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

[gambee]

We have a dinner party planned for tomorrow evening. Sole purpose of the get together? To get to know the parents of my dear daughter's friend who we are bringing on the Allure next March. She is 15 and has never cruised; for goodness sakes she won the jackpot and is coming with us!!!

 

I wanted to tell you that your entire picture review will be the highlight of our night as we get excited for the Allure again and show her off. Thanks for giving us the tools to do so! Your pics all look fantastic on our new huge Apple laptop :)

 

LOVE THIS THREAD and dont want it to end.

Thanks again for this wonderful entertainment.:D

 

A new apple laptop you say???? Lol, myself I been thinking on getting something more powerful than my air. I am glad that my review can help you in tomorrows dinner party, have fun with it. And even more importantly I hope you have a blast on your cruise.

 

I am glad you love my review, thanks for taking the time to post :)

 

 

Sent two e-mails one with 16mm lens and second with 16mm + fisheye of the same location. Let me know if you need anything else. BTW- the Fisheye will fit your 18-55 lens too, in case you didn't want to buy the 16mm pancake. But the angle will be not quite as wide.

 

Awesome, thank you very much. I just saw them, there is a big difference, I guess I have a decision to make. The thing is that now in addition to the 10-18 that I wanted, I also saw a Rokinon 8mm F2.8 Ultra-Wide Fisheye Lens made specifically for nex cameras that I also want. The only thing with it is that it is a manual lens, but most people love the results. The price on it is not bad either.

 

Thank you so much for emailing me those pictures, I truly appreciate it :)

[gambee]

Gambee,

Again you have impressed me so much. I was on the Allure on the October 21 cruise. When we were in Cozumel, we did the Amazing Cozumel Race. Seeing your photographs of downtown reminded me so much of our race. We had a lot of clues at the locations in your pictures. We had so much fun doing the Amazing Race. The locals were so helpful and made it so much more fun. They really get into it. I love Cozumel, also. My cousin, my nephew and his partner had an amazing time. We all agree to go back and stay in one of the all inclusives. Maybe next year. Thanks again for your wonderful review.

Shirley

 

I wasn't sure what that amazing race was, but nothing that a quick google search could not solve. It looks like a blast, maybe something to look for our next time there.

 

Thanks for keeping up with us :) and commenting :)

 

One more day and a wakeup before leaving on Allure!

 

Can't believe tomorrow is packing day.

 

Gambee, your photography is such an inspiration for me to do more stills. Won't stop with video, however. That is still my main passion. I did look at all your videos too.

 

Gambee's mom- I was quite impressed with your skill with your son's F-3. Maybe you can convince him to give it to you and he can upgrade to the new 6. :)

 

Have a lot of fun on your cruise, and I hope you do a lot of video and pictures. I think I enjoy that the most when I travel, well not really, but it's a big part of it. :D ENJOY! ENJOY! ENJOY! :D

 

 

lol, maybe later on she can use the f3, but she really does not enjoy taking pictures as much as I do. Although that might give me the excuse to get the n6, lol.

[gambee]

Wow, we have been following since the start and it is great, the photos are professional quality...Now i may have to ask santa for this camera...LOL..thank you!

 

 

Thank you so much for your nice comment :) and following us during our cruise. That would be very nice of santa to get you that camera, you will love it ;)

 

 

 

Gambee, thanks for the great photo review!! I know these things take alot of time and effort to put together....thanks for doing this!! Brings back lots of great memories from our cruise on Allure's sister earlier this year!

 

Similar to you, we like to snorkel and did Chankanaab on our very first cruise back in 2004. Good to see the snorkelling is still good there as I had heard some of the hurricanes had impacted the area.

 

Thanks again for all the photos and memories!!

 

 

You are so very welcome, thank you for following our cruise and taking the time to comment here.

 

Yeah the hurricanes did some damage, but snorkeling was not affected, or at least not to my eyes. Plenty of fish out there.

 

 

Once again thank you and happy Holidays

[gambee]

Ok folks that is it for tonight, tomorrow I will most likely finish day 6. Good night everyone :-)

[coolcat12]

This is the best review EVAH! You photos are just breathtaking and you now have a huge CC fan club. It is a good thing that I am going on a cruise next week because I would be booking one after seeing those pics!!!

 

I am sorry that there are still places you can't hold hands with your love and feel comfortable. Boo on Jamaica.

[dmwnc1959]

Congratulations on hitting 100,000 views on your review! You join an elite group of maybe a half dozen RCI Forum members who have achieved this feat. Well done!!!

 

.

Edited November 24, 2012 by dmwnc1959

[gambee]

There were taxis waiting there, one of the Chankanaab employees calls one up for you

 

 

 

The taxi driver dropped us off in a plaza that is being built across the street of the docking area, if I recall correctly they are also building a Hard Rock there. The plaza is dead with only a few stores open at this time, but it seems like none of the tourists are venturing into the area just yet. It is very new, clean and pretty, they need to find a way to promote this mini mall.

 

 

Here are a few pictures of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Then we went back inside the docking area, we noticed a store with some very funny t-shirts, some vulgar some just funny.

 

Here is one of the many shirts

[gambee]

We kept on walking and I took some more pictures from some stores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

After leaving one of the stores I noticed a Senor Frogs and to the left of it a little hill that could provide a great angle to take some pictures of the ship. So I called my mom and told her I was going to be there, she was busy looking at nativity scenes. But she was pretty much done and she followed me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is so funny how small the carnival ship appears to be, but in reality is a large cruise, but the perspective of that angle made it look that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That place was happening, very lively atmosphere. The pool however looked a little dirty.

[gambee]

 

 

Then at around 3pm we headed back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is one more thing I would like to try next time, it was coming incredibly fast and stopped in a dime. CRAZY!!!!

 

 

[gambee]

Once in the room I set my camera to charge for a little while before we headed out again. The battery was at 22%, that was a close call, I definitely need to look into another battery. I took a few pictures before leaving the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

I love that resort.

 

This one appears to have a nice little natural looking pool with a water fall in it.

 

 

Lots of activities for kids on that ship

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

Carnival Magic

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

We both took a quick shower and changed to go to the windjammer for a light snack before dinner.

 

We noticed another door decoration on a room door, I believe this is part of one of the packages.

 

 

Once we got to the buffet my mom had some fries and I small plate with a few things. The one thing that I remember was grabbing a piece of grouper, but I was almost sure that the fish they put there was tilapia. Grouper is my favorite fish and that was nothing like grouper. All the other stuff was good.

 

 

 

Like I said it was a light snack. I took this picture with my iphone.

 

[gambee]

Once we got down to the room I noticed my bf was already there, he had bought a couple of things. If I remember correctly some rum cakes and a souvenir for his grandparents. Mom and I changed into our bathing suits and headed to the Jacuzzi.

 

On the way I made a quick note on my cellphone on something that had been bothering my since day two. It is not really a big deal, but still I am going to mention it. One the aft section of the ship most doors don't open fully and in several occasions I bumped into the doors with my shoulder. The doors are fully capable of opening all the way and if you give them a little tap they do so, but for some reason they stop half way pretty much allowing room for only one person at the time. I am not sure if this is something they do on purpose, or the doors are simply getting stuck.

 

I witnessed more than one kid slam into the door.

 

 

A few more pictures of the pool deck

 

 

 

 

 

This is a nice secluded area that you can easily find open lounges.

 

 

The kids jacuzzi

 

 

[gambee]

There was some britto influence in the pool deck, I don't think I pointed that out already.

 

 

 

 

I also decided to get a tinny bit of ice cream, I needed something sweet. That is how much I actually got :D, the lady behind my told me to get more lol,

 

 

 

 

 

After sometime up in the Jacuzzi we decided to go back downstairs and get ready for chops, we had reservations at 6:30. I had somehow mistaken the times and that day we missed sail away :(, it was not a big deal but like I said before mom and I had come to LOVE sail aways. Next time I will have to be more careful with that, it will never happen again if I can prevent it :)

 

 

[BugsyCruiser]

Great pictures Gambee! I noticed you mentioned the camera.... it's similar to the one I have but I was curious, did you also buy a zoom lens for it?

[gambee's_mom]

Congratulations on hitting 100,000 views on your review! You join an elite group of maybe a half dozen RCI Forum members who have achieved this feat. Well done!!!

 

.

My son couldn't have done it without all of you. I am extremely grateful for taking the time to show your support with your comments.

 

Congratulation son.

[gambee]

Once we walked into shops we completely loved the atmosphere, it was much more intimate than the MDR. If you can recall we had been eating in the MDR for the past four nights and we needed a change.

 

I took a picture of the restaurant and some of the menus.

 

Not my best picture, lighting was minimal and I had to raise the iso to get a clear picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right after I took those pictures I looked to my left and I noticed a couple next to us. The guy seemed very annoyed by me taking pictures with flash inside the restaurant. He would not stop looking at us, we were not being rude or loud or anything, he simply did not appreciate me taking pictures.

 

My bf told me I had to stop for that night, but I knew there was no way I was going to let one grumpy person interrupt my almost perfect record of food pictures. So I simply made note to take the minimum amount of pictures that I could, but still making sure I got everything.

 

Just as a side note the couple never stopped looking at us that night, it was almost as if we had monkeys on our heads, at some point in time my bf stared the guy down and then he got the gist that we were pretty annoyed by him as well. I am not sure why that bothered him so much.

 

In any case I did not let this ruin our night at all. Our server for the night was Francisco a very cool and personable guy, the service was impeccable. He made us laugh more than once and mom liked that she could communicate with him in spanish as well. He made our dinner very enjoyable and one to remember.

 

Thank you Francisco!

 

 

I ordered our wine, if I remember correctly I got a bottle of castle rock Cabernet, I guess this was one of the pictures that I did not take :-/

 

 

 

Someone came around and gave us some bread, my mom and my bf quickly dove into it as they always do. I have a strict policy on not to fill up on bread at restaurants, to me its pointless, since there is very good food on the way. In either case they both enjoyed the bread.

 

 

 

So our fabulous server took our order and poured our wine, I had a big glass to help me relax a little with the guy staring at us. After that first glass I pretty much could care less about him ;). I actually think that the couple frequent chops a lot, most servers knew them and kept asking why they did not seat in their section. They actually seemed like nice people...

 

 

[Chicky2181]

My son couldn't have done it without all of you. I am extremely grateful for taking the time to show your support with your comments.

 

Congratulation son.

 

Awwww...gambee's mom! You two are so cute. I've really enjoyed reading about your adventures.

 

 

Btw Gambee.....if your looking to do an amazing trip to MX, much better than Cozumel, then you should try Akumal. It's my home away from home.

[gambee]

Any way back to the food,

 

I ordered the oyster duet, it was good, I enjoyed it, but in a way I wish I have had something else...

 

 

 

My mom had the mushroom soup, she loved it. It had plenty of mushrooms in it. I will tell you one thing though, it was very very similar to the one in the windjammer. Get something else here.

 

 

 

And my bf had the crab cake, at first he was scared because it said that it also had shrimp in it and he doesn't eat shrimp. But he said the shrimp was barely noticeable, it was a very good appetizer. Get it!

 

 

 

 

For dinner all 3 of us were going to have the fillet, but I decide to get a fish for the review and share with mom. My mom thought it was a good idea as she likes fish as well. At first I wanted to get the halibut, as I had seen it in the past in pictures and I like how its cooked. But my server said, "well if you want fish I would strongly suggest to get the barramundi, its like an asian seabass" then he explained that the halibut was a little dry. Who was I to say otherwise, I said "deal!", I also love Seabass so that seemed good to me.

 

 

 

The fish was excellent, although nothing like seabass. I enjoyed it very much and the tempura veggies AMAZING.

 

 

 

 

Mom got her fillet and she claimed it was one of the best piece of meat that she had ever eaten. We shared everything and had food left over at the end. She got chimichurri sauce for her and I got the béarnaise for myself. It was indeed a great cut of meat. She ordered it medium rare.

 

Left to right, tomato, chimichurri, Fillet and béarnaise

 

 

[gambee]

My bf got the steak as well, but he had it butterflied and over cooked, it was funny when we ordered it. he told Francisco, just killed it and make sure its dead. We all had a quick laugh. He also loved his steak and this coming from someone who eats meats once a year, because he simply does not enjoy eating red meat.

 

In that picture you can also see the roasted potatoes with prosciutto in plate near me, sorry that it is out of focus, they were very tasty.

 

 

Asparragus and baby broccoli. Both tasty but they rarely got any attention from us, just too much food on the table.

 

 

My FAVORITE side were the mushrooms. The mashed potatoes were pretty good as well.

 

 

 

All our food was JUST PERFECT, this was by far the best dinner on board lady Allure, we were stuffed.

 

 

 

 

AND there was more to come, I know what you're thinking FATTIES, LOL

 

The dessert menu

 

 

 

 

Mom got the mud pie, honestly I did not care for it much. It was like a heavy mousse cake, she said it was good, but only had a few bites.

 

 

 

I had the passion berry duo, it was good, but nothing to cheer about

 

[MrFunInTheSun]

My son couldn't have done it without all of you. I am extremely grateful for taking the time to show your support with your comments.

 

Congratulation son.

 

His photos are amazing. He really could freelance for magazines and websites. Turn his hobby into a fun career.

 

Keep up the great work Gambee!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Please excuse any typographical errors.