Cruising with the Tayler Crew

We got back from our second RVICS project on Thursday to pack for our upcoming cruise departing on Sunday. Our son Nick and granddaughters, Morgan and Grace were arriving from Sacramento on Saturday night for this week-long Royal Caribbean cruise out of Galveston. Our destinations included two days at sea before our first port of call in Roatan, Honduras, on to Costa Maya and Cozumel, Mexico before returning to Galveston.

Our ship was the Allure of the Sea, a 225,282-gross-ton, Oasis-class cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International, accommodating over 6,300 passengers, one of the largest ships in their fleet.

She has 17 decks and offers extensive, varied entertainment. Features include a variety of theme Restaurants, Broadway shows, ice skating, and dedicated, themed neighborhoods. Previous reviews often praise the diverse entertainment options, specifically the Broadway-style shows and the unique Central Park area with live plants.

We boarded the ship at 1:30 Sunday afternoon and went immediately to our cabins. Karen and I had a balcony cabin on the starboard side of the ship on deck 7. Nick and the girls had their balcony cabin on deck 6 port side.

Since our first two days would be at sea, it gave us plenty of time to relax and explore the ship. Karen and I would enjoy a quiet breakfast in the American Icon dining room while Nick and the girl slept in. Karen liked going to the gym and I preferred walking the track around deck 5. At dinner we choose to enjoy the less crowded and more formal seating arrangement at our designated table 701 for the five of us in the dining room called Silk on deck 5. Here we were served by our waiter John and assistant waiter Marvin for the entire week. All our meals were three courses; starter, main and dessert. Morgan loved the cheese rolls served at every meal and I think Grace had a Caesar Salad every night. The dining room food was hot, delicious and served quickly. It is a definite dining improvement over the crazy atmosphere of the Windjammer buffet on deck 16.

There was plenty to occupy the time at sea with multiple pools, water slides, Flow Rider wave pool, climbing walls and a 6 story dry slide called the Ultimate Abyss at the stern of the ship.

This is the entrance to the Ultimate Abyss slide. You sat on a rug sleeve and rode it down the tunnel in the dark. Karen screamed the whole way down.

The slide ended at deck 6 where there was a sports bar, carousel and hot dog eatery. At the back was the outdoor theater for the water show.

Royal Caribbean's AquaTheater shows are high-octane, complimentary performances featured on Oasis and Icon-class ships, combining Olympic-level diving, aerial acrobatics, slacklining, and synchronized swimming. Performed in a specialized rear-facing amphitheater for the Icon-class AquaDome. There was an ice rink on deck 8 where we saw a wonderful ice show. And the main theater at the bow of the ship had musical revues and the broadway show Mama Mia performed on the last two nights of the cruise.

When not at sea we enjoyed our three ports of call. First was Roatan where we did a shore excursion that included a zip line course, snorkeling on the reef and lunch. The zip line experience was great, the snorkeling not so much, the lunch mediocre. But we all had a great time.. I discovered that I must have encountered some mosquitoes or jellyfish because I came back to the ship with multiple bites on my legs and ankles.

Day 4 was Costa Maya after Roatan. We got off the ship to explore the port. This is where we couldn't land on our last cruise with Bob and Gail Conrad before Christmas last year due to the windy conditions. Well, we didn't miss much. The port is just a tourist trap where the locals sell their overpriced souvenirs. The actual town was a couple miles away and we later found out this cruise ship terminal was built by Royal Caribbean for their use.

Note the huge difference in the size of our ship and another Royal Caribbean vessel, the Grandeur of the Seas. Not so grand compared to the Allure of the Seas!

Our last port of call was one of our favorite places to travel to for diving. Cozumel is a mostly undeveloped Mexican island in the Caribbean Sea and is a popular cruise ship port of call famed for its scuba diving. At Arrecifes de Cozumel National Park, there are diving spots around a section of the Mesoamerican Reef and the Museo Subacuático de Arte’s submerged sculptures. Chankanaab is an eco park surrounding a lagoon with underwater caverns, home to dolphins, manatees and sea turtles.

In Cozumel Karen and I got to dive! Here we are on our way to Chankanaab and Via Blanca.

We had 18 divers with various skill sets so we didn't do anything exotic. But it was great to get back into the warm water.

From Cozumel it was one day at sea before arriving back into Galveston on Easter Sunday morning. It was good to spend this time with our son Nick and the girls. And we enjoyed our quiet time in the adult only area of the ship reading, resting and taking in the warm Caribbean sunshine.