Allure, Anthem or Explorer for family Europe cruise?

[azmaui]

Hi everyone,

 

I am  planning European cruise with family next summer (seniors and 2 kids ages 8 and 10) and trying to decide between the ships - Allure, Anthem or newly refurbished Explorer.

Ports are secondary for us, we are familiar with most of them and will enjoy any of them. But want to choose the ship that would be most fun.

Criteria's were:

- must have waverider (I believe all 3 do?)

- must have great food (is one better then other?)

- which has the best kids club?

- any of them have water slides?

- which has the most fun activities for active family

 

Thank you for any comments!

 

[John&LaLa]

Allure, hands down

 

In my opinion.

 

And Allure will be fresh from drydock, probably Anthem as well

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Allure and Explorer will have waterslides. 

[jbethel11]

12 minutes ago, azmaui said:

- must have waverider (I believe all 3 do?)

Yes.

14 minutes ago, azmaui said:

- any of them have water slides?

Only Allure of the Seas and Explorer of the Seas will have waterslides.

 

15 minutes ago, azmaui said:

- which has the best kids club?

Either Anthem of the Seas or Allure of the Seas.

[DaniDanielle]

ALLURE!!!!!!!

[Clarea]

You won't be on the ship as much as a typical Caribbean cruise.  Any of the ships will be fine.

[Norwich Cruiser]

I think they are all great ships to cruise with that age group.

But in my opinion 

1.Allure

2.Anthem

3.Explorer

[little britain]

Explorer has best itineraries from Rome. She will also have been Amped.

Allure has the wow factor but is port intensive cruise... but as you don’t care about the ports..?

Anthem full of Brits and 2 days each way across Biscay. No thanks! 

[Ourusualbeach]

Allure has 2 Flowriders so 1 is dedicated for stand up and the other dedicated for boogie boarding. 

[Esprit]

5 hours ago, little britain said:

Anthem full of Brits and 2 days each way across Biscay. No thanks! 

Dead right. Done it three times and they have consistently been the least favourite cruises. I go abroad to get away from the UK. Not take a part of it with me! 

[jennyumaa]

17 hours ago, jbethel11 said:

Either Anthem of the Seas or Allure of the Seas.

 

Is the Explorer kids club different? Would like to hear your thought as this is an important factor in our choice of cruises.

[klfrodo]

Will the number of pax on the ship affect your decision? Will the number of pax affect the small European ports and will that affect your overall experience.

 

I took the Allure off of my list of possibly journeys for my upcoming European cruise for these reasons.

[little britain]

19 minutes ago, klfrodo said:

Will the number of pax on the ship affect your decision? Will the number of pax affect the small European ports and will that affect your overall experience.

 

I took the Allure off of my list of possibly journeys for my upcoming European cruise for these reasons.

Allure doesn't 'do' small European ports - she is in Barcelona, Palma, Marseille, La Spezia, Rome and Naples.  All can handle the passenger numbers because of the diverse things to do in each port.

La Spezia is possibly the only pinch point but half will go to the Cinque Terre and half to Piza.  In Sept we caught a bus from LaSpezia to Portovenere for a few €, had a super lunch and then caught the bus back.  We were the only cruise passengers on the bus... so yes, it is possible to avoid crowds.  We had a lovely experience.

 

 

Edited November 22, 2019 by little britain

[cloud_nine]

I was just going to say the same thing, little britain. Explorer actually does more of the 'small European ports', so if that's an issue I would choose Allure over Explorer (and I have just made this decision today) because there's no way that I would do Santorini on the Explorer - no way! It was bad enough on the Jewel (and NCL Star) so I'd personally avoid going there on a bigger ship than those. The crowds there are horrendous, especially in the summer and being on a bigger ship that holds more pax, means that even if there aren't as many ships in port that day, you'll still have to queue for the cable car with everyone else from the Explorer. 

[azmaui]

I took Anthem of the list.

Sounds like both Allure and Explorer will be freshly refurbished with new kids spaces and slides.

 

I was leaning towards Greek cruise on Explorer but now I’m concern reading comment about Santorini. If you book excursion with ship don’t you have priority getting off ship and getting up from the harbor? 

Allure is still in the running but significantly higher cost.

[Bobal]

The issue with santorini is about how many pax are in port/what time of year you go. To rule out explorer without knowing the above is puzzling. Perhaps you could mention the dates you're looking at so informed feedback could be given 

[Oceansaway17]

On 11/22/2019 at 2:38 AM, little britain said:

Explorer has best itineraries from Rome. She will also have been Amped.

Allure has the wow factor but is port intensive cruise... but as you don’t care about the ports..?

Anthem full of Brits and 2 days each way across Biscay. No thanks! 

 

 

I agree on Biscay from Southampton.  I did the Celebrity Silhouette to the Canaries in early October and I was surprised on the movement of the ship.

 

I love both Anthem and Allure.  Anthem has bumper cars and roller skating.  Has a nice indoor pool covered as well.

Allure has the boardwalk area and the 4 pools.  It is a toss up.  So flip a coin.  

[CynBeth6]

Never been on a European cruise before but we will be on the Explorer for a 7 day cruise on 6/21.  It leaves out of Civi port an hour or so outside of Rome.  The day after departing is a day at sea.  After that are 3 cities in Spain (don’t remember the order) but will be visiting Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona.  Then Nice, France.  The last port is La Spezia for Florence and Pisa.  We are actually flying in a few days early to tour Rome and staying a few days after to visit Venice.  

[azmaui]

12 minutes ago, CynBeth6 said:

Never been on a European cruise before but we will be on the Explorer for a 7 day cruise on 6/21.  It leaves out of Civi port an hour or so outside of Rome.  The day after departing is a day at sea.  After that are 3 cities in Spain (don’t remember the order) but will be visiting Valencia, Palma de Mallorca, and Barcelona.  Then Nice, France.  The last port is La Spezia for Florence and Pisa.  We are actually flying in a few days early to tour Rome and staying a few days after to visit Venice.  

That's one of the cruises I am considering 🙂

Definitely doing it right to stay in Rome and Venice, so much to see and do. 

 

 

 

[taglovestocruise]

53 minutes ago, azmaui said:

That's one of the cruises I am considering 🙂

Definitely doing it right to stay in Rome and Venice, so much to see and do. 

 

 

 

We are like minded. We have Allure booked as a B2B first week in the Med and then the TA back to FLL.  The ship is the destination. We are in our 70"s and only plan to visit Capri.  The rest of the ports are hit and miss. Any rain and it is a no go. We will just play it by ear. With the kids Allure is a winner. happy cruising 

[cloud_nine]

On 11/23/2019 at 9:05 PM, azmaui said:

I took Anthem of the list.

Sounds like both Allure and Explorer will be freshly refurbished with new kids spaces and slides.

 

I was leaning towards Greek cruise on Explorer but now I’m concern reading comment about Santorini. If you book excursion with ship don’t you have priority getting off ship and getting up from the harbor? 

Allure is still in the running but significantly higher cost.

 

Yes, you do - and that's what we did, BUT you still have to get the cable car back down (or walk the gross, donkey doo laden steps) and with more pax on the ship, and depending on what other ships are in port that day too this can make for a loooong queue. Not to mention a busier Fira in general. When we went last year (end of August) on the NCL star, Santorini was extremely overcrowded. The streets of Fira were very hard to get around without banging into someone, and the queue for the cable car was insane. We stood in that queue (in the Greek heat!) for over an hour (possibly an hour and 20 minutes) before we got to the cable car. So these are things to think about. Explorer is a lovely ship, but I personally would be put off going to Santorini on a ship that size. If you do decide that you want to do that itinerary, check the dates that you're looking at to see how many ships are in port that day. The less ships, the better.