B2B Allure Of The Seas Pictorial Review - 31st March 2013 & 7th April 2013

[rogicoco]

Thank you for this amazingly detailed review. It brings back memories from the oasis. Great photos!

[Cruzin-K]

Great review. I just love all these Allure reviews - they are getting me all excited for next January. Wish it wasn't so far away.

[joand452]

I'm still here, too, enjoying your review! It brings back the good memories of our B2B on Allure in 2011.

[milpston]

I, for one, am so glad that you are continuing to write this!!:D I just got all caught up after 4 days of hellish work! Great updates!!

 

Tara

 

I know the feeling! I'll be posting more tomorrow

 

Still here reading and enjoying. :)

 

Glad to hear it :)

[milpston]

Thank you for this amazingly detailed review. It brings back memories from the oasis. Great photos!

 

Thank you. I'm glad you're enjoying it :)

 

Great review. I just love all these Allure reviews - they are getting me all excited for next January. Wish it wasn't so far away.

 

Trust me, it will come around really quickly.

[milpston]

I'm still here, too, enjoying your review! It brings back the good memories of our B2B on Allure in 2011.

 

Ok. At least I have some followers haha :)

[shorbr]

Subscribing :)

[milpston]

Subscribing :)

 

Glad to hear it. Welcome

[ciship]

Anxiously awaiting more!!

[Dreamymom]

Thank you soooo much! This has been so helpful and wonderful to read.

Congratulations to you! You have such a lovely family.

Can't wait to read more.

[milpston]

Anxiously awaiting more!!

 

I wish work didn't keep getting in the way!

 

Thank you soooo much! This has been so helpful and wonderful to read.

Congratulations to you! You have such a lovely family.

Can't wait to read more.

 

Thank you very much. It's really appreciated. I will get cracking with more over the next few days.

[milpston]

Day 6 - St Martin

 

[milpston]

[shorbr]

I'm taking great notes for our upcoming cruise in December. Thanks so much :)

[milpston]

We woke up this morning around 08:30. I had ordered breakfast to be delivered between 09:00 and 09:30 on the TV before going to bed. We had no rush to be anywhere today as this was the only destination we had not booked an excursion. We had originally planned to go to Maho Beach and spend the day there.

 

Due to the fact that Chloe was suffering with sun burn (maybe I was a little too) we decided to have a change of plan. Both Chloe and I had really sunburnt hands of all things!!! This pale white British skin really is a wonderful thing!!

 

Anyway, breakfast arrived on time and we retreated to the balcony.

 

 

I couldn't remember what I had ordered the night before but I obviously tried not to repeat my mistake of not ordering enough in the days previous.

 

 

By the look of that lot I had done quite well :D

[milpston]

I'm taking great notes for our upcoming cruise in December. Thanks so much :)

 

You're welcome. I'm glad if I am being of some help.

[milpston]

As far as I'm concerned, you have probably guessed, one of the finest things about a cruise is sitting on the balcony with breakfast admiring the new surroundings for the day.

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

It was as we sat on the balcony we realised that it was looking like another steaming hot day ahead.

 

We headed down to disembark the ship at about 10:30. As usual disembarking was quick and simple with no queues. I took this picture as I got to the exit.

 

 

 

As we walked alongside the Allure we noticed people working much harder than we were. It's incredible how often there are people doing maintenance on the inside and outside of the ship. I really believe this is why the RCI ships always look so good in port.

 

 

The below was sitting outside one of the exits of the Allure. I have no idea who it was for but hoped it was nothing serious.

 

 

The views across the bay are beautiful.

 

 

I always seem to end up with pictures of boats. I think I should invest in one at some point but I'm not sure a dinghy in the English Channel would be half as much fun.

 

[milpston]

The below picture was taken on the walk around to the port area where there are some shops located. You walk past the shops to get to the water taxis or the taxi stands. I always seem to take a picture of the Allure when I am behind it. She and the Oasis really are unique from the rear.

 

 

 

Below are the water taxis plastered with Diamond International all over them. I have to say that I got really bored of that name. It seems that at every stop RCI gave leaflets advertising deals at the store etc... It just got on my nerves a little so I never actually entered any of their stores.

 

 

We decided to take one of the water taxis across to town mainly just to enjoy the boat ride (sounds a little daft when we are spending two weeks on one but you know what I mean). Last time I was in St. Martin I took a taxi to Orient beach. If you want a taxi you just stand in a queue for where you want to go and they are mostly mini vans. We decided that Orient wasn't really worth the effort. I know lots of people rave about it but we found, although pleasant, it was a fairly narrow beach in an area where the seas are a fair bit rougher. The nudist beach is always an attraction though..... even if most of the people on it aren't :p

 

[milpston]

The water taxis leave very regularly so you will never have to wait for long. I noticed on the way back they were selling cans of soda on the water taxi that were $1. Not a bad deal.

 

There is a shaded area to wait for the trip over to town.

 

 

After waiting for a few minutes we got on a boat for the 5 minute or so ride across the bay.

 

The three pictures below were taken of the surroundings during the journey.

 

 

 

 

On arrival at the pier this is the first sight you are met with. I find it quite reassuring for some strage reason :D

 

[milpston]

Behind the beach there are basically rows of little shops. There are lots of jewellery shops, perfume shops and shops selling T-shirts and the usual souvenirs etc. I had decided that I would use St. Martin to stock up with cigarettes as I had found on my last trip that this was the cheapest place. After going to a couple of shops I haggled them down to $19.25 for 200 if I bought 800. This was only about $0.75 off of each 200 but every penny counts haha. My only advice here is to look around and haggle if you are looking to buy anything. I bought a baseball cap for about $10 just to keep the sun off my face but found another shop later where the hats were almost identical and they were three for the same price!

The lanes are quite narrow here and some of them are pedestrianised. There was also a little market but I didn't spend much time there. I also bought us a can of soda each as we were walking around. They were $2 each which was why I noticed the ones on the water taxi on the way back :D

Sally bought Chloe some new flip flops as the ones she had been wearing were giving her blisters. We probably paid double what we should have done for those as well but hey ho!

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

After our little bit of shopping we had a short stroll along the beach and a bit of a paddle. There are sunbeds and parasols to rent here but I didn't catch how much they were as we were hiding a little from the sun today. I think this is a very pleasant beach and unless you have a real reason for going somewhere else I thought it was nice to stay close by the ship.

 

Watersports are available to rent from here also if you are so enclined.

 

 

 

 

 

[milpston]

We caught the water taxi back to the port, put up with the same begging speech for tips on the water taxi that we heard on the way over and made our way back to the Allure.

 

This is me sporting my new hat ;)

 

 

The colour of the water here is almost as beautiful as The Bahamas.

 

[ciship]

This may sound stupid, but when you took the water taxi did you just say "take me to town"? I'm just trying to figure out what/where the location is of that little beach by the ships and where those shops are. Last time we cruised to St. Maarten there was next to nothing around at all except a marina. Maybe our ship went to a different port there??

[milpston]

Upon boarding the ship we headed stright to the Windjammer for some lunch. When we entered a member of staff offered to find us a table. We were seated at the high seats looking out of the window over the Norwegian Gem which was ideal.

 

 

I had my usual Windjammer lunch... everything :p

 

 

There was a member of staff walking around offering little bowls of ice cream so I snapped one of those up too as I didn't want to be rude!

 

Chloe had a more sensible lunch.

 

 

Sally started of oh so well by having a salad. But that's only about half the mountain of chips that ended up being added.

 

 

After lunch we headed back to the room to drop some bags off. We then sat on the balcony for a while daydreaming and remembering that these are the reasons we go to work so that we can visit places like this.