Just off the Allure with new itinery.

We just spent our 40th anniversary on the amazing Allure of the Seas.

These are my impressions of this spectacular ship:

About us- we are in our early 60's and traveled with my father in law (90) end his wife (late 70's)

We are Diamond while they are Gold. We took a transport chair for him. The chair was just what he needed because the ship is huge.

Embarkation: easy and very quick. We arrived at the port at 10 and we were on the ship by 11

The ship: WOW, it is amazing. We had a boardwalk cabin and enjoyed the ocean and entertainment view. We watched some of the game shows but be aware it is noisy at night even with the door latched. About midnight it settles down. Our room was comfortable but with only 2 drawers storage can be an issue. My daughter sailed Harmony a month ago and she gave me great tips. The closet has 6 shelves and I purchased fabric bins at Dollartree. The shelves are different sizes so we brought 2 large bins and 3 smaller ones. They really saved us. FYI There is only shampoo in the shower dispenser and bars of soap. Everything was kept clean and tidy. The walking track is a great way to work off those extra calories. Every employee we met was friendly and helpful. The only exception was our maitre d'. He got offended when we didn't opt for lunch in Chops and ignored us the rest of the cruise.

Food: We did 1st night done right at Giovanni's. I went to the restaurant when we got on and made the reservation. It was good and DH thought it was great. I had Osso Bucco and he had the steak. We ate lunch at the Windjammer, Central Park Cafe, Johnny Rockets, Sorrentos, American Icon, Solarium Bistro and the Promenade Cafe. We had table 142 and the best wait staff we have ever encountered in 27 cruises, Nike and Austin. We had made reservations and the hostess remembered us every night and we sat near the entrance because of the wheelchair. We thought the food was excellent and it arrived hot. Food is subjective but I'm a pretty good cook and I yummed at every meal. Check your tv for wait times in the Windjammer. We never waited but there were really long lines at about 9 am and again at 1pm. The lines for stand-by reservations and even those with reservations at American Icon were really long at 8:00 pm. We didn't order room service.

Entertainment: Again subjective but it was outstanding the exception being Mo5aic. We have dear friends who have a theater in Branson and they are an amazing vocal band so we were pretty picky. We had reservations and there is handicap seating at each venue but come about 20 minutes early. Best entrainment at sea imho.

Diamond lounge: Great place to hang out the first 2 nights. When we went after hours 8:30ish and later the last few nights there was a really rowdy group upstairs, not Diamond members, that totally ruined the ambience. We ate breakfast there one morning.

Ports:

Nassau-I downloaded a walking tour and we walked in the rain and thunderstorm. We talked to people on board that had snorkling tours that cancelled because of the lightening.

St Thomas- We rented a car and went to Saphire Beach, Meagans Bay and Mountain Top. It was a good day.

St Kitts- again we walked around town for a couple of hours. Next time we will go to the beach but we were beached out.

Disembark: We did self disembarkment and had downloaded the mobile passport and it took about 15 minutes. You still need your passport so don't put it away. We were catching an 8:40 flight and we were at the airport before 7:00 am.

I will try to answer any questions you might have. Allure is definitely a new favorite.

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed Mo5aic. Did you find them to be too loud or just not your thing?

So, can you provide some simple explanation of the Mobile Passport App? Is the information already in a Database of sorts that allows Customs to process you quicker?

Thanks

We just spent our 40th anniversary on the amazing Allure of the Seas.

These are my impressions of this spectacular ship:

 

About us- we are in our early 60's and traveled with my father in law (90) end his wife (late 70's)

We are Diamond while they are Gold. We took a transport chair for him. The chair was just what he needed because the ship is huge.

 

Embarkation: easy and very quick. We arrived at the port at 10 and we were on the ship by 11

 

The ship: WOW, it is amazing. We had a boardwalk cabin and enjoyed the ocean and entertainment view. We watched some of the game shows but be aware it is noisy at night even with the door latched. About midnight it settles down. Our room was comfortable but with only 2 drawers storage can be an issue. My daughter sailed Harmony a month ago and she gave me great tips. The closet has 6 shelves and I purchased fabric bins at Dollartree. The shelves are different sizes so we brought 2 large bins and 3 smaller ones. They really saved us. FYI There is only shampoo in the shower dispenser and bars of soap. Everything was kept clean and tidy. The walking track is a great way to work off those extra calories. Every employee we met was friendly and helpful. The only exception was our maitre d'. He got offended when we didn't opt for lunch in Chops and ignored us the rest of the cruise.

 

Food: We did 1st night done right at Giovanni's. I went to the restaurant when we got on and made the reservation. It was good and DH thought it was great. I had Osso Bucco and he had the steak. We ate lunch at the Windjammer, Central Park Cafe, Johnny Rockets, Sorrentos, American Icon, Solarium Bistro and the Promenade Cafe. We had table 142 and the best wait staff we have ever encountered in 27 cruises, Nike and Austin. We had made reservations and the hostess remembered us every night and we sat near the entrance because of the wheelchair. We thought the food was excellent and it arrived hot. Food is subjective but I'm a pretty good cook and I yummed at every meal. Check your tv for wait times in the Windjammer. We never waited but there were really long lines at about 9 am and again at 1pm. The lines for stand-by reservations and even those with reservations at American Icon were really long at 8:00 pm. We didn't order room service.

 

Entertainment: Again subjective but it was outstanding the exception being Mo5aic. We have dear friends who have a theater in Branson and they are an amazing vocal band so we were pretty picky. We had reservations and there is handicap seating at each venue but come about 20 minutes early. Best entrainment at sea imho.

 

Diamond lounge: Great place to hang out the first 2 nights. When we went after hours 8:30ish and later the last few nights there was a really rowdy group upstairs, not Diamond members, that totally ruined the ambience. We ate breakfast there one morning.

 

Ports:

Nassau-I downloaded a walking tour and we walked in the rain and thunderstorm. We talked to people on board that had snorkling tours that cancelled because of the lightening.

St Thomas- We rented a car and went to Saphire Beach, Meagans Bay and Mountain Top. It was a good day.

St Kitts- again we walked around town for a couple of hours. Next time we will go to the beach but we were beached out.

 

Disembark: We did self disembarkment and had downloaded the mobile passport and it took about 15 minutes. You still need your passport so don't put it away. We were catching an 8:40 flight and we were at the airport before 7:00 am.

 

I will try to answer any questions you might have. Allure is definitely a new favorite.

Thank you for all the information. We'll be on the Allure sailing that itinerary in October. My question: where is American Icon on the ship? I couldn't find it on RCCL's deck plans, and I don't recall seeing it when we last sailed Allure in 2014. Thanks!

 

 

Diamond lounge: Great place to hang out the first 2 nights. When we went after hours 8:30ish and later the last few nights there was a really rowdy group upstairs, not Diamond members, that totally ruined the ambience. We ate breakfast there one morning.

I.

Oh horrors - they were not diamond members. They ruined the ambiance. They were rowdy - probably enjoying themselves. LIGHTEN UP !!

Thank you for all the information. We'll be on the Allure sailing that itinerary in October. My question: where is American Icon on the ship? I couldn't find it on RCCL's deck plans, and I don't recall seeing it when we last sailed Allure in 2014. Thanks!

American Icon is the lowest deck of the Main Dining Room, deck 3. They just redecorated it and renamed it.

American Icon is the lowest deck of the Main Dining Room, deck 3. They just redecorated it and renamed it.

Thanks, Clarea-- quick reply!!

Oh horrors - they were not diamond members. They ruined the ambiance. They were rowdy - probably enjoying themselves. LIGHTEN UP !!

If you enjoy people getting terribly drunk, stomping around and yelling at each other than that's your thing but not ours. The diamond lounge is usually pretty mellow and people are very respectful of others around them so that is what we were expecting. Trying to "LIGHTEN UP" this week after all the delicious food we ate.;p

We were on the same cruise and really enjoyed Mo5aic. Did you find them to be too loud or just not your thing?

I LOVED the opera singer and thought the group was good but they were off the night we saw them or maybe it was just me ;).

You download the mobile passport app on your phone than scan your passport and take a picture of yourself when prompted. DH put all four of us on his phone. When you arrive back at Port Everglades you add a trip and fill out the declaration form for all family members but it has a 4 hour window to use. Two dedictated customs lines for the mobile passport users. You give the agent your passports and you scan each person into the computer. The agent compares both and that's it.

Is that clear as mud?

Thank you for all the information. We'll be on the Allure sailing that itinerary in October. My question: where is American Icon on the ship? I couldn't find it on RCCL's deck plans, and I don't recall seeing it when we last sailed Allure in 2014. Thanks!

Use the afternoon elevators.

I LOVED the opera singer and thought the group was good but they were off the night we saw them or maybe it was just me ;).

Josh was amazing, really doesn't look like a guy who sings opera though.:cool: The others were good, though I thought the gentleman who was the "lead" and did all the talking was just okay.

Our Blue Planet show was stopped due to technical difficulties for about 10 minutes, so that kind of killed the flow of the show. The tree got stuck as it was moving out to the front of the stage.

We really enjoyed Mamma Mia and Ocean Aria. Comedy show was good. Ice Games was okay, we prefer the ice show on Oasis.

Do you happen to have the cruise compass from this your trip...we are sailing on June 4th :o)

Do you happen to have the cruise compass from this your trip...we are sailing on June 4th :o)

Someone else from the same sailing has already posted all of them in this thread looking for compasses from the St Kitts itinerary.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2475109&highlight=allure

Use the afternoon elevators.

Haha, aft elevators.

We were also on this cruise last week. We are essentially first time cruisers, as we first cruised on our honeymoon 29 years ago... and things have change a LOT since then! I couldn't believe the sheer enormity of the ship when I first saw it. We also had Boardwalk view balcony staterooms. I agree about the noise at night but neither my husband or I were particularly bothered by it. And as you said, after midnight it really settles down. I enjoyed the food. Most mornings we ate in the Solarium Bistro. The Solarium ended up being one of our favorite places on the ship to hang out. We ate dinner in American Icon every night except the last 2, when we were at Giovanni's Table and Chops.

We opted for excursions offered through RCCL. We had good experiences on all. The driver in Nassau altered the route a bit to account for the rainy weather, and that worked out fine. In St. Thomas we were dropped downtown to do some shopping after our beach/snorkeling experience, then took a taxi back to the ship.

I agree embarkation and disembarking were easy. In fact, I wish I'd known just how quickly we would be off the ship because I scheduled a 1:00 p.m. flight out of FLL and we were at the airport just before 9. It all worked out.

All in all, we had a great time. I'd love to do it again someday.

Thanks for the report, woodz.:) Did you notice/know if kids under 18 were allowed in the Diamond Lounge during happy hour times or at all?

Oh horrors - they were not diamond members. They ruined the ambiance. They were rowdy - probably enjoying themselves. LIGHTEN UP !!

Don't think the issue was that they were not diamond, but that they were obnoxious.

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Another fellow traveler with you on the Allure last week. It was our second time. Yet another wonderful trip.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Congrats on your 40th anniversary!

Oh horrors - they were not diamond members. They ruined the ambiance. They were rowdy - probably enjoying themselves. LIGHTEN UP !!

Wow. Rude, much?

Good review...

Thanks for the report, woodz.:) Did you notice/know if kids under 18 were allowed in the Diamond Lounge during happy hour times or at all?

There were families with small children and a few with teenagers that were enjoying the DL.

Glad you enjoyed your cruise. Congrats on your 40th anniversary!

Thank you! Can't belive how fast time flies.

Good review...

Thank you. I appreciate the tips I got from previous CC members and just hoped I could do the same.