Food Not As Good As Usual

Item: Allure of the Seas
Rating: 3.6
Author: bonwolk

Allure of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

bonwolk

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 32

Overall rating:

3.6 out of 5

Verified Review

7 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)

Sail date: October 22, 2017

Ship: Allure of the Seas

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 7 years ago

Review summary

Too many people. Not great food. Too many reservations required onboard: restaurant and entertainment. We were unable to book some entertainment because the dates we wanted were already taken. Private tour of Jamaica with Patrice was the highlight of our trip. Don't miss lunch at Scochies in Jamaica and Dunn's River with Patrice's private tour.

Embarkation

3 out of 5

Perhaps the larger ships have a more difficult time creating quality meals, but I found the food to be under par for the Royal Caribbean ships. The service was excellent, the cabin service above expectations, but the meals were so-so. I enjoy the next size down ships for many reasons. We are seniors who never made use of the basketball courts, flow machine, zip line or miniature golf offering. We enjoyed Jamaica with the Patrice tours and Dunn's River Falls most of all. The Labadee barbecue was definitely not up to par. We went back to the ship for lunch. Too many venues and too many reservations were necessary onboard. Next time, smaller ship for us!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Reservations were overwhelming. I don't need more stress on a vacation!

Entertainment

4 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

4 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5

Michael was our cabin steward. He was outstanding.

Ports of call

Labadee (Cruise Line Private Island)

1 out of 5

Horrible food. Pushy vendors.

Thumbs Up 2

Falmouth, Jamaica

5 out of 5

We chose a private excursion with Patrice tours. Excellent!

Thumbs Up 3

Disembarkation

2 out of 5

Long long waits in line.

7 Comments

JohnsonL 7 years ago

An excellent and much smaller ship is the radiance class Jewel of the Seas. We can vouch for that one personally as we've been on several cruises on that ship. It has great service, very good food, it's easy to get around on, and you don't have to make reservations in advance :-) The food is similar to what you'll find on other Royal Caribbean ships so on any mainstream cruise ship you might want to consider improving your dining experience by mixing in some of the specialty restaurants on your cruise. However, if you really found the food experience to be horrible, then you may have to balance your expectation for food with the enjoyment of the other parts of the cruise because a mainstream cruise ship, having to feed 1,000 to 3,000 people in each sitting, in general, may not be the same as your favorite fine restaurants on land. But keep in mind that the restaurants on the ships are extremely efficient very clean, and provide a very large variety of very good food to more people in less time than most, if not all, restaurants on land.

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cbelc2 7 years ago

I guess if no one tells you that you need a reservation, and if you aren’t super savvy on a computer, and you didn’t use a travel agent, then you might not know about it. The folks in the standby lines did look a bit anxious. But you can’t fault the food. I hope you didn’t go hungry.

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stumpm 7 years ago

Yes you do need to pre plan for shows usually 90 days out... We have been on the Allure twice in the last year Dec and last week. Both times the ship had about 5875 passengers which is not max by any means. We only congestion were around the elevators next to the dinning rooms on formal nights due to poor planning of pictures locations. Our disembarkation only took 15 min at best. That is finding our luggage and thru customs..our group number was 12 & 20, time called was 8:35am.

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Charlou 7 years ago

@shavenn. Usually, you can make reservations 90 days prior to the cruise but it may vary from one cruise line to another. So, I would look it up. Just to make sure.

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Travelgirl27 7 years ago

Been on Allure twice and would go again...Great food choices and plenty that is included. Great ship! You have to plan ahead...

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shavennn 7 years ago

@charlou, I was going to ask that. @bonwok, I hope you guys go again, the next experience could be better

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Charlou 7 years ago

With a little research, you would’ve found out that you can make reservations for shows and restaurants about 90 days prior to your cruise. So, all the planning would’ve been done early and it takes away the stress from your vacation. Hope your next cruise is better.

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