New to RC - Random thoughts on Allure Sports activities

[cocobam]

Just off Allure, and we tried most of the sports activities the ship had to offer. Here are some thoughts:

 

Activity Wrist Bands - you get these on deck 16 between the two Flowriders. You can fill out the waivers here or in advance. It doesn't help to fill them out in advance; you still have to wait in line behind the people who haven't. Once you get one, you can wear it all week. If you only want to do one thing, you don't need a wrist band - you can just fill out the waiver for that one activity at that activity.

 

Flowrider - there are two of these, Deck 16, all the way aft (but you get there by going up some stairs from Deck 15). One was used for stand-up surfing (must be 58") and the other for boogie boarding. Each one usually had two lanes operating at the same time (there is an inflatable divider they put down the middle) with a crew operator helping in each lane. There is a separate line on each side for each lane, so you can pick the one that looks shorter. Lines for the stand-up were generally shorter than for the boogie board, but that could be because there were a large number of kids on our spring break cruise. On the boogie board, you start out on your belly then jump to your knees when you are ready. You go until you wipe out or the operator calls time. There were bleachers where you could sit and watch.

 

Zip Line - the line begins on Deck 16 by the Flowriders. You have to wear closed toed shoes, and you can't be in a wet swimsuit. Your clothes must be dry. They give you a helmet and harness to put on. The ride itself is six seconds long as you zip over the Boardwalk.

 

Climbing Wall - each wall had three climbing lanes, and both walls were typically open at the same time, so you could look for the shorter line. The three lanes were different levels of difficulty, but you didn't get to choose which one you wanted. They would call the next person in line for whichever one opened up. I suppose if you wanted to wait for a certain one, you could just let others go in front of you. If you were a parent with a camera, they would let you into the climbing area to take pictures. Socks are required, and they give you shoes and a helmet.

 

Ice Skating - this is the only one we had difficulty getting in. They don't offer sessions every day due to the ice show rehearsals and performances. You have to look for the open skate times in your Cruise Compass. They listed two hour blocks and let people in for 20 minutes each group. We went in the middle of the first open session, but they had already booked up all of the 20-minute groups the entire session. They told us to come back in the afternoon for another session, but when we did, it was closed for ice show rehearsal. The next time we saw open skate listed in the Cruise Compass, we went at the very beginning of the session to be sure to get a spot. Long pants and socks are required, and they give you a helmet and skates to wear. It is fairly crowded, but everyone skates in the same direction.

 

Scuba - two of my kids did the Try Dive class, which I didn't see advertised anywhere, but I asked about at the dive shop on Deck 15. You must be 12 years old, so my youngest couldn't do it. It was $29 and was offered at 10 AM every sea day in the sports pool. This is different from the scuba certification class, which uses the deeper pool in the aqua theater. They basically just put on scuba equipment and swam back and forth underwater in the pool with the instructor for a half an hour, but my kids liked it.

 

General - both kids and adults were doing all of the activities. There were times when the lines were very short and other times they were very long. The longest lines were on the last sea day, so I recommend going early in the week and when they first open in the morning for shortest lines.

 

 

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