FREE Dining on Allure

[hawkinsh]

My wife and I will sial the Allure in 2019. I know the ship is huge and there are lots of places to eat. Anyone do this ship without paying extra for the dining. We may do the buffet for lunch, but still want a nice meal for dinner. Will we regret not doing some "pay" dining?

[broberts]

Very easy to stick to the included dining venues. The main dining room offers reasonably good food. The Windjammer is not bad for diner. If memory serves, it usually has a number of selections from the main dining room menu at night.

 

Check out the Park Cafe for lunch.

[yuvraj]

MDR and WJ are both fine for evening meals. There is no need to pay for speciality unless you want to. If we choose a speciality restaurant its in order to mix it up and enjoy a different experience. Otherwise we do a mix of WJ and MDR unless we happen to be in a suite.

[xxoocruiser]

My wife and I will sial the Allure in 2019. I know the ship is huge and there are lots of places to eat. Anyone do this ship without paying extra for the dining. We may do the buffet for lunch, but still want a nice meal for dinner. Will we regret not doing some "pay" dining?

 

Regardless of the ship I never dine in the Specialty Restaurants.

 

Allure has many free options.

• Windjammer
  
• MDR - lunch is only servced on sea days
  
• Room Service ( 10 PM to 5 AM there's a fee)
  
• Johnny Rockets - Made to order breaksfast is free.
  
• Solarium Bistro - free at breakfast and lunch
  
• Park Cafe - only 24 hour option that you don't have to pay.
  
• Promenade Cafe
  
• Sorrento's
  
• Vitallity Cafe - food items are free - drinks are not
  
• Boardwalk Dog
  
• In you like sushi check to see if there is demostration scheduled as there are free samples.
  

[rmurray847]

My wife and I will sial the Allure in 2019. I know the ship is huge and there are lots of places to eat. Anyone do this ship without paying extra for the dining. We may do the buffet for lunch, but still want a nice meal for dinner. Will we regret not doing some "pay" dining?

 

If you are a true snob about food (a lot of people claim to be, but really, they are just picky), then cruise ship dining may disappoint you overall. If you have reasonable expectations, you should be pleasantly surprised.

 

In the interests of disclosure, my wife and I usually have one "specialty dining" experience during our cruise. This will be our "date night" on the cruise, and it's just fun to go somewhere else. BUT, if you our budget were tight enough, we would NOT HESITATE to dine only in the free venues. The buffet for lunch and breakfast works good...the big issue with the buffet for us is the scramble to find seating. It can get VERY crowded. The Allure has great alternatives...try the breakfast buffet in the Solarium. It basically has the same food as the main buffet, just fewer stations. And WAY fewer people. So peaceful! We've never had dinner at the buffet, but I would imagine the food is plentiful (and yes, I gather they often feature some of the same entrees as the main dining room)...but we love the main dining room. Generally nice service...it's fun to get nice service and a three course meal. And if you're worried you won't have enough to eat...you can order multiples of anything. It's pretty common for us to have 3 appetizers. One we each want and a third to share...just to try it.

 

To answer your question simply: You will not, IMO, regret sticking with "free" options only. And by no means should you let that decide for you whether to sail the Allure or not. It is an AWESOME ship and experience.

[HallOfPromise]

Regardless of the ship I never dine in the Specialty Restaurants.

 

Allure has many free options.

• Windjammer
  
• MDR - lunch is only servced on sea days
  
• Room Service ( 10 PM to 5 AM there's a fee)
  
• Johnny Rockets - Made to order breaksfast is free.
  
• Solarium Bistro - free at breakfast and lunch
  
• Park Cafe - only 24 hour option that you don't have to pay.
  
• Promenade Cafe
  
• Sorrento's
  
• Vitallity Cafe - food items are free - drinks are not
  
• Boardwalk Dog
  
• In you like sushi check to see if there is demostration scheduled as there are free samples.
  

There is now a $7.95 fee for ordering Room Service any time of the day, excluding continental breakfast orders.

[markf]

We recently returned from the Allure and didn't eat in MDR until night 6. We ate at the Italian, which was good for the value. Central Park restaurant not worth the 50 dollar surcharge per person. also ate at Samba which was good, but my tip is for you to tell them which meats you want in which order, otherwise they will bring you the pork and chicken first and by the time you get to filet you will be full.

Reluctant to eat at MDR I was indeed pleasantly surprised, they had rack of lamb , i asked for a large order which I got, food was good, served well and served hot.

last night was also good, we ate at windjammer 2 nights as there is a limit as to how much one eats .

we cancelled the steak house, i am glad I did,as I think i would be disappointed...