My 17 year old son and I had a great time on Allure and would definitely sail again on it. It was our first cruise on RCCL and previously I had only sailed with my family on Disney. We didn't get to do it all or see it all, but we didn't feel like we were missing out. We loved all the ports, but spring break period is a busy time so if you are not prepared for lots of people on the boat or off, probably not the best time for you to sail. I didn't notice a lot over overly drunk people, or unruly children, but there were plenty of people in party mode. I spent enough time on the ship alone in the evening and late hours, and as a married woman travelling with just an older child there was only one time I needed to fend of the advance of a single traveler looking for love. I never felt unsafe at any time, neither did my 17 year old when he was alone. I would highly recommend getting the refreshment package if you are not a big drinker. I don't think I would have enjoyed my cruise as much only drinking what was available for free. We got the voom package for two devices and enjoyed it, but wish there was a better and cheaper option for keeping in touch with others real time like Royal IQ that is available on some other ships so we could have done without it. We enjoyed our cruise so much and already have two more RCCL cruises booked for future dates.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Check in took a bit longer than expected, but had nothing to do with the personnel or service in general.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
We had mytime dining and would not choose it again, but if we had to do it again would make reservations well in advance and ask for same server each night. The food in the MDR was hit and miss, but overall good. Service was quite slow some nights, so slow that when we finally did get our food if we didn't like it we chose not to get something else because of the wait. We felt the servers never paid much attention to us each night because they were the same each night. Lots of good selections in windjammer. Many solarium breakfast items you might prefer warm or hot were lukewarm at best. We had refreshment package and would highly recommend it, we drank 4 or more specialty virgin beverages daily and many bottles of water. I preferred the food and dining service on Disney better, but wish Disney had beverage packages like the refreshment package we bought.
Sorrento's
5 out of 5
We enjoyed the pizza and other items at sorrentos. We ate it quite frequently as a late night snack.
Johnny Rockets
4 out of 5
I liked Johnny rockets breakfast (free), but didn't care for their burgers at lunch, my son liked them though, but not enough to pay again (got free lunch due to boardwalk balcony room).
Izumi Hibachi & Sushi
5 out of 5
Son had lunch here and said it was spectacular and some of best sushi he has had and the service was phenomenal.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We spent a good deal of time in the solarium area (son is 17 years old). We played mini golf, son did rock climbing and flow rider. Son didn't spend much time in the teens club (felt he was too old perhaps), but did go occasionally. If you plan to play bingo ($) bring a pen or highlighter (which we used for our cruise compass), as they charge $3 for a bingo dabber.
Casino Royale
4 out of 5
Wish the entire casino was smoke free, but was able to use the smoke free side without feeling overwhelmed by smokey smell coming from other side.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
I enjoyed the singing piano player in schooners, the band in dazzles and the dj music in Blaze. The comedy show was not the best, first act was better than second, but was still a good enough time. Mama Mia was fantastic, as was Ocean Aria. Enjoyed Ice Games also. Didn't go to any of the kids shows or parades. We also really enjoyed the headliner and thought he was fantastic
Children's Programs
3 out of 5
My 17 year old son went occasionally, but I think he felt a bit too old for it. Didn't have any complaints about it when he did go though.
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Only time we felt service wasn't great was in the main dining room, but that mostly had to do I think with not having same servers every night and one worker who told us flat out to rate our dining service as 10 otherwise we were hurting the families of the workers. That was off putting. Our room attendant was lovely and did a great job keeping our room clean and tidy. Bar staff was nice and friendly, as was pretty much every other employee we came into contact with. Wish the pool staff would have done more to combat chair hoggers.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Seemed clean and tidy enough to us. We enjoyed our time on the ship immensely.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
We had an boardwalk balcony cabin that was only a few cabins from the far aft on deck 12. Loved being able to see the ocean and the boardwalk from our balcony. We primarily used it in the mornings or a bit in evenings. Didn't notice much noise with doors closed, except during evening ocean aria performances, one evening I took a nap after supper and woke up to the sounds of ocean aria, but don't think it was the reason i woke and could have easily slept through it. Would choose a ocean view balcony next time for privacy, but was glad to have tried it and might do it again if travelling with someone who wanted to. I did feel motion most nights, but was more soothing to me than making me feel sea sick, son said he didn't feel much. I brought a closet organizer and an over the door organizer which I never needed because there was more than enough space for two peoples things and we never felt cramped. We did make good use of the magnetic hooks we brought along though.
Ship tip
Opt for traditional dining or make reservations for a time each night with same servers in advance or first night aboard. If you have mytime dining don't go early to dinner first night, we did and we were (and many others in line with us) told to leave cabin number and come back at 6:30 when they would have tables. I would also recommend every night looking at your stateroom account on the television, I was charged for an alcoholic beverage at dinner one night I did not order and called it was taken off the bill promptly.
We stayed at airbnb's pre and post cruise and would do so again. Much cheaper than a hotel and each airbnb was in an area we felt comfortable staying in and enjoyed exploring.
We did the blue hole and river tubing experience. While we enjoyed the blue hole, we felt rushed through and it was quite crowded, not much time to stop and enjoy the experience. If you do not intend to do jump in at blue hole and there are many jump in points, this is not the excursion for you unless you want to take pictures and videos of everyone else. This excursion is not good for anyone with any kind of mobility issues and was quite active in our opinion (blue hole more so than the tubing). We were happy we brought water shoes and make sure you wear your bathing suit under your clothes as while there were washrooms you had to walk a bit down to get to them and no doubt tight space to change and then you would have to walk your clothes back up to the bus. Tubing was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the jerk chicken lunch. It is about an hours ride there and back, but our bus guide was very knowledgeable and a lot of fun. If you are at all scared of fast and tight driving conditions you may want to not look out window on the bus at times. The excursion did not leave us much shopping time once back at the port, but we did manage to buy a few things.
We went to Mr. Sancho's beach resort for the day. It was crowded in port and we had to wait a bit in the hot sun to get a taxi. It was quite crowded at the resort too, but we had so much fun and didn't have to to leave our loungers to get food or drink unless we wanted to. Was a great beach day, but it was quite busy there, so not as relaxing as some might hope, but we didn't mind. The delay between food service got longer and longer as the day went on, but there was a buffet you could get food at.
Expected the lines and so we didn't leave our room until later than usual.As a result we didn't spend too much time waiting the the waiting area before it was our "assigned" time to leave.
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