Allure Of The Seas Review with 115 photos & 21 videos

This is my review of our recent 7-day cruise on Allure Of The Seas.

This is going to be a LONG review, with 115 photos and 21 videos... so pull up a chair and settle in for a good long story!

Before I fully get in to it, I want to start things off by introducing myself...

I'm Jim Zimmerlin (everyone calls me Jim Zim) and I always cruise with my wife, Kellyn. (Pronunciation tip: it rhymes with Helen.) We're from Grover Beach, California... a little beach town on the California coast about halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco. We've been cruising since 1996, and this was our 27th cruise overall... but our very first with Royal Caribbean.

Most of our previous cruises have been with Carnival Cruise Lines. We did over 20 Carnival cruises, and we were quite happy with them. But earlier this year, I got an offer from Princess Cruise Lines that I couldn't refuse (it was an almost-free cruise) and so we found ourselves on our first non-Carnival cruise in a quite a while... and it really opened our eyes! We discovered some things about Princess that we really liked better than Carnival... and it got us to thinking that maybe we should try some of the other big cruise lines to see if anyone else could give us a better cruise experience than what we were used to with Carnival. So, our plan for 2014 was to cruise with each of the four big North American cruise lines: Carnival, Princess, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian.

Before we get in to the nitty gritty details of what makes Allure Of The Seas so special, how about an overview of what our cruise was like? If you'll watch this 3-minute video, I think you'll get a pretty good sense of how much fun we had on our cruise...

I always like when someone gives us their perspective going in. I always fine something enjoyable or something new to learn from every review. I've been on Allure Eastern twice and at the worst will enjoy seeing the pictures and what you did in port. Thanks for doing this.

Hello Jim Zim!! I am really looking forward to reading your review. :) I hope you had a marvelous time!

Allure Of The Seas is very different from all the other cruise ships we've been on. The folks that designed her had a lot of interesting ideas, most of which worked out really well. There is a LOT that the other cruise lines could learn from this ship!

There are several unique "neighborhoods" on the ship which are key to the overall onboard experience. I want to focus on the three that are the most unique: the Boardwalk, the Promenade, and Central Park. Let's start with Central Park...

Prior to our cruise, I had seen a million pictures and videos of Central Park and thought I understood it pretty well. But the pictures and videos don't fully do it justice. There is a fantastic feeling in Central Park that doesn't come through the computer screen. You have to be there to feel the warm Caribbean air and to smell the plants, trees, and flowers.

 

The normal vibe you get on most cruise ships is that you are standing within a big hunk of metal that was welded and pounded by ironworkers in a steelyard. Standing in Central Park, seeing all the greenery and smelling that smell the plants give off... plus feeling the warm Caribbean air rather than the artificial air conditioning of a cruise ship... there's just a wonderful feeling in the air that is unlike anything I've experienced on a cruise ship before. The vibe here is amazing, especially just before sunset when the lighting takes on a magical quality. I totally loved it.

Looking at the photos from Central Park, it just doesn't look like a scene from inside a cruise ship, does it? Also, to fully imagine the feeling of being there, just remember one thing when you're looking at those photos of Central Park: it's all open to the outside air. You can't really see it in those previous two pictures, but there's a huge opening above Central Park that let's in all the warm Caribbean air... and lots of light during the day. The surrounding cabins, towering five stories above Central Park, provides an excellent wind block, too.

Perhaps looking at Central Park from above will help you see how there's no roof on it, which will make it easier to imagine the feel of the warm Caribbean air in this area, rather than the feel of air conditioning that you typically have in the public spaces of cruise ships. Here are two pictures that show how Central Park is totally open up on top, with the pool deck up above...

 

There is one little problem with this design, though. Up on the top deck is the "pool and sports zone" neighborhood... and during the day, they often have a reggae band playing music fairly loudly at poolside. All that music comes down from above, and totally ruins the peaceful vibe of Central Park when the band is playing. So, I found Central Park to be a wonderful place to hang out in the mornings, evenings, and night time hours when the reggae band wasn't playing at the pool... but in the middle of the day, the ambience was ruined by pool music spilling in to what is normally a quiet, peaceful area.

In that previous picture, you can see those two white things in the middle of Central Park that look kind of like glass canopies of some kind. They're basically skylights, to let sunlight reach the Royal Promenade down below Central Park. In this next photo, you can get a little peek through the skylight to the Royal Promenade below...

The Royal Promenade, directly below Central Park, is a lot like an indoor shopping mall that you might have back at home. I'm sure you've seen pictures of it... it's another one of those iconic spots on Allure Of The Seas that you always see in every review of the ship. Here are four pictures I took that will help you visualize it...

 

 

 

I had seen many pictures of the "on air" facility with the electronic ticker signs... and never really knew what it was all about. The best guess I could come up with, before the cruise, was that it was some kind of TV studio like ABC has in Times Square for Good Morning America. I figured they did a cruise ship morning show from there, with a studio audience. And I never really got a clear enough look at the tickers to figure out what the content was... I always assumed it was a news feed, just like in Times Square. Nope! The ticker is displaying song lyrics... because the "on-air" lounge is a multi-purpose room that sometimes serves as a Karaoke lounge and at other times serves as a sports bar.

Inside the On-Air Lounge

I'm not sure that Royal Caribbean's decision to call this area the "Royal Promenade" was the best choice of terms. In cruise ship lingo, "promenade" usually refers to a narrow public walkway that circles around the exterior of a ship. I think it might have made more sense to simply call this area of the ship "the mall"... because it sure does have the feel of every indoor shopping mall I've ever been to.

One thing I didn't realize about the Royal Promenade until I saw it for myself is that it gets a lot of natural light during the day, due to those skylights in the ceiling that bring down light from Central Park. Also, the Royal Promenade is a lot longer than I realized. It's a very interesting twist on the atrium concept that Carnival uses in their ships. Where Carnival atriums go way high but are not particularly wide, the Royal Promenade on Allure Of The Seas is not particularly tall but it stretches about half the length of the ship. From the Royal Promenade, you have access to all the shops, the photo gallery, guest services, several bars, and several places to get snacks. They also have a lot of "happenings" here... from parades to musical performances to appearances from the Dreamworks characters. I enjoyed just strolling through every now and then... just to see what was going on.

One of the things that I got a kick out of seeing in the Royal Promenade was the frenzy that would happen when the shops would have a flash sale. They'd put a notice in the "Cruise Compass" newsletter (similar, but grander version of Carnival's "Fun Times" newsletter) that they were going to have a special sale... let's say, of $30 bracelets. And people (mostly women) would line up behind the barriers waiting for the sale to start. The energy and noise level in the room as all those bargain hunters waited for the sale to begin was just incredible! I shot a picture of the ladies waiting about ten minutes before one of the sales...

By the time the sale actually started, the crowd was even bigger... and the picture doesn't begin to capture the buzz in the room as the anticipation built up just before they took down the barriers and let the ladies storm the bracelet counter! It was funny to watch!

The central feature of The Boardwalk is the merry-go-round, or as some people call it, the carousel. Somehow I managed to spend an entire week on Allure Of The Seas, shooting over 500 pictures, without getting one single still picture of the merry go round! Unbelievable. I did shoot some video, though, in case you're interested. Warning: there's no real payoff to the video... nothing unique or unusual about the carousel... except the fact that it's on a cruise ship, and that is certainly something you don't find on other cruise lines!

Funny thing is... you'd think that if just one cruise line in the world had merry-go-rounds, it would be the one named "Carnival"... but no!

As you walk towards the carousel from the Boardwalk entrance, there's a really cool display that shows you how a carousel horse is made. The following five pictures show how three blocks of wood become a carousel horse:

 

 

 

 

 

I'll tell you more about Rita's Fiesta, later... when I discuss all the food options onboard Allure Of The Seas.

The other big attraction in The Boardwalk neighborhood is the Aqua Theater, which is so much more than I realized. Before the cruise, I just thought they put on a little show with high dives and possibly some synchronized swimming. Sounded pretty boring to me! Now that I've experienced it, I realize there's so much more to it than that.

First off, the "Oceanaria Aqua Show" is a lot more than just some guys jumping off high dives in to a swimming pool. There are fountains and beautiful music and -- total surprise to me -- world class aerialists, like you would expect in a Cirque Du Soleil show, doing crazy stuff from wires overhead. There's even some amazing trampoline stunts. I enjoyed it a lot.

It was also cool to see all the things they could do with the pool. There's basically a plastic grating that can either sit down at the bottom of the pool when they want to dive in to it... or which can be raised up to provide a solid surface over the top of the pool, turning it in to a stage. In this next shot, you can see how the pool can become a stage by simply pushing a button and raising the blue grating to cover the water. This amphitheater, at the back of the ship, becomes a fantastic venue for all sorts of entertainment events. So, as you can see, there's a whole lot more to the Aqua Theater than you might first suspect.

The Aqua Theater is also equipped with a series of fountains, reminiscent of the fountains outside the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas. At night, they do a Bellagio-style fountain show in the Aqua Theater, set to music.

 

A still picture doesn't do it justice, though.

This video clip of a portion of the fountain show shows it much better...

 

[YOUTUBE]GXg7qcedJvA[/YOUTUBE]

I've seen belly flop contests on cruises many times before... but never in such a perfect venue as the Aqua Theater. Sitting in the comfortable stadium seating with a perfect view of the pool made it so much more enjoyable than trying to crowd around the swimming pool on a Carnival ship. Well done, Royal Caribbean.

There was also a show in the Aqua Theater that featured the Dreamworks characters...

 

 

One other interesting thing you'll find in the Boardwalk neighborhood is a donut station...

and they're free!

 

There were six different varieties of donuts, plus coffee, orange juice, and hot water for tea. My wife was unhappy with the hot water for tea, though, as she said it reeked of coffee. They must have made it by running water through a coffee maker. I was unhappy with the donuts, and never went back after the first morning. I was hoping for donuts like you can get in any neighborhood donut shop at home. They were more like the donuts you find pre-made in the pastry section of a grocery store. Not worth the calories, in my opinion.

Another free snack that you'll sometimes find in the Boardwalk area is popcorn! They didn't have it very often, but when they did it was a nice treat. One lesson we learned the hard way, though: if the popcorn machine is behind the bar, and you have to ask one of the bartenders for it, it will cost you nearly $3 for a bag of it. But if the popcorn machine is out on a stand-alone table, away from the Boardwalk Bar... the popcorn's free!

As a photographer, I truly appreciated that the employee at the popcorn machine stopped and smiled for me when she saw me pointing the camera her way. That's a little thing, but it says something about the crew and their attitude that they want your photo to turn out nicely. She could have easily turned away when she saw the camera. The same exact thing happened later in the cruise when I had the opportunity to photograph the ship's Captain at quite a distance. He happened to notice that I was pointing my camera at him, and he immediately smiled for me. I appreciated that! You'll see that photo a little further down the page.

Now let's move up to the top decks, where we find the "pool and sports zone" neighborhood. I've been on cruise ships where they didn't seem to have enough swimming pools, Jacuzzis, and lounge chairs to accommodate all the passengers... so I worried that this might be a problem on the world's largest cruise ship. It really wasn't.

 

 

At the front of the ship, there's a relaxing area similar to the Serenity Retreat on a Carnival ship. It's called The Solarium, and it's for ages 18 and older. Here's a great idea that Carnival should steal: the Solarium has big glass panels that wrap up and around the area, blocking the wind... but it only partially covers the area, to promote air circulation so it doesn't get too hot there. On Carnival ships that have the Serenity Retreat at the front of the ship, it can get way too windy sometimes. They way Royal Caribbean has designed this is MUCH better.

Notice that they also integrate a lot of live green plants in this area... with the exception of the palm trees, which are (unfortunately) fake. There's also a water feature, which makes the comforting sound of a waterfall. It really gives this room a nice vibe, which you totally don't get in the photos. The live plants go along way towards softening the hard metallic vibe that most cruise ships have. I really liked it.

Take a look at this very brief video that I shot in the solarium. I think it might help you see what a neat little place the solarium is.

The Solarium features loungers with thick, comfortable cushions... again, very similar to what you'd find in the Serenity Retreat on a Carnival ship. The live plants in the area make it much nicer than the Carnival version, though... but the biggest thing that makes this better than the Carnival version is the fact that it is actually SERENE here. On a lot of Carnival Ships, the Serenity Retreat is located within earshot of the main pool area... where there is always loud music or other noise ruining the serene atmosphere of the Serenity Retreat. The Solarium on Allure Of The Seas is not located near any noisy stuff at all... so it's actually got all the serenity that Carnival's Serenity Retreat should have.

 

There's a small pool in the Solarium, just big enough and deep enough for a quick, cool dip.

If you want larger, deeper pools... head out to the main pool deck.

There are also two Jacuzzis in the Solarium.

 

Not very far from the two Jacuzzis in the Solarium, you'll also find the ship's best Jacuzzis...

one on the port side and one on the starboard side, just outside the Solarium entrance.

They hang over the edge of the ship, providing a spectacular view...

 

I spent several days wondering what that thing was up on top of the ship, and then finally curiosity got the best of me and I stopped one of the employees and asked. It turns out that it is a crane. Those metal tubes can be extended out to form a boom arm and the whole thing can reach way over the side of the ship to bring things up from the dock, if needed.

Here's one other interesting thing I found up on the top decks...

Since this was my very first cruise with Royal Caribbean, I certainly didn't have a gold SeaPass... so I didn't go up the stairs to see what was up there. I assume it was some kind of V.I.P. sun deck. It really didn't look like a good place for a V.I.P. area, though... very exposed to the wind... since it was up high, and at the front of the ship.

 

Funny thing is... you'd think that if just one cruise line in the world had merry-go-rounds, it would be the one named "Carnival"... but no!

 

[/size]

 

I think I have read every Allure or Oasis review and your the first to make that observation. As I said a couple of messages back, I can find something worthwhile in every review ;)

At the very aft end of deck 16, you'll find one of the coolest things on the whole ship: the Flowriders. On Carnival cruises, I always enjoyed watching the kids wipe out on the Flowrider at Margaritaville on Grand Turk. But this was my first time seeing a Flowrider built on to an actual cruise ship. For me, it's all about seeing the wipeouts! I don't care how good they can surf... I just want to see them crash at the end. And they always do! A still picture wouldn't do it justice. Watch the video...

There's a nice arcade up on deck 15 but, unfortunately, there seemed to be some maintenance issues. We wanted to play air hockey, but never could get the machines to come to life. And it wasn't just me being an old fart who couldn't make the game work... we watched some other people try, too... and no one successfully got the air hockey tables going during any of our visits to the arcade that week.

On a big ship like Allure Of The Seas, it's easy to get a little lost. It took me several days until I really had the layout down. They have some neat electronic displays on the walls that will help you find what's going on and how to get there. I also liked these displays, located near all the elevators, which helped me visualize where things were:

Overall, I was impressed with the entertainment on Allure Of The Seas. It was definitely a step up from what we are used to on Carnival. They seem to spend a lot more money and put more effort in to the big production shows. Here's a photo from the Blue Planet show:

The sets were more impressive than what you'd see in a Carnival show, and the level of vocal talent seemed to be a step above, too. Plus, in addition to the singing and dancing that you always have in a cruise ship production show, they also had some amazing aerialists like you would expect to see in a Cirque Du Soleil show.

There were some amazing technical effects during the Blue Planet show! Before the show, they have a globe hanging over the stage with a moving video image on it that makes it look like you're looking at planet earth from space. I'm still not entirely sure how they did it! Some kind of holographic projection on to the globe? Take a look at this short video that some other passenger shot of it, to see what I'm talking about...

It was NOT just a video screen, it was an actual three dimensional globe, hanging from a wire. Just like in a magic show, the best effects are the ones that you can't figure out how they were accomplished!

Here's another cool effect from the Blue Planet show. I snapped this photo during a point in the show when they made the stage look like a giant aquarium. It was really cool!

The fish were projected on to a screen surrounding the stage, and it made the stage look just like an aquarium. With blue lighting, everything on stage looked like it was underwater. Using aerial wires, the actors were able to appear to be swimming. It was really cool!

simply fabulous. I have seen some of your other reviews before. very enjoyable. keep vacationing to make more!

If you have a somewhat raunchy sense of humor, keep an eye on the Cruise Compass newsletter for a late-night event listed as "The Adult Quest Game Show" in Studio B. It's barely publicized at all... just a tiny little listing in the Cruise Compass... but the word-of-mouth on this event is huge and the room ends up getting completely packed.

I first learned about Quest on a Carnival Cruise. A fellow passenger asked me if I had ever seen it, and when I said no, he told me that I absolutely HAD to go check it out at least one time. It was such raunchy fun that I've started watching for it on every cruise now, and I was surprised to see that Royal Caribbean has it, too.

It's basically an audience participation game show with an adult theme. They break the audience in to teams based on what section of the room you're sitting in, and then the various teams compete in a series of challenges. The challenges start off fairly tame, and they get a little raunchier with each challenge, finally culminating in the dudes-dressed-as-skanky-ladies challenge you see in the picture.

To me, it was laugh-out-loud funny... but I have a raunchy sense of humor. If you're easily offended, this is not for you!

The Allure Of The Seas version of Quest was better than Carnival's version... simply because the multipurpose "Studio B" complex is absolutely PERFECT for this event. There's room for a lot more people than Carnival can comfortably seat, and the sight lines are excellent so that you won't miss a bit of the action.

By the way, that "Studio B" facility really impressed me! What a great venue. It was so well designed... better than any entertainment venue I've seen on Carnival... and totally versatile. During our week onboard, it worked perfectly as a comfortable location for the mandatory safety briefing, the Glow Party, Quest, and it even converts to an ice skating and roller skating rink!

I really enjoy watching a live musical performance. It's something I always look forward to on cruise ships. It seems like this is an area that Carnival has cut back on over the years, so I was thankful to find a lot of live music on Allure Of The Seas.

The best musical show I saw during the entire week was the headliner show featuring entertainer Kenny James. If you're of a certain age, you may remember Kenny from the TV show "Star Search"... the 1980s equivalent of "American Idol". In 1985, Kenny won a $100,000 prize on the show after thirteen consecutive wins in the male vocalist category. These days, he works a little in Las Vegas and a lot on cruise ships... and he put on one heck of a great show.

 

At a certain point in the show, Kenny announces that the bass player in the band is actually his son, Trevor.

 

On Carnival, they always proceed shows by announcing a made-up fact that "international copyright laws" prohibit guests from photography and videography during the shows. I like that Royal Caribbean makes no such claims and allowed me to shoot photos and videos during Kenny James' show. During the Blue Planet show, they did announce a ban on flash photography and videography, but at least they did allow still photography.

 

Here's one other interesting thing I found up on the top decks...

 

 

Since this was my very first cruise with Royal Caribbean, I certainly didn't have a gold SeaPass... so I didn't go up the stairs to see what was up there. I assume it was some kind of V.I.P. sun deck. It really didn't look like a good place for a V.I.P. area, though... very exposed to the wind... since it was up high, and at the front of the ship.

 

What great pics and a great review. The "VIP sundeck" you are talking about is for what we call "gold card" suite members. It is an area reserved for those who are in a Grand Suite or higher. It is just a sundeck, but does have nicer lounges, and there is a bar on the port side that is open at night as a "cigar" area. It is generally a quiet place to relax without all the hubbub around the pool, and is usually quite empty. It is actually well protected from the wind, and the sun is usually isolated to one side. So it is quite peaceful.

Looking forward to more pictures, also to your perspective having done so many Carnival cruises.

There's a beautiful lounge called the Viking Crown Lounge way up at the top of the ship on deck 17. Here's a photo:

When I saw the Viking Crown Lounge on the deck plans, I assumed it was some kind of perk for the people who were staying in suites... as the only other thing up on deck 17 is all the suites. So, I was surprised to learn that it actually has nothing to do with the suites and that it's just a beautiful venue that overlooks the pool deck and which features some nice musical performances on most nights. There's a female musical duo called "Those Girlz" that perform here quite a few nights... and they were very good. We also caught a nice instrumental performance in the Viking Crown Lounge by a duo called "The Entourage Strings"... and I got one of their songs on video so you could hear a little sample:

Another one of Allure's musical venues that has a pretty cool view is Dazzles Lounge. It's a two-story lounge on decks 8 and 9, with big floor-to-ceiling windows that look out over the Boardwalk. Most nights, there's a Filipino cover band that plays there... and they're very good... especially their energetic female vocalist. I didn't manage to get any good video of them performing, but I did get some video in Dazzles Lounge of a performance by the Allure Orchestra. Take a look:

One other musical video clip I'd like to share with you is a much more informal performance by the Allure Orchestra. One day out on the Boardwalk, they did a performance of marching band music. I really enjoyed their performance of Stars & Stripes Forever:

Finally, if you're in to jazz music, be sure to visit the "Jazz on 4" lounge which is the - surprise! - lounge located on deck 4 where they perform live jazz.

One of the things I always truly enjoy during a cruise is having the opportunity to see several good stand-up comedy acts. At home, in my real life, I'm a total homebody and would never go out to a comedy show. But on a cruise, it's one of the things I really enjoy. One of the things I always appreciated about my Carnival cruises was Carnival's emphasis on comedy and the way they would have four different comedians perform during a 7-day cruise. I was curious to see how Royal Caribbean would approach comedy.

Comedian Rick Corso in a performance in the Comedy Live lounge on Allure Of The Seas

Now that I've cruised on the four largest North American cruise lines, it's been really interesting to see the different approaches that they use when it comes to comedy.

Carnival seems to be the most in to comedy. They have dedicated comedy clubs on all of their ships, with numerous comedy shows almost every night... and they're the only line that gives you performances by FOUR different comedians during a 7-day cruise. Princess doesn't have comedy clubs at all... they just have the comedians perform in their main theater. On Norwegian Getaway, they used a hybrid approach... with some shows in a dedicated comedy club and others in their main theater.

So, that brings us to Royal Caribbean. I would have thought, since Allure Of The Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world and carries thousands more passengers than the average size cruise ship, that they would have a huge comedy club to handle the demand. I was surprised to see that they actually had just about the smallest comedy club I've seen on any cruise ship I've been on. At the very end of the week they did do one comedy show in the big Amber Theater... but all the rest of the week, they just had a couple of shows a night in their very small "Comedy Live" lounge on deck 4. Reservations for these shows quickly booked up early in the week. So, if you'd like to see the comedians perform on Allure Of The Seas, be sure to make your comedy club reservations before the cruise or VERY EARLY in the week. And that brings me to this little public service announcement...