Allure Western 7/28/2013 Review

[Babygirl08]

My thoughts. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Disclaimer: There will be no pictures of food since I assume you all have seen chocolate cake before.

Group: 13 of us, ages 4 (DD), 15, 17, 31, 35, 36, 40 (me), 41 (DW), 41, 44, 65, 65, 75.

My Resume: 4 RCI, 3 NCL, 3 Princess, 1 Carnival

Pre-Cruise: Pier66 Hyatt. Awesome. Cab from FLL to hotel very easy ($15-$20). Shuttle from hotel to pier very easy ($7 per person).

Embark: Arrived at 10:30. On the ship by 11:15. Very short lines at this time.

Stateroom: GS 10654. Beautiful. Perfect location. Awesome attendant. Towel animals all but one night. No chocolates.

Windjammer: Ate there twice which surprised us. We are typically Windjammer for breakfast and lunch. There are so many other options on Allure, we just never needed to go there for lunch and we became partial to the MDR for breakfast.

Main Dining Room (dinner/late seating): Decent. Wait staff, eh. Food was above average most days. Day one, one of our tables was double-booked. They fixed it after a few minutes. Day two, they moved us to a new table of 13 but with new servers who weren't as good as the day one servers. Day two dinner was so slow we missed our Chicago reservation. Head waiter fussed over my daughter every night which is always appreciated.

Dazzles: Great place. Frontliners band there is very good and versatile.

Bar staff amazing.

Blaze: Smells like an old shoe. You could keep your watch based on the song being played. Wobble wobble...must be 1:30AM. To steal a phrase from a previous review, major swapa$$ factor in here.

Park Cafe: Great roast beef and build-your-own salads.

Chops: No question best meal of the cruise. Food, service, everything.

Sorrento's: Pizza was more than good enough at 3AM.

Cupcake Cupboard: Delicious.

Fitness Center: Best-kept machines I've been on at sea. Treadmills and bikes all in working order. Stayed away from the track on deck 5 to avoid frustration from those walking 5-across and blocking the way of runners looking to pass.

Spa: Just about the same as every spa at sea. Typical aloof front desk staff. Treatments were OK.

Johnny Rockets: So, so. Staff seemed to be a little less interested in the Johnny Rockets theme than other ships I've seen. Slow and food was just OK.

Cafe Promenade: Enjoyed the cookies and little sandwiches. Never enough regular chocolate chip.

Adventure Ocean: There twice for short periods but DD said she liked it.

Cruise Director Ken Rush: Complete toolbag and it filters down to the rest of his staff.

Blue Planet: Too much interpretive dance for me. Contains a brief trampoline interlude which was enjoyable.

Ice Games: Awesome. High energy and entertaining.

Headliner Show: Not entertaining at all. Fortunately, DD asked to leave to go to bed so I didn't feel bad walking out.

Gluten Free Cruiser: DD has a slight gluten intolerance so we avoid it where we can. Sent an email to special needs in advance which was not necessary. Told MDR server day one and reminded them each day. By mid-week they knew our preference. MDR dinner bread was there every night as was pasta. Other dining locations happily made pancakes, pizza, sandwiches. Just be patient since if you appear there and make a special request, it takes 10-15 minutes.

Comedy Show: Awful. If you don't know what flop sweat is, go to this show and you'll see it up close. Can't imagine how RCI thinks this passes for entertainment.

Suite Perks: Didn't use much since we have DD and were traveling with non-suite family who were in JS and outsides. Did ask concierge (who I never actually saw and only talked to him on the phone) to pull a favor for us once and get 2 tickets for Chicago in the reserved Suite section and allow us to give those 2 tickets to our family members who really wanted to see Chicago. He declined to help out so I declined to tip him.

Crowds: Never felt crowded. Lines for pizza, cookies, soda refills, zipline, rock wall were all very manageable (10-12 people at worst).

Zipline: Cool.

Kids H2O Zone Pool: Fun. Wave pool is animal house but entertaining.

Labadee: Over-the water Cabanas at Nellie's. Awesome. Mix-up in the morning which cost us about an hour while they sorted out the reservations. Seems they had an old manifest. If I was prone to drama, I would have made an issue about refunds, etc. Cabana staff not as attentive as NCL. Getting drinks was a chore for them and they never cleared our lunch trash. As a result, when they appeared at the end of the day, my money stayed firmly in my wallet.

Haiti: Dreamer Catamaran and Snorkel. Don't waste your time, and this is the only real complaint I have. The excursion went 90 minutes longer than it was supposed to which caused us to miss our pre-paid Cupcake Decorating for DD. Plus, they snorkel for a very short amount of time. The rest of the time was spent watching the guides dive for sea life (which is what I was doing when I snorkeled and I'd rather snorkel than watch somebody else snorkel). Oh, they also gave out foot massages to women and taught line dancing on the deck. Sure, it worked for them to troll tips, but, in my opinion, they did this at the expense of the rest of the excursion. Don't waste your money.

Cozumel: Playa Mia Beach Break. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. $16 cab ride for 4 people. Kiddie water park was great for DD. Two waterslides which are good enough. Water "gym" with trampolines, balance beams, climbing walls, trapeze occupied us for hours. Ocean/beach/pool right there. Lunch was surprisingly good and not expensive. Lounge chairs with umbrellas available. Attendant was great.

Debark: Smooth. We used luggage valet for a 2PM flight and waited until they kicked us off the ship at 10:30. Customs was long but moving. Cab to the airport easy and $15-$20.

Overall: Fantastic time on a great ship. Could have used a few more days, though. At the end of some other 7-dayers we've done, it was time to go. Not this one. We definitely left unfinished business on the ship and would both do it again and recommend it.

[Cruzn Fool]

I like your style of review. Very readable and to the point.

 

Were you happy with the luggage valet and would you do it again under the same circumstances? The reason I ask it that we also have a 2pm flight after our cruise and was thinking about doing the luggage valet and staying on the ship until the end, like you did.

 

You must have been at the airport around noon after going through customs, right?

[Babygirl08]

I like your style of review. Very readable and to the point.

 

Were you happy with the luggage valet and would you do it again under the same circumstances? The reason I ask it that we also have a 2pm flight after our cruise and was thinking about doing the luggage valet and staying on the ship until the end' date=' like you did.

 

You must have been at the airport around noon after going through customs, right?[/quote']

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I would absolutely do the luggage valet again. Bags went out by 11PM the night before and I saw them again at my home airport. All 13 in our group used it and there were no issues.

 

In our past sailings we tried to be first off because we usually drive. This time with a late flight, we wanted to have a leisurely breakfast and stay on the ship as late as possible since that's more comfortable than the airport. We were through customs in about 15-20 minutes. There were plenty of cabs available and it is a short cab ride. If I recall, we were at the airport around 11:30 (+/-). But, I can tell you we had time for an extended lunch at Chilis and then still time to wait at the gate.

[Cruzn Fool]

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I would absolutely do the luggage valet again. Bags went out by 11PM the night before and I saw them again at my home airport. All 13 in our group used it and there were no issues.

 

In our past sailings we tried to be first off because we usually drive. This time with a late flight, we wanted to have a leisurely breakfast and stay on the ship as late as possible since that's more comfortable than the airport. We were through customs in about 15-20 minutes. There were plenty of cabs available and it is a short cab ride. If I recall, we were at the airport around 11:30 (+/-). But, I can tell you we had time for an extended lunch at Chilis and then still time to wait at the gate.

 

Sounds good. I was trying to decide if we would stay on the ship late and go straight to the airport of find something else to do to kill a few hours. The problem is we have never been there and am not sure what there is to do near the port and if it is worth the cab fare to get there or not. Luckily we arrive a couple days before the cruise and can see what is around the area to decide then. Either way the Luggage Valet seems like the way to go. Thanks for the info.

[Babygirl08]

Sounds good. I was trying to decide if we would stay on the ship late and go straight to the airport of find something else to do to kill a few hours. The problem is we have never been there and am not sure what there is to do near the port and if it is worth the cab fare to get there or not. Luckily we arrive a couple days before the cruise and can see what is around the area to decide then. Either way the Luggage Valet seems like the way to go. Thanks for the info.

 

BTW - Luggage valet was among the first groups called to leave.

[Domb23]

Did you receive a crown and anchor coupon booklet, or were they electronically added to your seapass card??

[missbogota]

They had booklets

[aubreyc1988]

Great review! Playa Mia is great, isn't it!? We can't wait to go back

[riclop]

Glad you had a great trip on a great ship.

[neptune18]

Totally agree as to Dreamer Cat in Jamaica. It went really long for us two years ago and we were starving when we finally got back to the ship.

 

Who were the comedians and headliner?

[Lionesss]

Nice review.

Thanks for posting.

Sea Ya

[jalpert]

In Cozumel, how long was your taxi ride?

[sky0000547]

Short and to the point. Good read!

[Babygirl08]

In Cozumel, how long was your taxi ride?

 

Ride was short. I'm thinking 10-15 minutes tops.

[Babygirl08]

Totally agree as to Dreamer Cat in Jamaica. It went really long for us two years ago and we were starving when we finally got back to the ship.

 

Who were the comedians and headliner?

 

Headliner was Paul Turner. He tried but was a terribly watered-down version of Wayne Brady. We skipped The Quest to see him. What a terrible mistake.

 

The comedians were Silvia (something?) and Paul. Paul opened and Silvia closed. This show was like dental surgery. We have never been disappointed in any comedian on any sailing so we were really looking forward to this show. At least it was only 50 minutes.