Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas
By Alara Shannon, Marketing | January 01, 2013 ( Comments)
- World’s Largest Cruise Ship
- Inaugural Sailing: December 12, 2010
- Inaugural Itinerary: Western Caribbean
- Home Port: Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, FL
- 225,282-tons, 1,187 feet long, 208 feet wide
- 7 neighborhoods
- 5,400 guests
- 2,700 staterooms
- 16 decks high
Allure of the Seas includes the Oasis Class’ pioneering new neighborhood concept of seven distinct themed areas, which includes Central Park, Boardwalk, the Royal Promenade, the Pool and Sports Zone and Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center.
iCruise.com’s own Rob Utter’s experience on the Allure of the Seas 7-night Western Caribbean Cruise:
Off We Go!
First of all, I was probably mostly impressed with getting on and off the Allure of the Seas at the cruise terminal in Ft Lauderdale. For parking my car I used Park & Go, right at the I-595 entrance to the port. Total cost for the week including tax was $44! You must pre-book on line for special rates.
I pulled into the Park & Go lot at 11:30am on the day of my cruise. They had us and our bags on the shuttle so fast I barely knew what happened. They took us right to the ship, no waiting around. The porters met us outside the terminal as soon as he parked and took the luggage for us.
Royal Caribbean started boarding at 11:15am, ahead of schedule – I was totally blown away and impressed. At 11:55am, we were stepping ONTO the ship! A total of 25 minutes had passed from the time I arrived at Park & Go.
Now, even though boarding began at 11:15am, the staterooms were not available until 1pm. Windjammer Café, the casual buffet-style restaurant, was open and serving lunch. This is probably the only time I really saw any kind of madness, as you can imagine. Even though it was busy, we did find a table within a few minutes – had to do a walk through a couple of times, but wasn’t bad. By the time we were done with lunch, the rooms were available.
I sailed in a Boardwalk balcony cabin, meaning the balcony faced inside towards the Boardwalk neighborhood. As far as noise from the Boardwalk, it pretty much didn’t exist. You could hear the Aqua Theater shows, but with the sliding balcony door closed it was just a slight muffled sound. The size of the stateroom was average, but it was the first ship I’ve sailed that had a clock in the room as part of an iPhone docking station. Closet was a good size and had a nice amount of hangers available. We were able to stand two of our full size suitcases in it to get them out of the way.
On our sailing, the ship was sold out – filled to capacity– however, I never felt overwhelmed with crowds. The Allure of the Seas is very large and has seven distinct neighborhoods filled with places for people to spend their time onboard; the crowds are evenly dispersed amongst the different venues.
Even during popular entertainment such as DreamWork’s Character Parade, in the galleria-like Royal Promenade, it wasn’t any more crowded than on smaller Royal Caribbean ships. I would even go as far to say that the Allure was designed so well, it felt less crowded than smaller ships in their fleet.
Typically on busy sailings, finding a chair up on deck is hard, especially on sea days. On the Allure of the Seas, they were a dime a dozen. An unbelievable amount of available lounge chairs, both in the sun and shade.
Dining on the Allure of the Seas
The main dining room encompasses 3 decks; Decks 3, 4 and 5. Deck 5 is reserved for guests that selected My Time Dining, Royal Caribbean’s open seating option. I selected My Time Dining for this cruise and was able to make reservations for each evening at a time that corresponded with the show I was interested in seeing. I also requested a table for two, just to see if our request would be granted.
Almost every night there was no wait time and we did receive a table for two within the same general area of the dining room each evening so we were able to stay with the same wait staff. The dining room staff mentioned they do everything they can to keep guests seated within the same area – a hard task to complete. My Time Dining is becoming so popular, the Allure of the Seas will soon use two decks for open seating – making traditional set Early or Late seatings harder to confirm. Food and the wait staff in the main dining room were great. No complaints.
The first night of the cruise was the one night we did not eat in the Main Dining Room. We chose to dine at Rita’s Cantina, the Allure’s lively specialty Mexican restaurant on the Boardwalk near the AquaTheater.
At dinner, there is an option to pre-book with a cover charge of either $10 or $20 (not available every night). For $10, dinner is served family style with non-alcoholic beverages or for $20 dinner is served family style with three drinks to choose from: beer, shot of tequila or margarita. Family style means they bring out large plates of a selected dish and it is shared, more a sampling than anything. Most passengers would not leave stuffed, Rita’s is more of a party atmosphere.
We decided to go back during the week one time for lunch to try Rita’s Cantina and its a la carte pricing. Unfortunately, Rita’s is not Royal Caribbean’s best specialty restaurant, in my opinion, even with the free chips and salsa. Now, the cover charge is only $3 per person plus the cost of food which was low, but there was nothing necessarily ‘special’ about it.
We did not try any of the other specialty dining venues such as Giovanni’s Table or Samba Grill, although we did get a good hot dog on the Boardwalk at The Boardwalk Dog House. This complimentary eatery offers many different selections like traditional hot dogs, brats and sausages along with a variety of toppings to choose from.
The one spot we did come to enjoy was the Park Café in the Central Park neighborhood, which is also complimentary. We ate both breakfast and lunch there! If looking for a simple, fresh meal this is the place to go. Service is buffet-style but you are able to have a salad made to order or grab a roast beef Panini, then try a fresh pastry or cheesecake.
Nightly Entertainment on the Allure of the Seas
Chicago: Allure of the Sea’s version of the Tony-award winning Broadway musical was a good show, with great singers. But…it was not a high-energy show. We saw Chicago the first night of the cruise, and we saw a few passengers actually dozing on and off. It could be due to exhaustion from travel, so I would suggest seeing Chicago later on in the cruise to fully enjoy the production.
OceanAria: This show is held in the Aqua Theater, and the pool comes to life with shooting water and colorful lights choreographed to music. The aerialists and divers performed a great show, amazing talent. The show had a tribal theme which was hard to follow, but easy to watch.
Comedy Club: Comedians on this sailing were Mike Wilson and Phil Palisoul. Hilarious! Unfortunately, they were changing ships after our sailing.
Ice Games: An exclusive show for the Allure of the Seas, Ice Games is performed by talented skaters in Studio B ice skating rink. Another good show, but not Royal Caribbean’s best production.
Blue Planet: A Cirque de Soleil-esque style show in the Amber Theater inspired by our planet. Performed by his theatrical experience is great for the entire family, a must do! AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. Book a reservation prior to sailing so you do not miss this one – if you must wait in the stand-by line, arrive 45 minutes prior to show time.
Royal Caribbean also offers the ‘Love and Marriage Show,’ their version of the Newlywed Game, and ‘Quest,’ an adult scavenger hunt game show. Both are very entertaining and always leave the audience rolling on the floor.
Please remember to book as many showtimes as possible in advance within Royal Caribbean’s Online Check-In!
Labadee: Royal Caribbean continues to develop their beautiful private beach destination. A tender is no longer required to get from the ship onto the island, they built a convenient dock. Along with concrete walkways throughout, anyone with limited mobility in a wheelchair or scooter now has access to the island. Labadee offers fun activities like a 2,600-ft long zip-line over the ocean, a water park, roller coaster that takes you up and down the picturesque mountainside and much more.
Falmouth, Jamaica: Royal Caribbean has worked together with the Jamaican government to develop this port of call – but it is still a work in progress. Mostly built around a huge courtyard-type area, you will find shops right outside the cruise ship terminal with regulars like Diamonds International. The area is also accessible to wheelchairs and scooters.
Nassau, Bahamas: Nassau is continuing its improvement projects, such as the Straw Market, and you’ll dock right in the heart of the city.
TIP: Both in Labadee and Nassau you must to go through airport type security when returning to ship. Getting on and off the Allure of the Seas was pretty painless because they use two gangways for guests rather than just one.
Arrival Back to Fort Lauderdale
During the cruise you are given a form to fill out with four options for departure times: approximately 6:30-7:30am, 7:30-8:30am, 8:30-9:30am and 9:30-10:30am.
Royal Caribbean also offers ‘Express Walk Off,’ for guests that need to be one of the first groups off the ship. You have to be able to carry your own bags off with no assistance and also not have anything to disclose with customs. This is offered from 6:30am-7:30am.
If you do not choose the ‘Express Walk Off’, you will receive your numbered bag tags that last evening of the cruise. I had chosen the 7:30-8:30 departure and had a bag tag of group #11. An estimated time given for group numbers #1-14 was 7:15-7:55am. I believe we were called around 7:40am. Getting off was pretty much a breeze. When you exited the gangway, you enter a huge warehouse type building. The bags are all sorted and grouped by each number. You get your bags and then go through customs unlike any other time, where the bags are the usually the last thing you pick up.
We walked outside and Park & Go was already parked right outside. We got on, and off he went without having to wait for others. Dropped us off right at my car, helped unload and load the bags. Drove up to the booth to pay, they handed us each a cold bottle of water and we were headed home. Again no more than 30 minutes from the ship to my car!
Royal Caribbean’s next new cruise ship is set to debut in 2013. Called ‘Project Sunshine’ the vessel will be smaller than the Oasis-class at 160,000-tons and 4,100 guests.
