We have a another Royal cruise with our kiddos booked in Dec on Marinier of Sea to try a different ship, but we will not go back on the Allure.
Expected much more with the Allure and it didn't check many of our boxes.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Quick and Easy. Was on the 11 am boarding and was on board by noon. Had all four of our documents on paper (boarding pass, passport, covid vac card and negative test result) ready to show which expedited the boarding as well.
Went upstairs to sit for about 15 minutes and then walked on board.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Some places earned 1 star and others 4 to 5 stars.
We had a horrible dinner the first night in the main dining room. Food was luke warm, shrimp cocktail was rubbery, and the portobello mushroom dinner had like a pound of spinach on it. Creme Brule was cold.
Windjammer buffet was great as it provided plenty of variety for breakfast and lunch. The solarium bistro has a scaled down version of the Windjammer in a quieter setting which we took advantage of many days.
Sorrento pizza has decent. Thin crust, good for late night snack or quick snack.
Vintages tapas were awesome. We loved it and went there for pre-dinner drinks every night.
Chops had good food. Filet qas great. Atmosphere could have been better. Bit loud and cramped for us.
Giovanni's Table was an awesome meal. Portions sizes are huge and we felt like we were in an authentic Italian restaurant.
Sabor was okay. Definitely suggest going there for lunch and not dinner as the prices for quality of food aren't worth a dinner.
Promenade Cafe has good speciality coffee if you don't want to pay for Starbucks, but it looks like Royal is adding Starbucks to the drink package.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Wasn't impressed with the solarium as the enclosed glass made it very loud in there when it was crowded and it does get crowded between 11-4.
Other pools were loud and not relaxing. We wanted a relaxing pool to sit by while on board. On port days we were able to get it as most people were off the ship.
Piano man at Schooners was good, but he was there every night so we heard some of the same songs.
Guitar player at Pub was not impressive at all as he kept asking for requests, but then didn't know many songs requested.
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Momma Mia was great and definitely worth going to see.
We enjoyed the Love and Marriage and majority rules, but was amazed parents brought their small children to these events when it's not appropriate material for them.
Venues for some of the 80's themed music and other trivia were not big enough to hold all the people who wanted to watch or participate.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Customer service was excellent. Not a sad or disgruntled crew member on board. Everyone took the time to say hi, good morning, good evening, etc.
Our favorites were in the Vintages wine and tapas where they remembered what you drank and had great conversations and shared about themselves and how things work on the ship.
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cleanliness was great. Crew kept up with everything very well with cleaning. Ship lay out was okay. Wasn't impressed with the solarium as the enclosed glass made it very loud in there when it was crowded and it does get crowded between 11-4.
Not impressed with Boardwalk. Very crowded and lots of little kids running around all over. I'm about kids as a father of two, but just not the space for it all.
Liked the casino was divided into halves, smoking and non-smoking.
Central Park was pretty and nice to walk through except at dinner time as tons of people are in there taking their owns pics and getting professional ones taking as well.
One thing I missed was having venues which had port holes to where you can look outside at the water. Unless you were topside or in a dining room you were going to get any scenic views of the ocean.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Very roomy. Lots of storage space. Beds was very comfortable. Balcony was nice and roomy. Likes having a couch to sit on instead of sitting on the bed.
Ship tip
If you want a drink or sit when you first get on board I recommend finding somewhere else than Promenade as it gets very busy and packed on embarkation day.
We just got off to hang out at Adrenaline Beach. As we walked to find chairs we were hounded by staff for them to find us a chair when we just wanted to take our time and find some on our own.
Very disappointed in the water. The beach floor is full of seaweed and not sand.
We left after two hours and got back on the ship.
The area is beautiful to look at from the ship.
We did the Eagle beach, butterfly house, and natural Bridge excursion.
On a tour bus we went to the butterfly house. This was the best butterfly experience we've had. Lots of different butterflies as they land on you.
Drove all the way across the island to natural coral bridge. Neat to see but not worth the drive over.
Last back to Eagle Beach for about an hour. Beach is very nice. Only place to eat was packed so we would have stood in line for our hour hence why we got something to eat at natural Bridge.
Next time we'll just get a day pass at a resort and spend the day on the beach.
We got off and just walked around downtown. Floating Bridge was really cool and lots of nice little shops. We ate a small snack and had some drinks at a small open cafe/bar.
Again, easy peasy. Given a disembarking time, scanned our cruise card on last time, walked off, grabbed our baggage, scan our face in the camera and then walked out of port to our bus to the car lot.
You have one of the most confusing reviews Ive read. You mention many really good things about your time on the Allure, yet you say it didnt "check your boxes"... Well I hate to tell you, that the Mariner will definitely NOT give you 1/2 of the options the Allure offers. Lol. Your complaints were easily fixabke, had you simply researched and looked around the ship.
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