A Young Couple's Post-Turkey Allure Review!

[mattb31]

Hello!

 

I relied a ton on CC to plan this cruise considering Oasis class has so much to offer, so I wanted to share our experience here and answer any questions you guys might have about the ship, ports, or even Royal Caribbean's new Terminal A! I'm not going to break this review down by day, but rather do it by activity type just for organization. I ask that you only quote pictures if it is relevant to your response (i.e. asking a question about a particular photo).

 

Ok, so the basics. We are a mid-20s couple that enjoys cruising. I have been on 6 cruises, 3 with Royal (Explorer, Anthem, and Allure). We had a Central Park Balcony room for this cruise and both purchased the drink package with Voom. It took me a bit to get to this review, but here it is (and here is us).

 

 

The cruise left RC's new terminal in Miami on 11/18 and traveled to St. Maarten, San Juan, and Labadee. This cruise was a bit different from our previous ones since it left on a Sunday rather than a Saturday. I actually preferred this because it gave us all day Saturday to do whatever we wanted.

 

We booked a Southwest flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale which was scheduled to leave bright and early at 6am. It was significantly cheaper to fly into FLL as opposed to Miami. We arrived at the airport at about 4am and had no trouble whatsoever and were off to Florida!

 

The flight landed in (a much warmer) Fort Lauderdale about 20 minutes early and we were now off to book a Lyft to our hotel in Miami. I really contemplated just pre-booking a car/van to take us to Miami, but after monitoring prices on ride share for a few days I decided not to. We ordered a regular Lyft for $37 (18.50 pp) for the 45 minute ride to Miami. I highly recommend this to as opposed to using a transport van.

 

I used Hyatt points to book the Hyatt Centric in South Beach. The rate came out to 15,000 points a night which was great considering the ticket price on the room was about $300/night. We arrived at the hotel at about 11 am and much to my surprise they had a room ready to go for us. The hotel was beautiful and very modern and right in the middle of things in South Beach.

 

 

 

And of course, caught Allure's baby sister sailing out of MIA on Saturday....

 

 

Hyatt Centric isn't a beachfront hotel, it's across the street, but if you stay here you are permitted to use the Lowes Hotel's chairs and towels that are set up on the beach for no extra charge. This was a nice perk, but we ultimately didn't spend much time on the beach because there wasn't much sun to be had

 

We ended up having dinner at a restaurant called Dolce that night, and it was outstanding. The prices weren't too outrageous and it was right down the street from where we were staying. South Beach was very photogenic at night.

 

 

 

 

I must say I enjoyed sailing out of Miami a lot more than any other port I'd sailed out of before. There is so much more to offer than Fort Lauderdale and it was great to be able to relax and unwind before we got on the ship.

 

More to come!

[mattb31]

Embarkation

 

I must say I was very skeptical of Royal Caribbean's new terminal considering this was only the second (I think?) week of sailings out of the new terminal.

 

On Sunday morning we ordered a Lyft around 1030am and headed to the port. The drive was about 15 minutes with a bit of traffic and the ride only cost us $13. I believe there was 6 ships in port of MIA that day, but traffic was managed pretty well, much better than what I've experienced with one ship in Bayonne. We forgot to print our luggage tags so they took our information at the curbside dropoff and took our bags. The Lyft was able to drop us off right near the doors, and if you need to park there is a very large garage attached to the terminal.

 

Once inside the terminal, you have a view right through to the ship through the giant glass wall.

 

 

Everything just felt new, the terminal still even smelled like a new home would smell. We went up the escalator and there were plenty of people waiting to assist us. We had checked in pre cruise and had our boarding passes on our phone, but we were told we needed to go and get them printed. This was no problem and only took a few extra minutes, but when we got to the check in desk for the lady to print them, she seemed dumbfounded that we couldn't use our mobile passes, so who knows.

 

After this we went right to security which was a breeze and got on the ship. From curb to promenade was about 15 minutes. By far the best experience I've had embarking a ship. Everything seemed to run very smoothly and everyone knew what to do and the ample room in the terminal was a welcome change.

[carnivaladdix120]

Enjoying your review and pics so far! Definitely following 🙂

[mattb31]

The Ship

 

This was my first time on an Oasis class ship and I was blown away. First of all the size of the ship compared to the other ones in port was crazy. Of course, I had my fears about crowding, but not once on this ship did I feel crammed or overcrowded. There was no problems getting deck chairs on sea days.

 

There was several pools and hot tubs on the top deck. The hot tubs did get quite crowded during the day (which was odd because it was hot) but the pools almost always had room in them.

 

 

 

One of the main reasons we chose the Allure over the Harmony was the fact that Allure had a pool in the Solarium and Harmony did not. We spend a lot of time in the Solarium so that was important to us. I also saw no kids all week in here, so they did a great job enforcing the age rules. They were constantly asking if anyone needed drinks around the Solarium so we almost never had to walk up to the bar.

[mattb31]

One of my favorite places on the ship quickly became Central Park. It was so relaxing each morning waking up and looking out of the calm park. We spent a good bit of time down there at the Trellis Bar and also ate at Giovanni's. They also had piano music almost every night.

 

 

 

 

I thoroughly enjoyed the Boardwalk neighborhood as well. One thing that was different about the Oasis class is that the ship is very closed off from the outside, meaning that there seems to be less places to see the ocean than other ships. The open air design of the boardwalk offered a nice getaway and the Aqua Theater was an awesome place to see a show.

 

There are a few places to eat out here (Johnny Rockets, Dog House, Donuts) and some shops. They also have ice cream and a carousel. I thought they did an awesome job emulating that Jersey Shore/Coney Island vibe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mattb31]

Having been on Explorer and Anthem, I had gotten to experience two very different versions of RC's promenade concept. I liked the one Explorer since it ran the length of the ship, but Anthem's left a lot to be desired. It wasn't the wide open space that a lot of the other ships had, and because of that, some of the activities seemed to suffer.

 

The promenade on Allure was massive and completely wide open, which I loved. It never felt overcrowded and things like 80s night were a blast.

 

 

The entertainment place downstairs was also nice. Blaze (nightclub), Studio B, Comedy Club, Jazz Club, and Casino all resided down here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mattb31]

Activites/Cruise Director Staff

 

Judging by some of what I've read here, it looks like cruise director Jimmy had just returned to the Allure. He was so much fun all week. His activities manager, Flavio, was hilarious along side him. The two of them were some of the best cruise staff we can remember.

 

80s night turned out to be an absolute blast. The entire promenade was filled with people dancing and they brought out the disco diva's, macho men, and some of the Mama Mia actors/actresses came out and performed.

 

 

 

 

 

The Love and Marriage game show turned out to be hilarious as usual. This was also the first time I had attended the Quest! game show and oh man, it was hilarious. Studio B was so loud and every one was so into the game. If you haven't been to Quest I highly recommend going, but don't take your kids!

 

The only paid activity we did on board was the Sushi making class, which was entirely worth the $30 per person. The class is held at 10 am in Izumi with the chefs who work there. They give you all the normal ingredients and each person got to make 4-5 rolls. It's well over $30 worth of sushi and was a great way to provide ourselves with lunch and get a lesson in sushi making on top of it.

[mattb31]

Dining

 

Our dining all week was great, with one exception which I'll get to later. Most mornings we had room service delivered in which we usually got fruit, english muffins, and coffee. The order was always on time and the coffee was always hot. One of the days we decided to check out the Park Cafe which was good. I was happy to get a freshly squeezed orange juice there, which was included with our drink package.

 

We also checked out the Windjammer one of the mornings. It was quite crowded but the staff did a good job of seating people and we really didn't wait all that long.

 

Lunch was had in the Windjammer most days. The food here was good as well, although there was definitely less of a selection from when I was on Anthem. We also ate a the Wipeout Cafe a few of the days and was pretty impressed. It was really nice having that Cafe up there to grab a quick bite to eat. It was never that crowded and there were plenty of seats to sit in.

 

We had a free lunch at Giovanni's table since we had a Central Park room. We originally wanted to eat there on Day 1, but we were told that this was only available on sea days. Apparently the spots fill up quickly so I would book it as soon as you get on board. The lunch itself was very good. We had a cheese and meat plate along with a fresh arugula salad, creamy penne, and tiramisu to top it off. It seemed like the waiter was very over worked, but not that big of a deal.

 

 

We did My Time Dining and only ended up eating in the dining room 3 of the 7 nights. Each time we ate in the MDR we were seated right away (we had reservations). The service was a bit slow but it seemed like it was more because they were over worked. It wasn't too much of a big deal since we were on a cruise and didn't have anywhere to be. The food was excellent each night and I don't think we had one dish we didn't like. They had a special menu for Thanksgiving and the turkey was quite tasty.

 

We decided while we were on the cruise to try Izumi Hibachi. We booked this on the 4th day and they had very limited availability, so it must fill up pretty fast. Our reservation was for Day 6. The $40 option includes an appetizer, one meat, and dessert. The $45 option includes the same as the former except you get two meats. Our Hibachi chef was very good and made the entire experience a fun time. On top of that, the food turned out to be really top notch. I had the steak with mine and it was very tender and cooked perfectly.

 

The last night we decided to eat at Izumi Sushi. This turned into a total disaster. We were seated right at the time of our reservation but ignored for almost 15 minutes. I finally had to flag down a waitress just to get water and edamame. We put in our appetizer order for dumplings, and what I was served was probably the worst thing I've ever seen served at a restaurant.

 

The dumplings were served upside down whatever was on the bottom of them was burnt. We both tried one and it was absolutely disgusting. We then put in our order. Girlfriend ordered a Snow Crab California roll. The first roll that was brought out wasn't even close to this, so we grabbed the waitress's attention to get the correct one. She brought back another roll that also didn't look correct. It was at this point we were informed that they were out of avocado. Wouldn't it have been nice to know that they were missing 1/3 of the ingredients to the roll beforehand? I had ordered ramen and the pork served in this was burnt as well.

 

Neither of us felt great after eating the food and I should mention that nothing was taken off the bill despite us voicing our displeasure to the waitress.

 

I figured it would be worth it to reach out to customer service once I was home given how bad the situation was, and I must say, Royal Caribbean was very understanding about it. I sent them a description of what happened along with the picture and they refunded not only the sushi dinner, but the hibachi dinner from the night before as well. I know they take a lot of flak on here, but that's the only time I've ever had to deal with their customer service and it was quick and definitely made me feel better about the whole thing and would keep me as a customer.

 

In short, all of the food on the ship was great except that last night at Izumi.

Edited December 6, 2018 by mattb31

[mattb31]

St Maarten

 

St. Maarten was the stop I was most looking forward to but the stop that I was also most worried about. It's been a little over a year since Irma and I've heard mixed things about the island, but it is a place I've always really wanted to see. We pre-planned to do our own day to Mullet Bay Beach and Maho Beach without taking a RC excursion.

 

After getting off the ship we headed to the roundabout to grab a taxi. The whole thing was pretty organized. We ended up in a taxi with another young couple from Germany who was on the AIDAdiva. Our driver was great and gave us almost a guided tour as she took us to Mullet Bay. There was still visible damage and some sunken ships, but for the severity of Irma, the island is certainly recovering well. The entire Maho area is about to reopen (hotels, shops, restaraunts).

 

 

 

 

The taxi ride ended up being $15 a person, which wasn't that bad for going all the way across the island. They accept US currency.

 

Mullet Bay was beautiful and I highly recommend this beach as an alternative to some of the more crowded places. It seemed like most of the people here were either vacationing on the island or residents of St. Maarten. The area with the chairs was a bit crammed but the beach is huge so you could take towels and lay out anywhere. There were a few nude sunbathers here, so just something to keep in mind.

 

 

 

 

At about 1:45 we decided we'd walk and check out Maho Beach. The walk really wasn't bad, it's all flat and only took us about 15 minutes. It was crowded and every seemed to know that the larger planes come in around this time.

 

 

 

 

From Maho, we caught a taxi back to the cruise port. Multiple locals said to get out before 4pm because of rush hour traffic. We left Maho around 3:15 and were back to the ship by about 4. One thing to note was that the ship time did not spring forward when we changed time zones. So when it was 3:15 AST, it was 2:15 on the ship. It was kind of nice this way, because on Celebrity I had to worry about time changes.

 

I was really impressed with St. Maarten and would definitely get off here again.

 

 

[mattb31]

Puerto Rico

 

I originally wasn't very sure what we would do in San Juan since it's not really a beach stop. We decided to pass on any excursions here and we scoped out places on Google Maps beforehand. I book marked different sites and we walked around the city. If you are fine with walking around, Old San Juan is very walkable, and you'll be able to see a lot of the city in the time the ship is there. I was surprised how hot it actually was. We probably walked around from 9am - 12pm and the heat index had to be around 90-95 degrees.

 

One thing I learned pretty quickly was that there are A LOT of stray cats in Old San Juan.

 

 

 

I think I was most impressed with the architecture and colors of Old San Juan. The city was just a pleasant place to be and on top of that it was super clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We also came across the famous Puerto Rican flag door. We've seen many pictures of it and it had intrigued me because the building itself is abandoned but the door was painted with the Puerto Rican flag. When we arrived we found the door was painted with the flag but devoid of color.

 

Because of the economic and social problems, as well as the recovery from Hurricane Maria, the flag is being left without color as a symbol of solidarity. The idea is that by Puerto Ricans coming together, the colors will shine brighter than ever. I thought that was pretty cool.

 

 

This was one of the first stops I had been at on any cruise that wasn't really a beach stop, and I thought it was great. Old San Juan has so much history, so many great restaurants, and so many cool sites that it was a nice break from the norm.

[mattb31]

Entertainment (Shows)

 

Almost forgot the shows!

 

I'll preface by saying we opted not to see Mamma Mia. It was long and we really have never been interested in seeing it, so we skipped it.

 

The Ocean Aria show was unlike anything else I'd ever seen at sea. It was really amazing seeing the divers do what they did, and even the trampoline stuff they implemented into the show was really cool. This was definitely our favorite show of the cruise. This was the only real show at the AquaTheater all week. They would show movies, sports games, and do fountain shows here for the rest of the time

 

 

The ice shows on the cruise were a Monopoly Centric Ice Games show and we also saw How to Train Your Dragon on ice. The Monopoly show was great and the skaters were very talented. A few of them fell a couple times but the ice didn't look great so that's probably why.

 

The girlfriend loves How to Train Your Dragon so we went to see that as well. The show was packed and it was a cool rendition to see it done on ice.

 

The other main show in the Royal Theater was Blue Planet. We thought this was going to be like Ocean Aria except on a dry stage and we were wrong. It ended up being just ok. There were some acrobatics involved, but nothing really had that 'wow' factor.

 

 

We ended up going to the headliner show without knowing who was playing or what it was. It turned out to be The Edge Effect. These guys were a group that was on America's Got Talent and the make music entirely with their voices. It was a really great show and they are definitely super talented. It was a pleasant surprise.

[mattb31]

Lasting Impressions

Going into this cruise I really didn't know what to expect. I'd been on a mega-ship before on the Anthem, and it was a totally different cruise experience (in a good way). The only thing was is that Anthem felt a bit cramped at times.

 

Allure was great in every sense. The ship was massive yet the neighborhood concept does an awesome job at managing crowds and not cramming everyone into one place at the same time. The ship was extremely well maintained, for being 8 years old you would think it came into service two years ago.

 

If you haven't given the Oasis class a try yet, I'd highly recommend giving it a shot. Royal Caribbean really nailed it with every aspect of these ships.

[mattb31]

Disembarking

 

Royal Caribbean's new terminal was really great again here. Our group was scheduled for a 9:30 am departure and they were right on time calling our number. When we got to the terminal, all of the luggage was there and ready to be picked up and the new terminal uses facial recognition as you walk out, so we did not even need to pull out our passports.

 

The only gripe I have here is that the traffic flow was terribly managed outside of the terminal. The ride share space was too small and there was too many people looking for rides. Once we got our Lyft back to FLL it was easy going. The price back to FLL ended up being right around $40.

[bobbie0253]

We sail 12/16 ... thanks for such a great review!

[JulieMcCoy]

Loved your review! We’re on Allure in January, also flying from PHL to FLL and planning on Uber/Lyft to our Miami hotel. How was luggage space in the car? We will be two people with one big bag each. I’m figuring one bag can ride on the back seat if needed...

[cabogal]

Thank you for the review and photos - it was most helpful. We are in a Central Park balcony on the Jan 13 sailing and this will be our first cruise on the Allure.

[mattb31]

6 hours ago, JulieMcCoy said:

Loved your review! We’re on Allure in January, also flying from PHL to FLL and planning on Uber/Lyft to our Miami hotel. How was luggage space in the car? We will be two people with one big bag each. I’m figuring one bag can ride on the back seat if needed...

 

Had 3 suitcases in the trunk and we kept our backpacks in the back seat with us. We had a Toyota Camry and a Honda Civic and had no issues fitting our stuff.

[jordanaire]

Great review! We, too, have a Central Park Balcony cabin (11203) on our April 7th cruise. Can't wait!

[Espn]

18 hours ago, mattb31 said:

 

 

Great photos with wonderful color. I am a camera buff so I have to ask what camera and lens were you using and did you use editing software to enhance the photos?

Edited December 6, 2018 by Espn
edit

[mattb31]

19 minutes ago, Espn said:

 

Great photos with wonderful color. I am a camera buff so I have to ask what camera and lens were you using and did you use editing software to enhance the photos?

Thanks!!

 

I used a Fujifilm X-T20 with the XF 18-55mm lens for everything with a CPL filter on most of the outdoor shots, everything was shot in RAW format and post was Lightroom CC! The drone shots are from a DJI Mavic Pro, shot in RAW with Lightroom post.

Edited December 6, 2018 by mattb31

[The Fun Researcher]

20 hours ago, mattb31 said:

One thing that was different about the Oasis class is that the ship is very closed off from the outside, meaning that there seems to be less places to see the ocean than other ships.

 

Awesome review and love your photos.

 

 I completely agree about the oasis class feeling closed off. It is one of the main reasons we do not like this class of ship  nearly as well as the freedom and voyager classes.  We are willing to give it another try though. 

 

Dan

[JulieMcCoy]

2 hours ago, mattb31 said:

 

Had 3 suitcases in the trunk and we kept our backpacks in the back seat with us. We had a Toyota Camry and a Honda Civic and had no issues fitting our stuff.

Thanks for the info - sounds like we'll be fine!

 

[Falaimalandro]

Hello, this is Flavio, the Activities Manager, I would like to thank you for the great comment.

This is the first time I am posting on Cruise Critic, hope it goes well.

Happy Christmas

 

On 12/5/2018 at 7:16 PM, mattb31 said:

Activites/Cruise Director Staff

 

Judging by some of what I've read here, it looks like cruise director Jimmy had just returned to the Allure. He was so much fun all week. His activities manager, Flavio, was hilarious along side him. The two of them were some of the best cruise staff we can remember.

 

80s night turned out to be an absolute blast. The entire promenade was filled with people dancing and they brought out the disco diva's, macho men, and some of the Mama Mia actors/actresses came out and performed.

 

 

 

 

 

The Love and Marriage game show turned out to be hilarious as usual. This was also the first time I had attended the Quest! game show and oh man, it was hilarious. Studio B was so loud and every one was so into the game. If you haven't been to Quest I highly recommend going, but don't take your kids!

 

The only paid activity we did on board was the Sushi making class, which was entirely worth the $30 per person. The class is held at 10 am in Izumi with the chefs who work there. They give you all the normal ingredients and each person got to make 4-5 rolls. It's well over $30 worth of sushi and was a great way to provide ourselves with lunch and get a lesson in sushi making on top of it.

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by Falaimalandro

[zdad59]

2 hours ago, Falaimalandro said:

Hello, this is Flavio, the Activities Manager, I would like to thank you for the great comment.

This is the first time I am posting on Cruise Critic, hope it goes well.

Happy Christmas

 

 

Hi Flavio....Welcome to CC.     We'll be onboard with you Feb 17.   Be on the look out for Delaware Blue Hens and be sure to say hi !

 

Edited December 27, 2018 by zdad59

[Missusdubbya]

Great review!