Kinda Live Review of Allure June 11-18

Going to try to pay forward all the help I've gotten from fellow cruisers on these boards. I'll try to be as informative as I can and would be happy to answer questions and take pics of anything I can if asked.

A little background: This is my 7th cruise but first time on Royal Caribbean. I've been on Carnival once and NCL 5 times. Mostly NCL because I gamble a lot and they give me good deals on cruises.

I'm kinda tagging along on this cruise with a bunch of family. I guess I'm a foodie (worked in high end restaurants in NYC) who will be spending a lot of time talking about food and posting food pics in this review. But probably no specialty restaurants as the large group I'm with doesn't usually do them and I'm just going with the flow.

Anyway, depending on how good VOOM is I plan on having my phone with me all the time and hope to post intermittently on random things that I'm doing. Will post pics of dailies every night of the next days events.

Well here goes nothing. Hope people find this informative.

Jeff

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Looking forward to your updates!

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Forums mobile app

Well I flew into Fort Lauderdale from JFK this morning. For the first time that I can remember my flight was only 1/3 full. I guess it's not exactly the peak time to come down here. Come to think of it the weather in NY is supposed to be a lot nicer than down here this coming week. Oh well.

Traveling with my parents and meeting my aunt, uncle and cousins in Florida.

Flight arrived on time and by the time we arrived at baggage claim our bags were already out. Whew! Airport is pretty small with 4 terminals, I think, all in a row. Nice airport though with lots of food options and easy to get around.

Ordered an UberXL for terminal 2 and had to walk outside and to the right less than 50yds to the large commercial pickup area. Pretty painless process. The 2 mile trip to our hotel (Hampton Inn) cost $13. There's also a hotel shuttle pickup area which I used later when I accompanied my cousin to return his rental car. That was also a pretty painless process.

We were exhausted so we just grabbed some food at McDonald's next door to hotel and took a nap. Hotel is nice and located conveniently equidistant from airport and port.

Met up with family a few hours later and headed to dinner at a place I found on yelp called Kelly's Landing. It's a seafood place in a strip mall that kinda advertises itself as a little bit of New England in Florida. Red Sox game on every tv and a wait staff with thick Boston accents.

There was a 1 hr wait for our party of 11. Lots of people waiting outside as it's kinda small inside with no waiting area. Based on the reviews and the long longs I had high hopes that it would be worth the wait. It definitely was. Both the NE clam chowda were very good. The fried seafood platter was very good with Ipswich clams, sea scallops, shrimp and scrod. Crab cakes were just ok and the lobster roll was very good.

I'd definitely recommend this place.

I guess that's it for today. Tomorrow we board Allure around 11am after breakfast. The hotel is offering a shuttle for the 15 of us at $8 a person but I think Uber will actually be cheaper.

More tomorrow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Have a great cruise. I think you will be wowed.

Looking forward to your review. You will love the Allure, she is a beautiful ship

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Have a great cruise. I think you will be wowed.

Thank you. Really looking forward to being on an Oasis class ship.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for doing this. My son and wife are on this cruise for their honeymoon.

Ok just checked in. Took an uber from hotel to port. A little chaotic. Got dropped off at one of farthest points away from check in. But dropped off most bags at curbside. We needed a few wheelchairs and you can get them just to the right of the check in entrance. Took handicap entrance and worked out way thru a little quicker. Once inside it was a lot cooler and pretty easy. By the time we got to an agent to going onboard it took about 15-20 minutes.

Once on board you enter in front of that rising bar and customer service. Took an elevator up to windjammer on 16. Already a long line to get in and very hot in hallway but nice and cool when inside buffet.

Staterooms are available at 1pm. Going to eat now.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for doing this. My son and wife are on this cruise for their honeymoon.

Hope they have a great honeymoon!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Decent selection at windjammer. I went with Indian food. Butter chicken and basmati rice. And a piece of fried fish on the way back to table. A little spicy but good. Fish was good too.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Really looking forward to hearing about your cruise. We sail on Allure in 98 days! Have a great week!

In room 12239 overlooking Central Park. Ready by 2pm but no luggage yet.

I switched rooms with my parents in room 12241 because 239 has the bed by the door and they'd have trouble getting around it all the time.

Some shots of the room and the view.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here's the first day's Cruise Compass (sorry I don't have a scanner and pics will have to suffice):

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Holy moly this ship is big!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Watched sail away on live port cam. Looks like smooth waters and great weather!

Following... Especially looking forward to food discussion & photos!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for reporting! Looking forward to following along! I'll be on the Aug 13 sailing of Allure. :)

Following alone, we were on the 5/28/17 sailing had a great family cruise.

2am and lots to catch up on. Now where was I? Oh yeah, this ship is freaking enormous!!! My only basis for comparison is the Norwegian Epic and it's not even close. Everyone in my traveling party is amazed at the size.

Ok so after dropping off some carry on bags in our rooms I went to explore. Here are some pics:

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Park Cafe

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Very nice photos!

This isn't news breaking but it's really hot and humid down here. It really drains you.

Ok so I was doing some exploring before the muster drill. Others have said this and it's true, there's a lot of people on board but it doesn't feel crowded. Also you don't feel the boat move very much. I had no idea we left port. Haven't really seen open water come to think of it, being in a Central Park cabin.

Ok the muster drill was a complete waste of time. If there's a problem I have no idea where to go or what to do. The drill was too crowded and relied on the captain on the speaker system and a heavily produced female James Bond video that I was watching in cabin earlier. I caught a shot of it on the picture I posted of my tv/desk. Pretty ridiculous.

After the drill I had to wait in guest services, where my drill was, to make official my parents and I switching rooms. They close until 5:30 (really 5:15-20) but when they open they have about 10 people helping guests. I was second in line and it only took 5 minutes to solve.

After making sure the new pass cards worked I went to the Silk dining room for our 5:30pm seating. It's a nice room but unfortunately they couldn't sit all 15 of us together. We needed two tables. Not the end of the world.

Here's the Day 1 dinner menu:

I ordered the escargot and Caesar salad for my appetizers and the horseradish salmon for dinner.

Escargot was ok. I liked it on NCL better. More garlicky. This was a little bland.

Caesar salad was well a Caesar salad.

I tried to see if I could order the salmon as rare as possible. I like it barely cooked, before it gets firm and flaky. But I know they cook them packed on a sheet tray and they all get cooked exactly the same. Mine was fine for 99% of people but slightly over cooked for me. The sauce was good though.

Oh, here's a pic of the eggplant and artichoke tart that my cousin ordered. It was good.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Here's the dessert menu:

I ordered the Almond Chocolate Cake and some vanilla ice cream.

I wasn't blown away by it but it was solid, especially with some ice cream.

Some of the other food that my family ordered but I didn't eat or take pics of were the prime rib (excellent), pork chop (very good) and seafood spaghetti (eh).

After dinner we had to rush to the Amber Theater to see Mamma Mia. A few of us watched from the 5th floor balcony (wheelchairs) and the rest sat in the 3rd row to the left of the stage. We had reservations and there were a lot of seats when we got there 20 minutes before showtime. Looking around at intermission it seemed like the theater filled up to maybe 90% full. You'll need reservations and get there early to get the primo seats (or have a suite and reserved seats) it seems like you can get in without reservations.

As for the show it was just really fun. Not the best but very enjoyable. It seemed like the entire cast was British. I'm guessing they're a British production company. The lead girl (sorry I don't remember characters names) was very good. Make sure you stay for the encore. They do 3 choreographed numbers to the songs Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo. Left a great taste in my mouth.

After the show I broke apart from the group and hit the casino. Wanted to play poker but the electronic table was being used for a tournament. Played craps while I waited. They really up the house odds by limiting your pass line odds bets. It was basically one to one odds unless you bet $25 instead of $10 in which case you could bet 2x odds. I would have won a lot more if they hadn't.

As far as the electronic poker tables go, it took awhile to get used to. But I think I can do pretty well this week.

Left casino around 1:30am and walked up one level on a spiral staircase to the royal promenade where I went to Sorrento's for pizza. Being from NY let's just say it was doable for 2am and nothing else open. I'll post pics next time. Yeah there will be a next time.

On our waiter's advice we're trying American Icon for breakfast tomorrow. Like in 5 hours. But before I go to bed, here's the Day 2 Cruise Compass.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Random thoughts: Ship's VOOM wifi works great. Especially compared to the garbage on NCL from a couple years ago.

Ok goodnight.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk