Our First Royal Cruise: An objective review

[RNCheryl]

We have cruised Celebrity and Princess. This is our first Royal cruise. Hubby wanted to try one of the mega ships, so Santa brought him a cruise on the Allure of the Seas.

 

What we liked:

 

The cabin (ocean view, deck 8, port, aft) was spacious and had lots of storage space. The bed was very comfortable. I asked the steward for a softer pillow, but not to be. The Tube/Shower was claustrophobic, to say the least. Our cabin attendant was friendly and did his job well. We boarded at 2:30 and luggage was not in the cabin by 6PM.

 

Food: We had Any time dining. The first night was a Laurel and Hardy comedy, no one knew what any one else was doing. Many folks signed up for reservations on Any Time. Isn't that what you were avoiding? In any event, we learned to avoid 6:45 and went earlier, and wait times went down. Main dining room food was good. Prime rib was better than I expected and the tenderloin was excellent. Worth mentioning: the linguini with pomodoro, lentil soup and key lime pie. Waiters were personable. There was a problem with filling tables, especially the first night. There were tables, both clean and dirty, near us, and remained so for 30 minutes, while people were waiting to be seated.

 

We took the Galley tour, $20pp. Billed as a small group of 15. Turned out to be a group of 30. Our tour guide was from India and, although very knowledgable, his accent made it hard to follow. We saw a very restricted portion of the kitchens. We were disappointed in this tour. However, the idea that they can feed all those passengers many times a day is amazing. 40,000 rolls per day, who knew!

 

Our specialty dinner was Chops and it was very enjoyable. Beef was excellent. Aleksandre was a memorable waiter.

 

The buffet: what can I say. Compared to our other ship experiences, it was chaotic. No omelet station. No waffle station. Bacon greasy. Not to my liking. However, breakfast in the dining room was much better. Eggs Benedict, smoked salmon, etc.

 

Breakfast in Johnny Rockets one morning was unremarkable.

 

I had a hot dog and a slice from the Boardwalk venue and both were good.

 

Entertainment: once you get past the fact that advance reservations (which I made) were necessary, we were pleased. We enjoyed the comedy club, Mama Mia, diving, Blue Planet and the Ice skating show. The featured entertainer, Earl Turner had us on our feet laughing and dancing.

 

The staff was friendly and accommodating. Our cabin steward was a hard working exuberant guy. Calling out the daytime bartender in Schooners and the line staff in Park Cafe: surly at the best, rude at the worst. Dining room staff was excellent. They worked hard and smiled.

 

The not so good:

 

Internet $13 per device per day, seems excessive to me.

 

In room TV, we didn't watch a lot, but the satellite signal left a lot to be desired. Even in range of Nassau, CNN kept going in and out. And now that I mention CNN, is there a Fox News equivalent to keep things balanced?

 

The Library: I brought a Kindle with one book loaded. I wanted to find a book for hubby to read. The Library was a disgrace: only German language books available. No excuse. Royal, go to Amazon and order a few hundred used paperbacks.

 

Others: The shower is a tube which is claustrophibic. I always bring our own shampoo so no comments there.

 

Compared to Princess and Celebrity, we missed wandering around in the evening, finding music to listen to. Guitar, piano, trios, etc. This wasn't obvious to us till the last couple of nights. Props to Elliott, who is the musical director of Mama Mia. He did West End/Broadway songs in Schooners one evening late, and I stayed awake to enjoy.

 

Did not enjoy this: the constant overhead announcements of "buy 4 get the fifth free" and similar promotions. Trying to relax and read in Schooners while hubby was taking a nap, and every 2 minutes (I kid you not), blaring announcements for the fantastic bargains to be had. PLEASE

 

Our excursions were all self directed. Hubby had a business contact in Nassau, and he met with and had lunch with him. I wandered to town, and quickly returned to the ship.

 

St Thomas: we took a cab to Red Hook and went on a sailboat, stopping at a snorkel spot at St John and had a lovely dinner. On St Martin, we did Flavours of St Maarten, food tour, and had a great time.

 

In summary, we are glad we did this trip. But will not do the Oasis Class ships again. That said, we met many folks on board who were doing B2B or who had sailed on this ship many times.

 

C'est la vie.

[Cruzinbabe06]

We'll be trying out the Allure for the first time. I also made reservations, dinner and shows.

 

We sailed on Princess for the first time, this past December and was blown away by the service!

 

Everything is not for everybody. Enjoy your next cruise.

 

Thanks for posting your review.:)

[billylen]

I enjoyed reading your review. I too have sailed Princess and on one cruise it was beyond perfection and on another (same ship) the experience was less than stellar (go figure). I have probably sailed on Royal more than any other (by far) and admittedly there have been some cruises where it was memorable and others where things could have improved a bit, but all in all, regardless of the cruise line, I just enjoy the heck out of cruising...may it be so for you also... Thanks for posting

[easyboy]

Those overhead announcements are really irritating when one is trying to relax. Especially for supposed sales!

Thank you for your objective review.

[Clarea]

Sorry to hear about the constant announcements. I seem to recall a while back that RC stated they were going to limit announcements, but I guess that's no longer the case.

[didicruiser]

Thank you for the review. Sorry to hear about the constant announcements.

[dd likes to cruise]

I just came off the Oasis and really did not hear too many announcements. At least those announcements do not get heard in your cabin if truly trying to rest.

 

One pet peave of mine is they are usually right at the top of the hour, so if you are in an activity and just getting started, you have to stop, wait and listen. They should do a few minutes prior to the hour to avoid that happening.

[PRNMatt]

Hi Cheryl, you may find my POST same cruise using PRNMatt later today.