Allure June 19 sailing

[nelsoji]

We are just back off the Allure and while I won't do a full review as I think there are lots out there that are better written then what I could possibly write, I wanted to put my points out there. First let me thank this community - I read so many posts before getting on board it really helped us feel prepared for the cruise. To everyone who has contributed to this forum - a VERY BIG thank you!!!!

This is a random list of things that either surprised me - both good and bad - or confirmed other things I read on this forum. This information may be out there already but I never saw it so here goes. Bear in mind that I am essentially a first time cruiser so I really had no idea what to expect, but that being said I travel for work almost every week and stay at the upper-end Marriott's and Starwood properties, so had kind of expected a level of service close to that - fair or not - that was the basis for my expectations.

Positive:

· The boat exceeded every expectation I had. The room was bigger than I anticipated, having the balcony was amazing, the neighborhoods were fun, the sports court was always packed as were the pools and always had something going on. The shower was tiny for a guy my size, but someone on here mentioned that the showers in the gym were bigger - they were and was a good excuse for me to hit the gym during the cruise!!

· Our stateroom attendant was awesome. Great personality, funny jokes, did the funny towels on the bed, etc. We enjoyed him and it was nice to have him always available for whatever we needed. I don't think we ever called on him for anything but he was very very quick to change up our room - if we left for 10 minutes he was in and out of the room. Someone joked that he was so quick, if you got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, he made up your bed - haha. It was our honeymoon cruise and we had gotten a few bottles of champagne as gifts from family and he always made sure they were on ice and we had clean cups to drink them with - loved that!!

· I don't have kids, but did talk to a lot of the parents on the ship and they couldn't stop raving about how good the cruise was for kids, how many events they had and that the parents barely ever even saw their kids which was probably a win for both sides.

· There was never a lack of things to do on the boat - I never really remember feeling bored - even on port days the boat had activities planned throughout the day in case you stayed on the boat - I am sure that is the same on all lines but was pretty happy with the events. I was also on my honeymoon so whenever I got bored it wasn't hard to figure out something to do :-)

· We liked Ken Rush - we don't have a basis of comparison but felt he was funny and generally did a great job with things. We REALLY liked the captain - Captain Johnny - he CRACKED us up - I loved watching his captain's log - he just has a great sense of humor and was funny to hear talk.

· The only shows we saw were Oceanaria and the comedy show - I wasn't impressed by either but my wife enjoyed them both.

· We did the coke package - I didn't think I really got my money's worth out of it but the wife liked it - so another split there. One note on that - if you are thinking of getting it - get it BEFORE you get on boat. I thought we had done it and noticed the day before the cruise it wasn't on our documents and at that point its too late to do online. It ended up costing us a 15% tip - so if I remember right its about $80 or so for it online - we paid over $100 for the same thing - so lesson learned by us!

· The only "specialty" restaurant we ate in was Johnny Rockets - we didn't know anything about it but that was a great experience - all you can eat for $4.95 and the food was very good. Wish I had found out about that earlier in the cruise for sure. That being said I am like a 10 year old when it comes to food - if I have a burger and fries or chicken nuggets that is all I need - I am just as happy with that as a nice steak - so my food expectations are relatively low…..also why the main dining room didn't do much for me.

· I love playing sports and there were lots of various competitions run by the sports staff which I loved - from soccer to basketball games to beach vball to pool vball - lots of fun games to play - and the sports court almost always had a competitive game being played on it - so if you wanted competition - you could easily get it.

· Other than the pools during sea days, I never felt like the boat was crowded. I don't know where 8,000 people go all day but it never felt crowded. I also never really struggled to get chairs near anything - I stayed mostly at the sports pool but was always able to find a chair in the shade (wife burns easily) and if she wasn't with me I could grab something in the sun pretty easily.

· There was another thread I saw that got started with things that he/she packed that they didn't use - I agreed with basically everything there so won't regurgitate that here. In fact it was so spot on I had to actually ask my wife if she wrote it - it was everything we had talked about!!

· Getting on and off the boat was a BREEZE!!!! We got to port around 11 I think on embarkation day, once through security and getting our sea pass card we sat down for less than 5 minutes and were ushered right on. The rooms weren't ready until 1 if I remember right and our luggage showed up maybe around 5 or 6 - I don't remember if it was there during sail-away. Getting off the boat was also a breeze. We had a late flight so our debarkation time was 9:30 which meant we got to sleep in a bit, grab a leisurely breakfast and then get off. Once our number was called it was maybe a 10-15 minute wait in line to clear customs - no worse then most security lines at airports. We headed directly to the Fort Lauderdale airport and were at the check-in line by about 10:30 if not earlier - it was that quick

· Someone had mentioned that if you grabbed a case of water and threw a luggage tag on it - it would get to your room. I know people have different views on this - but we did it, tipped the valet $5 for the water and 2 pieces of luggage, and sure enough it made it to our room.

Negative:

· The staff didn't really seem to know much about the boat - not sure if they were newer staff or what but we were kind of amazed at that. Couple of examples - and note - these are very very minor and in no way did they take away from our vacation - but just because I was surprised at them I wanted to pass them on

o We only ate at the MDR once - we were so un-impressed with the food it wasn't worth it to have to put on "real" clothes to eat that food. But the one night we did eat there, I asked about the vintage of the wine - there is a big difference between spending $100 on a 2005 bottle of Caymus and a 2008 bottle of Caymus. When I asked about the year, the waiter laughed and said, verbatim "There would be no way of knowing"……..

o I understand that a lot of the staff on the boat is international, which is fantastic, but the fact that many of them barely understood English was a surprise to me. The number of times I had to repeat a meal order or request was also surprising to me. I didn't notice it as much outside of the different dining rooms but also didn't interact as much outside of the dining rooms so that could be the reason as well.

· This isn't a reference on RCI but just a point I was surprised about. I haven't done a lot of traveling abroad - but the differences in personal space was very surprising to me. During some of the parades and other events on the boat, we would show up early to get a good spot to watch from. My wife is shorter and so we normally stake out a place where she won't get blocked out - it is worth us hanging out for 15 extra minutes so she can be happy. I was amazed at how often various parents would cut in front of us to let their kids stand in the few inches between us and the railing or parade route or whatever else was in front of us. The fact that it was just accepted that because there was an inch or two there, they deserved it was something I hadn't really experienced and felt was incredibly rude. By the end of the cruise it was obvious it was a certain ethnic group and so we came to the conclusion that it is likely accepted in their culture even if it wasn't in ours - so just something to keep in mind.

· We did MTD so we had flexibility in dining options - this also meant we pre-paid tips which means the waiter we had in MTD got tipped for doing a bad job and the people who really did serve us (Windjammer staff mostly) didn't really get a piece of it. From reading another thread after we got back I found out that they rotate wait staff between the dining room and windjammer (3 weeks in dining room and 1 in Windjammer) - if that is the case then I don't feel so bad because it all works itself out. I also learned that if you sat in the same place in Windjammer you get the same waiter (didn't learn this till after cruise). We just found an open seat and sat wherever we had the best view based on where we were at and what was happening around the boat. Next time I will try and sit in same area so I can tip out the people who really did help us.

Overall we did love the cruise experience and as with anything else, we have learned more about what we liked and what we didn't like and therefore can change things up the next time we cruise - which we certainly will do again!! Hopefully this helps you out some and I will be more than happy to answer any questions anyone may have!!

[snorkelman]

Thanks for the candid review.

[uksimonusa]

Thanks for the review, just a couple of points, the coke package is the same price if booked before or on the ship, the 15% is charged both ways, the Wait staff do move around so by pre paying tips for MTD everyone gets taken care of eventually

[Ready 4 the next 1]

We were on the same cruise with you. With so many people on the ship, each experience can be very different. We were with a group of 15 family members and ate in the MDR at 6:00 each night. Our meals on the whole were very good and the service was excellent. We had purchased the wine package and, yes, we could not choose the years of each vintage, but the wines in the package were pretty predictable. The Roast beef sandwiches at the Park Cafe were great as many mentioned on Cruise Critic. They also had a smaller version of the MDR salad bar that was very good.

 

I think everyone in our group raved about the Oceanaria show. The Headliner show with Earl Turner was also great. The other shows were good. I think our group was mixed on the Comedy show.

 

We were surprised that everything you purchase seemed to have an automatic 15% tip built in. I guess that is their way of assuring that the staff does not get shorted. I don't think there was any case where we would have tipped less than that, as we consistently received good service. I often added in some extra.

 

The gym facilities were very nice. I wasn't wild about the staff there, but I go in and do my own routines anyway, so no big deal for me. I have seen smaller showers on cruise ships. The showers on Allure looked small, but were not bad once I got in. I am 6-1 and just under 200 pounds.

 

The only complaint that seemed universal was the elevators being very slow. We generally use the stairs to help burn the calories, but the waits could be pretty long especially at dinner time or going to/coming from excursions.

 

I agree that the ship itself in simply amazing. It is an incredible accomplishment for the people who designed and engineered it.

[kath00]

Thanks for the excellent review. I could have written in verbatim from my 2 recent cruises with RCCL (Mariner of the Seas Spring Break and Thanksgiving 2010). Funny how the same issues arise on various ships (and such vastly different sized ones)! But we too enjoyed our cruises and are definitely coming back for more.

 

Katherine