sr71pav

Where was this cruise? Isn't Voyager in Australia and China? Not that it excuses anything, just wondering if it might not be the same customers that people are expecting on a Caribbean cruise during US spring break.

This can be somewhat similar to when kids grow up. They start with their parents total, but a separate count is tracked for the individual. I don't believe they remove status, though, in that case. For instance, if someone cruised with parents who were emerald once, they would start at emerald even when they cruise without their parents. They won't be able to move to diamond, though, until they hit the correct number of their own points. I had to have C&A describe this to me when my wife and I went on our first cruise but never saw it added to my own point total.

Bumping into my mum and dad in the elevator!!!!

Something similar. On our last cruise, we were in the room on embarkation day and I was on the phone with my parents saying I'd talk to them in a week and telling them about the ship. There was a knock on the door, which I assumed was the room steward, but, when I opened it, my parents were there. It was a wonderful surprise and we laughed because I was apparently about 20ft away from them a couple of times and didn't notice.

I'll try to answer some of the other questions, plus add a bit more that I didn't mention.

We did not do the zip line. Both DW and I have a pretty healthy fear of heights. I actually think I could have done the zip line itself. Instead, it would have been the part at the end where you had to stand on the landing platform that I think would have done me in.

As for shows, we did see Mamma Mia in the main theatre. I think I last saw it around 2002-3. It was still a fun show. Seats weren't an issue as there were plenty still available, but you definitely could get better ones the earlier you arrived.

Also, we did see Ocean Aria in the aqua theatre on the second night. That was absolutely amazing! We were trying to guess the height of the high dive. We were guessing somewhere around 12-15m.

Formal nights were 2 and 5.

DW pointed out that I never mentioned our room. We had a regular balcony, room 12724. I think this has been our favorite "normal" balcony (i.e. not the aft corner on Explorer) that we've been in. The layout seemed to be better than what we had experienced. The different location of the closet seemed like an improvement. Also, it seemed the depth of the balcony was more than I recall on other classes. I spent 6 hours on one of the sea days just sitting on the balcony, reading, and just watching the ocean go by.

We have been trying to decide if it was worthwhile to buy a drink package. The Premium is $55 U.S or $80.95 Cdn. Can you tell me if the prices for the drink package include the tip or do they add 18% to the package price?

I believe the package price now includes the gratuity, at least on the US site online. I have no idea on the other national sites. My best guess would be to add it to your cart and see if it's a different price when you go to checkout. You obviously don't have to purchase it at that time, but it's going to be the best way to confirm.

Thank you so much for the info, are you posting the compass and did they have the Aqua show the first night? Thanks once again. We sail on Allure 21 Feb 2016.

I'll need a few days to scan and post the compasses. They do offer the aqua show the first day, but it got rescheduled on this particular cruise due to wind and temperature. Absolutely worth seeing!

Thank you for the review!

 

For future reference, the Coke freestyle machines are on either side of the WJ, on the promenade, and also in the Wipe Out cafe.

 

You're right, the machines were a bit inconvenient to get to, and at least on my cruise, many of them were out of service.

I never went into the Wipeout Cafe as that appeared to always be kosher for this cruise due to the group. No wonder I missed those. As for WJ, never saw them but I can only assume I looked past them.

Just got off the Allure today and here's a review of the trip.

The trip started off a bit strange, when my parents surprised DW and I onboard. They tried to surprise us with a bottle of wine in the cabin and a note to tell us that they were onboard, too. TO anyone who is relying on the note to deliver a special message: don't count on that coming with the wine. We never got it. As for my parents showing up, it worked out pretty well as we ended up able to experience a bit more as a group.

Both DW and I had the ultimate drink package. I can't say that we came out ahead on the price, but we found other benefits in it. I do think we probably came close to even, but that wasn't the aim when they were purcahased. This was out first time with the package, so it was a new experience. Because of the package, we had no issue with getting the fresh squeezed OJ. I sure wouldn't have paid that price ($4+) without the package. There were also a couple of drinks that we ordered that we didn't care for and didn't feel bad by not finishing it. They did come to know us pretty well in Vintages. We had a few glasses over the $12 limit that we probably wouldn't have had without the package (yay, Mollydooker!).

The dining is probably the biggest change from our previous cruises. This was the first cruise that none of us went to the MDR for any meal. We definitely didn't miss it. We had specialty restaraunts every night: Park 150, Chefs Table, Chops Grill, Sabor, Samba, tapas in Vintages, sushi at Izumi. Working down the list:

Park 150: Very good food, and the wine pairing was very good, but I have to say that the wine pairing isn't worth the extra $70. Our waiter basically told us this, but we wanted to experience it just the same. In hindsight, we should have taken his suggestion and had him go down to Vintage for us, instead. The food was absolutely fantastic, though. I'd definitely eat here again.

Chef's Table: This was probably the highlight in terms of the meals, though I think a lot of it comes down to the crowd that you're with. The group we were with was an absolute blast, which may owe a bit to, again, the wine pairing. We had it in the upstairs of the Diamond Lounge, though we started in the Library with a quick bite and a glass of champagne. A wonderfully unique experience.

Chops Grille: This was probably the best steak on the cruise. I think everyone had the 9oz filet. As for appetizers, we each had different ones, and none of us were dissappointed. Sides were served family style, which worked out great with 4 of us. I enjoyed it, but I also think that doing Chef's Table, Park 150 and Chops Grill over 5 nights might have been too much (this was the 3rd one we did).

Sabor: As far as we were concerned, Sabor was the deal of the cruise. The guac was very good, and $5 for 4 people was great. The tacos, which we assumed were for $5 for a single taco was instead for 3 tacos. Those were met with rave reviews by those who ordered them. The bacon wrapped chicken was definitely a hit. I think the biggest hit was the red snapper entree. That had some great flavor to it. With the drink packages, the margaritas were free and very tasty. Without the package, it would be very easy to spend more on drinks than the food. I kept meaning to go back a second time for lunch but never could figure out where to fit it in.

Samba: This was the last night. It was enjoyable, but not great. We liked the ambience. Some of the meats were very good, and some were lacking. We'd give it a second chance to do better in the future, but might not go out of our way for it.

Izumi: We only did the sushi side, but we really enjoyed it. The presentation of some of the rolls was great. The Futomaki was really tasty. We also enjoyed the sashimi. For being onboard where the fish can only be so fresh, we were very happy with everything that we had. Definitely would do this again. In the future, we'd probably try the hibachi side as well.

Park Cafe: We had lunch here a few times, and it was very hit or miss. The roast beef sandwich was absolutely heavenly one day and virtually inedible the next. It's worth having without question, just make sure that the meat is actually cooked through before ordering it. Breakfast seemed more consistent, and it was quick and easy to grab a bagel or sandwich to get the day started.

Windjammer: Had lunch here a few times. It wasn't bad, certainly had more selection than I'm used to on other ships. I think it varied more day-to-day than we have typically noticed. One criticism for sure though was that the Freestyle machines only seemed to be on the port side of the ship. If you were on the starboard side, it could be a bit of a hassle to get to. In fact, I think the only machines onboard were in the WJ and on the Promenade. They just seemed very inconvenient.

Johnny Rockets: We only had breakfast here one day. It wasn't bad, but nothing special, either.

This was our first time on this class of ship, but we'd definitely do it again. We really liked the Central Park area and was a favorite place to just sit with a book and read. Also, the way the Schooner Bar looks over the Promenade was really nice to just people watch for awhile. The Solarium, as large as it is, could fill up by late morning, which I was surprised about. We were usually able to find places to sit, but not always. The Rising Tide bar is definitely a gimmick, but it was fun for an hour, nonetheless.

Other general observations:

- There was a Jewish Music Festival onboard and I can't tell how much this affected the experience. For instance, the staff said that they had a lot of kosher wine and food brought onboard. As such, I don't know if the lack of crowds (aside from the Solarium) was typical or related to the larger group. There seemed to be events for them almost all day every day. In fact, it seemed like Silk and Dazzles were perpetually shut down for private events for them. It didn't have any effect on us, but it did make us wonder how representative it was of a "normal" cruise on Allure.

- This definitely seemed to be the most international cruise we've been on, excluding the Jewish group. I don't even think the cruise out of San Juan had as heavy a non-English as a first lanugage group as this one. Is this typical of the class or just a quirk? Again, it didn't change our enjoyment of the cruise, just an observation of the other passengers.

- Being a western itinerary, it was the typical Labadee, Jamaica, and Cozumel ports. We were the first ship into Labadee after the issues with Freedom the previous week. There did not seem to be any issues that we observed. Maybe a higher military/police presence, but that was about it. Cozumel was a bit cool. I think the high temp was 72F, but it was windy and seemed a lot cooler. We weren't really expecting that (our own fault) but thought maybe it was worth raising awareness for others that it can be relatively cooler at this time of year than one might expect.

I'm sure that I'm forgetting something, but I'm getting tired after the day of travel. If anyone was any questions, I'll do my best to answer. I think I have most, if not all, the compasses, too.

Also on Allure, Luke appears to have returned to regular duties. He was doing the morning show yesterday.

It's not always day 6, itinerary dependent, but it does start somewhere around 1130-1145. One of the online dailies for the eastern itinerary had it on day 5.

Sorry...missed that! Love and Marriage is Day 3 (Labadee) and quest is Day 6 (Cozumel) I think. When I get back to the room, I'll check. Happen to be on her now doing western.

 

For the record, it's not an island, it's simply a fenced-off compound with strictly controlled access.:cool:

What idiot says "I'm looking at a peninsula?" I was looking at the island of Haiti upon which is the resort of Labadee and the town of Labadie.

Which itinerary?

There's also a post on here about Allure at Labadee today. Sitting on my balcony right now enjoying looking out over the island.

Onboard Allure right now and we are about to pull into Labadee. So far, there do not appear to be any issues in the making. Hopefully the image looks decent enough.

On Allure right now and Luke appears to not be on the ship. I think Michele (standing in as CD) said that Luke had surgery in FLL yesterday, but he is doing well. Obviously, no idea how this will affect future plans.

Onboard Allure right now and I think the Activity Manager Michele Scarpato is the AM, but he's actually standing in as CD since Luke Aerowsmith had surgery yesterday (?) in FLL.

On the Allure Next week... maybe a 7 day cruise with 2 Ports... Oh well its the Allure - the ship is just as fun.

Literally, in the same boat. Next week could be interesting. Always wanted a weeklong cruise to no where. This may be the closest I ever get.

I'm fairly certain that this is true of the balcony discounts, too. When we hit platinum, I couldn't get the difference retroactively applied to an existing reservation. Instead, it was the same story that current pricing applied.

Ours came up about 80 days out, just before final payment. We sail on 1/24, so it was just a couple weeks ago.

My parents are aboard Serenade right now, and the loyalty ambassador told them the news about Empress. She said (for what it's worth :rolleyes:) that the plan for Empress is Cuba and, possibly, Panama Canal. I don't know out of what port, but thought I would pass it on as at least partial confirmation of the speculation.

Love the milk carton. Was the blimp ever real?

It was very real, but, it was never part of Oasis once she had passengers. She did do some trials with it and was part of the original plan. I believe Goldstein and others may have even tried it out. I saw a documentary on the design of Oasis onboard Adventure a couple years ago. I believe this idea is what led to the creation of the North Star on Quantum class.

If you're running an airline, you might consider the Super Bowl a black hole. If not many are flying on Super Bowl Sunday, there's no reason to schedule a lot of flights.

You must be right. I admit that I never even thought about the Super Bowl.

I vote non-stop, especially when it's cheaper! You could probably get the mother of all limo services for the ride up and still come out way ahead.

I think you missed one aspect. Leaving to get to the cruise early isn't as big of a deal. Coming back, though, I don't think 7:50a works as the ship probably hasn't even cleared customs yet.

Every other time I've headed south like this, linking through ATL, MCO, FLL, DFW, IAH has never been an issue. I wouldn't even mind CLT (just never flown through there). I don't mind the higher price if the flights themselves are reasonable. It's just the connections (location and/or extremely tight layover time) are insane for some reason. Here's an example. The cheapest workable itinerary (i.e. actually leaves SJU after the ship gets back into port) is $526. For this glorious option, I get to have a 1h12m layover at ORD (no winter problems there, ever :rolleyes:) after a flight that is typically 30+m delayed. If that connection is made, it gets into SJU at 1:50am.

The return is its own bit of entertainment, flying through CLT with a 31m layover. I wish I could say there was another option on the return, but, unless I want to stay overnight (10+hr layover) in MIA, there just isn't.

Now, if the cruise got back the day before (Feb. 6), for about $450, I would have a 2+ hour layover at IAD on the way back.Southwest doesn't even have an option on the 2/7 that leaves after 8am. There are two afternoon options on 2/6. It's like Feb. 7 fell into a hole in everyone's schedule.

I will always pay more for convenience, but this is paying more for inconvenience.

Our solution was to book a second cruise out of FLL and track flights as we get closer, then choose.