Just back from Allure. Here's my comparisons to the Carnival experience

[martini_guy]

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!

[jimbo5544]

Nice review, you might want to post this on the Carnival main page as opposed to here.