All Access Tour - My Review from the Allure's Tour

We just got back from the 8/21 sailing on the Allure of the Seas! I'll post a full review soon. For now, here is just my review and summary on the All Access Tour that we did (a new offering from RCI that started in July 2011). Yes, I highly recommend the tour and we both felt that it was worth the $150 per person (and we heard quite a few others in our group that felt the same way).

For our 7 night cruise on the Allure, they offer the All Access Tour twice. It was offered on Day 6 (Friday) at 9am or 9:20am. Each time slot is limited to 15 people maximum each.

When we boarded the Allure around 11am on Day 1 (we were some of the first people on board), we made a beeline for Guest Services and the Tour was the very first thing we asked for since we knew it was so limited. The rep at Guest Services signed us up and actually told us that the tour was scheduled for Saturday. We picked the 9:20am time and she told us that we would receive a phone call the day before with the info on where to meet and the confirmation. On Thursday night we found an envelope on our stateroom door informing us that our tour was actually on Friday and we were given the 9am time. Good thing we didn't have anything else scheduled. We did confirm with our tour guide that all of the All Access Tours on the Allure will always be held on FRIDAYS at 9am or 9:20am.

For the tour, you must have closed toe shoes and you must wear pants. (The letter from RCI requests no skirts or shorts be worn.) They tell you to bring a camera and comfortable walking shoes. You are not allowed to bring a video camera and no video or voice recording is allowed. You are also not allowed to bring any bags, but a small purse no larger than a cell phone is allowed.

They give you release forms to sign in advance, which you bring with you to the start of the tour when they sign you in.

Tours meet on Deck 5 of the Adagio Dining Room. We met our tour guide there, where she checked our Sea Pass cards, collected our release forms, and issued us badges to wear that came with a lanyard. We waited until everyone was signed in (we had 13 in our group total) and then we started the tour.

The tour began on Deck 5 where we crossed through the Adagio Dining Room and entered the Galley. Here is a bar/drink station right after entering.

Here we met one of the head chefs. Our main tour guide that led us from place to place doesn't actually give the tour, but she was willing to answer any questions at all. The chef here in the Galley told us about the different galleys (I believe he said there are 21 total on board the Allure if I remember correctly). He explained about the different stations within the Galleys and stopped at each one.

I believe the screen below shows the number of desserts that they have to make/have already made for that night:

More to come in the next post on this thread, as I can only post 6 pictures per post! I took about 250 pictures during this tour, so it's also taking some time to figure out the best ones to show you guys!

Here is a prep station. I bet it gets pretty monotonous filling those little dishes again and again and again!

Here is a vegetable/soup station. The vats are huge and it looked like this guy needed a lot of arm strength to stir!

Soup station shown below. I think he said that this is where they make all the soup for all the restaurants. That's a lot of soup!

Dish washing station. Bet that's one of the least fun jobs on the ship!

More to come!

do you get to see the engine room ?

Next up all 15 of us (13 on the tour, our tour guide, and our Chef tour guide) crammed into the Galley elevator and went down to the Galley on Deck 4. Each deck of the Adagio Dining Room has it's own galley. Typically waiters can remain on their assigned deck and they do not need to go up and down between decks. A lot of the food will be cooked on a single deck, but then it will be divided up between decks to help out the waiters.

We got to Deck 4 and breakfast was in full swing. I felt like we kept getting in the way of the waiters and our tour guide kept having to tell people to stay out of the way and move to the side. However, even if we were in the way, there were so many waiters and chefs that were extremely friendly.

Here is where the waiters on Deck 4 were picking up their breakfast orders. You can see the waiters in the blue shirts on the right side of the picture. As a note, the chefs' neck ties denote their seniority. Yellow means that this is their first contract. We can't remember if red or blue is higher in seniority, but I believe that blue means they are the next step up from yellow, and red denotes a manager.

Next up we stopped by the bakery where they make all the bread and rolls.

This is a nifty little machine that can make 4000 rolls in one hour. You put in a large lump of dough and it divides it up perfectly.

The same balls of dough after they draw the lines on them:

More to come!

do you get to see the engine room ?

No. Everyone really wanted to but they did not allow it. We got to see the engine control room though, although it wasn't nearly as exciting I'm sure.

ok thanks

the pictures are interesting but if there is no engine room then im out and saving myself $150 :D

the engines, the desalination, waste disposal, bridge are really the only things that would be of interest to me

still im enjoying your review ;)

ok thanks

 

the pictures are interesting but if there is no engine room then im out and saving myself $150 :D

 

the engines, the desalination, waste disposal, bridge are really the only things that would be of interest to me

 

still im enjoying your review ;)

From the engine control room you can see all of the video monitors of each engine. I know it's not the same as seeing them in person, but it was still cool to see! You do get to see the waste sorting area and the incinerators. And you get to see the bridge! I'll get there soon with my pictures and summary!

As we left the bakery area we passed by the "holding area" for that night's lobster dinner!

The next stop was a welcome surprise. We stopped in a dessert station where they had chocolate covered strawberries for each of us along with ice cream samples from the Boardwalk ice cream parlor. I tried the Cookies and Cream ice cream and it was very good!

Here is a nifty chocolate house that they made. Wish we could've dug into it!

Next up we all crammed into one of the galley elevators again and went down to the galley area on Deck 3. Same setup, so this time we followed the hallways to the freezer section.

They have different freezers for each type of food. Meat, vegetables, fruits, seafood, etc. all have their individual freezers. Here is a meat freezer:

Boxes of meat:

More to come!

Very interesting....

Is this offered on all sailing on RCCL???

Also I know some cruise lines now offer a thing where you can a price and you get to go to a specialty rest and eat with captain or another high officer... does RCCL offer this?

Very interesting....

 

Is this offered on all sailing on RCCL???

 

Also I know some cruise lines now offer a thing where you can a price and you get to go to a specialty rest and eat with captain or another high officer... does RCCL offer this?

According to RCCL's website, this All Access Tour is offered on all of their ships. Sorry, but I don't know the answer to your dining question.

Not sure it I'd be able to afford the price tag of the tour, but I love love love all your pics... it is quite interesting!

Next up was the Butcher Shop. Don't look if you're a vegetarian! :p

Here is a crew deck sign from the same area.

Another freezer:

Sorting some vegetables:

More to come!

Vegetable freezer: (Keep in mind this is from Day 6, so much of the stock is depleted!)

Leaving the freezer area we entered the I-95. This is what the crew call the main hallway that runs the entire length of the ship. It is a straight shot from front to back and is the quickest way to get where they need to go. It was fairly busy and our tour guide had to continue to remind people to step aside!

We were handed off to an environmental officer who led us into the garbage/incinerator area. This was my least favorite part of the tour, as it smelled fairly badly in my opinion. Not much of a surprise I guess! Actually, when we first stepped in, it didn't smell that badly. But as we moved to the back of the room, I just wanted to leave as it smelled of garbage and was quite warm. Yuck!

Here is one of two incinerators:

Compactor:

We were then taken into the garbage storage room. It is kept cold to prevent the building of bacteria and to prevent smells. It didn't smell badly at all. They sort everything by type and recycle quite a bit.

More to come!

Fascinating! I'd love to do this type of tour!

More stored garbage, ready to be taken off the ship:

Next up: Engine Control Room! We were separated into two lines, women on one side and men on the other. A female security officer screened the women and a male security officer screened the men. Then we all filed into the engine control room where the environmental officer handed us off to someone else (sorry, I don't remember his title, but that's him standing on the left).

The video monitors on the upper left of the picture above show each engine. There are 6 engines and at this time they had 5 engines running. We were full steam ahead en route to Nassau (which they had canceled from the past Monday and rescheduled for Saturday due to weather).

The guy sitting down in the picture below is one of 3 men that alternate and monitor the engines 24/7. If I remember correctly, they each do 7 hour shifts.

Instruction manuals for all the technical stuff!

More to come!

Still in the Engine Control Room, here is a picture of a big table that had deck plans on it:

Our main tour guide had to push us along, as she had to do at each station because we had so many people in our group that had so many questions. We were on a schedule and she was there to keep us on it (or mostly on it anyway!).

Leaving the engine control room, we got back on I-95 and traveled to the other end of the ship. We were now running behind on the tour, so our guide asked us if we wouldn't mind taking the stairs. No one seemed to object, so we then took the stairs almost everywhere.

Next up: Laundry room. Much nicer in smell compared to the garbage room!

More to come!

Still in the laundry room, this machine is pretty cool. The guys spread out a single sheet at this end, and the machine automatically presses the sheet, folds it, and spits it out at the other end.

A washing machine:

A dryer drying some pillows:

More washing machines, or are they dryers?:

A giant washing machine:

More to come!

A good tour dcg!

cant wait!

The laundry room was on the bottom-most deck of the ship, deck TW. I forgot to ask what TW stands for. Maybe "the waterline"? :p

Climbing the stairs again, we passed through the crew cafe. Looks quite similar to the Windjammer.

We then passed through one of four crew bars, called the Venetian. It was connected to our next stop, the Amber Theater.

We entered the Amber Theater from backstage and grouped up on the stage. The curtains were closed and we could hear the morning Bingo session in full swing on the other side. Although we were quite tempted to jump through the curtains and scream "BINGO!", we did not.

Our theater guide explained the technical aspects of the theater, and in her opinion it is even better than a theater in West End (due to the automation and such).

Here is the tree used in Blue Planet. They also had the Blue Planet rock formation on stage.

More to come!

We exited through the opposite side of the stage and followed the hallways to the dressing rooms. We got to see the performers' lockers with their costumes.

Exiting the Amber Theater, we passed through some crew rec areas. Here are some computers that the crew have for their use. There were more computers than just these two! Apparently, they must also pay for wi-fi just like passengers. I failed to ask if they get it at a discounted rate.

We passed through a second crew bar, the Moose and Squirrel. Sorry, my camera doesn't have a flash, so it's kind of dark.

More to come!

Wow, these pictures are awesome! I did the Carnival version of this, "Behind the Fun" but no photos allowed. It's amazing how some of it looks so similar. My wife wants one of those machines that folds the sheets!

Wow, these pictures are awesome! I did the Carnival version of this, "Behind the Fun" but no photos allowed. It's amazing how some of it looks so similar. My wife wants one of those machines that folds the sheets!

Thanks! My boyfriend actually probably has the better pictures because his camera is of much higher quality than mine. But I figured that these pictures still show enough detail of the behind the scenes that most people are interested in!

More crew rec areas followed. Here is a video game area:

Pool tables and Wii. And they have windows finally! Movin' on up!

Our third crew bar, the Britto bar:

Known as the Britto bar because of this Britto painting outside of it:

Stopping in this crew bar, we were offered the drinks you see on the table there. Either champagne or a fruity non-alcoholic drink. Most people opted for the non-alcoholic drink.

After finishing our drinks, we got to go up to the Helipad! We were excited to do this, as we knew that we wouldn't have normally been able to (not being Diamond or whatever it is you need for the invite out there).

View of the bridge from the helipad:

More to come!

Thank you for the fabulous recap! Was this an adults-only tour?