If it's late August, I'm Probably Cruising - Allure of the Seas Trip Report 26/8/2018 - 2/9/2018

following along and appreciate all the details and pictures. will be on Allure with extended family, 31 of us!! We re one of 3 couples with no children aboard, so hoping there are things to keep us somewhat busy and that there are area for Adults only. Would you mind giving me your impression of that as a possibility??
Beautiful family, by the way.

looking forward to the rest of your report.
 
e re one of 3 couples with no children aboard, so hoping there are things to keep us somewhat busy and that there are area for Adults only. Would you mind giving me your impression of that as a possibility??
I really didn’t spend that much time in the Solarium to be honest. But basically it’s at the front of the boat and enclosed in glass (or plexiglass, I’m not sure), so it’s usually quite warm. Not sure how much breeze one gets there.

And even though it’s technically adults only, kids will go through the area because the Solarium Cafe/Samba Grill is NOT adults only.

So I guess my rating would be incomplete, but from what I’ve seen I wouldn’t recommend, if your end goal is to avoid kids.
 
I really didn’t spend that much time in the Solarium to be honest. But basically it’s at the front of the boat and enclosed in glass (or plexiglass, I’m not sure), so it’s usually quite warm. Not sure how much breeze one gets there.

And even though it’s technically adults only, kids will go through the area because the Solarium Cafe/Samba Grill is NOT adults only.

So I guess my rating would be incomplete, but from what I’ve seen I wouldn’t recommend, if your end goal is to avoid kids.


Oh... this is going to be an interesting experience lol. I guess I’ll be at the casino and shopping (?) and getting lots of walk time on this cruise. Better warn my hubby ahead of time ..
It’s not the cruise I/hubby would have chosen ... but it’s family so we didn’t want to “not” go. It ll be fun. I’m sure those of us without kids ( or whose kiddo couldn’t attend) ..will figure it out.
Most of family already were blocked out of 530 dining :(. One group was able to snag it.
So, We did Anytime dine and holding 6pm... reservations..we ll hook up with the other adults and hope to get a table for 4.
Using a new TA, who allegedly linked us 4 together. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.
 
The thing with 4 person cabins (and I suppose this is true with other cruise lines as well) is that 4 adults would have a hard time sleeping in that one room. Two adults and two teens might also have issues if the teens need to share a double bed. The expectation is likely 2 adults, two children, and the kids cost $10 for the meal, so you could take them, or treat it like an adults only meal.
I'm guessing it's geared towards adults only since it also includes a bottle of wine and like you said you could pay for the kids if you want. It's a standard number no matter how many people the room sleeps. The Boardwalk balconies include lunch for 4 at Johnny Rockets (even the rooms that only sleep 2) and 2 soda packages per room.
 


I think that, had I got the Boardwalk balcony, I'd have to force myself to go to JRs. Might even use the soda package (not a huge soda drinker. I also still have a hard time saying/typing "soda" as it's still "pop" to me).
 
Thanks for your report. All the pictures and description are great! I'll be on the Allure in 10 days for my first adult-only cruise in a junior suite with my mom and cousin.
 


I think that, had I got the Boardwalk balcony, I'd have to force myself to go to JRs. Might even use the soda package (not a huge soda drinker. I also still have a hard time saying/typing "soda" as it's still "pop" to me).
I'm not a big fan of JRs. My kids like to eat there at least once. So the 3 of them can go together to eat. The soda package for our room is useless since we're buying the drink package and I drink maybe one or 2 sodas all week. But it is good for the kids room since we normally purchase it for them. I wish there was a way to give one of our soda packages to my son, since they have 3 people in their room and only get 2 packages.

A perfect scenario would be DH and I get the wine and lunch from a CP balcony and the kids in a Boardwalk balcony. LOL
 
Day 3 - At Sea

Sea days are always fun. Because there’s no port to get off at, there’s no need to rush around, get shoreside, and do what you’re gonna do. It really allows you to get into that “cruise mode” and go with the flow. Even if there’s a list of things that you want to do.

Breakfast today was at Johnny Rockets. One of the best things about the Oasis class ships is that Johnny Rockets is located on the Boardwalk, and that breakfast is free. There’s just something nice about sitting on the quiet Boardwalk enjoying the sea breezes and sipping coffee. For me at least. I had my usual JR’s breakfast - patty and eggs. I mean, if I’m eating here, I might as well get a burger patty instead of paying $10 for one.

The kids forgot their socks, so we were ready to head back to the room. And then my wife got into an accident. While in the ladies room by the Aquatheatre, something in the stall dropped on her foot. I’m still not entirely certain what it was, but it was heavy and caused a cut on her big toe. We went back to the room and got it cleaned up, and once that was done my wife headed to guest services to tell them about it.

The folks at guest services were very good about the situation, apologized a lot and sent her to sickbay to get it further checked out, and offered her various things as comps, which she refused.

(For the record, I would have taken whatever comps were offered to me. But it wasn’t my call to make. )

The doctor cleaned the cut up further, determined that there was only superficial damage, and gave her some iodine and bandages to reduce the chances of infection.

Meanwhile, the remaining three of us sunscreened up, got our caps, and headed to the rock wall. Oh… wait. My cap is gone. Apparently I misplaced my visor at some point. Not a big deal - it was old and getting to that point where it was near unwearable anyway, and nothing like getting something dropped on your foot. I was kind of attached to it though. Would probably need to replace it at some point, as my other hat was a fitted Expos cap with zero ventilation.

Rock wall was fun - we did it a few times until our forearms gave out. I only made it 60-67% of the way up. Which is good for me but I think I need to join a club and get better at this. And lose weight. (Good luck with that last one, Star).

Next up was the zip line. H was the only one to do it, as I was taking pictures and O was too small to do it. So Le and O did some minigolf instead. H did it 3 times, seeing as it took a while to get into the harness and all.

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By this point we were puddles of sweat, so it was time to hit the pools.

A word about the pools. The Allure had an hourly reminder about the practice of chair hogging, and while I didn’t see any staff actually enforcing this policy, it felt like I could always find an empty spot somewhere in the pool zone I was in. I’m not going to be naive and say that the chair hogging issue has been resolved on the ship, but I think the announcements do help to reduce the amount of chair hogging that takes place.

Royal also requires you to check in/check out towels for use, with a charge applied if, at the end of the cruise, you’ve returned less towels than you’ve checked out. Some people don’t like this. I don’t mind - it’s a minor irritant at most. It’s clearly a form of inventory control, and a way to get people to bring towels back from shore excursions. But anyone cruising on Royal should check their final balance to ensure that they were not improperly charged for a missing towel.

In any event, I ordered my first (non-complimentary) drink of the cruise, the Caribbean Sling. Since it was the drink of the day, it was basically a pre-mix. Not bad, but I’m not sure it was worth the DotD price (around $8.50 + 18%). A better value was what my brother got, which was essentially a frozen pina colada (with dark rum) in a pineapple for about $10 + 18%. The actual amount of rum added is apparently an estimate, and if you want you can reuse the pineapple for some soft serve.

(edit) As expected, the pools were a bit busier than the previous two days. Not quite peak "kid soup" saturation in the kids pool, but still more than a few kids splashing around.

For lunch, we hit the main dining room. I got a grilled cheese and leek sandwich with a custom salad, everyone else went to the cook station and got some stir fry lo mein.

After lunch, we took the kids over to the kids club. And then proceeded to do nothing but lounge in the sun.

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Dinner was Pork Tacos, Steak Diane and tres leches. The tacos were actually bao, which was just fine by me. It could’ve used more sauce, but they were fine. The bao was actually very well done, but I think a crispy wonton “shell” would’ve worked better (I had one like that at Frings in Toronto). Steak Diane was fine, but I should’ve went for the rack of lamb, which was really good. Our waiter Gerland tried to sell us on the donuts, but remembering my experience with them last year on Harmony (they were not good at all) I steered clear. I suspect he got to sample some when they were hot.

After dinner, we walked around a bit until the kids were ready to sleep. Le wanted to sleep as well, so I went to see the comedy show on my own. But it was a little early, so I killed some time in the Promenade. They had a 2 for $30 sale on Royal Caribbean branded merchandise, which included visors. Quality seemed good, so I got that and a t-shirt. Then I got some pizza from Sorrentos, which was… not bad? It felt like they changed something, or the cooks on Harmony were not good, because the pizza didn’t taste like cardboard with cheese, sauce and toppings. I still wouldn’t eat this for a meal, but as a snack, I could handle it.

Allure has a “comedy club” venue called The Tube, and it’s quite intimate, seating maybe 100 people. So you are very close to the comedians, no matter where you’re sitting.

The comedians were Rick Corso and Graig Murphy. Both guys were very funny. They did the obligatory bits about the cruise ship and cruising, but thankfully things I haven’t heard before (letters from the crew to the cruisers; yes, the comedians stay on the ship) before segueing into their regular material. I did notice that a concierge had reserved seats for people in the front row. If your concierge reserves you front row seats for a comedy show, they secretly hate you.

Next: Cozumel
 
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Day 4 - Cozumel

This was our third time in Cozumel. The first time around (Allure), my wife and I went to Tulum while the kids stayed on board with my parents. The second time (DCL Fantasy), it was heavy rain, so we didn’t bother leaving the ship.

This time though, we decided to do something different, and so I booked a day at Nachi Cocum. I was debating between this and Paradise Beach, and to be honest I was leaning towards Paradise as the al la carte structure would likely work out to be cheaper. But the port schedule showed 3 other ships docking that day, and without knowing what the crowds would be like, we decided to go with the guaranteed quiet place.

Cozumel doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time, so they were actually 1 hour behind ships time. Allure’s captain kept ship’s time on EDT, so no clock changes, which was perfectly fine by me.

Breakfast today was at Mini bites. Mini bites has a small buffet area, and in the morning you can get eggs to order or a 2-egg omelette. The omelette was fine, but they messed up our orders, putting tomatoes in Le’s omelette instead of mine. No big deal at the end of the day, but they should try and do a bit better.

As we were heading back down to our cabin, we could see a Carnival ship coming in. Nothing special, just cool to see. But we also saw some ambulances waiting on the pier. Hope everything was ok there.

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Cozumel’s international pier is a bit windy, so it takes a little time to get to the taxi stands. Once you’re there, they list prices to most of the popular spots

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When we got there, we found that that place was very, very quiet. The place caps their daily number at 125 guests. There were probably 5 there when we arrived, and maybe 25-30 for the entire day. I know it’s low season, but that’s not the best numbers.

We paid our balance (FYI, they have a chip and pin terminal there) were assigned a waiter and shown to a palapa on the beach.

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Kids wanted to hit the pool first, so we did that.

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Pool is a uniform 4 feet deep, or as I call it, the perfect depth to wade around and still carry your drink. There’s a swim up bar at the far end, and because it’s all inclusive, the kids got a virgin pina colada and I got a dirty monkey.

After a some swimming in the pool, we headed back over to the palapa, and headed into the beach area

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The water on the beach was super clear and just a little cool - really nice place to splash about. Except for the rocky floor, that is.

After playing in the water for a bit, we decided to order lunch. Both adult and kids meals come with a starter, entree and dessert. Adult meals also come with a soup or salad. We weren’t sure exactly how much we would eat, so we decided to only order 3 of our 4 meals.

We got:
  • nachos, guacamole, wings for starters

  • pan fried fish, seafood pasta and ribs for entrees.
As you can see, that’s quite a bit of food:

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The nachos were ok. The guac was excellent. The fish - I think it might have been tilapia - was cooked and seasoned nicely, and the ribs were very tender. I thought the bbq sauce was a little too ketchupy, but that didn’t stop us from eating it. Kids had another pina colada. I tried a mango daiquiri - decent, but ultimately not that great - I didn’t get a lot of mango flavour. We also got some bottled water, because why not?

After eating, it was back to the pool to cool off a bit. And to get a virgin strawberry daiquiri and strawberry margarita. After a bit, we started tiring, so we went back to the palapa and lounged for a bit. I also ordered a guac while the kids got some desserts. After that it was back to the beach. And a couple of beers.

At this point it was around 3pm EDT and we were pretty much done. I would’ve liked to have stayed longer but I was pretty happy with everything we did. So we went to get changed, and got our waiter to order a taxi for us. After getting to the pier and clearing the customs area, we were back on the ship at 3:30 where we saw this:

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Guess the bar staff weren’t pushing the drink packages aggressively enough.

We headed over to Park Cafe to grab some snacks and chips and headed on upstairs to our cabin.

Dinner featured my J and KMC getting there late, as they went to Chichen Itza and basically got to the ship at all aboard time (although there were some pier runners that came after their group). It was a cruise excursion so the ship would’ve waited but it was a very tight window. And we learned that for their 7.5 hours of ferry and bus rides they got 45 minutes at Chichen Itza.

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In case anyone is worried, the pepper soup is not spicy at all. The pork loin and short rib were both very good.

After dinner, we watched How To Train Your Dragon (On Ice), which comes off as a low rent Disney on Ice. I think they’ve added some video effects since the last time I saw this, and the show is worse off because of it. Can’t fault the skaters, as they worked hard. But there was simply something lacking in the direction.

And then, after a fairly long day, we crashed.

(Aside: My other brother went to Playa Mia with K&F. They opted strictly for the entrance fee ($30) and it wasn’t too crowded. They went out to the obstacle course (which they said is not well maintained, or at least kept clean) first and proceeded to gas out very quickly, heading home around 12:30.)

Next: Roatan, Belize
 
Oh... this is going to be an interesting experience lol. I guess I’ll be at the casino and shopping (?) and getting lots of walk time on this cruise. Better warn my hubby ahead of time ..
It’s not the cruise I/hubby would have chosen ... but it’s family so we didn’t want to “not” go. It ll be fun. I’m sure those of us without kids ( or whose kiddo couldn’t attend) ..will figure it out.
Most of family already were blocked out of 530 dining :(. One group was able to snag it.
So, We did Anytime dine and holding 6pm... reservations..we ll hook up with the other adults and hope to get a table for 4.
Using a new TA, who allegedly linked us 4 together. Fingers crossed it goes smoothly.

You should have no problem finding adults only things to do and places to go. Depends on what you like to do...check out a comparable Cruise Compass (you can Google).

Just curious...what is the cruise you would have chosen?
 
Enjoying your review! Can't wait to be on the Harmony! BTW, we had those donuts at 150 Central Park and they were a-ma-zing!! :-)
 
Day 5 - Roatan

Before the cruise, after pre-paying for the photo package I had found that we had a little bit of OBC left over. Roatan was something of an open book to us so we decided to use that credit for the cruise line equivalent to a double decker city bus tour - the island tour excursion.

Technically this was the “All-in-One Tour (Bllingual)”, and the promise of rum cake and chocolate seemed appealing, so we pre-booked during one of the many, many cruise planner sales.

Roatan is in the Central Time Zone, and does not observe DST, so they were 2 hours behind ship’s time. As a result, our initial 10:15 start time got bumped to 11. Which I suppose was fine - more time to sleep in. Ha!

So with the extra time, we enjoyed ourselves in the MDR for breakfast. I got an omelette, and while the filling choices are not as varied as at Wipeout, the quality of the omelette seems to be better. The breakfast mini-buffet has a waffle station, which makes some small waffles that reminded me of some mouse-eared waffles.

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After breakfast, it was time for sunscreen, contact lenses etc. and to head outside to find our "excursion zone".

The tour basically took us around the south end of the island, and as promised, we hit a rum cake shop (actually a local rum company that happened to also make cake) and a chocolate factory. The rum shop (called the Roatan Rum Company) had some rather tasty rums, and I got a dark rum to take home (Note: I’d bought a couple of Wine Traveller cozies in case of this). The view from the shop was also quite nice.

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The chocolate “factory” was quite underwhelming - much too small to handle the tourist traffic the excursion company was bringing, and honestly nothing of note to buy. But there was a silver lining to this - beside the shop there was a fruit stand with mangosteens and some giant rambutans.

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They taste similar to lychee, and are quite refreshing on a hot day.

Final stop was the West End, and we made an “unscheduled” stop at another chocolate shop, the Roatan Chocolate Factory. And I was of two minds about this. On one hand, this cut into our “leisure” time. On the other hand, this Chocolate Factory was not crowded and it was actually informative about their chocolate making processes.

As we waited for our bus, we saw some hummingbirds. Really lovely and fascinating creatures.

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The bus dropped us off closer to the beach in the West End, where we got to wander around and enjoy the beach for around 45 minutes.

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As in Cozumel, the water was super clear. Unlike Cozumel, the beach was not rocky.

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After this, we headed back to the ship. I managed to find my customary shot glass (I collect glasses from all the places I visit, see below) at one of the pier stores.
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Once on board we headed over to the Boardwalk to get some dogs. The Allure seems to have more variety than on Harmony. I got a Sicilian and a Wunderdog with my usual toppings - sauerkraut, onions and mustard. Definitely better than what we’ve got back in Toronto.

And then it was off to the pool to cool off before dinner.

Dinner, as you can see, was so memorable that I forgot to take a picture of the menu. I know we had jerk chicken, and it was fine, but if you were looking for a night to do a specialty restaurant this is probably the one to do it.

After dinner, we went to see the feature performer, who this week was the Texas Tenors. As I understand it, this trio was on America’s Got Talent, and got a PBS special at one point. And actually, they were quite good. I don’t know that their music was up my alley, but their voices were very good and they kept us entertained. One of the singers actually took selfies while singing Bruno Mars and segued into Adele’s “Hello” for a bit (aside: the comedy host told a dad joke about Adele: Why did Adele cross the road? She wanted to say “hello” from the other side).

In fact, I daresay that they’re a bit TOO good to be a feature performer on a cruise ship. But I think this had something to do with them promoting their charter cruise on Adventure of the Seas. Suffice it to say, they were easily the best feature performers I’ve seen on a cruise ship. Maybe next time I’ll get to see Pentatonix or the Filharmonic.

Afterwards, I hit the casino for a bit and lost $40, so back to even for me.

Next: Costa Maya
 
After dinner, we watched How To Train Your Dragon (On Ice), which comes off as a low rent Disney on Ice. I think they’ve added some video effects since the last time I saw this, and the show is worse off because of it. Can’t fault the skaters, as they worked hard. But there was simply something lacking in the direction.

Loving your review! We'll be on Allure in 30ish days! Can you reserve How to Train Your Dragon or do you just show up? It's not listed online. Thanks!
 
Loving your review! We'll be on Allure in 30ish days! Can you reserve How to Train Your Dragon or do you just show up? It's not listed online. Thanks!
No reservations are required for Dragon, the Madagascar aqua show, or the theatre comedy show. On the first day you should get a flyer in the Cruise Compass that outlines the show schedule (see attached photo) and that can help you plan accordingly. If you don't get one of these, ask! Your stateroom attendant should have extras.

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Day 6 - Costa Maya

Booking an excursion in Costa Maya was a three stage process.

The first was booking Adventure Park, which looked pretty fun with their waterslides and zip lines. But given that Le and O were not likely to use these, we determined that it would be a waste of money and focused on an actual excursion

Next thing was to tour some Mayan ruins. But the kids seemed averse to doing multiple days of long bus rides and didn’t want to see ruins anyway so this became a moo point.

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Finally, after discussing with my brothers and sister-in-laws, it was decided to reserve some chairs and tables at Tropicante (search “Tropicante Costa Maya”) and have a beach day.

Reserving our spot could not be easier. I emailed Steve with the request and the numbers, and got confirmation. I knew Allure was the only ship in port, so I wasn’t expecting a packed house, but Tropicante does not ask for a deposit, so reserving was a low risk option.

We started the day with breakfast in the MDR, then went back up to the room to change.

Then we headed out, grabbed some towels, and started walking. And walking. And walking. I’d heard the stories about how it was a long walk to get to the taxi stands outside the port area, but I didn’t believe it until now. It is a legit 15-20 minutes to get over there if you’re walking casually in the heat.

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Since my dad’s knees are pretty well shot (he uses a cane), he took the trolley over to the port shops while the rest of us walked. We got a van, which cost us $20 + tip for 13 people. Not bad.

When we got to Tropicante, we saw this sign:

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(In this town, VIP means “you get a chair”)

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Anyway, I can’t complain about it. Tropicante shares a beach area with about 3-4 other restaurants/bars, and have staked out sections for themselves. The water is a little murky, likely due to all the seaweed. Steve (he’s an American, from Arizona I believe) said it had to do with Brazilian power plants creating waste that stimulate growth. I’ve no idea, but it sounds plausible.

Regardless, the bars managed to jury rig some fencing in the water to keep most of the seaweed at bay.

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The fencing seemed to do the job for the most part, so the seaweed wasn’t a huge problem. Not gonna lie though - between the sheer amount of seaweed and Steve’s story of the power plant “feeding” them, I had thoughts about the weeds becoming Triffids.

In any event, everyone was enjoying themselves, so no real issues. We got some beers and non-alcoholic drinks, and our wives all got hour-long massages ($30 + tip). Le said it was very good.

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For lunch we got an assortment of items - a “heart attack platter” (deep fried stuff), guacamole, quesadillas and fried fish. The fish wasn’t all that great - they resembled corn dogs than fish, but everything else was pretty good. I’d rate the Nachi Cocum guac better than Tropicantes, but still good eating.

As the kids were getting tired, we packed it in around 2:30. Being the second formal night, we wanted to rest a little and shower before taking photos and eating dinner.

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Formal Night 2 is traditionally lobster tail night, and as can be seen from the menu, this held true to form. The irony is that I don’t eat lobster. I used to be fine, then I started getting sick after eating it, so I don’t really do it any more. Instead I had the beef tenderloin, which I recommend you get anyway for some surf and turf. Baked Alaska was fine, but served in slices so it looked like an ice cream cake (which I suppose it technically is).

(Aside: Way back in the 80s I cruised on a ship called the TSS Atlas and they actually brought out flaming Baked Alaskas. This was the highlight of a cruise I detested so much that I didn’t go on another one until after I was married.)

After dinner we took some more photos, got changed and headed out to the Boardwalk. The kids love the merry-go-round and by my estimation went on it around 50 times over the course of the cruise. They were also showing a movie out in the Aqua Theatre (unlike most ships the Oasis class doesn’t have big screens by the pool - instead they air movies at the Aqua Theatre or in the main theatre) - Avengers Infinity War. I’d already seen it on the first day but my wife hadn’t and she was completely shocked by the ending.

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After kids went to bed, I went with my brothers and sisters-in-law to the Promenade for some pizza, coffee and a little gaming with a card game called Coup. We also made a diversion to the casino where I won $40, so up again for the cruise.

Next: Sea Day
 
No reservations are required for Dragon, the Madagascar aqua show, or the theatre comedy show. On the first day you should get a flyer in the Cruise Compass that outlines the show schedule (see attached photo) and that can help you plan accordingly. If you don't get one of these, ask! Your stateroom attendant should have extras.

View attachment 349795

Thanks for this info! Didn't see one of those on Oasis or Allure. Did you use the app? If so, could you look at the full week of shows?
 

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