Friday, September 6, 2013

The Allure of the Seas: Deck 15 Overview

Almost to the top now!
Deck 15 starts out at the stern with the mini-golf on the left.  On our first cruise, I thought "Mini golf?!  Meh."  But we played a round, and it was actually very challenging!  And I got a hole-in-one!  So now we make sure to play a few rounds over the week.  One of the great things is that it's "self-serve", you don't have to book a time and try to remember :)



 As always, RCI incorporates art into every aspect of the ship!
 Look who we found on the course!  LOL.
 There is also a little children's course right next to the adult course!
 Adorable!
Back here, you can get a view down over the Aquatheater and see just how high those upper platforms are!  Scary!

We're talking on the deck above the upper "Allure of the Seas" label.  Look how high it is compared to the Norwegian Pearl, which is not a small ship!

On the right side is the Sports Court.  Can't tell you much about it except it's a multi purpose sports court :)

Ahead ship, on the next section that goes across the ship, is the teen area.  There's a pizza/burger type joint, a patio type area, ping pong tables.  A great spot to watch the AquaTheater shows if you don't get tickets.  I don't have pictures of the teen area, though I'm sure you'll find some online.  Inside here, there is "The Living Room", a hangout, Fuel Teen Disco, and Challenger's Arcade. All intended for teens, but I think anyone can walk around.
Across the hall is Sea Trek (snorkel/scuba outfitting) and "Breeze" which I think was a little gift shop.

Then the ship splits again.  On the left is the sports pool, and on the right, the kid's "H20 Zone".  Then there's a bridge, with two bars, and then it splits again with the main pool on the left and the beach pool on the right.
It's hard to tell in my photos which pools are which, except for the Beach Pool.  It is salt water and has a sloped area where the chairs can sit so you can get your feet wet.

This is the Beach Pool

 This is someone beached by the pool..
 This is standing near the front and looking back, so the beach pool is on the left/upper portion.  I imagine those aren't quiet and serene balconies...
 This is taken from the same spot, just a little more to my right, so it's showing the main pool and two hot tubs
 This is showing it from the other end
 This is the kid's H2O Zone at the top, and the sports pool in the foreground.  The kids have their own hot tub (on the left) and a "whirlpool" on the right.  That is so much fun when you get a group of people going around the circle fast...
Here's the Beach Pool at night, after it had rained.  The water was quite a bit higher.

While three pools (and water play area) might sound awesome, there were a few issues, due to how it's spread out and split by the open middle area.  If you have multiple kids, then you'll have to make them all be in one area.  The H20 Zone and Beach Pool are too far apart to be supervised by one parent.  Also, if you want to leave your stuff and roam around the pools, it'll be out of eyesight quickly.  It is nice to have variety though, especially if you don't mind there's no shallow ends, and they're not very warm!

Further on up, on either side, are the giant hot tubs that extend over the side of the ship. 
 See how big it is?  Up there in the middle of the picture, right next to the Norwegian Pearl.
And again, centre of the picture!

Some of it is open at the top, and they had TVs on showing sports (no sound).  There's also pretty twinkle lights that change colour.

Really, each hot tub is split into two.  Each of the smaller ones is about the same size as the hot tubs on the Freedom class.  You can fit a lot of people in one of these!  Keep in mind though that quite often one will be shut down for cleaning, often around 11pm.
At the front of the ship is the Solarium Bistro...a "healthy" alternative...if your idea of healthy is turkey bacon and egg whites...we tried it once.  Since I do low carb/high fat, I didn't go back again.  It's a nice spot, but was very busy for breakfast.  At night it becomes a Brazilian restaurant. 
In front of the Bistro is the Solarium adult only pool.  Actually, the brochure says "hydrotherapy pool".  It's definitely NOT a swimming pool.  We were rather disappointed.  The Solarium pool on the Freedom ships is a real pool.  This pool...a wet gossip joint for the older folk :(

This was the best time we had in the pool---late on the very last night!
They show really cool chairs with awnings...but they're never available.  It was still a nice place to relax, away from the children and noise of the main deck areas.  It's just too bad there wasn't a real pool for adults that want to swim without kids (the sports pool does have lap swimming in the mornings, but I'm not a lap swimmer).


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