Allure of the Seas Review (June 19 sailing)

[doppelganger2621]

I posted some midweek thoughts about the sailing earlier this week but felt like I should supplement with a full review now that the week is finally over.

 

I’ll preface by saying this was our first trip on an Oasis class ship, so we did have that “WOW” factor added to our experience.

 

SHIP/CABIN: Just immaculately clean. Maybe others could point out where some wear and tear is but I didn’t see any of it my entire week. The cabin furniture was cleaning, balcony railings had no signs of rust or on the balcony itself. Crew was hard at work all week cleaning common spaces, pool decks, etc. We had a balcony ocean cabin aft and it was great. Little bit of a walk from the aft elevators as we weren’t far from the Aquatheater suites, overall great. Cabin service was great and the attendant was very nice to our kids and we obviously had plenty of towel animals to take pictures of.

 

FOOD/DINING SERVICE: Wow, I was impressed. This was probably what I was most worried about just based on recent reviews. Main dining, in my opinion, was excellent. I had one entree that was average (the Ahi tuna) but I felt everything else exceeded my expectations. We were in a large group (9 of us) and our waiters did a great job keeping the meal moving along. We also had a table literally right next to an oceanview window so that kept the three children in our group entertained. But food was as good or better than previous cruises I have taken, and my entire group agreed. One of our waiters asked if we liked Indian food and would constantly bring some Indian dishes with our entrees to sample—it was great! Kids enjoyed the food as well even though their menu was a little more scaled down from the adult menu. But service all week was great. Windjammer I thought was solid—nothing blew me away but considering the scale of the food being made, it was great for breakfast or lunch. I didn’t find it particularly crowded or the lines to ever be long to get in. We did not specialty dine, but I enjoyed Wipeout, Park, and Cafe Promenade.

 

POOL DECK: I see that pool chair hogs are back in full force. The first sea day, we were out on the deck counting out the number of chairs we needed for our group (all 9 of us were present). As we were conferring in the row, some man came up and just started throwing towels on chairs. When he saw what we were clearly doing he goes “oh how many do you need” and we said “Six” and he moved one towel to give us four chairs together. We moved elsewhere. Of course, the end result is those chairs he was in such a hurry to reserve went absolutely unoccupied for about 2 hours. Overall, pools were great! Definitely got crowded by the afternoons of the sea days—the kids pool was crazy by the middle of day 1, but my kids had a blast the entire time. We frequently went back up after dinner or entertainment to swim more.

 

ENTERTAINMENT: I personally went to the opening night “family” comedy show, the Aqua Show, and the Ice Show. The opening night comedy was a little rough—jokes weren’t very funny because obviously these were adult comedians trying to make family friendly jokes, but of course the jokes were also a little advanced for 8 year olds. But I appreciated they tried. The Aqua Show and Ice Show were incredibly good—just very impressive and our kids loved it. They are a tight 45-50 minutes each and I felt like that kept everyone engaged. A few folks in my group went to Mamma Mia and thought it was quite good, but I can’t personally attest to that. I also really enjoy music in the Schooner Bar.

 

GENERAL AMENITIES: Wow, just the amount of stuff to do on board kept my kids entertained the whole time. I hardly ever heard “I’m bored” which is pretty great for a week on a ship. My son did the zipline, and daughter did rock climbing. Both received two thumbs up. The carousel was much more utilized than expected by the kids, they seemed to really like it. But heck, even just walking around is fun. We liked night walks in Central Park and on Deck 16. Even enjoyed playing checkers in the card room. But we were just constantly entertained and the kids were good sports.

 

BEVERAGE: I know there’s a lot of debate over if the drink package is “worth it” but for me and my wife, it wasn’t even close. Like I felt like I might put Royal out of business. We basically hit the week’s “breakeven” in day 3. I won’t get into it any further than that but the mixed drinks on board are not very strong. If you’re trying to do a La carte and want to get more value, pick the mixed drinks with like multiple liquors like the Rum Punch vs some of the other single-liquor mixed drinks. Favorite drink of the week was the Frozen Blue Hawaiian. We also liked an afternoon boozy drink from Cafe Promenade in the afternoon. The Bow and Stern had good craft beers available and the bartender there (Sumeet), anytime saw me walk in, he knew which beer I was coming for and had it out on the bar top by the time I got to it. It was also nice to utilized on CocoCay. Old fashioneds in the Schooner Bar were really good too. Drink service I thought was good—lines never really got too long at the pool bars since they had multiple but it could occasionally get a little crowded.

 

COVID: Obviously the elephant in the room and is going to vary greatly by sailing. I felt safe generally the entire week. Elevators could occasionally get crowded, but I didn’t find them particularly egregious. Definitely heard an uptick in coughing as the week went on, but I never once saw that Hazmat crews in the hallways on our deck. It’s certainly possible I just missed them, but I never actually saw any people being shipped off for quarantine. However, on a personal note—my wife did wake up with cough and congestion the day of disembarkation. Myself, son, and daughter as well as the rest of our traveling partyC currently feel fine. We’re all wearing our masks in the airport and flight home just in case and will test when we arrive home. We understood the risk obviously and if it is  COVID—I’m glad it happened at the end of our trip obviously. There did not appear to be any staffing issues due to COVID and all shows went on as scheduled.

 

OVERALL: An outstanding cruise. I thought the crew did a great job all week and the ship was in fantastic shape. We all had a lot of fun, and made a lot of memories. Only downside is now I have to go home and shed all the pounds I likely gained this week.

 

 

Edited June 25, 2022 by doppelganger2621

[bobmacliberty]

Nice review.  Thanks for posting.  Allure is one of my favorite ships.

[loman]

One of my favorite ships also. Thanks for the review . We will be on it in a couple of months .

[Cya@Sea]

Thank you for your review.

[Yakker1749]

Most positive non-complaining review I read in a while.  Thanks for that. Leaving Sunday July 3rd.  Hoping to tropical depression pushes through and and can hit our ports of call. 

[doppelganger2621]

Update: wife positive, me and kids negative. One other person in travel party positive, his wife and kid also negative. Two “singles” in the group also negative.

[topnole]

1 minute ago, doppelganger2621 said:

Update: wife positive, me and kids negative. One other person in travel party positive, his wife and kid also negative. Two “singles” in the group also negative.

Sorry to hear this.  We went on Allure in May and had a great family cruise.  Agree. Ship looked great.  
 

We didn’t get Covid on the cruise, but we did meet people who got it.  Seems to be way to common right now.  Hope your wife has a mild case.  

 

[doppelganger2621]

13 minutes ago, topnole said:

Sorry to hear this.  We went on Allure in May and had a great family cruise.  Agree. Ship looked great.  
 

We didn’t get Covid on the cruise, but we did meet people who got it.  Seems to be way to common right now.  Hope your wife has a mild case.  

 

Thanks—seems to be pretty mild thus far. She admits she felt a scratch in her throat as early as Thursday but chalked it up to the fact that she has allergies to fresh fruit and figured the mixed drinks were doing it. So far seems like a normal cold, we’ll continue to monitor obviously. Other person in the group said same thing—scratchy throat that started today and a cough.

Edited June 26, 2022 by doppelganger2621

[topnole]

13 minutes ago, doppelganger2621 said:

Thanks—seems to be pretty mild thus far. She admits she felt a scratch in her throat as early as Thursday but chalked it up to the fact that she has allergies to fresh fruit and figured the mixed drinks were doing it. So far seems like a normal cold, we’ll continue to monitor obviously. Other person in the group said same thing—scratchy throat that started today and a cough.

Keep testing yourselves if you have a desire or need to be safe/protect others such as grandparents etc.  Can easily take a few days to show up positive on a test.    The current strains are so contagious it seems like most in a group now get it when someone else does and they are all in close contact.  Obviously depends on immunity levels etc.  

 

My whole family got it all at the same time early this year  (I have 3 young kids).  That was a lot of fun.  😂😂😂.  But that probably protected us a lot on our Allure cruise in May because we were absolutely exposed heavily (on day 1 no less) and never got it.  

[doppelganger2621]

3 minutes ago, topnole said:

Keep testing yourselves if you have a desire or need to be safe/protect others such as grandparents etc.  Can easily take a few days to show up positive on a test.    The current strains are so contagious it seems like most in a group now get it when someone else does and they are all in close contact.  Obviously depends on immunity levels etc.  

 

My whole family got it all at the same time early this year  (I have 3 young kids).  That was a lot of fun.  😂😂😂.  But that probably protected us a lot on our Allure cruise in May because we were absolutely exposed heavily (on day 1 no less) and never got it.  

Absolutely. My senior citizen dad lives near us so I’m staying away for at least five days while continuing to test. He has Parkinson’s so we’re not taking any risks there. Got plenty of tests laying around here haha 

 

My 8 year old got a booster like two weeks ago, the rest of us have boosters but this is the first actual infection in our family

Edited June 26, 2022 by doppelganger2621

[topnole]

11 minutes ago, doppelganger2621 said:

Absolutely. My senior citizen dad lives near us so I’m staying away for at least five days while continuing to test. He has Parkinson’s so we’re not taking any risks there. Got plenty of tests laying around here haha 

 

My 8 year old got a booster like two weeks ago, the rest of us have boosters but this is the first actual infection in our family

My kids are not vaccinated.  Just us. 
Only one was old enough until last week.
 

Regardless, it was nothing for them.  I couldn’t believe how light it was.  The wife and I had much more.  I was sick, but functional.  In the pre Covid days I would’ve gone to work like that.  She was bedridden for a few days.  And she is very healthy and in great shape.  So the ones who did best were not vaccinated.  Lol.    Weird virus.   

Edited June 26, 2022 by topnole

[Oceansaway17]

2 hours ago, doppelganger2621 said:

Update: wife positive, me and kids negative. One other person in travel party positive, his wife and kid also negative. Two “singles” in the group also negative.

sorry to hear this.

I was on the ship June 11 and some guys two doors down were tested positive and luggage in the hall.

But trying to find out what all was in store for them was a big dang secret.  I ask security, I ask room steward and a few other on the ship, seems like it is a subject that is kept hush hush.

Just like why Mama Mia was not on the week of June 11th and half of the prior week.

 

I asked many times folks who would be in the know working in various venues and at the customer services desk, I got 4 different answers.  And the CD was very quiet on the subject.

 

I agree with you on the ice show being excellent as well as Jeff Tracta show.  Food in the WJ was really good as well as solarium.  I did not see any staffing issues either.  I was happy to see the wooden chairs on the stern behind Aqua theatre as Symphony had a different setup and Wonder and zero chairs in the stern.

 

Well hope wife feels better soon.  toodles    Off to sail on NCL in two weeks god willing with airplanes and weather and testing.