Allure ots picture review 10-19-2014

[sed610]

Hi All,

I have decided to try a review after getting great information from so many other CC members.

We sailed on the Allure on 10-19, Western Itinerary out of FLL. This was also our first time with Royal.

 

A little bit about ourselves: I am 23 and DH is 26. I have sailed Carnival and NCL in the past, my husband has only been on NCL. On NCL we had an inside room and said we would NEVER do an inside again! We loved the cruise, but we learned that we kind of hate being around everyone else when trying to relax. We booked a balcony room this time and enjoyed the quiet time to ourselves so much that we will never do less than a balcony.

 

The past year has been very hectic for us, so we were ready for a very relaxing vacation. I had been planning this vacation since Black Friday last year. :D

 

We love to eat all different kinds of food, and it was my goal to try and get to every food venue on Allure (at least every free option). I took pictures of everything we ate, so you will probably end up seeing way too many food pictures. On our vacations we focus on relaxation, entertainment, and food. So, if you are a foodie this is the review for you. Also I will have a lot of input on the nightly shows and the ship in general. What we didn't participate so much in was the daytime activities and shore excursions. Hopefully I will still have some very useful info to put out here on CC.

 

We flew down a day early, and I'm so glad we did. I will include some information about FLL, but not too much as this is a cruise review. I figure a little about FLL may be helpful to those looking to do the same port/cruise.

 

I am new to posting pictures so hopefully this works:

 

 

This was our room at the Sleep Inn & Suites.

Edited November 1, 2014 by sed610

[sed610]

We flew out of Pittsburgh and had a layover in Atlanta before reaching FLL. We flew Delta and have no complaints.

 

Upon reaching FLL baggage claim I called Sleep Inn for our free hotel shuttle. By the time we got our luggage and got outside to the shuttle stop we waited maybe 10 minutes before being picked up. Nice air conditioned van, and it was about a 10 minute drive to the hotel. I was able to book this hotel for about $80 so I thought it was a good deal, and there was a Walgreens right in front of it for anything we might need. There were also some restaurants across the street but we ended up ordering pizza to the room because I was so tired.

 

One note about the Walgreens - they are beer ONLY! I was so disappointed because I wanted to bring 2 bottles of cheap wine or champagne with us for the room! Every Walgreens I have ever been to has had both. But, this store was still great for sunglasses and an electric shaver for DH which we forgot.

 

The Sleep Inn was comfortable and clean. The shuttle to Port Everglades was $5pp, and we were able to get on the Shuttle for 10AM - even when we didn't get to the hotel until after 5PM the night before.

 

Here is the pool/hot tub area at the hotel:

Edited November 1, 2014 by sed610

[spearmint]

We are on Allure next weekend and I am interested in what you have to say. So far, so good. Keep it up.:)

 

bill

[h20cruzer]

Love it, keep up your posting and pics. I am sure you will do a great job!!

Norma

[sed610]

I had originally booked room 12680, an Oceanview Balcony. I picked this room for ease of access to the "secret balcony" (large aft PUBLIC balcony at the end of the deck for those who still haven't heard), it was pretty close to the elevators, and seemed like an overall decent location with staterooms above and below.

 

A few weeks before the cruise, prices had dropped A LOT. I realized that we couldn't get any OBC for it, so I became obsessed with figuring out how to get an upgrade. We were first-timers with Royal, so no Crown & Anchor status to help us out.

 

We had some issues with trying to upgrade that I'm not sure if they were because of our specific travel agent or not. It was going to be $250pp to upgrade to a JS. I wasn't sure that we wanted to pay the extra money but I inquired anyways. Our TA said that we would lose our "free perks" such as free specialty dining because of upgrading. She said this was because this upgrade was a special sale that didn't go along with our perks. I was very irritated about this but just gave up and figured we would save the money.

 

I then found out that I could "upgrade" to a D1 balcony guarantee, which is the larger balconies on the first "hump" of the ship. We figured that there weren't any really "bad" locations on the hump. We found out about 5 days before the trip that we were assigned to a JUNIOR SUITE on deck 7! So, I was ecstatic - we got the upgrade to JS without paying anything extra!

 

This room was awesome! I will post more pictures of it later in the story. Unfortunately this won't happen to everyone, but it is proof that even a first-timer can get an upgrade! Just keep an eye on those price drops.

 

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Can't wait to read your review! Thanks for taking the time do it!

[Lionesss]

Hey neighbor................very nice start.

 

Enjoying the review.

 

Keep it coming

 

Sea Ya

[sed610]

We took the 10AM shuttle, which ended up leaving about 10:15 and at the port about 10:30. We gave the porter our 3 bags, tipped him $5 (which he seemed happy with, sometimes I hear stories of porters saying "this isn't enough"), and waited until he put our luggage on the cart to leave the area.

 

As we started walking toward doors for check-in, I saw a frosted glass door that said "SUITES"....I leerily opened the door thinking surely it would be locked or I would be yelled at for coming in. I knew we had a JS but I felt like we didn't belong there :eek:

 

We walked in and there was security with no line...went through easily and headed towards the check-in. Here was our wait line:

 

 

I know everyone says that check-in for the allure is quick & easy, but this was still awesome being in the "special" line. We got a questionnaire about if we had been to Africa or had been sick in the past few days, we showed passport & credit card, and were off to the suite lounge.

 

 

The suite lounge was a nice touch. I thought there might have been refreshments in this area, but that's OK. Usually boarding starts at 11:30 but for some reason we were delayed until about noon.

[sed610]

We are now on the ship! The suite lounge was the first to board, and it was almost creepy how the ship was so empty at first! Our plan was to head straight to Giovanni's for lunch. We got to Central Park and they had walls up at the entrance that said they were closed! We stood there for a minute trying to figure out what we would go do instead, and then they opened!

 

 

 

 

 

View from our table @ Giovanni's

 

Empty Giovanni's, such a peaceful lunch

[lemonade-sails]

Great pictures! Waiting for more :D!

[gaiamother]

Loving this so far:). Thanks so much for sharing, we're on Allure in December!! T

[Jenhem31]

7 days to go and we are on Allure! Can't wait for the rest of the review!

 

 

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[lauren0309]

Looking forward to more of the review. 2 more weeks for me!

[joanh]

There was a Publix store across from the Sleep Inn in the mini mall that sold wine and hard liquor as well as beer when we were last there in 2012.

[Grandma Petania]

There was a Publix store across from the Sleep Inn in the mini mall that sold wine and hard liquor as well as beer when we were last there in 2012.

My younger daughter and I stayed at the Sleep Inn before our Nov. 2013 cruise, and we ate dinner in our room - bought at the deli in Publix. She also shopped for a few things at the nearby Dollar Store. We thought the hotel was fine, and good location. The family I live with - (older daughter, son-in-law & grandson) and I are sailing the Oasis in Feb. 2015. I made reservations at the Sleep Inn again, and I hope they will prove just as satisfactory. The complimentary breakfast was nothing special, but we'll be eating lunch onboard, so it really doesn't matter.

 

One really big plus for us about this Sleep Inn is the complimentary shuttle from the airport. DSIL is in a wheelchair, and because the hotel provides the complimentary shuttle for able bodied people, they are required by law to pay for a wheelchair shuttle for him - saving us having to pay for one from the airport. I wish they had a complimentary shuttle to the pier, but I guess we'll have to spring for that with a wheelchair accessible taxi/shuttle.

[sed610]

There was a Publix store across from the Sleep Inn in the mini mall that sold wine and hard liquor as well as beer when we were last there in 2012.

 

 

I am not 100% sure of this, as we didn't go looking for the Publix, but every current review I read said that the Publix moved down the road so not within easy walking distance anymore.

 

 

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[sed610]

I will be back this evening to continue the story.

 

 

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[sed610]

Giovanni's Lunch was my favorite lunch of the entire week. I wish we would have went a second time!

 

 

 

We had Albert from the Philippines as our server - he was great and was willing to get us whatever we wanted. I had previously posted on CC wondering if it was possible to try an entree and a pasta here, and I got varied responses. Albert made sure we were taken care of!

 

Bread w/ balsamic and olive oil

 

Our appetizers - fried calamari, shrimp, fish and margherita pizza.

The calamari was the BEST I have ever had! The shrimp were great as well. The fish wasn't my favorite. The pizza was just normal tomato sauce & cheese, it was decent but just tasted kind of plain and not so much authentic Italian.

 

Jumbo shrimp - these were good, but a little different than shrimp I am used to. These were soft and kind of flaky texture, kind of like fish but still had the shrimp flavor. Pretty good but I'm glad DH and I also got to share the lasagna.

 

This lasagna was amazing! It's only served at lunch (and sometimes you can special request if you have an early dinner) - so don't miss it!

[sed610]

My husband had the chicken stuffed with risotto

 

He said it was very good.

 

Time for dessert!

Flourless chocolate tart and chocolate hazelnut cannoli. The chocolate tart was pretty good, I didn't like the cannoli (I think I just don't care for them in general)

 

Some type of pudding w/ fruit, DH said it was awesome, and of course tiramisu. We shared this huge scoop of tiramisu, and it was very good.

 

We had pre-ordered the pop package, and going to Giovanni's was our first instance of being able to get Coke so easily. We didn't have our souvenir cups yet, but I knew from other CC reviews that we should be able to get pop anywhere no problem without the special cup. Our waiter had no problem getting us multiple drinks. On NCL a few years ago we had to have the cup everywhere and it got really annoying.

 

Another thing to note about specialty dining - when you are done, they bring you the check just like you would get at a land restaurant. We were able to leave a tip on the seapass card instead of leaving cash. I never read this on CC prior to sailing and I thought that this was really nice to not have to worry about a cash tip.

 

When we were done with Giovanni's we went to go check out our room :D So excited for the junior suite!

[Jenhem31]

I'm so glad you liked Giovanni's! We are on Allure Sunday and would like to eat lunch there. I'm not able to make a reservation online so I'm making a beeline to it as soon as we board. Hopefully we will be able to eat there for lunch that day.

 

 

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[sed610]

I'm so glad you liked Giovanni's! We are on Allure Sunday and would like to eat lunch there. I'm not able to make a reservation online so I'm making a beeline to it as soon as we board. Hopefully we will be able to eat there for lunch that day.

 

 

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You will definitely be able to eat lunch there! Giovanni's had maybe 3 other families dining in there by the time we left about 1. Plenty of space! And we were able to see from our window how packed the park cafe got...

 

 

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[sharktums]

We also ate lunch at Giovanni's on embarkation day on your cruise! Hopefully we were there after you or didn't annoy you too much as we were a big group of 10. By the time we left it was only officers eating in the restaurant. Last year they did the consecutive cruiser lunch in Allure for lunch and they were turning people away. So it does seem like you have a good chance of getting in, but if there's some sort of travel agent lunch or consecutive cruiser lunch it may be trickier.

[sed610]

We also ate lunch at Giovanni's on embarkation day on your cruise! Hopefully we were there after you or didn't annoy you too much as we were a big group of 10. By the time we left it was only officers eating in the restaurant. Last year they did the consecutive cruiser lunch in Allure for lunch and they were turning people away. So it does seem like you have a good chance of getting in, but if there's some sort of travel agent lunch or consecutive cruiser lunch it may be trickier.

 

Yes I do remember seeing a large group all the way across the restaurant! :D

 

The only thing that disturbed us at all during our lunch was a couple RCCL high ups eating at a table close to ours - the one guy was so loud, and kept talking about how they were trying to make more money with some different strategies. I understand RCCL is in business to make a profit, but it was weird hearing them talk about customers and doing test runs of strategies to see if they would make more money, and we are the customers...

I would like to suggest to RCCL that they have these conversations more privately!

Edited November 4, 2014 by sed610

[sed610]

Junior Suite 7632:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PathfinderEss]

Thanks for your report and great photo's.