Nov 4, Allure of the Seas, Western Caribbean - A Review and Complete Pictorial Guide!

[lovestx]

Please don't apologize to us for "not taking many pictures". We are all loving whatever you have taken!

 

Which brings me to a question about those aft sitting areas. From the picture with the climbing rock, it looks like there is a sitting area aft on every deck? Could that be possible or am I looking at somebody's suite balcony?

[gambee]

Please don't apologize to us for "not taking many pictures". We are all loving whatever you have taken!

 

Which brings me to a question about those aft sitting areas. From the picture with the climbing rock, it looks like there is a sitting area aft on every deck? Could that be possible or am I looking at somebody's suite balcony?

 

 

The lower decks are private aqua suite balconies, very nice rooms. The open aft balcony for everyone are located on decks 11 and 12 only, on both port and starboard side of the ship.

[ATLfuzzy]

Thank you SO SO MUCH for such a thorough and I'm sure horribly time consuming review. I'll be sailing Allure on Sunday, and your information was most helpful. Also agreed about Jamaica, I wouldn't have gotten off the ship either. Best Regards!

 

Ok friends, lets see Jamaica. I need to mention some background here so you know why we decided not to do any excursions there. I am not sure if you are aware of this, but Jamaica is on of the most homophobic countries in the western hemisphere. There is a large amount of violence against homosexuals, that ranges from verbal to even homicide. Feel free do to a google search if you want more information on this.

 

I did not experience any aggression towards me at all, inside or outside the complex, I am pretty straight acting. On the other hand my bf said he was called a few homophobic terms more than once within the boundaries of the RCCL compound and followed around by some of the locals. I don't want to say he is feminine, but I guess he is more noticeably gay than I am. I actually did not wanted him to get off on that port, but he had other plans.

 

The second reason we decide to stay near port was because I had zero intentions on being inside a bus for over an hour to get to the desired destination. Falmouth is located far away from the most interesting things to do in Jamaica.

 

It puzzles me why RCCL decided to build a port for their two flagships in Falmouth, Jamaica. The town is poor beyond your imagination and well for us in particular you could say it is dangerous. So we decided to play it safe and just stay near port. Like I said I did however exit the compound and ventured into town, I will post on that later.

 

Ironically we woke up that day to the news that Obama had won the elections and two more states had passed gay marriage :rolleyes: life is funny sometimes.

 

This is probably the only time during my review that I will mention anything about this topic, but I just felt the need to share this with other fellow gay travelers thinking of visiting Jamaica. Thats all and nothing more, please don't think too much of it. I hope I did not offend anyone with anything said in this post.

 

 

 

All that said Mom and I were ready to have a BLAST. Hey, we where in the Caribbean, on vacation, in the WORLD'S LARGEST CRUISE (yes, by two inches over the Oasis ;) lol) and with near perfect weather :D. I also found out that some of my best pictures were taken that day, you are in for treat!. Jamaica has some of the most amazing wood carvers in the WORLD.

 

 

[Beth C]

The lower decks are private aqua suite balconies, very nice rooms. The open aft balcony for everyone are located on decks 11 and 12 only, on both port and starboard side of the ship.

 

And deck 14 :).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gambee]

Thank you SO SO MUCH for such a thorough and I'm sure horribly time consuming review. I'll be sailing Allure on Sunday, and your information was most helpful. Also agreed about Jamaica, I wouldn't have gotten off the ship either. Best Regards!

 

have fun on your cruise :), glad I could help :)

 

And deck 14 :).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

 

Thank you :), I thought was missing one.

[gambee]

Once upstairs I exploded out of my pants :D, which reminds me I need to buy a new suit for a wedding on December 9 ughhhh, lol. I quickly changed because we had reservations for the Ice Games show, not that we needed them but still.

 

To get through studio B we went trough the casino, every time I went through the casino I noticed this little sculpture, I think I took over 10 pictures of it.

 

Entering Studio B they asked us for our cards and then lets us in. We managed to get a couple of nice seats up on top with a little bar to put our bottle of wine and my camera equipment, I also had my tripod with me at that time. A server came offering us something to drink but then he noticed we had a bottle of wine and moved on. We really only had very little at dinner, so it would be able to last us for the show. We usually only carry one glass to avoid breaking stuff, with all my camera stuff and her stuff is already enough.

 

Here is a picture of the stage before it started,

 

This was my favorite show in the ship, mom said it was better than Chicago. They start off with some Michael Jackson music, that I love of course. Then dancers come out and started the show. The props of the show are incredible, you can't believe that they are doing this in a ship. It was just great, the simple fact that I did not walk out midway through the show proves that this is one show that should not be missed.

 

I am however puzzled by the name of the show, I think it actually kind of turns people off from seeing it, like it did to my mom. Another thing is that the relation between the show and monopoly is very hard see, but none the less I am sure most will be entertained with it. They had some very good music during the show and it also involved some light comedy. At this point I would like to thank congratulate RCCL for a great show!

 

After the show we had a little bit of time before the karaoke contest that we wanted to see started. So we decided to stop by our Headliner show and see the beginning of it. We had no intentions on seeing the entire show, it was Mo5aic A cappella group. I am not one to enjoy those kind of shows, that said they were very impressive. We stayed for 3 songs before leaving to the karaoke contest.

 

 

 

I took this picture before entering the theater, Mother and daughter were indescribable. Everyone stopped and complimented them.

 

 

[gambee]

Then we headed to the On Air venue and managed to get a great table in the back, we later shared it with other people.

 

 

 

 

 

While we were waiting for the show to start I took pictures of the drink menu. The main difference between this drink menu and the one in the Viking was the presentation. The drinks were mostly the same and same prices, but the way the one in the Viking was presented was much nicer. In any case here it is;

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

 

 

Before the show started I ordered my usual, this time I got 4 olives :D. Well more like mom got 4 olives, she has a tendency of stealing them from me when I am not looking.

 

 

The Karaoke contest was blast, we had the best time there. I was singing along and cheering and as the time went by, the venue was filling up pretty quickly.

 

First they select 3 judges, one of the judges in our contest was an Elvis impersonator, the day before he sang for a lady that was having her 102 birthday on board.

 

He also sang for us one song before the show started, he was pretty good. He had a lot of personality and took it very seriously.

 

To the right is the contest host and to the left is the real Elvis ;)

 

 

Here is a short video of his performance, http://youtu.be/O9C2hYR96js

 

Watching those videos brings me back, I think mom and I created memories in that cruise that will be near impossible to beat.

 

[gambee]

I loved contestant # 1 he was singing some of my favorite songs unfortunately he failed at grabbing the audience the way the other contestants did. He got third place :(.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is his short video, http://youtu.be/Lv7RUjF50XE I was singing along the entire song, but softly of course ;), yup that's me screaming :D a few times, lol.

 

I got another very short video of him

 

 

[gambee]

Contestant # 2 was pretty good, I failed at getting him on video. He got second place, the guy was looking SHARP in that suit. He fit pretty good on his unlike me, lol. The only reason he did not win was because he decided to do a diva song and that did not fit his persona. But he was a close contender.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contestant # 3 was incredible, she was simply amazing, she captured the audience and took them a ride that one could not forget!! She got first place.

 

 

 

 

Here is her video, http://youtu.be/BxTTNwILD08 You HAVE to see this video!!!!!!!

 

She made a few of us cry :D I wont mention names :D (then again I cry every time I see Finding Nemo, I am a bit of a softy", and yes thats me screaming again :D. I guess martini and wine have a way of influencing my personality. And yes that is also me with the broken voice at the end of the video. My mom says I could be a singer, I think she is only one in the world that can make that statement. Everyone else hides when I sing :-(, lol.

 

At times I wish I had the courage to do karaoke, it looks like a lot of fun.

[gambee]

 

 

 

 

For the our intermission with had a young boy that the host had asked to stop by and sing for us. Apperently he had been on the family karaoke the day before and done great. Unfortunately he could not compete, due to the contest rules, but he was allowed to sing one song for us.

 

The kid was great, he had such a cool personality not shy at all, it takes a lot to do that in front of so many people, that place was packed. My hat goes off to him, you did a great job little buddy.

 

Here is his video,

it is cool to watch. Obviously he was from South Carolina, great song choice for him.

 

 

 

 

Now let me take the time to tell you one of my little stories, right after I got done recording the video of the young kid, ummmmmmmm yeahhhhhhhh I dropped my camera…….. I am not proud of it, but it happened. Well my priority was to find out if you even turn on.

 

And she did, but all of a sudden she displayed a message that went something along the lines "The saving process was interrupted, do you with to do a quick recovery? the last set of pictures/video will most likely be deleted" my heart started racing, I was petrified of loosing all that data, I had so many cool videos and pictures.

 

Well i said "No", then she displayed a camera error and said "remove battery and start again", well I did that and then she started. First thing I went to check that all my data was there and everything after the A cappella group was gone, I was devastated… Mom asked me and I told her I think I lost everything, well there was nothing to do about it, I could not recreate them singing or me being a total mess and eventually dropping the camera… I was pretty down at that point.

 

At least I had not broken my baby, so that was a plus.

 

 

I continued taking pictures and recording like nothing happened, until the end of the night when I got to the room. I still had hopes that they would be there, just lost in a database.

[gambee]

Soon after I restarted my camera they were announcing the winner, also Ken Rush made a quick stop.

 

He was also dressed like Elvis.

 

Here is the winning video and Ken Rush,

 

Overall we had a GREAT TIME, it was among the very best memories I had of the Allure, something as simple as a karaoke can be a lot of fun! Try your best to assist them, at least the contests, they attract a lot of people.

 

 

 

 

After the show had ended we decided to check running track at night I wanted one of those endless corridor pictures and since I had the tripod this was the perfect chance to get it.

 

 

 

 

 

[gambee]

Back inside the promenade I decide to get another slice of pizza and call it a night.

 

Boleros had it going on!!!!

 

 

 

 

Back upstairs I rushed to my computer, I took the memory and prayed that all the data was still there. To my surprise IT WAS ALL THERE!!!!! not one picture had been lost, I was so excited, mom was happy that I was happy about it. My data means so much to me, it would of been so sad if I had lost it all.

 

 

 

So I will repeat this one more time; we sat on our balcony, shared my pizza and then I told my mom "This is the best vacation ever!!!!" she looked at me and smiled :). Words were not necessary for me to know what she was thinking!

 

 

End day 5

[simmy45]

OMG this is the BEST REVIEW EVER!!!! You did a great job!!!! I am loving this everyday.... I have a quick question do they have shuffleboard? We are booked for an August 4 Allure of the Seas cruise, when we sailed on Liberty of the seas back in 2010 we played it all the time..

 

Thank you:):):)

[jonath]

Hi Gambee, very good so far, looking forward to Cozumel.

 

Quick question - I thought I saw you post pics of the Room Service TV Menu but I can no longer find them. If I'm not crazy, can you point them out? I thought I saw some drinks that were cheaper on the TV than than in the bars...

[gambee]

OMG this is the BEST REVIEW EVER!!!! You did a great job!!!! I am loving this everyday.... I have a quick question do they have shuffleboard? We are booked for an August 4 Allure of the Seas cruise, when we sailed on Liberty of the seas back in 2010 we played it all the time..

 

Thank you:):):)

 

Funny I had to google "shuffleboard"

 

I believe I posted a picture of it today, it is behing the aqua theater, a little hidden from everything, but non the less it's there.

 

Hi Gambee, very good so far, looking forward to Cozumel.

 

Quick question - I thought I saw you post pics of the Room Service TV Menu but I can no longer find them. If I'm not crazy, can you point them out? I thought I saw some drinks that were cheaper on the TV than than in the bars...

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FrbEx5uAwE

 

Please let me know if you see a difference in price, I don't feel like watching the entire video again.

 

 

 

P.S actually I think all prices are the same in the two menus. Or at least the ones I read over, they layout is different, that's about it

Edited November 20, 2012 by gambee

[jonath]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FrbEx5uAwE

 

Please let me know if you see a difference in price, I don't feel like watching the entire video again.

 

 

P.S actually I think all prices are the same in the two menus. Or at least the ones I read over, they layout is different, that's about it

 

Yup - Jump to 3:13 in your video. Room Service prices seem to be $0.25 cheaper for the first few in the list compared to the menu's you've posted.

Edited November 21, 2012 by jonath

[mac3835]

Best. Review. Ever. I have been reading cruise critic reviews for years now and I have never enjoyed one as much as yours, Gambee. Thank you so much. Somewhere along the line I was complimenting your photography so frequently that I actually got my husband to follow along for awhile which he NEVER does and he enjoyed the photography so much that we got into a discussion about your equipment and he insisted on ordering me a Sony Nex F3 for Christmas! Naturally, I took him up on it and my new camera is on its way (by the way the Sony online store has a terrific Black Friday deal that includes both the 18-55 and 55-200 lenses). So, thank you for the review and thank you for the camera :)!

[Mickeefan]

 

 

I've just started drinking dirty martinis. Would you be willing to tell me how much they are on RCI? Are they good? I'm looking forward to having one each night in the Viking Crown lounge. Thanks!

[roby2003]

Great review. I enjoyed every bit. Truly a 5-star review ! Can't wait for more !

[Boracay_Soul]

All Items are available at current bar pricing. Gambee loving your work. My wife raerom has turned me on to your posts and we are truly enjoying them. We are sailing on the Allure on January 27th 2013 and are looking forward to it as we are leaving our kids at home. The only consolation for them is that we did an amazing family trip on the Oasis 2 years ago but this is our first cruise as adults only. I also like my vodka and bourbon straight up on the rocks but I noticed on your pictures there is a selection of vodkas and other premium spirits but no prices. Only with a disclaimer that all items are available at current bar pricing. Would you happen to have a picture of what the various vodkas such as Belvedere vs Absolut would cost or other premium spirits ( such as my my favourite Blantons Single Barrel). If not could you recall what the prices roughly were? Looking forward to your review on Cozumel. Cheers!

P.S. I am suddenly craving a long island ice tea!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[juniorsmom]

Gambee: First I am absolutely LOVING this. We were on Allure on October 21 and I miss her terribly.

 

I know what you were saying about Ishyta, she was our assistant waiter and she was the best.

[balcony4u]

Thank you so much for this review! You have impacted our upcoming cruise in such a positive way!

 

We just booked a cabin and thanks to this review I made sure that it was an aft balcony without the life boats below! It is all thanks to this review, your willingness to respond to the people who post, and your pictures!

 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!