Pupa & The Princesses: Spring Break Aboard Allure Of The Seas

[RCCL Fan]

Introductions & Day 0

 

 

So apparently, my name is Pupa, I'm hanging out with my lovely wife and spirited daughters who are 4 and 9-year's old learned during a shore excursion in Jamaica, that Pupa is how the locals say father.

 

My oldest thought this was the funniest thing ever -- and she pronounces it POOP-a and her little sister emulates all that big sis does so. I am now to be forever known as Pupa.

 

Pupa, my darling wife, and two girls live in North Texas. We've traveled the country over the years, moving a bit for job opportunities, so in reviews past we've called Memphis, Virginia Beach, and New Orleans home. Now it's Dallas/Fort Worth.

 

We were actually pretty excited to be within driving distance to a port with a RCI ship, but we were sailing spring break week here in Texas, and Liberty out of Galveston was sold out.

 

So I shelled out about 2K in airfare for the four of us to hop over to Ft. Lauderdale and spend a week on Allure of the Seas.

 

Allure is a favorite ship of ours, so we were happy to sail her again.

 

Spring Break week this year was super special for us. During the course of the week we were celebrating our anniversary, my daughter's birthday, and Pupa's 40th.

 

I've been sailing RCI since I was a teenager, and usually get on the boards, research the latest happenings, monitor price drops, and check out all the latest excursions.

 

This year -- zippo. I mean nothing.

 

I did sign up for the roll call, posted a few times, never registered for the meet & mingle on board. Nada.

 

This is super unlike me! I love my CC Meet & Mingles.

 

I've been super busy at work the past several months, and I was working 12 hour days for about 6 weeks leading up to the cruise. It was a much needed break.

 

The Mrs. insisted I let her plan it, for once. "After all it's your birthday, and you're busy with work."

So. I let go and turned over my RCI and CC logins to her.

 

You'll see the consequences of that decision later. ;-)

 

Love you honey!

 

 

 

Anyway... The four of us left Saturday night for a 7:45pm departure to Ft Lauderdale. We normally fly out first thing in the morning. But, by taking the last flight, I paid 2K total, rather than almost 4K total for the four of us to leave in the morning.

 

I was worried about it with kids, but we actually kind of liked it.

 

I woke up Saturday morning and had nothing packed, at all. I worked through the day getting ready as did the Mrs.

 

I was thinking it and she said it, "Wow, this having the whole day to get ready is kinda cool."

 

I mean sure I'd rather already be on the beach, but this took the stress out of it for sure.

 

We drove past DFW airport which is literally 4 minutes from our house, drove 20 minutes east to Love

Field where we saved big bucks flying out on this Spring Break week.

 

Picked up dinner (they messed up my order, I should have taken it as a sign of what's to come)

 

Dropped off the wife curbside for her to handle the bags with the girls and I drove to the off site parking for the week.

 

Footnote: I was going to handle the bags, but the wife was convinced she wouldn't remember where she parked the car or she would get lost finding the lot.... so she insisted I let her handle the bags. ok!

 

We got all checked in.

 

We were delayed 10-15 minutes to wait for some late arriving in-bound passengers.

No biggie as we would still arrive on time.

 

It was a late night for the girls as bedtime is normally 8pm and we were taking off then. They were super excited though and wired for the couple hours in the air.

 

Kids were up most of the way with the youngest crashing about 5 minutes before landing.

 

We were staying the night at the Crowne Plaza, it's right next to the airport and across the street from the entrance gate to Port Everglades.

 

They had a shuttle bus to the hotel, and then a shuttle to the port and they're super close.

 

Well..... don't count on that shuttle.

 

I read reviews that it can take a long time, but when I called to let them know we were in baggage claim and would be ready shortly, I was put on hold for more then 15 minutes before finally getting the agent who told me, the shuttle would be very delayed.

 

He said there was only 1 shuttle running for the Crowne Plaza and two other hotels in the area that night and it would take a while.

 

I then asked where should I go to wait. Well, he had trouble telling me. Like literally said things like,

"Go outside and take a left and cross the street and walk to the sign, wait wait. you want to take a right first uhhh"

 

I had to ask him to repeat himself a couple times and he kept breaking out into laughter and saying "sorry i don't know what's wrong with me tonight"

 

I was like yeah neither do I.

 

After I thought I had the directions down, the bags starting coming.

 

3 Princesses and the Pupa don't travel lightly.

 

 

 

 

We had a total of 9 checked bags, carseat, stroller, etc. and 2 full flights sharing the same belt. It was a mad house.

 

I kept counting and counting, and looking back at the belt, and trying not to look my wife directly in the eye. But... yes.... one bad was missing.... my wife's.

 

Of all bags to lose, not hers!

 

I mean all I need is a t-shirt a pair of shorts and I'm good. I could rent a tux onboard. The kids they wear anything. carseat, you can rent one. But my wife's bag.... no no no!

 

She's a marthon runner, she had all her running gear and shoes in there, her shirts from finishing big races, her designer dresses, and shoes and she was totally sporting that face of fear, frustration, and fighting back tears.

 

 

 

So to baggage services I go with the kids and wife waiting not so patiently.

 

Took me another 30 minutes waiting while this family before me ranted about their bags which weren't lost but just didn't make the flight and were already in route on the next plane, but they were still super mad.

 

Then there was a guy angry because his flight landed 15 minutes ago and the bags weren't coming out yet.

 

I was like these airline employees really deal with a lot, while I was not happy I kept my cool. :-)

 

We got to the counter and no word where our missing bag was. No reports of it being found in Dallas, or not getting loaded or being on the next flight. Nothing.

 

Just we'll file a report and hope it turns up. The airline was great though, they authorized us $200 to spend immediately on things she needed to get through the night, and prepare for next day. We would get another $100 a day for every day the bag wasn't found.

 

So, I told the Mrs. I would uber to the nearest 24 hour anything and get her stuff for the night, and she could uber our in the morning to the first open mall and get what she wanted. I had a freshly paid off credit card that I handed her, and i shed a tear. ;-)

 

So we ventured back out to try to find the shuttle, and surely we missed it and the next two or three after all this. WRONG.

 

Guy from our flight was also waiting on the Crowne Plaza shuttle. He said he had called 3 times and has been standing there four an hour+ with no luck.

 

So, I broke out my phone and ordered an uber XL. We didn't want to uber with the kids. (installing carseats and what not) but since the hotel was literally 1 mile away it was 1am and we were all done, we took our chances. 9 year old just got a seatbelt, 4 year old got 9 year old's booster seat and we were off.

 

The shuttle did come while waiting for the uber, but it was full. There were only 2 seats left. The driver said we could ride and hold our kids on our laps. I said nah.

 

Fantastic decision.

 

We got there before the shuttle checked in and got the last room in the hotel with 2 queen beds.

 

Everyone piled off the shuttle as my card was being swiped. Families with kids and were told kings only were left and people were flipping.

 

My wife wanted to offer our room to a family with teens saying it would be easier for the 4 of us to sleep in one bed, but I was like how are you going to pick the family??? it's late the kids are asleep,and heavy, lets count our blessings.

 

Hotel was nice and clean. Great facility, it's our second stay here. My oldest daughter sleeps sideways, so I stretched out on the chaise louge for my shut eye. While wife and the youngest had the other bed.

 

We went straight to sleep... ready to tackle the lost luggage caper in the morning... and finally board Allure!

 

Edited March 26, 2018 by RCCL Fan
photo sharing issue

[ONECRUISER]

Have great cruise! I miss the days sailing with the young kids. First cruise took the kids we had just an ocean view cabin with 2 bunk beds for the 5 of us. 2,5,9 yr old. Yeah transportation, hotels and such mad house as it's middle of Spring Break season. Sounds like your ok and don't sweat the small stuff. My second cruise we flew in day b4 cruise and had lost bag, made it to hotel by time we woke b4 cruise. Ever since then when we travel each bag has some of every ones stuff, just in case...

[RCCL Fan]

Trust me we have learned our lesson. We will mix clothes in all the bags from now on!!!

 

Our room was tight too! We normally are junior suite people, but they were all sold out and we were in a D1.

 

Our thoughts on this are coming! Stay tuned.

[LuCruise]

Oh my gosh...losing luggage is a nighmare. And with catching a cruise you didn't have a lot of options. I feel for your wife. Hope things worked out and you could still enjoy your cruise.

P.S. - Sweet picture. You have a lovely family!

[FirstAnthem]

Following! Love detailed reviews like this! We set sail April 1 on Oasis...

[TimeToGetNauti]

Oh my gosh. I hope your trip got better after this. I just talked to my husband yesterday about mixing our clothes up in our bags just in case. So stressful.

[ptf2009]

Trust me we have learned our lesson. We will mix clothes in all the bags from now on!!!

 

Our room was tight too! We normally are junior suite people, but they were all sold out and we were in a D1.

 

Our thoughts on this are coming! Stay tuned.

And this is why my DH insists on 2 carryons only pp:) Yes...even for 9 and 10 night cruises, but you’re in a bathing suit most of the time, right? :cool:

 

Happy cruising!

[clochette]

I just hope that you got the luggage at some point, I would also be crying if my suitcase was lost.

[mrs_fitz]

Kudos to you for keeping your cool about the lost luggage! Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you handle it :) Nothing you can do really do about it so no need to hoot and holler at people. Fun review so far and look forward to the rest of it!

[jagsfan]

I’m waiting anxiously for Day 1!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[starvenger]

Following. Love your narrative style.

 

Tough break with the luggage. We've had luggage that got left behind coming back from a vacation, but (touch wood) not going.

[soremekun]

Beautiful family. I hope things work out.

 

Sent from my SM-G955U using Forums mobile app

[js]

Oh Pupa! Your poor wife! Loosing luggage prior to a cruise is my nightmare! I hope your wife gets her bag. Love your review! Cannot wait for more.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[vpat48]

Subscribed. Can't wait to see more and if the bag made it.

[GBPackersFan]

Following. Nice looking family. 😊

[lazydayz]

Sure hope it gets better on the ship! Thanks for doing this review,

[RCCL Fan]

Day 1

My poor wife. She couldn't sleep.

4:30am: "Hey, check your voicemail to see if they called"

5:15am: "Your phone beeped, check to see if that's an email about my bag.

6am: "How do I order an uber, I'm going to go to the store and be there when it opens?"

7:45am Off she went, on her first solo uber ride, my southern/suburban minivan driving stay at home wife.

I checked with the airline, after she left, still no news.

I got up with the kids as the sun rose, and played Go Fish with the youngest, while my wanna be teenager still slept diagonal and wouldn't get up if Allure sailed into the hotel.

I eventually got them up and downstairs to the hotel restaurant for breakfast. Met some of the families from the night before --- most looking super tired and frustrated still.

Breakfast was ho hum, I don't like crispy bacon, and this bacon was way too soft for even me.

After breakfast the wife returned with new clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. and a few hundred dollars spent on credit card, but she seemed happy, satisfied, and reassured she had what she needed to get through the week.

I decided based on our experience the night before and the fact that the cruise terminal was literally across the street from the hotel to price an uber and pass up the hotel shuttle to the port. $12 to the port in an XL SUV. It was going to be $32 with the hotel shuttle.

 

Now remember I did nothing for the prep of the cruise, left this all in my wife's hands.

Apparently there was a reservation time given of 1:30pm to show up, we ignored that and were at the port around 11ish.

As we began to unload bags I realize, none of them are tagged. I asked my wife where are the luggage tags.

She says, it said print them, I didn't know I had to put them on.

So I did the husband thing of rolling my eyes and starting to sigh but catching myself midway before I got in too much trouble.

So --- we were curbside with the help of a baggage handler folding and stapling all our tags.

Minus one. My wife refused to give them her clothes this time. She carried on. :-)

Check in was a breeze.

Very short line through security/metal detectors and we immediately hit the priority check in line which was empty. So was the regular check in line for that matter.

There was a full array of clerks, and many with no one in front of them. Terminal 18 is amazing. Nothing like the other terminal at FLL, which was a mess last time we were here.

We checked in -- all papers prefilled out. My wife did seapass photos for everyone at home while I was at work, and had me do mine from the office.

Apparently mine went through, none of the girls did. So all new seapass pics for them.

Wife is declaring never again will she be in charge of docs. lol

It's all good. we're checked in with ease, and I have my hand out for our seapass card, and I'm told it will be waiting for me in my room.

Weird? different. Huh??

Not sure why, I guess it makes check-in go faster, but it felt very weird getting on the ship without the seapass and instead this weird little piece of paper.

I'm old you can't change my routine!

We stopped for the first photo --- youngest wasn't having it. She just wanted on the ship!

So we got the lifeboat wrist bands for the kids and headed to the gangway.

Again -- not a soul around, no lines we just walked right on aboard excitement building for all of us as the ship was in view.

Wife and I have been on Allure and Oasis a few times. My oldest has been on Allure too, but she was about 2 at the time and doesn't remember it at all

So they were thrilled to finally see the "BIGGEST CRUISE SHIP IN THE WORLD" as my daughter so proudly told everyone she spoke to about our trip.

[RCCL Fan]

Day 1 --Continued.

The girls loved exploring the ship.

Immediately they were fascinated with the rising tide bar, and the promenade.

My youngest kept saying "What is this place? " and my oldest and my daring life both kept asking, "Where's the bartender?"

So yes, straight to the pool deck, where we met the amazing Joeclyn who became my bartender of the week and she hooked us up with our traditional welcome aboard drinks.

Funny side story.

When my daughter was in kindergarten, they were learning rhyming words. She had to write a word that rhymed with "car" and draw a picture.

She drew a picture of a little girl drinking a drink next to a really long table and wrote "bar"

Her teacher said, you know on a cruise ship where you get the daiquaris.

So yes.... we're raising them well. lol

We hit up the boardwalk --- because we just had to ride the carousel --- where I told youngest a smile makes it go round and round!

Pupa and the Princesses weren't traveling alone. We have a group of friends who joined us.

Back in 2002, we sailed during the inaugural season of Navigator of the Seas, and had quite possibly the coolest roll call group ever.

We not only talked shop about planning the trip, but wound up bonding in so many ways.

One of our members mom died, another's husband filed for divorce, someone lost a job.

We talked for a full year leading up to that sailing and weathered many storms together.

95% of us are still friends and we still sail together.

So 2 couples from that group agreed to join us for this trip.

We met up with them for lunch at Solarium Bistro, and then some poolside drinks,

Well, while hanging out and everyone consoleing my wife about her lost bag, the phone rings.

Yep the airline says they have the bag!

It was going to be landing in Ft Lauderdale about 4pm and they would rush it to the ship.

I had to know. WHERE WAS IT?

A brief hold revealed it was labeled correctly for Ft. Lauderdale, but somehow wound up in the belly of a plane headed to Chicago.

Agents in chicago found it on a belt tagged for Ft. Lauderdale and said whoops and got it on the next flight.

Huge relief for everyone, but of course I was nervous about timing. Would it make it to the ship by 5pm sailaway???

Wife went back to the room to nap, and insisted I take the kids around the ship for a tour. I wanted a nap too, but I was told tough.

[RCCL Fan]

Day 1 ---Continued

 

So --- the girls and I went to Adventure Ocean and did some exploring. It made me a little sad as a realized both girls were grown now, no more royal babies and tots.

Ship was in fantastic shape, as usual, I'm so amazed at the job RCI does making this now 10 year old ship look just as good as the day we got on her 7 or 8 years earlier.

Oh well --- off to the mustard drill.

Yep mustard. No, the kids didn't come up with that. we did.

Our station was the ice skating rink

My daughter was cracking up at RCI's video safety briefing, and the song telling you to wash your hands.

Girls and I headed upstairs to the room after for the first time, and now I saw why I was banned from the room.

My wife wasn't napping she and my friends had decorated the place with Happy Birthday decorations for my 40th. It was super awesome, and they had champagne waiting for me and sparking cider for the girls. It was great.

So I found our luggage, down the hall, live 10-15 cabins down the hall, it was odd, but I started dragging it to our room.

Apparently some people were confused about room numbers and luggage placement and the sea pass cards, so there

was a lot of shuffling going on but we got all our bags in the room.

All except the wife's which should be on the ground now... and I was being updated through alerts on my phone.

Sail away was great, a tiny bit windy, but a nice crowd, and great views sailing out.

Wife and I have sailed spring break week before and the crowd was younger/college kids, and they were partying with a mix on the usual families and clientle.

Not this cruise.

It was more subdued, typical RCI, fun but not wild... just people enjoying themselves and the beautiful ship and sea.

[RCCL Fan]

Day 1 --- Continued

The girls were cranky so I took them back to the room,to rest a bit before dinner....

and

ALLELUIA! THE WIFE'S BAG WAS THERE.

Crisis averted!

Let the party begin!!!! Frozen Mojitos for everyone!!!

So we normally do traditonal seating for dinner, but it was sold out when we booked and never opened back up. Late seating isn't an option for us, as the kids typically go to bed at 8pm, so we sure couldn't do dinner then, even on vacation.

So this my my first time in 20 some odd cruises using My Time Dining.

Now my understanding of My Time was that you just show up when you want and you're seated. No plans, no worries about rushing to make your reservation.

Well.

We went to the dining room and the line for My Time stretched out the dining room between the elevators and wrapped around to the other side. Wow!

We got in line and waited quite a bit before being told, we would need to come back in about an hour to be seated. So took the girls to the rising tide bar --- because that was a must.

So.... 7:45pm dinner for us and the girls.

I was surprised, but figured it was the first night, I'd give them some leeway to get in the groove.

Dinner itself was good. I'm one of those folks who really enjoys the dining room. No the food isn't some 5 diamond experience, but it fits the bill and i'm rarely disappointed.

Dessert got high points, wifey and the little one finished first and went back to crash. Oldest and I had seconds on dessert and then went to Dazzles for a date!

We listened to music had a night cap of bottled water and then joined the fam for bed.

 

 

 

First Day at Sea Tomorrow!

[LuCruise]

Reading with anticipation about the luggage. Ohew. So happy for her (and you) that it did arrive, even if the very last minute. Loving your review so dar.

[Chester & Brewster]

Wife went back to the room to nap, and insisted I take the kids around the ship for a tour. I wanted a nap too, but I was told tough.

 

I like your wife already!;p

[starvenger]

Sounds like an unhappy ending to the luggage situation. But at least your wife was able to get some new clothing.

 

Happy belated birthday!

 

Question: Is the SeaPass a mag stripe only, or does it have rfid in it?

 

Never actually eaten at the Solarium proper - I've done the Brazilian steakhouse - but I'm always looking to avoid Windjammer, especially on embarkation day. How's the food?

[micmacmissy]

Oh my goodness- your daughter is 4?! I remember when she was BORN!

 

Welcome back, Wayne- can't wait to read the rest of the trip report! Relieved on your wife's behalf that her bag was found. (We runners know $100 a day ain't gonna cut it when it comes to our gear!) :)

[ramja96]

Sounds like an unhappy ending to the luggage situation. But at least your wife was able to get some new clothing.

 

"Unhappy"???? Either a typo, or you missed the part where her luggage made it to the ship before embarkation. All's good!

 

And, oh yeah ....... following. Will be on Allure with my BW (beautiful wife) in 250 days.