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

[gambee]

I set sail on the Allure one week from today, so I will be following this thread closely!

 

You will love your trip. I am not sure how much I'll do in week but I hope to try to give you some useful tips.

 

Wow I am so impressed with your detailed review.... I know how much work goes into a review and especially yours.

 

I blog and I am currently putting pics into my blog from my recent Hawaii cruise!

 

I am sailing on my first RCL cruise in four weeks, have sailed numerous times with Princess but love all the info you are giving me.

 

Thanks, can't wait to hear more about sailing with your Partner and Mom.

 

Vickie

 

It is indeed a lot of work. Thank you much for your support. It gives me encouragement to do my best. :)

[Lorey2007]

Fabulous review & photo's can't wait for more!

[Kenlorz]

OMG!!! I can tell this is going to be FABULOUS!! You plan like I do, so from one planner to another, thanks for doing this. It should fill in any of my missing info holes nicely :D

 

Oh, and btw, since you seemed to be looking for opinions on picture size... I am in the corner of bigger is better. I, personally, enjoy the detail that comes with the larger size. It's just an opinion, of course, so feel free to do what's best for the masses :D

[gambee]

Am so excited to read your review! Am sailing on Allure on 4/7, so looking forward to reading more!!:p

 

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my review. The more followers I have the better. ;)

 

 

I will try to get all the pre cruise section out by tonight, after I get out of work.

[Eng23]

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my review. The more followers I have the better. ;)

 

 

I will try to get all the pre cruise section out by tonight, after I get out of work.

Work? Don't let work slow you down! I'm at work right now too! :rolleyes:

Just kidding! I know some people actually have to work the whole time they are there. I'm looking forward to more! :)

[Beth C]

I LOVE in depth, over the top, photo overload, super planner, food porn containing trip reviews :)

 

Photo size is perfect for me :) and since no one has asked it yet and everyone always wants to know.... what kind of camera did you use??

[gambee]

Fabulous review & photo's can't wait for more!

 

Thanks for following :)

 

OMG!!! I can tell this is going to be FABULOUS!! You plan like I do, so from one planner to another, thanks for doing this. It should fill in any of my missing info holes nicely :D

 

Oh, and btw, since you seemed to be looking for opinions on picture size... I am in the corner of bigger is better. I, personally, enjoy the detail that comes with the larger size. It's just an opinion, of course, so feel free to do what's best for the masses :D

 

I love them larger as well, but It is hard for some to follow with all the notes, this seems to be a good compromise. Thank you for taking the time to comment and follow me.

[gambee]

Work? Don't let work slow you down! I'm at work right now too! :rolleyes:

Just kidding! I know some people actually have to work the whole time they are there. I'm looking forward to more!

 

Unfortunately it will slow me down, but only a little. I just got home from the review earlier today and it was a long night at work. But I am ready to post some more.

 

I LOVE in depth, over the top, photo overload, super planner, food porn containing trip reviews :)

 

Photo size is perfect for me :) and since no one has asked it yet and everyone always wants to know.... what kind of camera did you use??

 

Thanks for following, I have A LOT OF FOOD PORN!!!! and yes it will be over the top :). Hope you enjoy.

 

As far as the camera goes, I will need a full post for it. I promise to get into it on tuesday, I just need the time to write it. I am a camera geek and want to give her the time that she deserves :D. Let me just post first a little of what I had pre-done and on tuesday I am off from work and I will get into camera in more details that I could right now. I am pretty tired.

 

Spoiler it's a Sony ;)

[gambee]

So as it turned out all my worrying was as usual for nothing, the bf went on friday and got his passport, we were ready to go, 10 days and counting. I was extremely excited with a brand spanking new AC and his passport in hand I went ahead and did my own version of the "Smarty pants dance" to celebrate :D ( for those of you not familiar with this dance here is the original video

).

 

 

 

It was 8 days until boarding and I decided to book park-and-go (http://bookparkngo.com/) ahead of time and save about $21. I went on the site and did all the steps the total came to $61.23 not bad for a week of parking in a reputable place. I did my research to make sure that the place was safe, sure you can find cheaper, but most of them are unsafe. So in the end I decided on this one. As I pressed the submit button, a sign appeared that said something like "transaction not found for given amount" or something along those lines. I said oh ok, let me just try again, but then something came to me and I decided to check my card company site. Just as I thought the transaction was already pending… So with no email and a transaction pending, I decided to give them a call and sure enough the reservation went through but their system was having issues, so he asked me for some info and 5 minutes later I had my confirmation email. Just as a side note for those of you who rather avoid the hassle of taking a shuttle and such, you can park at Port Everglades for about $112.

 

This place is pretty close to the terminal, you can see lady Allure/Oasis docked right there.

 

 

 

So with nothing to do, I decided to finally add all of the bf passport information to the RCCL site and check him in. Which actually reminds me the night before I made big progress, I actually remembered his birthday, I know I know I am horrible. But in all honesty I have a really hard time with remembering dates, I have even forgotten moms bday in the past :eek:. Both him and I were very happy about this yayyyy. Stupid I know, lol oh well, boys will be boys. I also printed all the cruise documentation and luggage tags at that point.

 

 

 

Later on mom came and told me that she had changed her mind, she wanted to pre-purchase the soda package after all. I thought she would, after all coke is to her how wine is to me. It's not like she drinks a lot of coke, but she opens a lot of them and has 3-4 sips and then she is done with them. (She actually reminds of the little girl in the movie "Signs" were she would drink 1 sip and say "it's contaminated" and not drink from that glass again, lol). So if you think about it, ordering a coke for her to have a couple of sips would add up very quickly. I did the math and she had to have at least 3 sodas a day for the package to pay it self. I could definitely see her drinking 3 sodas a day and I could probably benefit from her leftovers as I don't like trowing sodas away (that is usually what happens at home). So we went ahead and purchased the soda package under her seapass card, the wine package was purchased on my seapass. I was also excited to get the RCCL travel mug, we already had the NCL one so I guess we were starting a new collection.

 

I am not sure if you folks figured out this by now, I am a mommas boy. Growing up for the most part it was just the two of us and it has stayed like that as the years go by, my father was rarely present in my life and I have grown to be completely detached from him. Thankfully my mom stepped up and came through for me in every way that she could. She is probably the worlds greatest mom, I know most people say that about their moms, but I am telling you, my mom is #1 ;).

 

 

Next up; Last photo shoot at Port Everglades

[Beth C]

I am pretty tired.

 

TIRED??? Ummm you just got back from vacation :p

 

Seriously though - the one drawback I found from my 3 weeks on Oasis & Allure is you're tired coming home than when you left :rolleyes:

[suzyluvs2cruise]

This is something a little complicated, it seems like depending on the screen size of your comp people have different experiences. I ended up picking this one because most cc goers were ok with it in other reviews. And I also want to do the pictures justice. Let me see how it goes and I will adapt depending on requests. Deal?

 

Looking forward to more of your review. We were on Allure for b2b cruises last month. Loved it!

 

The pictures are wonderful and, for me, just the right size.

Edited November 12, 2012 by suzyluvs2cruise

[Kenlorz]

Thanks for following :)

 

 

 

I love them larger as well, but It is hard for some to follow with all the notes, this seems to be a good compromise. Thank you for taking the time to comment and follow me.

 

You are quite welcome :D and I totally agree on your picture size compromise. They seem to be a good size. I was just casting my vote (and hopes) that you wouldn't be shrinking them. When I see thumb nails I cringe.. my blind eyes see nothing but blur :rolleyes:

[gambee]

I decided to go one more time to see the Allure leave port before she was all mine for a week. It was the day after hurricane Sandy hit Florida and the weather was just absolutely perfect (I love post Hurricane weather, it's so peaceful), we had a cold front coming in the day after. I was also there testing some new camera equipment I've gotten, this photo shoot was by far the best one I did in the past months. All the conditions were perfect and there was a lot of activity in the harbor. I selected a few of the pictures to post here so can see what I am talking about.

 

Note, unfortunately I left before the allure left port, it was extremely windy and a little cold, my throat was starting to itch and the last thing I wanted was to get sick before my trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sunny AZ Girl]

This is something a little complicated, it seems like depending on the screen size of your comp people have different experiences. I ended up picking this one because most cc goers were ok with it in other reviews. And I also want to do the pictures justice. Let me see how it goes and I will adapt depending on requests. Deal?

Thank you for the size change. this one is perfect on both my laptop and my "bi screen" computer screen at work.:) I tend to get discouraged when I have to scroll back and forth to read a review and give up. I am looking forward to following along over the course of the review.

 

I am also impressed by your picture quality and am interested in your camera, You do a very nice job.:cool:

[gambee]

This picture is one of my favorite ones, there is so much to it and it tells so many different stories.

 

It looks like he was enjoying his drink with good company ;)

 

 

These little guys were searching for food all over the place, they also seemed to be a little cold.

 

 

 

[gambee]

From this picture you can see the size of the swells, it was very cool to see the ocean so aggressive in some parts and then like a lake to the other side. That is rare down here, conditions were perfect.

 

And now zoomed in

 

 

 

Here you can see what I was talking about earlier. You can notice the guy in the green shorts trying to balance himself. It can be very tricky to walk those rocks, be careful. I almost went down trying to take a picture when a gust of wind hit me. Its much harder that it looks and those rocks get hot as HELL , bring a towel so you can sit on it. The pelican came out really nice in this picture, so cool how low they fly.

 

 

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Wow! Are you a professional photographer?

[gambee]

My friend Mike asked me to use my yacht for the weekend, his parents were celebrating their anniversary. Thats them coming back from a day at sea :D

 

 

Since these are common grounds for fishermen, all kind of birds roam the area searching for scraps.

 

 

This little guy got lucky.

 

 

[gambee]

This guy wiped out I took the entire sequence, but selected this picture to post here because it had the nice boat in the frame.

 

 

This next set of pictures is really neat, let me tell you why. I saw that boat coming from far away and the hull interested me because it was split like a catamaran. I had never seen anything like it in a small vessel like that one. So I went ahead at took a sequence of pictures, when I got home I noticed the suffer behind the boat, I could not believe the camera got him that well. When I was there I saw some jet skies around that area but I could not see any surfers, I thought they were just playing with the waves. Little did I know that they were pulling the surfers into these giant swells, it was really cool.

 

 

I LOVE this picture, both the suffer and the boat are in perfect position.

 

 

And here is the vessel with the split hull up close, pretty neat, huh? she finally slowed down for me to get her picture :-)

 

 

 

[gambee]

I don't think I said this already, I took over 500 pictures that day and deleted over 400 of them. Just kept the ones I really liked. And posted here the ones I loved.

 

This picture almost got deleted, I thought the camera was out of focus, but then I noticed that she focused on the railing. For some reason I liked it.

 

There you can see the surfer being pulled.

 

The bridge on 17st raised.

 

This guy was just chilling in his little sailboat, looks like fun.

 

Lady Freedom heading towards us

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

She looked majestic that day

 

 

 

Yup! You better be afraid!

 

people celebrating their vacation getting started under perfect weather

 

 

[gambee]

I love when people wave back at me, I believe I mentioned that already :)

 

 

Upon further inspection I noticed in the balcony in the lower right there was a lady/guy inside the room just behind the door. or at least it looks like a person to me, not sure.

 

Our friend again, smiling this time, who wouldn't be?

 

Bye bye Freedom, have fun!

 

Just two more short sets to go.

 

[gambee]

 

And there she goes

 

Soon after she left these two guys started playing around, it was very neat, it almost looked like they were going to capsize.

 

 

 

 

The boat to the right was missing the cover on one of the engines, I wonder if they lost it while doing the donuts, lol. That is an incredible amount of power for such a small vessel, they must have the ability to go very fast!

 

 

I bet the guys at the guns were holding for their dear life, lol

 

[gambee]

 

Ok folks I want to apologize for all these non Allure related pictures, but I just felt the need to share them. I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did, this will be the last set I promise.

 

Pilot getting off the cruise

 

And there she goes

 

This guy caught a small fish. yum yum

 

These little guys on the search for food.

 

There was a small wedding at the beach. I love beach weddings, to bad the bf does not.

 

This last picture was taken with my mom's iPad. Remember I said that I left early just be safe and not get sick. Well right after I left the gentleman fishing next to us caught a baby shark grrrrrrrrr, I would of loved to see that. But anyway mom was lucky and go me a nice picture to make up for it, no worries he released the shark right after the picture was taken. She also saw the entire wedding but those pictures did not come out good. Oh, yeah, we took two cars to the park, that is how I was able to leave early.

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Wow! Are you a professional photographer?

 

No, just an amateur, I would love to get to a professional level, but that is never easy. I try to teach myself by reading.

 

TIRED??? Ummm you just got back from vacation :p

 

Seriously though - the one drawback I found from my 3 weeks on Oasis & Allure is you're tired coming home than when you left :rolleyes:

 

I know I am so tired, those ships demand so much out of you. We were just trying to keep up with all the activities all the time. I do however feel refreshed. :) maybe it was that day at the Spa ;)