Allure of the Seas Review
Disappointing experience for family with a young toddler
Rating by category
Additional details
We just returned from a 7-day Western Caribbean Cruise on the Allure of the Seas. My wife and I traveled with our 18 month old toddler and 12 year old son. I have some good and bad to report - especially for families traveling with young toddlers. Royal Caribbean requires families to pay full-fare for all children regardless of age, including infants. This pricing structure is unfair IMO and a very bad value for families. The full fare is supposed to cover all the entertainment and dining options that an infant cannot participate in... Even the pools and water park were off limits to young toddlers, which caused tears of frustration for my daughter (and her mother). Regardless of her wearing special swim diapers under her suit, which is sufficient to gain access to public pools and parks everywhere, our little girl was restricted to one tiny 8 foot by 4 foot baby pool with about 3 inches of water. It was rediculous. How do you entertain a young toddler on a ship in the tropics without being able to visit the pools? Mini golf? Nope - too young. Ice skating? Nope - too young. Zip line? Nope - too young. Rock climbing? Nope - too young. There is a nice playroom inside the ship, but we can do that at home. Otherwise, there is nothing to do. It's unfair to charge full fare for a child who can't do anything that you are paying for IMO. And since she requires hands-on supervision, at least one parent was out of action most of the day as well, so we paid for things that we could not enjoy either (I was able to watch about a total of two shows all week). We could have taken her to the nursery... but even though she was a full fare ticket, there was an up charge for nursery services. This is why we have decided that we can't afford another RCCL vacation while we have young children. It's a waste of time and money based on our experience. If they offered a child rate, then they might have a chance at getting 3 full fare passengers as well. I suspect many other families feel the same way and RCCL is missing an opportunity for creating good will and countless loyal cruisers...
Here are some other observations...
Embarkation/Debarkation: we flew in the night before and arrived at the ship before noon... so check-in was fast and we were on board in no time. This gave us plenty of time to get a bite to eat and check out the ship before it got too crowded. On the backside, debarkation seemed like a breeze at first, but there was a problem at customs that caused a huge jam of people waiting to get through. When they opened it up it was like a stampede. A total mess. In one 90 second period, 4 different RCCL staffers shouted 4 different instructions as far as where to go... and each conflicted with the other. This may have been a unique instance due to the customs snafu, but it was the worst debarkation experience I have encountered.
Cabin Review
Large Interior Stateroom
We booked a "Large" interior stateroom... but the term "large" was misleading to say the least. When we opened the couch for my son to sleep... and wedged the RCCL provided "pack & play" crib next to the queen bed in the back of the room, there was no useful floor space... just a 10 or 12 inch wide path from the foot of the bed that went down between the desk and the sofa bed to the bathroom and door. We had to walk sideways to get through this path. And since there was no path to the crib, we had to crawl across our bed to tend to the baby (or to use the phone which was stranded on a night stand bed-locked in the back corner. One of our Carnival ships and nifty bunk beds that lowered down from the ceiling above the master bed which kept the floor space open. Then they stowed back up in the day time. This was a brilliant way to maximize space. Our stateroom on the Allure with 4 people (including a baby) was just unlivable. We found ourselves taking turns standing in the hallway while others got dressed... it would have been fine for two people... may be three... but the rooms were not designed to accommodate a crib. RCCL should have known this and flagged it when we made reservations. And speaking of the pack & play - every parent knows that there is a pad that goes in the bottom that covers the metal "X" frame of the unit, creating a firm sleeping platform. Ours was delivered sans pad! And we were told that none existed... that we should just fold enough comforters to soften the frame in the bottom. What???? We argued and complained, but our baby was forced to sleep on it, so we had to keep her in our bed since she just sank into the comforter like quick sand. So the first night was sleepless for all. Finally the head of house keeping came the next day and provided the missing pads that our room attendant told us did not exist. Also, the much ballyhooed ipad dock was useless for the majority of passengers since most people don't have ipods. Plus the clock on the dock ran 20 minutes fast and was unable to be set properly. It was broken rendering it even more useless. The bathroom and shower were fine... no problems there.