This was our 32nd cruise and 12th on RCL. This review is in 3 parts; why I chose Allure, How RCL performed, and my opinions.

Several years ago we saw the Allure and decided it was just too large a ship for us and we will never go on it. After reading some reviews on cruisecritic, I found that if you booked a suite you got special treatment which would make the cruise better. However the prices of suites are usually more than we want to pay. RCL had a special promotion that brought the price down to close to what we normally pay, so we thought we would try it.

We flew to Ft Lauderdale the day before the cruise. About 10:30 on cruise day, we got a bus from the hotel to the port. The bus had to wait about 15 minutes just to get to the parking place. Because of the number of people, the porters were overwhelmed and it took about 10 minutes for them to get to my 2 bags. Next stop was RCL check-in. Since we had a suite, we went to a special security scan and check-in line. The check-in process took about 5 minutes. Next we went upstairs to board, except they were not boarding at 11:15. We were told to wait and directed to the group of “Diamond” class. Once there we were told to go to the “Suite” class. After another 15 minutes RCL started the boarding process. The suite guests were first. Read more