Allure of the seas comprehensive bar review.

Here is a comprehensive bar review for AOS 1/15 sailing. It was not my intention to hit nearly every bar on this massive ship, just kind of did. Our group did a bar crawl which helped cover a variety of bars too. So I thought why not review them.

So from my impression there are three types of bars on this ship, blender bars, on the rocks bars, and specialty bars.

The blender bars are those that make boat drinks, they offer a variety of liquors but primarily make the rum based boat drinks. This is their specialty, the alcohol selection varies pretty wildly bar to bar which is odd, but they are all well stocked from what I saw. These include all the pool bar, sky bar, wipeout, sand bar, mast bar, solarium bar, et al. These bars exist to serve the same drinks in lots of locations to keep the lines and walks down. What differentiated them was the service, some bartenders were slow, others fast, others exceptionally personable. We had our favorites. If you find Francisco Goes he is exceptional. The suites only bar on 17 had an amazing bartender as well, Radu. The selection there is more limited than the other pool bars, but there is never a line. This is due to the restricted access, which fortunately we had. These are really just drink dispensers, not sit down and chat places, with the exception of wipe out and suites only.

Drink recommendation: Pina colada with a zucapa floater.

On the rocks bars are those without blenders, and focus on a shaken drink. These bars are places like Schooner bar, On Air, Coastal Kitchen/Suites lounge, Diamond lounge, Blaze and Rising Tide and their ilk. The bar staff tends to be more personable in these bars, mixing cocktails with conversation. In these bars they mixed what we wanted, but did not have a "specialty" drink to offer. If you have a favorite James Bond style cocktail, glass of wine, or a prohibition style drink, these are your stops. One note, rising tide is a bit of an exception, they have a particularly limited selection, by hitting up Trellis, or Champagne bar depending on the deck from which you leave you can be appropriately armed for the ride, which is the real star.

Drink recommendations for rocks bars: Dirty vodka martini or a manhattan.

Specialty bars, to me, were those that had a special cocktail or offered a theme.

Champagne Bar, Deck 5 promenade. This is a plush venue, bordering on stuffy, the bar looks like a wedding cake designed by the Mad Hatter. They make an exceptional cucumber martini, strongly recommend it. The one issue is the staff there. This is the only bar that had a uniformed crew member at it most of the time, The white shirt and epaulette kind of uniform. Her name plate said mixologist, she was very mean. Noticeably so, which permeated the bar staff. When she was not there the bar staff was pleasant and warm. When she was they were curt and harsh, like her. Good luck, and remember alcohol takes the edge off.

Drink recommendation: Cucumber Martini.

Bow and Stern Deck 5 promenade. Great entertainment, really awful beer selection. This is not an English pub in any way. They kind of made it look like one, but it looks more like chain restaurant than a quaint pub, really It's much more of a roadhouse. They have a beer and cider on tap, horrible beer selection, only one craft beer, Sierra Nevada. It's a huge let down, British pubs are simple to recreate, I have spent an inordinate amount of time in them, especially in England this totally missed the mark. The recipe I have seen is just get 5 or 6 great beers on tap, personable bar tenders, and your in business. Bow and Stern missed bad, on tap was strong bow, and Stella. They had cans of some iconic ales, bass, harp, boddingtons and Guinness, but they try to package it as a global beer experience. It's not, mainly InBev mass production beers. Gone were all the mildly more interesting selections. The staff was cold and inattentive, I think it has to do with the long bar, bad sight lines, and poor management. But the entertainment was awesome. Sadly this the only option in this style venue, so we gritted this one out and enjoyed it. It's jut not a British pub.

Drink recommendation: The classic Black and Tan, It's can pours so drink up, they blend very quickly.

Trellis bar, deck 8. This Central Park gem is a must stop if your riding the rising tide down, or just back on the ship from a port of call. Part Parisian neighborhood bar, part Bryant park thirst quencher, nearly every cruise this is a generally passed over bar, but if you stop this is a place to smell the roses. It's full service with a blender. Hopefully this one will have a special place in your heart as well.

Drink recommendation: Dark and stormy, they have all the Bahamian ingredients just have them add a splash of bitters.

Bolero's deck 5 promenade. Warm and rich Havana colors in a Miami like club setting. This place is all curves and sexy lines, like the salsa dancing within. Fun joint this, top shelf band, and Latin bartenders. They specialize in mojitos, and banter. It's a cool place to order a cold minty drink, the house specialty is the coconut mojito, get one for fun, it's great, just keep a napkin handy, the coconut is messy.

Drink recommendation: Green Mojito.

On air, deck 5 promenade. This industrial designed metallic bar has a very clean New York vibe. It's a karaoke bar in every way, if you are here for the Simon Cowell effect, they make unimaginative drinks for a memorable evening. It is usually wall to wall when open, so getting a drink here is more trouble than it's worth many times.

Sabor bar, deck 6 boardwalk. Billed as a tequilaria it does have 6 or 7 of them, pretty much Patron, Cuervo and a no name. The margarita's are good and strong, they only have classics, in Sabor itself they offer a jalapeño, and a avocado one. Both are only available in the restaurant. They are good, but not great. Sabor bar is very busy, it's the only bar on boardwalk. The seating area is a bit lacking and oddly structured, the bar is an octagon and allows for a lot of patrons. The bartender here, George is very good, and moves very fast. He is Impressive. Great stop for a mediocre shot of tequila or a good margarita. There are a ton of kids at this bar, getting drink package refills, which at a tequilaria is hard, when drinking tequila it's an effort to keep the cursing to a minimum.

Drink Recommendation: Simple margarita.

Jazz on 4 and Comedy Club, deck 4. While only waiter service is available, they seem to have the same bar behind the scenes. In both cases the drinks are watery, or odd. Frozen mojito slushy? Ice in your martini? If you want to drink here, it's totally hit or miss. But you want to drink here, jazz quartet was wonderful, comedy was hilarious.

Drink recommendation: bring your own.

Casino bar, deck 4. This felt like a pick up joint for the over 65 set. Nothing much to report here, I don't smoke and many here do.

Drink recommendation: Save your money and go to deck 5 running track drink in some fresh air.

Izumi Deck 4. While technically a specialty restaurant I added this because of the saki and Asian beers. It's a pretty place, but much less elegant than when it was on deck 16. The hot saki was really nice, although they only had 5 bottles to choose from. I chose the largest one. 750 ml I believe. It was not included in the drink package but I got a 20% discount.

Drink Recommendation: Hot saki on the sushi side.

Blaze, deck 4. This is the club, as I'm sure you are aware. It's one of the strangest designs I have ever seen, it makes no sense. Medieval dungeon meets discotheque. Never did really get a handle on the vibe. They serve club cocktails and have heavy influence of scotch and other sipping drinks. I saw a ton of red bull and vodka getting ordered from here. It is a typical club, plan to have drinks spilled on your shoes. Drinking, dancing on a moving ship is a recipe for soggy toes.

Drink recommendation: Laphroaig 10 year on the rocks.

Vintages, deck 8 Central Park. The quintessential wine bar. Great venue, average selection, all the good stuff has pretty heavy prices. They used to have sommeliers in vintages now they just recommend. It's a limited list, but they can pull from chops, 150 and Giovanni's I believe. Either way under staffed and inattentive service. But the pours are nice, and it's a chic joint. Royal is pretty heavily invested into the Wagner family wines, so they will **** these pretty hard. If you are not familiar this is, Conundrum, Mer Soleil, Bella Glos, and Camus. I did not see the other two Wagner brands. Luckily the top end of Wagner is good and not too expensive. They do also have a lot of Mondavi on board but did not push it as hard, but they loved to mention the "opus" they had, as if it was a gift of the Gods. If you show any interest they will bring up the Screaming Eagle. Reminds me of bragging about a famous person they may have met.

Drink recommendation: White, red or Wine flight, do what you do. No real gems I found unless you go over $250 a bottle.

Dazzles decks 8-9. A glittery black and chrome bar, I seemed to always get wet drinks here. Not watery just lots of rocks, the venue can be fun on big band night, but know it skews older. What makes it neat is the bands. Pieces of the show orchestra form up to offer a fun night. They had a special band this week too, that was new. If you like to dance to big band, this is the spot.

Drink recommendation: Jack on the rocks with a twist of lemon.

In Room Bartenders. Our cabin, deck 10. We had a family member treat us to a cocktail hour in the cabin. We had 8 guests and it was a great time. (Our cabin was a larger one, we did not stuff all those people in a standard balcony, if you try could be a fun evening though). Although the bartender came woefully unprepared and had to run out several times for more mixers and such, but eventually he returned with a runner and it was a blast. He was unobtrusive and made a variety of drinks. He also left a bottle of Bacardi and Jack Daniels behind because he knew we liked them. Very gracious. Be careful with this one, it is way to easy to get plastered with a bartender and 8 people.

Drink recommendation: An odd blue shot the bartender made for fun, it was tart, no idea what it was, he told me but I forgot.

Vitality at Sea Juice Bar, Deck 6 in the Spa. While no alcohol is served here, this is the best place for a morning recovery drink. I could not have survived without this place. You can have them crafted however you want, and there are a lot of options.

Drink recommendation: A juice of everything green, heavy on the kale, with a shot of protein. Drink fast, recover fast.

Our bar crawl consisted of 6 bars, started at the top, Wipeout, and ended at Bow and Stern. Due to wind we had to scrap wipeout. Three of us drank at all 5. We made maps and gift bags containing lots of fun items. Including silly straw glasses, they are really funny but hold like 1/2 a drink. Oh did we laugh on this crawl. My "win" was

1. Sand bar - Rum and coke

2. Sabor bar -shot of Cuervo 1800

3. Vintages- Sav blanc

4. Rising tide - Dark and stormy from trellis bar

5. Bow and stern - Guinness

If you are traveling with a group or meet people, this was a blast.

We also went to the prohibition event. Got all dressed up in Gatsby gear, went at 10:30. It was awful, I can't describe how bad this event was. Essential we paid $35 per person to go to Jazz on 4. It was embarrassing bad. I can go into detail but trust me, not worth to us in any way. Felt like a money grab, wanted this to be so good too. We got a full refund for this event.

Well that is the review and I'm sticking with it, I know we all have opinions. Totally respect that, these are mine.

Cheers

Save your money and go to deck 5 running track drink in some fresh air.

:D:cool:

Thanks! That was a great review! :D

Thank you so much for the great review. I primarily drink red wine but my husband enjoys cocktails.

We were considering Prohibition but have changed our minds. Would rather spend $ on something else.

Staci

This may be amongst the top 10 posts on all of CC. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Bow and Stern Deck 5 promenade. Great entertainment, really awful beer selection. This is not an English pub in any way. They kind of made it look like one, but it looks more like chain restaurant than a quaint pub, really It's much more of a roadhouse. They have a beer and cider on tap, horrible beer selection, only one craft beer, Sierra Nevada. It's a huge let down, British pubs are simple to recreate, I have spent an inordinate amount of time in them, especially in England this totally missed the mark. The recipe I have seen is just get 5 or 6 great beers on tap, personable bar tenders, and your in business. Bow and Stern missed bad, on tap was strong bow, and Stella. They had cans of some iconic ales, bass, harp, boddingtons and Guinness, but they try to package it as a global beer experience. It's not, mainly InBev mass production beers. Gone were all the mildly more interesting selections. The staff was cold and inattentive, I think it has to do with the long bar, bad sight lines, and poor management. But the entertainment was awesome. Sadly this the only option in this style venue, so we gritted this one out and enjoyed it. It's jut not a British pub.

Drink recommendation: The classic Black and Tan, It's can pours so drink up, they blend very quickly.

 

Cheers

No more La Fin du Monde? They had that last time on the Allure 13 months back, and its still on the stock lists because I had it very recently on Radiance. A really nice 9% Belgian style beer completed with sediment so poor gently.

No more La Fin du Monde? They had that last time on the Allure 13 months back, and its still on the stock lists because I had it very recently on Radiance. A really nice 9% Belgian style beer completed with sediment so poor gently.

Nope, Lin fin was gone, Chimay (the Belgian you mentioned), stone, dog fish all gone. Red hook longhammer was not listed, but people were drinking it. But it's not a microbrew. I was going to take a picture of the beer list but it depressed me too much, so I held back.

Wish I had better news and hope it changes when you are on.

Nope, Lin fin was gone, Chimay (the Belgian you mentioned), stone, dog fish all gone. Red hook longhammer was not listed, but people were drinking it. But it's not a microbrew. I was going to take a picture of the beer list but it depressed me too much, so I held back.

 

Wish I had better news and hope it changes when you are on.

Sorry, I'll post the depression from Oasis. If I recalled, you had some hopes after seeing the list from back in December.

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This is my kind of review, thanks

Sorry, I'll post the depression from Oasis. If I recalled, you had some hopes after seeing the list from back in December.

 

 

Same one we had. Leffe is good.

That was great! Thanks.

Great post! Do you know how much the in room bartender/happyhour costs? Family cruise on Allure coming up in June. Might be fun!

Nope, Lin fin was gone, Chimay (the Belgian you mentioned), stone, dog fish all gone. Red hook longhammer was not listed, but people were drinking it. But it's not a microbrew. I was going to take a picture of the beer list but it depressed me too much, so I held back.

 

Wish I had better news and hope it changes when you are on.

Please, say it's not so..... No La Fin Dumonde? One or the beers SO looks forward too on Oasis class. It was on Oasis last year. I saw a previous beer list for Allure and it was on the list. I guess beer selections have now changed.

That is really too bad....

Great post! Do you know how much the in room bartender/happyhour costs? Family cruise on Allure coming up in June. Might be fun!

I believe something like $22-25 a person, and $50 for the bartender. It depends on what level of booze you want. Food can be added, or use room service. We did it to align with sail away on day 1. We had An ATS so it was pretty magical.

We really enjoyed it.

Please, say it's not so..... No La Fin Dumonde? One or the beers SO looks forward too on Oasis class. It was on Oasis last year. I saw a previous beer list for Allure and it was on the list. I guess beer selections have now changed.

 

That is really too bad....

Leffe Blonde is the only one off the picture above I would consider, and that isn't wonderful. So no more quality beers then[emoji22] .

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Sorry, I'll post the depression from Oasis. If I recalled, you had some hopes after seeing the list from back in December.

 

 

 

Sent from a mobile device

I am a beer drinker, but that was an awesome review! DW does the mixed drinks.:cool:

Thanks, chandom, for the beer list.:D

There is usually a better draft beer choice on ships based in UK, where they can bring the barrels on-board each turn around.

saying that we were on Athem when it did the UK season and some of the supposedly UK beers on draft were awful

My guess is that they badged them wrong, as they tasked nothing like the beer we get in pubs in the UK

way too gassy and bland

There is usually a better draft beer choice on ships based in UK, where they can bring the barrels on-board each turn around.

 

saying that we were on Athem when it did the UK season and some of the supposedly UK beers on draft were awful

 

My guess is that they badged them wrong, as they tasked nothing like the beer we get in pubs in the UK

 

 

way too gassy and bland

I certainly hear you, I am a beer snob, and collect beer as well. I knew going in I was in for a mixed drink vacation. I did take 4 bottles of high end beer with me in lieu of the wine altoment. It is a risky endeavor though if you have them confiscated they are lost. What I took was not replaceable, but two in the carry two in the luggage and it all arrived no worries.

Those 4 helped me make it though. We just drank one a night here and there.

Someday perhaps Royal will respect us lowly beer drinkers.

Thank you for that very useful review.

Loved your thorough review. Thank you so much for taking the time to post it.

Great review. Sailing her in April. Thanks for your in depth analysis and thoughts.

Great review! On one hand I want to try drinking my way around the boat. On another hand I sort of like finding a good bar that knows me and what I like to drink and bellying up there more often than not.

It is a shame that RCCL has not really acknowledged the craft beer movement. Would be a cool thing to offer some selections from a FL brewery (of which there are many very good ones.)

Great review! On one hand I want to try drinking my way around the boat. On another hand I sort of like finding a good bar that knows me and what I like to drink and bellying up there more often than not.

 

It is a shame that RCCL has not really acknowledged the craft beer movement. Would be a cool thing to offer some selections from a FL brewery (of which there are many very good ones.)

Finding the good bartenders always makes the cruise more enjoyable. :rolleyes:

I will use this information wisely. Thank you!

Finding the good bartenders always makes the cruise more enjoyable. :rolleyes:

yes........ and who can prepare best the mixed drink! ;)