Massive ship, beautiful, clean and didn't feel like 5600 people on board. Activities are spread and staggered across the ship keeping the flow smooth. We put in 13-16K steps every day. This ship is over 3 football fields long.
Embarkation
3 out of 5
The computer systems for check in were down that morning. The line was extremely long. Took over an hour, snaking through sidewalks and terminal to finally reach check in. I felt bad for the RCCL employees having to deal with that mess.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Main dining room food was great. I was disappointed at the paid Sabor and Giovanni's restaurants. We had dinner at Sabor. Food was ok but not exceptional. I didn't feel the additional price was worth it. Service was exceptional. Gionvanni's Table also lacked the "wow" factor in flavor. I dined with 3 other family members and they felt the same. Service was very good though. Not worth the add on fee unfortunately. Buffet was just ok. My expectations were already low for the buffet so it was as expected.
Cafe Promenade
5 out of 5
Service was always fast and friendly. Don't forget the food in the case is free. I don't think the coffee card was really worth it though. The card is 15 punches total for around $36. But to get a large coffee requires 2 punches each morning and the card goes fast. The card really didn't save any money for us.
Johnny Rockets
4 out of 5
Breakfast is free here and was always very good. Lunch/Dinner was just ok. The burgers were mostly boring. Being from Texas, my bar is set at Whataburger standards. This didn't come close to that. The shakes and malts though were sooo good. Service was also very good.
Sorrento's
5 out of 5
This place is always busy. Service is friendly and happy. They kept up with fresh pizzas every time I was there (which was a lot). There were always at least 3-4 people working at a time. On carnival, they barely have 2 working and very slow and wait times are long. Royal has mastered this.
Windjammer Cafe
3 out of 5
My expectations were pretty low to begin with. The food was about what I expected. Nothing was really exceptional beyond the desserts. The place is always crowded and difficult navigating with full hands to find a table. We ate breakfast there once but ended up finding other places for breakfast that were less crowded. We ate dinner there twice which was probably 2 times too many.
Sabor
3 out of 5
Service was great. Food was just ok. Portions were much smaller than I expected. Their fresh guacamole was superb though. But again, not worth the surcharge.
Giovanni's Table
3 out of 5
Restaurant service was high end and the decor was classy. But the food really wasn't that great. Didn't have alot of flavor and my party of 4 all had similar experiences. Wasn't worth the surcharge.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We saw ALL of the shows onboard plus saw opening night of Blue Planet. The production quality of their shows is far superior to Carnival. I heard people complain about things but they were complaining about everything anyway. We saw Mamma Mia, Blue Planet, comedy shows twice, ice skating, diving and live music around the ship. My son wanted to do rock climbing and flowrider but the lines were excessive and they gave us trying.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Excellent at every show.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Room steward was great. He was on top of things and greeted us by name everytime he saw us. Service in dining was also very good. The only thing that lacked was service in the casino bar. It always felt understaffed and service was slow. Service in Bow and Stern pub was probably the best of any bar.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
Spotless, also smelled clean and fresh. Saw minimal room service dishes in the hallway and never empty glasses or dishes in the elevators. Front elevators were far less busy that those Aft. Not sure why but we figured out quickly how to navigate the ship from front to back depending on where we were going. We spent most time on Promenade deck 5 and in the casino deck 4. The smoking side of the casino was very strong and my clothes always smelled of smoke later. The non smoking side had zero smoke smell.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Balcony was deeper in size vs Carnival balcony. Felt like we had much more room. It was always clean.
Ship tip
The Royal app is your friend. It can be cumbersome to navigate and free wifi is spotty for app use only. But it will help you find your way around and stay organized to your planned events. Some people complained about everything. This isn't a Regent Seven Seas luxury cruise AND there will be children on board. If this bothers you, don't make everyone else miserable around here. Just stay home and let the rest of us enjoy our vacations.
Royal's port is very run down vs Carnival's port and much smaller. There is alot of infrastructure improvement going on on Roatan now. Lots of new roads being paved. Roatan is still better than Jamaica.
There were not alot of interesting excursions here but their port was incredible. I think it was actually better than Cozumel. The bird aviary tour was fun.
I love Cozumel. I've been there 5 times on different cruises. There is always something to do. This time we took a 3rd party food tour and had delicious food at 3-4 stops and a stop at the bakery for dessert. Worth the price and we were the only 2 on the tour. It took a little more effort having to take a taxi to the Mega supermarket meet up point but it was easy to get there and only $8.
Had delays of about 45 minutes getting off the ship due to customs not clearing us immediately. Turned out someone had a warrant for their arrest upon return and attempted to jump off the ship to get away. They got him but we all had to wait get off. Once we were cleared, it only took about 15 mins to leave port. I love the new facial recognition customs scanners. So much faster. I was surprised to find that there were not any places to declare bottles of alcohol to pay Texas taxes. Not sure if the laws changed..wish I would have known, I would have brought some back with me.
Thanks for your review! We sail on Allure for the first time in September and your review makes me look forward to it even more! And thanks for the heads up about Johnny Rockets vs Whataburger! Being from Texas that helps! And we felt the same about Sabor as well.
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