Sea-ing Stars - Allure OTS April 23 - 30, 2023

[asquared17]

5 hours ago, MLH said:

We started looking in the stores that had doors open   on both sides and cut through.  That eliminates a bit of the maze.

we did this and it saved us last time!!

4 hours ago, AlmondFarmer said:

Lately my family has been doing ‘Mahahual on your own’

This excursion starts with a self guided southerly swim from pier to town and avoids all the port shops.

the way i laughed at this

[melmar02]

We're home, mostly unpacked, and cakes are in the oven, so I guess it's back to reality! 

I think I left off on day 2 getting ready for formal night. Smitha had reservations for us at 150 Central Park at 5pm because we had two shows this night. Here is the kids menu (sorry it's sideways).

 

The kids surprisingly loved the truffle butter bread. I had the Urban Garden Martini, Honey Glazed Scallops, Lamb Wellington, and Fried Cheesecake. Everyone else had the Braised Short Rib appetizer, DD and DH had the Lobster Thermidor, and DS had the Duck Duo. DS and DH also had the fried cheesecake, but DD had the Peanut Butter Chocolate Tart which came with black currant sorbet. She loved the sorbet - scarfed it down, and only had a bite of the tart.

Service was slow, which I kind of expected from a fine dining restaurant. But it took 15 minutes for the martini cart to arrive for them to make my drink tableside and the ice they used was mostly water. The flavor was still good though.

The scallops were just ok - I kept eyeing everyone else's short ribs. There was nothing left on anyone's plate for me to try though. We all enjoyed our entrees and desserts. I would go back to 150. I could have eaten here a few nights, but we wanted to try all the restaurants, so I'll have to wait for Harmony next year.

 

 

[WAAAYTOOO]

I, too, have been underwhelmed by the scallops appetizer.  Those scallops seem to be getting smaller and smaller...

Fried cheesecake !  YUM !

[melmar02]

6 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I, too, have been underwhelmed by the scallops appetizer.  Those scallops seem to be getting smaller and smaller...

Fried cheesecake !  YUM !

When I read this, I thought they weren't that small, but looking at the picture with the micro greens, they seem pretty tiny.

The cheesecake was really good. I didn't expect to like the popcorn with it, but the texture worked!

[melmar02]

I wanted to get some formal night pictures after dinner and DH wanted to change before the aqua show, so we were feeling quite rushed when we left 150 CP at 6:30. We were supposed to meet Smitha at 6:45. We went to one photographer who had a really long line and decided to go to the other side of Central Park to another photographer instead. She had one couple waiting in front of us...great. However, because she was positioned where the two paths cross, two lines started to form, one at each side. She had no idea who was next, and we took our turn after the couple before us to some dirty looks from people who arrived after us who thought we jumped the "line". I was not impressed with these pictures, there was quite a bit of sunlight still in CP, and the white Rising Tide structure was really overexposed. Also, the photographer was feeling rushed too I think because she only took a couple of pictures. Next time, I'll try to convince everyone to leave their fancy pants on for just a little bit longer in the evening, and hopefully they will come out better. 

Every photographer on this ship also wanted DD and DH to remove their glasses for pictures so there wouldn't be a glare. I guess no one ever told them you can tilt glasses down slightly, and voila! No glare. DD and DH wear theirs all the time, so they wanted to leave them on although DD did take hers off the in this photo. One of the promenade photographers was almost argumentative about it until DH used his dad voice and said we were fine with the glare in our pictures.

  

 

We quickly ran back to the room to change and met Smitha right on time. Thank goodness our cabin was just one deck up from CP! She reserved us seats just outside of the splash zone for Oceanaria and had drinks waiting for us. We took up the entire row of the center section with another SC family. 

Here are some photos from the show. Sorry for the finger in the corner of the first shot.

 

The show has a runtime of 45 minutes according to the app, and it went a little over. We ran to the other side of the ship to the theater to see Finis Henderson who has recorded his own music, but his show was mainly impersonating a broad range of other singers. Smitha had drinks waiting for us again and brought us surprise popcorn just a minute before the house lights went down. 

 

Some of his covers were better than others - I thought his Tears for Fears and Elvis were particularly good.

After the show, we went back to the room and DS ran off to Adventure Ocean. DD had an hour to spare before the Teen Club activities, so we watched part of the second aqua show from the balcony.

Same pose as above from a different perspective.

 

Another sea day to come!

[melmar02]

Day three sunrise. It never gets old!

We just had room service delivered for breakfast since we had the SC flow rider session at 8:00am. Smitha seemed disappointed that we didn't want to wait for Coastal Kitchen to open for our room service, but if we had waited, the kids would not have eaten until at least 7:30. I had visions of sick kids on the upper deck after a wipeout. 

 

Good news - no one got sick! Better news - no one broke any bones! 

DH and I were a little worried DD would decide at the last minute not to participate, or worse, fall and never try again. I've mentioned she's on the spectrum in previous blogs; well she over experiences emotion. An embarrassing wipe out could have shut her down. Fortunately she's had a lot of growth in the last year or so, and she tried a few new things on this cruise that she absolutely would not even consider before (staying for more than just video games at the teen club, ice skating, getting back in the ocean). She was a natural and wanted to try to stand up surf as well. The current policy is that you have to have experience stand up surfing, wake boarding, snow boarding, etc. before they will let you do it on the ship so it was a no go for us this time. I mean, I surfed once in Hawaii... for 30 minutes... 27 years ago. I think the statute of limitations passed on that one, but I didn't ask.  

I found a flowrider close to us that offers lessons for half of what the ship charges, so we'll take some lessons over the summer and be ready for our fall cruise. 

 

 

[SweetPea]

Thanks for the tip, re scallops at CP 150. The menu reads well, but you've got me ordering the ribs instead, for sure!

 

And i think your fancy wear photo turned out great, for what you went through to get it!

[Ampurp85]

I am always afraid of the Flowrider, every time I sit and watch it is mostly wipeouts, so kudos to you all for being brave. 

[asquared17]

1 hour ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am always afraid of the Flowrider, every time I sit and watch it is mostly wipeouts, so kudos to you all for being brave. 

this is me. i just know i’d suffer a wardrobe malfunction too, no matter what precautions i’d taken in advance.  

please tell DD that she has mad kudos from me for doing what i am way too scared to try.

[melmar02]

Thanks @SweetPea!

@Ampurp85 and @asquared17 thanks. I tried it once way back on our second cruise in 2011, and it was a one and done for me. There may or may not have been a wardrobe issue... let's just say I knew in my soul that I had to have a one piece. Properly attired, it was really a lot of fun, and I am looking forward trying again. Also, the whole thing is covered in foam so it doesn't hurt when you fall - the only injury I got was a blister on the top of my foot and tenderness on my shins from where the water hit them. Oh, but it will mess up your pedicure!

[SweetPea]

38 minutes ago, melmar02 said:

Oh, but it will mess up your pedicure!

Even a gel pedicure? Or are you just talking regular pedicure? Inquiring minds want to know!

[melmar02]

After our hour of SC time on the flow rider, and a promise to come back later in the cruise, we went back to the room to clean up and get dressed for the SC galley tour. At 10:30am we gathered in front of the deck 5 dining room with the other SC families and genies. The brunch / tour was going on at the same time, so there were some late arrivers to the brunch who were confused on where to go when they saw a bunch of people waiting outside of the MDR. They were eventually guided into the dining room, and our tour began.

Smitha had reserved ice skating sessions for 1pm for us that afternoon, and just before the galley tour she wanted to coordinate the time for our afternoon snack delivery. DS piped up and asked for California rolls. We told her just send the snacks at noon and we would call it lunch. We were full from two days of non-stop eating, so this sounded like a good lighter option. More about that in a minute.

The galley tour was led by Chef Walo who runs CK, Windjammer, and Chef's Table on this ship, and it lasted about 30 minutes. 

100 gallon drum of stock

Cheese plates being assembled.

Garlic butter being made for escargot.

 

When the tour was over, the kids ran off to AO for an hour, DH went back to the cabin for a nap, and I went to the casino where I turned my $6 free play into a $60 win. I played on my free money for about an hour, and we all met back up at the room at noon to wait for our lunch delivery.

Since we were on the clock for ice skating, I messaged Smitha around 12:15 that we had not received anything yet. She went to work trying to get us our snack lunch delivered. It finally showed up about 12:30. We were supposed to meet Smitha for ice skating in 20 minutes, so I messaged her that we would probably be late, and we devoured everything that was brought to us - I didn't even get pictures! I do remember that DS got his sushi though.

We got to Studio B about 15 minutes late, and by the time we got our skates on there was only 5 minutes left in the session. Fortunately Smitha anticipated this with the delivery issue and she had booked us for the next session as well. 

The kids hugged the wall most of the time, but they had fun. I spent a lot of time roller skating when I was young, and the kids were impressed that I could skate forward and backward without even looking at the wall. I was by far NOT the best one on the ice; however, I didn't fall once. Win! Now they want skating lessons too. We're going to have to stop doing activities on the ship - cruising is getting expensive!

[melmar02]

24 minutes ago, SweetPea said:

Even a gel pedicure? Or are you just talking regular pedicure? Inquiring minds want to know!

I didn't have time to go out for a pedicure before this cruise. I painted my tootsies in the hotel the night before! 

Sally Hansen Insta Dry did not hold up well. I just repainted the bare spots in the cabin though. I had blue from the foam transfer to my nails, and it was a little hard to get off. So even a gel pedicure might suffer a little.

[asquared17]

holy mother of butter.

[melmar02]

21 minutes ago, asquared17 said:

holy mother of butter.

The sad thing is, there's really not a lot of butter in there, maybe 25-30 pounds? I was surprised at the lack and size of mixers in the bake shop. Don't get me wrong, I would take their 30 quart counter mixer pictured above over my 8qt any day, but that thing has to be running all the time. I don't recall any bigger floor mixers either. Maybe we just didn't get to see the part of the galley where they keep the bigger toys.

[jbrinkm]

1 hour ago, melmar02 said:

The sad thing is, there's really not a lot of butter in there, maybe 25-30 pounds? I was surprised at the lack and size of mixers in the bake shop. Don't get me wrong, I would take their 30 quart counter mixer pictured above over my 8qt any day, but that thing has to be running all the time. I don't recall any bigger floor mixers either. Maybe we just didn't get to see the part of the galley where they keep the bigger toys.

I worked at Pizza Hut when I was a teenager and there was a stand mixer just like this (huge) to prep the dough. 

[melmar02]

After ice skating, the kids went back to AO while DH and I just relaxed in the room and on the balcony. We set up Johnny Rockets to be delivered with Smitha so we could make sure the kids could eat. It was supposed to be delivered at 5pm...and it arrived 10 minutes early. I wonder if Smitha had a chat with someone after our late lunch delivery?

The kids showed up at 5 to eat, and DH and I got ready for Chef's Table. The plan was for the grown ups to wear our second formal night clothes tonight and then wear them again some other night for pictures so the kids wouldn't have to get dressed up tonight. They were headed back to AO once it opened back up and that's a lot of costume changes for an 11 year old boy. Spoiler alert - we never got the second set of formal photos.  Oh well, I think that dress will still fit in the fall. 

We were at the Library as instructed at 6:15, and no one else was there. We decided to wait a few minutes and another couple showed up for Chef's Table too. Smitha then arrived and walked us all into the upstairs section of the Diamond Club where the dinner is held. Everyone else was there already. Conveniently, there are restrooms inside the Diamond Club on Allure so no one had to worry about getting back into the room.

Dinner started with a champagne cocktail which included St. Germain, cucumber, and mint. 

 

 

Scallops

 

Soup

Lobster

Fish

Filet

The World in its various stages

We thought all the dishes were pretty good; however, the scallops were a little thicker than we expected. I thought the vanilla dressing with the lobster dish would be off putting, but it was very tasty. We agreed the filet was the best we had all week. DH asked last night if I would do Chef's Table again, and we decided we would but I haven't booked it on any of our upcoming cruises yet. 

A quick shot of the Aqua Theater from the balcony at night with nothing going on. They did play movies on the screens in addition to have a couple games out there. The volume was really loud - like could discern the words in the movies while in the cabin kind of loud. We had a few "don't repeat that" moments with the kids when we were in the living room and a more grown up movie was on. I'm a little surprised they showed those movies in the afternoon - prime time for kids on the Boardwalk. In fact, the volume everywhere was really loud. We even heard people in their 20's coming out of various venues commenting on it so it wasn't that were just getting old.

[Ampurp85]

I am always trying to be sold Chef's table and I always tell them I don't eat seafood and they back away. But that soup does look amazing.

Also wow at the Flowrider messing up a pedicure. I get a regular pedicure and it last about 3wks, gel last longer than I want...... that is crazy. Ooooooh I forgot that Allure has one of the nicer DL, I am excited for it in Oct. Did you play in the new smoke free casino?

[melmar02]

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

I am always trying to be sold Chef's table and I always tell them I don't eat seafood and they back away. But that soup does look amazing.

Also wow at the Flowrider messing up a pedicure. I get a regular pedicure and it last about 3wks, gel last longer than I want...... that is crazy. Ooooooh I forgot that Allure has one of the nicer DL, I am excited for it in Oct. Did you play in the new smoke free casino?

We did for a bit, but I failed to get pictures. Basically the walls are lined with machines, there are 4 or 5 tables in the center of the room and 8 or so machines floating on both sides of the tables. It felt very roomy compared to the main casino. DH's theory is that they may eventually swap the two casinos to transition the big one into non smoking. You could definitely smell the smoke on the non-smoking side, but it wasn't too bad.

[WAAAYTOOO]

4 hours ago, Ampurp85 said:

 But that soup does look amazing.

The smoky tomato soup IS amazing.  I have never liked tomato soup....or tomato juice, although  l love tomatoes.  But that tomato soup is really, really good.

[SweetPea]

The Chef's Table menu looks good on paper, but being a Mainer, I'm skeptical about the scallops. The starter cocktail sounds good though!

[FireFishII]

12 hours ago, SweetPea said:

The Chef's Table menu looks good on paper, but being a Mainer, I'm skeptical about the scallops. The starter cocktail sounds good though!

I am from NH and was worried about the amount/quality of seafood and white wines (I am not a white wine fan).  But I loved every bite.  I would do Chef's Table again. 

[melmar02]

Day four started with Coastal Kitchen and then Smitha walking us off the ship and up to the terminal gate. Once your exit the secure port area, 3rd party vendors line the street looking for the guests who have booked their tours. a couple representatives from Daniel Johnson's were right there with a sign and after a little bit of a wait for another vendor to move their car, we were off to the Monkey and Sloth Hangout. It was a 20-30 minute car ride, and we were the first visitors that morning. We all held the sloth, let the monkeys jump on us, and then became perches for the birds. 

We each held a sloth for a couple minutes which is a lot longer than we got to hold the puppies in Alaska last summer. 

We were in with the monkeys for about 5 minutes or so. DD and I took off our glasses, but DH left his on. He was also wearing a pouch around his neck, and the monkeys were really interested in both of those items. They kept trying to get down his shirt at the pouch.

We saw a few other animals at the hangout, and then we geared up for snorkeling. Daniel Johnson came by and introduced himself. He mentioned that they are moving to a new location soon just a couple miles away, and that he recently started scuba diving. He's contemplating also opening a dive shop. DD and DH brought their prescription masks, and DS and I used all their equipment. Everything seemed in good repair and life vests were available on the boat if we wanted to use them. The kids started without, but went back for one after just a couple minutes. They take you to a spot about 5 minutes right behind the animal sanctuary for snorkeling close to Little French Key.

Another couple joined us on the snorkel portion of the excursion, and they were more interested in getting pictures with their go pro than paying attention to their surroundings - they were constantly kicking up sand and cutting us off to get a picture of something. After a couple minutes in the water, they ventured away from us and the guide. She wound up getting a pretty good cut on some coral because she wasn't paying attention. I have no fish/coral pictures unfortunately - I have a waterproof pouch for my phone, but once I'm in the water, I guess my fingers are too cold to make the touch screen work very well.

We were in the water about 30 minutes, and our guide was great. He found a couple potential creature hiding spots and with a wave of his fin was able to get a nurse shark, lion fish, and a giant lobster to make appearances. We also saw several conch, parrot fish, barracuda, etc. At the end of our snorkeling time, the same driver took us back to the port and was able to drive us inside the security gate. 

It was lunch time when we got back onboard, so we changed and decided to hit up the Windjammer. It was packed! By the time we left though it was pretty empty. After lunch the kids and I went back to the flow rider and DH took a nap. There were afternoon snacks and drinks delivered, but again I failed to get pictures. I put on our initial genie survey that DH liked gin & tonic, and a couple shots of gin were delivered with the snacks each day in addition to a variety of drinks for me and virgin drinks for the kids. Limes were never delivered so we asked Smitha if some could also be sent to the room. We received lemons instead, so we stopped by the Trellis Bar a couple of times, and they would fill a glass with slices for us to take back to the room.

Dinner was at Chops - again...no pictures. I feel like I failed the foodies today! DS had fruit from the kids menu, DH had the cesar salad, DD had carpaccio, and I had the lobster bisque for appetizers. We all had the petite filet, and we were so stuffed, I messaged Smitha to see if dessert could be delivered to the room after the night's shows. We only ordered three - cheesecake, apple pie, and red velvet cake, but we wound up with an extra apple pie. I guess she felt like one of us was going to be left out.  

[melmar02]

We had two shows tonight. Ice Games which is a Monopoly based ice show, and the other headliner, Scotty Cavenaugh who was a juggler. Both shows were good, and we were all included in various parts of the ice show - I think that's probably where Smith had us sit, front row center.

There is a couple's number where the male partner leaves his girl to flirt with someone in the audience briefly (me). They bring a covered button around for kids in audience to push to roll the dice. They brought it up to DD and DS and then slammed the cover down at the last second and took it to another kid. They thought it was hilarious. DH was picked to help roll the real dice - they made him hold it over his head for some time to get the second dice set up. You can't put a 6'4" bald guy on the front row without him being picked on!

After the shows we called it a night. Next stop is Costa Maya. 

[WAAAYTOOO]

@melmar02, forgive me for not knowing this, but did you get the Daniel Johnson tour through Royal or book it privately ?  I’ve been reading about this place for years but never been there.  Your snorkeling sounds like it was particularly successful.

[melmar02]

1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

@melmar02, forgive me for knowing this, but did you get the Daniel Johnson tour through Royal or book it privately ?  I’ve been reading about this place for years but never been there.  Your snorkeling sounds like it was particularly successful.

We booked directly on Daniel Johnson's website. You pay in cash when you get there.

[melmar02]

Our day five started again in Coastal Kitchen for breakfast and Smitha walking us up to the security gate of the port. We were headed to Maya Chan, and the meeting place is a bit of a walk. Once you walk down the pier, then get through the maze of port shops (the gelato place has a cut through) and out side of the port, you have to walk all the way down the road that leads to the port to the replica Mayan temple, about another quarter of a mile away. There is an open air pavilion just on the other side of the temple where we met. I can't imagine doing this in August but Maya Chan is closed then anyway. 

We were greeted with "I have to show you pictures". We were shown photos of the beach that morning with sea grass piled high on the shore and were warned that it smelled, but, "you get used to it". They gave us the option to cancel, but we decided to soldier on as we could always use the pool if we couldn't get in the ocean and we had heard such great reviews of the food and service. 

Our van was hot. It was air conditioned, but after the walk there just wasn't enough circulation in there. We were told it was a 10 minute drive, but I had read it was closer to 30 which was much more accurate. On a map, it's not that far, but the roads require slow speeds and expect lots of bumps along the way.  

Once there we were taken to our assigned space on the beach which included several chairs, a hammock, and a beach bed, all covered by a giant thatched umbrella. We were given welcome rum punch and chips and guacamole.

The smell was...intense, and while we did adjust to it a little, there was always an odor present. We never got so used to the smell that it "went away". Even at the pool and at the tables at the bar it was there. They had a crew of guys trying to clear the seagrass out of the protected area, but there was really just too much for them. Also, we were told that the neighbor's do not bother to clear the grass so a lot of the smell came from the neighboring property. We didn't see that an opening had been created anywhere along the shore to actually get in the water without wading through 3-4 feet of the stuff so none of us got in the water. DS was the closest as the kids spent the majority of the day building a sand dragon and they needed water. The spot he's at here is actually on rocks, but you can't see them.

 

A little after we settled in they went around announcing a tortilla making contest. I participated with about 5 other people. The masa had already been mixed and rolled into the right size ball. All you had to do was press it and place it on the grill. I had a perfect tortilla, got oh's and ah's even. Then I botched it up when I placed it on the grill. I won the  ugliest tortilla constellation prize, a Maya Chan lanyard.

   

 

Soon after it was time for lunch. I tried all the taco offerings, and they were all delicious. 

 

The kids finished their masterpiece after lunch - the lighting is terrible, you could see much more detail, especially on the wings in person.

Then we went to the pool area. The pool is pretty small, but there is a shower and restrooms there along with a couple hammocks and several loungers. The water was freezing, so this is as far in as DD got. It was fine for DS. I got in to help a grandma who had three littles with her. She had her hands full! The rest of her family joined them about 20 minutes later. 

Soon after the grandma's backup arrived, the kids and I went back to our spot on the beach. The first set of cabs back to port left at 12:30. We decided we would go at 1:30 - since we weren't going to get in the ocean, we were done for the day. 

Would we go back to Maya Chan? Maybe. The food and service were everything we had read about. Waiters were constantly walking by to see if we needed anything, but they weren't disruptive. The drinks didn't feel strong on their own, be we felt their effects by the afternoon. Lunch was delicious. However, the sea grass and smell was so obtrusive that we couldn't actually use the beach - it was a sand and pool day. Also, they offer snorkeling equipment and toys, but they were looking pretty beat up. You were responsible for returning your equipment, which is great, but I didn't see any way to sanitize their snorkeling equipment, and no further instruction was given. Since we weren't getting in the water, I didn't ask about it so maybe I just missed it. In the fall, we're planning on staying on the ship here.

[asquared17]

7 hours ago, melmar02 said:

We were told it was a 10 minute drive, but I had read it was closer to 30 which was much more accurate. On a map, it's not that far, but the roads require slow speeds and expect lots of bumps along the way.  

this was the dealbreaker for me. not the inaccurate account of time, but the journey to get there.

i wish there was a water taxi or literally any other way, because the team is so incredibly hospitable and the food is delicious, but the lack of pretty blue caribbean waters (NOT their fault) to swim in and the journey there would have us staying in the ship next time too. 

we also did not drink while were there — i had half of one spicy paloma and J had nothing but water — so they saved money on us there

[melmar02]

On our way back to the ship, we took an over/ under on how many plates of food would be waiting for us in the cabin. DH and I said 5, DD said 4, and DS said 6. DS was the first back in the room and was declared the winner!

 

Not only did we have 6 plates of food on the dining table, but there were several plates of desserts and a cake waiting on the coffee table too!

 

The room had a few new decorations as well. 

 

We just rested in the cabin for remainder of the afternoon and got ready for dinner at Giovanni's Table. 

I had the caprese, DH had minestrone, and the kids both had the chicken noodle soup off the kids menu. 

For entrees, DH and I both had the chicken piccata and shared a mushroom risotto, DS had the spaghetti, and DD got another steak. 

Dessert - cannoli, chocolate-hazlenut cake, and two tiramisus... they brought out a second chocolate-hazlenut cake and sang happy anniversary to us too.

We all enjoyed everything we had, but we agreed that if we were going to do one specialty restaurant, Giovanni's Table would not make the cut. It's a good Italian restaurant, but we can get that on land anytime.

The kids headed to AO again for the night, and DH and I headed to the comedy club where Smitha had reserved us seats in the second row. DH didn't want to chance being a target in the first.

 

The show was an hour long split between two comedians, Nora Lynch and Phil Palisoul. The show was definitely adult, but I do not recall it being overly vulgar. We laughed quite a bit at both sets.

We ended the evening by starting Wakanda Forever from the selection of streaming movies available to us in the room.

[melmar02]

Day 6 - sunrise over Cozumel before heading to CK.

 

We were headed to Chankanaab, and this is the only excursion we booked through the cruise line. Smitha walked us directly to the tour check in, and we waited for about 15 minutes by the Cozumel sign for the tour to begin. We told her no snacks today. 

 

We spent most of the day at the pool, but we did walk through the replica artifacts and see the sea lion show which was only about 15 minutes. Bar service at the pool was pretty good early on. It of course got a bit slower as the day went on and the crowds showed up. The included buffet lunch was meh at best. No one really ate a lot, and because we had asked for no snacks to be delivered, we were actually hungry by dinner time!

I really wanted everyone to put on their second formal night outfits, but DH overruled me on this one as we had spent so much time in the sun today. We were all pretty wiped out to be honest, but I knew we had not yet gotten all of our 100 pictures made. We got dressed and hit up three photographers on the promenade. The rushed photographer from Central Park on the first formal night was there, and she took some of the best photos this night.

Dinner was a bit of a fiasco. We had reservations at Samba which is in the Solarium on Allure - so hot and humid. DS had not recovered from the heat, and the ship was starting to rock as the captain was booking it back to Galveston. I ran DS back to the cabin to grab some Dramamine just in case - you know, literally on the other side of the ship. We ran back to the table, and after 15 minutes he still didn't feel great. DH said he had eaten enough, so he took DS back to the room while DD and I finished our meal. About 20 minutes after the boys left, DH sent me a message that DS was feeling fine and wanted to go to AO. Guess it was just the heat. 

We love to go to Fogo de Chao at home, and it was nice to experience some of the different appetizers and sides that Samba offered. The land based restaurant was far ahead in the meat department.

Smitha had our rescheduled Mamma Mia show tonight, but DH and I decided to skip it since we had seen it at home and hit the casino. He was up $300 on a machine and decided to cash out and put new money in. I think that reset the machine, because the next $100 went by fast. 

 

 

[SweetPea]

On 5/7/2023 at 11:46 AM, melmar02 said:

Would we go back to Maya Chan? Maybe. The food and service were everything we had read about. Waiters were constantly walking by to see if we needed anything, but they weren't disruptive. The drinks didn't feel strong on their own, be we felt their effects by the afternoon. Lunch was delicious. However, the sea grass and smell was so obtrusive that we couldn't actually use the beach - it was a sand and pool day.

With you on this. Almaplena is sooooooo much nicer. I know Maya Chan is popular with families and they certainly have more activities for the kiddos, but if you want a sedate and lovely beach with more amazing food (better than MC, IMHO), Almaplena is awesome. Plus you get a private taxi there and don't have to worry about a van filling up. 

[asquared17]

also how did i miss the sloths and monkeys????

too cute.

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Almaplena is sooooooo much nicer. I know Maya Chan is popular with families and they certainly have more activities for the kiddos, but if you want a sedate and lovely beach with more amazing food (better than MC, IMHO), Almaplena is awesome. Plus you get a private taxi there and don't have to worry about a van filling up. 

WISH I HAD KNOWN THIS @SweetPea what other knowledge are you gate keeping from me

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1 hour ago, SweetPea said:

With you on this. Almaplena is sooooooo much nicer. I know Maya Chan is popular with families and they certainly have more activities for the kiddos, but if you want a sedate and lovely beach with more amazing food (better than MC, IMHO), Almaplena is awesome. Plus you get a private taxi there and don't have to worry about a van filling up. 

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look them up. Are they on the main strip together with all the other beach clubs or a little on their own like MC? 

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Day 7 - the one where they tried to squeeze it all in!

So there was quite a bit that we had not yet done on the ship, and today was our day to get it all in. The carousel, Ben & Jerry's, mini golf, zip line, and a few others made the short list that we made during breakfast (CK again). This was also the day Smitha had listed as DH's birthday on her schedule. 

DH also wanted to get in a nap, so everyone spent the morning on their own with instructions to meet back at the room in time for our Chops lunch - kids went to AO and I went to pick out our 100 photos. With our paparazzi spree on the promenade last night, we were at 114 photos, so it was easy to cull a few out. It's always a mad house at the photo area on the last day, and bumping up the $30ish from the 50 photo package is a no brainer for me. All I do is weed out the obvious bad pictures on the ship and sort through them all in detail at home. Definitely worth the price difference in saved time to me. I get the code at the end of the process and download them to my phone while I'm on the ship so I can take care of any issues while still onboard. The email to download the photos came at 11:00am the day we disembarked.

Next I headed to the casino to cash in DH's winnings. I played for a bit while I downloaded our 100 photos to my phone. I stayed about even for an hour or so. We are no where near prime, and we really only spent a couple of hours in the casino this trip. We were too busy eating all week! 

I headed back to the cabin and the kids were not back yet. DH and I left a post-it on the door telling them we already left. They have been really great all week about adhering to our meet up times; this was the only time they were late. They walked into Chops together about 5 minutes after we did. Apps - fruit for DS, carpaccio for DD, and a wedge salad for DH and me.

We all got the steak burger. Not my favorite, but it was ok.

 

The kids and I all ordered key lime pie for dessert. I thought it was odd that it had a layer of cake in the middle. DH didn't order dessert, but Smitha strikes again!

 

As we left the restaurant to start checking things off our to-do list, he said, "I really hope she doesn't send another cake to the room". Time would tell.

We decided to start at the top of the ship and work our way down. The wind was crazy, but we got in a game of mini golf. We thought the course was better maintained than some of the other ships - minimal wear and tear.

Then we headed over to the zip line which was supposed to open at 2pm. It was 1:45, and the crew was hovering in the area. I asked if they were going to open or if it was too windy, and they said they were waiting to hear from the bridge if they could or not. A few minutes later, they started getting out the gear. Once of the crew went to the catching side and got his harness on, so it looked hopeful, but at the last minute they called it off. They said they would make an announcement over the sports court if the wind died down enough to start, but we had a long list of other things to do. We'll just have to wait for Harmony, and remember to go on a port day!

Next we headed down to the Boardwalk. Carnival games were listed on the Cruise Compass for the time we were there, so lots of families and little kids were out there. We were on a mission to ride the carousel so I didn't pay too much attention to what all was offered, but they did have oversized bowling set up next to the carousel. DS and I rode, but DD was too cool, so she hung with DH.

When we got off the carousel, we walked into Cups & Scoops to get our Ben & Jerry's. The cupcake class was going on. Since it was included with star class, we probably would have gone before now, and more than once, if we did not have so much food in the cabin all week. I promised the kids we would get ice cream on the ship for finishing school early, so we had to squeeze it in!

Next was a ride on the Rising Tide. Including beverages of course. I ordered the Cool as a Cucumber and thought it was very similar to the Urban Garden at 150 CP. Maybe because my drink earlier in the week was so watered down? We noticed the line at Next Cruise was way out into the promenade, and we were thankful that they were able to take us as a walk in a couple days ago.

Besides the zip line, we didn't make it to the PADI shop. DH wanted to ask a couple of questions about completing a certification onboard for the kids, but they were closed. DH and I need refresher courses, so I think our best bet is going to be getting the kids certified at home instead of onboard. 

We headed back to the room and walked into...

The kids grabbed a macaron and a cake pop and left us for kids clubs. We had a 5pm Izumi reservation so they had instruction to not be late. They were on time this go round. DH and I spent some time packing.

At Izumi, we were seated at a table with a solo traveler and two other couples. The show part of dinner was better than I expected. I guess they make up for the lack of giant flame entertainment with jokes - I had not heard / seen some of their quips and tricks before. 

We all ordered sushi rolls on top of hibachi because we hadn't eaten in at least an hour.  Drinks from the bar and sushi were slow to come out. I had the Spicy Okinawa, and it was very tasty. DH asked the waiter to suggest a sake and the first was too sweet, so he ordered a second drier one - neither went to waste. We could mix and match proteins so if you wanted a combination not on the menu, you could get it. DS realized he didn't get lobster night in the MDR, so I told him to order it now as he was only going to get the chicken. I had the lobster and scallops, and the lobster was over cooked, but the scallops were perfect.

For dessert, DD and I ordered green tea ice cream, DS ordered chocolate lava cake, and DH declined, but...Smitha.

We came back to the room to find our departure tags and some gifts from Smitha. We got the kids all packed before they could run off to one last session at AO, and DH and got to about 90% done. We decided to hit the casino one last time. No luck, but we had fun.

Knowing that we still had one more day of vacation on land helped take the sting out of this being our last night onboard.

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Sadly, we were woken up by the sounds of docking and the sunrise just over the cruise terminal in Galveston.

 

We had our final breakfast in CK, packed up the toothbrushes, and called Smitha for our last walk off. With facial recognition, we were at the curb with our luggage in just a couple minutes. We got a quick selfie with Smitha first. 

 

We boarded the shuttle for Lighthouse to take us to our parking lot, and soon it was full. You know that feeling you get when something is wrong, but you just can't put your finger on it? We pulled into traffic and didn't get very far before we heard a loud thud. I made a joke that some of the luggage probably fell out. We kept driving, and almost immediately, cars started honking at our shuttle. The driver did in fact forget to close the luggage compartment at the back of the shuttle and a piece had fallen out.  He made the block to go pick it up, and every party on the bus sent someone out to make sure their suitcases were still there too. Fortunately (for us anyway) it wasn't one of our bags. 

We called the hotel (same one as pre-cruise) to see if we could check in early, and they said they were full, but we could drop off our luggage. 30 minutes later we walked in and they said their had been a cancellation so we could check in. Yay! They also were still serving breakfast and said we could take part if we wanted. We didn't. We unloaded the bags in the room which was a tad warm, turned down the AC and DH and I took a nap before heading out on our land adventure. When we work up, the room was even warmer. We called the desk and they sent maintenance to fix it while we headed to the downtown aquarium. 

They have a couple tigers and a sting ray touch tank where the kids fed the rays.

 

A train takes you through the shark tunnel which used to be a water works building. 

 

We had lunch while there. The restaurant is part of Landry's, and there is a large aquarium in the center with tables and the bar all around it. Last food pics - shrimp and gator tacos, shrimp three ways, Louisiana Cajun pasta, and kids pizza.

  

After lunch we went back outside - they have some rides and carnival games. DD joined DS and me on the carousel which had all marine creatures instead of horses. 

We drove back to the hotel and the air in the room was still not working. We called the front desk again, and they moved us to another 2 br room. We relaxed in the room for the rest of the afternoon and walked next door to Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant. It opened a few years ago, and for some reason, we had never tried it before. We won't be back - it was just ok, and there are tons of other options in the area. 

Next morning we had our included breakfast and made the uneventful drive back to Dallas. The pups were happy to see us, and the kennel even bathed them for us.

I'll post final thoughts tomorrow. 

 

 

[Ren]

Hiyas, 

 

Can I ask you what is included nowadays in Star Class - for example is there a free tour of the ship or sushi making class free for Star Class ? 

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Final thoughts:

Allure was a great ship. She seemed to be well maintained with no obvious signs of rust, wear, etc.

The entertainment offered is what we have come to expect on a ship. Some things are ok, some are really good. Oceanaria was fabulous. We've seen O in Vegas and it's a little mind boggling that they can pull this show off on a moving ship with a smaller pool. 

Our cabin was great - it's what we expect from the 2br suites, just with a slightly larger balcony. We never did use the side of the balcony that wraps around the master bedroom. I went over there one morning, but the neighbors were on their balcony and I wanted quiet. The only draw back was that you could hear noise from the aqua theater in the living room, but shows were over by 10pm.

Activities - there really was too much for us to do even without the Abyss or water slides. We never even made it to the main pool deck or a single trivia game. We had a hard time trying to balance a chill vacation with doing everything. Because of work stress, I think DH would have preferred the former. I was worried Allure was going to be "too big" for us in terms of things to do, and that turned out to be correct. Freedom class is a better fit for us - we sail on Liberty again in the fall. She's our favorite ship, and we'll get our first crystal block on her. 

Cabin attendant - Ida was great, fast and polite. However, I saw him working rooms way down the hall - like almost to the mid point of our deck. I don't know if he was covering for someone or they were all assigned to him regularly. Either way, his towel animal game suffered. In the 2 bedroom with the kids, we have always received an abundance of critters (I think the record is 16 on a 7 night). We know the cutbacks have shortened their time in each room, but because this was a star class sailing, we thought this wouldn't affect us. We received a total of 4 for the week with the first one arriving on the afternoon of day 3. They were all placed in the master bedroom, which DH and I thought was odd - why not put them in the kids' room or the living room? Was this a big deal? Absolutely not, but it is one of those little details that make cruising special over a land vacation, and the lack was noticed.

 

Food - was good throughout the week with just a couple of misses, like the burger in Chops. There was just too much of it for us. 

Internet - seemed pretty fast. I didn't have any upload issues. 

Genie - Smitha was very sweet, and did a great job at shuffling our reservations around. Again - the food! I don't know if we would sail star class again though. Having a genie and the opportunity to squeeze one more thing in because she could reserve seats for us may have actually been a drawback for us as DH really needed a more relaxing week. The delivery of drinks in the afternoon was nice, but because we had that, we didn't really use the mini bar other than the water. I had one beer, and we drank our bottle of wine, but I don't think the kids even opened a soda in the room. I think sky class is probably a better fit for us although the regular 2 br suites face the side and not the aft of the ship. We have sailed both the aft and side facing on 2 BRs on other ships and MUCH prefer the aft facing rooms. Our next Oasis class sailing is on Harmony next spring, and we're going to try two connecting balconies for the first time. Wish me luck!

I think that's all for this one - let me know if you have a question about anything, and I'll be happy to help if I can!

 

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9 hours ago, Ren said:

Hiyas, 

 

Can I ask you what is included nowadays in Star Class - for example is there a free tour of the ship or sushi making class free for Star Class ? 

None of the classes were free. We did take a galley and bridge tour that were included. There was also a SC only session at the Flowrider. All food was included except for food at Starbucks. Free drink packages and wifi for everyone in the cabin.

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@Ren another perk is that pool towels were in the room for us. We didn't have to run to the pool deck to get them for the Flowrider or excursions. Stateroom attendant swapped used out for clean whenever he saw we used one.

[Scatmanjack]

Did you take a peak at the new non-smoking casino that was installed in Jazz Club during the prior week?