A little late but....Royal Caribbean Launches Newest ship….Allure of the Seas!!

Earlier this month RCI (Royal Caribbean International) launched Allure of the Seas on her maiden voyage to the Caribbean. While I will try not to make this to long today, I will try and give some small tidbits of information and some commentary here. Allure is the largest passenger ship in history, even larger then her identical sister ship the Oasis of the Seas (but only by 50 millimeters I think it was LOL!) and 5 times the size of Titanic. She can carry over 6,000 passengers and over 2000 crew members on each cruise.

Above photo "Pictures of the Allure of the seas boat as she docked in Labadee, Haiti" by flickr member "Nathan & Raquel"

She has 7 “neighborhoods”, like her sister, Oasis.
They are…
---Central Park, with real plants and trees running down the center line of the ship, sporting shops and restaurants. Photo at left "Launch of Royal Caribbean International's newest ship Allure of the Seas. Central Park." by flickr member "new cruise ships"
---The Boardwalk, a large open outdoor space at the aft end of the ship, modeled after different ocean side boardwalks around the world like the famous Santa Monica pier here in California. It has several restaurants, stores, bars, and handmade wooden carousel, rock climbing walls and at the stern of the ship; an Aqua Theater with original diving and acrobat shows.
---The Royal Promenade, a large shopping and entertainment arcade that has become something of a staple on newer RCI ships, runs down the center of the ship below central park. It has restaurants, shops, bars (including one that acts as an elevator between The Royal Promenade and Central Park) and even a couple of parades that happen several times during the cruise.
---Entertainment Place, an area that includes Studio B, Allure’s ice rink which features ice shows, Comedy Club, Jazz lounge, The Casino and the Amber theater, Allures main theater with shows like Chicago and a RCI original “Blue Planet”.
--- The Pool and Sports Zone, with several different pools, including a beach like pool that gets gradually deeper as you walk, a zip line that zips you 9 stories high above the Boardwalk area and 2 Flowriders: Serf simulators. It also features an large adult only space at the front of the ship over the bridge which has a light buffet by day and a Brazilian Churrascaria restaurant by night, 2 levels of out door lounge space and 2 whirlpools that hang over the side of the ship.
---The Youth Zone featuring several different areas for different age groups including a nursery for babies, the theater and a science lad.
---The Vitality at Sea Spa and Fitness Center, which features a large fully equipped gym and a large luxurious spa.

Photo at right "Boardwalk 3" by flickr member "Gelinda"

The ship is beautiful and seems to be doing very well already. She’s identical in almost every way to her sister Oasis but does have some key difference, for example the Boardwalk on Oasis features a seafood restaurant, The Seafood Shack, where as on Allure there is a Mexican Restaurant, Rita’s Cantina, in its place. This was done to attract more people to the Boardwalk area which apparently was under-performing on Oasis. There are also some other small differences such as Oasis does not have the Brazilian restaurant mentioned above, Oasis features “Hairspray” as its headlining show where as Allure has “Chicago”, Allure has the first Starbucks at sea (STARBUCKS IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD I TELL YOU!), Allure has a hot dog eatery absent on Oasis, the look of the Boardwalk has been changed and there is one other difference on Allure that I am not so keen on.

A few months back, RCI teamed up with DreamWorks Animation Studios. Doesn’t sound too bad at first…you can have Shrek, Puss In Boots and Po play with the kids in the kid areas which they (the kids) will love. But it’s not like that here… and this is RCI’s one and only big fail with Allure so far, in my opinion. DreamWorks characters are everywhere. The Ice show is “How to Train Your Dragon on Ice” (Great movie BTW), the parade that goes down the Royal Promenade is DreamWorks filled (from what I have heard), DreamWorks movies are shown, the characters are walking around and the thing that bothered me the most was Princess Fiona as the Allures Godmother. Don’t get me wrong, The DreamWorks movies are good, I am just not crazy about them being all over this ship.

Disney Cruise Lines does the same thing on their ship but I don’t know…Shrek doesn’t seem quite as loved or as endearing as Mickey Mouse does he?

But besides that I have no major gripe with Allure of the Seas. She’s beautiful, great and I desperately want to sail on her!!! She and Oasis really are great ships and both together, in my opinion, offer a unique and great cruise experience.

I am hoping to write another article on the Oasis class ships, in which I will go into more detail about the ship, soon so keep reading!

Above photo "Sunrise at 6:45 am off the coast of Ft Lauderdale, Florida aboard Allure of the Seas." by flickr member "jazzybeatles- Joe DeRenzo "