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

[milpston]

Great shots of the sailaway. What side of the ship were you on?

 

Thank you. We were port side.

 

I'm glad you guys are enjoying the ship!! Once again, your photos are lovely. Your meal at Chops sounds delicious as well. :D

 

 

Tara

 

Chops was really good tonight.... we may even be tempted back :p

[milpston]

Great review!

 

Congratulations on your wedding!

 

I did do a semester of college (or I should say, a term of uni) in Winchester so I am enjoying your British terminology.

 

Thank you very much. It's definitely a "term at Uni" ;)

[milpston]

Day 2 - Nassau

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

[milpston]

They also provide you a shopping map for each of the port days. It helps if you haven't researched and are looking for a particular shop or brand. I don't think I kept all of them but here is the one for Nassau.

 

[pbxtech]

Great review

[milpston]

Great review

 

Thank you very much. It's tough finding time to crack on with it between work and family life but I'll get there.

[milpston]

05:00 The start of day 2

 

When we sailed on the Oasis in 2011 one of our best memories was waking early and watching us arrive in Nassau. I don't know why this is but it was just one of those times when you can relax and appreciate where you were. It's very difficult to fully appreciate your surroundings when you are on holiday and it is something we would try to do occasionally this time.

 

At about 05:00 Sally woke me.... the jet lag was still taking effect. We went out and took our positions on the balcony. Small lights from Nassau were in the distance and we stayed in that position for our arrival at about 07:00.

 

This is Atlantis as we sailing in.

 

 

 

 

 

I always think this little lighthouse means you have arrived in the Bahamas.

 

 

One of the little houses on the way into port

 

 

I think this morning's arrival is one of the reasons I decided to stick with a Port side balcony this time.

[milpston]

This morning we weren't particularly organised as we were supposed to meet on the dock for 07:45 to go on our excursion. Sally and Chloe went to the Promenade Cafe to get a few pastries for breakfast while I went to the pool deck to get some towels. When I got there I was told that I could only have two towels per sea pass card. The guy on the towel station just gave me a third anyway but I'd be sure to have two sea passes next time I needed them.

 

After doing about three trips back to the cabin for things I had forgotten (Passports, camera etc etc.) I met the girls and we were soon in the lift hitting the 'gangplank' button. This is reconfigured for each port so that you don't need to remember which deck to go down to for disembarking.

 

Soon we were going down the escalator with this sign above our head.

 

 

There are also signs up reminding you to take photo identification and sea pass cards with you when you disembark the ships. The RCI staff scan your sea pass card each time you get on and off and will also ask you to take sunglasses and hats off so that they can look at you and your picture registered to your sea pass card.

 

Getting on and off of this ship is a breeze so we were soon on the dock and getting registered with our excursion. Chloe hadn't got a clue what we were doing today so when she saw mention of dolphins she would look at me and say, "Are we....?", I kept saying, "no we couldn't afford that", until we were pretty much checked in with a wrist ban on our hand. Sally, of course, pretended to be surprised too!

 

We had to wait for a while until all other guests were checked in. Today was starting to look pretty cloudy

 

 

 

 

 

The Ruby Princess docked with us again

 

 

At about 08:30 a man lifted a sign and we followed him around the side of the dock to a waiting boat to take us to Blue Lagoon.

 

 

I had chosen the Blue Lagoon Dolphin swim for a couple of reasons. We all swam with dolphins at Discovery Cove, Orlando a couple of years ago and we all loved it. They didn't do the foot push there but they do here. It is more expensive here than in Cozumel but I already had other plans for Cozumel. It cost £125.50 each.

[milpston]

It was a two story boat that took us to Blue Lagoon and we sat downstairs on the Port side as we were one of the last on.

 

 

There were a couple of other interesting boats in the port today.

 

This one is obviously from the Navy of the Bahamas. i Don't think the Allure behind it would have too much to fear :D

 

 

 

 

I took a couple more pictures of Atlantis as we passed close by

 

 

I know, about 10 years ago, this suite between the Royal Towers of Atlantis was called the 'Michael Jordan Suite' and is cost $10,000 a night even then.

 

[milpston]

I, later, found out that Michael Jordan, Eddie Murphy, Tiger Woods and Oprah Winfrey all have houses in this area. It think it may take a while for me to save my pennies to join them ;)

 

We were soon going round the coast in open water

 

 

This is the entrance as you arrive at Blue Lagoon. By now I think it was about 09:15

 

 

 

The beach here is pleasant but we would have no real time to enjoy it due to the short stay of the Allure in Nassau. There are inflatables in the sea just off of the beach

 

 

As we arrived were told by the Captain of the boat that if we were on the Allure we would need to get either the 11:00 or 12:30 boat back to make it back for all aboard time at 13:30.

 

When you get off the boat you turn left towards the beach area or carry straight on towards the dolphin encounters. People had different colour wrist bands on depending on what they had booked for the day.

 

[milpston]

As soon as we got off the boat we were whisked off to the briefing area for the dolphin swim. There were televisions on the wall and a wall with posters etc giving educational info about the Atlantic bottlenose dolphins. It was very informative and not too long but I'm sure everyone, not just me, were thinking, "just let me at the dolphins".

 

 

On the right of the screen there is a bank of lockers to use for your valuables during the swim. We were then put in goups. We were in swim #4 and were led off and given a life jacket each which are mandatory. We were then offered wetsuits. The girls put on wet suits but I gave it a miss.

 

There are a number of different areas for the swims. Below is one of them. It really is a nice place to do this.

 

 

 

We had two dolphins with our group and 2 trainers. One of the dolphins was called Goombay but I can't remember what the other dolphin's name was. A third dolphin made an appearance which was actually one of the 2 dolphins that took it in turns to play Flipper in the famous movie. Their website goes into more details about this.

 

The two trainers that were with us were very funny, joking around with us and they made the experience even more enjoyable. The swim starts with you sitting on the side and cuddling the dolphins etc. It then progressed into being in the water with them and going through a number of different activities and interactions. These included dances and kisses etc. They make this funny by getting the dolphin to wag it's tongue at you or spit water in your face as to whether they liked the kiss or not. Right at the end you do the foot push. This is where you lay flat on your front in the water with your feet facing towards the bottom. One dolphin then goes to each foot and they push you across the pool at a rate of knots. Virtually your whole body is out of the water with the speed that they push you. It was superb. Even if you are in Nassau for a short day this swim is worth the money. I have done dolphin swims in Orlando and Cuba but this was the best. I did spend $139 on a DVD and photos afterwards but I haven't even watched the DVD yet let alone scanned the photographs. It's not every day we get to do this :)

 

This is Goombay

 

 

By the time we had been through the photos and looked in the gift shop it was pretty much time to go if we wanted to catch the 11:00 boat. We decided to hang around so we could have a bit of a look around even though the weather was still very overcast and cloudy. We were just hoping the weather would improve..... I had some sunburning to be done :D

[High C's]

What a wonderful review, and such a fantastic way to remember each and every moment of your honeymoon! You'll look back upon this in years to come and enjoy it over and over again. Thanks for sharing it with all of us! :)

[donnaman43]

Love the review. Your pics are great!!!

[tarajean1962]

What a fun day in Nassau!!:D Great photos. i especially like the early morning ones!!

 

Can't wait to read more!

 

Tara

[BecciBoo]

Spot on, excellent review! That research pays off doesn't it!?Thanks and keep 'em coming...Allure in May next year! Whetting my appetite!:D

[flhokie]

Really enjoying your review! We are sailing in 8200 on Allure in a few weeks....loved showing DD "our cabin."

 

Congratulations on your marriage! DH & I got married at sea on Princess 5 years ago which was wonderful! Too bad the cruise wedding didn't work out for you all, but it sounds like you had a great wedding & honeymoon.

[milpston]

What a wonderful review' date=' and such a fantastic way to remember each and every moment of your honeymoon! You'll look back upon this in years to come and enjoy it over and over again. Thanks for sharing it with all of us! :)[/size']

 

Thank you very much. I actually feel like I still be doing this review in years to come ;)

 

Love the review. Your pics are great!!!

 

I'm glad you are enjoying it. I can't take to much credit for the pictures...... I just point it and press the button :D

[milpston]

What a fun day in Nassau!!:D Great photos. i especially like the early morning ones!!

 

Can't wait to read more!

 

Tara

 

Thank you. Strangely, sailing into Nassau in the dar is still one of may favourite moments of the cruise.

 

Spot on, excellent review! That research pays off doesn't it!?Thanks and keep 'em coming...Allure in May next year! Whetting my appetite!:D

 

Thank you. I'll try to keep it going

[milpston]

Really enjoying your review! We are sailing in 8200 on Allure in a few weeks....loved showing DD "our cabin."

 

Congratulations on your marriage! DH & I got married at sea on Princess 5 years ago which was wonderful! Too bad the cruise wedding didn't work out for you all, but it sounds like you had a great wedding & honeymoon.

 

That's really cool. We really liked the cabin and it's location. If your stateroom is Monique then please say that Paul, Sally, Chloe, Roy and the old dragon say hello :)

[milpston]

After we had bought our photos we decided to have a look around and see wha else Blue Lagoon has to offer.

 

 

This is one of the pens where they do the dolphin encounter. Guests basically sit around in a square with dolphins in the middle and get to pet them, kiss them etc. They seemed to be having a really good time though. My advice though is to pay the extra so you can do the foot push :D

 

We also went and paid a visit to the Sealions. They offer a sea lion swim here too which I'd imagine would be very enjoyable but we didn't see this happening as we were passing.

 

 

 

[milpston]

We didn't have much time to explore the beach and, to be honest, the weather wasn't really the best for a day on the beach so after a little tour around we headed back onto the boat for the transfer back to the ship.

 

 

 

[milpston]

My thoughts on Blue Lagoon. If you want to swim with dolphins then I would highly recommend doing it here. If you are just looking for a beach day then I would probably find something closer to the cruise port especially with the short stay in Nassau on the Allure's Itinerary. I have heard many people saying that Nassau should be taken off the itinerary. I disagree with this as I think there is lots to do here and I have never felt anything but safe in the Bahamas.

 

On the boat ride back to the port we sat Port side on the top deck of the boat. The weather was still pretty overcast but it was a lovely ride back.

 

This looked a little different to the ferries we get to France back home.

 

 

Although the Allure is mightily more impressive in the distance.

 

 

oops

 

 

 

 

The Disney Dream docked next to the Allure.

 

 

Our boat was just about to dock on the way back to the ship when the Captain changed his mind, salied all the way around the Allure to the other side of the dock and dropped us off there. We quickly realised that this was so that we had to walk through the market before we went back on the Allure. This is the only dock in the whole two weeks where we were actually asked for photo ID by the local authorities. Everywhere else the seapass card was enough. After sailing around and walking through the market we were running a little late as all aboard was at 1330.

 

A shot of one of the bars by the port.

 

[milpston]

After a hurried stroll back to the ship we arrived at the gangway at 13:35. It was 5 mintues after the all aboard time but there was plenty of us returning so I wasn't beginning to panic.

 

The first thing we did when we got back on the LLure was head up to our cabin to dump our bags etc.

 

We headed off to Windjammer buffet.

 

I'm not sure if I have pictures on the inside of the Windjammer. If I do I'll post them later. A lot has been said in these forums about it. Personally, I think it's big enough because there are so many other places to eat. It's not always the easiest to find a seat in here but if you are patient you find one in the end even if it means sharing a table with others. It;s not like this is a place I would come to eat for a nice relaxing meal. I eat here for speed and convenience and then getting out of there :D

 

On this occasion we got a seat at a breakfast bar by the window and were looking out during sail away from Nassau which was very pleasant.

 

The front of the Disney Dream as we were turning on departure

 

 

 

As you can see below I went for a healthy lunch. I struggle a little with buffets as I tend to walk around aimlessly picking up some of everything I like the look of. Hence the reason my plate tends to be a mountain of meats and a few potatoes if I find them. I'm sure Sally and Chloe were much more restrained and that would be why I didn't take a picture of theirs ;)

 

 

The food was fresh and hot and if it's a buffet then I am happy with that.

[milpston]

I think the colour of the water around the Bahamas is some of the most beautiful in the world. It's a shame you can just make out my reflection in the Windjammer window on this picture

 

 

 

 

I was watching this diver getting back onto the boat and thinking how lovely it looked down there. By coincidence Sally and I dived in that spot a coupl of weeks later so got to see from his perspective.