Our Incredible Allure of the Seas Cruise Part 2- Finally, Boarding Day!

For the sake of continuity, I'll start each cruise day with the sign on the ship's elevator floors showing the day of the week, as well as the day's Cruise Compass. The day of the week is visible in all elevators in Royal's Fleet. If you want to keep your photos organized by day, taking a quick photo of the day of the week is a great way to keep track:

































 And finally! It's boarding day!

We woke up around 8:30 or so and got some bagels and toast from room service. I didn't feel like walking anywhere to get something quick to eat, and we didn't really need to eat a lot since we were boarding the Allure shortly. We admired the view from our balcony as we ate.

Packed up our suitcases and I prepared our pre-printed luggage tags. I do miss the luggage tags we received in the mail, but really....it's not that big a deal. I went to My Cruises on Royal's site, and pulled up our virtual cruise documents. Around page 15 or so, you'll see a page with a printable version of your luggage tags. Printed a couple copies to take with us. I folded them up according to the instructions, and used the small roll of tape I threw into my purse before our trip. Very easy to use and our luggage was ready to go.

 It looked like we were going to have a pretty sunny day...as you all know, in Florida, that can change in an instant

The building with the flat, green roof (on a diagonal, to the right) in this photo is where the Water Taxi stopped for the Hyatt:

Boarding day outfit- I almost always wear a dress. They're so easy to throw on, comfy, and still look like you made a little more effort than you really did



 We checked out around 10 AM (very easy, no lines), and one of the bellmen hailed us a taxi. Our first glimpse of the Allure as we crossed the bridge:



A quick ride to the pier, I think it cost about $10+tip to get there. Don't be alarmed when you pull up to the entrance to the port, and your taxi is stopped. There's a security guard at a booth who comes out to the taxi, checks the taxi driver's license, and asks the passengers for their ID's. Quick and painless. 

 We arrived at the port at 10:30 AM. I have to say that this was the quickest and most efficient check-in process we've ever experienced. The porters quickly took our bags, and we tipped one of them $1 per bag. There weren't really any lines, and we were through security pretty quickly. The entire terminal is designed specifically for the Allure and Oasis.

Check-in was a breeze. When I approached the counter, I could see the desk agent eyeing my belly. At 23 weeks pregnant, it's pretty obvious that a baby is on the way! Jokingly, I said to her (before even saying hello), "I think you'll definitely need to see this," handing her my passport and my doctor's note. She laughed and took a look at the note to verify how far along I was, and she handed the note back to me. She congratulated us and told me to hold onto the note throughout check-in, just in case someone else wanted to see it. All was well, and we were on our way. We took our welcome aboard photo, and then went up the escalators to the waiting area.

Upstairs, there was plenty of seating, and even a children's play area.

Our wait to board wasn't long at all. I actually took notes on the timing. Wes was amused at these notes I took while we waited, but I see the question about how long it takes to board all the time. It's nice to be able to give an exact answer:

Curbside Arrival: 10:33 AM
Reached Seating Area Upstairs: 10:50 AM
Started Boarding Suite Guests: 11:15 AM
Then checked in C&A from top to bottom
Boarded Gold Members: 11:23 AM

So it took less than an hour for us from arriving at the port, to physically boarding the ship. And it really didn't even feel like that long. We were impressed!





 We boarded onto Deck 5, and found ourselves in the amazing Royal Promenade:





We found out by reading the Compass that we could make our show reservations in the Ice Rink (Studio B), on Deck 4. I wasn't able to book the Comedy Show and Ocean Aria online, so I made a beeline for the rink to reserve our preferred times. There was hardly anyone in there, and I was able to make our reservations in less than 5 minutes. AND I got our first choices for times! Fantastic.








 We explored the venues on Deck 4, and saw the Comedy Club and Blaze (nightclub).

















 I liked these nifty touch screens placed all over the ship. They showed you the day's Compass, restaurant options and current capacities, and maps to venues.

About navigating the ship: it was actually much easier to get around the ship as I thought it would be. I spent a few weeks before the cruise studying the deck plans, getting a feel for where the major neighborhoods were. Served me very well throughout the week. Even on boarding day, we hardly had to wait for an elevator. We never had a long wait for one. It's amazing that there 6,000 people on the ship, and I can only think of once (during the parade in the Royal Promenade) when it felt crowded. And even then it wasn't all that bad. 

 I fell in love with Central Park, on Deck 8. Such a beautiful space!

 I had been telling Wes that the first thing I wanted to eat on the Allure was a roast beef sandwich from the Park Cafe. Apparently, everyone else had the same thing in mind! A line was already forming when we arrived. It moved pretty quickly.

I also wanted a salad, and they made two separate lines: one for the make-you-own-salad area, and one for the sandwich station. Wes stayed to grab us some sandwiches (he didn't want to eat that much since he had some plans....more on that in a bit), and I went to get my salad. I had a Caesar salad with baby shrimp and fresh mozzarella. Sounds a little strange but it was good to me!

There was a lot of seating in front of the Cafe, but all the tables were taken. I got out of the Cafe first, so I grabbed us a table in front of Giovanni's (across from the Cafe) and texted Wes to let him know where I was. 

I enjoyed the salad and the roast beef sandwich. I think the sandwich had a little more fat in in than I anticipated. The meat had very little salt in it, since the bun had some coarse salt on top. We brushed most of that off since we're the type of people who like to order unsalted pretzels. The yellow mustard and horseradish went nicely with the meat, however I wished I brought a little jar of Grey Poupon with me. I had been planning to do that and totally forgot. Oh well. If you're interested in one of those sandwiches, be sure to put that mustard (or even a spicy mustard) on your packing list!






After lunch, we went to Chops to make our dinner reservation. Took less than 5 minutes. Simple and easy, I love it!  

 I mentioned earlier that Wes had some plans for lunch....well, living in South Jersey, he's an Eagles fan. Any team from Philly gets full support in our household. So as much as he was excited to sail the Allure...there was a football game on at 1:00. .If he missed it, he would have been a little disappointed but not enough the ruin the day. BUT, he looked in the Compass and noticed that they were going to air the game onboard. He checked out the On Air club and sure enough, they were going to show the game on the big screens. Perfect venue to watch a football game! He was amped, lol!

So we grabbed a table, and there were already several couples in there with buckets of beer. I mean really, it's a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, even at home!

I held Wes' table while he went here (he had been looking forward to this for WEEKS):

He returned with his pizza (I didn't want any) and got a Coke. Such a happy camper. See the happy gleam in his eyes? LOL!

Even better, the large projector screen came down to show the game as well.







And with that, it was time for me to go...it's was about 1:00 and I wanted to see the room! 

 I was very happy with our room. Because of our cruise date change, I originally had to take a guarantee balcony stateroom. On our original sailing, I had a D5 (front of the hump) balcony stateroom on Deck 11. We like to have the room on a slant, at the front of the hump, because we can see forward without craning our necks at all...and we don't really care that much about the view aft. We were assigned a pretty good D5 balcony on Deck 6 for this cruise. But I had hope that perhaps a D5 hump balcony would open up.

So I just kept doing dummy bookings as we got closer to the cruise, and lo and behold, I discovered that cabin 7590 suddenly became available! I called my TA and she was able to do the room switch with no problems. I was so happy to be able to still have a hump balcony. The cabin was in the perfect location as well.

See the deck plan below:

In any event, here was our cabin:










Our bed was by the closet, and you know what? I actually liked it that way. First of all, it wasn't that tight of a squeeze between the bed and the closet. Second, unpacking was a breeze since I could sit on the bed and put everything into the closet. Third (since I slept closest to the door), I didn't have to stumble and grope in the dark when I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It was literally two steps and I was there. It was nice to have the sitting area closer to the balcony, since we like to admire the view often and could sit on the couch or on the balcony to do that. A really nice setup, IMO.

Some more shots of the room. We really appreciated the iPod docking station since we could charge our iPhones without taking up the actual outlets. There was plenty of storage space in various cabinets and corners of the room and bathroom. And ladies, you'll appreciate that there's a bar in the shower for you to put your foot when shaving.











 














I was curious about the Solarium Bistro, so I made my way upstairs. Didn't have to wait long for an elevator.

The Solarium itself is a lovely space:








The Solarium Bistro was just okay IMO. Maybe because it was the first day.....

I tried the gazpacho since I had been looking forward to that. It was pretty good. There were a bunch of toppings you could add, like green peppers, onions, and black olives.

Then I tried some fish...I only took 2 bites or so because I don't think it was cooked all the way through...and it didn't have that much flavor. The veggies were good though. And that's when the tummy rumblings began...I think it was because of the fish, but I didn't go back that week to find out!










Went back down to the Royal Promenade to find Wes here:



He wanted to explore a bit too, so he finished his pizza and we took a stroll down the Promenade, and up one deck to the Boardwalk (Deck 6). I LOVED the Boardwalk:

























Went back to the room for a bit since Wes hadn't seen it yet, and he quickly found his favorite spot:

I found him right in that spot dozens of times while on our cruise

We could see the Hyatt from our balcony. It's the tallest building in this photo:






Our muster drill happened somewhere in there. I think it was just before sailaway, and we had ours in the Comedy Club.

After muster, we took the elevators all the way up to deck 14. We wanted to have sailaway from the Sun Deck, which has two wings over the bridge. You got a view of the helipad below, at the front of the ship. If you take the forward elevators to Deck 14, you'll see signs leading you to the Sun Deck:



Head toward the forward area of the ship, and you'll exit doors and find this view. We were very excited since we were some of the first to arrive:










After a while, we started to move....

The area filled up quickly. We loved looking up into the Solarium as the people there wondered how n the world we got to the Sun Deck!



I *think* we found the house whose owner had a Flowrider built in his yard. We saw a bright blue surface to the right of the house in the middle of the photo, and we thought that might be it. Can anyone confirm?

It was WINDY up there! But it was exhilarating. A bunch of people came to wave and say bon voyage

We went back to our stateroom to unpack. Both suitcases fit nicely under the bed once they were empty.

I asked to be connected with the Concierge onboard and was transferred easily 9even though I'm not in a suite). Reason being, I emailed the concierge before our cruise to ask if we could reserve a cabana on Barefoot Beach (suite beach). I let him know I had a baby on the way and he even assigned us one that involved minimal walking. Fernando answered the phone and confirmed our cabana assignment. He was so kind, a pleasure to speak with.

The only reason I emailed him was because I attempted to book a Nellie's Beach cabana online, and they were sold out. I reeaaaaaly wanted one, since I had to give up our over the water cabana from the September sailing. If you're ever in a pickle like that (in an exceptional case), do a search on the CC board for the concierges' email addresses (there's a thread about concierges), and reach out to your ship's concierge. You never know.

We were so happy with the interactive TV channel. We could view our account balance, book shows and specialty restaurants, and view all the menus on the ship, right from our stateroom. They even show you the Main Dining Room Menus for the entire week, starting on the first day. So you can look at the menus in your room and choose when you may want to try a specialty restaurant. Brilliant!




The bar and lounge area before the dining room was beautiful!

We had the late seating for dinner, which worked out well for us. I emailed rcldining@rccl.com to request a table for two, by a window. We got a very courteous confirmation of our table number about one business day later. We were located on Deck 3, the Adagio dining room.

A lot of people don't see the point of having a table by the window that late in the evening, but we like being able to see the white froth on top of the waves passing by, and sometimes we can see the moon. Worth it to us.

Because our booking was last-minute, I assume there wasn't much wiggle room for them to place us in a prime location, so our table #312 was all the way in a back corner of the dining room. We were actually close to a private dining room they used (during our sailing) for storing extra serving items the wait staff needed. Not that big a deal since we enjoy being to ourselves during dinner. It was a nice, quiet corner.

We were excited to try the new menu:
























 I was still feeling a little funny from that fish in the Solarium Bistro, so I went with the Marinated Grilled Chicken Breast, from the Classic (everyday) menu. Wes had the Prime Rib. Both entrees were great:







 Oh, how I wanted to try the Creme Brulee so badly, but it had Bailey's in it . I had a feeling that would have been my dessert of choice every single night. So instead, I tried the Chocolate Sensation. That's a RICH dessert! Chocolate lovers, you'll be very happy with that one!

Wes has a scoop of vanilla ice cream every single night of our cruises, lol.







After dinner, we went to the Boardwalk to see Ocean Aria. A lot of people on Cruise Critic have said it's wise to book the show for the first night, so in case it rains, you can reschedule for another day. If you wait till the last day and it rains...you're out of luck. It was booked solid online, so once I got onboard I requested the 10:45 showing with no issues.








 We had to wait a bit before the show since we got there early. The Aqua Theater was roped off. There were some tables and chairs available so we sat for a while.

Honestly, there were a lot fewer people there waiting to get in early than I anticipated. Once it was time to find seats, we didn't have to fight our way through. There was a nice, orderly line and the staff scanned our Seapasses as we entered the theater.

We made a beeline for the beach chairs, which took up every other row. The alternating rows consisted of wooden benches. I will say that everyone tried to get a beach chair, so get there early if you would rather have one of those

Ocean Aria was AWESOME! It's a must-see. They don't allow photography so I don't have any photos of the show. But the fact that they were diving from such high platforms in such rapid succession was unbelievable. They even had two specialized divers who dove from the highest platform in the previous photo. They're the two white platforms with the railings at the top- parallel with the crown in the RCI Crown and Anchor symbol. My stomach literally dropped watching them dive from that height! 

Up next- our first day at sea!