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

[Rose-a-rita]

Great review but its just strange that you take pictures of your hats but never of you in them, wierd!!!!

 

I am betting Gambee has few pictures because he is always behind the camera!

 

Now..a Michael Jackson style pose would be great with one of these hats....

Loving your review, checking in a completely non-compulsive-way daily! Thank you for taking the time and putting in an amazing amount of effort on this review!

 

Cozumel was one of my favorite ports on our first cruise - we rented a jeep and drove around the island, my husband even got pulled over for running a stop sign (hidden by the police truck!) No ticket though, lucky for him!

Edited November 22, 2012 by Rose-a-rita
forgot a word! oops

[Jacru]

So far, I am only up to page 12, but had to stop and thank you for a great review. Not only for relaying your experiences and the great pictures, but also for answering questions and comments.

 

I can't believe that I missed so much while on our trip in August. I must make a list of so many more things to see and do if we take another cruise on Allure.

[gambee]

Great review but its just strange that you take pictures of your hats but never of you in them, wierd!!!!

 

I want to maintain anonymous so my reviews remain unbiased. I am afraid if people know me by face they will act different just for a good review.

 

 

I am betting Gambee has few pictures because he is always behind the camera!

 

Now..a Michael Jackson style pose would be great with one of these hats....

Loving your review, checking in a completely non-compulsive-way daily! Thank you for taking the time and putting in an amazing amount of effort on this review!

 

Cozumel was one of my favorite ports on our first cruise - we rented a jeep and drove around the island, my husband even got pulled over for running a stop sign (hidden by the police truck!) No ticket though, lucky for him!

 

That is sooooo funny, I got quick laugh out of it, thanks for sharing. At least he did not get a ticket. Renting a car is something that will most likely do in the future in Cozumel.

 

I hope you continue to enjoy our day in Cozumel :)

[gambee]

So far, I am only up to page 12, but had to stop and thank you for a great review. Not only for relaying your experiences and the great pictures, but also for answering questions and comments.

 

I can't believe that I missed so much while on our trip in August. I must make a list of so many more things to see and do if we take another cruise on Allure.

 

 

 

Thank you so much for posting, I really like when people that have been members for a long time and have few posts take the time to post on my thread. Thank you so much, I hope you continue to enjoy it.

 

Lady Allure certainly has a lot of things to do, I know I missed a few of them. Maybe it was an excuse to sail her again :D

 

Happy Thanksgiving day :)

[gambee]

By 8:45am I realized something horrible, my camera battery was already at 88% :-/ it was very likely that the battery was not going to last all day. At that point I decided that my next equipment purchase had to be a spare battery for my camera. In order to get the maximum life out of the battery that day, I decided to lower the screen brightness to the absolute minimum, that meant that it was very likely that I would not be able to compose most my pictures, it was a fair trade to be able to get the entire day. I had another option, with me I also had my old underwater camera and the iphone, but I really dislike both cameras.

 

Side Note; I am watching Madagascar 3 right now, very funny movie :)

 

 

 

 

Then we went to the taxi boarding boarding area and there was a line of maybe 50 of them waiting for passengers. I took a picture of the prices so you get an idea of how much to pay.

 

 

 

Then we had a decision to make, our initial plan was to go to chankanaab first and then to the shopping district (downtown), but the problem was that Chankanaab did not open for another 2 hours. We decided to take a little walk outside of the dock area, so we went to the gate and exited making a left heading north. I was a little shaky from our attempt in Falmouth and we ventured out with a little of a nervous mind, we both felt the same way but neither of made a comment. We started walking and the very first thing we noticed was how friendly everyone was, we were walking along the side where all the taxi drivers were waiting. They all said something like; hello, welcome to Cozumel, how are you. But all in a very friendly manner. We kept on walking and a few of them offered to drive us to downtown, that gave me an idea, we could do downtown first and the Chankanaab.

 

In any case we kept walking, this is what we saw.

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

Let me stop here and ask a question to all of you, does anyone know if this is day resort or it belongs to a hotel? The reason I ask is because I am in love with the place and I would like to go there next time I visit Cozumel. I will post pictures from the other side later on. The place has an Awesome endless pool, a Jacuzzi and the beach all within arms reach and the VIEW!!!.

Please if anyone has information on this, let me know, thank you in advance :)

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

So we had a decision to make, either we waited there to go to Chankanaab or we headed to the shopping area. The decision was actually pretty simple, the weather was cooler in the morning and we should take advantage of that to walk around. Then instead of walking all the way back to the beginning of the line I approached one of the taxi drivers and asked him if he could takes us and how much. I know it was not the right thing to do, but I really did not feel like walking all the way back. We had a lot of walking ahead of us that day.

 

He told us it would be $10, so we boarded the taxi and left. That was the firs time that we socialized with the local community. He was a very nice man and told us a little about Cozumel, one topic that puzzled us was within a country with such socio-economical problems, how did Cozumel stay so clean, friendly and safe for tourists. Please don't take this offensively if you're from Mexico, I am from Colombia myself and we struggle with much of the same issues.

 

Well he had been living there for over 20 years and had a house and family there, he was a very proud citizen. He told us that they have a very strict government there and that anyone with 3 strikes is forced off the island, the 3 strikes are easy to get. Simple things like disturbing the peace gets you a strike, he mentioned there are many people from the main land who try to go there and steal from tourists. But they are quickly single out by the locals and they are lucky if they last over a few days, they are very protective of the tourist mecca they have created.

 

We talked about many other things, my mom was loving it, she enjoys talking very much. I sat there, looked around and made a few comments here and there. I could not get any pictures during the trip there because the window was broken and all the pics I got came out horrible.

 

Our driver dropped us all the way to the north side of the strip and told us to walk south, that way we could see everything. We thank him, and payed him, he had asked for $10, I think I gave him $13, from what we got I don't think they get tipped of often, but I felt good and he was a happy trooper.

 

 

This was my first view,

 

 

I was in heaven, at that moment in time I felt like I was 8 years old in San Andres, I am not sure how I can describe what I felt. You know how we all search for those childhood memories but often fail to find them? Well for the second time in my life I had found one of them (the first one was in Disney about a decade before). I had a HUGE grin on my face that just spelled SUCKER, lol, mom was admiring everything around her. I am not really sure how she felt, this is the first time I share this with the world, at this point in time she has no idea that I was having a memory flashback.

 

 

[gambee]

After a minute or so I woke up and decided to begin our tour. The art style was very nice and different from the other prior ports. But Jamaica still had much better woodwork. I did however like the use of color in Cozumel a lot. I am not sure if you noticed by now, but I am fascinated by colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

We kept on walking down the main street.

 

This was a little street crossing the main street

 

 

At some point we crossed the street because I wanted some pictures of the statues near the water

 

 

 

 

Who doesn't love birds?

 

 

 

[gambee]

This ones are back on the store side of the street.

 

 

Another side street

 

 

The main street floor had a really cool design, but very hard to photograph

 

 

 

This store had some really neat art work. It was really expensive! Notice the human hands on some of the animals, very creative.

 

 

 

[gambee]

I could be wrong here, but I think this is the main terminal to go and come to the main land. One of the taxi drivers told us that less and less people are coming from the main land, it has become very expensive for the short trip. If I remember correctly it costs $17 one way, that can easily add up very fast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I noticed a few of the local kids walking either to or from school, most likely to school. Pictures like this one helps me connect to a country, in a way that words not explain.

 

 

A local food stand, I was going to try it, but I was so full. Nothing like trying the local food from these kind of stands.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the main plaza, I forgot it's name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Side Note, I absolutely love animals

 

 

 

 

 

We never entered any of the jewelry stores, it is not like we were going to buy anything anyway. Wayyyyyy too broke to even look at them ;-), but we still took a look at them, from the street of course. lol

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

I will get a little side tracked here, my bf on the other hand goes into all the jewelry stores, I am really not sure why , but he enjoys it I guess. He rarely took any pictures in this trip, however he had two pictures that I REALLY wanted. One of the jewelry stores he went to had a T-REX head on display!!!

 

 

HOW COOL IS THAT?!?!?!?!

 

 

 

You can see all the profit they are making on those diamonds going into paying for the real dino head, jajajajajaja ;-)

 

 

 

 

 

Well back to my story, our quest for the perfect plate for our wall was proving to be very disappointing. All the stores had the same designs and we were not liking any of them. We kept on walking and we noticed a small booth in front of a restaurant and they had some very impressive plates on display. I was very happy, the guy painted them in front of you and his buddy sold them. It was the perfect team, even more so I love supporting local small artists, I get a joy out of it that is hard to describe. Most artists are known to struggle and knowing that you can help them leaves a sense of accomplishment that I LOVE.

 

 

Well we preceded to ask him how much were they? I was very scared about his answer, because the artwork was great and our budget was very limited. He asked 25 for the small one that mom wanted and 35 for the one I wanted. But we did not have 35 to spend, we still had to pay for two more taxis, food, Chankanaab and and other souvenirs. I told him I really liked his work but I really could not afford it, long story short with very little haggling we got this baby for $20.

 

 

 

 

 

He is not perfect, also not my ship, but he was great to us. We loved it, he just perfect for our wall. That entire purchase left a very good feeling for both of us and I hope also for the artist and his friend. I think it was their first sale of the day, I hope we brought them good Karma, my mom is well known for it.

 

 

Here is our wall for those of you who have not seen it yet, I think I posted it earlier, but I am not entirely sure.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

So with plate in hand and very well packaged if I may add we left and continued walking down the street and loving the breeze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Then I noticed some fishermen across the street and if there is something that I love is fishing, I had to go and check it out.

 

I forgot what kind of fish they were, but the thing in the middle is their egg sack and apparently it is very tasty. I wish I could of bought one, but where was I going to cook it? In our balcony? yeah right lol, I am not sure our European neighbors would of liked that :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Another little collection my mom has, are nativity scenes, well not exactly little. She must have 100's of them, but she only keeps the small ones up in display all year around. Most of them come from all over the world.

 

 

 

We stopped at one store and there was one she liked and purchased it.

 

At that same time I also bought a coke.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about the car, objects in movement don't go well in panoramas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

I got a picture of the Pearl coming into dock, I love these two pictures!

 

 

 

Some of the fishermen were struggling with the boat and the taxi drivers stopped and helped them pull the boat out of the water. Like I said there is a HUGE feeling of community in this island, most of the people know each other.

 

 

 

 

[lovestx]

Just finished eating and cleaning up our T'giving dinner. Since our son is home from college, we had a 'cruise chat' so that I could make some more decisions for our December 20th sailing. Everyone is VERY excited to be on the water again. But my guys think they want to swim with the dolphins at Chankanaab and my daughter and I are wondering how the beach/pool is there.

 

Then I come to check out Gambee's postings and here we are in Cozumel! Can't wait, now, to read what you thought of Chankanaab!

[gambee]

I will let you in a a little fun fact of Cozumel, Mexico, lol, the first taxi driver told us the island had 75k inhabitants, the second told us it had 95k and the third one told us 135k. It was so funny, we never asked anything about how many people lived in the island, but all 3 told us and all 3 had different numbers, I thought that was sooooo funny. :D As I age I have learned to appreciate little things like this more and more, just small touches in life that make it the more worth it.

 

 

Continuing into our last store visit, I decided to buy a bottle of tequila to save some money in Chankanaab and I could also use it as a souvenir for one of my uncles. He likes those kind of bottles, he keeps a little collection at home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made a few more purchases before we got in a taxi and left to Chankanaab.

 

 

 

That is all I have for now my friends. Thanksgiving is all about sharing and this is my way of showing my appreciation and sharing. I hope you all enjoyed this set, I know I enjoyed very much making it. This review is a such a joy to write, I wish it was never ending.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

 

 

Edited November 22, 2012 by gambee

[gambee]

Just finished eating and cleaning up our T'giving dinner. Since our son is home from college, we had a 'cruise chat' so that I could make some more decisions for our December 20th sailing. Everyone is VERY excited to be on the water again. But my guys think they want to swim with the dolphins at Chankanaab and my daughter and I are wondering how the beach/pool is there.

 

Then I come to check out Gambee's postings and here we are in Cozumel! Can't wait, now, to read what you thought of Chankanaab!

 

I hope you mentioned me during dinner ;), I will get into Chankanaab in my next set. I am sure everyone will be happy with everything there, dolphins, beach and pool area. There is really something for everyone in that wonderful park!

 

 

Thank you for continuing to follow our incredible vacation! :)

[lovestx]

I hope you mentioned me during dinner ;), I will get into Chankanaab in my next set. I am sure everyone will be happy with everything there, dolphins, beach and pool area. There is really something for everyone in that wonderful park!

 

 

Thank you for continuing to follow our incredible vacation! :)

 

Of course, I mentioned you, Gambee!

 

Hope you have enjoyed a lovely Thanksgiving and that your pants fit tomorrow :) Mine won't!

[beachbuddy]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too Gambee!!! Still extremely enjoying your review. WOW.......the colors of Cozumel really pop in your photos!!! Great job.......loving it all!!!!

 

Patty

[mitsugirly]

I got pictures of all of them but for now it is just the star.

 

 

 

 

WOO HOO! Thanks so much for this picture! We will be on the Star in 23 days, 14 hours, 27 minutes, and 57 seconds...but who's counting. :eek:

 

 

Well he had been living there for over 20 years and had a house and family there, he was a very proud citizen. He told us that they have a very strict government there and that anyone with 3 strikes is forced off the island, the 3 strikes are easy to get. Simple things like disturbing the peace gets you a strike, he mentioned there are many people from the main land who try to go there and steal from tourists. But they are quickly single out by the locals and they are lucky if they last over a few days, they are very protective of the tourist mecca they have created.

 

 

 

Oh wow, thanks SO MUCH for this information. I always wondered why it felt so safe and friendly here. It's one of my favorite places. If only ALL the ports could be like this!

[mitsugirly]

 

"you are always in your underwear, what if someone looks?" what do you mean someone looks? they better not be looking into my balcony, who is going to look? The people from Playa Del Carmen? they better have some superman kind of eyesight for that... some of that was thought and other said, I just rolled my eyes and kept on working on the computer. moms... lol.

 

No worries, it is not like I am an exhibitionist, I am actually a very reserved guy, but we were all the way out in the middle of the ocean, who would be able to see?

 

 

 

 

FYI, they do have cameras on the outside of the ships. So, it's possible that you gave a few a display :D (Haven't you read that when someone "falls" from their balcony, they review the footage to look for foul play or what happened?)

 

I got a picture of the Pearl coming into dock, I love these two pictures!

 

 

 

 

YIPPEE AGAIN! We were just on the Pearl in March and going on the Star next month. You got both of them in these pics and if you don't mind, I'd like to steal them from you to put as my desk top. :confused: :) If that's ok.