Propelled to Cruise: Our Photo Review of the Allure 2-16-14

[ginadc]

Well, phooey. Are the pictures in the last post embedded for anyone else? Because they aren't for me, and I copied the "image" link in Photobucket faithfully. Curses, foiled again...

[Clarea]

Well, phooey. Are the pictures in the last post embedded for anyone else? Because they aren't for me, and I copied the "image" link in Photobucket faithfully. Curses, foiled again...

The pictures look fine to me.

[niksmom630]

I'm seeing all the photos as well...in fact, the donut shot is making me hungry for an afternoon snack ;) Looking forward to the rest of your review!

[Mouse's Shadow]

Loving the review. I can see the photos in your last post.

[ginadc]

Thanks!!!

 

 

Adventure Ocean

So after Adventure Ocean opened, we dropped the kids off—our younger two in Aquanauts, for the 3-5 set, and our oldest in Explorers, for 6-8 year-olds. Since Techno Boy will be 6 next month, they would have let him in Explorers had he wanted to go there, but he felt protective of the Kraken and didn’t want her all alone in Adventure Ocean for her first time. (She’s been in Royal Babies and Tots on previous sailings.)

 

As always, the kids had a blast in Adventure Ocean the entire week. This is one of the reasons we like cruising with Royal as a family so much—it is a perfect blend of family time and “couple time.” There’s so much for us to do together as a family, and then it is also so easy to hand the kids off to AO and know they will have a blast on their own, make new friends, and come back with great stories.

 

I recommend asking the AO staff early in the week about what nights/days the special events, like pajama night, talent show, and especially Pirates Take Over the Ship, will be in case you may want to adjust your schedule for other things like shows and specialty dining. I was pretty sure I knew when the Pirate Parade was, but got it wrong and it turned out to be the night we had 8:30 dinner reservations at Chops. That meant we missed watching/photographing the Pirate Parade, which disappointed both us and our kids. Had we realized, we might have been able to rearrange our reservation.

 

So after dropping the kids off, Superdad and I took an hour or so to kick back and relax in the multi-level Solarium, which encompasses the entire forward section of Deck 15 and is truly beautiful. I go back and forth on which Solarium design I prefer—Freedom Class or Oasis Class. I think I like the “cool pool” layout on Freedom Class better—it seems a bit bigger, more like an elegant pool and less like a cooled-down hot tub. But the vistas of the sea and sky in the Oasis-class layout are spectacular. We hit my personal favorite, the cantilevered hot tubs, for awhile, then laid back on a couple of the deck chairs facing the ocean for some much deserved quiet contemplation.

 

 

 

 

 

After that we just wandered the ship for a bit, snapping pictures and getting acquainted with our new home, before picking the kids up at lunch time. For lunch, we returned to our new favorite place, the Boardwalk.

 

Boardwalk and Adventure Sports

Hot dogs were the order of the day for lunch at Boardwalk Dog House. I have to say that this was one of my absolute favorite venues on Allure, and the only thing that bums me out about the fact that we have already reserved Oasis for Thanksgiving is that there won’t be a Dog House. We returned to the Dog House time and time again over the course of the cruise. My favorite was the Sicilian—pork, garlic, oregano, and Italian spices on a parmesan and cheddar baguette—with peppers and onions. The kids usually went for the classic Coney Island dog. (See the menu in my previous post.)

 

After a ride on the carousel, the Diva tried her hand at the climbing wall. She’s a rock climber at home and scaled the wall on the Liberty easily, but this one proved a challenge at first. She decided to try the hardest series of holds, ones that barely jut out from the wall at all, and might have been able to handle those but she was a little freaked out by the auto-belay system. She’s used to having a real live belayer below her, and the lack of perceptible tension in the rope freaked her out. She made it about halfway up and decided to give it another try later.

 

Diva's first assay of the rock wall.

 

So we decided to head up to the sports deck so I could try the Zip Line. (Superdad took his turn on the last sea day.) At that point the line wasn’t too long. It was 8 seconds of adrenaline rush! We’ve ziplined before, but there’s something cool about doing it suspended over a cruise ship boardwalk. Unfortunately, none of the kids were either tall enough or heavy enough (you have to be a minimum of 52 inches and 75 pounds) to try this adventure. If you weigh too much, the risks are probably obvious; if you weigh too little, you could get stuck in the middle of the line!

[ginadc]

Day 2 Continued:

Formal Night and “Chicago”

Then it was time to dress for Formal Night. We love Formal Night. Our girls adore fancy dresses, and Superdad and I rarely have the opportunity to dress up these days since all of our friends are married already and we don’t go to that many “formal affairs.”

 

We always like to take goofball pictures on the balcony first:

 

 

Plus, Techno Boy looks adorable in a tux.

 

 

 

 

After dinner, we stopped to get photos taken with Captain Tore in the Royal Promenade—something we hadn’t managed to do on previous sailings, and a real highlight.

 

 

 

Then we took the kids back to the cabin for babysitting—something I had arranged at Guest Services on embarkation day. This is one of the few negative comments I have about this sailing—not the babysitting, but Guest Services. The lines were always long at Guest Services, and it seemed to take absolutely forever for even the simplest thing to be handled. Booking babysitting would seem to not be that complicated—give them your stateroom number, kids’ ages and hours you want, they put in the request, and they get back to you with availability. But after spending probably half an hour in line, I must have spent another 20 minutes with the guest services representative, and while he was very polite, I have no idea why it took so long to put the request in.

 

Requests for in-cabin babysitting are not guaranteed, and they will almost certainly not tell you at the time of your request whether you will get a sitter or not. You’ll get a message in your stateroom a few hours later. We requested sitting for two nights on this sailing, and got sitters both nights.

 

The rate is $16/hour because you will have two sitters—that’s a requirement (and a good one, I think). We usually tip the sitters extra in cash. The sitters are not from Adventure Ocean, but other cruise staff who want to make extra money in their “off time.” They are only allowed to sit for a maximum of 3 hours in a night. We have always had good experiences with the sitters we’ve had, both on this sailing and on others, although the booking process can be a bit of a headache.

 

So after leaving the kids with the two sitters, we headed off in our formal night finery to see Chicago!

 

I have heard some quibbles about the cuts that had to be made to keep the show’s running time to an hour and a half, but Superdad and I are both pretty big theater fans and were extremely impressed with the quality of this production. The performers were extremely high caliber—I wish I had written down more of the names. The only one I can remember is Helen Turner as Roxie Hart. She and the actors who played Billy Flynn (resembled a young Joel Grey) and Amos Hart were absolutely outstanding. They also had major featured roles in “Blue Planet” later in the week, and I was very impressed with their versatility in doing so many “Chicago” performances for half the week and then switching to such a different show for the second half of the week.

Edited March 4, 2014 by ginadc

[ginadc]

I seem to recall having a drink somewhere after "Chicago" and before returning to relieve the sitters, but darned if I can recall where... So we move on to:

 

Day 3: First Sea Day

 

For breakfast on Day 3, we ordered room service. The kids love that because we can eat on the balcony, but I’m not a huge fan of the breakfast room service selection. To order room service breakfast, you simply leave the door card on your stateroom door handle by 3 am. I recommend ordering more than you think you'll need, as portions of whatever you order tend to run small. There's no extra charge beyond tip, but if you have the Premium Package, room service drinks aren't included--so if you want a breakfast bloody Mary on your balcony, expect the upcharge.

 

We took it pretty easy for the morning, first heading again to the Boardwalk and letting the kids goof around. Totally by accident, we stumbled on a morning reception for upper-tier C&A members back by the AquaTheater, featuring some of the performers from OceanAria as well as photo ops for the kids with the Madagascar cast (and plenty of free drinks available).

 

 

After a brief but amazing performance by some of the dive and acrobatic cast, including the Romanian hand balance team the Faraoneanus, Captain Tore took the stage with one of his top officers and did their own “acrobatic show.” Great fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More to come...

[Cruzin-K]

Great review!

 

Your formal night photos are simply adorable.

[sauvichick]

Loving your review and your children are adorable! The nicknames make me laugh especially Kraken's! Will be back on the Allure June 29 and maybe I should put a hotdog and a donut on the list (things I normally avoid because they are yummy)!

[ekatiel]

Still loving the review! Do you remember what evening the pirate parade was on? It would be nice to make sure we weren't booked for any shows then. I know my kids really enjoyed it when we were on Mariner.

[ginadc]

Still loving the review! Do you remember what evening the pirate parade was on? It would be nice to make sure we weren't booked for any shows then. I know my kids really enjoyed it when we were on Mariner.

 

It was Day 5, the St. Maarten night. Definitely check with the AO staff when you board to be sure it's the same, though.

 

Bicster, thanks! The Kraken's nickname is definitely apt. She is the cutest little angel 90% of the time, but when the wrong button is pushed, beware! I think the angelic cuteness is protective coloration to keep her alive during that other 10%.

 

Seriously, do NOT miss the dogs. The Sicilian especially. I could take or leave the other donuts--good but not something I'd kill my diet for--but the Key lime was divine!

[novalab]

Well, phooey. Are the pictures in the last post embedded for anyone else? Because they aren't for me, and I copied the "image" link in Photobucket faithfully. Curses, foiled again...

 

Your pictures look great! They are showing up big & beautiful on your posts!

 

Thank you!!

[HeartCruzs]

I love your sense of humor! And the posts - they are great! Keep 'em coming! :D

[beach18]

Great humorous review and very helpful for our upcoming trip on Oasis with our kids. Thank you!

Edited March 4, 2014 by beach18

[readytolose]

I'm loving your review! Enough details to keep me interested, but not so much that I'm starting to skim through it! LOL

[ginadc]

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! Rewarding the lovely comments with another chunk of review before I dive back into work.

 

Day 3 continued

After the C&A reception, the Kraken got her face painted, and then it was time for the opening “Move It Move It” parade followed by “How To Train Your Dragon” on ice. The “Dragon” ice show isn’t announced ahead of time (that is, any earlier than the day’s Compass) and doesn’t require reservations, but it’s a lively, well-done short performance (about half an hour) that’s lots of fun for kids.

 

You can see the face painter does a quality job!

 

 

Parade:

 

 

(No flash photos allowed in the ice show, and I'm not adept enough to capture anything without flash!)

 

More pool time in the afternoon, and then MDR dinner followed by OceanAria for all of us. We had advance reservations, but didn’t manage to make it to the AquaTheater before they released general seating—obviously, it was a bit overly optimistic to think we could get from a 6 pm dining room seating to the AquaTheater by 7:15! We decided to go ahead and sit in the “splash zone” rather than miss the show or stand through the whole thing, and all worked out for the best. It was amazing being that close to the performers, and since we were in the back row of the splash zone, we really didn’t get drenched—just a few sprays.

 

I would say that if you had to choose only one show to see on the Allure, this is the one to make time for. The dive performers, trampolinists and acrobats are absolutely outstanding, and the environment of the AquaTheater at night is otherworldly.

 

Day 4—In Which We Blow off St. Thomas

We’ve been lucky enough to cruise the Eastern Caribbean a couple of times before, and also spent a week on St. John renting a house with a couple of other families when our older two were little, so we really didn’t feel the need to do an excursion on St. Thomas or even just go into Charlotte Amalie. If the Allure docked at Havensight rather than the less convenient Crown Bay, we might have walked around a little bit, but we knew that the ship would be pretty packed on the last two sea days and decided we’d rather spend the day on a less-crowded Allure.

 

First thing that morning we got breakfast at the Park Café, which I think is the best breakfast on the ship. Their breakfast burritos and English muffin sandwiches are very flavorful—we all loved the burritos especially. They also have a couple of different warm breakfast panini options, yogurts, granola parfaits, bagels with lox and several kinds of cream cheese, and plenty of fresh fruit.

 

Before the late-morning docking in St. Thomas, we hit the AquaTheater again, this time for the “Madagascar” water show “Let You Entertain Me.” It's not as impressive as OceanAria, and on a sunny day it can get hot in those seats, but there are still some great bits and the kids really loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

More to come!

[ginadc]

A few more shots from Let You Entertain Me:

 

 

 

 

 

After the show, we all took a stroll around the upper decks before lunch.

 

Some St. Thomas scenery:

 

 

 

The unoccupied Launching Pad for the Zipline:

 

 

I've hit my six-photo allotment, so more in the next post!

[ginadc]

Day 4/St. Thomas (or not) Continued:

 

One more shot from our pre-lunch meanderings on the sports deck, just because I think this one is cool:

 

 

After lunch, we sent the kids to Adventure Ocean for a bit and had some solo time. We spent a good hour and a half on the Rising Tide, enjoying conversation with a very personable bartender who explained to us why a lot of the staff were not looking forward to a European deployment--they have to pay their own airfare to get there. Didn't bring the good camera, so here are a few iPhone shots:

 

 

 

 

Rising Tide basically sits in one spot, either on the Royal Promenade or at Central Park, for probably a good ten minutes at a time. Then it makes its slow, but noticeable, ascent or descent, and then sits at the other spot for another period of time. Here from another day you can see the kids sneaking a peek in at the entrance when it was closed (this was on the morning of the last sea day):

 

 

The screen toward the middle right of the shot shows its next "departure time" of 1 pm. If you like people-watching while you sip a cocktail, it's a trifecta--you can check out the folks around you in the Rising Tide, plus watch the traffic in Central Park followed by the traffic in the Promenade...and back and forth again as long as you like (or your liver holds out).

 

Work beckons...more to come later!

[ginadc]

Day 4 (St. Thomas, or not) continued

 

After getting the kids from Adventure Ocean later in the afternoon, we hit the pool deck again for the opportunity to enjoy a partially-empty ship.

 

Thoughts on the Pool Deck

Allure’s pool deck offers several big improvements/additions to the already great pool deck on the Freedom class ships. The section of the deck devoted to pools is significantly bigger, and there are more pools overall. The beach pool is fantastic, and the H20 Zone for the kids is also a bit bigger (or at least it seemed to be to me). With that said, there are a couple of things we missed from the Freedom class ships. Because of Central Park on deck 8, there’s a division in the middle of the pool deck that separates the main pool from the beach pool, and the sports pool from the H20 Zone. I think this gives the overall pool area more of a fragmented feeling, and makes it harder to switch from one pool to another.

 

This shot gives you a perspective on how Central Park breaks up the pool deck between the main and "beach" pools.

 

 

Another angle:

 

 

Big “pool events” like the Sexiest Man competition and the Belly Flop contest are also not held on the main pool deck on the Allure, but instead at the AquaTheater. There are advantages to that—big broadcast screens and the huge arena-style seating area. But it also means that you can’t just decide to watch them while you’re kicking back in the pool, something that I always thought added to the convivial atmosphere of these contests. It takes a little more planning to make sure you see them, which means we only got to view them on Cruise TV. (Something my husband would not view as a negative, but what can I say, I get a kick out of some of these longtime cruise classics.)

 

I also missed the pool deck movie screens—those, too, are at the AquaTheater now. It’s pretty cool having “Hunger Games: Catching Fire” looming out at you while you’re on the rock wall (or so my daughter says—I’m no climber!):

 

 

...but I have fond memories of being on the Freedom and watching “Grease” and “Ghostbusters” with my kids while in the pool. (Which reminds me: so long and thanks for all the laughs, Harold Ramis.)

 

So to sum up, I would give the edge to the Allure’s pool deck overall, but there are some things Freedom class does better in this regard.

 

We had dinner in the MDR again, and then took the kids to evening Adventure Ocean before heading to the stand-up comedy show, featuring Phil Palisoul and AJ Jarmal. The comedy club is very small, sharing space near the aft end of Deck 4 with Studio B (the ice rink/theater), Blaze nightclub, and Jazz on 4—none of which I took pictures of, drat it. There are always big standby crowds hoping that people will blow off their reserved seats. Palisoul was funny, but Jarmal was truly hilarious. It’s a time-honored cruise ship classic for the headliner comedian to parody the ship’s culture, spaces (or lack thereof) and foibles, but Jarmal did it brilliantly. His routine about the shower “tubes” was hysterical. We really had a ball.

 

After picking up the kids from Adventure Ocean, we all went to the ‘70s Disco Inferno Street Party before heading to bed. It was a total cheesefest but you could not help but have a good time, watching Po from Kung Fu Panda do “Kung Fu Fighting” on the Rising Tide and dancing along with the cruise director’s staff dressed as the Village People and singing “In the Navy.” This is probably exactly the kind of experience David Foster Wallace had in mind when he wrote “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again,” raking cruising over the coals in his inimitable way, but who cares? We had a great time anyway.

 

I didn't manage to snap any pictures of the festivities, but here's one of us:

 

 

Next up--St. Maarten--where we actually set foot off the ship for the first time since Fort Lauderdale!

[beach18]

We hit my personal favorite, the cantilevered hot tubs, for awhile, then laid back on a couple of the deck chairs facing the ocean for some much deserved quiet contemplation.

 

Can kids go into any of the cantilevered hot tubs?

[DisnyMik]

So after dropping the kids off, Superdad and I took an hour or so to kick back and relax in the multi-level Solarium, which encompasses the entire forward section of Deck 15 and is truly beautiful. I go back and forth on which Solarium design I prefer—Freedom Class or Oasis Class. I think I like the “cool pool” layout on Freedom Class better—it seems a bit bigger, more like an elegant pool and less like a cooled-down hot tub. But the vistas of the sea and sky in the Oasis-class layout are spectacular. We hit my personal favorite, the cantilevered hot tubs, for awhile, then laid back on a couple of the deck chairs facing the ocean for some much deserved quiet contemplation.

 

 

 

 

I will have myself parked in the Solarium as often as I can get away with! We were on the Oasis and loved the Solarium, but then on the Freedom I missed it. Other than that we loved Freedom!

 

Thanks for the great review! Love the pics, too!

[At Sea 4Ever]

Enjoying your review! It's getting me excited for my upcoming sailing on Oasis : )

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Crzy4my2]

Loving everything so far. Thank you. We head out on the Allure in 39 days..first trip for us.. Can't wait!

Edited March 5, 2014 by Crzy4my2

[mamaehen]

Enjoying your review!

[Valchie]

Loving everything so far. Thank you. We head out on the Allure in 39 days..first trip for us.. Can't wait!

 

Well it certainly seems like you picked a good one for your first cruise! We'll be sailing the Allure the week prior to you, the 6th, our first time on that class of ship. How exciting, huh? Nice review, too!