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

[milpston]

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

 

You're welcome. It did. I think I put some pictures of it on earlier in the review. If there are only two of you then I don't think it is really necessary but it certainly makes a difference if there are more than two of you in the cabin.

[miniwheat]

You're welcome. It did. I think I put some pictures of it on earlier in the review. If there are only two of you then I don't think it is really necessary but it certainly makes a difference if there are more than two of you in the cabin.

 

There's only 2 of us, my friends have the balcony beside us so we will be opening the dividers on that side, we have the very front cabin so no one is on the one side of us. Did it make a difference if your port side or not, we are on the right side?:rolleyes:

[milpston]

There's only 2 of us, my friends have the balcony beside us so we will be opening the dividers on that side, we have the very front cabin so no one is on the one side of us. Did it make a difference if your port side or not, we are on the right side?:rolleyes:

 

It does give you a bit more space when you open up the door between the two baclonines like we did. This was discussed a little earlier in the review as personally i prefer the Port side as it is the one that has the view out to see at most stops. However, there were other that prefer to see land and all the activity when docking or sailing away. It really does come down to personal preference and, I have to say, I have never tried Starboard side. I think you will have a whale of a time wherever your cabin is on these ships.

[milpston]

Back on the balcony for sail away I was making use of the binoculars Roy and Maureen (Sally's parents) had brought with them. Something worth having on your packing list. I did like the look of the suites on the Celebrity Silhouette with the jacuzzi on the balconies. This was a close as I could get with my camera.

 

The princess ship went first. We were hoping that the last two morning's weather wasn't a sign of the things to come for the second week.

 

The Silhouette sailing into the distance.

[madeleymon]

Absolutely loving your review, we're doing B2B on the Allure in September so I'm keen to get as many tips as possible from your review as I can.

[milpston]

Absolutely loving your review, we're doing B2B on the Allure in September so I'm keen to get as many tips as possible from your review as I can.

 

I'm glad you're enjoying it. i didn;t make as many notes the second week so I am winging it a little now :D

If there is anything I don't cover in reagrds to the B2B then please fell free to ask.

[milpston]

I was glad to see this as I had seen pictures in reviews before going on the cruise.

 

 

Everyone was getting ready to wave to the Fort Lauderdale webcam. I was hoping my 'request a wave' would be more successful than last week.

 

 

A few more pictures of a our friends.

 

 

 

[milpston]

I want this guy's job. Where do I apply? :D

 

 

As we sailed away this guy was showing off a bit. He was speeding along the side of the boat and orchestrating the cheers from the ship!

 

 

 

He did the odd donut as well just to add to the act.

 

[milpston]

The webcam did manage to find us this week. We got a text from home to tell us as we were sailing away. My Sister posted this still of it on my facebook page.

 

All the union Jacks could hardly be missed!!

The still was at about the point I noticed Roy's T-shirt. He obviously hadn't quite worked out his new Son-In-Law yet

 

If you copy and paste the link below and pick the video for 7th April 2013 you can see the video. We are on it from about 3mins 35 secs in.

http://www.inletphotos.com/Sail-AwayVideos/Royal-Caribbean-Sail-Away/Allure-of-the-Seas-Sail-Away/21106471_nXrn32#!i=2446303320&k=L2KT2ZG

[miniwheat]

The webcam did manage to find us this week. We got a text from home to tell us as we were sailing away. My Sister posted this still of it on my facebook page.

 

All the union Jacks could hardly be missed!!

The still was at about the point I noticed Roy's T-shirt. He obviously hadn't quite worked out his new Son-In-Law yet

 

If you copy and paste the link below and pick the video for 7th April 2013 you can see the video. We are on it from about 3mins 35 secs in.

http://www.inletphotos.com/Sail-AwayVideos/Royal-Caribbean-Sail-Away/Allure-of-the-Seas-Sail-Away/21106471_nXrn32#!i=2446303320&k=L2KT2ZG

 

OMG!! That's perfect!!!:D I need that for my husband when we are with our son in law!!!

[milpston]

OMG!! That's perfect!!!:D I need that for my husband when we are with our son in law!!!

 

Haha. I actually noticed it at the exact point the webcam was on us. I thought it was charming! :p

[milpston]

We spent some time catching up on the balcony before we had to get ready for dinner at Chops Grill.

The sun was setting on the first day of our Western Caribbean cruise. To be fair, it was about the first time we had seen the sun today.

 

At 19:45 we headed into Central Park for Chops Grill dinner. I was amazed at how empty it was in there. There were literally no more than 2-3 other tables used the whole time we was in there. Maybe that was why they were pushing the speciality restaurants so hard at lunch time.

The service wasn't fantastic in here tonight. Considering there was hardly anyone in there it took a while for them to take our orders. I was told, tonight, that they couldn't give me my sticker for the wine package from here as you have to get it from the MDR. No bother, we were still able to have a bottle from our package.

[milpston]

Our waiter was a Manchester Utd fan from Portugal?!?!?! The service was Ok overall. At the end of the meal he did disappear. We had to get another waiter to go and find him so we could get our check. By the time we finished in here at about 21:45 we were the only people in there.

 

I only took a picture of a couple of the meals as most of us had the Filet which we had last week. they were lovely again and I will be doing Chops again next time I am on an RCI ship.

 

I had the Cheese and Onion soup for starter which I found to always be pretty good.

 

 

Sally had the crab cake which she loved.

 

 

Someobody on the table had this salad so I made them hand it over so I could get a picture :)

 

 

We were starting to feel quite at home on the ship now. Maybe we should stay a little longer.....

 

 

I think the desserts in Chops are much better than anywhere else on the ship. I had the mud pie again which was awesome. Somebody else had this one which looked nice too.

 

[milpston]

After dinner tonight Roy and Maureen were beat from the jetlag. Chloe was desperate to stay with Nan and Grandad tonight so Sally and I went to Dazzles for a couple of drinks. The Frontliners were on a break whilst we were in there. After a stroll around and through the casino we decided to call it a night as well. By 22:30 we were in bed. I don't think I have ever had a holiday where I've been up as early every day as this one. I never usually get up before 10:00 on holiday :D

[milpston]

Day 2 [9] - Sea Day

 

 

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

 

 

 

[milpston]

This morning we had set the alarm nice and early as we decided it was about time we made it to the character breakfast.

 

We made it to the MDR at 07:55 and were shown to a table at the back of the restaurant on the left.

 

 

The menu is similar to the usual breakfast menus but jazzed up a bit with the Dreamworks characters and different names.

 

 

The Dreamworks character breakfast, in my opinion, is very well done. What I mean by that is that they don't over do it. Each day it is open they have three different characters in there. They are introduced by staff and are then taken around each of the tables for photo opportunities. We all enjoyed it and I was glad that we had finally made it there.

 

I have no idea who any of the characters were but we met the three of them.

 

There was a nice pastry selection on the table.

 

 

 

[milpston]

This one took a little bit of time to get to us as it was struggling to get past the tables. it was a bit wide. I know the feeling what with being on the 9th day of a cruise :p

 

It made it to us eventually.

 

This was the third character that came out.

 

Breakfast wasn't bad either. I had 2 overeasy eggs, bacon, hash browns and some toast with OJ. Sally had the same and Chloe had a bowl of Special K.

[joand452]

In case no one told you who the characters were: Alex, Gloria and King Julian -- all from the Madagascar movies (which are even enjoyable for adults).

 

It seems like our B2Bs on Oasis and Allure were a million years ago! We will get back on one of those ships again...

[milpston]

In case no one told you who the characters were: Alex, Gloria and King Julian -- all from the Madagascar movies (which are even enjoyable for adults).

 

It seems like our B2Bs on Oasis and Allure were a million years ago! We will get back on one of those ships again...

 

 

Thank you. I know Chloe and Sally told me dozens of times who they were. The only one I really knew was Shrek!! Cruises are so long in the planning and far too soon they are history!

[milpston]

After breakfast we headed back up to the cabin to get ready to go by the pool.

On arrival we found a fruit basket in the room.

 

Monique told me later that she had put it in the room as a present for Chloe. She told me that I was banned from eating it as it wasn't for me :cool: haha.... At least she couldn't watch me all the time!

I have to say that I really neglected my camera today. I think this is because it was effectively our 4th day in a row without getting off of the ship.

We headed up to our usual spot. It was pretty hot this morning but quite windy at times. I got great amusement from watching people walk past in their hats. As they got towards the entrance for the Windjammer the wind got stronger and plenty of people had to chase their hats back down the deck. It was very funny..... until I was daft enough to do exactly the same thing!

Sally and Chloe went off to the spa this morning so that Sally could get her nails done. I stayed by the pool relaxing with Roy and Maureen. They were gone for about an hour or so. Her nails cost her $75. She said that also gave her some kind of free eye wrinkle treatment. It was ovbviously a sales pitch to buy products and treatments but Sally resisted... good girl :p

Chloe had disappeared down to the Boardwalk with a little friend she had made by the pool along with her Mum. At lunch time we hit the Windjammer for a quick bite to eat.

We were shown to a table for lunch. I had my usual mish mash of things I liked the look of.

 

Sally was a bit more restrained as usual.

 

Ater lunch we walked back towards our sun beds. Half way there the heavens opened and the rain fell. The wind also picked up and it was great to watch people running in all different directions for cover. It was a heavy shower.

[milpston]

I decided to take a trip down to the casino to see if I could get into a cash game of poker. Unfortunately I had no joy with finding one again so I ended up, against my better judgement, entering the Royal Poker Tour tournament at 15:00. With what followed I kind of wish I hadn't bothered.

I went to the cashier's desk to register for the tournament using my seapass card. The entry fee was $100 dollars and rebuys were available for $50 for the first 40 minutes.

Everyone on my table was rebuying so I decided to do a $50 rebuy to give myself a chance in the tournament. To my surprise I was told by the staff running the tournament, after swiping my seapass card, that I had a cash account. A cash account has a limit of $100 per day spend in the casino whereas if you have a credit card against your sea pass account the daily limit is a lot higher. I was told that as I had already spent $100 to enter the tournament I would not be able to rebuy unless I had the cash on me (I didn't). I wasn't happy as I had effectively wasted $100 entering which I wouldn't have done if I had known I couldn't rebuy. I tried to explain that I'd been on board for 9 days and always had a credit card account. They double checked and confirmed that I was on a cash account :(

I went straight to guest services as I was feeling a little peeved. I felt that if they were right and I was on a cash account surely they should have told me at the cashiers desk that I would be unable to rebuy when I entered. Once at guest services they checked my account and told me that their system automatically gets authorisations on cards every day and mine had been declined by my bank this morning. That would explain it. I had told my bank, before I left, all the countries I was visiting so that this wouldn't happen but they obviously didn't take a lot of notice. Helpfully, they said if I wanted to call my bank I could do it from the guest services desk.

After returning to the cabin to grab my card I returned to the desk and made a telpehone call to my bank. To my surprise my bank stated that no authorisations had been requested and there were no stops on my account whatsoever. :confused:

Something obviously wasn't right. The cashier at guest services did a manual request for authorisation on my card and it was accepted immediately. At this point, in my mind, either RCI had made a mistake or my bank had and I didn't know which. I asked if they could prove my card had been declined. (I was thinking at this point that someone had ruined my chances in the poker tournament I paid $100 to enter). They couldn't do this.

Eventually Georgi Petkov (Asst front desk Mgr) came to speak to me and I explained the situation. After a short discussion he assured me it wasn't RCI's fault and offered to credit me $50 of the tournament entry. As I had no idea who was at fault I accepted. In hindsight I probably should have pushed for the $100. The way I saw it was that RCI wouldn't stop an account unless they felt they had to because they want people spending more money. I never did find out who was at fault but it, no doubt, saved me losing more money in that tournament.

We returned to our balcony with a drink to relax before getting ready for dinner. Later in the week I actually took the Asst Manager one of our WOW cards as I thought he dealt with me well and was fair.

[milpston]

It was formal night tonight so I went for the tuxedo after slacking a little on the second formal night last week.

At 19:10 we went down to the Promenade. It is the Captain's welcome aboard speech tonight. We had a couple of glassses of the free champagne whilst milling around. We then headed up to the Library on deck 11 as we had reservations for The Chef's Table this evening. We had received invitations in our room earlier in the day to confirm the arrangements. They also telpehoned to check that we had no special dietary requirements.

There were large glasses of champagne waiting for us.

 

 

 

Once a third couple had arrived we were walked through the Concierge Lounge and up the stairs to where the Chef's Table was located.

 

 

As you can see there are 14 seats at the Chefs Table. I was very surprised to see that that were only 6 of us eating here tonight. I fully expected this to be sold out every night and have wait lists on top! That light above the table were really cool. They were made out of knives and forks but I didn't get a closer picture.

[milpston]

This is to the right of where you are looking at the table.

 

 

The table had name cards in place so we knew where we were sitting and a copy of the pre-prepared menu which had the table plan, with names on, printed on the inside cover.

 

 

[milpston]

Each course was introduced by the Chef and he talked about how it was prepared. It was very interesting and gave an insight into the time it had taken to prepare the meal.

Each course was paired with a wine and this was talked through by the Somellier who had chosen the wine pairings. He also talked about why he had chosen them and guided you through eating the course along with the wine to give different flavours. I found it fantastic and it's something I have never done before.

This is Rudi, the Sommelier. He got my WOW card because of how friendly and knowledgable he was.

 

The fact that there was only 6 of us made in an even more intimate experience. It was also and opportunity for me to eat things that I would never dream of ordering usually. I couldn't get away with meat and potatoes in here!!!!

The first course was Grilled Lobster, Scallop and shrimp salad with campari grapefruit jelly and baby lettuces.

 

I was a little rushed in taking my food pictures here as I didn't really feel it was the place to be doing it. I got sneaky snaps when I felt no-one was wathching haha

This course was surprisingly nice from someone who wouldn't normally eat these things. I cleared the plate though and actually enjoyed it. It had lots of flavour. I think the fact that it was paired with Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc was a bonus as it was my favourite tipple during this cruise. The Sommelier obviously had a good taste in wine like me :)