Allure of Seas Mediterranean Journey 11-22 Oct 15 with Lots of Pictures

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Doing same cruise from Barcelona next October on Harmony. So thank you for all the information on the ports. Really looking forward to knocking off some of my bucket list.

 

It is a great itinerary! Very nice Mediterranean sampling.

 

One thing to note is that if you dock at La Spezia it is quite a distance from Florence if you want to go there. I will talk more about this when I get to Day 6. It is quite "doable" but you just need to be prepared. I would recommend a private or small group tour for this port more than any other due to the distance to Florence. If you don't you will end up not seeing as much since you will be mostly spending time being "herded" in large groups. I have some tips that worked out well for us when we get there.

[Pmorton3360]

I'm a big fan of private tours. Even though I haven't done Italy before, I can really get into the research. I'm always interested to read what others have done.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

It is a great itinerary! Very nice Mediterranean sampling.

 

One thing to note is that if you dock at La Spezia it is quite a distance from Florence if you want to go there. I will talk more about this when I get to Day 6. It is quite "doable" but you just need to be prepared. I would recommend a private or small group tour for this port more than any other due to the distance to Florence. If you don't you will end up not seeing as much since you will be mostly spending time being "herded" in large groups. I have some tips that worked out well for us when we get there.

I'm a big fan of private tours. Even though I haven't done Italy before, I can really get into the research. I'm always interested to read what others have done.

We did the Western Mediterranean tour on Allure a few months ago, and loved the destinations.

 

Agree that private tours (we used RomeInLimo in Florence/Pisa and Rome) can really make a (positive) difference. Highly recommend them.

 

In our case, the smaller group of 8 people resulted in quicker travel, arriving a key locations quicker and closer, and more nimble moving around. In all cases, we felt we saw more, had more time to enjoy things, and had less walking to each specific onsite location.

Edited November 4, 2015 by CRUISEFAN0001

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First, just want to agree and say again how much I recommend private or small group tours if you are looking to see a lot in short time.

 

Now on to Mount Vesuvius.

 

After we left Pompeii Elisa brought us back to our driver Mario who took us to climb Mt. Vesuvius. As we climbed by car up the mountain he explained about the two peaks. Because I did not have time for a second cup of coffee that morning and was grumbling a bit about it, Mario was sweet enough to stop at coffee shop on the way. I got a very strong but smooth cup of excellent Italian coffee and we headed out. It was such a gorgeous view as we walked to the car we stopped for pictures and Mario was kind enough to take ours.

 

The drive part way up

 

 

 

 

Can you pick out Allure?!

 

 

He dropped us at the hike entrance and off we went.

 

 

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We climbed and climbed stopping periodically for pictures.

 

 

 

 

I'm trying to give you a good flavor of the hike. It was certainly not a walk in the park, but "doable" for anyone in good health even if you are not athletic. Plenty of places to rest and lots of people on the trail so we felt very safe.

 

 

Getting there

 

 

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After about 35 minutes of walking we reached the caldera. At the sight of the active smoke I was overwhelmed. I gazed down into the mouth of this active volcano and was in awe. It was one of the many very emotional moments I experienced on this trip.

 

Bucket List # 2...check!

 

 

The Caldera...without me : )

 

 

Volcano Steam

 

 

 

We have been Volcanos Park on the Big Island and it was extremely amazing, but this was more emotional for me. I guess because I know the devastation it caused.

 

A view from the top

 

 

Another Perspective

 

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Hiking at the Top

 

 

Panorama of the Caldera

 

 

So there is a cute story behind this picture. Tom was taking a picture of me when an Asian couple was walking by. The woman stopped and asked if we wanted her to take our picture. I handed her my Sony digital camera and proceeded to explain how it worked. She was so cute, she just looked at me and chuckled "I'm Japanese, I know how to work these cameras". We all laughed. It made my day.

 

 

Seismographic Equipment

 

 

After many pictures, we purchased some trinkets and headed down. Quite a steep go, so we had to constantly hold ourselves back.

 

 

 

So after that hike we were ready to eat. We had an option to eat before or after the hike. I'm glad we opted to eat after. I can't imagine that hike on a full stomach and now we were really hungry!

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Mario was waiting at the bottom and we headed to the other side of the mountain to eat at Cantina de Vesuvio. There are no meal choices at this working winery. You get a delicious antipasti of cheese, meat and homemade bread. This is with a white wine. Then some rose. Then home made pasta with fresh tomato sauce and red wine. For dessert Easter cake with apricot grappa.

 

 

It was beautiful day to sit outside.

 

 

 

White wine to start the meal

 

 

Antipasti to start. Oh so good.

 

 

Homemade pasta with fresh tomato sauce

 

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Dessert

 

 

It is a working winery and they also make olive oil.

 

 

 

We purchased some olive oil to take home and then headed back to Naples.

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After this Mario took us back to Naples and to their town square, he stopped at a restaurant and bought us pastries before returning to the ship. The restaurant was Gambrinus. Such a nice young man and a wonderful amazing day.

 

 

Allure at the Port of Naples

 

 

Yeah she is big

 

 

Tonight was supposed to be formal night, but we decided to skip it. We were too tired and full from the late lunch. Instead we headed to the cantilevered hot tub where we watched the ship leave Naples. It was a very fun thing to do, even though it was very crowded and some of the people a bit rude and loud. I'm getting to the reason we discovered soon. But it did not ruin our enjoyment of the experience.

 

Tomorrow was our only sea day. We were sure looking forward to relaxing.

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This was our only sea day. As my routine I woke early and got my cafe mocha. I sat in the solarium.

 

My happy place

 

 

 

The solarium has quickly become one of my absolute favorite places on the Oasis and Quantum class ships. It is an amazing peaceful place particularly in the early morning. These views are what keep me going on many stress days at work. Knowing I will be here one day again.

 

 

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We went up to the concierge lounge and watched as we passed through some gorgeous scenery. We loved having breakfast in the lounge. Another oasis of tranquility.

 

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We then went exploring. I know these are all well documented and photographed areas, but for completeness I will include my pictures around the ship.

 

Mini Golf

 

 

 

Zip Line. One day I hope I will get the nerve to do it. My son and his fiance said it was fun on Oasis.

 

 

Flow rider

 

I think I would seriously injure myself on this activity.

 

 

This would be more my speed lol. Although I don't think I could even manage sitting.

 

 

Wipe Out Bar

 

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Sports Court

 

 

The pools were not well used due to the port intensive itinerary and the weather was a bit cool. Although there were some brave souls that did use them almost daily.

 

Beach Pool

 

 

H2O Zone

 

 

Main Pool

 

 

View Aft

 

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Comedy Club

 

 

Outside Studio B

 

 

Outside Adventure Ocean

 

 

Promenade

 

 

 

[ken_nyc]

WOW...so enjoying your review! Is it June yet so I can be on the Harmony?

[transam84]

Next to the Solarium the Boardwalk ended up being a favorite place on this cruise. We ended up spending a lot of time here, eating and walking and just hanging out.

 

 

 

 

I finally got my ride!

 

 

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It really is a fun place and so under utilized.

 

Johnny Rockets now has a fixed charged. I didn't like this since I could not just stop in and get an order of onion rings. We did eat there on the last night, and it was good, but I liked it better when it was a la carte.

 

 

Arcade

 

 

The Dog House was a popular place in mid afternoon. We ate there a couple of times. It was good but I found the buns a bit dry and fell apart as we ate them. In fact I found a lot of the bread products to be not the freshest on this cruise. Quite eatable, just not up to the same standard as on my previous cruises.

 

 

On that note, I will mention here the cookies, that are usually a favorite on my royal cruises were absolutely horrible on this trip. They were consistently hard and stale. I don't normally pick on this type of stuff, but these cookies were really terrible. Such a change from Quantum where they were always fresh baked and soft and consistently warm.

 

A view up

 

 

Cute Play area for little ones. I actually saw quite a few using it through the trip.

 

[novalab]

 

 

 

We walked around and she explain the story of how Rome was founded by Romulous and Remus. I had heard it, but she gave us a lot more detail.

 

 

 

 

Hi Laura! Thank you so much for posting this! I have a question about the picture above. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Rome on two occasions back in the late 1970's. I took quite a few pictures of the above ruins & the huge home/palace(?) on the hill above it. Since we went in the off season & it rained both times we visited this site, I never did get to ask anyone what these ruins were (we had the site pretty much to ourselves because of the rain:rolleyes:). Can you enlighten me and answer my decades long 'mystery'?:o

 

Thanks so much!

Judy

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WOW...so enjoying your review! Is it June yet so I can be on the Harmony?

 

Thank you. I'm glad you are liking it and I hope finding it helpful. :)

[transam84]

Hi Laura! Thank you so much for posting this! I have a question about the picture above. I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Rome on two occasions back in the late 1970's. I took quite a few pictures of the above ruins & the huge home/palace(?) on the hill above it. Since we went in the off season & it rained both times we visited this site, I never did get to ask anyone what these ruins were (we had the site pretty much to ourselves because of the rain:rolleyes:). Can you enlighten me and answer my decades long 'mystery'?:o

 

Thanks so much!

Judy

 

Hi Judy, I think it was some sort of stadium. At least that is what I remember her calling it. It was such an information packed two days. It was almost history overload. But I loved every single minute. Hope that helps a little. Laura

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We loved the concierge lounge so much we really did not go to the diamond lounge at all except to take some pictures. It is a lovely space though.

 

 

 

 

Central Park is always a nice place to relax. We at Chops, Giovanni's and of course Park Cafe.

 

 

Looking up

 

 

We headed to the spa at 1:00 for a 1:30 appointment only to find they messed up my facial reservation. After a great deal of confusion we headed down only to find they messed it up again. At this point Tom wanted to skip them so we did. I was not really disappointed as there were a bunch of shows we wanted to see at the same time.

 

Spa Entrance

 

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As I said I was not disappointed about the spa reservation mess up, actually it worked out for the best. I got to see 3 shows that we enjoyed.

 

First we went to see Oceanaria at 1pm. When we sailed Oasis we had the aquatheater suite so we only saw the diving show from the balcony. I loved seeing it from a different vantage point.

 

I want to point out that there really are reserved seats for suite guests. You do not need reservations. There are great seats reserved for all shows. We just flashed our cards and in we we went.

 

So here are some highlights

 

 

 

 

 

 

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At 4 we went to the ice show. This is a staple of the big Royal ships. This one based on Monopoly and good as expected. Having a son who was a competitive figure skater I appreciate how hard it is to perform on that small rink.

 

 

 

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For dinner we ate in the suite restaurant next to the concierge club, coastal kitchen. The wait staff is excellent and the food is good. The view is spectacular.

 

 

Menu for Starters

 

 

They brought this to the table instead of bread.

 

 

I had Flatbread appetizer

 

 

Tom had the watermelon salad