Just returned from Allure 8/21 sailing...

[DonnaK]

I'm working on my review now.

 

Does anyone have any questions, or specific things I can address?

[DonnaK]

Gee - 115 views and no one has a question, or anything they'd like to have addressed in a review??? It's so much harder to write without your direction. lol

[Cruizlovers]

Ok, I'll bite! We're on the September 11th sailing. I have read so many reviews and they are really contradictory on the "crowd" issue. What's your take? I know there are obvious crowds when a show lets out and that cannot be avoided but do you have any advice on when/were to avoid crowds? Also did you eat at Chops? How was it? What cabin did you have, how was the space and would you have upgraded if feasible? Thanks!!!

[Kimba1910]

I have a question, if you were in the solarium, do you need to wear sunblock, can you get a tan in this area with all of the glass?

[DonnaK]

Ok, I'll bite! We're on the September 11th sailing. I have read so many reviews and they are really contradictory on the "crowd" issue. What's your take? I know there are obvious crowds when a show lets out and that cannot be avoided but do you have any advice on when/were to avoid crowds? Also did you eat at Chops? How was it? What cabin did you have, how was the space and would you have upgraded if feasible? Thanks!!!

 

 

 

1. We did not eat in Chops. We figured that there were plenty of included food options so there was no need to spend more on food.

 

2. We had 10584 oceanview balcony and our kids had 10585 CP balcony, They LOVED their balcony. Ours was kind of unusable because it was way too hot and humid - we had rainy, windy, tropical weather last week due to the hurricane and the interior balconies were more sheltered from the elements. The cabins were in a good location, near the front stairs. A slightly better location, in our opinion, would have been towards the aft stairs.

 

3. Crowds were really not an issue for us. We ate most of our breakfasts at the Windjammer, and even during prime-time, there were always seats available towards the back. We ate lunch there a few times and it was the same story. The WayFinders in the stair lobbies which indicate restaurant occupancy always said that the Windjammer was full, but that was not accurate. It was only crowded on the first day during boarding.

 

There were always chairs available around the pools. Hogging was not too much of an issue, perhaps because of the towel policy making people afraid to leave them unattended on chairs.

 

We had two rain days where the captain closed the outdoor decks, and the interior of the ship still didn't seem crowded.

 

We did not encounter issues with lines for the elevators, or with lines to exit/reboard the ship in ports, or anything like that.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the crowds - there is a lot of space for all those people to disperse.

[BillOh]

Gee - 115 views and no one has a question, or anything they'd like to have addressed in a review??? It's so much harder to write without your direction. lol

 

I get something out of almost every review. I'll be curious as to how the weather affected your cruise I see you answered that somewhat, but what about on your port stops?and if you went to the comedy show how that was, ours was lame. I'll have more questions based on what you write, but rest assured, it is appreciated.

[BillOh]

I have a question, if you were in the solarium, do you need to wear sunblock, can you get a tan in this area with all of the glass?

 

I'll interject, people said you can. We only spent a few hours there, we were able to get chairs by the Beach pool most days as evidenced by my famous MEET THE ALLURE CHAIR HOGS thread that cc pulled :(

 

It was a little warmer there, but tolerable. I like the Solarium pool better on the Freedom class.

[DonnaK]

I have a question, if you were in the solarium, do you need to wear sunblock, can you get a tan in this area with all of the glass?

 

We spent a lot of time in the solarium area.

 

It was very hot there, as the glass has a greenhouse effect. I imagine that you'd still need to wear sunblock, and that you would still tan/burn under the glass.

 

We prefer shade, and there is a small shady area on the upper level of the solarium. Not many seats, but we never had a problem finding 4 empty ones. Again, it got very hot there, and it would have been nice if there were ceiling fans to circulate the air.

 

The solarium pool is very small and gets PACKED (with drunken, loud adults) and this is one of the few places where crowds were an issue for us.

[Kimba1910]

Thanks, I thought that we could relax in there since we won't have any kids with us this trip, hopefully, it's quiet during our week :)

 

We want the shade as well, I get sun poison so easily, so maybe we'll be on the upper level as well.

[DonnaK]

Thanks, I thought that we could relax in there since we won't have any kids with us this trip, hopefully, it's quiet during our week :)

 

We want the shade as well, I get sun poison so easily, so maybe we'll be on the upper level as well.

 

 

It's better (more air circulation) if you are on the outer edge of the shady area rather than further in the back where it gets more stuffy. The Solarium bistro is directly underneath, so it is really easy to run down for a beverage or snack/lunch.

[redlobster]

What nights were the formal nights on the Allure cruise?

We are going in May, 2012.

 

Thanks

[Bakincakes]

I'm working on my review now.

 

Does anyone have any questions, or specific things I can address?

 

 

After so many reviews of every ship, at some time most questions and curiosities might probably be answered.

 

Other than "personal" stories of hotel rooms..meals...and those sorts of information.

[DonnaK]

I get something out of almost every review. I'll be curious as to how the weather affected your cruise I see you answered that somewhat, but what about on your port stops?and if you went to the comedy show how that was, ours was lame. I'll have more questions based on what you write, but rest assured, it is appreciated.

 

 

The comedians were great. We had seen Phil Tag on our last cruise (on Princess), and although some of his jokes were repeated, he had some fresh stuff too. The other comedian, Rick Corso, was good too - we "met" him at an internet cafe in Nassau on the last day. Although it was given an "R rating" (18+, but 17 allowed with a parent), it wasn't too raunchy. Nothing I was embarrassed of in front of my kids (19 and 17).

 

We were supposed to go to Nassau the first day, but Capt Zini explained that we needed to skip that port otherwise we'd get cornered in there and wouldn't be able to get to St Thomas or St Maarten. He said that he'd try to pick up Nassau on the last day, but it would depend upon whether they had a berth for us and whether or not Nassau would be affected by the storm.

 

Tuesday was really bad - Capt Zini explained that we'd have to sail between 200 and 250 nautical miles from the eye of the storm in order to stay safe, but since the storm was so wide, we'd have some effects from the outer bands. We had heavy rain, strong winds and 5 meter swells. Allure handled it all very well and we hardly felt any movement at all. However, we couldn't use our balcony and the outdoor/sports decks were all closed by the Captain.

 

When we got to St. Thomas on Wednesday, it was rainy for the first 2 hours. The seas were choppy - our sail and snorkle excursion was kind of rough and we all got seasick even though we aren't prone to it.

 

Thurs (St. Maarten) and Friday (sea) were very nice, but we ended up spending most of Friday trying to make alternate arrangements to get home because we knew our flight would be canceled. RCI gave us a complementary phone call to the airline, and we were on hold for over an hour before we could even attempt to change our flight. It made it hard to enjoy the rest of the cruise, even though we tried not to obsess over what we'd encounter after we disembarked or how we'd get home.

 

Saturday, we did an afternoon call on Nassau - it was sunny when we arrived, but shortly afterwards the skies opened up with a heavy downpour that lasted several hours, with acccompanying thunder and scary lightning.

 

It was very hot and oppressively humid for most of the cruise, moreso than usual at this time of year because of the effects of the storm

[DonnaK]

What nights were the formal nights on the Allure cruise?

We are going in May, 2012.

 

Thanks

 

 

Monday and Friday

[Daghis]

Here's a question...

 

How'd you feel about getting kicked off after 7 days? Were you ready to go home or did you wish you were on a B2B? :)

 

(As much as I would have loved to stick around with Merion_Mom for another week, I was ready to go home and sleep with my cats again.)

[damosen]

The cabins were in a good location, near the front stairs. A slightly better location, in our opinion, would have been towards the aft stairs.

 

Why would you prefer been towards the aft stairs?

I have book 9556 cabin for the same itinerary and I especially ask for a one at the front of the ship. (My cabin is more forward than your cabin)

What would you recommend?

 

(excuse me if i have some mistakes)

[DonnaK]

Here's a question...

 

How'd you feel about getting kicked off after 7 days? Were you ready to go home or did you wish you were on a B2B? :)

 

(As much as I would have loved to stick around with Merion_Mom for another week, I was ready to go home and sleep with my cats again.)

 

Great question. I would have loved to be on a B2B like Merion Mom, especially since we couldn't fly home on Sunday as planned and had to spend additional time in FLL after the cruise. :)

 

Like you, we needed to get home. My daughter starts college tomorrow. And there are household things we start to worry about if we are gone longer than 10 days or so.

[DonnaK]

Why would you prefer been towards the aft stairs?

I have book 9556 cabin for the same itinerary and I especially ask for a one at the front of the ship. (My cabin is more forward than your cabin)

What would you recommend?

 

(excuse me if i have some mistakes)

 

I thought the aft stairs would be better because you can access the Boardwalk, Central Park, Promenade, Dining Room and Windjammer from them.

 

The forward stairs are only convenient to the Solarium, Theatre, Central Park and Promenade. We often wanted to go to the other places and had to remember to walk back to the other stairs first.

 

It's not really a big issue, but on this ship, we did a tremendous amount of walking to get from place-to-place. Quite honestly, unless you are in good physical condition, it becomes exhausting. So, I thought it would be a little better to be able to eliminate steps if possible.

 

(you have no mistakes, so don't worry!)

[AlanAllyn]

What nights were the formal nights on the Allure cruise?

 

We are going in May, 2012.

 

Thanks

Since you are on a Western, the formal nights are Monday and Thursday.

[pmkejk]

Thanks for sharing.

 

Did you venture into the casino at all? If yes, did you win?

 

What was your favorite thing to do on the Allure and what was the best thing you ate?

 

If you had to do it all again, what would you skip?

 

Thanks.

[DonnaK]

Thanks for sharing.

 

Did you venture into the casino at all? If yes, did you win?

 

What was your favorite thing to do on the Allure and what was the best thing you ate?

 

If you had to do it all again, what would you skip?

 

Thanks.

 

We didn't gamble, and only passed through the casino on the way to/from the main theatre (to be honest, we hate smoke, so we tried to avoid the casino at all costs.)

 

It would be hard to select the best thing we ate because we enjoyed all of the food. We liked the sandwiches/paninis and the make your own salads in the Park Cafe, and I liked the Asian stir fry served at breakfast in the Windjammer.

 

Our favorite thing to do was to attend the shows every night.

[Snorkel Dawg]

What were your favourite "free" areas to eat onboard?

[DonnaK]

What were your favourite "free" areas to eat onboard?

 

 

MDR for dinner

Park Cafe for lunch

Solarium Cafe for snacks while at the pool

Wipeout Cafe for self-serve frozen yogurt

Windjammer or Park Cafe for breakfast

 

We enjoyed the Boardwalk Hot Dogs for lunch one day

[RandR95336]

Hello,

 

Who was the cruise director?

 

Thank you

[Snorkel Dawg]

Thanks Donna :)