, silent disco, 80s night, and if they are doing any group dances, Thriller, greatest showman or other.  

 

I appreciate your report.

 

jc

[Rogueperson]

40 minutes ago, xpcdoojk said:

We are sailing January 5... My DW would like to know the night of the themed parties and what parties they are having.  IE Disco night, silent disco, 80s night, and if they are doing any group dances, Thriller, greatest showman or other.  

 

I appreciate your report.

 

jc

Stay tuned then.  I will post multiple times a day, however, port days will be a little slower.  Monday, Thursday and Friday will be the main port days and I have excursions on all those days.  I don't really count cococay, because I hear you can use the wi-fi there and the private resort islands like cococay, and Labadee, I'm a little meh about.  I will post all the compasses every day so if i miss something, you'll be able to see it.

 

My friends are stuck in Houston.  They are delayed until tomorrow morning.  I fly out tomorrow evening at 6:15. 

 

I hear Jimmy Rhodes is the CD for this cruise.  I've heard good things about him.

[FionaMG]

Following.

Have fun Rogue. Safe travels.

[MrFunInTheSun]

7 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

 

My friends are stuck in Houston.  They are delayed until tomorrow morning.  I fly out tomorrow evening at 6:15. 

 

I hear Jimmy Rhodes is the CD for this cruise.  I've heard good things about him.

 

Ugh. Flying out at 6:15 Saturday night before cruise day is stressing me out and I’m not even the one flying. 😀

 

You’ll love Jimmy Rhodes, good cruise director with lots of energy too. Fingers crossed for you and your friends traveling tomorrow. 

[Rogueperson]

 
Ugh. Flying out at 6:15 Saturday night before cruise day is stressing me out and I’m not even the one flying. [emoji3]
 
You’ll love Jimmy Rhodes, good cruise director with lots of energy too. Fingers crossed for you and your friends traveling tomorrow. 

I should note my friends are flying home to maryland from Houston. We are farther away from that mess than they are. This gives me some hope, but I feel bad for my friends. Its still too early to tell, but we’re still showing on time.


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[Rogueperson]

Good morning all.

First thing I checked when I woke up is to see if my flight is still on time. 8 hours and 45 minutes to go and no interruptions. And@death_star did not text me this morning telling me his flight was delayed is so that’s good news so far.

We are mostly packed. Just some small things like toiletries and we will be ready.


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[Rogueperson]

Tapatalk sucks.  Now it won’t get

past the log in screen to get to the interface where I can post.

 

 It is 3 1/2 hours till my flight and it still shows on time.  We’re having lunch at this place in Odenton called the Hideaway.  I’ve been here before.  Its not bad.  

 

I wanted a burger because i don’t believe I will get a good burger on the ship.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Nice lunch. Personally I’d ditch tapatalk. 😀

[Rogueperson]

15 minutes ago, MrFunInTheSun said:

Nice lunch. Personally I’d ditch tapatalk. 😀

I thought I could get it to work.  I probably will give up on it.  I’ve already bookmarked this page using Chrome.

[John&LaLa]

I bailed on Tapatalk after last update.

[death_star]

Hi everyone,  we have made it to FLL. This is our first RC cruise with our 17 month old DD. I will be writing from more of a family perspective. Traveling is much more work with a little one but we're here at harbor shops overlooking the ships. Had a delicious lunch just south of the airport at historic dockers in Dania beach. The fish dip and mahi tacos were great. 

 

After initially booking with just DW and I in an 6V interior, we decided to add DD during a kids sail free a couple months ago. She did great during a 3 night Carnival test cruise. After a bunch of crazy price drops we ended up in a 1C, the famous hump cabins. We will be on deck 12 so this will be the highest I've ever cruised. 

[Rogueperson]

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare, nitty I’ve never seen the traffic like this at the airport.  It was a zoo outside, but inside was quite sedate.  We made it through security in about 10 minutes.  Slight snafu because wife forget she has a corkscrew in her purse.  

 

Plane is still marked as “on-time” but its not here yet. 

 

This is also the first time we are at a convenient gate.  Our gate is literally right next to security.  For anyone familiar with BWI, We are in the first batch of gates in front of the shops.  All the other A gates, you had to walk stopping around the corner into the “arm” of the terminal.

 

So far so good...

 

 

[Rogueperson]

Woot, the plane is here.  Everything seems to be coming together.

 

 

 

[Rogueperson]

First little hiccup.  They had to change out a seat on the plane.  A slight 30 minute delay to boarding.  Not the end of the world.  

 

I’m finally boarded.  Look, the prerequisite obligatory plane wing photo!

 

 

We are on our way!!!

[Rogueperson]

We made it to Fort lauderdale.  We got a room at the La Quinta Inn and Suites By Wyndham Fort Lauderdale Airport.  I have never stayed in one of these before.  Wasn’t sure if it was a cheap place or not.  Pricewise, it was the lowest in the area of places i was willing to stay.  I generally avoid Days Inn, Red Roof Inn or Motel 6.  They were slightly cheaper, but not by much.

 

 This place is nice, clean and from what I heard, newly renovated.  They have an airport shuttle that literally was waiting for us on arrival.  It was luck because they didn’t know when i was flying in.  They also have a shuttle to the port for 10 bucks/person.  Uber estimate says 11-15 bucks.  I went with the shuttle as from what I heard, the port.

 

 Here are a couple pictures.

 

 

 

 And this is the net speed here.  Not bad for free wifi

 

 

I scheduled the transfer for 11:00 am hoping to avoid most of the debarking passengers.

 

Now the trick is to hit a close by store to get some supplies before the shuttle.