ALLURE // LIVE REVIEW / Sept. 2-9 Sail Away With Meee?

Hola! Just like everyone else *ever* who has done a review on here - I’m doing my review, too, because I enjoy reading them/think it’s interesting to see what others are doing. Nosy people for the win.

That being said, I’m Megan! I’m 22. My husband is 23. We both work at a Fortune 100 company. I work in IT Security/Cyber Security. Husband (Josh) does other things. I also am in graduate school full-time working on my Masters in Cyber Security, so life is a wee bit hectic. Just a lil’.

My first cruise was last year for our honeymoon (Oasis). Josh’s first cruise was several years ago on that other-cruise-line-who-shouldn’t-be-named’s- “Dream”. We promised ourselves that before we welcome miniature versions of ourselves into the world, that we would make a large attempt to travel the world we’re welcoming them into. This means multiple land trips/cruises a year. I’m heading to Germany later this year for work; we have Alaska and Cuba cruises booked, and I have a list stored in my iPhone notes that is titled “places to go before getting knocked up”.

Anyways. Things you should expect from this review: Heavy doses of sarcasm, lots of implied eyeball rolling, tons of photos, and maybe some witty comments thrown in on the side. I feel like the younger cruising crowd isn’t too active ‘round these parts, so I’ll work hard to make up for it.

Things about our cruise:

- We’re staying in a hump JS

- We both have internet (or whatever fancy shmancy term RC calls the overpriced stuff)

- We have reservations in Chops, Samba Grill, and Izumi Hibachi. We’ll also visit Sabor and probably Giovanni’s for lunch

- Contrary to 99.99% of people here, we like the buffet. We embrace the buffet. We become one with the buffet (literally)

- Husband has Deluxe Drinking Package, I have Refreshment Package (I’m not big into drinking due to a medical condition)

- We’re doing the “All Access Ship Tour” thing

- We’re staying in the Springhill Marriot Saturday night

- We don’t have any shore excursions booked. “YOLO,” as my fellow millennials might say

Well, I guess that’s about it for now. We live in the Tampa Bay area and will be driving to Fort Meyers tomorrow to stay with some friends and catch up. Saturday we’ll be in the other Fort of Florida, Fort Lauderdale (duah). Sunday we do the board of the ship.

And because I like to picture who I’m reading about, here’s a photo of us (except my hair is black/magenta now [we’re not super photographic people so my photos that are decent of both of us together are slim]):

P.S. - We have family traveling with us as well this time. I doubt they would want to be named/photo-appearance’d in the review, so I’ll just make up names for them as we go along. Or something.

Thanks for readinggg, and I’m excited to have you with me.

Oh, and our doggo Bella is excited you’re here, too:

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I'm thrilled to be looking forward to another "Live" review of Allure. My cruise isn't until next July so I'm enjoying following along on others' trips. I have been enjoying Andrew and Lisa's cruise and was wondering what I would do when it ended. Now I have your review to look forward to. Have a wonderful time and tell us all about it!

Have a wonderful time. I enjoy reading reviews

I'm thrilled to be looking forward to another "Live" review of Allure. My cruise isn't until next July so I'm enjoying following along on others' trips. I have been enjoying Andrew and Lisa's cruise and was wondering what I would do when it ended. Now I have your review to look forward to. Have a wonderful time and tell us all about it!

I've been enjoying Andrew's review, as well! Enjoy *ALL* the reviews! Woot.

Oh I’m definitely following along for this

*high-five's* Let's go! :)

Have a wonderful time. I enjoy reading reviews

Thank yoooou! I do too. Mostly because I'm nosy, but also because they're interesting.

Love it so far! Can’t wait to read more!

Can't wait to hear more!

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Things to finish tonight before leaving tomorrow:

- Un-plug all Bath and Body Works wallflowers (Google "wallflower fire") and you'll see why

- Get all of doggo's stuff together to ship her off to her babysitter (read: my mother-in-law)

- Obsessively check that our passports and documents are inside of my purse

- Bug husband about finishing charging all of the cameras that are on the outside of the house

- Apologize profusely to doggo for leaving her for 9 days

- Repeat "Obsessively check that our passports and documents are inside of my purse"

- Question myself about whether or not it's okay to eat Chipotle on the road tomorrow (Chipotle-holics, repreSENT!)

- Sleep

....and with this, I'm signing off for the night. Because, responsible adult. Night, everyoooone. Tomorrow we'll be dropping off the doggo, trying not to cry about dropping off the doggo, and heading down to Fort Meyers (roughly 2 hour drive) to see friends. Relatively un-eventful, but with my luck, I'll have something to report back.

You remind me a little of my husband and I from many moons ago before we had kids. Good for you for traveling a bunch before you have them! We are so glad we adventured for years before we had ours. We will be following along with your review in anticipation of our first Allure adventure (with kids!) in October.

Following! Look forward to reading your perspective!

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Bon Voyage and have a wonderful cruise. I will be following your exploits.....:):):)

Bob

Following... My husband, son and I will be on Allure in three weeks, on the 23rd, celebrating our baby boy's big 21st bday! :DWe are interested in the ship tour, so eager to here all about it.

We too will be joining you on the Allure. Our day tomorrow will start out at 4am in Washington State for the flights to Miami. My daughter is providing a place to crash for two nights in exchange for her mother spending huge amounts of my bank account on her future apparel. I hope to even see her more than a few minutes as her time is all taken up in school.

Sunday, bright and semi-not late we will board for a great week of well needed relaxation. If you happen to see the dead guy on deck, it’s just me catching up on my sleep [emoji99]

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Looking forward to your review---it'll keep me from going crazy for the next two weeks until we board Oasis! Have a great time!

Ahhh, we'll see you onboard! We're on this sailing too!

Was that a Christmas wedding? Gorgeous!

Take care of Allure. We got next in 6 weeks. Thx for doing a LIVE review.

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My DD and I be sailing with you. See you in a few days.

Following along, we are on the 9-16-18 sailing.

4:30 A.M. and I can’t sleep (despite taking Melatonin) because I’m too excited to get going. Ugh.

It’s like being 5 again on Christmas eve’s eve. Boo.

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Liking your style - sounds like this is going to be a great review!

If I can ask a favor, can you post the Showtimes at a Glance flyer? Okay, two favors, can you find out if second formal night is on the 5th or 6th night? I’m doing this same Eastern itinerary on Allure over Halloween.

Now, get to sleep! It is WAY too late for us to be up! :)

~ Judy

Will be following and asking questions!

Thanks for bringing us along!

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Gf and I are on this sailing with you [emoji6][emoji568]

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So—... I’m pretty sure multi-quoting from the iPhone Cruise Critic app is not possible? Or does someone know a way? I’m a noob, I know. Forgive me. If I can’t do multi-quote from the phone, I’ll just respond old-school ways with an “@username” type ordeal. *shrugs*

Anyways. I wanted to mention up front that this is a multi-generation cruise (family-wise). I’ll have - of course - myself and Josh to report on, and then my FIL and his wife are in their 50’s, and then FIL’s father in law is also coming (FIL inception omg) and he’s in his... late 70’s? Early 80’s? He was stationed in Puerto Rico during a war - I cannot recall which - and has not returned since. So needless to say, he’s stoked to see the changes. Also, FIL’s wife’s daughter is coming too. She’s... late 20’s? Early 30’s? Here is the room break down:

1. JS Hump 14th floor: Megan + Josh

2. JS 14th floor: FIL (mine) + his wife

3. Central Park Balcony 14th floor: FIL’s FIL and late 20-something year old.

I think from here on out I’ll refer to my FIL’s wife as C, my FIL’s FIL as F^2, and C’s daughter as A.

I know that’s confusing. I’m sorry. I never was good at math.

Point being - we’ve got quite a few age groups here where I’d be happy to speak to their thoughts/ease of getting around/enjoyment of certain activities. Perspective is always something I like to read about. So if your 80- year old Nana is coming along for her first cruise and you want me to compare what F^2 is doing, let me know. I gotchyoo.

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@Laurasue: Yes! We definitely think it is important to get the traveling in before kids. Something about it being a lot harder and more expensive to travel with them. *shrugs* But no, really, we’re so young we just wanna make some phenomenal memories before we’re sentenced to diaper duty and sanitizing binkies, haha. Thank you for following along! Is Allure your first Oasis-class cruise? We cruised Oasis last year in early October and loved it. [emoji7]

@CreativeCruiser119: Thank you! Let me know if you have any questions!

@Woobstr112G: Thank you so much! I really appreciate the well wishes. :)

@Highrollers: 21, woot! How stoked is he?!! Will he have the Deluxe Bev Package, haha? As for the ship tour - I’m incredibly curious about what happens behind the scenes, so I’m super excited. However, I’ve read some reviews as of late that say the tours aren’t as good as they used to be/not as much bang for your buck. Considering I don’t know “how the tours used to be,” I’m hoping we’ll still be intrigued/find everything engaging and interesting. I’ll definitely report back on our thoughts. I think we go Day #3? *scratches head*

@Skakly: Yay! I’ll look for a dead guy. I have magenta hair - say hullo if you see me! And that’s an extremely long voyage to take. I admire you! Is your daughter at U Miami? I have several friends attending grad school there. I’m at USF, myself.

@Kathimac123: 2 weeks will be here and gone before you know it! Glad to have you along. :)

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