Allure of the Seas

Great Relaxing Caribbean Cruise

Dec 10th, 2018

Fantastic ship with so much to do! The level of service is second to none in our experience and the food is outrageously good!

Allure is a great ship!

Dec 10th, 2018

The cruise was every thing we expected and more! Lots to do.

Beautiful ship, lackluster service

Dec 9th, 2018

So I’m going to break this down into sections starting from the beginning. We are a family of four with twin 23-month-old toddlers. We also traveled with the grandparents (80’s). We have been on several cruises, but this is the first with Royal. We booked a suite, so embarkation was a breeze through the suite lounge. The Miami port is beautiful and unloading our luggage was easy! You just drive into the parking garage and go to floor 3. The porters take your luggage and off you go to find parking. We went at 10 and it wasn’t too crowded at the port, but once we got on the ship it seemed that a lot of other people also wanted to get onboard early. Once we got on board, it is a lot to take in. It’s a beautiful ship with so much to see. You enter into a promenade that has a bar, pizza parlor, other restaurants, and shopping. It really is stunning with so much to look at. We proceeded to floor 14 where the Royal Babies and Tots were located because we wanted to make sure that we got our allocated hours before it filled up. We were allowed to book 16 hours initially and after day 3, they opened up more hours. There is just one main play room with a tv and toys, with some lockers. The ladies are very nice there and the kids enjoyed their time. They are open for port days and go through til midnight. It is $6 an hour before 6 and then $8 an hour after 6. They give you a phone so they can reach you or you can call. It doesn’t work off of the ship though. You will need to take a bag with diapers, wipes, bottles and packaged snacks. They do provide meals for the kids at specific times which consisted of your basic Mac n cheese, chicken fingers and fruit. They also provide milk - we brought milk sippy cups and they filled them there. They are open until midnight, but you have to have your kids there prior to 10 for them to stay until midnight. They are also open all day on port days, so you can leave the kiddos with them and do excursions on your own. We utilized them for 2 ports and didn't have a single problem. We did have our cell phones active for those ports just in case. There is a wonderful play area for the kids from 10-9 every day. You can also check out toys to take back to the room. There was only a night or two that we weren’t able to get time because it was already full. KIDS: Just a tip, DO NOT TAKE A HUGE DOUBLE STROLLER. We saw some people who had a double running stroller as well as a few others that had double strollers that were not the stadium style (they were side by side). You will have problems with the hallways and also getting by people in the public areas. We took 2 single umbrella type strollers and they were perfect! We were able to get them onto the boats and buses for excursions without any issues. Also, make sure you take all of the meds needed. You can find some items on board, but it is hard and expensive. We took Tylenol, Motrin, aloe, sunscreen, seasickness patches, Benadryl, bandaids, cold medicine, cough drops to name just a few things in our first aid kit. We went and had pizza for lunch, which was actually pretty good. The cafe had sandwiches available also. The bar was easy to get to and we used our paper pass for drinks. The cards are on the door when the rooms are ready. At 1 o’clock we went to our room. I thought the rooms would be a little more modern, but they were a little run down. The ac didn’t work in the room and we had to wait for someone to come and fix it. Our room steward was so nice and very accommodating. We tipped him extra at the beginning, middle and end since our boys made quite the mess! We didn’t get our pack n plays until late in the evening and one was broken, so we had to wait into the evening and had to call several times to get a replacement. The boys were unable to nap so we had a pretty miserable afternoon and evening. We had a problem in that we didn’t get our in room purchases until 3-4 days into the cruise. We had ordered champagne, chocolates and other items that took several days to get and then it was also wrong. So it took quite a while to get that situated and several trips to a packed guest services. There were a couple of times where we were told that we would receive a follow up call, but we never did and had to go down to guest services to follow up again. We went to the dining room the second night. It took them 15 minutes to seat us and then we had to stand in the middle of the dining room because the individual that was supposed to seat us left us standing there because he didn’t know what table to take us to. Then we had to wait for a high chairs. It was a huge mess. We had wonderful service once we sat down and had a very nice meal. We were able to dine three of the seven nights for the dinner service and the staff was hit and miss. Some were wonderful, while others were very abrupt and didn’t smile at all. The food was better than average on some of the nights, while other nights the food was sub par. The portions really depended on the meal. The prime rib was huge and the lobster tails were very delicious. The desserts were also yummy. As a part of the suite, we were able to order the dining room menu as room service so we did do that for the other nights that we were not able to make it to the dining room due to the kiddos. We did notice that people wore whatever they wanted in the dining room. We even saw sweat pants on formal night! Which we personally dressed up because you’re cruising and it’s fun! I would say to avoid tank tops and shorts, but jeans are just fine and even nice uncollared shirts seemed to be fine. We did dine at the Brazilian steak house and really enjoyed the food and the service. The service was really exceptional there and worth the price we paid. The food was hot and delicious and plentiful! Definitely go hungry as there are 7 different types of meats(they give you a huge whole filet) and the sides are different than what you can get in the buffet and dining room. The roast beef sandwiched at Park Cafe were everything we read about. You have to get the hot mustard and the gravy on it! Really delicious and the salads were good too! We definitely spent a lot of time at Park Cafe. The Dog house was a good pit stop for a delicious dog - I tried every single one and you won't be disappointed in any of them! However, I was disappointed that all of the food areas closed at 6. The buffet area was small so it was always hard to find a table at night - especially with 2 kids in tow that needed high chairs. The food was pretty good at the buffet with lots of options and some of the stations changed during dinner. For example, one night it was pasta and another night it was stir fry - make your own. Again, the staff wasn’t very friendly - other than the bartenders. Finding high chairs was a bit of a challenge as well, so if you have kids in need of chairs it can be difficult to find them. The amenities on board are wonderful. There are plenty of pools and hot tubs to go around. Although the kids pool area was sub par due to the fountains rarely being on so the kids got bored easily. They do have life jackets on board for kids of all sizes that you can use for free. We tried all of the onboard activities and we were quite happy with them. The golf is fun and they even have small clubs for toddlers. The Flow Rider is oodles of fun and there was hardly ever a wait time for the knee boarding or stand up surfing!!!! We even ice skated, which just boggles the mind that they have an ice rink on the ship. They provide helmets, skates and you will need to bring socks and pants. There are limited amounts of time slots, but we never had any issues getting some ice time when they had it available. There were plenty of areas for the kids to run off energy on the ship. We brought sweaters, but I would say that a majority of the ship was on the warm side. I never used my sweater on the ship or the dining room, but I did use a long sleeve shirt on occasion. On past cruises, I was freezing but I think that it has to do with the fact that a majority of the ships public areas are open to the outdoors! If you are a poker player, then you’ll have table time every night with limited wait times. The slots are super tight as in super super super tight. There are plenty of black jack tables, craps and some other table games and I never had a problem finding a slot machine to play. The spa was wonderful and I really enjoyed my massage. Although I did pay for the additional time and didn’t receive it. So I paid for an additional 20 minutes that I never got. The massage was started late and I know what time we started because I texted my husband right before we began. So not too pleased about that. The upselling is rampant and so is the product push. Once you've declined the products, they seem to lose any interest in you and show you the door quickly. We both had beverage packages so never had to worry about drinks. I would definitely recommend buying it precruise on discount. It is not discounted onboard. All of the drinks are delicious and they are not skimpy with alcohol. I did love the souvenir cup for the coke machines. It made it really easy to get a soda when I wanted one. I did take along a cup carrier that went around my neck and boy was that useful in keeping my hands free to deal with kids or to carry food. We did several excursions at the ports. The boys went to RB&Ts while we went ashore. The Secret River was amazing ad wee highly recommend it. I will say that the ferry ship ride was very choppy and EVERY single person was sea sick or throwing up by the time we reached land (40 minute ferry ride). The WiFi was a bit sketchy and I definitely couldn’t stream movies. It was good enough to text and to google. The app was really great and they now have the capability of texting through the app with others in your party. We could see all of the dining, activities and communicate with other people onboard through the app as well as all of the things that we booked on our own little calendar. Next time, I will bring a magnet dry erase board so we can write out our activities for the day. There's just so much to do! The shows that we managed to catch were really well done. The comedians, not so much. We did have fun at the onboard games and the cruise directors were very personable. They had movies every night with lots of options and family friendly options as well. Again, there are so many onboard activities! The kids had fun at all of the Dreamwork events with the animals. The parades are a lot action and happen on a regular basis. The employees really look like they are enjoying themselves and interact with all of the kids. We also did the DreamWorks breakfast. Although for a child event they didn’t have high chairs readily available which we found to be a little weird. We had to stand around while they found us a table...again. It wouldn’t have been bad had it been at the entry but we were left standing in the middle of the dining room next to other seated guests giving us stares. For $10 a person it was ok event. There are 3 different characters that come around for a picture about mid way through breakfast which is chock full of lots of sweets and chocolate. We also did portraits in the Picture This studio. The photographer was super nice and our portraits turned out amazing. Expensive, but amazing! We pre-purchased the photo package, so we took advantage of that and had about 60 total pictures at all of the different photo stations. We did the USB option, which they don't actually do the USB anymore and email you a link to your photos which are located on the cloud. We got the link about a week after the cruise ended and while not super convenient to download (you have to click on each one and download each picture separately), the pictures were great. As far as some of the suite perks... the concierge was lack luster. We called several times and we were told to go to guest services or our message was never returned. We did go to the suite lounge and they are pretty strict about children being well behaved as well as the dress code. They have happy hour every day with free alcohol(beer and wine and some liquors) and snacks. We did not get to Coastal Kitchen this trip. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves because we didn’t let all of the inconveniences mess up our vacation. We did book another cruise, which we were super disappointed in the NextCruise office experience - she didn't seem to know much about the ships or the programs for children. Luckily, we have a travel agent so we got the onboard credit from the NextCruise office. We booked on a smaller ship with the hopes that maybe they would have a more personable experience. The staff was either super friendly or grumpy on Allure. There didn’t seem to be an in between. I would say that if you’re a couple with no kids, it’s probably a different experience. If you have super young kids, the options are much more limited. There were tons of families with kids of all ages. We are looking forward to cruising again with kids that are over the age of 3 so they can utilize the free kids programs. We really love cruising and we are super excited for our next cruise!

Fun adventure

Dec 9th, 2018

I had an amazing cruise there were things I liked and things they could do better. Overall I give my cruise experience a 9 out of 10. One thing I don't understand is why did they have a cruise director. I saw him do two shows. Carnival they were everywhere. if Jimmy the Cruise Director walked past me I wouldn't know who he was. His assistant was around more than he was. They also need better TV channels.

Dec 8th, 2018

We took a 7 day on the Allure in a balcony room (deck 9) the week after Thanksgiving. About 90 days out, we booked all of our show reservations online through the cruise planner. We saw Oceanside dive show, comedy show, and Blue Planet which was my favorite. Although we book Mamma Mia we decided to skip it. The ports we visited were Nassau, Cozumel, Roatan, and Costa Maya. We didn’t take any excursions through Royal Caribbean. In Nassau we took a taxi & went to Adastra Gardens and zoo. They have beautiful peacocks that roam, a marching flamingo show, and parrot feeding. On the way back we stopped at the Queen’s staircase & Fort Fincastle. We took at taxi to Mr. Sanchos in Cozumel (make a reservation online before you go—its a small $5 deposit). We paid the balance when we got there with a credit card. Basically it was $150 total for 2 adults and a kid. Mr Sanchos is all inclusive—beach, pool, food and drinks. Your server stays with you all day and brings whatever you want. Ask for Armando—he was great. Next up, Roatan Honduras which was my favorite port. We did the Best of Roatan tour through Bodden tours. It was $40 per person if you went on a private tour. We opted to go in a van with others (so cost dropped to $25). Freddy was our driver—he took us to the highest point in the country for photo ops, the west end (beach, restaurant, shops, etc). The tour stops at the monkey and sloth conservation where you can pay $10 (cash) to interact with the animals. I liked holding the sloth ????. Roatan was really beautiful and we learned a lot of it’s history from our driver. Lastly, in Costa Maya we just enjoyed the port. Restaurants, shopping, pool, etc. Overall, I loved the Allure. It was decorated nice for Christmas. I’m normally a freedom class type of girl The ship never felt crowded and there was no problem getting loungers by the pool. Central Park was pretty and realistic. I’m not usually a fan of the dining room food on RC but we had my time dining at the American Icon Grill and the food was good. We didn’t make reservations but the wait time was only 5-10 minutes. The service was good but slow. The windjammer was ok—nothing to write home about but the desserts were good. We also ate at Sabor specialty restaurant. I enjoyed the meal ($47.00) for 2 people. We breakfast at Johnny Rocket’s for no additional cost—no complaints on the food. Since we had our 4 year old along we did the Dreamworks breakfast & parade. The breakfast was disappointing—only 3 or 4 characters and you have to wait for them to make their rounds to the tables. My son was bored because our table was in the back and last. It would have been better to start characters at the various area in the room to avoid the wait (doesn’t matter because Royal Caribbean is phasing Dreamworks out in April). Anyway my son liked the kids club, carousel, face painting. I’d definitely sail on Allure again.

Wonderful Cruise

Dec 6th, 2018

Third time on the Allure and still our favorite ship. We (5) were booked in a 2 bedroom royal suite in sky class. Food was wonderful and the service was outstanding.

Fantastic Western Caribbean Cruise

Dec 4th, 2018

The ship is huge. It was clean and aesthetically appealing. We had a wonderful time (family group of 21 people).

Fantastic Trip, Beautiful Ship!

Dec 4th, 2018

This was a wonderful vacation, loved everything about it. We were worried with it being such a large ship with so many people...but we never felt cramped or over-crowded. Loved Central Park and all of the dining/places to each choices.

Western Caribbean Cruise.

Dec 4th, 2018

The ship is beautiful with so many unique and nice areas. Entertainment is tops and varied. Itinerary is so-so, but I knew it was going to be like that.

Another fantastic cruise

Dec 2nd, 2018

The ship is really wonderful, especially The Central Park. Food is very good, service excellent.