We welcome Royal Caribbean Blog reader Shawn Wallace, who recently sailed on Allure of the Seas and wrote up this "almost live" blog post series to share. Enjoy!
Hi everyone! This is a review of our cruise that started back on April 6th.
We had booked this cruise last year in July while on board Enchantment. This cruise on Allure was a retirement gift for my wife's mother.
For this cruise, I was traveling with my wife Michelle, our two daughters Dava (6) & Nora (2), and wife's mother Joan. We had selected this particular cruise based on being Spring break week and also take her on an oasis class ship. Since Allure leaves on Sunday, we chose Allure so we could travel down on Saturday. After spending the night with local family, we got to the port around 11 am.
The terminal that Allure was docked at seemed to be small. I wondered how congestion was later in the day. We got through security and checked in within minutes! We had to wait to board until 12pm. At first I thought that might be due to cleaning on board due to norovirus cases from previous cruise which was mentioned in a letter they passed out with our first compass, but now I think it was just due to the time it took to get everyone off.
My first impression when we walked into the promenade was Wow! The promenade was so grand and gorgeous!
We made our way to guest relations to make our requests for sitters at sea which we had hoped for days 2-7 as well as get on the waiting list for a cabana.
Then we made our way up to Adventure Ocean to register the girls in camp. The nursery lets you pre-scheduled up to 15 hours at first and let us know they can only take a set number of kids which I think was 10-12 but I never saw any more than 4 in there the entire week. From there we made our way to Park Cafe only to find a long line out the door.
We thought after all the comments about Windjammer being crowded and that Park Cafe might be the better idea for lunch. So we decided to go up and try the Windjammer! I loved that they found you a table first. I looked all over but missed the honey stung chicken! Oh well, it's something for me to look for on the next cruise! I did find some great beef curry! My daughter was even able to get the cheese melted on her burger.
After lunch, we made our way down to check out the sports deck. First up was playing a round of mini golf. Then we watched the people on the Flowriders and zip line. After, we wanted to drop off our carry-on baggage and made our way down to our rooms.
We had two rooms on this cruise. We had an ocean view balcony (8714) with our youngest daughter. This room also had a Pullman over the sleeper sofa. Joan and my older daughter had a room across from us in 8715 that had a balcony over the boardwalk neighborhood. When we got to our room, our bags were already waiting on us.
After getting unpacked, it was time for our muster station. Thankfully it was in the main dining room. This was a great change from being outside next to the lifeboats. I missed the sail away party as our youngest daughter passed out during the muster drill, but I thought sleep would be better for her and give me a chance to look over the compass before dinner.
We made our reservations for My Time for 6:30. After changing, we made our way down to deck 5.
Tonight is where we met the best dining room staff we have ever had wait on us. Our assistant waiter, Emrah, for this evening was normally a waiter in Chops. We mentioned that we would be making a reservation later this week when we knew what nights we had sitters at sea. Emrah was so lively and engaging with us and our kids.
While we were talking to Emrah, our head waiter happened to walk by while we were talking about chops. He spoke up and said he would make us a reservation, but we explained we didn't know our plans yet. He called guest services himself on the spot and found out that we were confirmed for the next night. He had us a reservation for chops that we would later have to change, but what wonderful service. He gave my wife his business card with his extension if we needed anything! I say this because of all the extra help and changes he made for us just like that the rest of week! We were his VIP even though I could tell he made everyone feel like that!
I had the great bay scallops dish that was a great replacement especially for when escargot was not available. My second appetizer was the watermelon raspberry soup followed by prime rib.
After dinner we checked out the arcade after hearing earlier in the day that the games would be free for an hour. Unfortunately we missed the free hour, but the girls got plenty of games in that night. Then we were off to the ice cream parlor for a little treat before turning in for the night to let them get some rest. I noticed this evening on our way out that this ship was going to be so smooth!
The first day, I never felt it rock or the vibration of the engine! After checking out the compass for the next day, we called it a night.
