jbrinkm

It may depend on the ship. For our Allure sailing, it was available months before, but she had switched over to the new menus where there isn't really any variation. She just does the exact same length and itinerary each week.

We liked both of our ocean view balconies on Allure. Both were technically aft although not all the way back. Deck 10 starboard once and Deck 9 port once. We had wind and some rough waves (although sunny) during our trip this year and you could DEFINITELY feel it more when we were in the front of the ship (in restroom after a show, my phone purse was swinging wildly back and forth from the hook on the back of the door!).

Thanks for your review! We were on Allure during the exact same dates, with the same meals in the same order, so it is really interesting to compare! Absolutely!!! We were trying to move some chairs that were next to the dance floor in the back in order to make space and I hurt my toe pretty badly - just NOT enough room. They should clear more space if they are going to do it there, or have the leader back where the band would go, so people could spill out a little towards the promenade and spread out. I had very similar opinions about the food as yours. My apple cobbler tasted rancid - I could only take two bites (one I didn't like and the second to make sure). It was also offered later in WJ (we needed a supplemental dinner after French night, that was our worst & also it was formal night). My husband tried some there and said the same thing. Desserts went from inedible (cobbler, fruit bar, trifle) to fantastic (warm cookie, choc cherry tart).

I would HIGHLY recommend calling them in the morning. We were able to do PAYG/a la carte last year (April 2022) but when we got in the taxi, the driver told us it was full and we should go to this other place. We were planning to split our day (had Cabana Beach reserved for the day also but kids wanted to do inflatables for a bit in the morning) so we just decided to go to Cabana Beach and call Paradise Beach. They were allowing PAYG guests, so we ended up having to get another taxi to go there. It wasn't horrible because my husband ended up needing to do some work, so he stayed at the Cabana and I took the kids. But the taxi driver was trying to pull some scam by telling us inaccurate information. I have seen Paradise Beach post on the website when they are sold out for the day. Not sure how consistent that is...

Cruise planner closes 2 days before sailing...

We did not get a reply and our request was NOT honored. My husband went to the dining room upon embarkation and made the request in person, and they accommodated. We sent the message two weeks before the cruise as I had seen recommended.

Hyperlink, a bit of info here: I agree that this is an awkward age for cruising, unless they have their own friends along with them! I'm glad to see Royal adding in a few things for this age group.

We enjoyed breakfast and lunch in the Main Dining Room on Allure last week. I think breakfast always had a similar menu from one day to the next. Lunch changed, and we did have at least one day with the brunch that @Rubyfisch mentioned. That might have been our cancelled-port-turned-into-a-sea-day day, I can't really remember. The only place that I saw the beloved Apple Blossom dessert was one day in the MDR! I'm surprised that your menus aren't up. Usually they have finalized them so close to your sailing. I did take a peek at the current sailing and the menus are posted there. They look similar to our lunch menus on Allure so yours will probably be similar as well.

We spent close to $4000 over the cost of our cruise for our family of 4 (cost of cruse included prepaid gratuities, wifi, 10 photo package, and refreshment package. We had some onboard credit to use, and I got great deals over Thanksgiving weekend for our packages). We spent $2300 on our airfare (East Coast to Galveston, for 4 people, flights were $580pp*). We spent $180 to get from IAH to Galveston, $200 for hotel, $40 to get to terminal, and $250 to get back to the airport. We spent probably $80 at the airport for food on the way home (lunch) - for our outbound flight to Houston, we got in too late for dinner (just ate airplane snacks we had bought) and had a free breakfast at the hotel. We spent $500 in Roatan on a full-day, private, customized tour (driver, zipline admission, animal sanctuary admission, snorkeling) and $500 in Cozumel (ATV in the morning, Discover Scuba in the afternoon). Costa Maya was cancelled or we would have spent $280 there at Maya Chan. Then probably close to $300 in extra gratuities & transit. $150-180 on the ship (two rooms, 4 people, and we absolutely LOVED our wait staff at dinner), then tips for all of the activities we did while in port. And taxis both way in Cozumel. I think that we were on the higher end of "extras" for this cruise. We certainly didn't spend as much $$ over the cost of the cruise last year when we flew from Fort Lauderdale (but our cruise was more expensive...). If you can drive- probably less expensive. If you are going at an off time of year, less expensive for airfare as well. If you aren't doing as much on shore, in port, that would cut out a big chunk of what we spent. Same if you don't do extra gratuities. We just brought a bunch of cash, not knowing what we would want to tip onboard, but ended up wanting to go on the higher end. We were also paying for our 2 teens in a separate room as well as everything else. All of those fees would have been cut in half for just the two of us. You can definitely do it much less expensively. And we knew ahead of time (mostly) what we would spend, as we prebooked most of our excursions on shore. The only surprises were the cost of the Uber from IAH to Galveston and how much we wanted to tip extra on the ship. OH, and we bought trip insurance. I think it was in the lower $200s. I would not recommend Galveston for anyone on the East Coast in the future. All the extras fees for transportation just don't seem worth it... *Note about airfare: We had gotten a really good deal on our cruise from our TA so we were willing to spend a higher amount for airfare. We had also gotten a refund of flights taken in Europe the summer before due to travel problems and that essentially was the same amount and paid for our flights. And flights for that same week to Florida for us would have been $400-500, so not too much of a difference to get to Galveston - it was Easter week with high demand for flights.

We had the ice cream sunday bar on Allure in the WJ at least twice - once in the dessert area and once on rolling carts pushed around. It may have been there more than twice; that is just when we saw it.

We were on Allure (Royal Caribbean) last week and had wind the whole time, and somewhat rough seas, even with cloudless skies and bright sun. Our captain called it a "spicy wind." We did the same exact cruise the year before and had little to no wind, so it definitely felt unusual. That being said, we were able to dock in Roatan because Royal uses Coxen Hole (@DavidsNana maybe you saw us? On Wednesday 4/5?) . We did a 3 reef snorkel and the guys on the boat kept warning us that conditions were rough from the wind, and the third stop wasn't great due to the silt that had been stirred up. They said that the winds were going to be even worse overnight and, lo and behold, we were unable to dock at Costa Maya due to wind/rough seas.

We had an absolutely fabulous experience with them again on our second visit! We did the custom tour and had Monique as our driver. We were just in her car, rather than the van that they use for the Viator excursion. She had parked at Jungle Top where we did our first activity, so we were able to throw our daypacks into her car and do the zipline tour (so much fun!!). Then she drove us to AJs but there were a ton of groups there, busses and vans in the parking lot. So she shifted us to snorkeling instead. We joined the Viator group on the first of our three snorkels and saw many more fish this time. Water was a bit colder, so maybe that was why. Still very shallow and clear water. Then they dropped everyone else off at the dock and took us to the other two sites, near the French Key islands. The water was rough, but we were ok. The second stop was fantastic and the third was a little silty and we couldn't see as much there. Then back to AJs, where we found the gate locked. But the business is owned and run by all family, and they know everyone on that part of the island, so she called and within a few minutes, we were getting a private tour of the animal sanctuary. After that, we made a quick stop by the chocolate factory on the way back to the ship. Back a little over an hour before all aboard. Their policy is 2 hours, but with a private tour we had a little more flexibility and we wanted the chocolate stop. Stellar service all around. I love Roatan.

Pier trolley, sorry

We were in Cozumel last week, on the West side, and there was no Sargassum that we could see. Our Maya Chan day was cancelled the day before for the seagrass, so it was nearby, just not at that part of Cozumel.

I was on the same sailing as @Spencer71 and yes, our port stop was cancelled, but before that, Maya Chan cancelled our beach day due to the Sargassum. There were high winds - we actually had a very windy sailing experience overall, but especially bad the night before our Costa Maya stop and they knew ahead of time that they wouldn't be able to get it cleared for visitors.

I've seen 1 report of the trolley running, and it was a day when only 1 ship was in port. I have also read a report of a single passenger who was charged $8 for the taxi, not $4, so it may be that there is a minimum. I believe you have 3 people, so shouldn't impact you...

You can try Ready Set Go taxi service. That is who our hotel recommended and it worked out well for us.

I like Thinksport and Juice Beauty (for face, doesn't irritate, but expensive).

Love your review of the Silent Disco party! We did it last week on Allure and it was fun - I didn't realize that it was a new offering by Royal. The only issue we had with it is that the teens had the same silent disco event for JUST teens in the hour before the general party started, so there were SO MANY teens on the floor, all doing teenage stuff, and it was not as easy for the adults in the crowd. But I was also glad to see so many teens having a good time at a safe dance party! Ours was in Studio B however - the place for the ice show. I'm not sure how it would have worked in the promenade on a completely full ship...

Probably the sofa. It was that way on Allure, with very few exceptions (rooms that were not typical 4 person staterooms). It is one of the changes from Freedom class to Oasis class that I really dislike - our kids got to a point where they would NOT share a bed (and loved the Pullman beds). I have seen a few pictures where the sofa bed has an upper part and a lower part, more like a trundle bed, but I could never figure out which rooms had which, plus now that my kids are teens we like more space and second bathroom. It has been a while (2014 & 2017), but when we cruised Indy, one of my kids was 5 and he was allowed on a Pullman. They have rails on the side, and we had our bed set up as a King below, so if he somehow got over the rail, he'd just land on our bed (or on us!). It worked out fine. Not sure I'd put a toddler or even a preschooler up there, however.

This is honestly the worst part of cruising out of Galveston. It will easily add $500 to your budget. We just got back from our Allure cruise on Sunday, and we opted to stay on the island for an earlier boarding time (didn't have to worry about traffic or accidents, as IAH is at least 70 minutes away under best circumstances). We took an UberXL from the airport on Saturday when we arrived, to our hotel in Galveston. That was $180 with tip. Then we took a local taxi minivan (we had 4 and a bunch of luggage) from our hotel to the port. That was $40 with tip. When we returned, I was very nervous about being able to get a larger vehicle on the spot, so we ended up booking a private transport from the terminal back to the airport. Than ended up $275 with the base fare of $200 plus mandatory tip, fees and taxes. The shuttles are much less expensive - there are two recommended private ones and the Royal one (I believe you have to call them or do on the ship). From reports, it sounds like you need to book early to get your desired time frame. I've also read that it was confusing about where to meet the shuttle, although when we came in, it seemed fairly straightforward to me. Taxis are hard to find/get from this terminal, unless you prebooked, I guess. The minivan we took from our Galveston hotel to the port said she was only doing island runs (not airport runs) but she got flagged several times when doing local hotel pickups in the terminal - people who needed a ride to the airport. Lyft only is allowed through April and it can be hard to get one. Again, reports of people booking and then being cancelled on, or having a long wait time (1 hour +). Starting May 1, Uber will be allowed in, so perhaps that will help. If you want to do a shared shuttle, you can stay near the airport, especially if they have an airport shuttle. Take the shuttle to the hotel, then back to airport in the morning to grab your shared shuttle along with anyone arriving by flight in the am. Many people like Saltwater Moms for transportation - they can only be booked on Facebook. There may be some impostors so make sure you see the ones that have the cruise terminal permission and the necessary licensing and insurance. The biggest advice I'd give is to get your plans in place as early as you can, so shuttles still have space at the time you want to go. Someone in our roll call was undecided and then ended up with fewer options than preferred.

I have a different brand of this same style of case, but have never tried it in the water (I use it in a bag that might get wet or have wet towels put in with it. It overheats a bit if I try to use it just sitting in the sand, but I think being in the cooler water would help with that issue. Now that I've seen yours, I might be brave enough to try it next time!

We missed Costa Maya last week on Allure and were refunded port fees of a little over $14 each for 4 of us, so close to $60 total. We used it in the shops (4 t-shirts on sale)!

Following!! You have a lovely family. As far as playing Scrabble on the boat - I always think of cruises as family time, so if family is together and doing things that make them happy - it's a win in my book! I did a live blog on the other RC forum from Allure last week, and also noticed that there was a lot of overlap between WJ and the MDR! I mostly noticed desserts, but I think the streamlining of the menus also included some coordination between the complementary dining venues. Also in my reporting was an event-filled plane experience, including a tornado watch! I'm surprised there was no mass air traffic breakdown over the past week or two with all of the weather events. I'm really curious about the small ship experience. The smallest we've done with kids is Freedom class.

I did leave a bottle of Poo Pourri and Softsoap liquid hand soap on the sink counter when we left. I was about to throw them away, but then thought those particular items *might* be something that the attendant could potentially want, and easy to toss in the bathroom garbage when collected, if not.