tazdeb

I keep looking at the drink package and thinking it's just not worth it for me. BUT, as you said, if I'm having juice in the morning and will want cold water as well..

 

 

Do you recall what the charge is for OJ, water and pop? I'd really like to figure out if a drink package would work for us or not. Not a big pop drink but one or two during the week maybe. Our son would enjoy pop but I'm not letting him have unlimited all week.

I'm sorry, since it was included I didn't check prices for OJ but I assume it was probably $2-$3 for freshly squeezed. Bottled water was $3. There is more for your son to drink in the soft drink machines than just carbonated pop. There are also flavored waters. He would get a cup with a chip in it that allows him to choose from the over 20 choices.

I think RCCL should faze out the shipwide "boat prom" and just regulate it as an upcharge night in some specialty restaurant.

I enjoy reading anything about food and think you had similar views to us on Allure.

 

However, you now have a further reason to go back, you missed the best specialty restaurant of them all. 150 central, the steak for two is the best on the ship imo. I think we went 4 times on our b2b last year :)

 

 

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Hello, 150 Central was booked all week!!!! It must be good.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to post your review.

 

I am confused by your numerical rating system. Would you mind explaining it?

 

:)

Hello, the first number is for food quality/taste. The second is for circuses/ambience.

I totally agree. For a multimillion dollar company to have this website is a joke.

Just to clarify, with the $19 per person charge, are you able to order as much (or as little) from the menu as you desire?

Yes, Just ate there last week on Allure. You can order as much of the menu as you want. We ordered 1 of everything on the appetizer menu

Day 7 Sea Day Last night of cruise. Where did the week go? Got up early, went to the pool for a few hours then packed up and ate brunch in the windjammer. Packed our suitcases then explored parts of the ship we missed. Went out on the wings on deck 14, went behind the Aqua theater etc....

Tonight we had reservations at Sabor the mexican restaurant on the Boardwalk. We again arrived early and had a drink at the Carousel bar. Looking into Sabor we were a little concerned because there was just 10 other people in there. We were shown our table and were told it was quiet because the last night the waiters in the main dining room put on their going way show (you know where they march in with the flags of their countries). We ordered our Margaritas and Coronas and were given our menus. This place is a make your own plate place. We ordered the fresh guacamole. Then our appetizers (more Ceviche). We then ordered 6 different types of ingredients 9chicken, pork, beef, etc..)to make our own tacos and quesadillas. This food was very good and with the open air setting with a breeze very nice. This was the second best tasting food of the week. It was just the right amount of spicy but not to spicy. I think on a different night this ratting would be one higher. Next time we'll eat here before the Aqua show. 3/3

Over all thoughts. First of all the cruise was great. I never had a bad meal or food that was terrible. All the waitstaff from the Pizza place to Chops had a smile on their face. We bought the 4 night dinner package for $100 a person on sale before we boarded. I didn't know if this was a good deal or not but I think it was worth it if you want a little more quiet formal experience. Speaking of which I never wore a tie all week but did wear dress pants and dress shirt to every specialty restaurant. My wife wore sun dresses and pant suits.

We also bought the drink package and were glad we did. It was $49 a day per person. Now that might seem high but beers are $8.50 and mixed drinks are $13. Since bottle water, juices, and pop are included its a no brainer if you drink at all. We would order 1 fresh OJ with Breakfast then have a bottle water to go as we changed for the pool. Order 2 drinks by the pool, 1 or 2 around dinner. 1 after the show, and more water before bed. The typical day I just mentioned would cost $75 a day. Now I know it doesn't really cost Royal Caribbean $13 a drink but thats what they charge me. And the best part of the drink package? You can be adventuress. Never had a coconut Mojito? Order one. Don't like it? Dont drink it. Try a Chocolate Martini. Repeat.

We were told that there are more specialty restaurants on there way. Would we skip the main dining room altogether next time ? Probably not. But it was fun this time.

Day 5 Sea Day Second formal night. Ate breakfast at the solarium grill. Spent the day doing trivia,going to the casino, ice show etc....

That night we had a 6:30 dinner reservation at Chops Grill before our Headliner show reservations. We arrived at 5:30 to have some drinks at the Trellis bar again. No music yet but still a great place to have a drink, people watch, take some pictures, ETC....

We arrived on time and were seated at a window table. The decor is very classy with plush seats, white table cloths, servers in tuxes etc..The waiter introduced himself and recommended some unusual martini cocktails. Since we had the drink package we said why not? We then ordered our appetizers. Shrimp cocktails were not on the list but I requested it anyway. The waiter said he would make me happy. He then brought us a plate that had every type of seafood appetizer on it. There was 6 shrimp,6 oysters, 6 clams, 6 pieces of Salmon, Calamari ,and Ceviche (now I know it is a marinated selection of raw seafood). We then each had a salad and ordered our main course. I had the N Y Strip and my wife had the Prime rib. The potato's and veggies were brought out in a big dish in the middle to share. Since it was lobster night in the main dining room 2 tails were given to us without us asking. Everything was excellent. After another round of drinks the waiter surprised us with a selection of desserts decorated with anniversary wishes. (We had mentioned to the Trellis bar waitress that the reason we were on this cruise was to celebrate our anniversary one day before we got on the cruise). This is what specialty restaurant dining was meant to be. 5/5.

Day 6 Cozumel. Slept in. Ate brunch at the Park Cafe, went ring shopping downtown Cozumel. Had a snack at Senior Frogs. Got back on the ship went to the pool.

That night we went to Johnny Rockets. The only other ship we were on that had this was the Freedom of the Seas and we did not go then and we don't have this brand by our house so we didn't know what all the fuss was about. It is basically a 50's themed dinner at sea. The vibe was fun with the waiters doing dances while serving your burgers and fries. Because we were Emerald members our shakes were free. Food was good ,vibe was fun. Sometimes you just want to eat casual and not care about getting dressed in long pants. This was that night. 3/4

Coming up our last specialty restaurant and final thoughts.

DAY 3 Labadee. Woke up had a quick bite at the Park Cafe then got off the ship for a beach day. It was the 4th of July and the ship decorated everything in red white and blue. In the afternoon there was a BBQ on shore that had ribs,hamburgers,hot dogs etc...very nice.

That night we had a 7:00 reservation at The Samba Grill. This is a Brazilian style steak house where they come to your table and serve you as much meat as you want. It is in the same location as the Solarium breakfast location. We were wondering how they would turn it into an upscale/upcharge restaurant and the short answer is they dont. Very disappointing. In the morning it is a breakfast buffet with faux marble tables and a view of the solarium. At night it is a buffet with faux marble tables and a view of the solarium. I don't know about you but if I'm paying a $39 upcharge I at least want a table cloth. Furthermore, I don't think my view should be of people with no shirts and bathing suits lounging 5 feet away. In the morning the solarium is not that crowded yet. By night time it is packed with chairs full of clothes and people lounging about. I think this place needs some curtains at the very least. We were seated at our table and our waiter took our drink order and we were instructed to help ourselves to the salad and potato bar. We were then asked to choose our sauce types. We were then handed a disc with a red side and a green side. When we wanted a meat selection we should turn the disc to green. There were 8 different types of meat and all were hot, tasty and plentiful. Technically you could eat til you drop. We weren't rushed but the whole experience seemed off and out of place. Not worth the upchage unless your really hungry. 3/2

Day 4 Falmouth. Slept in, went to the pool, and ate a late brunch in the windjammer. Went shopping in port then ate dinner at the Margaritaville. Typical Magaritaville food but the atmosphere was fun. Got back on the ship just in time at 6:30. 3/4

More to come

Hello everyone. My wife and I just returned from the July 3rd cruise on Allure of the Seas. This was our 8th cruise overall and 6th on Royal. However, this was our first without our now college age daughters and our first on an Oasis class ship.

I am not going to give an intensive review of our trip but I will say I was an Oasis class skeptic when it was announced but now that Ive gone on one I will say it is an engineering marvel. We never felt overcrowded and although we sometimes felt the loss of intamacy found on smaller ships I would cruise on her again.

Since we did not have our kids with us this time we decided to try something we have never done on a cruise before, try the specialty restaurants! As a mater of fact we vowed to not eat in the main dining room at all.

Now I am by no means what you'd call a foodie. I dont know the difference between a ceviche and a crepe. I judge a restaurant experience by how I feel inside and out after Im done. With that in mind here is my reviews of our meals during our cruise. I will judge between 1 to 5 for both food and ambience.

Day one. We had an exciting time exploring the ship and did checkout our assigned table in the Silk portion of the main dinning room. It is a beautiful space. It was the last time we stepped foot in there. While exploring we had the famous roast beef sandwiches in the Central Park cafe. They were very good but if you go ask for 3 right away as they are not that big. The cafe is a great place to grab some coffee in the morning, sit outside in a park like setting and grab a small bite to eat like fruit and bagels. Id rate it a 3/3. We then found a hot dog place on the boardwalk. I couldn't pass this up so I tried one. Not bad. Nice view of the kids on the carousel. 3/3. At about 6pm we decided to eat our main meal in the windjammer. As mentioned many times on this board it is smaller than on other ships but I found it to be big enough and never had a problem finding a table when we ate at different times during the week. It has multiple stations with different food from salads to prime rib and one station that was themed to Asian food. The windjammer is shaped like a giant U with views of the pools, ocean, miniature golf course, boardwalk, sports court, ocean and kids pool depending on where you sit. The food was always hot and filling, the tables cleared promptly and the deserts were great. 3/4.

Day 2, Sea day. Our cabin was at the front of the ship. Since most of the restaurants are in the middle to back of the ship Royal Caribbean decided to put one in the front. It is on deck 15 and called the Solarium cafe. Basically it is a glassed in area of the solarium that has nice faux marble tables and serves a windjammer type buffet. Although the selection is not as extensive as the windjammer it did comprise of different types of fruit, breakfast meats,eggs oatmeal, dry cereals,etc... It was never crowded and the views were very nice of the ocean and fountain of the solarium. We made this our go to place for breakfast along with the Park Cafe. 3/3. (This is the same space that turns into Samba Grill at night. More on that later.)

For dinner we had reservations at Giovanni's Table at 6:30. We arrived at 6:00 and had a few drinks outside at the Trellis Bar. I recommend everyone have at least one drink at this very romantic outside bar in Central Park. There was a guitarist playing and the lights were just coming on. It got us in the mood for our Italian feast. We entered Giovanni's and were led to a table for 2 by the window. The place is decorated like a Tuscany home with shelves full of nick/nacks and dark wood tones. Very Nice. Unfortunately, our table had the dreaded wobbly leg. It wouldn't stop rocking. We asked to be moved and were accommidated to a corner table with no problems. Our waiter arrived promptly and we ordered a bottle of wine. He was Italian and spoke with a lovely accent which made it seemed like we really were in Italy. We ordered antipasto, calamari,and linguine with clam sauce. Each course was brought with a smile and an explanation of how it was made. Our main courses were Veal and Lamb. Both were excellent. The whole dinner was romantic,unobtrusive yet attentive and we were finished just in time for our 8:30 reservations to Momma Mia. Definitely worth the upcharge. 4/4

More To Come

I just booked a western caribbean cruise for next June on Allure and we dont stop in Falmouth. The ports are Nassau ,Cozumel ,Roatan Honduras, and Puerto Costa Maya.

Im your Captain/Closer to Home by Grand Funk Railroad. We always play it the last night of the cruise. The words fit our mood perfectly.

Some Beach by Blake Shelton

No Shoes,no shirt, no problem by Kenny Chesney

Toes by Zac Brown

Its five oclock somewhere by Alan Jackson

When the sun goes down by Uncle Cracker

Jamaica Jerk off by Elton John

Hello everyone. I leave on Allure of the seas in 2 weeks. I understand that there is program that lets you check in your bags to the airlines and have them directly taken from the ship to the airport after the cruise. Has anyone used this and does Southwest airlines participate. How did it work for you. Thanks in advance

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

I dont think you have to worry. First a storm has to form off the coast of Africa. As it drifts west it picks up moisture from the warm ocean and starts to rotate. It is then a tropical depression. Then if the trade wins dont destroy it, it grows larger and becomes a tropical storm. When it gets strong enough with winds over 80 mph it becomes a hurricanre. The depression your hearing about is way out between here and Africa. Even if it formed it probably wouldnt effect you

Smart kid. Well done.

IF the lifeboats stick out from the edge of the ship aren't they technically blocking every view from above no matter the floor looking down?

Thank you for the review! Glad to hear your 10 yr old like Voyagers. Our 9 1/2 yr old last visited the kids club on Oasis when he was in the 3-5 age group. He loved it then, but I was worried about whether the Voyager activities would resonate with him.

 

I was concerned about GaGa ball- if it is similar to dodgeball I'm not sure he will like it, he'd rather play basketball than get intentionally smacked hard by a ball. I assume maybe it is different though, I can't imagine the cruise line wanting the liability of a violent sport. (I've read the posts of GaGa ball but didn't come away understanding how they made it less violent- e.g. you're not throwing the ball but apparently batting/kicking/etc. the ball against someone else?)

My Daughter is 20 years old now but her favorite memories of Cruising when she was younger is ga-ga-ball. Basically it is played in a big knee high octangle pit. All players have to hold onto the pit with one hand. A soft spongy ball is then thrown into the pit and the players hit the ball with there other hand. If the ball hits you from the knee down you are out. If you catch it the person who hit it is out. You can catch the ball but not throw it. You have to bounce then hit it. Last one left in the pit is the winner. Im not sure what the attraction is but kids love it. I dont think it ever gets too rough. Hope this helps have a great cruise.

I'm not sure what ship you were on but I spend a lot of time in the casino playing cards and I rarely see them given out randomly. I get all my drinks for free based on my play on my last cruise but many players playing with me pay for their drinks.

 

Giving out 10 to each slot tournament participant makes no sense since they're paying $25 or $35 to enter the tournament but being given $100 in free drinks. I'm not saying this didn't happen but it's very rare.

A ticket may be worth $10 to you but that drink is only costing the cruise line about a dollar. ,

I've been watching these prices for the last month and a half for a last minute July cruise. They package the sales many different ways but somehow the base price hasent changed. Funny isn't it?

being a newbie, whats a Sail A Way ?

The initial sailaway is usually accompanied by bands playing and some sort of show on the pool deck. From San Jaun there is also a great view of the fort as you sail out.

I think it muffles on purpose because its underwater.

I forgot to add that my wife's leg is healing fine and to thank everyone for their kind words.

I posted a thread a few weeks ago about my wife breaking her leg and needing surgery a week before we were to go on the Oasis of the seas. Well we wound up cancelling and so I thought I'd update everyone on how the insurance claims worked and how dealing with Royal Caribbean to get the necessary forms played out. First of all, due to forum rules I cannot name the insurance company I used but it was not RCCL. It was a private firm that begins with an A. Dealing with them was a breeze. The agent I dealt with was very thorough and listed every form I would need and within 2 days a copy of those forms were delivered. I needed a copy of the invoice from RCCL. That what saved on line under the my cruise section of the RCCL web site. I also needed a copy from the credit card company in the amount paid to RCCL. This was also found online. Next we needed an note from the surgeon stating what was done and that medically she was unfit for travel. This was grudgingly provided by the surgeon ( he was so busy he couldn't take 5 min to fill out the form). We also needed to write a letter stating how the leg was broken. Finally, we needed to get documentation from RCCL on how much exactly the penalty from RCCL would be. This required dealing with RCCL IT department. We had two rooms reserved (one for our daughters and one for my wife and I ) and for some reason RCCL could not get the names and penalty amounts to match even though a reservations were made at the same time with the same amount paid for each rooms.

After 3 calls and talking to 5 agents the paperwork for the amount of penalty was delivered. I did not know the port fees and taxes are refunded by RCCL so the penalty for cancelling was less than the amount paid.

The hotel room was cancelled without penalty, the airfare was transferable (Southwest).

So I had all the forms I needed by 08/04/2014 which would have been day 3 of the cruise and mailed them the next day.

Well yesterday less than 2 weeks later a check arrived for the full amount of my claim.

So thank you RCCL and insurance company that ends in a G. I guess the moral of this story is ALWAYS GET TRAVEL INSURANCE.

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for your concern. After meeting with the orthopedic surgeon today my wife is having surgery tomorrow. He advised us that due to blood clot issues it would not be wise to travel within a week of surgery. So tomorrow I will be calling travel guard to start the insurance ball rolling. After buying insurance for 10 cruises I finally get my moneys worth. The doctor wrote us a note saying she is not fit for travel. I've never had to collect on the insurance so I hope it isn't too much of a hassle. Thanks again for all the replies and concern.

Hello, we are due to leave this Saturday on the Oasis of the seas and today my wife broke her leg and will have surgery tomorrow. She still wants to go and the doctor may OK her, but does anyone know if RCCL has any restrictions on her traveling? We have insurance and could cancel but will we then lose the OBC from rccl and visa? Anyone ever cruise with a broken leg in a cast? Does RCCL rent those scooters we see on board? Thanks for your help.