Gquie

10:30 on Day 6...it's VERY empty...

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha, I'm on the Allure right now and this morning I didn't realize you guys had pulled up next to us.. or maybe we pulled up next to you. I was wearing basically just my knickers as I threw open the drapes and right in front of me not 20 feet away was your ship's cantilevered hot tubs. Thank goodness no one was looking into my cabin.

I then went up to Windjammer for breakfast and admired the view of your pool and track deck.

I really enjoyed the Liberty horn send off as you guys were leaving. I waved to all the people on your ship as you were casting off but no no one waved back :(

On allure now. Ate in chops back in November on grandeur. Felt food quality and service was lacking. On allure today, feel the same. Meh food and inattentive service from one rushed waiter. What exactly does the $49 pp upcharge pay for if not food quality or service? Am in a suite so should I tell genie or just shut up because this is how corporate wants it and there is no fixing what is intended? (And before haters respond, yes we didn't pay directly since in a star suite but just the same was very disappointed. ).

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

I'm on allure right now too. Walked by Chops at around 8pm on my way to 150 CP and it looked packed inside. Now I'm a tad nervous as I've got my Chops reservation for this Friday. :confused:

On a side note, service and food was stellar at 150 CP. Place was half full and our waiter had 4 other tables but we never felt neglected.

Happy Sailing!

I find the food in the MDR to be on average mediocre. I'm really not a food snob and I always appreciate that someone, anyone, took the time and effort to cook a meal for me. That said, today I had one of the best prime ribs I've ever had on land or at sea. Moist and juicy, tender, and flavourful, That's the only thing that tasted good.

The escargot was served room temperature and the creme brule was, pardon my exaggeration but... a crime against humanity. The "custard" was a congealed pudding-like texture and the sugar crust was burnt to the point where when I took my first spoonful of it, the stuff tasted like how ash smells.

I'm also not generally a complainer but I do appreciate and expect prompt and efficient service. The wait staff were either completely overwhelmed on day 1 or so new at this that the entire service suffered. The section of tables I was sitting at (3 tables of 2 tops) literally spent the full 2 hours sitting there waiting an excessive amount of time for everything. I'm talking 15 minutes for a soda. 10 minutes for a tea. 5 minutes for them to bring me some cream for the tea.

For the majority of the dinner we never even saw our wait staff. My soda went unrefilled until I had to flag down the assistant waiter to ask her for a refill. I've never experienced this before in the MDR. Assistant waiters normally hover over you from a respectable distance and put a fresh glass of soda when I'm barely half finished my first glass.

When our waiter finally did arrive with the food, he brought all 3 tables food at the same time and got so flustered he forgot who ordered what and had to ask everyone what they ordered. He'd stand there with two plates in his hands and ask who ordered what he was holding! He forgot a bunch of people's food and when reminded of the fact people were missing dishes, he acted as if they were on their way even though you could clearly see he had no idea what he missed.

Not being one to complain I shrugged it off as a messy service but my dining companion wanted to ask to be switched to a different section (is this even possible? we have an assigned table and traditional dining slot). I tried to reason that we have 3 specialty dinners to look forward to so we wouldn't have to suffer in the MDR as much and it wasn't worth complaining about.

When reading this thread it got me to thinking, maybe this really is the strategy for RCI. To degrade the service and the quality of the ingredients to the point where you'd gladly pay the upcharge for specialty restaurants. It certainly is working on me.

I am currently on the Allure and while dining in the Windjammer today at lunch (Day 1) a man wearing an Izumi uniform was walking around trying to sell the 3 dinner night package. I was thinking about buying the package anyway so as he came to my table he was explaining which restaurants were included.

I'm not sure if he was misinformed but he did tell me specifically that Hibachi was included and that we'd receive a $50 credit if we purchased the 3 night dining package on board with him. I remember this information specifically because said "if you want I can book the Hibachi for you right now as it fills up quickly".

In the end we bought the package but decided to go with 150 CP, Chops Grille, and Giovanni's.

I'd also like to know how one gets $825 onboard credit. We had to sweet talk our TA to even giving us $100. It was originally $50 only.

3 days to go

Allure uses terminal 18 which is different than the terminal that Indy uses. You will be able to use GE for your cruise on Allure.

:D that makes me happy to know.

I have generally found that taking the Skytrain into downtown from the airport is the most cost effective and quickest way to get downtown. Of course it helps if you get a hotel near a Skytrain station so the journey is relatively point to point... If not then cab is the best way to go. Also considering if you get in late at night the cab might be more expensive but it will probably be more comfortable.

I think Vancouver has just recently legalized Uber but I'm not sure if the service has started up yet there or not.

We went through on Indy just a couple weeks ago and we were told "no global entry" today. So off to the long line we went.

Well that's disheartening... I was really looking forward to being able to use GE :(

We've used the GE lines at PE four times now with our Nexus cards. Best $50 spent.:)

 

If you are asking staff for dir cations just say that you have Global Entry, if you say Nexus most just stare at you like a deer caught in headlights.

 

We always use a porter and as soon as we tell them we have GE they are extremely happy as they don't have to wait in the long customs line. I think the longest it has taken us to clear customs has been just over five minutes.

 

 

There is no GE kiosk, all GE at Port Everglades gets you is front of the line privileges.

Thank you kindly, Ken.

I'm really excited to use Global Entry since I just got my Nexus late last year. Although I have generally found the line ups not to be too severe at PE (I'm generally a patient que-er) being able to skip any line is a perk I'd like to take advantage of.

Happy sailings!

For anyone who has recently had the lobster, do they still split them in half and serve you a half piece or do they butterfly it and serve you the entire tail? On my last Allure sailing 2 years ago I was very disappointed that they split the tails in half and only served me a half piece.

Am sailing the Allure this weekend and I am looking forward to the lobster night but hoping it's butterflied and served as a whole and not into thin halves.

Have any Canadians who have Nexus been able to use the Global Entry kiosk/queue in PE? Apparently once anyone has been approved for Nexus they also get complimentary access to the Global Entry program but our cards say Nexus not Global Entry.

At the US/Canadian border entry points including airports most CBP are usually aware of the program privileges but I'm wondering if any anyone at PE will give us any hassle for having a card that says Nexus and not Global Entry even though aside from the names the cards look the same.

When do bookings open up for this ship? :D

Switching on FNDR is boat specific. Allure is very strict. It will almost certainly be Samba or Giovanni's. Oasis is more flexible. BOGO for specialty is not open to Gold members.

Thank you for your help! This answers my questions. I'll likely just stick with Giovanni's then.

Hi everyone. I've searched and come across a bunch of threads where some folks have taken advantage of FNDR and I'm looking at booking this for my Allure cruise in April. Based on the responses from earlier threads it seemed that you could switch to any specialty restaurant onboard and use FNDR. Then in the later threads it seems that people are saying it is only applicable for Giovanni's or Sabor.

I was going to go to Giovanni's anyways as I've had great experiences there but I was hoping I could use it at Chops. Has anyone used FNDR recently and been able to switch to Chops?

I read the terms and conditions of FNDR and it's worded pretty vaguely that you can use it at a specialty restaurant except for Chef's Table.

I also don't really understand when it says you can pay $19 Canadian and get 50% off but Giovanni's is $29 Canadian if I book it online in cruise planner. That's not 50% off unless they mean it'll be more expensive if I book Giovanni's on the boat. Im guessing this is the case?

Also I keep reading threads where some folks have had a BOGO option but I can't find that anywhere on cruise planner. Is BOGO only for diamonds and above or open to us mere Gold mortals?

Thanks for your help!! :)

Room services was always a nice little treat that I liked to take advantage of. I certainly won't be doing that anymore on my upcoming Allure sailing in April.

It's really too bad that RCI has decided to take away this free perk and instead charge a rather hefty $7.95 for it. I can understand if they extended the $3.95 late night charge to any time of day but $7.95 seems like just a huge cash grab even if they slightly upgrade the menu.

For my next cruise I was considering both NCL and RCI... but now that RCI has matched NCL in the room service charge that's one less advantage RCI had over NCL and will factor into my decision on which company to go with later in the year.

Maine Lobster is an upcharge. The free Lobster is the warm water lobster.

and when you upgrade, it's the WHOLE lobster, not just the tail.

 

and it was goooood broiled :)

Oh that's too bad. My friends just got back from a 7 night western on Carnival Vista and they had Maine lobster tail with no upcharge. :(

Does anyone know if it's spiny lobster or if it's maine lobster? I remember in 2015 on Allure it was spiny lobster and it was actually really inedible. I'm not a picky eater at all and lobster is one of my favorite foods of all time but what was served that night was spiny lobster and it was mushy and almost paste-list.

Im hoping that maybe Maine lobster holds up better to the cooking in the MDR and maybe it was the spiny lobster that was the problem.

We're booked on deck 12 on the Allure for April. Have sailed her before also on Deck 12 and we love it. I'm sensitive to motion but I didn't have any issues sleeping in my cabin and I could barely feel any movement the entire week. I particularly like being higher up since when we're docked it gives you a much better view of the scenery. I wouldn't go up any higher as that's getting pretty close to the sports deck although a group of my friends stayed in a boardwalk balcony cabin on deck 14 right under the basketball courts and they said they couldn't hear anything nor could they feel any movement.

I guess it's subjective.

Will be sailing the Allure in April. Does the Allure have the new menus in MDR or is it still the older menus named Saffron, Basil, etc?

Enjoy your cruise!

I found some from September that were on Oasis. I'll post link 😊

 

http://eatsleepcruise.com/2016/09/new-main-dining-room-menus-on-oasis-of-the-seas-2016/

Wow those menus look amazing! I'm on the Allure in April and I really hope they get these new menu's for my sailing.

How about 12676? Sailing in April and really excited! Thank you!

I hung up my towel every day and wouldn't have had a problem using a slightly moist towel but the room attendant replaced it Everytime he was in the room. So I had a fresh towel every 4 hours basically. I loved the feeling of a fresh towel but felt kind of guilty for the environment.

I don't understand what the problem is. They ate it all didn't they?

Was on the Allure this year and found the windjammer food to be lacking. The variety was disappointing and the quality was only so-so. Spent most of our time in the MDR, Giovanni's, and 150 CP.

That said, I never found a lack of seating in the Windjammer. Read the reviews about how packed it gets on Embarkation day and for lunch and dinner and it was never full to the point where we needed to wait anymore than 2 minutes for a table. For lunch we'd go at around 1pm and for dinner we'd go check it out around 6:30 so maybe not prime hours I guess?