Return to Allure - A different review.

[BillOh]

I have not been on the Allure since Dec of 2012 but they had minutemaid and powerade but no other flavored juices.

Now they have Dasanti water and you can add flavorings via the button options.

[Peeker28]

Oh yes, I also mentioned we spent much of our first time onboard at the Beach Pool. Below I introduce you to the Godmother of the Beach Pool, my wife Gina. Did I mention she lost 40 pounds since Thanksgiving to get to her goal weight?

Congrats to your beautiful wife, Gina, on her weight loss. It's hard to lose and always easier to gain.

[mchin]

Bill...great review! I was going into roll call withdrawal, so glad to see this thread. :D We really enjoyed meeting everyone from the roll call.

 

I watched the sailaway video and saw you and Gina. The resolution wasn't great, but picked you out and saw the Arizona Cruisers...who were a few cabins down from us.

[BillOh]

I just love being a lurker on some of the Allure reviews. I am jotting down some key points I see given here. Get to pier by 10:30, hot dogs instead of beef sammies. Was the hotel you stayed at hyatt place??? Just curious. Can't wait to read more.

 

 

Specifically Hyatt Pier 66. <Just googling that will get you there. I will probably go back there again.

[tarajean1962]

Oh my gosh!! :D Gina is GORGEOUS!!! Congrats to her on her weight loss!!:cool: Great pics and I can just tell I am going to eat this review for breakfast! Looking forward to more!!

 

 

 

Tara

[BillOh]

Bill...great review! I was going into roll call withdrawal, so glad to see this thread. :D We really enjoyed meeting everyone from the roll call.

 

I watched the sailaway video and saw you and Gina. The resolution wasn't great, but picked you out and saw the Arizona Cruisers...who were a few cabins down from us.

 

 

I couldn't find the video.

[cruiserdudebobby8]

i really liked your review, Thanks for posting

[cosmar]

After a year, the long awaited Oasis sail away was at hand. First I met Rick from Australia.

 

Did I mention I've been married 32 years? :D Of course we were there to see ships. Caribbean Princess was the first to go.

 

Now it was time for the big show. Lady O as Emmy in the web cam thread calls her was about to leave. I had promised the Oasis Roll call pictures of their departure, which I will post, but I hurriedly didn't bring my longest lens. I got some great hi res pictures of Oasis, but no close in personal shots I had hoped for.

 

 

 

This view is worth the price of admission alone! I'll probably post a link to the high res version of this photo. Even my wife, who has laughed at me waiting every sailaway on the webcam for a year enjoyed the view.

 

You mention the price of admission...Is it for access to the beach? From where did you access the beach at last? how much does it cost?

[gambee]

I had previously mentioned it was Rick from Australia's idea to make the Oasis sailaway. He and his family had arrived a couple of days earlier and were staying just up the beach. During our discussion in the months ahead of time I posted what I thought was a good walking route. I am a long distance runner and I use a site called walkjogrun.net to map my routes. I used the site to map what i thought was a good route to get to the sailaway site. Here is what I thought would work best. Thanks to Lou at the portwebcam site for pointing me in the direction of the public beach entrance.

 

This route starts at the Hyatt and it is almost exactly a mile to the rocks on the beach. Its worth noting my route goes due south out of the hotel passed a gas station and working my way over to the sailaway. About the time I posted this in our roll call GAMBEE posted a similar map in his review. Our respective maps start and end at the same place. His map though goes each along 17th Ave till it become Seabreeze to get to Mayan Dr. From there you can figure it out. I initally though my route was better because it avoided 17th and what I perceive as heavy traffic there. Ironically traffic on 17th would play a huge roll in our cruise. But getting back to the route to the Oasis Sailaway I decided to test both routes. Gambee, if you see this, feel free to post your route. Now, the walk down 17th to Seabreaze is safe and has a sidewalk. it also has controlled cross walk to cross the street. Now the real reason my route is better ;). My route has sidewalks 100% of the way to the beach entrance. Gambee's route has about 33% with no sidewalks. Now we made it safely, but safe travel of the area on foot was about to play a huge part of our cruise! :eek:. Either route does get you to the beach entrance. Now to a picture I don't think has ever been posted here. I got to this point and still couldn't find the beach access. I had to ask the guard at the gated community. This has to be one of the most poorly placed signs I have seen.

 

Hello Bill, I just found your review and I am enjoying it can't wait for the rest.

 

Yeah it appears that your route is much better for people walking there, mine is geared towards people in cars, I guess I forgot to mention that in my review :D.

 

 

 

Keep up the good work and congrats to both you and your wife with the weight loss, I seem to be going the other way around since I started cruising :/.

[janetz]

Welcome back Bill...A great review. We are headed to Florida on Friday for our turn this Sunday on the Allure. We will be heading right to the beach pool...We love it! :D

Edited May 8, 2013 by janetz

[cheers]

I'm along for the ride too. It's was nice to see you and Gina again, you both look great.

 

Gina's success story has given David and I a big push to lose before we cruise again. Please thank her for me.

 

When you said hello to me in the stairs I didn't even notice you were there because I was so out of breath from climbing so many flights, that's how out of shape I am.

 

Loving the review even if I was on the same sailing.

[PCWalton1]

Bill,

This is the picture Port Fever has on their website showing the cam location. Looks like you were close. :)

Bill

 

[Arizona Laura]

I was on the same cruise and my husband had the drink package. He loves his Diet Coke. He was really upset with the machines. Either the machine was completely off, out of Diet Coke completely, or even when it was available, it tasted horrible and watery. He ended up going to a bar to get his drink most of the time.

 

I was on the Allure April 28th cruise and I have to say I did not like the machines either due to issues...mainly dripping watery ice when the cup fills. In all dining places including the WJ I showed my sea pass card and the waiter brought me a glass of Coke.

 

Going to read your review like Ginny and relive the cruise. Thanks. Nice meeting you and Gina.

 

Laura

[BillOh]

You mention the price of admission...Is it for access to the beach? From where did you access the beach at last? how much does it cost?

 

There is no admission, that was one of my weaker attempts at humor.

[BillOh]

Welcome back Bill...A great review. We are headed to Florida on Friday for our turn this Sunday on the Allure. We will be heading right to the beach pool...We love it! :D

 

I'm envious, I haven't watched a sailaway since 4/21, I may watch this one.

[BillOh]

I'm along for the ride too. It's was nice to see you and Gina again, you both look great.

 

Gina's success story has given David and I a big push to lose before we cruise again. Please thank her for me.

 

When you said hello to me in the stairs I didn't even notice you were there because I was so out of breath from climbing so many flights, that's how out of shape I am.

 

Loving the review even if I was on the same sailing.

 

There's proof I used the stairs! :D

[BillOh]

We are still on day 1, I'm going to go ahead and take us to dinner. Before dinner and after sailaway we did take the spa tour, even though we had done it before. Our cruise between the two Allure cruise was on Jewel. At the time of our Jewel cruise my arthritis was acting up and I was enticed into buying the Thermal Suite package It was very worth it, and I will be doing so again on Jewel next year. However, the reviews for the same thing on Allure haven't been as good. Reports are that it is too crowded and people ask for refunds due to not getting enough time. I wanted to check that out. They did tell us they limited the number of people, but I'm not sure I believe it. There are only 4 of the warm chairs and they are like in a hallway. It just doesn't seem conducive to relaxation, and I really didn't need it. We passed.

 

Speaking of Jewel, the last thing we did before dinner was stop by the Loyalty Ambassador's desk on deck 6. We had already decided our next cruise was Jewel May 3rd 2014 out of San Juan, our first Southern itinerary. I waited to book so we could get the OBC. I had wanted cabin 9526 (from memory) an aft corner D class with a larger than normal balcony. It was already taken! You Radiance Aft fans are no doubt not surprised. We ended up with a hump balcony on deck 9. I'm sure I'll be happy with that. The LA told us that people who reserved their next cruise were in a drawing for a $300 OBC for the current cruise. I mentally spent that as soon as he told me about it.

 

Off to dinner! We always get the 2nd seating. Usually there are less kids in that seating. This time there were more kids than any other time including one table of 8-10 kids next to us. They were at a table next to their 4 sets of parents. No real problems. They weren't the quietest kids in the world, but they created no real problems. The waiters had their hands full with them, but they weren't our waiters.

 

On the first night we found out table near the front on deck 4. We were at a table for 6 with two other couples close to our age, all native English speakers. I say that to indicate RC did apparently try to group similar peoples together when possible. (my opinion) Let me say I have never had bad tablemates and always look forward to meeting new people at the first dinner. Though I have participated and read the several dinner mate threads we have had here. Couple number 1 from the LA area were very pleasant. Age was never discussed, but conversations would lead you to conclude they were mid to late 50s, possibly pushing 60. (We are 53 and 52 as of now) She looked much younger, you could have convinced me she was under 50. He made a point to know and remember our names and to use them nightly. They were clearly making an effort to be polite and social, but it was done in a way that it appeared genuine. Clearly they like the traditional dining and were willing to make some effort for it to go well The first words out of Couple number 2's mouth was, "We asked for a table for two and didn't get it. (insert pouty face) But I didn't jump to any conclusions as they seemed pleasant enough after that. I think they were from the Chicago area.

 

No pictures, as I don't like to take my camera into the dining room (no problem with those who do) I was anxious to try the Pork Chop on the new menu instead of the hit or miss Prime rib. (The prime rib was not good on Allure in 2011, but the best ever on Jewel 2012) I think this menu was the "Mojo menu" The pork chop has had good reviews here so far. I'm not sure what the Mojo sauce on the pork chop was, but it was ok, I would probably not ask for it, but I was pleased with the pork chop. It was huge and very moist and tasty. A winner! That's it for my dinner review! Our Waiter and Assistant Waiter were good enough. I'd have many better, but nothing really bad about them. The waiter was from India, and the Assistant waiter, "Princess" was from that country that Douglas McArthur vowed to return to and I can never spell right

 

Our only official plans for the remainder of night one (It was now around 10pm) was to watch the Oceanaria show from "our balcony". We did not reserve the show this time. I loved the show, but in one of my uncharacteristic unselfish acts, I didn't book it just because I wanted to leave room for someone else. My tips for Oceanaria. Reserve it for the first night. They only show it early in the week and that leaves time to reschedule if the show has to be canceled. On the Eastern Itinerary the ship is headed to Nassau and its in no hurry to get there so the ship is going slow lessening any movement of the ship. My next tip it to get there very early even with a reservation as seating is limited and desirable seating is very limited. Some seats are in a splash area or just not comfortable. They will fill in all the seats eventually. My final tip, for the first time see it from the main audience area not from the balcony where I was about to watch it for the 2nd time. The show is highly choreographed to be visually pleasing to the audience. Seeing it from the 12th deck balcony allows you to see a little more behind the scenes and how its done. That was fun for me. I'll post some pics of the show tonight from home. These were all taken without flash I'll add to the oblivious.

[Cricket2010]

Congrats on your weight loss! Can't wait to read more of your review. Someday maybe we will sail on Allure or Oasis.

[BillOh]

..have you heard the calls from that horrible situation with the kidnapped women there in OH? The poor woman needs someone just to empathize and calm her down...she's just been released from a madmans house after 10 years! I understand protocol, but it sounds terribly insensitive! If you have not heard the news Bill, check it out when you get home! Glad those ladies are alive...what an ordeal!

 

Sorry to get OT! Back to the exciting Allure!

 

Ps hope you are not minding us popping in with advice etc!

 

 

I don't know if you heard there were 2 calls. The call from the guy who found Amanda, and it rightfully being called a hero, is an example of how not to call 911. While doing the right thing he was a bit of a dumb @ss. He was too busy trying to be cool and establish a "Hey I'm cool!" relationship with the 911 operator. He filled his conversation with lots of useless unrelated info, for which McDonald's is probably greatful, but clouded the real information. His words were also laced with profanity. I could feel the operator's frustration with him.

[BillOh]

Congrats on your weight loss! Can't wait to read more of your review. Someday maybe we will sail on Allure or Oasis.

 

Enjoy Freedom, I hope to return to her as she is one of my favorites.

[tarajean1962]

This is better than the morning newspaper!:D

 

Tara

[trev71]

One small tip on the Freestyle machines. I have heard the cups have an RFID chip in them. That technology is supposed to be good enough to easily pick up the info, but at the place you put your cup is a steel circle. Your cup must be in almost the exact center for the machine to register it. If you hold it up at all, or a piece of ice falls under the cup, it won't be red. Not a difficult process to master, it did slow things down just a little on the first day. I was very forgiving of people the first day. Watching people walk around in sheer awe of their surroundings is fun.

 

Thanks for the tip Bill. Getting ancy to go away now :rolleyes:

[Cruz77]

:thumbup:

[BillOh]

Yeah it appears that your route is much better for people walking there, mine is geared towards people in cars, I guess I forgot to mention that in my review :D.

 

Your absolutely right, i didn't think of that. One member of our roll call group tried to drive and couldn't find a place to park. I knew it was an issue so we walked. Walking there was part of the reason I chose the Hyatt as well.

Edited May 8, 2013 by BillOh

[janetz]

I'm envious, I haven't watched a sailaway since 4/21, I may watch this one.

 

 

I watched yours! :D We may just pop into a hot tub for sail away this time. Not sure yet. [/size]

Edited May 8, 2013 by janetz