"Allure of the Seas 8/25-9/13" My review and report!!

[Domb23]

I sit here in the airport, depressed about the end of my cruise, yet excited to get home to see my 3 beautiful girls (2 human and 1 canine), I figured that I would begin writing my review while it is fresh in my mind.

 

First of all a little background information, my DW (29 remainder 11) and I (DH 42) are from New Jersey. I first had the idea for this cruise at 2:01 on July 23rd, 2011. You see, my DW threw me a surprise 40th birthday party, and as I walked in totally shocked, I started to realize that I needed to plan something great for her 40th. Over the next few months I started to throw around the idea of a cruise, but did nothing yet, as my family, including my girls, sister, mother, niece and nephew had decided to plan a family vacation for the summer of 2012. So, over the next few months most of my time was focused on that vacation, but my idea of a cruise for my DW was still in the back of my mind. August of 2012 rolls around and we all head down to Disney. We were there for approximately a week. When we got home I asked my DW if she had a good time, and her response was, "Yes I had a good time, but this was a trip, not a vacation." It was at that moment that I was convinced that she would need a "vacation" and not just... "a trip".Over the next few months I mulled over decisions such as itinerary, ship, do I bring kids or not....etc. In the past, I had 6 cruises with RCL and 1 with celebrity, so my first inclination was RCL, but actually started looking at the Carnival Breeze or the Dream because the prices were more cost effective than RCL. When I started looking at what was available in August of 2013, I was surprised at the limited number of ships sailing. I read all about the Dream and Breeze, as I was initially leaning that way. However, when I learned about their cutbacks in entertainment (shows were being shortened to 30 minutes/no more live music at the pools), I really started second guessing my interest in CCL. One thing I know about my DW is that she enjoys being entertained. From what I head read about the Oasis class ships, I knew that she would love them! It was then that I decided to book either the Oasis or Allure. I had known that I wanted to sail the Western Caribbean since we sailed the Eastern Caribbean on our Honeymoon, and since we were locked in to this particular week to sail, Allure it was!!

 

Now that the ship was chosen, it was time to start making plans for the girls and dog. Originally, I had asked my mother and my in-laws to split the week and they agreed. Soon after, my in-laws said that they would take the girls and dog for the entire week, which was very generous. Now that child care was taken care of, it was time to price-watch and book. After a month or 2 of price-watching and seeing no variability, I booked a B2 balcony. Of course, after I booked, I checked prices everyday, maybe twice (According o my DW, I have an obsession and require medication.) After final payment, I had noticed that the prices started to drop so for a small financial differential, I switched a D6 balcony. Although I had heard many good things about the Boardwalk balcony staterooms, I still had concerns about the noise from the boardwalk (Tba later in the review), I knew that the Oceanview balcony was the way to go. So, I kept price watching (never got the meds)and saw that the prices for the D1 balconies dropped ridiculously low. I proceed to call my travel agent and move into a D1 balcony stateroom on deck 9 Starboard. BTW, for anyone traveling on the Allure's Western Caribbean itinerary, I definitely suggest the starboard side, as you get a view of the port at every stop.

 

I want to spend a few minutes talking about the planning for the flights. I didn't want to book a flight before telling her about the cruise. When I started looking at flights, I was surprised how expensive the round-trip flights were. I ended up booking 2 one-way flights out of 2 different airports. I booked Jet Blue from Newark to Ft. Lauderdale on 8/24, and booked United from W. Palm Beach to Newark on 9/1. Luckily, I have family that lives in FL, so I had arranged for them to pick us up from the airport, drop us off at the port, pick me up at the port at the end of the cruise, and bring me up to W. Palm Beach airport. (I know, he is a saint!) Once I booked my flights, I learned my first lesson about booking flights. When doing all of the searching, I used Expedia, Kayak, etc....and when I decided to book, I thought to myself that it would have been smarter to book directly though the airlines. Wow, was I wrong. Two days later, I looked at Kayak and notice that the fare for my return flight dropped by $40. I immediately called United and asked what they could do, and of course they give my this long song and dance and nothing gets done. If I hadbooked through Kayak or Expedia, they would have reimbursed the difference. I know that it's not a lot of money, but $80 is $80 and that could have come in handy (which I will discuss later).

 

So now that flights are booked and cruise is paid for, I spend the next few months reading as much as I could (yup...obssessed at best!) about the ship. I read every review and post about the Allure. DW commented that I may have known more about the Allure than the crew!

 

About a week or so before the cruise, my MIL asks my wife the flight information, as she likes to track our travel. So we give her the flight information and she tells me that our return flight doesn't exist. Of course we tell her she is crazy. She checks a a second time and says the same thing, "You should call the airline, because your flight doesn't exist." As I am reading her text back to me, I recieve a confirmation email from United. I open it up and low and behold our flight was moved from 2:25 to 5:10 on another flight! I am really pissed off now! I immediately call, figuring that I would argue, but they would say there was nothing they could do. Suprisingly, the person I spoke to did something great and was very accommodating. He was able to book me on flight that left earlier than my original flight home. Even better is that this one is out of Ft. Lauderdale, which means I didn't need my saintly cousin to drive all over the state of FL.

 

So the big day arrived, and we were both excited! We decided to fly down a day earlier so I could spend some time with my family in FL. My wife dropped dropped off the girls and the dog the night before, so all we needed to do pack the car and leave for the airport. We left the house at about 10:15, parked the car, took a shuttle to the airport, checked in, went through security and were comfortably ensconced at the gate by 11:05.

 

The flight was on-time and uneventful, which to me means it was fine. Since we were on JetBlue, I watched TV and my wife read. We landed on time, here is where one of the minor hiccups of our trip happen (and when I mean minor, I mean extremely minor. DW is annoyed I'm even mentioning it). We get off the plane and proceed to the baggage claim. We wait there for about a half hour (DW says it wasn't a half hour and im exaggerating) and..... Nothing. Finally, they tell us they moved the baggage to another carousel, and our luggage comes quickly thereafter. My cousin picks us up (after circling 6 times around the airport!)and we were off.

 

We drove down to Miami Beach to see my Aunt and Uncle. It was nice to see everyone. We had dinner at Flanigan's which was nice. After dinner, we drove up to Coconut Creek where my cousin lives. We spent some time catching up, and then it was time for bed, as we had a long day of travel.

 

Well, we are going to board soon, so I will continue either later today or tomorrow. If anyone have any questions along the way, feel free to ask.