Allure of the seas review May 22-29. *LONG*, with pictures

[TriGator]

Hey, it's my flow riding friends! :-) My dad and I were on the flowrider with you guys the morning in Cozumel. You are definitely right that we were spoiled that morning. We stayed for nearly an hour as well and never waited in line. It made it very hard to wait in the line the next day when it was much more crowded. Great review! Sounds like you guys really enjoyed your vacation!

[LTyler]

Gotta be done! Sadly none of our pictures came out, our camera is rubbish at "huge moving objects at night" shots!

 

LOL you have a good husband my husband would never get to the beach that early LOL but i'll be out on my balcony that morning LOL!! You should try OASIS next! :):)

[Chester & Brewster]

LOL you have a good husband my husband would never get to the beach that early LOL but i'll be out on my balcony that morning LOL!! You should try OASIS next! :):)

LOL! It was his idea! Actually, for us a 4.30am get up at the start of a trip isn't too bad as we're 5 hours ahead, so it wasn't as much of a sacrifice as it sounds! It was worth it, for the turtle nests as much as the ship.

 

We were talking about an Oasis trip today.......

[Chester & Brewster]

Hey, it's my flow riding friends! :-) My dad and I were on the flowrider with you guys the morning in Cozumel. You are definitely right that we were spoiled that morning. We stayed for nearly an hour as well and never waited in line. It made it very hard to wait in the line the next day when it was much more crowded. Great review! Sounds like you guys really enjoyed your vacation!

 

Hello! I remember; your husband was sat taking pictures of you. Hope he got some good ones. We had a ball, hope you did too!

[Chester & Brewster]

I forgot to share our cruise workout secret with you all, forget the gym, do the stairs! We didn't go in an elevator all week; so if anyone would like a full description of the artwork featured in the starboard aft stairwell, I'm your girl :D

Thanks for all the nice comments. Glad you enjoyed the review & hope it helps with the post cruise depression or pre cruise anticipation!

I'll try to add more photos on Monday; I'm working & it's a bank holiday ;)

[LTyler]

LOL! It was his idea! Actually, for us a 4.30am get up at the start of a trip isn't too bad as we're 5 hours ahead, so it wasn't as much of a sacrifice as it sounds! It was worth it, for the turtle nests as much as the ship.

 

We were talking about an Oasis trip today.......

 

great you will LOVEEE Oasis I'm going back on her next year!! :D

[BillOh]

I forgot to share our cruise workout secret with you all, forget the gym, do the stairs! We didn't go in an elevator all week; so if anyone would like a full description of the artwork featured in the starboard aft stairwell, I'm your girl :D

 

Below is your girl if you want the description of the forward starboard artwork. You are getting a lot of thanks from people who enjoyed your review and are looking forward to going. Let me add to that and say I enjoyed reliving my cruise through your review. Thanks for taking the time.

 

[justluv2cruisewithhubby]

Great review, I love the day by day breakdown and the photos. I am very excited to learn that early comers on the flowrider have extra time, I have made a note to self. We are sailing Allure in 90 days but who's counting ;)

[Chester & Brewster]

OK, so yesterday was way busier than I expected, but here's a few more pictures:

 

Rock climbing wall

 

The Boardwalk. That's Johnny Rocket's outdoor seating in the background

 

Sailaway Margaritas

 

Sailaway party in the Aqua Theatre (looking down from deck 11 aft public balcony)

 

Sailaway, with view of Fort Lauderdale

[Chester & Brewster]

A few more:

 

Enthusiastic farewell from construction workers in Falmouth

 

Yes, the Flowrider turns were so long there was time for a chat in the middle!

 

Chicken Tacos from Tiki Tok in Cozumel

 

H20 zone. There was only approx 500 kids on this sailing.

 

Ceiling Art in the Boardwalk entrance

[darceyg3]

WOW, your my kinda guys, what a fantastic review. We're booked August'12 can't wait.... Can I ask you some questions privately? No worries if don't want to.

 

Thanks

 

Darceyg

[LTyler]

great pictures I'd like one of those sailaway drinks now!!

[Chester & Brewster]

WOW, your my kinda guys, what a fantastic review. We're booked August'12 can't wait.... Can I ask you some questions privately? No worries if don't want to.

 

Thanks

 

Darceyg

 

Of course. You can email me at chesterandbrewster @ eircom.net

[Stags14]

Cozumel does seem to be the prime port for that, must be the timezone. I'll have to read back to see if you were on the starboard side.

 

Timezone and the beach waiters that literally pour tequila down your throat from the bottle... well, the restaurant waiters do that too at carlos n charlies :D. I have never been able to walk a straight line while getting back on in Cozumel... love the place!

 

And excellent review!!

[Chester & Brewster]

Update - We found out on Friday what the extra $30 charge to our credit card was: "it was the complementary cruise in review DVD you received from guest services"

Me: "what DVD? I didn't get a DVD, and if it was complementary, why is there a charge on my account?"

Agent: "Er................"

To get it refunded we had to threaten to go to our credit card company & dispute the whole charge. They did agree to it in the end. Crazy!

[DENISECENTROCRUSIN]

Fri 27th May - Cozumel

Fail. The only morning we didn't make it to the gym, so we had a lie in til 7.30! Solarium bistro for breakfast wasn't up to much, so we headed off to the Flowrider for our now regular 9am appointment. We were the only 2 people there for a whole hour, yes we had the Flowrider to ourselves!

 

 

We changed into dry clothes & had a go on the zip line, which was fun, but a whole lot of effort getting harnessed up for a 5 second thril!

 

 

Off to town in a taxi to shop, we bought a grand total of 2 beer coolers & a beach bag! We mooched around the shops, Paul continued his quest to find the perfect Tag watch, but didn’t find it. We had lunch at Tiki Tok, same as last year & thoroughly enjoyed it. Their shrimp tacos are gorgeous.

 

 

Back to the pier for a bottle of duty free Bombay sapphire – a bargain for us at $14, then back to the ship running back to the ship!

We had a couple of hours out on the deck, and spent an entertaining 10 minutes watching the latecomers running down the dock just before sailaway!

 

 

Tonight was our one & only speciality restaurant booking – 150 Central Park. We booked once we were onboard, and most of the restaurants were either fully booked or unsuitable times for us, so we chose 150 Central Park for 8pm at a cost of $35 per head.

There are 2 different menus; menu A ran Sun, Mon & Tues & menu B was Wed, Thur, Fri & Sat. We had menu B

• Chilled white & green asparagus

• Smoked tomato soup with BLT

• Pea ravioli

• Seared Tuna

• Wagyu striploin

• Rhubarb cake

• Cheese plate

 

We didn’t do the wine pairing, as we still had a few bottles left on our wine package, so we had a bottle of white, and a bottle of red. We also had a bottle of sparkling Pellegrino water & 2 espressos to finish (extra charge). Our waiter was great, I didn’t get his name because no-one in 150 Central Park would wear anything as unsophisticated as a name badge! Chef Molly Brandt had just returned to the ship that day, and she came around for a chat with every table.

The food was lovely. The smoked tomato soup was outstanding, but the tuna dish only average. It was beautifully cooked, but the tuna didn’t seem to go with the rest of the ingredients on the plate.

 

We were on the Allure sailing and we watched you both on the flowrider. I may have even videotaped you. I will have to check and see! Those Cozumel late runners were me and my girls!! The taxi driver dropped us off at the pier with Carnival!! Talk about panic!!!

[Chester & Brewster]

We were on the Allure sailing and we watched you both on the flowrider. I may have even videotaped you. I will have to check and see! Those Cozumel late runners were me and my girls!! The taxi driver dropped us off at the pier with Carnival!! Talk about panic!!!

 

Oh no! Can't believe he took you to the wrong place. The very last 4 were 2 men & 2 women, so maybe you were only second to last ;)

 

Let me know if you have any decent flowrider film of us, I never seem to manage to get any!

[QTMichele]

Great review and pictures. :) THANKS so much for sharing with us.

[Chester & Brewster]

Great review and pictures. :) THANKS so much for sharing with us.

 

Thaks, I enjoyed your review too. My inspiration :D

[QTMichele]

Thaks, I enjoyed your review too. My inspiration :D

 

What a nice thing to say! Thanks so much. :) gotta love these boards. :)

[SeasickSusie]

I've been on the Allure and am going back in 3 weeks. Great ship and your day by day account was great fun to read. All the memories came back and I can't wait to go back. This is my first attempt at a posting of any kind on Cruise Critic. Cheers!:)

[maxs mom]

Enjoyed your review. I like to do these, too! We had a lot of fun on the Allure back in April, so it was great to see your pictures. Glad you found the secret balcony on 11.......great spot!

[Just The 3 Of Us]

Fantastic review and pictures. Thanks so much for sharing...

[honkyjay]

Thanks for a great review and pics, we are going on our first cruise which is on the Allure in sept, quick question did you have to pay to use the gym/sauna/steamroom ? thanks

[terpfan101]

Thanks for the review. You were on two weeks before me and I'm currently writing a review here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1652166

 

A couple interesting things I noticed from your review...your bed had two green pillows on it whereas ours did not. A bit strange but I guess not a bad thing as I can't imagine those pillows are too clean. Still wonder why the difference.

 

Also with 150 Central Park, I'm not sure if you had the same set of menus as we did or if it changed, ours was the summer season menu. I went with the first set as we ate there on night 4 and it was great but had been torn between the two menus. Also lucky you got to meet Chef Molly. I asked our server about her and she said she wasn't onboard and how Molly is now like the head chef for the whole cruiseline. Pretty neat!

 

Regards,

 

Jeremy