A Week on The World's Largest Cruise Ship: A Photo/Video Allure (Western) Review

[Nicole721]

While we were finishing our drinks, there was an announcement on the PA system that there was a medical emergency and we were diverting to Montego Bay. First thoughts? Of course there was a medical emergency. I don’t know if they’re that frequent or if we just have a lot of bad luck, but there’s at least one medevac on every cruise we’re on. First thoughts are always with the passenger and their family. Second thought? MONTEGO IS IN KOKOMO. BAM! ANOTHER ONE CROSSED OFF THE LIST!

 

 

 

 

Stephanie and I stopped by the headliner show (we had tickets for the late show), but it was borderline awful and we left after two songs. We walked around the ship a bit before heading back to the room to watch some Jerseylicious .

 

 

 

And then – bed! Is it just me or are port days just incredibly draining? Thankfully, we had a day at sea before our next port day so we could recharge for our Cozumel adventures.

[4evercruiser]

Thanks for posting your review. I'm getting ready to sail on Oasis in 3 weeks. I have been doing as much research as I can about the Oasis. I tend to see more reviews on the Allure than the Oasis, but I still read those considering that both are sister ships. This will be our first cruise on Royal Caribbean. Most of our previous cruises were on Carnival. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

[remharri]

I'm not real sure how I missed this review back in May :eek:

 

I love, love, love reading your reviews. We also took our first RCCL cruise this year coming from Carnival on the Oasis and doing the Allure next year. Now I think I will spend the rest of my afternoon at work reading your wonderful review!

[Irene7]

I enjoyed your review and photos of the Ship and ports. Thanks for sharing.

[allie3490]

Oooh so glad I found your review. We're doing the same ship and itinerary next august. It's funny you mentioned the watches.

 

On our Freedom cruise last year we had one sea day where it was pretty cloudy and windy so the pool deck wasn't too busy. I asked a random lady sitting next to me where everyone goes when it's not a pool day. She said everyone is at the watch sale! :p

[Nicole721]

Thanks for posting your review. I'm getting ready to sail on Oasis in 3 weeks. I have been doing as much research as I can about the Oasis. I tend to see more reviews on the Allure than the Oasis, but I still read those considering that both are sister ships. This will be our first cruise on Royal Caribbean. Most of our previous cruises were on Carnival. Looking forward to reading the rest of your review.

 

I read many Oasis reviews when preparing for this cruise! :)

 

Have a fantastic trip!

 

I'm not real sure how I missed this review back in May :eek:

 

I love, love, love reading your reviews. We also took our first RCCL cruise this year coming from Carnival on the Oasis and doing the Allure next year. Now I think I will spend the rest of my afternoon at work reading your wonderful review!

 

Awww thanks!

[Nicole721]

I enjoyed your review and photos of the Ship and ports. Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

Oooh so glad I found your review. We're doing the same ship and itinerary next august. It's funny you mentioned the watches.

 

On our Freedom cruise last year we had one sea day where it was pretty cloudy and windy so the pool deck wasn't too busy. I asked a random lady sitting next to me where everyone goes when it's not a pool day. She said everyone is at the watch sale! :p

 

Crazy, isn't it?

[Nicole721]

In between our port days in Jamaica and Cozumel, we had another sea day to kind of recharge our batteries. But good poolside loungers wait for no one and we were up bright and early at 8:30 am.

 

After a quick consultation with the dining boards, we decided on a breakfast at Wipeout Café. We were originally planning on breakfast in the Windjammer, but the boards said it was at capacity. Wipeout Café was a solid choice – it had what I imagine were the same offerings as the Windjammer (traditional breakfast buffet kind of stuff – eggs, meats, pancakes, etc), but they also had made to order omelets, which we all opted for and agreed that they were excellent. And it wasn’t crowded by any means, so we felt good about our choice.

[Nicole721]

After breakfast, we headed towards the main pool. Unlike our first sea day, we didn’t have it to ourselves. There were quite a few people already in the pool and lounging poolside. Still, we found loungers quickly and had plenty of room to swim.

 

We swam for an hour before heading to find some shade. In 14 cruises, I don’t think we’ve ever sought out shade on a sea day. There’s a first time for everything, I guess, and since we stopped tanning before our cruises, we were burning more easily (even with heavy and frequent applications of sunscreen).

 

Once we had our fill of sea air, we headed back to the room. Along the way, we passed through the Promenade, where Ken Rush was holding a live talk show.

 

We spent some time in the room watching movies and hanging out on the balcony. We noticed the Variety channel on the TV switched between various channels – a Rachael Ray travel show from the Food Network was followed by a renovation show from the DIY Network. I know what everyone’s thinking: “Why are you sitting in your room watching TV when you have an entire ship to explore?!” Because we’re on vacation! That hour or so on sea days where we laid in our beds and let mindless shows about the best places to eat in Italy and a hair salon in New Jersey was probably the most relaxing part of our entire trip.

 

For a late lunch, we decided to head out to the Solarium Bistro. The Solarium Bistro features lighter, healthier fare, but we found that light also carried over to light on flavor. I had some gazpacho that was decent but by and large, everything we tasted was incredibly under-seasoned.

[Nicole721]

Since cold soup wasn’t really cutting it for lunch and Mom and Stephanie were equally as unenthused with the samplings they tried, we headed out in search of more flavorful fare. We passed through the Solarium pool area and it was incredibly packed. I guess everyone who wasn’t at the main pool was packing in at the Solarium pool.

 

We ended up at Café Promenade for sandwiches, but nothing there really sounded good – they’re all pre-made and nearly all of them had mayo on them (a big no no in my book).

[Nicole721]

With Solarium Bistro not cutting it and Café Promenade not faring much better, we ended up…at the Cupcake Cupboard. And ding ding ding – we found a winner. The cake was moist and light (though not incredibly flavorful) and the icing was dense and buttery without being overbearingly sweet. And the price was right at $2.75 a cupcake.

[Nicole721]

Stephanie had the makings of a killer migraine, so we headed back to the room and napped so we could re-charge for formal night. And I spent some more time out on the balcony zoning out and staring at the water.

 

We took turns getting glammed up before taking our obligatory formal night balcony shots and heading to dinner.

 

Tonight’s dinner was pretty solid. Mom’s lobster was pretty large (John took it out of the shell for her and both he and Daniel offered to get her a second one completely unprompted) and the mushroom appetizer was out of this world. The real standout, though? The poblano pepper and corn soup. Probably the tastiest soup I’ve ever had on any ship!

 

Escargots Bourguignonne

 

Creamed Wild Mushrooms

 

Roasted Poblano Pepper and Corn Soup

 

House Salad

[Nicole721]

Simple and Classic Caesar Salad

 

Fisherman’s Plate

 

Three-Cheese Tortelloni

 

Slow Roasted Prime Rib

 

Baked Alaska

 

We headed out to the Promenade after dinner to peruse the shops and take in everyone else’s formal fashions.

 

[Nicole721]

We didn’t partake, but they were doing made to order margaritas out in the Promenade, too.

 

[Nicole721]

After a quick stop back to the room to change out of our dresses, we headed out to Central Park and wandered around a bit.

[Nicole721]

We walked around the ship a bit more, but ultimately ended up back in Central Park for the sangria special at Vintages.

 

[Nicole721]

The sangria was a solid A. We ordered a few tapas to go along with our drinks had some mixed reactions. The guacamole and stuffed peppers were amazing, but Stephanie ordered some chicken croquettes that she really didn’t have anything good to say about.

 

Pan Amb Tomaquet

 

Croquetas de Pollo con Revuelto de Cebollinas

 

Guacamole

 

Cheese Stuffed Pequillo Peppers, Grilled Artichokes, Eggplants and Caper Berries

[Nicole721]

After our sangria and tapas fiesta, we headed down to Studio B for the Ice Games show. We all agreed the show was excellent and the level of skill and talent was high, but there was such a discord in the sets. One set would have an incredibly elaborate set while the next would have cheep, cheesy computer graphics.

[Nicole721]

After the show, we headed back to the Promenade. We had an outdoor excursion planned for Cozumel, so Mom wanted to buy a t-shirt to cover her shoulders in the sun and I wanted to buy a bottle of water. I headed to Starbucks since most of their prices seemed in line with US Starbucks and at US Starbucks, water bottles are less than $2. Not here. While your iced coffee or coffee cake slice will generally be in the same ball park as what you’d pay on land, the price of water bottles is, predictably, marked up. I think my bottle of water was $4+ and they charged an automatic gratuity on any Starbucks purchase.

 

 

We wandered around the ship a bit more before heading back to the room to get our bags packed for the next day and head to bed. I shed a silent tear as I set my alarm – in order to meet our excursion on time, our wakeup call had to be hours earlier than I wake up for work. So much for a restful vacation!

[cassie225]

First time cruisers on ship this big. Questions-Would you eat in Adagios every night. Did you see Chops? Do suite guests get concierge?Is Deck 8 good deck to access everything? Have disabled daughter,but don't need accessible room-but she tires after walking a lot. Did ship ever feel overcrowded. Was Solarium always a quiet place to be. Loved your review. How do I find your blog?

[Nicole721]

First time cruisers on ship this big. Questions-Would you eat in Adagios every night. Did you see Chops? Do suite guests get concierge?Is Deck 8 good deck to access everything? Have disabled daughter,but don't need accessible room-but she tires after walking a lot. Did ship ever feel overcrowded. Was Solarium always a quiet place to be. Loved your review. How do I find your blog?

 

1. Yes, we would eat at Adagios every night if we didn't want to try the specialty restaurants.

2. Yes, Chops is in the next part of my review :)

3. No idea -- we weren't suite guests.

4. I think decks 4-8 are all pretty good to access everything.

5. We didn't think the ship felt overcrowded.

6. We rarely went to the Solarium, so I can't answer that, but the times we did pass through during the day, it was pretty crowded. At night, it thins out.

7. Link to my blog is in my signature :)

[Nicole721]

There’s these things you never want to say when your friends/family/coworkers ask you about you get home. There’s the bad luck stuff. “The ship left without me” or “The airline lost my luggage.” There’s “I broke my arm getting off a tour bus” or “My companion had to be medevac’ed.” The serious stuff. And then, there’s there’s us. And our “I woke up at 6:00 am before the sun was even up.” On vacation. I really shouldn’t be complaining – I was the one who insisted we go to Tulum. The adventure sounded amazing when I was in my normal routine at home. But once you get on vacation and you realize you signed yourself up for an excursion with a 7:30 am, that adventure doesn’t seem so appealing.

 

6:00 am ship time was 5:00 am at home. I don’t even wake up for work until 7:30 am. This 6:00 am wakeup call was killer.

 

We packed our backpacks and set out our clothes the night before so we could squeeze every extra bit of sleep into our morning. It didn’t help. When the alarm went off, none of us wanted to get up.

 

But we did. We still weren’t docked in Mexico and the sun wasn’t out yet, but we got up, got dressed, and headed up to the Windjammer for an early breakfast.

 

Breakfast was okay. Standard fare. The fare served in the Windjammer tasted the same as everything I’ve ever eaten for breakfast on the Carnival Lido restaurants. Powdered eggs taste like powdered eggs. Bacon and sausage taste like bacon and sausage. Soggy French toast tastes like soggy French toast.

 

 

Offerings were plentiful in variety and choice, but I had my mind on one thing and one thing only: coffee. And then I realized I had an eight hour tour ahead of me and headed for some protein.

[Nicole721]

The Windjammer was relatively active for 6:30 in the morning. Once we had our fill of breakfast fare, we headed outside for some fresh air and to catch the sunrise.

 

 

Our excursion called for us to meet in the Amber Palace at 7:30 in the morning for an 8:00 am departure. At least a dozen other excursions were meeting there at the same time, and getting everyone sorted and off the ship took awhile, so I took a nap while we waited for our excursion to be called.

 

 

Once our excursion and sticker color were called, we were escorted down to deck zero and off the ship. The first part of our trip called for a tender ride to the mainland, and the tender met us right at the pier.

 

 

 

The tender ride is just over a half hour and despite the calm looking seas, this boat moves very fast and the ride is very, very rocky. Many people got sea sick. I literally had to keep my head down to avoid seeing all the sick people around me. Mom and Stephanie fared okay with their sea sickness patches, but even me, who prays for rocky seas because I don’t get sea sick and the motion makes me sleepy, had points where I had to stare at a fixed point to quell any nausea from bubbling up. If you are prone to sea sickness of any kind, an excursion to the mainland might not be for you. It will be a miserable half hour both ways.

 

 

[Nicole721]

We docked in Playa del Carmen and met up with our tour guide, Andres, who led us to our bus. On the way to the bus, they made everyone stop for pictures with their party, which held up the line a bit. The bus was large and clean, and Andres was certainly passionate about his culture and Mayan history because he told us about it for the entire bus ride.

 

 

 

We stopped for a 20 minute rest stop at a market just outside of Tulum. I stayed on the bus (we’d be doing plenty of walking soon enough and I’m not a shopper who likes to negotiate on everything she buys). Once everyone was back onboard, we were handed a small frequency radio and headphones for use at Tulum.

 

 

[Nicole721]

Our first impressions of Tulum was that it was incredibly commercialized. When we’d visited Xunantunich and even Chaccoben, it was ruins, nature and a very small gift shop. There was a Dairy Queen at the entrance of Tulum. And a Subway, I think. And many shops. Xunantunich and Chaccoben were like small county fairs. Tulum was like Six Flags Great America.

 

 

 

 

We were instructed to put our earbuds in, turn on our radios and follow Andres to the grounds. It’s a short hike from the entrance to the grounds. There’s a tram for a couple bucks, but Andres decided we would all walk together. This was very much a guided tour. Andres led us from one ruin to the next, telling us the history of the land and the culture. It was incredibly hot and humid and we found ourselves listening in on the radio from the nearest shade we could find. We had about two hours of touring at Tulum and around an hour to explore on our own.