Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[LuCruise]

Thanks for the compliment. I know you have posted questions on the boards on possibly getting a cabin here on the boardwalk area if the price is right so glad this info is helpful.

 

Wherever you ended up staying, just be sure to go up to deck 15 at various times of the cruise and take pictures of CP and Boardwalk at night. They look and feel different during the evenings versus daytime.

 

Thanks for the tip Harry. Before your cruise report, I never would have thought of capturing night and day...but you have some pretty awesome pictures from different angles and times of day. I am definitely going to purchase a new camera before our trip (we have a good SLR camera but its too big to bring, and our portable one is pretty crapy)

[Gardeneroflove]

Oh, OK, I just know them a “miniatures” as that’s what my camera calls it. Didn’t know there was an official description for it. Sorry, I only know how to use it from my camera, which is 4 years old and I think it’s pretty common on many of the cameras nowadays if you want to get one. I just did a quick Google search and it looks like you can take a normal picture and convert it in Photoshop. But like I said, I don’t have Photoshop so can’t give you much info. I’m just the dummy that “selects the filter” from the camera and click the button.

 

http://mashable.com/2013/09/24/photoshop-tilt-shift/

 

I, too, like these toys like effects. Looking at your future cruise calendar, you will be going to Falmouth so you will have a lot of chance to play around with it. Falmouth is great for it as it has many structures beneath and gives it a good perspective. I didn’t do it for our cruise, but you can also use it for theater seats and maybe go to deck 5 in MDR and take pictures of the tables down on deck 3 to see if you can get the miniature effects.

 

Here are all the miniature pics I have from Falmouth. It was raining buckets on us that day, you can tell from the wet ground and nobody walking around the compound. We were supposed to have a pool day afternoon that day with thinking that most people are off the ship on tours and we have more access to the pools to ourselves but that plan fell through so I had some time to stand around on back of deck 14 taking these pictures. Have fun on your B2B.

 

As for the Ickey shuffle, think you can do it on your upcoming cruise. Just send me a picture of you being hauled away by secur

 

Damn. That's enough to make me buy a new camera. :-)

[harryfat1]

Damn. That's enough to make me buy a new camera. :-)

 

Hey,

 

Another miniature effect fan. Yeah, these are cool. My bridge Canon camera is 4 plus years old so this is not new technology by new means.

 

If you have a smart phone, like ones that runs on Android OS, you can download a free app that lets you take these miniature effects from your phone.

 

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jellybus.tiltshiftfree

 

Personally I don’t like to walk around with my phone in ports on cruises as I tend to lose things so I rather just use a camera. If you just want a basic camera that does the miniature effects and few more things and has a decent 16X zoom, take a look at the refurbished Canon SX160 for $50 sold by Canon itself.

 

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/catalog/cameras/powershot-sx-series-digital-cameras/powershot-sx160-is-black-refurbished

 

Dirt cheap at this price of $50 for what you get and have the miniature effect that you like. If you drop it/break it/lose it on vacation, no big deal as it’s only $50.

 

Is it as good as an SLR or mirrorless camera? Of course not. Don’t expect a Lexus when you pay for a Corolla but this should get you some decent basic vacation pics at $50.

[mechcc]

[quote name=harryfat1;454116

 

But I have also seen other cruisers’ daily compass and they have people I never heard of. If they are truly Headliner' date=' that must be really really small town they are playing in as I don’t know them. The thing about musical taste is that it is as subjective/personal as is food. All of us like whatever music we like and it’s all individualized. On a 7 day vacation, we have 24 hours X 7 days = 168 max awake/sleep hours. Probably minus 3 hours if you board around 12 noon and get off at 9 AM on day 8 - that leaves you 165 hours the entire cruise. [/quote]

 

I think you just found another way to validate the reasonableness of the cost of a cruise. Just take the hours on a ship & divide it into the amount paid to get your cost per hour.

 

You can even go further by doing a comparison to your weekly salary with further calculations. And if you are taking paid leave, you can calculate how much you are being paid to cruise.

 

I'm a price analyst & thus addicted to Excel. Is there a 12 step program for Excel addicts?

 

Love your review & your sense of humor.

[Coralc]

Now I have to get the manual out and figure out what option on the Canon wheel does that. I have an SX 100 and an SX 500, one of them MUST do that if I take it off AUTO. :D Thanks.

[harryfat1]

Now I have to get the manual out and figure out what option on the Canon wheel does that. I have an SX 100 and an SX 500, one of them MUST do that if I take it off AUTO. :D Thanks.

 

No need to “get the manual out” in this day & age of internet. Just download it from Canon directly and read the electronic version. I downloaded all our cameras’ electronic manual into my iPad in the PDF format prior to leaving the house in case I needed to refer to it on the cruise (Yes, I am THAT anal).

 

Since we have so many types and brand of electronic gears, I need to refer to the manuals periodically. Hey, they are all free from the manufacture so it’s simple to download and bring the electronic version. If you are really anal, you can download onto cell phone and read the manual while on the scene.

 

Here is the SX500’s manual from Canon. The miniature model button can be found on page 83:

 

http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/support/consumer/digital_cameras/other_powershot/powershot_sx500_is#BrochuresAndManuals

 

So you are another Canon SX fan also. My mega zoom camera is the four year old Canon SX30, older than your model by 2 generations. A hand me down from my wife who moved onto better SLR stuff.

 

I am waiting for another year or so before I upgrade mine – too cheap to keep chasing the newest models. But I do see that your model can now even record in miniature mode on top of taking pictures in it so that would be cool if you can go to a city (like SF or LA) and be on top if some building and record all the cars before in traffic and make it look like miniatures.

 

Yeah, get it out of auto mode and at least try the “P” mode. Start with page 92. Have fun…

[harryfat1]

I think you just found another way to validate the reasonableness of the cost of a cruise. Just take the hours on a ship & divide it into the amount paid to get your cost per hour.

 

You can even go further by doing a comparison to your weekly salary with further calculations. And if you are taking paid leave, you can calculate how much you are being paid to cruise.

 

I'm a price analyst & thus addicted to Excel. Is there a 12 step program for Excel addicts?

 

Love your review & your sense of humor.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

But what happens if you are retired and have no income? Zero divided by any number isn’t much and I would think once I retire, my time is more valuable than ever as I will soon kick the bucket so every cruise counts even more than when I was 40 when I was making more money.

 

Yes, the key to having a great time on the cruise is NOT to sleep at all. If somehow we can all be awake for the entire 165 hours, can you imagine how much more fun we all can have on the cruise? Think about it, 2 AM “Move it move it pajama party parade”. 3 AM RCI sale of t shirts at the RP and 4 AM group photos taken with the captain. 5 AM Zumba dance. It never ends. 24/7.

 

If none of us ever sleeps the entire cruise, RCI can make many times more money on us by selling us more alcohol/clothes/photos. They need to invent some sort of non-sleep pills while on cruises and you just sleep after the cruise on way home.

[harryfat1]

Now I have to get the manual out and figure out what option on the Canon wheel does that. I have an SX 100 and an SX 500, one of them MUST do that if I take it off AUTO. :D Thanks.

 

Oh, I just remembered an old Youtube tutorial series on the SX camera presented by a nice British gal. She did a whole series of quick videos on the Canon SX40, which is just older than yours so you can watch her walk you through step by step what the functions of the cameras are and how to use them.

 

I watched the entire series awhile back as to learn about my camera. Even though it's not 100% the same, it's just slight changes between generations. All else are the same. If you are really interested in wanting to move past the "auto" function and really get more from the camera in terms of what you paid for it to do, you should take a look at these videos:

 

[mechcc]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

But what happens if you are retired and have no income? Zero divided by any number isn’t much and I would think once I retire, my time is more valuable than ever as I will soon kick the bucket so every cruise counts even more than when I was 40 when I was making more money.

 

Yes, the key to having a great time on the cruise is NOT to sleep at all. If somehow we can all be awake for the entire 165 hours, can you imagine how much more fun we all can have on the cruise? Think about it, 2 AM “Move it move it pajama party parade”. 3 AM RCI sale of t shirts at the RP and 4 AM group photos taken with the captain. 5 AM Zumba dance. It never ends. 24/7.

 

If none of us ever sleeps the entire cruise, RCI can make many times more money on us by selling us more alcohol/clothes/photos. They need to invent some sort of non-sleep pills while on cruises and you just sleep after the cruise on way home.

 

 

But if we are your evil twin, we will resist spending money during the full 165 hours & will take advantage of the no additional cost activities.

[Coralc]

Very cool! Thank you very much Harry. I have bookmarked both, and will check them out over the weekend. We are over in Hayward, so pretty close to SF. :D:):D

[Miryam1234]

Hopefully you get a good headliner for the TA. Wonder how does your entertainment schedule differ compared to a typical 7 night cruise?

 

I have to say, I wonder too! I can safely state that everybody on that TA is wondering, since it's 80 days until the cruise and still not possible to book entertainment or dining. I am checking every day!

 

The difficulty with this particular TA most probably is, that there is only one stop. Which means that all entertainers need to board with us in FLL and travel to Europe. Sometimes I have seen bands entering/leaving at a port of call. But our first and only port is Malaga, Spain, before arriving to Barcelona, so adding people in the middle just is not possible.

[cruisemeister8]

 

 

 

WHAT? Something that I didn't see or photograph on the Allure? Where is this?? What is this?? Some sort of modern 'chairs'? How could I have missed these on my front-to-back, back-to-front, deck-to-deck tour?

 

Loved your CP photos. Like you, we didn't get to spend near enough time out there. 7 days is definitely too short. But while we were eating out there one evening, we did have a bagpiper come through. That was neat. We heard the beautiful music ringing through the park, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from until the bagpiper appeared from around the bushes and strolled right by our table. Again, an experience you only get on this kind of ship. We heard the bagpiper again on the pier in Cozumel. We had an oceanview balcony, and the music carried up the side of the ship. He must have been right below us, but we couldn't see him because of the angle blocked by the lifeboat. But it sure made a pretty sound to listen to.

 

Did you ever eat at the Park Cafe? Those famous roast beef sandwiches and salads are included. There are so many choices, it took us until Day 5 or 6 to get out there to try them. And then we ran out of time to get out there for more! I'm talking myself into going back.

 

Can't wait to see your recount of Cozumel. You're actually going on an excursion? We're proud of you, cheapo dad. (Don't worry, we're pretty cheap, too. The least expensive oceanview balcony we can get into is our splurge. Other than running the onboard account up with the aunts and uncles, we do what's included, too.)

[harryfat1]

I have to say, I wonder too! I can safely state that everybody on that TA is wondering, since it's 80 days until the cruise and still not possible to book entertainment or dining. I am checking every day!

 

The difficulty with this particular TA most probably is, that there is only one stop. Which means that all entertainers need to board with us in FLL and travel to Europe. Sometimes I have seen bands entering/leaving at a port of call. But our first and only port is Malaga, Spain, before arriving to Barcelona, so adding people in the middle just is not possible.

 

Did you look at the 2014 Oasis TA and see if anyone posted the daily compass during their reviews? It may not be the exact same but it should be close and give you an idea on what they did for the 12 day sailing.

[harryfat1]

WHAT? Something that I didn't see or photograph on the Allure? Where is this?? What is this?? Some sort of modern 'chairs'? How could I have missed these on my front-to-back, back-to-front, deck-to-deck tour?

 

Loved your CP photos. Like you, we didn't get to spend near enough time out there. 7 days is definitely too short. But while we were eating out there one evening, we did have a bagpiper come through. That was neat. We heard the beautiful music ringing through the park, but couldn't figure out where it was coming from until the bagpiper appeared from around the bushes and strolled right by our table. Again, an experience you only get on this kind of ship. We heard the bagpiper again on the pier in Cozumel. We had an oceanview balcony, and the music carried up the side of the ship. He must have been right below us, but we couldn't see him because of the angle blocked by the lifeboat. But it sure made a pretty sound to listen to.

 

Did you ever eat at the Park Cafe? Those famous roast beef sandwiches and salads are included. There are so many choices, it took us until Day 5 or 6 to get out there to try them. And then we ran out of time to get out there for more! I'm talking myself into going back.

 

Can't wait to see your recount of Cozumel. You're actually going on an excursion? We're proud of you, cheapo dad. (Don't worry, we're pretty cheap, too. The least expensive oceanview balcony we can get into is our splurge. Other than running the onboard account up with the aunts and uncles, we do what's included, too.)

 

I didn’t see any bagpiper on our cruise nor did I see any reviews of other cruisers in the past 2 years seeing one. Think they might have phased that guy out as part of the cost cutting?

 

Yes, too many things to see, especially the mega ship. Only if we didn’t sleep for the entire 165 hour period of the cruise, then we can squeeze in more.

I went to the Park Café in day 7 to get a sandwich to try it out. I will show that later on.

 

Haha on the picture. You didn’t have a teenager with you on your cruise did you ? That’s from the teenager club area. Since we had one, I felt ok going in there to take a picture or else you are not allowed in once the cruise started unless you are between ages of 12 to 17, just like kids not allowed in solarium.

 

My original plan got messed up with the seating table mishap back on day 1 and wasted 30 minutes of my precious boarding time or else I was planning to walk into both the kids club and teenage lounge and take pictures for both areas as that is the only time they are open for people to walk in and do a tour/take picture of the area. Another should have/could have…

 

Yes, tour on day 6. RCI based tour at that I just uploaded some of the pictures into Flickr and adding my usual gibberish editorial so will post them soon.

[harryfat1]

Day 6 – Cozumel

 

To me, our stop here at Cozumel is the only “real” port on the cruise. Labadee is nice in terms of the surroundings but we didn’t see any of the real Haiti. Falmouth is too sanitized within the compounds and we only saw few blocks of the town area. This is the only stop where we get to see more of the town and the locals.

 

We were last here in Cozumel with Celebrity cruise but we didn’t really spent much time on the island. We joined the tour to see the great Mayan ruin of Chichen Itaza in the mainland. As soon as the ship docked back then, we got off the ship the tour took all day. This time around, we wanted to see more of the island.

 

As part of my research in preparation on the ports, I went over to the Cozumel section of the boards as well as tripadvsior and originally I was going to hire our own driver for the day and have our own tour but after adding up that cost versus the tour of what RCI was offering, it turned out RCI had a better deal. How can that be? The reason is the RCI tour we wanted included the guide to the ruins and the admissions. If I did everything myself, I would have to pay separately so the math didn’t work out that way. Also, my wife was thinking if we join a tour with other people, maybe they will ask questions about the area that we would never think of. Especially since we had extra OBC to spend, we opted to go with the Royal tour.

 

I will talk more about the tour as we go along. Firs thing first. I must have requested a 6:30 wakeup call as this first picture of the day was at 6:42 AM. Taking picture of the quiet aqua theater. They must leave the big screens on all night long. Seems to be such waste of energy as nobody is watching it.

 

 

Looking upward, I see that the early folks are already in windjammer eating breakfast as the windjammer opened at 6:30 AM.

 

 

Don’t need any stinking apps to tell me there should be some empty tables this early

 

 

Since the ship is on FL time (never changes the whole cruise), even though Cozumel is on different time zone, we remain on FL time so that’s why the sunrise is later out here. So after taking couple pictures here, anyone care to guess what I did next? Bingo – head off to the secret balcony. Grabbed the camera and the sea pass on my neck, walked out bare footed in PJ shorts and t-shirt. Hey, who is going to see me this early in the morning.

 

Not a soul in the hallway

 

 

Nor anyway out on the secret balcony

 

[harryfat1]

We see the ship approaching the coast line of Cozumel

 

 

Sorry, only pic I had of the pilot ship up close is blurry

 

 

 

Cloudy overcast morning

 

 

 

Still puttering along slowly to the pier with the pilot ship speeding away on the upper part of the picture

 

[harryfat1]

OK, time to head back to the cabin and wake up the clan to get some breakfast. The sky is no longer dark

 

 

By time we were in windjammer at 7:30, plenty of empty tables to choose

 

 

 

My usual breakfast. Salmon and capers. Eggs. Berries on top of French toast and pancake and fruit bowl in the back along with OJ and coffee. Oh, yeah, bacon of course.

 

 

Which deck is the gangway? Who care? Just press the gold button that says “gangway” and it will take you there. Exit for dummies like me…

 

[harryfat1]

The Navigator of the Seas is in Cozumel next to us. They are from Galveston doing their western Caribbean run. Interesting walking between 2 giant ships as they tower above you

 

 

People from Navigator visiting their aunts in the morning (aka photo taking). I should have stood in front of that and have picture taken and said I sailed on the Navigator or be a real jerk and stand there with the people and have the ship photographer take a picture of me and then the facial recognition software on that ship bombs out trying to match my face on their database…

 

 

 

Here we are at the end of both ships. Note that I have both the camcorder and the camera as my younger one is on his union contract’s mandated break per page 126, paragraph 3, line 8 of his UAW contract which stipulates he is not to work on morning of day 6 of any western Caribbean cruise while he is at the pier.

 

 

Hey, look, towing lines. Just kidding, I now know they are mooring lines. Notice Emerald Princess in the back on the other pier about a mile down and there is some sort of tour boat on the far end

 

[harryfat1]

We have something on this end as well. People lining up. Wonder where this tour is going to

 

 

 

 

OK, here is a butt to butt competition. Whose butt is bigger? Of course our butt is bigger. Nah, nah, nah, nah, our butt is bigger than your butt…Let’s do a cheerleading chant. 2-4-6-8, whose butt do we appreciate? Allure, Allure…

 

 

They have a big wall map to give you an idea own where things are

 

[harryfat1]

OK, so we made it to the meeting spot for the tour. Ours is the one on the left.

 

 

The tour is a basic visit to the San Gervasio ruins and then a tour of the island on the east side (aka the wild side) and the added chocolate store at the end. When we booked the tour, it was the most reasonable price on the RCI listing of $40/pp. Being the greedy gravy sucky pigs they are, RCI just increased the price to $49/pp, a whopping 22.5% increase! They suck.

 

I know people must be asking why a cheapo dad would book a tour with RCI when you can do it yourself for cheaper with a private tour. I looked at the Cozumel boards here at cc and trip advisor during the pre-cruise planning and the most reputable place both sites recommend are Tours Plaza, where you can hire the drive/van for whatever number of hours you want and you get to call the shots.

 

http://www.toursplaza.com/eng/hiring-driver.cfm

 

We did something like this with another company when touring Cabo couple years back in forming our own private tour. This time because we wanted to see the ruins, it actually would cost more if we did our own tour because of the spate admissions charges to get in and the cost to hire an English speaking guide to show us around. Cheaper to go with the RCI based tour – at least it was back when I booked it. With the $9/pp price increase, that probably changed the math, but you get the security feeling with RCI sponsored tours versus your own.

 

Next time we visit Cozumel, we will probably go with a private tour but since this is first time visit, good to have an idea on of what’s what so when we come back, we know where to go.

 

Here is the official description of the tour from RCI’s own site. Depending on when you are reading this, my review summary should be near the top. I tried to upload the 6 pics limit as prescribed by the site to show readers what the tour looks like but the RCI web site sucks and kept saying upload timed out, so heck with them.

 

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?ProductCode=CZT6&DestinationCode=CARIB&sourcePage=shorexByTypePortDest&ActivityTypeId=1

 

Having seen the Chichen Itza Mayan, which is one of the biggest ones, I know the San Gervasio is tiny in comparison and I didn’t have much high expectations from the reviews and pictures I have seen, but it’s a quick trip that doesn’t involve all day to be on the ferry like it would be going to Tulum to see the bigger Mayan ruins on the mainland. Especially since I read the many people get sea sick on the ferry to and from. I know I get sea sick easily (typically have to wear sea band on my wrist while on many cruise ships) so that didn’t sound very appealing. Best to just stick with the basics and get back to the ship for lunch and then off to swim in the pool afterward as we didn’t get to swim in the pool on day 4 due to the rain. At least that was the plan. As you all know by now, my plans don’t always work out.

[harryfat1]

So we all good? Time to stand in line and give the hard copy tickets to the tour guide. Let’s see, for the 6 of us, here are the tickets. 1-2-3-4-5. Huh? 5 tickets? Crap. Where did I put the extra one? Did I drop it on the ground back on the ship? Do I need to run back? Haha, just kidding. Have all 6 tickets. Seeing if anyone is actually reading all this mindless editorial stuff I am inserting between pictures or you are just scrolling down fast before you minimize the web page go back to work…

 

 

So this is what the meeting place for the tour looks like. You exchange your hard tickets for a bracelet and a sticker on your shirt that has a tour guide’s name on it – Patty. So for the rest of the morning, the entire bus changed their name to Patty as we were all saying “oh, here comes another Patty to the bus. What luck, we are called Patty also”.

 

 

Whole lot of buses in the parking area. Make sure you get on the right one.

 

 

Taxi line if you want to do your own thing

 

 

Ahhh, found the bus and the driver

 

 

Being anal, we got there exactly on time and first ones to boot so we were assigned numbers 1 to 6 (that has meaning later on). Being first, we sat in the front seats. Of course the wife gets the front seat with her SLR and the young one has the camcorder duty back now that his union mandated break is over as we have left the pier

 

[harryfat1]

Buses all around us as we sit and wait for people to show up.

 

 

 

While waiting, I saw a map above the driver that has the highlights of the island and we took a picture of it. As always, I am using the sucky free hand nonprofessional looking arrows to demonstrate my point. I have pointed out the 3 areas on the island we will be visiting. Basically one big loop around the island one and only main perimeter road

 

 

Technically the tour was to depart at 9 AM with the people meeting at the area at 8:45 but we had some really slow pokes on the bus. We saw every bus in the lot pulling out but we just sat there not moving and it's past 9:10. Come on, people, let’s move it move it.

 

 

OK, finally we got out of the parking lot and onto the main road

 

 

Here’s our tour guide, Patty. What luck, we have the same name also

 

[harryfat1]

Hey, how about that? Take a picture. Bet you never seen one of these back home

 

 

Or the Golden Arches

 

 

 

Patty gave us some background about the people and the island. They are more self-reliant now with their own hospital and schools instead of having to go to mainland in the old days. Approx. 90% of the workers on the island are connected to one type of work – tourism. Yeap, with many of the cruise ships on western Caribbean run stopping here, majority of the jobs on the island is connected to tourism one way or another.

 

Note that the streets are much wider/less crowded as we head out of the downtown area. Patty said most of the locals on the island do not have a bed – they all sleep in hammocks at night. Babies’ especially love it as you swing them back and forth.

 

This is more residential area and she said she lives somewhere in this area

 

 

Then the road becomes more rural as we leave town onto the first destination – San Gervasio ruins

 

 

[mareed]

Love the picture you took on the bus of Cozumel! And I'm really enjoying reading your review. I'm another spreadsheet and numbers kind of person so can relate to all your commentary!

 

I'll be cruising again soon and am using Tours Plaza in Cozumel so the map really helps as I can't really find a good map of the back side of the island. We used them once before and they are great.

 

We were on the Navigator at the same time as Allure last June so also have the same picture between the 2 ships.

 

Basically, I can relate to a lot in your report even though I haven't sailed nor plan to sail on the Allure/Oasis.

[harryfat1]

Love the picture you took on the bus of Cozumel! And I'm really enjoying reading your review. I'm another spreadsheet and numbers kind of person so can relate to all your commentary!

 

I'll be cruising again soon and am using Tours Plaza in Cozumel so the map really helps as I can't really find a good map of the back side of the island. We used them once before and they are great.

 

We were on the Navigator at the same time as Allure last June so also have the same picture between the 2 ships.

 

Basically, I can relate to a lot in your report even though I haven't sailed nor plan to sail on the Allure/Oasis.

 

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you are following along even though you don’t have current plans to be on an Oasis class ship.

 

Happy to know that the map info is helpful – you figure tour bus’ maps should be fairly detailed with all the top tourist areas. Always tricky when people write about ports/excursions as not everybody is on the same route and even fewer people are interested in the same excursion you took. I know when I was reading the other reviews, I always had to skim/skip over all the ports/excursions that I know I won’t be going on. So I do appreciate people such as yourself still reading this report.

 

We will likely go with Tours Plaza next time we are in town as I read many good things about them and I exchanged email with them in my planning stage to have an idea on the cost/estimated time for seeing the island. They were very professional in their responses.

 

The east side of the island is my favorite. Much more rustic and less “built up”. Have fun on your upcoming cruise.