researchfreak90

System errors happen in any industry from a multitude of causes, whats important is they caught it before sailing and made attempts to fix it insterad of the customer showing up and having nowhere to sleep.

I have never done a review on CC before. I have found others helpful so I figured it was time to do a short one.

About us:

My wife and I, mid 20s, this is our 5th cruise. We have sailed Navigator, Oasis, Jewel, and Liberty. With us for the first time was our 10 month old duaghter. In the Joining room were my wifes parents. We are laid back travelers

Pre-Cruise:

We had this cruise planned 18 months in advance. We always plan ahead of time. Originally our daughter was not coming but we changed our minds abour 8 months before the trip.

We left out of Ft. Lauderdale and flew in United from Durango, CO. Since its a small town there are no direct flights which did cause a headache coming back but going we were lucky enough for only one layover coming to Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived about 2pm on Wednesday to gove us 4 nights pre-cruise to get into vacation mode and explore Ft. Lauderdale a bit. we were here about 3 years ago to go on Oasis for our Honeymoon. Since Irma had been through the area 2 months prior you could see some of the effects but the area was recovering nicely and did not effect our visit. We stayed at the Bahia Mar by Doubletree, we stayed here last time. The hotel has been remodeled recently and is a great value. It is on the beach, has a nice pool, the rooms were average but comfortable with a great balcony over the marina with views of the ocean as well and only cost about 100$ US a night which was about 70-100 a night cheaper than all other non-motel style accomedations in the vacinity. It was a greta value. Only downside is if you rent a car like us it will cost you 35 a day to valet it. which is the going rate in the area.(I researched this greatly before going)

We went to the Everglades for a tour by Sawgrass mills on a groupon. Great Airboat tour, we saw Gators and enjoyed the small zoo afterwards. We had a Groupon which made this a great deal for 55$ for 4 of us and the baby.

We ate at various restuarants. Cou****s which is a favorite from our last trip. Some grouipons for Mamma Mia Italian REsturant in Hollywood area(good value with groupon), a Thai Sushi place from groupon (it was alright), we ate some fast food as well. The highlight food place was a small sushi takout place called Sushi One. It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, the sushi was fantastic and the prices for the Quality sushi were cheaper than eating at Mcdonalds - talking 5-7 dollar range for just about any roll and 8-9 for combiantion plates that fill a grown man up. All four of us ate sushi for 70$ we had leftovers for another full meal latrer that day(fridge in room) and still ended up tossing some leftovers on embarkation day.

Embarkation Day:

I dropped everyone off at the Peir which was a madhouseabout 1130 where they waited while I returned the rental and caught a cab back from the airport. We did this because of all the luggage we had it made it easier than loading upa cab with it all. We walked thru Security and right up to the counter to checkin and then right on the boat. 20 mins from start to finish. FYI My inlaws are not CA member and this is their first cruise they were allowe din the Gold checkin line iwht us NP.

The ship:

Was clean and enjoyable. We had to take elevators becaus eof the baby and stroller. What a nigthmarre. As usual for this class ship they were always full and people had not courtsey not to pile into a full elevator even though there was no room or that they were practically sitting in my childs stroller - and then only go 2 or three decks?!?!?!?!?!

Rooms:

Boardwalk rooms 12699 and 12701 joining. Nice feature, just ask to have door unlocked - this was great for the baby t0 crawl back and forth. Rooms were kept clean. Normal Royal service. Our EAT PLAY DRINK promo thing was a pain, never showed up in our room with cups for soda and had to eventually go to the Customer Service desk awhere they looked at me as if I had lost my mind before fianlly giving up soda cups and sticker for the seapass, no big deal just kinda sucked to do.

POOLS:

great baby(Diapers allowed) pool, little one enjoyed it. All our sea days were VERY windy do to Tropical storm Phillipe brewing - this kept deck chair a plenty and pools pretty empty.

Speciality Dining

Dint do any

Main Dining Room:

FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. Seriousley the best we have had on any of our cruises - from service to quality - it was great. Ate dinner every night but one due to late excursion return.

Windjammer

Standard cluster of food, rude people, and no tables. Ate breakfast most days and lunch a few times.

Other Food

Serentos and other venues were decent and convient. Park cafe was dewlicious and made a great embarkation day spot.

Spa:

WE did a couples retreat package that they only offer onboard. For 250$ total you both get the couples bathing ritual and also an exfoliation/facial/mud bath combo and an unlimited pass to the thermal suite. This was a great deal and we were at the thermal suite about every day if not twice a day.(to hide from baby :)) We would usually leave her with Grandpa and grandma.

Baby Nursery

Great service for 6$ an hour. We left her twice for 2 hours each to enjoy a formal night and to enjoy a show another night. They were well trained and did a good job caring for our 10 moth old who has never been in daycare before.

Labadee:

We did beach bungalow - great deal would do it again. Also did Wave rider Jet ski tour. this was a lot of fun. This was our favorite stop. Note: unless you want to get something from the Haitian straw maket steer clear of it as they are very aggressive and get mad if you dont come look at their stuff.

Jamacia

Did Bamboo VIP beach, was ok experience. To long of a bus ride (90min) for us to consider it again

Cozumel

Took a cab downtown, ate at Ponchos Backyard - great margaritas- did some shopping went back onboard. This is our third time here

Overall

Fun trip - would recommend and do again. Our next cruise we are trying MSC Seaside as they have some great promotions going on (not like Royal who is on this fake promo thing where the price never changes) and has a reasonable deposit. While we love Royal - dropping 750 + to book a future cruise is outragous, it used to be 100$ per person at the the Future Cruise desk and they have since gone away with this, which we were aware of before embarking and we made our reservations with MSC before leaving on this trip. Our motivation to try MSC Seaside which launches in December is partially we would like to experince somthing besides Royal (nothing at carnival brands appeals to us) we looked at MSC and NCL. The determining factor is MSC had financial incentives and also the Seaside seems to be something NEW in itself and will be less than a year old when we sail. Deposit for it was99$ a person and Kids 11 and under always sail free, plus they mached our Royal Platinum staus in their program. We will try and compare.

Also noting, we did not do any dining or drink packages aside from the soda package included with our boardwalk rooms. We stil had some drinks and paid a la cart. (we were happy with this)

Headliner and comedy shows were great.

did not see Mamma Mia

Ocean Aria we enjoyed from our balcony a few times

Allure has Azipod issue- did not notice and when capitian decided to make Port Everglades a few hours early to beat in Trop Storm Phillipe - He managed 23.8 knots with only two of them.

Let me know if you have questions - I do not have pics of menus and cruise compasses

I am new to MSC, Does this mean that you have to pay for Entertainment or doe sit simply mean you are limited on the amount of times you can do it "free" ? On Royal, almost all entertainment was free, unlimited and aside from show reservations it was a first come first serve. Can anybody elaberate on what this entertainment pass does and what it may cost?

They are actually digging it up down 5-6 foot, running it through a strainer to remove branches,ect, and regrading it. They are about one third done as it is a 12 mile stretch that is being cleaned.

Interesting, I guess this makes sense considering the amount of debri that is probally layered throughout the beach.

Thank you, good news. I hope you all enjoyed your trips.

We always stay at the Bahia Mar by Doubletree right on Ft. Lauderdale beach. 5 minutes from the FLL airport and Port everglades. On the beach and close to food. I have never paid more than 150 a ngiht. Decent pool, older property but they are upgrading their rooms right now.

I have stayed at the Bahia Mar in the past and enjoyed the area. Staying here again for 4 days pre-cruise mid October and was curious is anyone has stayed in the area post Irma and coulds tell me the condition of the beach and other areas.

Anybody know if they do this on Allure? never seen this before on past cruises (Oasis , Liberty, Jewel, Navigator) but the selection looks great.

Sailing out of Port Everglades October 22nd arriving in Ft. Lauderdale Airport october 18th. I knowits 40 days out but What effect do you think Irma and Jose will have on that sailing and surrounding Ft. Lauderdale area at that point?

Well good to see they are making preperations for avoiding the huricane. The entertaining part is all those people who lost their heads over changing St Thomas to San Jaun, now they have all three ports changed, cant wait to see the thread of crying babies mad a Royal for this even though its not something anyone can control.

You can check in with your family in the non-gold line....the rep's won't care. And a lot of time's those lines move faster than the C&A lines....once you are all checked in, if boarding hasn't started just sit with them in the new cruiser's section & you can all board at the same time as well....

Thank you

Doesn't RCCL allow anyone to sign up for C&A before their first cruise? I wonder if that confers gold status?

My understanding and how it was when I did it 5 years ago was that you sign up onboard and become gold AFTER your first sailing

My wife and I are cruising for our 5th time and first with our duaghter and my MIL and FIL are cruising for their first time. WE are in seperate joining rooms and reservations linked. My question is I know when embarking they divide everything by C&A status. It would be kind of a pain, especially since travling together with an 11 month old to split up and then find each other again onboard for the check in process which I know can sometimes drag out for and hour or two depending on arrival time and terminal flow that day.

Has anyone done this in the past? how was it handled? do they allow you to all go in the Gold member line? If we wanted to stay together will we have to/be allowed to go into the non-C&A line with them?

We all get onboard so I am not really concerned about not getting gold member priority over first timers I would just like to know what to expect at the port and what others have experienced. I know things can change from sailing to sailing and terminal crew member to terminal crew member.

Well I could care less if the rockies made it as I live in Colorado but not a Rockies fan, steveru621 and I will get along as I am a hardcore Redsox fan

Thanks!

Cruise during end of October and looks like my team has a good shot at the World Series. I have never tried to watch live sports onboard before and would be disappointed if there was know way to see it. Anyone ever watch it onboard live before?

Clarea, do you know when this was from and if it was for this itinerary?

I have the menus and am try to figure out what night to do 150 Central Park on. We generally like the Main dining room so we want to shoose a night to go that has our least favorite menu.

So if anyone has the following it would be helpful

- Menu order for this itinerary

-menu order for 150 central park and the menus for it as well as I know this gets shaken up a bit sometimes.

Thank you, I can find the eastern Itinerary but nothing from western this year with the order.

If yo usubmit a link to another thread can you tell me what page to look at thanks you in advance

My wife and I Honeymooned on Oasis 2.5 Years ago. We loved it, we are crusing on Allure on a similar trip for our first family cruise with our to be 11 month old daughter

If Allure was going to be out of commision for 5 months it would be on every major news outlet and RC stocks would be tanking heavy right now due to the enormous cost of having one of their biggest profit centers loosing money for that long. So unless Allure is not seaworthy she will be sailing at reduced speed and modified itineraries until they get her into dry dock. Even with reduced speed and modified itineraries I will have a blast with my Family on our cruise on her in October as its still a cruise, still a vacation, and Im still not at work!

We stayed at The Bahia Mar by Hilton Double Tree 2 years ago and will stay there again this October. Has a walkway to the beach and is a Hilton. Nicew pool and about a 20$ cab ride to the airport and cruise terminal. The rooms are basic and dated but clean anc comfortable and the AC works well. Also has a ton of restuyarants that range in price withing a 5 minute walk along with a walgreens as well just down the road which is convienent for quick things like sunscreen and wine if you dont want to pack and bring that with you ---- all right on the beach and you can see ships coming in and leaving port. Our rooms for October are 112 a night and no resort fees

Hi! We have sailed on all the Oasis class ships with little ones - specifically when our two were in diapers. We were on the Allure last year and have found them to be the strictest with the rules (which made me happy because they were also strict with the bigger kids coming into the baby pool - they were quick to remove them). They likely will point you in the direction of the splash pool for the baby and tell you not to be in the bigger area. Honestly, at times, that splash area is CRAZY. All sorts of kids spraying water in every direction - great for little kids - but probably not great for the baby that gets sprayed in the eyes. We also brought the munchkin duck tub on board and filled it up in the shower (there are showers to wash off prior to entering the pool) and then dragged it between two deck chairs in the shade. Worked well for when our little one was done with the baby pool. It was also a godsend for bathing in our cabin. It fit right in the shower and you could take the nozzle down, fill up the tub, and voila, baby gets a bath! :) They are also very strict at the pools regarding diapering. They do no allow you to change a child anywhere near the pool. We witnessed a very unpleasant interaction last year when a lady got all hot and bothered because they asked to take her child to the baby changing center in the restroom. Mind you, it's maybe 10 steps from the pool to the women's room, so it's easily accessible. They love babies on these ships and they are treated so so well - we have always had great trips and we have such wonderful memories with our little ones. Lastly, don't forget about the play area in the kids zone - great way to burn off energy and you can go there anytime of the day. You can also check out bags of toys from the nursery that are age appropriate and bring them back to your cabin. You will have a great trip - don't let anybody scare you into thinking you won't! Good luck and enjoy!!! :)

Thank you, a lot of useful info here! didnt think about changing rules, then again shes a wiggly one so a changing table is probally best anyway!

A big THANK YOU to the OP for being concerned about fellow passengers and asking. Many would not even care.

Thats all I was doing so I appreciate you reconizing that. I was asking because I did not know and wanted to know how it worked. The US health code thing I did not know about so thats good information so now I know. The reason I got so upset is that instead of sharing information people find it nessasary to reprimand me for the question and tell me how I am wrong for even bringing it up.

The intent was not to break rules, circumvent rules, or see what is enforced it was to see what the rule was specifically and why. I didnt think about the force of water spreading it into the pool, and thats a good point.

I dont understand why people have to be so mean on here, they want their questions answered and without being judged and so do we.

Also, all you big meanies that keep calling me a she or a mom should assume, this is a papa bear. A papa bear that was convinced by his wife to bring the little one. Now I am worried about upsetting other passangers onboard, breaking rules, or doing something that could harm my little one or someone else. I always hated the parents who brought their children of all ages onboard and didnt care about others so thats why I am asking questions.

So all those who are not offering contructive thoughts, please go away and find a thread of someone who is truley trying to do harm and not do research.

Its been awhile since I have been on CC boards, and people didnt used to be so mean on here.

The small inflatable pool or tub is a great idea for little ones, especially if you don't have a suite and need it to bathe your baby. There are plenty of places on the pool deck, away from the craziness, for you to use one if you didn't want to just use it on your balcony. You can always go and scout out a place first.

 

As far as this thread, no one is ever going to be able to tell the OP that they will be able to do what they want because things change ship to ship and day to day depending on who is enforcing the rules. That was explained nicely but the OP got defensive. They should just do what they want to do and know they might be told to leave.

 

Don't be afraid to post questions. Questions about kids get touchy because so many of them are about bending the rules and making exceptions. There is a family forum too, it is not as busy as it used to be, but it still has some helpful information.

Your a little off track, I actually got the answer I wanted. I was looking for prior experiences. It wasn't so much about bending rules but more about the exact rul meaning when they say can't be in the pool does that mean wading, sitting splashing or does that mean not over the threshold of the pool. The reason I got defensive is people giving answers that are opinions and not their experience or telling me to wait and find out. People tend to be unhelpful and snarky when advice and experience without the attitude is all that's being asked for.

However you are right about the parents being touchy about kids. New parents such as myself are new and scared about bringing their new child out of the country into less developed countries with lower health standards, on planes for the first time and are terrified of making a fatal mistake. As that person don't believe there is a problem with that, the problem lays with the parents who don't ask and research, leave their kid unattended then you hear of the tragedy that follows in rare but in my opinion to common amount like drowning getting lost, kid napping, and all the other horrors we hear about in this messed up world.

So it's not me being defensive, it's agitation with unhelpfulness.

So if anyone has tips for cruising with children this age from EXPERIENCE not opinions , I would love to hear them for myself and to pass onto others in the future.

Been on allure with our 18 month old girl and going again very soon. Likely you would be told not to do that. It is certainly a violation of rules and if under fountains then you might as well be in the splash pool itself the way it is set up. Do people do what you are asking about? I'm sure and I saw diapered babies running out outside of the smaller area that is for potty trained kids only (i.e. No swim diapers allowed area) but this was almost all foreigners who clearly seemed to understand the rules but always played dumb. We simply stayed in the very small area for swim diapers. The attendants were very on top of things on our last cruise on oasis so be prepared for being told not to take her in the bigger kid area if you try. It seems they now have actual life guards so expect even better enforcement of rules. Oh and watch out for any older 3,4,5 ish running crazy and maybe even into the baby pool. That is the only real danger, the parents who don't watch their kids which I'm sure will only get worse now with lifeguards. Saw 4-5 year olds under no supervision whatsoever.

Thank you, this was exactly what I was looking for. Enjoy your trip!