Too much scheduling and too many computer glitches
Allure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: March 09, 2014
Ship: Allure of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Traveled as: Family (older children)
Reviewed: 10 years ago
Review summary
I have cruised with Carnival 7 times prior to this cruise with RC. I have never had this many problems to deal with and they all happended on 1 cruise. I don't find the RC site very user friendly. Spent MANY hours doing my homework and scheduling activites, specialty dining and some onboard treats. Spent MANY hours on the ship FIXING all the problems.
1) only 6 of the 8 people in our party were at the same dinner table. Spent 45 min re-arranging dinner for the balance of the cruise.
2) received a call at 7am (on a "sleep in" day) to say that our room service would be right up. I told them we didn't order any and they argued that we did. Finally got off the phone. 10 min later, another call to say "are you sure you didn't order?". Now we are awake for the day.
3) Next day, answered the door to receive 3 pizzas and 3 fruit plates from room service that we didn't order. Called to get to the bottom of it. It seems that the phone or the TV will hook into the computer to generate a request, but I think they then hand write the room number. They kept transposing numbers.
4) Ordered specialty cupcakes and a bottle of wine for set sail. (usually order champagne and strawberries, but not available). They still had not shown up at 6pm (set sail at 5pm). Called, was informed they could deliver in about an hour or so. I stated that was not appropriate since we were going for supper at 8pm. Arranged for them to be delivered next day at 5pm. At 11am, the cupcakes arrived (my kids ate them), then at 1pm the wine arrived. At 5pm, cupcakes and wine arrived again!
5) We did not activate our children's cards for charging. Decided that we would wait for a few days into the cruise before we did this Looked at my husbands account on day 2 and the children had already spent $30 or so in the arcade (it is very expensive in there). Spent 30min in line, then 30min with guest services to figure out how inactive accounts were able to charge. Apparently a "computer glitch".
6) Booked specialty resturant on day 2. Found out that that was a formal night along with day 6 (N.B. spoke to two different RC employees for this info). Spent 1 hour on the phone with them to try and change reservation to day 5. In the end, they were having "computer issues" and could only book Iand charge me) my day 5 reservation but not cancel (nor refund) my day 2 reservation. They told me to call back the next day. Spent 1 hour on hold that day to be told that I was inside the sailing window and had to wait until we sailed to fix all of this. More wasted time. Then, fould out that Day 2 and Day 5 are fomal nights, so we missed one anyway!
7) The best part was disembarkation..... Their computer system kept crashing so they could not swipe your card to account for you leaving. We were 2.5 hours late getting off the ship (finally went before we were called) because we almost missed our flight (20 min to spare before they closed the plane door). No downtime procedures in place.
The boat was beautiful, but too big for me. Too many people. Too much geography. They may have 2 rock climbing walls but only 1 is usually open at a time. 2 flow riders but usually only 1 open.
Staff was nice
Shows were really good.
I think the food was better on the Carnival Breeze.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Entertainment
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida
Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)