Trip Report Allure Med 2015

[Hardrocknerd]

Tonight's dinner was at Chops Grille. Again, great staff; our server Ahmed was very knowledgeable and friendly.

 

For starters we had Carpaccio and mushroom soup, and for the main course we had the fish and the filet mignon. I love the plates they use for the meat, with the little "moat" around the center of the plate to keep the sauce in. Wonder if they have those at IKEA?

 

Dessert was chocolate all around with the mud pie and some chocolate ice cream. We bought a bottle of wine, and drank about half of it. We asked for the rest to be put away until tomorrow when we would be having dinner in the MDR.

 

And now it's time for more foodie-photos:

 

 

Some very nice carpaccio. Notice the little track for the sauce.

 

 

The mushroom soup

 

 

This was a great piece of meat! Medium rare is the way to go.

 

 

The fish was a hit as well. And I just noticed that the picture is upside down. Hahaha, oh well, it'll look the same the other way around as well.

 

 

These are the sides we got with the main course. I had the fries for my meat, but Niklas didn't know what to have with his fish, so Ahmed picked out some things for him. The asparagus and the mushroom was great, and I liked the corn as well, but that wasn't really Niklas favorite.

 

 

 

Chocolate for dessert. Naturally!

[Hardrocknerd]

[Hardrocknerd]

We went on to the Comedy Club to watch A.J Jamal perform. Really funny, he got the crowd going really good.

 

Except the Romanian couple in the front row who for some reason thought it was a good idea to go to an English comedy act when they hardly understood a word of English. Of course A.J made a recurring joke about it where he tried to translate but since they couldn’t understand anything they just sat there until the show was over and they just walked out.

 

I had heard a lot about how crowded the comedy club would be, so I was really surprised when the doors closed and the room was just about half full. Maybe it was because it was the first night for the people embarking in Barcelona, or maybe because people were afraid they wouldn’t understand as English was a second language for a lot of people. Whatever the reason, they really missed a good show.

 

After the comedy it was straight to Aqua Theatre and OceanAria. Holy cr*p those people can really perform. Good music, both entertaining and amazing performers, and some really scary dives.

 

I’m just sad to see that some people don’t respect the ”No flash photography”-rule, and one idiot even started shining a green laser pointer at the stage. I hope they got a hold of that person and gave them a talking to.

 

After that it was nearly midnight and we hit the sack.

 

Tomorrow would be a nice restful day in Mallorca.

[papcx]

Yes! Another Allure review (with pictures - you can't have enough pictures) 60 days and I'm on her for the TA. I'll use your thread as orientation.

 

One request if possible (and it's fine if not, I know some people would rather not) could you post a pic of yourself and (6'9"!) DH. I like to put a face to the reviewer.

[saskiapaci]

We went on to the Comedy Club to watch A.J Jamal perform. Really funny, he got the crowd going really good.

 

Except the Romanian couple in the front row who for some reason thought it was a good idea to go to an English comedy act when they hardly understood a word of English. Of course A.J made a recurring joke about it where he tried to translate but since they couldn’t understand anything they just sat there until the show was over and they just walked out.

 

I had heard a lot about how crowded the comedy club would be, so I was really surprised when the doors closed and the room was just about half full. Maybe it was because it was the first night for the people embarking in Barcelona, or maybe because people were afraid they wouldn’t understand as English was a second language for a lot of people. Whatever the reason, they really missed a good show.

 

After the comedy it was straight to Aqua Theatre and OceanAria. Holy cr*p those people can really perform. Good music, both entertaining and amazing performers, and some really scary dives.

 

I’m just sad to see that some people don’t respect the ”No flash photography”-rule, and one idiot even started shining a green laser pointer at the stage. I hope they got a hold of that person and gave them a talking to.

 

After that it was nearly midnight and we hit the sack.

 

Tomorrow would be a nice restful day in Mallorca.

What an idiot the guy with the light.....[emoji19] did he really think He was doing something fun?????

Different for the Romanian couple: at least they remained states during the performance, so they have not been disrespectful for the Comedian....

 

By the way... nice pics!!!![emoji4]

 

Inviato dal mio SM-J100H utilizzando Tapatalk

[Hardrocknerd]

Tomorrow would be a nice restful day in Mallorca.

 

Or so we thought at least... I woke up just as the sun was rising and we were entering the port in Palma. I got up, picked up the camera and went out on the balcony. This was the result.

 

 

 

 

After that I actually went back to bed to snooze some more. When I got up again at nine, unfortunately this was the view:

As you can see from this picture we docked quite a bit from the city (the cathedral is in the lower right hand corner), but there are shuttle busses taking passengers to and from the city for 5 dollars for a return trip.

 

This picture from the terminal tells you how long it takes to go from the port to the cathedral in Palma.

 

 

 

 

 

Like I said, we got up again at nine. This is where our day started to go all rollercoaster on us. Bad - bad - good - bad - good, and so on.

 

We had misread the time for MDR-breakfast and we got down there at about 9:40. Apparently they had closed at 9:30.

 

We didn’t know that so when the lady standing outside the MDR asked us if we were looking for the gangway (it was on the same floor), we said ”No, breakfast”.

 

To which she said ”OK, follow me”. So she took us and a younger boy with her. I thought we had just gotten the wrong floor and that the breakfast was on deck four or five, but the she took us to the boardwalk, ordered us to a table at Johnny Rockets, and handed us menus.

 

Now, I don’t mind JR, but they don’t really have what most swedes call a good breakfast. There’s too much fried, and baked, and fried! If she had just told us, ”No, it’s closed, but there are other venues”, we would have made our way to wherever was open, but rather than saying that, she just kind of herded us to the place she was going to. Apparently the boy accompanying us had lost his SeaPass at JR, so that’s why he was going there, and I guess she figured we could just come along.

 

So we put down our menus, left JR, and went to Park Cafe instead. After breakfast, we went to the cabin to pack our things and headed down to the shuttlebuses at about 10:45. It was a bit of a line at that time of day, but they had 14 busses running, so the line was always moving.

 

About two minutes after our bus had started driving the rain started. And what a rainfall it was!

 

We tried to get off the bus and walk to the cathedral, but after about 20 meters we had to turn around. We had an umbrella, but that really doesn’t help when the rain is almost horizontal! So we got back on another bus, and started the ride home. 10 euro to take a bus to and from Palma, and a 20 meter walk. Well worth it! :D

 

When we got back we decided to jump in the cantilevered whirlpool to warm up, so we went to the cabin and got changed. I could actually wring water out of my sweater into the bathtub. When we got up to deck 15 and had gotten our towels, we went to the whirlpool. Only to be met by a sign that said: ”Closed for maintenance”. Oh, come on!

 

At that point I was ready to just go back to bed and forget the whole day had even happened, but lo and behold, at exactly that time a nice man came and removed the sign. The whirlpool was open, hallelujah!

[Trixie21]

Loving your review. More pictures please! We have never been on an oasis class ship and are booked on harmony next year so this is giving me a taster of what I might expect! Liking what I have seen so far[emoji3]

[suekay]

I can't believe I'll be on board in 5 days. Thanks for posting,especially that you were on board by 10.30. I'd planned to get there for 11am. Time for a change of plan ☺

[DeesEscape]

Great review and phenomenal pictures. You're doing wonderful job and making me that much more anxious for my own Allure adventure come January. Thank you. :)

[Hardrocknerd]

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for a quick infomercial.

 

Or, well, a picture of the reviewer and her handsome husband as requested. This picture was taken in Bandol during day three. Big thanks to Steve (cruiser_man) for taking the picture during our excursion.

 

[Hardrocknerd]

After soaking in the whirlpool for about 30 minutes we got up, and went back to the cabin for a quick shower, and then out to grab some lunch. We decided to go to Park Café again to grab the famous roast beef sandwich. It was well worth it! I also had some ”Make your own salad”, and Niklas had a wrap and a pita.

 

The salad tasted better than it looked, I promise!

 

We then took a quick walk to Sorrento's to try out the freestyle machines. It was fun, but to be honest, we didn’t use them all that much. We had the Replenish package, and we used it to get bottled water, fresh OJ for breakfast and some non-alcoholic drinks. Can't tell if we were breaking even, but I would buy it again without hesitating.

 

Now it was time to get ready to see Mamma Mia.

 

The show was very good, and the cast did a good job. As a swede you are almost brought up with ABBA, so pretty much all of the songs were familiar. The guy playing Sam (one of the ”dads”) unfortunately didn’t have the best voice, at least in my opinion. It sounded a bit monotone sometimes. Too bad as he had some solos that could have been really great. But it didn’t ruin the show in any way; I just felt that he wasn’t one of the best of the cast.

 

A few people left during the interval, but from where I was sitting a lot of them were parents with younger children that didn’t have English as a first language, so they just might not have been very amused by the show.

[DebbieDoDa66]

Thanks Sussi - I'm really enjoying your review. My DH and I are off on the Allure next week and your pictures and review are adding to my excitement - many thanks :)

[Hardrocknerd]

Today was formal night, and we were to have our first dinner in MDR. We went to the cabin to change in to fancy dress and found a friend on the bed!

 

 

 

 

 

After we had changed it was already 19:45, and when we got down to American Icon (the dining room for MTD on deck three) the line was out to the elevators. They worked pretty quickly however, so we were sitting down at about 20:05.

 

I did see this little notice when we got to the front of the line. It seems like Wine & Dine package is still being sold. Or maybe they just forgot to remove it.

 

 

The waiter and assistant waiter were friendly, and had no trouble finding the wine we had put away from yesterday at Chops. They also gave us a Royal Cheese-platter when we sat down, although I don’t know why. :D 

[Hardrocknerd]

Ok, this will be the last for today. It's almost midnight here, but I'll be back tomorrow with more. The joy of still being on vacation.

 

 

For the starter Niklas had the Lobster bisque, and I had the shaved melons; both were very good. For the main course I had the ravioli and was very pleased, although the portion size was a bit on the small side. Niklas, however, had the chicken and he was not too pleased. It was very dry, as I could confirm when I took a bite. Too bad, but I guess when they make that amount of food they have to pre-make it, and chicken is not really suited for sitting under heat for a long time. For dessert we had the cheesecake and the Lemon meringue pie, and both were great.

 

 

Mandatory foodie-pics:

 

Lobster bisque. Sorry about the blur, Niklas isn't used to my camera.

 

 

Shaved Melon

 

 

Ravioli - see what I mean about portion size?

 

 

The driest chicken in the Mediterranean

 

 

This food. I like it. Another! *smashes plate* (Guess the movie)

 

 

And this wasn't too bad either

 

 

After dinner we went to the promenade and checked out the shops, then up to focus to see if we had appeared on any photos. For the whole trip we were never able to find any pictures of us in the digital kiosks, however they did show up in our folder. We ended up not buying any.

 

We moved on to the boardwalk where I got a scoop of icecream and went in to the candy store. No purchase though, it’s just fun to watch.

 

A quick stroll to Scooners bar where there was live piano music, and then we went back to the cabin. We made our selection for room service breakfast for the next morning and then just relaxed on the balcony until it was time to go to bed.

[sparklymermaid]

This is going to be a trip report over our cruise on Allure of the Seas in the Mediterranean between 16th an 23rd of August.

 

For all who might not want to read, but want to see pretty pictures, I have uploaded them to Flickr, so please go ahead and look at those.

 

This link is for all the cabin photos: Cabin

This link is for all menus (food and drink) that I took pictures of: Menus

This is for all other photos: Cruise

 

We were in Junior Suite 9642, on the aft starboard hump. We had the royal replenish package, and we purchased internet for one device for the duration of the cruise.

 

For those of you that don’t mind reading about us, the people on this trip are me (Sussi) and my husband Niklas. We are both in our early thirties with no kids. We’re from Stockholm, Sweden, so please excuse any faulty spelling or weird turns of phrase.

 

I also wrote most this on my iPad while we were on the trip to make sure I didn’t forget anything. However, the keyboard is not perfect. I’ve gone over this in Word on my computer before posting it here, but there still might be some mistakes here and there. I'm also editing as I go along, hopefully to make it more amusing to read, so I won't be able to post everything at once.

 

We spent one day in Barcelona before the cruise, and stayed for one night after the cruise. I will talk a bit about what we did between our departure from home and when we embarked, but it will be relatively short, so we’ll soon get to the good stuff. :)

 

So, are you ready? Ok then, here we go.

Thank you for a wonderful review and photos :) Well done :)

[DeesEscape]

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for a quick infomercial.

 

Or, well, a picture of the reviewer and her handsome husband as requested. This picture was taken in Bandol during day three. Big thanks to Steve (cruiser_man) for taking the picture during our excursion.

 

 

Awww...what a cute couple. :D

[sparklymermaid]

Today was formal night, and we were to have our first dinner in MDR. We went to the cabin to change in to fancy dress and found a friend on the bed!

 

 

 

 

 

After we had changed it was already 19:45, and when we got down to American Icon (the dining room for MTD on deck three) the line was out to the elevators. They worked pretty quickly however, so we were sitting down at about 20:05.

 

I did see this little notice when we got to the front of the line. It seems like Wine & Dine package is still being sold. Or maybe they just forgot to remove it.

 

 

The waiter and assistant waiter were friendly, and had no trouble finding the wine we had put away from yesterday at Chops. They also gave us a Royal Cheese-platter when we sat down, although I don’t know why. :D 

So loving the photos :). How about photos of you in formal dress. My husband and I are on Allure in October but have opted for not doing formal this time, but i love seeing outfits.

I love your truthful descriptions too.

Keep them coming.

[rguy123]

Nice review

[California kitty]

Waiting for your next post...this is awesome!

[papcx]

We interrupt our regularly scheduled program for a quick infomercial.

 

 

 

Great pic.

 

DH - are you sure he's 6'9" - he only looks 6'7". [emoji3]

[kalliekae]

Thank you so much for the great photos of the cabin. We have a Jr Suite hump on the Allure in November and your pictures are the best I've seen. Sorry it rained so much that day. Mallorca was beautiful and a highlight of our Med cruise.

[poupou10]

thank you very miuch to share your review

I will cruise on ALLURE in october

I am very happy to read we can embark at 10:00 it is very nice

 

did you test OCEANVIEW BUFFET ?

thanks !

isabelle

[cuddylier]

I was also on the Allure, 16th - 23rd August. Great review so far. We got on the bus in Palma but most people stayed on it and went back to the ship, it was raining so hard as you said.

 

I was at the same Aqua show as yourselves, with the person pointing the laser, the divers carried on regardless and the show was excellent.

 

I can upload all of the compasses if anyone is interested?

Edited August 26, 2015 by cuddylier

[MrBoccia]

great review, thank you so much. We're boarding in 4 days and your pictures make us and more more excited.

[Hardrocknerd]

OK, so I managed to scan and upload the cruise compasses to Google Docs. You can see and download them here:

 

Barcelona

 

Palma

 

Marseille

 

La Spezia

 

Civitavecchia

 

Naples

 

At Sea

 

I'm going to scan some other documents as well, but they have to wait for now.