Two overriding points to make:
1.) the Nieuw Amsterdam was the food cruise
2.) the Allure OTS is the booze cruise
We feel like we are having to forage a bit for food. There are plenty of "quick" options...sandwiches of every type, wraps, rolls and paninis. But lines are long and food quality is okay with a few standouts. We are living on the unlimited free drinks we get every evening and the hor doerves that are served there. And the specialty coffees available 24/7 in the Diamond Club, the continental breakfasts served there each morning and the cookies and fruit available there the rest of the day. No, we won't starve, but one way we stay healthy while cruising is to eat good, nutritious meals and no snacks, and we seem to be doing the exact opposite on the Allure. Something tells me that the per person food budget of the Allure, excepting the many "extra cost" restaurants, is pretty damn low.
We were in Nassau yesterday, and had a shortened day there due to the Allure's propulsion systems issue (more on that in my original post, but I'll boil it down to the fact that the ship is having to cruise more slowly and our times in ports are being cut). When the weather yesterday morning was windy and rainy, we opted to stay on the ship. We'll be in Nassau again in January.
We toured the Central Park neighborhood (love it...it's an entire park on Deck 8 with three landscapers and labelled plants and several restaurants) and other areas of the ship we'd not yet seen. But when people returned from the island just as the bad weather intensified, this ship suddenly felt very congested. With the pool and sports decks and Boardwalk and Central Park unusable, everyone migrated to the Royal Promenade. Yikes!
For fun, I participated in a party line dance class offered in the Royal Promenade. Not so fun? Waiting in line at the guest relations desk to exchange a $100 bill for smaller bills for tips in the Diamond Lounge.
It was formal night, and dressed semi-formally, we went to Blaze for the Diamond Lounge at 5pm. We've met several people there and enjoy getting together for unlimited (!) free (!) drinks every night. We didn't have any entertainment scheduled for last night, but attended the captain's Welcome Aboard party in the Royal Promenade at 7:30pm, and then went to dinner afterwards, in the Adagio Dining Room (we had made a reservation in September, and it was as easy as possible and we were seated immediately at a table for two). We were a bit trepidatious about what to expect, but our wait service by waiter Althea from Jamaica and assistant waiter Molson from Columbia and headwaiter Mishim from Turkey was wonderful, and our meal (we both chose the standard beef offering just to check out the quality) was amazingly good.
We had no entertainment reserved last night; if it had been nicer out we might have considered going to OceanAria again, but it might have been cancelled due to the rain. Instead, we walked the length of the Royal Promenade and then Central Park checking out the many, many live music offerings.
Even on the world's largest cruise ship, we know what we like!
Photos 1-3: off all the amazing features the Allure offer, I think this is the most amazingest: the first levitating bar at sea. That's right...the bar Rising Tide floats between Deck 5 (the Royal Promenade) and Deck 8 (Central Park). We have to do this while we're on the ship!!
Photo 1: on Deck 5, the area under arising Tide is a fountain when the bar is floating above
Photo 2: looking up at the bottom of the bar from Deck 5
Photo 3: the bar almost down to Deck 5
Wild stuff!!