Allure of the Seas Review
Great ship, but if you don't use all amenities take smaller ship for 1/2 the $$.
Rating by category
Additional details
This was my first time on Royal Caribbean. I will say the ship and service were outstanding. However for price (almost double of other smaller cruise ships) I don’t know if I will go back on one of their mega ships only because if you are not going to take advantage of all the amenities then its not worth the extra cost. You can take a smaller ship for half the price.
I tried to be as detailed as I can sorry it got lengthy! There were 3 couples in our group (ranging in age from mid 40’s to mid 70’s in age) No kids with us but were a lot of all ages on the ship. Only once at a restaurant I felt the kids were being a bit loud but I blame the parents, who sat the kids at one table and them (2 couples) at another, for not being considerate of the other passengers and keeping the noise level down. I have two kids that were not with us on the trip so its not because I'm not used to noisy children! They were just excessively loud for the small restaurant, the Park Cafe, which is in a more tranquil area of the ship.
The ship itself is huge! lots to do - rock climbing wall, zip line, flo rider(boogie board/surfing), mini golf, arcade($$), basketball courts, ping pong tables, carousal - that was all "free". We did the zip line a couple times and the rock climbing wall (which I think I got all of 3 feet off the ground!) So other stuff nice but if you aren't going to do it why pay for it?
Cabin Review
Large Interior Stateroom
We had interior - not sure on the lettering for the category - but We had an interior room. It had a king size bed and a couch. The closet was pretty standard and there was a vanity area so that was nice I could get ready there when my husband was in the shower. Bathroom wasn't as bad as I thought it would be - shower on the small side but good enough - one person could be in the shower and the other at the sink and not be on top of each other at least. Flat screen TV with good enough selection of channels – not like we watched a lot of TV but was nice to have on when getting ready or winding down at night. I wish now we had gone with the balcony.
One of the couples I was traveling with had an inside balcony overlooking "Central Park" and that was very nice and was not noisy. Pretty much same set up for the room but with the balcony. They also offer inside balconies overlooking the Boardwalk area which would be fun for people watching but louder due to all the activities on the Boardwalk.
The other couple we were with had the traditional sea side balcony - I didn't see their room but heard it was again pretty much the same.
Port Reviews
St. Thomas
*St. Thomas we just did shopping and then took an island tour from the pier (not through the ship) – It was $25/per person. It was OK nothing great – probably could have done just as well taking a taxi around. But much cheaper than the tours offered by the ship. Others in my party did the beach on their own and enjoyed that.
Shopping was good - I wasn't buying jewelry so I hadn't compared prices to know how good the deals really are there.