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

[Magster1987]

Great photos! I do have a question, since you where just there.

 

In St. Thomas, did you arrive at 10AM local or ship time? Or did they change the ship time so local and ship is the same? I have a excursion booked at 11AM local time, and my cruise planner says we will arrive at 10AM local time, but i am getting kinda wrorried :rolleyes:

 

Will be there on Allure in about 1 month :)

Edited January 14, 2017 by Magster1987

[fletch1027]

Great photos! I do have a question, since you where just there.

 

In St. Thomas, did you arrive at 10AM local or ship time? Or did they change the ship time so local and ship is the same? I have a excursion booked at 11AM local time, and my cruise planner says we will arrive at 10AM local time, but i am getting kinda wrorried :rolleyes:

 

Will be there on Allure in about 1 month :)

 

 

 

10am ship time, which is 11am St. Thomas time so you should be good if you hustle off the ship. :-)

 

 

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[griz]

 

 

Here’s our tour ticket. Second RCI excursion on the same trip. New high for us. Again after much study on the CC boards, we landed on this for a beach day excursion. It’s called “Secret Sands Beach Exclusive and Skyline Drive”. The cost was $52 per person and it was well worth it as you will see. There are two times to choose from (morning and afternoon with a slight overlap. We chose the afternoon, which left at 1:00 from the port. The beach outing is first with the Skyline Drive part on the way back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are booked on this excursion in June for the same reasons.

 

What kind of beverages were provided?

Some reviews mention snacks. Did he have any snacks!

 

Thanks for the info and great review! Looking forward to the rest.

[Magster1987]

10am ship time, which is 11am St. Thomas time so you should be good if you hustle off the ship. :-)

 

 

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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.

[mrpayroll]

Have enjoyed reading so far. We will be on Allure for second time this Sunday with same itinerary. Wife will be trying the zip line this time. Love your pictures.

[sakigemcam]

Great report - I like your "atypical" approach. We're doing this itinerary in March!

[fletch1027]

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.

 

 

 

The only thing I can think of is Daylight Savings Time. I'm not sure if St. Thomas observes DST, but if they DON'T then between mid-March and November, ship time would match local time there...

 

 

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[Fouremco]

The USVI are in the Atlantic Time Zone (UTC-04:00) and do NOT observe Daylight Savings Time. So from March 12 to November 5 (2017), ship and island time are one and the same. The rest of the year, the islands are an hour ahead.

[harryfat1]

As I mentioned, this cruise was on the Allure, February the 14th through the 21st of 2016. On the cruise was my wife Jen, our 18 yr. old daughter and me. It served as our DD’s senior trip, and we were locked into doing it this specific week because of the school calendar and mid-winter break. Unfortunately, we paid “Valentine’s Day Cruise” prices and with three of us in the cabin it was not exactly the romantic “Valentine’s Day Cruise” experience, but that’s OK, we will survive.

 

Since most of this report will be photos, I figured it may be of interest to fellow nerds what I brought along with me to take pictures with:

 

 

 

In this photo, among the luggage tags and ever-present Diet Coke is the camera stuff I brought along:

 

1: Joby Gorillapod – Cool mini-tripod that has bendable legs used to take still shots. The legs fold up nicely for both using as a little monopod and also for packing it up.

 

2: Olympus TG4 – Great waterproof (up to 50 feet) camera. It takes great photos with several formats and also has the raw as well as jpg options. It is also threaded so polarizers and other filters can be used with it. It’s not the cheapest waterproof camera out there but it is far from the most expensive. It’s also rated as “shockproof” to 7 feet, but I didn’t drop it to test that theory. :-)

 

3: Nikon*Coolpix P510 – I love this camera as well. It is a little smaller and way cheaper than a full blown DSLR. Its big draw for me is the 42x optical zoom it has which is awesome for a “mirrorless” camera at this price range.

 

4: iPhone 6 – Not much to say here. It takes great pictures for a phone and its convenient because it’s usually in my pocket.

 

 

To be continued…

 

 

I was all excited when I saw the picture that you were going to show us how you can take pictures using the Diet Coke bottle, but then I realized the Diet Coke was just in the back photobombing your cameras and phones...:p

[lovetogoaway]

Loving the review!!! We are going on the Allure July 31!!!

[fletch1027]

We are booked on this excursion in June for the same reasons.

 

What kind of beverages were provided?

Some reviews mention snacks. Did he have any snacks!

 

Thanks for the info and great review! Looking forward to the rest.

 

You will have a great time! I remember there being 2 huge coolers, one with different types of Coke products (yeah!) and bottled water. The other had different types of adult beverages in it but I don't remember exactly which ones cause I don't drink. There were also some light snacks if I remember correctly.

[jmaedcruise]

The USVI are in the Atlantic Time Zone (UTC-04:00) and do NOT observe Daylight Savings Time. So from March 12 to November 5 (2017), ship and island time are one and the same. The rest of the year, the islands are an hour ahead.

 

this is very helpful, thank-you. We have a tour booked in St. Marrten for our cruise in April and my email confirmation says that there is no difference between ship time and local time but I had read here on CC people saying that local time was an hour ahead.... now I get it! Daylight Savings Time strikes again!!

[ZRC1MLC2]

Seems to be a win-win! A way to go along on vacation with a senior without them running loose 100% on their own! :)

 

I was going to mention this at the end during my "wrap-up", but our DD did not seem to have as good a time as an 18 yr old than she did when she was 17. Even though she was still in high school, she had just turned 18, therefore making her too old to hang out in the "teen" areas like the Living Room with the other seniors she met who were still 17.

 

Based on her experiences, there seems to be a gap with not a lot of things available for "young adults" (18-20) to do, so she ended up splitting time between the friends she made on the cruise when they were not in the teen areas and us.

 

So be aware of that in regards to the 18 yr old that will be with you guys...

We are on the Allure May 7, 2017 and can hardly wait. I am so glad to have found this review!!! Thank you for taking the time to do this. We also took our son cruising when he turned 18, thinking things would be as they always were and he would make friends, etc. It was harder for him being 18 on a ship that caters more to under 18 and over 21. He wandered around with us some and met a few people but we will definitely be inviting a friend along from now on, at least until he is a little older. Although a phenomenal trip, it was not quite the experience he was hoping for. Being on a ship is great anytime but being so young and on a ship when you have no designated place for your age group changes the dynamic a bit.

[fletch1027]

Have enjoyed reading so far. We will be on Allure for second time this Sunday with same itinerary. Wife will be trying the zip line this time. Love your pictures.

 

Thanks for the props - glad you are enjoying the journey! Which port will you be zip-lining at?

[fletch1027]

Great report - I like your "atypical" approach. We're doing this itinerary in March!

 

Thanks! I am trying to provide some interesting commentary / humor when I can. Taking a slightly different approach was almost necessary since this cruise was 11 months ago and the photos help to trigger memories of what we did. :)

[fletch1027]

The USVI are in the Atlantic Time Zone (UTC-04:00) and do NOT observe Daylight Savings Time. So from March 12 to November 5 (2017), ship and island time are one and the same. The rest of the year, the islands are an hour ahead.

 

Yep, and when we went it was during the four months where we had to add an hour - I hate having to do math on vacation! :(

[fletch1027]

I was all excited when I saw the picture that you were going to show us how you can take pictures using the Diet Coke bottle, but then I realized the Diet Coke was just in the back photobombing your cameras and phones...:p

 

Come on Harry you know better than that - RCI would never let you bring your own Coke on board! ;)

 

Now I am thinking of ways to convert a 20 oz. Diet Coke bottle into a pinhole camera. Lets see, duct tape to make it light proof, an xacto knife, small piece of copper with tiny hole and photo paper. Are there still places that develop film? :D

[fletch1027]

 

More pictures from our beach visit – this time of the beach area itself

 

One thing that I must admit it that any beach I have been to here in the states cannot compare to beautiful Caribbean beaches like these with their combination of the sand + the beautiful blue and green ocean colors!

 

The combination of it being winter in the states and the "free" AT&T cell coverage in St. Thomas meant that I was making a lot of my friends at work angry when they received several photos like this on their phones during the week! :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[sakigemcam]

BC of these pics I booked that excursion in St Thomas. We were going to just cab it to a beach but these pics did me in.

[fletch1027]

OK, for all of you Star Wars lovers, you will appreciate why this is my new favorite bottle of water! I thought that it was funny that they even had the detail correct of C3PO’s red arm. Reminds me of the dumb line he had in the movie, "You probably do not recognize me because of the red arm." Also if you love Star Wars you will enjoy the St. Maarten part coming up soon! :-)

 

 

 

I can only sit still for so long, so after a bit of relaxing I need to wander around some more. Saw some coral rock up on shore embedded in the sand.

 

 

 

I then started doing some goofing around with my waterproof camera. Stuck it in the water to look at some underwater seagrass (no mowing nessisary)

 

 

 

I then thought it would be cool to get a shot of waves headed towards my face. I tried a few times without a lot of success…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[fletch1027]

Loving the review!!! We are going on the Allure July 31!!!

 

Thank you very much! I hope you guys have a great time!! :)

[fletch1027]

this is very helpful, thank-you. We have a tour booked in St. Marrten for our cruise in April and my email confirmation says that there is no difference between ship time and local time but I had read here on CC people saying that local time was an hour ahead.... now I get it! Daylight Savings Time strikes again!!

 

DST can really strike when cruising to Mexico. They have DST, however it starts later than ours and ends earlier than ours so cruisers need to do their homework when planning to figure out how many hours difference there is any given month... :)

[fletch1027]

This is the last post of us at the beach. We were at the beach somewhere between 2.5 and 3 hours total. Others may want more beach time, but for me was perfect!

 

Another chicken photo. There were several wandering around. They are actually great to have around because they eat bugs!

 

 

 

As I was sitting on my beach chair staring out at the sea, I noticed a NCL ship off in the distance. I figured it was an NCL because it looked like a giant shoebox on the water. :-) It was likely sailing away from the British Virgin Islands which are north of the US ones. I watched it disappear behind the small islands out there, peek between the two, then pop out the other side. The three photos below took around 15 mins total, and yes I was looking for something to do so I timed this. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is shortly before we left and I wanted to show that if you are on the afternoon trip and want to always be in the sun, you may have to shift around a bit in the late afternoon (to of the left or right of where we were) as the trees start to cast more shade. Me on the other hand prefer shade so I was ok with this

 

 

 

 

 

[mrpayroll]

Thanks for the props - glad you are enjoying the journey! Which port will you be zip-lining at?

 

 

Actually not in a port. She didn't zip line on the Allure last time. :):)

[Ocean Boy]

I agree with the comment about the Caribbean water. I live on the ocean but there is nothing quite like that ice blue Caribbean. I can't wait to get down there.