Recently I shared what my husband and I learned on our first cruise.  Today I’m excited to tell you about all the things we loved about our cruise!  FYI:  I wanted to see if we could fully enjoy the cruise without any add-ons, so nearly everything I’ll mention here is included in your fare.  I’ll make note of the couple of things we paid extra for. We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas.

The promenade was so cool!  It’s the heart of the ship, chockablock with eateries, a coffee shop, an official Starbucks, shopping, an English pub, and more.  It felt like a mall.  I loved how pretty it was, and each day I noticed more fun design and art.  Sometimes this area was crowded, but most of the time it was comfortably full.  (Note:  Allure of the Seas will be amped this summer (2025), so some of the dining options and activities will change.)

Add-On Alert:  We purchased the Refreshment Package which included sodas, premium coffees, juices, water, and mocktails.  We enjoyed getting lattes and cappuccinos at the coffee shop; they brewed Starbucks coffee, and everything we ordered was wonderful.  I think I purchased one iced coffee at the official Starbucks, and that was not included in our package.

We really enjoyed the food!  The Windjammer buffet offered soooooo many options.  (Too many?!?)  I loved scoping out the international options, especially at breakfast.  We also enjoyed breakfast at Johnny Rockets (yes, breakfast there was included in our fare!), Wipe Out Café (they had grits!), and doughnuts on the Boardwalk.  We snagged pizza at Sorrento’s a couple of times, hot dogs on the Boardwalk, and snacks at the Café Promenade.  We had some onboard credits, so we used those to pay the extra for eating at Sabor which offers Mexican food.  Of course the main dining room’s dinner service was impressive!  Delicious, beautiful, special! 

The SHOWS!!!  One reason I chose Allure of the Seas was because of the AquaTheater!  Wowzers was it amazing!  The divers took our breath away, and the acrobats/dancers’ enthusiasm was contagious.  SUCH an impressive show.  Equally impressive was the Mamma Mia production.  Those actors are no joke!  Very talented!  We love a good Broadway show, and what a delight for it to be included in our fare!  Mamma Mia isn’t one of my favorite shows, but MAN is the music catchy!  And the show really does have some funny moments!  I thoroughly enjoyed it!

We chose to lay low and savor the deck chairs and sunshine for a few hours every day of our cruise.  We really needed the rest!  We were always able to find deck chairs, and that made me really happy.  We skipped the pools and whirlpools, but they were pretty!  We scoped out the adults-only Solarium; sometimes it was nice, and other times we learned that adults can be louder than kids!

Gene and I appreciate the live music in the lounges.  What a fun way to kick back and relax!  We hung out in the English pub several times and also enjoyed music up in the Schooner Lounge.

Cococay was LOVELY!!!  We relaxed on a couple of beach areas and wrapped up our afternoon in the pool.  We were the only ship there, so it wasn’t crowded at all.  Helpful to know:  If you have a headache and didn’t bring Tylenol with you, just go the little first aid hut!  They’ll very kindly help you out!  I liked that we could “check out” beach towels from the ship at no extra cost.

I almost forgot about our stateroom!  It was very comfortable and a little bigger than I expected.  We opted for a balcony room, and I enjoyed being able to watch the sunrise and then go right back to bed!  We didn’t spend a ton of time in our room, but it was nice to relax on the sofa in the evening before dinner or a show, and it made for nice, quiet napping in the afternoon.  The beds and linens were nice, and the bathroom was a little bigger than I thought it might be.  We had no complaints about anything in our room.

Finally, let’s discuss the service!  I take care of people.  It’s what God wired me to do.  I’m an Enneagram 2 (Helper) with spiritual gifts of mercy-showing and serving.  I really do love serving people.  You know what was nice about cruising?  All those crew members were there to serve ME, and I didn’t even have to feel guilty about it!  Goodness gracious!  I felt spoiled rotten by our room steward, the dining workers, and all the crew!

We chose a 4-day cruise because we weren’t sure we’d like cruising and didn’t want to commit to longer than that.  It wasn’t enough to wring the ship out and do all the things!  And that was NOT adding on much at all to the regular fare!

So, yes, we DID enjoy our first cruise!  I’m already looking forward to our yet-to-be-booked next cruise!  (I’ll admit!  I’ve already done another, very short cruise!  Stay tuned to hear about it!)

Do you enjoy sailing on Royal Caribbean?  Do you have a favorite ship?

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