Allure 6/5 Ponderings and Pictures

There have already been a few good reviews done about the Allure 6/5 Western Caribbean cruise (especially Newbcruiser1). These reviews, and others, have also had great pictures of most parts of the ship. I won't therefore do a full review and be repetative. Instead, I'll just make a few comments and post a lot of pictures that are hopefully a little different (although it seems like every inch of the ship has been photographed by now).

Brief background...family of 4 with 2 daughters 13 and 16. Third cruise for all. Stayed at the FLL Embassy Suites the night before the cruise. Typical Embassy Suites...nice pool, managers cocktail reception in the evening, free cooked to order breakfast in the morning. I thought the views of the port would be good, but not so much.

Oasis getting ready to depart on Saturday...docked "backwards" so that they could test starboard side life boats (according to another thread):

Allure Sunday morning:

We had dinner Friday night at the Bimini Boatyard Bar & Grill, a short walk down 17th street from the Embassy Suites. OK overall and nice to sit outside overlooking the water.

Now on to the good stuff.

We were in our cabin shortly after sail-away and I watched the pilot boat and a supporting Coast Guard ship from our balcony. I'd never seen the pilot transfer off the cruise ship before. I didn't actually "see" that happen this time either as the pilot boat was tucked under the life boats, but it was cool to watch anyway.

The pilot waving to cheeting fans on the staboard balconies after transferring back to the pilot boat

Coast Guard ship watching (in case there's a problem with the transfer??)

The Pilot Boat and Coast Guard ship both turned back to port together.

Woohoo! Can't wait to see your pictures and perspectives! :) Keep it coming!

More please..........can never get enough photos!

But why were the fans "cheeting?" Hee hee:D

Waving to onlookers during Sail-away.

Busy bartenders at the pool bar. Hopeton (in the middle) was great.

Cupcake decorating class.

The Living Room, where it seems like my daughters spent many of their waking hours.

Fuel, the teen disco. My daughters said that the DJ was "lame" and that they much preferred Blaze during the night when they made Blaze teens only.

We mingled a little during the Captain's Welcome Aboard reception, and then decided to go to the Schooner Bar and watch things from above. The officers were gathering there for the speeches and introductions. Unfortunately, I can't tell you the names of anyone other than Ken Rush in the middle, and Captain Johnny in the back right corner

The band playing from on top of the Cupcake Cupboard

I was surprised and intrigued (I'm an Engineer) by the platform that "unfurled" from the Neptune thing above the Bow & Stern Pub

Ken Rush starting things off

Captain Johnny making his speech

This is a good picture for those of you playing along with the "Allure by the letters" thread. ;)

I really enjoyed Captain Johnny. He was definitely entertaining in a goofy sort of way, and he was very visible. I found myself looking forward to watching his daily Captain's Log on the cabin TV. We ran into him once in an elevator all by himself, and he was very personable.

Many more pictures to come later.

OMG! THANK YOU for posting these pictures. Please keep going. I am loving this!

Katherine

Great pictures! :) Did I see "thing 3" in one above?!

We were on this same sailing I have lots of pictures too...

We were on this same sailing I have lots of pictures too...

Great! Do you mind sharing? You can load up to a free site like photobucket and post a link. That's usually easier than trying to post individual links to photos on the boards...

Katherine

We were on this same sailing I have lots of pictures too...

I agree with Katherine. Post away. Everyone loves pictures. If you search these boards you can find info on how to upload your pictures to sites like Photobucket and others, and then paste a link in your posting to make the picture appear like I've done. You can also attach pictures to your posting, but they end up being much smaller and harder to see.

Continuing on...

There is a lot of glass on the Allure, and therefore a lot of opportunities to take pictures of reflections. Here are a few:

By the entrance to the Park Cafe

Central Park

Solarium

Viking Crown Lounge and the H2O Zone

I tried to get some good sunset shots but the clouds weren't cooperating most days.

Enjoying the sunset while I fiddled with camera dials

The sun is nearly gone

The definition of relaxation??

A few Royal Promenade pictures.

Surprisingly empty at about 7:30am

Capturing the blur of Royal Promenade activity

Looking up into Central Park

Great photos, now please show us more!

Can't wait for November and the back 2 back cruise with Allure.

Love these pictures!

We're going on Allure on July 3rd so thanks for all the photos - can't wait to get onboard and see it for myself.

Marianne

Waving to onlookers during Sail-away.

 

Busy bartenders at the pool bar. Hopeton (in the middle) was great.

 

Cupcake decorating class.

 

 

OMG! My mom, her friend Ginger and I were sitting next to you during the cupcake decorating class!!

OMG! My mom, her friend Ginger and I were sitting next to you during the cupcake decorating class!!

Now that's funny! :D

OMG! My mom, her friend Ginger and I were sitting next to you during the cupcake decorating class!!

I love it. I Hope you enjoyed eating your cupcake as much as everyone seemed to enjoy making them. Cruise Critic always seems to make it a small world.

Sorry...I was interrupted by kids and golf. On with the pictures.

I brought a tripod with me for the first time and used it to get some night time shots in Central Park

And a few more Central Park shots during the day. Our kids had a Central Park View room (9603) across the hall from us, but I don't know if they every even opened the curtain, let alone looked out the window.

I took a lot of pictures at some of the shows. First up, Oceanaria.