ALLURE EASTERN REVIEW 9/30/12 w/pix (Family Perspective)

Welcome to my review of our wonderful vacation on the spectacular Allure of the Seas departing 9/30/12. I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was for this cruise. We booked in mid-February and after that I spent most of my free time pouring over Cruise Critic threads. Yes, I admit to being a Cruise Critic junkie and I also suffer from OWD (obsessive webcam disorder). Sometime in March, I joined our roll-call group and learned many things from more frequent cruisers than myself. I am not a first time cruiser but the last one was 13 years ago so I considered myself out-of-the loop a little. I hope this review gives insight to people who have never cruised or cruise infrequently. It seems to me that RC treats its loyal members wonderfully and rightfully so. We hope we can be there one day. We are not diamond, platinum, gold, or in any "member" category. In fact, many times during the cruise we jokingly referred to ourselves as steerage. Don’t get me wrong – RC treats all of their passengers well. But it’s the special perks – you know? (Do I sound a little jealous?)

I was travelling with my DH, my oldest daughter who is 22 (I’ll refer to her as DD1), our youngest daughter who is 19 (I’ll refer to her as DD2) and our DS who was 11 during the cruise but turned 12 the week we got back.

I booked with a travel agent and she suggested 2 rooms instead of 1 suite for the five of us. A good call indeed since we would have 2 bathrooms. We booked two connecting oceanview balconies. I wanted to be aft and on a higher deck but the only connecting left was on deck 7 rooms 7574 and 7576 forward. I must admit I was a little worried about it for fear of more motion but it was absolutely fine. I was also a little unsettled about being so close to the elevators for noise reasons, but it was actually great because we only had to walk 8 doors down to get to the stairs or elevator bank. Noise was not even an issue. Deck 7 worked out perfectly for us. Other then the pool, we spent a lot of time on decks 5 and 8 so the stairs were our preferred way of travel.

I’ll include pix of this cruise but I won’t post too many random shots of the ship since they are in almost every review. Also, I won’t be talking too much about the food as we did not do any specialty dining (the MDR was just fine with us) and I didn’t take any pictures of food. This review will also not have anything about Ocean Adventure since DS had no interest in it at all. In fact, we didn’t even see it.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my inspirations for posting this review including PhoenixDawgCruising, QTMichele, and Ksawyercruiser. I loved every review I read but from a family perspective these reviews were great – check them out if you’re looking for a family perspective review.

Before I start with day one here is a random shot for you to enjoy:

Glass on the left was filled with a tasty frozen concoction. Press a button on the bottom of the glass and it lights up. The second is the drink-of-the-day glass. The right is The Yard from Senor Frogs in Nassau. More on that later.

I am ready! I can't wait for your review.:D

So let’s begin with DAY 1:

We set our alarm for 4:15am as we had a 6:45 flight to Ft Lauderdale. Before the alarm went off, DD2 came into our room banging a pot with a wooden spoon announcing “The Sea is Calling, The Sea is Calling!!!” Mind you, I didn’t get to bed until almost midnight. Not the way I wanted to wake up, but we were glad that she was so excited. DS has a dry erase board on his bedroom wall and every day since day 100 he would get up and change the number. He couldn’t wait until that number changed to 0 and it was finally here!

Our flight went smoothly and ran on-time. Our first sight of the ship was on the plane as we were descending into FLL. We were on the left side of the plane as we made our way over land from the ocean and in the distance there she was! Darn, I didn’t have my camera handy to snap a picture. We took a $13 taxi ride from the airport to the terminal. We arrived around 10 am so there was still a lot of hustle and bustle with people getting off the ship. We barely made it out of the cab when people were trying to jump in it! Since we were relatively early, we had to wait in line until they opened the security line. We were about 20 people back. Once that opened, we breezed through security and onto check-in. My only disappointment was because I wanted to put cash down instead of a credit card, I had to wait until we got onto the ship and go to guest services. That was going to delay my attempt to get to Park Café as soon as possible. They also did not let me purchase the soda package there but assured me I could do it easily once onboard. After check-in, they guide you to an area to take your first professional photo in front of a backdrop of the ship. Next, up the escalators to the waiting area. It seemed like we were there FOREVER. We just wanted to get on the dang ship. I will say, though, RC really runs this well considering the amount of people they have to get onboard. “Members” get to board first then they call steerage. ;) Again, it is very well organized. The excitement of walking up the ramp and hearing the “ding” of your card swipe is incredible. I felt like I was dreaming – it really didn’t feel real to me yet. Once we got onboard, I made a dash like a madwoman to the Guest Services desk. My family said “let’s look around first.” I wanted to get our account straightened out first. And it was a good thing I did. I walked right up to the desk. By the time I was done, there was a long line behind me. Mother knows best. :D

I'm looking forward to your review. We'll be traveling next August as a family so the more I know in advance, the better!

I love reviews that I can actually see the pictures. My job tends to have lots of photo sites blocked. :mad:

Looking forward to more!

Thanks for the review.

Loving your review so far.....thank you!!!! :)

Great review!

Keep it up! Lovin it...

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great so far, can't wait for more!

Thank you for the kind words!

Forgot to mention something very important at check-in. Beware, they do not accept Visa gift cards to use towards your account. Our travel agent gave us $200 in Visa gift cards for booking 2 rooms at the time we did and said we could you use them on the ship. Well we couldn’t. Thanks T.O. :rolleyes:

Anyway, we were all hungry so I suggested we go to Park Café because it would be less crowded and more relaxing. WRONG. Sorry everyone, but I think the word is out. There was a long line to get in. We headed to the Windjammer and there was no line. Alas, right when we entered there was an attendant selling the soda package. I bought one for DS. We got the cup and the sticker for his card and he was good to go. See, this is why I wanted to go to Guest Services first – so we had the money in our account for the soda and the first cocktail my DH had in his hand by the time I got to the table. Geez, that didn’t take long. When we left the WJ the line was really long to get in. Great timing again. We did a little exploring and then went to the room at 1.Our bags were already there along with a bottle of champagne that I had pre-ordered. We met our room attendant, Javier, who promptly opened the connecting door and removed the balcony divider upon our request. We unpacked then put the bathing suits on and headed to Deck 15 to unwind by the pool. We really liked the beach pool and made that our spot for the entire cruise. DH bought the RC cooler bag filled with beer. I think it was $45 and then $36 for the refills. This is the first time we met Ewan Blackman from Jamaica. He was the nicest and coolest bar attendant on the pool deck. By the end of the cruise he was like a celebrity. People would be yelling his name from across the deck and he always had a cheery hello and remembered everyone’s name. It was about 3pm when it finally hit me that this was real. I was sitting in the pool with a drink in hand, listening to calypso music, and watching the airplanes take-off. I was finally here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the 3 tall buildings in the background has the camera for the webcam. I spent many Sundays looking at the ship from that angle . . . . . . . . . . now I'm on it!!

Great review, can't wait for more!

More, More, More!!!-please...

I have a son who will be 10 when we travel and I am also not sure if he will want to join the "kiddie" activities, so really looking forward to what your son's impressions were.

The muster drill was at 4:30 so we headed to the Comedy Club to which we were assigned for the drill. Gone are the days of wearing your life vest. After that we went back to the room for a quick change of clothes for sail-away. Yes, I forced everyone to wear the same bright green t-shirt. The DD’s weren’t so happy that we were dressed the same but I assured them it was just for this. You see, as I mentioned, I suffer from OWD so I wanted to make sure I was on the other end of the camera this week. I had requested a “wave shot” from portfever.com but was informed that they were not doing hi-res shots for this sailing. I was able to view our sail-away when we got back, and yep, there we were. Of course, I was the only maniac waving most of the time. Hey, I was excited.

Just pulling out:

The building from which the webcam is located.

People having fun in the wake of the Allure.

Me, giving the thumbs up.

DD2 giving the thumbs up. Yeah, the one who was banging the pot at 4:15am.

Just a note for those who do get Visa (or MC) gift cards.....take them to your back and CASH THEM IN....get real, spendable folding money! (I hate those "gift" cards!)

YAY! More Allure! I'm along for the ride, I'm enjoying your review already! :)

And the excitement of your kids with DD waking you up via pot banging & "the Sea is calling" and your DS counting down the days is just too cute! LOL!

Question: Can the cooler filled w/beer be purchased @ any bar? I think my DH will enjoy that on our upcoming Allure cruise next fall!

great review so far, I cannot wait to read more. Thanks for taking the time.

thanks for the review, can't wait for more.

Good review Maria keep it up. I can't get enough of the Allure!

 

Question: Can the cooler filled w/beer be purchased @ any bar? I think my DH will enjoy that on our upcoming Allure cruise next fall!

Thanks for the comments - I'm not sure if you can buy them at any bar. I know they were selling them at the pool deck bars every day.

Let's see, where was I ?

Back to cabin to get out of those green shirts and make a champagne toast on the balcony. Before dinner DH wanted to show me the flowrider. When we were at the pool earlier, DH, DD2 and DS went there to check it out. DH just couldn’t resist and had to take a ride.

Thanks for the comments - I'm not sure if you can buy them at any bar. I know they were selling them at the pool deck bars every day.

Thank you, Noshoobie! Greatly appreciated! I'm really looking forward to the rest of your review!:)

We chose MTD and I’m glad that we did for several reasons. First, it saved the constant arguments of trying to get the DD’s ready for dinner at a specific time. We would say let’s go to dinner at 7 and if we got there at 7:30 that was fine. No stress. I also liked the idea of pre-paying the tips. There was no worries about getting cash together at the end of the cruise and handing it out – it was already done. You can make reservations for MTD if you wish but we never did. In retrospect, I would have made reservations on the formal nights as they were the longest we ever waited. Every other night, we waited no more then 10 minutes.

Tonight we arrived at 7:15 and waited about 10 minutes. The MTD area of seating in the Adagio Dining Room was on deck 5. We had a lovely round table at the edge of the balcony. There was a nice view below and a violinist and guitar player played. Our waiter was Juanna from the Phillippines and she was great. We ended up requesting her several times.

When we left the MDR, there was a huge line to get in. We were 3 for 3 today! We had reservations for OceanAria. I had made all of our show reservations before the cruise and I highly recommend it. Nothing would be more disappointing then if you had your heart set on a show and you couldn’t get it. They did have stand-by lines for all of the shows – but that doesn’t guarantee you will get in.

One word to describe OceanAria – WOW! We all enjoyed the show and found ourselves saying “wow” constantly. IMO if you only see one show on this cruise, don’t miss this one. At the end of the show was our first sighting of Cruise Director Allan Brooks. He was great. I don’t have anyone to compare him to – I’ve read good things about a lot of the CD’s. But we really enjoyed him. DS thought he was hilarious and really enjoyed his morning tv segments.

We were all really tired and decided to call it a night. When we got back to the room, DH convinced me to check out the casino. We played with $40 for about a half-hour and walked out with $100. Not bad. We stopped by Sorrentos for some carry-out pizza and headed back. Before bed I went on the balcony. There was a full moon and the seas were calm. It was just beautiful. Day 1…..done.

Can't wait for more! Good job. :)

Day 2:

I was planning to wake up a little late this morning but for some reason I woke up at 5:45. I went on the balcony and could see Nassau in the distance. The sea was still calm and the moon was shining brilliantly. Even though it was still dark, I could see a rain cloud ahead. Sure enough, it started to rain but lasted only 10 minutes. We docked as the sun was coming up. When it got a little lighter I decided to take advantage of the peace and quiet (and the kids sleeping) and journal. Here I am with our view of Nassau in the background:

Until this pulled in to block the view (Carnival Ecstasy):

And then this one (Disney Dream):

I must say I was very impressed with the Disney Dream. It really is a beautiful ship. I took a closeup shot of the (movie screen??) because you could hear Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck's voices coming from it. It was hilarious. Even with our balcony door shut, you could hear it. I imagine it would get highly annoying after awhile. The water slide on the ship looks incredible. The heck with Mickey Mouse - you would never be able to get me off of that!

I was really excited about going to Nassau because I always wanted to see the Atlantis. I figured we could go over and spend a good part of the day there. Upon investigation, I discovered that the day passes there were REALLY expensive and the waterpark doesn't open until 10am. We were leaving at 3pm so it really didn't make sense to go. We just ended up admiring the Atlantis from afar:

So the only thing we planned for Nassau was to get off and walk around a little. Unfortunately, the weather that day was on and off rain so I felt bad for those who had big plans that day.