I love Princess, would I like Royal Caribbean Allure?

[debshomespun]

We have sailed Caribbean Princess and Grand Princess, and also the Oasis and the Allure. We felt the experience on the RC ships are better than on the Princess ships. Even though the Oasis and Allure have many more passengers, there is a much better flow of cruisers as there is a better passenger/space ratio than on the Princess ships. While on the Grand last week, it seemed it was very crowded (almost too crowded at times). There was not enough seats in the Theater or the lounge for the shows. If you didn't get to the location more than 30 minutes before the start of a show, then there would be no more room for that show. Also, the pool area and decks just above the pool were very crowded. On the Oasis/Allure, you can make your own soft serve ice cream cone. It needs to be done by the staff on Princess. In our opinion, there is no comparison on the quality of the entertainment. Oasis/Allure wins HANDS DOWN! And the ice shows are fantastic!

 

I think you would have a wonderful cruise on the Allure. You should try it yourself and enjoy!

[capsoncc]

We cruised on Allure in January for my Birthday, and I thought the ship was amazing. You don’t really get the idea how big it is until you are in port next to another ship that you used to think was large. I am not sure if the seas were just extremely calm when we were on the ship, but I couldn’t even tell we were at sea most times since it was so smooth. I have always felt some sort of motion on most other cruise ships, albeit mild most times.

The entertainment was the best I have seen on any cruise ship. We attended the water show and I thought that was great, we also attended the comedy club which I thought was very funny, and we even attended a second night. Generally I find the comedians on board have watered down their act, but not in this case. This is out of the ordinary for us since we do not always take part in the entertainment on cruise ships anymore since we do not find it as enjoyable as we did on our first few cruises.

I thought the Royal Promenade, Central Park, and Boardwalk were just amazing to see. We also ate at most of the specialty restaurants, which we do not generally do, but since it was a special occasion we decided to. It is also great that the ship has large LCD screens everywhere to tell you wait times at the restaurants, and to tell you how to get to a particular venue on the ship.

I do think like some have mentioned it always seems like they are trying to sell you something, more than I have experienced on other cruises. i.e. Eat at specially restaurants, visit the cupcake cupboard, etc. Like any other cruise you can still have a great time without spending all the money on the extra perks. One negative thing I do have to say then when we went to try and eat at the buffet a few times and it was way too crowded, since it isn’t big enough for the number of passengers. I am wondering if they do that purposely so that people would go eat at some of the pay restaurants.

I have only been on two RCL cruises, but I find their Superior Ocean View Balcony cabins bigger then balcony cabins on Princess Ships, and I also think they might be bigger than Mini-Suites on princess ships, at less of a premium. That being said we paid a premium to go on Allure since the prices have been stayed pretty high.

I would definitely recommended going on this ship once. Like I tell everyone I was really happy that we went on it, but I can’t see this being the type of ship I would go on continuously, especially since there isn’t really many ports it can visit because of its size.

One tip/warning about booking shows onboard, just because they show as sold out online and can’t book them you should still try and go get tickets while onboard. We did this and were able to attend all the shows we wanted to.

[shepp]

While on the Grand last week, it seemed it was very crowded (almost too crowded at times). There was not enough seats in the Theater or the lounge for the shows. If you didn't get to the location more than 30 minutes before the start of a show, then there would be no more room for that show.

 

I'm not being a cheerleader, but I do wish people wouldn't generalize quite so blithely. We were on the Grand this month, had late traditional seating, and went to the shows that fit our schedule. There were always plenty of seats in the Princess Theater at the nearly last minute, except for the crew show, which had just one showtime.

 

Yes, the Vista Lounge, with its lousy sightlines, was another matter, but when we got there 25 minutes before the Motown show, we got front-row seats.