Just off Allure - Easter Cruise Review April 1-8

Here is my review of our recent cruise on the Allure of the Seas. This was cruise #13 for DH and I, and the second on an Oasis class ship. The Oasis of the Seas wasn't our favorite ship, but we booked Allure as part of a family group of 13. Overall I have to say that the Allure was much better than the Oasis for us. We had a great time. The weather was perfect and the seas were amazingly calm. Here are some of the highlights.

EMBARKATION - We arrived at the pier around 10:30 a.m. Our bags were checked quickly and we went inside. Even though we completed our check-in online we still had to stand in line and go to the desk. The re-took our pictures and re-printed our set sail passes, so I'm not sure what the online check in saved us, but it went relatively quickly. We stood in another line, but were able to board fairly quickly. The set sail pass acted as our sea pass card until we were able to get the physical cards when our cabin was ready, which was at 1:00.

The first thing we did was to head to the dining room to try and make arrangements for our group of 13 to sit together for dinner. We all had reservations for My Time Dining and were willing to sit at two tables if they could be next to each other. The lady in the MDR (I wish I had gotten her name) was not very helpful at all. Even though we were all booked for 6:00, she told us that unless we showed up at 5:30 or 8:00 that she could not accommodate us. 4 of us had First Night Done Right, and the other 9 went to Deck 3 for MTD that evening. To be continued.

DINING - Our group of 4 ate at 2 specialty restaurants and the other 5 nights in the MDR.

First Night Done Right - Giovanni's - We purchased FNDR at 7:00. We were assigned to Giovanni's. The service was fantastic and the food was excellent. We tried a variety of appetizers and the only thing we didn't care for was the pork belly. We all had the filet for our entree, but my son and I wanted to try the shrimp. The waiter offered to put a couple of shrimp on the plate for us so that we could try both. We were not disappointed. I would definitely recommend Giovanni's.

Chops - My son turned 25 on this cruise and wanted to have his birthday dinner in Chops. We chose a table outside. The service was good for the most part. The waiter seemed to have too many tables, so the service was slow, but that was actually OK with us, because it was very relaxing. All of the appetizers were excellent. We all ordered filet again and it was also excellent. Mine was a little undercooked, but the waiter quickly offered to take it back and cook it a little longer and it came back perfect. The side dishes are sharable, and we ordered a variety of them. Everything was very tasty. The desserts were also very good. It was a great experience overall. I would recommend Chops.

MDR - My Time Dining - The other 9 in our party ate at the MDR the first night while we were in Giovanni's. They liked their waiter, Johnny very much, so they stopped at the desk outside the American Icon (deck 3) on the way out to see if they could get him for the remaining nights. My sister spoke to Sundeep (not sure if I have the spelling right) and explained that there were 13 of us. He honored our 6:00 reservations, combined our party, and assigned us 2 tables next to each other for the rest of the week with Johnny. Every night after that, we showed up at 6:00 and were immediately seated. Two thumbs up for Sundeep.

Johnny was very accommodating and friendly and lots of fun. The drink service was not very good in the MDR. We often had to wait a long time for drinks. The dinner service was a little slow, but it was not really a problem except that dinner took almost 2 hours most nights. That could be because of the size of our party. It was all good though.

The food was just OK in most cases. The variety was good, but the quality has gone down quite a bit over the years. The general feedback from our group was that the pastas were good, the beef not so much, chicken dishes were good, and the fish hit or miss. I did have to send back the Mahi Mahi (2 of us did so, but the other 2 said theirs was fine) but the waiter was very accommodating and offered to bring something else. The bottom line is that we never left the MDR hungry, so that's a plus. The food in the specialty restaurants is so much better though without a doubt. So I guess you get what you pay for.

DRINK PACKAGE - All of the adults in our group except one had the drink package. Some got more of their money's worth than others. There is not clear answer if it is "worth it" or not. To me, it was worth the convenience of not worrying about it. And since they make both adults in the cabin purchase it, we didn't have a choice for just one of us to get it, so we both got it.

ENTERTAINMENT - We saw all of the shows except for the comedy shows. I recommend reservations, even though you may not know exactly what you want to do ahead of time, it is wise to book something. If you don't have a reservation, you can get in a stand by line and they will open the doors about 10 minutes before show time for whatever seats are left. We did this once for Blue Planet in the Amber Theater because we wanted to try and get an earlier show than we booked. It was pandemonium when they opened the doors and people were running around like crazy to try and get seats. It was so stressful that we left and came back for our reserved time. It was much easier that way. I'm not sure what they could do different, but this is one of the things I dislike about the Oasis class ships is the way the shows are handled. But with the number of people on the ship, they can't accommodate everyone in the traditional way.

Mamma Mia - This was a 2 1/2 hour show with an intermission. The first half was really good. The story moved along and the singing was awesome. The second half for me dragged on and got a little boring. The music was good and the cast was very talented. It was just a little long.

Ocean Aria Aqua Show - Amazing and very entertaining. We loved everything about it. I definitely recommend seeing it.

Headliner - This week's headliner was an entertainer named Tony Tillman. He did some singing, dancing and some comedy. He was not bad, but not that great either. I would give him about a 7 out of 10. It was worth the time.

Ice Games Ice Show - This is always a good show I think. We enjoyed it.

Blue Planet - This show had the cast from Mamma Mia and the Aqua Show. There was a tree that came alive, where the people were part of the tree that was very cool. There was an underwater scene and also a trampoline scene that were all very entertaining. Overall, it was a very good show.

BARS - We visited several of the bars during the week.

Rising Tide - This was one of my favorites. It goes up and down between the Royal Promenade (Deck 5) and Central Park (Deck 8). It's small, but a nice area to have a drink. We recognized the bartender, Andrew from a previous cruise on Liberty. He was a lot of fun.

Schooner Bar - There was a piano player in the Schooner that was very good. We spend a good part of the late evening in there one night. He was very good at getting the crowd involved.

Vintages - We went in one night and the place was empty. It didn't seem like it was ever very busy.

Bow & Stern - This is located on the Royal Promenade. There was a guitar player in there at night who was pretty good.

POOL AREA - I have to admit, this one of my least favorite things about the Oasis class ships. I don't like that there are separate pool areas. We spent most of the week at the beach pool. We missed out on all of the poolside activities that we usually enjoy because I think they must have been at a different pool area. The pools were packed and the chair hogs were the worst I have ever seen. There were towels and miscellaneous items on a majority of the chairs before the sun even came up. We pretty much had to be in our chairs by 7:15 or 7:30, which is a little early for my liking on vacation. We usually got about 8 chairs for our group of 13 and I'm happy to say they were all occupied for the most part. Since all 13 of us weren't sitting all at the same time, it worked out perfectly. I can't say the same about the countless number of chairs that sat empty covered in towels for hours and hours. One set of chairs even had an article of clothing clipped to each one, including some men's underwear. I guess they wanted to make sure no one sat in "their" reserved chairs! lol

I do wish the pool attendants had done a better job of removing items that have been abandoned so that people who actually want to use the chairs, could do so. They finally did enforce it on the last sea day, and were actually patrolling the pool area and removing chair hog towels/items. This is one area I think they need to improve.

The bar service was very good at the pool. We never had a problem finding someone when we wanted to get a drink. However, one of the negatives here was the amount of empty glasses, water bottles, cans, etc that were left lying around. They did not do a good job of cleaning up. I wish they would have been more aware of the "garbage" or at least had a cart with a tub available where we could put the dirty cups.

DISEMBARKATION - We had an early flight out of FLL (9:55 am) so we carried our bags off. We walked off around 7:30 and the process went very smoothly. There were lines at customs, but they moved pretty quickly. We were in a taxi before 8:00 and made it to the airport in plenty of time to make our flight.

We had a great week and really enjoyed the Allure. Even though it was Easter/Spring Break and there were a lot of kids and teens on board, it was really not a problem for us. The last night they seemed to be out in full force, but nothing out of the norm during the week. I hope you enjoyed my review.

Thanks for the review - chairhogs grrrrrr

Cool. Thank you very much for sharing your cruise with us!

Thank you for posting the review.

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If you had a 6 pm reservation for dinner, what time did you book the shows?

We have 5:45, would 8 pm give us enough time to make the shows, or should we do later?

Thanks for the feedback.

If you had a 6 pm reservation for dinner, what time did you book the shows?

 

We have 5:45, would 8 pm give us enough time to make the shows, or should we do later?

Our shows were all at 9:00 and 9:30 and worked out well. With a 5:45 dinner you should be able to make an 8:00 show, especially if you are eating in a smaller group. You can also let the waiter know you have a show and they should work to get you out in time. Just remember that if you have reservations, you will want to arrive before they open the doors for people without reservations.

And also, the only shows on our cruise at 8:00 were Mamma Mia the first night and Blue Planet on night 6. All of the others were 8:30 or later.

Thank you, Renee.:hearteyes:

The bar service was very good at the pool. We never had a problem finding someone when we wanted to get a drink. However, one of the negatives here was the amount of empty glasses, water bottles, cans, etc that were left lying around. They did not do a good job of cleaning up. I wish they would have been more aware of the "garbage" or at least had a cart with a tub available where we could put the dirty cups.

While this definitely falls under their responsibility...to keep the pool area tidy. I think it's also part of our jobs as customers to be a good person and kind of clean up after our selves a bit too...especially with the bottles and cans...it's easy to just throw/recycle them as you walk away. I know when we were on Oasis that pool area was busy and that it would be hard to get around all the people and clean up around and under all the loungers during peak times. But a cart or something would be nice...I'm trying to think of what I do with glasses...I know I don't leave them on the ground around a lounger or anything...I think I tend to either set them on the nearest bar or at least maybe on a table...hmmm. I'll have to take notice when we are on Allure in a couple weeks.

If you had a 6 pm reservation for dinner, what time did you book the shows?

 

We have 5:45, would 8 pm give us enough time to make the shows, or should we do later?

Talk to your waiter. We were on the same cruise and had traditional seating at 5:30pm. We had reservations for Ice Games & the Aqua Theatre show and made both. Be sure to get there at least 20 minutes prior to get good seats. By the way this would apply to any popular shows.

Thanks for your review.

I was also on this cruise and I have to say, it didn't feel like a sold out ship. Very few lines other than for the shows we reserved. Pool crowds were larger as to be expected and I did see more enforcement of the "30 minute" chair/lounger rule.

Dan

Thanks for this review. I was debating on booking Oasis or Allure for my September cruise and because of this, I think I will go with Allure. I have been on Oasis and Harmony and will be on Symphony in a week - so I guess - why not cruise Allure.

Thanks for this review. I was debating on booking Oasis or Allure for my September cruise and because of this, I think I will go with Allure. I have been on Oasis and Harmony and will be on Symphony in a week - so I guess - why not cruise Allure.

I have to say that the entire staff on the Allure was very friendly and treated us well. On Oasis, I felt like the staff was overworked and just not as "eager to please" as we are used to. This kind of turned me off to the Oasis class because I thought maybe the big busy ship had something to do with it. However, I did. not feel that way at all on Allure. I would recommend trying it out, since you've tried all of the others. Have a great time!

Thanks for your report, we will be sailing on The Allure in June. I know you mention all the chairs being reserved around the pools early but are there other chairs free later in the morning further away from the pools/top deck etc? I have 2 teens who won't be up early, I like to sit on the balcony until we are all ready to go to the pool area, we don't mind being away from the actual pools.

Thanks for your report, we will be sailing on The Allure in June. I know you mention all the chairs being reserved around the pools early but are there other chairs free later in the morning further away from the pools/top deck etc? I have 2 teens who won't be up early, I like to sit on the balcony until we are all ready to go to the pool area, we don't mind being away from the actual pools.

I'm not sure what the situation was on the deck above the pools. I know there were a lot of chairs up there but I'm not sure what time they were "occupied". The ones by the pool definitely go first. I don't know what time you have in mind to head up there, but I will say that it got worse later in the week. You may want to head up there and have the teens meet you. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

I'm not sure what the situation was on the deck above the pools. I know there were a lot of chairs up there but I'm not sure what time they were "occupied". The ones by the pool definitely go first. I don't know what time you have in mind to head up there, but I will say that it got worse later in the week. You may want to head up there and have the teens meet you. Good luck and enjoy your cruise!

Thank you! I'm trying not to overthink these things but doesn't hurt to have a little plan.

Just off Allure and there were 6300 guests on board. Mid-day it would be almost impossible to find chairs at the regular pools. We usually saw about half reserved (and zero people in the pool) around 8:30am when we went to the Solarium.