Allure for Thanksgiving 2017- a review

Hi everyone! We are recently back from the Allure over Thanksgiving. I'd like to share a bit in hopes of helping answer some questions I had before we went on the Allure. This review won't be big and elaborate like some but hopefully it helps someone. Mostly it will just tell about some of the ship. Now, this is just my experience. It probably isn't the same as yours but that is ok. It is how I felt or thought at the time. So on to the review.......

How this trip came about: My mother died in 2016. I wanted to do something for my kids with the money I received from the sale of her land so I decided to take them on a cruise. They chose the destination and I chose the ship. I have wanted to go on the Allure since it came out so I was super excited, them, not as much. Of course with a group of people it is always hard to find a time that works with everybody but Thanksgiving worked. So the plans began.

This is my 5th cruise my Children have between 2 and 5 cruises under their belt depending, we like to go as a family and spend time together when we go on a cruise. Going on this cruise. Was me, Vicki 28, Amanda 29, Kate 28, kate's husband Calvin 29 and son Lane 8, Megan 27, Logan 21, and Andrew 21. My husband doesn't like to cruise so much so he stayed home and cat sat for us and my daughters cats. He was over-joyed about that.

Sorry about your loss. Will be following your review.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Nice thing to do for the kids!

Here is the cast of Characters. Now I just realized that I said I was 28. That wasn't wishful thinking, I wouldn't go back to 28 for a million bucks, I fat fingered that bad boy and lost 20 years. I am 48, now doesn't that make a lot more sense.

I am a planner, to me the planning and prep are just as fun as the cruise. For this cruise the planning about wore me out though. First, I joined the roll call here on Cruise Critic. I'm glad I did, there I got a good tip on a hotel from Thia! We booked the Hyatt Place Ft. Lauderdale 17th Street Convention Center. We got one room for $163 a night and one for $173. The cheaper on was because of my grandson. Of course you add $20 worth of fees to that. This price was gotten through Value Trips. I had never used them but it worked out fine for us. They have a shuttle from the airport, we were charged $2 per room but that was credited back to us. They also have a shuttle to the cruise ship. It was $7 per person. We chose to do that out of ease but we could have gotten there much cheaper I suppose. When we got there our rooms were not ready so we left our luggage and walked to a nearby strip mall. There we found a restaurant - burger place- to eat at. I don't remember the name but probably wouldn't recommend it as soon as we sat down the owner came to our table and started going on about how this was a privately owned restaurant and they use the best beef. Pointed out articles that have been in the paper about her and her restaurant, etc. Everyone liked their food, but we raise our own beef, theirs was nothing special. When you have been up since 3 am you just want to relax and get something to eat you know?!?!? The owner kept coming back to our table to talk and tell us more things about herself. But we all got fed. Eventually we went back to the hotel and they had our rooms ready. We reserved regular double rooms so I don't know if this is the size of all the rooms or if this is just because this was a handicap room. The room itself was huge, which was great when 4 people have their suitcases open and stuff strewn everywhere. But if you are in a wheelchair I want to note that the bathroom is ridiculously small. In the picture I think it looks larger then it is. I am also not sure how you could even reach into the closet if you wanted to. As far as the bathroom when we went in to shower you had to step beside the toilet to have room to shut the door.

More on the Hyatt Place...

There was a small outdoor pool, my grandson and his parents enjoyed that. There is also a breakfast in the morning that we enjoyed. Had the usual hotel breakfast fare...fruits, oatmeal, muffins etc. Can't remember if it had the waffles though.

When we checked in we signed up for the shuttle. The was at least two. one at 10 and one at 11, I am pretty sure there was one at 12 also but don't quote me on that. We chose the 10:00 one and that worked out great. When we got to the ship it wasn't busy. We went right through security and were sent up stairs to the waiting area. My grandson was given a wrist band at this time. It has the muster station number on it incase he was in the kids club when something happened. I thought that was a great idea. It is probably done on other ships too but I have not taken young kids before. We waited in the waiting are for a while. The had posters up and had reminders over the intercom to down load the mobile passport app to get through customs easier on return so many people did that. That is something I learned from reading reviews so we already had done that. We waited in our little roped off areas until time to board. Not sure what time that was but it wasn't long. For those of you with children there is a jungle gym in the corner for kids to play on.

I have the pics of the terminal but they are on my phone. If someone knows how to post from and iPhone and can tell me I will post.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I'm really enjoying your review!

Nice photos.:)

Nice photos.:)

thank you but I'm sure they are not all that great. I just have a canon point and shoot and some from my cell phone.

I'm really enjoying your review!

Good I hope I can answer some questions people have.

Following along and anxious to hear more!

Officially on vacation!

Check out those white Nebraska legs. Haven't seen sun in months!

Do you recall if they were offering special rates on chef's table when first boarding. thanks have

Lol- guess you went to Gilberti's restaurant and met Lenore- she is very proud of her restaurant. I guess for those of us who do NOT raise our own beef, it's pretty good. Most of their food and desserts are made from scratch. But yeah, if you're not a talker i can see where she'd drive you nuts!

Looking forward to the rest!

Finally back. After we boarded the ship we were in awe. It is huge, and that is exactly why I wanted to go on it. I was excited to see the different neighborhoods. I couldn't wait to see the boardwalk but, I hardly spent any time there. In fact I had

to take a special trip down there just to get pictures.

the girls checking out those funky mirrors that distort you.

The kids and I had donuts here, they are nothing special but fun. The cupcake place is here. I know there are cupcake classes but didn't take them. They had some cupcakes on display and they were adorable. Made me wish I had taken the class if that is what they made. Also a candy store, clothing store, a few places to eat and the Aqua Theater where the diving shows are.

Central park is another place I wanted to see. But I wasn't in there much either. We went to eat at one of the "free" eating places there once but that was it. Walked through a couple of times. It is beautiful and peaceful though. If I wasn't with 7 other people I probably would have sat in there a lot.

Not going to post too much for pictures as mine aren't very good and there are so many reviews with beautiful pictures.

The Promenade

We spent a lot of time here. This is where the shops are, guest services, bars, Sorentos (pizza place), coffee shop, café, Bingo, etc was. The kids took a lot of pictures here. Pictures are something we have never really done but three of the kids went out one night and had a hey day. We ended up buying all the pictures as it was a really fun memory.

I had to post these last two pictures because first I wanted to say thanks to the people that played along and took pics with my kids and also, if this is you say hey.

The promenade is also where they had the two big Parades. I only got in on the last few minutes of the first one with the characters. I was so disappointed because it looked so fun. My grandson would have loved it. The second parade was at the end of the cruise and had the people from the shows go through. I can't show any pics of these though because at some point my camera got a button switched and all of a sudden I was getting five of the same picture one b& w, one pink, one fuzzy, not sure how I did it but for day it was like that. Of course as soon as I handed my camera to my son he fixed it and all was well.

I'm just going to post a few random pics of places around the ship. We didn't spend a whole lot of time on the sports deck, solarium, gym;p ( I did use the bathroom there once). I really liked the solarium, it was too hot for me during the day but could have spent hours lounging in the evenings if I were alone.

Dazzles - snuck in here and listened to the band and karaoke. We never stayed long but the music was ok

This isn't us. but the teacher seemed really patient with everyone.

The Theater - where the shows were held and the last Bingo.

Things we did.....

Massages

The first night we were there three of us were signed up for a message. Actually a 'deep tissue massage" Mine certainly wasn't a "deep tissue massage" although it was very relaxing. Until she started rubbing oil into my head. That was just gross. When I met my daughters we all looked ridiculous with really greasy hair. I have had head massages before on a cruise and they didn't put oil in my hair. My daughters had different experiences. They had more of a deep tissue massage so I guess it is just the luck of the draw.

Bingo

Bingo on the 4th of July is a big thing in our town so of course when we got on the ship the kids had to play. We played 3 or 4 different times and 3 of my kids won. I wasn't even close but we had a lot of fun. I don't remember how much it cost as I didn't get the cards. you do use the daubers so if you already have those bring them along.

Zipline

Lane went on the zipline but was scared to death. My son also went and he said it was fun. After standing in line for the third time and being told that I have a necklace on and can't go on with it I said to heck with it.

Napped

We nap a lot.

Think I am done for tonight. Will be back tomorrow. With the Prohibition Party, Character Breakfast, room service.

Do you recall if they were offering special rates on chef's table when first boarding. thanks have

I don't remember that they did. I scanned the Compass and didn't see anything about it.

If I come across something later I will let you know.

Prohibition Party

We signed up for the Prohibition Party as soon as it came available. I had read both that it was fun and it was boring. We had a good time shopping for the dresses. Got them on Amazon. Earlier in the evening someone recognized that we had our "costumes" on and said "you must be going to the Prohibition Party." This lady said she had a good time so I was excited.

When we got to the party and signed in they gave us a password to get in. You walk up to the door and the doorman talks to you in character and you go in the back door. When inside they give you drinks (strong drinks) and snacks but the snacks weren't very good. We listened to a jazz band and there was a horse race at some point in the night. There are little papers with horse names on and you circle one. Then you listen to the radio and hear the race. The hosts also went into the crowd and took people out to dance. The dance floor was pretty small but then no one really danced. At about half way through the band took a break and about half of the crowd took that chance to leave. I probably would have too but felt it would be rude. Besides I paid like $30 pp for this and dang it we were going to have a good time. To be honest though it was boring and we wished we were across the hall at the 80's dance party.

Dream Works Character Breakfast

We did the Character Breakfast on the first morning there. I believe it was $10 a person. It was fun for my grandson, even though he likes to pretend he is too big for this stuff. We had fun too.

The Characters came out one at a time and did a little dance then went around to each table and you could get your photo with them. I think there were around 4 characters do this. It was fun. I would do it with my grand kids again.

Behind the Scenes tour

Not sure if this is the name of this or not but I think you know what I am talking about.

This was expensive only my grandson and daughter and I went on it. It was 2 1/2 hours long!

We visited the kitchen, laundry, bridge, I95, and peeked into the crew cafeteria. I have to say the laundry was probably the most interesting to me.

The sheets go in and come out the other side folded. Not the towels though. They have to be folded by hand. Oh, I couldn't imagine.

The kitchens are huge as you would expect. They were working on Thanksgiving dinner so someone was making stuffing and such. They have a separate bakery and dessert (not official name) rooms.

stuffing anyone?

huge vat of French Onion Soup

and a freezer.

The food manager said that the food and beverage budget for our cruise was $1,500,000.00. Isn't that crazy.

The bridge was pretty boring but you know how they tell with azipod is broken? Put a binder clip on the handle. For some reason I expected more.

view from the bridge.

The behind the scenes tour was interesting. A bit long. It was fun to do once but wouldn't do it again.

The famous I95 I had heard many theories as to why it is called that but our guide said it was named after Interstate 95