Key Largo, Montego, Baby Why Don’t We Go (Or, a Week on The World’s Largest Cruise Ship): Part Ninefeatured
So where I last left off, we were people watching out in Central Park. We stayed there for awhile, sometimes walking around and exploring and sometimes just sitting and watching. What I found interesting was that while sitting in Central Park, there was no real indication we were at sea. On the Boardwalk, you can see a bit of the seascape creeping in off the aft of the ship, but in Central Park, there’s no exterior views. The Allure is so large and the ride so smooth that you could sit in Central Park and have absolutely no indication you were on the water or on a moving vessel.
We eventually retired back to the room with a Tacky Room marathon on the Style Network while we took turns taking showers. I have to give props to Royal Caribbean here – I think the showers were much more functional. Where Carnival cabins have a shower curtain, the cabins on the Allure have curved sliding doors. There’s a bar to put your foot up on when you shave your legs in one corner and it just feels bigger even though I’m not sure it is.
Stephanie and I decided to walk around a bit while Mom blow dried her hair. We ended up at Wipeout Café at the tail end of their lunch hours and decided to stop in for a snack.
We were both a bit curious about the offerings at Wipeout Café. It doesn’t seem to get much attention in the reviews we’d read before our trip and unlike Carnival, which posts menus in nearly every dining establishment (including their buffets), there weren’t really menus for Wipeout Café. We stopped in and it was…bar food? I guess you could call it. Grill food. Bar food. Finger food. Burgers, hot dogs, make-your-own tacos, turkey sandwiches, fries, soft serve ice cream.
The pretzel dog stuck out at us and we decided to split one of those. The pretzel part of the pretzel dog was fantastic – a nice, crusty exterior with good flavor. The hot dog part was uninspiring. The side of fries we split with our pretzel dog was much better – nicely seasoned and perfectly crispy.
We finished our snack and continued our stroll along deck 15. Deck 15 is where all the action is – the Flowriders, the zip line, mini golf. It was probably the busiest area we found on sea days.
After our lap around the sports deck, we headed back to the room to get ready for formal night. Our cabin was smaller than we were used to and we found it challenging for all three of us to get ready at the same time because of the lack of counter space. We took turns at the desk, took the obligatory formal night pictures on our balcony and then headed out to the promenade before dinner.
We felt that in comparison to our past Carnival cruises, people dressed up more on Carnival. We saw less gowns and tuxes than we usually see on Carnival, and I thought that was interesting given that Royal Caribbean still calls it Formal Night whereas Carnival has renamed it Elegant Evening to make it less formal. I think that our observation could be a result of the expanded number of options on the Allure. On Carnival, if you don’t want to dress up for elegant evening, your only choices for dinner are room service or the buffet on the Lido deck. On the Allure, there are numerous options for dinner that don’t involve dressing up beyond the buffet and room service.
With that, we headed to our first dinner in the Adagio and I have to say – our dining staff was the highlight of our cruise. We had My Time Dining (Stephanie had made us reservations before our cruise, though, for the nights we’d be dining at the Adagio) and we were lucky to have the same dining staff for all but one of the nights we dined there – John and Daniel. In all of our cruises, we have had many, many wonderful wait staffs, but we have never, ever experienced the level of service John and Daniel provided us when we dined in the Adagio. Nothing was impossible for them – anything we wanted, they made happen. If we asked “Is ______ good?” We’d get an honest answer. If we couldn’t decide between two things? They’d bring us both. They had many tables to service and always found the time to chat with us about our day and about theirs. They were the best of the best.
The bread basket came around first with way more options than I’ve seen in a bread basket that wasn’t being served at a Jewish deli. I’d heard a lot about these Savory Bites, so I opted for those and…they were just okay. They were bite-sized bread nuggets with a liberal dosing of poppy seeds. They were a bit dry throughout and I think I would have enjoyed them better if they were a bit doughier in the middle.
Savory Bites
The standouts for this meal, by far, were the chicken soup (with large julienned slices of vegetables and freshly cut chives floating on the top) and all of the desserts. We’d take a bite of one and go “That’s the winner,” before moving on to the next and declaring it the winner and doing the same with the third. I had ordered the Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle and I thought it was the best of the three, but really, dessert was the strong suit of this meal.
Royal Shrimp Cocktail
Shaved Cantaloupe and Honeydew Melon
Double-Boiled Chicken Consomme
Simple and Classic Caesar Salad
Oakwood Smoked Chicken Breast
Roman Vignole Salad
Carved Filet of Beef Tenderloin
Double Strawberry Cheesecake
Sky High Lemon Meringue Pie
Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle
After dinner, I noticed a self-serve wine station in the lobby of the dining room and upon closer look, I noticed that they had a Cline Zinfandel. I’ve been to the Cline estate before, on my first trip to San Francisco, and at a couple dollars for a tasting, I was sold! Except when I put my card in and they charged me, my wine did not come out. A nearby bar server noticed and said the machine was on the fritz and offered to get me a glass of wine from the back. I asked for the Cline Zin, they took my Sea Pass and came back with a $12 glass of some wine I’d never heard of…and a receipt for me to sign…because they didn’t have my wine in back and they already charged me. Come on, now. I wanted a $2 tasting of Cline Zinfandel. Not this Pinot Noir for $10 more. I thought that was shoddy service to bring me something I didn’t ask for and charge me for it before asking if I’d like it, especially since it was completely different from what I had told her I wanted. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, and I like red wine anyways, so I grabbed my glass and we left.
We wanted to take a ride on the Rising Tide bar, but it was taking too long to descend to the Royal Promenade, so we just took the regular elevators up.
We didn’t stay out on Central Park for too long because it got super windy, so we ended up going back to the room to change out of our dresses, and then we headed out to watch the sunset on the Solarium.
After the last of the afternoon loungers roll indoors, the Solarium becomes this quiet, almost secret place. The only people strolling by were those entering and exiting Samba grill. Situated at the front of the ship, there’s a fantastic panoramic view of the horizon and it’s just about the only place on the ship you’ll feel any motion.
After the sun dipped below the horizon, we decided to take a walk around since it was so beautiful out.
We headed back to the room for a bit before show time and the boat was finally beginning to rock a little bit. Apologies to anyone who ever sails with us, because I’m the one who gets onboard and starts hoping for motion because it makes me sleep better. The boat rocked gently and we got in an hour of Jerseylicious before we headed to the Amber Palace to get seats for Chicago.
Just like Oceanaria the night before, you need to make reservations for your shows in advance (Stephanie booked ours weeks before we boarded) and they scan your Sea Pass as you enter. 15 minutes or so before showtime, they’ll open the doors up to those without reservations. And even though everyone with a reservation is guaranteed a seat, people show up early. We came in over a half hour early and nearly the entire middle section was filled in, so we grabbed some front row seats off of stage left.
Chicago was fantastic. Truly one of the best shows we’ve ever seen at sea. It wasn’t Broadway caliber, but it was close. I’m a girl who loves her musical theatre and to see shows like this on a cruise ship…it’s just an entirely new level of amazing.
Once the show let out, we headed back up to the Royal Promenade and ended up with many of the other people who were at the show…at Sorrento’s for Pizza.
Sorrento’s isn’t 24 hours, but it’s open pretty late. They have four or so pizza’s pre-made and ready to go (cheese, pepperoni and two specialty pies), but they also have the option to make your own pizza. We just opted for some slices of pepperoni.
After our late-night snack, we headed back to the room to watch, you guessed it, more Style Network. We had an early morning planned for the next day, so Mom and Stephanie filled out the room service breakfast card to hang on the door, we packed up our beach bags and headed to bed.
