Another Allure Review ~ 9/22/2013

[flyawayca]

Can't wait to read your full review! You mentioned you had a late flight out of FLL Airport. What time did you disembark the ship then? We're in a similar situation with a later flight and I'm wondering what is the absolute latest time to be off the ship. Thanks.

 

We were booted off the ship at about 9:45. It ended up being a long day at FLL. I'm still not home yet!

 

If you have the extra money to spare I recommend sightseeing some or booking a post cruise excursion. Or make sure your cellphone/ iPad batteries are charged!

 

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[flyawayca]

I agree with you totally about Chankanaab. We have been twice and loved it. I don't know about you, but we just walked to the back of the port and got a taxi to take us there. Plenty of taxis to and from.

 

We did the same. You definitely don't need a ship excursion to go here! Way cheaper to grab a cab and head over on your own. :D

 

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[cynt]

I just got off this sailing as well. BOOK IT! Is all I have to say.

 

While reading this review I just realized I didnt make it to the secret deck.

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for starting your review and it already sounds like you had a fabulous time.

[canadiancruiser13]

I wish I could have done a B2B! You really need that extra week to experience everything on the ship let alone the ports. Hope you have fun!

 

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Thanks, we plan to have a lot of fun on board, have been reading a lot of very good reviews about the Allure.

 

The one thing that amazed me a couple years ago when we were on the CCL Miracle we happened to be docked next to the Allure.

 

The sheer size of the Allure compared to the Miracle. ( photo below )

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by canadiancruiser13

[flyawayca]

Thanks, we plan to have a lot of fun on board, have been reading a lot of very good reviews about the Allure.

 

The one thing that amazed me a couple years ago when we were on the CCL Miracle we happened to be docked next to the Allure.

 

The sheer size of the Allure compared to the Miracle. ( photo below )

 

 

That is a great photo!

 

We were docked next to the Carnival Conquest and Carnival Magic in Cozumel but they weren't side by side like that so you don't see the size difference quite as much. Its still noticeable though.

 

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[canadiancruiser13]

Thanks, we plan to have a lot of fun on board, have been reading a lot of very good reviews about the Allure.

 

The one thing that amazed me a couple years ago when we were on the CCL Miracle we happened to be docked next to the Allure.

 

The sheer size of the Allure compared to the Miracle. ( photo below )

 

A question for you:

 

- with a ship of this size ( Allure ) was there any slight rocking at night as it was sailing? Not counting tropical storm(s).

 

The reason I'm asking is that is one thing I do enjoy is the slight rocking as we are ready to turn in for the night?

[canadiancruiser13]

A question for you:

 

- with a ship of this size ( Allure ) was there any slight rocking at night as it was sailing? Not counting tropical storm(s).

 

The reason I'm asking is that is one thing I do enjoy is the slight rocking as we are ready to turn in for the night?

[flyawayca]

A question for you:

 

- with a ship of this size ( Allure ) was there any slight rocking at night as it was sailing? Not counting tropical storm(s).

 

The reason I'm asking is that is one thing I do enjoy is the slight rocking as we are ready to turn in for the night?

 

This is one thing I really actually did miss. No rocking at all on this ship :(

 

The only time I ever felt any rocking was when we had to come to a complete stop in the middle of the ocean to look for our possible man overboard call. (For those who don't already know what happened it did not end up being a man overboard, just a false alarm). Then and only then I felt a slight rocking motion.

[Amethyst4110]

Time seems to be going very slow for us as we'll be boarding the Allure on Oct. 20th., will be doing a B2B and the excitement is mounting.

 

I am going to be on the Oct 20th cruise also...we will be in room 8180 on the 8th deck.

 

We have anytime dining ...this is my 3rd cruise but first with RCI...will be my husband's 2nd cruise and my son's 1st cruise (he is 21).

 

We are planning on just looking around Haiti while my son is doing the zip line.

 

In Jamiaca son doing falls and intertubing while hubby and I are going horseback riding.

 

Cozumel we are planning on taking a cab to Chaknabb...hopefully my son and I will get to play with dolphins...

 

Less than 3 weeks away...am getting excited and I love reading these reviews...helps pass the time

[flyawayca]

Sorry, quick review on my booking process, flight and hotel. But I have no photos for any of this :(

 

Booking:

I booked our cruise about 9 months ago and paid $749pp for an interior guarantee room. Our guarantee room ended up landing us in a large interior room for free. Of course though, right after final payment the prices on this cruise dropped, a lot. Interior rooms were now only $629pp and Boardwalk balconies were $749pp. Of course I would rather have the Boardwalk balcony for the same price I paid for an interior. Well, for those of you who don't know, with Royal you cannot get a refund after final payment. And you cannot upgrade to a bigger room without paying extra money. So, because the Boardwalk balcony was the same price I paid I could not move to it. However, the Ocean View balcony was going for $799pp and that I could pay the difference and move to it. This is how we ended up in our first ever balcony room :D

This is one of the benefits of traveling during hurricane season and while school is in session. Lower prices!

 

Flight:

We flew Southwest to Fort Lauderdale. I love Southwest. Never have any problems with them. And now with Southwest you get free TV while on your flight. And you don't need to pay for the wifi to use it. Right now Dish Network is covering the cost. You just log onto the Southwest site while on the flight and you get a list of TV channels and repeat shows to watch. They have the basic channels like Fox, CBS, NBC, etc. And also shows like Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, and a lot of the yard crashers type shows.

 

Hotel (Hampton Inn):

My group stayed at the Hampton Inn in Fort Lauderdale on 12th street. I picked this hotel because it offers free shuttle service to and from the airport 24/7. Our flight arrived at midnight and all I had to do was call the hotel and 10 minutes later the shuttle showed up to get us.

 

The rooms were big. But don't expect anything fancy. It has all the basics and it was clean. But slightly dated.

 

They offer free breakfast in the morning. It was good, but again, nothing fancy. It did the trick for us though. It offers waffles, eggs, cereal, orange juice, coffee, oatmeal, etc.

 

The hotel also offers free shuttle service to and from the cruise port. When you check into the hotel you pick a time in the morning you want to go to the port. The earlier you check in the more options you have. Luckily since my husband and I got in so late, my aunt was able to sign us up for the shuttle service when she got there at 6am in the morning. So we headed out to the port at 11am.

 

That was another good thing about the hotel. Check in is at 1PM. But my aunt and uncle showed up at 6am. They not only let them check in really early. They also let them take advantage of the free breakfast being served at that time. Excellent!

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

My husband and I were in an Aft Ocean View balcony room number 12726.

 

My aunt and uncle were in an aft standard interior room number 12277.

 

The interior room was closer to the elevators. I did not hear any complaints about noise from them. The room is small, but really on this ship there is so much to do they were rarely using their room unless they were sleeping.

 

A picture of the interior room:

 

My aunt and uncle are both Emerald cruisers so they also had this waiting for them:

 

 

 

The Ocean View balcony rooms are larger than the interior rooms:

 

 

 

 

What was the worst thing about the room you may ask? They don't leave you any pens or paper!! How can you not have pens and a note pad in a room?

 

I went to fill out my room service breakfast form and discovered I had no pen to complete it with. It took way too long to complete it with the TV. I ended up using an eyeliner pen I had...

 

It also would have been nice to have a note pad to leave notes for my stateroom attendant.

 

So, make sure you remember a pen when you pack! I usually have one in my purse but switched purses for the cruise and left mine at home.

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

I was impressed with the bathroom on this ship. There was more space than usual. Plus little shelves and a drawer on the side of the sink. Perfect for storing everything I needed to store.

 

The shower is your typical cruise ship shower. I do prefer the sliding doors over the curtains.

 

The shower also has a small bar towards the bottom corner. Perfect for shaving those legs! ;)

 

Oh, and the nightlight? Whoever thought of that deserves a raise. You can get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without having to blind yourself or others. :D

 

Over all they did a very good job here for the space they have to work with.

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

Please bear with me as I try to find the perfect picture size to use :rolleyes:

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

Because it keeps coming up, I'm going to give you all my experience with watching the NFL on the Allure.

 

On Sunday the daytime games could be seen at the Aqua Theater (temporarily). They played the game until they started doing some of the shows there:

 

 

The best place to watch the games is On Air. From my pictures I can tell the games were the CBS games. They played all the Sunday games there, including the Sunday night game. They also played Monday Night football in On Air.

 

 

 

I believe the games were also played in the Casino bar, but I never made it down there.

 

Thursday Night Football - here was the downfall. The only place you could see this game was on the little tiny TV in On Air. They were doing karaoke at the time so there was no seating available. Plus the sound was turned off.

 

Once karaoke was over they put the Thursday game on the big screen in there, but there was only about 20 minutes left of the game. The Thursday NFL game was not shown in the casino this day because they were showing NCAA football instead.

 

Oh, and the games were also shown over the hot tubs in the Solarium :D

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[ProbablyRachel]

What was the worst thing about the room you may ask? They don't leave you any pens or paper!! How can you not have pens and a note pad in a room?

 

I went to fill out my room service breakfast form and discovered I had no pen to complete it with. It took way too long to complete it with the TV. I ended up using an eyeliner pen I had...

 

It also would have been nice to have a note pad to leave notes for my stateroom attendant.

 

So, make sure you remember a pen when you pack! I usually have one in my purse but switched purses for the cruise and left mine at home.

[/b]

 

I was also on this sailing with you. We noticed that there weren't any pens in the room as well! So strange. I cleaned all of the non necessities out of my purse before leaving... which included pens! Luckily my husband still had the Royal Caribbean pen from our honeymoon two years ago in our camera bag!

[flyawayca]

I was also on this sailing with you. We noticed that there weren't any pens in the room as well! So strange. I cleaned all of the non necessities out of my purse before leaving... which included pens! Luckily my husband still had the Royal Caribbean pen from our honeymoon two years ago in our camera bag!

 

I did the same thing. haha.

 

We ended up finding a stack of pens they had out in Labadee to sign the waiver forms and took one of them with us back to the room so we would have it the rest of the cruise. Good thing too because I needed it to fill out our customs forms and luggage tags to get off the ship! I wouldn't want to have to wait in that Guest Service line just to get a pen.

[flyawayca]

And now some random photos from around the ship. Such a beautiful ship!!

 

 

 

I love the little dog here:

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[gabby3]

We were on this voyage and enjoyed every moment. It was our second trip on the Allure and enjoyed it as much as the first. don't forget to mention the "log and the bird" in your review.

[flyawayca]

Central Park - By far my favorite place on the entire ship. It was so beautiful and relaxing.

 

At 9:30AM on most mornings you can get a Central Park Walking Tour. I recommend going on it if you enjoy Central Park. He explains the process it took to build the park itself, what they do to replace the plants, and how they keep them healthy.

 

During the day they play sounds of birds, at night crickets.

 

As explained during the walking tour they didn't really expect birds to completely move in. They have nests in the trees and birds can be spotted flying around and eating crumbs left by people.

 

They have a bar in the center, you can also find Central Park 150, Giovanni's Table, Vintages, and the Park Cafe here. For shopping they have the Britto Gallery, and Coach.

 

If you want to book a Central Park view room I recommend staying low towards the park. The noise from the Lido Deck can get loud. But be aware you might not have a lot of privacy :) I would get a room here though

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They even put up signs so you know what some of the plants are:

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

We were on this voyage and enjoyed every moment. It was our second trip on the Allure and enjoyed it as much as the first. don't forget to mention the "log and the bird" in your review.

 

I can't wait to book my second trip on this amazing ship! I'm glad you enjoyed your second trip.

 

You bet I will mention the log and the bird. Haha. Made for an interesting sea day! And it gave the comedians some good material to work with.

[flyawayca]

The Boardwalk is another very cool place on the ship. Never too busy, but quite a bit going on here.

 

You can find shops, the carousel, the ice cream parlor, Boardwalk Hot Dogs, Boardwalk Donuts, bean bag toss, a bar, Johnny Rockets, Rita's Cantina, and the Aqua theater here.

 

On a few of the sea days the orchestra comes out and plays music along the boardwalk.

 

Those who are interested in rooms with a view here I think it is nice because you have a view of the ocean as well. But again, you may not have as much privacy as you want.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

I took these pictures right before or during sail away while on the "secret balcony" on port side deck 12.

 

I wanted to be on the port side so I could get a picture of the famous Flow Rider house :D

 

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

My husband purchased the soda package for $52.33 (price billed to our SeaPass after tips).

 

We both thought it was well worth it.

 

We bought the package after boarding the ship and walking by and seeing the cups they had set out in Central Park. I loved the cup they give with it, very cool looking.

 

The cups have a little chip in the bottom which activates the Coca Cola machines you find around the ship (in the Windjammer, Wipe Out Cafe, and by Sorrento's).

 

I think a machine should be located on the Boardwalk as well. I was disappointed one was not. They also do not have the machines on Labadee so I wouldn't bother bringing the cup with you onto the island.

 

The only downfall is you have to have the cup to use the machines. You do get a sticker on your SeaPass card you can use to get regular sodas from any bar on the ship if you don't want to carry the cup around all the time. You just won't get all the fancy flavors.

 

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca

[flyawayca]

The shows were simply amazing. I was incredibly impressed with them.

 

Chicago:

Chicago was the one I was most excited about going into this cruise. Surprisingly it ended up being my least favorite. Not because it was bad, it was very good. But because the other ones were even better than I expected.

 

We were kind of disappointed with the lack of costume changes. I always look forward to see what they will come out with next. I'm thinking they probably cut it to save on time though.

 

 

 

Aqua Show Oceanaria:

 

This was impressive. So much going on that was different as well. Diving, trampolines, strong buff guys, and comedy. It was very entertaining.

 

I don't think I'd jump in that pool from as high up as the guys did in a million years.

 

 

This picture wasn't taken during Oceanaria but at the Crown and Anchor event teaser for the show:

 

 

Blue Planet:

 

Probably my favorite show. It was extraordinary! The set designs, the costumes, the singing. I had no idea what this show was about going into it but I am so happy I went!

 

I wish I could have taken pictures during the show but I follow the rules :p On a serious note, please actually do follow the rules. This lady in front of me insisted taking pictures throughout the entire show. I wish staff would have done something about it. It was so distracting for me! It's like having a cellphone on in a movie theater, the light is annoying. Plus she had to hold it over her head to get over the people in front of her so she was blocking our view as well.

 

Ice Games:

 

A really fun show to watch. The ice skaters were really good. Plus we had a hula hoop special guest from Las Vegas to watch. I enjoyed the set changes as well. Really enjoyable and fun. Not a single skater fell during the show I saw.

Edited September 30, 2013 by flyawayca