Allure Report - 16 Months in the Making

[LuCruise]

Great report - thanks! We're back on the Allure for Thanksgiving this year, after sailing the Med on Allure last summer. I'll have to try out the Solarium for breakfast this time - we ate a lot of our breakfasts at Wipeout Cafe last time and that always worked out pretty well.

 

Looking forward to Blue Planet this time - the show wasn't playing while Allure was in Europe.

 

Good to know about Wipout Cafe. As mentioned, we never actually tried it (outside of grabbing a drink), but have heard their omelettes are great.

 

Have a great cruise. Blue Planet is really beautiful...different, but neat.

[LuCruise]

Some Final Thoughts

 

What can I say, but wow, what an amazing ship! Yes, the ship is huge but you don't really feel it as Royal does a great job at managing the crowds. There's just so much to do and different meal options that not everyone is at the same locations at once. This also leads to having more than one show option a night, which really isn't a bad thing. You can pre-book (which is great for me as I'm a planner...had a spreadsheet and 70 page word document...lol). But aside from the comedy show, no show that we went to was full. So someone who doesn't like to plan, could have just shown up right before it started and gotten in. You just won't have your first pick of seats but it can be done.

 

With the ship's size, I also, I found that we felt the ship less than the other Royal and Disney cruise. Our last day was rocking the most, and even that you didn't notice too much except when at the show or dinner, which are on lower decks. I think it helped that our stateroom was on deck 7 (so fairly centered top to bottom), and we were quite centered front to back.

 

The only "problem" with going on a ship such as Allure is how do you book next? I think for us, if we went smaller we might be disappointed (especially if coming with kids as they would need things to do, Broadway and fancy shows, etc). Having said that, I don't know that I would want to book the Allure again, since we would have the exact same shows (well, aside from Mamma Mia as I could always see that a 25th time...he he). So when we came home I looked at the cost of The Harmony of the Seas. :D . I'm planning our next vacation. We did promise our kids another Disney trip so that will probably be next, but a cruise is most likely in our future again, and I'll be keeping my eye open on the Harmony. Thanks Royal for a fantastic vacation...and thanks to all you on here for the great advice during the planning stage in the 16 months leading up to our cruise.

Edited May 20, 2016 by LuCruise

[Prunion]

Some Final Thoughts

 

What can I say, but wow, what an amazing ship! Yes, the ship is huge but you don't really feel it as Royal does a great job at managing the crowds. There's just so much to do and different meal options that not everyone is at the same locations at once. This also leads to having more than one show option a night, which really isn't a bad thing. You can pre-book (which is great for me as I'm a planner...had a spreadsheet and 70 page word document...lol). But aside from the comedy show, no show that we went to was full. So someone who doesn't like to plan, could have just shown up right before it started and gotten in. You just won't have your first pick of seats but it can be done.

 

With the ship's size, I also, I found that we felt the ship less than the other Royal and Disney cruise. Our last day was rocking the most, and even that you didn't notice too much except when at the show or dinner, which are on lower decks. I think it helped that our stateroom was on deck 7 (so fairly centered top to bottom), and we were quite centered front to back.

 

The only "problem" with going on a ship such as Allure is how do you book next? I think for us, if we went smaller we might be disappointed (especially if coming with kids as they would need things to do, Broadway and fancy shows, etc). Having said that, I don't know that I would want to book the Allure again, since we would have the exact same shows (well, aside from Mamma Mia as I could always see that a 25th time...he he). So when we came home I looked at the cost of The Harmony of the Seas. :D . I'm planning our next vacation. We did promise our kids another Disney trip so that will probably be next, but a cruise is most likely in our future again, and I'll be keeping my eye open on the Harmony. Thanks Royal for a fantastic vacation...and thanks to all you on here for the great advice during the planning stage in the 16 months leading up to our cruise.

Thanks for sharing. I heard RC is coming out with another big ship soon

[LuCruise]

Thanks for sharing. I heard RC is coming out with another big ship soon

 

Think you are referring to the Harmony which sets sail on Sunday for the first time? Or do you mean another one in the works?

[Prunion]

Think you are referring to the Harmony which sets sail on Sunday for the first time? Or do you mean another one in the works?

-- Royal Caribbean will launch a fourth Oasis-class ship in spring 2018.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5842

[reddytotravel]

Thanks for the review....I love it!!!!!:)

[reddytotravel]

Thanks for the review.....I love it!!!!:)

[reddytotravel]

Oops!!! didn't mean to post it twice!!!!:D

[shadowcop914]

Sat here in a overcast and drizzly U.K. Your review is making my afternoon brighter. And looking forward to our b2b in Feb 17.

[emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

[LuCruise]

-- Royal Caribbean will launch a fourth Oasis-class ship in spring 2018.

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=5842

 

Oh, that's great. Didn't know about another Oasis ship.

Another too may spread the demand, possibly lowering the price for the other Oasis ships.

[LuCruise]

Oops!!! didn't mean to post it twice!!!!:D

 

You must have really liked it. :D Thanks for reading.

 

Sat here in a overcast and drizzly U.K. Your review is making my afternoon brighter. And looking forward to our b2b in Feb 17.

[emoji3]

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

 

Ah thanks. So nice to hear. :)

Back to back will be great. You can get to everything.

[ramanda]

Fantastic review LuCruise! So detailed. Thanks for taking all that time. So glad you had a nice time.

[LuCruise]

Fantastic review LuCruise! So detailed. Thanks for taking all that time. So glad you had a nice time.

 

Thanks for reading. Glad to hear you enjoyed.

[Preacherman46]

Thank you for all the information. We go on the Allure in Jan 2017. First time for a big ship. I learned a lot from your review.

 

I've read that at St. Thomas the ship is a long way from town so a "taxi" is needed. Did the ship offer a shuttle?

[LuCruise]

Thank you for all the information. We go on the Allure in Jan 2017. First time for a big ship. I learned a lot from your review.

 

I've read that at St. Thomas the ship is a long way from town so a "taxi" is needed. Did the ship offer a shuttle?

 

Glad my review helped. :)

 

No direct shuttle from Royal unless you take an excursion. But if you are just going to a beach, then it's not needed. When you walk off the ship, there are lots of taxis (safari buses) waiting to take you to the various beaches. They have set rates based on number of people (e.g. it's a bit more per person if you have 2 people vs 4 people) and which beach you are going to. On our way back, the shuttle also stopped downtown for those wanting to shop (or you could do this on your way there).

[Preacherman46]

Why would the Compass say Casual or all white attire?

[Schasz]

Pre-Cruise Reservations

 

For anyone who’s been on Oasis class, you know that you can pre-book your shows and dinner if on My Time. You’ll see the question posted over and over about 'When can I make reservations?' It seems like there is no set date and it varies not only from ship to ship, but from cruise to cruise.

 

During the pre-planning I had seen a show schedule for each night so I used this to plan our ideal selections. Yeah, I knew that ours could be different, but at least when things opened up, I wasn’t trying to figure out our preferred times without a plan. That just doesn’t work for an OCD planner like myself.

 

So how to figure out when things opened up? I basically checked the cruise planner every day and one day in early October, the shows popped up. So exciting! We were lucky as this was 6 months before our cruise. And yippee, the preferred times were available so I booked them. At this point, I started keeping an eye on roll calls ahead of us in order get an idea when dinner bookings would be available. And on November 18th, the February roll call had their dinner reservations open up. So I checked ours and lo and behold, ours were available for booking too. Not bad…it was 4 months and 3 weeks ahead. I guess that explains why some reservations open up at 3 months and some even earlier. They must open up a few months at a time. Booking right away, we pretty much got all our dinner time selections. The cruise was feeling more real now.

 

Ok…so roll on April. I was all ready for the cruise. Too bad it was still 144 days until our cruise. :rolleyes:

We just booked our Allure cruise for April 2nd. Thanks for the heads up on pre-booking the shows and dinner times.

[Preacherman46]

Glad my review helped. :)

 

No direct shuttle from Royal unless you take an excursion. But if you are just going to a beach, then it's not needed. When you walk off the ship, there are lots of taxis (safari buses) waiting to take you to the various beaches. They have set rates based on number of people (e.g. it's a bit more per person if you have 2 people vs 4 people) and which beach you are going to. On our way back, the shuttle also stopped downtown for those wanting to shop (or you could do this on your way there).

 

Thanks..we aren't beach folks so will probably just go into town. :)

[sdpete]

How quiet was your hotel room?

[LuCruise]

Why would the Compass say Casual or all white attire?

 

Good question. Never even noticed but I'm looking at the compasses now and for dinner it specifies either "Formal Attire", "Casual Attire", or "Casual or ALL WHITE Attire" (only one occurrence), but never noticed the difference. Overall it specifies 'no swimsuits, robes, bare feet, tank tops, baseball hats and pool wear'. Overall, people were pretty casual and I never saw an issue.

Edited May 25, 2016 by LuCruise

[LuCruise]

Thanks..we aren't beach folks so will probably just go into town. :)

 

Likewise...you'll have no issue getting a taxi.

And on our way back after the taxi dropped off the people at downtown, he was driving slow asking if anyone wanted a ride back to the ship.

[LuCruise]

How quiet was your hotel room?

 

Our promenade room was great in terms of noise. There was only one evening we noticed music / noise outside and on that particular night, there were some "parties or events going on. I always use ear plugs at night so wasn't an issue (and our kids were so tired, it didn't keep them up either)

[Prunion]

Good question. Never even noticed but I'm looking at the compasses now and for dinner it specifies either "Formal Attire", "Casual Attire", or "Casual or ALL WHITE Attire" (only one occurrence), but never noticed the difference. Overall it specifies 'no swimsuits, robes, bare feet, tank tops, baseball hats and pool wear'. Overall, people were pretty casual and I never saw an issue.

LuCruise, Did you post the Compass and I missed it.

[Preacherman46]

Likewise...you'll have no issue getting a taxi.

And on our way back after the taxi dropped off the people at downtown, he was driving slow asking if anyone wanted a ride back to the ship.

 

Thanks so much! :)

[LuCruise]

LuCruise, Did you post the Compass and I missed it.

 

No, I didn't post it as wasn't sure how. I have tried taking a picture of the first page of Day 1. Is it readable? If so, I can continue with the rest if you would like. Let me know.

 

 

Edited May 25, 2016 by LuCruise