Allure of the Seas 6/3/12 - a picture review

[TheDMan]

Love the review!!! It has to be in the top 10 of all-time.

 

My wife and I will be on Allure next March (this will be the longest time between booking and cruise, we booked last July). Ive held off on looking at reviews or comments of Allure, because it makes the wait that much worse. This is the first review that Ive read and i was right, it made it worse LOL.

 

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to write the review and including the pictures!!!

 

After posting this, I realized somehow Ive got 2 seperate accounts. lol

[TheDMan]

. Maybe you can book a short one sometime in between to hold you over? :)

 

This is an awesome idea. I just have to convince my wife how great of an idea it is :)

[terpfan101]

After not eating at our assigned table the first two nights, I wondered what the rest of our table mates would think when we showed up for dinner on night three. Upon getting to our table there was just one other couple there. We began to talk to them a bit before the others came. I was pretty surprised when everyone got there that we were seated with one couple that had been married for 10 years and were in their mid thirties, two newlywed couples on the honeymoon, and one pair of two guys (not sure if they were friends or a couple). The other six people were all in there twenties. It was certainly nice to be seated with others of the same age, but I think given the fact that we only ate together for two nights, we didn't really get to know them too well and it was pretty much just small talk about our backgrounds, what we were doing on the cruise, prior cruises, etc. They were all really nice though, just didn't really hit it off as well. Oh well, it was only two dinners. I will say that I was surprised that our conversations with the two families on the Enchantment were much better and I enjoyed those two nights more so than the two we shared with these couples on board Allure. Oh well!

 

Anyway our wait staff consisted of two gentleman, the waiter from the Philippines named Russell (?) and the other who's name and country I can't remember. I will say that they paled in comparison to the wait staff we had on Enchantment or even the waitstaff that I had on the Navigator when I was with my family and cousin's family. Part of me wondered if the wait staff didn't pay as much attention to us or spend as much time getting to know us because we were all younger. There was just something missing. I mean they got our food and served it to us, but it was more as if they were going through the motions. So I was glad that we'd only be there for two nights total (note the third night left we ate with Aaron, Amy, Todd, and Stacy at MTD).

 

Here are the menus for Night 3:

 

 

 

 

 

For starters I had the scallop risotto to start which was delicious, the risotto was perfectly cooked and was creamy from the mascarpone but had a hint of sweetness from the corn. I can't recall what Lindsay had but I'm thinking that it was a salad. For the main course I decided to try the rosemary lamb shank which was great. Last year I had the tiger shrimp after debating between that and the lamb. So I figured I'd go for the lamb this year and it did not disappoint. It was so tender it fell off the bone very easily. If you like lamb I highly recommend this dish. It was a bit fatty though so you are forewarned.

 

 

Lindsay had the tomato and eggplant bake which was good. Neither of us thought it was spectacular. Finally dessert...when we were at Giovanni's, I mentioned to the waiter there that I'd probably have the tiramisu at the dining room and how it compared. He said no comparison this is better at Giovanni's. Anyway I asked Russell how it was and he said very good, so I ordered it. It was not good at all, which surprised me because I thought it was good on Enchantment. It was very runny and just wasn't very flavorful. I hardly ate any of it and thus asked to have the chocolate cake instead. It was very good. Lindsay had as you may have guessed the chocolate cake too. I didn't take a picture but found this one online, which refreshed my memory as to what this cake looked like. It's a molten lava cake! Overall this night's meal was great and I'm glad I didn't skip it.

 

 

Up next: Night 5 in the main dining room

[biguntx]

Great review.

 

Thanks

[texasgirl73]

Hi there. I am new to CC but have been reading up on the RCL Board here for the past week because I have booked a cruise on the Oasis next year. I am currently obsessed with all things Allure and Oasis even though I have a cruise on the Disney Fantasy in just 38 more days...haha..guess I've just read everything I can about the Fantasy and am ready to learn about RCL. I have been reading your report and am very excited that you have finally gotten to the food. I am a foodie as well and love to read dining reports. You have also inspired me to sign up for a Meet and Mingle. Thanks for sharing your thought on the trip and photos.:)

[BillOh]

You liked the Turkey bacon huh? Maybe I'll give it another try.

[terpfan101]

You liked the Turkey bacon huh? Maybe I'll give it another try.

 

I did, but that's probably because growing up we never had real bacon in the house but would occasionally have turkey bacon that my dad would make my brothers and I for breakfast with omelets on Sunday mornings. If you've never had it before, I can see how it wouldn't be good.

[terpfan101]

Hi there. I am new to CC but have been reading up on the RCL Board here for the past week because I have booked a cruise on the Oasis next year. I am currently obsessed with all things Allure and Oasis even though I have a cruise on the Disney Fantasy in just 38 more days...haha..guess I've just read everything I can about the Fantasy and am ready to learn about RCL. I have been reading your report and am very excited that you have finally gotten to the food. I am a foodie as well and love to read dining reports. You have also inspired me to sign up for a Meet and Mingle. Thanks for sharing your thought on the trip and photos.:)

 

Hi there. I'm not too familiar with Disney but looked up that ship and see it's brand new. Should be a great cruise. You'll also love Oasis! Glad you're enjoying and I'll get to another post tonight!

[terpfan101]

Good evening and let's get started with the next part, day five in the main dining room. By the time this day rolled around, we had already been planning to eat with our four new friends on the final night of the cruise. As such, this would be our second and last night at our assigned table in the main dining room. This also happened to be the second formal night which means LOBSTER! We arrived at dinner and this night one of the couples was at a specialty restaurant and one of the guys was not feeling well so didn't come to dinner, so it was just seven of us.

 

Here are the pictures of the menu for that night:

 

 

 

 

I got the seafood salad and duck consomme as a starter. I knew I liked the seafood salad from last year and also was curious to try the duck consomme. The seafood salad was very good as I remembered. I'm glad I tried the duck consomme as it was delicious. A very light soup with great flavor. I don't recall what Lindsay had as a starter. For my main course I had the fisherman's plate and Lindsay had the Thai Chicken. I must say I was sort of disappointed with the fisherman's plate. For starters the lobster tail is not from a cold water (ie. Maine) lobster, but most lobster tails are not. It was still somewhat tasty. My main disappointment stems from the fact that the shrimp are pretty mediocre and the sides aren't very good either. It was basically just some steamed veggies that looked as if it could have been on a school lunch. Lindsay's chicken was just good and I'm honestly surprised that it was the chef's signature dish. I say good because it didn't have tremendous amount of flavor to it. I think partly because it was a rather thick chicken breast. For dessert we both got the dessert sampler which is pretty good. The chocolate piece is the highlight followed by the cake thing on the right followed by what I believe was a profiterole with some sort of liqueur in it.

 

 

 

 

To be honest I think the first formal night's menu is overall significantly better than this night. I guess if I have this menu again, I'd maybe try something else. However thinking about the other main course and dessert options, there was nothing really that stood out to me. So if you're contemplating skipping one formal night, my recommendation would be to skip this one. It kind of makes sense too since the first one is the night of the Captain's Reception. Oh and I forgot to mention that they gave out free pretty good champagne on the Royal Promenade during the reception!! One could easily have several glasses of champagne during that hour!

 

During this meal I was a bit taken back when near the end of the meal our waiter said something to our table about the fact that we will be receiving surveys in our staterooms today and basically said something along the lines of "it's very important to leave excellent for the dining room." Not only did I find this unprofessional, but it was very awkward! I didn't think the service was all that great and to be honest, I can't imagine why anyone who was confident in the job they were doing would have to say such a thing. Whether or not he had said that, I had planned on giving a mark of good (whichever the second highest of the four options was). However after that incident there was no way I was going to give a higher grade for the service. Oh and for those who may be wondering if I tipped our wait staff since this was our final night in the dining room, I'll get to that in my final post about the main dining room (the next one).

 

Up next: Final night (day 7) in the main dining room - My Time Dining

[terpfan101]

I hope people are still reading this review! Anyway I'm going to get back to it now after a crazy weekend in the Mid Atlantic with the crazy thunderstorms on Friday night that left over a million people without power. Luckily we didn't lose power but my parents and numerous others I know did. So hopefully everyone out there is safe and not without power for much longer.

 

Without further ado onto the final night in the main dining room! About midweek on the cruise the three couples were discussing doing dinner at My Time Dining together on the final night. Both Aaron & Amy and Todd & Stacy had MTD while we had second seating. So we decided to eat at 7:30PM (which was a bit early for us but we made do). Upon arriving at dinner, we were first given some resistance by the hosts as they thought we should go to our assigned table since it was the final night. I had a feeling it was because they didn't want us to not tip the wait staff that we had, but I showed him the envelopes and said I was going to go give them our tips. So I took the opportunity while we waited to go find our waitstaff on deck 3.

 

Going into the cruise I didn't really know what to do about the tips since we'd only be eating 4/7 nights in the main dining room, but I figured that if we had such great waitstaff like we did on the Enchantment, I'd just give the full amount of recommended tips. Due to meeting our new friends I wasn't quite sure about what to do when it came to the tips since we ended up only eating two nights at our assigned table in the main dining room. I asked one of the guest relations staff during the week whether the tips were given solely to the individual member or split with all of the staff and he said to the individual. As a result, I figured that I'd give slightly less than the full amount, especially since the service wasn't too great. I ended up giving slightly more than half of the recommended amount to our waitstaff which I felt was more than appropriate. They were both appreciative as I think they probably thought that I wasn't giving anything since we hardly showed up. However when I gave the envelope to our waiter he said again "Don't forget to give excellent on the comment card." This only put a bad taste in my mouth and I realized that what I did was fine. Not only that but at each specialty restaurant I left a bit extra for each of our staff.

 

Onto the meal...we ate dinner with our friends and it was pretty good. Here are the menus:

 

 

 

Lindsay started with a salad while I started with the shrimp cocktail and also tried the Moroccan chicken salad. Not sure if I mentioned it before but Royal Caribbean changed the shrimp it used for its shrimp cocktail sometime between 2004 and 2011 as on the Navigator in 04 the shrimp were jumbo sized and they only gave you three whereas now they give you I think it was five more medium sized shrimp. I'd prefer the former as they are tastier and present a lot better. The chicken salad was very good and light. It had some good spices in it. Note it is an actual salad with chicken on it. Here's a pic from the web:

 

For the main course I had the mahi mahi and shrimp tempura which is excellent. The sauce it is served with is a nice sweet and sour sauce which is really tasty. It is delicious and the tempura batter perfectly coats the pieces of seafood. I also must say I remember the bok choy being excellent.

 

Lindsay tried the turkey but I don't think she enjoyed it too much. I feel as if this night overall is just average as I honestly was only really excited by what I chose and mildly by the turkey. I feel like the strip steak wouldn't be too great in the MDR. Here's a picture of the turkey:

 

Continued in the next post.

[terpfan101]

Our dessert menu came and I was wavering between the key lime pie and banana parfait so I got both and had a bit of each. The banana parfait wasn't what I expected (a more mousse like parfait in a glass) but it was still tasty, though a bit cold. The key lime pie as usual is pretty good. Lindsay had the chocolate brownie sandwich which was very good. Here are pictures of the desserts.

 

 

 

 

Now as our dinner began to finish I started to feel a bit sad as I knew our cruise was nearly over and we wouldn't be seeing each other again for a while. We've discussed perhaps making a trip to FL to visit at some point or possibly going on a cruise together sometime in the next few years. I can't remember if I posted this picture but we all took one final picture together:

 

 

Oh and a note regarding the service during this meal we had a very friendly waitress from Turkey. She was very nice, though I could tell very busy with tables. I felt bad since we weren't my time dining and tipped her at the end of the night to which she first refused and I insisted she take it.

 

My final conclusions on the main dining room. The service was good overall, I didn't find our assigned wait staff to be too good and their request for excellent in the comment cards was awkward. Our my time dining staff were efficient and our one on the final night was very friendly. The food overall was very good with some things being excellent and a few just being good. Nothing was truly bad. That being said I am glad we ate in the specialty restaurants (I'll cover in the next few posts), especially on the nights we did as I felt those menus were weakest in the main dining room.

 

Up next: A discussion of the specialty restaurant package and starting with Giovanni's Table.

[AF-1]

TerpFan101. Thanks for posting your review. I loved all the pics and loved that you had a great time on Allure of the Seas. Guessing you graduated from Maryland; since u r a terp fan. that's my wife's alma mater; and we have a son living in Northern, VA. Anyway, we had a ball on Allure last year; and had a ball reading your review. Again, Thanks.

 

cheers,

[terpfan101]

Prior to the cruise and after researching tons, I determined that I must try 150 Central Park. After seeing the Central Park dining package and realizing it would only be another $25 to do both Giovanni's and Chops ($65 for the package vs $40 for just 150 CP) and that I'd be saving $25 vs booking all three separately, I figured why not. I also did this because there were at least two nights in the main dining room where I wasn't particularly fond of the menu. I'm referring specifically nights one and four, but also night six (which is night five in the following link)...see this link for the menus for all nights. So I figured why not get a package of three specialty restaurants!

 

Upon booking the package I had to reserve Giovanni's for the first night which I did for 8PM. I knew that as soon as we boarded I would head to Central Park to make our reservations and had planned to book for nights four and six for Chops and 150 CP. I knew that I'd need to see 150's menus to see which night I wanted to do it on and Chops would be the other. Well upon boarding I had forgotten which night I wanted to skip in the MDR and as such while still docked in Fort Lauderdale, I tried to access the menus on my iPhone. However this was proving to be difficult. I think I booked night four for 150 CP as I was quite confident that was a night I wanted to skip, however I couldn't remember if the other was night five or six. At around 6PM I went to the MDR to check see if they had the menus for the week but was told I could access them on my TV or any screen around the ship. Wish I knew that ahead of time as I'd have done it right at 1PM. Anyway by that point I went straight to Chops and booked for night six they still had times left but they were already getting quite limited. We were lucky to get a time of 8PM for Chops on night six. So all in all I highly recommend the dining packages, just book as soon as you're onboard. As the week went on the reservations dwindled quickly.

 

Up next: Giovanni's Table

[CyberTag]

Hello everyone! Onto the next part:

 

As mentioned earlier, I was upgraded to an oceanview balcony cabin on deck eight (#8178) just a few days before sailing and was super excited, both because it was a balcony and because it was on deck eight and not deck three like my oceanview cabin was supposed to be. Upon getting up to that deck, I realized why most people said it was a great deck to be on. I had thought that before the cruise decks 6-9 were probably the best location wise and the cruise definitely confirmed that. The reasons are that so much of the main hubs of the ship are decks 5, 6, and 8. It was also great for being so close to Central Park where we ate a majority of our breakfasts and lunches at Park Cafe. Additionally by being on say 7 or 8 you are only seven decks from deck 15 and only five decks from deck 3 (dining room). As such we only used the elevator a handful of times during the week which definitely is good exercise! So my recommendation would be to go with decks 6-9. :)

 

So we dropped our stuff in our room as soon it was ready at 1PM before going to grab lunch at the Park Cafe. I snapped a few pictures of the cabin:

 

Our bed looked a bit messy when we walked in...but I just chalked it up to them being so rushed on turnaround day.

 

Our balcony:

 

Since both of us are somewhat clean freaks and based on the suggestion of others I brought some disinfectant wipes with me which I used on nearly every surface of the room prior to us unpacking. I was shocked at just how spotless the room was. Areas such as on top of picture frames, on the top shelf above the hanging closet space, and the top ledge of the headboard had no dust or dirt whatsoever! Kudos to our stateroom attendant Vic for keeping the place spotless both prior to our arrival and throughout the week.

 

Vic was from the Philippines and was great at keeping our room clean and providing us with information as needed. He was also very friendly and would always ask us how our day was. He also provided us with three towel animals during the week. I only have pictures of two of them, but the third was a monkey:

 

 

I've seen some complaints about this but I wanted to point out that there were no issues with the temperature in the room. If the A/C was set to the lowest setting, the room got plenty cold. Every night upon returning, Lindsay made me turn it up as it was too cold.

 

In my review of the Enchantment I complained about having a shower curtain instead of the doors that were found on the Navigator. Well I was glad and had no issues with the shower on this ship. The water pressure was great. Sorry I spoke too soon, I was reminded by a part of one of the comedian's routine (AJ Jamal) about the shower. He made a joke about how you couldn't fall down because it's too small, and while I'd agree, I had no problem with the size of the shower. However, he also complained about the soap dish letting things fall through and that definitely was annoying! Other than that though the bathroom was good.

 

Regarding the bed, I thought it was one of the most comfortable beds I've slept on. I love the linens and if they weren't so expensive would probably buy the set that they sell online. I can't recall if I mentioned earlier, but the amount of storage space in the cabin was great and was good enough for two people to not live out of a suitcase. Finally, I'll say that I think the staterooms on the Oasis class are the nicest of anyone I've been on or seen pictures of RCCL wise. They are just very attractive and stylish with the color scheme and wood.

 

Now onto the topic of whether a balcony is worth it, after this cruise I would honestly say it depends, but most likely no. While it was great to have one and we did use it, there is simply so much to do on the ship that you really aren't in the cabin all that much. I'm sure others out there take more advantage of it, but for the active folks it's probably overkill. On a different/smaller ship the value of a balcony probably increases as does it in months that are not as hot and humid.

 

Now having said that I would probably get an OCEANVIEW balcony cabin if it cost less than $200-$250 more total than a non balcony cabin. I don't think a boardwalk or central park balcony is worth more than $100-$150 over a windowed cabin. In fact I hardly ever saw people sitting on those types of balconies, especially on the Central Park variety. I don't know if I'd get an interior cabin again though as it is really nice to have natural light in the room. I always just thought with that money I could spend it on board or on excursions. But hey that's just me!

 

Up next: Meet and mingle and meeting new friends!

 

I'm really enjoying reading your review... and especially the photos! We just got off the Serenade and didn't have chocolates in our stateroom, and towel animals were every other night (but it was a 12 day cruise). Did you get chocolates each night?

[CyberTag]

On either the second or third sea day, there was an AquaTheater tour in the afternoon. So the three of us couples decided to check it out. It was pretty cool to see the backstage area where the cast gets ready and changes.

 

Here is a shower that the male cast use:

 

Male dressing room:

 

Female dressing room:

 

Sound equipment:

 

Ladder that takes you to the highest platforms.

 

So prior to the actual show starting, Lindsay noticed on the screen that it was listing a brief background about the cast members and for one of the gymnasts it said "Attended the University of Maryland where she was a member of the group Gymkana which competed on America's Got Talent." Well I went to the University of Maryland and had a friend who was in Gymkana, so I was curious to meet her. So after the tour was complete, I asked one of the cast members whether he knew the girl that went to Maryland. He pointed her out and we spoke for a few minutes and the other couples and I asked her about life on board and the show. She even knew my friend. It was pretty cool to see a fellow Terp on the Allure of the Seas. Here's a picture of us:

 

I'd definitely recommend taking the backstage tour as it was pretty quick and you learned a bit more about how the do the show. For example on the Allure they only use the highest platform jump that is on the left when you face the stage because a large cable runs across the path for the right high jump. This differs from the Oasis. Another thing we learned is that there is a traffic light on both climbing walls and at the very back of the Boardwalk beneath the Concierge Lounge. When it is red that means "DON'T JUMP" while green means "It's ok to jump". The divers look to these to know when it is safe to jump based on whether the floor of the pool is lowered or raised. The tour also made you realize just how hard the performers have to train to be able to do the show.

 

Up next: Ice Games and Chicago[/quote

 

Was there a fee for the back stage tour?

[terpfan101]

I was very excited to eat at Giovanni's Table. At home, I'm typically not the biggest fan of Italian food because I feel most places in the US are not very authentic, and after having been to Italy, very few places in the US can compare. However I had read tons of positive reviews about the restaurant and thus had high expectations. I was not let down at all by the quality of the Giovanni's.

 

We entered the restaurant and were quite surprised that it was only about 30% full. However this wasn't too surprising as it was the first night and I figured most people ate in the main dining room. However in my mind this was the worst night in the main dining room (though I would miss the fabulous blueberry and peach cobbler!) We were met by our very friendly and attentive waiter named Guillermo who was from Peru. He was great and knew a lot about the food of the restaurant. He brought us the me which are posted here.

 

For an appetizer we shared a caprese salad which was very good. The mozzarella was excellent.

 

For our main courses I got the lamb chop which was excellent and very different than the one served in the main dining room so if you like lamb feel free to get both. If I recall correctly it was fall off the bone soft. Lindsay had the baked jumbo shrimp which were very good although nothing special. I have the feeling it was a pretty healthy dish though. We also shared an order of the pappardelle which was fantastic but probably very fattening as it was quite heavy.

 

 

 

 

continued in next post

[poffles]

Really great review and your pictures are great. Looking to book the Allure for next March so this has m drooling.

[terpfan101]

By the time dessert rolled around I was feeling super full probably due to that pasta dish. However I couldn't pass up dessert. Our waiter brought over the dessert cart which contained all of the following except the doughnuts but I think he said that they had that:

 

I wavered between the tiramisu and zuppa inglese (I think that's what I had but tell me if the picture is of something different). So Guillermo said why don't you try some tiramisu anyway. He said it was much better than the one from the dining room so I figured how could I refuse. As I mentioned in an earlier post about this difference, the tiramisu from Giovanni's is FAR better than the one in the dining room! The zuppa inglese (?) was excellent too as it had delicious custard and sponge cake in it. My favorite fruits are berries too so I was sold just based on that fact.

 

Zuppa inglese:

 

Tiramisu:

 

Can anyone guess what Lindsay had for dessert????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yup you guessed it! The chocolate cake which I think I recall was very good. She had far too many chocolate desserts for me to remember how good each were but I'm pretty sure they were all excellent!

 

 

Here we are near the end of the meal:

 

 

At this point we spoke for quite a while with Guillermo about life on board and where the crew live. He gave us a lot of good information and mentioned how some crew live on decks -1 and -2 which means one and two decks below the water line! :eek: I don't know how anybody would feel comfortable below the water line but I know I wouldn't for longer than going to grab something.

 

He also discussed the Royal Caribbean cook book with us and I said I'd probably get it but didn't have my 25% off coupon from the Crown & Anchor book with me so that I'd maybe come back later in the week. Well I debated it during the week but decided to buy it, I think it was about $26 after the 25% discount and has a good number of recipes from the MDR and all of the specialty restaurants. I ended up coming back to buy it from him because I also figured they must get some sort of commission. Well sure enough on the receipt, the amount of the book was less than the price advertised and there was a 15% tip on that amount which brought the total to the advertised price. So I'm glad I bought it from him as he was great. I haven't made a recipe yet from the book but Lindsay and I plan to one weekend when we have a bit more time as they all require a lot more prep than what I'd typically make in an hour or less on a week night after work.

 

Overall impressions: Giovanni's Table certainly lived up to the hype and my expectations. It's definitely a more casual restaurant compared to the others on board (Chops & 150). I was told you could wear shorts which is certainly more casual than the MDR. Our service was fantastic though the restaurant was relatively empty so I'm not sure if it'd be that good on a typical night. The food was also fantastic. I think overall it was probably the second best restaurant on board that we tried though was pretty much neck and neck with Chops for that ranking. I highly recommend eating there and for lunch it is even less pricey. However I think it'd be an EXTREMELY heavy lunch.

 

Up next: 150 Central Park (the best meal I've had on any cruise ship) and one of the best ever!

[terpfan101]

 

Was there a fee for the back stage tour?

 

Hi there. Nope no fee at all! I do believe some of the others (entertainment back stage and overall ship tour) are either reserved for Diamond Plus and above C&A members or require a fee to be paid.

[terpfan101]

I'm really enjoying reading your review... and especially the photos! We just got off the Serenade and didn't have chocolates in our stateroom, and towel animals were every other night (but it was a 12 day cruise). Did you get chocolates each night?

 

Hi there CyberTag. Glad you are enjoying it! We did not get chocolates each night. Only twice if I recall, and I think both were on the formal nights. Not a huge disappointment as it was always late by the time we came back to the room and the last thing I really needed was more food. Royal Caribbean said they stopped doing the chocolates every night because a good majority of it went uneaten and it was wasted. However I'm sure part of it was due to cutting a cost.

[terpfan101]

TerpFan101. Thanks for posting your review. I loved all the pics and loved that you had a great time on Allure of the Seas. Guessing you graduated from Maryland; since u r a terp fan. that's my wife's alma mater; and we have a son living in Northern, VA. Anyway, we had a ball on Allure last year; and had a ball reading your review. Again, Thanks.

 

cheers,

 

Hi there! Yes I did graduate from the University of Maryland and am from Maryland as well outside of DC. Both of my parents went there too as did one of my two younger brothers. The youngest who just graduated from high school is breaking the trend and going to the University of Rochester. I couldn't justify paying an arm and a leg for my college education when our state school is pretty darn good! I'm not sure if you or your wife have been back to College Park to visit lately but its sure changed a whole lot, even lots of changes since I graduated in 2008. And glad to hear you're enjoying my review!

[terpfan101]

Really great review and your pictures are great. Looking to book the Allure for next March so this has m drooling.

 

Thank you! You've got a ways to go but hopefully it comes soon enough! I had a little over five full months and it still felt like an eternity!

[cruiseatick]

great review, my wife and her parents and I are going on allure on halloween this year, we will all be staying in a grand suite I know you all looked at all the cabins so you can tell me if I am in trouble or not.hoping for a cl upgrade, your review has been awsome,as I am the travel planner for all the cruises we have taken .I love to do all the research so I knw what to do and what not to do,I also wanted to thank your terps for knocking out nc state two years ago and sending the seminoles to the acc championship game only to lose to VT at one of the coldest football games i have ever attended, GONOLES

[Poorplaya]

Amazing review so far, I love the pictures and all the information you've put into it. Can't wait to read the rest

[M&JfromSDL]

We purchased the cook book at 150 Central Park and our waitress, without saying it directly, let us know they got a bonus based on the number of cookbooks sold. I was a couple cucumber/basil martinis deep so of course I purchased one.

 

Looking forward to your 150 Central Park write up.