{"id":2814,"date":"2013-01-07T13:52:34","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T13:52:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=2814"},"modified":"2013-01-07T13:52:35","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T13:52:35","slug":"royal-caribbean-cruise-line-allure-of-the-seas-extra-cost-eats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/?p=2814","title":{"rendered":"Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Allure of the Seas – Extra Cost Eats!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

In addition to the tremendous amount of complimentary food and places to eat on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) ship the Allure of the Seas (and Oasis of the Seas) there are also several places that have an additional charge for food.\u00a0 Pricing options\u00a0range from a single coverage charge for all-you-care-to-eat, to a la carte pricing; some have a combination of both.<\/p>\n

While some people feel that RCCL is ‘nickel and diming’ their passengers with these choices that are not included in the cost of the cruise, I actually think they not only make sense but offer a nice alternative for many passengers.\u00a0The coverage charge on these restaurants range from only $5 – $20 per person, but the quality and quantity you receive will rival any meal you can purchase anywhere for much, much more.\u00a0 In addition, the extra charge allows these places to offer smaller, more intimate venues with superior service.<\/p>\n

I will be writing about the so-called specialty restaurants individually as I feel those meals deserve to be expounded upon in detail.\u00a0 For now I want to tell you about the other ‘extra cost’ options available on the ship.<\/p>\n

In the Royal Promenade on Deck 5 you will find Starbucks and The Cupcake Cupboard.<\/p>\n

Starbucks is pretty much just like any other Starbucks you will find anywhere, except a little smaller and it’s located on a cruise ship.\u00a0 All the usual coffee options are available as well as the usual Starbucks snacks.\u00a0 Prices are pretty much the same as you’ll find ‘on land’.\u00a0 Something I was very impressed with is they will use\/take your rewards card.\u00a0If you have your rewards card on your phone, as I do, they don’t have a way to scan your card from the app but they can manually enter your\u00a0rewards number.\u00a0 It\u00a0was nice to be able to pay for my morning coffee and still earn my rewards from my phone (of course I had to sign up for the ships wifi to see the updates).<\/p>\n

One thing I do want to point out is the free coffee on the ship is Seattle’s Best and it’s good coffee so it’s not like you have to purchase Starbucks; but it’s a nice option.<\/p>\n

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The Cupcake Cupboard is something that is truly unique to RCCL.\u00a0 They make fresh specialty cupcakes every day.\u00a0 These cupcakes are huge and delicious and only cost $2.75 each!!\u00a0 There is a small discount\u00a0if you buy them by the half or full dozen.\u00a0 They also offer cupcake classes which look like a lot of fun.\u00a0 TIP:\u00a0 Don’t forget to get and use your frequent cupcake buyer card.\u00a0 It’s free and for every 6 cupcakes you buy you get one free!!!<\/p>\n

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All of the other extra cost food options on the Allure of the Seas (that are not specialty restaurants) are located on the Boardwalk on deck six.\u00a0 This kind of makes sense as many of these have a ‘Boarwalky’ vibe and feel at home in this open and lively space.<\/p>\n

Candy Beach Sweets\u00a0is a small candy store with a\u00a0fun and vibrant decor.\u00a0 The candy is priced by weight and features some classic candies from the 50s, 60s and 70s.\u00a0 It’s great fun to browse and reminisce and grab a handful of your favorite sweets as you head to a show.<\/p>\n

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Just opposite Candy Beach is The Ice Cream Parlor.\u00a0 Decorated in the style of an old fashioned ice cream shop you might find in a shore town somewhere, it offers a build-your-own ice cream experience.\u00a0 Several flavors of Ice Cream are offered along with a multitude of toppings.\u00a0 Prices range from $2 for a kids cup to up to $4.50 for a shake and even up to $8.25 for the Royal Sundae for two.\u00a0 They also offer frozen yogurt and sorbet.\u00a0 This is a fun addition to the ship but keep in mind free ice cream is offered up by the pool via a soft serve machine.<\/p>\n

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Also located on the Boardwalk are two sit-down restaurants, Johnny Rockets and Rita’s Cantina.\u00a0 I am including these in this section rather than giving them each their own, separate review for many reasons.\u00a0 One of which is that these are a bit ‘easier’ to get into (you can walk up and get a table at both, especially at lunch, as opposed to having to have a reservation).\u00a0 Rita’s Cantina charges a cover charge plus the food is a la carte.\u00a0 Don’t let this scare you – the cover charges are low and the food is extremely cheap.<\/p>\n

Johnny Rockets offers the same food as you can find at any of their locations; burgers, hot dogs, fries, onion rings, shakes, etc.\u00a0 The $5 per person cover charge includes everything and anything you care to order except milkshakes, which were around $5 each.\u00a0 We had a coupon for buy one milkshake at Johnny Rockets and get one free (for being a crown and anchor club repeat cruiser) otherwise I doubt we would have ordered them.\u00a0 The food is good and when you’re craving just a good old fashioned burger it can’t be beat.<\/p>\n

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Rita’s Cantina is their Mexican restaurant.\u00a0 A $3 cover charge gets you unlimited chips and salsa, everything else is pay as you order.\u00a0 Prices are very cheap ($2 – $3 per appetizer and $4 – $8 per entree).\u00a0 The food was actually surprisingly good.\u00a0 We had avoided Rita’s on a\u00a0previous cruise as we thought it might be ‘one step above Taco Bell’ – boy where we wrong.\u00a0 Everything was fresh and hot and good.\u00a0 The biggest surprise was the Chile Rellenos, at under $5 it was a huge delicious portion that rivaled anything we could get at our local Mexican place.<\/p>\n

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We did hear that the Rita’s Cantina’s on all of the RCCL ships will be changing over to Margaretville\u2019s in the future.\u00a0 I will be sorry to see Rita’s go as it was a pleasant surprise on our last cruise.<\/p>\n

Even with the extra cost I feel these options are a nice addition to a cruise.\u00a0 You don\u2019t have to eat at these places, and you could easily have more than enough to eat with all of the complimentary food opions.\u00a0 For me they are part of make a Royal Caribbean Cruise special.<\/p>\n

Now, the food options don’t stop here.\u00a0 I will be blogging about the remaining specialty restaurants within the next week or so.<\/p>\n

If you’re interested in joining us on our Royal Caribbean Group sailing on The Oasis of the Seas you can see pricing information HERE<\/a>.\u00a0 For pricing and information on a different Royal Caribbean sailing please check out this page at Dreams Unlimited Travel<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In addition to the tremendous amount of complimentary food and places to eat on the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line (RCCL) ship the Allure of the Seas (and Oasis of the Seas) there are also several places that have an additional Continue reading Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Allure of the Seas – Extra Cost Eats!!<\/span>→<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2836,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,206,891],"tags":[893,919,929,935,934,927,923,922,430,937,936,928,926,921,143,925,924,1702,920,933,930,931,932],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2814"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2814\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/foodietales.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}