Once again Neal and I were off on another adventure. This time our cruise was all about the ship and not the islands. No offense to any of my readers who live in Nassau, St. Thomas or St. Martain but we had seen the Allure and Oasis being built on the TV show Mighty Ships on the Discovery Network and just had to see The Allure of ourselves. What a wonderful ship. She's the largest ship in the fleet right now, just slightly larger than the Oasis Of The Seas.
Although the ship is large it is still manageable. They have it divided up into neighbourhoods. Yup you read that right there are neighbourhoods on the ship. We have my favourite neighbourhood Central Park. They have the Park Cafe and if you like made to order salads you are in for a treat because they will do just that for you. They also have soups, sandwiches and cakes and cookies. If you are looking for a snack you can get a cup of fruit or bag of chips to take with you.
The next neighbourhood is The Boardwalk. This has a real full-size working carousel. The horses are hand carved and it's a work of art. They have Johnny Rockets, a hot dog store, candy store and ice cream shop that are all extra money to use. But they do have a cabinet with free donuts if you are hungry (only available in the morning until they run out). At the end of the Boardwalk is the Acqua theatre. They put on diving and gymnastic shows here that are simply amazing. They also have two large screens there and they show movies during the day.
The next neighbourhood is the Sports Zone. They have something called the Flowrider which is a place that you can surf. They also have a zip line which I tried. If you are going to try this, word of advice.....don't look down (I know it's easy to say but seriously don't look down). I had gotten it in my head that I was going to do this, got all of the safety gear on and then got up on the platform and as the lady told me to go I chickened out. It look a whole lot of convincing and Neal instigating 3 levels of passenger to cheer for me. Oy I finally did it and screamed like a girl all the way across. I must have been nuts.
If you would like to go for a skate there is actually a small skating rink that you can use. In order to skate you must wear long pants and socks. The helmet is mandatory but the extra pads (elbow, knee and wrist) are optional. They also have two ice shows preformed there (How To Tame Your Dragon and Ice Games). The athletes who preform in these two shows are amazing. How they can do triple jumps and all of the tricks on a rink the size of a postage stamp is beyond me. One of our favourite rooms on the ship is the games room and internet cafe. We loved to sit and play Rummy Q. No need to bring your own because they supply the cards, various games and lots of tables and chairs. If you must use the internet be prepared for really a really slow internet connection and a big expense.
The food on the ship was good but not amazing. Royal Caribbean is cutting costs and it's very evident. There is no more midnight chocolate buffet from years past. There is no longer a chocolate on your pillow. Many of the restaurants cost extra (i.e. Johnny Rockets, Cupcake Cupboard, 150 Central Park, Izumi and various other places on board). If you are a vegetarian you will have a limited selection. If you don't see what you like on the menu ask and the wait staff will do their best to get it for you. I wanted berries one night and our waitress went and got some for me.
On our ship we had Captain Johnny. He was a really funny guy. He had two motorcycles on board. One was small enough to fit into the elevators and he would use it to ride around the deck so that he could talk to the guests. The other one is a large yellow Harley that he rides while we are in port. Our cruise director was Ken Rush. He was good but I found that he wasn't as visible as the captain. He only seemed to come out to the big events and never just walked around the ship to meet the guests. He has his own morning show on the TV where he gives you all kinds of useful information.
Our first stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. Because the Allure has a problem with the Aizapod we arrived in the port much later than we normally would have. We just walked around and looked in the shops and then returned to the ship. As we got back on board we noticed that they were preforming a safety drill. This is done every second sailing while we are in this port. When we were suppose to leave at 4:30 p.m. the captain came over the PA and said that we were going to be delayed because one of the lifeboats used in the drill has a problem and they couldn't hoist it back up. They were debating about leaving it behind. They had to get permission from their head office in Miami. Because we were so late in leaving we were all going to get a refund of $200. That softened the blow about being late into St. Thomas.
Our next stop was to the beautiful island of St. Thomas. Since we were so late getting there, most of the excursions were cancelled. So the only thing to do was go shopping. Because the Allure is so large it cannot dock near the Havenside Mall so you will have to take a taxi to it. The cost is about $5 each way. Make sure to leave about 45 minutes or longer to get back to the ship as the traffic can be horrible.
Our last Island was St. Martain or St. Maartain. One side of the island is French the other side is Dutch. We did a city tour organized by the ship and it was great. We got to see both sides and learned some of the history and facts about the island.
If you are thinking about sailing on the Allure you should know that most of the staterooms are small. We had an ocean view balcony and the room was so small as was the washroom. If you can afford it, upgrade to a junior suite or higher.
We really loved our cruise even with all of the cutback. What we didn't love was the flight home. Should you ever be flying with Air Transat and they mention that our flight is a code share with CanJet politely ask for a different airline. We had the absolutely worse experience on CanJet. We were delayed leaving Ft. Lauderdale by just over 3 hours. Of course nobody bothered to tell the folks who were waiting at the gate. The only way we knew that our flight was delayed was because one of the two departure boards updated but the other didn't. When the plane finally arrived we boarded and were just about ready to take off when the captain comes on the AP to tell us that there is a problem with the engine. They called maintenance who had to come on board to fix the plane. This took an hour. Once again we were ready to take off. We taxi out to the runway the engines revv up and all of the sudden they shut down, the lights go out and the AC goes off and we can smell jet fuel. We had to be pushed back to the gate. This time the computer malfunctioned. Now most of the passengers are scared to stay on the plane after two problems. Would we even make it home without another more serious problem. The flight attendants would not let anyone off the plane. Nope we were prisoners courtesy of CanJet airlines. Those flight attendants were 4 of the most unprofessional bitchy people I have ever met in my over 40 years of flying. One of them that was working at the front half of the plane actually pushed a passenger out of her way. The passenger was minding her business while in line to use the washroom. The two flight attendants at the back of the plane were even worse. I asked for a glass of water and he told me not to bother him. Um excuse me not to bother him....funny I thought it was his job to assist the passengers. I got up and walked to the front of the plane and got some water myself. When we were close to landing and we still had a lot of garbage and I asked the other fellow if he wouldn't mind taking it. He said he would do it later. Again I got up and went to the font of the plane and threw it out in the bin there and complained about the treatment to the head flight attendant. He was called up front and must have gotten into trouble because on his way back he said to me if I wanted to complain about him that he would give me a comment card. He never did bring it to me. That's ok I've written a letter to Air Transat and CanJet about their horrible service and lack of professional flight attendants.
