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Old Woman meets a real life Genie — Allure of the Seas STAR class — Feb. 27th, 2022.


Yesiamthere

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One thing for sure casino didn’t like me last night, but I’m not one to give up that easy!  We ate in the suite lounge last night for steak night. Of my gosh, it was absolutely wonderful. Our genie, Nicol, said the best steak was at the Italian restaurant. Will test that out. 

Speaking about our Genie. He is a kick ass one. He really is making star class!  He spent some time at breakfast on our balcony talking with us.  Room service guy is really good too. He said he would be taking care of our breakfast all week. Let him know of any special treats we would like. 

Our Genie is on his second “tour’ as there was no replacement for him. His break starts in April. He has four rooms this week. 
We love our two bedroom Aqua suite on deck eight. I would recommend it!  We don’t mind the walk to the room as we are walkers.  
Im hosting our slot tournament at 11 this morning. Got to go get ready. Also, very few people are wearing a mask. The cruise is back to normal standards. I’ll find out how many people are on the ship!  

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Yesterday we had breakfast on our outside balcony. Lunch at Park Cafe and dinner at Hibachi. Everyone should do breakfast on the balcony. Weather was perfect though it did rain a little later. Hit the casino. I lost again. Hubby won. I’ll write later about that. 
Have to get ready for another breakfast on our balcony. 

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Dry cleaning services are really good. So much better than our cleaners at home. Our door bell only rings once for our breakfast order and once in the afternoon for snacks. FYI:  We were just in the elevator (two of us) with two Officers. Our cards were visible and either Officer said anything to us. Don’t think they memorized star class passengers. Then again, last night while I was walking an officer did say, Good evening Madam. 
I’m so impressed with Star Class…,I’m looking to book again. Star Class is hard to explain. You just can’t imagine what you don’t know. Even with the bad bathrooms, I would still recommend the 8th floor two bedroom Aqua Suites. It really isn’t a problem walking to the back of the ship. 
chef’s table soon!

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Chef’s table last night. Pictures above. It took four hours. Yes, you read that right. We had 12 people. Service was excellent. We had a problem with the steak dish. Ten people had their steak cooked more than what they asked for. I didn’t eat mine at all. Not only was the steak cooked too much, the meat was not good. Cheap meat. My hubby and I left after three and a half hours, before dessert. Kids stayed and were not impressed by the wonder dessert. If I had to pay for the meal I would of been upset. 
Our table mates were wonderful. We laughed, and with each glass of wine they had, we laughed even more!  
Once again, the service was really good. Our waiter was very attentive. He even offered to get us food from other restaurants if we didn’t like what they were serving. The failure happened with the cooking. 
We had an open night after dinner so we hit the casino. I swear this has been the fastest loosing cruise for me. I have seen people win jackpots from a thousand to ten thousand. The casino is busy with the smoking section busier than the non smoking side. The non smoking side is bigger, and there is a good separation between the two. 
Today we are off to see the monkeys. We are really looking forward to that!  
I’ll check in later with you all. My advice is start saving your money to experience star class!  

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49 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I am not a huge beef eater to begin with but when I bite into a steak and realize that it is not a good cut, I am just repulsed.  It ruins the whole meal for me.  Sorry this happened.  It definitely should NOT happen with the Chef's Table.

I’m not a big steak eater too. That said, you do know a low grade piece of meat. We were all surprised. A couple there said it’s never been like that!  I’m not a four hour dinner eater either.  

On a different note, my hubby had a woman make a pass at him in the casino. I would of loved to see his expression!  After the slot tournament, a woman told hubby it was fun but not as fun as this. Between her exposed breasts she had a necklace. She pulled the bottom of the necklace which exposed a penis.  Like a penis is going to do it for him. 🙂  I guess what happens on a cruise stays on the cruise. 

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25 minutes ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

Also, the Chefs table was up the stairs in the diamond lounge which looks out to the Aqua theater. Before the lounge closed it was noisy. Room was nice. Table was nice. 

I had forgotten that the CT was held upstairs in the D Lounge.  It's been a long time since I've been to a CT on Allure, I guess !

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55 minutes ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

I’m not a big steak eater too. That said, you do know a low grade piece of meat. We were all surprised. A couple there said it’s never been like that!  I’m not a four hour dinner eater either.  

On a different note, my hubby had a woman make a pass at him in the casino. I would of loved to see his expression!  After the slot tournament, a woman told hubby it was fun but not as fun as this. Between her exposed breasts she had a necklace. She pulled the bottom of the necklace which exposed a penis.  Like a penis is going to do it for him. 🙂  I guess what happens on a cruise stays on the cruise. 

I feel like they focus more on the seafood aspect of Chef's table and that's why the steaks might be garbage. Also, I am done at 2hrs. Wonderland was a smidge over 2hrs and I was antsy, I couldn't do 4.

Lol I don't know what it is about casinos, but I had a few men and one lady try to pick me up in the casino when I was on Allure. I think it has to be the prime drinks🤣

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Off the ship tomorrow. It’s been wonderful. Our cabin steward said passengers are increasing next week but not staff. He will add three more rooms to clean. He has 15 rooms now. Actually, more since he does our two bedroom. That’s a lot!  
Our Genie said the crew loves Giovanni’s steak the best. We tried it. Nowhere as good as the suite’s steak. So far, the steak there wins, but tonight is Chop’s steak. Service as 150 was the best. 
We celebrated Danielle’s birthday first sea day, and Mary’s last night. Both cakes were he best ever. I’m amazed at the art work on each and both were really good. Mary’s was the best cheesecake and was covered in fruit. Both were special. 
Star class had an hour this morning on the flow rider. Our guys had fun!  
I’ll write more tomorrow. 

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Here’s my overview

We arrived at the terminal around 10:30 and a Star porter immediately grabbed us!  We went thru the Star line and was on the second floor within a few minutes.  No line at all.  Our genie, Nicoli, met us and escorted us into the suite section to wait for boarding to begin.  About 15 minutes later when boarding began we had to wait in line with all of the other suite people.  I did find that a bit surprising that we were not ahead of that crowd to board.  Since it was so early our Mexican restaurant was not ready so we headed to our room.  Luggage was not there.  After doing some hooting and hollering it was time to eat.  Our food at the Mexican restaurant was o.k.  

Headed back to room to unpack then headed for ice cream and milkshakes at the ice cream place.  The milkshakes there were better than Johnny Rockets.  We did eat at Johnny Rockets for lunch one day and had a “new” employee.  She was completely at lost on how to take an order for five people.  Our French fries came out way before our hamburgers, which were totally all wrong.  Hubby stayed to eat his while the rest of us got out of there.  Hubby had a nice chat with the manager and explained the employee was not ready to be on her own.  She needed to still follow someone.  

We did hit the casino each night only to be disappointed each night.  I don’t expect to overall win each night but I do expect some give, instead of all take!  It was the worse loosing casino I had ever been to.  Maybe, the machines are tight due to covid.

We ate at most of the speciality restaurants and all were good, except Chef’s table, which was a disappointment. Everyone at the table got their steaks cooked way wrong and didn’t eat them. Even if the steaks were cooked correctly the meat was a cheap piece of meat.  I felt for the people that had actually paid for that privilege.  Service was good!  

150 had the best service and really good food.  The server there was top notch!!  Kids had steaks at all places we ate at dinner and each voted the “suite lounge” as having the best steak….ever.  

The Garden Martini at 150 was awesome.  I was surprised how much I enjoyed a vegetable martini!  On the other hand, I did not like the lavender martini at chops.  Odd taste  

One thing you need to take into account is the amount of “tips” you will need to give.  From our first porter, guy who sat up our breakfast each morning on the balcony (he was awesome), lunch in speciality restaurants or suite lounge, dinner in speciality restaurants, bartenders, cabin steward, Genie, and two porter guys to get to our cab.  Since there were five of us we tipped $10.00 for breakfast, $20 for lunch and $50.00 for dinner.  Porter guys got $10.00 each.  It added up fast.  

We saw shows:  Comedy and the Ice show.  Comedy was fine.  We had seats reserved on the front side. Ice show was good and was made even better due to our middle front row seats.  Loved it there! Also, we watched the aqua show from our balcony which was fun.  We did not go to the headliner show because the singer was not our type.  Our Genie would meet us at each show and make sure we had our preferred drink.  Nicoli also met us each night at dinner.  He would then get our nightly snacks order and breakfast order for the next morning.

Our Genie showed up for our first balcony breakfast and sat a few moments with us on our balcony.  We would then see him again at dinner.  Most days it was just at dinner unless we went to a show after dinner, but we texted several times a day.  I think Nicoli figured out fast that we preferred our space and did not need constant cuddling.  I liked using the what’s up app for contact with him.  It was easy just to text him, instead of having to call him.   He always responded immediately and completed what I wanted.  One night I decided during the dinner that I wanted my daughter’s birthday cake to be delivered there. Nicoli made it happen. Both cakes were unbelievable. The taste was really good but the art work was the best I had ever seen!!  

Our Genie was a good fit for us.  He is personal, easy going and professional, when needed.  He had “four” rooms our week….five in our room, four in another, two in the other two bedroom aqua suite and I think three in the last room.  Because of lack of replacement, he was on his second tour and due to go home in April for a break.  On some ships, due to lack of Genies, some genies have had to service more than seven rooms.

Our room steward had 15 rooms to clean, one two bedroom aqua suite and the rest were a mixture of inside and balcony rooms.  Our suite was like cleaning three rooms, so he had 18 rooms to clean.  The cruise after us were increasing their passenger count but not staff.  He will have to clean three to five rooms more starting after our cruise.  Every day we would leave two bags full of stuff to be cleaned and pressed.  Two dry cleaning bags are in your room.  You fill out a paper on what you have in the bag.  I have heard horrible dry cleaning stories but all of our stuff came back better than what we get from our dry cleaners at home.  

Our passenger account was just over 50 percent.  Definitely didn’t feel as crowed as pre covid.  The casino was crowded.  There’s a good distance between the smoking and non smoking sections.  Non smoking section is bigger too.  

We only did one tour and that was in Honduras - Sloth and Monkey tour.  It was so much fun!  If you do this tour  hang back from the crowd.  Let them all run into the monkey cage.  By doing so you will get more personal attention at the end.  In Costa Maya, we walked into town.  The walk there and back was around 4.4 miles.  When you get to the end of the street there’s no signage of which way to go to town.  Go left!  In Cozumel we just walked straight out of port for a bit and walked back.  The weather was perfect in all the places for walking.  We did have rain a couple of times but we were already back on the ship.  

The last sea day our Genie had us and two other ladies for a personal hour on the flow rider.  Hubby and son took advantage of that hour.  It was fun watching them!  Son did the rock climbing and climbed right past our room.   Almost close enough for us to reach out and knock him down!

This was our first “diamond” cruise.  We already had unlimited drinks and the suite lounge so really didn’t need the use of the diamond lounge.  We did each get a “free” picture so that was a nice bonus.  

A repeat:  I hosted our slot pull on the first sea day at 11 am.  It took about an hour with 79 people participating.  We each put in 15 dollars.  At the end we had each lost $5.00.  People thanked us the whole cruise for hosting!  Our Genie gave us shirts, hats, water bottle and two sets of towel clips that said VIP and reserved to give as gifts for those who won the most money on their pulls.  

Our cruise was the first cruise having masks as optional.  Around ten percent (maybe even lower) chose to wear them.  I don’t think we had many cases, if any.  Except for staff wearing a mask the cruise was just like the old days……well, less crowded.  

Maybe because we were away from the suite floor….we just never got any unannounced visitors.  Guy came with our preplanned breakfast order, afternoon snacks then nightly snacks.  The Aqua suites are a good distance from any civilization but we ended up loving that.  We are walkers and always enjoyed the long walk down the hallway to our room.  

Nicoli left us each a royal hat as a gift.  We gave him cash as we were leaving the ship.  We gave the room steward cash the last night, incase we didn’t see him the next morning.  

Our Genie met us the last morning at seven with a porter.  He was thankful that we were leaving that early.  Most star class passengers try to stay until the last moment leaving genies trying to get them “all” off and rooms set up for the next passengers.  Our luggage was put on the cart and we all entered an elevator that was going “up” and Nicoli with a special card made the elevator go down.  He walked us to just before customs and handed us over to another porter.  Customs was just a facial recognition moment then off the ship we were.  The porter was awesome.  He brought us over to the taxi service on the side and had someone take us to the airport.  I’m thinking going to the side for a cab is normally not allowed.  I think you have to wait until they line up at the front entrance.  

I started this cruise at 137 pounds. First day off the ship I weighed 140.  Three days later I’m at 138.  Thinking tomorrow I’ll be back to the 137.  At this point, I’m sick of food.  Nothing sounds good.  I’m still stuffed.  By the last night on the cruise I just couldn’t eat, even the fish I was so looking forward to having.  

Hubby and I started the cruise thinking “star class” wouldn’t be a good fit for us.  I still tried to keep the rooms clean, but it was hard to keep up with our kids (grown-ass adults), so we did get our monies worth from the cabin steward!  Everything was done so smoothly.  First class service and attention.  I know some of you “hate” to show your special card but I recommend you keep that sucker around your neck to be seen.  You are paying for first class service!  

The vacation was one of the best ever, and I attribute that to being star class.  It’s expensive and I would not recommend using monies that should be going to your retirement account to take a star class cruise. You could do several  cruises instead of one star cruise for the same price.  Think hard before you spend that much for one week.  

That said, I’m older. More life is behind me than ahead of me.  I’ve spent my time in an interior/balcony room.   I’m getting close to the time that it’s good to spend some of my kid’s inheritance money, so I booked another two bedroom aqua suite - January 2024 on the Harmony.  

Thanks for following!

 

 

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On 3/2/2022 at 10:49 AM, Ampurp85 said:

I feel like they focus more on the seafood aspect of Chef's table and that's why the steaks might be garbage. Also, I am done at 2hrs. Wonderland was a smidge over 2hrs and I was antsy, I couldn't do 4.

Lol I don't know what it is about casinos, but I had a few men and one lady try to pick me up in the casino when I was on Allure. I think it has to be the prime drinks🤣

Four hours was painful.  The seafood dish was really good but that steak, even if it was cooked perfectly, it was still a “cheap” piece of meat!  

My hubby did feel a bit uncomfortable when the lady made the remark and showed him her penis necklace.  Two days later she stopped me at the elevator and said “Have you seen my necklace?”  I videotaped her showing me.  So, she really wasn’t making a pass at my hubby but just loves to show that necklace.  She must be in her early 70’s or maybe late 60’s.  We saw her one day in the elevator, in a small two piece bathing suit, with a see through coverup.  That woman has a knock out figure - better than most 30 year old women.  My daughters were amazed at just how “good” she looked.  I’m thinking hubby might be reconsidering the “whole” affair thing! Lol

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On 3/8/2022 at 2:23 PM, Yesiamthere said:

That said, I’m older. More life is behind me then ahead of me.  I’ve spent my time in an interior/balcony room.   I’m getting close to the time that it’s good to spend some of my kid’s inheritance money, so I booked another two bedroom aqua suite - January 2024 on the Harmony.  

This makes me smile.  I have been trying to explain this logic to my parents forever.  Got so tired we are just taking them with us next March in Star, no option. lol

I really enjoyed following this blog.  Thanks for blogging!

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5 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

This makes me smile.  I have been trying to explain this logic to my parents forever.  Got so tired we are just taking them with us next March in Star, no option. lol

I really enjoyed following this blog.  Thanks for blogging!

What a wonderful daughter you are for taking them to experience Star Class.  You surely gonna get extra “Heaven” points!

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  • 5 months later...

I am so happy to have happened upon your glowing remarks of Nicol. We  received our first communication from him a few days ago as our Genie!!! We are now 26 days out and found your review at just the right time. Thank you for adding to our ever building excitement even more. 10 days in Star Class can't come soon enough. Come on 10/3!

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On 9/7/2022 at 8:23 PM, Kathleen said:

I am so happy to have happened upon your glowing remarks of Nicol. We  received our first communication from him a few days ago as our Genie!!! We are now 26 days out and found your review at just the right time. Thank you for adding to our ever building excitement even more. 10 days in Star Class can't come soon enough. Come on 10/3!

What room will you have?  Ten days in star class sounds awesome.  We will be in the grand loft on Anthem the end of February. Too far out to start counting for us. Let us know how your trip goes. Are you going to blog?  

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14 hours ago, Yesiamthere6 said:

What room will you have?  Ten days in star class sounds awesome.  We will be in the grand loft on Anthem the end of February. Too far out to start counting for us. Let us know how your trip goes. Are you going to blog?  

We are in a Grand Loft (oops I think I originally said Star Loft) on the aft of the ship in Room 10724. As you know, we are so excited. We have already exchanged a couple of emails and he sounds as if he will be the perfect fit for us. We hadn't planned on blogging but I may have to just post some updates.

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