Allure of the Seas 10/23/16

[molsonschooner]

Sorry, yall. Life caught up with me now that we are home. BOO.

 

After signing the boys up for "Camp", we went to scope out our table. We were #625 in the Grande Dining Room. I was slightly nervous that we would be put at a large table that hated children. We were relieved to find that it was a table for four tucked away from the main drag of the MDR. It was right next to a window on the port side. We were pleased!

 

We went to our room and it's a room. It's tight. We requested a mattress topper and it was on the bed. I do wish it had better storage options. like, putting the space to sit in front of the mirror over to make three large drawers/cabinets for clothes, rather than two separate, small compartments. We had two car seats with us and three suitcases. The car seats fit in the closet with a suitcase and the other two suitcases slid under the bed. We had a room with a sofa bed for B. F slept between us.

 

Our muster station was at the Aqua Theatre which B thought was SO NEAT.

They made the muster video as "cute" as can be.

 

After that, we put the boys down for a quick nap and then got ready for dinner.

 

I couldn't tell you our waiter's name. Or the Assistant. I really couldn't. They were horrible. I do not like to complain, and I am REALLY easy to please. I was so thrilled to be on this ship. But the MDR service was the worst I have had in 12 cruises.

 

Issues we had:

 

1. Never asked us our names or wanted to chat. Okay, fine. Maybe the waiters aren't like Carnival's and dont care to know your name or where you're from?

 

2. SLOOOOOW service. Our waiter had 4- four person tables. The three nights we went there was only us and another family that showed up. IMO there is no excuse for the service to be that slow for 8 people.

 

3. Biggest issue- Our waiter/asst would disappear. Nobody filled up our water glasses. They filled them up at the beginning and then would never bother to fill them up again. We got smart and started filling up the children's glasses so we could have two glasses of water.

 

4. Two out of the three nights we had to send food back. The first night, my husband asked for ranch on his salad. When asked if he could have ranch, the waiter said of course. It came out with a raspberry vinaigrette. He's allergic to raspberries. The third night, we ordered our steaks Medium and they came out super bloody.

 

5. My son would ask for milk with dinner. The first night we asked him if that would be okay, to have milk with his dinner. He rolled his eyes and said "sure". The next two nights, we would ask for milk and he would say yes, then never bring it.

 

6. The Head Waiter never came to talk to us. He skipped over our table the first two nights. He seriously went to every table but ours in the area and asked how the food was, how their day was, etc. On Wednesday, we were fed up. He came by and asked how we were enjoying Grande. I said "honestly?"

 

"of course"

 

"honestly, we are very disappointed. our food is coming out incorrectly, our drinks are not being taken care of, and we never see our waiter. Service is taking two hours and it has now been 25 minutes since we ordered dessert."

 

So, he brought out a "peace offering" of whipped cream with a strawberry on top with our desserts. That warm chocolate cake and creme brulee? They were cold. We left. I went to GS and complained. This was on night 4. We decided we weren't going back.

 

So, anyways, after the first night of crappy experience, we decided to take the Chops hostess up on that $85/pp 3 specialty restaurant plan. We booked Chops for Tuesday, Giovanni's for Thursday, and the Brazillian Steakhouse for Saturday. We decided to do JR on Friday.

 

After dinner, we realized "holy crap. there's no welcome aboard show!" Is this a new thing? An Oasis class thing? It made us super sad because that's what "sets the cruise off" for us. Like, our tradition is to have a cocktail during the welcome aboard show.

 

That night, we sent B to camp from 745-9 and went to have a drink at the bar. Nothing too exciting. We walked the ship and just soaked it all in. I can't stress it enough, they put so much detail into this beauty.

 

NEXT UP: NASSAU

I don't understand service like that in the dining room. Don't these servers realize they are working for tips.

[mrizer7773]

Yikes... Interesting review so far.

Following

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[JordanLovesCruisin]

I don't understand service like that in the dining room. Don't these servers realize they are working for tips.

 

 

Exactly. I have been a server before. I could understand if they were super slammed. I could understand if they had an "off" night. We all do! I am very easy to please, but the drink thing is ridiculous. After being in the sun all day, we wanted water. It's half ice to begin with. Am I wrong for expecting more? Or is this the new normal? We have never experienced this.

 

I didn't adjust the tips or anything, he got his full amount, but I did want GS to have a formal report.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[cruzin76]

Exactly. I have been a server before. I could understand if they were super slammed. I could understand if they had an "off" night. We all do! I am very easy to please, but the drink thing is ridiculous. After being in the sun all day, we wanted water. It's half ice to begin with. Am I wrong for expecting more? Or is this the new normal? We have never experienced this.

 

I didn't adjust the tips or anything, he got his full amount, but I did want GS to have a formal report.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

You are not wrong for expecting more. That is not normal for a RCI cruise. I do think you accepted bad service too long and you paid the consequences. I would have told my waiter the first night if had any complaints. It has always worked for me.

[cincicruisers]

Thank you for sharing your trip report with us.

[cruzin76]

Thank you for sharing your trip report with us.

 

Well said, I was thankful too but forgot to mention it. Op kempt a great attitude to override all her negatives , Positive always wins!

[tiffy2by4]

Day 1- FLL

 

After grabbing a bite of pizza at Sorrentos, which my husband and I are in total agreement that Sorrentos' pizza is 3000000x better than Carnivals. It's perfect.

 

Even B agreed.

 

All week he asked when he could have more pizza. The staff at Sorrentos were fabulous.

 

I will say this about the ship. I'm not sure how many total pax we had on the cruise, but it never ever felt crowded. I loved that. It was busy, but not a hot mess. The most crowded I saw it was for the 30-50% off purse sale on day 6 on the Promenade where women acted like hyenas on Black Friday to get a bag they could probably get on Amazon cheaper. Windjammer was never a wait. Elevators a slight wait after shows. That's one thing about the last few Carnival ships we have been on, was that it felt so crowded.

 

After the pizza we purchased the Soda package. The freestyle machines were very nice. I loved not having a bartender roll his eyes on me when I presented my card with a sticker for soda. AND, there was Diet Dr Pepper. We love our DDP in Oklahoma.

 

Our cabin was 9686 on the port side. Our beds faced the aft side. The balcony was a nice size and the door slid easily. We had a sofa bed for B and then F slept between us. I also requested a mattress topper because of a recent surgery.

 

So here's my BOO/Negative #1:

 

Our room was freaking hot. All the time. It never cooled down to a temperature we were used to. It just always felt humid and maybe 77 ish cranked all the way cold. As if the balcony door was open. FYI the AC won't come on if the balcony door isn't locked. :). We called maintenance and they were like "hmm that's weird maybe tomorrow it'll be better? We can work on it in Nassau." So we just rolled with it in hopes that it would be fixed the next day. Well, it never got any better. Maybe for three hours on night 4. We were pretty disappointed in that. Especially since we were sleeping three across in bed. Maybe I'm just too much of a diva for expecting "cold" to be 72-74? I think what bothered me more was that they brushed it off. When I would walk the decks with the baby at night I heard others talking about their warm rooms as well.

 

Our room steward was okay. She didn't make an effort to talk to us like others have before. Our room was clean and TP was stocked so what more can I ask for? [emoji6] other than climate control! Lol.

 

We then went to sign the kids up for Royal Babies and Tote/ Aquanauts....

 

TBC

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Quick question on the balcony doors. Did they have child locks high up on the doors? We are booked in April and that was my one concern about getting a balcony with our 2 kids. Thanks!