The Ship

The Allure of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean ship that is 7 years old. The ship is 1,188 feet long, that is 100,000 tons, 236 feet tall, and can hold the maximum of 6,296 people. This large ship broke the bank, with it costing 1.2 billion dollars. It sails at the speed of 22 knots, or around 26 mph. It is perfect for family fun, and for the romantics. The ship is broken up into 7 neighborhoods. There is the Central Park, Boardwalk, the Royal Promenade, Pool and Sports Zone, Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness, Entertainment Place, and Youth Zone.

In Central Park, they bring the outdoors on the seas with the help of 12,000 plants and even have cricket noises that will play at night. The Boardwalk will bring out the child in you with a large carousel, candy shop, and two rock walls. This deck also holds the Aqua Theater, which I will talk more about later. The Royal Promenade is the place where you have shops, restaurants, entertainment, and the famous Rising Tide Bar. They have many purse makeup, and jewelry stores that have a large variety of bags, wallets, makeups, perfumes, and any kind of jewelry you could need. The Rising Tide Bar is a great place to hang out and get a drink while getting a view of the Royal Promenade. The Pool and Sports Zone is an area on the 15th deck that holds a sports pool, the main pool, a kids pool, and a mini water park. There are also two surfing areas where you can either surf or body board. Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness consists of a salon, spa, and fitness center, that includes a running track outside. Entertainment Place has many things to do, mainly at night. They have the ice rink, a comedy club, a nightclub, a jazz bar, and a theater. The Youth Zone includes a kid club where adults can drop off their kids and be able to trust the team to take care of their child. There is also a teen club where teenagers 15-17 years old can hang out with people their own age.

I remember the rush of getting on the ship was like no other. I knew what to expect, since I have already been on two other cruises, and it is just breathtaking. This boat wasn’t like anything I have ever seen. The lights were so bright and just pleasant. It was jaw-dropping, just to think that all of this stuff, can float on a huge boat in the middle of the ocean. We were told that we would get our luggage at 4, so we wore our bathing suits so we would swim while waited. The sports pool was the best spot to be. They had volleyball games, flip-flop throwing, and just a lot of activities that are family friendly with cheap little prizes after. I got a highlighter and a ballpoint pen, which can be so exciting for adults, I just can’t see it with little children. We went with some of our neighbors, so there were kids for me to hang out with.

Daily Activities

We had an early dinner, that I wasn’t used to. We would always get out of the pool around 4 pm and go shower to get ready for dinner. The food was very good. I wouldn’t call it impressive at all, but it was good. After dinner, we would go to the shows.

I went with the other kids while our parents stayed and watched. I would definitely recommend that children not go because a lot of the shows were put there for an older age group. They had ‘Mamma Mia!’ and a Beatles concert, which I wasn’t very interested in.

Our room was one of the smaller ones, since we didn’t need that much space, and had one of the most uncomfortable fold out couches I think I have ever slept on. It folded out so you were laying on the cushions and the back of the couch. It had a crack where they came together and I would fall in the crack, making it hard to sleep. It had a nice bathroom, but we had an issue with the shower. The shower wouldn’t drain, so the whole bathroom floor would flood. There were about 2 inches of water on the floor after an 8-minute shower.  We called guest services to get someone to fix it while we were at dinner. We came back and they claimed that it was fixed. We showered again, the next day, and it flooded so bad, it went out onto the carpet in the room, soaking the whole carpet. When you would walk on it, you could see the water, as you squished through the room.

In the mornings, I would go run on the track on the outside of the ship, then go get a tea from Starbucks, then go back to the room and go get ready. We would always go to the Windjammer cafe for breakfast, that has one of the biggest buffets I have ever seen, with about anything you could want. We would always go to the pool if it was a sea day, but if it was a port day, we would wake up earlier.

Off the Boat

You can book excursions for the islands, so we booked a snorkeling trip, but that day in the Bahamas, the weather was horrible from a tropical depression. Ours got canceled because of rough seas, so we walked around and shopped, while our friends were at a water park that we could see in the distance. We saw that it was getting chilly, so we looked at the sky by the water park, and we couldn’t see the hotel that was with the water park because of the heavy rain. We grabbed everything and ran, trying to avoid the rain. We ended up getting so wet, we were dripping water. I never realized how much the Bahamas is run down, with people begging tourist for money. It is just sad that it’s part of the US, but they almost get forgotten.

Our next stop was Cozumel, and I have never been there, so I was really excited. We went on a twister boat, like a speedboat where it whips you around so fast, you have heavy duty restraints holding you in. We went to a private island that looked like a movie. It had palm trees everywhere and the whitest, most beautiful sand. There was kayaking, snorkeling, boogie boarding, paddleboards, hammocks in the water, and hanging beds. It was like paradise. It definitely made up for the cancellation in the Bahamas.

Overall Rating

If I had to rate this whole trip, I would give it a 7. The weather was a huge issue, as so was overall service. We had great waiters, but our room serviceman, if I had to be picky, was a little creepy. He had a monotone, deep voice, and was really quiet. He would continue saying “Have a good day,” as you walked away, down the hall. It wasn’t very personalized, unlike the Disney cruises. Dinner was also very early, and after you got out of dinner and went to shows, you would get hungry but nothing was open other than pizza. It was also very adult based, not very family friendly. It was mainly a struggle for teens. We couldn’t go to the adult areas and activities, and we couldn’t go to the kids’ areas. My favorite thing was that you could order room service whenever. You could get anything, and it would only cost 7 dollars for them delivering it. We got about eight things every time. Overall, I still had fun, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting.