Allure 9/4/11 review

[wingnutphl]

First time doing a review so please be patient. I am going to try to add pics as well.

 

Allure of the Seas September 4-11, 2011

Eastern Itinerary - Nassau, St. Thomas, St. Martin

 

Flew down on September 3 on Southwest. I arrived in FLL approximately 30 mins early. Woohoo!! My friend works at a resort in Boca so we stayed there the night. Sadly, it was a rainy day so we didn't get to enjoy all the things the resorts offers.

 

Embarkation - We arrived at the pier around 11 am. Embarkation was a snap. No line. Walked right up to the agent. Our only delay was slow walk up the gangway onto the ship. When we got on I can see why it took long. Your jaw just drops at the sight of the awesome promenade.

 

Cabin 12329 end Boardwalk balcony - I loved this cabin. You get the best of both worlds. View of the boardwalk and the ocean. There was always a light breeze out on the balcony. If you have mobility issues, this cabin is not for you. It is a long walk to everything which was good for since it gave me more exercise without visiting the gym.

 

The room was considerably smaller. I normally cruise with 3 to a cabin but I would not recommend it for this ship. Not as much storage as with other ships. Love that the closet doors close automatically. They didn't make any noise when we passed Hurricane Katia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wingnutphl]

What is this?? The best thing!! lol

 

 

View from our balcony

 

 

 

Henry is alive and well on the Allure!

 

Never noticed the other happy face!

[wolfcathorse]

So you could sit on your balcony and watch the Aqua show? How was the noise from the Boardwalk? Did you take a pic from your balcony facing aft so we can see how much ocean you saw? Oops! You're still posting pics, ty!

[wingnutphl]

Yes you can see the Aqua show from our balcony. It was interesting seeing all the mechanics of it. The noise was minimal. We were hardly in our cabin when things were going on. You do hear noise but to me it was more background noise. Less than what you would hear if people were walking past your cabin.

[sailingawaysoon]

Okay, loving the review so far. I love your view. Can't wait to read all about your experience on the Allure. I have to wait till Feb!

[wingnutphl]

Dining room breakfast - The first 2 times eating in the dining room were pleasant. The 3rd time was a nightmare. We waited about 10 mins for someone to come over to us then tried to take our order but we never received menus. No butter on the table or sugar. It was near impossible to get someone. We switched to Johnny Rockets for the rest of the cruise. Good service, meals hot and quick.

 

Lunch - We ate at Park Cafe most days. Good sandwiches. Only bad thing is that the tables are very close together. I can deal with that. Ate at the Windjammer once. Too small and not really organized. People just moved from station to station without looking to see if people were waiting in line.

 

Dining Room Dinner - We had late seating. We sat with another couple we met on our roll call. The table was for 6 but no one else showed up. Our waiter was Fernando from the Philippines and asst. waiter Vitalli from Croatia (?). Not sure about that. Our dining experience was not the best. Seemed like our assistant was assisting 2 waiters for he seemed to be at the 12 top table behind us most of the time. This was not our waiters table. Towards the end of the week it got better since the head waiter noticed plates weren't cleared and glasses were empty.

 

Food in the dining room was good. I am not one to complain too much about food. As long as it was edible and hot, I am happy. Though I have to say I was disappointed in the dessert selection. I have some food allergies and don't like liqueur in my desserts so there wasn't much to choice from. Oh and we never saw the after dinner shooters. Not sure if they did away with this or not.

 

Giovanni's Table - We ate here twice since all other restaurants were booked. I didn't mind a bit. Food was excellent and plentiful. I can't remember everything I ate. I remember the antipasta, fontina appetizer, the filet with garlic fries and the berry dessert. Good deal for $20.

[wingnutphl]

Shows - We saw Chicago, Ocean Aria and Ice Games. Missed everything else. Guess that means I have to go back to see the comedians, Blue Planet and whatever else I missed.

 

Chicago was good. It's a shame we saw it on a rocky night. The rocking made me sleepy and I found my eyes closing a few times.

 

Ocean Aria was amazing. I don't understand how they can do all those things on a moving ship. During our show, the high diver did 2 high dives. :eek:

 

Ice Games was good as well. It was an energetic and fast paced show. Grabbed your attention right from the beginning.

[LadyQuasi]

OMG! A place to shave in the shower! No more gymnastics and acrobatics! I LOVE it!

[TLC535]

Dawn for the review with pics...YAY...it so helps the time go by easier while waiting for our turn in Nov.

[wingnutphl]

Pools and sports - I loved the pool area. Though finding a lounge chair is near impossible. However they had plenty of chairs with foot stools that no one seemed to be in. I don't think the pool patrol removed any chair hogs. Saw plenty of loungers with towels, book, magazine on them and never an actual person. I went to the Solarium a few times but it was so HOT and the pool seemed way to small for the size. It is 2 floors. And somehow I never took a picture of it. I highly recommend going in the lazy river early on the 2nd day (before the kids have time to get in) It's part of the kids area and is so much fun!! We laughed and giggled the entire time. Kids came up and were looking at us like we were strange.

 

Only bad thing I can say is that someone on the first night threw up in the beach pool so it was closed for the better part of the second day. Luckily it was Nassau day and it was cleaned and disinfected before the next day.

 

I didn't rock climb or zip line. There are 2 rock walls. I did ride on the Flowrider. I loved it! We went on it the very first day and then took a lesson. Well worth the $60. We ended up taking a lesson on our last day as well. We got to learn tricks and didn't have to wait 30 mins between rides.

 

Girls should wear a one piece and a tight t-shirt. I speak from experience on this! Beads should be given out!

 

 

 

 

This might be the reason we rode the flowrider often ;)

 

Or this

[wingnutphl]

Our second lesson was at night. So much fun!

 

 

Alex and Phil

 

Alex and Phil

[wingnutphl]

Nassau - We opted to stay on and explore the ship. We took our flowrider lesson and enjoyed the pools without the crowds.

 

Sunrise over Atlantis

 

 

 

Sunset leaving Nassau

 

[njmomof2]

Having sailed Liberty twice I too can attest to the attraction of the Flowrider staff. Of course, I was really watching my son the whole time :rolleyes:;)!

 

Glad you had the guts to try it. I'm such a ninny and have had shoulder surgery once (with the second scheduled for 11/11) that I am too afraid to try it and slam one of them up again.

[TamaLee]

Reviews make me smile! Thanks for sharing!

[roe2ship]

Thanks for posting your experience on board the Allure.

 

At Giovanni's, is everything served family style or can you order whatever you want??

 

I keep reading how HOT the solarium is....that is too bad because the pictures I've seen it sure looks stunning.

[wingnutphl]

Thanks for posting your experience on board the Allure.

 

At Giovanni's, is everything served family style or can you order whatever you want??

 

I keep reading how HOT the solarium is....that is too bad because the pictures I've seen it sure looks stunning.

 

The apps are served family style but not the pasta, the entree's or dessert. Since there was a lot of food, we asked to share the pasta as well.

[wingnutphl]

St. Thomas - We took a taxi to Paradise Point. It was $4 to town, $5 to Paradise Point. It cost $21 for unlimited rides on the tram. A lot more money than we expected. We walked around, had a drink and decided to head back to the ship. The weather looked iffy and we didn't want to chance taking an expensive taxi ride only to have it rain. We enjoyed our time on the ship. Another chance to explore without it being crowded.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wingnutphl]

St. Martin - We headed to Orient beach and spent a nice relaxing day napping and swimming. There was some seaweed on the beach but not as much as my visit last year.

 

 

 

 

 

[wingnutphl]

Weather - We had great weather considering the hurricane off to our side. There was a lifeboat malfunction and we ended up leaving Nassau 2.5 hours late so Captain Zini floored it. We passed Hurricane Katia during the night. We had some large swells during the night. Rocking and rolling! It doesn't bother me but some people seemed to be upset about it.

 

Activities - There is so much to do on this ship. At first I was overwhelmed but halfway through I calmed down and decided it was OK no to do everything. One of my big disappointments is not being able to interact with the CD and his staff. They always seemed to come and go so fast. Allan Brooks was the CD and I never saw him except at the shows and eating dinner at Giovanni's table. Some in our group was disappointed that he didn't show up for our meet and mingle.

 

Other passengers on board - For the most part, the other passengers were pleasant. However, there was a large group of kids that were rude and pushy. They would run into the elevators ahead of you without letting others off, walk around blocking the aisles and running around. I didn't let them ruin my vacation. If I said excuse me (english and spanish) and they didn't move, I just walked into them lol.

 

I have pics of the ship but lots have been posted in previous reviews. If you have a special request and I have a pic, I will post them.

 

Feel free to ask questions. I will try to answer them.

[ICMDGO]

Shows - We saw Chicago, Ocean Aria and Ice Games. Missed everything else. Guess that means I have to go back to see the comedians, Blue Planet and whatever else I missed.

 

Chicago was good. It's a shame we saw it on a rocky night. The rocking made me sleepy and I found my eyes closing a few times.

 

Ocean Aria was amazing. I don't understand how they can do all those things on a moving ship. During our show, the high diver did 2 high dives. :eek:

 

Ice Games was good as well. It was an energetic and fast paced show. Grabbed your attention right from the beginning.

 

With the late seating time did you find it pretty late to go to the shows then after dinner? I'm afraid I'll crash early if I've been busy all day. Do they have shows before dinner or should I go for the 6:00 dinner time?

 

Thanks !

[Riverwinds 13]

Thanks for the informative review. I enjoyed reading it.:D

[wingnutphl]

They have early and late shows. We also were able to get out of the dining room fairly quickly.

[alexkrn46]

Thanks for your review, it looks like you had a blast.

[LilMermaid]

I'm so anxious to get on board I soak up everyone's reviews!

 

Question: Do they show movies at night on the big screens when the Aqua show is not going on?

[papajak]

Thanks for the review! I love the view from your cabin. Can you hear the wake from there?