Allure of the Seas Sept 1, 2013

[aubreyc1988]

I know this is pretty late, but I thought maybe people who are obsessed with cruising (like myself) would want to see the pictures at very least. Maybe someone will read it and appreciate it.

 

My husband and I sailed on the Allure last year and loved it! We are from Iowa and usually sail out of Florida! We are pretty easy to please cruisers, we love shows, we love to eat, and we love beaches. We have no kids, just a dog and two cats. We cruise twice a year, one during the winter sometime, and another one usually over labor day.

 

I always like to reviews that include a little info about the reviewer so here are some pictures of our little "family".

 

 

Me, Aubreyc1988

 

Tominabox1, DH

 

Marty (McFly), a Chinese Crested Powder Puff

 

Mozzie and Maggie (Sisters)

 

more to come!

[aubreyc1988]

We always fly in the day before and booked a hotel through priceline's "name your own price. It put us in the Renaissance, which is close to the port. We got a good rate, at around 100.00. Here is a photo of our room. Pretty standard.

 

 

No breakfast included and no internet! From now on, we are going to stay at hotels that only include free breakfast and internet! Charging 12.00 a day for internet is just crazy! Anyhow, we took a third party shuttle to the port. 6.00pp and a lot of hotels near the port! The port is literally within walking distance, but you can't just walk in! It is super convenient to get to, which we loved!

 

Our itinerary is the Eastern Caribbean, so St. Martin, St. Thomas, and Nassau.

 

We were booked in a JS, so we got to wait in the suite area!

 

 

We were on the ship by 11! This port is awesome and you can tell it really is the best port!

 

Entering the Allure is like nothing I have experienced. Just such a WOW factor! Unlike any other ships we have been on, we love how open it feels when you step on board! Vacation is here feeling to the max!

 

[aubreyc1988]

We got in our room by noon! We have never been in a suite before. My sweet DH splurged and got it for us! It really was a TON of space just for the two of us! We especially loved the walk in closet! It was so nice to be able to put clothes away and have all that room to change! Living area was also very large!

 

We were on Deck 9, Aft I believe

 

 

We explored the ship a little bit. Took some random photos of things we saw while walking around

 

 

Checked out the spa

 

 

Love all the art on the ship

 

 

 

and of course got one of the famous roast beef sandwiches (Which I thought were good, but didn't quite live up the tremendous hype)

 

[aubreyc1988]

After we ate some of the sandwiches, we took some time to freshen up in our JS...or I just took some time to freshen up! :p

 

 

Muster drill was pretty painless. It was a LOT of standing around and standing really close to people and waiting for something to happen! However, once it got started, it was over pretty quick, and we were ready to sail away!

 

[Yorkvillain]

Never too late for an Allure review. Great start!

[Sinduf]

I know this is pretty late, but I thought maybe people who are obsessed with cruising (like myself) would want to see the pictures at very least. Maybe someone will read it and appreciate it.

 

 

Its never too late for a review. I not going on Allure until August 2015 and I will look at every review about Allure between now and then. Obsessed :eek: to right and proud to be!!!! Looking forwarding to reading the rest of your review. Thanks for posting

 

Sinead

[aubreyc1988]

I am just going to quickly go over the entertainment we saw. There are loads of Allure reviews, and if you want a more detailed one, this one probably isn't for you since it has been a year since I've sailed on this ship!

 

We LOVED the Aqua show. We saw it twice I think, and debated on seeing it a third time. The first time we saw it, we were on floor seating. The second time, we went up to one of the secret balconies and watched it from there and took pictures.

 

It is truly incredible the skill of these people! It is amazing to watch and I would recommend planning on seeing it the first time you are able to. The second time we went to see it, the weather was a little iffy, pretty windy! They still did it, but honestly I was frightened for the divers! So I can imagine if the weather had gotten worse, they would have cancelled the show! So go earlier so you won't miss it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

We saw Chicago and it was fantastic!

 

The ice show was fabulous! We did take some photos, but I have no clear idea where my husband stored them, and honestly it would have not done it justice. I love watching iceskating, it is my favorite thing to watch during the olympics, so I really enjoyed it! We also went iceskating, which my husband enjoyed...me, well I am a klutz and just watched for the most part! :D

 

We also saw the Blue Planet show...which started out good, and then it just got too weird for me. Here are some pictures of Blue Planet. I didn’t like all the modern music they played through the middle to end, it just didn't seem to mesh well. My DH only took photos for the first part of the show because we both just lost interest after the first part.

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Now I will go over the ports of call. We have never been to St. Martin or St. Thomas, but have been to Nassau plenty of times.

 

In St. Thomas, we did not have an excursion planned, but just were going to go to a beach, rent two chairs, an umbrella, have some drinks, go in the ocean, etc. It was a good thing we didn't book an excursion because it POURED. And not just a Caribbean pour, like for 10 minutes it poured and then it was sunny, it POURED all day long.

 

We had no idea what to do, so we asked around where the best place to get food was. A local referred us to Gladys’. The food was good, not spectacular, and pretty high priced for what it was. The staff was incredible though, really friendly, and loved to talk and get to know you!

 

 

 

After we ate there, I was so determined to have fun and just enjoy the day. DH was a little less optimistic, lol! So I decided to go shopping for the perfect souvenir so we took a van/bus to this shopping center. Don’t remember the name, but the shopping was “OK”. I don’t even remember what I even bought, probably because we both were so miserable, but trying to be happy drenched in our clothes. Here are some pictures we snapped while riding in the van.

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Here are some more pictures of St. Thomas as we came into the port. It was kind of pretty, in a rainy/foggy sort of way! I can’t wait to go back to St. Thomas this year and hopefully this time around it will be perfect beach day!

 

 

 

Seriously, St. Thomas is absolutely one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been to on a cruise!

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

More pictures of St. Thomas…

 

 

 

 

Love the color of the water in this one

 

 

 

We decided to call it quits around 2 and just head back to the ship. I felt pretty disappointed, defeated, and a little depressed. Plus, there really wasn’t anything too exciting going on back on the Allure, since it was rainy. I saw in the schedule that they were having a happy hour, so I was in dire need of some “happiness” so we went to the solarium bar and decided to get hammered, haha!

 

We met some awesome people at the bar and ended up drinking til around 3AM! Just to clarify, neither me or DH are alcoholics and we never go to bars or out drinking, so this was rare for us! But it definitely made for a much better day and we had a blast on board drinking with new found friends!

[aubreyc1988]

The next day we were in St. Martin! I woke DH up around 7:30 and told him to get a move on, it was partly sunny and I was going to make the most of this day in port. Poor guy was SO hung over! I fortunately am blessed and rarely ever get hung over, but he was feeling pretty poor, so we got him some food, lots of water, and I convinced him to power through it.

 

By the time we were off the ship in St. Martin, he was starving. So we took a taxi over to the french side to eat. At St. Martin, we had no excursions booked, but I had done tons of research on CC about the port, and knew that I wanted to visit this bakery on the french side first, then hit Maho beach around 11, and planned the spend the rest of the day at the beach.

 

We ate at this little french place that was DELICIOUS. I had some sort of steak kabobs that were spicy with rice, and I have no idea what my husband ate, but he LOVED it. Perfect hangover food, and the waitress was nice enough to give him some seltzer water to help calm his stomach down for free! The bill, though, was pretty high I thought. 50.00 for both of us to eat, and she charged us a conversion rate! Ah well, its just vacation, but next time we will bring some Euros with us to avoid that conversion rate!

 

After we ate, we went in search of this famous french bakery talked about on CC, Sarafina’s. It was closed for some reason, so off we went to Maho beach.

 

Maho was really awesome, definitely something everyone should do once! I do recommend using a cheap camera to take pictures, because the sand does really get going when the planes are coming in and can damage your camera! The actual beach part was OK, definitely not the best beach I have been too (it’s no Half Moon Cay), and the waves were pretty rough when I was there. Lots of jagged rocks, be sure to wear footwear in the water! I was wearing footwear and I still scratched my foot on a rock!

 

And it was funny, because we ended up meeting up with our drinking buddies from the preious night and we had a great day together at Maho

 

Here are some pictures of that day

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all the major planes were done coming through, we decided to eat at this restaurant right by Maho, which was decently priced! We then went back to watch a few more planes and lay in the sun. We debated going to a better beach, but then it started to sprinkle and we knew the storm was coming our way, so we headed back to ship around 2 or 3.

Edited June 29, 2014 by aubreyc1988

[aubreyc1988]

Since we have been to Nassau so many times, we planned to get off just to go to Señor Frogs, have some drinks, and then get back on the ship to read, sun bathe, and just relax without a ton of passengers around..

 

We definitely got off the ship too early, because we had to wait outside of Señor Frogs for like an hour because it opens at 10am. We really were only at Señor Frogs for like an hour or so. It was my first time there, and it must have just been too early in the day for the fun to begin because I really didn’t get the hype.

 

We did meet some friendly locals while waiting for Señor Frogs to open, and I love meeting new people!

 

 

 

 

 

Back on the Allure, we went to the Solarium to sunbathe and read. The Carnival Ecstasy was in port with us, had to take a picture of it, because we have been on it before!

 

 

The ship was so empty and peaceful, was a great time to go swimming and explore again! The ship is so big I felt like even after a week I never saw the whole thing

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Our sea days were filled with shows, eating and relaxing.

 

Our CC Meet and Mingle was great! It was awesome to meet people from our roll call! We did a cabin crawl, a gift exchange, and a slot pull! Here is a photo from the room we met in, can’t remember the name.

 

 

There were refreshments, one of the cruise staff had an intro of sorts, but mostly was just mingling :D

 

We never actually went into Vintages, but next time I definitely will have a glass of wine in one

 

They had a really neat jewelry vendor on the ship that made dichroic glass pieces, and on one of the last days, they had a BOGO sale, so I bought this bling-y unique ring and got my mom a pendant for a christmas present. I love christmas shopping for family and friends in ports of call, they always love it!

 

 

We really didn’t go to the boardwalk that much, I didn’t even get a chance to eat a hot dog! But it was a nice space and we did stroll through it a couple of times

 

 

We did one specialty restaurant on this cruise, Chops. It was delicious, I got the Chops filet with mashed potatoes. We were celebrating my husbands birthday which was in a few weeks so they brought out dessert for him and sang happy birthday!

 

 

 

The meal at chops was great, but I felt like the sides they served were just like the ones in the MDR. So I think its a much better value just to get the chops filet in the MDR, since that is what I love at Chops. But this is just based upon what I like to order from Chops! I felt like there wasn’t very good desserts either, as I cannot have nuts my options were really limited!

[aubreyc1988]

We of course stopped by Casino Royale and gambled…and won…and then lost. We are not huge gamblers and never go over 100.00 gambling per cruise.

 

The casino was nicely decorated, and even had some penny slots :D Of course I couldn’t take photos in the Casino, but here are some pictures of the signs for the Casino

 

 

 

We stopped by the Glow party on the last night, but didn’t stay. I think we were both too tired and plus Ken Rush just wasn’t that great a CD or host for the party in my opinion

 

 

We met Captain Tore, which was really nice and he spent a minute or two chatting with us! A really nice guy!

 

 

We also went to the comedy show, which was OK. We have definitely been to better comedy shows on Carnival. The guy in the white in the background of the picture was definitely funnier than the comedian! I remember him talking to us before the show, saying “Hey, would you like me to take your picture” so of course we say “Sure” and he yells at his friend “Hey Marty, come over and take their photo!” He was cracking jokes all through the act! As a pinnacle member, he definitely has cruised on the allure and many other ships before! Was nice chatting with him beforehand!

 

[aubreyc1988]

Here are some other pictures of the Allure that I haven’t shown yet!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aubreyc1988]

Other random photos…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All in all, it was a FANTASTIC cruise and would definitely sail again! RCI definitely has a huge WOW factor, and the Allure gets an A+ from me! I cannot wait to sail her sister ship, the Oasis!

 

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

 

Thanks for taking the time to read my little review!

[kccrzr]

Thanks so much for posting. I have just decided to take my DD on the Allure for the first time in August. I was torn between a B1 balcony overlooking the aqua theatre or a JS on Deck 8 where Central Park is located. Although the balconies overlooking the theatre would be an unique experience for us, I finally decided on the JS because the prices have just dropped $450 pp and I like having the extra balcony space. Seeing your photos of the beautiful Central Park area has convinced me that we won't go wrong with the JS.

[Esmerelda]

Thanks so much Aubrey for your play by play review. It doesn't matter if it was last September, I loved reading about your adventures. :p

 

We too loved the Allure (so much in fact we are sailing her again in about 60 days). As well, we done the Oasis. For some reason, we all likes the Allure better. I thought Chicago was phenomenal as well as my group.

 

Loved your review and your photos....awesome! So glad you enjoyed your cruise.

 

:D

[aubreyc1988]

Thanks so much for posting. I have just decided to take my DD on the Allure for the first time in August. I was torn between a B1 balcony overlooking the aqua theatre or a JS on Deck 8 where Central Park is located. Although the balconies overlooking the theatre would be an unique experience for us, I finally decided on the JS because the prices have just dropped $450 pp and I like having the extra balcony space. Seeing your photos of the beautiful Central Park area has convinced me that we won't go wrong with the JS.

Yeah if you can afford it JS all the way. But I can't imagine going in any higher cat. Of suite as I felt like the amount of room in a JS was just excessive for two people ! It really is lovely though! Our JS was on the hump so the balcony was a tad bit bigger

Edited June 29, 2014 by aubreyc1988

[Eng23]

I know what you mean in regard to the size of the ship. I've been on the Allure 2 times with a third trip coming up this September and I still have not seen the whole ship! :)