Cheapo dad’s trip report on Allure of the Seas sailing December 14, 2014

[harryfat1]

So the original grand pre planning idea was to go swimming after lunch as many of the people should still be off of the ship and the pool area won’t be as crowded. Looking outside the windjammer, we saw this.

 

 

 

 

Ehh, not exactly suntan lotion/swimming weather, is it? It’s not supposed to rain on my vacation. Others, yes, I care not, but not on my vacation where I spent big $$ and tons of planning time. Sigh!

 

OK, fine, so we headed back to the cabins and the family played cards for a while and I went to the back secret balcony to take pictures of the big storm now dumping buckets of rain on Falmouth. This was when I took all the miniature pictures as I had time to kill in the driving rain storm.

 

So we are back in the cabin and my son and my wife tried to video tape and take pictures of the driving rain storm. I know what most people are thing – this family is super weird. They act like they have never seen rain before. Hey, we are from California where we have a drought and rain is a rare event for us so to us it’s a big deal.

 

 

[harryfat1]

View of Falmouth through the aft opening. Whatever beach the models from the TV screen down there is at, I know it’s not anywhere near Falmouth as it was pouring rain at this time

 

 

Zero activity going on below on the boardwalk in the rain

 

 

 

My neighbors across the way is feeling the same – just sit out and watch the rain come down

 

 

Picture of the family playing cards to pass the time

 

[harryfat1]

I then headed out to the secret balcony down the hallway to take few pics. Some I have already shown previously when I was talking about miniatures but I will show few more here to complete the story telling

 

Pics of the secret balcony

 

 

Going the other way. Note this is deck 14, smallest of the 3 secret balconies. 11 and 12 ae bigger in size as they are smaller as you get higher.

 

 

Looks wet to me. Coconut man not getting much business in this weather.

 

 

With the rain clouds, can’t see far onto the other side

 

 

Not much activity going on in the square with the rain

 

 

Took this picture across the square at 35X zoom looking into the balconies of the Independence. No idea who these people are. They look as excited as me watching the rain and the people down below running in the rain

 

[idamae3218]

Yes, we had real ice cream as well on our previous Celebrity and HAL cruises. I understand for cost reasons why RCI and Carnival don't have the better ice cream at the buffet, but if RCI is going to have a basic no frills soft cone ice cream/fro yo machine on some parts of the ship, it just makes sense to have one inside the buffet as well.

 

Not asking them to change their ice cream policy/cost structure to include better ones, just asking for 1 more machine inside the windjammer.

 

Norwegian Breakaway has hand dipped (by a staff member) ice cream in their buffet. They're much cheaper than Royal. How do they manage it?

 

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[harryfat1]

Norwegian Breakaway has hand dipped (by a staff member) ice cream in their buffet. They're much cheaper than Royal. How do they manage it?

 

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Not having sailed on NCL Breakaway myself, I can't comment on their ice cream and on their food cost structure. But assuming your premise is correct that NCL is cheaper than Royal, than as an accountant, I would say they cut back on other areas in the food court in order to make up for the ice cream.

 

Perhaps lower quality meat in buffets/MDR? I know for sure that for breakfast in Windjammer that RCI has something I like - salmons and capers. That's not exactly cheap and not all cruise ships have them so in some areas, the ships can splurge and others they cut back. If you don't eat salmon and/or ice cream, you care not for these upgrades or cut backs.

 

I am sure others that have sailed on both NCL and RCI can address this better than me.

[FMZ]

Loving the review and your humor!

 

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[SeaHunt]

Hi Harry, we were on the same cruise with friends, and I am having a lot of fun reading your review and reliving our great week! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

 

I keep looking through your photos to see if I can spot any of us in the background. I thought for sure I'd see our husbands sitting patiently outside a jewelry store in Falmouth, waiting for us to quit shopping. I think the girls hit every shop, and the guys hit every bench!

 

Re ice cream - I just wanted to add that the Windjammer did have hand scooped vanilla ice cream every night, with various sauces, whipped cream, etc. It was right beside the station that had the bread pudding, fruit crumbles, etc. (something different every night). Can you see where I am going with this? You fill your bowl with, let's say, warm chocolate crumble then have them scoop a big scoop of ice cream and then toppings - oh yum :D

 

By the way, my husband liked that ice cream so much that he asked who made it, and they told him it said "San Bernardino, California" on the tub. No doubt some of those contented California dairy cows at work. Give them a big thumbs up if you ever pass their way LOL.

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry, we were on the same cruise with friends, and I am having a lot of fun reading your review and reliving our great week! Thanks for taking the time to post it!

 

I keep looking through your photos to see if I can spot any of us in the background. I thought for sure I'd see our husbands sitting patiently outside a jewelry store in Falmouth, waiting for us to quit shopping. I think the girls hit every shop, and the guys hit every bench!

 

Re ice cream - I just wanted to add that the Windjammer did have hand scooped vanilla ice cream every night, with various sauces, whipped cream, etc. It was right beside the station that had the bread pudding, fruit crumbles, etc. (something different every night). Can you see where I am going with this? You fill your bowl with, let's say, warm chocolate crumble then have them scoop a big scoop of ice cream and then toppings - oh yum :D

 

By the way, my husband liked that ice cream so much that he asked who made it, and they told him it said "San Bernardino, California" on the tub. No doubt some of those contented California dairy cows at work. Give them a big thumbs up if you ever pass their way LOL.

 

Thanks for the kind words. Now when you said “ice cream at night”, are you saying you went to the 6:15 PM to 9 PM casual dinner at the windjammer? We only ate at the MDR for dinner so I didn’t know what was served at the windjammer at night time.

 

I know inside the MDR they had scooped ice cream both during lunch and dinner as we had those. Good to know they had scooped ice cream at dinner.

 

Interesting they used ice cream from California on a cruise sailing out of FL. You would think they get the local ones to save on the transportation costs?

 

Guess you folks visited the uncle in prison frequently during the Falmouth stop (aka shopping). Hope you folks enjoyed your cruise as much as we did.

 

One last side note, I was watching YouTube over the weekend for a new camera review (not that cheapo me would spring for a new one annually but I like to see what new technology are out for cameras) and they had a Princess ad in there and the first 5 seconds of the commercial had surfing and rock climbing and carousel and then asked the question – You don’t like floating amusement park cruises? Come sail with us instead as we offer a more refined cruising experience.

 

Guess whom/what class ship that was intended to attack? Had to laugh out loud when I saw it.

[harryfat1]

Time for the miniatures again

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, one last one of the pool in Margaritaville

 

 

Here is the zoomed in view of the waterfall using normal filter

 

 

This area is supposed to be the “party place” at Falmouth as I can hear the DJ & music blasting away even up here on deck 14 far away. With the pouring rain, they had to move the party inside (see the 2 covered areas with my very non-professional sucky free hand drawing) I can see some people dancing by the bar but they are somewhat limited on what they can do inside the area and not come out by the pool.

 

 

After enough pictures of the wet people from below, headed back to the cabin so see what the rest of the clan wants to do

 

 

[harryfat1]

Since we still had a few more items left on the small wonders, we headed out to check them off and be done with the project. In hindsight, I should have made my way down to central park and use one of their umbrellas to walk all the way across the park in the pouring rain.

 

Hey, how often do you get to walk inside the ship with an umbrella and tell people you got rained on from the inside? Didn’t think of that. Never entered my mind that we would have rain on the cruise. So if you encounter rain on your next Oasis/Allure cruise, be sure to go down to CP and use the umbrella. No, don’t even try to take them home. Too long to fit into suitcase…

 

Oh, before heading out, I realized that I had not taken any pictures inside cabin area so here some pics of the boys' cabin in case anyone is interested.

 

Note with this configuration of the sofa closer to the balcony door, the sofa itself is longer than the other configuration next door

 

 

Here you see in the infamous spreadsheet that I provided for the boys to know what was planned for the day. Let’s just say things didn’t go exactly as planned. Cheapo dad never wrote in – pouring bucket rain in Falmouth and here is plan B

 

 

TV has rerun loops on what major events happened the previous day on the ship. That's the cruise director in the middle. He's all right. Not the best.

 

[idamae3218]

Not having sailed on NCL Breakaway myself, I can't comment on their ice cream and on their food cost structure. But assuming your premise is correct that NCL is cheaper than Royal, than as an accountant, I would say they cut back on other areas in the food court in order to make up for the ice cream.

 

Perhaps lower quality meat in buffets/MDR? I know for sure that for breakfast in Windjammer that RCI has something I like - salmons and capers. That's not exactly cheap and not all cruise ships have them so in some areas, the ships can splurge and others they cut back. If you don't eat salmon and/or ice cream, you care not for these upgrades or cut backs.

 

I am sure others that have sailed on both NCL and RCI can address this better than me.

 

I have been on Royal 6 times, from Monarch to Oasis, every class. Norwegian 2 times. Once over 15 years ago, the 2nd Breakaway in 2013. It's a nice ship. I didn't like freestyle dining, but the food was good in restaurants & buffet. I thought besides that & ship not designed well to leave a cold weather port (NY), it only lacked little things, like cabin steward didn't call me by name, otherwise it compares to Royal for about 1/2 the price, sometimes less. I like Royal's ships, the mdr experience & the service. But with the mdr changing on Oasis, (glad it's delayed), it's getting harder to differentiate.

 

Soon I fear the differences will be negligible, but the price difference significant. Paying for the name more than anything else. Not yet, but soon.

 

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[tomko2]

Hi, Kathy,

 

Thanks for the compliment. By the end of the report, I will have run out bad family members to talk about so don’t think anyone else will want to read after that.

 

Will be interesting to see what type of art they display at the small wonders on the Oasis. Hopefully you won’t get a blank look from the worker on the other side.

 

I just glanced back at all 7 days of the daily compass and they had the water show on days 3 and 6 at 10:30 PM so pencil those time slots in for now but obviously check the time on your cruise. They couldn’t do it on days 1 & 2 because the second water show didn’t start until 10:45 so they can’t do a fountain show that night as it would be too late. Day 3’s second water show started earlier at 9:30 so they can have the fountain show not too long after that. Other nights they show a late movie at the aqua theater.

 

We stayed at the Bellagio for Christmas back in 2012. Cheapo dad was too cheap to spring for a water view room. We saw the back of the hotel/pool/freeway instead. For the holidays, Bellagio has a special set of Christmas theme music so it’s a different experience to stand there on Christmas eve to listen to the holiday music. Here are few pictures from that trip in case anyone is wondering what we are talking about – taken on my wife’s old iPhone as we didn’t want to walk around Vegas with a big SLR drapping over our necks.

 

For those who thinks the Allure is too big & too crowded, wait until you got to Vegas during the holiday season. The long line to get into the Bellagio buffet was estimated to be 2.5 hours just to stand and wait. I much prefer the Allure experience.

 

Have a great cruise in December.

 

 

 

 

Harry, your review is simply wonderful. Hope you can download and keep a copy for your family to look back at years from now.

Before we retired, we would fly to Vegas 2 - 3 times a year, our favourite hotels were Encore, Bellagio and Venetian with great affection always for the Flamingo. Now we spend the winters in Naples, Florida -- less than 2 hours away from Port Everglades so we go on 3 cruises a year. We have always espoused a "best value" approach to our trips and travel. I took accounting at University and used it often in my work so I like spreadsheets and analysis.

Hopefully your children are learning the importance of this from you. It is not being cheap, it is achieving best value for your money.:)

Leaving Monday on the Liberty of the Seas - 5 nights.

Keep writing and posting those awesome photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Kathy

Edited January 21, 2015 by tomko2

[karebare22]

Well, I was up very late last night because I just couldn't stop reading your trip report! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We are sailing on Oasis in March on the same itinerary. Besides the fabulous photos, I especially appreciate all the small details and tips you've provided (eg best ways to avoid the crowds returning to the ship in Labadee, how early to arrive for the Captains reception and the best place to sit...near the servers ;), the details about the procession of the parade, your breakfast room service experience etc). I'm going to go back to the beginning of your report and re-read it (with pleasure!) but this time I'll take careful notes! I've also borrowed your Excel schedule, I like the format a lot more than the one I was using :D My question...I was surprised by your comment that the sofas were different sizes in your cabin vs your sons. Were they both sofa beds? We have a boardwalk balcony cabin 9729 booked for our family of 4 (yes, we are cheapo too!) and hoping the kids will have the larger sofa bed since I believe our cabin will have the same configuration with the sofa near the balcony.

How I wish we were able to experience the secret balconies, maybe we'll have to cruise on Allure soon too!

Karen

[AlanAllyn]

My question...I was surprised by your comment that the sofas were different sizes in your cabin vs your sons. Were they both sofa beds? We have a boardwalk balcony cabin 9729 booked for our family of 4 (yes, we are cheapo too!) and hoping the kids will have the larger sofa bed since I believe our cabin will have the same configuration with the sofa near the balcony.

 

Karen

All cabins on the Oasis/Allure with accommodations for more than 2 have the sofa by the balcony.

[harryfat1]

Hi, Kathy,

 

Thanks for the compliment. By the end of the report, I will have run out bad family members to talk about so don’t think anyone else will want to read after that.

 

Will be interesting to see what type of art they display at the small wonders on the Oasis. Hopefully you won’t get a blank look from the worker on the other side.

 

I just glanced back at all 7 days of the daily compass and they had the water show on days 3 and 6 at 10:30 PM so pencil those time slots in for now but obviously check the time on your cruise. They couldn’t do it on days 1 & 2 because the second water show didn’t start until 10:45 so they can’t do a fountain show that night as it would be too late. Day 3’s second water show started earlier at 9:30 so they can have the fountain show not too long after that. Other nights they show a late movie at the aqua theater.

 

We stayed at the Bellagio for Christmas back in 2012. Cheapo dad was too cheap to spring for a water view room. We saw the back of the hotel/pool/freeway instead. For the holidays, Bellagio has a special set of Christmas theme music so it’s a different experience to stand there on Christmas eve to listen to the holiday music. Here are few pictures from that trip in case anyone is wondering what we are talking about – taken on my wife’s old iPhone as we didn’t want to walk around Vegas with a big SLR drapping over our necks.

 

For those who thinks the Allure is too big & too crowded, wait until you got to Vegas during the holiday season. The long line to get into the Bellagio buffet was estimated to be 2.5 hours just to stand and wait. I much prefer the Allure experience.

 

Have a great cruise in December.

 

 

 

 

Harry, your review is simply wonderful. Hope you can download and keep a copy for your family to look back at years from now.

Before we retired, we would fly to Vegas 2 - 3 times a year, our favourite hotels were Encore, Bellagio and Venetian with great affection always for the Flamingo. Now we spend the winters in Naples, Florida -- less than 2 hours away from Port Everglades so we go on 3 cruises a year. We have always espoused a "best value" approach to our trips and travel. I took accounting at University and used it often in my work so I like spreadsheets and analysis.

Hopefully your children are learning the importance of this from you. It is not being cheap, it is achieving best value for your money.:)

Leaving Monday on the Liberty of the Seas - 5 nights.

Keep writing and posting those awesome photos.

Thanks for sharing.

Kathy

 

Hi, Kathy,

 

I typically create in Shutterfly a specific web page for every vacation we have taken and then upload all the pictures in there and then write down a day by day journal info that describes the pictures. That site has more pictures (lots more) than what I uploaded here but less descriptions and no references to the crazy aunts as my relatives do read that. But they don’t care about the nuisances of the cruise travel that only the folks here on cc would appreciate.

 

Vegas has gotten so crowded the last few years that it’s less fun to go there now. There are lines everywhere, much longer than the Allure line by far.

 

Wow, a 5 day cruise in the off season. I would I could do something like that to get the good value for the dollar. I have at least 6 plus years to go before even dreaming of a January cruise. Have a wonderful cruise. I have a feeling I will still be slogging away on this tome by time you come back…

[harryfat1]

Well, I was up very late last night because I just couldn't stop reading your trip report! Thank you so much for taking the time to do this. We are sailing on Oasis in March on the same itinerary. Besides the fabulous photos, I especially appreciate all the small details and tips you've provided (eg best ways to avoid the crowds returning to the ship in Labadee, how early to arrive for the Captains reception and the best place to sit...near the servers ;), the details about the procession of the parade, your breakfast room service experience etc). I'm going to go back to the beginning of your report and re-read it (with pleasure!) but this time I'll take careful notes! I've also borrowed your Excel schedule, I like the format a lot more than the one I was using :D My question...I was surprised by your comment that the sofas were different sizes in your cabin vs your sons. Were they both sofa beds? We have a boardwalk balcony cabin 9729 booked for our family of 4 (yes, we are cheapo too!) and hoping the kids will have the larger sofa bed since I believe our cabin will have the same configuration with the sofa near the balcony.

How I wish we were able to experience the secret balconies, maybe we'll have to cruise on Allure soon too!

Karen

 

Hi, Karen,

 

Thanks for the compliment. I guess I am responsible for you drinking extra strong coffee this morning in trying to wake up after staying up late. You have plenty of time to prepare for your cruise. No need to read everything at once.

 

I wrote this more or less for my “evil twin” out there somewhere that likes to research info prior to the vacation and try to seek out that 0.001% extra benefit in knowing some of these small details. As a corporate tax CPA, part of my job is to research esoteric tax situations online and write up various blah blah reports, minus the reference to the crazy aunt in the basement. So this report just an extension of that occupational hazard as I have to be detailed in my info and find enough materials (e.g. photos) to support my thesis.

 

I see someone has already answered your question about the sofa placement. So you guys have the much coveted XX729 cabin. Originally I booked us in the 12729 cabin (quad) as that was also at the end and access to secret balcony and if you see the “diamond” symbol in the PDF attached (I only have the Allure deck plan handy but you can find Oasis online easily), it has bunk bed and sofa bed as well so that my younger one was going to sleep on the top (which he loves to do in previous cruises).

 

Depending on the size of your kids, 2 of them sharing a sofa bed for the entire cruise may not be that comfortable. You can see that my older one is taller than me and even a cheapo dad in me would feel guilty making him sleep on sofa bed for 7 nights if the price gap isn't that big.

 

Not sure if other cabins with diamond shapes are still available for your cruise but you may or may not want to switch over to one of those – assuming no price difference. But you will likely lose the premium aqua theater view.

 

We started with cabin 12729 but switched over to 2 connecting cabins in central park view as we wanted the extra bathroom/more space and it was cheaper to switch. We gave up the balcony but gain an extra bedroom and a bathroom – you will appreciate the extra bathroom on formal nights when everyone is trying to get ready.

 

After we made the final payment, I was still checking the price regularly and then saw RCI was having a clearance sale to sell their cabins so we scrambled back over to 2 connecting boardwalk balcony view cabins and only had to pay $20 extra per person compared to the CP view with no balcony. So the lesson here is keep checking prices even after you made final payment, you can still move to a new cabin and just pay the price difference and if the higher price cabin comes down in price, you are much better off.

 

I am posting this connecting cabin picture again – if you can find 2 connecting cabins, such as 9711/9713, without paying a big cost premium, I would suggest that over one quad cabin. You can still watch the aqua show from your cabins, maybe the view isn’t perfect but you get to have double the space and with the inside door open and outside balcony partition removed, you get a double balcony to stretch out.

 

 

Have a wonderful cruise in March.

al_deck09_v2013_sep.pdf

al_deck12_v2013_sep.pdf

[harryfat1]

So we headed out to the front part of the ship in search of the few remaining small wonders left on our list. On the way, saw this by the elevator shaft. Need to find a bean counter to count how many objects are displayed here as part of the trivia contest.

 

Hey, I am available. Just hire me for a week and I will count for you.

 

 

Saw this photo at one of the staircases. Thought it was interesting. I am sure you might feel otherwise. Art/photos are pretty subjective.

 

 

Saw one on the list way outside in the rain standing by itself

 

 

 

Description blurred out by the rain droplets

 

 

This one by central park is much easier to get to in the rain

 

[harryfat1]

Pic of the family from above as they walk around searching for small wonders. The younger one is holding the magic list of small wonders in his left hand. You also get an interesting glimpse of central park through the glass, where we will be tomorrow morning for the gardening tour

 

 

As we were walking around up and down the hallway, saw this door of the suite. Notice how different it is compared to regular ones us peasants have? First of all, you don't have a next door neighbor to share a side by side entrance. You big old door dominates the entire opening. Second, the door trim is darker wood trim color and final thing is you have a special doorbell instead of people banging and knocking on your door to get your attention. Ahhhh, good to be rich.

 

 

So we explored the ship until everything on the small wonder list was checked off and we headed off to Royal Promenade.

 

Time stamp on this picture was 4:43 PM. No crowd to speak of at that time. Note the cabin windows above on the right? Those are the Promenade view cabins. We had those while at the Mariner and loved them when the kids were younger but for this cruise, we wanted something different. Also note on the Oasis class ship, there are very few PR view cabins compared to the Voyager/Freedom class which are lined by 3 decks of these PR view cabins. On Oasis class, only one deck (7) has them.

 

 

 

 

People relaxing by the twin trees at the Starbucks area

 

[harryfat1]

At the central part of the Promenade, the 70’s disco line dance were in full swing gearing up for the big street party tonight. Of course we couldn’t just walk past the café without an obligatory rest stop for snacks and drinks.

 

Y-M-C-A. Or as my coworker friend said after his wife had few drinks, she’s just stuck at the Y part so it becomes Y-Y-Y-Y as she can’t move her arms after the first letter…

 

 

 

All free food here in case anyone is wondering. Cheapo dad wouldn’t pay extra for food on cruise.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

One thing about taking so many pictures is afterward, especially now when it’s basically one month after the fact, I don’t remember on some pictures why I took it (too many brain cell have died since the Christmas and New Year parties). Like this one for example, no idea why I took this picture other than to show the glass elevator?

 

 

Speaking of elevators, did I talk about elevator bank placement? I don’t think so. But ignore this if I already did. Some cruise ships have 3 sets of elevators. One toward the front part, another a little past the middle and the last one toward the aft. Royal ships only have 2 sets. One toward the front and the rear one is kind of a hybrid area between where the 2 banks would be for the other ships.

 

If you spend most of your time in the front of the ship, you care not about the aft elevators. Only difference would be for those of us near the back as we would need to walk further to get to the rear aft banks of elevators than if we were on the other ships. Once getting there, it’s not an issue as Royal has extra elevators, 6 on each port and starboard side for total of 12 so plenty of them around. Part of the reason for the elevator placement on the Oasis class ships is they can’t have aft elevators because that’s where the aqua theater/boardwalk is. For most part, it’s not a big deal but if you have some mobility issue, but sure to avoid the end aft cabins like the ones we had or else you will have long hikes to the elevators.

 

Speaking of elevators, here are couple more pics taken inside the elevator.

 

I like the little curved recessed area on every deck for people to walk out and take a picture/stand to look around. RCI has these on many decks on the Allure and I recall them on the Mariner as well. Not all ships have these but they should. I like pictures of people standing on one deck doing their thing and immediately above/below them, someone else is doing theirs, as in this picture

 

 

[harryfat1]

At any rate, after the snacks, we went back to the cabins to shower and get ready for guess what? Yeap, you guess it, more food.

 

My original plan in doing this trip report was not to scan the daily schedules as other cruisers have already done so and I have nothing more to add but I think for evening activities, maybe it’s easier for people to follow if they have something to look at. So here is day 4 evening schedule - making it slightly bigger for easier reading

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few things worth mentioning – at least for me. You can pick out what you like. At 6 PM, they have the classical music performance inside the dining room. If we only had our original table, we could have watched/listened to that. Given size of the MDR, if you are not by the railing, forget about hearing or seeing it as you are way too far away and it’s noisy as well.

 

Also photos 6 to 9 with Santa by the tree. Just like the ones in the mall. Don’t know how they selected the person to be Santa, but he was way too young and thin to be Santa. Doesn’t look good at all.

 

7:30 PM, they have the $19.99 boxed watch sale. I will show you pics of that. Intense people grabbing them, just like Carnival folks. This seems to be a big sales item on all cruises, not just Royal. Many people were visiting their uncles in prison that night.

 

At 7:45 to 8:30 (the magical time in between 2 set meals), they have the special event for C&A members but since we are the lower ranked level along with the peasants of the cruise, we were not welcome at such lofty event.

 

At 8:15, you can do the Fountain show in the abck but with this rain, maybe not. Although I think it stopped raining by then. (Hi, Kathy, found one more fountain show for you)

 

At 8:45, they have a classical music concert in the central park that I would have like to go and see but since we wanted to see the “How to Train your Dragon” ice show at 9 PM, we had to pass on this one.

 

At 10, the big highlight show for the night is the 70’s dance party.

[travelgoddess1]

At the central part of the Promenade, the 70’s disco line dance were in full swing gearing up for the big street party tonight. Of course we couldn’t just walk past the café without an obligatory rest stop for snacks and drinks.

 

Y-M-C-A. Or as my coworker friend said after his wife had few drinks, she’s just stuck at the Y part so it becomes Y-Y-Y-Y as she can’t move her arms after the first letter…

 

 

All free food here in case anyone is wondering. Cheapo dad wouldn’t pay extra for food on cruise.

 

 

 

 

Harry, I don't know if you or your family likes sweets, but did anyone try the WilliyWonka pie? (It is pictured in your food photos in the Promenade Cafe.) It was delightful, and I admit to having a slice more than once. :)

Edited January 21, 2015 by travelgoddess1

[retiredgram]

You are such a great story teller, it keeps me coming back for more. Your pictures are outstanding. This is about as close to the Allure as I will ever get. We are one of those couples that do not want to cruise on a ship that large. Great looking ship though.

 

Awaiting the rest of the report. ;)

[harryfat1]

Harry, I don't know if you or your family likes sweets, but did anyone try the WilliyWonka pie? (It is pictured in your food photos in the Promenade Cafe.) It was delightful, and I admit to having a slice more than once. :)

 

Hi, Karen,

 

Yes, we sure did. Actually, I think we tried everything in the case by the end of the cruise as we stopped by there frequently. The typical way was for the wife and mother in law to find a table to sit and then the 4 guys would stand in line to get the food and drinks.

 

My usual question to my wife is “Do you want anything to eat?” She typically says, “Just get whatever”.

 

As a man, that’s is the worst thing you want to hear as you don’t know “whatever” is. You can’t tell the guy on the other end of the counter “get me whatever”. You have to interpret whatever is “whatever”. I rather she said, 1 of this, 2 of that and none of the red stuff. That I can handle...

 

So by default, I just point at everything in the case and get a sampler and whatever she didn’t feel like eating that day, I ate it. I am cousin of Mikey, I ate everything (remember that Life commercial?).

 

My younger one typically only like the berry tartlet - I remember we had to stand in line extra long waiting for them to bring out new ones in the back as they ran out. The older one likes the shrimp roll and the lollipop cheese cake.

 

Of course, you know I would have a picture of what we ate. Just like your signature motto, we ate pastry/dessert before dinner and second round of dessert afterward