Under Staffed

Allure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Eastern

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 51

Overall rating:

2 out of 5
Verified Review
Allure of the Seas

7 Night Eastern Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 14, 2016

Ship: Allure of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 10558

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This ship was just to big for the amount of staff. We have been on a number of cruises and this one was extremely disappointing. The servers in the main  dining room where too busy to be attentive. The ship was filthy. Dirty plates/cups/napkins just sitting around on tables & decks. Public bathrooms were just gross. My cabin was not cleaned on 2 occasions because they "did not have time". We received another passaenger's excursion tickets but we're missing part of our own. I had a receipt, but instead of just fixing the problem the agent expected ME to pay again & they could "refund" me once they were able to figure out the mistake. I also found it annoying that shows had to be booked as soon as we got on the ship. By the time we got on board many were already full. Lastly the craps dealers in the casino did not understand the game. Players had to continually tell them where to move chips & when they should pay out. 

 

The only redeeming part of this cruise was the DreamWorks Characters. They were interactive & my 5 yr old son loved them! However based on this ship next time we want to include Charaters I think we will just stick with Disney. 

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Main dinning room food was often cold & over cooked.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5
The need to reserve seats immediately was annoying

Children's Programs

5 out of 5
The Characters & evening kids camp had several fun activities that my 5yr old loved

Service and Staff

1 out of 5
Excursion agent was very rude even though the error with my tickets was made by Royal Caribbean. I can't think of any staff that had the time to be overly friendly or helpful. Room service didn't show up. When I called the woman was short & simply said "we don't have anything for you"

Ship Quality

Ship was filthy. My cabin wasn't cleaned on 2 evenings because they "didn't have time"

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
The room was ok, but given the lack of space it would have been helpful if the fold out couch could be put away & the room was cleaned daily.

Ship tip

Make sure you reserve shows immediately.

Ports of call

Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida

5 out of 5

Nassau, Bahamas

5 out of 5
The Dolphin Encouter excursion was amazing.

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas

5 out of 5

Basseterre, St. Kitts

5 out of 5
The fort was awesome! There was no "excursion" offered to just go the fort, but it was easy to find a driver at the port & relatively inexpensive.
Was this review helpful? 51

9 Comments

Anne12    8 years ago

Thanks everyone for their honest reviews! I want to sail on the allure. I have yet to sail on a " dirty " ship , or been served cold food . I highly doubt this ship was unsanitary .  I am thankful I can afford to take a cruise, some many people only dream about.

nhlcop77    8 years ago

I too just got off the Allure on August 28, room 7605 and we never had a problem with having our room cleaned. Also every public restroom went into was very clean. Never had a problem with dirty plates or cups sitting around they were cleaned up very quickly by the staff. I did have another persons excursion tickets in my cabin but I simply walked across the hall and gave them their tickets.

tammra    8 years ago

Allure just won an award for cleanliness...surprised by this review. On her in 19 days...cant wait...taking two first time cruisers...bet they will love it.

paulelee    8 years ago

Having just done the first ever cruise I am staggered by the comments of crinicella As a hospitality professional for over 30 years the level of service on board was exceptional for the numbers being looked after Food,Service, Staff,Shows, Immaculate conditions throughout the whole ship were amazing I think crinicella you must have been on a different ship ! Well done to all the crew for a faultless 7 day cruise like I mentioned our first but not the last Brilliant :-)

cherylsugarshack    8 years ago

I agree with curlytracy.. We just got off Allure Aug 28th as well. I have nothing bad to say. Our waitstaff and cabin steward were superb. We booked Allure again for May 2017!!

curlytracy    8 years ago

Were we on the same ship! Just got off today and the service was amazing, my room was done up everyday not one complaint. Windjammer to the dinning room were outstanding. And the deck on the side we were on was always clean. The only thing I have to complain about is that I miss that they don't do the white party at night on the pool deck and not enough activities by the pool deck.

jilesgulf    8 years ago

You can book the shows up to 3 months before your cruise.

Windjam064    8 years ago

Sorry about your cruise. What other cruises have you been on (your profile only shows one)? I will agree that the Disney product is awesome (i would do another Disney cruise in a heartbeat if I could) but they are pricing themselves out of most people's budget. For the price, RCI does a lot and the Oasis class certainly has more for adults to do than a Disney Cruise. Try a Freedom class sometime as they have a better staff / passenger ratio.

lindakerr    8 years ago

That must have been so disappointing for you. Hope it never spoiled your whole trip x

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