Allure 6/22 Eastern Quick Review

jaredgold33 · July 2, 2014

Hello all,

Just thought I would give back to CC a little by posting a small quick review from my Allure cruise. There is (at least one) other report already on here from this cruise so I'll keep mine short and sweet (I said I would TRY...)

DISCLAIMER: There won't be any pictures or food porn. Sorry :(

Plenty of food reviews though!

Background: This was our 5th cruise (all on RC I should mention). Back in 2011, we did Allure. The next year we did Oasis, and just last week did Allure again. For some unknown reason, we just happen to like Allure better. Perhaps it's because it's newer or just a tad longer than Oasis (lol!) but in general we've had a better experience on that ship.

The reason I really wanted to write this review is because we did this ship three years ago and since then, there have been many many changes (*cough* cutbacks *cough*) and I just wanted to give my opinions on them and how it affected our cruise.

Itinerary: We really love Labadee and Nassau (only because we all enjoy the Atlantis waterpark) and wished that they were both on the same itinerary. Obviously we can't have both on the same cruise (unless we B2B....) so we decided to do Eastern because we prefer St Thomas and Maarten over Cozumel and Jamaica.

Embarkation: As usual, RC has embarkation down to a science with the Oasis ships. No issues here, typical check-in process, lines weren't too bad, etc. No complaints :)

Cruise Crowd: Definitely a mix of people as usual with these ships, from young to old and everyone in between. There were a lot of kids but that's expected because of school just letting out for most. Overall the kids weren't an issue. As another poster mentioned, there was a large Hispanic/Brazilian crowd. This was interesting during the World Cup games, the On Air club and Champagne Bar played the games and it was barely standing room only in both venues. During the last day of the cruise, Brazil won their match, and all the Brazilians paraded around the ship with whistles, screaming, etc. Woke me up beside the pool but not an issue otherwise. Also, it seemed like there were many more Asian families onboard than usual (hence why RC seems to be sending more ships over to China).

Stateroom: We had two connecting oceanview balcony rooms on the 10th floor near the forward elevators. We had these same exact rooms on every Oasis class ship because we like the location. Our stateroom attendant was Leonardo and was THE BEST we have ever had on any cruise. Very nice (always asking how our day was, what we did) , very accommodating, only had to ask him once for something and he'd provide it every night, etc. He'd even tidy up a little bit around the room (folding blankets we got from home, etc). He's a very hard worker and again, the best attendant we've ever had.

Ports of Call: (all excursions were booked through the ship)

In Nassau we did Atlantis Aquaventure. Expensive but the only way to go to Atlantis Aquaventure on a RC tour. It was fun, rained a little during the day but didn't ruin our experience. We did this tour on our Oasis trip a couple years ago, no complaints here.

In St. Thomas we did Secret Sands Beach Exclusive and Skyline Drive. DO THIS EXCURSION IF YOU GO TO ST. THOMAS. The beach is absolutely beautiful and quiet, and we only had maybe 20 others on our tour. There's restrooms as well as free beer, sodas and water, rum and cokes, and small snacks. This was probably the best beach excursion I have ever done, so happy I picked it. The tour guides were also exceptionally nice (perhaps it's because the excursion is very new to RC ;) ). In any case, definitely try out this tour. On the way back, they take you to a cliffside overlooking the Allure on one side of the island and other cruise ships on the other side. There's also some souvenir stands there (got a hat for $5). You can opt to be dropped off in town and return at your own expense if you wish, otherwise they drop you right back by the ship. My only complaint is that I wish this tour was longer, we only had a couple hours at the beach. I might book this excursion back to back to get more beach time next trip.

In St. Maarten, we tried the Rhino Rider excursion. It was fun, I really wanted to do Jet Skis but unlike in Labadee, RC doesn't offer a Jet Ski tour, only the Rhino Riders. Which was fine, I didn't mind trying something new. Other than a man who kept cutting me off because he didn't know how to drive the darn thing, the excursion was fun. There is a beach stop for 30mins where you can snorkel or go to the beach. They only provide the snorkel equipment and a bottle of water, so don't plan on, laying down at the beach. 2 things to note here: if you have kids, use your discretion as the beach is adjacent to a nudist area. There were some nude people walking around but they generally stayed far away from us. Also, you leave your boats in the water and you have to swim a little bit to the beach if you want to go there and not snorkel.

Food: Here is where it will get interesting. Like I said, I went on Allure a few years ago and there have been some changes to the food onboard since then. Before I begin, I just want to state that these are solely my opinions, you may have your own, but please respect mine :D

MDR: We always have our TA request 4th floor seating but for some reason, we got stuck on the 3rd floor in the worst place you could possibly imagine. Like it was a table thrown in the middle of the waiter's paths basically. It was just awful. Our waiter was subpar, our asst waiter was AWFUL. Needless to say we moved to the 4th floor for the rest of the nights and were placed with Cornell (waiter) and Clestine (asst waiter) and both were THE BEST waiters we've ever had. They both had awesome personalities and were always accommodating and making sure we liked our entrees. I know waiters and asst waiters don't always work together but in the future I would request both of them again if possible.

This is the first time we tried the new menus they rolled out. It seemed like their starters got better, but I have to say, I was a bit disappointed in the new entrees. Out of the 5 nights we dined in the MDR, I ordered off the "unchanging" menu at least 3 or 4 nights because I didn't care for the entrees. Something to note, there was no surf and turf night. I've seen it on the new menus here on CC so I'm not sure what happened but our waiter said there was no longer a surf and turf night. Same goes for the desserts, I was disappointed in these. These desserts seemed more, well, gelatinous/moussy than before (overall too, not just limited to the MDR). Great if you like those desserts but I'd rather have a nice chocolate cake (which they did have one night but it wasn't the best). The Chocolate Sensation was usually my go-to. It was good, but also moussy and it looks a lot better than it tastes. Still one of the better desserts though. In all honesty, the best dessert I had the entire cruise was when I decided to get room service the last night and I got a Chocolate Pear Tart. This was soooo good, reminded me of the old Chops Mud Pie a little bit (more on that later.....)

Rita's Cantina: We LOVE Mexican food and didn't try Rita's on our last trip so we figured we'd give it a go. All week there were only a few people in there at a time EXCEPT on the last day (when we decided to go, of course). The entire place was filled and there was a line going out the door. We tried it, it was okay. I like more authentic stuff, which I didn't really expect from this place anyway. It was definitely like On The Border type food. If you like that, give it a shot! I wouldn't do it again though, maybe just for nachos (since they got rid of those from the wipeout cafe.......)

Park Cafe: Always crowded, but VERY good foods. Love the McMuffin style sandwiches in the AM, love the paninis, make your own salad, Roast Beef sandwiches, etc. A solid food place and one of the best on the ship. Even the desserts aren't half bad! Only complaint is that it is crowded a lot and that it doesn't have evening hours.

Windjammer: Eh. That's all I have to say. Good for breakfast and snacks in between (and Coke cup refills) but there's better places onboard. Never found the place overly crowded but I didn't eat there too much.

Wipeout Cafe: Another good place, has typical "teen" foods like burgers, fries, hotdogs. I like how they now have some wraps and make your own chicken caesar salad. Also has a Freestyle machine (broken the last few days) and a froyo machine. Not bad for some snacks.

Cafe Promenade: Decent food but again there's better onboard. Only reason I go there is for some desserts and because nothing else is open 24/7. Biggest complaint of all: the only place you can get regular chocolate chip cookies and they only have them on ONE day. Don't know why this is, but every other day it's subpar sugar free chocolate chip. I was able to get regular from room service but the Cafe Promenade should have them more often.

Chops: The only specialty restaurant we did. They just introduced the new menu 3 weeks ago. It was very bad compared to the old menu. We didn't care for many of the starters and sides, although the steak (Filet Mignon) was still very good. Desserts were a lot smaller than before and our favorite Mud Pie was no longer a great tasting pie but a gelatinous piece of bleh. That's a little too harsh, it was good, but nowhere near what the old mud pie used to be. Before we did Chops at least twice, now I could do a cruise without stepping foot into Chops thanks to this new menu. Don't know what RC is trying to do here. Even our waiter expressed his dismay at the new menu and hinted that pretty much everyone had negative feelings towards it.

Boardwalk Hot Dogs: All I can say is Coney Island Dog with sauteed onions mmmmmmmmmm..........

Boardwalk Donuts: Good, but I tend not to like RC's donuts anyway. I guess I'm expecting Krispy Kreme or Dunkin Donuts.....

Shows: We didn't see Chicago as we don't like the show in general, we'd much rather see Hairspray (except it's going away for Cats:mad: . We saw OceanAria (great as always), the Ice Show (not bad but hate the storyline), Blue Planet (pretty cool), Love and Marriage (Excellent as always), Quest (hilarious as always but I can't talk about it per the rules), and the Comedy Show (HILARIOUS!!!). Allan Brooks was our CD, I was hoping to have Ken Rush because he seems very much talked about on CC and I never had him before but they changed CD's two weeks before I went onboard. Turns out to be a blessing in disguise, Allan was really funny and a great CD! Always was passionate and hilarious and overall one of the better CD's I've had.

Misc.

Elevators seemed more crowded then usual but I got over it :p

For prospective Oasis/Allure/Oasis3 people, aside from embarkation, debarkation, after shows, and in elevators, the ship is definitely no more crowded, even feels less crowded than other class ships. Don't let that be something that's holding you back from going on one of these magnificent ships.

I didn't really touch on the food cutbacks much but here is a quick comment: it's much harder to find fresh berries onboard, only fresh cut fruit available is the honeydews/melons, pineapple, and watermelon. Name brand yogurt also got tossed out the door, and I already ranted about the desserts.

This was my first time using the Freestyle machines and they worked great. Although some machines were broken at times, they were never really out of a certain syrup as other CC posters have mentioned. However, because the machines were available, it seemed like some of the bartenders were pissy about getting you a soda when you could get it from the machines (even though you needed your cup for it to work.....)

Finally, the ongoing chair hog conversation.....people were NASTY with pool chairs on sea days. A spanish couple next to me got in a fight with a lady over pool chairs....never had this happen with the old towel policy (read: towels are now out everywhere "reserving" people's precious pool chairs by 10 am on sea days. All I can say is it was a little disheartening to see people act this way but it is what it is. And to the contrary of some other reports, I never saw pool attendants remove someone's stuff from a chair after 30mins.

Overall I had an awesome time sailing the world's largest passenger ship once again. It was a great experience and I had some of the best service ever. Thanks to CC for sharing some tips with me that made this vacation extra special. I don't have any cruise plans for the future, I may do Quantum out of NJ because I can drive to that port. I am in love with the Oasis class though...if only they sent one up here to NJ.....(if only....). I do plan on doing Allure again at some point in the future however.

Thank you very much for reading this review. I will add to it if I think of anything else I missed.

Feel free to give feedback, comment, or ask questions. I'd love to hear from y'all!

EbayCruiser · July 2, 2014

I enjoyed your review .... we are cruising on Allure in Sept. Can't Wait!!

We have a boardwalk cabin (a first) but we are hoping to upgrade if the prices drop after final payment.

kftw · July 2, 2014

Thank you for your review. You might have swayed me to try a larger ship. ;)

Lionesss · July 3, 2014

Thank you for your review.

Enjoyed reading it.

I hope the food has a better taste to it in a couple weeks.......can only hope.

Chair hogs............wow...........imagine that.........never did I think that:D

Thanks again.

Sea Ya

FishOn55 · July 3, 2014

Another thank you for your review. Haven't sailed on Oasis class yet...but I definitely will be during the next year.

Have sailed most recently on Independence of the Seas, I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of the desserts. There was not 1 decent dessert on that cruise. The next to the last night of the cruise I asked the Maitre'd if it was possible to make something chocolate for my last night on board. Much to my surprise he delivered a very rich chocolate dessert to me on the last night. So they definitely have the capability to provide the desserts if they want to!

Hope the dessert situation changes for the better soon! :)

KirkNC · July 3, 2014

Thanks for the report!

rcsailing · July 3, 2014

Could you board the Allure before the time set for you? We usually board early around 11:00-11:30

CyberTag · July 3, 2014

We just got off the same sailing and agree with a lot of your comments. We had 6 pm dining on the 3rd floor. We missed dinner in the dining room the 1st night (had to watch the USA soccer game). Our assigned table was in an absolutely horrible location. We were in the middle of the dining room at a table for 5. It was sooo loud we couldn't have a conversation with the person next to us. It was horrible. We changed to a different table the next night, and while the location was better and quieter, the service was not great. The waiter and asst waiter seemed overwhelmed and kept commenting on how busy they were. We all felt the food in the MDR was just okay, but definitely nothing special.

We went to Giovanni's on the last night and it was the best meal we had all week! The food was delicious! We were given a coupon for 20% off at Giovanni's when we played Bingo, and it was worth the $20 surcharge.

JamesEM · July 3, 2014

Thanks for your review, will be on the Allure this Oct.

Keith1010 · July 3, 2014

Very nice review. I enjoyed reading it.

Keith

ParadiseTattoo · July 3, 2014

Thanks for your review

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lovecrusing4life · July 3, 2014

Thank you very much for your review! Leaving for Allure in a 17 days!

jaredgold33 · July 3, 2014

Could you board the Allure before the time set for you? We usually board early around 11:00-11:30

We planned on arriving very early to the port but were delayed due to a medical emergency. Thankfully the urgent care center we stopped at was able to fix our issue:)

However, we didn't end up arriving until 12:30-1. Hopefully someone else can chime in with an answer!

GEMomTo3 · July 3, 2014

Stateroom: We had two connecting oceanview balcony rooms on the 10th floor near the forward elevators. We had these same exact rooms on every Oasis class ship because we like the location. Our stateroom attendant was Leonardo and was THE BEST we have ever had on any cruise. Very nice (always asking how our day was, what we did) , very accommodating, only had to ask him once for something and he'd provide it every night, etc. He'd even tidy up a little bit around the room (folding blankets we got from home, etc). He's a very hard worker and again, the best attendant we've ever had.

Where are the doors for the connecting stateroom? I have been trying to find a picture of how connecting balcony staterooms look bc we are traveling in a set in March of 2015 - did they both have as full sofa - I read somewhere that the connecting rooms only have a single armchair but haven't had anyone complain about this so wasn't sure if this was standard or just a one off

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PuterMonkey · July 3, 2014

The only thing *really* holding me back from trying these ships is having to fly. It seems like you hear nothing but good reviews about them though.

Clarea · July 3, 2014

Where are the doors for the connecting stateroom? I have been trying to find a picture of how connecting balcony staterooms look bc we are traveling in a set in March of 2015 - did they both have as full sofa - I read somewhere that the connecting rooms only have a single armchair but haven't had anyone complain about this so wasn't sure if this was standard or just a one off

Voyager/Freedom class connecting balcony staterooms have the connecting door in the sofa/loveseat area, so the door causes a furniture change.

On Oasis/Allure, the connecting door on a balcony stateroom is in the short hallway before you get into the main part of the stateroom, so no furniture is affected.

jaredgold33 · July 3, 2014

Where are the doors for the connecting stateroom? I have been trying to find a picture of how connecting balcony staterooms look bc we are traveling in a set in March of 2015 - did they both have as full sofa - I read somewhere that the connecting rooms only have a single armchair but haven't had anyone complain about this so wasn't sure if this was standard or just a one off

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Clarea is right, both rooms are unaffected furniture-wise by the connecting door in the small hallway area. Also you can have the stateroom attendant call someone to unlock the door between your balconies so you get more room out there!

njmomof2 · July 3, 2014

Thanks for your review.

I found your comment about only being able to get the regular chocolate chip cookies one day and the rest of the time only sugar free CC cookies funny. We sailed Oasis in April. I wanted the SF cookies. However, they only appeared 1 day and then were gone. Regular CC cookies...everywhere. The only SF ones were lemon.

I can't really comment on the desserts as I was in the middle of a new eating plan which meant limiting my sugar intake dramatically. But all this talk that the desserts have become mostly gelatin based makes me happy I missed them. Ended up losing 6 lbs over the cruise so that's a good thing.

Edited July 3, 2014 by njmomof2

Cmiles1013 · July 3, 2014

Sailing allure end of the month. What tips from cc helped you most? Gotten so many tips hard to remember all

~Cheryl

gawn · July 3, 2014

We were also on this sailing.

I agree with you about the food. We ate in the main dining room only twice. Our servers, Ted and Florabeth, were great. But, the food, not so much.

We also ate at the Samba grill and Chops. Samba grill was not good at all. Chops was ok.

We also did the Secret Sands excursion. It was great. Everyone there was very helpful and friendly.

We had a Boardwalk balcony on Deck 9. No problems at all with noise.

Deeliteful · July 3, 2014

Thanks for the review - I have put my recommends on a separate thread.

I know it is such a personal thing but I have to disagree re MDR, we ate there 5 out of 7 nights and thought the food was excellent. Beautiful seafood dishes, excellent steaks and rack of lamb and I enjoyed delicious puddings - chocolate soufflé with hot sauce being my favourite.

Enjoyed Chops and Izumi too.

Deeliteful · July 3, 2014

PS we were on the same cruise! Our servers were excellent , led by Devon our waiter.

traveline · July 3, 2014

Thank you for posting your review. I first cruised in 1987, and have done about 25 cruises. I have cruised with Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess, Norwegian, Celebrity, and Holland America numerous times and all of the cruise lines have changed. The world has changed. Cuts have been made .It's about turning a profit. Nothing will be the same. Cruises are still a wonderful way to enjoy your vacation. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews. Cruise and be happy.