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*ALLURE*d on the Seas - September 5-12, 2021 LIVEish


AshleyDillo

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So tonight we wanted a late dinner so we could watch sailaway from the balcony. Alan met us at Coastal Kitchen (it is filet night after all) and chatted with us for a few minutes. He let us know to email or Whatsapp him with our breakfast order so he could arrange delivery.

He also surprised me at the table with

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These are papadum. We had mentioned an affinity for Indian food and especially these were some of my favorite ship snacks.

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On 9/5/2021 at 9:47 PM, WAAAYTOOO said:

Is the Genie still prohibited from coming into your Suite ?

I think the official policy on paper is they are not allowed.

Deliveries can not, so if you are in your room they aren't allowed to come in and set up while you are there. They sent an email asking us to try and be out of the room for scheduled deliveries.

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2 hours ago, MamaShark said:

I’m glad you said “try“.  Small price to pay for wellness, but could be a little awkward when deliveries come fast and furious:-).  We decided  “hot” meals temps were best when served in the restaurant when staying in 8730/9730.

Agreed...the sushi works well for delivery  We keep our room like an icebox anyways and my mother wears a sweater 😂

It's day 2 and I'm already over food to be honest, but momma didn't raise a quitter.

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We had sent Alan our breakfast delivery order for this morning. They call the room before bringing the food up. This time they rolled the cart into the room and asked if we wanted it on our inside table or on the balcony.

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Somehow this is the bloody mary that @CGTLH ordered. It has somehow reproduced in transit.

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Alan came to check on things this morning and just hung out and chatted. My mom and brother were talking about other crew members they remembered from past sailings and found out they were on this ship. They had a loft attendant they loved. Alan said she was on this ship and called her to come down and say hello! It was like a grand reunion! She was able to come down from deck 17 to say hello! 

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13 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

But never fear, CK filet is a must do, so I did.

Good to know that Allure has revised their rotation to follow the rest of the fleet and serve it on Night 1.  I remember pre-covid, Allure's CK rotation was always off sync with the rest.

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9 minutes ago, AshleyDillo said:

We confirmed you are still able to charge to your onboard account on the slot machines, so definitely the way to cash out any of that onboard credit.

Also confirmed a @PG Cruiser sighting 😉

Glad to confirm an @AshleyDillo sighting

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2pm first sea day and we haven't even seen the pool deck yet.  We participated in a slot pull coordinated through other social media roll call groups. Broke even, so called that a win. Now it is lunch time at Sabor.

My mother decided she wanted to go here. My mother also doesn't eat onions. Pray for our poor waiter.

 

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4 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

@Tiffeven Alan sends his love 💘  He remembered you, the four kids, red hair, last name and everything! He said Sunil is great and you are in good hands.

Aww... this makes me so happy.  Really enjoying your blog and looking forward to hearing more about your amazing week.

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I’m crying over your mom’s onion aversion😂😂.  My mom (rip) used the “A” word and you know the chefs do back flips for guests with “allergies”… In case you don’t already know, your Mom’s Teppanyaki can happen separately in the back so her food won’t even have a whiff of onion-y things!😛🤣.  Fun Blog —the bonding, reproducing Bloody Mary’s the AC; so familiar!   Keep em coming! 

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1 hour ago, MamaShark said:

I’m crying over your mom’s onion aversion😂😂.  My mom (rip) used the “A” word and you know the chefs do back flips for guests with “allergies”… In case you don’t already know, your Mom’s Teppanyaki can happen separately in the back so her food won’t even have a whiff of onion-y things!😛🤣.  Fun Blog —the bonding, reproducing Bloody Mary’s the AC; so familiar!   Keep em coming! 

Oh I know they take it seriously. I kept joking with the waiter and he sternly told me they take it seriously. She tried to take one of my brother's tortillas and he freaked because they might have been warmed on the same griddle they cooked onions on.  Hers is less allergy and more food intolerance that magically evolved from a lifelong strong dislike, so the cross-contamination isn't an issue. This is the first time it's been notated on our account to where it shows up in the restaurant system too.

I didn't even think about the teppenyaki thing..that's tomorrow night. I'm not sure how she is going to react when they won't cook her food in front of her..on her birthday. Pray for me. 😂😂

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Today we made use of the room..might as well when you have a room that's worth spending time in. Eventually it was time to eat again. Tonight was dinner at Chops grill. We had a 7pm reservation because my mother doesn't like to eat late, but tonight she said she hoped our table wouldn't be ready because she wasn't hungry yet. She also had no problem with a Coastal Kitchen dinner at 8pm last night because she wanted to be able to watch sailaway from our balcony.

Well, her wish came true and the table wasn't ready. But that in itself was a problem because her table wasn't ready. She had stopped by yesterday to request a specific table for this reservation. They offered her other available tables but she wanted to be facing the kitchen and not be in the middle of everything. Finally it was settled we would come back in 30 minutes and the table would be ready. My comment about at least having some more time to work up an appetite was met with a death stare.

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We spent the time in the Diamond Lounge, which is still on Deck 11 on Allure. While my mother stewed about the situation, I sipped my Grey Goose and soda and channeled my inner Elsa. Eventually impatience took over and the the on duty Diamond concierge was asked to call and check if the table was ready and he alerted us when it was.

Then in a flash of Genie magic, we walked out of the Diamond Lounge and Alan rounded the corner. He accused us of playing hide and seek and walked us to Chops.

 

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Chops was Chops. We had Justin with the self-proclaimed sexy hair. If you ever have him as your waiter, you will know who I am talking about.  Alan came back at the end of the meal and sat down and chatted with us for a bit. Justin even brought him out a crab cake.

This being our 3rd Star Class experience, I'm definitely noticing the difference between prior experiences. All the prior experiences have been enjoyable but we haven't ever had the kind of next level experience that we are getting with Alan. It is no coincidence that he is one of the ones consistently praised and mentioned over on other social media sites. 

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And shoutout to our stealthy room steward Iwayan for keeping up with us.

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9 hours ago, AshleyDillo said:

 Hers is less allergy and more food intolerance that magically evolved from a lifelong strong dislike, so the cross-contamination isn't an issue.

OMG, this was my mother-in-law to a T.  Anything she didn't like she was "allergic" to.  But if that ingredient just happened to appear in something she loved, she had no idea what you were talking about.  I. Feel. Your. Pain.

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1 hour ago, Drewtastic86 said:

Do you feel the Covid protocols have affected your cruise experience at all?

I was planning on addressing this topic after the cruise, but I can probably give it a shot now. 

With respect to cruising in general the experience will really depend on what's going to feel like a huge change to you and what you are willing accept. For me it feels mostly the same as cruising before, but with the added step of masking to go inside. I do that at home when I go out in public so it's not that big of a stressor for me to have to do so on the ship.  It is nice to be sailing on a ship that can hold 6000, but we only have 2300 onboard. The drawback is the lack of energy that a more populated ship has. That was noticeable to me on the Promenade at 11pm when the Pub was completely empty and only a handful of folks were out and about.  But on boarding day around 3pm, it felt like pre-COVID times, just with masks.

The crew is so eager and happy to be working again and that is infectious. Most of the passengers are the same, just happy to be cruising again. It feels really safe and most passengers are being respectful of the rules.

They are starting to bring things back such as the Crown & Anchor event they usually hold on the first day. This was the first sailing it was back and they held it in the aquatheater and made it for only Diamond Plus and Pinnacles and no free drinks.

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They also had the 340+ points officer lunch.

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With respect to the experience of Star Class...

This is where one's personal value proposition comes into play. If you've experienced Star Class it would be a little more noticeable than it would be for first timers. One example that comes to mind is not having the sushi and cupcake classes available. I always felt like having those things made it feel really more like an all-inclusive experience.  They also aren't doing the behind the scenes tours for Star Class, which also always something that made it a little special.

I was worried hearing that the Genies weren't allowed in the rooms because of protocols, but we haven't experienced that at all. Alan has come in every day and hung out and chatted with us for a little bit. He sat and ate dinner for a little bit with us last night. 

The Chops Seafood Tower is an old Star Class fan favorite and it's no longer even on the Chops menu. This is fleetwide and I'm not sure if this is a temporary sourcing issue or a permanent change. But if asked, the Genie can arrange something similar through and come up with a platter.

Social media can be a blessing and a curse because it allows you to compare and contrast your experience with others. Sometimes that can lessen the ability for the WOW experience to be provided as everything becomes expected.

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