We woke up just before 07:00 and noticed that the ship was no longer moving. We had arrived in port ahead of schedule. We got up and ready. Our plan had been to get some breakfast and then briefly get off the ship to get some port photos. However, when we got to the elevator lobby, there was a sign stating that the gangway was on our deck. This appeared to be open. We decided we may as well get some port photos first and then do something about breakfast afterwards. We headed out and there were three different photo opportunities along the dock. We stopped at each of them and then we went back inside for some breakfast. When I saw the photos, some of them had some background added to them. It was like green screen technology without the green screen. I have to say, I rather liked this.
We decided to check out the Windjammer. Initially, we headed to the wrong deck. On every ship I have ever been on, the buffet is on the same deck as the pools. However, on Allure it is on the deck above. It was quite busy, but we had no issue finding a table. Graham had a pear and some oatmeal with dried fruit and brown sugar. I had congee with chicken, bacon bits, egg and soy sauce. I am sure there is some better congee in my very near future, but this hit the spot. We both had some coffee. It was not great, but it was not awful either.
After breakfast, we took a turn around the top deck. There was a beautiful rainbow over Bellver Castle. I took a quick photo. I found a round lounger and sat down. However, this was damp and did not stay there for very long. We headed back to the cabin briefly. I picked up my iPad and my soda cup. Then we headed to the Schooner Bar. On the way, Graham got a coffee, and I filled up my soda cup with cherry Vanilla Coke. Normally my go to with the Coca Cola Freestyle machines on the ships is raspberry Coke, but they did not have this option on Allure.
They were just starting a word search when we got to the Schooner Bar. Normally the word searches have the names of the various ships, but this one had beers from around the world. I was not particularly good at this and only found about half of them. When I had not found anything else for about 5 minutes, I gave up. I had a look at the Royal Caribbean app and noticed that I had a notification about photos. I noticed with delight that you can now view and select your photos via the app. I had noticed on the new deck plans for the ship that we are going to Alaska with next year no longer features a photo gallery. I had wondered how this would work. Now I knew. I do have to admit that I like being able to select the photos through the app rather than having to use a kiosk at the photo gallery.
We did well with the morning trivia. We scored 9 out of 15, which normally I would not get excited about. However, this ended up being the winning score. Before somebody asks, we were not the only people taking part. The turnout was actually pretty good. We got some pens. The pens always look great, but in my experience, they often don’t work or fall apart after one use. I have however used one of the pens a few times now and so far, it has worked well.
Once the morning trivia was over, we decided to have a swim. Graham had put on the swimming drunks under his regular clothes. He headed straight up to the pool deck. I went back to the cabin to drop off my stuff and to put my swimsuit on. I found a new companion on the bed. I took a quick photo and then I headed up to the pool deck, too. I found Graham in the mid ship pool on the starboard side. This is referred to as the beach pool. I wondered why this was. I learned later in the cruise that this pool is a saltwater pool whereas the other pools on the ship are freshwater pools. Graham told me that the pool was warm. I tend to take statements like this with a huge pinch of salt. However, on this occasion he was actually right. The temperature of that pool made a nice hot bath appear cold in comparison. When I first got in, I was positively surprised. However, it was way too warm for swimming and after a short while, I started to overheat. This focused my mind about the plan to visit the ancient thermal baths in Civitavecchia. With the air temperature being quite high as well, I figured that I would overheat in no time. I retired to the adjacent hot tub after short while, which was ironically cooler than the pool.
Graham joined me after a while and at some stage, we decided to check out the solarium pool. This is listed as a plunge pool on the deck plan. It was not hugely cold but definitely felt refreshing after the hot pool. In the centre was a structure that sprayed cool water on you. We both really liked this pool. However, for some reason, we never made it back. As I was walking past, I decided to check out the family pool, which was next to the beach pool. This was a much more pleasant temperature for swimming. I swam one length and then I got out. Graham had gone in search of towels while I tried out the family pool. I headed over to the towel station and did not see him anywhere. He came round the corner a couple of minutes later carrying two soft serve ice creams. We enjoyed those while we were drip drying. Then we got some towels and finished off the drying process before handing in the pool towels again.
We headed back to the cabin to have a quick shower and to get changed. I picked up my soda cup again. I stopped by the Coca Cola Freestyle machine and got some lemon and lime sparkling water. Then we headed to the Schooner Bar for the next round of trivia. I figured it was 5 o’clock somewhere and ordered a cocktail. Back in 2023, the menu for the Schooner Bar changed. Before that, they had various creative variations on the John Collins cocktail as we well as a selection of rum-based cocktails. With the makeover of the menu, they introduced more variety. There were two drinks on the new menu that I really liked. The first was a Desert Pear Margarita, which consists of Patron silver tequila, desert pear syrup, and lime juice. I do like a good margarita, and this soon became a firm favourite. It was excellent on the first two ships we sailed on after the new menu was introduced, but it was not very nice on Odyssey of the Seas when I spent my birthday there last year. I had high hopes that this may be the stuff of my dreams on Allure, but I was sadly disappointed. It seemed to be very watered down and missing flavour. It was a once and done on this cruise. Graham had played it safe and had a Sauvignon Blanc.
The trivia that lunch time was Where in the World Am I. We were given three clues for each destination and how many points you got depended on how many clues you needed. Initially we did very well, but the clues got quite obscure as the game went on. We ended up scoring 28 out 40, which was quite respectable. The winning score was 36.
After the trivia, we went to the Boardwalk. They have one included food outlet in this area, which is the Boardwalk Doghouse that offers a range of different hot dogs with sides like pickles, coleslaw, and potato salad. There are also two casual eating places that come with an upcharge. One is Johnny Rockets which is a diner specialising in burgers and the other is Playmakers, which is a sports bar, which offers American bar food. Playmakers is a la carte and Johnny Rockets has a cover charge. As we had the unlimited specialty dining package, we had $25 food credit per person per day to use at those casual dining options. Playmakers was closed until late afternoon, but Johnny Rockets was open. I had an orange soda, which was included with the cover charge. Graham had a strawberry shake. This is normally extra but is covered with drinks packages or through the complimentary drinks vouchers that Royal Caribbean offers for Diamond Crown and Anchor members and above. I ordered the chilli bowl from the starter menu. I have had this before at Johnny Rockets on other ships and it was always very nice. Rather than coming out first as you would expect with a starter, it came out once I had finished my main course. It was also not very nice on this ship. It tasted like taco meat that had come out of a tin. The rest of the food was nice though. Graham had the Rocket Double, which is their signature burger which consisted of two beef patties, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato and sliced onion with their special sauce. He had a side of onion rings with this. I was torn between two burgers, but ultimately went with the Route 66, which consisted of a beef patty, Swiss cheese, grilled mushrooms, caramelized onions, and mayonnaise. I had a side of bacon cheese fries with this. It was nothing fancy, but it hit the spot.
One thing that we never managed to do on Symphony of the Seas was to have a drink at the Rising Tide Bar. The Rising Tide Bar is a unique, moving bar on Royal Caribbean’s Oasis Class ships that travels between the Royal Promenade on deck 5 and Central Park on deck 8. It is essentially a large oval glass lift. I had checked earlier in the day when the first departure from the Royal Promenade was. It said that this was at 14:30. We got down to the entrance of the Rising Tide Bar just ahead of this, but the bar was not there. I checked the app and there it stated that it was not due to open until 15:00. We headed up to Central Park and relaxed somewhere from where we could see the Rising Tide Bar. Just before 15:00, the bartenders arrived. As soon as doors opened, we got on. They have a unique cocktail on the menu that I wanted to try. It is called White Orchid and consists of vodka, coconut water, lemon juice, lychee purée and prosecco. Vodka is not normally my thing, but I liked the rest of the ingredients. It was actually very nice. Graham had another glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
Once we were back on the Royal Promenade, I quickly took some photos of the Pesky Parrot Tiki Bar. Then we headed straight to the Bow and Stern Pub. Most of the Royal Caribbean ships have a pub, but up to this day the only reason we had set foot into one of them was when it was our muster station. However, they were hosting a pub quiz that afternoon and we figured we may as well check this out. As this is not a particularly big space, we got there nice and early. I spotted a limoncello tonic on the menu and decided to check this out. It was a wise decision to get there early as the pub was packed. The pub quiz was quite difficult. We ended up scoring 12 out of 20. The winning score was 16.
Multiple times during the pub quiz, the host mentioned that she would be hosting afternoon trivia shortly after the pub quiz in On Air. I was a little bit surprised by this as the Cruise Compass and the app listed this in Boleros. I did however figure that as she was hosting this, she must know where it was. Once the pub quiz was over, we headed straight to On Air. It was surprisingly quiet. Our host came, looked very puzzled, and then went to make a call. Then she came back and told us that afternoon trivia was in Boleros.
This was absolutely packed. We did not manage to get a seat. I wondered if we would be able to hear the questions from just outside. There was a handy bench just outside of Boleros. This worked well enough initially, but then a band started playing further down on the Royal Promenade. We could no longer hear the questions. We gave up and headed back to the cabin for some downtime.
Fortunately, I had set an alarm as we were both asleep in minutes. Once the alarm went off, I got changed and then we headed one deck up to Studio B. Studio B is the ice rink that Voyager class, Freedom class and Oasis class ships have. Icon class also has an ice rink, but there it is called Absolute Zero. I have loved watching figure skating since I was a child. Therefore, the ice shows have always appealed to me. I have yet to come across an ice show that I did not like. Most ice shows have some theme with some trying to work around a storyline. However, I just enjoy the music, the costumes and most importantly, the amazing talent of the cast. When we were on Symphony of the Seas, the had two ice shows. The first one was the main production show with a storyline and then there was a bonus show that consisted of the cast skating to music they had chosen and just showing off their talent. I really enjoyed it then. On Allure, they expanded that idea to a full-length ice show. It is called Blade. This was absolutely amazing. I could not believe what advanced jumps some of the cast could do on a moving ship. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Being in the front row about as much in the centre as possible helped, too.
Once the show was over, we headed up to Central Park for dinner. We got some photos near the entrance to Central Park. Then we went to check in at Chops Grille. Chops Grille is Royal Caribbean’s steakhouse concept, and it is to specialty restaurants what Schooner Bars is to bars in that it can be found on every single ship. Our experience with Chops Grille over the years has been variable to say the least. We had everything from absolutely awful to absolutely brilliant and pretty much everything in the middle. We checked in and were offered seating in the conservatory overlooking Central Park. I figured that this may be quite romantic. Our server brought the menu and offered drinks. We both ordered a glass of Moscato. Our server then brought out bread while taking our order. Graham started with the colossal shrimp cocktail with horseradish cocktail sauce, remoulade, and lemon. Normally this is a fairly standard shrimp cocktail, but on this occasion, it was a deconstructed presentation. I had the grilled black pepper bacon. This consists of slow-cooked Berkshire pork with a sweet and spicy glaze. This was delicious. For his main course, Graham ordered the USDA Prime 16 oz bone-in ribeye. This started out promising, but according to Graham, there was a lot of gristle in the middle of the steak. I had the 9 oz filet, which was very nice. The sides at Chops Grille are designed for sharing. We had the grilled jumbo asparagus with sea salt, and lemon; sautéed mushrooms demi-glace, and thyme, and Yukon gold mashed potatoes with salt, and sweet cream butter. We both passed on dessert.
After dinner, we stopped by the Royal Promenade so that I could get some photos. Then we headed back to the cabin. We got ready for bed. I read for a while, but soon we were both asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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