martini_guy

Being that Carnival never went forward with anything even remotely comparable to the Oasis/Allure, no comparison could even be made.

 

Sorry.

Before I took the Allure cruise I might have believed that. After taking the cruise I believe you can compare the two in every way.

Can't look at just size. I think, what, there are about 2000 more passengers on a ship twice the size? On can only dream of having 2000 passengers on a 110,000 ton vessel, ratio wise.

The Allure is less crowded for sure, but also gives it a sort of sparse feeling for some things. For example at trivia which I would normally see at least 50 people on the Dream we would often get around 20 on the Allure.

I like how the Boardwalk Plaza concept just brings groups of people together to hang out. The seats in the Schooner bar are VERY nice but the layout is just not conducive to a social atmosphere that most people want for trivia and other similar games/activities.

One comparison is the price you pay.

 

 

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Good point! That can be adjusted though depending on time of year, cabin type, etc.

For example, last time on the Carnival Breeze I had a balcony room in Feb and it was around $1200 each with taxes/fees. For this cruise on the Allure I had an inside balcony in Oct it was just over $1000 each with taxes/fees. I'm sure that an outside balcony in Feb would've been much more expensive.

You can't compare this ship to CCL. Nothing matches. What is "better" is a matter of opinion. However, the Oasis and Allure are awesome ships, and any comparision can not be accurate......

Yes this was only my opinion. Oasis and Allure ARE awesome ships but so are the Dream, Magic and Breeze.

Interesting. We too were on Allure but back in April, after having done a few Carnival cruises. We had almost opposites of positives and negatives from you. LOTS of chair hogs. There was a grouping of probably 30 chairs with a book, a shoe, a towel etc pretty much daily and nothing was ever done. By about two p.m. Passengers would finally just start moving things.

 

We did not like their pizza at all, but from what I can gather, Carnival has changed their pizza since we last sailed them.

 

My kids MUCH preferred the RCCL teen club over Carnival.

 

Wholeheartedly agree with you on the food, trivia and game type activities.

 

So fun how people can see things so differently. Just goes to show that often you just have to go experience it for yourself.

After talking to many people on cruises it seems like things can change a lot from month to month.

On Carnival with chair hogs it seemed insane to me. They just didn't seem willing to enforce it at all. Maybe it's new, but on my Allure cruise I was VERY happy to finally be able to get a seat.

On the Allure, the main thing on my cruise was people annoyed by the food. Even some first time cruisers were not happy. You could sit down at any bar and ask a random person how their dinner was and it was almost universally a bad experience. It really wasn't terrible but just didn't live up to most peoples expectations.

For the record I still think the Carnival buffet really sucks, as well as the pizza. But the deli, Indian, and Guy's burger are all fantastic.

Instead of a review I thought I'd just give a rundown of how some things compared to what I have been accustomed to on the newer Carnival ships (Dream, Magic, and Breeze).

First here's what I thought was better on the Allure than on the Carnival ships:

Seating - LOTS of places to sit all over the ship. This included in the buffet, public areas and bars.

Pool chairs - No sign of chair hogs and I saw the RCCL staff grabbing towels off of empty chairs all the time.

Pools - Nice sized pools and several of them.

Pizza - Was actually something I would expect from a real pizzeria.

Drink package - RCCL offers different drink packages. I chose the premium one for $49/day. Some of the liquors offered were higher end ones than Carnival offers. I was also not limited to ordering one drink every 15 mins which was nice if I wanted to bring two drinks back to my room to have on the balcony. There's also no 15/day limit not that I would've hit that amount. You can also use the drink package in the MDR which was nice.

Kids activities - How can you beat the zip line, ice skating, flow rider and rock climbing wall?

Here's what I liked better on Carnival:

Food - On Carnival, more variety in the MDR, the deli, the steakhouse is WAY better. The buffet in the Allure had a large variety but nothing cohesive. They would have one indian dish, one asian dish, etc. Not ideal if you feel like an indian or asian style meal. I also REALLY missed the Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast and lunch. Guy's burgers is also a 9/10 for me vs Johnny Rockets which I would maybe give a 3/10 (didn't like it except for breakfast).

Trivia - Carnival has trivia daily and has several types per day. On the Allure, General trivia was offered once a day on sea days with a handful of other types of trivia.

Game/Activities - Those one off games and activities are offered daily or more in Boardwalk Plaza. They are usually run by someone who speaks English as a first language. This was a problem on the Allure where some of the activities were run by people with poor English language skills (including comprehension) which made playing some of the games very difficult and less enjoyable.

Bars - The Allure claims to have 26 bars, but many are only open on rare occasion (late evenings, before dinner, etc). The entire pool deck has 3 bars all within 1 min walk of each other. This makes for a long walk for much of the pool deck. I prefer Carnivals layout much better. The Carnival bars are also more of a place to hang out, where on the Allure it was more where people would get a drink and walk away with it.

Deli - The Allure version of the deli is the Park Cafe. It has some deli type offerings but with the exception of the Beef on Weck they offer which was outstanding, most of the deli type sandwiches were not very good. I badly missed the Carnival deli.

Comedy - I like the multiple shows offered throughout the cruise on Carnival. On the Allure one adult show is offered and one all ages show for the entire cruise!

Kids/Teen club - My daughter thought the club was 'ok' on the Allure but is demanding that our next cruise be on Carnival. She's very social and really enjoys the teen club on Carnival.

I'll leave it at that for now. I'm didn't make this thread to bash the Allure or Carnival. They both have great things to offer. I'm just highlighting what I miss from the experience Carnival offers. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Instead of a review I thought I'd just give a rundown of how some things compared to what I have been accustomed to on the newer Carnival ships (Dream, Magic, and Breeze).

First here's what I thought was better on the Allure than on the Carnival ships:

Seating - LOTS of places to sit all over the ship. This included in the buffet, public areas and bars.

Pool chairs - No sign of chair hogs and I saw the RCCL staff grabbing towels off of empty chairs all the time.

Pools - Nice sized pools and several of them.

Pizza - Was actually something I would expect from a real pizzeria.

Drink package - RCCL offers different drink packages. I chose the premium one for $49/day. Some of the liquors offered were higher end ones than Carnival offers. I was also not limited to ordering one drink every 15 mins which was nice if I wanted to bring two drinks back to my room to have on the balcony. There's also no 15/day limit not that I would've hit that amount. You can also use the drink package in the MDR which was nice.

Kids activities - How can you beat the zip line, ice skating, flow rider and rock climbing wall?

Here's what I liked better on Carnival:

Food - On Carnival, more variety in the MDR, the deli, the steakhouse is WAY better. The buffet in the Allure had a large variety but nothing cohesive. They would have one indian dish, one asian dish, etc. Not ideal if you feel like an indian or asian style meal. I also REALLY missed the Blue Iguana Cantina for breakfast and lunch. Guy's burgers is also a 9/10 for me vs Johnny Rockets which I would maybe give a 3/10 (didn't like it except for breakfast).

Trivia - Carnival has trivia daily and has several types per day. On the Allure, General trivia was offered once a day on sea days with a handful of other types of trivia.

Game/Activities - Those one off games and activities are offered daily or more in Boardwalk Plaza. They are usually run by someone who speaks English as a first language. This was a problem on the Allure where some of the activities were run by people with poor English language skills (including comprehension) which made playing some of the games very difficult and less enjoyable.

Bars - The Allure claims to have 26 bars, but many are only open on rare occasion (late evenings, before dinner, etc). The entire pool deck has 3 bars all within 1 min walk of each other. This makes for a long walk for much of the pool deck. I prefer Carnivals layout much better. The Carnival bars are also more of a place to hang out, where on the Allure it was more where people would get a drink and walk away with it.

Deli - The Allure version of the deli is the Park Cafe. It has some deli type offerings but with the exception of the Beef on Weck they offer which was outstanding, most of the deli type sandwiches were not very good. I badly missed the Carnival deli.

Comedy - I like the multiple shows offered throughout the cruise on Carnival. On the Allure one adult show is offered and one all ages show for the entire cruise!

Kids/Teen club - My daughter thought the club was 'ok' on the Allure but is demanding that our next cruise be on Carnival. She's very social and really enjoys the teen club on Carnival.

I'll leave it at that for now. I'm didn't make this thread to bash the Allure or Carnival. They both have great things to offer. I'm just highlighting what I miss from the experience Carnival offers. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

so how do you know all those nights that you weren't in the MDR that the food wasn't good?

Valid question! Because I had talked to other people throughout the cruise and the majority shared the same opinion. I came in a group of around 300 people and we all socialized quite often.

Most in my group myself included had not been on RCCL before so didn't have a point of reference to what the Royal experience is normally.

I was on the Allure 2 weeks ago, and our party of 10 ate in the MDR every night, except for 1 night in Chops. Sure, we each had our personal likes and dislikes among all the different dishes offered, but overall everyone LOVED the food in the MDR. Awesome Prime Rib for example. I didn't do the lobster but those who did enjoyed it. I will say I was very disappointed in the steak I got at Chops. I had a NY Strip Steak and it just wasn't that great. A couple of nights later I got the regular NY Strip Steak offered nightly on the MDR menu. I had to say that the MDR steak was better than the Chops steak I paid an extra $35 for. I wasn't the only one in my party to say the same thing.

I had the prime rib on the first night and it was excellent. That was my favourite MDR meal for the whole cruise by far. I had both the Chops steak and the MDR steak. I found them in the same ballpark of quality. I just wish I knew that at the beginning of the cruise and not near the end. The sides at Chops were interesting and good so I tried to to be too upset about the extra $35 for comparable steaks.

I think this was worth it for me. I had the Premium Package on a 7 day Allure cruise. I'm more of a liquor drinker though and I really enjoyed drinking premium brands that I wouldn't always be drinking at home.

It wasn't just about the alcohol either. I did end up getting around 8 waters throughout the cruise, 3 of which were in Labadee.

Thanks! I agree that the food wasn't up to par as past cruises that I've been on, however, there were still plenty of yummy things to eat. We are not big MDR fans to begin with so we only ate three dinners in there. One (formal night 1) was poor. The other nights were okay, definitely edible but not amazing by any count. However, I found the appetizers in the MDR to always be delicious. Both the escargot and bay scallop gratin were delish (though not sure how anything dripping in butter couldn't be fabulous) and I really enjoyed the bite of my mother's shrimp goyza main, which while small was one of the best tasting things I ate all cruise. I found the specialty dining to be much better quality food wise, both of our meals in Chops and Giovanni's were on par with NYC restaurant quality food (though I will note I was not a fan of the pretzel bread or tater tots in Chops).

 

Anytime I was served something that wasn't tasty, I was actually a bit happy since I knew I would have more room for an additional cheesecake lollipop. :)

 

We remarked on our cruise survey that we thought MDR and Windjammer were lacking and hopefully they will step it up on future cruises.

I agree that their strong suits were the appetizers and desserts in most cases. Towards the end I did give up and just got the steak from the "classics" menu and it was decent, maybe 7/10.

Sorrento's was a pleasant surprise for me too when they did have fresh slices available with the toppings that I liked.

Nice review! I was on this cruise too.

Had a nice time but wasn't as satisfied with the food as you were but everyone has different tastes.

The free wifi for an hour (and then extended another hour) was nice. It wasn't the fastest but was great to be able to download all of my emails.

I found the debarkation to be much longer than I expected but it's hard to judge based on one cruise, they really did seem backed up. Either way I still easily made it to my 12:15 flight at FLL.

I've never had 'unpalatable' food on any cruise ship or line. I know some start these threads just to open a debate on whose food is better but seeing for the most part you've only sailed Carnival I'm sure that wasn't your intention. :rolleyes:

I just wanted an answer. I'm not here to debate if cruise line A is better than cruise line B. There's plenty of other threads about that.

I've been on other cruises where the MDR food was at the level where I ended up going to the specialty restaurants for more than half of my dinners. The difference for me this time was that the specialty restaurants were below expectations as well.

I'm thinking that I may try one of the smaller ships on RCCL next time. Other than the food, most of my experiences on the ship were fairly good.

The food quality continues to decline, even in the specialty restaurants. The need to keep fares low to fill the ever-increasing number of cabins results in ongoing cost cutting.

Regarding reviews and comments on this board, some people, not all, are real homers and will never admit RCCL has downgraded the cruise experience

This seems like the most reasonable explanation. I just found it hard to believe that the food wasn't good or excellent at some point in the past on this ship and this would point to the reason.

I'm not going to write a review for now but I feel very surprised that my experience with the food onboard did not match up with many of the reviews that I had read previously.

After the first few days I started to second-guess myself thinking maybe it's just me so I started asking other passengers what they thought of the food. Almost universally people I talked to were very disappointed in the food. Many had chose to go to the pay restaurants after finding the MDR food unpalatable and then were even more disappointed that they were paying for food they weren't happy with. When the served the lobster on the 2nd sea day evening it infuriated many people as nearly everyone in my area of the dining room were served overcooked lobster and not allowed a replacement.

So back to my question.. has the food quality dropped off in quality recently? Were the reviewers biased, or schills for RCCL?

Overall I thought the cruise was decent but I'm just very surprised at the many reviews that labelled the food as "better than Carnival" when that was certainly not the case on this past week's sailing. I find it hard to believe that on a nice ship like the Allure that the food was always this bad and not many would mention that in the reviews.

Excellent! Thanks for the replies.

I'm new to trying out this cruise line but I took a glance at some of the sample daily planner things and I didn't see much for trivia. This is something that I REALLY enjoyed on Carnival cruises. Most sea days would have a few hours worth. Can someone give me the rundown on what they typically offer for trivia or similar activities on a typical 7 day cruise?

Thanks!

Probably quickest to just call your sis to give you the $150 back than type this post.

You paid in an unusual way with two credit cards so you can't expect them to be mind readers.

Thanks for all of the great answers!

Just had a few questions that I'm sure someone can answer. There's a few things that I'm used to on a cruise and just wanted to know ahead of time how it is on RCI. I'm going on the Allure in just over a month. I'm very excited but just wanted to be prepared for some differences that I'm expecting in one way or another.

Here's the questions:

Laundry - On Carnival I would usually bring a small pack of detergent and do a quick load partway through a cruise if I had an hour to kill. There's laundry rooms on each floor so it wasn't too big of a hassle. I just found it nice since then I could pack somewhat less or at least wash some of my clothes that I wanted to wear again. Is the same thing available on the Allure?

Room service - I'm used to occasionally getting room service to deliver some breakfast items in the morning (coffee, toast, fruit, etc) a few times per cruise. Is this offered?

Duty free liquor - If I buy from the ship do they deliver it to your room at some point later on the cruise? I've had on other cruises where I would get it either on the last afternoon or last evening.

Bringing wine on board - Are we allowed to bring 1 bottle per person as some other cruise lines allow?

Disembarkment day - Do they have a flexible option where we can disembark ourselves at any time with our own luggage? Also how late is breakfast served until? I generally like to be one of the last to leave the ship and often leave the ship between 9:30-10 on other cruises. Is this an option?

I'm now booked and can see the shows that I can book. Are all of these shows the same, or are they different each night? I would like to go to as many unique shows as I can if there are different ones.

I'm going on the Allure in Oct and have been reading up on various reviews. I see many mention the Comedy club which is one of my favorite things on my previous Carnival cruises. When I look on the RCCL website though they don't even mention the comedy club. This makes me wonder, has it been closed or something, or just an oversight on their website?

If there still is indeed comedy, then how many different shows are there? Would I have to get tickets like the other shows?

I would appreciate anyone that can enlighten me. :)