Allure of the Seas arrived Port Everglades very early this morning. We picked up the harbor pilot at 3am, and were tied up alongside around 3:45am, a very early arrival. Reason: All 2,000 plus crew cleared customs and immigration before the guests as this was the ship’s first U.S. arrival in around 6 months. Guest clearance began around 6:30am, and we walked off right at our scheduled tag number time, 9:30am. Easy, and made better by a little sign that said “Global Entry.” Quick blog post coming on that soon. In any event, our Global Entry cards got us moved to the front of the line, and we were on our way to the airport.
Overall Impressions
Allure of the Seas was a great ship for a crossing. The ship is enormous, and there is no shortage of things to do. That said, Allure is designed for the 7-day Caribbean cruise market, not a 12-day Atlantic crossing. One can only take so much trivia and napkin folding. I’m glad I brought a couple of books to fill in some time. I will prepare a standard cruise review at a later date.
As I’ve noted before, the demographics of my fellow cruisers leaned older, and that’s not surprising or a knock on anyone….it’s just the truth. I enjoyed some great conversations in the Diamond Club nearly every night, and it’s fun to hear about the travels of more “experienced” cruisers. With so many days at sea, there is a lot of time to catch up on missed gym visits, jog, spa, do absolutely nothing, and yes, we spent some quality time by the pool. We cruised with friends we haven’t seen for a while so it was a nice opportunity to visit with them too. In short, it was a good time.
We did have some rough seas the first 3 days of the crossing. Honestly, I’ve been through worse seas, but these were the most persistent. I’m not personally bothered by motion sickness so I wasn’t negatively impacted. I can’t say the same for MrsMJ, though she did not get extremely ill like a few did. We were on open ocean, and a very large north Atlantic storm reached down and touched us. It is what it is. Not something that bothered me, but something for you to be aware can happen if you’re considering you’re own trans Atlantic sailing.
Would I Do it Again?
That’s easy – YES! But not next week. By that I mean that I enjoyed the trans Atlantic experience immensely, including all those sea days, but it’s not the kind of cruise I would seek to do frequently. I tend to cruise for the ships, MrsMJ for the ports. For me, the extensive string of sea days was really not an issue, but I can’t say the same for her. With that, I think our perfect cruise might find us in a port every other day or so. An itinerary with more ports on either end of the crossing might have been more ideal too. In the end, we did it because we wanted to try a trans Atlantic crossing, and now we have. And then there were the sunsets……
Thanks for the info! My hubby would not do well with rough water, so this is good to know. Is there a cruise you would recommend for a group of families with teens? Some have cruised, some have not. 1 week or less.
Kathy,
I’d think any of the larger Royal Caribbean, Carnival, or NCL ships would have plenty for teens to do. For RCL, think Oasis Class, though Freedom or Voyager Class would be fine. Eastern Caribbean itineraries typically feature a stop in St. Marten, and your teens might enjoy watching the jets land at Maho Beach. Western Caribbean usually includes Cozumel, and for RCL, their private island Labadee which they would probably enjoy.
Did the ship offer any speakers, educational classes, or art classes? When we took Celebrity on a trans Atlantic a few years ago there was much to do. They had a professor give several talks on famous explorers, an author on spies during WWII also did several talks, along with offering a daily art class where a kit and instruction were provided. I don’t know if Celebrity still does that, but our 14 day crossing was awesome!
There were plenty of activities including near daily talks by a gentleman who was a former president of a movie company. Sorry, the name escapes me at the moment. I did not attend but talked to many who did and most seemed to enjoy his talks. There were the usual Oasis-class sports activities, and more trivia than I ever want to play. I was not bored, but did spend some time reading, relaxing, sitting in the sun, etc.
As to motion sickness, for first time cruisers or those who know they might feel some effects, I always recommend Bonine, which is non drowsy. I counsel against the patch, with its bad side effects. There is also a non drowsy version of Dramamine. Ocean crossings allow me to catch up on my reading and I always add a number of new titles to my Kindle. There is, however, a correlation between not only the length of a cruise, but the selected cruise line/vessel and the type of fellow passengers. Since ocean crossings are often heavily discounted repositioning sailings, it… Read more »
Having taken a number of Atlantic cruises a while back, courtesy of the US Navy, I can’t imagine doing another (we never got to do the pool, or napkin folding, though there was LOTS of trivia). I can sympathize with the motion sickness, though: I vividly remember one 75 day winter cruise in the North Atlantic with 30-50 foot swells and 15-30 degree rolls that seemed nearly constant (and that was 200 feet UNDER the surface…) – lost a lot of weight, but did get entertained watching other “passengers” literally roll out of bed!
Thanks for sharing the details of your cruise. It sounds like a great way to completely unwind and relax although I am not sure I could get my husband to agree.