Allure Of The Seas Review with 115 photos & 21 videos

[Spaniel Lover]

Before The Cruise...

 

We live in California, so an important part of any Caribbean cruise is getting to Florida! Sometimes we fly United Airlines out of the little regional airport near our house... we've also flown on Southwest and American out of LAX... but this time we decided to try Virgin America. I really liked it... primarily because of the video entertainment system built in to each of the seats. A 5-hour cross country flight is a lot more enjoyable if there's good entertainment! The entertainment system on Virgin America is definitely the best we've experienced.

 

 

I also really liked the attitude and spirit of the Virgin America staff. It's casual and a little irreverent, not unlike that of the Southwest Airlines folks. I liked it. You can get a taste of what I'm talking about by viewing one of their safety videos:

 

[YOUTUBE]DtyfiPIHsIg[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Spaniel Lover]

The Lago Mar Resort

 

Another very important aspect of any Caribbean cruise, at least for those of us who live a long distance from Florida, is choosing a good hotel to stay in before the cruise. You'd be an absolute idiot to try to fly in the morning of the cruise and go directly from the airport to the cruise ship. I say that because I was an absolute idiot on my first Caribbean cruise! I'm older and wiser now.

 

There are several problems with trying to fly in the morning of the cruise...

 

Most importantly, what if there is a flight delay or -- God forbid -- a flight cancellation?!? You absolutely do not want to miss getting on that cruise ship... so why risk it? Just fly in a day or two in advance, and enjoy some time in Florida. That way, you have some time to scramble and make other arrangements if there is an equipment delay or a weather delay to your flight. The other factor is relaxation versus stress. Why begin your cruise all tired and stressed from the ordeal that is modern day air travel? Give yourself at least one night... if not a full day or two... to relax between your flight and your cruise.

 

Plus... consider this: how often do you get to Florida? Probably not real often. It's one of the most beautiful and exciting places in the world. Enjoy it a little before your cruise.

 

For this particular vacation, we decided to spend a couple of days at the Lago Mar Resort prior to our cruise. It's a beautiful resort, right on the beach in Fort Lauderdale... with a fantastic view of the cruise ships as they enter and exit the harbor.

 

 

I shot that photo (of the Caribbean Princess approaching the Ft Lauderdale harbor) right from the patio of our beachfront room at the Lago Mar resort.

 

Here's a look at the pool area of the Lago Mar:

 

 

As you can see, the pool area is totally gorgeous... and we enjoyed spending some time there. They even had a band that performed by the pool in the evening. But there's a lot more to the Lago Mar than that one pool!

 

For one thing, there's a second pool, which is deeper... and therefore better for swimming:

 

 

But more important than the pools, there's the beach! The Lago Mar resort sits directly on the beach, and it's actually a fairly private stretch of beach... so it's not particularly crowded. We were lucky enough to stay in one of the Lago Mar's beachfront rooms, right on the ground floor, so we had a spectacular view of the beach and we could literally get on the beach within seconds of walking out our patio door.

 

 

[gowensricks]

Wow, I really appreciate your well-balanced and honest review! I am enjoying every word of it.

[DutchCruiseFan]

What an awesome review and what an awesome journey!

 

Lucky you:p

[BillOh]

Odds & Ends

 

I think that's a great idea, as during a 7-day vacation it is very easy to lose track of what day it is... since you're not in your normal routine. I'm curious... do they change these signs exactly at midnight... or wait until about 3 AM when everybody's asleep... or what? I never did find out the answer to that one.

 

The elevators are called down to deck 1 where a crew member swaps them out. Normally everyone going down gets off at or before deck 2, so the elevator is supposed to be empty when they do it., but if someone is tired and/or drunk and they get on an elevator that is going down when they want to go up, they get to see this.

[Spaniel Lover]

One great thing about having that patio right on the beach is that I had a fantastic view of the cruise ships arriving in the morning! As a cruise ship fanatic, it just doesn't get much better than that. Check out this shot, from the patio of my hotel room, of three cruise ships lined up to come in to the Fort Lauderdale harbor one morning:

 

 

Be aware that the cruise ships start arriving before dawn, so you can't sleep in and expect to see it! The early bird gets the worm. The first ships actually arrived long before sunrise, and it was so dark that I couldn't even get a picture of it. Once the sun started to rise, the photo opportunities were fantastic! A few photos ago, I showed you a shot I got of the Caribbean Princess coming in to the harbor just as the sun was coming up over the horizon. That was probably the best shot I got of the ships coming in. It was such a spectacular sight that I also shot some video of it:

 

[YOUTUBE]AkBi_tT3vGo[/YOUTUBE]

 

Of course, seeing the cruise ships arrive is only half the fun. It's also a lot of fun to watch them head out to sea again in the afternoon. For that, we decided to get an even better view by walking just a little further down the beach to the actual harbor entrance itself. Its an easy walk from the Lago Mar. And it turns out that I'm not the only cruise ship freak out there... there were LOTS of people gathered at the cruise ship entrance to watch the ships head out to sea. In fact, it was a bit of a party! In the right side of this next picture, you can see all the people hanging out at the harbor entrance, watching the ships head out to sea... and then you can see the other party that was going on, over on the left side of the picture! These guys had dug themselves a big hole, and then they got in it and spent the next few hours drinking beer and smoking dope. I jokingly call this photo "dopes doing dope at the beach".

 

 

Personally, I think you really have to be a dope to spend your time dug in to Ft Lauderdale beach... because from down there, you will totally miss the view...

 

 

Damn it, Jim, don't get distracted! We're here to photograph cruise ships!

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Here's one I got a real kick out of seeing, because I'll be sailing on her a few months from now:

 

 

I got a kick out of this next one, too, because the very next morning I would be taking a taxi over to the cruise terminal and sailing away on her twin sister:

 

 

I'm going to resist the urge to make a dirty joke now, as I state my opinion that the rear end of this gigantic ship is more interesting than the front end...

 

 

Still pictures don't really do the whole Ft Lauderdale sailaway experience justice, though. I think maybe you'll appreciate it more with the help of a couple of videos. Let's start with a video I call "the parade of cruise ships". It's basically the highlight reel from watching all the cruise ships head out to sea...

 

[YOUTUBE]lcqlCRnjK9o[/YOUTUBE]

 

Another fun part of being there to see all the ships sail away was listening to all the ship horns. Most of the Captains would give three short toots of their ship's horn as they sailed through the harbor entrance. However, there was one rogue among the Captains that day! Whoever was at the helm of Holland America Line's "Westerdam" must REALLY like the sound of his own horn. He blew it almost continuously, the whole way out of the harbor! Have your sound turned on, and then watch it on video:

 

[YOUTUBE]4s-jQuu89rQ[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Of course, there's a lot more to the Lago Mar than watching cruise ships. Even if you didn't give a hoot about cruise ships, it would be a great hotel. One aspect I really liked was the breakfast buffet...

 

 

They even had a chef standing by to make waffles on demand,

and to cook eggs to order, including omelettes...

 

 

So, our stay at the Lago Mar resort was a big success. We loved our beachfront room, their breakfast buffet, the swimming pools, and the view of the cruise ships. But the icing on the cake was the fact that the Lago Mar resort had the fastest Internet connection I had ever experienced. Period. I don't know if they had a fiber-optic connection to the net, or what, but it was a BLAZING FAST connection! Check out these results from SpeedTest.net:

 

 

A SpeedTest result faster than 96% of all the SpeedTests ever done in the USA! Wow! Not to mention an upload speed that was even faster than the download speed. I've never seen that before. I thought my 60Mb/s download speed at home, and 10Mb/s upload speed, was pretty impressive... but 88 down and 95 up?!?! That's one smokin' hot connection. I need to seriously think about retiring to Ft Lauderdale!

 

One really cool thing about the Lago Mar was that there were wild parrots hanging out in the palm trees near the swimming pools. My wife and I really like parrots... and this was the very first time we've ever seen wild ones flying freely. I'm told that they only visit the Lago Mar for a couple of months during the year. (We were there the week before Thanksgiving.)

 

Here's one last picture from the beach out in front of the Lago Mar resort. I thought it might be useful to someone who was curious about what it would cost to rent a beach umbrella for the day. Most people just used the free blue and white chairs.

 

 

By the way, I wish I had framed that last picture a little looser... so you could have seen that they were flying two warning flags that day. One was a yellow flag for a medium surf hazard, and the other was a blue flag for dangerous marine life. I never asked what the dangerous marine life was that day... sharks, jelly fish, or what? I was glad that I had gotten a swim in the day before, when they weren't flying the blue flag!

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Why Cruise In November?

 

November is one of our favorite times of the year for cruising in the Caribbean. It's one of the least-expensive times of the year to cruise, but you're really not giving up much to get that low price. Prices are just low because demand is low. Most people that want to travel in November want to do so over Thanksgiving. Pick any time in November other than Thanksgiving week... and you'll find some of the lowest prices of the year.

 

Another benefit of cruising in November is that there are a lot less children cruising than during the summer and during holidays. We're in our 50's and we've raised our children already... we like peace and quiet now! Most parents won't take their kids out of school for a vacation during November... so you don't tend to see very many children on a November cruise, outside of Thanksgiving week.

 

The weather also tends to be quite good in the Caribbean during November. The threat of a hurricane is certainly quite low at this time of year... and I've found that the weather in general is just quite nice in the Caribbean at this time of the year. One good resource for keeping an eye on the weather in the Caribbean is a little web page I put together featuring the latest satellite weather photos from all the places I tend to visit in the world, including the Caribbean. You might find that page useful when trying to visualize what the weather is at your home or at your travel destination.

 

[clochette]

great review, and beautiful pictures, thanks.

[Spaniel Lover]

Downloads

 

If you're researching the idea of taking a cruise on the Allure Of The Seas,

here are a few documents you might want to download:

 

Allure Of The Seas Deck Plans

Cruise Compass (Daily Newsletter) Day 1

Cruise Compass - Day 2

Cruise Compass - Day 3

Cruise Compass - Day 4

Cruise Compass - Day 5

Cruise Compass - Day 6

Cruise Compass - Day 7

Departure Information

Allure Of The Seas Fun Facts

Full List Of Shore Excursions

Weekly Planner

 

 

[Spaniel Lover]

Packing List & To-Do List

 

Here's my official packing list.

Perhaps this will help you think of things to pack for your cruise.

On a few of the unusual items, I'll provide a link to the exact version I recommend at Amazon.com

 

Passports

Airline boarding pass

Cruise boarding pass

Luggage tags

If driving, printed directions to the hotel & cruise terminal

Wallet (I actually forgot this on one cruise!)

Swimsuit

Flip-flops

Waterproof beach shoes

Sunglasses

Underwear & socks (incredibly, I actually forgot to bring socks on one cruise)

One dressy outfit

Shirts

Pants

Shorts

Sweatshirt

Deodorant

Q-tips

Hair brush

Nail clippers

Razor

Medications

Toothbrush & toothpaste

Sun block

Hand lotion

Travel-size Kleenex for the airplane

Lint remover

Lawry's seasoning salt

Laptop computer or tablet computer, including charger

Digital SLR Camera

Waterproof camera

Camera tripod, or selfie-stick

Binoculars

Wireless indoor/outdoor thermometer

6-outlet power strip

MP3 player

Noise-cancelling headphones

Cell phone & charger

Wrist watch

Clothes hangers

 

My pre-cruise to-do list:

Stop newspaper and mail delivery

Book shore excursions

Send an email to family members with my travel plans & itinerary

Turn off water to the house to prevent the chance of a pipe break

Turn down (or turn off) the water heater to save energy

Make sure garden sprinklers are on

Make sure house is locked and alarm system is active

 

On the last day at work:

Update voice mail message to indicate my return date

Update out-of-office email message, and turn it on

Make sure my temporary replacement has an updated desk guide

Put a sign at my desk indicating my return date

 

[Spaniel Lover]

What Camera Do I Use?

 

Whenever I post these cruise reviews, I always get questions about what camera I used to take the photos. I actually bring two cameras with me on a cruise.

 

One is just a fairly inexpensive waterproof camera, so I can shoot pictures and videos while snorkeling. The one I use is an Olympus TG-830. However, that's a slightly older model now... and if you're in the market for one, you should get the new version which is the Olympus TG-850.

 

For everything except the underwater stuff, the camera I use is a Canon EOS-70D digital SLR camera. That's probably too much camera for most people... so if you're in the market for a very high quality digital SLR camera, the one I actually recommend for most people is the Canon Digital Rebel T5i. If you get one, make sure you get the T5i with the 135mm lens, not the cheap version with the 55mm lens.

 

I also like to have a Canon EF-S 10-18mm lens with me when I'm on a cruise ship. This is a wide angle lens, which is extremely useful when trying to shoot in small spaces (for example, my cabin tour video) or when shooting something very large (like a cruise ship, when you're standing on the pier next to it.)

 

I also bring along a tripod with me, to allow me to shoot long-exposure shots in low-light situations. It's also handy to have for shooting "selfies". I've got a tripod that is just the right size to fit inside my big suitcase but which is heavy duty enough to be stable. It also has a fluid head, which is something that's very important to look for in a tripod if you intend to use it when shooting video.

 

One important technique that I use, since I'm looking to getting the highest quality photos possible, is to shoot in RAW format rather than JPG. This preserves the photos with the highest possible quality, and gives me the greatest ability to tweak them after shooting them. However, it does require a lot of extra work. Any photos which I want to share (via email, Facebook, or on this web site, for example) have to be converted from RAW to JPG. This takes some time and effort, but it's worth it to me in order to get the best end results. Just about all the photos you see on this page have been tweaked to some extent to give them the best finished look. For most photos, I do some sharpening and color correction. On some photos, I have to do even more tweaking than that to get them to look just right.

 

[rworrell]

Jim,

 

Beautiful review. Earlier, you referred to a 400mm lens. I'm curious. What camera body did you use to take these great shots?

[Shocked91]

Wow love reading your review it's amazing.I'm hoping to book the Allure for this September.From Barcelona in a junior suite on deck 8 midship.Love seeing your photos.Have never been on an Oasis class ship before really looking forward tto going on Allure

[rworrell]

Jim,

 

Beautiful review. Earlier, you referred to a 400mm lens. I'm curious. What camera body did you use to take these great shots?

 

Oops! I should've just waited a few more seconds!

[Spaniel Lover]

That's it... that's my complete review of our experience on the Allure Of The Seas. We really enjoyed our cruise, in spite of some less-than-perfect breakfasts and lunches. All the non-food-related parts of the cruise were so great, that we can overlook a few quibbles about the food.

 

We will definitely sail on Royal Caribbean again... in fact, while we were on board Allure Of The Seas, we put down a deposit for a cruise on the brand new Quantum Of The Seas. I'm a huge fan of the movie "Mama Mia"... so any cruise ship with a two and a half hour version of "Mama Mia, The Musical" is definitely going to get my business!

 

If you have questions for me... this is the time to post them!

 

If you'd like to read reviews of some of the other cruise ships I've been on, follow the links in my signature, below. Start with the Norwegian Getaway review... because that was one fantastic cruise!

 

[hipster1]

Jim,

Great review!! We will be on Allure in February....Im glad you liked Royal enough to try them out again:)

 

Ali

[ATCMickey]

Hands down one of the best reviews I've read on CC...many thanks!

[FishOn55]

Really enjoyed your review as I will be sailing on Allure in March.

 

I will also be staying in a cabin on Deck 7. It looks like the lifeboats are somewhat tucked under deck 6. Did you happen to take any pictures looking down from your balcony? Just wondering if the lifeboats obscured your view in any way when you stood at the railing of your balcony and looked down.

[Johnamac123]

One of the best on this RCI forum. It really gave me a fresh perspective on Allure/Oasis. Thanks!!

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review and photos.

[Spaniel Lover]

Did you happen to take any pictures looking down from your balcony? Just wondering if the lifeboats obscured your view in any way when you stood at the railing of your balcony and looked down.

 

No, I didn't take any pictures of that... because there was no issue with it at all. There's an excellent view from deck 7, and the lifeboats don't block the view at all.

[TubbyMrT]

This is the best review I have seen. Great work. Thank you.

[TheInnocentAge]

For this particular vacation, we decided to spend a couple of days at the Lago Mar Resort prior to our cruise. It's a beautiful resort, right on the beach in Fort Lauderdale... with a fantastic view of the cruise ships as they enter and exit the harbor...

 

Jim, we've stayed at the Lago Mar for our last two cruises out of Fort Lauderdale. It is a beautiful place, and I love the five minute drive to the port from there. My favorite thing is to watch the ships sail away from the rock jetty at the end of the beach.

 

Love your review. Thanks for posting it!

 

Bill