Thread: Allure of the Seas Inaugural Cruise Review - 12/1 to 12/5

This is the beginning thread of our Inaugural voyage on the Allure of the Seas. It's going to be comprehensive and worth the read. I hope the ship is everything we wanted it to be. We are a family of 4 w/ 2 kids - 11 year old daughter and 13 year old son. More to come.

Excellent! Will you be posting live every day?

I might not get something posted live each day, but I plan to post at least a couple of substantive reviews throughout the voyage. Stay tuned!

Allure of the Seas Inaugural Cruise 12-1 to 12-5

Approx 4900 Passengers
2300+ Crew (more on hand than usual)
Where we stayed in Fort Lauderdale
We arrived a day early into Fort Lauderdale and stayed at the Hyatt Pier 66 hotel. The accommodations were very nice and I was able to work out a 2 room package mentioning our AAA membership. I asked in advance to be put in the tower and to have a port facing view and they accommodated us nicely. We had a spectacular view of the port and we set our alarm for 4:30am to watch Allure of the Seas return to port.
First sighting of Allure of the Seas
It was a truly amazing sight to watch the ship enter Port Everglades in the dark. The ship lights up better than any ship I’ve seen. I was overwhelmed by the size of it. There are some tall condo buildings at the entrance to the port and I estimated that Allure of the Seas would be hidden behind those building. Boy, was I wrong. The ship towered over the buildings and was so much larger than I could have ever imagined.
Check in Process and Boarding
It was very quick and easy as long as you have all of your paperwork. They scaled the terminal well to handle an amazing volume of people and we had zero wait for a check-in agent.
Stateroom
We stayed in 8284 which was a port side D-4 balcony just rear of mid ship. Room was nice with plenty of cubby holes and space for all 4 of us. We over packed as usual, but were able to empty all of our luggage and there was ample room to store our luggage under the bed with room to spare. We had two adjoining cabins and the single connecting door tucked away easily. I’m not sure if this is a first, but we later discovered that the glass balcony divider can be opened to make 2 balconies into one. We didn’t realize it until our stateroom attendant opened it when he turned the bed down the first night.

Embarkation day
We arrived at the port at approx 11am and after a very swift and uneventful check in, we were on the ship within about 15 min.

Entertainment
Blue Planet – The Blue Planet show was excellent. It was a Circe’ de Soleil type show w/ live singers and we thoroughly enjoyed the show calling it a must see.
Dreamworks – How to Train Your Dragon Ice Show – Really well done show with many props, great costumes, and flawless skating. The show follows the story of the movie basically from start to end.
Oceanaria – This is the show performed in the Aqua Theatre and was very entertaining. We were the first to see the full show that they were still rehearsing for through the first 2 days of the voyage.
Food and Dining
The food was very good everywhere we went. There was a little disorganization with our waiter and assistant the first night of dining, but they pulled it together and it was nothing to complain about.
Port of Call - Labadee
This was our only port of call on the short 4 night inaugural cruise. The Oasis class ship has an improved port disembark design. There is a button on the elevator to disembark that takes you to deck 3. The Sea Pass scanners were more efficient than the previous ones I’ve seen. You don’t have to insert your card. You just wave it in front of the scanner so good improvement there. We weren’t the first off the ship, but we had zero wait getting off and back on. When you get back on the ship there’s a dedicated escalator to take you up to a main deck.
Labadee has certainly grown up since we were last there in 2000. The pier is very nice and the captain made a very smooth approach spinning the ship and backing the ship in. After the usual barrage of people wanting to take your picture, we had to figure out what to do since we had not booked anything prior to our arrival. We decided to head over to the Dragon Coaster. There was a tram that took you most of the way there and I highly recommend taking the tram (no charge or tip needed).
We rode the coaster 3 times. You pay for the car for each ride which holds one or two people. The seating is one in front of the other and is a little awkward to get in and out. The coasters have a break which the person in back has to operate. Basically, you can go as fast or as slow as you want, but they warn you over and over that if you injure the person in front of you, you are liable.
More to come!!

Thanks, I am looking forward to the next installment.

Glad you are having a great time!

Be sure to check in on your "From the Observation Lounge" thread that Norman is following you on. Link

Saw Allure earlier, was still in port.