​⛴️​ LIVE from Allure ​🎠​ out of Galveston - Ozark_Kid and brillohead team up for a duo-thread: Jan 22, 2023

[Fontaid]

@Ozark_Kid and @brillohead - The 2 for 1 review was great!  Loved it. I enjoyed the great pictures and those of your feet 🤣.  The review makes it a little easier waiting until May for our 50th anniversary cruise on the Allure. We are splurging for a GS. We considered a CLS, but at our age, stairs are not friendly. Have a safe and uneventful trip home, John. Sorry to tell you, but your free drinks have sailed.... Deb, hopefully you won't have to share your new cabin with the Pins for too long. Keep posting this week!

[Ozark_Kid]

58 minutes ago, George C said:

We always fly into Hobby from Dallas flights leave almost every hour , great review, looking forward to our return to Galveston in November when Harmony replaces Allure. We are one of the few who flies rather than drives to Houston.

We are taking off to Dallas now.  I need to get to airport mode now. 

[macsails]

Please add my thanks to the great reviews ya'll have been posting!  We'll be on the Allure starting Feb 12th.  Sorry you will not still be there Brillohead would loved to have met both you and Ozark_Kid. 

You have certainly given me much to consider while on the Allure for the first time.

[Tree_skier]

Thanks for a great review @Ozark_Kid and @brillohead  It was fun following and it kept me going until I board Navigator tomorrow. 🙂 

[luvcruzing]

Thank you both for the review this past week.  It was obvious you both had a great time.  Loved all the pictures.  Looking forward to reading more.

[MJSailors]

@brilloheadand @Ozark_Kid Thanks for doing this review. Glad that you both enjoyed the cruise.

Wishing you both happy travels- either enjoying the ship for this week or flying home today.

MJ🙋🏻

[slyster]

3 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

The Lyft took 56 minutes from Port to Southwest drop off at the airport.  For those wondering,  I am not finding any place at the airport that except drink vouchers! 

For those flying out of George Bush our Lyft driver said the cost would be $250 for the same vehicle. 

Thanks for that information.  did you order the Lyft before you got off or after you got off the ship?

[brillohead]

13 hours ago, aubreyc1988 said:

If I ever reach pinnacle, I still wouldn't ever wear that pin omg. I am from Texas and sailed on Liberty out of Galveston and SO many Pinnacle pins.  The snobbery was off the charts too.  While waiting in line for the Top Tier event, I just couldn't believe the words coming out of their mouths. I feel for the room stewards

Okay, so it's not just my opinion... there really ARE more "entitled pin-wearing Pinnacles" out of Galveston!  

And I'm with you -- I should hit Pinnacle in the fall of this year, but you won't catch me wearing the pin!

[Ozark_Kid]

29 minutes ago, slyster said:

Thanks for that information.  did you order the Lyft before you got off or after you got off the ship?

We didn't click OK until we walked outside. The app said 2 minutes away and I would say pretty accurate. 

[brillohead]

5 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

That was very nice of you to do that.

 

3 hours ago, Luckynana said:

@brilloheadGreat review, Deb!  What a wonderful and generous gesture giving the young couple their picture from you!  You will always be remembered by then, for sure!

Enjoy your next cruise this week on the Allure!

I've done it several times now, and I love seeing peoples' faces when I offer.  The pictures are SO dang expensive, IMO, and I never use the pic for myself (I'm at a stage in my life where I'm trying to downsize, not accumulate more stuff!).

When I've met people earlier in the cruise, I tell them to use my room number when they get their picture taken, so it shows up on the kiosk under my card so I can activate the coupon.  Since I didn't actually talk to the couple until after the old geezer accosted me, they had already had their pics taken, but Allure still prints the pics and puts them in binders in the towers, so I was able to just take their chosen pic up to the register and purchase it that way.  

It costs me absolutely nothing (other than all the cruises that I've already taken to achieve this status level), but really means a lot to people who wouldn't ordinarily splurge on them.  I do the same with unused drink vouchers... why not give them to someone who would enjoy them!  And as John said, I got another person hooked on my beloved peach daiquiris last night!  LOL  

 

[brillohead]

4 hours ago, BonTexasNY said:

It was a pleasure reading about your antics.  Pictures exceptional.  @Ozark_KidJohn, safe travels home and @brilloheadDebbi, have an enjoyable 3rd leg.  Will you continue to post in here?  hint...hint.

Yeah, I'm going to set an alarm so I don't sleep through The Quest this time!  LOL

 

[Ocean Boy]

19 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Okay, so it's not just my opinion... there really ARE more "entitled pin-wearing Pinnacles" out of Galveston!  

And I'm with you -- I should hit Pinnacle in the fall of this year, but you won't catch me wearing the pin!

We shall see... 😄

 

Honestly, I would not even want to be introduced at the Top Tier event. 

[brillohead]

I waited until a little after 8:30 to leave my room with my luggage this morning, and went down to Deck 11 to see if the Pinnies had left my new room yet.  I timed it perfectly, because two ladies were just leaving the room, so I asked them to open the door for my so I could put my luggage in.  They acted confused, "the room isn't cleaned yet", but I explained that I was just going to put my bags in the closet so the room attendant could clean and not have to worry about moving my bags.  After stashing my bags, I hollered down the hall for Rayborn (my new attendant) and he popped out into the hall and I told him that the bags were in the closet and the Pinnies were gone.  😂

Then I was off to wait for the consecutive cruiser process.  

Not sure why, but they had things set up a little differently for debarkation today.  They had people walking through the MDR on Deck Five and out a side door from there (and did the same for the front of the ship via the Amber Theater).  The previous week, they had people exiting via the doors by the Champagne Bar and Sorrentos instead.  

This new way was absolutely stupid... they had no signage, so people didn't realize that they were supposed to be getting in the line going into the MDR, and they ALSO had the consecutive cruisers (of which I'm guessing there were at least 300 or so) meeting in the same MDR, so all these people are filing past us, coughing and sneezing on us.  

They also didn't have the person with the SeaPass cards there until probably 9:45 (we were supposed to be there no later than 9:30) -- usually you collect your new SeaPass card as you enter the Consecutive Cruiser meeting place.  

Then when they finally gathered us to get off the ship shortly after 10:00, they had us go out to the outside walkway from the doorway by the stairs, instead of out where they took the other passengers through the MDR.  We walked along the outside deck, over to the terminal, through facial recognition, and then lined up in the terminal.  Back on board about 20 minutes after we got off, and they started boarding everyone else around 10:30.

I went up to The Schooner Bar to wait to meet some folks I'd talked to online leading up to the cruise, and helped them get set up with the ship's wifi for the app and the free texting function in the app.

Then I popped down to the Promenade to get scanned for my muster station, and then down to the MDR on deck three for the consecutive cruiser lunch.

 

Menu:

 

Bread bowl:

 

Caesar salad:

 

Steak:

 

Chocolate cake:

 

 

Almost time for rooms to open, but I already knew that my room attendant had my room ready, so I snuck through the fire door a few minutes early and started unpacking.  Since I don't want any of the other various "amenity gifts" that they offer, I always get three six-packs of Coke Zero, and it was waiting for me when I got to the room:




All unpacked and ready to go one more time!

[brillohead]

4 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

We shall see... 😄

 

Honestly, I would not even want to be introduced at the Top Tier event. 

I won't mind for my actual cruise that I initially achieve Pinnacle Status, but beyond that, I can't see me ever going to a Top Tier event.  I just don't see the point of them....

[h20skibum]

@brillohead I forgot to ask last week, but since you are sailing again, I have a couple questions.

 

Are they offering any specialty dining packages on boarding day?  In the past, we got two or three day ones.  If so, what are they going for?
 

Also, what are the cost now for internet if purchased onboard.  Always have to do those calculations of buying during one of the sales, vs. using our vouchers and buying the remaining days onboard.

 

Have a great 3rd leg of the cruise.

[Ocean Boy]

2 minutes ago, brillohead said:

I won't mind for my actual cruise that I initially achieve Pinnacle Status, but beyond that, I can't see me ever going to a Top Tier event.  I just don't see the point of them....

The events are cool on O class ships. They do a diving show. And at times they have been in Studio B on V/F class ships with a special ice show. 

[Ocean Boy]

3 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

@brillohead

 

Also, what are the cost now for internet if purchased onboard.  Always have to do those calculations of buying during one of the sales, vs. using our vouchers and buying the remaining days onboard.

 

Odyssey is $24.99 this week. I came out ahead buying during the black Friday sale rather than using C&A which is $59.99 off of the Voyage package (8 nights). 

[George C]

31 minutes ago, brillohead said:

Okay, so it's not just my opinion... there really ARE more "entitled pin-wearing Pinnacles" out of Galveston!  

And I'm with you -- I should hit Pinnacle in the fall of this year, but you won't catch me wearing the pin!

I will never make pinnacle because I have cruised on too many non rccl ships . But see nothing wrong with wearing the pin . Only thing that used to annoy me is when they grabbed all the bar stools in suite lounge during happy hour and never moved. Now they aren’t allowed unless in a suite. We have had lots of great conversations with pinnacles. At least you get another free drink.

[brillohead]

3 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Odyssey is $24.99 this week. I came out ahead buying during the black Friday sale rather than using C&A which is $59.99 off of the Voyage package (8 nights). 

 
Pretty sure I saw $24.99 on a sign in the Promenade last week, too.  

@h20skibum I'll see if I can mosey past the Specialty Dining desk and see if they're offering anything.  I know that nobody came through the MDR and offered any special deals to me either of the last two weeks.

[Arzeena]

I don't want this cruise to end so fast! I am going to miss all the reviews.

[minnie00]

$250 to go to IAH .....wow.....its only 2 of us but was thinking of doing Lyft XL...maybe I will rethink that.

[Sunshine3601]

1 hour ago, Tree_skier said:

It was fun following and it kept me going until I board Navigator tomorrow. 🙂 

I hope you have a Great sailing.   Bon Voyage😀🍹

[Ozark_Kid]

Boarding at Dallas any time.  No delays this trip!  I just realized there is a lot for me to catch up on here!. 

[brillohead]

15 minutes ago, minnie00 said:

$250 to go to IAH .....wow.....its only 2 of us but was thinking of doing Lyft XL...maybe I will rethink that.

That's for a LUXURY XL, not a regular XL.

You can check out fare estimates on the websites:

https://www.uber.com/global/en/price-estimate/

https://www.lyft.com/rider/fare-estimate

[SteelCityCruiser10]

Just now, Ozark_Kid said:

Boarding at Dallas any time.  No delays this trip!  I just realized there is a lot for me to catch up on here!. 

That’s always good!  Delays are a real drag 👎🏻