My wife and I have been cruising for over 20 years, mostly with Royal Carribean (Diamond plus member), but also have cruised with Norwegian, Disney and Carnival. We've been on the Allure of the Seas twice now and can say without any doubt we will not book another cruise on this ship. I will say before I get into the reason for our dissatisfaction with the ship that like with any place there were some excellent staff experiences, but unfortunately there were many negative experiences as well. Service at Royal Carribean has steadily declined the past few years and it's my personnel opinion that's due to the fact crew members get their tip regardless of their job performance. I do understand the need to mandate tips, but i'll never understand why as the customer you can't give the tips to those that earn it (Royal justifies their practice by telling you you can give extra to those you'd like to) to me that's not the point. Below is a list of complaints:

Getting on the ship was a total cluster. We arrived at the port at 10:20 and didn't get on board until 11:35. We were supposed to get priority boarding, but were told that that group was already on board and could't stop the lines.

There's a "sun" deck on floor 14, but there are no chairs? Weather was great all week for the most part. Read more