Review from the airplane...just off the Allure 5/8/11

[katranby]

Just quick background...we just got off the Allure and it was our first cruise. We are both in our thirties and were celebrating our 7th anniversary.

 

We stayed at the Marriott Beach Harbor Resort the night before and it was stunning. What a beautiful hotel...everything about it was perfect and Fort Lauderdale truly has beautiful beaches.

 

Some of our favorite things about the ship...

Solarium...we have two young boys so this was our time to relax and we took full advantage in the solarium. It is beautiful and the views are amazing and you forget you are on a huge ship with tons of people! The only advice was get there early on sea days...it was very hard to find a spot between 10 and 2.

Chops...truly an amazing restaurant. The food was excellent and made everything else on our cruise just "okay!" It was so good that we tried to go again but it was full...so book early!!!

Balcony...since this was our first cruise, we didn't know what to expect but it was so nice to have this, especially on port days. It always reminded me we were at sea and at times, was so peaceful and beautiful! It was also fun being out there when we sailed from ports.

Shows...they were all truly wonderful. Our favorites were the aqua show and blue planet but the ice show was excellent and Chicago was good. The talent is amazing and we were very impressed!

 

Other things we liked...

Park Cafe...did have great sandwiches, paninis and salads.

Sorrentos...okay, so maybe not the best pizza ever but when can I eat a full dinner and find pizza waiting for me a few hours later! It was always a fun snack!!!

I didn't try the hotdog place but my husband loved it and was upset he didn't try it until the last day.

 

Room...

Deck 7696...We felt the room had everything we needed and was very comfortable. The TV was much better than expected and you could always find something to watch. Our stateroom attendant was perfect. We loved deck 7 and thought it was very convenient to everything! It was nice to take the stairs often to eat or to the boardwalk/promenade.

 

Port...

We enjoyed our champagne sail in St. Thomas to see St. John's and spend most of the day at Maho beach at Sunset bar in St. Maarten...which was fun to see the airplanes coming in and the beach was beautiful. The only recommendation is to print out research if you are looking for something specific at port. We wanted to find an internet cafe to email and check on our kids and it was very hard to find. If you are looking for one in St. Maarten, there is a really nice one right before you get on the water taxi at the port...we went to a terrible one downtown!

All in all, it was a wonderful ship and a surreal experience! I am sure we will try a few other ships but it is hard to think of not having all of the neighborhoods and extras that the Allure has to offer!

[AF-1]

Glad u enjoyed Allure; thank you for the quick review. I also stayed at the Marriott in Jan, our balcony overlooked the port; so we watched the ships leave on Sat, and come back on Sunday. We stayed in Boardwalk balcony.