Random Photos - Allure of the Seas Eastern Caribbean 4/23/17

[Pratique]

Everyone likes photos so here are a few from our cruise and a super concise review.

 

Fabulous cruise. Fantastic crew. Amazing ship. Everything seemed to run like clockwork except for a few niggles from inefficient dining and bar service that were so inconsequential that they are not worth discussing. Slow service happens but for me being on a cruise is my chance to slow things down and unwind so I try to take it all in stride. In the end all of the food and drinks were excellent, and we did have some exceptional service too.

 

We were in a CLS and as usual for us on Allure our loft attendants on Deck 17 were top notch.

 

As compared to our land based vacations RC provides so many more extra special touches that we have committed to several more Oasis-class cruises as our current vacation of choice.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Pratique]

 

 

 

 

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[caa419]

very nice photos. Thank you for sharing!

[Pratique]

That's all for now, hope you enjoy.

 

 

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[NSinMG]

I enjoyed seeing the photos. Thanks for posting.

[Clarea]

Nice photos, thanks!

[CruisinCons]

Great photos; thanks for sharing!

[pandaball]

Great photos! Thank you! :)

[cha4244]

Very nice. Thank you.

[FloridaPalms]

Great photos! Thanks for sharing!

 

~ Jdy

[VPIcruiser]

Thanks for sharing these wonderful photos.

[Pratique]

Just a few more thoughts while they are fresh in my mind.

 

We brought (for the two of us) $500 cash, which was just enough for everything including taxi/shuttle expenses before, during and after the cruise, and tips for the loft attendants and concierge. All additional food and beverage service tips went on the SeaPass account; we prepaid the standard gratuities. There were a couple of instances where the server did not bring us a check (with a zero balance) so they lost out on additional tips.

 

At Nassau and Philipsburg we explored the towns on foot and on our own. In St. Maarten it is possible to walk between the pier and downtown (about 20-25 minutes at a decent pace) or take a water taxi, which is currently $7 per person for unlimited trips. The sailing time on the water taxi from the pier to the main ("A") dock is about four minutes after they shove off, but there appeared to be long waits during peak times even though Allure was the only ship in port (ahem, even though only some 6,000 passengers were in port). Water and other drinks are sold on the water taxi if you forget to bring some from the ship. I bought a bottle of water on board Allure at the gangway and was charged some odd amount like $2.36. There is a small shopping area at the pier in Philipsburg and it looks like more is under construction.

 

At St. Thomas we took the Royal excursion "St. John on Your Own," which for $39 per person provides a very convenient ferry from the pier at Crown Bay to Cruz Bay and back to the ship. The ferry left shortly after the ship arrived and got us to St. John just after noon, and left St. John promptly at 5:00, giving us almost five hours on our own. We took advantage of the escort off of the ship for suite passengers, which got us off the ship first and in plenty of time to check in for the excursion and to wander around the port shopping area for 15-20 minutes (although not everything was open yet).

 

We knew from prior experience that this ferry ride is about 45 minutes each way and the seas are always a bit rough. So a warning if you tend to get sea sick I would recommend avoiding this and instead taking a taxi to Red Hook and the shorter and smoother 20 minute ferry ride from there to Cruz Bay. The other benefit of this excursion is that you are guaranteed to make it back to the ship on time, although we had to first drop off Carnival passengers at the other pier, which put us back on Allure just 15 minutes before the 6:30 all aboard time. It sounds snobby to say this but I would have liked that the Royal excursion be limited to Royal passengers only, if just for the fact that we had to make that additional stop at the other pier at the end of a very long day (no slight against Carnival passengers, we talked to a few of them on the ferry and they were very pleasant).

 

On St. John we took a taxi for $6 per person per way to Trunk Bay for time on the beautiful beach. There is no shade on the beach but there are sheltered picnic tables. At Trunk Bay, chairs and snorkeling equipment is available for rent. $20 for two chairs but $50 if you don't return them by 4:15 (or at all). Admission to the National Park at Trunk Bay is $5 per person and includes use of the showers. Beach and water are super clean and there are no locals to pester you at all. You will likely be sharing the beach with tourists staying on St. John and from other cruise ships but when we were there, there was plenty of room for everyone.

 

We are not big breakfast eaters so if we ate any breakfast at all it was from the Suite Lounge or the Windjammer. As is our routine we always ate lunch at the Windjammer, except one day we ate lunch at Chops for $19 per person and it was very good even with the limited menu. I had a nice thick, tasty, juicy burger and we tried all of the sides as well. For some reason the maitre d' insisted on seating us right between two other couples even though there were many open tables elsewhere. The same thing happened at Giovanni's for dinner.

 

For dinner we ate at Coastal Kitchen three times and one time each at Giovanni's Table, the MDR, Sabor and Samba Grill. I reserved all of them, including MTD at the MDR, through the cruise planner except for Coastal Kitchen, which Dexter the concierge arranged for us after I e-mailed him a few days before the cruise. Sabor was practically empty but the food was excellent. I especially enjoyed the tortilla soup. My favorite meat at Samba was the short rib and my favorite entree at Coastal Kitchen was the lamb chop on Day 7.

 

We watched Oceanaria twice (once from our balcony and once from the deck chairs on Deck 7), it is our favorite show.

 

I highly recommend the free guided tour of Central Park by the head horticulturalist. The two stripe officer pictured in my earlier post above is Gelashe Javier from the Philippines. He has been involved with Central Park since Oasis, then Allure, and was very knowledgeable, friendly and willing to give detailed answers to our questions. One interesting tidbit is that although USDA was very concerned about plant pests at first, Gelashe and his counterpart on Oasis convinced USDA to reduce their inspections to twice annually. Any plant approved for one ship is automatically approved for the other Oasis-class ships. Max height of the standing trees due to fire risk is the balconies on Deck 9, and there are fire sprinklers under those balconies for extinguishing a plant/tree fire in the park. Very soon all of the trees will reach maximum height due to trimming, and then some of them will be replaced. Gelashe and his team are also responsible for tending to all of the fake plants. The tour is usually offered only once and on the first sea day at about 9:30 am so keep an eye out for it on the Cruise Compass. Allow about an hour for the full tour + questions and answers.

 

During the informal coffee with the captain and senior officers I asked one of the officers about the new dock at CocoCay. He didn't know any more about it than we do here on CC but he said it is very likely that once there are four Oasis-class ships sailing out of Florida at least one will call on CocoCay (or whatever it is going to be called).

 

It was very hot and humid all week, but we had refreshing breezes after about 3:00 pm everyday. In Philipsburg the heat index was 90 F by 10:30 or so. No rain except on departure day. There was a small gap between the ship and the end of the Port Everglades jetway from the terminal so we and our carry on's got a brief unexpected soaking while boarding.

[BNBR]

My last Carnival cruise, we did the Kon Tiki boat in St Thomas. Filled it up with 2 Carnival ships, then we traveled to the other side to pick up the Oasis of the Seas people. Didn't expect that. Kind of sucked for the Oasis people as all the good seats were taken by the time they got on board. First time I've ever seen multiple cruise lines combined on the same excursion this way. I think on the way back, Carnival people were dropped off first like your experience, too. Another funny note, is that with Carnival's excursion, we got free drinks included, but Royal passengers didn't. So they gave the Carnival people wristbands and made Oasis people pay for each drink... I couldn't imagine the Royal passengers were thrilled with that arrangement.