February 15-22nd 2015 Allure review: Eastern Caribbean

[Jenncruiser]

Hello all!

 

We'll see how long this review ends up being. I just got off the Allure yesterday after a week long trip to Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Overall it was a great trip, though there were a few downfalls.

 

About us: I'm a 24 year old Kindergarten teacher traveling with my mom, sister, brother in law and 2 year old niece. Previously we did a Royal Caribbean Alaska cruise in 2012 (my niece wasn't born yet). My mom and I also did a New England/Canada cruise on Holland America in 2013 and an Eastern Caribbean cruise on Holland in 2014 (which my mom had won in bingo on our Canadian cruise). We were a little hesitant to go back to Royal Caribbean because we've fallen in love with Holland ships in many ways. However, my sister and brother in law were intrigued by the allure and we thought that there would be more for my niece to do on the ship.

 

I should say that even though I'm only 24, I'm kind of a 50 something year old at heart. I would much rather sit at home with my cats and watch wheel of fortune than go out to the clubs. On the ships, I tend to avoid most of the after 10pm activities (I'm so ready for bed by then).

 

I'll also say that I am not a photographer. I took all of these pictures on my iphone, sorry for anything that is out of focus. I'm also respecting my family's privacy and mostly posting pictures of myself and the ship.

 

Pre cruise: I won't say much because I always skip these parts in reviews. My mom and I flew out of San Francisco Valentine's Day morning. My sister and her family had already been there for a week at Disneyworld. We met them at the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale. We stayed at Hilton Double Tree Gallery One suites. I wasn't a big fan of the hotel. Nothing was complimentary and everything seemed so overpriced. It was a pretty good location though since it was less than a 10 minute walk to the beach.

 

Day 1:

 

We started out the morning with a real expensive and mediocre breakfast at the hotel. We took a walk to the beach and it finally felt like I was going on a cruise when I got to be so close to the ocean (the warm atlantic, not the freezing pacific that I'm used to). It was gorgeous that day too.

 

 

We also took a short walk around a nearby park (Hugh Taylor Birch State Park). It was nice, but here in northern CA we have some of the prettiest parks imaginable so it's a little hard to be impressed. I did really like that one part of our walk had views of the intercoastal water ways. I really liked looking at all of the mansions.

 

After that, we got a shuttle from the hotel for $8 a person and headed over to port everglades. There seemed to be at least 8 cruise ships leaving along with us which I guess is pretty typical. The lines at the port were long but I felt like they were moving pretty quickly. We arrived a little before 12 and we were on the boat by 12:30 or so. We had received many phone calls and email in the days ahead telling us not to come to the port until 2:30 but that wasn't practical and RC doesn't seem to enforce it in anyway.

 

When we finally got on the ship the anticipation was building and it was really cool to step into the promenade for the first time. My niece was immediately impressed with the fountains under the rising tide . Every time we walked by, she wanted to look at the fountains. She also liked the big red car in front of the rising tide bar.

 

We had our first lunch in the Windjammer. It was packed but we didn't have to much trouble getting a seat. Now, I see the Windjammer get a lot of hate on the allure but I actually enjoyed it more than most of the dinning venues on the ship. We ate there probably more than anywhere else since we weren't that impressed by the other free venues.

 

After lunch, we went to check out Adventure Ocean before my niece went back to the room for her nap. We decided not to leave her in any of the child care programs because she's never been in a daycare setting before. However, they have a huge toy room there that kids can come and go with their parents as they please and this ended up being one of her favorite places. We called it the "fun place" and when we were in other parts of the ship she would frequently start saying "fun place!" because she wanted us to take her back there. Here is a kind of blurry picture but you get the idea, definitely a room made for a toddler.

 

 

After our visit and some play time, we went back to check out our rooms. The Allure was so pricey so we ended up with inside rooms for the first time (we've been spoiled with balconies previously). The inside rooms we had were attached so that if my niece was napping in one room, we could hang out in the other room with the baby monitor.

 

I thought the inside rooms were just fine. I was really worried that I would feel claustrophobic or cramped but it really wasn't a problem. I felt like I had plenty of room and the lack of a window didn't bother me. I also realized that I get an amazing night sleep in an inside room! I guess it's that darkness that helps, but every night I crashed right away and slept like a baby. The one issue we had for awhile was actually finding our room. The allure is so big that sometimes it feels like a maze. It took us a couple of days before we could comfortable find our room without walking down miles of hallway.

 

After my niece went to bed, I went with my sister and brother in law to explore the ship. This is one of my favorite things to do when we first get on a ship and on the Allure, there is plenty to explore. We started with Central Park since it was right below our room. My sister's family had a dinning credit through their booking so we wanted to eat at one of the pay restaurants. We happened to walk by Giovanni's Table first so we started looking at the menu. We were immediately bombarded by a waiter who was insistent that we eat there tonight. We said he could do the 5 of us for $50 and that was the exact amount we had on our dinning credit so we decided to do it. We made our reservations and went through the rest of the ship. The Central Park area in general was pretty nice but there wasn't that much to do there besides eat and drink and spend a lot of money on art and handbags.

 

From there we went to the cupcake cupboard and signed up for the cupcake decorating class. I had heard about this in reviews but I didn't see it on any compasses and I wasn't sure how you did it. You have to go the actual store and sign up on their list. My sister and I LOVE cupcakes so we were so excited for this class (it ended up being great too, but I'll talk about that later). We got an orange cream cupcake to share and it was SO GOOD.

 

 

We checked out the boardwalk and the pools, knowing we would be back later. My niece was obviously a big fan of the carousel.

 

to be continued...

[Jenncruiser]

Day 1 continued

 

Later before dinner, we went up to our secret balcony to watch the sailaway. Obviously word has gotten out and it's not so secret anymore but it still ended up mostly empty anytime that we went out. The one at the back of the ship port side deck 11 ended up being our favorite. We watched the sail away from there and we watched the dreamworks show that was going on in the aqua theatre. I brought us drinks of the day which were very strong but very nice and we sat back and relaxed. This space worked out well for my niece because she could see shows like OceanAria but still run around and not disturb anybody.

 

After sail away we went and got ready for dinner. The dinner at Giovanni's Table was okay. It seemed to me on par with the food in dinning room so I didn't really understand the extra charge. I also felt like I was continuously trying to be persuaded to spend more (a reoccurring theme on this cruise). I got a bottle of wine for the table, the cheapest one on the menu (about $38) and the waiter still was trying to talk us into getting something more expensive. He was also trying to talk us into getting the decanter the came with the wine. I really like to just enjoy my dinner and not have to be declining requests for money all of the time. I'm a teacher, a cruise is enough of a stretch for me.

 

For dinner we got a caprese salad, a flat bread with potato, cheese and pesto and then I had a papardelle with a creamy tomato sauce and pancetta for the main course. My favorite part of dinner had to be the dessert. The tiramisu was amazing! I could have had a gallon of that tiramisu. We also got a sampler of some other desserts that were all very tasty.

 

After that, my mom and I headed to the aqua theater to see OceanAria. It was canceled :(. It ended up being canceled. It was canceled three times before we were able to see it.

 

We still ended the day full and happy. Unfortunately we weren't ready for what was coming Day 2.

 

Day 2:

We woke up early since we had a trip to Atlantis planned in Nassau. We woke up to find that my niece had thrown up all over herself and the crib. She's only 2 but this was the first time that she had ever thrown up before so it was pretty unusual. My first thought was that she had sea sickness since the boat had been pretty rocky and she was close to the ground. She seemed to be filling okay though so we got her cleaned up, got room service for breakfast and headed out to the bahamas.

 

I had always wanted to visit Atlantis for a rather silly reason. As a child of the 90s, Mary Kate and Ashley were all the rage. They had a movie where they went to Atlantis that I used to watch all the time as a kid, ever since then it's been on my bucket list.

 

The weather was a little windy and chilly when we got off the boat but everything was still sunny and beautiful. I'm always in love with the water in the Caribbean since it's so brilliantly turquoise and it seems to sparkle. We got off the boat around 7:30 and the sun was already starting to come up.

 

Our excursion was supposed to be to the aquariums at Atlantis and the beach. After we were ushered through a series of lines we were told that the beach at Atlantis was closed due to weather and that we could go to the man made beach instead or upgrade/downgrade our package accordingly. We decided to go the man made beach since we thought my niece would still enjoy it a lot.

 

We had to wait for at least 20 minutes for the bus to come but when we got on, the ride to Atlantis was fast. As soon as we got off the bus and started heading to the resort, my niece threw up again. I'm sure this wasn't pleasant to the rest of the guests on our excursion and we started getting more worried. I was almost sure that she had norovirus at this point and I was imagining a cruise confined to an inside room with a screaming/barfing two year old. Not my idea of a good vacation.

 

to be continued...

[Jenncruiser]

Day 2 continued

 

The shuttle wasn't coming back for 2.5 hours so we went to the man made beach anyway and hoped that she'd feel better. We walked through the hotel and out to the little alcove. The water was cold but there was plenty to see and my niece was quick to get in and splash around. As you can see, the beach was small but it was a good space for kids.

 

After splashing around for about 20 minutes, my niece started to shake an act weird so we took her out of the water and she threw up again. At that point we really wanted to get her to the ship doctor and we were afraid that she was really sick. We were still too early to catch the shuttle so we paid for a taxi back to the ship. We weren't able to stay at Atlantis long and we didn't get to see any of the aquarium, or really anything besides that man made beach.

 

My niece was really lethargic and out of it at this point and my brother carried her back to the ship as went to the medical center. The nurses and doctors were really nice and helpful. They didn't think that it was norovirus and they found that she had an ear infection but they weren't sure what else was wrong. She went back to the room with antibiotics and took a nap while my mom watched her. My sister, BIL and I headed back out to Nassau and walked around some of the shops. There really wasn't much there of interest to me and a lot of the employees seemed like they were annoyed by us and didn't want us to be there. Not really my favorite port by any means.

 

After we shopped, the line to get back to the ship was ridiculous. It was wall to wall people and there was no sense of where you were supposed to go. It was a huge mass of people trying to get back to three different ships.

 

When we finally made it to the ship, we saw Quantum pulling in. Everyone stopped to watch it and we waved to all the people up on the deck, pretty exciting. Maybe I'll go on it as some point but I heard it's heading to Asia next and I don't see myself taking any trips that far anytime soon.

 

Back on the ship, I went out with my mom to have some lunch in the Windjammer. Then we sat on the secret balcony and watched the ship sail away. I read my book for awhile and lounged before we headed back to the room. My niece was in pretty rough shape by that point. She is normally so hyper but she was just incredibly weak and tired and she kept throwing up. She also was refusing to drink anything and she was getting dehydrated. Later in the afternoon when my sister and BIL went to see Ice Games, my mom and I took her back to the doctor since she seemed really hot.

 

The next doctor that saw her said that he had a fever and gave us tylenol and motrin for her to take. This doctor was good but she was very serious in a way that made me feel more nervous about the situation since we were in the middle of the ocean and I was afraid we would have to helicopter her to a hospital in Nassau or something. My niece was getting really dehydrated at that point.

 

We tried to eat some dinner at Sorrento's but the pizza was awful. I'm not picky at all but I just couldn't eat that pizza. The promenade cafe had some sandwiches but nothing that looked appealing to me. We got a little sandwich for my niece though and she managed to eat it (and throw it up when she got back to the room).

 

My mom and I went to see Ice Games that night. It was pretty good. We are huge fans of figure skating so it was cool to see a live ice show. The show had some technical difficulties and had to start and stop at the beginning before they fixed it. The show was entertaining but the plot was a little disjointed and sort of seemed like it was just an advertisement for the ship.

 

After the show we went up to the Windjammer for a proper dinner. I'm definitely a stress eater and since I was really stressed about my niece, I ate a lot that night. They had these really good chicken skewers there and a lot of asian options which I appreciated, I'm a big fan of asian cuisine.

 

We went back to the room and had a real rough night with my niece. They took her down to the medical center two more times and the night nurse wasn't nearly as nice or helpful. We eventually all managed to get sleep. I was hoping (praying really) that my niece would be feeling better in the morning. Luckily by mid morning day 3 she seemed fine and was starting to get back to her hyper and lovely self. We're still not sure what happened. The doctors said it wasn't norovirus so I'm wondering if she got food poisoning somewhere, even though she had mostly eaten the same things as us. It was a very scary situation for us, not the best way to start a cruise. But everything started to look up after that.

 

Alright, I will add more tomorrow. Now I have to get back to real life and do some lesson planning for the week. I apologize if there are too many typos (or too much talk of vomit). I'm happy to answer any questions about the boat/cruise that you may have.

[TryingCruising]

Thanks for doing a review! We were on the allure last march and loved it. I hope to make it back onboard for the eastern route one day. I'm sorry your niece became ill! I look forward to reading more

[micmacmissy]

Poor kid- that must have been so stressful for you all! My kids often got sick (and ear infections) while traveling- I always think it's a combination of excitement, air travel, eating different food from home, etc. Glad she got to feeling better by day 3!

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review, welcome to Cruise Critic!

[LuCruise]

Thank you for posting a review as we'll be on the same ship and itinerary next April. It's good to hear that an inside room is ok and doesn't feel too cramped. (We got a Promenade room).

 

I am so very sorry to hear about your niece. Poor thing sounded so sick and can only imagine how you were all worrying. Thank goodness that by day 3 she seemed better.

 

If you were able to enjoy the Atlantis excursion, do you think it was worth it? I'm assuming this is the "Atlantis beach day" one.

 

If you have any cruise compass, could you post them? I'd love to get an idea as I've only see Western Allure...or a really old eastern version.

 

Looking forward to hearing more...with your poor niece feeling better.

Edited February 24, 2015 by LuCruise

[spammie]

Enjoying your review. Allure is our least favorite ship we have ever been on and doubt we will be back on board. It's just too big and not what we look for in a cruise experience. Luckily there are lots of different ships to accomodate everyone's taste. They really do seem to try and "upsell" on this ship more than others.

 

It must have been really scarey having your niece so sick and so far from home. When we travel we have a BIG Ziploc bag packed with just about every over the counter and some prescription meds you might need. Being so far from home you can't always get what you need and if you can the price is rediculous. My husband laughs at me and calls it my medicine chest. I would rather have it and not need it than not have it. :)

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review. :)

Edited February 24, 2015 by spammie

[Susie51]

Thank you for posting. I'm glad by day 3 your niece was feeling better.

[hipster1]

Thanks for sharing your review! We were on the same sailing:) I am SO sorry to hear about your niece, but I am glad she got better.

 

I agree with you about Sorrentos..Not that good! As for Oceanaria, it was great to finally be able to see it;)

 

Looking forward to reading more.

 

Ali

[Jenncruiser]

Thanks everyone! I will answer questions at the end :D

 

I also wanted to mention that our stateroom attendant was incredibly helpful and sweet. He was so worried about my niece and he came into the room a few times to help clean up the throw up. Normally I never see them but we ended up checking in with him a few times throughout the day. We had been spending a lot of time in the room so he couldn't have found a time to clean when we weren't there if he wanted to. The night she was sick, he made a towel elephant and dinosaur and present them to her. It was very sweet and really great service. We filled out a WOW card for him at the end and left him an extra tip to let him know how much we appreciated him.

 

Day 3:

In the morning, we were supposed to go to the Dreamwork's character breakfast but my niece was still recovering so they slept in.

 

My mom and I went out and had breakfast at Johnny Rockets just to try it. I got pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon. There were jukeboxes at each table but the waiter said that they didn't work. I have fond memories of this old timey diner I use to go to as a kid where we could play the jukeboxes at our table so I was sad that these didn't work.

 

I really wasn't a fan of the food. I had pancakes with scrambled eggs and bacon. I realized that morning that the scrambled eggs every where on the ship are pretty grossed and best to be avoided. They taste very rubbery and artificial. The pancakes and bacon were fine, nothing to write home about but satisfactory. I was glad that breakfast was complimentary and I'm glad we tried Johnny Rocket's but we didn't go back for the rest of the cruise. It wasn't good enough and it seemed easier to eat elsewhere.

 

After we walked by and realized that there were donuts at the donut shop on the boardwalk. I know I had just eaten breakfast but I really wanted a donut and I was on a cruise so why not? I got a key lime donut because I love key lime flavored things. It was good but not amazing, it didn't really taste much like lime. I wish they had had donuts more often. It seemed like they only had them for a few hours in the morning. I know donuts spoil more easily but it seems like it wouldn't be that hard to put out another batch half way through the day. It seemed in general like they made the complimentary foods much less accessible then the food you had to pay for (like ice cream).

 

After breakfast and donuts, we went to the craft room on deck 14 for jewelry making. Now I know this isn't a lot of people's cup of tea but I am all about the crafting (it goes well with being a kindergarten teacher). The jewelry making was a good deal too. You pay $9.99 and you get a kit with everything you need to make a matching bracelet, necklace and earring set. I had done this on the last RC cruise but we all got the same kit. On this ship, we had a choice of 10 different sets. I picked something called "calm seas". I've done jewelry before but this ended up being way more work than I anticipated. Enough that I had to go back on the other 2 sea days to finish it. I didn't mind though, I find beading to be pretty therapeutic and calming. The woman running the craft shop was really nice too. She was around my age and from Ireland and I got to know her a little better over the cruise. The other women that hung out there were nice and fun to talk to as well.

 

After the class, we went to get a spot for the move it move it parade. The parade goes through both sides of the main promenade so it's pretty easy to find a place with a good view. We snagged chairs by the starbucks booth and settled down to read until the parade started. Everyone seemed to be scooting their chairs over to one side of the boat while we were on the other. I thought that the parade must only go to that side but the workers said that they would walk right by us too. When the parade did start, we were right in front and could see everything. About half way through, people started standing right in front of us but I still caught mostly everything. It was a cute little parade and it seems like they had everyone on the ship in it practically. I saw the jewelry teacher and the nurse that checked my niece in the day before dancing and dressed up in safari clothes. I got a few pictures of the characters.

 

 

After the parade we met up with my sister and her family and went to lunch in the windjammer. That's when I realized that my niece was completely back to her old self and we could finally enjoy the cruise properly.

 

After lunch we looked around the shops a bit and then my mom, sister and I went to our cupcake decorating class at 1:30. This was definitely one of my favorite activities that we did on the ship. There were only five of us in the class. The teacher was really sweet and helpful (my mom was horrible at doing the frosting and the teacher ended up doing most of it for her which gave us plenty of amusement). We ended up making a puppy cupcake which was really cute. We all ate the whole thing though and it was way more sugar than I was equipped to handle but I had no regrets. Here I am posing with my creation.

 

 

After the class, my mom and I ate our cupcakes on the secret balcony and played a game of travel scrabble as we watched the ocean roll by. Very nice and peaceful :cool:

 

After, we headed to the solarium. I was hoping that we could go swimming but the water in the solarium pool was freezing. I enjoyed the hot tubs though. There is one hot tub near the solarium that has borders the windows looking out onto the sea, that one was definitely my favorite.

 

Later, the whole family headed to the boardwalk and we rode the carousel a couple of times. Then I helped my niece make a pet at sea because I felt so sorry for her for the day that she had before. She liked the process of actually making the pet but then when I handed it to her when we went outside she screamed "NO!" and threw it on the ground, so...$30 well spent. It will soon have a spot in my classroom though so it's not a complete waste.

 

We finally had out first dinner in the main dinning room that night. We ate the rest of our dinners there and it usually worked out alright. My main complaint was that it was just too slow. We explained that we had a 2 year old that was the opposite of patient but the service was still often very slow. Maybe they can't help it with so many people eating, but it did lead to some frustration. The food was pretty good. There were some nights though that I had trouble finding anything that I wanted to eat (I'm a pretty picky eater). One of my favorite things though is the fruity soups, and they usually had one every night.

 

After dinner, I saw Chicago with my sister and brother in law. I was actually a music and theater major in college and I'm obsessed with musicals. I know Chicago very very well. I really really loved RC's production. I thought that it was extremely entertaining and well done. It was by far my favorite production that I saw on the ship. The cast was very talented and it was abbreviated in a way that made sense. I'm not sure when they're switching the show to Mamma Mia (I don't like that nearly as much as Chicago) but definitely make sure that you get a chance to see it if you're on the boat before you leave. We made all of our show reservations before we sailed but it seemed like most of the shows had empty seats (with the exception of Ocean Aria).

 

After that, we headed to bed to get ready for our next day in St. Thomas!

 

To be continued...

[cruiselife4me]

Great review so far!! Thanks and I'm glad your niece was ok! Scary.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[LuCruise]

SO glad to see your niece feeling better and you can all enjoy the cruise. The parade looks like so much fun. It's also good to hear a positive experience about the cupcake class as I'm thinking about it with our kids and I've heard iffy comments like 'can do that at home'. BUT I have to disagree...your cupcake is adorable and certainly not one done at home.

 

Thanks for sharing. Looking forward to hearing more.

[Jenncruiser]

Day 4:

We were a little bit delayed getting into St. Thomas. I guess that's been the norm with Allure's propulsion issues. The delay wasn't too bad though. We were supposed to get in at 11 and we ended up getting in around 12:30. We spent the morning relaxing. We ate breakfast at the windjammer and then we hung out for awhile on the secret balcony and checked out some of the sales in the promenade. I have to say that at least 70% of the time we were the only ones on the secret balcony which was nice. Paying for an inside room, it made me feel like we had a private balcony too. Again, sad that they're getting rid of these.

 

In St. Thomas my mom and I were doing an excursion to St. John. We had been to St. Thomas before and we did a pretty extensive tour there so we wanted to seem something new. We were supposed to meet in the Amber Theater at 11:30 but we ended up not need to get there until closer to 12:15. To kill time we got a hot dog at the Boardwalk Dog House. I tried the Coney Island one which was basically your classic hot dog. I thought it was good, definitely what I expect from a hot dog. My mom tried the chicken apple sausage and she said that one was really good too. I think the stand could use some fries or chips to go along with the dogs but otherwise it's a pretty good place for a fast bite.

 

When we got to the Amber Theater, we left in lines based on the row that we were sitting in, not our excursion. It was a little confusing getting off the boat and figuring out where we were supposed to go. Once we did find the man leading our tour, we got on the ferry to St. John's pretty quickly. We sat on the top of the boat and this ended up being a mistake. I really didn't enjoy the ride over to St. John. It was incredibly rocky. I'm not one that really gets prone to sea sickness but it was way more then I could handle and I felt practically green when I finally got to the island. The captain was speaking over the loud speaker and his voice was too loud for me. The facts that he was saying were interesting and I liked the sights that he was point out but he over enunciated everything and talked twice as loud as he need to which just made him unpleasant to listen to. We were actually supposed to do a cruise around the island but I was so sick of the boat and the tour guide that I had to get off. This was our second shore excursion where we missed a part of it but I guess that's just how it goes.

 

When we got to the island, we grabbed a taxi to Trunk Bay. I thought that Trunk Bay had to be the most beautiful beach I had ever seen. We had about two hours on the beach, most of which I spent swimming around the ocean. The snorkel trail was closed due to weather and the ocean was a little rough but not enough to be unpleasant at all. Afterwards we looked around the blocks by the ports a little bit at some of the shops. I have an abnormally large head and was hoping to find a sun hat but I didn't have much success the whole trip. While we were looking for a hat we chatted with one of the shop owners who had moved to St. John from Georgia and now lived there full time, I can definitely understand how someone could end up doing that. Overall I found St. John really enchanting. I didn't get to spend as much time there as I would have liked. After we shopped we got ice cream which was pretty good (though they didn't give samples which I didn't like). Here are a few pictures of the island.

I manage to end up with cat photos on all of my trips :D

 

We got on the boat a little before 5. We were supposed to have about 5 hours on the ship but due to the delays it ended up being more like 3. My mom is the complaining type and she complained at guest services and they actually gave us a partial discount (like $10 off).

 

The ferry back wasn't well organized. It seemed like they were letting anybody on the ship without checking who actually reserved it so there were all of these people who hadn't been there on the way there. They also left at 4:50 after he said the boat was leaving at 5 so I worry that some people must have missed the boat back.

 

On the ride back we sat on the bottom since it was much less rocky. We got complimentary rum punch which was nice (and they kept refilling our cups!) and we had a good time getting to know the others at our table.

 

We got back right in time for dinner and headed over (still kind of wet and sandy). My sister and her family had booked an excursion through RC too that took them to a private beach with a max of 50 people allowed (this was on St. Thomas). They really liked this excursion too.

 

We finally got to see OceanAria that night (it had been rescheduled a few times). OceanAria is the one show that you really do need to get to early. I went half an hour early to snag our seats. My sister and her family ended up watching it from the secret balcony which worked out well for them, we actually saw it again from there the next night.

 

The show was very impressive. It had a cirque du soleil vibe and the diving was really impressive! It seemed like quite a feat to dive as high as they did into a pretty small pool. I felt pretty nervous just watching them. I really liked the music in the show as well, it definitely helped make it a captivating experience.

 

We went to bed pretty soon after the show to get ready for our next day in St. Maarten!

 

To be continued...

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review and photos, looking forward to more, I was on Allure in Nov and did the same itinerary. By the way, the scrambled eggs on the ship are made from powdered eggs.

[FMZ]

Great review. As a mom of two little ones I was really sad to read about your niece, that's a tough deal at home let alone at sea! So glad she's ok!

[LuCruise]

Sound like a fun day in St Thomas, despite the sea sickness feeling on the way over. :(

 

Just curious, do you know what excursion your sister and family booked? We're coming with kids so am looking for kid friendly spots with a beautfiul beach.

[Jenncruiser]

If anyone is reading, I'm going to see if I can finish this tonight before I forget everything.

 

Day 5:

Day 5 was our St. Maarten day. I was excited to visit St. Maarten for the first time and we had what we thought was a pretty thorough excursion that would cover everything. I don't remember the exact excursion that we purchased (these were all RC excursions) but it was supposed to go around the island with stops in Marigot, Orient Beach and end in Phillipsburg.

 

We had our usual breakfast in the Windjammer and met up for our excursion around 9:30. When you first get off the ship in St Maarten, you're not directly in Phillipsburg. There's a port area and then you can either walk to Phillipsburg or take a water taxi. The port itself has a fair amount of shops and booths that sell the usual cruise ship fair. Our meeting spot for the excursion was in the somewhat narrow space between our ship and a carnival ship which ended up kind of being a wind tunnel, luckily we didn't have to wait too long. One of the workers came up and was telling us something about the chairs at the beach (like there were free beach chairs for us but they weren't where they would usually be?) it was super unclear and confusing. She had us sign our ticket but I don't think anyone really understood what she was trying to tell us.

 

We went in a van that started it's way towards Marigot. Our tour guide was a really informative and interesting guy. There seemed to be a lot of already drunk people on our tour that were asking him some pretty dumb questions but I felt like he handled everything in a pretty classy way. He was a little too accommodating though in some ways though. He pulled over at some random shop away from the tourist areas so that someone on our van could by cigarettes (literally just one person).

 

We stopped at a lookout over Marigot and the island and got some pictures first.

The interesting thing about the island was that there were no traffic lights, they mostly rely on roundabouts to control traffic. Driving seemed a little hairy at times though.

 

We had about an 1.5 hours in Marigot. It was around lunch time at that point so we grabbed a bite at a little bakery place that seemed crowded so we figured it would be good. The food definitely was quite tasty. Then we walked around the streets and some of the shops/stalls nearby. There was a mall called the West Indies Mall but the stores looked more high end so we stuck to the surrounding areas.

 

From there we drove to Orient Beach. On the way, our driver talked about how during a hurricane in the 90s, the zoo had been destroyed and the iguana and monkey population on the island exploded. He pulled over to show us areas where we could see iguanas sitting on walls or hanging out in trees. Very bizarre but very cool. He said that some people liked to eat the iguanas and said that they tasted like chicken. I'm not sure I could bring myself to ever try iguana.

 

Orient beach was extremely crowded when we got there and it wasn't really clear where we were supposed to go. The driver dropped us off at the restaurant where we got free rum punches but then when we actually went on to the beach, there were no free chairs for our group like had been mentioned at port. We paid ten dollars for two chairs though which wasn't bad. Orient beach was interesting because half of the beach is nude (we didn't venture over to that side but we could see it from where we were). The beach itself was really pretty but if felt like people were trying to sell you things constantly. If you went in the water you could enjoy yourself but if you tried to relax on the beach chair you would have people coming over to you every other minute to offer massages, dresses, whatnot. Even when I had my eyes closed they kept saying "hello? hello?" until I opened them. It was incredibly rude and kind of ruined that beach for me. It was such an alarming difference from Trunk Bay the day before where everything was so quiet and tranquil. I didn't get a lot of good shots directly at the beach but here's a shot from a vantage point that we stopped at nearby.

 

My other issue with where we stopped at the island was that there didn't seem to be any free bathrooms. I traveled around Europe a bit and paying for a bathroom is not a foreign concept to me but I still hate it. It's basically human need, not something you should charge for.

 

The tour was supposed to stop in Phillipsburg before going back to the port but I guess we ran out of time. He drove to the port first and said that he could drive us to Phillipsburg after but at that point it was 3:30 and all aboard was 4:15 and we really didn't want to risk being late. I was disappointed though because I really didn't get to see Philipsburg at all and my sister said that it had been a pretty neat place to hangout. I know this won't be my last cruise going to St. Maarten though so I will be back.

 

We shopped near the port a little bit and then got back on the boat. We hung out on the secret balcony to watch the sail away. It was really gorgeous with the sun setting and the views of the other boats leaving, my niece liked seeing the other boats too.

 

 

As we were on the balcony, OceanAria happened to be playing so we ended up watching it again. It was cool to see it from a different vantage point, especially when they jumped from the highest diving points.

 

After that and dinner in the main dinning room, we didn't have any shows booked so I checked out the rising tide bar finally. It was definitely a cool spot to grab a drink and we spent a while there. We also caught some of the live music in central park. There was a brass quintet that was pretty good.

 

The next two days were sea days so I wanted to make sure that I got a chance to do anything on the board that I may have missed on this big glorious boat before I had to get off.

[Jenncruiser]

Day 6 & 7:

I'm combining day 6 and day 7 because I can't quite remember what I had done which day :p

 

I'm going to make this a little more abbreviated.

 

I spent at least 3 hours between the last two sea days working on jewelry and I still didn't finish, now that I'm home I really should try to finish the necklace that I started. Maybe I'll be motivated after I finish this review.

 

On deck 5 there is a track that goes all the way around the ship. It's a nice way to get some exercise and see views of the ocean. One side is for walking and one side is for running. There also are some chairs on the outside if you need to rest or just want to enjoy the sign. The signs going along were pretty funny as well.

Yeah I wish :rolleyes:

 

We ate in the MDR every night after those first two. I just couldn't bring myself to eat elsewhere. It seemed like if you were getting good for free, why should you pay to get the same quality somewhere else? Our waiters were nice too but I always feel like they have a gun to their head at the end of the cruise when they insist that we give them 10 out of 10s if we liked the service. They say it practically like they'll get fired if they don't?

 

We checked out the baby splash zone for the first time (it had been too cold before that). My niece loved it and it was only her and one other baby in there. It seems small but as long as it's not full of kids, there is more than enough room.

 

We tried the Lafite wine tasting as a sort of last minute decision. You're supposed to make reservations ahead of time but we waited and they had a few no shows so we could get a seat. It would be nice if they stated that certain events require reservations in the cruise compass because we weren't the only ones that didn't know. The wine tasting was a good value I thought. I think it was around $20 and you got 4 different wines to try and some cheeses. I enjoyed all the wines. There was a little bit too much talking but I guess that's the point of wine tasting? I wasn't as interested in hearing all of the explanations, I kind of just wanted to drink and eat ;)

 

We went to the Dreamwork's character breakfast on the last day. It was nice but there really weren't enough characters. Only three came to the table. However, it made me feel so stupid because I realized how much more I liked eating breakfast in the MDR over the windjammer. I wish we had done it some of the other mornings. They have a menu but they also have a buffet and it's overall nicer and less crowded than the windjammer.

 

We tried mini golf but my whole family has no hand eye coordination so we quickly got sick of it. We watch the flowrider for a little bit. They have bleachers where you can sit and watch. I'm not physically fit enough to try something like that and I definitely didn't want to have a bunch of people watch me crash into the wall. I almost considered doing the zipline but I was too scared. Seriously, it's so high!

 

The last show we saw was Blue Planet. The show was great but they had technical difficulties so they had to stop the show for 10 minutes in the middle of it which was a little awkward. We also were sitting next to two Brazilian ladies who WOULD NOT STOP TALKING THE WHOLE SHOW. We asked them to be quiet and the quieted down a little bit but they never stopped talking completely. It was driving me crazy and kind of kept me from enjoying the experience which brings me to my next point.

 

It seemed like there were hundreds of Brazilians on the ship our week, I'm not sure if they were part of some pre packaged group or something. I don't mean to be culturally insensitive but many of them had very poor manners (talking during shows, shoving their way ahead of you, etc.). There also were many kids that didn't seem to be being watched by anybody. There were two Brazilian boys near our stateroom that were constantly running up and down the halls as fast as they could at all hours of the day, nearly mowing my little niece down in the process. This started to really get to me after awhile and the talking during Blue Planet was almost the last straw.

 

The disembarkation process took much longer than I thought it would. The lines to get through customs took over an hour. We did an excursion around Miami at the end of the trip before going to the airport and I didn't feel like it was worth the time. The guide was loud and obnoxious and it was on one of those tour buses with an open top deck or a tiny lower deck so we either had to be suffocating from heat on the lower deck or getting blown away on top. The only place he stopped was near south beach where we had an hour to walk around. The tour guide himself was 15 minutes late getting back to the bus. He also dropped us off at a really weird part of the airport nowhere near the departures and it was very hard/confusing to figure out where we were supposed to go.

 

Overall all, despite the problems, I really did enjoy this cruise. It felt like there was always something to do and see. There was always plenty to eat but I think more of it should have been free (there is no reason that they should've charged for popcorn). I found the ship to be a little too big for me and I think I prefer slightly smaller ships (like when I was on the Radiance of the seas and the HAL ships). I like feeling like I'm actually on a boat and sometimes this felt more like a vegas style resort. It's a great ship for family's though. There are constant photo opportunities with the dreamworks characters and there is always plenty of exciting activities for kids. I wish that it had gone to more ports but the sea days worked out because the boat itself was an attraction. I don't see myself going on the Allure again but I think it's something worth trying once so I would definitely recommend it.

 

Thanks for reading! :D

Edited March 1, 2015 by Jenncruiser

[Jenncruiser]

Thank you for posting a review as we'll be on the same ship and itinerary next April. It's good to hear that an inside room is ok and doesn't feel too cramped. (We got a Promenade room).

 

I am so very sorry to hear about your niece. Poor thing sounded so sick and can only imagine how you were all worrying. Thank goodness that by day 3 she seemed better.

 

If you were able to enjoy the Atlantis excursion, do you think it was worth it? I'm assuming this is the "Atlantis beach day" one.

 

If you have any cruise compass, could you post them? I'd love to get an idea as I've only see Western Allure...or a really old eastern version.

 

Looking forward to hearing more...with your poor niece feeling better.

 

I feel like I can't really give an accurate review of Atlantis. We were only there for an hour and pretty much just saw the lobby and the man made beach. I guess one thing to keep in mind with the beach day is that they'll close the beach if there is any wind. I would like to go back and see the aquarium since it sounded like it was really nice.

 

Unfortunately I didn't save my compasses, sorry :(

[Jenncruiser]

Sound like a fun day in St Thomas, despite the sea sickness feeling on the way over. :(

 

Just curious, do you know what excursion your sister and family booked? We're coming with kids so am looking for kid friendly spots with a beautfiul beach.

 

I think it was this one: http://www.royalcaribbean.com/shoreExcursions/product/detail/view.do?sourcePage=shorexByPort&ProductCode=STQ3&DestinationCode=CARIB, they highly recommend it.

Edited March 1, 2015 by Jenncruiser

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review and photos, regarding the non stop talkers. When I was on the Allure there were a couple of Brazilians that were interpreting the show Chicago to about 25 of their countrymen, talk bout annoying, had to move another part of the theater.

[kidz_rn]

I also appreciate your taking the time to write and post such a detailed and thorough review.

 

We just returned from the departure after yours -- Western itinerary, Feb. 22-March 1.

 

It was our 13th cruise, but 1st on a 'mega' ship. I agree that the ship is just too large -- we were told there were 6,000 passenger on board.

 

Our cruise was enjoyable and we had a great time, but I would not sail again on a mega ship. A 'medium' (2,200 guests?) ship is just fine.

 

Kidz_RN

 

P.S. Remember when a 2,200-passenger ship was a BIG ship?