Chapter 1: Allure of the Seas
Is it really 'alluring?'
11.18.2023 - 11.18.2023 80 °F
Sailing from Port Canaveral
Friday, November 17, 2023
Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas is BIG
Built in 2010, she can hold up to 6,780 guests. That only happens if all the sofabeds are full and every mom and dad crammed as many of their kids into their cabin as the cruise line would allow. The 'real' capacity when one thinks about one couple per cabin is closer to the still very large number of 5,484. Take a look. I am not sure where to jump into this post. Maybe a good start, for those who don't know this about me, i avoid concerts, sporting events, and anything with a big crowd. A broadway show is about all the crowd i happily accept. So maybe that is your first clue about how i feel about a ship that holds in excess of 5000 people. On the plus side, I am spending two days of uninterrupted time with Paul with no conference calls, work, little email or text, and a lot of R & R. But where do you find R & R among your 5500 new friends!
And, she is no longer the biggest cruise ship in the world. The newer Royal Caribbean vessels 'Wonder of the Seas,' 'Symphony of the Seas' and 'Harmony of the Seas' are only a few inches or feet longer and they hold either the same number of passengers or up to a couple of hundred more. So, without splitting hairs, she's about the same as deciding which offensive lineman for the Chiefs is bigger that the guy standing next to him. They're all pretty big. Bigger is not automatically better, but maybe the depends on what you want. Paul booked us a big suite that gives us privileges to private parts of the ship - a blessing. He really is the best of the best. We spent most of the day in a cabana on an upper private deck. We were away from the maddening crowd and i for one was quite content. However, when we ventured out for our guacamole class and had to deal with throngs of people crowding the elevator (and remember we are in port so most people are not even on board at the moment) i was reminded that i had left my little oasis. Frankly, i've seen enough of people in every size and shape in short shorts with their butts hanging out, that is the crowd on the ship. I don't know how many of them took advantage of the kiosk item we passed last night - buy 3 cartons of cigarettes and get one free. I don't think i even know anyone who still smokes.
We leave from Port Canaveral, Florida, now the busiest cruise port in the United States. It is only an hour's drive north of Vero Beach. From our cabin 11240 on the port (left) side of the ship, we have a front row view of the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. Danny Klein and I missed watching a launch a couple of days ago from our viewpoint at our Sea Oaks condominium because of cloud cover. Had we been here, we would have been almost right on top of it. The gigantic NASA assembly building is in the distance as well.
The entire "Oasis" class of ships is enormous. I sailed aboard the original 2008 Oasis of the Seas--the first mega ship--back in 2011. I enjoyed it even though I travelled solo back then. Hmmm........that might be the case again if Paul wants to cruise on one of these monster ships. For me it goes beyond the massive size of the ship and the fact you would have to be on it for a month to find your way. Yes, there are tons of activities, restaurants, etc. The ship feels like a cross between Las Vegas and Coney Island. walking through it all is something of an assault on one's senses. Just not my thing.
The Mega-Ship story is best told when one is berthed adjacent to a normal sized ship. Megas are bigger in terms of both width and length. Allure, for example, is 1,181 feet long and 198 feet wide. The more standard ship--take Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas as an example, is 958 feet long and 130 feet wide. What happens with that extra width? Cabins. Some of them have balconies that look inward--down on the thing called Central Park.
There are 24 passenger elevators on this ship for her 18 decks. But, that's only two more elevators than we found on our recent Cunard Queen Elizabeth cruise which had one elevator for every 95 passengers. On Allure, its one elevator for every 228 passengers. Red flag? We shall see. When we sailed in the Galapagos aboard the Silversea Silver Origin, our ship was tiny: 331 feet long--about one football field if you add the end zones. Allure is 1,188 feet long--almost four football fields. Silver Origin held 100 passengers. Other than the fact that they both float, there is no comparison.
Is it too crowded? The industry publishes a statistic called 'space ratio'--the number of square feet of space per passenger. The ultra-luxury Silversea Silver Dawn upon which we once sailed boasted 58.9 square feet per passenger. The Allure? Only sixty percent of that: 35.7 square feet. But wait a bit. On the other not-six-star ships B4 has been aboard, the number is not much different: Celebrity Constellation 35.3, Norwegian Jade 32.5 and Emerald Princess 36.5. You can make numbers say whatever you want them to say, there are crowds on this ship, at least in my view.
But, unlike those other ships, aboard Allure one finds an ice skating rink, two rock climbing walls, a zip line, culinary classes, Broadway's Mama Mia, a Cirque de Soleil type extravaganza and rotating 'headliners' in the theater nightly. There's a high-diving show, two surf-rider simulated surfing pools, outdoor movies, a comedy club, 19 bars, a jazz lounge, karaoke club, arcade, a merry-go-round, four dining options, four swimming pools, ten whirlpools, a basketball court and a casino which hosts Texas Hold'em tournaments every day in the middle of its 450 slot machines. Simply said, there is one hell of a lot more to do here than aboard any other ship upon which she has sailed. Yes, that is true, but the trick is in if it all aligns to what i like to do. In summer camp, which i enjoyed for many years, Blue Mountain Camp in East Stroudsberg, Pa, my favorite activities were head wash and showers, arts and crafts, and Sunday morning when you could buy comic books at the canteen. Maybe that gives you an idea of the alignment to me. I did take ice skating lessons as a kid and got to know Dorothy Hamill through a product brand we built at Helzberg. We are going to see the ice skating tomorrow so i think that might be fun. Tonight we are seeing Mama Mia and i am looking forward to that - i wouldn't want you to think that i am complaining about everything.
One is Vegas and the other is Venice. Both are fun the visit but they are completely different options. Venice is wonderful; Las Vegas on the other hand.....I guess some people enjoy it.
Here's a link to the Royal Caribbean 35-second promotional video for the Allure: https://youtu.be/6emsasoYPnY?list=TLGGrczNw0FNw7lzMTA4MjAyMw
After an initially bumpy night--all the better to sleep by my dear--we arrive at Nassau just ahead of the Carnival Sunshine and pass by the abandoned 1817 Hog Island Lighthouse to find our berth adjacent to three other vessels--two Royal Caribbean and one Carnival. Nassau will be deluged by tourists on this beautiful, partly cloudy, eighty-degree day.
The only 'influencer' I care about is B4. This trip is about only one thing: What does she think? I think i am with the most wonderful man in the world who only wants me to be happy and works hard to make that happen. I'm happy just being with him. We appreciate each other every day. As for ships, i am more of a Cunard, Silver Seas, Regent kind of girl.
She praises me in this post as a wonderful man. That reference was to remove the sting of me bringing her along on this research project.
