Back from the Dark Ages! Live Review of the Allure OTS

[Espn]

2 hours ago, Capt Snoopy said:

@Espn thank you! I honestly booked the cruise just for the St Maarten port. My profession is a pilot so today fulfilled all my dreams and goals LOL

The texting has not worked all cruise for me. I keep trying it about once a day. It keeps saying ‘Beta’ and tells me to connect to the ship WiFi to text. I don’t know how to tell it I’m already on the ships WiFi. I hope they can work the kinks out before your cruise!

Ok thanks, I hope they are working on the app now.

I would like to go to Maho sometime even though some of the luster is gone since they don't get the 747 any more. My wife would be bored to death though. I think we are going to get some beach chairs at Big Bay and just drink on St Maarten. It will still be fun. 

[knon24]

Following along! Enjoying all the pictures as well! My fiancé and I are taking our first cruise in a couple of weeks and this is helping with the anticipation!

[Capt Snoopy]

@Espn I can’t blame you, it was a little boring when pilatus and dhc-6 were landing. They only had an A320 and A340 land in the 4 hours I was out there. I only had 1 picture and kinda bad sunburn LOL. Tomorrow in San Juan I’m going to stay FAR away from the sun. 

[Capt Snoopy]

@knon24 the last couple of weeks I was counting down by the day. It was the worst for me! I hope it goes by quick for you and the cruise goes by slow 🙌🏻

[Capt Snoopy]

@mishapsandmissy I really would suggest the dining package. The CK does have good food but in my opinion, the specialty restaurants are better for lunch and dinner. Breakfast, hands down I will go to the CK and have smoked salmon eggs benedict (3 days in a row now). But I have only went to CK if a specialty restaurant is over booked. Oh and 150 CP is having dry aged ribeye on Friday 😍

[mishapsandmissy]

Thanks for the feedback! Maybe I’ll surprise my husband with the package when we get on board. 150 CP is our favorite specialty restaurant, I can’t wait to be back! 

[Capt Snoopy]

150 Central Park was amazing again tonight! We asked for Izzine (great server!!!), he is a very hard worker and has a good heart. For appetizer we had tuna tartare, some salad, and lobster gnocchi (the gnocchi was just as good this time around). As always, we had to get the cucumber basil martini....such a classic. For entree, Blake ate the beef tenderloin while I tried the cod and we shared scallops. The beef tenderloin could be cut with a spoon, the cod had 2 bones but overall very moist, the scallops had an amazing crust like last time. I can’t wait to go back again on Friday. 

Now onto the Headliner Show!

Oh! And check out this adorable little girl at karaoke (her grandfather gave permission to post) 

[Capt Snoopy]

@mishapsandmissy that would be an amazing surprise! I vote YES to that. I love the salts at 150 CP

[MrFunInTheSun]

2 hours ago, mishapsandmissy said:

Following along! We board on Sunday for our first Sky Class cruise. We normally get the dining package but are debating it due to having CK access. Your pictures are pushing me towards it again! 

 

I'd recommend the dining package. The couple times I've eaten in CK, I wasn't all that impressed. The company I was with made the experience good, but I much preferred the food in the specialty restaurants.

[MrFunInTheSun]

Nice day in St Maarten!

Loving seeing your 150 Central Park pictures. Every time I've done the dining package, 150 Central Park has always been my favorite.

[l12345]

I'll be on your itinerary in a couple weeks on the Allure! Have/are you going to Chops? I have a voucher for one speciality dining meal and can't decide between 150 and Chops!

[mom2tcdx2]

We may need to stop by the Hibachi when we get on the ship and see if we can dine on one of the lower priced options.  We pretty much want to try every place once, and then see where else we may eat at a second time.  Hoping I don't need to do too much in the way of reservations ahead of time, as with the package we can't reserve early.  Also not sure what place we may want to do twice, though I am thinking it will be Chops and potentially 150 Central Park.  

With the drink package I am also looking forward to trying lots of different drinks.  Literally down to 10 days before we had out of town and 11 to get on the ship.  

So now we are just down to reading up on reviews, learning what I can and waiting.  Oh the waiting is killing me.  

[Capt Snoopy]

28 minutes ago, l12345 said:

I'll be on your itinerary in a couple weeks on the Allure! Have/are you going to Chops? I have a voucher for one speciality dining meal and can't decide between 150 and Chops!

I have tried many times and they somehow are so booked that I can’t get anything before 9pm, I wish I could’ve went. I went to Chops a lot on the Mariner in July and it was very good. Their lamb chops are worth writing home about! I would honestly try both if it’s reasonable, you won’t regret it. 

[Capt Snoopy]

@mom2tcdx2 I would honestly suggest to try and figure out which restaurants you want to try on each night, then as soon as you get on the ship, go to any one of the restaurants and they can schedule all of them for you. I was told by the suite concerige that I didn’t need to reserve for the entire week and I can’t even get into some restaurants like chops because it is so booked. Needless to say, I am very disappointed I don’t have the choices I would have had if I booked everything on the first day!

[lazydayz]

You should check with Bechir or one of the concierges for Chops reservations. They were able to work magic for us. 

[ramja96]

8 hours ago, Capt Snoopy said:

@mom2tcdx2 I was told by the suite concerige that I didn’t need to reserve for the entire week and I can’t even get into some restaurants like chops because it is so booked.

You might want to talk to your suite concierge about their misinformation (politely, of course) - maybe they can find a way to get you squeezed in.

[Capt Snoopy]

@lazydayz @ramja96 so what I ended up doing is just settling on going to chops for lunch since the menu is almost identical. Then picking 150 CP at a later time in the night and just going to the entertainment shows at a later time. I hate to ‘rock the boat’ or anything since the suite concerige and Bechir have gone out of their way and been so accommodating to Blake’s gluten allergy. I know, I know, I’m too passive in this regard LOL

[ramja96]

Going back to the milkshakes ..... are they included in the refreshment package, also? (Asking for my wife)

[mom2tcdx2]

I do think I will plan on booking them all the first day and just looking at the menu's and see where we might want to go twice.  I will be highly disappointed if I bough the UDP and then have issues making my dinner reservations.  There really should be a way for us to be able to also reserve ahead of time in the cruise planner.  I have all of our show reservations done for later in the evenings, so I can't really do a 9 pm dinner reservation, unless I then change my show reservations.  I don't mind the later dining times but booking the shows already limits how late we can actually dine.  

[Capt Snoopy]

@ramja96 funny you’re asking, we are having milkshakes and sundaes now. They are included. 3x this cruise the milkshake has been included with the drink package!

[Capt Snoopy]

@mom2tcdx2 I 100% agree. I was very disappointed because I haven’t been able to get to Chops this entire cruise because of that issue. Had I known it was an issue, I would have scheduled everything on the first day! I’m glad you won’t run into the same predicament as me. I would definitely suggest 150 CP more than once. I personally never went to Sabor or the Brazilian steakhouse for dinner because it just didn’t seem as delicious as Giovanni’s, 150 CP, and Izumi. If those didn’t work, we would go to coastal kitchen because Chops has been too booked to get in. 

Edited October 18, 2018 by Capt Snoopy

[betterthanvegas?]

Loving this review! Only 10 days now for ours! We've booked 150 CP for our 10th wedding anniversary so glad to hear it's good. Is it ok to get 3 entrees between 2? And/or 3 desserts? There's a few things on the menu we'd find it hard to choose between...

Thanks!

[ramja96]

8 minutes ago, Capt Snoopy said:

@ramja96 funny you’re asking, we are having milkshakes and sundaes now. They are included. 3x this cruise the milkshake has been included with the drink package!

OK - sorry, I thought you had the deluxe package. THANKS!

[JaniceB]

Maho beach did look really calm, lucky you.

[Capt Snoopy]

4 minutes ago, betterthanvegas? said:

Loving this review! Only 10 days now for ours! We've booked 150 CP for our 10th wedding anniversary so glad to hear it's good. Is it ok to get 3 entrees between 2? And/or 3 desserts? There's a few things on the menu we'd find it hard to choose between...

Thanks!

You picked the best restaurant imo! So it depends on the server! You always get as many appetizers and desserts that you want but you’re ‘supposed to’ only get 1 entree each. If your server is extra accommodating, they can hook you up with extras; if not, it is $15 for an extra entree. Good luck in the generous server roulette 🙌🏻

I would say the tenderloin is AMAZING, the short rib was very tough, the cod was very silky and moist, and the scallops have a perfect sear on top of a smoky chickpea, cabbage, and pancetta mix. Hope that helps a little bit! Depending on what day you picked, they will have dry aged steak. This week it is on night 6 and 7 (Friday and Saturday).