Allure March 20-27, review and pics!!

[sharod]

This is my first review to ever write, so please bear with me!!! Traveling was my husband and I, and our BFF's Ron and Kathy.

 

 

Pre-cruise hotel – Best Western Airport/Cruiseport, very nice for a budget hotel. Booked back in July of 2010 for a price of $142.00 for 4 adults in 1 room. Right next door is a McDonald's, a strip mall with a Dollar type store, grocery store, Wendy's, etc. When we booked, shuttle was free to the port. It now costs $8 per person. We took the first shuttle out and was at the port by 10:00.

 

 

Port Everglades – Check in was a breeze, maybe 20 minutes to check in and have your boarding photo taken. We then went upstairs to a sitting area to wait to board. We boarded at around 10:45, easy peasy!!!

 

 

First impressions – WOW!!!!! Huge and magnificent!!! We went straight to the Park Cafe to get the famous roast beef sandwich. It was delicious! We back later in the week in indulge in one again. They also make salads for you. You pick out what you want in it, mix it all together, and add your choice of dressing. Also very tasty! Different premade sandwiches, cups of mixed fruit, chips are here also.

 

 

Stateroom – We had a category D8, room 8568. Plenty of room, but smaller than the balcony cabin we had on the Freedom. We had the balcony divider between our room and our friends opened immediately. The bed was very comfortable, some of the best sleep I have had in a long time!!! Shower a good size, nice foot rest for us ladies to use to shave our legs. Joel was our stateroom attendant and did an outstanding job of maintaining our stateroom.

 

 

Shows – Chicago, must not be our kind of show, it was just ehhh. The actual performers were great, don't get me wrong. Heard mixed reviews from other people, some liked it, some not so much. Ocean Aria, GREAT show. Can't give enough praise for these performers!!! The diving, dancing, and trampoline work is incredible! Not to be missed! Ice Games, another great show. The Headliner – The Unexpected Boys. It is a musical featuring the works of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. We all very much enjoyed this production. Their singing and entertaining was great! I highly recommend seeing this show. Comedy Show – they were very entertaining. They basically feed off of the audience to perform.

 

 

Food – Never used any of the specialty restaurants, so can't comment on them. We ate in the Windjammer for breakfast for all days but one. It is buffet style. Food was good. But, it gets very crowded. Sometimes hard to find a seat, especially on port days were everyone is eating close to the same time so that they can get off the ship. The one morning we ate at Johnny Rockets. Breakfast is free. We ordered from the menu and had our breakfast in about 10 minutes. It was tasty a nice break from the busy Windjammer. Every dinner was at the main dining room. We had MTD, with no reservations. The longest wait we had was on the second formal night (lobster night). We waited for maybe 10 minutes or so to be seated. Other than that night, we were seated within 2 minutes. No issues with the food, it was all very tasty!!! Everything was served at the proper temperature and seasoned nicely. I was just happy that I didn't have to cook and clean dishes!!! The dining room staff is amazing!!! If you have Maryna, a lovely young lady, as your waiter, you will be very well taken care of. Her assistant, Mohammad, also did an excellent job! We also made friends with Dan, another assistant waiter. We liked to talk motorcycles with him. Our head waiter was Anna. We enjoyed many conversations with her. I have never been on a cruise where the head waiter was so personable and spent so much time talking with you. It was great! Oh, and not really food, but drink of the day, I have got to tell you that the Guava berry colander was remarkable!!!!!

 

 

Activities – Zipline, a lot of fun. Line goes fast, as does the ride itself. Just remember to wear socks and shoes. No open toed shoes. They do have shoes there that you can use, but don't forget the socks. Flow rider, a lot of fun. Longer line than the Zip line, but watching the other riders makes the time go fast. Our friends had a great time playing miniature golf.

 

 

Ports – Nassau, only went into port to buy bath and body essentials, as my one suitcase never made it to my room, and have not seen it since. St Thomas, guys went SCUBA diving, girls went jewelry shopping. At Cardow's jewelry store, I scored a pink sapphire and diamond ring. My BFF scored a pair of Alexandrite earrings and a Tanzanite bracelet. They were a very nice store to deal with. St Martin, we did Bernard's tour. WONDERFUL!!!! We had “Slim” for our guide, everyone on the tour enjoyed him. We stopped at a nice beach were there was a tower you could climb. And there was a local fellow with live urchins and starfish that you could hold. We then stopped at Orient Beach, beautiful!!! Maho beach, Sunset Grill serves up great bar food. The hamburger was huge and tasty, as was the fries. The planes coming in overhead was quite exciting!!!!

 

 

On board shopping. Citizen's Eco-Drive watches are a good price. Both my husband and I bought new watches. Came home to check the prices here in the States, and yes, we saved considerable money. But, I met a lady that bought the same watch that I did, except she bought it in St Thomas, and the price was $50 less than the ship price. Bought cologne and perfume on board (only due to what the next paragraph explains), less expensive than at home, and no sales tax.

 

 

We took time in the evening, after dark, to just sit in Central Park. There are round bubble lights the light up different colors and in different sequences that put on quite a show. We sat there one night so long that we found out it shut off at 12:30.

 

 

Dazzles night club, the music I grew up with. Spent several evenings there.

 

 

Casino, yes you can smell smoke on the non-smoking side. This coming from a smoker. But I never smelled it up in the Promenade like I have read in other reviews.

 

 

The week goes by soooo fast, dang those darn day of the week plates in the elevators!!!! It was a wonderful cruise!!! I really have no negatives except for one. My one piece of luggage never made it to my stateroom. All my cosmetics, shampoo/conditioner, lotions, hairdryer, electric razor, perfume, cologne, a few pieces of clothing, etc, all never to be seen again. I did file a report at guest services. They did give me a credit to my account. But now I am in the process of filing a claim with my travel insurance.

 

 

Oh, and if you need to do early check-in for a flight home, there are 2 kiosks at the front of guest services. You can print out your boarding passes. The machines were being a little fickle while we were there. A few people would get partway through the process, even as far as clicking “print” for their boarding passes, and the computer would totally kick them out. They had to start completely over.

 

 

Hope you enjoyed my review!!!!

 

Adult Solarium

 

Entrance to Central Park

 

Central Park from above

 

Central Park

 

Bar in Cental Park

 

Seats in Central Park that you want to sit in while watching the "bubble light" show

[sharod]

More pics!!!

 

The famous roast beef sandwich in the Park Cafe

 

Getting ready for Ocean Aria

 

Ice skating show

 

The only Starbucks at sea

 

Front of statue on the Promanade

 

Back of same statue

[dotcomgirl]

Thanks for the review! Makes me even more excited for our upcoming cruise!

 

Just wondering, on Bernard's tour, about how long did you spend at Orient and how long at Maho?

[sharod]

Even more pics

 

Aft

 

Interactive screen

 

Yes, we got chocolates on our pillows

 

The Captain's Harley. Interesting to us as we are Harley riders.

 

Towel animal

 

And another one

[sharod]

Can you stand a few more???

 

Docked in St Thomas

 

Sea urchin

 

Hubby grabbing a cold one on our Benard tour

 

Orient beach sign

 

Plane landing at Maho beach

 

Sunset grill at Maho beach

[sharod]

More, more, more!

 

Slim, our Bernard's tour guide

 

Rainbow in St Thomas

 

Our fella's snorkeling before SCUBA

 

Rising Tide bar

 

Drinking on the Rising Tide bar

 

Flow Rider

[sharod]

Almost done!

 

I thought the reflection was cool

 

Friday, 2nd formal night, is lobster night

 

Ladies, here is the bar in the shower to help you shave your legs

 

The "Babbling Brook's morning show, it is a hoot!

 

Cupcake you can make in cupcake class

 

Carousel on the Boardwalk

[sharod]

Thanks for the review! Makes me even more excited for our upcoming cruise!

 

Just wondering, on Bernard's tour, about how long did you spend at Orient and how long at Maho?

 

Glad you enjoyed!!!

 

The times you can spend I believe can vary on your driver. We spent 1 1/2 hours at Orient beach, and 1 hour at Maho beach.

[lizmit]

Thanks Sharon that was a great review & really nice pictures. I can't wait to board her in 6 more days!!!!

~ Liz

[Calker]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with all of us. Your review and pictures were great.

[BrianAlt]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

[LBumb]

amazing photos

[joecat]

Great review and awesome pics!!!! Now I really can't wait until November!!

[cruzincouple2011]

Really enjoyed looking at all your photos....I could even stand looking at MORE!!!

 

The two ladies in the pictures have GOT to be sisters...if not twins?

Am I right??

[Cruising89143]

Very nice and thanks for sharing those great photos. I agree with you about Chicago. We really enjoyed Hairspray on the Oasis but Chicago could not end fast enough for us. The performers were very talented but the show moved too slow. We will skip it in June.

 

One thing that we will miss in June is the other ships in port. We will be by ourself all week.

[CleoPat]

Thanks for your review and great photos! One question: do I see TWO lobster tails on your plate? Did you have to ask for them or was it automatically two?

[sharod]

I am glad everyone is enjoying:)! Thank you for the compliments.

 

Really enjoyed looking at all your photos....I could even stand looking at MORE!!!

 

The two ladies in the pictures have GOT to be sisters...if not twins?

Am I right??

 

Nope, not related. We happen to work together and are best friends!!! I'll see if I can scrounge up a few more photos!

 

Thanks for your review and great photos! One question: do I see TWO lobster tails on your plate? Did you have to ask for them or was it automatically two?

 

They usually serve one at a time. Just ask and they will plate two of them. A lot of the plates that were coming out of the galley had two on them. You also get several tiger shrimp with them. After my hubby had eaten his two, our waiter asked if he wanted more. A few minutes later she returned with two more of them:eek:!!!!

[BillOh]

This is my first review to ever write, so please bear with me!!!

 

I usually manage to find value in every review, and so far so good. Yours is the earliest boarding I have heard! Great pictures, back to reading.

 

Did you enjoy Bernard's tour? We have that one booked, and I am totally looking forward to Maho Beach.

 

Outstanding job on the photos, I'm guessing you have a medium quality snap and go type digitial camera, but you have an excellent eye for photos and would probably love a high end camera like I will probably be able to talk my wife into buying once our first grandchild is on the way.

[sharod]

I usually manage to find value in every review, and so far so good. Yours is the earliest boarding I have heard! Great pictures, back to reading.

 

I agree, it was an early boarding. But I wasn't complaining!

 

 

A few more pics

 

Drink of the day glasses

 

Miniature golf

 

Hanging artwork between the elevators

 

Iguana in St Thomas

 

Casino

 

Formal night on the Boardwalk

[sharod]

Outstanding job on the photos, I'm guessing you have a medium quality snap and go type digitial camera, but you have an excellent eye for photos and would probably love a high end camera like I will probably be able to talk my wife into buying once our first grandchild is on the way.

 

I would love a DSLR!!! Actually was looking at them in one of the ports. My fav camera right now is my Canon S3IS. It is probably around 6 yrs old and has alot of miles on it!!! It is about as close to a DSLR you can get with still being a p&s. Maho was taken with this camera. I knew I could pull off some decent plane photos with it. Most of the other pics were taken with a Canon Powershot SD780IS. It takes okay pics. The reason that I used this one a lot is because it is very small and quite convenient to carry around. The S3IS is much larger.

 

A grandchild is a great reason to take a step up:D:D!!

 

Oops, forgot to add, we LOVED Bernard's tour. "Slim" was our guide. He was very informative AND humerous!! My kind of combination! We did meet Bernard and speak with him a little after our tour was over.

[will773]

Your pictures are so great! Glad you had a terrific trip!

[nenner1]

Sharon,

 

Thanks you for the wonderful review and pictures, it is very helpful and it looks like you had an amazing cruise!! :D

 

I have (and still use) the Canon Powershot S3IS, and I still get remarks on how good the photos are. One person even asked me for advice on settings and lenses (ha ha, I rock "AUTO"), it really is a good camera!

 

I am wondering if we will feel the same as you about CHICAGO. I tried watching the movie recently and I fell asleep. I'm sure we will check it out onboard anyway but I will level my expectations.

 

Thanks so much for sharing your experience!

[danzur]

This pic of the Flowrider seems odd....is the FlowRider double sided now? 2 riders can go at the same time as there is a divider in the middle?

 

 

Flow Rider

[sharod]

This pic of the Flowrider seems odd....is the FlowRider double sided now? 2 riders can go at the same time as there is a divider in the middle?

 

 

Flow Rider

 

Yes, the Flow Rider is divided in half.

[jacksmom09]

Enjoying your review and pictures!:D