Allure of the Seas Review, Oct. 12, 2014, with pics--My very first review

[maureencruiser]

Loving the review, beautiful family! I hope it all ends well with the laptop. Is Junkanoo the beach next to Fat Tuesday? If it is, is there a shortcut to it or do you have to walk all the way around the hotel? :confused:

[Respiraman]

I was on the Allure that week. Excellent review so far. Love the pictures!

[Respiraman]

Our favorite area for the evening was in the Schooner Bar enjoying Matt Ganim the "Piano Man".

[Kapin777]

This is an awesome review, thank you for posting!! We will be on the allure eastern Carribean february 1st 2014. We are also on deck 6, balcony but more toward the front of the ship. How did you like staying on deck 6? Also, how did you get to the beach in Nassau? It looks lovely and us too were surprised at how much more expensive a shore excursion is there versus one on st thomas or st Martin.

 

Thanks again! Keep the pics coming!

 

 

Freedom 2014

 

I liked deck 6. I'm sure not everyone will because its quite a walk to pool decks, but a little extra walking isn't bad.

We just walked to the beach in Nassau. It's maybe a 15 minute walk. If you aren't sure where to walk there's an information desk in the port area and they can tell you how to get there.

[Kapin777]

Can't wait for more. Thank you again

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Thanks. Hoping to post more either tonight or tomorrow. Trying to get a lot of stuff done before a couple days off for the holiday.

[Kapin777]

I'm enjoying your review. I have also been on the Allure and am going back with my kids in one week! We will be taking our 19 month old, so I'm taking notes.

 

Although I don't know that's he's as easy going as your sweet daughter. Worst case, I can just put him in the stroller and walk laps with a fruity drink in my hand or strap him into the Ergo carrier and carry him everywhere with me...

 

We spent many a days walking laps; always much better with a drink in hand. Getting her down for naps or to bed wasn't always easy. Some nights it was walking around for an hour or so. What we do for those little critters :)

[Kapin777]

Loving the review, beautiful family! I hope it all ends well with the laptop. Is Junkanoo the beach next to Fat Tuesday? If it is, is there a shortcut to it or do you have to walk all the way around the hotel? :confused:

 

If I remember correctly, yes, the beach is just a little bit past Fat Tuesday. My wife and I thought about stopping there on the way back, but didn't. I'm not sure if there is a shortcut.

[Kapin777]

Next up: Day 3, Sea Day, Oct. 14

 

This was going to be a lazy sea day just lounging around and that’s exactly what we got. We woke up nice and early, around 6 or 6:30 when its still pitch black out. I went to the gym while my daughter and wife slept in bed. I got back just about when my daughter was waking up and then my wife went to the gym while I fed my daughter breakfast.

 

Our mornings worked the same; I would feed my daughter milk then get her dressed and we would go for a walk around the ship ending up at the gym to find my wife. We took the same route each day. We would walk down the stairs in the back of the ship from our deck down one deck to the Royal Promenade and walk the entire Royal Promenade while my daughter would “explore.” A few things she loved: she loved see the water that shot under the rising tide bar. She would just stand there starring at it while getting this really excited look on her face. She also liked finding the fake dog that is by one of the vents on the Royal Promenade (we have 2 real ones at home). After we got to the other end of the Royal Promenade, we would climb the stairs back to deck 6 and go into the gym. After we’d find my wife we would head up to breakfast. We got to breakfast by probably 900 or 930 each morning which is great because like I said, we like getting up early. As you’ll see, it was going to be a beautiful day out. It was sunny and warm.

 

 

You’ll remember from earlier that was this whole disaster with my wife’s computer. At this point she still doesn't know. On our way somewhere I tell her I want to stop and check my e-mail—I think I said it was for work. I log on and my mom had e-mailed me like 2 minutes earlier--good timing. Her message: the computer is found and its safe with the TSA and I can pick it up when we get back to Chicago. I was beyond relieved. It was a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I could finally fully enjoy my cruise without worrying that I cost my wife her job by losing her computer. I feel 100000% better and I finally have to “come clean” and tell my wife what happened. She couldn’t believe I forgot it, I don't ever do things like that but she wasn’t mad at all. She felt bad that I was so upset over it and she wished I had said something because then she would have told me not to worry. She also said she thought I had been a little “off” the first two days, not quite as excited as I normally am on a cruise and now she knows why. What makes it even more funny is my wife said when we were packing up our stuff at the security checkpoint at O’Hare they made an announcement that someone had left a laptop. I didn't hear it and my wife said she didn’t even think of mentioning that to me because she knew I wouldn’t forget it. Boy do I wish she said something. Oh well, all is well. The computer is safe and I am able to pick it up when we land. Now I can really enjoy the rest of the vacation.

 

We went to lunch in Solarium Bistro. We liked going there every now and again. It tends to have healthier and lighter food. My wife loved the miso made to order soup. It was a good lunch and our daughter slept through it.

 

 

 

She eventually woke up when we went up to the Viking's Lounge.

 

 

She's awake!

 

 

We went back to the room and put her in her swimsuit and went swimming.

 

After swimming, we changed and for dinner….andyou guessed it: merry go round! We did it again…again…and again, but she loved it so I had no problems. My wife and I would take turns riding it with our daughter.

 

 

[Kapin777]

Day 3 continued:

 

Before going to dinner we stopped off at the cupcake shop. As our daughter was looking around the lady working there did something so nice. She just gave our daughter a cupcake for free and it was one of those good expensive ones. We offered to pay but she wouldn’t let us. Then our daughter dropped it on accident and she gave us a second free one and wouldn't let us pay. That was totally unexpected but so nice, and it made our daughter really happy. My wife wanted to do a cupcake decorating class with our daughter, but she was too young to do it. Maybe on another cruise.

 

 

Who is the happy girl with the cupcake :)

 

After dinner we went back to our room to hang out on our balcony with our daughter for a while before getting her ready for bed. We had a reservation for OceanAria that night, a show that my wife and I really enjoyed on our last Allure cruise. We thought our daughter would like it, but all the noise scared her so we left right after it started. Hopefully next cruise she’ll enjoy it.

We spent the rest of the night walking around the ship and went to bed.

 

 

Looking out our balcony.

 

 

My wife and daughter on the

 

It was another good day and to top it off the Royals won again, putting us one game away from the WS!

 

Next up: Jamaica

[Kapin777]

Sorry for the very, very, very long delay. Work got busy, then the whole family came here for Thanksgiving and then work got busy again. But now I'm determined to get this done soon. So back to the review:

 

Woke up to another beautiful morning. Sunny and warm. Our cruising mate, the Disney Fantasy was with again. Normal morning routine, I went to the gym, then my wife did while I got my daughter dressed and then we went to find my wife in the gym. After that breakfast.

 

We were in no hurry to get off the boat. Falmouth, Jamaica is just not my cup of teat. For those of you have not been there, the cruise port is nice. It’s a huge enclosed area with shops and restaurants and you can spend a bit of time just walking around.

 

The heat knocked her out. You will notice she has that fan I was talking about earlier. Well as I said, the "blades" are just foam. There are only 2 blades left as she ripped off the other one. It still worked, just not as as well!

 

 

 

However, once you leave the port area you are in a different setting. Now, I never felt unsafe. I felt safe the entire time, but with that said, the locals are in your face the second you leave the port. They are offering everything from the normal excursions to the illegal. I’m there with my wife and baby, I don’t need 15 people asking me if I need drugs. We only walked around outside the port area for about 5 minutes and then back to the ship.

 

One new addition since we were last is Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. It looked neat. They have a pool in back with a bar. We didn't go but we could see it from our balcony.

 

 

 

I know you can take taxi’s or excursions to other areas of Jamaica and I’m sure they are lovely, but with a baby we decided to stay somewhat close to the ship.

 

A couple shots of our ship in port

 

 

 

 

 

We spent the remainder of the day in the pools and just lounging around. Since we had a baby, the cruise line provided us with a pack and play. As mentioned earlier, my daughter wanted nothing to do with it. At home, she sleeps perfectly fine in her crib. The cruise was a whole different story. I guess since we were all in the same room, our baby just wanted to be with us. However, all the sudden when we were in our room getting dressed for the evening, our daughter decided she just wanted to play in the pack and play. This worked for us, she was contained and we could get dressed. Just remember for those of you with kids in the pack and play, the room is tight quarters so the babies can reach to anything on the desks and nightstands even while in their pack and plays.

 

 

 

What followed was another good dinner and then just lounging around the ship.

 

 

 

I didn’t know this, but when the aqua theater is not in use, you can walk in back of it and get all the way to the back of the ship. One of my favorite things to do on a ship is look at the wake off the back of the boat and my first time on the Allure I didn't know you could and finally on day 4 of this cruise I found you could. Also, for all those of like play shuffle board, there are 2 places to play shuffle board back behind the aqua theater. That night I discovered the area in back of the aqua theater is open to the public. I walked back there and got one of my favorite pics of the ship. After that, we just wondered around a bit more and then called it a night.

[Kapin777]

Opps, I forgot to include one of my favorite pictures I took. It was from the evening the previous night.

 

 

Next up: Day 5, Cruising, Oct. 16

 

 

Woke up to warm weather and an ocea that is so calm it almost looks fake.

 

 

 

By now you know our morning routine, so I won’t bore you with the details again. After breakfast we hit the Baby Splash Zone on the early side before our daughter’s nap. A morning and afternoon swim for her has become the norm. The day was the same stuff, swim, eat, cool down and repeat.

 

Someone enjoys pool time!

 

 

 

Tonight was the second formal night and we dressed up again. We like getting all dressed up. Before dinner we “tried” to take family pictures. Well those didn’t work out. Our daughter was in no mood to pose for a picture with mom and dad. Instead, right after our pictures failed she decided to sit on the white background because she wanted to be the star of the show. Here are a couple, but you can see she was really, really enjoying all eyes being on her.

 

 

 

These are good but the professional ones are even better because the photographer had a much better angle; we bought of her professional shots. I actually am looking at one of the professional ones that sits on my desk at work as I type this.

[Kapin777]

All those pictures and our daughter had worked up an appetite so off to dinner we sent. Following dinner we had the repeat cruisers event. We only stayed for a short time. Our daughter liked the signing and dancing, but got bored when the captain started introducing members of the ships staff, so we left. As we walked around the ship, she fell asleep. This was our way to keep it nice and dark in her stroller!

 

 

I was constantly taking pictures and this night was no different. I decided, while walking about, to take a picture of the rising tide bar, mid rise. Here it is.

 

 

See that guy. We don't know him. He was texting and stopped, looked up and photobombed my photo right as I clicked to take the picture. The timing was hilarious. He felt bad, though we didn’t care. It all worked out because then he took a few pictures of us.

 

Opps! I also forgot from my prior day that, that night the Royals won, swept Baltimore and earned a spot in the World Series! For a lifelong Royals fan that was a great night and seeing so many people on the ship wearing Royals gear--myself included--was an awesome sight.

[Kapin777]

Next up: Day 6!

[Kapin777]

Day 6, Cozumel, Oct. 17.

 

Another port that was not on our initial itinerary, but became one due to the hurricane. My wife and I had been here our last cruise.

 

That time we went to Playa Mia Grand Beach & Water Park Cozumel. We did their all inclusive package that gave us access to everything in Playa Mia as well as unlimited alcohol. We did this on our own, not through the ship. It’s pretty easy, get off the boat, wait in line for a cab and its about a 15 min ride of or so to Playa Mia. You don’t need to make a reservation for a cab to get back, there are plenty when you leave. This time we decided to go back because we heard the water park—which we didn’t even see last time—was great for little kids.

 

Before talking about Playa Mia, a quick word about the cab situation. At port that day was another RCCL ship, the Freedom of the Seas. Well, we got off the ship around 10am when apparently everyone from both ships were leaving so the line to get a taxi was extremely long. I think we waited about 20 or 30 minutes to get one. It wasn't that there were not enough cabs because there were, but it just takes so long to get everyone into a cab; that area of the port is not set up the best. I would suggest leaving a bit earlier to avoid the lines.

 

Side note: I remember when I went on the Freedom of the Seas and it was soooo huge. It's still huge, but the Allure is even bigger!

 

 

But back to Playa Mia. We got in a cab with some people from our ship that had a kid who played with our daughter pretty much every day in the Baby Splash Zone. We conversed a little with the parents, but we spoke different languages so it was a little tough to talk. But I do have a funny story about that family. Their son is a couple months older then our daughter. On the very first day of the cruise my family and their family were the only two using the Baby Splash Zone since it was like 1pm on embarkation day. Their son walked right up to our daughter and kissed her. It was so cute and funny. From that point on we shared a laugh with that family whenever the kids were in the pool together.

 

Playa Mia is a great a beach and water park. To get in there are three options: 1) a fee to just use the beach and water park and that stuff; 2) everything in #1 plus unlimited alcohol; and 3) everything in #1 and #2 plus unlimited food. Last time we went we chose #2; hey we had no kid so why not. This time, we chose #1. We were being responsible. Side note, they didn’t charge our daughter. If I remember correctly option #1 is approx. $30, option #2 is approx. $60 and I don't recall what option #3 costs, but maybe $80?? Not sure. Sorry.

 

When we got in we first went into to the beach.

 

Panoramic shot of the beach.

 

Our daughter wasn’t loving the sand so then I saw way out in the ocean they have one of those floating water parks.

 

 

It has things and jump on. I looked at my wife and said, I’m taking our daughter there. She vetoed that so then after I pouted like a child she finally said, if the employees say you can, then you can. Expecting them to say no, she asked, and guess what…they said yes! I was surprised, but very happy. So my daughter and I get our life jackets on and off we go. I swam her all the way there. This is when I learned a very important lesson, I am not cut out to be a rescue swimmer. It was a pretty far swim—as you can tell from the pictures—and while me alone would be able to do it fine, it was quite the workout swimming my daughter out there. Don’t worry, she was never in danger and we made it there perfectly safe and she was laughing the whole way out. Then I learned something else, getting out there is one thing, but getting myself and my daughter onto the floating park was a whole another issue. Luckily, I was able to hoist her onto the floating park and she stayed in place just long enough for me to grab the rope and climb up. At that point, she started walking around while I think I passed out and took a 2 hr nap. Just joking, I wanted to, but I had my daughter to play with. We played on that for a while and then we dismounted and swam back. If you look closely, we are in the pictures at the front of the floating park.

 

We are sitting in the very front in that the thing that looks like a door. You can see me and then a little blip of orange which is my daughter sitting next to me.

 

This me standing up holding her in the middle in the "door".

 

Another one of me holding her in the middle.

 

 

Her and I had a great time and my wife was happy we made it back safely. It was also cool because there other middle adults who said they were begging their kids to bring the grandkids out but they wouldn't. They were proud I did.

 

The only downside of traveling just the three of us is that we couldn't all do stuff together all the time. I wished all three of us could go out to the floating park but we couldn’t just leave our cameras, iPhones, money, ect. We didn't realize they had lockers to rent until after, though they were like $12.00 or $15.00 to rent. Luckily, on our Oasis cruise in Feb, my two brothers, sister in law and parents are coming so we have plenty of people to watch stuff.

[Kapin777]

Day 6, continued.

 

 

 

After the floating park we decide to go find the water park. It was really awesome. It was perfect for my daughter. It had lots of little slides—and 2 really big slides for adults—and all sorts of things shooting water out. The water in the water baby park area wasn’t too deep. At its deepest it was only maybe up to my daughters knees. She loved it. She probably spent 3 hours just running all over.

 

 

 

 

They also had a “real” pool to go into which we went into also. After we played there, it was time to gather our stuff and head back to the ship.

 

Little side story:

When we were at Playa Mia, I saw a Carnival ship in the distance--though not far out at sea at all--heading into port. However, when we returned to the port there was no Carnival ship. I thought that was odd but figured maybe it was docking somewhere else in Cozumel. After we got home we learned that was the ship that was denied docking in Cozumel due to the Ebola scare. The scare turned out to be nothing, but the ship was denied.

 

Back on the ship we got ready for dinner. As you can see, while doing that, my daughter decided she was going to play photographer. Ha!

 

 

 

 

She actually figured out how to snap some pictures, but they were mostly of the wall or the floor!

[Kapin777]

Day 6, continued.

 

 

After dinner my daughter found her favorite photography station. Again, she didn't want any pictures with us, but only by herself. She had an audience and loved being the center of attention.

 

 

 

 

After the pictures we just walked around the ship and enjoyed the evening. I think we had a couple drinks at various venues around the ship.

 

Next up: Day 7 :(

[riclop]

Great review thanks for taking the time.

[Kapin777]

Day 7, Sea Day, Oct. 18.

 

The worst day of any cruise. Just one week earlier we were about to embark (both literally and figuratively) on a great vacation, and now we’re about done and someone else is about to have that experience. Oh well.

 

Woke up to another perfect day outside.

 

 

My daughter started her morning with some nice cold milk on the balcony before her breakfast and the pool.

 

Time for one last bottle on the balcony in paradise.

 

 

It was another perfect and warm day outside, though as the afternoon went on and we got further north it did cool down. However, my daughter wanted to play in the water no matter the temp! She had an awesome time at the pools. She didn't realize this was her last day, but that's for the better.

 

By this time, it was getting a little cool out.

 

 

 

The afternoon was filled with fun in the sun, ice cream, merry go-round and eating.

 

Before dinner went back and packed and put our stuff outside our room. We walked around the ship, took pictures and lamented the trip was over but how great it was!

 

One night dinner :(

 

[Kapin777]

Day 8, Debarkation Day, Oct. 19.

 

Remember when I said day 7 is the worst day, well I lied. Waking up back at port on disembarkation day is the WORST. You go to sleep, you’re on vacation, you wake up and see land and you see them loading up all the supplies for the next cruise. ☹

 

Oh well, we still had a great trip. Our flight wasn’t until 3:00 so we took our time getting off the ship. We had breakfast and left when our number was called which was maybe 9:00 or so.

 

Someone's not too happy about leaving!

 

 

 

Now I have been on lots of cruises and for some reason disembarkation was a total disaster this time. We got off the ship and you into the second level of the terminal. Everyone’s luggage is on the first floor. Well, normally you just walk right down but first floor was so backup they were only letting people down from the second to the first floor like every 15 minutes. We waited on the second level of the terminal for at least 45 minutes in a line that snaked around the entire second floor of the terminal. When we finally got downstairs it was equally a zoo. The lines were winding everywhere. We found our luggage quickly but then were in line for at least 40 minutes just to get to go through customs and out of the terminal. I don't know what the issue was, but there was some issue that day. We eventually made it out of the terminal and into a cab and were off to the airport.

 

Since we had a late flight we went to the United Club at the airport. We had some food, some drinks and waited for our flight. Our daughter was a hit with everyone else waiting.

 

Just Exploring!

 

 

 

 

 

It certainly made the time fly. Though as a really mean practical joke, the Allure of the Seas was totally visible from United Club.

 

NOT COOL!!!!

 

 

 

And yes, when I landed at O’Hare, I went and got my wife’s computer. Phew!!!!

 

Final thoughts: Was this cruise 100% perfect? No. Were the issues that bad that it ruined my cruise? No, not even close. Was I happy about being misinformed and the internet issues? No, but hey, I was on vacation and still had an absolute blast as did my family. Now I have another cruise in just a few months--by the time I finally posted it, only 2 months!--this time with my wife, kid, and my parents and siblings and sister-in-law, which I cannot wait for.

 

Thanks for everyone who stuck through this and read it all. This took a while to do and I have even more respect for those before me who have done these. These are tough. I’m sure everyone can tell I’m a novice at the reviews and sorry for all the shortcomings, errors and big delay in the middle, but it was fun to write this! Bye bye!

[S.A.M.J.R.]

You did a great job. Your pictures were awesome too!

[retire2cruise55]

Very nice review. Thank you for sharing. We are cruising Allure in March so this was helpful. Cute baby!!!

[Coolcruise02]

Great review and pictures!

[scottrn7]

Great photos and review. We will be on Allure again in November of 2015. Thinking of taking our grand daughter, she will be almost 7 by then. Next stop for us will be in Chicago to visit family in McHenry. For some reason we seem to make it up there in the winter time.

[Shocked91]

Loved reading your review.I have been on Adventure,Liberty and Indy before.Going on Anthem June and Allure September.Never been on an Oasis class ship before so looking forward to it.Loved your photos.Enjoy Oasis.Please let us know what dynamic dining is like.First time trying it on Anthem this June.