Review: Atlantis Allure of the Seas, 02/06/11

[Darrell6t]

This won't be a long review or rundown of the cruise, but a few observations from someone older than 65 who only dances a few seconds at the t-dances and only drops by the all-night dances to see a few costumes before going to bed, to sleep. And on this cruise I only entered the Solarium once during the dance because it was waaaaayyyy TOO LOUD for me to stand to be in the area. (On other ships, out on the pool deck, you can avoid being blasted by those huge speakers.)

 

The entertainment was outstanding. Cheyenne Jackson was phenomenal and it was a shame he was limited to only a 55 minute show. He has only gotten better since I saw him on the Eurodam a couple of years ago. I did not like Andy Bell, but others loved his show. I walked out because it was too loud and his voice sounded nearly gone. (I heard later he was fighting a cold.) But he was putting on a show, not just standing and singing. Pam Ann and Miss Richfield are always great fun and both had their time on the main stage. The RCCL's Chicago and Blue Planet were both wonderful, though again Blue Planet was so loud that the music was distorted. The sound man must be deaf already and wants others to join him.

 

There was so much going on I never got to see all the cabaret acts, but Pamela Stanley and Rick & Emily were both excellent. Sherry Vine was only OK. Jim David and Shawn Palofsky were both great. Brad Leokle did a fun session too, though he wasn't as funny as Jim and Shawn. And the OceanAria show at the Aqua Theater was amazing. Even the show for children with Dreamworks characters was great fun. And no children there.

 

And the ship! The ship is just amazing and wonderful and beautiful and.... It is big and it takes a while to figure out which way to go. And there are so many places to see and things to do that it is almost, but not quite, overwhelming. It is too bad the food quality in the main dining room doesn't match the beautiful space. Presentation was good, service was mostly good, but the food was mostly mediocre to poor. (And on the top floor of the dining room that have bright video displays art that are so very out of place and very annoying if you happen to be facing one while trying to eat. )

 

It was a great week. Worth every penny. But now I have done the Allure and I won't be booking next year's Atlantis cruise on the same ship.

[CruisinMaterial]

Thank you for the review and the background perspective. I hope others share their experiences as well from this voyage. I'm highly interested in reading about the overall time. Loud sound has been an issue on many ships lately. Seems like jacking it up makes it seem better, all I wind up with is tinnitus and a headache! :eek: During Cirque Bijoux on the Norwegian Jewel they do the same thing!

 

Anyway, thanks again for posting. :)

[pke-atlanta]

Darrell, I was also on the Allure last week. And as a 46yo, I largely agree with your review. Although I did not see as many of the comedy acts, etc as you, I did think Cheyenne was fantastic (we've seen him in Xanadu, All Shook Up and Finnian's Rainbow, so are obviously big fans!). I knew he had a great voice and acting talent, but I was unprepared for how engaging he was while not singing and how much he opened up personally.

 

We LOVED all the specialty dining options on the ship and basically spent our time alternating lunches between Johnny Rockets and Rita's Cantina, and dinners between 150 Central Park, Chops and Giavanni's Table. We enjoyed the food in all of them, although it seemed the kitchen was overwhelmed at times by the volume of diners. The ONE dinner we ate in the main dining room was NOT good.

 

But overall, for our purposes we loved the ship and have rebooked for next year. In fact, we would even consider doing the Allure on a straight cruise -- really! :-)

[Darrell6t]

We did not try any of the places that required additional money. It says to me that "if you want a good meal you need to pay more". That isn't the way it should be on a cruise ship. And here in DC I can get better food than is probably served even in the specialty restaurants. 150 Central Park would have been nice, but required too much of a time committment.

[eroller]

 

But overall, for our purposes we loved the ship and have rebooked for next year. In fact, we would even consider doing the Allure on a straight cruise -- really! :-)

 

 

Sailed on OASIS last year on a straight cruise, and sailing on ALLURE next Sunday again on a straight cruise. These are amazing ships and I promise you that you can have a fantastic time even if the ship is not filled with 5400 gay men! There is always a contingent of gay passengers onboard, and it's quite easy to spot them or perhaps meet at the LGBT meeting. I actually find it easier to establish lasting friendships when it's a smaller gay group as opposed to a full-ship charter.

 

Ernie

[bamrod]

Did any of you try this? If so, how was it? I've reserved this on the May 22nd sailing on the Allure because it sounded fun!:)

[Cornus]

Hey Darrell ~ Glad you enjoyed this cruise. We did the Caribbean last month on the QM2 and booked again on a TA to Cherbourg in Oct. We'll spend a week making our way to Rome where we'll board the new Celebrity Silhouette back to NJ...our first time on a Celebrity ship. Maybe we'll meet up again someday?

 

Jack

[pke-atlanta]

Bamrod, we had several lunches and afternoon snacks at Rita's and loved it - especially the Perfect Patron Margarita. Unfortunately, they cancelled Rita's Fiesta evening on the Atlantis charter, so we were unable to enjoy that experience.

 

Once you've been, please post your review so I can be jealous!

[JSnow789]

Here is my review from the Alumni site.

 

#1 we much prefer the Freedom class ship for the parties. We need the parties on the pool deck. On Allure the major (late night) parties cannot be held on deck or in the Aqua Theatre because of their proximities to cabins-I think there has to be something else considered besides or in addition to the Solarium. For instance have the White party in Studio B and a Mardi Gras party in the Solarium at the same time. That way people can move between the parties instead of everyone trying to be in one place at one time. Don't know. After the Lost Cont. party we just went to the Solarium parties early, stayed for awhile and left to do other things. We were never actually able to dance at those parties.

 

Allure herself was truly amazing. We may try to cruise her again before next January with our straight cruising buddies. My only real complaint was the food/service in the dining room. It was horrible the first 2 nights so we avoided it the rest of the week and had fantastic meals at all the other venues. We did eat in the dining room on the last night and the service was excellent but the food still tasted bland and was never more than just warm. My thought is that they really were not setup/prepared to have an entire dining room working on the open dining (my time) concept and this is why they had things working better towards the end of the week.

 

The food in the Windjammer sucked at all times. And the Cluster F@$% that was breakfast before we departed was incomprehensible. Closing half the restaurant at 8am? Really? And not enough eggs. Runny scrambled egg whites are icky.

 

The entertainment provided by RCI and Atlantis was *Amazing*. Simply the best. We were able to see all the major shows as well as most of the smaller venue offerings and had a great time at each one.

 

The T-dances were a lot of fun. I wonder though if there is anyway they could remove the chairs next year. That would have provided a lot more room for everyone. And sorry if I shot you with my bubble gun at the Final Rinse. :)

 

We would love to sail Allure again but may not do so with Atlantis.

[Darrell6t]

Hey Darrell ~ Glad you enjoyed this cruise. We did the Caribbean last month on the QM2 and booked again on a TA to Cherbourg in Oct. We'll spend a week making our way to Rome where we'll board the new Celebrity Silhouette back to NJ...our first time on a Celebrity ship. Maybe we'll meet up again someday?

 

Jack

 

Hi Jack, Don't like those east-bound TA, losing an hour every day. The Silhouette should be wonderful. The Solstice is my current favorite ship. We do want to do the Queen Elizabeth some day, but Cunard is just too much dress up for general cruising. We saw the brand new Marina in Nassau and it looks beautiful. We want to get on it soon too. And Oceania doesn't have any of those annoying formal nights. No ties ever required.

[willcan]

Allure Gay Cruise in Review

 

The cruise was good but not great. The ship was amazing, 17 decks, and first class all the way. All the entertainment put on by the SHIP was awesome too, Broadway quality. However, the ship is not designed to hold "our group". The layout was too small for the nightly parties and T dances. You never got the feel of a massive party and laser light show.

The cruising ("deck 13") vibe did not exist on this ship at all. There was a bit of night time cruising but it was nothing even close to my past 3 cruises. The cruising deck had ship security patrolling it all night, they even patrolled the bathrooms. At 4 AM they started to clean the cruising deck.

The steam room sucked and not in a good way. First off it was far too small. Second they had the nerve to charge $150 (172 with gratuity) to use it. That kept most of the guys out of the steam room. There was sex in the steam room but nothing compared to the past.

 

Also new this year, no nudity on the top deck, According to the ship staff that is Atlantis policy not the ships policy. Atlantis had no comment. They did have a nude area on one of the lower decks but you had to travel thru the cabin areas to find it and almost no one knew about it, it was also closed 2 days due to high winds. But the top deck was never closed.

Drug use and emergency “Alpha” calls were common. A number of people were thrown off the ship and arrested for drug use, I think it was about 15 people maybe more. Government inspectors came on board and did some random and non random room searches when we were in ports. This is a quote from a local newspaper “Customs and Border Protection agents boarded the ship Wednesday,... officers found 2.83 grams of methamphetamine, 142-1/2 ecstasy pills, a quantity of ketamine, $51,020 in cash, and a US Postal Service money order in the amount of $960 in (one) cabin”

When asked about the lack of cruising space and the charge for the steam room the Owner of Atlantis tried to blame the ship. He also said Atlantis has never allowed public sex, it says so on their website. My response to that is "the web site has stated that "cover your ass" policy for the last 20 years and they have never enforced it before. Seems strange to me that you would do the same thing for 20 years then all of a sudden change the rules on the 20th anniversary cruise."

 

Atlantis better wake up and remember who its customers are – gay men wanting sex.

[wittyfellow]

Thanks Darrell6t and JSnow789 for your reviews. My partner and I had a great time on the Allure also. I truly believe an Atlantis cruise is what you make of it, and we were pretty far removed from all the craziness associated with the whole drug situation, so it didn't affect our time on board.

 

This was the first time with Atlantis on their March cruise, as we usually take the one later in the year. BUT we really wanted to see the Allure and work time off for both of us aligned for this cruise.

 

I thought the entertainment was incredible, both the Atlantis themed and RCL ones were top notched. We didn't get to BMG but all the other main theatre acts were great - C. Jackson was a fantastic show. We watched the Ocean Aria show from our deck and thought it well worth the price of the suite. I can't comment on the noise level as we usually bring ear plugs to these cruises and are pretty good about having them in during some of the T dances... Which, I found was too crowded - agree with the poster regarding moving it back to the pool deck.

 

Food wise, we enjoyed the flexibility of having so many places to eat. Although the first night's dinner in the MDR was extremely slow. We never got our coffee.. It did improve over the week, and we enjoyed meeting other couples over dinners.

 

Overall, the ship is beautiful. I loved the vertical garden in the central park area; it was nice to see beautiful green plants around the ship. The solarium was a nice quiet area for us during the cruise. The gym was usually packed (hummm) but there's enough room and equipment to get a short workout in. I didn't try the sauna, but heard from our friends that it was a sufficiently busy.

 

We were on deck 10 with another couple in the Aqua Suite. It had 2 bedrooms, and a nice size living room over looking the theatre. Beautiful large deck, where we spent alot of our time. The service was top notch, room was always cleaned when we returned. We didn't really require alot of maintenance, but we did host a small get together with some of our friends for my partner's 40th birthday, and they did set everything up for a pretty amazing birthday party, complete with cake, small appetizers and drinks...

 

We're already talking about going back on the Allure, but probably during RCL's normal schedule instead of an Atlantis charter. Not sure how the environment would change with all the kids on board during the Dreamworks parade :-)

[Darrell6t]

"Atlantis better wake up and remember who its customers are – gay men wanting sex."

 

There are a lot of Atlantis customers for whom that is NOT the reason we go on their cruises. But everyone on the ship has a cabin with a door and drapes. No need for public, or even semi-public, sex.

[ChasRyder]

WillCan -- That's really unfortunate that your cruise didn't have enough nudity, orgies and public sex. You definitely need a refund. You also need serious professional help. Get some before you infect any more passengers.

[travelingfromtulsa]

Atlantis better wake up and remember who its customers are – gay men wanting sex.[/font][/color]

 

Stuff like this would be the reason I have never done a gay cruise.

 

Is the sex really all these cruises are about? How sad.

 

I've heard about gay cruises for a long time and the idea sounds like fun but when I hear about the sex and the drugs and the guys acting like children, I totally lose interest.

 

Perhaps some of you that have been on Atlantis cruises can shed some light... is this the norm?

[Boytjie]

Stuff like this would be the reason I have never done a gay cruise.

 

Is the sex really all these cruises are about? How sad.

 

I've heard about gay cruises for a long time and the idea sounds like fun but when I hear about the sex and the drugs and the guys acting like children, I totally lose interest.

 

Perhaps some of you that have been on Atlantis cruises can shed some light... is this the norm?

 

I have not been on Atlantis cruise but 1 Atlantis land vacation and on 6 RSVP cruises. It is not all about sex. It's there if you want it but people aren't doing it all over the ship. Just as there may be drug use (as on any cruise); some Atlantis itineraries have a bit of a reputation of being more of a circuit party atmosphere.

 

There are always a few that misbehave in any group but I would not say they act like children in general. The vast majority of people are very nice, friendly and without attitude and out to have fun. We have made some very good friends on gay cruises.

 

A gay cruise is often what you make of it. If you want to dance the night away, you can. If you want to sleep in, read books, have dinner and attend shows, you can. If you want to have sex you can. If you don't want to, you are not going to be confronted with it everywhere you go.

[BostonBud]

"Atlantis better wake up and remember who its customers are – gay men wanting sex."

 

There are a lot of Atlantis customers for whom that is NOT the reason we go on their cruises. But everyone on the ship has a cabin with a door and drapes. No need for public, or even semi-public, sex.

 

I agree. The cruise staff should not expect anything different just because it is a gay charter and deserves the same respect.

[Darrell6t]

Stuff like this would be the reason I have never done a gay cruise.

 

Is the sex really all these cruises are about? How sad.

 

I've heard about gay cruises for a long time and the idea sounds like fun but when I hear about the sex and the drugs and the guys acting like children, I totally lose interest.

 

Perhaps some of you that have been on Atlantis cruises can shed some light... is this the norm?

 

No, that attitude is not the norm. Sex is certainly not what an all-gay cruise is all about. Just like some people go to the gym to workout, others go to have sex in the steam room. Did you read my review that started this thread? Did you see any mention of sex? For me, and I am sure for many others, the fun and entertainment are the reasons we enjoy the all-gay cruise more than an ordinary cruise. Getting to experience the Allure of the Seas without having to dodge children was a big motivation. And I loved the ship. I never saw anyone having sex, and I was all over the ship, though not in the wee hours of the morning.

 

By the way, do you seriously think no sex goes on during an ordinary cruise? Any time you have a lot of randy young people around, there is likely to be some sex. And if they are in a cabin with their parents, it isn't going to happen there.

[Boytjie]

By the way, do you seriously think no sex goes on during an ordinary cruise? Any time you have a lot of randy young people around, there is likely to be some sex. And if they are in a cabin with their parents, it isn't going to happen there.

 

Read the various cruise line threads here and you will learn that its not just gays or young people. ;)

[travelingfromtulsa]

By the way, do you seriously think no sex goes on during an ordinary cruise? Any time you have a lot of randy young people around, there is likely to be some sex. And if they are in a cabin with their parents, it isn't going to happen there.

 

I wasn't trying to stir trouble, just asking questions as I have never been on a gay cruise and the predominate opinion of them is that they are just big sex / drug parties. I do know that a lot of sex happens on board a ship... and in some very odd places. On my first cruise ever, aboard the Caribbean Princess, word QUICKLY spread that the bathrooms outside of club fusion were the only public bathrooms on the ship that locked from the inside - even the CD mentioned it during a meet and greet. I must have had ten different people mention it. Well, as you might imagine, those bathrooms got very busy late at night. My friend and myself would go grab a drink, sit on the bench across from those bathrooms and cheer for the couples that went in together. No, it wasn't classy and yes, we were drunk - but it was hilarious and something I'll remember forever.

 

Read the various cruise line threads here and you will learn that its not just gays or young people. ;)

 

hahaha! This is so very true. Many couples I saw coming out of that locked bathroom were 60+ at the least! I say GOOD FOR THEM. Keep the love alive :D

[davemspec]

I think the Allure cruise was the least friendly and the most focused on circuit parties of the 8 trips I've been on--although the parties themselves left a lot to be desired. The Atlantis cruises used to make me feel very liberated and inspired, but at times on this trip the behavior of a lot of people made me feel almost ashamed.

I think Atlantis has always found a market with both the open relationship / circuit party / and sex-seeking crowd as well as those looking for a meaningful experience with their partner or just looking for a relaxing vacation.

Instead of one shared experience / party / pool area, the vibe on the Allure slanted too far towards cliques and separate experiences. Even people I know fairly well seemed like strangers among the crowd of 6,000 guys. People never seemed to let their guard down, and that friendly Atlantis environment and sense of camaraderie was never established.

I was disappointed in this trip overall and would not book a cruise on the Allure again. Several times I had to give myself a pep talk when heading out of my cabin to try and make the best of it.

My hope is that the negative publicity from the drug bust, as well as the generally negative feedback I've heard and read, will cause Atlantis to pull back the reigns on the party focus and recreate instead the environment where everyone onboard feels welcome and part of the Atlantis family.

[BostonBud]

I think the Allure cruise was the least friendly and the most focused on circuit parties of the 8 trips I've been on--although the parties themselves left a lot to be desired. The Atlantis cruises used to make me feel very liberated and inspired, but at times on this trip the behavior of a lot of people made me feel almost ashamed.

I think Atlantis has always found a market with both the open relationship / circuit party / and sex-seeking crowd as well as those looking for a meaningful experience with their partner or just looking for a relaxing vacation.

Instead of one shared experience / party / pool area, the vibe on the Allure slanted too far towards cliques and separate experiences. Even people I know fairly well seemed like strangers among the crowd of 6,000 guys. People never seemed to let their guard down, and that friendly Atlantis environment and sense of camaraderie was never established.

I was disappointed in this trip overall and would not book a cruise on the Allure again. Several times I had to give myself a pep talk when heading out of my cabin to try and make the best of it.

My hope is that the negative publicity from the drug bust, as well as the generally negative feedback I've heard and read, will cause Atlantis to pull back the reigns on the party focus and recreate instead the environment where everyone onboard feels welcome and part of the Atlantis family.

 

 

Dave, that's exactly the reason that we didn't book the Allure last year. After doing a Jan. cruise once in 2008 (and it wasn't even sold out) we decided that it was just too big. We really enjoy meeting different people from everywhere and keeping in touch throughout the cruise but it was really hard because of the layout and the crowds. A reoccuring theme on the Atlantis boards is that the Allure is just not a good fit.

 

Pretty much all the Atlantis vacations I've been on, it has been that everyone is on the same trip, unlike a typical cruise where there are lots of groups of people/family/reunions, etc... On Atlantis, we were all in it together and yet, I think that the Oasis class was made to further separate the groups for the typical cruise goers so they don't have to deal with the other people on the ship. This is not what we go on the Atlantis cruises for.

[MiamiSpartan]

"Atlantis better wake up and remember who its customers are – gay men wanting sex."

 

There are a lot of Atlantis customers for whom that is NOT the reason we go on their cruises. But everyone on the ship has a cabin with a door and drapes. No need for public, or even semi-public, sex.

 

Agree.

I've been on 4 gay cruises and have never witnessed any inappropriate behaviour...

I wouldn't go on them if it was just a big floating orgy...

Seriously--go back to your room if you want sex....

[Oslo Dutch]

Out of interest I've been reading the Atlantis Alumni reviews on their site and they are not terribly positive. It seems Allure is not very suitable for a gay cruise of that proportion. Service issues with RCL and I got the feeling that a lot were not impressed with the general atmosphere. I've read about door decorations being destroyed or stolen.

 

RSVP seems to be a very different product indeed!

[GXmanDC]

Many on the Alumni board are talking about how much they miss Solstice. While the Atlantis experience may be similar from ship to ship, RCI and Celebrity are totally different. I could understand disappointment if you were expecting Solstice and went on 5400 passenger Allure.