Allure of the Seas - March 10 - 17 - Recap WIth photos

[marti314]

Embarkation:

Allure is using the new Terminal A in Miami.  The pickup / drop-off area is quite a nightmare.  I arrived at the port about 10:30 am and it was packed with vehicles / busses / trailers / uber / lyft with nobody really knowing where to go.  There is a back portion of the wraparound where the busses  are supposed to go to drop / pick people up but when you get a bus with a luggage trailer on the back parking in the spots it 100% stopped anyone else from getting past them so it just created a massive bottleneck.  Also none of the spots are really designated for any company in particular so its a free for all as to where you may be picked up.  To make things worse there were Uber/Lyft drivers pulling into these spots making no spaces for the busses to park.  Disembarkation was worse because I was actually trying to find a bus in that case.  I'll comment on that in a disembarkation section.

New Terminal A / Check In Process:

Holy cow have they made things efficient if you have your Set Sail all completed.  No more going to a desk at all, just 30 or so people ready to scan your set sail and send you to security.  Literally took 2 mins to get through "checkin" and through security.  The "waiting" area for those that show up before they allow you to board isn't all that organized at all.  It was "Take a seat wherever"   They opened the doors around 10:50 am.  Their new boarding process is quite odd, they basically announce on the loud speaker "groups" to board.  They called KEY first, then Pinnacle, Diamond Plus, Diamond, Emerald and Platinum all in one announcement.  Because of how few there were in each group we boarded the ship quickly anyways.

 

Onboard Specialty restaurant reservations:

I had purchased the ultimate dining package for the week and immediately went up to Chops to make reservations for the week.  First comment was that CHOPS and GIOVANNIS said there was 0 chance of having lunch at either of those places on embarkation day because the KEY guests were all reserved.  I ended up going to Sabor which was very nice anyways.  I had a sheet of paper with my preferred restaurants for each day/time and for the most part they were able to get close to what i was looking for.  What was challenging though is some of the reservations did not show up on the APP at all or the TV so towards the end of the week i was making phone calls to verify times.  

 

Specialty restaurants: 

 

150 Central Park - 3 times, Absolutely Amazing dinners - Richard was our server each time and we really enjoyed him.  I made sure he was  well compensated for his service he provided.  If you enjoy a flavorful caesar salad, do not miss this one, it is full or garlic and anchovy slivers.  Also the tenderloin for 2 was delightful, perfectly cooked, carved tableside, very impressive.  

Chops - 2 times - Once for lunch once for dinner - Chops just seems to be missing flavor to me.  Yes they have delicious cuts of meat but it almost seems like they forget to season things there.  The sauces are just missing something, but all in all good meals.  Red Velvet cake is still alive and well, ignore the macaroni that escaped onto the table cloth: 

 

Giovannis - 2 times for dinner - Great meals here, enjoyed sitting outside one night and the last night having a final meal at Giovannis was a good way to end the trip

Izumi - 2 times - One for Lunch, One for dinner.  While I love the sushi here the service was just bad.  The server was friendly and all but just couldnt get anything right.  Food came out at very different times, wrong food brought, some food missing, random food on my bill, random wine on my bill i didnt drink.  After this happened the 2nd time i went to the manager to express my concerns.  They offered me to go to the galley brunch on the last day as a consolation.  

Sabor - 2 times for lunch - Their lunch menu is very limited but its great to sit outside on the boardwalk.  The food is nothing to write home about (used to be much more robust, now only 3 things on the lunch menu).  The Churros and Banana things for desert were pretty darn good.  All in all i wish they kept things how they were in the past but i think the atmosphere makes up for it (and the margaritas)

 

Galley Brunch - about 16 people in our group (far to many to hear anything) .  I really enjoyed the tour, especially the BAKERY which i wish i had some of those machines at my house.  The lunch / champagne after the tour was OK, it was standard MDR food.  The champagne was flowing freely, I think i ended up with 6 glasses and felt pretty good after that.

 

Photos from around the ship: 

 

Cafe Promenade: Someone asked if they make alcoholic coffees and the answer is YES and they are delicious: 

 

Sabor Drink Menus: 

 

 

 

Vintages Menus: 

 

Boleros Cocktail Menu: 

[marti314]

Breaking it up into multiple posts:

Other Random Pics:

 

 

[marti314]

MIAMI: 

 

[marti314]

Now to finish some of the comments: 

Ultimate Dining Package Review:

I knew going into it that there would be a ton of food and this was an understatement.  As we all know the speciality restaurants can be quick (1.5 hours) or seem like an eternity (2.5 hours).  Going to specialty for Lunch and Dinner consumed about 3 - 4 hours of time each day.  We enjoyed the personalized service and the options but after walking up to the windjammer a few nights to "Scope" out the food we said to each other "I want to try X Y Z", one night (chocolate night) in the windjammer we just took bowls of chocolate goodness back to the room and skipped desert in the specialty restaurant.  

All in all I wont do ultimate again, too time consuming, you want to try to get your moneys worth by using it but then it just makes you feel overly stuffed all the time (Especially with drink package).

Ports: 

St Maarten: I had never done this but i opted to rent a car in St Maarten.  This was scary because so many of these car rental places have shady practices so i chose the HERTZ which is right at the port.  They gave me what some people would call a beat up jeep (take plenty of pics before you drive off and mark up the damage report).  The vehicle worked great, AC was fine and it got us around the island.  Drove over to Cupecoy Beach on the west side of the island for some snorkeling and beach time.  The beach was busy but we were still able to find a spot.  The snorkeling was pretty decent.  Then drove up to Marigot for a late lunch.  Went to a place highly rated called Le Tropicana, a French restaurant and it was amazing.  I had a banana crusted red snapper covered in a green curry cream sauce, most unique and interesting thing i had tasted all week.  If you find yourself up in this area I highly recommend this restaurant.

San Juan, Puerto Rico: 

Walked about 9 miles this day, not sure where all we went but it was all so pretty.  Started with a breakfast at Cafeteria Mallorca, I highly recommend this place for a nice local type breakfast and not too pricey.  Had some street food for lunch (beef empanadas, rabbit empanadas) 

Labadee: What else can you say, this is always an amazing day at the beach(es) 

 

Disembarkation: 

Opted to roll my big luggages off the ship.  Since i was on Deck 7 and disembarkation was on 5 it ended up not being an issue.  The new facial recognition scanners they use for US residents was amazing.  No customs agents anymore just stand in front of a machine, it will approve you and you are on your way.  From the time we scanned off the boat till we were at the fiasco in the pick area was < 5 minutes.

This goes back to the Terminal A traffic / Pickup & Dropoff mess.  This time i was waiting for a bus but had no idea where to wait and people were just standing around everywhere but nobody had a clue where to go.  Busses with luggage trailers kept pulling in that were too long to let other busses go by so it stopped traffic 100%.  The traffic control was pretty much non existent, just seemed like a free for all. 

Opinion of Service :

Stateroom attendant:  Carl was great from the day we got on the boat until we got off.  He would always greet us by name, did a good job with the room and what really impressed me is when I was coming down the hallway with my hands full he would run down the hall and open the door for me.  This happened at least 5 times during the trip (maybe i should stop carrying so much), but he got a nice tip of of us for the week.

Speciality dining: For the most part all service was excellent except for IZUMI.  Some was exceptional some was good, but this is all you can hope for.

Bar Staff: Just like dining you have some bartenders who are great and some that look like they dont want to be there and they make sure you know it.  Needless to say the grumpy ones do not get extra money.

Additional Observations: 

Upon boarding they had the buy 1 drink package get one 50% off.  

They offered the 10 drink card on day 5

The Pub Singer was fun - Charlie Jourdan

Schooner Bar singer / Piano player - Joe Thomas - ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm i did not enjoy him and based on the very few people there every night not many people did

Cruise Director / Activities Manager: Fun and not overly intrusive

Love and Marriage Game show was one of the best ive seen ever!!!  

I have all of the cruise compasses for the week that i will get scanned in and send to Matt soon for posting.  

 

[Sweety]

Love the red velvet cake. Chops, here i come.

[WAAAYTOOO]

If I had purchased the UDP and had not been able to get into a specialty for lunch on embark day I would have been very unhappy. Sounds like you handled it better than I would have...

That is a good reminder that I need to have the Concierge makes rezzies for us on Freedom next month. 

 

[AshleyDillo]

Excellent review!

Terminal A is wonderful when it comes to checking in and getting on the ship and getting through customs, but I totally agree that it is a mess in the drop-off/pick-up area.  I've gotten to experience Symphony and Mariner at this terminal now..and self-parking, Ubering, using a bus and private passenger pick-up.  I will say they do half-heartedly try to do traffic control in there, but no one abides by it.  I was screamed at a lot when I was trying to drive through to the passenger pick-up to get my party and there's no easy way to get over when you do see the passengers because all the other cars are blocked in at the curb.  

[WannaCruise]

Good review so far.  We were on Symphony same time.  It's also out of the new terminal and we noticed the same thing.  After security I was expecting to go to another desk and surprised we could just go in and take seats.

And found the same thing with Chops...Food seemed a bit blander than it should have been.

Looking forward to hearing more.  We were on Allure a couple years ago and loved it.