Suite Review of the Allure 06.30.2013

[Sweetest Sin]

I am so enjoying your review! Thank you so much!!

 

This is why I read the reviews. Because of you, I now know we need to bring one pair of jeans (for ice skating) and socks and tennis shoes for skating, rock wall and zip lining. If I hadn't read this, I wouldn't have known that.

 

THANK YOU!!

 

You are so welcome! Our first royal cruise we didn't know, and we hadn't brought pants for our daughter. Do you know how hard it is to find pants in the Caribbean in the summer?? We ended up getting her a pair of pajama pants :p

[endobaby]

Thanks for the review,...must put sneakers and jeans on my list :)

[Sweetest Sin]

Thanks for the review,...must put sneakers and jeans on my list :)

 

Definitely if you want to skate or zipline :)

[Losin4crusin]

Wonderful review. Thank you for all the time your putting into this!

Is there a restaurant package?

Buffet lunch in the solarium- daily?

[jenninlaca]

Great review - we were on the same cruise and when you posted your photo in your first formal dress I remembered seeing you on the cruise at Dazzles, I think (recalled your red dress). I am enjoying re-living the great cruise through your photos.

[storm1of4]

enjoying the review thanks

[rt61]

Really enjoying this review :)

[cruzkitty]

I am also enjoying your Review-and your pictures are fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to share!:D

[minniepug]

Thanks for doing this review. We are going the same cruise on 25th August. It's a first cruise for me and my sister and your review has given us an insight into cruise life. Thanks again.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[cjknox]

Great review I really loved the pictures! Glad you enjoyed yourself Allure is absolutely amazing.

[Sweetest Sin]

Wonderful review. Thank you for all the time your putting into this!

Is there a restaurant package?

Buffet lunch in the solarium- daily?

 

There are several restaurant packages. We chose the one that was for Samba, Chops, Giovanni's and Izumi. I believe it was $80 per person.

 

There is a buffet in the solarium every day for breakfast and lunch.

 

Thanks!

 

Great review - we were on the same cruise and when you posted your photo in your first formal dress I remembered seeing you on the cruise at Dazzles, I think (recalled your red dress). I am enjoying re-living the great cruise through your photos.

 

Thank you!

[Sweetest Sin]

enjoying the review thanks

 

Really enjoying this review :)

 

I am also enjoying your Review-and your pictures are fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to share!:D

 

Thanks for doing this review. We are going the same cruise on 25th August. It's a first cruise for me and my sister and your review has given us an insight into cruise life. Thanks again.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Great review I really loved the pictures! Glad you enjoyed yourself Allure is absolutely amazing.

 

Thank you everyone for your kind words!

[Sweetest Sin]

Cruise Day 6 – Cozumel

 

I awake as we near port and the sun is rising over Cozumel. Hubby and I have been to Cozumel several times, and we vacation in Cancun and Playa del Carmen frequently. Needless to say, we love Mexico. They have fabulous beaches, friendly people, history, culture and we always have a great time.

 

 

Today I had booked the Tucan Sailing Adventure with Cozumel Sailing. In a nutshell we would sail on a trimaran, fish, snorkel, have spinnaker rides, visit a beach, and drink and eat. Our excursion was to leave at 9 Cozumel time so after we had grabbed something to eat in the Concierge Lounge we headed to the gangway. We learned that the elevators are crazy crowded right after the gangway has opened. Today we walked down again. We were docked at the International Pier, which leads you to an outside shopping mall with a lot of vendors. We didn’t really do any shopping, just headed to the taxi stand to get a taxi to the port where our excursion was located. It was about a 15 minute ride.

 

Our excursion left very promptly. There were 11 of us, plus two crew members. As soon as we were out of port we put up the sails and put out a couple of fishing lines and headed north. The beverage cooler was opened and there was a choice of pretty much anything you wanted to drink…cervesas, soda, water, margaritas, daiquiris, rum punch. We got a hit on one of the fishing lines. It was a huge sail fish, you could see it jumping out of the water. Unfortunately the line broke just as we were about to bring it in! They put out the line again, and we caught a barracuda.

 

After sailing for about an hour we anchored and had spinnaker rides. A spinnaker is a large, light-weight sail, usually very colorful, that sailboats use in light wind. A seat had been attached to the sail and you would get lifted quite high. It was a blast! After we went snorkeling for a bit. The snorkeling wasn’t that great, there were two or three coral formations with fish, but the area was mostly sandy bottom. While lunch was cooking we headed to the beach. The beach was beautiful, and you could walk a bit in either direction. There were a lot of hermit crabs there.

 

 

After we got back to the boat lunch was ready. We had steak fajitas and grilled chicken and fish. Lunch was very tasty. After lunch we headed back. The weather was beautiful and we had perfect wind for sailing. We got back to the marina around 3:30 Cozumel time, and there were taxis waiting to bring us back to the ship. We headed back through the shopping area and boarded without any issues.

 

 

We had reservations for Izumi at 6:30, so we all got ready for dinner and headed up. I liked Izumi. They made a wonderful saki-tini, and I thought that the sushi was good. My daughter and husband both had the hot rocks. My daughter really liked it, but my husband thought the meat lacked flavor.

 

 

We saw Blue Planet. We sat in the designated suite area for this show; this is on the balcony and the first three rows, center. This was my least favorite show. The singing was great, but the show lacked a cohesive theme. The songs chosen seemed very random.

 

 

We brought the kiddo back to the room before hubby and I set out again for the evening. We headed to Dazzles for a bit before heading up to the solarium. There was a big dance party up there that evening and it was so much fun! We stayed there quite late and then returned to our room for the evening.

[jcacruiser]

thoroughly enjoying your review. thanks for posting! We'll be on the Allure in 27 days!!!

[2Cruzin Fools]

"After we got back to the boat lunch was ready. We had steak fajitas and grilled chicken and fish. Lunch was very tasty. After lunch we headed back. The weather was beautiful and we had perfect wind for sailing. We got back to the marina around 3:30 Cozumel time, and there were taxis waiting to bring us back to the ship. We headed back through the shopping area and boarded without any issues."

 

Great review! Your Cozumel sailing adventure sounds like fun. Do you remember how much the taxi cost each way?

[Clarea]

Really enjoying the review and photos. Great timing on the shot of the spinnaker ride!

[Sweetest Sin]

thoroughly enjoying your review. thanks for posting! We'll be on the Allure in 27 days!!!

 

Thank you! I hope you have as much fun as we did!

[Sweetest Sin]

"After we got back to the boat lunch was ready. We had steak fajitas and grilled chicken and fish. Lunch was very tasty. After lunch we headed back. The weather was beautiful and we had perfect wind for sailing. We got back to the marina around 3:30 Cozumel time, and there were taxis waiting to bring us back to the ship. We headed back through the shopping area and boarded without any issues."

 

Great review! Your Cozumel sailing adventure sounds like fun. Do you remember how much the taxi cost each way?

 

It was a really nice relaxing day. The taxi was about $15 each way for the three of us. Cozumel is great about posting the fares. Right by the taxi stand is a board with all of the fares posted.

[Sweetest Sin]

Really enjoying the review and photos. Great timing on the shot of the spinnaker ride!

 

Thanks. Hubby probably took about 30 photos of me on the spinnaker, and he did a really great job!

[swim13]

Hey! Love your review and pictures! Wow, Cozumel looked fun! I didn't realize you got the Grand Suite, I thought the last time we talked on the roll call you got a Jr. Suite. That is so AWESOME!!! Looks like it was an amazing room, you should have come on the cabin crawl with us! :D

 

Thanks again for your gift at the M&M!

[Sweetest Sin]

Hey! Love your review and pictures! Wow, Cozumel looked fun! I didn't realize you got the Grand Suite, I thought the last time we talked on the roll call you got a Jr. Suite. That is so AWESOME!!! Looks like it was an amazing room, you should have come on the cabin crawl with us! :D

 

Thanks again for your gift at the M&M!

 

Thanks Mike! Yes, we were extremely fortunate to get that upgrade, and I can't believe I overslept and missed the cabin crawl! :o

 

You are so welcome for the gift, I'm happy that you like it!

[Sweetest Sin]

I forgot to mention in the last installment how Izumi works when you get a dining package. Everyone get $20 worth of credit each; $5 of that goes to the cover charge and the remaining $15 can be used for food and drinks. This gets combined for the entire table, so we had $45 to spend on food and drinks. The prices at Izumi were pretty reasonable, we all got appetizers, I had a sushi dinner and two saki-tinis, and hubby and daughter both got hot rocks and we were below our threshold.

 

Cruise Day 7 – Sea Day

 

Today will be kind of random. We really didn’t do anything too noteworthy. We had breakfast again in the Concierge Lounge. After that we just strolled places and checked out whatever happened to be going on at that time. I loved having the cruise compass available in at all of the elevator banks!

 

 

We did go pick out the pictures we wanted to purchase. Since this was the last day to purchase pictures it was crazy-pants! I love love love how Royal does the pictures. It was great to be able to look at the pictures at the kiosk and then go to your individual folder to see the printed copies. No more scanning through thousands of pictures of strangers hoping to find yours! Each folio (or stateroom, I was never able to figure out which) has their own binder with pictures. You will have the folder number printed on your sea pass card. Since we were past guest we also had a coupon book, and one of the coupons was a buy one picture get another picture for 50% off.

 

My daughter and I grabbed hot dogs for lunch and brought them up to watch people on the flow riders. I was so impressed by how great some of the people got during the week. It was really fun to see the people who were wiping out on day one now doing tricks! The kiddo and I also caught the Madagascar show in the Aqua Theater. I thought it was cute, but definitely geared towards children. Kiddo decided she wanted a temporary tattoo. She had a coupon in her book for free glitter.

 

 

At some point we had the sad task of packing up. This is when reality sinks in, and you start having to think about leaving!! The horror!

 

Before dinner we headed back to the Concierge Lounge to enjoy our pre-dinner cocktails. Who was going to bring me my vodka and cranberries back home??? None of us wanted to go to the MDR so we decided on Rita’s Cantina since we had not visited that venue yet. I thought the food was decent, and priced very well. The margarita was yummers!

 

 

We knew we had to get up early the next morning, so we just walked around the ship for one final time, taking some pictures before finally heading back for the night.

[Sweetest Sin]

Random pictures

 

I really liked the track, I found it very easy to run on.

 

 

 

Looking down into Central Park from deck 16

 

[Sweetest Sin]

Pools

 

 

 

 

Looking down on the Promenade from Central Park

 

 

[Sweetest Sin]

Viking Lounge from Central Park

 

 

On the Boardwalk

 

 

 

Johnny Rockets from Deck 15