Allure Of The Seas – Part 1
Well I am back home after my amazing week on board the biggest ship in the world, Royal Caribbean’s Allure Of The Seas. I don’t really know where to start this blog as you can imagine we have seen and done so much that it’s hard to know where to begin. We were booked onto the 01st December Caribbean sailing for 7 nights out of Fort Lauderdale going to Labadee Haiti , Falmouth Jamaica and Cozumel Mexico. We flew direct with American Airlines out of London Heathrow and were impressed with the amount of food and drinks that were provided throughout the flight but the crew on-board were a little grumpy. 9 and half hours later we arrived into Miami and was transferred to the Fairfield Marriott in Fort Lauderdale for our one night pre cruise stay. The transfer from Miami to Fort Lauderdale was very smooth and a lot quicker then I thought only taking about 25 minutes in total. We were really shattered after the long day of travelling so got an early night ready for the day ahead. I have to be honest and say I was slightly concerned about the check-in for this ship as when you have 5500+ people checking in you imagine it is going to be hard work and long lines. This however was not the case I am pleased to report. We were with a party of 28 and our group organisers had arranged for us to get on the ship early so we could have a look at different types of cabins and suites. Within a matter of 10 minutes or so we were at the front of the queue and started the procedure of check in. Now I must admit here that I did make a bit of a boob as I am pregnant I presumed as long as I was under 24 weeks which I am then I am fine to travel. BEWARE – This is not the case as I unfortunately found out first hand. The lady checking me in asked me if I was expecting and when I replied yes she asked to see my doctor’s letter. I wasn’t aware I needed a letter I explained and she firmly advised me that without a letter I would not be getting on-board. After a mad panic and a lot of calls toing and froing back to the Uk which took about two hours to sort out due to it being a Sunday and my doctors being closed I managed to get an email sent from my hospital midwife and eventually got on the ship. As you can imagine it was extremely stressful and a situation I would hate anyone else to find themselves in. It is in tiny print at the back of their brochure if you are the type to study a brochure word for word but as most of us are not it will be something I will be making sure clients know if they advise me they are pregnant in the future.
After the drama we finally got on-board and I can honestly say the ship definitely had the big wow factor from the second you stepped on-board. We got on at the promenade deck and this is the really the heart of the ship where you have the pubs, bars, shops, cupcake cupboard, Pizzeria, Champagne Bar and Starbucks. It is always busy down her and buzzing with a lively atmosphere and we found it was a good place to start for pre-dinner drinks.
After mooching around the ship for a little while and trying to get our bearings we headed up onto the pool deck for the sail away party. Unfortunately the weather took a turn on us and it started raining so this was cancelled but we still got a Royal send off by all the locals on land who came out of their houses and out on the beach to wave us off which was nice. We then headed down to check out our cabin. We had an inside cabin on deck 7 which was fine in size and facilities. It would have been nice to have a balcony sea view or central park view as they looked great and it is worth it as you would get real use of it out in the Caribbean, but it was not to be.
Central Park Balcony View The one thing that really impressed me in there was they had an iPod dock and speaker so if you wanted to listen to your tunes of your phone you just plugged it in and music in your room – brilliant for when we were getting ready. A little tip here at this point as when we received our cases my roomy and colleague Emma Davis had her travel Iron confiscated off her and would not be returned until the end of the cruise due to it being classed as a fire hazard by Royal Caribbean. Our cabin steward was helpful and efficient as always with the royal Caribbean staff and always kept our room immaculate and tidy whenever we returned. He did us the normal towel animals and one night I got quite a fright as I opened the door and he had done us a little monkey hanging from the light.
If you do get lost on-board and need to find your cabin or a particular area that you need to get to then dotted all around the ship there are big touch screens and you can simply type in your number or area and it will show you how to get there and what deck its located on.
For our first night on-board the ship we had a cocktail party so we could meet everybody and introduce ourselves. We were on the second sitting dinner at 8:30 in the main restaurant and were looked after by a lovely head waiter who made sure we had everything we wanted. The menu choice isn’t huge as they are catering for such a large number of people and we did find over the coming days that certain things were always repeated like the scallops or prawn cocktail. The quality of food was good but on some occasions it wasn’t served overly hot which was a bit disappointing and not expected.
After the first nights meal we had been booked into the Aqua theatre to see the show. I would strongly recommend to pre book seats which you do on your personaliser before you go as it can get really busy and it is a show you definitely don’t want to miss out on. The pool itself isn’t huge bit it is very deep at 18 feet and the theatre seats around 600 people. The performers are amazing and consist of high divers and acrobats and the real wow is the fact that the floor of the pool comes up and down so one minute someone is diving off a high board and then the next second an acrobat is doing backflips across the pool. A spectacular show, with brilliant lightening and music, to make it even more dramatic.
Look out for my next blog on the Allure coming soon.
About Me
I have been working in the Travel Industry for 16 years and originally started out in Business travel. After doing this for a while I was given an opportunity to move into the cruising industry and haven't looked back since. I thoroughly enjoy my job and can't think of anything…
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