Nov 4, Allure of the Seas, Western Caribbean - A Review and Complete Pictorial Guide!

[Karma5]

It was a great review...............Thank You.............and a pleasure to read..............

[cctn]

The best dessert I had on the Allure was the Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing in Chops!!!! Wow, that was really good!!!!

 

Patty

 

 

I ditto that Patty --!!!

Gambee: great site here - thank you - loved the Allure and appreciate your pictures and review - your pictures are the Best!! captured everything I missed -- I was on the 12/2 and 12/9 B2B and thought this ship was amazing!

Corkey Carol

[Arizona Laura]

Note to self:

Carrot Cupcake

Red Velvet Cake in Chops!!!

 

Before April need to go through and take notes of your review.

Thanks so much!!

 

Hi Patty and Carol!!

[topanga49er]

Hi. Just wanted to clear up what drove me crazy when trying to book a barefoot beach cabana AFTER the new ones were built: Four new cabanas were built to the left (when you are looking at beach from water) of cabana previously called W1 and W2. All Barefoot over the water cabanas have been renamed. There are now six on the left side of the beach, and the original two on the right. They are now labeled "OW1 through OW8". Newest cabanas are OW1-OW4. Original W1 and W2 are now OW5 and OW6. And the original W3 and W4 are now called OW7 and OW8. Hope that helps when booking...:o

 

 

 

 

Hi Northwoods...

 

I can answer from my perspective as I've been to Labadee many times, last time being in March. where we had W4-an Over-the-Water Cabana on Barefoot Beach. If you're looking straight at the island, like in some of Gambee's photos from the ship, W4 is the last cabana to the right before Nellie's beach. This particular cabana just had a wooden walkway which goes in between yours and the neighboring cabana, W2, which leads into the sand near the water. There is no direct water access into the water from the actual cabana, but it's beautiful and you're only steps away.

 

If you want to take a look at my review, here's the link, I have lots of pics from that day:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1586308&page=2

[Hstergo]

You call that clean and modern???? thanks for the pictures of Chankanaab after seeing the place thru your pictures we will never go there because it looks dirty and old with very old looking and uncomfortable chaise lounges. Thanks again because you saved us a trip there but im glad you enjoyed it.

 

Oh my the bottom of the sink is wet ... yes that is just terrible :rolleyes: I think you confused a park with the Ritz Carlton

[fldogmassage]

I have been following you since you started your review. With so many comments I decided to stay quiet. But I have to tell you how wonderful your review is. Can you please sail the eastern itinerary before my May 12 wedding on board? PLEASE :-)

 

Do you still go out to watch Allure take off? I also live in ft Lauderdale and plan to go watch Allure leave port when we can. I hope to run into you there.

[Barbiegator]

Leaving on our 2nd Oasis Cruise Sat. Dec 29th .My daughter told me about your review of Allure. We also cruised on Allure and loved both ships.All I can say is WOW what a great review. Thanks for the memories.

[gambee]

The best dessert I had on the Allure was the Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Icing in Chops!!!! Wow, that was really good!!!!

 

Patty

 

My carrot cake cupcake was the second best dessert I ate (first being the sticky toffee bread and butter pudding) on the Liberty OTS. Too bad you have to pay extra for it.

 

The best dessert I had was the creme brulle followed by the red velvet at Chops, or maybe the other way around :D lol. Can't decide, maybe I have to go and try them again.

 

It was a great review...............Thank You.............and a pleasure to read..............

 

Glad you enjoyed, thanks for following our trip.

 

 

I ditto that Patty --!!!

Gambee: great site here - thank you - loved the Allure and appreciate your pictures and review - your pictures are the Best!! captured everything I missed -- I was on the 12/2 and 12/9 B2B and thought this ship was amazing!

Corkey Carol

 

Thanks for the comment, I been reading some new reviews and I can always find something I missed in every review. It is funny, there is simply so much to do in those ships it is nearly impossible to get everything.

 

Note to self:

Carrot Cupcake

Red Velvet Cake in Chops!!!

 

Before April need to go through and take notes of your review.

Thanks so much!!

 

Hi Patty and Carol!!

 

I hope you have a blast on your cruise :-)

 

Hi. Just wanted to clear up what drove me crazy when trying to book a barefoot beach cabana AFTER the new ones were built: Four new cabanas were built to the left (when you are looking at beach from water) of cabana previously called W1 and W2. All Barefoot over the water cabanas have been renamed. There are now six on the left side of the beach, and the original two on the right. They are now labeled "OW1 through OW8". Newest cabanas are OW1-OW4. Original W1 and W2 are now OW5 and OW6. And the original W3 and W4 are now called OW7 and OW8. Hope that helps when booking...:o

 

Thanks for the info :)

 

I have been following you since you started your review. With so many comments I decided to stay quiet. But I have to tell you how wonderful your review is. Can you please sail the eastern itinerary before my May 12 wedding on board? PLEASE :-)

 

Do you still go out to watch Allure take off? I also live in ft Lauderdale and plan to go watch Allure leave port when we can. I hope to run into you there.

 

Thanks for posting and following us since the beginning. I do have an eastern cruise on April 6 (my Bday) sailing Celebrity Reflection (new ship). I am not sure if it my interest you because it is a not a royal cruise, but I still plan on doing a full blown review. I am trying to preplan my cruise but since this is a new ship it is a bit harder, but slowly but surely I am doing it.

 

I actually went to see the ships leave port on the last two Sundays. Got a bunch of videos and pictures, I was also testing some new camera equipment.

 

I have to warn you, if you go to John Loyd park BE CAREFUL, follow the speed limit!!!! Last sunday I was there and I was going 30 on 15 zone (I had no idea that section was 15 speed limit, I was fully convinced it was 35 like the the rest of the park) and a wild life cop gave me a $255 ticket, on the day before Christmas and I had zero tickets for the past five years... nice guy... :rolleyes:, just be careful and don't speed. In the past I noticed lots of cops in there, but I never had issues before this.

 

Here are a couple of pics from yesterday and the sunday before.

 

 

 

 

 

Leaving on our 2nd Oasis Cruise Sat. Dec 29th .My daughter told me about your review of Allure. We also cruised on Allure and loved both ships.All I can say is WOW what a great review. Thanks for the memories.

 

 

I am glad your daughter shared my review with you, thank her for me and thank you for taking the time to post.

 

Happy Holidays :-)

[Eng23]

Nice picture of the Independence of the Seas. I like the lines of the Freedom Class ships. As big as they are, they still look very sleek.

[Dancnlizard]

Merry Christmas Gambee

 

Hope you and your family have a wonderful day! Sorry to hear about the ticket though :(

 

Gwen

[Stella777]

Gambee, go to youtube and type in celebrity reflection. They have reviews and tours of the ship there. This is where I pick up addition info on any ship I am planning on going on that I haven't been on before.

[Caribensun]

Gambee, best review and photos ever!!! Thank you so very much for all of the wonderful memories you have shared, we appreciate your taking time to do this very much. You have taken some of the intimidation and stress out of taking one of these giants and we thank you for that. Where are you going next, do not want you to stop doing these comprehensive indepth reviews. Please do a thread of where you will be cruising next. We felt like we were cruising with you on this Christmas day as we dream of being on OAS or AOS next year. We have not cruised RCCL in a long time and miss it.

Wishing you and your BF the best and a happy new year with more reviews. Seadeck2

[fldogmassage]

I will follow your eastern post. I love how you give great details of the ports.

 

Thanks for new pics and warning. That is good to know!! Sorry you had to learn the epensive way. He could have been nice and given you a warning.

[gambee]

Nice picture of the Independence of the Seas. I like the lines of the Freedom Class ships. As big as they are, they still look very sleek.

 

Taking that last picture was actually a funny event, I was the last one there and the two park rangers were telling me leave. I was begging them for that one last ship, but the ship was moving so slowly and they kept looking at me. But the were nice enough to let me capture that picture. Maybe ill get them something next time.

 

The picture was taken with a super wide angle lens at 10mm, so the ship might look slightly different than in reality. But overall it came out very nice.

 

 

Merry Christmas Gambee

 

Hope you and your family have a wonderful day! Sorry to hear about the ticket though :(

 

Gwen

 

thanks, Happy late Christmas to you too and a Happy new Year too. It is all good, I gave the ticket to a lawyer and he charged me $69 for it, he claims that since my record is clean it should be fairly easy to take care off.

 

 

Gambee, go to youtube and type in celebrity reflection. They have reviews and tours of the ship there. This is where I pick up addition info on any ship I am planning on going on that I haven't been on before.

 

Thanks I did not think of that, they had a nice video with some good info. Actually some of the info helped me make a final decision, I am in the process of canceling the Celebrity cruise and booking another cruise. More on that later ;).

 

 

Gambee, best review and photos ever!!! Thank you so very much for all of the wonderful memories you have shared, we appreciate your taking time to do this very much. You have taken some of the intimidation and stress out of taking one of these giants and we thank you for that. Where are you going next, do not want you to stop doing these comprehensive indepth reviews. Please do a thread of where you will be cruising next. We felt like we were cruising with you on this Christmas day as we dream of being on OAS or AOS next year. We have not cruised RCCL in a long time and miss it.

Wishing you and your BF the best and a happy new year with more reviews. Seadeck2

 

Thanks =). Well I was going to do the eastern caribbean on celebrity Reflection, but I changed my mind and now we are making some final decisions on our next cruise. I can't do another thread of where I will be going next since most likely is another line, but I will bring this one to life right before I start the review to inform everyone.

 

Happy new year to you and your family, thanks for stopping by :)

 

I will follow your eastern post. I love how you give great details of the ports.

 

Thanks for new pics and warning. That is good to know!! Sorry you had to learn the epensive way. He could have been nice and given you a warning.

 

Unfortunately no eastern route anymore, maybe in the future.

 

I guess he was doing his job, but I do agree, he should of just had let me go. Oh well, you can't win them all :)

[Maybaybie10]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a week of reading I am finally done! I feel that mixed feeling you have when you read the final words of a really good book- sad that it's over, but happy that maybe you can get some laundry done and the house vaccuumed! :p

 

We are a group going on the Allure in October- so far there are 20 of us- and several first timers. I have sent a link to your review to all of them and told them they MUST read it! I was blown away by the pictures and descriptions of everything. When I saw the picture of the toilet paper I knew there was nothing you left out! THANK YOU!

 

There is one question I had. I know you are such a planner (as am I!), so I was wondering if you had an estimate of what you thought your expenses would be on the ship (that weren't pre-paid) and if you came out near that when you got your final seapass bill? You seem as if you are quite open to sharing prices of things, so I thought maybe this would be an ok question to ask.

 

Again, thank you so much for the fantastic review. It is bookmarked and I shall read it and refer to it several more times before we leave in October.

 

Enjoy planning for your next one...half the fun is in the planning!:)

 

Melissa

[gambee]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After a week of reading I am finally done! I feel that mixed feeling you have when you read the final words of a really good book- sad that it's over, but happy that maybe you can get some laundry done and the house vaccuumed! :p

 

We are a group going on the Allure in October- so far there are 20 of us- and several first timers. I have sent a link to your review to all of them and told them they MUST read it! I was blown away by the pictures and descriptions of everything. When I saw the picture of the toilet paper I knew there was nothing you left out! THANK YOU!

 

There is one question I had. I know you are such a planner (as am I!), so I was wondering if you had an estimate of what you thought your expenses would be on the ship (that weren't pre-paid) and if you came out near that when you got your final seapass bill? You seem as if you are quite open to sharing prices of things, so I thought maybe this would be an ok question to ask.

 

Again, thank you so much for the fantastic review. It is bookmarked and I shall read it and refer to it several more times before we leave in October.

 

Enjoy planning for your next one...half the fun is in the planning!:)

 

Melissa

 

Well with expenses is kinda hard, usually a lot of mine go into drinks. I had originally planned to stay under $500, if I can recall correctly it ended up being something like $520. But you have to remember that I was tipping in cash always I think we gave an extra amount of 120 in tips.

 

You can stick to your budget, just be realistic. Ours went into internet, buying my bf his food package and liquor. Also remember that I had prepaid for the wine package so that is not included in the 520.

 

I am in the process of planning our cruise in the NCL breakaway, but that one is much much harder. The problem is that the information is not even out there yet, so I am trying to gather info from other NCL ships.

 

I recommend doing your budget day by day, look at specials and plan on using them. Ladies night, happy hour ect. On Jamaica they have $2 beers until 5pm, I think.

 

Thanks for sharing the review with your group. Hope you have a blast.

[luvstwocruise]

Holy Cow, words cant explain how much I have enjoyed your review.

Its taken me forever to read all of these post..The pictures are breathtaking.

I wish we would gave pic of you, your mom and BF.

I feel like you have captured everything..Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

Please let us know when to expect the new review.

 

")

[rlpolobear9]

 

Unfortunately no eastern route anymore, maybe in the future.

 

 

Hope you didn't change your mind because of the concerns about sea sickness, but it'd be cool to be on a totally new ship that a whole lot hasn't been written about. Who knows maybe NCL will hire you to take photos ;)

Edited December 30, 2012 by rlpolobear9
boo

[gambee]

Holy Cow, words cant explain how much I have enjoyed your review.

Its taken me forever to read all of these post..The pictures are breathtaking.

I wish we would gave pic of you, your mom and BF.

I feel like you have captured everything..Thank You from the bottom of my heart.

Please let us know when to expect the new review.

 

")

 

I am very happy you enjoyed the review, thank you for taking the time to read it. A picture of my most likely will be on my next review. The next review in May of NCL Breakaway brand new class ship :)

 

Hope you didn't change your mind because of the concerns about sea sickness, but it'd be cool to be on a totally new ship that a whole lot hasn't been written about. Who knows maybe NCL will hire you to take photos ;)

 

Not at all, actually the one I booked goes to Bermuda and that itinerary can be quite bad sometimes. The reason I backed out of the Celebrity cruise was because I started reading their daily activity news letter and both mom and I did not like what we saw. Most of the activities were very laid back, we like a little more action in our vacation.

 

Since I am familiar with NCL and I like their freestyle cruising, we decided to try Breakaway. We had to increase our budget to account for relocation expenses and extra days away from home. But overall we are super excited, can't wait for May to be here already :D

[nolegirl01]

Thank you for this amazing review!! Love your pictures! They are beautiful! I apologize if this question was already asked and I missed it but what camera were you using? Loved the pictures of the Coast Guard (my husband is in the Coast Guard so he loved it)

[gambee]

Thank you for this amazing review!! Love your pictures! They are beautiful! I apologize if this question was already asked and I missed it but what camera were you using? Loved the pictures of the Coast Guard (my husband is in the Coast Guard so he loved it)

 

Glad you liked it. Lol yes, its been asked many times, no worries. I used a Sony Nex-F3 for most of the pictures. Most of the pictures were taken with a Zeiss 24mm 1.8f lens, the ones from the coast guard were taken with a 55-210 zoom lens.

[CruiseIreland]

.. The next review in May of NCL Breakaway :D

 

Can't wait for your review of Breakaway in May..plus we will only 5 months from our first NCL cruise. Ken

[topanga49er]

Your review was awesome! Because I am going to be traveling with our 5 and 8 year olds, I'm using all kind of notes from your compass postings, including every Dreamworks picture op!

 

We are looking at Breakaway in 2014; it'll depend what comes out of RCI with their Sunshine class. But I LOVE the "lido deck" water park rides and ropes course; add to it Spongebob and it's a kids dream!! Will be looking for a picture of you with Spongebob or Dora!:D Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

Thank you again, carri

[NordicBreezer]

HI MOM!!!

 

Great review and I love the bold print. My husband and I sail on her Feb 24 and we cant wait. On a side note, it sounds like u get a lot of migraines. Your headache medicine will actually produce headaches if you take it too often. If my patients have migraines more than 2-3 times a month. I have them keep a diary to see if weather, food, cheese, WINE etc is a trigger. I often start them on a little inderal (blood pressure med) it will help reset the headache clock. I keep them on it for a year and then I see if we can stop it. Usually that takes care of it. I dont know if your provider has tried these, if not it might be worth a discussion.

 

Becky

 

Hi Becky.... We can compare notes; I'm on the Feb. 24 sailing too. Between Gambee's & Host Faith's excellent notes + photos I have almost got my 'cruisin' spreadsheet done. Just waiting to book our entertainment. What a massive ship !! And why are they holding Cruise Critic & Crown + Anchor "dos" at the same time? :confused:. Grr!!

Gambee -- I am a long time migraine sufferer too. I stay away from commercial wines because the additives always give me a migraine next day. Try a 'kit' wine sometime.

Marilyn

[tiffygirl]

I am very happy you enjoyed the review, thank you for taking the time to read it. A picture of my most likely will be on my next review. The next review in May of NCL Breakaway brand new class ship :)

 

 

 

Not at all, actually the one I booked goes to Bermuda and that itinerary can be quite bad sometimes. The reason I backed out of the Celebrity cruise was because I started reading their daily activity news letter and both mom and I did not like what we saw. Most of the activities were very laid back, we like a little more action in our vacation.

 

Since I am familiar with NCL and I like their freestyle cruising, we decided to try Breakaway. We had to increase our budget to account for relocation expenses and extra days away from home. But overall we are super excited, can't wait for May to be here already :D

 

GREAT Gambee!! I'm so glad you are doing the Breakaway! i will be on her early September!!! i wanted to do may but I'm traveling solo and it was $$$$$ :D so I'm good with September. I'm soo excited bout the Breakaway as well...so i definitely going to love your review for obvious reasons. between you and my co worker whom i convinced to go (inaugural sailing) i will be 'breakaway' prepared and even more excited.