Allure Trip Journal with Pics - June 5-12/11 (Solo!)

This will likely take me a few days to post, so feel free to read my last trip journal from the Liberty a few months ago in the meantime, here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1360146

First off, a little bit of background info:

I'm in my mid-20's, and this was my 4th Royal Caribbean cruise (and 4th cruise overall). It also happened to be my first solo cruising experience. Any nervousness that I experienced going on the largest ship in the world by myself was overpowered by my excitement.

Day 1: Fort Lauderdale Embarkation

The ship is so huge that I could see it very clearly from the plane.

My flight landed in FLL around 10:30, and I was able to get a taxi quickly and headed to Port Everglades. The taxi cost was $14.90 plus tip for 1 person, however the driver seemed to take a longer route from FLL, passing the port and the ship, and entering from the far end. I believe it might have been less had he taken the first exit off the highway. Oh well. Upon arriving at Port Everglades, I was surprised by the lack of porters running to help me with my luggage once the taxi driver pulled it out of the trunk. In fact, I walked by the entire row of porters and they all stood there talking to each other and nobody felt the need to help me. I ended up putting it on a cart myself and praying that it would actually get to my room - no biggie, an extra $2 in my pocket!

Terminal 18 is very well organized and I was through both security and check-in with my seapass in hand within 5 minutes of entering. Unfortunately by this time, it was only 11:00am and they hadn’t started boarding yet. Everyone was seated in rows of seats in order of arrival, and boarding started at 11:35. My row was able to board at approximately 11:50. Embarkation was very smooth with this row by row approach, and I didn't get run over by any stampedes of hungry cruisers.

Here is the ship from the gangway:

My first impression once I walked into the Royal Promenade was it’s size! It was HUGE compared to those on the Liberty and Explorer. Here are some pictures from my first walk through it:

Under the Rising Tide Bar:

Since the rooms would not be ready until 1pm, I checked the restaurant stats on one of the interactive touch screens around the ship.

I headed to Park Café on deck 8 in Central Park for a famous roast beef sandwich. I decided to get a salad first, but by the time I got my salad made, there was a line up out the door for the sandwiches, so I gave up, grabbed a table, and ate my delicious salad.

I then wandered around Central Park, amazed at how big and beautiful it was.

I then wandered around the ship for a while, and was "wow"ed by many things, including the Boardwalk. On my way in from the ship, I saw the progression of the carousel horses from stage 1, to the completed form. Here are a few pictures:

The Boardwalk is such a neat area to have on a ship, and Royal Caribbean definitely did it very well! The atmosphere is wonderful.

I even met the captain!

I can't wait to read and see more of your pictures from your review. Thanks for posting.:)

I grabbed a hot dog at the Dog House in place of the roast beef sandwich, (I had the Coney Island, which is all beef) and it was just “okay” - It didn’t quite live up to the hype, probably because they’re not barbecued on an actual grill.

Cabins were supposed to be ready at 1pm, but I walked down the hall to my “large interior stateroom” at 1:05 and found that the room attendant still had all of the doors open and was not ready yet. He asked me to come back in 10 minutes, so I left and walked around, and returned 30 minutes later and he still wasn’t ready. I gave up and dropped off my carry-on in the closet and went off on my way for a little while. Eventually when I returned, the room was ready but the connecting door had been left open (and requires a key to close and lock it), and the safe had been locked in the open position so I was unable to use it. I called maintenance for the safe, and the room attendant for the door, and both were resolved within 15 minutes. Here is the room:

Unfortunately my neighbors, a family of 4 (yes, in an interior room!) were quite loud with yelling and slamming doors all day, and probably didn’t even realize it. I was worried about having to deal with this for the next week.

My luggage showed up around 3:00 as I was about to head out again, so I decided to unpack. Unfortunately I found that while the storage was adequate for 1 person, there was less space compared with the other ships I have been on. No problem though, I’m only 1 person and I found a home for everything. I would imagine 2 people would be fine as well, although beyond that, I’m not so sure.

I then hung out in the solarium for a while and relaxed, sipping on a Miami Vice.

My drink was interrupted by the alarms for the Muster Drill though, so off I went with my drink in hand to my muster station on deck 4 in the Amber Theatre. This was way less painful than past cruises where we had to stand outside in the heat, and it was more helpful as we could actually see and hear the safety video rather than the captain’s muffled voice.

I grabbed a hot dog at the Dog House in place of the roast beef sandwich, (I had the Coney Island, which is all beef) and it was just “okay” - It didn’t quite live up to the hype, probably because they’re not barbecued on an actual grill.

Cabins were supposed to be ready at 1pm, but I walked down the hall to my “large interior stateroom” at 1:05 and found that the room attendant still had all of the doors open and was not ready yet. He asked me to come back in 10 minutes, so I left and walked around, and returned 30 minutes later and he still wasn’t ready. I gave up and dropped off my carry-on in the closet and went off on my way for a little while. Eventually when I returned, the room was ready but the connecting door had been left open (and requires a key to close and lock it), and the safe had been locked in the open position so I was unable to use it. I called maintenance for the safe, and the room attendant for the door, and both were resolved within 15 minutes. Here is the room:

Unfortunately my neighbors, a family of 4 (yes, in an interior room!) were quite loud with yelling and slamming doors all day, and probably didn’t even realize it. I was worried about having to deal with this for the next week.

 

My luggage showed up around 3:00 as I was about to head out again, so I decided to unpack. Unfortunately I found that while the storage was adequate for 1 person, there was less space compared with the other ships I have been on. No problem though, I’m only 1 person and I found a home for everything. I would imagine 2 people would be fine as well, although beyond that, I’m not so sure.

I then hung out in the solarium for a while and relaxed, sipping on a Miami Vice.

My drink was interrupted by the alarms for the Muster Drill though, so off I went with my drink in hand to my muster station on deck 4 in the Amber Theatre. This was way less painful than past cruises where we had to stand outside in the heat, and it was more helpful as we could actually see and hear the safety video rather than the captain’s muffled voice.

On the same cruise had to call maintenance for the safe, too.

Do you think it's about getting a tip for 'fixing' the safe?

At the end of the cruise we did not receive our SeaPass charges as promised. We were Express Exit and spied the stateroom charges for many staterooms stacked on the attendant's cart in the hallway.

Thank goodness, we printed out charges the night before!

On the same cruise had to call maintenance for the safe, too.

 

Do you think it's about getting a tip for 'fixing' the safe?

 

At the end of the cruise we did not receive our SeaPass charges as promised. We were Express Exit and spied the stateroom charges for many staterooms stacked on the attendant's cart in the hallway.

 

Thank goodness, we printed out charges the night before!

We were on the same sailing and I had to call twice for the safe. Both times I couldn't open it...and my stuff was in it!!! :rolleyes: Looks like they need to check out all the safes on there. It never occurred to me to tip the guy :o

 

 

Cabins were supposed to be ready at 1pm, but I walked down the hall to my “large interior stateroom” ...

Here is the room:

 

 

 

Is this actually a large interior cabin (at 172 square feet), or the smaller Category Q version which is around 149 square feet? What room number is it?

I didn't tip the guy who came for the safe... I didn't choose to need it fixed! :) I didn't tip the man who came to lock the connecting door either. I DID tip for room service though, which I chose to order later in the cruise. Oh back to the safe's though, they really ARE tiny! My little 8.9" netbook just barely fit in, but the door wouldn't close so I couldn't even keep it in there. I couldn't believe how small it was in comparison to the safes on other ships. One pro though was the real garbage can in the washroom cupboard rather than the little bucket thingy on the bottom shelf. Now nobody can confuse it for a jewelry holder! ;)

Yes, the room was a "large" interior stateroom. I had booked a guarantee and was assigned to that room (I believe it was an L? It was pink on the deck plans... room 8442). I was actually moved to another room shortly after sailaway though as they "needed my room for a family" - more on that later. I was pleasantly surprised at the size of 8442 though. I've only stayed in balconies and promenade rooms and was a bit worried, but that room would have been just fine for me, being only one person, for the week.

Sorry for the delay... I'm having issues uploading my pictures (my computer is beyond slow and keeps freezing). I'll try to get some more up tomorrow afternoon so stay tuned!

Oh and just to add, these pictures were taken with a basic Fujifilm Z33 waterproof camera. I always take this one on vacation so I don't have to worry about it getting splashed on (and on this cruise, rained on!)

Cant wait to hear more!!! We sail in September on Allure!

Looking forward to hearing the story of your move to another cabin. Sounds interesting.

Enjoying your review.

Awesome pictures and review, just sailed on this mega ship first week on May, but your pictures are making me wish I was back on The Allure!

http://www.twoculturescook.com/?page_id=22

I then ran up to deck 16, to the Sky Bar to meet some other Cruise Critic members for sail away. The view from this high up was incredible, and it was a nice sail away spent meeting some new friends.

Bye Bye, Fort Lauderdale! See you in a week!

Could anyone tell me how to add photos to a post, like this one? I have a few I would like to share from my cruise last week as well. Thanks!

Oh, and great review! I can't wait to find out what happened with the room switch.

After spending some time on deck, I went back to my room and found a voice mail from the Guest Services Manager asking me to call him ASAP as he needed me to change rooms. I called him back and he explained that a large family needed my room (possibly my neighbors who were upset that their room was only set up for 2, not 4, and there was “something wrong with it”, in their words) so he wanted to know if I’d be okay moving to a central park balcony on deck 12. I thought about it, and while I’d miss my location on deck 8 near the elevators/stairs, and central park, I would now have a balcony and hopefully a quieter room without a connecting door and loud neighbors. I said yes, and he explained that they’d work around my schedule. I told him I’d like to move immediately since it was almost dinner time. I packed up my stuff again and was told he’d send someone up with a new seapass immediately, as well as housekeeping to help move my luggage and hanging clothes.

Soon after, I was in my new room, a central park balcony on deck 12, unpacking, yet again! I think it was worth it though, as this room was MUCH quieter than the other one, and hey, I had a balcony now!

Here are some pictures of my new room (12209). It felt about the same size as the interior room, although the layout was more convenient with the bed by the balcony (it made putting stuff away and getting ready easier, having the desk near the couch and closet). This room also had little bottles of lotion, shampoo, conditioner, and bodywash in the washroom, and bathrobes in the closet, whereas the other room did not. The one strange thing is that the Central Park balconies do not have lights outside, so I could not read on the balcony at night.

Note the ice bucket in the room - I did not have to ask for ice as others did on other RCI ships recently - I was automatically given ice once a day. Also while I was very excited about the iPod dock, I didn't even use it once. It was great to have a lit up clock in the room though.

My view to the left:

And to the right (I was right near the coloured bubble lights):

I had dinner in the main dining room (deck 4), late seating, and had requested a large table. I was seated at a table for 4, wondering if anyone else would show up. Eventually, my tablemates arrived - 3 people from Germany in their 30’s, I believe, whose relationships I’m still not sure about. It was a little awkward as the man didn’t speak much English and I don’t speak German, but we made it work. I had debated requesting a new (larger) table for subsequent dinners as I felt like I might have been intruding on this group, but it could be worse so for now, I decided to stick with what I have. Anyway onto more important details, I had the Vidalia Onion Tart (good, as usual, but not hot), truffled mushroom linguini alfredo (not bad, but too salty), and the sugar free blueberry and peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream (yum!). My apologies for the lack of food porn pictures - I didn’t want to send weird vibes to the group sitting with me!

Could anyone tell me how to add photos to a post, like this one? I have a few I would like to share from my cruise last week as well. Thanks!

 

Oh, and great review! I can't wait to find out what happened with the room switch.

I personally upload my pictures onto another site (I use facebook, however others use sites such as photobucket, shutterfly, picasa, etc), and then right click them on Facebook, push properties, then higlight and copy the picture link.

Then while typing a message here, click the cursor where you want the picture, then click the little icon on the top of the message box beside where you can bold your font, etc - its the little yellow box with a mountain and a square in the corner, and paste the link in there.

Hopefully that made sense! :)

After dinner was the Ocean Aria show in the aqua theatre which was incredible! The acrobats, divers, strong men, etc were all amazing! Very well done! Be sure to get there early though, as every other row has a bench instead of chairs, and the chairs fill up quickly. The first 3 rows of chairs (and the benches in front of those) have signs that they are the "splash zone", so sit further back if you want to stay dry. Also, if you sit too far back on the sides under the roof, you can't see the high diving platforms and will miss part of the show. I personally liked the row immediately behind the splash zone.

I sent a quick video postcard to my family from On Air after that and caught a glimpse of karaoke (it was hopping in there!), and headed back to my (new) room for the night. The view straight down was pretty cool as I could see through the skylight into the Royal Promenade:

I got 2 pillow chocolates tonight, but no towel animal (which my childish side looks forward to every night).

Day 2: At Sea

I woke up at 8:30 and headed to Johnny Rockets for breakfast outside. I had the potato skillet which had peppers, sausage, cheese, and potatoes in it, with a piece of French toast and some orange juice. Everything was delicious, the service was quick, and it was nice to eat outside on the Boardwalk.

Thank you so much for your great review, we are off to sail Allure on August 21st. Would you please let me know which days you had the formal dinner? This is our first cruise with RCC and I am planning our dinner nights , we also have free vochers for an especialty resturants for port days only so need to figure out which nights to book for that inorder not to miss the formal or other special dinning nights if they exist? Are there captain's late night buffet at Allure?

I appreciate any info and many thanks in advance.

I roamed around the Boardwalk for a bit after breakfast - it seems like there's something to see in every corner. I loved the distorted mirrors on the way in as well!

A fortune from Zoltar costs $1

The Aqua Theatre is WAY bigger than it appears in pictures... you have to see it for yourself.

Thank you so much for your great review, we are off to sail Allure on August 21st. Would you please let me know which days you had the formal dinner? This is our first cruise with RCC and I am planning our dinner nights , we also have free vochers for an especialty resturants for port days only so need to figure out which nights to book for that inorder not to miss the formal or other special dinning nights if they exist? Are there captain's late night buffet at Allure?

I appreciate any info and many thanks in advance.

You're going to love the Allure! Our formal dinners for the Western itinerary were Monday and Thursday. I believe they differ if you are doing an Eastern itinerary though. Also my favorite menu of the cruise is the Venetian Feast, which took place on Tuesday in the MDR. Unfortunately there was no midnight buffet on this cruise. I think there are just too many people for them to do it.