Review - Allure of the Seas 2019

The Boardwalk and Aqua Theater

Overview 
The Allure of the Seas, one of the largest cruise ships in the world, is simply stunning in it's design and features. While the service on our 2019 cruise left something to be desired, the ship offered amazing entertainment experiences and many dining venues.

The Ship 
Rather than offering large areas to accommodate the thousands of guests aboard, the Allure of the Seas offers several smaller "neighborhoods" for passengers to escape to. This allows guests the option of being among the masses in busier areas or enjoying relative peace and tranquility in quieter areas.

Some of the areas we frequented the most during our vacation were:

Central Park - Hands down my absolute favorite area of the ship! Central Park is an actual park with live trees and plants, park benches, a coffee shop, specialty restaurants with alfresco dining, a bar and high-end shops. This is a great place for morning coffee, an after dinner cocktail, or a place to unwind away from the hustle and bustle. It truly feels like an upscale urban park, they even have umbrellas in case it rains!

Check out our video of Central Park!

Board Walk - This was another favorite area! The Board Walk is located at the back of the ship and includes everything you'd expect to find at a "real' Board Walk - a carousel, a candy shop, diner food in the form of Johnny Rocket's, and even a hot dog vendor! They also have a specialty Mexican restaurant and bar and a small tunnel and slide play area for kids. Despite the kid-friendly attractions, we did not find this area to be overrun with little ones at all and we spent more time here than I anticipated.

Check our our video of Central Park! 

The Royal Promenade

Royal Promenade - Our 10 year old nephew described the Royal Promenade best when he declared, "I feel like I'm in a mall"! Once again, you'd never imagine you were on a ship in the middle of the ocean if you didn't already know it. The promenade is a collection of bars, restaurants, shopping and live music that seems to be awake at all hours. It's always a fun place to walk through or grab a seat and people watch.

Casino - We don't gamble, so we really only walked through the casino once or twice. It seemed to us to be a fairly standard casino, with an assortment of slot machines and table games. They of course had a bar and this is one of the few places aboard that allows smoking.

Pools and Hot Tubs - As a family we spent a lot of time in the pools and hot tubs! We found the hot tubs to be plentiful (they had something like 8 or 9!) and at optimal temperatures for spending long periods of time in. During the day the bar staff were very attentive to those in the hot tub and we definitely appreciated that!

There were lots of pool and hot tub options!

There are 2 pools and a splash park for the kids. The three main pools we actually found to be too deep for comfort - even my husband could barely keep his head above water while standing! We also were bummed that you couldn't enjoy a drink in the pool unless you were sitting on the side. Given the depth of the pool I understand their reasoning, but we'd have preferred a shallower pool that better allowed for hanging out and mingling with other people. One nice feature is that there are lifeguards at every pool.

We didn't use the splash area, but it always seemed full of little ones having a great time. It even had it's own small pool that was very popular.

Fitness Center - We didn't use the spa on this trip, but we did use the fitness center just about every morning. The facility is large, with a good assortment of cardio and weight equipment. They also offer several free classes every day, including stretch and ab workouts. We went to the ab class a couple of times and definitely felt the burn.

One of the best fitness features on the Allure of the Seas is actually the jogging track, which can be accessed through the fitness center. On most ships the jogging track is relegated to a top deck, where the sun and wind make optimal utilization a challenge. On the Allure, the track is much lower on the ship and almost entirely covered, while still being open on the sides. Being on a lower deck also makes the track longer, so you run in fewer circles.

Solarium - The adult area on the Allure of the Seas covers two decks at the front of the ship and offers a buffet breakfast and lunch, a bar, a pond feature, 2 hot tubs and a dipping pool. The area has stylish furniture and offers both sun and shade. This area is most used during the day and is very quiet at night. We thought we'd spend a lot more time here than we did, but in the end the Allure of the Seas just had so many great places to chose from!

Jesse and I relaxing in one of the two hot tubs in the Solarium

This was our 6th cruise and I have to say this was far and away the most impressive ship we've encountered.

Two tips - check out the sundeck on deck 14, forward. Great views and vantage point of the helipad! Also if you find yourself in need of a private bathroom and your stateroom isn't an option, head to deck 8 forward, just off the elevators. There is a public restroom that is a "one at a time" setup with a locking door. It is down a small hallway leading to staterooms, but there are signs if you are looking for them.

Stateroom
We traveled with 17 people on this trip and we stayed in 3 different room types: Oceanfront Balcony, Central Park Balcony and Interior. All of the rooms featured modern decor, modern bathroom fixtures and comfortable bedding.

We found the Central Park and Oceanfront Balcony rooms to be an average size for a cruise ship. Most rooms of this type include 1 king or 2 twin beds, a couch, closet space and a desk area. We found the closet space to be a bit lacking on this ship, but not so small that we couldn't make due.

The interior room was, to put it mildly, small. We've heard that this is the case with interior rooms, but this was our first opportunity to actually see one for ourselves. We can now confirm - interior rooms are indeed very, very tiny!

Our main issue with our staterooms was a lack of attention paid to bedding requests made prior to the trip. Most people in our group were rooming with family members and required 2 twin beds; in most instances, despite my travel agent husband having requested it online beforehand, most rooms were left in the more traditional 1 king configuration. Jesse spoke to some of the room stewards to get this issue fixed and even the correction was hit or miss, sometimes the bedding was reconfigured to 2 twins and in other cases it just didn't get done. This was a disappointment and unfortunately, a harbinger of less than stellar service to come.

Dining and Bars
Dining
From the infamous buffets to the storied dining room service, the food is an important part of any cruise. In addition to the complimentary options, Royal Caribbean also offers many specialty (ie, for an extra fee) dining options as well. From sushi to Mexican to premium steaks, if you want it (and are willing to pay for it) you can find it on the Allure of the Seas.

Maybe it's because there are so many specialty restaurants that the main dining experience is somewhat "less than" on the Allure of the Sea. Don't get me wrong, it's not that the food is bad; it's that the main dining room fare is simply average. The service in the dining room, while also not bad, is just average. The decor and place settings are too just average. We were fairly disappointed in this aspect of the trip, I'm sorry to say.

Disappointing too was the buffet. For a ship so large, the buffet was quite small. From what I read beforehand this was done intentionally, as there are many other areas to eat. The food offered at the buffet was standard fair and decently done. We ate here only twice; for lunch right after boarding and one evening for a second dinner as they were serving oxtail (why they didn't offer this delicacy as an option in the main dining room we failed to understand).

One area the food on this ship excelled was at the smaller complimentary venues. We enjoyed Park Cafe for breakfast and lunch paninis, Sorrento's for those late night pizza cravings, and Cafe Promenade for quick bites 24 hours a day. We also liked the hot dogs on the Board Walk and the complimentary breakfast at Johnny Rocket's.

We considered spending extra money to see how much better the specialty dining was than the complimentary, but in the end we just couldn't bring ourselves to spend more than we already had on this vacation. We certainly didn't starve, but this experience was far from the best dining we've had at sea.

Bars
There are a multitude of bars aboard the Allure of the Seas and, due to our drink package purchase, we made a point to visit every one. Much like with food, we like to try new things when it comes to alcohol. With all the different themed bars (beach, Mexican, upscale, etc) we had high expectations for trying many new drinks on this ship. We were disappointed to find that, with the exception of a few, most bars offered no drink menus to chose from. It wasn't until midway through the cruise we figured out that they were there, you just had to ask for them. Why they don't leave them or display them on the bar we don't know, but finding them eventually was nice and we tried many new cocktails.

The alcohol selection was plentiful and the drinks were fine in terms of taste and strength. The Champagne Bar and Trellis Bar in Central Park were especially good. Both had excellent service and great cocktails.

While the drinks were fine at the other bars, the service generally left a lot to be desired. Bar tenders were at best barely polite and at worst downright rude. We are not needy customers so for us to have this impression is telling. We were also taken aback by the rude comments of other food and beverage employees, from an employee selling popcorn to a hostess at the buffet breakfast. While the remarks were not made to us, we were completely put off by the attitude of staff towards well-meaning, polite guests. We have truly never seen anything like it on a cruise.

Entertainment

This scene from Blue Planet blew us away!

Do you like cirque du soleil style shows? Got it! Broadway musicals? Check! Ice skating performances? Got that too! (Yes, really. There is an ice rink on-board!) With a rock climbing wall, a zip line, ping pong tables and kids clubs it is almost impossible to be bored on the Allure of the Seas.

We saw Mama Mia, the Ocean Aria aqua show, Blue Planet, and the Headliner show featuring Stephani Parker. All of these performances were well done and well worth our time.

In terms of entertainment the only negative was the comedy. The club itself is very small, which probably explains why the 2 comedians repeat the same act every night throughout the entire cruise. On other cruise lines the comedians have always been swapped out mid cruise, offering new acts and experiences. Not so on this Royal Caribbean cruise. Later in the cruise one evening of comedy was moved into the main theater, but to our disappointment we found that one of the comedians sill reused about 80% of his act from earlier in the week.

Sigh.

Summary
The Allure of Seas is a stunning ship with a mix of traditional cruise ship experiences and small, intimate areas. The entertainment is top notch, there are plentiful bars, restaurants and shopping to choose from and the staterooms are modern and comfortable. If you've cruised on other lines before the service and dining might be a disappointment, but if you are new to cruising you probably won't notice this.

Overall we would sail on the Allure of the Seas again, just with adjusted expectations.