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

[terpfan101]

After reading the posts about Falmouth, most of which were negative, I initially wasn't very excited about our day in Falmouth. However after finding a few ideas I started to warm up a bit more to it. Based on a lot of people's positive feedback on both Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor, I decided to book a tour with Phil Lafayette http://www.jamaicaphil.com/. His tour included transportation to Dunns River Falls and highlights of Ochos Rios. I had read online that he might also take you to a Jamaican restaurant or other sights if the group wanted to. Anyway arrived in Falmouth and made our walk to the end of the pier where we easily found Phil and he led us to our air conditioned van. There was a family of three already there waiting. Phil said he was going back to wait for others and left us waiting for him. It was a bit odd. I was getting a bit annoyed as we waited between 30-45 minutes for him to return with a family of 5 or 6. I later learned after asking the other family, that they just decided to join the tour after getting a decent offer from him at the pier. I guess he didn't have many people. I can understand needing to get other people to make money, but I'd have rather him say that to us up front so I wasn't left wondering.

 

He returned and we finally got on our way. Phil was a nice guy and full of information about the different sights we were driving by. He was funny too and you could tell he really loved his country. I appreciated hearing about the things we were seeing but at that point was not too keen on his frequent stops to point out a tree or what not as we were already late and I didn't want to get to Dunns River Falls and have to wait in long lines. Part of his selling point was that we'd get to the falls early. We made it there by around noon (an hour after I expected). Thankfully though I guess he has connections with people working there and we were brought right to the front of the line.

 

We proceeded to join a large group of about 20 total people and met our guide who led us up our climb of the Falls. It is definitely challenging as there are lots of slippery rocks and some giant "steps" to climb. It was very cool though as the falls were very big.

 

Here are a bunch of pictures taken on a cheapo disposable waterproof camera:

 

 

 

Ugh to the man in the background of this picture!

 

After we were done we had to proceed through the dreaded market where every single person selling the exact same things tried to convince you to come look at their stuff. We just kept walking and didn't respond. We bought a bottle of Coke which being made with real sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup is MUCH better than our Coke! The fact that Coca Cola doesn't use real sugar in the US ticks me off.

 

There were two little tables of stuff being sold near the end and I looked at some items. I decided to offer a lady $3 for a shot glass for my youngest brother (going to be a freshman in college) which she immediately said sure to my price, which made me realize I could have offered $2. Oh well, she probably needed the $1 a lot more than me.

 

We went back to the van at about 2:45. The family of three had purchased a different package where they would get to do a river rafting trip. As a result he dropped everyone else off at this market area where there was shopping and some restaurants and a beach. We would have about an hour there when he would return to meet us after the other family did their rafting. This was what really let me down about Phil. Most of the shops were closed, there was a Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville though. In addition, the beach was pretty disappointing. The water was really pretty, but the beach itself was disappointing. Not only that but we were hounded by Jamaican guys trying to sell us stuff like necklaces. This one guy wasn't too pushy though and actually was very nice and talked to me for a bit. He offered to take this picture and thus at the end I ended up just giving him a dollar. However quickly after that another guy came by to ask to sell us something I just told him no.

 

By the time Phil returned to drive us back, it was about 4:15. The ship left at 7PM so we just wanted to get back to the ship. Phil asked if we wanted to go to get a meal but after starting nearly an hour later than planned, I think we all just wanted to return to the ship. We made our way back by about 5:00 and thanked him. He did mention something about tips which I thought was a bit tacky. I still gave him something anyway as he did a good job overall.

 

My overall conclusion though on our tour with Phil is a 4/5. He got us to DRF safely and informed us about avoiding the merchants and what not. He was very informative and a genuinely nice guy. However, starting off so late was disappointing as was being dropped off at the disappointing shops/beach. However since we wanted to see DRF, which he did take us to for a price that was less than the ship's excursion (Dunns River Falls Express - $67 for an adult) I can't really complain too much. I can sort of see why he has a high rating on TripAdvisor, however I think the negative ratings probably experienced some of the similar things we did. I do think that if you had a large group (5+ people), then perhaps Phil would be a good idea as you wouldn't need to wait most likely the way we did. I would also recommend to him that he offer only one tour or find a better drop off spot to take people to.

 

Also my final thoughts on Falmouth and Jamaica. Unfortunately I think this port is a dud. I would definitely not be too eager to go back to Jamaica again, although if I did, I'd stick to a beach. I have to wonder why the people think their pushiness with selling things works. Maybe it's just me, but that sort of behavior completely puts me off from wanting to buy something from you. Another thing is that while DRF was cool, it was a bit of a waste of time to have to spend about 90 minutes in a van to get there. I'd stick to a nearby beach if I ever went again or spend the day on the ship.

[smeck]

After reading the posts about Falmouth, most of which were negative, I initially wasn't very excited about our day in Falmouth. However after finding a few ideas I started to warm up a bit more to it. Based on a lot of people's positive feedback on both Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor, I decided to book a tour with Phil Lafayette http://www.jamaicaphil.com/. His tour included transportation to Dunns River Falls and highlights of Ochos Rios. I had read online that he might also take you to a Jamaican restaurant or other sights if the group wanted to. Anyway arrived in Falmouth and made our walk to the end of the pier where we easily found Phil and he led us to our air conditioned van. There was a family of three already there waiting. Phil said he was going back to wait for others and left us waiting for him. It was a bit odd. I was getting a bit annoyed as we waited between 30-45 minutes for him to return with a family of 5 or 6. I later learned after asking the other family, that they just decided to join the tour after getting a decent offer from him at the pier. I guess he didn't have many people. I can understand needing to get other people to make money, but I'd have rather him say that to us up front so I wasn't left wondering.

 

He returned and we finally got on our way. Phil was a nice guy and full of information about the different sights we were driving by. He was funny too and you could tell he really loved his country. I appreciated hearing about the things we were seeing but at that point was not too keen on his frequent stops to point out a tree or what not as we were already late and I didn't want to get to Dunns River Falls and have to wait in long lines. Part of his selling point was that we'd get to the falls early. We made it there by around noon (an hour after I expected). Thankfully though I guess he has connections with people working there and we were brought right to the front of the line.

 

We proceeded to join a large group of about 20 total people and met our guide who led us up our climb of the Falls. It is definitely challenging as there are lots of slippery rocks and some giant "steps" to climb. It was very cool though as the falls were very big.

 

Here are a bunch of pictures taken on a cheapo disposable waterproof camera:

 

 

 

Ugh to the man in the background of this picture!

 

After we were done we had to proceed through the dreaded market where every single person selling the exact same things tried to convince you to come look at their stuff. We just kept walking and didn't respond. We bought a bottle of Coke which being made with real sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup is MUCH better than our Coke! The fact that Coca Cola doesn't use real sugar in the US ticks me off.

 

There were two little tables of stuff being sold near the end and I looked at some items. I decided to offer a lady $3 for a shot glass for my youngest brother (going to be a freshman in college) which she immediately said sure to my price, which made me realize I could have offered $2. Oh well, she probably needed the $1 a lot more than me.

 

We went back to the van at about 2:45. The family of three had purchased a different package where they would get to do a river rafting trip. As a result he dropped everyone else off at this market area where there was shopping and some restaurants and a beach. We would have about an hour there when he would return to meet us after the other family did their rafting. This was what really let me down about Phil. Most of the shops were closed, there was a Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville though. In addition, the beach was pretty disappointing. The water was really pretty, but the beach itself was disappointing. Not only that but we were hounded by Jamaican guys trying to sell us stuff like necklaces. This one guy wasn't too pushy though and actually was very nice and talked to me for a bit. He offered to take this picture and thus at the end I ended up just giving him a dollar. However quickly after that another guy came by to ask to sell us something I just told him no.

 

By the time Phil returned to drive us back, it was about 4:15. The ship left at 7PM so we just wanted to get back to the ship. Phil asked if we wanted to go to get a meal but after starting nearly an hour later than planned, I think we all just wanted to return to the ship. We made our way back by about 5:00 and thanked him. He did mention something about tips which I thought was a bit tacky. I still gave him something anyway as he did a good job overall.

 

My overall conclusion though on our tour with Phil is a 4/5. He got us to DRF safely and informed us about avoiding the merchants and what not. He was very informative and a genuinely nice guy. However, starting off so late was disappointing as was being dropped off at the disappointing shops/beach. However since we wanted to see DRF, which he did take us to for a price that was less than the ship's excursion (Dunns River Falls Express - $67 for an adult) I can't really complain too much. I can sort of see why he has a high rating on TripAdvisor, however I think the negative ratings probably experienced some of the similar things we did. I do think that if you had a large group (5+ people), then perhaps Phil would be a good idea as you wouldn't need to wait most likely the way we did. I would also recommend to him that he offer only one tour or find a better drop off spot to take people to.

 

Also my final thoughts on Falmouth and Jamaica. Unfortunately I think this port is a dud. I would definitely not be too eager to go back to Jamaica again, although if I did, I'd stick to a beach. I have to wonder why the people think their pushiness with selling things works. Maybe it's just me, but that sort of behavior completely puts me off from wanting to buy something from you. Another thing is that while DRF was cool, it was a bit of a waste of time to have to spend about 90 minutes in a van to get there. I'd stick to a nearby beach if I ever went again or spend the day on the ship.

 

I think an all inclusive beach day would be the perfect excursion for Falmouth.

[beachbuddy]

After reading the posts about Falmouth, most of which were negative, I initially wasn't very excited about our day in Falmouth. However after finding a few ideas I started to warm up a bit more to it. Based on a lot of people's positive feedback on both Cruise Critic and TripAdvisor, I decided to book a tour with Phil Lafayette http://www.jamaicaphil.com/. His tour included transportation to Dunns River Falls and highlights of Ochos Rios. I had read online that he might also take you to a Jamaican restaurant or other sights if the group wanted to. Anyway arrived in Falmouth and made our walk to the end of the pier where we easily found Phil and he led us to our air conditioned van. There was a family of three already there waiting. Phil said he was going back to wait for others and left us waiting for him. It was a bit odd. I was getting a bit annoyed as we waited between 30-45 minutes for him to return with a family of 5 or 6. I later learned after asking the other family, that they just decided to join the tour after getting a decent offer from him at the pier. I guess he didn't have many people. I can understand needing to get other people to make money, but I'd have rather him say that to us up front so I wasn't left wondering.

 

He returned and we finally got on our way. Phil was a nice guy and full of information about the different sights we were driving by. He was funny too and you could tell he really loved his country. I appreciated hearing about the things we were seeing but at that point was not too keen on his frequent stops to point out a tree or what not as we were already late and I didn't want to get to Dunns River Falls and have to wait in long lines. Part of his selling point was that we'd get to the falls early. We made it there by around noon (an hour after I expected). Thankfully though I guess he has connections with people working there and we were brought right to the front of the line.

 

We proceeded to join a large group of about 20 total people and met our guide who led us up our climb of the Falls. It is definitely challenging as there are lots of slippery rocks and some giant "steps" to climb. It was very cool though as the falls were very big.

 

Here are a bunch of pictures taken on a cheapo disposable waterproof camera:

 

 

 

Ugh to the man in the background of this picture!

 

After we were done we had to proceed through the dreaded market where every single person selling the exact same things tried to convince you to come look at their stuff. We just kept walking and didn't respond. We bought a bottle of Coke which being made with real sugar as opposed to high fructose corn syrup is MUCH better than our Coke! The fact that Coca Cola doesn't use real sugar in the US ticks me off.

 

There were two little tables of stuff being sold near the end and I looked at some items. I decided to offer a lady $3 for a shot glass for my youngest brother (going to be a freshman in college) which she immediately said sure to my price, which made me realize I could have offered $2. Oh well, she probably needed the $1 a lot more than me.

 

We went back to the van at about 2:45. The family of three had purchased a different package where they would get to do a river rafting trip. As a result he dropped everyone else off at this market area where there was shopping and some restaurants and a beach. We would have about an hour there when he would return to meet us after the other family did their rafting. This was what really let me down about Phil. Most of the shops were closed, there was a Jimmy Buffets Margaritaville though. In addition, the beach was pretty disappointing. The water was really pretty, but the beach itself was disappointing. Not only that but we were hounded by Jamaican guys trying to sell us stuff like necklaces. This one guy wasn't too pushy though and actually was very nice and talked to me for a bit. He offered to take this picture and thus at the end I ended up just giving him a dollar. However quickly after that another guy came by to ask to sell us something I just told him no.

 

By the time Phil returned to drive us back, it was about 4:15. The ship left at 7PM so we just wanted to get back to the ship. Phil asked if we wanted to go to get a meal but after starting nearly an hour later than planned, I think we all just wanted to return to the ship. We made our way back by about 5:00 and thanked him. He did mention something about tips which I thought was a bit tacky. I still gave him something anyway as he did a good job overall.

 

My overall conclusion though on our tour with Phil is a 4/5. He got us to DRF safely and informed us about avoiding the merchants and what not. He was very informative and a genuinely nice guy. However, starting off so late was disappointing as was being dropped off at the disappointing shops/beach. However since we wanted to see DRF, which he did take us to for a price that was less than the ship's excursion (Dunns River Falls Express - $67 for an adult) I can't really complain too much. I can sort of see why he has a high rating on TripAdvisor, however I think the negative ratings probably experienced some of the similar things we did. I do think that if you had a large group (5+ people), then perhaps Phil would be a good idea as you wouldn't need to wait most likely the way we did. I would also recommend to him that he offer only one tour or find a better drop off spot to take people to.

 

Also my final thoughts on Falmouth and Jamaica. Unfortunately I think this port is a dud. I would definitely not be too eager to go back to Jamaica again, although if I did, I'd stick to a beach. I have to wonder why the people think their pushiness with selling things works. Maybe it's just me, but that sort of behavior completely puts me off from wanting to buy something from you. Another thing is that while DRF was cool, it was a bit of a waste of time to have to spend about 90 minutes in a van to get there. I'd stick to a nearby beach if I ever went again or spend the day on the ship.

 

Thanks for the review of the Falmouth port. We're headed there in December and I'm not thrilled about it. We have been to Ochos Rios twice - first time did the tour and Dunns River with Pete Taylor which we really enjoyed and second time just got off the ship to buy blue mountain coffee and had lunch at Margaritaville as it's right next to the port. There is't anything else I want to do or see in Jamaica and as you said, everything is pretty far from the port of Falmouth.

 

We're thinking of booking a day pass at the Hilton Rose Hall for the day which includes transportation, use of their pools, slides, lazy river, beach, food, drinks. If we don't do that we'll probably just get off the ship, buy coffee at the port and spend the day on the ship. Wish we were going to Grand Cayman instead.

[terpfan101]

Thanks for the review of the Falmouth port. We're headed there in December and I'm not thrilled about it. We have been to Ochos Rios twice - first time did the tour and Dunns River with Pete Taylor which we really enjoyed and second time just got off the ship to buy blue mountain coffee and had lunch at Margaritaville as it's right next to the port. There is't anything else I want to do or see in Jamaica and as you said, everything is pretty far from the port of Falmouth.

 

We're thinking of booking a day pass at the Hilton Rose Hall for the day which includes transportation, use of their pools, slides, lazy river, beach, food, drinks. If we don't do that we'll probably just get off the ship, buy coffee at the port and spend the day on the ship. Wish we were going to Grand Cayman instead.

 

I did read some good things about the Hilton Rose Hall and I believe another all inclusive type beach day. However after spending a day at the beach in Labadee and a day at Chankanaab Park in Cozumel (another beach day), I wasn't too keen on having a third beach day. There's lots of adventure type stuff in Jamaica such as zipline type things, however I was skeptical of the safety of such places.

[beachbuddy]

I did read some good things about the Hilton Rose Hall and I believe another all inclusive type beach day. However after spending a day at the beach in Labadee and a day at Chankanaab Park in Cozumel (another beach day), I wasn't too keen on having a third beach day. There's lots of adventure type stuff in Jamaica such as zipline type things, however I was skeptical of the safety of such places.

 

LOL..........because we are much older and wiser, we won't be doing any zip lines............LOL We did Dunns River back in 2002 and I was surprised then that I even made it all the way to the top!!!! I was very proud of myself!!! LOL

 

Waiting to hear about Chankanaab Park.

 

Patty

[manc4som]

I love reading your posts. It has helped me for make a list of what to look for and what not. I am traveling with about 9 people and you have covered so much that i know what will interest some and not others. Thanks again. Also just wanted to let you know that in 2010 I had traveled to Jamaica on a RC cruise and did the zip line with my daughter and it was most definitely enjoyed it was a great experience. They were very thorough with the equipment and directions. Next time give it a try you will love it..

 

I know this has nothing to do with your review but I had a question since you are so good at finding things on the web. How will i be able to find how many cruise points you would receive for the cruises you go on. I cant seem to locate it on the crown and anchore.

Thanks again for the review..

[manc4som]

Ok if I look real hard then I will find what i am looking for. I finally found my answer to my question. Thanks again.

[irismike]

Terpfan101: We are going on the Allure Eastern Carib October 28th and enjoyed you review. IT WAS GREAT!!.

Questions: Is there a charge for Cupcake, Boardwalk (Hot Dogs), Vitality, etc.?

Any input about Samba Restaurant?

Did you book your shows in advance (before you went on the cruise)?

We are doing 6:00 PM anytime dining. Will we miss the first formal night reception?

Any tips on which shows and times we should go to.

Any other info (I'm sure you covered everything)you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this fabulous review.

[bravostar]

We will be on the Allure in October. Great review!!!! Thank you very much.

[sapphire2810]

How about that! You were just a few rooms down!! Crazy. Thanks for stopping by and glad you had a fun time on the cruise too!

 

 

Enjoying your review, great job, will be on Allure 8/2013.

Looking forward to hearing more and seeing more pics.

[Ramblin' Ma'am]

This is a great review. Thanks for taking the time to post in so much detail!

[tropiclvrs]

Thanks again for posting your very informative review! We did DRF about 10 years ago and had fun but aren't interested in doing it again (especially with 2 kids). Out of curiosity (and for ideas when we are there next month), what did your friends do while in Falmouth, and did they have fun?

[ilikepups]

Terpfan101: We are going on the Allure Eastern Carib October 28th and enjoyed you review. IT WAS GREAT!!.

Questions: Is there a charge for Cupcake, Boardwalk (Hot Dogs), Vitality, etc.?

Any input about Samba Restaurant?

Did you book your shows in advance (before you went on the cruise)?

We are doing 6:00 PM anytime dining. Will we miss the first formal night reception?

Any tips on which shows and times we should go to.

Any other info (I'm sure you covered everything)you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this fabulous review.

We were on the Allure first part of June also. There is a charge for the Cupcakes, no charge for the Boardwalk hot dogs, no charge for Vitality i don't think. The Samba was a good place for a light breakfast too, no charge, Im not sure if this was where Vitality was or not. I was confused on that. Park Cafe, no charge, be sure to get the great beef sandwich!! We ate at the Samba twice, we really enjoyed it. Lots of food. One tip do not load up on the salad bar and the great little bread balls they serve you in a bucket before the meal.. You want to have room to taste all the meats. We skipped the chicken also the second time. It was ok but chicken is chicken and can get it anywhere. I would suggest booking a specialty restaurant on the first night of the cruise. The main dinning room for anytime dining is very disorganized on the first night. The hostess even told us that the first night is always like that. Long lines even if you have a reservation. Not that you won't get in but it is just crazy. I think if you wait and book the Samba room till you are on board it is discounted the first night. All though we booked it before we got on they did give us the discount at the hostess desk at the Samba when we aked for it. The discount is only good on the first night though. It was not crowded at all the first night.

[reallyhooked]

I'll definitely be covering that when I talk about the food and specialties but in short, no real issues and I do think it was worth it. :)

I like your review. We will be cruising on Allure in December.

[terpfan101]

Terpfan101: We are going on the Allure Eastern Carib October 28th and enjoyed you review. IT WAS GREAT!!.

Questions: Is there a charge for Cupcake, Boardwalk (Hot Dogs), Vitality, etc.?

Any input about Samba Restaurant?

Did you book your shows in advance (before you went on the cruise)?

We are doing 6:00 PM anytime dining. Will we miss the first formal night reception?

Any tips on which shows and times we should go to.

Any other info (I'm sure you covered everything)you can suggest would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this fabulous review.

 

Hi there irismike. Here are the answers to your questions:

Yes there is a charge for Cupcake Cupboard. Something like $2.XX a cupcake. No charge for Boardwalk Dog House. Vitality Cafe only has a charge for drinks (like smoothies) but food is free.

 

The captain's reception goes from 7:15-8:30, so you should be able to catch the end of it if you eat at 6PM.

 

I recommend seeing all of the shows and to not schedule a show late (after 10PM) on nights three and four as the Quest and Love & Marriage are then.

 

Stay tuned I have a few more parts of my review.

[terpfan101]

Thanks again for posting your very informative review! We did DRF about 10 years ago and had fun but aren't interested in doing it again (especially with 2 kids). Out of curiosity (and for ideas when we are there next month), what did your friends do while in Falmouth, and did they have fun?

 

Aaron and Amy did Dunns River Falls too but with the ship I believe and it also had something else as part of the trip. Todd and Stacy did a Jamaican bobsled excursion and enjoyed it! Hope that helps.

[terpfan101]

So this review is taking me a long time to finish! I don't mind though as it's letting me keep the memories going just a bit longer! Anyway I'm nearly through with the review after this post.

 

I was excited to visit Cozumel having read all about the numerous activities to do there. During the planning process, I was considering either a dolphin swim at Chankanaab National Park or going to the beach either there, Mr. Sancho's, Nachi Cocum, or a few others. In the end after some back and forth between the ideas, I decided to book the dolphin and manatee excursion through the ship. I had been set to book the Dolphin Swim Adventure directly through dolphin discovery. It would have been 25% off if booked in advance, so $75 a person. However since Lindsay really wanted to go to a nicer beach (she had been to Chankanaab years ago with her family and didn't like it much), I thought we could go early for the dolphins and then go to Mr. Sancho's Beach Club. The only issue was that booking directly meant a start time of 10AM local time (11AM ship time). This would be too late if we wanted to go to another beach. So I went with the ship's dolphin and manatee package which included just about everything in that package. It was $25 more per person but included round trip transportation and we met at 8:30AM ship time so I figured it'd start around 9AM ship time. This was correct as we were there before it really got crowded. I also thought it'd be cool to see manatees.

 

Anyway we made our way to our meeting point at the pier and after waiting about 15 minutes were met by our nice guide who arranged for taxis to take us to the park and explained everything to us there about the logistics. We were shown to the lockers which were free to use. We then divided into groups of about 10-12 people each and had one dolphin trainer start to talk to us about the dolphins before we would get in the water.

 

Everyone got in the water and sort of stood along the edge of the "pool" and the dolphins began to swim around. Our trainer had each person take turns doing the different activities. Everyone had a chance to do a dolphin kiss, "holding the dolphin like a baby", getting pulled by grabbing onto the dolphin's fins for a belly ride, and getting pushed the dolphin while laying on a boogie board. We also got to see the dolphins do some tricks and the dolphins would frequently swim by so we could touch them. I will also say that these occurred in no particular order. So for example, a few people might get to do the kiss and then he would have somebody go out to the middle and do the belly ride. However he made sure everyone did everything.

 

Here are quite a few pictures from the low quality cheapo disposable waterproof camera:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[terpfan101]

I had read conflicting reports about the ability to bring a camera, but you were able to bring a waterproof camera if you were in fact participating. You could not have somebody else taking pictures from the dock. Unfortunately the disposable one didn't take great pictures, but I figured they'd suffice. After about an hour of everyone getting a turn to do everything, we were taken to another "pool" to meet the manatees. They were interesting looking creatures, very large and not too cute looking. They weren't as exciting as the dolphins as they just sort of swam around and we could pet them and give them lettuce to eat. Here is a bad picture:

 

 

After everything was over we had the opportunity to view all of the pictures that their professional photographer took of us. You view them on a computer and can pick which ones you want. The pictures were actually really good, but the prices were ridiculous. They wanted $29 for one photo printed, or for $79 for the first person and an additional amount for each additional person you could get every photo on a disk. It was going to be around $130 for the both of us and I couldn't justify spending that much when I really would have only wanted about half of the pictures they took (tons of duplicates). However as you had more people, the cost per person went down significantly. I saw a family of about 6+ buy the disk and it was something like $40 per person. I had read that you could negotiate with them, which I tried...however either my negotiating skills are terrible or the man was in fact telling me the truth that they can't discount it. So we bought none of them. That'd be my only real complaint about the park and the dolphin swim.

 

After we finished it was nearly noon and we debated whether we should go to Mr. Sancho's or stay put. We decided to stay at Chankanaab for a little while and then it started to rain for about 20 minutes. We just decided it'd be easier to stay there as it was still relaxing and we wouldn't have to take yet another taxi ride. If I ever go back, I'd definitely go to a nicer beach area. Here is a picture of the area that we spent a few hours at. I will say it was beautiful, just wish the beach itself was better.

 

 

So as Lindsay had told me ahead of time, the beach at the park is man made and doesn't have sand leading into the water. Instead there are lots of steps to walk down into the water but to do so you have to step onto rocks. There were tons of fish to see though right near the rocks. There were tons of snorkelers and it looked like they could see a good amount of fish.

 

We spent about 2.5 hours just laying in the chairs under an umbrella looking out to the beach. As it was about lunch time, we got some guacamole and chips. WOW! The guacamole was the best I've ever had! The chips were pretty amazing too. As that wasn't enough, we shared chicken quesadillas later on. They were okay nothing special. I think the food was probably just okay there (minus the excellent guac). I think some of the other beach places might have more authentic food.

 

 

Here are some more pictures from our afternoon there:

 

 

 

[terpfan101]

I have a lot of pictures from Cozumel!

 

 

 

We could get used to this view:

 

 

 

How pretty are these trees?

 

 

We ended up leaving the park at around 2:30PM ship time and made our way back to the port where we did some brief shopping. The shopping in port is pretty poor. You really need to go downtown to get to the good shopping. We didn't care much to do that though. Oh and I thought I'd note that at all of the ports, the price for bottles of liquor was far more expensive than the price on the ship!

 

As we made our way back to the ship, we saw the Carnival Magic docked near the Allure and wow what a difference in size there was! This picture isn't the best as I was probably too close to show the magnitude of the Allure compared to the Magic.

 

 

All in all, Cozumel was a pretty good port and I think there's probably enough to do there that you could come back and not be bored. If I ever went back, I'd try to go to a nicer beach for the day. Well thanks for reading and stay tuned as I'll just have a few more posts before I conclude this review. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

 

Up next (in several future posts): Random photos and other miscellaneous things not covered, departure, overall conclusions, and cruise compass scans.

[irismike]

Thanks for all your help. We were going to do the Samba on the 6th night to celebrate our Anniversary.

[JamesEM]

terpfan101 - Where did you dock while you were in Cozumel?

[terpfan101]

terpfan101 - Where did you dock while you were in Cozumel?

 

I thought it was probably just the main dock? I just looked it up and it appears to be called "TMM International Pier". Hope that helps.

[terpfan101]

Thanks for all your help. We were going to do the Samba on the 6th night to celebrate our Anniversary.

 

I just saw you are from Middletown NY...I went to/worked at a summer camp in Milford, PA and when working there would usually go to the Middletown Mall and movies on days off!

 

Samba seems pretty good, but I'd say that the other restaurants I attended might make for a better anniversary dinner.

[terpfan101]

As promised here are some random pictures that I have yet to post:

 

They have lots of viewing lenses throughout the ship that zoom in an insane amount. Here's Lindsay spying on the big houses while still docked in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

 

I don't think I touched on the On Air Club, but the karaoke they had every night seemed like a lot of fun. Don't forget to check out the photo booth inside On Air where you can send a free photo postcard or video card to family/friends back home. We sent this one to our parents early during the cruise and they got it that day:

 

 

The email that was sent had this generic message:

"Hi, If you're reading this then you already know... I'm on a cruise! I'm on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas and I'm not going to lie, it's pretty awesome. They've got surfing and rock climbing and ice skating and a spa AND a recording booth where I made YOU a Photo postcard. Check it out"

 

You could choose from one of several backgrounds. Pretty cool!

 

Zoltar on the boardwalk...$1 to get your fortune which I didn't do (and didn't see anyone do it).

 

 

With the Captain:

 

 

The artwork on the ship is amazing. Each of the staircases (four total) have different artwork at each deck. Here's one we took a picture of:

 

 

Funhouse mirrors on the Boardwalk:

 

Up next: Finding Cubans on a raft, departure, overall conclusions, cruise compasses. If I've missed anything please ask!

[mchcruiser1000]

Loved your picture of the Magic by the Allure :). I have the same picture from the opposite perspective as I was on the Magic about 2 weeks before your trip. Seeing the Allure at Cozumel made me decide it was my next ship:D.