Allure OTS Photo Heavy Trip Report – The “allure” of the Eastern Caribbean

[fletch1027]

We were on this tour in December. One of the coolers had beer and mix for rum punch. The other had pop/soda, water and things to mix with different alcohol.

 

Love your pictures of the beach. We enjoyed this tour/quiet beach very much.

 

Thank you for your great review. It is so nice to see it through someone else's eyes when it is still so fresh in our memory.

 

 

Glad you enjoyed it! It's funny that for a tour that is limited to less than 100 people total over both sessions from ships carrying thousands of people, it seems like a popular excursion here on CC. I also booked it a few weeks before leaving. I didn't check on the ship to see if it was sold out but all the seats on the transports were full. :)

[fletch1027]

Before you dig into St.Marteen i have one more question about the Secret sands/Smith bay park. When did the sun disappair from the beach? was there still sunny spots on the beach when you where leaving? Thanks :)

 

Yes, I'm sure the shade creep is different for different times of the year, but there was always sun on the beach no matter the time we were there. Our chairs were pretty close to the cluster of shade trees so we were in the area that started getting shade first as the sun got lower.

 

I'll report these photos to show what I mean:

 

Here you can see what the shade trees were doing in the late afternoon:

 

 

This was taken from by the shade trees looking the other direction where there is more beach area with nothing nearby to "throw" shade: :)

 

Also, I'm pretty sure the morning excursion was likely all sun unless you were on the picnic tables under the trees...

[fletch1027]

The water taxi ride was pretty cool and dropped us off downtown. We then took a right on Front St. and headed for the Yoda Guy museum. This was an interesting find I came across while researching St. Maarten for our trip. I haven’t seen much about it here on CC, but I found it while surfing around Trip Advisor I believe.

 

The museum owners story is that he worked for Lucasfilm in the 70’s and 80’s as a creature effects make up artist helping with several characters in A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. He is usually there in the shop working on things and is friendly to talk to. I asked him why he chose here to set up his museum. He asked if there was a better place than the Caribbean to retire to and I guess it's hard to argue with that! :-)

 

The main gift shop area is free and he charges a fee to tour the exhibit area, which is a lot bigger that it seems. Also of note, the museum is air conditioned. :-)

 

Here’s the entrance which is pretty easy to find from the street. Just about all of the museum space is upstairs

 

 

 

 

Here are some other photos as we headed upstairs to the main area and the beginning of the museum tour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

These are interesting as they are sample pages from the first couple of drafts from the original Star Wars (Episode IV). Funny how much the story changed from then until the original. In the second photo, there is something from it that was mentioned as an "Easter Egg" in the new Rogue One film.

 

 

 

 

 

These next three photos were also fun (for us nerds at least) to see the process and behind the scenes stuff, original concept artwork, etc from the original Star Wars as well as everyones favorite bounty hunter Boba Fett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sandpeople have always scared me and yes I did dress for the occasion! :-)

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[waterfever]

So, exactly where were you when you took the picture of the Aqua Theater? I'm sailing on Allure on March 26th in a Central Park balcony, #12199. I'm assuming my view will be similar. I watched the show from one on the "secret" balconies on deck 12 of Oasis. It looks like you can get a good view of the show from wherever you were too. How do you get to where you were?

[Cmoore19]

Great review! Our cruise is in Sept so this gets me pumped!:)

[fletch1027]

He also has worked on several other movies besides Star Wars doing special effects makeup

 

 

 

 

 

A posse of familiar villains:

 

 

 

A couple of storyboard samples. It’s amazing when making movies like this how just about every scene is first drawn out on storyboards before the special effects work can be done

 

 

 

 

Not many people know that Return of the Jedi was originally called Revenge of the Jedi. George Lucas decided to change it at the last minute because the Jedi do not seek out revenge. Some promotional stuff had already been made, and it is pretty valuable now

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

Han Solo in carbonite has always been an iconic image and this would be a great addition to any man cave!

 

 

 

The Han shot first has been a jokey debate over the years. In the original Star Wars, Han shot Greedo first in the cantina scene, however when George Lucas made the “Special Edition” versions a several years ago, he changed it so Greedo shot first and the fans were not pleased! That’s the topic on my shirt as well as the next two photos. In the 2nd photo, he had the original scene playing in a loop.

 

 

 

 

 

There are many more photos, but I figured four posts on the topic was enough, so here are a couple final ones to close out our museum visit and back out to the street. I believe we spent around 90 mins in there exploring around.

 

 

 

 

 

Back out on Front St., which is a really beautiful street to walk down. Looks like a postcard!

 

 

 

Next up – heading to Maho…

 

 

[fletch1027]

That water taxi is $5.00 one way or $7.00 to ride all day as many times as you want.

 

I LOVE going to Maho. I have surfed the fence and been blasted by 747's spooling up their engines. AWESOME experiences.

 

You are correct, I should have paid closer attention to the photo of it that I posted! :)

[fletch1027]

A treat to remember as 747's are no longer flying into St Maarten.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Yep, I'm sorry I never got to see it. The day we were there wasn't the day the 747 came in. I hope I get to at least see the A330 next time.

 

Last KLM-747

 

Here's an article about the last landing in October...

[fletch1027]

We walked back down to the main intersection where there were a lot of cabs lined up. We ended up sharing a mini-van cab with another couple also going to Maho, which helped with the cost. It was under $20 after sharing for the three of us to get to Maho. It’s around a 20 minute or so drive mid-morning from downtown to Maho.

 

Here’s a panoramic shot of the beach / street / airport to show how tight the area actually is

 

 

 

This is the popular danger sign. In this case it could be for either the jets or too tight swimsuits. :-)

 

 

 

St. Maarten has a lot of great beaches. I included these shots of the beach area to show that Maho is only good for plane spotting. As a beach to lay out and play in the sand and water it is terrible. It’s very crowded because of the airport and there isn’t a lot of beach area.

 

 

 

 

 

Typically the larger planes come later in the day. Here are a couple of smaller ones coming in

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

Here’s a series of photos of a plane prepping for take off. For the larger planes, some people love to “ride the fence” to get blown back from the takeoff jet blast. Another thing with these photos is to notice the open cockpit window. The beach crowd often gets a wave from the guys up in the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another smaller jet landing. Even the small jet landings are very impressive to see in person!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

There are several boating excursions that can either be booked privately or on the ship to hang out in the water to watch the planes as well. Here is one of them offshore

 

 

 

An assortment of other small plane landings while awaiting bigger fish. It was good practice for me taking photos and video and fun for me in general. Unfortunately it wasn’t as much fun for the ladies that accompanied me… :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[fletch1027]

So, exactly where were you when you took the picture of the Aqua Theater? I'm sailing on Allure on March 26th in a Central Park balcony, #12199. I'm assuming my view will be similar. I watched the show from one on the "secret" balconies on deck 12 of Oasis. It looks like you can get a good view of the show from wherever you were too. How do you get to where you were?

 

If you mean the photo that I took from way up high looking down at the aqua theater, I took that from the top deck behind the flowriders looking down.

[fletch1027]

Great review! Our cruise is in Sept so this gets me pumped!:)

 

Thanks! Hope you have a great time!!

[fletch1027]

We were probably at Maho for around 2.5 hours watching the planes come and go. It got to be mid-afternoon and my nerves started kicking in. The departure time was 5pm ship time and between my research and talking to friends that have been here I have heard horror stories about St. Marteen’s afternoon rush hour traffic nightmare.

 

So, not wanting to inject any stress, we decided to give ourselves 2 hours to get back to port. Before leaving the beach, I got to see a familiar face come in for a landing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And one last other familiar face…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

 

[fletch1027]

After seeing the Delta jet go by, we walked back to the cab pickup area and were again able to share a van with another group that was headed back to the ship. We left early enough to avoid the big afternoon traffic lockup. We also paid a little extra to cab directly back to the port instead of to just downtown. Here are some photos of the ride back. The rain drops you can see on the third photo is maybe the only rain we saw all week!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The familiar sign at the port entrance

 

 

 

I love seeing all of the funny knock off t-shirts that is a sure sign you are in the Caribbean! :-)

 

 

 

Yet another shot of Allure’s backside

 

 

 

 

to be continued…

 

 

[waterfever]

If you mean the photo that I took from way up high looking down at the aqua theater, I took that from the top deck behind the flowriders looking down.

 

That's the one. Thanks.

[fletch1027]

 

Sometime after we left for downtown, another cousin pulled in next to us. This one is the Celebrity Equinox. With it being so close, I took the opportunity to take some comparison shots.

 

 

 

Yes, we are bigger, but they have real grass! :-)

 

 

 

That pool area over there looks pretty cool

 

 

 

 

 

We’re pulling out of port – next stop Fort Lauderdale – boo!

 

 

 

Required pretty sunset photo – check!

 

 

 

 

Next up - dinner with a show…

 

 

[fletch1027]

Hopefully my series of posts from the Yoda Guy museum didn't drive everyone away - feels like it's just been me posting since then... :-)

 

Anyway, on with the story! Our DD’s favorite place to eat for special occasions is Japanese style hibachi restaurants, so we thought this would be a great idea to schedule for this trip. The Izumi Hibachi is a relatively new specialty concept on RCI and only available on a few ships, including the Oasis class ones but not Freedom, so we thought we would take advantage while it was here. Another advantage is that although it is a specialty restaurant, the price is not much more than we pay to eat hibachi back home.

 

It was a great experience and also a great meal. Our chef was Joel, and from speaking to him it sounds like he was one of the main guys that came to RCI from another cruise line to start the hibachi grills on board.

 

Here are a couple of photos of Joel in action. They are a little more limited for what they can do for a show – mainly no giant fireballs are allowed on a ship. I would have to agree with that rule!

 

Instead of a fireball, we get a Japanese egg dragon (non-fire breathing type)

 

 

 

Here comes the steak, chicken, scallops, and other goodies!

 

 

 

I'll also mention that dessert is included with the cost of the meal and thats brought out after by the waiter that is assisting Joel.

 

A family shot where you can see the other 2 grill areas besides ours. My tip here is that the capacity is around 36 people total per “seating session” and I assume there is probably three per night. If you are interested in doing this, I would book it in advance because this one does fill up!

 

 

 

 

Some more family photos. The red faces were courtesy of 2-3 hours at Maho beach not the heat from the grill. Not much shade at Maho to be had…

 

 

 

 

 

next up – a pair of water shows – one thawed and one frozen

 

 

[Ocean Boy]

The Aqua Theater is the main reason I sail Oasis Class ships. Looking forward to the pictures.

[LisaLisa87]

Hopefully my series of posts from the Yoda Guy museum didn't drive everyone away - feels like it's just been me posting since then... :-)

 

I'm still here, and I'm enjoying your review and photos tremendously! It was fun seeing your photos of St. Maarten. We went there for a week after having visited twice on cruises, and it was amazing. Thanks for the photos of Izumi Hibachi. We've booked it for our April cruise on Allure and are very much looking forward to it!

Edited January 17, 2017 by LisaLisa87

[Bellyflopchamp]

Thanks! Ive got to move our tour 1 hour ahead. Its a Helicopter tour over at the airport. Even tho its close to crown bay i will not risk it.

 

All my travel documents from rccl and the cruise planner says local time, but ive had this feeling something was wrong.

 

Just to let you know, depending on when you go the time might be the same. They are on Atlantic Standard Time. That will match up with Eastern Daylight Time so if it is after Daylight Saving starts they should match. I had the same issue when we went on mine. I was trying to figure out what the time would be because we were switching back to EST just before we left.

[fletch1027]

I'm still here, and I'm enjoying your review and photos tremendously! It was fun seeing your photos of St. Maarten. We went there for a week after having visited twice on cruises, and it was amazing. Thanks for the photos of Izumi Hibachi. We've booked it for our April cruise on Allure and are very much looking forward to it!

 

While we have only eaten at three specialty restaurants - Izumi and Chops & Giovanni's on Freedom, this one IMO was the best value for what you are paying for! You'll have a great dinner.

 

Not sure if you can specify chefs because they likely fit the groups of people together like tetris blocks to fit everyone into the smaller grill areas, but if you can ask for Joel - he was awesome! :)

[fletch1027]

The Aqua Theater is the main reason I sail Oasis Class ships. Looking forward to the pictures.

 

Coming up in my next post - later today after work! :)