Allure Sailing August 14 Pre trip Notes & Sort of Live Blog

[ukintheus]

I came to find you after seeing your post on another website. :) Looking forward to following along and hearing all about your experience. We leave on our first RCI after 14 DCL sailings in just over a week.

Edited August 17, 2016 by ukintheus

[jd99]

Some photos from Royal Promenade.

 

And coming in to st Thomas.

 

 

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[goNDmay9]

Also following! We have our eye on the Allure as well.

[jd99]

So St. Thomas is the stop for Wednesday and we have been here many times so we decided to combine things we like and do a two-parter. First, we decided to just hit Magen’s Bay for the morning and hang out in the water. I was thrilled to have a chance to paddle board as well and we had a super day. Had to leave a bit earlier than we would have liked because we had a “pre-sunset” sail on a Catamaran. Supposed to be a sunset sail but because all aboard was 6:30 p.m. we didn’t quite get to see the sun go down. Nonetheless it was a great time on the Castaway Girl. Great sail, great crew and we even got to witness a marriage proposal live!

 

 

 

Upon return we chose to hit Sabor for dinner. Had a great meal but I will admit that the guacamole that everyone raves about was okay. Service was fantastic. Food was okay. This is becoming a theme on the ship. I really want to like the food better than Disney because I don’t think DCL food is all that great, but so far it has been in the “just as good to not as good” spectrum. Hoping for big things at Giovanni’s and Chops later this week.

 

 

 

We once again stopped into Vintages for a drink before dinner and had such a nice time thanks to server extraordinaire Gemma. Central Park in general and Vintages in particular will be the reasons we book with Royal again!

 

 

 

Had our first real bump in the cruise as we were watching sailway from our balcony the person in the cabin next to us started smoking. I thought this was happening previously but hadn’t heard the distinctive click of a lighter followed by the smell until now. The smoking issue has been our primary reason for being hesitant to leave Disney and go to another line, so I was extremely disappointed in this moment. Called guest services and they say they “handled it” and so far so good. But since I’m on the subject, the whole smell of smoke issue is a big deal for me. Everyone in my family is extremely sensitive to smoke (some would say we are allergic but I don’t know that you CAN be allergic to it) and my youngest has asthma that can be spurred on by the smell. So this is a non negotiable item for me. What has disappointed me most beyond our neighbors is that you DO smell it when you go to the dining room for dinner since dining rooms are close to the casino. I kind of hate this. And moreso, you notice it in places like elevators, the theater and other venues probably because anyone who goes into the casino (we haven’t and won’t) comes out reeking of smoke and it lingers in the air, on theater chairs, etc. The fact that the smoking area is also adjacent and above the SPORTS pool is a little ironic too and also is way too pervasive for me. Don’t bother to flame me. This is my cruise too and I’d rather not have to smell someone else’s issue – be it smoke or strong perfume. This is the one area where Disney wins hands down. It just doesn’t exist as an issue.

 

 

 

Still having a great time and love the ship. Was hoping no warts would show but I guess with any cruise line there are going to be bumps in the road!

 

 

 

On to St. Kitts tomorrow! A brand new island for us.

 

Edited August 18, 2016 by jd99

[jd99]

Leaving St Thomas

 

70s party

 

 

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[jd99]

If it is Thursday it must be St. Kitts. I was probably most looking forward to this day since we had never been to St. Kitts. I had big plans of a catamaran to Nevis or an island tour but ultimately got outvoted and we hit the Marriott for a day pass and while it didn’t afford us the chance to see the whole island it was a great choice. I had hoped to see some of the island sites on the way back to the port but a mixup with the cab driver had us back in port almost too quickly. My fault completely but it happened. We shopped a bit and found the town to be lovely and in all of our experiences on St. Kitts, the nicest people in the Caribbean. Our driver TO the resort gave us pretty much a full history of St. Kitts which was great and everyone we encountered wanted to make sure we were enjoying ourselves.

 

 

 

The Marriott itself, as we knew going in is on the Atlantic side, so it is rough waters but they did have a couple of coves that were quite swimmable. The resort is beautiful and the pool was great too. Somewhere I’d consider coming back to for a longer stay.

 

 

 

We didn’t return to the ship almost until sailaway and while I hit a bar and sat near the pool for a bit, we are now getting ready for our night. We have reservations to Ice Games but I don’t think everyone is going (I know I’m not) and then later for the headliner act. We will visit the main dining room probably for the last time tonight as well. Really like our serving team so it will be nice to see them again.

 

 

 

For now I’ll leave you with some photos from our day on St. Kitts.

Edited August 18, 2016 by jd99

[perfect match]

Thanks for your review. We started our cruising life as Disney cruisers, but our last 2 cruises as well as the next one on our list have all been on Royal. Looking forward to sailing on Oasis in a couple of months. We have also sailed Princess, and have enjoyed those cruises as well. There are things we like better on each line, and things on each that we don't like so much, but we have really enjoyed all of our cruises. Still, I can't wait to do another Disney cruise - if I can ever find a reasonable price on one I'll be looking to book it! :eek:

[ukintheus]

Thanks for updating. I love to hear about all the fun of the new experiences like Vintages and the new ports. That's something that we are looking forward to the most. The smoke smell is something that we definitely knew would be different from DCL when we booked, but I am hoping that all in all there will be good and bad and they will offset each other. It sounds like it may go that way with you.

[WiscoGirl32]

Hi thanks for your review. Sailing Allure in a few weeks! Where did you book Marriott st. Kitts resort for the day pass? How much was it?

 

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[MaiseyM]

Once you get home and get settled, I would be curious to get your summarized thoughts re: more RC cruises vs. Disney. I think I stated earlier that my husband and I preferred the food better in the MDR vs. the specialty places. We like good food, my husband is an awesome cook and has years in the restaurant industry. He tends to know good food when we have it. I warned him ahead of time that the food, while good, wasn't going to be five star dining like we would have back home, since it is a big ship and it's difficult when you are serving that many people. He set his expectations and thought the MDR was really good. The speciality was either 'meh' or too far out there w/creativity when we didn't really want to experiment that night. Either way, it's nice to have choices, right? Let us know your thoughts when you settle back into home.

[jd99]

Hi thanks for your review. Sailing Allure in a few weeks! Where did you book Marriott st. Kitts resort for the day pass? How much was it?

 

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Sorry I have been remiss. Will update once home. But wanted to answer this. Didn't book in advance. Just taxid to resort and went to front desk.

[cruzin76]

Sorry I have been remiss. Will update once home. But wanted to answer this. Didn't book in advance. Just taxid to resort and went to front desk.

 

I am actually am glad you have been amiss. Shows you been busy having a great time!

[retiredtoday]

great review!

[easyboy]

Nice pictures. Thanks for your review.

[kevink]

Hi thanks for your review. Sailing Allure in a few weeks! Where did you book Marriott st. Kitts resort for the day pass? How much was it?

 

I'm going in a few weeks. I booked ahead with resortforaday.com for $59/pp. Their site has a bunch of photos and other information. I have no idea what it costs if you just show up and buy direct.

[chazg]

Leaving St Thomas

 

70s party

 

 

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Great Pic. I was on the other side of the shore excursion sign, LOL!

 

:p

[jd99]

Sorry I have been remiss. Will update once home. But wanted to answer this. Didn't book in advance. Just taxid to resort and went to front desk.

 

Cost was $35 per person kids (at least my 12 year old) are free.

[jd99]

The last word

 

I hesitated in posting this here because I know it won't be a popular review. But I feel like I have to finish what I started which was to give opinions on the Allure based upon our experience as 20X Disney Cruise Line cruisers. We are back home and have had time to think about and discuss everything we liked and didn’t like about the cruise. While this may not be a popular review here, it is my honest assessment based on our real experiences. Here is what we really liked:

 

1. Central Park. Loved it.

2. Flowrider/Ziplining/Rock Climbing - Great

3. Mama Mia and Ocean Aria - so much fun.

4. Vintages Wine Bar - great atmosphere and great service.

5. Cleanliness - We were overall surprised about how clean the ship was. Compared well to Disney

6. Staff friendliness - Overall we had some really nice experiences with staff. But it was much more mixed than on Disney. The level of engagement varies wildly among staff and you can have a great experience and a horrible one all within minutes. So while we were pleasantly surprised at many experiences, some were not so good. If you read earlier in this thread, you will note we had some really good early experiences but things seemed to go a bit downhill as the week went on.

 

What we didn’t like as much.

 

1. The food. I have never thought that the food on Disney was all that great but now that i have something to compare it to, I have to give Disney credit for hitting it out of the park more often than not. We had a really nice dinner the first night in the dining room but after that thought the food was pretty awful.

 

DD17 had a very difficult time finding things she could eat with her gluten (and shellfish and peanut) allergies/sensitivities. Staff was not all that educated about gluten and would often overlook the fact that a sauce had nuts in it or some such thing and after she took one bite, had to take a benedryl. At lunchtime the Windjammer put out a “gluten free” buffet but since all guests have access there is so much cross-contamination they shouldn’t bother. And the Park Cafe claimed on day one they would have many more choices after that first day - when she went there, they would pull out a pathetic looking Turkey or Tuna sandwich and say “here’s what we have today!” All in all, this made for a very stressful dining experience. We also ate in four specialty venues.

 

- Our favorite among the specialties was Izumi Hibachi (the one we almost didn’t book). The food was decent (not great, but the best of the specialties we experienced) but the chef was so entertaining we overlooked any food issues. He was a star - and probably the best staff member we experienced on the ship.

 

- We ate at Sabor one night. The server was pretty good and he seemed to be paying good attention to the gluten situation, even bringing corn tortillas and salsa separately which he said were prepared to be gluten free (chips fried in separate oil). But we can’t blame the gluten that night. I’d say the food was pretty tasty and it was, but both DD17 and I got pretty sick afterward. We had similar meals, but hers was gluten free. We were sick the whole next day.

 

- Giovanni’s. This was the oddest experience of the week. I thought the food was mediocre at best. There were a couple of good dishes but many of the items we got were Olive-garden quality. Not a top tier Italian restaurant. And the service was horrible. Our waiter was robot like and awkward. We were seated much later than our reservation and the attention paid was also Olive Garden-ish.

 

- Chops - The food was also mediocre here. Best thing I had was the mushroom soup. My steak was cooked correctly (medium) but was chewy and tasteless as if it had been overcooked and then colored with a marker to look the right temp! Side dishes were just okay and everyone else’s meal was similar.

 

Bottom line is that Remy and Palo kill RC on these restaurants in our opinion with the only advantage to RC being that our kids could come with us and it didn't HAVE to be an adults only meal. However, because we really liked our main dining room team, I wished we hadn’t scheduled these specialties (except Izumi) and just struggled through the menus in the MDR.

 

2. The pool situation overall was a virtual tie with Disney. While there were MORE pools and hot tubs on the Allure, they still were all the equivalent human soup, which I assume is the same on all cruise ships but at least there were more and bigger options. Where Disney beats the Allure is having the Aquaduck or Aquadunk (dependng on ship) and the water play areas (with fountains, and big buckets and such) that the whole family can use.

 

3. The bars. With the exception of Vintages, I have never seen a more unfriendly group of bartenders anywhere ever. Went into the champagne bar one night and felt so uncomfortable that i ordered a drink, chugged it and left within 5 minutes. Never went in again. I’ll take Disney’s innovative, interesting venues like Ooo-la-la and Skyline all day long.

 

4. The amount of drinking. I’m no prude. In fact, I bought a drink package for this trip because it was on sale and thought it’d be fun to try new things and not worry about “wasting.” But most of the people on the ship I encountered were truly trying to get their money’s worth. I have seen some big drunks on Disney ships before, but never so many in one place as I did in the Solarium human soup pool late afternoon nearly every day.

 

5. Cabins were a bit smaller with much less storage. Thank goodness we got two because we would never have been able to unpack all of our stuff in one cabin. I did, however, like the bathroom set up much better than the split bathrooms on Disney.

 

What we hated.

1. The disembarkation process. Not knowing exactly how it worked, we “signed up” for 9:30-50 departure because we weren’t in a hurry and thought it would be good to sleep in a bit. What we didn’t know was that they wanted us out of our rooms by 9 (it was not on any of the documents provided). And then we had to go and wait in the theater for our time. Which kept getting pushed back - until 10:15. And then we had to line up in the terminal, where we were stopped so that people who were late for their times could be put ahead of us. What advantage is there in following the rules and going at your time when they are going to allow those who go when they are ready to get ahead of you? Then when we got our luggage and got in line with a porter, he pointed out that there were only four customs agents which is why the line was so crazy long. Told us that Royal could hire additional agents but instead go with the bare minimum-those actually provided by the gov’t. If that is true, shame on them because they left such a bad taste in our mouth in leaving the ship. Ending vacation is hard enough but to make it this painful, terrible.

 

2. The towel check out. It’s not like they are handing you luxury linens. The amount of manpower spent on this process is, in my opinion, more expensive than the few towels they would “lose” every sailing. It’s just stupid.

 

3. Adult pool/Solarium. While I am no huge fan of the Cove Pool on the bigger ships at Disney, I hated this Solarium. A couple of hot tubs and a disgusting human soup pool with people spilling drinks into it while they just marinate, ick. And all the glass that keep it hot and block the direct views of the ocean were just a turn off.

 

4. The lack of sea views. Thank goodness we had an ocean view balcony and we used it more than ever (except for the 3 times that our neighbors started smoking after we went out there). I had to call guest services by the third time because it was ridiculous. But overall not being able to see the ocean from many venues was quite disappointing. The people who sit all day in the promenade baffle me. Why don’t they just stay home and go to the mall?

 

5. Family activities. I have to say that we did miss the constant stream of family activities on Disney ships. Besides a few trivia contests, there didn’t seem to be much that appealed to all of us. And the Cruise Compass is so much more difficult to read/follow than the DCL Navigator. And it seemed that everytime I looked for “what can we do now?” it was something related to the casino or a sale on purses. Not our cup of tea. We spent much more time sitting on the pool deck which was nice….but I could do that at a hotel anywhere and we would like to have a better mix of options.

 

6. Smoking. This is such a hot button for us and is the number one thing we hated - as it was worse than I imagined and is likely why we will never sail RC again. The smoking section adjacent to and above the Sports Pool is ridiculous. We had to be careful to not walk on the wrong side after coming out of the elevators every time we went up on deck. The first day of the cruise, we wanted to talk to host at Izumi about daughter’s gluten allergy and make sure they could accommodate that the next night. Took the elevator down and when the doors opened we were overcome by the stench from the casino. Over the course of the week, we rarely used the Aft elevators or went to that part of the ship to avoid the smell. But on a few occasions, we jumped on that side and even when the elevators were on 15 or 16, they stunk. And it got worse as the week went on. By Thursday the lingering smell of smoke was pervasive throughout the aft area of the ship from the Promenade on up. Our DD12’s asthma began acting up by week’s end and I am sure it was due to this inescapable smell.

 

 

Much of the above is subjective - especially the food - and I know that service can be all over the map because our experience was all over the map - from excellent to horrible and everything in between depending on the staff member. And when it was good, it was awesome but when it was bad it was crazy bad.

 

Overall we had a good time. We roll with the punches pretty well and didn’t discuss what we liked and didn’t like until after we had left the cruise because we wanted to enjoy the moments we had when we were having fun - which was most of the time. But I highly doubt we will cruise RC again - unless it is an itinerary that we can’t get on Disney and really want to do. As a family we decided that we’d rather cruise less often and go on a ship we really like (The Fantasy or the Magic). We are glad we did this cruise because there was enough to like to make us happy most of the time, but it was more in retrospect that we realized that we likely wouldn't choose this again. I recommend that if you are a Disney cruiser even thinking about it, to give it a try if the price is right because your experience may be very different and again, even though we didn't love it, neither did we have a moment of misery because of any of the above (with the possible exception of the smoking issues on several occasions) but we were able to escape that pretty quickly. Just didn't like having to think about it.

Edited August 25, 2016 by jd99

[cruiser82]

Thank you for your honest review. I'm concerned about the drinking, smoking and how sick you and your daughter were because those are the three biggest issues for me on a cruise. I hope you give Royal another chance sometime in the future, or maybe even a different cruise line.

[jd99]

Thank you for your honest review. I'm concerned about the drinking, smoking and how sick you and your daughter were because those are the three biggest issues for me on a cruise. I hope you give Royal another chance sometime in the future, or maybe even a different cruise line.

 

In reading about Celebrity I'm thinking that may be a good line to try since they don't allow smoking indoors anywhere just like Disney - even in their casino. I would drop a few bucks in the casino if I didn't come out stinking to high heaven.

[TickledBlue]

In reading about Celebrity I'm thinking that may be a good line to try since they don't allow smoking indoors anywhere just like Disney - even in their casino. I would drop a few bucks in the casino if I didn't come out stinking to high heaven.

 

We love Celebrity because of their smoking policy. I thought the food was quite a bit better than many of our RCI cruises too (particularly desserts).

 

Celebrity is definitely more upscale (e.g. cushions on lounger, real flowers on tables, hand drying cloths (not paper) in public restroooms, etc.), more room per passenger. It is also more sedate (i.e. no rock climbing walls or flow riders) and generally a more mature clientele. Celebrity cruises are generally more expensive too.

[jd99]

We love Celebrity because of their smoking policy. I thought the food was quite a bit better than many of our RCI cruises too (particularly desserts).

 

Celebrity is definitely more upscale (e.g. cushions on lounger, real flowers on tables, hand drying cloths (not paper) in public restroooms, etc.), more room per passenger. It is also more sedate (i.e. no rock climbing walls or flow riders) and generally a more mature clientele. Celebrity cruises are generally more expensive too.

 

Thank you. When we choose a land vacation, we are more likely to choose a more sedate, upscale place. Our kids have been groomed to appreciate that kind of vacation very well. They love places like the Four Seasons in Maui because of the luxury touches (like evian spritzes at the pool and cabana availability). If we are going to enough islands - like on a Western or Southern Caribbean - or a European port-intensive sailing - the time on the ship can and should be quiet and relaxing. No need for climbing walls and the like. Even on the Allure, it's not like we spent every waking hour there. It was one climb, two ziplines and a couple of flowrider turns. But that's because we had the equivalent of four sea days (we didn't disembark in Nassau) so we had more time than we knew what do with!

[llkingsz]

Thank you JD for your candid review. My takeaway is that Disney is more sensitive to allergens than RC is but that is expected of a ship twice the size of any Disney ship. I personally have found the Disney staff attitude to be phony even though they pretend they are on the happiest place on earth, seem miserable inside.

 

 

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[cruzin76]

Thanks for your review. Its hard to be Wowed when Disney first did the wooing. We didn't start cruising till the kids were gone. Royal keeps wowing us.(We only go by casino in afternoon to get our three free spins) Stay with what makes you all happy!

[jd99]

Thank you JD for your candid review. My takeaway is that Disney is more sensitive to allergens than RC is but that is expected of a ship twice the size of any Disney ship. I personally have found the Disney staff attitude to be phony even though they pretend they are on the happiest place on earth, seem miserable inside.

 

 

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Oh I agree with you there. Disney service can be so over the top it makes me gag and I don't like that either! That's why we liked our dining team on Royal. They were just the right amount of nice. It was elsewhere - especially in the speciality restaurants - where it was terrible. Also agree re the larger ship not being able to deal with allergies as much as well as control the quality of the food as well. One of the reasons i'm intrigued by Celebrity which I bet will be our next non-DCL cruise.