WAAAYTOOO

Loop is absolutely useless. It’s not a true messaging service. The Genie must be at his/ her computer to get message so you might as well be using email. All of our Genies simply gave us their phone number and have us call their phones if we need anything. So far, on this cruise, we have not called Charlie even once. We simply have not needed anything. Pre-cruise you can either email or use Loop. We have our breakfast delivered every morning at 9:00 but I’m sure you can have it delivered up until the CK stops serving breakfast. For us, on this cruise, 10 AM would definitely be within those hours. The nice part about it is, as long as someone can answer the door, you’re good ! Nobody has to be dressed to go out...just able to get to the door and let them in. Usually, they call to let you know they’re on their way. This morning we got no such call and Dan had to answer the door in his robe. He had just gotten out of the shower when they showed up. But all was well. Yesterday morning we ate out on the balcony. This morning we ate at the table inside. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. We have preordered breakfast for every morning but by doing that, we are getting basically the same thing every morning. I was trying to keep the ordering overhead down for Charlie by keeping it simple but honestly, I may have to change it up a bit. There is a trade off between convenience (not having to preorder every day) and monotony. I absolutely love their French toast but I don’t want it every day. Whatever we decide to do, I will not bother Charlie with it. I will just go down to the CK and take care of it myself. Charlie is so nice. He’s an American from upstate NY. Rather unusual for an American to work on a cruise ship. He couldn’t be nicer and he has even taken a small shine to the utterly obnoxious Jim. We have met 1 of the other Genies, Phillip and he’s a very gregarious and fun guy too. I do not know who the third Genie on Allure is. On an interesting side note (regarding Royal Genies) nobody seems to know what has become of Alexandra, who was the lovely Genie on Harmony when we were on there with the Jim twins. Consensus seems to be that she is no longer a Royal Genie. I can’t help but worry that the Jim twins drove her to seek another line of work. I hope she found a wonderful, rich husband and decided to retire and have a big family in Transylvania, which is where she is from. I would hate to think the the Jim twins ran her off. ???

Yes, the drinks packages both include sparkling water.

Thanks, Twang-bot. High praise coming from you.

You can get cans from most bars but even with the deluxe package, the cans are not included (exception - Star Class). Nothing from the room fridge is included in either package so will probably need to bring your own cans onboard or pay $4 a piece. It’s a major deficiency in the beverage programs, IMO.

If there is ANY negative about this suite, it would be the loud music coming from the sports/Flowrider area. The noise certainly is not unique to this particular suite but rather a general problem with the loft area suites in general. It was very loud out on the balcony yesterday but once you come inside there is no noise from the outside at all. I think I prefer this suite to the one that looks out over the sports area even though this one it a bit smaller. The view of the ocean is a giant plus, IMO. I love being up on 17. While we really, really enjoyed being back in the Aqua Theater Suites (there’s just nothing like that view and those GINORMOUS balconies), the convenience of being just an elevator ride up to 17 away from most activities is so nice. I can walk to get my cappuccino in the Suites Lounge in 2 minutes while back in the ATS it’s a LONG walk to get anywhere and then a long walk back. I’m glad we did the ATS but I think I’m done with them. It’s going to be deck 17 for me from now on.

More pix

We went to Giovanni's for dinner last night. We had reservations to go to Chops but Charlie the Genie called us yesterday afternoon to tell us that he had changed the Rez to Gio’s b/c Chops was going to be very busy (formal night) and Charlie was afraid that our service would be slow. I thought that was extremely proactive on his part and we had a wonderful meal at Giovanni’s. Dan had the Oslobucco and I had the filet. We are rescheduled to go to Chops tonite. I’m sure it will be great. We did not have lunch in a specialty restaurant yesterday. If we had, we would not have been able to enjoy our dinner. I just cannot eat 3 big meals a day anymore. We have enjoyed breakfast in our suite every morning so far. It’s a great solution for us as we like to sleep in. In the past, we’ve always waited until the last minute and then scurried around trying to find somewhere to eat breakfast. No such worries this trip ! I could really get used to this !

I find the certificates to be nearly useless. The emailed comp offers are extremely valuable to us as they are cheap to upgrade. Since the no longer allow us to combine carts and casino rates (or comped rates) then the carts have nearly no value to us.

Tony, I am SO happy to hear this news. Imagine how many people that hostess totally screwed with her incompetence not to mention how many loyal CR members she disappointed, like you. I hope she gets soundly reprimanded. Totally inexcusable ! I’m glad the shoreside folks made it right for you.

Just so you know, the drink packages only include fountain sodas. If you (like me) prefer cans, you will still have to pay for them.

Oops. I though I deleted that last one. Meant to, anyway.

One more set. Then I have to start getting ready for formal night.

I’m afraid to get too many pix at once. Matt is going to block me from this site !

Yippee ! I did it ! I will have to practice with the captions.

Ok here goes. I will do a trial posting and then go crazy ! someone mentioned not having a cooler for their beer so just wanted to show that you CAN get a cooler if you have a good attendant. Somehow got the captions reversed. Sorry. This pic was from yesterday today there are twice as many bottles and can in this space. Yikes ! Stop bringing new stuff !

Update. All of the normal casino perks are available on Allure this week. We got the famous “sticker” on our Seapass cards on day 1 at a special meet and greet event associated with the blackjack and slots tourneys that are happening on this cruise. The hostess also told us that we would know our tier level before the cruise was over. So, Tony, I’m both sorry and delighted to tell you that your casino host is both lazy and misinformed on Enchantment. I hope this was finally rectified before your cruise was over. We have gotten gifts every day from the casino. We got champagne and chocolate covered strawberries on day 1 and more chocolate covered strawberries today. I wish everyone would quit sending food ! Our dining room table is covered with goodies that we are never going to eat. I hate wasting food ! Afraid that both Dan and I (as was Jim) were eliminated from the $25K BJ tourney in the first round. ?? but that didn’t surprise me at all (at least for me) as I suck at blackjack. I did outlast Dan though ?? I made it to the final hand and went “all in” and lost. Stupid tournament anyway ?? So it looks like the program is still in it final stages of completion but at least on Allure, seems to be progressing as we were promised. I hate that they totally missed the mark on Enchantment.

Hey, everybody! What a great day we had yesterday. Too much champagne and fireball so I am having fireball’s revenge today but it was awesome while it was happening! We had lunch at Chops and dinner at Izumi. We went to the Aqua Theater show and the Genie kindly reserved Jim’s place right with us. I really like Charlie. Great Genie. Our suite is incredible. This SLS is a tiny bit smaller than its companion next door and the balcony is definitely smaller but when you’re talking about “small” it’s all about relativity. The suite is beautiful and the balcony is huge. I’m going to try and post some pix but since I have no f’n idea what I’m doing I may lose the entire post, which would ruin my entire day ! I’m no Twang-bot or Sabrina so please don’t judge by those standards ! I will post over on Tony’s Club Royale thread, too, but just wanted to mention that I believe that Tony’s horrific experience on Enchantment was a one-off and unfortunate mishap. We were given all of the CR privileges that we expected, including free drinks and no 5% fee. We were also promised that by the end of the cruise we would be given our tear level in the new program. On another issue of recent contention, our D+ list of amenities include 2 free days of Voom or a dollars off discount (can’t find the paper at the moment) so it seems that the panic over maybe losing those free days is either premature or unwarranted -at least, here on Allure. i have run out of time (blackjack tournament) so I’m going to have to make the brave attempt to insert a photo later on in the day. The thought of wiping out this post (so much pecking !) has brought a bead of sweat to my brow so I’m going to “submit” before anything can go wrong !

Eh-oh....tough act to follow...

Sorry but I am very biased. There is no better breed than a Goldie, IMO. The only reason Leigh did the goldendoodle is b/c she has terrible allergies and was hoping the hypoallergenic breed would be better for her. In truth, it has been. No shedding, no dander. Hers is a hot mess though. She’s such a spaz...but such a sweetie. I miss my Goldie every single day.

Yes, the weather was fine. Fake news about the impending blizzard. It never even rained. Thank goodness. We are in FLL and waiting to board Allure in the AM. Can’t wait ! Thanks for asking and for the good wishes.

I am making no promises. I have only my iPad so not really equipped to create a full cruise blog but I will do what I can without interrupting the groove of the cruise. I’m not much of a picture-taker and I don’t even know how to post a pic so probably won’t have photos unless I can figure that out. Today was travel day. Left DC at 5:30 AM. Wow. That is early ! ...but had an uneventful flight down. The air was very unsettled so it was a bumpy and turbulent ride but we made it. Since we are both status members with American Airlines, we always fly American. From DC, American does not fly nonstop to Fort Lauderdale so your choices are, nonstop to Miami or go through Charlotte. We chose to go through Charlotte this trip so we had 2 segments, but the flights were so close together that we basically got off the first leg and hustled to the gate for #2 with no time to spare. We are staying at the Residence Inn Airport and Cruiseport. While the hotel is very nice, there is absolutely nothing nearby unless you want Wendy’s or Dunkin Donuts and even with those, you would have to cross a busy highway to get over there. They do have a shuttle bus that picked us up from the airport and will take you to a couple of nearby restaurants or Publix market at no cost but that got old quickly. I don’t think I will stay here again. Dan used points for this room so at least the price was right. They only have a complimentary happy hour Mon-Wed so nothing for us there. There is a complimentary breakfast which we will check out tomorrow morning. There is shuttle service ($8 pp) from the hotel to the port so we are scheduled to leave here at 10 AM. The Genie is expecting us at 10:30 so we may be a bit early. We’re in for the night at this point. Very excited about boarding Allure in the morning ! We were on Allure over Thanksgiving last year but not in Star Class. This will be our first time in Star Class on any ship other than Harmony. It will be interesting to compare the service on the different ships. They’re calling for rain tomorrow so it might be a wet start. Our friend Jim flew in much later this afternoon and is staying elsewhere so we will not see him until after we board tomorrow. It’s always an adventure when you vacation with one or more of the Jim twins.

Tony, just can’t help but think that this is a piss-poor host that doesn’t want to do any work to find out the truth. I cannot believe that after ALL we’ve been promised about the new program that they would tell, you, “so sorry. After unpteen years of loyal patronage and 10’s of thousands of dollars wagered you’re going back to the same level as a first time cruiser who has never stepped foot in a Casino Royale before.” This has me very concerned. Like Stephanie, the most important perk for us is the waiving of the convenience fee. We do not bring cash with us. We get our cash from the casino and play with their money. If they tell us what they told Tony, it will truly ruin our cruise. Will know tomorrow! Better luck tonite, Tony. I would certainly push this all the way. I can’t believe they are correct.

Didn’t Allure used to have some clamshells up in the Solarium ? I didn’t even go up to the Solarium when I was on in Nov 17 so I don’t know if they still have them or not. I can’t remember whether Harmony has any or not. Been on Harmony 3 times and never went to the Solarium !

Yes, whatever time is on your tickets will be ships time.