Allure of the Seas Review
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My family of 3 (myself, my husband and our 5 year old daughter) had a great 7 nights on the Allure of the Seas. As with any cruise, there were things that were amazing and things that could be improved, Here is breakdown of each experience:
Embarkation: We arrived at the pier by our own car around 11am. We were surprised to see people still trying to leave the port after their cruise. We got our luggage dropped off, then proceeded to park. We navigated through all the people waiting to leave and entered the terminal. Security was a breeze, only took a minute to get through. Then we went right to get checked in. They have it set up very well and marked based on stateroom as to where to check in. There was no one else in line so we walked right up and checked in quickly. While checking in, we were given a paper about how people on the previous cruise had contacted the Norovirus (not a fun thing to get right away, but glad that are upfront about it!) We stopped for a quick picture and went up to the waiting area. This again was well marked with sections for people based on their Crown and Anchor status. We were directed to the Platinum area and sat. it was about 11:15 be this point. After reading other reviews about embarkation, I thought it would start soon, but it did not. They did not start embarkation until about 12:45. It was very orderly with them going section by section. Our only complaint was when it was our turn to get on, they let a very large group in front of us who had stickers on them that said DAY PASS. We found this strange. They let people on for just a day? And you let them get on before people who were going on the cruise? We finally got let on and step aboard onto Deck 5 about 1pm. Since we were told our rooms would not be ready until 1:30, we started exploring. We stayed on Deck 5 and got some pizza for lunch (our first of many) from Sorrentos. Then headed to the Cupcake Cupboard for dessert (cupcakes are about 2.95 each there).
Room: I will go into more about the room later, but will say it was ready a little before 1:30 and right after we got to it, all our luggage was delivered, so that was great. We were able to unpack and be done with it!
Cabin Review
It was a nice room for 3. There was enough storage space for us to unpack all of our belongings and all the suitcases fit under the bed so they were out of the way. We were glad we got a room with a bigger balcony. It gave more space for 3 of us to be out there at the same time. It was a little tight at night when the sofa was turned into a bed for our daughter to walk between the bed and desk area to get to the balcony though! We did have a persistent rattle in our ceiling that did not allow for the more restful sleep. We called and maintenance came and put shims between the wall and ceiling but they did not help. I understand ships rattle some, but this was constant! The bathroom was fine, the shower was a little bigger than others. The sink was extremely low, great for my daughter, but tough on my husband and I who are 6 feet tall! The only toiletry provided was shampoo in the shower and a bar of soap for washing hands, so make sure you come prepared! The location of the room was great! We were mid ship and in the middle of all the decks, which made it easy to get where you needed to be!The worst part of our room was our stateroom attendant. He was very unfriendly, he barely spoke to us as we were coming and going and he never spoke to our daughter! We also only got a towel animal 3 nights out of 7! For my daughter this was a BIG disappointment, as every other cruise we got them nightly.