offtosee

We actually won an upgrade the night before embarkation! We had booked a sea terrace and placed a bid on all but one level of rockstar suite, on the off chance. It was about 8pm, and we were already in our hotel room in Miami. I got a series of emails: first one with the subject line "Congrats, you're being upgraded!" and then several more titled "We were unable to accept your Level Upgrade offer" I was immediately able to sign into the app and see our new room number and start pulling up deck plans and such. It was an incredibly exciting night for us! 🙂

I got $500 back right before final payment date on my September Allure. But that said, we booked it just this May, so undoubtedly we paid more than someone who's been planning it for two years. 🤷‍♀️

Galveston is an island, but it is accessible by car.

On Allure a month ago, there was just a spreadsheet-style printout on display at registration. It had columns for each age group, and color-coded blocks for science lab, craft activity, etc. We had to take a picture, there were no copies to take with us or anything.

We did the sea salt this last time, and they upsold us an add-on with the hot stone. Both were nice. We're going to do the sea salt again next cruise.

Yes. Absolutely yes. Drink prices are in the $12-14 range (plus 18% auto-gratuity). You didn't mention the length of your cruise, but usually it works out to 5-6 drinks per person per day. This is easy to get. The pours are not heavy on board, so if you tend to grab another drink, another drink... you will very quickly reach the break even point. Plus there are intangibles -- not having to count your drinks or sign receipts, grabbing a different cocktail if you didn't like the first, grabbing a shot of Bailey's with your coffee in the morning, trying a mimosa off the tray waiting at the door of the Windjammer... I am not a very heavy drinker on land, but I broke just about even on the drink package with a couple drinks per meal and a couple at a show each night. And the extra relaxation made me a believer regardless!

Ah, hope you have a blast! Are you all packed? How many suitcases did you end up with?

We didn't do the Windjammer breakfast much, but I can confirm that you can order specialty coffees and fresh-squeezed OJ in the MDR at breakfast with your drink package. The OJ is actually on the breakfast menu, but as an upcharge if you don't have the package.

When you get close enough to the sail date, you will be able to see the details in the app. When the app opens, right above the Daily Planner / My Calendar links, there will be a little rectangle that you can click to get info. It's not populated yet for my September cruise (the box is there, but clicking it just says "Come back closer to your cruise"), but it was definitely there a good month ahead of time for our last cruise. In the meantime, you can get a good guess from what current 7-night Harmony cruises are doing. If it's the same as Allure, then our order was: - 2 Formal - 3 Colorful '70s - 4 Caribbean - 5 White Night - 6 Dress to Impress (lobster night) ETA: Ohhh, you are talking about menus and not themes, aren't you? Doh! Those you will be able to see under Dining in the app. I can actually already see them for my September sailing: French night, Italian, Caribbean, Mexican, and Royal (lobster). This matches what we had in May for the same ship...

We booked a GTY balcony for our first cruise (Allure of the Seas). We ended up in a great cabin. It was an interior balcony, yes, but it had the extra Pullman bed so my two kids didn't have to share the sofa bed. Excellent luck for us!

On Allure in May, we had a QR code in our stateroom where we could request certain services at any time, including making up the sofa bed. We had an awesome cabin steward, though, so we just asked her to drop by the first morning to put it away. I saw what she did and was able to quickly toss it back together myself every morning after that. IMO putting it back into "couch" mode is much easier than folding it out and setting up the bedding, so I was happy to do that once the kids were up.

We were on Allure earlier this month. If you have a drink package, you have to take it out of the pouch every time you order a drink. Same to insert the card in your cabin door. We went to Guest Services the first morning, and they had a hole punch sitting out on the counter to the left. No need to wait in line or anything. Then we used our clear pouches to carry single bills for tipping drink servers! 🙂

I'm sailing on Allure next week. There is no option to prebook activities like trivia, ice skating, etc... so I would guess the escape room and laser tag would fall into the same category. I have options to prebook the evening shows, dining, paid classes, and excursions.

AM or PM for the cabin steward, hmm? Which did you choose, and what were the pros and cons to you? We're looking forward to sailing Allure next month!