7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise on the Royal Caribbean's "Allure of the Seas" - Part I

Hello everyone,
                  Hope all is well with your lives. I for one got caught up in the regular grind of life and had not posted for quiet sometime, as you know. Sorry for that. But finally now I decided to get myself going with the blog. Like I said before, this blog is mostly about our travels around the US. And this time I would be sharing with you our family's most recent vacation, the  "7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise" with the Royal Caribbean Cruise lines ship - "Allure of the Seas".

When it comes to this cruise, there are two things that I should write about. The ship - "Allure of the seas" and the western Caribbean ports we went to. But mostly, it is going to be about the ship I think.
Also since I have a lot to talk about this cruise, I am going to do this blog in two parts. And this is Part - I for you!.

Now about that ship......The 225,282-ton, 5,400-passenger Allure of the Seas is the world's largest cruise ship -- by five centimeters. (5,400 is double occupancy -- the full load is 6,360). Some say this is "THE" largest ship on our oceans right now, even compared to navy vessels of the world.  Few facts about this awesome ship:

• 16 decks tall (floors)
• 7 distinct neighborhoods: the central park, boardwalk, royal promenade, the pool and sports zone, youth zone, entertainment zone, Vitality at Sea & fitness center. 
• First Starbucks at sea
• 2,384 crew members to serve us
• 25 different dining options of which 13 of them are complimentary. Eat in any one of these complimentary restaurants when they are open
• Among other things, the ship houses an ice skating rink, surf simulator zone, rock climbing, zip line, mini golf range, basket ball and table tennis courts, casino, a theater, disco den, night club, carousel and gaming zone.
• Adventure ocean - An area exclusively for kids, with lots of activities and a theater only for kids. 
• Lots of theater, ice-skating and aqua shows in the awesome aqua theater for us to enjoy. All of these shows are performed by professional artists.
• The Rising Tide bar - Which is a moving bar, that climbs up and down four decks.
• Elaborate swimming pools, kids pool, Jacuzzi tub, sun deck in the pool zone.
• Dreamworks experience with character dining, parades and meet & greets with many Dreamworks characters.
• Complimentary youth program at the Adventure ocean in the youth zone.
  
  
  

As for living in a ship for seven days. We didn't even feel it!! The real feel that you would have in this ship would that of living in a hotel located inside a big shopping mall like the Mall of America or a resort. There are different levels of rooms available in this cruise ship like any other ship, the suite, stateroom with balcony, stateroom only etc. We had a stateroom with a balcony. Though our cabin was compact, we didn't really mind it, because the only time we came to our cabin was to sleep at the end of a long, fun-filled, very busy day!!
Here are some pictures of our cabin:

Every day the room service cleans our cabins twice - once in the morning and once in the evening. And in the morning our room steward leaves a planner called the "cruise compass" which shows the events/ shows happening on deck that day, the restaurants, shops, pubs, clubs on deck with their open and close times and any specials etc. Also if you have kids who you registered in the on deck kids camp the "Adventure Ocean", then a cruise planner exclusively for the kids activities is also left with the cruise compass. The room steward also used to leave some cute surprises in our room, which our 6yr old DS used to really enjoy!! here are some pictures of the surprises:

Here is a snapshot of some of the shows that we got to see and stuff that we got to do during this cruise:

• Aqua theater shows - OceanAria, fountain show, Dreamworks "Sail off" party.
• Dreamworks character breakfast with Shrek, princess Fiona and Puss-in-boots
• Dreamworks Move it! Move it! parade with all the Dreamworks characters
• Watch Dreamworks movies like "how to train your dragon", Puss-in boots and many other at one of the movie theaters on board
• Ice shows - Game show, "How to train your dragon - on ice"
• Theater shows - Chicago, Headliner show by MO5AIC, the Blue planet.
• Character meet ups with Kungfu panda - Po, King Julien, Princess Fiona, Shrek, Alex the lion and many more.
• Some of the restaurants on board that we tried: Sorrento's - Only pizza, Windjammer marketplace, Adiago -  formal dining resturant, Park Cafe - Salad bar and deli.

Now let me stop this post here and say good bye for now. So meet you in my next post - Part II of our cruise vacation. Also look forward to read some fun facts and cruiser lingo in Part II!!

See you later then!