Allure of the Seas 10/22 Sailing review

[researchfreak90]

I have never done a review on CC before. I have found others helpful so I figured it was time to do a short one.

 

About us:

 

My wife and I, mid 20s, this is our 5th cruise. We have sailed Navigator, Oasis, Jewel, and Liberty. With us for the first time was our 10 month old duaghter. In the Joining room were my wifes parents. We are laid back travelers

 

Pre-Cruise:

 

We had this cruise planned 18 months in advance. We always plan ahead of time. Originally our daughter was not coming but we changed our minds abour 8 months before the trip.

 

We left out of Ft. Lauderdale and flew in United from Durango, CO. Since its a small town there are no direct flights which did cause a headache coming back but going we were lucky enough for only one layover coming to Ft. Lauderdale. We arrived about 2pm on Wednesday to gove us 4 nights pre-cruise to get into vacation mode and explore Ft. Lauderdale a bit. we were here about 3 years ago to go on Oasis for our Honeymoon. Since Irma had been through the area 2 months prior you could see some of the effects but the area was recovering nicely and did not effect our visit. We stayed at the Bahia Mar by Doubletree, we stayed here last time. The hotel has been remodeled recently and is a great value. It is on the beach, has a nice pool, the rooms were average but comfortable with a great balcony over the marina with views of the ocean as well and only cost about 100$ US a night which was about 70-100 a night cheaper than all other non-motel style accomedations in the vacinity. It was a greta value. Only downside is if you rent a car like us it will cost you 35 a day to valet it. which is the going rate in the area.(I researched this greatly before going)

 

We went to the Everglades for a tour by Sawgrass mills on a groupon. Great Airboat tour, we saw Gators and enjoyed the small zoo afterwards. We had a Groupon which made this a great deal for 55$ for 4 of us and the baby.

 

We ate at various restuarants. Cou****s which is a favorite from our last trip. Some grouipons for Mamma Mia Italian REsturant in Hollywood area(good value with groupon), a Thai Sushi place from groupon (it was alright), we ate some fast food as well. The highlight food place was a small sushi takout place called Sushi One. It was about a 10 minute drive from the hotel, the sushi was fantastic and the prices for the Quality sushi were cheaper than eating at Mcdonalds - talking 5-7 dollar range for just about any roll and 8-9 for combiantion plates that fill a grown man up. All four of us ate sushi for 70$ we had leftovers for another full meal latrer that day(fridge in room) and still ended up tossing some leftovers on embarkation day.

 

 

Embarkation Day:

 

I dropped everyone off at the Peir which was a madhouseabout 1130 where they waited while I returned the rental and caught a cab back from the airport. We did this because of all the luggage we had it made it easier than loading upa cab with it all. We walked thru Security and right up to the counter to checkin and then right on the boat. 20 mins from start to finish. FYI My inlaws are not CA member and this is their first cruise they were allowe din the Gold checkin line iwht us NP.

 

The ship:

 

Was clean and enjoyable. We had to take elevators becaus eof the baby and stroller. What a nigthmarre. As usual for this class ship they were always full and people had not courtsey not to pile into a full elevator even though there was no room or that they were practically sitting in my childs stroller - and then only go 2 or three decks?!?!?!?!?!

 

Rooms:

 

Boardwalk rooms 12699 and 12701 joining. Nice feature, just ask to have door unlocked - this was great for the baby t0 crawl back and forth. Rooms were kept clean. Normal Royal service. Our EAT PLAY DRINK promo thing was a pain, never showed up in our room with cups for soda and had to eventually go to the Customer Service desk awhere they looked at me as if I had lost my mind before fianlly giving up soda cups and sticker for the seapass, no big deal just kinda sucked to do.

 

POOLS:

 

great baby(Diapers allowed) pool, little one enjoyed it. All our sea days were VERY windy do to Tropical storm Phillipe brewing - this kept deck chair a plenty and pools pretty empty.

 

Speciality Dining

 

Dint do any

 

Main Dining Room:

 

FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC. Seriousley the best we have had on any of our cruises - from service to quality - it was great. Ate dinner every night but one due to late excursion return.

 

Windjammer

 

Standard cluster of food, rude people, and no tables. Ate breakfast most days and lunch a few times.

 

Other Food

 

Serentos and other venues were decent and convient. Park cafe was dewlicious and made a great embarkation day spot.

 

Spa:

 

WE did a couples retreat package that they only offer onboard. For 250$ total you both get the couples bathing ritual and also an exfoliation/facial/mud bath combo and an unlimited pass to the thermal suite. This was a great deal and we were at the thermal suite about every day if not twice a day.(to hide from baby :)) We would usually leave her with Grandpa and grandma.

 

Baby Nursery

 

Great service for 6$ an hour. We left her twice for 2 hours each to enjoy a formal night and to enjoy a show another night. They were well trained and did a good job caring for our 10 moth old who has never been in daycare before.

 

Labadee:

 

We did beach bungalow - great deal would do it again. Also did Wave rider Jet ski tour. this was a lot of fun. This was our favorite stop. Note: unless you want to get something from the Haitian straw maket steer clear of it as they are very aggressive and get mad if you dont come look at their stuff.

 

Jamacia

 

Did Bamboo VIP beach, was ok experience. To long of a bus ride (90min) for us to consider it again

 

 

Cozumel

 

Took a cab downtown, ate at Ponchos Backyard - great margaritas- did some shopping went back onboard. This is our third time here

 

Overall

 

Fun trip - would recommend and do again. Our next cruise we are trying MSC Seaside as they have some great promotions going on (not like Royal who is on this fake promo thing where the price never changes) and has a reasonable deposit. While we love Royal - dropping 750 + to book a future cruise is outragous, it used to be 100$ per person at the the Future Cruise desk and they have since gone away with this, which we were aware of before embarking and we made our reservations with MSC before leaving on this trip. Our motivation to try MSC Seaside which launches in December is partially we would like to experince somthing besides Royal (nothing at carnival brands appeals to us) we looked at MSC and NCL. The determining factor is MSC had financial incentives and also the Seaside seems to be something NEW in itself and will be less than a year old when we sail. Deposit for it was99$ a person and Kids 11 and under always sail free, plus they mached our Royal Platinum staus in their program. We will try and compare.

 

Also noting, we did not do any dining or drink packages aside from the soda package included with our boardwalk rooms. We stil had some drinks and paid a la cart. (we were happy with this)

Headliner and comedy shows were great.

did not see Mamma Mia

Ocean Aria we enjoyed from our balcony a few times

Allure has Azipod issue- did not notice and when capitian decided to make Port Everglades a few hours early to beat in Trop Storm Phillipe - He managed 23.8 knots with only two of them.

 

Let me know if you have questions - I do not have pics of menus and cruise compasses

[DeltaJoe15]

Did they do a 10 drink card and if so what day

[researchfreak90]

They did, I wanna say it showed up on the promeade Wednesday night and for maybe 79$ - sorry I wasnt paying to close attention to that, but they definatly showed up.

[drrich2]

Sounds like a good time; glad you had it!

 

We've cruised Voyager, Freedom & Oasis class on Royal Caribbean. I'm curious as to how you enjoyed the Jewel vs. the other R.C. ships you tried? Hard for me to imagine a ship without the Royal Promenade (although Celebrity's Constellation was like that).

 

Richard.

[researchfreak90]

Jewel was one of our favorite trips. It offers a different experience. Although we did a southern route out of San Jaun on her that only had one sea day and 6 ports, this made the ship a hotel and restuarnt instead of the destination unlike the opisite side of the spectrum Oasis class that the ship is the destination.

 

When we plan our trips we are contantly trying to find balance between ship an itinerary. Jewel offered things that Oasis and other classes dont. Things like a quieter luxury feel, a TON of views of the ocean which I personally love (a hate that its so hard to find on Oasis class), more relaxed feeling versus high energy party/activity atmosphere not that either is bad.

 

The Atrium is the Vertical equivilent of the promenade. I like to think of it as Atrium is like a Fashion/botique Mall and a Promenade is like a mainstream/major mall. Although the shopping is near identical.

 

Are you looking to cruise Jewel or other ship in that class?

[drrich2]

It'd be hard for me right now, because our 4 (fairly close to 5) year old 'fireball' daughter likes the Boardwalk neighborhood on Oasis-class. My wife & I like Central Park; kiddo could care less. The Promenade was nice for Dreamworks character parades, and just hanging out, grabbing some soda & pizza (Sorento's), et... A further complication is our daughter was resistive to spending time at Adventure Ocean. No, she's gotta be stuck on us like glue... Our last 4 cruises, we've hardly seen any shows (granted, she was 10 months old on one, 2 on the next I think), except at the AquaTheater (the diving performances have enough flashy action to keep her interest, more or less) and the ice skating performances.

 

My interest in smaller ships tends to come from cheaper cruises, more interesting ports, port-intensive itineraries, basically looks like great value (we don't climb rock walls or flow ride, and the prospect of zip lining doesn't thrill me).

 

Richard.

[researchfreak90]

That was my reason for taking this cruise as well. The Allure offered enought to keep my 10 month old daughter entertained and they offered enought family type activities for us to always have somthing new for her to do.

 

I would certainly wait on taking a smaller ship until you can ditch the kiddo with family for the week or she is older and can enjoy things like heavy ports itineraries and teen programs.