Allure of the Seas Review 8th September - Western Caribbean

[novicetraveller]

Next stop, Food & Storage inventory.

 

When I saw this guy, my first thought... Don't mess with him!

 

 

He is responsible for making sure that the right amounts of food is ordered week in week out. It is difficult to be precise in numbers, but historical cruising is used to determine what is needed for a given cruise.

 

Some of the food needs to be kept at below freezing. Anything up to -20 Degrees Celsius.

 

 

 

These guys are kept in a closed room. Not locked, just closed.

 

 

They are doing the fish / poultry prep.

 

 

Typically the cruise ship will stock about 10 days worth of food on a 7 day cruise......Just in case.

[novicetraveller]

Next stop, the Engineering room.

 

 

 

The guy on the left on the 2nd image is an Electronics Geek. As a geek myself (of the computing kind), I found this guy a bit annoying. He likes to ramble on a bit.

 

However, these guys do play an important part of making sure that everything goes well on the cruise. They fix everything from lighting, to making sure that the ship's engines are working smoothly.

 

If you didn't know, the Captain / Bridge Staff just can't increase speed at will. If they need more speed, they have to liaise with the Engineering team to ensure there is enough power to increase speed.

[novicetraveller]

Next stop, the laundry. The amount of dirty laundry we saw.... we almost had to wear pegs on our noses! (Only kidding).

 

There are washing machines in the laundry. It takes about a minute to wash each pound (weight not currency)

 

 

 

 

Sadly, there was no staff available other than the guy in the above shot to show us how things worked. But the amount of work that goes into the cleaning is impressive.

Edited September 23, 2013 by novicetraveller

[novicetraveller]

The rest of the tour took us through the Staff Mess area (were they eat and socialise).

 

Also we went to the Helipad, the backstage where Blue Planet and Chicago takes place (As well as the changing room).

 

The broadcast room was on the list of places to see.

 

 

 

The music you hear around the ship is controlled from here. The birds singing in Central park... yep.... they are not real.

 

And if you thought the breakfast show from the CD is done live.... I'll let you continue with that illusion. :D

[novicetraveller]

The last significant stop on the tour.

 

 

 

 

There were only 3 officers on the bridge. Would have like to have seen the Captain, but I guess he was off duty.

 

The behind the scenes tour is something you should do at least once, but only if you are interested in what really happens behind the scenes. It is informative, but lacking in some aspects.

 

The headliner was Kenny James. He's a Motown performer, which I do like, but for me the performance wasn't current enough. Don't get me wrong, it's worth going and see the Headliner act, regardless of who it is. If I had gone on the sailing following the one I was on, I would have seen Mo5aic. I wanted to hear in person their new single.

 

That's it for the Sea Day. Yes, it's the last formal night.

[sarahecohen]

Wonderful review and lovely photographs. Thank you so much for your time and effort! :)

[Sherman793]

What beautiful pictures!! You should have been a photographer! Thanks for the awesome review. :)

[novicetraveller]

What beautiful pictures!! You should have been a photographer! Thanks for the awesome review. :)

 

I am a photographer.... just not a professional one. :)

[novicetraveller]

Ladies and Gentlemen, and people of Cruise Critic, I welcome to Siesta time.... AKA Cozumel Port day. Today is mostly about doing a Photo walk with Cozumel Photo Tour guide Tati.

 

The evening was the Standup Comedy. Can't remember the names off hand. But the 2 acts were great. Great audience interaction from both acts. Old School comedy. Photos from Cozumel to follow.

[novicetraveller]

Departed the ship quite early, and caught an $8 taxi to Downtown Cozumel to the monument where the meeting point was. I was there pretty early (about 1 hour 45 minutes). That was no mistake. I know the meeting time was local time and not ships time. I wanted to get there early and scout the area. I initially booked Tati Biermas and was the only booking. I mentioned the photowalk tour to the roll call, and the morning session was booked up pretty quickly.

 

Below is the map where we covered the walk.

 

 

In true typical September weather, it Rained on and off during the day, so we were not able to go into too much photography detail. My main focus was on composition for Landscape work. Architecture is one of my weak points photographically, as there is so many different ways to look at a subject. It is subjective, but in order to commercialise Architecture and Landscape photography, you need to understand position and subject matter.

 

Below are some images I took of the Mayan Monument.

 

The first image is of our Tour Guide.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 23, 2013 by novicetraveller

[novicetraveller]

Some more statues poses.

 

 

 

 

Some other statue

 

 

[novicetraveller]

Splash Shot

 

 

Rope Trick

 

 

A couple of bird shots

 

 

 

Mixture of Shells

 

 

Street Photo

 

[novicetraveller]

One of the things you will learn on the course is Low light photography, and how to adjust the white balance based on various lighting environments.

 

 

 

Also, Tati will show you how to do some Macro photography, especially if you have a compact camera. If you have a DSLR camera, and you don't want to carry a Macro Lens with you on holiday, you may want to invest in some Macro Filter Lenses. The images I used below were taken with the 10x Macro filter with a 77mm thread attached on my 24-105mm lens.

 

 

 

Just another compositional shot.

 

[novicetraveller]

Just a couple of images to demonstrate some White Balance configuration on the camera

 

 

 

And to demonstrate how much it rained on the day...

 

[novicetraveller]

For lunch, I went to La Choza with a couple of others from the photo walk.

 

I had the vegetarian choice.

 

 

Some fish dish (with Octopus).

 

 

I think this was a Chicken dish.

 

 

If you are looking for some authentic local food, I would recommend La Choza. Hands down.

[novicetraveller]

From a photographic point of view, that's it for Cozumel.

 

I spent some time looking at the shops, bought a couple of shells. One for the room attendant (and yes, I pre-paid the gratuities and gave an additional tip at the end). I suspect the room attendant may have thrown away the pressie, but I realised I couldn't fit the item in my luggage, so it would needed to have been thrown away regardless.

[novicetraveller]

Day 10 (Day 7 of the cruise). Seas Day.... Return to Fort Lauderdale Day.

 

The cruise is now drawing to a close, and most of the time was spent packing, making sure my hold luggage was not going to be too heavy. Making sure that all the stuff I bought was packed safely.

 

I bought a few trinkets, and picked up a few shells from Labadee an the Everglades Safari excursion.

 

I woke up early, like I did most days, to do some sunrise photography. Most of the days were too cloudy to take any reliable shots.

 

 

 

 

This was taken from the lift near my room.

 

 

And this was taken from when I got out of the lift.

 

[novicetraveller]

Captains Corner.

 

The usual pointless questions were being asked. And some interesting questions.

 

I had the last question of the day, where I thanked the staff for a fantastic week on the ship.

 

 

 

Here's the fountain that exists in the Promenade.

 

 

And here's my favourite dessert of the week.

 

 

The Strawberry Cheesecake. It's soft, and tasty. I could eat these all day. You can also get this in the Windjammer as well.

[novicetraveller]

In no particular order.... here's some photos from Blue Planet.

 

 

 

 

 

[novicetraveller]

 

 

 

 

 

[novicetraveller]

This was the last dinner for the cruise, and I would like to say thanks to the 3 people who looked after me at dinner time for the whole week.

 

 

 

and the Dining Room Manager

 

 

Below are the table friends who I spoken to pre-cruise and met at the Meet and Mingle.

 

[novicetraveller]

Overall, my pre-cruise holiday was great. The highlight was the Everglades Day Safari. The best time to go is January to March, however, if you are on a budget, September is probably be the best time to go, however, bear in mind that September is heart of hurricane season, only plan to go at the last minute, and if your cruise is in September.

 

During the cruise, the MDR staff were great. And my WOW card went to the Dinning Room Manager. The waiters were great, and entertaining. However, it was a tough decision to chose the Dinning Room Manager over the Assistant waiter. If only I had 2 Wow cards!!

 

My Port highlight was Jamaica. Mainly because of the Irie Blue Hole and the trip up to Shaw Park. Turtle Water Fall would have been great if it weren't for the number of steep steps up to the waterfalls, and if it hadn't lasted too long.

 

Cozumel was good, but the weather let us down.

 

Haiti was ok. I was hoping to escape the beach and go to the Citadel, however, as the beach is private, getting to do a private excursion would have been impossible, so I opted to do the Cabana and the Discover Haiti Coastal tour. Both I did last year.

 

I changed the air conditioning in my room from cold to close to neutral (but slightly biased towards the colder side) so that my camera lenses did not suffer when I took them out into the warmth.

 

I have no real complaints, and in addition to the Pre-paid gratuities, I gave each staff $20 extra in tips. I could have given more, but I didn't have enough money going spare. I gave the Cabana Attendant $50, as he was better than the attendant I had last year, but a country mile.

 

The Shows were good (the ones I attended, even though I saw most of them last year). The behind the scenes tour was good, even though there was some room for improvement.

 

The ship was not sailing full, which is rare, even during the off season. I believe the ship should also put the questionnaire online rather than paper, as I don't like the idea of being rushed in giving an opinion, especially on the day when I am expected to pack and get ready (yep, I accidently put the questionnaire in my bag).

 

Whilst I welcomed the space in the Grand Suite, based on cost alone and usage, I would probably stay with the Balcony or at most Junior Suite, unless a free upgrade to a Suite was offered.

 

I have no real complaints about the ship, the ambiance of the ship was good, the temperature was good. I would do the whole thing again. I might do the Eastern Itinerary next time, but will most likely miss Nassau.

 

Some people from my Live Review have asked me to upload some images from the Dinning Room in relation to where Table 419 is located and the Concierge Lounge.

 

Main Dining Room

 

 

 

 

Concierge Lounge

 

 

[The Big Booper]

 

...>>>SNIP<<<...

 

Here's 2 of the Freestyle machines.

 

 

Word of warning. It's 1 fill up ever 10 or 15 minutes. If you accidently let go of the button, and your cup isn't full, tough luck.

 

...>>>SNIP<<<...

 

 

Not quite correct. On the Oasis machines which are the same as the Allure machines, you could let go of the button and then push again. Or even select another flavor and push the button. What you can't do is pull the cup out from the dispensing platform because that then closes the transaction and you have to wait out the 15 minutes. I made concoctions that had three separate flavors and had no troubles because I never touched the mug until it was full.

 

Really enjoyed your photos. The best way to demonstrate custom white balance is in your stateroom with the towel creature. I always set the white balance using the sheet (at night with just the cabin lights on). You can really see the difference with that.

[novicetraveller]

Not quite correct. On the Oasis machines which are the same as the Allure machines, you could let go of the button and then push again. Or even select another flavor and push the button. What you can't do is pull the cup out from the dispensing platform because that then closes the transaction and you have to wait out the 15 minutes. I made concoctions that had three separate flavors and had no troubles because I never touched the mug until it was full.

 

Really enjoyed your photos. The best way to demonstrate custom white balance is in your stateroom with the towel creature. I always set the white balance using the sheet (at night with just the cabin lights on). You can really see the difference with that.

 

Unfortunately on the Allure it is the case. I accidently let go of the button and it would not let me top up the drink. Several people had the same issue. Maybe the machines on the Allure have slightly different configurations.

 

With the room towels, I tend to use the tungdten white balance and make some minor changes post processing. I had become slightly lazy in some of my edits in this review. Going through 4,500 images isn't easy.

[The Big Booper]

Unfortunately on the Allure it is the case. I accidently let go of the button and it would not let me top up the drink. Several people had the same issue. Maybe the machines on the Allure have slightly different configurations.

 

With the room towels, I tend to use the tungdten white balance and make some minor changes post processing. I had become slightly lazy in some of my edits in this review. Going through 4,500 images isn't easy.

 

Thanks for the soda warning. I'll be careful in 70 days on the Allure.

 

Gads, 4,500 shots. I thought we were trigger happy with around 1,200 from the two of us.

 

I have found that all RCI and Celebrity ships have the same white balance in the cabin so what I set in the cabin on the camera's first sailing holds on through the life of the camera. My Lumix FZ150 has two custom WB settings so I use # 2 for all out-of-cabin work. My towel bunnies are always a glorious pristine white.:)