We had multiple cruises planned but cancelled due to COVID so were beyond excited to finally be confirmed on an 8-night voyage aboard Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas. This trip was 2 years in the making!

This trip was surprisingly unpredictable from beginning to end…it was a whirlwind (and a memory-maker) for sure. Our original itinerary was set to dock at Puerto Plata, St. Martin / Sint Maarten, St. Thomas, and St. Kitts. However, we were notified a couple of months before the trip that Puerto Plata was being removed from the itinerary “due to COVID” and being replaced by Nassau. Then (as you’ll see below), during the voyage our itinerary proceeded to change several times as we tried to go to Nassau, were unable to dock at Nassau due to high winds, then tried to go to Coco Cay, were unable to dock at Coco Cay due to high winds, and then ended up going back to Nassau later. The 8-day cruise ended up only docking at 2 ports: St. Martin/Sint Maarten and Nassau. It was a wild ride but we were still so happy to just get on the boat at all and had a blast!

Day 1: Departure from Fort Lauderdale

Inaugural day of vacation started out with an early morning flight to Fort Lauderdale to meet our cruise ship. However, we were stuck in standstill traffic leading up to the airport terminals (a car had caught fire in the lanes ahead…) and after standing in more lines inside, we arrived a whole four minutes past the checked bag deadline. At this point, we were told we had to miss our scheduled flight and would be given seats on the next available flight…which was departing at 6:00pm that evening. This would make us miss the onboarding cutoff time for our cruise in Fort Lauderdale, so we decided to gamble and fly standby on the next flight departing that morning. Long story short: we stood at the gate gazing hopefully at the monitor until my name popped up as “ticket received,” but Michael’s name didn’t. You can only imagine my relief when Michael was allowed to board that plane at the very last minute! First (and very stressful) hurdle cleared— we were on our way to Florida!

Our first evening on the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas was spent exploring the absolutely gorgeous ship and indulging in our first formal dinner and evening show of the trip.

Best surprise of the day was finally a positive one: we were upgraded to a balcony stateroom! Royal Caribbean’s Oasis class of ships uniquely offers “inside view” balcony staterooms in addition to the classic “ocean view” balcony staterooms. The “inside” balconies enjoy a view of either Central Park (an amazing open-air green grove of plant life nestled in the middle of the ship) or the Boardwalk (another open-air fun area complete with a carousel, carnival-themed decor and games, and the rock climbing wall). Having experienced both options, I actually prefer the “inside view” room overlooking Central Park!

Day 2 and 3: Sea Days

Both Day #2 and Day #3 started out bright and early with a morning workout, followed by formal breakfast at the dining room. We prefer the setting of formal breakfast over that of the buffet line, even if the food is basically the same thing served at two different locations. We got a table by the port window and enjoyed a view of the massive waves coming all the way up to the glass.

Sea Days are perfect for exploring the nooks and crannies of the cruise ship, and there are many on the Allure of the Seas! We first made our way to the Boardwalk. This area is exquisitely decorated and very well done— it is filled with lots of decorative hidden gems. The rock climbing walls adjacent to the Boardwalk area were our next stop. It was my first time in climbing shoes and chalky hands in a few years, and felt good to be back. You can choose from beginner to modest routes (the most difficult route felt like a 5.9 or 5.10 to us), and all are self-belayed.

After relaxing a bit with a beer on our balcony (still reeling in this pleasant surprise) we decided to try ice skating at the indoor rink. Skates and helmets are provided, and while the rink is a bit small it was quite fun finding our balance on a moving cruise ship.

Other activities included a bit of basketball on the upper deck and trying out the zipline stretching 10 floors over the Boardwalk. I have to say: the designers of this ship really did quite well in creating unique deck plans. The use of space in the center of the ship to create the open-air Central Park and Boardwalk areas made an otherwise colossal ship feel bright and light— plus, it made for an excellent thrill spot for the zipline.

Day 4: St. Martin / Sint Maarten

After having to sail away from Nassau the day before due to inclement weather (Nassau’s dock is very narrow, making it too dangerous for large cruise ships to dock during periods of high wind), we were super excited to get off the ship at our first official port of call: St. Martin / Sint Maarten! See the dedicated post to our wonderful day on this part-Dutch, part-French Caribbean island.

Day 5 and Day 6: Sea Days

Day #5 and Day #6 were Sea Days again. We spent the days leisurely taking part in more activities available onboard the cruise ship, most notably the FlowRider! The FlowRider is a 40-foot long surf simulator designed for everything from boogie boarding for beginners to full-on surfing for more advanced riders. Don’t be intimidated to give it a try! Michael and I had never done anything like this before but still had fun, and the small crowd of spectators is always very supportive and cheers everyone on regardless of performance. Please make sure you tie those swimsuits on tightly!

The rest of our time was spent playing putt putt golf, trying out more of the rock climbing routes, and sampling brews at the Bow and Stern English pub.

After dinner, we decided to re-watch the aqua show from a different vantage point. For the first time you see the show, definitely sit in the designated audience area by the stage (and arrive early to get a good seat!), but as we just saw the show a few days back we decided on something a bit different. If you head up to Deck 14 Aft (behind the FlowRider) you will find yourself at a balcony looking out over the tail end of the ship. There is a long bar table and chairs set up along railing, and we enjoyed a glass of wine and stargazing there. But the real reason we ventured up there at nighttime was down below. Immediately below this deck is the amazing nearly 18-foot AquaTheater pool, where the Aqua Show is performed. Watching the show from above on Deck 14 gives you a bird’s eye view and lets you see the swimmers in synchrony underwater. It’s a cool new vantage point and I recommend it if you have a night to spare aboard the cruise!

Day 7: Another Sea Day

We were planned to dock all day this day at Perfect Day at CocoCay (Little Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas), but this plan was… far from perfect. We docked at sunrise, but the winds were howling and waves were crashing all over the dock. I honestly found the dock design for this port quite poor… why would you build a pedestrian dock with no handrails or safety guards (to protect passengers from being blown off into the ocean as they try to walk across the expansive gangway)? On top of that, why would you build said gangway…right at sea level?! Even at low tide, the waves were high enough to spill over the gangway. Unsurprisingly, the captain deemed it “unsafe” to allow passengers off the ship. They delayed our disembarkation progressively more and more until finally announcing we would not be able to get off the ship at all and we left for (another attempt at) Nassau.

Fun fact: it is rumored that the reason why our ship attempted to go to CocoCay at all was to offload crew who had tested positive for COVID. Offloading sick crew members allows the overall COVID positivity rate of the ship to decrease, hopefully preventing us from being barred from docking at certain ports. Because we were unable to dock at CocoCay, this mysterious crew “exchange” occurred overnight, using tender boats to bring ill crew members to a nearby floating quarantine ship and exchanging them for healthy post-quarantine crew members. Whether you see it as a positive or negative, it’s amazing to see what cruiselines came up with to continue cruising in the era of COVID!

Day 8: Nassau

We had spent 3 days in a row at sea, and were honestly a little bit surprised that we were able to get off the ship at all on Day #8 at Nassau, but here we were! Check out what to do with one day in Nassau as a cruise ship port of call.

Cruising In The Era Of COVID

We actually felt extremely safe (in terms of viral precautions) on the cruise ship. Cruise ships get a bad rap as “incubators” of contagious disease, but hear me out! Your proximity to others is more cramped while dining indoors in a restaurant on land than it is on a gigantic cruise ship where much of your time is spent on an outdoor pool deck with plenty of fresh air flow. Additionally, the cruise industry has been so burned by the COVID pandemic that they (at least the Royal Caribbean team that we encountered on our trip) are taking all the possible precautions they can. Our Allure of the Seas ship set sail with <50% of total possible passenger capacity, and the crew-to-passenger ratio was unreal. The experience of having so many crew members waiting on the passengers was akin to the service you would expect on a luxury river cruise, except on t he blown up scale of a Royal Caribbean Oasis class ship.

All dining was spaced out for social distancing, and crew members stood watch over all of the seating areas and magically appeared at every table/chair to sanitize it, literally the moment anyone stood up to leave. Handwashing stations were installed outside dining areas (which I truly appreciated because constant hand sanitizing is rough on the skin), and of course hand sanitizer machines were installed basically every 10 feet everywhere around the ship.

Contact tracing was also maintained throughout our cruise, with guests required to scan in and scan out of dining areas, activities, and entertainment venues.

Masks were required at all times when indoors.

Upon boarding the ship on Day #1, we were delighted to find that we were upgraded to a balcony room, despite booking a (significantly more affordable) inside stateroom! We were told that this was done to space guests out across the ship a bit more- all in the name of social distancing. I wasn’t complaining.

The Ship: Royal Caribbean Allure Of The Seas

Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas is one of their Oasis class ships. The Allure of the Seas is one of the older Oasis class ships, but we still found it stunning. Royal Caribbean absolutely shines when it comes to ship design and indoor decoration, as well as the quality of their live entertainment. You can spend days meandering about the ship’s eighteen decks, tasting the food offerings at one of the nineteen restaurants/cafes, and bar hopping through the thirteen bars/lounges onboard. We were surprised to see that the Allure of the Seas did not have a water slide (I think this feature is coming in a future renovation), but the other activities like the ice skating rink, rock climbing wall, FlowRider surf simulator, zipline, and sports courses more than made up for that.

The Allure of the Seas even has an entire Central Park, inspired by the beloved New York City landmark, nestled in the center of the ship. Balcony rooms on this cruise ship either face the ocean to the outside of the ship or inward looking out over Central Park.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Entertainment

Royal Caribbean is known for offering world-class live entertainment aboard its ships. Everything from the acoustic guitarist serenading in the English pub, to the live merengue lounge, to the French impressionist piano pieces in the nautical themed bar, to the astonishing classic jazz group was just— simply put, amazing.

And all that is just some of the entertainment scattered throughout the cruise’s daytime itinerary. The evening shows were even bigger productions.

The ice skating show was whimsical and super fun (albeit at times alarming) to watch. The ice skating show incorporated some ice dancing moves that have been banned in figure skating competitions for safety reasons, but I have to say it did make for a dramatic performance…

The aqua show is held in the ship’s outdoor Aquatheater at the back of the ship. Be aware that this show is “weather dependent” and they mean it. We attempted to see the show, but were thwarted by last minute cancellations, three different times before the show was finally able to go on. This is because the rocking of the cruise ship causes spillage of the water in the pool, decreasing the depth to dangerous levels for the high divers. The show is not one to be missed, though! It includes synchronized swimming, acrobatics, and high (really, really high) diving stunts!

Royal Caribbean is known for their Broadway productions, and I was very much looking forward to watching the 2.5 hour evening show of “Mamma Mia!” Unfortunately, cast member illnesses caused a change in plans initially to just a pared down version of the musical highlights, and then to a cancellation of the show altogether as the available healthy cast dwindled even more. We’ll have to cruise again on Royal Caribbean to see the Broadway shows on the open water.

One thing we weren’t used to before this cruise was how Royal Caribbean encourages reliance on their mobile app to know what is going on where and when across the ship. I have never used my cell phone so much on a cruise ship before this trip, mostly because I don’t have cell service and there’s no need to carry it around. On this Royal Caribbean ship, you needed your phone on you essentially at all times to figure out what to do next. Reservations for entertainment/shows and dining were also made via the app.

All in all, ‘twas an enjoyable cruise! Our voyage on the Royal Caribbean Allure of the Seas was full of surprises, from beginning to end, but I was so grateful and ecstatic to be out on a behemoth ship again, sailing on the open ocean and eating to my heart’s content.