Allure- Cabin and Crown & Anchor Events

Cabin

We had cabin 7676, a D8 balcony.  I liked this room.  Not too far from the aft elevators so it made for a short walk to nearly everything.  On Oasis we had a very forward room on deck 8.  Not bad either, but if I can choose again I’d say aft is the way to go.  Most mid-ship cabins have a long hallway walk!  We had the bed near the balcony so the closet wasn’t an issue. DH and I are small.  We had the bed near the closet on Oasis and it wasn’t a problem for us, however I can see how some people don’t like it.  The beds were wonderful.  I slept better than ever on this trip.  I remember the Oasis beds being awesome as well.   

We stored all of our luggage under the bed- one large pink suitcase, one very large black suitcase, one small purple one for shoes, and a garment bag.  We gave our WOW card to I Made, our room attendant.  He was very friendly and took care of things that he didn’t have to.  My balcony Christmas decorations fell one day.  I figured I would fix them when we returned later.  When we got back he had re-fastened them just the way they were.

Crown & Anchor Events

The top tier event was in the theater, they awarded the top three sailing guests with an over sized diamond (not real).  We had to leave early because we had something else to get to, Rita’s Fiesta.

The "all included" C&A event was held on the Boardwalk.  They offered free bloody mary, mimosa, and champagne.  Cotton Candy was being given out for no fee for this event, although there is normally a $3 charge.   Dreamworks characters were there.  They debuted the Sea is Calling campaign.  Captain Johnny & the hotel director came out acting silly.  He always looks like he’s having a good time.

We are now Emerald in the Crown & Anchor Society and so we were given a treat basket in our cabin and two complimentary non-alcoholic beverages.  We chose water & Coke.  The treat basket included: mini-chocolate chip cookies, dried fruit, and some nuts.It was nice to have some treats in our cabin when we were hanging around and wanted to munch.

Allure of the Seas- Itinerary

I am finally getting around to writing my review from the Allure of the Seas- December 18-25^th, 2011.  This will be in sections to make it easier to locate the information you want to read about.

Itinerary

We left Fort Lauderdale, Sunday right on time.  I didn’t like that I was on the Starboard side of the ship for sailaway.  I love watching the beach goers.  We chose to stay out on our balcony and saw a family waving at the Coast Guard station instead…

Our first stop was Labadee (Royal Caribbean's lease section of Haiti), been there once before on the Oasis.  I like beach days but it was cloudy and drizzled at one point.  I’ll talk more about what we did there later.

Next we went to Falmouth, Jamaica.  I don’t know why people are complaining about this port.  It looks nearly finished to me.  The shops were open, vendors were no-more pushy than any other port, and I actually found the port complex to be very pretty!  When we arrived the Navigator was in port with us.  I thought they had already gotten off the ship.  I was sorely wrong.  When we returned later in the day we saw the Navi was gone.  Turns out they tried from 6am-10am to dock and the water was so rocky that they couldn’t let anyone off the ship and Navi left.  We were having some problems that morning but capt Johnny supposedly ran the engines all day to keep the ship right up next to the pier.  We did an RCI tour there because I am not familiar with Jamaica and wanted to be ensured I’d get back to the ship.  We ended up leaving Falmouth over an hour late because of tours (booked through the ship) were late.

Last stop was Cozumel, I’ve been there 5 times previously and I find something new to do every time.  We booked a tour via an outside company.  Probably one of the BEST things I’ve done there!  More about that later.  We left Cozumel late also.  Being starboard had it benefit here.  The captain was calling for a couple on the ship to report to guest services.  I watched them pull up the gangway and the ship started to move.  Suddenly we were back up against the pier.  The couple was running to the ship.  They put the gangway back up and let them on.  Lucky them!  Something funny also happened.  The Norwegian Pearl was next to us in port.  A guy on the balcony across form mine had a conch shell.  He was blowing in to it, the sound was almost like a ship’s horn.  All that was going through my mind was “the Sea is calling, but from the wrong ship!”

 Here's a snippet of it.

....and it figures!  My photo hosting site goes down as I type this out.  :(