Is it Live or is it Memorex?- Allure of the Seas Review September 18-25 with Pics!

[rthouse]

Great review! I was on the same cruise and you chronicled my experience exactly (except your pictures are a lot better). Thanks for taking the time to share.

[tonythewop]

Nenner1....where or where are you ??? :confused:

 

OK...now stop spending so much time on the Disboards and come back to your RCCL friends !!! WE MISS YOU....actually...we miss your trip report. :D

[nenner1]

LOL, I'm here just getting the next part ready to put up! :D

Should be up by the end of the afternoon!!!:p

[dietDrThunder]

Questions for the Allure cruisers!

 

Are there enough outlets in the cabins? Would love to leave the power strip at home!

 

Do you know how much does lunch cost at Rita's Cantina?

 

Does the Starbucks have mugs for sale?

 

Other question for a friend -- is there room for a stow-away in the closet?

 

I was on the same cruise...was going to put up a TR at some point, but...er...why? lol...

 

Power strip: we used it to get flexibility with where we put stuff. Also, one of our wall wart power supplies was too wide for the spot where the outlets are on the desk. Of course I don't know what your requirements are, but I'm going to bring a strip next time too. I think there were(4) total outlets iirc.

 

Rita's: $3 per, plus a la carte pricing

 

Starbucks: I remember seeing the travel/activity style (like a sort of thermos type thing) for sale...don't remember seeing actual mugs.

 

Stow-away: the closet would be a tight fit, but if the person is slender I'd think that two would fit under the bed. Just make sure they're out of the cabin when your steward makes the towel animals...if they see how it's done the steward will of course have no choice but to kill them.

[dietDrThunder]

LOL, I'm here just getting the next part ready to put up! :D

Should be up by the end of the afternoon!!!:p

 

Thanks so much for this report. My wife and I cruised with you on that trip, but we're both notorious for failing to take enough pictures so this is quite a treat.

 

Did you get up onto 16 on Day 3? Wow that was some wind!

[gkdk24]

Excellent review! I love to see how happy and content your kids are on the cruise. I am thinking of taking our two boys (now 2 and 7) on their first cruise sometime in 2013. We've always cruised alone but I think by then it will be time. Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[metairiegal]

LOL, I'm here just getting the next part ready to put up! :D

Should be up by the end of the afternoon!!!:p

 

Hey nenner1, I just had to go over "there" to find ya!:cool:

 

I also just watched the Flash Mob video. That is great! So, that can break out anytime, anywhere on the ship?

[billiebob]

Can't wait for your next segment! :) So excited!! :D We fly out to FLL tomorrow and board the Allure on Sunday! :D

[nenner1]

Wednesday September 21 – Day 4- St. Thomas, USVI

 

 

Welcome to:

 

 

It was the usual routine for us this morning, Ron up early, me sleeping as long as I could. He went exploring up on the Sundeck- which are the “cantilevered” wings over the bridge that extend out over the ocean. It is a great place for pictures and to relax, but it is now quite popular

 

 

 

 

We had not yet arrived in St. Thomas.

 

 

[nenner1]

Ron spotted this pirate ship, not knowing that it would be the one we would be on for our excursion!

 

 

Breakfast on the balcony, this morning it was from Park Café. The boys enjoyed the breakfast sandwiches similar to Egg Mc Muffins from McDonalds. They did like the sandwiches overall but didn’t care too much for the Canadian bacon on them.

 

This is all I had, and the girls both had just cold cereal. Would that turn out to be a mistake?

 

 

Look how well behaved they are. Ha ha ha….. These moments are few and far between.

 

 

 

Finally we docked (late) and were cleared quickly to disembark. Today we would be doing the Turtle Cove Sail & Snorkel through Royal Caribbean. We normally do not do excursions through the cruise line, as we can often arrange our own plans for less cost. But this excursion was so reasonably priced and was right what we were looking for- a short unique snorkeling experience- that we decided to go with it. The cost is $56/adult and $30/child and we felt that was well worth it for the experience. Sarah, at age 3 was still too young for this experience so she would spend the morning in the kids’ club. She did offer a little bit of resistance about going to the club this morning but once she was there, she was fine.

 

Our shore excursion tickets just said to meet at the dock, so we headed down to the gangway to disembark. Once outside on the pier we could see no obvious meeting place for the group.

 

 

I spotted these pirate flags from across the bay though and figured that’s where we would be. I….was right!

 

 

We made our way through the security gates, and since Ron didn’t believe me that we needed to head towards the pirate flags, he finally found a gentleman with a sign for our excursion and pointed us…where else…to the pirate flags! Well, now that we are sure on where to go, we took the short walk over, past all of these guys….so cute!!

 

[nenner1]

We still had to wait for more folks to arrive. This is a very popular excursion and often sells out; there were in fact well over 100- maybe close to 200 people gathered once everyone had arrived. Here is my favorite tip for excursions: use this time while you are waiting to apply sunscreen! We were slathering on the sunscreen now, while most were just hanging out. Later on they were all applying the sunscreen on the boat, a more cramped and bumpy environment, while we were just enjoying the ride….sort of. More on that to come, I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

 

 

Before too long, the excursion operators began to divide us into groups for the boat ride. We had read many reviews of this excursion and had read while most often one the Pirate Schooners is used- occasionally a catamaran is used for overflow. Having kids who were really excited about the Pirate Ship, we were a little antsy to get our tickets in and get placed on one of the Pirate Ships, the Doubloon or Bones. We were lucky enough to be one of the last few families to get onboard the Doubloon. (I don’t think getting “stuck” on the Catamaran would have been an issue today- we did not see one at Turtle Cove while we were there.

 

In any event, here comes Doubloon to the dock:

 

 

We boarded Doubloon and headed up to the bow. Along with the minimal breakfast this may have been mistake #2.

 

 

At first we enjoyed the ride from Crown Bay over towards Turtle Cove at Buck Island.

 

 

[nenner1]

 

 

 

But the water was quite choppy and even though I am not prone to sea sickness, I among a few others in the boat (including Savannah) felt a little -or a lot- nauseous by the time we finally arrived about 40 minutes later. I know I would be fine once I got off the rocking boat and into the water. Savannah though, felt really sick and didn’t want to go snorkel at all. We let most folks get off and into the water while I waited with her hoping she would feel better. The really nice family we were sitting next to on the boat gave her a Bonine, which she took, and with a lot of persuasion I finally convinced her to at least take a little swim in the water.

 

Turtle Cove at Buck Island:

 

 

 

[nenner1]

Just as I thought, as soon as she was off the rocking boat, and in the water she was fine, and then she decided to snorkel. I waited while she swam back to retrieve her equipment. The staff of the boat- by the way- was great. They were very funny, and friendly and helpful. We had Captain Alex, and “Mermaid” Dawn, and First Mate Kurt was the other guy I think. Just an awesome crew!

 

Meanwhile, Ron, Brendan and the rest of the excursion-goers were following “mermaid” Dawn as they called her on a short guided tour of the cove. Right away they saw the wild sea turtles, and other great tropical fish, coral, urchins, and other sea life.

 

Before too long Savannah was back in the water with her gear on, and snorkeling around like a fish. Most everyone else in our group had already seen the turtles following Dawn around, we were playing catch-up. It took us a while to find them, but then when we finally spied on, they seemed easy to find.

 

It was a lot of fun just to watch them chilling out, eating grass, going up for air. Brendan got to gently touch the shell of one as it ascended to the surface. Here are some pictures taken from the doubloon website (we did not have an underwater camera):

 

 

 

 

In fact, if you are considering this excursion, do go check out Doubloon.com, they have lots of info and pictures and links to the other boats you could be on if you go on the Turtle Cove Sail & Snorkel.

 

And this nice stock photo of Doubloon with the sails up:

 

 

By now we had company in Turtle Cove:

 

 

[nenner1]

More general pics of Turtle Cove:

 

 

 

They let you snorkel for quite a long time. Well over an hour I’m sure. This was just a terrific excursion for the money! We loved it!

 

 

 

 

When it was time to head back, Mermaid Dawn mixed up a batch of their Painkiller punch. According to their site the juice mixture is 4 parts pineapple juice, 1 part orange juice, and 1 part Coco Lopez (coconut milk). She mixed all of that very imprecisely with generous pours of this very interesting Brazilian Rum:

 

 

Boat Drinks, waitress we need two more boat drinks….

 

[nenner1]

The drinks were really good, and they certainly kept them flowing. I had at least 2, and I think Ron lost count how many he had.

 

There were sodas for the kids, and for anyone who preferred non-alcoholic drinks as well.

 

 

As we enjoyed the ride back, Dawn came around with temporary tattoos for everyone. They had the flag logo for the Doubloon:

 

 

These were like super-industrial grade temporary tattoos. They really lasted. In fact I had to scrub, and scrub, and SCRUB almost to the bone to get it off several days later. Brendan’s stayed on well after we got home. You can decline, of course if you don’t want one, but everyone onboard was having fun with it, and I admit it was pretty cool to spot others from the excursion later on in the cruise around the ship by their tattoos!

 

Tattoo time: (video! Click to Play)

 

 

 

 

[nenner1]

Then at one point Capt. Alex came out in the T-shirts they had for sale. We knew it would be a sales spiel but he was so hilarious we really enjoyed it. And yes, we bought the shirts.

 

 

Capt. Alex joking around in his Pirate girl duds:

 

 

 

And in case you ever wondered what a real marine head looks like. Just keep pumping, just keep pumping….

 

 

Look what’s hiding around this corner… (They can actually *HIDE* that thing!?!?)

 

 

Back on dry land…our friends were still baking on the rocks:

 

[nenner1]

‘Sup?

 

 

And strollin’ the streets, and chillin’ under picnic tables, and hittin’ on hot chicks at the bar….

 

 

 

They were feeding them cherries, actually. It was fun to watch!

 

Look! C-Bay! (as in Crowne Bay?) LOL!

 

 

The not-so-hot Wi-Fi hotspot. No signal at all.

 

 

Nope, couldn’t fit it in this time.

 

[nenner1]

Yo!

 

 

Back onboard, up at the pools. The main pool bleacher seating was pretty empty but the Beach Pool had plenty of folks out and about:

 

 

 

 

H20 zone, pretty empty:

 

 

The kids were hungry. So we decided to feed them. We were close to it, and since it was a port day we thought it might not be too bad…..so we went to…..

 

Windjammer.

 

 

There wasn’t too much interesting to eat this day. It was nice to see Savannah was feeling better, apparently:

 

[nenner1]

And it was a good thing she ate all of that spaghetti- she finally weighed enough to go on the zip line! (75 pounds exactly!)

 

 

 

It’s a long way down!

 

 

 

 

 

While the big kids played, Sarah enjoyed a round of golf her way.

 

[nenner1]

She makes her own rules. Luckily there were no other kids there to interfere. LOL. Although she did try to escape out and snag balls from the real course!

 

 

Now she’s an old pro. She went several times in a row before it was time for more flowrider:

 

 

 

 

 

[nenner1]

 

And finally time for Sarah to play in “her place” again…

 

 

 

 

What a wonderful day, and we have a busy night ahead still!

 

Up Next: Chops and Comedy: the perfect combination?

[Stags14]

‘Sup?

 

 

And strollin’ the streets, and chillin’ under picnic tables, and hittin’ on hot chicks at the bar….

 

 

 

They were feeding them cherries, actually. It was fun to watch!

 

Look! C-Bay! (as in Crowne Bay?) LOL!

 

 

The not-so-hot Wi-Fi hotspot. No signal at all.

 

 

Nope, couldn’t fit it in this time.

 

 

The couple at the bar was there while I was there... I was sitting right next to them lol. Must've just missed ya! When I saw that I thought I'd be in the picture!

[wingnutphl]

Hmm Captain Alex can sell me shirts!!!;)

[livingis2me]

Jen- You forgot to mention how nice the coral reef was around Buck Island.

 

The area where the turtles are has a sandy bottom and is not very interesting snorkeling when the turtles aren't right there. However closer to the shore of Buck Island is a beautiful reef with a lot of cool fish, starfish, eels, etc. I actually found this area a nicer place to snorkel than Trunk Bay.:cool:

 

Ron

[nenner1]

Nenner1, I don't think I have ever read a live thread on here where the poster spent so much time answering all the questions, and with such grace.

 

Spending your time for this is very refreshing, positive and helpful to new and past cruisers.

 

Good job

 

Thank you so much for the compliments! I wish I could do a real live thread but as you can see we run ourselves ragged as it is, so I do prefer to just make note of as much as I can and relay everything to the masses when I get back! ;)

 

I'm so glad you are enjoying it!!!

 

We want to thank you for taking the time to post all of this. Not only do we almost feel as if we know your family, your efforts will ehlp to improve the experiences others have while on board.

 

Due to your review, we booked Rita's for the first night. To include DW and I, our daughter and her DH and two kids aged 4 and 7, and our 22 year old son.

 

Thanks again, and keep it coming!! lol

 

Awesome! Rita's is the best way to kick off an amazing cruise! Your family will really get a kick out of it!

 

Thank you so much for reading and enjoy planning for your cruise!! :D

 

Great review. We were on with our kids in April and had a great time as well. My question to you is where is Bubba Gump? We are going on Liberty in December and would like to go there the night before. Is it near the Beach Place shop/restuarants?

 

Thanks very much.

 

It's a little bit south of Beach Place on the same road though (A1A) right by the beach. It was easy to find! :) Hope that helps a bit! Thanks so much for reading!!!:)