Live from Allure of the Seas - March 5, 2017

[juliea344]

We walked over to Giovannis to see if they could seat us a little earlier and luckily they were able to accommodate.

 

It quickly became apparent our experience tonight would be much different than the night before. They were clearly understaffed.

 

As far as the food goes, it was good as usual. Mrs had the beef carpaccio again and I went with a boring but tasty arugula salad.

 

The waiter brought out an antipasto dish that was nice. I added a piece of the salami to my salad to liven it up. I wish they would stop with the wasteful portion sizes and extra courses and adjust the price of the restaurant but I digress.

 

 

I ordered the filet which was nicely cooked. Not sure it's anything beyond what you could get in the MDR.

 

 

Wife went with the risotto which was good.

 

 

Another extra course we didn't ask for and frankly didn't go with that we ordered. It was a rather ordinary pasta dish.

 

 

We spent sometime talking with a nice family but once they left it was pretty clear to us and the rest of the patio we had been abandoned by our waiter. I actually had a dirty napkin from the table next to us blow onto our table. And no one had been at the table the entire time we were there.

 

We were clearly not going to be offered dessert so I went inside to fetch my check and speak to the manager.

 

As we were walking over to the Rising Tide bar I noticed the people from a few dinner tables over unloading on the bartender at Trellis Bar about how terrible their Giovanni's experience was.

 

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Was that ordinary pasta on the menu? I wanted to take my kids to Giovanni's by I didn't see anything for them to eat.

 

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[AF-1]

Here's a 360 view of us getting ready to sail away.

 

https://theta360.com/s/d0k2GYI3rkwJdDGhNmJRrSkmO

 

 

Very nice

[M&JfromSDL]

Was that ordinary pasta on the menu? I wanted to take my kids to Giovanni's by I didn't see anything for them to eat.

 

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Yes it was. The exact name of it escapes me.

 

 

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[legaljen1969]

Looking forward to your posts! My lovely girlfriend and I will be on the Sept 10 sailing! Our first Royal Caribbean cruise and first time on a ship over 2500 passengers! Can't wait!

 

Oh, and please let us know how long, or quickly, you make it through the terminal from curb to ship. RCI says 15mins but I just can't believe it one bit. Took us a few hours on our last cruise out of Long Beach, CA.

 

Have a blast!

I don't know about 15 minutes, but they are very efficient in that terminal. I don't know how fast the line will go if you don't have any loyalty points. The first time we cruised with Royal was in 1995 on Majesty (and Majesty was still a reasonably new ship) .

We have some loyalty points after taking 5 cruises with Royal, so we do get to get in different line. Although, there are still plenty of people in our line as we aren't very high in the loyalty rankings. :)

 

Anyhow last year we sailed on Allure. We were about the 10th family in line (two groups in front of us had about 10 people altogether and several cabins to check in). I don't think the entire process took us more than 30 minutes from the time we put our luggage out of the car until the time we were stepping foot onboard in the promenade.

 

If you are there fairly early, I would suspect it would take you about 30 minutes.

[pudy68]

We will be sailing on the Allure next weekend, so do junior suites get to use the suite entrance at the front of the terminal? Once inside, how does my C&A membership factor in, if at all? Thx.

[Tom_n_Sara]

This is really an enjoyable review! Thanks for the hard work on keeping up with it.

 

We're on Allure on April 23. Thanks for giving us ideas of what to do and not to do.

[mringenoldus]

If you were on the Allure on March 12, you should take a look at the rollcall and the activities are available through it. A Junior suite gets you double points and a bigger room but no other particular amenities. Your crown and anchor status might,depending on the level, get you priority boarding and different types of discounts. You can check RCCL.com crown and anchor area for a list of those amenities.

 

 

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[woodz]

Shrimp and Crab cake. Great flavor, about the only thing wrong with it was our point of reference. It was underwhelming to us because we get incredible crab cakes at home. But nonetheless a good choice.

 

 

Once you've eaten a Maryland crab cake from Lexington Market all others pale in comparison. Mmmmm, now I'm hungry.

[juliea344]

We will be sailing on the Allure next weekend, so do junior suites get to use the suite entrance at the front of the terminal? Once inside, how does my C&A membership factor in, if at all? Thx.

Jr suites get to dine at Coastal Kitchen for dinner which I highly recommend.

 

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[Artemus]

Here are some photos of the Casino and Izumi which are both located on the same level (4).

 

 

 

 

 

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Can you please tell me how many Texas Holdem tables are in the casino?

[fuinseog]

Do you think the port area is safe and walkable for a 4 year old? We will be there on the Allure shortly and aren't sure what to do in Falmouth.

 

Great review and photos so far! Looking forward to your thoughts on Izumi if you make it there.

 

 

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[Clarea]

Do you think the port area is safe and walkable for a 4 year old? We will be there on the Allure shortly and aren't sure what to do in Falmouth.... s

The port area is fine, all paved. Even has a Margaritaville.

[M&JfromSDL]

Do you think the port area is safe and walkable for a 4 year old? We will be there on the Allure shortly and aren't sure what to do in Falmouth.

 

Great review and photos so far! Looking forward to your thoughts on Izumi if you make it there.

 

 

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Oh yeah. Totally safe for a 4 year old.

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

Day 6 - March 10, 2017 - Labadee.

 

Good morning from Labadee, Haiti.

 

I woke up at 645am so I could visit the sun deck and watch us dock. Unfortunately when I got to the door the wind sounded like a freight train outside. I made my way to deck 15 and found the upper deck roped off due to the wind.

 

Since I couldn't get a great view I decided to head back to my cabin, catch few zzz's and watch from my balcony. Unfortunately my local chain smoker forced me back into the room so I ended up going back to sleep.

 

 

 

We both fell in and out of sleep but slowly awoke around 930am.

 

 

 

I guess the ship was really moving overnight because I had a somewhat restless sleep and Mrs M&JfromSDL awoke with motion sickness symptoms.

 

Labadee is one of our favorite ports of call so we were eager to get off the ship and head to the beach.

 

 

 

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[mringenoldus]

Safe - but not much a 4-year old would enjoy. My young people enjoyed the river float. If your child is comfortable around water and meets the age requirement for the excursion, it might be fun.

 

 

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[Mrsdigi]

Safe - but not much a 4-year old would enjoy. My young people enjoyed the river float. If your child is comfortable around water and meets the age requirement for the excursion, it might be fun.

 

 

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Is that the bamboo rafting on the Martha Brae you're talking about? We're three weeks out and still undecided on what to do in Falmouth. We have a 4 and a 9 year old.

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

 

 

Typical Labadee BBQ buffet lunch.

 

 

 

Taking a break from the sun and enjoying a Labadoozie.

 

 

We chose to spend the day on Adrenaline beach. The water here is pretty rocky. Wish I packed water shoes.

 

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

 

 

Later on in the day we took a walk to explore some of the other areas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

Then back to our chairs for a while.

 

 

 

I wanted to savor one last labadoozie by 4pm the bar was out-labadoozie'd so Corona it was.

 

 

 

 

We returned to the ship around 4-4:30 since we were starting to get a little hungry.

 

 

 

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

We had been wanting to try the Doghouse but never found the time or the appetite for a hot dog. Since we were looking for something small it fit the bill.

 

 

I went with a smokehouse on a classic bun.

 

 

We were treated to a beautiful sunset while we watched the OceanAria performers rehearse.

 

 

 

We took in sailaway from our balcony which is a change. Normally we like to be up on the sun deck for sailaway.

 

 

Here we go!

 

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

 

 

 

 

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[Pia1913]

This is really an enjoyable review! Thanks for the hard work on keeping up with it.

 

We're on Allure on April 23. Thanks for giving us ideas of what to do and not to do.

 

We're on the same cruise. Have you registered for the M&M?

[Pia1913]

If you were on the Allure on March 12, you should take a look at the rollcall and the activities are available through it. A Junior suite gets you double points and a bigger room but no other particular amenities. Your crown and anchor status might,depending on the level, get you priority boarding and different types of discounts. You can check RCCL.com crown and anchor area for a list of those amenities.

 

 

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A junior suite gets you dinner in Coastal Kitchen if you so desire.

[M&JfromSDL]

 

 

We headed back to Vintages to explore a little more of their tapas menu.

 

Shrimp and Krab cake as well as a rice croquette. Not as good as the ones we had a few nights back.

 

 

But the wine and conversation with the bar staff were excellent.

 

We walked around the ship being indecisive about what we wanted to do. First the Promenade.

 

 

Feeling tired, I caved and ordered an espresso from Starbucks.

 

The ship seemed dead around dinner time. My guess is people took naps after coming back from the beach. We probably should have done the same.

 

At some point went up to the Solarium to check out the Absolut party but there wasn't much going on. We went down to Trellis Bar and sat there and had a few drinks.

 

 

Nothing seemed to pique our interest so we ended up back in our cabin, ordered a little room service and called it a night.

 

 

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[M&JfromSDL]

Here's a 360 from Labadee.

 

https://theta360.com/s/hQ3cl0ogDfCemxVPPuWBOSbcu

 

 

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