Allure of the Seas - Feb 17: Review with some pics

[redsoxfan79]

I'm a cruisecritic lurker (always reading), but I rarely post. I just got back from my cruise on the Allure with my family and I had such a great time that I wanted to re-live it so I thought why not write one of those reviews (I've read hundreds of them myself). Well, here it is for those people that love to read anything and everything before they go on their own cruise...

 

A little background:

 

me (51) - software engineer and huge vacation planner. went on Oasis with my mom 2 years ago (to cheer her up after losing my dad). Went on the Oasis again just a few weeks ago (Jan 12 - with mom, 2 sisters and brother). Huge vacation planner.

 

DH (51) - software engineer. Just got layed off the day after we payed for this trip in full. Couldn't plan a vacation if his life depended on it. He's a "Just tell me what to do" kinda guy.

 

DD (16) - typical teenage girl. Junior in HS. My sweetheart, who is a drama queen. She will need to marry a rich guy some day cause she is extremely high maintenance.

 

DS (13) - 8th grader. The most sweet, caring kid you could ever meet. He was my buddy for this trip. We hung out a lot together while the other two did their own thing. During the cruise, he became officially addicted to BINGO :-)

 

I never expected to go on 2 cruises in 4 weeks. I had originally planned the first cruise for December and the second for April, but my sister needed to wait until January. And my daughter thought she might go on the April chorus field trip, so that only left February vacation. So I thought "why not....2 cruises in 4 weeks!...I'll suffer through it!" :-)

 

 

Leaving Boston:

 

The weekend before the cruise, my daughter was in her High School's musical and we also had a big blizzard in Massachusetts so we didn't really have much packing time, but I knew what to pack since I was going to pack the exact same clothes as I did 4 weeks ago (but I will remember my black shoes this time!). A week before the trip, I told everyone else in the family to start throwing their summer clothes on the spare bed. So when it came time to really pack, we had all the clothes on a bed.

 

After a hectic 2 days of shopping, pedicures, hair appointments, work and school, it was finally time to say goodbye to our 2 siberian cats.

 

We left on Thursday because the flights were over $1000 cheaper (for 4) on Thursday than Friday. So I had the kids miss school (bad mother!). We were going to stay at the Lago Mar for 3 nights, right on the beach and really close to the pier. I was excited because I planned that we would walk down the beach to wave goodbye to all the Saturday cruise ships! Our flight was at 8:20pm. After sitting in almost 2 hours of boston rush hour traffic,

 

We parked in Chelsea. My DD had to fix her make-up before we left the car. I am guessing that she turned her overhead light on and forgot to turn it off...which creates a big problem on the journey home...can you guess what happens on the way home? :-( Anyways, we took an airport shuttle to Boston's Logan Airport. We got through security and decided to eat at the Legal Sea Foods in the Jetblue terminal. No line...got right in. It was fun cause our seats faced airport security and you get to watch everyone getting scanned and putting their shoes on. It made dinner interesting.

 

 

After dinner, DH and DS were very concerned about getting our two carry ons in the upper compartments of the plane so they hung out by the gate. DD and I just laughed at them and waited further back. We were in no rush to get on plane (we both hate flying). DH and DS happily boarded ahead of us. As I walked on the plane, I saw a person with their head down and thought it looked like my cousin. So I said "Colleen"...and if she didn't look up it wasn't her. But she did! I hugged her quickly and then had to keep moving along. Got to our seats and saw how happy DH was since he got to put the carry-ons in the overhead compartments.

 

The flight was fine, a little bumpy and a little late (got in at 12:15am). Love the Jetblue tv's. DD and I watched Project Runway while the DS watched American Idol. DH was watching some murder show (NCIS or CIS ... I don't know. They are all the same to me...someone kills someone, someone gets caught and goes to jail). We met my cousin again in buggage claim to find out she was going to drive to Naples tonight to visit her mom (my aunt) with her friend and her friend's 9 month old baby (also on plane). they were renting a car. I felt bad for them...late and long ride.

 

We got luggage quickly with nicely recognizable colored yarn on each suitecase and off to the taxi stand. I told my family 'no problem getting taxi'. It was about 12:40 am. and there were about 120 people in the taxi line. I wasn't nervous because I remembered that there would be lots and lots of taxis (based on my January trip - we got there around noon that day).

 

In 20 minutes only 2 taxis showed up! I sent DH to the front of the line to ask the taxi-guy what was going on, and he nonchalantly said 'I called for some taxis but I don't know why none have come'. We called our hotel, Lago Mar, to see if they had any clout with taxis or could arrange for some limo service for us. The lady at the front desk bluntly said 'we do not have any airport shuttle service'. Well, now what do we do? It seemed we might be there for hours. We were hoping she could give us a little more help than that but nope. I am a planner, so I had a plan. On my January trip, we used a nice limo service (from our hotel to the pier). That guy said call me before your next trip and I'll drive you everywhere. I called a week before this trip and he told me that our plane got in too late so he couldn't drive us to the hotel and he tried to get us someone else, but couldn't. I thought "that's ok...they'll be plenty of taxis at the airport" ;)

 

DD went to bathroom (she came back and got me to escort her there cause she got scared of a creepy-looking guy hanging out by the bathrooms). On our way back we saw a shared limo stand. I quickly sent DH to check it out and the guy told him that he could have a town car in a few minutes for us for $40 ...which is what I think the taxi would have been anyways. He ran back to us...the line hadn't moved an inch. I told DH 'of course we should do that. Run over there and tell him yes'. Other families heard our discussion and started making their way over there too. About 5 minutes later, we were on our way to the Lago Mar.

 

The ride to the hotel was quiet....it was dark, we were tired. By now it was about 1:30 am now. We got to the Lago Mar, and met the lady at front desk, who looked a little off and talked like she had marbles in her mouth, but no worries, we got our room (south wing in main building).

 

I wiped down the rooms with my handy clorox wipes (yup, neurotic) and we took the gowns and suits out of the suitcases and hung them in the closet. Off to sleep... hoping the weather tomorrow is going to be better than the prediction ....rain :(

 

Here is a picture of my cruise on the Oasis a few weeks ago:

 

[redsoxfan79]

hmmm... I guess I didn't add the pictures correctly... I see them as links. I expected the post to display the pictures not the links. So I need to figure out what I did wrong.

[scooter90]

Great beginning -- looking forward to the rest of your report.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Great! Another review and it looks like a good one.:) I am looking forward to the next installment. Which one are you int he above picture? BTW, I see your pictures fine.

 

I am sorry about your DH getting laid off. the same thing basically happened to us last year, only it was right before final payment - so we had to cancel.:(

[Tyron]

I was on the same sailing and thoroughly enjoyed the ship, crew and its amenities. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review. :):cool:

[Juliesfirstcruise]

Hello, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of our review, we are going on the Allure in May, it's our first ever cruise hence the name!! We are also staying at the Lago Mar for 5 nights before the cruise as we wanted to extend the holiday as its a long way from the UK. We are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary whilst on board!! It looks fantastic I've read so many reviews just can't wait to go now .... 74 days and counting!!!

 

Julie

[Familygoboston]

Oh! So excited...enjoying your review so far!

We are also cruising allure with teens for April vaca. So im anxious to get your kids take on it!

They do really jack up the fares for vacation week:rolleyes:

In April, we plan to leave Sat, but return on Monday ((DH home office is in N FLL, so he can get a hotel room for all of us and work Monday before our flight. Girls and i can hang at the pool. So I'm a bad mom too, missing a day of school:o

 

Sorry about DH's job, my DH had to let a few people go from the Boston location recently (literally, he is never more miserable than when he has to do that:( , I'm hoping you DH was not one of them:eek: happy job hunting, and good luck with review...looking forward to it!

[Familygoboston]

Here is a picture of my cruise on the Oasis a few weeks ago:

 

[/color][/size][/font]

[/font][/color]

 

Wow, which one is " mom" looks like 4 sisters to me:D lucky you having that gene pool!

[redsoxfan79]

Great! Another review and it looks like a good one.:) I am looking forward to the next installment. Which one are you int he above picture? BTW, I see your pictures fine.

 

I am sorry about your DH getting laid off. the same thing basically happened to us last year, only it was right before final payment - so we had to cancel.:(

 

 

I am the one on the far right with the globe-light coming out of my head :) How long did it take your DH to get a job again? So sorry you had to cancel. I hope you are in the planning stages again for another cruise.

[redsoxfan79]

I was on the same sailing and thoroughly enjoyed the ship, crew and its amenities. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of your review. :):cool:

 

Yes, I remember seeing your posts on the Roll Call for this sailing. I bet we walked by each other many times during the week. I know there were over 6000 passengers, but I kept seeing a lot of the same people all week long. It really didn't seem too crowded to me.

[redsoxfan79]

Hello, I'm looking forward to reading the rest of our review, we are going on the Allure in May, it's our first ever cruise hence the name!! We are also staying at the Lago Mar for 5 nights before the cruise as we wanted to extend the holiday as its a long way from the UK. We are celebrating our 30th wedding anniversary whilst on board!! It looks fantastic I've read so many reviews just can't wait to go now .... 74 days and counting!!!

 

Julie

 

I'm jealous that you're cruise is ahead of you! I don't have too many pics of the Lago Mar, but I'll put some in their for you. Nice hotel, you won't be disappointed. Are you travelling with any kids? Cause the Lago Mar seems like a great place to stay with kids. We didn't rent a car to try and save money, so we needed to take a taxi which limited what we could do. But we were only there two full days so it worked out.

 

Congrats on your 30th!

[redsoxfan79]

Here is a picture of my cruise on the Oasis a few weeks ago:

 

[/color][/size][/font]

[/font][/color]

 

Wow, which one is " mom" looks like 4 sisters to me:D lucky you having that gene pool!

 

I told my mom what you wrote and she just laughed! She thinks it's crazy that someone thinks she is 'a sister', but I agree with you and think she looks great.

 

My mom is the one on the far left. We always wanted to put her in the middle, but the photographers always wanted 'the guy' to be in the middle. She had my older sister at 17. The others are my younger brother (11 years my junior) and my little sister - left center (I think I'll always call her my little sister, even when we are in our 90's). She is 5 years younger than me. My other sister - right center - is 3 years older than me.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I am the one on the far right with the globe-light coming out of my head :) How long did it take your DH to get a job again? So sorry you had to cancel. I hope you are in the planning stages again for another cruise.

Well, my DH is now 63 (62 when he lost his job) so the job market can be tough at that age. So he decided to do what he was doing before - just on his own. We tightened our belts and he started his own business. The $$$ is not there yet, but we are ok. It's amazing what you can do when you have to. He is resourceful. He took on a part time job, took out social security and also being self employed he is working like a mad man. The important thing is that he isn't as stressed out as he was before. The Good Lord has taken care of us. Our next cruise is in 59 days on the Allure.:)

[Tyron]

Yes, I remember seeing your posts on the Roll Call for this sailing. I bet we walked by each other many times during the week. I know there were over 6000 passengers, but I kept seeing a lot of the same people all week long. It really didn't seem too crowded to me.

Yes, we probably did. :) I agree...I saw the same people over and over the entire week. LOL :cool:

[gelo7]

Nice start.

[Juliesfirstcruise]

I'm jealous that you're cruise is ahead of you! I don't have too many pics of the Lago Mar, but I'll put some in their for you. Nice hotel, you won't be disappointed. Are you travelling with any kids? Cause the Lago Mar seems like a great place to stay with kids. We didn't rent a car to try and save money, so we needed to take a taxi which limited what we could do. But we were only there two full days so it worked out.

 

Congrats on your 30th!

 

Thank you - looking forward to the pics!! No we are not travelling with kids they are grown up now and don't want to come with us anymore - or is that the other way round!!! We are flying into Miami so think we will rent a car and drive to FL and will have the car to get about!! I know it is a way from the main area of shops/restaurants but thought the lago mar looked a lovely chill out place!! Looks a great beach!!

 

My hubby has just been made redundant also, after 20 yrs with firm, he an engineer! Very worrying time and we had just booked the cruise so nearly cancelled but luckily has got another job and starts it in a month!! So everything has worked out well in the end and so happy we didn't cancel it!! The cruise will do us good after all the worry!!!

 

Julie

[jarz85]

Looking forward to your review.

 

We have booked the Lago Mar for 5 nights pre-cruise. Are you going to post pics of it or is there somewhere else I can view them? I get the feeling the staff are rude as I had to ring them as I wanted to upgrade our room... I spoke to the manager and he was very grumpy!

[redsoxfan79]

Looking forward to your review.

 

We have booked the Lago Mar for 5 nights pre-cruise. Are you going to post pics of it or is there somewhere else I can view them? I get the feeling the staff are rude as I had to ring them as I wanted to upgrade our room... I spoke to the manager and he was very grumpy!

 

 

I don't have too many pictures of the interior, but I'll be posting some outside pics. I thought the only grumpy employee we ran into was the late-night front desk person. The concierge guy was very friendly and the dining staff were attentive and also friendly. You should have a nice stay there.

[jarz85]

I don't have too many pictures of the interior, but I'll be posting some outside pics. I thought the only grumpy employee we ran into was the late-night front desk person. The concierge guy was very friendly and the dining staff were attentive and also friendly. You should have a nice stay there.

 

Awesome!! Thanks heaps

 

I don't suppose you went to the rocks to see the Oasis sailaway on the Saturday? We are planning that!

[noshoobie]

So far so good.......looking forward to more!

[redsoxfan79]

Awesome!! Thanks heaps

 

I don't suppose you went to the rocks to see the Oasis sailaway on the Saturday? We are planning that!

 

Yup. I'll put a few pictures of that on my next post...coming soon. You should definately do that. It was fun!

[redsoxfan79]

Exhausted from how late we got in last night, we all slept late the next day. We realized that now we wouldn't make breakfast in the dining room before it closed so we ordered room service. I think the rest of us could have gotten ready in 15 minutes, but there was no way we could get DD to dining room before it closed. She takes at least an hour to get ready each morning :mad:

 

The room at the Lago Mar was nice, Tommy Bahamas-kind of interior design, two queen beds and very spacious. Huge bathroom...DS was excited when he noticed the shower head was bigger than he was!

 

I was pleased to see our balcony view in the morning...it had a great view of pool area and we could see ocean thru the palm trees. After we got ready and ate our only-average breakfast, we decided to walk the beach. This hotel is right near where the cruise ships leave. My family was a little tired of hearing my big plan for tomorrow (go on rocks and wave to the Oasis as it departs).

 

We walked down the beach in the other direction (away from the pier), we walked for about a mile (or less). There were a bunch of boys playing volleyball, we picked up shells, and we kept looking at the sky since it was predicted to rain today. When we were almost back, it started to drizzle. DD wanted to go back to the room so I took her there while DH and DS played ping pong. After leaving DD in the room with her cell phone (her happy place!),

 

I went down to the ping pong area to see if I could play too, it then pour so I grabbed a towel and ran down anyways, I covered my head with it and found them running towards me. I let DS join me under the towel and we all ran back to the room. We heard it was going to rain all day, so we really didn't know what to do now (no car, expensive taxis). I sat on balcony and called my mom, chatted with her for a while. I wish we could have brought her along with us!

 

We decided to go down to congierge to find out what to do (movies, science museum, mall...DD's ears perked up). The concierge guy was very friendly, but kept pushing the science museum, which didn't interest any of us. DH wanted to go to a movie. DD wanted to go to the mall and buy clothes. DS wanted to go to the Outback for dinner. He hates most food and only wanted Outback chicken fingers. I needed to get to CVS to buy sunscreen, water and a few other things. None of these places were near each other which would main lots of taxi rides.

 

We decided to postpone the decision and go have lunch in outside bar with roof covering it so we wouldn't get wet. Lunch was fine and it was fun to watch everyone running in the rain while we ate. Then we went back to the room and ended up wathcing Friends in room for about 3 episodes. DD's eyes were closed so I think she was about falling asleep and DS was playing games on his mac. As much as I love friends, we are in florida so let's leave room.

 

Sorry DS, we just don't want to spend the money on lots of taxis, so we decided not to go to the Outback. It seemed to turn into a light drizzle....maybe the rain in gone! We went to the mail since the cvs was across the street (DD and I got our way!). Before we left the Lago Mar, we decided to make a dinner reservation for tomorrow night at their nice restaurant, Acquario.

 

I wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to see the cruise ships so we made the ressie for 6:30pm. We grabbed a taxi and headed to the Galleria Mall about 5 minutes away. We looked around for food in the mall. DH was happy with food court...he'll eat anything. Nothing much for me to eat. I can't have gluten and food courts are not great places for people with food allergies. The guys working at one of the food kiosks didn't know what any of the ingredients were. I found a chicken leg that looked pretty safe so I had that and a bag of bad chips. DS ate a bag of bad chips (which neither of us liked...strange brand). DD had pizza and DH found a gourmet meal...plate filled with lots and lots of food (one of us was going to be happy and full).

 

We walked around mall cause DD wanted a bathing suit. She packed about 15 bikinis, but thought she neeeded another one :-) We went to Swim and Sport (there is one in Mass so we knew it had nice bathing suits, expensive but nice). DD liked a purple one with a really skimpy bottom. DH and I looked at each other when she came out of the dressing room and we both knew that we were not buying this one for our 16 year old daughter! DH and I loved a red one, but she loved the skimpy one. I looked around and found a different bottom for the purple one and we bought that. (during the cruise, one of the girls that DD hung out with was wearing this exact skimpy bottom ...actually looked less skimpy when it was on a pool deck as oppsoed to a store in a mall).

 

After the big bikini purchase, we were off to cvs which was right across the street from mall. I had done this on my last 2 Oasis cruises with my Mom so I told them it's hard to cross street but just be patient. Well, none of us wanted to be patient after coming out of the mall...It was absolutley pouring again! We didn't know what to do. DD said "Let's just run for it!". I knew it would take a long time to cross that busy street safely so we would get completely drenched. I told DH... "I know it might sound weird but let's see if we can get a taxi to take us across the street". DH got a taxi driver to take a to CVS, wait while we shopped and then take us to the Lago Mar. While we were shopping out taxi guy came in to CVS to tell us he was leaving with another fare and would be back. hmmm...I was a little nervous but we didn't pay him yet so we thought he would be back. We bought sunscreen, shampoo, body wash, wine, gum, and lots of chocolates for me.

 

We finished shopping and went outside to see if he was there yet. We waited about 5 minutes and it was still pouring with no taxis in sight. The kids were getting upset but he finally came back. When we got to room, I stepped out on the balcony. It was lightly raining and I could hear music playing outside (like a guy playing guitar and singing)...no idea where he was. We all watched Kitchen Nightmares and then off to sleep for hopefully a nice weather day!

 

I didn't take too many pictures today..cause I didn't want to remember the rain :(

 

[IrishLassie]

Loving your review & looking forward to more pictures. We actually spent our 1st. Honeymoon night at the Lago Mar! Of course that was over 34 yrs. ago so it probably looks alittle different now. We both grew up in Ft. Laud. so we know that whole area, don't live there now, but still love it down there.

Anyway, keep posting! :D:D

[redsoxfan79]

We woke up the next morning to sun! Here are some pictures of our balcony view:

 

 

We ate breakfast at Acquario They had a reasonably priced buffet which had a nice omlet station. The guy making the omlets also made the pancakes and waffles. He was lightning fast and probably the hardest working guy in Lago Mar! After breakfast, we had a fun family shuffle board competition (guys against the girls). DD and I started off strong, but the men came back and beat us ...I really brought our team down!

 

We never got around to playing this giaganitc chess set. It looked fun. There were always little kids trying to knock down the pieces!

 

DS wanted to go to the pool, but the beach was calling us (and we go to a pool at our club during the summer) so we decided to go to the beach. We hadn't been to a beach for a few years (my parents used to live on the cape, and my mom recently moved off the cape, near us, when we lost our dad). So the beach won! We got the free blue chairs and sat for a while. Lounge chairs with umbrellas cost money and I thought the free chairs looked even better!

 

DH and DS read while DD sun-bathed. We all took another walk, and then went to outside pool place for lunch. We had to scout around waiting for someone to leave a table (I felt like I was in the Windjammer already!). Now DS was bored and claimed we never listened to what he wanted to do. He mentioned about 10 things he asked to do that we didn't do (pool, tennis, eat at the Outback...).

 

So I told him that he was right and asked what he wanted to do now. He said "nothing". Hmmm...typical 13 year old! So after some nudging, I got him to get dressed for tennis and we reserved a court for 3pm (which was now). DD and DH went back to the beach. When we were playing, two little kids and their mom appeared and she told them to stand on either side of DS. huh? They finally went away after another person showed up and told her that you need to reserve your court time. I think it was a friend of hers. Glad they left cause my DS was feeling very uncomfortable with them invading his space. DD and DH showed up after saying that the beach got windy and DH took my racquet and played with DS while I rested. I had hurt my left arm at muscle strenghtening class at work a few weeks ago and tennis was hurting it. So I sat with DD and watched. I kept track of time cause it was getting close to 4pm and I wanted to make sure we got to our 'waving spot' before the ships left!

 

At 4pm, I signalled that tennis was over and we needed to get changed and head down to the 'waving spot'. Since the wind was picking up, we all grabbed our sweatshirts. As we were walking down the beach, we saw a holland america leaving so I started to run down the beach. My family thought I was much too excited about this so they were laughing at me.

 

[redsoxfan79]

We got to the rocks and I jumped right up on them. The kids were scared and needed me to help them on the rocks. DH is a great rock-climber :-) so I knew he would have no problems getting on the rocks. When DH got over to us, he showed us the huge gash at the top of his big toe. He brushed it a long a rough rock and took off a big piece of skin! There was lots of blood, but he said it didn't hurt too much. The next boat was starting to make it's way out of the pier. It was a Princess ship, and we were in position to wave! A small boat with a guy thatwas shouting thru speaking horn was escoring each ship through the inlet. He was yelling the name of each ship and telling everyone on board to scream. My family finally 'got' why I thought this would be a fun thing to do! They were starting to get excited for our trip tomorrow. We saw about 6 ships leave...Holland America, 2 Princess ships, The Liberty of the Seas (which surprised me that it was here), Carnival and then the finally the Oasis...

 

I think there was one more after we left. What we found very interesting was that when each ship went by, the ocean water got sucked down to almost the sand. Before the ship went by, there were rocks completely covered by the water. As each ship went by, you could see a big portion of each rock exposed. We found a few crabs that were clinging to rocks as the water was shifting up and down.

 

It was time to change for dinner so we left. I love this picture cause you can see all the ships in the distance that left before the Oasis:

 

We change for dining clothes and headed down to a very nice dinner. Friendly waiter who was very attentive. They even had chicken fingers for my son. There was absolutely nothing on tv so watched Family Man..we've never seen this before and it was cute. Time for lights out since tomorrow morning we leave for the Allure. It was predicted to be sunny, but a cold front was coming in overnight so the temps were going to be only in the low 60's :-(