Allure Halloween Cruise Photo Report Oct 28th 2012

[BillOh]

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

 

I see I'm not the only one who does that! ;)

[Sinppu]

Gooood Mooorning, Nassau!!

 

 

Oh shoot, you were still sleeping :o Sorry, sorry...

 

 

Are you up yet? Yes? Goood Mooo... OK, I get it. Once is enough.

 

We had breakfast on our balcony this morning. We've done that on our previous cruises too and it has somehow now become a tradition.

 

 

Which will not work very well without a balcony, really.

Before we were done eating the first passengers were already out of the ship.

 

[Sinppu]

This was our first visit to Nassau and as we didn't have very much time (7am-2.30pm) we just decided to grab a shuttle and head to the Atlantis Casino (what a surprise!).

 

 

Our first impression of Nassau was at least photogenic.

 

 

 

 

 

The Disney Dream came into port with us.

 

[Sinppu]

We went into the casino (the table games open at 10am) and played some craps. We always play when we come to the US as it very hard to find one from Europe. Here we've seen craps only at Monte Carlo and London and believe me, we've been a LOT of casinos.

 

Mom!! Mom, is that you? Did you follow us here?!

 

 

Also parked next to us was a ship called the Aida Aura. Poor thing, I hope it didn't feel inadequate. :(

 

 

 

It would have been nice to tell her passengers that size doesn't matter, but I consider myself an honest person.

 

People were having a hoot at Disney.

 

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

Today we had lunch at Johnny Rockets. We love the onion rings and the milkshakes.

 

[Sky616]

Enjoying this great review. We are on this eastern route on her sister ship in about a year.

[Sinppu]

Today we had lunch at Johnny Rockets. We love the onion rings and the milkshakes.

 

 

 

The tuna melt sandwich was fresh and very very good.

 

The dancing waiters are a lot of fun. I know some of you disagree but so do I. With you who disagree. With me. Got it?

 

I don't know what this guy does for work but boy does he have a nice view doing it.

 

We left Nassau on time. I didn't dare to go outside to watch if people were running or left behind. I'm too much of a sensitive cry-baby for that. No, wait. That's not why... oh I got it. I'm an unforgiving meanie who likes to laugh at other peoples stupidity. So why didn't I watch?! Darn it!

 

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[The Grumpus]

I must admit, that looks really cool. RCCL needs to get one of those.

 

Love your review... thanks!:)

[sunnysavannah]

I must admit, that looks really cool. RCCL needs to get one of those.

 

Love your review... thanks!:)

I agree! And I was thinking what a cool photo of those two! Wonder if they are on the boards?

[lemonade-sails]

 

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).

 

 

 

Love your review, Sinny!! Fabulous! Also glad you let me know what KLPM meant. I was afraid I might have to google or search it on the boards :p!

[Sinppu]

We went to have a drink at the Schooner Bar. We had it almost completely to ourselves.

 

 

Today was the first formal night. We had My Time Dining as I had planned that we'd be trying all the specialty restaurants and dine only once at the MDR.

 

Here I am all glammed up.

 

This was the evening where we forgot to take our camera with us. I had the scallop gratin for starters and the BBB créme brulee for dessert and both were excellent. Can't remember my main course unfortunately :(

Lowry had the linguini pomodoro from the Classics list and he LOVED it. He said it was the second best pasta he's ever had (and we've been to Italy three times :eek:).

 

This evening we got our first towel animal! I like them, I think they are cute. Lowry was actually a bit disappointed when we didn't get them every evening (like on our previous cruises).

Not obviously too disappointed however since he sat on the poor thing...

 

We went to the comedy show this evening. The comedians were Jim David and Eric Lyden. We thought they were both really funny but be warned: Their material was exclusively adult. They made fun of cruising -especially Carnival (Who puts spoilers on their cruise ships?), fat people, gay people, different nationalities and a little bit of politics. Many f-, v-, a- and o-words were used plenty of times. We liked it :D We laugh at almost everything anyway. We have to, we married each other.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Verfai]

 

We were being watched...

 

 

Aaaaaahhhhh you found my camera! Thanks for some “great” shots! :p

[Sinppu]

I'm an early riser and on a cruise the best reward for that are definitely the sunrises.

 

 

Today we had our Meet & Mingle. It was at 9.30am in Jazz on 4.

We had well over 100 registered and I'd say about 40 showed up. I was looking forward to meeting some people but all of them did not show up. Maggie ja Janeen, I'm happy you did and introduced yourselves :)

 

This is Zack from South Africa, I think he was the activities manager. Behind him you can see some of the prizes they raffled. We had no luck with them this time. But we did learn what lurkers are!!

 

 

 

Here is CC member lantzwr.

 

They served a lot of food. I wish I'd known this before-hand, I'd have eaten breakfast here! Most of it was left uneaten.

[Sinppu]

Aaaaaahhhhh you found my camera! Thanks for some “great” shots! :p

 

You're welcome hon. I hope the camera in the corridor outside our stateroom was also yours. If not, I'm sure the security officers enjoyed the...show ;) All of them...

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[TheMastodon]

Wow great job! It's making me even more pumped for my journey on Dec 9th on the Allure.

 

Eh, I could do without the OSU fan photo though!!!

[Sinppu]

Many people told me there are no art auctions on the Allure but apparently even CC can't be trusted :eek:

They had at least two of them.

 

I'd seen most of the work already on the Navigator in June and Lowry was only interested in looking at the art, not buying it. Here's Michael Godard.

 

 

I would have happily taken a Britto home but AGAIN I was fighting a losing battle. Lowry told me I could buy a Britto umbrella but anything else he would veto me out of it.

 

Grrr. He was supposed to let me buy one and offer to pay half! Ah well, maybe next time. Or the time after that...

 

Like on the Oasis, there are thousands works of art on the ship. You usually get to see only the a few as you pass the nearest ones by many times a day, but I recommend making an activity out of art searching. Walking through other cabin corridors and staircases lets you see some fantastic pieces you might not see otherwise.

 

 

[Verfai]

You're welcome hon. I hope the camera in the corridor outside our stateroom was also yours. If not, I'm sure the security officers enjoyed the...show ;) All of them...

 

Will send you all of the tapes, need some "time" first :D gigidi

[Sinppu]

I thought I would get all kinds of things done during the sea days but pffft. Not a chance.

B2B must be the only to go to get everything done. :rolleyes:

 

Lowry stayed happily in the poker room while I went around the ship.

 

Getting lost was no easy feat, I tell you. Signs are everywhere. I tried my best but never got so lost I couldn't find my way out (so much for the surprise B2B...)

 

 

 

It did happen to me on the Oasis. I couldn't find the carousel after day 1. I thought I was losing my mind as I knew I'd seen it but just couldn't locate it again. I kept walking pass the Boardwalk doors and not going through them....

 

Wait, did I say I couldn't find it? Oh silly me! It was a friend, of course, not me.

Ha ha, I mean, who would be so silly as to not find it... It's just printed in ALL the elevator deck signs and everywhere with the "Deck 6" signs... ha ha. It wasn't me.

 

Today was the C&A happening on the Boardwalk. As I am so terribly shy I didn't dare to talk to Captain Tommy. I just stalked him.

 

 

I did talk to Melman though. Nobody else did, so I thought he might want some company. He didn't have a lot to say, really.

Edited November 6, 2012 by Sinppu

[Sinppu]

Today we had wonderful weather and both the poolside and the Solarium were packed.

 

 

 

Many people are worried that with over 6000 passengers the ship will feel crowded and this is the worst there is.

 

 

 

 

I mean, you can hardly breathe!! There are people closer than ten feet from you!! PANIC!!!

 

Ah well, we survived. Barely.

[Sinppu]

This evening we went to see Chicago which was absolutely amazing. It is a great musical and this version is really worth seeing. I love theatre and appreciate true pros when I see them.

 

We ate at Samba Grill this evening.

 

 

I really like the concept and this was our first time in a churrascaria.

 

 

It didn't live up to our expectations, unfortunately. The salad buffet was OK, so were the side dishes (corn, fried bananas, veggies, fries).

 

 

But the meats were hit or miss. Pork sausage was spicy and tasty, but pork loin was dry. Sirloins were nothing special, tenderloin was really nice.

 

Beef ribs were ok but the lamb chops were pushed aside after two bites. We never got to the chicken.

 

Plus the waiter just disregarded our sign. Even though we had it on red, he kept bringing us more meat. :(

[Sinppu]

We could have eaten 9 different desserts though. They were SO fresh and tasted wonderful, we had the flan and chocolate cake. They went very well with the sliced fruits.

 

 

 

Judging by the junk in my trunk in this photo, I DID have 9 desserts.

 

 

There has been a lot of discussion about the crew and their wages on these boards. We talked to a lot of staff who always asked us where we were from and when we told them we are from Finland, a big majority of them got very excited and told us they have been there and tried to remember some Finnish phrases.

 

Many of the crew came to Finland about a month prior to Allure's sail away to work on finishing touches or to be trained. Since Allure had her 101st sailing when we were on board it means a lot of the staff have been working on her for almost exactly two years.

 

That is a veeeery long time to be overworked and underpaid.

Personally I don't think they are neither. If they are and continue to do new contracts, let them suffer. They are all grown-ups and have choices.

 

OK, back to non-politics.

[slh182]

I love your review! I'm having fun reading it. Thank you!

 

We are going on the AOS in January.

[Beth C]

 

 

Well this is new... I never saw these in the spring @ Sawgrass... I could have used one of those the day I ~forgot~ where I parked my car... was a long journey trying to figure out which Avenue I parked by!

[Sinppu]

Well here's a day I had been waiting for a looong time. Like, you know, months!

 

We've been to St Thomas before, on our first cruise in 2008. We did sightseeing and the cable car then and I wanted to do something memorable this time. Does it look like we succeeded?

 

 

We booked a sea lion swim through RCCL. We picked the afternoon excursion which turned out to be lucky. On the morning swim there had been 9 people but we had only four in our group. That gave us a lot more time and more personable experience with Remo.

 

 

We got to do all kinds of really cool things with him. The photos speak for themselves, don't they?

 

 

 

 

[Sinppu]

We were really impressed with our 8-year old, 400-pound new BFF.

 

 

Although I have a feeling he might have not returned our feelings as enthusiastically... Just a feeling.

 

 

 

Anyway, it was a day to remember and we had a lot of fun with Remo and Scott.

 

Coral World is not a very modern facility and it can seem outdated. I also know some people doubt that the animals are happy there. It's obvious they would be better off in the nature but they have been in captivity for so long they couldn't probably be rehabilitated back to their natural environment.

So if the choice is being put down or patted down by humans, I do think Remo would pick the latter one.