Thoughts on Allure, West Caribbean excursions, Port Everglades and more

[AbeFroman2]

Hi all!

 

As always thanks to all of the contributors here. It's the best place on the web for cruise info.

 

Just settling back into a routine after a wonderful two days in Miami and Ft. Lauderdale followed by seven almost perfect days aboard Allure of the Seas. Some thoughts from the trip and please feel free to leave questions. I'll be breaking it up into a few posts so you can skip what you're not interested in:

 

--Pre-cruise and Port Everglades info

 

--Thoughts on board the Allure

 

--Excursion thoughts

 

--Getting home

[Keith1010]

Look forward to reading your report.

Keith

[AbeFroman2]

Pre-cruise

 

We flew from Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale with relative ease. Arrived around Noon, picked up a car at Hertz, and off we went to South Beach. And, no, you don't need a shuttle at FLL to get to rental car locations.

 

South Beach was more of a "since we're here" idea. It was OK. It's just a beach with some expensive restaurants, after all, but we enjoyed touring the outdoor mall, which is the Lincoln Road Mall, and the food at Tapelia was fantastic! Highly recommended.

 

After lunch, we just explored a bit before heading back to our hotel. The rental was a Hertz Hotwire deal that cost $34 plus $4.57 in gas.

 

We stayed at the:

 

Quality Inn & Suites Hollywood

Boulevard (FL708)

Hollywood, FL 33021

4900 Hollywood Blvd

 

Really a fine place for the price we paid, which was $189 a night. Other pre-cruisers got it cheaper, but stubborn me booked a cheaper one elsewhere only to see a rash of bed bug reviews fill up Trip Advisor. Yikes! The Quality Inn was clean, breakfast was fine, and try Rickey's across the street for dinner! Great food and beer prices.

 

Saturday, we went to Gulfstream Park and had a blast and made some money.

 

Sunday, we checked out at 10:30, got in an Uber at 11, and were at the check-in line by about 11:45. Traffic is a bit tough of course but moves along. Inform your Uber driver that he/she must show their driver's license to get passed port security, and you must show your passport and sea pass.

 

Embarkation was nice and easy. Security was quick, and even a small computer glitch did not slow us down too much. Port Liberty in Bayonne was less hectic, but Port Everglades was no problem, either!

[AbeFroman2]

Aboard Allure

 

We had a free port night speciality restaurant booking, so we went immediately to Chop's to make that. A worker was there and took care of it promptly, and off we went to the bar (and yes, Chop's was terrific).

 

I apologize but I did not see the on-board drink package price as we had booked pre-cruise. For those who ask if it's worth it: Totally depends on your drinking habits. As a relaxation drinker (and someone who LOVES Jell-O shots, which Allure has), I definitely got my money's worth. Girlfriend teetered on the edge a bit, but $12 glasses of wine got her over the price point needed to make it worth it.

 

Cell connection was brutal on the ship in port, just an FYI. Have AT&T, and struggled to connect all over. Surf and Stream was as advertised, and whatever the basic package is called was good, too.

 

Allure is a GIGANTIC ship. You know that when you book, but it's hard to envision until you actually arrive. That said, never did it feel crowded or like there were too many people on board. Recommend the WipeOut Cafe if you want an made-to-order omelette, as they aren't in the WindJammer. Personally, we found WJ quite limited on Allure, but guessed that had to do with the number of passengers.

 

And oh, by the way: We had an inside cabin, Room 8425. After having a balcony on Anthem (went inside to save money due to need for flight this time) it was quite the adjustment. But, since we merely slept and showered there, it was not that big of a deal.

 

Moving on to the pool, as you might imagine it's quite hard to find a chair in the sub on port days. Heard many complaining about how early people were out to reserve chairs. We hung out at the bars (Solarium and both pool side bars are great!) and waited for spots to open up, so it was no big deal.

 

One gem on this ship is the Solarium. Quiet, and often found hot tub or pool space quickly.

 

The Main Dining room was OK, but felt so rushed. Servers were different every night as was table location (We had MTD again but did not experience this movement on Anthem) and they often were rushed. One night, we waited 45 minutes for drinks to come. The food was good, but the experience was not typical of previous cruises. No biggie, though: Everyone did their best.

 

Trying to think what I missed, which I'm sure is a lot. We did not do mini golf, Flo Rider, the zip line, so have insight on those. The ice show was terrific, the comedian's funny but typical cruise line routine, and we skipped out on Mama Mia as we drank a tad too much Jamaican rum the night we had it scheduled. The ocean show was cool, too, and recommended.

 

Onto excursions!

[AbeFroman2]

Excursion thoughts

 

We did three:

 

Dragon Fly Zip Line in Haiti

 

I am petrified of heights, but persevered to take part in the longest zip line over water in the world (or so they say). This was an awesome experience I'd recommend to anyone. You start with a small zip line to get a taste of it and learn the proper flight position, then go WAY up the mountain to fly down over the water with a beautiful view of the ship and compound.

 

Maragaritaville Beach Break and Snorkel in Falmouth

 

There was no mention of going to the Montego Bay location (which we did via shuttle that broke down on the way and took about three hours total of drive time), no beach break, and a rushed eating experience.

 

The good news is that the catamaran boat was a fun time and snorkeling was a fun experience. The bad part is that pretty much the rest of it was forgettable. We expected to be at the Falmouth location, and weren't told why the change was made.

 

We never felt unsafe in Montego Bay, but the bus breakdown caused some nervous moments. Wouldn't recommend unless you can be assured you're going to Falmouth location/getting the beach.

 

Dolphin Encounter in Cozumel

 

Oh, to do this again. The captain broke into our stateroom at 8 a.m. with news of the travel ferry advisory, which freaked us out, but the excursion desk assured we'd be safe, and safe we were! The crew for this excursion did a great job organizing travel via taxi for the five-to-seven minute ride to Dolphin Discovery. We did the encounter, which was awesome, and then ate lunch (also good) and saw the Sea Lion show. Then, we spent some time at the pool and beach. Great, recommended excursion.

 

One other Cozumel note: Unless you feel the need, we didn't see the point of going shopping downtown, as everything that's there is also in the port shopping area, which is secure.

[AbeFroman2]

Getting home

 

This was not fun! Well, it was fine, but who wants to leave a cruise ship?

 

We were off the boat about 8:45 and quickly through Customs. The need to not fill out a form anymore is great, and it was a BREEZE. They checked our passports and off we went.

 

It was just a short walk to the bus for the Royal Caribbean pier to airport transfer, and we waited about 20 minutes for the bus to fill up, and off we went. Fifteen minutes later, we were at the airport, too early to check bags for our 1:50 flight, even! In the future, I would roll the dice and book and earlier flight, as sitting at the airport for over four and a half hours wasn't enjoyable (though there is free WiFi at FLL). Even without express walk-off, I'm pretty sure we could have comfortably made the 10:45 flight.

 

We used Fast Park in Baltimore and it was a breeze. $9 a day and it was very much worth it compared to the potentially cheaper airport hotels found on Global Park that can make getting a shuttle a terror (as I've found out far too many times on work trips).

[AbeFroman2]

Final thoughts

 

So, would we cruise on Allure again? Absolutely!

 

Being on Deck 8 put us close to Park Cafe, and we absolutely loved it for a bagel in the morning or a roast beef sandwich or maybe a Panini at lunch.

 

The crew was great, we loved every second of our trip, and can't wait to book our next sailing.

 

Thanks for reading, and ask away!

[AbeFroman2]

Couple threads today gave me a few other thoughts:

 

--Allure uses the Royal Caribbean app, not Royal IQ. It worked about 75 percent of the time, but no texting possibilities like with IQ.

 

--Internet Cafe's were on Deck 7 and 9. No packages available other than daily ones.

 

--Casino mins were almost entirely 10s. Tables were either wide open or hard to come by.