Photo Review: Allure Eastern 4/14/2013 The Good Karma Cruise

[Familygoboston]

Day 4

 

Day 5

[Familygoboston]

OK, back to our regularly scheduled program!!

 

We never miss a Belly Flop Competition- no matter how high class and fancy the ships get, it's always fun to see a group of guys land belly first in the pool- it's a quintessential RCL tradition, and I like to take it in when we are on board! Of course the "big" guys get all the attention, but this time it was a pretty small guy who won. His flop was the most technically proficient flop form I have ever seen on a cruise ship! Pretty impressive despite his smaller than usual "equipment"!

 

(Photos of the flop)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Familygoboston]

After the flop, Jeff and I participated in the Walk for Wishes. We often do this, it's a great Royal Caribbean event, and given all our good karma, I wanted to keep it going!

 

You purchase the WFW tee shirt for $10 and then the group walks the jogging track and the proceeds go to WFW charity to make cruising wishes come true for children with life threatening illnesses. I feel blessed to have healthy children AND be able to afford to travel with them, so I always participate when I can! Sometimes I just bring my old tee and donate the cash, because, let's face it, there are only so many WFW tees one family can have!!

 

After WFW, we headed to the Park Cafe for lunch. We really like PC for lunch as you have the options of soup, salad, hot or cold sandwiches, there are packaged snacks like chips and also lots of baked good for dessert. There aren't a lot of seats, but we never seemed to have trouble finding one either indoors or out even when it was pretty busy. A lot of folks get their food and go back to the pool decks or their own balconies.

 

We relaxed on our balcony for a little while before our scheduled cup cake making class at 3:30 PM. The girls met us for this and it was really fun, but unfortunately for us, this was one of the events the "cruise in review" video guy decided to film in it's entirety for the CIR video! In addition, DH did not pay to participate but instead decided to take photos, so for the whole class we had a videographer and photographer humming around the tiny Cupcake Cupboard trying to stay out of each others way.

 

(cup cake photos- not only were the cupcakes yummy, but the class was fun and we did learn some tips for future decorating!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then in the middle of the lesson, the Madagascar Penguins paraded through the Cupcake Cupboard and out onto the Promenade where they led a line dancing class. Honestly, the Promenade is complete chaos 24 hours a day! If you like to be where the "action" is, this is the place!

 

Just about every time we went through the Royal Promenade, there was some sort of sale going on. At one point we saw people buying 4 and 5 $19.99 boxed matching costume watches and jewelry. I never understood exactly what the appeal was? Early holiday shopping? Re selling on Ebay for 29.99?? These are the same items you can buy at Wal-Mart any day of the week.

I could not understand why people would spend their vacation time (and luggage weight allowance) on something so similar to what you can buy at home.

 

Then we learned from the lady in the logo shop that there had been a major misunderstanding. Some folks whose first language was not English seemed to think Royal Caribbean was GIVING AWAY the watch sets. Well, this would certainly explain the folks from the Japanese tour group we saw sitting with stacks of 5-8 boxes of these things! It became such a frenzy with only a few sales associates and they unable to tell who had paid and who had not so they had to cover everything up again and start carting if off the Promenade. The sales lady said some came back to return them or pay for them once they realized their mistake!!

 

 

Every day there are sales out there on the Promenade with something; booze, cigarettes (which are out on the first sea day to "capture" you before you see the prices in the ports) and then accessories on formal night, the cheesy watches, the inch of gold chains, so if you like to shop, not to worry, there will be opportunities! As for us... DD1 bought a mug for her collection and DD2 bought a bedazzled Allure tee shirt and I bought a package of Allure scrapbooking stickers and that was pretty much the end of our shopping experience!

[Familygoboston]

Formal Night

 

We dressed and then posed for a few more photos with the professionals. We particularly like the "white" backgrounds, although they are getting filthy, and it shows in the prints, which is why DH wanted the digital images; so he could "clean them up" in photo shop. Also one of our photos, the photographer had a big bop of dust on his sensor. It's hard for these guys and gals, they work ceaselessly and don't really have time to maintain their equipment the way a pro with their own studio would. But DH knew he would get stuff he could work with and we feel like we got some good family shots, as well as some couple shots and ones of the girls individually.

 

Dinner

 

(menu)

 

 

 

 

 

(pepper and corn soup- continuing the excellence in soups)

 

 

 

 

(seafood salad- this had a huge crab leg on top and was very tasty and fresh!)

 

 

 

 

(Thai chicken breast)

 

The girls and I had the Fishermans Plate, a huge Caribbean lobster tail, and shrimp, the lobster bigger than we've ever seen on a cruise ship and again, like the other seafood, we found it was better prepared than in the past, it was neither underdone or overdone, it was perfect...Caribbean lobster will never match my Maine lobster in sweetness, but for Caribbean , it was perfect!! (I thought, DH had a photo of it, but I am not seeing it on his website...sorry!)

 

 

 

 

(another chocolate dessert!)

 

 

 

 

(baked Alaska)

[Familygoboston]

After dinner we went to the Central park where a string Quartet was playing

 

(photo of Quartet )

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then made our way to Blue Planet at 9 PM.

 

(Photos of Blue Planet)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

70's party

 

After our show, the girls went their way to meet the geek Squad on the Royal Promenade for the 70's party. DH and I decided to go to the Diamond lounge for a perch up above the fray to watch the 70's party.

 

(not the 70's party but this gives you an idea)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tips for watching Promenade events and parades:

 

There are several events which take place on the Royal Promenade. On Oasis, we skipped them all, and I can't say we felt we missed out. But this cruise we attempted to take in a few more of them, starting with 70's night and also the Farewell Parade (but I'm getting ahead of myself) Most of the action takes place right in front of the Mercedes, on the roll out bridge above the Cup Cake cupboard or on the Rising Tide Bar (often all at the same time). So here is my advice for viewing options:

 

-On the promenade-

*stake out a Sorrento's or Promenade cafe table for front row seating. if you don't mind a littel drifting smoke, the Bow and Stern has patio seats on the Promenade which provide a good view too.

*you can also "line" the Promenade parade style, but once you get past the Rising Tide bar or the Boleros, On AIr, the views are a little more distant.

 

-On the Rising Tide Bar

* you will be "part of the show" here, as special guests often ride the bar down to the Promenade. Board early if you want to be part of the action

 

-Birds Eye Views

*the Schooner bar tables by the rail are perfect viewing, claim one early

*Stand at the rail by the Adventures (Loyalty Office) or at Focus (camera shop) rail or on the stairs behind the RT bar (be aware when the bar moves you have your view obstructed from the stairs), you will have to stand, but these are great views.

 

-Distant views for those who wish to be "out of the madness"

* Diamond lounge is great for this, if you are not Diamond...not to worry, there is a rail at the entrance to the Diamond Lounge, same views, fewer cruises required! There is a similar rail on the other side of the Promenade...both of these are just off the forward elevator area. Also we found enthusiasm quite low for Promenade events among the denizens of the Diamond lounge...not to put too fine a point on it, but more than once we heard about how "we really prefer Celebrity now". If you like to enjoy your hokey parades with a dollop of joy and communal enthusiasm...find another location!

*Seated in the Starbucks sitting area

 

 

Honestly, this isn't NYC on New Years Eve...unless you have really little kids who need a front row seat, and quiver at the sight of Shrek, and faint away dead when they see Puss in Boots, there are tons of places round the Promenade to see the action, even if you happen upon it at the very last moment. None of these "events' is so entertaining that I would spend an hour of my vacation "saving seats" unless I happened to be enjoying a beverage or pizza there already!!

 

 

Because it was late and the free drinks had stopped flowing hours earlier, we had the Diamond lounge balcony to ourselves, so we boogied and spied on our kids grooving down below with the Geek Squad.

 

After the 70's party, DH and I made our way to the Comedy Club with Kivi Rogers and Phil Tag. This late night show at 11:30 was side splitting funny- these guys were great and we enjoyed the show before turning in.

 

Coming up: Day 7 April 20 Sea Day: A day in which we finally must address all that disembarkation paperwork piling up in our cabin

[rcrdale]

The wife and I in our 70's costumes on our first cruise:

 

[tarajean1962]

That sounds like a perfect sea day to me!:) Nice to hear that the lobster is better. I can't believe you only have one more day to cruise!:(

 

 

Tara

[jakesmom04]

Just curious..why can't you take your camera & flag to the muster drill?? I had hoped to do this to save some time running back to our room for it? yikes..

 

 

We took our cameras and flags to muster with us (ours was in the AquaTheather). No one said anything about it. Hope this helps.

[mjldvlks]

We took our cameras and flags to muster with us (ours was in the AquaTheather). No one said anything about it. Hope this helps.

 

My camara fits in my pocket, and I don't do flags/banners, so probably not the one to comment [but I will anyway]. Bring your stuff. Does anyone really think they are going to make everyone [including themselves] wait while they send you back to your cabin with the contraband?

[jakesmom04]

I had my camera case and our flag in my beach bag. Kathy: great review, reliving the week through you. Next up is reading Randy's review.

[Familygoboston]

The wife and I in our 70's costumes on our first cruise:

 

Wow! Now that is somehting else...what i don't know, but something else!!;) You guys really got into the spirit!! Not many folks dressed up on our cruise, maybe a few people picked something a little "more 70's looking" to wear, but no real costumes like yours! People must have thought you were cruise staff!!

I had my camera case and our flag in my beach bag. Kathy: great review, reliving the week through you. Next up is reading Randy's review.

Thank Susan, Im glad you had no trouble with your bag at muster. They were pretty strict in our hallway, but I guess it just depends who you get!

It was a great sailing, one of the smoothest flattest seas ever and beautiful sunshine! Perfect for newbies, you simply could not be sea sick with the week we had!

It was so nice meeting you at the M&M! I'm sorry I was kind of out of it that day having just learned the news and not knowing what was happening with family at home after the bombings, I wish I had been more with it to socialize.:( I felt like I was in a big rush to get out of there and check my email.

Edited April 29, 2013 by Familygoboston

[jakesmom04]

Thank Susan, Im glad you had no trouble with your bag at muster. They were pretty strict in our hallway, but I guess it just depends who you get!

It was a great sailing, one of the smoothest flattest seas ever and beautiful sunshine! Perfect for newbies, you simply could not be sea sick with the week we had!

It was so nice meeting you at the M&M! I'm sorry I was kind of out of it that day having just learned the news and not knowing what was happening with family at home after the bombings, I wish I had been more with it to socialize.:( I felt like I was in a big rush to get out of there and check my email.

 

There were lots of people at the AquaTheather with all kinds of stuff. It was great sailing with you also. I can't even begin to know how you felt and my heart went out to all. I did see your girls every once in a while and they were always behaving! We did have one person in our group get a bit of motion sickness but not bad. Can't wait for more of this review so I can live it all over.:)

[Familygoboston]

I did see your girls every once in a while and they were always behaving! We did have one person in our group get a bit of motion sickness but not bad. Can't wait for more of this review so I can live it all over.:)

 

That is so nice to hear!!:D You always hope your kids are behaving when you not looking, (and we were watching more than they realized;)) so it's nice to hear thats the case! I guess you know you've done your job when they behave even when you aren't looking:o

[Familygoboston]

Day 7 April 20 Sea Day: A day in which we finally must address all that disembarkation paperwork piling up in our cabin

(Compass)

 

 

 

 

 

[alaska_planner]

i finally read through your review in order (i admit to having skipped around a bit at first)..

fantastic review!!! so well written, funny and with great tips... :)

 

so many things i wasn't planning on doing, but after reading your review, i've changed my mind (blue lagoon, giovannis table for embarkation lunch, vintages, etc)

but i'm still not getting near that zip line!!! :eek:

[Familygoboston]

Day 7 April 20 Sea Day: A day in which we finally must address all that disembarkation paperwork piling up in our cabin.

 

So we still haven't had a change in the weather- think back to day one...sunny, warm 80's, breezes, margarita in hand...HEY...(knock ,knock from the other side of your monitor) wake up, you are not on vacation yet...you are still at work!!

 

You still have that to look forward to, but this is the last day of ours, and it always a little melancholy!

 

By now we have had to deal with this:

(photo of debarkation)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and with great disdain I may have even had to touch this:

(photo of survey)

 

 

 

 

Yes, it's all so unseemly, the total lack of hospitality being shown right now! But we still have a day to enjoy, and enjoy we will!!

 

We start (where else) but in the Solarium Cafe for breakfast. We decide to chill in our favorite place in the Solarium for a while till the "Let You Entertain Me" Dreamworks show starts at 12 noon. It does start but then abruptly halts when the characters pre taped voices are malfunctioning. The asst. CD promises they will be right back, and if we were with a 5 yo, I would have waited to see, but frankly we had seen enough. It's a cute enough diversion if you have little ones that like the characters, but otherwise it's not appointment viewing for us.

 

Instead we went and ordered our photos; the Focus Gallery was getting pretty busy and it seemed the earlier we did this, the better off we'd be. We were able to do this right from the photo kiosks, without the need to stand in line. Later in the day we would select 3 free prints from our folio for which we had coupons, even though it was shortly before dinner, we didn't wait but one or two customers. There was a separate line for special orders. In general we had a very good photo experience on board.

[Familygoboston]

i finally read through your review in order (i admit to having skipped around a bit at first)..

fantastic review!!! so well written, funny and with great tips... :)

 

so many things i wasn't planning on doing, but after reading your review, i've changed my mind (blue lagoon, giovannis table for embarkation lunch, vintages, etc)

but i'm still not getting near that zip line!!! :eek:

 

Awe Come on Beth...it's easy and so short you don't have time to get sacred!!

 

Thank you for reading it all (you may be the only one, I should give you a prize! Why look I just happen to have a RCL key chain!! ;))

[Familygoboston]

How come this day go by so fast??

 

After taking a few photos around the ship, we made our way for the first time all week to Johnny Rockets for lunch. This is one of DH's favorite places. I ordered both a root beer float AND a coffee malt shake,and just nibbled on DH's fries...a liquid lunch for me!

 

While in JR's I gave a WOW card to the manager there. He had been the only staff member who appeared to be hustling at the Rita's Fiesta and he also was always so friendly and upbeat during the 2 times we went into JR's. Also, the JR team was always top notch, and I believe in tone setting! A good manager usually means happy employees! Unfortunately, when we asked our waiter to see the manager, he was freaked out because he had made a tiny error in our order (which he corrected instantly) and I think he panicked that we were going to complain. We told him not to worry, it was all good!

 

After a little more relaxing on the balcony and .....p...p...p...packing....(there I said it!) we got ready for our last supper.

 

Dinner:

(Menu)

 

 

 

(appetizers)

(French Onion soup)

 

 

 

 

(sea scallops and chorizo- the chorizo must have been little crumbles because there was nothing that tasted like spicy sausage or that I had to pick off. It tasted like seasoned bread crumbs to me. It was very well prepared, again the best scallops I have had on board, large, tender, and perfectly prepared, not rubbery of fishy as I have sometimes experienced with the previous menus)

 

 

 

 

 

(Entrees)

(rigatoni and prosciutto- DH liked the pasta dishes all week. the old menus mainly offered filled pastas, he liked these options with sauces, and found the sauces falvorful)

 

 

 

 

 

(fish seafood and mash- this seems like an odd combo to me... is this a "thing" as Tina fay would say? The waiter told me it's a tradition in Britain, but I've been there and had fish and chips, where everything on the plate is fried. This seemed odd putting crispy fried stuff on top of gooey mash potatoes. BUT...it was good! I thought I'd eat the shrimps and scallops and just ignore the fish, since I was afraid it would be soggy and not very fresh, but amazingly, the fish was extraordinarily light, flaky and tasty. I ate it all and loved it, and I'm not a huge fish fan unless its totally fresh without a hint of "fishy-ness) Lesson learned: Fear not the mash!

 

Dessert did not appeal tonight, so we skipped it!

[Familygoboston]

Its almost time for the fat lady to sing (and after a week on Allure the fat lady is me, and instead of singing she's gonna cry)

 

 

After dinner we caught some of the Farewell Parade from the area by the Diamond lounge (the actual lounge was still serving freebies at 7:45 PM, so it was packed, and we could see just fine from the rail just outside the lounge)

 

(photos of farewell parade)

 

 

 

 

(the Captain says his farewells!)

 

 

 

 

 

After the parade we went up to the Viking Crown lounge to hear "Women Who Rock" with Take 2 Duo. They had already collected a following throughout the week, and after about two rock songs they moved on to "Women Who Country" and we moved on to Entertainment Place for Jazz on 4.

 

This required a deck 17 to deck 4 elevator ride...which i highly recommend! Nothing quite illustrates the size of this ship like going from top to bottom!!

 

Viking Crown

(sometimes we would just drink our dessert!)

 

 

 

 

(this lounge is as lovely at night as during the day)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(photos of dresses in elevator well)

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bruce Gordon Quartet was performing at Jazz on 4 and we enjoyed that for a while before the 10:30 PM Comedy Show open to all ages in Studio B. I thought Kivi was even funnier than in the Comedy Club, (where he seemed to chafe at the idea of such a small audience on such a huge ship!!) and both he and Phil kept it clean, so this is fine for the older kids (the little ones would be tired and bored).

[Familygoboston]

Ok, so what haven't you seen?...here are a few still left in the "photo bucket":

 

 

 

(Towel monkey- you must see the towel monkey, just cause they bring such joy!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Our favorite art work in the level 7 stairwell- laughing buddahs whenever I had time to think about the week my home city was having I would look at these guys and realize it would be ok...good karma would be restored, and before we left, the bad guys were off the streets and most people were already fighting their way back to good health!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The chapel- just because you have to say you went to deck 18...no one else has one)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(the fake Mercedes; so you can hang all over this one, it's not roped off, like on other ships, and people usually did...so after waiting 20 minutes to get everyone to move so he could get his shot, I have to post it for DH!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Balloon dog- there are always Boardwalk events- pirate days, balloon animals, face painting, it's free and it's in the compass, they even "take" teens!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Oh...and I had promised this...my "after", fully notated schedule!! Can you believe it?? We pretty much did everything on it according to plan except one missed dinner due to a port call time change, we went to Vintages after a show on a different day than we planned and we skipped the character breakfast. I had lots of unplanned "free blocks" where I noted what we actually did. I even made notes about who we met!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know what is coming, the bags are in the hall, we are going to go to bed and they are going to throw us off the ship in the morning. This is simply the worst part of any cruise! But I'm not done yet, I have a sure fire way to combat early post cruise depression...coming up...tomorrow!

[divadreka]

Enjoyed your review! Hate to see it coming to an end!!!:(

[anandaindonesia]

Hahaha... home sweet home! (not for long! - take another cruise soon so we can read more of your wonderful reviews!)

 

Thank you for sharing!

[Peeker28]

Oh I'm so sad! I haven't even left yet for my trip and I'm not looking forward to the disembark paperwork :(

 

How chilly is it at night? Trying to decide if we should bring a sweater or jacket

[jenninlaca]

This was an INCREDIBLE cruise review. Thanks so much for taking the time. I love that you not only posted a lot of photos but you did the compasses and menus every day, and really great tips about pros/cons of things like cabin location, configuration, etc.

 

We are booked on Deck 11 on Allure in a D7 balcony on June 30. Based on your photos I think I am going to ask to change to the cabin next door (still available) in order to get my bed near the balcony.

[alaska_planner]

if we do the express walk off, is there some place to eat breakfast on the ship before we disembark?