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Shrek Takes On Mickey: The Dreamworks Experience Aboard Allure of the Seas 9/18-25
- Thread starter nenner1
- Start date
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
...for a birthday shout out! Today Sarah turns 4! FOUR! I can't believe it!
I hope to catch up, I know I am waaay behind on replies. I started a gigantic muti-quote reply the other night and lost it when my internet disconnected and I tired to refresh. One of these days I'll learn to copy and paste into word before I start an undertaking like that!
So I might have to do them in batches- lot of great questions though. i have the answers...coming soon! (Today B and Sav have their voice and instrument recitals and then we are going out to dinner for Sarah's birthday! We told her she can pick any restaurant she wants..as long as it isn't Mc Donalds! LOL!
Happy Weekend, gang!
I hope to catch up, I know I am waaay behind on replies. I started a gigantic muti-quote reply the other night and lost it when my internet disconnected and I tired to refresh. One of these days I'll learn to copy and paste into word before I start an undertaking like that!
So I might have to do them in batches- lot of great questions though. i have the answers...coming soon! (Today B and Sav have their voice and instrument recitals and then we are going out to dinner for Sarah's birthday! We told her she can pick any restaurant she wants..as long as it isn't Mc Donalds! LOL!
Happy Weekend, gang!
Hope she had a great bday party! macleod1979
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 1, 2012
What a treat! I am sure its a birthday she will remember for the rest of her life.
livingis2me
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2008
J/K. We're in the throes of recital(s) right now. It'll be a few days until she can get back to Dis-ing.
I've been enjoying the report!!I am enjoying reading this. Mthank you for taking the time. We were on the Allure in March and are booked on the Fantasy next March. I feel like I am reliving our cruise by reading this. We loved the Allure. We are Diamond Cruisers to RCCl, so the switch over, With no perks is the biggest doubt I am having about the Fantasy. It is a hard change especially after going o. allure. There really is nothing like it.
towels
Tehanna's SO
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2012
Saturday September 24 Day 7 At Sea
Oh no, Alexs dirty little secret- male pattern baldness!
Now we know why he wanted the sombrero from Rita's on Day One.
Good tr! I feel making it the 37 pages so far is a worthy accomplishment!
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
Around 11:20 or so we headed out to collect the kids and go see the DreamWorks Aquatheater Show: Let You Entertain ME! This features the characters from Madagascar!
We arrived about 20-25 minutes early. The center section was already full but plenty of seating in the two flanking sections, even up close.
We chose our seats that we had been in for every performance in the Aquatheater so far. And the kids went to the Splash Zone, of course! There were a lot more folks in the Splash Zone for this show than any other show or event we had been there for. And they pretty much got the wettest in this one too.
What, Mom? ANOTHER picture?
Stage setup;
Crowd is pretty full!
A few minutes before show time, a staff member and some of the dancers come out and taught everyone a little dance that the audience would be doing during the show. It was cute and fun and definitely helped pass the time as we waited for the show to start!
And then it started!
(Video: Click Picture to Play!)
It was a fun show- not as much spectacular diving and stunts as OceanAria (no high dives) but still a taste of it.
Alex- glad to see you fixed your comb over!
How those girls managed to keep those swimsuits oh so-snug on their behinds, nary moving a millimeter Ill never know. Must be a trade secret. Or some really strong double sided tape!
Yikes. I warned you, on Allure you will see many small swimsuits and large parts that should be covered!
So, the premise of the show is King Julien is in control of the water supply and requires entertainment to consider flipping the switch and letting it flow. Each character, Gloria, Mort, and finally Alex take their turn at influencing King Julien to give it up.
And its the big dance number at the end that wins him over. The water flows and a barrage of singing, dancing, flipping, tumbling, and diving, splashing and strong arming ensues.
Heres the grand finale (spoiler...in case you want to wait to see it onboard)
If not- click to play!
We very much enjoyed the show-especially of course, the kids. But as you can see in the videos a LOT of the adults got into it too. I didnt even realize that I was dancing along as well until I came home and watched the videos (sorry about that!) I really think this is another one of those dont miss shows. And we got VERY lucky too usually this show is performed twice, back to back at noon and 1:30 or so on the last Sea Day (on the Eastern- Western may be different). But due to the high seas and inclement weather (it still wasnt raining) the second showing was first postponed, and eventually cancelled.
Theres still so much to come from our last day onboard including the Flash Mob, a character scramble and more! Stay tuned!
We arrived about 20-25 minutes early. The center section was already full but plenty of seating in the two flanking sections, even up close.
We chose our seats that we had been in for every performance in the Aquatheater so far. And the kids went to the Splash Zone, of course! There were a lot more folks in the Splash Zone for this show than any other show or event we had been there for. And they pretty much got the wettest in this one too.
What, Mom? ANOTHER picture?
Stage setup;
Crowd is pretty full!
A few minutes before show time, a staff member and some of the dancers come out and taught everyone a little dance that the audience would be doing during the show. It was cute and fun and definitely helped pass the time as we waited for the show to start!
And then it started!
(Video: Click Picture to Play!)
It was a fun show- not as much spectacular diving and stunts as OceanAria (no high dives) but still a taste of it.
Alex- glad to see you fixed your comb over!
How those girls managed to keep those swimsuits oh so-snug on their behinds, nary moving a millimeter Ill never know. Must be a trade secret. Or some really strong double sided tape!
Yikes. I warned you, on Allure you will see many small swimsuits and large parts that should be covered!
So, the premise of the show is King Julien is in control of the water supply and requires entertainment to consider flipping the switch and letting it flow. Each character, Gloria, Mort, and finally Alex take their turn at influencing King Julien to give it up.
And its the big dance number at the end that wins him over. The water flows and a barrage of singing, dancing, flipping, tumbling, and diving, splashing and strong arming ensues.
Heres the grand finale (spoiler...in case you want to wait to see it onboard)
If not- click to play!
We very much enjoyed the show-especially of course, the kids. But as you can see in the videos a LOT of the adults got into it too. I didnt even realize that I was dancing along as well until I came home and watched the videos (sorry about that!) I really think this is another one of those dont miss shows. And we got VERY lucky too usually this show is performed twice, back to back at noon and 1:30 or so on the last Sea Day (on the Eastern- Western may be different). But due to the high seas and inclement weather (it still wasnt raining) the second showing was first postponed, and eventually cancelled.
Theres still so much to come from our last day onboard including the Flash Mob, a character scramble and more! Stay tuned!
nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
After Let You Entertain Me, we just took a leisurely stroll around the ship. Some of the sights:
It wasnt the prettiest of days: cloudy, sometimes drizzly and the seas were quite high. We were actually passing through the outskirts of TS Ophelia, but we didnt know it at the time. In fact, the second showing of the DreamWorks Aquatheater show was actually canceled due to the high seas and weather. We were lucky to have gotten to see it when we did!
This is the perfect place to remark about the motion of the ocean. We had read that you feel virtually mo motion on Allure. I guess it really can vary from cruise to cruise, but we experienced noticeable rocking for sure. Yes, certainly more exaggerated on the more inclement weather days but even on the nice days we could feel the ship gently swaying. It was what I like to call the classic cruise feel- a one-two-three-four-five gentle tips to the left, then one-two-three-four-five to the right. But while motion was noticeable it was never so drastic that would cause difficulty walking. Even if you are in heels. Even if you walk like me in heels. LOL!!!
And if you havent heard about the Little Wonders art viewers (the brass thing here), they are all over the ship. When you see these or a similar looking thing with a viewfinder on it, take a peek inside!
You may see something like this:
Now we were about to encounter the most negative experience of our cruise. The Focus Photo Gallery on the last day. I know, I know. Any experienced cruiser knows one of the busiest places to be onboard is the photo gallery on the last day. Its always a mess, but an unavoidable mess, since we had just taken the pictures we wanted to buy the night before.
If you arent familiar with the setup on Oasis and Allure, each stateroom/party has their own binder and all photos taken are sorted there, using facial recognition technology. No more standing by the wall searching thought 3,657,901 other photos. Everything you need is right in your binder*. Easy peasy!
*Some pics are still on the wall, like candid Flowrider and Zip Line/Poolside shots.
We found our binder easily enough- well actually thats a lie we did have the wrong binder at first and wondered why there were no pictures in it! LOL! We quickly found the correct one. And since we didnt have many photos taken this time it was relatively easy to pare down our selection. Within minutes we were in line- and that was a mess. People kept trying to cut, not realizing the long line stretched all the way across the gallery and curved around the binder racks and tables. Folks in the line (including me) were pretty vocal about it and quick to gently correct anyone trying to squeeze in (honestly it was a mad house and I dont think people were cutting on purpose, they genuinely had no idea where the line ended.) I have to say again, people onboard were so very nice and we really had no trouble with rudeness or inconsiderate behavior. No elevator rushing, and only one chair hog incident, but Im getting ahead of myself. Allure cruisers are having the time of their lives and on our cruise it certainly showed!!!
The craziness of Focus on the last day. If you think it doesnt look so bad, well you cant even see the crazy checkout line in this shot!
But back in the line, it was nuts to the nth degree. It was quite frustrating to be in that LONG line and some of the people had not finalized their decisions by the time they reached the front. You'd think after standing in a boring line for upwards of a half an hour, people would have actually picked which pictures they wanted at least?
FINALLY it was our turn. We had 4 photographs and had thought we were going to get the $79.99 for 4 package. But at the register I spotted a Crown & Anchor coupon and realized we had our coupons. I pulled out our coupon book and it was buy 1 at full price, get one for half off, so with our two coupons, we could get the same 4 pictures for about $20 less.
The gentleman checking us out had already begun the transaction though so he had to cancel it out and charge us again at the coupon rate. No problem right? Wrong. I didnt realize it until after we got back to our stateroom and we looked on the TV at our bill that we had been charged two transactions- the $79 one and a $59 one- so we had been more than double charged for our photos! Right away Ron called the photo gallery and they told us we had to call guest services. He called guest services and they said we had to go to the photo gallery. Ah, the run-around.
Ron was pretty mad since we had precious little time left on the boat and now we had to go deal with a mistake that should have been very easy to correct via phone (we had just been there 5 minutes ago for crying out loud). I told him to relax and that I would take care of it and took the photo folio and both receipts and headed back down to Focus. I of course, had to wait in the SUPER LONG LINE AGAIN, to be told at the counter that I had to go DOWN TO GUEST SERVICES AND WAIT IN THAT (also long) LINE there. WHAT?!?! I told the lady that Guest Services had just told us we had to deal with it at Focus. I wasnt about to budge. The lady got quite huffy (OK- downright RUDE) as if to imply I was trying to get one over on them or something. I still had both receipts and the guy who served us was still right there- GMAB. So the lady, the manager presumably, nastily called another associate to come to the register SO SHE HERSELF COULD GO TO GUEST SERVICES. About this time Ron came up and he was really mad now.
She stomped off and huffed away towards Guest Services. She came back about 10 minutes later with a printout of our guest folio. OK, really .with a ship this advanced and with both receipts in my hand there was no way they couldnt look it up on the computers in Focus themselves? BS. She finally charged back the $79 purchase but she did so with quite an attitude. We made note of her name to mention the negative experience on our survey but frankly we had so many positive things to write about the good workers that made our cruise so wonderful we did not bother to write the bad stuff about her. I know everybody has bad days on the job, and dealing with the public in a retail/customer service position is not easy or always fun by any means, but it doesnt excuse her behavior or the precious hour we lost the last day dealing with this when we could have been enjoying the ship.
/rant over.
After that fiasco we wandered over to the Loyalty desk to see about rebooking another cruise while onboard to get the OBC they offer if you do so. The office was empty except for a couple of cruisers browsing the itinerary books and a big notebook completely full. I guess we should have checked earlier in the cruise- we did not know this is how they handled rebookings:
And even though the time slot indicated that someone should have been there booking a new cruise, and at the very least an agent should have been there, no one was. Plus...see the waitlist at the bottom? Wow. So we moved along.
(I have to admit I missed the awesome Shutters staff on DCL and also the friendly and always happy to accommodate you rebooking desk on Disney.)
We realized we were pretty hungry and were delighted to find our favorite place, Park Café not too crowded!
Sarah likes her fancy grilled cheese:
Three Cheese Panini- I think I like it better than the Roast Beast Sammich!
After lunch, we all split up. Savannah went to the club so she could prepare for the talent show, Brendan Ron and Sarah went up to the pools and I took a shower and relaxed a bit on the balcony, and did some of the dreaded packing. Before too long, it was time to go see the kids talent show, which is performed in the Adventure Ocean Theater!
The 3-5 year olds performed as a group to a cute song about animals where they portrayed the various creatures they were singing about. So cute- I wish I had realized the little ones would be doing this, I would have had Sarah in it too!
As they moved in to the main portion of the talent show, surprise! Savannah was first!
She did an improv dance. She didnt know what music they were going to choose but she was familiar with the song and she did well.
Video of the talent show performance: Click to Play
The talent show took about an hour and before we knew it, it was time to head down to the promenade. We had a date....a date with a mob.
It wasnt the prettiest of days: cloudy, sometimes drizzly and the seas were quite high. We were actually passing through the outskirts of TS Ophelia, but we didnt know it at the time. In fact, the second showing of the DreamWorks Aquatheater show was actually canceled due to the high seas and weather. We were lucky to have gotten to see it when we did!
This is the perfect place to remark about the motion of the ocean. We had read that you feel virtually mo motion on Allure. I guess it really can vary from cruise to cruise, but we experienced noticeable rocking for sure. Yes, certainly more exaggerated on the more inclement weather days but even on the nice days we could feel the ship gently swaying. It was what I like to call the classic cruise feel- a one-two-three-four-five gentle tips to the left, then one-two-three-four-five to the right. But while motion was noticeable it was never so drastic that would cause difficulty walking. Even if you are in heels. Even if you walk like me in heels. LOL!!!
And if you havent heard about the Little Wonders art viewers (the brass thing here), they are all over the ship. When you see these or a similar looking thing with a viewfinder on it, take a peek inside!
You may see something like this:
Now we were about to encounter the most negative experience of our cruise. The Focus Photo Gallery on the last day. I know, I know. Any experienced cruiser knows one of the busiest places to be onboard is the photo gallery on the last day. Its always a mess, but an unavoidable mess, since we had just taken the pictures we wanted to buy the night before.
If you arent familiar with the setup on Oasis and Allure, each stateroom/party has their own binder and all photos taken are sorted there, using facial recognition technology. No more standing by the wall searching thought 3,657,901 other photos. Everything you need is right in your binder*. Easy peasy!
*Some pics are still on the wall, like candid Flowrider and Zip Line/Poolside shots.
We found our binder easily enough- well actually thats a lie we did have the wrong binder at first and wondered why there were no pictures in it! LOL! We quickly found the correct one. And since we didnt have many photos taken this time it was relatively easy to pare down our selection. Within minutes we were in line- and that was a mess. People kept trying to cut, not realizing the long line stretched all the way across the gallery and curved around the binder racks and tables. Folks in the line (including me) were pretty vocal about it and quick to gently correct anyone trying to squeeze in (honestly it was a mad house and I dont think people were cutting on purpose, they genuinely had no idea where the line ended.) I have to say again, people onboard were so very nice and we really had no trouble with rudeness or inconsiderate behavior. No elevator rushing, and only one chair hog incident, but Im getting ahead of myself. Allure cruisers are having the time of their lives and on our cruise it certainly showed!!!
The craziness of Focus on the last day. If you think it doesnt look so bad, well you cant even see the crazy checkout line in this shot!
But back in the line, it was nuts to the nth degree. It was quite frustrating to be in that LONG line and some of the people had not finalized their decisions by the time they reached the front. You'd think after standing in a boring line for upwards of a half an hour, people would have actually picked which pictures they wanted at least?
FINALLY it was our turn. We had 4 photographs and had thought we were going to get the $79.99 for 4 package. But at the register I spotted a Crown & Anchor coupon and realized we had our coupons. I pulled out our coupon book and it was buy 1 at full price, get one for half off, so with our two coupons, we could get the same 4 pictures for about $20 less.
The gentleman checking us out had already begun the transaction though so he had to cancel it out and charge us again at the coupon rate. No problem right? Wrong. I didnt realize it until after we got back to our stateroom and we looked on the TV at our bill that we had been charged two transactions- the $79 one and a $59 one- so we had been more than double charged for our photos! Right away Ron called the photo gallery and they told us we had to call guest services. He called guest services and they said we had to go to the photo gallery. Ah, the run-around.
Ron was pretty mad since we had precious little time left on the boat and now we had to go deal with a mistake that should have been very easy to correct via phone (we had just been there 5 minutes ago for crying out loud). I told him to relax and that I would take care of it and took the photo folio and both receipts and headed back down to Focus. I of course, had to wait in the SUPER LONG LINE AGAIN, to be told at the counter that I had to go DOWN TO GUEST SERVICES AND WAIT IN THAT (also long) LINE there. WHAT?!?! I told the lady that Guest Services had just told us we had to deal with it at Focus. I wasnt about to budge. The lady got quite huffy (OK- downright RUDE) as if to imply I was trying to get one over on them or something. I still had both receipts and the guy who served us was still right there- GMAB. So the lady, the manager presumably, nastily called another associate to come to the register SO SHE HERSELF COULD GO TO GUEST SERVICES. About this time Ron came up and he was really mad now.
She stomped off and huffed away towards Guest Services. She came back about 10 minutes later with a printout of our guest folio. OK, really .with a ship this advanced and with both receipts in my hand there was no way they couldnt look it up on the computers in Focus themselves? BS. She finally charged back the $79 purchase but she did so with quite an attitude. We made note of her name to mention the negative experience on our survey but frankly we had so many positive things to write about the good workers that made our cruise so wonderful we did not bother to write the bad stuff about her. I know everybody has bad days on the job, and dealing with the public in a retail/customer service position is not easy or always fun by any means, but it doesnt excuse her behavior or the precious hour we lost the last day dealing with this when we could have been enjoying the ship.
/rant over.
After that fiasco we wandered over to the Loyalty desk to see about rebooking another cruise while onboard to get the OBC they offer if you do so. The office was empty except for a couple of cruisers browsing the itinerary books and a big notebook completely full. I guess we should have checked earlier in the cruise- we did not know this is how they handled rebookings:
And even though the time slot indicated that someone should have been there booking a new cruise, and at the very least an agent should have been there, no one was. Plus...see the waitlist at the bottom? Wow. So we moved along.
(I have to admit I missed the awesome Shutters staff on DCL and also the friendly and always happy to accommodate you rebooking desk on Disney.)
We realized we were pretty hungry and were delighted to find our favorite place, Park Café not too crowded!
Sarah likes her fancy grilled cheese:
Three Cheese Panini- I think I like it better than the Roast Beast Sammich!
After lunch, we all split up. Savannah went to the club so she could prepare for the talent show, Brendan Ron and Sarah went up to the pools and I took a shower and relaxed a bit on the balcony, and did some of the dreaded packing. Before too long, it was time to go see the kids talent show, which is performed in the Adventure Ocean Theater!
The 3-5 year olds performed as a group to a cute song about animals where they portrayed the various creatures they were singing about. So cute- I wish I had realized the little ones would be doing this, I would have had Sarah in it too!
As they moved in to the main portion of the talent show, surprise! Savannah was first!
She did an improv dance. She didnt know what music they were going to choose but she was familiar with the song and she did well.
Video of the talent show performance: Click to Play
The talent show took about an hour and before we knew it, it was time to head down to the promenade. We had a date....a date with a mob.
iloverags2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2002
Ah, last day blues made worse by the dreaded photo area. Ugh! Savannah's dancing more than made up for it, though. She did awesome!!!
DisneyOrBustColorado
Pixie Dust Adventures
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
I have fully enjoyed your cruise review. Thanks for all of your time & efforts to post so much!!! Most of all your photos are fabulous! what kind of camera do you use? I am looking for a compact camera that is inexpensive & durable for our trip. I am currently a strict DSLR camera user, but don't want to take my DSLR cameras to the beach at the risk that they might be stolen or damaged. I still want to be able to capture all of our priceless memories.
I just thought that since your photos are so amazing, you might be able to tell me what type of camera you drag around with you on your trips. Thanks in advance for any advice.
I just thought that since your photos are so amazing, you might be able to tell me what type of camera you drag around with you on your trips. Thanks in advance for any advice.
spartankid34
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2011
Hi there!
I don't know if you're still looking at your report to answer questions, but I read your report start to biginning the other day and wow, does the Allure seem huge, but well worth it! I was wondering, when you ate at the specialty restaurants, did you tip extra on top of the charge for the meal? Really looking forward to possibly planning a trip with RC and not sure how the surcharge works with tipping? Hope that makes sense!
TIA
I don't know if you're still looking at your report to answer questions, but I read your report start to biginning the other day and wow, does the Allure seem huge, but well worth it! I was wondering, when you ate at the specialty restaurants, did you tip extra on top of the charge for the meal? Really looking forward to possibly planning a trip with RC and not sure how the surcharge works with tipping? Hope that makes sense!
TIA
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