June 26 - July 3 Allure of the Seas Review

[thejewgernaut]

Hello all! Last week we got off a lovely cruise on the Allure of the Seas with two other couples our age (mid 30's). It was a fantastic trip as always, particularly partying with people our age. I wanted to offer up a few observations we had that I thought the forums would appreciate:

 

Formal Night confusion: We had multiple specialty dining reservations, so the usual "When is second Formal Night?" question arose (gotta have lobster night!). The compass from two weeks prior said Night 5. So - we booked assuming Night 5. On the first day, the ship delivered a 1-pager to all staterooms that listed every night's show times and dinner type (formal, casual, etc). With 6 people in our party, having our dining plans set was important. This document that was delivered, however, said Night 6 would be the second Formal Night. We asked 3 different people from dining services - and got different answers. Finally we assumed "Well, if they gave this document to EVERYONE on this 5,400 behemoth... it must be right." So we changed our reservations assuming Formal Night was Night 6. Yes, you can guess what happened next! I'm in bed on Night 4, I look at the next day's Compass and... guess what! Formal Night was Night 5, not Night 6 (my friends joked that they could hear me howling in anger across the ship). We had to scramble to change reservations, and we lost our hibachi seating at Izumi as a result, which pissed me off (they did let us dine at the sushi side with an equivalent credit). Izumi was great, but I was really craving hibachi. I was told that I looked like "a small child who found out there were no Christmas presents this year" by my friends as we walked by the chefs who were juggling knives and eggs and all sorts of other crazy stuff.

 

Coastal Kitchen: We were in a junior suite, our friends were not. According to the RC website, "Those staying in a suite and their guests" can book at Coastal. We were curious if they would allow us to bring our friends in or not for dinner (the language would indicate we can, I've read on the Boards you cannot). Good news - we were able to. We really liked the Coastal Kitchen experience - it was even better than last year on the Anthem. I really like what they did with the Viking Crown space. We ate there twice, and although it was the same menu, it was great each time.

 

Wine Bottle Discount for Drink Package: According to the RC website, wine bottles under $100 are discounted 20%, and bottles over $100 are discounted 40% with the drink package. We get on board, and they're advertising the opposite in the elevators, and most of the crew had no idea about the 40%. One of our companions who loves wine kept running into issues related to this. Generally he was able to get them to honor the 40% off above $100, but towards the end he got tired of fighting with every server over it. At Vintages (which serves as the wine supplier for the whole ship), one of the Sommeliers said he kept having the issues of guests asking for the discount and asked us to show him on the website what it says (which we did). He told us he was going to talk about it in his staff meeting with the beverage director.

 

150 Central Park: Awesome as always. We had a lovely anniversary dinner (you can read the review from our honeymoon on Anthem in my signature) - while we didn't intend to be on a cruise a year later, we were thrilled we were! I apologize to anyone on the boat who witnessed me after the wine pairing (they gave me huge pours)- if you were at the midnight comedy show on Night 3, we were the rowdy people. I also was the person yelling "I have been over-served" every 5 minutes. Yes, I'm a jerk.

 

Live Music: Has definitely been cut back. There was a lot less live pre-dinner music throughout the ship, which was a bummer. I noticed this on the Anthem and thought maybe it was related to the European sailing, but nope. Several days had a DJ instead of a Caribbean band at the pool (the DJ was, however, really good), and there was still live music in Central Park - but overall much less live music around the ship.

 

Other random observations -

• Sabor was really good. A little warm because it's outdoors, but the margaritas were on point and the food great.
  
• My Time Dining service was very spotty. Our first night in MDR (Night 2) we weren't even spoken to for almost 15 minutes after being seated, which was really weird.
  
• Overall the crew was very friendly and helpful and awesome.
  
• Mama Mia was great- it was apparently the final show for that cast, there was a cool music party with them in the Jazz lounge where they were all saying farewell to each other and singing their favorite songs.
  
• Giovannis is still getting my vote for "best value" specialty dining and was super tasty. We went massive family style and basically ordered everything.
  
• Labadee cabana is still great, but they jacked the prices up quite a bit.
  
• Self disembarkation is still a breeze - 50 minutes from where we met on ship with our friends to through the TSA security line in Ft. Lauderdale. We walked off at 6:45 AM.
  
• The new diamond lounge (which is the old concierge lounge location above dazzles) is awesome.
  
• Johnny Rockets breakfast is very fast and still delicious and was pretty uncrowded.
  

 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Edited July 9, 2016 by thejewgernaut

[Lionesss]

Thanks

 

Nice review.

 

Cannot wait, 4 weeks till we sail.

 

Take care

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report. So typical Royal that the people on board don't know about the wine bottle discounts being advertised.

[thejewgernaut]

Thanks for the report. So typical Royal that the people on board don't know about the wine bottle discounts being advertised.

 

It was really frustrating. What was even crazier was that they were advertising the exact opposite in the elevators. I can sort of understand every single waiter not knowing the promotion rules (40% on bottles over $100). But it's weird that the Vintages people - who presumably are the ones behind the advertisement in the elevator that was the opposite (40% on bottles under $100) wouldn't know.

 

It is clear Corporate does a bad job translating the website into action on the ships for the crew. This is why I was really curious how Coastal would turn out, but fortunately that went well.

[Clarea]

It was really frustrating. What was even crazier was that they were advertising the exact opposite in the elevators. I can sort of understand every single waiter not knowing the promotion rules (40% on bottles over $100). But it's weird that the Vintages people - who presumably are the ones behind the advertisement in the elevator that was the opposite (40% on bottles under $100) wouldn't know.

 

It is clear Corporate does a bad job translating the website into action on the ships for the crew. This is why I was really curious how Coastal would turn out, but fortunately that went well.

With regard to Coastal Kitchen, did they offer you complimentary wine at dinner?

[thejewgernaut]

They did not, and the website specifies JS suites are not eligible for that perk. We had the drink packages so it wasn't an issue.

[Clarea]

They did not, and the website specifies JS suites are not eligible for that perk. We had the drink packages so it wasn't an issue.

Thanks, appreciate the info.

[GatorWop]

We really liked the Coastal Kitchen experience - it was even better than last year on the Anthem. I really like what they did with the Viking Crown space. We ate there twice, and although it was the same menu, it was great each time.

 

Do you know if there are plans to go to rolling seven day menu at Coastal Kitchen like that being offered currently on the Anthem? If there are only two menus they rotate through on the Allure/Oasis, I may consider buying a dining package as well.

[sdpete]

It is sad to read that the cast of Mamma Mia has ended their contract. Is there a way to follow their career beyond RCI? I noticed that the brief biography of each of the cast members was not projected on the screens in the Amber Theater.

[Luvmypetz]

Thanks for info on debarkation. Planning on doing self assist to leave early for 10:45 flight home. Many other posters think I'm crazy.