Hi, Hi, Hello!featured

by Nicole on February 3, 2013

Posted in Planning

((Yes, I plan on finishing the last review + the review for our last cruise + our last Disney trip. It might be pictures only for the sake of finishing. We’ll see))

HELLO!

I promise I haven’t left this blog permanently and I really apologize for the lack of updates. I work during the day and then I work more in my free time (what can I say? I love my job and I don’t mind).

But this post has a purpose…

We just booked cruise #14…on Royal Caribbean. Our first Royal Caribbean cruise. Allure of the Seas. May 19th. A celebration of what would have been grandma’s 92nd birthday and a celebration of Mom’s upcoming 60th birthday.

We’ve done one cruise on Princess and 12 (I think!) on Carnival. We know NOTHING about Royal Caribbean. Any resources any of you can point me in on amazing reviews, must-do’s, pictures, menu and current Compasses (that’s what they call Carnival’s version of the Capers, right?), ANYTHING…send ’em my way.

And anything you want to know about Royal Caribbean/Allure of the Seas….let me know and I will make a list of things to write about/take pictures or video of/etc. A pay it forward, if you will. And I will write the largest and most elaborate review yet. That’s a promise 🙂

I hope all of you and your families are well. I’ve missed updating this!

Nicole + fam

TagsAllure of the Seas Royal Caribbean

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10 comments

Alicia AUTHOR1

glad to see you are back! I left you in my reader hoping that you would someday continue the review! Interested to see your take on RC – we've only done Carnival, but thinking about maybe branching out… 🙂

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Nicole AUTHOR2

Thanks!

We were debating between the Breeze and the Allure of the Seas and the Allure won just because it's something so completely new. I think the reason I've been dragging my feet on my recent Carnival reviews (beyond my total lack of free time) is because they all feel the same. I feel like I'm writing the same things about the same ports and the same ships. But Royal Caribbean (and the Allure, especially) is completely new territory to explore, to photograph and to write about.

If we like it, we have a past guest number on a new cruise line. If we don't? Our Platinum status on Carnival isn't going anywhere 🙂

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The Calico Cat AUTHOR3

Our first cruise was on RCCL too long ago to count for advice & I can't remember which ship other than a big one. But we just booked our second RCCL cruise out of Baltimore – so it is on a smaller ship (Grandeur of the Seas.) We've done a few Carnival, 1 HAL, & 1 on the Great Barrier Reef – don't recall the "brand, but it was TINY compared to any others."

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05eadf40-a7ca-11e0-9a2d-000bcdcb2996 AUTHOR4

Nicole, you still belong to Cruise Critic don't you? You should check out the Royal boards. I've seen reviews of the Allure & people are always posting pics & port activities. Check out the Oasis reviews too…the sister ship of the Allure. I've only been on NCL (loved it)…but may try RCI one day. Nice to see you back & would love to see your review after your trip…just might push me to book RCI.

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Nicole AUTHOR5

I do! I've been digging around the RC boards all night 🙂

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A Fat Girl's Perspective AUTHOR6

Hey! Welcome back. I do hope you get a chance to review the RC cruise. I've been wanting to go on one, but I've gotten so comfortable with Carnival that trying something new and having to start gathering information from scratch seems………well…..a pain. 🙂

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One Happy Family AUTHOR7

glad you are back 🙂

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Hera AUTHOR8

Hey! I love your reviews! Read all the time, but never (rarely?) comment.

Hubs and I took our first RCCL cruise for our honeymoon. It was a Mediterranean cruise. I'm not sure if that makes a difference compared to Caribbean cruises, but we found the level of service to be higher–like we felt more important. It was also a smaller and older ship, but still very pretty. The smaller thing could've contributed to us feeling more important. Another thing we loved, which I'm again not sure if it was just a European cruise thing or not, was the concierge. There was a guy who was always around just to help with port suggestions–directions, ideas of things to do, etc. And it was free. Unlike other ships where we've tried to just ask for directions from the Shore Excursions/Purser's desk and were turned down unless we were doing a ship sponsored activity. It was a nice touch.

Bottom line, we've done multiple cruises with CCL, NCL and the one with RCCL. We don't have a real affinity to one or the other. They're all nice and they all provide a great vacation. We found that maybe CCL does A better, but NCL does B better and RCCL does C better. For us, it evens out.

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H.M Haskins AUTHOR9

Just decided to check this blog — so glad I did! Welcome back! Looking forward to reading the rest of this review as well as your (possible) RCI cruise! We just got off the Valor, which was our 3rd Carnival Cruise (two previous on Miracle, which we loved!). Didn't care too much for the ship but did enjoy the cruise. Want to try a land-based vacation next and then maybe another NCL cruise. I'll be interested in what you think of RCI. In any event, glad you are alive and kickin' and I look forward to catching up on your travels!

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Kerry + John AUTHOR10

it was hard to go back to carnival after our RCCL… and then once we tried disney it was even harder to go back to Carnival. We'll be headed on our first carnival since then.. I just keep telling myself we have to force ourselves to NOT compare. lol

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