Fabulous time on the Allure of the Seas 9/13-9/20/15

[travelana]

Allure of the Seas 9/13-9/20/2015

 

After so many months of reading everyones reviews, comments and ideas, it was finally our turn to cruise the Med on the Allure.

Having never done the itinerary or such a large ship, I had to rely on the research and CC members didn’t let me down.

 

Stayed 2 nights pre-cruise in Barcelona at Hotel Jazz. Highly, highly recommend!

It’s in the perfect location- central to most sights. The rooms were spacious, ( spring for the Junior Suite if you can), but it’s not necessary. We didn’t eat breakfast at the hotel, so no comment on that.

 

 

I have done free walking tours in other cities in the past, so after reading about Runner Bean free tours, decided to give it a try.

 

Did 2 tours with them on 2 different days.

 

The Gaudi tour was great, even though we didn’t go inside buildings, it was extremely informative and fun. The perk to this tour is that you use the Metro twice, with a guide. So you kind of get familiarized with all aspects of Barcelona City. I found the Metro easy to use, inexpensive and fun to observe the real people going about their daily lives.

 

The second tour with them was Bari Gotic, which again, we wouldn’t have seen half of what we saw, and certainly wouldn’t have any idea of what we looking at without them.

Both tours leave right from Placa Reial, a 10 minute walk form Hotel Jazz. The square itself is fun, so come a little early and sit at a cafe and just observe.

The easiest way to get to port is with a taxi, around 15 euros.

 

The quickest on and off the ship ever.

 

The Allure is an amazing ship! It sparkles! Rarely felt crowded, and it was a sold out sailing!

Food was great! We ate most of our evening meals at the main dining room, and really enjoyed every meal. If there was something we didn’t like, we got something else. If there was something we liked, we asked for more. The service at the dining room was efficient and friendly. I just don’t understand the food complaints I read before going.

We also tried Izumi for Hibachi and enjoyed that very much. Tapas at Vintages were also amazing.

 

We saw Mamma Mia and Oceanaria, both were extremely enjoyable. The comic at the Comedy Show was also very funny.

Tried the Rising Tide Bar for the experience- it was ok. We didn’t do a lot of shopping or nightlife, other than stopping by the Casino in the eve.

 

The one complaint I have is that we had the worst cabin steward and that our cabin had a musty smell all week. We didn’t really have any specific needs beyond keeping our stateroom clean. But felt we shouldn’t have to ask for basic things like cups, etc.. And they did try to rectify the smell, without success. So we opened the cabin balcony door a lot. None of that prevented us from enjoying our trip at all.

 

Ports

 

Palma de Mallorca- very easy to see on own. We took the 5 euro ship shuttle into town, walked around on our own and then decided to rent some chairs and a an umbrella and have lunch in Palmanova Beach at the Nassau Beach Club. Took a very short and inexpensive ride to Palmanova Beach. Could’ve walked it, but were too tired.

 

Marseiiles- don’t take the very expensive ship shuttle into town. 23 euros pp, totally not worth it! 7 of us took a van/ taxi right outside the port. We got in the van and told the driver we wanted to hire him for the day. He gave us a price of 50 euros pp for 5 hours. He took us to Aix en Provence, Cassis ( drove us through the National Park first so we can take some spectacular pics) and then back to Marseilles and Notre Dame de la Garde. It was perfect.

 

 

Being a group of 16, we decided to do 3 private shore excursions through RomeinLimo for our next 3 Italian stops.

 

La Spezia- Pisa/Florence. This was probably our least favorite excursion. Partly because it is a 2 hour drive to Florence, which doesn’t afford much time for sight seeing. Partly because our driver was not very good and got lost 3 times, which cut into our time for sightseeing. She recommended a restaurant that had fantastic food, but horribly slow service, which further cut into our time in Florence. If you are stopped in La Spezia, I would do Cinque Terre instead.

 

Civitavecchia- Rome Highlights. This was a great tour that everyone enjoyed. I had pre booked the Colosseum tickets and Vatican tickets per recommendation. We also had a private guide for the Vatican, which was key in having us see the highlights and give us a tour of St Peters Basilica as well. We had toured the Vatican previously, with the Vatican Guide, and I felt this time it was much more informative. The prior Vatican Tour didn’t include St Peters Basilica either, but having a guide there is helpful. Again, the recommended stop for lunch was very inexpensive and enjoyable.

 

Naples- Pompeii, Sorrento and Positano

Getting into port and meeting up with our drivers we found out that 2 of the 3 roads to Positano/ Amalfi Coast were closed due to a brush fire. So we had to make some last minute changes, since we didn’t want to sit in traffic with all the big buses from the other 4 ships that were there along with us. So we quickly decided to change plans and go for an olive oil tasting, which was wonderful and spent a little more time in Sorrento, had lunch, before heading to Pompeii. We still saw some wonderful scenery had a delicious lunch and rested a bit. In Pompeii, we had a private guide, who quickly purchased our tickets and led us though Pompeii. We didn’t see everything, Pompeii is pretty big. Difficult to navigate on cobblestones, especially in the blazing heat. But everyone enjoyed it nonetheless.

 

I have seen many debates regarding ship excursions vs. private. I have to say, not once, in any port, did I feel that I was in danger of missing the ship. People who cater to cruise passengers, know the time limitations and will not risk having anyone miss the ship. I felt comfortable at all ports to either strike out on my own or have a private excursion. The convenience, the price and the flexibility make it all worth it. 3 people from our group chose to do the ship shore excursion to Rome. They paid double the price, and didn’t get to tour the Vatican or the Colosseum. I was very glad that we bypassed the ship excursions after hearing that.

 

 

All in all we had a fantastic time!. This is the perfect cruise for anyone who would like to do the highlights of the Med and the Allure is a great venue to do it with.

[ken_nyc]

Thank you travelana for your review! We are doing the same thing next June for the Harmony of the Seas and staying 2 nights prior to the cruise in Barcelona and may look into the tours you did in Barcelona.

 

Thank you again!

Ken

[kalliekae]

Thanks for your review. We did this cruise a few years ago and loved it although not on the Allure. Since we are booked for the first time on the Allure in November, I was happy to see your comments about the ship. I just hope I don't get your cabin steward. Would you mind telling us which cabin number you were in? The musty smell would be irritating to me.

Edited October 2, 2015 by kalliekae

[travelana]

we were in 9534

[ramanda]

Thanks for that information. Very helpful. Glad you had a nice time. To either Travelana or Ken NYC, I am thinking of doing the Harmony with this itinerary in June as well. I am so excited! After years of just basically lurking on this website and dreaming about going on a cruise, I can finally go! I really want to go on Harmony and want to go next summer and since she will be in the Mediterranean, that is where I will go. This is slightly off topic, but I just started checking airline prices to Barcelona and WOW!! They are almost as much as the cruise. Is there any trick or secret to maybe getting a cheaper price? I was just shocked at the prices. I went on all the popular websites and they were all the same. Any suggestions? We will be flying from Boston

Edited October 3, 2015 by ramanda

[rtazz17]

Thanks for that information. Very helpful. Glad you had a nice time. To either Travelana or Ken NYC, I am thinking of doing the Harmony with this itinerary in June as well. I am so excited! After years of just basically lurking on this website and dreaming about going on a cruise, I can finally go! I really want to go on Harmony and want to go next summer and since she will be in the Mediterranean, that is where I will go. This is slightly off topic, but I just started checking airline prices to Barcelona and WOW!! They are almost as much as the cruise. Is there any trick or secret to maybe getting a cheaper price? I was just shocked at the prices. I went on all the popular websites and they were all the same. Any suggestions? We will be flying from Boston

 

Yes this is what has prevented us from doing a med cruise.The airfare is as much as cruise with 4 people..Cant justify 4 grand in airfare.. This will be something we do when we retire and kids are gone.Only tip I can give is a credit card that gives you points toward flights but it will still be hefty amount to fly...

[ramanda]

Yes this is what has prevented us from doing a med cruise.The airfare is as much as cruise with 4 people..Cant justify 4 grand in airfare.. This will be something we do when we retire and kids are gone.Only tip I can give is a credit card that gives you points toward flights but it will still be hefty amount to fly...

Thanks for the response rtazz17. Good suggestion about the credit card. I didn't think of that. Yes we will be a family of four as well. My kids will be 13 and 15 next summer and I so want to take them on Harmony. At first I was thinking forget it because it's Europe but after reading so many posts where people said they had such a great time on Allure recently I have changed my mind. My kids are super excited. It will be the trip of a lifetime between the new ship and all the ports. I guess I have to face reality about the airline prices. Was secretly hoping someone would tell me those prices weren't really real and that I could find cheaper prices somewhere else lol! Oh well huge reality check. Thanks again for the credit card tip

[ken_nyc]

Thanks for that information. Very helpful. Glad you had a nice time. To either Travelana or Ken NYC, I am thinking of doing the Harmony with this itinerary in June as well. I am so excited! After years of just basically lurking on this website and dreaming about going on a cruise, I can finally go! I really want to go on Harmony and want to go next summer and since she will be in the Mediterranean, that is where I will go. This is slightly off topic, but I just started checking airline prices to Barcelona and WOW!! They are almost as much as the cruise. Is there any trick or secret to maybe getting a cheaper price? I was just shocked at the prices. I went on all the popular websites and they were all the same. Any suggestions? We will be flying from Boston

 

Ramanda, we booked in July and both the cruise and airfare was $1200 combined cheaper than it is now. On ChoiceAir now they do not list non-stop flights. That week I kept checking airfare directly from all of the airlines for direct flights from JFK (which is 20 minutes away from us, no traffic) and Royal Caribbean's ChoiceAir (now Air2Sea) and they were $600 cheaper at the time than American Airlines website. What was annoying was I wanted to use Delta for the double points and possibly use miles to make it cheaper but they were $800 more than ChoiceAir! Good luck and hope you will be able to go and do this dream cruise!

 

I used my AMEX Delta Skymiles card for the air and some of the cruise to get points.

Edited October 3, 2015 by ken_nyc
Added the AMEX sentence

[ramanda]

Thanks for the reply Ken. I will definitely check into Choice Air. I hadn't even thought about that. $1,200 is a lot of money to save! I will just keep checking. Which cruise are you going on? I wanted to do the one that leaves on 6/26. It's so exciting to be able to finally to talk about going on an actual cruise!!

[ken_nyc]

Thanks for the reply Ken. I will definitely check into Choice Air. I hadn't even thought about that. $1,200 is a lot of money to save! I will just keep checking. Which cruise are you going on? I wanted to do the one that leaves on 6/26. It's so exciting to be able to finally to talk about going on an actual cruise!!

 

My wife and I and our 2 close friends are going on the June 26th cruise, the same one you are interested in going on. We are going to Barcelona 2 days before on the June 24th so we can do some sightseeing. I did notice that the cruise did go down a couple of hundred for a D7 cabin the last 2 days. Good luck!

[ramanda]

Thanks! I liked that cruise because we come back on that Sunday and the next day is the 4th of July so a day off to recoup before going back to work. If I officially book it I will join the roll call. Sounds like a good idea about going to Barcelona for two days before hand. Hope you have a great time!

[transam84]

Thanks for you great review. We leave next Sunday for Rome and board Allure on 15 Oct. Yes airfare to Europe is expensive which is why we waited until our son is grown and it is just the two of us. We splurged on First class and got a good rate from ChoiceAir. I have United points, but by the time I pay the outrageous fees it was not worth using them. So we are going First on Virgin Atlantic Dreamliner and I am really excited about that. We have 3 private excursions with highly rated companies and I'm glad to hear you felt good about the time factor on your tours! Thanks again.

[ken_nyc]

Thanks! I liked that cruise because we come back on that Sunday and the next day is the 4th of July so a day off to recoup before going back to work. If I officially book it I will join the roll call. Sounds like a good idea about going to Barcelona for two days before hand. Hope you have a great time!

 

Thank you Ramanda! This is the role call link if you do book it: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=47756773#post47756773

I also figured they would resolve any kinks with the ship by the time we are on the cruise.

 

Hope you and your family are able to go on this cruise!

[CruisingFamilia]

First, travelena, like the username.

 

My wife and I were on the Allure in 2014. We did not do the Med itinerary. Were did the caribbean. The ship was really impressive, and Our itinerary was great. Our only small complaint was related to service. We highly recommend this ship even if you sail on her just once. It's a must do, at least, once.

 

We look forward to doing Med sailing on the Allure.

[S&T]

Ramanda, we booked in July and both the cruise and airfare was $1200 combined cheaper than it is now. On ChoiceAir now they do not list non-stop flights. That week I kept checking airfare directly from all of the airlines for direct flights from JFK (which is 20 minutes away from us, no traffic) and Royal Caribbean's ChoiceAir (now Air2Sea) and they were $600 cheaper at the time than American Airlines website. What was annoying was I wanted to use Delta for the double points and possibly use miles to make it cheaper but they were $800 more than ChoiceAir! Good luck and hope you will be able to go and do this dream cruise!

 

I used my AMEX Delta Skymiles card for the air and some of the cruise to get points.

 

We also received better prices through ChoiceAir. A couple of things you may find is that June is prime time (high prices) because it is when school is out. It may also be very warm in June in some of the itinerary locations. If you have any flexibility I recommend travel in late May, September, or early October. We are in Barcelona right now getting on Allure today, and weather has been ideal for lots of walking. Another airfare tip, look every Tues-Thurs and be ready to book when you see the price you like.

 

I wasn't sure what stateroom category you will choose, but you can save a lot by booking inside. We find we use the balcony so little that this is a big savings towards airfare.

Edited October 4, 2015 by S&T
Add additional info

[ramanda]

Thank you S&T! Great tips. Hope you are having a fantastic time!

[travelana]

we booked through choice air as well, and it was the least expensive option for us

[ramanda]

Thanks Travelana!