B2B Allure Of The Seas Pictorial Review - 31st March 2013 & 7th April 2013

[milpston]

The parade was really good and i know Chloe enjoyed it. The Captain did a farewell speech at the end of the show.

 

At this stage we headed off for our MDR reservation. The time was now 20:10 so only a little bit late. We were certainly at the right end of the Promenade to get to the MDR as I bet it would take forever if you were at the forward end.

[milpston]

Everywhere we went tonight it was quite strange having all the staff asking asking us if we had enjoyed our cruise and wishing us a safe journey home. Eventually you don't even bother telling them that you are staying for another week :D

 

For dinner tonight all of us had the French Onion Soup.

 

For main course Sally and I had the lamb shank.

 

 

Amazingly, Chloe didn't have the salmon tonight. She went for the Turkey instead. Sally and I ended up finishing it and it was very good as well. I may go for that next week!

 

 

Sally and Chloe skipped dessert this evening but I went for the Strawberry souffle with a fresh strawberry.

 

 

It was quite nice apart from the fact the strawberry was frozen solid.

 

After dinner we took our spots upstairs in Dazzles. We had a bottle of wine and was joined by Todd for a few drinks. He was a really nice guy and it was shame he wasn't hanging around for our second week too.

 

 

The Frontliners were playing again tonight for the Rock-A-Roki which was Karaoke with the band. There was also a female member of the entertainment team who was auditioning to join the singing staff. She was pretty good actually and I would imagine her audition was succesful.

 

Not too many guests got up and sang. One guy was good but most of the ones that did weren't. There was also a group men and women (They had clearly had a few) that called themselves The Jersey Boys and Girls who absolutely murdered a couple of songs. I thought my ears had actually started bleeding at one point :p

 

At 01:30 we called it a night and that was the end of our first week on the Allure.

 

Next up is week 2.

[Cruzin-K]

I am glad you are enjoying it. Yes they are the items you get with the Grand Romance Package along with Canapes and petit fours on both the formal evenings and bath robes. You also get the upgraded free room service breakfast one morning and a free formal night photograph in a frame.

The classic romace package is similar except you do not get the robes and only get canapes and petit fours on the first formal evening. You get the items seen in the pictures except the champagne is Domaine Chandon instead of the Veuve Cliquot.

You will need to check which package you have to be sure. There are some higher end packages which include the canapes etc every night as well as spa packages.

Hope that helps

 

 

It was a very good line! The second week will be coming up soon :)

 

Thanks for the info on the romance packages.

 

Funny story - when I booked a cruise for myself and my friend Cheryl, for the Allure next January, a large online travel agency was having a special deal. We were told we'd get some OBC, canapes, petit fours, cupcakes, champagne, breakfast in the stateroom, and an 8x10 photo. Sounds great - lots of free stuff. I like free stuff. :D So I called to book and the rep quoted what we got: a boardwalk balcony, for Allure, in January, with $100 OBC and the "romance package".

 

Wait! What???!!? :eek: Romance package? No no no no no! (not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld) But, Yikes! Do you have to call it the romance package? Well, that's what it is. Sigh!

 

I just hope our stateroom attendant doesn't get the wrong idea about us. LOL.

[Darkkskyzz]

Thanks for the info on the romance packages.

 

Funny story - when I booked a cruise for myself and my friend Cheryl, for the Allure next January, a large online travel agency was having a special deal. We were told we'd get some OBC, canapes, petit fours, cupcakes, champagne, breakfast in the stateroom, and an 8x10 photo. Sounds great - lots of free stuff. I like free stuff. :D So I called to book and the rep quoted what we got: a boardwalk balcony, for Allure, in January, with $100 OBC and the "romance package".

 

Wait! What???!!? :eek: Romance package? No no no no no! (not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld) But, Yikes! Do you have to call it the romance package? Well, that's what it is. Sigh!

 

I just hope our stateroom attendant doesn't get the wrong idea about us. LOL.

 

When hubby and I took our honeymoon, I had yet to change my last name. We got to our room and the beds were separated. The attendant just looked at us and stammered "I just assumed". It was funny, and certainly no big deal, just funny! :)

[tarajean1962]

What a great last night of your first week!! I cannot wait to experience that-knowing I have another whole week to enjoy!!:D We also enjoyed Ice Games. I thought the hoop lady was amazing!!

 

I am so glad that I have another wholoe week of crusiing with you guys to look forward to!!:D Keep up the great reporting!!

 

Tara

[NeuroQueen]

What a great review. You are all a lovely family and it sure looks like you had a blast! Keep up the good work as it is a very enjoyable story. Can't wait for the second week!

[MbaLady]

I'm love this review. Thanks!

[milpston]

Thanks for the info on the romance packages.

 

Funny story - when I booked a cruise for myself and my friend Cheryl, for the Allure next January, a large online travel agency was having a special deal. We were told we'd get some OBC, canapes, petit fours, cupcakes, champagne, breakfast in the stateroom, and an 8x10 photo. Sounds great - lots of free stuff. I like free stuff. :D So I called to book and the rep quoted what we got: a boardwalk balcony, for Allure, in January, with $100 OBC and the "romance package".

 

Wait! What???!!? :eek: Romance package? No no no no no! (not that there's anything wrong with that, to quote Seinfeld) But, Yikes! Do you have to call it the romance package? Well, that's what it is. Sigh!

 

I just hope our stateroom attendant doesn't get the wrong idea about us. LOL.

 

When hubby and I took our honeymoon, I had yet to change my last name. We got to our room and the beds were separated. The attendant just looked at us and stammered "I just assumed". It was funny, and certainly no big deal, just funny! :)

 

Haha just I would just be happy that they have given me something free as it doesn't happen very often. Let them call it what they want :p

Sally also hadn't changed her name for the honeymoon but the beds were together. Having said that there wouldn't be much room if they split the beds as well as having the sofa bed made up!

[milpston]

What a great last night of your first week!! I cannot wait to experience that-knowing I have another whole week to enjoy!!:D We also enjoyed Ice Games. I thought the hoop lady was amazing!!

 

I am so glad that I have another wholoe week of crusiing with you guys to look forward to!!:D Keep up the great reporting!!

 

Tara

 

It is really good knowing that most people will be leaving :D She was impressive but it doesn't seem she was quite the 'special guest' that they made out :cool:

 

What a great review. You are all a lovely family and it sure looks like you had a blast! Keep up the good work as it is a very enjoyable story. Can't wait for the second week!

 

Thank you. We did have a great time and the second week will be coming up shortly.

[milpston]

I'm love this review. Thanks!

 

You're very welcome. I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[milpston]

Day 1 - [ 8 ] Changeover Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

I woke up at 08:30 this morning to find that Sally was already up and on the baclony. I walked out and found another cloudy morning. It felt strange to be back in Fort Lauderdale. On the last day room service breakfast is unavailable which is a bit of a shame. I bet everybody on the ship would order it if it was available today.

 

 

The spot where the Carnival ship docked last week was empty. I wondered where it was stranded this time :p

 

In the background is the Independence Of the Seas. It's a favourite with a lot of British cruisers as it spends the UK summer sailing around the Mediterranean from Southampton. It was actually leaving for a Transatlantic cruise to the UK today.

 

 

 

At one point as we stood there I thought it had started to rain but the water wasn't coming from quite as high.

 

 

I could see that we were well looked after this morning.

 

[milpston]

The stateroom attendants were ready to pounce this morning. They do a damn good job to get all the cabins ready for the 13:00. The only real options for breakfast this morning are the MDR and the Windjammer and we didn't really have time for either of those.

 

 

We went for a little stroll around on the way to the Schooner Bar. The ship was desserted as most guests seem to have made their way off the ship to go home :D

 

As you can see Central Park was pretty quiet.

 

 

It was the first time I had noticed the umbrellas for use in Central Park. Maybe they only put them out when the weather isn't looking too good.

 

 

The Boardwalk was empty as well and I felt like we had the ship to ourselves.

 

 

[milpston]

I think this was the first person we saw this morning but she clearly didn't want to be in my photo!

 

 

Fort Lauderdale is the only time you see this exit open. There are two of them along the Boardwalk. We headed up to the Schooner bar at 10:15 and had to wait to be escorted off. Staff handed us an envelope which contained our new Seapass cards. We were told that we needed to take our old ones with us to be scanned off of the ship and that we would need to use our news ones to board again.

 

 

 

 

 

At 10:25 we followed staff out of the exit. There were about 30 of us and also a group of about 50 guys that I hadn't seen before. We were led off the ship and into a seating area in the terminal. We had to sit and wait for what seemed like forever until all the other passengers were clear of sustoms I think.

 

Eventually, we were led down the escalator to customs. Two customs officials stood and all we had to do was hold out our passports with our new seapass cards as we walked past. I don't even think they were paying too much attention really. We walked back on the ship at 11:15 before any of the new passengers had started boarding so all in all it was a pretty swift experience. I think if the weather had been better I would have bade a beeline to have the pools to ourselves for a while.

 

I was really looking forward to the Western Itinerary. We had done the Eastern one in 2011 but i had not done the Western one since 2005. In 2005 I did Haiti, Ocho Rios - Jamaica, and Mahahual - Mexico due to Cozumel being hit hard by a hurricane at that time. As I expected Haiti to be virtually unrecognizable since I last went it was pretty much all new. Sally and Chloe had never been to these places so I was every bit as excited as I was when first boarding last week.

[BobbyD]

Great review and thanks so much for doing it. I have been going back and forth between booking the Allure for next summer or a southern cruise on the Jewel. After this review I do think we're going to take the plunge with the Allure, although I do with the ports were a bit more adventuresome. But, with a big ship like that, there are only so many ports she can fit into!

[milpston]

Great review and thanks so much for doing it. I have been going back and forth between booking the Allure for next summer or a southern cruise on the Jewel. After this review I do think we're going to take the plunge with the Allure, although I do with the ports were a bit more adventuresome. But, with a big ship like that, there are only so many ports she can fit into!

 

You're more than welcome. I would recommend anybody to do the Allure or the Oasis at least once. They do limit the opportunities of going to different ports though. All the other ships also include Grand Cayman in the Western Itinerary but I think tendering from the Allure would be too bid an ordeal so they don't do it. I'll be interested to know which one you go for!

[milpston]

One thing I noticed when re-boarding the Allure is that there are more places open for that first lunch than I realised. Cafe Promenade and Sorrentos were both definitely open. Whether this is a new thing or not I don't know but it must reduce the rush to the Windjammer or Park Cafe if it is new.

 

We made our way to Giovanni's table for our complimentary VIP lunch :p

 

 

 

I thought this was a really nice touch to arrange lunch for all the consecutive cruisers like this rather than battling with the masses that were currently boarding the ship.

 

As it turned out....... we didn't stay :D We sat down, looked at the menu and decided that none of us really wanted to sit down and wait for a three course lunch.... not that the wait would have been long I'm sure. For that reason we hotfooted it back out of the door and went to Park Cafe. This was open and there still wasn't anyone else around. By the time we had got lunch there were a few people starting to appear with hand luggage as it was probably gone 11:30 by now.

 

There are wrapped sandwiches in the cafe as well as a salad bar ( I didn't go near it ;)) but we opted for beef rolls for a change!

 

[milpston]

After lunch we decided to try an book a speciality restaurant for tonight. Two reasons for this were that we were mainly eating in the MDR this week and we decided that it may be nice to skip the first evening in the MDR which is always the most hectic.

It was a shame we didn't think of this during our consectutive cruisers meeting as it would have been very simple. There was a sign saying 'private function' outside Chops Grill but we could see a member of staff standing inside the doorway and no-one else in the restaurant. We opened the door and she was actually quite rude in the way that she said that speciality restaurants could not be booked until after 13:00. She nearly got more than a WOW moment from me :p I didn't believe this was the case so I walked across to 150 Central Park and spoke to the staff there. 10 seconds later Chops Grill was booked at 20:00 this evening for the 5 of us. Sally's Mum and Dad were joining us today.

I decided also to get a wine package for the second week. The wine package has now changed and there is one list of wines rather than the silver, gold etc packages. That's how I now understand it anyway. They told me that they had simplified it and just put a selection of the best wines in one package. The wine we had liked the most the first week was the New Zealand Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc which was listed in the package. We bought a 5 bottle package for $175 which offered a saving as I seem to remember they were about $42 a bottle. We were given a receipt and told to show this at the restaurant tonight when we would get the sticker added to my card.

Just before 12:00 we went back to the room. Although the doors to the cabin corridors are closed until 13:00 they are not locked. We had been told, as consecutive cruisers, to just open the doors and go through as we still had unrestricted access to our cabins throughout this time. With the weather being as it was I'm glad that we did.

[luvsun22]

The parade looked fun, I bet all the kids just loved it!!

 

All the other ships also include Grand Cayman in the Western Itinerary but I think tendering from the Allure would be too bid an ordeal so they don't do it.

 

When we were in Grand Cayman last month our tour guide said they are working on building a pier to accommodate the Allure and the Oasis. I don't remember if he said it still in talks or an actual plan is in motion. They get $15 per passenger in port charges along with the money spent while on the island so they would really love to get the big ships there, but like you said unloading 6,000 people off a tender would be too much.

 

Anxiously waiting for more!

[miniwheat]

Thanks for doing such a detailed review, I was wondering is you cabin toward the front or back of the ship, I noticed your over the lifeboats, I'm booked at the very front of the ship right now do you think that is a wise choice!:confused:

[milpston]

Once back into the room about 12:00 Sally called her Mum & Dad to see how boarding was going. The phone line cut off but she told me they were already on the ship. Chloe was excited to see her Nan & Grandad so Chloe and I went for a walk to see if we could find them. After half hour we had done a couple of laps of the Promenade and Central park without finding them so we headed back to the cabin. Sally had actually misunderstood them on the first call as they said they were on a shuttle bus to the port and not that they were onboard.

Anyway, at about 12:45 they appeared at our cabin.

Monique had already opened up the connecting door on the balcony.

 

I think they had brought a bit of the weather from home with them ;)

[milpston]

The parade looked fun, I bet all the kids just loved it!!

 

Yes they did and I think the adults probably enjoyed it just as much!

 

When we were in Grand Cayman last month our tour guide said they are working on building a pier to accommodate the Allure and the Oasis. I don't remember if he said it still in talks or an actual plan is in motion. They get $15 per passenger in port charges along with the money spent while on the island so they would really love to get the big ships there, but like you said unloading 6,000 people off a tender would be too much.

 

Anxiously waiting for more!

 

That's really interesting, thank you. Last time I was in Labadee it was tenders and they have managed to change that now so maybe they could do the same in Grand Cayman. It will be interesting to see.

[milpston]

Thanks for doing such a detailed review, I was wondering is you cabin toward the front or back of the ship, I noticed your over the lifeboats, I'm booked at the very front of the ship right now do you think that is a wise choice!:confused:

 

Our cabin was fairly central but slightly nearer the front than the back. If you look at a picture of the ship we were on the 'hump' nearest the front. I honestly don't think there is a bad location on the ship. Unless you have mobility problems you can pretty much be anywhere in a couple of minutes. I have a few pictures of the side of the ship in Cozumel at the end of the week and will try and circle where our cabin is when I get that far.

[miniwheat]

Our cabin was fairly central but slightly nearer the front than the back. If you look at a picture of the ship we were on the 'hump' nearest the front. I honestly don't think there is a bad location on the ship. Unless you have mobility problems you can pretty much be anywhere in a couple of minutes. I have a few pictures of the side of the ship in Cozumel at the end of the week and will try and circle where our cabin is when I get that far.

 

Thanks for so much, so you had the hump did it give you a lot more room than the regular balcony.:cool:

[milpston]

After a while we went for a stroll and was watching the ship slowly fill up. We found out that there were actually about 500 people less on the ship for this sailing. The only downside was that this included a group of about 800 Germans :eek: Nevermind!

Sally's Mum & Dad went to the Promenade and booked their wine package. There was lots of staff walking around trying to sell the Speciality restaurant packages. More so than i noticed the first week.

We just went for a little afternoon snack.

 

 

We had the excitement of the muster drill again. Yes, you do have to go again if you are back to back. As I probably said last week.... I wouldn't head down to the muster drill until you think you're running a little late.... and then leave it another 5 minutes before you go. This will limit the wait. Anyway, we still got to Studio B a bit too early and had to wait but it goes pretty quick and we were soon back on our balcony for the sail away. We picked up a few Fosters Oil Cans from Boleros.