AllureOTS 7/2/17 - 7/9/17 Review

[NickinNY]

Our group: Family of four. Two adults, two daughters (12 and 10).

 

Prior cruise experience: We had been on three prior cruises,all with Disney, all Bahamian itineraries, all shorter than this cruise. The new itinerary, and trying RCCL were bothattractive to us.

 

Embarkation: We arrived at the port at about 11:15, andwere on the ship by about 11:45. Thelongest we weren't moving was about 5 minutes processing our paperwork,passports, getting SeaPass cards, etc. It was an incredibly efficient embarkation.

 

Cabin: 10554 - main bed, sofa sleeper, balcony. We booked less than 2 weeks before sail date,and got a guaranteed room category rate. Given this, we had zero complaints about the room itself. Not having a third (i.e. Pullman) bed wassub-optimal for the kids, but frankly if that's the worst part of the vacationfor them I don't have a lot of (any) sympathy. Yes, it was annoying only having one bank ofthree outlets. No, there isn't anabundance of storage. But it was clean,comfortable, cool, and certainly no worse than the staterooms we'd been in onDisney.

 

One minor gripe: the safe didn't work. It didn't re-set to allow us to program in acode so that we could lock it, and when we tried it, it emitted a loud,continuous beep/alarm noise for about 15 seconds which we foundunpleasant. So we didn't use it (no bigdeal). But that meant that the safe doorwas just open the whole time - swinging around when the ship moved. We just had to be mindful of it, lest we geta mind full of it when we stood up from the bed, or walked past it. We might not have used it even if it hadworked, so it wasn't a problem, but getting brained by the safe door would havehurt.

 

Pre-Cruise: Flew to FLL a day early, stayed at theRenaissance. Very close to the airportand the cruise port. Hotel was fine,nothing special, location was the key.

 

Transfers: Used Uber from FLL to hotel ($14), and from hotelto port ($7). Had a tight connection atthe end of the cruise, so we booked a private transfer with KSA Tours and they were great (pretty sure it was $37 totalfor all four of us).

 

The ship was incredible. I don't have anything to add beyond what's already been written here(and elsewhere) about the ship. It tooka day or two to get the lay of the land, but that's part of the fun of a shipthis big. Central Park isastounding. We kept saying that, if youwere dropped there blindfolded from a helicopter, you wouldn't necessarily knowyou were on a cruise ship. Amazing.

 

Activities on board were fun, plentiful, and varied. Ice skating was another mind-warp. I play ice hockey, but I didn't mind that theygave me recreation figure skates (just had to be careful with the toepick). Or that I had to wear ahelmet. It was just so cool to be ableto skate (on surprisingly good ice) on a ship in the middle of the ocean inJuly. My wife participated in the passenger choirdirected by the Mamma Mia director. Mywife and one of our daughters did the flash mob. We did the flow riders. We did trivia (3rd place in progressive, 1stplace in 80s music, thank you very much). I even got out of the casino only $40 in the hole. We did a try scuba diving thing on the ship, that was also really fun.

 

 

Could be just our kids, but neither of them wanted anything to do with the kids' clubs. Didn't seem to be any specific thing that was off-putting to them, just didn't care to check them out. We gave our kids a lot of freedom (and they kept earning it, so we kept giving it to them) everywhere but at the pools, so maybe that was "cooler" than going to the kids' clubs?

 

And of course we ate. Our service team (Syahrihal and Rhandy) in American Icon wereoutstanding. We have always reallyenjoyed getting to know our service team on the Disney cruises, and franklyit's one of the highlights of our trip. These two were great at their jobs, no doubt. But they went above and beyond and I'd liketo think we were a good table for them on this cruise. We found the Windjammer in the evenings to bea fun place to try to stuff a couple more bites of food down. That was the least busy we ever saw it, and had a tremendous selection.

 

Lots of reviews for Johnny Rockets for breakfast. It's nice that there's no up-charge forit. But my meal there was easily theworst meal I had on the ship. The omeletcame out in about 2 minutes, and you could tell it had just been sitting undera warming lamp for a while, just waiting for me to order it. The potatoeswere dessicated and tasteless. Park Cafewas far better for breakfast, for my taste. EvenPromenade Cafe was better, for my taste. American Icon for breakfast was great - and for lunch, too. I'd recommend giving that a try before JohnnyRockets for breakfast.

 

We got off at Labadee, Falmouth, and Cozumel. Rented floating mats at Labadee, andotherwise just walked around. Yes, themerchants call out to you. If you don'twant to shop their wares, just say so. It's no big deal. We didexcursions at Falmouth (aqua thrill seekers) and Cozumel (Mayan ruins andbeach). They were both fun, and decentvalues. If I'm on a cruise that doesLabadee again, I'd probably stay on board and hope the line at the FlowRiderswas short or something. If you've beento Castaway Cay, it's got the same setup, but maybe a little nicer thanLabadee.

 

Disembarkation: With that tight connection back to FLL, weopted to walk off with our bags, early. We left our stateroom at about 7:30, and were off the ship in about 10minutes. And we were far from the firstpeople off. Again, could not have beeneasier.

 

We did not have a beverage package. None of us is a big soda drinker, and my wifeand I enjoy a few drinks each day on vacation, and a bottle of wine atdinner. So we bought our drinks ala carte, so to speak. It was fine. Every time I wanted a drink I got one. And at the end of the cruise our bar bill wasfar smaller than if we'd gotten the drinks package. The iced tea was a little weak a coupletimes, but most of the time it was just fine. Lemonade, fine. Water, fine. I would have been annoyed having to carry the unlimited soda cup around all the time.

 

We did MyTime Dining, and it was great. No problems. Just know what you want, and be prepared to ask about it. Like I said, we set up specific dining timesfor each night, in advance. But since webooked so late, we were prepared to not have the times we wanted be availableonline. They were, but I think that'sbecause we wanted to eat early most nights. The couple changes we did want to make (to accomodate shows - and thehigh dive show is incredible) we went to the guest services desk and they tookcare of it.

 

**TIP** At dinner on the 2nd to last night our servers askedus if we'd be interested in doing a galley tour the next day (sea day, finalfull day on board). The head waiter cameover and told us about it. It started atGrande, and was a guided tour of the galley operation, followed by a specialchampagne brunch. I don't know if thiswas by invitation only, but it was not listed on the Cruise Compass, forexample. And like I said, they broughtit up to us. We didn't even know it wasan option. So we did it. And it was one of the absolute highlights ofthe cruise. We had one of the sous chefsas our guide. The tour lasted nearly anhour, and it was amazing to see such a large operation up close. The dessert chef even let us try one of thecakes he was making. We all could askany questions we wanted along the way. (The guy in charge of rolls for the ship makes 40,000 per DAY!) Then the champagne brunch was excellent. Special printed menu, you sat down to horsd'oeuvres of fruit, cheese, and sushi. Ihad a more-than acceptable beef Wellington. And the whole thing - for the four of us - cost $70 total. It has to be the best up-charge value on theship.

 

We really had a great time. So many things we wanted to tryor do, that we didn't end up having time to do over a 7 night cruise speaks tothe sheer number of things that you CAN do on that ship.

 

Maybe the biggest difference between DCL and RCCL that I sawwas that the average crew member on RCCL will absolutely try to accomodateanything you ask for. But, on DCL, thatcrew member will also act like doing so is the thing that gives them the mostjoy in life. It's not that the crew onRCCL were unfriendly. But Disney justgets people who want to embody the Disney servitude thing. At the end of the day, how much is that worthto you? Because, if that's the biggestdifference between DCL and RCCL, then I'm not sure I need to pay the premiumprice for DCL, especially now that my kids are moving out of the Princess andMinnie Mouse stage.

 

We didn't have any complaints about RCCL or the Allure, orthis itinerary. That being said, afterthree cruises on DCL, and this one on RCCL, we decided to try NCL for our nextcruise.

 

Our plan is to decide which of those three cruise lines wewant to focus on after that.

 

 

**FINAL NOTE** We didhear that there was a small GI distress outbreak on this cruise. Our head waiter mentioned it to us, we got anote in our stateroom on the final night about it, and we noticed theembarkation for the next cruise was delayed until later in the afternoon on theday we disembarked (presumably so they could finish sanitizing). None of our party got sick, or noticed anyoneelse who was sick. They're definitelynot as vigilant about hand washing on the Allure as they are on the DCL shipswe've been on. It's more of a suggestionon the Allure, where you didn't have a choice on DCL when you went into anyplace with food.

[dr_truth]

Maybe the biggest difference between DCL and RCCL that I sawwas that the average crew member on RCCL will absolutely try to accomodateanything you ask for. But, on DCL, thatcrew member will also act like doing so is the thing that gives them the mostjoy in life.

 

Great line!

Thanks for the review.

[JJnumber1]

Great review! Appreciate you taking the time to do it. Ya'll sound like wonderful cruisers. You set reasonable expectations, appreciate when they're met and recognize when they are exceeded. Enjoy your next cruise on NCL.

[KansasK]

For the safe problem, did you call the customer service desk about it?

 

We had trouble with our safe not opening, and they came in less than 10 minutes to fix it. Obviously, not having the safe worked out OK for you. though. I think the safe did not reset.

[NickinNY]

Great review! Appreciate you taking the time to do it. Ya'll sound like wonderful cruisers. You set reasonable expectations, appreciate when they're met and recognize when they are exceeded. Enjoy your next cruise on NCL.

 

Thanks! Frankly my wife and I can't believe that we ended up being cruise fans. But we really like it. As far as expectations, I figure there's no point not taking in all the info on sites like this to get a feel for what will happen. Or, if you don't, then being surprised/disappointed is on you.

[NickinNY]

For the safe problem, did you call the customer service desk about it?

 

We had trouble with our safe not opening, and they came in less than 10 minutes to fix it. Obviously, not having the safe worked out OK for you. though. I think the safe did not reset.

 

We didn't want to bother anyone since we were unlikely to use the safe anyway. But if we'd wanted it looked at I'm sure they would have responded appropriately.