Live from Allure

[Tulsacoker]

Does the suite with the bedroom on the second floor have a bathroom on that same floor? Or, do they have to go downstairs in the middle of the night for the bathroom?

 

They have two bathroom .. one up and one downstairs

[mikmouse]

They have two bathroom .. one up and one downstairs

 

Always wondered, thanks so much.

[rwright261]

They have two bathroom .. one up and one downstairs

 

 

 

Yes this is correct, two bedrooms, two bathrooms.

 

 

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[rwright261]

We were on last week, the first week for the chat. It really never worked. We were a party of 15 and chat would have come in handy. They have work to do. It was very difficult to add people. Both parties had to accept. And, when we did chat, messages came through very late if they came through at all. Only about 2-4 messages came in real time. You also don't get a notification unless you're looking at the app. Not convenient. The other features of the app worked very well, but they have to do more work on chat.

 

 

 

Yes this is what we have found too. I like having the compass available, plus being able to see my account, the menu etc... I guess as the chat has only recently been rolled out it’s work in progress.

 

 

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[Grommet]

So we headed for breakfast just before 8am and were in line at the MDR for opening. The line split into two, one for a la carte and one for buffet.. we chose buffet.

 

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Can you change your mind and go from a la carte to buffet or vice versa or are you stuck once you've made your line choice? For a nice quiet place with good breakfast/lunch selections, where would you recommend? MDR, Solarium, Park Cafe?

[silentbob007]

They have two bathroom .. one up and one downstairs

 

The upstairs one is the nicest one ... not that the one on the lower floor is terrible.

[silentbob007]

Can you change your mind and go from a la carte to buffet or vice versa or are you stuck once you've made your line choice?

 

You can always run to the buffet from wherever you are seated. If you are seated in a buffet area, you won’t get menus.

[Grommet]

If you get a chance, could you please post a pic of the Teen Program/Compass? Thanks so much!!

[rwright261]

Can you change your mind and go from a la carte to buffet or vice versa or are you stuck once you've made your line choice? For a nice quiet place with good breakfast/lunch selections, where would you recommend? MDR, Solarium, Park Cafe?

 

 

 

As Silentbob said if you’re in the a la carte section you can go across to the buffet, but as we chose the buffet queue we were seated and weren’t given menus.

 

For a quiet relaxing breakfast, I’d recommend the MDR (and just hope there’s no character breakfast) or solarium if you’re wanting something substantial. Park cafe will also be quiet but there’s limited choice due to its size. Don’t forget also that Johnny Rockets is free at breakfast time, we haven’t tried it yet but the menu looks good (omelette, sausage, bacon etc).

 

On sea days the MDR is open for lunch but only for a limited time, the menu used to be a lot bigger than it is now but you’ll get a peaceful lunch there. We ate in Park Cafe yesterday, my husband had a freshly made salad, there was lots of choice, chicken, tuna, ham. I had some soup (beef and bean) and a beef cob. It was nice and quiet but we were there quite early (just after 11.30)..

 

As we had an early lunch I popped into the Solarium around 2pm and also had some mashed potatoe and chicken casserole which was very tasty.

 

The speciality restaurants are also open at lunch time, but the options I have mentioned above are free.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

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[rwright261]

If you get a chance, could you please post a pic of the Teen Program/Compass? Thanks so much!!

 

 

 

Hi,

 

It’s our first port day today so we’ll be headed off the ship early but I’ll try and post one later.

 

 

 

 

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[rwright261]

So we had a 6.30pm reservation for the Ice Games show... we headed in just a minute or two after 6pm and people were already in taking their seats. We sat in the middle section which filled up quickly.

 

It was amusing watching the crew members trying to reserve the front few rows for suite guests, they had to tell quite a few people to move and then there were about 6-8 people just hanging around waiting for them to open up the area to Joe public who then got front row seats.

 

We really loved the show, I’d definitely recommend seeing it if you’re on Allure. The concept and theming was great, the songs really good (I was dancing along in my seat) and apart from a couple of slips was almost near perfect.

 

The show finished at 7.15pm and we walked along the promenade just as a Caribbean party was taking place (dress code tonight casual/Caribbean)... we stopped and danced a little.. the band (one love) were playing, there was a waiting balancing a bottles of rum on his head whilst dancing and lots of crew members with hats and dreadlocks.. it’s a shame we had a dinner reservation otherwise we would have stayed a little longer.

 

The lines for dinner were quite big both sides (reservations and none), they split into two though so we got seen quite quickly.

 

We were given the same table (307) which is around the corner of the dining room in a small space with only about 20-25 tables, it feels like a private dining room. The service was much better tonight too with the waiter and assistant being more attentive, using our names etc.

 

To eat we both had tomato soup to start (it was absolutely delicious!) and we shared the pork tacos... these are weird.. at home in the UK taco shells are hard, but this was a soft bun, there wasn’t much pork in them and we agreed the better choice was the soup.

 

My husband had the tiger shrimp and I had steak Diane. The steak was a little stringy/chewy.. but the sauce was nice and I enjoyed the jacket potato with sour cream.

 

For dessert, I chose the mini doughnuts (it said beignets in the description) and my husband had cherries jubilee.

 

I was really disappointed with the doughnuts, they weren’t warm, very stodgy and weren’t really ‘mini’... let me tell you I’ve had beignets at Disney Port Orleans French Quarter and these were definitely not the same! My husband loved his cherries jubilee.

 

We had all best intentions of going to the love and marriage show, but in the end headed back to our room and into bed.

 

We have a king set up with the bed nearest the balcony and love to hear the sea and we drift off to sleep. That combined with a good book and a 9.15am trio meeting in the morning meant we were happy to skip the show.

 

We’re in St Maartin today, funnily enough my parents are currently on a cruise and were there just yesterday.. they were at Orient Beach and said the devastation from the hurricane was terrible.... we have a snuba (cross between scuba and snorkelling) trip booked today so not sure where on the island we’ll be, but I’ll report back later (in case anyone is reading along?)

 

 

 

 

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[MNTwinsMom]

Thanks for posting! I'm following along on your cruise as we board the Allure a week from Saturday.

[Dormie]

I am! Have a good day in st. Martin!

[lcookie]

Is the chat a real-time text conversation, or is it possible to send a message to someone who doesn't have their phone on and the message pops up later?

 

 

The chat is real time and you will get the notification later if you are not logged in when it is sent. The only problem I had was not getting an audible notice that the chat came in. You would always have to log in and check.

Edited October 3, 2018 by lcookie

[lcookie]

Thanks for the great info. Wondering what time the muster drill was yesterday? Is the voom working well in the room?

 

I just got off on Sunday. The Voom was one of the best experiences I have had at sea. No problems streaming, uploading, etc.

[lcookie]

We will be on 10/21. Trying to schedule a few Roll Call events. If possible will you post the M&M time for each week(we’ll be on the western itinerary)

 

Also if you have the day/time of the Suite events or Top Tier events that would be helpful.

 

I want to try to schedule the Slot Pull where it won’t interfere with those events.

 

Thanks so much & have a wonderful trip!

 

 

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Western M&M was on 1st sea day around 10:30 AM

[lcookie]

Was the top tier event for Platinum and above? Someone recently posted it was only for Diamond and above. Looking forward to being on Allure in two weeks!

 

Thanks for your time!

 

Patti

 

No. I am quite low on the ranking and got the invite.

[Clarea]

The chat is real time and you will get the notification later if you are not logged in when it is sent. The only problem I had was not getting an audible notice that the chat can in. You would always have to log in and check.

Thanks for the update. Unfortunate it's not a real store & forward texting app.

[rwright261]

Thanks for posting! I'm following along on your cruise as we board the Allure a week from Saturday.

 

 

 

You’re welcome! Hope you have a fabulous cruise.

 

 

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[rwright261]

I am! Have a good day in st. Martin!

 

 

 

Thank you!

 

 

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[NewKYDad]

I hope this isn't too strange of a request, but could you get a picture of a drink menu from the English Pub?

My wife and I are cruising on Allure in December and we're curious about the beer selection.

Please and thank you!

[Grommet]

Hi,

 

It’s our first port day today so we’ll be headed off the ship early but I’ll try and post one later.

 

Great...thanks! Looking forward to it!

 

Enjoy your first port day in St Maarten! Would love to read all about the condition of the island and which is the best beach for snorkeling and to jetski.

[rwright261]

I hope this isn't too strange of a request, but could you get a picture of a drink menu from the English Pub?

 

My wife and I are cruising on Allure in December and we're curious about the beer selection.

 

Please and thank you!

 

 

 

Hi,

 

Yes that’s no problem.

 

I’ll get it for you later.

 

Thanks

 

 

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[rwright261]

Hi,

 

 

 

It’s our first port day today so we’ll be headed off the ship early but I’ll try and post one later.

 

 

 

Great...thanks! Looking forward to it!

 

 

 

Enjoy your first port day in St Maarten! Would love to read all about the condition of the island and which is the best beach for snorkeling and to jetski.

 

 

 

Hi,

 

We completed our snuba trip and came back on board so unfortunately I don’t have much to report back on the condition of the island.

 

However we were talking to the crew and they were telling us how devastating the hurricane was.

 

We asked how they protected themselves and one guy said he locked himself in his bathroom by screwing panels on the door.. he said people were told to write their id numbers on their limbs in case they were blown to pieces you would know who’s arm or leg belonged to who [emoji25]

 

There was nothing they could do with the small boats, they all got destroyed, the one we were on took 4 months to rebuild.

 

In the immediate aftermath, there was looting for 3 days, even the police were doing it. However, they also spoke of a great community spirit (until insurance money came through then everything changed).. they said people were helping each other to rebuild things, they were lighting candles and bbq’ing food that may have been going off as they couldn’t power their freezer.

 

The army arrived to help but because the MP didn’t declare a state of emergency they were unable to assist for a few days. There were lines miles long for just two bottles of fresh water. The poorer communities were given tickets to buy food but no one was allowed to spend more than $20 at a time. Peoples car pipes were cut and the fuel taken out so people could fuel their generators.

 

They said the cruise lines did nothing to help. We pushed this subject a bit saying it wasn’t right that they did nothing to help, and they said they could understand tourists not wanting to visit a war zone. The ships were meant to be back 17th November, but when they visited they said the Islanders hadn’t done enough to rebuild yet so they wouldn’t be back. They said the cruise companies pointed out what they wanted re-building so cosmetically it looked nice.

 

A lot of people had insurance but the companies simply ran out of money. Some people are still living without roofs now and they said the French said of the Island is still particularly devastated.

 

The port area and dockside looked as though nothing had happened. Here’s a photo we took from the boat although I appreciate you can’t see much from it...

 

 

As for snuba we both found it quite difficult. My husband didn’t like the amount of pipes around him (we were 4 to a raft with all our tubes going to the raft) and he kept feeling like he was getting caught in them. I started breathing really fast (nerves I guess) at first so that didn’t help, but once I had calmed down I managed to get about 10-12ft down but I couldn’t pop my ears properly so had pain in my right ear.. we can say we have done it now, but will stick to snorkelling in the future.

 

The Solarium bar nor the solarium were open at lunch time so we headed to Windjammer once we were back on the ship. They had lots of curries etc. I had chicken chilli con carne with rice plus some beef stroganoff and some roti. We also shared some fresh fruit, the pineapple was particularly delicious!

 

We came back to our cabin and fell asleep.. we have slept lots this holiday.. I think we were tired leading up to it, we both have busy jobs and I seem to have taken a while to get into the time zones.

 

Anyway, are are sailing away now and have a morning in San Juan tomorrow (7am-1pm)

 

Here’s the day 4 compass for anyone interested...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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[rwright261]

 

 

 

 

 

 

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