Just like this, our last day had arrived. We had not set an alarm, and it was nearly 08:30 by the time we woke up. Graham decided to pack. I was not in the mood for packing and read instead. I hate packing with a passion, and I had not got much to do anyway as I had been putting stuff in my suitcase throughout the week. Once Graham was done, we headed upstairs to the Cafe Promenade to get a snack. We both had some fruit. Graham had a Danish pastry, and I had some Dulce de Leche bread.
Once we had finished our snack, we headed upstairs to the Schooner Bar. I picked out some more photos for my photo package. We were also entitled to one free print. I was not going to get two prints this time, but there was one photo I really loved. I tried to order this via the app, but got an error message that it was too late. I found that very strange. I decided to check with the photography staff who had a help desk right across from the Schooner Bar. She could not understand this either and ordered the photo for me. I was told it would be ready within a couple of hours.
With this out of the way, I could concentrate on morning trivia. This was our last trivia of the cruise. We scored 13 out 16 and the winning score was 13. There was one more team that had scored 13. We did a tiebreaker. The question for this was the name of which Mexican food translates as little donkey. I had no clue. The team captain of the other team correctly guessed burrito. We still got a key ring each as runner up prize.
They had a t-shirt sale that day on the Royal Promenade. I was not really in the market for new t-shirts, but Graham had spotted a t-shirt with the Sagrada Familia on it. As I love everything designed by Gaudi, this was a serious temptation. I also found a t-shirt for Naples that I liked. The deal was for three t-shirts. Graham had a t-shirt that he got many years ago that said “Cruising Through Life One Port At The Time”. His t-shirt had seen better days, and I had not seen this on any of our cruises for years. They did have this design on the sales rack. I ended up getting those three t-shirts. I quickly took them back to the cabin and then I met up with Graham near the theatre.
We wanted to get some fresh air and decided to take a lap around the promenade deck. We were just passing by Corsica and Sardinia. It was a beautiful day. I found something interesting. There was a window on the promenade deck that overlooks the back of the Aqua Theatre. I am not sure if the other Oasis class ships have that feature. The cast was practising when we were in the area, and I watched for a while. I was absolutely fascinated by the acrobatics.
Soon it was time for lunch. We had a reservation for Chops. We both started with the wild mushroom soup scented with white truffle oil and garnished with chives. This is a longstanding favourite of mine. For his main course, Graham had the 8 oz Angus Filet Mignon with fries. I had the Chops Dry-Aged Steak Burger on a Brioche bun, with melted Gruyère, and smoked bacon. I had some fries on the side. This time it was me passing on dessert. Graham had the Key Lime Pie. We both felt that this concept has run its course and maybe it was time that Royal Caribbean introduced something fresh in its place.
After lunch, we headed up to the pool deck. The reason why I passed on dessert was that I had other plans. They did shave ice at the bar near the flow riders. I had some shave ice with cherry, watermelon and mango syrups and condensed milk. I went to sit on the bleachers by one of the flow riders while I had my shave ice. I do enjoy watching people on the flow rider. As we were leaving, there was a photographer roaming in the area. He offered to take some photos of us. We took him on his offer.
I decided that I better do some packing. I headed back to the room and Graham came with me. Fortunately, the packing did not take very long. Once I was done, we headed to the theatre. I asked Graham if he wanted to sit in the main area or on the balcony. He opted for the balcony. I headed towards the front of the balcony. They had some reserved seating for Diamond Plus, Pinnacles and suites in that area. Graham suggested that we would be better off sitting further back. I was OK with that. With hindsight, we should have stayed at the front.
Some of the larger Royal Caribbean ships have a full Broadway musical. The musical on Allure is Mamma Mia! I love the films and always wanted to see the musical. This was a huge pull for me. I was delighted when reservations opened that they had a matinee performance. I had been looking forward to this all cruise. There were strict instructions about switching all mobile phones off and repeated announcements that taking photos or videos was not allowed. Pretty much as soon as the show started, someone in the row in front of us held up her phone with the screen on the top brightness level. Graham politely asked her to stop, but she just gave him attitude. Graham went to find a member of crew and then spoke to someone from security. The lady from security took our cabin number, but that was the last we heard about this. Thankfully the mobile phone did not make a reappearance after the intermission. I wonder if somebody had words during the intermission. Apart from the irritation with the mobile phone, I really liked the show. The movie is actually very close to the musical. The cast was amazing. I am glad that I finally had the chance to see the musical.
Because the ship interports, there are photo opportunities on all seven nights. Normally there are no more photos on the final night. I stopped by the backdrop on deck 5. I also wanted to check out of if there were any backdrops on our deck. There were actually two, but there were none on deck 4 that night. I took some photos with my daytime dress. The photographers tried to convince Graham to join me. He said that he would before we were going for dinner.
We headed back to the cabin. I left Graham to it while I picked up my sunhat to get some photos on Central Park. I belong to a lifestyle group on Facebook that has weekly themes. We had a theme week coming up that concentrated on bags, scarves and hats. I wanted to get some photos for this. Once I was done, I headed back to the cabin to get changed. Then we headed out together to get some photos done before we headed for dinner.
We had another reservation for Samba Grill that evening. We got slightly sidetracked. When we came up to the solarium, we saw the beginnings of a sunset developing. The solarium on Allure as an outdoor sundeck in front of the solarium where the bridge wings were on Symphony of the Seas. We figured that this would be a good spot to watch the sunset. It was rather pretty. When the sun had set, we went to check in at Samba Grill. I was hoping that we would have the same serving team, but this did not happen. Still, the servers we had that evening were also very good.
Graham decided to have a caipirinha that evening. He went with the mango flavour that I had on our first visit. I also had a caipirinha, but decided to try the passion fruit flavour. This was even nicer than the mango flavour. Graham had a visit to the salad bar and got a few odds and ends. I decided to be good. As tempting as the black bean stew was, I had two of the croquettes that came out with the drinks and then had the Brazilian cheese bread with the meat. We also were a bit more selective with the meat. We both had the chicken breast wrapped in bacon, top sirloin, and beef tenderloin, which came out in quick succession. Graham had the bottom sirloin, but I was going to pass on this. However, our server convinced me to have at least a tiny bit. Graham also had a lamb chop. I started to wonder if they did not have the parmesan cheese and herb-crusted pork loin that evening. This is one of my favourites and is usually one of the first meats to come out. In the end I did ask, and it was indeed available. Our server brought us some. Graham was raving about the devilled eggs from the salad bar, and I figured I better try one. I did not dislike it, but devilled eggs are not really my thing.
Once the plates for the meats had been cleared away, I had a double helping of the pineapple. We turned down the other desserts, but we did have the little Brazilian truffles. I had both chocolate truffles and Graham had both coconut truffles . Then we said goodbye to our serving team and headed out.
I suggested that we could get a nightcap. Graham asked where I wanted to go. I suggested we could go to either Lime and Coconut or the bar at The Mason Jar. Graham picked Lime and Coconut. We both had a Watermelon Rita. When we had finished our drinks, we headed back to the cabin. I put our luggage out and then we got ready for bed. I read a couple of pages, but soon we were both asleep.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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