Disney sheep go rogue - an allure-ing trip report - with a dcl lessons learned perspe

[Scraptographer]

GLUTEN-FREE EATING/OPTIONS. The morning of our first breakfast at Windjammer I took the opportunity to speak to the the available chef (Chef Victor) to discuss what was /wasn't safe for us to eat. Realistically, there were lots of choices, (note, stay away from the tasty sausages), but he then had GF pancakes (we declined his offer of waffles) made and delivered to our table.

Also, at the port side toast station in Windjammer they have individually packaged Udi's GF bagels and a dedicated toaster available, where one of the staff will don a clean set of throw away gloves and make you GF bagels on request. DD also discovered that they have individually packaged hotdog and hamburger styled buns at the same station. And they were all tasty .

We also took great advantage of the frozen yogurt available at both the Wipeout Cafe and at a machine across from the towel station on the pool deck. Wipeout had bowls and spoons available (since GF cones are never available on cruise ships it seem, but when 'forced' to use the stand alone fro-yo machine one day, I simply let DH eat the cone part of my ice cream, and yes I realize that I am lucky as most Celiacs would have a cross contamination issue with that.

Sorrentos has gluten free pizza available on request. In general it takes about 10-15 minutes for them to prepare it and your choices are either cheese or pepperoni. I tried to convince them to put some of the fresh toppings available such as ham and pineapple etc on my pizza, but I was told very firmly that they were not allowed to do this! Interestingly enough, my kids and I separately both went to Sorrentos just minutes apart. The GF pizza made for them apparently had a thick and delicious crust while the pizza made for me had a thin crust. It was still tasty though, but I think that I would have preferred the thicker crust.

DH and I visited the Promenade Cafe daily, usually more than once. The Promenade Cafe offers tea and coffee as well as small sandwiches and desserts such as muffins, pastries and cookies available at no extra charge. From this perspective, DH had lots of choices to nibble on. On the positive side, individually wrapped Udi's gluten-free cookies were available on request. They had both snicker doodles and chocolate chip - but the chocolate chip were very popular, so you had to score those in the morning and save them for later.



Another tasty treat that I discovered was in the Solarium Bistro. On a regular basis during our cruise they had what I called Nut'n'Honey cookies, since they were made from nuts and seeds and maybe dried fruit, held together with honey on a thin base of chocolate. There was nothing officially to indicate that they were GF, however when I inquired, the server behind the counter listed the ingredients as stated. I personally did not have a reaction and they were wicked tasty .

 

[Scraptographer]

MY TIME DINING (MTD)/ GLUTEN-FREE EATING cont'd: As for the Celiac issue, we are very fortunate in our family that although we are officially diagnosed with this health issue, we don't tend to react to minuscule amounts of gluten such as that encountered through cross contamination, which means as long as we don't directly eat gluten we can enjoy a buffet for example, where getting 'glutened' as my kids call it, is a real possibility. Yes, all three of us did get glutened on this trip, possibly at the buffet (darn those tasty sausages) although it may have occurred at the pre-cruise hotels.

When we reserved our cruise, the early dinner seating option was no longer available, so we chose MTD. Based on me scouring reviews/ Compasses from the Western Caribbean cruises on Allure and Oasis, I created my planning schedule and we reserved our shows and our dining times as soon as the opportunity arose.

Arriving at the Adagio restaurant the first night (and all nights actually) we were escorted in to our table with almost no wait. Serving wise however, things did not go well. As soon as we mentioned to our waiter that we were gluten-free, we clearly threw him for a loop! Although the assistant server had already rapidly provided us with a plate of GF bread, the server literally backed away from us as if we had something contagious! Apparently he rushed off to locate the head server who was busy elsewhere. After a long while the server returned and told us that we could only order from the 'Classic' menu items ( I.e. Plain chicken breast, plain steak etc), despite there being symbols on the menu for several items indicating that they could be prepared GF. We were definitely not impressed and I was about to insist on seeing the head server when he appeared.

The head server had no problem taking our order for items from the normal menu that were identified with a 'wheat' symbol, and our dinner proceeded happily along. The head server also took our order for 'tomorrow night's dinner' as we were accustomed to on our DCL cruises. We were informed that wherever we would be seated the next night for dinner our food order would follow us.

Fast forward to dinner #2. We arrived at approximately the same time (most of our meals were reserved at times in line with the early dinner seating time) and we were lead to the opposite side of the dining room. We explained to this new serving team that we were gluten-free and that we had pre-ordered our meals the night before. Our serving team handled things well, however we were informed that they only two of our orders had been placed. I was honestly starting to question why I had booked us on this cruise if RCCL could not handle feeding us GF meals - really, we are not high maintenance when it comes to food (honestly, meat and potatoes in most basic forms is GF!).

Happily this serving team did not find this issue to be insurmountable and our meals showed up as ordered and our dining experience was pleasant. In fact even without making a formal request, we had this same dining team for the rest of the cruise, and their service was excellent.

 

[Scraptographer]

One of the main reasons that we chose to jump ship to the Allure of the Seas was the option for us to have two cabins at a reasonable price. Realistically, I don't think it was so much a requirement for extra living space as it was a requirement for extra sleeping space. Honestly, whenever we ask the kids what they think about sailing on RCCL vice on Disney, no matter how we word the question, they almost always start with ... Well, we really like the Allure because we had real beds! The next thing they liked better about the Allure is the fact that there were lots more teenagers on the ship, but I will save that discussion for my Trip Wrap Up Report .

Overall perspective: We enjoyed our cabins on the Allure. Although technically they were smaller than our cabin on the Fantasy the year before, we had the luxury of two of them - yes, that bears repeating, two cabins! Perhaps because we were not crammed with all four of us in one cabin to sleep/live etc for a whole week, our balcony cabin did not feel noticeably smaller than our previous cabins on DCL. When we stopped and deliberately assessed the cabin we could 'see' that it was smaller, but it did not really 'feel' smaller. And there were numerous times everyday when we did have the four of us hanging out in our cabin together. Perhaps although the cabins on the Fantasy are larger, they 'lose' cabin sq ft to the extra space required for the split bath, which makes their 'living space' not much larger than on the Allure?

If we do another RCCL cruise, our goal will be to book connecting cabins. In theory and in practise we did not have any problems with the kids being in an inside cabin across the hall, my main issue was that we were letting the kids have more freedom on this cruise, including staying out until after my bed time! On the first night I lost a lot of sleep worrying about DD being out late. After the first night we had her pop in to our cabin when she turned in for the night, vice us going into their cabin to check for her. Realistically if we had connecting cabins, we could have just left the connecting door open and heard when she came in, which would have been easier on all of us. But that is just a personal quirk, vice anything to do with the cabin set up per se.

The Boardwalk view room was neither exciting nor not exciting. Yes we could see the Boardwalk from it, but is was not an exciting view. The porthole styled window was inset, so technically a small person could sit on the deep window ledge, but it was a curved bottom, not flat, so it was not ideal for sitting in/on. DS said that he could hear noise from the Aqua Theatre on the nights that Ocean Aria played, but realistically it did not bother him that much as he was reading anyway. And DD, well she was too busy hanging out at the Teen Club and getting in at all hours (or at least between midnight and 2 am to notice any noise or problems. In general, the cabin was fine, but I would not pay more for it than for a standard inside room.

Size breakdown:

Fantasy - Deluxe family stateroom (Cat 4A) - 254 sq ft cabin plus a 45 sq ft balcony

Allure: - Oceanview Balcony stateroom - 182 sq ft plus balcony 54 sq ft
- Boardwalk view stateroom - 187 sq ft (with round porthole styled window)
Total space = 369 sq ft cabin space plus 54 sq ft balcony

 

[Scraptographer]

Decor: Cabins on all DCL ships have Disney décor everywhere which we enjoy since we like Disney in general. Some might call this form of décor/branding as subliminal advertising. Attractive advertising mind you .

Cabins on the Allure were classically designed with bedding accessories/artwork in an attractive blue-green pattern which we enjoy since blue-green is probably our
favourite colour pattern. There was no noticable 'branding' in the cabin.

Beds/bedding: Beds on the Allure were very comfortable. In its base form, our bed was actually two twin beds made up as a queen (king). We did not notice anything to indicate that our bed could separate and we slept very well. As already mentioned, the kids were way too happy to have their own beds since we had our Room Steward separate the beds into the 'twin' option.

Bathrooms: The split bathroom concept on Disney is much touted and based on our previous cruises, both with and without a split bathroom, I can attest that having a split bathroom is much better than not having a split bathroom. However, by cruising on RCCL we had the benefit of having two full bathrooms. It made getting ready for dinner just so much more manageable.

The Allure does not have bath tubs in their bathrooms unless you book a Jr Suite (which is comparable in price to booking a category 4A on the Fantasy I believe. The shower set up has been described by many as a 'tooth paste tube' or a 'Star Trek' shower since in shape it is a tube, and it will sometimes close with a 'woosh' sound . The shower does have a bar in one corner where you can rest you foot when you shave your legs - probably used more by women than by men, but hey, to each his own .

Unlike DCL who provides samples of their shampoo, conditioner and body moisturer - a very nice touch that also potentially encourages you to purchase some in their stores - RCCL only provides shampoo in a dispenser in the shower, as well as the standard mini bars of soap etc. I personally have never really used Disney's 'free samples' as I always bring my own toiletries, so this was not an issue for me.

Cabin Dividing Privacy Curtain: Unlike Disney, staterooms on the Allure do not have a curtain to divide the cabin in two. From our perspective this was not an issue, since we had two cabins. When the kids were younger and we only had one cabin, that curtain was indeed very important, but the benefit to switching to RCCL is that the cost of two cabins is less than the cost of one on DCL.

Storage: The closet space on RCCL is set up very well with shelves and a two level clothes hanging system. With only two of us in each cabin, we had lots of space for clothes storage. The Allure did not have a lot of drawers in the room however, so the shelf storage was greatly needed/appreciated.

We also had lots of storage space for luggage, but after several cruises on the Magic and the Wonder, our luggage is now usually the Eddie Bauer brand that has one hard side and one soft side, which compacts down quite easily fits under the beds quite easily, even in the Magic/Wonder, so we had no problems on the Allure.

Balcony: Although technically our balcony on the Allure was about 11 sq ft larger than the balcony on the Fantasy, again, no noticable difference to us either way. Each balcony had two chairs and a little table. Realistically they both held two of us comfortably, three of us could be out there standing - and four of us were never inclined to be out on the balcony at the same time on either ship. Safety wise, there is a plexiglass 'window/wall' that covers the railing. There are dividers between the cabins, however items on the balcony floor could roll under the divider to a neighbouring balcony.

 

[Scraptographer]

Standard amenities: Our room had a standard room safe in the closet, however an ipad does not fit in the safe on the Allure - we had no security issues, so this was not a problem. I cannot remember specifically, but I do think the ipad fit in the room safe on the Fantasy. There was a hairdryer in the cabin, but I did not bother to use it - I used our balcony instead . Yes, I sometimes resemble a puppy dog in my actions since I go out onto the balcony, lean on the railing and and stick my head out into whatever wind I can find. Please note that I do not stick my tongue out though .

Mini-bar: MINI BAR RANT! (Look away if any thing even remotely negative bothers you) - Grrrrr. On Day 4 of our cruise we discovered a minibar charge on our cabin statement. I am so not a fan of the mini bar items in the fridges, not only are they expensive (example this bogus charge of $8.58 was for a single can of soda and an individual pack of Oreos), but the bar manager guy enters your cabin EVERY DAY to top up the fridge and charge you for anything that you use. And the freakin' items take up space in the refrigerators that are already tiny and not very cold to begin with. We had absolutely no intention of using the mini bar period, AND, not only did we all have soda packages, we couldn't eat the 'food' items even if we wanted to without getting sick since they contained gluten.

We headed down to customer services to express our displeasure at these incorrect charges and the Guest Services staff were extremely helpful and the charges were immediately reversed. Only to appear again later in the week, at which time we had them reversed again. Only to have them appear on our Visa(!) after we got home. We have taken this up with RCCL on principle and they once again reversed the charge. And this is even after we had a conversation with the mini bar manager to explain that not only did we not use anything from the mini bar, but that we wouldn't be using the mini bar items, and we were ticked about the bogus charges! But now perhaps you can see why we found this annoying. But realistically, just annoying. END RANT.

Laundry: Unlike Disney, RCCL does not have laundry rooms for passenger use, instead RCCL provides a once weekly (day 4 - I think) service where for a charge of $30, your room steward provides you with a laundry bag into which you can place shirts, shorts, socks and underwear to be laundered and returned the next day. There are no irons available for use, and any irons carried on end up confiscated and in the 'naughty room'. Since it was only a 7 night cruise, we did not use the laundry service. Further, DH ironed what needed ironing prior to the cruise and we put the ironed clothes in dry cleaner plastic bags and they remained wrinkle free.

By comparison, while Disney provides a laundry room, it costs $2 per wash load and $2 per dryer run (some loads of laundry will require more than one run through the dryer to actually come out dry). Laundry detergent and softener is available for $2 (or maybe $1 for the softener?). Irons are free to use. Realistically, you really have to pick your time well to use the laundry facilities (especially the irons on formal nights) or the line up in the laundry room can rival the line up for Stitch or the Princesses!

Wave phones: Unlike Disney, there are no wave phones provided in the cabin by RCCL - this easy method of communication was something I did indeed miss, however not enough to rent RCCL 'ship wide iPhones'. My research indicated that there are a limited number of iPhones available to rent, first come first served. That said, every review has been unfavourable as they do not seem to work very well. We simply rocked it old school, and either left hand written notes in our cabins or left the kids phone messages giving them direction .

In room TV: Similar to DCL which has ABC, ESPN, CNN, and the Disney Channel, the Allure in room television that includes a few basic channels such as ESPN2, TBS, CNN, Headliner News, Cartoon Network and a Dreamworks movie channel vice a Disney movie channel. We enjoyed watching Madagascar 2, Kung Fu Panda, and other Dreamworks movies. RCCL also offered a Pay Per View channel where you could rent a variety of movies (newer ones were $12 each I believe) if you really needed to watch a specific movie. Yes there were adult themed movies... and some really adult themed movies, but I couldn't really tell you what they were since I had no interest in them and ignored the channel after I realized what it was on the first day. I did notice that 'The Little Mermaid' was available to 'rent' for $5. Just saying.

The in room TV also allows you to make reservations for shows and dining, however I had already made our reservations before the cruise so we did not test this function either. What we did use this system for, was to check our daily schedule for our dinner and show times, as well as to check our on board account, which is where we noticed our bogus mini bar charges.

Room Steward: Our Room Steward for this trip was Luis. Overall he was competent and similar to room stewards that we have had on DCL in terms of efficiency and customer service. We discussed our 'normal' schedule with Luis during his visit on the first day, and he had no problem working on our room based on our schedule. Each night he left us a copy of the Cruise Compass, similar to the Cruise Navigator on DCL, and on the last sea day Luis provided us with our luggage tags, similar to the Disney system.

Towel animals/chocolates: Unlike DCL, there was no chocolate left on my bed for me each night and towel animals only appeared on three separate nights. Prior to this cruise I had done my research and warned my family that by choosing to cruise with RCCL, that there would be no chocolate or towel animals nightly. To mis-quote Lord Farquad in Shrek: That is a sacrifice we were willing to make <insert soulful look and pause here>. The kids offered to make towel animals for me if I really needed them since they have taken the towel folding classes (as well as napkin folding classes) on our DCL cruises . Smarty pants.

Although we enjoy both towel animals and chocolate, it was not a big deal for us. Actually, on our DCL cruises we would rarely eat the chocolate anyway, since there were so many other nice deserts as well as frozen yogurt each day, that adding chocolat was almost overkill. And as for the towel animals, it became kind of like a treat when they did appear, but we could have easily lived without them. I also made sure to pick up cookies (individually wrapped G-free ones) at the Café Promenade each night and would leave them in the cabin for the kids. In general the cookies did not get eaten at night either.

 

[perfectmatch300]

Hi there, thanks for reading along. Maybe the Mouse really is a Sorcerer as Mickey really does seem to have all of us in his spell . I freely admit though that I look forward to the next time we get to cruise with Disney.

I have heard good things about the Independence OTS, and I highly recommend the Allure and the Oasis. Although it may indeed feel like we are cheating on Mickey, realistically there are so many itinerary opportunities available once you jump ship .

Thank you so much for an excellent TR! I really appreciate your comparison of the differences between your RCI cruise and Disney. I like knowing what to expect as I am definitely a planner.

We are currently scheduled for traditional late dining on Indy, same as we always do on Disney. I have considered My Time dining, but I was concerned with managing my seafood and mushroom allergies. I am glad to hear that you were able to stay gluten free in your MyTime dining schedule. I am still not sure what the show schedule will be on our cruise. We have 2 other trips planned prior to our Indy cruise, so I probably won't get serious about looking at show schedules until after our Disney cruise in Sept.

I am glad to hear that the smaller room size didn't bother you. I have been a bit concerned that we will feel cramped for space. I think you are right, the split bath does take up a good amount of cabin space. Personally, I am not a big fan of the split bath anyway. It always seems like no matter which bath I am in there is something I need in the other one. Of course, there are only two of us in the cabin so that may make a difference.

On our Princess cruise we were able to take the mini bar stuff out of the refrigerator so we could use it for our own stuff. They had a beverage package which we did purchase similar to the one you had, and we will do the same on any RCI cruises we may sail. I will not be a very happy cruiser if we have charges for any mini bar items that we have no intention of using.

I will be back to read the rest of your review. I am getting a lot of good tips. Thanks again for your report.

 

[puzzlewoman]

Thanks so much for your TR! As DCL lovers who have a cruise on the Allure booked this December, I have been reading all of the DCL/RCCL comparisons I can find.
Do you mind if I ask a question? We are not pop drinkers and can't justify the cost of the drink packages that include alcohol (no way would we drink that much!) so we are not planning on getting any drink package. Your comment about tea & coffee scares me a little. Do you drink iced tea? That's mostly what we drink, with some water, hot tea, juice and the occasional splurge on specialty coffee, wine and mixed drinks. We basically live on iced tea, so I was really hoping it would be good! Oh, and definitely unsweetened. I have liked all of the drinks available on DCL, so this definitely worries me.

I also appreciate your cabin comparison comments. We have always stayed in balcony/verandah rooms, and we have an OV balcony booked. Sounds like we have no worries for just the 2 of us.

We are very excited about trying out this huge cruise ship!

 

[Scraptographer]

SHOPPING/MERCHANDISE. Wandering through the shops on the Allure the first night we felt that something was 'off'. It took a little while to figure out what was 'wrong' about them - the answer is that nothing is wrong per se... it is just that Royal doesn't have a 'brand' to market as heavily as Disney markets, well, Disney!

On a DCL ship, the vast majority of the items sold in the shops on board are Disney merchandise. Realistically the only items that I can remember DCL selling that weren't 'Disney branded' were alcohol (at the duty free store), jewellery and sundries (i.e. Tylenol, bathroom essentials etc). Disney even sells Disney themed underwear! Realistically I am sure there were more things that weren't Disney branded per se, they just did not catch my attention.

Although RCCL shops carried some Royal branded products (t-shirts, sweat shirts, pins etc), it was almost diametrically opposed percentage-wise to Disney!

In the end although I did make what I (or my DH anyway) considered to be a significant purchase of a gemstone globe while on the Allure, that would rate as a one time item, whereas I have definitely spent a lot more money at the shops on the Disney ships on a regular basis on t-shirts and sweat shirts and pins and stuffies and well, lots of Disney branded merchandise .

And the teenagers did not ask us to buy anything on this trip either.

That said, there are numerous shops on the Allure. There are Coach and Britto and a jewellery store or two, clothes stores as well several stores on the Boardwalk aimed at younger kids i.e. a 'build a bear' type store (Pets at Sea) and a store with small toys/Dreamworks merchandise, and a candy store and an ice cream store etc where you could spend money if you really wanted to do so .

And there were also the ever present 'sales' on the Promenade, $800 watches on 'sale' for $200! T-shirts, sunglasses etc. I think I even saw 'gold by the foot' just like on DCL... but I honestly just noted it and then kept on walking - I prefer to spend my money on travel . If you aren't interested in these 'money spending opportunities' they are easy enough to avoid as they tend to take place on one end of the Royal Promenade.

Note that I have warned DH that if we take another RCCL cruise, I have my eye on an adorable Britto teapot and another (smaller) gemstone globe to keep my new globe company. IMHO, Royal should work on improving their branded items, perhaps emphasizing the globe/compass theme they currently have going on as a brand, but that might be just because I have a thing for globes and compasses ... and well, travel .

 

[Scraptographer]

Style and Service with Substance. When you walk on to the Royal Promenade of the Allure of the Seas for the first time, it really does have a 'WOW factor', which is indeed the RCCL advertising campaign, but in this case there would appear to be truth in advertising . Although we have compared the Allure to the West Edmonton mall, realistically although the West Ed is indeed a mall, parts of the West Ed are more like an exceptionally well appointed resort with fantastic theming.

If we think of the Disney ships as having 'old world elegance' with a strong Disney imprint everywhere, then the Allure has a 'new world elegance', stylish, modern and upscale with technology seamlessly interwoven throughout the ship. From the Britto artwork displayed on several decks, to the glass blue birds in Central Park, to the stylish Mercedes Benz on the Promenade and the statue of the little boy with the toy Mercedes Benz behind his back checking out the Mercedes Benz from behind a lamp post, to the unique artwork in the stairwells, the Allure has style going on all over!

RCCL effectively employs a 'neighbourhood' concept to spread the passengers out and reduce the 'crowding'. Somehow it just works (the majority of the time). If you really don't like crowds, plan on escaping to the Promenade or the Aqua Theatre immediately after muster drill (I.e. Go down or stay down if that makes sense, because most people will immediately head up to the upper decks). As well, stay away from the Promenade during sales (!) and during large parties. In general the Allure did not feel crowded to us, and we definitely do not enjoy crowds, so this is something that we are sensitive to. Having said that, we have well developed 'crowd avoidance' skills, which means you won't find us lingering in places where we expect crowds to be.

Service - Similar to Disney, we were very happy to receive great service while on the Allure. Our room steward was similar in efficiency to room stewards we have had on DCL. Guest services staff were equally capable, efficient and helpful as compared to DCL staff. Our dining room servers were very very good. In many ways they were equal to some of the dining room teams that we have had on DCL, that said, they would be about the middle of the pack with respect to all of our DCL teams.

In general, the staff on the Allure that we personally interacted with on a regular basis were great and we had no complaints. However if I am making comparisons with DCL, Disney somehow manages that 'something extra' in this area. All of their staff, from the maintenance crew painting and cleaning who stop their work and with a smile offer to take a picture for you, to the crew hanging over the side who manage to nod good day (without being intrusive) on every single lap of my 5K run. And yes, I realize that the DCL crew members may indeed not truly be feeling the good vibes that they are projecting, but somehow they have managed to keep it from appearing fake to us.

Realistically, the RCCL crew did a great job and we were happy with the service that we received. No it wasn't Disney, but we were ok with that.

 

[Scraptographer]

Thank you so much for an excellent TR! I really appreciate your comparison of the differences between your RCI cruise and Disney. I like knowing what to expect as I am definitely a planner.

We are currently scheduled for traditional late dining on Indy, same as we always do on Disney. I have considered My Time dining, but I was concerned with managing my seafood and mushroom allergies. I am glad to hear that you were able to stay gluten free in your MyTime dining schedule. I am still not sure what the show schedule will be on our cruise. We have 2 other trips planned prior to our Indy cruise, so I probably won't get serious about looking at show schedules until after our Disney cruise in Sept.

I am glad to hear that the smaller room size didn't bother you. I have been a bit concerned that we will feel cramped for space. I think you are right, the split bath does take up a good amount of cabin space. Personally, I am not a big fan of the split bath anyway. It always seems like no matter which bath I am in there is something I need in the other one. Of course, there are only two of us in the cabin so that may make a difference.

On our Princess cruise we were able to take the mini bar stuff out of the refrigerator so we could use it for our own stuff. They had a beverage package which we did purchase similar to the one you had, and we will do the same on any RCI cruises we may sail. I will not be a very happy cruiser if we have charges for any mini bar items that we have no intention of using.

I will be back to read the rest of your review. I am getting a lot of good tips. Thanks again for your report.

Glad that you are still following along, and that my comparisons to DCL are helping you to get a better sense of the RCI perspective.

They definitely took our food issues very seriously, which may have been behind the reaction of the server the first night - or he may have just been new to the position. Either way all of the staff were very professional when it came to food allergies. The menus have symbols on them, such as a wheat sign to indicate that they were able to make that item GF.

As for our mini-bar/soda package issues, they were probably related to our 'mini-bar' guy specifically rather than RCCL service in general. I probably should have asked to see him on the first day and requested that he remove the items in the fridge, but we just planned to not use the fridges or use the items period. Which is why the account charges were annoying. Minor stuff in the big picture of being on vacation .

 

[Kim1964]

I am still enjoying your report. In fact, I checked out the RCCL site today because of your report. I don't think I'll be able to afford a 7 night DCL with balcony cruise anytime soon (and I really don't want to cruise without one), but RCCL has potential.

 

[Scraptographer]

Thanks so much for your TR! As DCL lovers who have a cruise on the Allure booked this December, I have been reading all of the DCL/RCCL comparisons I can find.
Do you mind if I ask a question? We are not pop drinkers and can't justify the cost of the drink packages that include alcohol (no way would we drink that much!) so we are not planning on getting any drink package. Your comment about tea & coffee scares me a little. Do you drink iced tea? That's mostly what we drink, with some water, hot tea, juice and the occasional splurge on specialty coffee, wine and mixed drinks. We basically live on iced tea, so I was really hoping it would be good! Oh, and definitely unsweetened. I have liked all of the drinks available on DCL, so this definitely worries me.

I also appreciate your cabin comparison comments. We have always stayed in balcony/verandah rooms, and we have an OV balcony booked. Sounds like we have no worries for just the 2 of us.

We are very excited about trying out this huge cruise ship!

Many thanks for reading along, your first comment about reading as many RCCL/DCL comparisons as you can find sounds like me before our trip .

We are not really iced tea drinkers, however they did have iced tea, lemonade and a strawberry-kiwi kind of fruit punch available in the Windjammer, as well as Apple juice and a version of orange juice that was probably from concentrate or at least from a mix of some kind. A server would normally approach your table in the WJ at breakfast asking if you wanted OJ, which I believe was fresh squeezed and was being sold rather than included in the cruise cost. That said, we were happy with the 'free' drink choices as we normally drink hot tea. They did have individual containers of milk available as well.

Just to expand, the Freestyle machines with the soda package included Coke products that you could mix and mingle, my favourites were diet cherry coke and diet orange coke, while DD chose Sprite with orange or with cherry. DH and DS mostly stuck with Coke. However DH indicates that he probably won't bother with a Soda package next time as he was ok with the tea and other 'free' beverages available. The soda machine also had Powerade, Barqs and Mello Yello as options, along with Dasani beverages, Seagrams sparkling seltzer water, Minute Maid lemonade and something called Phibb.

Hope that helps.

 

[puzzlewoman]

Thanks so much! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Scraptographer]

Although I do not tend to shop a lot, my main souvenir each cruise has been a cruise photo package of some kind - realistically I find that photos help us enjoy the memories of our vacation. Since it became an option, I usually buy a photo DVD.

My research prior to cruising indicated that we could pre purchase a photo DVD package online for $309 for this cruise period for this ship, a 'saving' of approximately $50 based on advertised prices. I believe that the option to include the hard copies of the photos was available for an additional $100.

Although I considered this option, I was unsure of what/how many potential photo ops would be available. I was also concerned as to whether my family would cooperate with my 'photo quests' on this trip since the teenagers would not only have a greater amount of autonomy, but with the addition of friends from home along it was possible that DS in particular might not wish to participate. After discussion with DH we decided to just wait and see.

On Day 1, DH and I checked out Focus and found photo opportunity examples for each day, for day one to day six. I took pictures of these 'boards' for future reference. There were also examples of photo opportunities on the TV in the cabin, but I am not sure which channel DH found it on because he was doing what I refer to as 'random remote man flipping' through the channels at the time and I didn't run across it again .

Note that there are no formal photo opportunities with photographers on the last cruise day (sea day), but that is the same as Disney.

On this cruise on the ship, the DVD with all digital photos included cost $349.95, the same as it had on the Fantasy last March break. There was also a 'deal' for the first 3 days, where with the purchase of all digital photos on DVD, you could add all of the photo hard copies for 'only' $50. Again, the same as on DCL last year.

Realistically, we find that once we are cleaned up and headed to or from dinner or a show, it does only takes a few minutes to stop for a photo op. And, we have learned that the more photo ops we score, the better our chances are of finding a photo or ideally a series of photos that we are happy with. I often ask the photographer to take some individual shots of the kids if they don't offer - since the kids are maturing so fast, these are great memories to have.

We also enjoy changing back into clean casual clothes after dinner on at least one evening and getting some casual (and occasionally goofy) shots with the 'white background'. These shots more often than not end up being among our favourites.

 

[Scraptographer]

It turned out that the 'photo process' on the Allure was similar to our experience on DCL. In fact I believe that the parent company of the contractor for Shutters is the same as for Focus. The digital kiosks appear to operate based on the same software. The initial Welcome Aboard photo on embarkation day that is linked to your SeaPass card (KTTW card equivalent) is the basis for the photo recognition program which worked very effectively.

On any given day/night for the first 6 days, there are numerous photo background locations - usually coordinated with dinner hours, so that once you are cleaned up and on your way to or from a dining room, you can easily stop off for a quick mini-photo shoot. Again, this is similar to the DCL system.

There were also roaming photographers in the dining rooms, same as DCL. And those dining room photos are just as 'not stellar', no surprise really given the lighting/background conditions the photographers are working with.

RCCL also sets up opportunities at all port stops as you disembark the ship for your day to grab a Welcome to ... Labadee, Falmouth, Cozumel ... shot/souvenir. Note, the photographers are normally out along the gangway/pier in 3 or 4 different locations, but only for an hour or two after all ashore time.

We also had photos taken at Labadee by ship photographers while on the beach. Nothing to frame for the wall mind you, but a memory captured. I have heard that DCL photographers walk the beach on Castaway Cay as well, but I have not personally seen them in three visits.

Although we only took a photo with a character once (since the kids were usually way too busy during the day), there are numerous character meet & greet/ photo opportunities (usually scheduled in the cruise Compass, similar to the DCL cruise Navigator) where photographers are present. Characters on RCCL have Wranglers, similar to Handlers on DCL. And yes, those Wranglers will take a photo with your camera for you, just like on DCL.

If I could have one 'Do Over', it would have been to get a photo with those darn Madagascar penguins - we always seemed to be at a show when they were scheduled to appear. When I double checked the cruise Compasses later, the penguins had three photo ops scheduled during our cruise, and we were in shows/activities each time. Hmpfh. Next time you mischievous penguins, you will be mine!

 

[Scraptographer]

On this cruise we managed approx 3 photo stops a night plus photo ops at all 3 ports and had 336 digital photos. And yes, there are a few that are less than stellar (eyes closed, out of focus, do I really look like my mother shots - that relates more to age than to how my Mother looked by the way , but overall, I am pleased with our 'formal' cruise memories.

We were able to pick up the photos and dvd(s) around 11 pm on the final night of the cruise, again, same process as DCL. Photos appear to be actually loaded on to the DVDs as each disk can hold up to 200 photos, so we ended up with 2 DVDs. You do have to download the software program in order to unlock the photos, but we found that we already had it from our Disney trips.

LESSON LEARNED: I am ok with my decision to wait to purchase the photo DVD, even though it cost a little more on the ship - especially since it turned out that the photo hard copies cost less on the ship. If we decide to take another RCCL cruise, I would potentially buy the photo DVD on line in advance of the cruise for the best price, and then consider adding the photo hard copies if there was a good sale on the ship. As a side note, purchasing 20+ enlarged photos at Costco (as an example) will often cost approx $50, so in this case the photo hard copy price was a good deal.

Also, triage your photo hard copies each day if possible, or at least do not wait until the last day to do so as Focus gets as crazy as Shutters does if you wait until the end of the cruise! On the Allure we found that we caught some fun people watching opportunities from Focus looking down on the Promenade (flash mob, kids club Pirate parade outing, dance lessons etc) while checking out our photos on the kiosks at Focus each day since it gives you a bird's eye view.

And for those wondering what I do with all of the photo hard copies, I simply put the best of them (which often works out to be a lot - cause I think my kids are cute - heck yes I am biased ) in page protectors in a binder, along with any cruise Compasses that I save. I have happily watched my kids 'grow' this way over the years .

 

[Scraptographer]

I am still enjoying your report. In fact, I checked out the RCCL site today because of your report. I don't think I'll be able to afford a 7 night DCL with balcony cruise anytime soon (and I really don't want to cruise without one), but RCCL has potential.

Glad to know that you are still reading. I am not sure that it is still on, but RCCL prices are/were even more interesting/competitive due to a BOGOHO sale recently. Just saying.

 

[dededisney]

I am loving your report so far! You sound so much like us...we have done 7 disney cruises and are now looking to jump ship over to RCCL. One of the biggest things that is driving this decision is Disney's new OBB limitations. Having to book a cruise in 18 months wasn't in our plans, so I think we will be doing the Allure in 2016. I have been hesitant to switch ships, but your report is helping me along. Thanks for all the details!

 

[Scraptographer]

As I have previously stated, when we travel we enjoy following a relaxed active approach to our vacation. We enjoy getting laps in on the 'running track', trying for our 5K a day and we usually avoid the elevators and take the stairs. On DCL cruises that visit Castaway Cay, this normally offers the Castaway Cay 5K which we enjoy - the kids especially liked getting the 'cheesy' plastic 'medals' . However given the extremely limited pool to passenger ratio on DCL, other options for being active or sporty are limited, especially since I don't play basketball or dodgeball on the Sports Court and I have never seen a volleyball game for me to jump into. Since we are on vacation afterall, we usually just go with the flow, and plan active beach breaks or excursions that include kayaking or biking as options.

The numerous sporty and active options available on the Allure OTS were a definite consideration when we decided to book the Allure, however as we discovered once DH came down with a bad cold/flu and initially limited his activities before eventually confining himself to our cabin, you can enjoy the Allure a lot even without ziplining or rock climbing. As a side note, the kids were able to keep themselves completely amused all week whether their parents were healthy or not .



Pool deck: On our DCL adventures, the kids have spent a lot of time in the pools, since in water they seem to be their natural element - not surprisingly they are qualified lifeguards (DS just has to await his official test upon turning 16). Unfortunately we have found that the pools on DCL are almost always crowded - as in 'kid soup' crowded - as in I used to be relieved when the kids would choose to not go into the pools because they made me nervous (the pools, not my kids). Even during 'off times', such as in ports or dinner times, the pools are almost always busy, however much less busy than during a sea day.

On our last couple of cruises we enjoyed trying out the Aquaduck, but after the first couple of runs the 'thrill' of trying something new would be gone and the actual Aquaduck ride is really tame. DH and I did get to enjoy the pool in the adult area, but just to cool off and get wet really as there was no room to be physically active per se. Yes, we did enjoy the hot tubs on DCL, but we often found them to be busy too.

By comparison, the pool area on Deck 15 of the Allure, or the the "Wet and Sweat" Zone, as Middle Aged Drama Queen referred to it in her comprehensive review (because this entire deck is predominantly devoted to three things, the Pools, the Sports Court and the Teenagers), was amazing. The Oasis class ships on RCCL truly shine when it comes to recreational activities available on board. Not only is the pool deck with its 5 pools (or does that donut pool in the kids water play area count as 6?) and 8 hot tubs along with rows and rows and rows of stadium style seating in the version of lounge chairs and extensive adult lounging area superior to DCL offerings in this category, these ships offer two Flowriders, one for stand up surfing and one for boogie boarding. There is also the option to swim laps during a dedicated lap swim time each morning on the Allure, just before the water aerobics class.

Chair Hogging: Although we did not spend a whole lot of time lounging on deck because we are pretty much 'white and pasty' and more likely to burn than to tan, the "stadium-like" lounge seating that is available meant that when we did want to hang out with the kids outside of the Solarium, we could usually find lounge chairs to set ourselves up in. Even on sea days. Unlike DCL.

And although I have no idea if it is actually implemented, there are signs posted indicating that there is a 30 minute limit for 'holding' chairs that your possessions are in, but you are not. After 30 minutes, your possessions may be removed by the staff.

Towels - Prior to Jan 2014, apparently your had to 'sign' towels out with your SeaPass (KTTW card equivalent) and potentially be required to pay for lost towels. The policy has now changed and you can simply pick towels up from (and hopefully return them to) the staff at the towel stations on deck 15. We almost always lucked in to freshly laundered towels that were still warm .

 

[Scraptographer]

In addition to the two Flowriders, there are also a number of non-water based recreational activities, including a zip line, two rock climbing walls and an ice skating rink. Similar to the Fantasy, Allure also has a mini-golf course and a full sized sports court along with shuffleboard and table tennis. There is a fitness centre and spa, along with a dedicated jogging/walking track on deck 5. It should be noted that while the DCL jogging/walking tracks offer more views of the ocean than lifeboats, the Allure's jogging track has more views of lifeboats with a limited number of views of ocean, but RCCL has compensated with touches of humour to keep you interested as you round each bend . The ship also offers a numerous fitness classes, similar to Disney some are at no extra cost while some have a specified fee.

There are kids clubs on the Allure, however my kids being teenagers, we only have experience with the Teen Club. DD in particular got to use the majority of the recreation areas during dedicated times for the Teen Club. Although DD really enjoyed the teen club, it was really the people vice the planned activities. Mostly they hung out, chatted, played video games and went for pizza runs rather than participating in the generally scheduled activities.

Waivers: You need to have a waiver for the flowriders as well as the rock climbing walls, ziplining and ice skating. We filled out our waivers electronically before your cruise and it was on our SeaPass card. Granted, we should have told the kids that we did this, since they did not realize that they already had their waivers, and came rushing back to our cabin to find us in order to join their friends.

Flowriders: When you want to try out the Flowrider, you have to get a wristband which after you check-in you keep on your wrist so you can then just line up whenever you want to use it. That said, my kids removed their bands for Formal night etc, and simply lined up and got a band the next time they wanted to use the Flowrider.

The Flow Riders can be found on Deck 16 Aft. One on Starboard side, one on Port side. One Flow Rider was used for the boogie board, the other is for stand up. Although I only tried boogie boarding, the kids enjoyed the stand up as well. I would recommend that you consider bringing 'swimming shirts' to wear since most of the time you have to wait in line you are standing in the full sun, on sunny days anyway, as there is no shade over the line. And if you are female and wear a bikini, then a swimming shirt is highly recommended - often the staff will even forewarn the girls/ladies in bikinis of the possibility of bikinis flying off during wipeouts and recommend that they find t-shirts to wear first!

Ziplining - Note that the minimum age for ZipLining is 6 years old; you must have socks and pants/shorts on and your clothing must be dry. There is a weight requirement of a minimum of 75 lbs and a maximum of 275 lbs to ride. Your pockets must be empty i.e. no cameras, no watches, and no glasses. The kids checked this activity out as well - once. Apparently it was enjoyable, but was a little tame from their perspectives! Then again, my kids have 'serious thrill issues' .

Rock Climbing Walls - Both of our kids tried out the rock climbing wall, DS actually did it a couple of times. Although they jumped into what looked like a long line up, the line moved fairly fast as there are three climbing 'lines' per wall. As soon as we realized what the kids were in line for, DH and I headed for secret deck 11 in order to get photos from a different viewpoint. I did get pictures of DS, since he was on the side of the wall farthest to the starboard, but we missed DD since she was just out of our line of sight on the far left of that wall.

Ice skating - DD checked out the ice skating with the Teen Club. Although she enjoyed herself in general, she indicated that the ice was not great - essentially she described it as trying to skate on plastic! Note: there is a firm requirement that you have to wear long pants in order to be allowed to skate.

Fitness Center: I did not actually try out the fitness center on this ship. At a quick glance it appeared that they had a lot of treadmills and ellipticals, as well as freemotion weight machines and free weights. They had a large floor space as well for mat work, yoga, stretching, etc. Although I was once a certified fitness instructor, I am not crazy about gyms if I have the option for other physical activities, therefore unfortunately I cannot actually compare the fitness centers.

Walking/Running Track: We did make use of the running/walking tracks on both DCL and RCCL. On DCL, 2.5 laps around the Fantasy equals 1 mile, while on the Allure, 2.4 laps equals 1 mile. Views of the ocean are definitely better while on DCL, and then occasionally there will be Disney characters wandering about. Last March 2013, I even stopped at one point for a 'sweaty' - on my part at least - photo op with Chip and Dale since I had my iPhone to use as a camera. Whereas on the Allure you get great views of the lifeboats everywhere, except for the Aft, where they have chairs set up should you feel like sitting and watching 'the world go away' . RCCL has clearly recognized that their jogging track is lacking in views, so they make up for it in humourous/inspirational signs .