Allure of the Seas - March 12th - Detailed Trip Report Part 1

[moonltnite]

Allure of the Seascruise – and Fort Lauderdale – Trip Report

Who – DH and I (both60) from the Chicago area

Link to correspondingphoto album (viewable even without having Facebook): www dotfacebook dotcom/media/set/?set=a.10154609527540326.1073741890.620015325&type=1&l=135568bfd9

Overallnotes: The Allure has a great crew! Theservice we received everywhere was great – and staff members we’d pass in thehalls were always friendly. They work VERY hard – every day –with no days off (just a few hours off here and there) – most with 7 monthcontracts. So it’s amazing how they keep up their morale and thelevel of service. We got to know several bartenders – that weregreat (mentioned in the details) and our cabin attendant was fantastic. Weloved the specialty restaurants – and one of the two MDR nights wasgood. There were a lot of kids on this sailing (heard over1700) – but the areas we tended to hang out in appealed to adults, so it wasn’tan issue.

Saturday, 3/11

We had an early flightat 8:45am on Southwest out of Chicago/Midway. We had a limo pick usup at 5am to take us to the airport. We ate breakfast at HarryCaray’s at the airport prior to our flight. We had been upset theprior day, as even with booking these flights last August right after theyopened up flights in March – and with paying for Early-bird check-in – we stillhad lousy boarding positions of B33 and B34!! We know thatA1-A15 is reserved for business select, but we thought we’d at least have a midnumbered A boarding position!! We wanted to be sure to sittogether in a decent location on the plane for this long-planned-for andanticipated vacation, so I went up to the desk at the gate and asked about anupgrade. For $40 each (worth it to us) we got A9 andA10! Much better. This flight was sold out!

We arrived at 12:40pmand took a cab to the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina. I hadpre-selected a room on the top floor facing the port – on the 14th floor (1426). The room wasn’t ready when wearrived at the hotel at 1:30pm – so we went to the pool bar for somedrinks. The room was ready just before 4pm. It was a nice-sizedking room – and had a GREAT view of the port from our balcony. Wewatched several ships sail out – including the Harmony. Wethen went back down to the pool bar for dinner.

Note: Ihave a link above to the corresponding photo album that goes with this tripreport. If the link doesn’t come through – it’s on www dot Facebookdot commedia/set/?set=a.10154609527540326.1073741890.620015325&type=1&l=135568bfd9

Sunday 3/12

I woke up early –about 4:30am. I went out on our balcony to watch ships sailinto the harbor. It was so thrilling watching the Allure sail in –knowing we’d board in just hours!

We had breakfast atthe buffet – and then went back up to the room to gather up our luggage. Wetook a cab just before 10am to the port. Check-in at the port tookall of 15 minutes – and then we were up in the Gold waiting area by about10:30am! We boarded about 11:45am. It was almostsurreal stepping on board in the Promenade after seeing just photos formonths. We went to the forward elevators up to Central Park. Insteadof waiting in a line at Park Café, we went to Vintages – as it opened atnoon. It was the first visit of many visits, as we loved thisbar! We met our favorite bartender, Daniel Danu. He was alot of the reason we kept coming back (on 5 of our 7 days!). He’dsuggest great wines that were within our drink package $13 limit.

Around 1pm – we wentto see our cabin. We had an outside ocean view balcony on deck 8 – 8556. Thiswas a great location as it was near the forward elevators on the starboardside, close to Central Park. We met our cabin steward, DavidLewis. He was great for the entire cruise. He hadalready put a gallon of distilled water in our cabin (for my DH’s CPAP) and amattress topper on the bed. The case of bottled Evian was alsoalready delivered. He said the footrest I had requested for one ofthe balcony chairs would be delivered shortly. He also kept our icebucket full. He was the best!!

Our luggage all showedup by about 2pm – and we unpacked it all. We headed to the musterdrill before 4pm. Our location was in the Amber theatre. Theyhad some video sound issues and tried just reading the information to us. Thissound issue also resulted in the rescheduling that night’s Mamma Mia. Ihad an obnoxious kid literally jump into the seat next to me – bare feet andall (probably college-aged?). His parents were next to him andobviously thought it was just fine that he showed up without shoes. Themuster drill was over about 4:45pm – and we went up to deck 14 to the port sidewing for sail away. The weather wasn’t the greatest – drizzly andwindy. We did get some good shots, though. Wealso checked the Port Everglades webcam video site and could view our videolater once home. I captured a screen shot from it – and it’s thelast photo in the album link noted above. Erica and her son, Cody,were next to us during sail away – and we hadn’t even met them yet!

We went back to thecabin about 5:30pm. We had a MTD reservation at 6pm, so we went downto deck 3 about 15 minutes before that. There was a huge line forthose of us with reservations, but it moved quickly. The line forthose without reservations was shorter, but wasn’t moving much. Wehad Benjamin and Ines as our servers in the MDR. They wereterrific! We only did the MDR this night and the second formalnight. Oddly, the food seemed better the first night there than thesecond formal night – and I had prime rib both nights. This night Istarted with the escargot (actually quite good – and served very warm), aCaesar salad and the Prime Rib, which was pretty rare (which I like). MyDH had the smoked fish rillettes, Caesar salad and the Mojo pork chops – whichhe said were very good. For dessert, I had the chocolate sensationand Joe and the carrot cake. The coffee was even strong – which welike!

We started to feel theship movement about this time. It was a gentle rolling – mainly portto starboard. It didn’t bother us much – but we did see people withthe patches behind their ears!

After dinner we wentto the Champagne bar for drinks. Dennis and Hasan are greatbartenders there. We saw them a couple more times during thecruise.

 

We went to the AquaTheatre after that – to see Ocean Aria. We had made reservationsahead. It was really a great show! After itwas over, they told us it was the first show with a new cast. You’dnever have known they weren’t a seasoned cast!

[Oakman]

Great review so far. Can you please post the exact address on Facebook for the pictures? I cannot find them and want to see if you have cabin photos. I just booked the same cabin for our cruise.

[moonltnite]

Here's the link.....

http://Http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10154609527540326.1073741890.620015325&type=1&l=135568bfd9

 

Also, the rest of the trip report is already posted in four other parts on here. I do feel bad in how some words ran together in copying from a Word doc!

 

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[Oakman]

Thanks so much!! I appreciate the pictures. Looks great!!!

[moonltnite]

I've also attached the full trip report here, for those that would prefer to read it all at once.

Allure of the Seas cruise.docx

[voyager70]

Great review and fantastic pics! Thank you for sharing.

[shellden]

Thank you for the review and pics, appreciate your insight and tips!

[moonltnite]

One note I forgot to add is there were roving bartenders in the Solarium. They started about 11am on "at sea" days.

 

 

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[kwazi07]

Thanks for the report. We were next to you guys in Nassau on Navigator!

 

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[mom2girls29]

I started reading your report and realized we are staying at the same hotel when we go cruising. Loved the pictures of the hotel. In reading further, I realized we stayed in the same stateroom last cruise and will be in it in about 6 weeks. We are also close in age and my hubby will be toting his cpap. A lot of similarities between us! Thanks so much for the report and pictures.

[riclop]

Thanks for the report.

[moonltnite]

I started reading your report and realized we are staying at the same hotel when we go cruising. Loved the pictures of the hotel. In reading further, I realized we stayed in the same stateroom last cruise and will be in it in about 6 weeks. We are also close in age and my hubby will be toting his cpap. A lot of similarities between us! Thanks so much for the report and pictures.[/

 

It's a great location! Steps from the elevator and the entrance to Central Park by Vintages. It was also very quiet. We'd just hear occasional slamming doors at night. (Some people are just inconsiderate.)

 

 

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