RCCL Allure of the Seas Review

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What a gorgeous ship! The Allure of the Seas is the sister ship of Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas which first sailed in November 2009. The Allure measures almost 1,200 feet long (225,282 tons) and carries 5,400 passengers. Being 5mm longer than the Oasis she is officially the largest ship afloat, at least for now. She has 2,700 staterooms and 28 incredible loft suites that must be seen to be believed. The Allure of the Seas shares a lot of features with the Oasis including the "neighborhoods" Central Park and Boardwalk which are interior areas of the ship with an open sky above and streets lined with shops, bars and restaurants.

Like the Oasis the Allure has an AquaTheater at the back of the ship (a Cirque du Soleil like water show in an open air amphitheater), two FlowRiders, a minature golf course, two rock climbing walls, a full sized basketball court, an ice arena, and a Royal Promenade with many places to eat, drink and shop. Like many other Royal Caribbean ships the Allure has a Johnny Rockets and a Sorrento’s pizza parlor but they have now added a Rita’s Cantina and a Starbucks. Of course the ship also has a very large casino and several pools and hot tubs. They also have a very nice Youth Zone for teens and an H2O Zone and many of the DreamWorks characters on board the ship for the younger kids.

Like and dislikes:
Since we were on the very first inaugural cruise there was a few bugs to work out but all were minor and didn’t take away from our enjoyment of the ship. We liked the spaciousness of the ship that spread people out and never gave one the impression of large crowds. The ship was very well laid out with signs all over making it easy to find your way around.

The standard staterooms, although small, were well laid out and now feature an iPod dock and a flat screen tv with a computer keyboard for surfing the internet and signing up for shore excursions and onboard restaurants plus viewing your bill and other features. The interior cabins with balconies were really cool... you just have to remember to close your curtains when getting undressed! We were undecided whether an interior cabin with a balcony or exterior cabin with a balcony would be nicer because both have their advantages. By the way the cabins were very well sound proofed to outside noises when you closed the sliding glass door.

We were only on board the ship for two nights so we were not able to sample all the restaurants but we can say that everything we had to eat was very fresh and very good! As far as bars they have plenty of very interesting ones including the "Rising Tide" which rises slowly up and down 3 decks from the Promenade deck. The Schooner Bar with the piano singer was also very popular. We liked both the broadway show “Chicago” and the water show in the aqua theater. The reviews from fellow passengers that we spoke with all agreed. By the way... Adam Sandler and Katie Holmes were aboard our cruise filming their upcoming movie “Jack and Jill”. That was cool!

Our dislikes were few and some may actually not be a problem on a “regular” cruise. The Texas hold’em poker tables had “electronic” playing cards and chips for each player supposedly to keep them from having to have a dealer but they were so complicated they always had to have a person around anyway. Also, the only place we found open after midnight to eat was the Sorrento’s pizza place, however, you can order room service 24 hours a day. It would have been nice to have a couple more options for the after hours crowd. Many of the specialty restaurants had very limited hours so a reservation is probably going to be a must. Also, the show theaters have limited seating which also may require a reservation although we never had a problem. The onboard sports bar receive only a couple stations!

Everything considered this ship, like the Oasis, is the kind of ship that a wide variety of different ages and interests are going to enjoy. The ship itself is a destination... the itinerary almost becomes secondary since many cruisers will probably not leave the ship at the ports of call. We would highly recommend it for families and couples of all ages!

More pictures of the Allure of the Seas

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