Review: Allure's Thanksgiving At Sea: Suite Class, Smiles, & Steerage

[RCCL Fan]

 

 

It's that time again....  another sailing..... even better a holiday sailing with friends who are first time cruisers.

 

Let me set the table for those who don't know my reviews.

 

Longtime cruiser here, started sailing RCI when I was a kid, never stopped. 🙂

 

 

 

I live in Texas with my beautiful wife and two daughters (7) and (12).

 

Joining us this trip are a family we met when we first moved here. 

 

Our youngest daughter was in the same preschool program at our church with their oldest daughter and they bonded.   Then the moms bonded,  now our two families are pretty close.

 

We also invited my oldest daughter's best bud, her cousin who is a year younger than her.

 

Both of our girls would have their own friends there, and we'd have some adult friends.

 

How fun would this be?

 

This cruise was a Lift & Shift after a cancelled covid cruise, we planned this way back in 2018 for 2020.  So it's a long time coming!

 

We sailed on Allure of the Seas from Port Everglades to Roatan, Cozumel, and Costa Maya.  I think this was a 3 or 4 peat for us on Allure.   

 

We were booked in the 2-bedroom Grand Suite on Deck 12, which was just lovely, our first time experiencing Royal Suite Class.

 

We did sail Adventure this summer, so it's not our first cruise post pandemic, but it is our first post pandemic cruise that sailed from the US. 

 

The process was quite different than Adventure out of Nassau. 

 

Those who are new to my reviews... I'm not onboard anymore.

 

We got back last night. 

 

I'll gather my thoughts nightly and take you day by day through the week, kinda relive the week. 

 

I like to throw lots of photos into the mix as well, although I didn't take as many this time. 

 

 

 

So just setting the table for everyone.

 

I'll continue with a Day 0 post later tonight or tomorrow.  Hope you follow along.... 

[Luckynana]

Following!  I'll be on Allure in April..first time on this ship.

[LuCruise]

Looking forward to hearing about your cruise.  Thanks for sharing.

[RCCL Fan]

Day 0

 

 

Flying out today couldn't come fast enough. It had been a WEEK.

 

My wife is a stay at home mom, but trained to be a substitute teacher this year to help out at our daughter's school post pandemic.

 

The covid numbers were relatively low but then the week pre-cruise, an outbreak, like a significant ones, whole classes were quarantined,  teachers dropping like flies, and now my wife and daughter were both in the middle of this.

 

My oldest has been vaccinated, but my youngest was too young until just the week before we left.  We took her in for her first dose, but not enough time from approval to get two doses in before we left.

 

We did several tests on both my wife and daughter before we left.  We were nervous we might miss the cruise as one of them could test positive.   

 

Luckily all stayed clear all week.

 

When we booked this cruise over Thanksgiving, I just wasn't thinking....   airfare to Florida, on the busiest travel time of the year.  It was sky high FOR MONTHS.   $2900 for all 5 of us.   So just before we left when the airline dropped the price of the flights outbound to just $68 a person if we took the 7pm departure, I talked my wife into it.   What could go wrong?

 

 

Now's a great time to mention, my favorite movie is Planes, Trains, & Automobiles.   I watch it about 10 times in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Usually 2-3 times the day before Thanksgiving. (and yes I packed it)

 

Watching Steve Martin and John Candy trying to get home as one thing after the other happens just cracks me up.

 

Of course it wasn't so funny when I got a little taste of it going down to Florida.

 

My wife was stressed all day.   It was cruise day.  But she was already packed, and had nothing to do.   So, she was cleaning, triple checking and triple packing, doing at home covid tests and insisting I never book a night flight again! lol

 

 

We got to the airport 2 hours early, but it took us less than 15 minutes to get from car to gate.   If you don't have TSA precheck, invest in it!  

 

Our plane was waiting at the gate.... So were our pilots....  BUT.....  no flight attendants.

 

They were flying in from another city and were delayed, and so we waited.

 

The delay wasn't that bad...  we got loaded up into a widebody 777 plane, the girls loving the big seats, and the in flight entertainment and off we went to Miami.

 

 

 

Our flight was just fine, until it was time to land...   the plane appears to be seconds from touchdown but suddenly jerks back up in the air, full throttle... we sink back in our seats as the pilot does a go around.

 

It was a little unnerving, but being a bit of a plane buff, I wasn't alarmed.   The kids were a little freaked.

 

 

 

 

I figured another plane was on the runway, or the braking action was bad as it was raining.

 

Well we started going in circles in the middle of that rainstorm.

 

 

I listened to the air traffic control tapes later, apparently the pilot was way too low. Alarms went off and the tower instructed him to climb immediately. When the tower asked him what was going on up there, he said he was having "internal errors" and later issues with the navigation system.

 

 

After we did get on the ground, the terminal at MIA was packed... and a mess.  There were people everywhere.

 

We had an hour and 55 minute wait for our checked bags to come off the plane!

 

 

There was no explanation as to why we were standing at the belt at 1am waiting for bags.

Finally bags in hand and three tired kids and a wife who was demanding wine.... we realized it was after 1am and the hotel shuttle we planned to take had stopped.

I’m trying to order an Uber when, out of no where the shuttle  arrives.

 

Awesome!

 

We hop on take out seats and settle in.

At the next stop, a family with an 88 year old man and a 93 year old woman. Neither of which are capable of climbing the stairs to get on the shuttle.

Their kids who appeared to have been drinking on their flight are trying to carry them up the stairs and on the shuttle.

 

The elderly couple was yelling STOP!!!

 

 

This was not good.

A flight attendant and others on the bus jumped up and it was like a 5 person job of people trying to lift these elderly folks up the wet stairs in the rain.

That took another 30 minutes at that one stop.

We arrive at the hotel, exhausted... worn.... and ready to bed.   

 

 

These extended stay hotel aren't normally my speed, but since our niece was traveling with me, I wanted to give our preteen girls as much privacy as I could searched to find something 3.5 stars that  offered two bedrooms behind the safety of one door to the hall. 

 

After check-in I’m walking around sans shoes and I say, “the floor is wet, like really wet”

 

Did they shampoo in here just before we came?

 

 

 

 

I head to the desk, and yes by now it's 2:30am

Sorry sir no more rooms in the hotel.

 

I’m ready to haul it over to another hotel where I’m a loyalty member and should be able to get in but my wife  is like it’s almost 3am. Just go to bed.

 

I'm lying in bed and I'm like,   “What’s that smell?”

I swear it’s urine. 

 

I had been walking in urine!

 

Grossed out I washed my feet, and went back to the front desk.  

 

They offered me the one empty room in the building. Which had a functional but damaged bathtub

I was like that’s fine.

 

Girls were asleep in the other bedroom,   one on the couch,  my wife didn't want to get dressed to move, so she slept on the couch too, and I went to the other room.

 

I scrubbed my feet like crazy in the damaged tub before finally getting in the bed in the new room.

 

 

It was a disaster, but we made it here. Just a few short hours and we head to the pier.

Edited November 29, 2021 by RCCL Fan

[RoyalFan2011]

We have the 2 room GS on the Allure in January. I am excited to hear you reviews on it.  

[bkr50]

Loving your review. And what a beautiful family. Can’t wait to read the rest. Love the Allure and I will be on her repositioning cruise to Galveston in November 2022.  

[CatchaWave42]

Ok, I"m dying here.  We are staying in a 2BR suite when we come in for our April cruise. What hotel was this at??? Thanks. 

 

[tursia]

Following, staying in 2br suite in December! 

[TPCRUISER2]

Wow! What a start! Following to hear All the good stuff on your cruise!

[perfect match]

We’ll, that’s quite the start to your vacation! Glad you got to Miami safely! I’m not a nervous flyer, but that aborted landing would have caused me some concern. Not so happy about the conditions in your hotel. Definitely would love to know what hotel that was so I could make sure I never plan to stay there. Yuck!
 

Can’t wait for the next installment of this review!😀🛳

[sgmn]

Great start, thanks, I always enjoy your reviews. That hotel sounds gross 😒

[h20skibum]

Interested in hearing about Allure.  It has been several years since we sailed on her, and just booked for a May sailing.  

[sgmn]

2 hours ago, sgmn said:

Great start, thanks, I always enjoy your reviews. That hotel sounds gross 😒

Quoting myself lol, but I remember once in Dubai we got to our airport hotel in the early  hours of the morning after a flight. I had particularly asked for no smoking room on the booking but the room reeked of smoke. We were too tired to complain and it was just for a few hours so we stayed put.

Next morning I did complain and as an apology they laid on a hotel car to the port to catch the ship. 

I hope you got some compensation 

[irishgal432]

10 hours ago, RCCL Fan said:

Day 0

 

 

Flying out today couldn't come fast enough. It had been a WEEK.

 

My wife is a stay at home mom, but trained to be a substitute teacher this year to help out at our daughter's school post pandemic.

 

The covid numbers were relatively low but then the week pre-cruise, an outbreak, like a significant ones, whole classes were quarantined,  teachers dropping like flies, and now my wife and daughter were both in the middle of this.

 

My oldest has been vaccinated, but my youngest was too young until just the week before we left.  We took her in for her first dose, but not enough time from approval to get two doses in before we left.

 

We did several tests on both my wife and daughter before we left.  We were nervous we might miss the cruise as one of them could test positive.   

 

Luckily all stayed clear all week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our flight was just fine, until it was time to land...   the plane appears to be seconds from touchdown but suddenly jerks back up in the air, full throttle... we sink back in our seats as the pilot does a go around.

 

It was a little unnerving, but being a bit of a plane buff, I wasn't alarmed.   The kids were a little freaked.

 

 

 

 

 

I figured another plane was on the runway, or the braking action was bad as it was raining.

 

Well we started going in circles in the middle of that rainstorm.

 

 

 

I listened to the air traffic control tapes later, apparently the pilot was way too low. Alarms went off and the tower instructed him to climb immediately. When the tower asked him what was going on up there, he said he was having "internal errors" and later issues with the navigation system.

 

 

 

 

I find this interesting.  Didn't know you could do this.  Which website do you use.  

[RCCL Fan]

The hotel actually had great reviews.    I chose it for this reason and the fact that they had the two bedroom suites.   I'm not sure you should avoid it based on this experience.   I'm talking to them and hopefully they will resolve it for us.   Sounds like a sewerage  broke in the wall.   

 

 

liveatc is the website where you can look up air traffic control recordings. I was able to hear my pilot talk back and forth with the tower about our glidescope issues, could hear the tower asking him pull up, and then the debrief after we were safely on the ground.

 

 

[RFerrington]

1 hour ago, RCCL Fan said:

glidescope issues, 

glideslope, maybe ?

[RCCL Fan]

3 minutes ago, RFerrington said:

glideslope, maybe ?

 Yes, Glideslope.   My apologies. 

[RCCL Fan]

Day 1

 

 

We woke up Sunday morning...  ok lets face it... just a few hours after going asleep ready to make our way to the ship.

 

Everyone packed up and headed to the lobby.  

 

I decided since it was our first time in Royal Suite Class I'd mix in a few luxury surprises for the group.

 

My oldest was in the window looking for our shuttle, my wife asking me if this Ford van was it.

 

Then our limo driver pulled up, right on time, and my daughter joked, "We should get one of those!"  I replied "OK, lets go!"

 

 

They were all smiles when we climbed into the limo.  Our driver was able to fit all 7 bags in the trunks and whisk my girls away in the style to the ship for out noon arrival time.

 

Upon arrival, porters took the bags straight from the trunk into the waiting bins,  nothing to be done on our part at all,it was so easy.

 

We walked over to the signs for suite guests and headed inside. 

 

 

Unfortunately, this was not  where we were supposed to be.  Since two of our kids needed pierside tests we were now allowed to use suite guest check in and had to be directed to the unvax passenger line, which was long.   There was not only confusion at the pier about which line we should have used, there was nothing ahead of time to let us know.   We changed lines  with different people telling us different things.

 

After getting in the unvax line, we waited to go through the one open security line for our group.  (maybe there were two)  It just felt long.

 

After that we had to check in with bio-reference, about our test.   Everything went smoothly for us.   But our friends who were decently in front of us were delayed because the agent didn't know how to change the printer ink.  We ended up passing them up.

 

After the test, you were directed to one of 6 or so lines to go over documents.   But only 3 people were working to collect those documents.

 

It was a long line, and pretty backed up.

 

 

 

We got to the counter and found the nicest senior citizen checking us in.   He apologized numerous times saying it was his second day and he didn't really know what he was doing.  He kept needing help from the supervisor and must have re processed our check in at least three times.  As a result he had my shipboard account on one credit card, my wife's on another.  My kid had charging ability when she shouldn't have.  

 

 

 

Our friends were told they owed a $220 balance on their fare even though it was paid in full for months and they had an email with their zero balance.

 

It was a mess checking in.   Everyone seemed confused, unorganized, and just not prepared. 

 

I know everyone in every business is dealing with a shortage of workers, and it was clear the company RCI uses to do the check in was in the exact same boat.

 

 

After a quick wait and negative test results we proceeded on the ship.

 

We were unable to book shows in our app but emailed the concierge our preferences.    They responded saying they would work on them when bookings opened but we never got confirmation that anything was approved and nothing was in our app.

 

 

We got on board and my wife said I HAD to go to Adventure Ocean and book our times there, as they were reportedly going fast.   I was like well how can I book times if I don't know if we got our show reservations or not??

 

I went up there, and was told there were too many kids on board for the AO program so we would be limited to just 5 hours in AO the entire week.   2.5 hours, two nights and you were done and spots were going fast.

 

I picked our time based on what I hoped the concierge got for us, and then ran upstairs to the suite lounge to make sure we were on the same page.   We weren't.

 

 

I spent the next two hours trying to sync AO with shows and dinner times for nine.  It was stressful.    

 

The app wasn't updating and so the concierge and I were writing handwritten notes to each other trying to make it work.  

 

 

 

The girls were touring the ship, and I hadn't  had lunch, a drink or been to the room yet.... but I got excited texts that Vision (our girls love that ship)  was parked next to us and Edge was nearby too.

 

 

Once I got to the room.... wow.  It was nice.   Loved the wood grain door outline and all the space once we got inside.   Everything was beautifully laid out.

 

 

Except we had one problem.

 

The two bedroom suites on deck 12 differ from the ones on deck 9.  Make sure you know what you're getting into.

 

Our deck 12 suite had all the marble and wood grain accents the deck 9 suite did not.

 

The deck 9 suites had the bunk beds that fold out of the wall that our girls were looking forward to,  but our deck 12 suite did  not.

 

The deck 12 suites had a hot tub on the balcony, the deck 9 suites do not.

 

We were in the deck 12 2-bedroom suite, our friends were in deck 9.

 

 

We wound up sending our younger daughter down to deck 9 to have the pulldown bed she had looked forward to, rather than sleeping on the couch like normal.

 

Since so many of you are in this cabin I'll go ahead and link to a youtube video I made on our final morning before leaving the ship.

 

 

 

We headed up to the suites sun deck for sail away. We had great views, met a wonderful bartender, Dwayne, and truly enjoyed watching Miami slip away.

 

 

Before long it was time to head to dinner.   We did the first night in Coastal Kitchen as many of you said the filet was worth it.

 

It was.  Certainly better than anything you would have in the MDR.   But I will say Coastal Kitchen was one and done for us.

 

 

We had a large table of 9 and our server has no help, at all.   He was doing everything himself, talking orders, drinks, running food, special requests.  one guy.  He also appeared to have 3 other tables.

 

There was no way he could keep up.

 

We tried to help him by offering to order all course at once, but he wouldn't take it that way.   

 

We were more than two hours into dinner and hadn't put in dessert orders yet.   It was a lot for the kids.

 

 

 

We decided no more coastal kitchen the rest of the week, it was just too hard to manage a group our size, with the level of staff there.

 

We got back to the suite and caught up on sleep.  The preteens insisted on firing up the hot tub but they only lasted a few mins.   I got in there and enjoyed it well into the night as we sailed south toward our first sea day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2021 by RCCL Fan

[ampurp85]

Obligatory, your family is cute......

 

I stayed in 9644 on Allure, at the time I almost took a 2br GS on deck 12 but that hot tub seemed like it took up too much valuable real estate. We had 8pm reservations at coastal kitchen so the staff were able to keep up. But with so many crew members manning everything and this sailing being a bit higher capacity. I can see why you decided CK wasn't for you. Also, I had a very sweet but too elderly woman checking me in. Her device kept going down and I thought I would have to move over to a longer line but it worked out. 

[RCCL Fan]

9 minutes ago, ampurp85 said:

Obligatory, your family is cute......

 

I stayed in 9644 on Allure, at the time I almost took a 2br GS on deck 12 but that hot tub seemed like it took up too much valuable real estate. We had 8pm reservations at coastal kitchen so the staff were able to keep up. But with so many crew members manning everything and this sailing being a bit higher capacity. I can see why you decided CK wasn't for you. Also, I had a very sweet but too elderly woman checking me in. Her device kept going down and I thought I would have to move over to a longer line but it worked out. 

 

We were actually in 9644, originally.  It was our room for about a year, but decided a few weeks out to move up to 12638 when we saw it open up.

 

We were worried about the space for the hot tub too but it actually was fine for us.   Glad it worked out thought we went there and freed up 9644 for you. 

 

Our youngest has a 7:30pm bedtime normally, so we're early dining folks until she's older. 

 

I'm glad to hear CK worked well for you guys. I think our group was just too large and with kids for our server to keep up.   A couple even stopped by our table to tell us we had a great server, as they had him the week before.

 

He was very very nice, just not flexible to break his routine to help us move things along a little faster. 

 

 

[Luckynana]

Enjoying your review.  Beautiful cabin!  

[BeagleAgility]

Great review so far. My family and I are in 9644 for the XMas cruise - looking forward to it.  Glad to hear some reviews on it. Can't wait to read more...

[hollon]

Was it easy to get reservations for the shows? Are they only showing Mama Mia 2 times? Also, what percentage is the ship sailing at.  I'll be on her this Sunday 🙂 

[renza]

Can’t wait to hear more. 

[RCCL Fan]

Day 2

 

 

Woke up this morning and looked out the balcony to see the ocean calling my name. Boy had I missed her.

 

In all honesty we just sailed a few months ago, but still, any time out in the middle of the ocean always makes me feel at peace.

 

The pre-teens were sound asleep in their windowless room,  my wife was in the gym getting her work out going,  and my youngest slept on deck 9 with our friends in the other 2-bedroom grand suite.

 

 

 

You can see the color scheme differences between the two rooms in this pic.

 

Today was another day of dealing with schedules, we were "on hold" for  possible seats in the aquatheater.  But I enjoyed my sea day with drinks from my pool deck bartender Steven who made the best moscato white white spritzer you could ask for. 

 

 

We did spend the majority of the day by the pool, and this was when we adults started to discuss the feeling that we were steerage.  Oasis class ships have several pools and there was just one pool for unvax guests, despite the holiday break sailing being heavy with families traveling with kids.

 

I'm sure this is just the way it always is, but you would think someone would look at the manifest and say, wow  we have a lot more families this week, perhaps we open up another pool, or more venues for unvax families.

 

 

I know we're being smart about stopping the spread, but it would seem packing that many unvax people into the same spot is largely counter productive.   I would have been annoyed if all the families in the unvax section were truly unvax, it would have been a spreader situation.  But out of all the families I talked to, all the parents were vax, and more than half had their kids with one shot of the vaccine too, it was just too soon for the second one.   We felt safe knowing the unvax crowd was literally kids who just were simply too young to get it.

 

This just needed someone with some free thinking to be like, "Hey should we change the way we have things divided this sailing, considering the demographics."  

 

 

Oh well, we slowly got deck chairs as best we could, we took turns with one parent staying with the kids in the unvax area, and the others finding chairs in the vax area (as there were many more over there)

 

 

I ventured into windjammer and found food selection to be limited and similar to the day before.  Was surprised.  Never found this usually.  So we went down to Park Cafe for lunch instead and wow.... great  salads,  the kimmelwick was just ok this sailing,  but that split pea soup was amazing.   I rarely eat here on a cruise, but made sure I went back after this lunch.   It was fantastic.

 

 

A look at the app showed I had an ice show reservation tonight,  which I didn't. We were supposed to be in the ice show, on the last night, I was so confused with this info in the app being wrong.  Went to concierge and he said, not to worry.  We're booked the last night, ignore this.  

 

We wanted the aqua show tonight, but it was sold out.    The concierge told us to show up 20 minutes early identify ourselves as suite guests, and we would have priority to the first open seats.

 

I started to wonder, were all the shows showing sold out because the reservations for everyone were wrong and people weren't really planning to be there?  

 

 

More on that later.   We headed back to the room to prepare for dinner and enjoyed the amazing views from our balcony. 

 

 

After a slow dining experience in Coastal Kitchen last night, we decided to just stop in the suite lounge for drinks and quick bites.  Then go to the Main Dining Room for dinner tonight in order to speed things up.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

We showed up for dinner and found a small round table which had seating for 6.   We had 9 in our party.

 

All 9 of us were assigned this table according to our sea pass.

 

I walked to the head waiter who said, "No that table has 9 places"   I'm like uh but it doesn't.   "It should, we check these things" he replied.

 

He walked over to the table needing to see  for himself.   Ok Bub  whatever you want to do.

 

Sure enough he saw there weren't enough seats.  

 

They tried to squeeze more table settings in,  but the most they could get were 8.

 

I was told there were no other tables big enough to handle our party, to give them a few minutes.

 

The head waiter was able to seat us at another family's table because they were dining in a specialty restaurant that night according to the computer (i just hoped the computer was right)

 

 

We all got seated and the head waiter saw to it that we had multiple waiters to help get us settled and get meals flowing since we had such a rough start.  I was really impressed at how he took a tough situation and really worked his hardest to fix it.

 

One person in a party has a nut allergy, and he brought the head pastry chef out to the table to talk to us about the allergy and pledged he would bake desserts each day just for her, and no matter where we ate they would be able to access her dessert of the day.  WOW, this was great.

 

 

Another surprise....  GRAND MARNIER SOUFLEE!   This is hands down my favorite dessert on RCI.   (granted you have to add some sugar to it)  When we sailed on Adventure in June we were told it was removed from the menu. That the souflees were too hard to make and always falling, and royal decided to do away with them, and no I could no longer have my favorite dessert again on Royal as they were gone.   I actually believe my eyes got misty it was my favorite dessert, and with no warning it was gone.

 

Imagine my surprise to find it on the menu here on my first sailing since then.   I really have gotten somewhat annoyed with how each ship is run so differently each with their own rules and policies, it's so hard to know what to expect from ship to ship.   So no souflee's on Adventure but they're alive and well on Allure.  We've found differing rules on how to spend your crown and anchor coupons.   It's just so odd that each ship has their own way of doing things and as a customer you never know what to expect.

 

Oh well.

 

Dinner was great!

 

Our friends who were super unimpressed with Coastal Kitchen were relieved with this meal and the service and said, "Ok this is what you guys described to us"

 

I was relieved to know they were not feeling misled by our gushing about our favorite cruise line.

 

 

 

After dinner we rushed down to the aqua show..... 20 mins early as the concierge instructed.    We got them and the woman working the ropes told us it was full and out group was so big that she doubted we'd make it.   She directed us to have a seat in the area outside Sabor and she would check back in about 5 minutes before starting.

 

So we did.

 

 

While waiting we went into Sabor and had the best "handcrafted margarita" you could ask for.  No premixed stuff here, it was amazingly fresh and yummy and totally was a fantastic find.  I highly recommend this place, 

 

Well while enjoying our margarita's my wife says,  "should we be in line?"  I'm like what do you mean?  she said wait here.   My wife then points to a crowd 60 deep of people who appear to be waiting to get into the aqua show.

 

I went back to the worker we spoke to and asked what was up, she said, "Yeah I see that, I don't know why they are there.  We're not supposed to have a waiting area."   

 

I'm like ok but will you let us in first since we were here before all of them, and you told us to wait here. 

 

"I'm sorry, i can't  that's apparently the line"

 

But you told us to wait here.

 

"I know"

 

Um... ok.....  So that's just it.

 

"I don't know what you want me to do about it"

 

WOW.

 

ok....

 

I was just so disheartened. This isn't the Royal I know.

 

Sure enough there were about 40 - 50 people let in.   The show was significantly unfilled.  

 

I think people had reservations they didn't really need and that's why the shows were sold out.

 

It was really hard as an unvax guest to get into shows.   Many of the seats were blocked off for social distancing and the reservations app wasn't working.

 

Everything was showing sold out, but many times wasn't.   People were showing up late and just clamoring for empty seats.    

 

It just didn't work.

 

 

 

Instead we ventured down to studio B for the Silent Dance party.

 

Put on some headphones, and there are two channels "blue and green"  you can switch between the two and dance to your own song.   This was amazingly a ton of fun, walking around and watching others jamming out but they're on a different channel than you.

 

 

Since everyone has headphones on people were more prone to sing aloud, as they didn't feel like they were being heard.  It was funny and cute and we stayed there all night long.

 

This was my first time doing something like this and it was likely the most fun we had all week at night entertainment wise.

 

 

This night the ladies went to bed with the kids and John and I stayed up later and went to the headliner show....  The Las Vegas Tenors.  Basically they're guys who can sing in high notes, it was funny, high energy, and those dudes could sing.   They weren't my favorite show ever, but perfectly fine for a random off night show on a cruise ship.

 

We hit up the rising tide that night and tomorrow land ho..... Cozumel......  for the 238th time! LOL