thrifty99

That's exactly what Chops has always been, an average steakhouse. Did you really think that for $35 you were going to get an experience that approaches $100 at a prime steakhouse?:confused:

Nope, never said I expected it to be a prime steakhouse. While it is only $35, one never knows if a cruise line subsidizes part of the cost. I was simply using that comparison to let the poster know where the steaks fit into the spectrum. Not everyone may have your level of expertise with cruise line steak houses.

The aged steak for more money allegedly is similar to a prime steakhouse but I did not have it so I have no first hand knowledge. The waiter specifically noted the aged steaks would be similar to the upscale steak houses.

We were on the Allure last week and ate at Chops, Samba Grill, Izumi, Rita's and Johnny Rockets.

Favorite was Samba Grill. Not as good as some land based Brazilian steakhouses we have been to, but definitely worth it and food was still delicious.

2nd favorite was Izumi. Had their seafood Hot Rock... small rock heated up to 575 degrees and you cook your food on it. Fun meal.

Chops was an average steak as I did not want to pay more (on top of the restaurant charge) for their aged steak.

Rita's was fun with the dancing on the boardwalk after the appetizer. Food was pretty good for Mexican fare.

Johnny Rockets is what you would expect... good burger, fries, onion rings and shakes.

Thanks for the response.

I was searching for other posts regarding the best place to purchase a cruise and noticed that specific travel agents are not supposed to be mentioned. I just joined Cruise Critic this weekend and am learning the rules - sorry if this was an inappropriate post and feel free to remove it if needed.

I'm curious if there are any other benefits to booking through Royal Caribbean on top of their small on board credits?

We have always booked through Costco as we get much higher credits. Last week on the Allure we had $745 in on board credits from Costco which was over 10% of our cruise price.

Thanks in advance.

We only had problems the first 2 days with the toilet not flushing in our room. It then worked fine after that. Not sure if they fixed something or it just worked itself out. When it was not working they did not need to come into our cabin... maintenance used an access panel in the hallway to manually flush our toilet somehow.

Our room steward said it sometimes can be due to the line being plugged from misuse in an adjacent stateroom which would be out of your control. Who knows.

I would not worry about it. If it had not worked all week it would have been more frustrating. Luckily this was not the case.

Did Chops have baked potatos and red velvet cake?

Yes, they had baked potatoes. I don't recall if they had red velvet cake. My son had the mud pie and my wife and I had a berry mousse.

I'm not sure what the "new menu" is, but yes they had mud pie on the menu at Chops last week when we were on the Allure.

The menu had the two "additional charge" steaks... those that were dry aged. The waiter said those would be the only steaks the equivalent of a true steakhouse. I thought that was an odd statement, but he was trying to get us to upgrade to those steaks (we did not).

I had the porterhouse and it was an average steak. Definitely nothing near the quality of the top Chicago steak houses I have eaten at.

My son had the mud pie and loved it. It came with a big bowl of vanilla ice cream.

Ken Rush is yammering blabber mouth. I get his schtick. I just don't like it. For every one thing related to the event he's hosting he seems to work in two things about himself.

He did seem to be full of himself and liked to constantly talk about how he has been doing this for 29 years.

Too many times he would say some borderline inappropriate things and then would follow it with his "don't go and complain to guest services about what I said, this is an adult show". My 17 year old even said his was the only job you could get away with saying the things he did to passengers and co-workers.

Overall I thought he did a good job as CD but can see how he could rub people the wrong way.

We had the same toilet issue! I have overactive bladder, so I go to the bathroom a LOT. One night, I had to go four different times without it flushing. Then it would do my weird thing where it would randomly flush five minutes after I tried to flush it. Maintenance was not very swift at fixing the problem, either.

 

I agree about the pool attendants. There was only one who would enforce the no kids in the adult whirlpools rule. The others wouldn't do it, wouldn't remove things on chairs, and if I'm being honest, kind of loafed around most of the time.

When I first brought the toilet issue to our room stewards attention she said "don't put paper towels in the toilet". I replied, "I don't mean to be crude, but I simply peed in the toilet and it would not flush. It is the toilet not working, not me using it incorrectly".

I do feel bad for the pool attendants... they can't win. Those of us who don't reserve chairs are upset as all chairs are taken and there is no one in them. If they remove personal belongings, then those people are upset are at the attendants. One man was sitting with 6 empty chairs next to him for over 45 minutes. I asked the pool attendant if they could help us get two of the chairs. He tried and the guy made up a story about "the baby had an accident and they had to go back to the room to change him". I said it took 6 people to do this and he started ranting about all the other chairs with towels on them. We just walked away. It was another 30 minutes before anyone came to his "saved chairs" and there was never a baby. I guess those of us who follow the rules lose out.

Do you pay extra for the Boardwalk hotdogs or are they free?

Boardwalk hot dogs are free. Along with the normal condiments they have grilled peppers, grilled onions, and sauerkraut you can also put on them.

They also have potato salad and coleslaw for sides here.

I would not worry about the smell... it was just in the hallways several times during the week when we wanted to get from the back to the front of the ship quickly so walked down the hallway versus the promenade or central park. We never smelled anything in our room. We have sailed on the Oasis twice and did not encounter this. But with it being Spring Break and a lot of kids on board there may have been more problems with the toilets.

We only ate in the MDR once this cruise as we wanted to enjoy a variety of dining venues. Here is where we ate dinners besides the one night in the MDR:

Samba Grill: loved this meal... meat was not as good as the Brazilian steakhouses I have gone to here in Chicago area, but still very good and definitely worth it.

Chops Steakhouse: I had the porterhouse and the steak was average. They try to upsell you on the better aged steaks but I did not want to spend more on top of the Chops fee.

Izumi: I had the seafood "Hot Rock" which was really fun. They bring out your uncooked food (seafood & vegetables) and a hot volcanic rock heated to 575 degrees. You then cook your food on the rock and eat it. Not a lot of food and they forgot to bring our soup, but it was a fun meal. You pay for each item.

Rita's Cantina: We did the fiesta that includes 3 alcoholic drinks and dinner. The food was a pretty typical Mexican fare... appetizers, fajitas, and some desserts. After appetizers they take you all out to the boardwalk for some group dances. Men get sombreros and women get some blink light necklace thing.

Johnny Rockets: had a good burger, onion rings, and shakes.

As a suite guest we could have the full dining room menu in our room. We preferred to not do the formal nights on this cruise but I wanted the lobster tail on Friday night so we had dinner delivered to our suite.

We were on the starboard side, deck 10, room 660 (Grand Suite).

Our cabin steward never turned the master switch off (she was the one who warned us to not do it).

As for which is the master switch...good question as it is not marked. In our room we had 3 switches at the door and the master switch was the top one.

Yes, was on the Allure last week. For the most part, everything was great on the ship.

NicNac answered most of your questions.

They also played Gravity in 3D on the ship. Frozen was great to watch on the big screens in the Aqua Theater.

I thought Ken Rush did a nice job as CD.

My favorite meal was Samba Grill (Brazilian Steakhouse).

We really enjoyed Chicago and Blue Planet.

Complaints: (not many)

This was our first time in a suite where we had access to the Concierge Lounge. I expected better service than what we received.

There also seemed to be more plumbing problems as several times during the week the hallway smelled of "sewage" and they had fans in the hallways to dry out the carpet. The first 2 days we did have to call maintenance as our toilet would not flush.

Reserving seats with towels: all the deck chairs near pools were "reserved" by people putting towels / personal items on them by 7:30am and they did not show up for an hour or more later. When I pointed out some chairs that had been empty for 45 minutes, the pool attendants would not do anything about it. I wish they would enforce the "no reserving" policy better. As suite guests we had access to the private sun deck so had no problem getting a lounge chair but would have preferred one by a pool.

We just left the Allure yesterday (still missing it).

As for the AC in the room, it was quite cool in the room at the coldest setting at all times. We were in a Grand Suite.

Something to note that some may not be aware of (our room attendant pointed it out). There is a "master switch" at the door to turn off all lights in the room. If you turn that off, it also turns off the AC. Our room attendant mentioned it would get warm at night if we used that to turn off all the lights versus the individual switches.

We have sailed on the Oasis twice (2011 & 2012) and just got off the Allure yesterday.

I personally preferred the Allure due to the restaurants. My favorite meal was the Samba Grill (Brazilian steakhouse) on Allure. I also liked the Boardwalk Hot dog stand on Allure with the 5-6 varieties of hot dogs / brats / sausages. The Seafood Shack (Oasis) versus Rita's Cantina (Allure) are a wash. Rita's does have a "fiesta" meal that was fun... drinks, food, dancing.

I believe all other dining was identical on the two ships.

As others have pointed out, the shows are different.

Oasis: Hairspray and Come Fly With me (if they still have these)

Allure: Chicago and Blue Planet

I enjoyed all of the above shows - Blue Planet was my favorite.

The rest of the features of the ships are identical (Allure is 2 inches longer).

The final determination would be if you have a preference of the departure day (Oasis = Saturday, Allure = Sunday) and what itinerary you want for the week you are considering.

Bottom line... you won't make a bad decision. Both ships are incredible and we have enjoyed them every trip.

Just departed the Allure today. We had the unlimited internet for one device plan ($160 after platinum discount). We used it with a couple iPhones, iPads, and MacBooks. Never had to logoff with the unlimited plan - just sign on using a new device and it disconnected the current one.

Speeds on the Allure were .25 upload and download.

Could not FaceTime audio or video chat but iMessage worked for texting back home. If texting photos, it took a while to upload/send. Looking forward to the new high speed internet coming soon.

One device unlimited internet for the week is $189. Unlimited for 2 devices is $229. Those are the only unlimited options they offered.

From the staff I spoke with on the ship the true high speed internet is coming later in the year to the Allure. They did not know (or would not share) if it was next month or in 6 months. The speeds will then allegedly be near the speed you can get on land.

I wonder if they will increase the price for internet when the speeds increase? Maybe someone who was recently on the Oasis could share if it is true that they already have the high speed internet.

Yes - wasn't sure if the speed test would even work.

Last time I cruised it was much slower / went down frequently so the upgraded internet has been much better on the Allure now.

I do wish you could sign up your iPhone with their ship

Cellular so you could text family members to find each other. But you have to rent one of their iPhones for $20 for the week to do this.

Just ran a speed test and it is fairly slow. About .25Mb/sec upload and download.

Not sure if today is worse since we are at sea and many may be signed in now.

My first post and thought I would share my internet experience on the Allure this week.

I purchased the unlimited internet for one device for $189.99. My Platinum status gave me a 15% discount so it came out to about $160.

The internet speed is pretty good. It was slow if uploading/downloading photos but fine for most web browsing. I will run a speed test and post the results later.

I am an active stock/options trader and was able to run my trading software (ThinkorSwim) with a few live charts active. Again, pretty good speed.

We use Apple products and had no problem using MacBooks, iPhones, and iPads. Since we only purchased the one device at a time package, if you signed onto one it would just sign you out of the other device automatically.

iMessage worked great all week to text to family back home. Photos work in iMessage but they are slow to send.

FaceTime audio or video calls did not work.

I had a wifi signal EVERYWHERE on the ship.

The internet credit is applied towards the end of your cruise. This was our first cruise in a suite above Junior Suite (Grand Suite) so we had access to the Concierge Lounge. I was disappointed the concierge staff did not know about the internet discount. I asked him about it and he sort of smugly replied that there is no internet discount. I told him it was listed as a perk for platinum members and he said they did away with that. Trip down to guest services and they explained it would be applied on Friday and sure enough it was.

While still pricey, I felt the unlimited internet was definitely worth it and the reliability / speed has improved since our last cruise in 2012.