CTNYER

Just off the Allure today, and back to the cold weather in CT. We had a nice time. This trip escalated a few members of our group to Diamond members for RCCL, which was exciting. We've been on many RCCL cruises. We are not nit-picky and any day at sea is better than a day at home. I'll try to cover the main points without getting into TOO much boring detail. :)

Embarkation -

We were contacted by RCCL several days prior that there was a small norovirus outbreak on the sailing before ours. They advised us to get to port at certain times. We still arrived early, at approximately 11 AM, with plans to wait in the terminal for a few hours. Baggage drop off was fast, security was efficient, and we were brought to the waiting area where we waited for approx 30 minutes. Check-in was easy-peasy and we began following the "to the ship" signs within an hour of arriving at the pier - on board by 12:30.

The downside to embarkation: As we approached the area with photo backdrops, we were approached by an RCCL employee who asked for our SeaPass cards. She said "follow me", and led us to a backdrop. None of us are too crazy about taking photos, especially after a long morning of travel. One of the women in our party asked her if we could pass on the group photo and head to the ship. She replied "these are for facial recognition". Now - as a veteran cruiser, mostly with RCCL, I knew this not to be true. I nicely told her our photos were taken at the check-in counter and asked for her to return our SeaPass cards. She refused and said "I'm sorry, this is for facial recognition". This did not sit well with me. I found her lie to be unprofessional and offensive. Because we did not want to cause a scene, we did things her way and had the group photos taken. I did write her name down and will be contacting RCCL regarding this.

Moving on…..

Ship -

AMAZING! Clean, beautiful, HUGE. I was surprised at how little crowds there were. We had no problem finding deck chairs or seats in the solarium. One thing I will say, that I read on here beforehand, is that I found I did not see the ocean much. We had an inside room, and there were not many windows that look outside while you're walking around the ship. To see the water, you pretty much have to go up to the pool deck.

Entertainment -

The BEST entertainment I've seen on board a ship to date. We saw Chicago, Blue Planet, Ocean Aria and two nights of Comedy. All were a 10, except one comedian which I'd rate a 7 out of 10. The random flash mob in the Promenade was cool. Quest was……..as Quest always is - hilarious.

Food/Dining -

Dining options on board were great. The Windjammer was standard fare - good to okay. I will say the burgers in the windjammer were always burnt and cold. I finally went to Johnny Rockets and felt much more satisfied. The Park Cafe had great salads, soups and sandwiches. We also went to Ritas Cantina ($3 pp to get in, plus another $3-5 for a meal…not bad!) and were very pleased with the food quality. The service was a bit slow, however.

The dining room food was always solid. Not excellent but not poor. The dining room service was amazing. A few nights it took awhile for our cocktails to arrive, but we're patient so we lived.

Oh, and Starbucks is NOT included in any drink packages. I heard a lot of people whining about this on board. I did my homework so I did not expect it to be included.

Staterooms -

We all had inside rooms on deck 9 forward. Great convenient location. The layout of our room was odd, however. The closet was along the bed so it was difficult to access. We made do, though. Our cabin steward, Sean, was fantastic and we gave him a bonus tip on top of the auto-tip. He really deserved it.

Disembarkation -

We did the express disembarkation. We left the ship at approximately 7:15 am and stood in line at Customs for approximately 50 minutes. It took much longer than expected. There were only 2 customs stations open out of about 10 available, which surprised me. Once we cleared, there were plenty of cabs to take us to the airport.

Overall this was a great cruise. The Allure is probably my favorite large ship.

Sorry for the fast review but I'm exhausted from traveling and it's bed time. If you have ANY questions, feel free to ask! :cool:

With all these dynamic dining threads the last few weeks, I've come to realize that many many CC'ers value their dining experience as a determining factor as to whether they will ever sail RCL again. I can only assume that dining is the #1 factor of cruising for them. Is this true? For those of you who have posted that the change to Dynamic Dining will be the end to your cruising RCL, I would love to read why dining is your #1 criteria? If that's the case, shouldn't you be sailing Oceana (supposed to be the foodie ships, best food on any cruiseline) or any other cruiseline more known for it's excellent dining?

 

I ask the above because I cruise primarily for the destinations, the amenities of the ships, price/value vs. land vacations, site seeing, relaxation, meeting new people or having that time with my significant other, but primarily to get away from my work reality and the absolute rat's race of life/work while feeling the ocean breeze and watching the seas go by. MDR vs. Dynamic is so very low on the list of what's important for cruising for me personally.

Dining, for me, is huge. RCCL is always consistently great, but fell way short on my latest 5-night on the Explorer. I find it strange how some argue to be okay with mediocre food, just because they're on a ship away from "rat's race of life/work".

People cruise for different reasons. I cruise for the ship's atmosphere and the food. I don't use the pools, rock climbing walls, mini golf, etc - that doesn't interest me. Are you saying, as a top tier C&A member, I should take my business elsewhere because the food quality, IMO, on the Explorer put a small dent in my cruise vacation?

For the record, I have no idea what Dynamic dining is - but I'm about to search it and find out!

I don't know if everyone knows this - or might just be too embarrassed to ask - but you're not limited to just one entree in the MDR.

 

My wife and I didn't know about it either until it was lobster night and one of our table mates asked for three servings of the lobster. Provided that there's enough for everyone to get at least one order, the remainder are there for the asking.

 

This was on the Explorer, too.

Yes, I'm aware. This is my second time on Explorer and I'm a top tier C&A member. See my other reply here on why it was not to my satisfaction:

This was my 17th cruise and the one with the smallest portions in the MDR. Normally I would not care since I know I can order two entrees, however our MDR waiter said the first few nights... "I'll have to check first". By the time he "checked" and came back to ask what I wanted, everyone at the table had finished their meal so I wasn't going to hold up our table mates or my group. By the 4th night, I just ordered both without asking if it was okay.

 

My other half said "look at it this way, more room in your stomach for a midnight room service order!". And I agreed. :D

You do realize that the ship is going in for a 6 week dry dock in the spring?

I booked my cruise not expecting the ship to look new and won't complain about it when I go in 2 weeks

Yes, I realize that. I was not complaining, merely stating my observations. Thank you for your input.:)

I did not say or mean that you did not have a positive outlook. I said that "I" have a positive outlook.....

 

As far as the MDR portions go, they are usually relatively small. They are that way for a reason. If you observe your fellow diners, you will see that a lot of people order things, take a taste or two and leave the rest. They give small portions to limit the waste that occurs. If I am hungary and want more, I just ask the waiter to bring two or more entrees. I either get the same entree or try two different ones. Or if I am not particuliarly hungary, I appreciate the smaller portion. One of the reasons I am overweight is that I was raised to never leave food on the plate... Something about 'starving' people and not to waste food.... :D

This was my 17th cruise and the one with the smallest portions in the MDR. Normally I would not care since I know I can order two entrees, however our MDR waiter said the first few nights... "I'll have to check first". By the time he "checked" and came back to ask what I wanted, everyone at the table had finished their meal so I wasn't going to hold up our table mates or my group. By the 4th night, I just ordered both without asking if it was okay.

My other half said "look at it this way, more room in your stomach for a midnight room service order!". And I agreed. :D

We had a low luggage number (one). We entered the ship elevator to disembark at 9:15am. There was a short delay on deck one waiting for the shuttle buses. We were told that people on the shore took a few minutes to pause for the 9-11 memorial. After they started back to work, it went fast. We were through customs, got to the waiting shuttle van to Premier Parking and were getting into our car by 10:00am.

 

You want to get out of the ship as early as you can to avoid the backups as the 'masses' pile out and bunch up. If you have a higher luggage number and can not get a lower one, you might be better to self-disembark.

We did the self-disembark and yes, they halted customs operations twice to pause and remember 9/11. They stopped the shuttle bus while en-route the first time and we were in line the second time at customs while they did this, and not one person who knew what was going on complained. The vast majority of people around us took time to pause as well. It only lasted about a minute each.

It is not all that unusual for the toilet to not flush. It happens because some people are pigs and basically ignorant. They put stuff in the toilet that should not be there and try to flush it down. The stuff clogs up the pipes and takes out a lot of toilets on the line. They will continue to fail to flush until maintenance tracks down where the clog is and cleans it out.

 

Sorry that some people felt they had a 'lousy cruise'. We had a great time and had no complaints. We ate in the dining room once, WJ twice and other places on the ship or shore the rest of the time. Food and service was great. The cabin was kept up nicely and I guess I had my 'rose tinted' glasses on, because I did not see the dirty places others claim to have seen. I guess I just have a positive outlook on life and am not easily "offended".

This is my review and I did not say I had a lousy cruise or that places around the ship were dirty. The cruise was good and gave us the R&R needed! I feel I pointed out the good with the bad. The worst for me was the food in the Windjammer - actually the WJ food was good on embarkation day, from there it trailed off. Again, MDR good, but portion sizes very small - much smaller than the Mariner and Serenade.

Just because people point out the bad with the good does not mean they don't have a positive outlook on life. That was a very rude comment.

We were on the same cruise (9-6) Our toilet stopped also but was fixed when we got back from breakfast. Our cabin attendant was great.....in every way.

 

It was a last minute cruise so got an inside on deck 9. No complaints about the cabin, everything was perfect.......clean, no stains.....nothing broken...bed ok.....no mold in bathroom. As soon as we left the cabin it was made up...fresh ice always there.:)

 

I had the Replenish package and enjoyed it. My DH had the beer and wine and cancelled it the second day.

 

The sewage smell was horrible aft on deck 4&5. The bartenders in the Champagne Bar were miserable. We enjoyed the Royal V. Dizzies and spent most drinking times there.

 

Food was not good anywhere except Portofinos.

 

Disembarkation was a zoo:mad:

We had what we thought was an awful sewage smell in our hallway, however I realized it was a terrible musty smell. They shampooed the carpets on day 2 and 4.

We had the flusher button on our toilet stop working the second night and maintenance sent someone up who worked from a door in the hall. Every time he finished they'd call and say it was fixed and I'd go to check it and it wasn't. Good luck calling them back as they then took the phone off the hook. Eventually I gave up and went to sleep. The next morning I got them through Guest Services and the Maint operator wouldn't even let me explain the problem. She cut me right off.

The same thing happened to our toilet! We called and she explained it was a problem they were having on our side of the ship (deck 6, forward). I don't know how long it lasted because we left the room and it was working when we came back a few hours later.

I just realized this whole review sounds negative, so I'm going to post some positives!

-QUEST was awesome!

-We met some amazing tablemates who we're now great friends with.

-Sailing away/to the port with the view of Manhattan (especially on 9/11) is something to be remembered - it is fantastic.

-Our assistant waitress, Stephanie, was top notch.

-The muster drill was so easy...in lounges with NO lifejackets. Nice and cool, and comfortable.

-The hottubs on board are huge, and rarely full. This was a major plus, since I love soaking for a few after a huge meal.

Just got in from our 5 day Explorer of the Seas trip to Bermuda and figured I would post a review before the memories fade! I didn't post much about Bermuda, as I wanted to focus mostly on the ship. Before I begin, I'm generally not one to focus on the negatives. This cruise had a lot of them, however.

Embarkation: For us it was a breeze. We left CT at 8:30 am and arrived at the port around 10 am. We hopped out, dropped off our luggage and were placed in a line to board a shuttle to the ship. The shuttle ride is approximately 5 minutes. Once at the ship, we went through security and were on the ship by 11. A number of people we met who arrived at noon (RCCL's suggested arrival time) said they had to wait in about 45 minutes of traffic getting into the port.

I purchased the Ultimate Package for drinks, which I will probably do again. It cost $55 per day, and includes everything at the bar, including Red Bull and other non-alcoholic drinks. It also included Starbucks coffee, which I found to be disappointing because they don't have fresh brewed Starbucks - it's Americano style with espresso and water. I tried the Seattle's Best brewed coffee provided at no cost, and it was repulsive. There were serve yourself soda/juice machines around the ship (Promenade and Windjammer) for those who purchased the packages, which was excellent. I wondered how they knew the RCCL cup was there, but later found out there is a sensor at the bottom of the cup that the machine detects. One thing that really got me was observing passengers ordering a drink for themselves, walking away and handing it to their spouse, then coming right back and ordering their own. As someone who paid full price for both myself and my other half, I found that to be insulting to both other passengers and the cruise line.

Service on board the ship was extremely slow pretty much everywhere. I read about this in reviews and thought "it can't be THAT bad", but it was. Bar service: They had one bartender most days at each pool bar, who was left to serve the entire deck since nobody was walking around offering drinks. A few times, I had to wait at the bar for 20-30 minutes. I'm a patient person but, wow, this was not what I'm used to when on vacation. I felt awful for the lone bartender because rude passengers would make comments to him and, clearly, it's not his fault. Dining room service: We had the pleasure of being served by quite possibly the most miserable server at sea. He did not smile, he did not enjoy friendly conversation, and the last day, he did not join the other servers to sing (we don't care about the singing, but it was clear he just did not want to be there). The service was incredibly slow. Stateroom service: Amazing. Jarson was fantastic and went over the top to ensure our needs were met. The only issue we had was trying to get our clothes pressed for formal night - they arrived at 5:30 PM when dinner was at 6. A little too close for comfort.

Food was not great. Windjammer food was absolutely disgusting. I read previous reviews about how wonderful the Windjammer food was. No way. The burgers were dry, fries had a strange taste, and the pizza was soggy and awful. Dining room food was good. Not excellent, but good. Portion sizes were very small, and I asked a few times to have two meals brought to me. Room service food was decent. Johnny Rockets was very good, but it will cost you a bit.

Ship was nice, but she needs her dry dock soon. The public areas - with exception to the public bathrooms - were kept clean. The bathrooms were simply disgusting - I don't know if it's because of the passengers or the lack of crew to tackle the issue. The carpet in the stateroom hallways, and in the staterooms, need to be torn up. There were many stains on the carpet in our stateroom, but we had an inside room so we rarely spent time there anyway - it didn't bother us at all. I'm not sure why but, overnight, our stateroom became extremely hot. That being said, our room felt quite large for an inside, and the location was great!

Disembarkation was pretty easy. We did the express walk off at 8 AM. Carried our luggage out and in 30 minutes, we were off the ship.

Overall, the cruise was mediocre. I do feel on this ship, we were offered a subpar experience and in order to obtain good steak or good coffee, we had to pay extra. I will definitely cruise on RCCL again, but definitely not on the Explorer. The ship needs an overhaul.

Thanks for reading - any questions, comments, flames - just post!

Thanks so much for the fast replies! I'm going to add it to my account now.

We're thinking about getting the drink package on our Explorer, Sept 6, 5 day Bermuda cruise. I emailed RCCL asking what types of vodka are included in the premium package - I just want to make sure it's not well Vodka. I prefer Absolut or Smirnoff over well. They replied promptly but just gave a listing of all the liquors they serve on the ship. Can anyone confirm?

Also, for our 5 night cruise, we will only get charged $55 for 5 days, right? Not 6, since we leave early the last day?

Thanks! :)