Allure of the Seas, 11/29/15, Western Caribbean

Link to cruise compasses, kids planners, teen planner, and show times

Back almost a week now from our cruise, I thought I'd share some thoughts, pictures, and a review of a great week aboard the Allure of the Seas.

Hopefully, I'll pass along a tidbit or two of info that will help a fellow CC cruiser with their vacation!

Choosing the Allure

We have cruised three times previously on Disney. We’re on the every other year plan. Each time, we’ve cruised with 13-14 family members, currently ranging from 3 to 78 in age. Disney was an amazing experience for the group - obviously catering to the younger ones - on our first cruise we had a 3 year old, two 5 year olds, and an 8 and 9 year old.

When I contacted our TA, about another cruise, she recommended that we check out the Allure of the Seas, as the cost would be significantly less expensive than Disney (and she new the kids were older, and might like the additional activities). In fact, we had to pre-pay gratuities on Allure, and still got two connecting ocean view staterooms for almost exactly $1000 less than the single family stateroom on Disney.

After a half hour phone conversation with our TA on the differences between Royal and Disney (I’m the OCD planner for our group), we were sold on trying out a new line, and new ship. We decided that if we were going for it, why not try out the biggest ship in the world?

Pre-Cruise Planning

One thing that I found that was really different about planning for the Allure vs. Disney was the lack of easy to find, current information. On Disney - with only 4 ships, you can simply buy the Passporter Guide to Disney Cruise Line, and you have a one stop shop for all your info. For Royal, there’s lots of info online, but you have to piece it all together.

In addition - I find that Royal’s own info is often not up to date - for example their dining guide for the Allure and Oasis is still available on their website, but dated 2011 - pre-dry dock changes, and, of course, specialty dining costs are incorrect.

Three indispensable tools I found in planning were the forums here at Cruise Critic, the Royal Caribbean Blog, and it’s accompanying podcast. I thank all of the active forum participants for sharing their knowledge and experiences so that we can all benefit from them.

<b>Fort Lauderdale Hotel and Arriving in Port</b>

We hail from Massachusetts, but flew down and stayed with my brother for Thanksgiving in Tampa, meeting my parents from South Carolina. We then drove the 4 hours to Fort Lauderdale, and met my sister’s family flying in from Maine.

During the run-up to the cruise, I had some difficulty finding a reasonable priced hotel room for the night before the cruise, but thanks to fellow CC member harryfat1 (a fellow cheapodad), I used an app called Last Minute Travel, and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express South for $135 a night (other sites listed this hotel for $230+). The hotel was very nice, only about 7 minutes from the cruise terminal and perfect for anyone traveling in to FLL.

In fact, we saw the ship Sunday morning from our hotel room.

Okay, so that was at 20x zoom. Here's what it really looked like from the room.

We had two vehicles left to transport our 14, so we made two trips to the cruise port, dropping off 1/2 our crew, heading back to the hotel for a 2nd pickup, and then parking after the 2nd drop. Parking was surprisingly easy, plentiful, and very close to the terminal.

Embarkation

While some of the port staff is surly, it’s probably for the best, as they really need to keep vehicles moving to prevent mass chaos with 6000+ boarding. We arrived at 11:30 or so to start the embarkation process.

I think that Royal bests Disney slightly in embarkation. We breezed through port security (and had no problem bringing 4 bottles of wine through, as we had two staterooms), and the organization of checking in by deck worked well.

One issue we did have for our group was that we put one of my brother’s 3 kids into one of my sister’s staterooms (which saved money), but proved to be a hassle, as he had to be checked in with her, and we were on different decks, and thus different areas of the port for embarkation - had we known that before getting in lines, it would have made things easier. This also proved a challenge during the muster drill, and the fact that he couldn’t use his key card to enter the stateroom he was staying in!

We finished taking pictures for our seapass cards, and as soon as we went up the escalator, we were walking on board the ship.

We headed to Park Cafe for lunch, where the line was about 10 minutes long, but much shorter than the Windjammer, where the rest of our crew waited for nearly 30 minutes to get their lunch.

This is my daughter's picture of her 3 cheese panini and coconut cookies.

Thank you so much Dosido for taking time out to post the compasses and info.This will be a great help to a lot of us cruising on the Allure. Do you know what time they had the Prohibition Party on day 5 ? Thanks again.

Great review so far. It's always interesting reading a report from other families, and good too to hear how your experience compares with Disney. Looking forward to hearing more.

Sent from my ONE E1005 using Tapatalk

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

Rather than do a day by day review, I thought I’d give my reviews of different areas of the ship and the cruise in general.

Staterooms

We had a total of 7 state rooms for the 14 of us. Two sets of connecting staterooms were on deck three, aft, port side. One oceanview balcony Deck 11, aft, port side, and two connecting oceanview balconies on Deck 11, forward, starboard.

As a resident on deck 3, aft, I have to say that I loved the location. We were one deck removed from our early seating dining location (The Grande), right near the gangway exit, and right next to the elevators that separate the Boardwalk from the Promenade.

In reality, being aft on deck 3 is really being mid-ship. The staterooms we had were very quiet, and it was amazing to have two connecting staterooms vs. the usual “cram all four into one” stateroom that we had been used to.

The deck 11 ocean view balconies were definitely nice, but on a 7 night voyage, I was happy with the simple porthole view, as we’re not ones to stick around in our stateroom very long. I would, perhaps, make a change to the starboard side, next time, as we always docked on the starboard side.

Initial Impressions

So, the Allure definitely had the “wow” factor for our crew. We walked on the ship, and my son immediately said, “This is 10 million times better than Disney!” - of course I questioned him about the fact that he couldn't get a Mickey bar any time the mood struck.

The ship is gorgeous, from top to bottom, lots of great views. I was worried, when we decided to go on the Allure, that it wouldn't feel like a ship, as there wouldn't be as many opportunities to view the water. However, that wasn't the case - unless you're on the Promenade or in Central Park, views of the ocean are readily available.

The Boardwalk

I loved the boardwalk. My son and I got up early every morning, and this was our first stop, as he ate donuts for an early breakfast - most days were were there at 7:30 when they were put out. Home to the Boardwalk Dog House, where I sampled 4 of the 6 types of dogs (all were very good), Johnny Rockets (I had a nice breakfast sandwich here), Sabor (loved the guacamole), and the Aqua Theater - the boardwalk is a cool place to hangout - you can catch a fountain shows some nights, and occasionally see aqua theater practice going on during the day.

There are three things from the boardwalk that I don’t recall ever having been mentioned in reviews (though I probably just missed them).

There’s this kids climbing structure next to Sabor

A baggo game (of which there is a contest held one day)

And the traffic lights (three of them in this picture) - which are used to tell the divers when it is safe to start their dive.

Thank you so much Dosido for taking time out to post the compasses and info.This will be a great help to a lot of us cruising on the Allure. Do you know what time they had the Prohibition Party on day 5 ? Thanks again.

Hmmm....I didn't see that. I was under the impression that the PP was tied to Chicago, and thus wasn't going to be on the Allure.

Thank you for taking the time to post your review. I look forward to following along.

Enjoying the review, following along.

The Promenade

The promenade is a beautiful area on the ship, where a lot of the action takes place day to day - Guest Services is here, Focus (photo shopping), bars, shore excursions, etc.

The promenade is home to Sorrento’s (pizza slices which are decidedly mediocre, but I did enjoy my made to order chorizo and jalapeno pizza quite a bit - much more than the already made pizzas). There are many shops on the Promenade, but as I’m not a shopper, I didn’t venture in to many, though we did take advantage? of the 2 for $20 t-shirt sale.

The Schooner Bar

The promenade is also home to some nice pubs, bars, and often hosts trivia either in the Schooner Bar or On Air (two places members of our crew frequented). The promenade also hosts the 70’s disco party, Dreamworks parade, and is one of the few places that you knew it was the holiday season - the Promenade was decorated with a large Christmas tree, and hanging snow flakes.

On-Air

The Rising Tide Bar - The only time I saw the fountain running!

The promenade is also the only place that the ship ever felt really crowded. During sales, the parade, the 70's party, and the muster drill, you'll know you’re on a ship with a few others.

Central Park

I loved Central Park. Home to Giovanni’s Table, Park Cafe, Vintages, and 150 Central Park, it’s is a beautiful area, and offers music during the evening.

Park Cafe is home to the well known kimmelweck roast beef sandwich (which I thought was great), a nice cuban panini, as well as build-your-own salads, a breakfast bagel bar, and some sub-standard breakfast sandwiches that you may want to avoid. We ate here several times during the cruise.

Wonderful photos of Central Park. I am following your great review and have to wait until February 2017 to enjoy in person. Thanks so much!

Enjoying your review. Thank you for sharing. :)

Also interesting to note the game and climbing centre I don't think I've seen them in the many, many Allure reviews. Also appreciate the perspective of a veteran cruiser new to Royal. I think it is almost universally accepted that the pizza is mediocre.

Following

Very nice, love your review.

Your pictures are stunning.

Thanks for the posts.

Eagerly looking forward to more.

Thanks again.

Safe travels.

The Sports Deck

Of all the amazing areas of the ship, the sports deck was where we spent the majority of our time. We tried everything the Allure threw at us: the zip-line, boogie boarding, stand-up surfing, soccer, volleyball, table tennis, and mini golf.

Our experience with lines for the zip-line and flow riding were different than expected. I thought the lines would be crazy long during the day - especially sea days - but they never seemed to be too bad.

We did hit the flow-riders and zip-line on day 1 after we had lunch, when there were no lines, but you could do the zip-line most days with very minimal wait - sea day afternoons there were 10-15 people in line. Every day the flow-rider was open, if you were there at when they opened (usually 9 or 10 am), there was a very short wait to ride. Evenings were also less crowded.

The rock wall lines were usually short - a handful or two deep, but again, if you’re there at 9am when they open, you’ll have little if any wait.

The Allure is head and shoulders above Disney here - Disney does offer a sports court, mini golf, and table tennis, but they do it on a much lower-key level. If you’re a table tennis fan (and we are) there are 6 tables, and they are enclosed to block much of the wind unlike at Disney.

There were also multiple competitions throughout the week. Soccer tournaments, volleyball tournaments, dodgeball tournaments, and table tennis (both singles and doubles) tournaments.

We were surprised by several things on the sport deck. One, the quality of table tennis play - there was a large group of players from the Vancouver TT club, and were very, very good - I was told one was in the top 3 of players in BC.

Another thing that surprised us was the flowrider riders. There were some hard-core riders whose sole reason for cruising was to ride the flowriders - we met one that was on for 3 weeks, and another that was on for 4! They were there almost any time it was open. And, boy, did they make it look easy!

If you’re on the fence whether to try the stand-up surfing, you should definitely do it. The riders were all super friendly, and were very supportive of new riders - going so far as to cheer for us when we did well, and give us tips each time we fell off the horse. The lines were never really long throughout the cruise, and we all rode many, many times.

Most reviews of the flowriders I’ve seen play up spectators that are there only for the wipeouts, but I found that while everyone oohs-aahs and woahs the wipeouts, they are also there to clap and cheer you on - even when you stink.

The boogie boarding was a lot of fun too - and the staff often rides with you giving you tips on what to try to move up to the next skill level. They made it lots of fun for everyone riding, and really seemed to enjoy their jobs.

The sports staff was second to none - super friendly and helpful across the board.

The Pool Deck

Wow! Coming from Disney, the pools were amazing. So many pools, and they had at least one pool open at all times, 24 hours a day.

The beach pool, the main pool, the sports pool, the H2O zone and current pool. The kids lived here some days!

The kids especially loved the H2O zone and the current pool. They played in those and alternated with the cooler hot tub, with breaks to head to the Wipeout Cafe for a snack. We have no idea exactly how much ice cream was consumed by our group of kids, but enough that they had to switch to strawberry instead of chocolate at some point during the cruise!

Only on one of the at sea days did the pools even seem remotely busy - often times we were the only ones in the pools. This may have had something to do with the fact that only 470 kids were on this cruise (the week before they said there were 1500!).

I loved the fact that there were cooler hot tubs for the kids, and, of course, adult areas when you wanted to have some quiet time away from the kids.

The solarium area is similar in scene to the adults only areas on the Disney ships. I will say, as a group, we did miss having the aqua duck water ride on board.

The Solarium

The Solarium Pool

On the last day (sea day), it was time for the crew vs. guests pool volleyball competition. Luke Arrowsmith, the cruise director, led the crew team. It ended up pouring rain for most of the competition, but we all stuck it out, and had a great time, though the fans had left long ago. That was an absolute blast, no one caring that it was raining so hard you could barely see, yet still laughing and carrying on and having a great time. We were on vacation, on a cruise ship in the Caribbean!

Before the rains came

Great review, thanks so much for posting!

Which stateroom were you in? We're cruising on deck 3, starboard in a room that is adjoining (just booked that way). Is it easy to hear between the rooms? I'm concerned noise may travel easily through the doors...

Wonderful review, thank you so much. Do you know what time they had the Prohibition party? It would help us a lot in planning our entertainment.

Wonderful review, thank you so much. Do you know what time they had the Prohibition party? It would help us a lot in planning our entertainment.

I checked the Compasses he posted, it was on Day 5, 10 PM - 12:30 AM. $35.

Great review, thanks so much for posting!

 

Which stateroom were you in? We're cruising on deck 3, starboard in a room that is adjoining (just booked that way). Is it easy to hear between the rooms? I'm concerned noise may travel easily through the doors...

3238 & 3240. The rooms are very quiet. We closed the adjoining door at night, and the only time we heard anything was when the other stateroom door was closed - and that was probably only because I was laying awake in bed waiting for the kids to wake up.

Oh, the other noise that you can hear is the water running against the hull. It's a nice white noise when going to sleep.

Dining

So, here’s where I think Royal has some work to do. Largely, dining on the Allure was hit or miss. Some great meals, and some real disappointments. In fact, had the cruise ended after two days, we would have been very critical of the main dining room experience as a whole.

Specialty Restaurants

I visited two of the specialty restaurants. We had a full meal at the churrascaria, Samba Grill - where you get 9 courses of meat, a salad/appetizer bar, and desserts for $30 per person. I loved the experience, though, since you’re already eating a ton every day, didn’t have room for seconds. While my wife tolerated our “date night” meal, if you’re not a meatitarian, you might not enjoy it as much as I did. There were 5 courses of beef (top & bottom sirloins, filet, brisket, and ribs), linguica sausage, bacon-wrapped chicken, pork loin and lamb chops.

Located in the Solarium Bistro, it’s a quiet, intimate dinner with excellent food.

The rest of our adult contingent ate at Giovanni’s Table, where they dined out in Central Park patio, listening to piano music, and eating way too much Italian food. They rated it very good - perhaps a small step below Palo, for those that are familiar with Disney cruising.

I also sampled the gaucamole at Sabor. I had every intention to dine there again to try the dinner sampler, but we ran out of time. I love Mexican food, and believe that I make a mean gaucamole, but the table-side gauc here was outstanding. It comes with a bowl of pico de gallo, and a huge basket of chips for $5. Totally worth it, if you’re just passing by and want to try it out!

Some of our crew also tried Izumi for a sushi lunch, and loved it - Izumi is a la carte, and while hibachi style dining is only available at dinner time, sushi is available for lunch.

We made reservations for Samba & Giovanni’s the night before, so no need to book pre-cruise in our experience.

Main Dining Room

Our main dining experience started off pretty rocky. We’re a group of 14, and one of the main attractions to cruising is to scatter over the ship each day with different groups doing different activities, and come together for dinner as a group.

I knew going into the cruise that they did not have a table for 14 (which Disney did). And they told us that we would be sat at two tables. Little did we know, despite being “linked” all together that we’d be separated in the dining room - not even next to each other.

We remedied that the 2nd night, as they moved us next to each other, though we had different wait staff at each table, which meant that moving around each evening to the other table would be a pain for the servers who try to get to know your drink orders, preferences, etc. In fact, one waiter recommended against moving between tables.

More frustrating was the fact that there were obviously places that we could’ve sat all together in rectangular tables with the same wait staff. So (after talking with the head waiter at the end of the cruise) - this is the takeaway - make sure - if you have a large group - to go immediately to the dining area upon embarkation and talk to the Maître D' and nail down an acceptable dining experience right from the start.

Our waiter was excellent. Funny, sweet, quick to adjust her recommendations to your tastes. An ongoing joke with us was that she thought my choice of dessert one night was poor - it was, in her opinion, a dry cake. I loved it, as that’s my taste. So after that experience, she would tell me which dessert was like a dry cake - in fact I had three during the cruise, and loved ‘em all.

The assistant waiter, on the other hand, was not so great. I’m not sure if my expectations were colored by our Disney experience or not. On Disney, the assistant waiter was a large part of the wait team - he took care of the kids, drinks, bread service, cleared the table, etc, etc.

Here, the assistant waiter barely checked in - he brought the bread most days, occasionally brought us drinks, and we had to ask - sometimes repeatedly - for refills on drinks. Often the waiter cleared the table, and sometimes the head waiter checked in to move our dinner along.

Fortunately, on the 6th day, the assistant waiter finally brought my preferred drink - iced tea - before I asked, and brought a refill before the entree was delivered. Our thought was maybe he was new, and just learning the ropes?

For the most part, I thought the meals (and service) in the MDR got better each night of the cruise.

Other Complimentary Options

Park Cafe - Ate here several times, including embarkation day. Great build-your-own salads, roast beef, cubans, cole slaw and fruit cups.

Boardwalk Dog House - Love dogs, and liked the options at the dog house - though if you eat two, the buns are pretty filling. You can get cole slaw and potato salad too, but the cole slaw at Park Cafe is much better!

Wipeout Cafe - Kids loved it, but it was the same menu every day. I liked eating breakfast here before we hit the flowriders and table tennis tables. Build your own omelettes or over-easy eggs. Fresh fruit was always available, and ice cream (froyo) available after breakfast.

Solarium Bistro - They had a few more fruit options (like peeled kiwi), but otherwise it looked like the same offerings as Wipeout. We didn’t eat lunch here though.

Vitality Cafe - A few offerings - they had fruit parfaits that were tasty.

Sorrentos - Mediocre pie, but better is the make-your-own pizza - the topping options changed daily. Only water or soda available here - no lemonade.

Cafe Promenade - Not as many dessert options here as I’ve seen in other reviews, and they didn’t change daily. They had several small sandwiches, including shrimp rolls, which were good.

Johnny Rockets - I had the breakfast sandwich here, which was good. Also got to rock out to our choice of music from the juke box!

Boardwalk Donuts - I thought they were pretty good - my son had two every morning, so it was a kid favorite!

Windjammer - Some of our crew of 14 didn’t care for the Windjammer, but I thought they had pretty decent food, and lots of choices that changed daily. Most of the time we went there it was fairly busy (aside from early breakfast), but not crazy busy like on embarkation day.

Room Service - we didn’t get any room service, aside from the cookies our TA sent to us, which were quite good.

The Food

Onto the food. I’m not a huge foodie, and am pretty easy to please, but like flavorful/spiced or spicy food over quantity. I’ll let you know what I had each meal, and what I thought of each dish. You can see the hits and misses along the way.

Day 1

Park Cafe

Cuban panini, cole slaw & chips. While the panini is pre-made, and just warmed up on the press, it was very good. Loved the cole slaw. Chips are bagged Doritos or Ruffles - you can take them to go if you’d like a snack for later.

MDR

Seafood coconut soup - loved it.

Prime rib - one of my all-time favorite foods, this was a poor rendition - cooked to a perfect medium rare, it was much tougher than it should have been, and lacked flavor.

Carrot cake - very good

Day 2

Boardwalk Donuts - good

Park Cafe

Bagel & breakfast sandwich - neither would I order again.

Windjammer

Scrambled eggs - I had read a review that said they were inedible. I typically like buffet scrambled eggs - these were truly inedible - the worst eggs I’ve ever had, and I tried them 3 times during the cruise, as well as at Wipeout cafe - others also said they had a fishy taste to them.

Sorrentos

Chorizo and jalapeno pie - good (get the make-your-own over the ready made)

MDR

Scallops au gratin - very good

Filet Mignon - small, not very flavorful (while I expect less flavor from the filet, this was not a good version)

Buche Noel - very good

Day 3

Windjammer

Fresh fruits, and a pastry - fine, quiet early in the am before heading to Labadee

Labadee BBQ

Good jerk chicken, lots fresh fruit

MDR

Caesar salad - good

Tiger Shrimp - perhaps the best entree of the cruise for me

Lasagna - tons of meat, but lacking flavor after that - very little if any cheese here

(This was my only dual entree of the cruise - interestingly, we got smaller portions of tiger shrimp when we ordered two entrees)

Lemon Cake - very good

Day 4

Wipeout Cafe - omelette, french toast & waffle with strawberries - good

Windjammer

Didn’t write down what I had, just that it was good

Samba Grill

Excellent food, excellent service - great passion fruit mousse for dessert

Day 5

Wipeout Cafe - repeated the french toast & waffle with strawberries - good

Boardwalk Dog House - Smokehouse and Sicilian dogs - both very good

Sabor - guacamole - very good

MDR

Pepper & corn chowder - excellent

Thai Chicken & rice - excellent - we’re starting to hit our stride in the MDR!

Angel food cake - excellent

Day 6

Johnny Rockets - Breakfast sandwich - good

Park Cafe - Kimmelweck roast beef w/horseradish sauce, chips & cole slaw - excellent

Windjammer - tacos - mediocre, black bean soup - very good

MDR

Seafood ceviche - excellent

Sole - very good

Warm chocolate cake - very good

Day 7

Windjammer - scrambled eggs (again, and again they were horrid), followed up with french toast and waffle with strawberries to redeem my breakfast

Boardwalk Dog House - Vienna (good), Wunderdog (which is a brat, but was not my favorite type of brat).

MDR

Shrimp cocktail - good

Pork Loin - very good

Roasted pear dessert - good

Almond cake - very good

Day 8

MDR

Buffet breakfast, fairly poor. The service here was terrible, and the fact that they had tons of tables open, yet hundreds of people waiting in line for no reason was ridiculous - one of the few big managment fails of the cruise.

Thank you for your wonderful review!! Headed on the Allure in April with my family of 7

Kids ages ranging from 16-9...

Can i ask if you did any excursions on the western cruise??

Thank you for your wonderful review!! Headed on the Allure in April with my family of 7

Kids ages ranging from 16-9...

Can i ask if you did any excursions on the western cruise??

We did not do any excursions, as we viewed the Allure as the destination this cruise. We did visit X-caret on the mainland last time were were in Cozumel, which was a great day.

Your kids are going to love the cruise - so much to do on board!

Do you think it's a good ship for a 7 year old?

Fabulous review and information, thank you so much [emoji4]