justluv2cruisewithhubby
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Posts posted by justluv2cruisewithhubby
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Has anyone every stayed in a sideways inside cabin? I noticed there are a few cabins on the cabin layouts and I am wondering if the cabin is larger or is more cramped. Any suggestions
Thank you
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We were on the Allure in May and on Formal night I saw T-shirts; jeans; shorts; flip flops.
Clearly the term "Formal" is not what it use to be
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We were on from 24th, excellent cruise. we were also assigned 6.30 for early seating however on reading the compass I noticed deck 4 dining room was 6.30 but deck 5 was 6pm so we spoke to someone outside dining room and he changed us, no problem. its first time I have encountered two times for early and late seatings
Anytime dining starts at 5:30 but the first seating is truly at 6:30pm
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I would like to hear which excursions did you attend? Which one of them was not good in your opinion?
Were the coke freestyle machines in use (and with full selection so including the flavoured waters)? I don't seem to find clear information of this whether the machines are disabled for Med cruises or not...
The coke freestyle machines where everywhere on the ship and I did see people use them who purchased the special drink packages.
We booked 3 tours with Royal and one private tour iin Barcelona with a company called Barcelona Day Tours.
We did the Mt Vesuvius and Pompeii tour thru Royal and loved it.
We did the Florence and Pisa tour it was very good but spent too much time in France and only 40 mins at Pisa which is not enough.
Draco cave tour in Palma Mallarca was awesome
Marseilles and Aix Provence tour was ok ...lunch was good too much time in Aux Provence and not enough time to see the sites at the end of the tour at Notre Dame
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Hope ours is better.
Helpful hint, the color used by the OP hurts my eyes and is very difficult to read. had to copy past into word and change the color to read.
Sorry MUG ... I love purple but will keep that in mind for future posts
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Thank you for your detailed review. I would like to book for the August 30th sailing and just wondered if the port side or starboard side was best for seeing the most when entering the ports.
Port side is better
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What time were you allowed to disembark in Rome? Still need to make those arrangements for our August cruise.
8:15am we walked off
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Thanks for sharing your review.
Adam Coulter, who did the allure live chat last week (http://live.cruisecritic.com/Event/Cruise_Critic_Live_Find_Out_Whats_New_on_Allure_of_the_Seas_2?Page=0) posted menus from 150 central park and they had 6 courses. I guess someone showed him the wrong menu? My cruise planner is still showing 150 for $44 too. I guess they will refund if you prebook at that rate? Do you know if the 150 menu changed mid-week? Or was it set or did some of the courses have choices?
There are two pairings the 6 pairing is $40.00 pp. and the 4 pairing menu is $30.00. The menu changes Sunday thru Tues was the 4 pairing menu and then it changes Wednesday thru Saturday is the 6 pairing menu.
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Thanks for your detailed review. I am hoping they get these issues sorted out by the time I sail from Rome in Oct! Sounds like the crew is new and confused! And they are not fully out of dry dock! No air conditioning in the theater is not good. Fingers crossed these are due to the change. I had so many choices for our first Mediterranean cruise and picked Allure over many luxury ships because she was tried and true to me.
By October it should be seamless
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Did you embarke at Rome on May 21th? Beacause i have just saw the cruise compass of the Allure from May 22th and the show "How to train..." was there. only once at 8pm , but it was.
[ATTACH]351078[/ATTACH]
Yes we boarded the 21st and I don't recall seeing this in the compass?
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On which day at your cruise was the ice show " How to train your dragon"?
They did not have that show on this sailing- I checked the Compass daily and it was never listed. Maybe in future cruises they will have it. They had ICE Games
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How did the dual-disembarkation go for them trying to get their usual "zero count"?
Hopefully the quirks are worked out prior to our cruise from BCN next month. Thanks for the review! Subbing to see any other responses that come up.
Passengers disembarking Rome to get off the ship they confiscated our sea pass cards which has never happened before. In the previous 12 cruises I have always had them given back as I save them but they took our sea pass cards when we left the ship. The passengers still on board from Barcelona would use a different gangway to leave the ship for shore excursions.
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This was our second time on Allure of the Seas (first time was amazing) the second time on Allure was OK.
This is our 13th cruise and 4th cruise with RCCL. Embarkation was smooth and fast in Rome. We boarded around 11:30am and went straight to the Park Café to get the roast beef sandwiches which were just as good as I remember. Afterwards we checked to see if our cabin was ready and all hallway doors were open not closed so we went to our cabin with no issues at 12:30pm. We noticed our safe was locked and could not open it; tried to call customer service and the phone kept ringing then would hang up on you. Went to customer service and noticed there was already a huge line. When I informed the rep that I need to put items in the room safe he stated normally the room steward would leave it open but since she didn't start work till 4pm he would have maintenance open it for me. So we had to wait for him to arrive and open the safe.
We confirmed our first seating but saw the time changed from 6pm to 6:30pm which caused some glitches with our shows that were reserved for 7:30pm so we missed several shows. If you are not in line by 7pm to get a seat then when the show starts at 7:30 the room is already packed and there are no seats available even if you made online reservations
The only way to see a 7:30pm show was to eat at the Windjammer or try My Time dining which starts at 5:30pm. The largest show venue room is the “Amber Theatre” and the Air conditioning was not working all week; when we had to pile into the Amber theatre for our shore excursions it was so warm and when I mentioned this to three different employees they told me they were aware of the issue and were working on it.
The service on this cruise was lacking; in the two decades that I’ve cruised I’ve never experienced a room steward who was not attentive. First issue was she never left the safe open for us; she would leave us material with other passenger names on it. We never rec’d our laundry bag to take advantage of the special; she would shut off our A/C when we left the room. Our shampoo was empty and it seemed every day I was asking her to replace or change something that normally would be done by the steward. I asked where our excursion tickets were as we always get them on day one of our sailing she said she never got them. After three days our steward told us she was moving to the other side of the ship and that someone else was taking over she stated all stewards where changing cabins due to the inter-porting changes. When we met our new steward she was very attentive and much better than the first one (thank goodness)
This cruise was an inter-porting cruise where they embarked passengers in Barcelona on May 19th and then new cruisers from Rome May 21st and this is happening all summer long where they have two sets of passengers which causes much confusion with the help as they personally told me it makes it harder for them.
The crew seemed very confused and when I would ask a question the answer most of the time they were passing the buck and trying to send you to another department to fix your issue. Ex: We never received our shore excursion tickets; I tried to call customer service to ask and their was no answer. I had to walk to customer service as our tour was the next morning and they send me back to my cabin stating our room steward would have it. Surprise she didn't have them. Then back to customer service again ....huge lines and I informed them the rooms steward did not have our tour tickets then he stated he could just print them for me.
Two days later when we were preparing for our next tour I noticed the other 3 tours we had purchased the tickets had no meeting place listed only a time to meet. I tried to call customer service again and no answer. I had to go back down to customer service (more huge lines) I showed them my tickets and they said they couldn't help me and that I would need to go to the excursion desk. The excursion line was 40+ people deep and I was not going to wait in that line so I went back to customer service he then escorted me over to the excursion supervisor. She apologized and printed me new tickets with the time/location of where to meet. These sort of inconveniences happened throughout the entire week; so much time was wasted trying to get issues resolved waiting in long lines.
Another example was the daily compass showed what time and location of the Dream Work characters would be available for photos; several times they just didn’t show up at all. When I saw the cruise director I asked him if he knew where the characters where located as we had been waiting for over 20 minutes for them to appear for photos. He called someone and basically told them get the character down for photos as they must follow the Compass. I heard them giving him a hard time as they were not going to show up.
I noticed that the times listed on the shore excursions where constantly changing where the start times where later and return times where earlier which cut into our tours. The boarding times returning from ports where constantly changing as we were supposed to be in Barcelona till 7pm then it changed to 6pm then it changed to all aboard at 4:30pm.
There was such confusion during the day we ported in Marseilles; that morning we met in the Amber Theater the shore excursion reps (only 2) people working, they were passing out stickers to the tours and the line went from the stage all the out the door in the hallway with over 60 people deep. The tours were delayed; people received the wrong tour stickers and were getting on the wrong buses. There were no escorts to bring the groups to the bus until passengers started taking the paddles themselves at that time is when they started to call for extra help from RCCL reps to take passengers to the buses.
Most of the tours that day were delayed resulting in late arrivals back to the ship so the next day in Pisa was impacted as they had tours cut short to make sure they returned early as all aboard times changed again from 8:30pm to 7:15pm
Photo issues; their facial recognition tool was not working; when we tried to look for our photos it kept telling us at the Kiosk there were none. When we went to the photo desk the clerk told us this happened to several passengers where the photos are lost and you manually have to find them. It is like a treasure hunt we spend over an hour trying to find our lost photos. Once we found them he stated it was now fixed and all new photos taken would go into the profile folder. That was not accurate; all photos taken after that day never showed up and I didn’t want to spend another hour searching thru hundreds of other peoples photos to find mine.
We had dinner at 150 Central Park twice; Chops and Giovanni’s all were very good. My favorite is 150 Central Park as the pairings are excellent. I did notice a change where they had 6 pairing menu for $40pp and then when the menu changed it was only a 4 pairing meal for $30.00. I asked the waiter why it changed and he stated based on customer feedback they felt less food was better as previous passengers complained it was too much food. I personally like the 6 pairings. Service was excellent in all specialty restaurants.
We ate in the dining room 2 nights the food was just ok. We only had 1 Formal night for this 7 day cruise and I noticed on Formal night several men walked in the dining room with shorts; sneakers and one even had flip flops and a t-shirt. There was a passenger that complained to the head waiter about the dress code and why they allowed those men to come into the dining room dressed that way on Formal night, the head waiter did not respond.
The coffee in the Promenade Café was very good and much better than the Windjammer coffee in the morning.
The ports of call where all very good and we enjoyed our time offshore. 3 out of 4 tour guides were very good.
Disembarkation was not too smooth as embarkation as the RCCL reps outside had no idea where to send people if they needed a cab or had private drivers picking them up. They were sending passengers to the opposite side of the pier which was the wrong side so those passengers had to walk all the way back to the other side to find their taxis or private transfers.
Overall I give this cruise a 3 out of 5 star. Due to just coming out of dry dock and new personnel on board, I am hoping once they figure out all the quirks that any future cruisers will have a better experience.
Feel free to ask any questions
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We recently went on a cruise and RCCL did not offer any decent full day excursions so I did some research and found "Barcelona Day Tours" it was a great experience and wanted to share with you in case you are in need of hiring a great company where there are only 10-14 in the group. Here is my review of them:
"Barcelona Day Tours" They offered a full day 8 hour tour to see all the major sites in Barcelona and we spend a half day in Montserrat. Our tour guide was Elizabeth and she was fantastic. This was the first time I've ever hired a private company to meet me at the dock so I was a bit nervous unsure of where to meet the guide but as soon as we saw a sign with our names on it I was relieved.
We had a small group of 12 on the bus it was the perfect size for this tour. Elizabeth did a wonderful job and talked during the entire tour, during the drive to Montserrat which is a good 45 minute drive to get to. She explained Barcelona in so much detail. We had to come back a few minutes early due to our ship changing their times for all aboard boarding and she got us back to the ship with time to spare. She was wonderful and we truly enjoyed this amazing day with her.
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You have to book the shows you want to see?
Never been on a huge ship like this and it looks like it is truly a whole different world.
YES you need to book shows online or on board otherwise you have to wait till the show starts and if there are any empty seats which usually there is not you might get in
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The dress code is a joke we had one formal night on our 7 day cruise and they allowed several men in the dining room who wore shorts, sneakers and a pullover shirt. One older cruiser got so upset he ran over to the head waiter and complained stating why are you allowing people to enter the dining room dressed this way? The head waiter did not even respond, I can tell you if that was Holland America they would not be allowed in.
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We just left the Allure of the seas and we embarked in Rome and returned to Rome and still had to pay that VAT tax. It was 21% on all products purchased including the unlimited internet plan as we purchased that. All food and drinks were 10% VAT tax which is NOT refundable.
The VAT tax is ridiculous if you ask me, if you purchase items you pay 21% and you have to have your receipt and VAT form filled out by the seller - when you go to the airport you wait in a huge line for 45 minutes to get your document stamped then you have to go to the other side of the airport to get your refund. If you don't have time build into your flight time it is not worth it even getting your refund and I think they know this. Most Americans are not getting a VAT form filled out and are not asking for a refund.
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we just sailed Allure and it was not on the Compass
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First seating is now 6:30pm not 6pm and if you book the 7:30 shows you will miss them. I would vote for my time dining
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I can help you with your questions as I just left the Allure today. I can first tell you that we were able to board at noon last Thursday we grabbed lunch and after lunch at 12:40pm we walked straight to our room as the hallways are NOT blocked. The muster drill is only for new arrivals the ones that boarded in Barcelona will not need to attend as they have already gone thru their drill. You will most likely meet in one of the large show rooms they will scan your sea pass card and basically watch a video for 10 minutes then hear the blasting of the ships horn.
I hope you have a good cruise because we were very disappointed on this sailing. I will write a very detailed review later but in a nut shell because this is an interporting Sailing the crew are totally confused the service was poor as they are running around like chickens having no clue what is happening.
Examples we NEVER got our excursion tickets In Our room we were always missing documents and when you go to customer service be prepared as there is always 30 plus people in line all the time. The excursion desk is a mad house their computers are always down and when they reprinted my tickets half the info was wrong. The excursions were cut short as the ship is not arriving at the ports on the times designated. Poor housekeeping as we ran out of tissue day one and shampoo on day three and nothing is getting refilled or replaced without asking. Be prepared to pay a 22 percent VAT tax on purchases and an extra 10 VAT tax on all services like restaurants. If you eat at 150 Central Park its 40.00 pp plus an extra 10 percent VAT tax on everything which is insane. So you if you buy a drink for 10.00 you will pay 18 percent gratuity plus another 10 percent VAT tax it's crazy.
The AC in the large show room is broken and it's a hot box in there I actually did not attend the shows because it was just stifling in there and after 7 days it was never fixed.
The interporting is very confusing for the staff as they are spinning around clueless. I will never do an interporting cruise again.
Best wishes on your cruise I hope they get better with time
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Yes, you are allowed to bring 2 bottles on board. Carryon is best. There is no longer a corkage fee.
Have a lovely trip!
Thank you so much
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We are boarding the Allure in Rome tomorrow and hubby bought some wine in Tuscany will they allow us to take a bottle on the ship with us? Should I put it in my back pack? I don't mind paying a corking fee? Pls let me know if Royal will let me take on wine. Thank you
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Can anyone tell me what was the last headliner show on Allure?
Now that Allure is in Europe do you think they will serve healthier foods without any GMOs as they're food standards are much higher than ours.
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I recently emailed them and got a response two weeks later and accommodated me nicely
Help with Veendam inside cabin
in Holland America Line
Posted
Thank you Ruth C I really appreciate your help