The last word
We are back home and have had time to think about and discuss everything we liked and didn’t like about the cruise. This is not going to be a popular review here but it is our honest assessment based on our real experiences. Here is what we really liked:
1. Central Park. Loved it.
2. Flowrider/Ziplining/Rock Climbing - Great
3. Mama Mia and Ocean Aria - so much fun.
4. Vintages Wine Bar - great atmosphere and great service.
5. Cleanliness - We were overall surprised about how clean the ship was. Compared well to Disney
6. Staff friendliness - Overall we had some really nice experiences with staff. But it was much more mixed than on Disney. The level of engagement varies wildly among staff and you can have a great experience and a horrible one all within minutes. So while we were pleasantly surprised at many experiences, some were not so good. If you read earlier in this thread, you will note we had some really good early experiences but things seemed to go a bit downhill as the week went on.
What we didn’t like as much.
1. The food. I have never thought that the food on Disney was all that great but now that i have something to compare it to, I have to give Disney credit for hitting it out of the park more often than not. We had a really nice dinner the first night in the dining room but after that thought the food was pretty awful.
DD17 had a very difficult time finding things she could eat with her gluten (and shellfish and peanut) allergies/sensitivities. Staff was not all that educated about gluten and would often overlook the fact that a sauce had nuts in it or some such thing and after she took one bite, had to take a benedryl. At lunchtime the Windjammer put out a “gluten free” buffet but since all guests have access there is so much cross-contamination they shouldn’t bother. And the Park Cafe claimed on day one they would have many more choices after that first day - when she went there, they would pull out a pathetic looking Turkey or Tuna sandwich and say “here’s what we have today!” All in all, this made for a very stressful dining experience. We also ate in four specialty venues.
- Our favorite among the specialties was Izumi Hibachi (the one we almost didn’t book). The food was decent (not great, but the best of the specialties we experienced) but the chef was so entertaining we overlooked any food issues. He was a star - and probably the best staff member we experienced on the ship.
- We ate at Sabor one night. The server was pretty good and he seemed to be paying good attention to the gluten situation, even bringing corn tortillas and salsa separately which he said were prepared to be gluten free (chips fried in separate oil). But we can’t blame the gluten that night. I’d say the food was pretty tasty and it was, but both DD17 and I got pretty sick afterward. We had similar meals, but hers was gluten free. We were sick the whole next day.
- Giovanni’s. This was the oddest experience of the week. I thought the food was mediocre at best. There were a couple of good dishes but many of the items we got were Olive-garden quality. Not a top tier Italian restaurant. And the service was horrible. Our waiter was robot like and awkward. We were seated much later than our reservation and the attention paid was also Olive Garden-ish.
- Chops - The food was also mediocre here. Best thing I had was the mushroom soup. My steak was cooked correctly (medium) but was chewy and tasteless as if it had been overcooked and then colored with a marker to look the right temp! Side dishes were just okay and everyone else’s meal was similar.
Bottom line is that Remy and Palo kill RC on these restaurants. Because we really liked our main dining room team, I wished we hadn’t scheduled these specialties (except Izumi) and just struggled through the menus in the MDR.
2. The pool situation overall was a virtual tie with Disney. While there were MORE pools and hot tubs on the Allure, they still were all the equivalent human soup, which I assume is the same on all cruise ships. Where Disney beats the Allure is having the Aquaduck or Aquadunk (dependng on ship) and the water play areas (with fountains, and big buckets and such) that the whole family can use.
3. The bars. With the exception of Vintages, I have never seen a more unfriendly group of bartenders anywhere ever. Went into the champagne bar one night and felt so uncomfortable that i ordered a drink, chugged it and left within 5 minutes. Never went in again. I’ll take Disney’s innovative, interesting venues like Ooo-la-la and Skyline all day long.
4. The amount of drinking. I’m no prude. In fact, I bought a drink package for this trip because it was on sale and thought it’d be fun to try new things and not worry about “wasting.” But most of the people on the ship I encountered were truly trying to get their money’s worth. I have seen some big drunks on Disney ships before, but never so many in one place as I did in the Solarium human soup pool late afternoon nearly every day.
5. Cabins were a bit smaller with much less storage. Thank goodness we got two because we would never have been able to unpack all of our stuff in one cabin. I did, however, like the bathroom set up much better than the split bathrooms on Disney.
What we hated.
1. The disembarkation process. Not knowing exactly how it worked, we “signed up” for 9:30-50 departure because we weren’t in a hurry and thought it would be good to sleep in a bit. What we didn’t know was that they wanted us out of our rooms by 9 (it was not on any of the documents provided). And then we had to go and wait in the theater for our time. Which kept getting pushed back - until 10:15. And then we had to line up in the terminal, where we were stopped so that people who were late for their times could be put ahead of us. What advantage is there in following the rules and going at your time when they are going to allow those who go when they are ready to get ahead of you? Then when we got our luggage and got in line with a porter, he pointed out that there were only four customs agents which is why the line was so crazy long. Told us that Royal could hire additional agents but instead go with the bare minimum-those actually provided by the gov’t. If that is true, shame on them because they left such a bad taste in our mouth in leaving the ship. Ending vacation is hard enough but to make it this painful, terrible.
2. The towel check out. It’s not like they are handing you luxury linens. The amount of manpower spent on this process is, in my opinion, more expensive than the few towels they would “lose” every sailing. It’s just stupid.
3. Adult pool/Solarium. While I am no huge fan of the Cove Pool on the bigger ships at Disney, I hated this Solarium. A couple of hot tubs and a disgusting human soup pool with people spilling drinks into it while they just marinate, ick. And all the glass that keep it hot and block the direct views of the ocean were just a turn off.
4. The lack of sea views. Thank goodness we had an ocean view balcony and we used it more than ever (except for the 3 times that our neighbors started smoking after we went out there). I had to call guest services by the third time because it was ridiculous. But overall not being able to see the ocean from many venues was quite disappointing. The people who sit all day in the promenade baffle me. Why don’t they just stay home and go to the mall?
5. Family activities. I have to say that we did miss the constant stream of family activities on Disney ships. Besides a few trivia contests, there didn’t seem to be much that appealed to all of us. And the Cruise Compass is so much more difficult to read/follow than the
DCL Navigator. And it seemed that everytime I looked for “what can we do now?” it was something related to the casino or a sale on purses. Not our cup of tea. We spent much more time sitting on the pool deck which was nice….but I could do that at a hotel anywhere and we would like to have a better mix of options.
6. Smoking. This is such a hot button for us and it was worse than I imagined and is likely why we will never sail RC again. The smoking section adjacent to and above the Sports Pool is ridiculous. We had to be careful to not walk on the wrong side after coming out of the elevators every time we went up on deck. The first day of the cruise, we wanted to talk to host at Izumi about daughter’s gluten allergy and make sure they could accommodate that the next night. Took the elevator down and when the doors opened we were overcome by the stench from the casino. Over the course of the week, we rarely used the Aft elevators or went to that part of the ship to avoid the smell. But on a few occasions, we jumped on that side and even when the elevators were on 15 or 16, they stunk. And it got worse as the week went on. By Thursday the lingering smell of smoke was pervasive throughout the aft area of the ship from the Promenade on up. Our DD12’s asthma began acting up by week’s end and I am sure it was due to this inescapable smell.
We also missed a last day stop at Castaway (or anywhere really) as we didn't love ending the cruise with two sea days. Overall we had a good time. We roll with the punches pretty well and didn’t discuss what we liked and didn’t like until after we had left the cruise because we wanted to enjoy the moments we had when we were having fun. But I highly doubt we will cruise RC again - unless it is an itinerary that we can’t get on Disney and really want to do. As a family we decided that we’d rather cruise less often and go on a ship we really like (The Fantasy or the Magic).
Thanks so much for taking the time to give us your opinions. It makes me even more excited for our LOTS sailing in a week and a half. I went to "the other site" and found your review there too. We have 14 
It sounds like you had a good vacation but overall 
I didnt really see that end post coming- your early posts seemed like you were having a really good time, but your summary post - sorry to hear the cruise didn't work for you. I was a bit confused, for example in your update you mentioned points like tones of places for sea views but in your review you mention the lack of sea views, things like that. 
