srvdmy4usn

Hey there,

I have a large group of first time cruisers planning for an upcoming sailing so I did some analysis to help them out in making a decision on the drink package.

You can check it out HERE. All the data is based on recent averages on board, obviously there are fluctuating prices and specials for each sailing. But, it should give you enough data to make an educated purchase. :)

Here you go, we got our welcome aboard email yesterday HM_Concierge01@rccl.com and HM_Concierge02@rccl.com hope that helps

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Thank you! I will update the Doc as well

Email addresses in this document:

 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hKBiGZ9Gqcp2G2owtX3RyQy7yQ0ijgxCL0nPjQKK8j4/edit?pli=1#gid=0

I checked that already. It has the name Raj Bhugwath started 4-18-2016, but no email/contact info listed.

Any chance you can try to obtain the email address for the concierge? I will be staying in a suite this January and would like to reach out to set up some things.

Last I checked the contact list in the forums it had their name but not their email.

Thanks in advance.

loving your review and pictures. we only 48 more days for us. Would you be able to send me the cruise compasses for adults and kids? we have 4 of them ages 5-12. Thanks!

Glad you are enjoying, I have posted the compass as well as the adventure ocean papers for days 1, 2, & 3 so far. You can get them here:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I am really enjoying your review. I can't wait to read more! My family and I are planning a cruise on Allure next summer.

 

Addicted

You will have such a great time! I generally do not use my computer on the weekends, look a new post today!

You have taken some beautiful pictures. Thank you for sharing and I know your children will be speaking of this vacation for a very long time.

Thank you, and I sure hope this is one they will never forget. We had a great time and really created some lasting memories!

Just went through the entire review this afternoon.....what an enjoyable read and the pictures are so very good. Thanks for taking the time. :) I only wish I could have continued on...not done yet, but I'll be following.

 

Going on Allure next September. :D

Thanks for reading, glad you enjoyed so far!

Up Next: Ye Best Be Walkin De Plank......Yar!

What was up with the Batman and Superman? Loving your review and your pictures. Can't wait to see the ship in person in 51 days!!!!

The Batman and Superman were hilarious. It really made no sense to me how they tie into the Dreamworks characters, I am not even sure I understand how they could get the licensing for them. Apparently the kids club, Adventure Ocean, has some of their employees dress up for the kids. They bring games down to The Boardwalk area (giant chess, checkers, ring toss, etc.) and then hand out prizes to kids who participate. The greatest part was the way they would keep their character while walking around, and the ride on the carousel was classic!

Thanks for reading along, let me know if you have any more questions.

I am LOVING your review!! I am (not very patiently :rolleyes:) counting the days to our next cruise on ALLURE!!! Love the pictures!!!

Lucky! I want to go back!

Wonderful photos and commentary!

 

Thanks so much!

No, thank you!

Beautiful pictures.. I look forward to reading more about your review each day!! Thank you!!

Thank You! I will have some more pics up of the ship at night shortly and then continue the report tomorrow morning!

The Allure of the Seas is a beautiful ship in every way, but my favorite is the way she looks at night. After the comedy show I decided to take a stroll from the top of the ship and work my way down, taking pictures of things I found interesting on my way. There are a ton of pictures around on the internet, especially here on Cruise Critic, but hopefully my perspective will offer something new.

Because there are so many I will post a few this morning and a few more later this afternoon.

Good Morning Sea Day! Sea days are my favorite part of cruising. Maybe it is the reminiscing of my days in the Navy, or just time to relax and not have much of an agenda. That being said, they don't make for a very exciting report like the port days do. So, I will supplement with more pictures!We did have a few items on the list today however. First up was the Meet & Mingle and this was going to be followed up by our Roll Call’s Cabin Crawl.

The Meet & Mingle is a Royal Caribbean hosted event that allows Cruise Critic members the opportunity to put a face to the name. Ours was scheduled to be in the Dazzles Lounge at 9:30 AM (If you register for this event you will receive an invitation on the day of boarding. To see an example locate the scanned documents from Day 1). It was a fairly quick process, there were about 140 registered members and I would guess somewhere in the range of 50 or so showed up. There did not seem to be much mingling going on, there were little groups of people scattered throughout the lounge and most everyone was waiting for the raffle. The host of the event talked about a few things around the ship, the history of the allure, and other misc. factoids. He followed that up with a quick raffle for some prizes, my Mom won a print from the art collection. Once the event was over Harold (Eng23) gathered the group of people interested in the Cabin Crawl and shortly after we were on our way up to a Crown Loft!

Crown Loft

Central Park Balcony

Along the Cabin Crawl we saw a wide variety of cabins from a crown loft down to an ocean view window. Since I would have to hit the lottery to afford a Crown Loft I would say my favorite “reasonable” cabin was the Accessible Family Balcony. This was a very large and spacious cabin and the balcony was twice the width of a normal cabin. The area with the bunks was perfect for kids and I could see that as being a great way to travel with 6 people. Using some magic, Mariah & I were able to bring on some items necessary to supply everyone on the cabin crawl with a Kamikaze Shot when they came to our cabin. This of course made the rest of the cabin crawl that much more fun, but it did seem to thin the heard!

After the Cabin Crawl we met up with the kids and decided to tackle the rock wall. We are by no means climbing professionals, but we have been to some climbing gyms back home, so this was not a new experience for us. However, the placement of the rock wall is fantastic. You get a great view as your climbing and they are also a pretty decent size. One thing to note is the use of auto belays. This is a pulley system that allows you to climb and descend without the assistance of a person holding any ropes at the bottom. If you have not used one before it can be a little intimidating, but they are very safe, and work great! Lance and myself are the monkeys of the group and we were able to make it up the wall in a hurry. The rest of the group were not quite up to the challenge, but they all did well and had fun! Lance was given a medal for making it to the top, and my Mom was awarded one as well for her attitude and spirit.

Insider Tip - A great vantage point for photos of the rock wall is the “secret” balcony on deck 12. You can enter the passageway right behind the equipment desk for the rock wall and then take the elevator or stairs up.

After finishing up with the rock wall, a stroll through The Boardwalk revealed some special guests from Adventure Ocean. I am not really sure how the whole Dreamworks theme meshes with Superman and Batman, but they were there with games for the kids, and they were hilarious! It made for some great photos.

The rest of the day was filled with poolside activities. The kids absolutely loved the whirlpool in the H2O Zone, and of course the unlimited free ice cream cones!

During dinner tonight the crew performed one of the famous serenades, getting everyone in the dining room to wave their napkins and cheer. Or waiter was the star of the show with a solid display of poise and balance. The meal itself was fantastic once again, the roasted garlic soup was amazing!

After Dinner the kids were off to Adventure Ocean again. We had explained to them that we had an early morning tomorrow because of an excursion to snorkel with sea turtles, because of this, after Adventure Ocean it was going to be bed time. Once the kids were in bed we made our nightly visit to Fe in the Viking Crown Lounge and then went to the comedy show. This is an adults only event and requires a reservation. It is a very small venue and popular as well. If you intend on catching this show I highly recommend a reservation. The comedians we had were great, the material was current, funny, and appealed to just about any demographic. It was also nice that neither one of them focused on cruising jokes, this happens a lot with cruise ship comedy shows.

Up Next: Night Time Beauty...A photo shoot of The Allure

Great review!

 

I'm curious about the ship time. Does the ship switch to local times or stay on Eastern time? I'm going in a few weeks and was going to meet someone in St. Thomas. The ship is supposed to be there at 10am, but I'm not sure if that's EDT or local time.

 

Thanks! Can't wait to read the rest of your review.

The ship will always stay on ships time, in this case EDT.

Love your review! Can't wait for moooorrreeee! Only 25 days

Glad you are enjoying the read. I wish I was headed back out in 25 days! Such a great ship and an amazing vacation!

After sail away we were in full sea day mode! The kids were excited to check out the afternoon session of Adventure Ocean. After dropping them off the big kids were off to check out the zip line.

Insider Tip - There are a lot of rules you must follow in order to participate in the zip line. To save yourself a trip back to your cabin do not show up without closed toe shoes with laces and dry clothes. Also, no earrings, necklaces, bracelets (or any other jewelry), sunglasses, hats, etc. Pretty much you want to show up with nothing on your person that is detachable or anything that could possibly fall off.

The zip line was was fun, but if you are the thrill seeking, outdoor adventure type, don't expect too much. It is definitely designed to please the masses. The safety processes are extremely well thought out and if you are at all nervous I would say just relax and give it a shot. At no point are you ever near any ledge without being strapped into a safety line. After donning the harness and helmet you walk over to the line itself. Once it is your turn you will be directed to step into the area where they have numbered steps. As you are transferred from safety line to safety line you progress from step 1 through 3. Once you are on step 3 the instructor will explain how to land on the opposite side, raise the safety gate and off you go. For me personally, it was fun to say I did a zip line on a cruise, but I only did it once. The lines were very short when we went, but throughout the week I did notice some very long lines. I would suggest doing this as it opens earlier in the day to prevent waiting in long lines. The lines were very long during the last two sea days.

Following the zip line we grabbed a few more drinks and decided to grab a seat in the empty Schooner Bar to kick our feet up and relax. I noticed we were right next to the Loyalty Office; as I was checking through the appointment list one of the agents said he had some free time and could help me right now. I flagged Mariah over and within 10 minutes we had booked a Spa Junior Suite on the new Quantum Of The Seas for January of 2015!I was on my way back to apologize to my drink for leaving it unattended, and was shocked to find the Schooner Bar was now full to the max! Apparently we decided to take a seat smack dab in the middle of trivia. We made a poor attempt at participating before we needed to get ready for our first formal night.

Formal nights may not be for everyone, but I really enjoy them on a cruise. I would even go as far as saying I look forward to them. In my day to day life I am a t-shirt & shorts kinda guy. The last time I tied a tie was actually my last cruise for formal night. This gives me the opportunity to dress up a little and enjoy the brief moment of living “in style”. I also enjoy getting the kids involved in this as well, the girls all had dresses to wear and the boys had suits.

There is one obstacle with formal night however. Five women and 2 bathrooms equal not the place for 3 men! In my attempt to avoid this hostile situation I had picked up the kids early from the Adventure Ocean. Got the two boys ready, got myself ready, and bailed! I was able to get out of the cabin with just about an hour left for the girls to get ready. While they were doing whatever it is that girls do, the 3 of us decided to go have a drink at the Bow & Stern. Before enjoying our beer and Shirley Temples we made a quick stop at the car in the promenade for a photo. Timed perfectly, our drinks were finished right as the women graced us with their presence and we were off to dinner.

I did not bring the camera to dinner tonight, but the food was fantastic. After dinner the kids wanted to go back to Adventure Ocean so away we went. I decided I was going to change for the night before our late showing of Chicago. After killing some time on the balcony the kids showed up excited for the rest of their evening. They have been waiting to have a “movie night” with room service. We had cookies, hot chocolate, cheese cake, and fruit delivered to the room to snack on while they watched one of the movies playing on TV. This became one of their favorite nights on the ship.

Chicago - I am not the normal Broadway type of person, so my comments may be somewhat misplaced, but for the most part I did enjoy the show. The production quality was very good, I think one would be hard pressed to notice we were on a cruise ship. The performers were great, but there were a few characters I did not care for. I am a fan of the movie Chicago, Jon Reilly plays ‘Amos Hart’ and more specifically Mr. Cellophane. That act was disappointing to me, but in all fairness I was comparing it to a major hollywood film. The show is cut down from the original so there are several acts that are not included, but that has no real effect on the story. Realistically, I think they could have cut 1 or 2 more and made the show a few minutes shorter.

Insider Tip - The theater is extremely cold, especially on your legs. I am not sure about the upper level, but on the main floor the seats have air vents under them, there is a constant flow of cold air during the show. I would not recommend wearing shorts, and girls with dresses and sandals, you have been warned!

After Chicago we checked on the kids and they were fast asleep, most of the snacks were gone and the movie was just ending. I had been wanting to check out the Viking Crown Lounge so we made our way up there. This became our favorite location on the ship, and we stopped by for at least 1 drink every evening. Fe was the bartender there this week and she was amazing! She is a single mother of a 14 year old son. She is from the Philippines and her son lives there with her parents. I believe she said she has been doing this for 9 years (but it may have been 7, I am drawing a blank). She, along with most of the crew, works 6-9 month contracts and then returns home to be with family. Sometimes her visits at home are several months, and sometimes as short as 3 weeks. While working her contracts she works 7 days a week, and they rotate venues through the ship every week. Her personal service as well as her positive and fun loving personality were top notch. If you have a trip coming up on the Allure, find whatever bar that Fe is working at and tell her Andy, Mariah, & Vicki said hi! I promise she will treat you right!

Up Next: Cabin Crawl, Kamikaze Style!

Andy,

 

Great review so far! Did you get a chance to smoke that cigar? I just finished one and now I wish I was back on the ship. One of those roast beef sandwiches would really hit the spot right now! Looking forward to your continued posts!

 

Elvis

 

I have to wait 130 days for my next cruise!

Hey Elvis! I have not smoked the cigar yet, it is safely tucked away in my humidor waiting for a special occasion. I hear ya about being back on the ship, I have been having some withdraws for sure! I am jealous about the 130 days, I am sitting at 458 :(