Review: Allure with 3.5yr old

Just back from our 7night Western Caribbean on Allure. My husband, myself and our 3.5yr old stayed in a superior ocean view stateroom (standard balcony room).

Just a few things that we had been looking for info on before we cruised.

Sleeping

Our plan had been to turn the couch around to face the wall and contain our daughter. Our couch (which was a pull our sofa) was too long and too heavy to be turned. Since we did not want to pull the full bed out we used the end table, the chair and one of our suitcases to line to open side of the couch and contain her and her animals. It worked well enough. She had enough space to sleep and didn't fall out. It allowed us to nap her in the day without having to pull the bed in and out and we didn't have to leave the bed out all week (making the room really crowded).

We brought her sound machine to help drown out hall noises. The balcony door was rather noisy to open (the locks and slider are just loud) while she slept. Truthfully we loved the balcony for breakfast and for watching ports but did not use it much while she napped. One day I tried it was so hot out there I was drenched in sweat after 45min and went back in. Another day I tried and we were shaded for the first hour but I had a constant worry that she was awake crying wondering where I was (despite my having told her) or that she would wake, forget where I was and go out in to the hall (she is NOT a child that would do this but I had no visual and couldn't hear inside). So...I spent naps snuggled in my bed with a book.

Adventure Ocean

My daughter is home with me (always has been) but she has attended once a week preschool for over a year and a few other classes without us (swim dance etc). She LOVED ship school (as we called it). Loved it. We went he first night and she went in and walked around while the group was running (had no idea they had drop off the first evening). We didn't go in (weren't allowed) and didn't leave her.

The next day we left her for an hour. She went in with an ever so slight hesitation but they swept her in and busied her. Every day she went from 1-3hrs when we could squeeze it in and she was happy as could be a tad hesitant to leave when we arrived to pick her up.

The hours didn't work great for us their hours were 9am-12noon, 2-5pm and 7-10pm. But we had our daughter on a trip sleep schedule of sleeping 12am-9:30am (so we could all do the evening shows etc) and napping from 2:30-5:30. So, by the time she woke and ate it was 11am and they were soon closing, she napped through afternoon session and the shows were all halfway through the evening session.

BUT, she loved when she went.

We did the My Family Time Dinner twice. She was the only 3yr old. The first night there were only 2 children (her and a 7yr old). My daughter was thrilled to ride the elevators with the 2 teachers and big girl. They picked her up at the lobby (we almost missed them, they were seated at a table in the lobby and I thought they were just random people). They take the elevator up and then walk from the back to the front of the ship to the school.

The second night we used it they had 4 older kids (8-9yrs) and my daughter (again thrilled). You sign the drop off sheet and the 2 teachers bring the kids up to their assigned program rooms.

We would have used this service more but again it conflicted with some of our shows.

My daughter did the pirate show on stage with her group (with a parent audience in the theatre). It was adorable and she loved it. The theatre room is in the Adventure Ocean area with a very low stage and maybe 24 seats. It is not overwhelming. This was done one evening. You need to drop off early (by 7:15pm I believe) and you cannot pick up until after the show as they are practicing. It was well worth it.

We also sent her for the "Talent Show" one morning. Her age group (3-5yr) made guitars and did a rock song together (6kids). The older kids went up for solo talents (only 4 kids were there).

We missed the clown stage show because it was at the same time as the farewell parade. Hopefully they don't always time those together as I assume there is NO ONE at the clown show based on parade attendance!

One thing to note I found that the staff was different ever time I drop my daughter off. She didn't care in the least. But the staff seemed to all rotate between the rooms and working elsewhere on the ship (the merry go round for example). So it was not just 2-3 of same teachers running the kids program all week for the kids to get to know. Again, my daughter wasn't phased by this in the least but I found it a tad odd (I have a teaching and daycare background).

Shows

Our daughter attended all shows with us (she has been to various theatre and sporting shows frequently in the past). We did play it safe and get the seats at the very back for Mama Mia (they actually had a little cubby with 4 seats (tall bar stool height) and a tall table which worked perfectly as when she was asking questions there were no people beside or behind us...only across the aisle in front of us. She lasted the 2.5hr show but I did have to pull out various treats I had packed at times to refocus her and she did get down and dance around us (no people near us).

The other shows, Blue Planet, Ice Show, Headliner, and Oceanaria we were in the main seating area and she was pretty much frozen staring. She did ask a lot of questions at times but we shhhh'd her and whispered some answers as needed.

I would recommend trying all the shows if your child can sit and watch without much disruption. Choose the seats at the aisle and back if they may need to walk around or be removed. You will have to go early (we always went at least 30min early) to get those seats as the aisle seats all fill quickly. One of us would run her out to the bathroom last minute before the show started. We brought our bag of stuff to put on one seat to reserve it and her teddy bear to put on the middle seat. I think seeing the teddy bear informs most people you are keeping them for a child that is in the bathroom and not just hogging empty chairs. That said I wouldn't try to save more than a few chairs (with something on it) I watched a women try to reserve 14seats at the ice show and she was stressed from the constant badgering of people who wanted 2 seats and she had 14 empty ones.

If your child has never been to a theatre type event where they have to sit still and quiet I would perhaps try it out, but be ready for one parent to abort if it isn't working. The shows will be full and you will not be seated next to other families with young children (we saw a handful spread about but were never near any).

Characters

My daughter had never seen any of the DreamWorks movies but she is obsessed with mascots. We did our best to get to photo times with each of the characters. We found that she was usually first in line and there were often only like 3 people total so she went many times for photos. Note this is NOT the case on the last day when they have 3-4 characters at the same time in the same place (expect a good 30min wait in line those days). We have so many photos of them hugging her and playing with her. She somehow managed to be the kids that rode the Carousel with King Julien and again with Mort. Because so few kids came to those photo ops and she just happened to have stayed for the full 15min photo period that she was the only kid left when the character went on. So, for the carousel photos...stick around and ride with the characters. They were amazing.

Our daughter also happened to be in the right place when the penguins arrived on the promenade (it was vague where to meet them) one arrived, she grabbed his hand and he started walking her to the other end of the floor while the other penguin arrived, grabbed her other hand and the 3 of them walked down the promenade hand in hand (adorable). This process attracted a lot of attention though so once they reached their destination the line was long and she only got a quick photo op. Anyways, definitely worth going to the photo ops as we found the turn out was minimal so there were no lines.

The parades (welcome and farewell) are worth it (even for adults). Both times we went 45min early and got a seat at Sorrentos (best spot). It was already packed at this time. A lot of people came after...you might have to be firm and keep your spot as people try to set up in front of you (in the parade path) you may have to point out you came 45min ago to get a front row spot not so people can stand in front of your child's chair. Usually just a nudge and pointing to you child is enough they realize they are in the way. Again, be EARLY and bring things to put on the chair when you have to send your child and spouse to the bathroom just before the show (people will grab an empty chair in an instant)!

Note: sit at sorrentos not across the street from sorrentos as a lot of the action is on the balcony, stair case and the little walkway thing they have across from sorrentos (you miss it all being under it).

Ports

We opted not to do any excursions. We did big excursions on our honeymoon cruise and LOVED them but our daughter is 3.5yrs and wouldn't be able to do the big adventurous ones and she'd have no interest in a long tour bus ride (nor would I have interest with her with us). SO we opted to save a ton of money and stay on ship. We had the pool area to ourselves which worked great. We did get off the ship in Labadee and Falmouth. It was worth the trip off to see the ship from the outside and walk around for 20min. We had lunch in Labadee (free) and in Jamaica she hunted down the yellow man on stilts that she had seen from our balcony. This was enough to keep her happy and we ate and swam and explored the rest of the day. There was more than enough to do on the ship that we were not bored. We literally had almost all pools to ourselves. For brief periods there would be one other family swimming near us. We also zip lined (not our daughter of course) and during my nap my husband ran about the ship exploring without any people.

Let me know if you have any questions (but note I likely won't be back on here after this week).

A bit disappointed in the hours you posted...We've used the Royal Baby & Tots Nursery and even though there was a cost for this it was well worth it for the expanded hours. Going on the HOTS in March and not what we were hoping for.

Great review. Very helpful! Interesting perspective on staying aboard in port. Something we might try a few times next year. Ty!

Thanks for all of the info! Our first cruise with our boys is next month (ages 5 and 3.5). Great tips on the characters and shows [emoji106]

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