Just off Allure Jan. 18/15

[Dee777]

Hello. Just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on our recent week on the Allure. I'll try to make it short, sweet and to the point. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them.

 

Check in: Check in was fast, efficient and very friendly. We were in a JS, went through the suite line and were on ship in about 20 minutes after arriving at the port at 11:00 am.

 

Stateroom: We stayed in Junior Suite 9240, steward was Reynaldo. Suite was lovely, very clean and well maintained. Balcony was outfitted with two chairs, a round table, a lounge chair and a reclining chair with stool. Reynaldo kept things sparkling for us. Previously we had only cruised with Carnival and were used to a towel animal every night. However, we had come back to the room only three nights to towel animals. Oh well! He was a busy guy and near as we could tell did not have an assistant as he was the only person we ever saw doing rooms in our section.

 

Shows: We obviously dropped the ball with reservations as we never were never able to get any. Should have called sooner, I guess. Not used to reserving shows on a cruise.

 

Casino: What can I say? The pay outs are not good :) They have a lovely large casino and we had fun there. We are non smokers and found it to be a bit overwhelming even on the non smoking side at times.

 

MDR: We ate in the MDR the first 3 nights. Then we gave up, and I will explain why. I have Celiac disease and must refrain from eating gluten. There are selections on the menu daily that can be ordered gluten free. I went to see the maitre'd upon boarding. He told me to order from the menu that first night and then after supper they would come take my order for the next day, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Anything I wanted. After the meal, I waited for someone to come. Finally our server came and I asked him. He said oh no that starts tomorrow. We'll tomorrow same deal followed. I had virtually no selection besides creme brule or sugar free vanilla ice cream that could be considered completely gluten free every night. At the WJ buffet, the chefs brought me whatever I wanted from the back to avoid cross contamination, but my dessert selection there was poor too. Jello or a cookie. Yay.

 

Sorrento's: Pizza was great. GF pizza was OK too. Thin, and only cheese and sauce, but better than nothing.

 

Johnny Rockets: They rocked with gluten free!!! Couldn't have the fries or onion rings, but they had GF buns and the burgers were GF.

 

The Allure is a beautiful ship. Some of the staff were wonderful. Some were downright miserable. The ports were ok, we did Jamaica, Haiti and Cozumel. I wouldn't care to go to Labadee Haiti again, it seemed more of a Royal Caribbean money grab to us, and as my DH put it, we went a long way for nothing there. We toured Chichen Itza in Mexico and that was pretty amazing. In Jamaica we did the Hope Plantation tour, also very amazing.

 

Prior to this cruise as I mentioned previously we'd cruised with Carnival. We've done Eastern, Western, Southern Caribbean, Hawaii, and Panama. We are in our very early 50's. Carnival has always done their very best to ensure I get to eat like everybody else in a safe manner and they seem to have more to offer us in general with shows that interest us. They really are the fun ships! We tried RC, really wished we'd liked it better but could have done 14 day Panama with Carnival for the same price if they still did that cruise. Anyway, that's my experience with them. Flame if you must, but be gentle with me :)

[Natmom]

Thank you for your review. I have celiac disease as well and I am concerned about the very thing you mentioned. I have booked several specialty restaurants with the hopes of being taken care of with the gluten free issue. Did you try any specialty restaurants?

 

 

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[jewel825]

Hello. Just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on our recent week on the Allure. I'll try to make it short, sweet and to the point. If you have any questions I will do my best to answer them.

 

Check in: Check in was fast, efficient and very friendly. We were in a JS, went through the suite line and were on ship in about 20 minutes after arriving at the port at 11:00 am.

 

Stateroom: We stayed in Junior Suite 9240, steward was Reynaldo. Suite was lovely, very clean and well maintained. Balcony was outfitted with two chairs, a round table, a lounge chair and a reclining chair with stool. Reynaldo kept things sparkling for us. Previously we had only cruised with Carnival and were used to a towel animal every night. However, we had come back to the room only three nights to towel animals. Oh well! He was a busy guy and near as we could tell did not have an assistant as he was the only person we ever saw doing rooms in our section.

 

Shows: We obviously dropped the ball with reservations as we never were never able to get any. Should have called sooner, I guess. Not used to reserving shows on a cruise.

 

Casino: What can I say? The pay outs are not good :) They have a lovely large casino and we had fun there. We are non smokers and found it to be a bit overwhelming even on the non smoking side at times.

 

MDR: We ate in the MDR the first 3 nights. Then we gave up, and I will explain why. I have Celiac disease and must refrain from eating gluten. There are selections on the menu daily that can be ordered gluten free. I went to see the maitre'd upon boarding. He told me to order from the menu that first night and then after supper they would come take my order for the next day, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Anything I wanted. After the meal, I waited for someone to come. Finally our server came and I asked him. He said oh no that starts tomorrow. We'll tomorrow same deal followed. I had virtually no selection besides creme brule or sugar free vanilla ice cream that could be considered completely gluten free every night. At the WJ buffet, the chefs brought me whatever I wanted from the back to avoid cross contamination, but my dessert selection there was poor too. Jello or a cookie. Yay.

 

Sorrento's: Pizza was great. GF pizza was OK too. Thin, and only cheese and sauce, but better than nothing.

 

Johnny Rockets: They rocked with gluten free!!! Couldn't have the fries or onion rings, but they had GF buns and the burgers were GF.

 

The Allure is a beautiful ship. Some of the staff were wonderful. Some were downright miserable. The ports were ok, we did Jamaica, Haiti and Cozumel. I wouldn't care to go to Labadee Haiti again, it seemed more of a Royal Caribbean money grab to us, and as my DH put it, we went a long way for nothing there. We toured Chichen Itza in Mexico and that was pretty amazing. In Jamaica we did the Hope Plantation tour, also very amazing.

 

Prior to this cruise as I mentioned previously we'd cruised with Carnival. We've done Eastern, Western, Southern Caribbean, Hawaii, and Panama. We are in our very early 50's. Carnival has always done their very best to ensure I get to eat like everybody else in a safe manner and they seem to have more to offer us in general with shows that interest us. They really are the fun ships! We tried RC, really wished we'd liked it better but could have done 14 day Panama with Carnival for the same price if they still did that cruise. Anyway, that's my experience with them. Flame if you must, but be gentle with me :)

 

Thanks for your review! Why would anyone flame you for writing an honest open review? I don't see anything wrong with preferring Carnival. They have taken care of your needs better than Royal. I have been on 3 different cruise lines and loved every cruise. There are certain things I liked about one line that were better than another. I love the variety of trying new lines and checking out what's out there. I'm sorry you weren't able to see any of the shows. Royal really does a great job on the Allure with Chicago and the water show. Amazing really.

 

I can't even imagine the stress of eating a GF diet when you have no control over someone else making it and hoping it comes out to you the way it should be. I hope you enjoy your next cruise wherever it takes you. I would love to do the Panama Canal one of these days also. :)

[robcaryh]

We just came off Allure on 1/18 as well.Will probably be our last cruise.Labadee and Jamaica absolutely sucked.The locals were aggressive and simply ruined both ports for us. The dining staff was great.The casino would have been fun had we been able to breathe. Its ashame they ruin a great ship by allowing smoking in the casino,I guess money is more important to them.They could at least have some sort of ventilation,but saying half is non smoking is an absolute joke. The pools were great until the staff allowed a kid in a wheelchair-wearing a diaper-in the pool.Sorry but I don't want to swim in urine and poop.They don't let babies in diapers in the pool,why they would let an adult in is beyond me.Went to the beach pool at 8am,all the chairs were covered with towels and no one there with them or in the pool.Told staff about it,they could have cared less.So much for no reserving chairs.

 

The ship is beautiful,the shows were good.The food was good as usual.This is our 4th cruise and as expensive as things are,there simply is no value in cruising. Maybe the ports just ruined it for us,we did Oasis in 2012 eastern and it was the best time we have ever had. I just feel much vacation regret over this one,I feel we would have been better off saving the $4k we spent on it.

[Cruiser421]

We also just returned from this sailing and found it to be one of the best we've had in 18 Cruises. This was the second time we sailed the Allure...first time was the Eastern itinerary. We still absolutely loved the ship and the service.

My husband also has Celiac disease and he had no issues at all in the Main Dining Room when ordering his meals. Our waitress Mary had Gluten Free Bread waiting for my husband at our table every night! She also had the head waiter come to our table every night to give my husband the next nights menu options for Gluten Free and then took his order for the next night. We told Royal when we booked the cruise of my husbands Gluten Allergy which I would suggest doing for anyone with celiac.

We did do Samba Grill one night and they too were amazing with the Gluten allergy. We were seated for less than a minute and our waiter instantly asked which one of us had the Gluten Allergy...he then had the Chef come to our table to discuss what my husbands options were as well as walked us through the appetizer Buffett and showed him what he could have. Impeccable service all around and no complaints!

Shows were all amazing! My favorites are ocean aria and blue planet. We didn't do Chicago as we did it in 2012...great show but wanted a free night! Pre booking is the way to go...definitely take the cruise lines advice and book before you leave.

 

As far as the ports go... The last time I had done the Western itinerary was in 1996 on board the Majesty and I will admit I was hesitant as I wasn't impressed back then. To my surprise, we really enjoyed the ports. I feel Labadee is great now... So much more to offer than the 90's! We didn't spend any extra money... Got off the ship and relaxed at Nelly's Beach...we considered doing the zip line, but we didn't the free one on the ship, so we were happy. Yes they do have other options for an extra fee, but there's plenty of other free options....soaking up the sun and relaxing!

Falmouth Jamaica I was the most hesitant about, knowing how we felt years ago when we did Ocho Rios, however after reading reviews about the secure port area we decided to get off for a bit and I am glad we did. We didn't go outside the gates of the port as many have said its not safe, but inside the port we found just enough to do with some nice shops, margaritaville, etc... We got back on board about 2 and enjoyed the partially empty ship!

Cozumel was ok... Not my favorite but we really had a nice day. If we are to go again I would do an excursion so we could experience more than downtown.

We did purchase the alcohol package at $49 per person per day, we also did it on freedom in 2013 right after it launched. We thought it was worth it for us, but my parents chose not to do it. If your questioning it, I'd say do the math and if you think it'll be worth it then go for it.

For us, best cruise, staff and ship. My parents booked same itinerary, ship for next year while on board. This was their first time on This class and they loved it too. My husband and I would do Allure again for sure... Next cruise for us will be Jewel doing the Southern Caribbean... But I know we will be back on an Oasis class again!

 

 

 

 

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Edited January 23, 2015 by Cruiser421