The Allure of the Seas: Deck 7 Overview

Well, there's not much to write about this deck!  At the stern, is the rock climbing walls.  They advertise how there's two walls on this ship, but we had the same issue as before--scheduling!  We never did get around to trying them.    The kids' section looked good though!

 You can just barely see the round windows between Johnny Rockets and the lowest row of balconies.

 Those are some pretty sweet suites to the right of the rock climbing wall!

The rest of this deck is cabins.  There are a few cabins that have views of the Boardwalk and Royal Promenade, but no balcony, and then there is a whole block of inside cabins near the bow.  The cabins right at the bow...I can't figure out the colour coding in the book, but the plans show them being totally inside the ship, and I don't see how those bow windows actually meet up with the rooms, considering the slope of the front of the ship....

They either must have a very sloping wall in the cabin, or it's a false front on the ship.  Anyone actually know?

The Allure of the Seas: Deck 6 Overview

Deck 6 is the deck we were on, and I think it's a pretty good one to be on, for any of the ships.  Close to the Royal Promenade, but not too far from the gangway or upper decks.

Lets start at the stern (the back).  This is the main deck for the Aquatheater.

 Don't forget a hat and water if it's sunny out!

 Just before the Aquatheater is the Boardwalk Bar, Johnny Rockets is on the left, and Seafood Shack is on the right.

 As you move towards the bow, there is the Star Pier, Candy Beach, Pets at Sea, Pinwheels, Boardwalk Donut Shop and Ice Cream Parlor.  I don't remember the "Donut Shop" being a real shop, just a spot where racks of donuts were put out by a sitting area across from the Hot Dog Stand (which isn't listed on the Oasis deck plan, so maybe these are different).  The Hot Dog Stand was good, with some very interesting options.  The other shops are money-grabbers, especially for the kids.  A bulk candy store, and kids' based gift shop.  Keep your SeaPass locked up!  The ice cream parlour is worth a stop though!

 As you enter the Boardwalk zone from the inside, you come up to 4 or 5 displays showing the progression of how the horses for the carousel are carved.  We did ride the carousel, and it was fun....but not something high on our list to do.  Maybe if we were three...

 However, don't skip by the Fun House Mirrors!  I'm not showing the pictures of us!  LOL!
You can only access the Boardwalk zone from the inside, slightly to the stern of mid-ship.  This is so when there is rough weather, like we had on our last day, they can close it off.  What this means though, is that if you're in one of the rooms that are on either side, heading towards the stern, you have to walk up ship before being able to get to your hallway. 
Once inside, the mid-ship zone includes the future sales office, Focus (where you get those pictures they're always taking on the piers), the Schooner Bar, and the Diamond Club.  Of course, you can't access any of these (or their stairs down to the Royal Promenade) from the cabin hallway.
Up at the bow is the main entrance to the Vitality Spa and Fitness Center.  We had a tour, but nothing is free.  On smaller ships, my inlaws told me they would go to the fitness centre to use their (larger) showers, but you can't seem to do that on this ship.  If you are on the walking track on deck 4, you can enter the fitness center and go upstairs, take a little shortcut.
There is no access to the helipad at the front of the ship, though I think you can take a ($$) sunrise yoga class on it.

 Our cabins were right at mid-ship.  To get anywhere, we had to walk 1/4 of the length of the ship(either direction), and then backtrack or continue to the bow or stern.  Sometimes it would have been nice to take one of the "secret" doors in the cabin hallway and nip through to "Focus" and down the stairs to the Promenade.  These two pictures show the view in the hall, outside our door.

"Long Stretch of Lonesome" (Patty Loveless) is playing in my head, alternating with "I Would Walk 500 Miles"....However, I do think it would have been more upsetting to have a room right down at the stern, behind Johnny Rockets, and have to walk 1/4 of the way up ship to just turn back to walk the same distance!  Perhaps Royal should think about this.  For little kids and the elderly, it's a LONG way just to get out of the hall!

The Allure of the Seas: Deck 5 Overview

One thing that Royal does well is "branding".  All the ships have a "Windjammer Cafe" at the top, the main drag is called "Royal Promenade", etc.  On both the "Freedom" class and the "Oasis" class, the Royal Promenade is on deck 5, and is very similar in feel. This is the deck you enter on, in the other class, but sadly, I don't recall which deck it is on this ship!

From the stern, we start with the top layer of the dining room.  Again, no pictures, but it looks like all the other dining rooms and I'm sure a quick Google search will show you how lovely it is.

One nifty thing on the Allure is the interactive touch screen displays.  You can have it tell you the closest washroom, what the menu is, how long the wait is at various restaurants, etc.  It was great for passing time while waiting to enter the dining room!

Up from the dining room is the Champagne Bar, and "Regalia" which I think is a store.  Next to that is Guest Services. Service is usually very good on Royal, but you do hear the odd story about poor service (like our room stewart).  They're there 24 hrs/day, so if your need isn't urgent, go at an off time.  This is also where you can get motion sickness meds, a hole punched in your SeaPass to put it on a lanyard, or a new SeaPass when yours has worn off due to the salt water pool.

In front of Guest Services is "Rising Tide Bar".  This spaceship like bar has scheduled trips from deck 5 up to deck 8.  Apparently I don't have a picture.  It's hard taking pictures inside, there's just so much visual clutter and people, and whatnot.  Plus, having been on two cruises before, I didn't want to look like a newbie :)  Google Rising Tide Bar and you'll find lots.

Going towards the bow is the Focus and Willow....stores...and on the other side, Cafe Promenade.  This is where you can get little sandwiches and treats, as well as gourmet coffee (fee).  I think there is also cold water and the regular (gross) coffee for free at the back.

The Cupcake Cupboard (the store on the left with the pink awning) is capitalizing on the current cupcake craze.  You can take cupcake decorating class (for fee) or buy a number of different flavoured cupcakes.  I don't recommend buying on the first day if you think you might like them, as they're not free, and it could get costly!

 Sorrento's is where to go for pizza.  This ship even allows you to have the counter staff make you a custom pizza.  However, their lack of English might cause some issues, LOL.  There's also a British pub,  and another Guest Services/Explorations counter, a few more shops...

 Close to the entrance to the theater is the "On Air Club" and "Boleros", another bar.  In between is "Mondo Coffee Bar" which is actually Starbucks.  I waited till late in the week to try it out, and I wish I had splurged right from the start (because of course, it's not free).  Getting a "real" coffee was wonderful finally.

Right at the bow is the Vitality at Sea spa.  On this deck, there is access from the jogging track.

Ah, yes.  The jogging track.  I had been jogging that fall, and wanted to continue on the ship.  On other ships, the jogging track is on the upper decks, totally open to the sun.  On this ship, it's on deck 5, and is the only outside access until deck 15.  So, a lot of people want to use it for strolling.  Sightseeing.  Working off breakfast.  There are plenty of signs that say to keep to the right if you're slow, but they're not always followed.  There is a seating area at the stern of the ship, and it's fun to see the AquaTheater's stage from behind.  This is a popular deck  when the ship is coming into port, so keep this in mind (I didn't realize this at first, and did not enjoy threading my way through staff and passengers).  It's also still quite hot down here and you only get breezes on one side usually. 

You can see the open jogging track at the back of the ship. 

I appreciated the jogging track being lower down--on other ships, the open deck is deck 4, and there is not supposed to be jogging, but sometimes people do use it for fitness since they'd rather not be up top.  However, having this deck serve both as the "free air access" for the bottom 14 decks, AND the fitness track meant that there was compromises for both types of people.  But I'm still glad I made the effort!

The Allure of the Seas: Ship Overview, Decks 2, 3 & 4

Since the ship is so huge, I figured I'll do the ship overview by deck.  Remember, always call them "Decks" and not "floors", and the rooms are "cabins" or "staterooms" LOL.  And, she's a "Ship" not a "boat"!

Deck 2 is not shown in the handout, or the Royal Caribbean book.  It houses the medical facility.  This might also be the deck you go ashore from.  On the Freedom class, there are cabins down here, but not on the Oasis class.  We didn't enjoy being on deck 2--too much engine noise and docking noise.

Deck 3 has the lower level of the dining room at the stern end (not quite at the stern actually, due to the Aquatheater).  Forward of that are some inside cabins, and ocean view cabins.  Studio B, the ice rink, is mid-ship, though I don't think you can access it on this level.  Forward of that is the conference center, which we did not check out.  At the bow is the lowest level of the Opal Theater, where they have the stage shows.  Again, you don't access it here, but that's just where it lines up.

Deck 4 is where the action starts to happen.  There's the middle level of the dining room, with some private dining areas.  We were on the left side, if you were looking towards the bow.  It was a weird area, somewhat closed in, without a view of the middle, open area, but with outside views, which would be nice if we had the earlier dining time or were cruising in the summer.  Couldn't see much at night.  I wonder if we got this small table because our cabin had been originally assigned to a couple who were higher up on the "rewards" list. 

We started with another couple at our table, but they lasted only one night, so we had a table for 4, to ourselves.  A bit lonely, LOL, but we got great attention from the staff and could get in and out in record time.  I didn't get any good shots of the dining room this time, but it's pretty much the same feel as the other cruises we were on, so you can check out those blog entries.

Mid-ship is the casino, with Studio B just forward of that.  On the Freedom Class ships, you could not walk from one end of the ship to the other end on deck 3 (the deck with Studio B), so we had to continuously go back up to Deck 4, and through the Casino to the other end of the ship, so we could get back to our cabin on deck 2.  Not a big problem--but the Casino is pretty much the only place inside where smoking is allowed.  Icky.  We were thrilled to find out that the wider Oasis ships allows for room around the ice rink, and we were able to avoid the Casino most of the time.

 The ice rink actually seemed a little smaller on this ship.  Interestingly, this is where our "muster station" was for the life boat drill (and if there were an actual emergency).  I know staff is highly trained, but if there's an issue with the boat, I don't want to be going down into the lower levels.  I want to be AT the lifeboat.  I also want the life jacket with me, not be handed out at the muster station.  Though it was nice not to be squished up with 100 other people on the jogging track, trying to listen to the instructions in 10 different languages.

Forward of Studio B was "Entertainment Place" (which technically includes the ice rink and casino, I think).  "Blaze", "Comedy Live" and "Jazz on 4" were down here.  We saw a comedy show, and I was surprised at how small the comedy club felt.  I don't recall checking out Blaze or Jazz on 4 (despite loving jazz!).  There is also the "Hall of Odds" leading into Studio B--just a little wall display on the history of gaming.  At the bow is the main entrance to the Opal Theater.  I don't have pictures of these places since we really weren't down there much.  I'm sure you can find pictures on Royal's website :)

The Allure of the Seas: Cabin Overview

I've been wanting to do an overview of the ship for awhile...but it's a HUGE ship...I like blogging on my laptop so I can watch TV at the same time, but I've been having laptop problems, and when I sit at the desktop computer, I get distracted by a lot of other things LOL.  Onwards.

As I mentioned, we had booked the cruise as an "inside guaranteed" room.  All we knew is that we'd be somewhere on the ship, in an inside room.  On the previous cruise, we had ended up on deck 2 and were hoping for a better placement this time.  We didn't get our placement until two days before the cruise (the day before we were leaving).  Immediately we looked at the ship plans and found out we were mid-ship, BALCONY!  Unbelievable.  I've wanted a balcony every time, but it's just too much more.  I felt incredibly blessed to be "gifted" this upgrade, at no cost!  When we got to the room, there was a "Diamond" welcome package for the original room-bookers, a Portuguese speaking couple.  We enjoyed the snack basket, but couldn't use the coupons.  Asking our room steward for new coupons was the first sign he wasn't quite up to the job, it took a lot of run around with guest services to finally get them (if we even did, I don't remember now).

How wonderful to walk into the room, full of light!  The room is pretty much the same as inside rooms.  Some rooms have the bed near the doors, but I'm glad ours was this way.  Just make sure to close the blackout drapes when you go to bed!

Not too big! I don't understand people who say you don't spend anytime in your cabin.  We spent quite a bit of time there!

 View of the ocean.  We didn't see any wildlife, but it was nice to see ships and islands, and judge our speed based on the wake.  I also loved that I could get fresh air at anytime.  That is my big pet peeve about inside cabins, especially if you're on a deck with no outside access.

 At the dock in Labadee.  It was nice seeing ports from the balcony, but it was also nice being up top where you could get a wider view.

 I had always wanted to order room service breakfast.  We decided we really had to do it this time.  We had some trouble figuring out the menu.  You indicate the number of guests on the front, and give the quantity for each item you order.  We didn't know, for example, under "white toast" to put 1, for one slice, or 1 for "one order" which is how many slices?  We selected 7:30-8:00am, I think it was, and we were hoping for closer to 8am.  Well, wouldn't you know...it came at 7:34!  The pictures are a little hazy because it was so humid outside that my camera--cold from being inside--fogged up.

 Okay, the breakfast was not as good as going to the restaurant.  The coffee on board sucks, but at least I was able to enjoy it in my robe (courtesy of the couple that were supposed to have had that room) on the balcony.

I didn't take a picture of the bathroom on the Allure, but it was pretty much just like the ones on the Liberty/Freedom ships.

We had heard about the locking door handle, and to make sure not to get locked out on the balcony.  I thought maybe we could just leave the door open a little.  Nope.  It makes a horrid whistling noise.  Also, leaving the door open really warms up the room.

Probably the best thing about having the balcony, was watching the storm on the last day.  That was awesome.  I'm thrilled we were in our room when the front moved across, and not making a mad dash for cover up on the outside decks!

Hope those videos work, Blogger and YouTube have changed again!

Cruise 2011: Home Day

Somehow, I let Rob convinced me to do the early walk off disembarkment.  We didn't have an early flight (around noon), but we hadn't been able to do online check in for our flights on board and he wanted to get to the airport early (you're supposed to be there 3 hours early).  It was our first time doing walk-off, and it was definitely a lower-stress way to get off....but SO darn early!  We got to the airport (by 6:45am I think) and to the WestJet area and they were closed.  And, there were no computers to do self-check in!  They weren't going to open till 9am; even with the time slot we were supposed to disembark in, we would have been way early.  However, people did start lining up!  We got checked in, had some food, did some shopping.  Sat and sat and sat.

I don't remember much about the flight.  I assume it went well, LOL.  The weather was rainy when we took off and that scared me a little, but the weather was nice in Toronto.  A long wait in customs when we arrived, but it was nice to be home.

It was nice to be home in the day, though we were starving by the time we got home!   Must remember that it can take a while to get through customs, if we ever take the kids!

Cruise 2011: Day 7, At Sea

If I thought we were cruising slowly to get to Nassau, I don't know what you'd call the speed we went from Nassau back to Ft. Lauderdale!  Barely moving?  Normally, a cruise to the Bahamas is an over-nighter, well, we had about 36 hours to get back to Ft. Lauderdale!

Think we're docked?  LOL.  The sea was THAT smooth.

 Look!  A rainbow!  We saw this and thought "Great, it's not going to be a bright, hot day".  Well...we were right and we were wrong....

(Not sure if the video loaded...it says it's still uploading, about 10 hours later...)You need to watch only about the first 12 seconds....LOL...I kept forgetting with video you can't rotate it half way through the video; I was trying to show everything....

 We had made an appointment to see the guys in the "advance booking" department to find out what options are available for families of 5.  However, once I got the daily planner the night before, I totally forgot about that and wanted to see the "Meet the Captain" question and answer show.  There's also the chief engineer and the chief of hotel services (or whatever the titles are), and the guy on the right is the Social Director....the Canadian guy....it's been so long now I'd have to look up his name, but if you really want to know I'm sure I put it in earlier posts :)  By the time this show started in the AquaTheater, the sky was clear and the sun was blazing hot.  I had forgotten my hat, and was sweating, Rob was barely holding it together too.  There was virtually no shade due to the direction we were heading and the fact it was 10-11am anyway.  Dumb place to have this little gem of a show.

After the show, we headed back to our room to cool off.  Then we came back out to see the short family show based on "Madagascar".  It was just like all the other Royal shows...non-stop action; bungee, trampolines, water action, etc. 

 We've never seen the movies, so we weren't familiar with the characters.

It was very hot out.  We went back to our room to "rest" and get ready to go to the pool (or something).  We had the TV on and got sidetracked by cheesy American shows (re-enacted detective shows).  We noticed that the weather was changing, and could see rain way off on the horizon.  And white caps.  We were still going very slow, so that was interesting.

The next hour made having a balcony the BEST thing ever.  Even better than breakfast on the balcony while in the port.  Even better than the late, dark nights on the balcony.  Okay, maybe not better than that ;) but experiencing a thunderstorm while at sea in the Caribbean, on your own balcony?  Awesome!  We stood out there and watched the rain come closer and closer until it was raining on us.  And the thunder!  Oh my!  It was so much fun!  LOL. On one of our earlier cruises we had watched cloud lightening from the pool deck at night, which was really neat too, but something about being IN the storm, in the middle of the ocean (so it feels) just makes you feel like a pirate or something!

In this video, right at the start there is a flash of lightening and it happened so quickly we almost missed it, but the biggest crack of thunder!  Startled the crap out of us!  There's more thunder around the 35 sec mark.  It had been pouring rain for about 5 minutes at this time.  We finally went into our room since the visibility wasn't very good and we were getting wet, and lightening is not as impressed in daylight LOL.  About 5 minutes after the video, there was an announcement saying all open decks were closed.  We thought it took a little long for that announcement, it's not like the storm snuck up on the ship LOL.

Now...think about this ship's design.  It's the only ship that is open down the middle!  It's not just a top deck that is open to the sky, there's also deck 6 with the Boardwalk/Aqua Theater at the rear of the ship (the deck we were on), and mid-ship on deck 8 with the Central Park (as well as all of Decks 15 and 16 and the bow of Deck 14.  On the top decks, it's the sports stuff, the pools, some bar areas, etc.  Not a lot.  But on decks 6 and 8, there are restaurants and shops.  And, on deck 6 the only way in is from the middle of the ship, and on deck 8, you enter from either end (so, not at the sides).  We were wondering what would happen if you were in the restaurants when they closed the decks.  We popped out to see the Boardwalk, and they had big, solid doors that closed it off (there were also glass doors that were kept closed the rest of the time).  We found out when we went to dinner at a restaurant in Central Park later that there are back doors that go into the corridors the cabins are on.  The doors aren't labelled, but are the rear emergency and staff exits.  When the decks got closed, the patrons were led out those doors.  Cool.

We had an early dinner reserved at Chops, I think it was.  Since we were confined to our room all afternoon (well, we could have gone anywhere INSIDE the ship, but so could 6000 other people), we were ready early and as soon as Central Park opened again, we headed out.  They do have a bin with umbrellas at each end, but since it was lightening, that's why it was closed.  It was pretty neat to explore after the rain, it was still pretty empty.

 It's actually quite warm at the back of this covered area.  It doesn't provide shade and acts like a green house LOL.  But still pretty.

 I forgot to take pictures of our meal :(  As always, it was delicious!  The waiter even persuaded me to have a signature blueberry martini in a souvenir glass....for $15.  Yikes.  The glass is nice but sits on Rob's dresser with change in it.

 The day before, while watching the ship's channel, I heard about the dancing lights.  I think I had seen it mentioned in the daily newsletter, but it doesn't explain what much of the items are.  It just says "A Selection of Fountain Shows, AquaTheater".  And, at 10:45pm we were often in other events.  But when I saw it on the TV, I knew I had to see it.  It's a musical show, where the fountains are lit and choreographed to music. 

 Of course, I didn't remember until near the end that a video might be a better option.  After several attempts, I can't get my own video to load, so here's one on YouTube.  My video was of the CanCan section, look around YouTube and see if there's another one of it.

This is the Solarium (adult only) hot tub.  One of two.  It is HUGE.  I know you can't really see it in that picture, but I'll post more pictures later of around the ship.

This is the Solarium pool.  It is tiny.  We were actually disappointed in this.  Once it's filled with adults, you can barely move.  There is no swimming in this pool.  They should just turn up the heat and call it a hot tub.

This is the Beach pool.  It's a salt water pool (which will take the print off your SeaPass by day 5), and the edge is sloping so the water can come up to the first row of loungers.  However, after the rain, the water was quite a bit higher.

After our last late night tour of the ship, we headed for bed.  Morning comes bright and early on disembarkment day.  Well, it was early, though not very bright!