10 years in the making - First Cruise on Allure Eastern 4-14-13

[rsharp83]

OOPS! Didn't proof read that post as closely as I should have. Sorry for the typos folks.:eek:

[cruiserdudebobby8]

nice pictures.

[Cruzin-K]

you get to see a lot of tramp action on this ship.

 

 

:eek:

 

:D

[rsharp83]

6,000 Passengers vs. 90 seats

You do the math

 

I’m not sure who designed the Comedy LIVE venue on Allure. But I figure for everyone to see the comedy show in that theater on a sailing they would need to do the show about 65 times a cruise! Of course not everyone wants to see the comedians but it YOU want to see them then I can only say make a reservation and get there early. I had the reservation but Cousin Dave and I were not as prompt as we should have been (Dave just had to get one more drink at the Bow & Stern) and when we arrived it was not looking good. We ultimately got the last 2 seats in the theater, nowhere near each other.

 

The comedians were good and did a lot of cruise related jokes. Made fun of Carnival, but then again who isn’t making fun of Carnival these days? The late shows are for adults so expect language etc. I enjoyed the first comedian a lot. The second one not as much but it could have been because by this time it was approaching 1 am and I was on the back row, by a pillar, against the wall. I was pretty tired and fighting to stay awake.

 

After the show I did a quick walk around the ship but I needed to sleep. Our final day at sea was tomorrow and I had a big event ahead of me.

[rsharp83]

Day 7 – At Sea!

 

Exploring the biggest cruise ship at sea

All Access!

I had a plan. From the very earliest reviews I read I was intrigued by the All Access Tour. But it does cost $150 and did I really want to spend that much on a tour of the ship? The week before we left I was going through our cash for the trip when I found an envelope that was from my birthday and Christmas, it was money I had been given as a gift and I had set it aside to use on the cruise. Well, what better use than to do the All Access Tour? I was in.

 

I then called my MIL and suggested we arrange for my FIL Jerry to do the tour with me as a surprise. Sheryl also decided to get Ross on the tour. But we said nothing to them.

 

As we were boarding the ship on Sunday I pointed out to Jerry the bridge area. He immediately said, “How can we get up there to see that, I really want to see the bridge.” I knew he wouldn’t let up. I tried to tell him you really can’t get up there without special arrangements. He was already talking about finding a crew member and seeing if he could get a bridge tour. My MIL was smiling at me the whole time. We were never going to be able to keep the tour a secret for very long.

 

I went to Guest Services and booked us on the tour shortly after we embarked. We were all set for Saturday at 9am. I had to tell Jerry he was going on the tour before we ever got to sail away. Otherwise he was going to drive us and any crew member he happened to meet crazy!

 

We met in the MDR at 9am. There are 2 groups each day on Friday and Saturday mornings of the cruise. Our group was mostly men, we had 2 ladies. Most of us had cameras ranging from uber camera to point and shoot. No videos can be taken. You must wear close toed shoes and long pants. You will be on lots of stairs, narrow steep stairs, be ready to walk. We spent most of the 3 hour tour on our feet. And you have to sign a bunch of waivers etc. so don’t get hurt!

[rsharp83]

The Kitchens of Distinction

(BTW: if anyone reading this gets the very obscure reference in that title please reply to the thread. And all the titles in this section will have a common element of sorts, think of it as a game)

 

Cooking for 6,000 passengers every day plus crew is a big job. We started our tour in the kitchens right off the MDR. There are 250 cooks and 8 sous chefs. The Allure has 24 food venues. All breads and pastries are made on board in the 24 hour a day bakery area employing 25 pastry chefs. They produce $10,000 a day worth of desserts. The head of the bakery was our guide for the kitchen tour.

 

Vats of soup

 

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Executive Chef of the Allure Michael Sabourin

 

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One bit of advice for this part of the tour. Stay close to the front if at all possible. The kitchen is noisy and busy and if you are not up close you won’t hear what is being said. In some areas it is easy to get close but in others it is impossible to hear if you are not at the head of the line right behind the guide for that area.

[rsharp83]

Melt with you

 

So where do they keep all this food? They keep it in massive freezers of course. There are 7 freezers that house beef, poultry, seafood and other items. They are huge and they are COLD. On Saturday they were rotating the entire inventory to prepare for the massive loading of new inventory that would occur on Sunday.

 

Lobster!

 

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[tneah]

Fantastic review! First time I've seen pictures from the tour.

 

 

On another note. I think you solved the mystery why most of our pictures on the Oasis last week were missing from our file. My family was mad that the photographer seemed to only have pictures of me and the rest of family was missing unless i happened to be in it, too. No individual shots of them. The face recognition must not work as well as they thought.

 

Keep up the great work.

[tarajean1962]

Thanks for letting us join your tour! :cool: I have no idea about your titles, but I hope someone figures it out! Fun!

 

 

Tara

[markeb]

And, Google is your friend in this strange free world...

 

(Assuming you melt from the death of cool. Otherwise, I'm still guessing.)

[Familygoboston]

Ive been waiting for the review of the All Access tour!!:D

[rsharp83]

Road to Nowhere

 

I-95 is the length of the ship corridor or “road” where all the traffic runs; crew, supplies, food, you name it and it is being moved on I-95. It is a very busy place and it is the lifeline of the ships work. Everything travels I-95. Why is it named I-95? The I-95 is a form has to be completed prior to the arrival at the first U.S. Port by each crew member and presented with the Passport to the Immigration Officer.

 

 

After the freezers tour and a quick jaunt on I-95 we had to go through a security screening before we entered the engine control room.

[pittnh]

you are from my era....referencing classic 80's new wave in your titles. Kitchens of Distinction, 80's new wave band. Melt with You, the ultimate 80's song. Road to Nowhere...talking heads, classic.

 

Very nice review!

Edited May 7, 2013 by pittnh

[windjamming]

Loving this review and waiting for the Flock of Seagulls!

[rsharp83]

you are from my era....referencing classic 80's new wave in your titles. Kitchens of Distinction, 80's new wave band. Melt with You, the ultimate 80's song. Road to Nowhere...talking heads, classic.

 

Very nice review!

 

Very good. Kitchens of Distinction is pretty obscure. I may need to reconsider some of my title choices as they may be too easy!

 

I was really hoping I could get a picture of a big bug squashed on the window of the bridge... "Fly on the Windscreen" but alas, no bugs at sea.

 

Thanks for reading!

[rsharp83]

Loving this review and waiting for the Flock of Seagulls!

Here's the issue, I have a bum knee and "I Ran" likely isn't going to be part of my review because I don't run anymore!

[jakesmom04]

I am wondering if the lady who fell was the same one we helped in Nassau. She fell in a hole at the curb by Senor Frog's. She was pretty banged up.

[rsharp83]

Auctioneer - Another Engine

 

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The propellers are 6 meters and turn 360 degrees. Allure can maneuver at 4 knots sideways. The maximum speed ahead is 34 knots. At top speed it takes 8 minutes to bring Allure to a stop.

 

At sea they turn sea water into usable water by using reverse osmosis and distillation processes. They need 39,000 pounds of water.

 

[cruiserdudebobby8]

did you enjoy the All Access Tour?

[rsharp83]

Do It Clean

 

How interesting can a tour of laundry be? As it turns out, pretty interesting. We went down, down, down below the waterline to deck zero and then below to the TW (Tween Deck). The only thing below us were the engines themselves and we couldn’t go in there. Down on the TW we find a real hot spot, the laundry facility.

 

Our guide

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This is the one, the washing machine that does it all. It has 9 compartments or pockets. You load the wash at one end and it progresses through the 9 cycles that include cleaning, sanitizing and pressing out excess water. The entire process is computerized and it takes only 3 people to operate the system. The cost to operate this machine on a weekly basis is only $3,800. Our guide pointed out that it is an extremely cost efficient system. After passing through the 9 cycles the laundry hits the conveyor belt and is loaded into the dryers.

 

The big one

 

I did notice differences here when comparing our tour to other tour reviews on Allure. Specifically, the tour review by MiddleAgedDramaQueen. On her tour she had some pictures of a garment pressing machine that looked like a mannequin. We didn’t see that machine. There are also a few other notable differences in our tours but I will address that at the end.

[rsharp83]

Cutting Crew

 

From the depths of the TW we began to climb. We got to see several crew areas and I am going to lump them together here. In reality they were scattered about on the tour.

 

We saw the activities board on I-95 where all the crew entertainment is listed. They have various things going on including Karaoke and movie nights. There certainly is an effort to provide some entertainment for the crew in what little amounts of free time they do have.

 

The main eating area is a buffet with all sorts of selections.

 

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The real bar action from all accounts appears to be at the Britto Bar located beneath the helipad on the bow of the ship. If you wonder where the crew is a rockin’, its at the very front of the Allure. Britto operates from 7pm to 5am. It’s called the Britto Bar because the artist visited Allure and painted this mural for the crew. And as our guide said, “Then he probably charged RCCL $8,000 for the painting!” He then quickly retracted the joke and said the artist did it for free.

 

 

Let’s stay on the subject of bars. We were given a drink and a bit of time to have a seat at the Britto Bar, it’s the only free drink you‘ll ever have on Allure, but it was a virgin one. It’s also the only opportunity for a chance to sit during the 3 hour tour so you’d better take advantage of it! The head of the Beverage Department spoke to us during this time. He is in charge of about 200 staff that includes 7 head bartenders and 12 wine tenders. There are 41 bars on the Allure, but only 25 of them are public access places. The rest of the bars are for restaurants, or to provide beverages to other venues on the ship.

 

The most popular drink on board is the Pina Colada clocking in at over 3,000 a week. As for beer, Corona is king and the passengers down close to 3,000 of those every week as well. How much does the crew drink? When it comes to beer the 2,400-ish crew downs about 2,000 Corona’s a week!

[alaska_planner]

Park 150

Don’t ask, Just eat

 

I knew this was a somewhat risky choice compared to all the other dining we were doing. Park 150 is a set menu of gourmet foods, and I had 8 people to please. It was the first formal night and we had show reservations for OceanAria at 9pm, dinner started at 6.

 

If you’re a “Foodie” you might just want to skip ahead to the next section. I have very limited food porn to offer and basically no experiences from which to draw upon to properly evaluate gourmet food. However, if you are not a foodie and debating on dining at 150 then read on. (Foodies, please stop now, just avert your eyes, please don’t flame me endlessly for what follows).

 

The restaurant is beautiful and very intimate. Even more so if you get the clam back chairs. The service is outstanding and they take great pride in mirror serving your party (presenting the plates in synchronization). Three people ordered the Cucumber Martini; I don’t think they realized it was $17. It was good, I’m not sure any of them thought it was $17 good.

 

David took good care of his mom all week!

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The turning point was the main course. I specifically wanted to dine at 150 early in the week for this menu because of the main course, Modern Shepherd’s Pie. It’s described on the menu that has my name printed on it (a perk of dining at 150) in the following way: Guinness braised lamb shank pavé, glazed thumbelina carrots, pickled mustard seeds, caramelized cippolini onions and rosemary-hot potato espuma.

 

Now I will describe it in a way that makes sense to me and hopefully some of you. (Foodies, I implore you, just don’t): Shredded lamb molded into a small brick like shape, shredded carrots, caramelized onions, and mashed potatoes so finely whipped that they pour it over the lamb brick like hot thick gravy.

 

I thought it was great. But there were two regular lamb eaters in our group who pretty much hated it. They prefer their meats on the very rare side and this lamb was anything but rare. It suited my tastes fine but they didn't like it at all. Again it all comes down to preference and taste.

 

The potato espuma (I’ll never get to use that word again, espuma, outside of reference to this meal so I’m going to use it a lot because it seems like a cool foodie word) was incredible and I wanted the waiter to just load me up with a big bowl full of potato espuma.

 

We finished off with Toasted Pistachio Genoise. It was a brownie like texture and had orange foam and meringue. It melted in your mouth. But one in the group was allergic to pistachios and I didn’t know it. They quickly brought out an alternate dessert that looked wonderful but I can’t recall exactly what it was.

 

This brings home the point that at most restaurants you can easily order what you want. So it really isn’t a problem, if you don’t like seafood you order something else. Park 150 is not like that at all. I should have perhaps tried to understand the menu better beforehand to see if anyone had specific allergies etc. to the foods. Honestly, I doubt that would have happened.

 

The meal lasted over 2.5 hours, but it was NOT our longest meal. In the end everyone enjoyed the meal. They all said it was an “experience.” However, if I would have asked them where they wanted to dine again between Giovanni’s and 150 they would have all picked Giovanni’s.

 

I’d go to 150 again and I think my wife and cousin would as well, not sure about the rest of the crew. Again, its vacation and if you get the dinning package it’s only $70 pp for 3 specialty restaurants, basically you get Giovanni’s for free! Oh, one more thing… espuma.

 

 

two foodies i know concluded the same thing - while they thought 150 was good, they prefer Giovanni's

and when i say they're foodies, i'm not kidding...they even have their own foodie website (restaurant reviews)..

 

i wouldn't call myself a foodie, but i do like gourmet tasting menus...however, i'm a vegetarian, so i guess i can cross 150 off my list :)

(the similar restaurant on the disney dream - remy - does have alternatives for vegetarians, but i've heard that at 150 it's more of a problem)..

 

(you can tell where i am in your review :) i read slowly and savor every word!! )

Edited May 8, 2013 by alaska_planner

[alaska_planner]

just got to your Schlitterbahn post!

ever since my son discovered it on the internet a number of years back, we've all been dreaming of going there (yes, we are a major waterpark family)...

i don't think we'll ever get there and now you've made it worse by confirming our belief that it must be the best waterpark ever!! ;)

 

ah well :)

Edited May 8, 2013 by alaska_planner

[alaska_planner]

sorry for the flood of posts, but i HAVE to comment on your menu!

WOW!!!

and i thought i was obsessive!!

no really, thanks for sharing that...

you have no idea (or maybe you do) how many times i've gone through videos and pictures of the menus......

this is so amazingly helpful (for the uber planners among us!!)

 

now i just wish they had eggplant parmigiana every night and i'd be a happy camper!!

 

and as for les miserables.....

as it happens, i love musicals...really love seeing them, listening to them, singing at the top of my lungs with them while i drive..

heck i even love opera....yes, you read that right, i said that i love opera...

but i HATE les miserables....hate it...

i'd rather shoot myself in the foot than listen to it...

so you are not alone!! ;)

Edited May 8, 2013 by alaska_planner

[alaska_planner]

i caught up!!

love the all access tour review..

i've been planning on that...

both DH and i are geeks through and through, so we'll both be very disappointed if we're not able to do it...

 

(if you're into this sort of thing, when you're at disney world, i recommend the all day geek tour.......not the name...ummm...i think it's called back stage magic....all day, all four parks, all the nitty gritty to keep a geek happy - i LOVED it :))