Allure of the Seas transatlantic from Rome, October 22 to November 6, 2015

[rafinmd]

Thank you KiwiFunCruiser, SteelMagnolia9 and Susan. Andrew, according to my Compass, Boardwalk Donuts is open 7-11AM. They did have little cardboard trays that you could use to save some for later.

 

Roy

[little britain]

Does Allure still have Boardwalk Donuts out of curiosity?

 

 

Yes but you have to get there early to get one! I think they are all gone by 8:30

 

 

Sent from my iPhone 6s using Tapatalk

[rafinmd]

When I went to Boardwalk Donuts it was after I got French Toast at Johnny Rockets so it was probably at least 9:30 and there were still plenty there.

 

FWIW, I have submitted my review to Cruise Critic. Some may agree, some may object, but it’s my opinion.

 

A lot to offer but not the ship for everyone.

 

Background: I have traditionally been a luxury or upper mainstream cruiser, and cruise for relaxation and for destination. Since retiring I have branched out and Royal Caribbean has filled primarily a niche role for me as the line of choice when I want to cruise out of my home port of Baltimore. I am more of a small ship person but was curious about the Oasis class ships. The primary obstacle for me booking them has been the limited itineraries they offer. The transatlantic seemed to me to be the right opportunity to make a first hand impression. While I am reviewing this is a single cruise, it was technically a B2B consisting of a 3-day minicruise from Rome to Barcelona and a 12-day transatlantic to Ft. Lauderdale. I had a cabin change in Barcelona.

 

Summary: I think I have high standards and don’t give out stars easily. I have had cruises where I thought there were things that were just plain wrong; this was NOT one of those. I had a wonderful time and felt that this could be the right ship for many reasonable people but not for me, and I feel much richer for having done this once but think there are better options for me for the next time.

 

Ship info: The word for this ship is BIG. It’s perhaps a bit deceiving though because the greatest difference in dimensions is width. My largest prior ship was Queen Mary 2. The 2 ships are fairly comparable in length, QM2 is only 55 feet shorter than the Allure’s 1187 feet. Allure is one or 2 decks higher but the big difference is in width, a whopping 213 feet vs QM2's 131. Even that’s not quite as simple as it seems; in effect, for most of it’s length the top 10 decks are almost like 2 70-foot wide ships separated by a 70-foot skylight. The central space is divided between Central Park midship, a quiet oasis lined on the sides by shops and restaurants, and in the aft Boardwalk, a Coney Island atmosphere complete with a carousel and fast food type restaurants. Below Central Park is the Royal Promenade, a fairly large space dotted with shops and restaurants as well as guest services.

 

Dining: Choices abound here. The dining room is on 3 levels with the lower level devoted to “mytime” dining; that is also the option for breakfast and lunch. The upper 2 levels offer early and late fixed seating. The menus are pretty much standard RCI fare. One of my disappointments with the Allure came with dinner as the table where I was assigned had no room for me, and the replacement table had no English speakers. It took a second visit to the Maitre’d to get the matter straightened out. That does not seem to be a recurring problem either on Royal Caribbean or on the Allure. Once I finally got an appropriate table MDR service was good.

 

I thought the quality of the food in the Windjammer café was below par with rubbery pancakes and french toast and runny eggs. The good news was that there were appropriate alternatives. Johnny Rockets on Boardwalk is an extra cost venue for lunch but included for breakfast and very good. The pool grill, Wipeout Café, had excellent omelets for breakfast and good hot dogs, fries, hamburgers, and pizza for lunch. Sorrentos Pizza on the Royal Promenade had pizza from noon until late night but Wipeout was just as good and I preferred the setting there.

 

While I am accustomed to early morning coffee next to the Windjammer, I learned to adjust and look for it at Café Promenade on the Royal Promenade. That worked out well as it was next to the jogging track.

 

There are a number of specialty restaurants, although I only was at 2. I enjoyed the steak at Chops Grill although I preferred Chops ocean view setting on the Enchantment. Samba Grill takes over the Solarium Bistro space in the evening and is an experience in itself. A selection of about 10 different meats come around until you tell them to stop. I enjoyed the experience but left feeling really stuffed.

 

Public Rooms: The ship is organized by “neighborhoods” and rooms are not so much of a concept. I missed having a room where large groups could socialize like Crystal’s Palm Court and Stardust club, HAL’s Crows Nest, Cunard’s Queens Rooms or even Grandeur’s South Pacific Lounge. There were a number of public rooms but they seemed small, and felt even smaller because most were spread over 2 decks. I also greatly preferred the Centrum on the Vision and Radiance Class ships to the Royal Promenade, which to me felt like a glorified shopping area.

 

Activities and entertainment: Somewhat unusual for Royal Caribbean there was an enrichment lecturer on the cruise who spoke about the movie industry. While it was nice, it was still much less than I had on my 7-day Cunard crossing. We also had a priest onboard who did a daily Mass and also an interdenominational service on Sunday. He proved to be a good fit for an ecumenical service. There are 3 or 4 major entertainment venues. A small comedy club has 2 sessions most nights. Studio B is an ice rink where a skating production, Ice Games based around the game of Monopoly is presented. The outdoor Aqua Theater at the stern presented a show of acrobatics, diving, and gymnastics weather and sea conditions permitting. The Amber Theater is the major showplace and holds events most evenings and also a few matinees. There is one full length musical presented, Mama Mia on the Allure. Most of the shows were based on a reservation system but I could find no reliable confirmation of what was reserved. There was allegedly a “calendar” on the interactive TV but it was often just plain wrong showing reservations when there were no shows booked. For one show I was turned away because they claimed I had no reservation and I had no backup documentation to prove I did. Lesson learned, take a photograph of anything you give the entertainment team to back up reservations.

 

 

Fitness: The fitness center appeared to be well equipped although I did not use it.

 

 

Children: I was surprised that on a 12 day voyage there were over 150 children on board. I was not involved with the youth program but it appeared to be well run and the children seemed to be enjoying pleasant activities.

 

Service and Crew: Service was generally efficient, friendly, and courteous.

 

Disembarkation: Disembarkation from the 2014 Oasis Transatlantic was generally a disaster. It looks like Royal Caribbean and/or CPB have learned from that experience as this year’s experience was MUCH better. The ship arrived early with crew immigration processed in the 4-6AM time frame. Many cruisers opted for self disembarkation and that appears to have gone very well. I opted to take a tour of Ft. Lauderdale which ended at the airport, and was assigned luggage tag number 1. We left pretty promptly at 8AM. I think the one remaining complication of TA disembarkation is that people carry much more baggage than on a normal 7 day cruise and the space for claiming bags was very crowded. I had some difficulty locating my bags but was on the coach at 8:40 and driving away at 9. Despite heavy traffic from the Ft. Lauderdale Boat Show the tour stayed on time and we were at FLL by 1PM and MIA by 2 as promised.

 

Recap: While I had a wonderful time on this cruise it felt for me more like a unique experience than something on my must repeat list. The chief things that I found less than stellar were the lack of large rooms for socializing, the entertainment and activities geared towards cruisers much younger than me, and the limited ports capable of supporting this ship. Still, the only opinion that matters is yours. Unlike some cruises I entered with higher expectations there was little or nothing here that I thought no reasonable person would like. It was definitely worth finding out for myself. I expect most of my future RCI cruises will be on Vision and Radiance class ships but I also booked a cruise on the Anthem. I suspect that will be a one-time-only thing, but if it turns out like this did I will have no regrets.

 

 

Ratings:

Embarkation - 5

Public rooms - 3

Cabin - 5

Fitness & Recreation - 5

Enrichment - 3

Rates - 4

Dining - 4

Entertainment - 4

Service - 4

Shorex - 3

Value - 5

Overall - 3

 

 

Civitavecchia (Rome):The port of Civitavecchia is about an hour’s drive or train ride from Rome. I spent 4 days in Rome pre-cruise and could easily have spent more. Highlights for me were the Pantheon, Vatican, Forum, and Coliseum, and just a vibrant, interesting city to walk around. I spent some time in Civitavecchia in 2010 but not this time. It is a very nice small town without a lot of “sights”. The walk around the beach is very nice.

 

Naples:I had a private tour arranged through my roll call to Pompey and the Amfali coast through Miles and Miles who did a very nice job. Mt. Vesuvius is also a very nice option.

 

Barcelona: This was my turnaround day, and I spent most of my time first visiting a laundromat, Wash & Dry in Barcelona and unpacking in my new cabin. The laundromat was a bit on the expensive side but fine except that it gets very busy when 2 big ships are in town. I’ve taken city tours twice and Royal offered an excursion to Montserrat that I might have taken if not changing cabins.

Malaga: I had a ship’s tour to Mirbella, a charming but not overwhelming city about an hour from Malaga. On a previous call there I visited the Caves of Nerja, quite a nice choice.

Ft. Lauderdale: I took a disembarkation tour which, in addition to a drive around the city neighborhoods included a walk through the city’s riverwalk and a 90 minute boat tour of the harbor and the city’s canal. The tour ended at 1 at Ft. Lauderdale airport or at 2 at Miami airport

 

Cabin: Most of the time I was in 11719, a balcony overlooking Boardwalk. It was nice because about 40 degrees of my field of view was the ocean. It was well appointed with 4 US and 1 european outlets, a mini-cooler, and wide desk. Most of the cabins are set up in pairs with adjoining doors. The common wall has a little jog where the cabin to the right is about a foot wider at the balcony end than at the hallway end. The bed is placed in the wider section and I found the cabins with the bed near the balcony suit me better than having the bed nearer the door; in that case I found the bed made access to the closet a bit awkward. For the first 3 days I was in 10183, a Central Park view balcony. The balcony was nice but offered only interior and sky views. The bed in that cabin was annoyingly close to the closet.

 

Roy

[JamesEM]

Thanks for your review.