We sailed on Royal Caribbean's Allure of the Seas on December 30th, 2018.
The ship is BEAUTIFUL. Amazing, really. Central Park is mind blowing, and the Solarium is a little paradise. Complete WOW factor from the moment you walk on and it continues as you walk around exploring. But I wouldn't say it was the relaxing vacation I was anticipating, as I feel like the first few days I spent way too much time standing in lines.
Excursions:
First, when we got to the room there were two envelopes with only one of our excursion's tickets separated from the others. The one by itself had a note stating that this excursion was a shopping tour. I had booked a cultural tour, and even printed the online descriptions of my excursions to bring with me. So, I had to go and stand in line at the excursions desk. The wait wasn't too long. The lady who assisted me seemed nice, but we had a very difficult time communicating. She was from China, and really seemed limited to telling me I could be refunded for the trip. I was upset because it felt like bait and switch. She suggested another tour, but was unable to answer my questions about it. Again, language barrier between us. I asked if I would get the new tour for the same price (it was only about $7 more, but there were 8 of us). She basically said no way. Eventually another person came to help us, as they could see we were struggling. I explained it all to him, and he said yes, that they keep asking RC to change the description of the excursion I had booked online, but they still haven't done it. They were very firm in not helping me with the new price. Finally, after pointing out that had I booked that excursion online during a sale I would have gotten a better price so they finally cut me a deal. The whole process took quite a while, and it was my first day on board. It was very strange to feel like I had to fight for them to make it right when I was duped. I thought RC would be much better with customer service based on how everyone talks so highly of the line. As I was leaving, a group came up next to me with the same issue.
Another highly upsetting issue surrounding customer service...
There is an appointed meeting time and place printed on each excursion ticket. I rushed back to the dock to report on time for our afternoon SeaTrek excursion. I met another lovely family and we started talking. We thought it was strange that there was no representative there to meet us, but chatted away while waiting. We did ask someone from another excursion about the SeaTrek rep, and we were told they'd be there soon. 25 minutes AFTER the printed meeting time an RC employee came strolling by asking if we were there for SeaTrek. She then told us it was cancelled. Now we all understood that RC has no control over certain things. Like perhaps it was a weather issue, etc. But to not have someone present there at the printed meeting place on time was mind-blowing. We only had a short day in port and they just left 13 people (my 8 plus they other family of 5) hanging like that wasting our time. The RC rep said they left messages in our rooms 2 hours earlier. What good did that do us? Someone should have been there waiting for us to tell us immediately. Not leave us to waste a half hour for nothing. VERY upsetting. Again, I didn't have that first class vacation feel at all.
Pre-Boarding Issues:
I was put on My Time without knowing it (I didn't even know what it was). I understand I should have been able to choose it on line, but RC has been changing a lot of things around and everything is not always available (see waivers issue). I called and asked for the later seating. I was told our party of 8 would be put on the waiting list. I called about 2 weeks before we set sail to check on the status, and I was told we were not on the waiting list. Apparently they “put me in for it, but the system somehow kicked us out for some unknown reason”. Really? Maybe bigger isn't better? So we were stuck with the earlier seating, which I never wanted. They offered a 9:00 My Time seating appointment that would conflict with our evening activities, so that wasn't going to work for us.
We didn't want that dinner time, but we were determined to make it work. When we showed up for our first dinner we were assigned to two different table nowhere near each other. Ugh! When I talked with the Maitre D he looked up our rooms and agreed that our two reservations were linked and we should have been seated together. I won't go in to specifics here but he asked us to leave and come back a little later to give him a chance to work out getting us all at a table together. And he did. (Finally, someone who understands customer service)
I do want to say that the staff in The Grande Restaurant for dinner was absolutely TOP NOTCH when it came to customer service. The Maitre D, Head Waiter, Main Waitress, and Assistant Waiter could not have been more wonderful. They were certainly all about quality and customer service. But who on Earth behind the scenes messed up our seating to begin with? But at least that all got worked out.
Next, I understand that RC has a HUGE fleet. So, when you call them the person you are speaking with can not know the specifics of every ship in the fleet. But it seems to me they are sacrificing customer service in their quest to keep growing larger. I think it would be a good business move for them to split their customer service reps up by ship class so they can be trained more specifically to better answer questions about YOUR sailing when you call. OR make it available on line. I don't think they give you enough detailed information online or over the phone for my taste. And when I had specific questions they often went unsatisfied. I wasn't expecting to just feel like a number based on RC's reputation.
Also, we put some spending money on each of the teenagers (5 of the them) SeaPasses the week before boarding. I was sent a confirmation showing the amount that was added to each girl's card. I printed that too. When the girls went to use their cards, they were told there was no money on them. Great... back in line again, this time with customer service (this is supposed to be my vacation). I waited a good while in line this time. When I made it to the guest associate and explained the situation he said the credits were all just given to the adult in the room, and gave me a form to fill out. I filled out the ship, sailing date, room number, each person's name and amount, one for each room, even though I told him that I had already done all of that over the phone. He seemed unmoved and continued to enter the info I spelled out for him on the sheet he had provided for me but when I then showed him the printed out receipts I had with all of the breakdowns his eyes got big and he said “yes, it's all here” and he looked as confused as I was frustrated.
Waivers:
The line for the waivers to sign up the kids for the flowrider was minimal. And the first rep we had went ahead and cleared the teens we had with us at the time for the ice skating as well since both the minor and parent must be there to do it. With the next group of teens we had a different rep, and she refused to clear them for ice skating (it was just a check box on the screen). She said we had to do that down at the rink, that she had nothing to do with ice skating. I told her the other rep had done it but she wouldn't have any of that.
On the third day the rink opened for the the first time for a 60-minute skating session. 30 minutes before the session was due to start, there was already a long line going down the hall to get in, and since they only allow so many to use the rink at a time, we figured we had better jump in line. I waited in line for 45 minutes to sign the waiver for the teen without it from the flowrider. When I asked the ice skating rep if I should have been able to do it up at the flowrider, she said yes. I told her I was told no, and she said it depends on who you get. WHY IS EVERYONE NOT TRAINED THE SAME?
Now, on Labadee I had to sign 3 different paper waivers at 3 different stations. You can only put 2 on a waiver so that was 3 pages x 3 stations = 9 forms to fill out! Why can this not be streamlined?
I understand that the ship activity waivers used to be online prior to setting sail, but that wasn't an option for me and apparently that option has been removed. There is so much inconsistency with RC from the experiences people have had on prior sailings (even recent ones) to what's going on now.
Food:
I cannot express how truly amazing the waitstaff in the dining room were. They are the reason I came back to eat in the dining room every night for dinner. But I did find the food itself very lackluster. I was never excited about it. And it's not because of the wait staff. If any of us left the table for a minute they would cover it and offer to bring a fresh, hot one upon our return. They did everything to help us have the best dining experience possible. I did have a couple of nice meals I enjoyed for dinner. The lobster night and the blue cheese tortellini were the ones I remember. I honestly can't tell you what I had the other nights. Overall it wasn't my favorite tasting food. The cheese and fruit plates they brought out for us with our bread baskets was a very nice touch. And certainly we did not go hungry. But the main food was not memorable. The best part of the dinners was our amazing waitress, Haiyan, and her assistant, Michael. They are really what made me not just go up to the buffet. We enjoyed talking to Haiyan each night, and she always had some special surprise puzzle or cute trick for us. And our Head waiter was fabulous, and made sure our vegan daughter had plenty of items each night from the kitchen (thank you to the chef's who prepared this food especially for her – it was much appreciated).
As for breakfast and lunch, it was very repetitive. My mom sailed the Harmony last spring, and she said the variety and taste seemed to be better on the Harmony. At breakfast I had the map of each item of food figured out in my head by the 3rd day. It was the same exact thing always. As I said, we didn't starve, but the food is usually my favorite thing about all-inclusive vacations, and it did not make a huge impression on me, although Haiyan did! I will say they do know how to properly make breakfast bacon.
We have sailed with Disney three times, gone to all inclusive resorts with Club Med twice, Hard Rock once, and I would rank RC at the bottom as far as food excitement goes. Again, it wasn't terrible, just not exciting.
The app:
Several of us had issues getting it to work properly. The help desk is pretty good. You will likely wait in line like we did (again) early in the week because everyone is trying to make it work. It is a beta version.
There is a messaging feature on the app. However, there is no ding, or vibration, so you have to keep checking to see if you anyone has messaged you. I was never able to get my app to work to swipe to add activities to my planner.... others in our party could.
My main issue is that our youngest party member was just shy of 13. And if you are 12 and under you are not allowed to have the messaging feature on your app. This is counter-intuitive on a vacation like this as keeping in contact with the 12 year old seems the most important. That was HIGHLY disappointing. They don't tell you that until you're on the ship. We found out when I took my daughter's phone to the help desk and was told in a matter of fact manner that she couldn't use the message feature. Like it was no big deal and they didn't understand why I would be upset.
Shows:
New Year Eve- Very fun. Like a mini-Times Square but cleaner and more comfortable (and more sanitary, lol). It was nicely done.
Ocean Aria – worth watching. The stage/theatre is amazing. Some of the stunts made me a nervous wreck. The performers put their all in to it.
Fountain show – didn't stay. Too many other more interesting things to check out. Central park is the place to be if you just want to chill.
Let You Entertain Me – Adorable, and only 30 minutes long. Of course we love King Julian, so maybe not everyone will appreciate the creativity of the show and good use of the theatre features like we did.
Mamma Mia – totally fun. The mother and daughter both had amazing voices. Well done!
Headliner Show – the Acapulco group. They were certainly impressive. I made the mistake of sitting upstairs. Maybe it was my location, but it was too loud and I hated the lights hitting me in the eyes. I think I would have enjoyed it more from the bottom floor where I saw Mamma Mia.
Comedic acts – saw both acts. The comedians were funny. They kind of overused certain fowl language in my opinion, but didn't take it too far over the top. I was laughing a lot.
Ice Games – in my opinion this is THE BEST SHOW on the ship. I loved what they did with the concept, very clever. The skating was wonderful, and the costumes were great. The performer on the hanging ring took my breath away – several times. She's amazing. I wish I would have made it to How to Train Your Dragon too, but I couldn't make it work. I wish we could have done online reservations for that too as I would have made sure to find a space in the schedule if I could have done it beforehand.
Other Entertainment:
Bingo – not really enjoyable. Games went quickly, and there were only 3 of them. Too expensive. And the announcement in the beginning of the last one that if there are multiple bingos only one gets the cruise …. very creepy feeling. At least offer the others some kind of cash consolation as they did win a valid bingo. They're pulling in a fortune with those high priced packages. And having the balls come up electronically feels uncomfortable, especially when every winner I saw was on a tablet. Just feels a bit icky. And the encouraged boo'ing, yuck. I'm there to have fun. I don't like the vibe of that.
Parades – cute! Get there early and get in the center. Even if you don't have very little ones as long as you've seen the movies these are fun.
Trivia games – okay. They are just for fun and should be lighthearted, but I think the hosts need a bit more preparation to run the games smoothly in a positive manner.
Zipline – probably thrilling for someone young or new to zip-lining. The length is less that alluring to someone who has ziplined before, or from pre-teen and up.
Rockwall – cool location. It's not always open though.
Ice Skating – I waited in line longer to sign them in than they skated. The rink is very small (understandably) and it's very tight. Again, a great idea for little ones just getting started but maybe not for preteen and above.
Towel folding demo – Was very fun. It would be great though if everyone could have towels to do it along with the demonstrators though. The demonstrators were so nice and answered questions after they were done. We enjoyed it.
Royal Mystery – My kids who went really enjoyed this “escape room style” activity.
Photo Package:
We booked two rooms and our minors in the other room were able to be part of our photo package. There are many opportunities to have your pictures taken so if you like to have group photos it's definitely worth it. We only bought the digital package as they wanted another $100 for the printed ones. It doesn't really make sense to me that they wouldn't bring it down to $50 or so, since they only throw them away anyway. Huge waste.
All in all...
Our party of 8 had a nice time on the ship, but there were some things I wished could have been different. Previous cruises (on a different cruise line) I found more relaxing, as with the amount of standing in line I did the first few days I felt a bit like I was at a theme park. Not that theme parks aren't fun, but it's a different style of vacation.
I would also like to see RC fill first timers in a bit more. I did not realize there would be workers from another company on RC's “private beach” and would have liked to know to bring extra cash.
The thing that really puts a dark cloud over an otherwise pretty nice week is the horrific way it ended.
NO Follow up?
We had a traumatic experience exiting the port. After you clear customs and come outside, to the right and left are two walls of people holding signs hoping you'll let them take you to the airport. I tried looking around to see where we needed to go while signs were thrusted in my face as I was asked “how many people, I take you to airport”. As this is happening, there is someone down the center yelling at you “keep moving, keep moving, don't block the entrance”. It was surreal. I responded to him with “I'm trying to figure out which way I need to go”. His response was “then ask questions.” He wanted us to MOVE out of the way. I told him we had prearranged a ride so he said “go this way” and gestured for me to go to my left. In the meantime, my husband was on the phone with our driver, who told us to go in the opposite direction. So now after getting through the wall of people on the left, we now all had to get back through that same wall, then back through the middle, and then get through on the right, only to find a sidewalk you could barely walk through because it was so congested. The 8 of us were rolling our suitcases trying to walking single file behind each other to make our way through.
A lady, who was no doubt also feeling harassed trying to get her way through this insane scene, smacked her suitcase into my mother's taking it out from under her and my 68 year old mother went crashing to the ground. When I turned around she was lying on her arm on the concrete, bloodied face, hands full of blood, and blood splatter all over the ground in front of her face. It was horrifying. It took a long time for the EMTs to get there because of the congestion. Fortunately, her nose was smashed in and her face was busted up but she did not break her jaw or lose any teeth, although the side of her chin is now black and purple and her mouth is all cut up. Her nose and face have abrasions. Her arm and neck hurt. The lens of her prescription glasses was deeply scrapped and she'll have to replace it. The bone under her glasses is swollen and the bridge of her nose is still so sore she can still barely touch it.
She was only offered a dry rag of sort to clean up her face (she had to do the best she could to take the blood off of her face and hands as carefully as she could in the airport bathroom once we finally arrived there). Because of her medications and the fear that she hit her head it seemed like she was going to need to be transported to the ER. A few medical professionals stopped to help assess her which was very kind. The lady working outside who came over stood between my mom and the crowd to make sure no one stepped on her, and the rest of us were able to finish a circle around her as she lay unable to move on the ground. We are all still traumatized.
I had to give contact information to at least two different people and an account of what happened to even more. I was told by one of the workers that RC would receive my feedback about the dangerous atmosphere being created with all the hassle. We have a police report number. By some miracle the EMTs decided they could clear her for us to get her on the shuttle to take her to the airport to get home. That was a relief on many levels.
Not one person has called to see how she is doing, and I was even asked for her stateroom number for one of the reports so RC definitely knows how to reach us. I would have thought RC would have called to ask how my poor mother is doing. But nothing. It's heart breaking. This could have been avoided. I feel the walls and yelling created this frenzied atmosphere and put people at risk. I was told it is RC's call about how far back the wall of solicitors must be. I don't know if it was by the security, or police who said that. I had to tell the story to many people coming on the scene and asking questions, and I just wanted to be with my mom.
My mother had previously sailed on the Harmony with my brother's family and had a wonderful time . That trip was prior to her learning she had cancer. She was not certain she would live to see another vacation. This trip was to celebrate the completion of her months of chemotherapy and a extensive surgery. This was a truly terrible way to end her “celebration” cruise. Now not only is she upset about being bald, but also now her face has been bashed, busted, and bruised. The whole event was traumatizing. We go on yearly vacations with my mother, but right now she feels like she never wants to travel again. This is the saddest part of it all for me.
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