My wife and I took a 6 night Caribbean cruise on the Allure on Jan. 2nd principally to explore this huge ship and its features. We set sail with 6,550 passengers (normally 5,400) with a large international representation and many large families or groups because of the Holidays. We left from Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades) and found embarkation to be amazingly efficient (under 20 minutes) and disembarkation at 8:30am to be the fastest we have ever experienced in 20 cruises as we did not break stride and it took less than 15 minutes. The elevators are clustered into 2 sets of 12 (one forward and one aft) at either end of the Royal Promenade, which makes getting around a breeze. In fact, there is a "gangway button" that you press when you are in port and it takes you to the departure deck automatically.

The ship is an engineering marvel with many separate neighborhoods: Royal Promenade, Central Park, Sports Zone, Entertainment Zone, Boardwalk, etc. The middle of the ship and aft have an 8 story canyon open to the sky which allows for interior balcony rooms. The aft of the ship has a diving /performance pavilion that hosts the super Ocean Aira show, movies and other performances. There is a significant amount of art in public spaces throughout the ship.

Other impressions. Our cabin, a superior oceanview with balcony, was small but well designed. Internet service ZOOM was outstanding and definitely take the streaming service if you are a big user of wifi. We did My Time Dining which is based in the American Icon Grille on the 3rd floor. We found it to be physically crowded and the food average but service was excellent. That dining room becomes a catch all for anyone who is not in a fixed dining time (6 or 8:30) or a specialty restaurant. Our advice would be to take Silk or the other dining room in advance. Production shows were average and the Amber Theater only holds 1,400 people hence it is essential to prebook all of your entertainment before the cruise. If you are not prebooked you can only enter most shows 10 minutes before showtime so the best seats are gone. There is a wide assortment of night time entertainment in the Entertainment Zone on level 4. The Windjammer Marketplace (level 16) was a well organized buffet that held up under a huge passenger load. Food quality was excellent and RCL does things like pre pouring beverages (water, OJ, ice tea) to take some of the kinks out of the process. We did not try the specialty restaurants as we thought they were overpriced relative to other cruise lines, but we heard from others they were excellent. DreamWorks and their characters have a significant presence on the ship and are great for the kids. In fact the kids program is extraordinary and there is a huge themed kiddie waterpark on the top deck. The ports of Nassau, Costa Maya and Cozumel were "ok" but the main focus of our travel was the ship and its offerings. Lots of kids on board and they were generally well behaved. The full sized basketball court also hosts soccer and dodgeball plus there is a twin Flow Rider set up that is included at no extra charge. Read more