Allure - July 14-21 Review

[rachel_f99]

Hi everyone!

 

I wasn’t sure I would write this, but I loved reading other people’s reviews!  

 

A little about us, family of four, two teenage boys, aged 15 and 16.  We are diamond cruisers and usually sail in suites because we do like hanging in the room quite a bit and reading while lounging on the balcony.  This was our first time on anything bigger than Freedom class though.

 

I’ll start by saying we had an amazing time, and already booked for next year on Oasis.

 

Stateroom

 

We had a Crown Loft on deck 17, it was rear facing overlooking the sports courts.  It was our first time having a suite other than a Grand Suite.  The room was awesome.  We were blown away when we went in.  It had two bathrooms, which really came in handy at one point.  So much storage was available, with four people we didn’t even come close to using it all.  And we loved being on the 17th floor next to the suite lounge and Coastal Kitchen.

 

However, nothing is perfect, right?  The shower downstairs did not get very warm, stayed more like a step above lukewarm; and the shower upstairs had some pretty severe temperature fluctuations.  It would scald you one second and go kind of cold the next.  It was also overlooking the sports deck, which got pretty loud at times.  People watching was fun, loved watching some of the awesome stand up riders on the flowrider, but sometimes you wanted peace and quiet and you just couldn’t get it in that room.  I also missed the sounds of the ocean going by.

 

So, overall we loved it and booked another for next year, but we made sure to book ocean view instead.

 

Suite Life

 

We loved the suite lounge and Coastal Kitchen, what a fantastic perk.  None of us got drink packages because the bar was open 11-11 serving beer, wine, water, and soda.  With it being steps from our room, it was so convenient to get it there.  There was something saying that drinks had to be consumed in the lounge, but that was never enforced.  It also said that kids had to be accompanied while in the lounge, but my boys had no issues as long as they just went to the bar to get a drink and then left (they never tried to stay, so not sure if they would’ve been kicked out or not).  We never witnessed kids misbehaving.  There was always seating available, that was never an issue.  There were 17 pinnacles aboard.  We talked to one great pinnacle couple, they were so much fun.  

 

Nancy and Claudine were our concierges, they were great.  Not only did they take care of our needs, but made a point to try to get to know us.  Not all others have done this.

 

Coastal Kitchen was amazing.  We ate three dinners, breakfast 5 days, and lunch on embarkation day.  Food was always good, and our waitress most of the time (Leilani) went out of her way to make sure we were good even when we weren’t in her section.  We ate dinners on night one, night 5 (lobster), and night 7 (filet).  The rest we went to MDR.

 

Other food venues

 

MDR was good, some food was okay, some was really good.  Service was good.  Nothing outstanding, nothing truly bad.

 

Hubby and oldest son really liked Boardwalk Dog House.  And we all loved Patk Cafe, that roast beef sandwich was yummy...and the made to order salads were great too.  And just in general, Central Patk was our favorite area on the ship, less crowded, and so pretty and peaceful.

 

Only went to Windjammer once for breakfast, and then off times for a little snack.  The lines got pretty long sometimes, but if you went to other places to eat there was usually not a wait.  We also ate room service breakfast once, it was fine.

 

Shore Excursions

 

Here’s where our one problem was.  I’ve never made a complaint on a ship before till this sailing.  We took RCI sponsored shore excursions (makes me more comfortable when we’re with the kids).

 

St Kitts

We did the hike up the volcano.  It said this excursion was Very Strenuous, but it should’ve have also said Very Dangerous.  The hike was hard, yes, but we felt it was also treacherous.  The strenuous part was fine, we all made it to the top.  But, I wish it had said hiking boots required, it was very slippery with large rocks you had to climb down.  Everyone fell more than once.  Our guide kept taking off so fast, that at one point, I couldn’t see him, and went the wrong way.  And the bad part was, my youngest got dehydrated, we had five bottles of water between us, he drank two plus the rest all gave up some of our one bottle for him.  But he had heat exhaustion so bad, that he doesn’t remember the trip down, he blacked out for it.  The guides had nothing to help with this situation except a little lemon juice.  My husband had to hold up my wobbly 15 year old, and get him down the mountain.  We all made it (a little scaled up and very dirty), so no permanent harm done.  I told the concierge about it, and she told the shore excursion manager.  He left a message for us giving us a 20% discount and saying...it did say very strenuous.  He ignored my actual complaint about unprepared guides and the danger of the hike.  But, I didn’t care if we got any compensation, and I had said what I wanted, what they do with my feedback is up to them.  In my opinion, it is not if a major injury happens on this excursion, it’s when.

 

San Juan

We weren’t sure we were stopping here due to the protests, but we did.  We went zip lining.  We had fun, it wasn’t the best zip lining tour we’ve been on, nor was it the worst.  Guides were great.  Port felt safe.  Protests were scheduled to occur in the evening, but nothing happened while we were there.  I felt fine about the decision to stop.  If they had made the decision to skip it, we would’ve rolled with that too.

 

Nassau

Just looked around the port shopping area, got a drink and relaxed.  Bought some rum cakes, yummy!

 

Other stuff

Hubby isn’t a big show person, so we didn’t do much of that.  I watched the aqua theater show from our balcony.  I found it very entertaining.  I had intended to go see Mamma Mia for the last show, and spaced on it.  The Comedy show was great though, intimate setting, and I enjoyed the comedians (I was kind of drunk for it though, makes everything funny).

 

Tried to go to Harry Potter trivia, but it was so packed we couldn’t get in😞😞.  We did do Star Wars trivia.

 

Went to the meet and mingle.  No one from Royal showed up.  They forgot about us.  Finally, someone came in about 35 minutes after and apologized and raffled off two bottles of wine to the few people who were left.

 

I had a 90 minute massage on the last sea day, it was amazing!

 

We bought crazy expensive photos from our photo session, they turned out nice, but the price was ridiculous.

 

I think that’s about it.

 

Any questions, fire away.

[rachel_f99]

Forgot to mention our suite attendant Cynthia.  She went over and above.  Went so far as to clean our shoes after the hike because they were so muddy they were unwearable.  She was super friendly, a notch above the standard attendant.

[cruisegirl1976]

Love the review.. 

[smileforever]

Thank you for the review on the Volcano hike in St. Kitts. I have always wanted to do it, as I love hiking but your review confirms what I have also read, that it is a dangerous hike and not worth taking the chance on getting injured.

[mommyof2monkeys+princess]

We were on the same cruise in a grand suite!  I thought Nancy and Claudine were nice!  It was great to go in there to get stuff taken care of but we found them to not really be knowledgeable on quite a few things so that was a little frustrating.  

 

It was our first time in a suite.  Thanks for the review of Crown Loft.  Hubby is already wanting to skip to the next level to star level but I am not sure our pocket book is ready HAHAHHAHA 

[mafig]

Can I ask why you went to the MDR instead of Coastal Kitchen?  Just for variety's sake or you couldn't get reservations for CK?  

Did you have to make reservations for the MDR?  Or were you able to just walk in because you were in a suite.

 

I appreciate your feedback on the Crown Loft.  I wondered about watching basketball players vs. the ocean.  There's usually quite a difference in price between the two Crown Lofts.  Both do have the convenience of CK and the lounge, though.

[rachel_f99]

Just now, mafig said:

Can I ask why you went to the MDR instead of Coastal Kitchen?  Just for variety's sake or you couldn't get reservations for CK?  

Did you have to make reservations for the MDR?  Or were you able to just walk in because you were in a suite.

 

I appreciate your feedback on the Crown Loft.  I wondered about watching basketball players vs. the ocean.  There's usually quite a difference in price between the two Crown Lofts.  Both do have the convenience of CK and the lounge, though.

Just for variety.  We had no issues getting reservations in CK.  We had early seating for MDR, we just let them know the night before if we weren’t coming the next night.

[mafig]

Thank you, Rachel. We used to live in Long Valley.

 

Enjoying your review.🙂

[depot72]

Thanks for the review! How accurate was the app ahead of time compared to the actual compass? Wondering if the trivia topics and movies showing in my app now will be the same or not on our cruise in the fall.

[rachel_f99]

6 minutes ago, depot72 said:

Thanks for the review! How accurate was the app ahead of time compared to the actual compass? Wondering if the trivia topics and movies showing in my app now will be the same or not on our cruise in the fall.

I thought it was pretty accurate from what I had seen before we boarded, but I can’t speak to it being exactly correct.

[rachel_f99]

2 hours ago, mommyof2monkeys+princess said:

We were on the same cruise in a grand suite!  I thought Nancy and Claudine were nice!  It was great to go in there to get stuff taken care of but we found them to not really be knowledgeable on quite a few things so that was a little frustrating.  

 

It was our first time in a suite.  Thanks for the review of Crown Loft.  Hubby is already wanting to skip to the next level to star level but I am not sure our pocket book is ready HAHAHHAHA 

We found them knowledgeable on everything we needed.  But, it was all basic stuff.  Didn’t ask for anything out of the ordinary.

[mommyof2monkeys+princess]

39 minutes ago, rachel_f99 said:

We found them knowledgeable on everything we needed.  But, it was all basic stuff.  Didn’t ask for anything out of the ordinary.

They were helpful but just lacked some knowledge that seemed basic.  Like Nancy said the earliest you could get off the ship was coming to the suite lounge at 7:30am vs the early disembark - I was at the airport before 8am.  A few other things that basic.  That aside it was very nice like when John Rockets charged my son when they should not have a quick 2 secs while grabbing a drink in the lounge and it was reversed.  As a first timer to the suite level I loved it 🙂 

 

If we venture to ever pass Grand Suite level I will definitely think about the view of the balcony 🙂 

 

My daughter had a blast on the flowrider so we were back there on the deck a bit LOL

[cdunnintx]

Great review and I agree on the Park Cafe roast beef sandwiches. Yum. 👍