Allure of the Seas Suite Review Jan 2016

[comsysgirl]

This review is to help those looking into the advantages of booking a suite on Royal Caribbean…Especially focused on Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas. We booked the Royal Family Suite on the Jan 17-24, 2016 cruise, leaving out of Port Everglades in Florida. Over the years, I have constantly looked for suite reviews before booking. They were so sparse, that I thought I would add mine.

 

A little background first. I am a NC born and bred southerner (48 years young) who married a Washington, DC fella (DH currently 53 years old). We travelled with our sons, DS1 (16 years) and DS2 (14 years), along with my beautiful, fun mama (70 years fabulous). My husband and I have been on 5 cruises total. We started our cruise fascination on Carnival’s Miracle – appropriately named since it is a Miracle that it is still in operation. No, I jest… it was fine at the time. But then we tried Royal, and have since remained Loyal. Our first Royal experience was aboard Radiance, then Allure, then Oasis, then most recently back on Allure. As you can tell… we are partial to the bigger ships. A few reasons for this are traveling with teens (tons to do) and my hubby’s propensity toward some sea sickness. The bigger the boat the less he felt the movement.

 

We decided to go in January instead of our normal high school Spring Break trip because our sons’ baseball schedule would be in full “swing” (pardon the pun) by March and we knew we would not be able to get away. So Martin Luther King Day mixed in with two Teacher Workdays was the perfect opportunity to set sail. As it happened, they only had to miss one day of school due to a half-inch of snow that shut our little southern county down, lol.

 

Saturday, January 16, 2016 - Our cruise to the Eastern Caribbean (Nassau, St. Thomas and St. Maarten) on the Allure was a Sunday departure so we made our way to Florida on Saturday. Our youngest son, not quite ready to tackle flying, begged us to please make the 10 hours trip to Florida by car. Since it is abundantly cheaper to drive, and less chances of a full on freak out, we gave in. It’s really not a bad trip and armed with modern technology and an all-inclusive data plan, we had plenty to keep us busy.

 

We booked our hotel through an online booking site for ease and economy. We booked the Comfort Suites Ft Lauderdale, Airport and Cruise Port. The hotel was nice and clean and safe and truly about 4 miles at most from the Allure. Just make sure if you are using an online booking site (even a reputable one like we did) that you check to make absolutely sure that your hotel stay is confirmed. When we got there, they could not find our reservation. But because I had my email from the site, they miraculously found us a room and honored the discount price. So thumbs up to the hotel, thumbs down to website.

 

Sunday, January 17, 2016 - On Sunday morning, we had a continental breakfast at the hotel and headed off to the port. We left around 10:00 am from the hotel. It was an easy drive right to where we needed to park and got a front row space. So so many people talk about how easy and fast embarkation is with RC, but it is even faster when you have booked a suite. We dropped off our bags with the porter and were pointed to the Suites and Pinnacle doors. We were ushered in and seen by security immediately. We have always arrived early, so I really don’t know how long these lines can get, but I can imagine it gets to be quite a wait the later you arrive at port. Once we passed the bag checks, we were escorted to the line especially for Suite guests. We went straight up and signed our papers, received our GOLD SeaPass (which separates the Suite guests) then went to have the photo taken so they identify you in the mounds of photos that you will have taken later while on the ship. You know the ones… when the kids and your significant other are complaining about the thousands of other things they can be doing at that exact moment. Oh, is that just my family? I digress…

 

After the photo, you ascend the escalator up to the “holding area”. The RC employee will check your SeaPass then tell you which area to go to. There is the Suite area (closest to the door) and then all areas that belong to the various Crown and Anchor Society levels, then the general population. The only difference that I saw was the proximity to the loading doors, and a few pillows strewn about. After waiting about 5 minutes, we noticed about 50 people come through one door to the right. They were lined up Noah’s Ark style two by two, male and female (for the most part). I figured out that they were the back to back cruisers, coming off for a quick customs check. While they filed in, a small wedding party from our area was called to board the ship. Approximately three minutes later they called for all Suite guests to board. Total waiting time was about 25 minutes from parking the car to getting on the Allure. Not too bad.

 

During our short wait in the Suite holding area I had noticed that our Dining Time was incorrect. I had specifically arranged with our travel agent that we would like the Main Dining seating time. Our SeaPass card said we had My Time Dining. Because we had never tried My Time, I was terrified of trying it. So, to avoid the lines later, I make a B-line straight for guest services. I was seen immediately and shown a special little area with a gentleman named Beshir who was handling all dining requests. He was gracious and apologetic and basically said, “Main Seating is full, but I PROMISE you that you, as a suite guest will far prefer My Time Dining”. So we kept it as it was with the assurance that if we encountered any problems, Beshir would see to it that we would be seated in Main Seating the very next day. Spoiler alert: He was right. We love the concept of My Time – especially with the Suite perks – more on that later.

 

Because our beloved CAROLINA PANTHERS were playing at 1:00 on the big 0Aqua Theatre screens that afternoon, we quickly scooted up to the Park Café located in Central Park on Deck 8. Because this wasn’t our first rodeo, we knew the secret was out about those roast beef sandwiches, and there was no time to waste. We scouted out our traditional location in Central Park and DH sat guarding the table while the rest of us ran in and got the coveted Kummelweck sandwich. Delish as always. A few trips to the Trellis Bar and we were in full on cruising mode.

 

To be continued...

[Summerknight]

Thank you. Love reviews!!

[NOSaints1]

Panthers fan eh!! What a terrible game they played and Cams temper tantrum.

 

Can't wait to hear more on your review, still deciding on the Oasis class or the Anthem.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

[divaofdisney]

We just booked this cruise and learned that the 6 PM main seating times were full for our sailing...only choice is my time dining- so let me know more of just how this works also was wondering if you could review the food from MDR have ready some poor reviews as to quality of food. Anything else would be helpful and thanks so much

[divaofdisney]

We just booked this cruise and learned that the 6 PM main seating times were full for our sailing...only choice is my time dining- so let me know more of just how this works also was wondering if you could review the food from MDR have ready some poor reviews as to quality of food. Anything else would be helpful and thanks so much

[Midwestgal]

Feeling like a broken record but....was the bed comfy ?

[Clarea]

We just booked this cruise and learned that the 6 PM main seating times were full for our sailing...only choice is my time dining- so let me know more of just how this works also was wondering if you could review the food from MDR have ready some poor reviews as to quality of food. Anything else would be helpful and thanks so much

You can try to get on the wait list for 6pm dining. We've had good luck clearing the wait list as the cruise gets closer.

[WaterGirlCruiser]

....like you... Suite threads are far and few so looking forward to reading your review :)!

[Kathie13]

Will be following as we are going to grand suite soon.

[riclop]

Thanks for your review.

[sgrove06]

Can't wait to hear more! Boarding the shop in a couple weeks

[cincicruisers]

Thanks for taking the time to post a review. Looking forward to the rest.

[gkbiiii]

I'm confused: I was on Allure in December 2015 and all full-suite guests were to dine, in Coastal Kitchen, for the whole voyage. Why would you need a main dining room?

[Keith1010]

Enjoyed your review.

 

Keith

[Kinofdc]

I'm confused: I was on Allure in December 2015 and all full-suite guests were to dine, in Coastal Kitchen, for the whole voyage. Why would you need a main dining room?

 

gkbiiii, I agree. We usually stay in RLS 1740 or SLS 1720, and with the availability of the Coastal Kitchen (which is so close by physically), we don't even know where the main dining room is located; you also have choices of 150 Central Park, Giovanni's, Chops, Izumi and others if you get tired of the CK menus.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Kinofdc

[javma]

Enjoying your review! We are sailing Sunday on the Allure in a Royal Family Suite so I am eager to hear your thoughts! A few years ago we were on the Allure in an Aquatheater Suite and loved that...no going back after experiencing a suite! The ship has been refurbished since that sailing and Costal Kitchen added, so I am looking forward to reading more. We are also trying MTD for the first time and I am a little nervous but wanted a bit later dining time than the early seating. As of now we have reservations for 6:30 each night. Wondering how easy it is to change them if we want to go later. Thanks for posting.

Edited February 10, 2016 by javma

[Cruise a holic]

Panthers fan eh!! What a terrible game they played and Cams temper tantrum.

 

Can't wait to hear more on your review, still deciding on the Oasis class or the Anthem.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Having sailed on the Quantum of the seas I can assure you the twin Anthem is not nearly as enjoyable as the Oasis class on RC. In fact as a result of our Quantum sailing we cancelled our Anthem sailing that was scheduled for March. This was way before the horrible cruise on the Anthem this week.

Also we dined in the Coastal kitchen which was the best part of the cruise any time we desired.

 

Read the reviews above by the members of cruise critic.

 

Enjoy your cruise

Edited February 10, 2016 by Cruise a holic

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[comsysgirl]

I'm confused: I was on Allure in December 2015 and all full-suite guests were to dine, in Coastal Kitchen, for the whole voyage. Why would you need a main dining room?

 

From the information I received from our travel agent, and from my research here on CC, the Coastal Kitchen was merely one choice among many for dining. We are accustomed to using the main dining room nightly and the specialty restaurants for special occasions. My kids preferred the menu choices from the MDR and, quite frankly, the atmosphere too. The Coastal Kitchen was beautiful to be sure, but not necessarily the greatest for people watching for teenaged boys. Suite or no suite, we were asked our dining preference from the travel agent. Even if we had chosen to eat every meal from a specialty rest or from the Coastal Kitchen, we still would have needed to choose main, late or my time seating for MDR.

[comsysgirl]

Thank you. Love reviews!!

 

Thank you! This is my very first time doing any kind of review, and I'm scared to death! Lol.

[comsysgirl]

Panthers fan eh!! What a terrible game they played and Cams temper tantrum.

 

Can't wait to hear more on your review, still deciding on the Oasis class or the Anthem.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Yes. The outcome of Sunday's game was definitely not pleasant, but still love my Panthers. #keeppounding

[Clarea]

Thanks for the review.

[comsysgirl]

Feeling like a broken record but....was the bed comfy ?

 

The bed was not bad at all. We could have asked for a mattress topper, but it was not necessary. There were a ton of pillows! On the top shelf of each closet there are extra linens in case you need them temperature-wise.

[DLSCRUISER]

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this review. I will be following along. We are doing our first ever GS in August and I want to make sure I know all the ins and outs of the "Suite" experience. You are a great writer and I am enjoying reading your review.

[comsysgirl]

So I left off talking about our first trip to the Trellis Bar at central Park. I will veer off the subject here for a moment to talk about the drink packages. I think finally on this trip I had an epiphany about the often-discussed packages. DH and I decided on the Premium package (I won’t go over what’s included in the packages to save time and space – and it’s so easy to research). We purchased the Royal Replenish package for my mom and two teen boys. There are several things I would change if I had to do all over again.

 

My husband does not mind paying for things as long as he gets what he wants… with that said, all he wanted was beer on this trip. The sum of his drinking on this trip was: beer, iced water (some bottled, mostly iced), and regular OJ and coffee in the am. We had a discussion before we left about whether or not to purchase the Select package for him. He decided that he wanted the option of getting a mixed drink if he wanted. Well, he never wanted… nor did he ever want to sit at the pool with an umbrella-laden fruity frozen concoction on any other cruises we had previously had. I, on the other hand, do enjoy the, ahem, occasional drink from time to time. I dutifully did the calculations at home, and in theory the package made sense for me. I could easily down 3 cocktails while in the sun, a glass or two of wine at dinner and one drink at the evening’s entertainment. Already we are at 50 dollars! In addition to having that nifty Coke Freestyle cup for the tons of soda that I will drink… it was a no brainer. And yes, while I did take into account the time off the boat, I thought I would more than make up for it on the boat. Right? No. In no way did I even come close to breaking even. And for a moderate vacation drinker like me, by the middle of the week, the only beverage that looked interesting to me was a nice glass of iced still water. So next time, DH will get the Select package, I will go without a package.

We did choose to get packages for our other traveling companions. Mom made goods use of her Royal Replenish package with the non-alcoholic bevvies, but the kids drank mostly water with the occasional Powerade or soft drink at night. So, the soda package for them next time. Honestly, if we had thought to bring our own case of bottled water, the boys would have probably been just fine with no package at all. Oh well, next time. 

 

OK, back to our first cruise day! We headed to the back of the boat toward the Aqua Theatre on Deck 6 to watch the football game. We were panicked for a few minutes because the Welcome to Allure videos were on at that time, but about 10 minutes before game time the video was switched to the playoffs. With bellies full and sons and hubby parked in front of giant TV screens and the Florida sun warming our January acclimated bodies, life was good. Because there had been an all call for cabins being open, we decided to go check out our suite at halftime. So grabbing one more cocktail and DH a frosty beer, we were ready to go to Deck 9, Cabin 9644, Royal Family Suite.

 

Deck 9 is a really good deck for a cabin. You are in the middle of the middle of a really big ship. The movement is minimal. No noise because you are surrounded by cabins, not public areas. We had a Grand Suite on the two previous cruises on Deck 7. I would also recommend that deck for the same reason.

 

We arrived at our suite around 2:30 or so and, of course, our luggage was sitting waiting for us outside of our door as we knew it would be. We have never had to wait on our stuff to be delivered. I know some have had this issue, but I think driving to port, getting there early and being in a suite has a lot to do with the fact that we’ve not had problems. Maybe they deliver the luggage to the suite guests first? Maybe it’s just been good luck! Who knows?

 

Once in the cabin we took a moment to look around. There are about three really good videos on You Tube that you can search to show you what a Royal Family Suite looks like. As soon as you walk in you will see on your right a door into one of the rooms. It has two upper berths (think pull down bunk beds) and a queen bed that eventually, in our case, gets transformed into two twin beds and pulled apart. So basically a bunk bed on left and bunk bed on right. My 14 year old was fine with taking one of the uppers – complete with railing and ladder- and my mom and 16 year old in the twin beds below. The beds were long enough for my 5’6” son to sleep comfortably. I’m positive that my 5’8” 16 year old would have been fine in one of the beds too.

There was a vanity with a standard mirror and a lighted magnified mirror as well. There were drawers next to the vanity and drawers in the nightstand that my mom used for her clothing. There was a nicely sized closet in that room. My mom used the closet space and drawers in the bedroom. The boys put their items in the living room area. The bedroom had a TV, phone, a safe and several electrical outlets. Plenty of room to move around comfortably.

 

Across from their room was their bathroom. It had what I’m sure is a standard Royal Caribbean shower. Glass-enclosed, small but adequate. The bathroom had a hair dryer and complimentary toiletries. We had forgotten shampoo so these were a life-saver. Plenty of space for the three of them to put all of their personal items away.

 

Then you walk into the living room. There is counter space and many drawers and two big closets in this area. We put all bathing suites and beach stuff in one of the closets and the boys put their dress clothes and shoes into the other. They used the numerous drawer space for the rest of their things. There were two comfy chairs and a nice sofa bed that faced a flat screen television. A coffee table in the center of the room was covered with notes from the concierge and information about the ship and the coming events.

The huge balcony had a sliding door entrance off of the living room as well as an entrance off of the master bedroom. There were two padded loungers with pillows, a binocular-like telescope thing (that we never did figure out how to work), and a table with four chairs. Very VERY nice balcony. We used it every single day.

 

The master bedroom had its own door (not a curtain like in the Grand suites) and its own bathroom. The queen bed was very comfortable. A little firmer than I’m used to but my hubby loved it. I also know that we could have requested extra padding and received it no questions asked. The room had a big closet, lots of drawers, a vanity, TV, phone, a safe, plenty of electrical outlets. Up a tiny step was the bathroom. A nice, large room with all the regular bathroom stuff, but a tub/shower combo instead of a shower. One note here: The tub has very steep sides, so getting in and out was mildly daunting for my 5’2” self. Just wanted to stress that in case someone is dealing with back or mobility issues.

 

We were all very happy with our room and were beginning to put all our items away while yelling at Cam Newton on the TV, when our steward came to meet us. His name was Matthew and he was from Trinidad and three weeks later my family still talks about him. He was an incredibly generous and patient and complimentary young man and is really an asset to Royal Caribbean. Our small requests were met with enthusiasm and he was always ready with a joke for the kids and compliments for the adults. A real pleasure. We tipped him well at the end of the week in his WOW envelope for a job well done.

 

After our Panthers barely squeaked by with a 31-24 win against the Seahawks, we went out to explore. Although we had been on the Allure and her sister ship, Oasis, once before, we knew that there were changes in dry dock. The boys went to play ping pong and we went looking around. I loved the Kate Spade store (too expensive, but really beautiful things in there… still thinking about this one pink purse….). The cupcake place and ice cream place have melded into one venue called Cups and Scoops. Mom and I did a cupcake class there – more on that later. We saw that Rita’s Cantina was replaced by Sabor (hadn’t tried either of those so can’t comment on whether this was an improvement or not). One thing that had completely changed was the addition of Coastal Kitchen and the Concierge Lounge. That was a beautiful area. Such a nice view of the ship and a great place to hang out. We did not have a full meal at the lounge, but we did go hang out there for a short while and loved it.