A day at sea on board the world's biggest cruise ship...what would we do? Or, what would we do first?
We started out the day on a schedule. We have now figured out the best place to meet up in the morning when we leave the cabin at different times: the Diamond Club on Deck 6. We spent a few minutes there drinking lattes and watching people on the Royal Promenade below. There was already a line of people waiting to purchase their morning coffee drinks at the Starbucks just below. There are the same food treats sold as at Starbucks on land, but none of them are free. Still, people are willing to pay for their "fix".
Instead of having a continental breakfast in the Diamond Club, we went to the Adagio Dining Room for our first breakfast of the cruise there. Unfortunately, we chose to go at the same time as everyone else, and by the time we were seated, our schedule limited us to having the breakfast buffet in the dining room. This was a new concept for us, a buffet in the dining room, but on the Allure, both breakfast and lunch in the dining room are handled this way; we can order off of a menu, or just help ourselves to the buffet. The latter is not my first choice, but today it was our only choice. While G found some bacon and yogurt in the buffet, I only saw fruit, hash browns and hash. Still with the food issues...this is a first for me on a cruise ship!
Our Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle was scheduled for Dazzles lounge at 9:30am. Dazzles was a new lounge for us, and it's beautiful, with a two story glass back wall overlooking the Boardwalk below. I really like how Royal Caribbean does Cruise Critic Meet and Greets; they completely handle the whole thing once we've signed up online. An invitation was delivered to our cabin yesterday, and a part of it could be detached to become our name tags. An assistant cruise director MC'ed the event, we got gifts just for attending, there was a drawing for more prizes and some prizes for being the first to answer different questions about RC. I won a prize for being able to list the names of the four ships in RC's Radiance Class of ships. Easy- we've cruised on two of them, and still consider them the most beautiful ships at sea, and our three cruises on them among our very favorites ever.
After the Meet and Greet, we headed back to the Boardwalk and the Aqua Theater for this cruise's Crown and Anchor loyalty party. We were told there were 2600 Crown and Anchor members (people who have cruised before on RC) on board. That means 3000 people on board have never cruised with RC before, and therein lies the wisdom of RC's marketing strategy. They are building ships that attract the 90% of the people who have never cruised before. They are operating a Las Vegas or DisneyWorld at sea. They don't care that some people say they'd never want to cruise on the Allure because it's not a "real" cruise; they have other, smaller ships to appeal to those people. They know the money is in the family who vacations once a year and chooses the Allure over Disney and does everything and sees everything and buys everything and then goes home seven days later.
So, anyway, back to the party, the two high divers did dives again (and the platform is 67 feet above the pool surface, not the 50 feet that we had calculated). We were told at the Meet and Mingle that when the diver sticks his foot out over the edge of the platform, it completely blocks his view of the pool he's diving into. Whoa! Then the Romanian hunks...er, balance performers did their thing again. Next, cruise director Ken Rush introduced a "new act he'd never seen before", and out came Captain Johnny and Hotel Director Joel, walking to the same music the Romanian duo had come out to, and they did some poses and stretches simulating the Romanians, and it was harious. We've known Captain Johnny for a few years, and he is a real character (drives around the ship on a moped because he misses his motorcycle). He is definitely the right kind of captain to be able to pull off an entrance like that. He and Joel introduced the rest of their senior staff and then a video was shown about RC's newest ship currently being built, the Quantum of the Seas. And here is where G was king for a day: he already has a Quantum OTS T-shirt, and he wore it today, and 100 people must have asked him where he got it from and how he has it already (just a bit of magic on the part of moi!). Tall drinks were passed out at the party, so the drinking today started at 10:15am- help us.
Diamond concierge Ana had suggested this morning that we return to the Diamond Club at 11:15am to watch the Dream Works parade down the Royal Promenade. We didn't even know what that was, and so decided it was a must do. This might not be cruising like we know and love it, but that doesn't mean we can't embrace it and enjoy it for a week. The Diamond Club overlook provided the best view of the parade, and we met and sat with other friends we've met at the drinks lounge this week.
After that, we decided we needed to start early looking for lunch, and G said he wanted to see the ocean, which, honestly, is hard to do on this ship. We went to the Windjammer buffet and had better luck today, finding a table next to the window. I actually found fish, and Greek salad and a delicious lentil salad. Headwaiter Yatundra from India, who, shockingly, we knew from the Mariner OTS in 2008, came over to talk with us. Such a gracious guy; everyone we meet from India wants us to visit there so they can show us around. One day we will.
Following lunch, we walked across the pool deck to get to our cabin's end of the ship. It was packed out there today; the weather was as gorgeous as yesterday's weather was not, and people were taking advantage of the eleventy-hundred pools and hot tubs. We decided instead to return to our cabin for a short break before I went to a Flash Mob dance class at 2:30pm. That's another first for me...lots of them on this cruise!
Next stop: a lounge chair and the Solarium pool, while G found a spot in a Solarium hot tub. There aren't a ton of kids on the ship this week, but there are enough that the adults-only Solarium holds a lot of appeal.
Most kids on the ship seem to be part of large family groups, and many of them are from South America. In fact, that's one of the most interesting things about this cruise: many, many passengers are from other countries, and came to the US just to sail on the world's largest cruise ship. We met a couple yesterday from Lithuania (another first for us). In fact, RC is offering a Universal Orlando package that includes a few days in the theme park and then a cruise. They really are competing with Disney!
We were dressed for the evening and in the Blaze lounge at 5pm when the Diamond lounge opened for the evening. We joined our new friends there, and spent a fun 90 minutes drinking too much and eating too little, until the doors of the Amber Theater (thankfully just around the corner from Blaze) were opened for tonight's entertainment: Chicago!! This was the first entertainment we reserved back in September, and we were most excited about seeing this adaptation of the Broadway show. It was all it's cracked up to be, and the 90-minute performance was incredible, not least of which because it was accompanied by a twelve piece orchestra. On a cruise ship!
Just this afternoon we had made reservations for dinner in the Adagio Dining Room at 8:45pm. We were seated at the same table with the same wait staff as last night. Really, that's the most surprising thing for us about the Allure- the level of service on such a large ship. The food tonight was good with a couple of stand out items. Not Nieuw Amsterdam good, but good.
Afterwards we wandered up to Central Park on Deck 8 which is just gorgeous at night. A strings duo was playing Ave Maria as we walked out there, and it filled the entire area with sound via the outdoor speakers throughout the park. I love that area of the ship so much; if we ever book the Allure again, I would consider booking a balcony cabin overlooking Central Park just to listen to the music at night.
We then walked across the Royal Promenade just to listen a bit to all the live music playing in the several venues there. Honestly, there is such a diversity of entertainment options on this ship; just as we suspected, the entertainment is the huge draw on the Allure.
Now, it's 11pm and time for bed. Tomorrow we're in St. Thomas for the first time, but definitely not the last time this winter. With us will be about 17000 cruise ship passengers on four other ships, including the Royal Princess. This is going to be ugly!
Photo 1: one of the two rock climbing walls, as seen from the Aqua Theater
Photo 2: from the Crown and Anchor party, another high dive
Photo 3: more of the Romanian hunks...er, balance performers
Photo 4: Captain Johnny and Hotel Director Joel copying them
Photo 5: drinks at 10:15am. Welcome to the Allure!
