Allure Halloween Cruise Photo Report Oct 28th 2012

[Sinppu]

Hello all photo review fans :cool: !

Here is another chance of pre-living or re-living an awesome Allure cruise. I'll have it finished as soon as possible and I hope I can entertain as many of you as possible.

Positive comments, questions and compliments are more than welcome ;)

If you don't have any of those, you can either not comment at all or be rude and I'll just be rude right back. Your call :p

 

My name is Sinny and this is my second cruise photo report. I cruised with my husband Lowry.

 

We are DINKs in our early thirties and have cruised three times before together (I've got an extra cruise under my belt, I took my dragon -sorry, mother- on a Med cruise this June).

 

We are from Finland, Europe and have a serious duty to cruise. Why? Because many of the Royal Caribbean's ships have been built in Finland (like the Oasis and Voyager classes) and we just have to see that they do not embarrass us while abroad :D

So far, so good.

 

So here we go, everyone. Sail Away!!

[Sinppu]

We were scheduled to leave Finland on Tuesday, Oct 22nd and have five days of Florida sunshine prior to our cruise. We got four days of Florida and two days of sunshine :rolleyes:

 

This is what we got at Helsinki Airport:

 

 

(Your computer has not gone crazy, the uncomprehensible gibberish is Finnish. The screen is telling us our flight has been delayed for over two hours).

 

At the end our flight was delayed over four hours which naturally caused us to miss our connecting flight at Heathrow.

We were rerouted to fly to Frankfurt the next morning and to Miami from there on. :D

 

Hey, as long as we are not stuck at home, we are fine.

 

And we made it to Miami! 19 hours later than we should have, but we were in Florida, the Sunshine state!!

 

Make that "We were in Florida".

[D300]

Great start.

Post more photos soon.

Did a b2b with Allure year ago.

[JohninDC]

Keep it coming! :)

[Sugar*Magnolia]

I have been waiting a long time for a halloween cruise pictorial review! Looking fwd to more, and thanks so much in advance!! Excited! :D

[Sinppu]

Great start.

Post more photos soon.

 

Keep it coming! :)

 

John, I love your signature :D

Here they are!

 

I had booked the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and when we finally got there (our GPS was obviously short for "Guessing Pit Stops") we were in for a nice surprise. Not being sarcastic this time ;)

 

We were upgraded to a Suite! Sweet. Especially as it was bigger than our apartment back home...

 

 

Vodka and water... now what else do we need? Nothing?

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Yes, more please!!! Great start!!!

 

;)

Barb

[Sinppu]

There isn't very much to tell about our pre-cruise vacation. As the weather was rainy and windy, we stayed mostly inside. Lowry in the poker rooms around Fort Lauderdale...

 

 

...and I in anything you can shop in.

 

 

 

 

 

The last one is a joke. I didn't buy a car as I can't even drive ;)

That's not a joke. No, believe me, it's not.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

I have been waiting a long time for a halloween cruise pictorial review! Looking fwd to more, and thanks so much in advance!! Excited! :D

 

You'll be in for a treat!! The costumes people were wearing :eek: WOW.

[Sinppu]

It is here! It is here! Itishereitishereitishere.....

The day I get my KLPM!!!

 

I was so excited to get on the ship that I forgot to take any photos. For the rest of the whole cruise. So this is the end of my review.

 

Thanks for reading!

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Nooooooooooooooooo - say it isn't so!!! I love your sense of humor!!!

[Sinppu]

I was so excited to get on the ship that I forgot to take any photos. For the rest of the cruise, so this is the end of my review.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

I bet that amused me a lot more than it did anybody else :rolleyes:

 

On with the show!

 

We checked out of our hotel, dropped our rental car (well it was a Toyota, really) at the airport and off we went to the port. We were there at noon and had virtually no lines at all. Here we got our first photo:

 

 

Those of you who have read my first report from the Navigator, know that I subject my near and dear to a very strict "match my colours and you will not be punished" scheme. Yeah, I'm a cruise fashion geek.

 

It took us only 20 minutes from giving our luggage to the porters to being on the ship and we actually had problems with our check-in! The passport reader on our counter wasn't working and it had to be replaced. :eek:

 

It took me two minutes to get to the Champagne Bar (Lowry said it was closer to 20 seconds but seriously -he's never tried to run in heels) and get my KLPM (Key Lime Pie Martini). I don't think I looked any happier for the rest of the week...

 

 

Even if I am a geek, I'm not obsessive. Hence it is a complete coincidence that Lowry also matched the Rising Tide water feature and the Casino sign. I swear, I had nothing to do with that.

 

 

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Pomperaugrr]

Great start to the review so far. I love the sense of humor showing in the review as well!

 

Eric

[Sinppu]

We ended up in the casino (that happens to us a lot) and decided to play Texas Hold'Em heads-up on the machine. I have a very smart husband, you know. He plays a lot of poker and this was the only time he lost during the whole vacation. He really is very smart ;)

 

 

We had a very active Roll Call and our lovely CC member Zimadog entertained us with a pre-cruise trivia that went on for weeks.

The trivia was very nice and I came third (had I been second, it would've been great and had I won I might have even called it wonderful :p).

We had also agreed to meet at the Sky Bar at 2pm and wear Mardi Gras beads so that we'd recognize each other. Here we have some of our other active Roll Callers.

 

Dndfunteam

 

Attitudeda

 

Looking down on the Carnival Freedom (pun intended...)

[Sinppu]

Nooooooooooooooooo - say it isn't so!!! I love your sense of humor!!!

 

Great start to the review so far. I love the sense of humor showing in the review as well!

 

Eric

 

Thank you! Coming from the guy with the lime hat cat, that's priceless :D

[attitudeda]

Thanks Sinny looking good.

 

Doug

[jd_1976]

Great review so far! Looking forward to reading more.

[Sinppu]

I might have accidentally caused a few heart attacks at the Sky Bar. It was very windy and my dress wanted to have it's own "Marilyn in the Seven Year itch" moment. It did... repeatedly. The last straw was that it knocked my Pina Colada all over me and the floor and we had to go to our cabin to do some damage control (To Lowry, he was actually the one whose heart attacked). He even had to lie down to recover.

 

 

I'm also a food porn fan. I took photos of most of our food and everytime I did, Lowry went :rolleyes:

He stopped doing that when I showed him how poor photos I took and he started taking them himself just to show me how it's supposed to be done. Then it was my turn to go ;)

He may be smart but he's still a man :D

 

After he was OK again, we went to the Solarium Bistro to have lunch.

 

[lady_cruiser]

I am waiting for more too. Love your sense of humor.

[Sinppu]

Here is our lunch:

 

 

 

I wanted to try as many restaurants on board as we could. Lowry asked me to show him the grid I'd made but I always told him I didn't have one and rolled my eyes at him. I didn't have one, because I... ahem... left it at home. And it wasn't really a grid, just a paper with lines and names and times and the courses I'd be having. That's ALL.

 

We had a balcony stateroom, here is our view.

 

I'm usually very economical and was thinking of booking an inside cabin at first but we had a few things to celebrate so I booked us champagne and a balcony. It is nice but not essential to us (balcony, that is. Jeez, you didn't think I was talking about bubbly NOT being essential?! :eek:)

 

 

We were being watched...

 

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[D300]

Really nice job, love the photos.

Really liked the Solarium Bistro for lunch, think I had most of my lunches there on my b2b on Allure year ago.

[Sinppu]

We had booked a Wave on the Webcam.

 

Here's the hubby and the banner. It said "LaSi" on it, that is the name of our travel blog for our family and friends.

 

We can be seen on the video from 1.10 forward. Just look for the pink people ;)

 

 

Later on in the video other people from our Roll Call can be seen waving from top deck. Go Buckeyes!

 

The views were great!

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

Last look on Fort Lauderdale!

 

About 20-30 minutes after we left the port, we were greeted by huge waves . Even a ship this size rocked a little. It wasn't bad and it didn't last very long. Or then it did but the champagne had gotten to me already.

 

 

I had booked the Allure Specialty Dining Package for $55 pp and it gave us Chops Grille on the first evening.

 

We really liked the starters, were not that impressed with the main courses but enjoyed the desserts.

 

 

[sunnysavannah]

Ok, I'm in love with this review already...

Can't wait for more wit.

[Sinppu]

Dungeness Crab & Shrimp Cake and Signature Salad

 

 

Petit Filet Mignon

 

 

New York Strip Steak

 

Mud Cake and Passionberry Mousse (I think...)