Nov 4, Allure of the Seas, Western Caribbean - A Review and Complete Pictorial Guide!

[gambee]

Once I had the camera, I changed the lens and took my usual morning pictures that you might be used by now. It is somewhat of a tradition that I started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Breakfast arrived quickly after that, so we sat down and started eating, my bf was woken up by the confirmation phone call. He took his plate and ate in bed as usual, good thing because I really don't think there is room for more than two people on those balcony tables.

 

The usual, nothing changed here.

 

[gambee]

Here are a few pictures of the tv, I used these maps as a source to geotag my pictures later on. My old camera had a GPS built in and she was able to geotag, since this one does not I have to do it manually.

 

 

 

 

 

After last nights mess-up with the time of the show, I decide to make detail notes in my cell about everything we had setup for the remainder of the week. That way we would avoid any future problems with that.

 

Mom and I decided to hit the solarium for a little while, so we got ready and headed upstairs, we decide to stop by the windjammer and fill my moms soda cup. I took a couple of pictures of the screen in the machine.

 

This is the main screen.

 

Once you click on coke you gets this menu, she always get regular coke so no further selection was needed for us.

[gambee]

 

 

 

Once we got to the solarium we found a very nice spot port side, right next to some plants. I knew we were going to keep this place for sometime and enjoy how sheltered it was. It was very easy to get that spot.

 

 

[gambee]

Since I was a little hungry I decided to go check what they had in the solarium buffet, I ended grabbing two things.

 

This is a little funny, it said miso shrimp/ miso chicken on the display, I thought it was like a miso salad and grabbed one. I wanted the shrimp one, but by mistake I took the chicken one. Once I got to my chair I noticed that it was a little dry and did not have much of a miso flavor. But none the less it was very good and I cleaned that plate. Some of you might be laughing by now…… yup, it was supposed to be a soup, lol, I figured that later on.

 

The second item was a little granola berry cup and I added some dried apricots on top. It was very tasty.

 

 

Then I took some pictures of people on the sundeck. I want to make a quick not here, the sundeck only has access from the port side of the ship. The starboard entrance to it is permanently closed.

 

 

 

Then we napped for a little while maybe 40 minutes or so and woke up to what we thought were announcements, little did we know that they were not. There was gentleman in the Jacuzzi and boy could he talk LOUD, I think he woke everyone around us, it was so funny. He would make conversations with everyone, most of the solarium knew more about his life than himself.

 

It was agood thing he woke me up because I noticed a ship in the distance and I managed to get a picture of it.

[gambee]

At around 11:30 we decided to try the jacuzzi for a little while, so we covered all our belongings and headed towards the jacuzzi. We stayed the for about 30 minutes, there were about 8 people in it, not bad, max capacity is 18. The jacuzzis temperature always seemed fine to me, mom claimed they could be a little warmer.

 

Once I got out I decided to get a drink, but I did not feel like going to the bar. I waited for about 5 minutes and bar service lady stopped by, her name was victoria, I gave her my card and told her that I wanted a long Island. About 4 minutes later she was back with my drink, I was very impressed, I took down her name thanked her and she was on her way. She was supper friendly and efficient.

 

 

 

 

I will take a minute here to compare NCL with RCCL, the bar service in RCCL is 10x better than NCL. NCL waters down all their drinks, I don't mind paying top price for my drinks, but if I do, I expect something equivalent for the price paid. In NCL I had to search for special bartenders all over the ship, that got old very fast. In RCCL I never experienced a bad bartender, thumbs up RCCL.

 

 

I took some more pictures of the solarium, by the way if you're getting tired of specific pictures let me know and I will cut down on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This couple had the right idea, they stayed there for a few hours.

 

 

I wanted to do some more exploring for review purposes, but we had a prime spot in the solarium and that could not be wasted. The review would to wait.

[gambee]

At around 12:30 mom went to get my bf so we could have lunch I told her I would stay and keep our stuff safe. Soon enough they had returned, I told them to go eat in the solarium and that I would go and get some stuff later on. I was not quite that hungry yet.

 

As I sat there I noticed that my neighbors went to eat and they left EVERYTHING on the loungers. It was a group of 7 and they left, kindles, bags, book, ipods, everything. I will note later on that we had a bad experience with some of our belongings gone missing. I am not sure why they left everything there, they never asked me to guard it for them, although that is exactly what I did the entire time.

 

Then mom and the bf came back and they complained of how poor the buffet in solarium was, they said it was horrible. My mom took a seat in lounger and my bf went back to the room. I decided to go try it and see what they were complaining about. I found it to be average, that is also when I discovered that my supposed miso salad was actually a soup, lol, silly me :rolleyes:. As I was there taking pictures I was approached by an RCCL employee. I thought "oh oh, my picture taking got me in trouble again", the lady said "sir you need shoes to be in here" I was so embarrassed, I never noticed… I ran out to get my shoes and then came back, once I was back inside I noticed 1/3 of the people in there had no shoes. I guess that made me feel a little better.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

I ended up getting a taco (very good), the actual miso soup (I actually liked it salad style better, go figure) and some pastries ( mom loved the almond one, she went back for more).

 

 

 

I sat in my lounge chair ate the light lunch and ordered one more drink. Mom ate some pastries.

 

The view

 

 

 

I also noticed a bird inside the solarium, but by the time I changed lens it was gone.

 

Side note, our sailing had 5770 passengers. You can ask in guest services.

 

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Day 5 Sea Day

As mentioned before there was a crew filming RCCL newest commercial and they were in the rock climbing wall filming away. I hope they managed to get some video, those skies must of affected the quality that day. She took one picture of the film crew. You can also see a lady in the boardwalk checking stuff on her computer.

No problems with clouds... that light is an HMI... it's color balanced to the sun, so it can light up all they need.

[gambee]

Later on we decided to try the outside jacuzzi for a little while before going to the windjammer. Here is when we noticed a few of our belongings gone missing. Nothing big, no worries, but none the less take care of your stuff, you're in a ship with 6000 people and you just never know. Earlier on the cruise I noticed someone putting their belongings up high so they could keep a constant on them and that is what we did from then on.

 

 

 

 

After that we headed up to the windjammer.

 

On the way up

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

Remember you have to return your towels before a certain time on the last day or you get charged $25 for them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

I was wondering what she kept looking at all day and night. lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports pool

 

 

 

 

 

 

They have a scuba training program on board, they do it on the aqua theater and in Cozumel. I think the Padi certify you, but not sure.

 

 

Ohhhhh those fries.

 

 

 

 

I did not get a picture of moms food because she ate it while I was getting mine.

 

 

 

I am going to get some lunch and work on the next set. That's it for now, hope you like the pics :)

 

 

Edited November 20, 2012 by gambee

[S.A.M.J.R.]

OK, How'd you do this one? Photoshop?

 

It's a cool effect. I'd like to see one where the ship is "exploding", but the dock, water, sky, etc is "normal". If you did this in Photoshop, can you tell me how? I'd like to try playing with the effect.

[gambee]

OK, How'd you do this one? Photoshop?

 

It's a cool effect. I'd like to see one where the ship is "exploding", but the dock, water, sky, etc is "normal". If you did this in Photoshop, can you tell me how? I'd like to try playing with the effect.

 

yes, photoshopo

 

1, Load a picture

2, Filter/stylize/extrude.... then select blocks

 

 

 

Not the best result but something like that. Hope that helps. They have a bunch of cool different effects.

[chadbeck]

I was in love with this shark. JUST AMAZING!

 

That is a cool carving. Did you see how much it was?

[mitsugirly]

 

I took some more pictures of the solarium, by the way if you're getting tired of specific pictures let me know and I will cut down on them.

 

Bite your tongue and don't you dare!!! ;)

[gambee]

I was in love with this shark. JUST AMAZING!

 

 

That is a cool carving. Did you see how much it was?

 

I am not sure, I did not ask. I was interested in it, but I have no where to place it in my house.

 

Bite your tongue and don't you dare!!! ;)

 

lol :D

[gambee]

Then we went back down to our balcony to check moms email, as we sat there we noticed how the ocean was slowly changing to a much nicer color. We stayed in our balcony until 3:30 finishing my drink and listening to music. We could not believe what a great time we were having :-)

 

 

After that mom and I headed to the running track just for quick look around the area.

 

 

 

 

It is a very nice peaceful place to sit read a book and enjoy the wake. One of favorite spots in the ship.

 

[gambee]

 

Back up at boardwalk, there was a family playing bean bag.

 

 

 

For the first time during our cruise we stopped by a few of the shops around that area. A lot of different stuff for your children to pick from.

 

 

 

 

 

pinguino :-)

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

That was a pretty cool shirt.

 

 

 

 

Then we spotted Gloria trying to run away from us, I got a few pictures.

 

 

Back inside the Royal Promenade,

 

I never got to try this bar, maybe for the next time. They had some good music playing most of the time.

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

We stopped by one of the cupcakes classes for kids, everyone seemed to having fun. It looks like a nice little family activity.

 

 

At this point I also decide to get a slice of pizza, it was good, but nothing write home about.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

I am not sure if you can see, but there was a little spot in my slice of pizza that appears to be cheese gone bad. I did not see it at the time and ate it, I am not really sure what it was. What does not kill you makes you stronger, right? lol

 

 

There was a session of dancing classes in the promenade and mom decided to stay there for a little while. I went back up to the room to take a quick shower and download my pictures into the computer.

 

 

On the way up I spotted Gloria and another character. They always had kids following them, I can only imagine how hot that costume gets.

 

 

The weather was much better by now, it actually turned out to be a very nice day. We enjoyed it very much.

[gambee]

Mom arrived back in the room around 5:30 she did some wondering around the ship. She also stopped at a store and purchased a pair of glasses for $10, she was very excited about them :), lol. I was just hoping that they lasted more than 24hr ;)

 

Her new glasses, they actually looked very nice for $10, I think she lost them allready, lol,

 

We talked for a little while, my bf checked the menu on the tv for that night and he noticed that there was really nothing that he wanted to eat, so he decided that he did not wanted to dress up. I believe he went to the windjammer instead. Mom and I got ready and I made a second attempt at trying to fit into my suit. Things were even worse now, apparently I gained a few pounds in those days :(. There was no way I was going to be able to use that jacket again, so I put on those pants and my sport coat. The plan was to go eat the lobster fast and then run to the room and get changed so I could breath again, lol. Once again I felt like a burrito but this time with extra guacamole, it was horrible. :D At one point I actually thought of skipping lobster night or just dressing casual, but both ideas went out the window pretty fast.

 

 

Before going to the MDR I stopped by the aft balcony and took some pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

Then mom and I headed to the MDR and got seated quickly, every day we ate in the MDR they sat us around the same area. This was going to be our last meal in the MDR, we had reservations for Chops and 150 the following nights.

 

Here is the menu for that night.

 

 

Mom got the creamed wild mushrooms, it was a nice appetizer. I think I might have it next time

 

 

I had the royal seafood salad, it was very good as well. They use a small piece of real king crab, it was the highlight of that appetizer. I squeezed some lemon in it, loved it.

 

 

And I am sure that you know that we both got the fisherman's platter. It was tasty, we both enjoyed it, but we did not repeat. I thought I was going to break my belt by then. I actually did not even finish my shrimp.

[gambee]

We accompanied our dinner with a sauvignon blanc, very nice and smooth.

 

 

Dessert menu,

 

 

Mom had the creme brulee

 

And I ordered the baked Alaska, I actually took a couple bites before mom reminded me to get the picture, sorry. But in any case, this dessert is wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy toooooooo sweet. That is as much as I had, it was really disappointing. We ended up sharing mom's dessert.

 

 

Overall we had a good dinner, service was good and fast. Our assistant waiter Ishyta was a great server, we liked her very much.

 

After a very nice dinner I had to run upstairs and get out of that suit, I was going to die in it. My bf had gone to windjammer, made himself some plates and brought them downstairs to eat. I think he was tired of the same room service food by then, it is somewhat of a limited menu.

 

 

Taking the elevator up to our room.

 

 

 

 

That is it for this set I think one more set and I finish day 5, we did some shows that night. I am sorry about this day, I really did not take that many pictures that day, not sure why. Cozumel on the other hand.... :D