We are Diamond members and have taken many RC cruises in the past. We loved the Oasis of the Seas last year so we wanted to try the sister ship, Allure of the Seas. We flew in the day before the cruise and stayed at the Embassy Suites in Ft Lauderdale which was excellent. Next morning we used Embassy's van service to get us to the port around 11:30AM. Check-in was the fastest we have ever had on any previous cruises. Done within 5 minutes. We were taken upstairs to sit along with other Diamond members as the ship was not ready for passengers. Fun to talk with other passengers during this time. We were probably there around a half hour before we were allowed on the ship. Went very smoothly. We went right up to the Windjammer for lunch which was OK. After we finished eating, the place had gotten very crowded and cramped. Hard to even get out. I will say, this Windjammer as on the Oasis, is just OK at best. Windjammer is much better on smaller ships. Probably just too many passengers. We did eat breakfast up there the following morning, but decided that we could find better food elsewhere on the ship. This was the end of the Windjammer for us and glad of it. Our room was on the 8th floor listed as "Superior Oceanview Stateroom W/Balcony. When our room was ready, we were rather surprised by the layout of the room. It was not the room seen on their internet nor their books. They had the bed right after the door and bathroom and right up against the closet. It was nearly impossible to get into the closet due to the bed being right next to it. All other ships we have been on were way better organized than this one. Not sure why our room was different but not a good organization of space. Our room attendant was OK. He greeted us each morning when he saw us and carried a smile but always seemed to leave something out of our room. Most of the things were OK, not that big of deal though the last night when you get your luggage tags to put your luggage out for pickup, we didn't have our tags. My DH had to find him and ask him for tags which his answer was "I thought you were not using them"? Not sure where that had come from. Also he was the first attendant that did not come in to introduce himself to both of us. Just talked with my DH outside the door. Humm...I didn't know who our attendant was until my DH pointed him out to me. The food choices are many on this ship and we used them. We especially loved the Park Cafe on deck 8. Love, love, the roast beef sandwiches! Breakfast was good here too and very peaceful if you can get a place outside. RC is normally so into making sure everything is clean and picked up but we both found that plates/dishes just were not picked up quickly in this location. It is not the worker bees that is the problem, it is not having enough staff! The last morning, they had run out of fruit and coffee cups. People were getting rather upset. Just didn't have enough people to get things stocked quickly enough. The pool area though and bars seemed picked up and very clean. First let me start with the really good things on this ship. The Entertainment was the very best we have ever seen on any ship, hands down. The ice show, Chicago, Blue Planet, Headline show, all excellent. The ice show and Blue Planet were so good, we wanted to go again, though didn't. Make sure you get reservations for the shows, especially Blue Planet, which was sold out on the night we went and people kept looking for seats. The music on the ship, again excellent rating. Many choices of music for everyone. We loved especially Boleros and Jazz on 4. Jazz group were so good and people were really into it. Standing up and cheering. Sax player the best we have seen. We love salsa music, so Boleros had a great group and people loved to get out there and just dance the night away. We had so much fun with either the music or shows and that made the cruise!

Another good thing, the port stops. Everyday it was sunny and warm. We are beach/pool people so for Jamaica, we chose "Resort for a Day" that picked us up at the pier and drove us to Jewel Runaway Beach. We had an awesome day there with all drinks, food, beach and pool included for the day as well as transportation. People were very friendly and food/drinks excellent. We would go there again in a heart beat. Our other stop in Cozumel, we took a taxi to Nachi Cocom for the day. Again, excellent day with great food and great drinks. Beach is nice as well as a pool. Very peaceful here and would go again. Labadee, Haiti is always a fun day if you have good weather, which we had. Soaked up the sun and ate a great BBQ lunch provided by RC.

Now the things, not so good. We are simply done with MTD! We like to chose our eating times due to our port stops and shows but we normally had reservations for either 6:15 or 6:30PM. These reservations were made prior before our cruise. The first couple of nights, went fine. No problems, got a nice table and excellent waitstaff. They got to know us and knew our names, and what we liked to drink at the table. They took time to talk with us and made us laugh and felt comfortable. However, after the two nights, when we went on the third day, we were told that we had to wait for a table. With reservations? With a table we had been sitting at for the past two nights? After waiting about 10 minutes, we were directed to a completely different table not even close to our previous table. What RC did was give our table to someone w/o reservations! We were really upset. I mean, why do you want the staff and us to have a relationship and get to know us, if you are not going to honor our table in the future. Again, someone with reservations and a Diamond member, should get priority. We are not the only ones that this happened to, we saw others also upset. This same problem happened to us on Oasis. So many people upset and so much waiting when you have reservations. The rest of the cruise, we either didn't go back or when we did, again, we had to wait and put at other tables. Of course, the waitstaff didn't know us from Adam so it is certainly not the same. My DH was to celebrate his birthday and our first, wonderful, waiters at our first table knew all about it, but when his birthday came, since we were at another table, nothing. But we didn't care by that time. Really spoiled it for us in a dining experience. We both agree, we are not going to do MTD anymore. We will just chose a early or late seating and worry about the ports and shows later. If we can't make the dinner time, we will just eat somewhere else. A failing grade on the MTD experience. I would say if you were going to do it, it is better to not make reservations, than to make them. Then you won't care where they seat you and won't be concerned about the waiter knowing you. We ate one night at Rita's Cantina which was very good. Very reasonably priced and very good food. Service was good too. Glad we gave it a try. Finally, the disembarkation issue. OK, everyone gets a number for leaving in the morning and we listened for our number to be called. They first started calling a few numbers and then they announced "everyone from 1 to 33 can leave now". Well you knew what that meant, everyone leaving about the same time. It was a huge mess. We were in that line over an hour. I felt sorry for the seniors and people that have trouble standing or walking with luggage. RC could have done a lot better job in getting people off the ship. Another weird thing, the last morning, we got up very early, got ready quickly and then quick went to Park Cafe for a breakfast before gathering our personal belongings in our room to get off the ship. Upon our return, we had noticed that our room attendant had been in our room and started cleaning and gathering things. I was not happy about this. Our jewelry, money, and other expensive things were out and laying on the bed. I have never had a room attendant do that before. It wasn't like we were late in getting out of the room, we were early. After this cruise, we will have to think hard if we want to sail RC again or try another cruise line. Do we want to just go back to the smaller ships and would we be much happier in the main dining room with set hours. Being a Diamond member, you get many perks and we have enjoyed them so much but somethings could have been better.